Going to see Santa!

Well, we're off tomorrow morning to ride the Polar Express. Last year was a lot of fun, and I anticipate even greater exuberance this year due to the girls being a year older. This year, we are going with Kate's best friend, Reagan, and her family, who are also some of our best friends. We are extremely excited, and Kate can't stop talking about how we're going to see Santa! And Reagan! And snow! And Reagan! And have hot chocolate! And see Reagan!

After that, and our trip to the Grand Canyon on Tuesday, we drive to Tucson to see my sister (who just got out of the hospital yesterday) and her new baby, Lucy. See you at the end of the week.

Overwhelmed, and suffering from writer's block

I don't know what has happened. Weeks ago, when I was secretly pregnant, I couldn't wait to share the news! It seemed like everything I wrote about was slightly lame, like I needed to just be able to talk about being pregnant and then everything would be back to normal. But it's not! At midnight, I think of great blog titles, fabulous and funny stories to write about. At 3pm, I have nothing. I might as well be napping! So here's a big shout out (Tim's favorite expression) to my 3 faithful, if bored, readers.

Tucson was great, as I might have mentioned. It was like going home, somehow. Probably because I know more people there than I know here, I was able to suggest places to go for lunch, and I even offered up a new and fun suggestion to my sister of a place to take her in-laws, although she has lived in Tucson for more than a decade.

I might or might not have gained about five pounds last week, from all the yummy places I went to lunch, and from Shayne's amazing dessert selection at last week's coffee. My sister and I took the three girls to get Halloween pictures taken at Sears (why oh why do I torture myself that way? They are horrible! And expensive!). It didn't go well. I spent gobs of money anyway. Shayne and Andrea and I took the kids to the zoo. Kate and Claire fed the giraffes (Claire for the first time; it was hysterical. She was SO excited to feed them [because Kate was excited], and then she saw the long purple tongue on the giraffe and freaked out and dropped the giraffe snack behind the little fence. Me, having just paid a whole dollar for that snack, raced the giraffe to it and won, so Claire and I could feed him together. I think she has recovered by now. I guess I should have started a whole new paragraph [or post] for this topic.). Kate played with her best friend Reagan for hours. Tempie followed Claire around faithfully whenever they were together. I read an entire book. It was such a great week.

I don't know if I will do the trip again next week or not. It is one thing to drive nearly 8 hours (not including multiple and unbelievably long stops) with two adults to corral the children, and to do it alone might be suicidal. But three weeks is a long time for us to be here alone, and I think we might get slightly bored. I think the secret is to get up and drive as early has humanly possible. If I can only drag my butt out of bed at 4am...

Kate is incredibly excited about Halloween. We took the girls to the Reid Park Zoo to go trick-or-treating, and now she can't wait until it's dark every night so it will be Halloween.

I have not figured out how to explain places to Kate. She is having trouble wrapping her head around the notion that even though we drive several miles in one city, that we are still, quite likely, in the same city. Every time I drove them from place to place in Tucson, Kate wanted to know when we would go back to Tucson. I'm pretty sure she thinks of Tucson as Reagan's house and Tempie's house. And perhaps after our trip, our hotel with the fountain.

And now, because of lack of direction and focus, I will leave you with some photos of our recent trip.

Living it up in Tucson

Tim has a conference this week in Tucson, so we all drove down together to see family and friends. So far the days have been packed. The drive here was slightly miserable, and is giving me second thoughts on doing it again next month without Tim, but we are having a great time here, so it was worth it.

I forgot my camera cable, so unless I Tim can find some way for me to download pictures off the camera, I'll have to save the photos until next week.

We went to Apple Annie's to get pumpkins on Sunday. Our car looks like CSI: had it in their shop for a week: the layer of dust coating the paint has brought out the tiny fingerprints that are covering all low-lying surfaces. But I digress. The pumpkin picking was fun. It was hot, so we kept it short, but the girls LOVED riding on the tractor-pulled hay wagon and playing in the corn-filled tub.

We've also spent time with my sister and her family, and the girls got to go back to their old school today. I was in heaven. I ran all sorts of quick errands that truly were quick! No buckling of small seatbelts! No whining! No back-and-forth about who got to play with the magnet doodle pad! I even had a peaceful, quiet lunch with a friend. And the girls and I were so happy to see each other when I picked them up.

Tonight I get to go to my old squadron's coffee and see many more friends. God I love vacation.

