Someday . . . .

Someday, in the year 2023, my kids will look over this blog thingie and ask me,

"Hey Mom, did we do anything the summer of 2011? You didn't write anything. Were we - gasp! - boring?"

And I will tell them;

"Kids, our family is never boring - don't you worry your pretty little heads about that (I'm sure those are the exact words I'll use). We had a lot of fun the summer of 2011 - trips to the beach, a vacation in Montana and Yellowstone, parties in our backyard, Wii night - the usual whirlwind of summer activities. Go get the CF card out of my camera and download the pictures. They're probably still on there."

Because I'm all about making my kids self-sufficient and teaching them to find their own answers. And their own shoes. Twelve years from now I'm positive they'll know how to download pictures from a CF card. We can only hope they'll be able to find their own shoes.

I'm not holding my breath.

How many pairs of cleats do two boys need, anyway? Just curious.

So anyway, back to me.

We've been extraordinarily busy this summer - I think the busiest summer since we've had kids. Yes, it's been busy - but fun! - which I will share with you over the next few days because my OCD demands that I keep up with things.

(You didn't really think I'd leave a memory card in my camera for 12 years did you? Think about it - look at the above shoe picture and ask yourself, could the person who asks their children to put their shoes away like this, leave out 3 months of activity from her family's virtual scrapbook?)

I think not. Unfortunately my OCD isn't bad enough to make me blog regularly. Which brings me to a question; can I take meds to make it stronger? Seriously, if I'm going to claim I'm OCD, I SHOULD GIVE IT 100%.

So anyway, back to me. Oh right- we were already there. Okay, in the very near future I'll tell you about the birthdays, surprises, trips, visitors and the usual Karenpie dorkiness but first I have to tell you about the recent addition to our family.

Meet Marius Jäger, our exchange student from Germany!

Marius, or Mars as he likes to be called, arrived last Saturday and will live with us for the school year. He's 15 and will attend the same school as our kids. Mars loves cookies, shopping, dogs and soccer. He loves Hollister and Abercrombie and Tommy Hilfiger. Fortunately he has his own spending money because HOLY SCHNIKES we went shopping today and for a mere $120 and change he got 4 things.

FOUR THINGS.

It was a real eye-opener for me. So far, my kids don't have a choice. They like Nike, Walmart and whatever hand-me-downs they get from the Bonners.

So . . . instant teenager in the house. Instant need for hair products, name-brand clothing and an endless supply of cookies.

We're just getting started and it's going to be a BLAST!

But you can pray for me anyway.