James found a vine to swing on at the farm and Marlo wanted to try. :) 

Although we have had snow and a few really cold days, for the most part the weather has been mild and it is so hot inside the buildings, even the church, that you almost have to wear short sleves. The girls just looked so cute all ready for church....Marlo I think had readjusted her hair clips about 4 times before we even walked out the door. 

This was one of the female turkeys, but they had about 6 of them, male and female walking around. I don't think the girls made the connection to Thanksgiving dinner. 

The sheep followed us around for a while after that. 

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went to a colonial farm where they have people dressed up who act in character to tell you about what life was like for them. They have pigs, cows, turkeys, geese, sheep, chickens, fields that they actually plant and maintain and a farm house that has a loft for sleeping and a 14 x 14 living space below. What would that have been like.... make your own soap, grow your own food, make your own yarn, a lot of work. When we got there, the son was helping his dad in the tobacco barn, and the daughters were washing dishes from dinner. 

Dead fish :) 

The adults fortunately did not have to sit on the floor. See the fish tank in the background? One of the fish decided to commit suicide after dinner and Zoe found it a little squished on the floor. 

Thanksgiving was very nice. As you can see (if you look around my belly) there were several little girls there. They had a great time and it was nice for us to have a break while they played. They are eating on a Korean dinner table that our friends brought back with them from their last post. 

This is the bush in front of our apartment door after it had been snowing for about an hour. The snow only lasted about 3-4 hours total, but it was fun. 

The night before Thanksgiving it snowed! The girls played in it for a while at the Corbett's house and we took pictures when we got home after they were fast asleep. 

I passed.

Well, after much ado (my instructor was against my taking the test on Wednesday and the servers were crashing on Friday) I was able to take my Server 2003 test today.

I passed.

After all of the waiting and problems, it just sort of killed any momentum I had. So "I passed" really sums up how I am feeling. I'm glad it is done with. I have other things to pay attention to.

Annoying Phone Menus

Well, you heard it here first. Here is a link to a website that has the options to choose to get around those annoying menus and get you to a real person. Without further ado, here is the link.

http://paulenglish.com/ivr/

This news just in...

Can you believe it?

"James, by now you should have received notification of your enrollment in post specific training.  You will have 4 days of consultations from 2/21-2/24 which is at the D.C. per diem rate.  You will then be at FSI for the 8 week FAST Chinese course from 2/27-4/21.  You have IA 201 from 4/24-4/28 which is in Dunn Loring, VA at the DS training center and then SOS from 5/1-5/2 at FSI.  Your last day of consultations is 5/3 after which you should plan to leave on the next available flight.  I don't believe the class locations for these classes will change but it's always best to doublecheck the FSI website before class starts.  Please let me know if you have any questions."

The end is in site!

If you have ever wondered.

Just in case you were curious about the lives of others out there in the Foreign Service (FS) here is a website that has some other people's blogs sharing pictures (usually the best part) and their stories as they move around the world.

http://www.aafsw.org/overseas/fm_websites.htm

Temperature

Wow. Day before yesterday it was 70 degrees out. Then yesterday's high was 40 (all farenheit). I don't know what today's will be, but it is colder. It is cold. Ok, so it isn't really that cold. 110 to 90 is a 30 degree swing, somehow, it just isn't so shocking as 70 to 40. We are bundling up and I have been wearing my wool. Marlo is only slowly being convinced that people still play outside and do things, they just don't wear skirts or dresses without tights (and that pants hold up better when playing than tights!). I think she'll have this figured out by the time we leave.

 

I forgot to take her picture before she went to school, but this is Zoe on picture day. She let me pull her hair back and everything...a total miracle that she left it in all day. She is striking the pose coached by her older sister. 

The Girl with the Watering Can. 

Ruth, James, Zoe, Marlo, Potomac, Washington Monument-- very cold. 

Hooray for leaves! (The Roosevelt memorial is in the background.) 

The fashion models on the right are a stark contrast to the quote on the left. 

Us in front of the modern art national gallery. 

Ruth, James, Zoe, Marlo...Washington Monument. 

