More Waiting

So we got up fairly leisurely Monday morning (Feb. 4), since showtime wasn't until 12:20.  We ate the nutrigrain bars and the last sausage bisquick muffins for breakfast.  Bob had found out about a guy, "Duke", who you can call, and he will take you and your stuff over to the terminal for tips.  Bob called him, and he took everyone except Luke, Nathan, and I, along with all our stuff, over to the terminal.  Win!  The boys and I had a lovely walk, because the weather was gorgeous.  It felt good to stretch our legs!  Bob and I had actually walked over an hour earlier to make sure we were signed in and marked "present" for the roll call, so I definitely got my legs nice and stretched out that day!

Showtime came (and we were startled to find out our names were not marked present--weird, but they took care of it).  There were 65 seats, and we easily made it onto the manifest.  As Bob was checking our baggage, he heard some of the airmen talking about how the flight was going to be delayed.  Uh-oh--that sounded familiar!  Sure enough, a few minutes later came the official announcement--the crew was on crew rest, and the new showtime was 6:00 Tuesday morning.  Seriously?!?  At least we were already on the flight.  Sigh.

So we called lodging to reserve another TLF for the night, and we rented a vehicle from the Enterprise on base.  The only car they had was an 8 seater Suburban.  Ummm . . . that didn't work too well.  We squished all our stuff and all of us in (Bob and me in front, 4 in the middle seats, and 5 in the back--just slightly illegal, LOL, and there was much complaining, especially from the back row), and we drove off-base to another Enterprise that actually had a 15 passenger van.  This took approximately forever, as they decided they needed to do a thorough cleaning of the vehicle before they could possibly rent it to us.  Ummm . . . did you notice that we are a family with 9 kids?  We don't need a white-glove clean vehicle!  But finally they decided it was good enough for us, and we switched all our luggage and car seats over.

We wanted to visit the Jelly Belly Factory, since we had good memories of visiting that, the last time when we came out for my brother's wedding in April 2004.  Caleb was 2 and had a big ear infection, and Jonathan was almost 1, so only Nathan and Luke remembered it, of the kids.  But the last tour started at 4:00, and now it was close to 3:30, since getting the van took so long!  Fortunately the factory is really close to Travis--only 10 minutes away or so, so we made it there at 3:40, in plenty of time for the last tour.  Even plenty of time to stand in line and get lots of free samples!  The kids could have stayed there forever!

So we had a fun tour (except for Drew, who just wanted to run the opposite way of everyone else, and who was generally just uncooperative).  He napped when we got back in the car, and we managed to find a Chevy's restaurant to eat at for dinner, which was really, really yummy.  We don't have those anymore in VA, so it was a special treat!

We made a quick stop at a grocery store to buy some stuff for breakfast the next morning, and then it was off to bed, since we needed to be over at the terminal at 5:00 AM Tuesday morning.  It was a lot easier to get over there with our own van!  There was another roll call, we checked our bags again, and then we waited around until they called us to go through security.  Drew was *very* tired and crabby, but I kept not wanting to put him down because I was sure they were going to call us.  Finally I laid him down in the crib in the family area, and sure enough, about 15 minutes later they called us.  Sigh.  We got through security, but not without Micah pitching a huge tantrum because HE wanted to lift his (too heavy for him) backpack onto the scanning conveyor belt.  Ahh, embarrassing.  I am thankful that this was really his only big tantrum, and I am very thankful we didn't attempt this trip a few months ago, when he was in the depths of his worst "terrible twos", when every.single. thing. was tantrum worthy!

Finally, we got on the plane a little after 8:00.  This aircraft was a C-5, which is a humongous cargo plane that is anciently old.  We used to space-a on these back when I was in elementary school!  There is a huge cargo hold, but the passengers sit in a little cabin above the cargo hold.  You go up a really tall set of stairs to get to a little door, and when you're on the top of the steps, you can see over the airplane; that's how high up you are!

There are actual (really old) airline-type seats, although with no trays or anything, and the seats face the rear of the aircraft, so that is kind of weird.  They did have these little foot rest things you could pull out, though.  And the rows were a lot further apart than on commercial flights, so there was plenty of leg room!  What there is not, however, is windows. So you are sort of in this dark cave-like cabin.  Hey-it's free!

We did not think through the seating options.  The 3 girls sat on one side of the aisle (and none of them could reach their backpacks, get their own earplugs in, open their snacks, etc), and Bob sat in front of them with Caleb and Jonathan (who needed no help at all).  Nathan, Luke, and some other guy sat in front of me, and I sat in between Micah and Drew, both of whom were incredibly needy, and I had to be like an octopus, trying to keep in their earplugs!  I did have the bright idea of cutting each earplug in half the long way, so the earplugs were skinnier.  This helped a tiny bit, as far as getting them in, but whenever Drew was awake, he kept trying to brush them out, succeeding fairly regularly.

The 3 girls were exhausted from all our early mornings, and they fell asleep quickly.

Drew fell asleep pretty much as soon as we took off, thankfully.  Micah help out for a long time, so he fell alseep right about the same time that Drew woke up.  Sigh.  Micah is the blue ghost in the picture above--that was how he slept!

The flight was about 6 1/2 hours long, so we finally landed in Hawaii around 2:00 local time.  That meant we had already missed all of Rivendell, so we stopped at the BX food court to eat lunch, and so we could buy diapers and wipes at the BX.  I had packed what I thought was a generous amount of diapers, both in the diaper bag and in the suitcases, but we only had 1 Drew diaper left by the time we got to Hawaii, thanks to the long trip!  We also bought a new GPS.  We brought one, but it was pretty old, and it turned out that it didn't work in Hawaii, so it was not really very helpful, LOL.

It was raining when we got off the airplane, but it was so warm!  And tropical-looking!  We were so excited to actually BE in Hawaii!  After 3 days of travel, terminals, and TLFs, we were beginning to think we were never actually going to get there!

A Flight Out--Finally!

Two weekends ago we decided to try one more time to get out.  There was a flight to Travis with 53 tentative seats (sound familiar?!) and a showtime of 9:10 Sunday morning (Feb. 2).  This time we decided not to get up really early and drive.  Instead, we drove to Dover Saturday night and spent the night in a lovely TLF (temporary living facility) with 2 bedrooms.

We got to the terminal around 8:00 after eating poptarts and these bisquick sausage muffins that Cindy, a facebook friend of mine, had posted the recipe for a few days earlier.  They were so easy and pretty filling, and I doubled the recipe so it made 24 muffins.  We signed in and waited for roll call.

