Announcement!

On July 6 I'll be starting a new job with Fairfax Co. Public Schools; I'm going to be an aide in a classroom for autistic preschoolers. Though it will be hard to leave the friends I have made at GW, (and VERY sad to give up my drives, gchats, visits and lunches with Joe!) I'm very excited for this new opportunity. I'm looking forward to the short commute, school-day hours, and new responsibilities.

Thanks to Joe for getting a job at GW (for the tuition benefits) and supporting me in this new adventure. I know come fall he'll go back to his 12+ hour days, and I think this new job will allow me to support him and his schedule better.

Here we go...

The Return of Dave

Since Dave's been home for a whole week, it's probably time to write about the Homecoming.

Anita & Family came out earlier in the week, and we got to meet up with them on Tuesday for a DC duck tour and to see Night at the Museum AT the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.

After the movie, we walked back to their hotel in the rain. Anita was super prepared and had ponchos and an umbrella for us. We were quite the group!

On Thursday, Joe and I showed up to the airport first and ran into family friend Joszef. He and his wife waited with us to greet Dave.

Then Dave finally got through customs...it was great to see him!

As we were walking towards the car, Anita, Matt and the kids were hiding around a corner and surprised him. He almost walked right past his sister :)

For Dave's first back-to-America meal, we all went to Five Guys. Here are the FIVE GUYS at Five Guys...get it?

Joe and I were very excited for the dessert we brought...a personalized cake.

After realizing we could never make something on our own, we placed an order with icingimages.com. Joe had an idea of what we wanted, and sent some images for cousin Greg to photoshop together. This is what we sent in:

We waited a little too last minute to get the cake and have the image applied, so this is what we got:

Still pretty awesome, no?

Dave was released Thursday night, and we all had different plans for most of Friday. We met up that night at the temple visitor's center for a one-man comedy show.

On Saturday we went to a party held for Dave and two other recently returned missionaries from the area.

On Sunday we enjoyed hearing Dave's talk in Church. After, Barb made us a great meal that we enjoyed. On Monday we said goodbye to the Utah crew, and Dave started working downtown. He's staying with us for a few weeks, but I'm not sure how much we'll get to see him between work, friends and Church activities. He already went home teaching tonight!

We know he did a great thing, but we're glad to have him back. Welcome home Elder Cramer!

A few videos and the rest of the photos are here

Identity Crisis

Today Joe said "Isn't it weird that Dee Dee's name used to be Destiny?" and as soon as Dee heard that last word, her ears perked up and she turned to look right at us. For the next 10 minutes, we called random words toward her, but she only turned when she heard Destiny. It's funny/sad that we thought we could just stop calling her what she was called for 7 years, but I'm glad we figured it out. She's still Dee Dee to me, but we'll call her the correct name when she's in earshot.

For the record: Lucky has only ever been called Lucky, but he is too dumb to respond to it.

Oh, great

So Joe and I were at the Employee Picnic today (yeah, 'cause we're that awesome,) and I was like "Let's go," and Joe was like "No, let's wait for the raffle! I'm going to win!" and I was like "Booooo," and Joe was like "Come on." So we waited.

And Joe won.

Of course.

Now I'll never get to leave anything early ever again.

This is what Joe won. Not a child, but a Kodak Easyshare picture frame (retails for $79.95). Woot woot.

Sunbeams

Every Sunday we are in charge of seven 3-year-olds for about 100 minutes. I feel tons of pressure to make sure they come away learning something while still having fun. But it's hard to keep their attention for more than a few minutes. We rely a LOT on youtube clips (and have had a few close-calls with some questionable content...ALWAYS preview before class! And never trust clips just because they're "Bible-related"), silly songs, and bathroom breaks. Coloring takes up a few more minutes, as does passing around a fly-swatter in the shape of the hand and asking each child what they learned today. IT'S SO MUCH FUN!

In a moment of brilliance, Joe told the class to pretend they were taking naps, (at least the lesson was on how to take care of our bodies). This took up at least three minutes of class time.

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Before opening exercises...

Michael: Sister Cramer (kray-mour), where's...um...the boy-dad of you?

Me: Brother Cramer?

Michael: Yeah, where's him at?

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On a lesson about the Sabbath...

Joe: What's another word for Sunday? Sah...Sah...

Kids: Saturday!!

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On Easter...

Jasper: ...and then we're going to talk to Jesus on Skype!

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At the end of any lesson...

Joe: What are you going to tell your parents you learned today?

Cami: Jesus.

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After a choking incident...

Joe: Jasper, are you okay?

Jasper: Yeah, but...but...he CHOKED me.

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During a sharing time lesson on mistakes (and how we all make them sometimes)...

Bishop: Sometimes we make mistakes

Kid (not ours): Yeah, like sometimes I poop my pants and that's a mistake

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During a sharing time lesson on how hanging with our families is fun...

Teacher: What are some things that are fun to do with our families?

Poop-pants kids: I LIVE BY A CEMETERY!

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After a lesson on being thankful for our hands, Joe taught the kids some "special" high-fives (down low/too slow, outer space/in your face).

