Going Crazy

When I was in grade school, we learned a Christmas song that I absolutely loved. Sadly, time and distance has stolen most of the lyrics out of my memory and I can only remember snippets of it. I tried Google, but alas, the words were so common that none of the search results were even close. So I’m asking for help – I learned this song in Catholic school in the late 70’s or early 80’s and part of it went like this:

“…shepherds were tending,
tending their woolly sheep all the night long.

Out from the dark sky angels came singing,
angels from heaven and sang us their song:

Jesus is born!
Jesus is born!”

Trying to remember the whole song is driving me crazy! If you know the title or the rest of the lyrics, PLEASE let me know!!

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I Remember…

Four years ago today, I had lunch, took a nap and ate half a bag of mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.  Philip came home from a softball game and asked me what I’d been doing.  I told him about the peanut butter cups and he said, “uh oh” because he knows that they are my preferred method to bring on labor.

At 6:00 PM my water broke.  A little after 7:00 PM, Bip was born.  We’ve been laughing ever since.

“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” Psalm 30:5

Happy Birthday, little Bip.  You are truly our joy in the morning.

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I’d Rather Be Blogging

I would much rather be blogging than unpacking.  At first, unpacking is fun – it’s like Christmas, opening boxes, unwrapping paper and discovering the treasures inside.  Then a few days into it and you can’t find the brackets to hang the towel rack and you can’t figure out why the down comforter was packed in with shoes and stuff from the shed.  Weeks later and while the boxes are decreasing, the house is a big mess.  Ah, the joys of moving.

The realities of civilian life are starting to creep up on us.  Already, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights are booked and we haven’t even signed anyone up for scouts yet.  I’m a little worried about trying to get the children where they need to be each day and I’m hoping I’m not going to have scheduling conflicts.  Living on base, we were 3 -5 minutes away from the soccer field, chapel and scout meeting facilities.  Ballet was farther away, but we had a carpool set up. It all worked out very nicely and we didn’t need to venture far from our safe little world.

But we are enjoying it here in Colorado.  We’ve already had friends visit and the wildlife we’ve spied in our neighborhood alone now includes a bobcat.  It was jaywalking across the street, just minding its own busines, then jumped the fence into a neighbor’s backyard.

I have pictures to share of our recent adventures, I just have to get them uploaded and resized.  I also have to tell you about how a recent trip to Mc Donald’s almost resulted in needing body work done on the car…

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Monday Musings

Don’t you hate it when you gather up enough energy and motivation to make dinner, just to find out you’re missing one ingredient?

Almost every day, between 2:30 and 5:30 PM, it rains.  Sometimes just a little, but usually it’s a pretty good downpour.

The deer around here are pretty funny.  The mamas like to walk together in pairs, with their little ones.  Just like human mamas.  We saw 2 young bucks out together on a Saturday evening.  They had small antlers that were still fuzzy.  They were probably off to some stag party.

We have a bunny that lives in our backyard.  I wanted to name it Benjamin Bunny, but Pumpkin Girl thinks its a girl, so we’re calling it Cottontail.

With all the wildlife around, yes there are predators.  I’m not too worried, though, because hunting is not allowed within the city limits.

I’ve heard coyotes barking on three different nights.  I’m hoping that in a few years they will be a deterrent to any of our children thinking to break curfew or sneak out of the house.

We’ve been unpacking for 2 weeks now and I’m pretty bored.  The boxes marked “DVDs” had books and at least one box marked “Books” was all DVDs. We can’t find our down comforter.  The Mexican terra-cotta sun that we bought in Nogales when we were newlyweds was packed flat at the bottom of a box marked “fragile.”  It arrived in pieces.

I ordered a new hammock, this time one that will fit 2 adults.  When I went to price them, it turned out that the frame alone was worth twice what we paid for the whole thing.  So we didn’t lose out at all.

