2009!!

The following excerpt is from my New Year 2008 blog post.

I look forward to what 2008 has to offer.

*Kyle will finish his 3rd year of medical school and half of his 4th!
*I will finally get the perfect job that lets me work from home and take care of the kiddos.
*Guthrie will turn 6 years old which sounds WAY older than 5 for some reason. He will start his 3rd year of school in Mexico. He will become fluent in Spanish. He will improve his reading and writing skills.
*Adeline will turn 5(!!!) at the end of this year. She will start learning to read and will continue to do well in school. She'll learn even more Spanish. She'll learn to ride a bike.
*Both kids will learn to keep their rooms clean. MWAHAHAHA.
*Sullivan will turn 2 years old. He'll talk more and more and I'm sure at one point I'll wish he would go back to being a baby. He'll get interested in the potty and maybe he'll decide that its fun to watch 30 minutes of Sesame Street so Mommy can take a shower alone.
*I will keep up the jogging and finally run the 10k race that my friends and I keep talking about.


It is so crazy to look back at the last year and see all that we have accomplished and how we have all changed.


Kyle really did finish his third year of medical school and half of his fourth. He also passed his board exam and has started studying for the next exam that he will take this semester. He has learned so much and yet feels that he has so far to go. We went to New York and interviewed for the Fifth Pathway program.


I really did get the perfect job. It was a crazy experience as the first woman to hire me actually turned out to be pulling a little bit of a con job and was hiring newish transcriptionists on an independent contractor status and getting a couple of months of work out of them before they (meaning me) realized she was never actually going to send that check that got "lost in the mail." I looked at it as a blessing as the training was actually quite valuable and enabled me to get my next job working from home for a company based in Chandler, Arizona. I absolutely love that I can bring in a little money to help out, keep myself feeling productive, and still be home and able to take care of the house, kids and hubby. It pretty much rocks.


Guthrie turned six in June. He went to half the school year in Mexico and then finished up the year in Arizona at the Chandler Traditional Academy near my parents' home. He absolutely flourished in both English and Spanish this past year. He is fluent in Spanish and often teaches me some pretty complicated playground phrases. He not only learned to read, but learned to read well. He is also a champion speller and his handwriting has improved so much. He has quite the reputation for being a nonstop chatterbox. His Grandpa Hunter comments that his previously quiet, peaceful drives up to the cabin gained some pretty complicated conversation when he was accompanied by Guthrie. Usually the Guthrie Inquisition results in both parties feeling frustrated because the questions require an Encyclopedia Britannica and "I don't know" definitely does not cut it with this kid. He grew out of all of his jeans and shoes this year. For a few months he was wearing some serious high-waters. Of course he didn't care, but his dad and I were feeling a little embarrassed. We now have to find him pants in a size or two bigger with adjustable waists because he's so small around but has his mommy's impossible inseam. He thinks it is hilarious when his Grandpa Guthrie calls him "punk" in an endearing way. He also thinks his Uncle Dax is the funniest thing alive and likes to try to mimic his dry sense of humor. While playing video games with his dad recently, Guthrie came up with the phrase, "That was faster than a jackrabbit in August headed for December." We're still not sure exactly how fast that is. . .but it illustrates pretty well the kind of things he finds amusing.


I realize now that Addie may have been jipped this year. She did, in fact, turn five this December. Her mom and dad never got around to helping her learn to read all that much and she pretty much didn't even attempt to ride her bike. We're going to have to remedy that this year. She did continue to be the feminine source of childhood delight in our family. She is so sweet, gentle, and GIRLY. She can be found playing quietly with her toys at all hours of the day. She has an amazing imagination and doesn't require much assistance to stay entertained. She still loves to dress up, but her ability has been hindered by the weak seams of most of her play clothes. She has picked up a lot more Spanish this year and we love to hear her high, squeaky voice ramble in both languages. She loves to dance, though we haven't had the opportunity to sign her up for formal dance lessons. She has a natural grace that is fun to watch, nonetheless. Her Grandparents all get a kick out of her labels for them. They are affectionately known as "The grandma with brown hair," "The grandpa with white hair," "The grandma with yellow hair," and "The grandpa with black hair." I think it helped things out when my mom went back to blond after a short stint as a brunette. We like to keep things simple for Adeline.


Sullivan turned two in June. He is a constant source of amusement and fun in our house. He has thankfully stayed away from too much "terrible" in this two-year-old phase. He did decide that the potty was great and has been officially toilet trained for several months now. He learned to take his clothes off in the process and I think we're now the neighborhood joke because of the naked little "gringo" climbing the gate out front. He loves to talk and has acquired several phrases that make us chuckle. He did learn to appreciate the occasional children's show and is quite the fan of Sponge Bob now. We love to hear him sing the theme song while we're driving down the road. He is still our affectionate little baby and we haven't tried too hard to help him grow up.


I pretty much slacked on my jogging goal, but I feel like my pregnancy gave me a good excuse to find low impact exercise to replace it. :p


We found out we were expecting again while we were in Arizona for summer break this year. We are excited to meet our new son due in March. We are quite certain we will never find a name that makes us both happy but we enjoy finding creative reasons to veto each other's suggestions.


In 2009 I anticipate that. . .

