Family time

I've got some back tracking to do to catch up on some events from earlier this month. Every summer the Mod family has a reunion the first weekend of August. The attendees are P's paternal grandmother, his dad's siblings and spouses, and whatever cousins are able to come. Usually it is a camping reunion, but this year it was just a picnic - which was perfect for me. It's not that I don't enjoy spending more time with the family, but at this point in our lives I don't love camping, and since I'm always on kid patrol I rarely have the opportunity to converse with other adults since I'm either following the girls, playing with them or at least visually following their every move. It just doesn't lend itself to catching up, as virtually any conversation longer than a minute or two gets interrupted. This year proved to be no different in that arena.

We did have a fun time though. When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to find that there was some Polynesian entertainers performing. It was a small group of performers called the Polynesian Legends. At first they were just playing some Hawaiian music, but then there was some dancing, and finally a fire dancer.

Here's C & M trying their hand at the hula.

I believe this was a Tahitian dance. The dancers picked out male participants from the audience. P was pleased to have been chosen until the girls started pulling the shirts off of the males and there was no way to gracefully exit. He was mortified to be shirtless in front of the small crowd. It didn't make him feel any better when I pointed out that he was actually in better shape than the other two men. The extreme farmers tan coupled with the weight of his keys in his shorts pocket pulling his shorts down below his underwear waistband was a nice touch : )

The Samoan fire dancer put the lit end in his mouth and then proceeded to light the other end with his mouth!

Naturally, the girls' favorite part of the reunion was the playground, and more specifically, this tire swing. They must have spent a few hours on this thing!



They only swung with this girl for a little bit. Then a girl M's age came to join them and a boy came with her and offered to push them. My girls had to take a break to eat and then when they were done they promptly went to find Naomi and Michael again so they could all resume swinging. Naomi's mom asked Michael to not push it so it would spin while her daughter was on it, so a few times he suggested the littler girls climb off so he could really push C so it would spin. Both M and Naomi were happy to oblige, so he'd push C wildly for a bit, and then they'd get back on. At one point he asked C how old she was. He was surprised when she told him five. "Oh, " he said, "I thought you were seven." He then informed her that he was eight. While he was a great kid, this glimpse into my future with the girls kind of scares me!

The day after the reunion the girls took off for the beach. P was asked to help out for a few days with a scout high adventure camp out, and those days happened to fall on the days that I work. Since I work long days, we'd have to get a babysitter for nearly 12 hours a day and I just didn't think that would work. When P asked my parents, they graciously agreed to take the girls. I had already planned to go out to the beach with the girls on Wednesday, so they'd be taking the girls three days earlier than planned and then I would come out to join them. This was the longest we have been away from both girls at the same time, so it was also the longest my folks have ever had them together. They have often taken one at a time, and they quickly learned that two is a different ball game altogether! The girls had a good time, but grandma and grandpa were tuckered out, particularly with all the bickering, by the time I arrived to relieve them. Hopefully we haven't ruined our chances of them taking both girls again in the future! We missed the girls immensely, but it would be nice to have an opportunity to spend a few days together just the two of us sometime.

P and I didn't get much of a chance to enjoy our time without kids. However, on Sunday night we did go over to our friend's house for dinner. I have to say that I had more fun than I have had in a long time since I wasn't on kid patrol. When I heard fighting or crying, I knew it had nothing to do with my kids. I was able to engage in adult conversation all night long without interruption. I actually went home that night feeling totally exhilarated.

Here's some visitors the girls saw while at the beach.

Grandma and Grandpa took the girls and I to the county fair while we were there. The girls loved their balloon butterflies.

And we saw the largest cow I have ever laid eyes on!

The same cow.

Good times!

I'm going to try to write another catch up post before I leave for the beach tomorrow, but I'm not making any promises.

Play date

We had a play date Thursday with someone near and dear to our hearts. Many of you may recognize her if you visited us last summer.

I was shocked when I first saw her at how tall she has gotten. I doubt that she remembered that she had once lived with us, although I do think we seemed familiar to her. (She does have a photo album that I made for her of the time she spent with us, which she used to look at quite frequently, but not so much anymore.) She and M played quite happily together the whole time. Perhaps she felt a special connection to M since they had shared a room. I really don't know. How much can a two and a half year old remember from 10 months ago? We last saw her about six months ago, and at the time she was very unhappy about my being there. I think she was afraid that I might take her away. The same thing happened for awhile when Neo went back to his home too, so I knew not to take it personally.

It was great to see her again and for the girls to get to play. C and M have been dying to see her, but it just hasn't worked out to get together any earlier this summer. It was also good to get brought up to speed on her case, and I am pleased to learn how things are moving forward. I was stunned to hear the update on her biological parents and it brought me to tears as I realized how naive P and I had been. Our trust was totally betrayed and we're angry to think how we were lied to, right to our faces, by the man we tried so hard to help. I don't know how I could have survived that blow if this case had still been a part of our daily life. Just one more confirmation that we did the right thing for our family by pulling out.

Anyway, back to more positive things. She is progressing and is in the process of being adopted by her current family. We are thankful that they welcome contact with us and that we can see for ourselves how well she is doing.

C said

The girls each get to spend a full week by themselves with Grandma and Grandpa at the beach during the summer. C left for her week yesterday. I talked to her for a bit last night before she went to bed, and she said a few things that really cracked me up.

While talking about how much she loved and missed us she said "Apparently, I really love you a lot, Mom."