Roll call commenced, and we easily made it onto the flight.  We checked our baggage (3 small suitcases, 1 medium suitcase, 2 car seats, 2 boosters together in a big trash bag, and an umbrella stroller), then happily sat down to wait for them to call our flight.  But about 20 minutes later, they announced that the flight was being delayed for 15 hours, because the crew needed to go on crew rest.  Ummmm . . . wouldn't they know that as they were flying in?  We still aren't sure why that announcement is a sudden thing, but there it was.  The new roll call time was 1:40 Monday morning.

So we spent a day at the Dover terminal.  We played on the playground outside.  We drove over to the Delaware Bay.  We played in the lovely family room, and watched some videos.  We went to Boston Market for lunch, and Bob and Luke went to Burger King and grabbed stuff for dinner.  The boys watched the Super Bowl in the USO lounge.  I won't lie--it was a very long day, and Drew and Micah really needed naps, although overall they did pretty well.  Eventually I laid Drew down for a nap in a crib in another part of the family room, and he slept soundly for a couple of hours.

The monotony was broken by another flight to Dover, with a showtime of 7:00.  We decided to take our names off the manifest for the 0140 flight, and get seats on that flight when the airman told Bob that there were still plenty of seats left after the official roll call.  We were worried, though, that this crew would also need to go on crew rest because the trick is, they don't usually do the roll call after the plane has landed at the base.  It is usually still flying in.  The plane didn't land until after 8:30, but amazingly the crew did NOT need to go on crew rest, so we eventually went through security, waited in another part of the terminal, boarded a bus that took us out to the airplane on the flight line, and then boarded the C-17.  We finally took off a little before 10:00 PM.

The C-17 is a cavernous airplane, with tons of room in the center for cargo, and jump seats that pull down from the walls, lining the walls.  The 4 older boys had to sit on one side of the plane, and the rest of us on the other.  I remember hopping around the Pacific when I was a girl and we were stationed in Okinawa.  We would ride on C-130s or C-141s, and those jumpseats were these uncomfortable mesh things, sort of like lawn chair webbing maybe.  These jumpseats were MUCH nicer--they had nice back and head support, and they were actually quite comfortable!

You have to wear ear plugs because the cabin isn't noise-proofed, like a commercial jet, and it is really loud.  I could not keep earplugs (or earbuds) in either Micah or Drew's ears, so eventually I gave up and just prayed the flight would not do permanent damage.

After we reached our cruising altitude, we were able to get out of our seats and spread out.  First we ate a little picnic dinner.  We had bought 7 box lunches when we checked our baggage, and we picked them up after we went through security.  Each one was $4.60, and it included 2 sandwiches (either turkey, ham, or peanut butter and jelly), a bag of chips, a nutrigrain bar, a candy bar or bag of M&Ms, a can of pop, and a bottle of water.  Seven of these were plenty for all of us, with food left over!

There were blankets and pillows shrink-wrapped together in the neat little cylindrical packages, and everyone immediately started grabbing those and making pallets on the floor.  We followed suit, and eventually everyone was fast asleep in pretty much the entire plane.  We had brought 2 sleeping bags (the kind that stuff into sacks that are really lightweight and small), so we laid those out to make cushions for the kids.  Some people laid across the jumpseats.  They turned the lights down, and it was really peaceful!  Micah and Drew struggled to fall asleep.  Micah was really tired, but he just wanted to walk around.  Drew was not all that tired, since he had at least had a good nap, but when he tried to walk around, he would fall in the little divots where there were giant hooks to hold cargo down.  Eventually we put him back in his carseat, and since the plane was so loud, no one could hear him cry, LOL.  He did go off to sleep finally.

When we started our descent to Travis, they turned the lights back on, and we all hustled around, folding blankets and putting everything back under our seats.  We were groggy because it was about 4:00 in the morning, eastern time, but at least we got some sleep!  It was only 1:00 CA time.  We got our luggage, and then we made a forced march over to the lodging office, and then on to the TLFs.  There was quite a bit of complaining from the younger set!  It was about a mile to our TLF, which was another really nice suite with 2 bedrooms.  We crashed into beds, once we got the pack-n-play set up, the sofa bed made up, and a little bed made for Micah on the pillows from the sofa bed.  The TLF had a room with a queen bed (and we put the pack-n-play for Drew in there with us), a room with 2 doubles (the 3 girls slept on one, and Caleb and Jonathan on the other, and Micah's cushion bed was in the corner), and then the living room had the sofa bed.  We were so tired--we all went right to sleep, and we were glad we didn't have to be over at the terminal Monday morning until 11:20, so we could sleep in!

Early Birthday Surprise

So last Friday, I was contemplating how tired I had been lately.  I was the one who drove back from USNA, and while it wasn't anywhere as bad as coming back from McGuire, I still had a very hard time staying awake and alert.  I realized that I was over a week late (not that I've ever been extremely regular, however), and I needed to go to Sams to get more milk and fruit, so I stopped by Walmart and picked up a pregnancy test, which I took as soon as I got home.  It was quite positive, which immediately explained all the extreme fatigue, but I was still quite surprised.  Last month I had all those cases of weird forgetfulness, so I would have not been as shocked.  This month?  Nothing at all.  (ETA:  That's not totally true--I just remembered the embarrassing case of me totally forgetting that I signed Nathan up to help with the monthly food pantry distribution. I did not remember a thing about it until a week after the actual event, even though I did write it on the calendar.  Oops!!)  Plus, I've been going to bed very late, and Bob's been going to bed very early, so it hasn't exactly been a month full of romance, LOL.  Also, since I wasn't pregnant when Drew turned one, I think I just figured it wasn't going to happen anymore.  I remember one of my co-op friends (who has 8 kids herself) telling me, "Once I turned 40, my body just shut down", so perhaps I was subconsciously thinking that was what would happen to me, LOL.

And I will admit that I had gotten comfortable with the idea that we could be done!  I told the boys that if we didn't have any more babies, we could get rid of all the baby stuff in the basement storage room, like the swing, exersaucer, bouncy seat, etc.  Those things take up a ton of room! Plus, I have tubs upon tubs of clothes in all sizes for both girls and boys.  I was looking forward to thinning the tubs out too, but now that will have to wait!  The kids are all quite excited, and they are hoping for a girl, as then we would have the cool pyramid pattern of "4 boys, 3 girls, 2 boys, 1 girl".  We shall see.  Other than being tired, I have had no other symptoms whatsoever, and with the 3 girls, it seems like I was a little more nauseous than with the boys.  Since I'm not nauseous at all, that makes me doubtful this is a girl!

