Still spinning our wheels...

...in Huntsville.

Goodbye PC

Gus and I are officially out of Panama City. We're in Huntsville staying at Janie's house. Tim and the dogs will follow at the beginning of next week.

Gus's birthday Redux

Last Sunday we had a pinata party at the park since I forgot both the pinata and the gift bags at Gus's party. I felt *so bad* after realizing that I forgot it, but both Linda and Bre told me they had done the same thing at one of their kid's parties so I felt less like an idiot after hearing that. Children's birthday parties can be mindblowing in their chaos. The kids played for about an hour then we busted the pinata- which didn't so much break open as bust at the top then get shaken out on the ground by me. I have yet to see a pinata that busts the way it's supposed to.

Gus, Desmond, Jordon, Dylan, Colton and Elizabeth. They ran up the slide more than they slid down it. Those annoying slides aren't very slippery and sliding down is nearly impossible, so they all run up it.

Gus gets first swing.

Olivia takes a big whack at it.

Last Supper

We (me, Kat, Georgia and Linda) had the yard sale today and sold just about everything. Even though we were totally exhausted we decided to go out to one last family dinner tonight before we left for MD. It was chaotic but fun.

This picture totally epitomizes Katherine's personality.

"How can I figure out a way to make him turn me loose?"

Georgia, Katherine, me, Linda

To contrast tonight with our last night in LA before we PCSd to Panama City... In LA (pre Gussie), we went out at 9:00 and got home at who-knows-when. Tonight (post Gussie), we were out of the house at 5:30 and back home by 9. I'm sure I'll appreciate that come tomorrow.

For Cara

Since you didn't get to visit Ono this year because you're a slave to viewers like me...



Is it your local neighborhood hibachi restaurant? NO! It's....


Shangri- Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (aka the most architecturally inappropriate house on Ono Island and possibly even in all of Lower Alabama).


Maybe next year.

The Zoo

Our last morning in in Orange Beach, we went to the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo, a small but nifty little zoo in Gulf Shores. It's small but has a variety of animals and many of them you can pet and feed. They currently have 2- 11 week old tiger cubs on loan and we actually got to see them up close and pet them. The recent activities had really caught up to Gus and me and we were both tired and grumpy. It was also hot as Hades which didn't help matters. I'm so done with the heat and humidity. Really.


There is also currently a tiger show that was mega cheap ($2) so we got tickets for it. I had doubts about Gus's interest in seeing it since he doesn't like that type of show- crowds and loud music over speakers- but I though I'd try it anyway. This is us watching the beginning of the show. The finagling I had to do to get us to this point was extensive, and even though it looks like we're all enthralled, things deteriorated quickly after this point. Gus took off his shoe and dropped it under the bleachers. Then he decided he was over the show, then I talked him into staying, then I decided I was over the show, then we were both over it, so we left and walked around and sweated and waited for Katherine and Kailey to finish the show.

Finally, we got to feed some animals and Gus was moderately happy with the situation. Kailey is too scared to feed them so she hands the food to Gus and he feeds them. Except it wasn't really food since Kat and I are cheap, it was leaves off the ground but the deer or whatever it was didn't seem to care so it was all good.

The Beach (the bugs)

After the train museum we decided to hit the beach. The kids love the beach. They can play in the sand and water for hours and as long as they don't start dumping sand on each other's heads (Gus!) then Kat and I can have an actual conversation and relax. For much of the summer it's too hot to go to the beach- the water isn't even refreshing, it's like lukewarm bathwater- so now that it's a little cooler we were looking forward to this trip especially since it had been awhile since we'd gone.

Little did we know that...

it was lovebug season. I mean, we knew lovebugs were plentiful as my front fender was covered in their little, fornicating carcasses, but we didn't know how bad they would be.

Looks picturesque, no? It only looks that way, because picturesque it was not. Katherine and I were avoiding the flies that were biting us while the kids played. We were not having conversation and we definitely were not relaxed. Gus and K ignored the bugs for awhile but eventually we all couldn't take it so we had to head back to the car. We'd already had to run to avoid the lovebugs when going to the beach and when we got back to the car it was even worse, like Hitchcock's The Birds, but with lovebugs.

It was so gross. We decided to open one back door- the door least covered in lovebugs- and all pile in that way then sort out the seating when the door closed and we were safe. Tons of bugs still got in the car with us- Kailey screamed at them and Gus tried to catch them and keep them as pets. FYI, lovebugs stink when they get mushed.

