"Let the Games Begin!"

We had our grand yearly party this afternoon, and it was great! This year's theme was the Olympics, which was a timely one. We wanted to kick off and get everyone ready to watch the Olympics when they start next Friday, on 8/8/08, at 8:00 PM local, as we learned in our Olympic trivia part, LOL.

When people arrived, we gave them nametages and a flag, which we put around their neck backwards, so they couldn't see it. Then they had to ask other people "yes or no" questions to try to identify their country, like, "Is it from a country in Asia?" or "Does it have red in it?". The kids did really well at that, and after everyone had figured out their flag, we formed up on the side of the house. Sarah B., as the oldest "competitor", had the honor of carrying the tissue paper torch that I made. They marched around to the front of the house to the "Olympic Fanfare by John Williams, which played from a CD of Olympic music I bought. As they came in front of the adults, they said the country name for the flag they were wearing. Then we began the games.
First we had a "land swimming relay". I divided everyone up into teams of 4, which was a challenge, and the kids picked which stroke they wanted to run across the yard doing. Here you see Caleb McC doing the backstroke.
Next we had a "relay pentathalon", consisting of a running part, then walking on the balance beam curb, then long-jumping across our driveway, throwing a frisbee in a kids' swimming pool ("discus"), and finishing up with shooting a basketball into our little hoop.

Originally, I had thought we would also have a plain running relay, but it was just. too. hot. So we commenced our medal ceremony.

We handed out gold medals to everyone (I had a challenging time finding these, but I finally was successful at Target in Ohio, in their party section. Yay!!). Then I played the national anthem, and everyone sang along with the words, which I had written on the back of the poster of Olympic rings, that you can see David holding up there in the picture. Bob waved the flag around behind David, so it was really nice! I love hearing people sing the Star-Spangled Banner.

Then we rushed inside to cool off in the air conditioning with lemonade and gatorade, while we got the final food touches ready. We had an Olympic-themed meal--pizza bagel bites, spiral deli roll slices, carrots, celery, and red pepper strips with ranch dip, pineapple rings, grapes and blueberries, chips and pretzel rods, and for dessert, 3 kids of cookies, all of which Nathan made, and some cute little cupcakes with sprinkles that our neighbor Theresa brought and were a huge hit with the kids. So did you catch the themes? Circles (bagel bites, tortilla slices, pineapple rings, and cookies), "batons" (all the vegetable sticks and the pretzel rods), and balls (blueberries and grapes. Well anyways, I thought about it, LOL. I had thought maybe no one would be too hungry because of the heat, but the food was wolfed down, and we basically had no left-overs. We ate 180 bagel bites! There were 41 people here! Of that, 26 were kids. Whew! While everyone was eating, I asked them a bunch of Olympic-related trivia questions I had dug up. I learned a lot from that!

We sent everyone home with a photo-copies schedule of events and when medals would be awarded each event, as well as with a "medal bar graph", where they can fill in how many gold, islver, and bronze the U.S gets, and compare that with 4 other countries--China, Russia, Germany, and U.K. So my hope is that everyone went home excited to watch the Olympics, and knowing a little bit more about them.

So that was our day. It was tons of fun, but now I am so tired. At least I am done for the year with big parties!! I am going to post some more pictures of our decorations, but after that, it's bedtime! Tomorrow is another big day, as we leave to take Nathan and Luke up to Camp Caleb right after church.

We're Home!

We made it back safely to VA last night. The best part was that Monday night, Bob was able to catch a hop out of Andrews AFB to Wright-Pat, so he was there to help me drive back. I can certainly do the drive by myself, but it's so nice when I don't have to! I even took a nap in the car in the morning.

We listened to King Solomon's Mines by H.R. Haggard on the trip. Wow, was it ever exciting! We have the book, although I had never read it, and Nathan started it once. He said it started too slowly, and he got bored and never finished it. It did start a bit slowly, but once it picked up, it was not at all boring! It's an adventure story set in Africa in the late 1800's. Haggard wrote it in 1884, I think. There were certainly some prejudicial colonial attitudes expressed in the book, which were interesting. I doubt the boys really picked up on them, but they were sure there. Also, in the first part of the book, the 3 adventurers are heading towards this mountain shaped like "Sheba's breasts", and they were supposed to climb toward the top of one of them, towards the "nipple". This is mentioned time and time again, which surprised me because I thought "breast" and "nipple" were words that still wouldn't be mentioned a whole lot in the 1800's. LOL. I'm pretty open about nursing, but I still don't really discuss the parts by name a lot, and it was weird to keep hearing the words.

There were some parts that were a bit gruesome, although not in a descriptive way, and it was a bit tense in parts. I don't think Caleb and Jonathan paid all that much attention to it, and in those instances, I was glad! The vocabulary was so rich, though. Lots of Latin roots! Definitely a boys' book.

When we got home, I was finally able to see my new kitchen floor. We have linoleum that is 15 years old, and a really out-dated pattern. The family we bought from had 5 children of their own, so this linoleum was worn out. While we were gone, Bob had some workers put in a hardwood floor. It looks so nice! I'll post pictures, but it's still not totally finished. The workers also knocked down a half wall that divided our eating area from the family room. We have such a big table that the wall made it hard for us to get around it, especially with a high chair there. It is so nice and spacious without the wall there! I love it! The dry wall is not finished on the wall, however, and neither is the trim on what is left of the wall, or under the cabinets. We're not sure when the men are coming back to finish. We have this Olympic party here on Saturday, and right now our family room is a disaster area. They had to move our big bookcase away from the wall so they could take off the trim, so all the book are in piles on the floor. It's a bit intimidating. Who wants to move them all back in before the wall in finished, but it's such a mess, and we're haivng a party on Saturday . . . Ok, deep breath . . . no panicking. Anyway, that's why I'm here on the computer and not doing anything useful, LOL. I'm overwhelmed. That's also why there are no pictures. Maybe next week, after the party.

Hello . . . Hello . . . Anyone there?

Hey, it's me again! We haven't perished in the wilds of Ohio! We've been having a great time, and I have just not been on the computer at all. We had 480 emails when I finally checked this afternoon!

Bob got a Priceline deal and flew out here last weekend, which was a nice treat. He got to go with us to the birthday party of Amy's younger son Jacob on Saturday. It was at a place called "Pump It Up", which had a lot of those big, inflatable bouncy things and slides. Needless to say, the boys had a wonderful time and bounced out a lot of their energy. Anna was in a grumpy, "nothing will please me" mood, so she didn't has as much fun, LOL. Ah well, you can't please everyone.

Sunday we went to church with Mom and Dad at the base chapel. It was nice to see old familiar faces, and we got to enjoy their monthly fellowship meal after the service. The only sticky part was during the special number. The chapel doesn't have a nursery, so Anna and Grace were both sitting on my lap, sort of playing with each other, and very nicely I might add. Until Grace stuck her fingers into Anna mouth, and Anna chomped down. Grace let out a very loud and indignant cry, so we had to make a hasty retreat to the cry room.

We've had a bunch of playdates too. Monday afternoon a Turkish woman and her one year old girl came over, along with a Korean woman and her one year old boy. Then on Tuesdya morning, the German wife of an American officer came with her one year old girl. Anna and Grace have never had so many little playmates! All the adult conversation has been nice for me, too.

Amy and I met at her mom's house Tuesday night to scrapbook. when we lived here, we would do this about once a month. No wonder I was so caught up back then! It's just so much harder to be motivated when you're doing it all by yourself. We had a great time, and I was able to make Anna's little album--the one where I have a birth page, a family page, and then either a 2 page or a 4 page spread for each year. I have one for all the boys, and I was really getting worried since I didn't have anything for either girl!

We all went back to Amy's house yesterday to play. The weather was so much cooler and more pleasant. The boys played outside the whole afternoon, and they didn't look like they were going to keep over from heatstroke either. Amy and I did some more scrapbooking, and I finished Jonathan's book for this past year. I still have Nathan's to do for this past year, but now I'm going to do some in my regular family album. The one where I'm stuck back in November, 2005. Sigh.

Tomorrow we're going to move over to Amy's house for the weekend. That will be fun! Then we'll come back here Monday so I can do laundry and regroup, and we'll leave Tuesday to drive back. So only a few more days of this wonderful vacation!

You know, the nicest part is that I didn't even bring any schoolwork, which I usually do. I'm sure it will be hard to get back into the swing of things, but actually I have 2 more weeks before I need to think about that. When we get back home, we have an orthodontist appointment, my first OB appointment, and we have to put the final details together for our big annual party, which we're having on Aug. 2. It's going to be an Olympic party. We don't have individual birthday parties during the year--I just make their special cake, which we bring to Bible study, where we celebrate. But we try to have one big party in the summer. This year, I have been very unorganized about it, and I haven't even sent out invitations. We're going by word-of-mouth, LOL. So needless to say, I have quite a few more details to take care of.

