Flight Etiquette

Note: Last week I had the chance to fly to California to spend 3 1/2 wonderful days with my friends Megan and Nicki. It was a fantastic time to be with girlfriends and recharge my batteries. I wrote the following blog on my ipod touch while in flight from Nashville to Salt Lake City . . .

So here I sit on flight number 305 to Salt Lake City and wouldn't you know I'd end up next to an arm rest encroacher. No matter how much planning and preparation you do to ensure a pleasant flight for yourself there are certain things that you just can't avoid. I booked my flight well in advance allowing me to select my seat. I wisely chose a window seat knowing that at 32 weeks pregnant chances were good I'd need to potty early and often on this 3.5 hour flight.

When I got to my seat on the plan to discover a man already sitting in it I nicely explained he was in the wrong seat. He informed me that my seat, 26C was across the aisle (there were only 2 seats on the other side of the aisle and three on his side). So, I pointed to the chart right over his head that had a picture of a window and then the letters E, D, C clearly meant to be moving from window to aisle. Again, he argued with me that I was wrong and if anything C was the window or it was across the aisle. Losing my patience I pointed out seats A and B on the other side and restated that obviously seat C was next, and it was, in fact the aisle seat, but kept myself from saying "so get your butt out of it!!!". He finally agreed and they shift over to their rightful place.

I unapologetically plop myself into MY seat while the wife asks her husband loudly enough for all to hear if he'll be ok not being on the aisle. It was all I could do not to growl at her that if they had booked in advance as I had they too could have picked their own freakin' seats and he could be loving his aisle position. Then, referring to a comment I'd made during the seat assignment debacle about being pregnant and having to use the bathroom a lot, the wife looked and me and said "well, I'm glad you won't mind then when I have to get up and use the restroom a lot too". Um, excuse me, but what on earth makes you think this cranky, swollen, tired pregnant woman would be so gracious? Let me reiterate - YOU TOO had the opportunity for an aisle seat just like me. Your lack of planning does not require a gracious attitude on my part.

In response I pulled out my headphones, grateful that at the last minute I took Ryan's Bose over the hear headphones so I could play deaf and avoid any further interaction. This is precisely when I discovered I was next to an arm rest encroacher. The husband plops his arm up on the armrest and it totally spills over into my personal seat space. Now, I firmly believe that the middle seat passenger is mostly entitled to both of his shared armrests since they are crammed in the middle seat. But what they are not entitled to is even 1 centimeter of my precious personal seat space. I don't want your arm rubbing mine while its sitting innocently on my lap. So now I have to start the subtle game of communicating arm space rules. This involves firmly pressing my arm against the side of the armrest and, if necessary, moving it vertically up and down to communicate my point and(hopefully) cause discomfort on the part of the encroacher. So far, its working ok but it looks like frequent reminders may be necessary.

Oh, and so far his wife has already made a trip to the potty and we are only 1/3 of the way through the flight. At this point I think the score is Lacey - 3 and Outdoorsy-wanna-be-upper-end-of-middle aged- couple (you know the kind with special hiking shorts, keens AND keen socks on) - 2. I feel confident that I will prevail.

Just another evening

So it was just another evening here in the house. We were still reeling in post-deployment bliss! Everyone was happy and all was good. It was a couple days after the 4th of July but fireworks had been happening forever in our neighborhood so loud noises were nothing new.

We had put all the kids to bed and Ryan was relaxing in our room downstairs while I was folding laundry nearby. All of the sudden I started to hear loud, weird noises. "Are those fireworks?" I asked Ryan. "Yes", he said. More loud, weird noises. Followed closely by my super-mom suspicions that had been well honed during his deployment (Ryan's super-dad sense may have atrophied some) so I walk over to the window in our bedroom that looks out on our deck and look up the the window in Jake and Ainsley's room. Just in time to see the screen pushed open and a Larry Boy go plunging to certain death on the wood below. Only he crashed into a pile of other toys that had taken the plunge before him which certainly saved his life. I turned around and said to Ryan, "No, that isn't fireworks, its your children throwing things out their window". And then I turned around and laid down on the bed to watch some TV while he went upstairs to deal with the situation. Ahhhh, more post-deployment bliss.

And in case you are wondering, NO - their windows were not open and YES - their windows were locked before this incident began. But clearly that is no match for our children!

Ryan comes Home!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a joyous reunion it was last Friday when the kids got their daddy back and I got my husband back. After three years of long seperations we are excited for a new chapter that will keep him in the US for a couple of years!

