Day 1 of School 08/09

I swore I was going to wake up to the alarm at 6:30, shower and be one of those beautiful moms dropping her kids off at school on their first day. . .but it just seemed so early to get out of bed. At 6:45 I finally pulled on my stretched out jeans from yesterday and a t-shirt and washed the mascara out from under my eyes - voila! Beautiful, right?

I dressed Guff and Addie, got them started on breakfast, loaded backpacks, filled out paperwork, laid out lunchboxes, cleaned out the backseat of the car, loaded Sullivan+banana into his carseat and away we went - at the extremely early, still-dark-outside hour of 7:25. I don't want to admit it, but it felt a *Teeny* bit good to be awake before 9:00, which has been my usual wake-up hour for the last little while.

Here they are on their first day :p Don't they look super-psyched?


Because he feels left out if I don't act like he's a big deal too. :)

The school had someone dressed up as a giant Tigger to welcome the kids on their first day. Last year Tigger handed out giant chocolate covered marshmallow suckers. This year he was a little more appropriately handing out yoghurt drinks. I wonder who the brave sole was that mentioned that little nugget to the PTA. :p

Sully and I are rolling around the house, trying to remember how we kept it real all last year with just the two of us. Something tells me that we'll fill the void just fine. It sure is peaceful here.

Aiming at my foot.

Sometimes I think I am my own worst enemy when it comes to simplifying my life. We went to all this trouble to find and hire someone to help with kids - one of the main reasons being that without family here, I don't have that quick help you need when you have an appointment or errand that really can't handle kids. Well, yesterday the kids' school supply lists were looming over my head all morning. I convinced myself that I really needed to use the morning wisely and get some work done instead of heading out to tackle the list. Lunch rolled around and if I had decided to start the shopping then, I probably would have had time to get it done before Joanna needed to leave. But nope - I decided to keep working, thinking I could leave the kids with Kyle later in the afternoon and go shop. Kyle comes home and I am still working. He mentions he needs to run to the campus to get our financial aid check (yay for another anchor around our necks!). I have this bright idea that he can study first, and then we can *all* go at the same time. He can run in and get his check and afterwards we can stop by Walmart and try to look like we made an effort on the list. (I have no intention of getting everything on the list - it is RIDICULOUS the things they ask us to buy and I start to get the feeling that they are using us to stock their supply room. Why am I paying thousands of dollars a year for this??? And other parents are paying twice that. Nu-uh - ain't gonna happen.)

So, Kyle studies for a few hours. I finish working and get kids shoed and cleaned up. Around 5:00, we take off. The older two start fighting in the car right away - and the baby gets mysteriously quiet. *glance back* "SULLIVAN! Stay awake! Do NOT go to sleep. Guthrie, play with him, tickle him, anything - don't let him sleep." We get to listen to crabby Sullivan squeal every time someone tickles him or talks to him obediently. I knew it was a bad idea to skip nap-time.

Kyle manages to be fast at the school and we drive away with half of our student loan proceeds in our pocket. We drive 15 minutes to Walmart, circle the parking lot for another 15 minutes, remember that 6:00 on ANY day is pretty much the craziest, zooiest time to attempt shopping in Mexico, but we park anyway. One hour, lots of Addie whining and drooping (man, she is looking tired now), a little Guthrie complaining ("Why does *she* get a puzzle?"), and a surprisingly pleasant Sullivan later, we are done checking out and just waiting for the world's slowest bag boy to finish his job. I can't help but wonder what possessed me to think I didn't need to do this earlier when I could have left all THREE (four if you count the husband who HATES this stuff) at home. *Sigh* Read it on my forehead people - S.t.u.p.i.d.

Now, it is 7:00 and tummies are rumbling, babies are fading, and mommy's blood sugar has dropped like nobody's business. Our lifeline appears to be Costco right across the street. One cheese pizza sounds like just what the doctor (or fourth year med student) ordered. Kids + husband = stay in the car. I run to the counter, order our pizza, get myself a pina colada smoothie (instant happy) and a couple of drinks for kids and husband. And I wait. and wait. and wait. I crane my neck to see if the pizza could be nearing the end of the pizza oven. Nope. So, I stupidly wait some more. and a little more. Finally, Kyle is exasperated and tells me to talk to the employee. "Is my pizza coming?" "Of course." "Are you sure because I'm watching the oven and there are no pizzas coming." "Oh its coming, I assure you." "Uh, okay thanks," I say as I sneakily follow her with my eyes to see her go check and realize no pizza is actually coming and watch as she slips a cheese pizza onto the back of the pizza oven. *sigh again*. She must have read my forehead when I ordered. Must get thicker bangs.

