And now it's Sunday.....

Last time I wrote it was Wednesday. Has this been a busy week? Oh yeah!! Let's see.....

I can't even remember what happened Wednesday evening. Aha! I got a haircut Wednesday afternoon. The girls played with Ellie and Adam. After I picked up Takayo from school we got the girls and went home. Then I think Emma and Audrey went straight into the pool. And Alyssa and Gracie came over. Gracie stayed and even spent the night. Obviously nothing monumental happened that day.

Except for Emma losing another tooth! She went to Big Scoop with Ellie, Adam, and their mom Anita and Emma's tooth came out in her waffle cone. She was so busy with Gracie that she forgot to put her tooth in a glass for the Tooth Fairy! Fortunately the Tooth Fairy came anyway. What a smart and resourceful Tooth Fairy!

Thursday was a loooong day! We went with the exchange students to Birch Bay Water Slides. Everybody had fun, but boy did I get a sunburn!! Right at my straps so wearing a bra really hurts and carrying my purse is torture! Audrey had a ball on the kiddie slides and eventually felt comfortable enough there to tackle the big slides. This was great progress for her, but the downside meant Mommy had to get wet. We got to the top and I asked the life guard what the best slide would be for Audrey's first time. We got in line for the Corkscrew. Just as we were ready to sit down Audrey screamed "no". Surprised? I think not. I talked to her a little and we watched some people go down and decided to give it another try. She sat on my lap, I hugged her tight and down we went. Lots of fun and we didn't go under at the end. So you know what that means! Yep, back to the top. We ran into Emma and Gracie and they decided to get brave and join us. They had been going on a wide slide that they could link arms and go on together. I guess they figured if I could do it, so could they. They were a little nervous, but both of them tried the Corkscrew (they really wanted to go on the Snake, but decided to stick with what Audrey and I were doing). This time when Audrey and I went down we went under at the end. Audrey thanked me for getting her up. What else would I have done? Audrey and I went on the Corkscrew two more times that day and the final time we nearly ran into the kid who had gone before us. After someone goes, you are supposed to count to 15 and then go. I counted to a very loooong 15 before going. You should have seen the look on this kid's face! He started paddling to move faster and Audrey and I started reaching out to try and slow ourselves down. Yikes! I can only imagine how panicked Auds and I looked. Emma and Gracie did finally go on the Snake one time before we left.

So this was an Exchange Student activity, so where is my student? Out having fun with her friends. One Japanese and that girl's host sister. Takayo had a great time. We went to the beach right after that. I got left behind! I hadn't found out any leaving time and when I asked the plan I was told "we're leaving within the next 10 minutes". Oh crap. Luckily the students were all riding together in the bus! I had no kids with me and all four of us were in our wet suits. I found Audrey and then surprisingly ran into Emma and Gracie. whew! We changed and all four went to the bathroom--I knew it would be an hour before we got home so this was essential! We got done as quickly as possible, but when we got out everybody with the group was gone. Hmm, maybe they're still in the parking lot. Nope. OK. They went to the beach. I can see water from here, let's go that way. We got to the end of the street. Left or right? Since the UPS truck behind me was already heading right we went left. You guessed it, wrong way. We turned around and started heading to the other side and there was the bright blue bus. Just as I saw it my cell phone rang and it was Dayle from the program. I pulled into a parking space as she was apologizing. Oh well. The students were supposed to spend a little while on the beach but their teacher vetoed this because she didn't want them getting sick. I think she was afraid of them being out in the sun so long. We got in the car, along with Takayo, and headed south. By the time we reached the north end of Bellingham, maybe even by Ferndale, I was the only person awake in the car. Four worn out girls!!

And then there was Friday.......Take Takayo to class, stop at Target for Emma to buy a birthday gift, go to Anacortes for TGIF, McDonald's drive-through for lunch, home long enough for Emma to wrap the gift and for me to frantically pick up the house in preparation for the housecleaner coming -- oh, right about now! --, and then racing out the door to get Emma to the skating rink for a birthday party (yep, 10 minutes late), and then pick-up Takayo (now 25 minutes late), then to the mall so Takayo can shop, then pick up Emma, then to the mall again. Exhausted? Oh yeah.

On Takayo's info sheet she lists shopping as a favorite activity so I thought some time at the mall would be fun for her. She didn't buy anything, and I don't know if it's because she didn't find anything or was uncomfortable with me. The second time into the mall I asked her if she wanted to shop alone or have Emma, Audrey, and I with her. She said she wanted us with her because she isn't familiar with American money yet. Boy did I feel old going into some of those stores! I'm too young to feel that old!!!!!

Ready for Friday night?? Passion Party at Nancy's!!!!! What were those drinks Colleen was mixing? Chi-chi? Shi-shi? Something yummy anyway. The guys all went to the Edison for steak night. And the ladies learned about sex toys. Wow! The beginning of the presentation was on lotions, lubricants, powders, etc. The consultant told us to pick an edible arm and a non edible arm. As she talked about the various products she would put some on our arm---hence the edible vs. non-edible. And then there was the stuff for the nipple. Edible, but not by us at the time...... Did I buy something? Yes. Will I tell you? No.

I'll give the abbreviated version of Saturday: drove south. Stopped in Des Moines for Justin to see his grandma who had a stroke last week. Went to Centralia to Aunt Helga's house for a family party. Grandma, Bud, and Louise were there too. Nice time. One of the guys there speaks Japanese so I asked him to talk to Takayo for a little while. Hope she liked that. Hope he didn't mind it. Very tired. Very very tired. I got out of bed around 10 am. I didn't wake up at all until 8 am. Now it's 1:50 and I'm about to take a shower.

I've been taking some pictures. I need to put them on this blog somehow. It looks like I can only put one on with Picasa's Blog This or I can set them up on a hosting site and get them that way. I suppose neither way is too difficult, but still. Just takes time I guess.

Never underestimate the power of passion. Eve Sawyer