Last week, we made an impromptu trip down to Southern Virgina to see Karyl and her girls.

Karyl and I are both Navy wives. We’re accustomed to our husbands being gone for weeks or months at a time, and working long hours when they’re not gone. Most of the time, we deal with it just fine.

Once in a while, we struggle. It just happens that last week, we were both struggling a little bit. That made it seem like the perfect time for a 7 Days meet-up.

And you know what? It was. We arrived on Tuesday and had a great time hanging out, eating good food, playing outside, talking and laughing together. Grace and Annalie immediately jumped right back into the friendship they established when Karyl and her girls visited us last summer, when Sonja and Noah were visiting. And Mary Ellen loved Elliora. She seemed to think she was a living doll, and Elliora didn’t seem to mind that at all. Anytime we walked anywhere, Elliora walked straight to ME and grabbed her hand.

I dragged everyone all the way to Virginia Beach, to my favorite Greek restaurant, Elia’s. The hummus and pita there are to die for, and the rest of the food is delicious too. We were regulars at Elia’s when we lived in Virginia Beach over a decade ago, and just like every other time we’ve been there since we moved away—even when years have gone by between visits—Elia remembered us as soon as we walked in the door.

We sat in a booth right next to a high wall. On the other side of that wall was the grill, and Annalie and Grace amused themselves by occasionally standing on the seat and peeking over to chat with Elia and the other people working that day, all of whom seemed to get a kick out of it. Everyone enjoyed the food, especially Elliora. She took bites out of a lemon, rind and all; ate the hummus by the fingerful after we ran out of pita; and gnawed a kabob full of chicken clean. Annalie even branched out from her usual chicken nuggets, and thought the chicken kabobs and rice were really tasty.

The next morning, we all walked Grace to school and got to see her classroom and meet her lovely teacher.

Walking back to Karyl’s, I spotted this heart-shaped rock in the dirt path. I love finding random hearts in the world like this.

We stopped at the playground to let the kids blow off some steam, and so we could get our 7 Days shots.

The theme for Day 5 was FRESH. Karyl’s had the idea that we could be getting some fresh air, which we certainly got playing on the swings. But even more than the air, the time spent with a friend refreshed me. Thanks again, Karyl! We went home with lighter hearts, already looking forward to the next visit.

Last week, Troy didn’t get home until after 9pm every single night. And then he went to work at 8:30 on Saturday morning and didn’t come home till after 10pm. On Sunday he “only” worked from 11am till 7pm. And today, he didn’t get home till almost 9:30pm.

Elliora didn’t see Troy from Sunday night until Saturday morning. Annalie only saw him once or twice when she was still awake when Troy went in to give her a kiss good night. Troy’s sister Dana and her son Leo came up for a visit over the weekend, and they barely saw Troy at all. (We had fun sightseeing with them, though, and it was nice having them around to distract us from the fact that Troy was gone all weekend.)

It hasn’t been too bad. Annalie, Elliora and I have been chugging along, doing our usual thing. It’s actually been good, having zero expectation that Troy would be home early enough to have dinner or give Elliora a bath or help with bedtime. Of course I wish Troy were home earlier, but it’s okay that he hasn’t been. I’ve managed all right, even if I am more exhausted than usual, and a little more stressed out.

But still. I’m hoping that these crazier-than-crazy hours don’t last much longer. We’re all hoping.

p.s. Isn’t my new daffodilly spring banner awesome!? Thanks, Brenda!

We’ve never been big on Valentine’s Day around our house. I’ve always told Troy that I’d rather he buy me a $10 bouquet of flowers on any random day of the year than spend $50 on roses on Valentine’s Day. Restaurants are too crowded on the 14th, and all the good candy is half-off on the 15th.

Then last night Troy came home with the news that he was going to have to stay late at work tonight because of a meeting his bosses are having. He doesn’t have to go to the meeting, mind you; he just has to sit around waiting for it to be done just in case they need him to do something after it’s over. That’s pretty typical of his job right now. We don’t love that aspect of our life, but we’re used to it, sadly. And at least we knew ahead of time that he wouldn’t be home in time for dinner, so we were able to eat at one of our favorite restaurants last night with the girls and call it an early Valentine’s Day dinner.

