An Interesting Camping Adventure

Fenna called it. She said "going camping is going to be interesting". But, she really wanted to go so Keith planned out a two night trip and we packed up and went. Keith and I both promised that yes indeed, it would be interesting. I believe we were true to our word on that.

We planned a two night tent camping adventure on Mount Palomar just two miles from the observatory. It is a nice beautiful pine tree covered mountain. Lovely!

 
We drove up there and the flies were so terrible that we were all frantically waving our arms around our heads after a minute. We walked around a bit and decided that we wouldn't be able to cook or enjoy ourselves with the fly population so hungry for us. They acted like we were the biggest and best turds who ever set foot on the mountain! After 10 minutes, we were done and headed back down the mountain to a campground closer to town near a lake.

We were going camping with our friends, the Block family and their dogs and when they called and said there were too many flies in the campground I thought, "oh he's exaggerating."  Unbelievable!

We ended up at Lake Skinner, a nice lake that you cannot touch. It is illegal to touch the water because the pollution from your human body might be harmful to the fish. The fish have the same view of us that the flies do.  This is the event site of the Temecula Balloon and Wine Festival, and the site of the new splash pad where I took the kids a few weeks ago. This might be good.

This campground is only 20 miles from town. It took us over 3 hours to get there after going up to Palomar Mountain, back down, stuck in traffic on the freeway, across town and out the other side. The kids were sick to death of being in their carseats. They sensed it was taking way too long to get to our campsite. These kids of mine are geniuses!

The original plan was that we would leave the house at 1pm, go set up camp and then I would bring the girls back to town for their swimming lesson class and head back up. Well.... that didn't happen. We left around 2:30 and arrived at our campsite at nearly 6pm. Swim lessons were pretty much over by then. They missed the first lesson of this new session, oh well.

Lake Skinner campground is nice enough, but they don't have tent spaces. The camping spots are designed for RVs and it's set up like a parking lot. There were other tent campers there too, but like us, they had to set up on a hard packed dirt pad.

We set up our campsite on the tiny pad that was our assigned camp spot and got to work with cooking dinner. Things were looking up! As long as there is food, there will be happiness, right? Right! I made Dollywood Potatoes over the propane burner.

Fenna was very worried about the size of the tent. She mentioned it a million times and we kept telling her that it was a 4-person tent but it would hold all of us and the dog fairly comfortably. She knew that if it was a 4-person tent, it was really a 2 or 3 person tent. She was pleasantly surprised when we popped it up!  We set up the little girls' tent too, just for fun (and elbow room since Fenna sleeps like a starfish).

The tent campers in the next parking, er, camping row were loud. We got to hear some very colorful language and dogs barking all evening and into the wee hours of the morning. At least they were happy people. Loud happy inebriated campers.

Our friends camped in their luxurious hotel on wheels.  They had a bathroom, running hot water, electricity, tv and internet. The probably slept great too.

I couldn't sleep. We finally laid down in our tent around midnight. We kept waiting for the campground to settle down and become somewhat quiet, but that wasn't happening so we caved and tried to sleep through the racket. Finally, around 2am, a little Spanish lady yelled "Would you please be quiet! Thank you!" There is something about the voice of a little Spanish lady that scares people. It worked too, the entire campground was dead silent after that.  Lady, I thank you.

Keith and Fenna slept great. Sandy slept with us in our tent but she was all over me, laying on my legs, then pushing up against me, stealing my blanket, and then she ended the night by sleeping on my pillow. She's going into the pink tent next time!

At one point, I forgot who was sleeping where and I thought Fenna was Keith, but she was in her own sleeping bag so I was very confused. I thought I stole all the blankets off of him so I patted her down thinking she was Keith, and I just wanted to know if he was cold laying there without any blankets. Then I was grabbing her wrist to see his watch to find out what time it was. She wasn't cold, had no watch on, and wasn't Keith. She let me know it too. Whoops.

I wasn't comfortable at all. I tried and tried to sleep and I was dead tired, but I just laid there on the hard ground with my eyes wide open. I slept on and off from 2ish until nearly 5am and then I was awake for the day. I think I got 3 hours of sleep with 23 wakings in there, it was ridiculous! Around 5:30, I decided to quit trying and I just got up.

Gracie woke up a little before 5am and she said, "I wish I had some tape so I could tape up those birds."  Keith was making gun noises while looking at the door of the tent. She is her father's daughter.


After heating up the tea kettle for some instant coffee.. I wandered the campground and my husband took some great photos while I snapped some sand-spotted pictures to start the day. We were going to need some decent photos to pretend the camping trip wasn't a complete failure.

It was great to wake up so early and see hot air balloons! (Can I say I woke up if I never really slept?) They were off in the distance but we were able to see them well enough, even through the morning fog. It was a lovely way to start the day! We saw three balloons in the sky. Very pretty.  Keith saw a chicken hawk too. He thinks that's why the birds were going crazy around 4am; the chicken hawk had breakfast.

The kids had a lot of fun playing in their pajamas on their scooters and on the playground. Then we went for a walk to the untouchable lake.  The water is used as a public water source, so fish and waterfowl can poop in it but we can't dip our toes in. Libby's feet stunk so bad she would have killed the fish anyway. Those polka-dot shoes are almost 2 years old and she loves them, but they smell horrid.

The walk to the lake was nice. The fog lifted and the sun came out and heated things up pretty quickly.  It was still fairly early so the splash pad was not operating yet, which was fine by me. The kids were disappointed though. I promised them we'd come back another day when it's working. I didn't bother to inform them that the water turns on at 10am. They don't need to know everything.

Now that it was nearly 10am, we'd come to a unanimous decision that we were done camping. We had lunch (hey, breakfast was 5 hours earlier), took down the tents, packed up the gear and drove the short distance home. We were home at 11:15am.  So much for our planned two nights of camping, we camped for 16 hours.

After such a short campout, there is still a ton of cleanup to do after arriving home! The van doors were open most of the time in the evening, and the smoke from the fire went into the van stinking up the whole works. I have to rug dr the interior now. Joy.  Camping in dirt makes everything dirty. I'm still cleaning from our little excursion.

The first thing we all did when we got home was to ask ourselves, "Am I more tired then dirty or more dirty than tired?"  We all decided we were filthy but more tired, so we slept. Everyone slept four or five hours. Apparently I wasn't the only one who didn't sleep well in our parking spot!

Now that this interesting camping adventure is over, I can honestly say that I have RV envy.

Refusing to Countdown

25 days until Fenna leaves us. But, I'm not counting down. I refuse!

What an amazing year! It isn't over yet, this is not a goodbye post nor a recap at the end type of post. Just a reflection and a wish that the last month will stretch into long happy days that will become wonderful memories.

