Photography and Homeschooling (Roadschooling as often as we can)
Memorial Day is about honoring those that have fallen during their service to this country. They gave their lives so that we may live in freedom. Their dedication and love of country far surpasses what the normal man is willing to bear. I thank God for them.
Walk with me through some of the memorials in Washington DC. These are all pictures we have taken.
These stars represent the fallen.
Korean War Memorial
Viet Nam Memorial
Arlington National Cemetery
Tomb of the Unknowns
Rent. Killers. This is how we now refer to our two cats.
That house I was so jazzed about was ripped out of our happy little hands because of these two turds. For a week we were told that our application was “on the top of the list”. We found out this past Monday though that the owner had decided to go with the other applicant…who only has one dog… Whatever.
I know there are cat haters out there but they have never met our cats. I mean our cats are different.
Obviously the owner of the house made the wrong decision. We don’t blame our cats for that. He just doesn’t know them. The little rent killers.
I’m going out on a limb here to promote something that I’m not the mastermind behind (you know, like Sew Petit and Best Posts of the Week). I’ve been getting freaky lately with coupon clipping and CVS dealing. Yes. Freaky. My pastor’s wife showed us how she saves just as much as she spends on her once-a-week grocery trip and how she’s saved over $900 at CVS from January to April. Ok, that’s freaky (in a good way), I’m just at the apprentice level, probably never to reach her level of savings–because I mainly shop at a government-run grocery store where the prices are low (ridiculously low I might add since I’ve seen the prices at regular grocery stores) and there is no sales tax. One of the better perks of my husband’s job.
But I always love getting a deal. There are blogs that are dedicated to being frugal and making sure you get maximum product for minimum dollar. Surfing through one of these sites, trying to find out how to spend $5 out of pocket and get like $30 worth of products and still end up with CVS Extra Care Bucks, I instead ran across this little blurb about Swagbucks.
Swagbucks is a cool website that’s actually a frontpage to basically the google search engine. You go to swagbucks.com instead of google.com and type in what you’re searching for. Every once in a while you’ll earn a SwagBuck (or two or three or five or ten. I just won ten the other day). The cool thing is that once you’ve earned enough you can trade them in for things. I just earned enough to get a $5 Amazon.com gift card. Free books that I’ll probably never read…here I come! And the SwagBucks are earned just by doing searches (and I’ve been doing a lot of those lately doing all this house hunting).
While I was browsing through their site today what should I run across? A little “refer friends” button that will allow me to earn more SwagBucks if you, my friend, earn them. How cool is that. More free books that I’ll never read!! So, if you’re so inclined click on the link below and start earning while doing your normal searching, for you and for me 😉
AKA: Dance Recitals
Do you know what I mean? Sitting through a dance recital is torture, especially when the only reason you are there is for the exactly 2.7 minutes your daughter is on stage. The other 117.3 minutes is sheer torture. Reagan had her dance recital Saturday night. By the end of the night I was ready to give up and hand over any type of secret I had ever heard to anyone who wanted it. I was ready and willing to give up my country to the Chinese in order to escape. I was ready to poke out my own eyes in order to go to the emergency room…but then I remembered how long waits at the emergency room take and rethought that one.
The recital began at 6pm. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that this is dinner time. And the theater did not allow food or drink. Torture when you have a two year old, four year old and another seven year old in tow. And when the adults accompanying them (including me) like to snack. Some of Reagan’s relatives came from Georgia to see her perform. We had a late lunch when they arrived so we decided to eat dinner after the show, and then they’d make the three hour trek back home.
We did not spend the $5 on a program (I didn’t pay to place an “ad” for Reagan in there and it would be more junk that we’d have to move) so we had no idea when Reagan’s two performances would be. As each dance would end and the dancers would file offstage I would get the video camera ready hoping Reagan’s class would be the next one on. And time.after.time.after.time Reagan’s class would not be the next one up. It almost became comical as we started recognizing the same girls performing time after time. Why wasn’t my daughter performing this much?
Finally! Her second performance! 1.3 minutes of joy. Then we had the agonizing pain pleasure of watching other girls we didn’t know perform again and again. I started trying to plan out sleeping arrangements for six additional people in our house. If it lasted any longer we would have had to camp out at the theater. With no food or drink. Whose idea was it to have a recital at 6pm?
Poor Du got a different kind of torture in the form of a rambunctious two year old who can no more sit through a two hour recital than she can sit through a fifteen minute Elmo episode on Sesame Street. It just wasn’t going to happen. Du ended up taking her outside to play “around” the fountain. She smelled distinctly of chlorine at the end of the night.
I’ve apologized to my profusely for forcing our family to endure this form of enhanced interrogation. I ended up giving them personal possessions to try to ease family relations. My mother, aunt and two cousins didn’t get back home until 2am. My brother and sister-in-law broke down on their way home. Fortunately they were 1/4 mile away from their house. Still, more torture.
I’m glad that we’re moving because I don’t think I’d endure this dance studio for another year. Overall, there really isn’t too much to complain about, but little things throughout the year, culminating in a two hour torture session make me glad that we’ll have to find a new dance studio this fall.
