A thank you and a bento... well 3.

So I finally was able to get online to update this sucker! for you my dears. It has seriously been a long couple of weeks for me and for those who have given me emotional support as well as a listening ear. For all of those in my life thank you so much for understanding my situation and for giving me the support I needed in the past and am continuing to need now. Thank you, Daddy for being more then brutally honest and respecting me as an adult. I know there are times I want to give up but you hold me accountable and remind me that I can do what needs to be done. Thank you Momma, my Demow, you have shown me to improvise and over come obstacles that feel like there is no solution. I wish I had more of your outward grace and your ability to be alright when everything is so wrong.

Thank you Melissa for your children and the distraction they bring, thank you for listening, for letting me feel understood, and giving me your opinion. I truly treasure it and I really appreciate it. Thank you Tara for letting me confide in you and being there for my girls. I'm sorry that you happen to be their "best friend" because I know they can be very intense. Thank you for the laughs and new inside jokes and for introducing me to Downsy. Thank you Megan, Spoon, Linda, Jessica and all of my other friends who have given me the emotional support to hold my head up high for my girls over the last several years. Thank you, Rachel for teaching me what it means to love someone, more than myself, and want to protect them from things big and small. I still thank God for giving me the strongest, one of the funniest, and the sweetest little sister anyone could ever ask for and didn’t deserve. Lastly thank you Nikki for everything you do and everything you are. You know that you mean more to me then words could ever describe. You have been an amazing sister, a cherished friend and my foundation in more trials then I can count. You are my own personal cheerleader and my couch in so many challenges. I hope as you enter this journey into motherhood I can be there for you as you have been there for me.

Now onto less mushy and emotional matters:

Captain's log: It has been 18months since I arrived in "Charlotte" and I am assimilating rather well. I have experienced many customs since my arrival and I have grown fond of several including the "play date."

 The glorious play date. All mommies that partake of this ritual know that it is a wondrous thing when children entertain themselves long enough that all mommies involved can communicate with one another for brief periods of time without too many interruptions. For my first offspring, who is currently in the educational program with the local government, I made her a "lunchable" type lunch with thinly sliced rolled animal flesh, cheese, crackers, a couple of Late July cookies, grapes and the innards of Actinidia chinenesis, Citrullus lanatus, and Prunus persica. She consumed this lunch in its entirety. Which made me quite pleased.

While my older offspring was diligently being brainwashed learning my younger offspring and I enjoyed a sunny day at our local park equipped with water fountains available to the indigenous balls of copious energy. When it came time to replenish our energy source I refueled with a pastry known as a "ham sandwich," roughage, a root and a sugary substance known as "wat-er-mel-on."   

My younger offspring refueled with a baked good that contained some berry of straw and a thick sticky glue call peanut butter. She also had the same sugary substance, little balls known as blueberries and a mix from different trails. These foods were unusual to our normal consumptions but was interesting all the same. If you have a chance to visit the continent known as North America these are some of the various foods I suggest you try.