Being Me

These past few months have brought to light some things about myself. I like to think that I get along well with people, but that's not necessarily true. I've decided that I have some personality traits that make it hard for me to work well with others. My top 8 issues are:

1. I have an overdeveloped sense of loyalty and fairness. That means I know the world isn't fair, but I darn well expect you to do your best to try and make it so. It also means I will defend my friends till my dying breath.
2. I work hard and I expect those around me to as well. I do my job and I think others should too (Well, do thier job, not mine). I hate it when other people drop the ball or don't do things or just have no initiative.
3. I hate inefficiency and incompetency and I have little tolerance for it.
4. I need clear communication. I need to know what people expect of me and who I go to for information. When I know what I'm suppose to do, I'll get it done.
5. My way is generally the best way. Okay, maybe not, but its hard for me to agree that there is more than one way to get something done and other ways are equally as good as mine.
6. I know people think differently than me, but I cannot understand it. I know its true, but I don't get it. That's why reality shows fascinate me. WHY would someone choose to do something that I wouldn't? I really struggle with this one! I honestly just don't get it. I know its there, but I can't get myself to really see why someone would make different decisions than me.
7. I get stuck and I can't see the forrest for the trees. Somethimes I get caught up in the moment and forget that this too shall pass.
8. I hate to be wrong. And more so, I don't think I am, usually. Perhaps you should see #6 to explain that!

Egg Hunting and Marian's Birthday

Egg Hunt #2, at Playgroup! They got too many eggs, but had a very good time finding them. I do want to mention that Callie got her adorable bucket from preschool. Someone made 15 of those things out of empty coffee cans. They painted cute bunny faces on them and made bunny ears and all. They were truly adorable. (My kids peeled the paint off within 3 hours of it coming home. I repainted it, but it wasn't quite as cute as it started out!) Joshua liked it so much, he made his own! He got an empty ice cream tub and covered it with paper and colored a bunny face on it. He also cut out floppy ears and glued them on. I was really impressed! It was cute too.

Easter Egg hunt #3, at Dan's work. I loved this picture. Dan and Delaney are both so cute. She liked his hat.

The kids got even more eggs and I had to magically emove about half of them. There were WAAAY too many! They were pretty excited by it all though, and they got out of the house and had some fun.

Here is the bug cake! It was cuter in real life and the bugs were pretty gross looking. Some of the winged ones were creepy. Marian loved her cake. The "dirt" is ground up chocolate graham crackers, by the way. If you dusted it off before you ate it, it was pretty tasty. I think we have about 2 pieces of cake left, so it was good enough! Maybe I should have put in the shot of the other side too....

Here are all the girls from Marian's Party! Those are the masks and bags they made. They were adorable. In the back there is Carol, Marian, Olivia, and Ellie. Standing is Amy and Julia. I think this may have been the maximum number of friends Marian can have over. She doesn't do well in large groups, and at present opening time, she was a little overdone and getting stressed. The pictures of that show a grumpy face. So, smaller parties in the future! She did have a good time, and I think her friends did too. All of them were incredibly well behaved. (I will mention that I filled the majority of eggs for Marian's Birthday egg hunt with toys and not candy!)

Random things

We're back on for DC! Dan will be working for the Inspector General in the Naval Annex by the Pentagon. So, we'll still be going to Washington DC and the report Date is mid-June. So, only the boss part is different now. Dan is pleased. I was actually hoping to go somewhere that we could live on base. I know, big picture! Once we get settled, I'm sure I will love it. Its just the hassle of moving, getting a home and getting settled. But.... we'll be near a Temple and a major airport (or 2!), plus we'll be close to just about everything possible! So that is exciting.

Its been a rough week for me. The wait and see thing was hard, and we had Dan's car in the shop till Tuesday, and Joshua is home for Spring Break, and it just seemed like things kept going wrong. You know how you try to have a positive attitude, and little dumb things keep happening to create negativity? That was my week. Lots of dumb things, like I forgot something important at Walmart and had to take all 4 children there again, and preschool had the water shut off so I had to get the girls early instead of going to the commissary, and we went to pick up Dan's car, but they hadn't finished with it, and we had to wait till the next day... Of course, there was also a big lack of communication issue with our YW organization that led to some very angry feelings (in me), and to some very angry words (from me), and a great deal of frustration. And I thought, is it me? Did I really miss something? But then my very sweet husband looked at all the information I had and said nope. The facts were not presented and with the information I had, I had every right to feel as I did. What a great guy!

Allergy season is in full swing here. Yellow pollen dust is covering everything. I got my bike out tonight, and after being on the screened in porch for 3 days, it had a layer of yellow all over it! Ick! By the time we went in after exercising, I was rubbing my eyes so much Dan freaked out at how red and bloodshot they were. I hate allergies.

Oh, and Marian's birthday is tomorrow. I mean, her birthday was yesterday, and her party is tomorrow. It should be interesting. I perhaps should not have let her have so much planning input. We're having an Easter/Bug Party. She wanted a bug cake, but Easter activities. I made the cake today and it is really cute. I have all the activities ready and I reeeealy hope they last for more than 10 minutes! We have like 200 eggs for an egg hunt as well. This is Marian's very first party and only my second one for the kids. You may recall that Joshua had a Captain Underpants Party for his birthday. At least that had a workable theme!

Goin' on an Egg Hunt!

Today was the Easter Egg hunts at preschool. Callie had a marvelous time chasing down eggs and she thought it was a very good time. She also had a very cute bunny-bucket that a mom had made. Delaney hung out in the stroller and enjoyed watching the kids run around. This was before she fell out of the stroller into the parking lot because I didn't buckle her in. Thus there is no red scratch and bump on her forhead like there is now.














Marian had her egg hunt seperately and she was so funny- running around with her long coltish legs- made longer by her short shorts and ankle socks. She was upset that all the eggs were snatched up so quickly and was close to a meltdown when I pointed out that all the kids had the same number of eggs.



























We got a cake for Marian's birthday. She turns 5 tomorrow, and she got to celebrate today with her class. She was thrilled and very excited. She wore her birthday hat all day. So cute. Joshua is on his spring break, so he got to come and he wanted some cake so badly. Marian's preschool teacher was nice enough to invite him to share, so he made himself at home and partook. It was a fun day for all.... except for me. I had to vaccuum all the green Easter grass off the carpet, where it had mysteriously ended up strewn from one end of the house to the other.

Let's Hear it for Affirmative Action

Dan got the word today-its a no go on DC. They had requested women and minority nominations and the monitor couldn't find anyone fitting that to send along. So he sent Dan and 2 other guys. The packets didn't even make it to the SevNav, before they were tossed out. They seriously only wanted women and minorities. So, that sucks for us.

Now, what does it mean for us? It means we still don't know what we're doing this summer. We have a couple options. Dan can get out, Dan can stay another year here and see what's available next year, or the monitor can find us somewhere to go. Right now there is nowhere for us to go, despite a severe shortage of lawyers. We won't get into that. We will talk about the fact that Dan refuses to be here another year. We're okay with CP, but he says he joined the Marine Corps to travel and staying here another year is not traveling. He also really does not want to get out. Thus, Dan will be talking to the monitor and trying like crazy to get a billet he can live with in an area we can live with. Yuma was the only thing tossed out a few weeks ago. Not the end of the world, but not where Dan would like to be.

So, grumble grumble and wait some more! Always my favorite thing.