Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Back to work!


For any blog readers that may have missed it, Tuesday was born on Sept 14 and I’ve been home on maternity leave ever since.  We call him N. 

Only one week left and I go back to work.  I’ll go back after ten of my twelve weeks of FMLA time.  The last two will be part-time to ease back into it, but I don’t know if that will make it much easier.  I sure will miss the little guy!  Hopefully he’ll miss me too!  S is getting primed and ready to takeover the full share of daily parenting duties.  I don’t envy him, but I’m sure he’ll do a great job.  I’d be extremely nervous!  N’s smiles and “oh”s and “gu”s make everything worthwhile, he is such a cutie!

Today S and I (with N) went to a local stay-at-home dads group to meet the crowd.  The invite was for wives too since the holiday meant we might be home.  However, I was the only wife there.  I guess if the wife took the day off, they were probably heading out of town already.  I think he’ll go back, it is a good way for S and N to meet new friends. :-)  There are quite a few Foreign Service dads in the group already.  The nature of the lifestyle creates a lot of stay-at-home parents. 

This parenting thing is harder than it looks.  N is a smart little guy, he naps like a champ, but once you turn the lights out and it is time for bed, he wails because he wants to stay up with the action.  Even when S and I go to bed with him, he usually wants to stay up without us.  Silly guy!

I’ve started keeping a record of how I think of N each month on his birthday.  I only started on month 2, but it is a start.  When I was back home visiting my parents, my mom had done the same for me and it was fun to read.  Except during my terrible twos where each entry started with “pesky” or some derivative of it. Apparently I was bossy and wouldn’t leave people alone, following them around to get them to play with me and do what I want.  I’ve changed for the better, wouldn’t you say? 

I guess I should start following up on my portfolio so I have an idea of what is going on in the region.  Had I been clever, I might have followed it this whole time.  Reading news about the Middle East might be a good way to spend maternity leave between naps... There certainly has been a lot going on in the region in the last few weeks!

Time to go relieve S in putting N to bed!

Monday, September 3, 2012

Attempt at Maternity Pictures


S and I ventured into Alexandria today to find a park. We ended up at Jones Point Park, an old park that covers Maryland, Virginia and District of Columbia land. Although I was having trouble smiling (maybe because I'm so pregnant...), there are some decent shots that we'd like to share.
This was our first attempt to use the timer. I sat on S, which explains his face and my surprised/scared face. And a better one next to it. 
Here is the requisite picture with hands on the belly. At least in this one you can't see my poor attempts at smiling. Who knew I could be so bad at it? The one next to it is S hovering over one of the original markers separating DC, MD and VA in the park. You can see the gold lines pointing in each direction away from buried rock marker. 
One successful smile!! :-) 

A look at the historic lighthouse.

S will teach little Tuesday some strong playground skills!  

Maybe it runs in both our genes. Here are my favorites from the afternoon!




Saturday, September 1, 2012

Short Update


September 1st, means only 2 weeks until our official due date. We are technically full-term and getting more nervous and excited to meet little Tuesday. Although there is a little bit of shopping left to do, I feel like we have everything we NEED in case Tuesday makes his/her appearance early. Now we are trying to get some meals cooked and frozen so those first few days aren’t made more overwhelming trying to figure out how to feed a baby and ourselves. :-)

Nothing new to report on the job front, still learning about the Gulf Region. My coworker is in Bahrain for a month, so I’m handling the whole region until I go out on maternity leave.

We’ll try to get some pictures of little Tuesday up once he/she is born. My helpful sister can get us looking cute enough for posting on our blog. There are so many little outfits to choose from! 

Sunday, July 29, 2012

New job and new apartment (still waiting on the new addition to our family)


You know you are a bad blogger if you start multiple posts with an apology for the length of time that has elapsed since the last entry.

