Bratwurst anyone?

Well, call me crazy, but we are adding one more to our family. Hold your horses everyone! We are just hosting an exchange student from Germany for a semester. We are very excited. She seems to be a very sweet girl with world travel experience already. We've been e-mailing back and forth for a couple of weeks. Her written english is pretty good. We haven't spoken to her yet. She should be here at the beginning of August. Not a whole lotta time to clean out the spare bedroom closet. I will miss having a room just for folding laundry. Maybe this living situation will force me to finish an entire load of laundry in one day. I'll work on that....right after I brush up on my limited German vocabulary. AL-VEETER-ZANE UNT GOOTEN NACHT! (That was the phonetic spelling of "So long and Good Night!)

Does God think it's funny when...?

For all of you parents out there.
You know when your kid says something funny because he confuses the English language? Like when my 3 year old announces he wants to go see Erin with you. Only you don't know an Erin. Then you discover that you think out loud and say that you're going to go "run errands". So, you giggle when you solve the verbal puzzle your 3 year old has given you.
You think it's cute.
You call your mom and tell her the story.
You tell co-workers.
If you're really industrious you immediately write it in his baby book.
If you're like me, you wait a couple of weeks and blog about it.
Anyway, so now you have a reference for what I'm talking about.
The glimpse God gives you of your child and his ever-expanding world.
I wonder if God thought thought it humorous when tonight I made the realization that I am really a full-fledged, PTA member, carpooling, ER visiting, M-O-M.
WHAT??!!
No, I haven't been in a state of denial these past 9 (choke, gag, cough, sputter, inhale, hack) years. I think I've just come to the age of parenthood when I can remember being a 9 year old daughter and what I thought and felt about my mother in the exact same experience I had this evening with my now 9 year old daughter. I am at the age in my parenthood where it scares me because I know my children will remember my every action and reaction and my children now have their own point of view. Yes, this gives me a little chill of responsibility. I have blossoming young daughters. It's time to put my game face on.
My childhood flashback was of my mother doing laundry.
So there I was tonight, opening up the dufflebags from my daughters' first church camp experience. The smell of wet, souring bath towels wafted through the room. I gagged. I remember coming home from church camp and my mother yelling at me from the garage (a stupid place to put a washer and dryer) to unload my dirty laundry immediately. I remember being annoyed with her. I had just spent a week running, swimming, socializing and getting sunburned. Didn't she care that I was tired? I'm being totally serious about this.
Tonight I have an understanding of why my mom gave me so many dirty looks.
Tonight I've added one more reason of why I love my mom.
Tonight I've added one more reason of why I love being a mom.
So, I'll leave you more experienced parents now to giggle about my epiphany. I have to go now and give some dirty looks to my kids.

Really, No pressure at all....

Okay, so I receive an invitation in the mail about my upcoming 15 year High School Class Reunion. I run through a list of emotions in about 6 seconds. This is easy when you are born a girl. Increase that ability X 2 if you also have ADD. Ha!
1. Excitement 2. Anticipation 3. Nostalgia 4. Curiosity 5. Reservation 6. Concern 7. Panic 8. Control 9. Calm 10. Resolve 11. Determination.

Right now I'm at # 10- Resolve. I know I need to make some serious changes in my water in-take and consistency of aerobic exercise. I think I will have to sacrifice some time with the family to jump start this little project of mine..... But good grief! It's been like 105 degrees lately. I don't want my children to find me passed out on the garage floor from heat exhaustion.

Sum-Sum-Summer Time!

I've heard several child "experts" say that the best thing your kid can say to you in the summer is, "I'm bored". I've read about and prepared for this summer's KID activities with the focus and attention I would usually give to preparing a bowl of ice cream. Which, if you know me, can be pretty intense.
I' pretty excited by the fact two weeks of summer vacation have gone by and my KID activity resources haven't been exhausted yet! This happened last summer and I still don't quite know where I went wrong... This summer we are making our local VBS rounds, keeping them constructively busy from 9-12 this week. Next week they are taking Summer Spectacular classes. Summer Spectacular is fabulous. The kids get to make their own choices on which classes they would like to attend.
Mo Monkey chose Irish River Dancing, Celtic Arts and Crafts and CSI for Kids. I love her. Lula Bug is taking Irish River Dancing (with sis) Ballet and Cheer leading. I hope they take naps everyday when they come home from class....good, long, non-mess-making naps.
I have supplied them with glitter glue, Popsicle sticks, yarn, pipe cleaners, scrap paper, bead making kits, pot-holder making kits, needle point kits, water colors, sidewalk chalk, sprinklers, stamping projects, community service projects for our grandmother-figure neighbor, blah, blah, blah....
I gathered all of these objects in front of them one evening and had them make a list of everything they thought they could do with these things. A brain storming session!
Now, whenever they say, "I'm bored". I reply "That's GREAT! Go get your list!" Saying this makes me feel clever. Of course, it can backfire on me. I'm still thinking of potential flaws in my system.

