Hello Luggage!!: July 2010

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Chris on Cannon Duty!

Chris was on cannon duty for this Change of Command ceremony we attended on Friday. He will be helping with the cannons for the next few ceremonies. I got a few pictures from our seats at the back of the group of dignataries and officials. It was a really nice morning and we stayed fairly cool with a breeze - you can see the flags blowing! The Post Commanding General gave a (very LONG) speech and right in the middle, Jillian announced that she was hungry and she wanted to go home!! Er... Yeah. Guess we need to work on that whole - when the General is speaking, keep quiet - thing!! :) The cannon fire was awesome and was the highlight for us. We didn't get any pictures of the actual firing... because Chris hadn't mentioned when that happened in the program... but we'll get him next time!! :)

Oops... how'd that get in there... :)

Standing for the WHOLE ceremony, in the sun, with helmets... Not my idea of fun!!!

Sprinkler Park

I took the kids to a new library on Thursday to pick up some summer reading books and they had a great playground and sprinkler park! The library was beautiful and we arrived just in time for the Pre-school Story Time! Yay for Jilli! They all gathered the usual armfuls of books to take home to read. We put them in the van and headed for some fun at the park. If it had just been a little cooler... We may have been able to last longer outside! It was so hot that it didn't do a thing to get wet- It just made you HOT and wet!! Gotta love the South for that! I think we lasted for about 15 minutes... Maybe we can pick a day that's overcast or breezy next time! Days like that don't come around too often though!! :)

Sunday, July 4, 2010

4th of July!

Don't know why this didn't post.... but here it is now!!!

We headed to Freedom Park to watch the Post fireworks display on Friday night. We met up with some friends from my new Book Club and had a blast! We brough popsicles and popcorn, balls and frisbees and just played, laughed and ate. The fireworks were awesome and it was the most perfect temperature out! I almost needed a jacket!!! SO awesome! Great night!!
We LOVE the USA!! God Bless America!

Jess

Miah- yes, that is an otter pop hanging from his mouth

Jilli and Chris

Fireworks!!

Drunk?

So. BBC paid for us to stay in a Hotel and eat for free wherever we chose. We chose Outback. It was a Friday night and very busy but we found seats inside and were happily waiting. I went to the restroom and when I got back the kids and Chris were all slurping down samples of a delicious peach smoothie. I grabbed one from the waiter too and we all sat and slurped together. Mmmmm! So yummy! So. Chris asked a waitress from the bar if we could get one of those smoothies to drink while we waited? You know the one we just sampled? She said she'd find out what it was and bring us one. Yay! Well. She didn't come back. The owner did. Da Da Da DAAAAA... Turns out that the samples we just gulped down were samples of thier ALCOHOLIC Peach Bellini (called something Australian-ish I can't remember!) Yeah. And she was serving them to my kids!!!!!!! Yeah. So cool!!! NOT! The owner totally apologized, saying she was new and got the alcoholic samples mixed up with the nonalcoholic... blah blah blah. He brought us drinks on the house (non-alcoholic of course!) and a big peach smoothie for the kids (also non-alcoholic!). Yep. So. We all had our first taste of alcohol at Outback on a Friday night in June. Luckily, the samples were tiny. I think Jillian was a little off from it, but she is usually very silly so it was hard to tell! Word to the Wise: Don't accept drink samples from anyone, anywhere.
Looking back, I think we should have been more angry about it... but you have to remember, we all drank the smoothie and alcohol impairs your thinking... :) I can laugh about it now... :)

Do they look drunk to you? :)

Nope. Just normal! :)

A/C Debacle 2010

On June 12, our A/C quit working. From then until the 26th of June, we were without constant A/C. First they said our line was backed up. They cleared it. A/C worked for a day, but by then a heat wave had hit us and the poor unit couldn't catch up. Then, it was the water pump. They took a few days to get a new one - (backorder issues?)- and replaced that. A/C worked for a minute. Then, they said the system just needed flushing, so they hooked up some strange contraption and began flushing our system. And the A/C just NEVER came back. It tried a couple times and I'd have an hour of semi-coolness and then it would just stop. After a week of this, they brought us these great portable A/C units (one for each bedroom and the living room!) They put out cool air, but humid air. Not the most comfortable! And you really couldn't feel anything unless you sat directly in front of them!!! Grrr. I was hot. Chris couldn't fix it. Not good. The last thing we heard from the maintenence guys was that our Geothermal coils were overheated and that the earth around them was overheated and until the Earth cooled... we were not going to have A/C. The end. Blame it on the Army's Go Green Initiative that had purchased these energy saving Geothermal units... blah blah blah.
Week two, the big people on Post got involved more (Chris is the mayor and had let them know about the situation all along...) BBC-the company that runs housing here- had been telling them all was well. Yeah. All was NOT well!!! I need COOLNESS!!! So. On Friday, the 25th of June, there was a huge meeting in my entryway. Three BBC guys. Two Army Housing guys. Chris' supervisor/sergeant. And they hashed it out. BBC told us our options were: Be hot or move. Yep. They rock! NOT! I told the Army Housing people that I was doing NEITHER of those things!!! Army Housing told BBC to get another solution. BBC- crickets. Yeah. So, Army Housing Awesomeness suggested Window A/C Units, got the permissions and we had the units the next morning. BBC even had to pay for a hotel stay for us and food...(Got another post about that!!) It's not central air... but it is soooooo much better and now we can wait it out while the Earth cools. Sometime in September we'll have our Central A/C back...
Yippee!

Portable unit

Portables vented through the window... Not very portable if you ask me!!

New Window units in front bedrooms and living room... Ahhhhhh! Cool air is my favorite!

I asked her once in the middle of all this if she missed the A/C and she said 'no'. Wierdo! Didn't faze her or the other two one bit. They have grown soft here in the hot South. They played outside every day- in the heat and humidity. Crazy kids!! :)