D.C. trip part 3 of 3 at last!

 

I know you've all been on the edge of your seat, waiting to hear about my 3rd day in D.C. for a girls-only weekend. Sorry to keep you on edge for so long! ha.
Anyway, we went to Mt. Vernon to visit the home of George Washington, of course. It was really interesting. I learned lots of things about ol' George that I never knew. Like first and foremost, he considered himself a farmer above all else. He ran a HUGE plantation (they didn't call it a plantation, they called it a farm, but it was a huge farm run by mostly slaves so, to me, it's a plantation) and personally oversaw the interior design and decor in his whole house...even the paint colors for the walls. He let Martha decorate one room only, their bedroom, which I noted was stark white and sparsely furnished. We got to see the actual bed they slept in and that he died in, etc. He was very much about "appearances" since he had many dignitaries visiting his home, etc. When you look at the picture of the exterior of Mt. Vernon, it looks like white brick, right? It's actually all made of wood. George had each piece of wood individually cut to look like a brick. Then they painted it white, threw some sand on it to make it rough, and painted it again. Each piece was applied to make the whole house look like a brick house. And apparently the layers of paint and sand helped preserve the house for I don't remember how many many years now. The backside overlooks the Potomac river which is wide and beautiful. Anyhoo, it was a very fun excursion. Us girls had a great time in the gift shop, too. I bought some cherry preserves (from the tree young George chopped down?) which were delicious on my first piece of bread and then one of the kids accidentally dropped the glass jar and smashed all over the tile floor. :-( I also bought a bottle of "mulled cider". Apparently it was so popular with the Washingtons at Mt. Vernon that they once ordered over 400 gallons of it for one winter. I thought it would just taste like the apple cider we used to get in Michigan. It was very different. It was slightly carbonated and, I swear, it tasted like I was drinking an apple cobbler. It was SO good! Dave and I didn't share it with the kids at all and we were both licking the bottom of our glasses when it was gone. I really wish I had bought 400 gallons!
Later that day, we spent time in more great restaurants, shopping, and then we went to see the monuments at night. My favorite is always the Lincoln memorial at night. Ol' Abe looks so big sitting there in his huge chair. We also saw the Vietnam memorial, Korean memorial, and the new FDR memorial. I didn't even know there was a FDR memorial. Maybe it's not even new, it's just new to me! Anyway, it was not well-lit at night, but I was very impressed with it overall. It was much bigger and more extensive than I would've imagined. Can't really explain it...you just have to go see it for yourself! We finished out the day with french fries and chocolate shakes (in our pajamas) so what can be better than that! AND I didn't have to share my chocolate shake with anybody. (Nichole and I DID share the fries but she didn't shovel them down so it was okay. We're still friends).
That pretty much wraps up our trip. I took an eternal (bad traffic) bus ride back to NYC while I worried the whole way that the guy that loaded my luggage probably took it off the bus after I got on and left it sitting on the sidewalk in D.C. because I forgot to tip him. (Okay, I didn't actually forget, I just didn't like that he personally REMINDED me to tip him and the lowest bill I had was a $20)!

Finally a post!

