Bavaria

Just wanted to send a little blog along to my family. First of all Cortney and Rodger, I hope you have a wonderful wedding. What an amazing experience. I got my invitation the other day and you two are gorgeous. Joanie, you have given your girls the best gift you could ever possibly give them. I don't want to sound patronizing or anything but I am so proud of you. You are wonderful.

Tony, Happy Late Birthday!! I hope it was a fun one. I know that darling wife of yours probably took great care of you.

So, the fastest way to put Sawyer to sleep (when nursing doesn't do it) is to wrap him in his blanket, lay him in the middle of my bed and turn on Cold Play really loud. It works wonders. You can't be there with him though. At night he'll normally just lay here beside me while I e-mail Mike and fall asleep but today he found his feet so he keeps kicking off his blanket to play with his toes. He thinks they are great. Now he's moving his head to angle himself for easy eye contact, just laying in my lap as happy as a clam. I ADORE this kid, you know, just like I adore his sisters.

Life continues to stay busy and get busier. I pulled Jane out of school today. She's going to homeschool for at least a quarter and see what she thinks. I have not had any problems with her teachers. Actually, they love her. But this is a rough school. Not to sound like an elitist but I wouldn't be putting my kid in this school if we were in the states. Every day she is getting picked on, multiple horrible things said to her and it's kids in general, not just one or two. I was talking to a friend tonight and she said her son was facing the same problem. They have a very religious family and her kid is a straight arrow and I think these kids are really more likely to be ridiculed. Even more so than at a normal middle school (because we all know that m.s. sucks). I can't think of what else it would be, Jane's cute, she wears cute clothes, she's funny, and she has some really good friends. So I don't really know if Jane was a target or if it is just a general condition but it was really bad and I kept trying to have her stick it out and stick up for herself and then it was disturbing me because asking her to have an attitude or make snide comments (not insults)back went against so much of what Jane is- a good, sweet girl and it wasn't working anyway. She has her faults too, we know she can be a little drama, but her moral compass is finely tuned and I don't want that to go away. It isn't our parenting, trust me.

Not to compare but a funny little example of that would be this- just the other day Sadie was complaining that she didn't get a sweetheart at the end of the day because she wasn't being good but she couldn't because she and Sophia were having too much fun. The story of her life

Anyway, day one went really well but it was English and Social Studies and P.E., tomorrow is math and science and French (the language of choice)but the good news is that her math teacher sent me her whole curriculum and her on-line textbook and their schedule (I told you her teachers love her). So hopefully it will all work out.

It's funny but in some ways I feel like I'm becoming the mom that I always pictured that I would be. Really careful about my kids nutrition, very earth conscious (you have to be over here), very involved in enriching their education (I always wanted to home-school until I realized I couldn't teach the real fundamentals and that I didn't want my kids to be dorks-maybe that hasn't worked). Maybe the Lord knew I was too lazy to do it on my own- not that I wasn't concerned about all of these things to a certain extent but never to the level that I felt comfortable. Aren't you all so glad that you get to read all of my babble- yikes. I will get off of here before I bore you to death. You can just be happy I don't have time to blog very often.

Ellynn, Jane is studying Greece soon and we need to go "enrich." Don't back out babe.

Have fun this weekend. I will miss you all. Love, me