My Most Favorite Post By My Sister-in-Law, Heather Line

I have to share this post that my Sister-in-Law wrote on her blog a few months ago. I find myself reading it over and over because I just love it.


The Bald Man
So the CU scans each member's ID to the computer system so the ID pops up when an employee accesses an account. Nice feature for a new person--I don't have to constantly ask members for their ID and have them say, "I've been banking here for a hundred and seventy eight years. Find Sheila! She knows me. Why can't this Credit Union keep their employees?"

The other day I pulled up a gentleman's account only to see that in his driver's license picture he was very bald. The man in front of me had hair. I did a double take and then noticed. Ah, plugs. And fairly noticeable ones too.

So how much do you think he paid for hair replacement? I thought he looked FINE in his DL photo. He was in his 50's. Why the plugs now? I don't get it.

I know some women love a thick head of hair. But, I will confess--I love the baldies. I always have. Freakish? Perhaps. But I know I'm not the only woman who fancies a smooth pate.

So what makes me love the hair impaired? I don't know. But here are some of my favorites:

Tennis anyone?

How about basketball?

Wicked!

007 has never looked better.

A classic baldy

Make it so!

OK, so does being a Trekkie and liking baldness make me the biggest possible nerd?

Speaking of which, nerdy and bald is OK with me. (I'm also highly attracted to nerds--but that is a topic for another post)

Chris, you were robbed! Robbed, I say!

I even like cartoon baldness...

. . . to a certain extent

And if I had to pick a Seinfeld character to date based solely on looks, you guessed it-I'd pick George.

Men, I can safely say that NO woman is attracted by this:

Or this:

Or this:
Please, if you are a man who is loosing his hair, embrace your baldness! If you attempt to hide it, sooner or later, people will find out the truth. How long can you keep this:

Under wraps? Yikes!


Unremarkable Haiku

Loosing follicles?

A comb-over is never

A good solution.

Headay,

This post always puts a smile on my face. Thanks for letting me post it here. I do have to add another one to my favorites list though and this one would be at the very top since he is the most handsome one in my book:

LOVE YOU DAD!

I'd love to add a picture of my Uncle, since he's a hottie baldy too but I don't have a picture of him...all of my pictures that aren't digital are in our household shipment! ARGH! If anyone has a good picture of Uncle Steve scan it and send it to me. Who has the picture of Dad and Uncle Steve in their Air Force uniforms standing on Grandma and Grandpa's porch?...that is a great picture! SEND IT and I'll add it to this post.

Update from September 4, 2008

Thank you Dave and Darci for sending the picture!



I know this isn't a recent one of Uncle Steve or Dad at all but it's one of my faves. I think I was still in high school when this one was taken, 16 years ago or so maybe? I think Kyra's wedding was when the most recent pictures of Uncle Steve were taken and with his goatee he really looks like Jaime from Mythbusters...if you feel like scanning one of those pics for me KB I'll add a more recent one of Uncle Steve.

Nothing Going On Other Than A Lot of Little Things

I don't even think I could sit down at a calendar and tell you what has happened each day since my last post. I am an avid journal keeper and I haven't even kept up with that this week and last. The boys started school on the 18th. That alone was pretty chaotic because the school we had originally planned for them to attend...well, here's the 'Garity short' version of the story:
Before getting to Mexico Kris and I looked at all of the schools available for the kids to attend. We decided on Westhill Institute which is both a grade school as well as a University. Sent in the application and other paperwork needed. Westhill didn't start classes until Aug 25th. On Aug 11th, Kris and I took the boys to Westhill to check it out. Willie Fernandez, one of the agents who works for Kris, was kind enough to show us around the campus since his kids had attended the school. Walking through the campus I did not have a good feeling about the place. It was a gorgeous campus, I mean out of control gorgeous...marble floors, the whole building made out of marble or granite...some stone, I don't know. Amazing landscape, well better to just show some pictures

but I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong or why I was feeling such dread about the place. At some point I turned to Kris and said "please don't think I'm crazy but I don't feel good about sending the boys here". He told me he was feeling the exact same thing. We decided to check out ASF instead. ASF just so happened to be having their new student orientation the next morning. The second we stepped onto the campus we were overwhelmed with the feeling that this was the right place for the kids. It's far from the perfect school, it's old, it has its conflicts between the administration and faculty as well as not having the best reputation for dealing with rich bullies who have tormented embassy kids for years (the majority of students at ASF are from the wealthy elite of Mexican society). Overall for the grades the boys are in we felt it was a much better match and we'd deal with any problems as they arise.

