Monday, March 24th: Last night Rebecca was tossing and turning and moaning and I thought she’d have to go to the bathroom, so around 1 a.m. I put her on the toilet and she went pee and the back to bed. Not 5 minutes later she was rolling and groaning again and thinking that she and her sister simply couldn’t sleep together, I put her in the double bed with Nicholas.
Vomit all over the floor. And again an hour later. This may sound weird but Yay! There was a good chance she’d be all done with this before we even get on the plane. And even better, she didn’t even hit the bed. But if you’ve ever seen the game Roller Coaster Tycoon, you know what the floor of our hotel room looked like by the time we’d left and all 4 kids had used the floor as a vomit catcher. Yup, just like the results around your park if you don’t have enough handymen and you’ve built a really nauseating coaster. Thank goodness they were generous on the towels when we asked.
So, by 3:30 a.m. everyone was up and about getting dressed and heading to the aiport. Our flight was leaving at 6:16, but being an airport, it was open and people were already in line checking in at 4:30 a.m. We’d found out in our packing yesterday of all our stuff, that neither our giant umbrella nor the closet pole would fit into our suitcases. Well the closet organizer was an oversight for the packers and since it had been raining on Thursday and Friday when the house was being packed we had the umbrella. Yes, we should have kept the smallest umbrella, but no, here we were the largest one we could find with a big metal poking part at the end. We were stuck. The airlines have become very strict about what they’ll let on, no scissors, no knives (not even for meals), so we weren’t sure about the umbrella but figured we’d try it. The closet pole we didn’t think we’d be able to pull off so easily. At best, they’d say no, at worst they’d think it was convoluted weapon. So to avoid having to bring it to the airport and leave it there, we left it in the hotel room. Chances are we’ll need to order another one to replace it though, for the girls’ closet.
We head towards the security check and Rebecca loses her bit of breakfast on the airport floor. We tried our best to clean it up, but pray that this is the last of this bug. By the time we’re getting through security, a cleaning crew is already at the scene. Rebecca feels much better.
We arrived at the gate after checking ourselves in to Hawaii. They didn’t even blink at the umbrella which Ian carried as his personal item. Ok then, makes no sense to me but I’m not going to argue. We rode in cattle car for the 2+ hours to Chicago and switched planes. Though we were checked in all the way, this was the leg we were going to try for upgrades. For all of us. On the phone we were told several times that there were only 6 total seats available for upgrades and there were 7 of us flying. We didn’t know how it would work out, but just kept hoping. We decided that Ian and the girls would go into First Class when they boarded, leaving us with the boys (and shorter legs) in the back. But we waited and waited by the desk for everyone else to show up and board, held our breath and finally were called up. She printed us 3 new First Class boarding tickets! So the boys and I were set, but wait, mom was still here with her own ticket which she handed over and she got an upgraded seat too! Woohoo! Honolulu here we come. We packed the rest of first class, waved to Ian and the girls, and were off in comfortable style. We were fed constantly, and watered even more. The chairs were cozy, the boys fell asleep, even I fell asleep for the length of the Bond movie they showed, we saw the Grand Canyon, Ian made the girls try some of the stinky moldy cheese at snack time, the girls visited the bathroom more often than humanly possible and Jonathon received a comment from the folks next to him that he was the best traveling 18 month old they’d seen. All the kids were excellent, I couldn’t have asked for better from a 9 hour first flight. The girls had flown before on a flight from Florida to Virginia and back but that was years ago, and the boys had never flown. I was rather concerned about how Jonathon would handle it as he freaks out about the strangest things, but Nicholas was thrilled and Jonathon strained a few times to get out of his seat but all in all did fabulous. Snacks are definitely key.
So, 9 hours later, we look out the window and see the islands of Hawaii. And not long after we were landed and getting our bags. The girls saw bunches of people wearing leis, so I caved and bought 3 fresh flower leis right from the airport vendor. $40, up in smoke. For items that will die badly in a day or two. But we’re in Honolulu, probably the only time ever, so we’re going to splurge a bit. Or a lot.
The local time was mid-afternoon, but our bodies felt it was bedtime especially for being up since 3:30 a.m. Not being able to go right to sleep, we walked around the Hilton Hawaiian Village, a resort hotel with shops, restaurants, the beach, 3 pools and many other places to check out, but the biggest hit was the onsite zoo. Not a real zoo of course, but there were ponds everywhere filled with all colors of koi and many other types of sparkly fish. Nicholas’s favorites were the “bih bish!” as he pointed out the same fish over and over as we walked by. There were also parrots (some that talked, some not), flamingoes, ibis, and oddly enough, penguins. The penguins didn’t do much, but the turtles in the same pond were swimming around and that was cool.
We slowly meandered to a comfy outdoor restaurant right near the beach, the Rainbow Lanai, and no one was hungry so we had the simplest foods we could find. Some soup for mom and me, some fish sticks for the boys and Ian had a platter of fresh fruit. By the end of the meal, Rebecca was falling asleep in her seat and my world was starting to spin and get fuzzy. We managed to see the guy run around the village in his grass skirt lighting all the lanterns, and we saw part of a hula show by the pool. It was around 6 p.m. and we were all falling apart, so off to the room we went and did a literal crash into bed.