We did a lot this year, and we would have done these things anyway but having an exchange student to share our experiences with made all of our adventures much more enjoyable. I'm trying to think of all the places we went and I know the list is pretty long, but just winging it here I know we hit up quite a few tourist spots and places of interest.

Disneyland
Knotts Berry Farm
SeaWorld
San Diego Zoo
San Diego Safari Park
Queen Califia's Magical Garden
Balboa Park
Oceanside Beach
Mission Beach
La Jolla Beach
Scripps Birch Aquarium
La Jolla Mall
Escondido Mall
Temecula Mall
Lake Elsinore Outlet Mall
Dos Lagos
Corona Crossings
Seaport Village
Lake Skinner
Pumpkin Farm
Blueberry Farm
Lots and lots of parks and playgrounds


And, of course, our big roadtrip to Las Vegas, Montana and Wyoming. 

We are not done!

Keeping Secrets

Shhh! Don't tell on me!  I have secrets. I go secret places, do secret things, and I can't tell my kindergartener.

While she is at school, she's so afraid that we are going to do something without her. What if she misses something? I always promise that we will just wait until school is done, that's all we will do. Just wait. We won't go anywhere, we won't have playdates, we won't eat cookies, we won't see any of our friends, we won't watch any good movies, we won't read any good stories, we won't play, we won't have any fun. Promise.

It's a promise I cannot keep, but it makes her feel better to know she's not missing out on any of the fun.

Sometimes she'll ask me what we did while she was at school and I reply with some truth and some things that I just wish I would have accomplished:  grocery shopping (she hates to tag along for that), laundry, mopped the floor, cleaned the toilets, and watched the news. 

Yesterday, I went to the zoo. Shhhh!  Today, I went shopping and we ate at Shakey's Pizza. Shhh!  It's a secret! At least once a week my three year old and I go to a park. Sometimes we take the dog too. We'll never tell!

Funny, but I keep these same secrets from my teenager too. She is exactly the same as my kindergartener! When I pick her up from school and she says "What did you do today?" sometimes my brain freezes for a moment and I leave out a few details of my day.  Umm.... nothing special. Tee hee hee.  Shhh!

The Neglected One

It was recently brought to my attention that my blog is all about me. I looked back and it's true, I am the center of my own little world.  There are other people in my little world; they don't call me "Mom" for nothing!  This post is all about my blog-neglected teenager, Fenna.

Sometimes I forget that Fenna isn't really mine. She fits so well into our family that the family dynamic doesn't feel like it changed, it all just fits. She slipped into our family and found her place immediately and we're all quite comfortable.  I do not encourage her to call me "Mom" but rather by my first name because I am not really her mom, I'm her host-parent. Exchange students are often told to call their host parents "Mom and Dad", but I like the distance that using first names provides. We are her hosts, not her parents.

Having her call us "Mom and Dad" would emphasize the  a parent/child relationship in which she'd be the child. I already have enough of those! I think when a teenager is old enough and responsible enough to travel abroad for a year, she's old enough to be treated like a young adult rather than a child. So, we start with the names. I hope that using names instead of parenting titles is a good reminder that she is doing her own thing, independent, older, wiser, and all that jazz.

Of course, I am the mom of the house and I am her parent while she's here. I'm not shirking my duties by much just using my first name, just playing a little headgame with myself.

I think I neglect her in my blog because I don't want to spoil her fun of telling her parents and other stalkers about her grand adventures in America. So, I give her plenty of time to post on her own blog, or tell her people back home what she's been doing. By the time I have given her a chance to tell people before they hear it from me, then its old news and we've all moved on. That's my excuse anyway, and it sounds good so I'm going with it. 

A typical day with Fenna starts like it always did with my older girls and our last exchange student.  She gets up super early and gets herself ready for school, fends for herself for breakfast, packs her own lunch or snacks, takes her medicine and does her nebulizer treatment, finds her jacket where she tossed it the day before, gets her homework out of the printer and stuffs it in her bag... or not.  I roll out of bed when she's almost ready, just looking for her shoes and trying to decide if it is an A or a B day; I slide into my slippers, grab my coffee and we head out the door.  She looks fabulously awake and ready for the day (sometimes) and I am in my pajamas with my eyes barely open.  We leave for school shortly after 7am and she's there by 7:15ish. Classes start at 7:30 so we are doing pretty good considering I'm not awake yet and getting anywhere on time is a life-long challenge for me.

According to the teen, this is very different from how her days started at home. She says that her mom kept her organized, laid out her breakfast, reminded her to take her meds, and made her the best sandwiches ever to take for lunch. This is what happens when a kid from a Type A family comes to live with a Type B family. I might even qualify as a Type B- personality. I try to pass it off as a cultural norm. "Yes, American moms drive their kids to school while wearing pajamas and pillow-hair." I think she's buying it.

I hear a lot of wonderful things about her mom. She sounds like the most wonderful lady in the Netherlands! I am not in the Netherlands which makes me exempt from any form of mom competition. Good thing too, I wouldn't win many awards. I hear that Fenna's mom is a wonderful chef, spotless housekeeper, has a successful career, did well in college, makes financially responsible decisions, is hyper-organized, generous, charitable, loving and kind. I'm fun.

To Fenna's mom:  I promise to only believe half of what Fenna tells me about you if you promise to only believe half of what she tells you about me. Deal?  The hard part of this deal will be wondering which half to believe!

Usually, I have a van full of runts when I pick Fenna up from school. As soon as we are on the street in front of the school, they are all pointing and screaming "Fenna's school!".  They search for her in the mob of teenagers that pour out of the campus gates and when they see her they all bounce in their carseats screaming her name. The second she opens the door, there is complete silence. Every time! They are super excited to have her back with us and she misses out on all of it. Maybe they don't want her to know how happy they are to see her again. Six hours is a long time to the little ones. I think they miss her.

This kid has the lightest school schedule! I'm sure all of her friends are jealous. She really only has two classes, the rest of her schedule is fluff.  Pretty nice since she's not interested in studying for hours every day after school. And, the fluffy classes give her a chance to learn life skills and develop interests in other areas besides lectures. She seems like a creative person and a hands-on type of  student. I applaud her school counselor who recognized her personality right away and gave her a class schedule that fits.  She has American Lit, American History, Video Production, Digital Photography, Foods, Drama and Dance. She had Colorguard too, recently she switched that class to Foods. The high school here provides a PE class period to all athletic teams so Colorguard was an actual class as well as an after school activity.  She's having fun being an American High School student. I think she'll have a lot of fond memories of school.

Fenna has some pretty cool friends. They are a worldly bunch. Really! There are six official exchange students in the high school, and a few unofficial kids from various countries, their host siblings, native Californian friends, and kids from other local schools.  They all like to hang out together, especially at the mall and the movies. They all seem like great young people so I'm not at all worried when she is hanging with her homies.  I'm happy that we don't have a parade of boys knocking on the door. Fenna is cute, but the boys are keeping their distance. Maybe she took my "kick 'em in the balls" advice. They might be frightened. That's ok.  She isn't a wild party girl neither. I can't even tell you all how much I appreciate her lack of a crazy irresponsible wild side! Whew!