Then Nathan and Luke will leave for Camp Caleb Aug. 3 and be gone until Aug. 8. (Is that the week you mean, Joelyn? Is so, that would be great!!). I guess we'll be back to our normal routine that next week, at least school-wise. It's been a nice break, though, and then I'll be through the first trimester. Yay!

P.S. Please excuse any typing mistakes on this post and the last. I am a bad typist on a good day, and for some reason, I can NOT type on my parents' keyboard. We have a nice, ergometric one at home, which has the keys separated a bit more or something, but here I am always bumping other keys and not noticing. And I'm in too much of a hurry for spell checking, LOL.

In Ohio Again!

well, to start off, we had a busy weekend, hence non blogging. Saturday I shopped at the local homeschooling convention. I've gone the last several years and gotten a good deal of things at the used book sale, especially. This year was such a disappointment! There weren't very many sellers there, and there were tons of shoppers. Even though I didn't see any curriculum I was looking for (Rod and Staff English in particular), I hoped to at least get some books for the boys to read on the drive. The books were very overpriced I thought, and most of them we already had anyways. Sigh. A big disappointment, as I said. Also, there weren't even venders I was hoping to see, like Memoria Press. I had really wanted to look at their Henle Latin guides, since I think we'll be moving into year 1 this year. Oh well.



Sunday afternoon our church had a big picnic over at a local park. It was very, very humid, especially for the 12 pregnant ladies in the church, but we survived, and it was a lot of fun. The boys played volleyball and a ton of other games. The girls played on the playground. I sat in the shade of the pavilion and sweated while watching them, LOL.



Monday morning the kids and I got up and out the door by 9:40 to start the drive to Ohio. We're visiting my family and best friend Amy and her family for 2 weeks! This is a REAL vacation for me! I was a little nervous about the drive, since I'm just 10 weeks along and still get tired in the afternoon. But God is faithful, and it was no problem. We listened to The Great Cheese Conspiracy and A Year Down Yonder on CD, which really helped keep me awake. That, and the box of Junior mints I ate.



I really enjoyed A Year Down Yonder. It was the sequel to A Long Way From Chicago, by Richard Peck, that we listened to on the way out to Utah. Both books involve 2 kids (just one in the second book) who have to visit their grandma down in some hicktown in the 1920's and '30's. The grandma is a real character--definitely not the cuddly, grandmotherly stereotype, but it makes for funny stories.

So far today I've been relaxing. I did a new Pilates For Pregnancy DVD that I bought off of Amazon, and I was very pleased with it. Exaclty what I was looking for!

The boys, especially Nathan and Luke, have been earning their keep here by helping Gradpa outside. He is pulling up sections of sod so Mom will have flower beds, and the boys have been helping truck the sod around the yard and lay it out on other places. They've also been helping to move the 10 tons of dirt that Grandpa had delivered a little while ago! They will be sleeping well while they're here, LOL! It's good for growing boys to be kept busy!

I need to go change a poopy diaper . . . it's not all relaxing around here.

New Bibles

A few days ago, I bought new Bibles for Nathan and Luke. Nathan had come to me a few days before that and mentioned that he didn't want to take his Bible to Camp Caleb next month. Nathan got his Bible when he was 4, and it is a Psalty Bible! Yes, one can understand why an 11 year old boy would feel the need to move on up, LOL. It's in a nice red Bible cover, however, so I never thought of it as a Psalty Bible--just as Nathan's Bible.

Luke's Bible is just as bad. It's a kid's devotional Bible, in the "NrIV", which is the NIV for new readers. He was also ready to move up!

We bought 2 new Bibles at the Christian bookstore, using a coupon, so now they are all set for Camp Caleb. The only thing is that these are just pretty generic gift Bibles, although they do have nice covers. But they don't really have a concordance, maps, or any helpful study notes or anything. I really loved my student Bible that I had back in high school and college, but I didn't see anything like that in the bookstore. I might look at CBD sometime to see what they have, and maybe we'll get them another Bible sometime, like at Christmas. It's always nice to have more Bibles around the house.

It's a Baby!

Today was fun--I had an ultrasound!! A few days ago, I got an email from the local homeschool loop. Someone was forwarding a message from the local crisis pregnancy center, saying they were training some new nurses to give ultrasounds, and they were looking for 23 pregnant ladies to practice on, ones between 8 and 20 weeks. Well, I thought I was 9 weeks along, and I knew my first actual appointment at Bethesda wasn't until Aug. 1, so I thought this would be fun. I called the next day (Wednesday) and set up the ultrasound for this morning.

I brought all the kids, but it turned out that Bob was able to break away from work and meet us there, so that was really nice. Not only did he get to see the baby too, but he was a huge help with the kids, especially Anna and Grace.

It was so great to see the little jelly bean in there, with the heart beating away! Until you feel the baby move, it's always hard to really know you're pregnant, so it was nice to just get that visual confirmation. I don't think I've ever had an ultrasound this early! There were 3 nurses in training, plus the teacher, so the room was a bit crowded! Everyone got a chance to move the transducer around on my belly, and then they all also did a transvaginal ultrasound too. Based on the crown-rump measurements and fetal development, they gave me a due date of Feb. 12. Since I had come up with Feb. 11 on my own, I felt pretty good about that! The little guy wiggled around in there, and even waved his little paddle hands and feet at us. (I'm assuming a boy until I know otherwise, LOL.) The nurse said they call babies at this stage "teddy grahams", and that was indeed what he looked like! So cute!

Enjoying Life With Air Conditioning

Ahhhh . . . our house is so comfortable now. The guys came back Monday and worked all day, making all sorts of racket down in the basement. They finished up around 5:00, and it was so great to feel the humidity slowly start to leave the house. I think we are going to replace the outside part of the upstairs unit this summer too, as opposed to waiting until it totally gives out. We tried that and didn't like it, LOL.

I still haven't really made anything in the oven the last few nights, even though it would not make the house unbearably warm. After more than a week of skillet/stir-fry/crockpot meals, it just seems weird to even contemplate something in the oven.

Dinnertime has become somewhat of a challenge, even without the a/c woes. During this pregnancy so far, I have predictably been nauseous starting at around 2:00 in the afternoon, and it lasts until dinner. Once I've eaten dinner, I'm fine. Usually I take a nap around 2:00, but when I wake up, I am in no mood to even think about food, much less prepare something. Even the crockpot is not an ideal solution, because waking up smelling food really turns my stomach. So I have exhausted my repetoire of quick skillet meals that don't require me to do very much to prepare them, LOL.

This whole afternoon nausea this is definitely unique for me, as far as my pregnancies go. It will be interesting to see if this is a boy or a girl. I have really only been nauseous with the 2 girls, so maybe it will be another girl, although to be perfectly honest, I will admit I'm hoping a little bit for another boy! But of course I will be thrilled with whichever. Not so thrilled with the nauseousness, however.

All right, I'm late for my nap because I decided to be proactive and start the beef barley soup before laying down. And then someone called, so I needed to write a quick email, and what do you know, I find myself here. But now I'm off to the couch!

Graduation Party

Sunday we completed our big "up and back" trip to PA for Bob's niece's graduation party. Although it was a long and tiring day, I really do think it was for the best. I was so tired Saturday after the fireworks. The thought of having to pack and drive was too much for me, and it was so nice just to relax and lay around. I guess the Lord knew and prevented us from making those reservations!

We left around 9:00, got there about 1:45, stayed until 5:15, and got back home at 10:45. Of course, Sunday was the worst travel day we could have picked, being right after 4th of July, and traffic on I-70 was hardly moving as we got somewhat close to D.C. We ended up getting off and taking a bunch of back roads home. Although we wandered around Winchester for a good 20 extra minutes, trying to find Rt. 7, at least we were moving, and I'm sure the whole thing didn't take any longer than 70 would have.

The party was really nice. Bob's sister-in-law Sherry throws such good parties. There was a ton of food, including the cake that Grace raptly enjoyed with her Aunt Jane. The boys enjoyed playing volleyball, as well as this beanbag toss game, where you try to toss the beanbags into a hole, or at least get them onto the box. Surprisingly, even I was not a total loser at this game myself. Jane brought a bat, ball, and some bases, and she organized the kids into a baseball game.

Some of you know that I made a brief attempt to pottytrain Anna a few weeks ago. It really was not successful at all, and she was having a lot of attitude issues, so we just left it until a more propitious time (August maybe?). Well, this park had the nastiest, stinkiest pit toilets, and I was so eternally grateful that Anna was not wearing big girl panties and having to use "the facilities". I could hardly go myself without making myself sick to my stomach, and I can't imagine having to hold her over the hole, while waiting for her quirky toddler bladder to kick in. That probably would have set her back for a year! Again, the Lord knew what was happening, and I for one am priasing His perfect timing!

