"Mommy is a Spy!"

When we lived here 11 years ago, my neighbor's sister-in-law was a mystery shopper in this area.  I remember her talking about how she got her oil changed for free, and free meals, etc, in exchange for making customer service evaluations.  I looked into it shortly after we moved in, and have acquired a new hobby!  So far, I have audited a preschool/daycare center, and I have conducted several fast food shop evaluations.  I am hoping to branch out a bit, and find something that pays a little better (or reimburses more) and won't sabotage my healthier diet.  I have lost 20 lbs since April, and eating burgers and fries a few times a week surely isn't going to make it easy to maintain!  However, I have been using these fast food shops to take the kids out, one at a time for a "date with mom".  They enjoy it, and clamor to be next.  I have one tonight 15 minutes away, which I have to visit 30 minutes before closing time.  I won't be doing these later shops often.  I don't think they are worth the $, but I do look forward to having Molly along this evening.  I will be able to write off  any computer related expenses when we file for taxes this year.  I will also be responsible for my taxes as an independent contractor.  So I am saving everything.  I don't anticipate making buckets of money, but it would be nice to get discounts or reimbursed for goods and services I use anyhow.  And if I am wise and coordinate my errands with my assignments, I can write off the mileage.  I did find it amusing that the oil change assignment I saw was for all cars except Saturns and 15 passenger vans.  Guess what I drive?!  Good thing Tom changes the oil in our vehicles at the base hobby shop already!  I would love to be able to get lasix eye surgery - how cool would it be if I could get that reimbursed for evaluating the Dr and the eye care center?  I am keeping my eyes open! 

New Doctor

The military medical clinic on base at Quantico was full when we arrived, so the Tricare office gave us a list of local doctors who accept our insurance as full payment for services.  I found one pediatrician's name on this list, then saw his ad on the back of the parish bulletin, and looked him up in the phone book.  He is advertised as an expert in dealing with ADHD, and when I called the office, they also told me he has 6 patients with Down Syndrome.  I thought those were all good signs, so I switched all of the kids (even Katie, since they said he could see her till she's 21) to him, dropped off everyone's records and spent an hour there yesterday filling out registration paperwork, and had my first appt with him for Mick this afternoon.  It was basically just to introduce Mick to him, and to request referrals for Mick's annual audiology and ophthalmology exams, as well as speech therapy.  Mick's appt was at 3:45, but we weren't called back to a room until 5:00!!  The waiting room was crowded, and while there were plenty of toys to play with, some of the toys were pretty grimy.  You know I am not a clean freak by a long shot, but being they are for kids to play with in a Dr's waiting room, it would be good to know they've been cleaned and disinfected from time to time!  Luckily, Mick was exceptionally patient and well behaved the entire hour and 1/2, but by the time we met the Dr, he was getting hungry, and was not much in the mood to be poked and prodded by a stranger.  I asked the Dr to check his ears since he's been grinding his teeth a lot lately, which he does when he's tired, or stressed, or is trying to relieve fluid build-up in his ears.  I imagine he has some fluid build-up with all of the swimming he's been doing, and the last time he saw his doctor in Lejeune, he said one of his tubes was getting ready to fall out.  This doctor briefly attempted to look in Mick's ears, and all he said was that he had a lot of wax buildup, so he couldn't see much.  I doubt he saw anything, because I don't think he even got the scope far enough into either ear.  It usually takes a special scope to see Mick's ear canals.  And a little patience.  I am sure this doctor is a nice enough man, but he is definitely nothing special.  And, I don't even mind waiting past my appt time if I feel like the doctor is taking extra time with his patients.  That definitely wasn't the case here.  This doctor barely made eye contact with me, and didn't seem all that comfortable with Mick.  He was vague about the referrals I had requested (although I made sure the receptionist plugged them into the system)  Maybe he had just had a long day (the receptionist said they had double and triple appt bookings all day because they are trying to merge the old computer system with a new one).  I don't know.  In any case, I have physical appts for Katie, Molly, Jack, Shane and Megan set up with him.  Once these are done, if I don't have a better feel for him, I think I'll start looking for another pediatrician.  We were definitely spoiled in Camp Lejeune.  Of course, with as frequently as I went to the pediatric clinic with any number of kids in the past five years, the staff knew us pretty well.  I remember thinking before we moved that we'd have to break in a whole new town : new church, new schools, new teachers, new bus drivers, new neighbors, new dentist, new doctors.  It has begun......

