I do love my children, but ...

...we could all use a bit of a break from each other. I deliberately kept Alex home on Friday so we could have "one last special day". Four days later the kids and I have been each others' constant companions 24/7. And it seems that tomorrow is looking like another doozy of a day, made all the more poignant because Terry is having dinner with a friend after work. Yep, I'm alone with these cherubs from the moment they wake until the moment they fall asleep.  Here's a photo of them being adorable playing in the snow.

I still get a thrill ...

... out of letting the kids play outside without adult supervision. We lived in the center of a big city, in an apartment, for essentially their entire lives. A backyard is still thrilling to me. I get to stay inside and get something accomplished (even if it is just a blog entry) and they get fresh air and exercise. Win/win.

(edited to add photos: As you can see, they were chalking the deck and loving every minute)

СУП С ФРИКАДЕЛЬКАМИ

Every Tuesday, the soup at sadik is soup with "frikadelki". I'm not entirely sure what frikadelki are but as it's a soup with vegetables and meatballs and I know the word for vegetables, let's call them meatballs. Every Tuesday Zoltan tells me he had his very most favorite soup today.

As any good mom would, I went looking for a recipe for this soup. I found this one. I loved the photos to show step by step what it all should look like. I used Google Translate when I wasn't entirely sure what I needed to do. And I added breadcrumbs to my meatballs because they were not coming together without it.

It was fast - definitely within 1/2 hour. Zoltan of course didn't want any, but I took it for my lunch (in Alex's thermos) for after skating. It hit the spot! This is definitely being added to the roster ...

The final piece of the puzzle

I am thrilled to report that the final piece of the puzzle has been put into place. This week I hired a lovely lady to take care of the children in the morning and get them where they need to go. I am now free to be excited about the upcoming A-100 class!

Wordless Wednesday

Soon to be a working mama

When Terry joined the foreign service, I quit my job as an attorney in Philadelphia so that I could accompany him all over the world. I conveniently became pregnant two weeks after my last day at work and being a mom has been the bulk of my "employment" since then. Even when I was CLO, I was never away from home/the children more than 8 hours a day, 4 days a week - including commute.

What this all means is that the whole family is about to get thrown into a huge turmoil. Chores that have been mine for the last 7 years now need to be shared. My children won't even see me in the morning when they wake. I have a feeling I'll spend a lot less time on Facebook.

I am both excited to once again be a professional, and terrified about how the family will adjust to the new life.

On the whole, though, I am mostly excited - especially as each piece of the puzzle fits into place. Zoltan was easy - he can go full time to his preschool, and he's finally becoming comfortable there.  Both days this week he played with everyone; he told me yesterday he likes speaking Russian.

For Alex there's been a lot more anxiety as those darned snow days last week made it impossible to call facilities to see if anyone had any space in March. As it turns out, the after school care center that I walked to in 10 minutes actually takes the kids outside EVERY DAY. In rain. In temps as low as 15F (yeah still plenty warm but lower than the school's outdoor recess policy so I'll take it gleefully). They tell parents to bring boots, umbrellas, whatever. They do kitchen projects like make vegan cookies or homemade play doh. Did I mention they go outside every day and are a 10 minute walk from home? They also have a summer camp that books up week by week so if there's any gaps in the Russian camp there's a backup.

The very last piece of the puzzle is morning care. I'm meeting a woman today and if it isn't a good vibe I have a few more applicants I can call. I am also amazingly lucky in the friends I have made in since we got here - two fellow moms have offered to pitch in if I end up short. Think about it. These people have known me barely 6 months and are willing to take my children in at 6:30am and get them to school. I didn't think this kind of thing happened outside the foreign service, where 6 months is an eternity and people become each other's "emergency contacts" within weeks.

Wordless Wednesday

It finally begins

It makes no sense at all, but three times is no longer a coincidence. Something about having a cold/being sick makes Alex's GERD act up. She was sick last week and coughing up a storm now (even though she didn't have any stuffiness or runny nose during the illness!) Interestingly, the tummy bug of last month did not have the same effect.

So, it finally begins. Three weeks off dairy. If that doesn't stop the coughing, three weeks off soy. Then gluten. Please if it's anything let it be dairy. I'm a little excited to try a 100% dairy free yogurt, for mine I've been using starter with some skim milk in it.

