The Month of Christmas

December has flown by and we are two days away from Christmas. We are finished shopping. I was finished a week ago and George finished last night. For those of you that don't know my husband well, this was ahead of schedule. He is the last minute shopper and is so proud of himself for getting it WAY before Christmas. I just asked him if he was going to wrap the gifts tonight. He shook his head and said, "Definitely tomorrow." LOL.

This past weekend we headed up to New Jersey to celebrate an early Christmas with George's family. The drive there was brutal. It usually takes 4 to 4 1/2 hours and this was a good 7 to 7 1/2 hour drive this time. There was lots of traffic and a few accidents. We were told to expect snow showers in Virginia Friday evening and continuing through Saturday. In New Jersey it wasn't supposed to snow until Saturday and stop Sunday. Perfect for our travels. We saw a beautiful snow storm Saturday night in New Jersey and Jakob and his cousins spent hours shoveling the sidewalk, driveway and grass.

On Sunday morning they were all up at 7 wanting to go out. The snow was 6 or 7 inches by then. We made them wait until 8 and out they went for hours of snow fun. We set out for Virginia around 3 and made excellent time. We were home by 8 with a dinner break and some traffic in Virginia. We were amazed at the height of the snow when we got home. I would estimate 16 to 17 inches. We were very grateful to have the Pilot as we had to plow our way up our driveway and into our garage. We actually had to shovel out the snow we had plowed into the garage from the underside of the Pilot. It was a lot of snow.

Monday was a day off for all of Northern Virginia. They shut down everything from schools to military bases. We spent most of the day digging our way out. It took us 3 1/2 hours to get the driveway cleared. The major roads were fine, it was just the side streets the plows had yet to do

Tuesday we ventured out to see Santa and finish up George's shopping. Still no plow in our neighborhood. We have since given up on them coming.

Wednesday we went to an amazing event called ICE! at the Gaylord Hotel at The National Harbor. If you ever get a chance to see this take it. It was beautiful and a great family event. You walk-through a winter wonderland carved entirely of ice... TWO MILLION POUNDS to be exact. It is kept at 9 degrees and it was beautiful. We had a really fun time.

We will be on our own for Christmas this year. It is the first time for all of us. We are hosting a small get together Christmas evening and then my mom will be in the next evening. We are so grateful for a wonderful year. We've had our trials and our tribulations. We've learned many things this year and we are looking forward to another wonderful year in Virginia.

Have a Merry, Merry Christmas.

"I want to go to school today ...

because you won't be there!" This is what I heard from my 7-year-old. The first few words were music to my ears. We have been struggling for some time with school and how "un-fun" it is. I was thinking yeah this is wonderful ... or not. His last few words were said because I had told him to make his bed on a "non-making bed day" The horror. I let it go for a little while. I did say, "Nice," but then let him go brush his teeth. When he came back into my room I told him what he said really hurt my feelings. He broke down crying and apologizing. My sweet, sweet Jakob. I love him and his kind heart. And the bed was made with no extra comments.

Thanksgiving

Of course I am still behind in my posts.
This Thanksgiving we had George's parents with us. I have to say it was the best Thanksgiving meal I have ever made. My philosophy this year was to keep it simple. Sure you hear that saying all the time, but do you really ever try to live it? I had a few friends buy the prepared dinner from Wegmans or Whole Foods. That was definitely the simplest approach and I may try that some year. I did run around like a crazy person the week prior to Thanksgiving. Shopping at 4 different grocery stores, cleaning every room in the house and preparing the menu for the 4 days we would have guests. However, this year my "simple" was a pared down menu with some really good dishes. The preparation for the dinner was an all day event. But, isn't it supposed to be? My usual problem is trying to do too many dishes that were too complex. This year my menu was:

Rosemary Roasted Organic Turkey 13lbs
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans and Shallots
Cranberry Citrus Sauce
Carrot and Chestnut Soup
Rosemary Bread
Apple Pie w/ whipped cream
Mint Pie