When she's not in school or at the mall with her friends, she's mine mine mine all mine! What a lucky girl!  She gets to tag along with me on my many adventures, or not. I leave it up to her but she usually comes along even when we are going somewhere that isn't very exciting for a teenager. She's really a good sport. We go to the park several times a week. Guess how many pictures I have of Fenna going down slides? No. More. More. You are getting closer, but I'll bet it's more.

Aside from visiting an outrageous number of parks, she's come with us on other outings too. Places we've been together include: Disneyland (6 times!), Knott's Berry Farm, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Safari Park, Balboa Park, Seaport Village, Scripps Aquarium, La Jolla beach, Sea World, Pumpkin Farm, Queen Califia's Magic Garden, Bainbridge Circle, hmm... that's about it. Unless you count the malls: Escondido Mall, Fashion Valley Mall, Promenade Mall, Dos Lagos, La Jolla UTC Mall... there may be more. We have more places to explore, more adventures ahead! 

Since we are out and about a lot, we eat out a lot. I hear that people in Europe do not eat out very often. She loves to eat! I do too, so we're having fun trying lots of different eating establishments. We've been to Starbucks more times than I have been in all the years I've been in California. We've hit up every food court in every mall, ice cream shops, fast food, and my favorite the sit-down restaurants. We haven't been to a buffet yet; I'll be sure to take her so that she has a complete American dining experience.

It's fun having a teenager in the house again. I miss the teen girls being around. Keith and I both enjoy discussing the homework topics, hearing the quick-wit of a teen mind, and those one-liners just crack us up! She helps me out a lot too, which wasn't part of her exchange deal, but she does it anyway. Homework and chores aren't her favorite activities, but she makes up for it by helping me with the little kids. And when I thank her for helping, she usually doesn't realize she did much. Those little things are so nice though! She stays with the kids in the van while I hop out and run to the ATM, she opens the bathroom door for Libby when I 'm in the kitchen, she tells Charlie "No!" when my back is turned, she plays dolls, she watches Gracie when she is yelling "Watch this!" and she tells them "You can do it" when they are trying something new. I wanna keep her.

None of us are looking forward to June. We have to let her go back to the Netherlands whether we want her to go or not. Of course we don't want her to leave us! She's fun and funny and we love her! She loves us too. This has been the best exchange student experience we could have imagined, even better. I'm not just saying that because she's going to read this, we are all genuinely loving this year of having Fenna in our family.  Now, if we could just get a decent family photo before she leaves, we'll be able to say we had the perfect year.

I need to learn how to stick the landing

This is what happens when you let a teenager hold your camera... 

Yup, she will catch your most photogenic moments and then laugh at you. She will. Teenagers are like that.

Chapter 9

I finished reading Chapter 9 and just couldn't get it out of my head, so I read it again!  And then I made notes in pencil along the margins and circled my favorite paragraph. It is just brilliant!

Fenna has to read The Grapes of Wrath for her American Literature class at school. I've never actually read the whole thing, so I went to my bookshelf and picked it up. She got a copy from the school so we are reading the book together, sort of. I don't think we are on the same page though.  According to her reading schedule we should be on Chapter 17 now, but I just finished Chapter 9.  No worries for me though, I don't have to take a test on the book. Reading along sure does make it easier to have a conversation about the book and it is nice to have a literature conversation with someone. It has been years since I asked anyone what they thought the turtle symbolized and actually received a thoughtful response.

But I got stuck on this one paragraph in Chapter 9. It's incredible.  It is stuck in my head. John Steinbeck earned a Pulitzer Prize and a Nobel prize, now I see why. I've seen the movie and I've seen another movie based on one of his other books. I didn't think much of either one really, and I remember reading something of his in high school, and bits and pieces of GoW when my older girls were in high school.  I don't remember having time to think about what I was reading or reading anything that really thrilled me though.  Maybe this is why its a good idea to reread the good stuff.

Maybe we can start again, in the new rich land-in California, where the fruit grows. We’ll start over.

But you can’t start. Only a baby can start. You and me – why, we’re all that’s been. The anger of a moment, the thousand pictures, that’s us. This land, this red land, is us; and the flood years and the dust years and the drought years are us. We can’t start again. The bitterness we sold to the junk man – he got it all right, but we have it still. And when the owner men told us to go, that’s us; and when the tractor hit the house, that’s us until we’re dead. To California or any place – every one a drum major leading a parade of hurts, marching with our bitterness. And some day – the armies of bitterness will all be going the same way. And they’ll all walk together, and there’ll be a dead terror from it.

It's true. Starting over is never truly starting over. A person can get a fresh start in life, but you always have your experiences to influence you.  And you bring in your memories and your feelings, whether they are good or "bitter", they are in you.

Fenna and I talked about how the characters in the book were starting over, and how they really couldn't since they have a history within them to compare the new life with the one they are leaving behind. And then we talked about anyone anytime starting over.  This concept can be applied to so many situations.

Steinbeck doesn't really say it, but what about the people who know or knew you before your fresh start? They won't erase their memories which makes a new start impossible.  To start over, a person would have to eliminate all ties to everyone. Who can do that?

Have you ever started over?  Think back, did you really start over or did you get a fresh start? Because starting over cannot be accomplished when you have previous experience to compare the fresh start with. Isn't this mind bending? I love it!

We survived the Great SD Blackout

Fenna did it.  I told her it sure is fun to have someone to blame for all the crazy things that go wrong around here. She just laughs.

On Thursday, we needed to go to San Diego to the pharmacy to pick up some medicines and then to a lab in La Jolla for a blood draw. Neither appointment was expected to take long at all, just quickies but they were very important. And, we had to be at the lab at 4pm but had to pick up the meds before going to the lab.  Ok, we can do that (maybe). The timing was going to be tight with school letting out at 2:30 and mucking through after-school traffic always takes a while. There would be no time for Starbucks.

Fenna wasn't feeling well on Wednesday night, she looked like she was at the low point of her miserable cold. It was just after midnight when I suggested that instead of going to school from 7am - 2:30 feeling cruddy and sleep deprived and then heading out to San Diego again how about this idea: Stay home and sleep and eat some soup and sleep some more and then we'll go to San Diego. She didn't have to think very long about that one. I figured she would either miss Thursday at school or Friday. Either way, she needed to take care of her cold. She did just that, stayed home on Thursday to take care of her cold and it really helped a lot.

Since we were racing the clock, we loaded up the little kids and went to Gracie's school to take her out ten minutes early. That turned out to be a very good decision. We hit the road and made it to San Diego in an hour! Fenna opened the door to the pharmacy and rang the bell for service right at 3:35 exactly.

As soon as she pushed the button, the power went out. Poof! Fenna broke it!

Fenna picked up her prescription and we started across town to the lab. The traffic light that we had just gone through was now dead. Not even flashing red. So was the next one. Fenna, being funny, said "I hope I didn't do that!".  Stoplight after stoplight was dead. The streets were becoming more and more clogged because of the four way stops. We were realizing the magnitude of the power outage the further we went. People were pouring out of buildings and everyone had a cell phone in hand. I couldn't get any cell service though. Traffic was going from clogged to pure mayhem. Emergency vehicles were trying to get through but every street was a sea of vehicles.  I started to wonder if we were caught in a terrorist attack.

When we finally got to the lab, we found out that the hospital was closing down. Emergencies only. The lab was closed and the people working there were all sent home. People were all on their cell phones trying to get service, and talking together. We found out that they thought the power might be out all across the county. How can that be? San Diego County is huge! I asked if the power comes back on, would they like us to come back? They said no, they were calling the day over and it would be best if we just come back tomorrow. Ohhhh, no. My brain started spinning trying to figure out the logistics of a Friday trip.

The people in these San Diego medical offices never cease to amaze me with their friendliness. They were so nice! Gracie had to use the bathroom and a lady said she'd check first to make sure there was a light on in there, and there was. (Backup emergency lighting) This lady also gave Libby a little book and Libby was thrilled. They were very nice and apologized for cancelling the lab appointment.  No apologies necessary, it's a freak thing that happened. At least we didn't have to pay for parking this time, the parking permit machine wasn't working.

Before we left the house, we had decided that our fun thing to do today would be to spend some time at the beach. The kids could play and we could put our feet in the water and watch the sunset over the Pacific. Luckily, the power outage didn't spoil our beach plans although it did make getting there quite a challenge due to the traffic. Instead of going further into San Diego, we called Katie and told her not to meet us and we went to Oceanside.

Finally, we arrived at the beach just after 6pm.  The kids had so much fun playing in the water and sand. Fenna and I played lifeguards. The sea was angry. Waves were pounding into the shore and the water was loud. It even threw rocks at us. Libby didn't want anything to do with the angry ocean, but Charlie and Gracie were fearless and they didn't care if the water had a bad attitude; they ran in anyway.  Luckily, I brought lifejackets for Libby and Charlie and I had a leash, er, child harness, for Charlie. We put the lifejacket and leash combo to good use!

We took lots of pictures. The kids were adorable and Fenna too, the waves were huge and the sunset was beautiful.

After twilight, we started to go for a walk down the pier, but the lights weren't coming on. Power was still out!  We decided to head for home. My friend called, her husband works for the electric company, she said that the power will be out for hours if not a couple of days. She was concerned about Katie and Henry.  I told her I would pass along her concerns. Katie called too, and I told her what my friend said and Katie decided to drive up to our place for the night.

Jokingly, I said "I'll race ya!".  Darned if that didn't jinx me! We took the 76 home and it took forever! I didn't realize how many stoplights were on that road. But none of them were working. It took us 90 minutes to get from Oceanside to the 15.  From there, it took us 15 minutes to get home. We got home after 9pm Katie beat  us!

Murphy's Law continued to be the strongest force of the day. If something can go wrong, it will. All of the photos we took mysteriously disappeared off the camera! .  How weird. Luckily, they were just beach pictures and we can go there again. It's good to learn that the photos are super easy to delete on this camera. Nobody knows how we managed to lose the photos but nobody is upset over it since they were just fun pictures of the beach. We'll have to do it over too. 

Luckily, the power was back on in San Diego on Friday so Katie was able to get home. I called the lab and they didn't want us on Friday because the power outage caused chaos and they had to catch up from that. They suggested Saturday or Sunday. Sunday it is!

Two Outings in a Row!

Outings! My favorite!

Sunday we went to the San Diego Safari Park (formerly the Wild Animal Park which is why my folder of photos is labeled WAP). After a full week of school and colorguard, Fenna requested a sleep in morning. I am never one to argue with laziness, bring it on!  I ordered our zoo passes online and printed the confirmation page. We left the house just before noon. Laziness accomplished without getting in the way of our fun day!

The Safari Park was crowded, but not so crowded that you couldn't get up to see the exhibits. The line for the tram was way too long though, we'll ride it another day. I got season passes for the three of us since a year long pass was only $10 more than buying a day pass, plus it's a tax write-off. Good deal.  We wandered all over the park; it was a beautiful day for walking. It was too hot to stop at the sculpture garden on the way home, so we'll add that to another zoo day. It will always be there.

Monday, the girls skipped school for another outing. Fenna had a Cystic Fibrosis doctor appointment in San Diego at 11am, so there was no point in sending them off to school when the appointment is right in the middle of the school day. We usually leave for school at 6:50am but didn't have to leave today until 9am. Another sleep in day!

We took the little girls to Katie's house to play and then Fenna and I made our way to the clinic.  I only got lost once. I thought I was on a street, but it turned out to be an exit ramp and I ended up back on the freeway. I managed to get off and twirl around and find my way back to where I needed to be. Fenna found the problem, on the map it looks as if the streets intersect, but in reality one street is a bridge over the other one. Ah, there is the problem: a two-dimensional map in a three-dimensional world. We found the clinic and used their valet parking to avoid being late or getting lost trying to find a parking space or getting lost afterward trying to remember where we parked. Valet parking rocks!

The appointment went well; the doctor and his staff are very nice. We will go see them again in 10 days or so at their other office in La Jolla. Another adventure with maps! I hope they have valet parking there too. I found a new love: the parking guy. I don't know where he took my van and I don't care. Love it!

I consulted the map and found the route back to Katie's house; Fenna concurred.  We were wrong. Map mishap #2, but we were able to get turned around. We took "the scenic route" back to Katie's house, but we got there just fine. It took us 20 minutes instead of 10, but I'm ok with that.

It was only 12:30 in the afternoon! We could go back and put the girls in school for a half an hour before dismissal, or we could do something fun since we are in San Diego and there are lots of things to do.  Hmmm.  We all voted for doing something fun. After pondering over our options, we settled on spending the afternoon roaming around Seaport Village.

The afternoon was beautiful! The weather was sunny but not hot with a light breeze. Couldn't ask for a better day! We had lunch and then we wandered around the mall. It was nice to just walk and enjoy the day. We sat in the park and watched the kite salesman fly several large colorful kites; we watched an aircraft carrier head out to sea, and we watched the seagulls scavenge for scraps around the picnic tables. Fenna wasn't shopping for souvenirs; I thought she might, but we all enjoyed window shopping quite a bit.

At 4pm, we said goodbye to Katie and Henry and we headed home. It is usually an  hour long drive, but we hit five-o'clock traffic and it took us 90 minutes. I wasn't sure if I was headed in the right direction to find the freeway or not, but I was traveling west and the ocean is east, so I figured west would get me there. Fenna gave me a look that said "Really? you are lost again?" so I confessed.  I have a GPS in the drawer under her seat, but I never use it because I can't figure it out. It always tells me that I'm in San Antonio, Texas. She reached under the seat, plugged it in and bingo, had it working!  How did she do that?  While she was plugging it in, I said, "If that is Grape Street right up there, I know where I am." It was. I wasn't very lost at all this time!  She kept the GPS on all the way home though. Funny kid!

Fenna had colorguard practice at 5:30 and needed to go home to change and grab her bag, I got her to colorguard, but we were about 15 minutes late. I told her the coach was gonna make her do an extra 50 crunches for being late, but she said he didn't.  Ha! Good thing, because she doesn't enjoy doing crunches.

Two outings in two days, not bad for a boring host mom! 


*More photos of our outings on my picasa page.

Boring Host Family - That's us!

We have done absolutely nothing fun since our "Dutch daughter" arrived. I promised her that we are fun, and all we've done is sit around the house twiddling our thumbs and updating our blogs.

She's been here for two weeks. The first week we went school shopping, registered for school and on the 11th, the girls started classes. We drove around town a bit to show her around, but mostly we stayed in and got to know one another better.

Fenna brought us lots of presents from Holland. Such fun! She brought magnets, pot holders, chocolates, candy, a beer bottle opener for Keith, toys for the babies, and pens with windmills on top for the girls. We are a big family and she had something for everyone, very generous!

Last weekend was probably a terribly boring weekend for our teenager who is anxious to explore and go places, but we stayed in all weekend. With my van needing new brakes, we were pretty limited. It was nice though (at least I thought so) because we just hung around home and visited. Keith took the van apart and fixed the brakes. They needed new rotors too, and in the back which is apparently more complicated and more worthy of garage-vocabulary (cussing).

Monday I had my ride back. We had a successful week of going to school and coming home again. On a normal day, I am going to make three school runs. Once to take Fenna to the high school at 7am, once to take Gracie to Kindergarten at 11am, and once to pick up Gracie and Fenna at 2:30.  The 2:30 run actually takes an entire hour.  On Mondays, I'll be making 4 school runs since the Kindergarten gets out early at 1:30.  On days when Fenna has evening colorguard practice, I'll make 5 runs to the school: the normal three plus take Fenna back to the school at 5:30 and pick her up at 8:30pm. Follow all that?  Ok, next week we're going to add in a Late-start day just for confusion.  I am once again the Mom-Taxi!  It's just too hot to make them walk.

As awful as it sounds, I don't mind too much yet. I knew what I was signing up for when I offered to be a host parent. The hour long afternoon pick up can also serve as nap time for Charlie and Libby if they would stop giggling at each other and fall asleep. One of these days they will. Charlie can face forward in his carseat now so I can rearrange the kid seating without having to flip carseats around, that should work well if I need to separate them in the vehicle.

I have three carseats in the van. The Evenflo Triumph can hold Libby or Charlie and can be flipped around backward if needed. The Graco Nautilus can hold Libby or Charlie or Gracie! It's the best seat in the house!  Then I have a little Graco booster seat that can only hold Gracie. It's just an elevated seat, so the seat belt must be used on that one. The other carseats have the 5 point harnesses, but Gracie uses the seat belt even if she sits in the Nautilus. I explained the seating rules to Fenna and she looked at me like I was speaking Greek; not that it matters because I don't expect her to strap in the kids, but I offered up the trivia.

This past week was focused only on school.  The girls and Keith went to school, I drove the taxi and the little ones tagged along and asked where everyone went.

On Tuesday we had Charlie's birthday party. I guess we have done one fun thing!  It really was a great party - best one yet!  We started the day by looking at pictures of Gracie and Libby's first birthdays - might as well knock out the jealous monster before it rears it's ugly head.  They both turned one and celebrated, had gifts, and now it's Charlie's turn. The child is one popular baby! We had the party at 3pm after toddlers nap and big kids come home from school.  We had 21 adults and 17 children here! Full house! It was so much fun.

The only other semi-exciting thing we did was have family over yesterday.  Relatives from South Dakota are vacationing nearby, so they stopped in for a short visit.  Fenna got to meet them too. She had just come home fresh from an 8 hour colorguard practice in the hot sun, so we didn't make her pose for a picture with her "new cousins", but it was nice that she got to meet them.

So, that's it.  That's all we've done so far. I'm feeling a burning desire to get out of the house and take these kids on an outing - so that's what we are doing today! Yay! We decided last night what our plan would be for the day. First and most important: sleep in, then we'll pack up a picnic and strap the kids in and go to the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park. I got season passes for myself, Fenna and Gracie. The total was $10 less than if I had paid for one-day tickets, plus the memberships are tax deductible.  It is still too hot to go to Queen Califia's Magic Sculpture Garden in Escondido, but we will go there another time (it is close to the Safari Park and makes for a fun little extra stop).  I am looking forward to our fun day ahead.  Happy Fun Sunday!

Mama's Night Out

I went out last night!

First thing was first, I had to pick out something to wear. Ugh, it looks like my closet is where out of style fat clothes go to die.  After weighing my options (heh heh) I passed over the comfy look for an attempt at housewife-glamorous. I donned a brown beaded summer dress which showed off my farmer's tan and frumpy mom arms. Sweet!

I drove down to San Marcos and met up with some of my classmates in a restaurant near the university. We all graduated with our Literature and Writing degrees.

I went alone. It's always weird to be in the van without any passengers. Everyone was home. I asked Fenna to come along with me a couple of times, but she didn't exactly respond so I figured she was waiting for a better offer. She's a teenager, I'm sure she didn't want to hang out with my old friends and listen to us talk about stuff she doesn't know about. I don't enjoy that type of conversation when I'm with Keith and his teacher friends neither. I encouraged her to go to the school dance, but she discovered that it was attended mainly by Freshmen, and they are disrespected. She is sure catching on to this American High School experience quickly! Since she didn't seem to have anything better to do, I told her when I'd be leaving and I announced when I went to my room to get ready. When I was ready to go, she didn't look interested and I didn't want to push it but I felt kind of awkward leaving without her when I wasn't 100% sure if she wanted to come along or not. I think I gave her ample opportunity to hop aboard though. I realize I am out of touch with having a teenager around.

Speaking of being out of touch... I heard the radio announcers saying that they were sick of the only topic of conversation these days - the upcoming Kim Kardashian wedding. I thought to myself, "Kim Kardashian is getting married?". News to me!

I got to San Marcos just fine and drove down the street where I thought the restaurant was. I looked it up on the map before I left, now if I could just remember... I drove up and down the street a couple of times and didn't find the place. Great. The restaurant is lost (as opposed to me!). I pulled into a parking lot and called Keith. He again looked it up on the computer and gave me directions. See? I don't need to learn how to use my GPS! That crazy thing is just fine stuffed away under the seat. I got back out on the street and headed in the right direction, according to Keith I had to drive west about a mile. I sat at the red light looking around and what did I see?  A big sign that said "Acupolco".  That's it! How embarrassing.

We ate mediocre Mexican food and were serenaded by a nearly toothless Mariachi band. It was great! I was starving, so I didn't care that the food wasn't the best ever. It was still pretty darn good and I wolfed it down. I hang out with small children every day; I have no manners.

There were six of us at dinner. We all got reacquainted and tried to remember which classes we had with each other. I think all of them were in one or another of my classes. One guy I really had trouble placing but maybe he was in one of my 300 level classes. I really do not know.

Nobody has a job using their degrees! One guy bags groceries, one gal is a clerk at JC Penny, another gal works in a Sr Citizen home, one guy runs a few paid parking lots (which is what he did prior to going to school), and the other guy wasn't working. I don't have a job neither, so I fit right in. I was afraid I'd suffer by comparison in a professional way, but that wasn't the case. None of them had gone on to the master's program or to the teaching credential program. I'm feeling better about my choices now that I know these very intelligent people made the same choices that I did, although all of our choices were narrowed by circumstance.

We visited about our lives now; we reminisced about our college classmates. We also took a few minutes to remember a deceased classmate.  I went to her funeral service last summer and still had the program in my van (one would think I'd have cleaned it out by now)  so I went out and got it. Everyone passed it around and they seemed genuinely appreciative that I brought it along.

After dinner, we promised each other to get together again since it was so nice to see each other. I do hope that happens. I got into my van, pulled out of the parking lot and drove across the intersection and went half a block where all lanes were merged into one and directed through cones into a parking lot. This was one intense DUI checkpoint! I couldn't believe how many officers were lined up along the cones. The vehicles were checked in groups, the first car drove up to the end of the cone lane to a stop sign and then everyone stopped in line behind; there was an officer for each vehicle to check the driver. The policeman who stepped up to me asked me for my drivers license. I handed it to him. He said "Have you been drinking?" I said, "No, not a drop."  That was that. It was an amazing site to see, they had a lot of police officers, plenty of police cars lined one after another, a trailer with lit up tables and chairs just in front of it which I assume was a temporary booking station, and a line of tow trucks. It appears that they were expecting quite a haul tonight!

I made it back onto the street and found my way home just fine. I enjoyed the drive home listening to the radio rather than the Disney princess collection of songs that was in my cd player.

I got home at 9:15. Keith was sawing logs in the lazy boy in the living room and the lights were out in Fenna's room too. Really? What a couple of Friday night party animals those two are! Both of them sound asleep so early! Charlie, such a good little sleeper, was in bed but the kids were wide awake and Lexie was home. It was time for me to get into comfy pajamas and start typing a blog post! What a great way to end a busy week.  :)

Welcome to the Family!

We went to the airport last night and picked up the first kid we saw, grabbed her and stuffed her in the van. Off we went!

That's the short version, but amazingly accurate.

Saturday seemed to drag on and on. Finally, it was time to head to the airport to pick up our exchange student, Fenna. She traveled all the way from The Netherlands and across 9 time zones. As my husband explained, "We are Greenwich Time Minus 8 and she is Greenwich Time plus one." I said, "Sure hope she likes nerds."  Anyway, we finally left the house. We took the two little girls in their brand new American print dresses and we left Charlie home with Lexie. Charlie needs to keep his bedtime since he is such a good sleeper and has a constant sleep schedule; it's a very nice sleep schedule!  The timing was perfect, Lexie got off work just in time for us to leave.

The four of us drove down to San Diego. We got stuck in a bit of  traffic at the Pechanga exit. Apparently there was a concert. Keith reminded me it is a Saturday night. This put us a little bit behind schedule. Fenna's flight schedule arrived in the mail earlier that day (really! That day! Good thing I asked Fenna on facebook two weeks earlier) said her flight arrives at 8:04pm.  We drove as fast as we could and prayed for no more traffic jams - I had visions of her standing alone in the airport feeling abandoned. We pulled into the airport at 8:12, not bad considering. 

Keith figured it would be silly to pay to park since we're late and she'll be waiting on the curb in the loading zone. Oh, whoops, I totally forgot to tell Keith we are all going in like a big welcoming committee. In my mind, we'd all be in the airport standing together with big silly grins. In his mind, she'd be ready to just hop in the van while we drove by. Since we were late, his imagination won.

The airport has a loading zone but you aren't allowed to stop and wait. It is strictly a pull-in, load and leave type of deal. Security will write you a ticket and yell at you too; they are big and scary so I don't dare stop the car for more than a minute. In the loading zone loop, there are three lanes, and all cars were stopped so I hopped out and Keith said he'd drive around the loop.

I ran in and there she was, coming down the escalator!  We weren't late - timing was just perfect!  After a big hug, I waited with her for her giant pink suitcase to come out of baggage claim and Keith had to drive another loop around. While we waited she told me that when her mom came to America for her exchange year, her luggage was lost for two days. Oh gosh, I sure hoped that wouldn't happen! But if it did, we would have a great excuse to go shopping.

Her bag came along, and she had one carry-on bag and that's it. The girl travels light!  We took her bags outside and there was Keith crawling along in the van; he stopped, we shoved her and her bags in and off we went. The little girls were so excited! They did their best to greet her from the confines of their carseats in the dark, Keith too.

We stopped at a Mexican restaurant, On The Border, so that we could visit and have a proper hello. We didn't know if she'd feel like eating or not, so she could easily get something light or a big meal or nothing, whatever. We were all pretty hungry since we skipped dinner  and just snacked for lunch. Katie, Andrew and Henry met us at the restaurant. I had imagined that we would eat at the Cheesecake Factory since it has a large menu of a variety of foods, and a lot of American food. Again, Keith and I were not imagining the same scenario and since he was driving, we went to a Mexican place for local style food. I love it, so I wasn't going to argue! Turns out, Fenna has not had Mexican food before. She was a lot more hungry than she thought and she enjoyed her meal. She eats like a teenager - no leftovers!  Actually, everyone at the table cleaned their plates, what a hungry bunch we were.

We had a nice drive home, but it was too dark for her to see much except the other traffic. We counted the lanes and talked. Eight lanes in each direction in a much wider road than what they have in Holland. We got home and she found her room right away. She loved it! I am so glad she will be comfortable in her room, she will have some house and neighborhood noises to get used to but she was too tired to be wakened by random strange noises. At least, we all thought she was tired. She was pretty excited and needed to explore a bit and get her bearings before settling in for the night.

Today, Sunday, was a planned day of laziness. With a 9 hour time change and a night in a strange house, I figured a lazy Sunday might be just the thing. It is our usual Sunday thing anyway.  Fenna got to explore the whole house and get to know each of us better. She met Charlie and Sandy gave her some love and tail wags too. She didn't seem to be tired at all; sure wish I had the energy of a teenager!

Best part of the day: Presents! Fenna brought lots of gifts for everyone from Holland. She spoiled us generously. The little girls and Charlie were so excited, they were squealing with joy and had so much fun opening presents and asking "what is this?" I think the concept of different cultures and different geographic places is out of their reach just yet. But they love their presents anyway. It was very sweet!

We went grocery shopping at Sams Club in the afternoon. I didn't think she would want to come, maybe she'd like a break from the little ones, but she came along. It was nice having someone come with me for groceries, especially because I had all three wild ones and none of them enjoy grocery shopping. Today they were all behaving so nicely! I could get used to this.  We used this opportunity to drive around town a bit and take a quick drive-by tour of the school.

Burgers on the grill, OreIda fries and a green salad were on the menu tonight, very American. We all ate together on the patio while shooing away flies. After dinner I decided to take the little girls to the park and let them run off the rest of their excited energy. Fenna wanted to come along, so we loaded up the little girls and said goodnight to Charlie. He was going to have some quiet playtime with Lexie while we went to the park for noisy playtime.

We've had a wonderful past 24 hours. Fenna is a good fit in our family. Her English is great, so we are able to communicate very well. She is already teaching us about the Netherlands and learning about the USA. She also told us a bit about her daily medications and how she cares for her Cystic Fibrosis. It sounds very complicated but she seems to know exactly what she is doing.

Tomorrow we'll be registering Fenna at the high school and registering Gracie for Kindergarten. After enduring hours of paperwork at the schools, we will go shopping for school supplies and whatever else we need. I'm excited to introduce her to Super-Target; I think she'll like it!

We're Ready!

Our "dutch daughter" arrives tomorrow!  Her room is finally ready.  Again.

I had "the pink room" ready for her a couple of months ago but we decided to move the little girls into that room instead and we moved Fenna to the white bedroom. Lexie and Charlie have the green room. Keith and I stay put in the master.  The white room is downstairs, the master,  pink and green rooms are upstairs. I painted the pink room two summers ago, and the green room last year. I think... or maybe it was three and two years ago, anyway, I painted them and not the bedroom downstairs. It was still the white paint that was slapped on in every room of this house when the house was built twenty years ago or so.

Lexie wanted the green room, so we moved the little girls to the pink room and put Fenna downstairs in the white room.  But, the white room was just too ugly.  We've been working on painting our house one room  at a time and we've been in no hurry to get the whole thing done.  Since we would be emptying the downstairs bedroom to rearrange furniture and things for Fenna, we might as well paint it while it's empty.

The week before she arrives we finally got it painted! It is now a cream color like the rest of the main floor (except the living room, it is still on the waiting list). The room turned out beautifully! It is just amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do. I really wanted to get it done but time slipped by too quickly until I finally felt like the clock was running out.  I had a chance to paint it while I had help with the kids, so I did it. I painted it at night, in the dark, while drinking a beer.

I thought I did a great job, but in the morning, it looked like I had painted the room in the dark while drinking a beer. I told my husband, we'll just hang lots of pictures. He shook his head and told me to get my paintbrush. He was right, the second coat of paint went on very smoothly and the drywall wasn't sucking it up like it had a great thirst. Painting in the daylight also served me well. Much better! I put all the furniture back up against the walls, and then ran the rug doctor over the carpet.

The girls and I picked out some bedding, turquoise bedskirt, polka dot sheets and a pink striped blanket. We laid down a pink fuzzy rug. It sort of matches in a confetti sort of way. And then I remembered the girls had a throw blanket with the high school logo on it. Perfect!  I tossed it on the bed. The school colors are red and black and I had a pink and blue thing going on already. Oy, not a good combination. But, all bright cheerful colors so I just left it as is.

I have a dream-catcher in every bedroom but I decided to trade dream catchers in this room with the little girls' room. At the moment that I took the photos, the dream-catcher was not up. It's there now; we can't have her sleeping without a dream-catcher on her window!

We put in a desk, chair and small bookcase for her study space. I gathered up a dictionary, thesaurus, and an MLA handbook too. I think I'll add my American Literature Anthology to the room too. I am going to print a picture of her family and put it in a frame. The router, printer and the house phone are in her room because that is where the wiring for these things happens to be located.

Here is her room, bouncing little sisters and all.  I am excited that this seemingly empty room will soon be occupied by an excited teenager!

One week until we are an international family!

Only one more week and we will become an international family. We are hosting an exchange student from the Netherlands, who happens to be the daughter of a friend I had in high school. I love that we are part of one family's multi-generation exchange experience.

Mother and daughter will have very different experiences though. Bridgette went to my high school in a small town in Montana back in 1982-83. Life was different back then, no internet, no cell phones, no facebook! We live in southern California in a city with three very large high schools. The culture difference between Montana and California is striking, and the climate difference is drastic. Suffice it to say, Fenna will not be reliving her mom's experience even though I am a common person for both of them. Just thinking about hosting Bridgette's daughter has really made me think a lot about the dramatic differences in my life from then to now.

We only have 7 days until she arrives. I was nervous before, but now I'm feeling more confident that things will be great. My main concern is that we are so much more chaotic, busy and loud than what she is probably used to.

I finally decided to make a list of what I wanted to get done before Fenna arrives and school starts. We always save our house projects for summer because that's when my husband finally has time to devote to anything that needs attention. He was sick for a few weeks this summer and his projects were not getting done, not at all. In fact, he still hasn't done anything on his list. Oy. But, I made a list for myself and felt a lot less overwhelmed with life in general once I had my scattered worries all typed out in a nice neat list.

I was knocking things off my long list and feeling like I might actually be able to survive the summer without losing my mind.  And then, I did myself a huge favor and divided my list into sections:  stuff to do, stuff to do after school starts, and stuff for Keith to do.  Ahhhh, my list of things to do before next week not only became manageable but it is very possible I might get it all done! Wouldn't that be something!

Keith was supposed to start back to school on Friday the 5th, but he has to go in on Monday the 1st. That gives him today to finish his list. No worries, I told him if he doesn't do his stuff he can hire someone to take care of that.  Hit him in the wallet, that'll motivate the boy!

