Minnesota is Heaven, But Virginia is Home

The home visit from Ms. Beckham yesterday went very well. She was a little late, not really a big deal, except that Annika and Josiah were so anxious to meet her that they mobbed her a little at the door. Josiah immediately took her to his room and showed her his collection of trains...or at least part of his train collection. When it became apparent that he wanted to show her each one, I had to put the brakes on...or the poor woman would have been there all afternoon! Ms. Beckham admired his room, his trains and some of Josiah's artwork on the walls. Then she asked if she could give him a little test. We all sat down at the table and she produced a sheet of upper and lowercase letters, asked him to identify the letter, tell her what sound(s) the letter makes and a word that started with each letter. No problems there. In fact, I had a hard time keeping Annika from butting in--she's been getting heavy on the phonics lately. Ms. Beckham seemed impressed that Josiah woul...

Per Mom's request, here are some pictures of me. Of course, I tried to get a little artsy and asked Josiah and Annika to come and each put a hand on my belly...to which I got nothing but tears! I have no idea why the concept of taking a picture at Mama's request led to general misery and crying...but there you go. I think the point was more to share what I'm looking like at 33 weeks. There you go, Mom. Resist the urge to laugh! (PS: Gen, I'm wearing my birthday-present L.L. Bean slippers...I LOAVE them!!)

I need to edit my aside about Sodor Days to state that Josiah and Annika made up a little theme song. The song itself was not in harmony. The children worked in complete harmony! Just wanted to clear that up.

...Mrs. Beckham will be Josiah's very first teacher! I wonder if he'll remember her, how much she will influence his love of school and learning, even though they will only spend about four months together. Hans and I were recalling our teachers tonight. I remember my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Huisentruit, but Hans couldn't recall his (maybe Donna remembers?), but we both recalled every one from first grade to fifth or sixth grade, when we stopped having homeroom. Mrs. Beckham called us this evening to introduce herself and set up a time to do a little home visit to meet Josiah one-on-one. She's going to come over on Monday afternoon and meet him, check out his room and get to know what he's interested in. Hmmm, do you think Josiah will say anything about THOMAS?! (Speaking of Thomas, I do have to mention that last night before bedtime, Josiah decided that we would be celebrating "Sodor Day" today and soon he and Annika were hard at work producing ba...

Hans won't get his orders until October due to the current budget problem in the Navy. So, no orders for another few weeks. Why they kept telling him that the orders "would be there by the end of the week" for so long, I have no clue. We have all been aware of the budget shortfall and postponed moves. Wouldn't it be better just to be upfront and say so in the first place? But that would be much too straightforward for the military, sigh. Everything has to be done in such a convoluted and twisted manner. Nothing can be simple and straightforward. If I sound disgusted, I'm sorry. I'm really not that surprised, I was prepared for something like this to happen. I'm actually fairly pleased with myself for maintaining my decorum and not crying or ranting and raving about something that can't be changed. I just worry about getting orders and having a baby in the same little period of time. Hans' new command still wants him to report by January, ...

Less than two weeks until kindergarten starts! Yesterday, Josiah and I went to a "new parent and student orientation" at his elementary school. We listened to the principal speak and went on a nice little tour of the school...saw the gym, the kindergarten classrooms, the nurse's office, the cafeteria and the playground. Josiah didn't enjoy the principal's speech very much, but I think he was very interested in the tour. I heard him telling Annika this morning about the nurse's office. I hope he never has to actually visit it! His first day is September 8th and I'm still trying to decide if I want to accompany him and Hans up to the school. I will be picking him up at 2:30, but Hans has offered to take him over there and then continue on to his office, which will be very helpful here in a few weeks when I'm even more sleep-deprived than I am right now! I can't have myself together by 7:45, but I should be able to get out of my pajamas and get a newb...

It is amazingly, piercingly, blisteringly hot here today. According to the car, it is 93 degrees. Annika and I just returned from a very quick trip up to the library and the post office...it was hard to decide: waddle/walk the six blocks in the sweltering heat or get in the 325 degree, black leather interior car and drive the six blocks with the air conditioning blasting. Car won out, for any number of reasons: I'm pregnant and feel I probably would have fainted dead away after waddling two blocks, my hips are coming undone--I feel like I have hip arthritis (but I thank God for my pioneer hips), and I'm just too dang lazy. I hate to say it, but I haven't really walked anywhere since my doctor's appointment on 8/14. I probably should keep moving, but I just want to lay here and grow a baby. Hans is in Poland until Saturday evening, so we three are free to loll about panting, watching TV next to the fan and eating popsicles. Not that Hans being here would change th...

