This and That

This is going to be one of those posts that gives you insight into my psyche. I'm going to let my thoughts flow and my fingers will hopefully follow in some sort of sensible manner. I know what you're thinking. "Aren't all Annie's posts like this?" The answer? Perhaps so. But this one is intentionally being written in that free-flow format.

So, to begin with, I have to tell you that when I thought of my post title it made me think of two roads that can be found in Washington state. I wasn't going to start by talking about finding a home to rent, but since the title took me there...let's do it.

This-A-Way and That-A-Way are the roads I thought of. I don't know if they're streets or roads or parkways, but they're near where I first lived when I moved West. Scott and I stayed with good friends who offered their guest bedroom to us until we could get a house on base. Now, moving back ten years later, almost to the day, we're in need of more than somebody's guest room and the waiting list to get onto base is over a year - that's if we wanted to, and we don't. So, we've been looking at rental homes for many months but have only begun actually contacting possibilities in the last week. We won't be getting there until the end of June and didn't want to pay for June just to hold a home since we'll be living there for four days at the most.

I, for one, am getting excited about having a new place, and really any place that is ours. It's been wonderful seeing so many family members and old friends, but I'm looking forward to not living out of a suitcase, cooking our meals, and being able to figure out a schedule again. And, we're hopefully getting close to actually renting a place. We have a friend looking at three potential rentals this week and we just found another we're adding to the list today. Fingers crossed that one of these meets enough of our criteria that we'll end up with the comfort of knowing where we're going to call home before we start off on our cross-country trek.

And, speaking of crossing things (the country, fingers) I'm not quite 32 years old. Yes, I've had three kids, but do I really need to cross my legs every time I sneeze? I was in the store a little while ago and heard someone sneeze the mother of all sneezes from an aisle or two over. I said a little prayer that if it was a woman she felt it coming on with enough advance warning that she could cross her legs and squeeze. I don't think men worry about such things. But I do, at least now.

I've been crossing and squeezing for some time now, but a few weeks ago I was surprised by a big ol' "achoo!" peed myself a little. You're embarrassed for me, but laughing at the same time...I know. If it had happened to one of you I'd be much less horrified and more amused, but it didn't. I was doing dishes, sneezed, and actually looked down to be sure I didn't have pee dripping down my legs. Apparently squeezing is not sufficient anymore. I actually went and changed my shorts! From now on - cross and squeeze!

Thankfully I don't sneeze all that often. You know who did, though? Kendra. She lived on 3rd Rob with us freshman year at college. I don't even remember her last name, but we had a little get together with nine of our fellow alums last weekend. It was a great, if not exhausting time. There were a total of 15 kids, seven and under! There were 13 adults, which isn't a bad ratio, but the kids just have so much energy! After everyone left Cathy and I (Cathy was my roommate all four years of undergrad, except for the semester she spent in Ireland) looked through photo albums and reminisced. What a great way to spend an afternoon.

It's afternoon now, actually. The kids are up from their naps. Jace just gave me a spontaneous hug. They're willingly picking up their toys, scattered all over the 1st floor of Grandma and Grandpa's house. I've been asked about going for a bike ride at least seven times while I've been typing this. I guess I should stop typing and go enjoy the sunshine!

Hope your afternoons are filled with hugs, sunshine and willing children as well.