Summer fun

Hey there!! Long time, no see.

We've been having an eventful summer. The girls got out of school around the middle of June, and all 5 of us got on a plane out to California. The girls stayed with our in-laws, and Jeff and I had our 1st vacation with no kids in almost 6 years. We went to Vegas...it was awesome. So much fun. We were able to see Ka' and Penn & Teller. We can't wait to go back.

The girls had a fabulous time with Jeff's parents. Their cousin Ariel was there, too, for the majority of the time, so they had a bunch of girly fun. Played dress-up, got in the spa, played with dolls and Barbies, and generally ran amok for 4 days straight. Needless to say, my worry that they would miss us while we were gone (as this was the longest we'd ever been away from them) were unfounded. I doubt they noticed we weren't there. In fact, I think we got a passing "Hi mom, hi dad!" after we came in the door. They were too busy.

Emma got her ears pierced with Auntie M & Aunt Kammie. I'd been asking her for 3 years if she wanted to get them done, but she kept telling me no thanks, because she knew it would hurt. Ok fine. But, as soon as mom's gone, and her aunts suggest it, SURE! LOL

As soon as we got back to Michigan, Emma started PEAK. It's a day camp that runs for 6 weeks during the summer. They have water days, do arts & crafts, go on field trips. Just the thing a kid like Emma needs. Not to mention the fact that most of the kids go to her school and she needs to make some new friends. Her best friend is switching schools next fall and making friends can be hard for her.

Sarah & Katie are doing well, having fun running around like banshees at home. Katie's doing really well with the potty training. Sarah we're still working on. Hoping to have her almost 100% trained before school starts. They're getting along pretty well, with only a few screaming matches a day. Otherwise they're like peas in a pod, best friends, partners in crime, the whole thing.

Jeff is doing well. Traveling for work. He just got back from Ithaca, NY. He & a co-worker did a presentation @ a conference at Cornell for a software product they use. I got a nifty Ivy League school sweatshirt. Yeah, you're jealous.

We also went to visit our friends in Tennessee for the 4th. Fun drive, all 14 hours of it. But it's worth it because they're our oldest friends, and our kids actually get along pretty well. We're the "Brady Bunch": they have 3 boys, we have 3 girls. The logistics are going to start getting a wee bit uncomfortable, as our two oldest are only 2 days apart, and they call each other their "boyfriend/girlfriend" when they're apart. Ahem They're 9 1/2. Oh boy, not looking forward to the teenage years.

This coming semester is Jeff's last. It's going to be hell, not looking forward to it, but then it'll be done and he'll have a degree that he's been working towards for 5 1/2 years. I'm so very very proud of him. Between going to school and working full-time, not to mention getting a promotion in between there and having to travel constantly for work. he's done extremely well. He'll be graduating with honors, which is hard enough for some people to accomplish without all the responsibilities that he has.

That's pretty much the rundown of what's been going on with us. Not a whole lot of excitement, but then again, I'm not sure I want a ton of excitement.

Update from our neck of the woods

We've had quite the goings-on around here lately, so here's a wrap-up.

I flew to San Diego a couple weeks ago to attend my sister's college graduation. It was the 1st time in almost 2 years that Jeff's been alone with the kids for longer than 12 hours. He did fabulous, which makes me think I should leave him alone more often. :D

I had a really nice time seeing a lot of my dad's family. I hadn't seen any of my younger siblings in 2 years, and I hadn't seen my dad or step-mom since my mom's funeral. I was able to spend some time at the beach, which I miss, terribly. Did a little shopping and generally had a wonderful time.

Both Jeff & I finished the spring semester about a week before that, which we were both happy about. I ended up getting A's in all 3 of my classes, finishing my math class with an 102% on my final exam. I was quite pleased with myself. Jeff also got straight A's, solidifying the fact that he'll be graduating in December with honors! Woo hoo!!

The girls are all doing great. After having some struggles making friends in the beginning of the year, Emma's made a really good friend in a girl named Paige. She's in 4th grade, which means she'll be leaving this school at the end of the year (the schools here are K-4, and then 5-6) but I know she'll keep in touch, and I'm sure we'll be having sleepovers & playdates all summer.

Sarah is having a blast in school, with the last 2 weeks of preschool wrapping up. She's headed to K next year, which I know she'll do great in. We've have K Round-Up, and last night we went to a Parent meeting at the school, where we toured all the classrooms. She didn't want to leave! We have her transition IEP tomorrow morning, where everything for her placement will get finalized. I'm pretty sure her therapy times won't change much, and I think the agreement was that her and another little boy will share an aid, who will travel to the different classrooms with them.

Katie is doing great! Since I got back from California, we've been working on the potty training. She's had a few mishaps, but overall she's caught on really well! I decided that I couldn't handle training 2 kids at once, and Katie, although she was really hesitant to use the potty chair a month ago, started initiating it on her own, so I decided to start with Katie. I know once Katie has it down pat, that Sarah will want to emulate her and she'll be along shortly. :D Katie's biggest hurdle was she really liked the design on her pull-ups and didn't want to wear anything else. But, I convinced her with some new Minnie Mouse undies. Now, she only wears the pull-ups at nap and bedtime. I can't yet have my "ritualistic burning of the changing table pad" yet, but it's close! Unfortunately, I don't think Sarah will be able to go to the speech camp this summer (funding is non-existent) so we'll have the whole summer to work on it! I'd love to send both girls to school in the fall completely pull-up free.

Katie is still my little talker. The things that come out of her mouth have me in stitches at times. Another blogger I follow said that kids at this age are so literal. I can definitely see it with Katie. She picked up Sarah's pants from the floor of the bathroom and asked,"What's this mom?". I told her,"Those are Sarah's jeans." She said,"No, it's a flower." Apparently she had been talking about the design on her jeans, not the jeans themselves.

As for us, Jeff and I are looking forward to traveling to CA in 2 weeks to visit his family. The girls will get some quality time with Nana & Papa, and Jeff & I will be taking a well-deserved vacation to Vegas for 4 days. This will be the 1st trip without kids in almost 6 years. I can hardly wait. But first we have to get through the last couple weeks of school, and Jeff has his final ACSA exam to take. Oh, and then there's the little thing of actually flying with 3 kids cross country, which is always fun. But, they're older now, and hopefully will be a little easier. And please let there be NO exploding diapers @ 35,000 feet.

Toothless

Apparently this family loses teeth in groups.