We were in a mad dash to get them enrolled, tested and supplies bought since classes started on August 18th. Kris and I have spent a lot of the week getting them situated and picking up supplies, food for lunches, etc which is a huge ordeal when you are living in a hotel.

So, what was the deal with Westhill? Come to find out as we start talking to people, Westhill has a side we weren't aware of. Besides possible money laundering activities which one of the agents in Kris's office mentioned (who deals with money laundering by the way) we also found out that there are no substitute teachers. If a teacher is absent the students are on their own. I spoke with Willie's wife who showed me some of what her sons had done during the 2007-08 school year. I was disturbed that there really wasn't a focus on math or science...in 1st and 3rd grade they focused more on other areas as if there were alternating years so in 2nd and 4th grade they'd have a math/science focus and be lax on language/social studies/etc. This is fine if you are spending many years there at Westhill but not for us since the boys will miss so much when we move if they don't have a balanced load each year. None of the grade requirements or curriculum outlines were available online which should have been a warning signal for Kris and I but now we know.

We found out that Willie and his wife (can't remember her name for the life of me but it starts with an 'L") actually pulled their kids out of Westhill and they are now attending ASF because of the strange curriculum and lack of supervision. I told them it would have been nice had they told us about everything before giving us a tour of the school and Willie said "well you needed to make your own decision without our experience muddying it". After hearing about their experience at Westhill we are REALLY glad we went with our gut feelings because we had doubts for a very good reason!

The boys love their new school at ASF. Braedon had a rough start though. The kids are divided up into native Spanish speakers and Spanish as a second language classes. (ASF is a bilingual education school) In Braedon's grade, they do this first thing in the morning. The teacher had heard Kris speaking Spanish and I guess assumed Braedon was a native speaker. Kris had left the classroom after dropping him off and had to run back to the car to get lunch money. When he returned there was Braedon in near tears sitting at a desk while the class going on around him was 100% in Spanish. Kris asked the teacher "what's going on? Braedon doesn't speak Spanish!" The teacher felt so bad and assured Braedon that he would be going into the beginning Spanish class! Poor guy!

Speaking of Spanish...the staff here at the hotel try to make the guests feel comfortable and really try to speak English if we need it. I keep telling them that I need to practice Spanish so they can speak to me in English if they want as long as they don't mind me butchering their language as I try to get better at it. This seems to work well. I called guest services for a crib mattress for Jamison, just a crib mattress, no crib. He's at that age where he likes to be in a big boy bed and he hasn't slept in a crib since April. So on the phone I can't think of how to say mattress (Kris was elsewhere so I couldn't ask him) so I apologize and tell the guy I'm sorry but I don't know the word in Spanish so he says "No problem Miss, I speak English, what can I do for you?" I tell him "Could we please have a crib mattress, no crib, just a mattress for the baby so he can sleep on the floor and not roll off a larger roll away bed". The guy says "OK, I will bring you mattress, no problem". Not even 5 minutes later there is a knock at the door and the guy hands me an ashtray...with matches. We both had a good laugh after I explained: mattress not matches. Kris told me how to say mattress in Spanish (colchón) and he happily left to bring one up. I did tip him well because of all the trouble.

~Laundry~ Loads of Fun!

