Wednesday, August 30, 2006

A Lot Going On

Obviously I haven’t been posting as often as I normally do. There’s a couple of good reasons for that. One, I’ve been gone about every three weeks this summer and I’m leaving again in three weeks for the ACFW Conference in Dallas.

Two, we’re moving. We bought a spec house (a house a builder builds without a buyer) last month and should be closing on it just around the time of the conference. It’s about 30 minutes east of where we currently are, out in the boonies a bit (so far out it’s not on Mapquest and Google Earth still shows it as cotton fields), but it’s a good move for us. But it also requires us to get our current house ready to go on the market. And since “Calvin” has gone through a black Sharpie period in his art, I have to do A LOT of painting. Like nearly every wall in the house. Not to mention cleaning baseboards, light fixtures (how do all those bugs get in there?), and switch plates. So, obviously, I’m having a ton of fun. Feel free to come on over and join me.

This last weekend I was back in California for my cousin’s wedding. It was a fun wedding. They got married on the beach at the Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego by a Navy chaplain who had a family friend for years. The reception was in the officers’ club.

The fun thing about being around my family is that I no longer feel like an Amazon. I’m actually one of the shorter people. I’m the oldest grandchild of nine, and one of only two girls. All my cousins and brothers are over six feet tall.

We drove down from Orange County with my parents and grandparents. I joked with my dad that he’d better not wreck because with four generations of Crosswhites (my maiden name) in the car, he’d take out a big chunk of the family tree.

We arrived at Coronado three hours before the wedding and since we couldn’t just wander around the naval base that long, we headed to some of the tourist spots and walked along the beachfront. Which was interesting considering I was dressed up for the wedding, in heels, walking around while most people were in shorts or bathing suits. And, I still managed to get sunburned. Not hard to do. I can burn under a light bulb.

I rarely go any place that I need to dress up enough to wear nylons, but I did wear them to the wedding. While we were standing outside an ice cream shop, my little Calvin squatted down in front of me. Then he starts poking my leg and rubbing it, and then looked up at me and poked my leg again. Then he pulled up his pant legs and looked at his legs. Ah! I finally figured it out. The sun was shining on my nylons, giving my legs a weird iridescent look which he’d never seen before, and he couldn’t figure out what was happening. Since it’s summer and I’m in shorts most of the time, he sees my legs a lot. Just not looking all shiny like that.

Considering my kids spent several hours in a car then had to sit through the ceremony and the dinner after, they were pretty well behaved. But Calvin had had his limit by about nine. He went over to my grandpa and told him, “GGpa (short for great-grandpa), it’s time to go. C’mon.” Then he goes over and grabs my mom’s big tote bag and carries it to her, spilling out half the stuff on the way and shoving it back in. “Grandma, let’s go.”

And we did.

In case you’re interested, the entry Mike and I wrote channeling Kanner Lake reporter Leslie Brymes will be up at Scenes and Beans Friday. And maybe I’ll have something more interesting to talk about later. Or you all could suggest ideas (except for Peter and Mike).

11 comments:

  1. I suggest that Peter come up with a suggestion.

    Sounds like fun in the sun (the wedding part, not the getting the house ready part...that part sounds dreadful).

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  2. I don't envy you preparing for a move; that's a ton of work! You're not really going to be in the cotton fields, are you? I remember when Power Road was out in the cotton fields, and the freeway ended around Val Vista. I hope you're not too far away from all of the amenities (how sp?) of life. Oh well, if you are, at least you get to travel a lot:)

    PS. Exactly how tall are you? Can't tell from your pic.

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  3. Oh yeah, we're in the land of cotton. There's some space cleared out where our development is, and I'm sure the fields will slowly disappear like they have elsewhere as the amenities come to us. We're about 20 minutes from the closest anything, which really isn't too bad.

    And I'm 5'9" (and .4 if you care. I only know because everytime I go to the asthma doctor they measure me to make sure I'm not shrinking.) Which means I'm only .6 of an inch shorter than Peter. But what do expect from a half Japanese?

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  4. Yeah, I know. I left out a word in that last comment. Sigh. I'm going to bed.

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  5. Hey Jen, glad you had a good trip. How do we manage to survive all this pre-conference stuff? Wonder how much paint I'll find in your hair. I'm tall than you, remember? :-p

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  6. Congrats on the house! But sorry about all the painting. You poor thing. Hope it sells quickly and smoothly!
    Camy

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  7. Calvin and the black Sharpie reminds me of getting my mother-in-law's house ready for sale. I thought my kids were on the back porch with chalk while I cleaned inside, but they had markers instead. I never realized how hard it was to get marker out of brick and cement... and leather shoes... and gardening tools.

    Hope your sale goes well for you.

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  8. Oh, I SO wanted to be tall! 5'9" is perfect, AND your husband is taller. I only made it to 5'6".

    I guess 20 mins isn't so bad. At least you'll have some peace and quiet.

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  9. Dineen, you'll be the only one who'll know if I have paint in my hair, LOL. Shh, don't tell!

    And I can't even imagine getting marker out of brick!

    An update on the house: we're supposed to close on the 15th, the day before Malia flies in and 5 days before I leave for the conference. Yikes! So, Malia, your back up to moving stuff yet? :) Nice hostess, huh?

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  10. Y'all are probably wondering, where is Jennifer's hubby in getting the house ready to sell? I would like to say that I've been working on my golf game, but, unfortunately, I've been going to real estate school for the past 3 weeks, and now I have to study for school exam, and then state exam. Yikes. Its been 11 years since college, and getting back in the saddle has been a lot harder than I thought it would be.

    But, trust me, I will "assist" my wifey in getting our house ready. Someday...

    As far as height jokes go, I believe it is racist for Jen to assume that, because I'm half Japanese, well, I'm short. But I "tower" over her full white-trash genes by a whopping inch (that's if my wife doesn't have heels on). Hey, remember Pearl Harbor?

    On a side note, Jen's grandpa and I didn't start out on the right foot, considering he was a WWII vet, and I'm half Jap. He quickly got over it, because I beat him over the head with my unique and witty Japanese/Hungarian personality!

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  11. Peter you're half Japanese, get over the height insecurities. I tell my friends that every day. Besides, if you weren't Hungarian you'd probably be at least three or four inches shorter. The average Japanese male is 5' 5 1/2" so be glad you got the haole genes too.

    And yes, I know how wierd it is coming from the haole girl herself. But hey, I'm surrounded by short Asians every day with the exception of my 6'2" baby sis. It'll be wierd to actually be normal height for a week and not tower over people!

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