Drilling With a Kid! Dave and Jake are on their Dream Train Vacation!

Greetings from South Carolina again!

For the first time, I brought Timmy with me on a drill weekend to South Carolina.

Dave and Jacob are with a group of Pennsy N-Scale Model Railroaders in Central PA, folks he's had many conversations with via his Railwire discussion group. In fact, here's a post discussing what these guys were up to today, with special mention of Dave making the trip up from NC.

While Dave had kindly offered to take Timmy along on the trip also, we both realized that even if both boys were angels together this weekend, having Timmy along with have been more work. He needs help going potty, cleaning up after meals, etc.

In the brief conversations I've had with Dave, this weekend has been fantastic for him. He said it was like the train vacation I'd been encouraging him to take for a couple years now.

Dave and Jacob had dibbs on the Prius, DVD player AND the GPS for this trip. I guess they deserved it since they drove twice as far, huh?

Back to drilling with Timmy. When I was working for Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, VA, I routinely took Timmy (and Jacob) with me on drill weekends. My Mom would watch the boys while I worked, and it wasn't so traumatic for the boys to not have to see me for 8-10 hours per day, instead of missing me for 48 hours straight.

Last week I asked a couple of the full-timers in my unit to inquire about babysitters for the weekend. Younger Airmen would suffice, although I would prefer a teenager to whom I would feel more comfortable paying an hourly wage.

So a Master Sergeant in my unit has a teenaged daughter who kindly offered up her weekend to take Timmy at their house, where her father and 4 siblings were also to be home. Based on my meeting the kids before, and stories of what great times all the flight member's kids have at their house, I felt trustworthy enough to bring Timmy with me this weekend and give it a go.

Friday night I met up with the family at Sumter's local hotspot: Chuck E. Cheese. Addie (short for Adeline) immediately took charge of Timmy and let me tell you, my son was in LOVE! She taught him how to play Skee Ball, helped him accumulate his tickets on that and many of the other games, then showed him how to cash in the tickets for prizes.

So this morning we switched off Timmy at a midway point between the base and Addie's house and Timmy took off running with barely a "goodbye!". I guess that's a good thing, right?

I was able to have a pretty productive day at work.

This afternoon, the active duty weather squadron had their annual spring picnic; we reservists were cordially invited, which was very kind of them. The gang Timmy was staying with today all came in around 3pm, Timmy arrived quite exhausted from playing all day with his new friends, but after a meal of a couple bites of hot dog and a ton of potato chips, he was off and running again. Playing in a bouncy castle, blowing bubbles, running in circles, etc. He and one of his new friends enjoyed pretending the sand in the volleyball pit was a beach and the sand was "water" in which they "swam".

Translation: What a mess!

He even got involved in a game of kiddie tug-of-war. But when I saw Chief Tinglehoff helping his 3-year-old daughter's side, I jumped in and helped Timmy's side! I think there were pictures taken of that little disaster, we'll have to see what ensues when they get posted.

Timmy was very friendly to everyone most of the afternoon, and I received many nice compliments of what a friendly, cute kid Timmy is.

This is MY SON? Wow, I was very flattered.

By the time Timmy and I returned to our on-base lodging room this evening (8pm), all his exposed skin was caked in sand, dirt, Kool-Aid, potato chip crumbs, melted chocolate chips, Cheeto residue and Skittles food-coloring. As soon as we walked in, I had him halt in his tracks and strip down. Straight into the tub he went!

He was quickly bathed and bedded. He was asleep by 8:45pm.

Phew!

Need a House?

Need a house?

This York Simpson Underwood Listing is a much better website than what's on Realtor.com.

I have to brag a little about the pic of the outside of the house. We asked that the photographer come in the afternoon to minimize the shadows -- the sun shines directly on front of the house in the afternoon and that day couldn't have been better! Bright sun, azure blue sky!

The Great iPhone Debate

Me: "I want an iPhone."

Dave: "How can you be such a slave to technology?"

Me: "It's cool and it takes care of many of the things I want to do in today's wireless world. After all, my current cell phone is on the brink of death and if I lose it, I not only lose my phone, but also my MP3 player. So we can replace both the phone and MP3 player, or get it all-in-one with an iPhone!"

Dave: "It's Skynet -- it's coming!"

I've already been to our local Apple store where they have banks of them with which you can log in to your own e-mail accounts and send messages, make phone calls, you can take photos/videos and you can surf the web. I thoroughly enjoyed playing with them, as did my boys, who immediately asked me to bring up the Peanut Butter Jelly video on You Tube!

Dave showed me this cartoon, which is pretty funny, but does a good job bringing to light one of my fears of getting a full-priced phone. I've been pretty brutal on my cell phones. I'd need to get insurance and one of those super-armored "skins" to protect it.

Since we have that IRS Economic Stimulus money coming to us later this month, and President Bush wants us to spend more money, I'm thinking our opportunity for me to get an iPhone couldn't be better!

A valid concern I do have about having this iPhone is the, um, URGE I'll have to want to be on the web all the time. Might I be trying to write e-mails at traffic lights? Or worse yet, while I'm cruising down I-40??? Do other people do that?

We'll see whether I get one or not. So far I'm not completely sold, but I'm about 80% there.

-Patricia the Techno-Slave

Now That's What I Call CLEAN!

Hi!

Let me catch my breath...

"Phew!"

The photographer just left -- she was here to take pictures of our "staged" house for the MLS listing.

So now we can mess up the house again! Just kidding...

I will admit that I feel like if I BREATHE too sloppily, the house will get messed up again...I don't think I can use my kitchen or bathrooms anymore!

Enjoy some pictures from my adventures in cleaning:

Here's the UNDERSIDE of our stovetop. One of those places I never think about when doing ordinary cleaning.

Before (those white streaks are from Formula 409 working its way through the stains):

From 2008 04 26 Pr...

And AFTER:

From 2008 04 26 Pr...

As you can see, the 409 did a pretty bang-up job!

So as not to steal my realtor's thunder, enjoy a sampling of pics from our really clean house. I need to show this off, I'm so proud! I didn't do it alone, though...Dave was very helpful with many of the outside items, keeping our trashcans empty, and for throwing out his old valet in our bedroom. He now has to drape his clothing somewhere else :-)

Living Room:


Kitchen:


Dining Room:


Master Bedroom:


Master Bath:



I'm going to pour myself some frozen Margarita. I have some leftover from my jewelry party last Thursday. I know it's only 3pm but I think I deserve it!