Tuesday, March 25th : After breakfast at a fairly decent 24 hour diner type place, Ian headed off to “work”, dressed in his suit for his INS consultation at the INS offices. He said he’d be the only one of the island in a suit and I do believe he was right. But he looked good and that’s all that matters.
After a short while of walking around the shops that were mostly closed so early in the morning, and buying some little bracelets for the kids, grandma the kids and I headed to the beach. I’d lathered up the kids well with sunscreen and they wore hats, but you know how moms are. We neglected ourselves and after only and hour at the beach, got ourselves nice and toasted. This should do real well on the plane trips on Thursday. The kids were spared entirely and had a fabulous time playing in the sand and wading in the water. Jonathon had no fear even when the waves came up and swept the sand from under his feet. Katherine kept asking for her swimming board. She just doesn’t want to accept that we didn’t pack it in the suitcase, but it’s in a box somewhere over the ocean now.
After only an hour at the beach, it was 11 a.m. and we were all ready for lunch and a break from the heat. There was a pizza place nearby, so once Ian returned from his morning INS training (via limo cab of all things), mom and I brought back a pizza while Jonathon napped. We were on the 17th floor, so the breeze was pretty good on the balcony and we could see the pools, the beach and part of Diamond Head.
We wandered around the resort and saw a wedding going on with a couple Hawaiian musicians. With the backdrop of a pond, rocks and lush greens, I bet it made some nice photographs. Passing by the social directors desk (we called her Julie the entire time we were in the resort) we signed up the girls for a full day of kids camp for tomorrow. It should be great fun. It says they’ll be fishing, swimming, having lunch and doing some projects. It’ll also free up mom and I to take the boys swimming.
We spent some time looking for a luau, and were surprised to find that luaus are simply not a common thing. They are scheduled once or twice a week in a few places, or you can plan one for you and twenty guests, but just going to one? Nope, not common. Oh well, we’ll miss that famous Hawaiian tradition. The ones we did see didn’t start until 7 or later, and with our jetlag there wasn’t going to be a way to stay awake that long. Instead, we settled on a Benni Hana right down the way and barely stayed awake through it much less ate anything. By 7 p.m. we were all very ready for bed. In fact before we’d all changed and gotten ready, Nicholas had already crawled into his roller bed and fallen fast asleep.
Wednesday, March 26th: Breakfast again at the same place. Go to a totally new state and practically all new culture… eat at a diner. Oh well. And everything comes with pineapple. Normal I suppose for the state where the Dole plantation is, but frustrating since Jonathon can’t eat pineapple. He loves it, but it does bad bad things to him. My mom was way more careful with Jonathon than I probably would have been, but it’s a good thing because if he gets sick, the next part of our trip would be miserable.
Ian took off in a cab for his day of INS training at the airport, we went to watch the penguins getting fed and at 8:30 we registered the girls for their day camp. Then we were free free free! OK, not really we still had the boys but they’re easy enough to cart around. It was enough time to head to the pool where we were totally confused as to how the whole pool thing worked. You need to check in, get a wrist tag, request towels, then try to find a place to camp out, only all the chairs were taken. So we put our stuff at a table where presumably you were supposed to order food, but no one kicked us out so I guess all was good. Nicholas had a fabulous time, jumping in, paddling around. Jonathon had a bad night last night, so he was less fun. He wanted to swim, but not really, then he did, then he didn’t, then he wanted to sit, then he wanted to swim. He didn’t know up from down it seemed. After about an hour it was time to eat again so we hopped over to the Tropics which is right between the pool and the beach. Ian joined us after we’d ordered our $50 lunch meal (fries for $4 anyone?) and while it was good it wasn’t –that- good. But it’s ok, like most meals we put it on our room bill. It all feels free!
Jonathon was very ready for his nap, so we left Ian and Nicholas to swim some more while mom and I headed up to the rooms to schedule the shuttle pick-up for tomorrow. Boy was that a mess. I told the guy that our flight departed at 3, so he scheduled a pick-up at noon which we all know is too late. So I called back to change the pick-up to 11 a.m. Only they had no record of my calling and making a reservation. Wait, I just called 5 minutes ago. Sorry, we don’t have any records. What do you mean? I just called! OK, let’s start again, we want to be picked up at 11. What time are you flying out? That doesn’t matter, we want to be picked up at 11. No, you have to tell us what time your flight leaves. I don’t want to be picked up at noon. Please, we need to know what time your flight leaves, at 3? Yes, at 3. Pick-up would be at noon. No, I want to change that and we want to be picked up at 11. Ok, pick-up at 11. I was so tempted to call back and make sure that I’d talked to a real person who’d actually written something down.
Nicholas was doing so well swimming and it’s not often he’ll get so much one on one time in the pool. By the time they returned from the pool, there wasn’t much longer to wait to pick up the girls. Ian and I collected them and only back up in the room did we all realize we’d forgotten all their clothes. They’d returned directly from swimming and were still in their swimsuits. Think we were still tired? The girls hadn’t really gone fishing in the lagoon like we’d hoped but instead had been given cups to try to capture some of the fish in the ponds. How cruel is that! Those poor fish. And Katherine had even caught one. Even crueler. They had snowcones as a snack and loved the swimming.
