Kickin' Back

Life in St. George rolls at a slower pace. Given how busy the last month has been for us, it has been a very welcome respite. We are staying with Brian's parents, and also enjoying the company of his brother and family. We arrived last Thursday and our days have been filled with visiting, playing with cousins, golfing, naps, card games, shopping, really good food, and playing in the water. Strong emphasis on playing in the water.

Sometimes, my mind slips back into DC mode and I momentarily miss the schedule and predictability of my days. But then when I remember the ringing phone, traffic, piles of boxes and endless errands, I grab my book and a Fresca and enjoy the moment. We truly have been spoiled--Saturday night, Brian's parents treated us to a night to see Les Miserables at Tuacahn, a beautiful performing arts venue outside of St. George. Tomorrow, Brian and I take off sans kids to hit the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City. Yeah, real life can wait a bit longer.

A Dual Birthday Celebration

As I mentioned before, I'm a bit behind on blogging. I'm sitting in St. George, Utah as I write this, as we have begun our month long Western summer extravaganza. Granted July 4th is now old news...but I took the pictures, have a partially composed post in my head, and so I can't let a good thing go to waste. The day was one big birthday celebration for us--4th of July festivities and my Grandma's 90th birthday.

I'd have to put the 4th up with one of my favorite holidays. It almost always turns out to be a fun day with minimal effort on our part. So this is how we celebrated: First, we got word that our neighborhood puts on a July 4th bike parade. So after getting dressed for the occasion, decorating Ella's bike and flags in hand, we treked to the starting point of the parade.
Kids literally came out of the woodwork--there were gobs of bikes, parents and strollers. A fire truck led the parade, with a couple hundred people trailing behind. Having that many inexperienced, young bike riders in a large procession is a bit kamikaze-like: They come out of nowhere, are fearless and they don't have a whole lot of regard for whose feet they run over.

We ended the parade with popsicles, climbing on the fire truck and a series of games you might see at an elementary school carnival--ring toss, bean bag toss, etc.

It really was a highly organized event and it gave us a better feel for the composition of our new neighborhood.

After unpacking a few boxes, we headed to my parents' for a cookout and birthday celebration for my Grandma. I provided the birthday cake--a classic carrot cake with cream cheese frosting--an all-American touch, I thought.

My Grandma moved in with my parents two years ago, and she has become so ingrained in our lives, I can't imagine not having her here. Although she often jokes (or not) about how she should no longer be on this earth, she has been my own personal lesson on endurance and endless service. After watching your spouse, all of your siblings and the majority of your peers pass on, how can you not help but feel left behind?

Like so many other WWII/Great Depression survivors, she has strength that most of us can only sit back and admire. She is a rock. Despite common ailments of old age, she is in relatively good health. Afraid that she will be a burden to those around her, she is not only productive, but a blessing. She works daily on genealogical name extraction for our church (requiring the use of a computer, a fairly complex computer program and e-mail). Although only an estimate, I would guess she has contributed to/made about 20 quilts in the last year: some of those hand-pieced and hand quilted. She does needlepoint, is an avid shopper (undoubtedly the best-dressed Grandma around) and even accompanies us on day-long outlet shopping trips, babysits my kids, packed my entire kitchen for me, scrubbed the kitchen and bathrooms of our house before we moved in, drives, makes and dips chocolates, sends birthday cards to all of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and travels cross-country to see family members. My girls love her immensely. Samantha goes to her readily, anxious to grab her beautiful head of white hair. Ella is very close with her--they watch movies and read together, play Uno and can't part ways until they have a "hundred million squeezes." Really, what will we ever do without her?

Following our time in St. George, we head to Bear Lake in Idaho where our extended family is gathering for a reunion to wish her a Happy 90th Birthday. She is so excited and we recognize this is probably the last time the entire family will be together with her at once. It should be a great time.

