Monday, October 09, 2006
Seasonal Affective Disorder
I cannot let this day go by without acknowledging the end of my summer blues. I am taking psychology this semester and I know that seasonal affective disorder is supposed to be wintertime depression. But since moving to Texas from New England some years ago, I have noticed that every fall there is a point when I suddenly realize that I feel good again! That happened to me today! You have probably felt something similar when you recover from a physical illness. You know how bad you felt when you were sick by the sudden contrast when you feel better. I haven't tracked this in any systematic way, but it is real to me. I hate the oppressive heat of the Texas summer. Air conditioning is a blessing, but it does not modify my mood. I like to be able to go outside and walk. I can do that again now. I'm so glad it is finally fall here. Someday I will move North. Or I will at least have a place that I can escape to for the entire summer and not for just a week or two.
Time marches on, Blogs need a push
And I had such good intentions. One of these days I will write about why we are "the Texas Branch". Today I will write about the last 2 months.
James and Melissa were married in the Dallas Temple on August 26th. It was a lovely ceremony. The reception went smoothly and was a lot of fun. Everyone should be blessed with a friend like my daughter's MIL, Cathy. She is one talented lady. She transformed our chapel's cultural hall into a thing of beauty. We had a wonderful band, "The Fiddle Rascles" who are an LDS family group from the Dallas area. They played classical music the first hour, then lively fiddle music for the second hour. And people came!! My greatest fear is throwing a party that no one comes to. We have no extended family in the church, nor does Melissa. My mom came from NH. Bill's brother came. Other than that and our own kids, there was no family. I am so grateful to all the friends who came to wish my kids well and to support them. I am also grateful to all the friends who helped to put it all together.
The day after the wedding we welcomed Rene, a German exchange student. His prior arrangements fell through and he needed a temporary place to stay while YFU found another family for him. He slept on our sofa for 3 or 4 nights while I did a major cleanup of Emma's room for him. It didn't take long for us to realize we wanted to keep him. He is a lot of fun and it's nice for SeWon to have a brother, since none of our kids are at home. He and SeWon seem to be settling in well at the local high school. It's the school that I was afraid to send my own kids to - they went to the Arts Magnet HS - but it's really not so bad. SeWon has 2 AP classes, Calculus and Physics, and Rene has 3, Physics, American History and English! Smart kids!
I can't let September go by without mentioning Grant. Our third upstairs bedroom was occupied for 4 weeks by Grant, a 4th year med student from Kansas who was doing a rotation at Childrens Medical Center. Although he was a paying guest, we really enjoyed having him around and it was nice for the boys to have someone closer to their age in the house. Sarah is doing a rotation right now at Methodist Hospital, so she is occupying that third room during the week and going home to Ft Worth on the weekend.
School started for me on August 28th. It keeps me very busy. More on that later.
James and Melissa were married in the Dallas Temple on August 26th. It was a lovely ceremony. The reception went smoothly and was a lot of fun. Everyone should be blessed with a friend like my daughter's MIL, Cathy. She is one talented lady. She transformed our chapel's cultural hall into a thing of beauty. We had a wonderful band, "The Fiddle Rascles" who are an LDS family group from the Dallas area. They played classical music the first hour, then lively fiddle music for the second hour. And people came!! My greatest fear is throwing a party that no one comes to. We have no extended family in the church, nor does Melissa. My mom came from NH. Bill's brother came. Other than that and our own kids, there was no family. I am so grateful to all the friends who came to wish my kids well and to support them. I am also grateful to all the friends who helped to put it all together.
The day after the wedding we welcomed Rene, a German exchange student. His prior arrangements fell through and he needed a temporary place to stay while YFU found another family for him. He slept on our sofa for 3 or 4 nights while I did a major cleanup of Emma's room for him. It didn't take long for us to realize we wanted to keep him. He is a lot of fun and it's nice for SeWon to have a brother, since none of our kids are at home. He and SeWon seem to be settling in well at the local high school. It's the school that I was afraid to send my own kids to - they went to the Arts Magnet HS - but it's really not so bad. SeWon has 2 AP classes, Calculus and Physics, and Rene has 3, Physics, American History and English! Smart kids!
