Monday, August 10, 2009

10 Glimpses Into Our Lives

Our suite here at Temporary Lodging. The bed is Stephen's hide-a-bed which was out for his afternoon rest time. You can see Abby's bed in the corner behind the chairs. The bathroom and bedroom are to the right off the kitchen.


  1. Leaving to run an errand at 4:58 p.m. while living on base proves to be a bad idea. All traffic comes to a halt while Revelry and The Star-Spangled Banner play over the loudspeaker at 5. On a positive note, Stephen loves hearing it and we have been going out on the balcony every day as soon as he hears it!
  2. When I work out, it's called "exercise." When Ryan does, it's called "PT." There are several fitness facilities on base. On Saturday morning, I went to one while Ryan stayed at our room with the kids. What a shock it was to walk out of the weight room and see the gym lined with M-16s! There were about 50 Marines in there doing some sort of group activity.
  3. When we first got here, everything seemed so BROWN. But I think I've gotten used to it. The grass ... the buildings ... even the couch and bedspread are brown ... the brightest colors are the beautiful peppers! There's a water restriction in San Antonio and I found out yesterday that we get to water our lawn in our new house on Wednesdays.
  4. Thank goodness for a DVD player. Stephen watches Sound of Music almost every day, and knows some of the lines and songs by heart. Never mind that he thinks the captain sings "Eggo Bite." At least it amuses him.
  5. On Saturday, both kids took late naps, so we knew bedtime wouldn't be at 8 like normal. I surfed the local online calendars, and we found a free movie in a park near downtown. It was fun to go there, lay a blanket on the lawn, an watch the first half hour of Night at the Museum with the kids. There was also popcorn and a "mist tent" that the kids LOVED.
  6. Stephen tells me everyday, "Abby likes trucks. And I like cars. And buses. And little buses. Especially that bus ..." (pointing to the blood donor bus across the street from our room) At the blood donor building, there are signs outside for donors to line up according to blood type. I love it ... some things are really efficient around here. Other things, not so much.
  7. I'm slowing learning Spanish. Last night while looking through Sunday's coupons, I learned that it's good to Ahorre when buying groceries!
  8. You'd think it would be easy to find some of the grocery options that I had in little Urbana, IL. But it's not. I have been searching aisles for a bulk spice display like they have at the coop and at Strawberry Fields (both within walking distance from our house in Urbana). Finally, I found Sun Harvest today, but it's at least 20 minutes driving from our house. It'll be a special occasion store, I suppose.
  9. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to live near so many airplanes. Every time we drive by the graduation grounds (across the street from our living quarters), Stephen shouts out "look at that airplane" for each one we pass. And I know he's looking at each one of them because sometimes it varies: "ooh, look at that little airplane!"
  10. Abby has become quite a helper around the house. Her new favorite thing to do is to throw things in the garbage. Diapers (no way we're doing cloth right now!), wrappers ... anything I ask her to take there ... she'll march right over, open the can, put her loot in there, close it, then walk back across the room grinning from ear to ear and clapping to congratulate herself. Right now I'm going to march both of my little helpers down the balcony to the laundry room to put clothes in the dryer ...

4 comments:

Kathy said...

Loved your descriptions - and don't remember the 5pm music. I do remember the exclamations while driving by the airplanes, though. Try livemocha.com for free, interactive Spanish learning.

Lisa said...

they don't do the music on the weekends. on the thursday of the coin ceremony i think we were at godfather's.

Laurie said...

:) these made me smile. Thanks for sharing.

Shannon said...

So glad to see you guys are getting settled and have arrived safely! Good luck w/ the house!