Facebook---I'm a little addicted

My friend Kendra (who doesn't have a blog and should) got on Facebook recently and raved and raved about it. She's been able to get in contact with a bunch of old high school friends and renew old friendships. For her that's a good thing...I'm not sure I want to renew any old high school friendships (other then the ones that I already have...and yes, Kim I so need to email you!).


But I was curious.....

So I got on....

It's so much fun. I can't even tell you what's fun about it, there's some sort of voyeuristic pleasure to type in names from the past and see those people pop up. You can only see their profiles if you become 'friends' with them and I don't particularly want to do that. So it is a bummer that my voyeuristic wants can't be met with more information. You can, however, see their friend lists. What's interesting is that the popular people are still friends with the other popular people. (I wasn't popular or unpopular -- I had a solid group of friends and got along with everyone else, just didn't go to the parties, or date or such....looking back, I think that's an enviable way to survive high school).

Last night, after a very satisfying date night (get your mind out of the gutter...it was great, because after the typical movie and dinner time, we parked the car watched the lightening storm and TALKED), Jason and I created a facebook page for him and spent a good couple hours looking for his old high school friends. Yeah, yeah, we need a life...but that's going to have to wait until our kiddos are out on their own.

I think that it's one of those things that will be a lot of fun at first, but will fade, then when people contact you, you'll have a couple days of more obsessive interest. But it will never replace blogging.

Freaky Friday Forwards

I just thought this one was funny....score one for mom.

Brian invited his mother over for dinner. During the course of the meal Brian’s mother couldn't help but notice how beautiful Brian’s roommate, Jennifer, was. Brian’s mom had long been suspicious of a relationship between Brian and Jennifer, and this had only made her more curious.

Over the course of the evening, while watching the two interact, she started to wonder if there was more between Brian and Jennifer then met the eye.

Reading his mom’s thoughts, Brian volunteered. “I know what you must be thinking, but I assure you Jennifer and I are just roommates.”

About a week later, Jennifer came to Brian saying, “Ever since you mother came to dinner, I’ve been unable to find the silver gravy ladle. You don’t suppose she took it, do you?”

Brian said, “Well, I doubt it, but I’ll send her an e-mail just to be sure.”

He wrote:
Dear Mom,
I’m not saying that you did take the gravy ladle from the house. I’m not saying that you didn’t. But the fact remains that one has been missing ever since you were here for dinner.

Love, Brian

Some days later, Brian received an email back from his mother that read:

Dear Son,
I’m not saying that you do sleep with Jennifer, I’m not saying that you don’t. But the fact remains that if Jennifer is sleeping in her own bed, she would have found the gravy ladle by now.

Love, Mom

LESSON OF THE DAY – NEVER LIE TO YOUR MOTHER

Wordless Wednesday

What I am reading...... What I'd rather be reading

Birth Stories

Guys...you may want to skip this one.

Any Mommy Out There posted a birthing story and challenged her readers to post their own in her comments. I just posted a comment about how great her story was and how much I enjoyed reading her blog, blah, blah, the usual (she's a great writer by the way).

and.she.emailed.me.wanting.me.to.tell.my.story.

I love telling my birth story, I love hearing other birth stories. Funny L&D Nurse (who has not posted in a long long time) collected birth stories from her readers and posted them. It's how I e-met (is that a word) Sitting in Silence. She had posted a birth story there and I responded and well the rest is history -- now I, and the rest of my real world neighborhood are trying to get her to move here. Birth stories were the reason I wanted to be a L&D nurse. I think it would be so awesome to be in the presence of a miracle like that on a daily basis. To encourage, help, love on a woman in her most vulnerable, yet most courageous strong moments. Alas, my clinical experience in the L&D department made me realize that L&D nurses are (for the most part) not like that. What they seemed to do was sit on the labor deck, complain and gossip, watch the monitors and go jump in the room when the laboring woman was about to 'blow'. Not how I envisioned my new mid-life career going. This turned out to be quite the long preamble to my birth stories...here you go.

