Dining and Dancing the Night Away!

Well, this is just going to be a short blog this week. I have been working on the house and even though I have some projects on the go, I have nothing finished to show. The kids and I have been doing a ton of swimming, especially at night, and a lot of crafts. Hopefully next time they can show off some of their creations.
Ted was exhausted after his week in Vegas, too many late nights! Feeling a little left out, since I never leave the house, Ted took me out to a restaurant close to our house for diner and dancing. The place had live 80's music and I think we were younger than most people there by a good 20 years. Even so, we went nuts and had a great time.
Ted and I never have many pictures taken together so here we are actually looking decent. That's a far cry from the stained tank top, gym shorts, no make-up, hair unbrushed after showering, me writing this right now. Isi is trying to steal my purse in the other.

I look forward to hearing from some of you and what your up to,
Love Charmaine

PS. If you hit comments just below this you can right stuff back (hint, hint).

Let's Party!

Hello to all of you checking in on us now and then. This week we have had tons of projects on the go. Above is the sweater I finally finished for Athena, yipee!! It turned out almost exactly like I imagined except for the fact I thought it would fit a little tighter where there is ribbing.
Both my girls have now picked up knitting. Hera is pictured with her first completed project, 'wormy' has become his name. Athena is working on one her own but wants to make it longer so it can be a snake.

I am also posting a picture of Isi in the little T-shirt I designed for her from something that didn't fit her sisters anymore.

Isi trying to grab my camera!

The girls had their first real babysitting job this week. I went over to a neighbors for an hour and a half while the girls had to feed the dog, play with Isi, put her to bed and tidy the living room. They did excellent and I wish I hadn't come home so soon.
Athena had her birthday party Saturday night. Just a warning to any of you thinking of doing a sleepover for this age in the future, 'eleven year olds don't sleep'. Not that other sleep overs haven't been difficult, but this one was the rowdiest bunch yet. Thank goodness we only had four girls over. The kids swam, ate pizza, made t-shirts, soaked feet (the nails didn't get done), and had a hair styling contest. Another warning, 'not all eleven year olds should never use hair appliances'. I have no idea where my brain was. Thankfully, only my kids ended up with burns.

Girls enjoying 'Dreamsicle Soup' served in cantalope halves.

Athena and her friend Laura paired up and styled each others hair.

Happy Father's day again to Ted. The poor guy had to wake up to a house full of girls Sunday morning and it wasn't just a bad dream. Good thing we made him breakfast in bed along with a DVD set of the 'Soprano's' second season. I only had him until lunch time then he was off to Vegas till Thursday. Love you hon!

Hugs and kisses from all of us,
Charmaine

Turtles, Accidents and Green Card Updates

Check out my turtle adventure pictures. Can you find the turtles in the one? It was really hard to get very close to them. Don't I look sexy in my lovely snorkel gear? I loved that trip! Too bad Ted had to golf.
Ted had the worst week of his life. He flew out for one day on Monday to be home Monday night. Had medical tests Tuesday while trying to work. Woke up late Wednesday morning to catch a flight only to get to the airport to find out his ticket had been for Tuesday. Thank goodness he didn't hold up his co-workers who were waiting for him too long. Upon coming home Thursday, he couldn't find his car for a good 45min only to realize he had walked right passed it much earlier in his search and then was stuck in traffic because of an accident. To end the week we went for a walk and Ted was pushing Isi in the stroller when Athena bit it on her bike. Ted ran to the rescue and not putting the brake on the stroller so Isi went flying and hit a tree flipping over the stroller. No one was hurt too bad, just bumps and bruises.
The kids were in Chess Camp last week and learned a ton of stuff. I can only beat them if they are really, really tired.
Isi was invited to her first birthday party. She can now say baby, yes, dat-dat-dat stands for 'wake up' to whoever will pretend to fall asleep for her, and counts wee-two-wee and even points a finger while saying the numbers. She is trying so hard to talk but it is a lot gibberish. I was shocked when I met another little girl Isi's age saying whole sentences. They really all develop so different.
The biggest news this week was that we had to have medical check-ups and fill out a ton of forms for our green card. How many of you really know where your parents were born? Along with a quick physical we had to have tuberculosis skin tests for all of us and Ted and I had to have an additional tetanus and MMR booster shots along with a blood draw. Ted went first and I thought for sure someone was going to come get me because he fainted. He managed to survive though. I may have handled having everything done to me better but my arm hurt like hell the next two days and I was really nauseous the first night to the point I couldn't even stand up. Meanwhile Ted was fine, no pain, no nothing. Everyone is very healthy. This doesn't mean we are finally getting out green card but we are a lot closer. Next we will be asked to do interviews, although I have no clue when that will finally happen. Fingers crossed maybe everything will fall in place by Christmas.
I can't wait to show off the sweater I have designed and made for Athena. It is so close to being done and should only take me one more week. I have managed to finally turn one of my girls into a knitting addict as well. Hera has almost completed her first project and I can't wait to post it next week.

Stay tuned,
Love Charmaine