Flashback to July

Amphitheatre
Originally uploaded by jmsmall2005.

I know, you hardly know what to do with the fact that I've posted THREE TIMES in less than a week. It's unbelievable, yes. But Jason finally got copies of the pictures from his trip to Libya this past summer. The highlight of the trip was a visit to Leptis Magna, the ruins of an ancient Roman city on the coast. There are no restrictions or preservation efforts underway by the Libyan government, so he was able to climb among the columns and even test out the amphitheatre himself. The pics are posted on flickr, so feel free to take a look at them.

Addendum to Previous Entry

...or, we could turn this:

...into this:

I promise, it is MUCH prettier. The teal in the small bathroom got a little sickening after a while...and, while we make no claims to be good painters, the old paint job was a bit subpar. Now we just need a couple new white towels, and voila!

In addition to painting the bathroom, we also went to a Wizards game yesterday, which was quite fun. Jason and I went to a Wizards game before we were dating, and we got to see one of the best games Michael Jordon played in his last season with them. That was pretty cool. These days the Wizards are a young and up-and-coming team, and they won, so yay! Jason and I share a love of the "old days" of the NBA, complete with Clyde Drexler and the glory days for the LA Lakers, so going to a basketball game is like reliving something together for the first time.

Suburbia

Okay, first of all, we are currently sitting in our tiny little office upstairs, Fall Out Boy absolutely blaring from Jason's computer (which has a ridiculously amazing sound system), yelling over the music about whether or not the lead singer from Panic! At the Disco is part of Fall Out Boy. I think we're just having a moment of glee about not having to worry about Bobbi next door or Linda upstairs--yes, we've lived in a real house for going on six months, but every once in a while you have to let loose just because you can.

That we are having a conversation (as we click around iTunes) about music we don't usually listen to is a sure sign that we've been in the car listening to the radio today. This morning we had a brunch with some folks from church who live in Herndon, so we decided to head farther west to the outlet mall in Leesburg and make the most of our time in the suburbs. A day in the suburbs usually means a trip to Wal-Mart (where we bought the same fake tree they were selling at the craft store near our house for $19.95 instead of $79.99. Score.) and hopefully includes a meal at Red Robin. Walking into Red Robin is like being suddenly transported to Meridian, and I fully expected to meet my mom and Cole at the table when we sat down--in fact, the similarities are so uncanny that while I was reminiscing about my days as a Red Robin waitress I actually said "living here is a different experience than living there," and by "here" I meant Meridian and by "there" I meant DC. Weird.

Once we got our dose of cheap products and steak fries, we drove back to Arlington with the radio on, discussing whether Alanis Morsette has lost her edge now that she's married and happy and what we were doing the year that Wallflowers song came out. One of my coworkers, who lives on Capitol Hill and walks to work, always talks about those of us who drive to work as if we are raising chickens in our back yards, but she is misled. DC is a weird city. Since it was created by Congress sort of after-the-fact, most of the closest surrounding cities--Alexandria, Arlington, Falls Church--actually existed before the Revolutionary War. Perhaps that means, then, that DC is a suburb of Alexandria, and not the other way around? And Arlington, where we live, used to be part of DC until the city retroceded it back to Virginia in 1846. (Other tidbits from Wikipedia--did you know Arlington was ranked the most educated city (even though it is actually a county) in the country in 2006?) In fact, because District law restricts the height of buildings in DC (they cannot be taller than the US Capitol Dome), there are no skyscrapers in the city--they are all across the Potomac in Arlington.

Today's trip to the land of falling prices and chain restaurants, then, required a good 45 minute drive. I'm slightly conflicted about suburbia. On the one hand, it seems nice to get out of the city, and I do love big parking lots and new houses. But it's always a relief to get back to our tiny little house on the edge of Old DC, complete with fantastic ethnic food and easy access to downtown--only with cheaper gas and groceries stores that are not known as "The Un-Safeway."

Last week my mom cashed in a frequent flier ticket and came to just hang out for a wonderful, laid back weekend during which Jason promised she wouldn't be put to work. We went shopping and ate Chocolate Molten Cake at Chili's--twice. It was simply the best.

In other news...well, there is no other news. When you work for the government, you get used to having three-day weekends now and then, but I have to say, MLK weekend is one of the best--mostly because it always sneaks up on me, coming in the middle of January when I don't yet desperately need a long weekend. It's easy to fill other long weekends with trips and projects and guests, but since I always forget about MLK weekend I never think to plan ahead and instead simply spend the weekend just being. When we wake up tomorrow, it will be snowy and cold, and after church we will light a fire and curl up in blankets and read books. Or turn on the space heater in the basement and finally put away the Christmas decorations. Or make cookies. Or...