Hurry up and wait / bored / fini pics

I am almost mobile-blogging. I'm sitting on the futon in our boxed-up living room, with the laptop on my, well, lap. And I'm online! I bet if you're 23 and reading this, you're rolling your eyes right now. But I am pretty pleased with myself. Like I had anything to do with it. Er, thanks, Tim!

Pedro is still boxing up our stuff. The movers only sent one person (actually, I think it was his choice; something about more money, likely) to pack us up. I bet he is re-thinking his decision right about now. Our house may only be 1500', but we have it crammed full of stuff.

The kids are doing pretty well with all of this. It's sort of an adventure, or at least that is how we are presenting it. We will even be staying here tonight, boxes and all! Pedro promised to leave our bedding alone, and the movers will be in tomorrow morning to break down all the furniture. We won't even be sleeping on the floor! Tim suggested putting all our unshippable (spell-check is telling me this is not a word. I do not know another to use, though, so am sticking with it) candles in the fireplace and roasting the marshmallows they won't box up. I promise not to make a mess, Devin! ...although with all the in and out and boxes and such, you probably want to hire some carpet cleaners before you move your stuff in...

Today is the last day of school for the girls. It is our last night in our house. It's so foreign. I know we have been working at this whole moving thing for a long time, but it still is weird to think that we won't be here anymore.

Tim's fini-flight was great. We were almost late, but made it just in time (we were walking out to the tarmac just as he was turning to taxi to his spot). Thanks to R2 for telling him to take his time! And thanks to Camille, Rae, Shonda, Erin, and Deborah and their families for coming to see the celebration! It was great having friends there.

I think Kate was impressed by the big plane, but slightly perplexed as to why we were out there in the heat. Then I knelt down next to her and pointed to her Daddy in the cockpit, covered in military green and a helmet with a dark eye shade. Just then, Tim waved at her, and her face lit up. It was so fun to see the recognition on her features, and to watch her wave to her Daddy.

We re-bid on the first house in Vegas. Our new bid is significantly lower than our first one, and is below the asking price. We will see what Paul the wonder-agent has to say about that, probably in 3-4 weeks. Ha.

Now, pics.

So so so busy

Tim's parents left this morning to return to Oregon. They were slightly dismayed to find that it is only 53* there today. In contrast, they enjoyed sun and warmth here, and both even swam in our freezing (80*) pool.

We stayed busy while they were here. We went to the zoo, the children's museum, had swim lessons every day, and went to the water park. One would think that this would tire out toddlers, but someone (her name starts with Kate) is working on dropping her nap, which has another someone (ME) anxious and crabby.

Other happenings over the past week:

• Claire hit a growth spurt and a teething episode at the same time.
• Cheri's sister's plane crashed on takeoff in Africa, causing much stress for all. All on board are miraculously okay and are recovering in Nairobi.
• Tim and I realized that time in Arizona is getting short and we need to find a house in Vegas very soon.
• The house we wanted there is back on the market. Don't even get me started.
• Kate learned to lock all the bedroom doors in the house, much to my dismay.
• With four adults in the house to watch over the children, Kate somehow managed to find a glass jar, drop it on the tile, begin playing amongst the shards, while Claire tried to eat one of the bigger pieces, just as I came rushing around the corner to investigate the crash of breaking glass.
• Cheri went shoe shopping for the girls and they now have more shoes than I do. (Thanks, Mom!)
• Claire increased her vocabulary by at least 3 words a day.
• Tim and his parents put crown moulding up on our fireplace to hide the ghetto caulk and paint splatters.

Almost time for the water torture to begin again. Later!

Silly us

My friend, Camille, our kids, and I were planning a trip to the zoo this morning. We're both hoping to wear the children out of their fascination with the zoo before it gets too bloody hot to spend more than 3 minutes out in the sun. Being that it is late March, we are almost there already.

I arrived first, with Kate and Claire in the backseat joyfully telling me about all the animals they were going to see (okay, fine, it was just Kate saying the names of animals, but Claire was energetically yelling 'puppy' over and over again, like she does). I could barely get into the parking lot, there were so many cars there. There were also many signs telling me that the parking lot was full, and that spillover parking for the baseball game was just down the street. I was trying not to get peeved about all the baseball fans parking in my the zoo parking lot, while I slowly drove down each (of 4) aisle(s), desperately seeking a parking spot. As a last ditch effort, I drove down the aisle closest to the zoo entrance, and counted 11 free parking spots. I have noticed that there are consistently 11 free spaces there, and always thought that they were handicap spots. Not so. They are for Alternative Fuel Vehicles. ELEVEN parking spaces for Alternative Fuel Vehicles, and probably 40 spaces for Regular Fuel Vehicles. And those AFV spots are Always Empty. Are you kidding me? How about 11 parking spots for new moms? Or moms with more than 2 or 3 or 4 kids? Or something more reasonable that will actually get some use?

