0815 Take the kids to school. Go to eye doctor to pick up my trial prescription contact lenses. I really hope this prescription works because I’ll never last a month with the one I’ve got now. Killer headaches!
Breakfast at McD’s and fill the van with gas. $4.25/gallon
Return home and frantically finish packing and loading the van and finishing all those other things on my “to do before I leave” list. Think to myself that packing would be a lot less sweat-inducing if I didn’t wait until the last minute. I also think that having a plane to catch at a specific time is much more stressful than just driving. When I’m driving, I have a projected departure time but nothing bad really happens if I’m running late. A plane ticket is a different story!
1118 Running down (and
up) the driveway with the trash cans. I
am so late! Drop off the key and a note
for the neighbors who so kindly offered to watch the house for us.
1125 Leaving the
house. Not as bad as I feared. And I just might make it to school before the
designated worry time. (I told the kids I would be there between 1115 and 1130
but they shouldn’t start worrying until around 1145 – noon.)
Beginning mileage =
105,393. Current temperature in AG is 80
degrees. It’s pretty hot out today!
1151 Leaving St.
Pat’s. Three kids and two out of three
report cards.12:05 p.m. Leaving Subway with lunch in hand. Just beat the rush. Phew!
12:12 p.m. See a truck pulling a double trailer, both filled to the brim with spinach. Wow – that’s a lot of spinach!
12:37 p.m. Arrive at
Santa Maria airport.
1:05 p.m. Ron arrives
from work to pick up the girls. He
leaves to drive them to Albuquerque.
Ryan and I get on the plane to Los Angeles.
We have a two-and-a-half
hour layover at LAX. We played Monopoly
on Ryan’s Kindle Fire for about an hour.
It was very fun and we were definitely the loudest people in the area. Ryan commented how most of the time people
are very quiet in airports. Since we
didn’t finish the game before the flight, it is to-be-continued. Which strategy will ultimately win out? Ryan with the railroads, utilities, red
properties and Boardwalk? Or Sheila with
all the other properties and Park Place?
We get dinner from Baja
Fresh to take on the plane with us.
Unfortunately for Ryan, they forgot to put the steak on his steak
quesadilla.
1:10 a.m. Arrive at
Dulles. We’re a bit early. Yay!
We pick up our luggage and then proceed to the correct car rental
company (we had gone to the wrong rental company when we were here over Spring
Break-oops!- and it led to quite an adventure).
We’re feeling good – no problems so far.
But that appears to be too good to be true. When we exit the toll road in Reston, we run
right smack dab into the middle of a construction zone with no idea which way
we should go. Eventually we wound our
way around and back and made it to the condo.
Good parking luck though which was nice.
Once again, arriving in the middle of the night makes our trip more of
an adventure!
Mom is awake when we
get inside. We deliver her copy of the
Flat Stanley scrapbook and chat for a bit then it is time to go to bed.
3 a.m. – Bedtime!
Day 2 – Friday – June 8, 2012
0900 Get up even though
I really don’t want to. Ryan is still
sleeping.
1055 Make Ryan get
up. Mom made breakfast for us – bacon and
scrambled eggs and muffins.
1:40 p.m. Grab a couple
ham slices to eat before we head out to errands.
Go to Vienna. Stop at the post office for mail. Go to the house. The tenants are here already working on the
garden. Mom and Ryan go to get groceries
while I stay at the house and walk through with them. This is the daughter’s first time to see the
house.
After groceries, Ryan
stops by Zoe’s house and mom and I hang out for a bit while the tenants are
working outside. Then we pick up Ryan
and go back to Reston. We pick up Five
Guys for dinner. After dinner we watch
tv for a while then it is bedtime.
8:30 p.m. I am tired! It is time to read for a bit then go to
sleep. I end up finishing Catching Fire
(I couldn’t finish on the plane because they turned off the cabin lights and my
reading light didn’t work). Of course,
the end of the story is a cliff-hanger for the next book so I have a hard time
falling asleep.
Day 3 – Saturday – June
9, 2012
0600 Go for a walk with
Mom. It was quite enjoyable to be out
walking on such a flat trail. Nice break
from the steep California hills!0706 Back from the walk.
Hang out all morning
doing not much of anything. Ryan is on
the Kindle, Mom works on the jigsaw puzzle, and I work on the scrapbook I owe
Mrs. H.
1130 I leave to go to
the Stampin’Up Open House with Jeannette.
She is of course busy talking to all the customers and helping with the
make-n-takes so I end up talking to her husband, Gary, for a while.3:45 p.m. I’m back at the condo and it’s time to hit the pool.
5:17 p.m. We are
leaving to go to Vienna to see Jacob’s baseball game. We are late though because I forget how long
it takes to get to the car from the condo.
It takes much longer than just walking out the front door at home and
getting right in the car. Luckily I get
a text while we’re driving that Jacob won’t be playing until the second half so
we’re not late anymore. We decide to
grab dinner at Noodles and Company before we go to the game. Noodles was very busy. I don’t miss the crowds of people in this
area.
6:35 p.m. Arrive at the
game. We came in time to watch Jacob
bat. He got a hit and scored a run. Will Hemmingson is playing on the opposite
team so we are able to say hi to his family as well. The sun is quite bright and hot – shining
right at us in the stands.
Unfortunately, Jacob’s team lost.
After the game we go
back to the Kohls’ house for awhile. The
boys had fun playing. The adults had fun
talking. Lynne and I even went to Giant
and bought a cake and ice cream sandwiches to have for dessert. We were having so much fun it was hard to
tear ourselves away. We didn’t get home
until 11:00!
