DC Part II (as of August 24th, 2006)

A letter (slightly edited) sent to my grandparents with the latest update on my life in DC:

Hey – hope you are well. Anyway, continuing from the last letter . . . in late July I went to Tupelo to assist in a tax seminar. The seminar was very laborious and unenjoyable and I do not know if I will be doing another one of those any time soon. However, I got to see some good friends for one last time and had a nice dinner with Granddaddy and my Tupelo relatives, including getting to see my cousin Anna Grant (Brannon’s daughter) for the first time.

Upon returning to Tupelo I slept and recuperated from back-to-back travel and waited until Shae and Brinson returned from Oklahoma. It was great to see them.

Of course dad came to visit for several days during the second week of August. He enjoyed seeing Brinson and he helped us break down some moving boxes and a few other things around the house. One day we went into DC and went to Arlington Cemetery. I saw a few graves of people Shae and I did not see previously (such as Omar Bradley, George Marshall, Doolittle, Audie Murphy and Howard Taft). My dad and I then walked over to the National Mall which was a much longer hike than we expected. I saw for the first time the WWII Memorial. It was very nice. They have a Pacific wing and an Atlantic wing. We also saw the Vietnam again. It is fascinating every time one goes there. We saw the other monuments from a distance, though we did take some time and go to the Korean War memorial. We should not forget about the service of those men either. After the extremely long walk from the cemetery to the monuments, it was a long day.

We all went to church on Sunday and then just spent the next few days relaxing before Dad went home. On that Monday he visited with a retired 4 star general who fought with my grandfather White in France. His name was Frederick Kroesen and he served as head of the US Army in Europe in the early 80s. Very neat.

After my father's departure, Shae's sister Jodi and Shae's niece Brooke came into town for a quick weekend. Shae went with them to the national mall for several hours. I ended up keeping Brinson by myself for almost 5 hours or so. Though it was fun, though I now really appreciate what Shae does every day!! He is growing and is pretty advanced in his motor skills. He can stand himself up with some support from us and already has pretty decent balance. He puts every thing in his mouth and is in great spirits until his stomach hurts him or he gets tired. He has the cutest smile too.

This past Sunday we went shopping for clothes and shoes for my birthday and also bought some furniture. Of course, we buy things for Brinson at every corner.

The town home is coming along. Shae's sister Jodi loves to decorate and she did a great job doing some things for our townhome - much appreciated.

We are going to try and take it easy this weekend since it is the first weekend we all have free in over a month.