I love the smell of sunscreen in the mornin'!

We started the Memorial Holiday with a Wedding! Yes, my dear friend Mike from the OC finally, FINALLY tied the knot to the beautiful Miss Wendy. It was really nice. Other than the part where the minister called Wendy "Lisa"...I totally wanted to laugh, but I restrained myself. Really, I did. He kept messing up so half-way through the ceremony he threw his book of notes on the floor and said, "I'm really glad this isn't being recorded."
Immediately after the wedding Saturday, I drove across town to watch my little girls "Bridge" from Daisy's to Brownies and from Brownies to Juniors. They've made several good friends and had a lot of fun with Girl Scouts this year. We'll be doing it again next year and going to a weekend retreat this summer.
Sunday we went to the ZOO with the Willmon's and cooked out. It was yummy! You can't go wrong with Salmon on the grill! Salmon is Emily's favorite!
Monday we woke up LATE and worked on the back yard ALL DAY. Mom and Dad brought watermelon over and it was delicious!
Tuesday...Ahhh the first official day of summer vacation. I have tons of things planned for the girls and they probably won't do half of them. They are pretty creative and like to come up with their own forms of entertainment. The first of which is a Lemonade Stand. I'll have to take a picture of it. They are quite the sales people. They wanted to sell one dixie cup of lemonade for $1. I talked them into lowering their price to a quarter. They made $2.80 on Monday. I know, it doesn't seem like I can count. I can. Sometimes. An old guy taking a walk gave them some change saying it was a tip. He didn't even take a cup of lemonade. Not that he could have passed our house without small children running out into the street, knocking him over with a big foam-board sign shouting, "ICE COLD LEMONADE ONLY A QUARTER! THAT MEANS IF YOU GIVE US A DOLLAR WE WILL GIVE YOU FOUR CUPS OF LEMONADE!" I mean, who could pass that up?

HAPPY SUMMER VACATION!

It's about time!

On April 15, 2009 at 2:21 p.m. we welcomed Robert Andrew into our family. This photo is of the whole family at a "shower" given by my work. It was awesome! Notice the MONEY Tree to our left. That was the best gift EVER! We really appreciate everyone who contributed to the Day Care fund! The tree was actually a hybiscus shrub that we lovingly named "Carol" (after my boss).

We have been settling down a bit at home. Drew was already pretty much aclimated to our routine already so not much change there. I think Lula Bug (the now-middle child) made the biggest adjustment. We've assured her she will always be our baby girl. This pleased her momentarily......

"My son" doesn't quite roll off the tongue yet but it sure sounds great!

Dear God, Thank you for all of the new baby animals...like baby horses and baby frogs

These were the first words of Emily's prayer tonight. She had already re sited The Lord's Prayer and went directly into her prayer without taking a breath. Impressive. I think she prayed for every species of animal known to man and a few species I've not yet been made familiar. I was about to verbally prompt her to say, "Amen" but I'm glad I didn't. I remember praying for every family member I could recall and only when I started praying for teachers past and present did my mom gently sigh, queuing me to end it. I think the important thing though, is that I remember her being there. Each and every night. I'm very thankful for that memory.
I have to remind myself of that when I'm very tired or if I'm in the middle of folding socks and I hear, "MOM! Come pray!" coming from the girl's room, I might really be hearing the voice of God leading me so that I continue to set the example I so desire to set.
You wanna know what I'm really excited to tell you tonight? Our adoption date has actually been set. It will be final in two weeks. I'm kind of stunned actually. I was giddy and tearful when the news arrived but then I turned into "Git-R-done" mom wanting all of the cosmetic things done to the house all in one week. Let me tell you, it AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN. But, in true Sisk Style, it will get done, though probably in phases, and of course not one complete room at a time. Hee Hee. I wish all of my awesome ideas came with an awesome amount of cash, but alas, I am the "starving artist" and I only paint for fun and family...when they're lucky.