So we went down to the dock for a little while. No bugs.

Kailey makes things so much easier. A trip to the grocery store with Gus can be an exercise in near insanity, but having K along makes it sooooo much easier. She entertains Gus endlessly (I again lament our move).

Ono Island- one last trip

Katherine and I took the kids to mom's house at Ono one last time before we move. The first place we went was the Foley Train Museum in Foley, AL. They have a huge room full of model trains and a small train outside and 2 real rail cars and a caboose. The kids had big fun.

The model trains have remote controls and the conductor let the kids press the horn button so they got Junior Conductor Certificates.

Gus, Katherine and Kailey on the train's engine.

On the way home. They were seriously wiped out.

Gus turns 3

Here's the cake I made for the party. All I could find at the grocery were Thomas train cakes and while Gus likes Thomas well enough it's not totally his thing so I just wanted a generic train cake. It turned out not-half-bad considering it was maybe the 2 second cake I'd made in my entire life and I had no clue what I was doing. Tips from Janie helped me - thanks Janie! She's the cake making queen. I had to call her like 4 times to ask her questions. It's supposed to be a train though it looks sorta like a truck.

Katherine's husband JR's work has this inflatable bouncy thing so that was the main attraction at the party- though half the kids spent a lot of time digging in the sand and playing in the water table which is usually what they do when they come over. I guess when we move to Maryland I'll have to buy or build a sand box.

When we move, I'm really going to miss our huge back yard. All our friends, too :(

Three candles (plus one to grow on). All Gus wanted all day long was cake. Period.

Here are Gus and Kailey playing with all the presents Gus received. He got the absolute greatest things from everyone. We had gift bags for everyone and a pinata to fill the bags with candy, but I'm an airhead so we totally forgot about them both until after everyone had left. Der! So this Sunday we're all going to meet in the park and bust up the pinata and all play together one last time before we move. Katherine and I are at mom's now with the kids then we have the yard sale on Saturday, then the park on Sunday, then I think the packers come to pack us on Monday. That's the plan so far and as I know it. I think. For now.

Disneyworld

You may ask yourself why Disney keeps that annoying It's a Small World ride around (pictured above). In case you've forgotten, the song is so horrendous it makes you want to drive an icepick through your eardrums- and since the ride is 11 minutes long you get to have a lot of icepick fantasies. One almost-teen that sat behind us with his family once reviewed "The next time you need to punish me just send me on this ride". Well, the reason they keep this ride around is because children like Gussie love it. I mean love it. He could ride it a million times (and we almost did). So the days we went to the Magic Kingdom this was always the first thing Gus wanted to do, and Tim and I went on it because we love our son. I mean, we must love him a lot. So to avoid going insane we entertained ourselves by just having the same conversations ad nauseam, spinning them out day after day and adding to them, sort of like the ride itself...."Do you think that CM's arm gets tired waving goodbye like that all day long?" "Do you think they clean that change up periodically? How much money do you think is in there?" "Sure looks like a lot, they must not clean it up very often" "Oh, look, there's a restaurant up there, we should eat there sometime so Gus can watch the ride go by" "Ahhhh...that air conditioning sure feels good" "The egg that duck is holding was on the ground yesterday, I guess they fixed it last night" "I bet this ride takes a ton of maintanance" "I bet they come in every night and work on a portion of it" "Oh look Gus it's a big sun" etc etc ecetera ecetera blah blah blah.

The thing I really don't get is why there were adults on the ride with no children. I mean, they clearly went on the ride uncoerced and voluntarily. I think nostalgia is great and all but it can only take me so far.

Also, that huge dark spot on Tim's shirt is from him wiping the sweat off of his forehead because it was hot. Luckily, it was also very dead there so barely any lines for rides. The one good thing Small World has going for it is the a/c.

Lunch at Kona's at the Polynesian to detox from said Small World ride. Cocktails for me and Tim and a big cookie for Gus. Yep, a cookie for lunch. Go Mom!

Cheers!

This is Pooh's Playground. Water squirts up from the ground unexpectedly and the kids love it. Gus puts his mouth directly to the holes and let's the water squirt on his face. Good times (gross).

This is on the train that goes all around the Magic Kingdom.

