the blank stare

I volunteered for the first time yesterday at the school.  I have to give a lot of credit to all the teachers out there.  Everyday!!  Wow!  And because most of the kids in Ab's class speak Spanish, the blank stare I refer to is my own.  Little Giselle would say something to me... and I did the blank stare.  Can you say it in English?  I say.  Head nods back and forth, no.  Little Admari asks me something... blank stare again.  English?  I say?  and smile.  She just does the blank stare back.  I knew this was the demographic when we enrolled the kids.  And I don't even mind.  It only makes me appreciate these teachers more.  They are facing even more of a challenge!  A challenge for teaching not only the class, but the language.  And it makes me wonder what a normal American classroom might be like.... just trying to get the kids to behave and get used to being in a classroom when they all speak English!  That seems like a big job in and of itself!  But they are very patient and kind, and appreciate the role they are in.  To be a stable, good role model for these hard working families.  I am even more amazed.  

And I am determined to LEARN the LANGUAGE!  So far I've done about 4 lessons from this great website my friend referred me to.  Esta es una flor.  This is one flower.  Estas son las flores.  These are flowers.  Las Flores no son amarillo.  The flowers are not yellow.  Las Flores son de color azul.  The flowers are blue.  Wow, that makes good conversation :)  and it is a start!

And it is Friday!  And Monday is a holiday!  Yay!!

a new standard.

Just realizing I offered my house for a baby shower on Saturday (love you Mandi!).  Hmmm.  I guess I am  going to need to get to it here... the dust is taking over.  

Plus. I am not sure how the house got so dirty.  I really can't comprehend how in the past week, the dirt multiplied. ...Or maybe I just have more time to notice it now.  A new standard of clean, as a friend put it.  Great!  A new standard of clean? Does that mean that the walls might need to be washed at some point and the couch... that used to be white last time I really noticed it.... that is now.... spotted and some form of dingy-camouflage, might need to be taken care of?!  Yes.  I better get to it.  Right after I get done with the other things I had in my mind to do today (like have coffee with a friend, make bead bracelets at the schoolita and go meander at the craft store!).  So much more important than clean walls, don't you think!?

the new header

...needs some work, but it's a start!

a new week

A new week.  The girls are at school.  Emma is watching her Diego.  Evie is sleeping.  I am blogging.  All is right in the world.  Just kidding... but seriously.  Wow, it's quiet without all the kids here.  And there's extra time.  And somehow it's more messy.  But it might just be because I haven't vacuumed... for 2 days.  (Dark blue carpet = a lot of vacuuming!!)  Soon I am going to the YMCA with a couple of friends.  We're starting this new thing called meet-at-the-Y-after-we-drop-off-the-kids. I am sort of  not really excited... but I know it will be good. :)  And then... yes, laundry.  Exciting Monday.  Hope you have a great week!

with a little time on my hands...

I might be a little weird... well, might be? ....pretty much am.  But aren't we all? So here is a little weirdness about me, and maybe it's not so weird after all.  So here it is... Do you ever just get so excited about something that you almost can't breath?  Like, a book you start and just can't put down till the very end?  Or a new idea that you just have to do and finish because it is so exciting?  It used to happen every time I went into the craft store. I used to almost get annoyed with everything because there were SO MANY ideas, so many amazing things to make or do.  It was excitement to the point of overload! (When am I going to have time to do all of these things??) And I just spoke with a friend who was telling me she was so excited about a gardening book that she could only read it in small doses.  So I know I am not the only one!!

Well, today, since the girls are in school, I had time to figure out the install on our new Mac, and got Adobe CS up and running.  While I was finally playing with Illustrator, I got that feeling.  Not the annoyance, but the excitement.  There are so many cool tools, so many fun things you can do.  There are symbol sprayers, amazing brush tools, color palettes.  It is like creating amazing works of art.... watercolor strokes... charcoal strokes... pen and ink strokes.  There are so many tools.  And it is so exciting.  It is making me think that I should take some sort of graphics class at the local community college.  Why not? (Right, sis?)  It would be so fun. Here's my first attempt... (remember I am a beginner!!!)

tgif. and the wrap up.

