Servants

From January 15th

We spent the weekend in downtown Kansas City.  Friday night we had barbecue.  Saturday we went to the science museum which the kids really enjoyed.  There were a lot of interesting things we hadn't seen at a science museum before.  The mystery hotel section dealing with optical illusions was especially fun.  The museum is large and we didn't come close to covering everything.  Bohdin was upset we had to leave but Cora was getting tired.

Sunday we went to the art museum.  Buddy and I split up so I had Bohdin and he had the girls.  The kids just aren't art lovers yet.  Bohdin wanted to tell me about the Mars Rover Curiosity instead of finding an interesting piece of art.  When we were in the car neither child could tell me about any art at all. 

Sunday night we had to head back up north so we would be closer to school.  Nyla was really excited to go back to school and Bohdin was neutral.  Bohdin missed one of the three recesses on Monday because he was too slow in his work.  He had to type something on the Ipad but it took him a long time to decide what to type.   I can imagine him missing lots of recess for that reason.  He struggles with indecisiveness.  He hasn't been tested yet for academic level so he is doing easy math and easy reading.  That's bothering me more than I thought it would.  I want him to be challenged academically.

When Nyla talks about her day it is usually what the people around her did.  We hear about the boys who were acting up or the girl she played with.  Last night she told us she overheard the servants talking at school.  I told her there were no servants.  She said they worked in the cafeteria and were servers but she liked to call them servants.

Before we took the kids to school Monday morning, Buddy recieced a phone call that two new houses were available.  He said we would be there after dropping the kids off and stopping in at his work to report.  We were in the office a bit over an hour after they called.  The first set of keys were for the unit we had seen the week prior and the second set of keys were given to somebody else.  We waited over an hour for the other.couple to bring the keys back but it was too late.  They had chosen the unit we were supposed to look at.  Buddy and I were mad.  We were number one on the list.  This couple had only arrived in town the previous day.  In addition they hadn't even been assigned that neighborhood.  When we expressed our displeasure they decided to let us look at the units that would come available at the end of the week and it would be ours.  A nice lady took took us to see the six units.  We saw a unit very similar to what the other couple had taken and didn't love it.  We were able to choose the best floorplan of what was available.  Besides needing to wait until Thursday everything worked out.  We were able to get the larger interior unit that we wanted and will even have a pantry which seems to be extremely rare.  Of the eight units we saw only two had a pantry and those two unitss were next to each other and almost identical.  It also had a lot of closet space.  The units are very different from each other  which I find odd because the exteriors are all the same.  We looked at two other units that were almost identical but one had a huge hall closet that the other did not.  Thursday afternoon we can sign the lease and Monday our stuff will be delivered.

In the afternoon while waiting for school to let out, I drove around  looking at the other neighborhoods.  One of our initial neighborhood choices was a newer construction duplex.  The neighborhood seemed bland but fine.  I noticed somebody moving in and wanted to see the inside.  The door was open and I found the owner who had no problem with me taking a quick tour.  He told me he had just arrived the previous day.  I couldn't believe that he already had a house and his belongings.  I met two people who had received housing in no time while we will wait 10 days assuming all goes well.  We don't seem to have good luck with military housing.  It's our second experience with military housing and our previous experience was about the same. Now we are getting a better idea of how the system works.  We haven't complained enough in the past.