One morning a few weeks back, my husband and I woke up to find our house in utter ruin. Our two sons, the co-conspirators, got up early and instead of squeezing into bed with us and tormenting us with their cold feet as usual, they thought they'd be "nice" and let us sleep in. So when I opened my eyes at about 9:00, I just knew something was wrong. I don't think I had even gotten as far as the doorway before I screamed. I won't tell you what all we found that day, but one of the larger messes was a whole bottle of liquid soap that had been poured out onto the carpet. I went online to find out "how to get soap out of carpet" and one of the search results was for a blog entitled "The Reluctant Blogger," who apparently also had a soap-in-the-carpet incident.
Both of which make me wonder... how do the rest of you find the time to blog so frequently??? I know I've asked this before, but man, I can barely keep up with my life, let alone blog about it! It makes my brain hurt. I'd have deleted this account by now, only I always think to myself, "Tomorrow...I'll blog tomorrow." But as my faithful readers (aka. friends who check in on me wondering if I'll ever return) know, "tomorrow" never comes.
My last entry from July was actually an account of what happened in April, so that leaves May, June, July, August, and part of September unaccounted for. Originally, I was going to cover one month per post, but that idea has gone by the wayside. Here is the ultra-condensed version:
May: My mom flew back home in mid-May, and my husband's parents arrived less than two days later. A few days after that, a friend of ours from Arizona (along with two of his buddies) came to stay with us for a few days, as they were on a tour of Europe. In other words, we basically played Tour Guides for the entire month. The end of May marked our son Noah's third birthday, and we took him and his older brother to Craigtoun Country Park, a local recreational park that has a train, mini golf, canoes, bounce houses, and other fun family activities.
June: We started potty-training with our younger son in earnest, after countless failed attempts with his older brother. He seemed to be waiting for his big bro to go first, but it just wasn't happening and we both knew that Noah was ready even though Gabriel wasn't. Also during the month of June, I was assigned to a Home Start volunteer. Home Start is a charity in the UK that helps families with young children, so I filled out an application and got a volunteer in less than a few months. She's a lovely lady, not much older than my mom, who comes once a week to chat, play with the boys in the garden while I mop the floor, take us to the doctor if need-be, stuff like that. Otherwise, June was a pretty hum-drum month with lots of laundry (due to potty-training) and my husband was busy working on his Master's dissertation as well as earning money for our family at the local fish 'n' chips shop.
July: Work, work, work. Some time for play, but not much. There were a few BBQs, a baby shower, and a family date night. We ate sandwiches on the beach and then went to see the Disney/Pixar movie "Cars" at the cinema in town. Great movie -- can't wait 'til it comes out on DVD! Both of our boys love Lightning McQueen (aka. "Speed" or "Steve the Car").
August: I think Noah was fully potty-trained by August, even able to stay dry during naps and bedtime! School started up again, and this time Noah joined his big brother at nursery. Nursery here is kind of like preschool in the States, but a lot more common. And it's free. Kids start going when they're three and by the time they turn five, they go to P1, which is the equivalent of kindergarten. Unless you're homeschooling at this stage, your child will pretty much be expected to attend. Gabe and Noah are thrilled to be going together, and they are there from 9:00-11:30 every week day. Two and a half hours to myself, yippee! I had forgotten what "free time" was like! Jeremy finished writing his Master's dissertation at the end of the month, and we celebrated by going out for breakfast while the boys were at school. It was great. ;-)
Now we've finally reached the month of September! Phew! So far it has been a busy month. My husband and I just applied for discounted housing (due to medical and financial concerns), and in the meantime are living day-to-day life: working, being parents, attempting to potty-train our four-and-a-half-year-old (prayers, please!), and looking forward to when my husband can quit the "chippy" and start focusing on his PhD work and his fundraising job at the university. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he got a job with the uni! It's only ten hours a week, but since it's a 12-month contract and he's considered staff, he gets the staff tuition rate. I won't say what it is, but it is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper than what we had to pay last year.
So....that's it. All caught up now. Of course, that was the extremely slimmed-down history of our summer here in St. Andrews, but hey, that's what happens when you don't blog for months on end! Don't worry, I'll be back again in December! :-D
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