In no particular order...

 First of all, Hazel.  The many faces of Hazel.  I usually see the whole gambit while sitting on a stool in the bathroom while she is sitting on the potty.  I have revoked her going "self" for a while because in the last 24 hours she has had three, THREE accidents in the exact same spot, just like a dog.  Don't worry, I didn't rub her nose in it but I did make her stand there in wet pants until it was all cleaned up every single time (it apparently made a huge impression.)  The girl has done amazingly well from the beginning with the whole potty situation but every once in a while she will have multiple accidents in one day.  AND she has suddenly turned into the most obstinate, stubborn,  independent two year old I know which will make for one heck of an adult but makes for a most unruly and irritating toddler.  I try not to dislike when my kids develop their own opinions.
Is it too much to ask for one, ONE child that will listen and follow with blind, devoted obedience?

Item #2: My backyard.  I love that we live in another place with lots of trees, even more than the last neighborhood.  Our backyard is surrounded by trees and a state park behind.  We have been told that there is a trail that leads to a stream back there...we have yet to explore but I like the thought of that.  I love that the trees leave just an opening of sunshine and sky in the middle of the yard.  It feels cozy and secluded but magnificent with rays of sunshine spilling down into our little space.  Our very own pillar of sky, if you will.

 And I love that I can stare at it while I am doing something less fun, like dishes.

 I am sure that I will be sad when all the leaves fall off the trees and we can actually see other houses...and I am only slightly concerned about the volume of leaves that will be on the ground.  I wouldn't want to lose a child or anything.  Well, maybe the obstinate two year old.

Last weekend we had more guests, that I am embarrassed to say, I didn't get any pictures of-what?! OK Nolan and Jocelyn, now would be a good time to send me that picture that I kept saying I needed to take and never did because I am a doofus.  Plus, I need it for our visitor log/bulletin board.
Clark's brother Nolan and his wife Jocelyn and adorable daughter Maddie joined us for a weekend.  They are so much fun and we loved having them...just picture them in the next sequence of fun because they were totally there.

 We went to an amazing farm about an hour away.  Gorgeous.  I want to live there...rolling green hills, farmland, trees, the Appalachians beginning in the distance.  Breathtaking.  I really, very seriously, would like to live in North Eastern Virginia on a rather large plot of land.

 Humongous (and fast) slides that the adults couldn't stay off of, and the kids wouldn't stop going down until they were too tired to climb the stairs to get to the top.

 We put Abby in the stocks and then laughed and ridiculed her.

 Haley and Clark played chess...Haley won a ribbon at her school last year for a competition in the chess club.  She's not bad...and just look at those adorable tights.  Smart and cute!

 Hazel developed a drinking problem...

 Gorgeous, amazing, wish you were here...

 Hazel tried to lift a pumpkin...unsuccessfully.

 Haley took a break and finished off the kettle corn...(perhaps a little family lesson on modesty should be in our future...)

 And on the way home we were following a car onto the freeway that had a mouse on the back bumper.  We stayed close as long as we could to see how long that little rodent could hold on.  So adorable when it is not anywhere near where I live.  (We didn't ever see it fall off...maybe it was time for city mouse to leave his country cousin and return home.)

 I am so glad to be living somewhere that still has fall.  This was taken last week.  Since then, the leaves have absolutely exploded into the brightest palette you have ever seen.  We have showers of dropping leaves throughout the day and an arsenal of falling acorns, as seen in this next picture.  Clark and I expeditiously cleared out the garage enough to fit at least one car.  We each have about a dozen dents in our hoods from falling acorns.  When a breeze passes, it sounds like a war zone outside.  Loud bangs and thumps can be heard on the deck, sidewalks and roof.  I just keep waiting for one of us to be thunked in the head so hard that we fall down.