Bob's oldest sister Ann is really the only sibling that pushes for family pictures to be taken. At this party, all 6 of the siblings, plus all the grandchildren except 3, were there, and she worked hard to get everyone together for a family picture. It was a bit like herding cats, in that one brother had gone off fishing, and one sister had taken several of the kids off to a big slide in a whole different part of the park. But finally everyone made it back together, and a picture was taken for posterity. You know, Bob's parents are in their 80s, so opportunities such as this are not going to happen for too much longer. I'm glad we took advantage of it on Sunday.

Happy Fourth of July!!

Yesterday we headed downtown again to watch the national fireworks. We caravanned out with 3 other families from our Friday night OCF Bible study, and we went to our usual watching point of the Carillion, next to the Iwo Jima Memorial. My friend Johanna and her family were there when we got there, and my boys had a great time playing football and frisbees with hers. Later on, Bob's sister Ann and her family came as well, including Christi and her new husband Andres.

When we first got there, the weather was nice, but a little overcast. It started getting gloomier, and soon Red Cross people started coming around and telling us that big storms were on the way, and we were advised to seek cover. It wasn't even really raining at that point, so we all sat tight. Eventually it did start raining, and we hunkered down under a huge plastic sheet that Ed and Elizabeth had thoughtfully brought. Then the loud speaker came to life and said that severe weather was coming, with thunder, lightening, and high winds. Hmmm. So we packed up and made our way back to the hotel parking garage . . . except we never made it there. As we were walking back, the rain stopped, the skies got lighter and lighter, and we realized all we were doing was giving up our good space! So we turned around and went back. We had eaten our dinner (tuna sandwiches) before it started raining the first time, so this time we broke out the cookies and grapes. This was also when Ann and Wally showed up. When we were coming back, police officers had told us that another storm was expected around 7:00, and sure enough, it started raining again. I felt very wet, and I really wished I had brought our bag of light jackets that was in the back of the van. If we had gone back to the garage, I planned on getting them then! Christi was very nice and volunteered to go back with me (in the downpour) to get the jackets. Sure enough, as we got neared the garage, the rain let up and stopped! But we got the jackets, and I for one was glad to have them as it started raining one more time right before the fireworks started.

The first fireworks were lovely, but then the bad weather came back to bite us. The smoke just sort of lingered and never cleared, so we watched the rest of the fireworks through a malevolent dark cloud, as you can see by the picture below.

I'm sure you all have read A Wrinkle in Time, right? I thought we were seeing the "Dark Thing" that had so many planets under its evil grip, LOL. By the end of the display, you couldn't even really see the top of the Washington Monument anymore. But it was still a fun-filled evening, and I'm glad we went. Maybe the weather will be better next year!

Some good, some bad

Well, the air conditioner guys started getting stuff in today. Actually, it's all in, but it needs to get put together and hooked up. That, of course, will not happen until Monday, but at least it's a start. I'm sure you're all dying to know what we decided. We are getting a new furnace and a/c for the downstairs, and we're not doing anything to the upstairs yet. I had forgotten that a few years ago, we actually replaced the inside part of the upstairs one, so all we need is a new outside tower part. Bob looked online, and you can buy them pretty inexpensively. Ed knew a guy who would install what you buy, so we'll probably do that sometime later on. I am really looking forward to having a comfortable main level again. Bob grilled some delicious steaks tonight, and we've been eating our dinners outside for the past several days. It's been very comfortable, temperature-wise, the last few evenings, and it's been nice to just sit outside and see the neighbors who walk by (probably thinking what white trash we are, LOL).

We were supposed to be gone this weekend, which would have helped with the whole hot, humid main floor thing. Bob's niece graduated from high school this year, and she's having a graduation party in PA Sunday afternoon. We were going to go up Saturday and come back Sunday, but when we called the hotel to confirm what day our reservation started, it turned out we never actually made the reservation. Whoops! There is literally one room in one hotel in this town that we fit in (actually it's a few towns away, but it's the closest we can get), so there are no other options. We will have to drive up Sunday morning and back Sunday night. It's about a 4 1/2 hour drive one way, so that's not impossible of course--we've done it before--but it does mean another afternoon in the heat. Sigh. We both really thought we'd called. I guess, with all the reservations for the big trip, this one just fell through the cracks.

OB Orientation

This morning I had my OB orientation. It started about a half an hour late, at 9:30, because there was an accident on the Beltway and tons of people were late. Fortunately the accident didn't affect my travel time, and I had a book, so I just enjoyed the air conditioning, LOL.

I actually enjoyed the orientation more than I thought I would. It turns out that people from Annapolis, Ft. Meade, and Ft. Detrick all have to come to Bethesda to deliver, and so although they can have their routine appointments at satellite clinics at their bases, they were also at this thing. The nice OB nurse realized they weren't coming back for any more "classes", so she laid out how everything is done, even in labor and delivery, so that was very useful and practical. I know I'm not coming back for an all-day childbirth class, jsut so I can get a tour and figure out l&d procedures!

What did I learn? Hmmm . . . Bethesda has a level 3 NICU (hope we don't need that); they have 23 beds in their ward (usually only half are used as labor/recovery rooms, and then they move people to another room on the other side of the ward for the rest of the time); midwives deliver only Tuesday afternoons and Thursday mornings (otherwise it's residents--this is a teaching hospital, like Wright-Pat), and children are welcome at all OB appointments, and even at the delivery itself, should I so choose (no, LOL). It's good to have all the phone numbers I should need, and to know what to do if I should get something like strep (call the OB acute care number), or go into labor in the middle of a snowstorm (call L&D, who will refer you to the nearest hospital and fax your records there).

We made up our OB records too--we all filled out all the info for ourselves. After this baby, if we have anymore, Nathan will get knocked off the history part, because they only want info on your previous 6 births! LOL! They did not disappoint--we did have to fill out the crazy mental health survey. You have to read the statements very carefully. The answer choices are "strongly disagree, disagree, nuetral, agree, and strongly agree". One statement will be something like, "I feel very supported in this pregnancy by my partner" ["strongly agree"], and then the next statement will be "I have often considered leaving this relationship" [ack!! "strongly DISagree"!]. The whole thing is pretty funny. Here are some more sample statements: "I feel like a total failure" followed by "someone in my life makes me feel good about myself" (awwww)/ Or how about "my parents frequently shouted at each other and threw things" or "I can think of several situations where it would be okay for a wife to slap her husband's face". LOL!! Pretty funny!

Anyhow, I got blood work done, scheduled my first appointment for Aug. 1, and picked up a prescription for prenatal vitamins. Bob held down the fort with the kids and the A/C guys. We're still talking about our options with that. Let's just say that whatever we choose will be pricey, LOL. Today was a much cooler, less humid day, however, so that was a real blessing.

I'm melting . . . .

Okay, it's not all that bad. It's like 84 degrees in here. But I have found over the course of the past 2 days that heat makes me feel much queasier. Also, the kitchen, since it has no fan, is a particularly warm, still room. Let's just say there's not been much cooking or cleaning up being done of the kitchen. Sitting on the couch in the family room, under the ceiling fan, and also under the catwalk where the slightly cooler air from upstairs comes down, is comfortable. If I can just sit there and do nothing, all is well.

We have 2 different companies coming over Monday morning to give us estimates. Then we'll hopefully make some decisions, like which unit to replace, if not both, and whether or not we should also replace the furnace while we're at it. The good thing is that Monday morning I have my "OB orientation" (just in case I've forgotten what it's like to be pregnant, LOL) at Bethesda from 9:00 to 12:00, so Bob was already planning to be home with the kids, and he can deal with the A/C guys. Yay! Meanwhile, I'll be enjoying 3 hours of air conditioned comfort at Bethesda, plus the car trip, LOL. I guess it's worth it to hear about what I should be eating and make sure I'm not in an abusive relationship, and all those other nosy questions military installations can ask.

A Sad Farewell

It appears that our main floor air conditioner has bitten the dust. We knew its demise was imminent, as it had already stopped cooling earlier in the season. We had it recharged with freon May 6, and we hoped it would limp out the rest of this summer. It was not to be, unfortunately, and today it started blowing out tepid air again. Sigh. I guess we know what we will be spending our stimulus check on! Our upstairs one is actually not doing so well either, so the debate is which one we should replace now. The theory is that if we replace the upstairs one, it will be more comfortable for sleeping, and the cool air would fall down to the main floor.

I am thankful I am in my first trimester, and not my third! And at least we have a nice, cool basement. But I still think this is going to have to be something we move on sooner rather than later. Right now, we're all heading to the library.

