James and I have been kind of toying with the idea of moving sometime next year. I think we both had it lurking in our subconscious and then as soon as one of us brought it out into the open, it’s taken off. Now whenever something about the house irks us, we turn to the other and say, “Let’s make sure we have a decent sized kitchen in our next house!” these occurences are becoming more and more regular.

So with the toying, has been the browsing around at real estate. And almost immediately, I’ve been discouraged by the lack of variety in the architecture in the area. EVERYTHING IS TRADITIONAL/COLONIAL.

OK. Not everything. But 95% of the houses in our area is colonial. Doesn’t ANYONE ELSE in the DC metro area just get sick of seeing the same style house everywhere you look? Whenever I’m browsing through listings, if anything modern pops up (and I think it’s only happened once..) I’m instantly in love. Never mind the fact that it either is a) further away from work than we are currently or b) costs over a million dollars…. I’m in love.

So I spent the last hour and a half coaxing Google with the most romantic moderny real estatey search terms possible and thought I’d share my findings with others who may also be eye-gougingly sick of Colonial real estate.

First off… This is fascinating. Current listings of Frank Lloyd Wright homes on the market. There’s one in Bountiful, UT that I would totally move there for (if someone wouldn’t mind giving me a cool 3.8+ million bucks) and another in Washington state that actually made my heart hurt, it was so beautiful.

Modern Capital is a blog based in the Washington DC metro area for mid-century modern real estate, design and events – he’s listed a few houses that have come on the market recently, and in his side bar he lists communities of modern architecture. OH HALLELUJAH! We’re not totally alone in the sea of Colonials! He started up last October, and I’m looking forward to poking through his archives.

Not necessarily modern, but a real estate blog based in Seattle. I’m a Seattle girl at heart, so I’ve been following along wistfully for half a year, what can I say.

GO MOD is a great jumping off place for several modern real estate sites, as well as bunches of other cool stuff.

I wish I had the time to road trip it down to the Virginia Center for Architecture in Richmond, VA for the exhibit on Contemporary Prefabricated Houses – ooohhhh how delicious it would be to go check that out.

Also, did you know about CB2?? When did this happen? And why only in Chicago, you lucky dogs! (Well, NY will be getting one soon too, I see.) I ran across it a while ago and promptly ordered a catalog. Not that I have any spare money for furniture, but how dare Crate and Barrel go and open a whole new modern thingee and not tell me! FOR SHAME. Go check it out and drool along with me. And if you knew about it.. then shame on you for not telling me.

Are you a real estate junkie? Do you keep your eye on the listings just to peek inside houses for sale even though you’re not necessarily moving in the near future? If so…. I’d love to hear any of your favorite sites or real estate blogs. It’s like heroin. I’m hooked, baby. Design blogs too. Other favorites of mine include design*sponge and Apartment Therapy.

So what are you hooked on? Come on, gimme a hit! Just one hit!

It’s been almost 2 years since I returned to the work force after staying at home with my kids for a few years. When I first went back to work, I took a temporary job in DC covering for a woman about to go out on maternity leave. I got up while it was still dark, put on dress clothes with sneakers, drove to the VRE train and rode for an hour and 15 minutes to L’Enfant Plaza. Then I hopped off, crossed the street and hopped on the metro. Then I hopped off at West Farragut and walked 3 blocks to my office, where I took off my sneakers and put on some heels. Then I did all that in reverse to get home again.

This was actually a step up from what I started – driving up 66 and just metroing up into DC. The train took a little longer, but it was worth it. I got to sit and relax, read a book, work a sudoku puzzle, read the paper.

Still… it was about an hour and forty minutes of commuting. It sucked. Almost 4 hours daily just getting to and from work.

So when I took a permanent position in the Falls Church area (merrifield, really) it was a big improvement.

I seem to recall from last year that the commute was easier in the summer. For some reason, after school gets out the roads clear up. Is it all those teachers who no longer are going to work? Is it because now parents don’t have to get out the door at a certain time to avoid buses, or drop kids off? I don’t know what the reason was, but I do remember it being easier. I keep waiting for it to start getting easier. Shorter. Zippier!