This is taken from our room at Shades of Green. This time we got a poolside room which was worth the extra $10 because we spent almost every afternoon swimming after parks in the morning then a nap. We love SOG and I advise anyone that's in the military/retired mil to take full advantage of this perk. Our room was $119/night plus the extra ten for the pool room. That's the price we pay year round, whether it's off or on season (a comparable room at another hotel would be at least $250/night). The rooms are all about 455 sf which are some of the biggest on Disney property- except for suites- and they sleep 5, have 2 queen beds, one pull out sofabed and a table and 4 chairs. SOG used to be the Disney Hotel and is rated a deluxe property, the grounds are beautiful and it's very peaceful. We spend most of our Disney time at the Magic Kingdom and SOG is one of the MK hotels and it's super easy and quick to ride the monorail over to the park, then drive or take a SOG bus to any of the other parks.

Yet another cookie for a midmorning snack at Epcot. Gus is wearing his birthday pin on his Chebeague hat since he wouldn't wear it on his shirt, and the cookie was a freebie for his birthday (though his birthday wasn't really until the next day, but he wouldn't wear his pin that day so it all evened out).

Requisite "Photo In Shark's Mouth". I forget the shark's name but he was the guy from Nemo. Gus liked all the sea life in Epcot but since we spent a prior day at Sea World- for free, yet another military perk- it sort of paled in comparison.

Gus loves the monorail as much as anything else in Disneyworld, but he won't sit, he loves to stand, and spends the whole time we're riding pretending to almost fall and driving me crazy. Even when we remind him that he's hit his head twice on the bar already he won't quit, and the most I can get for all my pleading is that he'll hold on with one hand...maybe with two if he's feeling generous.

Rockville

Here's our new rental house in Rockville, very near downtown and on a street with a ton of other kids, toys and bikes everywhere. It's only two blocks from a huge park and a swim club.

There's Lupe or realtor and Tim with his checkbook getting ready to write a big ole' check.

Fenced back yard for the doggies.

Tomorrow we're off to Disneyworld!

In Maryland

Gussie in the airport watching Dumbo for the 451,568th time. He has watched it yet another 7,501 times between then and now and that was only 5 days ago.

Whenever we ask Gus to "smile!" for the camera he does this weird underbite smile thing. Here's Tim joining him in his weird grin. This is us at the Joe's Crab Shack right down from our hotel. The place is great because Gus can tear it up and nobody even cares. We especially don't care after a few much needed beers. House hunting is stressful, OK!?!?! Our hotel, the Courtyard Marriot in Gaithersburg has a ton of restaurants and stores around it within walking distance, plus a playground, places to feed lots of ducks, a Starbucks, in other words, it has everything. And there's a Target, thankfully, as we've been there every day. God I love Target. We initially were supposed to only be at the hotel through today, then we were going to stay with some friends of ours here, but they have a tremendous virus going around their house so we're staying at the hotel the whole time. I normally love hotels- maid and room service, I could live in one for all I care- but with a very, very active almost-3 year old and no yard for him to go nuts in, it's nothing short of torture for everyone. Thank god there are places within walking distance where Tim and I can get a few cocktails after a day of househunting.

This is the playground right by the hotel. It's actually part of the whole shopping/dining/entertainment complex. It's not very big but it's big enough to keep all of us sane. If you squint you can see Tim and Gus playing.

You know, my cousin Sam and his wife Anne have 3 kids and as Tim and I traverse this whole parenting/PCS/military thing, I think of them often and I wonder how they do it...or how they do it well. Gus seriously goes coocoo in the hotel. We try to give him physical outlets- swimming in the hotel pool, running outside, playing in the fountain, feeding ducks-and even in inappropriate ways such as jumping on the hotel beds/chairs/whatevers- but he still is borderline going insane so I can't imagine doing this PCS process with 3 children with 3 different and distinct needs. And the one fact that we can't get around is that we're loud. I mean, we talk loudly, play loudly, fight loudly....so I feel for our poor neighbors and it's constantly on my mind that we'e loud. I feel that if we we're out of the room then we don't have to worry as much about it, but in this instance we have to say "NO" less to Gus in the room than out so we tend to sometimes stay in more than out. Rock, meet Hard Place. Gus laughs loud and screams loud, god help them all- our poor neighbors. He's also doing this new thing when we decline a request which is scream at the very, very top of his huge lungs at an earshattering decibel. Dolphins can't even hear it, it's so high pitched and loud. But poor Gus is mostly doing really well riding in the car looking for houses for hours on end- and we finally set up the DVD player for him to watch (Dumbo) in the car- but the last day we drove around before we even got int he car he looked at us and said "I don't want to go in the car" in the saddest and most pitiful way possible. Every so often and out of the blue he'll say "I want to go home". Oy, I think this move will be hard. Maybe next PCS Tim or I will drive around and narrow down houses and the other can stay with Gus and do other non-stuck-in-the-car things. I don't know what the solution will be for leaving his friends :(.