A brave new world . . .

We entered a new world yesterday . . . the world of orthodontia. We had a consult with the only orthodontist who accepts the Tricare dental plan anywhere near us, and fortunately he and his whole office were very nice. The problem is that Luke has (forgive me if I get too technical) a "very narrow mouth". I guess this goes along with his narrow feet? On the x-ray we could see that his teeth are stacked up 3 deep in places, with the permanent ones struggling to find places to come up. One of his top teeth has erupted WAY up high in his gum, so you can't even see it unless he smiles really big.

So the first order of business is an expander on the top of his mouth. After some preliminary appointments, he'll have the device put in Aug. 11. Then I'll have a key, and I'll twist it every night to expand the thing for several months. That should open up some room up top, and hopefully things will start to right themselves. He'll have to have braces then to bring the high tooth down, and the front 2 teeth up a bit.

On the bottom, he'll need to have a few baby teeth pulled. We'll probably do that in the next few weeks. He will need braces down there as well. All this stuff involving his mouth before all his permanent teeth come in is "phase 1", which does not inspire confidence that our foray into orthodontia will be brief, LOL. Hopefully all this work will allow the rest of his permanent teeth to come in not too crookedly. "Phase 1" will cost us about $1300, which could be worse, that's for sure. Of course, there are probably at least 2 other kids who share Luke's narrow mouth, and I'm not sure that Nathan and the other 2 like him won't need some kind of braces when they get a little older. At least he doesn't need anything right now!

Happy Birthday, Nathan!!!

Nathan is 11 years old today! He picked chicken salad on croissants for lunch, and kielbasa/potato soup for dinner, with ice cream for dessert. He's really growing up, too. He'll choose to read instead of play in the basement sometimes, much to Luke's chagrin. He pitches in when he can see I need help, especially if it involves cooking. He helps out tremendously with the girls. The reason I'm not intimidated by having more babies is that I know I have Nathan (and Luke . . . and Caleb . . .) to help with them! It makes such a huge difference.

I see so much of his dad in Nathan. He is a "think outside the box" problem solver, and he loves to play games. In fact, he is working on his own game right now, some complicated blend of Monopoly and Risk. He has a mechanical mind like Bob too, and he loves to help his dad in his projects around the house.

Speaking of projects, you may have wondered what Nathan was sitting in (or not--just humor me). It was one of Bob's projects last week, although he put it together after the kids went to bed one night, so they didn't help. It's a shaded swing for our front yard! We LOVE it. It doesn't have cushions that we would need to worry about if it got windy or rainy (because we are not the kind of people who can deal with those sorts of cushions, LOL). It is so wonderful to have a place to relax and swing in the shade as we watch the kids play out front.

Bob's second project is still on-going, and that is pressure-washing the deck. He bought a pressure-washer at Sam's, and he got quite a bit of the deck done last Saturday. Wow--what a difference that makes! The contrast between washed and unwashed is amazing! After he finishes washing it, he'll go ahead and stain it. We'll practically have a new deck!

Celebrating Nathan and Jonathan

Tonight we took a cake to Bible study to celebrate Jonathan's birthday (June 2), and Nathan's birthday (June 24). They picked "Lego Anakin" from Star Wars Episode 2. Actually, Nathan wanted a brooding Anakin straight from his Complete Star Wars book, but I told him I absolutely did not do (real) people, so this Anakin was a compromise. I had to use the case of a Lego Star Wars computer game that Dan and Melinda got them for their birthdays as a model! If you look closely, you can notice the little braid thing denoting his "Padawan" status there to the left of his head. Attention to detail--I'm all about that. I guess I should have gotten a side shot. I was proud of that braid. We took home from Bible study the top part of his head--his eyes and hair. That's it. All that work and then *poof* the cake is inhaled in about 5 minutes total!

Here is a picture of the 2 happy birthday buddies. Nathan blew out 11 candles on Anakin's body, and Jonathan blew out 5 candles on his lightsaber. Worked out great! I loved that I could just make one cake for the 2 boys. Maybe this baby will be a boy, and be a February birthday buddy with Luke . . . that would be nice! Now I'm all done with cakes until Caleb's birthday in November. Yay!

Fun For the Week

The week was more than just the day at Bethesda! On Monday afternoon, our neighbors had a little shower for Elli, the German lady down the street. She is expecting their third child in 2 weeks. The other 2 kids are older--14 and 10--and the 14 year old, Julia, is so excited about the coming baby. A few months ago Julia (she's the one on the left in the picture) decided she really wanted to have an American baby shower for her mom, and she wanted to make a cake for it with me. She picked out a pacifier shape. I wasn't sure if any of this would come to fruition, but when we got back from the trip, Julia said she and her dad wanted to have the shower Monday afternoon. I baked the cakes Sunday afternoon, and then Julia and 2 of her friends came over Monday afternoon to help decorate them. We had such a great time! I put the cakes together in the pacifier shape, and then I started putting the frosting on. The girls wanted to help do that, so I let them. They quickly discovered it's not quite as easy as it looks! I put the frosting on the part that would go in a baby's mouth (a giant baby, LOL), and then we made green frosting, and they started putting the finishing touches on. At this point, they had been politely enthusiastic about the cake--"It looks pretty, like a flower. It tastes delicious." (I had been letting them eat the parts I cut off when shaping it.) But as they decorated it themselves, they became much more enthusiastic! "This is the most beautiful cake ever! I wish we never had to cut it! This is my favorite cake ever! I love it!" They also wanted to put as much frills on as possible. Julia said that at first she didn't think it would look that good with the border and the dots they put on, but then she realized it would look great with as much stuff as they could put on! LOL! I told them they reminded me of the boys when they decorate Christmas cookies, and how they think as many sprinkles as possible made the best cookie!

Anyhow, the cake was a huge hit. The neighbors liked it too! Then we played some games--the one where everyone cuts off a length of string that they think will fit around the mom's belly, and the same mad-libs game that we played at the shower on Saturday. The games were fun too. Let me tell you, Elli is nothing but belly! The smallest string believable was closest for her! I think she's as big now as I am! It helps that she is really tall and long-legged, but still . . . sigh.

We're slowly getting back into the school groove, but yesterday we started something else fun--the recorder! I really want the boys to learn to read music, and piano just isn't going to happen (unless one child really expresses an interest, but that hasn't happened so far). The recorder is cheap and is also something that with my clarinet skills I can certainly teach! I have recorders for everyone, but Nathan, Luke, and Caleb are the ones that are really learning. Jonathan and Anna are mainly tooting their own horns, LOL. Everyone is having a good time, although Luke is predictably frustrated that he is not immediately an expert. I did have to banish all recorders to the basement yesterday afternoon, though. We're working on part of "Ode to Joy" right now--a part that only uses 5 notes, LOL. The book said that groups of 4 to 9 recorders are called "consorts". Hey, we've got our own made-to-order consort!

Bethesda

I'm tired! Today we went to Bethesda. By that I do not mean "this morning, we went to Bethesda" or anything like that. We got to Bethesda at 9:15, and we left Bethesda at 3:30, so we definitely made a day of it! We started off with 4 well-child appointments (Caleb, Jonathan, Anna, and Grace), plus a follow-up on Jonathan's arm at ortho. That took the whole morning. Then we went up to the ID card office so I could get my ID card renwered. We had to wait awhile, but at least we got it. We could have waited longer, that's for sure, so it wasn't too bad.

Then Bob took the kids down to the food court for lunch, and I tried to get a pregnancy test at the lab. At all the other bases we've been too, you just walk into the lab and request a pregnancy test--no appointment needed. Here, you need an appointment, though. I could hardly stand the thought of coming back with everyone just so someone could tell me to take a pregnancy test, so I went over to OB to see if they could order the test for me. They could, but they said that I would then have to talk to Family Practice to get the referral to be seen by OB once the test was positive. So I trooped back over to the lab, took the test, then went and ate lunch myself.

I met Bob and the kids at Immunizations, where we had to wait quite a while. All 4 kids needed shots, so we all went back to the room. It was a big room, with several tables for giving shots. Within minutes, the room was filled with the outraged crying of several parties. Caleb and Jonathan both cried so loudly, I could hardly believe it! When Anna and Grace joined in, it was quite a choir. When we all departed, I'm sure the techs all appreciated their nice quiet room a bit more. Anna is still grimaced and grabbing at her leg. What a drama queen! She only got one shot!

After the immunization drama, we tried to find my family practice clinic. You might think this would be easy, but we actually wandered all over the hospital, going to 3 different places to find the right place! Apparently they have started a new system, so not everyone is clear on who goes where. At the right place, though, the receptionist lady was so nice. She loved our big family--"All Bible names! That's wonderful! Everyone can tell right away where you stand!"--and she was so excited that we were having another. What an encouragement! She told me the result was indeed positive, and they are getting the referral into the system. Yay!