To make things stress free Jakob, George and I made a few dishes before hand and really had a good time measuring and cooking together. I used a few Schwan items to cut down on preparation time and I only made one vegetable and one potato. George's mom made the apple pie. Dinner was planned for 2 PM and everything was on the table by 2:15 PM. All the items were hot and the turkey was moist and delicious. My favorite dish was the carrot soup. I have made it 3 times now and we love it. The bread was wonderful too and Jakob loved that everything was homemade. He was in awe. He said, "It must be an important holiday. Mommy is cooking from scratch. She never does that." In my defense, most of our dinners are from scratch. They are usually things like spaghetti or chicken and veggies. I think he was most impressed with the bread. I rarely make fresh bread and he got to help a lot.
It was a wonderful meal with lots of family time. We played many games and shared many stories. Jakob is starting to understand and appreciate traditions. We checked a book out of the library about pilgrims and have had a wonderful time learning about the pilgrim children and the significance of celebrating Thanksgiving.

The Treadmill

The last few weeks have been emotionally trying on George and I. (probably Jakob too) We haven't had any tragedies or anything horrible happen we were just really down and tired. I finally asked George what he thought our problem was. He made an observation that was so simple yet so true. We were functioning like we were on a treadmill. Lots of effort, really tired from running yet getting nowhere. The stresses of the last few months have really caught up to us. Our family is used to getting answers, fixing problems and moving on. God has given us a few trials these last few months that we have been unable to get answers, fix the problems and move on from.
Jakob is still struggling with school. He has made great strides in overcoming his separation anxiety and the overwhelming difference of kindergarten and 1st grade. However, we are still very concerned with his teachers views and personality. We are constantly battling the inconsistencies we are seeing in her discipline and expectations.
George has been in training to fly the GIII for his new job since the second week of September. He has been unable to get qualified in the airplane to actually fly missions. Not because he isn't ready but because of scheduling issues with the planes or the planes keep breaking. He has gotten up at 4:45 am and driven 35 minutes at least 4 times to find out the plane was broken or they had to use it for something else. He is very frustrated with the process and we hope it all comes together before the holidays.
So after much discussion we have decided to enjoy the little things we have been able to conquer as a family and be content with not having all the answers yet and letting God show us what His plan is. It's a trial some days, but most days it is a lot easier than running on that treadmill.

Still Catching Up

Stage 1 - Jakob's Make-Up

Stage 2 - George's Make-Up

Stage 3 - The costumes

Stage 4 - BJ joins in the fun!

The Friday after Jakob's birthday we had my mom and her husband in town for a visit. We had a soccer practice that was cancelled due to muddy fields. We went anyway and kicked the ball around for awhile. Saturday was the game. Finally. We had missed several games due to weather and it was nice to finally see Jakob play. After the game it was pumpkin carving time. We almost missed it. That evening Jakob and George dressed up as clowns and headed out into the neighborhood to get some candy. As in previous years our doorstep was not visited often and we handed out very little candy and Playdoh. I am always tickled to hear the older kids get so excited about Playdoh. I bought two packages 3 years ago thinking I would give it all away. I still have one whole package left and few singletons from the other package. We just don't get the kids in Virginia.

Monday and Tuesday were days off from school for the kids because of election day. It is one of the perks of living so close to D.C. It's a BIG deal here. On Tuesday we took a walk around our favorite lake, Mercer Lake, a saw all the beautiful foliage. It was a wonderful visit with my mom and Roger.

Missed a month!

The pictures:

Jakob is 7!!

Concentrating hard while painting his plate.

Jakob did not request toys for his birthday. It was a dust pan and broom, a grabber and the Hannah Montana movie. Who's child is this?

October is always a crazy month for me. Jakob's birthday is at the end and we have many visitors. This year was no different. I have not uploaded pictures from any of our events and I might get around to it before Thanksgiving. So check back often as things may change frequently.

Here is a preview of our September/October events:

George was in Texas for sim training. He had class for a little over three weeks. Jakob was not thrilled with going to school every day and with George being gone it was an even bigger battle. Once George was back in town things got a little easier for all of us. Jakob is beginning to enjoy some aspects of school and has shown improvement in his reading and writing. Yeah!