Well... This week has been an adventure!  It has been good.  The girls are loving their school.  They really really love it.  And they are doing really good.  And I am loving their school.  Loving it.

Abs has been the helper everyday, as expected.  She even came walking to the car with a highlighter.  "My teacher said he needs highlighters", she said.  So she was just going to take him one from the drawer.  And when we were at the store, she picked out some doughnuts for breakfast.  And she picked the powdered kind.  Even though her favorite is the chocolate covered kind.  And she said "Because I am thinking of Bella instead of myself, and Bella's favorite is powdered" and she smiled real big.  Why is she so incredible?  She is so full of joy and life.  I love her so much.  She has learned A, B, C, and D.  And even though she already knows all the letters of the alphabet, their sounds, and even how to put them together, she is having a blast.  And she made a new friend today.

And Bella is doing so well.  She tells us all about her class and her friends on her team.  And she made a best friend.  And she raises her hand in class.  And she doesn't even have to look at her paper for the answer.  She even asked the teacher if her friend could be on her team.  She is getting a little bit more bold each day.  It is so good for her.  And she said "I told my teacher a little about God".  And she said her teacher smiled.  Why are these kids so incredible??  They are incredible kids.  

And now Emma says "mommy's my best friend". She is a really good color-er and even can draw people. A circle with eyes, a nose, a mouth, ears, hair and feet.  And she is picky about the colors we use.  We can use blue, green, red, and yellow.  Because those came in her Go,Diego coloring book. So we spend the day coloring at the counter.  And it is like a flashback to when there was just Bella and Abs.  But now it's Emma and Evie.  And it is fun.  

And Evie is officially crawling all over the place, leaving piles of whatever, wherever.  I will walk out of the living room, come back a few minutes later to find... a pile of books next to the bookshelf, a pile of DVDs next to the TV, a pile of toys next to the toy box, and a pile of magazines next to the basket of magazines.  She is driving me crazy!! But she is so sweet.  She loves to imitate every inclination of our voice, saying exactly what we say, only without words.  And she likes to play peek-a-boo, too.

And just to pull together, we stopped by the little school, which we are now calling "the school-ita" (I think that is called Spanglish).  The classroom for migrant worker families, a place for the children to come and do homework and play. We were greeted with ice cream pops and police badges and invited were to participate in dance classes.   Now the girls and I are trying to pick up some Spanish... so hopefully we will be able to learn the language so that we can communicate even better.  And 2 of the little girls are friends with Abs and Bella.  And we randomly ran into them in the Principal's office at the girls school.  They are switching over... and now they already have 2 little friends to help them adjust.  I love it. I love how it is all just coming together.

And that is the update.  And now we welcome Friday, the end of our first week.  We welcome the weekend and sleeping in.  And we welcome spending a couple of days together before another hectic week begins. So, I hope you all have a great weekend, too!

more of the new.

I tried to get one of both, but since I made Bella wear jeans today, she was not happy. She wants to wear dresses EVERY day.  So, her pictures are really sad.  But here's one of Abs.  We will eventually run out of new clothes, but I thought you'd all like to see how they look in the stuff they got with the gifts you sent.  ...love.

el segundo día de clases...

the second day of school...

And the outfits Grammy sent.

And the crazies.

Escuela. Hoy.

School.  Today.

I thought it was going to be a rude awakening.  I was ready for the rudeness.  I even already had a clever blog title the day before... just to be ready.  But there was no rudeness to be found.  We were all ready.  

Bella started her day early, Ab followed later on.  As I dropped off ruff and ready Abs to her Kinder Class, I spied Bella on the playground.  Recess.  And she was playing.  With lots of friends.  I was filled.  And then the bell rang.  And off she ran with the little crew.  Till all of a sudden she realized she forgot her lunch bag.  Then her face changed.  She quickly ran to get it and turned around, thinking she'd lost all her friends, thinking she wouldn't know where to go (oh, what a mom can read in a face).  But that wasn't even the case, because all of her little friends waited for her.  Oh, the joy!  In her and me.  And I was watching it all... and she didn't even see me.  She had so much fun today.  So much.  She said "I can't believe I was so nervous.  It was more fun than ever."  Yes.  

