Geez, the past three weeks have flown by in a blur. It feels like I just turned around and August is almost over!
It started with the birth of Hannah on August 3, certainly the highlight of this crazy month. She is doing beautifully and will celebrate her 3-week birthday tomorrow! There are pictures of her all over my Facebook page, as well as on her mom, aunt, grandpa and godfather's pages! A friend says she's probably the most photographed baby in the world. I don't know about that, but she's certainly up there near the top of the list!
The day after Hannah was born, I had a small crisis at home. I live in a condo and the person who lives above me had a plumbing problem -- a leak behind the wall that she didn't know about. Of course, you know what that means -- I'm the one who ended up with a pool of water in my bathroom and a soaked carpet through about half of my bedroom! Nothing in my life is ever simple, though. She (my neighbor upstairs) is hearing impaired and wasn't responding to my text messages or doorbell ringing. I didn't know if there was water still running or if she was sick or injured, so I called the fire department, who came over and broke into her apartment to wake her and tell her what was going on. I felt terrible that it had come to that action, but she assured me I had done the right thing.
Anyway, I won't bore you with all of the details. Anyone who has ever had to deal with a similar problem knows that it takes time for the insurance company to act, requires a lot of phone calls and coordination to get everything cleaned up and dried out, then put back into place. The long and short of it was that I slept on the sofa in the living room for two weeks! Last night was the first time I was actually able to get back into my bedroom and sleep in my own bed. Ahhhh!
Oh, yeah, I forgot another little detail -- the week that all this happened, I was babysitting two little dogs for a dear friend and her family while they were on vacation! I love the puppies, but it just added a complication that increased the confusion and frustration levels that I was already reaching at that point. Add to it that I was helping my sister get her daughter (Hannah's mom) home from the hospital and settled in, working almost full time the past two weeks, trying to learn new music for chorus and our quartet, etc., etc. and so forth!
Now I guess I know where the last few weeks went after all! ;-)
Yesterday was a nice day, though, and that's what I really want to write about. I went with my 29-year-old son to visit the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, VA. He had to visit a museum and write a paper on it for a class he's taking and this is the one he chose. We only got to stay for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon and got through about 1/2 the exhibits. What a fantastic museum, and what an incredible tribute to the Corps! It gave me goose bumps as I looked at the orientation film, then went through the exhibit about "Making a Marine", a detailed explanation of what boot camp is all about. There's a wonderful timeline that runs through the museum, too, starting before the beginning of the Marines in 1775 and going all the way to the present. It's well done, showing the different events in the development of the Corps along with what was going on in the world at the same time. A great way to put things into perspective. I highly encourage people who come to the Washington, DC area to take at least 1/2 a day to visit this most impressive sight. I've put a link to it in the column to the right if you want more information.
Now I hope that the next week or so will be considerably calmer....but I doubt it. My life doesn't tend to run that way! I have a lot of cleaning and sorting and de-cluttering to do, especially since the water episode. I just need to get myself motivated to get going on it! Maybe I'll take some before and after pictures and post them on this site. That might just give me the push I need to get it done!
Hope you all have a good week....and stay dry, inside and out!
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