Later she told me that they had taken her to McDonald's and gotten her a cheeseburger AND an ice cream cone. I jokingly complained that they were spoiling her, and what was I going to do when they sent her back? She replied, "I don't know. You'll just have to figure that out for yourself."

Mean girls

I have had numerous conversations with C about being nice to others, how important it is to always say things that would make people feel happy instead of sad, and how it makes us feel when others say unkind things to us. These conversations have come about because either she has been mean to other kids, or because the neighbor girls across the street have been mean to her. I have recounted to her of how sad and lonely I was in the 1st and 2nd grade because my classmates made fun of me. She has been very interested in these tales and has asked many follow up questions such as what they would say, why, and specifically who would say them.

C has a stuffed animal that was named after the orange tabby cat that we used to have. I bought it for her the night before we had to put our beloved Meow to sleep three years ago. Recently C saw fit to rename her stuffed animal. The new name is not terribly pleasing to me.


The picture is of C and her favorite stuffed animal, Stacy Rose. That's right, she gave it the first and last name of my childhood tormentor - the ringleader, no less. It doesn't matter that Stacy and I made peace with one another and, while we never became great friends, we got along just fine all the way through high school. C doesn't know that part. All she knows is that this is the girl who made me cry and tell my mother that all I really wanted for my birthday was to have a friend. Nice. I guess we have some more work to do on learning empathy.

P's 20 year reunion

This weekend was P's 20 year high school reunion. It doesn't seem possible that we have been out of school for that long! I really like that his reunions are very low key and they always have a family event. I have yet to attend one of mine as they seem more centered around alcohol and don't have a family function.

Friday night was the alumni only and he had a great time. He's a very social creature, so really, how could he not? I believe he made a point of trying to talk to every one there. Saturday was a picnic at a park, with his restaurant providing much of the food, and of course, P was cooking. As luck would have it, it fell on the third day in a row of 100 degree temperatures. Despite the heat and the barbequeing, P made the rounds and was very sad to see it come to a close. He hates that he'll have to wait another 10 years to see many of his classmates again. There's really only so many people you can carve out time to keep in touch with, and in my opinion, he has done an exceptional job of keeping up with his core friends from high school.

The girls had a good time too, although the heat and not enough sleep caused them to be moodier than usual. They tolerated being dragged around and introduced to grown ups that they had no interest in. Most of the kids there were older, but there were enough young kids there that they had a good time playing. I don't know how they could stand moving that much, but I just tried my best to keep getting water into them.

As for me, awkwardly following my husband around and being introduced to people I don't know and won't cross paths with for another 10 years is not at the top of my fun things to do list. Factor in the sweltering heat and keeping up with tempermental kids and, well, you get the picture. It was nice to see the couple of the people that I did know, and I did meet and converse with a few people where we had adoption in common - so I enjoyed that.

The most entertaining part of the day was on the ride to the park. P was already there, and we'd had to stop at a commercial grocery store to pick up more food for him so we were driving separately. The AC in the van has been broken, and we just coughed up the $500 to have it fixed - so I was telling the girls how VERY thankful I was for air conditioning. On their own accord, the girls decided to add to the list. C announced that she was thankful for our hearts. M chimed in that she was thankful for Jesus. Umm, yeah, me too. But at that moment I still had to stick with the AC. I guess I'm just the most shallow member of the family. What great girls I have!

Half year photos

The girls turn 5 1/2 and 3 1/2 this month, so it is time for their half year photos together. This time I decided to try a new studio and we went to Portrait Innovations. Their prices were pretty comparable to Sears, but I felt that the quality of photos we got was better. They captured so many adorable shots of the girls, both together and individually, that it was hard to only buy two poses. Maybe someday we won't have budget restrictions ; ) The only downside of this studio is that they don't post the photos online, so unless you buy at least $80 worth of pictures and you get a CD of the session, you don't have any way to see all the poses you didn't purchase.

 

M's first haircut

After four weeks of swimming class, the chlorine had really done a number on M's hair. Her hair is dry to begin with, but now it was just out of control. I've been reluctant to cut her beautiful curly locks. Initially it was because the longer her hair got, the more manageable it was, so I just didn't want to take it shorter again. As time went by, I became more emotionally attached to the idea of leaving her with all the hair she was born with. After all, she's three now, so what's the rush for her first haircut? Besides, when her hair is all wet it reaches all the way down to her bum, and how cute is that?! But now there was no denying that it was finally time to cut those dry, damaged, wispy ends - and it took some convincing to get P on board with it too.

So on August 1st I took my little girl for her first cut. Luckily she was already familiar with Naomi, who cuts both my hair and C's, so we didn't have to get over her shyness to get started. She only took off about 1 1/2 inches on the back, and less as she moved forward since that hair wasn't as long as the back to begin with. Because her hair is so curly you really can't tell much difference when it is dry - only those who know would ever notice the difference.

M loved her haircut and was very good the whole time she was in the chair. The rest of the day she kept asking "Is my hair still cut?" Unfortunately I don't have an "after" photo for you, because after sitting for so long there was no standing still for her for another picture - but it's not like you won't see more pictures of her soon anyway.




Nice bubble blowing in this last picture. I actually think it's pretty impressive that a 3 year old can blow bubbles. But if this girl doesn't have a piece of gum in her mouth, she asks for one every 30 seconds. (Or when she's really on a roll, and she isn't getting the answer she wants, the requests are seriously 5 seconds apart.) She's like a broken record. Same thing with candy. Sometimes the first words out of her mouth in the morning are "Mom, can I have a piece of candy?" I don't get it. Why does she even bother asking? "M, do you EVER get candy before breakfast? Stop asking me!"