Then we had to head back to the pharmacy to pick up Caleb's Zyrtec and Singulair. The lady told us that DOD pharmacies are no longer stocking Zyrtec, since you can buy it over the counter now, so we either had to buy it at a civilian place or go back to the doctor and get the prescription changed. Argh! But we trooped back over to pediatrics to try to get the new prescription. After waiting a little while, that was done, so we had to go back up to the pharmacy. There we had to wait another hour to get the Claritin. I was so glad when they finally called our number to pick it up. The girls were getting very cranky, and of course they were only expressing what we were all feeling! Poor Nathan and Luke, being dragged around the hospital all day long, when they didn't even have any appointments! I was thankful Bob was with us. Aside from getting the new ID card, we wouldn't have been able to do everything else either. I would have collapsed into a frustrated, hormonal pile of tears at all the running around!

The people that we dealt with at Bethesda were all so nice, however, and it really was a nice experience. The pediatrics doctors especially were just wonderful. They were great with the kids, they seemed like they really enjoyed kids, and--get this--they all spoke easy-to-understand-English! It was so nice to know that I was understanding everything. I wish we had been able to change over a long time ago!

Baby Shower

This morning I hosted a baby shower at our house for a lady at church, Margaret. I am in charge of helping plan baby showers for our church, and I agreed to this date before we left for the trip, but as we drove back home, I was getting a little intimidated about hosting something so soon as we got back.

I shouldn't have worried! It went great, and everyone had a fun time, myself included. It was also a good excuse to get things cleaned up and put away after the trip!

I made a breakfast casserole that we had in Utah. The day after my cousin's wedding, Sarah's parents hosted a brunch for family so we could see my cousin and Sarah once more before they drove off to their new home. Sarah's mom made this delicious egg casserole, and she had said how easy it was to make. I remembered this and asked her for the recipe Thursday. It was a big hit, and several people asked me for the recipe too! I'm not a real big fan of breakfast casseroles with bread in them--too soggy--so whenever I find a new one that doesn't have that, I'm so excited!

I also made chocolate-covered strawberries, which were also a big hit. Other people brought muffins, quick bread, cheesecake, fruit, cheese and crackers, and a few other dishes to fill in. Yummy!

Again, games were a challenge. I didn't want to repeat the games I did at the last shower , so I had to be creative. I did a matching game first--match the quotes from 10 classics childrens books, like Go, Dog, Go, The Little Engine That Could, Goodnight, Moon and others. Then we did a mad-libs style game to write the "birth story" for Margaret. That was hilarious! I love mad-libs. When we were at the party store on Thursday picking up plates and napkins, I perused a book of baby games, and that was one of the suggestions. I figured I could write my own, rather than spend money to buy the book, and it turned out great!

While I was having fun with adult conversation and good food, Bob took all the kids to Target to buy a new bike for Luke, and then on to Ci-Ci's for all-you-can-eat pizza and dessert. So they had a good day too.

Well, a thunderstorm is kicking up, so I must go. Hopefully a good storm will lessen the oppressive humidity. Ah, to be back in the west . . .

Some Final Thoughts on The Big Drive

1. Driving through South Dakota in June is the perfect place and time to listen to The Long Winter (of the Little House on the Prairie Series). In fact, I wished we had another day so we could take a little side trip up to De Smet, where it all happened. The interstate is about 50 miles south. Sigh. Of course, once we got home, and I had to throw away the last odds and ends that didn't get pitched before we left, I felt terribly guilty because I knew those leftovers would have fed the Ingalls family for 2 weeks, LOL.

2. We became efficient car travelers, bettering our previous stopping records. We generally stopped once every 4 hours or so. We quit stopping for lunch when we got to Yellowstone because the weather was too cold. I would just make sandwiches in the van, pass around chips, and cut up apples with a plastic knife (not recommended. Next trip I will bring a regular knife, LOL). Then we decided that saved so much time, we started eating sandwiches in the car the whole rest of the trip. That way we could just make a quicker potty/gas stop. Of course, now Anna expects lunch in the car, so when we ran errands today, she kept fussing around "Lunch! Lunch!"

3. We had no cell phone coverage at all through the entire state of South Dakota.

4. The north-west corner of Illinois is practically deserted, and there are hardly any gas stations or places to eat there. Who knew? I guess we did have cell phone coverage, but I still much preferred South Dakota, as far as isolated places go.

5. This is not technically about driving, but it turns out that Anna, for all her fears, loves to go swimming. I was sure she'd be terrified of pools, but she was not at all. She keeps us on our toes. Grace, on the other hand, was not a fan of the pool. She didn't like the echoing noise and the getting splashed, so she pretty much cried whenever we even had to just walk through the pool area.

6. We did indeed pick up the PSP that Caleb won on our way back through Davenport, Iowa. Now we are wondering what in the world we will do with this thing, since we're not big into watching movies at all, much less individually, we would never let any of the kids use it to access the internet, and the games seem to be very expensive for it. Hmmm.

7. It's a good thing we're having another baby, and so we will eventually be forced to buy a 12 passenger van. I think this was the last long trip we could make, all crammed together in the Sienna! Nathan and Luke's legs are getting too long to be smooshed into the back seat, and when you add in a backpack for every child (except Grace, whose toys and books just floated randomly around the car--wait, everyone else's stuff did too, since people were not so faithful about returning things to their backpack . . . but I digress), and a cooler, plus a grocery sack of bread, chips, paper towels, etc . . . it was pretty crowded in there. I won't even TALK about the back part of the van, where the suitcases, pack-n-plays, swimming stuff, etc., had to placed with surgical precision in a complicated design to all fit. Whew! I sure was glad to get all that stuff out of the van!

8. There is no better way to truly appreciate our beautiful country than a long car trip across it. The small towns have a lot of character, and I love seeing all the different types of houses and farms. We took a spontaneous side trip to drive through Badlands National Park, which was really amazing to look at. On our way back up to the highway, we saw a sod dugout house, just like the Ingalls family lived in in On the Banks of Plum Creek! Whenever I hear liberals blathering on about how we're running out of room, I always think that they haven't driven much through the middle of our country. It's so beautiful . . . and empty. I recommend long car trips!

We're back!!!!!

After 5600 miles in the car, we have finally returned to D.C. I'll be honest--it was hard to come back east! The temperatures and humidity rose, the speed limit decreased, the horizon shrank, and everything got more crowded and squished together. But we're looking forward to seeing friends at Bible study on Friday and at church on Sunday, and it was wonderful to sleep in our own beds again. We're all pretty fried! Now to start the laborious unpacking process, my least favorite part of traveling . . .

Yesterday we left Amy's house in Ohio, but before we left, we found out we are going to have a more permanent momento from this trip! Probably around the beginning of February . . . How exciting!!

"Oh, give me a home . . . "

We had a wonderful time at Yellowstone, even though the weather wasn't totally cooperative. We saw TONS of wildlife--bison with their babies, elk, deer, foxes, bald eagles, and big horn sheep. We watched Old Faithful erupt, which was neater than I expected. It kept gushing out these little amounts, and I was getting pretty tired of waiting around. But we were all very glad we waited for the big eruption--wow!

We drove today through a lot of rain, but the Lord was faithful to protect us. The Wyoming scenery was beautiful, even with the clouds. I guess I'm just a western girl at heart. I really like the big, open spaces.

Tonight and tomorrow night we're at a Comfort Inn in Rapid City, SD. Our room is amazing--it has a balcony overlooking the pool! It's the only room to have this! We feel like the royal family when we step out on it, LOL. The hotel also has a nice business center practically next door to our room, which is where I am while we wait for Grace to fall asleep. She slept a lot in the car, and so she is not really tired right now. I'm glad we bought the new baby monitor before we left. It's working like a charm, and it's nice to not be in there with her while she rustles around!

You may be interested in an update on Jonathan. Bob and Jonathan got home a little after 4:00 Monday afternoon, with Jonathan's arm in a splint. The doctor said actually his arm was looking pretty good, and we should see the doctor at Bethesda in a week when we get home for a follow-up. Bob showed me the picture of the x-ray, and the lower bone is still broken a little bit, so it does still hurt Jonathan. He's doing fine with the splint on, and we can take that off if needed, which is nice. So he is healing, but it is just taking a long time. He did have extensive fractures of both arm bones in the lower arm, so it makes sense that it is taking a little while to heal. Jonathan is happy that he can bend his elbow now!

Well, Grace still hasn't fallen asleep, but Bob has returned from his swim, so I must say goodnight! We're praying that the clouds lift at least a little tomorrow so we can actually see Mount Rushmore!

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!!

