Another Last Hurrah

We've had to say goodbye to many good friends out here, ones that we'll be in contact with for the rest of our lives.  Our boys had a kind of "last hurrah" with Mama C, Bug & Goober yesterday.  I got a sunburn :/  But, I also got another fabulous photo for my mantle.  SO ADORABLE!!!  We're going to miss these little guys, and their Mama.




Tristan fell into the pool last year and has been afraid to get in ever since.  He's also afraid to watch everyone else swim.  He kinda flaps around and yells at me the entire time about Brennan "he's going to drown, Mommy!" it's sad and cute.  Yesterday after hours of pool time I think Tristan finally understands that we are fully capable of preventing drowning.  Still, though... no luck coaxing him in.  He stands on the stairs and flings water at anyone nearby.  It's super annoying, especially if you're tanning right behind him.




Brennan, for the first time ever, asked to get in with the ring by himself!  Normally he will do the monkey death grip on me or Josh while he chatters in our ears and smiles/.  Yesterday he went right in and kicked about, spun in circles, and didn't cry once.  He turned purple and wore himself out, but he had a blast!  Maybe his bravery will help Tristan overcome his fears.





Noah's favorite thing to do is wait for someone to come close to the edge and then jump in next to them and splash them in the face.  This is also super annoying.  Hes been told not to, but as you can see from the photos, that's pretty much all he'll do.  He can't swim for very long because he has absolutely no body fat and gets cold quickly.  He stands against the hot bricks to bring his temperature back up (like a lizard), then he's back for more splash-drown antics.  He never swims without goggles.






Goober and Bug are brave, excellent swimmers.  They motivated my boys to get in there and be brave.  Apparently Bug doesn't normally swim above water, but he did for the first time yesterday in my pool.  YAY!  Cheerful adrenaline is a great motivator :)  Way to go, Bug!!



Goober was kindly sharing the ring with Brennan (who wanted it mostly when someone else was occupying it).  He gently helped him take it off and on every 5 seconds.  Thanks for your patience, Goob.



They were all taking care of each other and expressing deep concern over lip blueness.  We will probably see them all again our last week downtown.



The internet has been cancelled (and the way they do it makes no sense, but anyway).  Josh spent so much time on hold we had ample opportunity for pictures.  Now that we have no furniture or curtains I've been calling our living space "the fish bowl at the un-house"



The van got cleaned up and shipped out this morning.



I got most of the house completely scrubbed down.  Tomorrow is the big day.  We shall see if we get any of our deposit back.  I'm ready for this particular headache to be over.  Wish us luck!  The aparthotel we found is awesomesauce.  It has a full kitchen & 2 bedrooms, free wifi, and is right next to Retiro Park.  We will be able to save a lot of time and money by cooking for ourselves this last week.

Goodbye Boadilla

This past week has been nothing but cleaning and fixing random stuff.  Ok maybe we did relax by the pool a little.

A few things: furniture in Spain is complete crap.  There is no solid wood anything.  However, they proudly charge a small fortune for this compressed particle board furniture.  If you've ever been to Ikea, you know.  Additionally all plastics are brittle and expensive... not like our beloved rubbermaid.  I paid $100 for two large bins which broke immediately.  Never again.  Our kitchen drawers have been broken since before we got here.  We thought "hey, let's fix them".  Not so much... another fab thing Spain loves to do is not make anything universal.  The hardware store only carries the newer versions of hardware to fix whatever Ikea's selling.  So, if you happen to have 30yr old kitchen cabinets with plastic drawers (yes, I said plastic, and not the nice bendy kind), you're s.o.l. (shit outta luck for you non military folk). We did what we could, but after all the hassle and wasted money trying to find a drawer or sliders that worked, I seriously want our landlords to pay US.  Or if you have a pool pump cover with broken hinges, you won't find a decent replacement.  This is not a DIY kind of place.  

Every petroleum product is expensive... like plastics and paint, for example.  $50 for a 4L can if you have it color matched (because that's extra).  The kicker was that it really didn't match so now the walls look splotchy and we just don't have the energy to paint the entire wall.  Or the budget.  And where the hell is floor wax?!  

I miss Lowe's.  I have my Lowe's Gold card in my bag, ready for the new house and the projects in our future.  Whatever... we're almost done.  I just want to get the heck out of here already.  I am so tired of stressing out about the condition of this old house and what this family is going to expect from us.  The back awnings over the porch are ripped from being old as dirt, and again, they don't make them anymore so the entire system would need upgraded.  That's 1,000 euro, which is about eleventy billion dollars.  This shouldn't be our responsibility.  We'll see when we turn the house over if they agree with us.  Spanish people love to argue over money and responsibility.  But, thus far our dealings with Eduardo's sons have been outstanding.  They're a wonderful and understanding family.  But, enough about the stressful part of this.  There are silver linings... I think.  Hang on a second.  Breathe, Allison.

