Minnesota is Heaven, But Virginia is Home

and get some bottled water and canned goods, because I'm pretty sure the apocalypse is upon us. Josiah and Annika have been playing together all day and they haven't had a single disagreement. I have been sitting around the corner, listening in stunned silence to this bizarre behavior and considering getting the video camera out to prove that they really do have good days. Here's an example of this morning's dialogue: (they are building an enormous track through the laundry room, down the hall and into Annika's room) J: C'mon Annika, let's build a track together! (all said in his best male cheerleader voice) A: OK, Joe. J: Let's carry the pieces of track together. We can be a team! A: Teamwork! J: Give me five, Sissy! J: I love you Sissy, you are a great track builder! Now let's put the Little People hotel by the tracks and also we can make a zoo. Can you get your animals out? A: OK, Joe (for Annika to be compliant and obedient to his whi...

After the teeball game yesterday, we stopped off at the SpringFest. We could hardly avoid it, since we had to walk right past it on our way to and from teeball. There were bouncy castles, face painting, hot dogs and all sorts of different crafts for the kids. April has been the "Month of the Military Child", so our base has been putting on a lot of different activities for the kids--who, after all, have to put up with a lot being military brats too! I wasn't planning on stopping, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. There weren't very many people there, so there were no lines and no crowds in the bouncies. Josiah and Annika bounced until they were pink-cheeked with exertion, then we had some hot dogs, had faces painted (Annika chose a sparkly butterfly, Josiah chose...THOMAS...weird), and then they stopped at a table and made kites. Said kites absolutely did not fly as we found out later, but they were still fun to make. Sometimes the unexpected turns out to...

Is there any past-time quite as quintessentially American as baseball? Today was Josiah's first baseball game. Well, technically, it is teeball, but in a couple of years he will graduate to full-fledged baseball. His first game was meant to be last Saturday morning, but we got rained out. Today was gorgeous, a nice hot sun with a good cool breeze. Both teams batted twice. I wish I could say for sure that this is two innings, but I'm not certain. I used to think I knew what an inning was, but I seem to recall a conversation with someone in which my ideas of baseball were corrected. Peder? What constitutes an inning? Josiah did well...he has a tendency to goof off a little bit in these situations. He has inherited this tendency from his mother, I will freely admit. I had problems standing still, listening, controlling myself, paying attention.... What was I saying? I got distracted there. Anyway, Josiah likes to goof off a little. You know, stuff like horsing around, putting his...

Pictures by Josiah The best ones of me are the headless ones! Must be the angle or possibly the fact that this is after supper, because I really don't think I look that round... Trains, what else? More trains!! Surprise! Well, he took some of his sister naked in the tub and they were cute, but probably not suitable for posting...

Annika, working on a puzzle today Josiah with his freshly buzzed head Deep in concentration... Last week after school registration--someone handed them each a brand new box of crayons, they were the "it" toy for about two days! Again with the experimenting with flash...I just figured out tonight that I can actually TURN the flash off instead of manually holding it down. That seems to produce a less blurry image. I'm a slow learner. Anyway--Annika in some silly glasses she got in her Burger King kid's meal!

Whew...it's 6:30 p.m. and I think I can officially call this day OVER. And good riddance to it as it was one of the busiest days I've had in a long time. I really don't enjoy being overscheduled and running, running, running. I'll never be one of those mothers whose kids are in every activity and I'm in the PTA, volunteering, etc. I'm going to have them pick one athletic activity and maybe one musical or academic activity each... Wait a minute, we'll have three kids with two activities each. Oh Lord. Never mind. Maybe I will be the mother with three different uniforms and cleats in the back of the minivan, the drum sticks, the piano books, the violin, the karate outfit, the toe shoes. Makes me think of my friend Jen who is always running around, doing so many things, giving of her time to so many organizations. I don't think she can sit still...and any time she had to sit still, she'd probably be cleaning her house. She's a dynamo! Anyw...