 And then this morning, for no reason at all, I decided to char my bagel beyond recognition.  It worked....what didn't work was the fire alarm behind that closed door that you see there.  Funny, it went off several times the first week we were in the house and I burned something, but today, not a peep.  Glad to know we are all safe and sound...although at this point, I would guess we would be taken out by a falling acorn before a housefire.

Today I continued to work on Haley's Halloween costume.  Everyone else is set but I had to actually construct hers.  I was rather happy to be creating something.  I have been so preoccupied with organizing the house that I haven't had time to just enjoy doing my thing.  My "blahs" quickly began to disapate at I created...unfortunately, the blah's returned just slightly again while cleaning up tinckle again-that was after getting a $50 parking ticket (for a 20 minute visit to a nursing home, doesn't service exempt us from stuff like that?) but before the homework/dinner/bedtime wrestling match.
Don't worry though, the kids are in bed after storytelling and snuggles, and all is well.  I still mostly like them.
And as always, I still love them, so that's something I guess.  The blah's were also brought on by the fact that my husband has been traveling this week.  A situation that makes me want to stick my head in the microwave.  You see, we didn't know when he got this gig, that traveling would be part of it.  I am trying to focus on the positive though.  It's still way more of him than I have had for a long time.  And what the heck, who doesn't like a few nights here and there where I don't have to cook a real meal, I can work on my projects while watching girl shows and eating ice cream and soon-to-be-Halloween stashes?  At least that's what I will tell myself every time I do the bedtime routine with the gremlins alone while he is eating real mozzarella in Italy and taking naps in his downtime (jet lag? it's just an excuse if you ask me.) In any case, I will try to keep my head out of the microwave and continue to go with the flow.  Especially because if I went with the microwave option, the fire alarm probably wouldn't go off and no one would find me for some time. And who wants to miss Halloween? Not me.

 

The good news is, we won't be homeless in DC.

The bad news is, we are responsible adults who listen when we are told something is right for our family.  I hate it when I don't like the answer we get when asking for inspiration. (POST EDIT: I wrote this sentence after we finished house hunting and spent the next three days trying to decide between the older, less cute, huge yard, farther but bigger house and the VERY close, VERY cute, newly remodeled, tiny yard, very small house for the same price.  I would show you pictures of both of the outsides but you would cry for me and since we are totally over not getting what we wanted I won't go there.  However, to clarify, we went with the house that we felt was right.  Heavenly Father always knows that answer.  It's a comfort to know that if we are listening, we won't be told the wrong thing....we just may not always initially like the answer.  And just to further clarify, we are SO VERY GLAD that we went with the right choice.  Because we are really really pleased with this location and house.  So all is well.  But we already knew it would turn out that way when we listened in the first place.  Nevertheless, it was still a hard decision back then.  End of this part of my story.) Oh and what the heck, I'll show you what it looked like for the sake of a more interesting post...besides, I know you people are out there that only look at the pictures.

Cute:

Not-so cute:

Wrong choice:

Right Choice:

New Story but from the same weekend:

I think I must insist that Clark take up a new profession-weekend locksmith.  I am fairly certain that he could secure us a cushy retirement on this job alone.  Highway.  Robbery.  Take it from me.  It is much more convenient to lock your keys in the car during the hot months of early summer, with a child inside, than to do it on a rainy Sunday in September.  The fire department will do it for free.  The other guy will want your first born, your arm, and maybe a foot rub.
And speaking of robbery, I witnessed a blatant crime this week in a rest stop restroom in Delaware.  I watched a woman first attempt (it was an attempt at first because she saw me seeing her) and then actually stand on a toilet and reach over a stall to grab someone's purse.  A gutsy move.  Nonetheless ladies, be warned: KEEP YOUR HEAD UP WHILE USING PUBLIC RESTROOMS AND NEVER HANG YOUR PURSE OR BAG ON THE HOOK. Maybe you should just try never to use a public restroom because they are super gross.
I felt sick to my stomach afterwards.  Not only do I HATE HATE HATE when people do things that are dishonest and unfair to others and get away with it, but there was nothing I could do except chase her out into the parking lot (while trying not to lose my four children beside me) and describe her 10 minutes later when we finally located a security person at the rest stop.  For future notice, saying loudly that "she is about to get herself into a heap of trouble" will not deter someone from committing a crime.  And to make it all worse, I spent precious moments uselessly pursuing her outside thus allowing the poor robbed woman with cute pink shoes to walk out of that restroom not knowing that someone had just removed something from her purse.