Anyway, I quickly called Camille to see if she had left her house yet. Luckily she had not, and we headed over to her house where there was no baseball game and where spring break was not a concern. There the girls played with her kids, Max and Emiliana, and we had some good mom talk. Thanks, Camille!

Busy bees

Painting the bathroom (today: cream; last week: bright blue). Going to the zoo. Visiting the Desert Museum. Going to Jessica's and Dana's houses for lunch. Doctor appointments. A jewelry-making squadron coffee where I made Sheila's necklace and a few other pieces. Cleaning, endless cleaning. It's been sort of busy around here lately.

This is not going well.

We made it around the block like this. It's a single stroller. It was a tight squeeze.

Claire likes the anteater puppies. ALL animals are puppies.

Our train trip around the lake at the zoo.

Reagan and Kate feed the ducks.

Sitting on the peacock.

Sisters.

Daddy took a day off on Saturday and we went to the Desert Museum.

Claire plays in her favorite room. I'm ready for my bath, mom!

Come fly with me

Well, okay, I guess that's a bit premature. You really don't want to fly with me for at least another 2-3 more hours of me practicing my landings. But I did get to take flight today, with my instructor Kelly right by my side to remind me about all the things I was forgetting. It was a beautiful day for flying; there is still a little snow on the mountains, and the sky was perfectly blue and clear.

Getting back into the cockpit is not exactly like getting back on a bike. I wish it was that easy, but it's slightly more complex. That's probably why there are so many enthusiastic pilots out there. I did pretty well, minus the first landing ("Pull up! Pull up! Don't forget to look all the way down the runway!"), the third landing ("Ooh, 90kts is pretty good for final...maybe you want some flaps?"), my parking job (yes, I parked in between the lines. You are supposed to park on them), and my engine shutdown. Let's just say that you can't simply turn off the engine with the key, and that's what I did. And I'll never forget again!

The rest of the day was for playing outside: the girls on the swing, and us trying madly to de-trailer park our yard.

Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf?

It turns out Kate is. I got her The Three Little Pigs book recently, and she's woken up in the middle of the night several times now, worried about the big, bad wolf. We keep telling her we live in a brick house, but she is still scared. Oops. I plan to hide the book away today, in hopes that she will forget all about it.

We went to Agua Caliente park last week for the first time. I had no idea there was a park with a pond and ducks so close to us. Kate and Claire loved it. We wandered as far away from the park personnel as possible before feeding the ducks an entire sleeve of saltines (there were a lot of signs about not feeding the water fowl), and Kate even shared Claire's goldfish crackers with the ducks.

Claire has a new word: puffs. It doesn't come out perfectly, but it's understandable, which is impressive considering she has the flu and is very lethargic and whiny. I think she's going to be a linguist.

Kate is jumping. She has been trying to figure out how to get off the ground for ages, but has just now mastered it.

We are putting out house on the market next week. Next week! This does not leave much time for painting (which, by the way, my realtor said I didn't really need to do? Hmm), or anything else. Everyone is sick here, and Tim needs to work this weekend, so we'll see how much I can get done. There is a Lot to do. And I'm more than a little stressed out about how I'm going to have the house in a showable condition for the next couple of months. We are all going to be learning how to clean up after every single mess. The kids are going to HATE it.

It snowed yesterday, here in town. It didn't stick, but it was fun to watch!

Happy Consumers Day!

I think Valentine's Day is sort of silly, as you might could tell from the title of this post. Don't get me wrong: I'm not against love or roses or heaven forbid CHOCOLATES, but to pile them all up on one particular day in the year when the prices of such things are sure to be THROUGH THE ROOF, that seems silly. I did get Tim a card, and a small gift, and I even buckled and got Kate a chocolate heart from See's which she'll get to eat tonight. But hearts and all that crap, ugh. Maybe that's my problem: I can't stand heart-shaped stuff. And red and pink together? Well, only on a very cute baby.

