Wow! and it's only been a month since my last post! Maybe I am getting better and more dedicated! Or then again....maybe my insomnia is back and I am bored. Well, not bored so much....to much to do with my busy family to do that. The student has flown back to China and is spending the summer with his family before flying to the midwest to start his college life. I have heard from him a few times over the summer, here and there, but China it seems is having a crackdown on internet sites and getting e-mails to him through facebook is now impossible. Thing 1 has been having a great time working the harvest with his surrogate farm family and my hubby is starting to worry that he doesn't like us anymore. LOL. I say he will always come back when he is hungry or out of money LOL....although they do seem to feed him and he is very happy with the paycheck he is earning, so hmmm....maybe the big dude has a point! Well, he'll have to come back in a few weeks as school starts and thus begins his Senior Year. Man, I am feeling old today. Thing 2 has been such a blessing to me this week. VBS started on Monday and I am in charge of distributing the snacks. The littlest Miss was just in her element and loving life at vacation Bible school. Thing 2 volunteered...ok, maybe not so much....to help me the first day until I saw how things would go for TLM as she can sometimes be clingy in new situations. It went perfect! She was a bit inhibited at first, until her friend S came in (another Asian adoptee) and also her friend M from school. Then she didn't even look back. It is a good set-up as she is moving from Preschool to Kindergarten in a few weeks and her main fear with making the change was that she will be going to a new teacher and that the school would lose her mommy. Aww! So anyway, a few weeks ago we got to meet her new teacher who was actually a friend who knew us when she first came home from China but then moved away, so the Littlest Miss didn't remember her. Now she's moved back, been re-introduced to TLM and reassured her that she never, ever loses Mommies. VBS further cemented this in her mind as the first thing she said to me as we got in the car to go home was....and you didn't get lost! Yes, I know and I am so glad I didn't get lost! Anyway, now she knows that no matter where she is, her mommy will not get lost. Back to Thing 2 and his week of blessing me....on Tuesday, we unfortunately did not get to go back to VBS as a nasty stomache virus hit me and I basically slept all of Monday evening and all of Tuesday. TLM was slightly irritated as it meant that she couldn't go back to VBS either. I did feel sorry for her because she enjoyed it sooo much, but one can't really be handing out snacks to 50 kids when one has the flu. Thing 1 was at work, so he couldn't take her and Thing 2 isn't old enough to drive yet, so she was stuck at home with a sleeping mama. Thankfully, Thing 2 stepped up and took care of her all day. I took some BBQ pork out of the freezer for sandwiches and instructed him as to how to prepare it and he not only fed himself, his sister, and Thing 1 when he came home, but he also fed his two grandfathers. (Did I mention that the Big Dude's old pop has also moved onto our property? He has taken the job of supervising the finishing of the building of our new church building and since he lives 5 hours away, he has brought his little motor home and parked it i& my side yard. I love that man.) Anyway, I am so proud of Thing 2 stepping up to the plate. He even did a bit of dishes (but not too much, you know). So today saw us back at VBS. I let Thing 2 sleep in and do his thing since he wasn't the most thrilled about helping me on Monday and when I got home he actually requested that I wake him up and take him with me tomorrow. This kid is growing up so much. I love the man that I can see him becoming. It was raining today at VBS, something that just doesn't happen here in the Eastern WA desert all that often so we had to move the snack table and craft tables indoors. The kids got to make their own trail mix on the Boomerang Express and they were really loving it. I told them to just take a little bit of M & M's untill everyone got some, then they could come back later and get some more. One girl kept coming back and asking politely for more and I said, sure, there was more than enough for her to have more and at the end she said "I've never been to a VBS before where we could eat all that we want!" Haha! I'd much rather have them eat as much as they want and have a grand ole time than have tons of food leftover. So that has been my week so far. Two more days of VBS, then next week is the county fair. The Littlest Miss, Thing 2 and I are slated to sell tickets for 2 afternoons and will be paid hourly with the money to be paid to the kids school. It's a nice little fundraiser that the school has been doing for years. Last year was my first year and it was kind of fun once I got over the idea that I had to BUY a ticket to go into the fair to sell tickets to others. Some things in life just don't make sense, ya know? And then the week after that, school starts again. I am in mourning. Summer is done, ya'll. Where did it go? I haven't even harvested any tomatoes from my garden yet. I'll be glad to get back in a regular routine, but dang, we're back to all the rules and regulations and schedules that have to mesh. Lord, have mercy. It makes me tired just thinking about it. I love summer when my kids have time to just be kids and not have to worry about meeting silly dress codes and doing homework. Sigh. I guess, I'd better just suck it up. My kids don't seem to mind too much. Guess I'd better try to get some sleep in tonight as I have to get up in 5 hours. I hate insomnia. What a whiner I am, huh?