Baltimore

Friday John got home before noon, and since it was Friday we discussed going "away" for the night. Somewhere not too far that would be fun to spend the night. My first thought was Historic Williamsburg. Then I thought it would be more fun to go somewhere closer so I suggested Baltimore to John who apparently was thinking Baltimore too. John got a good price on the Hyatt Regency in the Inner Harbor area of downtown Baltimore. We took off before 1:00 and were unpleasantly surprised to run into a thunderstorm on the way there. It got pretty bad at some points. This picture doesn't really do it justice.



Before we left we made a reservation for Friday afternoon at the Baltimore Aquarium. We scheduled a Dolphin show at 3:30, a 4-D show at 4:15, and then after that we could go do the rest of the aquarium. The Dolphin show was great. Malachi really enjoyed it!





After the Dolphin show we headed over to the 4-D show. Basically that's a 3-D movie with physical involvment: water spraying in your face, a poker in your back, a "snake like" tube on the floor, bubbles, and snow. Unfortunately Malachi really didn't enjoy the physical aspect of the show, so we had to leave. We thought it would be really fun for him, but we were wrong. Here's Malachi with his 3-D glasses on. They're a little different then I remember them.



After that we had dinner at a restaurant that I really didn't like. I'm not going to put up a picture or devote any more time to it than this.

The next morning we got up, decided on breakfast at the hotel restaurant which was pretty good, expensive, but good. We didn't know if it was going to rain or not (rain was in the forecast) so we decided to stay in doors and go to the Children's Museum. We had a lot of fun there! Malachi really enjoyed it and was sad when we had to leave.







After lunch at McDonald's we started on our trip home. With clear weather on our trip home we got home in one hour and one minute. We really enjoyed our time. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the whole set of pictures up on Facebook.

So busy

Remember when I said we had a fun weekend planned and I was going to blog about it afterward? Well I keep forgetting to blog and then when I remember I realize I'm not done doing stuff so I can wait to blog.

I don't really feel like writing a long blog because I'm quite tired from everything that's gone on. So I'm going to write quick blurbs, if you will, on what fun we had the last few days.

Friday: After I made eggs benedict for dinner for the first time (gonna have to work on not curddling the sauce) we headed over to John's co-workers home for a Mah Jong Party. Mah Jong is nothing like it is on the computer, it was so much fun for us. We stayed until mid-night.

Saturday: John, Malachi, and I went to the National Air and Space Museum. We've been there before, but no matter what we suggested to Malachi, he wanted to go to Air and Space. We had a good time running after Malachi there (he really loves that place). After an hour there, we went to an IMAX documentary about a fighter pilot. Malachi really liked that, I was so grateful. I stayed home that night with Malachi, while John went out with his class mates. He had a great time.

Sunday: We went to church for the third time in a row. I really think now, that that's the church we're going to call home. After a three hour nap John encouraged me to go out with some girls to a movie because I had to stay home the night before. So I got a couple of girls to go with me to (500) Days of Summer. It's a great movie, and I'd recommend it for anyone, boys or girls.

Monday: John had a very, very short work day (9-12 to be exact). After he got home we made our way about an hour and a half west of here to the Luray Caverns. We had a great time! Malachi and I had never been to anything like that, so it was a first for both of us. We visited their Car and Carriage museum that had modes of transportation from the 1840's to the 1940's. They had some really cool stuff. We got some homemade fudge...mmm. After that we headed into their hedge maze. We got two of the four goals before getting frustrated and left.

Today: This morning I saw my friend Jaime's status saying she was bringing her kids to DC. I immediately called her and asked if I could join them. Malachi and I hopped on the Metro and made our way for the National Museum of Natural History. We've been there before, but all of our kids love that museum, and they had a great time. After a few hours there including lunch we all had to go. So Malachi and I rode the Metro back, but had to walk home from the Metro stop. It's almost a mile, and it was hot. Poor Malachi was not very happy at all.