For those of you who don’t know, I have finished my initial 6-week training/orientation and received my first assignment: Washington, D.C. Slightly anti-climatic after spending months dreaming of all the exotic, dangerous, tropical, humid or polluted places we could end up in. After a weekend of stress and a few tears (we only had 3 weeks to find a new place to live), I started to feel nervous about what the job would actually entail and if I’d even be able to do it. The job blurb (only 5 sentences long) said that I would be a desk officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor working on Libya. Phew, I didn’t know anything about human rights, especially in Northern Africa. Now I wondered if the organization would be upset to have me assigned to them. (Organizations and embassies have NO say in who get assigned to their vacancies.)

So, fast-forward to today. I have finished 4 weeks of my new position. Although it said Libya, prior to my arrival they decided that I would be handling Iran. After my first day, it changed to Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. I enjoy learning about this area of the world and like the job more generally. I still feel at a disadvantage to the others in our office who have lengthy backgrounds in the topic, region or both. (My twitter feed has a lot of Arabic posts that could be helpful if I understood.)

We moved into a cute little apartment in Old Town Alexandria, VA. We really like it and think the space will work out well. It is 1-bedroom and a den. Tuesday shouldn’t need more than a den size room in the next 1.5 to 2 years. The movers delivered our stuff on Friday, July 20th and we’ve been slowly moving in since. We were worried we weren’t going to have anywhere to sleep the first weekend because they were so late. (To preface, our building has a $200 move-in fee and a 5 pm deadline where they lock the loading dock or a forfeiture of an additional $200 deposit and $100 per hour late fee.) They told us 2 pm, which was perfect because we were planning to help the previous tenant (a colleague) move out that morning. They finished and pulled away around 11 am. At 1:30, I received a phone call from the dispatcher saying the truck’s ETA was now 4:25. (How are they going to get done by 5!?! We aren’t going to pay the late fee or for an additional day if they don’t make it.) She assured me it would be done and they would pay any fees.

A few more tense phone calls and discussions with the apartment manager later, they pulled up at 4:50pm. (10 minutes!?!?) The apt manager said that if I hadn’t been pregnant he would have locked up at 4:30 and gone home for the weekend. By 5:05 they had everything in the building and by 5:15 they had everything in the apartment. I couldn’t believe the speed!! The company proactively sent a manager to pay the late fee and everyone went home happy AND I GOT TO SLEEP IN MY TEMPURPEDIC MATTRESS! :-D

Lastly, for the curious, Tuesday is still doing well. We are 33 weeks along, have installed the car seat and washed a thousand loads of baby clothes. (Well, the best husband ever washed all those loads!) Some say I look small and others think I look huge. On our way to birthing class the other day, someone asked if we were on the way to the hospital to give birth. I can only hope that I’m that cheerful and calm in labor. Just relax....

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Sculpted Rocks

By S Streett

PENNSYLVANIA-Black skies and tornado warnings greeted the Streett family on this seminal visit to Penn State. We inaugurated the newest and pending members of the family to a few traditions and noted where Captain Mason, Joe Paterno and S lived. Increased kicking from Tuesday indicated partiality to this esteemed university or his/her cheering for unlimited sides at The Tavern.

To summarize the rest of the road trip: Cracker Barrel Restaurants and these photos


S finally got to see Devils Tower and once in VA we watched 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'.
After the Devil's Tower detour we still made it to Mt. Rushmore before dark. The timing turned out to be perfect they stopped charging for admission, we had enough day light to tour the grounds and didn't have to wait long to watch the nightly illumination. 

A morning visit to check out the progress on the Crazy Horse Memorial. Still a long way to go but the size and significance kind of dwarf Mt. Rushmore. I never understood why four random Presidents got carved into a remote mountain range.


The Badlands sculpted by water more recently than I realized. Although I wanted dinosaur fossils (incorrect), the extinct mammals and a quick visit to the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site made this side trip educational.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

In VA


I apologize for the delay, it has been a crazy two weeks! S is in charge of the post about the rest of our road trip so I’ll just cover what’s happened since our east coast arrival. (The other post may never come...)

With a slight detour through State College, PA (Penn State...), we made it to S’s family 3 nights before we were allowed to move into our “corporate housing.” We got to see a baseball and softball game for one nephew and niece. It was some nice down time before jumping into the Foreign Service orientation. On the Saturday we moved in after weaving our way to Arlington. (Is it just me or do the highways, streets, roads around DC not make any sense at all?) We went east and then west to loop all the way back around. We made it, but it feels like there should have been a more direct route. I’m thinking I-5 running straight N-S in Washington and Oregon.