After being in the hotel just 5 days you can imagine that with 5 people laundry adds up. Kris told me to just us the hotel’s laundry service; of course there is no laundry room for hotel guests. Take a look at the price sheet: (you will get a bigger image if you click on the picture if you didn't already know you could do that)



Dollars to Pesos is approximately 1 to 10 so estimating conversion is easy (and with my mathematical abilities I'm so grateful all I have to do is move the decimal point over!). So just to do one shirt it’s $6.30 USD x 5 x 5 days…yea you get picture and that's just one article of clothing type. I asked the laundry service manager if there was a lower cost for children's clothes but he said no. I was not about to spend that amount of money on laundry just on principle and because I don't get paid that much to do OUR laundry, not even close! I'll take that up with Kris later although I do get to keep any money he forgets in his pockets...that's the rule. I don't care if we could use part of our per diem on it (actually laundry at these prices would put us over our limit so we'd end up paying for it out of our own pockets anyway). I next asked the concierge about a laundromat that was close...none.

I felt a little adventurous at this point. Why couldn't I just hand wash it all? I could then hang it all up, it would dry in a day and we'd be good to go. I mean, how hard could it be? I've seen it done, I've hand washed stuff before. The mom on Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory did it while singing a song even! I just needed a large tub...bathtub would work, some detergent, liquid fabric softener and a large paddle to stir it all with, plus some elbow grease....easy peasy! The boys and I walked down the street and into 3 stores until we found one that had some laundry detergent and liquid fabric softener. They were really excited about hand washing the clothes and kept asking about how we were going to do it and if they could help. Why not? I'd happily put them to work.

The boy's bathtub got filled with hot water and all of the whites. Our bathtub was filled with warm water and the colored clothes. Our sink was filled with cold water and hand-wash only items. I divied up the laundry detergent and the boys took turns stirring the clothes with a curtain pull/push rod that had fallen off that morning...what luck! We had a 'paddle'...I call that being resourceful! Why do the boys have their shirts off? When I asked them they said it was because they were going to be hard workers...OK whatever, trying to figure out where they got that one from but it works for me ALSO FYI the water with the whites looks gross but it's because the laundry detergent has a greenish-blue color to it!



Weston was interested in fireproofing the clothes:



We let everything soak for a while and then I got in there and agitated the whole mess scrubbing each item in turn. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be! I could have considered it a very serious workout...which I did...so I wouldn't feel guilty about thinking I deserved dessert that night.

We drained the tubs and filled them with fresh water...oops, used way too much soap so we would have to swish those around, drain again and refill with clear water and some Downy fabric softener. The boys then asked if they could get into the tubs and stomp around to help rinse the clothes...why not?!







At this point I was thinking "HA! Take that Sheraton laundry service! This is working out just fine! The boys were having fun and so was I. So then we let all the water out of the tubs...and then it hit me...I forgot about wringing ALL of the water out...do you know that your hands can get blisters from wringing clothes?...A lot of clothes?

I finally got through all of it and then realized, where was I going to hang all of this up? So the kids and I got creative Jamison even got in on hanging things up...well he was doing a good job until I tried to catch it on camera.





I'm sparing you the sight of the whites being hung up...no need to share underwear shots right?) Most of the clothes would be dry in a few hours...the jeans maybe overnight at the most, right? WRONG! The clothes that were hanging on the bathroom laundry line and curtain rod didn't dry at all and those that were in the room did better because I had the air cranked but that next evening things were still damp so I ended up ironing every single item of clothing to fully dry them all...took me 4 hours. Unfortunately I learned that ironed t-shirts and underwear are REALLY nice! I've never worn ironed jeans either...I loved it!...but not enough to go through that again!

So what did we learn? 1. The kids are so bored that hand washing clothes is fun for them. 2. I have NEVER taken my washing machine and dryer for granted before this but now I realize that I really love them and the time they save me. 3. The kids can wear clothes more than once if they don't look or smell dirty...I can't believe I just wrote that, this is only temporary! 4. Laundry detergent is not kind to hands, neither is wringing clothing...on top of my gardening calluses I now have blisters and detergent induced dermatitis...wanna hold my hand Sirk? 5. I need to make some friends quick so I can use their washing machine until we get into a place that has one. 6. When a new family moves here I will personally seek them out to offer them use of my washing machine and dryer whenever they need it.