So I guess we will fill up the big van after all, and we'll squeeze in one more baby before Nathan heads off to college!  I'm due the end of September, so we'll be dealing with college application stuff AND newborn stuff.  Whee!!  On the plus side, this baby will break our long birthday drought between Nathan's birthday on June 24, and Caleb's birthday on Nov. 5.  We needed a summer or fall baby!

Another Early Morning Adventure

So last Thursday, we had ANOTHER morning adventure!  This time there was a C-17 flying out of Dover AFB to Travis with 53 "firm" seats and a showtime of noon.  So we got up and left our house at 7:45, getting to Dover in plenty of time.  We walked in the terminal and headed straight to the bathroom, since Faith was desperate to go.  On our way, we saw the same retired couple we had met up at McGuire, the ones who drove up from Charleston.  I was glad to see her--until she passed on the sad  news that they had just announced that the flight was actually only releasing 19 seats.  What?!?  What happened to "firm"??  Alas, that is the way of space-a.  Another wasted trip!  We ate the sandwiches we had packed, and then we packed all our stuff back into the van.  We were becoming experts at unloading and reloading!

So we headed back home, and I will say this trip was a lot more discouraging.  We really thought we would get out!  But we didn't want the whole day to go to waste, so we stopped by the Naval Academy on the way home.  What a beautiful campus!  I've never walked around there, and we all really enjoyed seeing it.

Here we are in front of the chapel.  It is beautiful inside, with the light coming in from the huge dome on top (that you can't see from this side).

Picture with the goat.  The day wasn't anywhere near as cold as it had been on our fruitless jaunt to McGuire, but it was still pretty chilly, especially with the wind!  We were waiting for Bob to get the van, and we were all freezing!

Jonathan makes a great John Paul Jones, doesn't he?  We didn't spend a ton of time in the actual visitors center, but we did see quite an interesting display on ship medical care a long time ago, including a gruesome drawing illustrating how to amputate a limb, along with the actual amputating saws.  Wow!  Blech.

Nathan was pretty impressed with the place!  He said he could totally see himself going there-except that he had never really liked boats.  Well, there is that, LOL.

So we headed on home, where Anna even made her basketball practice!  Right back to real life once again!

A Morning Adventure

So yesterday we got up really early and decided to drive to New Jersey!  Actually, we did have a plan--we were trying to catch a space-a flight to Hawaii. It was a total long-shot, because the flight was on a smaller airplane, and they were only tentatively releasing 15 seats, but we thought, hey, let's give it a shot.  So we did!

And I have to say, the execution was pretty flawless.  We got up and out the door (all of us!) at 3:20 AM with all our stuff!  That is a definite record, probably never again to be repeated.  Also, Micah and Drew did not have any meltdowns, which was a miracle in and of itself, especially since they got up so early.  We got to the terminal at McGuire even a little before we wanted to, which was good because it took forever to get all of us checked in.  But we had all the documentation they needed, so yay, everything worked!  We met some really nice fellow "spats" (space-a travelers), including one who was the oldest of 6 kids.  She and her husband had driven up from Charlotte, NC--a 10 hour drive!  Another couple was there from Kentucky.  Then there was another lady who was checking in with the other airman, who sniffed loudly, "All those kids on a space-a flight!  What a catastrophe!"  Oh well, you can't win them all.  And at that point, the kids were all just sitting in chairs, eating these bisquick sausage, egg, and cheese muffins I had made the night before, so I guess if she wasn't okay with that, then she was probably just not a fan of lots of kids in general, not just not on space-a flights, LOL.  

Anyhow, at some point we heard that the final number of seats going to be available was only 10, which eliminated us right away.  I don't know that it was all bad however--the plane didn't have any actual airline-style seats in it.  We would just have been sitting on the webbed jumpseats that pull down from the wall.  We space-a'd around the Pacific when I was a girl, and I definitely remember sitting on those seats!  They are not too terribly comfortable, especially for flying across our country, and halfway across an ocean!

So after grabbing a bagel at the USO there in the terminal, we got back in the van and headed home.  The kids were great about napping both on the way there and the way back, but Bob and I didn't get much napping in.  Bob drove the whole way up, while I helped navigate and keep him awake, although I did doze off a few times.  On the way back, we stopped at Denny's (Grand Slams all around!), which we don't have near us, so that was a special treat.  I drove after that, because Bob was really tired, but frankly a heavy meal including 2 big pancakes is not exactly the thing when you are already really tired!  What I should have had was coffee, or at least a coke or something.  I drive long distances by myself frequently (well, before I had Nathan as a second driver when Bob can't come on a long trip with us!), but I have never ever felt this tired.  I had such a hard time staying alert, and I scared myself a few times by realizing I had just closed my eyes for a split second.  Needless to say, after I drove an hour or so, we traded drivers once again!  I really felt like God was protecting us, to get us home safely, because we were both so tired!

Our plan was to go straight over to the afternoon classes at Rivendell, but instead we just dropped off Caleb and Jonathan for their lit classes, and the girls so they could play with Elena.  Christine had already said she would teach economics today, so that was so nice that they didn't have to miss that at least!  Bob and I went home and crashed.  Napping for a few hours was wonderful!  Then Nathan, Luke, and Caleb all went off to Civil Air Patrol--the end of a very long and busy day!

So today we were back to our normal routine, but hey, driving to New Jersey on a lark is the stuff family memories are made of!

Caleb and Drew

Caleb and I braved the frigid cold on Wednesday to drive to Bethesda, so he could have a physical.  Since he has asthma and allergies, he has to get a doctor's okay to join Civil Air Patrol.  His asthma has been pretty well-controlled lately, since he started using his flovent puffer on a daily basis after an appointment a year ago.  Exercise and cold still have the potential to cause problems, but overall, he has not had to use his albuterol puffer (the rescue one) very much at all.  And he hasn't had any allergic reactions in a while either!  The doctor didn't even do a real physical exam of Caleb--just asked a lot of questions about his asthma and allergies, so he could sign off on the form.  But before we went into the examining room, the tech went ahead and did an eye exam, like he would do for any regular physical.  It turns out Caleb has really good vision!  20/13!  So Caleb may have hit the allergy and asthma jackpot in our family, but he also hit the good eyes and teeth jackpot!

