Ahhhh, the start of a new school year. New pencils, new school shoes, and of course, the required first day back essay. I will submit this as a photo essay, though, as my Summer was ridiculously busy and there is no way to write about everything.

We went to Arlington and visited with:

1) Conrad (my brother, David’s 4 year old son)

conrad and maggie with the washington monument

2) Jane (who was the cutest pregnant woman I have ever seen) We went out for lunch in Alexandria at “Cheesetique” which was lovely. Jane gave birth to her son Julian 2 days later…

Cutest pregnant lady ever

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3) Kevin’s side of the family. We went out to the swanky restaurant in Arlington “Eventide” which is managed by Nick Freshman. The little boy I used to babysit for all during highschool.

In eventide

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4) Kristie. My old college lodge mate. And her two girls, Mia and Ellie

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Then Kevin and I went to Baltimore. Which I blogged about.

After a week in Arlington, Kevin flew back to Fremont and my mom and Maggie and I went to New York City. The biggest event of that trip being the visit to the American Girl Doll Company. I must admit. It was pretty fun. Highly slick and commercialized, but fun.

In the American Girl Doll Place Cafe after a ladies brunch

We also visited with Anne Marie and her kids, Abby and P.J. Her children are hilarious and her home is gorgeous.

When we returned from New York, I got in the car with Maggie and went to visit David in Charlottesville. Here he is with his lovely wife, Caroline.

Caroline and David in their beautiful, newly renovated kitchen

From there, I visited the Cory family who I used to nanny for. They have all gotten so big. Charlie drove me around in the ATV so that I could see their property. It was gorgeous. And it was so good to see the kids. Charlie (who was two years old when I started taking care of him) will be going off to boarding school in Massachusetts for high school this week!

Cory kids with Maggie at their pool

From the beach we drove to meet up with my parents in Bethany Beach. We stayed at a great house and relaxed and Maggie played on the beach, and swam at the pool and scooted around on the scooter. Such fun.

After that, there were a few more days in Arlington, and we flew home. Three weeks of adventure. It was a great visit!

We had three days to collect ourselves, and then we flew to San Diego to go to my friend Helen’s wedding. She is five months pregnant, and absolutely glowing.

5 month belly

On Thursday, they had a bonfire out on the beach. Hot dogs and s’mores and full moon rising over the ocean. Lovely.

On Friday we went to Sea World (thanks for the complimentary tickets Helen. We love you!) And saw a walrus regurgitate.

Walrus barf

That night was a mexican margarita  party at the lodge where we were all staying. And in the morning, we got up and started to get ready for the wedding.  The wedding was on a boat at sunset. It was truly perfect. Helen looked gorgeous, as always:

I was the minister. Although I was sure I was going to bawl through the whole ceremony, I miraculously made it through. Keith and Helen got a little teary eyed, though. The ceremony was fantastic (if I do say so myself, ahem   )
And after the ceremony and the dancing, there were fireworks over the bay. Such a total San Diego experience.

Margaret was the flower girl. Here she is, holding the wedding favors that Helen made in pottery class for everyone. Little clay lovebirds. Very thoughtful.

With her favorite lovebird

We returned late that Sunday night. And then turned around and drove up to Oregon to go camping with Kevin’s family. It was a 12 hour drive. But a gorgeous one. We drove through a tree!

Going through the tree

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We camped near the coast. And Maggie and her cousins (Palmer, 9 and Torin, 5) played and played and played. They are all so sweet together.

We saw sea lions, and tide pools and celebrated corndog day on the 15th. Some of the corndogs were even cooked in a solar oven! The others were cooked on our Coleman grill.

We really got to visit with Kevin’s sister Julie and her husband Adam, and Kevin’s mom and dad.

Whole family

Then we drove home. Down that glorious, glorious coast line.

Oregon coast shimmery

I started school that week we got back — teacher’s work days. And Maggie started on August 25th. All is going well, and I intend to blog all about it, really soon. Seriously. I mean it. Just as soon as I finish writing about all of this in my journal……

Here are the things I have done since arriving in Arlington on the 14th of July:

Kevin and I went to Baltimore last week and had the best time! It helped that we had a perfect, sunny, blue sky day. And Maggie stayed home with my mom and dad, so we had the whole day to tromp around to our hearts' content. Here is what we did:

basketball court where Prop Joe and Avon Barksdale met and had Eastside vs Westside basketball games

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The Rim Source

It really looks the way it did in the show. So sad.

Outside the school. Could I BE more of a white ghetto tourist? I mean, come on… a volvo? Please.

crab cakes at Faidley’s. LUMP, baby!

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When is Raccoon Season?