While the girls were getting changed and we were planning to pack up, Ian decided to check out our tickets and make sure everything was set for tomorrow. I came in and asked if all was well and he said no. We didn’t have 3 of our tickets. We had the printed itinerary for Katherine, Nicholas and Ian, but only Jonathon, Rebecca and I had the actual tickets to Manila. It seemed that the American Airlines ticket counter attendant who had done our tickets in Washington had taken 3 of the wrong sets of papers from our ticket folders. We fly out tomorrow. It’s 3 p.m. Hawaii time. This was bad.
For the next half hour we prayed that businesses would be open. It was already 8 p.m. on the East coast. He called American Express, he called Continental and luckily got real people at both places as he explained the story over and over. By the end of it, he had reassurances that upon arriving at the counter tomorrow, we would be issued 3 new tickets. With nothing else to do, he accepted what he was told and we fervently hoped that this would be one of those rare occurrences where one person said all would be taken care of, and another person would actually come through.
So Jonathon was up and we went down to collect the girls clothes. We passed another wedding at the same spot, this time with a harpist and Julie explained how wonderful and gorgeous, etc etc it all was. We decided to go watch the swan instead of hang around.
By 7 p.m. we were all wiped again, Nicholas had climbed into bed and fallen asleep and before the lights were out and we hoped that we’d all have a better nights sleep, even with the burn. We’d applied heavy doses of some allow with lidocaine but aside from making everything sticky I don’t know how much good it did.
Monday, April 7, 2003
March 22nd - March 23rd: Farewell Washington
Saturday, March 22nd: Ah, breakfast! Finally, we were able to partake of the yummy buffet downstairs, before heading out to DC for a last visit before we fly out on Monday. We drove in around 9 a.m. and it was almost eerie how few cars and people there were around. We wondered if it was just because it was early or were people scared off because of the war with Iraq that had started in the past week?
Ian didn’t even want to come downtown and instead wanted to head over to Old Town Alexandria, but here we were by the Washington Monument with a great parking spot and decided it was early enough to try to get tickets to go up. Just our luck, the ticket booth wasn’t giving out any tickets at that time, and the tickets lines were already an hour behind schedule. Apparently there was a security concern so everyone was just waiting around. Not us! We walked down to the American History museum and stood in that line instead until they opened at 10a.m. We looked at the map, visited a section on submarines, took a moment at the 9/11 exhibit and then Katherine wanted to see an exhibit called the Swamp Rat. Well, we were expecting a giant swamp rat of course. But sadly, it was an old car that had been named.
The cell phone rang while we were wandering and we learned that Jerry and Julie were on the Mall flying a kite for the Kite Flying Festival going on and while we’d planned to meet them at Old Town, this was very convenient. So we met up with them around the same time that Jeff was coming off the metro and we all headed to TGI Fridays (the only restaurant near the mall). Stuffed, we went to Natural History where Katherine really wanted to see the mummies again, but the place was now packed (I guess the early morning emptiness was just that, early morning). It was difficult to find last time, so we just went to the bug zoo, everyone’s favorite except Julie who stayed behind. What is it with her and bugs?! She wouldn’t go in last time we were here either. Sheesh.
With all the talk of squids and squid juice lately, all for Rebecca’s benefit of course, we decided our last stop would be the giant squid in the prehistoric exhibit. We searched and searched past dinosaur bones and the creation of life, but to no avail. The squid is gone? How can that be? The squid has always been there, where is it now? Can anyone tell me?
Oh well, life goes on. We meandered back to the car to hand over our bread machine into Julie’s capable hands, although the direction book and recipe book are somewhere in a box headed to the Pacific ocean. Oops. We said our goodbyes to Jerry and Julie right there next to the Washington Monument. It was rather sad, but at the same time didn’t seem real. Jeff came back with us to the hotel where we ordered some Thai food and stayed to chat for a while. Hopefully he’ll come to visit us in the Philippines, but even so it’ll be at least a year until we see him again. Thank goodness for the internet.
Sunday, March 23rd – This morning we had another good breakfast and this time I didn’t mangle my waffle. We went to church at Saint Michael’s and the choir did one of my favorites. It’s not a particularly cheerful piece as the one of the lines is “Oh Lord, why did you have to die upon the cross”, but that’s what you get for Mass during Lent. After Mass several of the choir folk came down and we were able to chat and say goodbye. Several of them asked when we were off and shocked to find out it’s tomorrow morning. It’s that weird how you can tell people for months that we’re leaving March 24th, but when the date actually arrives, they’re all surprised? Diane and Elena had come back from the Philippines in mid-February and she said that Elena (four months younger than Jonathon) did well other than getting bored near the end. They also did the trip alone and in one shot whereas we’ll be taking a break in Hawaii. Her experience gives me hope that it won’t be totally miserable.
We had a wonderful lunch at grandma and grandpa’s house before my dad was getting ready to fly off to Florida for the week. OK, I cried. This is my dad and I won’t be seeing him for at least a year. That hasn’t happened… EVER, in my life. I’ve been trying to smooth over the whole Leaving part of the trip, mostly for the kids but also for me. I don’t know how badly homesickness will hit once we’re there for a few months, but I can’t imagine it’s going to be very enjoyable. My mom will be meeting us bright and early at the airport to come with us to Hawaii. Before Papa left, he called up the airline to upgrade 3 of our seats for the Chicago to Hawaii leg of the trip. That was all that was available today, so if that’s all we get tomorrow, 3 of us will be flying in style. He has enough miles for all of us, but as of this afternoon, there weren’t enough seats. Cross your fingers.
