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.  :)

First Day of School

The day I dreaded and anticipated with excitement finally arrived, the first day of school. It is such a bittersweet day. It marks the end of the baby years for Gracie and she was more than ready to put them behind her. It was the end of "doing my own thing" too, and I've enjoyed these past two years so very much!  I was lucky to get a two year break between the schooling of my two middle kids. Not many moms can say that!

The first day of school was more exciting and happy than it was a sad ending to some good times. More fun and excitement is waiting for us with all of the opportunities that school brings. I'm especially looking forward to a year of being a high school parent again. High school is a lot more fun than elementary school, as it should be. We're all very happy to add Fenna to our family and liven things up around here. The high school here has a lot of clubs and activities, plenty of sports, dances, field trips and fun things to do. I hope there are some social opportunities for Gracie too, she is tired of being the oldest in our baby play group.

Of course the first day of school started with the kids putting on their new duds. Fenna said she went shopping for clothes at home, so we didn't shop for clothes for her, but we did stock up on school supplies (paper, pens, and that sort of thing). Gracie wore her "America dress" that I picked up for her to welcome Fenna at the airport last week. In a week, she's worn it four times. I shook it, sniffed it, and decided it was fine. I suddenly realized, Gracie doesn't have any shoes!

The child grew two shoe sizes this summer, and she only has flip-flops. I figured I'd wait until closer to school-time to buy her some shoes, no sense in getting shoes for her too soon if she's growing that fast. And.... I forgot.  I searched the school web site for a dress code, but couldn't find one. Hopefully, they will be forgiving on the first day, and the second day too. Lets face it, the first day of school is overwhelming enough for this mama without adding shoe shopping to it too.  Fenna is not suffering from a lack of shoes; I've seen four pair thus far.

Gracie was enrolled in the afternoon kindergarten class, so her first day doesn't start until 11:05am. Unless its a Monday, then she starts at 10:15am.  Or if it's another special schedule day she starts at 8:45am. I guess they use the word "afternoon" loosely. Fenna's classes start promptly at 7:30am, except on late start days (one per month) classes start at 10am. She was supposed to meet her counselor and the other exchange students at 7:20 in the counselor's office, and she'd need 5 minutes or so to walk across campus and find the group. We decided arriving at 7:15 would be perfect. No problem! It is three miles. Three. We left at 7am. I remember leaving at 7:05 - 7:10 to get the girls to school by 7:30.

My memory sucks.

I got her there just in the nick of time! 7:28am. She was late to her group meet-up, but I figured she wasn't officially late for school. Sort of. Ugh. I prayed hard all the way home that she wasn't the only one late for the exchange student tour - maybe the counselor told everyone 7:20 so that they'd be there by 7:30. Yeah, let's go with that story.  Later she told me she was the last one to join their morning meeting and I felt so bad. There was a mile of cars behind me and not one of them had an exchange student? Arg! Just my luck!

The little girls were still in bed, so I had some quiet morning time with Charlie before they got up. Sweet! Lexie went to donate blood before work. Next thing you know, it was time to gather the herd and take Gracie to school.

I loaded the little kids into the double stroller and we trudged up the hill to Gracie's school. It is probably three-quarters of a mile, but uphill the entire distance. Lordy, I am out of shape! I was huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf by the time we got to the top. Beautiful view if you survive the climb. I suppose pushing 90 lbs of stroller and kiddos was what wore me out (stroller is 40 lbs, kids are each 25 or so). Charlie and Libby gained weight the further up the hill we went too. Stinkers.

Kindergarteners line up with their parents outside the schoolyard gate, then the teacher comes out and shoos all the parents back and leads the children inside the gate where they stand on a painted straight line on the sidewalk in front of the classroom. The teacher then shuts the big metal gate which sounds just like a prison cell door being slammed shut in the movies, and then she wraps a thick chain around it and clicks it shut with a padlock as big as my head. I know that security is all for the children's safety and all that jazz, but it seemed really creepy to me. There were plenty of tears shed, but none from Gracie or us.

Three hours later it was time to round everyone up for the end of the day pick-ups. Both girls are released at 2:30, but their schools are in opposite directions so we took the van. I told Fenna earlier that I would pick up Gracie first which would give her time after school to mingle, socialize, ask teachers for help, visit the library, or whatever. I'd be there around 3pm and we picked a spot to meet that morning. Off to Tovoshal, Good Lord the traffic was insane! Cars were driving on the wrong sides of the streets, people honking at each other, cars rushing ahead to get into the long line, just craziness!  I thought the high school traffic was bad in years past, the elementary drivers are worse! It took a long time to get right up to the school parking lot, but I found a spot and parked. The kindergarten kids are not allowed to leave the schoolyard without a parent walking up to the gate and taking them by the hand.  So, I had to take Libby and Charlie out of their carseats, walk to the fence, collect Gracie, walk back, buckle them all in again. I can see this will be an exercise in rapid carseat buckling. Libby does not like being buckled in, she is two. "My do it! My do it!" Guess how long that takes. Uh huh. I just buckled her up while she kicked and screamed about it.

