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!

Here’s a classic meme (via Leah [heh, that rhymes!] at agirlandaboy), because right now I don’t seem to be capable of any kind of blogging more strenuous than this. If you follow me on FB or Twitter you might have heard that our visit to Omaha ended with pretty much everyone in the house taking turns being sick with a gross stomach virus and a snowstorm on Saturday, AKA the day we were originally supposed to fly to Texas to meet Troy.

We postponed our flight for a day which was a good thing all around, giving everyone an extra day to recover. Troy had to hang out at the hotel for an extra day and we missed out on spending a day with Troy’s mom and stepdad, but it wasn’t a big deal, and it couldn’t be helped. We’re having a low-key, relaxing (except for Elliora being fussy and clingy thanks to her incisors being jerks) visit.

On to the meme.

A. Age: 36 for another month and three days.

B. Bed size: King, which we bought a couple years ago because our queen-size bed had gotten too small for two adults, two cats, and a growing child. Now, Annalie sleeps in her own bed 99% of the time, and Elliora can’t be trusted to sleep in our bed without getting up and destroying things, and the cats are banned from the bedroom because they kept peeing on our laundry. It makes me kind of sad that no one else is sharing our giant bed, which we bought specifically to share, with us anymore.

C. Chore that you hate: Cleaning the litter box. Folding laundry. Raking leaves or shoveling snow.

D. Dogs: We don’t have one. Moving every two years with two cats is challenging enough.

E. Essential start to your day: Breakfast. When I wake up, I must eat ASAP.

F. Favorite color: Yellow (golden, not pastel) and orange.

G. Gold or Silver: Silver.

H. Height: 5’2″

I. Instruments you play: Piano, flute, violin. I also sing (mezzo-soprano).

J. Job title: Mom. Homeschool teacher.

K. Kids: Two girls, Annalie and Elliora, ages 7.75 and 14 months.

L. Live: D.C. metro. This summer we’ll be moving back to San Diego. We were originally supposed to move right about now. We’re happy to be going back to San Diego; not so thrilled about the extra six months in D.C., although we’re trying hard to look on the bright side.

M. Mother’s name: Debbie.

N. Nicknames: I don’t really have any. I used to go by Beth, but only a handful of people call me that anymore. I guess some people call me B.

O. Overnight hospital stays: For me, when I had babies. And also when Elliora had RSV when she was one month old, I stayed at the hospital with her for three days.

P. Pet peeves: The improper use of the word “cliché.” (It is a cliché. It is so clichéd.) People not pulling out into the intersection when they’re waiting to turn left on a green light. TV shows getting cancelled before they even had a chance.

Q. Quote from a movie: “Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”

R. Right- or left-handed: Right. But I have always wished I were left-handed.

S. Siblings: One brother, 17 months younger.

Edited to add: Jen came up with a T, and I liked it so I’m including it.
T. Taste you do not like: Orange-flavored soda and candy (I like actual oranges and orange juice, just not orange-flavored things), black licorice and jellybeans (I like anise-flavored baked goods, but in candy form it’s too strong), Earl Grey tea, flowery flavors. (I had trouble coming up with these. In general I have stronger negative feelings about certain textures than I do about flavors.)

U. Underwear: Purple.

V. Vegetable(s) you hate: I don’t love eggplant or turnips, but I’ll eat both.

W. What makes you run late: I pretty much always underestimate how long it will take me to do everything. I know this and try to compensate by adding 10-30 minutes to my estimates, but it doesn’t always work.

X. X-Rays you’ve had: Just my teeth during regular checkups.

Y. Yummy food that you make: Extra-lemony eggs benedict. Homemade pizza with pesto and butternut squash. Roasted asparagus/broccoli/carrots/brussels sprouts. Pickled eggs, about which I weirdly had a dream last night. (The dream itself wasn’t weird; I just dreamed that we got home from our vacation and I was happy to realize we still had pickled eggs in the fridge. It’s just kind of weird that I was dreaming about pickled eggs at all.)

Z. Zoo animal: I always loved the goats in the petting zoo.

What happened to the T? It’s a mystery.

p.s. New banner. Thanks, Brenda!