A few weeks ago, I had noticed that Sarah had a loose front tooth. I kinda panicked as I thought she was too young to start loosing teeth. But, I had to remind myself that she'll be 5 in April, and she just looks younger than she is. Also, Emma lost her first tooth the month after she turned 5, so it wasn't terribly early. Based on how wiggly it was, I gave it less than a month before it was out.

So, last Thursday, when we're all home from school/work, I'm making dinner (or rather standing in the kitchen wishing desperately for inspiration to hit me in the face regarding what to make for dinner) and Sarah comes to me, and her mouth is bleeding a little. So, I look and it's her tooth; not out completely, but a lot more wiggly than it had been. I gave her a towel to chew on, to help it come out, as I couldn't pull it out myself. About 10 minutes later, she comes back to me, towel in hand, and no tooth in her mouth. I ask her where it was, and she said "Idunknow, mommy". Oy. So, I check the towel-no tooth. I check her mouth-no tooth. I had Emma look all over the living room-no tooth. So, Sarah lost her first tooth, and them promptly swallowed it. Given her high pain tolerance I probably could have pulled it and she would have been fine. So, needless to say I've been checking her diapers, but no tooth so far. Unfortunately, she diapers have recently returned to their prior "consistency" and I probably missed it. But, no fear, the tooth fairy was notified, and left Sarah $2.

Not to be outdone though, Emma had some loose teeth of her own. She actually had 3. She hasn't lost any teeth (naturally, although she had 1 pulled about 2 years ago) in over 2 years, so it was time.

Yesterday, being Valentine's Day, and 4/5 of us being sick, I didn't want to cook, but we couldn't go out. So, Jeff, being the wonderful husband he is, and seeing as how he was feeling more human than he had in days, volunteered to go pick up food from Lonestar Steakhouse. I hadn't known that they did take-out. I was giddy. Their rolls and honey butter are to die for. But, I digress. So, he and Emma went to pick up our food. They brought it home and we all sat at the table. The girls ate very nicely, and we were having our first sit down dinner in almost a week. Then, suddenly, Emma gasps, and pulls what I think is bread out of her mouth. She shows it to me, and I see it's one of her teeth. So, the tooth fairy came last night for her, too (even though she's already in on the "secret"). I'm expecting the other 2 loose teeth to fall out within a couple months at the very latest.

Sick & tired of being sick & tired

You'd think the plague had hit our house with the amount of snot, mucous, and general ickiness we've had here.

Last week Jeff started feeling bad, on Monday evening. He called in sick on Tuesday with a bad fever & all over achiness. I figured he had the flu, but also knowing Jeff, I figured he would kick it in about 24 hours. That's generally how things go with him. His immune system is phenomenal. When Tuesday evening came around and he wasn't better, I started to think that this wasn't a run-of-the-mill illness. The girls were ok for the most part. Emma had a cough, but seemed ok. She was coughing through the night and ended up throwing up early Wednesday morning. So, she stayed home. The other girls were ok, until the evening, when they started with their own coughs. I decided to keep them home on Thursday, and stayed home myself. By then, Jeff's symptoms had changed some. The fever was still there, but not terrible. The achiness was less, but now he had chest & nasal congestion and a very sore throat. He was thinking flu/strep throat. I knew he had the flu, but I was iffy on the strep. I know post nasal drip can cause a very sore throat. We all went to the Urgent Care to get the official diagnosis, and took the little girls with so we could get them checked out, too. They were fine, just a little upper respiratory infection, and we were told to treat them symptomatically. Jeff finally got labeled with the flu, but no strep. He was told to pretty much be in quarantine until Monday. I don't think he's ever missed 4 straight days of work due to illness. Like, ever.

By Friday morning, the girls no longer had fevers, but Emma was back to coughing up a lung along with having a fever. So she had to miss her class Valentine's Day party, which she was thoroughly bummed about. But, I promised her that I would take her Valentines to her teacher after work.

At bedtime we'd been giving the girls some cough/fever medicine to help them sleep, but apparently it wasn't working for Katie. She woke up Friday night and Saturday night with pretty high fevers. Friday night she ended up in bed with us for a few hours, but I eventually put her back after the meds kicked in. Saturday night I went grocery shopping late, after the girls went to bed. I got home around 11pm, and after all the groceries were put away, I went to check on the girls. Katie was, surprisingly, still awake. She was quiet, but awake. I went to go give her a hug and she was burning up. She had a temp of 102. So, she got some Motrin, along with a drink, and I stayed by her to put a cool washcloth on her forehead. Katie, when she's delirious with fever, is wryly hilarious. She was laying there, perfectly content, but she kept saying things like "Emma's asleep", and "Sarah bit me, look Mommy, she bit my finger"- all perfectly calm and matter-of-fact. She also took issue with the fact that Oreo (the cat) was walking in her room. She kept telling her to get out. "I want Oreo out of here, Mommy." It was funny.

She finally fell asleep about 1am, poor girl. But, she was running amok with her sisters this morning, so it just looks like a flukie thing.

I know I will probably jinx myself by saying this, but so far, I haven't succumb to whatever germs attacked my family this week. I think it was some higher power that basically said,"If your family is to survive this week, someone has to be able to take care of everything." But, Jeff is leaving later this week for another business trip, so I know that will probably be the time when I get bombarded with it all. Karma hates me.

Family Update

Life has slowly been chugging along for us. We're back into the routine of school/work/kids etc. I'm now working 4 mornings a week, which was an adjustment, but I've found it actually makes things easier. I'm able to get home after picking up the kids from daycare at the latest by 1pm. I then feed them lunch and put them down for a nap (no guarantees that they'll actually sleep, though) and after that I'm able to be a lot more productive. The morning routine of getting all 5 of us fed, dressed, and out the door by 8:10am is actually a lot easier than I had envisioned. I only work 4 days a week, so I have all of Friday off.

Jeff is back in school, as well. He's teaching again this semester and taking his final class for his minor. It's Metalworking, which I thought sounded fun. Not so much after he told me he needed steel-toe boots, safety goggles, and pants that weren't easily flammable. Oy. He's also going to a few training sessions for Apple. He's preparing to take the ASCA Certification test soon, and I know he'll do fabulous!

