Well, once again, I'm woefully behind on "journaling" my life. I think I have finally figured out the problem. Blogging is not something I enjoy. It has come to feel like a real chore. I want this record and I really enjoy going back to look at what we've been doing, but making myself sit down and rerun our activities is tough for me. (I don't like reruns on television either.) Katelynn said I should give myself permission to not do it, but I know I'd regret not having the record one of these days. I still regret not keeping up on a journal during Mara's adoption and during my two pregnancies. But I now know why all those neat little locking diaries people gave me as a kid sat empty in my drawers. I always felt sort of guilty about that too. Now having said that, I will, once again, catch up to date and try another of those empty promises to myself to do a better job of keeping up.
On August 24, came that day I'd been dreading, time for Nikki to make the move to adulthood with a move to Boulder. She did a pretty good job paring her life down to a reasonable stack of stuff which easily fit into the van. Unfortunately, once the stack was in the van, the family didn't fit. So Jeff, Nikki and Katy headed over early and Mara and I followed later cause we didn't want to miss the big day. We easily got her settled into the dorm and she was almost unpacked by the time we left. After a yummy lunch at Cici's, we made a trip to nearby Target to pick up all the little things she'd forgotten or didn't know she would need. Since Boulder is MUCH too cool for a Walmart or K-mart, the one and only Target is inundated with students and parents the day the freshmen move in. We anticipated the crowds but for some reason none of us thought about how all the freshmen would find they needed the same things when they moved into identical dorm rooms. We found empty spaces on all the crucial shelves. So failing to meet our shopping goals at Target, we drove through rush hour traffic past Boulder's "open space" ring and to the Walmart in Broomfield. There we found no crowds and everything on Nikki's list.
We had an emotional goodbye on the curb as we dropped her off with her Walmart bags. After big hugs from each of us big people and quite a few tears from Mom, Mara finally had to accept the fact that Nikki wasn't coming home with us and she pulled one of her devastated sister scenes. She did this once to Katelynn last winter but that was at home. So here's poor Nikki standing on the sidewalk in front of the four biggest dorms on campus, dozens of student's "hanging out" watching as Mara is screaming, "NO, don't go, get in the car, not stay here!" Tears were streaming down Mara's cheeks. I got a few bruises from pulling her off of Nikki and manhandling her into the car as she was literally kicking and screaming. I was, on the one hand, so sad for Mara and, on the other hand, so glad that she has bonded so well to Nikki that she could be this upset about her leaving. All day while moving Nikki in, Mara kept saying, "you teasing, Nikki not living here." I hope Nikki wasn't too embarrassed but I think she would have been very sad had Mara not made some sort of scene before we left.
We are really missing Nikki a lot, but the stories I'm hearing from Boulder are good ones. She has settled in quite well to dorm life, finding lots of fun friends on her floor. The roommate situation is palatable, they get along comfortably, though it doesn't look like a life long friendship will be forming any time soon. She has tried several on-campus ministry groups and a few Bible studies and is debating how many she can squeeze into her schedule. She was fortunate to find a job within just a few days and reports that it is "okay" though sometimes pretty dull. So with only a short few months vacation from the 24/7 action lifestyle, Nikki is easily restructuring her life to once again have very little down time. Hope she remembers she's there for the classes.
So, in my typical LIFO journaling style, I will now move on to share our last fun family outing prior to Nikki moving out. On the 22nd we finally got a day we could ALL enjoy the trip to the zoo we'd been planning since Christmas when Mark and Jacqui gave us tickets. What a great day! I hadn't been to the zoo since I went with Kelsey's class when she was in the third grade. What a difference a decade makes! They have totally rebuilt many of the habitats and added several new things. The primate portion is all new with the exception of the old monkey house and monkey island which were original zoo structures. There is a new Lorikeet Adventure which intrigued Mara greatly, but, sadly, the birds were not very hungry after a long day of being hand fed by hundreds of zoo attendees. The highlight of my day was watching three "moon" bear cubs (Asiatic Bears with a crescent shaped stripe on their chests) feeding from and playing with their mom. Mara loved watching the mother ape cradle her baby on her lap as he was taking his afternoon nap. Anyway, they have done a marvelous job of blending the old with the new and making it a very attractive and pleasant place to be. It still does have a strong animal smell, however. Guess you can't fix that. Short of replacing all the critters with Disney-esque audioanimatronics.
The weather was absolutely perfect, with only a few hours of real heat in the afternoon. We had taken a picnic along and found a cozy little grassy spot somewhat enclosed from zoo traffic to take a break. This, for me, was a wonderful little throwback to the days of my childhood when my mother took us kids to City Park and the zoo one day every summer. We always crossed the street to the park for our picnic lunch. The big girls enjoyed taking Mara on the little zoo train, which I was glad to see was still in operation. (Fond memories of Katelynn's 4th birthday party.) We ended our day with a wonderful dinner at The Spaghetti Factory, also compliments of Mark and Jacqui. The wandering "balloon" guy made each of us very unique shapes, from a Harley for Jeff to a ladybug bracelet for Mara. Nikki got a "wrist corsage" while Katy was the "apple of his eye." I received 4 peas in a pod because I am a sweet pea. Okay, so very corny, but he did it in such an entertaining way! He got a good tip. A wonderful day was had by all. Thank you Mark and Jacqui for your thoughtfulness. It was a perfect ending to a nice summer before the school year took over again.
So here I sit on a cloudy, dreary Labor Day sadly looking ahead to a long fall and winter. I'm not one of those who enjoy the "colors" and crispness of fall. (Fall colors in Colorado are mostly only various shades of yellow.) Instead I find fall only a reminder that winter is on it's way and I don't like winter. The first snow storm is always sort of charming and exciting but since it is always followed by lots more cold and dreariness it's charm is fleeting. Ah well, perhaps we only have one more winter before we get to bring home our next daughter from China. Perhaps. At the rate they are moving now, it could feasibly be an entire year from now before we see a referral. I can't see how or why China can continue to allow things to move at this glacial pace, but there are many things about China I will never understand. In Katelynn's words, the answer to any question about the country which includes the words "why is it like this?" is simply, "it's China."
Well, enough of this torture. I'm going to go enjoy some time with my family since we have this nice holiday to spend together. Jeff brought home some videos from the library just in case we had such weather today. I'm sure I'll be back, just can't say when.