Today, Annalie and I made PB&J Valentine Cookies (while Elliora looked cute in her too-big apron and begged chocolate chips) and they are delicious. Later I might try making some Compost Cookies (despite the gross name, the recipe sounds delicious), and after the girls are in bed Troy and I will have a late supper of spicy California rolls and roasted asparagus and Annika‘s baguette drizzled with olive oil, topped with dark chocolate and coarse sea salt, oven-toasted. We’ll probably watch the second half of the BBC production of Sense and Sensibility that features Dan Stevens (the actor who plays Matthew Crawley on Downton Abbey!) as Edward Ferrars. Not a bad night, Valentine’s Day or no.

I’ve been a little blue lately, thinking about how we were supposed to be moving back to San Diego right now, until our move got pushed back six months. Although we do like being close to some of our friends and family here, and we enjoy taking advantage of the great museums and monuments in D.C., we don’t love living on the East Coast. It’s far away from most of our family and friends, and we just plain like San Diego and are eager to live there again.

The biggest reason we’re ready to leave is the long hours Troy has been spending at his job. We knew when we moved here that it wasn’t going to be a cushy shore job, that there would be periods of time when he’d be working late many nights in a row. And the first year we lived here, that’s what it was: periods of time, with long breaks in between where he was home in time for dinner and for a couple hours before Annalie’s bedtime nearly every day.

For the past year that is not how it’s been. Troy has been working long hours, just barely getting home in time to tuck Annalie in around 8pm most nights. Family dinners are a rare occurrence. We’re all burned out and ready to be done with this phase of our lives.

But the fact is, we need to hang in there for another six months. We have reason to hope that the long hours will taper off this summer and things will go back to a more normal schedule. In the meantime, we’re trying to think positive. Being here another six months means we have that much longer to visit our local(ish) friends and family. We have the spring and summer to enjoy the Smithsonian and national monuments. And we have a little more time for visitors, which we always love. And it could be worse; Troy could be deployed on a ship and gone completely for the next six months. So there are many reasons to look on the bright side.

Huh. Not sure how this post turned into a rant. Then again, pretty much everything I say these days comes around to this topic of how much I am over Troy’s long hours and how tired we all are and how ready we are to move on. I’m a broken record, a boring broken record. I even annoy myself.

I’ll focus on the good things instead. Like Elliora’s enthusiasm for eating a whole peeled apple, or Annalie eating—and liking!—pasta with eggplant, or the vanilla sea salt caramels Troy brought home for me.

Happy Valentine’s Day from all of us to all of you!

As if we didn’t have enough going on during those last couple weeks of March, one day we got a call from our friend Kimberly to say that she and Mark and the kids would be in town and would love to get together with us one evening if we could manage it. If it had been someone else I might have told them regretfully that we were so busy we couldn’t squeeze them in, because even though we were having fun with Brenda & Bug and meeting blog friends and visiting with family, by that point I was tired.

But for Mark & Kimberly and their kids, I was glad to drink an extra latte and make a couple of pans of lasagna! For one thing, we had not seen them in almost five years, which is just unbelievable. For another, Mark & Kimberly are pretty much framily. (You know, the kind of friends who are like family but without the baggage.)

Troy and Kimberly were good friends in college, where they were in the same Navy ROTC unit and many of the same computer-science classes. Kimberly graduated a year before Troy and was already working on a Navy ship when we got married. When we drove out to San Diego as newlyweds to look for our first home, we spent a week sleeping on Mark & Kimberly’s living-room futon in their tiny Point Loma apartment. For the next two years, we hung out with them a lot.

We went to Sea World and played miniature golf together. We had cookouts on the beach and cooked each other Thanksgiving and Easter dinners. We hiked and swam and went out to eat and carved jack-o-lanterns and talked and laughed and even studied together on occasion. Their first baby, Theodore, was born right before Troy left on the first six-month deployment of our marriage, and I probably spent more time with him in the next six months than anyone except his parents. (Now that baby is almost as tall as me and about to enter junior high.) We had other acquaintances and co-workers in San Diego, but Mark and Kimberly were our only good friends. I’d even venture to say they were great friends.