Drew is smiling in this picture because he loves his big brother Caleb (and because Caleb is tickling him behind the knee, LOL).  However, Drew has not been doing a ton of smiling the past few days.  I thought he was teething, but I kept checking the front of his mouth, where he is missing one of the 8 front teeth that babies usually get first.  None of my other ones got 7 teeth in, and then stayed at 7 for months!  But that tooth doesn't look like it is anywhere near ready to pop out, so I wasn't sure what to think.  But a few days ago, Drew was crying one of those loud, mouth-wide-open cries, and I happened to notice that the back of his gums were extremely swollen!  Ahhh . . . . it's the molars!  One top molar is through already, and 3 more are really close, poor guy.  Last night he slept terribly, and he has been pretty crabby during the day.  I've been dosing him up on Motrin, and hopefully this will pass quickly!

Snowy Day

So today Bob and I were both up and out of here early, before 7:00.  He was off to work, of course, and I was off to vote in a special election.  As I pulled out of our subdivision, I heard the radio announcers mention that the government was closed today, due to the impending snow.  I called Bob right away and fortunately caught him before he had paid for the bus!  He said that made sense, since the parking lot was practically empty, and there were only 2 other people on the bus!  So he got back in his car and drove home. 

I continued on to my polling place, and when I got there, the parking lot was completely empty!  Hmmm . . . I looked closer at the tiny map on my phone and finally determined that we actually were just outside the boundary.  So Bob and I struck out this morning!

We couldn't just go back to bed, however, since today is our co-op day.  The elementary co-op was cancelled, but Rivendell meets pretty much regardless of weather, and this morning it wasn't even a question, since there wasn't a flake to be seen until around 10:00!  We did have to switch around the class order so that Megan didn't have to be out driving out before lunch with all her little ones.  So she taught lit first, and then we had chemistry.  By lunchtime the snow had picked up and was accumulating. 

After Rivendell finished up, the kids wanted to go play in the snow.  Drew stood at the door and fussed so much (and tried to escape out any time the door was opened), so I finally took pity on him and got him all dressed up for his first time out in the snow.  He had a pretty good time, although he had a hard time staying upright, LOL.  Me, I was only out there for the picture to be taken!  The boys stayed out forever, along with Bob, sledding down the hill at the end of our cul-de-sac.  We never get dry, powdery, Colorado snow!  It was so nice!

Inside, we fired up the hot chocolate maker that I won in the orthodontist's drawing back when I was pregnant with Faith.  For an appliance I was sure I would never use, we certainly have gotten a ton out use out of this thing!  It is really so nice to be able to make 32 ounces of hot chocolate at a time, and this thing stirs it up, heats it,  and keeps it heated.  I just keep adding milk/water and hot chocolate mix.  We must have made a gallon of hot chocolate today, LOL.  It was freezing outside!

After dinner, Bob and the boys played a new game called "Puerto Rico" that friends in our Bible study recommended.  It was complicated, I think, and so the first run-through was not all that smooth, but it sounded like it had the potential to be good.  It's a little like Settlers, but our friends liked it a lot better, and it gets really great reviews on Amazon. 

Nathan and Luke should have been at Civil Air Patrol, but alas, it was cancelled tonight, with all the snow.  Nathan was particularly disappointed because he was supposed to pin on his first rank as an officer tonight.  They have to bring in the group commander to their squadron for a pin-on like this, so it's not a small thing to have to reschedule.  It won't be next week, because that is their PT night.  Hopefully soon though!  At least the promotion is officially in the books, which is what matters for things like applications to Academy summer seminars.  Nathan has completed the application for USAFA's summer seminar, and Navy and West Point's just opened up last week, so he is working on those. 

The kids are all excited that tomorrow the snow will still be there, since it's supposed to be frigidly cold!  More snow fun tomorrow--and their cheeks are going to be red as cherries!  Finally--a decent amount of snow.  It's been a few years! 

Driver's Ed

I'm writing this down in the basement, as we attempt to stay awake while watching a 90 minute series of driving modules with Nathan.  We're in a "special planning district", so we have this special requirement, which cover pretty much everything already covered in the 30 hours of classroom (online) instruction Nathan has already done.  This is basically a powerpoint presentation, with a t/f quiz before each module that splits hairs on questions like "When using a cell phone, your risk of an accident is doubled."  FALSE!  It's actually 4 times the risk!  But not to fear--after you watch all the slides, then you take the same quiz again.  Also, the slides are rife with mis-spellings ("licenensing" anyone?).  I told Nathan he was lucky because he only had to watch this presentation once--Bob and I have to watch it 8 more times!

We are (finally) winding down all the requirements for Nathan to get his license.  He has to have 45 hours of driving with us, of which 15 hours are at night.  We only have a few more night time hours to get in, and we're hoping to knock that out this weekend.  He has finished his 30 hours of online classroom training, after doing yeoman's work of watching a ton of extra videos to get up to the magical "30 hour" number the past few days.  These are all the depressing "all teens drink and die in gory accidents" videos that I'm sure everyone remembers from their own driver's ed.  Watching them all day is definitely a downer, LOL.  Nathan did say he thought they actually had the wrong effect on him, making him think he is actually more invincible, since he's "not stupid".  Well, we'll see.  You do get a bit jaded and unsympathetic after watching so many tear-jerkers about careless drunk teen drivers drag-racing. 

Here in VA, you can't take the in-car driving instruction part until you have finished all the 45 hours of driving with a parent, as well as all the classroom instruction.  Hopefully Nathan can do the in-car stuff in the next few weeks to knock that out, and then he'll be done!  It does lead one to wonder what exactly the point of the in-car instruction is, since you have already done 45 hours of scripted practice with your parents.  I mean, they're not exactly teaching you how to drive!  But the good thing is, here in VA if you do the in-car instruction with an actual driving school (instead of jumping through the hoops for a parent to be able to do the in-car instruction), then the instructor issues a 6 month temporary license, so you don't actually have to take the driving test at the DMV. 

On the one hand, I am certainly looking forward to Nathan being able to drive himself to the games he referees, to his Civil Air Patrol activities, and to his sports activities.  We just found out about a local high school rugby club that a friend plays on in the spring, and Nathan is really interested, especially since football is no longer an option.  It would be lovely for him to drive himself there!  But then again, Northern VA drivers are rude and constantly in a huge rush, the roads are all big ones, and there are just so many cars on the road.  I don't even like driving a lot of the time!  I'm not worried about Nathan drinking or drag-racing, but I do worry about him not being in the right lane to get off at the right exit and missing it, thus getting lost, or trying to get over, and no one letting him over, and him getting flustered, or whatever.  It's just a busy place here, with so much traffic all the time.  I know I'll be spending a lot of time in prayer!

Back At It Again

Well, we made it through our first week back after break!  I will admit I was not thrilled with the idea of starting back again, but regardless, here we are!

