Nerd alert

We have a new hobby her in Casa de Bennet - geocaching. Basically you use your computer, GPS or phone to navigate to these places to find little "caches" that have been left behind by other treasure hunters. They're pretty well hidden usually and in all sorts of various containers. It's been a fun activity to use the phone GPSs to navigate as a family to various spots and find treasures. Inside the boxes are at least a little list to sign your name that you were there (bring a pencil) and often, if it's a little bigger, there are little trinkets. Bjorn wants his calling card to be little Swedish flags. So far, my trinket has been whatever little plastic toy happens to be laying around the car. It's pretty cool, as Miley Cyrus would say.

Also new in the past two weeks are our kittens! I am embarrassed that I don't have pictures posted yet, but right now we're just dating. They sort of come out briefly, sniff us and dance around the living room. They're warming up quite a bit, but I haven't been able to get any good new pictures. On my list of toys for myself has been to get a fancy new camera, all the better to take fancy pictures with, but that was before the washing machine started spewing water on the floor of the laundry room. Lovely husband is at Sears as we speak trying to find a replacement. I mostly want energy efficiency. The one that came with the house for $50 was probably manufactured in 1989 so it has lasted a good long time. I imagine the newer ones are tons better.

First day part two

Meg had her first day in her new preschool yesterday. She handled it quite well. I think having both first days on the same day helped. Maybe.

First day of first grade

Seriously, when did this happen? He was just a toddler and she was a baby. Now they are so big and opinionated. Andy starts first grade today and rode the bus to school for the first time (I didn't cry but I thought about it). Meg starts a new preschool. Yay! And I'm not ready!

Most miserable cousin

We got to see one of my cousins in Austin and her two kids. It was a nice visit, mostly because we picked a place called Waterloo with a super awesome playground attached to the restaurant (seriously Dallas. Get on that.) Andy however was unhappy to leave as evidenced below.

Adorbs

Andy and I came home from my indoor soccer game tonight to find this. I do love these guys so much.

Austin

The only picture we got of all of us. Look at my little vampire on the right.

A cool picture Mary took of all of us on the boat. She's right, it's a nice shot even if my rear end looks gianormous.

BATS! Seriously, how cool is that?

The kids and I to Austin this weekend to visit my sister. What fun. It's a good thing I didn't know about Austin sooner or I might have really made some sort of push to move there. Forever. What a fun town, friendly, quirky people. My lack of pot smoking probably makes me an anomaly there, but I think I could live with it. The kids were on great behavior, partly because we only went to restaurants with playgrounds. Dallas, are you listening to that? Restaurants with playgrounds. What a great idea! We loved being able to visit while the kids could eat, play, eat, play. Props to my college friend Julie who gave us the names of all the places in town with playscapes built in.

The highlight though was a boat cruise to see the bats come out of their colony under the town bridge. It was so cool and a little creepy to see two million bats flying out in rows at dusk to go hunting for their breakfast. Then we watched them fly off into the sunset looking more and more like a huge swarm of bees than bats. They must have flown out in organized rows for 20 minutes. It was pretty awesome. So awesome that I didn't have time to notice the woman breastfeeding her potty-trained, two year old child.

The great Texas heat wave of 2011 (or why I am melting)

Dear Texas,
I love you. I really do. I love how the landscape changes throughout the state. I love how you have beaches, hills and mountains, rivers and lakes, sand hills and green pine forests all in the same state. I love how proud Texans are, how people are generally nice to women with children and try to help them exit a plane instead of cutting them off. I love that the cost of living is a lot less here. Sure, I have issues (well, tons and tons of issues) with the conservative, Christian agenda that seems to want to keep people (especially immigrants and women) poor, unhealthy, uneducated and pregnant. But in general, this is a nice place to be.

I do, however, have some complaints about this weather you're giving us. I know summer in Texas is hot. That's to be expected. We don't have a Boston winter where it's too cold and snowy to be able to do anything, but we do have a summer so hot you also really can't go out and do anything. I accept that. I am just not so keen on this 110 degree business though. If I wanted that, I'd move to Arizona where at least it's cool at night. And I know it's dry here generally, but I need a little more change of scenery beyond sunny and hot with a chance of clouds for three months. I need at least a good hail storm or severe thunderstorm to make up for the monotony.

It's so hot that it's too hot to swim even. It's hotter than swimming in a bathtub. It's like swimming in a hot tub. It's not even refreshing unless you do it at 10 p.m. and there's a cool breeze.

I will no doubt look back on this wistfully in January when there is an inch of ice on the ground, but I would willingly trade one for the other. Now, how do we go about changing some of this? Do you need a good rain dance? A cloud dance? Vodka? Brie? The new Chelsea Handler book? You name it.

Thanks, Texas. Love ya!

-Katherine

Boat safety week

Today is boat safety week at swim class. I do love that they teach basic boat safety as part of swimming. Most likely a lot of accidents happen with kids in boats and I love that they are teaching them this, too.

Lost and found

Andy has had two pairs of glasses since we got the prescription in April. He has also lost two pairs of glasses. The first pair cost about $150 at the Wal-Mart vision center. I got the super bendy frames and good lenses.

After that pair lasted two days, I went back and got the $9 frames and $20 lenses. Then we found the first pair and had two pairs for a couple of months.

Right before his checkup with the opthamologist, I realized both were missing so I went and found the cheapest pair available. The only frames I could convince him of in the $9 section were Harry Potter frames so I bought him the movie and we have been reading the book. We are now huge fans.

