Skip to main content

Plans, Interrupted

Our plans for the trip to Washington DC included departing Monday at noon, arriving in DC at dinner, and coming back at noon on Thursday, arriving home by dinner. Everything went pretty much as scheduled. Although we arrived in DC a little after dinnertime on Monday, we made up for it by staying up until midnight, everyone included (even the kiddos). They had a grand old time with their cousins Chandler (almost 6) and Gabrielle (soon to be 4) and Cameron (almost 1). We took the opportunity while there, to celebrate the birthdays of the cousins which will be coming up in March. We also took a few hours to spend downtown seeing the Air & Space museum and the Natural History museum. The highlight was definitely the Metro rides, though.

Caroline had the best situation as she is 8 and loved playing with either Chandler or Gabrielle. At times, Eric felt he was a little mature to play with a 3-year-old female. So Caroline made the best of it and toggled between whichever cousin offered the most entertainment at the moment. Thus, on Wednesday afternoon, Caroline informed me that leaving on Thursday would not accommodate the extensive agenda she and Chandler had prepared for the rest of their visit. She said that their agenda included activities that would last until bedtime on Thursday night, so we would just have to postpone our return home until Friday. Their activity plan, written in scrawled handwriting on notebook paper, looked like this (the notes are mine):

1) Breckfast, 5-10 min.
2) Dresed and more, 20 min - 30 min.
3) Scoters, 30 min. (scooters)
4) Outside, 2 hours
5) Dr., 30 min. (Chandler has an impressive doctor kit)
6) Uno, 20 min. (the cousins' new favorite game)
7) Snack, 5-10 min.
8) TV, 5-10 min.
9) Dr., 3 min. (possibly meaning 30?--3 minutes would be a quick surgery)
10) Uno, 20 min.
11) Snack, 5-10 min.
12) Jale, 1-5 min. (I'm assuming jail)
13) TV, 30 min.
14) Rest, 30 min. (whew, all this playing is exhausting)
15) Dinner, 60 min.
16) Free time, till bed

This girl is really after my heart. We love lists, schedules and agendas. I had to suggest that the activities be condensed into a few shorter hours, because the train was leaving at noon on Thursday, regardless of how much was crossed off the to-do list. We pulled out at 11:45 and stopped at Starbucks for good measure and we were on our way. We pulled in safe & sound Thursday just before dark. Great trip. Great to be back home.

Comments

Rochelle said…
I guess Starbucks was on YOUR list huh? Ha! Glad you're home safe & sound.......
2/24/2006 9:25 PM
Anonymous said…
That is hilarious! I hope you kept that one for her scrapbook or memory book someday - she is too funny. Now all she needs is Blackberry and she's all set for the corporate world.
2/24/2006 9:48 PM
Anonymous said…
I can't believe how little Miss Caroline blows me away! You have trained her well! Reading her list tickled me and she even had time for a 30 min. rest! What a HOOT!
- Debbie Stewart
2/25/2006 1:35 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stickin' It Out

I got married today. Well, not exactly today. It was Friday, June 2. But the year was 1989 - 17 years ago. "Amazing", people say. "Good for you", they comment. "You must have picked the right one", the add. Amazing? Yes. Good for me? I'll admit it. But it has nothing to do with picking the right one, really. It's not because I found the perfect boy, and it's certainly not because he found the perfect girl. It might sound a little unromantic, but there never really is a 'right one' floating around out there waiting in the cosmos for the other 'right one' to crash and connect. There may be 'better ones'; there may be 'more easily compatible' or something or other. But the real story is you start becoming the right one the moment you vow that "you do". When I married, I had been 20 for a whole 33 days, we had just completed a 2-year long-distance realtionship and HE was five years older tha...
19 comments
Read more

Week 3 of half marathon training

This week brought very cold temperatures that caused a challenge for some of my runs. It is almost impossible for me to stay comfortably warm when it gets below 20 degrees. I did my first hill workout, which is meant to strengthen a different set of muscles and increase your speed. I did that on the treadmill on Monday because the weather was dangerously wet and we were in a flood state--I decided not to risk getting drenched by passing cars. The rest of the week had runs ranging between 3 and 5 miles. My week culminated with a 6 mile "long run". I had to put that off on Saturday because the temperature hovered around 14 degrees, and the weatherman promised a balmy 20 degrees on Sunday! I really don't like running on Sunday--it is a full day of church and family dinner and activities and I am usually too pooped out to take a long run. But I planned carefully, took some extra snacks to church to keep fueled up, and headed out the door while my sweet hubby fixed lunch for t...
19 comments
Read more

I Have a Dream....

Dreams come in all forms, from thoughts about how your life will turn out, to wishes about what type of car you'll drive one day to having your perfect house and so on. I would say that typically I'm not much of a dreamer. I tend to be more of a realist, certainly looking forward to things to come, but generally living practically, in the moment. I'm noticing as I grow older though, I do seem to be developing a dream of sorts--one that would become a mission, one that would recognize a passion, one that would establish a sense of purpose. I'm finding that as I live my day to day experiences, although I'm happy and content, I'm also ready to find that sense of purpose in life, the thing that makes me jump out of bed in the morning ready to dig into the job that is custom-designed just for me. I realize that I have a set of strengths, talents, gifts if you will. I'm at the point in my life where my children aren't quite so dependent on my help, my resp...
8 comments
Read more