American Visionary Art Museum bus

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In the glass

Baltimore Water Taxi

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Just a couple of Anime superheroes walking the streets of Baltimore….

As anyone who has ever been with me on Indepence Day knows… the Fourth of July means the Independence to wear all of the ridiculous red white and blue clothing that has been collected over the years.  This year was no exception. We went camping over the weekend at Butano State Park near Santa Cruz. And while you might think that camping would make it more difficult to celebrate, I would beg to differ. Check out the table cloth I got for the occassion!

4th of july ladies

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After a big fourth of july breakfast, we went out to explore the coast near our campground. The sun was pretty bright, so Maggie had to wear her shades. (Thank you, Fresnog)

4th of july glasses

After a day at the beach, we decided to take a break from the sun and sand, and go to a U-pick berry place. On one side was the strawberry picking place, and on the other side were ollallie berries (a cross between raspberry and blackberry — I have only ever seen them here, in Northern California) Well, who wants to have decide between which berries to pick? We did both!

Picking strawberries

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Picking ollallies

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And while we picked, Margaret got many compliments on her Fourth of July socks. Yay Stars and Stripes! We picked tiny little morsels of sweetness in the strawberry section and by the time we got to our campsite, there were none left. The ollallieberries, we saved until the home. I was going to make a pie (thank you Gesine!) But then Kevin had to go out of town the day we got back from camping,  and I didn't want the berries to go bad, or the pie to get stale, so we ended up using the berries in ice cream, which is the most delicious batch of berry ice cream I have ever made. And bonus, Kevin can enjoy it, too, when he gets back from his business trip today.

We ended our day with S'mores. Just brown and white for those. No need to add blue and red food coloring to the already iffy concept that is marshmallows. The light of the fire served as our fireworks. And it was a perfect Fourth of July. 

Yesterday my child sidled up to me as I sat at the dinner table, and drawled, "Hey, old lady."

Ummmm. I haven't even hit 39 yet. Where's the love? We had a talk about what is and is not appropriate to say to other people….

But apparently we did not cover all the topics. Because today, as I slipped on my new polka dotted swim suit. (Which I thought was pretty cute, when I got it) Maggie helpfully pointed out, "Hey mom, you look like a spotted potato!" Great. That was just the look I was going for. Lumpy Root Vegetable = Hot! 

This kid. Where did she come from? She has hit a really fun stage, lately. (When she isn't commenting on my appearance). She has started writing little stories on scrap paper, and creating props to go with the story. Last week she found inspiration in a silly  card I gave Kevin for Father's Day.

Hanging out man

Then she took a lemon that she had brought back from Gramy and Grampy's house and colored on it with markers:

Super lemon side view

From there, she wrote this little caption for the adventure of Super Lemon. Uh, I mean "Soopr Lemin"…

Super lemon story

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Translation: "Super Lemon saving the hanging out man (Homer Simpson) from falling"  I think my favorite part is the little colored drawing of super lemon. Very heroic, don't you think?

Maggie has also been very vocal about wanting a dog. We are not ready for a dog yet. But she keeps finding things around the house to use as surrogate dogs. Here is her latest attempt:

Mmmm hmmm. That is a plastic baggie of water with a leash tied around its "neck". Earlier in the day, she was showing me how "Truckie" (his name is Truckie because he likes to chase trucks, natch.) — likes to be scratched behind his "ears".  Kevin and I both had to strongly discourage her from taking Truckie for a walk (drag) –as that sort of activity might just be the end to the poor little waterbag dog.
 

And finally, I present to you this video: Of Maggie singing the part of an evil enchantress from the Barbie movie called "Barbie and the Diamond Castle" I know, I know. Stop rolling your eyes. I didn't buy it for her. We got it from the library. Anyway, she became enamored with the movie, and immediately memorized ALL of the songs on the soundtrack. But this one cracks me up the most, because of her choice of outfits while singling the dastardly lyrics. Please be warned that there is much spinning and dashing too and fro in this video. Apparently the wicked temptress has ADD. But if you can make it through all of her spazzy hyperactivity, the last few seconds are priceless.
  

Yes. That IS a "hot dog on a stick" hat. (From the corndog fastfood restaurant at the mall)  Because nothing says malevolent like a multi-colored corndog hat.

Last week, Kevin and I put Maggie down to bed, and went off to do our nighttime chores. About 15 minutes after I had shut her door, I heard the sound of weeping coming from her room. I went in to see what the matter was. Here is the conversation that followed:

Me: What's the matter, honey?

Maggie: My body feels different.

Me: You feel sick?

Maggie: No, my body is different.

Me: You mean, different from the other kids?

