We are preparing for our jump across the pond. We have so far not slept a whole bunch because Hula Boy discovered we were in his room. His room mind you. He then struck up a conversation in the dark that ended with much grumpiness and knashing of teeth! He’s a social butterfly. Even in his sleep.
We got up this morning had breakfast and went to the pool. Hula Girl is getting better and better with swimming. She actually jumped off the side of the pool and let water come and and over her head. Ever since she was a baby she has hated water in her ears. Because of her deafness it hurt her to get any wetness or moisture inside her ears.She went from the hot pool and jumped into the cold pool. She’s NUTS.
Hula Boy and I played Diego. We were rescuing baby turtles (the plastic play turtles) He also got to laughing so hard becuase he would get out of the pool and then walk back in. The air in his shorts would make bubbles and he of course would yell….”WHO TOOTED??” I would just look at him and roll my eyes. What a nut.
So the long haul is today. We go from Washington to Frankfurt which is about 9 hours. Then we will be waiting for a few hours and board another plane for 3 hours to go to Estonia. By tomorrow we should be set and done with the long traveling for about a week.
I’ll keep ya posted throughout the week.

We arrived safe and sound in Washington D.C. and have been enjoying the sights today. The children were FANTASTIC. OH MY GOODNESS THEY WEREN’T MY CHILDREN ON THE FLIGHT! They were angels sent from who knows where. We were told by numerous people that had the pleasure of sitting by them that they were skeptical when they saw they were sitting by a three year old and an eight year old. They were not only fabulous, but they had on their manners caps. I mean I was even impressed. May be the numerous threats made them think twice about being rambuncious crazies.
We swam and saw a few things today. Tomorrow we will be heading to Frankfurt and then on to Tallinn, Estonia. Look in my flicker this week. I know I will be posting quite a few pictures later.

Sorry all. I can’t even focus to write a post! I’m so ready for vacation. HURRY UP TOMORROW!

The aspirations of my childhood were to be an opera singer. I could shrill the high notes with the best of them. I would act out what I thought was happening on stage at home in my basement. I would get dressed up like the princess of all and sing my heart out. Personally, I don’t know how my parents stood listening to me “pump up the volume” with opera shaking the house. Yes, I was an odd child.
I had dreams of being an opera star until I was 16. I took voice lessons, acting lessons, and I modeled on the side. I went to try out for a part in a small local theater downtown and was told by a man who somewhat acted like Simon, “You have perfect pitch but you lack the confidence to strike out. You are average.”
Being told that I was average when I had been on the fast track since I was 7 years old shook my world. Being a prodigy and giving concerts at an early age helped to puff up my confidence. I had swept every vocal and piano competition I had ever been in. Nothing would stand between me and my dream. Someone did though. Looking back being that I had everything from an early age, I was not equipped to handle the harsh words of being average. I had been anything but average all my life.
The words lingered in my brain from that point on. Not that they were harsh words at all but that they were words I had never heard before. I wondered at that point if my parents had done me a disservice by giving me the ability to be great at such an early age and never had rejection on a professional level. At the same time I was deciding about college my parents strongly voiced that they really did not want me to seek out acting and stage. It would never pay anything. They wanted me to pursue being a teacher, so I did.
I discovered after my first year of college that I wanted to be anything but a teacher. I did not have the patience with the younger children and the teenagers were too close to my age so I was just one of them. My mind constantly went back to the fact that I wanted to perform on stage. Forget the rejection I could do it. Unfortunately, my spirit had been broken by a feather of a comment made in my past.
I chucked everything and decided to tour with a heavy metal band. That combined two aspects that I loved. I loved to perform and sing. I had to of course rough up my voice a bit, hang out in many smoking sections (even though I didn’t smoke) to try to develop the hard edge of an 80’s rocker. That was short lived because I settled down in Florida with Hula Hubby
Theater was my passion and my love. As I got older I noticed that all of my girlfriends were calling me to be by their side when they gave birth. I was one of the last to get married so I had attended 24 births by the time I finally did get married. The old flame in me started to burn. I did not recognize it at first. My passion matured and grew. I knew that one day I would finish out but I did not want to be a mid wife. I did not want to be responsible for the medical aspect. I wanted to be there in a supporting role. I did a ton of research (this was in 1997) and doula’s were around but not as common. I decided then and there that one day after my children were a little older I would pursue and finish one dream.
The end of next year is the goal to be finished with my certifications. It is odd to see the path that my dreams have traveled and how many twists and turns they have made. I needed to develop a thicker skin to be able to handle what was in front of me. Being a parents has required thicker skin. Being a doula when the mother is going into transition will require an underlying confidence in them that they can draw from.
My dreams were larger than life. Even now they are still larger than life to me. One day I will look back and see that everything that happened when I was younger was to prepare me for the new path. The dream of seeing new life brought into this world every day. The gift of seeing a new relationship born. The ability to advocate for women. That is far greater than I can imagine. I can not wait!