Class dismissed

Last week marked the end of structured activities for the girls this summer as they wrapped up dance and swim classes.

I took time off work last Tuesday so I could see their last dance classes. I was a little worried because they got a new teacher at the second lesson, and she wasn't letting the parents in during class so I feared I might have used vacation time for nothing. Luckily parents were welcome for both classes. M's class is first and is an intro to dance/creative movement class. I have to say that I was a little disappointed. They did play movement games that the kids seemed to enjoy, but nothing that resembled dance. In fact there wasn't even any music until they did the hokey pokey at the end. Regardless, the kids were all adorable in their ballerina get ups.





C's class was an intro to tap and ballet. Before she started the class she was sure she wanted to be a ballerina, but then she decided it would be too hard. Eventually she started to get a hang of things so her frustration level decreased and she began to like class more. I think she remained disappointed that they didn't get any time to just let loose and dance. I was pleased with her obvious improvement in coordination. By the way, I didn't pick out her leopard print outfit. It's a hand me down from her cousin and has been in C's "dress up" clothes box along with several other dance outfits. She begged to wear it for her final day.




C had a hard time keeping her hands out of her hair in this class. I think it is because she had it in braids the night before and she feels so beautiful when she has the waves in her hair - just like her sister! Here's the braids for bedtime.



I didn't take any photos of the girls in their swimming classes. M passed her second class and her teacher said she was amazing. By the end of four weeks of swimming, M was ready to be done - even though she loves being in the water. So instead of swimming class, I'll just show you one of them playing in the pool in the backyard this summer. As usual, M is all wet and C is just barely.

Shopping

Shopping with young children is never enjoyable. At the very best it is bearable, and other times you want to run out of the store in tears.

Wednesday was not my best shopping day. After swimming we ran over to Ross. I found a few new fall shirts for the girls and some outfits for a baby shower this week. When we went up to check out there were two huge lines that snaked a fair distance back into the store. Up until this time the girls had been pretty good, mostly because I had made them both ride in the cart. After waiting for five minutes to see if they'd open another register I decided there was no way this could end happily for me, so we pushed the cart to the front of the store (so they could see they were losing business) and left. Seriously, it could have taken us 30-45 minutes to check out. At that point C was out of the cart because there wasn't enough room for her in the basket with the merchandise, and she was ready to run.

I decided to hit the Wendy's drive thru to get them a little something to eat before we went to the next store, but upon seeing how long the line was I decided to find some place else. As we drove past all the cars in line, C exclaimed "This is crazy, mom. I mean this is just insane! Look at all those cars!" What five year old uses the word insane? At any rate, we had a good laugh and much better luck at the McDonalds drive thru across the street.

Finally we went to Kohls to look at a rice cooker, and now to also find a baby shower gift. Naturally, we had to make an urgent trip to the restroom - which was quite nice by the way. I hate disgusting public restrooms! I specifically asked M if she needed to go too, but she didn't. Afterwards we went back to the opposite side of the store to look at baby stuff. Three minutes after I started browsing, M announced that she desperately had to go to the bathroom. We tromp back over, get in the stall, and she doesn't have to go any more, so I tell her we won't be leaving the stall until she goes because otherwise we could play the back and forth game a few more times. Finally we finish in the bathroom, but by now the girls are clearly done and are no longer making any attempts at being on their best behavior, or even their passable behavior so we head straight to the check out line. As I'm swiping my credit card, I see that the rice cooker rang up four dollars more than the sale price. The cashier has to call the department, wait on hold while the girls are trying acrobatics around the store entrance, and then she confirms that the price I had seen was correct, but she couldn't do anything about it so I'd have to go back to the service desk located right next to the bathrooms. If it had just been me, I'd have been a little irritated, but no big deal. However, since I was losing the battle with two little ones and I can't leave the store yet due to no fault of my own, I was fuming mad. Not being a confrontational gal, I didn't say anything, but I'm pretty sure they could tell I was not pleased.

This is why I love shopping online so much. I can do it at midnight and take all the time in the world. There is no crying involved (on my part, or anyone else's). If I know exactly what I'm looking for then I'll usually buy it online. That's why I was so excited to get a shopping tip from one of my co-worker friends. I realize that I'm often the last person in the world to learn these kinds of tricks, but just in case I'm not, I thought I'd pass it on. You can do a search for specific store coupons online. On Monday night I did a little shopping. For my first purchase, I found a promotion code for 15% off, and my second purchase (different store) I got 20% off. The site I used was retailmenot. I found other sites too, but with this one you can vote whether the code worked for you or not, so you can have a pretty good idea based on feedback whether it's going to be a good code. My friend will also buy codes or coupons on Ebay if she's planning a big purchase. Paying 99 cents to save $40 is certainly worth it, and she says she hasn't had any problem with purchased coupons. She's even gotten printable ones that she's used in brick and mortar stores. I can't vouch for that personally, but I'm pretty excited that I saved about $17 on Monday without spending a dime.

Funny girls

Yep, we're still here. Nothing earth shaking to blog about though. C did not pass her swimming class, but she is happy as a clam to sit with me and watch M in her new swim class.

The last day of swimming lessons (for the first session), we went to a concert in the park in the evening. The girls and I were sitting in our camping chairs when M jumps up and runs toward a little girl who is also running towards her. They embrace in a bear hug like long lost friends. I, of course, did not recognize the little girl whose family then set up right behind us. M informs me that it is her friend from swimming class, whose name is unbeknownst to her. At any rate, the girls were pleased as punch to have a friend to dance with during the concert.