Jake:

Three weeks before my due date I went in for another ultra-sound. Jake, and we knew he was Jake at that point, was measuring big. Thankfully we went because that ultrasound showed that my amniotic fluid was dangerously low and he was breech. The radiologist left the room and I looked at Jason and said, looks like a C-section today or tomorrow. He, in his - Oh my goodness my wife is getting hysterical and she's coming to conclusions with out the facts - voice tells me to calm down (by the way, I just made the statement, I wasn't crying, upset or anything that would indicate I was somehow freaking out). We head over to the OB and in the car he calls his office to put in his breakfast order for the next day's breakfast meeting -- after all we have THREE MORE WEEKS. I, calmly, tell him it made me nervous that he was planning on going to work the next day, as I didn't think he was going to make it. He rolled his eyes at me. We get to the OB office and he jokingly says to the nurse, "Oh my gosh, Tracey is freaking out, she thinks we're going to have this baby now" The nurse replies, "yeah, as soon as we heard about the breech and low amniotic fluid we booked an OR, you'll be having this baby tomorrow at 8am).

Jason turned ashen white and had to sit down, muttering something about three more weeks and he wasn't ready...who's freaking out now buddy.

I had horrible morningdaynight sickness the entire 8.25 months AND I couldn't eat for 12 hours prior to the surgery so I was not feeling very well. They gave me the spinal, laid me down flat on my back and I told anyone who would listen I was going to get sick. They hand Jason that ridiculous little kidney shaped bowl and the doctors and nurses all stepped back, I turned to the side and threw up. Good thing Jason was in scrubs, because nothing got in that bowl. I laid back down, told all who would listen I was feeling better and they proceeded. Jason, bless his heart, didn't complain, just took my hand and was there for me. They opened me up, pulled out Jake, bottom first but then his head got stuck. I could feel them tugging and pulling and discussing whether they should cut some more, then I heard a POP, kind of like when you put your finger on the inside of your mouth and flick it...that kind of popping noise, and he was out.

But he wasn't crying. He wasn't moving. And he was a very strange shade of blue.

No one said anything.

The pediatric crew scooped him up, took him and revived him. It seemed like an eternity but I think it was only a couple of minutes later we heard a cry. There was a collective sigh of relief. My doctors proceeded to sew me back up. The Peds guys let me take a quick peek at Jake and they whisked him away for some O2 therapy. Five hours later I was holding him in my arms, close to my heart and was in complete awe.

I think if you could bottle that feeling of when you first meet your baby you could make millions.

I'll post Isaac's story later -- I have to take the kiddos to school......How quickly they grow.

In case you were wondering how suburban housewives have fun....

Holy cow, if you haven't seen it, grab a couple of girl friends (or your favorite gay man) and go already. It's been a long time since I have laughed that hard -- I mean tears rolling down my face and can't breath--laughing so hard. Even the- beautiful- didn't- take- his- shirt- off- enough-with-a- great -accent- wouldn't- kick -him -out- of -bed- Pierce Brosnan made us laugh with his very heart felt but very badly executed singing...that's okay Pierce we all drowned you out with our very own singing (and I can honestly say, my vocal ability is even worse then Pierce's). No one got up and danced in the aisles though, Martha tried and I almost did it but...the WASP side of my waspina nature won out on that one (sorry Martha).

And the fun did not stop there....

The thirteen (yes, Dodi made the connection that we were enough for a coven) of us went on to McCabe's to have drinks and dinner (they have a really yummy spinach, strawberry and feta salad -- by the way). Somehow our side of the table where, Aimee, N (a non blogger buddy who may or may not want to be mentioned), Colleeno and I were sitting, started talking about cleavage. Aimee went on to say that the blouse she was wearing showed a little too much, N was reassuring her that it was not....and well, I laughingly told her that, oh yeah there was plenty....so

She pulls her shirt down

and says "like this much tracey" JUST AS THE WAITER CAME BY TO TAKE HER DRINK ORDER. (Now mind you she didn't really show anything....just a bit more cleavage...seriously you see girls walking around showing more without trying to be funny) BUT she turned 20 shades of red, could barely get out her drink order (soda by the way---seriously this woman does not need to drink to loosen up). She tells the waiter that she needs a warning the next time he comes our way.....so the next time he stops by to take our food order, he doesn't say, "I'm here", Or "I'm coming, get ready"...he comes and says, "I'm ready for you." Again, Aimee turns 20 other shades of red. N and I politely remind Aimee that she is old.enough.to.be.his. mother. and then the waiter turns a couple shades of red himself.