************************************
THIS ALL HAPPENED WHEN WE WERE HERE IN DC IN SEPTEMBER FOR HOUSE HUNTING...AND SINCE I HAVE NOTHING BETTER BREWING IN MY LITTLE HEAD RIGHT NOW, I THOUGHT I WOULD SHARE SO THAT I DON'T HAVE THAT "WAITING TO BE POSTED" STATUS IN MY LIST OF POSTS.  THAT FEELS SO INCOMPLETE.

Blah.

It's such a layered "blah" that I wouldn't even know where to begin, plus all aspects of the blah will blow over in the next few days anyway.  So we'll just leave it at that.

So just to sum up in case you missed any of that,

BLAH.

Not much in the way of significance, per se...

Life returned to normal for me yesterday.  I don't really know when the last time my life was "normal", if there really is such a thing.  What I like to think of as normal is this: Husband gets up and goes to work.  Husband leaves breakfast things out on the table.  Wife/Mother gets up and gets the kids off to school.  Mother does various "things" during the day (this may include actual exercise, tedious household chores, shopping-for purposeful things of course, or being lazy...which I reserve the right to do if I have no other "pressing obligations"), kids come home from school, kids play, everyone comes in for dinner prep and homework, the Dad comes home (emphasis on that last part.) You see, Clark went back to work yesterday.  He has been home, and I mean home, for six weeks.  And yet, I still wasn't ready for him to go.  I liked having him around.  In fact, while we talk about the new normal I would like to also emphasize that in addition to the six month deployment where he was totally and completely gone gone, he spent 8 of the previous 18 months also gone on various underways.  That, is not normal. Not in the normal world, as it were.  In the Navy it is indeed perfectly normal.  Got that? Normal.  Just thought I'd throw one more in for good measure.
The funny thing about "normal" is this.  Every time I have asked Clark in the last two weeks what his work schedule will be like, he says that he will get home at a normal time.  And then I would get a puzzled look on my face and ask what that meant.  Because you see, in all of our time of being married, he has never had a "normal" 9 to 5.  I don't really know that many people that do, but you know what I mean.  I think I am going to like being normal.  Except that there was a shooting at my husband's place of employment (again) today.  But with 20,000 employees at the Pentagon, I try to reassure myself by hoping that there are at least 19,999 other people there that might get shot before him.  That sounded less rude in my head.
Now I am done using the word "normal".

We have played for the last two weekends.  Forget this "Saturday is for chores" bit - we want to hit up all the outdoor stuff before it gets too chilly.  The first weekend we went into downtown and did the Smithsonian thing.  Last week we did a picnic and exploration of a nearby park...a huge park with bike and running trails, playgrounds, a carousel and a train.  Spencer and Sho came with us of course and it was lovely.
Then this last weekend we had our first of [hopefully] many visitors.  My older brother, Chip was in town for a Swedish Conference.  It was really fun to visit and play with him and shake the very same hand that shook hands with the very royal Queen of Sweden this week.  That sounds like a lie but it is completely true.  He shook the Queen's hand.  Right before we met up with Chip, Spencer and Sho took us to Dunbarton Oaks Garden near Georgetown.  Spencer took some very cool pictures here a few weeks ago.  The girls had fun exploring and it was quite enjoyable.  So pretty.

 With lots of convenient places to smooch.

 The girls were playing Alice in Wonderland for most of our visit.  A lot of the gardens have a very "magical" feel to them.

