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.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
And then there were Three!
Three Musketeers. Three Little Pigs. Three men in a tub. Three bears. Three Stooges. Three Amigos. Three wise men. Three Blind Mice. Three's Company.
Three runts living under my roof.
My 20 yr old daughter moved back home with her 10 month old son (who is now 11 mths). I just love having them here every day! This does change the family dynamics, and adds chaos, confusion and expense. Adding two people to the house also makes us all bump elbows once in a while. Isn't that what family is all about?
The conversation in the house now is consumed by sudden bursts of "No, Charlie! No!" Babyproofing had to be done in a fast and furious way. Gates are up, remotes are hidden, legos are packed away, bathroom door is shut, etc. There is always more babyproofing to do as he finds new things to take down and destroy.
The boy loves to destroy whatever he can get his hands on. He is fascinated with his super awesome pinching, pulling and yanking skills. He also has fantastic biting, drooling and chewing skills too. If there was a baby Olympics, he would bring home a lot of gold medals!
The kitchen lightswitches in this house are in the oddest place: Under the counter! I don't know who thought that was a great idea, but there isn't really a way to babyproof them. Charlie likes to make strobe light effects in the kitchen at all hours. So fun. And when he's in his high chair, he can flip the switches with his toes. He's uber cool like that!
Libby and Charlie are so close to the same size, they could be mistaken for twins. I suppose it would help if they looked more alike, but Charlie actually looks a lot more like Gracie than Libby. The three of them are like peas in a pod. They are pretty good buddies and the girls take care that Charlie is safe and not eating Barbie shoes or something. They love to feed him. So far, they are feeding him actual food and not Play-Doh or other bizarre things. I'm sure they'll get to that later.
With three little tornadoes in the house, I'm doing my best to be the one-man clean-up crew. So far, they are winning the war. Diapers, food, water paint, bath bubbles, toys, crayons, shoes, sprinklers, laundry, smears of jelly, hair tangles, wet swimsuits, and that describes any given normal ten minutes of our day.
Keith and Lexie are usually sleeping or at work. It's me against the triple tot twisters. The secret to wearing them out and keeping them happy while letting the dust settle in the house is to ignore the pile of sippy cups in the sink and get out and go!
Three runts living under my roof.
My 20 yr old daughter moved back home with her 10 month old son (who is now 11 mths). I just love having them here every day! This does change the family dynamics, and adds chaos, confusion and expense. Adding two people to the house also makes us all bump elbows once in a while. Isn't that what family is all about?
The conversation in the house now is consumed by sudden bursts of "No, Charlie! No!" Babyproofing had to be done in a fast and furious way. Gates are up, remotes are hidden, legos are packed away, bathroom door is shut, etc. There is always more babyproofing to do as he finds new things to take down and destroy.
The boy loves to destroy whatever he can get his hands on. He is fascinated with his super awesome pinching, pulling and yanking skills. He also has fantastic biting, drooling and chewing skills too. If there was a baby Olympics, he would bring home a lot of gold medals!
The kitchen lightswitches in this house are in the oddest place: Under the counter! I don't know who thought that was a great idea, but there isn't really a way to babyproof them. Charlie likes to make strobe light effects in the kitchen at all hours. So fun. And when he's in his high chair, he can flip the switches with his toes. He's uber cool like that!
Libby and Charlie are so close to the same size, they could be mistaken for twins. I suppose it would help if they looked more alike, but Charlie actually looks a lot more like Gracie than Libby. The three of them are like peas in a pod. They are pretty good buddies and the girls take care that Charlie is safe and not eating Barbie shoes or something. They love to feed him. So far, they are feeding him actual food and not Play-Doh or other bizarre things. I'm sure they'll get to that later.
With three little tornadoes in the house, I'm doing my best to be the one-man clean-up crew. So far, they are winning the war. Diapers, food, water paint, bath bubbles, toys, crayons, shoes, sprinklers, laundry, smears of jelly, hair tangles, wet swimsuits, and that describes any given normal ten minutes of our day.
Keith and Lexie are usually sleeping or at work. It's me against the triple tot twisters. The secret to wearing them out and keeping them happy while letting the dust settle in the house is to ignore the pile of sippy cups in the sink and get out and go!