I can't let September go by without mentioning Grant. Our third upstairs bedroom was occupied for 4 weeks by Grant, a 4th year med student from Kansas who was doing a rotation at Childrens Medical Center. Although he was a paying guest, we really enjoyed having him around and it was nice for the boys to have someone closer to their age in the house. Sarah is doing a rotation right now at Methodist Hospital, so she is occupying that third room during the week and going home to Ft Worth on the weekend.
School started for me on August 28th. It keeps me very busy. More on that later.
Monday, August 14, 2006
The Marriage License Dance
When I looked up the marriage license info for James back in July, I understood the website to say that all he needed in her absence was Melissa's ID and the forms filled out. It didn't specify which forms, so I assumed it was the form everyone fills out to apply for a license. SO James remembered today that he had not taken care of that yet and called me to check on locations. I called a couple of the locations to verify hours and actually talked to a real person at one of them. I found out that Melissa needs to complete an "Absent Applicant" form. I actually saw the absentee form in July but the note accompanying it said it was only to be used by Military personnel or incarcerated persons. Anyhow… we do need this form even though Melissa is neither military nor incarcerated. It must be notarized and the ID presented to the notary has to be sent with the form to James for him to present with the application – original copy only. Unfortunately her DL is already in Texas so we had to 'overnight' her license back to Rexburg. [I put overnight in quotes because Rexburg is so special that overnight service takes 2 days.] Then she will have to send it back with the completed form. Blaaah!! Good thing we still have more than a week to get this accomplished. It took numerous phone calls to the city offices, to James and to Melissa and 6 emails from me to Melissa and 5 from her to me. But hopefully we all now understand what is required and the process is in motion.
Life Changes on a Whim
On Friday, Bill and I were looking forward to a nice empty nest come September. That afternoon I remembered how quiet and sometimes boring an empty nest is. I have been resisting the impulse all summer, but on Friday afternoon I picked up the phone and called YFU. Ummm.., I said, school starts on Monday and I know it is short notice, but if you guys still have kids that need a home, we MIGHT be interested. Well, they were definitely interested in us! As a returning host family we already have a lot of the paperwork on file and they still had 20 unplaced students, some of whom were scheduled to arrive in 4 or 5 days. They told us about 2 of the boys - we wanted a boy - and gave us an access code to their website where we could look at all 20 profiles. By Saturday afternoon we had discussed it, chosen a student and faxed the forms to the YFU office. Sunday we had our home visit (think mad cleaning spree to make the house half-way presentable) and Monday the YFU rep got the school's OK. So he arrives at 430PM on Wednesday!! His name is Se-Won Ha from Korea. Isn't he cute!
Thursday, August 10, 2006
James
When James turned 4 years old, we gave him a new pint-sized 2 wheeled bike with training wheels. He loved it! He rode it all the time trying to keep up with the kids next door. Soon one training wheel broke off. He kept going, learning to balance on 3 wheels. When the other training wheel broke off, he barely noticed. I was amazed to see this little 4 year old darting around on 2 wheels!
When James was 7 or 8 he got some cool new tennis shoes. I had to go outside to watch him run. "See how fast I can run in my new shoes, Mom!" When he was in High School his A-string broke. We replaced it with a really good quality cello string and it was "Mom, see how much better I can play on my new A-string!"
Now he is getting married in just 2 short weeks. Wow!
When James was 7 or 8 he got some cool new tennis shoes. I had to go outside to watch him run. "See how fast I can run in my new shoes, Mom!" When he was in High School his A-string broke. We replaced it with a really good quality cello string and it was "Mom, see how much better I can play on my new A-string!"
Now he is getting married in just 2 short weeks. Wow!
Monday, August 07, 2006
My Kids
Day One
Day One: Life is complicated. Too much going on. My house to make presentable. Last minute...yes it is the last minute now... wedding preparations. School starting soon for me as well as for my kids. Insurance stuff, car stuff... I hope having a forum will help me to be more organized. Or at least it can be a substitute journal since I have never been too good at journal keeping.
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