The Friday before Jakob's birthday my dad and his wife flew in just in time to attend the Fall Festival at Jakob's school and a soccer practice. George's parents drove down from New Jersey that night and met us at our house later that evening. Saturday was filled with soccer pictures, costume buying, soccer game (which was rained out 10 minutes after we got there) and shopping for birthday gifts. Sunday was church and a party at Color Me Mine in Fairfax Corner. There were 6 very well-behaved children painting pottery for an hour. It was amazing how patient they were in painting their pieces. We had ice cream cake, pictures, balloons and headed home for goodbyes to the New Jersey clan and prepare for Choir practice at 5. WHEW!!

For Jakob's birthday we headed to Coastal Flats in Fairfax Corner for his favorite kids meal of steak and fries. We had dessert at a gourmet cupcake shop. The next day my dad and his wife left and we prepared for our next visitors just before Halloween. I am beginning to realize why I fell behind in my blogging. Did I mention I caught a cold in between Jakob's party and Halloween? I'll finish the next weekends happenings in a later post. It could be next week or it could be next month. You never know.

Game 2

Jakob's soccer team had their first practice Friday night and their second game today. They decided on a name for their team: The Bald Eagles. It is a very hard name to say when you are cheering. Jakob did an amazing job of handling the ball and working his way down the field. He scored the first goal for his team and he loves it. The weather was perfect and the game was fun.

Go Bald Eagles!!!

Burke Athletic Club

This year Jakob is playing league soccer for Burke Athletic Club (BAC). Their first practice was Friday, Sept. 11th. Alas, it poured down rain that day and practice was cancelled. Saturday, Sept. 12th was their first game. These children had never met their coach, their teammates and some had never played soccer before and did not know anything about positioning. The coach requested we be there 10 minutes prior to the start of the game to meet each other. Meet they did and the game began. There are 10 players on each team and they split the teams in half and play 4 on 4 with one sub. The other team had obviously practiced. They knew each others names and knew what positions to play for 4 v 4. Amazingly enough our team, dubbed the "blue team" because they had not gotten together yet to choose a name, played so well it was a tie game when all was said and done. The kids didn't care and score was not kept by the coaches, only the parents. The best part for most of the kids was the tunnel of parents at the end of the game. Gooooooo "Blue Team!!"

This Friday we are hoping for a practice. But we know we'll have lots of fun at the Saturday game even if there is no practice. However, the name will have to change because they will be wearing their red uniform. Goooooooo "Red Team!!"

First Day

Jakob started 1st grade this past Tuesday. This year he is attending a public school close to our home. I am second guessing our choice of schools after only 4 days however. I am not happy with the teacher he has and I have been unimpressed by the school administration. We have been supremely blessed the last three years with wonderful teachers and well run schools. We are struggling with the number of children that greet us everyday and the numerous staff we are trying to get answers from. Jakob, from day 1, has not wanted to go to school. He has yet to make a connection with his teacher and struggles to enter her classroom each day. His first day was not ideal. It was pouring down rain, we didn't have any idea what the procedures were for getting to the classroom and there was no recess or time to talk. We are working out the kinks and are considering this our learning year. On a positive note, we will be stronger and better problem solvers at the end of this year.


Jakob is coping and learning that not everything is easy. He is adjusting to a full day and the many different rules this school enforces. He is a great kid and we are hoping this school year will be just a fulfilling as his others.

Swim Lessons

Once again we enrolled in a program called SwimKids. We loved the teaching philosophy and the results of last summer. We were not disappointed this year either. Jakob took 3 sessions over the summer and can now freestyle across the pool. He even learned to do the rotary breathing the last two days of the last session. The technique is perfect and he looks amazing going across the pool. We are so happy with his progress and even though it was a 35 minute drive each way for a 30 minute lesson we will be signing up again next year. I watched a few of his friends swimming this summer and his technique is so much better. The levels he passed this year taught him how to bend his arms for each stroke, rotate his shoulders so he could side breath and prepared him for learning the breast and butterfly stroke next year. We love this program and he has such a great time achieving each level.

New Assignment

George worked his last day at the Pentagon yesterday and started his new job today. He is now at Andrews AFB and will soon be flying a GIII. No more desk job and a lot more time in the cockpit. A pilots dream. He is so excited to be in a squadron atmosphere and can't wait to start his training. Always the pessimist, he is worried about his check rides already. We know he'll do great and have a great time with the 89th. Tonight we celebrated with dinner at Panera's (George's favorite sandwich is there) and an ice cream cake from Friendly's. Perfect.