And two.  Two.  That is the number of kids in Ab's class that speak English.  Including Abs.  But she LOVED it.  And somehow made a friend despite the lack of common language.  And she hurt her head and had to go to the office.  But my friend was there and she took care of her. And she was better.  And she loved it.  

And they both wished it was tomorrow so they could go to school.

And as for me, I am good.  I am excited, I am proud of those girls.  Even though I totally missed them today.  And I did their chores... I had to put the laundry away.  And the dishes.  And clean the living room. And I thought, they are growing up.  Growing. Up.  And I had a tiny bit of separation anxiety.  Just a tiny bit. But overall it was good.   It was great.

no words.

it was fun.

Last week's camping trip... we had a blast, and we're still recovering.  

We went for a few days, and friends joined us in shifts.  The first day and a half we spent on the lake... knee boarding and tubing.  The girls all loved being on the boat, Belle being a little nervous ...to put it mildly.... but by the end she was a natural.  And Abs is the adventurer.  Every time the boat would stop, she wanted to jump in the lake.  Boats racing by, deep water, Abigail swimming around.  And they both went on the "cone".  A giant cone tubey-thing which you lay inside and hold on to while the boat tows you along.  I was nervous. Each little girl taking turns,  20 feet behind the boat... and we're moving?  Is this smart?  But no one else seemed to think it was a big deal, so off they went.  And the girls were brave and had a great time. Every so often and check on them.  We only got scared once when Abs didn't answer us right away.  For a brief second I started to panic and look all around the lake to see if maybe we lost her somewhere.  But she was fine!  She was safe.  

And we had s'mores.  And we went fishing. And we cooked camp food.  We had a great time.  The weather was perfect- hot during the day and cool at night.  And the stars were amazing.  We left the fly off of the tent at night and watched the stars.  And a deer tried to eat our food. But there were no bears, no mountain lions, and no tarantulas.  So I was happy. 

we're back

and we had a lot of fun.  And we're tired.  So I'll post more later.  Goodnight!

camp stoves and coffee

We are getting ready to go camping.  We did the browse-through-the-camping-aisle at all the close by stores.  Whenever we go camping we get like one thing we'll need... and then borrow the rest... until eventually we'll have all the supplies necessary for our just-a-couple-times-a-year camping trips.  It is so fun.  This time, we finally got our very own camping stove.  It is so exciting!  Now I can count on the fact that, if I bring my kettle, which I will, I will have delicious french press coffee each morning.  And I will be able to heat the water to wash dishes in our washtub we also purchased for this trip.  Not to mention, now we can eat.  That is secondary to the delicious french press coffee!!  

The girls are so so excited about campfires, smores, fishing, sleeping in the tent, and wearing life jackets.  Now I just have to plan out our meals, which I am having a hard time with.  I want to just wing it, but I have a feeling that could be a stressful bad idea.  So, I am trying to find some somewhat easy but really yummy camp meals.  So far, my ideas consist of some kind of potato, beef kabobs, and some kind of chicken.  I am thinking I better plan it out a little better than that!!  Anyone have anything amazing that I should try??  I am up for suggestions!  

Santa Barbara Zoo

So here's the Zoo!  For some reason my blogger is acting crazy and I am unable to make my little comments right under each picture.   The first few are on the zoo train.  So exciting!  Evie and Emma rode together with me and it was really sweet.  Emma hopped on my lap when we went through the lion area.  She was a little scared of the big lion paws sticking up in the air (the lion was sleeping on his  back!).  And she wanted to ride the giraffe...  'Mom, I wanna go for a ride' she said.  And over and over.  Why does she think she should be able to ride a giraffe?  Maybe Diego does?  I have no clue...  And the girls had a grand  time with their greatest friends.  Abs loves Michael and Rebekah, as you can see!  And Emma was happy, o so happy, to see her 'best friend Josiah'.  It was a blast, but also, it was crazy.  Too many kids!  I think there were at least 15 kids in our crew.  But it was fun fun.  And we found the carousel.  Look how cute and old fashioned it is? I got 30 seconds of freedom while the girls took a little ride.  So to refresh, I tried catching a little of the cuteness. (a 30 second breather from zoo craziness is so worth $1 each!)