Our furnished apartment is on the 18th floor, looking across the street into presumably someone else’s 18th floor apartment. I can’t complain about the accommodations. Not too much storage space, but a lot of space in general. We have the baby stuff piled in boxes in the corner waiting for Tuesday to make his/her appearance.

Speaking of Tuesday, I thought I was doing well getting my ducks in a row for giving birth in VA. Our first appointment at the birth center told us we needed to get moving on a few critical steps. Last night I found a birthing class, and now I just need to find a birthing assistant/doula.  (We are definitely late on that front.) I incorrectly assumed that when you want to give birth with midwives, the birthing assistant would be part of the package. Tuesday is kicking away and S can’t keep his hands off the belly. He swears Tuesday plays with him. He even tries to wake the baby up in my belly if it isn’t moving. (Oh, and she implied I’m a little behind on the gaining weight front. S has taken on the task of fattening me up and ensuring I eat 60-80 g of protein each day.)

Back to non-Tuesday related information. I started orientation two weeks ago and have enjoyed most of the sessions. VERY briefly, orientation is introducing us to the Foreign Service profession, writing, protocol, etc. We also learn things like filling out travel vouchers. It gets a little difficult to sit in the chairs for extended periods of time, especially when there are so many people in the room so you don’t have any space to spread out. 

S and I have been going to a TON of happy hours, meet-n-greets and dinners with the various members of our class. There are enough people planning activities that we could probably go each day if we wanted, but I think we are both fairly burned out already. We may get some Chinese food with a couple people living in Ballston with us tonight though. We don’t want be hermits ALL weekend.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Road Trip



Day 5: Keystone, South Dakota. We spent night 4 about 2 miles from Mount Rushmore. We drove up to the monument about 8 pm. After wandering the presidential trail, we waited and watched the slow illumination of the carvings as the sun set in the background. It was gorgeous! Today we are heading to Crazy Horse and through the Badlands, hoping to make it to Sioux Falls. I am excited for Wisconsin because it will be our first Cracker Barrel, Texas Roadhouse AND Trader Joe’s. It is about time for a Trader Joe’s because I’m running low on cereal. I’m sure we passed a TJs during the first leg of our trip, but I didn’t need one then. Here is a quick rundown of our trip so far:

Day 1: Left Vancouver, WA at 8:15 am. We skipped the life-size replica of Stonehenge so we weren’t too late for lunch with our friends in Walla Walla. I drove S through my old college town/campus and then we had a great lunch of shabu shabu with friends before heading East. We took Highway 12 all the way to Missoula, MT. It was a really long day of driving, but it was absolutely spectacular! It was the Nez Perce, Clearwater and Lolo National Forests. The tiny twisty road wove its way through Idaho. The best thing about this leg was the availability of pullouts with outhouses along the way. We got into Missoula pretty late and caught dinner in the hotel 10 minutes before closing.

Eastern Washington Windmills
National Forest
Murdered bugs of Idaho (sounded like rain on the windshield)

Day 2: Left Missoula, MT. Heading south, we made it to Yellowstone around 3 pm. This time of year they had plenty of rooms available and we had our pick of rooms. We chose a 2-queen cabin with a private bathroom. (Yes, you still have to make that decision here.) Yellowstone was the part of the trip I was most looking forward to. After unloading, we went to Mammoth Hot Springs and the Lamar Valley for wildlife viewing. We saw elk, bears, bison (LOTS of bison), moose and many others. S and I saw a half-tan half-black colored bear and S decided that it was a grizzly, but I showed its picture to a bear aficionado who dubbed it a “cinnamon bear,” much to S’s chagrin. So as it stands, we did not see any grizzly bears, despite the warning signs everywhere.

E posing while overlooking Mammoth Hot Springs

S in front of an orange hot spring


Why did the bison cross the street?

