Going Dark…

Life has been exciting for us…

we’ve seen a lot of the world that many people will never have the opportunity;

we’ve travelled…

we’ve met new friends…

we’ve kept old ones…

we’ve been threatened…

we’ve been praised…

we’ve been loved…

we’ve been adventurous…

we’ve tried new foods…

we’ve taken chances…

we’ve helped friends…

we’ve made new family…

we’ve given opportunities…

we’ve said good-byes…

we’ve started businesses…

we’ve laughed a lot…

we’ve shed some tears…

we’ve been stressed…

we’ve been happy…

…but thru it all we’ve had each other.  we have our health. we have our love. we have our boys. we have our family. we have our friends. we have determination. we have a home. we have life.  WE HAVE HOPE…

…and now it’s time for something new…

We are back in the USA…we are BACK friends…and with that, I say, “Farewell Kochel Blog…”…I will be hauling my boys around, making a new life, working and writing about ALL of our adventures (the good, the bad and the scary) while living overseas!  Stay tuned.

Until then…thanks for following us on our journey…I’ll check back in every now and then with a tidbit of our life (past or present!)…

About me…

Well, nothing new…I’m OCD, have to be organized, have to have the house clean, have to have a list, have to be one step ahead of the game.  HAVE to be…which is why I haven’t blogged in a month…I’ve got too much going on and can’t focus…I’d really love to be able to sit down and just write this every day…write something, leave a note, share a smiley, write a short story…but I can’t…I’m at war with myself.  I.NEED.CONTROL.!!!  Which, if I’m ever going to finish that book I started that you all have told me to write, I need to lose some control!  You know the old saying, “Truth is stranger than fiction.”?…yeah, well, hmmmmm!!!  

I’m loving on my boys, missing the daddy and hoping that soon, SO soon, I will have some control back in my life…

Until then, I will continue being…

• the chef
• the dishwasher
• the butt wiper
• the play mate
• the disciplinarian
• the crazy mama
• the picture take
• the referee
• the phone caller
• the organizer
• the planner
• the buddy
• the meany
• the everything-that-needs-to-be-done-with-a-smile-on-my-face-I-have-no-other-choice-but-to-embrace-it mama!  (and I probably wouldn’t change that either…remember, I NEED CONTROL!)

A very special friend…

This is Albert…

This is the day we said good bye…(he knew…he had too…look at that face…)

Albert was our first baby…I saved him from dying back in December, 2004…we LOVED our little doggy doo and expected to have him around for a long long time…then little Z got sick and the doc said we had to give him away.  Lucky for us, a very good family friend was JUST looking for a dog just like ours, so we said good bye to Albert and sent him to live in San Diego.  By now, he’s lived with his new Daddy & Mommy for longer than he lived with us, but he’s still very special to us.  Last year, Albert got cancer and had to have his leg amputated and learn to walk all over…then they found more cancer and they had give him chemo.  But this little happy dude is STILL happy and he came to visit us at Mimi’s house for a couple of days.  The boys couldn’t wait to get there every day and play with Allllberd.  He was the same sweet little doggy we knew; it’s strange to remember this little guy who would run 5 miles with me on those TINY legs, panting and huffing, but keeping up.

We love you little Albert BooBoo!!!

My Sleepers

I sit here looking thru the photos of my sleepy boys and I can’t help but hear like a 3 Stooges theme song in my head…I mean, how do they do this?  We’ve dealt with jetlag and kicked that bugger in the butt…take these jetlag…and be damned! …

This summer air must do something to these boys!!…and I’m loving it, because today, I couldn’t WAIT for them to fall asleep at 6:30 PM…THANK GOD…because this is was me at 4:39 PM…

Summer? Where did you go?

I’m sitting here and it’s almost AUGUST?!  Seriously, I have no idea where summer went…I’m a little bit bummed, because I really heart summer…the long days, the warm nights, the fun times with friends, the road trips, the pool days…wait, that pretty much sums up what happened to summer.

We’ve EAR deep in friends visiting us…not that I am complaining!!  It is has been wonderful to see so many faces, share so many hugs and catch up on so many laughs!  I’ve had friends I’ve known for 35 years come to the desert to see us…friends we met on our honeymoon…friends I’ve known since Zachary was a baby…what I’m trying to say is, we are feeling the love!!!  I can’t even tell how many pool days and how many pools we’ve visited in the past 2 months…but I’m not complaining!

This was us 20 years ago on the left…our first visit home after our first semester of college…where do the years go???

It’s been wonderful catching up, eating guacamole, checking out the Jackalope Ranch, mixing mojitos at the La Quinta Resort Pool, falling and getting booboos, ripping off toenails, toasting marshmallows, late beach nights and everything in between…

more to come…

Welcome to California!!

We had a much anticipated visit from my dad and mom in the middle of summer…this NEVER happens…you just don’t take vacation in the middle of summer in Alaska…the middle of summer is for working!!!!  But they came and we enjoyed…we celebrated Dad’s birthday; I ran a 1/2 marathon; we went to the beach; we hit up Disneyland; we ate lots of good food; spent countless hours at the pool; watched a few movies and just enjoyed “family time”…At this point in my life, it was very important for me to have my parents around and just “be” with them. 

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A very happy birthday to my sweet sweet dad who deserves many special wishes in life!!!

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We spent time dinking around the malls, Costco and even got soaked on a golf cart ride with Mimi!!!

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Then we took off for Temecula for a night so I could torture myself and run the half marathon I swore I’d never run again…we enjoyed the sculptures and hanging out downtown and hitting up the sweets shop after dinner!!!

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Then we took off to stay in Irvine for a few nights…my friend graciously offered her entire house to us for our entire stay!!!  Cha-ching!!!

The boys felt right at home immediately and especially loved that she had a treadmill in her kitchen…hahaha…I’m being serious!

All three boys didn’t want to sleep in the cool bunk beds, so we crammed that queenie full!

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Then we headed to see one of my bestest friends from my NAU college/rugby playing days in San Clemente.  We packed WAY TOO much food and WAY TOO many toys and took off for the beach on Father’s Day!  It was a PERFECT day of sun, sand and love…we caught up, our kids loved each other and Grampy and Grammy got to hang out with the kiddos too…

We headed back to their house with sand in our toes and jammies in hand (mama planned ahead…) and had some pasta as only an Italian can cook up and ate and laughed and loved watching our little's love on each other…Then we enjoyed EGG FREE brownies and ice cream ON THE COUCH and guess who was sleeping before we hit the 5?  ALL THREE!

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Disneyland will get its own post…

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We spent the rest of our days dinking around and just being the superheroes that we are…

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Then we put the kids to bed early, got a sitter and enjoyed a night of adult time…

…and then Dad and Mom watched the kids so I could have some girl time!!!!

(3 of used to work together and 1 was my next door neighbor…LOVE these friends!!)

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…and then we had to say good bye and these boys of mine were not too happy…

We love you Dad/Mom/Grammy/Grampy

…THIS is what summer is about

…THIS is life is about

…THIS is what memories are made of

…and you gave these boys a WHOLE lot of them…