We interrupt the blogflow of our historical perusal of the past few weeks/months to bring you this special edition to help you through the pre-Christmas Christmas preparations. This post is designed to act as a guide as you go through these steps, or to help you feel better about yourself as you read my steps and realize how close you are to the ideal set forth here. We shall begin.
The Christmas Tree: Preferably evergreen, this member of the Pinophyta kingdom is either bought from Walmart, bought from a tree dealer, or selected from ground plots that may or may not belong to the individual in question. Selection for the latter two categories rests primarily on answers to the following three factors: how far away the car is, how many individuals getting the tree are under the age of 10, and how cold it is. This may result in the acquiring of a tree that makes Charlie Brown's tree look like the White House Christmas tree by comparison.
Decorations: Once the tree has been brought in and placed in an upright position somewhere within the individual's home, it must be decorated. Decorations must be large enough to be visible, but not too crowded to cover the tree completely. The National Authority for Christmas Tree Decoration advises that no more than 3/4 of the tree be obscured by the decorations. Any more than that and you run the risk of obliterating the tree, spokesman Christopher Pringle stated. The NACTD also warns against placing open flames or bare electrical wires on the tree as fires could result, inconveniencing firefighters everywhere.
Many people also place figurines and lights in strategic areas of the outside of their home. Outside decor primarily depends on the distance between one's house and one's neighbors, and also the energy which said neighbors devote to decorating their house. This guide does not recommend using plastic inflatable decorations, as they typically deflate 43 seconds after being set up. However, this guide also realizes that in neighborhoods populated primarily with inflatable-plastic-decorating types, usage of these items cannot be avoided.
The indoor decorations can be a little more individualistic, but must still be in proportion to the amount of traffic that the home expects to see during the time the decorations are expected to be up. Many find it effective to set boxes of decorations on the kitchen table and turn the children loose. If anything, the result can be passed off lightly as "just what the kids did! haha, isn't it artistic?"
Gift Purchasing: Many gifts need to be purchased, as the spirit of Christmas is allegedly measured by the stack of presents under the tree. Lists need to be made, bank funds withdrawn, trips to Walmart made, and then...the wrapping.
Gift Wrapping: There are two categories in gift wrapping. We shall examine each in turn, beginning with Category A, which most males fit into. This group is prone to wrapping gifts in grocery bags, typically the same plastic bag that the cashier placed the gift into at the cash register. A knot is tied at the top, the name is written in permanent marker on the side, and the gift is pitched beneath the tree. Another typical wrapping method for this category is the plain cardboard box, sometimes tied shut with string.
The second category, Category B, is the group which most females fit into. This group wraps minute gifts with great precision and creativity. It has long been suspected that there is competing within the group to see who can wrap the oddest shaped package the neatest. Some members have the proficiency level of wrapping a 4 gallon size package in a piece of wrapping paper the size of a normal business envelope. A bow is attached to the top, the name is written on a matching gift tag, and the gift is arranged neatly under the tree. Please note that the categories are general; some girls find them in category A, and some guys would be more comfortable with a category B rating.
Preparation of Food: In some homes, planning for the Christmas Dinner Menu begins as early as April. The perfect meat, the coordinating side dishes, the incorporation of traditional and new food items, all these take much foresight and preparation. In most families, the female members take care of the making of the dishes, while in others, the father lets his culinary abilities shine forth. Although the majority of Christmas dinners are delectable treats, this guide would be remiss in not pointing out that even a major national holiday cannot transform a bad cook into a good cook. This guide advises caution if one suspects that one's host is one of the former.
Eating of Food: This guide would like to state that the male members of the family generally do this the best.
We conclude this short perusal of common Christmas preparations. We hope that this guide was helpful to you. Merry Christmas to all and sundry!
Friday, December 23, 2011
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Trip to PHC
[Note: this post was edited a couple hours after it was originally posted to include a photograph taken by my mom on Betsy Reich's camera!]
Whirlwind. That's what it felt like, going down last Tuesday to get Jess, and then coming back on Wednesday. In fact, I forgot about packing until Monday night after Awana, when it struck me that I was leaving in less than 12 hours and I needed to toss some stuff in a backpack and set my alarm.
Tuesday morning: we left at about 7:15. We drove to ShurFine and picked up our sub, activated Garmin, and drove off into the wild blue yonder. My mom drove for the first couple of hours, and then we switched places, stopped in Altoona PA for lunch, switched drivers, and then switched again when we fueled up again. The trip included Anaximander, my penguin pillow pet (hey, I just liked the name, ok?)...
Below, my mom and I confer on apparently very important details before driving off.
We arrived at about 3:30, and Jess was taking some trash to the dumpster, so we saw her right away. She took us around campus, meeting people and seeing various places like D5 (oh my. it's one of the two guys dorms, and there were actual guys inhabiting it that we, like, talked to. oh my.). It was so cool to see all these people that we've heard about but haven't met, since a lot of them weren't on campus when we dropped her off for freshman orientation. Anyhow, after that, we walked to a little coffee shop that is frequented by PHC-ers, and then headed back after consuming our beverages.
As we were walking back, we received news that one of the people we had met (see sentence 2 in above paragraph) had invited us and one of Jess's roommates Callan (oh, and Betsy and Seth) were invited to his house at 8. So we had time to go jogging and eat supper. Then, Brady met us with a flashlight and escorted us to the house right off campus that he shares with like 3 other guys. We played a fun game called 4 On a Couch and drank some tea (my taste buds still have nightmares about that tea :P ). Then, several more people showed up and surprise! Brady announced that since Seth's birthday was in a few days, we were having a party! There was brownies and ice cream and hot cider to consume, pictures to be taken, and piano pieces to be played. And games. But, at this point it was about 10:15, and my mom, Annetta, and I were tired from being up for over 16 hours, so we went to our hotel.
Here is basically all of us, sitting oh so photogenically against a wall. Birthday boy Seth is the 7th from left. And yes, I was freezing cold and I wrapped myself in a random coat that was on the floor. Hopefully whoever owned it didn't mind!
Annetta poses with the mirror in our hotel room.
Wednesday morning we slept in, ate an awesome breakfast at the hotel. Then we drove to PHC. This is me with my bagel.
So we got there, and Jess had a work shift that she had to do before we could leave. I was able to go around with her (she was just getting trash from various offices), so I got to meet a lot of people and see how much trash they create. While we did that, Annetta and my mom walked around taking pictures.
The picture above is Lake Bob and the PHC gazebo. The amusing thing about this particular photo is that it's upside down. Cool reflection. The next 5 pictures are also ones that they took. I left out my mom's self portrait attempts...she can thank me later :P
And this is the running track that I almost died on. On my roughly 10 and a half minute mile. Yeah. I kinda fail at running so bad it's [hopefully] funny to other people. Go ahead and laugh...just don't let me catch you laughing or I'll stuff my sneaker in your mouth.
So then. Work shift finished, out processing was completed, and we left. After saying goodbye to about 57 people that we ran into :P We drove pretty much continuously, through rain and fog, till at last we arrived home. Well, at least to the church. Jess and I decided to take in choir practice, but then we got home. And then we commenced preparation for Matt and Arielle's wedding, but that's a post for another day!
Whirlwind. That's what it felt like, going down last Tuesday to get Jess, and then coming back on Wednesday. In fact, I forgot about packing until Monday night after Awana, when it struck me that I was leaving in less than 12 hours and I needed to toss some stuff in a backpack and set my alarm.
Tuesday morning: we left at about 7:15. We drove to ShurFine and picked up our sub, activated Garmin, and drove off into the wild blue yonder. My mom drove for the first couple of hours, and then we switched places, stopped in Altoona PA for lunch, switched drivers, and then switched again when we fueled up again. The trip included Anaximander, my penguin pillow pet (hey, I just liked the name, ok?)...
