Ten

Henry celebrated his birthday by getting the day off from school.  Usually on the kids' birthdays, we take them out for lunch if they have to go to school, but  our school district was super nice and gave the kids Monday and Tuesday off for conferences.  So, on Monday the kids sat around in their pjs eating nothing but Halloween candy all day.  I know!  I'm an excellent mother.  Who didn't have to prepare meals that day.  They still had huge bags full of the stuff left when they woke up on Tuesday, so I bought all their candy from them (five bucks each) and dumped it in the trash bin, pouring all the leftover crap from the refrigerator on top of it so I wouldn't be tempted to sneak some.  In that way we were able to enjoy Henry's dark chocolate coconut almond pecan four layer cake with chocolate almond ganache without guilt.  Sort of.

The coma was just starting to set in. 

I think my little bug had a pretty good birthday, considering that he didn't have his usual buddies here, but he got the present he'd been hoping for since forever  (guilt over moving had nothing to do with it.  No, really.) and was able to play it all day while his siblings waited on him hand and foot.  Grace even cleaned his bedroom!

The conferences with their teachers were great.  Mitch was able to take part of the day off to go with me and we were pleasantly surprised to learn that the kids are rising to the academic challenge.  Well, three of them are.  One of them is doing just slightly better than average, but tends to not turn in her homework because she doesn't care one way or another.  We're just happy she hasn't punched anyone she thinks is a "jewk" (jerk). Both the twins' teachers and the recess teacher have stopped me recently to tell me that the girls are like magnets whenever they pass each other in school or at recess, and hug each other every time they see each other and when they part from each other.  Aw. 

And friends, that cake is in the refrigerator right now, calling to me.  I'm only human.  And the jeans I'm wearing do have 5% spandex.

Stuff and things

Mitch was originally assigned to the European Bureau at the Overseas Building Operations (woohoo!), but this week he found out it was actually the African Bureau.  Um.  It's hot there, and I know I won't be able to wear any of my boots.  Of course, he assures me that nothing is set in stone, but I know he's doing mental cartwheels ever since he found out.  His loved his time in Swaziland when he was in the Peace Corps, so yay for him, I guess.  Maybe there won't be any deer!  Or mosquitos. Or other bugs. 

The kids are doing okay in school.  So far, Jack has adjusted the easiest.  It's like he was made for a school with 2000 kids.  He's making friends, caught up on the work he's missed, and doing well in his classes.  He actually enjoys his AP classes and was surprised  to see that kids here take part in discussions rather than playing on their cell phones.  Henry was having a really hard time adjusting to the homework and grading system, but he's starting to get the hang of it.  He's making friends and one kid lives on our block, so he's pretty happy with the social scene.

My girls are struggling with their separation.  They've been having the most trouble coping in class when there is any kind of conflict and they don't have each other to lean on.  Grace burst into tears three times last week for no aparent reason during school.  Olivia keeps it together during school, but cries in the morning because she doesn't want to leave Grace, even though she may have just punched her minutes before.  In the past, Olivia has always refused to dress like twins with Grace, going so far as changing her clothes if Grace puts on anything remotely matchy to her.  But!  School picture day was this week and they came downstairs dressed like this:

However, this morning they were back to being dressed like their usual selves:

Progress

School starts today.  I will post pics after the munchkins wake up and get dressed.  Grace seemed pretty cool about her new school outfits still being MIA in UAB.  I think all this travelling has been good for her.  Olivia threw on a t-shirt last night before bed and said, "I'll just wear this tomorrow, that way I won't have to actually get dressed in the morning."  They won't be in the same class, and I'm a little worried about how Olivia is going to handle it.  Fingers crossed.

I have been insanely busy getting all the paperwork filled out for school and the new house, but I am so excited about both.  Yesterday we had an appointment with the counselor at Jack's high school and I was blown away by their academic program.  Jack's grades qualified him for all AP classes, but he ultimately only registered for two, so as to ease into a school that actually cares about academics (Um, was that a dig about his old school?  Yes, I think it may have been.).  After he picked his language (seven offered, plus American Sign Language), Spanish, he had one more elective to choose.  The counselor cautioned him to pick something fun to make his day easier.  His eyes scanned the page:  guitar, band, computer animation, game design, art, another art, another art, cooking, baking, medicine, etc.  Finally his eyes lit up.  "I found one."  The counselor looked at it, raised one eyebrow, and said, "Well, I think we have plenty of room in that one, so that's great."  Aaaaand none of you who know Jack will be surprised to know that the "fun" elective he picked was...................drumroll, please..................... 'Personal Finance'.  The only bad news is that high school starts at 7:20 am.  Yikes.

We went to Tyson's Corner Mall (huge doesn't begin to describe the enormity of this place) to celebrate and to kill a little time so the girls could get some Pillow Pets and Henry could get some more Legos at the massive Lego store.  Happily, we finally tracked down our UAB with half his Legos in it, and it will be delivered to the new house on Saturday.  The rest of our stuff will be at least another week, so will still be staying at Oakwood, which has lost it's novelty, I must say.  The dog is terrified to go outside  because of the loud garbage trucks that always seem to  be out there, so we basically have to carry him out to take a shit. The soap they use on the sheets and towels has caused two of us to break out in hives, so I've had to wash everything twice in hot water with my own soap, and the hallways are freezing.  I mean, f-f-f-f-freezing (see  what I did there?  I was implying shivering, get it?  I mean, like, it's really cold out there.)  Anyway, Oakwood tangent aside, the mall had a West Elm store, which is my favorite non-shoe store, but of course once we had the Pillow Pets and Legos in hand the kids were done.  I will revisit when the little suckers are in school, though.  We went to a sushi bar for lunch where the kids pretty much ate everything in sight.  It had a little conveyor belt where you could just grab what looked good to you.  This is not a good place to go with kids if you want to save money, however, they ate just about everything they picked and had a blast doing it.  We felt kind of bad for their Daddy, who was stuck eating crappy cafeteria food at the Foreign Service Institute. Apologies for picture quality.  It was taken with my oft-dropped phone, which actually has springs poking out of it and whatnot.

TB or not TB

I was reading through the requirements for the kids' new schools in VA this morning.  I turns out they are required to have a TB skin test within 90 days of registration.  Whew, they just had one for their Medical Clearances, I think to my smug self.  Because sticking a needle under their skin and injecting some fluid into their arm is not their favorite thing.  I also find this amusing, because I've been filling out paperwork for days for this school, and everything has to be ORIGINALS, not copies.  But I also have to bring copies.  And they want a lot of information, including a lease agreement (original) to make sure we're not trying to sneak into their school. This is slightly different than when I registered the kids for school on the island, which went something like this:

Me:  "Hi, we will be moving to Whidbey Island next month, and I'd like to get my kids registered for school.  I'm just wondering what paperwork I need to have."

School Secretary:  "Oh, yes, you must be the family that bought the house over on Ambey Lane!  Well, just drop the kids off when you get here and we'll call it good."

Anyway, I was pulling out the ORIGINAL copies of the TB test report, and wouldn't you know, their TB tests were done 91 days ago.  EFF.