Off to NTC

The last time DH went to NTC (2005), we dropped him off and the girls sobbed and sobbed. They begged him not to go and so we usually do not do goodbyes like that anymore because it is so hard on everyone. When he deploys to Iraq again this fall it will hopefully fall on a school day and we will get them off to school and then I will take him and stay with him till it is time to leave. On R&R's we do the same thing. Thank goodness my mom lives close by!

We dropped Chris off at 9:45 this morning and Em and Andrew were with me but they did fine. I was sad to see him go, but at least I know he will be home next month. I can do 30+ days--I think! We have so many things going on till then that I am hoping that the time will fly by. Maybe I can lose 10 lbs before he comes home too??

So DH is sitting in a gym hanging out till they fly. I never understand why they have to be there so early, but considering some of the yahoo's that he works with it is probably to keep them out of trouble!

Do you see what I see?

Abs likes to pose for pictures whereas Em prefers not to. Must be the age. These were taken at one of the Smithsonians by DH. They crack me up.

Dinosuars...Oh my!

Besides The Girl in the Watering Can and her friends, pictures Abs wanted to see the dinosaurs at the Smithsonian. She loves dinosaurs and is a walking encyclopedia about the different type, what they eat, etc. We got to the Smithsonian and came upon some fossils and Abs was so excited! We rounded the corner and saw the different skeletons and she was looking at each one and spouting off facts about the dinosaur. Then we made the mistake of having her look up to see the Pterodactyl above us and she was done. She didn't want to see the dinosaurs, learn about them or even be in the same part of the building. I tried to get a few pictures of her in front of the skeletons and she finally agreed after some convincing on my part. She faked a smile for the pictures and then we had to leave.

Apparently pterodactyl's are herbivores and she was worried they would mistake her fingers for rodents. She cracks me up!

Korean War Memorial

While in DC (I finally got the pictures on my computer) we managed to see almost everything that we set out to see and more. With 4 children in tow we thought that it would be harder, but fortunately they turned out to be good traveling companions as long as we fed them quite frequently.

One of the Memorials that I really liked was the Korean War Memorial. I had not heard anything about this one and was not sure what to expect. The statues of the soldiers that were made to represent every walk of life were huge. The wall had etched into it faces of those that were KIA, MIA or POW's. There is so much symbolism in the memorial as to be expected, from the 38 statues representing the 38th parallel, to the 38 months that were spent fighting the Korean War. I think what affected me the most was the way that the statues reflected in the wall and looked like ghosts.

"OUR NATION HONORS HER SONS AND DAUGHTERS WHO ANSWERED THE CALL TO DEFEND A COUNTRY THEY NEVER KNEW AND A PEOPLE THEY NEVER MET"

The Girl with the Watering Can

My mom purchased a book a while back titled The Girl With the Watering Can. She read it a few times and Abs really liked it. The book is about the little girl in Renoir's painting who travels through other works of art and wreaks havoc on them--taking the bow out of the girl's hair, losing the hoop in another, and then finally going back and setting everything straight. (Maybe she likes it so much since she seems to wreak havoc everywhere she goes?)

When we went to Washington DC, we asked each child what they wanted to see while we were there and Abs wanted to go to the National Gallery of Art to see the works of art in the book. She was so excited when we made the plans to go one day and she kept talking about the pictures and everything that happened throughout the book. When we got into the museum we made her ask the woman at the information desk for the location of the painting and off we went. She was so excited when she first set eyes on it! She ran to look for the girl's friends, but we only found three since they have so many works of art that they have to rotate them through. Thank goodness The Girl with the Watering Can was there!

How to drywall

DH tripped over a shoe or a toy last night and fell into the wall and made a huge hole about a foot long and about 6-8 inches wide. Just call him Grace. Hopefully he can figure out how to drywall and repair it before he leaves because I keep imagining things crawling through the hole. Kind of creeps me out.

Syrup anyone?

So the jelly making didn't work out like it was supposed to. We made 31 jars and only 8 jars are actually jelly. It says in the directions that we can open them reboil them, add more pectin and then re-sterilize the jelly jars and then can them again. Boy, that sounds like loads of fun. Sad thing is that we have more juice to use up and DH leaves Friday. Maybe we will just eat waffles and pancakes with grape syrup every night while he is gone?

Free 411

If you call 1-800-FREE-411, you can get directory assistance for free. You have to listen to an ad before you connect and then an ad before you actually get a number.

Update:
I just tried this and it did work, and didn't take long at all. It is voice automated so you have to keep the children quiet or it won't let you do it. They mentioned that if you need to speak to a live operator then you can sign up on their website and then when you call in you can speak to one.

I usually use 411 in the car so this would be great, but if I am in the car I usually have the children. Wonder if they can not talk for two minutes?

Sign up sheets

I was watching the Today show this morning and they had the Duggar Family on there with all 17 of their children. Of course I had to rewind and watch the whole segment and I was furious! Matt Lauer asked them if they (the parents) felt like they didn't have enough one on one time for each of their children. Their response was........

THEY HAVE A SIGN UP SHEET IN THE KITCHEN!

Can you believe that???? In order to spend one on one time with your children they have to sign up when they want to have it? I wish I could have seen how many spots were open up to them. Of course the kids don't think that they are being slighted, but the one son said he doesn't know any different, that he is used to having such a large family.

I think that is the most ridiculous and cruel thing to do. You shouldn't have to sign up or earn the right to spend time with your parents. It shouldn't be a reward to spend time with your mom or dad. I was appalled that they would do this, or that anyone would.

On another note, all 17 of their children stood there during the interview and only one moved around. Weird, my youngest two would have been all over the place.

And babies make 8

My inlaws had one huge dog named Max. I don't really care for Max, but they are devoted dog owners. Then they acquired Tiger that was left in a field. After that they took on our cat Maisy since she would stalk Junior and he has a lot of skin allergies and we needed to get her out of the house so that he would be more comfortable. Their little family was plugging away when they picked up a stray neighborhood dog which they named Schatzi. They had her checked out and were getting ready to have her spayed when they found out she was pregnant (not by their dog). So yesterday afternoon in the span of 2 1/2 hours 6 little puppies were added to the family.

We went to see them today and they are cute. They think that there are 4 boys and two girls. My MIL wants to keep two of them and my FIL wants to find them ALL good homes. I tried to talk to her about adding an additional two dogs to the mix and how that would make it hard to go anywhere and how they couldn't afford to board 4 dogs. She told DH that they would just take the RV (a large van type) and the dogs could sleep on the bed and they (Mil & FIL) would sleep on the floor! I'm sure it would happen too.

They are very responsible pet owners and if I ever come back as an animal I want it to be their dog or cat. The dogs get a leg of lamb each week cooked for them. Tonight while we were eating she got up from dinner and was cooking up some chicken for their dinner. Our cat Maisy is leading the high life over there with special meals, toys, etc. No wonder she never comes out to see us anymore, she doesn't want to leave!

My MIL is sleeping by the dog each night because she wants to make sure that Schatzi takes good care of her puppies and that the runt doesn't get pushed out of the way. She is also supplementing with goat milk the runt's diet.

The best part....my MIL made several different beds for Schatzi to choose from when she was ready to give birth. Instead Schatzi decided that their one year old couch would be a better idea and MIL agreed, so she was allowed to give birth to her puppies on their couch! When I have people guess where they were born they usually choose the bed and I am sure she would have been allowed to if she wanted!

Needless to say I sat on an outdoor chair when we went over there today. While FIL and DH are at NTC I'll help her pick out a new couch so I can recline in their living room again.