Day 3: Left Mammoth Hot Springs, WY. Continuing south, we stopped at many of the sights on our way to Old Faithful. Unfortunately, Old Faithful was pretty anti-climatic. They said 1:31 pm +/- 10 minutes. I was out there by 1:21. There were a few puny squirts and at about 1:53 it finally had its “big” blast, which wasn’t that big. S tells me that in its old age it is becoming less predictable and has less water because the water table is lower. Some of the roads we were driving on had just opened for the season the same day, but we didn’t face any problems. I think we had the best two days of weather and sightseeing possible in Yellowstone. There were very few people there and we could stop in the road to take pictures and we weren’t blocking someone from passing. We could do whatever we wanted, when we wanted. S remembers visiting with his family and having to sit in traffic to traverse the park. The biggest worry for early-May visits is the weather. We had two bright sunny days in the 50s and 60s. Perfect for the high-altitude sun!

We left the park and spent the night in Cody, WY. In a town of ~9,000, the two best restaurants had 1-2 hour-long waits because we didn’t have a reservation. We ended up eating at the hotel restaurant, which was fine.

E mid-sneeze in front of a Geyser Basin

S in front of his favorite mud pots (boiling mud, bubbling up)

Day 4: Left Cody, WY. Besides a 9,033 ft pass and a drive-by of Devil’s Tower, this was a dull driving day to get us closer to Mount Rushmore. Many hotels in the Black Hills have yet to open for the season, but we found a hotel that charges LESS than the government per diem rate. I didn’t know that was even possible! Granted it was only $0.50 less, but that was the rate without having to show any travel orders. (Pictures posted later, they are still on the camera.)

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Last Day of Vacation!


Tomorrow we began our drive to Washington DC. Our tentative plan takes us through Walla Walla, Yellowstone, South Dakota and stopping in PA to stay with S’s family before our final leg into DC. Although I’m looking forward to the scenery for most of the trip, I’m worried about the highways once we get past Chicago. Tolls and traffic aren’t very much fun.

It has been a great 10 days with my parents and it will be sad to say goodbye, even though I know they plan to visit while we are in DC. Also, not knowing when we’ll be back in the Pacific Northwest makes it harder to leave. Besides studying abroad, I have been in the Pac NW since middle school. I know I’ll miss the weather...I am not excited about being 7, 8 and 9 months pregnant during the hot and humid DC summer. People try to console me with “everywhere has air conditioning,” but you can’t avoid the outdoors. Hopefully I’ll get used to it!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Pack-out complete! On vacation!

We made it to Vancouver, WA! The movers came at 9:30 am on Friday and left around 3:00 pm. We started with two and ended up with 4 guys by about 12 or 1. I’m not sure they needed the extra help, but the two extra packers moved faster than one of the two original ones. We had bought donuts and coffee for the team, but no one drank any of the coffee and only two had donuts. They did finish off our orange juice and beef jerky though...

I ran into work for ~1 hour on Friday afternoon to turn in my badge and parking sticker. After goodbyes I came home to an empty apartment. Well, empty except for the piles of stuff left in our bedroom that were supposed to fit into one car. It is a good thing that we had two cars for our first leg to Vancouver, it allowed us to randomly throw stuff into both cars and gives us an extra 10 days to sort what we actually want and can fit in the one car we are driving to DC.

After an uncomfortable night on my sister’s self-deflating air mattress, we spent Saturday frantically cleaning the apartment and stuffing the cars. Late on Saturday we landed and slept for a long time! An air mattress one night and then a few on a 20+-year-old mattress really makes you miss the Tempurpedic you’ve been sleeping on for years.

As of day 3 in Vancouver, we haven’t gone through anything of our extra stuff and haven’t even finished unloading the second car. We’ll see how rushed we are this time next week. We begin our drive to DC on May 9th, I’m still holding out hope that Yellowstone will be clear enough to make it worth a 2-night stay. I’ve always wanted to see the park, but early May isn’t ideal. (At least there will be a lot fewer tourists if the snow is still a few feet deep.)

After Yellowstone, (if we make it there), we have two options. 1) Head over to South Dakota and then east. 2) Head down to Denver, CO and then east. We have a few friends in Denver, but I’d much rather visit Badlands and Mt. Rushmore in SD. We’ll see where we end up, I’ve got a spreadsheet full of various routes and options. Hopefully S will approve one of them before we pull out of town next week.