Since our daughter moved home with her 11 month old tornado of destruction, we've had to make a lot of changes around here. She works, so I am often herding all three runts by myself. This does not help me get anything done. I deleted things off of my to-do list just because they were going to be impossible.  I removed all of my summer sewing projects from my list. There just isn't time. Maybe after school starts, maybe I can hire a babysitter for Libby and Charlie so that I can sit down and sew. In the meantime, I'm trying to run the rug doctor in between naps.

The biggest change with adding them to the household was shuffling the three bedrooms. What a big job! The room I had ready for Fenna became the little girls' room and their room became Lexie and Charlie's room. Now the guest room is being transformed into Fenna's room. It sounds a lot easier than it is.

Fenna gets a bigger room with a bigger window than she would have had. She will be the only bedroom on the main floor, but that might be nice for her too. She'll have more privacy in the mornings when she is getting ready for school, and the bathroom downstairs is the best one. Plus, if she has friends over, they won't have to go upstairs to her room and pass by all of our rooms. This should work out just fine... seven people in one house and Fenna ends up getting her own room and it is a nice sized one too! It isn't pink though, that's the big sacrifice. 

I let the exchange student company know about the additions to our household. The main YFU representative that I have contact with delegated the responsibility of running a criminal background check on Lexie to another YFU rep. After a week of not hearing anything, I contacted YFU again. She delegated the job to yet another YFU person. So far, her emails have included five or six other YFU workers (since the beginning of our contact). I have no idea who our rep really is since it seems to be a different person each time we have any contact. We completed our on-line host family orientation too. I'm glad I didn't drive all the way to Orange with three kids to watch a power point presentation of the parenting handbook. Anyway, that is done and there were no surprises in the information. Pretty straight forward common sense type things. The information was good though, it just wasn't anything I couldn't figure out on my own.

Now that there is only a week left, I'm trying to think of the last minute things that need to be done too. I found a dictionary and a thesaurus to put in her room, and last night I found my MLA handbook.  That's what she'll need for school! I hope her reading list is a good one, I probably have some of the books already, we'll see.

What a difference a list and a week make! Last week I was nervous and this week I am just excited. I'm still not ready though. Good thing I have a few days yet! 

Getting Nervous!

This summer has been flying by so fast! We haven't done anywhere near as much as we thought we would accomplish this summer; we say that at the end of every summer. I wonder when I will learn. In two short weeks, my husband will go back to teaching and Fenna, our exchange student, arrives from The Netherlands!

Recently, our second daughter moved back home with her baby too. This house is always hopping!

When I volunteered our family to host an exchange student, there were only the four of us in the house. We had two bedrooms being used for storage and toys and guests, but they were available for someone to inhabit for a good long time. I had hoped beyond all hope that Lexie would come back home, but after two years, I sort of gave up. At 20 years old, she is more stubborn than ever and I felt like it just wasn't going to happen. We agreed that our family of four would grow to five by taking her as our exchange-student daughter. Yay!

Of course, after all of the arrangements were made and agreed upon to have Fenna move in with us, Lexie moves home. We certainly aren't going to turn Lexie away, but now our host family agreement is off kilter.  I better inform the exchange student company who arranges all of the host student and family pairings.  Our application to host reflects a family of four and we had a family interview where everyone who lives in the house had to be present. YFU also called our friends and neighbors and checked on our character and checked to see if we are criminals or anything.  It wasn't until after those were approved that Lexie and Charlie moved back home. In fact, Lexie is still unloading things from her car. Now I'm feeling a little weird and wonder if I need to amend all of the applications and interview process and all of that. I'm pretty sure that the timing is too tight to make any changes, and I really don't want to mess up her exchange year by being suddenly denied as a host family.

I think we will still be a good family to host her. Even though there are now six of us instead of four.  She will have her own bedroom and share a bathroom, those arrangements are the same. Although, we did decide to give her the main floor bedroom rather than an upstairs bedroom. She is actually getting a bigger room.  But, the interviewer and the application required photos of her room and I submitted photos of a different bedroom.

We moved the little girls from the green bedroom upstairs to the pink room. They will share a bedroom just like they always have done. They get lonely, so they need to share. Lexie and Charlie are taking the green room, which was Lexie's room before. It is a bigger bedroom and will be better for the two of them. Charlie needs an upstairs room so that he can go to bed earlier than the rest of us and our noise won't be keeping him awake. The bedroom downstairs was their other option, but the house is too active down on the main floor for a sleeping baby. That's why Fenna gets the room downstairs and Lexie and Charlie are taking an upper floor room. It works out anyway you arrange it, Fenna would have her own room either up or down stairs.

Hopefully, YFU will be in favor of us moving her from an upstairs room to a downstairs room. I can send them photos if they want them. She'll have a bed, dresser, desk, chair, closet, window...  all of the requirements from the company. They don't require that she has her own room, but they require that she has her own bed in a bedroom with a window that meets fire code.  I guess we qualify for all of that. I just don't want them to think we are really flaky before she even arrives. Watch, they'll stick red flags on our family file. Egads!  The difficult family! See how crazy nervous I am?

Why am I so nervous about being a good host family? Well... because! Someone with a pen and a clipboard is judging my momness! This girl is the daughter of one of my friends from high school. Fenna's mom was an exchange student and we were friends in 1983! How cool is that?  So of course, I want to be Fenna's host family and I don't want YFU to tell me we aren't good enough. I have no idea if they have rules about how many people per sq ft in a house or not. We will have 7 people and 1 dog living under one roof. Hopefully the exchange company and Fenna will still be ok with this little change in family dynamics.

I don't see how it really changes much as far as normal daily life goes. Adding two more to our household won't impact Fenna's place in our family much. The biggest difference will be the baby-proofing that we've had to do around the house, and she will have to learn to keep her things away from the destructive curious toddler. Otherwise, she'll go to school, make friends, go fun places with us and fit right in. Actually, she might really enjoy having Lexie around; Lexie is pretty cool.

If I get some things done before she arrives, I won't be so nervous. Aside from calling YFU on Monday to report my changes, I need to: get new brakes on the van, shampoo the carpets (again), powerwash the patios, paint her room, clean out a couple of bathroom drawers for her to use, dust the ceiling and mop under the couch. I don't want her to arrive and say, "Oh no, I'm not living here!" in the same sort of way Gracie said, "No way! I'm not doing that!" at swimming lessons when her teacher told her to put her face in the water.

All nervousness aside, I really am looking forward to hosting Fenna. We will take her all sorts of fun places and explore Southern California as best we can. This is what we do anyway, the little girls and I venture out as much as we can. I get bored easily and I love to go out and play tourist, so we go to lots of different places and we're always looking for something new. I am used to taking the kids out on my own, so I'm not expecting her to be my new helper. I just think it will be lots of fun to have her join our big loud family. I hope it all works out well and she actually has time to study.

I think I'll go have a glass of wine and go scrub something. That will shake off my frazzled nerves.