Breadmaking

In an attempt to take it to the next level, I have sought out breadmaking books and recipes. This is a seeded ale boule from Kneadlessly Simple. Although the bread stuck to the cast iron pot (not supposed to happen) and I cut my fingers on the crust trying to get it out (with real blood, although none got on the bread).

But isn't it so pretty?

USA vs. Russia

When we were researching St Petersburg before moving to post, we read one random piece of advice to the effect that it's better to buy your laundry detergent in Russia rather than bring a favorite brand, because only Russian detergent can get rid of Russian strength dirt and grime.  This put firmly into our minds the idea of "extra strength" Russian dirt and grime, and by corollary, Russian germs.

Fast forward to now. Last month Alex has her very first ever tummy bug. This week she couldn't enjoy the two snow days with her 102 fever, headache and exhaustion. Again, very first time to be sick like this. She's 6 years old.

I say American germs win. 

Snow day!

Yesterday might very well have been the first snow day that we were actually in Maryland for and that I decided was completely legitimate to shut everything down. It doesn't hurt that Alex was under the weather anyway and I am now looking directly into the whole "two working parents" thing starting in just a few weeks, so that a family snow day is especially special.

Here's Terry measuring the snow in the back yard. If you can't see, it's 11".

And here's Terry washing his fur hat in the snow as instructed when he bought it in Russia.

And the children playing in the snow, in the hour or so during which Alex was feeling fine.

Wordless Wednesday

Finally finally finally

Today I received my offer to join the 176th Generalist class of A-100. Starting March 10 I begin my foreign service career!

Eating out of the pantry

Back when we thought I would start working in January we started to load up the freezer with dinners and leftovers to make weeknight mealtimes easier. Then it didn't happen. Then we realized we didn't have any more plastic containers. Or room in the freezer for anything. We also realized that our budget had sort of relied on a second paycheck starting in February, so there was some rejiggering to do there.

All of that combined to produce the "pantry challenge". I am 100% confident we can live off our pantry for at least one week, excepting a few weekly necessities. I have allotted $20 as part of the challenge to load up on milk, eggs and fruit. Depending on what kind of dent we make, the challenge might run 2 weeks. I'll post how it goes.

Tonight we're serving up leftovers from our housewarming party last night. Pumpkin and spinach ziti, or Spanish rice? It's fun to have options.

Wordless Wednesday

National Building Museum

Most parents around here who have been have raved about this museum. It's one of the few in the DC area you have to pay to go to ... but then there was a Certifikid coupon ... and cue up our family outing.

We didn't realize that the parking meters near the museum would be 2h limit even on a Saturday, and we hadn't brought quarters. The museum shop will give you quarters but only $2, which will last one hour. It turned out the meter we parked at was broken, only discovered after feeding several quarters into it, and a parking enforcement guy happened by just as this was going on and told us what we could do (call a number on the meter, give them the code for the meter and get a confirmation code back - then we could park free for 2 hours ... or rather, park for the cost of the quarters we'd already put in)

But I digress.

I do now see why the reviews by single adults are not as enthusiastic as the heaps of praise given by parents. There are a few interesting exhibits about building stuff. We poked into the current exhibit about Los Angeles and some of the architecture and infrastructure projects over the last 60 or so years. The rest of the time we played.

There's a room with various types and sizes of building blocks. Some are small enough to put together on the very large light up from below table (pretty cool). The chairs are made of the same sturdy foam and have some of the shapes of the pieces.

 Then there were the much larger, almost child size pieces wherein Alex built herself a little house to hide in. Around the room are showcases of various types of building blocks on the market in various parts of the world over the last century or so.

The Building Zone is only for children ages 6 and under, so this will be our last and only year. Tickets to this room are included in admission but you get a specific time you can go and only get  45 minutes to be there. The kids loved it. There's a mini house decked out with a kitchen, living room area etc. There's a slew of costumes of various professions (it took a bit to get Zoltan out of the fireman jacket), a train table, a car carpet, various forms of building objects like Magna-tiles, soft foam blocks, plenty of enormous Legos - the kids and Terry built a house here too.

There's a reading nook with (almost) all books about building and construction.

