Niños son esponjas.

Children are sponges. At least that’s what everyone keeps telling me…

Who knew schooling would be so difficult? Bram has spent the last week home from school because he has a “fever”. He has no other symptoms of illness. He’s eating, playing, and picking on his brother…all as normal. Which led me to believe perhaps the fever is a symptom of something else? Everyone seems to have a story of how their child had a seeming illness and it turned out to be symptoms of stress or extreme dislike of a situation.

Between both boys, Bram seems to be the most sensitive to the language change we have experienced. Bram started formal school in January primarily in English, after the summer and the move, in October he started another school primarily in Spanish. It’s been a tough switch for him.

Part of me says I know that he will adapt, and that come this time next year he’ll most likely be perfectly fine. But it’s still hard to watch him get stressed out, and not be able to do much about it. We have decided to try and reduce the stress in the areas where we are in control, ie: long Metro rides, plenty of snacks, plenty of rest stops at parks along the way home. And try to be extra encouraging about the things we can’t change: the increase in the Spanish language surroundings, big city-ness, having to cross his legs during story time at school. :)

Part of being an officer’s kid is the possibility of a move when it is least expected. My boys didn’t pick this life, but God picked them for us.

Rise and Shine, Sweetheart

I remember when Karen came to speak to my MOPS group about being an Irritable Mother, perhaps that's why this lesson sticks out because that's what I am.

I confess I am a cranky mommy.

The boys have been coming into our room with toys blaring (Bless all you purchasers of loud toys for children not your own) every morning at precisely 6:30AM, sometimes a tad earlier but never later.... I don't know about you, but I HATE beginning my day this way. I like to wake up of my own accord. I could get up at 6:30 and be a completely pleasant person for the remainder of the day, but for some reason if I am bonked on the head by Spiderman's motorcycle or have Thomas's horn blown in my ear I tend to lose my composure for the remainder of the day.

If I am woken up, I'm crabby for pretty much the whole day, and then everyone suffers. If I get up (same time frame) on my own, I'm relatively normal. What is a girl to do?

Options:

1. go to bed at a decent hour and stop watching good TV shows (prime time starts at 10pm!)....ok, even mediocre television...side bar: I keep watching the "Hormiguero" show here in Spain, I have no idea what he's talking about most of the time...but the singing ant puppets make me laugh...

2. I could get up earlier than the boys.............um..............but 6:30 is my early.....

Ok, so I'm out of ideas....I think I'll read that book again....

Lots still to learn...

In honor of my birthday/anniversary today, and in the 4 year tradition of this Carr family, I purchased my own birthday cake. There is a French pastry shop near the corps that some new friends pointed out as being one of the best in town, so I bought a ridiculously expensive cake to celebrate. I warned my husband that perhaps the prices of my birthday cakes will just keep going up as the years go by.

It has been an interesting and exhausting week. On Tuesday the gate covering the door to the church would not go up. The volunteer that runs the thrift store was a stumped as Jeff and I. We decided that there was nothing we could do since Spain runs on its own hours, and nothing would be open. We'd have to wait until Wednesday. So, I went to the corps early Wednesday morning to wait for the locksmith. As he explained to me that it must have been a motor malfunction and that a breaker had been thrown, he continued to explain to me that there was no need to call a locksmith that I could have fixed this on my own. When he realized that the manual override was not working, he cracked open the pull down gate the width of a stair, looked at me in my uniform and said "Now, just shimmy up inside there, open the door, and go flip the breaker." I said "No." So, he shimmied up inside, and well...opened the door. I think he felt sorry for us for making us pay for something that we could have done ourselves apparently if we had only known. He said he cut me a break on the cost...he said. The gate is still not completely working, but we're trying to make it work.

Today, the I learned what an asset my two boys can really be. People stop me on the street regularly just to talk to the boys. Mind you, the boys still don't respond to Spanish, but people are just so "attracted" to them. And this worked in my favor at the bank today while trying to open an account. The girls establishing my account were so enamoured with my two little flirts that they were extremely helpful to me.

We also found the local market. And I even bought homemade meatballs from a local butcher. We located the mall, and as Jeff says, it makes you feel a little less isolated. Being surrounded by mountains, in a small town, you can begin to feel like nothing really exists outside of you. We're still learning our way around town, and have become incredibly grateful for our Christmas purchase of a GPS. Now, if only I could figure out how to get around inside the grocery stores (nothing's placement makes sense to me yet).

And to top off the birthday/anniversary celebration we went to McDonald's Playplace. The boys had been in the strollers or car for the majority of the day so I wanted to give them a chance to run off some energy. Bram has yet to realize that the kids here don't speak his language. He came to me very frustrated this evening "I told the grills (girls) my name is Bramwell" He was upset that they didn't acknowledge him. And earlier at the thrift store a little girl, around his age, kept holding Bram's face trying to make him understand her. He kept looking at me like she was crazy. He's memorized a greeting phrase so far. And I think he's catching on that he'll get more of a response with 'Hola' than 'Hello'.

And as a great birthday gift: we recieved news today that our shipment of belongings should arrive within the next week!

T-minus 10 days.....

Why do all the crazy things happen in the last few moments? Our technology investments (GPS, digital camera, and digital camcorder) were all stolen from our van two weeks before we move. I am incredibly thankful for great insurance that allowed us to replace it all before we moved!!

It's down to the wire now. We are busy scrubbing our house top to bottom, organizing linen closets, arranging for carpet cleaners, etc, etc. Even Jonas is helping out! We move out in a week and go into a slight holding pattern.

The first couple of weeks in July we head off to Canada for a MissionPREP conference. I'm looking forward to going, I've never been to Canada...there are just a few other couples attending the conference with us, so it should be nice.

Still no official "official" word on where in Spain we will be landing or when, but we've been given the most likely destination of Denia. So, we're packing plenty of swimsuits.

I have been trying to transition our family into a Spanish lifestyle schedule. We eat lunch at 2:00, dinner around 8:00, and the boys go to bed around 9:30. Now, granted, this is not exactly the schedule Spanish children follow, but we're breaking into it. Baby steps. This has been a hard transition for our family. Most of our family and friends look at us like we're crazy for even changing our lifestyle. We felt that it would be easier to make this change now, rather than dealing with time, jet lag, language, and lifestyle all at the same time. Each day is a little better. I have to keep reminding myself that the boys will need a couple weeks to ease into it, so I just have to endure extra tantrums and whining for a while.

It's exciting to think of all the possibilities that await us on the otherside of the ocean... It's sad to leave our family and friends, but we look forward to the new friends and adventures that await us.