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On the other front, we’ve nicknamed Baby Streett “Tuesday” just so we have something to call him/her. Tuesday is nice and active, wiggling and kicking. Although, Tuesday does like to sleep when someone other than mommy is paying attention. I have to go and get a pertussis (whooping cough) vaccination because of the outbreak. Hopefully Tuesday won’t mind. We’ve reached the halfway point and with him/her kicking away, there is no doubt that this thing is real and coming quickly. O_O Wish us luck!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Stuck in the "List" Phase

The March Foreign Service class (the one immediately preceding mine), just got their onward assignments last Friday. The two people I know in the class are going to Togo and India. This means that we are next! In 1 month and 4 days, I will begin my first day of orientation. Almost exactly a month after that, we will learn where we are going next.
I have been inventorying our household goods (HHE) trying to get a fairly complete list of all the things we will store. This will help with any insurance claims and also because it could be over a year until we see the stuff again. It’ll be nice to know what is in there. My dad tells me it’ll feel like Christmas when we finally open the boxes again!
I can already feel the toll both moving and the baby are having on my nerves. (In case you don’t know me that well, I tend to be a worrier. I worry when I should be sleeping.) Last night, the baby was moving away around 9:30 pm, prime falling asleep time. I was so excited because I could feel it from the outside and stayed awake so that S could feel it too. (I have the unfair advantage of feeling it move inside me.) Lo and behold, it went back to sleep before S’s hand made it to my belly. But for far too long after that, I stayed awake waiting for it to wake back up so S could feel it too.
To end this post, I will note that being a list maker has helped for both of these transitions. My life has been taken over by various types of lists, “to do,” “registries,” “inventories,” etc.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

S and I have had over a month to procrastinate our moving and packing. The nice thing about our move is that the State Department sends a moving crew to pack and load all everything. The trouble with that system is that you cannot pack anything and must leave it in piles until the movers pack it for you. We currently have a large pile of stuff in our living room that we will not see again until we get to our first overseas location. Our poor baby shower attendees will have to endure the mess and may even need to bring their own chairs…
S and I have to sort all our belongings into five categories: 1) Stuff that will travel to DC with us in the car; 2) Stuff that will fly to DC and arrive 2-3 weeks after our arrival (450 lbs max!); 3) Stuff that we want overseas with us, but won’t see until we arrive at our overseas location; 4) Stuff we want to store until we are posted to DC or leave the Foreign Service; and 5) Everything else (Goodwill, garage sale, Craigslist, etc.). Some of our family members are better at sorting than others, but I won’t mention any names.

I can’t believe we have less than three weeks in Seattle left. The last few weeks have been filled with goodbyes already, good thing we started our goodbye dinners already!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Welcome to the World Streett Journal!
This blog will be a chronicle of the Streett's journey in the Foreign Service. E first began her march to enter the Foreign Service in 2006, a failed, handwritten FSOT (Foreign Service Officer's Test) attempt. After a three year hiatus, E attempted the new computerized FSOT in October 2009. Passing both the FSOT and QEP (Qualification Evaluation Panel) stages, E failed the FSOA miserably in May 2010. Although discouraged, E took the FSOT again in February 2011. E passed all three stages by October 2011.
E was added to the register (list of candidates who have passed all states in score/date order) in early February, and received an invitation to the May 2012 class on February 28th. E was 12/59, pretty good odds. Many blogs discuss the quick turnaround between the offer date and reporting date, however, the Streetts had almost 3 months to prepare. It is exhausting to prepare and maintain a certain level of excitement/enthusiasm for 3 months straight.
To top it all off, the Streetts just found out they are expecting their first child in September! E is not excited about the prospect of spending a hot, humid summer with a large baby bump. But the Streetts are worried thrilled about becoming new parents.
Please join in this adventure. Both E and S will be contributing to the blog, so you can hear from both the FSO and the trailing husband side. (S doesn't like the term trailing spouse, so who wrote this post?)