Mount Vernon

Yes, our house guests are still here. Still.

Last Tuesday I went to Mount Vernon with my stitching guild. I had a blast and wish we could've stayed longer. I had to get back to get the kiddies you see, and we were scheduled to leave to come back by 2:00 anyway. I drove my car and had the privilege of taking a couple of older women along with me, because they needed a ride. A lot older. Frankly, I'm surprised they didn't hold my cell phone hostage until we got there. They made it pretty clear when they hopped in that they hoped I wasn't one of those "insane young ladies" who likes to talk on her cell phone or text while I'm driving. I had the phone beside me in the car and could practically feel the lasers from their eyes shooting through me every time it beeped to tell me I had a text message or rang lol. We toured the mansion, and I thought it was magnificent. I was especially excited to hear that 40% of what is in the house is original. I really wanted to sit in George Washington's chair and roll around the original floors in it. I wouldn't have minded having a couple of those pictures hanging on his walls either. I wanted to take pics of the inside, but no photos allowed :(. Bummer. I hope to go back soon with Mike and the kids.

I also got to see George and Martha's tomb, which thrilled me to no end.

Martha is on the left, and George is on the right.

Catch me if you can!

You might if you're lucky! Really lucky! I'm ashamed that it's been 3 months since I posted. Really, I am. I've been SO insanely busy, it's not even funny. It seems like we have visitors all the time. Which is fine, it just makes it hard to catch up. We have them now even, and since one is perched in my stitching chair, I have a few minutes to catch you up. Said person plopped down in my chair the second I got up to go potty and hasn't moved. Humph. I was only there for like 10 minutes too, so only got a few stitches in. Oh well.

Really quickly, since my last post-

We've had tons of visitors. That keeps me very busy. Joshua started 2nd grade and is doing fantastic. His teacher says he does great in everything, and is the best reader in the class. He's in Cub Scouts again this year, and of course is loving it. Mike is the assistant leader for his den this year. Cassie started middle school (gasp!), loves it, has all A's, and is having a blast. Her electives are World Language and Chorus. She's thinking of joining the debate team, and has a meeting after school on Tuesday. I was in debate in high school and loved it. I think she will too. My Pomeranian, Princess died last month. I was devastated to say the least. I had her for 11 years. She was the very first thing I bought when Mike and I bought our very first house. I really miss her. Something is wrong with my foot, and has been for months. Like where the ankle is, but way deep inside. I finally went to the doctor about a month and a half ago. He gave me an anti inflammatory and a brace to wear on it at night. He wanted to order an MRI but had to wait at least 30 days from the first appt. before the insurance would authorize one. They did authorize it, and I had an appt. for last week but rescheduled it for the beginning of January. I forgot that I've not had anything done this year and haven't met any of my deductable. It's so late in the year I don't want to pay it now. I'm just gonna suck it up until January. I spent a lot of time working on my application for the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Many months, really. It doesn't seem like it would be toooooooo terribly hard to dig up proofs of birth, death, and marriage for all of your ancestors back to your Revolutionary ancestor, but it really is. Wow. Lucky for me though most of what I needed was in Virginia, West Virginia, D.C., and Ohio. Some of the things I sent off for through the mail. A lot, I went and got in person. I got everything I needed and the registrar for the local chapter helped me with my application. It's done and I have all of my proofs. I was voted in at the meeting yesterday, and my application packet will be sent to D.C. tomorrow. I should hear something back around the beginning of January. It takes that long to verify everything. I worked really really hard on that. I've been doing some volunteering at Cassie's middle school. Last week I helped with a big party after school. This Friday I'm chaperoning a dance. I'm also watching a friend's baby 1-2 days a week. She's a nurse and went back to work a few months back after taking a long break. I don't mind 1-2 days a week, but would never do it more than that. I really enjoy my days and the things I do. She pays me really well though, so 1-2 days, I can do. We just celebrated our 2 year anniversary of moving from Texas to Virginia. Best thing we ever did.

Stitching? Not a ton, but I have been working on Christmas ornaments. I've finished these over the past couple of weeks. I used to not like snowmen that much, but over the past year or so, they've really grown on me. I love these Prairie Schooler snowmen. I'll make them in to actual ornies soon...I think.

I just did the finishing on these Halloween ornies for someone today. I love these spiders. They're such fun!

Off to bed, I go! I'm going to try really hard to post again this week. Time just gets away from me. I'm supposed to be going to Mount Vernon with my stitching group on Tuesday. We had company come in at the last minute though, so I'm sure I can now. I hope I can. If I do, I know I'll have lots of pics to share. If you're on Facebook, friend me if you want to keep in touch. I always pop in there :o).

Not much on the handwork homefront

My stitching this summer has pretty much been non existent. Not because I want it to be...I have been missing my needle. It's because I've been so blazin busy since those school doors flew open the last day of school. I've loved every second of it though....I can honestly say that this summer has by far been the best summer any of us have ever had. Not exaggerating here. Seriously. We've had more fun this summer than any summer of our entire lives, and I'm looking forward to many many more. This is our second summer living here. We had a good summer last year but were still in the adjusting phase. There's still a few more weeks left until school starts, and I'm pretty sure I can squeeze a lot more fun out of those weeks.