Monday, July 4, 2011
The 4th of July - First Real Parade
Happy 4th! I corrected a lot of my parenting wrongs today. My child is 5 years old and has no idea how to celebrate the 4th of July. Whoa, how did I manage to let that happen? I decided to fix my errors and introduce the little ones to some good old fashioned Independence Day celebrations.
I realized that I've never taken my girls to a parade. A real parade. They've only seen parades at Disneyland, and while those parades are awesome, they aren't the real street parade that everyone knows. My girls should experience the real deal and catch some candy from a float made of chicken wire and napkins, see the marching band walking in crooked rows, and see the big red fire engine at the end. It's an all-American childhood kind of thing that every kid should do!
The parade was at 10am, so we had plenty of time to wake up leisurely and get across town for the parade. We got there at 9:30 and parking was looking bleak. I followed the line of traffic and people were filling in a Wells Fargo parking lot a couple of blocks from the parade route. Not bad. We parked and walked to main street. Luckily, there was a shady spot just waiting for us right at the end of the street. Score!
We had a about 15 minutes before the parade start time, and who knows if they start on time. It isn't Disneyland! Plus, we were at the end of the route, we might waiting half an hour. We noticed all of the red, white and blue that people were wearing. It was fun to people-watch with the girls. Libby saw three little girls wearing "Ponyo dresses" and she was wishing that she would have worn hers. They were cute, but those little girls were sweating like crazy in those red satin dresses and I'm glad Libby didn't wear hers. It was way too hot out for satin!
By the way, a "Ponyo Dress" is a red dress with white trim. Libby has a Christmas dress that looks just like the dress worn by the little girl in the movie "Ponyo". It's a little Japanese anime movie that is super cute. We love the movie. It's sort of an environmentalist's version of "Little Mermaid".
Just before 10am, I sensed that everyone behind us in the shade was going to move around us and sit in front of the girls. So, we moved up to the curb and sat in the sun for a bit. Gracie sat in the stroller with the shade over her head and Libby sat in the shade of the stroller. Even in our make-shift shade though, it was still awfully hot. 97 degrees, but it felt like a lot more in the sun on the concrete.
The parade started on time and it didn't take long for the police vehicles to reach our end of the street. The girls loved the cop cars and motorcycles! They even loved the cops on horses! They were first, and after that, the girls didn't think much of any of the parade entries. They were very disappointed.
There were lots of pageant princesses, but they were just girls with crowns on their heads riding in cars. Car after car of them. A few walked, one in high heels! Poor girl. There were cars with politicians waving. Not impressive to a couple of little girls who don't give a hoot about who sits on the city commission.
There must have been three or four clusters of Boy Scouts walking. And a couple of Moms groups pushing strollers and pulling wagons. We waved, but Gracie and Libby were more than tired of these not so exciting parade entries. Where's the good stuff? Where are the floats?
Some soldiers! Yes! Now that's exciting! A big vehicle pulling a tank went by and the "Young Marines" walked by holding up a huge flag. We all clapped and cheered for them along with the crowd.
And then a semi-truck with a flatbed came along. That was exciting too. Guess who was on the flatbed, yup, more pageant princesses. How many girls are in those crazy pageants anyway?
After an hour, no marching bands had gone by and nobody threw candy. The girls were hot and bored. This wasn't at all as good as a Disneyland parade and they let me know it. I dare say, I've raised opinionated little girls. And they sure aren't shy expressing their criticism to their captive audience: me. They begged to leave. We are at a 4th of July parade and you want to leave before the end? I blamed the heat and agreed to start hiking back to the parking lot and prayed the whole way that my van wasn't hauled off by the tow truck pirates.
Whew! It's still there! We drove up the street and there was a great All-American dream come true - I know the girls will love this! I pulled into In-N-Out and ordered burgers, fries and pink lemonade. We came home and enjoyed our 4th of July treat! Ah, saved the day!
I realized that I've never taken my girls to a parade. A real parade. They've only seen parades at Disneyland, and while those parades are awesome, they aren't the real street parade that everyone knows. My girls should experience the real deal and catch some candy from a float made of chicken wire and napkins, see the marching band walking in crooked rows, and see the big red fire engine at the end. It's an all-American childhood kind of thing that every kid should do!
The parade was at 10am, so we had plenty of time to wake up leisurely and get across town for the parade. We got there at 9:30 and parking was looking bleak. I followed the line of traffic and people were filling in a Wells Fargo parking lot a couple of blocks from the parade route. Not bad. We parked and walked to main street. Luckily, there was a shady spot just waiting for us right at the end of the street. Score!
We had a about 15 minutes before the parade start time, and who knows if they start on time. It isn't Disneyland! Plus, we were at the end of the route, we might waiting half an hour. We noticed all of the red, white and blue that people were wearing. It was fun to people-watch with the girls. Libby saw three little girls wearing "Ponyo dresses" and she was wishing that she would have worn hers. They were cute, but those little girls were sweating like crazy in those red satin dresses and I'm glad Libby didn't wear hers. It was way too hot out for satin!
By the way, a "Ponyo Dress" is a red dress with white trim. Libby has a Christmas dress that looks just like the dress worn by the little girl in the movie "Ponyo". It's a little Japanese anime movie that is super cute. We love the movie. It's sort of an environmentalist's version of "Little Mermaid".
Just before 10am, I sensed that everyone behind us in the shade was going to move around us and sit in front of the girls. So, we moved up to the curb and sat in the sun for a bit. Gracie sat in the stroller with the shade over her head and Libby sat in the shade of the stroller. Even in our make-shift shade though, it was still awfully hot. 97 degrees, but it felt like a lot more in the sun on the concrete.
The parade started on time and it didn't take long for the police vehicles to reach our end of the street. The girls loved the cop cars and motorcycles! They even loved the cops on horses! They were first, and after that, the girls didn't think much of any of the parade entries. They were very disappointed.
There were lots of pageant princesses, but they were just girls with crowns on their heads riding in cars. Car after car of them. A few walked, one in high heels! Poor girl. There were cars with politicians waving. Not impressive to a couple of little girls who don't give a hoot about who sits on the city commission.
There must have been three or four clusters of Boy Scouts walking. And a couple of Moms groups pushing strollers and pulling wagons. We waved, but Gracie and Libby were more than tired of these not so exciting parade entries. Where's the good stuff? Where are the floats?
Some soldiers! Yes! Now that's exciting! A big vehicle pulling a tank went by and the "Young Marines" walked by holding up a huge flag. We all clapped and cheered for them along with the crowd.
And then a semi-truck with a flatbed came along. That was exciting too. Guess who was on the flatbed, yup, more pageant princesses. How many girls are in those crazy pageants anyway?
After an hour, no marching bands had gone by and nobody threw candy. The girls were hot and bored. This wasn't at all as good as a Disneyland parade and they let me know it. I dare say, I've raised opinionated little girls. And they sure aren't shy expressing their criticism to their captive audience: me. They begged to leave. We are at a 4th of July parade and you want to leave before the end? I blamed the heat and agreed to start hiking back to the parking lot and prayed the whole way that my van wasn't hauled off by the tow truck pirates.
Whew! It's still there! We drove up the street and there was a great All-American dream come true - I know the girls will love this! I pulled into In-N-Out and ordered burgers, fries and pink lemonade. We came home and enjoyed our 4th of July treat! Ah, saved the day!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Five Generation Photo Shoot
One might think that in order for five generations of one family to get together, the family tree would have to be very twisted. Or a long line of teen moms. But, we are just your average ordinary family. One of us just happens to be a very healthy determined 103 yr old.
I am the generation in the middle. I am a grand-daughter and a grand-mother. I am a mom and a daughter. I am the middle one and it is incredible! The middle is the best, just like the stuffing in an Oreo. That's me!
My grandma is the head of this five generation thing we've got going on. My mom is her daughter and then me. My daughters are the 4th generation and they each have a baby boy. Five generations that branch out two ways. Pretty cool!
To celebrate the new 5th generation baby, my mom and grandma drove all the way from Wyoming to visit the new baby in San Diego. Three week old Henry was pretty excited about meeting his great grandma and his great-great grandma. You could tell.
We had a five generation visit and photo shoot 8 months ago right after Charlie was born. Now Henry is here and we decided to do it all over again. I'm so glad we did! Luckily, both Charlie and Henry are good weather babies and the grandmas were able to travel to see them.
This photo shoot was no easy feat. First of all, the grandmas had to travel over a 1,000 miles just to be here (one way). I take that back. First, we had to plan this whole shebang! We struggled with picking a day to do this. We didn't want it too soon after Henry's birth; gotta give baby and mama a chance to recover and get a few hours of sleep! And we had to dodge the busy social calendar of the grandmas. They had a window of opportunity to travel without missing out on some festivities at home. We also needed to schedule a date with the photographer. The hardest thing to work around was the work schedule of Katie's husband, Andrew. He was on paternity leave up until the day before the photos and he didn't know what his schedule would be. We wanted him there but we had to take a gamble and just hope he would be available for the photos. It turned out that he wasn't able to be there, but we sure tried.
We also had to pick a place to shoot these photos. This was an important thing because we wanted the pictures to be pretty, but we had requirements for the setting and since none of us are familiar enough with San Diego, we had to sort of shoot in the dark to pick a spot. This wasn't easy. And let's just not even talk about how hard it was to find a restaurant for after-photo-shoot dinner!
We all had to have something photo-worthy to wear. The grandmas had their blouses and slacks all clean and pressed and ready to go. They didn't need to shop before the trip for anything new, their closets were stocked.
Lexie and I weren't as lucky. We had to go shopping! We both needed something to wear and all of the kids needed something too. We took the kids to the mall in Escondido and we just hoped we would find something. It's a big mall with lots of stores and a nice play area. As soon as we walked in we found a store to explore called H&M. Neither one of us had ever shopped in an H&M store before; I vaguely remember seeing an ad for it online. This place was so awesome! Lexie found an adorable dress that fit her perfectly. And she found some cute white jeans and a navy blue Tshirt for Charlie. I found a white sun-dress for Gracie.
On our previous shopping trip to find photo shoot clothes, we found a pair of shoes for Charlie and a blue dress for Libby at Gymboree at the Temecula Mall, but the shoes were pretty casual and they were more just because Charlie could use a new pair. And the blue dress wasn't really on my mind for the photos because I really wanted the little girls to match.
Since Charlie and Lexie were wearing blue and white, I thought Gracie and Libby could wear blue and white even if they didn't match each other. Good plan. I didn't find anything new for myself, but I know I have something in my closet even if it isn't jumping out at me saying "Pick me!". With little ones, our shopping trip was cut short by boredom - boredom multiplied by three! Off we went to the play area. We only went to one store but it was a huge success. We also picked up lots of other things besides photo-shoot outfits. Score!
The day of the photo session, I found a dress in my closet that I've only worn once before. I wore it to Katie's bridal shower two years ago. I put it on and my mom came in to peek. She squinched up her face and shook her head. Ok, that's going back on the hanger! I tried another dress. I liked it when I bought it but then when I got it home I changed my mind and never did wear it. My mom gave this one the nod. Eh, ok.
Then we all had to do our hair and make-up too.We spent all morning and half the afternoon getting ready!
Men have it so easy! My husband just went to his closet and randomly picked out a shirt and he was dressed. I want to be a man in my next life!
Poor Katie. She only had an hour of sleep the night before the photos, no chance of a nap, her husband just went back to work (that was always hard for me when I had a newborn), and she didn't have a thing to wear. I don't know how that girl pulled it off, but she managed to run to Target and yank something off the rack, slapped on some make-up and she looked like a magazine cover girl. She sure didn't look tired.
We had to take two cars to San Diego. We were meeting at Balboa Park for the photos. Our photographer had one certain bench picked out for us in the park. We talked him into considering another bench, closer to the parking lot and it worked out beautifully. He was able to shoot most of the photos at the nearest bench, and took other photos just a few yards away for totally different backgrounds. Balboa Park is beautiful, even more so when the photographer has his favorite spots with his favorite angles.
The photos are icing on the cake, really. The best part is that we were all able to get together for a big visit and enjoy each other's company all at the same time. It was amazing to look down the dinner table and see so many people having such a great time, and knowing they're all family.
I am the generation in the middle. I am a grand-daughter and a grand-mother. I am a mom and a daughter. I am the middle one and it is incredible! The middle is the best, just like the stuffing in an Oreo. That's me!
My grandma is the head of this five generation thing we've got going on. My mom is her daughter and then me. My daughters are the 4th generation and they each have a baby boy. Five generations that branch out two ways. Pretty cool!
To celebrate the new 5th generation baby, my mom and grandma drove all the way from Wyoming to visit the new baby in San Diego. Three week old Henry was pretty excited about meeting his great grandma and his great-great grandma. You could tell.
We had a five generation visit and photo shoot 8 months ago right after Charlie was born. Now Henry is here and we decided to do it all over again. I'm so glad we did! Luckily, both Charlie and Henry are good weather babies and the grandmas were able to travel to see them.
This photo shoot was no easy feat. First of all, the grandmas had to travel over a 1,000 miles just to be here (one way). I take that back. First, we had to plan this whole shebang! We struggled with picking a day to do this. We didn't want it too soon after Henry's birth; gotta give baby and mama a chance to recover and get a few hours of sleep! And we had to dodge the busy social calendar of the grandmas. They had a window of opportunity to travel without missing out on some festivities at home. We also needed to schedule a date with the photographer. The hardest thing to work around was the work schedule of Katie's husband, Andrew. He was on paternity leave up until the day before the photos and he didn't know what his schedule would be. We wanted him there but we had to take a gamble and just hope he would be available for the photos. It turned out that he wasn't able to be there, but we sure tried.
We also had to pick a place to shoot these photos. This was an important thing because we wanted the pictures to be pretty, but we had requirements for the setting and since none of us are familiar enough with San Diego, we had to sort of shoot in the dark to pick a spot. This wasn't easy. And let's just not even talk about how hard it was to find a restaurant for after-photo-shoot dinner!
We all had to have something photo-worthy to wear. The grandmas had their blouses and slacks all clean and pressed and ready to go. They didn't need to shop before the trip for anything new, their closets were stocked.
Lexie and I weren't as lucky. We had to go shopping! We both needed something to wear and all of the kids needed something too. We took the kids to the mall in Escondido and we just hoped we would find something. It's a big mall with lots of stores and a nice play area. As soon as we walked in we found a store to explore called H&M. Neither one of us had ever shopped in an H&M store before; I vaguely remember seeing an ad for it online. This place was so awesome! Lexie found an adorable dress that fit her perfectly. And she found some cute white jeans and a navy blue Tshirt for Charlie. I found a white sun-dress for Gracie.
On our previous shopping trip to find photo shoot clothes, we found a pair of shoes for Charlie and a blue dress for Libby at Gymboree at the Temecula Mall, but the shoes were pretty casual and they were more just because Charlie could use a new pair. And the blue dress wasn't really on my mind for the photos because I really wanted the little girls to match.
Since Charlie and Lexie were wearing blue and white, I thought Gracie and Libby could wear blue and white even if they didn't match each other. Good plan. I didn't find anything new for myself, but I know I have something in my closet even if it isn't jumping out at me saying "Pick me!". With little ones, our shopping trip was cut short by boredom - boredom multiplied by three! Off we went to the play area. We only went to one store but it was a huge success. We also picked up lots of other things besides photo-shoot outfits. Score!
The day of the photo session, I found a dress in my closet that I've only worn once before. I wore it to Katie's bridal shower two years ago. I put it on and my mom came in to peek. She squinched up her face and shook her head. Ok, that's going back on the hanger! I tried another dress. I liked it when I bought it but then when I got it home I changed my mind and never did wear it. My mom gave this one the nod. Eh, ok.
Then we all had to do our hair and make-up too.We spent all morning and half the afternoon getting ready!
Men have it so easy! My husband just went to his closet and randomly picked out a shirt and he was dressed. I want to be a man in my next life!
Poor Katie. She only had an hour of sleep the night before the photos, no chance of a nap, her husband just went back to work (that was always hard for me when I had a newborn), and she didn't have a thing to wear. I don't know how that girl pulled it off, but she managed to run to Target and yank something off the rack, slapped on some make-up and she looked like a magazine cover girl. She sure didn't look tired.