Jonathan is 5 years old today! What a way to celerate a birthday--on vacation, surrounded by extended family! Jonathan was 2 weeks overdue when I was finally induced. I told him this morning how glad we all were that he finally decided to make his grand appearance 5 years ago today! He was my biggest baby too--9 pounds, 6 ounces.

We had hoped to get Jonathan's cast off this morning. Bob spent a lot of time on the phone last week with Tricare and Bethesda, trying to get a referral to a civilian provider out here to do it. But Bethesda took forever to get their referral in, and so it hasn't been processed by Tricare . . . the usual sort of thing you expect from Tricare. Bob and Jonathan are at the doctor's right now (1:15 PM MDT), but I think it will be VERY expensive if we get it done without having the referral already in hand. We're considering taking the cast off ourselves. Don't laugh! It's stinky, and it's already been on a week longer than it should have been! We won't be home until middle of next week, so it will be awhile until we can get back to Bethesda. We might stick him in the bathtub and see what happens . . .

Whatever we decide, we are still going to try to make it to Yellowstone this evening. When we leave my aunt's house, we'll be out of computer contact for awhile. After Yellowstone, we are heading over to Mt. Rushmore, and then we'll eventually make our way back to Amy's house for 2 days, and then on home. And on the way to Amy's we will try to pick up the PSP from Golden Corral, that is, if we can find it again, and if they kept it for us, like they said they would!

**Update** After long conversations with both Tricare and Jonathan's PCM doctor at Bethesda, she authorized him to go to the emergency room to have the cast off, since it was way past time. They did x-rays there and discovered that only one of the bones in his lower arm is fully healed, so they are going to put on a new cast. The old cast was so loose, and Jonathan got his arm caught in the screen door a few days ago, which caused him a lot of pain. That might have been enough to jar something loose. The new cast should fit better for now, so hopefully that will do the trick. I told Bob to at least wash his hand before they put the new cast on! Jonathan was in a lot of pain once they cut the old cast off, so hopefully they won't make him wait too long. It's now after 3:00 local. I'm not sure when we'll get to Yellowstone, if at all today.

Vacation Update

Other than dealing with Anna and her fears, we've been having a wonderful time out in Utah. We sadly said goodbye to Dan, Melinda, and Emily on Wednesday. Anna spent the next day saying, "Mem-ly?" in a concerned voice. The 3 girls were just so cute playing together. They are all so close in age, and I can see them when they're a little older getting into all sorts of mischief together!

Before Dan and his family left, we were able to spend the day sight-seeing and having fun together on Tuesday. First we drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon, which was beautiful--still lots of snow at the ski resorts up there! We had a picnic lunch on the way back down.

Then it was off to Antelope Island, in the Great Salt Lake. We drove to the day use area, where you can go right up to the edge of the lake. This was not such a popular choice, especially with Emily and Anna. Emily did NOT like being in the backpack, and she voiced this dislike very clearly and consistently the entire time we were out there. Anna didn't like . . . well, who really knows. The sand? The smell? The barrenness? She was a grump too, so we had quite the chorus of woe following us around, LOL.

Back here at Aunt Claire and Uncle Jim's house, the boys have been having a bit of a sports camp. First, Bob found some lacrosse sticks at WalMart, so he bought 3 sets of them (6 total). The boys have really improved their lacrosse techniques over the past week!

Next, Aunt Claire and Uncle Jim brought out the 5-in-1 big bag o' lawn games, of which badminton and horseshoes have proved the most popular. Side note--I am miserable at badminton. I took that as my gym required class in college, and it is about the only class where I seriously feared I would not make an A. I escaped with an A-, but I am very thrilled that my boys will not have that source of stress at college, LOL. They are doing quite well at serving the little birdie, which was always my bugaboo.

Then yesterday we went fishing up in the mountains a little south of here. It's a beautiful lake, and it was so relaxing. Only Uncle Jim actually caught a fish, but that didn't seem to matter. The boys were having such a good time that I loaded the girls' carseats into Aunt Claire's car so we could come back, while the "menfolk" stayed on even longer. All the boys came away with vastly improved casting techniques.

Today it was miniature golfing. This was another men-only outing, with Bob, the boys, Uncle Jim, and Grandpa. Great fun was had by all.

The only fly in the ointment has been some mysterious stomach bug that's going around. Grace and Emily were sick over the weekend and through Tuesday. Then Dan and Melinda got sick as well. Grandma and Grandpa were the next to go down, but with everyone except Grandma, it's been over in a day or 2. She has been sick for a few days now, and nothing really is staying down. We're all praying she'll be able to fight this bug off so she doesn't get dehydrated. They're supposed to start driving back to Ohio next Wednesday, and I think it will take that long for her to regain her strength back, with how sick she's been.

We will be taking off from here on Monday, on to Yellowstone. I'll try to post again before we leave!

Anna--World-Class Fraidy Cat

So, what do you do with a child who is terrified of many things, to the point of being absolutely hysterical? That is what we are dealing with in Anna. She began by being afraid of the vacuum cleaner, and then of Muslim women who cover. It progressed to dogs, cats (well, pretty much any animal), people in costumes (especially the Chick-Fil-A cow mascot), people with weird hats or helmets, and, just this evening, plastic fish in the bathtub. Sigh. It is truly ridiculous. And she's not just a little bit scared. She shakes, freezes in terror, leaps across tables into a lap, etc., all while crying hysterically.

Let me tell you the golden Corral story I alluded to a few posts ago. On our drive west, we decided to stop at a Golden Corral for dinner somewhere in Iowa off of I-80. When we got there, the cashier told us it was kids' night--face-painting, a clown with balloon animals, and a drawing for a free PSP (some play station thing). We said great and sat down in the section right next to the cashier line without thinking much of it all. After we had all gotten our food (no small feat in a buffet) and settled down to eat, the clown walked in. He only had his face painted, and he was wearing a red propeller beanie--no crazy baggy pants, red nose, or big shoes. Anna. went. HYSTERICAL. She shrieked hysterically, leaped into my lap, and clutched at me for dear life pretty much the rest of the evening. The clown was held hostage in the other side of the restaurant because he couldn't even walk past without Anna freaking out. She hardly ate another bite because she was focused on keeping him in her sights the entire time. It was miserable, and I was trying to get us all out of there as quickly as possible, because I realized we were keeping the clown from the other half of the restaurant.

I went up to get dessert for the little boys, and lo and behold, the clown was standing there talking to the manager right beside the dessert line. "I can't even GO to the other side because that KID goes hysterical," he said. I immediately apologized profusely and said we were trying to hurry and get out of there. He began a long dissertation on his theory on why some kids are scared of clowns. "It's all a control issue. You probably forced her to go near a clown sometime, so she wasn't in control of the situation . . ."

No. We have NEVER forced her to go near a dog, or a clown, or even the vacuum cleaner. We told her how silly she was being, and we told her she couldn't be so loud, but we are definitely not the kind of people who force their kids to do things like go up to clowns! I am not even personally so fond of clowns! Good grief. I told the clown this, but you could tell he wasn't convinced. We continued talking, and somehow I told him that we were military, on a cross-country trip (I never say we're going to Utah, though, because then people thing we're Momon, LOL), so it was just a coincidence that we were even there at all that particular night, etc. He warmed up a bit and told about his military father and their cross-country trips, and I felt like he at least thought we weren't abusive parents anymore. As I turned back to the dessert line, his parting words were "You want to know my original theory? Weinie kids have weinie parents."

Well. So. Yeah. Nothing to say to that. I hurried back to the table and got us out of there as quickly as possible, feeling about as humiliated as possible.

The real kicker is that 3 days later, on Friday, I received a phone call from Iowa as I was waiting to get a pedicure/manicure with my sister-in-law Melinda. It was Golden Corral, telling me that Caleb had won the PSP. Huh. I'm not real eager to go back, frankly. I guess we'll see if we can even find it again. We should be driving back through there the morning of Saturday, June 7.

So, any ideas? I really don't know how to handle this. It is not okay for Anna to be petrified of a zillion little things, and it seems like there are new things all the time (such as the bath toys tonight). It is incredibly frustrating.

A Spectacular Wedding

Sunday afternoon was the wedding for my cousin "Pilot" and his bride Sarah. It was as spectacular as I had imagined it would be, and it went off without a hitch!! Yes, this even means that Anna was cooperative! I will admit that I figured out the secret--M&Ms, and plenty of them. I bribed her, and she was quite happy to hold Caleb's hand, carry the basket of petals, and walk all the way down the 2 parts of the staircase and the long aisle to Daddy. Whew!

There is a lot more to say about the wedding, but we're about to play a game of Balderdash. What I really want to do is show you pictures, because you really won't believe how grand this wedding really was without seeing it. My Aunt Claire (Pilot's mom) has posted a ton of good pictures at her blog, so you really need to head over to her blog and check them out.