And we finished the day off with fireworks at a nearby high school. We will gear up one year to take our kids to downtown DC, but 1) Brian and I have done it countless times and 2) I want my kids to be a little older to appreciate it. I'm not enduring the metro and the drunken masses when they're just as enchanted by the local high school fireworks.

Sadly, the 4th is one of the few times of the year when I ponder for any considerable length of time how fortunate we are to live in this country. At one point during the day, Ella asked me why July 4th was such a big deal. I launched into a grand speech about how we live in a free country and what exactly that means: We are free to worship God in any way we choose, we are free to say and write whatever we want, and we have certain protections simply by being citizens of this country. For these reasons, people flock to America, desperate for the quality of life we take for granted every day. And I have to say, I got rather passionate about all this--it took me by surprise, actually. For all its shortcomings, this truly is a country worth celebrating.

Bowcuts on the move...

It's been awhile since my last post. We are still here. I haven't given up blogging yet. We've just been a little pre-occupied. So let me catch up a bit.

We moved. And I will never move again. Call me a wimp, I don’t care. Some of my readers have made recent triumphant moves to California, Texas, Wisconsin, Michigan and even Korea! I don’t really hear you all complaining (except maybe for the very minimal complaints of my dear Korea friend, but you don’t really count—international moving is a beast of its own). I moved 8 miles away and it was horrible. Have you just done it more than I have? Perhaps you’re just stronger, more resilient than I am. I don’t do it gracefully. I don’t enjoy packing up everything I own only to turn around and unpack it days later. Here is a fairly recent picture of our living room, and I don't expect it to change any time in the immediate future.
At one point in my life, every one of my earthly belongings fit into my college automobile--my Chevy Celebrity (a classic set of wheels, I might add). Now, they barely fit into this massive moving truck.

I’m a little embarrassed that we own this much stuff. Once you own a house, there is this magnetic force that draws STUFF into every nook and cranny. Cleaning out the attic, the basement, every closet and cupboard, it just seemed endless. It is now my mission to curb the accumulation of stuff…for every new thing that enters, something old must leave. But I digress. Let’s get back to why this move was so horrible.

· Closing on the Silver Spring house. We had a bad combination of neurotic buyers in a slow real estate market. To make the deal go through, we had to eliminate a hornet’s nest from our shed, have our almost brand new furnace serviced, have a number of repairs done on a house in excellent condition (if I do say so, myself) and gently explain that the holes left in the walls from me taking the window treatments in my daughter’s bedroom were indeed reparable. Spackle and paint work wonders, people. Anyway, I spent a lot of time dealing with contractors and service men, while trying to pack with two little kids.

· Brian was sent to Idaho the week before we moved for another business trip. Enough said.

· My Mom, who is notoriously phenomenal with helping with big, life-changing, events/crises was away in China the week we moved. We were still recipients of lots of help from friends and family, but still, it would have been great to have her here.

· The closing on our Bethesda house was postponed several times due to various loose ends.

· The girls came down with horrible colds (the coughing, thick, nasty runny nose type)

· In addition to her cold, Samantha was teething and woke up almost hourly for several nights. The night before we moved we got about 3 hours of sleep.

· We stayed at my parents’ home while we were in between houses, but my poor stepdad came down with shingles—I was a nervous wreck that my girls would come down with the chicken pox. Normally that wouldn’t have been a big deal, but doing chicken pox while moving would have been terribly inconvenient.

· The movers dropped a box on our baby grand piano, scratching it, and damaging the music stand. They damaged it before they even got it out the door!

So is my complaining warranted…even a little? You can be honest.

As I was giving my sad story to my sister on the phone, she suggested that some cosmic force creates huge road blocks in front of REALLY good things. In other words, the fact that this move was so hard was because it was SO worth it. I kind of hummed along and said, “oh yeah, that must be it”, not really buying it. But so far, I think that cosmic force really did come through for the Bowcuts. We love being here. Sure, we’re still drowning in boxes and adjusting to a home that needs some updates, but overall, we are delighted. A few highlights:

-the neighborhood, the neighborhood, the neighborhood. This truly is why we’re here. It is beautiful. I have to show off our back yard because I think right now it really is my favorite feature. The window above the kitchen sink overlooks it and I love that I get to look out on it multiple times a day.