Tuesday was an interesting day.  About 5 minutes before Rivendell was to start, and I was to start doing chemistry lab with the boys, Faith started crying about how the potty upstairs was clogged.  I went up to check it out and discovered that the potty was not clogged; rather the pipe was frozen.  Whee!  The pipe that froze was the only one we've ever had problems with in this house-it froze last when Dan and Melinda were out visiting us for Christmas back in 2004, the first Christmas we lived here!  I did have the passing thought when I realized how cold it was going to get that we should leave water trickling or something.  But alas, that thought passed right through my head, and I never thought about it again!

So I put a heater in the bathroom, left a message for Bob, and came down to teach!  Ironically, we were doing a lab about the relationship between volume and temperature in liquids, and it involved measuring the volume of water in a graduated cylinder at man different temperatures, so we started by immersing the graduated cylinder in an ice bath.  Perfect, for a freezing day, with a frozen pipe!

I pretty much put the pipe out of my mind, and since Tuesdays are incredibly busy (and the potty in question wasn't on the main floor), that wasn't too hard to do, LOL.  When Bob got home, he opened the door between the house and the garage, and put 2 space heaters in the garage (duh--should have thought of that myself).  He tried various other things and arrangements, but nothing happened until early Wednesday morning.  What a relief that the pipe didn't burst!  Thank you, Lord!!  I think we will remember to leave the water dribbling in that bathroom the next time it drops into the teens!

I started "formally" doing school with Faith this week.  I really want to get her reading, and I don't think it will take too long.  She is very motivated!  She is also already a whiz at math, which is what happens when you have been listening to your older siblings do math for your entire life.

For some reason, we also decided it was time to kick Drew out of the pack-n-play in our closet, and into the crib in Micah's room.  We've never ever had anyone stay in our closet for anywhere near this amount of time!  Usually we have the toddler move up into someone else's room, but we're at capacity in the other rooms right now.  Drew was not at all pleased with the idea of sleeping in the crib, and he left that fact be known quite loudly for quite a while Wednesday night.  Eventually he fell asleep, but it was pretty late.  Micah slept really restlessly--he kept crying out, like he was having a bad dream, every so often.  I would rush in so he wouldn't wake up Drew.  He started crying again at 7:15 Thursday morning, and this time Drew did wake up.  After nursing, he fell back to sleep, but Micah was up for good.  Since they were both more tired, Drew fell asleep a little more quickly Thursday night, but he still did protest loudly for a little while.  I've been putting him down in the pack-n-play for naps, since I want him to have good naps and at least be somewhat pleasant during the day.  I decided to put him down in the pack-n-play last night, since he went to bed really late (we were at Bible study).  He slept really well and really late--I woke him up at 9:30!  But tonight he goes back into the crib in Micah's room.  We will overcome!  He obviously needs more practice at sleeping places other than his pack-n-play in a pitch-dark closet, LOL.

The week ended well because the girls had a playdate with Lynnea's girls, and Lynnea and I got to visit for several hours yesterday!  Social time for me always ends a week on a high note!  And today, as soon as Anna's basketball game is over, we're heading over to visit with some friends we haven't seen for awhile in Maryland.  Fun!!

Special Company!

We were so excited to have Amy and Jason, along with their sons Zachary and Jacob, come stay with us last week!  They were coming to DC to sight-see, and they definitely saw a ton of things!  They drove in Wednesday afternoon, straight downtown, since the weather was pretty nice.  We met them at the Jefferson Memorial, and then we proceeded to tour all the memorials in one afternoon--hard-core tourism right there, especially with little kids, LOL.  Our first stop after the Jefferson Memorial was the FDR Monument.

 I will be perfectly honest and admit that I actually had no idea this existed.  Clearly I have not wandered around the Tidal Basin enough, because this thing is absolutely huge--7.5 acres!  It is between the Jefferson and the MLK Memorial.  It is divided into 4 outdoor "rooms", to represent FDR's 4 tours, and it was built in 1997.  Clueless as we were, since we were coming from the Jefferson Memorial, we entered the maze from the end, seeing the statue of Eleanor Roosevelt first. Better to come at it from the Lincoln Memorial side.

Anyhow, this statue of him above is in the 3rd "room", and he is posing with his dog Fala, who is really cute.  Also, her (his?) ears are golden where everyone has rubbed them.  Awww . . . The actual statue of FDR, however, was literally ghastly.  He was a bilious drippy green color, especially on his face--he really doesn't appear to be weathering well!

We continued wandering through the different rooms.  The symbolism probably would have been a bit more clearer had we been going in chronological order by starting on the other side.  Also, it would have been clearer had it been summer, because water is supposedly a great symbol throughout the memorial, with different waterfalls representing different things.  The first one (chronologically) was a smooth drop, representing the stock market crash leading to the Great Depression, then there was a waterfall with steps, representing the Tennessee Valley Authority's damn-building projects.  There there was a really choppy chaotic waterfall representing WWII, and lastly a still reflecting pool representing his death.  Unfortunately, the water was all turned off and drained, so we got none of that symbolism either.  

 The part that really stumped us was the room that included this large mural and 5 big pillars.  Each panel of this mural had been sort of like pressed into the pillars, so these pillars have the inverted images of all these random things on them--initial, hands, braille, weird shrunken heads . . . it was very odd.  I googled, but all I could find was that this part represented the New Deal, and that it was just a "collage of various scenes and objects".  Well, yes, but how on earth do shrunken heads represent the New Deal?  Totally weird.

Anyhow, a boatload of money was spent to make this monument, I am sure, since it is so sprawling.  From the reviews online, everyone loves it because it is shady (not a plus during winter, but I can appreciate that for summer!) and also not crowded because not that many people know about it (again, not an issue during winter!), and finally it has lots of places for good pictures with all the water features.  There you have it.

 Next we moved on to the MLK Jr. Memorial, and I must say I really liked this one!  The symbolism made perfect sense, the quotes were moving and appropriate, and it really seemed to honor his legacy.  The quote on the actual statue is "Out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope", and the part with MLK carved on it looks like it has just come out of the "mountain" of granite behind it.  I was glad to see this memorial in person.

Then we moved on to the Korean War Memorial.  I hadn't seen that one before in person either.  It is moving to see the statues of the soldiers, looking like they are on patrol, and the wall with all the pictures sandblasted onto it.  If the kids hadn't been getting grumpy, I would have liked to spend more time here.

Then it was on to the Lincoln Memorial!  Drew was in a stroller, and I didn't feel like finding a handicap way to get up all those steps with him, so he and I just hung out on the big flat part, doing endless loops.  He almost fell asleep, but not quite.

