Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting John. John is a War World II vet who served in Europe. He was involved in some mighty battles over there including the one at Normandy. John was part of a group  of veterans from Ohio who had come to Washington D.C. to visit the WWII memorial as part of the Honor Flight. The honor flight is a program which brings veterans from previous wars to D.C. so the veterans can visit their memorials. The veterans arrive at the Baltimore-Washington airport then are taken to a bus where they driven to D.C. They spend their day visiting many of the memorials including the Air Force, Navy, and Marine memorials and Arlington National Cemetery. The most moving part of the day to me seems to be when they disembark the aircraft. Unbeknown to the veterans, in the terminal awaits a line of people made up of military personnel in uniform as well as civilians volunteers. These volunteers clap and cheer each veteran as he or she enters the terminal. Most of them never received this type of welcome when they returned from the wars. It’s heart warming to see their reactions. Some cry; some smile, and others are so surprised they are not sure how to react. John, well, he gave the biggest grin I have ever seen.

What a long week. My three nieces ages 11, 10, and 8 came to visit us for spring break. They stayed an entire week with us. We had a blast. I had to work during the week so Andrew kept them busy doing a lot of drawing, coloring, and arts and crafts. On the weekends I took them ice skating, shopping, and sightseeing. We also went to play indoor miniature golf, and we went to watch two movies at the drive-in theater. We saw the last 45-minutes of the Lorax and stayed to watch Hunger Games. I really think they enjoyed the golf and drive-in movie, but their favorite activity was ice skating. They had never been ice skating, and all three were hanging on to the railing for dear life during the first 10 minutes. A little 7-year old girl who was there skating with her sister went over to them and showed my three nieces some basics of how to skate and after a while they got the hang of it. They started to let go and have fun. Oh there were a lot of falls, but they enjoyed themselves. Although I had a good time with them, Andrew and I are still exhausted. We would get home late and wake up early. We also walked a lot especially in Washington D.C. when we went to see the monuments. I think they really liked the Lincoln Memorial. They got to see the Martin Luther King Memorial too; it just opened this year. We were sad when the week ended, and I had to take them back to their mom. My daughter loved being around the girls and misses them as do we, but we hope to see them again for their summer break. This time, however, I’ll be sure to take more time off from work after their visit.

My younger sister came to visit last weekend. On Saturday I picked her up from the airport, and we went to Annapolis, the capital of Maryland. There we walked around the historic part of Annapolis. It rained on us, and we had to go into a drug store to buy a poncho for the baby so she wouldn’t get wet. We grabbed a bite to eat at a local restaurant. Maryland is famous for its crab so we ordered a crab dip for my sister to try. It was delicious. When we were done with dinner we went home because my sister was really tired from her trip. On Sunday we headed out to Washington D.C. to watch a Chinese musical. The show is called Shen Yun, and it comes to town every year. The show tells the story of Chinese history going back thousands of years. The choreography was fantastic, and the costumes were beautiful.  I wished they would have allowed us to take pictures with the cast, but that’s ok. My sister and I still really enjoyed the musical. After the show we stopped by the Cherry Blossom festival. The cherry blossoms bloomed a little early this year due to the warm weather we’ve been having, but we still managed to catch some trees with their flowers on them. We also walked by a flower garden which had very colorful flowers. We took a couple of pictures then we grabbed some hot dogs and headed back home. On Monday we went up to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. We spent most of our day there just walking around browsing the stores. I bought an outfit for the baby and my sister bought a couple of souvenirs to take back to Texas. I invited her to dinner at a sushi restaurant on the harbor. We ate some tako, tempura, soba, and two different types of sushi rolls. The food was good, but I don’t really think my sister liked that they put ikura (roe) atop the sushi rolls. My sister went home on Tuesday but not before we grabbed some lunch at an Afghani kabob place. She didn’t want to eat Afghani food at first. However, once she tried the steak kabobs she really liked it. I was sad to say goodbye but am glad she came to visit.

We are taking advantage of the warm weather to get into summer mode. This past weekend we bought a grill to make bar-b-que in our back yard. It took Andrew about an hour to put the whole thing together. It was funny watching him put it together because he kept losing pieces. Although I know he didn’t think it was too funny, I know he is just as happy as I am to finally have a grill. The last time we had a chance to cook bar-b-que was almost three years ago in Hawaii. Last year we lived in an apartment, and we weren’t allowed to cook outside because we could smoke the neighbors out. Good food here we come.