Coming home, Nicholas wasn’t feeling well and upon reaching the parking garage, lost his lunch. OK then, 3 down, Rebecca to go and we fly out in just over a day. Seems this is an every other day thing, so it doesn’t bode well for our flight to Hawaii.
Ian didn’t even want to come downtown and instead wanted to head over to Old Town Alexandria, but here we were by the Washington Monument with a great parking spot and decided it was early enough to try to get tickets to go up. Just our luck, the ticket booth wasn’t giving out any tickets at that time, and the tickets lines were already an hour behind schedule. Apparently there was a security concern so everyone was just waiting around. Not us! We walked down to the American History museum and stood in that line instead until they opened at 10a.m. We looked at the map, visited a section on submarines, took a moment at the 9/11 exhibit and then Katherine wanted to see an exhibit called the Swamp Rat. Well, we were expecting a giant swamp rat of course. But sadly, it was an old car that had been named.
The cell phone rang while we were wandering and we learned that Jerry and Julie were on the Mall flying a kite for the Kite Flying Festival going on and while we’d planned to meet them at Old Town, this was very convenient. So we met up with them around the same time that Jeff was coming off the metro and we all headed to TGI Fridays (the only restaurant near the mall). Stuffed, we went to Natural History where Katherine really wanted to see the mummies again, but the place was now packed (I guess the early morning emptiness was just that, early morning). It was difficult to find last time, so we just went to the bug zoo, everyone’s favorite except Julie who stayed behind. What is it with her and bugs?! She wouldn’t go in last time we were here either. Sheesh.
With all the talk of squids and squid juice lately, all for Rebecca’s benefit of course, we decided our last stop would be the giant squid in the prehistoric exhibit. We searched and searched past dinosaur bones and the creation of life, but to no avail. The squid is gone? How can that be? The squid has always been there, where is it now? Can anyone tell me?
Oh well, life goes on. We meandered back to the car to hand over our bread machine into Julie’s capable hands, although the direction book and recipe book are somewhere in a box headed to the Pacific ocean. Oops. We said our goodbyes to Jerry and Julie right there next to the Washington Monument. It was rather sad, but at the same time didn’t seem real. Jeff came back with us to the hotel where we ordered some Thai food and stayed to chat for a while. Hopefully he’ll come to visit us in the Philippines, but even so it’ll be at least a year until we see him again. Thank goodness for the internet.
Sunday, March 23rd – This morning we had another good breakfast and this time I didn’t mangle my waffle. We went to church at Saint Michael’s and the choir did one of my favorites. It’s not a particularly cheerful piece as the one of the lines is “Oh Lord, why did you have to die upon the cross”, but that’s what you get for Mass during Lent. After Mass several of the choir folk came down and we were able to chat and say goodbye. Several of them asked when we were off and shocked to find out it’s tomorrow morning. It’s that weird how you can tell people for months that we’re leaving March 24th, but when the date actually arrives, they’re all surprised? Diane and Elena had come back from the Philippines in mid-February and she said that Elena (four months younger than Jonathon) did well other than getting bored near the end. They also did the trip alone and in one shot whereas we’ll be taking a break in Hawaii. Her experience gives me hope that it won’t be totally miserable.
We had a wonderful lunch at grandma and grandpa’s house before my dad was getting ready to fly off to Florida for the week. OK, I cried. This is my dad and I won’t be seeing him for at least a year. That hasn’t happened… EVER, in my life. I’ve been trying to smooth over the whole Leaving part of the trip, mostly for the kids but also for me. I don’t know how badly homesickness will hit once we’re there for a few months, but I can’t imagine it’s going to be very enjoyable. My mom will be meeting us bright and early at the airport to come with us to Hawaii. Before Papa left, he called up the airline to upgrade 3 of our seats for the Chicago to Hawaii leg of the trip. That was all that was available today, so if that’s all we get tomorrow, 3 of us will be flying in style. He has enough miles for all of us, but as of this afternoon, there weren’t enough seats. Cross your fingers.
Coming home, Nicholas wasn’t feeling well and upon reaching the parking garage, lost his lunch. OK then, 3 down, Rebecca to go and we fly out in just over a day. Seems this is an every other day thing, so it doesn’t bode well for our flight to Hawaii.
March 18th - March 21st: The Packout
Tuesday, March 18th: The packers arrived bright and early this morning to pack up all our UAB and HHE articles. The UAB packer kept insisting that we had too many items set aside but when it came down to it, we’d had half of our allotment and were searching around for other items to put in the boxes to reach our maximum shipping weight.
It’s a little odd having perfect strangers packing up all your belongings and oftentimes I wonder how much is junk and how much we’ll really miss. How little can we really live with? Probably very little. Sure, some has nostalgic value, but really how much do we –need-?
It was actually a pretty quiet day. We popped into the house from time to time because the weather was so nice we just stayed outside and let them do their work. Thank goodness for the warmth. The kids spent their time playing freeze tag, crawling around under the front porch looking for giant mice and raking leaves because I told them I’d pay them a dollar if they made as big a pile as mine. Bribery? Oh yes.
One time when checking in on the UAB packer, we started chatting about the kids. What an uncomfortable discussion that was. She asked if we only had the 4, then proceeded to tell me that she had 5 kids but one died when he was 6 months old and the other was decapitated in a car crash. Yes, it was that brusque, straightforward and sudden into the conversation. Now tell me, who needs that sort of information and who gives it out so readily and in such detail? I avoided that room for the rest of the day.