By the time everyone finished up, Micah and Faith were getting quite crabby, Anna was really cold, and Drew was unhappy too.  We quickly saw the Vietnam Wall and the World War II Memorial (which is another one of my favorites, but lacks something with all the water off and rained!), and we walked past the Washington Monument on the way back to the van.  Whew!  Good thing spaghetti sauce was in the crockpot waiting for us when we got home!

Amy and her family went back in to DC Thursday and Friday.  They toured the Capital and the White House, as well as the National Archives, Ford's Theater, and the Museum of Natural History and possibly more than I'm not remembering, LOL.  Now Bob, Nathan, Luke, and the McC's toured the White House several years ago (but alas, I can't find my blog post about it).  It was a lengthy tour, and Nathan came back with a ton of random interesting information he had learned from the knowledgeable tour guide.  For Amy's tour, however, there was no actual guide.  They just wandered through 5 or 6 rooms, where there was a person seated in each room to answer any questions you might have.  Of course, how do you know what questions to even ask??  So it was only about 35 minutes long.  It's too bad, because, as Christine says, once you lose those things, they will never come back.

 In the evenings, we really enjoyed having them around!  Many games were played, including Settlers and a hilarious game of Balderdash.  Friday night Nathan and Luke had a bowling party with their Civil Air Patrol squadron, so Zach got to go to that with them.  (Nathan had the highest score among the cadets!  Good to see that the bowling part of our curriculum has been so successful, LOL.)  Amy and I stayed up late talking, of course.  It was such a treat!!  We were so sad when they left to drive back to Ohio Saturday morning.  I am so thankful for such a faithful friend as Amy!  It's hard to believe we've known each other for close to 30 years!  She is definitely like a sister to me!

Happy New Year!!

 We had our annual Bible study New Year's Eve party at the L's house, and it was a lot of fun, as usual!  We ate a ton of yummy food, and then the teen and preteens played games like Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride, and the adults did a lot of talking.  The younger kids were down in the basement playing.  We even celebrated Isaac McC's birthday!

 When the grand hour of 9:00 came around, we blew our noisemakers and popped our party poppers, and then sipped sparkling apple cider!

And then we went home at 10:15, as Micah pitched a huge screaming tired tantrum, and Drew squealed and squawked like a stuck pig.  No staying up til midnight for them!  Happy New Year!!  We pray the Lord's blessing on each and every one of you this year--may He draw you closer to himself through whatever happens!

Family Time

One last catch-up post from Christmas, with some more random pictures and memories from our time in Ohio!

 Grandma and Grandpa had to buy a second little table so the younger set would all fit!  Micah was definitely not missing out on sitting in the little chairs.

 We played a lot of games--Skip-bo and Scrabble before Christmas, and Ticket to Ride afterwards!

 We made cut-out cookies Thursday.  I tried a new recipe, and I was really pleased with it because it held together quite well, so that it wasn't too hard for the kids to get the cookies onto the cookie sheets themselves.  Luke was a tremendous help with everyone.

 I love this picture of Elia!  Such a sweetie!

 We decorated the cookies Friday afternoon.  Lots and lots and lots of sprinkles!!

 Many books were read, in this case here by Uncle Dan.

 We made the customary trek to Youngs Dairy Thursday night.  We even got to watch the cows being milked!  We definitely take up a lot of real estate at this point!  Good thing the restaurant wasn't very crowded.

 Friday, Dan, Melinda, and Bob took the girls and Jonathan to the Boonshoft Museum, a very favorite destination.  They got there right as it opened, so it wasn't very crowded at first.  They were able to move through it ahead of everyone else, so the kids had a wonderful time playing everywhere.

Saturday, everyone except Drew, Micah, and I went bowling on base, but I forgot to give my phone to Bob, so no pictures!  Bowling on base is great--really cheap, smoke-free, and they have gutter bumper things and an adorable little dragon slide thing for little kids to use, so the ball gets a bit of momentum and doesn't take a year to roll slowly down the endless lane toward the pins.

The girls are all wearing their matching "I love my cousins" t-shirts I found on cafepress.com and got for Christmas presents.  They looked so cute!  Their cousins are certainly missing Emily and Elia right now!

Merry Christmas!

We drove to Ohio on Saturday, and Dan and Melinda drove all day Sunday (literally--16 hours!).  Dan and Melinda had both gotten the flu the week before, so we were so thankful they were well enough to make that long drive.  Poor Melinda was still recovering! 

Monday was a happy day as the 5 girl cousins were reunited!  Much giggling and playing abounded!  Monday night, however, Elia started running a fever.  Dan and Melinda got up and took her to urgent care Tuesday morning, where she was diagnosed with the flu (even though she had gotten a flu shot, as did Melinda!).  She received the Tamiflu shot, and it worked wonders!  We thought she would be too sick to go to the Christmas Eve service, but she appeared upstairs, ready to go, when it was time to leave, and she was totally recovered!

 We went to the Christmas Eve service at the base chapel, which was just lovely.  We were even early!

 After the service, Don, one of our friends from way back, took a picture of all of us.  Some people (*cough* Faith *cough*) were very grumpy, but it was a great picture of all those who were more cooperative!

 Christmas morning the kids opened stockings (including Elia--not sure why she didn't make the picture), and then presents.  Even though we as well as Dan's family, had exchanged our own family gifts before coming, there were still plenty of presents to be opened!

 Nathan and Luke's present to me wasn't going to get to our house in time, so they sent it on to my parents' house.  I was told it was "epic", so I could hardly wait to open it!  It was Star Wars family figure decals for the back of our vans (plural--enough for both the big van and the minivan!)--I will definitely have to take a picture when we get them all up there!

The kids got lots of fun, fun presents, and the good thing is that all the kids can enjoy everyone else's presents too!  Here Nathan is modeling the Superman cape and breastpiece given to Micah by Aunt Claire and Uncle Jim--a gift that was quite popular among all the male members of the household!

Then we had a delicious Christmas dinner featuring ham, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, green beans with almonds, and cranberry sauce!  Drew loved it, as you can see by how he is wearing it, if not by his actual expression.  And we finished off our celebration with a birthday party for Jesus, complete with chocolate cake.  Truth be told--Bob, Drew, and I missed the party!  Drew and Micah were both up a lot the night before with a cough, and we were so tired!  We put Drew down for a nap and laid down ourselves . . . "just for a minute".  Well, we didn't wake back up for quite some time, so the party went on without us!  The nap was really nice though--a wonderful Christmas present!  And then we thought to get out the vaporizer to put in our room, which really helped the boys and their coughs, so we slept better the rest of the time!

