Today I have been on a kick to get rid of some of the clutter that’s been accumulating over the years. I tackled the worst of our junk drawers and was working on decluttering the secretary when I came across some old pictures…some great old pictures! There were too many for me even to scan in right now, but I took a couple of them for now and thought I’d share:

My brothers and me, I was about 16 months old

Dan and I didn’t always fight, just when I started screaming:

<can I just interrupt mysef really quickly to say how appropriate that right now, during the reminiscing, NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK just came on the radio…giiiiiiiirl! you’re my best friend, girl, you’re my love within, I just want you to know, that i will always lo-oo-ooove you, ooh baby! please - don’t go girl - please - don’t go girl”>

My cousin, Michael, and I at 2½ years old. We’re only 12 days apart and I was always so much taller than him until we grew up, and now we’re the same height.

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Isak occasionally asks me to give him a mohawk fauxhawk, but his hair has gotten a little bit long again and is getting difficult to do much with.  So I put in some mousse and inflated his hair.  He was turned around the whole time while I dried it and when he turned around and looked, he let out a huge laugh and said, “I look like Jimmy Neutron!”  I think he looks more like Syndrome/Wonderboy from the Incredibles…

Yesterday was the grand opening of the base swimming pool.  As I’d only gotten about 6 hours of sleep over the previous 2 days, I was beat!  I passed out on a beach chair in my really cute new H&M halter top and leggings with a long squares and circles necklace.  I did flip over at one point so my back is just as bad as my front, pain-wise, but the front takes the cake in the embarrassment factor.  Not only did I get a really bizarre-shaped burn from my shirt, but my necklace is also imprinted across my chest.

So I had to go around all day today getting ready for a barbecue tomorrow while looking like a total freak.

We have a few distinguished visitors here for a few days (my command master chief from our headquarters office as well as the command master chief of the Legalman community and the master chief of manpower in our community).  We took them for a tour of the Osborne bodega (where they make the sherry that this region is famous for) and as part of the tour, our guide had a few of us try our hand at the skill of pouring sherry with a venecia.  I didn’t do very well but I had fun!

The highlight of last month was getting to spend a couple of days with my best friend ever, the one and only Krustina. After oh, about 18 years of friendship, we’re more than just friends; she’s the closest thing I’ll ever have to a sister. We have that comfortable kind of relationship where we can go without meeting for years and the moment we see each other it’s like we’ve only been apart a day.

Kristina flew out to meet me after the business part of my trip back to the U.S.. We didn’t have much time to spend together but we made the most of it.

The night she arrived, we wanted to find somewhere to eat but because neither of us really know all too much about restaurants in DC, we just drove around looking for something. We couldn’t find anywhere to stop and getting hungry and having to use the bathroom, we used the GPS to find some places near where we were driving and finally found somewhere to stop. As we were walking to the restaurant, Kristina put her arm out to stop me and said, “Wait! I think I know that guy!” Now, mind you, this scenario has happened many times over the last 18 years where she’s stopped because she was sure she knew someone, so I just rolled my eyes and reminded her that she can’t possibly know anyone here, she’s never lived here or even spent any time here, and how on earth would she know anyone here. Leave it to Kristina, though - a quizzical turn of the head and the question, “Rob?” and what on earth just happened here, Kristina is hugging some guy on the sidewalk. Turns out it was her ex-brother-in-law who just happened to live around the corner of the restaurant we randomly found on the GPS. INSANITY.

We spent the night at her sister-in-law’s house and left early the next morning to take the Metro downtown for some sightseeing.

Our first stop was Eastern Market where stopped for some lattes and pastries; from there we meandered through the handmade goods and picked up some beautiful photographs from Steven Miller, a fantastic photographer whose works hang in the Smithsonian’s permanent collection. Our next stop was the food hall where we bought some stinky cheeses and fresh fruit, some freshly baked bread and a disappointingly wussy lemonade.

We hopped on the Metro and got off at the Smithsonian and lazed around on the Mall, munching our cheeses, laughing and catching up on the years we’ve lost getting to be goofy together.

Bottom’s up!

It was so nice, and so needed, to spend that time together. Oh, to live closer together.

One of the highlights of the last few weeks was getting to visit home. Originally, my mom had planned on coming to Washington, D.C. to meet me while I was there, so I took some leave to be there a few extra days. Once I got there, though, my dad - in an unusual fit of logic - thought it would be the same amount of money to fly me round-trip TO Milwaukee as it would have been to fly my mom round-trip FROM Milwaukee. Although I originally hesitated because I was sick of being in the cabin of an airplane, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see all my family, even if only for a short while.

My grandfather was going to pick me up from the airport and take me to visit my grandmother who was recently released from an unfortunate hospital stay for a broken hip. While I have a lot of people who are very proud of my military service, I think perhaps none are as proud as my grandparents, and so I thought it would be nice to fly in my uniform. This was the first time I’ve ever traveled in uniform and it felt a bit awkward being the only one in the airport decked out in white from head to toe, and I’m even more certain I was the only person there wearing a square-knotted neckerchief under a neck flap, I was surprisingly less awkward than I thought I’d be - I actually felt quite proud representing the Navy.