Our air shipment, all 5 boxes, were loaded onto the truck and we headed over to the hotel. Embassy Suites in Crystal City is an OK hotel, honestly the best part is the breakfast in the morning but that’s kind of sad for a $200/night place. We walked down to Pentagon City mall for dinner at the American Café then back to the hotel to crash. The girls were able to share the sofa bed with Nicholas in the extra double and Jonathon in a crib. The girls did not sleep well as they rolled and kicked and complained at each other for bothering the other. Maybe tomorrow night we’ll shift folks around.
Wednesday, March 19th: Not even any time for the yummy breakfast we passed downstairs, we grabbed some fruit and headed to the house to be there by 8 a.m. and picked up some McDonald’s breakfast on the way. Yum. Not. But the pancakes were worth it for Jonathon. Have I mentioned lately how picky he is? It’s a rare day that he’ll eat any vegetable or meat, so we offer him lots of fruit and grains, but it’s not helping with his anemia at all.
The loaders arrived and were done by noon. Bye bye stuff. All that’s left in the house is our furniture and some leftover bits to head to storage. A short morning and we headed back to the hotel so that Ian could go to Main State to check out. Jonathon napped and when Ian returned we went to the swimming pool. Nicholas can swim! With floaties, it didn’t take him long to be off on his own paddling through the water yelling “Me ‘wim!” Katherine is doing really well with actual swimming and is practicing taking a breath without stopping dead in the water. And Rebecca, well, she’s Rebecca and stuck to the wall. There were periods where she’d venture into the water and paddle a bit. I’m hoping in Manila she’ll get over this hesitation and just go with it. Jonathon really enjoyed the swimming as well and he thought the hot tub was pretty neat. That was my favorite part, but I have to admit being pleased that the pool was heated and easy to get used to. After about an hour, we went to dinner at Chili’s. OK, I admit we’re hitting all the local American fare spots with real American food. It’s obvious isn’t it? While Manila has restaurants like Pizza Hut, I don’t expect them to be quite the same.
Dinner went fine until Jonathon made an uncomfortable noise and I noticed he was covered. He had thrown up. Oh no. I cleaned him up as best I could, wrapped him in my sweatshirt and Ian went to bring the car up to get us. Oh please let this be a fluke, that he drank too much pool water or something. Ugh.
Thursday, March 20th: The last day of packing! And by noon, everything was gone out of the house. Amazing. It’s totally empty. And oddly enough I think I like the house even more now that it’s empty. Color me odd, but it’s just so neat and clean. This was the best group of packers of the three. Nice, helpful, good to the kids and thank goodness because the weather turned bad and all the kids had to stay inside and out of the way of the big burly guys stomping around. Tomorrow we have the cleaners come through for the chimney, the bathrooms/kitchen and the carpet. I hope the tenants like the house. They rented without seeing as they’re coming in from Puerto Rico with their 2 boys and 3 little dogs.
We headed over to Landmark Shopping Center and while we outfitted the van with 2 new front tires, we had some lunch at the mall, then avoided the rain as best we could… ok, Ian went through the rain to get the car so we stayed pretty dry. Jonathon still isn’t feeling well but he seems to be doing better. My parents have planned to take all 4 kids tonight so we can get a night out before our departure and we’ve scheduled to meet up with Jeff and his friends Pete&Eden for dinner. Of course, first we have to swing by the airport to pick up our rental van because tomorrow when we’re at the house the van will get picked up and get put in a really big box and then onto a ship and sailed over the ocen blue. After dropping our van off at the hotel, we swung the shuttle to the airport and picked up the rental, heading straight to Connecticut Avenue to see Jeff. Once we’d all gathered, we decided on Vietnamese food right down the street. It was great! We all had soup and were totally clueless as to the size apparently. Never order a large bowl of soup at a Vietnamese restaurant because it’s big enough to feed 3 people! It was excellent, and we had plenty of laughing until my sides hurt. How nice to have a break and just be silly for a while.
Friday, March 21st: Last day at our home before it’s rented out tomorrow. It’s a sad kind of day but Ian and I enjoyed spending some time together just wandering the rooms and swinging on the porch. The house looks great and we’re ready to have tenants. Everyone was here when we arrived and the chimney was done in 15 minutes, the maids took a couple hours and the carpet took until 11:30. The giant tow truck came and loaded up our van after making notes of all the scratches and dings already on it. Who knew! I sure didn’t notice all the scrapes and scratches. With a little time to ourselves, we talked on the swing and our neighbor came by to chat. She went right into saying how she’d been hoping to have time now to spend more time with neighbors. As it had been a rough past year seeing as she’d been laid off recently and her high school daughter had been raped and had just given birth and it was an open adoption, and the Navy might not let her husband retire on time depending on how long the war in Iraq lasts. Whoah.. do I have a sign on my head that says share all personal life stories here? Why is it people give just enough one-sided information to make you spend the rest of the day wasting brain cells speculating? After offering our sympathies we were set to have Nancy the Property Manager come over and we did a walk through of the house, showing her all the things we’d left behind like the lawnmower and paint and cleaners. Then we left. Goodbye house. Nancy will take a video of the premises for our file and hopefully all will be well.
