Kites, Flowers and a Tired Mommy!

Today was the 44th Annual Kit Festival on the National Mall sponsored by the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Of course, we HAD to go be a part of that! (Besides...who really needs their house unpacked if you never stay home long enough to use anything??)

We did decide to take the metro to town since we knew there would be a TON of people! The kids absolutely loved riding the trains!! When we lived here before, that was Stevie's favorite part of going to DC...and 12 years hadn't changed him that much! Even Missy will have some sore cheek muscles from smiling so much--my little girl who "doesn't like to smile"!

It was insanely busy in DC, but it was such a beautiful day it was SO WORTH IT!! We got to fly our kits, watch other people fly their kits, have a picnic in a beautiful flower garden by the Smithsonian Castle, go to the National Gallery of Art, watch more kite flying, ride trains, explore Union Station, have pretzels from a street vendor, listen to the violinist in the subway, shop, ride escalators, look at the cherry blossoms...

...I guess you can just pretty much sum it up by saying...it was an AWESOME day!

Oooh...let's do our nails!

I guess I just had a case of cabin fever today...I just could not get my brain into the school mode! Kimmy had decided to make a goodie but we didn't have vanilla, so I was MORE than happy to decide we needed to run to the store (shhhh...I know she could have made a different goodie, or even not make a goodie, but I wanted OUT!!)

We took a very scenic route to the grocery store...we drove around the base, stop and dropped off some books at the library, dropped off recycling, stopped at storage to pick up more boxes to unpack...I wasn't in a hurry *grin*

Next door to the grocery store was a Dollar Tree store, so in my "I-don't-want-to-do-school" mindset...of course it was important we go in to find something I couldn't live without! We bought a few more toys for our free sandbox (now up to $44), a container for the paintbrushes, and then I found this awesome blue nail polish and some silver and gold eyeshadow. Well...I was bored while Kimmy ran into the ID card building to get her ID fixed (more school avoidance errands) so I painted ONE fingernail blue just to check the color (which was very cool) but then she came back out and we headed out to avoid school some more! It wasn't until I started getting weird looks that I remembered "Oh yeah...your thumb is bright blue" that I decided maybe I should either paint the other nails blue or take off the polish *grin*

So...in true avoidance of all things school...Missy and I decided to paint our fingernails. We tried to involve Stevie--but unlike years past when he was a toddler and his dad would freak when he came home from work to a pink sparkly nailed son--he wouldn't join us. We even offered to paint his nails black for him. So, he got to work on his science semester final and we girls (well, minus Kimmy who was making chocolate chip cookies) decided to paint our nails!

This is Missy's final result...blue and sparkles! I decided to be boring and just go with a pinkish color *smile* My time of being the blue-fingered sluffer was enough! Stevie was more than happy to take photos for a few (and therby postpone his science test) and Kimmy was super cool and brought us YUMMY cookie dough to eat! It was a fun afternoon...though not very productive! Imagine that *smile*

Where Did My Baby Go?

Last night, the Young Women in our ward held their "New Beginnings" program at church. This is for girls in the Young Women program and those girls coming in during the year. WOW!! I had to attend for MISSY becoming a Young Woman. I am pretty sure she is not that old yet is she? And I am definately sure "I" am not old enough for my youngest child to be leaving Primary!! Where does the time go? It was just a couple years ago we were anxiously awaiting the birth of her...Steven had just deployed to Korea and I had moved home from Maryland with the two older kids (Kimmy was 10 and Stevie was 3) to be closer to family when she was born. I was pregnant at the same time as two of my nieces--we were about six weeks apart in due dates. Amazingly enough--all three baby girls were born within 24 hours of each other though--in fact, I was in the delivery room next door to one niece! Not knowing what each was naming their child, we all names them M&M names: Melissa, Marissa and Mattea. I think there were three beautiful little girls in Heaven who didn't want to be separated when it came time to be born--they must have been the best of friends! I love you Missy girl...it will be fun to see the young woman you become!

Our New Project!

I decided the family needed a service project to work on. Since we have started playing the coupon game again AND my mom keeps me so thoroughly flooded with good coupons (Thanks mom!), we decided we would start collecting pet food for the local pet shelter. We did this for a Girl Scout service project when Kimmy was in Brownies and the shelter LOVED it. We are going to spend about $10 a check and see what $10 using coupons will get us. Today was a good day...we got 3 bags of cat food, 4 Meow Mix cups, and all those cans of dog food in the second bag! Not too shabby...and the kids were excited about the project. We'll have to see how our pile grows--I figure we can drop off every 4-6 weeks. It teaches the kids about sharing and money management too (Love those life lessons *grin*) We did have a pretty funny moment today when Stevie was helping put away the groceries and came across all the pet food (He and Missy didn't know about the project yet). We told him that groceries were getting too expensive and I was going to try to save some money by using pet food to cook with LOL! I think he even believed me for a second...silly boy!

