Friends and First Day of School

I have a headache. I’ve been trying to think en Espanol all week and I can’t stop. I’m looking for vocabulary words from 20 years ago at TCC and I’m giving myself a tension headache with the effort. See, the girls and I met a mom and her two kids who were staying in town for the week and the mom spoke as much English as I do Spanish (no muchos).

(I have a headache because I wanted to be sure I didn't make a lingual faux pas....did you ever hear about that guy in Miami, who, upon hearing the Pope was coming to visit, printed up hundreds of t-shirts with a picture of his holiness that said, "El Papa"? Only problem, "el papa" is "the potato" in Spanish, while "La Papa" would have been a better choice).

I tried to invite them to the park but I couldn’t find the word for playground. They ended up inviting us to the hotel pool instead, and we went there Tuesday and today. There were two children – Allison, who is five and Manuel, three. So Hannah and Abbo played with them and had a pretty good time. The mamas “talked” beside the pool – and beside the Jacuzzi. It was a good time; they are leaving tomorrow and Hannah is so sad. But as she says, “It was fun while it lasted.” (!)

I’m finally posting “first day of school” pictures! Here’s Hannah’s picture for the scrapbook:

And here’s Hannah’s picture of her showing how excited she is to begin homeschooling – jumping beside Abigail and El Papa (Our gi-nor-mous potato plant). Here we go!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

(Adapted from an Amish recipe)

1 cup butter, room temp.
1 cup sugar
1 cup firm packed brown sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups all purpose flour (I use bread flour for all my ap flour)
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup oatmeal OR instant oatmeal
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pkg milk chocolate chips

preheat oven to 375. cream butter and sugar. add eggs and vanilla and mix well. stir dry ingredients except for chips together in a bowl and add to sugar mixture, mixing well. add a handful of flour if dough seems too sticky. mix in chocolate chips. scoop out with a cookie scoop and bake 12-15 minutes. cool on wire racks.

This recipe doubles easily....I don't use salt because I use salted butter, but you could add a tsp of salt if you want. Add some nuts at the end, too, if you want. I have no idea how many it makes...3 dozen?? Who knows. We have dough-eaters here, so I never get an accurate count.

To freeze: scoop dough out onto a cookie sheet and pop it in the freezer. when dough balls freeze, transfer them to a freezer Ziploc bag, label with directions and date, and store.

'eiiiii, MAJIDE!!

That's our new saying. "eiiiiiiiiii, MA-JI-DE!!"
Have you seen it?!
On Hulu, of course, what else - our new favorite "family" television show, "I Survived a Japanese Game Show." The girls love it. They always ask to watch the "Red Dragons." Except for a very few PG-13 scenes among characters, it has been wholly funny. We've almost finished the second season. Abba says that she wants to play "Maj-day" and Hannah asks if I will take her to Mt. Fuji.
Maybe later.

gardening

Whew! Three posts at once! A record!

I spent about 2 hours weeding the garden yesterday and found a bunch of fresh produce in there! Obviously, I only got about halfway through and it needs a little more attention:

This side not weeded.....................................weeded.

There's beans under there somewhere.

But look at these gourds!



And this one! I may enter THAT baby in the WV State Fair...the gourd, I mean. Its huge.

Sunflowers should be blooming sometime in the next several days....

Here's part of my "cottage garden" or wildflower garden - that is raucously overgrown, but the birds love it.

Blurry potatoes....but my first potato harvest - ever! We've gotten corn, beans (believe it or not), tomatoes and loads of bell peppers, too. Now I need to find time to preserve it all!

Patterns

What could be better than homeschooling with sugar cereal? I made a pattern out of Froot Loops, piled them on a skewer and stuck it in a wad'o'play-doh. Hannah copied the pattern, then got to eat her creation after it was correct.

Sugar Baby, of course, just ate the loops. And some of the play-doh.

bug bite

Something bit Hannah on her eyelid next to her nose: It could be a spider bite, but I only see one tiny hole, smaller than a pinprick. I gave her Benadryl and she's laying around. She says it feels better now. Its awful looking, but look at those beautiful eyes of hers!

what I did today

I did something today I haven't done in - oh, 11 years?
I went for a job interview.
Now, I was just fine until three different people asked me if I was nervous. I wasn't until I added up their "askances!"
As I went into the storefront building in downtown Covington, I just had to keep putting worry out of my mind. After all, the recruiter had spilled the beans that I was the only qualified applicant, so I figured I'd have a pretty good shot. Once we got chatting about the position, I relaxed and quit being so nervous (thanks, Ma!) and only lost my train of thought once. I think I covered it.
Anyways, they'll give me a call back at the end of August to let me know when I can start, have me fill out paperwork, give me some referrals and so on. The plan is that the job will be less than 15 hours a week and I can set my own hours. Andy will work with me about the girls; HEY - its a free counseling intervention!! We'll have to communicate better about many things, including his many, many evening meetings! Weh-eh-eh-ellll.....
I'll be working in the afternoons, evenings and weekends. Humph. That sounds like a lot. But it will be fine - I'm actually pretty excited! I'll let you know how it goes as it works out.

Nothing else new really. Our house is still on the market and no hits that have amounted to anything. We're just sittin' around, waiting for something to happen.... :)