Annual Christmas Play

Every year the kids in our Friday night Bible study act out the Christmas story.  There are parts for all!  We call the evening "bar night", because we start out with a potato bar and end up with an ice cream sundae bar.  Yummy!!  This year Elizabeth baked 40 pounds of potatoes, so that tells you something about the appetites of this crowd!  I made a crockpot full of chili (7 quarts practically licked clean, LOL), and others brought ham, taco meat, cheese, broccoli, bacon, sour cream--anything delicious you could want to put on a baked potato!

Then the kids disappeared downstairs, along with random stuff the different families had brought along for costuming purposes, to determine who would fill the various roles.

 Anna was a shepherd (she has her back to the camera), and Drew was a cute little sheep, pulled along in his sheep wagon by Joel McC.  I think he was originally supposed to be an angel, but hey, this worked! 

 Grace was an angel, although a non-speaking one.  Also, she didn't have any cool wings or a cool halo.  Next year . . .

 Jonathan was a wise man, as usual.  A few years ago, he found a really cool bottle/jar thing by a creek near the McC's house when he was on some sort of little expedition with their boys.  He proudly brought it home, where we discovered it was actually some sort of liquor bottle (vodka, maybe?  I can't remember).  It really was cool, and he rightly recognized that it would be a perfect bottle for myrrh!  So now he is officially the wise man who carries the "myrrh".  Here in the picture, he and the other 2 wise men have asked King Herod, there on his exercise throne, where the king of the Jews is to be born.  Herod has consulted his scribe (Nathan), who is busily searching through ancient texts to discover the answer ("Bethlehem").  Luke, the Roman soldier, is in the background.

 Caleb got the plum role of Joseph, alongside Stephanie (holding her baby brother, who played Jesus).  Jonathan was angling for the Joseph role when he realized Stephanie was going to be Mary, but Caleb convinced him he needed to stick with being a wise man.  Tricky!  And hey, you can even sort of see Jonathan's cool myrrh bottle in the picture, next to the gold chest and the "franken-cinnamon" bottle!

It is always such a fun rendition of the Christmas story, and it definitely gets me in the Christmas spirit every year!  Then we go back upstairs and have ice cream with every topping you can think of--M&Ms, oreo crumbs, gummy bears, chocolate chips, tons of different sauce flavors, etc.  There was a dark chocolate sauce this year that I loved!  I need to find out where that came from . . .

Catching Up

We got back last night from a wonderful week in Ohio with my parents and my brother and his family!  I want to remember the week, so I'm going to catch up on posts over the next few days, hopefully, since I did a deplorable job of blogging while we were gone.  We were too busy having too much fun! 

But first, I'll fill you in on one last Christmas surprise--a balance beam!  Anna and Grace have talked about how much they wanted "gymnastics equipment" for Christmas.  I looked at stuff on Amazon, but it was expensive and just seemed like an idea that wouldn't work.  Which was fine, because Anna was thrilled with her boots, and Grace with her Webkinz.  But Friday, the day before we left for Ohio, a friend from our elementary co-op sent an email to our local homeschool group saying she was selling her daughter's balance beam because her daughter wasn't doing gymnastics anymore!  I could hardly believe it!  I emailed Cathy back right away saying we were interested, but could we wait to pick it up until we were back in town.  She said yes, so Bob and I drove over and picked it up this afternoon.

The girls were SO excited when we appeared at the front door with it!  Anna and Grace have been busy showing us all their tricks.  Anna can do a cartwheel and a back walkover on it!  Micah is hilarious when he tries to do what the girls do, LOL.  He puts one foot and one hand on the beam, and the other on the floor and then proceeds to somersault or whatever, mainly on the floor.  Faith hasn't actually started any gymnastics class yet, but she will be well-prepared when she does start!

Early Christmas

We tried something different last night--we opened presents from within our family early!  As you can imagine, with 11 people exchanging presents, this portion of the gift-giving can be overwhelming in and of itself.  I really, really liked doing it early, so that these gifts didn't get lost in the shuffle.  Nathan and Luke are actually earning real money these days, with lawn-mowing and reffing.  But the other kids are still in the "hand-made or dollar store" gift-giving phases, and those gifts are often the ones that can get overlooked in a big pile of presents.  I for one LOVED my homemade necklace (by Caleb) and bracelet (by Grace from a kit from Aunt Rose).  I meant to take a picture of them, but I had to take the necklace off because Drew also loved it, and then I forgot. 

Nathan and Luke went in together to buy Anna a pair of boots, and you can see here they were not disappointed by her reaction!  If you are nearby, I'm sure you will get a chance to see these boots in person, since I think she will be wearing them every single day.  She put them on this morning with her pajamas as soon as she woke up!  Luke and I went to the mall a week or so ago to pick them out (yes, I went to the mall twice in 2 months--a new record!).  I knew she would love them, and I was right!

This picture pretty much describes Drew's reaction to gifts--"Tape!  And Paper!"  Which goes along with that funny article I posted on Facebook:  A 10-Month Old's Letter to Santa.  Drew would definitely agree with all those gift options, especially the cords (he is big into attempting to plug laptop chargers into their charging holes) and the toilet paper holder.  For Jonathan's gift to Drew, I had a brilliant idea, since we had already plumbed the depths of the dollar store gift ideas for 1 year olds with other kids--we went to the thrift store.  There we found a great spinning toy for $1.50!  Drew was happy, and so was I!

We got this adorable shopping cart for Micah from a lady on our homeschool email loop.  We do have 1 shopping cart, which they love, but it is pink, and it is only 1, while we have 5 kids who are interested in "shopping".  So when I saw this come over the loop, I thought the younger male contingent would enjoy it.  It's so cute!

There were other various gifts, leading to all the wrapping paper and cardboard scattered around in the picture above.  Now today everyone is happily playing with legos and play-doh, reading new books, and wearing new shirts and ear buds.  And Christmas Day itself hopefully won't be overwhelming!  I told the boys that when everyone is older, we will definitely institute a "draw one person's name" gift exchange, like Amy does with her husband's family.  Otherwise it will just be way too crazy!  Merry (early) Christmas!!

Keeping It Real

Well, this afternoon was full of surprises to keep me humble!  The day started off well--I ran out this morning and finished my Christmas shopping, as well as stopped by a local consignment shop and picked up some new pants for Anna and Grace.  They are basically wearing the same size (except Grace is even skinnier), and I just don't have enough pants for the 2 of them!  Not so any longer, though.  I bought 6 pairs!  After lunch, I started Elizabeth L's beef barley soup for us to eat tonight, as well as for me to bring to another family who had a new baby.  I love bringing meals to new moms because I know what a blessing each and every meal brought to us has been!  Then Caleb and I went out so he could finish his shopping. 