Below, my mom and I confer on apparently very important details before driving off.
We arrived at about 3:30, and Jess was taking some trash to the dumpster, so we saw her right away. She took us around campus, meeting people and seeing various places like D5 (oh my. it's one of the two guys dorms, and there were actual guys inhabiting it that we, like, talked to. oh my.). It was so cool to see all these people that we've heard about but haven't met, since a lot of them weren't on campus when we dropped her off for freshman orientation. Anyhow, after that, we walked to a little coffee shop that is frequented by PHC-ers, and then headed back after consuming our beverages.
As we were walking back, we received news that one of the people we had met (see sentence 2 in above paragraph) had invited us and one of Jess's roommates Callan (oh, and Betsy and Seth) were invited to his house at 8. So we had time to go jogging and eat supper. Then, Brady met us with a flashlight and escorted us to the house right off campus that he shares with like 3 other guys. We played a fun game called 4 On a Couch and drank some tea (my taste buds still have nightmares about that tea :P ). Then, several more people showed up and surprise! Brady announced that since Seth's birthday was in a few days, we were having a party! There was brownies and ice cream and hot cider to consume, pictures to be taken, and piano pieces to be played. And games. But, at this point it was about 10:15, and my mom, Annetta, and I were tired from being up for over 16 hours, so we went to our hotel.
Here is basically all of us, sitting oh so photogenically against a wall. Birthday boy Seth is the 7th from left. And yes, I was freezing cold and I wrapped myself in a random coat that was on the floor. Hopefully whoever owned it didn't mind!
Annetta poses with the mirror in our hotel room.
Wednesday morning we slept in, ate an awesome breakfast at the hotel. Then we drove to PHC. This is me with my bagel.
So we got there, and Jess had a work shift that she had to do before we could leave. I was able to go around with her (she was just getting trash from various offices), so I got to meet a lot of people and see how much trash they create. While we did that, Annetta and my mom walked around taking pictures.
The picture above is Lake Bob and the PHC gazebo. The amusing thing about this particular photo is that it's upside down. Cool reflection. The next 5 pictures are also ones that they took. I left out my mom's self portrait attempts...she can thank me later :P
And this is the running track that I almost died on. On my roughly 10 and a half minute mile. Yeah. I kinda fail at running so bad it's [hopefully] funny to other people. Go ahead and laugh...just don't let me catch you laughing or I'll stuff my sneaker in your mouth.
So then. Work shift finished, out processing was completed, and we left. After saying goodbye to about 57 people that we ran into :P We drove pretty much continuously, through rain and fog, till at last we arrived home. Well, at least to the church. Jess and I decided to take in choir practice, but then we got home. And then we commenced preparation for Matt and Arielle's wedding, but that's a post for another day!
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Niagara Falls Airshow
Remember that list I wrote a couple blog posts ago with all the blog posts I need to write? Well, this is the beginning of that list...I'm starting from the top and going down. Which means that we are going back in time...way, way back in ancient history to September. Something like the second weekend of September.
The Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station (NFARS from here on out, to save my fingers from getting arthritic or something, because you know that's something I totally worry about) hosted an airshow commemorating 9-11, and so CAP traveled from all around the group to help with parking, recruiting, and manning booths. Not to get ahead of myself here. Starting at the beginning, which I guess was Friday, Hosanna and I waited in the parking lot of Arby's for the CAP van to appear. We put our stuff out on the curb in full sight of all who passed and felt like vagabonds. Tent...sleeping bag, overnight stuff, camelbaks, the works.
The CAP van arrived, and we loaded all our stuff and ourselves in. And thus began Operation Airshow. We drove for several hours o'er hill and dale to a small, unspecified airport near NFARS where we were to bivouac for the next two nights. So we got near-ish to this little airport, and my squadron commander handed me her cell phone and told me to call this random senior member whose last name I wasn't even sure how to pronounce and tell him "the blue possum cries at dawn." I was like, huh? Actually, I had to tell him we were close to the airport so he could come show us where we were supposed to be.
So he met us there and led us to the back edge of the airport which had been specifically chosen as the bivouac site by virtue of its being the bumpiest area. Then we tracked down, captured, and sacrificed the blue possum and set up camp. Did I mention that this was in September? And that nights in September get chilly? It wasn't as cold as the bivouac in April when it rained all weekend, though...that time I slept in my coat, full BDUs (sans the boots) and as many layers as I had. [Some quick nostalgia for you there.] When CAP roughs it, we rough it, man. (*coughsnort*)
So tents went up, jackets went on, and we shoved off in search of nourishment. Some of them went to like Applebee's, but Clayton, Erik, Hosanna, and I went to Arby's. My food was super good. I even photographed it JUST for you to see.
I also photographed Erik and the Goliath of Curly Fries.
Then we went back to our tents and went to sleep (sleep being a general term here). Morning routine involved Hosanna and me getting up at...something like 5am, I believe, so that we would have time to walk all the way down to the hangar bathroom to get ready, and then leave for breakfast. We went to McDonald's on our way to the NFARS, and arrived there at around 0700.
We signed in at the base theater, filed in, and sat down. It was pretty cool being there, as that's the place where CLS graduation is held. It was much more relaxed this time. We even had a cricket chirping endlessly in the corner to keep our teeth on edge. Great times.
We had a safety briefing, and then we were split up. Those of us who were over 16 went out to do parking, while the younger cadetlets went to the actual airshow area and did stuff like recruiting and manning ice cream/lemonade booths.
I didn't take any pictures at the airshow with my camera, but these pictures are fairly indicative of parking. The first day, the Air Force sergeant in charge of my little group was named Sergeant Darling. I asked him if he was related to the Army Sergeant Darling at the NER Cadet Academy, but apparently not. I thought that was pretty cool.
This picture is us ancients heading out to wait around before we were split up into groups and sent off to our parking location. True story: I rode shotgun in a humvee. I had to tie my door shut with a piece of string. Actually, some nice AF dude tied it for me. ("RealMilitary: where the gentlemen tie your doors shut for you.")
We're so cool we're black and white :D
This is us waiting around, fixing our sleeves and adjusting the reflective vests. Officers are OCD when it comes to things like that. "Sir...your sleeve is a quarter inch lower in the left side than on the right side. Permission to adjust it for you so that I don't have nightmares tonight?" "Permission granted!!"
Just to give you an idea of the massive amounts of people: the next two pictures are two halves on a field. Note that you can only see part of the field...it extend to both sides of the photo (my lens isn't wide enough). Then realize that in roughly two hours, we parked about triple that. And then add in that there were several other parking lots closer to the airshow that were being parked simultaneously (they'd like send every three cars to us or something). There were a lot of people there.
How many cadet officers does it take to park a car? :)
Also, is it bad that I didn't notice that camo plane until I saw it this evening in the picture? Now that I see the plane, I think I know where we were... I had such a bad sense of direction that weekend it wasn't funny. I have yet to figure out the NFARS.
We left at noon on Sunday. I think this picture does a good job of summing up how we felt.
Oh yeah, there were some really noisy things zipping around in the sky, too. Thunderbirds and other random airplanes. Good times.
The End.
The Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station (NFARS from here on out, to save my fingers from getting arthritic or something, because you know that's something I totally worry about) hosted an airshow commemorating 9-11, and so CAP traveled from all around the group to help with parking, recruiting, and manning booths. Not to get ahead of myself here. Starting at the beginning, which I guess was Friday, Hosanna and I waited in the parking lot of Arby's for the CAP van to appear. We put our stuff out on the curb in full sight of all who passed and felt like vagabonds. Tent...sleeping bag, overnight stuff, camelbaks, the works.