We love the location—so convenient to the Beltway, our favorite shopping, easy commute for Brian. Very close to NIH should I ever land the perfect part-time job there.

-this place reproduces like rabbits…literally. There truly are rabbits everywhere. It’s totally bizarre. I grew up in Kensington, just a few miles away and sure I saw a rabbit very occasionally, I have never seen anything like this. We were all excited because we have a resident bunny who lives in our backyard. It’s very tame and Ella has gotten within just a few feet of it before it hops off. And then as I’ve gone running on several different routes through the neighborhood, I see our resident bunny isn't such a novelty. They are in almost everyone’s yards, they hop across my path as I run. But bunnies aside, this neighborhood is swarming with kids. For starters, there is a little boy next door Ella’s age, and a little girl her age, named Nora, two houses up. Nora heard that Ella would be moving in and had been anxiously awaiting her arrival.

-the Bethesda Ward (mormon term for church congregation). We’ve only gone one week, but we’ve been very warmly welcomed and so far it seems like a very interesting, engaging community. Plus, several of the people were at one time in the Kensington Ward, where I grew up—it’s nice to have some familiar faces mixed with the new. The Primary seems to be a good size and Ella had a blast at the primary pool party this past weekend.

-the grocery stores. I don’t know what it was about Silver Spring, but the quality of the grocery stores was severely lacking (Trader Joe’s was the exception). Our neighborhood referred to a nearby store as the “Soviet Safeway” because there was never anything on the shelves. Also, our neighborhood invited the managers of the local Giant to a neighborhood meeting so we could complain directly about the lack of shopping carts and rodent holes in the bags of bread. I walked into the Safeway in downtown Bethesda and I almost cried. It was fully stocked, lots of organic choices and a parking lot elevator that didn’t smell like urine. Eureka.

Overall, we can already sense that the agony of getting here was worth it. We’re still working on making it feel like home, but we know that really only time can do that. Address change cards will hopefully make it in the mail soon. We also love, love, love company, so please come visit/stay. The only requirement for room and board is that you peel off a little wallpaper... :)

A Week's Recap

Life has been a bit crazy recently to write anything particularly thoughtful or profound. The combination of a beach trip, packing a house and Brian out of town this week has more than occupied me. So you'll just have to settle for a recap.

Our beach trip this past week, was supposed to go the full week, but didn't...never-the-less, we had a great time. Last Saturday we headed out to Ocean City , MD where my aunt and uncle graciously let us use their beach condo. Our good friends Jenn and Barrett Kirwan joined us with their two kids, Ella and Sam. (Yes, that is correct, our children have the same names...theirs are older so I guess we were the unoriginal ones. The Kirwans were also the first to bring to our attention that it's important to refer to the kids as "Ella and Sam" rather than "Sam and Ella" since the latter sounds too much like a common bacteria. Important point.) As far as I’m concerned, the beach with friends is the way to do it. The kids entertain each other, and evenings consist of quality adult time that doesn’t require the use of a babysitter. My parents also came and joined us for a day with my nephew, Josiah, who was visiting from Spokane, WA . We had terrific weather and managed not to get too sunburned. This was also Samantha's debut at the beach...she was intrigued by the ocean and decided that sand didn't taste very good. Some images from the beach:

Ella has officially fallen in love with the beach. Last year, she was rather tentative…afraid of the ocean and the sand was a huge nuisance. But this year she fully embraced it. We couldn’t keep her out of the ocean and she played freely in the sand. Since she’s not strong enough to brave the waves by herself, an adult had to be with her—and she outlasted us all.

