SOS

I felt too bad about how we kind of dumped Lorien in a strange city and ran back home.  She was struggling to get the bus lines sorted out and make herself comfortable.  There were a few things I wanted to do when we were there but ran out of time.  So Tuesday night I told Will he had to book me a flight down south so I could tie up loose ends.  

I didn't tell Lorien and Wednesday morning I showed up on her doorstep, surprise!  We went shopping for a few comfort items (a mattress cover and bed lifts) and had lunch.  I went to school with her and got to see how the bus worked and how much of a walk she has between the last bus stop and school.  I went to the ID office with her and made sure the last bit of info from her FASFA had gone through so she could get an ID/bus pass.  We sat together and relaxed while we waited for her first class to start.  I saw her to the door of the art room and made my way back home.  It was another whirlwind day but I was so happy to do it.  I didn't feel like I got to do all the mom stuff I needed to do the first round.  Now that those things are done I can let her be an independent college student and figure it out as she goes.  She really is such an amazing girl.  I know she will conquer the world.  

Moving out and moving in...

Oh boy, we sent our first kid off to College!  We honored her the best way we could by taking the whole family out to eat.  Lorien got to pick the place, Pho, we all ate up and enjoyed each other's company.  

Wyatt played one last practical joke by dunking Lorien's face in her pho as she was bent over taking a sip of broth directly from the bowl.  Well played!

Poor Adell, just got over crying every day because Saide and the other Andersons moved to Utah and has started crying every day because Lorien is moving to Southern California.  My baby girl does not do well with separation.

Wyatt woke Lorien up good and early as he was leaving for seminary to get his goodbye in.  She deserved one last super early wake-up.

Colter and Adell got their hugs in before school.  Somehow I missed getting a picture of Clare saying her goodbyes but I know she did.

As we were leaving home one thing after another kept happening that seemed to indicate that Danville did not want to let Lorien go!  The day was gray and foggy.  The traffic was worse than usual.  And finally, as we pulled up to the airport we got an alert saying our flight had been canceled and we'd been put on a much later flight!  It was wild!  Thankfully, Will was able to get us on another flight into Burbank so we would get into LA close to the right time.  We were already running late for our first flight and the new one left was scheduled to depart 15 minutes earlier!  We had to hustle to get all 5 bags checked and up to our gate in time!

With that harried start to our trip, we spent the rest of the day running from one place to the other trying to get Lorien outfitted for school.  I know now why parents take a weekend or at least one overnight to get their kids settled.

With so much hurry up going on, I didn't have a lot of time to feel sad or notice if anyone else was feeling sad.  Mostly I was just frantic...until Will and I were alone in the grocery store trying to stock up on some essentials for Lorien while she unpacked in her room (we had dinner reservations and needed her empty suitcases to take back home with us).  As I searched the rice section for medium grain rice (they didn't have any) I burst into hysterical tears realizing she wasn't going to eat!  We still had to get the shopping done so I kept pushing the cart, sobbing and snotting all over the place, giving Will grocery items to grab through choked sobs.  "She will probably eat some carrots...waaaaa!"  It was ridiculous but I couldn't stop.  

Still, we left her.  All alone in the big city!  I know she will be fine but I do wish we took more time to get her settled.  We moved her in on Thursday the 22nd.   Friday was open  house for her and she called Will crying, "I can't get the bus to work!"  Will had to help her (with google maps) get oriented, north-south-east-west, find the right line and go the right direction.  She had a problem with her FASFA (we didn't fill it out in time) so she couldn't get her student ID.  It was a bit of a disaster.  Here's to growing up...

Clare got moved into Lorien's room as soon as she could.  We needed to clean the carpet and the walls (see any picture of Lorien's room from previous posts, the first day of school for example, to see how bad it was) and we needed to paint the walls.  We managed to get it all painted on Saturday.  It looks great and Clare is so happy in her own room!

Back to school already...

Thirteen days into August can only mean one thing, a family vacation!  Nope, school starts!  It stinks and I have complained about it too much already on the blog.  The school district doesn't appear any closer to changing the start date back anytime soon so I better get over it.  Nope, I'll probably keep on complaining.  I have an Olympic Gold Medal in Complaining.  I'm very good at it.

All the kids made it to their respective schools on time and in respectable clothing.  It was a success.  Two hours later, they all made their way safely home.  It's another subject I could complain about but won't.  I am, after all, grateful for the public school system.  

I was quite excited to see Colter off.  He is finally a first grader and will be attending school for most of the day instead of half a day!  He has a great teacher, Mrs. Huggins (who we haven't had yet) but none of his friends are in his class.  I guess he will have to make new friends...again.

Last Summer Hurrah!

We took the kids to Six Flags as our last big summer activity.  It was great.  We ate junk food, went on some rides, got sweaty and didn't lose a kid!  Colter hated every second of every ride we made him go on.  The big kids peeled off early and went on the wild rides.  Poor Adell had to stick with Colter and avoid the fun rides most of the day.