Progress...

OK, so I've decided that I would rather paint a picture than a room.  The longer we live here, the more I notice the shortcuts the previous owners took in their home improvement efforts.  Nothing major, and nothing unfixable, but we did discover that they spray painted the refrigerator black to match the other appliances.  So now, any magnets we have up remove paint if they are moved, and the white shows through.  They didn't do a lot of surface prep before they painted walls, and there are several areas in several rooms where it looks like they painted directly over spackle, without sanding first.  There is paint on the hinges on the back door (3 different colors, in fact!).  Before I started painting myself, I was a bit disgruntled at finding these things, but now that I've started on the kitchen, I must admit that my results aren't a whole lot better so far!  I have sanded, and I did clean the walls before I started painting.  I ordered 2 quarts of flat ceiling paint  and 2 quarts of semi gloss in a different shade for my walls.  Even though I had read that if you are using 2 cans, you should mix them together to prevent paint shade variance, I of course knew better.  When I was 3/4's of the way done with the ceiling, I opened the other can that was supposed to be ceiling paint, only to discover that it was tinted more of the wall color.  I used every last drop of paint from the first can, and touched up a few areas with the second can, hoping it wouldn't be noticeable.  It is.  So now I will be painting the entire ceiling again!  Argh. 

Tim left today for CO Springs (ironic, isn't it, if you've read my prior posts about Kathy going to Denver and our hope we'd be stationed there?).  He will be heading up an exercise next year, and has the first meetings this week to start the planning process.  I hope he enjoys his week.  I would like to accomplish several things around here while he is gone (I am drinking coffee right now so I can work while the kids are sleeping).  I have purchased a tatouage jungle mural to put up in Shane and Mick's room and the little girls' room is going to have a tree house theme, which I still have to implement.  Besides finishing the  kitchen!  It would make him happy to return and see the garage in better shape than when he left, too, so I am going to have Jack assemble the shelving and maybe we'll actually be able to get two cars in there this winter!

We had lots of visitors this past week/weekend.  Friends stopped in on their way to NC from NY.  Colleen was happy to have a few hours to play with her friend.  I went to dinner Friday night with two old neighbors from 10 years ago - my realtor being one, and the other is a reserve USMC Col who was in town for drill.  She and her husband have 8 kids.  It was so much fun to catch up.  On Saturday, a friend of mine from high school came with his wife, her son, and their daughter, for dinner.  I hadn't seen him in 14 years and had never met his wife and kids.  Our other friends from Fredericksburg came for dinner, too, and the kids had fun night swimming while the grown ups visited.  It is so rewarding to keep in touch with old friends, and to see each other again after so much time.  I still sometimes have a hard time figuring out when exactly I became one of the grown-ups! 

Katie is currently in Falls Church, staying with her best friend from 2 years ago.  Her family just moved to the area from CA, and will be here for at least a year.  I am glad Katie is getting to spend time with them.  This family had a positive impact on her when we knew them in Camp Lejeune.  She texted me from the Smithsonian museum of Art in DC this afternoon.  I am glad she's having fun.  I've been worried that her summer has been a disappointment, and that she is just biding time till she moves in October.  I am sure she has lots of mixed emotions about a lot of things right now.  I wish she and I were closer and that she confided in me.  I am thankful she has a good friend here now that she can talk to.

I need to hear prayers and tuck kids in so I can get some work done!