Finally - a contract!

So I guess you could say the past few days have been somewhat eventful . On Thursday evening I received a call from our real estate agent asking me how quickly I thought we could be out of the house. I honestly would have probably promised her anything at that point although I couldn't contact Ryan and the housing office at Ft. Campbell had just closed for a 4 day weekend. But what I said was "tell them to bring us an offer and we'll go from there". And they did. And it was a good offer and so when Ryan called the next morning I was able to tell him we had a very good offer on our house! We countered that evening and got a verbal acceptance right away and that was that. The inspector is here now so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it goes well but we have on our side that fact that these buyers are a little house desperate right now and hopefully that'll smooth over any wrinkles!
It had been a couple of weeks since our house had shown when I got this call from our realtor so I certainly wasn't expecting it. Turns out its a couple we had shown the house to three weeks prior. They came to look a couple of times but wanted to do a pool and were concerned about the orientation of our house and the direction it faced. So they made an offer on another house which got rejected when another all cash offer came in (yippee). And then they offered on another house and the inspection was bum ( yippee). So finally they decided to lower themselves to 240 Cullom Way and offer on our house. Hey, I'm not prideful, I don't care where we were on their list.
So, we have a closing date of 24 July. Lots to do before now and then. Post housing is not going to work out which means we had to find a place AND we have to move ourselves but so far all things are falling into place. We found a 4 bedroom house in a good location and we can get in now. And my parents are coming to help (WHEW!!!!) which is huge. And this house has a two car garage so we'll have some storage options.
Of course, just a couple weeks before I'd booked myself a flight to California on the 23rd so we need to be out of this house NLT the 21st so I can clean it out before I leave. Bring it on!
oh - and Ryan got home too - hee hee. I'll post pics soon. Its been an out of this world reunion time. We are all in heaven. I guess the more times you do this the less difficult it is to adjust!

What's In A Name?

So, for the past few weeks I've been asked at least once a day if we've picked a name or if we are sharing that name. My answer varies between "no, we haven't decided" or "no, we aren't sharing yet". I wanted to be able to tell my parents first but after that I had decided I wanted to post it on the blog. My reason being that I am an incredibly sensitive person. No matter how much I try not to, reactions matter to me. And a negative reaction when it comes to the name I've chosen for my beloved future daughter just isn't something I'm emotionally up to right now. And no matter how great any name is there are bound to be those who would react negatively. In this case the name we've chosen is fairly unique so the odds rise.

Before I go on and on anymore let's just get to the name. Our sweet, beautiful baby girl will be called Jane Dare. She is going to go by both first and middle name - hence all of you will be calling her Jane Dare (I told Ryan he could call her Jane if he wanted but nobody else could). I very simply LOVE this name. The more I ponder it the more I love it. To the point that I could not imagine calling her anything different. Ryan has always loved the name Jane but I wanted to give her something a little more unique so wanted to do a double name. Its a long, very uninteresting, story how I came up with Dare so you can ask me in person if you care. What settled the name for me was when I looked up Jane to see what it meant and found the meaning "God is gracious". Truly I can't think of a more fitting meaning to describe how Ryan and I feel about the incredible blessing he has bestowed on us to allow us to have four children. God truly has been so gracious to us and Jane Dare will be the final piece to that puzzle of our family . Dare means absolutely nothing, which suits me just fine. And as if that wasn't enough I stumbled upon this quote by H.G. Wells and it sounded so much like something Ryan would say that I almost felt the angels singing.

'It's giving girls names like that,' said Buggins, 'that nine times out of ten makes 'em go wrong. It unsettles 'em. If ever I was to have a girl, if ever I was to have a dozen girls, I'd call 'em all Jane.'" -H.G. Wells, referring to the name Euphemia .

I also love the name because she'll have lots of flexibility with it. When she is older she can choose to be called Jane, or Dare or Janie or . . . well, you see. I had a coworker named Dare and so I know for a fact that it works :)

And now that we've decided this will be the name of our precious daughter I absolutely can't imagine calling her anything else. Of all our children's names this one is most kindred to my heart. So, if you love it as I do, feel free to let me know. If you think its just ok but you are a good liar like I am feel free to lie away. If you think its "interesting" or if you'll "need to think about the Dare part " then feel free to keep your yap shut.

