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!!