Just A Little Something...

I don't have time for long-windedness. But I do have a couple extra minutes...Scott's changing a tire on the trailer that's worn bald. Sucks for him, but at least he caught it this morning rather than in blowing out while I'm following him on the road. I tend to be oblivious to everything else but the white box ahead of me...a blown tire could have ruined both our days!

So, the kids all rushed to get dressed so they could go watch him and rather than finish packing immediately I thought I'd hop online. I miss my little blog.

The quick update: we're half way through our cross country adventure. We'll be taking in the sights of Mt. Rushmore and having a restful afternoon. Should be in Washington Friday night. Get the keys to our new rental home on Sunday. Things are good.

I promise to entertain you more, and me too, in a few weeks once things settle into a new normal. Promise.

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.

Helllllooooo Out There!

Hey there, everyone. How are ya'll on this fine Tuesday-after-a-holiday-weekend morning? I'm good. I'm sitting on an exercise ball, typing away on my husband's computer, while listening to Fitz in the Morning on the Wolf - a radio station that Scott loves out of Seattle. He's getting into the Pacific Northwest state of mind. (It's been so long since I've typed that I just had to think about writing "husband's." I first wrote it "husbands" then stopped before adding the apostrophe and talked myself through it. "I only have one husband and this is his computer." That's when I backspaced the original s, added the apostrophe, and retyped another correctly spaced s. Do you backspace or delete when you make mistakes or use the mouse to go back and make your corrections?)

Wow. I'm all over the place! I guess that happens when you're sitting on a ball!

Anyway, what's everyone else up to? Scott and I have left the monkeys with any number of relatives (THANK YOU relatives!) and we enjoyed a ride in the new truck out to Connecticut where I'll be hanging out during his last week of school. Did you know he got a new truck?

Well, there she is! If you've known us for very long you're probably wondering why this truck isn't green. Our last 5 or 6 vehicles have been some shade of green! But this is a really sharp grey and we saw another one on the road yesterday with black on the bottom and over the wheel wells...sharp. We haven't named her yet, either. Roxy (the old truck) was a part of our lives for so long, longer than our actual children, that we feel a proper mourning period would be good. Not really. We just haven't found the perfect name yet! Gotta get a feel for her first.

So, as far as the rest of my life...things are good. The kids and I spent 5 nights at Scott's brother's house. Jared's fiance has horses and the kids loved the farm. All three of them road ponies. Actually so did I! It was a lot of fun. I'll post some pictures after I figure out how to get the pictures off my camera. I can't find the cord right now and the camera card doesn't fit in the computer. Sometimes technology is a pain! But, anyway...we had a great time. Grandma and Grandpa Gebel and Scott came a few days after us and we all relaxed in our own way.

Jace explored all the nooks of the landscapes of the farm. Gracie played with Kate's hair every chance she got. Kate is the soon-to-be-aunt with horses, and really fun hair! Tyler loved the neigh-neighs, tractors, and many fire trucks. Scott's brother is a fire fighter. Kate and Jared have a very fun dog too, that we all enjoyed playing catch with. Scott, Jared, and Tom (their father) spent their time working on the farm, fixing fence, baling hay, creating the framework for a large door that will be going in the 100-year-old barn. It should be restated that they were relaxing. All three of our guys really like manual labor. I, for one, am not complaining.

As for me, I read, cooked, ate, talked and ended just about every night in the hot tub. That's my idea of vacation!

Hopefully the rest of you have found a few moments to do what you enjoy recently too. I know a lot of homeschoolers are finishing up their year...hope it's gone well. I'll slowly be making the rounds to read blogs from the past week or so during this week. Can't wait to hear how it's gone. I also have pictures to look at from my cousin's wedding that we couldn't make it to, shopping to do...and not just for me, and some peanut butter cups to eat. Well, I have a project to do that will require them (not for any of you...sorry) and then I'll eat them!

I'll try not to be gone so long this time...but no promises...I'm still on vacation!