The Making of M.O.M.

What's new around our house and this blog?

A lot actually. We are still processing our time in New York with Africa Inland Mission. We thought we had the potential assignments narrowed down to 2, then after sending and receiving a few emails we now find ourselves considering a few more. I'm getting a little anxious about picking a place and moving forward because we still have A LOT to do before our target departure date of July 2012.

I know it's 18+ months away but we still have a whole lot to do. I'll try to outline all of that for you all soon.

If you follow me in Google Reader, you probably saw a few random posts today. Sorry about that. I was trying to get a new Navigation Bar set up and I accidentally published some of those links with today's date rather than backdating them. Ooops. Oh well. Hopefully, once I get all those Navigation Bar links up and running I can omit a lot of the info in my sidebar and make my blog a little more user friendly. If you're interested in making a NavBar for your blog you can go to Jenieshell's Design Blog and read her tutorials. They are SO SIMPLE!

Today Ella turned 8 months old. She did her first baby sign today asking for "more." Well, at least I think she signed it. Or maybe she was clapping because I was clapping. Either way, she's pretty much the sweetest baby ever and a complete genius. :) I'll try to do a whole post on her soon and hopefully post some video because she's crawling (sorta) and can push herself up to sitting and has now been dubbed as "Elliegoat" by the big kids because she eats everything she can get her chubby little fingers on.

Aaron desperately wants to go pee in the potty but I'm over trying to potty train him. I'd be fine if he'd put everything in the potty but all he seems to care about flushing is pee pee. All other "items" he could care less about putting in the potty which means he's still in diapers for now.

I know, I know. I should carpe potty but I just don't want to. I would if he'd carpe in the potty. Then we'd be golden.

That's about it for now. I've used all my allotted computer time making the NavBar and now telling you why I had random posts showing up and talking about seizing the potty. Y'all have a great evening. And Happy Thanksgiving if I don't get back to you before then!

On our second day in Washington D.C. we opted out of riding the metro. After the previous day's fiasco, we figured we'd fare much better just driving our 15 passenger van into the city and ~~begging~~ ~~scavenging~~ ~~bartering~~ driving around endlessly searching for a parking spot. After about 45 minutes of driving in circles, we found one. We parked near the Lincoln Memorial and headed there first. I really wanted to see this thing up close after 31 years of only seeing photos. It did not disappoint!

The entire time we stood there, looking at the homage paid to President Lincoln, I kept glancing at Olivia, thinking about how because of Abe's willingness to fight for what was right, she's accepted as a member of our family.

Elizabeth was quite the tour guide.

I wanted to get each kids' picture in front of Abe's huge self, but that didn't work out as planned, so I'll just show you this one, which cracks me up.

Beware of the Giant Floating Baby! Good thing she's cute or it might be freakishly scary.

The view out of the front of the Lincoln Memorial was breathtaking. I'll tell you the truth though, I half expected to see Jenny running through the reflection pool toward Forrest. (Namethatmovie.)

Next, we walked down to the World War II Memorial. I knew the kids would care less about this tribute to our amazing Veterans. But, since my own Grandfather as well as Luke's Grandfather both served in WWII, I knew this was something I had to see.

I forgot that Veteran's Day was just around the corner, yet I was so taken back and found myself holding back tears, each time I saw one of these sweet WWII Veterans being pushed around the Memorial by volunteers. They were just so sweet and I wanted to hug each one of them.

Luke's Grandfather was deployed from Ohio.

My Grandfather from Arkansas.

Both of them served in the Army branch of the military.

We tried explaining to the kids exactly what these Veterans fought for, but I think it was lost on their tired legs and their desires to run in an open field (which, do those two things seem to contradict themselves to anyone else? How can a kid say, "My wegs hurt!" then in the next breath say, "Can we run?").

So we headed across the street and they ran, wrestled and played in the open fields in front of the Washington Monument. We were totally "that family" whose kids were running and rolling and screaming and being crazy. Luke and I could have cared less. By the time we walked all the way across the fields, everyone within 100 yards of us had counted our kids at least 3 times each.

I tried to get a picture of Lucas looking like he was holding up the Washington Monument, but as you can tell from his posture and his face, he was super confused. Which just makes it even more hilarious.

We walked over to the Smithsonian's American History Museum and let the kids play in the 2 children's areas but quickly realized that we had quite a walk back to the van and the kids couldn't have cared less about all the cool American History stuff, so we trekked back to the van, lugging tired children with each step. We ate at a Mexican-Salvadorian Restaurant which was super yummy. But apparently, adding "Salvadorian" to the title means that you pay 3 times as much as what we are used to paying at a Mexican Restaurant back home. The salsa alone was worth it though. I've dreamed about it at least 3 times since. True story.

The next morning we went to church at First Baptist Church Alexandria (the church that had the member who blessed us with some outstanding accommodations for our stay in D.C.) then hit the road for Pearl River, NY. What should have been about a 3.5 hour drive turned into SIX HOURS. We rural living Southerners aren't used to two major things.

1) Toll Roads

2) Bumper to bumper traffic on the Turnpike where the speed limit is at least 60mph and we are going 4. FOUR. Okay, maybe 10, but still.

We finally stopped and grabbed some lunch, but for the life of me I can't remember where. I know y'all are just on edge for that tidbit of completely irrelevant information. We arrived at Africa Inland Mission's US Headquarters around dark and then the real adventure began. Stay tuned!