Ok, ok, ok, many of you have been bugging me about updating my blog. I'm trying! I've been busy for crying out loud!
Many of you know that I've been dealing with a serious knee injury. I'm trying to avoid surgery at all costs and thus, have been going to physical therapy three times a week...I'm usually there at least an hour and a half! SO, add THAT to my already frenzied schedule and you'll understand maybe why I've been a little behind in my blog posts. On a side note, the knee is slowly getting better. It would probably get a lot better a lot faster if I stopped teaching all the classes that I do, but I LOVE to Zumba, so I just can't stop! I have cut back a little bit, though, so hopefully that will help. I've had two physical therapists tell me that it's never going to get better without surgery; I've had one orthopedist tell me to stop exercising so much and that surgery wouldn't help me right now since I have almost no cartilage left in my knee joints anyway AND that I'll probably have to have total knee replacement by the time I'm 60 (just like my dad); AND, I've had one sports medicine orthopedist tell me to go to physical therapy and keep exercising/teaching as long as it feels ok and let's re-evaluate in July. SO, so far I'm sticking with opinion #3, since that is the one I like the most! Anyway, it's been a rollercoaster ride for us, including Peter who has to go to all my dr. appointments and now therapy appointments 3x/wk! He's been a real trooper.
Other than that, life has been great. We met up with an old friend, Amy Houghtaling, in NYC when she was in town, briefly, for the Duran Duran concert two weekends ago. We walked through Chinatown and ate lunch in Little Italy. (Please note that you can always view a picture up-close by double clicking it. Also, please note that the wind was blowing from BEHIND us in Little Italy and my hair really is not QUITE that big!
Two days later, my dad and his wife, Nan, arrived. They stayed almost a week...using us as 'home base' while they made excursions to NYC, Ellis Island, etc. We had a great time having them here and took them to the beach at Coney Island (Brooklyn), too. The kids had a fabulous time swimming in the ICE COLD Atlantic ocean. Dad asked the lifeguard if the water gets warmer later in the summer and he said maybe one or two degrees warmer, but that's it! This, also, is the first experience I've had on a beach with peddlers. People were often walking by trying to sell bracelets, ice-cream, beer, etc. And I don't mean on the boardwalk; I mean ON the beach! I've never seen such a thing. Gotta love New York!

Speaking of New York, you might be interested to know that the Yankees will be playing their last season in Yankee stadium in 2008 and then it will be TORN DOWN! SO, if you have a lifelong dream of seeing a Yankee's game in Yankee stadium, you'd better hurry. They also give daily tours for like $15/person. Hurry!!!
One quick note about the previous post: I DID NOT POST THAT PICTURE. My best friend, Steph, did it without my knowledge! If I had posted it, it would be titled, "Amn't I beautiful?" I could, of course, remove it but I wouldn't want to deprive all of you. Know this: I have Steph's username and password to her blog, also, so watch out for paybacks!!! I'm scanning my picture album archives to find something juicy...also, I may use photoshop just for kicks, too. Watch out Steph!

Ain't I Beautiful?

My wake-up call(s)

Most moms (and some dads) have all been woken early in the morning (by early I mean 5 minutes before your alarm clock rings) by a faraway voice calling, "Mom..."-30 second pause-"Mom..."-30 more seconds-"Mom..."
You lift your heavy head and squint at the digital clock and inwardly cringe, oh jeez, could I just have 5 more minutes?
This is what I awoke to last Friday morning, hearing my youngest child follow-up with the magic words, "Can you wipe me?"
I dropped my head and shuddered...can this really be happening? Then I heard the magic words again and thought two things: 1)This really is happening and 2)He's old enough to start wiping his own rear.
So I got up and this is how I started my day. After lunch, I dropped onto the bed for, hopefully, a short snooze. Peter usually uses this time to play quietly or watch t.v. I don't get to do it everyday, but I workout for a living and get tired. I take advantage when I can, right?!
No sooner than I had finally dozed off into a nice slumber...I hear, "Mom..."-30 seconds-"Mom..."-30 more seconds-"Mom...Can you wipe me?"
I lift my groggy head and look at the clock. I'd been asleep for about 4 minutes and once again, think to myself, can this really be happening? HOW is this possible?
Nevertheless, I persevered and just tried to remind myself that I should just be thankful that Peter, who is usually constipated, was very regular today.

