Absentee Blogger

Wow, I thought not working at a M-F job would help the blogging frequency- oh, not so.
So what have we been up to? Well, I'm glad you asked!

1) Bummer point - the house contract did not go through Friday. UG. After 70 days with this continency, their house did not sell and they decided they could not afford 2 houses... but they still want it. Outcome.. now we will have to afford 2 houses instead. Not what we hoped for, but it is what it is. We'll figure it out :{

2) We are 2 weeks and 2 days from graduation, and thus we are 2 weeks and 3 days from ONE BIG ROADTRIP! Eeeeeek. Ours will be a caravan of not camels, but 2 cars, 4 adults, 1 kiddo, 2 crates full of plants and a bunch of miscellaneous junk on a 1000+ mile / 2-3 day funfest! What did we do before portable DVD players and Ipods? Guess we survived prior to technology because we didn't have to sit in carseats thru age 8, thus we could lay in the back car window to take a nap or just slug it out with our other siblings packed into the back of a 1978 Magnum like sardines. Ah, good times.

3) And point 2 leads us to planning for Gma & Gpa visiting us in DC in 2 weeks. Hooray! They'll be here for graduation and then taking part in the caravan funfest to Miami. The enticement of a week at a nice resort while Chris and I house hunt may have helped sway the vote, but they were having grandkid fever nonetheless. It will be a great help to have them play with Ceiba while we scour the area for a desired abode for the next however-long.

4) We've enjoyed more of DC, the National Mall and visited the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

  

   

5) It was neat to visit Embassy Row, a neighborhood where other nations' embassies reside.

On the same drive, we also passed the National Cathedral (second row below).

  

   

6) Successfully took Ceiba to her 1st theater movie - How to Train your Dragon! She (and we!) loved it and had a fun time. It only took 3 trips to the bathroom (LOVE family bathrooms!), a purse full of goodies, $18 from the concession stand, one blankie, one happymeal dragon and 6 off/on sessions with sandals to succeed.

7) Our GREAT friend is OLD today! Happy Birthday Ann! We love you... and we'll always be even older :) 

 

8) Our first Skype video call with my sister's family was tonight. We talked almost 2 hours! Well, mostly we all watched Ceiba sing and dance around the living room like we had just fed her 100 poofs of cotton candy. It's amazing how you can feel like you're all in the same room through the computer. Gosh, we miss them...

Hoosier- who'd a thunk it?

When Chris opened his mouth at training the other day with the word "Hoosier", he never realized it would have triggered such a conversation. Where we are from, "Hoosier" is generally used as slang for trashy or backwoods. SORRY to whomever is from Indiana (or any others just offended), but it's just a local word that never caused reason for controversy. I guess there has always been a bit of good-fun teasing in the Midwest between states (especially WI and IL - if you are familiar with the FIB term?).

Everyone was puzzled by his choice of words and couldn't figure out what he meant. They questioned another classmate from the STL area who also confirmed its definition. The next day, someone came into class to confirm wikipedia's explanation of the previous day's topic:

Hoosier
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hoosier (pronounced /ˈhuːʒər/) is the official demonym for a resident of the U.S. State of Indiana. Although residents of most U.S. states typically adopt a derivative of the state name, e.g., Indianan or Indianian, natives of Indiana never use these demonyms. The State of Indiana adopted the nickname "Hoosier State" more than 150 years ago.[1] "Hoosiers" is also the mascot for the Indiana University athletic teams. The word Hoosier is sometimes used in the names of Indiana-based businesses and organizations. In the Indiana High School Athletic Association, seven active athletic conferences and one disbanded conference have the word Hoosier in their names.

In other parts of the country, the word has been adapted for other uses (see Other uses). In St. Louis, Missouri, the word is used in a derogatory fashion in similar context to "hick" or "white trash".[2]

Well class, you're welcome for the new word to add to your vocabulary. Sorry if it's a little distasteful or hoosier! Guess we better work on our diplomacy :)

Alligators!

Ceiba has always been intrigued by storm drains.
So lately, Chris has taught her that alligators live in the drains.
Maybe part prepping for Miami... maybe just part ornery papa.

So now most interactions with any kind of grate looks like this:

Washington D.C. as an adult

 

When you are a kid in school and read about our capital in books, you don't really digest it all.

When you are an adult seeing Washington D.C. for the first time..

in front of you..to read, to breath, to touch, to feel... you get it.

You appreciate the sacrifices made to allow your freedom.

You feel for the families who had to endure long after.

As a spouse, I feel amazing pride for the service my husband gave and continues to give.

There were several times I was glad to wear my sunglasses, just to have a solemn moment of my own.

 

 

 

 

As a parent, it is wonderful to know the endless possibilities of our child

as a citizen of such an amazing country.

