The End is Coming!

This is our last week with Ine, and it's already Friday... It's impossible to imagine that this time has arrived...  Back in August, when we were matched, I remember thinking, "Well, ok, if it doesn't work out, it's only 9 months."  I really wasn't sure how I'd be as a single parent of a teenager and a kindergartener, but it has worked out better than I could have ever imagined.  We have had an absolutely wonderful year.  There were some fits and starts in the beginning, but once we all settled in, it has worked out beautifully.

So, June...  Honestly, the wind went out of our sails in June.  We had a trip planned to Niagara Falls, but then Ine got a summer cold and didn't feel up to the trip.  I thought we would do a million other things, but mainly, we've just sort of bummed around the house and the pool.  And it's been nice to spend our last month just enjoying our time together, being instead of doing...

The one big thing that sticks out in my mind is that we went to see DC United play.  Ine had an AFS pre-departure orientation weekend, and I picked her and Jana up afterwards and we headed to see the game.  Soccer is a big deal in Europe, that's no surprise, and not such a big deal here in the US, also not a surprise.  Neither girl had seen a live professional game at home, so I thought it would be fun to take them to see United in action.  I know nothing about soccer, having been to exactly one game in my life, Charlton Athletic in London.  So I figured Leah and I would be kind of bored, but it was actually quite fun.  We drove over to the stadium, but it was much too early, and after thinking about tailgating, I decided against it, so we went back to the National Harbor to try and grab a quick dinner.  Unfortunately, it was packed, and we couldn't find parking or much in the way of a place to eat.  We wound up at the local outlets, but the girls had eaten burgers for lunch and the only restaurant was Johnny Rockets, and they weren't feeling that.  We grabbed pretzels and cold drinks and headed back to the stadium, where they were finally letting people in.  It was kind of frustrating and messy in terms of driving and walking in circles, but we eventually made it, got our tickets, and hid out in the air conditioned team store until they let us find our seats.  The stadium was very confusing and we wound up in the wrong seats anyway because the sections weren't well marked, so we watched half the game from one set of seats and half from the correct set of seats!!!  

After taking a quick picture of the girls at the field, we wandered out in search of dinner, and found that they were making pupusas!  YUM!  I have loved pupusas since we went to San Salvador two years ago.  Neither Ine nor Jana had ever had them, but it was that or hot dogs, so they decided to be bold, and we all thought they were just delicious.

As we were hanging out, the DC United Mascot, some sort of eagle, came running through the stands taking pictures, so happily I got to take pictures of everyone with him.

Ine protested, but as usual, I won that argument, and I think the picture is so cute!

The girls tell me it was a good game, I really couldn't tell.  DC lost 2-1 to Toronto, although at one point they had scored a goal but it was called back, for reasons I can't tell you.  So it was kind of disappointing not to see a win, but they were happy to have gone.  Hilariously, I had no idea how long the games lasted or how many periods of time there were, so they patiently had to explain to me that it was 2 halves, each 45 minutes long, but they then get to add time if they screw around and run down the clock too much, which apparently happened because we got 4 extra minutes, during which I don't think much happened.

I gave Ine my camera to take pictures

We did a lot of odds and ends this month.  We attended the UU end of the year picnic.  Last year was the first year that Leah and I attended and we had a great time, so this year we knew we would go again.  The picnic is a celebration of the previous year, so you go, eat, hang out with UU's, there are always guitar players and singers, there is a pool, a rope swing, tractor rides, fun and games.  This year was no different.  We spent most of our time at the pool, and I got this picture of Ine, which is one of my favorites:

One day we were bored, so we drove over to the local paint-your-own-pottery joint and decided to paint some pottery.  I found a cow dish that looked perfect for Ine, who loves cows, and she found two little bunnies, so she decided to do one for herself and one for me.  We had fun, although it took just about 3 hours to do all the painting!  We had plans that afternoon to attend kindergarten memory day at Leah's school, so it was kind of a rush at the end, but we made it.  We picked everything up this week, and it came out great!

