I feel as though we have packed quite a bit of adventure into the two short months we've been in Virginia. We left Texas in early March. In fact, we left spring back there. Here is the Mountain Laurel outside my kitchen window the day the movers put our household goods into the moving truck.
These flowers are heady with a grape like fragrance. I left the window open to drink in the aroma. I don't think I can grow these here in Virginia, so I was sad to leave them behind.
In fact, I was sad to leave our house behind. After the movers left, we stayed behind and made the house spit spot clean. Then we pulled out of the driveway and I started getting teary eyed. Suddenly I was imagining the second story windows shedding huge drops of tears as I pulled out of the driveway. I felt awful, as if I was abandoning all the wonderful memories we had in that home.
There were goodbyes from our friends at church. On Thursday night, when my son went to Awanas, Mr. H., his club director from last year set him inside the flag area after the pledges. He announced my son's leaving for Virginia and gifted him the infamous "Quiz Man Mask" that Mr. H. had used during Council Time. He wanted my son to carry the tradition to his new Awana club in Virginia. During my daughter's Awana club night, Friday, they had a little party for her to say goodbye.
Then Saturday morning we tried to get together with friends from church to ride their horses. Incidentally, he is Shamu's doctor, which we always thought was pretty cool. Well, the day was too windy, so we had to pass on seeing them and the horseback riding. =(
That night we went to a social with our Sunday School class. It was veggie night and we could only bring veggies. Hmmm, I'm not a huge veggie fan. I like great salads. But I am also pre-diabetic and need a balanced diet of carbs and protein. I had no kitchen to bake in so we went to the grocery store and looked around. I found zucchini bread which is always a winner. Then my son asked a few questions:
Son: Mom, aren't beans a vegetable?
Mom: (I knew he knew this. There is a deeper question here. Where is he going with this?) Yes...
Son: Doesn't chocolate come from cacao beans?
Mom: (I'm beginning to see the light.) Yes...
Son: So chocolate is a vegetable right?
He convinced me. We bought some chocolate. He wasn't the only one to think of this. We had a great supply of chocolate. Someone also brought lasagne so that helped me get through the night! lol
One of the guys in our class likes to play with his camera. He had us pose for group shots, both serious and goofy. This ended up being a goodbye present for us. We received a nice picture from this night, surrounded by a mat upon which everyone signed good wishes. That is inside a gorgeous walnut frame. On the back is an overexposed version of one of the goofy pictures. It will be a fun memory of the class. There were lots of hugs and tears through the week, and not all from us. We were actually touched by those who got teary eyed saying goodbye to us. Oh, if only we could take them all with us!
Our last week in San Antonio, we stayed at my parents' house. Oh the memories from growing up there. For the first time ever, my mom spoiled us. Virginia is the furthest I'll ever have lived from them. Our last morning there my dad waited on us during breakfast. Their black lab, Missy, moped for a week after we left. Actually, the kids tell me that Grandpa told them over the phone that Missy is still looking for us. Since my parents don't travel much, I told them they should put Missy on a plane to come see us. There are lots of trails around here she'd love to take us for walks on!
Well, after shedding tears we were off. We said goodbye to my alma maters...Trinity University and Texas State University. We said goodbye to our state capitol.
Did you know there is a lake East of Dallas?
By the time we reached Arkansas, we saw snow!
Then we crossed the huge bridge...
across the mighty Mississippi River...
On the other side we found a lot of snow in Tennessee...
We also saw lots of towns and counties with signs referencing Lafayette. The kids had fun picking them out. We weren't quick enough to get pictures of the signs, but we took lots of pictures of the snow. My husband said we were acting like a bunch of Texans who had never seen snow before. Well, we were Texans who hadn't seen this much snow before! The kids and I even had our first snowball fight when we stopped for lunch. These are the snow scenes in Tennessee...
It was odd seeing snow to the right but none to the left.
The next day we drove through this gorgeous, snowy scenery in Virginia! The state slogan is, "Virginia is for Lovers." My husband said it is so cold in Virginia, you'd better be lovers because you'll be snuggling up just to keep warm. Even though he's from upstate New York, Texas has spoiled him.
This is the James River...
In all of the Virginia pictures, the Blue Ridge Mountains are in the distance.
There was even snow waiting for us in Maryland, where we were blessed to stay with some friends for a month. The second night we were there, I think the kids scooped up the last of the snow to build this snowman!
This is my friends' cat, aka Mr. President. He's a hoot! He hung out with us the first night and walked all over my back. Cats give the best back massages! He liked inspecting our printer and doing back flips inside the stool (wish I had video of that)...
He took over my son's bed and fell asleep. I was flabbergasted. I thought that hyper cat never slept! He was so much fun and always brought a smile to our face, especially in the mornings when he'd greet us. We'd greet him back and say, "Good morning, Mr. President." It's impossible to say that with a straight face!