We had a nice lunch out at Daks grill, just the two of us, and being a fish Friday we had some yummy food. Once we got back to my parents house I was happy to hear that no one else had gotten sick and that Jonathon seemed to be on the mend. Ian and my dad went to FSI to check out and when they returned we decided to go out to dinner together to a nearby Chinese buffet. While driving there, the boys fell asleep and Katherine started saying that her tummy hurt. Uh oh. Arriving there, she was still feeling sick, but also getting upset that we were thinking of missing dinner because of her. It’s hard to explain to a 7 year old that getting sick is no one’s fault and no one was blaming her. We just wanted to get back to the hotel so she could rest. We almost made it all the way to the parking garage before she lost all the food she’d eaten. Thankfully we’d had the forethought to give her a plastic bag, just in case. It came in very handy. And now we know this isn’t a fluke, that something is going around and all we can do is hope they all get it before we head to the airport Monday morning. We did try to order room service and asked for some plain noodles with cheese for the kids to eat. No one was hungry though and we spent an exorbitant amount on food that wasn’t eaten. The cheese had mold in it (and no, it wasn’t supposed to) so we complained, but all that got us was the noodles taken off the bill. Well, $14 for 4 bowls of plain noodles isn’t a pittance.
Katherine slept in the second double bed as she was miserable with dry heaves every 5-10 minutes, while Nicholas and Rebecca shared the sleeper sofa. That actually seems to work out much better. For some reason the girls just bicker all night, but these 2 managed to sleep well.
It’s a little odd having perfect strangers packing up all your belongings and oftentimes I wonder how much is junk and how much we’ll really miss. How little can we really live with? Probably very little. Sure, some has nostalgic value, but really how much do we –need-?
It was actually a pretty quiet day. We popped into the house from time to time because the weather was so nice we just stayed outside and let them do their work. Thank goodness for the warmth. The kids spent their time playing freeze tag, crawling around under the front porch looking for giant mice and raking leaves because I told them I’d pay them a dollar if they made as big a pile as mine. Bribery? Oh yes.
One time when checking in on the UAB packer, we started chatting about the kids. What an uncomfortable discussion that was. She asked if we only had the 4, then proceeded to tell me that she had 5 kids but one died when he was 6 months old and the other was decapitated in a car crash. Yes, it was that brusque, straightforward and sudden into the conversation. Now tell me, who needs that sort of information and who gives it out so readily and in such detail? I avoided that room for the rest of the day.
Our air shipment, all 5 boxes, were loaded onto the truck and we headed over to the hotel. Embassy Suites in Crystal City is an OK hotel, honestly the best part is the breakfast in the morning but that’s kind of sad for a $200/night place. We walked down to Pentagon City mall for dinner at the American Café then back to the hotel to crash. The girls were able to share the sofa bed with Nicholas in the extra double and Jonathon in a crib. The girls did not sleep well as they rolled and kicked and complained at each other for bothering the other. Maybe tomorrow night we’ll shift folks around.
Wednesday, March 19th: Not even any time for the yummy breakfast we passed downstairs, we grabbed some fruit and headed to the house to be there by 8 a.m. and picked up some McDonald’s breakfast on the way. Yum. Not. But the pancakes were worth it for Jonathon. Have I mentioned lately how picky he is? It’s a rare day that he’ll eat any vegetable or meat, so we offer him lots of fruit and grains, but it’s not helping with his anemia at all.
The loaders arrived and were done by noon. Bye bye stuff. All that’s left in the house is our furniture and some leftover bits to head to storage. A short morning and we headed back to the hotel so that Ian could go to Main State to check out. Jonathon napped and when Ian returned we went to the swimming pool. Nicholas can swim! With floaties, it didn’t take him long to be off on his own paddling through the water yelling “Me ‘wim!” Katherine is doing really well with actual swimming and is practicing taking a breath without stopping dead in the water. And Rebecca, well, she’s Rebecca and stuck to the wall. There were periods where she’d venture into the water and paddle a bit. I’m hoping in Manila she’ll get over this hesitation and just go with it. Jonathon really enjoyed the swimming as well and he thought the hot tub was pretty neat. That was my favorite part, but I have to admit being pleased that the pool was heated and easy to get used to. After about an hour, we went to dinner at Chili’s. OK, I admit we’re hitting all the local American fare spots with real American food. It’s obvious isn’t it? While Manila has restaurants like Pizza Hut, I don’t expect them to be quite the same.
Dinner went fine until Jonathon made an uncomfortable noise and I noticed he was covered. He had thrown up. Oh no. I cleaned him up as best I could, wrapped him in my sweatshirt and Ian went to bring the car up to get us. Oh please let this be a fluke, that he drank too much pool water or something. Ugh.
Thursday, March 20th: The last day of packing! And by noon, everything was gone out of the house. Amazing. It’s totally empty. And oddly enough I think I like the house even more now that it’s empty. Color me odd, but it’s just so neat and clean. This was the best group of packers of the three. Nice, helpful, good to the kids and thank goodness because the weather turned bad and all the kids had to stay inside and out of the way of the big burly guys stomping around. Tomorrow we have the cleaners come through for the chimney, the bathrooms/kitchen and the carpet. I hope the tenants like the house. They rented without seeing as they’re coming in from Puerto Rico with their 2 boys and 3 little dogs.