I have been tagged...so here are my pictures. Yes, there are two. Let me explain. The first time I tried to determine the 10th picture, I pulled up pictures from my main picture file. The shot of Josiah came up. But when I went to blog about it, Blogger pulled up a completely different file as my first file, so the picture from Lichtenstein is the 10th picture according to the gospel of Blogger. The picture of Josiah is from January 2005, so he's almost eight months old. He probably fell asleep in his exersaucer because he'd been up late for his first New Year's Eve. The other pictures in the series are from a little party we attended at the home of some friends in Pacific Beach. Josiah was up late and off his schedule, so I'm thinking that's probably why he was tired enough to fall asleep somewhere other than his carseat or crib. There are also a few pictures in the folder of me giving him a bath while Greta supervised... The picture of Lichtenstein is f...

I got my new custom necklace in the mail on Friday and I love it. It's not the best picture, but you get the idea, right? I can tell that it will bring me a lot of happiness, it makes me smile just to touch the discs and think of each of the children. And I'm also loving my simple little ring that says "kitten" on it. For anyone interested, look here: http://lisaleonardonline.com I'm thankful for a husband who was very helpful this weekend, emptying the dishwasher, making beds, bringing the groceries up the flights of stairs, and taking Josiah for a very long walk on Sunday afternoon. Oh, and letting me sleep until 7:30 every day. Thank you, Kitten. I'm thankful for more tomatoes. Very thankful... I'm thankful for having great neighbors, especially our friends across the hall. Josiah and Annika spent time over with the kids this week, they spent time over here, and we all spent some time in the basement playroom. It's so nice to have friends 5...

Just back from my latest OB appointment. Hans accompanied me this time. I thought it would be pretty quick, because these German doctors are nothing if not punctual and efficient. However, it turned out that I had to do a monitoring today...basically laying there on my back with the fetal monitors hooked up to check Will's heartrate for 30 minutes. So my quick appointment turned into almost two hours... Anyway, things look good. I gained about 1.6 kilograms between last month's appointment and this one. Don't ask me to do the math, but the doctor was pleased and it doesn't sound like too much, right? Blood pressure an excellent 120/60 and the 30 minute heartrate monitor looked good too. As I figured would happen, Will got irritated by the straps snugging him up and was kicking and thrashing around a lot, so there were all kinds of peaks in his heartrate when he'd start acting up! No discernable contractions, but Dr. Voss said that if they are mild enough, t...

The many expressions of Annika... Playing Wii with Daddy * New post below...

From yesterday and today (thus far): Noticing that Annie still has dimples above her elbows and just a little baby chubbiness around her knees and wrists yet...she's growing up so quickly, it's nice to see a few reminders that she's still my baby. Playing outside yesterday with an eight pack of bubbles...we came back inside with a three pack. Some were spilled, some were dumped in the sand, some were shared with other kids, but for a few minutes everyone was blissfully happy. It's true that some of the best things in life are free or extremely cheap. I can't believe how excited kids get over bubbles, even five-year-olds. Tomatoes. My downstairs neighbors had to make an emergency trip back to the States, which is not good, but the good part is that they have been growing a ton of veggies out in front of the building and told the rest of our stairwell to "help ourselves" while they're gone. The first tomatoes are just coming in, and yes, I'm ma...

Ooof. Let us see, let us see... I am thankful that Hans DOES NOT have gout. I have no idea why the doctors can't seem to decide if he does or doesn't, but the latest test of the crud and crystals that were inside his toe has come back negative. Hans is thankful that he can now go back to his usual diet of T-bones and beer (WebMD suggested that attacks are brought on by beer and red meat). I'm kidding...his diet isn't that sophisticated. Hormel chili without beans is more like it. Gag. I am thankful that I won't have to listen to him talk about having gout anymore. I wasn't ready for this phase in our lives. Bring on the gout and arthritis, but let's wait another 10+ years, OK? I am thankful to have at last found out what happened to my Aunt Kathy, who announced on Saturday morning (shortly before her plane was to leave) that she believed herself to have an infection in her breast that needed medical attention. She asked Hans and me what we thought ...

I was having a good time doing last week's posts, so I'm a little disappointed in myself that I didn't manage to get my (increasingly larger) butt over and keep the ball rolling. Our company left on Saturday morning and directly after that, I collapsed on the couch. And thereabouts I stayed all day long. Sunday was much of the same due to the fact that the good folks at AFN decided to have a John Hughes marathon on the movie channel. Seriously, who can resist "Pretty in Pink", "National Lampoon's Vacation" or "Planes Trains & Automobiles"? Well, I can resist the last one...for some reason, I just haven't ever grown to love "PT&A". I know, I know, I'm missing out. I have to interject here that Will is increasingly active...which is nice in some ways. I know that he's doing well in there. Great! Doing well! However, the fact that I am now over the 30 week mark, which means that he's around 15" l...

One and only one: I'm thankful that it's Friday and the weekend starts tomorrow. I am exxxxxxhausteddddd.... I plan on dropping into bed as soon as is politely possible and as soon as Annika, who has been sleeping in our room, actually is asleep. Once she's asleep it's possible to move her out of our bed and onto the little nest she's been sleeping in at the foot of our bed. It would be possible to have a marching band in our room...she's a solid sleeper, to say the least. (Yawn)...hopefully I'll come up with some more tomorrow!