Emma is doing wonderful. She's officially out of the Resource Room at school, and in the classroom full-time. She's still seeing the school Social Worker, but it's looking like the issues she was having in the 1st semester are slowly being resolved. We got her 2nd quarter report card last week, and she's doing great. She got a majority of 3's (her school grades from 1-4, 4 being the highest), a couple 2's, and a couple 4's. From the progress reports from her teacher, it looks like her being in the classroom full-time now is really being beneficial to her academically, as well as socially. She rarely comes home from school saying she's had a bad day. She's making great strides in reading and spelling, and is testing her skills by e-mailing with family.

Sarah is still as chipper as ever. She recently got new glasses, which are slightly different than her last few pairs. These don't have the cable temples, so they fit a little looser. I was worried that this might take some getting used to, and that she might start yanking them off frequently again. But, she adjusted to them nicely, and really notices when she's not wearing them. A for school, she's doing fantastic. She did a few things over Winter break that her teachers had been working with her on, so I sent a note in the first day back after the new year. Things like counting to 10, as well as identifying more shapes, and being on the road to being potty trained. There's a small possibility that we might go ahead and send her to Kindergarten next fall, but I'm still not sure about it. There are a few more people I want to talk to about possible placements for her, and I don't want to send her just because she's old enough. Legally, I can have her stay in preschool another year, but I'm not sure what's best for her yet.

Katie is going great. She and Sarah are still the best of friends, even though Katie keeps trying to be the boss. Too many times during the day I'll hear something to the effect of, "NO, Sawah, sit down!" Or "That's bad, Sawah!" Talk about a chip off the ol' block. This child is "Mini-me" and mimics everything I do...not always a good thing.

My birthday is next week, which is always interesting. I'll be 31. Jeff is going to another Apple training for most of the week, starting on Monday, so we're celebrating my birthday on Saturday. Yay! I get to sleep in! :)

Where to Begin? Part 2

When I left you the other day, I was whining about my mountain of mommy guilt re: my daughter's social skills. Aside from those particular issues, Emma's had a great year so far in her new school. I love her teacher and I know she has made significant progress. It kinda makes me wonder how well she would be doing if we'd moved her to this school right after Kindergarten. But, again, just heap that onto the guilt mountain.

Another new change is that now Emma is riding the bus to and from school everyday. This is new only that it's an actual "yellow school bus" rather than the local transportation that she took to her old school in Kindergarten. She's been really excited about this since we told her at the beginning of last summer. Her new school starts 45 minutes after her old school, and she doesn't catch the bus until 8am, which is nice for us all, because we really aren't morning people. A few months ago, the high school had their Homecoming week. Due to where we live (right across from the high school) our street was part of the Homecoming parade route. I kept waiting for a notice or call from her bus people to let me know how they were going to change the route on the day of the parade. I didn't get anything until the morning of the parade, after Emma had already left for school. So while I knew what the deal was, Emma didn't.

After getting to the new drop-off spot for that day, I waited...and waited. Fifteen minutes after her normal time to be dropped off, I saw the bus coming up behind my car, where I was sitting with the 2 other kids. I didn't have a chance to get out of the car, and the bus didn't stop. So I scurried and tried to catch up with the bus, hoping it would notice that I was following it and stop, to allow Emma to get off. It didn't. So, instead of following it around, I went to where I KNEW another stop was, got out and waited for it to show up with the other parents. The bus got there, no Emma. I was immediately freaking out.

There's a rule for the elementary schools that no child under the age of 10 can be let off a public school bus without a parent/guardian visible. So, since September, I've had to wait on my front porch every afternoon, so the bus driver can see that I'm home, and let Emma off. There's a waiver I can sign which will allow her to get off the bus without that, but Jeff & I aren't comfortable with that. It's a huge pain in the butt, but I can deal with it for another year until she's 10.

So, when Emma wasn't on the bus, I panicked. The bus driver, which was a sub, and didn't know the original route well to begin with, couldn't tell me which stop Emma had gotten off at. I was now livid as well as panicked, which doesn't go well together. Some kids on the bus told the driver and myself that Emma had gotten off at the stop previous to where I had been waiting originally. I had no idea where that was, not to mention the fact that there was a Homecoming parade going on at that moment right where Emma had gotten off the bus. I had no idea where she could have gone, nor did I know, since we'd only been at our new house for a few months, if she would know which way was home.

The bus driver was sure that she had gotten off at a stop with a ton of other kids who were going to a daycare. She gave me the address of the daycare and I went to go find her. Thankfully, another mom who'd been waiting with me volunteered to go searching for her with me. We went to the address: no daycare. No one was even home. I'm starting to hyperventilate at this point. The lady with me started walking towards the parade route and I searched all the streets in between. I went as close as I could to our street, parked and got out and started walking towards our house. That's when I saw Emma standing in our driveway, watching the parade with none other than her 3rd grade teacher. Talk about a stroke of luck.

What had happened was, since she didn't know anything was going to be different, when the sub driver told everyone who normally got off on our street to get off at a stop she wasn't familiar with, she listened and got off the bus. When she realized she wasn't in the right spot, she was super smart and started looking for our house. Ironically, after getting there and finding that I wasn't there, she saw her teacher setting up with her kids to watch the parade, and sought her out to ask for help.

What really pissed me off was the bus driver seemed to have no idea that what she'd done was simply idiotic. Firstly, she was a sub. Why the hell do you give a sub the job of dealing with an altered route when it's their first time for that route? Second, Emma is under 10, meaning legally, according to THEIR rules, she needs to have a parent/guardian visible before they let her off the bus. The sub didn't ASK the adult at the stop whether Emma was with her, she just assumed. And Emma, not knowing that there was anything different, was just doing what the bus driver told her.

This almost made me want to take her off the bus entirely. But, seeing as how I value my sanity, I decided against it. She enjoys it, it makes her feel a little more grown-up, and I don't have to drive to and from the school twice a day. We haven't had any other issues with the bus, so I suppose it was probably just bad timing.

Where to begin? Part 1

Do you ever get the feeling that if you sit down and actually try to do something, you know that most likely you'll get interrupted, and never finish it or not finish it the way you want to?

Yeah, that would be me and this blog at the moment.

While my life has been boring for the most part, there have been a few things I wanted to blog about. But, when I had free time, most likely I would convince myself that I could be doing something else instead of blogging.

I guess I should probably start back a few months.

