A field trip to the Military Police Department

Keith came home from work at 3:30am. They've been so busy lately. Originally, he was going to hang out with the kiddos and I was just going to take Joshua with me to get my fingerprints done today. But since Keith only had about 4 1/2 hour sleep, I decided I'd have mercy on him.

I loaded the munchkins into the minivan and we were off to the Coast Guard base, where I had an appointment at 10am to have my finger print cards completed. The finger print cards are just another hoop to jump through in getting my Florida Nursing License re-activated.

On the way out to the base, there was a deer just standing in the road, as if it were a traffic cop. The three cars in front of me each slowed down until we found ourselves stopped, wondering what this deer was thinking. I pulled the camera out, but ended up getting a shot of the C-130 on the runway instead. Yes, that's the road we are driving on in the foreground of the picture. It still seems unreal that we drive that close to the runway. And don't even ask me about the first time Keith and I drove on base, where you have to actually drive across the runway after making a stop to check for passing aircraft. I yelled at him and told him I didn't think we were supposed to be driving across the runway! It's a very interesting set-up out on the base. Needless to say, after about 30 seconds, the deer was gone and the kids were thrilled to see the plane take off. Daniel kept yelling, "bye, Daddy" and I kept trying to remind him that Daddy was home in bed sleeping.
We finally reached our destination at the Military Police Department, where a very nice officer did my fingerprints. It took us a few tries to get perfect looking prints done. Joshua really enjoyed talking to the officers. All the kids got stickers.

The fingerprint ink is a red ink that turns black once it is developed on the card. So for the rest of the day today, I walked around Kodiak with my hands looking like Lizzy Bordon from the childhood jump rope rhyme (not a pleasant rhyme, but a popular one for kids growing up in and around Boston).

The kids played outside while I shoveled some snow in the driveway. Then we all came in and they took a nice warm bath in my big tub. Joshua has been wanting to go camping, so I compromised and let them play in the tent in the livingroom, where I served dinner of sandwiches, popcorn, cheesesticks, dried apricots and banana chips - a mini-picnic of sorts.

We accepted an offer on our house today. We'll be closing the last Friday in May. Funny how checking one thing off my to-do list, now adds a half dozen more things!