Maia to Paris

On the last day of school, Maia dressed herself and her puppy in coordinating outfits, put another puppy in a carrier, and announced, "I'm off to Paris!" We decided right then and there that one day we will go to Paris together. After all, I'm a free translator if nothing else:)

Pardon little brother's nakedness.  We're potty training.

Maia's all ready for the trip, and Tai just wants to cut things.

Goodbye Everyone!  See you in a couple weeks!

Sharing a Ride

Our town had a little festival at the end of May.  There was a parade and carnival-type activities for the kids.  Maia and Tai really enjoyed it.

As you can see, Maia still adores Tai.

Love the Tai's face.  Maia looks bored.

Now they are both happy:)

Tai is saying, "Let's do this thing!"

Crazy Yolks

This is an amusing story.  One day I was cooking dinner and needed a half-dozen eggs.  I took out my supermarket-bought free-range eggs and started cracking them into a bowl.  Imagine my surprise when I saw that the first egg had a double yolk.  Then I cracked the next one.  It too had two yolks.  At this point, I started to flip out.  This was my first encounter with double-yolked eggs, and I wasn't sure if this was the result of genetic modification or something equally sinister.   I took the third egg from the carton and as I held it in my hand, I noticed it was much denser than a normal egg.  "Oh my God," I thought.  What if there's something wrong with it?  What if it has a chick inside like the show we saw about Chinese delicacies?

At this point, I put the egg down because I couldn't bear to crack it.  I decided to abandon dinner plans until Yoshi got home.  It took a couple of minutes for me to calm down and think rationally.  "Roula, there is no chick in that egg," I told myself.  It's just heavy because it probably has two yolks like the others.  I held my breath as I cracked it, and of course, I was right.

I cracked all 6 eggs, and every one had a double yolk!  What are the odds?  Before continuing with my recipe, I called my neighbor and patient friend, Sarah, who knows everything about food and cooking.  Amazingly, she did not laugh at me as I told her about my egg troubles.  I asked her if the eggs were safe to eat, and she reassured me that nothing was amiss.  In fact, I was lucky and would soon be enjoying a delicious dinner.  It turns out that double-yolks are not a result of genetic engineering but are produced by young hens who have just started laying and don't have their cycles down yet.  I learned something I never knew, and my fritata ended up being delicious!

Krispy Kreme

The kiddos enjoying a much-deserved doughnut after a long hot day!

Maia was quite pleased with her selection.

Tai was ready to go to sleep here, but he stayed awake for the doughnut!

The Last Three Months

Just when it seemed that I had integrated updating the blog into my routine, spring arrived and threw off my schedule yet again.  But now things are calming down a bit, so I'm hoping to post more frequently.  Sorry to those of you who look forward to updates.  I will try to do better...

One big reason I forgot about the blog is I took another class toward my master's degree.  Although all the classes I've taken have been challenging, this one, by far, was the toughest.  The topic was teaching speaking and listening to ESL learners, and I felt overwhelmed from the beginning.  Many of my classmates had taught ESL at the university level and/or were graduating that quarter.  For me, it was only my third class.  Needless to say, I was in over my head.  We had to do a big project where we met with a non-native speaker once a week and worked with them to improve their listening and speaking ability.  All the exercises we used had to be original.  I chose Yoshi as my subject, and it was a fun experience.  In the end, I survived, and although I doubted it was possible, I even got an A!