The last time we saw them was when we stopped for a visit in their town as we were moving from Arizona to Maryland when Annalie was a year old. The first time Annalie slept all the way through the night EVER was when we were visiting them, actually. Their daughter Lillian was almost 3 at the time and had just started her first ballet class. Theodore was only a little older than Annalie is now!

I’m not sure how we managed to let so much time go by between visits because we had just as much fun with them as we always do. And we really enjoyed getting to meet the newest addition to their family, Marcio, too. Even though I was tired, even though it was the 17th visit in a row, I’m so glad they happened to be in town and stopped by! I’m already looking forward to the next visit, which I’m hoping we can squeeze in before Theodore gets his driver’s license.

Dana and Leo came to visit us last weekend! Yep, when Brenda and Bug were still here. They were supposed to have gone back to California by then, but since they extended their stay we had a full house. Which was totally fine with us, that is often how we roll.

First item on the schedule Saturday morning was for Dana to go to an eye exam. For complicated and boring insurance reasons, she had to come to DC to do it. Once that was taken care of, we headed out for some sightseeing.

Of course, the Cherry Blossom Festival started that weekend, which meant that there were tons of people downtown. We didn’t really feel like fighting the crowds, so we stuck to the Virginia side of the river. Our first stop was at the Air Force Memorial, which is so simple but very cool. The three silver spires stretch into the sky, like flight paths given physical form. I have a couple of personal connections to the Air Force—my Grandpa Adams was in the Army Air Corps, and my Uncle Allen was in the Air Force—and I was thinking about them as we walked around the memorial site.

Troy looking at a brochure, Annalie squishing something on the horizon between her fingers.

Dana doing a little photobombing.

I was trying to get Bug to walk towards me so I could take a photo, but she was scared and insisted that her mom come lift her off the wall. Annalie offered to show Bug how it was done, but even then Bug was not interested.

Of course by then we were all feeling a bit chilly, so it’s understandable that Bug wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. As you can see, we were up on a sort of bluff that overlooks the river and downtown DC and it was pretty windy up there. The girls had to snuggle up to Troy for warmth! Then Brenda and I were laughing, so of course they hammed it up and hugged him even tighter and more theatrically. No wonder Annalie and Bug get along so well. They both, shall we say, are of a dramatic bent and usually respond well to an audience.

See?

I tried to get Leo to come down and be in the photo with Troy and the girls, but he wasn’t interested in doing anything other than scooting slooowwwly along the wall. I love the photo I caught of Dana’s expression at being unable to hurry him along. Haven’t we all felt this way about our kids (or significant others, or siblings, or co-workers) at one time or another? But in the end I caught Leo smiling anyway.

I took a shot of my reflection in the very shiny top of a fire hydrant between the memorial and the parking lot. It was, of course, the day after 7 Days had ended. That’s when I always seem to find the best shiny surfaces.

Our next stop was Arlington National Cemetery. We were barely past the visitors’ center when Dana realized that she was going to have to drag Leo around, that he wasn’t in a walking-around mood. She told us to go ahead, that they’d meet us back at the visitors’ center when we were done.

We originally planned to go see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns, but due to me misreading a map and Troy not taking the hint when I shoved the map at him and said, “I’m terrible with maps like this. Here, you read the map,” we headed to the Tomb of the Civil War Unknowns instead. By the time we figured out our mistake it was too late to make it to the ceremony, which wouldn’t be repeated for another hour. So we just took a different route back to the visitors’ center and enjoyed the blue skies and sunshine.

When we were still trying to get to the ceremony, we took the Custis Walk uphill, which was kind of crazy of us. It’s basically a long, long, long staircase. It’s a fairly gentle incline, but it’s still many many steps, and we were trying to hurry at the time.

I was alternating between hurrying to keep up with Troy and Annalie, and hanging back to walk with Brenda and Bug (you can see them behind me in the photo of me above). When I slowed down, I’d take photos of whatever caught my eye. Like, say, this grate in the sidewalk that was both functional and aesthetically pleasing. Why can’t we have more of that in this world? Or maybe that’s just an American capitalist tendency, to worry more about the amount of time and money it takes to build something, rather than all the people who’ll have to look at something ugly for the next however many years. Big-box stores, anyone?

For the record, I’m in favor of capitalism and I love shopping at a variety of big-box stores. I just rarely like looking at their outsides.

