In July we had the most amazing adventure when we invited an exchange student from Spain to stay with us for nearly 3 weeks. Rebeca came into our home, family and our hearts.
We enjoyed a Mariner's game together (little did we know Ichiro was soon to be traded).
We braved the new adventure zip line/ropes course at NW Trek.
We took her to see some big ol' NW trees and a few waterfalls.
We taught her that in Washington we truly are tree huggers and even wrap them in sweaters too.
What do hurricane force winds feel like? We found out!
We made her backpack to Glacier Basin on Mt. Rainier with 6 young children (3.2 miles, uphill the entire way).
She informed us that she got 30 mosquito bites that night . . . I'm so proud.
The kids found a pond full of frogs (I mean FULL OF FROGS) that entertained them for hours.
We wore her out (on more than one occasion).
And we cried, a lot, when it was time for her to go home.
It truly was a wonderful 3 weeks with her; she was a perfect fit for our family. We miss her a lot already but hope she'll come visit again soon.
In June, on my birthday weekend, we went up to San Juan Island to help a good friend of AH move into his new farm house. I *heart* SJI - it's so beautiful there! Needless to say it was pure torture for me to spend my birthday in one of my favorite places.
The kids helped out with the chickens and turkeys .
The men assembed the coop.
Mr. B and Beeb made several new friends with the young chickens and turkeys. The turkeys were named "Thanksgiving" and "Christmas". . . I'll let you figure out why.
We got to hang out with their darling little girl.
Mr. B did some target practicing with a BB gun.
The island has a fox who is quite famous. He literally just sits along the side of the road and causes traffic jams as cars suddenly stop to photograph him. We happened to drive by him on our way to a beach - he was still there on our way back. Thankfully no cars were behind us = no traffic jam caused by my need to get his photo.
Waiting for the ferry.
I'll miss you SJI but at least we now have a place to stay when we come to visit.
This morning we all slept in a bit after yesterdays excitement. I am sure Rebeca is still adjusting to the time difference. When we were all up we took her with us to feed our friends' dog and horses while they are on vacation this week. Mr. B helped me muck up after the horses while Beeb and Rebeca jumped on the trampoline.
When we got home Rebeca had a little bit of time to get her backpack together and her hair done before her first group outing started (two days a week all the students get together to tour various area sites). As I went to prepare her a lunch to take with her I asked what sort of sandwich she would want in her lunch. I gave her the options of ham, chicken, peanut butter & jelly. . . she said, "What is peanut butter?" WOW! I always thought PB & J was the universal lunch food. I made her half a sandwich with PB & J to try and she LOVED it so I put two in her lunch. I love seeing everything new again through her eyes, it's so fun.
This summer we decided to dip our toes into the international world of hosting an exchange student. Our student is only staying with us for 2.5 weeks but now that she is here I wish it were longer - we love her already!
Yesterday all the host families gathered at a beautiful park for a welcome BBQ and to meet the students. I was so nervous that I kept getting a little teary (I'm such a girl sometimes) as the anticipation built up. I've been communicating with our student, Rebeca, by email for a few months and she just seemed like the "right" person for our family.
As it got time for them to arrive we all gathered around the parking area, every family waiting excitedly. The bus finally pulled in and as the doors opened we cheered while the first few students came off. Rebeca was one of the first ten off the bus and as I saw her stepping down the stairs, her eyes eagerly looking for us, we waved frantically to catch her attention. When she saw us her face lit up with a smile and she ran right. We hugged, kissed cheeks and cried together (see she's a crier too - perfect for us) with relief! We were so happy to finally see her in person.
AH and Mr. B arrived soon after and we all enjoyed lunch together. AH had fun practicing his Spanish with Rebeca while we ate. Her English is really excellent but there are a few words that she is learning while she is here and so I think it was good to have AH there to help, and also to see him struggling a bit with his rusty Spanish.
After lunch I took her into town to Costco and PCC to get a few items. She loved seeing the differences in the grocery stores (markets) and had fun telling us about how the shopping worked in her town. We loved learning the cultural differences.
When we made it back to our house she stared out the car window at all the houses in our neighborhood. She had looked at our house through Google Earth before her trip and I think she was trying to compare how she was seeing everything from what she saw on the application.
At home we showed her the house and her room. She was wide eyed during the tour over how different it was from her own home (example: our house is made out of wood). We had dinner together and then took her up to a local park to play ultimate frisbee with some friends of ours. She picked up the game quickly and did very well for her first time!