The house is so empty.  Our loaner furniture is definitely smaller than what we used to have in here.  The kids are driving me absolutely crazy, but only because I am too busy to do anything with them.  They have no toys left and most of the time they can't swim because I have to stay inside and scrub something.  We'll be done on the 1st.  

Our June is packed full of awesome.  We have an aparthotel reserved downtown near Retiro Park for our final week in Spain.  Every night I go to bed thinking of Maryland and I have dreams of getting moved in, visiting family again, being back in my country.  There was a lot to love about Spain.  I will miss it... like I miss being in the Army.  I will think back on it fondly and long to revisit it, but never be crazy enough to "sign up" for it again ;)

I am so ready to start this new chapter in our lives.  The beach, the woods, the farms... oh the places we'll go.  Once the house is done we have nothing left to worry about but canceling cell phones, closing our bank account, and getting ourselves and all our luggage to the airport on time.  Nice :)

Moving is Moving Along... Swimmingly

This past week was jam-packed with activities!  Thursday evening I did my final shoot while in Madrid, you can check it out on my photo site on facebook.  I had another scheduled, but weather and time were not on our side and I unfortunately had to cancel.  Friday I scurried through editing, checking and rechecking until I was satisfied with the end product.  

Saturday I went out with Mama C (shout out to Joshua for being the awesome man he is and taking care of all the boys for us).  We took pictures all stinking day despite the thunderstorms (which you can see rolling in).  We met up with a friend for lunch, and met a new one in the process.  Then we had dinner at Casa de Juan, which never disappoints.  On the metro ride home we both lost our minds and were laughing so hard we were crying... over absolutely nothing.  Stress relief at its finest :)   Unfortunately I didn't have time to really look at and edit any of my photos before my big bootyful MAC with Lightroom3 got packed up and shipped out.  I did convert this one and punched up the color a bit.  It was an amazing day.  Hopefully she'll write more about it.

Sunday and Monday we cleaned and sorted so that by 7am we'd be ready for the movers to arrive.  We have sooooooo muuuuuuuuch craaaaaaaaap.  Even after the yard sale and many trips to the punto limpio we still managed to fill 8 crates.  We also got the great news that someone had found Charlie and he was safely returned to my parents after two whole weeks of being gone.

Tuesday and Wednesday were our pack out days.  Josh and I spent the entire time outside trying to keep everything low stress for the kidlets.  Brennan had a tiny freak-out yesterday when he realized all the games were gone, but overall everyone has been handling it quite well.  After Brennan took a much needed nap among the dust and boxes he was less stressed.

We let them swim for the first time yesterday after the movers left and that was the perfect panacea.  Setting their temporary beds up like summer camp all together in the playroom didn't hurt either ;)

Today I started the deep cleaning and have successfully cordoned off most of the upstairs.  We're heading out later to buy floor wax and paint.  Hopefully we'll get our entire deposit back when all is said and done.  Josh is taking his car out to Barcelona tomorrow to have it shipped back.  We've got our aparthotel booked downtown. Things are moving along just fine and we're right on schedule and budget :)  I'm glad we have a full week left in the house with the internet to get everything done.  I may even have time to finish my legacy!  I want to leave a packet behind of pictures, information, and fun facts about the areas surrounding Madrid so the other families here won't miss out on local travel.  We're in the house until the 1st.  TTFN.

Josh is Back, The Clock is Ticking, My Mother's Day

The 10 days Josh was gone flew by.  As I mentioned before, the trip was a success.  We have a house outside the city with 3.5 acres of wooded land in a community that's full of wonderful stories about love and tolerance.  We're a 5 minute drive front the Patuxent River (fresh seafood), 15 minutes from our area's Farmer's Market.  We're surrounded by farms, close to natural areas and parks, even a swamp, but still close to Target ;)  I'm excited to move in, which will happen at the end of June.

The month of June will be spent on the road visiting family before Josh has to report at his new duty station.  I'm already planning that all out!  We're stopping in St. Louis, MO and Indianapolis, IN there and back and I've found plenty to do so far (all pinned up on pinterest, of course).  It's going to be another great family trip, like all the other drives from east cost to midwest we've done.  All this experience with road-trippin' has given us a plethora of knowledge about budgeting, driving with kids, the best stops, the best ways to plan, best hotels (and worst).  We've allotted a large chunk of time for ourselves to make the journey.  I'm very much looking forward to this entire transition.  But, I'm getting a few weeks ahead of myself... let's talk about the present, shall we?