The CAP van arrived, and we loaded all our stuff and ourselves in. And thus began Operation Airshow. We drove for several hours o'er hill and dale to a small, unspecified airport near NFARS where we were to bivouac for the next two nights. So we got near-ish to this little airport, and my squadron commander handed me her cell phone and told me to call this random senior member whose last name I wasn't even sure how to pronounce and tell him "the blue possum cries at dawn." I was like, huh? Actually, I had to tell him we were close to the airport so he could come show us where we were supposed to be.So he met us there and led us to the back edge of the airport which had been specifically chosen as the bivouac site by virtue of its being the bumpiest area. Then we tracked down, captured, and sacrificed the blue possum and set up camp. Did I mention that this was in September? And that nights in September get chilly? It wasn't as cold as the bivouac in April when it rained all weekend, though...that time I slept in my coat, full BDUs (sans the boots) and as many layers as I had. [Some quick nostalgia for you there.] When CAP roughs it, we rough it, man. (*coughsnort*)
So tents went up, jackets went on, and we shoved off in search of nourishment. Some of them went to like Applebee's, but Clayton, Erik, Hosanna, and I went to Arby's. My food was super good. I even photographed it JUST for you to see.
I also photographed Erik and the Goliath of Curly Fries. 
Then we went back to our tents and went to sleep (sleep being a general term here). Morning routine involved Hosanna and me getting up at...something like 5am, I believe, so that we would have time to walk all the way down to the hangar bathroom to get ready, and then leave for breakfast. We went to McDonald's on our way to the NFARS, and arrived there at around 0700.
We signed in at the base theater, filed in, and sat down. It was pretty cool being there, as that's the place where CLS graduation is held. It was much more relaxed this time. We even had a cricket chirping endlessly in the corner to keep our teeth on edge. Great times.
We had a safety briefing, and then we were split up. Those of us who were over 16 went out to do parking, while the younger cadetlets went to the actual airshow area and did stuff like recruiting and manning ice cream/lemonade booths.I didn't take any pictures at the airshow with my camera, but these pictures are fairly indicative of parking. The first day, the Air Force sergeant in charge of my little group was named Sergeant Darling. I asked him if he was related to the Army Sergeant Darling at the NER Cadet Academy, but apparently not. I thought that was pretty cool.
This picture is us ancients heading out to wait around before we were split up into groups and sent off to our parking location. True story: I rode shotgun in a humvee. I had to tie my door shut with a piece of string. Actually, some nice AF dude tied it for me. ("RealMilitary: where the gentlemen tie your doors shut for you.")
We're so cool we're black and white :D
This is us waiting around, fixing our sleeves and adjusting the reflective vests. Officers are OCD when it comes to things like that. "Sir...your sleeve is a quarter inch lower in the left side than on the right side. Permission to adjust it for you so that I don't have nightmares tonight?" "Permission granted!!"
Just to give you an idea of the massive amounts of people: the next two pictures are two halves on a field. Note that you can only see part of the field...it extend to both sides of the photo (my lens isn't wide enough). Then realize that in roughly two hours, we parked about triple that. And then add in that there were several other parking lots closer to the airshow that were being parked simultaneously (they'd like send every three cars to us or something). There were a lot of people there.
How many cadet officers does it take to park a car? :)
Also, is it bad that I didn't notice that camo plane until I saw it this evening in the picture? Now that I see the plane, I think I know where we were... I had such a bad sense of direction that weekend it wasn't funny. I have yet to figure out the NFARS.
We left at noon on Sunday. I think this picture does a good job of summing up how we felt.
Oh yeah, there were some really noisy things zipping around in the sky, too. Thunderbirds and other random airplanes. Good times.The End.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Exciting News!
It's a happy day in my world. I have a new external hard drive, and right now, even now as we speak, I am moving several millions of megabytes (gigabytes? kegabytes? bytes? bites? food? hungry?) over to it. Actually, I have no idea how many things I am moving over. People have explained the whole mega/kega/gigabytes thing to me multiple times, but the information just zips out through the other ear. I guess my brain figures that as long as so many other people know it, why should I bother storing the info? I need a mnemonic.
But regardless...my computer was stuffed. I kinda couldn't put any more pictures on my computer because a message would pop up and say "we didn't copy the last 14 pictures because you're a moron and you don't have any more space on your hard drive. hahaha." Also I am running out of room even to make small word documents for college. Also, my computer is kinda slow. So I am creating space with my hard drive, and it will be a good hard drive, and I will put all my pictures on it, and we will live happily ever after. Then End.
But regardless...my computer was stuffed. I kinda couldn't put any more pictures on my computer because a message would pop up and say "we didn't copy the last 14 pictures because you're a moron and you don't have any more space on your hard drive. hahaha." Also I am running out of room even to make small word documents for college. Also, my computer is kinda slow. So I am creating space with my hard drive, and it will be a good hard drive, and I will put all my pictures on it, and we will live happily ever after. Then End.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Snapshot
*camera_click*
Jessica and Katrina just made lemon meringue pie. The sugar may or may not have been forgotten in the meringue. We won't comment on that.
Annetta is looking through pictures on the laptop, and is also about to make brownies for the [third] Thanksgiving get together tomorrow.
Lydia is wrapping gifts for Arielle's bridal shower tomorrow. Since Jessica is her maid of honor, we get to host a shower for her, and it's going to be so much fun! Annetta, The CocoaNut, and I have had a lot of fun organizing details, planning, going shopping and so forth over the past few months, and it will be so fun to do it! :)
Daddy is observing and commmentating and so forth life in general. My mom is observing and interacting and so forth. Conversations include meringue, college, college friends, pictures of college friends, wildcats (that would be Josh and K), fortune cookies (also J and K), bedtime, "he wasn't heavy, but he had that blobbier look" (my dad commenting on someone that none of you know), etc.
Katrina is soaring around, sound effects included. Josh is relaxing on the couch.
Hosanna and Joanna are reading upstairs, I think.
And I'm...blogging.
We're all enjoying Thanksgiving break. Jess got back here around 4:06 Wednesday morning...Daddy, Annetta, and I went out to Bath to pick her up where college classmates dropped her off. She's going back on Sunday for a few weeks, and then Christmas break :) Amusing quote from Thanksgiving: "I call one half!" "I call the other half!!" -- and the amusing part was that they were talking about a can of cranberry sauce. Yep, that's the big thing here at our house...cranberry sauce.
Random update. Very random, I know. But for those of you who wanted a random snapshot update of our family life, there ya go. :)
Jessica and Katrina just made lemon meringue pie. The sugar may or may not have been forgotten in the meringue. We won't comment on that.
Annetta is looking through pictures on the laptop, and is also about to make brownies for the [third] Thanksgiving get together tomorrow.
Lydia is wrapping gifts for Arielle's bridal shower tomorrow. Since Jessica is her maid of honor, we get to host a shower for her, and it's going to be so much fun! Annetta, The CocoaNut, and I have had a lot of fun organizing details, planning, going shopping and so forth over the past few months, and it will be so fun to do it! :)
Daddy is observing and commmentating and so forth life in general. My mom is observing and interacting and so forth. Conversations include meringue, college, college friends, pictures of college friends, wildcats (that would be Josh and K), fortune cookies (also J and K), bedtime, "he wasn't heavy, but he had that blobbier look" (my dad commenting on someone that none of you know), etc.
Katrina is soaring around, sound effects included. Josh is relaxing on the couch.
Hosanna and Joanna are reading upstairs, I think.
And I'm...blogging.
We're all enjoying Thanksgiving break. Jess got back here around 4:06 Wednesday morning...Daddy, Annetta, and I went out to Bath to pick her up where college classmates dropped her off. She's going back on Sunday for a few weeks, and then Christmas break :) Amusing quote from Thanksgiving: "I call one half!" "I call the other half!!" -- and the amusing part was that they were talking about a can of cranberry sauce. Yep, that's the big thing here at our house...cranberry sauce.
