Worst Case Scenario

ONE business day before he was supposed to leave for India, the Indian Consulate in Chicago denied Dave's employment visa, which means that as of right now he cannot go to India.  Apparently, it's a bureaucratic quirk of India's Chicago Consulate, that caught everyone (a number of people at Dave's company from Chicago to India, law firms, & third party visa service companies) by surprise.

This of course, really messes up our family summer plans.  The girls and I are only going to Thailand this year, at this time because it was financially and logistically convenient for Dave to meet up with us after his rotation in India. 

Now, after Dave has:
-spent countless hours filling out applications and working with lawyers to complete paperwork
-made plans and set goals for the work he was going to do in India
-gone to doctor appointments to get a number of innoculations for Typhoid, Yellow Fever, etc., plus get a month supply of Malaria pills and antibiotics
-made flight and hotel reservations
-bought and confirmed air tickets for his family to Thailand

He has to undo all that he can because India is now a no-go and no one can say for sure when he will be able to go.

This means that we now need to buy Dave a last minute airplane ticket to Thailand or else his family will be taking "a trip of a lifetime" without him.  I feel like someone just punched me in the stomach---and stole my wallet.

I Can Coupon

I never have been the "clipping coupon" type, but it is hard to argue with these results:

I have been "couponing" for about 4 months now and this is what I bought this week for 50 cents! I didn't even bother to take a picture of all the cereal I bought for about 35 cents a box a couple of weeks ago. Honestly, I'm not a "super-couponer" I don't get multiple copies of the newspaper or go through the check-out line in the store over and over again to work a deal in a bunch of separate transactions. I basically just follow a website that tells me what deals are out there and then when I am at the store I pick up those things. I am sure that I could be doing better, but so far I am content with my outcomes and really am saving money and getting free stuff.

Soooo Hot!

Usually when the girls come home from school they are hungry and want a snack. However, when it is 90 degrees and very humid outside, all they want when they come home from school is this:

SLIP AND SLIDE!

Another Soccer Season Completed

Both girls successfully finished playing another soccer season. This spring, a lot of their games were at the same time so I didn't get too many pictures of Ashley. Her team had a pretty tough season. For some reason the league didn't assign them enough players so they always played without subs and often they played short. At the beginning of the season, the poor girls were absolutely gassed by the end of the game, but they perservered and got in good shape quickly.



Paige's new team was very different from last season. She had a lot of aggressive go-getters on her team. Often heard during her games was, "no tackling!" At times, Paige preferred to keep her distance, but she had a smile on her face the whole time she ran around and looks forward to playing again in the Fall.

Choral Festival - Don't Stop Believin'

Okay, I have learned not to criticize the "music education" Dave imparts on the girls. A couple of years ago, Dave introduced the girls to Journey, and they now have a good number of songs memorized. It's good thing because the theme for Ashley's honor choir district festival this year was Don't Stop Believin', and thanks to Dave, she was definitely prepared.

In the final number, the elementary music teachers accompanied on bass guitar, mellophone, trumpet, etc. The combined choir was composed of 6 elementary school honor choirs, 4th/5th graders and two 7th grade choirs. I have video but I can't get it to upload...grrr.

Flip Flop Fashion

Aren't these the cutest flip flops? Ashley made some at Activity Days last month and of course because they were so darn cute, Paige had to have a pair too. Fortunately, I had some water balloons leftover from last year, so we tied them onto a pair of her flip flops and voila!

Mother-Daughter Projects

The girls and I recently tackled some long needed "to-do" projects.

Starting with Paige. She and I completely cleaned and organized her room. It ended with two big bags of trash. It seems like all the popular toys for kids are mini, like Polly Pockets, Littlest Pet Shop, etc. We were buried in tiny pieces of toys and junk. It took a couple of hours but we finally finished. Even better, Paige really appreciated the results and worked very hard the whole time. In fact, she is so happy with her new room, she has been spending hours up there playing all by herself, but has reassured me she is not making a mess!