Mexico City; End of Week One

Our flight out of Richmond first took us to Atlanta, GA (1 hour), a short layover (45 minutes) and then into Mexico City (3 hours)...It was a very nice, short and easy day of travel. I didn't hear a peep out of the boys, got quite a bit of sleep myself since Jamison fell asleep during both flights right at take-off, and we all were treated to a rare sight as we flew around Tropical Storm Edouard. We actually flew above and to the right of the storm as the pilot pointed out some interesting facts about navigating around storms like these. Weston ate it up of course.

Flying into the city, the outskirts are beautiful:
















We arrived in Mexico City at 3pm, breezed right through customs (yea we cheated though since we did the Diplomat route), enjoyed the friendliness of the airport staff which was just icing on the cake of what could have been a very stressful day. The acting ICE Attaché met us with 2 SUVs to load us plus our 15 large suitcases (hey, when you are going to be living out of suitcases for a while it pays to bring as many as you are authorized!)

Our drive to the hotel was very quick. I was surprised that it was already 4:30pm and traffic really wasn't that bad. I guess I was expecting chaos but while it was a little bit stop and go, it was pretty orderly.

WARNING: HORTICULTURE GEEK MOMENT

Along the way I noticed that many of the hell strips (the area of soil between the sidewalk and the street) in front of these little decrepit apartment buildings and shoddy tiendas, were surrounded with makeshift fences and turned into well tended gardens. There were some that were just 2 feet wide and several feet long and others that had plenty of walking space. I've seen hell strip gardens before, of course, but to see an area of such poverty and decline with such cared for gardens I was a little taken aback. I've since found out that people really value gardens here in the city and will put them anywhere they can. The city puts a lot of money into maintaining green spaces and the locals do the same with whatever little spot of soil they have. Proof that you can have a little bit of Eden anywhere. I'm sorry I didn't get more pictures of the really nice ones but by the time I remembered I had my camera we had already passed a lot of them but here is an example:
















We spent the first week trying to get everything done to in-process into the embassy, get our housing set up and just try and get a feel for the city. We went through a full day of briefings at the embassy dealing with health issues, security and the day-to-day information about life in Mexico City. Kris has spent a lot of time trying to get our housing set up. Right now we are living at the Sheraton Centro Historico which is a great location to see the historic center of the city.

So much is within walking distance and the kids and I have already explored Alameda Park which is just across from the hotel. It is full of large water fountains, statuary, and decorative benches all connected by cobbled walkways set out in a geometric pattern under a canopy of trees. The park is full of handicraft vendors and little snack and candy carts. On Saturdays and Sundays the park is completely packed with musicians and street performers. We could see the monument to Benito Juarez from our first hotel room window that is located as you enter the park. There weren't any adjoining hotel rooms when we first checked in so we started out in two separate rooms; Kris in one with the two older boys and Jamison and I in another across the hall...after 2 days they finally had two larger adjoining rooms that are on the top floor (27th) but unfortunately we can't see Alameda Park anymore although the skyline is still breathtaking especially during a lightening storm! We've already experienced a tremor (Mexico City is on a major fault line) so between hurricanes and earthquakes this should be pretty exciting...emergency preparedness anyone? I'll be an expert after this!

This next week I hope to take the kids to the Children's Museum and the Mexican History museum that is located in a huge park called Chapultepec Park (for comparison Central Park is 843 acres, Chapultepec Park is 1800 acres). There is also a historic castle, the botanic gardens, paddle boats on one of several lakes, and a zoo. I think this park alone will keep the kids and I busy for a while.

The kids have spent a lot of time in the hotel pool (it's kind of chilly outside right now so it's nice the pool is heated)

















The Boys love the elevators and we have been know to ride them up and down several times in a row. Cheap entertainment really pays off.
















We have spent the first week relatively healthy. I had a hard time adjusting to the altitude at first (we are 7,349 feet high!) but the boys did well. Jamison and I have had minor upset stomachs but nothing major. We've already been told by the health unit nurse to plan on getting Moctezuma's Revenge...it's not a matter of IF but WHEN. The air pollution isn't too bad right now because it is the rainy season but it is still irritating (think chlorine eyes after swimming and that's how your eyes feel after spending all day outside). Since we will most likely be living in Santa Fe we can look forward to a lot less pollution which will be nice not to have to worry about being constantly in the middle of the worst of it.

