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 :)
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 :)
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