Post egg hunt--holding hands (!) and sharing Annika's sucker Checking out their treats Annika - middle of picture Josiah in foreground, Annika in middle Josiah's Easter basket--could it be any other way? A view of the field before they let the kids loose Josiah with his Easter train (thank you Aunt Heidi!!) and also his new Gordon that he bought with Grandma Donna's Easter money (thank you Grandma!) That's one thing I forgot to mention in the last post: the kids received Easter cards from Grandma Donna with some money inside. Josiah had enough, with his allowance, to go to the PX and get himself a Take Along Gordon. I let him pick it out and do his own transaction at the counter. Boy, was he excited! "He gave me back money, Mama!", he said when the cashier gave him his change back. And he was even more excited to get a receipt. He showed it to everyone around!

We're officially at the halfway point today - 50 days down, 50 days to go! That's enough to bring a smile to my face on this sunny day. What have we been doing? Not too much and yet we've been busy this week. We have been spending a great deal of time outside as the weather has been more than pleasant--we have actually had a couple of days in the low 70s. Time to break out the sunscreen and my silly summer hat. I don't know what it is about the sun here, but it seems extraordinarily strong and can burn me in about 12 minutes. Josiah, too. Annika has inherited her father's swarthy genes and simply turns a lovely shade of brown. She'll never be like me...I could spend hours in the sun and come away with a burn that just turns back to white skin! Josiah had an unexpected tee-ball practice yesterday. It's so difficult for the sports program to find parents who can volunteer, so we didn't get a coach until just a few days ago. Thank goodness Coach Jeff steppe...

The town of Schwabisch Hall Throwing rocks in the river Annie at the park Watching the ducks being fed This one reminds me of a pic of Eli at Mt. Rushmore, circa 1983-ish Interesting building off the town square Town square Rathaus (what we know as a courthouse) Lots of little cobblestoned, pedestrian lanes here and there We took a little field trip to the town of Schwabisch Hall on Saturday afternoon. It was a beautiful day here, sunny and almost 70 degrees, the perfect day for taking a random cruise in a random direction. I used to love just jumping in the car and driving aimlessly, taking a road I'd never tried before. But that was B.C. Now if I am in the mood to cruise, it involves potty breaks, packing like we're about to travel to darkest India, and making sure everyone gets at least one toy or book to occupy themselves! Anyway, I randomly picked Schwabisch Hall, kind of a "throw a dart at the map and go" kind of thing. It's a smaller town about an ho...

After fruitlessly trying to describe this to Hans, I resort to a picture. My husband thinks that this is normal and coming from new brakes being broken in. I say that a brand new vehicle of some caliber with less than 2K miles on it should not be rusting like that. Hans, Dad? Is it normal or not? Maybe I wasn't describing it well Kit. Now you can see what I mean. This one is the worst, but the other back tire shows specks of rust in the same area.

That's how long it's been since Hans has been with us. Forty seems a very paltry number, but these have been some of the longest days I can recall. The worst part is knowing that we still have more than sixty days left. I feel like a total wuss, anyway, whining about 40 days. I mean, really. I know more than a few women who have endured year-long deployments downrange. Just the other day, I read a story about a guy who has been deployed four times since 2003...! I have nothing to complain about. Honestly...but for some reason, this one has been tough for me. I'm talking at least a couple of nights per week I end up in tears. I used to be tougher than this. What's wrong with me? Actually, don't answer that question. I'm not sure I want to know! Must be hormones. That and I swear the kids know...well, probably if I'm shuffling around sniffling into a Kleenex every three nights, they realize that mother is in a weakened state. Like my mother said...

Josiah in his "rocket" (aka: the box my new dishes came in). They colored these two boxes all over and played with them for almost two hours, which begs the question: WHY do we spend money on toys? Next rainy day, I'll be out in the recycling bin, scrounging boxes and pieces of cardboard! Lazy on a Sunday morning...making their father proud with their sloth.