Last week we made a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up flowers for a friends birthday. As we were passing thru the bakery section, C spied the display of donuts and asked very nicely if they could please have some. Since they were being good, I agreed to let them pick out a pastry to have after lunch. M picked a chocolate bar, C picked a chocolate bar with sprinkles, and I got my favorite - maple bar. As promised, I produced the pastries after lunch and the girls munched happily. I poured a glass of milk for M, and after drinking her milk and putting the cup down she looked around, perplexed. "Where did it go?" she asked, and glanced back down at her plate.

"Where did what go?"

She looked around some more, and said something that I couldn't understand.

"Are you looking for your donut?" I asked.

She nodded her head.

I burst out laughing, "M, it's still in your hand!"

She was holding her hand close to her body and hadn't seen it. The girls both thought she was HILARIOUS. M put her (empty) hand over her mouth and giggled, and then tried a re-enactment. Well, it was funny the first time.




On Saturday M was in her bathroom combing her hair. I have to be careful because she often twists the comb or brush around and then we have a real mess. But this day she seemed to be doing just fine, so I continued with what I was doing. However, when I walked past the bathroom the next time, the door was closed so I figured I'd better have a look. As soon as I started opening the door, M called out sweetly, "Mom, I didn't do anything." And there she stood, head and counter glopped with hair creme. In all truthfulness, it wasn't too bad to deal with. After cleaning the counter, I wet my hands and worked the product thru the rest of her hair. It actually turned out to be an excellent hair day for M. Hmm, maybe I'm not using enough creme in her hair when she wears it down.



Today P had Grandpa at home watch the girls since he had to work too. When they came home from swimming lessons Grandpa offered to make them lunch, which for some odd reason they declined. He had to run out too, so he had Grandma come over for a little bit while he went to the bank. When he came back, C ran up excitedly and told him they'd had lunch. He said good, but he obviously didn't understand so she explained that she had made lunch for her and her sister all by herself. She was so pleased because while grandma was "watching" them (I use the term loosely), C made them peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches on hot dog buns (the only white bread she could find), and they washed it down with chocolate milk she mixed up herself. Grandpa said she did a good job and she didn't make a mess. I did have a laugh when I got home and saw the cups in the sink with the remnants of the chocolate milk. They must have used the whole can of Ovaltine.

Another call

Last week we got another call from DHS about a potential foster to adopt situation. J is a happy and healthy six month old baby boy who has been well cared for by his grandparents, who want to be grandparents and not parents at this stage in their life. The caseworker had me at "mellow".

When I asked her about J's ethnic background, she was a little taken aback. She said "He's caucasian, but does it really matter?" I briefly explained that while it isn't a deal breaker, we think it would be nice to have another non-caucasian child so that M won't stand out as being the only one physically different. She said "Well, he's 1/4 Jewish, if that counts." I don't think she was offended when I laughed at her.

We did go meet J and his grandparents. He truly was a happy and easy going baby, and the grandparents were really nice too! I don't know why I didn't feel any kind of connection with him. I really didn't feel anything at all, so I took that as my sign that J is not meant to join our family. After praying about my decision, I didn't feel any differently. P didn't feel anything either, but he's not expecting as much as I am either. He thinks that I'm expecting to feel like I've been hit by lightning. I don't think that I am, but I don't think it's too much to expect to feel strong feelings.

I already know that it's going to be different when we're talking about a child that is already here (and a greater risk that the adoption won't happen when doing foster to adopt) than when we adopted our girls as newborns. Although we were scared about both adoptions - whether everything would work out for us to bring the girls home, or where the money would come from - we felt very certain that we should pursue both opportunities, and that if the girls were meant to be ours that everything would work out. I'm sure that we would have been heartbroken had either girl not become our daughters, but it would have happened within weeks of our even becoming aware that we might be able to add to our family. Now we could have years of loving a child and then not being able to make them a permanent part of the family, not to mention taking into consideration how a failed situation could affect our girls. I just don't want to take any chances unless I feel confident that this is what we should do.

It's hard to understand why such a happy child shouldn't be part of our family. It's even harder to explain to caseworkers and especially the grandparents why we weren't going to take J. Understandably, I think the grandparents felt that it was a personal rejection - which it absolutely was not. Perhaps his case won't go the route of adoption after all, or perhaps there is a better family for him, or maybe our employment status is about to change and we just shouldn't be taking on the extra responsibility now. We may never know the "why".

On an adoption related note, I had an interesting little experience at the swimming pool last week. Most people don't give my little transracial family a second look, although I do occasionally have someone ask if M is adopted. This time a woman asked me if I was M's babysitter! I assured her that both girls were mine. She looked a little confused, but I didn't elaborate. She probably just came to the conclusion that I get around.

Swimming lessons

The girls started their swimming lessons last week. Well, C's class is a beginning swim class. M's class is more of a getting comfortable with water series for preschoolers. I wish I could put her in the swim class too since she already quite comfortable in water, but she's not old enough yet.

I've mentioned before that C doesn't like getting splashed or getting her face wet, so I think that is why she isn't loving swimming lessons this year. (She did previously complete the three part preschooler water series.) When we get to the pool she doesn't want to go with her teacher, and then once she is with the class she seems to do the bare minimum in the water. Today her aunt had to take her to lessons and I've heard that she was kicked out of the pool for being disruptive. I'm sure I'll find out more today after work. Hopefully she'll be welcomed back tomorrow so she can finish her class this week. I expect that she won't be passing her class, so I'm contemplating not putting her into any more swim classes until M catches up with her. Perhaps if they're in a class together she would be more cooperative. I just don't know.

