DMV

Does that stand for DAMN MOTOR VEHICLE? I don't care where you live, getting tags for your car, and a new license is a PAIN!!! In Kansas City, I think the workers are screened for nastiness. If you aren't bitchy enough, you don't get the job.

In DC, I would not say the workers are pleasant. No, they are more impervious. There is a line to get a #. Not kidding. I waited in line for about 30 minutes, just to get a number to wait for a person to help me. Ouch. I knew I was in trouble at that point.

Once I got to the front, the people giving out the numbers had a comic routine down - "ummmm is she diggin in her bag fo some in-fo-mation? Dit nt she see the sign that sai, Have all yo in-fo-mation out when you get to the front of the line?" I was just trying to get my old id out of the plastic sleeve in my wallet, JEEZE! At least they were good natured, and laughing about it...at my expense.

That was DAY 1 at the DMV. I was denied the new car tags because my name is not on the title.

DAY 2:
Gerred needed his license as well, so we went extra early on Sat. morning to be 1st so we could breeze out of there. We left the boys at home, because we were going to be 1st, and it was only going to take an hour, hour and 1/2 at most....

Gerred failed the eye exam. After 38 years, 24 of them driving, he doesn't pass the eye exam. Our choices were limited. We could: Have Gerred take a day off work, get an eye exam, get car tags, etc... hopefully in the same day. But, our temp DC parking tag was expiring, so, we walked around Georgetown until we found an eye place open. We walked in, they squeezed him in, signed his papers, made his glasses, and after dropping about $1000, off we went to wait in line - AGAIN - for a #.
8 hours later....we got our car tags.
Whew what a day.

At least Gerred looks very GQ in his new specs!!!

Harrison's Birthday!!!

Our big boy is 11! Wow. I don't feel old enough to have an 11 year old. He is so excited to be 11, and pushing the independence like mad! Wants to go to the store by himself - offers to go all the time. I gave him my extra VIC card (like your Price Chopper cards) and he keeps it in his wallet. He loves to use it, and often asks if I need him to go with me to the store so he can offer it up at the register. Funny! We gave him a cell phone for his birthday - to go along with the independence. It may sound like a bad idea, but it has come in quite handy already. I feel better with him "running errands" or walking around Eastern Market with his friends with the cell phone. That way, I can always contact him, and believe me, it is still a novelty, so he is more than happy to text me back at this point.

For his birthday, we had 3 of his classmates over to spend the night, and we went to the DC United (our local pro soccer team) home opener. It was so cool. The stadium is a mile away, so we walked from our house (can you imagine walking to a Royal's game, or a Cheif's?). The kids were really nice boys, and were a lot of fun to be around. Here are some of the pics from that night.

Party Boys:

Harrison, Matthew, Alex, Jack

We think we are funny, adding Smell to the list:

No Evil Here, no mischief either!

They would not let me take a normal picture. All of the pictures are of goofy faces, moving boys, etc. Darn it...just make Mom happy and let me take a picture, darn it!


Everyone, minus Quin, who was being too goofy!


Walking to the game in the misty weather....

In our Alley


this is around the corner from our house...


Of course, what game is complete without noise makers? We were there early enough to take ALL the noise makers from the seats surrounding us, which made us extra noisy and extra great fans. I wish I had invested in ear plugs!


It was all fun until the rowdy (drunk) crowd started falling on us. We ended up having to move back, after the same guy fell on Jack for the 3rd time.
At least it was a bunch of happy drunks, and no bitter brawling. The only violent act we witnesses was a stuffed Piglet doll (not sure of the connection to DC United, or soccer) that the crowd tossed and eventually just Piglet parts were going up in the air. An ear here, a head there, the body, etc.



After plenty of banging, the noise makers find other uses...

I am THE WALRUS - Ku ku kachoo!

The kid on the left is Matthew, he has 5 siblings. His Dad (who is in his mid to late 40s maybe early 50s) rode a skateboard to school today to pick up the kids.
: ) He proudly hefted it up and said "My carbon foot print" when I congratulated him on a successful ride. I like him!

All is well! Sleepy party boys!


The 3 boys Harrison had over were delightful. I laughed a lot. 11 year olds are interesting, and Harrison chose well.