I think by the time she went to bed she was completely exhausted. It was an excellent first day!
July is turning out to be a crazy month and we're only a third of the way through it! Come to think of it June was crazy too. Let me go back and summarize June.
June came in with a roar as we ended the school year with many class field trips, school parties, family birthdays, Beeb's baptism, Beeb's "friend" birthday party, and my wedding anniversary all happening in the first half of the month. In latter half of the month Beeb and I spent a week in bed with the flu, Beeb's summer art lessons started, and we celebrated my birthday on San Juan Island helping some friends move into their new farm.
It appears that our regular summer weather pattern has finally returned after a two year absence. We had doom and gloom from mid-May until July 5th wherein the sun and warmth finally made its traditional appearance. We've enjoyed our beautiful PNW mild summer weather ever since (all 5 days. . . in a row!).
We spent a fun afternoon and evening at the lake on the 4th of July. The kids enjoyed playing with cousins and friends who came out to party with us. The kids all went swimming despite the frigid water temperatures and they all had purple lips after they were done playing!
Last Friday, July 6th, AH and I were enjoying a quiet evening at home when a car parked at a problematic neighbors house rolled over the block holding it in place, down their driveway, through the street, through our fence, down our yard, into the back of AH's car and off our retaining wall where it got wedged on its side between the wall and our mature cedar trees. The owner of the car does not have insurance (of course) and now we are responsible for paying $1,500 in deductibles to have our property and car fixed. The people in this house need to move away. They have been squatting in the house for 3 years now and you have no idea how hard it really is to get them out. We are hoping to help accelerate that process.
Here's a video AH put together that expresses his feeling about the matter:
Mr. B started his camp this week. He was not very excited about it but when I picked him up he literally said to me, "Mom you were right, I had a good time today." I am still basking in the glory of it.
I went to the doctor this week for a lingering cough I've had since the flu in June. Doc told me my flu turned into pneumonia. She complimented me on my being in such good physical shape that my body was strong enough to keep the pneumonia symptoms mild (knew all that running would pay off some day). Thankfully she prescribed some good medicine and I hope to be fully recovered in time to run RAGNAR in about 10 days. With less gratitude the doctor reminded me that I am not that far off from starting menopause (just what every woman wants to hear) and that I should keep running because it will help my body stave off the belly fat that accompanies menopause. Not sure how I feel about being near menopause age or the idea of having to keep running for the next 10 years. :-)
This week our exchange student arrives from Spain. We are so excited to meet her and have fun with her the rest of the month. Let's hope the weather continues to show off, that we all stay healthy and that the neighbors eviction notices get enforced!
Last week was crazy busy. Beeb turned 8 (yay!) and we went to a favorite fun restaurant to celebrate:
Saturday we had a big extended family party in the morning and Beeb's baptism in the afternoon. She was thrilled to have her girl cousins all around her (esp. those who came all the way from Montana - the triplets reunited!).
Prebaptism - AH & Beeb. She was very nervous!
Our family!
A rare photo of me with my mom and siblings (I think the last one was when I got married).
After the baptism we went home for a bit and then joined AH's family for a dinner at his parents. Beeb was so thrilled to have her cousins to play with until late into the evening. She said it was the best day ever!
This week I've been preparing for Beeb's "friends" birthday party. We decided to do a carnival theme. Here's the invitation that went out:
This week I've made two coordinating birthday banners and last night I made these super cute carnival big top gift boxes for her guests:
She saw me putting the treats in the boxes this afternoon and said it was very cool! She is so excited for Saturday. Good thing it is the final day of all her birthday celebrations, I don't think she can take much more excitement! I know that for me, I am about done with it all and ready for some normalcy to our weeks, though it was all worth it. ~
Mr B. turned 9 earlier this year and along with age comes responsibility (it's all a part of training him to be a "man") . Tonight Mr. B was thrilled to be able to help AH with some yard work, using the big boy tools. Here's Mr. B using the weed whacker for the first time. He did a pretty good job!
This afternoon we visited the graves of AH's grandparents with his mom and sister.The cemetery was beautiful with
rows of tall flags billowing in the breeze and small flags marking all the
headstones of the veterans.I captured
this image of them listening while Grandma showed my children a photo of
their great grandparents and shared a little of their history with them. Great Grandpa grew up on a farm and was the only boy in his family. He learned at an early age to work hard and save his money - a key to his success later in life. Great Grandma was the youngest of 14 children. She had said, "What if my parents had decided to stop at 13." Thankfully they didn't and I've only heard how wonderful she was since I married AH. I am sorry I didn't get a chance to meet her but I see her kindness in my MIL every day.
