Happy Birthday to me

Well, I have to say it has truly been my birthday now that I received my official Army birthday greeting "card" from Col. Davis, a man I have neither met nor ever heard of, but whom I assume is Joel's boss. I am forced to put quotes around the word card, since it is more of a half sheet of off-white stationary than anything with a picture of a cake or presents on it. To Col. Davis, I respectfully accept your greetings, sir!

Anyway, it was my 29th birthday last week, ho hum. After 21, it's kind of been lame. Even before 21, it was lame, because every year my family would go on vacation the week of my birthday. I guess it was fun to decide where in Ocean City we would eat for my birthday- Tommy's Subs, Dayton's Chicken, or even The Dough Roller, but having a party with your friends is good, too. I'm just saying, there are 51 other weeks in the year to go on vacation, people!

I am starting to think there is a curse on our family where birthdays are concerned. First, Joel misses all of his thanks to the Army, and Aidan's have been weird because we're always moving in the fall. Although I'm sure he enjoys having a party with each set of grandparents, it would be nice to have a kid party with games and stuff. Maybe this year.

Sorry, not my job

"Brizmo"'s comment on the last post about the house being his domain of resonsibility had me thinking of how different things around our house are divided up- like, even if there is a mountain of trash on our porch, I will NOT take it to the recycling center, because that is Joel's job (unless he's out of town, of course). Likewise, I don't think he has bought anyone a present or a card since we got together, because that's my job. He has occasionally come up with an idea, but it's still up to me to shop for it, wrap it, and mail it.

So, here are some of the areas of responsibility for each of us. Although this list doesn't cover every single thing that comes up, these are things that each of us is completely responsible for. There are lots of other things that we both do, like giving Aidan his bath or cleaning up the dishes after dinner.

Joel: computers, cars, trash, fancy cooking, finances, taxes, mopping, driving if we're both in the car, washing the dog, using the video camera, cooking meat, downloading tv shows on the computer, using the drill to hang things on our brick walls.

Jessica: presents, daily cooking, shopping (food and clothing, including Joel's), running errands, laundry, cleaning (except mopping), brushing Aidan's teeth, taking care of Ava (by neccessity), writing thank you notes, making vacation plans, walking Aidan to school, organizing, unpacking when we move (which is a lot!), decorating the house.

I'm wondering if this is a pretty standard male/female split of the duties, or if other people have radically different "jobs" around the house? Leave a comment!

Harry Potter and the Computer on Fire

Well, the good news is that it looks like I have again narrowly escaped divorce. Joel took the news very well. The bad news, though, is that I set the computer on fire. How, you may ask? Well, long story short, I switched the power setting from 115 volts to 220 and burned up the power supply. It made a hissing noise, and then smoke and sparks starting coming out of it. I kind of freaked out, but at least I didn't "pour a bunch of water on it," which is what Joel guessed I might have done. No, I unplugged everything and took it out on the balcony, at which time it seemed to calm down and not escalate into a house fire. Phew!

So, I still have the laptop, until I spill a coke into the keyboard or it gets too wet from the steam when I listen to radio shows online while I take a shower (just kidding, I don't do that... anymore). Joel will be back in a few weeks, and hopefully he can salvage parts of the old one and cobble together a new frankenstein computer, like he does every six months anyway.

On a side note, I took Aidan to see the new Harry Potter on post, and I had to take Ava, too. Some guy sitting behind us in the theatre mentioned LOUDLY a few times something about "finding a babysitter," and I took a huge leap in assuming that he might be talking about me. Excuse me, but isn't Harry Potter for children?!? He's the one that should have stayed at home if he can't stand the sight of babies. It costs $4 for adults/free for kids to see a movie- Dear jerk, I'm sorry if I ruined your movie experience; here's a five, keep the change, baby hater.

I'm getting divorced! Probably!

Well... I had an accident. A really, bad, expensive accident, caused by my own stupidity in not knowing how something around the house, that I use all the time, works. I won't say what happened just yet, since the next of kin (Joel) has not yet been informed.