So back to the hand crafting....I don't have much time for it right now, so when I do I prefer to work on something that finished quickly so I can feel like I've accomplished something. I really need to start working on some Christmas ornaments. For now though, I'm happy to report that I've made a curtain for the door in my little sewing room. I love how it turned out! Now I just need to paint the door. I've put it off for a while as I really despise painting, but now that I've got the curtain up, it's a good incentive to get it done. Whatcha think? I also need to mention how much I LOVE the curtain rods. Whoever came up with the idea of magnetic curtain rods for steel doors was a genius! Mike didn't want to screw in to them, and I really didn't want him to either.

I love my little room SO much! It's so cozy, and all mine! I need more old looking Annie dolls for my room. I love them.

Chicago, Another visitor, & Reflecting

Mike's mom came for a visit for a week and went back home this past Saturday. While she was here she watched the kids for a bit and Mike and I went to Chicago for a couple of days. Most of the trip was good...some of it wasn't. We have some friends who live in Indiana who drove up the day we got there to spend the day with us. They're friends from high school. My buddy's name is Nicole...I'd not seen her in over 3 years and was really excited that I got to spend some time with her. I really wish they could've stayed the second day too. While we were there, we had lunch at Dave & Buster's, went to Hershey's Chicago for some sweet treats, took the water taxi to the Sears Tower, went up in to the Sears Tower Skydeck and stomped around on the new glass ledge up top, ate yummy Chicago style pizza, went to the Ghiradelli chocolate shop for sundaes, went to the Shedd Aquarium, went to Navy Pier for the night and took a ride on the ginormous ferris wheel, walked through Millennium Park, went over to Buckingham Fountain, and went to Garrett's Popcorn shop and got some yummy cheese corn that everyone raves about. Very good, by the way. Here are a few of my favorite pics....















I've really been feeling kind of blah lately. Kind of useless I guess. Or like I'm not good enough. Seems as though I'm the only stay at home mom around here. Never in the past have I've ever thought it's not enough until the past few months. Seems as though I feel like everyone thinks that I need to be working. Which has got me thinking that maybe I should. Then at least maybe I'd feel like I have some kind of identity because quite honestly, I've been secretly feeling like a caged up rabbit. Cassie has pneumonia again too, which isn't helping my blah-ness too terribly much.

Beach Trips, Visitors, & Fireworks

I know, it's been way too long since my last post. Everything's been a whirlwind since school let out. Busy, busy, busy, I've been! It would take hours to go over everything we've been doing in detail, so I'll do my best to catch you up as quickly as I'm able. I have slacked a bit though. In the free time I have had to blog, I've found myself Facebooking instead. Oops. Shame on me.

WARNING: Tons of photos coming!

Right after school let out, we took the kids on a dolphin watching tour in Virginia Beach. It lasted about an hour and half, and we saw tons of dolphins. I didn't get any good pics because the buggers are fast but I did get a few fin pics. The boat ride was so much fun..that is until they turned the boat around to head back. The swells in the ocean were huge and Joshua and I started to get sea sick. I nearly abandoned ship. Next time, I'm taking some Dremamine before we set sail.

A couple of days after, Mike went on a business trip to California, so the kids, dogs, and I drove to WV to visit my parents for the week. We we did lots of fun things and got to spend a lot of time with my family. We went on a tour of a coal mine, went on a tram ride from the top of a mountain down to the bottom by the river, played in a beautiful waterfall, and visited my dad's family cemetery.

After we came back from visiting my parent's, we had a few days to get ready for my brother to come visit for the 4th of July. He took a couple of extra days off so he could enjoy the East Coast. We went back to VA Beach on Friday, came home and went to a party, and then went to D.C. to see the fireworks on Saturday.

Yesterday, Cassie and I dropped the 3 guys off at Nationals Stadium to watch a ball game, and then the two of us headed over the way to have a girlie day in D.C. We hadn't been to Ford's Theater yet where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, so we parked ourselves in the Ronald Reagan Building, ate lunch in the food court, then walked ourselves over to the theater to see if we could score ourselves some tour tickets, and that we did! We were both SO excited! Before the presentation began, we were allowed to take pics. It was very dim inside, so the pics didn't come out well, despite all the setting changes we tried. Here's a pic of the box he and his wife were sitting in...it's not the best pic, but you get the idea.

We also got to go across the street to The Peterson House, where Lincoln died.

We had a really great time on the tour! Afterwards, we walked over to a bakery in the National Press Building and had a snack. We had a really fun girl day together!



The amount of time it has taken me to find and upload all of these photos is a good incentive for me to not let this much time pass without posting again!