 In short, 45 minutes is barely enough time but I like that they restrict the numbers so all kids can easily get to all activities. When we got home, both kids napped for 2 hours. Verdict? Yeah, we'll go back for sure. 

Fishies!

Alex has been asking for a fish for a little while, and I know Terry has missed having a pet around the house. A few weeks ago we got the aquarium and set it up, worked to get the water to the right pH and such. Then things got busy, we went to the cabin, etc. We finally got around to welcoming five new fishies into our lives. Being guppies, one female was pregnant when we brought them home and delivered within the first week. It will be exciting to see how many babies survive into adulthood - the cycle of life acting out in our own home!

Edited to add: a few weeks into this new experience, illness has struck. One adult and all the remaining babies have fallen to Ick. Yes, that is really the name of the disease. We're hoping to keep the rest alive.

A place for everything, and everything in its place

Once we got through Tummy Bug 2014, there was the one last basement chore I'd been wanting to complete: the organization of the play room.  There are still a few stragglers - the dresser that needs to move to its new home in the study/guest room, the toy workbench we've been trying to sell on craigslist (Anyone want one? We can't sell a thing on that site to save our lives.). But as of today, every item either has a reasonable home, or has been thrown away or packed away for future rotation. I'm proud of the results.

couldn't resist one pic from the epic tummy bug

 

Wordless Wednesday

Jammin' on the jam

Somehow, this summer I neglected to mention that we canned a full 17 pints of peach jam. We'd gotten a big box of seconds and didn't have much time to deal with them, so rather than trying to can slices, or make a pie, or whatever, we jammed it all.  Then we thought about how we'd have to give a lot away (they make great Christmas gifts!)

Then we started eating it. Particularly, Zoltan started eating it. It is the "j" of his pb -n- j. It's the flavor and sweetener in his yogurt. He puts it on his pancakes.

In four months we have gone through seven jars and today I opened the eighth.

Oh, IBM/Computershare :-(

Somewhere in my youth, or childhood ....  my parents bought me one bright shiny share of IBM stock. It came as a nifty actual piece of paper that they put into a frame and propped up on a shelf in my bedroom.  As I was a child or even a baby (who knows when they bought this share? Maybe it celebrated my birth) I was listed as a minor and my dad as the custodian on the account.

For all these years, I have continued to own this stock. It's split, I've been doing dividend reinvestment all this time so eventually I have bought a share or two, and the value has increased of course. All this means I now have 3-and-a-fraction "book" shares in addition to the one bright shiny paper share. Somewhere along the line, a company called Computershare started managing the stock.

For various reasons, now is the time for me to deal with this stock. And wow what an ordeal it is!!

The first step in doing anything at all is to transfer the shares into my name alone. I asked if it would be simpler if my dad just sold the shares, but because I am now in fact no longer a minor it doesn't matter that he is written as the custodian. So for the purposes of getting rid of these shares it doesn't matter that his name is on it, but to get his name off it will cost be a bunch of money and time. Sounds about right?!?

First I learned I would need to fill out a form and acquire a "medallion guarantee" certifying that my signature is the actual signature of me, the person who will become the account holder. A notary stamp is NOT sufficient, which is written in all caps and bold and made very very clear. Unfortunately, these things are available only through financial institutions. Of course, I use credit unions and primarily online institutions. No local brick and mortar. And because banks are agreeing to pay up if I'm not really me, of course they only provide these things to their own customers. In comes the Fedex charge to send the form to my financial institution (but hey, at least they do it! Not every place does.)

Then, and much more frustratingly, I discovered I need that paper stock certificate that was last seen in the childhood home my mother sold ten years ago. There is absolutely, 100% no way to do anything with this stock until I hold in my hand the paper share. I can pay about 10% of the value of the stock I have to acquire a new one from IBM (to then turn around and send it back to them with the magical "medallion guarantee" and another form or two). I asked the oh-so-helpful customer service lady whether, if I bought stock today, I would receive paper shares. She said no. She agreed that if I bought and then sold a share in the last however many years, this requirement of a paper share would of course not be necessary. I asked why I am being penalized just because we bought the share several decades ago. She wasn't amused.