We headed over to Landmark Shopping Center and while we outfitted the van with 2 new front tires, we had some lunch at the mall, then avoided the rain as best we could… ok, Ian went through the rain to get the car so we stayed pretty dry. Jonathon still isn’t feeling well but he seems to be doing better. My parents have planned to take all 4 kids tonight so we can get a night out before our departure and we’ve scheduled to meet up with Jeff and his friends Pete&Eden for dinner. Of course, first we have to swing by the airport to pick up our rental van because tomorrow when we’re at the house the van will get picked up and get put in a really big box and then onto a ship and sailed over the ocen blue. After dropping our van off at the hotel, we swung the shuttle to the airport and picked up the rental, heading straight to Connecticut Avenue to see Jeff. Once we’d all gathered, we decided on Vietnamese food right down the street. It was great! We all had soup and were totally clueless as to the size apparently. Never order a large bowl of soup at a Vietnamese restaurant because it’s big enough to feed 3 people! It was excellent, and we had plenty of laughing until my sides hurt. How nice to have a break and just be silly for a while.
Friday, March 21st: Last day at our home before it’s rented out tomorrow. It’s a sad kind of day but Ian and I enjoyed spending some time together just wandering the rooms and swinging on the porch. The house looks great and we’re ready to have tenants. Everyone was here when we arrived and the chimney was done in 15 minutes, the maids took a couple hours and the carpet took until 11:30. The giant tow truck came and loaded up our van after making notes of all the scratches and dings already on it. Who knew! I sure didn’t notice all the scrapes and scratches. With a little time to ourselves, we talked on the swing and our neighbor came by to chat. She went right into saying how she’d been hoping to have time now to spend more time with neighbors. As it had been a rough past year seeing as she’d been laid off recently and her high school daughter had been raped and had just given birth and it was an open adoption, and the Navy might not let her husband retire on time depending on how long the war in Iraq lasts. Whoah.. do I have a sign on my head that says share all personal life stories here? Why is it people give just enough one-sided information to make you spend the rest of the day wasting brain cells speculating? After offering our sympathies we were set to have Nancy the Property Manager come over and we did a walk through of the house, showing her all the things we’d left behind like the lawnmower and paint and cleaners. Then we left. Goodbye house. Nancy will take a video of the premises for our file and hopefully all will be well.
We had a nice lunch out at Daks grill, just the two of us, and being a fish Friday we had some yummy food. Once we got back to my parents house I was happy to hear that no one else had gotten sick and that Jonathon seemed to be on the mend. Ian and my dad went to FSI to check out and when they returned we decided to go out to dinner together to a nearby Chinese buffet. While driving there, the boys fell asleep and Katherine started saying that her tummy hurt. Uh oh. Arriving there, she was still feeling sick, but also getting upset that we were thinking of missing dinner because of her. It’s hard to explain to a 7 year old that getting sick is no one’s fault and no one was blaming her. We just wanted to get back to the hotel so she could rest. We almost made it all the way to the parking garage before she lost all the food she’d eaten. Thankfully we’d had the forethought to give her a plastic bag, just in case. It came in very handy. And now we know this isn’t a fluke, that something is going around and all we can do is hope they all get it before we head to the airport Monday morning. We did try to order room service and asked for some plain noodles with cheese for the kids to eat. No one was hungry though and we spent an exorbitant amount on food that wasn’t eaten. The cheese had mold in it (and no, it wasn’t supposed to) so we complained, but all that got us was the noodles taken off the bill. Well, $14 for 4 bowls of plain noodles isn’t a pittance.
Katherine slept in the second double bed as she was miserable with dry heaves every 5-10 minutes, while Nicholas and Rebecca shared the sleeper sofa. That actually seems to work out much better. For some reason the girls just bicker all night, but these 2 managed to sleep well.
Friday, March 21, 2003
Ah ha!
It's happening! It's really happening. She's starting to sound out street signs. When making picutres, she'll try to label them or write what they're about or who they are for. It's actually happening! Add to that her great job learning to play chess, and doing math in her head, well, she's a smart cookie when she wants to be.
Tonight she's sharing the sleeper sofa with Nicholas since Katherine is in the extra double in the bedroom here in the hotel suite. The first couple nights, there was a lot of bickering, kicking, rolling into each other. But it seems that she and Nicholas will be a better match.
Tonight she's sharing the sleeper sofa with Nicholas since Katherine is in the extra double in the bedroom here in the hotel suite. The first couple nights, there was a lot of bickering, kicking, rolling into each other. But it seems that she and Nicholas will be a better match.
Sickies hit again
Like this move isn't stressful enough, living in a hotel, eating restaurant food, sleeping in strange beds and cribs, a couple days ago he lost his dinner at Chili's. I guess I can be happy that while in the hotel someone else has to wash sheets and the carpet and the towels over and over again. He's taken it like a trouper though, and today is finally better on several days of crackers, pretzels and juice.
Who am I kidding, it's what he'd eat every other day if he had the choice :)
Who am I kidding, it's what he'd eat every other day if he had the choice :)
Chop chop
Grandpa thought Nicholas was getting too shaggy, so off they went for a boys trip to the barber. He's looking mighty cute now. Grandpa got his hair cut so that Nicholas could watch the whole process first and go through it himself without worry. Of course, I knew he'd do fabulous even without a guide, but they had a good time together. Grandpa even took him out after to get a couple new cars.