We had to take two cars to San Diego. We were meeting at Balboa Park for the photos. Our photographer had one certain bench picked out for us in the park. We talked him into considering another bench, closer to the parking lot and it worked out beautifully. He was able to shoot most of the photos at the nearest bench, and took other photos just a few yards away for totally different backgrounds. Balboa Park is beautiful, even more so when the photographer has his favorite spots with his favorite angles.
The photos are icing on the cake, really. The best part is that we were all able to get together for a big visit and enjoy each other's company all at the same time. It was amazing to look down the dinner table and see so many people having such a great time, and knowing they're all family.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Five Years (or so) Later...
We hosted an exchange student from Germany five years ago. Wait, maybe it was six years ago. Really, it doesn't seem like very long ago at all but I guess it was. Time flies!
We'll soon be hosting again and I was thinking about what we would be doing in the next year that would interest a teenager. Our lives have changed so much in the last 5 years. When Anna was here, we had two teenage girls, I was going to college and we were fairly new to Southern California. Now, we have two little girls and I don't work or go to school any more. Most of our activity is aimed at the interests of the preschooler and toddler. This could be torture for a teenager!
The school year of 2005-2006 was the year we took in Anna. She was originally placed with another family but it wasn't a good match between them and she needed a new host family. Katie came home and said "Can we keep her?" My kids never brought home puppy dogs or frogs and begged to keep them, but kids, they brought home one after another after another. The other strays were always local kids who stayed for night or three. Anna stayed with us for the entire school year. She had only been with the first family for a few weeks.
We've kept in touch with Anna. She sends us the best German chocolates every Christmas! Yummy!
I asked her (in a facebook chat window) what were her favorite things we did and where were her favorite places we went while she was here.
I cut and pasted her response:
We'll soon be hosting again and I was thinking about what we would be doing in the next year that would interest a teenager. Our lives have changed so much in the last 5 years. When Anna was here, we had two teenage girls, I was going to college and we were fairly new to Southern California. Now, we have two little girls and I don't work or go to school any more. Most of our activity is aimed at the interests of the preschooler and toddler. This could be torture for a teenager!
The school year of 2005-2006 was the year we took in Anna. She was originally placed with another family but it wasn't a good match between them and she needed a new host family. Katie came home and said "Can we keep her?" My kids never brought home puppy dogs or frogs and begged to keep them, but kids, they brought home one after another after another. The other strays were always local kids who stayed for night or three. Anna stayed with us for the entire school year. She had only been with the first family for a few weeks.
We've kept in touch with Anna. She sends us the best German chocolates every Christmas! Yummy!
I asked her (in a facebook chat window) what were her favorite things we did and where were her favorite places we went while she was here.
I cut and pasted her response:
Dear Mary, I thought about all of my amazing experiences:
such as
Halloween Party & Trick or Treating
the Blocks coming over for parties or we going there
going to san diego, karlsbad, oceanside
I love the beaches!
being part of a movie
visiting Hollywood and L.A.
Quoir trip to S.F.
Sea World
Shopping in Temecula and San Diego Mall (it's so colored and huge!!!)
meeting all of katies friends and hanging out with them
making music in the band room
PROM and Homecoming
dsigning customes for mvhs performances
taking photos with you and making them pretty on your p.c.
getting your FAMILY CERTIFICATE ( awesome gesture)
being part of your homepage
Homecoming Football game at mvhs
Thankgsgiving dinner and Thankgsgiving shopping
making popcorn & cookies and watching movies
DDR - dancing
my suprise birthday party at the pizza place
mexican birthday party next door: hitting that colorful ball with candy
your graduation
trip with mrs. jeffersson to plam springs and their hills
OUR TRIP
MONTANA; WYOMING and VEGAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
mvhs swim meet and volleyball
drama performances
mvhs award ceremonies
(it was very special to me that you came there, too)
you giving me rides everywhere - thx so much!!!!!!!
it was such a special year for me... I'll never forget that time- THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!
the only thing I missed was a baby shower 
but since your family knows so many mommies I am sure that your exchange student participate in one of thise
but since your family knows so many mommies I am sure that your exchange student participate in one of thiseand... birthday party in oceanside
love, hugs&kisses Anna
Sunday, June 19, 2011
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