Random update. Very random, I know. But for those of you who wanted a random snapshot update of our family life, there ya go. :)
Monday, October 24, 2011
Awkward
Tonight was the Awana Fun Fair. It's where we set up various games all around our church's family life center, and the Awana kids and parents come and have fun and obtain insane amounts of candy and then go home and have sugar highs and sugar lows for roughly the next three months. It's a great time. I had the photo booth this year, which means that I had a "mini studio" and took pictures of kids, and sometimes their parents as well.
There was an awkward moment. Give me a minute here as I gulp afresh as I relive the awkwardness of it.
*gulp*
Okay. So there's this Spark. His name is Tyler. Tyler was at the fun fair with his grandmother. That wasn't the awkward part.
There was also another little boy (I forget his name) who was at the fun fair with his mother. That wasn't the awkward part either.
Anyhow, Tyler, his grandmother, Little Boy, and Little Boy's Mom all converged on the photo booth, where Tyler proceeded to sit down in the cute little chair with the teddy bears and pumpkins to have his picture taken. Now, I love incorporating parents into these pictures whenever I can-- a lot of these kids do not have idea family life situations, and any time I see parents interacting with kids, my heart sings. So it was perfectly natural that I should...oh, I don't even know how to say it. Let me just say it: I asked the wrong maternal entity if she would like to get in Tyler's picture with him. [That was the awkward part.]
Yeah, I know. How awful would that be? I can just hear the discussions about that picture for decades to come: "Oh, this is a great picture of little Tyler! But who's this strange woman in it with him?" "Oh...that's some mom of one of Tyler's Awana friends. The photographer told her to hop in the picture and smile, so she did..."
Thankfully though, Little Boy's Mother did *not* hop in the picture with Tyler, and so we don't have to worry about that happening. Until next year :P *gulp*
There was an awkward moment. Give me a minute here as I gulp afresh as I relive the awkwardness of it.
*gulp*
Okay. So there's this Spark. His name is Tyler. Tyler was at the fun fair with his grandmother. That wasn't the awkward part.
There was also another little boy (I forget his name) who was at the fun fair with his mother. That wasn't the awkward part either.
Anyhow, Tyler, his grandmother, Little Boy, and Little Boy's Mom all converged on the photo booth, where Tyler proceeded to sit down in the cute little chair with the teddy bears and pumpkins to have his picture taken. Now, I love incorporating parents into these pictures whenever I can-- a lot of these kids do not have idea family life situations, and any time I see parents interacting with kids, my heart sings. So it was perfectly natural that I should...oh, I don't even know how to say it. Let me just say it: I asked the wrong maternal entity if she would like to get in Tyler's picture with him. [That was the awkward part.]
Yeah, I know. How awful would that be? I can just hear the discussions about that picture for decades to come: "Oh, this is a great picture of little Tyler! But who's this strange woman in it with him?" "Oh...that's some mom of one of Tyler's Awana friends. The photographer told her to hop in the picture and smile, so she did..."
Thankfully though, Little Boy's Mother did *not* hop in the picture with Tyler, and so we don't have to worry about that happening. Until next year :P *gulp*
Sunday, October 16, 2011
I feel like a hermit
*walks in*
*footsteps echo*
Hi. I feel like a hermit. It's a burden that hath been thrusteth upon me. Let me 'splain. Actually, most of my readers know what I'm talking about. Admit it: when this post came up in your feed, you were like, who in the world is that? My point precisely. Over the past...like 10 days, I feel like I've hermited (it's a verb now, Just go with it, k?), and my reasons for hermiting are many and varied. They include: college, work, college, work, college, work, and surprisingly enough, college has also contributed. The past two weeks or so have felt insanely busy. However, I had today and yesterday off work, and it was so exciting to come out of my cave and explore a world in which there are human beings that I remember from past life.
Last night around 12:30, I finished up my second week of Adolescent Psychology. That class is seriously cool. I'm learning tons of stuff; some of it I may actually share later. I have 8-ish quizzes, 6 lectures, and 2 discussion boards before I'll be done with week 2 of Apologetics and Worldview. That class is seriously cool too, but as you can see, I've been focusing on psychology this week. I hope to convince my manager to give me days (or even one day) off this week so I can catch myself up and stay caught up.
I have lots of pictures and stuff to post in the future.
1. Niagara Falls Airshow
2. Occurrence of Pie Making
3. kittens
4. pizza (maybe...)
5. random expeditions
6. any other pictures that I can't remember at this point cause they're still on my camera.
So yeah. Maybe I'll be lucky and post some of them. And till next time, stay warm and dry (cough, that was for you, Thimble :P :P )!
*footsteps echo*
Hi. I feel like a hermit. It's a burden that hath been thrusteth upon me. Let me 'splain. Actually, most of my readers know what I'm talking about. Admit it: when this post came up in your feed, you were like, who in the world is that? My point precisely. Over the past...like 10 days, I feel like I've hermited (it's a verb now, Just go with it, k?), and my reasons for hermiting are many and varied. They include: college, work, college, work, college, work, and surprisingly enough, college has also contributed. The past two weeks or so have felt insanely busy. However, I had today and yesterday off work, and it was so exciting to come out of my cave and explore a world in which there are human beings that I remember from past life.
Last night around 12:30, I finished up my second week of Adolescent Psychology. That class is seriously cool. I'm learning tons of stuff; some of it I may actually share later. I have 8-ish quizzes, 6 lectures, and 2 discussion boards before I'll be done with week 2 of Apologetics and Worldview. That class is seriously cool too, but as you can see, I've been focusing on psychology this week. I hope to convince my manager to give me days (or even one day) off this week so I can catch myself up and stay caught up.
I have lots of pictures and stuff to post in the future.
1. Niagara Falls Airshow
2. Occurrence of Pie Making
3. kittens
4. pizza (maybe...)
5. random expeditions
6. any other pictures that I can't remember at this point cause they're still on my camera.
So yeah. Maybe I'll be lucky and post some of them. And till next time, stay warm and dry (cough, that was for you, Thimble :P :P )!
Monday, October 3, 2011
Beginning
Today marks the beginning of two online classes that I'm taking, from Bob Jones University. One is Adolescent Psychology, and one is Apologetics and Worldview. I'm excited for both! I have all my books for the Apologetics and Worldview, but I'm (gulp) still waiting for my textbook for Adolescent Psychology. I'm hoping it arrives tomorrow... I had off work today, so it was a good catch up sort of a day. I caught up on sleep (it was a rather long work week...for a chronic part timer like myself, almost 40 hours is quite a bit), made supper, and had a good evening at Awana. And here and there, I worked on organizing myself for theses classes. I still need to do something on printing out my course schedules. Maybe. I might be able to get out of it. The schedules aren't copy/pasting like they're supposed to, and I never look at them anyhow. Jessica always prints out her course schedules and tapes them to her wall in very straight lines. I do too, but then I don't bother looking at them. I just copy down each week's worth by hand on a sticky note or something. So maybe I'll just skip that part and copy straight from online. Yeah.
Well, I'm off to bed...
Well, I'm off to bed...
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Snapshot
Of today. Here's my day today.