Wow! What a weekend/beginning of week. I have plans tomorrow too...as long as my girlfriend still remembers :) I have no idea what to label this post.

Silent

I realize I've gone much longer between posts before, but I've blogged so much lately that I feel like six days is a really long time. I wonder if I haven't posted in almost a week because I don't feel like much has gone on the last few of days.

My good friend Mary in Dallas set me up with a friend of hers from Oklahoma that just moved to the area a short time ago. I met her and two of her friends and we went to an outlet mall where I did some Maternity shopping and got some stuff for the kitchen, Malachi, and John. It was fun, but quite exhausting. We were at the mall for about four hours. Malachi made some new friends that day while the moms were out. He had a great time.

We've had a mostly boring week besides that - unless I'm forgetting something (completely possible). This morning I made a Daily To Do List for Malachi because I often forget important things like brushing his teeth and reading the Bible. He's very interested in the latter, so I figure we can make it a daily activity. I also put on there to do crafts, learn colors, shapes, letters, and numbers. If I do get into the Chinese course with John we'll just be putting him into Pre-School, but if I don't get into Chinese, then I want to take care of this at home. It wouldn't make sense to pay someone to do it when I can. I'd like to make a trip soon to a teacher's supply store to pick up books to help him learn, and to help me teach him these things.

We have a fun weekend ahead of us, I've noticed that I tend to blog to the future, and I desire to not do that anymore. Therefore I wont be telling you what our fun weekend is going to be like. I'll end up telling you what our fun weekend was, when it's over.

Happy Friday everyone!

Old Town Alexandria

Tonight we headed to Alexandria so I could scratch a pregnancy itch. I really, really, really wanted some Jimmy John's. Alexandria just happened to be the closest one (about 20 minutes away). When we got down there though it was closed. It was closed all day today! We were shocked and I was extremely dissapointed. We decided to walk across the street to Potbelly to see if we could get a sandwich there instead. But on Saturday and Sunday they close at 5pm. Who closes at 5pm on the weekends?!?!

We had planned on going somewhere in Old Town after dinner, so we decided to just head down there for dinner too. We went down there, found a parking ramp and tried to figure out dinner. We ended up walking to the water front area on the river.



On the right of the picture you'll see the restaurant we chose to eat at. It's called The Chart House. It's mostly a fish and seafood restaurant but I had a really good dish called Almand Crested Chicken Breast served with herbed risoto and brie. We really enjoyed the dinner and I know we'll be there again.

After the wonderful visit at the restaurant we walked back to the pier and visited the parrots that were hanging out. We donated some money to the foundation that's saving abandoned and abused birds and I got to hold one of them. Malachi didn't want to hold it, but he did pet it. After that we walked over to Candie's Candy shop. I really felt like a kid in a candy store (pun intended). We ended up buying over a pound of candy! I might have a bit of a tummy ache right now and I don't think I can stop.

We then came home. I had such a great night with my boys. John then went out with some friends to see Section 9. Now I'm chillin watching TV and Malachi's sleeping soundly.

Ahhh....(happy sigh)

Early

I was up at 5:00 am today. Yawn!

I only went online and watched TV until other people started talking/moving around. However, I've gotten more done in the last hour and a half than I have in a long time in one day.

I'm not done either - in 20 minutes Malachi and I are taking the car in to be looked at. After we get home I may do laundry (which was the original plan until John reminded me about the car appointment). Malachi's now getting dressed and ready for the day.

I'm off to get ready to bring the car in. Have a great day everyone!

Hot. Very, Very Hot.

I thought today we were going to get a cool down but I was very wrong. John got home from work very early today (before 3:00) so we decided to go mini golfing.

It went quickly. Malachi's not a fan of real mini golfing. Most of the time his ball was brought up to the hole so he can tap it right in. A couple of times the ball went right in the hole. We were so hot after doing that, that when we got home it was a no brainer that it was time to get in the pool.

The pool was sooooo nice! I was getting frustrated with the life guards who were spending a lot of time flirting with the four teenage girls in bikini's. I might actually put in a complaint.

