It's been a week since my last post and I have been "itching" to write but my schedule has been so way out of whack lately...The whole week had been busy but it was so much fun too that I can't complain.

        My stepdaughter's staying with us for about three weeks or so this summer and that means, we have the rest of the nieces and nephews with us too! It's as if hubby and I are running a huge and chaotic teen/pre-teen daycare adventure with 6-8 kids in tow, depending on who gets dropped off or picked up. We want them to bond and make great memories together so they don't grow apart.  Well, with them, we don't really have to make much effort.  I believe that family members should be friends you grow up with and that really makes all the mayhem so worth while.   Hopefully, by being a part of each other's happy memories, they can be there for each other when they get older.

        And they are getting older!  Yesterday, I was shopping with my stepdaughter in downtown SF (my happy place) when she said "Remember when we used to look for Size 1 pants for me? I can't believe I'm now a 5." Wow.  I've only been here a few years and these kids have shot up like crazy.  One of the cousins is already going to college.  And boy, how they can all eat now too! Each day that they are with us, it's like I'm cooking for a big banquet. Little portions just don't work anymore. But though it's a total rip-off, we still find it cute at the end of the day. 

        The house is utter bedlam too.  We're talking of a gazillion colorful Nikes and Vans by the front door;  overstuffed backpacks strewn around, blankets and sleeping bags piled up in the family room like it's one small refugee camp, our bedroom (with the flat screen, laptops and other gadgets they all flock to) turning into their clubhouse, an array of ringtones from different colored cellphones, kids talking to you while texting (is that a word, by the way!?!) with skill and speed that only teenagers can master, 101 personal issues, concerns and questions about life that mean the world to eight different voices but seem so little to us.  Paper plates, playing cards, hair straighteners and late nights.

        Every night after my chores, hubby and I would sit down (when we're too tired to mess around with them),  drink wine and watch them.  It makes us remember our own youth.  There is a certain fondness in our hearts that we cannot explain.  Time flies so fast.  We're almost two decades away from that kind of carefree fun, that juvenile experience when we were still uncertain and discovering so many things through hits and misses. Our treasured memories are still fresh and we still light up remembering them. That's why we tend to give back to the cycle what we have once gotten and probably have not even given up just yet. After all, we won't lose anything in the process, there's only a lot to gain. Pretty soon, these kids will be in our shoes, reminiscing their own youth and wishing it just ain't over yet.        

        Maybe that's why hubby and I enjoy giving them wonderful summers.  He and I are not done with ours.