Basically, I woke up. You know, that thing where you're asleep and all is well and quiet and comfy, and then suddenly your eyes start wanting to open and your brain starts thinking? I also called in to work to see if I was scheduled...and that may or may not have occurred after the aforementioned waking up. Ask Dusty if I sounded 'awake'...actually, don't :P
I had breakfast (a fried egg, and a bowl of cereal), and made lunch. Then I drove off, swooping down hills and around corners and so forth until I got to the Comfort Inn...my favorite place in all the world, you know. I was given a list of, oh, I think it was 14 rooms. That's okay, though, because all but three of them were stayovers. We have a ton of corporate lodges right now, which makes it easier. (Corporate lodgers are those folks whose jobs require them to remove themselves to a random location, and their job happens to select Comfort Inn as the place for their employees to lodge while being removed.) Anyhow, one of our housekeepers did a no call/no show thing this morning. This occurs with frightening regularity. Days when all of us call in and show up are days of great joy. No call/no show stunts mean that there is a list of rooms that are minus a housekeeper. This creates problems, and that is why Becca from Best Western was dragged across the street to assist. Best Western hates having to come over and housekeep at Comfort, because it's harder over here. It's true...our beds are more tedious and time consuming to make, and we don't have a laundry chute. I showed Becca the ropes, so to speak, and went back to my downstairs list. A lot of my stayovers didn't need service (yay!), so I got done fairly early. Then I went back over Becca's checkout rooms, mainly because she had left my tip envelopes in her rooms. Tip envelopes are handy because they say who cleaned the room last, in case there's anything wrong. You can also leave money in them. So I went through and stuck random, forgotten bath mats and washclothes and laundry bags in rooms. Then I helped another housekeeper finish up. And I got home around 2:39, which is fairly early.
I ate brownies and wondered briefly where my family was. It's quite rare for nobody to be in the house when I get home. They got home shortly thereafter, though, and Annetta and I decided to walk down and chill with Elizabeth. Elizabeth had just made a batch of mocha chocolate chip cookies. This fact in no way affected our decision to head down. So we headed down the road, ate cookies, helped with chores (I brushed several goats, as well as whistled for them to come when it was their turn to be milked. Did they listen to me? Did they come when whistled for? The answer to both these questions is no, but that is entirely beside the point).
Rachel appeared on the scene, and we four girls headed down to our house to do some baking. Well, we didn't bake-- we froze. Same difference, though. This was also roughly the time that I made a discovery. Well actually, I didn't make the discovery-- it was fairly thrust upon me. That discovery was that today is, in fact, Wednesday. Not Tuesday. Who would've thought?! This means that Monday, Tuesday, and today I have punched in on the wrong day. I think what threw me was the way the time cards start with Sunday, even though in my mind, the work week starts on Monday. I dunno...I just do. So on Monday, I punched in on Sunday, and it spiraled downwards from there. But today is Wednesday. And tomorrow is Thursday. And I'm good now on that.
Then Rachel headed home, and Annetta and I walked Elizabeth back home. And then I did normal home stuff...supper, laundry, ironing of uniform, and oh yeah, blogging. And skyping with Jessica.
So there is a very random snapshot of life. And since I feel like I just can't post this without a picture, I'm going to try to find the most random picture I can and post it here.
Basically, I woke up. You know, that thing where you're asleep and all is well and quiet and comfy, and then suddenly your eyes start wanting to open and your brain starts thinking? I also called in to work to see if I was scheduled...and that may or may not have occurred after the aforementioned waking up. Ask Dusty if I sounded 'awake'...actually, don't :P
I had breakfast (a fried egg, and a bowl of cereal), and made lunch. Then I drove off, swooping down hills and around corners and so forth until I got to the Comfort Inn...my favorite place in all the world, you know. I was given a list of, oh, I think it was 14 rooms. That's okay, though, because all but three of them were stayovers. We have a ton of corporate lodges right now, which makes it easier. (Corporate lodgers are those folks whose jobs require them to remove themselves to a random location, and their job happens to select Comfort Inn as the place for their employees to lodge while being removed.) Anyhow, one of our housekeepers did a no call/no show thing this morning. This occurs with frightening regularity. Days when all of us call in and show up are days of great joy. No call/no show stunts mean that there is a list of rooms that are minus a housekeeper. This creates problems, and that is why Becca from Best Western was dragged across the street to assist. Best Western hates having to come over and housekeep at Comfort, because it's harder over here. It's true...our beds are more tedious and time consuming to make, and we don't have a laundry chute. I showed Becca the ropes, so to speak, and went back to my downstairs list. A lot of my stayovers didn't need service (yay!), so I got done fairly early. Then I went back over Becca's checkout rooms, mainly because she had left my tip envelopes in her rooms. Tip envelopes are handy because they say who cleaned the room last, in case there's anything wrong. You can also leave money in them. So I went through and stuck random, forgotten bath mats and washclothes and laundry bags in rooms. Then I helped another housekeeper finish up. And I got home around 2:39, which is fairly early.
I ate brownies and wondered briefly where my family was. It's quite rare for nobody to be in the house when I get home. They got home shortly thereafter, though, and Annetta and I decided to walk down and chill with Elizabeth. Elizabeth had just made a batch of mocha chocolate chip cookies. This fact in no way affected our decision to head down. So we headed down the road, ate cookies, helped with chores (I brushed several goats, as well as whistled for them to come when it was their turn to be milked. Did they listen to me? Did they come when whistled for? The answer to both these questions is no, but that is entirely beside the point).
Rachel appeared on the scene, and we four girls headed down to our house to do some baking. Well, we didn't bake-- we froze. Same difference, though. This was also roughly the time that I made a discovery. Well actually, I didn't make the discovery-- it was fairly thrust upon me. That discovery was that today is, in fact, Wednesday. Not Tuesday. Who would've thought?! This means that Monday, Tuesday, and today I have punched in on the wrong day. I think what threw me was the way the time cards start with Sunday, even though in my mind, the work week starts on Monday. I dunno...I just do. So on Monday, I punched in on Sunday, and it spiraled downwards from there. But today is Wednesday. And tomorrow is Thursday. And I'm good now on that.
Then Rachel headed home, and Annetta and I walked Elizabeth back home. And then I did normal home stuff...supper, laundry, ironing of uniform, and oh yeah, blogging. And skyping with Jessica.
So there is a very random snapshot of life. And since I feel like I just can't post this without a picture, I'm going to try to find the most random picture I can and post it here.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Okay...THIS is the DC post :)
First of all, you've no idea how long it takes to upload 82 pictures, 5 at a time. Blogger totally needs to have a mass uploader or something. Passing on lightly from that, though...I will here try to summarize our trip to Washington DC and Patrick Henry College. Side Note: Whenever I heard a particularly amusing quote, I wrote it down, and they are included in this post.
First, we had some prep work before we left. Logistical things like renting a van, arranging for a hamster-and-fish-sitter/mail getter/house watcher/etc, and things like packing and preparing food. My mom is shown below preparing food the day before, on Saturday. We packed our food for Sunday (3 meals), and Monday lunch. I did help with that and made the burritos for Sunday breakfast...surprisingly, they turned out quite well :)
But I get ahead of myself. I mentioned packing (one can see my three lists, pen, and backpack):
So Sunday morning, we arose at an insane hour, like 6 or something. The van was packed completely, sleepy and hungry people squished themselves in, and we left at 7:21 am. (Yes, I like my cellphone background too...) Random Quote from riding in the van: "No throwing up allowed in the van!!" -- Mom (We have, ahem, some members who have a tendency to get carsick. Some of us have learned over the years to avoid reading and so forth, and others are in the process of learning this themselves.)
Speaking of the van...here tis!
So anyhow, we whizzed off. It started raining, and Katrina thought the puddles splashing sound was bears trying to get in. [Random Quote: "It's raining cats and dogs...I just stepped in two poodles." -- Dad] We were hungry, of course. Daddy said that we would stop shortly past Warren, so we talked, listened to music, and tried to fall asleep while we waited for Warren to hurry up and go by. It finally did, and we started to look for a nice little place to eat. We didn't find anything, and we just were getting hungrier and hungrier. We got to some little PA town (I forgot its name :P ) and made a wrong turn. We hadn't gone 30 seconds down this road when we saw this:
We were like, YAY!!!!! and promptly disembarked and ate breakfast. Good news: there was only one spider spotted during breakfast. Bad news: he was at my place. We had the aforementioned breakfast burritos, with yogurt, granola, and orange juice.
