A visit to the Commandant's House

Last week was Mark's first official week of strictly classroom study.  The girls had British soccer camp, Hope in the mornings and Julia in the afternoons.  While Hope was playing soccer, Mark was in class, deep in discussion.  While Julia was at soccer, many, many pages were being read either in the classroom or in the library.  There is a great thing about the AWC library...you can eat and drink in there, devouring food makes devouring the written word a bit easier.  About the time the girls and I were coming home from soccer, Mark was done with most all that needed to be done for class the next day.  One day he came home and said, "I think I understood everything today!"  It made me giggle, but what a great feeling for Mark, a feeling that lasted for about one day.

Hope

Julia & Coach Jimmy

We had some awesome company this week.  Jesse, Laura and Hunter Breau came to visit on the way home from a trip to Maine.  Jesse flies F16s in the Air Force, we don't hold that against him (hehe), and has been stationed in Japan for the past 3 years.  Mark coached him in high school basketball and had the honor of commissioning Jesse at the Air Force Academy in May of 2004.  It was so good to see them and kiss that baby!! 

Julia & Hunter.  Isn't he sweet?!

Friday afternoon Mark's sister, Dawn, and family came.  It's been so much fun having them around.  The boys headed to Philly on Saturday and us girls went to Lancaster for lots of shopping, food and farmland!  It was fun to have them with us for services at the Chapel and today has been lots of laying around.  Except for Mark.  He headed off to school this morning, dutifully completed his reading before heading home to all the noise around here.  The girls have so enjoyed having "their boys" around.  The giggles have been abundant around here.

Tonight Mark and I headed to Quarters 1.  It's where the Commandant of the AWC lives.  It is such a beautiful home with a rich history, including a hidden room that Ray, the finance guy, found for us.  The room is tiny and signed by people who have entered, including George W. Bush and General Petraeus.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  I took this picture as we were leaving...isn't it beautiful?

Quarters 1

So, we get all showered up and changed into our Carlisle Casual, but casual kicked up a notch, we are going to the Commandant's, after all.  The reason we headed over there is Mark is the student leader of his seminar and I, by default, am the student spouse representative.  I supposed I could have deferred that to some one else, but it seems like a great way to be involved and get to know all the spouses of the seminar better.  We enjoyed the stroll from the car up to the house, it's so much cooler today that it has been for the past month we have been here.  As we get closer, we are admiring the house, enjoying a quazi date night, and walking under this beech tree....

The very large and tall beech tree

...a beech nut drops out of the tree and onto my head!!!  What are the chances?  Have you ever wondered walking under a tree if a nut was going to fall out and hit you on the head?  Nope, neither have I!  Maybe it's because in Maine we don't have trees that grow nuts this big.  Well, we have apple trees, but it's never crossed my mind that an apple would fall out and hit me in the head.  Maybe that's because an apple tree is more like a big shrub.  You don't necessarily have to walk under apple trees.  Unless they are some crazy, unpruned tree, I suppose.  Anyway, there I was, walking hand in hand with my beloved, and THUNK!  It made a really weird noise.  Mark turned to look at me, in shock at what had happened.  What could we do but laugh?  I couldn't cry, my mascara would run and one would never want to meet the general and his wife with runny mascara.  Other than a tiny bump and a minor headache, I recovered quickly.  We had a wonderful time, got to see some friends and meet some new friends.  When we left Quarters 1, I told Mark I had to get a picture of the tree.  He laughed and agreed.  Then for some reason I felt the need to try to find that beech nut.  I decided that it wouldn't have a flat, falling to the asphalt, spot.  And it had to be pretty green, because it had just fallen.  So, I decided it was this one...

My beech nut and me.  Suppose I should try to plant it?

I'm thinking that I'll walk around beech trees from here on out.  And that I might just need a neck massage to get rid of this headache tonight....