I have not seen so much rain … in I don’t know how long!
In San Diego we have been hit really hard with rain, wind, sleet and everything in between. The surf is high and our “rivers” are getting higher!
In Coronado we have trees and telephone poles down all over the city. My work even closed early once this week because of the weather. When the winds pick up, driving across the Coronado Bridge becomes really hazardous. In East County, power outages have caused thousand of families to be without electricity.
So, what’s the weather like for you?
Christmas Day
Scene: Aaron gets off the phone with his dad, then goes to take a shower. We just got back from a hike. I go to the family room and get on my computer to check my email. I see that Kayna (my sister-in-law) has emailed their Christmas letter so I open it to read. I skip to the bottom because for some reason I have to read the end of things first, before I begin (I do this with books too, weird, I know).
Me: What?!? Baby Jacobs?
I go back a couple of sentences where Kayna announces that her and Josh and expecting their first child. I run to the bathroom, laptop in tow.
Me: Did you know that Kayna was pregnant?
Aaron: What?!? No. How do you know that?
Me: She wrote it in her Christmas letter via email! Your dad didn’t say anything to you on the phone??
Aaron: No he did say anything. He did say Kayna sent out a Christmas letter we might find interesting.
Me: Well she sent it … she’s pregnant!
New Year’s Eve
Scene: Aaron and I go over to Summer’s house (Lindsay’s sister) to meet up with Lindsay, Ryan and Alysha so we can all head over to the country bar. Alysha now lives in Colorado Springs, but is visiting for New Year’s. She’s one of my best friend’s from college.
Alysha: Claire, do you want to see what I got at Target today?
Me: Sure! (I miss showing each other what we buy, Aaron doesn’t get excited about it like the girls do).
Alysha hands me a Target bag.
I look inside, confused about what I see. It’s a small package, pastel colors, and it says bodysuits on the outside.
I didn’t get it. I thought maybe this was a new clothing trend that I was not aware of. At one point, it was popular for girls to wear bodysuits with snaps so your shirt wouldn’t come untucked.
Me: I don’t understand. What is this??
Alysha: Lindsay bought it for me …
Me: Wait … is this for a baby?? Are you pregnant?
Alysha: Yep!
Today
Scene: Aaron and I are walking/hiking at Mission Trails near Santee. We’re almost finished with our hike when we see a girl running towards us on the same path, with a golden retriever.
Jenny: Hey guys!
She’s a friend that is in our bible study from church.
Us: Hey Jenny! Hey Mahoney (her dog)
We make small talk about Christmas and New Year’s and the upcoming small groups from church.
Jenny: Well guess what we found out on New Year’s Day??
Us: What?
Jenny: We’re pregnant!
To Recap
In less than a month, I have found out that six of my friends will have babies in 2010. I am related to 3 of them (2 sisters-in-law and a cousin-in-law).
Naturally, we then get asked, when are you and Aaron going to have a baby? The answer is “not yet.” Someday, just not today. We would like for Aaron to have a smooth transition out of the Navy, then we’ll think about expanding the family.
I am, though, quite excited for all my nephews and nieces that are coming to greet us this year. I am excited for their parents and am happy to see the blessings in their lives.
And of course, I am awesome at picking out baby clothes. I know all the stores that sell skull attire and I’m going to turn those babies into little rockers!!
[EDIT Feb 2: See Kim's recent blog post http://kimmysun.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/little-es-promotion/ The count is now 7!]
So I’m trying to catch up. Maybe 2010 will be a better year for the old blog. Here’s what December looked like for the Wolf’s.
Here is our first Christmas tree:
It’s decoarated in red, silver and black. I really liked how it turned out. I took this picture before I wrapped all the presents, but all the presents were wrapped in red and silver as well. That corner of the apartment looked really cool!