This gravestone of Edward Maynard Day’s caught my eye because of the inscription: “Distinct as the billows/Yet one as the sea.” I wonder if old Ed was in the Navy.

Oh look. A signpost pointing us in the direction of the real Tomb of the Unknowns. Might have been handy if we’d seen one of these when we were headed in the wrong direction!

Even though I’ve been to Arlington Cemetery several times, I never get over how the gravestones just stretch on and on into the distance. Also, isn’t it funny how spring buds are often autumn-colored?

We made a point of explaining to Annalie and Bug when we first got there that we had to be quiet and respectful; that even though a cemetery looks like a park, it isn’t a normal park, it’s a place where we go to remember people who have died. And Arlington is a place where we especially remember people throughout our nation’s history who were willing to sacrifice their freedom and lives to help keep the rest of us safe. They both took it in and did a great job of being as quiet and respectful as an almost-6-year-old and a 4-year-old can be.

We met back up with Dana and Leo and headed home after that. The rest of the weekend was spent mostly just hanging out, cooking, playing, talking, relaxing.

I made granola bars, what I think was my best batch yet.

Annalie went to the store with Troy for some reason, and they came home with these cardboard popcorn boxes that Annalie had convinced Troy to buy. Annalie ate various snacks out of one of them: potato chips, carrots, goldfish crackers…but oddly, no popcorn.

Leo was very camera-shy all weekend, and I had to get creative to get him to smile for the camera. He had been teasing Bug by saying, “Bug is 5 years old!” and then laughing when, every time, she got annoyed and replied, “I’m NOT 5, I’m 4!” To get him to look at me and smile for this photo I asked him how old Bug was. Still looking away from me, he said, “She’s 5!” I replied, “Noooo, she’s only 4, you stinker!” He cracked up, and I got my shot.

Brenda made veggie-ladas (basically chicken enchiladas with lots of veggies in them) for dinner, and they were delicious. I helped a little. (Brenda blogged the recipe here!)

I had leftover rice in the fridge, and wondered if I could use it to make Spanish rice, even though usually Spanish rice is made with uncooked rice. So I asked Madge, who I happen to know makes a mean Spanish rice. She gave me some tips then said, “I hope it doesn’t end up a gooey tomato lump. Let me know how it turns out!” You’ll be glad to know, it turned out beautifully. I blogged the recipe in case I ever want to do it again or any of you want to try it.

After dinner there was some snuggling going on. There was some reading going on too, but I didn’t get any photos of that for some reason. Dana started innocently reading a book to the three kids, and the next thing she knew they were all running back to Annalie’s room for more books and she had read a half-dozen books. It was really quite adorable.

Next morning, we had aebleskiver for breakfast, as we often do with guests. We also had bacon because BACON. And strawberries, because the local grocery store had them on sale all last month for a ridiculously good price. We’ve been eating lots of yummy strawberries lately!

Kids pretty much always approve of aebleskiver because they’re encouraged to dip them in sugar. This time we also had whipped cream on hand for the strawberries.

Not to mention bacon, which was a hit with everyone. Did I mention the bacon? Bacon.

Sorry! It’s getting late and I’m getting a bit loopy, but I’m determined to finish this post before I go to bed. I will bang my fingers relentlessly on the keyboard till I’m done, much as the woodpecker hammers his beak on the tree…oh, speaking of woodpeckers, here’s a photo of one eating from our birdfeeder. We’ve been seeing lots of cool birds. Dana isn’t a bird, she’s just out there on the deck trying to get Leo to come out of the cardboard castle and pose for a photo.

Somehow I managed to catch him both smiling and facing the camera. I think it was a combination of surprise and continuing to take photos after he’d turned away. He turned back to me, laughing at his silliness in turning away, and ta-daa!

That Leo is so crazy. Also, so cute it’s crazy.

Here are all three kids completely mesmerized by SpongeBob Squarepants. What is it about that show? It seems like kids of all ages and temperaments will sit totally still to watch it. They must be embedding hypnotic messages in the animation or something.

Anyway. It was a fun weekend! We saw some sights, we ate good food, Dana got the chance to meet Brenda and Bug for the first time, and we squished a lot of visiting into a short weekend. Best of all, we know we’ll get to repeat the experience again soon, now that we live just a few hours apart.

