A New Routine

The weeks are sure going by quickly. We have all kept busy with school, gymnastics, chores, homework, and just spending time with all our family. It's funny how natural it seems to wander over to my mom's house with the kids and waste away hours and hours of time with her. I can hardly believe that only a few months ago we were still in Mexico and could only dream of it. :)

The kids really seem to be liking their school. Guthrie has a minor case of sour grapes and likes to complain - but he does great in class and I know he has fun once he gets there every day. Adeline wouldn't dream of missing school for anything. She walks out the door with a smile on her face and comes home with a (slightly tired and sweaty) smile on her face. She is just too bubbly for words.

Sullivan has been doing well in his little preschool and even learned to sing his ABCs in exchange for a sucker. :p

Truman is at a great age. He is almost 6 months now. He tries really hard to sit up and can balance for a moment before he topples over. He learned how to get up on his hands and knees and seems to have a compulsion to do it anytime he feels his stomach on the floor. This makes nap times a challenge because he sleeps on his tummy and he has to get VERY tired before he can resist the urge to practice his new skill and actually settle into sleep. We have also given him his first solid foods and he is CRAZY in love with it. Now I just have to deal with one more thing to do each day. Luckily, he doesn't mind too much if I substitute more nursing for the solid food at this point during a busy day. I know that not too far in the future that will probably change.

Kyle is in Pittsburgh getting ready to take his next board exam. He is scheduled for two weeks from today and then he'll fly home to Arizona the following Saturday. I can hardly believe that we have made it nearly 3 full months without him home. Funny that I originally thought I could handle a whole year on my own. Consider me SCHOOLED and we will definitely be dragging the whole family to New York for the last part of this sub-internship (nifty word meaning year to work like an intern only pay tuition to make it happen).

As for me - I won't sugar coat it - I've been pretty psycho. It has just kicked my trash to be the caregive of kids, tender of household duties, cleaner of car (okay I didn't do that, but I still had to feel guilty about not doing it, so it added to the burden), payer of bills, taker outer of trash, DVRer of kids cartoon (I broke a sweat with that one), etc. and so forth. Not to mention the working on top of it - but I am so thankful to have a job that let's me make the money without daycare, and driving, and clocking in, etc. On calm days, it just makes me happy to get it all done. On PMSy days, I go on survival mode. You can tell which day it is by looking at the house. Apparently, I've been on survival mode for a while. ("Why is she typing this instead of doing her dishes?")

We had a great labor day weekend in Pinedale with Kyle's family. It was a last minute decision to head up there and I don't really regret it. THEY might regret letting us come - but really the kids had a great, dirt-filled weekend and I did as little as possible, which was actually very little (Sorry guys).

And then there were 33. . .

days until its really over. No really, this time I mean it. NEVER AGAIN. Seriously.

Yeah, I don't exactly believe me either.

Off to the airport to send him on back. I swear when he comes back next month that I will permanently kiss my license-to-single-parent goodbye! I am, however, going to plan something big. Something expensive. Something completely unattainable and far off in the future and big - did I already say that? Well, it will be big. And it will completely erase the pain, depression, stress, heart ache, and stress - did I already say that? Well, it will. It will erase them from my overworked, frazzled, single-parented brain. and heart.

:) The Bahamas?

Photography class.

We (Ash, me, mom) are taking a little weekend photography class. We all have decent cameras, but none of us knew how to use them properly. It has been amazingly enlightening to learn how to manually manipulate our settings - and it has also given us all a new respect for photographers. After only one 4-hour lesson, we are all able to take a test shot and based on the result, change our settings to get a great picture. We still have more to learn about lighting, staging, composition, etc. - but I love that now we can take a picture and keep the focus only on our subject with the background out of focus. Supposedly our last class will show us some photoshop techniques to help us round out our skills.

School Rules!

We are so excited to be back in school this year. Adeline started Kindergarten. If you ask her what grade she is in, she says, "No grade, just Kindergarten." :) She loves the whole school concept - can't wait to wake up, make her bed, get dressed, run away from me at the door, etc. I just envy her enthusiasm to start the day.

Grandma Hunter has a tradition to take the new Kindergartener for a shopping trip. They picked up a few school clothes after a yummy breakfast together.


Mrs. Pierce is Addie's teacher for the first month while her real teacher, Mrs. Iraci, is out on maternity leave. Both teachers are very sweet.

Guthrie is moving up to the second grade. He is so excited to get into school again after missing the last month of the previous school year. His teacher, Ms. Palmer, is very sweet. We're hoping he can learn not to talk in class - but if that doesn't work, maybe she'll love him for his brains.We had fun at "Meet the Teacher Night."

Their first morning. I totally dig having uniforms -makes the getting dressed part a snap.

We signed all the kids up for gymnastics for the three-month stint that we'll be here. Sullivan and Caelan had their first class on Monday morning. It was a total hit! (Pictures were taken through the observation window - not the best.)

We all LOVE having Mallory take care of our hair needs. :) She trimmed, colored and cut more than her fair share of heads this week. We LOVE you, Mallory, and we all think you're the best beauty school girl, ever. :)

Guthrie decided to read for 30 minutes instead of the required 20 - He definitely doesn't get that from my genes. Well, maybe the love of reading - but definitely NOT the whole 'above and beyond' thing.

Never to be left out - Sullivan is "reading" too.

Aunt Ashley told me that he stunk. I swear he smelled like roses - but if making him stinky gets her to bathe him then stinky he will be.

My kids are seriously doomed when it comes to soda. I pray that Sonic's $0.99 drink deal never ends. We even left a comment for the manager at Sonic here in town. "We will come here for corndogs for the kids as long as you keep the dollar drinks. Otherwise, your food kind of stinks and we'll have to go elsewhere." Think it will make a difference?