For some reason or another, I’ve begun to think wishfully about staying home with the kids. I don’t know why, but as they get older and “real school” looms on the horizon, I want to be home. Specifically, I want to be home when they get home. I don’t like the fact that they’re in preschool until 5-6ish each day, even though we all love our school. Even though they’re out on a HUGE playground, running around having a ball with their friends. Even though I know they like school, they are happy when they get picked up a little earlier on occasion. On days when they get picked up a little later than usual, and things in the evening are rushed with dinner, cleaning up, laundry, bathtime and bed with little playing time, they complain.

So for whatever reason, when I think about them in elementary school, the thought of extended day just really doesn’t appeal to me. Maybe it’s the fact that I was never in any sort of day care when I was growing up. Do I want to be there when they get home because my own mother was? I don’t know. Ethan is starting kindergarten in the fall. I don’t know about you, but that qualifies as “real school” to me. We are keeping him at his current school, in their private kindergarten, so I am not too anxious about this dream of staying home YET, but I have decided to try to pick them up earlier than we have been doing. I guess the thought is maybe if I can swing it, then maybe later on when they’re in “real school,” I could work it so I’m home from work in time for school ending. I don’t even know when school is out for the day, but regardless, I’ve been trying to get in early to work so I can leave early, and pick up the kids early. So far, “early” has only equaled picking them up at about 5pm. (IE: not very early, but it’s better than nothing.)

I keep waiting for the “easy summer” commute to start. Every monday I wonder if maybe NOW the traffic won’t feel like I’m sitting in a dentist’s chair just WAITING for the drilling to start. But every Monday it sucks ass. I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting up earlier now, but it even seems like it’s worse than before.

Today it took me 1 hour and 20 minutes to get from home to desk. Grrrrr.

So 2 years of doing this commute is making it really really old. It’s making the romantic visions of staying home seem even dreamier, and it’s also making me dream about moving. To a house in a nice neighborhood with a fenced in yard and beautiful mature trees and ample gardening space with friendly neighbors, excellent schools, and is equi-distant between mine and james’ places of work.

Sigh.

I hope the magical easy 15 minute summer commute starts on monday.

And I’d also like a pony.

Jocelyn loves band-aids. I blame the band-aid makers who put strawberry shortcake, hello kitty and characters from the movie “Cars” on them.

I can’t really blame her. I totally buy this brand of feminine hardware because of the pretty poppies on the box. I’m a sucker for poppies.

She knows that she gets one when she gets hurt.

As such, whenever she even bumps into anything, she will tearfully declare, “I need a band-aid!!”

Therefore, we’ve instigated the “bleeding” rule. If it’s not bleeding, you don’t need a band-aid.

When we were camping, there was a lot of running around full tilt with exposed elbows and knees on hard surfaces, like gravel. And red rocks.

LOOK at all that skin! Of course there were going to be some scrapes!

A lot of the time, the kids were also pretty tired and grumpy. This was due to the jet lag (2 hr difference), staying up way later than their usual bedtime (campfires are so cool, and i need to stay up and burn marshmellows i will never eat!), getting up with the sun, and not napping.

So when Jocelyn fell and bruised herself (which happened about 26 BAJILLION TIMES), there were a few times I relaxed the very strict ‘bleeding’ rules about bandaids.

This is the reason she loves the bandaids.

The day before we left, she took a really bad spill and scraped up both legs, both elbows, her forehead, and even got a cut (which bled) on her nose. She felt so banged up that she actually refused to walk the rest of that evening and the next morning. (I was getting worried, but then she started to run around, though somewhat gingerly.)

A record was broken, because those bandaids, she left in place for TWO WHOLE DAYS before pulling them off and sticking them all over her body.

i’m sitting on the couch. It’s Quiet Time. This is what we designate the hours between 1 and 3ish.

Jocelyn is supposed to be “sleeping” in her room.

Ethan is supposed to be playing quietly in the toy room.

Jocelyn left her room long ago and has been playing in the toy room. I don’t really mind. It’s not like she was actually going to sleep, heaven forbid.

They’ve been doing pretty good, but I’m currently hearing some disagreement noises. No one is crying, so I stay put on the couch in the living room.

Soon enough, I hear the door opening, and soft accusatory voices directed at each other as they make their way downstairs.

“I’m telling mommy that you hit me on the leg.”

“Well, I’m telling mommy that you hit me on the head.”

“Well, you hit me on the leg with your leg.”