This morning I went to the gem show with my friend Erin. Whooooboy! It was like shopping at Namdaemun in Korea, but with better parking and it didn't smell like fish. I got all kinds of fun things: gifts for friends and family, a ring and some earrings for myself, and some pearls to make a necklace for my sister-in-law, Sheila, who did not get one from me when we went to China. I'm pretty sure some of those Beijing vendors were there today, selling their wares to Americans from all over this country.

It's super windy today; a storm is blowing in and they say there will be a foot of snow tomorrow morning above 4000' and maybe even snow here in town.

Tonight we'll have a regular dinner and maybe some wine, followed by a chocolate heart for Kate. What will you be doing?

Bets

I didn't break touch it!

Anyone want to wager how many times I'm going to have to:

• re-wrap gifts?
• glue ornaments back together?
• holler at the girls to "stop touching the tree already!"?
• pry McLaren's pudgy little fingers off the pretty noble tree?

I decorated the Christmas tree last night, alone (how sad is that?), while watching When Harry Met Sally, drinking hot chocolate and eating peppermint patties. Tim will be home soon, but I got impatient. I love decorating the tree each year. Unwrapping each ornament is like Christmas morning, as I have usually forgotten what ornaments we own over the preceding 12 months. We have family heirlooms (one of which Kate broke this morning), trinkets from places we've lived and visited, and creations I made when I was little, all decorating our tree. I read The Night Before Christmas to Kate again last night, and explained that I was going to hang the stockings by the chimney with care, and she was delighted to see them on the mantel this morning. Of course, I noticed that we need a new stocking for Claire, as this is her first Christmas.

Not much will fit into that tiny boot!

The Catalinas covered in snow. Beautiful.

Kate's silhouette from Saturday's Christmas tree expedition.

Holly Jolly, Mommy!

Well, none of us are feeling very holly jolly right now, but this is Kate's new favorite phrase. I have a sneaking suspicion that she believes she'll get to open her Christmas presents now if she says it enough.

I probably should have titled this post "the one where everyone was sick, again", because we are. Still. Sick. We have been sick, at least one of us, since the day after Thanksgiving. For the Love of God, make it stop. Even Tim got some sort of flu, and he's in Vegas.

On the upside, the girls are sleeping in much later than normal (Kate slept until 10:15am the other morning, then took a 3 hour nap that afternoon), for the most part. Claire is now waking up at 5:30am, though, coughing and demanding a meal. Me, I have no appetite, and I have not weighed this little since high school. Now, if I was only hungry for Christmas cookies. Of course, I'd need enough energy to make them first.

I have not sent out Christmas cards, because we are still waiting for our photos. Bad choice, but hopefully they will be worth it. The Christmas tree has lights on it, but no ornaments, and the rest of the house is a disaster that will likely take months to recover from. But I no longer feel flu-like, just cold-like, so that's a good thing. Also, it has been raining for the past several days, and now there is snow on Mt Lemmon. It's beautiful, and it feels more like winter.

Polar Express photos

Kate & Eric enjoy the Polar Express.

It's really difficult to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time.

Waving bye-bye to Santa.

Who knew?

Who knew that

• a girl could have so many baths in one night, and still not smell quite right?
• I could wonder if I was going to run out of toddler sheets before morning?
• doing laundry at 2am was in my future when I sat down for a glass of wine at 9pm?
• we would have to skip the children's squadron Christmas party with Santa arriving on an A-10, due to Kate having the stomach flu?
• she would make a miraculous recovery, allowing us to attend the adult's squadron Christmas party last night?
• it would take us an hour to drive to that Christmas party due to a parade downtown, and then we'd have to park a mile away from the festivities?
• it would feel like we were Christmas tree shopping in Seattle yesterday, with wind, driving rain, and 42* on the thermometer?
• my Polar Express pictures would still be in that room with the sleeping (go to sleep, please, Claire!) baby?
• Kate would still be sleeping at 9:15am?

It's that time of year again

Thanksgiving? Christmas? Sure, those are some of the favorites coming up, but I'm talking about something far more exciting, at least for some around town. It's time for Tucson's bi-annual bulky/junk pick-up. Families load up their unwanted miscellany and pile it in the alley behind their house, or next to their driveway, for the city dump to pick up. Apparently this is also a time for dumpster diving.

I was washing the dishes yesterday afternoon when I heard a commotion across the way in the alley. It wasn't Santa; it was an older gentleman, decently dressed, toeing through someone's decrepit treasure. What amused me was that he was obviously looking for something worthy of taking home, but he wasn't actually willing to touch any of it. In the end he wandered off, empty-handed.

