Hurry up and wait!

My Austrian kid arrived 2 nights ago with an impressive command of the English language (always a bonus). Enough so that he has already understood the wise-ass cracks I make about some things. (I'm going to have to watch myself...)

So the end of summer is upon us and there are a BAZILLION things to do.

1) Get Alex out to Turkey.This alone has so many components.
a) Got to go to the bank , request Turkish Liras.
b)Go to AAA and set up his money transferring card. Look up ATM's in Turkey.
c)Pack, Cha-right. The kid will be one of those who pack the night before and stress out and yell at me. I in turn will yell back and call him an ungrateful lout. All that negative energy eventually spills over into the leave-taking and then the departure won't a pleasant memory that is cherished. I'm on him like white on rice to begin the collection process, meaning, put all the stuff that you'll need in one pile so you aren't running around like a chicken with your head cut off at the last minute. He looks to me like I am speaking a strange combination of Lithuanian and Martian.
d) Clean out his room for the newest kid to take over. OMG. I swear we will find Jimmy Hoffa. (after cleaning out the closet, drawers, under the bed...we paint!)
e) Find out where his passport is...and I mean, find out why the Turkish Embassy in Chicago can't find it after they called and said the visa had been issued and to come pick it up. Our travel agent called us to tell us the news and now we are in the position of waiting...longer.

2) Use the tickets we bought to go to Silverwood. Yeah, this ought to be interesting seeing how I am to pick up Juliet (France) from the airport on Sunday, have an appointment to register the exchange students in school on Monday morning, pick up the foreign $$ at the bank, and if Alex's passport is found by then, he could have a flight out as early as Wednesday... So Silverwood will have to happen on Monday afternoon-Tuesday night. Come home and wash, pack and get Alex to the airport on Wednesday AM... No problem...

I swear, getting all the local kids OUT has been more stressful than getting the new batch of foreign kids in. Once my son leaves, (he's the last one out that I have to deal with - this year) I can breathe...or so I tell myself.