Saturday, June 28, 2008

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

We live about 30 miles away from Washington, DC. But, of course, because its there - we rarely go in to take in the sights. This week, we did. An online friend of mine was coming in town with her family, and initially needed some folks to join her party to have enough for a White House tour. We ended up taking a tour of the Capitol, a tour of the White House, and visited the National Archives. I've been wanting to go into town for a while and this was just the motivation to get me moving.

The Capitol tour was pretty neat. We met up at the office of her Senator - their office arranged the tour. She took us to the Capitol by way of the 3 Senate Office buildings, to show how far you can go without ever going outside. She also showed us how the architecture varied as the age of the buildings changed. And while walking the underground corridors, I actually saw OUR Senator, Senator Warner, headed to the Capitol. He looked so feeble - he's been sick recently.

When we arrived in the Capitol we saw many hallways and special chambers, such as the former committee room for the Foreign Relations and Appropriations Committees, on the way to the rotunda. They were exquisitely adorned with beautiful colors and designs throughout. Then finally we reached the rotunda. I had seen the rotunda when I went to the viewing for President Reagan in 2004, but this was an opportunity to actually look at it. There is a freize around the upper portion of the rotunda and it tells the story of the formation of the United States: starting with the Native Americans and the landing of Columbus, all the way through the birth of aviation with the first flight of the Wright Brothers. Its so expertly woven together that you don't see a gap in the pictures - it looks like one long picture - and cannot even tell that it was actually completed by 3 different artists over many years.


Underneath the frieze are some large pictures depicting specific events in the history of the United States, such as the baptism of Pocahontas, the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, Cornwalis' surrender to Washington at Yorktown and Washington's resignation as General of the Army.

At the apex of the rotunda is a beautiful painting of angels - and the father of our country - George Washington.





We also spent some time in the sculpture room. Each state has sculptures of two famous people displayed in the Capitol - with many in this room. This room is also significant because it had held committee meetings for the House of Representatives in the past. There were placards on the floor showing where the desks of some famous representatives sat - including Abraham Lincoln and John Quincy Adams.







On the way back to the Senate office building, we saw the marker indicating the exact center of the city of Washington, DC - the center of Capitol Hill! And then we got on a small train that runs between the office buidings and the Capitol that is used by visitors, guests, and even the Senators as they need to go to the floor for debates and votes.















On Friday, we headed in to go on a tour of the White House and the National Archives. The White House tour was set up by a friend of my friend's husband - he works in the White House. A tour is difficult to get these days so this was especially nice. Mike took the day off and went with us. They are also very restrictive on what you can bring in - certainly no cameras. They usually don't allow purses but I was allowed to take mine due to having medical supplies in it. But they didn't like it. We were able to see several of the rooms in the East Wing of the White House - the Blue Room, Red Room, Vermiel Room, the East Room and the State Dining Room. It wasn't a long tour but it was really neat to see.

You will also notice the kids are in pants - in 90 degree weather. Because we were with an employee, we had to adhere to a "higher" dress code, so we all needed to be in pants. I would have ensured my kids looked "presentable" regardless, but I wish that all of these types of tours had dress codes to prevent the short-shorts and strapless "tube tops" that I saw at several of these locations.









After heading back to the car to retrieve the stuff we wanted to have with us but couldn't at the White House, we got some lunch and then headed over to the National Archives. After a short wait outside, we went through our 3rd or 4th or metal detector of the day, watched a short movie about the purpose of the archives, and then got in another line to see the main reason for the visit - the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The Declaration of Independence was hardly visible anymore but the other documents were in pretty good shape - considering their age.

We also saw a pretty neat exhibit which show how different documents and other items that have been kept in the archives show the history of our country, from old maps of the colonies, the new states being formed, patents for many of the inventions made in this country, important photos and video, as those mediums were developed. The only disappointment is that they have an area where educators and parents can see how to use documents and books to teach history - and it was closed. I really wanted to see how they were presenting it.