Brian and I kept remarking all the things we had to do at home in preparing for the move—had we known we would be moving the end of this month we probably would not have planned the beach trip. But I’m so glad we did. Sometimes you need some forced relaxation or it will never happen. For our mental health, we needed the time away from the house. However, Brian found out last week that he was again getting sent off to Idaho for more depositions. So he took off on Tuesday. The Kirwans were headed off to Utah for the summer and they left Tuesday evening. The girls and I stayed put at the beach another night and then made our way back on Wednesday. Although I would have loved for Ella to have more time at the beach, I did feel the pressure of getting the house packed and wasn’t quite sure how to balance Ella, who was always wanting to be in the ocean with an infant, who enjoyed the beach for about 15 minutes at a time. So we loaded up and headed home.

Friday, Ella and I had a mommy-daughter date to see a Washington Mystics (WNBA) basketball game. We took the metro downtown, which is always a hit with Ella, mostly because she gets to “take the train like Daddy”.

Although I am in full support of a professional womens’ basketball league, and love and applaud women's athletics, I have my doubts about it's sustainability. I would guess only about a third of the arena was full...people just don’t come to watch them. Probably a combination of the fact that it's women's sports and because basketball games aren't really a traditional summer activity. There's also this weird combination of trying to masculinize the game, but still keeping a feminine touch on things. For example, the players congratulate each other by spanking butts and bumping chests (seems painful). But yet, they handed out picture frames to everyone as door prizes. What male sporting event have they ever handed out picture frames? Anyway, it was still fun, and furthered my goal of getting Ella interested in basketball.

We cheered, ate ice cream, danced and tried to get on the big TV. In the last few minutes of the game, when it was apparent the Mystics would win the game, Ella asked if they would get a prize for winning. I mean to a four-year-old, what's the fun if no prize is involved?

My task-master was calling for me to keep packing, but I guess he gave up and went to bed. I guess I'll join him.

Moving On...

Given our history, I didn't want to jinx it... so I didn't post it until it was a sure thing.

I suppose it can't totally be a sure thing until closing next week, but everything is in line...contract is signed, home inspection, appraisal, everything is done. This whole process didn't go as swimmingly as the first time in February, but given the current market, we are grateful that the house is sold and we can move on.

So the Bowcuts are off to Bethesda, only a 8 mile journey. We look forward to a new neighborhood, new parks, a new ward (church congregation), and hopefully (with both my fingers and toes crossed) lots of little girls to play with in our neighborhood. And we're close enough that we can still frequent our favorite Silver Spring spots with our favorite Silver Spring/College Park people.

Given that we've been in such limbo over the past few months, it's been difficult to get excited or to start planning for our new house. But now that the weight has been lifted of selling our house, we are eager to roll up our sleeves and get to work. There will be much to tell regarding our decorating debacles, but in the meantime, here are some pictures to give you a sense of what we'll be working with.

My Real Simple arrived just in the nick of time--they have a section devoted to making outdated bathrooms livable without major renovation.

This is the future playroom in the basement--also sporting that gold-foil, Santa Fe inspired wallpaper. As an added bonus, apparently there are several more layers of equally attractive wallpaper hidden underneath!

Most of the house is actually mercifully neutral, but these are definitely the rooms that make our house unique. It might not be for awhile, but we'll post some pictures of the transformation in the future.

Summer Kick-off

The month of June is in full swing. Despite the fact it has been hot as blazes here in DC, we are enjoying the onset of summer. In contrast to the fairly uneventful summer we had last year while we were awaiting the arrival of Samantha, we have jammed as much as possible into these summer months. They consist of moving, summer camps, vacations, business trips and family reunions. This past weekend we held our first (and maybe our last) ever yard sale. Once a year our neighborhood organizes a yard sale weekend—we had never participated, but given that we’re packing up our house, we had a number of items to get rid of. My Grandma, Mom and friend Miriam, all decided they wanted to unload some junk as well. It was quite the shopping extravaganza here in Silver Spring.

