Learning Croatian + My Home Office

This should really be a photo of Cam in his Croatian language class, since that's the whole reason we're in Monterey, but seeing as how it might be a litttttle awkward if I were to come on base, sneak into his four person class with my baby in tow, the only one not in uniform, and start snapping pictures of my husband... haha, I'm sure he'd love that! So, you get me and my home office instead.

Cam and I are both over a month into our classes. He only has three classmates with two teachers between the four of them, and about 3-4 hours of homework a night. It is incredibly intensive, but he is supposed to go from knowing zero Croatian (it's actually called Serbo-Croat but it's just easier for me to call it Croatian!) to finishing his course in May/June (less than a year later) and speak at a graduate level. He's being prepared to be able to get his Master's (sans any English) while in Zagreb. It is absolutely amazing how much he knows already after just a month! If you're curious about the program he's in, you can read about it here. Only three Marine Corps officers are chosen a year for it. I am so proud of my husband and so thankful to the Lord for answering our prayers!

My classes are two days a week and I take them from home over Skype. One of our friends babysits John Shea so I can have that devoted time with my teacher. She wanted a small, part time job, and I need time to concentrate!, so it's working out really well so far. I'm not going at the same pace as Cam is of course, but my teacher assigns me plenty of homework and is trying to go as fast with me as she can so I can be ready for our move. This way of learning requires a lot of self-discipline on my part... which doesn't come naturally to me. I've gotten really good at saying zao mi je, which means "excuse me?" or "I'm sorry - what!?" As in, whaaaat did you say!? I love my teacher and how patient she is with me. The Croatian language is beautiful, difficult, and at times sounds Russian and at others very Italian. Cam and I are so excited about learning it, especially here in Monterey, and so, so, so thankful for this whole adventure.

Cam has a lot of studying to do at night after we put John Shea to bed... I mostly use nap time to study, and sometimes I'm able to in little spurts throughout the day, but usually I'm just wrangling this little wild man and trying to keep him from literally eating my homework and stealing all of my pens.

Since we knew I'd be taking my class from home (it was the only option for me in Monterey) I got to decorate the office. Yes!! I've always wanted a feminine office and I love working in it -- it's full of light, soft colors and some of my favorite prints. That beautiful peony painting is from Kristy Rice. I found the desk on Craigslist and almost didn't take it home with me because of the mangled state it was in and covered in mold. I loved the shape of it though, so I got the woman down to $20 and hoped that Cam wouldn't kill me when I brought it home. I knew he'd either say, oh my word what were you thinking (I've brought home some doozies before...) or yeah, I can definitely fix that! Thankfully it was the latter, and in one afternoon he'd glued it all back together, sanded and repainted it and it's gorgeous. Exactly what I'd envisioned, even down to the French legs.

Sometimes after I finally get my John Shea to nap, finish my homework, dishes, laundry, cleaning, errands, a run, cooking, blogging... this is how Cam comes home and finds me ;)