30 minutes after arriving for that- "they always have one waiting," says Kyle in response to my "we need something fast" comment - pizza, we are back on the road. Kids drank half my smoothie instead of their own Sprite, but the half I did guzzle has made me feel temporarily peppy and I enjoy the time to chat and relax with husband while kids play. And then the quiet. *glance back* "SULLIVAN - wake up baby! You have to eat dinner. Do you want some cheese???" (Burn my fingers as I pull off a chunk of melty cheese and hold it in front of the A/C vent to cool it off.) "Here's some cheeeeeeese, Sully!!" Older kids: "Hey, why don't *we* get cheese?" Sully takes the cheese, puts it in his mouth and promptly falls back to sleep - only this time with the added bonus of a choking hazard lolling about his tongue. *sigh again* I hate when he goes to bed without dinner. He always wakes up hungry in the middle of the night.

We get home, baby in bed, kids eating pizza, fun. After dinner and a super healthy dessert of a donut, we lay kids in bed, Kyle is off to finish studying and I sit down to wrap up work (yes, after ALL of that, I still hadn't finished the work part of things).

Fast forward to 2:30 in the morning. Little hand is patting my arm, "Mommy, mommy, I ann eat betfast." Crap - he's hungry. One sippy with milk, pull him up in bed and pray he sleeps (he does). Wait, I'm hungry too. (no joke.) Try to ignore it, surely I am stronger than this. 20 minuets later, no go. Must eat something. This is a joke, right? Stomach is now convulsing in anger and lack of food. Raisin Bran. Ahhh, NOW sleep is good. Back upstairs. Addie is curled up on the end of the bed under Kyle's feet. That cannot be comfortable. Carry her to her bed (man, she's huge.) Now sleep. Here comes Guthrie. "No G-man - you have got to sleep in your own bed. I'll talk to you in the morning." Back to his bed. NOW sleep. *beep beep beep beep beep* Elbow Kyle before alarm wakes up Sullivan who is the ONLY one getting sleep at this point. After three snoozes, Kyle gets out of bed, just in time for Adeline to come wandering in. I threaten her with her life, "Sleep - don't talk." She sleeps on Kyle's side - although still curled up at the bottom of the bed.

Now sleep - its starting to get light outside. Ignore. Just sleep.

Back to School

Whenever I say or think "Back to School," I can't get Adam Sandler's voice out of my head - and I am suddenly in the mood to watch Billy Madison. But the *real* point of this post is the official school update!

We checked out the most amazing school the other day. For a mere ten thousand a year, we could enroll our kids in an eco-friendly, adorable, super chic school close to the house. Since that is more than we spend on groceries and clothing for our whole family combined in an average year, we figured we better pass it up and see what we could do about getting a discount at their old school.

Really I got a lot of comfort from the thought of sending them to the same school this year. We all kind of have a crazy life and it certainly can't hurt them to have a little stability in this one facet, right? (On a side note, we have officially lived in this house for almost 15 months - three months longer than we have ever lived anywhere - cool, eh?)

We drove to the school this morning around 10:45, waited until close to noon for the administrator to have a chance to talk with us, and were able to negotiate a deal that *hopefully* has us all feeling satisfied. While the discount this year ended up being significantly more than last year percentage-wise, we will still be paying close to the same amount because of the increase in tuition cost that comes with advancing a grade and the annual inflation rate. Aren't you all feeling a little smug with your kids in their academically advanced, publically funded charter schools?? Anyway, our original intention was to try to really get a good deal and play a little hardball - but when we realized how much costs had increased, we started to panic that maybe we were going to end up paying MORE than last year and that is just a *no go*. Kyle and I both feel pretty good about the situation and we're super excited for the kids, who are ready to bounce off the ceiling at the thought of starting school. On Tuesday we go to buy their supplies and meet the teachers, and school starts on Wednesday. The school really did take advantage of Addie's cute little mug. In the conference room (where they meet potential new students and their parents every year), there is a poster-sized picture of Addie, framed and mounted on the wall. The administrator even made a joke when we were trying to negotiate a price - He said, "Well, since I exploited your daughter, we should give you a good discount." HA! I was thinking it, but I didn't say it. He did alude that they *really* want the kids back and of course our kids can't wait to go back - so win/win. Between now and Tuesday I just need to pull out last year's uniforms, see what still fits and what can be handed down, and go buy the new items (the stinker-school changed their polo on us, so we definitely have to get all new shirts :( I was thinking I lucked out and wouldn't have to buy much of anything for Adeline.)