It's no greenhouse, but it'll do

A few cyber friends have commented on my hauling plants with us to D.C., so thought I'd post a few pics (sorry- phone camera) of the remaining lot. Some are still dorment from the winter.

(the 28 who "made it" through the sale and came to D.C.)

It's a far cry from the 500-600 plants that were in the greenhouse back home, but these are the few "loves" I couldn't bare to part with. Most are sentimental, some rare and others just too pretty to let go.

(above, our old greenhouse in IL last summer)

Pruning and watering now only takes a few minutes (though I stretch it out longer) vs the neverending task before, but it still makes my mind peaceful. And maybe in the not-too-distant-future we'll have an avocado or mango tree in our backyard!

I hate doing dishes... usually

When I was 5 years old, I started doing dishes... every...single....day. My sister D was 7 at the time. We took over the torch from older sisters C (then 16) and S (then 14) who got to retire once we were old enough to stand on a kitchen chair to put dishes away. We weren't allowed to wash the sharp knives until we were older, but we did everything else including dirty ashtrays, fish scalers and poopy chicken eggs after the dinner dishes were finished. Yuck, yuck and yuck. It ran the gamot! 

I laugh, because though I'm in my 30s, sometimes I feel like the stories should be from either 60 year old or an Amish person (except the dirty ashtrays). HA. Growing up sometimes we felt like "the only kid that never got to...", but now it's kind of fun to look back on such a great childhood.

Tonight I dried some dishes and thought of my sisters and the BRUTAL wet towel snap fights we used to have after doing dishes. We nearly drew blood, as the towels we used were old soft diapers and could really zing when they were damp. Mom had to break up the festivities on several occasions. We learned from the best, our dad, who could snap with the best of 'em! And on the evenings we were mad at each other for tattling, hogging the phone or borrowing clothes without asking, we could reallly rip each other!

I felt a little sad to think most kids today won't ever get to have dish towel fights after dinner (since some barely load a dishwasher, let alone hand dry). Guess we'll have to teach ours anyway... but maybe she can be a little older than 5!

Lilacs

There are those smells that can make you smile so hard you feel like crying.

We were at the park yesterday playing in the creek (Ceiba up to her belly almost) and tossing rocks. On the way back to the car, we stopped to smell a lilac my nose detected when we had arrived.

Growing up, we had 2 lilac bushes on the farm: 1) the tiny ugly one by the barn that got run over by the tractor while each of us girls learned to cut grass and that the dogs always peed on. It never died, but it never grew. And 2) the giant, beautiful lilac in the backyard along the field road. The giant lilac bush was the one we cut from every spring to fill the waffley green vase on the kitchen table, put sprigs of on the west windowsill where the evening breeze blew through an open window or cut and wrapped in paper towels and tinfoil to take to our teachers at school. We could smell that lilac everytime we walked down the field road in April to mushroom hunt. It was the lilac we took a cutting from and planted in the backyard of our first home.

I smiled very wide today as Ceiba bent down to smell her first lilac... and missed home and bringing flowers into my mom :)

Fish snobs

This past weekend we drove to Baltimore to see the National Aquarium. The line was long, so we went for lunch - seafood chowder, crab cakes and .... chicken fingers. But Ceiba liked Chris's chowder more than her own lunch. We took our time walking around (mainly because my back is feeling crappy from the accident on the way out to DC) and meandered back to the Aquarium shortly after noon.

We also walked around the pier area to watch the ships and people. The weather was amazing! Papa spotted a Coast Guard ship, which is always a treat for us to see... ahh good ole' times :)

The exhibits were really nice, but we believe we are becoming aquarium (and zoo) snobs. Hard to admit, I know, but we've been to so many that it's hard not to compare. All are a bit different - Shedd/Chicago, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Scripps, New Orleans, Tampa, etc - but many parts are the same. But hey, we just love all things aquatic, so of course we had a great time with the visual bonanza that laid before us in all the beautiful fish!

This coming weekend we are hoping to go see some of Washington D.C. around the National Mall. Hopefully my back will be feeling better ( 4 chiro visits last week and 3 this week, ug). And during this week, we have several playdates. Happy to report we are meeting FS families and enjoying playtime for Ceiba with other kiddos. Plus we had a bbq with Chris's work class, and I've gotten the chance to meet a few DS wives, which has been GREAT (and educational)!

We are enjoying our short time in D.C.!

Keeping busy!

So I've gone from several posts a week to a couple posts a month....sorry.
We've been staying busy and enjoying being all together.

Weekly there are lots of trips to the parks (usually with picnic lunches)!

And the Easter bunny kept us entertained 2 weekends ago :)

Plus we went to the National Zoo and had Ceiba's first ride on the Metro.

And, of course, found another great park close to home (where we hunted for eggs)!