Lost Tooth #3

Last Friday Jakob and I headed to the Pentagon to meet with George for lunch and get a new ID for me. (I misplaced my other one) A few days earlier Jakob had bit into a carrot and loosened a tooth. It was loose enough that he could lay it down onto his lip. I told him on the Metro he could be one of the first people to loose a tooth in the Pentagon because I didn't think it happened very often. He said, "Unless someone knocks it out." Boys and their violent minds!!


Many of you have been in the military long enough to know that getting anything done takes patience and perseverance. Jakob used this thought process for getting his tooth out. While we were arguing with the ID person on what the requirements were for obtaining a new ID Jakob diligently wiggled and pulled at his loose tooth. When the conversation became heated on how inept the front desk people were when giving out information over the phone Jakob popped out his tooth and exclaimed, "I did it!!" The tension was broken and the conversation turned to how great it was he lost his tooth. In the end we got my ID with little more time lost and Jakob gets to tell everyone he lost a tooth in the Pentagon. All in all a productive day.

Wichita Visit

Last week Jakob and I visited Wichita. We spent a lot of time in Tutu's pool and a lot of time around GranPa's lake. We also spent some time with my cousins and their kids. It was great to catch up on everything.

Driving a go-cart @ Allstar Sports.

Mini-golf @ Allstar Sports. Jakob thought the color of the water was way off.

Kookaburra @ Sedgwick County Zoo. We saw the baby donkey too!

Bubbles with Tutu!!

Fishing with GranPa. They caught a catfish.

It was such a great visit. Can't wait to do it again. George worked all week and did a few projects around the house. He missed us a lot, but I'm pretty sure he enjoyed his alone time too.

This week is more swimming lessons and in-laws in town for a few days. Busy, busy, busy. We wouldn't have it any other way.

Tan, Tired and a Little Spoiled

Home again after a fabulous vacation to Myrtle Beach. Our trip started last Saturday and we pulled into our driveway today around 3 PM. We had such a good time and really enjoyed the South Carolina sunshine.

We have come to find that we do not do well on road trips longer than 5 hours and take this into account when we are planning such a trip. We stopped in Raleigh on Saturday for an overnight stay and a fun time at a little shopping center that reminded us of Fairfax Corner. We had a great dinner at a place called Firebird and ice cream at the Ben and Jerry's.

Sunday we headed off to the Myrtle Beach Marriott and arrived there in plenty of time to swim in their pools. We vacationed two years ago at this hotel and loved it. We had great accommodations and access to a private beach. Most of our days were spent swimming in one of their two pools or in the ocean.

Jakob and George dug lots of holes and made lots of moats

Boogie Boarding is in his blood. He is part Hawaiin.

Surfing is next.

The view from our room.

The pools.

On Tuesday we spent most of our day at the Nascar Speedpark. There were go-carts galore. We also played miniature golf and arcade games. Lots of fun. We had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack and Jakob loved the line dances they did. (Cotton-eyed-Joe and the Macarena) Salt water taffy was next on the list and Jakob found out he LOVES it. I don't.

Jakob driving the go-cart. He was excited it was the Home Depot car.

Riding the ferris wheel with Daddy.

Eating crab at Joe's.

This was the first time he cracked his own crab legs.

He thought he was the man.

Thursday morning found us at the ocean one last time before we headed to Raleigh. Not much traffic today and we were home in 5 hours. We are much tanner (if not a little burnt) and very tired and feeling a little spoiled with all the special memories we made. What a great vacation. Next week is VBS for Jakob and George has one more week of vacation to spend with us. We are truly blessed.

How many days does it take?

In May we decided Jakob needed a larger swing set. We had a beautiful plastic set with swings and slides, but Jakob was getting too tall and too heavy to have much fun on it anymore. We cleaned it up and put it on Ebay in hopes we would make a few dollars to offset the cost of a new wooden swing set. Two hundred and eighty dollars later we were amazed and excited to go get a new set. I scoured the internet and found a perfect size and price for us at Wal-Mart. To avoid the shipping cost ($180) we decided to drive to Stafford, VA (approx. 35 min.) to pick up the swing set. Once there we were told they sold the last one the day before, bummer. The next weekend we were headed to La Plata, MD (approx. 60 min.) and they had one!! We loaded it up and headed home.

