Mom arrived last night after a long trip. We were a bit worried while we stood at the train station and didn't see her, thinking she may have fallen asleep on the train. But luckily she made a little friend who got her here to us safely. I think she was a bit surprised to experience the hard the trip actually is. Today I decided to let her experience a regular day with us. We took the kids to school at 8, came home for a visit teaching appt, went back to base to get a pass for her stay, visited all the children in the lunchroom, ate at the food court with Ryan, took a driving tour of the base, went home for a short rest, picked Spence/Savannah up and took them to get haircuts, picked Natalie/Shannon up, took Naty/Spence to soccer practice, visited a friend of mine to see what base housing is like, went home to pick up clothes for Spencer, attended a Young Author's Night at school, ate at a Ramen shop, and headed home to unwind and go to bed. By the end of the night mom was exhausted. Mom has enjoyed all the compliments today about how great she looks and the best came from Mr. Sweeney who said, "It looks like you just came from the Bahamas." We got a chuckle out of that. Spencer did a great job reading his mystery at Young Author's Night. It was a casual evening where children displayed and read some of their writing. All four children had work on display. Spencer and Shannon were scheduled to read but the 6th grade was taken off the schedule. Mr. Sweeney called a group of people together to listen to Shannon's short haiku which went something like "Winter Moon, the stars are your snowflakes." We ate at a ramen shop for dinner, which was a real treat for my family. My children love noodles but since I don't do well with MSG and sodium we rarely eat food like that. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their meals.