Now it’s time for the Bugsy Magraw (code name Hula Girl) birthday collage. Are you all tired of seeing pictures of my children yet? I’m not!
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Because it is getting so close to both of the children’s birthday’s I thought I would do a collage of pictures of each one. Now their birthday is not until next month but we will be in Europe. So…I thought I would do this now. For HG we don’t have as many of her baby pictures uploaded but HG…he’s loaded!
Anyway here’s my Ode de Hula Boy.
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I look around at my beautifully organized and clean house. I have everyone packed for our trip (minus a few items that they took to nana’s house) Laundry is done, folded and put away. The yard is beautifully weeded and manicured to perfection. I look around and listen to my footsteps echo off the floor.
*crickets chirpping
*silence deafens

I MISS MY KIDDOS. ONLY 2 MORE DAYS UNTIL I CAN COMPLAIN THAT I NEED A BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Less than two weeks and counting we will be enjoying a fine plane ride with an 8 year old and 3 year old for thirteen hours. How’s that for entertainment?!
We will be doing the open a present thing to keep our sanity. From about Washington to Frankfurt we will put everything away and try to sleep. Hopefully we can get the children’s inner clock turned around pretty quick. I think that’s the one thing I dread. Trying to get Mr. HB to sleep when there are about 300 strangers that he can talk to and entertain is always the tough part. Now if you are saying to yourself, “Why does she allow her son to talk to strangers?” that’s not it. HB has never met a stranger. We try and try and talk and talk about being cautious and never talking or taking candy from a stranger. He though seems to think that everyone is his friend. Wouldn’t that be a lovely world if no one truly was out to hurt little children and they could all live in naive bliss that everyone was their friend. Where is the line though. Where do we draw it in the sand and say…”Never ever talk to these kind of people?” That wouldn’t be right either. Our rule has turned out to be, never talk to a stranger unless mommy and daddy are with you. Then you can talk all you want.” Seems to have worked so far.
I am looking forward to seeing Europe again. We will be seeing Frankfurt,(Germany), Tallinn,( Estonia), Croatia, Bosnia, Brussels, hopefully Venice, Paris, and then back to Brussels before we leave.
May be I’ll take something for the plane so that HH can deal with the children the whole time!! **evil laugh

OOOHHHH What did we do last night? Wouldn’t you like to know!! No really we went out to go see a movie…an adult movie in peace. It was eerie when we left the house without kisses and hugs, and the occasional guilt trip from the little man himself. We meandered around the house not really knowing what to do. Then we decided to take in a movie.
We went to go see X-Men. Oh yes it was good. I am a chick flick kind of gal but I like some action. Well you know what I mean. Anyway HH decided he wanted a cup of coffee for the show. In this theater they have a Bucky Stars. (code name for St**bucks) He ordered a Cafe Mocha. Easy enough. The barista (or is it baristo if it’s a man) looked at him like he had two heads. He then turned his back very dramatically and opened the “How To Make Coffee For Dummies” handbook. Baristo man kept messing up, looking at what was next. He hemmed and hawed about what he was making. HH and I just looked at each other in amusement. We whispered about how Mr. Baristo (or barista) looked baffled and totally confused.
Finally after about 10 minutes and a few huff and puffs later we were rewarded with his coffee. Baristo man turned and asked, “Would you like whip cream on top?” HH giggily said yes. A minute later Baristo explained that they were out of whip cream. My question was….Why would they be out of whip cream in a Sta**ucks/Haggen D***? I mean….it was truly a crime. As we were walking away giggling HH turned and said, “I thought I would get something other than a real cup of coffee tonight. I’ve never tried anything else that they offer. I’m a little concered that this was not the night to get adventurous!” That took me by total shock. My reply…, “AW live a little on the edge honey.”

Today the children leave for a week to go to Nana’s and Papa’s house. I am a little apprehensive letting the “big boy” go because he is quite a handful. I hope their plumbing is prepared for rubber bands and paper towels. I hope they have their coins nailed down and their CD player up high. (He started a small fire a few weeks ago by putting his pennies into his plugged in CD player!) I don’t worry about Hula Girl so much because she is self entertaining and quite resourceful with a pencil. I know I know Nana raised four children and my two are nothing compared to three boys and one girl…BUT I don’t want them to wear out their welcome.
What will it feel like to be without the children? Hula Hubby and I are feeling like we will be honeymooning again. *twitter twitter