Finally

When you think of us tomorrow, imagine us surrounded by palm trees and white sand, swimsuits securely fastened and books in hand. Imagine that you can hear the almost-audible groan of relief and relaxation emitting from us as we lay down in loungers, sipping fruity drinks.

And don't hate us, please.

Jamaica may be a bit warm this time of year, but it will be positively pleasant compared to the record-breaking temperatures expected in Washington this week (ew, ew, EW!). I'm so giddy that a coworker just told me that I'm only allowed to talk about our upcoming trip to Jamaica three more times today. In other news, while the weather is the worst part of a DC August, the best part has just begun--congressional summer work period, more commonly known as August recess, is (finally) here. And, yes, August recess is better than elementary school recess. It is what makes the fact that I was at work until 9:30 on Friday night worth it. It is why we work for Congress. It is, in essence, what we live for.

Okay, perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point. Hooray for August.

Ah, Virginia.

We got our 6th wedding invite of the summer today. I suppose that if a person has 50 or so cousins (as I do), one should simply expect that sooner or later they will all decide to get married at the same time. Also, the Honorable C.L. "Butch" Otter has graciously invited us to his nuptial event. It speaks highly of Jenny (?) that we are choosing her wedding (same day) over the wedding of the (fingers crossed) future governor of Idaho.

(Of course, it was no contest.)

In other news, we are at home. It is lovely, absolutely astoundingly lovely, to simply be here. Next week will be my first full work week in over a month. Today we slept in, cleaned house, organized things (mmm...) and sat by the pool. You will see here a picture of our growing balcony--the prettiest one in our building, if I do say. (Jason is currently laughing at me for putting these pictures on here.) I tried to coax our plants back to life--it seems I finally get them to recover and then we go away again! If only the 8 tomatoes growing on our plant would just get ripe over the next 7 days so that we can eat them and let the plant go! One is reddening, so there may be hope... As you look at this picture, please disregard the dried, dying leaves (boo).

This evening we ate Lebanese. We sat down at our tiny table and stared at each other for a few moments, and I commented about how little we had to say to each other. Then the food started coming and we remembered why we are such poor conversationalists--the only words that we had room for were "oh man, this is so good" and "mmmmm uh wahn mawh" and "don't eat all the hommos special." If you are in the neighborhood this summer, come over to swim in the pool and eat mezza dishes with us. But call first, because we still have two more trips to make before Labor Day...

Wed by the Lake

Dawn and Brian
Originally uploaded by jmsmall2005.

In our quest to spend more time in Idaho than in Washington, DC this summer (not a bad idea, as today in DC the humidity is making it feel like 108 degrees outside), we spent a beautiful weekend in Coeur d'Alene helping Dawn and Brian celebrate their marriage. Dawn and I shared a lovely two years in our tree-house home until we both left to live with boys--she moved to Reston with her brother and I changed my name and moved in with Jason.

The wedding was perhaps the prettiest one I've ever been to. It was outside overlooking the lake, so the setting was perfect, and the ceremony was touching and beautiful too. I got to read Shakespeare's 116th sonnet (as Dawn did at our wedding).

Jason and I also had a great time hanging out in Coeur d'Alene and Spokane, WA. We actually stayed in Spokane, and as an Idahoan I am quite of the opinion that the scenery automatically gets gorgeous when you cross the state line out of Spokane and into North Idaho. But I was pleasantly suprised with Spokane and its Riverfront Park, and we got some good "vacation" time in on this trip. Plus, we got to see "Superman" at the IMAX theatre, which (as I'm a huge fan) was pretty much the coolest non-wedding highlight of the trip...

"Our Little Brother is Married!"

Kim and Casey
Originally uploaded by jmsmall2005.

There were three of us who kept saying that incredulously over the past weekend. During the ceremony Casey and Kim gave their mothers roses, and Shaanti whispered to me, "Why don't they give us roses, we're giving him away too!" We laughed, but we both felt it--there is something quite different about marrying off your little brother than even watching your sister get married!

Pictures can be found by clicking on this one here, and you will see that it was an absolutely beautiful wedding. The backyard at the Johnson house was again transformed into a fairyland. My favorite part of the wedding was the slideshow, with pictures of Casey dressed up as every imaginable super hero. People lightly chuckled at the picture of him as Superman, but as we went through Batman, Robin, the Green Lantern, Flash, and finally the Penguin the laughter got louder and harder. We all remember the boy who would only wear clothes with a cape.

Best of all, Kim is now officially the sister-in-law. I always felt a bit sorry for the girl Casey married, knowing that his three older sisters would be quite overprotective and hard to win over. But then I met Kim, and I instantly loved her. They headed off to Mexico to recuperate. In the meantime, Jason and I are trying to fit two weeks of work and sleep into three days before heading out again on Friday to quote sonnets at Dawn's wedding. And here I thought everyone was already married!

Bye Bye.