Way back last school year, at Emma's old school, I had asked at one of her IEP meetings to have her evaluated for a learning disability. While she had made some progress in the Resource Room (for reading and spelling) during 2nd grade, she just wasn't progressing at a rate that I felt was ok. Plus, she was starting to regress in other areas where she had been really strong (math). They told me at the time that they were pretty sure that they wouldn't be able to get to it before the end of the school year. I was ok with that, since I'd already known that she would be going to a different school this year, due to us moving and me not being able to drive 15 miles to and from her school that was in the middle of nowhere twice a day.

So, she switched schools and I waited for her to be evaluated. But, during the summer she had gone to speech camp for 6 weeks, and had made great progress in that area, and they had also worked on some language and reading with her, as well. Which was fabulous of them, considering it wasn't really their job.

About 6 weeks into the school year, we have her bi-annual IEP. The school psychologist tells us that they don't believe she has a learning disability, and her teacher confirms that, while she's not 100% caught up to her peers, she's within the average range for her abilities. I thought, great! This is wonderful. Her 3rd grade teacher (whom, I LOVE) is an ex-Resource Room teacher (she taught in there for 15 years) and so I trusted her opinion implicitly. She also told me that she didn't think that Emma really qualified for Resource Room help anymore. I had to pause at that one, because I couldn't believe my good luck!

Then they dropped the bombshell on me. While they don't think Emma has an LD, they did want her to start seeing the school social worker. They had noticed (and I confirmed this has been an issue since Kindergarten) that Emma seems to have trouble maintaining good peer relationships. She gets easily offended and is often reduced to tears at school. She would come home and tell me how so & so wasn't her friend anymore because of something they'd done or said. It seems she had a hard time distinguishing between innocent schoolyard squabbles and real issues. I've always felt bad for her in regards to friends, because, even from an early age, she couldn't really keep friends. Her best friends when we lived in San Diego were kids of friends we went to church with, and when we moved 2000 miles away, we only kept in contact with 1 of those families. That family we only see once a year. When we moved here, we didn't know ANYONE. All of the people Jeff worked with had kids who were much older. I started Emma in preschool, but it didn't seem like any of the kids really wanted to be close friends with her. Trust me, I tried almost everything. We had parties and playdates and parent coffees. I tried to go to almost every school function they had. Then, there was the insult to the injury when I put her in a school where none of her friends from preschool were going. She easily made friends in Kindergarten, one of which, Adam, is still her friend to this day. But, it seemed every year that the few friends she made that were really important to her, either moved or switched schools.

Last year, her best friend was Adam. Adam had a few other friends who didn't always want to play with Emma, since she was a girl. Which is ironic since there was another girl who was ok to play with, but not Emma. (Insert angry mom rant over unequal gender treatment by little children in public schools.) Adam's mom is probably my closest friend here, and so we got our kids together frequently (she has 3 boys, so she got her "girl-fix" when I came over, lol).

I have tried SO hard to make sure that the transition to this new school would be easy for Emma. I even put her on a soccer team last spring that had all girls that would be going to her new school. I was hoping she would make friends that would carry over to her class. But it seemed like nothing worked.

Emma is a VERY social child. She's not withdrawn, she's not shy, but the social worker just doesn't think she can relate on a peer level to kids her own age. This makes sense, since she'd constantly been around kids who were younger than her (i.e. her sisters, and the siblings of friends). When they started talking about that at the IEP, I lost it. Academic delays you can fix, but I knew enough about social development to know that it's VERY hard to catch up in that regard. I immediately had flashes of her going through school as the social outcast because she couldn't relate to any of her peers. And I was mad, too. She's SO bright and smart and funny and loves life. How could these kids not see that and want to be her friends? And of course, I felt guilty. Jeff & I were the ones who dragged her across the country, away from her only friends and our whole family. I blamed myself for not doing enough to make sure she had good social outlets. But, I thought, what else could I have done? I put her in sports and school and did all I could with being so far away from any help from family and having just had a child with special needs.

One bad thing about not growing up with the same kids: it seems like all the families have enough friends and whenever someone new comes into play, they don't have room.

Emma DID make a really good friend over the summer during speech camp. Ironically it was a girl who she'd gone to preschool with, but who goes to a different school. She's had a couple play dates since the summer, but she lives about 30 miles away, so those are few and far between.

So far, she's been seeing the social worker about 1-2 times a week. I don't know if it's making any difference. Emma still comes home from school on occasion and tells me she had a bad day because someone wasn't nice to her or so & so didn't want to play with her. It's hard to make her understand that no one can get along with everyone all the time. I know part of it is probably school related, and I know that some of it is from the stress that we've been under for awhile. Our household is far from stress-free and I know she internalizes it. Add that to my mountain of guilt please. But, how to fix it? That's the million dollar question. I only wish I had the answer.

Random post

I did it.

I blinked.

People warned me not to, but I did it anyways.

And now, my oldest, my first born, has grown up.

She just turned a couple weeks ago, and I decided to measure her feet.

She can now officially wear...women's size shoes.

As per her foot measurement, she could wear a 5, in women's shoes.

I don't remember exactly when I made that leap, but I vaguely recall going shoe shopping with my mom, and deciding to try on a pair of 3 inch heels, in a size 5. They fit...and my mom was appalled. I think I might have been 9 or 10, but don't quote me on that.

But Emma's too young for that! There's no WAY she could be old enough. Ugh...I'm getting old.

But I suppose there's a silver lining to this: if her feet are this big at this age, I'm hoping that means she'll be tall. :)

Am I ready for this?

Last night we were discussing what to do for Emma's birthday that's coming up in a few weeks. Her, Jeff, and I were running ideas around, when Jeff had the idea of Emma going to visit her Nana & Papa for a few days. She loved that idea, since it's been a year since she's seen them.

Nana & Papa are in California...We're in Michigan. This presents a problem.

This trip would entail Emma, my soon-to-be-but-not-yet 9 year old, to fly...on a plane..by herself.

...breathe...

She's old enough (heck, I flew by myself numerous times from the time I was 5, but that was from Sacramento to Burbank & back), and I know she enjoys flying, so it's not like she'd be having a panic attack at 20,000 feet. She doesn't even require (by the airlines) that it be a direct flight, she can have a connection! (I don't want her to though.) We're trying to work out the details, and I know she's excited. She loves her Nana & Papa, and the chance to have them all to her herself for 4 whole days?? It's enough to send her over the edge. We'll see how Mommy & Daddy fair.