 I love these girls.  These four, right here.

 And we love this girl.  We are so excited and feel so lucky to live near Auntie Sho.  She loves the girls so.  And they love her right back...except for Mia who happen to be throwing a fit at this particular photo op.

 It took no time at all for the girls to love Chip.  This is him giving them all a horse ride at the same time and singing about the white horse and two little girls referred to as "fatty" and "the thick one"...or something along those lines...but it's in Swedish so their sensitive little female self images stayed intact.

 Then we played some golf.  And Sho had to stand up to really maximize her skills (it didn't help...no offense Sho. Come back for a rematch.)

 We stayed up until 3am, 3am!!! I didn't think that people our age were allowed to do that.  In fact, I didn't know my body was capable of doing that.  We were enjoying it way too much...or maybe Chip was just being nice by not reminding us that he couldn't go to sleep until we left his "bedroom" (being the nice brother that he is, he volunteered his space in the Spo Suite to the couple who wouldn't have fit so comfortably on the couch.)  On a side note: the Spo Suite will now be affectionately be referred to as the "SO" suite, as in Spencer and Sho's initials...it just sounds better and a little bit  more kitschy, which is how a vacation suite should sound.

 Then on Sunday morning I made Chip pose for his picture that will go up on the SO suite bulletin board of visitors.  He gave us "two thumbs up"...and one of those thumbs has touched the Queen of Sweden, remember.

And then in completely unrelated events, Hazel's head bounced a couple of times on our front walk.  It has reminded me of all the other horrid facial injuries brought about by the "clumsy stages" that toddlers go through.  Abby probably holds the record for the worst bumps and bruises.  I thought about posting our gallery of "worsts" but decided that I would rather not have my kids taken away by CPS.   Poor Hazel will heal and all will be well until the next time she walks into a wall or falls down while standing still.  Let's hope her coordination improves some before she hits the teen years.

We have arrived.

This is the part where I feel settled enough in our new home to write a little bit about the last two weeks.  "Write" of course, not being the key word.  Pictures will do.  I am really, genuinely excited to be here...but we'll get to that.

We spent our last week in Connecticut doing as many of our favorite things as possible.  Playing by the water...

family bike rides (riding with Mia didn't last long...you remember all the "I-can't-do-it's", right? I finally pulled over and let her play in the water while Clark and the older girls finished their ride. I've never known a child who learned how to ride a two-wheeler and hated it so much.)

We drank mulled apple cider with caramel at our favorite "fall place"...OK, only I drank hot apple cider because it was like 85 degrees already that morning...and I enjoyed every last drop (and only one daughter was in a bad mood that day...it's pretty normal...can you tell which one it was that day?)

We played with friends for the last time.  Oh, how we have loved these people....every, last, silly, face.  You guys had better come visit us.

We took pictures...don't worry Haley, I won't tell Ethan's Mom or Ethan that you play Oregon Trail and name the Ma and Pa "Haley" and "Ethan".  Cute boy, even when I get a picture of him with food in his mouth.

And cute Elise, even when she is making a silly face herself.

Adorable Maddie, my girls will miss you.

And these ladies...true friends that I have loved getting to know and become better from knowing them.  Seriously, you are both coming to visit at some point, right?

During the actual "moving events" I may have delighted in distractions such as taking pictures of what it would look like if my ice cream could reproduce...it's a beautiful thought, don't you think?

Coming home from stepping out that day...this sight always produces a bit of lump in my throat.  It's sad to leave somewhere that we have enjoyed so much.  Good bye Pheasant Run.  Though your yard was horrendous, it was spacious...and though you were a tad cramped you kept us close.  I will miss our quiet neighborhood, bus stop, blue skies and family walks up and down our streets.

Such good posture.  I just couldn't pass it up.  While Clark and I cleaned, Mia sat absolutely still, watching Beauty and the Beast on Clark's laptop precariously perched atop the snack buckets.