M was initially very timid in her class. I don't think it was the water so much as it was that she needed a few days to warm up to her instructors and fellow classmates. She didn't want to leave P's side the first two days, but by the time I took her to class on Wednesday she was enthusiastically participating. On Friday she was making me laugh out loud because they were taking turns jumping into the water. She'd jump in, hurry out, and then bounce and dance around in line until it was her turn again. I was quite pleased to see her so excited about her class. After class she came and stood in front of me, still bouncing and dancing and said "Mom, I HAVE to go POTTY!" So much for her display of enthusiasm. She is loving her class though, and gets excited each night when we confirm that she has swim class again the next day.

Motorcycle for a day

P bought this Harley Davidson motorcycle the other day. He was soooo excited to have a bike to ride again! The girls have been dying for him to get one too.

Unfortunately, this one wasn't a keeper. Maybe someday. But he and the girls sure enjoyed it while it lasted. I honestly don't know who was more bummed about him selling the bike, but it was only around for a day before someone snapped it up.



Even our neighbor was sad to see it go. (He was hoping to take it for a spin.) Yes, I'm talking about Mr Neighbor that I've previously written about because he's been so unfriendly. I don't know what has changed, but he has been very nice to us the last couple of weeks. No more complaint calls to the city, no more ignoring us, no more perma-scowl. He actually looks, well, happy. Hopefully this will last!

Safety Town

Last Thursday C finished up Safety Town. They actually had a graduation, which I find a bit ridiculous. Graduations should be reserved for more life changing occasions like the completion of high school and college - not kindergarten, preschool,or a summer camp... but I digress.

Safety Town is an excellent program - a two week day camp to teach kindergartners and first graders safety concepts such as traffic, guns, fire, drugs, animals, poisons, stranger danger, water and more. I'm really glad that C had the opportunity to participate since it brought up so many issues that we don't deal with on a daily basis, and thus may forget to cover. The topics are reinforced with related art projects, guest speakers and some "hands on" experiences.

One of the things I appreciated was that they did a bicycle helmet fitting. C has an exceptionally small head, and she's never grown out of the smallest helmet we could find for her several years ago - it's still loose! Believe it or not, there have actually been some recent innovations in the world of bike helmets, and we were able to have her fitted for a new helmet that sits snuggly on her head for only $5. They asked that parents be present for the fittings, so M was there too. Naturally, she wanted a new helmet too. Her head is considerably bigger, so she got a size down from an adult helmet - which is too big to be cutesy, but she didn't mind. Two helmets for $10, what a deal!

4th of July

Now that I have kids the 4th of July is one of my most favorite days of the year. I remember when I was little, the city we lived in had a firework show every year. We lived on the lower elevations of a hill, so we could see the firework show from my bedroom window, but sometimes dad would drive us further up the hill so we could see even better. I remember my parents barbequeing sometimes, and occasionally we even got to do sparklers. My earliest memories of Independence Day are the fondest. When I was older, the city stopped putting on a firework show, and my parents had bought a travel trailer so most of the time we were camping at the beach for the holiday. While I loved being at the beach, the 4th of July just wasn't the same. Maybe a big part of that was simply because I was older and things just naturally lose some of their "magic". At any rate, fireworks kind of fizzle in the damp air, and there was no big show close by.

When we moved to our current house six years ago I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the 4th is celebrated in a big way in our community. The city puts on a firework show and a family friendly event at the park with bouncy houses, a big blow up slide, petting zoo and pony rides, face painting, live music, food booths and a few other odds and ends.

The reason I get so excited for the 4th is because it is chock full of fun for the girls, without really requiring much effort or planning on our part. How cool is it that nearly anything we would want to do is within walking distance?!

Our day started out bright and early with a flag raising ceremony and a breakfast at the church. They've built a nice covered pavillion next to the large field behind the church, so it's perfect for outdoor functions like this - and tons of room for the kids to run around when they're done eating. I love that this has become an annual event. It's such a great way to start the day and to remind us what we are really celebrating. I also remember attending several similar functions when I was young.

By the time we got home, the girls had a little down time while I prepared our food contribution for Hillbilly's barbeque. Unfortunately, this event is not within walking distance - so you need to move closer, Hillbilly! A good time was had by all, and fortunately this BBQ was less eventful than the last one we attended two years ago. That time C was playing in the yard with the other kids when she came up to me complaining that her mouth was burning. Turns out she had picked and eaten what she thought was a baby corn. I believe it was actually anthurium. So that was my first call to poison control, and hopefully my last. But by the time we got off the phone, she was feeling fine again - although we did give her and another inquisitive little girl a glass of milk for good measure.

We got home from the barbeque in the late afternoon, which is later than I like to nap the girls, but since we planned on keeping them up late, we couldn't skip naps. When they woke up we skeedaddled over to the park, only to find that they had already shut down the petting zoo and blow up stuff. They did still get to play in the sand area that was sponsored by P's sister's business Players for awhile - so that helped ease their disappointment. There was also a band playing, with a stage set up for dancing that was crowded with kids. Naturally, the girls were up there too. They were soooo cute dancing together and holding hands. C showed us her favorite move, the two fingers over the eyes that originated in the movie Pulp Fiction. I have no idea where she learned it, but it's pretty adorable when she does it. I pulled out my camera to take a picture, but the batteries were dead. I put in my spare rechargeable batteries, but they were dead too! So you're just going to have to imagine them in all of their cuteness.

