These are some more pictures we took at the reunion. I told L it was a potty and she was ready to use it! Cute kids. May I state once again how glad I am that I can stay home with my little monsters. At least until they get into school.

Some fun things have happened lately. I walk 3 miles every morning with my friend Luz. We always wave at people because we see the same people drive or walk by every morning. One little Asian couple drove by on their way home from the cookie factory. (Sometimes they still had their hairnets on... and we've seen them close to the factory.) The husband has always been pleasantly surprise when we wave... Now they wave at us first. : ) The other day they saw us and quickly pulled over, frantically motioning for us to approach the car. "Cookies for you! Cookies for you!" As they handed us a bag, the wife (who always drives... interesting little tid bit) was chanting it over and over. (It kind of reminded me of Alina's "papas fritas" story.) They had brought Luz and I a box of cookies. So sweet.

We have many other "wave at" friends, but my favorite is a girl who used to refuse to look at us. We have now won her over and I'm sure we will soon be swapping addresses.

The other day B heard some program announcing their web address and he told me he wanted to go there. Then thoughtfully he asked, "Mom, what do you think it says at Heavenly Father.com? " That's my boy.

S & B wanted to play in the water and S couldn't find her swimming suit. I put some shorts on her and had to force a shirt on her. She thought she should be able to go topless like B does. A few minutes later I looked out back to check on them. I found S running around topless and B peeing off the balcony. Beauty, eh? I'm sure nobody in the neighborhood thinks of us as white trash... well, mixed trash....

Now to church. I am not used to people not loving me, so this English ward is really throwing me for a loop. I haven't found any soul mates yet, but there are some nice people. There is also a clique of youngish couples that I really don't want to be in... but the women are always in nursery. My girls have decided to scream bloody murder if I don't stay in nursery with them. This is something quite new. I am sure that the three of them got together and planned it as torture for me, payback for leaving the Spanish Branch were they were goddesses... everyone fought over who got to take care of them or play with them. Now I must sit and listen to these women talk about hair and bodies and shopping etc. Every now and then I feebly try to enter the conversation... but I haven't been successful yet. Ick... After an hour of that E came to spell me off.....

Sunday School, I had no idea what the lady was talking about. She tries to share her thoughts but everything came out disjointed... or it didn't make connections in my brain....

Sacrament meeting... The science hater from the previous week in SS gave a talk. The week before he had mentioned that the world worshiped at the feet of science and blah, blah, blah... After church I went up to him to let him know how much I loved science... and that was exactly what I said. I just wanted him to realize that many scientist love God and recognize his power. OK... So, his talk was supposed to be about labor, work... but he spoke about Charles Darwin vs. Joseph Smith. He said many horrible things like only God knew how the earth was created so we should just wait until he tells us instead of wasting time trying to figure it out. At one point he read a quote, which I missed because of a small riot taking place in our bench, and then said, "Did you hear that Sister Castilony? I only say that because last week she accused me of being a scientist hater." Wow, now that was rude.

I must admit that I shed a few tears in the van after church...

Then I had to see his wife last night at scrapbooking. She spoke about how no one in the ward came to see her when she was in so much pain. Last night she kept saying, "She's not talking to me," and she would point at me. However, I had to "talk" to her quite a lot. She trapped me on the way out telling me about her daughters step-son and his abuse, her other daughter's reproductive history, her mom's Alzheimers, her yard... and much much more. Why did we leave the Spanish Branch again?

I must be off to announce the Book Fair at faculty meeting at B's school. Why do I love his school? Uniforms, teachers from Spain and Taiwan, Spanish spoken often everywhere and everyday, 25 kids per class, high expectations. Love it!

Love to all!

Julie