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More Updates

So if you hadn't guessed, my dear old pa recently made a guest blogger appearance to shame me into updating my blog more often. After 9 years of blogging, I have learned to recognize that I go through lean periods every now and then when life is particularly stressful and that is okay. I wish I had more energy to keep up with documenting our crazy life, but sometimes things have to give. Anyway, life goes on as usual. MIL and step-kiddos were packed off about a week ago, and N has entered the teething stage marking an end to a relatively short period where I thought we might actually get some sleep. The 'rents were here for a brief but lovely visit. This was the first time that we had seen them since my dad expressed his sincere desire to retire, and I was stunned by the change in him. My dad has always been a wonderful person and grandparent, but he is also a businessman (and one who runs his own company at that). As an entrepreneur, my father worked all the time whether he was on vacation or not. It was customary for him to pull out the laptop and work whenever the chance presented itself. After all, if he wasn't keeping up with the work, who would be? But now that he is extracting himself from the day to day business operations, he was able to spend almost every moment of the visit hanging out with the family.*

Although their visit was short, it was important that my parents come out to visit now because C is getting ready to embark on a monumental moment in both of our lives. She is getting ready to leave home for the first time. This was a decision that I struggled with for a long time. For a variety of reasons that I will leave to another, more specific post, C will be attending boarding school starting this semester. She and I spent time earlier in the year traveling to visit schools, and she selected a small, all-girls boarding school about 3 hours drive from our current home. Since we will still be here in the U.S. for the next few months, the transition will not be as abrupt as it might have been had we chosen to wait to enroll her until we left for Hong Kong. I think C is excited and nervous, but mostly excited. I, on the other hand, am a total mess. I cry at the drop of a hat, and I have been more on edge as the date of separation approaches. I know we will both survive (and that she will thrive), but it has not made it any easier on me. I don't know if any of us are prepared for our children to leave the nest, especially when it's a bit ahead of schedule, even when we know we are doing the right thing. I will probably be an emotional wreck for the next few weeks so I can't promise I'm going to be any better at updating the blog, but I will try to get some pictures up at least.

*Note that the lack of commentary about Grandma indicates that she was always so dedicated! :)

PuLand Update

Oh things could not be going any better.  My wonderful, fabulous, best in class parents are here visiting us.  Do you know how much I sit around the house chasing after all my brood while trying to learn Mandarin, thinning about my move to Hong Kong, worrying about my Reserve career, dealing with the various issues of being a Mom, Wife, and Career person and think, "if only my parents were here, the blaze of their love for me, would wash away all those worries and I'd go right back to those golden days when I was in Middle School."

Except the days in Middle School weren't golden...at all.

Oh well, I'm sure that the blaze of their love would do something good for me.

Like induce my hubs to open up some of his really good wine.  That's a pretty good outcome.  And have my Dad threaten to indoctrinate A by showing him YouTube videos of the New Zealand All Blacks Haka.  Maybe not so good an outcome.  And bringing me bottles of NM Green Chile.  A REALLY good outcome!

They will be here for only a couple of days when and then we'll go back to our mundane, day-to-day lives.