School starts here in August.  I’m tempted to get my late sleeping self up early and go to the bus stop that’s across the street from our house and meet some of the neighborhood moms and kids.  I’ll probably end up just chuckling to myself as I hear the bus go by as I’m still in bed.

Ok, enough rambling, there are still boxes to unpack.

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A Message for the General

Boo’s buddy from DC is known far and wide on his mom’s blog as the General.  He reads my blog because he thinks I’m funny.  Smart boy.  I like him alot.

When he and his family moved in April, he accidentally left a shovel behind in the HQ.  Since his family is planning on visiting us in August, the boys decided to have the shovel packed up with our household goods so the General could retrieve it when they visit.  I, being the totally involved parent that I am, knew nothing about this arrangement until the shovel showed up at our Colorado house.

So, General, we have some good news.

rsz_dsc01852The shovel made it to our house.

The bad news is…
rsz_dsc01853… it lost its head.

The good news is…
rsz_dsc01854… you can always use it as a gun!

And the best news…
dsc01851…the shovel head finally showed up!

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Moving In

The last two weeks have been a bit of a blur.  We’ve spent a ton of money trying to stimulate the economy through our home decorating efforts.  Pillows for the reading nook, curtains for Pumpkin Girl’s room, a guest room bed for whichever Nomads turn up on our doorstep, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t even remember.

Then our stuff arrived.  Pumpkin and I were looking out my bedroom window when a moving truck loaded with crates drove by.  “Hey cool,” I said. “There goes someone’s stuff.”  Then the truck slowed down and began to turn around.  It was our stuff, of course.

The unloading went well and we were amazed to see what happens when you more than double your square footage.  Every prior move to this resulted in our new home being crammed with boxes and misplaced furniture.  We could barely move and sometimes had to unpack boxes just to be able to reach a bed or the toilet.  Not so with this house!  Not one room is overstuffed which makes the whole unpacking ordeal so much easier. And, to our great surprise and relief, we did not go over our weight allowance, but were under by about 2,000 pounds.  Which is good because we have to pay by the pound for any excess.

rsz_dsc01846Our stuff actually took up two trucks. Still less than 17,500 pounds!

While the movers were here, the children and I spent part of the morning on our deck.  We watched the gliders from the Air Force Academy fly over us and spotted a deer behind the house.
dsc01850
rsz_dsc01849(click the picture to embiggen if you can’t see the deer)

And now the days are consumed with unpacking.  It’s painful.  Even with a bigger house, it can be difficult to find places for things.  It took me 3 days to unpack the kitchen.  Just unpack – there’s still a little bit to put away.  I finally couldn’t stand it anymore and moved on to the linen closet and the children’s rooms.

And I desperately need decorating help.  More on that later.

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Pikes Peak or Bust

You will be happy to know that the rest of our journey west was uneventful, boring even.   From Ohio we got to Missouri and stopped for the night and a swim in the hotel pool.  The next two days droned on as Missouri turned into Kansas turned into Colorado. Hundreds of thousands of miles, or so it seemed, of endless farmlands.  Corn, corn and more corn.  We were focused on our goal, so we resisted the temptation of stopping to see the World’s Biggest Big Mac, the World’s Biggest Prairie Dog, or the World’s Biggest Van Gogh. However, we did ponder the ability of the World’s Largest Prairie Dog to eat the World’s Largest Big Mac. Finally we turned off the interstate and headed southwest, with Pike’s Peak barely visible in the distance.  Colorado slowly began to distinguish itself from Kansas as the Rocky Mountains grew larger and at last we reached our new hometown.

As we made the final turns to our new home, my heart started to beat faster.  It still seemed a bit surreal to be going home- our home – for the first time.

And so here we are.  We’ve seen 7 deer, 2 were in the dry creek behind our house, 3 were in the park across the street and one was in the grocery store parking lot.  Apparently there are coyote in the bluff behind the park, and black bears are not unheard of.  The children have already put a hole in the hammock we bought from the previous owners.

