A Great Weekend

We had another great weekend. In fact, it was so good, Joe decided to take off yesterday. (No, the truth is that he has had to work crazy hours lately. He had his midnight-night recently and he's had to be at work at 6 a.m. many, many mornings, and it's almost an hour and a half commute. And he still has regular work hours those early mornings, making him come home later in the evenings, still. And then he had to work on Saturday, all day, too. We just love the Army. You know, the running joke is that soldiers are issued everything they need when they join the Army. And families and spouses were not issued. We're "optional." Yeah, we just love the Army. But he's less than three years from retirement ...)


On Friday night, Taylor camped out for the annual Boy Scout Klondike Derby. Carter and Jackson spent Saturday (day) at the Klondike. They all had fun. And they didn't freeze too much, which is always a plus.

Saturday night I made dinner and took some to an elderly widow neighbor of mine. I stayed an hour chatting with her. It was so nice. She keeps inviting me over, but I am always strapped for time. I need to visit more often. She has some cool stories to tell. Especially since she has lived in this town for a very long time. And I did not know that our karate-teaching mayor is her nephew. After an hour, Joe came looking for me. Well, Jackson was with me and it was time for his shower.

I almost sewed Saturday night, but I ran five miles instead. Man, it's hard to make those decisions.

On Sunday evening we had some friends over for dinner. We had Belgian waffles with all the trimmings. Homemade blueberry pie filling, cherry pie filling, bananas and honey, all kinds of flavored syrups, powdered sugar, chocolate syrup, molasses, marshmallow cream ...

It was a good time.

The boys had off of school on Monday, so we spent yesterday at the National Zoo in DC. It was cold and a little snowy. Mason is obsessed with gorillas. Jackson is obsessed with pandas. It was so cold that most animals were not out. So we hung out in the indoor exhibits. They were warm and very smelly. We were able to see most of the animals we wanted to see, but no penguins or giraffes.

Last night we packed up Taylor for Outdoor School. He was supposed to go this week, but today is a snow day. I'm waiting to hear if they will go tomorrow (weather depending) or next week. I hope it's pushed back to next week. Outdoor School should last more than two days. (I went in sixth grade and loved, loved, loved it.) I've already emailed the principal to let him know my opinion about this. Oh, and of course, I have an appointment this morning. And all the kids are home. Loveliness.

(Oh, and guess what I finally did? I filed a formal complaint against the neighbor's Pit Bull on Friday. One of the dogs was running loose down the street on Friday as the kids were getting off the bus. Yep. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I grabbed my camera, as was advised by the Humane Society, took photos and promptly emailed them. They've issued a warning to the owners for now, but at least they know I'm serious. Don't mess with Lera or her kids. That's fair warning. lol)