Yes, the value of the stock is greater than what I will be shelling out in order to be able to have the option of selling it. However, it has cost me plenty of time and annoyance (and soon also cash) to deal with this. Trust me, not I nor anyone whose investment choices I have any control over will ever buy IBM stock, or any stock through Computershare as I cannot tell what requirements are coming directly from IBM and which are made up by Computershare.

* Note: I've edited the name of the not-IBM company. It's Computershare, not Compushare.

Maybe we aren't supposed to leave the cabin?

So our last two trips back to Maryland from cabin have both occurred during snowstorms that basically shut down the DC area. Maybe we are actually supposed to just stay there forever?

Other highlights of the MLK, Jr. weekend cabin trip:

Ricketts Glen. It is such a beautiful area and Terry just told me the story of Ricketts, who was a logger who clearcut most of the area but recognized the special wonderfulness of the place and set it aside to preserve/conserve. We all bundled up and took a short hike to some falls. Terry got some wonderful photos like yesterday's Wordless Wednesday. And some goofy ones, seen below ("Daddy, take my picture!")

Zoltan's tummy bug. Not exactly a "highlight" but an important event. Especially important as we just realized last week that he had not puked since being a baby with spitup - which is only sort of the same thing. In four years the child has never had a tummy bug. Alex has puked once since she was two. We've been lucky here. But because I noticed it, something had to happen. Let the record show that we only replaced the defunct washing machine on our very last trip to the cabin. What a blessing that was! Four episodes within a few hours all in the late-to-middle of the night and only one made it into a vessel intended to receive the "offering". We did two loads of laundry and had two more we had to bring home in segregated plastic bags. Between Zoltan actually calling for me and my imaginations I slept all of four hours Monday night. Which leads to what I did in that sleep deprived state ...

Snowstorm 2014. I wavered a lot about whether we should just spend another day at the cabin (see the title of this entry). In the end, however, with Zoltan being puke-free for six hours and holding down water for sure, and crackers for maybe, we decided to try to get home. The kicker to this story is that we had driven both cars up, because we were taking up our new futon (that I never got to sleep on as it went downstairs, and I slept upstairs on the couch, see the item immediately above). I am not a great snowstorm driver. I am a bit hazy on exactly when we left the house and we did stop at Rite Aid for Pedialyte and the gas station for gas before really "beginning" the journey. I believe the door to door was right around 6.5 hours ... usual is around 5 hours. We spent too much highway time going 45 mph or below and it wasn't always my fault.

All in all though, we still love the cabin. Just maybe not so much in the winter.

Wordless Wednesday

Renovation - Nearing the end

I am closing in the on finishing the study.   The door is built to cover the breaker box.  I ended up putting hinges on the trim that then attaches to the wall.  This seems to work pretty well.  I also added a few additional screws from the plywood to the trim to help hold it in place, since there is quite a bit of weight now on the trim.  Additionally I added some L brackets at all the corners to tie all the trim together.  This should help make it studier.  Additionally I added a magnet at the bottom to keep the whole thing closed.

The room is nearly finished.  I started moving the stud furniture in the room so other parts of the house could start being cleaned up.  I still have a little bit of chalking to do around the door then I will have to do touch up paint.  Allin all I am so close it is starting to fell like I have actually accomplished something.  

Mission: Completion (sort of)

We have been busy, busy, busy. Terry's writing a post about finishing the study/guest room and - yes - that means it is finished! And, with the room in move-in condition we moved in!

Hi, honey

 All the study furniture got out of the "media" room and we're still debating exactly how we'll lay out the guest room portion so none of that has gone in yet.

With the study furniture gone, we were able to go buy those bookcases I've been waiting for and get the books out of boxes in the basement closet. As we seem to have culled more books than I thought, we also had room to put up the small mountain of family snapshots.

My amazing husband also redid the kitchen pantry with more, adjustable shelves so a great number of small kitchen appliances were able to find their way into the kitchen. Really, anything that gets used at least once a week deserves a place here, but until now there just wasn't room.

In the spirit of organization, we have also tackled the linen/hallway closets. One is now entirely devoted to kitchen equipment. Even with the additional pantry space the kitchen is, as I may have mentioned before, too small. We even got to pull three boxes of lesser-used kitchen/dining-ware out of Zoltan's bedroom (4 year old boys don't really need closets) and found new homes for the contents of the 2 large boxes. Thus, only one smaller box returned to Zoltan's closet. The other hallway closet now houses all bathroom and linen related items. And most of a shelf is still empty!