SO, the next day, Saturday, started out much better. I got up when I wanted, showered, dressed and headed downstairs to make breakfast for the kiddos.
---I should explain here that Caleb has a "new" hobby of clipping coupons. He likes to make collections (of any sort) and decided to make a coupon collection. Mostly he has coupons for tanning salons, vinyl siding, and Mexican food...he doesn't care at all what it is, as long as it is a coupon.---
OK, so I'm pouring the cereal and Caleb is telling me all about his coupons. Then he says, "I'll save the sex coupons for you, if you want them." My eyebrows raise and I turn to him, now giving my FULL attention.
"The SEX coupons?", I ask.
"Yeah, the sex coupons.", he replies. At this point I try to not look alarmed in any way and politely ask him what the heck he is talking about. He is standing next to me and gently reaches up to touch my hair. He explains,
"You know, your hair isn't smooth enough, your skin isn't smooth enough, you don't wear red, scarlet skirts, and THOSE are not nearly big enough" he says, motioning towards my chest.
My face remained deadpan, I think, while in my mind, I'm thinking again...is this really happening? Am I ACTUALLY HEARING this right?
"These?" I reply, also motioning to my chest. "My breasts???" I say, just to make absolutely certain we are talking about the same thing.
"Yeah, your breasts" he replies.
At this point, I actually BIT my tongue and tried to focus on pouring the milk into the cereal bowl. After we sat down at the table to eat I told him to hold onto his seat because a lecture was coming. The sweet thing about kids is that they are just so darned innocent. He had no idea a lecture was coming and had no clue that anything might be amiss. Anyway, I started explaining that most breast tissue is adipose tissue made up of fat and that since, at the moment, I only have like 14% body fat, etc., etc. You get the picture. I'm sure what he heard was, "Blah, blah, blah, 14% blah blah blah." Like the teacher in Charlie Brown.
Anyway, he only stung me one more time in that conversation as I was trying to explain to him how a lot of really skinny women have fake breasts, and that's ok for them, but I don't want surgery, etc., etc. Anyway, I said, "You see, most women who are really thin but have big breasts-"
"Are HOT" he interrupted.
"And...we're done here" I interjected as I quickly stood to leave.
This, my friends, is how I started my Saturday.
One good thing: I used one of his coupons to get a dozen free donuts from Dunkin'Donuts. I ate at least four of them myself...gotta pack on some of that adipose tissue!

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

A few interesting (to me) bits about Peter:
1. He has recently graduated from taking baths to showers. He LOVES it! He wants to shower 2-3 times a day. I can totally understand the appeal of a long hot shower, of course...what I can't understand is why he doesn't get bored in there. I mean, there are NO toys, nothing to do but stare at the curtain which is plain white. I can't understand why this 5 yr. old can be bored to death at the Bronx Zoo, and the New York Aquarium but have a great time taking a shower. I'm trying to limit him to one a day. The other day, as I was getting out of the shower for the 2nd time that day (just got home from the gym) he said he wanted to take a shower. I reminded him that he'd already had one that morning. He said, "Well, you took 2 showers!" And I said, yes, but I just got home from the gym...to which he replied, "Well, so did I." (He goes with me and plays in the daycare for an hour while I teach). I wasn't sure how to respond to that but was able to distract him with lunchtime!
2. He has a new fascination: the calculator. He loves to follow us around and make us ask him "math questions" which he inputs into the calculator and then tells us the answer. It's cute for awhile but gets real old, real fast. Anyway, to amuse myself, I've started only giving him questions that give the answer of TEN. 2+8, 6+4, 17-7, 5x2, etc. He laughs hysterically each time when the answer comes out to be the same no matter what! Sam and Caleb have jumped on the bandwagon, too, as I heard Sam asking him yesterday what the square root of 100 is. He just can't wrap his mind around the fact that 5+5=10 AND 8+2=10...ahh, to be young again.
3. He is freakishly good at sports. Both Sam and Caleb are good at sports, too, but Peter (at only 5 yrs. old) seems to have supernatural talent...not that we're biased parents or anything! Maybe it's because he plays sports in the backyard with two older brothers and that's made him really good at it. We'll see...but I'M thinking college scholarship, please, please, please!

My kids' temperaments

Today we attended an "art festival" at the kid's school. It was really nice. They had all their artwork hanging up and displayed all over the school grounds. It was very well done and they had fun activities also: face painting, tie-dye shirts, popcorn, cotton candy, etc. It was so great and the kids had a blast!
Afterwards, as I was uploading their face paint pictures, I noticed a correlation between what they each chose for their face and their respective personalities.
You can draw your own conclusions...

