Today felt much like a Saturday. Tom came home at lunch time and we took the girls to the first official social function of our time here. It wasn't bad...he works with some really nice people. Unfortunately the girls weren't thrilled with having to listen to speeches before the food and there was a looonnnggg line to get it. So we found a sort of out of the way place to feed them which made me feel a little antisocial but it was that or cry when my kids acted like they were raised by wolves. But we all ended up eating cupcakes and playing Bingo so all is well.
This evening we went and redid Tom's office! He's never had a really real office before with carpet and windows and a big chair and desk. Kinda weird. We hung up all of his special Army plauqes (there is this crazy Army tradition where you give people money so they buy you a going-away gift which is usually a framed thing with patches and stuff in it. It's pretty cool but dang. Anyway, things were hung and Ipods were watched and McFlurries were eaten. Not bad...not bad at all.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
The Chaplain's Hour
So, today was our first time meeting the New Cadets! They aren't even Plebes yet. For the next five weeks, each Wednesday evening families from our branch (our church organization up here) will get together with the 17 cadets going through Beast Barracks (basically West Point boot camp) and feed them and let them have a break. I made brownies and chocolate chip cake to take over and the branch provided pizza and soda. All kinds of people were there and though my children made it a bit difficult to spend much time talking to them, I met some great kids and also had a chance to meet some of the other women in the ward. I need friends!! Anyway, I have been looking forward to this part so it was fun to meet these really amazing teenagers. Having a husband working in the admissions office has really sort of allowed me to see what these kids have to have accomplished to get in here. Pretty tough and pretty cool. I could NEVER do it. I hate people yelling at me. Nope, not for me but anyway. Good for them.
The Swimming Debacle
Here is a problem. Okay, background. Emma LOVES to swim. The kid is a fish. She throws herself off of the pier at the beach, dives for things, plays in pretty rough waves in the actual ocean, swam from one side of a (small) pool to the other. She loves the water.
She does not like her swimming lessons
We did some swimming lessons in Columbia and they were fantastic! She did 2 classes and learned all kinds of stuff really fast. Here's the thing. The best swimming lessons we could find when we moved here are actually in a pond. Granted it's a man-made, filtered, chlorinated pond but it is a pond. And it's been COLD. I mean, like the other day it was 65 degrees when we went out. Here's how it's gone:
Monday - got in the water, refused to even put her head in until the last 10 minutes after a pretty significant bribe on my part - her teacher thought she was scared of the water.
Tuesday - got in the water, did her bobs much faster, got out of the pool crying after about 25 minutes.
Wednesday - would not get in the water at all despite bribes and promting and really nice teachers trying to help us out
Thursday - didn't even drive to the pond.
Sigh. It's just been too cold here. Also she says that crabs are "pinching her legs." There aren't even any fish in the pond. It is barely hitting 80 degrees in the late afternoon and in the early morning it's just friggin cold. And the forcast is about the same for the next week and a half. If it doesn't warm up I'm just going to withdraw her from the second session. There's no point. So I feel terrible, my little swimmer and she's miserable. We're looking into lessons at a "real pool." Today in the bathtub she dunked herself under the water for about 15 seconds. Sheesh. I will say, that Delafield Pond looks like so much fun to play in! There is a great sandy beach and kids area with two slides and sprinklers and a massive slide for the older kids. If only it would warm up already!!! Cross your fingers Corinne.
She does not like her swimming lessons
We did some swimming lessons in Columbia and they were fantastic! She did 2 classes and learned all kinds of stuff really fast. Here's the thing. The best swimming lessons we could find when we moved here are actually in a pond. Granted it's a man-made, filtered, chlorinated pond but it is a pond. And it's been COLD. I mean, like the other day it was 65 degrees when we went out. Here's how it's gone:
Monday - got in the water, refused to even put her head in until the last 10 minutes after a pretty significant bribe on my part - her teacher thought she was scared of the water.
Tuesday - got in the water, did her bobs much faster, got out of the pool crying after about 25 minutes.
