2010

2010 is the next time we will be living in the same state as Luke and Erika. We have had a really fun summer hanging out with them and will look forward to picking up where we left off (just a few years older!) when Luke and Erika move to FL too!

They will be moving to Monterrey, CA this week for Luke to begin graduate school. The Navy wants him to learn Arabic before beginning the rest of his training. After school Luke will be specializing in "Explosive Ordinance Disposal" (EOD).

Although we are sad to see them go, we know it will be a fun adventure for them to go across country and begin a new phase in their lives. We're getting anxious to move ourselves!

Erika is a nurse and will be looking for a job out in CA when they get there. I'm sure we'll be able to relate as we both pursue our first "real" jobs- exciting.....and scary!

Josh and I have officially scheduled our move for December 5th (when the movers pick up our stuff) and we will follow behind shortly after on the 9th.

Here are a few pictures of our summer together :)


(how did he get in here! Edgar exercising....motivated by food)


Luke and Josh on a rifle trip at the Academy

Rockband!

Erika, Edgar, and I

Erika watching the guys play their instruments...

Rockband with real instruments!

At the Mexican Cafe

On our wedding day....who knew?!

At the Cheesecake Factory....see what Erika and I have to deal with?! We love it...

(If you are receiving this post in an email- click on the blue link to see the pictures)

Slipping through the cracks....

Well, yes, Josh has slipped through the cracks again! I thought I might update you on the many happenings going on in Josh's life....

Josh began Introductory Flight Screening (IFS- I thought it was introductory flight school- whoops!) 2 weeks ago. He has had some very long days, as he would work during the day and then go to "ground school" (lectures) at night. About a week ago, we heard from someone who works with assigning Temporary Assignment Duty Ensigns (that's what Josh is right now until he goes to Pensacola) that Josh was an "anomaly" in the office and that he had slipped through the cracks....What did they mean?!

Well, because Josh had such a late flight school date and not many other people had this date (Dec 12), they had decided they would send Josh to Florida NOW and have him do his IFS in Florida and then just wait down there until he could begin flight school.

HOWEVER, much to our relief (because the whole reason for his late flight school date was to be able to stay with me in Maryland while I finish my Master's degree), because he had begun IFS the week that he did (when they were deciding this), they decided to allow him to stay here until his original date.

As if that isn't enough excitement....some other happenings in Josh's work life are:

...today he will go on his first flight
...he has been reassigned to a new job for his temporary duty (he isn't assigned to the Rifle team anymore because so many temporary duty Ensigns have left so they have rearranged the jobs of those who are still left)- we are actually both happy about this as he will be getting home in time for a much more reasonable dinner hour! His new job is still a little fuzzy but it looks like he will be doing something for the new sports building and running "remedials" in the early afternoon (something for people who haven't met the required fitness levels yet). In his "spare" time, he will also be getting flying hours in....he will need to fly 25 or so hours in the next 2 weeks! And he will need to "Solo" by 13 hours into his training.


Well, I think that is enough for now!

See below for a fun picture of Josh when he began at the Academy on a rifle trip :)


Rifle trip youngster year

Josh shooting in standing

Race for the Pups

This past Saturday, Luke, Erika, and I ran a 5k in Solomon's Island Maryland (about an hour away from Annapolis, MD). It's a quaint and pretty town that lays between the Paxtuxent River and the Chesapeake Bay. Josh wished he could have ran as well, but he had to be in class at the last minute for flight school.

We had a blast running this race, as it was a fundraiser for a local animal shelter that has been a "no kill" shelter since the 70's. Runners were allowed to run with their dogs if they wanted! It was a lighthearted and fun race. Erika nicely ran along side of me the whole race and I actually surprised myself by finishing in under 30 minutes!

Prior to beginning the race, we were standing next to a Chihuahua and its owner and Luke joked that if we couldn't beat the Chihuahua, we wouldn't have a ride home....well- guess what?? it beat us! Haha. (see pic pf dog below).

At the end of the race we got doggie bags full of fun stuff. Being that Josh and I don't have a dog of our own, we let Edgar try out the plastic IAMS dog bowl they gave us (see video below)- he seemed to think it was rather tasty (do you think maybe it was because it was green???)