Kids, to each other: "Give me five...no, give me five. Hey, hey. Ummmm, give me five. Up high. Down low. IN YOUR FACE!" ...giggles...

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Joe's on-going joke with adorable Piper...

Joe/week 1 of class: What is your favorite color?

Piper/week 1 of class: I like pink and pohrpul

Joe/week 3 of class: Is your favorite color yellow?

Piper/week 3 of class: No! My favorite colors are pink and pohrpul

Joe/week 10 of class: Well, I know Piper really likes blue and red

Piper/week 10 of class: I like pink and porhpul

She still hasn't really caught on. It's great.

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One of the parents told me today that a kid saw us in Sacrament meeting and said "Look! My teachers are at church!" They have no idea who we are outside of the Primary rooms.

Parents Invade

My parents came to town a few weeks ago. We got to:

-sleep in
-lay out by the pool
-visit the Capitol
-order pizza
-visit the Library of Congress
-play Guitar Hero
-paint the kitchen
-see the night parade at 8th and I
-go to Five Guys
-hang a new lighting fixture

Miss you guys already! See you in August!

Cramers x 2

Ben and Shauna came to visit a few weeks ago. It was rainy, and we couldn't get a lot of time off work, but it was great to see them!

The boys loved "petting" the cats (the cats were not so fond, but recovered quickly).

Zach really trying to reach them.

We pulled the mattress out for easier access.

Cramer boys

All other cat-chasing photos are here.

Home Improvement

Paint in the kitchen and a new light in the dining room.

Before

After

Before

After

(the lighting is a little funky in this one)

Thanks for all your help, mom. Yay us!

Things We Done Did (and have pictures of)

Non cat/home improvement/family visit related

Went to a GW basketball game

Joe and friends with "Little George"

"Big George" just chillin in the crowd

Entertained NY friends

Natalie and Michael came to town. We offered a bed and a ride to dinner. YUM.

Had a Last Chance study session at our house (any excuse to make crabcakes and steaks)

Master of the cast-iron skillet

Joe's posture + awkward camera angle = awesome photo

Enjoyed Anniversary dinner and present giving

Founding Farmers = yummy goodness

Went Embassy hopping

Joe's friend Junaid introduced us to the ambassador to Pakistan

Ethiopia with JJ & Marika

Joe got a huge kick out of this poster

Went to Ben's Chili Bowl

Joe is pretty excited

We were being sooo touristy :)

Ate at Taste of Arlington

Road blockers = tables

Yummy Melting Pot!

he can be taught!

At least one student has learned something in his four years of college. I overheard one graduating student say as he was leaving our office, "Well the university is screwing me, but one thing I've learned in my four years here, the people in student accounts are trying to help us out. It's not their fault."

UDPATE: that stock photo of the lightbulb isn't me, but it totally looks like it could be.

Happy Mudder's Day!

Around this time last year, I had an essay published in the book "Mother's Wisdom". This is what I wrote about Berta:

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"An Eternal Perspective"

I can honestly say that in all my 25 years on this earth, I can't remember ever hearing my mom complain. It's not because she's never had a reason to; far from it, I think she could justify many days' worth of complaining…it just isn't worth her time. Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she takes life's hardships and figures out what to do with them. Without ever telling me so, she has taught me to look at life with an Eternal perspective.

My mom learned this lesson early in her own life. Her father died when she was a baby, and her mother was left to raise three daughters on her own. Years later, my grandmother moved across the country and married a man she didn't know so that her girls could have a chance at a better life. My mom watched her own mother sacrifice for her, and in turn she would be doing this for her own children.

When my sister Melanie was a toddler, my parents found out that she had severe brain damage due to a doctor's error during delivery. At the time, my mom was in her early twenties with two young children. She and my dad were both working hard to provide for their little family, and were told by specialists that it was not reasonable for them to keep my sister in their home. They were advised to put her in an institution and move on with their lives. Later, my dad would tell me that he was so proud of my mom when she stood up to a room of doctors and specialists and told them that no one was going to take her daughter away from her.

Melanie's disability has never been given a name. She is severely mentally and physically handicapped; requiring continual care. Melanie cannot communicate with us, and needs help with the most basic things like eating, bathing, dressing, and walking.

Growing up, I never felt like Melanie was a burden in our lives. Instead, my parents made every accommodation possible to make our lives comfortable. They bought a small motel that they could run from home, and moved us to the Oregon coast. We lived across the street from the motel so my mom could run to the office if a customer needed help. The motel phone line rang to our house so my mom could take reservations while feeding us dinner. My dad was also helping at the motel, but still had contracting responsibilities two hours away, so my mom was left with many of the day-to-day tasks of running a business and raising her kids.

Activities that most other families enjoyed were a little bit harder for my family, but I never knew this as a child. My parents bought a motorhome so Melanie could rest on long trips. They called ahead to restaurants to get a special seating area for dinner. They carried her when we went to places without a wheelchair ramp. They just seemed to look at every situation and say "Well, this is a little inconvenient…but what can we do to fix it?"