Maggie (getting really riled up now, since I can't understand why she is so upset): No No NO! My body is different. I am getting older and now I'm not a little girl anymore. I'm not the same as when I was four! I want to stay the same.

And then she sobbed with abandon. Mourning her lost childhood  — at the tender age of 5 and a half.

Of course, we had a big long discussion of all of the wonderful things in life she still has to look forward to — the two wheel bike rides, the friends in 1st grade, being tall enough to ride on the good rides, being old enough to someday be a mommy herself, etc… But it made me a little sad, too.

If she is feeling this way now, what am I in for when she hits the teenage years?

Oh, my dear, sweet, sensitive daughter. I hope that when these changes come, I will have the answers you need to hear. 

Oh man. Sob fest. Two weekends ago was a sob fest filled with too many old people and not enough kleenex.

First of all, Maggie had her dance recital. And while she is very cute and all,

On the night of Maggie’s THIRD annual dance recital

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and danced her heart out, I did not cry during her performance. What I DID cry for? This:

Oldies tapping at the cantina

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Because come on. Right? I am not the only person on the planet who cries when seniors tap dance, am I?

Then. Then…. We took Maggie out to see a movie in the theater for the first time together. (I know. How is it possible that the child is almost 6 years old and we hadn't taken her to a movie????!!! Well, actually, when she was four months old, we took her with us to see The Lord of the Rings. But that doesn't count. And probably would put us on the list for the Worst Parenting EVER award.) Anyway. We went to go see UP in the theater. The movie about the 78 year old balloon salesman who misses his beloved wife. 

Holy Crap. Take Kleenex. It was so good. I mean, really really good. For kids and parents. But the crying started in the first 10 minutes and then was pretty consistent throughout. And I was not the only Campbell who was affected. ahem. We are all softies.

Ha. This is sort of funny, because I just had a toenail incident this past Friday! At my local manicure place around the corner. I hadn't been in a really long time. But my beautiful ($4) pedicure that I got in Thailand was starting to wear off, and I found that I had a free afternoon. So hey, why not treat myself to a pedicure?!

This past week has been hellish. There were meetings at church, open house at school on Wednesday until 9:30, Maggie's dance dress rehearsal on Thursday until 8:30, and then the weekend was looking like it was going to be one activity after another.

But on Friday….ahhhh….sweet Friday, Maggie had gone for her very first sleepover at a classmate's house. So Kevin and I had the night to ourselves — for the first time in a long time. And I planned to enjoy every minute I had. I called the pedicure place ahead of time, to make sure the lady I like was there. Tina. She was the one who did this to my toes. I like her. I was assured that I had an appointment at 5pm.

I got there at 5 PM on the dot. And saw another woman being escorted by Tina to the pedicure chair. Aghhhhhh! This did not bode well. But Tina assured me it would only be a few minutes. So, there I sat in the uncomfortable chairs, waiting for my turn. My seat mate was an 18 month old boy who was apparently half pterodactyl — judging from the ear piercing screeches he was making every few seconds. What? An 18 month old boy? What was he doing in a nail place, you might be asking…. Yeah, I was wondering that too.  But the mom didn't have time to actually watch him. She was concerned with the bright red fingernail polish she was instructing the manicurist to apply to her 7 year old daughter's nails. The mom, herself was getting her acrylic nails replaced, and she did this while holding ANOTHER baby under one of her arms. Yep. Three kids under 7 in the nail place. Lovely.

After 1/2 an hour of waiting, I was ushered to the foot soak. And once my feet were in there, I really couldn't leave. Even though I was tempted. Repeatedly. Because the mom of three kids was there the WHOLE time. And the baby boy was squawking and then…then…the mom got a call on her cell phone. Which apparently she HAD to take. So she put the baby down. Down on the nasty floor where everybody's toenail clipping are and god knows what else. And then the baby, who must have been about 8 months old, proceeded to crawl with the speed of a racehorse over to my foot bath. I was sure she was going to drown herself in it, and it would all be over. But the mom suddenly looked up from her phone conversation and noticed what was going on. She bellowed out "Natalie! Get back here!"  (Yeah, nice, huh? The kid had my name, so I got to hear it yelled repeatedly during my "relaxing" time at the manicurist)  And the baby, who was a total escape artist, turned toward her mother, giggled, and slap slap slap across the tile floor, edged her way closer to certain death in my massaging foot spa.  Finally the mom got up, and with the phone held to one ear on her shoulder, came and scooped her daughter up with the the other arm and took her back to her seat.

All of this was commented on loudly by the screeching pterodactyl boy in the seating area. To her credit, the 7 year old girl with the inappropriate nail polish was totally behaving herself. So anyway, the mom sat down, put her nails back out to have them touched up, and put the baby back down. And little baby Natalie…you guessed it…headed right back towards me. slap slap slap.