The final step of all this organization will be to go through all the kids' toys, purge what should go and pack away a subset of rotating toys like we used to do ... now that there is room in the basement closet for all that stuff.

And then it will feel (mostly) like home.

A typical night

8:00pm: Kids are tucked into bed.
8:06pm: Zoltan calls "Mommy, mommy!"  Turns out he "needs" the potty. Let him go. "Mommy, I want you to be with me." Chats a mile a minute while sitting on the toilet. When I can finally break in, I ask if he's done. No, didn't make anything. Tuck him back into bed.
8:15pm: Zoltan calls "Mommy, mommy!"  Turns out he is "thirsty". Bring him some water. Tell him to go to bed and I don't want to hear from him anymore.
8:22pm: Zoltan calls "Mommy, mommy!"  Turns out he "had a bad dream". Can't have dreams when you aren't asleep. Give him one more big hug and kiss and tell him to get some sleep so he can have sweet dreams.
8:26pm: Zoltan calls "Mommy, mommy!"  Turns out he wants to know what we're going to do tomorrow.
8:30pm: Zoltan calls "Mommy, mommy!"  Daddy goes in this time and tells him to go to bed. Because, you know, daddy means business.
8:55pm: Zoltan calls "Mommy, mommy!"  Turns out he needs the potty, and with a child you're trying to get out of pullups you allow every false call. This time he actually goes.

Wordless Wednesday

Renovation Update - The end is near

This weekend was an exciting weekend.  We are closing in on finishing the study. On Saturday I ran right after breakfast to get trim and some other miscellaneous things for the house at Home Depot.  Got back and proceeded to work on getting the trim painted.  My sawhorse only allowed me to paint half the trim at once. You can see in the photo to the left.  So I started with the door trim since that is the first thing that needs to go up.  While I was waiting for that to dry I worked on cleaning up the doors from the side table.

One really nice thing about the gas heat in our house is it makes everything so dry that you don't have to wait long for the paint to dry.  I was able to get two coats on the trim with a last round of touch up before the game.  In the morning the door trim was done and I did a quick coat on the floor trim after coffee but before breakfast.  Then I started to hang the trim around the door.  I ran into an issue with my brad nailer.  Basically it was not working.  It appears sitting in storage for seven years dried up the piston with a rubber ring and the pressure could not move it.  So I oiled everything really well and put it back to together.  It took a little work getting the nailer back in shape but finally it was.  Once that was going the trim went up in no time. It is amazing how much faster the right tool makes things.  It is also amazing how people built house before power tools.  That is some skill and toughness.  Also explains why houses were generally smaller.  The photo on the right shows just the door trim up.

I managed to get on three coats of paint on the second round of trim before nap.  Once that was dry it was no time to cut and hang the rest of the trim. On the left you can see the final room with the trim up.

There still is a bit to do.  We need to do some touch up painting where we caulked the trim.  Also I still need to figure out a way to install the door over the breaker box to cover it but still make it accessible.  So far all the hinges I have tried have thwarted me, but I have one last idea.  More on that later if it works.

Kiwi Crate

I'd heard rave reviews of Kiwi Crate for a good year or so. For Hanukkah, my mom got the kids a subscription. I can't say enough good things about it.

I love that they include every single thing you need for the projects - even down to tape. Alex was able to follow the step by step instructions (with pictures) without any help, although I was a pretty active and excited observer. I love all the little extras - a few additional projects you can put together, the pair of scissors they include in the first crate of the subscription because a lot of the projects need cutting, the extra glow sticks that are only actually needed if you do the additional projects, the booklet with stories and activities all on the theme of the projects.

The kit comes with 2 projects plus the add-ons mentioned above. We managed to do one project between opening gifts and showers/bedtime, which means it took fewer than 10 minutes. Alex slept with her new glowworm stuffed animal for several nights and Zoltan spent days petting and hugging his.

Because my mom is eager, she ordered the subscription well in advance and we've already received all 3 crates. The third crate (I skipped the 2nd for now) was winter themed. The "extra" was a snowflake cookie cutter and recipes for sugar cookies and salt dough to make ornaments.  One of the main projects was malfunctioning and this is where I get to extol the quality of their customer service.

