Lee's Birthday

Well, Lee's bday was a huge success! He got everything he asked for, because he is such a good boy. Here's some pictures, so you can see what fun we had.

That's a spiderman banner on the wall. See Memaw's couch?? It matches that wall so perfectly!
All of Lee's presents (expect for the propane for the grill. It's outside. I didn't have the strength to haul it down the stairs.)

He requested a chocolate-peanut butter-sugar cookie, with bits of miniature PB cups and reese's pieces. It was amazing, if I do say so myself.

Lee needs some grilling-tool experience. Above, he's scratching his head with the grill brush, below, he's wearing the grill cover like a cape.

He also got a nintendo DS, but we forgot to take pictures of the unraveling of that precious piece of electronic heaven.

I have some job leads, so please keep us in your prayers. We are going to Atlantic City this week to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. It's so cool that within hours we can be in sooo many different places.

Wierd jobs Alecia is NOT taking...

Yesterday, I actually saw a listing for a man needing someone to act like his girlfriend at a family function, because he told his family that he had a serious girlfriend to make them leave him alone. He said his family bugs him about relationships all the time, but he just doesn't want a girlfriend right now; he's focusing on his career. I've seen this movie before. And read this book, too. I didn't realize this sort of thing actually happened!

Lee thinks I'd make great money as a professional dancer. I think I'd make money too, but only because people would pay me to stop.

In other news, the internet is not working in our basement, therefore I am resigned to heading to the library everyday to apply for jobs. It's so urban, really. I'm so cool.

The house centipede count is rising...I'm losing sleep over this.

Alien

Last night there was an alien in our basement. There's no other words to explain the creature that was crawling along the wall. We just stared at it for a few seconds before moving closer. It was over an inch long, with tons of long legs and antennae even longer. It attempted to crawl on the ceiling and fell to the ground, where Lee attacked it with a shoe.

I just wiki-ed it, and I believe it was actually a house centipede, which look more like flat roach/spider than a worm with legs. Below is a picture I found on wikipedia. But last night, it was an alien. Eek. I'm all creepy-crawly, just thinking about it.

Rebuttals and Birthday

There are malicious lies going on in this blog, some so darnable that they have caused me to break my personal blogging rule. That rule is that I don't blog. Each time I thought about blogging, I would try to compose the great American blog so that people would enjoy reading it. And then I would start to worry that I didn't have any material good enough for people to spend their time reading. Then I would worry that my blogs would be too good and then people would expect more, and demand continued improvements in quality, relevance, and entertainment. These soul-crushing worries have kept me in a passive internet role and never a contributor to this world wide web. Plus blogging sounds like a euphemism for something dirty. Anyway, through her lies, Alecia has caused me to find myself bathed in the soft light of my laptop, fingers gently tapping out the truths that will follow.

Alecia made mention that I shed "man-tears" upon the departure from Abilene. Not true. Unless by tears she means that I asked her to open my Mountain Dew and hand me some jerky as I set our sights towards the East. For as a man, I do not cry, unless of course I find out that we are out of Dew and Jerky, and then the blubbering begins in earnest.

Alecia also told fables of me possibly whining about not wanting to walk all the way to the grocery store and even using the excuses that I walk something like a mile each day. Her belief is that because her father walks three to four times that distance, it really shouldn't be that big of deal for me. First, the only confirmation we have that her father walks that far is from him saying so. I think that he possibly has a Segway stashed somewhere near the house that he uses to scoot around town for awhile and then to the church where he again hides it and then makes his amazing walking claims. Or maybe he is just a walking nut. However, his "walks" take place in lovely Portales, NM whereas mine take place in Washington, DC where I have to battle the strangling humidity, lung crushing smog, fear of death by means of a car or the crazed homeless, and, on the occasions that I forget my umbrella, rain. Add in all the little bonuses I deal with on my route and it easily jumps up to the equivalent of 4 to 5 miles daily. At any rate, this has no impact on whether or not I should be forced to walk to the grocery store (to get Alecia dessert no less) when there is a perfectly good car that looks lonely for my butt.

Finally, Alecia has claimed that she does not have a job. This is untrue as I assigned her several jobs when we moved including getting us a place to live, getting us settled, and finding herself employment. As of this writing, we now live in a stranger's basement, my underwear still in boxes, with Alecia spending her job hunting time trying to figure out if becoming part of street dance crew would come with dental insurance. Perhaps I wasn't very clear when setting up her performance goals...