And that attitude has persisted throughout the years. It never got easier working at the motel or taking care of Melanie, but my mom has always been upbeat. She just keeps moving ahead; looking at life with an Eternal perspective. She knows that Heavenly Father has given her the capabilities to deal with her trials, so instead of complaining about them, she figures out what she can do to make them better.

As I look forward to starting my own family, I pray that I can be as strong as my mom in my own trials. I want to be the person who comes up with a solution instead of worrying about my problem. With my mom's enduring example, I think I'm headed in the right direction.

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I've been so blessed to learn from many different mothers...especially the Welch Women in Utah. Joe's mom, sisters, aunts and cousins are all amazing at what they do. The things I could not learn from my own mom, (mainly cooking!) come second-nature to these ladies. They are not content with "just" being mothers...they all go above and beyond at home, church, and the community.

Thanks to all the amazing mothers in my life!

This pretty much sums up my childhood

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/05/08/funny-pictures-not-touching-you/

Two dollars!

Only at GW... so today is the deadline to turn in some form for study abroad, and it must be notarized, which costs two dollars. One of the kids today brought the form, and complained about the $2 fee. HEY KID, YOU ARE SPENDING $50,000 A YEAR TO GET A LIBERAL ARTS DEGREE, OBVIOUSLY FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY IS NOT ONE OF YOUR TOP PRIORITIES, NOW STOP WHINING AND ENJOY YOUR TIME IN PARIS. I HEAR ITS BEAUTIFUL IN THE SPRINGTIME.

*****UPDATE*****

one of the girls in line for the notary said she hates her life, because the notary told her she couldn't notarize her forms without a photo ID.

woohoo!

first year of law school is done!

to all of you with little kids

this is sweet!

Traitor

Tooth number 6 just doesn't want to kick it the veneers anymore...it has decided to join the ranks of 7, 8, and 9 and be pure fakery. For anyone keeping track: I will keep my veneers on 5, 10, 11 and 12; have an implant/bridge on 7, 8 and 9; have an implant on 6. I feel like my mouth is a puzzle and no one has figured out how to put it together yet.

And for anyone who didn't have the pleasure of seeing me without three teeth, please enjoy this photo from Halloween 2005:

The one where the gang goes dumpster diving...

Sunday, 4pm:
I went to put a milk carton in the recycling box (because we're cool like that,) and saw a Poang Ikea chair and foot rest (retail value $135,) being thrown away. In the five minutes it took me to decide it would be perfect for the living room and I go to get it, it's gone. I went to the downstairs dumpster and saw the footrest on top of the dumpster...but the chair was nowhere to be seen. I didn't think the chair was in the dumpster, but I wanted to know. So I climbed up into the dumpster and move around a few trash bags. The chair wasn't there, so I grabbed the footrest.

Then I heard, "Hey Joe! Joe Cramer! What are you doing?" It's the only person in our whole apartment complex that I know; a girl I went to high school with. She's dressed to the nines and on her way out with her boyfriend. As I crawled out of the dumpster clutching my prize, I invited her to a barbeque at our place next month. I doubt they'll come, since they probably think I go dumpster diving for food.

Long story short, I found the rest of the chair. We cleaned it up, and it's awesome. The cats like it, too.

Handy Dandy

In gearing up for tourist season at the Cramer homestead, we decided it would be a good idea to install a kitty door from the living room to the laundry room. Currently, Dee and Lucky have to go through the guest bathroom to do their business and eat or drink. Instead of bothering our guests to always leave a door cracked open, we thought it would be easier to just cut out the middleman (or the bathroom, in this case).

Joe and I are so handy. We're also good at doing projects without the actual tools necessary. Like instead of using a jigsaw and some sandpaper, we used a drill with a circle extension and a broken steak knife, (no joke).

Also, I was tired of sweeping up litter every day, so I bought some anti-fatigue flooring and cut it to size. Now I can just hide the litter and sweep less :) Also, Dee puked on it today. Better than the carpet I guess.


p.s. How impressed are you that I got Dee to pose for all these pictures?

Welcome to DC

DC is great. You see so much weird stuff every day, that after a while you don't even notice it. I hear New York is the same way. So last week was visiting week for prospective undergraduate students and their parents. They take a tour of campus, and then come see us in financial aid, and see if they can afford to go here (they can't). We had a shortage of counselors, so we had about 20 students and parents sit at the nearby tables until a counselor could see them. The tables were set up with lemonade and cookies.

As they were sitting at the tables, a mentally ill homeless man comes in from outside, sits down, and starts eating cookies. After a while, he starts yelling at all the students telling him he hates them, and that their ancestors did terrible things to him, and cursing at the top of his lungs. Then he tried to fight the security guard that took him out. I don't think that group of students will be joining us next fall...

A few minutes later, a man dressed in a top hat, wizards cape, and carrying a wizards staff jumped down the stairs. He looked at a newspaper, screamed the f word, and ran away. We decided that he had cast a time travel spell earlier, and realized it didn't work when he saw the newspaper.

I swear, we're not crazy cat people