The yard sale on base was a big success.  I didn't sell any prints, but everyone loved the book.  Honestly I had no expectations whatsoever so I was not disappointed at all.  A yard sale isn't the best place to market that kind of thing anyway.  I sold all the old baby toys.  All I had left was the huge fake Christmas trees, some crappy McDonald's toys, and Noah's old carseat.  Mama C showed up and kept me company the entire time, which was invaluable to the sanity of myself and my children.  Thank you again!




We hung out with Mama C a few times, even went to watch Bug play some baseball.  Well, I did.  The other boys were off inventing clubhouses and following the leader with sticks.  Then they were treated to the super special awesome expensive soccer field getting its cool down shower.  You know you're in Europe when the baseball field looks like this...



and the soccer field costs more than the school, and looks like this...



Sigh.  I hadn't even left yet and Tristan and Brennan had passed out in the van.  Noah went home with a friend for a playdate.  They love playdates out here.  You send your kid over for their only/lonely child to play with while the nanny watches them.  I had to pick Noah up with Tristan and Brennan in tow.  I try to explain to people that I can't afford to send my kids to the neighborhood preschool or get a live-in nanny, but they just look uncomfortable and a little sad for me.  We are most definitely a rare case... our housing allowance is enough to live here, but our income does NOT match this area.  Anyway.



My Mother's Day was fabulous.  We picked Josh up at the airport and I got to park for free right out front because it's not like in the States when everyone's all AHHHH BOMB BOMBS EVERYWHERE!!!  We took the kids to the park so they could ride their bikes and we could catch up on everything.  I believe this was our first time bringing Tristan to the bike trail since he got his big kid bike.  He had a blast!  I carried Brennan almost the entire time.  He has been all kinds of emotional lately with the dogs being gone, Josh just getting back, us talking about the move all the time.




He was happy to climb on the big fallen tree and had a fun time later on when we went out for pizza too though.  I think he realized Daddy was home.  Monday morning I was all proud of myself for working out.  I got all dolled up, feeling all buff and beautiful, hit the button on the gate and it just kinda stopped working.  I went to push it and it make a really bad clicking sound.  I hit the button again and it opened into the road (never did that before) and then WHAM it fell right off.  The 600lb door was in my arms, my sore arms.  I was straddling it in a skirt and heels, trying to get it to fall onto the bushes instead of the road.  I won.



Good news?  Josh got to come home early and the landlord paid for the repair.  Josh and I managed to get the door back hinged and onto the pump.  The fix-it guy was impressed with our strength and ingenuity.  It was fixed by 5:30 and works better than it used to so yay!  We spent the day getting the pool ready.  It will be done by the weekend.  The following day I just didn't feel like going home.  I went up to the base and we were there until 5pm.  The kids jumped and played, I chatted with Mom's.  I was under the shade but somehow got a ridiculous sunburn anyway.  Hooray for poisonous UV rays!



Today I've got a family shoot.  I have another one on Saturday.  The goal is to have them both edited by the 23rd, which is when they come to move our stuff.  This next week will be a whirlwind of cleaning and sorting.  One step closer to home :)

Mother's Day

I decided what I would give to my Mom for Mother's Day one day last month as I was watching my little boys destroy something, and I was taking pictures.  I always think about my mother when my kids do something crazy that makes me laugh because that's what she did... we did get into trouble once in awhile, but most of the time we just had fun.  She saw the big picture, she understood children, and she taught me that nothing is as important as "making memories" with your kids.  So, I started thinking about my childhood and my time thus far with my children and here is a list of everything, a little perspective to help us all remember what's truly important.




Making a memory is worth
Mopping a floor
Taking an extra bath
A ruined pair of shoes
Wasting water
Cuts & bruises
A dirty house
A cluttered basement
A cheap rug
Missing Church
Missing school
Missing work
Stains that will never wash
Another pair of shoes
A sunburn
All your craft supplies
A can of paint
Your interior decorating
A tank of gas
Missing your favorite show
Staying up late
Getting up early
Not having "nice" things
Another pair of shoes
Extra dishes
Hard work
A long walk
Another trip to the store
Your landscaping
Re-doing a chore the "right" way
Teaching something new
Bug bites
A couch
Alone time
A roadtrip
Your "image"
Your time
Your money





Because in the end it's the memories you make that will truly last.  Eventually my mother will go and I can't think of a single thing she owns that I would want.  She already gave me everything I need to remember her.  So... enjoy the beauty of childhood.  Celebrate the carefree spirit of children.  Let them explore their world and respect their "ignorance" of other people's opinions.  Cherish it.  Make some memories with them.  Then take pictures & clean up the mess ;)  Hopefully the lessons of my mother can help you out when you walk in on the mess beyond messes.  Try and look at it differently and see what they learned from making it.  Make a little space for them to be themselves.

I love you, Mom!  Happy Mother's Day.  Thank you for being patient and kind and for giving me the best childhood.  I am very much looking forward to my boys staying with you and making memories of their own with you & dad :)