I made Grandma K.'s meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn-on-the-cob tonight for supper. I had the iPod on shuffle as I started to husk the sweet corn. Ripping away the first strips of green and silk, the milky sweet scent of the corn came up to me just as the strains of Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" came on the iPod. In my mind, it was a late summer afternoon and Grandpa was bringing up the red wire bucket full of unshucked ears of sweet corn, fresh from the garden. We would sit out on the scratchy concrete steps of the back porch and husk all the corn. It makes a sound, the ripping away of the green, the snap of breaking off the tip of the cob and the silence between ears spent picking silk from between the kernels. And all the time that smell, like I smelled tonight, green from the husks and the milky sweet kernels. Later we'd have the sweet corn for dinner, probably with a big, flooded plate of red tomatoes, a bowl of cucumbers drowning in mayo and sal...

Mittwoch, I am grateful for: The fact that it is midweek. This has been a busy week and I'm thankful that it is halfway over. I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend. Hans' toe looks very good. We went in and watched the nurse change his bandage this morning. I thought I should watch since I would probably have to rewrap it for him, but the doctor informed us that a band-aid will do after tomorrow. Annika came along and watched too. The child development center. Both kids were supposed to go today while Kathy and I went to Rothenburg again, but Josiah begged to stay home and take care of Daddy, so Annika went on her own. I think she had a great time, judging by the amount of pink paint covering her clothing and hair. Seriously, she had pink streaks in her hair. It all came out of her clothes and her hair...so I guess I'm also thankful for: Whoever invented washable paint and markers. God bless you. A beautiful sunny day and an uneventful, traffic-free drive ove...

Quickly tonight. I'm making cookies for my invalid. I'm grateful that Hans' surgery went well, that we were there on time, found parking without a problem and that the actual procedure was quick and painless for him. I sat in the waiting room, listened to my iPod and journaled. I'm grateful that Hans seems to be handling the pain very well. As long as he takes his painkillers in a timely fashion, he's in pretty good shape. I'm grateful for a nice, sunny day to drive over to Schloss Lichtenstein. Unfortunately, Kathy didn't get to take the tour. For some reason, the tours now last 2-1/2 hours. We did it once and it lasted around 30 minutes. Mom, Dad--how long do you recall it taking? Obviously, she couldn't leave us out on the playground for 2-1/2 hours, so she toured just the gardens. I'm grateful for the playground at Lichtenstein, the friendly German kids who kept Annika occupied, and the fact that Josiah and Annika suddenly became avid co...

OK, I'm going to have to dig deep to find things to be grateful for today...the list might not be very long, but I'm gonna try: Leapsters...they have saved my skin so many times! Today, during our almost one hour wait in the pass office, the kids played Leapster for all but the last 10 minutes. For that 10 minutes they acted like orangutans on speed...but for 50 minutes, they were pleasantly preoccupied with their Leapsters. Lunch at the PX...one more meal I didn't have to cook or clean up after. The indoor play area at the PX, which is great for rainy days...and the fact that when other people's kids started running out of there crying, it was NOT Josiah or Annika's fault, but instead was a gargantuan 18-month-old boy who was slapping everyone's face. Annika's sporting a decent scratch, but since she was rude and called this kid (and I quote) "an idiot", I didn't get on his case. I did, however, get on her case. Just as I was wondering wh...

Let's see how long I can keep this up! Today I'm grateful for: Sleeping in until almost 8:00 because it was a dark and rainy morning. Waking up next to my best girl because Hans and I have been splitting up at night due to his toe pain and need to take painkillers randomly throughout the night and my big belly and need to get up and waddle to the restroom randomly throughout the night...this does not make for happily co-sleeping spouses. Smiles from a three-year-old are nice to wake up to, though. Hans going to Subway to get us lunch despite his toe pain...everyone had exactly what they wanted for lunch and cleanup was a matter of crumpling up the paper and tossing it. And we all had a cookie. Getting all my pre-guest chores finished (my Aunt Kathy is arriving tonight) and having a neat, tidy and clean home. For the moment anyway! Listening to Hans and Josiah making a Lego house yesterday evening...Josiah was so excited to show me all the "rooms". And now the b...

Things that I am grateful for today: "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends". Seasons 1 and 2 arrived from our very, very lovely friends at Amazon. This may be Josiah and Annika's new favorite cartoon. It's cute but not overly so, so that Hans and I can watch it and be entertained as well. Which is important, right? Getting to the commissary before the Saturday rush, getting the "good" parking spot in the corner under the tree. Having Annika help me count out cherry tomatoes and pick out bananas. Finding everything on our list--sometimes there's no milk. True story. Getting in and getting back out before the weekend crush. Annika taking a nice, almost two hour nap after lunch. Watching another episode of "Mad Men"...I'm going back through Season 2 because Season 3 starts soon. I'm looking forward to it, even though the only way for me to see it is to download it on iTunes and watch it on the computer. Luckily for me, we hav...