shopping

last weekend we took marlene homecoming dress shopping.

it was very fun.  and the truth is, the girl is an easy shopper.  we only went to two stores and tried on maybe - maybe - 15 dresses.  and i dont know about you, but that did not seem like too much at all.  she quickly narrowed her choices down to two.  and so of course, we went to lunch to discuss.  after lunch we bought some jewelry and then headed back to try on the dresses again.

and then she made a decision...i think she picked a great dress. and i am so happy that i got to go with her and see her get excited for the dance. 

nathan and i were talking about it later - and we just said how much we enjoyed the experience. because the likelihood of us having that experience ever again is pretty slim.  as nathan said, "uhh. im not going to go tux renting with lbj".  it made me think about all the things that we will miss out on by virtue of having a son.

but, having lbj also means having a boy around the house full time to capture any bugs that might appear.

and having a boy means a lot of quality lego building.  and as he gets older, i am sure that i will appreciate the things that i get to with lbj, the boy, that i wouldnt get to necessarily do with a girl.  

as far as the homecoming dress goes - dont worry, we also picked out two - TWO - pairs of shoes that marlene can choose from on the night of the dance.  and i will be sure to snap an annoyingly amount of pictures.  (because im already crying as i write that sentence, let alone how emotional ill be when she goes off to her first dance)  (yes, i know im not her mum) (but i just love the girl!)

and then they grow up

i dont think it ever occurred to us, as we planned to have marlene come and live with us, the difficulties that would arise from her just being a teenager.

and teenagers like to hang out with other teenagers.

we knew this of course.  and we knew she would want to go out with her friends and hang out and have fun. i dont think that we thought it would happen so fast.  as i mentioned before, marlene has quickly made friends here in vegas.  and that is awesome.

what we didnt know was how protective we would feel, almost immediately.  like most other people who have met her, we really like marlene.  and we want her to have fun. but we also want her to be safe.

we have a responsibility as her host parents to make sure she is safe.  and in addition, we have a responsibility to her parents back home that she stays safe.  

and suddenly ... every maternal instinct that i thought id never have kicked into full gear.  and someone i never met before, namely "Dad Nathan", emerged.  what happened to us?  we are too young to be weirdos! oh, but we are.

we want to know who marlene is hanging out with.  where she is.  what time she will be home.  you know, all those things my mum, and your mum, wanted to know.  back when we thought our parents were SUPER annoying.  

luckily, marlene is a sweet girl, and understands our concerns (or at least smiles to my face when she says so).  so, yesterday i met some of her friends. and tonight she is out with them to a centennial football game.  "our" little girl of four weeks is grown up and out with her friends. 

probably having a way better time than me and nathan.  because ... 

we grew up too. and we are our parents. old. and lame. in front of the tele.

all about marlene

the last three weeks have been so awesome.  and so busy!  

i have much to blog about - we have gone up to the cabin in utah, headed out to the movies, and to a volleyball game at unlv.  we went down to the strip. we had the new student orientation for all the exchange student.  and meanwhile, school has started, marelene has been very lucky to make some good friends already, and has been out and about doing activities with friends and with the church youth group. 

thats three weeks in a nutshell.  but i want to be able to get into the habit of writing down things that are going on, but also how everyone is "feeling".  

so far, nathan and i are loving having marlene with us.  she is a super sweet girl and very very fun.  we have a good time together even when we are just sitting on the couch watching tele together.

one of the things we were most nervous about, logistically, was what do we do at night.  when lbj goes to bed, nathan and i just "veg out" on the couch and watch mythbusters, top gear or some other goofy show.  we wondered whether marlene would want to watch tv with us.  if it would be weird.  would she get bored?

but as it turns out, she has a few american shows she likes to watch already (how i met your mother) and has come to like a few other shows that are new to her (craft wars and face/off).  so nights arent nearly as awkward as we thought they might have been.  plus, lets be honest.  shes a teenager, and as soon as dinner is over she spends most of the time texting her new american friends.  :o)

another thing we've learned about marlene is that she is very honest girl.  if she doesnt feel like playing a game, she will tell us.  i appreciate so much that i generally know what she is thinking because she just tells me so. 

in fact, on the subject of talking. she is very open and communicative.  when we sit down to dinner and ask her how her day was, she starts by saying "yes. well i went to my first class photography and we ..."  i am so happy to have someone in our home who loves to talk and tell us about things that are going on.  and i hope that when lbj is older he will be similarly open and talkative (based on his current amount of speaking, i dont think we will have a problem in that area).  