I could go on. But I will not. You get the idea. I didn't even wait for my toenails to dry. As soon as she slapped the polish on, I was out of there. Ughhhh. WHY would a person take three young kids with them to the manicurist? Why?

In happier news, Kevin and I had a wonderful dinner out. (With the cell phone in my pocket the whole time, just in case Maggie had to call from her sleep over –which she did not) We had crepes, and then we walked over to the local Indian Movie Theater which has just started showing American films, and watched Star Trek. I have never even seen one episode of Star Trek in my life. And I watched one of the movies with Kevin one time because he couldn't believe I had never seen Star Trek (we watched the one with the Whales and it was SOOOOOOO stupid) But anyway, I knew that Kevin really wanted to see the movie and he had been working when his friends all went to see it together, so I suggested that we go see it on our romantic date night together. I honestly thought he was going to swoon when I suggested it.  Ha. But, I must admit, it was a totally fun movie. Also, it didn't hurt that the guys in the movie were really cute. Way cuter than William Shatner EVER was.     

There is so much stuff going on right now, I don't know where to start. Here are possible blog topics that I have thought about writing, but can't decide which to pursue.

1) Maggie's Dance Recital (yes, it is that time of year again)

2) Open house night at our school last week

3) My thoughts on my first year back to work

4) Maggie's entry in the school's talent show

5) Summer plans

6) Girl Scouts

7) Moving to another country

8) Exercise and weight gain

9) The star trek movie

10) Church

11) Our new Water Park

12) Teaching art

13) Teaching 8th graders

14) Teaching in a super duper small school

15) All the things I love at Trader Joe's

Hmmmm. That is  a lot. Any suggestions?

Last Weekend the weather was divine, and we drove up to the city to enjoy it. My friend D. was running in a race called Bay to Breakers  where the runners (thousands of them) run from the Bay Bridge to the beach. I think. Anyway, it is across the city. Up and down hills. And it is a quintessential San Francisco thing. With all kinds of people dressed up in costumes, and themes, and, of course, naked people. We promised D. we would meet her at the end of it, and pass her a back pack she needed to get home.

But the streets are closed off and the parking is craziness, so we decided to park on a random street near the beach (the finish line) and bike down the Great Highway to meet her in Golden Gate park. Oh. Man. So nice. The entire Great Highway was closed to cars, so we zoomed down it, with the smell of the ocean in the air, the breeze on us. Maggie was in the trailer. (She is too big for the trailer. She is almost six, people! God love Kevin for hauling that thing behind his bike…)
 

Too big for trailer

But we were traveling a long way, and her little bike with the training wheels wouldn't have made it. So we (meaning Kevin) hauled her to the finish line, and met up with D.  We weren't allowed in to the big party tent area where they have the costume contest and all of the bands and stuff, because we had our bikes. Sigh. So we sat near the gates under a eucalyptus tree and had our lunch, and watched people pass.

There were lots of themes this year. We saw two different sets of crayons

Crayons

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and there were lots of super heroes. And a bunch of octomoms. (Women dressed as an octopus with a baby in each tentacle) There were all kinds of references to the swine flu and a 15 foot flying pig costume that was jogging and had a sign that said "I outran the swine flu". (I was riding my bike at the time, so I couldn't take a photo). There were also lots and lots of drunk people. And skanky looking people who were getting terrible sunburns as they sat on their shopping cart "floats" and were pushed through the crowd. And, of course, there were naked people. This was my favorite. He was just sort of shuffling along.

Wearing the hat. He also had on tennis shoes. And he was carrying a purpletinkerbell softpac lunchbag. Good old San Francisco.

We took a break from all of the chaos to go and sit near the DeYoung museum and listen to music at the bandstand. We lay under a big old palm tree and Kevin and Maggie played the pillow game (where they each pretend like they think the other one is a pillow. Hours of hilarity, let me tell you.) And we searched successfully for four leaf clovers.

Pillow Game

Four leaf clovers

 
And we just vegged. It felt so good. And the day was only half over.  From there we got on our bikes and headed back to the beach. We
packed up our bikes, and grabbed our beach stuff from the back of the
car. It was so nice down there. Maggie entertained herself while we
lazed around.

 We collected tons of sanddollars that were littering the beach, and created designs from them. Honestly, everywhere we looked there were sand dollars! Most of them were broken, but we did find three perfect circles. There is something so satisfying about a sand dollar.

Sand dollar rose

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By the time the day was over, it was dinner time, so we wrapped up the day with dinner at a place that was right around the corner. Golden Gate Pizza and Indian Cuisine. Mmmmm.  I love this city.