Anyway, it was nice that it took a visit of a friend from Florida in order to get us into a city that is only 30 miles away - but we saw some things we hadn't seen before and I'll try to make a better effort to take advantage of all the wonderful things that D.C. has to offer.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

There and Back Again (and again)

Last year I posted about some baby birds that had taken up residence in a nest in the rose bush at the back of our house. You can read about it here: Birds Nest

Well, I looked at the nest about 6 weeks ago, because it stayed in the rose bush all winter, and again we had baby birds. I snapped this photo from the porch because when I tried to get close enough on the ground, Mama flew away and then started yelling at me from the nearby tree.











We have another nest in the front of the house, in our crepe myrtle tree. Its really high up, so its difficult to see, but I saw a baby beak poking out the other day. Later in the afternoon, we found that baby bird flying around in our garage and we had to scoot her out.


And today, when I checked out the nest in the back, it seems to be round two - there are at least 2 blue robin's eggs in the nest - just waiting until its time to hatch!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

One person's trash...

You know the saying.

Well, I firmly believe that this is the mantra of both Freecycle and Craigslist.

And I have been availing myself of both of these great resources a lot in the past couple of days (with a few eBay items thrown in for good measure)

We have a lot of stuff in this house that we don't need, don't use, or doesn't fit anymore. Its just sitting around, getting rearranged as I am constantly trying to declutter all the stuff in the house

So I've been getting rid of it - via Craigslist and Freecycle. I have put a little cash in my pocket and gotten rid of a lot of other things.

Mike, who also reads the Freecycle postings, emailed me today while he was at work asking if there was anything left in our house. I told him I was heading to his closet next!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

As requested

I have had a request to share some photos of Samantha with her bright pink cast. I have been meaning to for a while, so here they are!

Here is Samantha the day she got her cast on - with a friend from our homeschool group who ALSO suffered an injury the same weekend and ALSO chose a bright pink cast for her injury! This photo is nice too because you see it BEFORE it becomes covered in signatures - a right of passage when you have a cast!
























Samantha received some beautiful flowers from Granny and Granddaddy and they have lasted a long time - some of the lillies have just opened up. Here they are. And then a closer up one so that you can see her cast well.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Heartbreaking Loss

Michael's baseball team had their last game of the season tonight. They lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs. They played the #1 team in their league and until the 5th inning, they held them to only 2 runs, while scoring 9 themselves. They were playing well and hitting ok.

And then the 5th inning came. Michael's team has an uncanny ability to fall apart in the 5th and 6th innings. And today was no different.

They tried hard. Michael got hit in the gut with a ball pitched to him and was more frustrated that he couldn't make the play with the ball than the fact that he got hit.

With 2 outs and 2 strikes on a player, the boy hits a blooper into the outfied. And then the next player with 2 strikes hits a long ball.

And we lose 11-10.

I think everyone was heartbroken.

Its been a long time!

I've been remiss in posting in quite a while.

I'm sure my mother knows why - Our May schedule is about to be the death of us.

Here's a short synopsis of the past month:

  • Michael earned his next belt in Tae Kwon Do; he's now a Green Stripe
  • Both kids finished up their soccer season
  • Samantha broke her wrist in her final soccer game and is in a bright pink cast until the end of June!
  • Samantha's soccer team played in a tournament this past weekend and finished as "co-champions" in their division. Samantha watched from the sidelines :(. The final two teams were definitely evenly matched, but they decided NOT to go to extra time to determine the winner, as each team had already played a previous game that day and the temperature was in excess of 95 degrees!
  • Michael's baseball team finished the season in 4th place and won their first playoff game - the next one is tonight (let's hope for the scheduled thunderstorms to come through and postpone the game and cool down the temperature)
  • We spent Memorial Day weekend at the lake with my parents - photos to follow
  • Emma had her quarterly checkup with her endocrinologist and her average blood glucose level came down a LOT! We're thrilled
  • We participated in our 2nd JDRF Walk on June 1st. Together Mike and I raised over $4100!
  • We had baby birds frequent our nest for the 2nd year in a row, and last week we had two ducks waddling through the front yard in the morning while a bunny rabbit was eating leaves off the flowers near the mailbox!