Mixed bag.

The results of the FSOT came in.

My score was passing. And my husband failed!

Got ya!

Just kidding.

It was the other way around.

He passed, flying colors!!

I, um, did not. But yippee for me for trying! Right?

Right. It's all good.

I'm happy.

Round three for him though. gosh. We should have just moved to Turkey or China or whatever to learn a language.

Summer vacation… bites.

Yesterday was the LAST DAY of school!!

Celebrate? Shall we? Screeeeech. Hold on.

What?

Today we kicked off summer Vac-ay discovering one of the three un-named lovelies has head lice.

LICE!

For the first time in my life, I am dealing with lice. (Go, on, scratch your head, you want to!)

Time to go rinse the lice shampoo off the head of one of these three kids. We all are getting treated, nit-combed and all bedding, stuffed animals, hats, everything, washed and dried at a million-degee temperature. I even jammed a huge stuffed tiger in there. Gotta love our large capacity front-loader.

On the first day of summer vacation.

Good joke, universe.

Safely home.

Our next door neighbor is back.

Yellow ribbon

We are awaiting our neighbor's return from overseas. He's been in Iraq with the Army for a year. His flight is supposed to get back in town in less than half an hour. His wife and two daughters have been keeping things together for a year. 

We have grown closer, our two families, during this year. My two boys have even become friends with the girls next door. I know, "Girls," ew. I think my boys sympathize with how hard it must be for the girls to have their dad gone for a year.

It will be a relief when he is home, safe, and the ribbon is off the tree. To look over and see him barbecuing, in his backyard. To wave, casually. "Hey, how's it going?"

I just hope he is here to stay. 

Kiddos galore.

My kids are each two years apart. All with summer birthdays. (Family, um, "planning" of a teacher?) So, some years we say it's an "even" year, like this past year. The kids were ages 6, 8 and 10. But we are switching back into an "odd" year. Get ready for the weirdness. The ages will be 7, 9 and 11. 

My son B. is leaving elementary school and this will be the last time the three kids will all be in the same school together. "Unless," as B. says, "we all go to the same college and I continue on for graduate school there." 

Ok, I appreciate your foresight, but let's just finish fifth grade first. Middle school, here he comes!

Here are a few pictures of the three kiddos doing kiddo-things. 

B. playing Ode to Joy on trombone.

S. demonstrating flipping skills. Newly acquired skills: back and front tuck, back layout.

S. playing Happy Birthday on violin. 

S. showing off his new age, while B. towers over. Always older, Bro. Always. 

C. attending a gymnastics meet. Aloha!

…and he took the test.

So, my husband took the FSOT on Friday. Again. He's already passed it twice before, or was it three times? I lose track. Anyhooo.

He said it went well.

I'm not sure if he and I had any of the same questions or the same essay or anything. We, of course, strictly adhere to the NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement- keep your mouth shut agreement).

So we will wait 3-5 weeks to hear our results. I am not very confident in myself. I looked up some of my answers afterward and know I got some wrong. But I tried. Who's the president of the US? Colonel Sanders, right? No? Darn. Cap'n Crunch, then. It's him for sure. Oh, right, NDA. Sh, quiet.

My husband is trying for Public Diplomacy again, (GAH!!!) and I'm shooting for Management. He's currently on the PD register twice. But his score isn't high enough to get the call. I asked if he wanted to switch cones and he said, "If I'm putting this much time and effort into it, I want to be in the job that sounds like it really suits me best. And it's PD." Kudos to him for stick-to-it-ive-ness. He's starting the whole FS process over in hopes of upping his score. The PD register has something like 205 people on it, the first 23 have 5.7 or better. He could try to learn a language to raise his score, I suppose, but I'm not sure how that could happen while working full time. Plus we have these three kids who like to see him. They are ages 7, soon to be 9 and 11. Any ideas on how to learn a language while doing all that?

There is no easy answer.

Did it.

Yeah, me again! I know, shocking!

Well, that English Expression was a doozy!! But the bio section was a breeze. I had lots of chances to bypass the fill-in-your-extensive-and-impressive-work-experience-or-actually-any-experience sections. Ha-ha, finished that section with time to spare. Job knowledge was solid. Essay was good, but they only grade it if the rest of the stuff is decent.

I was stress-free. But it was long. I was the only test-taker. Just me! Weird.

I topped off the test by losing my keys. Couldn't find them for a good 45 minutes. I thought I had locked them in my car. I eventually found them on the hook on the back of the bathroom door in the ladies room of the testing center.

Then it was off to pick up my kids from school. They have no clue about the test. They just wanted to bounce on the trampoline.

FSOT tomorrow? No way.

Hi! Long time, eh?
You thought I'd been eaten by wolves, right?

Sliced to bits by three crazed squirrels?

Dragged off to the woods in the jaws of a cute but dangerous chipmunk?

Nope.


Just living life.


The kids are having fun. Playing and learning to be nice people. Boy scouts, Daisy scouts, soccer players, gymnasts, fencers, trombone players, violinists, neighborhood friends and funsters. The pool is open. 


Here's some reality for you. I take the FSOT tomorrow. SHUT UP! I do too. I haven't studied at all. SHUT UP! I have not. I swear. Taking it blind. The best way to learn is by taking it, right?


My husband is taking it again on Friday. SHUT UP! We stopped counting how many times this is… He also hasn't studied. We are, the pair of us, flying by the seats of our pants. 


But that's ok, we have a house, a yard, connections, here. We have a life and happy kids. We have squirrels and woodpeckers and Adirondack chairs. My husband's already on that damn register twice. If we both fail, we know we already have it good.