And it didn’t hurt that I was whisked through Security, upgraded to First Class and pre-boarded on the plane - I really couldn’t complain about that at all.

The first night I was home, my mom made her famous Super Chicken Casserole and both of my brothers, a sister-in-law, and both nephews all came over for dinner. It was chaotic but wonderful to be back at home where the decibel level in a normal conversation rivals that of a rock concert.

My sister-in-law was thrillllled to have her picture taken with my dad.

My nephews - well, one in particular - was very excited to be let out of the house for once and terrorized all of us. He sure is a cute kid, but I wouldn’t want to run into him in a dark alley.

My lovely mama whose Super Chicken Casserole makes us feel like a family.

The evening was capped off by some down home Wisconsin WWE super slam wrestling. It’s remarkable that the floor didn’t give out under all the ruckus. And, by the way, if anyone ever thinks about criticizing me again for taking too long to write something here, I would kindly direct you to Exhibit 1, noting in the lower left the CHRISTMAS PRESENTS FROM 2007 THAT STILL HAVEN’T BEEN GIVEN OUT. AND THE SNOWFALL CHRISTMAS FRAME WITH THE CHRISTMAS PICTURE OF MY KIDS IN CHRISTMAS OUTFITS.

Unfortunately, my fun fun time at home was dampened by a thrown out back the next morning that had me crying in bed the whole next day. My brother Dan and I had planned on going to the Body World Exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum but my back was doing some super special voodoo magic and causing me to walk (and feel) like I was being shocked by electricity every 10 feet. But that’s OK because those creepy bodies were giving me the heebie jeebies.

I went home and lay down for the rest of the day and that by the next day, I would be feeling better. Dan was taking me to Chicago, which unbelievably after living in Milwaukee for the first 19 years of my life, I never really got the chance to see outside of the visit to the Field Museum of Natural History in middle school. Too bad my back didn’t want to cooperate because I was in a massive amount of pain despite the craniosacral therapy I paid for out of my pocket to try to fix whatever was so messed up. Fortunately, with the help of a lot of painkillers, I was able to hobble down the Magnificent Mile for some just-as-effective retail therapy.

And so I leave with you, my readers, with picture which is a miracle that only my family - and maybe Kristina - can really appreciate.

I knooooooow.

Dad, you can get off my case now.

These last weeks - months, really - have been some very busy months for me. I haven’t been online much lately, and when I am I have not been able to string together thoughts in any coherent sort of manner. I come home from work and most days I fall asleep before the kids, and I still wake up feeling exhausted.

I suppose I should start with the most recent and work my way back in events:

Yesterday was Isak’s first science fair. The kid whose teacher describes him as “brilliant” called up B on Thursday to inform us that Isak hadn’t done anything for his science project. He hadn’t told us there was anything of the sort, cleverly hiding any evidence of this project from his backpack. The night before was a very stressful night that finally ended just shy of midnight and ended up with a pretty cool project but a whole lot of consequences at home - no TV, no computer, no video games, toys, playing with friends. He will be Mozart by the time the school year is done.

And, in case you ever wondered, buy the Lucky Charms instead of the generic brand. They have 8% more marshmallows and taste tests prove they’re better - all for nearly the same price per gram.

{If you click on the picture, you’ll get a full-sized picture where you should be able to read the results of the project}

Since we were at school yesterday for the science fair, we dropped by Anja’s classroom and talked to her teacher about her behavior lately. She’s been disruptive, mean, and annoying lately, both at home and at school. It’s hard for us because she’s a very special child, she has a great love for nature and is an interesting mix of girly-girl and tomboy, and for the most part she is a very sweet, caring little girl who is nice to everyone. However, she also has a short attention span and can’t control herself, she does things without thinking and she doesn’t know when enough is enough. For example: She came to school a couple weeks ago wearing a pretty sundress and dressy shoes with a container full of frogs at various stages of development - some were still tadpoles, some had their tails shortening and some had just completed their development into tiny frogs. Her teacher thanked her for her contribution (they were studying the development/life cycle of frogs at the time) and knowing my daughter, reminded her that they had enough and please not to bring any more frogs.

The next day she showed up clutching a big fat frog that she’d waded into the ditch and scooped into her shoe.

And in truly typical Anja fashion, as her teacher is lecturing her on how she was NOT supposed to have brought any more frogs in, the frog goes and lays a whole mass of eggs. Which effectively completed the entire development/life cycle of frogs. What do you say to a child like this?! She drives you nuts and then does something spectacular that no one else would have done, which leaves you scratching your head as to how to respond except with some soap and water to wash the sticky eggs off her hands and higher blood pressure than you had when you woke up that morning.

Yesterday also saw the end of my control over my destiny for this year: I sent in my package for the Chief’s board which convenes 2 days after my birthday. Thus I begin my (approximate) countdown until results day:

I had some great stuff in my package this year and everyone who knows enough to give an opinion says that with what I’m doing now, there’s nothing more I can do if I don’t make it except to continue doing what I’m doing now. And I’ve heard that after this year, our numbers of promotions are going to go down significantly for a few years. I really hope I make it this year and I am considering surgery to permanently cross my fingers.

I have more to write about, and this time I really will because now that I’ve already started posting, I’ll finish catching up with my writing and will schedule my posts to post throughout the week.