Reagan, Reagan, Marli and Ashlyn (cousins)
The only way we were able to tell Reagan apart from the other dancers on stage was her red cast.
I’ve been walking around pretty much in a stupor lately. I haven’t been blogging. I haven’t been checking my Google Reader (I did just now and the count scares me). I have been showering so that’s at least some points towards sanity. What have I been doing?
HOUSE HUNTING
What I should be calling the bane of my existence right now, but I can’t bring myself to do that. You see, I love to be able to obsess about something and have it be totally appropriate to do so. Du has estimated that I’ve been spending 16 hours a day or more hunting for that elusive house in D.C. It’s much more dramatic than trying to find a needle in a haystack…no, it’s more like trying to find one single star in the whole universe. Or that sock that went missing from the dryer last week. You know it’s around, but wha??? Why isn’t it just obvious?
I could probably take the real estate boards, or whatever they’re called, for the DC area and pass with flying colors. Actually, I could become a taxi driver. AND I could be a metro customer service rep all at the same time. I know where every sex offender lives in DC. I know what every crime committed was last month and at what address it was committed. I know where all the dance studios are and I know that when someone, in a rental ad, tells you the commute is “only 20 minutes” that they’re lying. Big time.
I have thoroughly searched for and found the neighborhood that I’d like my family to live in and I could probably go there now and walk all the streets blindfolded. I know where the bus stop is that would take us to the metro. I know where the nearest shopping is. I’m just short of trying to contact would-be neighbors. I’ve already contact the community association. My cousin, the saint that she is, has visited two houses for us and we’ve got a rental application in on one. In that house I could walk blindfolded as well. I haven’t placed my furniture yet because I don’t know that the house is ours yet. My obsession has some limits. But I’ve got the graph paper and tape measure ready for the moment our realtor friend calls us to let us know it’s a done deal.
I hope to bring you more great news in the next day or two. I’m still not blogging regularly even though my obsession has switched gears. I’m no longer searching for houses, but aiming to know every pothole and beehive in this neighborhood. Meanwhile, there is one blog I think you should be looking at. Oh my gosh, is this one funny. In a subtle kind of way. I like that. Do you know what a TOTUS is? How about TOTUS to the POTUS? Read and enjoy. But please check back here in a couple of days. I’ll either be partying or crying. Either way, I’m going to need company.
P.S. I haven’t even been reading that blog lately. I was on my Google Reader tonight for the first time in what seems like a decade and had to glance at a couple posts. Then I came here and wrote this post.
Finally! The suspense is over, for you and me! I was going to post Friday night where we thought we were going (D.C.) and just pray that word didn’t change before we got official notification. Things happened the way they normally do when you plan on doing something and I didn’t have enough time to post over the weekend…or is it that I didn’t make enough time. Either way, it’s official today and now all of my house hunting will not have been in vain. We’re going to D.C.!
Y’all, it’s going to be like a four year field trip! I had Du get a touristy what-to-do-in-D.C. book when he was up there interviewing for the job at the White House and I’ve been reading through that to get a taste of what will be available. Two of the many things I’m jazzed about so far:
Other things to be excited about: culture; restaurants (and real international ones too); seeing friends and family who live in the area; meeting friends in person I’ve only met online (right Julie!); having friends and family come visit us! Which, by the way, friends and family, if you want us to rent a house that’s actually big enough for you to stay in you might want to start floating us monthly stipends.
THE HOUSE!! I’ve been searching in every conceivable location in and around D.C. I’ve even thought about living on the coast of Maryland and having Du endure an excruciating commute everyday. We promptly decided against that one. I’ve looked in the northwest of D.C.; in the southeast (which I’ve been advised against); Silver Spring, Maryland; Arlington in several of its neighborhoods; Alexandria in Old Town, Del Ray and environs; I’ve touched on the western suburbs, but right now I’d rather stay a little bit closer in. We’ll see what our budget and time will afford us. It’s the thrill of the hunt that I enjoy though. My obsessive compulsive nature gets to rear it’s ugly head. I’ve noticed the closer you get to the epicenter the more expensive everything is. For instance, we’ll probably be living in something the size of a matchbox and it will max out the amount we’re given for housing. Our main criteria: that Du’s commute isn’t long and that the girls and I have easy access to the metro for all those field trips we’re going to be taking.
Speaking of field trips, in school, we just got finished learning about colonial times and the Revolution. I’ve decided that we’re going to do that unit over again. How can I pass up a chance to take Reagan to Jamestown and Williamsburg and Yorktown; to Pennsylvania and (Lord willing) Boston; to Mount Vernon and Monticello; to explore the layout of “The Federal City” and try to imagine how it looked when L’Enfant’s vision was being implemented. What could be better than seeing it all in person?
So, thanks for waiting with me. Celebrate with me (!) and give me tips and ideas on what we should do and see while we’re there. And I will be…
Your Humble Correspondent,
N.B. The flag picture above was taken at the Museum of American History. It is the flag that was draped over the Pentagon the day after the September 11th terrorist attacks.
Not So SAHM 