Here is a picture of our mantle. (You can see Charlie in the pic too, I was dog-sitting):
The first weekend of December, Scotty came back from his deployment in Africa. We were happy to see him after being gone for so long. That weekend, all of the Johnson’s stayed with us. Here is their first family picture since Scotty’s return:
Aaron and I at Coronado Beach:
Two of my friends, Ara and Virginia, were in town for a wedding and stayed at my apartment. We met up in San Clemente for brunch with Lindsay one morning.
Aaron and I also celebrated our 1st year anniversary in December. We spent the day relaxing, went to the beach, then went out to a fancy place in Coronado for dinner. Here we are in front of a sail boat that washed ashore in a storm 2 weeks ago:
We spent Christmas in Ridgecrest. It was lots of fun visiting friends and family for five days.
Sarah, Ben and Scotty moved to Virginia days before Christmas. We got to spend some time with Sarah and Ben before they left. We are really sad that they will no longer be living in California and are tyring to convince them to come back!
Aaron and Ben:
My friend Casey had a baby December 1st. Her third baby!! His name is Grey Jacob Hill. I was so excited to see them both when I got to Ridgecrest. You know I love being an aunt! Here he is in an outfit I gave him:
Christmas Eve was spent at my parents house and Christmas Day was spent at Dana’s. We had a great Christmas this year. I kind of feel like it’s Aaron and my first Christmas together since last year I was so focused on our wedding, that Christmas was more of an after thought. So this “first” Christmas for us was really fun and relaxing.
Click HERE to view pictures I took of our Christmas.
WHAT I’M READING: Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. I just started this last night, but I think I’ll like it. How can you not like Nick Sparks?? Also, this is coming out as a movie in Jan, and I’m looking forward to that too!
WHAT I’M WATCHING: Aaron and I are currently re-watching Lost Season 4. We’re hoping to buy season 5 soon, but need a refresh first!
WHAT I’M LISTENING TO: Aaron’s had control of the iPod mostly this past week … so metalcore.
WHAT I’M WEARING: Work clothes! Ugh! Went back to work today after a week vacation.
WHAT I’M EATING: Tonight we are going to a San Diego Brewery … I don’t know which one. I made the mistake of showing Aaron a brochure of all the breweries in San Diego. Now he wants to eat/drink at every single one!
WHAT I’M ENJOYING: I’m enjoying being an aunt! My nephew Ben just moved to the east coast, but I have a new little man named Grey (Casey’s baby) in my life. Also 2010 will be filled with more nephew and niece’s being born. I get to spoil them, then hand them back over to their parents 
WHAT I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO: Seeing my friends this weekend for New Years! Welcome 2010!!
Last Thursday we went to Aaron’s ship’s Christmas party. They had lots of cool door prizes, unfortunately, we did not win any of them. I did, however, take home two really cool black tote bags. The kind you take to the grocery store … and they’re black! Did I mention that?
This was the first time I met many of his co-workers. I often see some of the guys he works with since they workout together. But I’ve never met any of the girls he works with. They asked me, “are you sarcastic like your husband?” I said, “no, I am the nice one. I make up for Aaron’s lack of niceness.”
Here’s a picture of us at the party:
WHAT I’M READING: Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. Loved the movie, now loving the book.
WHAT I’M WATCHING: I’m super excited that The Biggest Loser Finale is next week. This week’s episode went till 11pm, which was a little late for me, but I still love it. GO DANNY!
WHAT I’M LISTENING TO: Brought my iPod to work so I can listen to Christmas music all the time. I LOVE Christmas music!
WHAT I’M WEARING: Slacks and a sweater … however last week I wore a dress everyday, we had a mini heat wave.
WHAT I’M EATING: Just had a Fiber One poptart. I’ve convinced myself that they are somehow healthy for me, when I know they’re not.
WHAT I’M ENJOYING: Christmas! There are tons of Christmas events going on all over San Diego and Coronado. I’m looking forward to going ice-skating too on the beach. I love living in southern California
WHAT I’M SNIFFING: Still not smelling much after having really bad allergies yesterday … I don’t know what it is, but I’m allergic to something in San Diego that was not in LA.