Wednesday - would not get in the water at all despite bribes and promting and really nice teachers trying to help us out
Thursday - didn't even drive to the pond.
Sigh. It's just been too cold here. Also she says that crabs are "pinching her legs." There aren't even any fish in the pond. It is barely hitting 80 degrees in the late afternoon and in the early morning it's just friggin cold. And the forcast is about the same for the next week and a half. If it doesn't warm up I'm just going to withdraw her from the second session. There's no point. So I feel terrible, my little swimmer and she's miserable. We're looking into lessons at a "real pool." Today in the bathtub she dunked herself under the water for about 15 seconds. Sheesh. I will say, that Delafield Pond looks like so much fun to play in! There is a great sandy beach and kids area with two slides and sprinklers and a massive slide for the older kids. If only it would warm up already!!! Cross your fingers Corinne.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Crayola Factory and National Canal Museum (Summer Adventure #2)
It turns out that the 4 hour round trip drive was completely worth it to go to the Crayola Factory and National Canal Museum in Easton, Pennsylvania. I was worried about not getting there until the afternoon (Emma has morning swimming lessons, another story altogether) because the web site mentioned being super crowded in the afternoons in July and August. Yeah. And it was, in fact, super crowded. So much so that at first I almost felt claustrophobic.
The deal is this. There are arts and crafts projects EVERYWERE Here is a list of what we did:
*Coloring pages at the massive circular crayon table
*Seahorse puppets
*Fish prints (a Japanese art technique apparently)
*Fingerpaint
*Color Wonder
*Crayon Rubbing
*Play with Model Magic clay
*Watch a bit of crayon making
*Paint a ceramic-y type fish (it wasn't exactly ceramic but it was a 4 inch three dimensional fish with tables full of water colors
*Sidewalk chalk
*Play in the little kids area
*Use these little tokens (part of your admission) to get a marker and a 4 count box of crayons
*Write on a plexi-glass wall with markers that wash off (I think they are actually called window markers)
Mary's tracing her hand here...she LOVES tracing her hands
You get this bag when you go in to put your stuff in and each girl had a full bag by the time we left. They had a blast. The more things cleared out the easier it was to relax and let them just hang out at the different stations without feeling like you had to hurry up and move so someone else could try. And this was just at the Crayola part.
Upstairs was the National Canal Museum. Apparently the only one in the country. It was super cool, very hands on. There was this massive replica of a canal with boats the kids could float along it and actually work the locks on the canals and stuff. Emma was a huge fan and we did that twice. There was also a big boat to play in, a tiller to try, a mule to harness (full size but obviously fake) laundry to wash in the washtub and all kinds of other stuff. Then there was yet another floor full of building toys: Legos, Lincoln Logs, cardboard bricks, etc. There was also a water table and a sort of sand type table but with something other than sand. We spent four hours between the Factory and the Museum. We ate McDonalds right there on site and I have to say that I quite liked the massive Crayola gift shop.
This is the canal replica, you can't feel the size of it from this measley picture
Emma was massively thrilled that the boat was named after her
When we were leaving Emma said, "Mom, that was so fun!" And so wahoo for me. Mary only yelled at me once so I'm calling it a thumbs up from her too. It's 10.00 a person for ages 3 and up so it can get pricey if you have a big family but I feel for sure like I got my 10.00 worth - a massive bag full of crafts and four hours of happy children.
The deal is this. There are arts and crafts projects EVERYWERE Here is a list of what we did:
*Coloring pages at the massive circular crayon table
*Seahorse puppets
*Fish prints (a Japanese art technique apparently)
*Fingerpaint
*Color Wonder
*Crayon Rubbing
*Play with Model Magic clay
*Watch a bit of crayon making
*Paint a ceramic-y type fish (it wasn't exactly ceramic but it was a 4 inch three dimensional fish with tables full of water colors
*Sidewalk chalk
*Play in the little kids area
*Use these little tokens (part of your admission) to get a marker and a 4 count box of crayons
*Write on a plexi-glass wall with markers that wash off (I think they are actually called window markers)
Mary's tracing her hand here...she LOVES tracing her handsYou get this bag when you go in to put your stuff in and each girl had a full bag by the time we left. They had a blast. The more things cleared out the easier it was to relax and let them just hang out at the different stations without feeling like you had to hurry up and move so someone else could try. And this was just at the Crayola part.