I was pleased to see all my baby clothes and small appliances go, but why oh why didn’t anyone want my pink ceramic basket or personalized graduation picture frame? My Mom even got to part with her foot spa and cuckoo clock. We scoffed at my Grandma’s selling of several pairs of (new) pantyhose, but lo and behold, she sold them. I guess they were quite a deal if the color and size suited you. What I realized is that you need lots of different kinds of people for your yard sale to be a success. For the mélange of stuff you pick up throughout your lifetime through various travels and experiences, you need a diversity of people to fully appreciate your treasures. Unfortunately, we didn’t have anyone colorful enough to buy my stepdad’s eclectic collection of foreign art (particularly the one of topless African women) or Miriam’s bright red lacey lingerie (I think a gag gift to her).

Ella did the best business—that little entrepreneur sold lemonade. She was set up in the shade at the end of the driveway, and with the temperatures in the high 90’s, she was a success. For $.25 a cup, she raked in close to $10. (Of course I didn’t charge her the cost of materials, so it was all profit to her). She's still not totally sure what the big deal is about having money, but she still felt pretty proud of herself.

Another hallmark of June is the end of school. Today was Ella’s last day of pre-school for the year. We still have yet to decide whether she’ll return next year or head off to Kindergarten, but overall she had a good year. I’ve seen her blossom socially and take off academically. She is a smart cookie and we're so proud of her. She will miss her teacher, Ms. Soma and her class of friends. Fortunately, she'll see many of them at summer camp this summer.

Because today was a short school day, we took off to the park with some friends from class to enjoy a picnic lunch. Heat doesn't phase kids nearly as much as the adults--I think they could have gone all day running around.

We're already a third of the way through June and I look at all we have going on this month--

Saturday, we take off for a week at the beach, and lose Brian for several days as he heads off to take more depositions. I'll stick Ella in camp, pack up our house and we'll be off to Bethesda (more on that later). Phew...makes me tired just thinking about it.

What I've Been Waiting For...

Having our girls four years apart has had many perks: Ella is in pre-school most mornings, she is old enough to be helpful and attentive to Samantha, and because Samantha is not a threat to her space and toys (yet) she hasn’t had the adjustment that comes with having a younger sibling. However, I have worried about whether they will truly play together. Will their interests and attention spans be too far apart? Will Ella spurn Samantha as the pesky , follower, little sister? I suspect we will have periods where both of these will ring true, but over the past week, they have started to play together. And not five minutes of playing where Ella waves a toy in front of Samantha’s face, but rather down-on-the-floor playing with toys for as long as 30 minutes. Sometimes Ella plays directly with Samantha—building her towers and so forth, and sometimes they both play with their own things, but are occupied longer because they’re content there is another person in the room keeping them company. Ah…serenity.

Perhaps it’s our own fault, but Ella has always been a very attention-needy child—I suspect common in most first-born children. We have gone through long stretches where Ella has no interest in her toys. She wants another human to read with, go outside, do puzzles or play a game with. I of course can accommodate her some of the time, but when I can’t, I have a bored child at my heels. Recently, Ella has turned a corner in this regard. I think partly because she is reading, which is a new-found interest and also because her imagination has taken a recent leap. Her stories and make-believe are much more intricate. In addition, having Ella’s friends over is a much more enjoyable experience. When we have friends over after school, I don’t have to think of things to keep them happy and entertained. The girls prefer to go off and play by themselves and appear once in awhile to ask for help with a dress-up outfit or to stick their fingers in the cookie dough.

Don’t get me wrong…I still spend a huge portion of my time being the entertainment, but it feels good to get a break every now and then. I’ve decided my new favorite game is re-enacting Cinderella. Ella is obviously Cinderella and I float between roles of a mouse, the mean stepmother and fairy godmother. I lingered in the stepmother role this evening—Cinder”Ella” mopped my kitchen floor, dusted the main floor furniture, and put away the toys of her stepsister (Samantha) while Prince Charming (Brian) did the dishes. Now that’s a fairy-tale I can live with.