“You hit me on the head with your hand.”

Soon they arrive in front of me. Jocelyn is all decked out in several of her dress up garbs, complete with wings. No one is particularly upset. Voices are not heightened. They almost don’t even seem upset with each other. It’s like they’re standing before me JUST FOR THE PRINCIPLE OF THE THING. TATTLING IS SOMETHING WHICH MUST BE DONE, NO MATTER HOW MUCH I DON’T CARE THAT YOU HIT ME.

Jocelyn starts. Ethan waits patiently until she’s finished. I hear about the hitting of the leg, WITH THE OTHER LEG, and the hitting of the head WITH THE HAND. As each one finishes, the other starts back in about their body part that has been afflicted. They would probably still be standing in front of me, calmly going back and forth about the head, and the leg, and how each of these important body parts were injured, calming waiting their turn to reiterate, until I interupted. South and North going Zax indeed.

I ask them what happened to cause all the hitting. They look at me blankly. Didn’t I realize that the HITTING just happened out of the blue? Hitting just happens. There is no reason for it, their blank looks seemed to say.

“Was there something that someone wanted and the other one had?”

Finally Ethan comes to life. Eureka! That’s right! THERE WAS A REASON FOR THE HITTING, he seems to think.

“She had my parts.”

“Your lego parts?”

“Yes. My lego parts. I wanted them back.”

“Jocelyn did you have his lego parts?”

“No.” (this, for ONCE is said in a normal, soft tone. Usually when the word “no” comes out of her mouth, it is emphasized as if she is explaining something to the dumbest person on earth, and it sounds like, “noooooooo-wuh!” This “no” consisted, miraculously, of only 1 syllable.

It’s also a miracle that Ethan doesn’t interupt at this point, but he just listened patiently.

“Did you?” I press her.

“Yes. I did. I took his parts.”

“Tell him you’re sorry.”

“I’m sorry I took your parts.”

“and that you hit him on the head.”

“I’m sorry I hit you on the head.”

“Now Ethan, tell her your sorry you hit her.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I hit you. I’m sorry I hit you on the leg with my leg.”

“OK guys, it’s still quiet time. No more hitting, and if someone has something you want, ask nicely. OK?”

“OK!” they holler as they scamper off up the stairs.

Most polite, calm, patient and quiet disagreement ever.

If only they were all like that.

James rented a bike in Moab one day and took the point and shoot camera with him.

This is my brother Joe, doing what I would call, “facing certain death”. Probably what he would call, “a total blast!”

All of the shots James took on the small camera are now on his flickr site.

Another shot, this one of my brother Larry and Joe, taken by Larry:

(look, there’s lonely mountain down there!)

Click any of the photos for a bigger version. It’s worth it.

They call it “Castle Valley” because the round, lone mountain in the middle has rock formations on top that makes it look like a castle on a hill. You’d think that mountain would be named Castle Mountain, but no, it’s named Round Mountain. However, before we knew it’s name, as we were driving and driving and wondering where in the world our campsite was (we still had 40 minutes to go with lots of STEEP windy roads up the mountains), we dubbed it Lonely Mountain, because it was all alone in the middle of the valley.

Lonely Mountain, as one drives through the valley.

Even closer:

The valley wall also held this nifty rock formation:

We finally left the valley floor and began climbing the mountains. We were driving my sisters old Nissan Sentra, and boy, it had to work VERY hard.

Just barely climbing, lonely/round mountain on the left:

And then up a bit more…

And then we were winding around through the mountains so much, there wasn’t really a vantage point for any more photos.

This is up the road even further from our campsite:

You can just barely see lonely mountain peeping up there behind a slope in the middle.

It took a long time to climb the La Sal mountains to get to our campsite. And we drove back down them again every day to go to Arches or go into Moab, so we saw this valley a lot.

And it took my breath away every time.

Click for bigger version.

… for june.

i love this photo of my strawberries, but now every time i load up my site, i get hungry and all salivate-y.

we are home now. it is so nice. 4? 5? I can’t remember really, days of camping in the La Sal mountains about 40 min away from Moab, UT was lovely. Getting back to civilization, in the garb of staying at my folks house in Park City for the remaining 5 days was even more loverly. Plumbing! Running water! A microwave! It’s amazing how the camping in the mountains/desert can give you a greater appreciation of these things. Seeing my entire family was so much fun. All those cousins and watching them play was just the cutest. The scenery was incredible. Arches National Park left us awestruck. There will be lots of (non blurry! non camera phone! yay!) pictures coming.

