Dining Out in Falls Church

If you want to go to dinner at a good restaurant in Falls Church on a Thursday night you have to make servations. We did not make reservations so tried the Thai Restaurant near the Restaurant we wanted to eat at.

The inside was not spectacular but the service was great and the food was very good. After waiting longer than he should have for his dinner (we were all served 20 minutes before him for some reason) Adrian's dinner was worth the wait.

Our Furniture in the Foreign Service

So I did a quick search to try to figure out what kind of furniture we're likely to have. I remembered seeing a quick video of the housing available at our post and was not loving the color scheme. I figured slip covers would be a great option. I hate the Sure Fit slipcovers however, so my other options were Pottery Barn or Custom made both of which are more expensive. I was delighted to find the Marvin J Perry website which tells you exactly what type of furniture is available.

go to: www.marvinjperryinc.com. Click on accounts, username state, password-Drexel. Voila....you can llok up everything.

You're welcome.

Soccer on The Mall / The Legendary 152nd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9EyXvN_J7E

Highland Games

It was fun finishing off our time in the Carolinas with a gathering of the clans at the Greenville, Highland Games. Prince Edward even attended though I only got picture of the back of his head.

We've heard that the NZlanders love everything Scottish too so we should fit right in. What better representation of the American people than a kid in a skirt waving an axe right ?

2 Days and counting

Although my husband has been at FSI for nearly 2.5 months now, my journey begins in 2 days ! It has been a very long road for us to get to this point. Adrian took the written test (aced it) in late 2008, passed the orals (first time around) in May 09 and joined A100 in March 2010. Of course they say to not quit your job or sell your house until you know for sure when you are going to be called but we did both. Ever the optimist and upstanding employee, dh quit his job at the newspaper in March 09 (yes, before the orals) and we sold our house in September 09. Uh, yeah, before he got his offer. To say we were a bit stressed out in an understatement. So, we were homeless and unemployed for alomost a year! Which turned out to be a blessing.
We are lucky enough to have family to "donate" their vacation home to us while we were waiting for the call. The fact that the kids have been coming to the house in Tryon since they were infants helped with the transition. They love it here and blossomed in their new schools. Morgan grew @ 12 inches and secured a spot on the middle school soccer team while Ewan went on to an undefeated season in the local soccer program. It also helped that our house is gorgeous with a swimming pool and fort :) We are very lucky. Thanks Mom & Dad. You can have your house back now. A bit dirtier than you are used to and I am sure you will find the odd sock now and then ( somehow I have 30 socks that don't have mates-I know they're around here somewhere) but we have appreciated it and will never be able to repay you. No, really.
The hardest part about leaving now was getting the boys out of school a week early. We tried to hold on until the last week but we miss Dad and the house is being rennovated so it's time to move on.
All we have to do now is pack the UAB, tie up some loose ends in Florida (our domicile) and head to DC. I can't wait.

Some people are just nice.

I resigned myself to another day of emails, issues and headaches but that's not what happened. Last ngiht I received an email clarifying for me why our travel orders were not working out for us. In a nut shell my husband drove up to DC thus not allowing the kids and I to fly up to DC to join him. I understand now that everybody has to travel the same way and it wasn't that the gov't didn't want to pay for us to go but rules are rules and we should have driven up with him if we had wanted them to pay for it. Had he flown, we all would have been issued flight allowances and that would be the end of it. Live and learn. The orders could not be changed and that was final.
So I thought. I just received an email from my travel regulation guru that said he may have a solution and he'd get back to me. He didn't have to do that for us, we're not even his responsibility. He rocks. If it turns out that nothing can be done, I am fine with that now, having made my peace with it last night but what a great bonus that would be !
The second amazing thing that happened to me today was that I had my dh drop my beloved, slightly aged, Audi off at a garage to have a once over before we sell it on our way to NZ. They gave it a clean bill of health after checking EVERYTHING and told me to have it picked up at 5 and there would be no charge ! What ? I have never heard of such a thing. After I argued with the man and told him that he'd have to charge me something, he said no. He's just happy to have us as a new customer. Uh, ok. Well, that's a first.
So after feeling like a red headed step child who has been kicked around for the last 3 weeks, I am having a great day. And anyone who is reading this who owns an German car...take it to Volks Works in Falls Church. What better recommendation do you need ?

Waiting to move

Pack-out done ? Check. UAB ready ? Check. Hotel Booked ? Check. Just waiting for school to get out. Flights booked ? Check. I'm ready.