We went home to watch the fireworks from the house. We must have one of the best views in the valley - right from our back deck. We can see the fireworks from the park, plus a 360 degree view of all the other fireworks being set off in the bowl of the valley. I've never lived anywhere where there have been so many illegal fireworks. This year there were warnings of cracking down on illegal fireworks, but it didn't appear to scare anyone off. I'm always amazed at how many people have money to burn, especially in the current economy. It was a great show, and the girls gratefully went to bed when it was all over.

Blixtar och dunder

A week ago we celebrated my brother in law's birthday. This was the same weekend that we had temps over 100. That Sunday was expected to be super hot too, and we were going to have his party at the park. Thankfully the extreme heat did not materialize, although it was hot and humid. It remained overcast much of the day, and started to rain shortly before the party was scheduled, so the party was moved to the newly cleaned and painted garage of my in-laws. It turned out to be a great location because it still felt like an outdoor party. The kids could play outside between rain showers and we could all stay dry.

Eventually a lightning storm rolled in. Some of the lightning was so close that you could hear the thunder before the lightning bolt disappeared from view. It was a fantastic storm to behold! Needless to say, the kids were kept inside at this point. Last year C loved to watch lightning storms with me. She was initially scared when I brought her in during this storm, but that might have been because she'd never been aware of the potential danger to herself before. It didn't take long for C and M to be completely enthralled; they were more than a little dismayed when the storm passed.

I can't find any specific numbers, but I seem to recall the meteorologist saying on the news that night that there were over 1000 lightning strikes, although many of those were in the eastern part of the state. There was a fair amount of damage, and two men in a nearby community were struck by lightning - one of which was seriously injured.

Here's a few photos I found online, including one from another storm on July 3rd. Sadly, I slept through that one. You can go to the source and see more photos by clicking here.





I have been a huge fan of lightning storms for some time now. I actually get giddy. Not quite as giddy as when it snows, but it's up there. I've decided my love for storms can be traced back to the summer of 1986. I spent the summer living with a wonderful family in Sweden. It was probably the most fun summer of my life! My memory may not be totally accurate, but I seem to remember having lightning storms on a nightly basis that summer. I do know that there were more storms than usual, which was attributed to radiation in the atmosphere following the April 26, 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

So now my reminiscing of time spent in Sweden brings me to the title of this entry. "Blixtar och dunder" is lightning and thunder in Swedish. It is also the opening line of a song by a Swedish pop group (three LDS brothers) called Herrey's. They won the 1984 Eurovision song contest with this song, which is a huge deal over there. Since they were squeaky clean, my mom helped nurture my fascination with the band. I was particularly impressed with the two younger (and single) brothers. I thought they were both "fine" and I would have been happy to call either one mine. In 1985 my whole family was in Sweden and we planned to catch a Herrey's concert in a park. I was totally excited to be going to their concert as it was only my second concert ever (my first was the Osmonds circa 1980). Imagine my dorky glee when it turned out my mom knew the oldest Herrey brother's father-in-law, and we got to meet them after the show. I was so nervous to be meeting my potential boyfriends that I clammed up and I'm sure I failed to make a lasting impression. Nonetheless, it remains a memorable moment in my life - and I have a picture to document this glorious event. Depending on how old you are, you may or may not remember how cool these ToysRUs sweatshirts used to be. I'm pretty sure I swooned when one of the brothers sang the jingle to me that was in all the ToysRUs commercials at that time. (I think is was Richard - the blond one.)



As I pulled out the photo to scan, I surprised to see that the original photo has my brother in it too. As you can see, Louis' arm is stretched out, but when I had this photo blown up for my room, and also made a wallet size for my purse, I cut him out. I totally don't remember him being there. I guess I was just in my own little world : )

Now the purpose of posting this photo is two fold. The first is to show the object(s) of my young teenage affection (since the members of Duran Duran were totally unaccessible to me). The second is to appease my Hillbilly friend. You see, as a lark I posted a photo of myself on my Facebook page a couple of months ago - showing me in all of my permed glory back in 1990. My friend was awestruck by my timeless beauty, but said that she could do better than that - so I challenged her to out-ugly me. You can see that she rose to the challenge here. I have not responded in a timely fashion because I am secure in the fact that I will, indeed, out ugly her and because I know that it will require a considerable amount of time scanning and editing old photos. So Hillbilly, consider this my first entry and stop bugging me : )

Since this has turned into a bit of a tribute to Herrey's, I'm going to put on one of their promotional photos (which is signed for me on the back) and I'm going to see if I can link to a You Tube video of their performance that won the Eurovision contest for your viewing pleasure. Now before you go making fun of the gold boots in the video, let me just tell you that they tied in with the words of the song. Everything else is just pure 80's.

Fire dancing

I don't know why it's been so hard for me to sit down and write an update. The only thing I can think of is that I've been getting the girls to bed so late this summer that I have even less quiet time in the evening to get things accomplished. So I apologize for the posts becoming fewer and farther between, and then writing a marathon post when I do get around to it.

The last Saturday in June was a real scorcher - I almost decided to stay home rather than follow thru with plans to go to an outdoor festival celebrating cultures of the world. However, the festival was showcasing Pacific Island cultures so I really didn't want to miss that.