We left San Diego Saturday night, after spending the day cleaning and running errands (thanks a million for the help, B!) and then a late dinner. We drove just across the California-Arizona border and stayed the night in Yuma. Sunday we drove across Arizona, the southern end of New Mexico (Land of Enchantment) and West Texas, so the view was similar to this for most of the day. At one point Annalie exclaimed, I’m so tired of seeing nothing but land…I wanna see BUILDINGS!”

Our intrepid driver. I always offer to drive anytime Troy gets tired or just sick of driving, but he does 98% of the driving on all road trips. He just likes to drive.

My mom and Annalie and a bunch of tchotchkes for sale at a gas station somewhere in Arizona.

Hola, Señor Saguaro!

Annalie’s portrait of Señor Saguaro.

She used her new colored pencils to draw the cactus in her new moleskine, both of which were part of a very cool art kit that Sonja made as a going-away road-trip present. I made Annalie wait till the trip to use the kit, and she was so excited when she finally got to use it.

Mountains in New Mexico.

Sunset reflected in the rearview mirror and on the side of the minivan.

Road trips are often a blur.

After I twittered about losing the coffee-cup sleeve that I purchased from BeachMama a few years ago, Sonja and CC both gave me new cup sleeves. As you can see, they work perfectly. Thanks, amigas! (I turned the one on the right inside-out so it would be less-girly for Troy.)

Texas morning.

Troy got in the backseat for some reason or other at a gas station and said, “I guess Gramaw’s driving now!” Annalie thought that was hilarious.

This photo sums up the whole road trip so far. (No, not really…but it’s funny.)

Troy doesn’t get many chances to be lazy and let his beard grow, so he takes ‘em when he gets ‘em.

My girl. I love this photo.

As Troy drives, my mom reads and Annalie colors or writes in her workbooks, or they watch DVDs together (so far this trip we’ve been alternating between Avatar: The Last Airbender and Doctor Who). I’ve mostly been crocheting. This is only a sample of what I’ve made so far; in total I’ve made two potholders, four headbands, and half an Easter basket.

Katy is often out of her carrier as we drive. Lily tends to just curl up in her carrier and stay there till we stop moving.

We made it to Troy’s mom and stepdad’s house last night. We’ll spend a couple of days here visiting, and then we’ll hit the road again.

This is when the whole moving-across-the-country thing gets easier, once the movers are here and have packed up most of our belongings. We’ve already organized and sorted and done laundry and figured out what we need to take with us on our road trip and set that all aside. Once the movers take everything else with them, it’s not our responsibility any more. Now we just have to drive, find pet-friendly hotels with pools to stay at, visit some family and friends along the way, and find a place to live once we get there, preferably before Troy has to start his new job. Piece of cake. (Ha.)

The house is full of boxes, stacks and stacks of them. The movers left our beds up so we could stay here tonight. Tomorrow we’ll do a last load of laundry to wash the sheets and towels we’re using, and then those will all get packed and loaded onto the truck with everything else.

Our dear friends the Jays are moving to Japan next week. What with one thing and another, we hadn’t seen them in months. We barely managed to see them at all before we all left California. From the time Troy got home till now, we were pretty much busy every day they were free and vice-versa. But they managed to carve out a couple of hours between meetings and appointments and entertaining out-of-town visitors to come have lunch with us today, and we’re so very glad they did. Seeing them is always wonderful, even when months or years have gone by in between times, which makes perfect sense because they’re framily.

Framily is D’s fabulous word for friends who are such great friends that they’re like family. Except framily is better, because there’s no baggage, no drama or getting mad if you can’t make it to Thanksgiving dinner. There’s just, “Too bad, hope you can make it next time!” Everyone should have framily like the Jays.

We had a great crew of guys packing us out today. They were all efficient, professional, friendly, and courteous. We always bribe our movers to handle our stuff with care show our appreciation to our movers by supplying them with drinks and food throughout the day. Usually we have coffee, bottled water, and soda on hand as well as offering to buy them pizza or some other takeout for lunch. This morning I was going to make a Starbucks run, and went around the house asking each of the guys if I could bring them back a coffee. One guy asked for black coffee, another said decaf with cream would be great. And the biggest, burliest, tattooed-est guy asked if I could get him a grande iced caramel macchiato. That totally made my day.

