Last Day of School!

Yay!!!! Today is the last day of school. No more running kids to and from school. No more worrying about homework, getting kids ready for school, and getting to school on time. Now I don't have to worry about getting to various school activities and volunteering. I can spend more time on getting my house organized, because the kids will be helping with the cleaning. I can also spend more time with them.
Okay, maybe this is wishful thinking. The kids will be home, so there will be more messes. I may have to play referee a few times, and yes in a couple of months I may be ready for them to return to school (All of them will be in school next year! My babies are growing up!) I usually, but not always dread the first day of school, because I usually love having my kids home; even if it gets chaotic, noisy and messy at times. Anyway, I'll let you know in a couple of months if my feelings have changed. For now, I'm going to enjoy a less stressful schedule and spending more time with my family.

Roxborough Park with Grandma and Grandpa

I'm finally posting pictures of when my parents visited on May 1st through the 3rd. We visited a state park that is about 20 minutes away from our house while they were here.
We saw five deer just sitting in a meadow. We also saw a beautiful black fox.

Neat rock formations.

The girls posing for their dad to take pictures of them.

More Pics from Africa

My Love did have a couple of pictures on his camera. Here's another beautiful sunrise.
He was lucky to see a lioness with four cubs.

He says there are lots of baboons lining the side of the road. This one is scratching his head with his back leg.

South Africa Continued

I found out that the backpack was most likely stolen when My Love was at a gas station. The person he was with did not completely close the back door of the car when they stopped, even though My Love locked the door (Can I slap the guy for his stupidity?). When they came out of the station a guy was standing next to their car and said "Oh, sorry." My Love now believes the thief was going back for another bag or two or his camera and other stuff that was in the front seat.
My poor husband is feeling pretty low right now. He had to travel one and a half hours to go to the consulate, because the person at the embassy near him was on vacation. He did file a report at the police station, so that insurance will hopefully cover some of the stuff.
I'm still hopeful that the thief will not be able to access information on the laptop. This whole thing is frustrating. On the bright side, at least My Love was not mugged.
Edited to add - He got a temporary passport so he can come home this weekend! I think he's feeling a little better.

More of South Africa

I really wanted to post some more of My Loves African wild reserve pictures. Unfortunately I will not be able to. Some South African now has them. I was very angry with this person for taking them, but I am slowly finding forgiveness and peace over the situation.
I knew that South Africa has a high crime rate, but I guess I really didn't think that it would happen to My Love and especially to the extent that it did. His whole back pack was taken from the back of his car. It held his laptop, ipod, passport and some souvenirs. He wasn't aware of it being gone until his rental car broke down and he looked for it in the back seat to get some paperwork from it.
The worse part is not being sure of the situation. We do not know if his computer will be hacked into and get some important information. I'm not sure how or when he'll get home without a passport, although I'm sure it will be fine, he just needs to contact the embassy. This is the second ipod to go missing and I know he's frustrated to lose all of his music. Like I said before, it's frustrating to lose the pictures he took, because I'm sure they were awesome. I just hope he had put all of the family pictures he had onto our computer.
Sometimes life is not fun!

South Africa

My Love is in South Africa. He left on the 8th and will return on the 23rd. It's more difficult having him gone this time, because he can't skype or call as much as he usually does. I'm envious that he gets to see all the animals in their natural habitat. I think maybe if he goes back I may go with him. Beautiful Sunrise

Exciting encounter with three bulls.

Hippos cause Africa's most deaths from animals.