Trip to D.C. Part 2

I know, I know, I'm just now getting around to part 2!
Unfortunately, the worst thing about the trip was that we were missing Amy and Jessica, both friends from WAY WAY back who weren't able to make the trip. That was a real downer, but as you will read, you will see that Nichole, Christy, and I tried to press on nevertheless and have a good time. ;-)
Nichole's mom works for the FAA and does something with plane crash investigations. I know she used to actually go to the site(s) for actual crash investigation but now, I think, she has more of an administrative job. Anyway, we got to go to the FAA building in downtown D.C. and, after we were strip searched, we were allowed into the building with her for a small tour. It was really interesting. We saw the "round room" which is where a lot of the debriefing takes place...like the "situation room" on The West Wing. We were also able to go into (briefly) a room that I can't remember the name of but is what I would call mission control. It wasn't a huge room but had a lot of rows of desks with computers, phones, etc. and the walls were all lined with t.v. screens with all the major network news shows running. Believe it or not, the FAA often learns of a plane crash by watching t.v.! They said occasionally they get a call from a local police dept. notifying them of a crash but often it's from the news media. One wall had a huge computer screen with a map of the U.S. (and more) and showed all the planes in the air that were, at that moment, reporting some kind of problem. They were all fairly minor problems, like smoke in the cockpit, (no kidding!) etc. but no one in the room seemed concerned about any of them.(?) I seemed to be the only one concerned about them!
We ate lunch at the cafeteria in the new Smithsonian museum honoring American Indians. We didn't actually look at anything IN the museum (no offense to you Native Americans out there) but just made a beeline to the food, naturally. I know, you're thinking cafeteria food, YUM. Well, it was pricey cafeteria food and it was delicious! It had different areas and each area had food from a particular area of Indians...the Pacific Northwest, Southeast, Plains, etc. I won't even describe all of it because I won't do it justice; just trust me, those Indians can make some good grub!
Afterwards we stopped by the Smithsonian Museum of Modern Art. It was really...interesting. Maybe I'm just old, but I just don't "get" modern art. I don't understand how a photograph of a transistor radio sitting in grass can land itself in the Smithsonian. I know you think I'm kidding...but that was an actual picture there. Above, you will see the three of us pondering a more interesting painting.
We also visited the Smithsonian Museum of Normal Art...okay, that's not what it's called but you know what I mean: Da Vinci, Monet, Renoir, etc. It was GREAT! That's one thing I really wanted to do since I always have 3 kids with me and I KNOW they'd never let me stroll through any kind of art museum. Heck, they were bored to death at the ZOO, for crying out loud. The thing that really struck me at the museum (other than the fabulous art) was that you could just walk right up to it! The paintings weren't behind glass or anything. You could get really close and actually see the brush strokes and texture of the paint. I can't believe they let the public do that...I mean, what if I accidentally sneezed on a Monet? What if some weirdo pulled out a razor and just started slashing a painting? They wouldn't get away with it for long, but the damage would already be done! As you can see, I worry about everything. I pictured myself in there with the kids and I'm saying every 3 seconds, "DON'T TOUCH! DON'T TOUCH!" Luckily I didn't have to worry about Nichole and Christy touching the paintings.
We finished out the day with some shopping at a HUGE mall and a fabulous dinner at an Italian restaurant. I'd like to kiss the person who ever thought up the idea of putting restaurants IN the mall. Forget the mall food court, give me the real stuff! So I feel like this day was "all about me" since I really wanted to go to an art museum and a mall without kids. It was a fabulous day!
Stay tuned for the final installment: D.C. trip part 3 and MORE pictures!

Fire! Fire!

One day last week, when the kids were getting ready for school in the morning, we heard lots of sirens outside. We don't live on a busy street but we live close enough to a busy street to hear the sirens. Anyway, we heard them a lot and then I heard helicopters and such. I said to the kids, "Hey, maybe your school is burning down." To which they replied a resounding, "HURRAY!"
Half an hour later we pull up to the school to find a bunch of firetrucks parked outside! Oops!?! Did I say that?
Turns out it was a false alarm. The school had experienced some kind of electrical power surge which tripped an alarm in one building. Luckily, the kids could still go to school!
The funny part, I think, is seeing the actual firemen. Here, we have a very small number of full-time employed firemen. The rest are volunteer. So it's not unusual to see a fireman standing there with the firehat, big coat and boots on over a t-shirt and shorts.
When there is a fire, they "call" the volunteer firemen by sounding a siren. To me, it sounds JUST like a tornado siren. When we first got here, the whole first month I thought to myself, wow, there are a lot of tornadoes here in New Jersey, especially for a clear day in January. I didn't understand it at all until I finally asked around and was told it was the siren to call the volunteer firemen. It's fairly typical around here. Hopefully we are in good hands...?