Ashley's project was a little different (but believe me her room is also on the project list.) Yesterday, I checked her out of school an hour early and we went shopping for a swimsuit and shoes. Thanks to Ashley I had a totally new experience when it came to swimsuit shopping---not being able to find a good fitting swimsuit because you are too skinny. Trouble finding a swimsuit, every woman knows about that, but being too skinny? THAT WAS TOTALLY NEW TO ME. In fact, I am pretty sure that I will only have to deal with it vicariously through Ashley. She was a little frustrated, but I told her to take my word for it, you could have a worse problem. Obviously, you can't wear a baggy swimsuit but in order to find one tight enough, she was having to go down two clothing sizes, which puts her close to wearing the same size swimsuit as Paige. Of course, this didn't work because then it was too short or skimpy. In the end, we found a tankini at Justice that isn't perfect, but I'll just feed her donuts for breakfast for the next few weeks. As for the shoes, no luck. We will have to go out again. The girl's feet are huge, we are definitely shopping in the women's dept. She also has the longest freaky toes but once again very narrow feet, making a good fit difficult. I miss the days, I could just pick things out myself without needing her to try things on.

P.S. in case you were feeling like Paige got a raw deal, she's the one who ended up getting some new summer shoes :)

Ahh, Mother's Day

Mother's Day was very nice around our house. The effort that Dave and the girls put in to making the day special for me was so sweet and a great reminder that I am truly appreciated.

In the morning, I slept in and then stayed up stairs to shower and read books while the girls were downstairs prepping for the opening of the Mother's Day Restaurant which has become an annual tradition in our home. This year the restaurant featured a breakfast menu of blueberry pancakes and an omelet scramble. Chef Dave did a great job with the food, while the girls were excellent servers and hostesses. For entertainment this year, both the girls played songs on the piano for me.

I was also given some of my favorite hair serum (which is must for someone with frizzy hair like me) and some workout clothes. Dave's mom also sent me a cute bracelet and a fridge magnet--isn't that sweet?

What a great day. I'm glad I'm a mom and that I know and have learned from so many amazing mothers.

Reading, Baseball, and Freezing

Every year the girls' school is part of a reading incentive program called Ozzie's Reading Club. If the girls read a certain amount of time, they are given a free ticket, t-shirt, and hot dog meal for a Kane County Cougars baseball game (the local minor league, single A, Oakland A's affiliate.) Of course, day after day of warm weather and the night of our game is FREEZING cold. It was a little rainy, very windy and super cold, but since we already had our tickets and the girls were looking forward to going we loaded up the blankets and braved it. After about the 3rd inning, we realized that we would have to be crazy to stay any longer as we were already delirious from the cold:

At least the girls picked up their free t-shirts, ate a hot dog at the ball park, and marched in the pre-game parade:

The Egg Drop

For the past few weeks, the kindergartners in Paige's class have anxiously been tending chicken eggs in "incuvators." Finally, on May 5th the chicks arrived:

They learned all about oviparous animals and to end the unit they were given the "egg drop" assignment. This was my first time ever doing this but here is what Paige and I came up with:

We started with a raw egg and placed it in a ziploc bag with puffed rice cereal. Then we put the bag between two pieces of foam packing we had leftover from when something was shipped to us.

Next, we wrapped the whole thing with packing tape, over and over. We couldn't find a box that fit the size requirements, so we went without--figuring that cardboard wasn't going to make much of a difference protecting the egg. After it was wrapped up tight, Paige went to town decorating with stickers and ribbon.

Here is the final product. Paige took it to school, where the Vice-Principal dropped it from the roof of the building while the Kindergartners watched from the ground. And the verdict on our engineering...it didn't break!! Way to go Paige!

Tasting Good

My new food find is Broccoli Rabe or Rapini. I have had it before at a Chinese restaurant, but this was the first time I bought and cooked it myself. It was so good and so easy to prepare. The girls were okay with it, but Dave and I loved it. I kept it very simple--a quick boil in chicken broth, followed by a saute in olive oil and garlic.

It will be back at our dinner table again. I am pretty sure the girls will eventually develop a taste for it, I know I have.

It's a Little Scary

The tickets are purchased, dates are set, with less than 45 days until departure here is today's news:

1- for Dave's travel to Hyderabad, India

2- for mine and the girls' travel to Thailand

Fine Arts Night

Ashley at her school's annual Fine Arts Night. She is holding a clay medallion she made and imprinted with the tread of her tennis shoe.