Doldrums

Today was the first day of school. I intended to take lots of pictures, since it was Marian's very first day ever. Unfortunately, I was given a handout that said the bus would arrive at 8:31, which was a dirty, dirty lie. So it arrived as we were walking out the door at 8:25 (and they said he was late!). This means that Joshua and Marian raced to the bus and Marian panicked, thinking they would leave her behind. Not really how I hoped thier first day would go.

And I enrolled Joshua in the Spanish Emmersion Program, so he spends half his day (math and science) in Spanish only. He hated it. I said he had to try it till Christmas. We'll see how it goes, and I'll hope like crazy that his math and science skills don't slip too much.

I spent the day doing absolutely nothing. I let Callie watch PBS and I did nothing. It was great. And then Dan emailed and called. He had really wanted to do this military commissions and be defense for Gitmo detainees, but today he was told they want someone with more trial experience and preferably a higher rank. He is pretty disappointed. I am too. I am glad he will have better hours and less stress, but I know how much he wanted a law billet, and its disappointing. So we went out to dinner. It was to celebrate the kids' first day of school, and ease the pain of Dan's lack of law for the next 2 years.

And I'm feeling glum because I'm not all settled in. The house part is great (except for those last couple boxes....). It feels like home, but nothing else does. And I'm thinking that I don't really like having to make friends. Its such an ordeal, to find people and see if we click; To find people with kids the same ages, who parenting doesn't make me want to scream; To find moms who's kids get along with mine, or who have something in common with me; To find moms who have time and energy and interest in making and maintaining a friendship is pretty tricky, and I'm thinking its not really that much fun. Yet I must make the effort, and perhaps by Sunday I'll be in the mood again. I like making easy friendships, where you click right off the bat. That is fun. Wish me luck.....

Random Things

One of the great things about our house is this tree in front. It is a little tree with lots of branches for the kids to climb on. So far they have managed to not break any off, although I am concerned about that sometimes.

Callie is a good tree climber. She does get stuck the most though. Delaney is trying to be like her sister, but has not managed to get off the ground yet.

Joshua and Marian are pros here. They get high enough I worry about tree-tipping or snapping branches. So far its been okay. Well, except for that little bat in Joshua's hand. We did have to have a discussion about not wacking the branches.

Yesterday while I took Callie to Target with me, Dan took Joshua, Marian and Delaney to Mount Vernon. They had a good time. They spent 3 hours traipsing around the place checking stuff out. Dan said it was worth it to get year passes.

Marian on the wall, with the river in the background. She's a cutie!

Way cute! Joshua and Marian as George and Martha Washington.

Dan said this was Delaney's favorite thing. When you pushed the buttone, it made animal sounds. Delaney loved running around pushing the buttons.

Callie

Callie makes me laugh. She just does the funniest things. On Tuesday I took the kids in for physicals, which is a whole nother story in itself. I'll just say we survived, and leave it at that.

So, as we're in the room, Joshua has his shirt and shoes off while the nice doctor is poking at him. Callie wrinkles up her nose and asks me, "Do you smell something?" I do not. She looks at me again with her wrinkled up nose. "I smell something!" I can't figure out what she's talking about. I can't smell anything unusual. She insists she smells something. I'm frantically wondering if she's pooped in her pants. Nope. I check Delaney's diaper. Nothing. Callie asks me again if I smell something. I say "No, what is it that you smell?"

She giggles and says gleefully, "Joshy's feet!"

We're Tourists, that's Right!

It would be silly not to take advantage of opportunity, so Saturday morning we played tourist. It took us about an hour to get into DC and then we spent several hours walking. We wanted to visit as many of the memorials that we could. No easy task with 4 children 6 and under! They argued a lot about who's turn it was to ride in the stroller. All of them, even Joshua, who is clearly too old to be in a stroller!
Fresh off the metro and just getting started! Yep, I even had the kids all in matching shirts. Way cute... or corny.


We saw the Washington Monument, but didn't go in. The kids wanted to chase the hoards of geese on the lawn, but got over that reeeeaal quick once they realized that where there is that many geese, there is that much poop.

I really enjoyed the WW2 Memorial. I had not seen it before and it was impressive. The kids just liked the fountains. I had a really cute picture of the backs of the older 3 all checking out one of them, but Marian was picking a wedgie and that kinda ruined it. Here I am with the kids before we got into it.

Callie is such a cutie! She was always up for posing for a shot for me!

Well, Marian poses too, it just looks more like posing! And Joshua usually tries to make his awful "Calvin" face. This was one of my favorites, because you can see the Lincoln Memorial in the distance behind them. If you turned and faced the other way, you could see a line to the Washington Mem. Pretty cool.

This was Delaney's mode of transportatin after the first hour. She was content. And then she fell asleep. Dan got quite the workout, carting her extra 25 pounds around.

This is my favorite memorial, and the one that gets me the most emotional. I didn't cry though; Dan would think I was silly. And the kids were a distraction, so I was okay. The kids were pretty good and asked questions, even though I don't think they really got it. Marian wanted to pick up all the things people left at the Wall, and Joshua couldn't understand why people would leave things. It was still a good experience for all of us, I think.

You can see the fence around the Lincoln Memorial here. That's why we didn't attempt going in. Too complicated to get there with tired cranky kids, not to mention the stroller. Joshua took this shot. Isn't it totally our family?! Marian in her little world, Callie kicking back, Delaney hiding, and me and Dan just hanging out and posing!

So, we had a good morning, although we walked a lot and the kids were pooped. I had gone prepared with a backpack of snacks and water bottles, all of which was consumed before we got back home. I don't think the kids enjoyed it as much as Dan and I, so next time we'll do something more fun for them. Maybe the Smithsonian, or we found out the aquarium will be $20 to get the whole family in. Some other weekend....

This is what Dan did with the kids while I was napping! They all played happily together for over an hour with this couch fort! I don't think they have quarrelled at all today! (knock on wood!) They have been doing great together and I'm so happy about that!

Grrrr... I gripe

I went to Ft Belvoir today. Its not really that far. I need to get the kids' medical transcripts transferred, so we headed to the hospital. I drove in circles for 20 minutes. No parking. Nowhere. I looked and looked and drove around and got someone pretty mad at me because I didn't realize it was a one way street. I was so turned around driving in circles and I never did find a place to park. It would have been a great day to get it taken care of since I only had Joshua and Callie with me- Dan took the week off and was home with the other 2.

Rather than scream and run over cars, I gave up. Who knows when I'll get it done now! I'm also irked that I have called every morning this week to try and get Joshua and Marian in for school physicals. They have none available. They keep telling me to call again and maybe something will magically appear. No luck so far. Its very frustrating, since the school technically won't let Marian start school until she has the physical done and paper filled out. Schook starts Sept 2, so I'm running out of time. I figure I'll call and demand other options on Monday. If they can't see me, maybe I can go out in town. We'll see.

After the fuitless hospital not-stop, we went to the commissary. It now takes me twice as long; The place is enormous and nothing is where I'm use to seeing it. We spent 15 minutes at the end, looking for the chopped ham that use to be in the deli meat section of the CP commissary. I couldn't find it anywhere. I finally went to the deli to ask. The lady said, "Oh, we have that right here!"

I was delighted until I got my package and discovered that her idea of chopped ham was not the same as mine. What I got was a pound of thick sliced processed ham. Sigh. I consoled myself by purchasing ice cream sandwiches and rethinking my menu for the week. Where on earth do they hide their deli meats and ham?!!

And now that I've gotten all my crankiness out, I shall go and eat another ice cream sandwich and have a much more cheery attitude!