I don't like that there are no phone numbers anywhere on their web site; you have to email your problem and wait for a reply. But, to their credit, the reply came only a few hours later. They immediately sent a replacement for what didn't work AND told me where to find a similar product in a craft store if I didn't want to wait for delivery.

When relaying everything to Terry, I marveled at the good customer service we've been receiving lately. After thinking about it a moment, I observed "Maybe we're just used to bad service after 4 years of Russia and then Comcast."

Fat Brain Toys

We have been happy consumers of Fat Brain Toys for several years now. I like how most of their stuff isn't plastic crap. They tell us where most of the toys are made and even break it down age and gender-wise who's buying the products.  I even spent a November Gratitude extolling their virtues.

And then they got even better.

Last we knew, an item was missing from our Christmukkah order and they shipped it out right on time. Of course, it was a replacement for something that never came so they didn't charge us for it. It arrived the morning of the first night of Hanukkah. However, the night before that I had discovered the original item that had, in fact, been included in the original order.

I called to find out what to do and was told to follow the process for "returns" outlined on their web site. So, I did. Then they refunded us the cost of the item because, I assume, it was considered a regular return. I called to explain what happened and to tell them to put the charge back on.

The lady sent me a $5 credit as a thank you for the call. And by the way, all this fuss was for an item that cost $7.95.

Winter weather observation

Last night we finally got some snow. Today we finally got some cold weather. The kids lasted all of 5 minutes outside this morning. Already going soft? Maybe. But I also note that - presumably because of all the tall buildings - there's rarely a blustery wind in Piter other than on the bridges. Here the wind was whipping everything about, including the snow that got in the kids' faces. I am a little surprised at us that we aren't likely to go back out and play in the beautiful, pristine snow!

Wordless Wednesday

One Little Word 2014

Last year I jumped on the bandwagon. When I hesitated about something, I remembered to "trust". When I wondered about someone's behavior or questioned their motives, I remembered to "trust". When I questioned my own ability, I remembered to "trust". It served me so well I am doing it again.

This year my word is:
Health
I'll be focusing on all aspects: physical, emotional, spiritual.
http://aliedwards.com/blog/one-little-word

I'm BACK

After huge amounts of stress and anxiety, after 3.5 months, I am back on the register with my shiny new clearance. I am 11 out of 126 on the Consular register. Come on January, come on March invites, let's make this official!

I think this is the best early-birthday present I could have asked for.

Stain stains

A long, long time ago (seriously. It was before we joined the foreign service.) Terry's dad made a super cool hamper. It looked just like a bedside table, but inside the piece was a pull-out hamper. We placed an order. And then left the country.

Terry's dad did us one better and made a matching set: one hamper and one real bedside table. Then he put it somewhere safe and essentially forgot about it as we weren't coming for it any time soon. Fast forward seven years and the tables are in our house.

We had to stain them to make them match the bedroom furniture we already had - all dark and walnut-y. We had to sand down the table tops and eventually attach them to the bases. We had to apply a sealant something on top of the stain.

But they are now almost finished and oh, so pretty! I can't wait to get these babies into our room.

Renovation - Floor down

Last Saturday, Lynne planned on taking the kids to the botanical gardens to meet up with friends.  I planned to stay home all day and lay the tile floor.  Laying the floor is a kind of a slow process as you have to lay some tile glue down, then wait for it to dry some and get tacky.  Then you lay down the tile in that area.  This gets repeated many times as you can't lay glue on too much of the floor or you would be tracking glue all over the new tile and anywhere else in the house you roam.  Well, on Saturday I managed to work through the room laying the tile and getting it all down.  In the end I am really happy with the floor.  Lynne was also pleased with the final product.  During the waiting time I managed to stain the end tables some more (more on those in another post later) and finish the cabling in the adjacent room.  Slowly we are moving towards finishing this room off.

Wordless Wednesday

Renovation - Prepping the floor.

I am trying to get better about the renovation posts and making them a little more timely.  Since last weekend the door is painted and rehung.  It is much nicer now - without the globs of excess paint it actually can close. I still need to put the door knob back on and put the new strike plate on the door jamb (the old one was no longer brass from all the coats of paint).  Then it will be done.