Then we hopped back in the van and continued on our way...
...to Arlington National Cemetery!
We got there at maybe quarter to 5, after a couple stops to stretch and eat lunch. Arlington closed at 7, so we had a couple hours. That was probably my favorite part of the trip. The lighting was *perfect* for pictures, and it's a beautiful setting. We parked (it's always so exciting taking a big homeschool van into those parking garages with only like 7 feet of clearance...I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about!), and found a map. We wanted to walk to the Tomb of the Unknowns, and stop at JFK's Eternal Flame along the way. It didn't take us as long to walk there as I thought it would...well, actually, it might have and I just didn't realize how long it was taking!
The Flame
Walking...
Taking pictures...
...of tombstones.
Hosanna and Lydia pose for me
This next batch of pictures is from the amphitheater. The Tomb of the Unknown is basically on its back porch (or is it the front porch), so we wandered through it first. It's huge, and like I said...the lighting was awesome.
Katrina
Joanna
Joanna and Hosanna
Me :P
And then we walked out to see the changing of the guard. Very impressive. I liked their sunglasses.
After that, we started heading back to the main gate. We walked around behind the Tomb, and I took a picture. I mean, you all have seen probably tons of pictures looking AT the Tomb of the Unknown, but how many of you know what it looks like from behind? That's what I thought. Thus, picture. And I discovered the paintbrush in photoshop, so I labelled everything for you. I even labelled where I was standing when I was taking the pictures of the changing of the guard.
And then we pose for still more photographs...
And we found the CAP memorial!
So Hosanna and I got our picture with it.
And we got some group shots..not sure if they're Christmas card worthy or not. Random Quote: Jess, looking at a picture of herself taken on the trip: "Does my knee look fat?" Mom: "No...it's a normal knee..."
This one is funny...Katrina is so short, and Josh and Joanna are barely tall enough!
The Washington Monument can sorta be seen from everywhere. Katrina called it the Pencil, and I think one of her highlights was going up into it the next day.
So after Arlington, we header to our hotel.
Both of our hotels had pools and the complimentary breakfast, which we took full advantage of. We checked in, went up to our fifth floor rooms and got settled in. Then it was time for supper, and we basically had the deserted hotel breakfast area to ourselves. So we brought our food in and sat and ate it. And I don't remember what we had...leftovers, peaches and cottage cheese, cheese sticks, stuff like that. Then we went to bed. And Jess takes all the blankets, by the way. Random Quote: Lydia, speaking about sleeping arrangements: "I only roll and kick when I'm on a trip." Annetta (no doubt with a feeling of impending doom): "You're on a trip..."
Next morning...Monday. We arose bright and early. Question: why is it always bright and early? That doesn't even make sense to me...if it's super early, it's not bright because the sun isn't up yet. Whatever. Regardless, we got up, ate breakfast, and grabbed all the stuff we would need for a day sightseeing in DC. They had a TV in the breakfast area, and as we ate, we heard how part of the metro was flooded and people were all jammed up and stuff. We even saw footage of it. Well...that was us a half an hour later.
I stood with hundreds of people at the Braddock Street metro station, proving once again that the American public, when faced with a catastrophe of this sort, rallies itself together into one big confused mess.
The Public Media showed up after a while and took pictures of us. I felt like a scientific specimen or something, so I took a picture of the photographer. I think he saw me, and we both felt awkward.
We stood for quite some time...45 minutes maybe...and Lydia was so bored she turned her lunch bag into a bunny. Ah homeschoolers...
At any rate, if nobody has guessed yet how this story turns out, we made it through to our final destination. It involved getting split up, a super long shuttle bus ride, and then a super long and CROWDED metro ride to Smithsonian, but we made it. It was so crowded that for the last little bit, I did not have to worry about falling over. It seemed like at every station we stopped at, we gained several people, and were lucky if we lost one or two. I would compare us to sardines, but believe it or not, I have never seen a can of sardines (I'm a sheltered homeschooler), so instead, I'm going to draw a comparison between us and Jessica's closet. Packed.
This little metro thing did put us behind schedule an hour or so, which means that we didn't get to go to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. We have seen Night at the Museum and wanted to go, but it didn't turn out.
We first went to the Washington Monument.
And while we were there, guess who showed up??
We went up to the top and looked out. Then we went back down.
Next was to walk along the National Mall, taking in everything along the sides, and the Lincoln Memorial. We may or may not have fed the ducks, in direct violation of the numerous signs that instructed otherwise.
Lydia and Hosanna...
Vietnam Wall [photo credit: Annetta]
Photo credit to Annetta for this one too
Lounging at the World War 2 memorial...
White House. Photo credits to anonymous tourist with photo skillz. Michelle Obama's garden is under the tree that is off to the left of Jess's shoulder. You can't see it. Also not shown (but present) was the White House Lawn Mower, buzzing around, trying to ignore the tourists staring at him, photographing him, hurling small objects at him, etc.
Then we walked back to the Capitol Building, where we had a tour. It was actually an awesome tour. We were in a group with like 60 other people (it wasn't a personalized intern tour like we had when my mom, Jessica, and I went with Grandpa Bob a few years back). But the tour guide was hysterical! He had such a great sense of humor. We had headphones on, and he had a microphone so we could all hear him. We walked all over the Capitol, stopping for his educational and humorous commentary.
Family picture on the steps of the Supreme Court:
Joanna at the Supreme Court:
Hosanna at the Supreme Court:
Then we went back to the hotel, had supper, went swimming, and crashed. Here are some metro pictures:
Tuesday morning: This place was awesome!!
It was on our way from DC to PHC, and since Jessica couldn't start signing in until afternoon, we thought we would stop here. We only had about a half an hour there, which was not nearly enough time to absorb everything in it. A tour would have been super awesome too, because I'm sure a lot of the stuff had interesting stories and facts. Also, all pictures inside are taken by Annetta. I wandered around sans camera.
I think I took this one, actually...
This is a space shuttle. Cool stuff :)
After lunch, we drove to PHC, hopped out of the van, and Jess began in-processing.
We waited while she went around to the various stations, and then took her stuff to her dorm.
We helped her get unpacked, mostly, but after a little while, the [non]natives got restless, so we walked around. Some genius had left soccer balls throughout the campus, and we could only assume they were for us. So we grabbed one and went to the basketball court. We weren't actually allowed to be there, so after a little but there, we moved on.
We passed the geese of Lake Bob
on our way to the kickball/baseball field. [photo credit: Josh or Joanna]
There was a dinner for the students and their families that evening. The line was crazy long, but we made it though, passing with some dread the memorials to past students who had succumbed to hunger while in line, may their souls rest with cheeseburgers in peace. Dinner was in the gymnasium.
Michael Farris
and Graham Walker spoke.
After supper, we went back to our hotel and went swimming. There were several families that we recognized from PHC there at the hotel as well. Random Quote: At the beginning of the trip, Katrina's idea of swimming (from within the safe confines of her inflatable vest) was to kick her legs like a egg beater with electrical issues, or a bicycle pedaled by someone on some serious adrenaline. She got better, and informed us that, "I'm not kicking like a motorcycle anymore!" Ah Katrina...motorcycles don't kick...