Back in the Saddle.

And happy 2008, by the way. We've made it through those awkward days between Christmas and New Year's, when Christmas is over but the tree is still up, and it's not quite time for that "fresh start" that is January. I'm always a little sad those few days, especially the ones following a return from Idaho (the only snow around here is the picture on my computer's background). But then January hits.

When it is here, January is my favorite month of the year. Of course there is March (birthday, what else?) and October (leaves, crispness, pumpkins) and December itself (twinkle lights, carols in church, cozy fires), and through the excitement of the rest of the year I forget about January. But then it arrives, like a calm stillness, like a reprieve, like a calendar of empty spaces, like a pile of well-organized lists sitting next to a stack of rubbermaid containers and my labeler, it is the best thing that ever happened, all over again.

My last list of psuedo-resolutions went half-finished--for example, I am currently about 50 pages into To the Lighthouse, and I'm still pretty afraid of Virginia Woolf. And I think taking step class twice a week is sort of like learning to dance. And, okay, I didn't learn to make croissants. I blame that entirely on spending most of my summer moving. Instead, I made a wicked pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. However, we did go fly fishing--once--and Jason actually got a hand-made fly rod for Christmas, so who knows where that will lead us?

For this year, let's see...
* learn to like mushrooms (a tall order, esp. since neither Jason nor I like them and are therefore completely unmotivated, but we'll give it the ol' college try)
* finish my wedding album (happy third anniversary?)
* join a writing group (and yes, Dawn and I getting together once a month does count, even if we mostly just talk. but seriously, I want to write this year)
* organize the utility room (when I said those words in my head, I heard them in my mother's voice. I have become my mother. Happily, that is not a bad thing.)
* keep a book journal (and keep it for real. it can't be that hard, it's just a matter of, well, finding it)

I still want to make croissants, but since we are joining the fam in Hawaii in six weeks, Jason is threatening for us to go back on the South Beach Diet on February 1, so I am trying my darndest to eat well enough before then to avoid that type of misery for two weeks. Yikes!

Happy Life Together, Kristy and Bill!

NNU Picture...of course!
Originally uploaded by jmsmall2005.

We made it down from the mountain in time to celebrate with Kristy and Bill as they said their vows and shared their cake (er, tower of delicious cupcakes). It was wonderful to share their special day, and it was great to catch up with old friends. Kristy and I went to youth group, high school, and college together, so there was a wide selection of people with whom to visit!

Stockings Hung with Care

Stockings Hung with Care
Originally uploaded by jmsmall2005.

I must admit, it was a bit sad to come back to rain and 50 degree weather after a glorious week in the mountains, buried in three feet in snow. We had a wonderful time in Idaho, celebrating Christmas with the family and the Thompsons. The last time we really celebrated Christmas together (because the Christmas spent in the hospital two years ago was...different...), Adam was the only addition to the family. Now that we are 11 (going on 12...), the pile of presents was a bit ridiculous. I have to say, it takes a much longer time to get to me now when we open presents from youngest to oldest!

Our Christmas was full of old and new traditions. Traditions inherited from our grandparents included reading the Christmas Story from Luke and "The Littlest Angel" (Bunn family traditions) and opening our stockings on Christmas Eve (Johnson family traditions--because Gramps could never wait until Christmas to open gifts). And in the spirit of the traditions we've embraced recently, we feasted on seafood on Christmas Eve and watched the extended versions of the "Lord of the Rings" movies (delaying Casey and Kim's departure on the 26th for a good 25 minutes).

The snow was so deep and plush that we found ourselves standing on the fence and jumping spread-eagle into it. We enjoyed sledding (we did NOT enjoy huffing and puffing back up the mountain) and snowmobiling (we did NOT enjoy crashing the snowmobiles because the snow was too powdery), and especially watching Cole head down the mountain in his little sled!

Cole got a sweet drum set for Christmas, but there is no feeling sorry for his parents--it was from them! We enjoyed reading "Rudolph" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" with him and watching him run around answering the question "What does Santa say?" with the most adorable "ho, ho, ho!" ever heard.

Everyone else had to work on the 27th, so the 26th was full of packing and watching as much of "Return of the King" as we could. It was sad to see everyone go, but Mom, Dad, Jason, and I enjoyed a quiet couple of days before heading down the mountain.