Just a quick note about my upcoming birthday. I am in a new office and no one there knows that my birthday is next week. This actually makes me very happy as I am so not a fan of all the awkward birthday attention that goes on with the cakes and singing. But mostly, I was telling Alecia my birthday desires (want to go see Batman at movies, want to eat pizza, want a giant cookie for dessert, want comic books and video games for presents) when I had the startling realization that I was only Ninja Turtle plates and cups away from recreating my 8th birthday.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and hopefully now that I have made the necessary corrections to Alecia's accusations and falsehoods, I can retire from writing down my life's details back to only narrating them in my head, complete with soundtrack and special effects.

Daddy's bulletin

Below is the bulletin article my daddy wrote concerning our move. I do so love my family!

“A Father’s Love!”


I am sitting in the Fort Stockton, Texas library. I let you know this is in Texas because two of the three movers who were supposed to be here this morning to load my daughter and son-in-law up and take them off to Washington D.C. are in Fort Stockton, California. I suppose it is an easy enough mistake.

I am sitting here trying not to cry. Being a parent is tough. You talk all the time about wanting what is best for your kids, then when they say it is best to move 1609 miles away you wonder if you really mean it. After all, what am I supposed to do with all this “stuff” that is best for them.

I know we raise kids and we long for them to be independent and then we cry when they fly the coup. This is the way of life. I really am glad my children are growing. I am a father who loves them immensely. I, however, am just their dad. I lift them into the hands of the Father who loaned them to me. I offer them into His existence. I trust them to His care. I know He loves them more than I do. I know He wants what is really best for them. I know He has plans for them that I cannot grasp or control. I also know that He knows just how their life will be best lived. God is a better parent than I will ever be. He is the Father who loves intently. He is the Father who cares immensely.

I have fully enjoyed each of my daughters at every stage and age they have attained. I am blessed to be loved by them. And I am blessed to be their father on Father’s Day and every other day. I am abundantly blessed that though this Father’s Day I will not have all three daughters around me, God will have them around Him. They understand the real relationship is not the seen but the unseen one with God!

I am still sitting here trying not to cry!

This is a copy of the email I sent out when we first arrived to DC. Most everyone has read it, but I just wanted to have all my correspondence in one place, so I copied and pasted it. :)