Tomorrow they’ll load up the truck. Our car will get picked up so it can get shipped across the country. We’ll clean and take care of some odds and ends, maybe go see a movie if we have time, eat dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants. Saturday the carpet will be cleaned, we’ll meet with our landlords, and then we’ll head east. Good thing we’re planning to visit family in Texas for a couple of days along the way; that’ll give the snow more time to melt before we get to D.C.

We got a postcard in the mail today from Troy, from Dubai. And by “we” I mean, clearly, our cats. Oh yes. Wanna see what he wrote on it?

Katy & Lily,
This place is a kitten’s dream! Three words for you:
World’s Largest Catbox
And this time of year, it is purfect!
xoxo,
Papa

If you’ve been following my Flickr photoset 180+ Photos for Troy, and you know that today was Day 179, you might be wondering if Troy is coming home tomorrow. But then you might notice that I added that plus sign to the name of the set.

Nope, Troy isn’t coming home tomorrow. I’m being vague about the actual date because of a little thing called national security. You’d be amazed (or maybe you wouldn’t, I don’t know) by the things Troy isn’t allowed to tell me, and the things I’m not supposed to publish here on this blog. You might notice I’ve never mentioned the name of Troy’s ship, for example. I don’t tell you where he’s been till after he’s been there. And I won’t mention the day he’s coming home till he’s here, probably. That’s just the way things are in a post-9/11 world. But don’t feel too bad for us; Troy will be home very soon. The rest of his shipmates won’t be home for a few more months, so we’re actually getting him back early. I’m counting that as a blessing and not getting upset about having to add a plus sign to the name of my photoset.

And very quickly after Troy gets home, we’re up and moving across the country again. We’ll have a few days to relax first. We hope to see most of our friends once more, we plan to take Annalie to Disneyland, we’ll eat at our favorite restaurants. The packers and movers will descend on our house like locusts on a field, quickly and efficiently wrapping and packing and boxing and taping, and taking most of our earthly possessions with them on a giant truck. We’ll follow a few days later: Troy, me, Annalie, my mom, both cats and the portable litterbox, driving across the country in our so-very-worth-it minivan, stopping once or twice to see family and friends along the way.

When we get there we’ll make ourselves comfortable in a hotel or base lodging before we start looking in the local classifieds and online for houses to rent and following up on the houses Troy’s already been researching from the ship. We’ll look at so many houses and neighborhoods in the span of a few days that they will all blur together. It’s all rather crazy but it’s also part of the routine of moving. I’ve been doing this every couple of years since I married Troy, nine days shy of my 21st birthday, and I kind of love it and look forward to it every time.

Of course I’ll miss it here. I’ll miss the sunny, warm winter days when we could go to the park in short sleeves and flip-flops. I’ll miss our fantastic house and the view from our deck and the palm trees and the bougainvillea. I’ll miss our town and our little mall with the pottery studio and all the fountains and the two-level Target. I’ll really miss all the good friends we have around here and I’m trying not to think about that just yet. I want to enjoy my last times with them, to hang out and talk and laugh with them, and not be dragged down by a heavy heart. So I’m putting those emotions off till after we’ve left. They are there, hovering around the edges, but I’m keeping them at bay for now.

And by the time I give those emotions free reign, Troy will be home. I’m pretty sure we’ll be so happy to have him with us again that we won’t spend much time being sad. Aside from being kind and thoughtful and just generally awesome, this is the guy who sends his cats postcards about how they’d like the desert because it’s the world’s biggest catbox, just because he knew it would make us laugh. He’s good at making people laugh, and he does it a lot. Even 3,000-mile road trips are a blast with Troy.

Hey, that reminds me! A while back I painted Troy a mug. He’d mentioned that he would like for me to paint him one, and I told him to let me know what he wanted, and then he got distracted and never did. And then I had a fantastic idea and painted him a mug to send him for Christmas. I never blogged it because I didn’t want him to see it and ruin the surprise, but he’s had the mug for a couple of months now so I think I can post the photos.

