Thika or Bust

Well, the Mays have officially left Portland, and according to Erika (our airline specialist), they have already made their first connection in DC. It's sad to see them go and some other guys truck parked in front of their house, but as Anne reminded us last night, hopefully one day *soon* we will be counting down the days until their return. We got one last photo op yesterday with the kids:

I've only had to remind the kids 547 times today that Eli and Lucy are in Africa when they ask if we can walk down to their house. It really makes setting my mind on something different difficult. Anyway, I'm sure the next year or so will be full of new experiences for them and we look forward to hearing from them daily - give or take.

Abby's Stories

A few people expressed concern today that since it was Monday and I did not write a blog that I was very busy at work. All I will say is that I assure you that was not the case. I got to come home "early" and it was nice to have another day with the family home.

I am continually amazed at how much Abby talks when Ashley is at school. She is very much in the story telling phase. She is also in the phase that Ashley went through about this age when she has "another mother". I've never actually met this mother, but apparently she is very nice and does amazingly fun things with the kids. Most of Abby's stories start out with, "when I was a kid..." and involve something her other mother did with her. I cannot live up to this woman. Ashley often gets frustrated with Abby's stories telling her that she does not have another mother (forgetting that she used to do the same thing even to the extent of pointing out her house to me every time we would drive past it). The other day Ashley was getting adamant about it saying to Abby, "You do NOT have another mother!" Abby kept insisting, "Yes I do." Finally Ashley said, "Then what are their names?" Abby thought for a second and said, "You know Dick and Jane? They're my parents." It even left Ashley speechless.

P90X

I started this new workout DVD called P90X. The girls like to do it with me sometimes. This morning Abby changed her clothes and came out to join me. She meant business. I tried to get her to look at the camera and smile, but there was no time for games.

She couldn't hang with it though and this was her after 30 minutes:

She must have gotten her second wind though, becuase here is Abby 1 hour into her nap when she should be sleeping:

This isn't even the same room I put her down for nap in. Oh well.

Fun Times at the Bank - Part II

Since I wasn't an official blogger yet for Fun Times at the Bank - Part I, here is a recap:

I was standing in line at the bank with the kids when suddenly the lights went out. I looked around to gather the kids, not wanting them to get freaked out becuase it suddenly went dark, and could only locate 2 of the 3. Yes, Abby was MIA. I grabbed Ash and Charlie and walked towards the front door to locate Abby. As we walked up, the lights suddenly went on. And then off again. And then on. It was then that I saw Abby standing by the light switch. Off, on. Off, on. Off, on. The looks on people's faces went from shock to disappointment as they learned that this "scare" we just had was because of some unruly 3 year old. I didn't know what to say except "no-no Abby" as I took her hand which gathered more questioning looks. It was only afterwards that my friend Erika told me I should have said something like "just wait until I tell your mother what you did" or "I'm so tired of babysitting you kids". I'll save those lines for later though.

So, we returned to the bank today. I even waited until I was done talking on my cell phone to get out of the car and venture into the bank. It was one of those visits where I had to talk to someone specifially, so they had us wait in the lobby. The girls were doing a great job rearranging the chairs and staying out of peoples way, or so I thought - until I noticed the lady sitting across from me intently staring at something behind me. I turned around to see the banks huge white board which they write all of the latest interest and loan rates on and Abby doing her best to erase it. Hey, who wouldn't want 2% APR rather than 5.25%?? They finally called us back (not a moment too soon, I'm sure, for the member services guy) and we received compliment after compliment from the bank manager on how well behaved my kids were as they sat in the chair quietly while we talked. I just smiled and said thank you and didn't make eye contact with anyone on the way out. We need a bank with a drive-thru.

Summer Fun - in April!!

Even though it wasn't extremely hot here today, the sun was out, which meant the slip and slide came out. Eli and Lucy came over for the afternoon while Anne packed for their overnighter to Kenya. The kids proved me wrong by not minding the cold water. Here are a couple pictures of them enjoying themselves:

And Ashley mastering the forward slide:

The excitement was too much for Charlie to handle though:

We finally did it

Well, here we are in blogworld. I have gone from casually reading blogs, to secretly stalking them, to proudly stalking them, to now having one. Who would have thought? I considered starting one many times, for the main reason that both of our families live out of town and it would be an easy way to keep them up to date - on what I'm not quite sure yet. But I was finally sold on it because our very good friends are moving to Kenya in a bit (I refuse to count down the days. They leave on April 30th which is probably in about 7 weeks or something. denial) and I think it would be fun to read each other's blogs (along with Skyping) while they are so far away. I just added a weblink on my first post. How cool is that?! Anyway, needless to say I am learning about this blog stuff as I go. I am much more comfortable anonymously stalking them than I am writing one, but I promise to be better at blogging than I am at Facebook. That won't take much. I would post a picture today, but they are on my hard drive at home and I am working, um, off-site today. I'll go for 2 blogs in a row and see if I can post one tomorrow. I might even have a cool surprise from a blog that I am currently stalking. More on that later. :)