We did enjoy seeing the animals at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. 

The high light was this baby lion cub who had been rescued and brought to northern California of all places.  He had a birthday that was very close to Colter's, May 9th, I think.  We even got to watch them bring the cub out of his enclosure into a little park for some outside playtime.  It was the highlight for Colter and Adell.

At the very end of the day, we left Colter with some penguins and went on the Joker ride as a big group.  The penguins were very responsible and Colter was very happy.  The ride was just scary enough to make us all kind of pee our pants but not barf.  Amusement park win!

Everyone's favorite questions:

When is Lorien headed to school?

Have you found a place for her to live yet?

For weeks we have been asked those two questions everywhere we go.  Up until today, the answers have been:

I don't know. Classes start on the 26th so sometime before then.

and

No...followed by a long explanation of the hurdles we've been trying to get over to get her housing.

Lorien has been little to no help in figuring out her housing situation.  She has no opinion.  I think it is because we are going to pay for a good portion of it so she feels like she can't be particular and expressing any option would be particular.  I'm not sure.  So without Lorien's input Will and I went down to Southern California on our own to pick out her place for the school year.  

We walked around college neighborhoods like we were dating again.  We loved it!  

We took the Big Blue Bus around a little bit to get an idea of what Lorien's commutes would be like.

We saw a few places.  We only saw the outside of the first place.  It doesn't have availability in our needed window so we didn't really need to see the inside.  The second place was super close to Lorien's school but it was kind of a mess...and there were a lot of girls living there already. 

 

The last place was really great!  It was reasonably priced and in a high rise building.  We looked at two units there.  One was kind of a mess but the other seemed perfect!  We were sold!  We signed the lease for Lorien and made a move-in date.

She will be living on the 13th floor of this bad boy!

She has a killer view, including being able to see the LA temple from her bedroom and living room.  It is a sweet apartment!

I was walking on air as we left the leasing office.  We finally had a place for our baby to live when she leaves the nest.  The place is clean, close to public transportation, shopping, and the bustle of the city.  I think she will be comfortable and successful here!  Mission accomplished!

Before flying home we had dinner at a really great place in Santa Monica.  Will ordered the whole fried fish.  I could only eat one bite because it looked to gross to me.  I don't like eating my food when it can watch me.  Barf. 

Laying pipe (get your mind out of the gutter)

Sometimes I start a project and my poor husband has to finish it.  This is one of those projects...

Our drain pipe on one side of the house busted over the winter.  Probably because I park on top of it every day but we will never know the real reason.  One freezing day in February I tried to fix the pipe before we got another big rainstorm.  I did not fix the pipe.  So this summer the pipe has been wiggling its way up and being an unsightly blight in our neighborhood.  

I waited for a cooler day and started digging the pipe back up.  It was slow and hard.  Today (Saturday) Will stepped in and helped me out (read: did the whole thing).  Thankfully, our neighbor came over with lemonade and a pike to help us out.  You see the soil our house sits on is a mixture of dense clay and rocks.  Digging this pipe out with a shovel was slow and frustrating!  The pike helped break up the rocks and clay so we could use the shovels to move the loosened crap out of the way.

We had to make three trips to Home Depot to get the right parts.  It was hotter and sunnier over the weekend than it was earlier in the week when I started.  Will and I were dripping in sweat (mostly Will).  Colter came out and helped too.  It took all day but we finished the job!  I am so glad we can be handy together.  I am handy for starting projects and Will is handy for finishing them.  It is the story of our life and it works for us. 

Colter earned an ice cream cone for all of his help.  Lucky guy!

Dusting off the yes day...

A million years ago, when I was a cool, caring parent...I used to schedule a Yes Day every once in a while.  A Yes Day was a list we kept on the fridge.  Every time the kids asked to do something I couldn't do right then: make candy, go to the museum, do a craft, etc. I would write it down on the Yes Day list.  Then I'd schedule a day that was a Yes Day and the kids would choose a few items off the list to do that day.  It was fun and practical.  You can read about a museum Yes Day here.  Some other Yes Day activities included: making gingerbread trains (in March), making a bee craft with paper and marbles, and making strawberry mice.  I don't think I have posts of those, but I have pictures...somewhere...

Well, it has been a few moves and several years since I last did a Yes Day with the kids.  Adell and Colter don't even know what a Yes Day is!?  So we decided to have a Yes Day this summer.  It started with everyone picking a treat they wanted to eat.

Colter asked for his own jar of Nutella.

He had Nutella for lunch while I had a kale salad.  One of us was disappointed...

Clare and Adell asked for their own tub of store-bought frosting.  They also asked to be able to decorate cupcakes (with additional frosting).

Adell asked to paint on canvases (we had to do this on Sunday, I couldn't fit everything into one Yes Day). 

It was a successful day.  I did learn that a Yes Day with five kids is different than a Yes Day with three kids.  It takes a little more planning and each kid can really only pick one Yes Day thing they want.  Lessons learned!