It’s a fact: Troy is awesome. I regularly thank him, after I’ve heard stories about someone else’s husband being obtuse or irresponsible or neglectful, for being awesome. I painted this mug half in serious tribute, half as an inside joke. And at least once, when Troy was carrying this mug down a passageway on the ship, someone read the mug out loud as he passed by and he was able to cheerfully say, “You’re welcome!” See? Like I said: AWESOME.

What is your name?

Annalie.

How old are you?

Five. And a half.

Where do you live?

In San Diego.

Do you have any pets?

Yep.

Do you want to tell me about them?

Yep. You see, there’s two of them and they’re cats, and their names are Katy and Lily. Katy has blue eyes and Lily has green eyes.

Who do you like to play with?

Bug.

What’s your favorite cereal?

The yogurt one. [Strawberry Yogurt Trader Joe O's]

What’s your favorite vegetable?

Strawberries and blueberries.

But those are fruits.

I know, but those are the ones I like. I guess I like carrots…actually, corn.

What’s your favorite drink?

Sprite.

What’s your favorite snack?

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And popcorn with butter and sometimes salt.

What’s your favorite toy?

Dolly, my dolphin.

What’s your favorite TV Show?

Fairly OddParents.

What’s your favorite movie?

Hmm…pause! [She was asking me to pause the interview because she needed to think about it.] My favorite movie is…a TV one: the Phineas & Ferb Christmas special!

What’s your favorite game?

I like to play catch a lot, with my Gramaw.

What’s your favorite book?

The one about a long time ago, the one I got for Christmas.

You mean the Little House on the Prairie books?

No. It was about the stories a long, long time ago, like Jesus and the flaming bush…

Oh, the Bible? Your Bible storybook?

Yes! That’s it.

What’s your favorite restaurant?

The place in Maryland that has hot dogs.

You mean Five Guys?

Yeah! Five Guys.

What’s your favorite holiday?

Christmas, because we give, and it’s really fun, and we get new stuff and we give some stuff up for other people who don’t have very much money.

What’s your favorite animal?

Horses.

If you could change your name, what name would you choose?

You know which one, Mommy. [in unison with me] Sarah!

What do you love about each person in our family?

I love that Daddy is really really funny, and he goes to work every day so I don’t get to play with him much. That makes it even more fun, ‘cuz I don’t usually get to play with him.

While I’m boring, because you see me all the time, right?

[A diplomatic silence is maintained, as Annalie scrunches up her nose and smiles at me.]

So what do you love about me?

What I love most about you is that you care about me a lot, and you are glad that I like going in the water now, so that way you can go in the water now, and go in the stepping area, and I can go in the water about up to my knees, or my feet. So we’re both happy!

What do you love most about yourself?

That I like cooking and painting, and I think a lot of things are funny.

Where would you like to go on vacation this year?

I would like to go on vacation to…Hawaii.

Really? Why do you want to go to Hawaii?

Because it sounds like a fun place to go to.

Where did you hear about Hawaii, do you know?

Um, it was actually in the movie Ice Age. You know, where that squirrel falls in the ice and he floats all the way to Hawaii.

What are we doing that’s a big change this year?

It’s a big change that we’re going back to…it’s a big change… [Annalie picks up a toy guitar and begins singing.] It’s a big change where we’re going back, we’re going back to Washington Dee Seee-eee-EEE! We’re moo-oo-oo-oo-OO-oo-oo-oo-VING!

Why are we doing that? Did we just decide, “Eh, we’re tired of California, we’re gonna go now”?

[Still singing] Because my fa-ther’s in the Na-a-a-a-vy!

What are some of your wishes for this year?

My wish is to help people and clean up the world. And I wish that Daddy would come home very very soon.

Good news, Daddy is coming home soon, in just a couple of weeks!

Oh, all right!

Thanks for the interview, Annalie!

Annalie’s self-portrait, age 5y8m

Inspiration for this interview originally came from New Year’s Interview for Kids at Blissfully Domestic (via The Crafty Crow). I don’t scrapbook, but I have a blog, and I’m not afraid to use it!

I did this interview in 2009 too. When I compared Annalie’s answers a couple of them were exactly the same. I guess she is my kid, so it’s not too surprising that she knows her own mind.