She also drew lines on herself for Katara. Katara doesn't have any lines on her body in the show, but Miciah thought it would be more dramatic to draw the lines anyway. There are circles on her cheeks and then spirally lines on both arms and both legs. ... Needless to say, people were noticing and talking about those lines for a while. Miciah washed hers off before going in public, but Elijah left his on. Some people recognized who he was: Aang. Someone mentioned something about water bending to him. He just scowled at her (he's anti-stranger, remember). 
I had to show off this picture of Teancom. A rare grumpy face.
Haircuts All Around
We cut the boys' hair, obviously. I didn't want to--it was so cute longer! But it was driving Rob crazy, and it really did need to be cut, I'm sure. It was over their ears. ... Elijah had asked me how long it would take to grow his hair long like mine. I was willing to see how long. Rob would DEFINITELY not have gone for that. :)
I also cut Miciah's hair. She was a little sad about that, saying she looked like a clown. She hadn't even seen her hair yet when she said that. So to help her feel better about it, I let her cut my hair. I told her I just wanted a slight trim, and she did a pretty good job. A few days later I touched up the kids' haircuts, and she insisted on also touching up my hair. She took off another inch or so. But it looks decent, and I get compliments on my haircut. ... The pictures from Mammoth show all of us with our haircuts. Rob got his haircut, too, but I didn't do it. We actually paid for that one.
Olympics
For 2 weeks all we did was watch TV and get on-line updates on the Games. I love the Olympics.
My favorite great moments were: the swimming 4x100 m mens' relay, Micheal Phelps winning by 1/100 of a second for his 7th gold, Nastia having an amazing night to win all-round gold, a man from Togos winning his nation's first Olympic medal in white water, watching May and Walsh win their 2nd straight Olympic gold, Jamaica's 'Lightning' Bolt running away with a new 100 and 200 m world record, an Australian man winning the last platform diving competition with an AMAZING dive to steal away China's 8 for 8 gold, and the American men winning indoor volleyball after what their coach has been through.
And my favorite low moments were: Lolo losing the 110 m hurdles because she biffed it on the 9th hurdle (she would have won by a ton, but instead came in 7th), BOTH 4x100 American relay teams dropping the baton and not qualifying for the finals, wondering if the whole Jamaican sprinting team is doping, watching Nastia come in 2nd in the uneven bars because of a tie-breaker rule, seeing one of the American water polo teams lose by 1 point in the last 30 seconds to the Netherlands even though the US had one last opportunity to score in the last 5 seconds and it hit the post, and following the controversy of the under-age Chinese gymnasts (they are SO underage. Whether or not that's the final "official ruling", they are and everyone knows it).
I would like to believe the Olympics isn't tainted. But I know, deep in my heart, that it is. And it has been for a long time. The fact that China came out so strong with just stupidness this Olympics makes me sad. I don't understand the win-at-all-costs mentality. But, I can hope for a time when people compete fairly and judges judge fairly and no one has sold their vote or score or soul to win.
C's Visit
C also watches soccer highlights for every soccer game in the world that's worth watching. So I enjoyed that a LOT. Rob asked if I was done watching them and I told him, "Look, when C leaves, how many soccer highlights am I likely to watch?" None. That's right. I watched like 100 over the week, and it filled my quota until C comes to visit again.
So not only did we watch the Olympics for the majority of C's visit, we watched good soccer highlights on top of that. Good times with my brother.
We had a lot of downtime, though. I planned that because in the past Miciah has monopolized all his time and forced him to do just about everything with her. And this visit, she almost didn't even notice he was around. I mean, she loved having him here, but it wasn't the same. She spent an entire day playing with her neighbor friends. She almost seemed annoyed at times when I suggested she do something with C. Weird.
We did go to Mammoth Cave, as I've already written about. We spent that night camping on a guy's farm land. It was fun. We were EXHAUSTED by the time we got home on Sunday around 3pm. So we laid low on Sunday evening and all day Monday to recover. C and I also took lots of naps--I don't know how Rob survived the Olympics without taking naps, honestly.
We went swimming one day at the W's house while C was here. They have a heated pool, which is good, cause it hasn't been that warm lately. The week C was here, it was 90 and 95 degrees some days, but the rest of August has been almost cold! That week was the only week all month I've had my AC on. Anyways, it was SO NICE swimming in a pool that was almost as warm as the air around us. If we ever own a pool some day, it will be in-ground and heated.
