As It Is The Last Day In July...

... And since I have been terrible about doing this so far, I thought I would post some updates from the last few months.

1. Got my green card though, finally. It is a 10 year card, but I can apply for citizenship next year. Not totally convinced by it yet (partly because of the ridiculous hoop-jumping required... but that is another post), but we will see.
2. Oliver is walking. This one is rather behind the times... Oliver has been walking for about the last two months, but refused to use it as his preferred mode of transportation until we went to San Diego at the end of June. There he had plenty of room to practice, and the furniture at Grandma's house was spaced sufficiently far enough apart that he was forced to let go of things. Now he is running.

3. We went to San Diego for 10 days. And it was great. Evan built a retaining wall with his Dad (and some other people), and the kids and I had a much needed break. We stayed long enough to celebrate July 4th, and watch the fireworks. And, by the way, perching on top of a 10 ft wall, and craning your neck to take pictures of fireworks with no tripod is not a walk in the park... More photos to come.

4. Lena started and completed swimming lessons. She loves the water. She hasn't figured out everything completely yet, but she can float, and propel herself around underwater. We are working on staying afloat whilst taking a breath... so trivial, and yet so essential... Grandpa P, if you could figure out how to get Hayley swimming for the next 11/12 years you can have your kick-@$$ relay team you have always dreamed about :D
5. Oliver is talking. Yes, talking. Words currently in his repertoire are (in order of length of time in use): "Dada", "Mama", "Nenen" (Lena), "KKKKKKKKK" (and increasingly now "kkkkkk-a" for cat), "hess", which serves the dual purpose of meaning both 'yes' and 'this'. Lena on the other hand has discovered the full mileage that can be gleaned from using the word "No", and has fully implemented it in her day-to-day life. Oliver, in true younger brother form, also likes to annoy his sister. This was an exchange I heard between the two of them the other day while Lena was eating her lunch.
Lena: (seeing that Oliver was eyeing her food) "No"
Oliver: "Hess"
Lena: "No!"
Oliver: "Hess"
Lena: "NO!"
Oliver: "Hess"
Lena: "NOOO!"
Oliver: "Hess"
Lena: "NOOOOOOO!"
Oliver: " . . . . . Hess"

I almost died from silent laughter.
6. Evan finished school. Winter semester went really well, and Spring semester went even better: He got a 4.0, and he got the highest score in the final exam. Evan is now confident that he made the right decision with Economics, and I couldn't agree with him more.
7. With no school during the summer term, Evan and I have been able to spend more time together, doing things like hiking and devoting time to postponed projects. Like our apartment. I am happy to announce that our apartment should (finally) be finished by the end of the summer!
8. Evan got a new road bike to replace his mountain bike that got stolen while we were away in San Diego (darn those Mexican gangs that hang around our neighborhood!), and he loves it. Now for me to learn how to ride one and we will be set!
9. Not really from our family, but from my family... My sister Hayley just competed in the World Swimming Championships in Rome in the 100m Freestyle. She smahed her NZ record for the event with a 53.91, and for those of you who know anything about swimming, on the first 50m of her heats swim, she was 0.01 seconds off of the NZ record for the 50m, which is phenomenal when you realize that her time included a flip turn, and was the first part of a longer race. (Don't expect Toni Jeff's record to be on the books for too much longer!) She made the semi finals, and placed 11th overall, which is great because that meant I got to see her race (they have only been showing the finals sessions here...), and she gets funding for the next year. On top of that though, in her semi final, she was the fastest split at the 50m and 0.01 off the world record split for the 100m (which incidentally was slower than her heats split), and was leading up to about 75m. That in itself may not seem like cause for celebration, but, in fact, is since even though she dropped a full second off of her previous PB (and NZ record), it was not a perfect swim, and there is definitely still room for improvement.

Congrats, Hayley! We are very proud of you!