For the love of a dog

For Emma's 1st birthday, back in 2000, we bought her the "Blue's Clues Big Musical Movie" DVD. She. Loved. It. She watched it all the time. It became a staple on our long trips to see family in CA. Once she got a little older, it became less of a favorite, and usually was left, forgotten, in our DVD case in favor of the current flavor of Barbie movie (which I still haven't forgiven Mattel for). After Sarah was born, she had her own favorite movies, like Signing Time and Muppets and Veggietales. Blue's Clues came out every once in awhile, but it wasn't mesmerizing for her like it had been for Emma.
Well we officially have another Blue's Clues fanatic in the house. And she goes by the name of Katie. I kid you not, this is what I heard in my house this morning:

Katie (in the kitchen waiting for a drink, hears the opening strains of the Blue's Clues DVD in the living room): "Gasp" BLUES CLUES MOMMY, BLUES CLUES!!! ::squeal:: (as she's running pellmell into the living room, almost hitting the wall as she turns the corner) IT'S BLUES CLUES!!!! YAY!!!!!

Cue complete silence for the first 20 minutes of the DVD.

I call that Heaven.

I know most people wonder how much use they'll get out of the toys and games and movies they buy for their children. Eight years later, this DVD is still bringing joy to the children of the Wilson household. I'd call that money well spent.

Calm after the storm

Life has been a whirlwind the last month or so. Between school for 4/5 of us, work for Jeff & I, and general madness, it's been hard to keep up.

I've been completely remiss in my plan to blog every day for the month of October. There have been some days where I just didn't have a brain cell left to think about what to blog.

A few anecdotes from the last few weeks:

* we got the girls' costumes: Emma's a witch, Sarah's a pirate, and Katie's a cowgirl.
* Jeff signed up for his spring classes; he only has 2 more after that, and he's all set to graduate next December.
* Emma got through her first MEAP (Michigan Standardized Test) and I think they're now starting the LD evaluation
* we had an incident with the bus and Emma, I'm still following up with that, it'll be a later blog
* Emma seems to be doing very well in school; she's making great progress in reading
* Sarah continues to be the "little teacher" in class
* Katie is still doing wonderfully; she's loving daycare and doesn't cry every time we pull up to the house!
* I've been having an existential crisis over what to do with the rest of my life, education-wise

That pretty much sums up our lives for the last few weeks or so. We have some cool things coming up, including our annual get-together with our best friends from Tennessee. It's their turn to drive up here for Thanksgiving. Not to mention the election next week!! :) The girls all have the day off, which is NOT going to make it easy to go and vote. But, we'll make it work. Never too early to learn about civic duty. :)

"Sucker"

I need to have that tattooed to my forehead.

Trying to get Emma ready for school in the morning is an exercise in futility. I beg, bargain, and threaten her into getting ready. We even set hr clothes out the night before in an effort to expedite the "getting ready" process. But between eating breakfast, brushing hair & teeth, getting her backpack ready, socks/shoes, coat, and getting out the door, I'm exhausted by the time she walks (usually late) out the door to the bus stop.

I'm thinking this is karma catching up with me because I recall doing the same thing to my mother. While my mom only had me, and I have 2 other kids, my mom worked full-time, and had to be out the door roughly the same time as me, so I suppose it's pretty equally frustrating.

I have tried numerous tricks to help Emma be able to do all this stuff on her own: she has an alarm clock, which we use; we set out her clothes the night before; I try to get her to make her own breakfast (she's almost 9, and cereal doesn't require heat, lol). I make her lunch if need be, so it really shouldn't be that hard to get ready. But, every morning, I find myself getting her backpack together, untying the knots in her shoelaces, putting her coat, socks, and shoes all by her to she can get to the easily. I'm practically pushing her out the door so she doesn't miss her bus.

The problem is that there is no real incentive for me to punish her if she is procrastinating. If she's late and misses her bus, then it punishes me, lol. Because then I'd have to get all the kids ready and in the car so I could drive her to school Which wouldn't be terrible, but Sarah's bus comes 45 minutes after Emma's. And Emma's school doesn't like it when you drop kids off more than 20 minutes early and I wouldn't be able to drop her off and then get back home in time to get Sarah on the bus. And if Sarah misses the bus, then I'd have to drive HER to school, too. And I can't just drop her off. We all have to find a parking spot, get out and walk into a huge building. Of course, this requires that we're all dressed in something other than our pj's, which defeats the purpose of having Emma ride the bus! You can see how this one little thing snowballs into a bunch of hassle for the entire family.

Blog? What blog?

Yeah, so I haven't updated in a bit. Might have something to do with me working and going to school. I'm still trying to get into the swing of things. The kids have fallen back into their routines: Emma is loving school, Sarah's the queen of her classroom and bus, and Katie isn't crying every time I pull up to the daycare.

Life hasn't been all that exciting so I haven't felt the "need" to blog. But, maybe I'll have some good stories in the next few weeks. Jeff's going out of town starting tomorrow, which always brings it's own fun, Emma's in swim lessons instead of soccer, and between Sarah and Katie being my "twin dynamos", well I'm sure I'll have something to blog about soon.

ETA: I apparently spoke too soon: just tonight Sarah snuck into our bathroom and stole a box of my tampons. She proceeded to empty half of the box and open them. Oy vey.

A new school year begins

Emma started 3rd grade on Tuesday. Ack! I can't believe how grown up she's getting. I actually did take a few pictures before we rushed out the door the first day, but I haven't had time to download them to my computer. She only had a halfday the first day, but full days the last 2.

Today was her first day on the school bus. She rode the ICTC public bus during Kindergarten to Morey but the last 2 years we've carpooled. Morey doesn't have a typical "yellow bus" so this was her first real trip on a school bus. I walked her to the bus stop and we were met there by a couple boys from her school. She was very excited. Thankfully her school doesn't start until 8:40am, which means she doesn't have to catch the bus until 8am, which translates to more sleep for us all. :D

Sarah started school yesterday. Katie and I took her to school, but I had class and work immediately afterward so she took the bus to daycare. But she caught the bus this morning, and was very excited, too. I told her the bus was coming soon and she got her coat and backpack on and practically paced in front of the door. Once the bus showed up she bolted out front, with me barely holding on to her hand. This is old hat to her, lol. She knows the bus driver and the aid, and has "graduated" to a different seat. She no longer has to sit directly behind the driver, she gets to sit a couple of rows back. She has to take off her backpack and coat in order to be comfortable, and then she climbs up into the seat and helps the aid put on her 5 point seat belt. This child LOVES school. Just like Emma. :)

Tonight was Emma's Open House. It was meant only for parents (which I didn't know until the last minute), so Jeff & I did "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to see who would go.