It doesn't end there.....

We enjoy our dinner, our conversation is all over the place...is it that we're women, that we have such diverse interests, we all of ADD? I'm not sure but we really talked a lot about a lot. Ms. Martha came by from her side of the table (making the rounds, Ms. Martha is a very gracious hostess and checks on all to make sure they're having a good time). We told her the cleavage story and then N and Aimee got into a whose chest is bigger (N by the way) Aimee goes on to say (or was it N now I can't remember) that N may have the biggest chest there (seriously how do we get on to these subjects) Ms. Martha says "oh, no D would win that category" (again, not sure how D would feel about my recounting this story). Martha calls D from the other side of the table....D says that hands down she would win....no we did not measure...they just gave their bra sizes and the matter was put to rest.

I'm thinking that the other patrons and staff were happy to see us leave.

So there you have it people, this is how we have fun....it's really nothing like you see on Desperate Housewives...just good plain somewhat clean fun.

Hope you all are having a fabulous weekend too.

And the Winner Is.....

Freaky Friday Forwards

Chief Rock Chef has the honors of coming up with that one. He's on my list of "People I don't know but stalk anyway" list below. I'd just link him here but for some reason I can't seem to get my link capabilities back. The prize is for me to pick out a book for the winner based on his/her blog. So here's the question Chief Rock Chef....shall I post a picture of your prize here and ruin your surprise or would you like to do the honors when you receive it (which will be weeks away because you're across the pond). Anyhow CRC---email me with your address (should you choose to accept the prize).

Now...I'm going to brag about my great neighborhood (Danielle...when are you going to move here!) We're a pocket of older homes (and by that I mean houses built in the 80's and 90's) we're surrounded by a lot of luxury homes built much more recently. The people who live in this pocket are salt of the earth, down to earth, middle to upper-middle income households. For a suburb we also have quite a bit of ethnic diversity and I think because of the very similar economic back grounds there really isn't a lot of strife. Here's a typical day...I was driving home after dropping off the kids and Colleen waved to me from her front porch, she was watering her plants. I waved back, and then before I was even home (9 houses away) I called her and asked, "was that a 'hi' wave or a 'come over and have coffee wave'" she laughed and said come on over. I parked and walked back and we had an impromptu coffee chat. Then yesterday afternoon we gathered at the pool (Martha emailed all saying she would be there and would we all like to join her). Ms. Martha brought snacks galore. Almost half of Jake's new 3rd grade class was there, Isaac had a few friends there too and the adults were milling around chatting with each other. I don't think anyone could have planned a party better then that. We have a neighborhood girls night out to see Mama Mia planned in the near future. These are all women who I so enjoy, they're smart, loving and I'm so blessed to have landed here. Now don't get me wrong, it's not perfect, there are a few odd balls around the place (I actually may be one of them..hahaha) but for the most part everyone gets along, the kiddos get along, we have a great pool, beautiful parks, good school and nice solid people. You can't ask for much more then that.

WW a first and a last (well not so last, day before last)

First day of school was yesterday. It was also the first time I didn't pick out their clothes or buy them something special to wear.
Our last breakfast before leaving (ok this is when I still thought we were leaving THAT day) -- can anyone say sunblock -- and maybe I should have worn some.
At the airport trying to figure out what we should do for the next 24 hours.

Jason looking up how many Hilton Points we have (here's a plus to all the traveling he had to do prior to going into management). And yay, we had enough to stay at a place close to the airport and with a swimming pool.

I'm a total idiot or yipee we have another day in DC

So we booked our flight quite awhile ago and I swear we were supposed to fly out on Sunday. That's how I marked it off on my calender. That's why I promised two different friends I'd watch their kiddos on Monday. That's why when my brother called to see if he could book a White House tour on Sunday we said we couldn't. Sooooo, it was quite the shock to us when after a fantastic brunch, and a nice ride to the airport from my brother, we got to the ticket counter and the agent kindly informed us that our flight out was actually the NEXT DAY.
I have never never been this stupid in my entire life! Seriously. I can't tell you how organized I was with every freakin' detail of this trip, I even had a trip folder with lots of little pockets, for ID's, Tickets, confirmation numbers. I booked hotels, attractions, rental cars and then I do this.
So rather then calling my very nice brother and his lovely bride, we used some 'Hilton Points' and are staying at the Embassy Suites by the Hotel. (Seriously J & G, we figured you'd want to spend some time with Luis without the craziness of four other people, I KNOW you wouldn't have minded...)