In June we finally had a weekend to work on the set. We had to sort all the wood (there was no labeling) and begin the building. There are over 100 pieces of wood to be assembled and I can't even guess how many screws, bolts and nuts had to be used. The first day we assembled the slide. It took over 2 hours to do this. We really thought by the end of the first day we would have half of the set put together and would finish the next day. We knew this would be a one, maybe two, weekend project. WRONG.

Three weekends and countless hours later we are done!!! I do have to say we are not the type of people to get up in the am and get to working. We didn't start most days until 2 PM. This does not leave a lot of time before dinner to get things done. Especially when problems arose, which they did. Jakob loves the set and George and I didn't argue too much on whose way was the better way. Now what are we going to do this weekend?

The Last Day of Kindergarten

Prince of Peace 2008/09

Butterfly Class

Friday was Jakob's last day of Kindergarten and there was much fun to be had. Our first event of the day was Butterfly Chapel. This was the only time the Butterfly Class (Kindergartners) were in Chapel by themselves. It was a wonderful beginning to a day of celebration. Lots of singing and remembering. Pastor John delivered a moving speech to the parents once the children were gone of his children's last day of Kindergarten and the steps that follow. He spoke of learning in small steps to let go because someday soon your children will truly leave the nest and start a journey of their own. His daughter is getting married this summer. It brought tears to many just thinking that scenario was even possible for our 6 year-olds.

A few of Jakob's teachers.

Next was a picnic. Even though the weather was beautiful we had our lunch inside. It had been raining a lot and the ground was saturated. After the picnic we headed out to play on the playground and say our goodbyes. It was a great ending and a promise of new beginnings and continued friendships. We will miss our Butterfly Friends and the wonderful cocoon we were able to grow in within this school. Thank you Prince of Peace and thank you Michele for introducing us to this wonderful group of educators.

Author & Artist Day

Instead of a Kindergarten graduation Prince of Peace hosts an Author and Artist Day where the students display their art and "published" book. We were asked to arrive @ 10:30 to view the Art Museum. As we entered the hall for the Kindergarten room we were greeted with alphabet animals done in the style of author/illustrator Eric Carle. The children did one letter on their own and collaborated with another student on a second letter.

Jakob created the horse.

Jakob collaborated with Julia to make the rabbit.

The next display was a black and white construction paper creation. The students were asked to make a building with blocks and then recreate that building with black construction paper shapes on a white background. Jakob couldn't remember which one was his, so no picture. Following an introduction and short story we made our way into the room across the hall which had been set up as an art museum. We first had riddles to solve with a clay creation display. Each child had sculpted and painted a likeness of themselves and then had been asked three clues about themselves. The parents were asked to read the clues and guess which student it was. Amazing creations.

The Art Museum.

Jakob is in the second row with the brown hair. His clues were: My favorite food is bread sticks. I like recycling trucks. I like learning to read and write.

There were several other displays:

This is done on canvas with brush strokes. Jakob painted a bald eagle sitting on a branch. We saw this on one of our trips to Mercer Lake.

This is symmetrical art. Jakob's is the pink and yellow one on the lower left corner.

The entire class worked on this for Thanksgiving. They created the Last Supper.

The children created angels using the technique of batik. This requires them to use wax on different areas throughout the dying process. It is done on fabric.

After seeing all the wonderful art displays we headed back to the classroom to read Jakob's book, "My dog BJ" Unfortunately I did not take pictures of this book and I will do so and post them as soon as school is done. This book was a labor of love for Jakob. He talked about making a sloppy copy and a final draft. He kept us updated on the number of pages and his decision to include end pages.

Lastly, we were blessed with a slide show of a day in Kindergarten. The pictures were set to music and broken down into different activities the children did each day. The mothers were crying and the children were thrilled to see themselves. We will truly miss this class and this school. We have had an amazing opportunity to witness the work of the Lord in our child's life through this school and through Jakob's teachers. It will be very hard to top our first year of school. What a perfect beginning to a lifetime of learning.