Our new maid/nanny is really working out well (if you forget that she has missed two out of six days of work. . .and I did forget, I promise.) Its a whole new feeling to be able to actually run an errand and not drag three kids with you to un-kid-friendly places. I totally love her affect on Sullivan too. Hearing him tell her "gracias" and "adios" is pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Dinner is in the oven (roast for French Dip - drool) the kids are happy, and its time to work - but blogging was more important.

Its almost Friday -sigh of relief-!

Being Four

I simply cannot believe that another week has gone by. It wasn't exactly fast - but I still wonder where it all went. I've been slightly overwhelmed with working from home while the kids are out of school. The catch-22 is that school is supposed to be starting on Monday and I've been so overwhelmed with working while they're on break, that I haven't had a chance to figure out where they're even going to attend school. :( I'm trying not to allow myself the constant US v. Mexico comparisons - but this is one that is too obvious to ignore. I sure miss the sweet, close, free, amazing public elementary school that Guthrie was able to go to last year for those few months in the states. I'm about to start my quest to bargain the principal down from $6k+ for the year to hopefully around $4k. It was just too much last year and we couldn't keep up with the payments. Keep your fingers crossed for us that they'll give us a discount for all the free advertising they got out of us last year (the billboard with Addie's picture at the mall, her face splashed over the front of their brochure and her cute little mug on the front of their website).

I understand why they wanted to use her face because she's pretty "american" looking, and it is the American Academy after all. While I agree that she is cute, lately I'm thinking she's funnier than anything.

Guthrie has been taking some Tae Kwan Do (sorry - how the heck do you spell that?) lessons with our neighbor. Adeline is SO jealous and tries to mimic everything Guthrie does when he comes home to show us what he learned. His teacher has told him that he needs to practice saying "Yes, sir/ma'am," and "No, sir/ma'am." A common dialogue in our house will now go something like this:
Me: Guthrie, get your shoes off the stairs and put them in your closet please.
G: Yes, ma'am.
A: Yes, lady.
G: No, Addie. You're supposed to say 'yes, ma'am.'
A: No, I call her 'lady.' She's a lady.
G: That's wrong - say 'yes, ma'am.'
A: Fine - (yelling) Yes, man!
No wonder she was resisting - she knows I'm not a man.

She also cracked me up yesterday when we were parking the car before church. Kyle refuses to pull into the small church parking lot because the next ward isn't very courteous about making sure we can get out after church. He parks along the curb outside the church instead. Yesterday Guthrie expressed concern because when we came out of church to get in the car, we would be headed the wrong direction on the road. Addie: "Don't worry Guthrie, we can do a flipayoowee." ummm - what? That's right - a "flip a U-y." I just love that her little four-year-old mind is showing some independet thinking and trying to figure things out on her own - even if she gets it wrong sometimes.

Guthrie was always very different. He would ask a billion questions to make sure he got something right before he expressed himself. Even now I can tell when he is asking leading questions and fishing for just enough information from me, without me giving away the whole point of his questioning. He's not big on the whole "learn from our mistakes" idea. He just wants to get it right the first time.

Anyway - I finally found a girl to help nanny/clean so I should be able to run to the school today and see what I can figure out. The kids probably won't be ready to start school Monday because it will take me longer than that to go get uniforms and supplies (remember this fiasco from last year?) but hopefully we'll at least be able to get them enrolled.

Picture Catch-up!

Kaylea will get really excited and think this means that I'm going to post our new family pictures - but really I'm just unloading random junk off my camera. The family pictures WILL go up tomorrow - promise!

Not sure when this was - I just think he looks way too old to be my baby.

This picture was the morning we were leaving Arizona to drive home. Don't they look excited.



This was Guthrie's wasp sting. The quickest way to get a kid to stop crying is to grab the camera and document it for posterity. Too bad I wasn't around to try this trick an hour later when Adeline got 2 (two) wasp stings from the same hive. Don't worry, the men finally took it seriously and went on a search and destroy mission. We're hoping the wasps found a new place to build their hive.
Sully is taking some chick for a ride.
With no pants on! He's a free spirit.

This is why I'm pretty sure that Heavenly Father sent me the coolest kid available. Need to go to Bed, Bath & Beyond at naptime?? No problem. (All our summer travels came in handy - I found that ghetto blanket in the back of the car.)
Group shot from Gavin's wedding. Aren't they cute? The bride and groom look okay too.

Ash and Fam. Apparently I need someone to email me some pictures because I am sure I posed for a few with my family too. :p