Unexpected Purchase

For a while now my car has been making some rather interesting noises, and every now and then it'll do something new and fun to make me wonder if it's actually going to go after the light turns green at a stop light. There have been a few times lately where I haven't felt all that safe in it. One example, pulled over on the shoulder of I-195 in Richmond last Friday following the school buses to Maymont Park in Richmond for a field trip. The bus drivers (all 3!) decided when they got in to Richmond that they think (they did!!) might have missed their exit and had no idea where to go. For some odd reason, they didn't want to follow the chick with the GPS (me!) to the park. Perhaps they thought I was some kind of bandit or serial something or another...who knows. So would should have taken an hour to get there, took almost 3. Ultimately, they did end up following the chick with the GPS which is what they should have done to start out with. Wait...no....they actually should have taken themselves a map and studied it before they even left, so 3 bus loads of 1st graders weren't sitting on the shoulder of a busy interstate for an hour. Anyway, all the while my car was making it pretty clear to me that it wasn't happy about making that trip. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be such a big deal, except that Mike was in Chicago on a business trip. It was due for it's yearly inspection so I took it on Tuesday. I didn't think it would pass based on the things I've observed lately. I was right. They stuck a big, fat, embarrassing REJECTED sticker on the front and peeled off my old inspection sticker. They also gave me a print out of what it needed to pass inspection as well as a list of what it would need to fix it's issues and the cost. There's no kind of way I was willing to spend well over $3,000.00 to fix it. There gets to be a point where when something like that will cost you that much money to fix it, it only makes sense to give it up and get something new. Later that day, we bought this-


I love it, I do! We traded the 2003 Santa Fe in for a 2009. We looked at other SUV's, but I love the Santa Fe's so much more than the others. Plus, we got a big fat owner loyalty rebate. This one is larger and much roomier than our old one. Lots more bells and whistles that thrill everyone to no end. As for me...love the cd and radio controls on the steering wheel. Very safety minded they are. I'm sure you can see the very light colored upholstery in the pic. I did not pick that...Mike did. That's like the last color I'd ever pick with kids...ever. So I bought the 7 year "you can bleed on me, puke on me, spill red juice or coffee one me, rip a hole in me, do whatever the heck ya want to me" fabric protection and replacement. I don't usually buy things like that but thought it was needed. I actually felt a little uneasy about buying it with that light upholstery until I found out they offered that. We travel a lot with the animals.

Speaking of Chicago, Mike and I are going for a few days in July. I'm SO excited about that! His mom is flying in to watch the kids. I love Mike's job. I do.

Mike's business travels = Jennifer cashing in his Hilton Honors points and frequent flyer miles.

We're staying at the Hilton Palmer House in Chicago and we're using all of his points to pay for it. Mike's job rocks....and so does that hotel...lol. You know, I didn't pick out the hotel...he did. I'm impressed.

I'm off to have a lunch with a friend!

A Day at the Museums

My parents visited this weekend. It was nice. We went to D.C. on Sunday. My mom had never been, I had already taken my dad twice. We managed to squeeze 3 of the Smithsonian Museums in to our day. We started out at the National Air & Space Museum. I've seen all the exhibits before but wanted to see everything again before I skip over to see Night at the Museum Battle at the Smithsonian. I so wanna go back to the Air & space Museum to see that in IMAX! I mean, how awesome would that be to watch the movie right where it was filmed?! The world premier of the movie was last Thursday evening at the museum. Had I have had a little more notice than 20 minutes before, I so would have driven up to watch the stars walk down the red carpet. I sulked for a few hours over that. I REALLY wanted to watch Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller take their stroll. I'm such a star watcher. I'm pretty sure they were still in town when we were there the other day. I was secretly hunting for movie stars while I was giving my mom a tour of the city. So, Amy Adams plays Amelia Earhart in the movie. When I was in 7th grade I did this huge performance thing for the history fair in the city. I was Amelia Earhart. I won the school thing, the city thing, went to the state thing, performed for the Heritage Society in my town and others, was given savings bonds, was sent some things from an anonymous person in the mail who requested I never try to contact them, had a plane built for me like one that she flew for my performance (no I didn't get to keep it) and was loaned the jacket, goggles, boots, ect...to wear. It was a very cool thing. I didn't realize then how big of a deal it was back then. I got a whole page in the newspaper and was on TV even. Very cool. So I know a pretty good amount about her. I had been wanting to see her plane on exhibit since the first time I went to that museum. It never was on exhibit though..until now. Because it's in the movie! How cool is that! I'm so excited I got to see it in person. I REALLY wanted to touch it. Bad bad, me. I really can't wait to see that movie!

I also wanted to post another one of my favorite things that resides at the National Museum of American History. I love the Abraham Lincoln exhibit. Here's the hat he was wearing the night he was shot at Ford's Theatre.

I hate to cut this short, but I've got to run. Mike's in Chicago on business and I have an insanely busy week. I'm watching a friend's 7 month for a few days so am getting to see what it's like to have 3 kids. I won't be doing that, by the way. Have another one, I mean...lol.