After the initial moment of panic when my laptop first went into a coma, I really did think Hey, it might be nice to not lug that thing halfway across the country! After all, my mom has a computer, so it’s not like I’ll be totally internet-less. And my mom has been very generous with her computer. Even if it weren’t in the same room Annalie and I sleep in, she still would be allowing me free access to it.

But there is the problem: the computer is in the same room where Annalie and I sleep. That means each night when Annalie is trying to go to sleep, the computer is pretty much off-limits. Since we often are out and about during the day, that really limits the computer time. I get to use it when Annalie is good and asleep, but my poor mom has been having to politely schedule time to check her email. And I’ve been trying to actually sleep at night instead of giving in to the temptation to stay up into the wee hours of the morning blogging and reading.

Also, I’m used to having the laptop in the room with me in the evening when I’m watching TV and crocheting, so if a question comes up about, say, the cost of airfare from Omaha to Washington, D.C., or why an actor in a TV show looks so familiar, I can just look it up right then and there. I have joked in the past that I don’t know how to watch a movie anymore without browsing IMDb at the same time. This past week I’ve learned that there is more truth to that than I imagined.

Finally, I have not been able to download photos from my Nikon. The cardreader on my mom’s printer isn’t working. I bought an inexpensive USB cardreader to do it, but for some reason it’s not working either. I decided to give up and just download the photos when I get home to my laptop which Troy was able to rescusitate and restore to reasonably good health. Which is why I swiped some of my mom’s photos for this post.

My brother and his girlfriend gave Annalie a gift card to Build-A-Bear for Christmas last year. I intended to save it for a time we were in Omaha so Ben and Angie could have the pleasure of going with us. Then we, uh, lost the gift card in the move. It’s around somewhere! We just couldn’t find it before this trip.

But Annalie remembered we’d promised her a trip to Build-A-Bear. She went to a birthday party there last year and loved it. She was quite excited about going back. So I just paid for this pink leopard, which Annalie christened Heart Sophia Pink. I love the names she comes up with for her animals. She also has a penguin called Foot, a little black poodle named Apple, and a lamb with the impressive handle Easter Maryland Lamb.

This photo of my brother’s cat Styx (named after the river, not the band) and Annalie watching TV looks kinda like a LOLcat waiting to be captioned. Don’t you think?

Oh, right…I did a giveaway and said I was going to announce the winners. I am sure you’re all on the edges of your seats, waiting for me to do that. Without further ado, I declare that you are ALL winners in my book! Everyone who left a comment asking to be entered into the drawing is a winner, anyway. Congratulations to Mim, K, kj, Annika, Mysh, and Meaghan!

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting on the floor in a darkened bedroom at my Aunt Julie’s house, leaning uncomfortably against the side of a recliner. Annalie was lying on the bed on the other side of the chair. I wanted her to nap and had done everything I could think of to encourage her to drift off. She did not want to nap and was doing everything in her meager power to prevent herself from falling asleep. We had reached an impasse.

Now that Annalie is four years old she can get by without a nap most days. But there are still times when she needs the extra sleep, or when I need a break. Usually when I declare it to be a Nap Day, Annalie cooperates willingly enough. She might make some noise about not being tired but once we’ve read stories and I’ve tucked her in, she closes her eyes and goes to sleep.

Then there are days like yesterday. She was tired and really did need a nap, but we were at my aunt’s house and when we’re not at home it’s easier for Annalie to resist sleep. She was extra giggly and hyper and was yawning and rubbing her eyes when she wasn’t singing or flopping around on the bed. She did everything short of tap-dancing on the walls to keep herself awake.

Then there was the fact that yesterday I was tired. I desperately wanted to nap too but Annalie would not go to sleep. With every passing minute I grew more impatient and frustrated. And that’s how I ended up sitting on the floor on the other side of the recliner taking deep breaths. I was so close to losing my temper or crying or possibly running for the hills. I hate that feeling.

The stupid thing was—and I knew this even at the time—if I hadn’t been so tired I would have just read to her, sung her a song, and then left her alone with some books to look at and she probably would have been asleep in ten minutes. But when I’m tired I don’t think straight.

After an hour of epic struggle I declared a truce. I set up my laptop so she could watch the new Veggie Tales DVD and gave her strict instructions to watch quietly while I took a quick nap. Then my aunt came to the rescue (bless her!) and watched the movie with Annalie in another room so I could sleep.

Last night was more of the same. We did the usual away-from-home bedtime routine, and when Annalie hadn’t fallen asleep after I’d laid in bed with her for ten or fifteen minutes, I left the room hoping that would do the trick. But in the end, it took Annalie over an hour and a half to fall asleep in the dark bedroom with me sitting in the recliner with my laptop screen dimmed. I guess she just takes after me.

Yesterday’s sleep struggles are really just a blip on the radar. Usually Annalie goes to bed for naps and at night with much less drama, and in general Annalie and I have been having a great time lately spending time with friends and enjoying summer. I am laughing and rolling my eyes about the whole thing now. But yesterday, I was completely and utterly frustrated.

What’s frustrating you right now?

Even though this is our seventh military move, I always forget how much I hate this part of moving. In the weeks before, I’m all, “La-di-da, having movers come pack us up is sooooo easy and low-stress!” When professional movers pack up your house, they’re like locusts descending on the crops. They come in and pack up everything in their path with remarkable efficiency, and in just a day or two the entire house is in boxes and loaded onto trucks.

The trouble is, sometimes they can be a little too efficient.

Before the movers pack us out, we always set aside the stuff we want to take with us on the road, and make sure they know not to pack it. Most of the time movers know not to pack things like, say, pump bottles of hand soap or the lid to the cats’ litter box. (That actually happened to us once. In Ottawa one of the movers got on a roll and packed up the lid to the plastic container we use as a litter box while traveling. Luckily we discovered it before they loaded the truck.) Sometimes though, stuff does get packed that probably shouldn’t be stuck in a box on a hot, airless truck for several weeks.

So of course I’m looking around the house right now, nine hours before the pack-out starts, and mentally cataloging all the things that maybe we should have set aside to be sure the movers wouldn’t pack them. I’m panicking ever so slightly.

I’ll be okay tomorrow, though. Once the boxes start stacking up, I feel like the baton of responsibility has been passed and there’s nothing more I can do till we arrive at our new home. Then we start unpacking, and ask each other questions like, “What the—is this melted marshmallow on these DVD cases!?”