10th Anniversary Gift

I just figured out what Kris is doing for me for our 10th anniversary in September...he's taking me to Mexico City! How romantic is that?! I have the best husband EVER! Since our first anniversary we have a tradition of who is in charge of the anniversary that year. I was in charge of planning the first year so I took all odd years and he has the even years (I don't believe husbands alone should be in charge of planning an anniversary). This year he's outdone himself (but I think he cheated...don't you think?). Maybe he can work on getting us into our permanent home here by the 5th of September...that would really be the best anniversary gift ever at this moment! It's actually possible because it's not going to take more than a week to get our household goods sent here...fingers crossed! A VERY nice change from the 6-8 month estimate we got while in Caracas. I could have my van here in 2 weeks!

The Latest: Tick Bites

My parents have a lot of ticks in their backyard wooded area. We spray sportsman strength repellant (that's 30% DEET Y'all!)but still end up with a tick or two. They have 2 main ticks that I have seen, the Lone Star tick and deer tick. Lone star ticks don’t carry Lyme (although they do carry some other fun diseases) but deer ticks do. On July 18 I was changing Jamison’s diaper when I noticed a very distinct and clear bulls-eye shaped rash surrounding an area he had been bitten by a deer tick the month before. I put the kids in the car, went to the doc-in-a-box where he was diagnosed with having the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi which leads to Lyme. He has been on a 21 day cycle of antibiotics.

The day before we left for Mexico, my dad was feeling pretty rotten. Dizzy, flu-like complete with fever and chills. He had been feeling like this for a day or two first thinking maybe it was heat induced following all of the work Kris and he did on Saturday. Sunday he spent a lot of the day bundled in a sweatshirt and long pants under covers up to his ears (it was 76 degrees in the house!). I was actually excited that I might get a chance to wait on him by bringing him toast and Diet Pepsi (ugh, I know, I'm actually related to people who drink Pepsi). Monday morning as Kris and I were leaving for the airport he decided that he had better go in because he had a feeling it could be tick related. He went to the doctor where he was also diagnosed with Lyme and is also on a cycle of antibiotics. What is it with our family and bedbugs, bird mites and ticks? (Click on the bugs to read the corresponding post).

Welcome Baby Sabie Bereket Witt!

First things first. Before I post about our first week in Mexico City I want to mention a new addition to my sister Kyra, and husband Michael’s family. They have been in Ethiopia the past 2 weeks to pick up their daughter who they have named Sabie Bereket Witt (pronounced Sar-bee accent on the -bie). Bereket is the name she was given at the orphanage (or maybe from someone in her family? I’m not sure) and Sabie is the name that Kyra and Michael picked out for her after a river in South Africa. This is their first child and Kris, the boys and I are very excited to have her as a niece! Sabie ties the girls with the boys in the cousins count...it's up to us to break the tie I guess!

Rollercoaster!

Garity and I went on our first date in 4 months last week. We went to Bush Gardens and tried riding all of the rollercoasters. We paid extra money for the "quick queue" which puts you at the front of the line. It was worth it to not have to wait 45 minutes to an hour per ride, not to mention the sour look on people's faces who had to wait. We didn't get to ride the Griffon, but the others were great. It was an awesome date. Keep in mind, this was my first time on a rollercoaster. I am pretty much hooked. I am determined to go to Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH at some point in time to ride the Top Thrill Dragster coaster. 0-125 mph in 4 seconds, then straight up at 90 degrees for 415 feet, then back down at 90 degrees with a corkscrew turn. Yes, I will ride that coaster. I now associate Garity with rollercoasters. What could be more romantic?