Visitors

We have officially received visitors! Yeah!

Our first visitor was Tessa Smith. Tessa flew in to Baltimore to attend a Leadership conference in DC. I was able to meet her at the airport (despite horrendous traffic on the way to Baltimore) and spend about 1/2 hour with her. Tessa was nice enough to let me hang out with her, even though it was probably embarrassing for her.


Holly and Tessa

On Monday, I ate lunch with Sandie McCray. I met Sandie somewhere in Virginia, at some mall. Couldn't tell you which mall, or which direction. I plugged an address in, gripped the wheel and drove. (I am so reliant on my stinky GPS, I can't even get out of Capitol Hill without it, and I never know which direction I am driving). Capitol Hill traffic is not so bad, but going anywhere else is still tricky for me.

It was so lovely to see Sandie, and fun to catch up on Faith Formation happenings and other Viso stuff. We had a really nice long meal, and visited for hours!

Last Wednesday we had our first official visitors to our new pad - the Sarsons (minus Julie : ( ). Dave, his Mom Marcella, and the kids met us at our house, and we walked all over Capitol Hill. We ended up in Lincoln Park for a typical kids versus adults game of kickball. It was fun that Grammy Marcella played and helped the adults kick butt!

We went to dinner at a place called Matchbox - a hip place on 8th street. The kids sat in a booth by themselves, behaved perfectly, and even organized themselves and ordered on their own. I could tell the waiter was not excited about serving a group of rowdy kids, but they were so great, he told us after dinner that they were the best behaved kids. What a compliment considering that my 3 rowdy boys + Jay Sarson could have been a disaster. No food hurled, no hitting, no fighting. It was great. Maybe it was the long walk and the kickball/football that wore them down and kept them submissive.

Unfortunately, I did not take a single picture. I am bummed about that. However, better than a picture of our sweaty mugs, Kara Sarson sent us this picture the next day. It is amazing!!!


Our new good luck charm

We printed it out, and we carry it with us to watch the Jayhawks play.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk! Thanks Kara!!!!

Field trips

One of the advantages of living in an historical city like this is the opportunity to visit museums and sights. We have been here for almost one month, and haven't really taken advantage - except 2 school field trips I had the privilege of attending.

The first was a trip to Lincoln's cottage - his "camp David" - which he spent every summer except his first in office. The cottage is North of town (I think) and is located next to a retirement home for soldiers which is still in operation today. There is also a huge cemetary on the grounds, with civil war soldiers. It was quite impressive to look at all of the uniform headstones - and there are a ton.

We learned that Lincoln rode a horse into town everyday to work from the cottage, and that his favorite things to do were to play with his sons on the lawn, and spend time with the soldiers. Lincoln is highly revered, still, and since it is the 200th year there were a ton of activities about President Lincoln.

The cottage itself was a little disappointing. Our tour guide was really strange (reminded me of Eugene from Grease) and did not talk about the things that I was interested in. He was so annoying, in fact, that it was difficult to listen to him at all, and the kids were doing very accurate impressions of him halfway through the tour.

Here are some pics of the cottage, and the 5th grade class.

Harrison's 5th grade class outside the Lincoln cabin


Harrison's buddy Jack
The kids were participating in a reenactment of Lincoln's cabinet making the decision about the emancipation.



Harrison's head wasn't quite big enough.

Apparently they don't have the lice problem at this school we had at Vis...still, I refrained from wearing one of the hats on principle. : )


5th Grade class on the steps of Lincoln's summer cottage, where Abe played checkers with the soldiers and overlooked the lawn where his sons played.

The next week, the 3,4 and 5th graders from St. Peter's went on a field trip to Ford's Theater to watch a play. The play was a 2 man deal where the actors reenacted the days following the assassination of President Lincoln. It was pretty good, although I am not sure how much the kids understood. The language was old for them, I think.

We walked to the metro from school, and I had a group of 4 3rd graders - cuties! We played games along the way.