she has let us know who she is making friends with and tells us all the funny and interesting things that happen at school.  when i was a kid, this is how our dinners went, as well. so for me this is awesome (but normal).  nathan did not have exactly the same type of communication - but that might be the difference between a house of boys and a house of girls!

i love marlenes sense of humor.  she has quickly learned how nathan likes to joke around, and we just seem to have a lot of fun together.  she especially likes to see people freak out.  we watch pranks on you tube together sometimes.  or nathan likes to scare me in the car by being crazy.  and the three of them (lbj, marlene and nathan) get a good laugh out my outbursts.  she can also laugh at herself - just last night she fell straight off the couch while reaching for a cookie.  and im just saying, it was pretty funny.  we all laughed. and then nathan posted about it on FB, and she still laughed.  

speaking of cookies - the girl loves her sweets!  we've been having cookies on a pretty regular basis these days, as well as some yogurt land.  in addition, i see her swipe marshmallows from time to time. and when we went to the movies, she opted for kettle corn, not butter popcorn!  

marlene likes to play board games with us (win for me!) and she likes romantic movies (win for me!) and  so nathan, being the awesome host dad that he is has been doing things that are out of his comfort zone (win again!).

for me - having marlene with us has made me get up earlier in the day (win??).  i get more done around the house (win!) and am doing a pretty good job of making home made dinners for us to eat (win!).

these are just a few of things that we love about marlene and what having her here means to us.  but mostly i just know that we all seem to be very happy. and we couldnt have gotten a better girl to come and live with us!

her bedroom

it was really important to me, once we knew we were going to have an exchange student live with us, that we do something special for her room.  i want marlene to feel comfortable here, like it is her very own home.  and i want her to have a space to go to when she just needs some time away from us crazy americans! 

i emailed her mum, and asked what marlenes favorite colors are so i could make sure to get some bedding and things that would fit her style.  its a good thing i did, because what i had originally had in mind for the room would have been awesome for ME at 15, but not at all what marlenes mum described.

so off to craigslist i went to find some pieces.  and with the help of my friend katie, we refinished some pieces and got the room going.  

(fyi ... i made that lamp out of an old easter basket...what what!)

hopefully marlene will enjoy her new room with us!  

our first meeting

remember that one time, about three years ago, i begged and begged nathan to let a foreign exchange student  come and stay with us? 

well ... i finally wore him down!

her name is marlene (pronounced marlena), and we are very excited.  but first i want to write down for the ages our first contact with this sweet 14 year old girl.

it was my annual july 4th weekend festivities with the dc girls - and this year we were actually celebrating the upcoming wedding of our friend renni.  the week before nathan and i had received marlenes packet of information, and decided that on monday we would send her and her family a little introductory email.  nathan had already typed it up, and was ready to hit send, come monday morning.

i went out on thursday night and had a great time.  i went out on friday night, and had yet another good time.  come saturday night, it was time for the "real" bachlorette party to begin (because thursday and friday were just practice runs).  we had a pre-party in jojo's room, complete with a panties game, and then headed out for some dinner.  and then of course, it was time for dancing.  my favorite part of the weekend!  please give me 10 cokes, and then set me on the dance floor around 1 am and see what happens :o)!

fast forward to 6 am and the sun rising.  where am i? oh, just in cab on the way back to the hotel where my car is parked.  SIX IN THE MORNING!  i get home at 630 or so, get into bed and fall asleep near 7 am.  

cue ringing phone at 8 am.

nathan answers and its marlene, "hi. this is your exchange student. marlene.  do you want to skype?"

what!?  let me just say i had worn some red RED lipstick stain the night before.  it was still on, and "stained". i had smokey eye all OVER my face.  suffice it to say, i looked like once messed up prosti.  (thats what we call prostitutes.)

of course, the only thing i want to do at that moment is get on the computer with my 14 year old exchange student and her mother. why not? 

i told her we were in our pjs and give us a few.  so i jumped in the shower trying to wake myself up.  cleaned off the smokey eye, and as much of the lip stain as possible.  

we both put on "nice" shirts. but left our pj bottoms on. and hopped on skype. 

it was a great conversation. and she seems like a really sweet and nice girl.  hopefully, my lack of sleep and prosti face didnt make her scared to come to las vegas.  really.  this is not how i normally "live" in vegas.  no. really.  i swear.  and to marlenes mum, i promise i wont let marlene stay out till 6 am with prosti face either.