Back into the traffic.  Now I have to turn left to get out of the parking lot and left again at the corner a block away.  Turning left across one lane of crazy people was enough to make me reconsider private school. That second left turn convinced me that private school tuition was worth every penny. I was driving whiteknuckled But, we survived the school traffic and headed downhill to the high school.

As I pulled up to the red light about halfway between the schools, of course I hit it on a red, my brakes decided they were finished.  Nice, I have a van full of runts and my brakes are grinding.  Every stop sign, they got louder.  I pulled up in front of the high school where Fenna was patiently waiting in the hot sun (note to self: we need to pick a shady spot) and my brakes are now grinding very loudly!  Back up the street toward home and we were drawing stares from pedestrians. This just isn't good. We got  home just fine and had no problems with actual slowing and stopping, but there might not be much left of my rotors.

Gracie and Fenna both had a good first day of school. Gracie made a new friend. She didn't know her name, but her hair smelled fantastic. The two girls smelled each other's hair like a couple of puppies getting acquainted (almost). Gracie said she sits at a table with David and Daniel and the girl with nice smelling hair, but the David and Daniel are different boys than the David and Daniel at preschool. Must be popular names for boys this year.

Fenna met lots of people including the exchange students. She said she didn't smell anyone's hair, but she did make lots of acquaintances. Mostly she focused on learning what the class expectations would be and where things are located. The high school is very big and a lot different from her high school back home. The classrooms here all open to the outside, and the middle of the campus is an outdoor courtyard where everyone eats lunch. There is block scheduling, so she has another first day with the rest of her classes tomorrow. Sounds like it was a good day for everyone.


First day of school was a success! Only 178 more to go!

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!

A Day at the Beach

I took all six kids to the beach yesterday.  Six is misleading, one is just a tiny baby and two are all grown up now, but they all say "Mom, mom, mom, mom..."  Maybe "six" isn't the misleading part, "kids" might be.  Syntax aside, I took them all to the beach yesterday to relax and have fun after a couple of days of hard work.

Katie came home on Sunday for one of her friend's baby shower. She took Gracie back to San Diego with her to help the poor child get over a serious case of boredom. When Gracie is bored, we all suffer. I said I'd pick her up on Tuesday, so she got a two-night slumber party with her big sis!

Lexie had Monday and Tuesday off, so I was "off-duty" for watching Charlie. I figured I'd better make good use of the time I had with only one child to look after, Libby. 

I took the rug doctor out and shampooed the carpets and seats in the van, I washed down the outdoor toys and the patio, cleaned the coolers and put them in the garage, took the trash to the curb (but I forgot one, whoops, it's gonna stink like crazy waiting a whole week for another garbage day in this heat), and I moved the furniture in Fenna's room to the middle and painted the whole room. Plus, I conquered a mountain of laundry and a kitchen full of dishes and cleaned the floors.

Painting took a lot longer than I thought. I thought it wouldn't take long to tape, but that always takes forever to get done. By the time I was ready to paint, I was exhausted from all the work I did but had to paint just so it would be done. This room needed a fresh coat of paint before we moved in, the walls were dull. I painted the other bedrooms last summer and I really wanted to get this one done too. I started painted at 8pm, in the dark, while drinking a beer.  I finished at 2am.  Tuesday morning I went in to look at it in the daylight and sure enough, it looks like I painted in the dark while drinking a beer.  We'll just hang lots of pictures.

After working so hard on Sunday evening and all day Monday, Tuesday was my "day off". I needed to go get Gracie in San Diego. I woke up sore and wishing I could just lay around in my pajamas all day. My knees hurt and one was a little swollen. I'm just not as young and agile as I used to be. I think climbing over all the furniture and  up and down the ladder was hard on these old bones. Old age can be repressed with ibuprophen and coffee! Yes!

Lexie wanted to come along with Charlie and have some fun too. Good idea, we packed up the kids and the beach towels and off we went.  Yay! A day at the beach!  It was 103 degrees when we left, wow, too hot to stay home.

The beach parking lot was packed solid, with a parking shark in every row. Katie and I both needed to park and it wasn't going to happen, so we drove across the street to the bay side. Katie didn't want to go there, but I told her I didn't want to drive up and down the beach any more, so we went across the street to Bonita Cove. Plenty of parking and not any more crowded than the beach. I like the bay for the kids anyway because there aren't any tides, the water is nice. Bonita Cove also  had restrooms, showers, and a whole bunch of play equipment. We didn't end up letting the kids on any of the playground structures though because we went right to the water's edge.

We parked next to each other and turned Gracie loose. She had the biggest hugs for me! So sweet! She hugged Libby and Charlie with all her might too. That was it, mushy stuff was over, back to normal. It was just like she was never gone. 

We found a shady spot on the grass right next to the sand, and we were still close to the water. It was perfect. Lexie put a good amount of sunscreen on Charlie and then he was free to run in the sand and sun. I put sunscreen on Libby before we left the house to let it soak in so that sand wouldn't stick to her, she doesn't like that.