Kris' Birthday/Father's Day Week and Our Last Week in the USA

Kris flew in from Caracas Sunday, July 27th. He arrived at my parent’s home at 10:45pm and the kids were all still awake waiting for him. I was afraid Jamison wouldn’t warm up to him immediately but as soon as Kris walked in he went right to him and CLUNG to him for dear life. I tried to take him so that Kris could give the other boys a hug but Jamison just screamed and reached out for Kris…so that’s how he fell asleep, clinging to his daddy. I was VERY happy to see this and I know it meant the world to Kris that Jamison had this reaction because he has been such a mamma’s-boy.



Each day we tried to do something fun with Kris to celebrate his birthday and Father’s Day. I wanted to copy an idea my friend had that I had previously mentioned but there was just too much that I know Kris wanted to do so I didn’t want to leave things out…we were going to do it all!

Monday--Kris and I took the boys to “Journey to the Center of the Earth”. Weston and Braedon really enjoyed it…Jamison, not so much. I spent most of the time in the hallway with him.



Tuesday--Busch Gardens with Daddy! The boys have been looking forward to going to Busch Gardens with Kris. There are several rides that I would love to go on with them but I just can’t. I used to really enjoy rides but ever since being pregnant with Weston and having my first experience with morning sickness everything that can cause some sort of motion sickness does so with a vengeance and I really get sick to the point of throwing up. I try to fight it but that just makes things worse so poor Weston and Braedon had to wait for Kris to ride the “lets go round and round in a circle” type rides. They rode them all while I watched still fighting nausea just watching them!



Weston rode his very first major coaster. It is called The Big Bad Wolf and he loved it. Braedon hasn’t warmed up to the idea of going on a coaster but give it a few years and we won’t be able to get him off of one. Jamison even got to ride a baloon ride with his brothers which he thought was pretty neat.



One highlight of the day according to Braedon: When you first get into Italy (all sections are named after European countries) there is an "Escape from Pompeii" ride where you can stand on a splash deck and get soaked by the boat as it comes flying down into the water. Weston and Braedon were getting drenched when an especially loaded boat (full of fat people…these make the best and biggest splashes!) created a HUGE wave that blew Braedon’s favorite hat off his head and into the water which then was sucked into the depths of water ride darkness. He was pretty worked up and upset about it the whole day. Just as we were leaving the park at the end of the day we again passed by "Escape from Pompeii" and Weston said he wanted to ride it so I told him I’d ride it with him. When we exited the ride, there perched on a shelf was Braedon’s hat! A little greasy from the workings of the ride but it was there! I let out a shriek of “Oh my gosh! Braedon’s hat!”. The ride operator said “oh yea, anything that someone looses during the ride gets put there, most of the park rides will have a reclaim spot near the exit if you check back there towards the end of the day.” I took the hat and was waving it over my head off the ramp and Braedon’s expression was priceless when he saw me. Little boys and their hats…a bond I will never understand.

Wednesday--Kris took the boys to the pool while Jamison took a nap and I packed. For dinner we went to Kris’ favorite restaurant here called New York Deli. Grandpa went with us and we all had steak and cheese subs. Grandpa had to leave for a meeting so the boys and I took Kris to Sno-to-Go for dessert. You choose from 40 flavors of shaved ultra fluffy snowy ice that is then layered with soft-serve, they are called Stuffed Snowballs. Braedon got a Gremlin (Blue Raspberry, Mango, Lemonade). Weston got a Sponge Bob (orange, lemon and mango). I’m surprised neither chose Frog-in-a-Blender which is lime and watermelon. Kris got a Bahama Mamma (Orange, Mango, Pineapple, and Pina Coloda) and I got a Sunrise (Bahama Mama, Raspberry, Lemonade). My problem with Sno-to-Go is that I wanted more soft serve than shaved ice. I’m not a huge fan of shaved ice so I tried to tell them to charge me extra but I wanted soft serve first then a layer of flavored shaved ice then another layer of soft serve rather than their customary shaved ice/soft serve/shaved ice….the teenager behind the counter looked at me like I was from mars (but we are known for our ultra fluffy shaved ice…the soft serve is just an accent!) Too many people behind me to argue so I said ‘nevermind’ and accepted my stuffed snowball with a smile. Someday when there is no line I am going to get my soft serve stuffed with ultra fluffy shaved ice…flavor to be determined at that point.



