We very much enjoyed the long weekend last week. Did you? We didn’t do anything special, just relaxed, tried to catch up on housework and errands, all that stuff. Then on Tuesday, Troy turned 42. His birthday was rather meh, since he had to work late (as usual) and we didn’t get to have a birthday dinner. I made coffee cake in mugs, at his request, and we ate those while he opened a few presents after he got home from work. Then we did baths and put the girls to bed. Not exciting, but not a bad day.

Thursday afternoon, we had the house cleaned which was utterly wonderful. We decided it’s worth it to us to pay for a professional housecleaning about once a month. It makes such a difference and is worth every penny, and every movie we don’t see in a theater and every coffee we don’t buy at Starbucks.

Thursday evening, we picked up our friend Rebekah and her kids at the airport. They were flying back from visiting family, and since one of the kids had an appointment with her eye doctor just up the road from us (they live in the same small Southern Maryland town we used to live in, which often means going to D.C. for specialists) they stayed the night at our house! Bek said she couldn’t believe it took them two years before they finally got to stay the night with us. We’ve tried several times before but illness or weather or something always messed with our plans. Annalie was over the moon to have her friends stay the night.

Friday morning we enjoyed our friends’ company. The kids took advantage of the mild weather and played outside. After lunch Bekah and her kids headed home. Since it was raining, and I was in a good mood and Annalie was a little sad to say good-bye to her friends, we stopped at the bakery for cookies. That evening, it took Troy almost two hours to get home from work thanks to horrible traffic. I spent those two hours feeding the kids and getting them ready for bed, silently reciting to myself the list of reasons I am thankful that we aren’t leaving D.C. till August. If I remind myself often enough, think I’ll start to believe it?

I think I mentioned before that Elliora’s sleep habits had become atrocious since we were in Omaha. She was teething something fierce when we first got there, and being in a different place and a different bed was not okay with her. She spent about an hour or two in the middle of the night EVERY SINGLE NIGHT we were in Omaha and Texas, all 25 nights, letting us know how upset she was about it all. It was stressful and exhausting and it got so I dreaded nighttime. In Texas things were a little better because Troy was there to help out, but she was still awake and mad in the middle of the night. It suuuuuucked.

We thought things would improve sleep-wise when we got home, but they didn’t, not really. And nothing we tried helped—not back-patting, not singing, not cuddling, not nursing, not sitting in the room with her. After a few nights, we realized we were going to have to leave the room and let her cry. When she woke up in the middle of the night, we checked on her and reassured her and then gritted our teeth and left her alone. We’d go in and check on her every few minutes, but only stay a minute or two and then leave again. The first night, she cried for about an hour before going back to sleep. The second night it took about a half-hour. Every night since then, if she’s awakened, she’s gone back to sleep within a few minutes.

I’ll be honest: it’s a relief that she’s not up crying for hours anymore. I still hate listening to her cry knowing she’s in the room by herself, even for a few minutes, even though her crying is clearly pissed-off, not scared. For heaven’s sake, when we ask Elliora to pick up her applesauce pouch and take it to the trash can in the kitchen and throw it away, she does it. If she can follow three-step directions, I know that she understands us when we tell her that it’s nighttime, time to lie down, time to close her eyes and go to sleep. She’s 15 months old, not 15 weeks. Knowing all of that still doesn’t make the crying any easier to listen to, but I’ll live. It’s easier to live with guilt when you’re well-rested, apparently.

Free pattern for crocheted golden snitches. Thanks, Deborah!

You know that whole do what you love philosophy that I talk about from time to time? Apparently right now I love crocheting and cooking meals and taking photos and watching Downton Abbey with Troy more than I love blogging. I do miss blogging, though. I write posts in my head all the time. I look forward to having the time to actually type those posts out again someday, and then actually edit and Flickr photos on the same day I take them so they’re not three weeks old by the time I post them. Sigh.

How did it get to be almost March already? How is 2012 treating you all so far?

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!

“I have a bacon tooth AND a sweet tooth.”
8:06 AM Mar 21st

“I’m not feeling it.”
10:48 PM Mar 28th

“It’s not YOURgration, it’s migration.”
9:40 PM Mar 15th

“Know what I admire about pussywillows? They don’t have even a single sharp thorn, and they’re beautiful for decorating. And they’re soft!”
12:24 PM Mar 8th

“Sometimes my brain just has a mind of its own.”
1:20 PM Mar 7th

“My fingers are fighting with each other, because they both think THEIR fingernail is the cleanest. Those silly fingers!”
7:02 AM Mar 5th

“Hello there, candy. Take me on a journey to chocolate heaven!”
1:08 PM Mar 3rd

“I don’t care what anyone else says. Pluto is STILL A PLANET.”
6:38 AM Feb 28th

“I call this move the Jellyfish Corndog.”
10:10 PM Feb 24th

“I’ll be right back, you pies….Get it!? Instead of ‘you guys,’ I said, ‘you PIES!’ Hahahaha!”
6:59 AM Feb 22nd

“I don’t have any imaginary friends, but I like to pretend that I do.”
7:42 AM Feb 21st