Did I Forget to Mention...

I know I skipped over a BUNCH of stuff we did after Steven got home from Iraq {sigh} but it was crazy chaotic! Hopefully I can catch up a few things...but we will see *smile*

One thing I DIDN'T want to skip over though was this story! Steven had been home from Iraq MAYBE a week or so and his team he had been with in Iraq decided to have a family dinner. Steven and I were sitting on the couch the night before the dinner cuddling and he comes out with "Maybe I ought to tell you this before we get around all the guys I work with..." Well, that is not really a good statement to hear...makes you wonder huh?

He goes on with..."Remember there were two badges you didn't want me to earn in Iraq?" I had to think about that for a minute...one was the Purple Heart and the other? I made him type up WHAT he earned and WHY! What I can't believe is that he didn't tell me about this until almost 10 months later!!! Ugh! Anyways...here is his story (and the badge is in the picture just above the "US Army")

"February 22, 2009: My team was on a patrol from the 2-7 Cavalry Battalion. We had left our FOB (Forward Operating Base) Garryowen, about 8 am and were heading into the city. I was in an armored Humvee in the second place in line. An EFP (Explosive Formed Projectile) exploded between the truck in front of me and approximately 10 feet in front of my vehicle. I felt the concussion and the noise of the explosion was quite loud. The vehicle in front of me got hit by a few pieces of shrapnel, damaging one antenna and puncturing a spare fuel can mounted on the back. My vehicle was not damaged. This was the second IED (Improvised Explosive Devise) attack during one of our patrols. I was awarded the Combat Action Badge for this action."

As proud as I am of this handsome man...HOW COULD YOU NOT MENTION THIS TO YOUR WIFE??? {grin} I know...I know...worrying wife...it would have stressed her to know! And he is probably right!

House...Tree...Yard...Picnic...

I know I've mentioned it before, but just a reminder {grin} This isn't our first time in this area! We used to live here in the 90's and LOVED it! Anyways...in the 12 years we have been gone, things change...hmmmph...imagine that! I think it should stay EXACTLY the same...just for my benefit LOL!

Well, one of the biggest changes is that the house we used to live in is now a big open park area. They completely tore the entire housing village down. I admit...they were OOOOOLD...but they were MY oooold! We had these HUGE red brick building houses. They used to be 6 apartments in one building, but then they combined them to be 3 apartments--so you had the whole floor to yourself. It was the longest house. Stevie used to love to run up and down the hallway.

Every time we go past the old house (which is often--since it is just outside the gate), I tend to say "We used to live there. There's the big tree that used to be in our backyard. We ought to go picnic there someday." Well, as we keep going past...and going past...and going past...it has progressed now to "House...Tree...Yard...Picnic" and everyone knows exactly what I am saying. {grin}

Today Steven and I decided to stop and check out the old homestead!

This is about where my house would have been. The houses behind Steven were built about a year before we moved. He actually tried to save a guy's life who leaned his ladder up against a power line and was electrocuted during the building of those houses. The guy didn't make it unfortunately. Always look before moving ladders!

This is the big tree that was in my backyard. We raked LOTS and LOTS of leaves from this every year! Kimmy had a Little Tykes swing hanging from the bottom branch that she used to love to go swing on. We spent lots of time under the shade of the tree in the summer just enjoying life...whenever I would quit volunteering long enough to remember I had a life! (I have learned since to enjoy my slug mode time!)


This is the view of what used to be LOTS of red brick buildings. The whole thing is just grass now. No trace of them at all. Kinda strange to me!

I did manage to find one red brick left--I say it's from my house...a souvenir left just for me! Steven asked if I wanted to bring it home...but a picture is MUCH lighter and easier to move!

The only part left of our housing area is the driveway that led into our parking lot...and even that is only about 8 feet in before it hits grass. I guess that part of our life is gone...and all we have is the memories...but I have to say...they are some GREAT memories! And now we are back to make all new memories!

My FREE Sandbox That Has ONLY Cost $40 SO FAR...

Just for the record...Yes! My children are 22, almost 15 and almost 12. Now that we have that behind us {grin} we can move on with the posting!