NY aquarium & Coney Island

This weekend we went to the New York Aquarium. It is in Brooklyn, right next to Coney Island. This means we have to drive to and through Manhattan all the way downtown and then take a tunnel to Brooklyn (on the other side of Manhattan), drive around the edge of Brooklyn (which is a part of Long Island) to the south side where the aquarium is. The down side is that you have to pay to use the darn tunnel--both ways--and, of course pay to cross the bridge to Manhattan in the first place. It cost us $15 just in bridge and tunnel fees. I swear they are making a KILLING off of us.
ANYWAY, the aquarium was pretty nice. It had all the usual stuff, plus also sea otters, penguins, sea lions, 2 enormous walruses, etc. We had a really good time, until it started raining. (You have to walk from building to building to see the different exhibits). And, we had missed a show---you know, the kind where they have the sea lions do tricks for fish, etc.--that looked like a lot of fun and were waiting around 'til the next show at 4pm, which was then rained out. Oh well, maybe next time.

Afterwards, we walked out onto the boardwalk that has Coney Island literally right next door. We didn't visit Coney Island at all; we've not heard anything really good about it. The rides looked suspiciously unsafe to me, and I was trying to keep myself away from the funnel cakes anyway.
Anyway, the kids just wanted to run around along the beach, despite the rain. I just need to remember to check their pockets for seashells, etc.!
I don't think I've ever been anywhere that has a huge boardwalk like that with amusements, etc., and then a beach right there. I think it's a pretty good set up. You can spend a day at the beach, walk up onto the boardwalk and buy some refreshments when you want, ride some rides, puke, whatever. Sounds like fun! There are public restrooms, too...though I didn't dare go into one!
IF you want to see pictures of our day, click here:

2007_06_03

Pizza! Pizza!

Pizza anyone? OK, don't zoom in too close to this picture because I have absolutely NO make-up on whatsoever. Looks like I'm eating pizza, right? Wrong! I'm helping myself to a large serving of a Dark Chocolat' Almonde Torte. Yum...There's a store here called Trader Joe's. It sells interesting international foodstuffs and lots of health food selections. The best thing about Trader Joe's is they always give the kids a balloon. Anyway, I buy lots of healthy stuff there and ALWAYS walk by this chocolate almond tort thing that looks SO good and is SO expensive and I always make myself keep walking. Well, today was the day. I bought it!!! I couldn't wait to dig in after the kids went to bed. (Share? NO WAY!) It was good, but unfortunately, not quite as good as it looked. I ended up sharing it with the kids the next day, after all...wasn't that generous of me...
OK, here's some totally random thoughts that have nothing to do with anything:
1. When someone wears a bikini in public, they should always check and make sure there aren't any ugly black hairs around their bellybutton that need to be shaved/waxed/or otherwise removed.
2. When your 5 yr. old is talking to you and using the word "invincible"in a sentence, DON'T just assume he means "invincible." Probably he means "invisible" and you'd better clue in REAL quick or he's going to start screaming at you in public.
3. When you take your kids to the city pool (which, no kidding-cost us $200), don't just assume your youngest child (who can't swim) will wait for you to put his floaties on before he just jumps right into the deep end.
4. When your 10 yr. old wants to wear deodorant every day and all he has is Old Spice deodorant (see Puberty blog below), go ahead and buy him some other unscented brand and then everybody is happy!
5. When a certain musical, such as Dreamgirls, gets a LOT of Academy Award hype--don't just assume you're going to enjoy watching it. In fact, it may feel like sheer torture to sit through it at all. (Sorry! No offense intended to you Dreamgirls fans!)
6. When there is a dead bird in your yard (no it wasn't our friendly robin, thank goodness), have your husband dispose of it expeditiously because it is going to start to STINK.