We made it!!

We're here in Utah! We made it safely Thursday in time for dinner, after 4 days of driving. We left Monday and drove to Amy's house in Ohio. We ate a quick dinner at Youngs, and then we went to Zachary's baseball game, in time to see him make a spectacular double play on first base! We were not expecting it to be freezing cold in Ohio, but it was about 50 degrees and drizzling, so at Youngs I had to dig around in the back for our cold-weather clothes--the ones I thought we would only be needing POSSIBLY at Yellowstone. Ha! We wore our jeans and sweatshirts every day except one! It's supposed to warm up here over the weekend. Yay!

The driving went well. Halfway through, we switched Anna and Grace around, so Anna sat in the middle row, and Grace sat in the back. Anna had become very loud and insistent, so Bob and I thought she needed more feedback from an adult, LOL. That helped, so the cofiguration has remianed. The boys took turns switching around too, so everyone got to mix it up a bit. We listened to A Long Way From Chicago, Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, and half of All Creatures Great and Small. They made the miles fly, as usual. I must say that listening is the way to go for James Herriot's books. I simply can not do the Yorkshire accent justice, either out loud or in my head!

We had one interesting time, thanks to Anna, at a Golden Corral, but that will be its own post when I have more time. The only other excitement was at the hotel in Cheyenne, WY, on Wednesday night, where Bob realized he was not wearing his wedding ring. A frantic search ensued, but we couldn't find it, and we couldn't even figure out when he had lost it. We decided we'd look in the car in the morning, but we both went to bed a bit sick to our stomachs, praying mightily. The enxt day, Bob searched the car but didn't find anything. Then, as I was packing up one of our pack-n-plays, it fell out on the floor! We're not sure how it happened, but we were all dancing around happily, thanking the Lord!

Now we're deep into final wedding preparations. This afternoon Sarah took Anna, Caleb, Jonathan, and me to the wedding site, so the kids could get a feel for where they'll be walking. James and Sarah are getting married in the rotunda at the Utah state capitol building, and it is going to be STUNNING. Oh, it is just going to be beautiful! I was so excited after seeing it all! The kids practiced, which was a good thing, so now I am just praying that Anna is cooperative here, and doesn't throw a temper tantrum and refuse to walk.

I did 3 loads of laundry last night and this morning, so now I have a good bit of folding in front of me. It's so fun to be here with family!!

One Wedding Down . . .

This afternoon, Bob's niece Christi got married down in Richmond. It was a lovely ceremony, although the weather did not cooperate. It was supposed to be outside, but it rained all day, so everything was moved inside.

I was a little worried about how Anna would do, seeing as how 3:00 is her naptime, and she's not in a particularly cooperative stage of life ("2"). She and Angelo, the little ring bearer, both balked once they saw all the people, but they both ended up going down the aisle and looking cute. She even stood next to the bridesmaids for awhile, which I didn't think she'd do.

As you can tell, the dress I found matched the bridemaids' dress PERFECTLY. I was so thrilled! Everyone thought she looked so pretty and told her so, so I'm sure she thinks she's a real princess now, LOL. She will be expecting the same attention, and no less, next weekend at my cousin's wedding!
Tomorrow morning we leave to start out big drive west. We will stay the night with Amy in Ohio tomorrow (yay!), and then we should eventually make our way to Salt Lake City on Thursday, in time for my cousin's birthday dinner! I still have some packing to do, so I am signing off . . . probably for awhile. When we get back, I'll be sure to post pictures of all our adventures, both with family, and also at Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore!

Where we're at . . .

Schooling: We're done for the next little while, which means until mid-June, when we get back from the big trip.

Caleb finished his phonics book awhile ago and moved into the first grade one, and he just finished his math book and moved into Saxon 2. Jonathan is working through his phonics book and is thrilled to be doing "real" math now!

Luke is a few lessons away from finishing Saxon 5/4, and then he'll move up to 6/5. Nathan has about 30 lessons left in 7/6, and then . . . I'm not totally sure if I'll just jump into Algebra 1/2 or have him do 8/7 first. Something to worry about when we get back, though.

He and Nathan both have about 35 lessons left in Rod and Staff (3 for Luke and 5 for Nathan). We didn't start R&S until late October I believe, since it took us longer than I thought to finish up Easy Grammar after Grace came.

We are on lesson 17 in Latina Christiana II. We've been taking this slowly, and we haven't actually done many new lessons since we left for Ohio. I felt like it was more important to really review the vocab, since there were so many new verbs lately. The last few lessons covered the principal parts of 4 conjugations of verbs, and it was all just a lot. We'll probably review more for the first week or 2 after we get back.

We haven't gone too far in history this year--we're only on chapter 14 of Story of the World 4. We'll do more of that this summer. We're moving into World War I, and I must say it's absolutely fascinating. I really never understood that war and what led up to it and drove it. We have been doing lots of outside history reading.

For science, we've been learning about atomic structure, chemical compounds, and so on. I love chemistry, so it's been fun to help the boys learn about this stuff. We'll definitely do more with some other books in this area this summer.

Packing: I've started all the laundry, and tonight I'll begin laying out the piles of everyone's clothes. The piles line the upstairs hallway! I've got plenty of lists, and I'm always adding stuff. Today we picked up the books on CD that I reserved from the library, and I put those, as well as the ones we have here, in the car. Our listening choices for this long trip include:
--All Creatures Great and Small
--Charlotte's Web
--Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang
--All the Way From Chicago
--The Long Winter
--Tale of Despereaux
--Galileo and the Stargazers (Jim Weiss)
--"Your Story Hour" CD on Louis Pasteur
--FOTF Chronicles of Narnia

We're getting excited! Less than a week until we leave!

A Mother's Day Questionnaire

Someone on the Well-Trained Mind board posted this questionnaire that their preschooler had brought home. I asked these questions to Caleb and Jonathan, although sometimes only one answered, and sometimes they both said the same thing.

1. What is your mom's favorite song? J--the pilates song

2. How old is your mom? J- 10 C- 46

3. What is your mom's favorite food? J- the stuff we had for dinner [broccoli chicken casserole] C- cake

4. What does your daddy call your mom? J- Baby C- Claire

5. What does your mom call your dad? J- Bob

6. What is your mom's favorite color? J- blue

7. Why does your mommy love you so much? J- ‘cause God told her to C- because I came out of her tummy

8. What is your favorite thing to do with your mom? J- huggle-snuggle and kiss her

9. What makes your mom so pretty? J- pretty clothes C- pretty hair

10. How does your mommy make you feel better when you are sick? C & J-- she gives you medicine

11. What TV show does your mom like best? J- pilates

12. When are you the most proud of your mom? J & C-- now

13. What does your mom do best? J- not be fat C- help us

14. Where does your mom work? C & J- At home

15. How do you show your mom that you love her? C & J- Hug and kiss her

This made me laugh. Jonathan is obviously on a fitness kick--"the pilates song"--LOL!! I need to do a better job of communicating my food loves ("chocolate") because cake certainly isn't it, and neither is broccoli chicken casserole! And for the record, Bob has NEVER called me "Baby". LOL!! I don't know where Jonathan got that!

All Hail the Conquering Hero!!!

In this case, my brother Dan, who came up with an incredibly easy solution for our crazy printer problems. We spent over an hour of frustrating time on the phone last Saturday trying a variety of different things, with no success. He had to dig deeper, so he emailed me a list of new things to try. Johanna also came up with a potential solution, but I decided to work down Dan's list first, since his items seemed less complicated and drastic. The second one worked. Here's the golden sequence:

1. Click on "tools", then "internet options"

2. Click the "advanced tab", and then click on "security"

3. Tick "let active content run on my computer"

4. Restart Windows

And it worked!! I was so incredibly excited. I printed off one of my new reservation confirmations, and it was so beautiful to see actual recognizable words there, and only one page, instead of 50 pages of gibberish! Wow! I am so thankful to have personal tech support like Dan (and Johanna!). I would have gone broke before someone at Microsoft would have hit on that, I'm sure. And since I didn't have to reset IE, all my cookies, etc. are still there. Yay! I'm big on no inconvenience, LOL. Thanks, Dan! You're the best brother ever!

Big Truck Day

The Department of Public Works for a nearby city opens some of their big equipment to the public each year. They display trucks and other earth-moving type vehicles in their parking lot, and kids can climb on them and get in the cabs, honk the horns, etc. Although it was rainy, it was still a lot of fun.


We went with the McC family, who also had one tag-along boy from our homeschool co-op (his mom was the head tester). So . . . 9 boys, 2 girls, and 2 moms. We were not the popular people to be behind in line.
Climbing all over a front loader.


Nine boys in the cab of a "leveler".


Nathan is on . . . something.