Day 4 – Sunday – June 10,
2012
0645 – Wake up. I missed the walk time this morning. I woke up with my alarm earlier but was so
sleepy I fell back asleep. Oops!
0745 Get up. I am really feeling very tired this
morning. Jet lag and late nights
catching up with me!
I take Ryan to the
barber shop in Vienna for a haircut.
Afterwards, we grab a snack at Jerry’s Subs. Then a stop at Giant to pick up salad for
dinner. On the way out of town we stop
at the used book sale at the Freeman House then peek inside to see the exhibit
about the Vienna Woods neighborhood and building of the houses there. Our house floor plan is the “Star”.
When we get back to
Reston we go to the pool. After the pool
we have “Surprise Vegetable Stew” for dinner.
We thought we were thawing out spaghetti sauce but it turned out to be
vegetable soup. Mom added some sausage
and mushrooms and it ended up as a quite delicious stew. We also ate the Caesar salad that Ryan made.
After dinner I am
reading Mockingjay until I finally finish.
Then off to bed around 10.
Day 5 – Monday – June 11,
2012
0545 A short walk with
Mom. Then shower and coffee before I go
to Vienna to take care of more house business.
Ryan stays at the condo.
0800 Arrive at the
house. At the house today I have a
plumber to replace the leaking shower diverter valve. It is a bigger job than I anticipate and
includes cutting a hole in the wall of the girls’ room since the access door
isn’t quite big enough. At lunch time I
make a run to Home Depot and get a sandwich from Johhny’s. While I’m there I stop by Whole Foods to pick
up a few snacks for the house. After
lunch a second plumber is supposed to be coming to patch the hole and fix the
hot water heater emergency release valve which is currently stuck against the
wall and unable to release in an emergency.
I set up an appointment for the blinds repair guy to come tomorrow and I
meet with the insulation company to get a quote for attic insulation.
5:30 p.m. Finally done
with the house stuff for today that I thought would only take an hour or
two. My tailbone is sore from sitting on
the floor all day. Mom drove Ryan down
from Reston so we can go to the 6th grade party at Marshall Road.
After the party, Ryan
and I went to Arties for a snack and a visit with Bill and Christy. When we got back to Reston we could not find
a parking spot anywhere. Everything is
1-hour and 3-hour and no-overnight parking.
We finally end up at the bus commuter lot around the corner from the
condo. The parking situation here in
Reston is just not great.
Another long day and
late night comes to an end.
0615 Wake up. No time for a walk this morning. I have to be at the house by 7 to meet another guy from the plumbing company. Hopefully this guy can actually enlarge the access door since the guy yesterday afternoon couldn’t do it.
0830 The painters
arrive just after the carpenter/plumber finishes patching the wall (he couldn’t
build me a door either so I finally ran out of time and gave up – just patch
it!).
0930 – 12:00 p.m. 6th grade class picnic in the rain
at Nottoway Park. No thunder or
lightning, just a light rain, which all the kids seemed to be enjoying.
12:30 p.m. Blinds
repair guy comes to give us a quote. So
far this repair has been the easiest and the cheapest!
2:30 p.m. I was finally
able to find a lawn service company that can come out to give me a quote on
yard clean-up.
4:30 p.m. Painters
leave for the day. Today I finished the
book I started yesterday, “Impossible”, and started “Caravans”.
After the painters
leave, Ryan and I go to Zoe’s house. I
had tea with Nesli while the kids hung out.
5:30 p.m. Ryan stays
with Zoe. I go to dinner with my scrap
buddies at Logans Roadhouse. I-66 is of
course a traffic jam.
After a fun dinner, I
go back to Vienna to get Ryan then head for the condo. We have better parking luck tonight and find
a spot on the street.
Day 7 – Wednesday –
June 13, 2012
0540 Wake up to go walk
with Mom.0730 Leave to go to the house. Today the painters are coming again and the insulation guy is coming to give us another quote on additional work. I also went to the bank and stopped by the Sprint store to get a car charger for my phone. The battery just doesn’t last all day anymore when I’m in a low-signal area or spending lots of time using my email and Facebook on it. I’d hate to be out on the road with a dead phone so it is time for a car charger!
2:00 p.m. Go to
Marshall Road for the Moving Up Ceremony for the 6th graders. After the ceremony, Ryan goes home with Ryan
C. and gets to go to the pool with Ryan, Eduoard, and Owen. One last hurrah with a couple friends before
we leave tonight.
While Ryan is otherwise
occupied, I go back to the house to do a final walk-thru with the
painters. After that I head to Red Robin
for dinner with Mom. I get a free burger
for my birthday! After dinner I stop by
Target to pick up some swiffer pads. As
I was leaving the house I noticed that even though the painters mopped the
floors, they didn’t really do a very good job.
There was spackle dust smeared around where they had used the mop. Time for Cinderella to do her job – on my
hands and knees cleaning the floors.
Ugh. It looked better when I was
done but still needs some work. As I was
leaving I also found more spackle dust on the mini-blinds in the bedrooms. No time to deal with it though so I had to
leave it.
6:15 p.m. Pick up Ryan
from Ryan’s house. Stop by Kana’s
softball game for a few minutes so I can say hi to Shani. Too bad she was too busy for us to see each other
this trip other than for these few minutes.
Jon was at the game too so we talked to him as well.
Stop to fill up the
rental car on our way back. Gas was
$3.59/gallon.
Now time to get back to
Reston and pack for our early flight tomorrow!
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