Is this how Koreans looked at me and my friends when we pawed through others' forgotten (or possessed) riches piled next to the garbage cans in the Life Apartments parking lot?

P.S. Happy Birthday, Dad!

Pumpkins and crawling

Where's Kate?

Hold on to your shoes! Hide your breakables! Return all coffee mugs to their rightful place on top of tables and counters! Guess who's crawling? Good guess. Yes, Claire is finally getting somewhere when she gets up on all fours. For the past couple of weeks she would crawl a pace and then collapse on her belly. She got around a bit doing this (i.e., she wouldn't always be in the same place that you left her if you walked away for a bit), but now she is full up crawling. She must have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. It's amazing the things kids can do after a good nap or a long nights' sleep.

Yesterday we went to Apple Annie's orchard in Willcox. Fields and fields of pumpkins! Corn! Hay rides! Sunflowers! It was wonderful. Last year we went and it was freezing (probably like 55* or something silly like that), so we were prepared this year. And of course it was 75* and I was roasting. A group of us went, including my sister and her family, and Dana and her family. Kate and Eric waited for the great pumpkin together last October, but this year they were more interested in playing in the dirt.

Hayride.

Remember the Great Pumpkin, Kate?

Let's go find him again!

Playing in the dirt is better than waiting for the Great Pumpkin.

It's FALL!!

I woke up this morning to find a chilly house, and a cold kitty whining to come inside. It was 44* in our backyard (and probably all over Tucson)! Fall is here.

Autumn is my favorite favorite season. College football. Brisk mornings and nights that beg for warm drinks such as Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes. Good running weather. Leaves, changing from green to gold to orange to red, falling gracefully from the trees. In Seattle, fall meant you had to dress in layers for that Husky game: start out with a t-shirt because the sun would warm you, and bring a thick sweatshirt (or rain slicker) for when the sun dipped below the Olympic mountains and left you shivering. It meant chilly sailing weather, the kind where you came back from racing with numb fingers and a red nose.

My sister got married in October, several years ago, and we got to attend. It was up in the mountains of eastern Arizona, in Greer.


I had never seen such a vibrant shade of yellow. I keep hoping that we'll make it back up to Greer before we leave Arizona, but I'm not sure that will happen. Camping with 2 kids would be a fun trick, huh?

Full sails in Maine.

Yreka, CA.

Claire is cozy in her Ducks outfit.

Kate learns to paint.

Last night Tim and I went to see The Kingdom. It was really good! We rarely go to movies; after paying the babysitter and adding on the dinner tab, it usually costs about $100 for an evening out. A hundred dollars! And it was even a jeans kind of date. But we really liked the movie, and the sushi beforehand was awesome.

Next weekend is a trip to Apple Annie's orchard to find the Great Pumpkin. Until then, bundle up out there! It's nippy.

Finally, we are back!

6mo.

We got back on Saturday afternoon, but our modem was fried (monsoons? lightning?) and we couldn't get online. I realized then just how very horribly addicted I am to the internet. And how much other stuff I can get done when my beloved internet is not working. Tim, luckily, is also addicted to the net, so he was on a mission to fix it. Thanks to his efforts, I am back online.


The drive back was...somewhat more painful than the ride up. It didn't help that we took the 'long' road back through Idaho and Utah. Six days later (and more than 3000 miles driven in the past 5 weeks) we are all much happier to not be sitting in a car.


We spent 2 nights in Boise, soaking up the fun and the good beer (we took the girls to 2 breweries while we were there); drove to Ogden, UT, where we stayed at Hill AFB; braved the crazy torrents of rain and flood waters south of there to arrive at Cedar City, UT, near Zion; drove through Vegas on a Friday, stopping only at In N Out Burger for lunch; spent a night in Kingman, AZ; and finally arrived home on Saturday afternoon. Overall it was a fairly uneventful trip home (minus Kate's total meltdown at McDonald's in Wickenburg on Saturday - she just did not want to go into the restaurant and threw one of the biggest fits I have ever seen when we tried to get her to sit down and eat her cheeseburger).


Our house is still standing, although the pool is quite green and so is the yard. We are still unpacking (I think this process might take a week to 10 days) and trying to get organized. Monsoon season is in full force; it took Tim 45 minutes to get to work this morning (normally a 15-minute drive), and the girls' swim lessons are cancelled today. It's dark inside even though it's almost 8am, and I can hear thunder rumbling in the distance. Time for me to go make some breakfast and get some stuff done while the house is still quiet. Pictures soon, I promise.