I thought my days of sandboxes were past. We have always been lovers of the sandbox...that gritty feel of sand tracked through your house, dirty hands with sand caked under the fingernails, etc. *smile* Well, MAYBE that's exaggerating, but we have always had a sandbox at our house when the kids were LITTLE! We had the ever-famous green turtle at least a couple times (they don't do well in moves or Miami heat), we even had a big boat once (it lasted one season--let in water too easy when it rained--"abandon ship") but finally about two houses back--well, after the over-heated Miami turtle to be exact, we gave up on sandboxes because our kids were "too old" to play with them anyways...

...Until now {sigh}

We moved to Maryland in the middle of a HUGE snowstorm. (Did I mention HOW huge??) Well, our house and the house next door to us were both empty. We had monstrous piles of snow--you could almost walk OVER the fence via snowpile! As we have been settling in and happily watching to snow melt, much to our surprise, there is a sandbox under all that snow in our neighbor's empty house! (I guess the thought of digging it out to move just wasn't worth it). Well, my "too old" children REALLY liked the sandbox so..."Daddy' PLEASE go ask the housing people if we can have the sandbox!" Housing said it was abandoned and to go ahead and take it! Whoo-hoo...a FREE sandbox! Free is good, right?

Almost free...did you realze sandboxes need sand? $6 bags of sand? And 3 of them at that? Then, OF COURSE, Heidi had to go find sand toys...color coordinated cute sand toys at Target...and two sets...so there would be no fighting...plus the cool sand wheel...oh and then the cute set of sand trucks at Toys R Us...ooh and a bag of jewels at the craft store to dig and hunt for...and then a bag of lizards and snakes (plastic of course) to slither around in the sand...

So...at last count...my FREE sandbox is up to almost $40 worth of stuff to go IN the FREE sandbox *smile* but as the commercial goes...

Sandbox...free...

Toys and Sand...$40

Watching Your Teenagers Play in the Sandbox for Hours...Priceless!

Playing Around on Pi Day

Okay...I admit it...I am not a math fan! I have NEVER been a math fan...nor will I probably ever be a math fan! BUT...as the mother of 3 brainiac geeks...we learn to celebrate even the math holidays at our house {grin} March 14th is also known as "Pi Day" as it is 3.14 on the calendar. So what is Pi? According to my online dictionary: "A transcendental number, approximately 3.14159, represented by the symbol (a funny looking symbol I can't type LOL), that expresses the circumference to the diameter of a circle and appears as a constant in many mathematical expressions" Lost yet? Me too! I just think it is a good excuse to eat PIE! (But wait...I am getting ahead of myself *smile*)

The Baltimore Science Center was celebrating Pi Day! So of COURSE we HAD to go and be a part of that fun! (Hey, any excuse to play works in my book!)

One of the events was to be able to recite Pi...up to the 500 mark (or something like that anyways) Now me...I got FAR...I got to 3.14! Okay...maybe not TOO far. {grin} The kids could get about 11 spaces or so in...but were BADLY beaten by a 6 year old boy who could recite over 200 numbers! YIKES! I kept saying I could recite Pi...chocolate, strawberry, cherry...

Kimberly liked the Pi-ku...Haiku written in Pi...rhyming scheme of 3-1-4 instead of 5-7-5. Understand that? Me either...I told you this was a geek-fest right?

The kids were able to help the Science Center make the longest Pi chain...each person got to put a card with a number of Pi on it on the giant staircase in the front of the Science Center.

The Science Center even served treats! Moonpies and Apple Pies. Any holiday that involves chocolate is OKAY in my book! We managed to get LOTS of chocolate Moonpies! Yummmmmmy!

When we got home, I decided we should have our own Pi Day festivities! We had to have a pie eating contest of course! (Stevie was feeling kinda bad he didn't have his name chosen for the contest at the Science Center) So here are our lucky (or is that unlucky) contestants...ready to dig in...

Kimmy and Missy dug right in...we tried to give them a head start...we delayed Stevie beginning by 20 seconds...that should help, right??

NOPE! At 20 seconds, he PLOWS into the plate! Slurp, slurp and gulp, gulp...he is DONE and they are stil eating! We have our Pi-Day-Pie Eating-Winner!

Now here is a shot of the winner...who by the way is ALL-BOY!!! Notice the chocolate cake stuck in the nose...after we pointed that out to him...what do you think he did? Snorted it out...picked it up off the plate...and ATE it!!! EEEEWWWWWWW!! Gross!