Upstairs was the National Canal Museum. Apparently the only one in the country. It was super cool, very hands on. There was this massive replica of a canal with boats the kids could float along it and actually work the locks on the canals and stuff. Emma was a huge fan and we did that twice. There was also a big boat to play in, a tiller to try, a mule to harness (full size but obviously fake) laundry to wash in the washtub and all kinds of other stuff. Then there was yet another floor full of building toys: Legos, Lincoln Logs, cardboard bricks, etc. There was also a water table and a sort of sand type table but with something other than sand. We spent four hours between the Factory and the Museum. We ate McDonalds right there on site and I have to say that I quite liked the massive Crayola gift shop.
This is the canal replica, you can't feel the size of it from this measley picture
Emma was massively thrilled that the boat was named after herWhen we were leaving Emma said, "Mom, that was so fun!" And so wahoo for me. Mary only yelled at me once so I'm calling it a thumbs up from her too. It's 10.00 a person for ages 3 and up so it can get pricey if you have a big family but I feel for sure like I got my 10.00 worth - a massive bag full of crafts and four hours of happy children.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
4th of July Weekend
My blessed mother has been here all week helping me get my house sorted out. Unfortunately at the beginning of the week I was still completely sick with some sort of virus so we were slow out of the starting gate. Still, she's the master of organization and with her help I do not want to cry when I come inside my front door. Things are looking pretty good actually. I'll post some pictures when a room is actually finished. What I love very most, even more than her help, is her company. She's awesome.
On Friday my dad came up to join us and it was so good to have him here. He and Tom installed our over the stove microwave (no small feat I might add) and managed to hang 5 shelves even though the goofball kid at the Home Depot cut them wrong. Anyway, they even let Tom and I go out to Schade's (the local restaurant of choice) for our anniversary! It was a lovely date made lovelier by the McFlurries we brought home which were dang good.
The other lovely thing we did was download episodes from season 3 of Psych, one of the best shows EVER. We also tried to show them a bit of West Point but traffic was so crazy from the fireworks that it was tricky. We drove up Perkins Memorial drive (my poor mother who has phobia of heights wasn't pleased but was really sweet about it) and took a few pictures. Note how lovely they turned out (please read in a sarcastic tone). I love having my parents around.
On Friday my dad came up to join us and it was so good to have him here. He and Tom installed our over the stove microwave (no small feat I might add) and managed to hang 5 shelves even though the goofball kid at the Home Depot cut them wrong. Anyway, they even let Tom and I go out to Schade's (the local restaurant of choice) for our anniversary! It was a lovely date made lovelier by the McFlurries we brought home which were dang good.
The other lovely thing we did was download episodes from season 3 of Psych, one of the best shows EVER. We also tried to show them a bit of West Point but traffic was so crazy from the fireworks that it was tricky. We drove up Perkins Memorial drive (my poor mother who has phobia of heights wasn't pleased but was really sweet about it) and took a few pictures. Note how lovely they turned out (please read in a sarcastic tone). I love having my parents around.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Home? Again
We made it, here we are in New York. Yikes. But now at least I have Internet and a DVR so I can record So You Think You Can Dance! Focus on the good Erin. Nah, it's goign to be awesome here once it's unpacked. My inlaws and Tom did an amazing job getting the house ready for us and now my mom is here with me to unload boxes so I am feelign incredibly blessed. And overwhelmed. But blessed.
Monday, June 22, 2009
3 ER Visits in 2 Days
What I want to be writing my post about is the awesome time we had at the beach last week but instead I will quickly blog out my irritation and then go to bed. Let me first state that I am incredibly grateful for the medical care available to me and my family and I am not trying to be a complainer. Trying not to be. But last night I took Emma to the emergency room because she had a raging fever and a cough. Don't worry friends, it wasn't Swine Flu. But we were there for like 3 1/2 hours. The ER is the only option I have right now because I am not in New York at my regular hospital. Plus it was Sunday. But Tom was and he went to the ER in New York last night because he had a massive ugly bite on his leg on Friday that turned out to be a spider bite that needed treatment.