Friends and family, I wanted to let you all know that we have made it safely to Washington DC. I know many of you are like, what??? Yes, in the midst of planning our big move, I failed to let everyone know that Lee was offered a job in the national USDA/FSA office, and we accepted. So, I am sorry that most of you were left in the dark until now about our plans. It was an oversight of mine that I am not proud of. Okay, now about our adventure. We left Fort Stockton on Tuesday afternoon, the 10th. We arrived at Sharon's (Lee's mom) house that eve and had a great visit with her, like always. She made me rice krispie treats, and I shared with Lee, since that's the kind of wife I am. On Wednesday, we went through Abilene to see Scott (Lee's best bro) and Lee cried man-tears about missing his family. I, on the otherhand, remained completely stoic, cause that's just who I am.Then went to Ft. Worth and ate at a Freebird's for the last time in a long while (Any care package that includes a monster burrito will be accepted with open arms). Then we ended up in Texarkana that night. If you are ever in Texarkana, I recommend eating at the Ironwood Grill. Absolutely fabulous food and atmosphere. Thursday, we drove through Arkansas, crossed the Mississippi, had some good ol' Memphis bar-b-q, and landed in Nashville. We saw the Grand ol' opry, accidentally (we were actually going to the mall to do some quick shoppin, looked to our right and said, "wow! that's the grand ol' opry!") So that was really cool to see. We had dinner at Laura's house (my bff from ACU) and walked around her nice neighborhood. That night our sheets were covered in hair, so we had to call down and have someone bring us new ones. An unfortunate event in our otherwise excellent day. New sheets, no hair. Yay! Friday morn we got up way early and headed to Dollywood. It was just a few miles off our route, and we decided it would be cool to say that we have been there. So we rode the coasters, got wet on the rapids, and drove through pigeon forge, which is like Ruidoso on steroids. So much to do!!! There was at least 10 themed mini golf courses. There was a farm animal one, a haunted house one, and some others that i don't remember, but were still cool. We saw the veggie tales live show and I got to sing along, and wish that I had a kid, so I had an excuse and didn't look creepy, enjoying the veggietales as a grown woman. Anyways, we ended up in Roanoke, VA that night really late, exhausted by the amusement park adventure. Saturday we arrived in FAlls Church, VA at about 2. Our furnished apartment is on the top floor(14th) of a highrise. It was exciting, to look out our window and just be able to see the tops of trees. Since then, the grandeur of living on the top floor has greatly diminished. That night we went and saw Ironman, and it was really good. I spent most of the movie arguing with lee about who the actor was that plays osborne. I thought it was kurt russell, and I convinced him of it, but then we found out that it was jeff bridges. Who, in my defense, could be his twin, if you ask me, and When I was picturing kurt russell, it was actually jeff bridges in my head. So, I won. If you could follow my logic, you'd agree. Oh, and it rained. Sunday, we went to the church of Christ in falls church. It was encouraging and we met a group of young professionals and had lunch with them. We actually had Thai food, and I loved it!!! Living basically in Mexico, I've definitely developed an affinity for the hot and spicy. That afternoon, we decided that take the metro into DC, so that Lee could get comfy with the route. Neither of us had been on a subway before, so it took a while to catch on, but once we did, it was so fun! It takes Lee about 25 min. on the metro to get to work, and his personal bubble has been invaded several times already. A lady has fallen asleep on him, another one used his leg to brace herself when the metro would come to a stop. He thinks it is just the way things are done. I think he's just a little too handsome for his own good and these women are taking advantage. :) Monday, Lee went to work, and I got up because it was already really light outside, even though it was before 7 o'clock. I found out we can't have internet in our apartment, because we'll only be here a month, so I've been sitting in the lobby a ton, searching for jobs and permanent housing on their public wireless network. I went grocery shopping, and made Lee blueberry muffins. I had a strong lead for a job yesterday, but after lee looked into it,he discovered it was just a sneaky way of saying" door-to-door saleswoman", so I am not going to that interview. I'm glad my husband is smart enough to help me weed out the shady jobs! There was a huge thunderstorm Monday and all the power on this part of time went out. This is when I decided living on the 14th floor was a bad idea, because the elevators were out, so I had to walk up 14 flights of stairs (actually, only 13, because there is no 13th floor) with lee's laptop, my big ol' purse full of library books, and a 12 pack of Mountain Dew, for Lee. I definitely had to take a nap after that exhausting excursion. Plus, at some point, I lost my building access card, and it will be 50 bucks to replace it. So our life here has been up and down. I get lonely, knowing no one in town and having no job or no place to live permanently. But, then I talk to my mommy or sisters (or Lee), and they remind me that my life is good, and I'm not expected have all the answers right now. In fact, my job this month is to find all this stuff. But it gets overwhelming and I just want to go shopping and forget my troubles. But, with a $50 access card hanging over my head, I can't justify the shopping. Yet. WE'll see about next week. I'd love to hear from anyone, so please write me back and let me know how you are doing! Love,Alecia( and lee)

The teacher of our Sunday class just got a new job as the director for volunteers and escorts for the inauguration. He had to clarify that the "escorts" were the kind that helps diplomats find their seats, etc. Not the other kind of "escorts". He also referred to the "POTUS" and I had to have Lee fill me in on what that acronym stood for. In my defense, when I heard "POTUS" I saw the letters "PODIS" so of course I was confused. Apparently this nickname for the "President Of The United States" came from the TV show West Wing, and now it is used in the political arena all the time.

Last night I had Lee go for a walk with me to the grocery store. He complained because he walks, "maybe a mile a day, already" because of the distance from work to the metro. This argument doesn't hold water anymore, because my father is walking 3-4 miles a day and his diabetes is really doing excellent right now. You go dad!

I don't have a job yet so I sit around the house all day, staring at the boxes, wondering which one I should tackle first. My kitchen is completely set up and functional, as of yesterday. This gives me an unforeseen sense of peace. It's like my domain has been regained unto me. Wierd.

Our basement

Last night was our first night in our permanent housing in DC. We actually live in Falls Church, VA, but we're only 5 miles from DC, and it just sounds cooler to say that we live in DC.

After having a late dinner at PF Chang's, we realized that we had no shower curtain liner. Target, alas, was already closed, and we'd been moving all day and we had to clean up! We decided to be very careful and shower just using the cloth part that usually hangs outside the tub. Lee went first and tried to be careful but ended up soaking the floor anyways. He's like a duck when he's in the shower...splashing around like the water is the funnest thing ever. I didn't get the floor wet at all, but I don't reenact Schlitterbahn, either.

There is a family of 5 living above us. Sleeping in someone's basement has its problems. At some point I woke up to people running around and bumping into things. And, we have no control over the AC. Since I turn into a furnace when I sleep, I need the room to be very cool. We have a ceiling fan, but last nite both Lee and I tossed and turned and just couldn't get comfy. I guess we'll have to bring in more fans, or else Alecia's gonna get cranky.