I'm kidding.

I ended up going because Jeff had about 500 pages to read for his class.

Plus he knows I take better notes. :D

It was nice. I'd met Emma's teacher the first day, and I knew a little bit about her (she'd been a Special Ed/Resource Room teacher for 16 years) but I'm SO glad Emma's in her class. This woman just seems awesome. Sarah's teacher's daughter also goes to this school (also in 3rd grade, but a different class), as well as her niece who IS in Emma's class. Both girls had been on Emma's spring soccer team, which is why I specifically put her on that team, so she could meet some girls who would be going to her new school (the decision to switch schools had been made right after we signed the purchase agreement on the house). I'm really really hoping Emma's able to make some good friends, who actually call and want to spend time outside of school with her. In the 3 years Emma went to Morey, she had maybe 3 invitations to go to someone's house (birthday parties not included, but I could count those on 1 hand as well). And while I understand that people have busy lives, try explaining that to a sad elementary school student whose friends don't want to spend time with her. Add to that the fact that Emma's best friend for 2 of those 3 years was a boy, who played with other boys, who didn't want to play with a girl. She was ostracized from the girls because she played with the boys, but the boys didn't want her to play with them.

Playground politics aside, I'm really hoping for a fantastic year for both girls. I saw Sarah's teacher tonight, as well. She was just gushing over how much Sarah has blossomed over the summer. She's still the "little teacher" and now she has some younger classmates who apparently look up to her. She loves the routine and loves being at school. I finally voiced to her my idea of having Sarah go to the Kindergarten Readiness Preschool next year at the Human Growth and Development Lab. I'm 90% sure I want her to have an extra year of preschool, even though technically she's eligible to go next fall. I've been toying with the idea of having Sarah go to the all day K Readiness and have Katie go to the 3 year old program. We'd have to pay for Katie, but I think we'd get a multi-child discount or something. But, that's not really something I have to deal with for a few months at least. I don't foresee Sarah being in a self-contained classroom in school, so I think a year with typical peers (but still getting all her therapies) will help prepare her for public school.

Anyhow, I'm just glad the school year has started, as the girls have been antsy (to say the least) for the last month since Speech Camp ended. I hope the girls will always have this love for school. :D

On our own again

Jeff left early this morning for a business trip in Salt Lake. I feel so bad for him because we both got such a lousy night's sleep, but I was lucky enough to get to sleep in a bit after he left.

A quick recap of the last few days: We had fun during our 1 night "stay-cation" at the hotel. As soon as the girls got out of speech camp, we went home, finished packing up our overnight bag, and checked in. We immediately changed and went to the pool. The indoor pool was heated, so it wasn't completely refreshing, but it was better than nothing. Plus it started raining outside (go figure) so it would have doubly sucked if it had been an outdoor pool.

The girls had fun, although Sarah kept wanting to go into the spa, which was a lot hotter than she was accustomed to. Whenever we go to Nana & Papa's (who have a spa) they cool the water down to about 98 degrees, but I'm betting this spa was at least 103-WAY hotter than I was comfortable with. Sarah is still kinda iffy when it comes to water in general, but Katie was a fish. She absolutely loved it. She didn't mind if her head got dunked (although after reading about dry drowning, I was a bit nervous and kept checking on her after she went to sleep) and was happy as a clam jumping off the edge of the pool into my arms. We put Emma's pink water-wings on her and while she doesn't have the coordination to keep herself upright (her body keeps wanting to float on it's back) she WAS confident enough to jump towards me from the steps of the pool when I wasn't looking.

Emma is slowly getting more comfortable with swimming. I REALLY need to get her into swim lessons. I think with her being my first, I've been a bit too protective and was perfectly happy doing everything for her and not really noticing if she didn't know how to do something when her peers probably did (such as riding a 2-wheeler and knowing how to tie her shoes). I think I've been so focused on her school work and speech & the little ones, that I've kinda neglected that part of Emma's upbringing. Either that or I just assumed she'd learn how to do things on her own. I don't remember going to swim lessons as a kid, I just remember knowing how to swim. But, I was at the beach every summer, and had family who could take me all the time because I was the only child/grandchild that was around until I was 8. *This is the part when I get all pouty over the fact that we have no family nearby.*

Anyhow, the girls had fun, and it was a nice reprieve from the heat of our house.

Speaking of the heat, it is really affecting how Sarah & Katie sleep. Last night was just awful. We tried to get everyone to sleep in the basement (which is probably about 10 degrees cooler than the main level) but no one would settle down. So we put the little ones in their room on the floor with a box fan blowing right on them. Jeff went in their and tried to get them to fall asleep, but it took awhile. Then at around 2:45am, they took turns waking up and being restless. So, Jeff and I took turns trying to get them settled back down to make sure they didn't wake the other one up. We opened all the doors to let the cooler air flow through the house, but all that did was open the door for the girls to get up and walk around the house. They were each found asleep in the living room, at the side of our bed, at the door of the pantry after getting into it, in Emma's room, under their bed, and IN our bed. Needless to say, none of us got much sleep. Except Emma, who sleeps through anything.

I tried to put the little ones down for a nap this morning, to try and help them catch up on their rest, but it took almost 90 minutes for them to settle down. By that time, it was close to the time for Sarah to go to camp. I decided to let her sleep instead. So hopefully they'll both wake up refreshed and ready to give me a run for my money. :D

Busy bees

That's apparently our motto for this weekend. We have way more stuff to do than we ever do normally, and it's kind of surprising.

Today: I have my call-backs at the same time Emma has a birthday bowling party to go to. DH to the rescue, and have fun putting the littlest ones to bed, hehe.
Tomorrow: driving to a local lake for a day of boating/food/fun with a group of people from Jeff's work. I needed to make an emergency trip to Kohl's last night to find a bathing suit that covered up my "doughy-ness".
Sunday: taking Emma to her friend's house for a playdate in the morning, and then we have our monthly Central Michigan Ds group meeting at a park.

We're never this busy. And poor DH is going out of town next Friday, so he won't have another weekend to himself (well, with us, too) for 2 weeks. I suppose when you live in a climate where people generally hibernate during the winter, you try to get in as much socializing and outings as you can while the weather's good. The way I see it, if I can get the house clean before we have all these engagements and then we LEAVE the house, we won't be home to get it dirty. Works for me.