As most of you know, I love reading blogs. Whenever I’m aware that I’m about to head into a new unknown territory of my life, I search out blogs so I can get some insights before actually getting to that point.
Before Aaron and I got married, I searched out military spouse blogs to what this new life would entail. Before graduating college, I read career blogs (and still do, everyone should I think). When planning my wedding, obviously, I read wedding blogs. Wedding blogs are great for getting ideas and inspiration from.
After graduating from college and getting my first PR job in Los Angeles, I knew it was time to get serious about budgeting and personal finance. I’m not one of those people who think I can do everything fine myself. I generally know when to ask for help and not try to be an “expert.” So I hired a financial planner to help me set up a retirement account and establish financial goals for myself. The great thing about a good financial planner is that they show you the necessary steps to achieve your goals and tell you if you’re realistically going to make it to what you want. My financial planner was big on educating me on how things worked. Not only did I set up a mutual fund, he forced me to learn how they work, how companies make money and how I make money. I learned about paying myself first and the wide variety of savings accounts that are available.
If you are floundering in how to manage your money, I highly recommend hiring a financial planner to have a 3rd party review your situation and get you on the right track. Get a recommendation from a friend you know who manages their money well (not someone who looks life they have lots of nice things), and spend the money to meet with a planner at least once.
Currently, Aaron and I do not utilize a financial planner’s services, but from my past experience, financial blogs, and mint.com, I think a financial planner would be proud of us.
I wanted to highlight two personal finance blogs that I enjoy reading and highly recommend.
Bible Money Matters – http://www.biblemoneymatters.com
Bible Money Matters is a Christian finance blog that uses scripture as its foundation for managing your money. The aim of the blog is to show how faith and finances work together. I really like this blog because it’s focus is not “manage your money well so then you can buy yourself lots of nice things and show off to others” … which is what our society thinks, or worse, just “charge it.” The attitude of this blog, which comes across in the content and views of the various guest authors, is that money is really God’s and you are just the manager of it. So manage it well!
To get a feel of the kind of posts Bible Money Matters has, click HERE, for the “best of” posts.
The Paycheck Chronicles – http://paycheck-chronicles.military.com
The Paycheck Chronicles is a finance blog on Military.com. If you haven’t guessed already, it’s a blog written for service members and their families. Even though it’s geared for the military, Kate Kashman, Paycheck Chronicles author, still writes great articles that anyone can learn from (ok, yes some posts won’t have anything to do with you if you have no idea how the military affects your finances).
Kate writes about special deals that are available to military, finance tips when chosing what type of accounts to use, money quotes (which I love), and basic budgeting tips that are great for all. It’s worth while to stop by if you’re a civilian, and you should DEFINITELY bookmark it if you’re in the military.
Currently I work at the Fleet & Family Support Center at Naval Base Coronado. There are so many financial programs available to the military, you just have to be aware of what they are, then use them! Also, I know for a fact that the Navy has Financial Educators (similar to a financial planner), that will help you set up a budget or review any financial statements for free (for military). Just call your local family service center and ask about financial counseling.
Happy blog reading!
So I blog, twitter, facebook, Linkedin, flickr … here’s another site to add to my social-media internet website addiction …
www.ClaireWolf.smugmug.com
I’m going to use this site to display any photos that I take, hopefully will keep it up to date 
, and maybe will try to make some money from this one day. This is just the beginning.
Enjoy!
Lena, my sister-in-law, was married to Mark Comer on September 12, 2009. Lena trusted me enough to actually take her wedding photos. I’m almost finished editing all of them, but I wanted to give her a sneak peek of some of the photos.
Our friend Jon also helped with the photography that day. Thanks Jon.
Enjoy Lena and Mark and congrats once again!
Mark’s first glance at Lena walking down the aisle:
