Finally!

We turn over the keys to our rental property tomorrow. Moving out of this house has been so much more time-consuming than I thought it would be. Usually when we move, the movers come and pick up our stuff and we're able to focus our time on clearing that house. Then when we move we can focus on moving into the new place. It's been a long time since we had to worry about both at the same time. UGH!!

I called the property manager and told them that we just weren't able to find the time to do the painting that needs to be done. The hubby's job just isn't conducive to this kind of stuff. Plus the trip to D.C. that we've had planned since long before we knew we were going to buy a house. Oh well, they can just take it out of the security deposit.

Anyway, I'm so glad we're going to be done with the other house. Now I can focus my energy on getting this house cleaned up and organized. It's really starting to get frustrating for me. No more going back and forth and having to focus all my cleaning energy on the move out. Maybe now MY house can feel like my HOME!

Memorial Weekend Day 3 (Sunday)

So as I mentioned in my previous day's post, we had an early day on Sunday. My mom's boyfriend, who had done the Rolling Thunder ride three years ago, had told us that we needed to be at the Pentagon parking lot early. The parking lot will only hold so many bikes, and I guess once the parking lot is filled up, they start lining up bikes on the highway, which is closed off to all other traffic. So we decided we wanted to try to leave the hotel between 7 and 7:30.

We got up early, got ready, and went down to load up the bikes for the day. By the time we got the bikes ready, it was 7, which is when the hotel starts serving breakfast on the weekends. So we went in to eat and get some much needed coffee before leaving. I had printed out directions from our hotel to the Pentagon before we left home on Friday, so looked at them to be sure we knew where we were going. I led out, and knew what exit the directions said I needed to take. The exit before the one the directions directed me to take said Pentagon, while the exit my directions said Pentagon City. I almost went ahead and exited at the one that said Pentagon, but decided to trust my directions. Big mistake. So while we were trying to figure out whether we wanted to get back on the highway and get off on the previous exit, a group of motorcycles came by and my mom's boyfriend led us to fall in behind them. Well, come to find out, they didn't know where they were going either. Hahahaha!! So we wasted about 45 minutes or so trying to figure out where we were going.

Quick side note here...thank goodness for the new autosave feature that Blogger has. My IE froze up on me and had to close my window, and I would have lost what I had written up to this point if not for that feature. OK...back to your regularly scheduled posting...

So while we were pulled off the road, a couple in a minivan came up, and we asked them directions to the Pentagon. They told us how to get there (with the assistance of their van's built-in GPS - man I gotta get one for my bike for situations such as this), and we made it in about 10 minutes after that. So we got to the North Parking Lot at the Pentagon and it was just a waiting game at that point.

We knew we were going to be waiting for a bit. We got there just a bit before 9 a.m., and my mom's boyfriend remembered the ride starting at 1 p.m. We found out a little later, though, that they were starting the ride at noon this year. That was good to hear. So we spent some time walking around checking out the vendor tents. There were food vendors, which was good to know for lunch, and other vendors as well. We got commemorative Rolling Thunder patches and pins. The hubby and I got patches and pins for our vests, and got pins for the kids' jackets. They were tickled about that. We put the pins on right away. After putting the pins on, I walked to a nearby tent to throw the plastic away, and she offered me a keychain. I asked how much they were, and she said they were free. I asked if I could get two for the kids, and she said of course. So I took a couple and stuck them in my pocket to surprise the kids with when we met them a little later. Then we walked around, found the Harley tent and signed up to get our HOG event pin to be mailed to us. We also found a tent where they were selling souvenir American flags with the Rolling Thunder XX information on them. We bought a couple to put on the bikes for the parade, and then walked up the hill by the bridge to get a better picture of the parking lot. That's where we met my mom and her boyfriend with the kids a few minutes later.

We got some pictures of the parking lot from the hill, and my mom and her boyfriend were going to walk to the bridge, and the kids wanted to go with them. The hubby and I decided to go on back down to the bikes to put the flags on. We found out soon that the boy was going to be popular that day with his T-shirt we had gotten at Steel Dreams here in Fayetteville. The front of it says "Tricycles are for Babies" and has a picture of a chopper on it. Folks just loved his shirt, and kept asking him if they could take his picture. He was so cute because he was kind of embarrassed about it, but was also gracious and let them take his picture. My mom told him he should start charging a dollar per picture. Hahahaha!! I told the hubby last night I wonder how many blogs or MySpace pages he'll be on after this weekend.

We ended up waiting there at the Pentagon for about four hours by the time we finally got to take off. They did start having people take off to start the parade around noon, but it took a while for them to get to where we were. Let me just tell you right now that I fully understand now why this organization is called Rolling Thunder. When the bikes started firing up and taking off, it really did pretty much sound like a constant thunder. WOW!

The ride around D.C. was great! The roads were closed to all traffic except the motorcycles for the parade. It was great! We basically had rule of the road, and the supporters lining the streets on both sides the entire way were awesome! They were waving and holding signs, and sometimes were close enough to slap hands as we rode slowly by.

The baby girl gave me a bit of a scare. We were all hot and tired, and the motion of riding lulls her to sleep anyway, hence the main reason we don't ride long distances on the motorcycles with the kids. At one point a couple came up beside me and let me know she was looking like she was falling asleep, so at that point I started looking for a place to stop. We were close to the end of the parade anyway, and we wanted to be sure we were able to get off within a decent walking distance of the Vietnam Memorial. So since I was in front of our little group (the hubby was behind me and my mom and her boyfriend were behind him), I found a place to pull off and park. We were actually in a nearly perfect spot, just behind the Lincoln Memorial. So we locked up the bikes and started walking toward the Vietnam Memorial.

When we got to The Wall, the kids and I sat on a bench in the shade while the others went down to see it. My hubby was on a specific mission for our friend who usually makes the ride but wasn't able to this year, so he visited that section for him. My mom and her boyfriend had some names they wanted to visit. I have visited The Wall before, and the kids are still a bit too young to understand it yet, so we took the opportunity to sit down and cool off. When the hubby came back up from The Wall, we went off in search of something cold to drink. We found a refreshment stand and got not only something to drink, but also some Italian Ice which was even better. So we found a shady spot to sit and enjoy our ice pops, and had a visit from a couple of friendly ducks. We enjoyed watching them for a bit, and the kids were fascinated.

After resting in the shade with our ice pops and drinks for a bit, we walked over to see the Lincoln Memorial. The kids had been wanting to see this as well. So we walked up and spent a bit of time up there. The view from there across the reflecting pool to the Washington Monument is just beautiful. The Washington Monument is one of my favorite landmarks in our Nation's Capital anyway. After we visited Lincoln, we went back to where my mom and her boyfriend were resting to go over to see the Korean War Memorial. This is another beautifully impressive memorial, and I enjoyed visiting it. Both the WWII and Korean War Memorials are new since the last time I was in D.C. in 1992, so I enjoyed getting to see them.

After seeing the Korean War Memorial, we walked back to the bikes to ride back to the hotel. It wasn't a far ride, but I was still concerned about A and how tired she was. So she was told to give me a signal from time to time to let me know she was awake behind me. I kept an eye on her in my mirrors, too, and would slap her legs to make sure she was awake if I couldn't see her eyes in my mirror. She had a tendency to sit straight behind me where I can't see her face, so I just wanted to be on the safe side. We made it back to the hotel safely. I was actually surprised that the traffic wasn't bad that evening leaving D.C.

The hubby and I went across to check out a shop called Total Wine after we got back to the hotel. We ended up buying some Coronas instead of wine. I just have a hard time paying the prices folks want to charge for good German or Italian wine here, knowing what I used to pay for it overseas. We're talking almost twice as much. Craziness. On our walk back to the hotel, we saw an Italian place where, upon talking to my mom and her boyfriend, we decided to have dinner. I don't think any of us were disappointed. It was delicious!

We went back to the hotel and to our separate rooms. The kids and I played another card game they had brought, Phase 10, for a while. I spent a lot of the time teaching them how to play, but we had fun. Then we all went to bed. We intended to sleep in a bit in the morning so we would be well rested for the ride home. It was a really good day. I don't think that the Rolling Thunder ride is something we will want to to every year, at least not the waiting around at the Pentagon for hours, but we're so glad we had the opportunity to participate this year. It was definitely a worthwhile experience.

Here are my pictures from Sunday:

Forgot to Mention

Well, I didn't forget to mention this, really, but I thought it deserved its own post.

I was so incredibly proud of my kids on Saturday while we were at Arlington. Well, I was proud of them all weekend, actually, but especially at Arlington. They're stinkers, and are up to something more times than not, but they know how to really behave in certain situations.

When we were walking up to the Tomb of the Unknowns, there was a sign that said "Silence and Respect" just before we entered the area. The hubby and I were walking ahead of the kids, who were walking with my mom and her boyfriend, so I stopped, got the kids' attention, and pointed the sign out to them. All I did was bring their attention to the sign and put my finger up to my lips, and we walked in. They were quiet the entire time we were there, never talking much louder than a whisper. And we were there for a good 45 minutes probably.

The sad thing is, that at the end of the Changing of the Guard, the 'new' guard, after the other two soldiers had left, actually had to step off his path and basically "shush" the visitors because they got loud as they were leaving. ADULTS. My husband and I were both disappointed that the need had arisen for him to have to do that. So we made sure that after we left the "Silence and Respect" zone, we praised the kids for being so good and showing so much more respect than the majority of the adults there.