Look at his face in this one - it looks like its made of moldable clay or something. hahaSullivan cried when I dropped the kids off this morning (day 2). I told him that was the "big kids' school" and I would take him to the "little kid school." His response was a crying, "I'm not little!!!"

Thankfully he forgot all about it when we pulled up to his "school." We are so excited for him to be in preschool this year. :)

Someone techy

Will someone PLEASE tell me how to fix my pictures? They're all cut-off with weird white borders. Poo

. . .

I have put a lot of thought into how exactly to start this. . .which words to use. . .how to convey what I'm really feeling. . .
The words just fail me. This is SO hard. I don't want to whine - so that's the extent of my essay on life without Kyle.

We escaped the heat last weekend, which thrilled the kids. They spent a lot of time outdoors and seemed to enjoy it.

Aunt Ashley is a pretty rockin' baby soother. She's training him to chill on the couch.

My beyond cute cousin, Kassie.

Me and Tru.

That's not scary at all. Not even a little bit. Okay, its REALLY scary. G went with Gma and Gpa to shoot guns, something he does often, but somehow always when I'm not around. Probably better that way.

S'mores around the firepit.

Addie and her head tilt.

Just funny. All those chins are courtesy of 4+ months of breast milk so far. I'm pretty proud of that considering that I've wanted to stop nursing him every day since Kyle left. We're still hangin' in there - probably because he won't take a bottle. Someday I'll thank him for that.

Next FHE lesson: Chivalry

My cute mom.

Checkin' the tonsils. Yep, lookin' good.

Addie G and her cousins, Ainsley and Caelan.

Sometimes. . .

Sometimes I think that if Addie drops one more breakable item I am going to scream.

But then she does, and I don't. or maybe sometimes I do.

Go figure.

I keep not blogging because there is just too much to catch up on. I'm working on that. :)

MWAH!

Going Private

Just 'cause.

If I don't already have your email address, leave it in comments and I'll add you. Heck, even if you think I have it, leave it in comments or email me because I'm WAY not organized like that.

:)

The Update - Part 2 (photos)

The Update :)

I have a whole new respect for single parents. Especially those who don't get to live next to their all-too-helpful sisters and mothers. :) I have been thinking about updating my blog, but whenever I had time, I was lacking brain power and vice versa.

THE LATEST:

* Kyle drove with us back to ARizona. (Who am I kidding? - he actually DROVE the entire way because his wife is slightly stay-awake-at-the-wheel impaired and his 6-week-old son was stay-in-the-carseat-without-crying-for-food impaired. It was a LONG 25 hours). We landed at my parents' house and it only took about four hours for us to realize that staying with them was definitely NOT going to be a long-term solution to our ARizona time. We started a hunt for homes. We looked at exactly one house before we rented it. I guess we're not really bargain hunters. Also, the house was fine, the price was as low as they get, and it was only 2 blocks from my mom and about 6 blocks from my sister. Closer is better when I'm on my own. Kyle left back to Mexico, driving with our friend Jimmy, about 36 hours later. Bummer.

He arrived in Mexico on Sunday night. School started back for him on Wednesday, then was pushed to Thursday, finally pushed to Friday. He showed up at school long enough for him to take the two finals that completed his 8th semester classes - and also long enough for the governor of Jalisco to hold a press conference closing all of the states schools and universities due to three swine flu deaths in the last 24 hours. I love facebook because I saw the news in someone's status, checked the Guadalajara Reporter to confirm it was true, and had already checked plane tickets before Kyle even called me. He was on the plane the next morning at 7:00 am, and in Arizona by 8:00 our time. We had an entire week together - even more peaceful because my father-in-law took the three older kids to his cabin with him. It was a STRANGE week, for sure.

He returned to MX on Sunday the 17th, just in time to find out that the school had cancelled his final rotations at the hospital due to the swine flu. He just had to turn in his paperwork and he was officially done with medical school. WOOHOO! He could have come right home except for the fact that the school has to have a valid visa on file prior to graduation and this is a little something we'd been putting off. So, he is still in Mexico trying to get the visa sorted out just in time to cancel it and come back home - but whatever.

* Guthrie never did get registered in school. The elementary school right here in the neighborhood was adamant that they get his records from the school in Mexico prior to letting him start. The whole swine flue closing of the school made that a nightmare, so it just never happened. The charter school would have let him start, but their first grade classes were completely full. The poor kid has just been stuck at home the last few weeks - but whatchagonna do?

* Adeline started (And will be finishing this week) Pre-K at a cute little home preschool run by a gal in our ward. She loves it. It's only two days a week for three hours, a drastic difference from her school in MExico, but she's probably learning more in those three hours that she did in the whole week down there, so we'll take the little bit we can get. I registered both kids for school at the charter school in town. I am greatly looking forward to a five-minute drive to/from school versus last year's 30-minute drive each way.

* Sullivan is just chillin' with me and Truman. He likes to tell everyone his nicknames (Trumanski, Tapatio, Tru Tru Train, etc.) He also likes to punch him; "I punch him soft, mommy," followed by a slow-mo punch. Kinda funny.

* Truman is super sweet, fat, and smiley. He actually LIKES HIS PACIFIER!!! YAY! I think it took a lot of work to make it happen, but now my mom, Ash, and I can all get him to sleep with the paci instead of nursing.

* I had been working my two different jobs for the first few weeks we were here. After semi-coming unglued last week, I had to give notice to the one job. Since I was only doing overflow for the other, my stress level has been reduced significantly. I'll be picking up more work now in the near future, but am hoping that with Kyle here for the next month it won't be so bad.

Arizona is HOT, as always, but I really like being back in the states. I miss my Don Miguelon Tacos :( and my husband (not in that order), but someday we'll go back to visit. Maybe. If I'm ready.