First, we were well and truly invaded by ants. We have had them coming in through little cracks for a while now, but I would just put strong tape over wherever they came through. But now there was an invasion, and I had run out of tape. There were hundreds of ants all over my kitchen, in my cupboards, in the closets, etc. So, we had to call the exterminator. That's hard for me. I have a bit of a phobia of any kind of poison. He couldn't come until Friday, so I spent much of Wednesday and Thursday vacuuming up ants when I just couldn't stand it any more.
Then, we still had the leaky tap to sort out, so until the plumber came, we had to turn the hot water off from the water tank so that it wouldn't leak. Whenever I wanted hot water, I had to go around to the back of the house and turn the hot water back on. That was annoying as well.
Then, Imogen's eczema got really, really bad. In England it seemed that we were able to manage it, but here in California where the air is so dry, her eczema has just flared up. She scratches it all the time even though she knows she shouldn't. Then, it just gets worse and sometimes bleeds. I didn't even consider taking her to the doctor because I know that the doctor here costs money, and I just assumed we couldn't afford it. But then Tim told me that with our insurance package it only costs $25 for a regular doctor's appointment. That's not as bad as I thought.
So, we went to Doctor Smelick and he was really nice. He was very sympathetic about her problem and kept saying 'that looks horrible - I just want to scratch it for you!' He prescribed her some steroid lotion. It was such a relief to get a solution!
Abigail has had play practice for The Little Mermaid all week long, until 10pm most nights. Her schedule is rather intense. That means Tim hasn't come home before 10pm most nights as well, as he waits for her to bring her home. We have felt a little disjointed as a family this week. Thankfully her play is this week so it will all be over soon Her grades have suffered as a result of all this practicing. After this week we will have to find a better balance between her drama/music schedule and her other academic work. Abigail lives to sing and act so she is quite happy if she doesn't have time to do other homework, but she still has two more years of school so she needs to understand that she does actually have to do other work!
The highlight of the week was the weekend. Tim and Samuel got to go on a church father/son's campout. They had campfire songs and skits, an early morning hike, and a zip-line event which Tim says was 'pretty awesome' because it was 'long and fast, which are the parameters of awesomeness'. There were also horseshoes, tetherball, shuffleboard, and apparently the best breakfast burritos ever in the history of breakfast burritos. Here are some pictures of Tim and Samuel at the zip-line:
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Tim and Samuel came home Saturday around lunchtime, and Abigail and I got home from her play practice soon after that. So we were all together as a family for the first time that week! We celebrated by having Tim take the kids to the pool, and me staying home in my ant-free kitchen to cook our family meal in peace.
After the little girls went to bed, we watched Black Adder on NetFlicks with the big kids. Very funny, very British.
Today, after church, we went to dinner at the Kingston's house. The Kingston's are, you guessed it, also a British family! Well, they are like us - an Anglo-American family. He's British and she's American. We met because our children go to the same school. So they invited us around, and it was fun to talk to people who have British connections. Not that my children are pining away anymore to talk to British people - this is our fifth visit with a British family since we moved here four months ago!
