Shirking My Duties

Hello, friends. Long time, no talk - sorry about that. We've been really busy. Okay, I'm lying; we've been having fun, doing our normal things, visiting friends in farflung locales, downloading ark-building plans and I've become practically professional at avoiding cleaning. Sounds pretty enjoyable, doesn't it? And I'd like to give a special shout-out to Jody, the only one who noticed I was missing. It's nice to feel needed. I jest! Anyway.

To start, Wyatt has new words that are, as always, funny to me. Current faves: ah-ah-ga (octagon), oh-oh-vo (oval), ro-ro (macaroni), yo-yo (yogurt) and ammm (ham). I notice more and more sounds coming out of his mouth - very round-sounding l's, t's at the end of a word - and think that the next few months (years?) should be entertaining. Have I ever mentioned how fun I think my child is? Oh, yes, perhaps I have.

Wyatt and I took our first roadtrip together this week (his first ever, of course) and it was a big time. Big, I tell you. We went all the way to Jacksonville (! pretty farflung, don't you think?) to visit Leslie and Michael and we had a great time. They have a very fun house for kids (translation: a dedicated playroom stocked with pretty much every toy we don't own) and live in a neighborhood with great playgrounds and parks. We just hung out and enjoyed the change of scenery. Wyatt was a pretty good rider; he slept for two hours each way (of a 4-5 hour trip) and then was fairly content to listen to his music, eat o's, talk about trucks on the highway, color (with Aquadoodles only, lest you think I'm a complete idiot), and fling his things all over the backseat and then demand that I retreive them. It actually gave me great hope for our moving jaunt in a few weeks and also provided an opportunity for me to come up with some strategic counter-maneuvers. If I had managed to take any pictures, I would do a neat then & now comparison for you with the "then" being a picture of Leslie and I on top of Mt. Fuji three years ago, the "after" being one of us at the summit of the playroom stairs. My, how the times do change!

We drove home in rain, solid downpour, can't see 50 feet in front of you rain, and I'm glad we left Jacksonville when we did. You know, so that we weren't driving during the tornadoes and flash-floods. See? Always something to be thankful for. This brings up a couple of tangents: first, the authorities here need to learn a little something about watches v. warnings. For instance, when the sirens start blaring and they break into our television programming to tell us "a tornado was spotted in the Tyndall vicinity and all personnel need to take cover immediately," that translates to this Kansas girl as "grab your kid, your phone and your purse and head for the bathtub." Makes sense, right? But then they just went back to normal programming, no weather from local stations, no further information. Let me just tell you that Wyatt doesn't think it's very fun to play in a dry bathtub for more than, oh, three minutes. So we finally climbed out and I was frantically changing channels trying to find a radar picture. When I finally did, I learned that the tornado was about 20 miles west and wasn't threatening the base. So it seems the bathtub was unnecessary, but then so was their stupid command post message. And also, after they issue a warning like this, they probably shouldn't wait another 45 minutes to issue the all-clear. I believe, Mr. Tyndall Command Post Man, that this is what they refer to as "crying wolf." Please refrain, lest we really need to pay attention to you next time.

And the second tangent (whew, that first one was loooonnnng!): it greatly amuses me how the news stations can dramatize anything. Our days of solid rain suddenly became "The (dun, dun, dun) February Floods" by the 10:00 news. Yes, it was a lot of rain. Yes, there was flooding. But honestly, if the rain was that big of a deal, don't you think they should have had a weather guy on to tell us what the heck was going on while it was happening? Yeah, me too. Moving on.

The cleaning hiatus: not a complete hiatus, just a general disdain for this place. You're right, the disdain is not new. More accurately, it's a renewed level of disdain. The maids came in last weekend while we were gone and again this week while we were out (Jeff was gone, too) and I kid you not, they leave it dirtier than they find it. I have a feeling they've been using the same nasty string mop since the turn of the century and just come push nasty dirt water all over our floor. How do I know? Because our feet turn black within an hour of being home. Dear Maids: our do not disturb sign hanging outside isn't a joke. Also? Enough with the dirtying of my space. Also? If you're going to come on in, the least you could do is scrub the bathtub because that's quite possibly my least favorite project. Sincerely, Stephanie.

We are now t-minus 6 days from closing on our very first house. The floors have been installed (count yourself lucky if you've dodged my tirades on this subject), the painter is lined up (we came to our senses and decided that hey! wouldn't it be nice just to pay someone to do that?) and our loan is finalized. I'm sure that other issues will crop up (like the harsh reality of the sad state of all three bathrooms), but we are seriously excited about finally having our very own place! Again, we're leaning heavily on our parents for assistance. Jeff's will be manning Wyatt while I'm gone and he's working (no leave allowed - if the closing gets screwed up it's all on me - great!) and mine are making the trip with me to help get house projects rolling and then will be hanging out here for another little bit. So, while we'll be having big fun, the blog will probably slide to the back burner. See? I shirk well.