We went to lunch today with my folks at the the DCC. The main building closes for business today as they shut it down and demolish it to make way for the new fancy castle they are building. In honor of the big day, Andy lost his first tooth on the top on a piece of bacon. He has lost all four bottom teeth and now the top ones are on their way. My boy is a toothless first grader. When did that happen?

The very restless girl

And she's at it again!

Snake handling

This week, Andy is going to a safari camp at the local middle school. The science teacher has all these animals and puts on a camp for littler kids to more.

"So how was it? Did you like it?"
"It was so cool! I want a snake."

He hasn't stopped talking about the snake he is going to get since he got home. I am trying to be cool as I so clearly do not want a snake. A cat, a gerbil, mice or rats even. But not a snake. I suppose someday an we will end up with an aquarium of assorted cold blooded animals. It just never occurred to me that that sometime would be this soon.

They are moving on to mammals tomorrow. I could much more easily be swayed toward a ferret.

Meanwhile, Texas is driving me batty with this 2,000 days above 100 degrees bull. My AC bill was over $500 last month and that was before it actually got that hot. It hasn't rained since April, I think. We have this cute creek behind our house that is totally dried up right now. Plus, my feet are dry and cracked despite my attempts to put Vaseline on them before bed. And to add insult to injury, my hands are swollen which makes my wedding ring itch. I find myself checking the weather channel online hoping for a stray pop up thunderstorm.

Whirling dervishes

Meg had dance camp this week. Beyond adorable although she is wearing my neice's bathing suit as I didn't have the right outfit. (As you see, I stole the idea from another mom). To my horror, it was cheer and pom pom class this week. She loved it though.

Pinkalicious

Annie and Margaret made strawberry "pinkalicious" cupcakes today. Seriously how adorable?

Swim team

Yesterday was the last day of swim team. Hard to believe we've been trekking up to the pool for two months now. His swimming has really taken off. On the way home, he said, "I am really proud of myself, Mommy.". Me, too, kid. Me, too.

Delicious

Meg went to "cookie camp" at a neighbor's house this week. Great idea, actually. Her middle school kids ran the camp (under adult supervision) for a small fee to raise money for their vacation. I got her out of the house for three hours and then a plate of the most decadent cookies ever. You know, the good kind made with all the stuff that tastes so good and is so bad for your arteries. We also got some home made ice cream out of the deal. I probably put on 10 pounds just this afternoon. It was so worth it.

Swim team ends this week. I am amazed how fast Andy's swimming has come along (hers too for that matter). Next week during the mornings, he's doing golf camp and she's doing a dance camp. I'll still have one of the girls, er, young ladies helping with them in the afternoons and with pick-ups. I hope they have half as much fun as I think they should.

With that, we're into August and then school starts the 21st. Like that, the summer is just about over. I will be sad/thankful when it's over. This has been our first real summer vacation. It's been pretty cool. Actually, neat is more the word. It's been anything but cool here in Texas with our 100th day over 100 degrees with no rain.

I was wrong (Bjorn was right)

There, I have said it publicly and out loud. Bjorn was right. Just this once.

When we were looking for a new house, Bjorn really wanted a pool and I really didn't. "It's not safe," I cried. "I want a yard," I moaned. "It's too expensive. We will never use it. We belong to a pool and never go."

But I was wrong. This summer someone is in the pool every day. Usually it's the kids and sometimes Bjorn takes a dip at night when he gets home. We have entertained friends and family and had a good time.

We added a pool fence with a key lock so the kids can't get out there without us knowing. So far, we are good about locking it. We must keep up with that. The kids have gotten so much more comfortable. Andy did swim team this year and can really swim now (not without us, of course). Meg isn't far behind. She has been in lessons for six months now and that combined with the daily swimming is really paying off. It's so nice for everyone to play in the pool. It's a rare place when everyone is happy and a pool is one of those places.

Special guest star

Bratz dolls

My neice (sister) had an adorable birthday party at one of those girls salons. Meggie wasn't quite having it, complete with peeing in her pants on the floor of the bathroom. But she got it together and was enjoying herself by the end. My sister's kids had a blast. I think kids aged four and older did better than the littler girls. Hilarious. Check out the little one on the left. With that scowl, she reminded me of a figure skate out for blood.

Corporate relocation

We live in the land of corporate relocation. Seriously. I thought DC was bad with all the congressional jobs that came and went with whoever was in power. There was also a lot of military moves with people coming into the region. But I've never seen anything like this. Our good friends who moved in when we did and have kids about the same age? Yeah, moving away 11 months later. I can't imagine having to do that. I also can't imagine the expense of all this on companies. Seriously.

The amount of money companies are spending to move people is insane. So these nice folks will probably have $100,000 spent on the move inbetween travel for the family, realtor's fees, packing expenses and general relocation costs. And all this for people they just moved less than a year ago. It seems like a lot of money when everyone keeps crying poverty and not enough money for jobs and stuff.

Another family I know is moving to Asia for work. So in addition to the probably $100,000 on the general move (realtor's fees, moving costs, etc.), they also have to pay for private school in China for the kids, trips back and forth and then moving the family back at the end. I think they said it will cost the company about $300,000 a year for them to live in China. Wow.

Granted, these are mid to high level executives so not your average worker. But still. I'd love to see a study on whether all this money spent on relocation is worth it for the company. And I'm not just saying this because my friends are moving. Okay, maybe I am.

USA is awesome!

He says.