So tonight when I was on my computer my left eye started hurting...bad. So bad that I woke Lauren and Jordan up (this is at about 11:45pm) and Lauren tried flushing my eye with saline but it still hurt like the devil and it felt like something was still in there so she took me to the ER where I was diagnosed with multiple corneal abrasions. I scratched my eye in 3 places. Sigh. No contacts for a while and it still HURTS. I am typing this with one eye shut because the computer light is quite uncomfortable. Some of you may not know that my eyes completely suck. I have about 3 inches of clear vision in front of my eyes sans glasses or contacts so my glasses are pretty darn thick. When I wear my glasses out of the house it feels to me like I am still wearing my pjs...like I am not fully dressed without my contacts. But luckily I do have glasses and my eye will heal. But now it's 3AM and my girls are going to be up soooo soon and I only have one good eye and we're heading up to Lancaster, PA in the afternoon. I am really hoping for cloudy weather.
So tonight when I was on my computer my left eye started hurting...bad. So bad that I woke Lauren and Jordan up (this is at about 11:45pm) and Lauren tried flushing my eye with saline but it still hurt like the devil and it felt like something was still in there so she took me to the ER where I was diagnosed with multiple corneal abrasions. I scratched my eye in 3 places. Sigh. No contacts for a while and it still HURTS. I am typing this with one eye shut because the computer light is quite uncomfortable. Some of you may not know that my eyes completely suck. I have about 3 inches of clear vision in front of my eyes sans glasses or contacts so my glasses are pretty darn thick. When I wear my glasses out of the house it feels to me like I am still wearing my pjs...like I am not fully dressed without my contacts. But luckily I do have glasses and my eye will heal. But now it's 3AM and my girls are going to be up soooo soon and I only have one good eye and we're heading up to Lancaster, PA in the afternoon. I am really hoping for cloudy weather.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Beach Week - First Sunday
How I love the first day at Camp Merryelande. After all the craziness of packing and loading and driving, I step out of my car into the lovely breeze of the bay. Then of course there is the unloading and carrying in and feeding everyone a lovely meal of enchiladas but then! Then we get to take our first walk on the beach. We don't swim on Sunday as we try to keep the Sabbath, but we walk and look and it's just...it's just relaxing. The kids pick up treasures and Mary kept saying "there's somethign in my shoe!" which made sense cause she was wearing her Crocs. Emma kept smiling and saying how happy she was to be back at the beach house. It's so familiar now...this is our fourth year. It's just such a blessing that my parents finance this fabulous beachy adventure.
One very wonderful thing that happened was I got to meet my brother-in-law JD! Adrienne, my oldest sister, came earlier in the week than usual which was so fun. I love spending time with her. She lives in Maine but now I am actually not that far away!
Another quite happy thing was that they got a satellite dish so we didn't have to sit at the end of the porch to try to tap into their wireless connection. There were lots of laptops out and about.
The girls did really well sleeping in the same bed...I was actually impressed. They had a huge "thtack of bookth." I went to sleep like I always do...I seem to always be the last one in bed...turning off the lights in the house and looking out at the light on the pier. I dust the sand off my feet before climbing into bed and listening to the water until I fall asleep.
One very wonderful thing that happened was I got to meet my brother-in-law JD! Adrienne, my oldest sister, came earlier in the week than usual which was so fun. I love spending time with her. She lives in Maine but now I am actually not that far away!
Another quite happy thing was that they got a satellite dish so we didn't have to sit at the end of the porch to try to tap into their wireless connection. There were lots of laptops out and about.
The girls did really well sleeping in the same bed...I was actually impressed. They had a huge "thtack of bookth." I went to sleep like I always do...I seem to always be the last one in bed...turning off the lights in the house and looking out at the light on the pier. I dust the sand off my feet before climbing into bed and listening to the water until I fall asleep.
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