Home improvement and family

My brother has been visiting for the past week, and he left at 3:30 am today.  While he was here, he entertained my kids and put a hole in my kitchen wall!  A good hole - an opening between my kitchen and dining room.  This was a project I thought I'd undertake myself in the future, when the house was completely unpacked (we're mostly there!).  But I told him my ideas, and the next thing I knew, he had drawn an outline on both sides of the wall, and the next day, the drywall was off and he had started with the wiring.  I think finding wires surprised him a little, and I know if I had been doing this myself, that was the point where I'd be quitting and calling someone to help.  Probably someone whom I'd have to pay a small fortune to finish the job.  But he did what was necessary, and now I have the opening I wanted, and all that is left for me to do is paint the trim and decide what color to paint the kitchen!  We've narrowed it down to a light gray or a light khaki-color.  I like gray, Tim likes khaki.  Neither would be a color I'd normally chose, but it has to blend with the granite and the flooring, and both are better than the orangish color the walls are now!  I am so excited!  We have friends coming in this weekend, so that is the push I need to get it done.

This same brother has no children.  I was amazed at his wisdom, insight, and patience with my kids.  I sometimes fear that people who are not used to our family will run from our house screaming (not literally) because of the noise, the chaos, and the constant activity.  I am certain there are moments when he thought to himself "we wouldn't have gotten away with that when we were growing up."  My parents were pretty strict - less so with me than with him because they had relaxed some by the time I came along.  But, he did remind me how many rules there were in our house.  I know I am sometimes too easy on my kids, and that I don't expect as much from them as I should.  They could and should do more around the house.  They should definitely be better at cleaning up after themselves.  Now that we own a home, there are more chores to distribute, including yard work and pool care. They help under duress, but there is always room for improvement in action, but most especially in attitude.  I love the idea of big families owning farms, where everyone shares the duties of keeping it running.  I don't think we will be going into farming anytime soon. 

Katie and Molly have been in NY with Tim's sister's family since Thursday.  When we made their reservations, we expected they would both have jobs here, so they were supposed to return yesterday.  They asked to extend their visit till this Thursday, so that is when they will be coming back.  It sounds like they are having a great time with the in-laws, and I am glad they have this opportunity to spend time with them.  With our family having grown the way it has, it is next to impossible for us to all pack into the car and spend a week with anyone.  My dad always used to say "fish and house guests stink after 3 days"  (I just recently learned that this is a quote from someone famous, but I will always attribute it to my dad...).  Well, 11 people can get especially stinky!  This was not true in the case of my brother's visit, and I do hope my girls aren't wearing out their welcome.  I look forward to seeing the pictures from their visit when they return.  I miss them!

A Revelation

On many occasions recently in dealing with our teenaged daughters, my husband and I have found ourselves deferring the handling of one to each other.   He gets along better with our oldest; I get along better with our second daughter.  It just so happens that Katie (18) resembles his side of the family, and people say Molly (16) looks just like me.  After an incident involving them both this evening, and my once again telling him to deal with “his” daughter, and him coming back afterwards telling me what “my” daughter’s part in the whole thing was, it occurred to me that the things I admire the most in our Molly are traits she shares with my husband.  She is fiercely loyal to her friends.  She has a great sense of justice.  She is focused and driven – when she sees something that needs to be done, she will usually tackle it without being asked, and do it till it is done.  A case in point was her doing laundry all day today – not a usual chore of hers.    But she has a quick temper.  The things that drive me crazy about  Katie are the faults I recognize in myself.  I tend to lack focus – to start something and have difficulty completing it.  I can be lazy, and pretty laid back, which can be good sometimes, (the laid back part!) but isn’t tremendously useful when it comes to getting the house unpacked!  Katie  is also extremely friendly and outgoing.  She tends to have a pretty sunny outlook on life.  She likes everyone but her sister, it seems.  And the feeling is pretty much mutual.  They are going to see the Warped Tour on Long Island in a couple of weeks.  My sister-in-law bought their tickets, and will be responsible for making sure they don’t kill each other over the weekend.  Sorry Susy! 

My friend whose’ children are mostly grown assures me this stage won’t last.  I look forward to it being over……………

Back Online!