Trip to the National Gallery

Friday was Veterans day so we actually had a day off together. We drove down to the mall with a friend of ours, Ruth, from James' training class, and went to the Roosevelt memorial and the National Gallery. Ruth has this cool book she lent us called "The Girl with the Watering Can" about a painting by the same name that hangs in the NG. The story goes that the girl in the painting is so tired of standing there with a rock in her shoe that she takes her shoes off and then hops out of the painting. The story takes us to several paintings by famous artists that are also in the NG. We read the book before we left for the museum and the girls were so excited to find the paintings the girl in the story had visited. They had to have their picture taken by the painting.
If you get a chance to see the Roosevelt memorial, it is fantastic. http://www.nps.gov/fdrm/  It is all made of stone- reminisent of the dams built in the "new deal" with statues of Roosevelt, waterfalls and fountains, and famous quotes he said etched in the walls.  I didn't realize it when I took it, but the picture I took of the girls is in stark contrast to the quote about war on the wall. It was one of the few cold days we have had this fall, although the weather is supposed to turn cold this weekend, and Marlo....and so also Zoe....insisted on wearing a skirt and not bringing a warmer jacket because it was so warm in the apartment. They look like they are having a good time, but they were chilled for sure.
If you walk under ground from one building to another, you reach the museum of modern art which is artwork in its self....everything is triangular. Even the elevator isn't square.
We went and ate pizza for lunch and then when we got home I took a 3 hour nap. I needed it!
We are still trying to get tickets to go to the top of the Washington monument. Marlo is dying to take the elevator to the top, but so far we are 0 for 4 trying to get tickets. I may go tomorrow since my class gets out early. We'll have to see.

This was my attempt at capturing the beautiful pink sunset.....it didn't really work out. You can see the Shenandoah Valley and the mountains in West Virginia off in the distance. Unfortuantely you can't see all of the colors covering the hill sides. 

Happy Zoe 

While we were on our hike, James, John, and Kate ditched Delilas, me and the little kids for a while and went looking for a vine to swing on. This is James playing George of the Jungle. 

Cool shot of the leaves...looking down the path you can see some of the red maple trees. 

Me, my pregnant belly, Zoe, Austin, Mariah, Marlo, and Kate....in the leaves. 

Fall leaves in the Shenandoahs

This week has been crazy. It was my first week of Chinese and it has been very intense. I with a group of people who all have to learn it for their jobs and so they are considerably more motivated than I am, and because they don't have two kids at home, they have more time to spend on it. I am doing my best to keep up but my pregnancy brain is not always very cooperative. I am still grateful for the chance to learn as much as I can before we go.
Friday night was a blast. I think it was the girls' most favorite thing we have done so far. We went to a free concert at the military base and saw the army band and choral perform a review of kids songs, designed for an audience of kids. They had a video screen with images, and about 10 performers dressed in brightly colored shirts singing to a live band all sorts of songs from shows the kids would recognize or enjoy. They danced and interacted with the audience and I think we could have listened to them sing for hours their voices were so fantastic. They had mats in front for kids to sit on and just really interacted with them well. The girls, especially Marlo, were star struck by the end.
Then Saturday, we went out to the Corbett's in Manassas, did laundry :), checked the brakes on the car, and then took the 45 mile drive to the Shenandoah mountains to see the leaves. (Here is a link to the park http://www.nps.gov/shen/) Everyone says that since we had such a dry September the leaves are not very spectacular this year, but after coming from AZ with no fall, we are loving it. We took the kids on a short hike through the trees and looked at leaves, collected walnuts and played with the milkweed pods. It was just amazing to walk around on a carpet of leaves with so many beautiful colors. I don't think the pictures really do it justice. The rolling hills here covered in a mosaic of leafy tiles breathtaking at times....I think they will all be down by then end of the week. It is so short a window we were so glad to get to go on Sat.
Today we drove back out that direction to visit some friends- Daryl and Arlene Jenkins who knew James and I while we were dating here in D.C.- and Marlo insisted we make a big pile of leaves for her and Zoe to jump in. They went exploring in the "Fairy Garden" and played hide and seek while we visited. Then Daryl got out his telescope and we looked at the craters on the moon, and Mars in all of its red brilliance. So many stars to see that far out of town. You could even see the Milky Way. Marlo was so excited as she just took a trip to the planetarium with her class. Who knows, maybe someday when we look up at the moon we will be looking for the space station and peeking in on the people who live there......
Tomorrow begins another day of Chinese and girls at school...Zoe loves the fact that she is big like Marlo now and gets to go to her own "school". They are both so happy playing with other kids they are disappointed when we pick them up. I can live with that.
Tuesday is the big day of my ultrasound.....hopefully this child will cooperate and reveal its self.
Michelle