Can I blame it on "pregnancy brain"?

Ok, ok, I know I've been slacking on this web blog thing. I haven't written in almost a week & I'm starting to receive threats. Ok, not literally, but I've been asked, mostly by Jeff, "Have you written in your blog today?" And I have to hang my head, and say no, I forgot. So I blame it on the baby, who seems to be sucking the brain cells right out of my head at this point. But what will my excuse be after the baby's born? Hmmm, gotta think of something good.
Last Wednesday Emma had her first gymnastics class. Right beforehand, we were running around town trying to find a leotard for her. We went to Target, and we found the one she wanted. She had her choice of 3, and surprisingly, she picked the least gawdy, which I think says a lot for her little 4 year old fashion sense. It's very simple, light pink, no sleeves, with a small pink bow on the front. Very classy. And of course, she HAD to have a bag to go with it, so we went with the Dora bag to put all of her "gymnastics class" paraphernalia in. That generally means a water bottle and a magazine for me to read. But we were both so excited about her first class, that the magazine didn't even get taken out of the bag once.
Once we got to the class (after walking ten minutes in the snow from a parking lot far far away), Emma got changed into her leotard and was ready to go. They gathered all the kids (age 4 to grade 3) and then separated them into their age/grade groups. Emma was so excited that she forgot how old she was & didn't get up when the head instructor called out for the 4 year olds. I had to quietly get her attention & let her know that it was her turn to go. She's in a group with about 6 other little girls, one of whom is our neighbor across the street, Morgan. She immediately started getting social & jumpy, rolling around, jumping up & down, basically not being able to sit still if her life depended on it. Then her group joined with the 5 year olds & they started warming up. They were running in a circle, jumping, skipping, running backwards. Then came the stretching, which I can already tell we're going to need to work on. As flexible as my little Gumby is, I guess she's just not used to doing stretches where her legs needs to be straight. I suppose that will come in time. I also kept having to remind her to pay attention to the instructors, every 5 minutes she was looking for me & giving me a thumbs up, like, everything's cool mom, look at me!
Her class then came right in front of where I was sitting (perfect photo opp, if I had brought my camera, D'OH!) to walk on the balance beam. It was only 3 inches off the ground, so no need to worry about Emma falling & hurting herself. Emma did pretty well, considering she's never done any of this before. I'm thinking though, for next time, maybe I should move to another spot, because I felt like a distraction to her. She kept looking at me & not at what she was doing, which caused her to fall off a lot. There were a couple girls in her group that I know must have older sisters who are in gymnastics, because these girls looked like they'd been practicing for awhile.
After the balance beam, they went over to the uneven bars. They had the girls hang on the top bar for a few seconds, swinging, so they could get the idea of what it feels like. Then they had them start at one end of the bar, and holding on by their hands, scoot themselves over to the other end of the bar. The last trick they had them do was to stand up on the lower bar, grabbing the top one & then flipping themselves over the top bar & drop to the ground. Kinda daring stuff for a first class, but all the girls seemed to do well. I was thinking, this is probably the kind of thing that my little Evil Knievel has been looking for. She's a daredevil at heart. Always has been. Ever since her daddy started throwing her up in the air when she was a baby. And catching her, of course.
After the uneven bars, the class went over & started doing somersaults. Well the rest of the class did, Emma unfortunately doesn't have that natural talent. Her somersaults started out looking like she was plowing the mat with her head. She would get the right stance, looking like an upside-down V, but whenever she tried to push off & flip over onto her back, she just kept pushing herself along the mat on her head. I was worried that she was going to wear a bald spot in her hair before the night was over. Then she kept going sideways, ending up on her side, but she kept plugging along and pretty soon, she got the hang of it. The backwards somersaults were a little easier. They used a giant triangle shaped wedge to help them. They started out at the top part of the wedge & then laid back down an incline and flipped over backwards. A few of the girls seemed like they were a little disoriented when they stood up. I guess that kinda stuff messes with your equalibrium.
After that, the class was finished, and Emma wasn't happy about it. She could have gone on all night if they would have let her. But I finally convinced her that we would be coming back, so I think that worked. I only wish Jeff could have been there, but he'd been in Boston all week. But as soon as he came home on Friday, she was telling him all about it.
I guess the weather finally got to us last week. We've been through days of 10 inches of snow & near white-out conditions, but the snow & cold we got on Wednesday caused all school's to be closed on Thursday. I don't know why, it didn't seem that bad, but hey, I don't make the rules. Emma was really bummed though, because when the public schools get closed, so does her preschool.
We got our pictures back from Wal-Mart yesterday. We had them taken when our friend Deanna was in town earlier this month. They turned out really nice, for the most part. But the one picture that has all 4 of us in it is messed up. They set us up too high & the top part of the picture has the background rolls contraption in it. So we're trying to think of creative ways to cover it up.
I want to say "Happy 50th Anniversary" to Jack & Pat Michelmore. They celebrated it this past Saturday by renewing their vows. Jeff & I wish we could have been there, but we send our warmest thoughts & congratulations.
Well Emma is bugging me to go out in the snow, so I better wrap this up. Until next time.

If it's sunny outside, shouldn't that mean it's warm?