We've never been to this festival before. As a matter of fact, I'd never even heard of it before this year - probably because it's about an hour away. I do love the idea of a "world" festival though. We were a little disappointed that there wasn't more of a presence of Pacific Islanders there, but perhaps there was earlier in the day. (We didn't go until the evening since we planned to stay late.) Nonetheless, the festival was a pleasant diversion - even though the girls were more interested in the playground than any of the exhibits or booths. We did really enjoy the last show of the night - fire dancing! Although M would hardly even look at the dancers (she mostly bounced around in my lap and looked at the kids behind us), C seemed to enjoy the show. My only complaint was that there were far more palagi (caucasian) dancers than there were Polynesian dancers - but they still did a great job. I tried to take photos but it was too dark and we were too far away to get a good shot, so here's one from the program.

It was 11 o'clock by the time we got back to the car. The girls were asleep in less than three minutes, with P not far behind. Luckily I was driving. After such a hot day, I hated putting the girls to bed without a bath, but it was after midnight when we got home, and M didn't even wake as I carried her to bed and pulled her dirty clothes off. What is it with sleeping kids? There's just nothing sweeter!

Update: I came home from work tonight and downloaded the photos from my camera. My fire dance photos, while not great, did turn out better than I expected, so I'll post a few.



By the way, I decided against writing a marathon update after all. Instead, I'll try to write a few over the course of the week to catch you up.

A little this-n-that

Friends

On Sunday we had a visit with one of my best friends from college. Tracy and I met our freshman year when she lived in the dorm room next door and we learned we were both from the same home town (well, metropolitan area - but still, it's a big deal when you're going to a huge private university out of state). I couldn't have picked out a husband better for her if I had to do it myself. Jim is awesome, and we just love him. Sadly, they live in the DC area so we only get to see them when they come to town once a year to visit family.


This year they brought something special to share with us. Their long awaited three month old baby boy! He was cute as could be. He looked like a little man with his bald head, serious demeanor and sweater vest. Of course, the loser that I am, I didn't think to pull out the camera until after they had all left.


Hey, is there anyone out there that knows a literary agent? Jim has written a novel that deserves to be published. The last time they visited, he left part of his manuscript with me to read since he'd already finished editing that part. It was a great read! Tom Clancy doesn't have anything on Jim.

DTV

We subscribe to satellite TV for the TVs in our family room and master bedroom. The only other TV in the house is in the guest room, and it just gets what we can manage to pull in with rabbit ears. It's not really a big deal because we don't have guests that often. Because we live in a kind of bowl shaped valley, we get really crummy reception. Only a few channels come in (all of them snowy), and you pretty much just have jigger it around each time you want to watch a different station - hence the need for satellite.


We haven't been able to part with enough money to buy ourselves a really nice, big, flat screen TV, so all of ours are big box analog. I ordered the government coupons and bought my first digital converter box last week, and finally got around to setting it up Sunday night (since the guest room was going to have visitors the following night). Before I hooked it up I checked to see what I could get in. Nada. I hooked it up, attached the rabbit ears, and I came up with seven crystal clear stations. I was beyond excited! The next day I checked online to find out how many digital stations we should potentially be able to receive. I don't remember the exact number, but it was a lot more than what we'd gotten. So a couple nights later I'm back to playing around with the rabbit ears. If I was excited with seven stations, imagine my reaction when I found 23! Shazaam!!! Now to be fair, nearly a half dozen of those are religious or Spanish, but still, I'm getting them.


As I was reading about the local digital stations I learned that many have been broadcasting in digital for a decade. So now I'm a little bothered. Why couldn't these digital converter boxes have been available earlier? Had this been an option when we moved here six years ago, I never would have even bothered with cable or satellite. But now I'm hooked. I'm not sure that I want to part with Nickelodeon or Disney, or TNT or TBS, and I sure as heck would be hard pressed to break up with my DVR - what a magnificent piece of technology that is. Anyway, I just don't get the reluctance to switch over to digital. The media always made the mandatory switch over sound so ominous, like it should be something to dread, as opposed to a terrific upgrade even for those of us that don't have high end TVs. We should have started this years ago rather than having to wait for the countdown.

Dancing

The girls have started their dance classes this week. I'm a little bummed because the only option was Tuesday afternoons, which I always work, so I'm going to miss all of their classes except the last one, since I'm taking a half day off so I can watch. So far P says it is a waste of money. M's creative movement class is first. She wouldn't budge from P's lap, except to take a sticker from the teacher at the end of class. C's class is intro to ballet and tap, but C didn't learn anything because she only wanted to do her own thing and wouldn't pay attention to the instructor. Luckily, P did pay attention, so he was able to show us the steps C should be working on this week. (It was pretty cute watching P doing those knee bends and trying to look all graceful - kind of like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in The Game Plan.) So far C isn't getting it at home either. I'm not sure if it's because her coordination isn't there yet, or if all kids that age would struggle to get it down.


They already had several pairs of dance leotards each from their cousin, so I bought both girls a pair of ballet slippers today, plus a pair of tap shoes for C. They are so excited! I wouldn't be surprised if they have them on in the morning when they climb into bed with us. Maybe the shoes will raise the level of cooperation in the next class.

The Park

This week we didn't manage to visit a new park. With C in "Safety Town" each morning this week (and most of next), it gives us too late of a start to visit a park (read: cranky, fighting kids) and moods after naps are often a crap shoot as well. Plus, the park that I had picked out is in downtown, so I didn't want to mess with rush hour traffic either. With the temp expected to hit 90 today, I decided we'd go to our usual park so the girls could play on the splash pad.