Wednesday morning, we ate breakfast and went to Walmart to buy stuff for Jess and roommates. Then we went to the camps. Wednesday was the day where they started orientation, and the parents were invited to attend sessions as well. So the kids and I tried to keep a low profile, slinking around campus. You would think that on a primarily-homeschooled campus, there would have been a ton of other kids doing the same thing, but no. There were a couple other siblings-of-students strolling around, but no hobos like us. In the morning, we went out to the athletic field and played soccer. It was really hot, and we discovered a volleyball net, with sand. That's where we were till lunch. The soccer team came out to practice, and we watched them a little bit before heading back.
We had lunch in the cafeteria.
Also, I'm going to share this picture with you now. As we were walking along, I was bemoaning the fact that PHC has been photographed so much that you pretty much can't take a random snapshot and have it be original. Annetta suggested (I believe her tone was sarcastic) that I take this following photo, so I did. I would bet that very few have taken this shot. If you see it again elsewhere, rememer...you saw it here first!
This is Josh, hanging out on the steps of Founders Hall.
Group shot (minus Jess, who took the pic) of us heading out to find a playground. We found one, and we hung out at it for a while in the afternoon.
After we got back from the playground, we had quiet time in the lobby of D3 (Dorm three...Jess's dorm). Then we had supper again. The menu board said that it included something called "beluga." Now, I was under the impression that a beluga is a sort of whale. I was pretty concerned, and also, I did not eat any meat that night. If any of my readers can ease my mind on this matter, I'd be much obliged.
Following dinner, the RAs were introduced to us all, and then they put on a hilarious program. Then...prepare the Kleenex...it was the crying time. We had all done so well up to that point, but when they started praying for the students and families, it was a losing battle. We had a few minutes in which the families prayed together and hugged and blew noses and so forth, and then a closing prayer. Then, they announced that there was ice cream!
I went through the line and was just sitting down when I remembered that I had a live Spanish chat in 5 minutes. Normally, I would have gotten out of going, but my partner Shannon and I had to read our Spanish assignment. So I sprinted to Jess's dorm, grabbed laptop, and headed for the lounge. 15 minutes later, I emerged, and I'm sure the folks in the entry area were wondering if they should be concerned or not. I gave them an enigmatic smile and returned to the family scene. They took these pics while I was gone...not sure who took them, though.
A friendly PHC-er asked Katrina what she wanted to be when she grew up. Without hesitation, Katrina replied, "Skinny!!"
The Barbara Hodel Center, silhouetted against the evening sky, shown here with multitudes of camera grain.
And then we got a family shot outside Jessica's dorm.
We went back to the hotel for the night, and packed up and left the next morning. Fairly uneventful trip, except for this cat.
I can't close this post without mentioning Tom Giraffe and Louie. Tom Giraffe and Louie went with us, and we are most grateful for their presence. With them, Katrina managed to entertain herself for hours on end. It just sorta adds to the atmosphere, you know, to have Tom Giraffe and Louie (Louie is the mom, btw) interacting and going about their daily lives as we drive down the highway or hang around at PHC.
Elizabeth, our awesome pet sitter, made us supper (!!!!!), so that was all ready for us when we walked in. She also had our mail organized on the table, along with a sweet note. Thanks again, Elizabeth!
I can think of no better way to end this post than with a quote from Joanna, when we were getting a bit stir crazy on the long drive home: "As soon as we get home, and out of this van, I'm going to howl." [She's harmless...no, really!]
First, we had some prep work before we left. Logistical things like renting a van, arranging for a hamster-and-fish-sitter/mail getter/house watcher/etc, and things like packing and preparing food. My mom is shown below preparing food the day before, on Saturday. We packed our food for Sunday (3 meals), and Monday lunch. I did help with that and made the burritos for Sunday breakfast...surprisingly, they turned out quite well :)
But I get ahead of myself. I mentioned packing (one can see my three lists, pen, and backpack):
So Sunday morning, we arose at an insane hour, like 6 or something. The van was packed completely, sleepy and hungry people squished themselves in, and we left at 7:21 am. (Yes, I like my cellphone background too...) Random Quote from riding in the van: "No throwing up allowed in the van!!" -- Mom (We have, ahem, some members who have a tendency to get carsick. Some of us have learned over the years to avoid reading and so forth, and others are in the process of learning this themselves.)
Speaking of the van...here tis!
So anyhow, we whizzed off. It started raining, and Katrina thought the puddles splashing sound was bears trying to get in. [Random Quote: "It's raining cats and dogs...I just stepped in two poodles." -- Dad] We were hungry, of course. Daddy said that we would stop shortly past Warren, so we talked, listened to music, and tried to fall asleep while we waited for Warren to hurry up and go by. It finally did, and we started to look for a nice little place to eat. We didn't find anything, and we just were getting hungrier and hungrier. We got to some little PA town (I forgot its name :P ) and made a wrong turn. We hadn't gone 30 seconds down this road when we saw this:
We were like, YAY!!!!! and promptly disembarked and ate breakfast. Good news: there was only one spider spotted during breakfast. Bad news: he was at my place. We had the aforementioned breakfast burritos, with yogurt, granola, and orange juice.
Then we hopped back in the van and continued on our way...
...to Arlington National Cemetery!
We got there at maybe quarter to 5, after a couple stops to stretch and eat lunch. Arlington closed at 7, so we had a couple hours. That was probably my favorite part of the trip. The lighting was *perfect* for pictures, and it's a beautiful setting. We parked (it's always so exciting taking a big homeschool van into those parking garages with only like 7 feet of clearance...I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about!), and found a map. We wanted to walk to the Tomb of the Unknowns, and stop at JFK's Eternal Flame along the way. It didn't take us as long to walk there as I thought it would...well, actually, it might have and I just didn't realize how long it was taking!
The Flame
Walking...
Taking pictures...
...of tombstones.
Hosanna and Lydia pose for me
This next batch of pictures is from the amphitheater. The Tomb of the Unknown is basically on its back porch (or is it the front porch), so we wandered through it first. It's huge, and like I said...the lighting was awesome.
Katrina
Joanna
Joanna and Hosanna
Me :P
And then we walked out to see the changing of the guard. Very impressive. I liked their sunglasses.
After that, we started heading back to the main gate. We walked around behind the Tomb, and I took a picture. I mean, you all have seen probably tons of pictures looking AT the Tomb of the Unknown, but how many of you know what it looks like from behind? That's what I thought. Thus, picture. And I discovered the paintbrush in photoshop, so I labelled everything for you. I even labelled where I was standing when I was taking the pictures of the changing of the guard.
And then we pose for still more photographs...
And we found the CAP memorial!
So Hosanna and I got our picture with it.
And we got some group shots..not sure if they're Christmas card worthy or not. Random Quote: Jess, looking at a picture of herself taken on the trip: "Does my knee look fat?" Mom: "No...it's a normal knee..."
This one is funny...Katrina is so short, and Josh and Joanna are barely tall enough!
The Washington Monument can sorta be seen from everywhere. Katrina called it the Pencil, and I think one of her highlights was going up into it the next day.
So after Arlington, we header to our hotel.
Both of our hotels had pools and the complimentary breakfast, which we took full advantage of. We checked in, went up to our fifth floor rooms and got settled in. Then it was time for supper, and we basically had the deserted hotel breakfast area to ourselves. So we brought our food in and sat and ate it. And I don't remember what we had...leftovers, peaches and cottage cheese, cheese sticks, stuff like that. Then we went to bed. And Jess takes all the blankets, by the way. Random Quote: Lydia, speaking about sleeping arrangements: "I only roll and kick when I'm on a trip." Annetta (no doubt with a feeling of impending doom): "You're on a trip..."
Next morning...Monday. We arose bright and early. Question: why is it always bright and early? That doesn't even make sense to me...if it's super early, it's not bright because the sun isn't up yet. Whatever. Regardless, we got up, ate breakfast, and grabbed all the stuff we would need for a day sightseeing in DC. They had a TV in the breakfast area, and as we ate, we heard how part of the metro was flooded and people were all jammed up and stuff. We even saw footage of it. Well...that was us a half an hour later.