This week I also worked on leveling the floor for the new tile (this is the photo in the post).  The old floor consisted of carpet (that we ripped up) with tile underneath.  Many of the tiles near the walls were broken when they installed the tacking strips for the carpet, so we can not use that flooring.  So, we are going to be installing a new tile that looks like a fake hardwood floor.  Not the fanciest but the tile is very durable and considerably cheaper and easier to install than real hardwood.  In order to install this I needed to make the entire floor level.  So out came concrete that I used to fill in holes in the floor and where there was tiles missing.  If all goes well this weekend I am hoping to lay the new floor.  

What the hell Rockville?

I'm a planner. I like knowing what's going on and what the options are. It's December in the USA and I knew there would be Santa sightings. So I went looking for information about wheres and whens. Nothing.

I read in The Patch today that Santa hit Town Square YESTERDAY in an armored vehicle. Bet that would have been fun to see, eh? Then tonight during dinner we hear a fire truck sirens all a'blaring. It's coming closer. I guess a neighbor's house is on fire? But no, just as it rolls past our house we realize Santa's on the truck. We all rush to check it out.

Zoltan is the smallest and his chair is the farthest from the front door. He never even catches a glimpse. Thusly, he becomes completely hysterical, crying and wailing, because he missed it. If I had known Santa was coming, we had plenty of time from when we first heard the sirens to come out and see. But no, there was no way to prepare.

I finally had to tell Zoltan it wasn't our religion anyway so he should stop crying.

Sigh. Out of the mouths of babes

Tonight...
Alex: I don't have a phone to play games on.
Me: Right, so you have to play games in other ways.
Alex: You mean like tablets?
Me: NO, like on boards.
Alex: What are boards?

Later in the evening, talking about a new snowman stuffed animal
Zoltan: Mommy, I am sleeping with Frosty tonight
Me: Yeah, we like Frosty
Zoltan: Yeah, it is so yummy on cake

Wordless Wednesday

Renovation time

This Saturday Lynne took the kids to the Ballet with Auntie Heather and Harrison.  I decide to skip hunting one day and concentrate on getting something moving the in the study downstairs.

Last time I wrote anything the walls were spackled and needing paint.  Painting has since be completed (mostly by Lynne during nap time and on sadik days).  So now I have been working on the drop ceiling.  First I installed the drop ceiling grid, then a new light was installed within the grid.  The first photo shows the drop ceiling grid installed with the lights. 

Next I started installing the drop ceiling tiles.  I had to leave one area open to install the air ducts.  This required a trip to Home Depot for parts.  Once back I completed the duct work, terminating all the cables in the room, and installing the outlet covers.

With the duct work complete I finished installing the ceiling tiles.  Now the ceiling is done. I pulled the door to the room off its hinges so I could sand down all the old paint.  It is amazing that a contractor was paid to do a job this bad.  The guy painted over dirt and left paint drips everywhere.  With all that extra paint lots of doors in our house don't properly close.  I am slowly working on correcting that.  Last night I got the door sanded and started painting again.  So the list of work to is slowly dwindling.  We still have to finish painting the door and rehang it, touch up paint the walls where I made a mess putting up the drop ceiling.  After that I need to level the floor, then install the tile floor.  And lastly paint and install the trim work.  Lots to do but lots less.

Scranton

In the seven years since we bought the cabin, we have never spent more than a week a year there. 90% of our time there has been spent over the summer or nearby months. This means that we have thoroughly explored the library, the beach club, our property, and a couple of local playgrounds. We've hit the Wilkes-Barre mall and shopping centers. We haven't had the time or inclination to explore farther afield.

Enter: The D.C. Tour. This summer alone Alex and I got at least 2 full weeks here, maybe more. Terry and Zoltan got a bit less. We've taken two four-day weekends this fall/winter. And, we have now visited Scranton.

The first visit was just me and the kids. We visited the Everhart Museum, Scranton's own Science/Art/History museum. Yeah, you read that right. There was some event going on in the art gallery so we didn't get to check that out as our visit got cut short due to bad behavior, but we did get through the science (dinosaurs, rocks - many of which glowed under UV light) and the history (I can remember Egyptian and African art and a video of interviews and "traditional" dancing; "traditional" in quotation marks simply because I am not educated enough to make a judgment). The grounds are also lovely and back right into a park where we would have visited post-museum. Maybe next time.