Well, we made it!  Tim, Jack and Timmy came down here in time to close on the house and get the pool fence installed before I got here with the rest of the kids.  We managed to get out of our house in Camp Lejeune in a fairly timely manner (for me), without too many headaches or hassles with the packers, movers and housing.  I was very blessed to have a friend from church bring not one, but two loads of miscellaneous stuff in his trailer up to our house here before we got out of Lejeune.  The trampoline was one of the items, and it would surely have brought us over our weight allowance with TMO had we sent it with our main shipment.  The rest was either stuff they forgot to pack or wouldn't pack (cleaning supplies, paint, etc).  Thank God for Joe - one of those rare people who offers to help and means it!  He drove up and back two days in a row with all this junk. 

I have begun the school registration process.  Mike will be evaluated by a team of special ed providers to see which school he will attend.  I have a feeling he won't be going to the same school with Colleen, Shane and Megan, and I am not too happy about that, but I do want him to be in the environment that can best support his needs.  We joined Saint William of York parish and have been attending mass there.  Katie and Molly attended that school from 1996-1998.  The school is great, but the tuition for 3 of them would be almost $8000 for the year, and they don't have services for Mick or Timmy there.  The church is nice, but Megan is disappointed that they don't allow girls to serve on the altar.  This wouldn't be a big deal to me, except that it is something she really enjoyed and was so proud when she was promoted to "cross bearer" at our last parish.  The pews are small, and we barely fit (which isn't too different than in most parishes!)  The parish is solid, and strongly pro-life, pro-family.

Tim and I went to visit the director of admissions at John Paul the Great High school.  We are very impressed with all that we've read about the school and its curriculum and we would love for Jack to be able to go there.  We have applied to the school as well as for tuition assistance, since the yearly tuition is $8700, plus an additional $2000 for bus transportation. One of the Arlington bishops is quoted as saying "No student will be denied admission to John Paul the Great due to lack of ability to pay".  I hope that is true!  We do not have a clear idea yet of what our monthly expenses will be, but we already know that $10,000. per year is beyond our reach.  It is a leap of faith to say that if he is admitted, we will find a way to pay for his education.  I am clinging to this hope, because I truly in my heart feel that this is the place he should go. 

The pool has been nice to have, once Tim figured out the proper mix of chemicals, and was able to change the water from a lovely shade of green (algae) to clear!  The fence keeps Mick out, but he can clear the five foot height with his incredible pitching arm, so we are frequently finding items at the bottom of the pool.  Most notably, his talking Spongebob, who apparently fares better under the sea than in the pool.  He no longer has a voice..........

Our next door neighbors are from 2 towns away from Tim's parents.  They have lived in their house for 19 years, but talking to her is just like talking to my sister-in-law.  They have a 14 year old girl and 10 year old boy/girl twins, who come over nearly every day to swim.  Nice people.  I also spoke with Mrs Santa Claus on the phone, who welcomed us to the neighborhood and offered some information about local resources for Mike.  She also does drop-in daycare, which is good to know.

Shane's favorite discovery since moving in was the Harry Potter room under the stairs. He slept in there the first two nights, claiming it as his own.  Alas, as the boxes were unpacked, the closet filled up, and it is no longer a suitable place for sleeping.  It does remain a favorite hiding place for games of  hide and seek, though.

I like our house and our neighborhood.  I realized the other night that the main floor of this house is very similar to the house I grew up in.  I wonder if that is what attracted it to me in the first place!  I have projects in mind that I'd like to do.  There is wallpaper I plan to remove and I definitely want to paint.  I do have to figure out what to do about the wallpaper that is painted over in our bedroom.  But, I am sure that our bedroom will be last on the list of projects.  Molly has already painted her room in her own unique style.  It's the one thing that has made her smile since we moved in.  This has definitely not been an easy move for her.  Or Katie, who spends most days sleeping.  They have both put applications in at several local stores/restaurants and I hope they both get jobs soon!  I think meeting other kids their ages will help a lot.  I did learn that St William of York's CYO program is on hold because they are looking for a youth minister to run it next year.  The program has a good reputation, and I am not about to jump in and offer to run it, as I don't think I have the time or the ability to do it justice.  But, I am praying fervently that a person better qualified than I am will step forward, since I would really like Molly and Jack to be able to participate.  I do realize how selfish this sounds on my part, and I should be more willing to help.  Maybe after we get settled a bit.....