My husband and I celebrated our wedding anniversary while there. My friends took the kids to youth group with them so we could go out to dinner, but we were too depressed about losing a bid on the Gunston Hall Dr. house. I've been a bundle of nerves through this entire process and have hardly been able to eat. I've lost a lot of weight. That night we watched Andy Griffith reruns and kept warm in front of a cozy gas fireplace. The cats joined us. Good old fashioned comedies are good when depressed. We were finally able to laugh when we watched Andy tell Opie the backwoods version of "Romeo and Juliet". It was so cute to watch the expressions on Opie's face as he thoroughly enjoyed that story, and so did we!
The next day was my daughter's birthday. She wanted to spend the day in Colonial Williamsburg. However we had to drive into Virginia to try to beat the competition on a bid (in the end we were beat out again.) Since I didn't have time to do anything for my daughter's birthday, my friend graciously put together a little party for her. (The next day I finally got to take her out for her birthday in Maryland.) They found out my daughter likes strawberries, so they dipped them in chocolate and decorated the cake with them. I thought that was clever!
My husband decided to get a GPS since he couldn't take me into DC all the time when he went to work. (He calls me his personal GPS.) He loves gadgets and now has a new challenge of figuring out the settings. I'm not a gadget person and am perfectly happy with good old fashioned paper maps. The first time we used the GPS we used it on a route we knew to the real estate agent. My husband chose the voice of Lee, and we were on our way...to parts unkown had it been left to Lee. Honest-lee, didn't he know about the highway? Lee, encouraging-lee, kept directing us to the backroads. Normally we enjoy backroads, but I kept telling my husband we didn't want the ones that would take us into Washington DC! We wery told by the agent and my friends to change the setting to highway. I think my husband did that because of our next scenario...
This time we were in two separate cars. My husband took the lead with his GPS, Lee. I followed in the van with our kids. Neither of us knew where we were going. I had written directions. I thought we were driving from Fairfax to SE Maryland. The directions said to take 395 and take King Street, which was on the south side of Washington DC. Easy. My son asked if we could see the Washington DC monuments up close. Oh no, I terrifying-lee said with a shudder. I was exhausted and the last thing I wanted to do was drive into downtown Washington DC.
I followed my husband, got onto I66 East, onto the beltway, then onto 395. I had never been on 395 before. I knew it led into Washington DC, but we'd be getting off long before that. No worries. Suddenly, my husband took an exit to I don't know where. That GPS Lee was absolute-lee crazy! I had to follow him so he wouldn't get lost. As I tried to establish my bearings, I realized the highway I was on was quite unusual to any I've ever driven. ????? There were no exit ramps. We were surrounded on each side by highway. I was so confused. Then I realized we were on an HOV with no exit lanes. Uh oh...there went King St with no way to access it. I called my husband on the cell phone. "Where are we?????" Oh, we were just following Lee. As I read the signs, I realized that Lee was determined-lee taking us into DC.
I told my son he was going to see the monuments after all! Trying to make the best of the situation, I became a tour guide. "We are now crossing the Memorial Bridge, which spans the proud Potomac River. To our left you will now see the beautiful Jefferson Memorial, designed according to our third president's favorite architectural style. Now we are driving under Washington DC through one...two...three tunnels. (The kids were ecstatic!) You kids walked all over DC last August. Do you think you can guess which historical building we will see when we come out of the tunnel?" (Teachers must always work on their student's higher thinking skills by asking prediction and analysis questions. After discussion of their assumptions, I proceeded...) To the left is the beautiful Rock Creek Park. I've always wanted to take you kids here."
Finally we arrived at our destination of Silver Branch, which is north of DC on the beltway. All we had to do was take the beltway from Fairfax to Silver Branch and ta-da, we're there! But oh no, Lee adventurous-lee took us to parts unknown.
The next morning we were driving from Silver Branch to Fredericksburg, Virginia. I had a mapquest done and gave it an A+. It routed us direct-lee onto the beltway to 95 South. Yippee! My husband showed me his GPS Lee's route, daring-lee suggesting we drive by Arlington Cemetary...oh no! I begged my husband, to please take the beltway. Sure, he said he would have Lee obedient-lee follow me. Lee had to confused-lee do a lot of readjusting to follow me, but he managed to arrive in Fredericksburg just fine.
I guess Lee has actual-lee helped my husband find a few places, eventual-lee. But he just plain makes me nuts! We went to Colonial Williamsburg last Sat and my husband was programming Lee. Oh no! Let's not take him! We have gotten to CW lots of times just fine and I want to get there in time to see Thomas Jefferson! So my husband tucked Lee away and the entire drive went well, while we listened to Lee say discouraging-lee with muffled voice..."recalculating."
On that note...the kids and I drove to Leesburg yesterday to see another friend of mine. Ooooo, unchartered territory! I printed out a mapquest and highlighted the route for my son. I had the highways down but needed help on the quick turns on the little streets in my friend's neighborhood. My son could read the street names to me and both kids could be an extra pair of eyes to read the obscure signs. My son promised me that he'd read the directions to me just like Lee, the GPS. Hmmmmm...thanks? Fortunately, it went great on many levels! We didn't get lost once.
We had a great time at my friend's house with her and her kids. One of her daughters asked her mom why my son talked the way he did. Her mom told her it's because he's from Texas and has an accent. An accent???? She smiled and said that we all had a touch of something. We do?????? | 