The more recent trip was to the Steamtown train museum, not to be confused with the Trolley Museum located across the parking lot and the destination of our next Scranton trip. This time Terry and his dad accompanied us. I made sure we got there in time for the locomotive repair shop tour, which I thought would fascinate the kids until I remembered, mid-tour, that kids don't like tours. They were amazingly well behaved though and as there were some super-cool things to see and we did stay in motion a good bit of the time, it went well. The rest of the museum was also well done, and I am so glad we stumbled on the History section (you had to go back outside into the train yard, around 2 train cars and into another door) because there were the replica train cars we got to run around.

Our hope is that next time we'll have a whole day to devote to Scranton and get to Old Forge for pizza.

"Old" friends

Something I think every foreign service person would recognize: having in your life people who knew you when is important, but it is equally important to have people who knew you where.

Wordless Wednesday

Celebrating birthdays

Every year for the kids' birthdays Terry and I argue about how to celebrate. He prefers the way he grew up: birthday child chooses dinner and cake. That's it. No party, no gifts, nothing more. I grew up differently; birthdays were a BIG DEAL.

This year I think we found our happy compromise. Yes, the birthday child gets to choose the dinner we make and the kind of cake. This year their birthdays were on Saturday so they also got to choose the day's activity from a curated list. Plus, we have introduced the coupon book. It's a gift with no tangible residue (I do agree with Terry that the kids have too much stuff) and the kids have been thrilled to use them.

This year's coupons were (2 each):
- one TV show even after mom and dad said no
- one dessert without eating a good dinner
- one trip to a cafe or ice cream shop with just mom or dad (this was sweet, they pooled them once so the whole family could go together)
- one treat at the supermarket
- 30 minutes of playing on the tablet

6-8 weeks later they each have 3 left. I'm keeping track of which ones they use when, and plan to modify the coupons each year. 

Final (8th) CSA haul

Oops, this should have been published a week ago!

For our last week of the CSA we brought home:
- the weekly cabbage
- a bag of leeks
- a bunch of carrots
- a small bunch of turnips (need to figure out what to do with these)
- a head of lettuce
- about a dozen red delicious apples
- potatoes

I have been delighted in rediscovering the joy and entertainment of a CSA membership. There is a winter one but I think we'll skip it, I'd rather buy my own broccoli than figure out something new to do with turnips and cabbage for yet another week. Come spring, we'll be back!

Lyle

For one night of Hanukkah, my mom got the kids (and me! and technically, herself) tickets to a show at the Imagination Stage - Lyle the Crocodile.  The kids had seen shows at detsky sad, and Alex had been to plenty of performances, but I was unsure how Zoltan would be.

Duh. It's children's theatre. He was mesmerized. The show is 1.5h with an intermission so pretty doable to any child who can watch a movie at home or even a long show. We had amazing front row seats, although the theatre is small and I imagine every seat is good. They have stacks of booster seats as you walk into the auditorium for smaller ones to be sure to get a good view. The parking garage attached to the theatre is the same kind of metered parking that's all over Bethesda and it is free Saturday and Sunday, although I had loaded up on quarters just in case.

The show itself was fantastic. Lots of singing, dancing, costumes that attract attention on their own. Simple plot. A few jokes for the parents. Zoltan kept asking me why the man who played the crocodile didn't talk. I repeated "Because he's a crocodile and they don't talk." I don't think the answer satisfied him.

The kids have already said they loved it and want to go again. I don't love the upcoming shows but I think I'll suck it up and we'll get back there, or try one of the other local children's theatres (there are several!!)

Have I mentioned lately that I love where we live?

Gratitude #30

30. Today I am grateful for communities. I belong to virtual communities of foreign service folks or moms of children born in October 2007 and real life communities of parents and children who go to the playground after school pickup or people who went to law school with me.  It is instantly rewarding and validating to know that someone will just "get it" if I tell them a particular story, rant, or situation I need advice to solve. They say it takes a village and I don't think it's just about childcare.

Gratitude #29

29. Today I am thankful for my children. Often frustrating, occasionally precious (in the good way). Last night in the car home from my brother's house Alex suggested that we all go around and talk about what we're thankful for. I so love that she thought of doing that.