February Check-In

Passed my Spanish test back in December and now I am well into learning how to do my job in Honduras.  No, not in Honduras, I am still at the training center learning away.  We do, however, fly to, I mean move to Honduras the last week of February.  I can’t believe that the month is almost here. Time is flying by and we need to enter panic mode, but life is just moving on at its normal pace.  We move into a hotel on the 16th so we can organize and clean before the packers pack us up on the 24th.  

Looking back, we had a nice Thanksgiving and an early Christmas with S’s family in PA and we took a holiday cruise with my family (my sister and fiance and my parents).  We had a great time and visited Key West, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico.  It was a great cruise and fun to set foot in Honduras prior to moving there.  And what you’ve all been waiting for, some pictures to enjoy:  

N sitting on the table, his favorite pastime, when allowed!

N & S waiting to get into the Washington’s house at Mt. Vernon.  

Still waiting!

N decided he didn’t want to wait any longer!

N & S meeting Popcorn and Caramel, this year’s pardoned turkeys.

N loved the turkeys!

Meeting the Xmas Camel

Unsuspecting people posing with the Xmas Camel

He tried to eat N!

October 2013

Less than one year later the Streett family is writing again.  While our year posted to DC wasn't a high choice (or medium…), it worked out in the end as a lot of our family has had the chance to see N start to grow up and turn into a little ball of energy.  In less than 4 months, we will leave for Honduras, where E will start her second tour in the Foreign Service.  Honduras was our first choice this second time around and we are very excited for our first overseas adventure as a family.  

E and S both started taking Spanish classes on July 1st, though S’s “FAST” class ended after 8 weeks.  E has about 6 weeks left until her final exam, where she needs to be deemed to have Minimum Professional Proficiency:

Able to speak the language with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations on practical, social, and professional topics

Able to read standard newspaper items addressed to the general reader, routine correspondence, reports, and technical materials in the individual's special field.

Think positive thoughts as the test is notoriously difficult!  I, E, enjoy my days but with a current section of only 2 students I come home exhausted.  We have finished the textbook and my professor asked if she thought I would get bored with just speaking practice (=talking about anything under the sun!).  Clearly, she doesn't know me very well as I love to talk!  

Back to the family, N spends his days running around making messes while waiting for someone to talk him to the park or on a stroll in his tricycle.  He loves to go out and have a good time.  S is exhausted at the end of each day of chasing him around.  True to form, his least favorite part of the day is still when he has to go to sleep.  He is a great little eater!  S and E are always amazed how much he packs in at every meal.  E has been spoiling him with bites of her TJs peppermint patties and dark chocolate peanut butter cups.  Looks like N inherited a sweet tooth.  

On that note, we've noticed a few things N has in common with relatives:  (some are funny and others are serious, please take all with a grain of salt and add any you think!)  

Sweet tooth = all except S

Appetite & Likes to Read = Paternal Grandpa

Sociability = Paternal Grandma

Height & Shoe Size = My sister

Hoarding = Dad (S added he is handsome like his daddy too!)

Generosity (N loves to feed people) & Likes to talk on phone = Nana

Hair Color = S’s sister

Extroverted-ness and most everything else = Mom

Dance Skills = UNKNOWN

Our to do list is SO LONG and some of the things we don’t even know where to start!  Oh well, good thing E likes to plan and S handles any problems that pop up...

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!

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!

Short Update

September 1^st, 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! 

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 20^th 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....

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.