“Well, Daddy is ONE of the Awesomes, but he’s not the Captain of them.”
8:34 AM Feb 17th

“I need an extra eyeball so I can look at my eyes.”
10:41 PM Feb 14th

“Happy Valentine’s Day, happy Valentine’s Day, happy Valentine’s Day EV-REEE-WUUUUUUNNNN!”
8:59 AM Feb 14th

“I can’t believe we’re back in the state where I was born!”
7:56 AM Feb 14th

“Can I use the colored pencils that Miss Sonja sent me yet? How about now? Can I use them now? Now? What about…now?”
11:21 PM Feb 12th

“Oh, I’m just enjoying the show.”
2:49 PM Feb 11th

“Rule number 54: if you have a cat, DON’T leave rubber bands on the floor.”
9:06 AM Feb 9th

“It’s about a baseball player who was playing tug-of-war before the big game, and he went home tired, and overslept and missed the game.”
12:58 PM Feb 7th

Brenda and Bug went home on Wednesday. I’m so glad they were able to extend their trip. We not only got the house almost completely done, we managed to do a bit more sightseeing. And of course we just enjoyed having them around a little bit longer! I’ll write a post about the house soon. And one about Dana & Leo’s weekend visit, and one about our college friends who happened to be in the area and came by for dinner, and one about the other fun stuff we did in the last week.

B, thanks again for flying all the way across the country, doing most of the unpacking and organizing, hanging all my pictures, pitching in with the chores and dinner-making, and just generally being such a good friend! I miss you already and am looking forward to many late-night IM chats.

See all that stuff on the floor? Yesterday I spent hours working on organizing the bathroom, sorting through all the shampoos and lotions and bandages that seem to accumulate and multiply in bathroom cupboards. I should really say, I spent hours trying to work on it. I kept getting distracted by children needing food, or helping Brenda hem and hang Annalie’s curtains, or reheating my coffee, or a million other things. (If you can’t spot me, check Troy’s shaving mirror in the shower. Or view largest to snoop!)

I’m sort of shrugging and sighing over the fact that I ended this 7 Days with a lame photo of my messy bathroom. But I’m also cutting myself some slack. I’ve had a busy week!

One of the things distracting me yesterday was this project. We were making a photo wall! I’ve wanted a photo wall like Joe & Kassie’s for ages. This house has the perfect wall for it, so I’m finally gonna have one, whee! We laid all the photos down on paper in the arrangement we liked, traced around the frames, and marked where the nails would go. Then we hung the paper on the wall and hammered the nails right through the paper. Worked like a charm.

While we were hanging frames, Annalie built this pet shop out of mega blocks, filled it with her Littlest Pet Shop animals, and drew some posters. She offered to sell me a puppy for the price of a black-and-white cookie. I thought that was a pretty good deal.

We took the kids to a park near our house on Thursday. Apparently they have not refreshed the mulch on the playground, because this bench was a bit higher off the ground than normal. So while the kids played, Brenda and I sat, drank our lattes, swung our feet and felt like little kids. It was fun.

We didn’t realize this playground was there till just a few days ago. It’s kind of hidden back in the trees around the block from our house, but it’s very close! We could probably even walk there, which is really nice.

Annalie and Bug both approved of the park.

Earlier that day we went out for lunch. Bug wasn’t quite ready for me to take her photo in that first shot, and after I took it she said, “That’s not how you pose! Here, I’ll show you how to pose.” Then she tilted her head and smiled sweetly for me.

Then I tried to get Annalie to pose for me since she was wearing the arm warmers CC knitted for her. I wanted to send Heather a photo so she could see how Annalie loves these and wears them all the time. But she gave me a fake eye-roll, the little stinker. She cracked up right after I took that one.

Notice what Annalie is eating? When we walked up to the register to place our order, the friendly young guy behind the counter said, “Let me guess…two macaroni & cheeses for the kids?”

I’ll admit I felt a little smug as I replied, “No, actually…my daughter would like a small tomato soup and a ciabatta bread, please!”

The guy laughed good-naturedly. I’ve said it before: I love that my daughter loves soup!

These are Troy’s lists. The one on the left (on the paper that says “This looks like a job for Superman!”) is the one Brenda and I have been adding to, with items like “hang knife bar” and “move boxes to attic.” The one on the right is Bug’s list. She told us, “it’s a little bit of work, and a little bit of party!”

We went to Chevy’s for dinner Wednesday night. It was supposed to be Brenda & Bug’s going-away dinner but, um…they’re kind of still here. We were talking about how we were thisclose to finishing the house, and how Brenda hated to leave with it unfinished. One thing led to another led to Brenda calling Toby to see if he could manage without them for a few more days, and he said he thought he could do that. So we got their tickets extended for a week, and it’s already paid off because we got a ton of work done in the next two days.

Me and Troy at Chevy’s. I was going to use this for my 7 Days shot, but it’s not really a self-portrait. Brenda suggested the spot for the camera and pressed the button for me.

An attempt at a 7 Days self-portait with a star-shaped light at the restaurant that didn’t work out. But still, it’s kinda cool.

Probably none of you reading this have any clue that I like the TV show Chuck, right? I’m pretty quiet about it.

