I Totally Missed It For Once and Some Other Items

Last Friday was my 21 month LIDiversary. I totally missed it this month. I'm not sure whether that was a good thing or bad. We had fun that day as we went to the fair.





I figured out Sunday that Jessica will have to walk to school now that she's moved on to the Intermediate school which is grades 4-6. They only bus kids who are 1 mile or more from school and we're only 8 blocks. I'm so glad I let her ride her scooter there last week with a friend, and then let her ride it there again alone or I'd be freaking out. It just never dawned on me that my kids would ever not qualify for the bus. It looks like they will have to walk once they get to the Senior High as well as the requirements for bussing is 2 miles from the school. I'll worry about the 3 major roads/highways and 2 railroad tracks they'd have to cross once Jessica gets closer to 9th grade.

I did find a friend of hers who's mom will probably bike to school with her daughter and would swing by our house or wait for Jessica if I want. Right now Jessica is enjoying her independence and wants to go by herself as it "allows her time to think". I'm thinking once the days get shorter and the weather gets colder and/or when it snows, I might take her to daycare and have her take the bus from there as there's already another boy who takes the bus to that school from there.

The plan and the worry for the last year was that she'd take the bus to school in the morning, but ride the bus to daycare after school so I could pick the kids up from just one location. Now it looks like I'll be letting Jessica be latchkey most school days. My baby is growing up!!!! Since she's going to be riding something to school, I decided to buy her a new bike. The one she had was too small, and she says the brakes didn't work and neither did the kickstand. We pick up the new bike tonight. Anna has dance, but I guarantee Jessica won't be able to let the bike just sit in the back of the van. I'm sure she'll be wanting to ride it around the parking lot at dance. I went with a bike that will suit her as long as she's under my roof. It better last that long for what I'm paying for it. She loved it and figured out how to use the handbrakes and to shift gears immediately. She probably would have spent an hour riding around the parking lot of the store if it hadn't closed shortly after we got there. I'll post pictures of Jessica on her new bike later.

Some Older Photos

I sent a few of those one use cameras, and some old film to Snapfish to develop. Here is Jessica at her First Communion, and her cake, since I don't think I ever got around to posting those.

This year will be Anna's turn and she's very excited.

State Fair

Friday we went to the state fair for the first time. Of all the Park and Rides available, we ran into old friends (a single mom and her daughter from China who is entering 7th grade) at the bus stop. We went separate ways when we got to the fair, but it was nice to see them. Later in the day, I ran into a friend from high school.

The girls had a blast. I splurged and let them ride the sky track, giant slide and many of the Midway rides. Jessica got a little woozy as one of the spinning within spinning rides ran about 3 times the normal length of most rides. We ate way too much, but tried to get one of something and each tried it. Too much money slipped out of my pocket, but we did have a really good time.

Giving Them Wings

Okay, so I let Jessica and a friend ride their scooters to Jessica's new school. It's 2 blocks up and 6 blocks over. They cross a busy street at a 4-way stop. Jess started on her bike, but the tire pretty much fell off the wheel so they came back and got scooters. Jessica took her cell phone and called me when they got there.

My baby's growing up. I know I used to walk 8 blocks to school starting in kindergarten, but times are different. I was proud of myself to let them go. And they were pretty excited that they could do it. The friend lives across the street from the school, but is in a different suburb, so won't ever go to school there.

Just another step in giving her wings. Now, any ideas on how to fix this bike???

Dance Camp

Lots of driving, but the girls are done with Dance Camp. Here are some pictures from the performance they did Friday afternoon to show what they'd worked on. We're still driving back and forth for classes Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays for the rest of the month.

I think my old digital camera is on it's last leg. Pictures are fuzzy and the batteries wear out really fast, and it doesn't stay on very long.

Referrals

I guess there were referrals sent before the Olympics started. CCAA says they've finished through January 31, 2006, but since they were closed for Chinese New Year, it was really only 2 days of LID's. I guess they were closed until Feb 5th that year, so the next batch will need to at least go to Feb 6th. It's taken all of 2008 to finally finish the January, 2006 LID's. I would never, ever have thought it would take that long. So now we all get to sit back and see what happens in the coming months. Unfortunately, I suspect they'll maybe only finish February this year.