There was also a sign I pointed out to the kids when we first entered the cemetery. It reminded visitors that Arlington National Cemetery is hallowed ground. Among the guidelines was a reminder that it was not a place for child's play. They really were on their best behavior the entire time we were there. It's not the first time we've visited a place like that before, though. The kids and I visited the American Cemetery in Normandy twice, so they are well aware of the kind of behavior expected of them. In fact, the last time we were at the one in Normandy, there were a couple of kids whose parents were letting them play among the headstones. They were running and shrieking, playing hide-and-seek or something of that nature. My two just sort of stared at them for a minute, and then went about their business of walking, quietly looking at headstones of those buried there.

My kids can be heathens at home, but they make me proud in situations like this. And that's the way it should be. So maybe I'm doing something right after all.

Memorial Weekend Day 2 (Saturday)

Saturday was the one day we had reserved for sightseeing while in Washington, D.C. We knew we had a lot of ground to cover, so talked over breakfast how we wanted to accomplish it. I wasn't wild about riding the motorcycles around D.C. with the kids all day, not knowing the traffic pattern, so we discussed whether we wanted to drive the van or take the Metro. We all agreed that the Metro was probably the way to go. So after having our breakfast and getting everybody ready to go, we caught the hotel shuttle to the station there in Springfield. We all purchased a 1-Day Pass which gave us unlimited access to the Metro-rail in the area for the entire day, for $6.50 each. Not too bad.

Our first stop was Arlington National Cemetery. I felt a strong need to go there so we could pay our respects to those we knew who now rest there. I had done some research online in preparation for our trip. I knew for sure of one of my husband's fellow officers who is buried there whose wife was a friend of mine in Germany. In searching for his location online, I learned of a few others who rest in the same section. So upon arriving at Arlington, we stopped at the Visitor Center to find out how to get to CPT Kenny's gravesite. I knew once we found him we'd be able to visit the others as well. We found the section easily, and my mom and her boyfriend went off to try to find a friend of his while we walked around in 'our' section. It was an emotional visit for me, and certainly much more so for the hubby. One of the graves we visited was that of an officer who lost his life the day my hubby took command of his company. I didn't remember this, but apparently he was in Field Artillery school with my husband back in 1999, before the hubby came back on Active Duty and was branched Armor again. It's truly a small Army.

After paying our respects, we made our way to the Tomb of the Unknowns. We learned at the Visitor Center that during the summer months, they change the guard every half hour. We knew that we would get there just about in perfect time to see the ceremony. I had seen it back in 1987 on my first visit to D.C., but the hubby had never had the opportunity. I'm always impressed at the precision of that ceremony. I know it's a drill ceremony that is reheared numerous times, but that doesn't make it any less impressive for me. Following the Changing of the Guard, as the crowd thinned out and went to leave, the hubby moved closer to the barrier and saluted the Unknown who rest there. I was moved nearly to tears.

We then made our way to the Kennedy gravesite. That's one of those places that is a must-see. The last time I was there, as I mentioned before, was 1987. Since then, of course, Jackie has passed, and she now lies next to JFK. The view from that site is beautiful. The Arlington house is above it, and there is a beautiful view across Washington, D.C., from there. You can see the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial clearly. I can certainly understand why the Kennedys chose that spot.

After leaving the Kennedy gravesite, we made our way back toward the Visitor Center to get back on the Metro and go on into Washington. We had originally planned to stop and see the Iwo Jima memorial, but it was getting late and we needed to get something to eat, so we decided to go on to the Smithsonian stop, since we knew it would be easier to find food there. Once we got into the city, we made our way to the Reagan Building, because according to our map there was a Subway restaurant there, and everybody agreed that would be a good place to eat. Once we got there, we discovered there was actually a food court with a good variety. I found a gift shop and bought the kids each a one-time-use camera that I had been promising to get them so they could take their own pictures, and we got something to eat. We also enjoyed the opportunity to sit and relax in the air-conditioned building for a little while.

After our late lunch (it was actually supper time by then), we walked to find the White House, which was at the top of the kids' list of things they wanted to see. We found it fairly easily, although not quite as easily as my mom remembered it being from the first time I was there, and got some good pictures. I think that just made the kids' day, and J said later that was his favorite thing about the trip.

We left the White House and walked over to the World War II Memorial. This memorial is incredible. I was impressed, to say the least. We spent some time there looking around. I think the thing I found most impressive and sobering about this memorial was the Wall of Stars. There are 4,000 stars on this wall, and below the wall it says "Here We Mark the Price of Freedom." I found a description of the memorial that night in a magazine in the hotel room, and discovered that each of those stars represents 100 lives lost during the war. 400,000 lost. I don't think I ever truly realized just how many Americans died during World War II.

There were people sitting around the huge fountain with their feet in the water. We were all very hot and tired, so I told the kids they could take their shoes and socks off, and cool their feet in the water. They loved this idea, and jumped at the chance. So they sat there happily for a little while with their feet in the water, and my mom joined them for a bit too. After a while, we made them take their feet out so they would get good and dry before putting their socks and shoes back on to prevent blisters. After spending time there, we made our way back to the Metro and went back to the hotel.

We got back to the hotel and my mom and I played some Uno with the kids for a little bit, and we had a light supper of sandwiches since we had eaten such a late lunch. After eating, we played a couple more hands of Uno, and then the kids and I went back to our room and I gave them a bath and sent them to bed. After all, we had to prepare for an early morning on Sunday!

Here are the pictures I took Saturday:

Tagged!

So I got tagged by LL. Here's how it works:

1. Go to the Billboard #1 Hits listings (scroll down and you’ll seen them separated by decades on the left in the sidebar)
2. Pick the year you turned 18
3. Get yourself nostalgic over the songs of the year
4. Pick 5 songs and write something about how these songs affected you
5. Pass it on to 5 more friends

I turned 18 in 1991.

July 27 - September 23: (Everything I Do) I Do It for You - Bryan Adams - I absolutely LOVED this song, as did most of my girlfriends back then I think. One of the best love songs at the time.

June 8 - June 14: More Than Words - Extreme - Man, what teenage girl didn't love this song? I used to have this song on cassette and I'd play it in my car, as loudly as I could, over and over and over. Probably drove my younger brother and sister crazy, but hey, it was MY car! Hahahaha!! Funny, I think I have this one on CD now somewhere. Either on my copy of Monster Ballads or one another girlfriend made.

February 9 - February 22: Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) - C&C Music Factory featuring Freedom Williams - Just thinking about this song makes me smile. Brings back memories of all my dance classes and prom. There was a teen club around here that we used to go to, and they played the heck out of this song.

April 20 - April 26: You're in Love - Wilson Phillips - I was a pretty big Wilson Phillips fan in high school. I loved their harmony. And this song was one of my favorites.

July 20 - July 26: Unbelievable - EMF - Another dance song. This is another one that the teen club we went to played the heck out of. I just loved this one, though, and it was another one I'd play over and over in the car. I have this one on CD now too, on one of the movie soundtracks I have (I love soundtracks). I just can't remember which one.

Thinking of these songs bring back so many memories. I can't believe it's been 15 years since I turned 18. Well, actually 16 years since I'll be 34 this year. Where does the time go?

Now I'm supposed to tag five people. I'll tag Butterfly Wife, Heidi, K, Mel, and Nicole.

Thanks for the tag, LL. That was fun!

Memorial Weekend Day One (Friday)

The first day of our weekend was spent traveling up to our hotel in Springfield, Virginia. We had gotten the majority of our things packed Thursday night so we could take it over to load it in the van my mom and her boyfriend were driving on Friday. Then the only thing we had to do was finish packing our toiletries and such Friday morning after we got ready.

We got ready to go fairly early on Friday. We planned to try to get on the road by about 8 or 8:30, knowing that we would actually get started a bit later. So we got up and started getting ready about 6:30 Friday morning. The kids were up bright and early, excited about the trip. I had J call my mom while I finished getting ready, making sure they were up and getting ready as well. We all got dressed and loaded what was left up on the bikes and got ready to head over to their house. We got the kids' riding jackets and helmets on while my bike was warming up (she's pretty cold-natured) and the hubby talked to our friend one more time before we pulled out for the trip. Then we all got on the bikes, got the kids all set, and headed over to meet my mom and her boyfriend at their house. Once we got there, we helped them finish getting everything ready, particularly the DVD player for the kids, and a few other things. Then we headed to the gas station to fill up before hitting the interstate.

We stopped for gas before getting on the interstate to Virginia. The hubby had filled his bike up the day before, so we just needed to fill mine up and the van. The hubby had also noticed that a couple of the tires on my mom's boyfriend's trailer looked a bit low before we left their house. So we checked what the recommended pressure was when we stopped at the gas station. The hubby bought me a little digital tire gauge to keep on my keychain a couple of weeks ago, and let me tell ya, that thing came in handy! We checked all the tires and got them inflated to the pressure they were supposed to be. After we filled up and got the tires inflated properly, we were on our way. I think it was about 10 a.m. by the time we got on the interstate.

We stopped for breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Dunn. It was about 30 miles up the road. We had a good breakfast - the kids enjoyed their pancakes with strawberries, and then we went out to make our way on up I-95 toward Springfield. But when the hubby walked out to where we had parked our bikes, he noticed his left rear turn signal had been broken off. UGH! So we took some time getting it fixed to ride, and then planned to stop in Smithfield at Shelton's HD to see if they had the part needed to replace it. We stopped, talked to our favorite salesman (who is now also a friend), and they didn't have the part we needed. My mom got a part she'd been wanting for her Sporty and a T-shirt, and we went on our way.

The next time we stopped was just across the Virginia State line. I was thankful then that circumstances caused us to have to stop longer than originally planned. We saw the remains of a bad accident just across the state line. An SUV was turned over on its side with the windshield busted, and I couldn't tell how many other vehicles were involved. Traffic was backed up for several miles though. We stopped shortly after crossing the state line to fill up with gas. We filled up and took the opportunity to stretch our legs and walk around. I also had to shed my leather jacket because I was getting too hot. So I traded my jacket for my leather vest, and left my chaps on. I know it's safer to wear my leather jacket, but it's not safe if I get overheated, and my leather jacket isn't vented very well. So we put on sunscreen and put our leather jackets in the trailer, and put our vests on for the rest of the ride.

We went on and continued riding until we were about 50 miles from Springfield. I could have continued riding, but would have been nearly out of gas, and my mom's boyfriend had needed to stop earlier to walk around some but we hadn't realized it. So we finally stopped and filled up with gas one more time, and ate a sandwich while we were taking a break. The kids had been eating snacks in the van, but ate a sandwich while we were stopped, although A complained about the meat on hers. Sometimes she eats meat on a sandwich without a problem, but sometimes she prefers just cheese. This was one of those times she wanted just cheese. But since it had been so long since we'd stopped at the Cracker Barrel for breakfast, I insisted that she eat her sandwich with the meat on it. She and her brother split a sandwich, so they only had half. She ate most of her half, and I guess her daddy fed the last very little bit to the birds.

Before we left that stop, I double-checked the directions with my mom's boyfriend to make sure I knew exactly where we were going. I was leading, the hubby was behind me, and my mom and her boyfriend were behind us in the van with the trailer. My mom's boyfriend asked if we wanted him to lead once we got closer to the hotel, but I had the directions memorized and felt safer with the van and trailer behind us, so I told him we were fine leading in. So we rode on in to Springfield and found the hotel, parked, and checked in. I honestly don't remember what time it was when we got there, since I don't usually pay attention to the time when we're riding.

After we got there, we went to our separate rooms and relaxed some. My mom was exhausted and crashed prett early. I didn't think we'd be hungry since we had eaten so late, but we started to get hungry late Friday evening. So we ordered pizza and had it delivered to the hotel. I took some over to my mom's room in case she wanted some later. Glad I did because she woke up in the middle of the night and had a bit of pizza before going back to bed.

We had a great ride up, although there were a few things I would have changed. First of all, what a difference a windshield makes! My mom's Sporty has a little windshield, and even that little one makes a difference as far as neck fatigue is concerned! My neck was so tired from fighting the wind by the time we got there! But I just took an Alleve and all was good. The road was pretty rough for a while, too. Guess there's not a whole lot I can do about that, though. It just made me a bit nervous. One good thing...it's a lot easier on a motorcycle to see where all the bad spots are on the road. That way we were able to avoid the really rough patches a lot more easily.

I think it took us a total of about 7 or 8 hours to get from here to Springfield. Considering the fact that we have to stop more frequently on the motorcycles, that wasn't too bad. The weather was perfect, and the ride was great! I was kind of surprised at how many motorcycles there were there at the hotel when we got there Friday evening. I knew there would be a lot of motorcycles for the parade on Sunday, but didn't expect to see so many at our hotel when we got there. It was kind of nice, though, because most of the guests there were bikers.

More to come!

What a Weekend!

So we're back from our weekend trip to D.C., and I'm exhausted! It's a good exhausted, though. I love to travel, and we haven't gotten to travel nearly enough since we returned to the States.

We made it back around 6:00 this evening. We left Springfield around 11:00 or so this morning, so we made pretty good time getting home.

We had a busy weekend. Only one day of the weekend, Saturday, was reserved for sightseeing. Sunday was the Rolling Thunder rally and parade, although we were able to get a bit of sightseeing in after the ride. So needless to say, we barely scratched the surface. But this weekend was a weekend of remembrance for us all. I can't think of a better way to spend Memorial Day weekend than remembering and honoring those who gave their lives protecting our freedom.

I'll work tomorrow on writing about our trip and putting together some pictures. Tonight I'm too tired.

Memorial Day

We're in D.C. right now. We came for the weekend to participate in the annual Rolling Thunder parade and ride to the wall. Well, we're staying in Springfield, but have spent the weekend touring the area and have spent quite a bit of time in our Nation's Capital.

I'm going to have lots of stories and pictures to share. But in light of Memorial Day weekend, I thought this was an appropriate first picture. The hubby took this one at the Korean War Veterans Memorial, and interestingly enough, it was the last photo of the day.

NEVER FORGET!!

Proud of Myself

OK, maybe it's not really a big deal, but I'm proud of myself tonight.

A good friend of ours has been teaching us how to do basic service and maintenance on our motorcycles. He was working on mine one day a few weeks ago and I planned on getting some moving done while he worked, but he insisted that he'd feel bad if I was working. He felt like he'd have to help me. So he had me come over and watch what he was doing and help him out. I actually learned quite a bit that day.

Well, he was telling the hubby what fluids he needed to change on his bike before we go to D.C. this weekend. And he told me that I needed to change my primary fluid. Two months ago, I wouldn't have had a clue what he was talking about, but when he told me, I said ok. So Monday I went over to the Harley shop to get the fluids we needed, and to get an oil filter for the hubby's bike. One of the guys who works there, probably in the service department, came over and asked if I had any questions as I was getting what I needed. I told him no thank you, that I had it under control. He looked kind of surprised, but went on about his business.

So today as I was putting supper on plates for everybody, I told the hubby that after supper, I was going to bathe the kids and then take my bike out for a few minutes to warm it up, since it's supposed to be warm to change the primary fluid. So I did, and when I got back, he acted like he was going to get down there and do it for me. I told him, no, my bike, I want to do it myself. After all, I know how. I had watched our friend, and I had read his owner's manual to refresh my memory. Our bikes are a different model, but are basically the same size and very similar in other ways. So with him watching carefully, I took off the covers, drained the fluid, and refilled it after letting the bike cool down. Then I took it for one more spin around the block.

OK, so it may be a small accomplishment, but I'm still proud. I've never even changed the oil or anything like that in a car. But I figure that it's my motorcycle, and there are certain things that have to be done periodically to keep it running smoothly. Why should we go pay someone to do that kind of maintenance when we can do it ourselves? Besides, it was pretty fun!

I'm STUFFED!

The hubby and I were talking the other day about how we hadn't had any Sushi in a while. I just started eating Sushi within the last year, but I LOVE it. Funny, that's been the case with many things I've just started doing this past year.

Anyway, the kids aren't here this weekend, so I asked the hubby if he felt like having Sushi for dinner tonight. Apparently, that was a dumb question. He's always up for Sushi, or just about anything else for that matter. Our real estate agent had told us shortly after we first met her about a really good Sushi place in town that we hadn't tried yet. So I called her to find out the name of the place and where it was, and that's where we went.

Oh my gosh, that was the best Sushi I've ever had!! OK, no I haven't eaten it in that many different places, but WOW! I tried all kinds of new things tonight, too. We got a Sushi combo for two, along with some spicy crab rolls, and it was all both of us could do to eat it all. But we weren't about to let it go to waste.

So any of you who live in Fayetteville looking for a good Sushi restaurant, I know one!

School Frustrations

OK, I'm infuriated! I have been quite happy with my kids' school since we got here. This is their first year in this school. In fact, when we bought the new house, that was the primary factor. We didn't want to pull the kids out of their school and have to put them in a different one. We like the year-round schedule, I've been pleased with the teachers, and the kids seem to be doing well.

Some things have come to light the last couple of weeks, though, that are really bothering me. My son is in third grade. He is very bright, although he has some attention problems. One day last week, when he was doing his homework, he asked me if I had a calculator. What? He's in third grade and should be learning the fundamentals. Why would I let him use a calculator? So I told him that he wasn't going to be getting a calculator because he needed to learn how to do the math.

This past Tuesday, the hubby's parents came to see the kids. We hadn't seen them on Mother's Day, so they brought me a Mother's Day card and we gave my mother-in-law her card and gift that night. We also went out to dinner. She's a teacher in the DODDS system. I happened to mention that to her, and she told me that the students in her school are often allowed to use calculators in class. She works in an elementary school. She works in the media center, and she said the students check the calculators out there. Why on earth are ELEMENTARY students using CALCULATORS??

Fast forward to this morning. Julian and I are talking about his math superstars worksheet. This has some fairly complicated problems (at least for a third grader, in my opinion) and I was trying to help him with one he had missed. The problem was 45 x 2. He had come up with 95. When I told him his answer was wrong, you know what he told me? "I got that answer from a calculator." WHAT? So I ask why he's using a calculator. He says they use calculators because sometimes the answers are in the "hundreds and thousands." I don't care! The thing is, they need to make sure these kids know the fundamentals of math BEFORE they do these math superstars things. I didn't use a calculator in math class until high school. And by then, I knew the fundamentals. I KNEW my multiplication tables and could do the basics in my head. The calculator at that point was a time saver for the longer multiplication and division.

My mother-in-law had mentioned to me a couple of weekends before that he needed to work on his multiplication tables. Yes, I know he does, but I honestly wasn't terribly worried. I don't remember a lot about my third grade year, but I'm pretty sure I didn't know my multiplication tables that early. I honestly don't remember REALLY trying to memorize them until about 5th or 6th grade. So I figure we have time to work on that. The thing is, though, that he mentioned earlier in the year that they have the multiplication tables on the back of the name badges they wear. He told me that when he was struggling with some homework and I asked him what he was going to do when it came time to take a test. So if they're on the back of their badges, no wonder they're not learning them. When I was in school, they were printed on the inside of the cover of the textbooks, so we didn't have that available to us when we tested.

I think I'll be getting a third grade workbook and a fourth grade workbook and we'll be working on some math this summer. He's not too happy about that, because he thinks he's not going to have any fun, but that's apparently what we need to do. And we'll be writing out some multiplication tables, too.

Mother's Day Card

I just have to share this story.

This past weekend, I took care of getting cards for my mom and the hubbys mom (as well as my sister), for Mother's Day. Each Mom got a card from the hubby and me, as well as a card from the kids. My mom and my sister got their cards on Sunday since we had lunch with them that day.

The hubby's parents came down this way yesterday. His dad had a doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon and wanted to come by to see the kids afterwards (it's been a couple of weeks since they saw the kids), and his mom came over to the house after work. We ended up going out to dinner as a belated Mother's Day meal for her.

Before she came over, I had the hubby sign her card from him and me, and I had the kids sign theirs. I neglected to tell them to put the card in the envelope and seal it, so J left it laying on the counter after he signed it. The hubby picked it up and read it and started laughing in disbelief. He read it to his dad and me, and we both started laughing as well. I was thinking about how his mom would react (I knew she'd think it was adorable), and just cracked up. SnogDot, I think you'll appreciate this one in light of your "Bug" stories.

Here's what he wrote:

Happy Mother's Day. Please give me $5.00. Thank you. Love, J.

Leave it to the 8-year-old. At the bottom of the card he did think to write "I love you."

We all had a good laugh about that one. Nana just thought it was the cutest thing in the world, though.

We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse. When we got ready to leave, the hubby's dad went back inside for a minute. He came back out and asked me if it was ok for him to honor the request. I love him for that. I really appreciate that he respects me enough to ask. I told him I didn't mind.

So he honored the boy's request for $5. Made his day. Nana had already given each of them a $1 bill. But his face just lit up when Papa gave him a $5 bill. Of course the girl got one too. I'll have to share a story soon about the not-so-smart hostess that night. Bless her heart.

So the boy got his $5. Stinker.

Funny thing was what he told me this morning.

J: Mom, did you know not many people have a $5 bill?
Me: What are you talking about?
J: It's like a $2 bill.
Me: No, Sweetie, it's not. There are only a few $2 bills out there. But there are LOTS of $5 bills.
J: Oh.

He's so doggone cute. Even when he's in trouble, he's cute.

Here's something sweet he said to me last night. My mother-in-law was telling me about a lady she works with. She's a DODDS teacher on Fort Bragg. This particular lady came to Fort Bragg from Vilseck Germany, and knew J there. They went to school with my MIL one day and got to see this lady. She remembered the boy, but didn't remember the girl. A was in Kindergarten there, and I guess she didn't see many Kindergarteners.

So we were talking about how most people remember J once they've met him. He has eyes that are nearly impossible to forget. In fact, everybody that knows him before they know me say something about "those eyes" once they know I'm his mom. A's a beautiful little girl, but J's eyes really get folks.

So J asked me why people remember him. I told him it's because he has such pretty eyes. He looks at me and says, "so do you!" That really got me, and I hugged him real big and told my baby thank you. He says, "well, they're the same color." He's right. He has my eyes. That's the one feature I've always liked about myself.

But the kids just crack me up. I never know what they're going to come out with next.

Something Neat - Little Brainteaser

My husband had a meeting today with a gentleman who is a civilian aide for the Secretary of the Army. I guess he was discussing some Recruiting issues and problems he's been having. He was telling me about this meeting, and trying to explain to me what this man does. See, he lives and works full time around here. So I was trying to figure out how the aide to the Secretary of the Army has the time to have a full time job. I guess the Secretary has an aide in like each state or something. Some of the issues my husband was having were taken care of right then by a phone call from this gentleman. So that was nice for him.

Anyway, the hubby got a coin from the gentleman before he left. Those of you who are at all familiar with the military know the honor of getting a coin and the significance of them. I still have a coin, though, that trumps all of his...I got one from the Chief of Staff of the Army in 2004, GEN Schoomaker.

The hubby showed me the coin when we were at lunch. I looked at it, then turned it over and looked at the back. There was an American flag in the center of it, with his name at the bottom. across the top was a series of letters that made no sense to me at first. So I asked him what it was, and he said it was a challenge. So I looked at it and figured it out pretty quickly, actually. I think he told the hubby that the record to that point was two days. So the hubby was determined to beat that. I think it took the hubs about 45 minutes to figure it out. So he was feeling pretty good about that. Well, it took me about half a minute. So then he said he was feeling pretty stupid. No need for that...I'm really good at word games. So I'm putting the puzzle below. Can you figure out what it is?

IPATTFOTUSOAATTRFWISONUGIWLAJFA

Moving Fun

So today I went over to the rental to try to get some cleaning done. I know I haven't written about this in a while, but we're still working on finishing up the move. We turn over the keys to the rental the end of this month, and there are certain things we have to have done before then. According to our lease, we have to have the carpets professionally cleaned. We have to show the receipts to the property manager as proof. So I called a carpet cleaning place that my realtor suggested to me for an estimate, and scheduled an appointment for just a few days before our lease is up. It's going to cost us less than $150, and that's including a special enzyme to take up whatever it was my husband tracked into the house last week (I'll tell that story later). I think I can deal with that.

I also talked with someone about the fireplace this morning. The lease also stipulates that we have to have the fireplace and chimney professionally cleaned. That will cost me less than $100. Again, I think I can live with that. It's been a while since we had to worry about these things, so I honestly didn't know what to expect. I expected to pay more than I'm going to be paying. That's always a good thing. Funny thing, though, was that the first place I called to have the fireplace cleaned was the company closest to us. They work on fireplaces and sprinkler systems. I guess the work they do is seasonal. Fireplaces only during the winter and sprinkler systems during the summer. OK, no problem. I called someone who could help me.

So I'm over there cleaning today, and I'm vacuuming the floors. I vacuumed the formal dining room and the formal living room. Before I even got halfway through the family room, I noticed the vacuum wasn't working. Ugh! As I checked the machine, I noticed that the hose coming from the floor was badly clogged. I spent about 20 minutes taking it apart and cleaning it out, and when I got it back together, the vacuum still wasn't cleaning the way it should have been. So I turned it up and noticed the brush wasn't turning. That was the last straw. Every damn time I have used that thing for the past couple of months, I have had to perform some kind of surgery on it. The hubby teased me when I called him, asking what I was doing to it, claiming that he didn't have any problems. I know that's not true, because I know he's had to replace the belt when it's slipped off even more often than I know. So I told him that I was fed up with having to operate on a damn vacuum cleaner every time I used it, when it shouldn't be necessary. So I told him I was going to go buy a new one. His response? "OK." What?? Did I jump on that? You know it!! So we went to lunch and then went to Wal-Mart to pick out a new vacuum cleaner and things he needed for his motorcycle.

After I took him back to work, I went back to the old house and put the new vacuum together. That thing is AWESOME! I love it as much as any woman can love a vacuum cleaner. It has this neat little attachment, a "power paw" that is perfect for the stairs. You should have seen me when I was cleaning this house before we moved it. I was using the vacuum to try to clean the stairs. Not easy. This "power paw" attachment hooks on to the hose, and the suction activates the power brush on it. Perfect for stairs, furniture, anything else. I was tickled when I was vacuuming the stairs over in the old house with that little thing. Talk about some power! I accidentally sucked up a little Christmas light that I didn't see and it stopped working briefly. But once I figured it out and cleared the clog, no more problems.

It's quite a bit quieter than my old vacuum, too. Hubby said he can work on ours, and we'll keep it as a backup. So now you know how easily amused I am. It's pretty easy to make me happy. Funny...I told the hubby that no practical gifts were allowed for Mother's Day. I guess the day after is fair game, though!

Mother's Day Poem

My son gave me one of the sweetest gifts for Mother's Day this year.

It was a handmade card in the shape of a teapot. A French Vanilla flavored tea bag was stapled to the inside. He had handwritten a poem on the inside. This is what it said:

Here's a gift for Mother's Day
I'll try my best in every way
But when you get upset with me
Relax and have a cup of tea

Is that not adorable?

The bad thing? I think he was trying to get me upset enough to drink the tea he gave me this weekend. He kept asking me if I wanted my tea yet. Sunday morning he asked me. I told him I needed caffeine. Tea is much better for night time for me. He's so cute, though. I just loved the things they made me for Mother's Day. I have such good kids. I'm blessed in many ways.

Happy Mother's Day!

Courtesy of SparkleTags.com

I've been sitting here remembering how we spent Mother's Day last year, and I must say that this year was a huge improvement. Although this year was a bit similar to last year in that we're in the middle of yet another move, it was much more relaxing nonetheless. Yeah, my house is turned upside down, but at least I have a home of my own and a beautiful family to share it with.

The kids wanted to fix me a special breakfast and bring me breakfast in bed, but they were a little too loud this morning to let me sleep in long enough. But their daddy did something rare in our house this morning. He asked the kids what they wanted for breakfast. The girl wanted pancakes, and the boy wanted muffins. They each got what they wanted. I don't like sweet food for breakfast on the rare occasion that I eat breakfast, so I wanted bacon and eggs. Each member of the family got exactly what they wanted this morning. Usually he makes one thing for breakfast on the weekend, kind of like I do when I cook dinner. But it was a special occasion, so he made an exception.

We had planned to have Mother's Day lunch at my sister's today. She has a tradition of having both our mom and her mother-in-law over for lunch every year. I knew about that, and had told the hubby about it, so when she called me to ask what our plans were I was able to tell her that we had planned to join her for her annual Mother's Day lunch. Nice of me to invite myself, right? Nah...I was just being practive! Anyway, she called me yesterday asking if I would mind bringing dessert today. I had already told her that if she needed anything to let me know. She likes to take care of everything so that everybody can just come over and relax. But I feel odd if I go to dinner or something at someone's house without bringing anything. After all, that's the way I've gotten used to doing things over the past almost ten years...one person hosts the party and everybody brings something. So between my need to bring something and her realization that she doesn't have to do everything herself, it worked out perfectly. I told her I'd peruse my cookbooks and see what I could come up with. I knew I could find something in one of my myriad of Pampered Chef cookbooks that would fit the occasion. I also offered to bring my crab dip, which I was (almost) famous for in Vilseck. Haven't met anybody yet who hasn't liked it. My sister is no exception, which is funny since she says she usually doesn't even like crab dip. So she said she'd love for me to bring it.

So I looked through my cookbooks and found a recipe in one of my Spring/Summer cookbooks for a Strawberry Cheesecake Torte. Perfect! It looked like a nice, light dessert and not too difficult to make. Only thing was, it's a layered dessert, and I've never done a layered cake of any kind before. What the heck...even if it doesn't look great, that won't affect the taste, right? Well, I was right. It wasn't that difficult to make, although the cake didn't come out quite level. This meant that my layers were a bit off, meaning my cake was a bit lopsided when it was all put together. So it wasn't quite as pretty as the picture. I was proud of it anyway. I made it last night, so all I had to do this morning was make the crab dip. It's a hot dip, so it was best for me to do it today anyway so it would be nice and warm when we got to my sister's.

So we went over to my sister's and had a great time. Everybody loved the dip, as usual. Pretty much everyone who was there had been at her house the last time I brought it, so they dug right in. That always makes me happy. I don't cook a lot, but I'm a pretty good cook when I decide to get in the kitchen. My sister and her husband had steaks and a delicious potato casserole dish that she makes, along with salad and bread. She made the potatoes another time we were there, and I remembered how good they were. The hubby did too...he put so many of them on his plate that he ended up not being able to finish them all, or all of his steak. We all enjoyed our lunch and enjoyed visiting with each other afterward. The dessert I made went over really well, too. I was right...it was really light, not rich at all, and the fresh fruit just made it perfect. So it was a bit lopsided...it was still pretty doggone good. The hubby teased me about the "leaning tower of cake," and my sister said it was representative of my travels. OK, I'll buy that. I really enjoyed having the time to spend with my mom as well. I'm ever thankful for her, and am thankful for every opportunity I have to spend with her. I know there are many out there who no longer have their mothers with them, and was especially aware of that in light of our friend's loss yesterday.

We got home and the hubby has been working on his motorcycle, and I've been sitting on the front porch watching the kids play. The boy has been riding his bike almost the whole time, and the girl has been alternating between riding her bike and drawing lovely scenes on our path with sidewalk chalk. Since we had such a big lunch, I fixed them a light dinner and let them eat outside on the porch. I've really enjoyed this time with them. They weren't very happy when I told them to put the bikes away and get ready for bed, but what kid would be?

I hope all the Mommies out there had a wonderful day today. I know I did.

So Sad

A very good friend of ours lost his wife today.

She was involved in a serious auto accident back before Christmas. Her condition has been a roller coaster ever since, but she was improving again. Then today.

When I got the word, my heart sank. No other words for how I felt. My heart breaks for their daughters. The day before Mother's Day of all times.

Lord, be with them all.

Wireless

Remember when I mentioned a week ago that my wireless connection kept dropping? Let me tell you; I tried to figure out all week what the problem was. Sometimes I'd be able to connect to mine, which is just across the room from where I sit with my computer. A lot of the time, though, my laptop wasn't detecting it. But it could pick up a couple of other wireless networks in the area. One of them was a secured network like mine, and the other was unsecured. So unless I wired directly into my router, my laptop bounced back and forth between my network and the other, unsecured one. Sometimes it couldn't connect to either one. Talk about frustrating!

Like I said, I tried to figure out all week what the heck was going on. I went in and fiddled with all the router's settings, and still nothing. The hubby found my old Linksys router and wireless access point that I had used in Germany, and I even tried hooking those up to see if I had any more luck there. Well, I found out that the Linksys access point was no good. It would get power, but when I connected it to the router with the network cable, the router wasn't recognizing that the access point was connected. Bummer. Oh well...the hubby's secretary needed a router, so I told him to take the router to her and I threw the access point out. We're trying to get rid of stuff...so there were two more things gone that had been taking up space.

So I reconnected my Belkin again and bridged the connection again since I had changed the DSL modem's settings for the Linksys router. Then I went to the Belkin website to see if I could find a troubleshooting page or something. I did manage to find an FAQ section, and one of the questions was about frequent dropped connections. So I read that one and it suggested changing the channel for the wireless connection. Hmmmm...could it really be something so seemingly simple as that? So I changed the channel my router was working on. Lo and behold - I haven't had any trouble since.

Lesson learned...check the device's website and try the simple things first. It would have saved me a week's worth of frustration.

Lady in Pink

One thing I didn't share yet about our trip was a really nice couple we met the last night we were there. While we were waiting in line to eat Saturday evening, I saw a little lady dressed all in pink standing across from where we were.


She definitely grabbed your attention. As you can see, she was in all pink, from her hat to her boots. As we were standing in the food line, the lady in front of us and her daughter were talking about her, too. Nothing derogatory, just how unique she was. She definitely did stand out in the crowd. Then as we were standing there, the lady in front of us showed us the pictures she had taken of the gal's bike. It was (no surprise) pink, and it had Disney characters painted all over it. We decided that we HAD to go take a look at it before they left the Rally site that day. Pretty much everybody who was there that afternoon, though, would be there at least until the motorcycle was given away at the end of the closing ceremonies, so we didn't worry too much about missing them.

We ate dinner and then sat and listened as the different prizes were given out during the closing ceremonies of the Rally. At the end, we bid my mom and her boyfriend farewell and safe travels since they headed home right at the end. After we told them goodbye, we saw the pink hat of the gal in pink heading over to where several motorcycles were parked. The hubby told me we'd better hurry if I wanted to get a picture of the motorcycle before they headed out. So we hurried over to where we had seen them go, and I was able to see the motorcycle. They were just getting ready to pull out, so I got her attention and asked her if I could get a quick photo.

I could tell that she was used to having her picture taken with her motorcycle (she would have to be), because she just nodded and gave me a big smile and I snapped a quick shot. The picture came out really good. The hubby and I have decided that we're going to have a nice sized print made of her and her motorcycle and hang it in our princess's room. I think I've mentioned before that she loves pink (after all, her room is all in pink), and she just loves Disney. I think A's only disappointment when we showed her the picture later was that it wasn't a Disney Princesses motorcycle.

After I took the picture, they went on their way, and we got on our bikes and headed back to the hotel ourselves. That was the night that we parked our motorcycles at the hotel and walked to the restaurant an club down the street to have a few drinks. On our way to the restaurant, we passed an area where several people who had trailered their motorcycles to the rally had parked their trailers for the weekend. As we got closer, we saw the Disney bike parked there just inside the parking area, so decided to stop and talk to them and perhaps take more photos.


We stopped and talked to the couple, and they were just as nice as they could be. I got another picture of her motorcycle from a different angle. I took out the letters of her license plate because I didn't think it was my place to put it out there. I will tell you, though, that her license plate makes sure that anyone who sees it knows that she loves pink. We asked her why she didn't enter her motorcycle in the bike show, and she told us that it was for "Harley's only." that's too bad. It's not a Harley...it's made by Ridley, but it is a sweet ride. Who says that a girl who rides a motorcycle (and a full size one that that) can't be a girly-girl? This gal is about as girly as they come!

We talked about the different motorcycles we have ridden, the different ones they have, and the experiences we have had. I told her about how I had dropped my mom's Sportster in the parking lot of our hotel a couple of nights before, and she was telling me that she'd had a Sportster too. She was talking about how that thing just "kept falling over in the driveway" and she had decided that the problem was with the bike, not with her. Since she's quite a bit shorter than I am I tend to agree with her. Contrary to popular belief, the Sportster is not a great bike for a short person despite the fact that it's the smallest of the Harleys. As I've mentioned a couple of times within the last week or so, it's lots more top-heavy than most. But I digress. We found out that they are from Wilmington and that they had been asked to bring their motorcycles to Fayetteville the weekend following the Rally by the person who had done their paint jobs. If I understood them correctly, the person who did the custom paint jobs on their motorcycles was recently awarded the contract to paint the new Harley-Davidson motorcycles. They weren't sure if they would be able to make it or not, but we told them that we would ride by the open house and visit with them if they were able to come.

So Saturday afternoon, we decided to take a break from moving and organizing to go by the local dealership for a bit. After all, they were having their open house, our new friends from Wilmington might be there, and I had bought a raffle ticket back in December for the new motorcycle and trailer they were giving away. We got there, and almost immediately saw the Disney bike. It's hard to miss. So we walked over and let the kids get a good look at it in person.

I got another good picture of it on Saturday. After we looked at it for a bit, the hubby asked me where the owners were. I looked around for a minute and found the tell-tale pink hat. So we went over and said hello, and hung out with them for the rest of the afternoon.

She took my kids and got them some cotton candy. It was free, but they just thought it was great that she took them over there. Then we went over and watched motorcycle stunts. We were right behind the boundary, so each time the stunt riders would get close, the kids would back right up against the adult who was standing behind them. For my princess, that just happened to be the nice lady who loves pink as much as she does. After the stunt show at the dealership, there was going to be a stunt where a motorcycle was jumped over 10 BMWs at the BMW dealership next door. Most folks walked over to watch that, but the hubby really didn't want to go watch it "just in case," so we stayed at the H-D dealership, got some lunch and walked around looking at the different vendors.

The husband of the couple from Wilmington has a chopper with a Carolina Hurricanes paint theme. It's really sharp, and definitely very unique. It was entered in the bike show in the custom class. Most of these shows are Harley only, and his isn't a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. But the officials were convinced to open a new class for complete custom cycles (after all, it doesn't take much for a Harley to be considered 'custom'), and there were actually several motorcycles entered into the category. Oh, as a side note, there were only like two bikes entered in the class that my motorcycle would have fallen in, so I was really wishing that I had ridden mine over and entered it. I almost did ride it over there and have the hubby and kids follow me.

Here's a picture of his motorcycle. He ended up winning first prize for his category, and I thought it was well deserved. That is a sweet chopper! It's a Ridley, and I read an article about those bikes, and apparently they have an automatic transmission. That's interesting. I'm not sure I could get used to riding a motorcycle with an automatic transmission now that I've gotten used to riding and shifting gears. I think I'd be lost without having something to do with both my hands and both my feet. I guess it's like beginning to drive a car with an automatic transmission after years of driving a stick-shift, though. Just have to get used to it.

This couple is the perfect example of what is best about the biker community and going to Rallies like the one in the Outer Banks last weekend. You can make some of the best friends. We exchanged numbers on Saturday, and they told us to call them if we're ever riding towards Wilmington or Myrtle Beach, and promised to call us the next time they're in the Fayetteville area.

I just LOVE making new friends!

Sigh

It always makes me sad to hear about the loss of a Soldier (or Airman, Marine, Sailor) "over there." It hurts. But when that person is a friend or loved one of someone I know, it personalizes it even more for me, and it hurts more.

I was getting ready to go out for the afternoon with the family Saturday when my cell phone rang. It was the girl who was our realtor, and who turned into a good friend. Come to find out, one of the nine Fort Bragg soldiers killed last month was her husband's cousin. They had been out of town for the week for the services in his hometown, and she was calling to ask if we could find out the information about the Memorial Service on Fort Bragg. I think his parents were wanting the information, because they were trying to decide whether they wanted to come here for it.

Finding the information about the Memorial was more difficult than I expected. This was one of those times that I missed our little post in Vilseck. It was so much easier to get that kind of information there. I tried Saturday and Sunday to call around on Fort Bragg to get the information. The first place I tried was the Chaplain's office - I thought for sure they'd know. No answer at either number I tried. I finally found the online phone book for the installation, that included the numbers for the individual units. I called the number for the unit, but the soldier on staff duty Sunday didn't know anything. He told me to call back the next morning, though, and somebody would be able to help me then.

I called the unit back today, and a Staff Sergeant was able to give me the information I was looking for. I called my friend, and she had just gotten back in town late last night. I gave her the information she needed, although I felt bad that I hadn't been able to get it for her earlier than today.

But you know, it kind of felt good to feel like I was a part of the "Real Army" again. It felt good to be able to help someone, even in a small way.

Road Trip Day Four (Sunday)

Sunday was the day we returned home from our trip to the Outer Banks. We had planned to sleep in a bit Sunday morning, but it just wasn't meant to be. So we got up and had breakfast, and then packed up our bag and the bikes for the trip home.

We had an uneventful ride back, and made quite good time. Besides the required stops for gas, we only stopped once to eat lunch. Well, that's not quite true, because the last time we stopped for gas was in Smithfield, and we visited our favorite dealership for a few minutes while we were there. We walked around and looked at the new motorcycles, and I dreamed a little bit about the comfort of a touring bike. After that, we left. I actually managed to stay out of the clothing store while we were there. I think that was a first.

We then rode the rest of the way home, parked the bikes, and pretty much immediately got in the car to go pick up the kids from P's parents' house, where they had spent the weekend while we were gone. I think they enjoyed their weekend with their grandparents almost as much as we enjoyed our trip. We then came home, had dinner, and got the kiddos in bed at a decent hour since it was a school night. They were really excited about the treats we brought them. J had to wear his T-shirt the next day, and they were tickled about having pins to put on their riding jackets.

On a personal note, I'm constantly amused at the reactions I get when I'm riding, whether the hubby and I are out together or not. On the way home Sunday, a small group of bikes passed us, going the same direction we were. No big deal...we pretty much go the speed limit, and we had been getting passed all day. This time, though, the last rider in the group slowed down long enough to ride beside me for a few seconds. I didn't think anything of it until I heard him rev his engine a couple of times. So then I looked over and he grinned and nodded at me before going on. I just smiled and nodded and laughed to myself. I've gotten some crazy reactions from people, and it always amuses me. The hubby got a kick out of it, too. We talked about it later, and I teased him, saying that it wasn't as bad as the Hooters Girl that was blatantly flirting with him one Sunday afternoon after we had eaten lunch there. Guess it's a good thing neither of us is the jealous type.

Military Survivor Benefits

A good friend of mine, Deanna Salie, lost her husband in Iraq in February of 2005.

Deedy and I have known each other for about eight years now. We are just a couple who are a part of a rather tight-knit group of friends. The unique thing about our group is that we communicate primarily through email. Many of us have never met each other "in real life."

In mid-February 2005, just a couple of weeks before my husband was scheduled to return from his tour in Iraq, I got a call from one of the ladies in our little group. I wasn't home to take the call, but I had a message that Deedy's husband, SFC David Salie, had been killed by a roadside bomb in Baqubah, Iraq. I found out later that SFC Salie was a member of the unit that was replacing my husband's unit over there, allowing my husband and his soldiers to return home. When I got that phone call, it hit me hard.

I had the pleasure of finally meeting Deedy in person when I took a trip to Nashville last July. I talked about that trip briefly here and here.

I have learned about a very important issue regarding the Military's Survivor's Benefit Plan due to my friendship with Deedy. I believe that most service members and their spouses aren't aware of the issues faced by the families who lose their spouses in combat. I can honestly say that this has been the first time that I've felt compelled to write to my congressman about an issue. If you feel so compelled, I urge you to do the same. She recently wrote an article that has been published, and I'm pasting it below with her permission.

If, after you read the article below, you would like to contact your Senators and Representatives regarding the SBP/DIC offset, you can find their contact information here for the House of Representatives and here for the Senate.

When troops die serving, U.S. lets down survivors

By Deanna SalieFor the Journal-ConstitutionPublished on: 04/26/07

My husband was certain that he was going to die in Iraq.

Sgt. 1st Class David J. Salie had been an American soldier for almost
17 years. He'd deployed many times, and he'd been to war before. He'd parachuted
into Panama with the 82nd Airborne Division, served in the Gulf War and gone to
Haiti with the 25th Infantry Division. But he'd never been so certain that he
was going to die that he prepared for death.

David told me that he wouldn't be coming back. I didn't believe him. I felt
that he was just under so much stress thinking of our children and me, and about
the 40 soldiers in his platoon who were his responsibility.

In the month before he left for Iraq with B Company, 2nd of the 69th
Armor, 3rd Infantry Division, David went over his will with a fine-toothed comb,
and he checked out his Survivor's Group Life Insurance, which provides
protection for military people.

David even gave away some of his personal belongings. He also checked
on the death benefits that a soldier's family receives.

My husband came home and proudly announced that if he died in Iraq, his
family would be taken care of. I tried to tell him that he shouldn't worry about
things like that. He said that every soldier going to war worries about his
family and wants to make sure that if he's killed, his family will be taken care
of just as they would be if he were still alive.

We were "all squared away," David told me.

I wish I could say that he was wrong about dying and right about the
rest of it. Instead, he was correct in his premonition about his own death, but
wrong that we were "squared away."

On the evening of Feb. 14, 2005, a little after 9 p.m., I heard a knock on
the front door of our house at Fort Benning, Ga. I got up from the couch in the
living room, where I'd been resting with a sick child, and I saw two soldiers in
dress green uniforms standing on the front porch.

As my 11-year-old daughter watched, they informed me that David had been
killed that day by a roadside bomb in Baqubah, Iraq. I can't tell you what they
said after I heard the words, ". . . regrets to inform you" because I was crying
and screaming too loudly to hear much.

The next week was filled with contacting family members, trying to hold
myself together for my three children, making funeral arrangements and dealing
with all the red tape that a military death forces upon you.

Had it not been for my Casualty Assistance Officer and the Rear Detachment
Command of my husband's brigade, I'm not sure I would have made it through those
first weeks. I was one of a lucky few who had wonderful help after my husband's
death. Many other Army wives are less fortunate.

After making it through my husband's funeral, I was greeted with mountains
of paperwork. I was escorted from office to office by my casualty officer as my
military identification card was changed and reissued; as I signed up for the
Veterans Administration's Dependency and Indemnity Compensation and the
military's Survivor's Benefit Plan.

I reviewed the paperwork after all of these appointments, and I was shocked
to discover that David had been wrong: We weren't going to be cared for as if he
were still alive.

My husband didn't know that dependents' compensation offsets the Survivor's
Benefit Plan. If he'd known that, it would have made him very angry.

DIC is a payment made to widows, their children and some parents who've
lost a husband, father or son. Widows are entitled to the benefit for the
remainder of their lives, unless they remarry. DIC comes from the Department of
Veterans Affairs. SBP pays a deceased soldier's income, and it comes from the
Department of Defense.

The offset, a dollar-for-dollar deduction, is supposedly intended to
prevent double dipping from two similar benefit plans.

But the Survivors Benefit Plan and Dependents Indemnity Compensation are
provided for different reasons, and the offset leaves many military families
with no survivors' benefits at all. Others receive only the pittance that's left
over after the offset is deducted.

One widow in West Virginia receives a service member's annuity of $4 a
month. A disabled widow in Tennessee receives no Survivors' Benefits and still
has to pay for Medicare and other medical expenses. A widow in California had to
assign her lifetime SBP benefit to her three children because they can receive
that money without the offset and she can clothe and feed them. After they're
grown, she'll receive nothing from SBP.

Surviving spouses with children have the greatest needs. Many were unable
to build careers and earn retirement credits of their own because of the
constant moves and the other demands of their spouses' military jobs. Child-care
costs are high. Their families were totally dependent on their service members'
income.

A surviving spouse who's disabled has even greater needs. A service
member's life insurance may be used up buying a home or financing college for
his or her children.

As we try to rebuild our shattered lives, the offset deals us a second
blow. Grief and loss are hard enough to handle, but now we have more important
worries, such as providing homes, food, clothing and schooling for our families.

This is not a partisan political issue. This is not a matter of whether
you're for or against the war in Iraq. This is about those who died serving our
country, standing between our enemies and us and believing that their families
would be cared for if they gave their lives.

It's a shame that that isn't true. Two bills are pending in Congress —- S
935 in the Senate, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and HR 1927 in
the House of Representatives, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas) —-
that would eliminate the offset and help the families of our fallen. Please
contact your senators and representatives and urge them to vote for these bills.

Deanna Salie is the widow of Sgt. 1st Class David J. Salie, who was killed
in Iraq on Feb. 14, 2005.

Road Trip Day Three (Saturday)

Saturday morning started very much like Friday. I got up, called my mom to make sure they were up (per her request), and we got ready and went to eat breakfast. I planned to have the same breakfast as the day before, so I ate my bagel, but the yogurt looked a little questionable so I passed on it. After breakfast, I called Mom again to see what they planned to do, because they were leaving that evening and had to get packed for the ride back and check out of the hotel. So they told us to go ahead and ride and they'd catch up with us later.

The weather was even stranger Saturday morning than it had been Friday. The hubby was putting on a long-sleeved shirt over a short-sleeved one, but I had walked outside and told him that he would burn up because it was already very warm and humid before 9 a.m. He stepped outside and agreed with me, so we both put on short-sleeved shirts with our leather vests to ride. We left the hotel and rode down to the host hotel for the Rally to turn in our sheets for the Poker Run and Observation Ride. When we turned in our forms for the Poker Run, we got to draw cards for our poker hand. I got absolutely NOTHING. I probably wasn't too far from having the worst hand. The hubby started out drawing a straight flush in hearts. Then his fourth card was out of sequence, but was still a heart. No problem; still a flush. His last card, though, was a Jack of Clubs. Darn it! How frustrating...even more so that afternoon. I'll get to that a bit later.

After we finished at the host hotel, we decided to check out the vendors down the street a bit. Apparently this rally didn't have very many vendors compared to others. I'm not sure whether there actually weren't that many there or if it just seemed that way because they weren't in a central location. They were kind of scattered over several different places in the area. But since this was my first rally, I really didn't have anything to compare it to. There were a few things we saw that we liked, but I just ended up getting a new pair of goggles because they had the amber-colored lenses, which I prefer to the dark ones. I'm gonna keep my others for the clear lenses to use at night.

After we left that vendor, we decided to go to one of the other Harley shops. It was the one in Nags Head. That is a TINY store, and we weren't really impressed. It's way too small to be able to handle the number of bikers that come through for a rally. It was more people than even I like to be around, so I knew the hubby was uncomfortable. We did find cute T-shirts for the kids there, though. They were outside the store in a booth, and they had a red-white-and-blue theme with the saying "Let Freedom Ring and my Harley Rumble." I thought they were adorable and knew the kids would like them. Plus, they love it when we bring them back T-shirts, so we picked up one for each of them. We had also picked up an Outer Banks Bike Week pin for each of them to put on their riding jackets the day before.

After we left the Nags Head shop, we rode back to the vendor site we had been at before. Remember my comment about the weather being stranger on Saturday than it had been Friday? While we were at the vendor site the first time, some dark clouds started moving in and we thought we were going to get rained on. It blew by us, though, so we avoided getting wet again. But when the clouds came through, the temperature dropped. So it was cooler for the rest of the day than it had been before 9:00 that morning. So after we stopped back at the vendor site, we went by our hotel long enough to change into our long-sleeved shirts. Then we rode down to the main Rally site since the events of the day would be taking place there. The Green Berets were supposed to be doing a parachute jump in, but it was too windy and cloudy, so it was canceled. So we got to the rally site and grabbed something for lunch and hung around with the lady from P's unit and her friend who had come in the night before while we waited for the events to start. That was also when my mom and her boyfriend caught up with us.

Right after my mom and her boyfriend got there, they started with the "motorcycle games." I was really curious about what kinds of games they would be playing, although I certainly didn't think I'd be wanting to play any myself. They turned out to be pretty interesting and challenging. The first one they did was the slow ride. The point of the game was to be able to ride the slowest without ever putting your feet down. It's harder than it sounds. It was really fun to watch, too. A lady rider won that game. Maybe one day I'll try that one...but I'd definitely have to be on my own bike to do it.

The second game they played was called road kill. They put out stuffed animals in the parking lot, and the contestants had to be riding with a passenger. The object was to be the team with the most "road kill" in the net. Again, putting the feet down was a disqualifier.

The last game was called dirty laundry. This was another one that was way harder than it sounded. The object was for the passenger to hang the most laundry on the line with clothespins. Just like the other two games, feet down was a disqualifier. At the end of the game, there were two teams tied with two articles of laundry hung up, so they had to have a tie-breaker. During the tie breaker, one team managed to hang four pieces of clothing on the line and the other only got two up. However, right at the end, both drivers found the need to put their feet down right about the same time, before the finish line. But the team that had two pieces of laundry hung up conceded to the other team instead of trying to beat them again.

After watching the motorcycle games, we decided to ride back up to the Kitty Hawk Harley shop one more time to check out what vendors we may have missed the day before. We had some time before the dinner and awards portion of the events started, so decided to go up there for a bit. The hubby found a light jacket he wanted for wamer windy days, and I also got a couple of things I liked for myself and my mom. After walking around there for a little bit and failing to talk my hubby into letting me demo an Ultra Classic (one of the bigger motorcycles), we headed back to the rally site and had dinner.

As we were eating dinner, they started the awards portion and the closing ceremonies. The first thing they awarded was the winner of the poker run. Remember my comment earlier about my hubby being so frustrated about his poker hand? When they announced the winner he just groaned. The winner had a full house, Queens over Kings. One more heart and my hubby would have had the winning hand. That was a $1,000 prize! Oh well. Even the worst hand won $100. No, I didn't have the worst hand, although I think I wasn't too far off. Then they pulled names from the Observation Run for some prizes. Finally, after those prizes and after listening to some people talk for a bit, they gave away the big prize for the Rally, which was a new motorcycle. It was a Harley Davidson Sportster 883. It was a nice motorcycle, but I wasn't heart broken that I didn't win it. After that, most people left the rally site, including us.

After leaving the rally site, we headed back to our hotel and decided to go out for the evening and have a few drinks. The place we had eaten dinner the night before, the Port O' Call, was within walking distance, and we knew they had a bar, so we walked down there for the evening. We started out sitting at the bar, but we were on the two stools closest to the stage, so when the band started up, we had to move. I was just too tired to be able to handle being THAT close to the noise. The lounge had an upstairs, so we decided to go up and check it out. What a nice place! We were able to go upstairs, sit and listen to the band and enjoy our drinks, yet be away from the crowd. So we sat and enjoyed that for a while before leaving and going back to the hotel to turn in for the night.

Another great day. We planned to sleep a little later Sunday morning than we had the rest of the weekend before heading back home.

Brief slideshow below:

Weird Connection

Something kind of weird happened to me tonight.

I called my friend Cathy. I had been thinking about her all week, especially today, so knew that I needed to call her today.

We had been talking for a little bit when she said, "I'm officially 30." Damn! I didn't forget about her birthday, but that wasn't the REASON I was calling her, if that makes sense. I've always had a kind of weird connection with her. I can feel when she needs something or if something's going on with her, and my calls tend to correspond with things like that. Her husband asked me one day..."what made you call?" I can't explain it...it's just one of those things. She and I are almost as close as I am to my sister, and that's pretty close. My sister and I have always had a weird connection, too. There are so many stories I could share about that, but that will have to wait until another day.

So, Happy Birthday, Cathy! As a good friend of mine told me almost four years ago now, you're joining the "cool decade." My thirties have been great up to this point, and I hope you enjoy your thirties as much as I'm enjoying mine. Love you, Honey!

It's a Good Thing...

...that we bought this house.

I got a call from the property manager for our rental earlier this week. We would be moving this summer anyway, whether we had bought this house or not. The homeowners of the rental we were in have orders bringing them back here this summer...I think June 15th.

Everything happens for a reason.

Weeping Radish Update

I checked out their website more closely, and I'm thinkin' I won't be ordering beer from them after all.

Their beer is expensive! I'm talking an average of $55 for a case of twelve 16-ounce bottles. Yeah, I don't think so! While we were at the Outer Banks, our waitress one night told us that they had stopped carrying the Weeping Radish beers because they were too expensive. Yeah, I guess so. We bought two of the "Biker Boch" beers, mostly to have the bottles as a souvenir, and didn't think a whole lot about the price at the time. After checking out the website, I remembered how much we paid - I'm pretty sure it was $5 a bottle. We didn't really think about it at the time since we only bought two, but since we talked about it yesterday, we realized how ridiculous it was. Craziness!

Yeah, the beer was good, but it wasn't THAT good. Especially since we lived in Germany so long and know what good beer costs over there. I could get a damn RACK of twenty half-liter bottles there for between 10 and 15 Euros, depending on the beer. Depending on the exchange rate, that's about $15-20 for a rack of 20! Close to HALF what they're charging at the Weeping Radish. Highway robbery, I tell ya!

The beer at the Mash House in Fayetteville is really good, too. So I'm thinking we'll be getting beer there. We need to go over there and get some anyway. You can get kegs there, and they also have 64-ounce "growlers." They have seasonal beers too, and their autumn one was really good. Their current seasonal beers are dark beers. I LOVE dark beers, since a friend of mine in Germany, Maria, got me hooked on the Koenig Ludwig Dunkel. Yummy!

Oh, and the prices at the Weeping Radish don't include shipping, and tax is added too. Don't ya know they're making a damn killing out there?

They Crack Me Up

Let me start this entry by saying, for those of you who don't know, that we have a cuckoo clock. We have a grandfather clock, too, but we haven't been able to locate the darn keys to the thing, so we haven't really gotten it going since we got back to the States. We got both of these clocks in Germany. We ordered the grandfather clock at one of the bazaars when the vendors came to Vilseck, and we picked up the cuckoo clock on a trip we took to the Black Forest after the hubby got home from Iraq. I love my cuckoo clock. It hangs on the wall right behind my hubby's recliner. It's funny, because I've gotten so used to it that I hardly notice it anymore.

Anyway, we were sitting here finishing up supper tonight and the little cuckoo bird let us know that it was 7 o'clock. Right after the clock finished doing its thing, J turned around and asked me what time it was.

Me: You didn't notice how many times the cuckoo bird sang?

J: No. (I guess I shouldn't be surprised - after all, I don't notice it so why should they?)

Me: He sang seven times.

J: Oh, so it's 7 o'clock.

Then my girl child chimes in here.

A: Mom, remember, we haven't been home all day!

What?? That was way out of left field. What on earth does that have to do with what we were talking about? When I asked her that, she had no answer. I asked her again, and still no answer. So I said, "you don't know, do you." She said, "nope." I just laughed. I wonder where her mind is sometimes.

Road Trip Day Two (Friday)

I've added a slideshow after this entry with the pictures we took Friday. After we had been riding for most of the day, I gave Mom my camera so she could take pictures while we rode.

Friday morning we got up between 7:00 and 7:30. I called my mom to make sure they were up, then the hubby and I got ready and went to the hotel lobby to have breakfast. They had a continental breakfast, so I had a bagel with cream cheese and some yogurt, along with my coffee in order to get my caffeine in for the day. Shortly after we finished breakfast, my mom called me to let me know that they were ready to go, and they came up to our hotel to meet us as we were getting the bikes ready. Then we headed down the road a few blocks to the host hotel to complete registration for the Rally and pick up our goodies.

After registration, we sat in the lobby of the Clarion to go through the packets and decide what we wanted to do. There were some different things going on that seemed like fun, and we could do several of them all at the same time, so we headed out.

One of the events was a Poker Run. I had never participated in one before, but always thought they sounded like fun. This one was done a bit differently than the way I understand they're usually done, but it was really fun. It was called the "Get Your Crabs" Poker Run. There was a list of seven different places to stop at, and in order to be eligible, we had to visit at least five of them. We got a crab stamp on our sheet at each place we stopped. Then we were to take our sheets back to the registration site and draw our poker hand. We ended up going to six of the seven places on the list. The seventh was kind of out of the way compared to the other six, so we decided not to go to that one.

The second one we decided we wanted to participate in was the Observation Ride. This one consisted of 15 trivia questions about the area, all of which we could find the answers as we were riding. The claim was that all answers to the questions could be seen "from the seat of your Harley." Well, actually only 14 of them were questions about the Outer Banks. The 15th one was the Odometer reading of the motorcycle. We decided since Mom was riding passenger, she could keep her sheet handy and be able to write the answers down as we found them. We were all looking for the answers and would let her know when we found one. If all 15 questions were answered correctly, we would be entered in a drawing for prizes. That one was really fun, too, and I learned some interesting things about the Outer Banks that I didn't know before.

The third thing we were doing at the same time was the self-guided Lighthouse Ride. We were given the information about the lighthouses along the Outer Banks, along with the route to see them all. We didn't make it to all four of them, because it's a long stretch. But I got to see the one I really wanted to see, Cape Hatteras, and we saw the one at Bodie Island as well.

We visited a lot of different places. The first stop on the poker run was a brewery, called The Weeping Radish. The owner is German and the brewmeister trained in Germany. We got to sample their beers, which were some of the best we've had since we got back to the States. I think for just a few minutes the hubby was wishing we had the car so we could stock up. I think I'm going to have to explore their website, though. Looks like they have a beer of the month club.

After that we went to the Harley-Davidson shop in Kitty Hawk, stopped at a couple of different restaurants, one of which was a barbecue place where we ate lunch. It was delicious. Our last poker run stop was at the Scotch Bonnet in Frisco, which is a fudge and gift shop. My mom had been looking forward to that one all day. She loves fudge. I could take it or leave it, and can only eat a little more than a taste at a time. I went in to see what else they had, though, and they had some cute things. But we were running low on space, so I resisted buying anything. After visiting the Scotch Bonnet, we stopped at both of the lighthouses we had passed on our way down. I wasn't disappointed - they are beautiful!

The riding on Friday was interesting. The weather was pretty strange. I expect unpredictable weather on the coast though - that's just the way it is. I mentioned before we went on this trip that isolated or scattered thunderstorms were expected over the weekend. It did rain while we were there, but we managed to stay out of it all weekend long. We didn't avoid the wind, though. While we were riding south toward the lighthouses, the wind was really strong. That wouldn't have been so bad except for the dunes on both sides of the road. The wind was blowing sand across the road in some spots, and we got blasted by the sand a few times. That really stung, to say the least! I told the hubby to look on the bright side - we got a good exfoliation treatment out of it!

After we finished riding for the day, we went back to our hotels to unload the bikes and get ready for dinner. We had coupons for a restaurant called Port O' Call, so we decided to try it out. It turned out to be a really NICE place - almost on the fancy side. Their prices, though, were better than Dirty Dick's, where we had eaten the night before. After we ate dinner, we checked out their antique shop. The hubby found their stash of Civil War weapons, and found an authentic Civil War Cavalry sword. He wanted it bad, but of course it was more than we could afford. Maybe another day.

As we were leaving the restaurant, we ran into a woman from his unit that works in Raleigh and her friend. We knew they were coming and they had just arrived that night and were looking for some supper before they turned in for the night. We talked with them for a little while and headed on back to the hotel, had a couple of beers we had picked up earlier and got some sleep before another early start the next morning.