One of the things I have tried to show Ine this year is the importance of doing the things you really want to do in life, and working on your bucket list.  One of the things it has taught me is that the bucket list is not about just doing fun stuff, but it's about pushing your boundaries and comfort zone.  So at the UU auction in April, I bought Ine piano lessons.  She said she wanted to learn an instrument and she loved the piano, so I got her the lessons.  She took 4 lessons in June with a local instructor who is also the pianist for the choir I sing with at the UU.  The first one, she was all freaked out, crying and anxious.  She didn't want anyone around to judge her or to listen to her playing, and she thought we would be sitting there paying attention to her every move.  Eventually I had to tell her to just get her butt in the car and I drove her over there, dropped her in the room with Kana, assured her it was private and no one else would be around, and to suck it up.  An hour later, when she was done, she emerged, beaming ear to ear, exclaiming how much fun it was, and that she had picked up the lessons very quickly and loved it.  Kana told her she was a natural.  I told her how proud I was of her, and I had no trouble getting her to the next 3 lessons!

We also had the chance one day to go up to Occoquan, a little historic town nearby and have lunch at a Belgian restaurant.  I told Ine to order for us, but eventually we collaborated on an order and got frites, shrimp croquettes, and a croque monsieur sandwich.  It was all delicious and Ine said pretty true to Belgian cooking!

They eat their fries with mayonnaise there, so we did that, and I have to say, not too shabby.  I prefer ketchup, but I won't die next summer if I have to eat them with mayonnaise. :)  haha

Two months ago, Ine told me there was no way in heck I would ever get her to put a pair of Crocs on her feet.  Her mom hates them and thinks they're ugly, and Ine was not going to incur her mom's wrath by wearing them herself.  I said, "Ine, just try them on.  You put them on once, I guarantee you'll want a pair."  So eventually I coaxed her into the Crocs store and she tried them on.  She hated to admit they were comfortable, but she did like them.  We didn't buy them that day, but the next day, I was talking with my sister and we decided to take the family up to the splash park in Springfield, and you need water shoes to get in.  Crocs are acceptable watershoes, however.  So I offered Ine that she could get a pair of Crocs and she agreed finally...  I also had to get Leah a new pair, although I have many, many pairs of them, so I didn't get myself one.  Then we posed with our feet together.  I mean really, what other kind of shoe can you get that your whole family can wear?  Well, now that pool season is in full swing, Ine loves having the crocs.  Her other sandals don't dry out well if they get wet, and she loves the ease of just slipping into them if we are running out quickly, and how quickly they dry if they get wet.  It's fun to all stomp around in them together.  And we had a blast at the splash park--Ine loved it!

I didn't take pictures, but Ine also got to experience a good bit of African American culture this month.  As you may or may not know, there were some horrible shootings in Charleston SC this month which has prompted the continuing discussion on race relations in the United States.  They are not good, despite how we may fool ourselves into believing that they are; we have a long, long way to go.  So on Friday, June 19th, I took the girls to a vigil in honor of the victims of the shooting at the local AME church.  I had in mind a quiet, 30 minute candlelit vigil, but it went on for 1 hour and 45 minutes before we finally left, and they were still going.  It was a markedly different experience than any other church I had ever been to, and very interesting.  The next day, on June 20th, we went to a local Juneteenth celebration.  Juneteenth is a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the US.  We went and heard music, I sang with the UU choir a bit, we saw and heard "Harriet Tubman" speak, and enjoyed some food.  It was VERY hot, unfortunately, but it was a great time.

On the homefront, we got artsy this month and drew our interpretation of Van Gogh's Starry Night on the driveway.  We also made an AFS display on our kitchen sideboard to celebrate our year together.  Sadly, we've had some bad storms, so the chalk art is long gone, but I thought we did some awesome work on it!

And finally, Ine survived her first tornado warning.  A tornado roared through the county next to ours, and we all had to sit in the basement till the alert expired.  I told the girls to make scared faces.  This is what happened...  We've spent most of our evenings in the basement watching LOST anyway, so it was no hardship.  The storms HAVE been crazy this month, though!

So with that, I bid you farewell! I will write again next week about our last weekend, and our goodbyes, but this weekend, I intend to live every moment with Ine and enjoy it... It'll be a year before we see her again and I want to really cram in every last second! :)