I stood with hundreds of people at the Braddock Street metro station, proving once again that the American public, when faced with a catastrophe of this sort, rallies itself together into one big confused mess.
The Public Media showed up after a while and took pictures of us. I felt like a scientific specimen or something, so I took a picture of the photographer. I think he saw me, and we both felt awkward.
We stood for quite some time...45 minutes maybe...and Lydia was so bored she turned her lunch bag into a bunny. Ah homeschoolers...
At any rate, if nobody has guessed yet how this story turns out, we made it through to our final destination. It involved getting split up, a super long shuttle bus ride, and then a super long and CROWDED metro ride to Smithsonian, but we made it. It was so crowded that for the last little bit, I did not have to worry about falling over. It seemed like at every station we stopped at, we gained several people, and were lucky if we lost one or two. I would compare us to sardines, but believe it or not, I have never seen a can of sardines (I'm a sheltered homeschooler), so instead, I'm going to draw a comparison between us and Jessica's closet. Packed.
This little metro thing did put us behind schedule an hour or so, which means that we didn't get to go to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. We have seen Night at the Museum and wanted to go, but it didn't turn out.
We first went to the Washington Monument.
And while we were there, guess who showed up??
We went up to the top and looked out. Then we went back down.
Next was to walk along the National Mall, taking in everything along the sides, and the Lincoln Memorial. We may or may not have fed the ducks, in direct violation of the numerous signs that instructed otherwise.
Lydia and Hosanna...
Vietnam Wall [photo credit: Annetta]
Photo credit to Annetta for this one too
Lounging at the World War 2 memorial...
White House. Photo credits to anonymous tourist with photo skillz. Michelle Obama's garden is under the tree that is off to the left of Jess's shoulder. You can't see it. Also not shown (but present) was the White House Lawn Mower, buzzing around, trying to ignore the tourists staring at him, photographing him, hurling small objects at him, etc.
Then we walked back to the Capitol Building, where we had a tour. It was actually an awesome tour. We were in a group with like 60 other people (it wasn't a personalized intern tour like we had when my mom, Jessica, and I went with Grandpa Bob a few years back). But the tour guide was hysterical! He had such a great sense of humor. We had headphones on, and he had a microphone so we could all hear him. We walked all over the Capitol, stopping for his educational and humorous commentary.
Family picture on the steps of the Supreme Court:
Joanna at the Supreme Court:
Hosanna at the Supreme Court:
Then we went back to the hotel, had supper, went swimming, and crashed. Here are some metro pictures:
Tuesday morning: This place was awesome!!
It was on our way from DC to PHC, and since Jessica couldn't start signing in until afternoon, we thought we would stop here. We only had about a half an hour there, which was not nearly enough time to absorb everything in it. A tour would have been super awesome too, because I'm sure a lot of the stuff had interesting stories and facts. Also, all pictures inside are taken by Annetta. I wandered around sans camera.
I think I took this one, actually...
This is a space shuttle. Cool stuff :)
After lunch, we drove to PHC, hopped out of the van, and Jess began in-processing.
We waited while she went around to the various stations, and then took her stuff to her dorm.
We helped her get unpacked, mostly, but after a little while, the [non]natives got restless, so we walked around. Some genius had left soccer balls throughout the campus, and we could only assume they were for us. So we grabbed one and went to the basketball court. We weren't actually allowed to be there, so after a little but there, we moved on.
We passed the geese of Lake Bob
on our way to the kickball/baseball field. [photo credit: Josh or Joanna]
There was a dinner for the students and their families that evening. The line was crazy long, but we made it though, passing with some dread the memorials to past students who had succumbed to hunger while in line, may their souls rest with cheeseburgers in peace. Dinner was in the gymnasium.
Michael Farris
and Graham Walker spoke.
After supper, we went back to our hotel and went swimming. There were several families that we recognized from PHC there at the hotel as well. Random Quote: At the beginning of the trip, Katrina's idea of swimming (from within the safe confines of her inflatable vest) was to kick her legs like a egg beater with electrical issues, or a bicycle pedaled by someone on some serious adrenaline. She got better, and informed us that, "I'm not kicking like a motorcycle anymore!" Ah Katrina...motorcycles don't kick...
Wednesday morning, we ate breakfast and went to Walmart to buy stuff for Jess and roommates. Then we went to the camps. Wednesday was the day where they started orientation, and the parents were invited to attend sessions as well. So the kids and I tried to keep a low profile, slinking around campus. You would think that on a primarily-homeschooled campus, there would have been a ton of other kids doing the same thing, but no. There were a couple other siblings-of-students strolling around, but no hobos like us. In the morning, we went out to the athletic field and played soccer. It was really hot, and we discovered a volleyball net, with sand. That's where we were till lunch. The soccer team came out to practice, and we watched them a little bit before heading back.
We had lunch in the cafeteria.
Also, I'm going to share this picture with you now. As we were walking along, I was bemoaning the fact that PHC has been photographed so much that you pretty much can't take a random snapshot and have it be original. Annetta suggested (I believe her tone was sarcastic) that I take this following photo, so I did. I would bet that very few have taken this shot. If you see it again elsewhere, rememer...you saw it here first!
This is Josh, hanging out on the steps of Founders Hall.
Group shot (minus Jess, who took the pic) of us heading out to find a playground. We found one, and we hung out at it for a while in the afternoon.
After we got back from the playground, we had quiet time in the lobby of D3 (Dorm three...Jess's dorm). Then we had supper again. The menu board said that it included something called "beluga." Now, I was under the impression that a beluga is a sort of whale. I was pretty concerned, and also, I did not eat any meat that night. If any of my readers can ease my mind on this matter, I'd be much obliged.
Following dinner, the RAs were introduced to us all, and then they put on a hilarious program. Then...prepare the Kleenex...it was the crying time. We had all done so well up to that point, but when they started praying for the students and families, it was a losing battle. We had a few minutes in which the families prayed together and hugged and blew noses and so forth, and then a closing prayer. Then, they announced that there was ice cream!
I went through the line and was just sitting down when I remembered that I had a live Spanish chat in 5 minutes. Normally, I would have gotten out of going, but my partner Shannon and I had to read our Spanish assignment. So I sprinted to Jess's dorm, grabbed laptop, and headed for the lounge. 15 minutes later, I emerged, and I'm sure the folks in the entry area were wondering if they should be concerned or not. I gave them an enigmatic smile and returned to the family scene. They took these pics while I was gone...not sure who took them, though.
A friendly PHC-er asked Katrina what she wanted to be when she grew up. Without hesitation, Katrina replied, "Skinny!!"
The Barbara Hodel Center, silhouetted against the evening sky, shown here with multitudes of camera grain.
And then we got a family shot outside Jessica's dorm.
We went back to the hotel for the night, and packed up and left the next morning. Fairly uneventful trip, except for this cat.
I can't close this post without mentioning Tom Giraffe and Louie. Tom Giraffe and Louie went with us, and we are most grateful for their presence. With them, Katrina managed to entertain herself for hours on end. It just sorta adds to the atmosphere, you know, to have Tom Giraffe and Louie (Louie is the mom, btw) interacting and going about their daily lives as we drive down the highway or hang around at PHC.
Elizabeth, our awesome pet sitter, made us supper (!!!!!), so that was all ready for us when we walked in. She also had our mail organized on the table, along with a sweet note. Thanks again, Elizabeth!
I can think of no better way to end this post than with a quote from Joanna, when we were getting a bit stir crazy on the long drive home: "As soon as we get home, and out of this van, I'm going to howl." [She's harmless...no, really!]
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