The Washingtonian

This will just be a little short update. I have the feeling that this week I'll be buried under a few hundred boxes and may not be able to post. Closing is supposed to be tomorrow! We went to NY over the weekend to finish things up with the house. It took us 7 hours to get there. Way too long! The girls had a little bit of a hard time seeing the house all packed up, but then they went down the street to see their friends and that was the end of that! We had a great time in NY but had to leave early yesterday to get back in time for Religious Education. It was our first class. The girls recognized some kids from school, so that's always a good feeling. Well, have to go get the kids from school. They are adjusting better and better each day! Thank God for that!

Hello all, hope that everyone is doing well. Seems these days we are dealing with weather issues all around us. Either it's fires, droughts, floods or tornadoes. Not too far from here in Maryland there were some tornadoes that touched down the other night. Our nice cleaning lady told us that piece of info! In Woodstock, Ga. where I used to live there was one probably not even 5 miles from our old house. It did some damage, but no deaths. There are road closures everywhere up here because of the flooding. Dave drove down yesterday to be with us and it took him 3 hours to get to Manhattan and usually takes 1. As for Texas, we have family dealing with smoke and poor air quality. Not to mention the extreme heat this summer. I wish I could share some of this rain with them! I have not seen sunshine since I left NY! The girls are finishing up their first week of school here. It was a tough week and they really deserve a relaxing, fun weekend. We thought DC might be a good idea because

"Mom, are you crying?" "Yes, Maggie" "Do what I do and motivate yourself" "How do you do that?" "You pay attention to other things because crying doesn't change anything" "Ok, I'll try that, thanks" That was as we drove out of our neighborhood in NY yesterday to head to Maryland. The girls made some really good friends there. I did too. Not many, but the ones I did make are special. We just did it 9 months ago so it's like the wound is open again. The drive was uneventful. It took us almost 7 hours. Longer than it should have but we HAD to stop in northern Maryland for Popeye's chicken. The girls love the mashed potatoes there, ok, mom does too. The rain and tolls also slowed us down a bit. The girls were a little wired last night. Maggie slept in the car for probably 3 hours. They have been playing pretty hard all summer, staying up late and getting as much time in with their friends as they could. I