The last few weeks Beeb has been pestering me to buy her some new flip-flops. I've been reluctant to do so this early in the season, not knowing how long our beautiful weather would last (so far it's been a nice couple of weeks). Finally today I purchased her new summer staple and she was eager to try them on after school. As she was coaxing her foot into the second shoe she muttered, "Now let's go see how they flop."
Beeb has had love for a certain stuffed bear since before Christmas.
{Santa did not bring her the bear, he has only so much room on his sleigh.}
Beeb has begged and pleaded for the bear for many months, driving her parents nearly crazy and causing them to curse Costco for still carrying this bear 6 months later.
Our neighbor went out of town for 10 days and hired Beeb to care for her cats. Beeb was in cat heaven even though it meant cleaning out their litter boxes.
Beeb earned quite a bit of money for her temporary job.
Guess what Beeb decided to buy with some of her money.
Today was the day of my very first half marathon. I have been very anxious about this race for over a month, which is very unlike me. I am usually pretty laid back about these sorts of things (running). I had been having small panic attacks this last week that I hadn't experience in any prior race (quick heart rate, shaking hands, etc.).
I woke up at around 3:00am this morning and tossed and turned for an hour before I was able to get back to sleep and then I didn't want to get up when my alarm went off at 6:00am. I volunteered to help out with some early morning day-of-race registration. It was a good decision. It kept my mind busy and unable to think about how nervous I should be prior to the start of the run otherwise I might have had a full blown panic attack!
I met up with my running buddies and we started out the run together at a pretty quick 8 minute pace for the first few miles. I realized that even though I could run that pace I couldn't do it for all 13 miles and that I was wearing myself out quickly so I slowed down and found my groove. As a result of being toward the front of the pack in the beginning and starting out fast I spent the rest of the race having people pass me but I was okay with it (though I didn't love it).
Now running on my own (each member of our group went on to run at their own pace) I settled in to a more reasonable speed for me. I felt a lag of energy after having exerted myself the first 3 miles (which I did in 24 minutes) but here's where the training paid off. I knew that as I stuck with it I would recover my energy and probably even have some at the end. For the most part the course was flat and took us through some really beautiful scenery. Volunteers were at specific mile markers offering water, Gatorade, and Gu. It was so nice to have them out their cheering us on and offering much needed moral support.
My confidence increased when I reached the half way mark and I knew I would be able to finish without having to walk or stop. However I then seconded guessed myself when the final back road we were on seemed to last FOREVER. It messed with my perception of the total distance. I didn't realize that we would be running 8 1/2 miles out and then turn around and do 4.6 miles back to the finish. In my training we would either go half the distance out, turn around and run back, or run the distance straight through one way. Of course once I hit the turn around point and had less than 5 miles back to the finish I was pretty happy.
I spent three days prior to the race really carb loading to ensure that I would not hit the proverbial "wall". I did hit it on a training day and it was not fun. This time I didn't feel like I hit it but there was a section, right around mile 9 or 10, where our course had a steady hill that had to be dealt with while maintaining my current pace. Normally I avoid hills if at all possible but with this one I knew I was strong enough to take it on without losing momentum. It actually felt good to maintain my pace while using some force to do so and then to be rewarded with a nice flat surface afterward helped me to increase my speed slightly. It empowered me. I physically felt really strong and capable.
As I came into the final loop I was happy to see one of my buddy's cheering me on (she finished a good 15 minutes before me). I spotted AH and Beeb as I entered the track for my final loop. Beeb hopped on the the track with me and we ran the final lap together. (Mr. B was handing out water to the finishers.) I had a woman next to me who seemed determined to pass me and I was just as determined not to let her. As a sprinter in my former running life this is an area I excel at, and now combine it with the strength my legs have from all the distance training and I was ready to kick it into high gear and finish well in front of her. At one point, as we rounded the last corner, Beeb shouted, "Mommy you're going too fast for me to keep up." It's nice to know I've still got it after all these years!
2 of my 3 running buddies. (#3 is in California celebrating the return of her husband from an extended business trip (3 months) with her kids at Disneyland)
The end, after my 1/4 mile sprint, I was so out of breath and my legs and calves instantly started cramping. Not the best feeling in the world.
