Bill got home on Thursday and told me he had something important to tell me that would be life changing.  I couldn’t imagine what it could be.  I thought maybe it had to do something with his family since he had been in Utah for the past week.  I never would have guessed that he has received orders to go to Kirtland, AFB, New Mexico.  I have been wanting to go to New Mexico for a long time.  New Mexico is less than a day’s drive to Monticello, Utah and Altus, Oklahoma.  How awesome it will be to be able to hop in the car on a long weekend and go see our family.  We have never had that pleasure.  We got married and moved to New Jersey and then moved five years ago three hours south to Maryland.  We have always been on the east coast and I have been longing to be west of the Mississippi River.  Now it is happening and it doesn’t seem real.  We have so much to do and it’s the worst possible time to try to sell a house.  Bill’s report date as of right now is the end of April, but we are hoping they may allow us to extend out to June so that Billy can finish school.  Unfortunately, we have been procrastinators and are now going to be living out This Old House episodes every day.  I think painting may become a specialty of mine. 

*For those Jeopardy fans out there, O Fair, New Mexico is the state song of New Mexico.

Well Bebe left today.  For those of you who don’t know, Bebe is my mom. When Billy was two, he started calling her Bebe and it stuck.  Well she has been here for two months and today she left to go back to Oklahoma.  She has been a HUGE help.  I don’t know what I would have done without her.  She truly helped in everyway including allowing me to keep my foot up so that my ankle could heal properly.  I can now walk up the stairs, but I still go down on my bottom.  Just think how I would have managed with Baden and Billy when I went up and down the stairs on my rear and had to use crutches to get around.  She cooked, cleaned, changed diapers, did laundry, made Mickey Mouse pancakes, and gave hugs and kisses out generously.  She put up with a whining four year old who at times told her that he wasn’t going to be her grandma anymore ( I think we need to explain better how family relationships work), but she is a trooper and just smiled and kept on going.  It is strange not having her around and it will be for the next week, I am sure.  Billy cried which made me get teary-eyed, too.  He’s already told me today that he wants to get on an airplane to go see Bebe and Grandpa.  My mom deserves a break and I know one of the first things she will do is call the massage therapist for a massage ASAP then she will head to Happy Hour at Sonic for a Cherry Limeade.  She deserves it! Thank you, Bebe.  You’re wonderful.

Lately Billy has started watching Tom and Jerry on the Cartoon Network or Boomerang.  He thinks they are hiliarious.  Baden does, too. They both laugh and laugh.  Of course, some might think how horrible for children to be watching a cat and a mouse chase after each other and try to harm one another.  Then I look at some of the stuff that is on TV now and I know they will not be scarred because I let them watch Tom and Jerry. I watched Tom and Jerry and I am okay.  The only problem seems to be getting Billy to stop calling the cat, Jerry and the mouse, Tom.  When I explain it to him, he says no, no. The cat’s name is Jerry.  Then he laughs and laughs. Maybe he is just being silly.  He is four after all.

After dropping Bill off at the airport, we headed to the base to grab some dinner and watch Sesame Street Live presented by the USO.  It was a free show offered to military families.  It was a lot of fun.  Billy was hoping to see Big Bird, but he must have been asleep in his nest with Radar, his teddy bear.  He was a little  bit disappointed, but he really liked Cookie Monster singing, C is for Cookie, a Dunow favorite.  Baden’s eyes lit up when Elmo made his appearance. He started clapping and bouncing up and down.  He loves Elmo.  Grover, Zoe and Rosita were there, too.  They sang and danced and it was a lot of fun.  The show was about the separation anxiety that can happen when mommy or daddy has to go away because of their job.  All of the kids got a spinning light Elmo which is really cool.  It was a fun evening. 

Sunny day
Sweepin’ the clouds away                                           
On my way to where the air is sweet

Can you tell me how to get
How to get to Sesame Street…

On Saturday we went for a drive on Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park.  This is our favorite camping spot. We were there in June for a week.  This weekend the place was packed.  All of the camping sites were taken and all of the rooms at the lodges were full too.  We had a nice drive looking at the leaves and soaking in the beautiful colors of fall.  We had a picnic lunch at the Big Meadows picnic area and enjoyed the day. The boys loved running around and Billy got to climb a tree or two.  

Ah, weddings.  I love watching Who’s Wedding is it Anyway and of course, Bridezillas.  I have been to a few weddings, too.  Tonight, Bill and I attended a wedding like no other.  Bill got a call from his mom and she gave us a web site address.  This web site address took us to The Little Chapel of Flowers in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Bill’s cousin who looks like a young Bette Midler got married and we got to see the whole thing live. What a novel concept.  It was actually pretty cool to see Bill’s uncle walking his daughter down the aisle as Bill’s aunt looked misty eyed watching her daughter get married.  We didn’t have to get dressed up. We didn’t have to dance the Electric Slide. We didn’t have to bring a gift. The only thing missing was the cake and we love cake, but I guess it would have been virtual so it probably wouldn’t have tasted very good anyway.  It is amazing the things that we can do now via the world wide web and I am excited to have been a part of it.  Congratulations, Cynthia and Nathan.

Since it was a holiday this weekend, I mean general conference, we took the opportunity to go to Williamsburg, Virginia. We went to Busch Gardens and enjoyed free admission thanks to the Salute to Heroes program.  I was all set with an electric cart to zoom around the park.  We have gone to Busch Gardens every year since Billy was about six months old, but we never went on a Saturday and we will never go again. The line to get into the parking lot was crazy long.  Then when we got up to the park entrance there was no power.  Billy had to go to the bathroom, but there were employees that wouldn’t allow anyone into the bathrooms.  Luckily when we got into the park there was power, but England was clogged up with people having to go to the bathroom.  As I zoomed around on my cart, I got a lot of stares. I guess they were wondering why I needed a cart as if having my crutches by my side and a cast on my leg weren’t clues.  I learned that people always think they can outwalk an electric cart and then they stop right in front of you.  I almost had a few run in’s, but thankfully I was paying attention.  On the up side, Baden went on his first amusement park ride. It was the in the Land of the Dinosaurs and called Eggery Deggery.  My mom took the boys on the ride and they sat in a broken dinosaur egg. The ride went up and down in a circle.  Baden thought it was a lot of fun.  He also enjoyed the carousel.  Bill got to ride some roller coasters.  We also watched two shows.  Billy got his face painted and then almost lost it when he couldn’t win a life sized Spider-Man.  It was really a crazy day. We wanted to go to one last show, but the line was really looong.  We decided to head for the hotel around 7:00 pm, but it was like swimming upstream.  You would think that if someone is in an electric cart people would move out of the way, but no they don’t.  The worst offenders were people with the double jogging strollers that just plowed through.  I got in a standoff with a double jogging stroller and I finally told the lady move so I can move.  I was this close to  swinging a crutch around.  Finally we got out of there onto the tram. That was the best ride of the day.  Overall, we had a good time and it was good to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather.  The hotel was a nice retreat and even though the people that work at the Sonic in Williamsburg don’t know how to take an order, the cherry limeade hit the spot.  Busch Gardens is a great place, but never on a Saturday!