*Kyle will finish with school the end of May. We will once again sell most of our worldly possessions and load the car and trailer with what is left to transport it back across the border. This time should be a little extra exciting as we will continue to the northeastern corner of our country and settle in Kingston, New York for the year ranging from June 2009 to June 2010. Kyle will take his next board exam this year and will apply for residencies and hopefully interview for a few as well.
*Guthrie will turn 7 years old. He will complete his first grade year of school and start his second grade. He will leave behind his school in Mexico and hopefully find new friends, fun, and learning in New York.
*Adeline really will learn to read this year. She will turn 6 years old. She will start Kindergarten in the fall. She will hopefully find lots of little GIRL friends to play with and will continue to be sweet to her brothers. She could possibly lose her first tooth.
*Sullivan will turn 3 and at some point will probably do some seriously "terrible" things, but we will continue to love him anyway. ;)
*Our new baby will be born in March and will have the pleasure of having dual citizenship. He will leave his birth country after only a couple short months and will travel with us to New York where he will drool, eat, sleep, and poop just the same.
*I will have a baby, probably try to lose a few pounds and then stop trying and just play with the kids instead. I will probably get frustrated with moving and packing again, but will also be excited for moving onto the next step in our journey.

Baby Blue

We had an ultrasound yesterday and found out that we are having our third boy! It was my first time having a 3D ultrasound and WOW. It was amazing and adorable at the same time. He was adorably using my(or is it his?) placenta as a pillow, which somewhat obstructed our view of one side of his face and his arm was shielding the other. A few times we got him to wiggle out of that position and we were able to see that he looks like Sullivan! He has Sullivan's (and therefore Kyle's) nose and chin and mouth. I can't wait to see the rest of him in person and see if the baby at least inherited my hands or feet or legs or ears or something. He already looked so rounded out - so I'm sure he'll be another 9-pounder+. (Plus I'm eating enough for quadruplets ;) Darn holidays.)

We head home on Friday and I'm crossing my fingers that two sick kids and one sick husband recover from their ummmmmm, glamorous illness in time to make the drive uneventful. I'm also praying that Sullivan and I are somehow spared from the horror at least until we get home and can throw up (and down) in comfort. Heeeeeeeere's hoping!

Several firsts

For the first time ever I. . .

* had a flight cancelled due to bad weather at our destination (Albany)
* rented a car and drove from Philadelphia through New Jersey to Poughkeepsie, NY
* experienced the cold of the northeast without a coat thanks to lost luggage
* spent three days in a row away from Sullivan
* travelled to the east coast
* saw the world post-ice storm in person
* ate at a Red Robin restaurant in Poughkeepsie while 6+ months pregnant :)

It was a good trip.

Kyle interviewed for the Fifth Pathway program and we selected the hospital in Kingston, New York. We spent today exploring the town and I think we can both handle it. There was a (very busy) mall, a crazy cool historic district, and really neat old houses. It seems to have most of the amenities I would hope for (minus Costco) and I am sure the year we spend there will pass quickly. We are so excited to move onto this next step.

Worst Blogger Alert!

I know a few people who did the post-a-day in November. I guess I went for the opposite approach and didn't post at all.

The Highlights:

* We had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner with our friends, the Sanders. Our kids + their kids = a lot of fighting on this particular day, but the food was wonderful and it definitely felt like a festive day.

* Guthrie lost another tooth (or two, I can't remember which tooth was the last one.) He now has a giant gap where three teeth used to occupy his top row. Its pretty darn funny to look at. Too bad he didn't wait a little longer to lose them because he would have really been toothless at Christmas. As it is, I think they'll grow in before the actual Christmas day arrives.

* We celebrated Addie's birthday with a few friends at Peter Piper. She is SOO happy to finally be 5, although she just told her Grandpa last night that now she can't wait to be 6 like Guthrie. Slow down, little missy!

* I'm an 80-year-old and have a newfound nerve pain problem in my left wrist. I made an appointment to have it checked out next week and hope they can help. Its getting seriously hard to work with this crazy pain in my wrist, not to mention that it causes some hot/cold sensations to come up at any moment.

* We had an impromtu garage sale that encouraged us to clean and organize our whole house. We ended up filling the back of the expedition and the entire second seat with random items for sale. Kyle drove it to the sale location and realized we were the only ones there. No problem - he couldn't even unload it fast enough and we made a nice chunk of change - not to mention the bonus of not having any of that junk in our house anymore. We feel pure.

* We're packing up and heading out to Arizona today!! We usually try to leave in the afternoon and make it as far as Mazatlan before stopping for the night (5-6 hours), but Kyle is feeling saucy and wants to push for Culiacan instead (8ish hours?) If we make it that far, tomorrow's drive will go a little faster and we will get to my mom's house in time to say hi and visit before crashing. We are SO excited to be going home to see everyone.

* Kyle and I are flying to NY next Thursday to interview for his pre-internship. We will be staying in a little town about 1.5 hours north of NYC, which also happens to be near the town that we're hoping to live in. It turns out that they opened a new hospital and the cost of living willl be so much more manageable. (Kingston, NY). I hope the town turns out to be a decent little place and somewhere we can be happy for one little year.

* The following week we are taking our kids to Disneyland for the first time ever. They are so excited, but I don't think they can be nearly as excited as Kyle and I are to see their cute little faces light up. Thankfully, we had my mom and sister snag us a new digital camera on Black Friday, so we can actually capture the moment to share with the world.

I just realized in typing this that I didn't pack swimsuits for any of us - MUST RUN!

Next post will be from American soil!