Remember I told you any holiday that involves chocolate is a good one? Well, what would you eat for Pi Day treats? Chocolate Cream Pie! BUT...being in my house...you only get to eat it with chopsticks. Have you ever tried to eat cream pie with chopsticks? Not an easy feat for sure!


I am not 100% sure what he was trying to do...but I thought it was a pretty good picture! He reminds me of the alien on "My Favorite Martian" {grin} What a funny guy!

They're Ready for the Life in the Pool Hall Now...

My little family of pool sharks now! They spent almost 2 weeks in the motel while waiting for our house to be ready. The room got REALLY small after a very short while so the kids started hanging out down in the common areas. They have always enjoyed playing pool at Grandpa's but now it was POOL...not just "rolling the balls around". This was full-on sibiling rivalry and bragging rights pool.

In this corner we had Kimmy--the one with the most practice over the years...beward he secret weapon...silent and deadly passing of gas...sure to bring tears to your eyes and make you miss your shot!

In this corner..."maybe I can mathmatically figure the statistics of how I can make this shot Stevie" His defense...the ability to drive you crazy while he is deliberating how the shot must be made. X = y + 3.92 > 4.9999 = who know's where the heck the ball will end up!


Of course, in every group, you have the resident smart alec and show off...and yes we have ours {sigh}

And finally, rounding out team Weatherston? "Too cute to be playing this game Missy" who really didn't care if the balls went it, but had to look cute while doing it! I have lots of oops pictures of her flipping her hair out of the way *grin*

I don't think they're ready for the big leagues yet...but I'm sure they will be practicing again...just as soon as they find another pool table...bragging rights are such a hard addiction to walk away from...someone will crack and need to feel that "bragging high" again soon...and I will be there to catch it all on camera!

REALLY? Are You Serious Missy??

I really do have the grandest of intentions! I was going to take the kids to the National Zoo this weekend. I bought the FONZ pass (and no that is not "Happy Days" Fonz...but Friends of the National Zoo {grin}) so we could park free AND get a discount at the gift shop (my personal favorite exhibit), had our route planned, everything was ready...except the weather! It has been raining for about 48 hours straight...not just a light spring rain...but rivers cascading down the back hill behind my house, huge puddles and soaked-to-the-skin-run-through-the-rain-to-the-door rain! (And to think...the Boy Scouts were going camping this weekend...HEY...I think I figured out WHY it's raining!)

Anyways...we had to regroup on our exciting travel plans...and what better way than to feed them *smile* We did a few errands and then tried out a Chinese buffet I saw the other day. Missy LOVES to use chopsticks and NORMALLY I don't think anything about it, UNTIL I looked over and she is eating her JELLO with the chopsticks! Now I don't know about you...but I have a hard enough time eating Jello off a spoon, let alone trying to use chopsticks! I was pretty impressed that she was able to do it...and even more so that she didn't have Jello all over her lap!

Well, Now...This is Kind of Ironic!

So...yes...it is almost 2 am and here I am sitting reading old blog posts. I *could* be in my toasty warm bed (gotta love my heating blanket) but nooooooo...I can't breathe cause "I hab a code in my nobe"

Anyways...so I am reading old blog posts...and came across one of my first blogs posts from 2008:

www.weatherstonzoocrew.blogspot.com/2008/07/handsome-reports-in.html

It cracked me up! Here I was lamenting how jealous I am of my husband because he is in Maryland at a training and how I wanted so MUCH to be where he was {smile} My favorite line is the last line of the post: "I keep asking if maybe we could go back *grin* Who knows with the Army??!!" Isn't that hilarious?? We honestly should not be at this base at this time in our life. We were supposed to have retired in 2008. Then he got locked into going to Iraq. We should NOT have gotten orders while he was in Iraq...we did not have enough time left in service to do this move. I will take what I can get though! Even 18 months in Maryland is better than nothing! I know there is a reason for all the trials we have been through the past few years...and one day I hope we get to find out! At least someone up there is having fun with my life...throwing things at me and seeing how I handle them!

Twelve Years Later...It's Still One of Our Favorites!

One of our families MOST FAVORITE places when we lived here in the 90's was the Baltimore Science Center!!! We spent MANY hours...days...weeks {grin} exploring every inch of it! Kimberly even spent the night at the Science Center with her Girl Scout troop. So...of course...one of the first places we had to get a membership to (so we can return again...and again...and...) was the Science Center! Saturday we loaded the family up for a "Mom Mis-Adventure"! (Hey and this one we even had a GOOD one!)