Busy This Month

Last week Jessica had Chinese dance camp. I was the morning carpool mom, so had to drop off Anna at daycare, pick up 2 girls in one suburb, 2 girls in another, then get them all to dance about 30 minutes away. Most mornings I got there even before the teacher, so we had to wait until she came to unlock the door. That's only because I got up an hour earlier. It's hard though, to get up an hour earlier, and then get to work 1-1.5 hours later than usual. This week I only pick up one other family and both my girls are going, so it's a lot easier. Then on Tuesdays, we try to fit in Jessica's trumpet lesson. She's really liking learning to play the trumpet. She wants to continue trumpet lessons and would like to stop swimming lessons. I'm not sure which direction I'll go. I'd like her to continue with swimming, but she knows how to swim. Right now, she'd stay in Level 4 until learning all the different swimming strokes. Clearly not as much fun for a kid.

We also went tent camping with my Single Mother's By Choice group. By Saturday afternoon, we had 9 moms and 10 kids. The kids ranged in age from 3-9. Fun, but crazy. We've had unseasonably cold nights and I didn't get a lot of sleep Saturday night because I was so cold. We really shouldn't need more than a sleeping bag in August! Many of the moms went on a boat trip or to a state park to climb rocks. We just hung around and took a little trip to the nearest town for ice cream. I wanted a nice relaxing trip after all the driving I did last week and will do again this week.

Unfortunately, I'm one of the few who didn't see the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. I found someone at work who taped it though, so hopefully she'll be able to bring the tape in tomorrow so the girls and I can watch it. Did you see the synchronized diving last night?! It was INCREDIBLE!!! I've never seen synchronized diving before. I love all the diving, but that was something else. My girls got quickly turned on to the olympics as well once they saw the Chinese team. They root for China in every event and are bummed if they aren't in a swimming heat or if they don't do well. Anna also likes USA (she pronounces it like "you-sa", but I told her she better say America or Jess and I will quickly pick up on her Anna-ism).

Weekend Update

Did I mention I have Fridays off in July and August? A reward for working 48 hour weeks from mid-January to Mid-March. So we started off Friday morning by going to the audiologist to get Anna's new earmold and earhook. I'm pretty certain it was Sophie who somehow got the to hearing aids and decided they'd make a tasty treat. Luckily she only ate off a small part of one earmold and the earhook. Both fairly easily replaceable for not a huge cost and Anna was able to still use her hearing aid while waiting the 10 days for the new mold to be made. And I'm proud to say I didn't over react this time. Yes, this time. Last year one of the dogs got to both earmolds. There was a lot of yelling and screaming about putting hearing aids in a safe spot, the cost, etc. that time around. Anyway, Anna now has a new mold with similar colors - orange, green and yellow swirls.

After our audi visit, I brought the girls to daycare, did a little garage saleing, went to Michaels since yarn was on sale, then went home for a bit. I decided rather than try to clean the house, I should attempt to enjoy my Fridays off, so I went to a movie. A couple of weeks ago, I saw Mama Mia - loved it - such a fun, feel-good movie. This time I couldn't decide between The Dark Knight, and The Mummy (purely because it involved the Terra Cotta Warriors), so I let the guy selling tickets decide for me. He said definitely The Dark Knight. What can you say about this movie?! The acting was incredible and it was a good movie?? But very disturbing. Definitely "dark" and definitely not a movie for tweens or younger.

Friday night we hung out at home and watched College Road Trip.

Saturday, Anna had a birthday party at the IMAX at the zoo. I'm sure she had fun, but it's hard to do a quick drop off when 100,000+ other people are going to the same place and they've got people directing traffic. Jessica and I then eventually found a shopping center where I got her some new clothes for school. Anna was actually invited to another birthday party of another good friend at the same time but entirely different place. She really wanted to try to make both, but there was just no way. Instead, we babysat the birthday girl and her big sister that evening.

Sunday, dance started. Anna has dance class on Sundays from 12:30-2:30 and Tuesdays from 6:00-8:00 for the rest of August. I still haven't decided on whether to send her to dance camp next week in addition to these classes. It looks like a small group, so maybe. I only paid my daycare the fee as if she wouldn't be going to daycare. It's just hard to have to pay daycare and dance camp when she only goes to one. Jessica will be at dance camp (daycamp) this week and next. Then she'll also have class on the last 2 Saturdays of the month. It was originally Saturday and Sunday, but is now down to a longer time on Saturday. This month is all about dance. I'm glad to see the gas prices are down a bit since I'll be using so much more.

This morning, I brought 5 girls to dance and only one was mine. Good thing I have a . My schedule said they started at 8:30, so we arrived before 8:15 to get all checked in, but no one else was there and the place was all locked up. The teacher didn't arrive until 8:30. So 2 treks through rush hour traffic and I'm late for work. I guess I'll be using up some of my short-term absence or vacation since I can't just work longer. I still have to pick Anna up at daycare at the same time. I probably should be picking her up earlier since I'm dropping her off earlier. Oh well...