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!

Meet the House

Soooo, everyone wants to see the house. I suppose Kirsten wants to know what we're doing with the place. Due to laziness and the fact that I admit it may never be fully in order, I have taken pictures of it as it is at this very moment. Messy, only mostly organized, and with boxes and random items all over.

Since my mom had a much better handle on how to describe the house, I take her description out of her family letter and put it here-- The house is split level: Basement has washer/dryer in a fairly large storage room. Then the Man Cave. About 7 steps up is the entry level with a den, bedroom and bath. 5 steps up is the living room, dining room and kitchen. Another 7 steps up are 3 bedrooms and a bath. All the rooms are good sized. They have a screened porch in back and a fenced yard. A single car garage. The neighborhood looks very quiet and peaceful and just around the corner from them is a large park. The children were terribly dissapointed to discover it was only grass, trees, bike/walk/riding trail, and picnic areas. They wanted swings and play equipment.



This is the basement. It has 2 rooms and this is the wash/play/storage part of it. We do plan to have the mess in back a bit more sorted out. Dan still has 2 boxes of his papers and stuff to sort through. I still have to unpack all 500 canning jars and I don't want to. The goal is to have the storage stuff on the perimeter and the toy/play area should be the bulk of the room. (Just ignore the Calvin faced boy in these pictures!)



This is "the man cave" the other half of the basement. This is where I huddle over the computer. Behind me, where you can't see, because I am taking the picture here, it has some fantastic built in shelves for all Dan's law books that he never uses. We also put our futon couch down here for when you come to visit!

When you come up the basement stairs, you arrive in the lower living room. We have a couch, chair, TV, and yes, the ginormous elliptical machine. Yes, I have used it, and it is a nice thing to be able to see the tv while I "extersize", as the kids say.

Should you turn to the right at the top of the basement stairs, you'd see this- a short set of stairs to the kitchen. And if you were to walk past the stairs, you'd get to Joshua's room, a beautiful bathroom, and the screened in porch & back yard (fenced!). We'll talk more about the kitchen later.

If you walk through the lower living room, you reach the front door, and the steps to the upper living room. Yes, its a bit messy. But it looks spatious and it is. I like it.

If you stand in the living room, this is the dining area. I know, I still need to find places to hang my pictures. Since its not military housing, I have to be more careful of how many nails I wack into the wall, so I want it to be perfect! You can see the entry to the kitchen there by the microwave stand.

Should you stand in that entryway, this is what you would see. It is kinda fun to have the stairs to the lower living room there- the kids can run laps around the house there! Its a small kitchen and I'm still sorting out where everything goes. Once I get that done, it will be neater. It has to be, there's not enough space to be messy here.

Oh, I forgot. From the upper living room, you have the stairs to the 3 bedrooms upstairs, and the full bathroom. That's the girls' room at the end of the hall there.

And this completes our virtual tour of the house! We like it a lot. There are still the last 10 boxes of clutter to go through, and some organizing (hmmm, just realized that's pretty close to agonizing!) left to do, but we're happy with the progress. We love living next to a park, even if its not a playground! Its 1.3 miles to loop the trail and I had a great run there yesterday. We did go to a teriffic park today and the kids were happy.

Okay, I don't know why Marian was cross, but she was. We spent almost 3 hours here this morning and they were ready to stay longer. But I was hungry and Delaney needed a nap.