Summer Arrives

For those of you living in the southeastern United States, summer probably arrived sometime in April.  You probably went swimming for the first time around Easter.  You may be hoping cooler weather will arrive in the next couple of weeks.  For us, we saw 80 degrees F for the first time this week.  Emily found the inflatible pool in the basement and went through the trouble of blowing it up for the first time in 2 years.  The kids have enjoyed the warm snap. 

I, however, have realized how much I like air conditioning when going to bed at night.  I have woken up around 0130 each morning this week covered in sweat.  Hopefully tonight will be better as the rain has returned and the temperatures have also begun sliding back to the 70s, which is closer to normal for Belgium this time of year.

Otherwise, there is little new in our lives.  My battalion got a new commander this week.  The new battalion commander has said all the right things about balancing family, faith, and mission.  The kids continue to grow (obviously).  Emily is getting ready for the start of school.

This week is VBS at the SHAPE International Chapel.  It's always a fun week b/c my only responsibility is to be there in case needed.  I'll spend every morning this week basically visiting with the leaders, kids, and parents.

80s Night

Tonight, my beautiful wife is at a "girls night" with an 80s theme.  Considering she was born in 1983, her memories of 1980s fashion are sketchy, at best.  However, I have to give her credit.  The outfit turned out remarkably well. 

This blog has not been updated recently because I'm having some difficulty with blogger.  It hasn't wanted to load pictures, which makes me a little lazy about blogging.  (Honestly, that's all most people are looking for anyway).

Anyway, the last few weeks have been busy.  We went to Paris for a long weekend.  This time, we hit the Louvre, Catacombs, climbed teh Eiffel Tower, and saw Versailles.  These were all of the things we had left on our "to do" list for Paris.  There's not much left that we want to see in Paris.  Emily & Katie went at night.  I still haven't gotten to see it at night.  Katie left to get back to the States today.  It's been great having her with us this summer. 

The Zoo & Org Day



Yesterday was our first trip to the zoo for the summer.  Isaac actually managed to feed the giraffe a bite.  Rain had been forcast, but managed to hold off long enough for us to get a good day in the park.  It's always fun to watch the kids with the animals.  Claire is probably still a little young to really enjoy the park.  The giraffe was all she really seemed to get excited about, but that was the animal she was able to get nearest.  Isaac enjoyed imitating the elephants, as always.  That's left from their school program at the end of the year. 







Isaac feeding the giraffe

Today was Org Day with my unit.  Basically, it's a day of sports competition between the companies.  Other than hanging out and taking pictures, I didn't really do anything this year.  HHD won again this year, in case you can't sleep without knowing.



Parenthood

Emily and I have an ongoing disagreement over one particular household chore.  (Actually, we have several, but that's not relevant right now).  This particular disagreement is that after mopping a room, she will leave the mop water out and wait until she can do the next room.  This is no problem except that sometime it is there overnight. 

Yesterday morning, my lovely one year old daughter decided my cell phone needed to be cleaned.  She promptly threw it into the mop water at the end of the hall (left from the day before).  When I looked at the phone, water was pooled under the screen.  Obviously, the phone ceased to work.

I pulled it apart and put it in a bowl of uncooked rice.  I'd heard it would pull the moisture out of the phone.  This morning, I put the phone back together and it works fine.  I can't believe it worked.

Speaking of Claire, she's also developed a taste for crayons.  We've caught her eating a purple and a green crayon.  If you've never had that experience, it can make for some surprising diaper changes.


(In case you're interested, I will never really argue with Emily about mop water because I personally don't like to mop.)

Home Again

OK, so we learned a valuable lesson over the last two weeks.  A teenager can be a great asset in traveling with small children.  My neice has been visiting for the last couple of weeks, and we've taken a massive road trip that Em & I have talked about for a while.  We left Belgium and went to Prague, Krakow, drove through Slovakia to Budapest, and went to Salzburg and Bavaria.  For those doing a quick count, that's seven countries. 

Katie made the trip much easier.  We saw some truly amazing cities.  I want to go back to Budapest.  Most of the museums were closed the days we were there, and the weather didn't cooperate.  Em & I are talking about trying to make another trip in a few months for a long weekend. 

Today has been washing clothing, mowing, and basically trying to recover from travel.  Tomorrow, we should actually finish the unpacking process.  There are a bunch of pictures in my online photo albums if you're interested.