As I was backing out of the driveway, I noticed something under the wiper of our big van, which is parked on the street in front of our house.  I last drove it home from church yesterday, so I briefly puzzled about what it could be, but then didn't think anything more of it.  When we got back, I discovered it was a "decal citation".  Our county has these special decals that you put on each vehicle after you pay the county tax each year, and sure enough, ours expired in November.  Also, the one on the Sienna was expired.  Oops!  I called Bob, who called the county treasurer's office, where he found out I could get the new stickers reissued at their office which closed at 5:00.  Well, that became the new priority, so I finished rolling out biscuits to go along with the soup, but left them on the counter to cook after I got back.  I was able to get the new stickers, and really, it was such a blessing to get this citation!  It was just a warning one, so no fine, but I would never ever have thought to check the status of these stickers on my own .  I had poked around in our "big basket of random paper things" on our counter, but I never could see an envelope from the county.  The lady I talked to said these things had been mailed out in September.  Ha--the chances of our finding a piece of mail from September are pretty much nil!  Much bigger things than an envelope have been lost and never showed up again!  She did say something weird--she sad we renewed our big van online, but the other 2 vans we walked in and did in person in the office in the county seat.  Ummm . . . no.  Bob wrote one check and mailed it in--he never even did it online for any of them, and he certainly didn't drive to a neighboring city to do it!  So maybe things were just weird all around, and we really never did get these things?  Odd.

Well, as I was driving home, I called Luke and told him to put the biscuits in the oven.  They were ready when I walked in . . . and they looked really different.  They rose oddly and were not at all what these biscuits, which I have made zillions of times before, should have looked like.  Huh.  So I decided to whip up another batch, and as I was making that up, it dawned on me what I had done--used baking soda instead of baking powder.  REALLY?!?  What in the world?  I finished up this new batch of biscuits, rolling them out and cutting them, and popped them in the oven for 10 minutes.  I was already over an hour later than when I had originally told Ashleigh I'd be there.  After 7 minutes had passed, I happened to look over . . . and notice that the oven was not on.  Yes, it had gotten turned off after the first batch, and I hadn't even thought about turning it on!  So biscuits that are supposed to cook for 10 minutes at 450 really don't do so well for 10 minutes in a rapidly cooling oven.  At this point, I decided today was clearly not a day for biscuits, so I took the soup and cookies, ran over to the grocery store, and brought them a loaf of Italian bread.  Good grief!  I'm losing my mind! 

Another area I've been struggling with lately is keeping gas in the Sienna!  I try to never let my gas gauge go under 1/4 tank because I have this strong irrational fear of running out of gas (which actually has never happened to me).  A few weeks ago, I picked up Luke and our friend Helena from Civil Air Patrol.  I knew I was running low, but my countdown odometer told me I had 17 miles left, so I knew that would be enough to get back and drop Helena off and then get gas.  But it was closer than I thought, and as Luke and I were pulling in to the gas station nearest our house, the display read that we only had 1 mile left on the tank!  Whew, we barely made it!  I reached for my wallet in my purse . . . and realized that I didn't actually *have* my wallet.  It was still in the diaper bag from our day at co-op.  Well, that was a situation!  Luke and I had to scramble around the van, trying to scrounge up money to pay for enough gas to get us home, and then out to a gas station again the next day.  Bob was already fast asleep, since it was after 10:00.  We finally rounded up $2.50 in quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, and I poured that out on the counter for the gas station attendant.  It bought me 0.7 gallons, which was indeed enough to get home and to the gas station again!  As soon as we got home, though, Luke ran inside and came back with our tub of spare change, so now we have $4.00 in quarters in the change compartment. 

So fast forward to this past Friday.  Nathan and I were at Sams, but I chose not to get gas because the lines were really long, and I knew we'd be out Saturday as well.  We were indeed, but I never thought about gas again during the day.  The one time I drove the van, I was thinking about Bob's wallet, which we couldn't find, so I didn't even glance down at the dashboard!  (Luke found it IN THE DOOR OF THE VAN, which was a humongous relief to us all!).  Bob and I then left to go to an Irish pub with 2 other couples, one from church.  We had such a fun time, and I had the most delicious Irish Guinness beef stew while we listened to an Irish band play!  Then we all drove to a different place and had cupcakes and coffee/hot chocolate (you can guess which one I picked, LOL).  We had such a great time!  We didn't even think about gas, until I happened to look over and notice that the gas light was on.  And then we looked up and noticed that the "miles to empty" gauge said "2", which was a very bad number because we were in an area with pretty much only neighborhoods--no gas stations that I knew of.  Again, it was after 10:00, so who would be able to come rescue us?!  If only Nathan could drive!  We watched the gauge tick down to zero, and we kept driving.  Miraculously, we did make it to an intersection where there actually was a shopping center with a gas station.  Praise the Lord!!  I was so incredibly relieved!  But seriously--twice in the past 3 weeks, my gas tank has been so low that I've been in danger of running out?!  I'm 40 years old, and I can really only think of one other time that happened (driving our old Pathfinder back to CO from OH, across a bridge in St. Louis when Nathan was a baby . . .)  I definitely think I'm losing it here! 

Oh, I should close with one more funny story that I must be sure to document for posterity.  Sunday morning, we were doing so well, and I was sure we were finally going to be on time.  I knew Faith had both her church shoes on, so I was surprised when we were ready to leave, but she only had 1 shoe on.  She gave a very garbled explanation . . . something about kicking a whistle.  I saw a whistle on the floor over by our door out to the deck, so I started looking around over there, peering under the table and chairs, etc.  No shoe, so I started looking more vigorously.  I called in the other kids who were home (which did not include Luke, unfortunately, who had already left to go to an early service at a different church with Bob, since he had a basketball game).  We all looked all over the kitchen.  How could a shoe just disappear into thin air?!  On the counters, on the microwave, in the box with backpacks, in the light fixture . . . at this point, Faith had mentioned something about standing by the island and kicking the shoe.  We hunted and hunted until finally I gave up and started hunting for another pair of shoes.  Amazingly I did find a pair that was just a little too big, so she wore those, but still . . . we would have been on time!!!  After we got home, I was relaying the story to Luke, and at the same time I was preparing to put a jelly bean dispenser back up on top of the fridge where it usually goes, but for some reason it was sitting on the island.  I looked up at the top of the fridge, and there was the shoe--right behind the gorilla glue bottle, the vitamin bottle, and the bottle of lotion.  Of course!  Even if I am losing my mind, I have definitely had help in doing so!