The Milkman's here!!!!!

After hearing a radio commercial about Oberweis Dairy, I thought it would be a good idea to start having our milk delivered. It seems like we are always running out of milk and yogurt and maybe this would be a good way to avoid that problem. Not to mention this milk is supposed to be better for you because it's "fresh from the dairy"! No yucky hormones, cows free to roam the fields, just all around better.

I remember going to Bergy's Dairy in Virginia Beach with my nieces around Halloween to visit the pumpkin patch and get fresh milk. Yum! I'm not sure it made it through the week (and that was before I was married!). Sadly the last two dairy's in the Tidewater area closed or don't have home delivery anymore. My parents still tell stories about the milk and ice being delivered to their homes weekly, how the horse knew just where to stop without any prodding from the driver. I love hearing those stories, I think it was a simpler time, not always better, but it sounds like somewhere I would like to live. I'm sure when our house was originally built there were a lot of things delivered to the owners. The milk bottles clinking at the front door, the ice man throwing chips of ice to the neighborhood kids on a hot summer day. Well, now we too have that option, but with a twist! Instead of my husband hearing the milkman while he was reading the paper and I was busily preparing the morning breakfast it went more like this.... Matt was downloading information from his computer (one of 5 in the house) and I was listening to the beep, beep, beep of the alarm clock when I hear him shout "Your milks here" (there was a plastic thud of the Coleman cooler being placed on the front porch). Oh, well not quite the same memory but still we get fresh milk. My son jumped out of bed and got dressed double quick, raced down the steps and helped his dad carry in the cooler.

By the time I got downstairs he was enjoying his first glass and ready to try the chocolate milk we "had" to have. It was pronounced the best milk he every had (although I think he was just caught up in the moment and glad I was allowing him to have chocolate milk!). When my daughter drank her glass she said "It tastes yucky!". Aaaahh, the joys of having a picky eater. Another Norman Rockwell moment ruined!

I'll Never Forget, will you?

Where were you 8 years ago today? Doing something mundane... reading the newspaper, getting kids off to school, washing the dishes? I was going to work. I was 8 months pregnant and happy that I had an OB/GYN appointment that afternoon (I wanted that baby OUT!). By the time I got to work everything had changed, everything stopped. For hours we huddled around a very small television and watched those towers collapse, watched a city change, watched our world change.

There are two things I will never forget about that day. The first is how the world became smaller. I started receiving emails from around the world; an outpouring of grief came in each one of those messages. No one could believe the events that unfolded that horrible September day. The second is how the Portsmouth Naval Hospital became an armed fortress. My house is across the street from the hospital and 1/2 block from the back gate. Before 9/11 Matt and I would ride our bikes along the waterfront at the hospital. After 9/11 it was a closed Military Base . When I came home there were tanks, concrete blockades and numerous Marines armed with machine guns at each gate. I tried not to watch the endless television shows, it was too upsetting and my pregnant emotions couldn't handle it. On the first anniversary I allowed myself to watch, allowed myself to grieve. I wrote a letter to my children and told them how I felt on that day. I let my 7 year old read it yesterday, he asked if he could take it to school and read it to his class.

We live in a military town. Everyone I know has either served or is related to someone who has. My kids know the people in the uniforms are the good guys, lets just hope they never have to see the bad guys.

Never Forget September 11, 2001

School days, school days, dear old golden rule days!

My Dad always sang that song to us on the first day of school, it used to drive us crazy (DAD! Please stop!!!). Guess who sings it to her kids now? Somethings you are just destined to repeat. Marty started 3rd grade on Tuesday, Louisa (and I) will start Preschool next week. Hopefully I can get back to some kind of schedule and continue painting the kitchen trim. So many projects, so little time!

Traditions.....

We got the news last week that Matt's Dad has cancer, his yearly October pilgrimage to Virginia will have to be postponed. Matt flew to Illinois to spend a long weekend with his family, it was the first time in 6 years that they were all together. It was a good trip, Thursday we get the final diagnosis and treatment plan. Isn't it funny how one phone call can change everything?

When Marty was born we started a tradition of taking a picture of the 3 generations of Eykamp's on the front porch. Let's hope we can continue that tradition in 2010.