Gracie ran right out to the water to splash around and the two little ones wanted to go too. I let Libby go on her own and I took Charlie to the water's edge.  They were all thrilled! Lexie and Katie were visiting, setting up "camp" and putting on sunscreen too.

Charlie, or Mr. Daredevil, was super happy to be in the water. He was shoving his face into it all the way down to the sand and coming up smiling. He "kisses" whatever he loves, and he apparently loves the beach. And he kept crawling/walking out into the water a little farther. I'd pull him back and off he'd go again. The layer of sunscreen made him very slippery, it was like trying to catch a 25 pound fish!

In the meantime, Gracie was farther into the water splashing and squealing and giggling and having a good time. The water has such a slow slope that she had to go out a few yards to get where it was a little deeper and could get her legs under the water.

Libby was staying close to me, but Charlie was splashing too much for her tastes. She decided to venture closer to Gracie and I hollered at her to stay close.  Now that I think about it, what does "Libby! Stay close!" mean to a two year old? She probably had no idea what I meant. Abstract commands aren't interpreted well by toddlers.

That's when it happened, while I was taking pictures with one hand and controlling wet, slippery, happy Charlie with the other and trying not to get wet. That's when Libby got away from me and tried to catch up with her sister.  She was in water up to her hips and I saw her fall forward, just like she did in the driveway earlier in the day, she lost her footing and fell forward with her hands straight out to catch herself.

Libby was face down in the water with her arms out to the sides and her legs dangling; she couln't stand up. She couldn't turn over; she just flailed in a panic.

I panicked too.

I shoved my camera in my hip pocket, scooped up Charlie with a sudden disregard for getting my clothes wet, I planted him on my hip and ran out to scoop up Libby.  I took about three big strides and bent over to scoop her up with my free arm. She was sputtering and coughing so I think she got water in her mouth and nose, but I got to her quick enough that she didn't get any in her lungs. I have no idea why, but I was screaming to her and I was screaming "Gracie!".  Didn't make sense but in the moment that's what I did.

Gracie was confused. I was screaming her name and her sister was "swimming".  She is such a good big sister, she clapped and cheered for Libby and told her "I'm so proud of you! You put your face in da water!"  I like her optimistic viewpoint so very much!

I was soaking wet up to my middle (how did the water level at Libby's hips become the water level at my hips?) and I had one dripping wet kid on each hip. I waded back to the shore and told Gracie to come too. We all went up to our little towel camp where Katie, Lexie and Henry were visiting.  Lexie looked over her shoulder at us approaching and I heard her say, "Oh my God. Mom is soaking wet!"

I laid Libby down and she was shivering, so I covered her and let her recuperate from her ordeal. Told the older girls what happened and they didn't see it at all. It happened so fast, it doesn't take much to miss a kid slipping under the water, and it's a quiet catastrophe. I'm glad I didn't let Libby go to the water with her sister while I stayed nearby on our spot; I may have been tempted to do exactly that thinking she wouldn't be brave enough to go in past her knees. I am surprised she went out into the water, but with Charlie and Gracie so brave in the water she was being brave too.

Libby and I rested on the towel, I moved a towel out of the shade and into the sun so I could try to dry off. I wore khaki shorts and a yellow shirt. I suddenly wondered if my clothes were see-through when wet! Yikes! Luckily, they weren't but I didn't bring any extra clothes for myself so I just had to air-dry. My camera had to air dry too! It was wet, but not dripping soaking wet. It still seemed to work ok for a few minutes and then it just died. It works again now, a day later, the battery was wet and needed to dry and recharge. Whew!

Libby wouldn't go near the water again after that and I didn't push her. I did take her back out and waded in ankle deep water just holding her. Charlie went back out with Lexie and Katie took Henry. We stayed and played at the beach long enough for me to dry off and Charlie to completely wear himself out. Lexie looked exhausted too.  Not Gracie, she was still full of energy as always!  Henry too!

I brought dry clothes for the little girls and Charlie. We changed them all and headed to Ikea. I wanted to do some fun shopping too. Katie, Lexie and I were so cute pushing our strollers into Ikea! I wish my camera would have worked to capture us in our little family stroller parade. Gracie ditched us at the ball pit, and then we went shopping. The child care area gives you one hour to shop, so we made our way through the store as quickly as three stroller pushing mommies could go.  Afterward, we walked across the parking lot to Costco for a cheap meal.

Lexie was too tired to do anything else, actually we all were. We said our goodbyes to Katie and Henry, buckled up the kids and headed north. All four of my passengers were asleep right after I got on the freeway. I had alone time! Sort of.  I did get to listen to the radio instead of Disney music.  Traffic was great, but I wouldn't have minded if I got stuck in a traffic jam just because it was a nice quiet drive after a wonderful day.

Once I got home, I realized how exhausted I was. I was suddenly completely worn out!  After working so hard for two days and then taking all six kids to the beach and shopping all day, my old bones were barking at me. Going to the beach to relax and unwind was a lot harder than it sounded!

By the way, cleaning the van one day and then taking the kids through a fast-food drive up and then to the beach the next day is totally backward. Totally.

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!