After a little while in the pool five of John's co-workers (and all of them friends of ours) came to the pool after their run (oh how I wish I could run with them. I miss running so much). We hung out with them for a while and after we came home John and Malachi cooked dinner. It's now coming out of the oven, so I have to go eat Submarines (hot dogs rolled in crescent rolls), chips, and fresh pitted cherries. mmm...

New Church?

We may have found a church to call home for the next few months. It's been very hard for us the last seven months. Leaving our church in Dallas was heart breaking for me. I learned so much about God and myself there, I learned how to love others - especially my girls. Oh how I miss y'all! I met some of my best ever friends there.
The worship and the preaching there are amazing. Every church we go to from now on has a lot to live up to, so searching for a church is very difficult. Finally we decided we had to go out - church is so necessary. Even if we didn't like where we were going, at least we could say we tried.

So today we ventured to Arlington VA (really, really close to downtown) to attend Capital Life Church. We recognized the name of the Pastor, Bill Shuler, but couldn't figure out why - we still haven't. We dropped Malachi off at his class. He's so amazing - our son. We dropped him off with no problems. He's such a blessing to us.

We were making our way into the sanctuary (it actually meets at a performance theatre, but it's a great set-up) and we were stopped by the Pastor who chatted with us for a bit. He's a really nice guy. He was at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, OK for a long time. He and his family moved out to the DC area ten days before 9/11. God really used them to minister during that time and their church was born out of that. We learned that at their website yesterday, but it's interesting non the less.

Worship was great - no choir, but what can you do. ;) I really enjoyed it. The songs were Christ and Gospel centered and it was such a blessing to be singing worship to my Lord. The Pastor's wife, Lisa, did announcements this week (apparently they're normally done by video, but the leadership were all on retreat this weekend) and when she talked about the church - how it's a family, and the church's goals are to first love God and second love people I started crying. The way she was talking really reminded me of FOJ.

Bottom Line: Christ was there, the Gospel was shared, the Bible was used! This is much better than the last church we went to.

Much Needed Update

If you follow John's blog you know he's been sick. He woke up on Wednesday with a temperature of 101.9. In our whole marriage I've never known him to have a fever that high. He was not very excited to miss a day of work - he's not really supposed to take leave of any kind. Luckily he has been accruing sick time. Wednesday he spent most of the day sleeping. He's never been brought down this much by anything except maybe his oral surgery. Yesterday another fever, another day off. The thing about his fever is that it was very He slept a little less but still was really down. Last night before we went to sleep I convinced him to go to Urgent Care if he had any high temp.

Today he woke up with a temp of 99.1. The lowest since the fever started, but his throat still was killing him. He emailed his boss and said he'd be out another day - starting to think that he's going to have to re-do this whole week at work another time.

The Urgent Care opened at 9 but he didn't want to go right away because he thought it would be packed. I think we left at about 10am. After dropping John off Malachi and I made our way to the library. We had a great time looking for books, and Malachi colored while I did that. Unfortunately I didn't have any proof of my residence in VA so I had to leave it all aside and go back later.

After being at a park for 5 or 10 minutes John texted to say that he was done. Malachi and I made our way back to the car and picked him up. His throat culture was positive for strep throat! No one in this family has had strep throat...well...since this family started. John and I haven't had strep since we were teens.

Malachi and I dropped off John and went to get the perscription filled and finish getting the books and videos from the library. While at the library we ran into a friend, Tiana. Her husband Nick is also in John's class, so they live near us. They however don't have a car, so I offered a ride home. She was so gracious to stay in the car with Malachi while I picked up John's medicine. I hadn't eaten much that day, so I shouldn't have gone shopping. I ended up getting a few unnecessary items. But they'll provide tasty happiness, so I don't regret it!

This afternoon John let me sleep. And I slept for a long time! Tonight we had pizza from Pizza Hut. It was tasty. This weekend we have no plans. I like it that way.