Last night he slept overnight at the grandparents home along with his siblings. I was told how he had a little bit of a hard time going to bed wanting mom and dad, but eventually it all worked out. After Katherine and Rebecca took care of him when he didn't want to sleep by sitting with him and looking through baby pictures, Katherine let him fall asleep in her bed. When it came time for Katherine to get to sleep, she decided that it was OK for Nicholas to stay there, and she'd just cozy up with him. How cute is that?
A couple days ago we went to the hotel pool. Nice and heated, with a great hot tub, we stuck some water wings on him, but before we knew it, he was paddling around the whole pool without any help. I figure it won't take too long in Manila before he's a true swimmer. He was very pleased with himself and kept saying "No hep, me 'im!"
Last night he slept overnight at the grandparents home along with his siblings. I was told how he had a little bit of a hard time going to bed wanting mom and dad, but eventually it all worked out. After Katherine and Rebecca took care of him when he didn't want to sleep by sitting with him and looking through baby pictures, Katherine let him fall asleep in her bed. When it came time for Katherine to get to sleep, she decided that it was OK for Nicholas to stay there, and she'd just cozy up with him. How cute is that?
A couple days ago we went to the hotel pool. Nice and heated, with a great hot tub, we stuck some water wings on him, but before we knew it, he was paddling around the whole pool without any help. I figure it won't take too long in Manila before he's a true swimmer. He was very pleased with himself and kept saying "No hep, me 'im!"
Saturday, March 15, 2003
Moving on to a new stage
She's put on a brave face for the most part, but there are times when she breaks down, showing how sad she is to be leaving her school and her friends. And she gets worried that no one in Manila will like her or be able to speak to her. It's amazing how sensitive she really is, to -everything-. She can take a ribbing, but not as far as we think oftentimes. There is a very caring, gentle, compassionate nature to her that I don't ever want to quelch. This afternoon she found out our neighbor (5yo) wasn't feeling well, so both she and her sister headed inside and made him get well gifts which they promptly brought over.
She did really well at King. Her teacher seemed to enjoy having her, and I know that her principal, Mr. Shaw, will miss her. Her reading is excellent, her math is taking off (she's into multiplication now), and she's interested in learning about everything. Yesterday she was very pleased to finally beat her sister in chess. Oddly enough though, chess just isn't her game, as she hadn't realized she'd won and often has to be reminded that Rebecca is in check. Her phone skills are still greatly lacking, but we're working on them slowly.
A while ago the box (yes, just a box, not a boxspring or anything that fancy, when we bought it we were poor as church mice) under the mattress of her bed cracked badly. No one could put any amount of pressure on one corner as it would then collapse. Hmmm. So, finally, the box has been thrown out as has the frame. And the mattress is on the floor in her room. Next step, the mattress gets brought back to grandma's house for their trundle and for a couple nights, we'll either bring the futon mattress to the girls room, or we'll move Nicholas back to his toddler bed and give Katherine the full-sized... or the choice that everyone seems to like best is that Katherine and Rebecca share one twin. Why they think that's a good idea? No clue. But if it makes them happy, why not.
This morning we had a yard sale and she was really happy with that. The weather was pretty nice and all the kids played outside. Freeze tag, hide-n-seek. She's really good at keeping track of Jonathon, and she helped get him dressed this morning even while he complained the whole time. The only time she got in trouble was after they raked a big pile of leaves, she grabbed a few handfuls and stuffed them in Rebecca's underwear and pants. Ew, itchy.
Katherine is getting so big and tall now. She's almost a young lady. Of course, I suppose those top 2 teeth will finally have to fall out for that to happen! They've been ever so slightly wiggly for a long time now.
I'll let you know how she handles the flights, the stay in Hawaii and the transition to Manila.
She did really well at King. Her teacher seemed to enjoy having her, and I know that her principal, Mr. Shaw, will miss her. Her reading is excellent, her math is taking off (she's into multiplication now), and she's interested in learning about everything. Yesterday she was very pleased to finally beat her sister in chess. Oddly enough though, chess just isn't her game, as she hadn't realized she'd won and often has to be reminded that Rebecca is in check. Her phone skills are still greatly lacking, but we're working on them slowly.
A while ago the box (yes, just a box, not a boxspring or anything that fancy, when we bought it we were poor as church mice) under the mattress of her bed cracked badly. No one could put any amount of pressure on one corner as it would then collapse. Hmmm. So, finally, the box has been thrown out as has the frame. And the mattress is on the floor in her room. Next step, the mattress gets brought back to grandma's house for their trundle and for a couple nights, we'll either bring the futon mattress to the girls room, or we'll move Nicholas back to his toddler bed and give Katherine the full-sized... or the choice that everyone seems to like best is that Katherine and Rebecca share one twin. Why they think that's a good idea? No clue. But if it makes them happy, why not.
This morning we had a yard sale and she was really happy with that. The weather was pretty nice and all the kids played outside. Freeze tag, hide-n-seek. She's really good at keeping track of Jonathon, and she helped get him dressed this morning even while he complained the whole time. The only time she got in trouble was after they raked a big pile of leaves, she grabbed a few handfuls and stuffed them in Rebecca's underwear and pants. Ew, itchy.
Katherine is getting so big and tall now. She's almost a young lady. Of course, I suppose those top 2 teeth will finally have to fall out for that to happen! They've been ever so slightly wiggly for a long time now.
I'll let you know how she handles the flights, the stay in Hawaii and the transition to Manila.
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