Thursday- Water Country! This place is a lot of fun and we had a great time. I took Jamison to the kiddie area while Kris took the boys down several water slides.





That night my dad took Weston, Braedon and Jamison while Kris and I went on a date to Busch Gardens. We were both bummed that the Griffon coaster was down due to maintenance but there were still several others to ride. We bought 2 Quick Queue passes ($15 each) which allows the holder to have priority access to the major rides in the park...only one time per ride. This was all we would need since waiting in line can take over 45 minutes this would be the only way we could hit all of the coasters with the time we had. We started with Apollo’s Chariot in Italy (we rode this twice since the first time we actually stood in line for 45 minutes before going back to buy the quick queue passes), next was The Big Bad Wolf in Germany and Curse of DarKastle (a 4-D ride). We then rode Alpengeist which is the world's tallest, floorless, most twisted inverted roller coaster that is listed in the top 10 of steel roller coasters. I mention this because it goes into several corkscrews and 6 inversions…the first time I was ok. When we got off there was no line so Kris said “lets ride it again” so we got right back on and that was a huge mistake. I had taken Dramamine because I knew that I would get sick on the coasters if I didn’t take it and it was working very well. The second time on the Alpengeist though and I was sick to my stomach…Dramamine doesn’t work if you push your luck with it. That was the end of rides for me that night so we ate dinner in France once my stomach calmed down and went to Kinetix, the major acrobatic and light show. Since the Griffon was down we only missed riding the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland but we didn’t get to it in time before the coasters closed for the night and there was no way I would be able to ride it after Alpengeist. Next time though! This was one of the best dates Kris and I have ever been on.

Friday--We woke up at 5am to get ready to drive up to Fredericksburg. Jamison had a doctor’s appointment at 9am for his 15 month shots and we knew there would be traffic. We also had to drop the van off in Woodbridge so it was going to be a long day up and down I-95. Kris drove the Odyssey while I took my mom’s Pilot. We stopped in at our home to check on things…it looked great, the yard needs more attention but that just isn’t going to happen if the house is vacant. Kris and I decided that if it doesn’t sell by the end of August we are taking it off the market and renting it. Since the garden is going to be neglected I had to rescue several of my plants that I knew wouldn’t take kindly to neglect. I bought a box of large garbage bags at Bloom (grocery store) and filled them up with peonies, Japanese painted ferns, fothergilla, twin-berry groundcover, green-and-gold groundcover, cardinal flower, hellebore, hydrangeas; some lacecap others were mopheads, Virginia creeper, asters, and heuchera. I absolutely stuffed the back of my mom’s Pilot with shrubs and perennials along with three 100ft soaker hoses that I knew would come in handy in the new landscape at my parent’s home (while they were in Utah for over a month I landscaped their backyard…I hope to post pictures of this someday on my other blog). When we got back to Williamsburg that evening my dad and I planted everything into their new landscape. I hope most of it makes it and thrives. After all of that I realized that I forgot to get the astilbes and white chelone that were along the creek in the backyard! ARGH! Next summer I will have to go back up and get those because the astilbes were from Murry Minster’s garden across the street from my Grandparents in McLean, VA and the white chelone is one of my favorite Virginia natives that just so happened to love the area along our creek bed. I really enjoyed planting all of those plants with my Dad.

Saturday--Kris and Dad worked outside digging a trench to divert the water that drenched the backyard. My dad’s neighbor likes to water his lawn A LOT. All the water that is not absorbed flows into my dad’s and turns the area into a soppy mess. I told Dad his soil was dead in that area because of the saturation and sure enough when they started digging the trench the stench of sewage was pretty strong (what it smells like when soil is anaerobic which is what happens when there is too much water saturation and organisms within the soil die…it’s not a fun problem to correct). They lined the trench with landscape fabric and then filled it with rock to hopefully act as a drain for his neighbor’s excess water. It was a quick job that needed to get done and Kris really enjoys working with my dad on projects so this was the one they chose to work on.



That wraps up our last week in the US!