Weekly Review

So, this week was a little less eventful - thank goodness! It actually flew by which is always a good thing when you are counting the days until a deployment is over. The kids went to VBS at a church downtown and it was a great program! However it wasn't a very relaxing start to the summer as we needed to be out the door shortly before 8:30 each morning. After some initial kicking and screaming on both Jake and Ainsley's part they ended the week sad that VBS was over - which might have been largely influenced by the 3 inflatables they brought in for the last day! Jake has been walking around singing the songs they learned this week and its so sweet to hear. A great bonus is that three of my friends also had their kids there so I got to see them most mornings and afternoons and that was totally a treat.

We are still recovering from the aftermath of Ainsley's haircut. I chopped the rest of it off myself right at her ears. Its just too big of a mess to waste the effort taking her to have a professional do it. I'll give it some time to grow a little and then we'll head back to Fantastic Sam's so they can work some magic. I ran into my girlfriend Ashley yesterday and she was trying so hard to be sweet and not comment on it and then we both just started to laugh hysterically. It really is too funny! The best part is that her portrait is featured in a full page ad by Barbee Studios in this month's Clarksville Family - but no one would guess this was the same child!

We've got an exciting week to look forward to. Redonna is coming to visit tomorrow. The Rowes will be here for a couple of nights while the clean out their house and then Honey and Ozzie are coming for a week. Certainly a lot to look forward to. Maybe amidst all those visitors I'll get a nap - one can hope!

The Cold, Hard Truth

The stories I am about to relate in the following post are 100% factual and barely, if at all, embellished for the sake of good story telling. Not because I am above hyperbole but because my life needs no exaggeration. Last Wednesday, the day that I celebrated 9 years of marriage to Ryan, the children rewarded me with "special" behavior all day long. And that day must be told for the history books . . . so here goes.

It was a slow, starter day as we'd arrived home late the night before from our Memorial Day trip to Ohio. We were tired and trying to adjust back to the Central Time Zone and this momma was certainly a little bit out of it. Unfortunately, as a parent to MY Children, this is not a luxury I can afford.

Our first event of the day was Ainsley deciding to open her own hair salon and start with herself as the first client. Reid was napping and I was in the big kids room putting away their clothes from the trip. Jake was on the computer playing games and Ainsley was coloring. All was well. Ha - well, the joke was on me. After about 3 minutes of being one room away I came back to check on my quiet children and Jake looks up and says "mom, Ainsley is cutting her hair". In shock I walked a few more steps forward and saw my carpet and the table covered in her soft, beautiful hair. I asked Jake, "WHY didn't you COME tell me?!?!!?" to which he shrugs his shoulders and returns to Super Why. Ainsley starts scooping up her handfuls of hair and showing them off to me proudly. I examined the damage (bad) and threw my hands up in the air realizing no fit on my part was going to make this better. I went downstairs and called the folks at the Little Miss Tennessee pageant and told them we were out for this year (ha). And the day continued.

Later that afternoon the kids and I went out in the front to get the mail (again, Reid is napping - see why I like him best?). The garage door was open and I sat on the front steps while they ran to get their bikes and rode around in the drive. After a few minutes they road into the garage and I could hear them happily playing. So I let them because I'd (supposedly) safety proofed the garage pretty much and there wasn't much they could get into. After a couple minutes ( seriously - that was it!!!) I went to get them and found the little vandals - caught them red handed!! They had opened the door to my outside fridge, gotten out the brand new carton of Eggland's Best eggs, and proceeded to egg my garage, my car, their toys . . . OH THE RAGE!!!!!! I dragged them inside, gave spanking they won't soon forget and shut them into separate rooms while I went to repair the damage. At this point I began counting the minutes until my babysitter would arrive for the evening.

I bring them kids inside as Reid is waking up from his nap. I sit them down at the table with snacks and run upstairs to retrieve Reid from his crib and give him his cup of milk. Ryan calls and I'm quickly filling him in on the day as I step out onto the landing and let out a strangled "Oh MY Gosh . . . I am going to kill your children". Ainsley had gone into the pantry, gotten out my XXL jar or peanut butter, opened it, stuck her hands in it up to her wrists, and proceeded to give my family room carpet her own version of a peanut butter cleaning treatment. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
About 5 minutes later Mary (babysitter extraordinaire) arrived so I did a quick job on the carpet, kitchen floor, cabinets, stainless steel appliances (you get the picture) threw the instructions and kids at her and stalked out the door.

Providentially Ryan had asked me to schedule a massage and pedicure for myself that night as a way to celebrate our special day. As I was finishing up the massage the girl said "wow, you were so tight and stressed out . . . I can't believe it!". Well, if she reads my blog she'll believe it
now.