Off to make lunch!

The Countdown

We will be in our new house in 9 days.  Yesterday, we had a change of command to attend in the morning, and our final 2/10 KV meeting in the evening.  Today was Mick's preschool performance, and Tim is currently at the Division General's hail and farewell.  Tomorrow is Jack's transition ceremony from middle school, and tomorrow night is our hail and farewell.  Katie graduates Thursday night, and turns 18 the next day.  Friday morning is Tim's change of command, and Friday evening is the party.   Shane, Colleen and Mick are also taking swimming lessons every night this week from 6-7 PM.   Needless to say, we are very busy!  The packers come on Monday and Tuesday.  Before then, I have to prime all the walls I've painted/stenciled.  Patch various holes in the walls and paint the bunk beds Jack and Timmy will have at the new house.  The kids and I brought everything down from the attic on Memorial Day - pitched about 1/2 of it, and organized the rest and put it into the garage.  Molly, Katie and Jack have packed most of their stuff already (apparently they don't trust the packers/movers with their "valuables"!)  I have mountains of laundry and clothing to sort - part of me just wants to bag it and toss it! 

We had the pool fence materials shipped to our friends' house in Fredricksburg.  They called me yesterday to say it has arrived, and he has promised to help Tim install it before we get there.  In addition to the locks and alarms I have purchased for the doors at the new house, I ordered a pool alarm.  Can you tell I am a little paranoid about the pool?  The recent report of the 10 year old SC boy who died of "dry drowning" has not eased my fears.  Colleen and Shane are doing well in swimming lessons so far - Mick refused to get into the water last night with Katie, but he did get in with me tonight and participated some.  He is my biggest concern.  I have also ordered ID tags with all our new info for him to wear in case he wanders off in the new neighborhood.  Better safe than sorry.  Is it unethical to put an invisible fence up in the front yard and buy him a shock collar?  Probably.

I have really enjoyed the PT program I've been doing with my neighbor.  I've gotten to know a great bunch of ladies, and I have built some endurance, and lost 10 lbs and some inches as well.   I've had to miss this week's sessions because of all our other obligations, and the last class is on Friday, during Tim's change of command.  I am glad I had this opportunity, and I intend to continue to eat right and stay on track with exercise in VA.  It's really easy to make excuses about the exercise part when there is no one else to be accountable to!  I have a ways to go to my personal goal, but I've got a good start!

Katie will be spending her birthday weekend at a trailer we rented at the beach.  Her friend's family is staying out there in trailers, too, so while she is technically an adult at 18, there will be some parental presence nearby, which is good, since I am fairly sure we'll be too busy around here this weekend to get to the beach!

I have bought new fabric to have our Cargo couches recovered for the playroom at the new house.  The guy who is supposed to do it told me to call him today, and I really hope he'll be able to pick them up tomorrow and get them done by the time the moving van is here next Wednesday.  He does a good job, is reasonably priced, but he's a little old, and I am starting to worry that he's sick or something, since he hasn't returned my phone call.  I could probably recover the cushions myself, but have no idea when I'd ever have the time!  And if we could get them out of the living room this week, we could move some other things around which would make it easier to get Tim's bar area done before next week.  I have to take down the lattice, replace a screen, and figure out how to get the adhesive off the window frames where I had put plastic out there to weatherize the room two years ago.  Seemed like a good idea at the time......

We will not have Internet service at our new house until the end of June.  So, unless I find myself with time on my hands (not likely), I will probably not post again until July.  Here's to a successful move as we start the next chapter of our lives!