Luke and Jonathan on a bobcat.

Anna loved driving the street sweeper. She did not want a yellow plastic hard hat, however.


Gracie loved eating the free cookies they provided. She did not want to keep her hood on, even though it was raining.

Update on Jonathan

Yesterday Bob took Jonathan back to Bethesda to get his permanent cast. As you can see, he was able to get the camouflage wrap he was hoping for, and everyone who sees it agrees that it is indeed a very cool cast. And you can also see that his cast is not hindering his light-saber fighting techniques (whew!). The doctor said everything is healing fine, and he doesn't need to wear his sling as much. The doctor said the cast could come off in 3 weeks, which is when we'll be in Utah. He said we could try to get it off at the base there, but he "wouldn't get involved with someone else's work". So we might have to wait until we get home. The nice thing about getting it off would be that Jonathan could swim in the hotel pools on the way back. Bob might try to get the doctor to write a letter or something telling the docs at Hill what he did and that it should be okay to remove after May 27. We'll see.

Since this is an updating post, in other news, Bob's TDY did get cancelled today. I was disappointed, but it is certainly better to find out now than, say, the Monday we started driving. So now we're trying to rework how we'll get out to Utah, probably taking 4 days instead of 3. More reservations, which still can not be printed. Grrrrrr.

More Testing . . . Issues

So today should have been the last day of testing for everyone. It started off on the wrong foot back last week, actually, when the lady in charge of testing told us that another group had sort of bumped us out of the rooms that we were signed up to use at the church. Our co-op meets at this church on Tuesday through the year, and then the testing person reserves the facilities a year in advance for the 3 days of testing. Except this year some other group that has been around longer planned something for today, but didn't check to see if the rooms were already scheduled. When they found out they were, they basically went to the top of the chain of command, and Leisa, our testing lady, felt she had to give in. So we were all supposed to be at a different site today, the site that the high school co-op uses, but which we had never been to. But we found it with no problems, so everything was fine.

I dropped Nathan and Luke off at 9:15, and then the rest of us went to Target. As I walked in the door, my cell rang. It was the lady who was testing Luke. Somehow, his test booklet had fallen out of her folder or something--anyways, it wasn't there, and she lives the farthest away of anyone in TNT, so she couldn't go back home and look for it. So Luke wasn't testing, and could I come pick him up. And yes, he was upset.

Well, I felt so bad, but of course not as bad as she felt. She was so apologetic. Unfortunately, Luke is the worst one to have something like this happen. He doesn't do well with changes, he hates being singled out and embarrassed, and this pretty much hit both of those things full on. Nathan is much better at just rolling with the punches. So, umm, which one is like me? LOL

So we went back and picked him up, and he was indeed a silent puddle of tears. I told him how this was just a good opportunity to practice grace. People let us down all through life, either intentionally or unintentionally, as in this case, and we still have to respond with forgiveness and grace, even though it's hard. He said he was just ready to be done with testing, and he didn't WANT to go another day. Poor guy.

Assuming the lady can find the test booklet (pray pray pray), then he will go tomorrow to the house of the head tester to finish up. As it turns out, Caleb McC is doing an extra test, and Leisa is administering that tomorrow, so Luke will just join up with him. That made Luke feel a lot better, knowing one of his best friends would be there as well. In fact, Christine is going to pick Luke up and take him, so I don't have to rouse the girls early for another day in a row! After the testing is done for both boys, our 2 families are going to go to a "big truck day" in a local city, where all the big city equipment will be out for kids to explore. Should be fun!

Testing

Nathan and Luke have their standardized testing today, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I always get all nervous about it, but they are very blase about the whole thing. No test anxiety here, LOL.

After testing was over today, the kids were playing a ball game, and groups of moms and other kids were just standing around talking. A baby bird, I don't know exactly what happened, but somehow came out of the nest and was flying really low by the sidewalk where some little kids were playing. The bird was kind of fluttering and skipping around, obviously not too strong, and then one of the kids STARTED STEPPING ON IT AND SQUASHED IT! I was horrified and started yelling at him--"WHAT ARE YOU DOING STOP THIS INSTANT NO NO NO!"-- since I seemed to be the only mom that had seen what had happened, although a lot of the older kids had seen. I was so shocked! A whole bunch of kids gathered around the poor bird, who fortunately died a quick death, and I got the mom's attention and told her what had happened. Of course, she was absolutely horrified and mortified, and she marched her son right out of there. This family goes to the church we used to go to, and I know they are not advocating random acts of senseless violence against baby animals at their house, LOL, so I know she was as shocked as I was, and I'm sure she and her husband will train their son (who is only 3, but is very big for his age) appropriately, but it was still so horrible!

My boys were just blown away and couldn't believe anyone wouldn't just love and protect a baby. I told them that to a 3-year-old, maybe he just thought it looked like a big bug or something, and we smoosh those. We left the church and went out to eat at Moe's with Daddy, but it still bothered especially Luke. He asked the other boys to stop talking about the baby bird, and even after we got home, he came to me and told me how he just couldn't stop thinking about it. He is definitely my most sensitive child. He was also the most deeply affected by Jonathan's broken arm. Sensitive, detailed--maybe he'll be a doctor! LOL At church, our pastor has just started going through the book of Luke, and as an intro to the first in the series, he talked about the characteristics of Luke as we get them from the Bible. Bob and I looked at each other and both thought, "We named Luke well", because he exhibits many of the characteristics Mike mentioned.

Anyhow, quite the ending for that first testing day. Hopefully tomorrow will be less traumatic.

Am I Losing My Mind?!!

So all of a sudden all these things are breaking or not working right--Jonathan's arm, the printers, our AC unit. Now we've started losing things. The first thing that has vanished was a Sports Illustrated For Kids magazine that Nathan got out of the library. We all remember it being on the couch, and now it's just gone. We have thoroughly searched the whole house to no avail. I think that it must have gotten gathered up with newspapers and recycled or something, because it simply is no where. Oh well. I guess we'll have to pay.

The next thing to disappear was Jonathan's sling. This has about driven me to the looney bin. Wednesday night, he took it off to put on his pajamas. I clearly remember it being on the kitchen floor by the island, and Grace playing with it. The next morning Joanthan went to put it on . . . and we can't find it anywhere. I have looked in all the drawers and cabinets, of course, thinking that a curious little girl might have hidden it somewhere. We've looked all over the rest of the house. It. Is. Not. There. I'm beginning to regret the fact that I'm not Irish, where at least I could blame the leprechauns or something. I literally can not think of another place to look. We've ALL looked. Believe me, we have spent many productive manhours serching for this sling. After all, he just had it on Wednesday--how far could it have gotten?! Grrrrr. Hopefully he's not doing any damage to his arm, as he waves it around in the air. He was doing so well with wearing it. I will confess that I did think that maybe he hid it, but he says he doesn't know where it is, and I really don't think he's lying. He's been concerned about the fact that we can't find it too, and he's really not the sneaky kind.

So . . . maybe I'm living in some sort of alternate crazy reality, where things walk off by themselves break randomly. That's what I'm hoping for anyways, LOL.

**Update** I came back downstairs after putting Anna down, and Caleb and Jonathan were tearing around down here. I told them to stop, since we didn't want Joanthan to hurt his arm, and we already lost his sling. Jonathan disappeared upstairs and came down a few miutes later with . . . his sling. Hmmm. I asked him where he had found it, and he showed me. It was between his dresser and his yaffa blocks, these cube-like stacking blocks that we keep some of their clothes in. It must have fallen there after he put the sling on his dresser Wednesday night (which I don't remember him doing, and he never mentioned while we were all looking yesterday). The timing is a bit . . . suspicious, shall we say. But I am very relieved to have found it. And he is wearing it again. Maybe the new rule is that it goes on MOM's dresser at night, LOL. I still FEEL crazy anyway.

Happy First Birthday, Grace!!!

Grace turned one today! Bob took the day off, so he got to spend lots of time with his little princess! We went to Chik-Fil-A for dinner, and we had cake when we got back home. You may notice there is no picture of the cake. That's because she got a big pink rectangle cake, LOL. I did write "Happy Birthday Grace and Daddy" on it, but that was about all the extra frills. I felt guilty about that for . . . a few minutes, but then I remembered that she would not remember this birthday, and I got over it. She didn't mind the lack of a uniquely shaped cake, and she thoroughly enjoyed what she got!

She's been taking more and more steps, which is so fun to watch. Her other big birthday accomplishment was climbing the stool in the kitchen for the first time. You can see how excited she was about that! Power to the little people!
Grace has been so much fun to have in our family. She was such a surprise, coming so close to Anna, but I can't imagine not having her now. She and Anna are already such good friends, and the boys just love her to pieces. She adds a lot of light to our lives!