We flew to Utah with 5 checked bags. We accumulated more stuff out there and came home with 7 checked bags. Only six of them made it on our plane though, and the 7th will be arriving at our doorstep sometime tomorrow morning. I don’t really mind. It took a few hours to unpack and go through five of the six we actually have, and I didn’t have the energy to even open the sixth.

The best part about being home – sleeping in your own bed.

I think the kids would say, playing with your own toys…. and not having to share 🙂

The worst part… thinking about getting back to normal life in the next day or two. Going to work. And also, that spoilt milk in the fridge you didn’t throw out before you left. Yeah, that sucks.

Also.. someone in VA cranked up the heat, and turned the humidifier WAY up in this state. Utah was fairly temperate.. but even when it was hot.. it was a dry heat. Much easier to tolerate.

Ahhh. Bed. I think I’ll go reaquaint myself with you.

We’ve been talking up our trip to utah to the kids more and more as the Big Day approaches. First it was broken up by what event is between it and us.

“First is Daddy’s birthday, and then is Ethan’s birthday, and THEN we go in an airplane to visit grandma and grandpa.”

Since Ethan’s party last week, nothing stands in between us and our trip.

Jocelyn asks, “Are we getting on a plane today?” just about every day. Sometimes every hour.

She also often asks us, “Is it wake up time?” I think she does this because she gets out of bed when it is supposed to be bed time or nap time or quiet time that she wants to check and make sure she’s actually allowed to be running around playing.

She also often will do silly things like hold her shoes over the trash can and say, “In here?” with that look in her eye. “YOU KNOW..” I say to her in a silly voice, and she will reply, “SHOES DON’T GO IN THE TRASH!”

Ethan has a bit better idea on when exactly we’re actually going. We count down the days. Yesterday, he knew it was only 3 days away.

So yesterday morning, I knew they were going to be getting excited, because we were going to buy some luggage and actually get some packing done that day. I decided to guide their obsession in a singular direction instead of letting them careen about willy nilly. I got their attention for a little talk about what to expect on the plane.

“So guys, I know the plane ride is going to be very exciting. First we’ll get on board, and then it will take off and it will be really cool watching out the window and we’ll be able to look down and maybe see clouds..”

“I CAN’T WAIT!” — this is Ethan’s general response to anything plane/trip related.

“… but it is going to be a long plane ride, and even though it’s exciting and this seems very unlikely…. we might even get bored.”

“No, we won’t mommy. Jet-planes are VERY VERY FAST.”

“Yes, they are fast, but we are still very far away from grandma and grandpa’s. It’s going to take a while even for a very fast plane. I think maybe we should think about what we can do while we’re up on the plane so we won’t get bored. Like maybe we should bring some coloring books, or..”

“I KNOW!” Ethan exclaimed, and he was off like a shot. Jocelyn and I looked at each other and followed after, to see him digging through his bin of cars/trucks/things that go.

“Which one are you looking for Ethan?”

He just made a clamping motion with his hand and kept on searching.

I had gotten my point across and James showed up so I headed upstairs to hop in the shower and get dressed for the day.

Imagine my surprise when I got back downstairs to hear Ethan announce, “I’m all packed, Mommy. I’ll just put my backpack by the door.”

He really was. ALL PACKED. I convinced him to show me everything he packed. Here is the inventory:

• toddler leapfrog computer thingee
• book about clampy construction machine
• toy construction machine with clampy thingee that came with book
• helicoptor
• snow speeder
• snow speeder plastic snow bank
• snow speeder luke skywalker
• luke skywalker’s light saber
• several small matchbox-sized cars/trucks

I was impressed. The computer wouldn’t work on a plane though, I searched for headphone jacks, didn’t find any, and then broke the news that it would be rude to use it on a plane, where other people might be trying to read, or even sleep, and wouldn’t want to hear it. Off he scurried, got his leapfrog book thingee (leap pad i think) that did have a headphone jack. He blithely exchanged the one for the other and then zipped up his backpack.

“I’m ready mommy.”

Ready, indeed. Maybe he could do the rest of the packing for James and I.