As for the actual house hunting...well, it was ugly the first day. Since our house in PC shows no signs of selling we've pretty much decided to rent here instead of buy, though we may reassess in a year. On our first day, between 9:30 and 3:00, we looked at approximately 11 places in the Gaithersburg, Germantown, Potomac and Rockville areas. Ah, the joys of a realtor and GPS. Our realtor Lupe was recommended to us by all the guys that Tim will be working with here in Silver Spring. She's amazing and driven and nice and hard-working. We found 2 houses that might do...if they accept the dogs, that's the one factor our entire house hunting is based one....is there a fenced in yard or can one be negotiated, and will they accept 2 dogs...big ones. All other factors are non-factors at this point...except the place can't be gross, obviously. So! In no particular order, on our first day we looked at these places and they were hereafter referred to as:

-Nice Pool but Crappy House (it had a good pool but the entire house and yard was suspect, partially fenced)

-The Weird Fridge House (the house was great, bigger than we needed really, but had everything we required including a fenced-in yard, but they had redone the kitchen and didn't leave room in the kitchen for a fridge and so the fridge was in the dining room adjacent to the kitchen so it had no water for ice and wasn't even in the kitchen, it was also more than we really wanted to spend)

-The Smells Like a Dog House (had a great backyard but the house smelled like dog and appeared to have mold in the carpet in the downstairs bedrooms...dog smell can be gotten rid of, mold...not so much)

-Bad Floor House (the flooring in the house was lifted about 3 iches off the floor...who knows what else was wrong with it and that also explained why it had been on the rental/sale market for 351 days)

-the Doable House (a great house inside but with an incomplete fence in the back. We'd be willing to pay for a fence but right inside the front door was a laminated sign saying "Take Off Your Shoes Upon Entering" so we doubted they'd accept two big ole' dogs so we put this one at the bottom of the list and figured we'd beg if it came down to it)

-Kitty Cat Smell House (decent yard, weird house layout, small, overpriced, stinky smell like cats)

-Moldy Basement House (since half the bedrooms were in the basement...'nuff said)

-The 9 Acre House (well, we loved the location in the boonies and the 9 acres was great and the house was plenty big but it was very outdated and a little (lot) run down, however I was willing to consider it, but after we left Tim was so grossed out by it that he felt he had bugs walking all over him, so I guessed that house was out)

-Stonecutter (the name of the street the house was on...great house, absolutely no fence)

Two other places on our list had already been rented and two others didn't accept big dogs, only those under 20 lbs (aka cats). On our first day we basically saw every house at the top and semi-top of my list. So that was our first day house hunting! Needless to say, we had drinks when we got back to the hotel.

In the end and having looked at about 20+ houses in person since that first day, we've put in applications for rentals on the weird fridge house and one we refer to as the Rockville house, even though it's actually in Potomac. I doubt the Rockville house will work out- for a few reasons- but if we get the fridge house we'll consider ourselves very fortunate. Tomorrow we shall see, I guess.

All this nicknaming of houses has gotten us speculating what people that look at our house in PC call it. We suspect it's either the Far Away House or maybe The Beaver Pond House. We just hope it's not The Dog Smell House or the The Double Fence House (because we have our normal wood fence then another small area fenced off by chain link by the last owners and it's a little weird though can be useful).

Gus digs puzzles

His favorite one(s) for the last 2 months is actually an entire box of puzzles. My cousin Sam and his wife Anne always send Gus the neatest presents for Christmas, and last year or maybe the year before they sent this box from Korea where they were stationed (Sam is in the Army but we try not to hold that against him). The pictures are modes of transportation and Gus will sit and do the whole box.

If a tree falls on your house and no one is there to see it does it make a sound?

Apparantly, it does because we (Tim, Mom and I) all heard it at 7:00 this morning when it landed on the roof over the back porch. We thought it was just thunder as we'd been having tremendous storms all night. At least the damage wasn't too bad and it didn't knock out a window or cave in the roof in our living room. Left a decent sized hole, though. We're now adding "skylight" to our house listing. Who wouldn't want that in a house?



On an unrelated note, thanks to everyone that emailed me to say sorry about the miscarriage and congrats on our move to DC. I think I've mailed everyone back but just in case I missed anyone....thanks.