hola

Well, nothing huge to share right now, although hugeness is looming.  Riley will leave for Spain in 2 weeks and I just started planning her family Adios Riley Party.  We were sitting in her bedroom this past weekend taking inventory on the things she would need to fit into one suitcase for 8 weeks.
I can still talk about it and not start sobbing, but I felt my throat closing yesterday.  I told my mom I should probably have a few good cries before the airport drop off is upon us, so that I don't just explode and horrify Riley when we drop her off. :/

We've been doing face-time (video calls) with her host family, and they are so fun.  Riley is starting to feel more comfortable.  The first call was a little difficult, because they can hardly understand me, nor I them, and the Weber Spanish girls here were too shy to speak. :)
But we've had a couple of calls and they were jabbering on for a while last time.  It's sweet to hear them, "Hola! Hola!"  They call her Ree-ley.

Nathan made me stay up and watch TWO Hell On Wheels episodes last night, so after Lola and I stumbled through the grocery store I grabbed a nap, and now I'm finally drinking the coffee.  I really do need to go to bed at 9, not 11.

We've got road construction in front of our house.  The working men are putting up form boards for our new curbs.  They had a leveling string up across the driveway when I came back from the grocery store, so they had to let me in.  As Lola and I brought in groceries, they started some kind of chicken game, holding hands and trying to knee each other and giggling like 8-year-old girls.  It was hilarious.  
Anyway...

This is a silly post, but I feel bad when I don't keep you all up to date.  It's just all normal stuff around here.  Lucy obeys me every time I tell her to drop what she's chewing, so that's handy.
My paint teacher said I'm nearly out of the learning stage and she gasps when I do the right thing.  She used to always say, "don't dick it up." but I haven't heard that in a while, so that's encouraging.  She also cracks me up.  I told her I had a twin sister last week and she got wide-eyed, looked off into the distance and gasped, "That would make an incredible nude!"  Whoa boy.

Home work this year is much lighter, and I find that our afternoons are not half as stressed.  It is just so nice. Claire was able to help me cut fat off of chicken yesterday instead of us both crying at her desk trying to figure out math word problems in Spanish.  It's an answer to real prayers.

Well, I've got to get some things done now.  Good to chat.