Hazel took advantage of the special equipment.  And then we were gone.

Three of the girls and I drove down a day before Clark to receive our household goods.  Clark had to check out of work officially on the day that we were supposed to get our keys.  It was a very. busy. day.  The girls favorite part of this house is the swing hung from a tree in the front.  It has an amazing backyard with a swing set and everything, but this is what they race for every time we come home.

And then this is what much of the house looked like...but I simply have to get unpacked as quickly as possible or I feel Krazy with a capital K.  It has been wonderful and amazing to have Clark home for so much of the prep and arrival...work has gone much quicker and goes so much more smoothly.  I have been spoiled having him around 24/7.  I am going to be a big baby when he eventually has to work again.  We have never had this much time together, not ever.  And I am proud and happy to say that after almost 6 weeks off, we still like each other.

Clark power washed the front walk today.  It was funny...and a lot dirtier than I thought it was.

But we finally have somewhere comfy to crash at the end of our busy days unpacking and getting settled...we'll talk about the rug later...a story for another time.  But I'll give you a hint: it has to do with an enthusiastic husband who found himself at a "rug and flop" in Bahrain earlier this year..and one somewhat unsupportive wife.  Picture hanging is on the docket for tomorrow.

And a place to eat...that is very important.  Not super roomy in the kitchen (and the tile countertops make me want to weep just a little) but the rest of the house is roomy and I love it.  There is room to stretch and play and not feel irate by the end of the day because kids are on top of me.   Some day we won't rent.  That will be a nice day.  Some day there also won't be so much stuff on the counters.  That day is sooner than the other nice day I was talking about.

We went to that place that I mentioned.  The DMV wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting.  We got there early and only had to run home three times for things that different people kept telling us we needed.  But the upside was that the DMV is in an awesome mall so I got chocolate covered gummy bears at the end. 

And then my license came in the mail and I was puzzled because I can't tell if I look more startled or ticked off.  In any case, I feel happy because my hair looks all shiny and healthy...plus, I went ahead and gave myself that last 1/4 inch I needed to claim 5'7.  I just did it.  Don't tell the authorities.  But look, you can also have my organs if I don't need them anymore.

One of my favorite things about this house is the beautiful two tiered deck.  I finally have a good place to hang my party lanterns...and eat leisurely meals outside with people that I love.  Did I mention that we are only 25 minutes from Spencer and Sho? If you come visit us, you can stay in the "Spo Suite"...happily named for it's most frequent overnight guests...we may even let you use their toothbrushes but probably not Sho's pj's, she is pretty petite.

Living near Spencer and Sho also means even MORE beautiful pictures of my kids...aren't you excited?! I know I am!

Everywhere we went for the first week I would get really excited and then really wary, as though disaster looms around the corner...so much seems too good to be true.  I think it feels overwhelmingly convenient because we have lived somewhere rather inconvenient for the last two and a half years.  We really loved Connecticut.  I mean, really.  But we became very accustomed to the fact that our nearest grocery store was at least 15 minutes away.  Everything was far away.  Gorgeous but less "available".  Less than ten minutes from our house here we have school, church and the most amazing grocery store you have ever set foot in (seriously, I have never felt so elated after a grocery trip.) And less then fifteen minutes away we have every store and restaurant that you could want.  And less than 30 minutes away we have downtown Washington DC, one of my favorite places.  History, nature, entertainment, culture (and most of it free!) I love that it is all so accessible.  We are near family again (though we will miss Uncle Nolan in CT, dearly.)  The schools are wonderful and the girls are happy.  Clark has been in to work for the run down and it excited about his job...excited I tell you....he hasn't felt that way about his job for too long. I mean, how can working in the Pentagon not be cool?  He deserves it and I am excited for him.
I feel content and really, truly excited to be here.  So here's to the Navy for another chance to live somewhere amazing.
So what are you waiting for?...the Spo Suite is ready for you.