Antonio, Nat, Quin and Andy at school getting ready to leave


Waiting for the metro in the station

It was pretty nerve wracking being responsible for 4 squirelly boys in the metro. It was also my 2nd time to ride the metro, and I had no idea where we were supposed to go, and the groups were a bit scattered...so, I had to ask the 9 year olds in my group where to go. Luckily, little Andy is quite the authority on metro riding. I kept asking "Are you sure that is where we are supposed to stand?" and "Are you sure we aren't supposed to get on the other train?" Andy was so funny, and said "Trust me, I know what I am doing. I ride the metro all the time."

I guess we will be that confident some day.


We made it on the right one... thanks to Andy.


Our group outside Ford's theater



In front of Abe


Inside the theater waiting for the play to start


Boys with Abe


Lincoln's box where the assassination took place

Apparently the box has been untouched for the most part - which I find interesting since Ford's theater was abandoned for years, then was used for offices, and something else before being restored to its original state. During the play, we learned that John Wilkes Booth was an esteemed actor, and therefore had free run of the theater that night because he was "known", which provided him easy access to the box, and allowed him to carry out his plot without anyone really stopping him. He had been "hanging" around the theater earlier in the day, doctored the wall of the booth, so that he could lock it from the inside, and also wrote a letter and gave it to one of the stage hands that would have been incriminating had the stage hand read it early enough. Instead the stage hand followed Booth's instructions which were to take the note to the post in the morning.


I couldn't contain them any longer. They turned into monkeys on the way back.

It was a fun trip! One of many to come, I hope.

Snow Day!!!

Wow! Gerred said it didn't snow that much here. He also said getting Harrison a snow board for Christmas was not a good idea because "He won't ever get to use it in DC".
And last, but not least, Gerred said that school is very rarely canceled in DC. Guess what - today we proved him wrong on all 3 counts. ; )

It started snowing big ol snow flakes last night. It was beautiful, not that cold, and we enjoyed walking the dog in the flurries.

Outside our garage in the Alley



We had watched the Jayhawks womp on Mizzou earlier in the day with our friends Kelly and Andrew, and the Freeds.



Quin and Tillie - future Jayhawks

Today, when we woke up, not only was there a phone call from the PTO president telling us that school had been canceled, but there was about 4 or 5 inches of snow on the ground! Jeni decided we should go sledding in Rock Creek Park. Jon researched and found the best hill in DC.

At first, it was bleak…


Wes and Tillie - not having fun sledding

Then we discovered that it was more fun to watch the big boys sled…


Happier Wes

Harrison was really great on his snow board. He rode it like a pro the very first time down. Jeni and I were amazed at how natural he was at it.


Studly Harrison

Harrison at the bottom after his first successful run


We were having a ball, sledding, and Quin who was unhappy this morning (every morning for that matter)

Sad Quinny putting on a brave face

managed to rally once he found a happy place!

Quin's happy place - a fort

Hollis joins Quin in his fort.

Hollis and Quin

Things really got crazy when some older local boys showed up
And started making human ramps! We were all fascinated.


boy under sled for ramp


another boy catching some air off the ramp

All the while, my sons are watching, and gathering ideas. It is only a matter of time until we have bloodied noses and broken bones from trying out some of this fun! A past great idea has to get bigger the next time…


Now it is a double ramp, and the Howes are watching attentively in the background.


Ramp catastrophe!

Then, along came this crazy yellow lab, who just wanted in on all the fun. He started chasing the kids down the hill while they were sledding.

Here I come Quin!!!

Dog checking out Quin after a wipe out

Little did we know the dog was really just interested in stealing the sleds.


Got one!

Got another one.

Quin trying to rescue a sled

Group effort to get the sled away from the dog

Wes and Tillie really liked watching the dog steal the kids sleds. It was very funny! We watched for a long time.


Wes and pretty goofy Holly


Tillie wanted to take the Doggie home.

Tillie loved the doggie

He's our friend

Wes and Tillie were really good sports. Here is our whole sledding crew, dog friend and all.

Dog, Holly, Wes, Hollis, Harrison, Tillie, Jeni, Quin

Right before we left, Quin gave Harrison’s snow board a try. He was amazing too!!! We have to get these boys to a mountain!

Quin at the top


Way to go Quin!

We are back now relaxing, and darn if it isn’t snowing a little again. It was fun for today, but I hope it doesn’t last too long! : )