C and I got to play a soccer game together while he was here. My indoor soccer team. It was fun to have him play with me and get to show him off to my friends. :) They seemed to be a little skeptical at first about his ability to play (not because of him, but because that's what you do when someone says their brother is good), but by the end they were complimenting him almost every moment and asking if he'd be around for any more games. He and I played killer defense together, and that rocked. I also was happy to show off for him. Not that I show off, but I played a really good game that night. I had an assist on the first goal of the game which was on the first PLAY of the game. So our team was up by 1 in the first 20 seconds, and it was on my excellent assist. ... It's nice, actually, to play and feel like I play well. My style of play has changed, and C noted that I'm not as fast on the ball as I used to be. For sure. But I've never been that fast on the ball, really, and I've never been a good dribbler. I've only used my speed and kicked the ball in front of me. In indoor, and against men, it's almost impossible to do that. So I've transitioned my game and I'm now an excellent defender and passer, and I create plays and assists. I used to be the scorer, and I could see that as I play more I will eventually be scoring more, but I am just as happy, in fact happier, being the play-maker. ... One of the guys on my team was looking for people to play on another team he has, just for one game. He said to A, our team leader, "And ask that new girl (referring to me). She's got some skills." :) Soccer is my weekly ego boost and I quite enjoy it.
We also went to the Children's Museum with the kids. Elijah was horribly behaved, but Miciah was mature and understanding and willing to compromise. Not only was I shocked, I was amazed and proud of her. She is a really good kid, even when she drives me crazy.
School Starts on Tuesday
And lately, her driving me crazy seems to be a daily thing!! We're both ready for her to be in school. I kept thinking, "Just a week after C goes home. That's not so bad." Woah. It's been a LONG week. By the end of Monday and Tuesday I was ready to cry. Not only is Miciah fairly whiny and ready to get out of the house, the neighbor kids have been over to play near-non-stop. Which is totally fine, but there are 4 of them. So I'm having to figure out how to parent kids that aren't mine, which is a new thing. And it's amazing how quickly 7 kids can trash the house. :) I keep telling myself, "Just till Tuesday. School starts on Tuesday." So close, and yet so far.
Hanging Out to Dry
For fun we started a clothesline. It's an idea I've had since the start of summer, but only implemented 2 weeks ago. That's about par for ideas I have. :) But it's alright that I waited, cause we used the swingset as the pole instead of having to buy a new pole. We have 2 lines up, and it's fun to do. It's different and it makes me think about things I've never thought about before. Like the significance of "landry day." And why you had to iron so much (it makes EVERYTHING wrinkly!)--not that I intend to iron more, cause I'm lazy. And the phrase about dirty laundry out for everyone to see. Granted, I knew about all these things, but I sure think about them differently now.
We started the clothes line for fun, truly. It takes a little bit more time, but not a lot. Plus, my kids think it's fun to run through the clothes when they're hanging up. And it saves on energy and hence money, which will figure into a good story I'll tell in a minute.
Elijah
I was taking the boys somewhere in the van and Elijah yaked my ear off. He was trying to get me to guess something he was thinking off. I couldn't guess it. Now, normally if we're trying to get our kids to guess something and it's a word we know they know, we will give them the starting sound. You know, like, you want them to think of turtle, so you give them the t sound. This works marvelously for Miciah, and Elijah just looks at us like, "And that's supposed to be helpful?" So Elijah was trying to get me to guess his word, so he gave me the starting sounds for t, p, k, and t again. Then he said, "It's a hippo!" ... It occured to me in that moment that he has NO IDEA what we're giving him the starting sounds for. It cracked me up.
Teancom
Teancom's speech is getting clearer and clearer, which is wonderful. He now says everyone's name, including his own. Miciah is Mi-Tiah. Elijah is E-wi-dah. And Teancom is Tay-come.
Miciah
Miciah is having a hard time with life lately, it seems. While C was in town, we went to a friend's house for FHE. We were on our way over and she was mad at us for not letting her play with a friend instead of going to FHE. She declared, "You're the worst parents ever!" I just looked at Rob and said, "That's not the last time we'll hear that, I'm sure." She said she wanted to go live with the W's and we told her we'd ask them if they also had rules. JW was really good when we got there telling Miciah all about the rules they have, including some of the very same rules we have.
We've been making some financial decisions lately. For instance, we've decided to take down the fish tank (that will happen today or tomorrow) as well as give Cleo away to someone else. We told Miciah that we were going to give our fish back to the pet store and she started crying a lot. She said, through tears, "My life has never been as horrible as this!" We brought her into our room and sat on our bed with her. Rob then told her about the decision to get rid of Cleo. Miciah started bawling hysterically. Rob and I felt kind of bad, but it's a good decision and feels right, so we tried to be as strong as possible. I held Miciah for a good 15 minutes letting her cry and talking to her. I told her that I've been stressed and sad lately, too. I told her that there are decisions we've had to make that were hard decisions. I told her we were also getting rid of one of our cell phones, and that's partly why we were using a clothes line. She said, "Well, the clothes line is fine, but I don't want to get rid of the fish or Cleo or the cell phone." It was interesting watching her sadness and disappointment and seeing how much of it reflected how I've been feeling through these last few stressful months. Granted, I haven't bawled like a baby over the fish tank and my "best friend" Cleo, but I have cried. And it was a good moment.
Well, that's pretty much life here. There are probably stories I meant to tell that I've forgotten about by now, who knows. But that pretty much gets us up-to-date. Pray that we will survive till Tuesday, and that our house will be a happy one.
Tamra
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