It didn't work!

Apparently I can cross my fingers all I want, but its not doing much for Kyle's schedule at the hospital. They want him daily from 7 -3, which means he can neither drop off nor pick up, which also means we have 2 cars basically driving to the same location of the city multiple times a day. Its a good thing I love these kids so much, and that husband, and school, and driving, and spending money on gas. :) Kyle did have a longer shift yesterday (and Thursday), so he didn't get home unti 8:00. It was a good reminder to me that life is easier when he's home, even if he IS locked in the office. At least then we get to see him for dinner and bathroom breaks. The kids were in bed when he got home, and of course all three of them HAD to say goodnight, which extended bedtime to almost 9:00 p.m. (Okay Sully had two naps yesterday and really didn't go to sleep until nearly 11:00).

I also realized that either our two-year-old was ending up in our bed too often, or my husband got tired of being locked in the dungeon that we call "office," because a little suggestion of *maybe* moving the twin bed into our room for Sullivan and putting his desk in that bedroom turned into ACTUALLY moving the twin bed into our room and converting that bedroom into a study space. I actually like having Sully in his own bed in there . . . and he's still close enough to oooh and ahhh over how cute he is while he is sleeping. Kyle appreciates having an "office" that actually gets some natural light and has room to scoot the chair back from the desk. We've committed ourselves at least until after his big exam, which means that we'll give it a month before we decide if we want to re-kick Sully back to his own room. The other plus-side is that now his old "office" is empty and freed up lots of room for me to sort laundry. . . and pile laundry. . .and now store dirty laundry that previously had no place to be stored therefore forcing it to get done. I love to be enabled in my lazy ways.

I also love how all the comments on that last post were to claim that butt as their own. Even my mom called me to say that she tried to leave a comment but couldn't remember her login and password. Her comment basically consisted of, "You all know that is really MY butt, so quit claiming it and get back to the gym." You people crack me up.

My butt really used to look like that. Once upon a time. I don't have any proof, of course, because who takes a picture of their butt like that. ;)

swimming and spankies

Wow, I think this has to be a new record for my least bloggy month. Things have just been busy busy busy with working, kids' school, mischievious two-year-olds and husbands who lock themselves in offices for hours/days/months at a time "studying". He thinks I don't know that he spends 25% of his time on ESPN.com and Foxnews.com, but I do. I know everything.

A few weeks ago, our group here arranged a day to go to a local waterpark. I hemmed and hawed over whether or not I would go. It sounded fun but it also sounded like a lot of work (three kids + water + one adult = more work than fun?).

Well, I am happy to say it was cheap, safe, super fun, and Kyle went with me so I would have nothing to worry about. I'll apologize in advance to anyone hoping to catch a glimpse of super hot me in a super hot swimsuit. I was the one behind the camera. You're welcome.

They had this slide with four tracks so everyone could race. G was frustrated that he never won. The poor thing was too light to get any speed going down the hill.

Sully up at the top of the hill watching the race. This super safe railing with 2-foot gaps was all that separated his body from a 50-foot drop. I heart MExico.
She chickened out and wouldn't race and then proceeded to pout for 20 minutes.

That's G about to crash into the unsuspecting child below.



We have a little over two months left in the semester. Kyle will finish up nutrition and endocrine this week and then moved onto internal medicine next week. He managed to get assigned to a hospital right by the kids' school, so here's me crossing my fingers that his schedule matches up nicely with the kids and he can take them at least one way each day:

Woah, that is a REALLY big picture of my butt and it is completely cellulite-free and totally cute in my hot little spankies. It is also probably going to be blocked soon since I snagged it from some random website and left it hosted there. You're welcome.

Since my butt is looking so good, I'm not really sure what else to say. I figure it is always best to leave things on a high note.

Tam and Sam (my parents) are coming to visit next Friday, so let's go ahead and use the comments section to remind me of items that will fit in a suitcase that she can bring with her that I cannot live without that are NOT liquids greater than three ounces and could possibly help me have a happy Americanized Thanksgiving in Mexico.

Catch up:)

I kept waiting for some cute pictures to magically appear on my memory card so I could accompany a blog post with some distraction. . .but apparently you have to USE the camera to get cute pictures on there. I wonder if I can get a refund.

The kids are adjusting so well to school this year. It is amazing how quickly we transitioned from sleeping in until 9:00 am every day and watching more SpongeBob than can possibly be healthy (side note: Its so cute to hear Sully say 'spong bob squay panz'. *sigh*) to waking up at 6:45, doing our morning routine as fast as possible and getting on the road by 7:25 - before the sun has risen. The week just flies away from me now and I'll admit that with only a little over nine months left here in Mexico, it is scary to see time slipping by. I knew this would happen, but just when I actually appreciate what we have going on here, it seems like the end is nearing too soon. When else in my life will I have a maid at my beck and call? A husband home every night for dinner and at church every Sunday (I'm imagining what his schedule will be like for next year's internship or first year rotations - gulp)? Two little kids in a private school learning a foreign language and making memories that will last a lifetime? My little "baby" Sullivan home with me to keep me from taking too many naps or having too clean a house?? Hmmm, sorry if I got a little euphoric there. Just a minute ago I was firmly returning Sullivan to his crib for the upteenth time tonight and wondering when life would get easier. Buckle your seatbelts folks.