It's funny how the girls are so different in the water. M loves to stand in the middle of the water, with it hitting her face - even getting into her eyes, nose and mouth. She bends over to get her hair all wet too. C, on the other hand, only wants to get wet on her own terms. There is a little spot where the water pools, and she stomps quite happily in that. She doesn't like getting splashed, and she especially doesn't like getting her face wet.


Here's a few pictures for your viewing pleasure, but I have to tell you about this first one. I only wish I had sound to go with it. C settled herself in on this rock, informed me she was a mermaid, and then began to sing "ah ah ah ahhaahaha, ah ah ah ahhaahaha" from The Little Mermaid. And in case you think this looks a little familiar - here's why. It bears a striking resemblance to The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Click link for a photo & more info on the statue.)

Park du jour

It seems that summer has finally arrived! It has been a beautiful week of sunshine and temps in the 70's. It just doesn't get much better than that!

On Wednesday the girls and I made a quick trip out to the beach to celebrate Father's Day and my dad's birthday. It was kind of cloudy in town when we left, but at the beach I was pleasantly surprised to find clear skies. I didn't make it to the beach because my aunt and uncle were visiting, so I stayed at the house to play catch up with them while Grandma and Grandpa took the girls out to the beach. They tried to get a kite up while they were there, but the wind wasn't cooperating. It was great to have such a nice day to celebrate with dad, and a lot of fun to see my aunt and uncle during their annual trip.

This morning the girls and I had dentist appointments before we could go explore our new park. This was M's first real visit to the dentist, other than the two minutes she sat in a chair (on my lap) for the dentist to make sure her chipped tooth was okay when she was 18 months old. I was a little worried about how she would do. First of all, little M has a hard time sitting still - she likes to be on the move. Secondly, she can be very shy with new people so I thought she might require sitting on my lap again. And I really didn't anticipate her cooperating with opening her mouth, since she rarely does when I try to brush her teeth. Luckily, all my fears were unfounded. She bravely went to her chair by herself as they showed all three of us to our chairs. She opened her mouth when she was supposed to. They were amazed at how well she did with the x-rays, and she did just fine with the cleaning. I guess they started polishing her teeth with watermelon flavored toothpaste, but she didn't like it so they switched to cinnamon - but otherwise she was a model patient! I asked her if the dentist told her anything. She said "yes, she told me to stop biting my nails." Yeah! Maybe we'll get somewhere with this!

I wasn't worried about C at the dentist. She has always been very cooperative at the dentist office. However, today she refused to open her mouth to have her teeth polished. Even when she picked out the toothpaste flavor, she still wouldn't open. It sounds like they did finally manage to polish her teeth, but possibly without the toothpaste (or maybe they have one that isn't flavored and not gritty). At any rate, C was very excited to show off her, literally, squeaky clean teeth. Her x-rays showed that she has two permanent teeth at the bottom that should be pushing those baby teeth out any day now. I can't believe my girl will soon be losing baby teeth! Now I guess we'll really have to try to step up efforts to get her to stop sucking her fingers, without making it a battle of wills. Ugh!

Now we were free to check out our new park. The one I chose for this week is a rhododendron garden that is pretty close in to town. I thought that since it had been such a wet, gray spring that I'd probably still be in time to see the rhodies in all their glory. Well, it appears that we arrived a few weeks past their prime - but it was still a beautiful garden. The girls were a little unhappy to learn that a "park" does not have to have swings and slides, but the fact that there were lots of ducks, geese and squirrels helped a little with their disappointment.

By the way, I recently learned that our local library has a "cultural pass" program where you can check out passes for a day for various museums and parks. I wish the list was more comprehensive, but still, who can complain about getting in for free. This way, I can go and not feel frustration that the girls are done in a hour and I don't feel we've gotten our money's worth yet. So anyway, I'd recommend you check and see if your library offers a similar program. If it weren't for this program, I still would never have known about this garden.

Father's Day

Poor P didn't get much of a Father's Day. Being in the restaurant biz, it's pretty much a given that he will have to work all holidays. Father's Day was no exception, except for the fact that he was actually working under the restaurant, as opposed to in it. Yes, he has the glamorous job of dealing with all septic and plumbing issues. Happy Father's Day!!!!

At least he did manage to get home at a reasonable time so we could all go celebrate at his sister V's house before his dad left to go out of town. They have a pool, so they told us to bring swimsuits for the girls since they planned on letting the kids swim. We arrived with the girls' swimsuits and cover-ups on, and floaties and towels in my bag. We had been in the house for about three minutes when I asked P if he had reminded the girls to not go in the water until we were there (since I saw him talking to C before she went out the back door). No sooner were the words out of my mouth than someone ran in to tell us that M had jumped into the pool, but her 13 year old cousin was right there and helped her out. Hallelujah for big cousins!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you R!

With disaster averted, I can say that I'm glad that M now has a healthy respect for the dangers of pools. She's a quick learner, so I really don't think that is a lesson she'll have to learn twice. It took her a bit to warm up to the water again, but by the end of the evening she was kicking her way around the pool with her floaties on - like the water baby she has always been.

When we arrived back home, the girls were pleasantly surprised to find we had another dog. While Grandma and Grandpa at home are out of town, we'll be dog sitting their 110 lb Heinz 57 named Little Guy. C was not at all happy that he wouldn't be sleeping in the house like Jasper does. When I told her that he'd have to sleep in the garage, she protested by saying "but mom, he's just a FRAGILE dog!" While he is anything but fragile, I am once again impressed by the range of her vocabulary, and musing over where exactly she has picked up some of her words. I think this one was from her "Fancy Nancy" book. What a difference reading to your kids make!