See this link for the website of the shelter the race was in support of: http://www.humanesocietyofcalvertcounty.org/



Erika and I


Luke and Erika


after the race- it was a beautiful and cool day


Chihuahua that beat us


Thanks for checking out our blog! I won't be emailing blog updates anymore, but we will be updating our blog every week or so. Feel free to hang onto our blog web address and check it out from time to time :) www.joshandwhits.blogspot.com We love and miss you all!

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday, the first day of fall, was my 23rd birthday- and my first birthday as a wife! Josh carefully planned a wonderful evening. I spent the day in annapolis running errands, hanging out with Erika, and so forth and then Josh was able to get the evening off (he was supposed to have flight school last night). We drove together to the grocery store after work and he had a list prepared. Then we came home and made a wonderful dinner together- all planned by Josh. It was great! We had mozzarella and tomatoes with a 3 herb pesto and then chicken stuffed with goat cheese, scallions, and salt/pepper, topped with a mushroom/white wine sauce. For dessert we had cheesecake!

After dinner I opened some great gifts! See pics below:)....and as usual....Edgar watched and hoped and hoped someone might be kind enough to share their veggies with him ;)

Opening gift from Mom and Dad Gropp



A beautiful china bowl from our registry :)

I wonder if this will be my last navy rifle shirt?? hehe

Cozy under armour sweatshirt

a golf/tennis visor


A new tennis skirt! We need tennis whites to play at the army navy country club and I had grown out of mine :)

Green BEANS and Onion goggles!

Well, most of you know about our dear guinea pig Edgar...and many of you have had the great pleasure of meeting him...but he hasn't made too much of an appearance on our blog, so we thought we'd give him an opportunity to show you how much he really loves his green beans! Click on video to see our cutie in action underneath the coffee table :).




I also thought I'd post some fun pictures from hanging out with Luke and Erika lately. Erika laughed at me when she saw I had onion goggles (yes, they REALLY work!) until she realized how much she needed them when I asked her to dice some shallots hehe.....

We also have enjoyed playing a new card/word game (kinda like text twist) with my mom and Luke and Erika on various occasions...it's called Quiddler!

Stay posted for pics of the 5k race we're going to run (Josh, myself, Luke, and Erika) next Saturday! We will be sad to see Luke and Erika move to CA....we sure do have a lot of fun with them :)

Family Treasures

Josh and I have been keeping quite busy lately as the school year begins for both of us (Josh has transitioned into a new role of swim instructor/assistant and rifle team assistant coach with the new school year). In the midst of our busyness though, we have found wonderful opportunities to spend time with family and friends. Two weekends ago we enjoyed going to CT to visit the Albright family and extended family. The whole immediate Albright family was there and it was a special time (see pics of Josh and Truly ;)). We even got to meet some relatives that we had not met before who were visiting Josh's grandmother.

This past week I had an opportunity to spend some time with my mom as she drove down to Virginia to bring some family treasures (paintings, china, heirlooms) to CT from my Grandma and Granddad Gropp's house in preparation for the house to be sold. I happened to admire a beautiful buffet in my grandparent's dining room and came to find it hadn't been spoken for by my parents, aunts, or uncles. I was so excited to be given such a beautiful piece from my grandparent's. When we moved it into our apartment, I was curious if it would fit a beautiful silver tea set given to Josh and I by my mom's parents (Nan and Pop), as we had not been able to purchase something to display it on yet. I excitedly unwrapped the silver treasures and found new "homes" for many of the nice wedding gifts we received in the buffet drawers and found that the tea set fit perfectly on top of the buffet! See pictures :) It is so wonderful to have such beautiful family treasures displayed in our apartment. Josh and I keep oohing and ahhing at them :).

For the rest of the weekend Josh and I enjoyed having my mom visit. It poured and poured outside, but we enjoyed playing a new card game called quiddler and making new and yummy recipes together. It was so fun to show her where we live and to introduce her to some of our friends.

Now we're off to begin a new week!