marmite breath slept here

I need to post more! 

I've been busy (and about to get busier, as Girl Scouts is about to start and I am supposed to be in charge).

It's a Lazy Sunday morning here.  I'm in my dressing gown and the kids are still in their P.J's.  Aaron, of course, has been on the move for ages and is Mr. Productive.  I can't do that on Sundays though--they're made for being practically comatose, right?  And I think it's a good balance if one of us is relaxed and one of us is a spaz. 

Everybody's fine here.  Hadleigh's just had her first day of third grade (and loves it already) and Tom can't wait for preschool to start.  It is crazy to me how fast they all grow up.  I can't even believe that Aidan is going to be in preschool too!  And Donavan is in second grade!  These little boys are all going to be teenagers before I know it.  Sometimes I think about them hanging out together and I get so happy.  I always see Hadleigh on the sidelines turning her nose up at their "totally juvenile" behaviour.  I can't wait for us to get out of the Navy (not that I'm wishing my life away, because I'm not, Mum!)  but it really would be so nice to have them all together.

Finally, the sun is out here.  It's been so rainy and gloomy lately, which, as Amy says, should make me feel like I'm in England.  It doesn't work that way though, because it's still so humid.  We might ride our bikes today, which we haven't done in at least a week.   Aaron's O-Week is over (he was in charge of putting it together for school) and it ended with a barbeque yesterday.  Hadleigh and Tom had a great time.  Tom, because he could take his new invention and show it off (it's a boot launcher, and I fully expect the military to call and ask to order 5,000 of them). Note to Military: The boot launcher also doubles as a perch/launcher for frogs and would be very useful in Iraq if there were a frog storm, like in Magnolia, although, I never understood that scene, and frankly it made me question why everybody thinks that P.T Anderson is such a damn visionary director!) 

Hadleigh enjoyed the day because she met a fellow-eight-year-old-frog-torturer lover. Oh, and she went in a canoe with her Dad!  

I must mention this, because it made me howl.  Tom was walking along the beach area talking to some lady, and she mentioned that the food was about to be served.  Tom stopped picking up shells, looked this woman square in the face and said, "If it's related to food, I'm interested!" and then grinned at her and walked towards the grill.  Why does he not weigh 500lbs?

It was a good day all round, and made better by the fact that none of the college kids recommended that I become the "frat Mom" this time.  I swear, that actually happened.  And I had to tell the guy that I was ONLY NINE YEARS OLDER THAN HIM AND NOT OLD ENOUGH TO BE HIS MOTHER!!!

So, the only rumple in our lives lately is that in addition to our washer being broken (it doesn't spin unless you put it on Light Wash, and even then, it's hit and miss) our dryer broke last week, so I have been taken back in time and am now doing this.  I'm not complaining though.  It's really quite romantic, pegging the washing out like my Mum did, and actually, my Grandmas still do!  The rain sort of ruins things, but I've got a drying rack for inside.  I'm not going to worry about getting the dryer fixed until the weather starts getting colder, because I don't have any radiators to use for drying racks, and it will take ages for the clothes to dry.

I was thinking, "Do appliances just HATE me?" because when we were in Naples, I went through like, six dishwashers (I SO wish that was an exaggeration, but you can ask Elena if you don't believe me, because she had to listen to me talk about how cute the workmen were.  Pasquale and Guiseppe, I miss you!).  But seriously, we've only had this washer and dryer since the end of 2000, and the kicker is, they were in storage for the three years that we were in Italy.  My washer and dryer died (R.I.P) while Aaron was on deployment and I wasn't sure what the hell I was going to do (the trips to the laundrette with a two year old were NOT fun).  We had a new washer and dryer given to us anonymously, which was completely awesome.  We spent the next five years bugging everybody we knew, asking if they were the ones who had bought them for us.  We found out this past Thanksgiving that it was Aaron's sister and brother in law.  It really helped us out, and we hope to be able to do something like that for somebody in the future, although, as it happens now, we won't be buying anybody a new appliance any time soon.  But we will, someday!!!

So line-drying the clothes means more ironing, but I love the smell of the clothes and it reminds me of my childhood.  I loved sitting with Mum while she ironed and watched The Young Ones.  Now I stand and iron while I watch Alias. 

Which, by the way?  OH MY GOD, I LOVE THIS SHOW! I'm on Season Three.

I realized this week that I love it a bit too much, because I say things like, "Tom! We are leaving in ten minutes.  Meet me at the rendezvous point.  If you aren't at the bottom of the stairs in five minutes, I'm sending in an extraction team!"   Whoever is saying right now that I should get a life is exactly right.  But I do love it. 

And Lost starts again soon!!  So nobody better call here on Wednesday nights!  (I will be like I was when my Dad-in-law would call during the World Cup--shrill and obnoxious, shouting, GET OFF THE PHOOOOOOOOONE!)

Well, this turned into a sort-of post, albeit a totally rambling and crap one.  But oh well. Time to go and eat something, because, as I told the waiter at the bar the other night, my ass isn't quite large enough!