Did we decide to cram in one more day of sights? NOPE, we played in the pool, we're going to have room service and watch movies.
So, my second post of the day....but hey, I have plenty of down time right now to play on the computer....so I will post pictures of our very last...ok what we thought would be our last...full day in D.C.
oh and....this hotel does not offer HGTV and so I'm going to miss the finale of Design Star (gasp - the horror.....)

My two brothers, Jason, Jake and Me. Isaac was less then thrilled with the East Wing Tour that morning that he decided to go swimming with Aunt Gina while the rest of us went. We couldn't take any pictures of the inside, but let me just say the Oval Office was so COOL.

The press room

The entrance to the West Wing. When you go to the White House you enter by whatever wing door you arrive by...so if you come from the east you enter by the North East door, that way no one is offended by arriving from the "back" door. All the doors are equal. What did Jake find most interesting? How loaded down some of the gaurds were with weapons. He's nine, he's a boy, maybe some day he'll realize the great honor we were given to be able to visit the part of the White House where policy is set and things happen. Well a mother can hope can't she.

Washington Monument, Lincoln Monument and the Mall

If you're going to visit Washington DC anytime soon, I suggest you get online and order your tickets for the monument, it saves you some time in line and ensures you get a spot. You can have them sent to you for a small fee or you can have them ready at the ticket office. The monuments and the Smithsonian are all free.
view of the White House from the Washington Monument. We were stuck up there for awhile. Someone had left a cooler with their stroller so the police had to come and check it out before more people could go up and we could come back down.

It's hard to grasp how grand the statue of Lincoln is until you go. The whole structure is white, and pristine, it's beautiful and I imagine very peaceful when it is not crawling with tourists.


I thought it was so interesting in how it represents the amount of international visitors to the Smithsonian. We, of course, given who my husband is, visited the Air and Space Museum. We didn't have time for the Art or American history museums which really would have been more my speed....next time. I think you could spend a month here and not see all of the museums.

This tree was in a sculpture garden on the Mall. You write down a wish and place it on the tree. There were some very beautiful sentiments. Jake wished for an end to global warming (and really, I had no idea he has even thought of that) he even drew a car with smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe with an x through it. Isaac wished for the end to hunger for children. That was with some prompting from me. He first wished for a DS game then we had to have an explanation of what a wish for the global good would be.....

We are now off for brunch and then the plane, I can honestly say that, while I've had a wonderful time visiting our Nation's capital and the nation's beginnings, I'm glad to be headed home. Tomorrow I'll post our White House Pictures then back to my mundane postings and of course catching up with all my friends, blogging and in the hood.

Day 4 & 5 -- Jamestown Settlement & Busch Gardens

Trying to play catch up...We arrived in DC last night from Williamsburg about 9:30pm. We drove through a torrential down pour the whole way up, that combined with having to stop for bathroom breaks, gingerale breaks (kid who gets carsick) it took us awhile to get here. I think normally it's a 2 1/2 -3 hour trip. We went to Busch Gardens yesterday. It was a fun break from history for the kiddos.

Jamestown Settlement

The Powanhat Indians would make their boats out of Cypress trees by burning the wood then scraping it out with oyster shells.

One of the settlement houses
Carrying water from the well
Jake protecting the settlement from the Indians or the Spanish
Church is so much more comfortable these days. This was also where they created law and enforced it. The appointed governor would appoint his council and when they were able to cross over to the legislative side of the building they "passed the bar" (in case you ever wondered where that term came from)

And these were the officers slept. The passengers slept on pads that were laid on top of the cargo.


The Indian Village. I found it interesting that these Indians weren't the nomadic Indians that we're used to in the Western part of the United States. They had a variety of villages with one Chief that oversaw all the villages.

Check out the shelving area...primitive ELFA shelving, my kinda home.
I thought the structure of the huts was interesting.

I think Jamestown was my favorite of the Historic triangle. It's amazing to see what the first English Settlers had to go through to get this country going, the sacrifices they made, the enterprise, the strength and the will they possessed.


Busch Gardens....it was hot, but they boys had a blast! The place was very clean, the gardens beautiful and a nicely laid out amusement park.