That actually reminds me of last night. I called my mom to check in and see what I was missing in her life. I bragged that my biggies were tucked into bed and the short one was playing quietly. Not 30 seconds later, Guthrie comes walking down the stairs (I use the term "walking" loosely here) and thud-thud-thud. . .he somehow misses the last three steps and is rescued by his left jaw and chin coming into contact with the extremely sharp corner of the shelf at the bottom of the stairs. "Uhhhh. . .I'll call you right back." It was immediately purple and bleeding and the poor kid was traumatized. I felt SO SORRY for him on one hand and SUPER annoyed with him on the other. Didn't I ALREADY tuck you into bed once tonight? Ice for the face and water for his mouth, which was apparently what prompted the trip (pun) down the stairs in the first place.

My days have been spent working, hanging with friends, working, cleaning a little bit, enjoying friends who come rescue me and help me clean, eating, napping, working, and I'll admit we still watch a little SpongeBob in all of this.

Our previous maid, who was incidentally the best cleaner I have ever known, up and quit on us when we cut back her schedule a bit. That meant that for the last two weeks I haven't had to pay a maid (and I also haven't had a clean house, but that is another story), we haven't had a date night, and I have actually been cooking our meals each night. I figured that deserved a treat and let Kyle know that Chili's would be served promptly at 6:00. ;) I enjoyed my chips 'n salsa and Buffalo chicken salad and the kids enjoyed a few bites of food and a LOT of playing on the slide/jungle gym. Genius. . .every Chili's should have a play area. Why don't they do that in the states?

Don't worry, we found a new cleaning girl who is happy with the reduced schedule. . .and she's not really a girl - she's 42- but who's keeping track. I am hoping she is just automatically a good cleaner because I'm not picturing myelf as capable of correcting anything or pointing out any flaws in her work. We'll just go with it. She's cheap and I'm pretty much the worst housekeeper this side of the border.

Kyle's rotations are going well. They're doing Endocrine and Nutrition right now. Not too exciting, but probably pretty useful. He starts Internal Medicine in a couple of weeks.

I'm thinking that catches things up for us. . .did I leave Addie out? Um, she's cute, her hair is growing, and she loves to inform us of all the things that 4 and a half year olds can do. Today Guthrie was noticing a billboard advertising for a gym with a picture of an oily, sculpted woman flexing and posing. Adeline said my legs looked like hers. Guthrie disagreed and said that the lady had really small knees and really big thighs and that my legs did NOT looks like hers (compliment???). He laughed his head off and said, "Mom, why does she look like that." I could not even answer before Addie said, "She got her dream body from exercising." Yes - she said dream. I think there must be a SpongeBob episode about that.

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

working hard or hardly working

I went to bed last night knowing that this morning I was on a tight schedule. I need to get some work done, but I also need to get the last our junk put away so the cleaning girl can come whip the rest of the place into shape (and help scrape off that final layer of dust that I have YET to clean from the endless vacay). Somehow I am finding myself perusing blogs rather than working, which I originally scheduled to be completely finished by noon. Its noon, and I have to stop now so I can clean. and I didn't work nearly enough. and now I'll have to work later. when I didn't want to. *sigh*

Last night Kyle was on one of his eternal phone calls to the cable company to complain about our internet being down. all. day. Suddenly his eyes get wide and he motions for me to come stand by him. I'm pretty confused, but I'm also very obedient. I walk up to him and he points for me to look in the corner. I am still not seeing what he is pointing at when he whispers, "Black widow." EWWWWWWWW! The most giantest, disgustingest, poisonest spider is just chilling butt-side up to show us his lovely red hourglass shape. Of course, I'm freaked and determined that we must kill it. Now. but not me. him. Of course, Kyle just keeps on keepin' on with the cable company. It was my self-appointed job to sit there and stare at the spider to make sure that it didn't plan a stealthy escape and crawl immediately up the stairs where it would ravage my three innocent children - or me - gag. For some reason, I wasn't worried about it biting Kyle. I guess he's just the big, strong, invincible man in our lives. Or it would serve him right.

Finally Kyle finished with the Tele-CRAP-le (Telecable) and whipped out his trusty can of raid, which coincidentally had just finished off a half-dollar-sized distant relative of this spider's yesterday and we proceeded to watch in some kind of sick pleasure as the spider died. Now I am adamant that the whole house needs sprayed but of course we can't do that because I have no way of knowing what the heck chemical they would be spraying and there's no way I'm letting a bug guy, in a country that still uses known carcinogens for pesticide on their crops, spray my entire house with invisible poison. (Yet, I have no problem using Raid for isolated incidents. go figure. risks and benefits, my friends).

Now that it is 12:04, I'm going to have to move on to phase II of this morning - operation clear clutter.

Thanks for being my time-suck, dear blog.

Question:

How was your first full day back in Mexico??

Answer:
Lonely.

Probably not what Kyle was expecting, but I was getting pretty acustomed to having friends and family around ALL the time to keep me and the kids company. I guess I have to start entertaining my kids again - it was sure nice when other people did it for me. :)

I got a lot done today - but not nearly enough. Most of the suitcases and boxes are unpacked but I have a million piles everywhere of things I can't figure out where to place.

We're having pepper-crusted maple salmon for dinner tonight. I even made black beans because I just read an article about how they are one of the seven super foods. Super, eh?

The hospital seemed to go well for Kyle and now we're back to the study grind.

It will be nice when all the semesters get started and our lunches get going again. The kids have another month of summer break - we're going to need to keep busy.