Randomness

Random thoughts - just to squelch the complaining about my lack of blogging. (love you all!)

*Yes, we are moving. Again. We refer to it as our yearly move - since we have actually moved every June since we got married. (And a couple times in between.) We're quite excited about this move. We found a cheaper house (which was our #1 criteria), but this house also happens to be NEWER with a REAL, LIVE backyard. (When I get around to putting up some pictures of this backyard, ya'all will laugh at its small size - but let me tell you - compared to most here in MX, this yard is HUGE!) We're hoping to get a big load of crap - I mean, furniture ;) - over there tomorrow night. We won't be able to ACTUALLY move (i.e. sleep, eat, live) at the new house until the phone and internet get hooked up. Otherwise, Kyle won't be able to study. So, in the meantime, I've been packing and cleaning. You remember how much I love Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, right? Well, I've been reacquainted with my love today. We went through 1 entire box (4 erasers) and there's plenty more work to do. I just love that I don't have to repaint the walls!

*Jogging has been going well. We added an extra buddy in our morning runs, which has really helped in the motivation. Now, if I decide to sleep in, I'm letting down 2 people, instead of 1. As a result, i was up w/ the alarm every day at 6 this week. I think we're doing about 2 miles a session. It would be nice to up it to 3, but between our warmup, stretching, and the run - we're already taking 30 minutes. We'd have to get up even earlier to add any more time - and I'm not sure when I'll be willing to do that. After we move, I'll be on my own for running. I figure I'll get up and go int he mornings for now, but hopefully when we're in AZ this summer I can get a single jogging stroller, then maybe next semester I can go jogging with Sullivan right after I drop G and A off at school

* I found a GREAT school for the kids for next year. Its bilingual, with a HUGE focus on arts/talents which I LOVE. They actually have little classes in French too, so maybe I should say its trilingual ;) The principal was amazing - and while it costs more than where they are this year, it has its advantages. Shelley (friend) also takes her son there, so we can set up a carpool and I won't have to drive every day. SOLD! Its called "The American Academy" even though the owner is French, there aren't any Americans, and it doesn't follow American curriculum. Go figure.

* As an update on the Unconditional Parenting blog from a while back. I wasn't seeing improvement for a while (I originally put "things got worse" but that's not true - it was really just the same chaos as always - honesty is the best policy, right?) but I think I'm seeing the fruits of my labor. YEsterday I was babysitting my friend's 2 kids for an hour (yes, I had 5 children ages 4 and under.) and when the little boy called Guthrie a name, he actually looked at him and said (sweetly). "(boy), please don't call me a peepee, I don't like that." To which (boy) replied, "'OK." That's EXACTLY how we've been trying to teach him to handle things (vs. tattling which makes me want to claw my ears off.) It works better with other kids than it does on Adeline though. She loves to bug Guthrie by sitting on his beanbag. He's really good about asking her nicely to move, unfortunately, she's not all that great at actually moving. Usually it escalates into a fight. Well, a couple of days ago, he asked her to move (nicely) and she jumped right up and scooted over to her own beanbag. Guthrie's eyes got wide, and he said to me excitedly, "MOM!! She respected me!" AHHHH! LOL! It was all I could do not to crack up!

Long day packing, cleaning, and softball-gaming tomorrow, so I think I'll end there.

:)