Front row!
Roman Rapids, seriously get prepared to get wet on this ride....of course this was the last ride they went on so the poor kiddos were soaked when we got in the car.

Yorktown

Yorktown is where one of the decisive battles of the revolution was fought. Here's the battlefield.

We walked around the battle field, to the point where Isaac was begging to go into the museum....So there's one way to get a kid to want to go to a museum is drag them around the hot humid heat of the South and then they'll so enjoy the airconditioning of the museum.
At the Victory Center at Yorktown they had a camp replicating what might have been.
They displayed all the current medical instruments and gave a talk about what people knew about germ theory (nothing) and how doctors of the time treated the ill and injured...just be very very glad you're alive now!

Officer's tent
Commander's tent
They enlisted Jake to help load the cannon

This small cannon is what won the battle. They were able to lob bombs over the enemy's barricade rather then the traditional method of breaking through the barricade. The siege at Yorktown lasted 10 days rather then the usual 30-40 days.

Day 2 -- Colonial Williamsburg

We walked to Colonial Williamsburg from the visiting center, it's a nice 10 minute walk with a side attraction of a tobacco farm, built by volunteers in the manner that they would have used in the late 1600's, early 1700's when this area was being cultivated. The visitor's center also has a shuttle service that makes a circuit around Colonial Williamsburg, the bus runs almost every 5-10 minutes.

These pictures were from one of the first mental hospitals in the U.S. (grr I can't get the inserted link thing going...so here's a link if you want further info http://www.cwf.org/almanack/places/hb/hbhos.cfm ) This was particularly fun for me, because the text book I chose to bring for my 'light' reading was Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing.

Everything is so green and lush here. Maybe because it's like 600 degrees and 120% humidity. I was MELTING...I will never never complain (yeah right) about our measly 95 degree weather again...I mean at least it's a dry heat.
Is Isaac upset about being under British rule? Nope, he just wants some ice-cream (did I mention it was HOT) Katrina, we took this picture for you...just in case you were feeling homesick.

This is what a tobacco plant looks like while it's growing. That was the major crop for this area. If it was regular middle class/upper middle class, non-gentry farm, the owners worked side by side with his slaves, wife and children to grow, harvest and bring the crop to market.

Some old fashioned 'canning' pretty sure they didn't call in canning though.

The kitchen at the Governor's Palace. Williamsburg was the original Capital of the Virginias. Oh by the way, Virginia was named by Lord Raleigh who was given the land, ALL the land. He named it after Queen Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen. Later, when the Crown needed more money and other younger sons and rich merchants wanted to buy land (and none was left in England because of the whole first son gets everything rule) the King brought Raleigh up for charges of treason and was able to get the deed for the land and started giving it out. Anyhow, the first three governors of Williamsburg were appointed by the king and lived at the Governor's Palace. Patrick Henry was the first elected Governor after the revolution and then Jefferson. Jefferson then moved the capitol to it's present day location in Richmond.

The boys learning how to throw grenades...old school.

Governor's Palace...(OK, not really palatial when you compare it to what's in Europe, but for one of our earlier buildings, pretty darn palatial!)

This is what happens to kids who whine too much!

I wish my garden could look like this. Hot sweaty Isaac, Hot sweaty exhausted mommy.

ooops, two pictures of the garden, I must really have liked it...
We went on a ghost tour (if you're interested we highly recommend this private service http://www.williamsburgprivatetours.com/ghost.htm) John was our guide and he's a great story teller. Along with the local history lessons, ghost stories he also had the boys enact the ending of Black Beard's life. Isaac and Jake both got a little scared, Isaac saw ghosts around every corner by the time the tour was finished. He and I actually didn't partake in the last stop where we were to meet the 15 year old ghost, Emma, who was run over by a carriage while sneaking out of a house to meet a boy. Apparently she likes to give boys ghostly kisses. Jake was all for partaking, Isaac, not so much.
This is where ghost, Grandma Peaches lives, she stands at the window looking for her grandson, who had died climbing a tree across the street (his ghost is sometimes seen in that tree). The kids need to wave and say "Hi, Grandma Peaches, I'm not your grandson" Here's Jake waving.

It was a fun day, we learned a lot, saw a lot and sweated a whole bunch!