But, this had me thinking about Lucy Ricardo. I think she is kind of ridiculed as a caricature of the 50's housewife and how subservient they were to their husbands. Yet, when I made this huge mess, my first thought wasn't a feminist "What mad-cap scheme can I come up with to fix this myself? but a sad, pathetic "Oh my god, Joel is going to kill me!"and then I cried for a while. Oh Lucy, help me!

On a funny note, I asked Aidan if he thought Joel would be mad and he said, "Well, daddy will be 'prised about that!" Sweetie.

Come on, it's what we're all thinking!

Thanks, Onion! http://www.theonion.com/content/cartoon/jul-23-2007

Lake Garda

Mid-June, we took a trip to Lake Garda, the closest of the three big lakes here in northern Italy. It was really fun- we saw a castle, ate fresh fruit, had ice cream, saw the ruins of a first-century villa... just your normal, every day resort kind of things. Here are some pictures. We are headed back, but to a different part of the lake, in August. Enjoy!

View of the lake from the area of the ruins:

The castle at Sirmione:

The ruins, surrounded by olive trees:Lemons are grown all over in this area:

Sorry, we're all out of red face paint.

I think this picture speaks for itself:

Sibling Rivalry

My friend Lora has two children, almost the same ages as Aidan and Ava, but she has a toddler girl and a baby boy. She sent me an email recently, saying she thought her daughter was trying to kill the baby and make it look like an accident- "she's the sweetest little assassin you'll ever meet," she wrote.

Aidan has his moments, too- his MO is usually to try to suffocate Ava through hugs, but he has also been known to drop toys on her head and bring her "presents" that pose clear choking hazzards. Here he is, on good behavior, lulling Ava into a false sense of security. So tricky...

Pisa-tastic!

I know it's been a while since I rapped at ya...but on the bright side, I have lots of fun pictures to show you what we've been doing!
First, Joel's parents came to visit and meet Ava for the first time! So, we went to Pisa while they were here. I have to say that the attractions here do not disappoint (ahem, Liberty bell, anyone??? Linda, don't even defend it) and the leaning tower was no exception. It was cooler in person than I imagined, possibly because it was so clear on the day we went and it made for a beautiful contrast between the blue sky and white tower. We didn't climb up- maybe next time. Here is Aidan doing his best to keep the tower from falling:
The Springers mentioned that they had not yet been featured in the blog despite this being their third trip to see us here in Italy, so here is a picture of them to thank them for coming over:

The next day, we had Ava dedicated at church. It's sort of like a baptism; follow this link to read about the difference. Here we are, in church with our Chaplain, with Ava wearing my baptism dress:

Finally, how can July end without a family pool day? Here is a picture of Aidan, who is definitely ready for the water:

First of July cookout

We had a July 1st "Fourth of July" cook out this weekend. The unusual timing is due to the fact that post is having a 2-day carnival on the 3rd and 4th, so we didn't want to compete with that. We had fourteen adults and fifteen kids come over, but since most of the guys are deployed, it was pretty much all moms. Is there an opposite of a sausage fest? Joel did have two guys to hang out with, so it wasn't all bad. Joel's parents are on their way to see us right now, so we'll probably be on post hiatus until they leave, but we'll be back with "actual" July 4th and (hopefully)



Pisa pictures!

At left: Joel's friend Chuck and his daughter; Elenora, our landlady's granddaughter; Joel boozing up the ladies in classy plastic cups.

Happy Father's Day, Joel!!

The Army doesn't like Joel to celebrate his birthday at home- he's been deployed or in the field five out of the last six years on March 21. Unfortunately, Father's Day may also be doomed. First, we went to church, where Joel had to sit through a sermon challenging dads to step up to the plate and lead their families; after church, while Joel had to go into work, I took Aidan to the art center, where they were supposed to have a card-making activity, but it was closed "due to illness;" next, we ran errands on our way to a kid's birthday party (you know that no one would schedule a birthday party on Mother's day!); finally, Joel packed for his trip to Bulgaria the next day. The beef and veggie kabobs I wanted to make for him that night were still marinating in the fridge when he left. Sad!

Since I got a picture with the kids on Mother's Day, we wanted Joel to get one for Father's day. As usual, neither kid wanted to cooperate, but we got a few good ones. Enjoy!