The Baltimore Harbor was breath-taking (as always)! There is just something about the water that calms me (which if you know my ADD brain is AMAZING!!) I LOVE this sculpture outside the Science Center! It's "Arrrrrrrrt" as Kimberly likes to call it {grin}

The kids (and MOM!!) we very excited to find out we were going to Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" in IMAX 3-D!! Wow! That's a BIG screen to watch a movie on! It REALLY felt like things were flying at you! MUCH better than the digital 3-D movies I took the kids to in Killeen! After wiping up the drool watching Johnny Depp...we were OFF to explore the Science Center!

The kids got to go up on the roof to look out the observatory. They got some great shots of the sun with their own cameras. We're working at helping them create their own blogs to journal some of their experiences while we are living in DC...so be watching for more info on that! (They can share their own cool pictures there!)

The kids were SUPER-EXCITED about the geo-caching exhibit! They really want me to buy a GPS so they can start doing it! Kimberly had gotten interested in this quite a while ago and has tried to find a few caches just by common sense looking. She even drug her grandpa out with his GPS while he was visiting us last year. I think it looks kinda fun...but we'll have to see!

They had so many new exhibits at the Science Center. They did a HUGE remodel about five years ago (yes...I had to ask). It is SO cool...I mean it was cool before...but this is WAY better! It was so busy, so we just did the quick tour and will have to spend many more hours exploring!

We found this really cool room with hands-on stuff while we were waiting for Steven to bring the car around. I practically had to DRAG Stevie out of it...he wanted to stay and play! We'll have to plan our next trip QUICK!

Missy was getting tired and cranky as the day went on...but we figured out a way to keep her happy! "Smile Missy!"

While the kids were on the roof taking pictures of the sun...I was just soaking in the Maryland sun and enjoying the view!

The family looking out the telescope observatory...they were WAY up there! Isn't zoom a great thing? {grin}

Kimberly...looking at the sun! Didn't your mother ever tell you that can hurt your eyes? {grin}

Okay...I admit, I had to try looking at the sun too!

It was a GREAT day and I can't wait to go back! It was totally a different museum than the one we used to visit...but in a good way! I think it would have been boring to go re-do the same things after the first reminisce trip...but this has LOTS of possibiltities! And with a membership...we can go lots and lots!

I'm Replacing This House...One Piece at a Time!

At least that's what it seems like! {grin} The day we moved in, just as we were leaving to go back to the motel for the night (since we didn't have beds yet!) the fire alarm went off. Maybe that was the warning sign? We looked around but didn't see any smoke, so we called the housing office and told them about it. They said they would send the maintenance man over (Dave, as we have become on a first name basis by now LOL!) He came and was perplexed as to why it was going off, but gave us a new alarm (we could have used some Tylenol too by that point). That was visit #1.

Well, as you move into a house, you find problems with a house...and this house was no exception. He was back to look at a broken window (which was later fixed), to look at the garbage disposal which we felt was not working properly but he said was fine (but keep reading {grin}, and other smaller jobs. We started joking that he should stay for dinner since he was becoming like family. Then...came the BIG jobs...

The stairs were AWFUL! They were steep, SLICK (from years of sock-shined use) and treacherous! With my foot, I was worried about slipping down them, and of course...that's exactly what I did! I then felt like I was scaling mountains--hanging on the hand rail for dear life both up and down the stairs. That worried Steven enough, he was over at housing requesting a solution. So about a week later, here come maintenance people AGAIN to put carpet on the stairs for me! MUCH nicer!!

Our next adventure was the sink...we opened the cabinet underneath to get a soda out and Stevie says "what's all the water" (never a good statement to hear). Dave came out and decided he had to replace part of the sink. Then about two days later, after opening the cabinet...again with the water! This time Dave decides the garbage disposal (yes, the same one he said was fine) was cracked and leaking all over the cabinet) so now I have a NEW garbage disposal that WORKS! (what a concept--a garbage disposal that actually can grind the food??!!)

About this time, we are laughing about "What next?" It was funny until Steven is getting ready for work...comes down the stairs and steps in a BIG puddle of water. Several of my ONLY UNPACKED bath towels later, he determines the water heater is pouring water all over the downstairs {sigh}. A day of no water (which is probably okay--since all my bath towels are dripping) later...we have a new water heater (a BIGGER NICER new water heater)!

So if you have been counting...that's a new fire alarm, new sink (left side drain, new garbage disposal...and my new faucet from an earlier post), new carpet, new window and new water heater...all within two weeks of moving in!