The new roof that the previous owners are paying for is taking like 4 times longer than it should, but at least it’s getting done.  We had the carpets deep cleaned and discovered that they are actually a lighter color than we’d thought!  We also got the locks changed and the cable set up.  All that we need now is our actual furniture and that will arrive on Friday.

The other evening we sat on our deck and enjoyed the cool mountain air.  An occasional breeze stirred up the Aspen trees behind our house and it all felt so right.

It’s good to be home.

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All’s Well That Ends Well

I really should know better than to make plans.  God always seems to intervene and our first day on the road was no different.

First, we overslept, then took longer to load the car than we’d planned, leaving an hour late.  We took it stride and gleefully called out goodbye’s as we passed the landmarks of our lives.

“Goodbye, Bolling AFB”
“Goodbye, poopoo plant!”
“Goodbye, Wilson Bridge!”

And then I promptly headed us in the wrong direction as I navigated Philip through the 95/495 split.  And again as I sent us on the toll road through Pennsylvania.  Oops.

Meanwhile, the human resources department from Philip’s probable employer finally called while we were on the road  and made him an official offer, so he called them back while we stopped for lunch.  This delayed us another 30 minutes.

And then, during a midafternoon potty break, Pumpkin Girl discovered that it hurt when she peed. Then within 5 minutes had to pee again.  Which hurt even more.

Great ooglie booglie.

So while we gassed up, I got on the phone with our “insurance” company who informed me that I needed a written referral from our doctor to be able to go to an urgent care place, or sit in an ER all night.  R-i-g-h-t.  Government health care at its finest right there.  Coming to a home near you.

My original thought was to keep calling back until I got a better answer when I realized that Wright Patterson AFB was right along the way and we could stop at their ER.

Which we did. Two and half hours later, we were back on the road, meds in hand, and arrived at our final destination for the day 30 minutes later.

11:00 PM.  Five hours later than planned.

But all’s well that end’s well.  By the end of the day we’ll be halfway through our trip and Pumpkin will be feeling much better.

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Disconnected

I’ve been without internet access for almost two weeks now, since the base Temporary Lodging Facility(you us civilians call it a hotel) has a shocking lack of wifi.  Thanks to my friend Jenn, who let me sit in her backyard and use her wifi while she was out of town, I’m here to let you all know that our move has gone well so far.

The packers only took 2 days.  However, the movers took 14 hours, so the truck didn’t pull away from the house until 1:30 in the morning.  Good times.

Pumpkin Girl’s dance recital was a lot of fun and Phil and Boo had a grand time at Cub Scout camp.  Philip had his last day in uniform and we closed on our house.  Last night we sat along the Potomac and watched the fireworks, surrounded by good friends. This morning we said goodbye to our church family and the parish where our children received a total of 5 Sacraments.  The nice thing about Philip being in the choir was that we sung all of our favorite songs during mass.

Tomorrow we head out on a four day journey to our new home.

It’s  a surreal experience, saying good bye to friends and to the Army, but knowing we’re saying hello to our first home and civilian life.

I can hardly wait!

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Crockpot Granola

With our packers coming on Monday, we have so much to do, but my friends Kat and Sheril wanted my recipe for crockpot granola, so here it is:

Crockpot Granola

5 c. oats
½ c. oil
½ c. honey
1 t. vanilla
1 t. cinnamon
1 c. coconut

Mix all ingredients in crockpot. Cook on low for 5 hours or until brown, stirring occasionally. **Important: Make sure you keep the cover cracked on the crockpot. The more frequently you stir, the finer the consistency. If you prefer clumpier granola stir less.

Add raisins, dried fruit, nuts, chocolate chips when finished cooking….whatever you desire. This is delicious as a hot or cold cereal, as a snack, a topping for yogurt or made into granolabars.

This is very yummy, and my children love it.  Plus it makes the house smell so good while it’s cooking.

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