Mother nature loves to play tricks on you in the winter time. It was absolutely gorgeous outside today. I think, I even heard birds chirping. Of course when I opened my garage this morning, I was slapped in the face with the reality that, although it's sunny outside, it doesn't mean it's anywhere near what normal people would consider warm. And now that I think about it, it probably wasn't birds chirping that I heard, it was most likely the squirrels in our trees chattering their buck teeth because of the temperature.
Poor Emma, she had been looking forward to this day. She had been looking forward to going sledding with her preschool class. We even made a last minute trip out to Target last night to look for snow pants & boots. I finally found some (I'm convinced they're the last pair of snow pants that aren't attached to a jacket in the whole town) and thankfully, they were her size. We also found some cute snow boots, that hopefully will still fit her next winter, but I doubt it. She seems to be sprouting once spring arrives (last year she went from a shoe size 9 to a 10 1/2 in 3 months). So we were all set for some sledding fun today. But, unfortunately, the school has a policy that they can't allow the students to go outside when the temperature is below 20 degrees (I believe the high today got up to about 15). But, to make up for it, Emma was able to use her brand new gear after being picked up from school, in our front yard, while I vainly tried to scrape the ice off the driveway with a shovel. I gave up after about 30 minutes, after determining that Emma's greatest joy apparently comes out of throwing snow at me & digging in it like a puppy, spraying it onto the nice clean driveway. So we quit after not too long.
Jeff's already had quite an interesting trip to Boston. His flight was fine, except for some extraordinary turbulence during the landing into Boston. They arrived at their hotel after taking a cab & were looking forward to their first day of training today. Instead, it was a cell phone-forgetting, cab driver calling, email tagging day. To make a long story short, Jeff accidently left his cell phone in the cab this morning on his way to training, thought he had forgot it in the hotel & the cabbie apparently decided to call the most random people on his cell phonebook. He called poor Kimberly, who was awakened by this cabbie at 6am Pacific time, and I think he called our home number, but the message was unintelligible. He also called a friend of Jeff's in Winsconsin, of all places, who called me & left a very amused message on my machine,"Uh, dude, some cabbie in Boston says he has your cell phone, I think you better call it & find out what's going on." All of my calls to the cell phone went unanswered, I'm not sure if he knew how to answer it. So the emailing began, and Jeff & I played email tag for a few hours, until he called me to let me know that yes, he knew where the cell phone was, but no, he couldn't get to it until tomorrow. All the while I'm fielding phone calls from people who are wondering what's going on. It's a national crisis, Jeff doesn't have his cell phone, we might not be able to get in touch with him right this very minute. I actually found the whole scenario quite amusing, but that may just be me. So, if the first day is any indication of how this trip will continue, it should be quite interesting.
Emma starts gymnastics tomorrow night. I went this morning & officially signed her up. She seems very excited about it. It's actually taught by the members of the CMU gymnastics team, so it should be fun. I can't wait to go & take pictures of tons of little girls running around & jumping. I'm sure it'll be a bombardment of "Mommy, mommy, look at meeee!" This reminds me of stories that my mom & aunt tell me about when I was Emma's age. "Look mommy I running, look mommy I jumping!" I think they don't have to heart to tell me the next part, "Look mommy I falling down, look mommy I running into furniture!" Shirley Temple, I wasn't. I think, unfortunately, Emma has inherited my lack of grace. But maybe if we get her started early enough, some of it will rub off on her from the other kids. Or maybe they've invented some sport that ENCOURAGES lack of grace. Actually, I think they have a TV show that personifies that, it's on MTV, and it's called "Jackass". Of course, it also encourages stupid, idiotic behavior that a warning label at the beginning of the show doesn't seem to be able to quell. But that's a whole other tangent that I don't want to get into. Just add that to the list of shows that my very smart husband seems to like, that I can't stand.

Winter wonderland?

Ok, I think Winter finally decided it was time to initiate the Wilsons. All this minor snow & cold has been a preliminary to yesterday. All told, the city of Mount Pleasant received 10 inches of snow. Now I know there are places that get a lot more at once, but we don't live there. We live here, and right now, here sucks. On our street, the snow was piled so high that when I was driving from our driveway to the main street, snow was hitting our front bumper & flying up into my windshield, like we were the snow plow. The snow would melt as it hit our windshield & then freeze to our wipers, making having complete vision out of the windshield impossible. Every time I stopped the car, whether it was to pick up Jeff, go to physical therapy or go home, I had to scrape the ice off the wiper blades. I know before I said I didn't mind the snow, I only minded the freezing temps. I am now revising that statement. I don't mind snow, as long as it doesn't interfere with what I need to do, and I don't mind the cold temps, but I DO mind when they are together, cause that's just not fair.
Even people at Jeff's job are getting in on the fun. Jeff's boss, Shaun, called him yesterday, and politely asked him the loaded question, So, how are you liking the weather? Jeff politely replied, This was NOT in the job description. But our neighbors & Jeff's co-workers are genuinely concerned about how we're taking this kind of weather. Another guy at work, Tony, even offered to come & snow-blow our driveway. But Jeff had already beaten him to it, shoveling his heart out after work. So now I can drive in & out of our garage without slipping & sliding all over the place.
But I guess we can't complain too much about the weather. I mean, we ARE in Michigan, what did we expect? But Emma's loving the snow, she plows through it every chance she gets. Her preschool is having a sled day next Tuesday, so we're going to have to go out & get her a sled and some snow pants, so she doesn't freeze her little butt off. And maybe some boots, too. And thicker gloves. Can't send my kid out sledding looking like I'm neglecting her, can I? I can see the reactions from her teachers now, You sent your kid out sledding in nothing but jeans & tennis shoes? I guess I can't let my only excuse be, Sorry, never done the whole "living in snow" thing before. I don't think that would fly.

A new friend for Emma

Well I finally took myself out of my shell & introduced myself to our neighbor across the street today. I saw her shoveling her driveway & decided I needed to stop being so shy & just do it. I knew she had a little girl right around Emma's age, but I also found out she has a son who is 6 years old. She's a professor at the college & is very nice. She said that her daughter, Morgan, goes to preschool at the college & also to day care, so they're not home most of the day, but she was sure that Morgan would love to get to know Emma. Finally Emma's going to have a friend! I've been feeling so bad for her, leaving all her friends in San Diego and me not having the courage to strike up conversations with any of her preschool friends' parents. I guess it's the strain of moving cross country & having the thoughts in my head that everyone's going to be completely booked with friends & won't have room for Emma. I get too scared to even try. It doesn't help that I feel like Jeff & I are so much younger than most of the couples around here who have kids, that I'm afraid we have nothing in common with anyone except the college students. I mean, who else around here, besides the students, got all excited when "The Return of the King" came out? And I doubt any of the married people that Jeff works with play video games with their wives. I guess we're just weird.
But one good thing I found out talking to my neighbor, they have a lot of classes for young kids at the college. Her daughter's about to start gymnastics, and we're thinking about having Emma start as well, for the same class, so they can be together. They also have 2 sessions on swim lessons during the summer, as well as soccer. So maybe we can help Emma expel some of her excess energy that seems to make this very large house very small at times.
We finally found a company that is building new homes in this area. I've emailed them and hopefully they'll get back to me quickly about the prices. The floor plans look really nice and hopefully if we have a brand new home, it'll sell quickly, if we decide to sell it. That's one thing I'm worried about here. It's not exactly a booming housing market. There's a big revolving population, but it's all the college students, and they probably don't want to buy a house in this area. They'll want to go back to where they're from. It's only one of the big differences between here & California.