I am watching a television drama that is very interesting. It’s called a drama because there is a lot of drama in it. In the story a young poor girl is forced to marry a rich guy. The guy’s at first refuses but eventually marries the girl to appease his father. After they become husband and wife, the two fall in love with each other, but the guy’s mother doesn’t like the girl because the girl is poor. The guy also has a female best friend who is in love with him. The best friend goes crazy when she finds out he married the poor girl. She calls it love but I think the friend is just plain crazy. The mother and the best friend of the guy do everything they can to separate him from his wife, whom he loves. The make him believe all kinds of nonsense but in the end love will conquer all. It’s a good love story. I really much enjoy it.

My husband, 7-month old daughter and I went out for a walk the other day around our neighborhood. It was an unusually warm day for this area in January. We were expecting snow and instead we were welcomed by a warm shining sun. The day was still a bit chilly but beautiful. There were other people out walking too. Children were in their yards playing while the squirrels running up and down the trees. It was a nice day over all. My daughter had a fun time watching everything from her stroller.

Almost six months have pass since we brought home our baby girl. I will say these first six months have been much more difficult than either my husband or I expected, but it’s also been very rewarding. I love to see how she develops every passing day. At first all she did was cry and sleep. Suddenly, she is trying to sit and eat and talk to us. She is even developing her own personality. I hear the second half of her first year of life is even more exciting because that’s when she’ll really become her own little person. If the next six months are like the first six months, we are in for some adventure for these new parents.

I had a frightening situation occur this morning. I had just finished feeding my three-month infant daughter and was bringing her down the stairs. I was on the second to last step when suddenly I lost my footing and slipped. Bam! Down I went. My first thought was “Oh my gosh, I’m falling with the baby in my arms” then I thought “Oh my gosh please don’t let her get hurt.” My husband, who was upstairs, heard us. His heart stopped; he thought I had dropped the baby. Luckily I landed on my back so I absorbed all of the impact. She was atop of me the whole time and didn’t even get a scratch. She cried a little bit, but I think it was mostly because she was startled by the movement. It all happened so fast. I stood up with her in my arms and felt the pain jab into my back. It was excruciating for the first few seconds although it seemed like minutes. Once my husband came running down the stairs and grabbed the baby, I was free to roll around on the floor agonizing in pain. I was able to get up after a few minutes. It was painful, but I lived. Even now my lower back still hurts, but I’m glad to report walking is getting easier. My only concern was the baby, and she is doing just fine. The next couple of days will determine how I turn out.

Last Saturday everyone up the East Coast was bracing for Hurricane Irene. People were running out into town to snatch up all the supplies they could carry. The lines at the hardware store snaked around the length of the aisles. Batteries, flashlights, and FM handheld radios seem to be the more popular items. At the grocery store the story was the same. Patrons there were stocking up on ice, bread, and canned goods. The store had all their checkout counters open. It was a weird sight because stores like Wal-Mart tend to have numerous checkout counters, yet for some reason only a handful are ever open. It’s like having the ability to drive 120 mph in your car but never going above 75 mph.

I have to admit we weren’t as prepared for the hurricane as I thought we were. I underestimated the effects the hurricane would have since it was not a dangerous Category 3. I knew there was a possibility the power would go out, but I didn’t anticipate it would be out for days. We lost power on Saturday along with the rest of the area. No lights, no Internet, nothing. The natural light from the sun was available during the day while flashlights and candles were the only options at sunset. At night the area was like a ghost town. No one had electricity.  Only a few businesses had generators; they closed early to save energy. When the sun went down everything was pitch black. Kind of scary to be wandering out in the dark, so we stayed home mostly.

I never realized the impact of electricity on our lives. What I mean to say is how heavily dependent we are on electricity and how lost we are without it.  For example, when our power went out we were okay at first. We had our ipods fully charged. We played with our ipods to entertain ourselves until the battery gave out.  Then my husband and I didn’t know what to do. There was no t.v. to watch. No video games to play. No Internet to surf. We didn’t even have a handheld radio to find out what was going on in the world. We were bored.

The first night we sat around wondering what to do. When it got dark, we went to bed. Then we realized it was a good time to have some quality family time together, so we talked with each other and played with our baby girl. The experience taught me some things about making time for family bonding. Sometimes we get lost in our everyday activity and forget that. In the end we turned a negative situation into a positive one.

Our power went out last Saturday to due Hurricane Irene. We did not have electricity for three days. Next our refrigerator broke, and all of our food spoiled. We had to go shopping again. Then we were told this last Friday that we had to move out of our apartment at the end of next month because of some renovations the owners want to do to the apartment. We have two months to move, but the nice places at decent prices go fast. We wanted to start looking right away. Andrew and I have been driving all around Maryland looking for a new place to live yesterday, and today I think we may have found a place.