Lauren had the idea for one of the days of 7 Days to be a Chuck day, just for fun. Here you can see me very obviously speaking into my spy watch, without anyone around me even noticing. Also, I’m wearing my orange Chucks, a mustache from our Chuck party in January (also seen in Sonja’s Flickr stream), and my Orange Orange t-shirt. (Appearances to the contrary, I’m not obsessed. Chuck isn’t even my favorite TV show. I’d have to say my favorite show right now is probably Castle. Nathan Fillion is only one of many awesome things about it.)

Brenda and I had to go to IKEA for the 37th time in two weeks yesterday, and mamalang couldn’t make it to the meet-up yesterday so she drove all the way to meet us at IKEA instead. We shopped, we chatted, we ate meatballs. It would almost be boring how all these internet meet-ups go so well if they weren’t so much fun.

I’m getting a bit behind in my 7 Days blogging because we’ve been scrambling to fit in all the things we want to do before Brenda & Bug go home. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is their last full day here; they fly back home Thursday morning. Brenda was worried that two weeks would be too long, that we’d start to get sick of them, but it seems like they just got here! They could stay another two weeks and we’d probably still be finding things to work on in the house, or fun touristy things to do. But they miss Toby, and he misses them. And the house is almost completely done, which it wouldn’t have been for another six months if it weren’t for Brenda.

We’ll be sad to see them go, but we’re so very glad they came!

Brenda has written about what we’ve been up to in a bit more detail, if you’re interested.

The unpacking is going pretty well. I’ve been in the zone for three days now and I’m just starting to feel a tiny bit tired. Overwhelmed no, just a little creaky from working hard. I’m loving the challenge of finding a place for everything. I know I can do it and when I’m done this house is going to look sooo good!

Even though everything is messy right now, I have a feeling that this house is going to be very photogenic when it’s done. I love the layout and the charming wood floors. The windows are nice with lots of light and offer great views of their giant back yard. I love how the back deck leans out into the branches of the nearby trees. I don’t have a great photo of that but that’s only because I have been unpacking non-stop. I don’t even like to stop to eat.

Of course we have to stop to eat every once in a while because we have little girls in our company with strong growing bodies who demand that we do so. “Feed the kid!” Bug yells at me from time to time. Don’t worry. Nobody is starving. Bethany is taking good care of us when it comes to eating. She’s making lemon bars right now as I type this! I can’t wait.

We’ve made a couple of trips to IKEA to scout out a new couch and some rugs for Bethany’s house and then back again to pick everything up. Shopping at IKEA is pretty fun (especially when you are helping spend someone else’s money) but it does get a bit tiring when you’ve been there for an hour or three. All the choices seem to run together and you feel a bit like a mouse in a maze going crazy. But I can’t complain because I don’t have to put everything together.

Troy does.

We’re all happy in our zones. Me unpacking…

Bethany cooking and baking…

Me eating…

And the girls doing whatever it is that they do.

*Brenda didn’t steal my words. She wrote her post and I said, “I think I’ll just steal your code and put it up on my site as a guest post, okay?” She said, “You should!”

Also, I didn’t mind making her lemon bars. I felt guilty about not helping much with the unpacking, even though she keeps assuring me that she’s having fun, so I practically begged her to give me a baking challenge.

We got to the airport a little early, and had to wait for 20 minutes or so for Brenda and Bug to arrive. When they finally walked around the corner and we saw each other, Bug smiled hugely and ran towards us as Annalie danced a little with the effort of keeping herself from running past the security sign. They hugged each other happily, then held hands and chattered nonstop as we walked to the baggage claim. The past month is probably the longest they’ve gone without seeing each other in the past two years!

That night after the kids were in bed, Brenda and I worked on unpacking the kitchen. When we came across the box that had our ridiculously-large-for-people-who-don’t-really-drink-much wine collection in it, I found a bottle of cabernet sauvignon and decided it was just what we needed. Apparently I was right because around midnight we finished the kitchen.

Yesterday we celebrated my birthday by having lunch with friends and painting pottery, which was a lovely way to spend my birthday. I was also treated to many emails, texts, Facebook and Twitter greetings, and phone calls wishing me the best. My birthday was rather anticlimactic this year what with being in the middle of moving and everything, but all the kind, funny notes made me smile and feel loved. Thanks for all of those!

Today we unpacked a bit, then went on a monster trip to IKEA where we bought Annalie a dresser and picked out a couch and living room rug to buy later and Annalie and Bug discovered that they completely love Småland (the kids’ play area). We were all wiped out by the time we got home. Also, it’s been raining all day (yay!) and the hole in our ceiling we were assured “is just cosmetic, the roof is fixed, we just need to repair the ceiling” has been leaking on and off (boo!). I used my recently-unpacked kitchen to make some really delicious homemade chili which was perfect for the rainy day. While I made the chili Brenda cleared the empty, flattened boxes out of the living room and did some more unpacking. I’m starting to think we’ll have this house DONE in no time.

There are more photos on my Flickr in Brenda & Bug’s D.C. Unpacking Adventure, if you wanna see ‘em.