My once a year blog.

Hello everyone, if there is an everyone anymore. I haven't blogged in quite a while as you can tell and life has changed quite a bit.  I am back at school working on a degree in Art and Art Education.  I am really enjoying my classes.  This is something I have wanted to do for a long time, but was too scared to go for it.  If I would have gotten my degree when I was younger, I would not have gotten a degree in art.  I would have done what my parents thought was a more practical degree, so it's worked out for the best and actually my parents are really happy that I'm doing what I want to do. 

My son is in the first grade, so I go to school while he's at school.  It's working out pretty well.  I am enjoying my classes, but miss the free time I had last year.  When my son was in Kindergarten I volunteered in his classroom constantly and was PTO vice President.  I definately don't have that kind of time these days, but I still work in his classroom once a week and get called to help out the PTO. 

This winter my husband organized a trip to London and Paris for students. He's a college professor.  My son and I went too.  We had a great time. I had never been to London or Paris, so it was a great experience.  We spent five days in London and five days in Paris.  We were in Paris on New Years Eve!!

Well that's all for now

Hope everyone is well

It has been almost 2 years since I have written!  It is so nice to see that my blog ring is still going strong with new Stay at home moms joining all the time.   Jackson is almost 6 and is in kindergarten now.  It has been strange without him here with me during the day.  It has been hard to send him out into the world.  He absolutely loves it.  It wears him out, but he loves it.

 We spent 5 months in Madrid, Spain and returned in July of this it. year.  We loved it.  We were in Madrid when the trains were bombed, but even that didn't change the way we felt about Madrid. My husband recieved a fulbright award to teach at the Universidad de Complutense in Madrid.  We lived in a completely Spanish neighborhood a block away from the bullring.   It was a life-changing experience and it has been really difficult to adjust to life at home, especially after the election.

We were able to see the United States as it appears to others outside of the United States and the opinion is really not that good.  I'm not sure how many Americans worry about stuff like that, but I do.  The people we met in Spain however, loved Americans, just not the American Government or it's policies. 

Before we left Spain we took a Spanish cruise on the Mediterrean.  We visited Tunisia (which was not a place I wanted to stand out in), Florence, Pompeii, Florence, Naples and Rome in Italy, then finally Monaco MonteCarlo and a small coastal village in France.  It was quite an experience.  We were surrounded by Spanish people and learned more Spanish during that 10 days than I had in 4 months I had been in Madrid. 

Well it has really been forever since I have written anything.  We are all moved in and are enjoying the new house. It is amazing how easy it is to get used to a new place. We lived in our other house for 8 years and I really don't miss it at all.  I thought I would, but I don't.
   We have been decorating and shopping for Christmas. Steve attempted Christmas lights outside, but got pissed because only half of them worked. (he found this out after getting them up) Don't ask me why he didn't check before. He does have a PHD you know...hee hee.
    Jackson has been a bit of a pain. We took him to see Treasure planet last night. He was so good during the whole movie. Then when we got ready to leave he decided he wanted to play tug-of-war with his shirt. We were trying to leave so we could go out for dinner. He wouldn't give us the shirt, he wouldn't put his coat on. Threw a great big fit and when we decided we weren't going to go to the restaurant he screamed the whole way home "I want chinese food".  After we got home he calmed down.  Then I told him it was time to get ready for bed. He always makes bedtime a little difficult. He tries to drag it out as long as he can. I told him if he did this, he was not getting a bed time story. Well guess what, he didn't get a bed time story and he cried in bed for at least 30 minutes for a story. Anyway by the end of the night Steve and I were both at the end of our ropes. Jackson is really a very good kid and I think that is what makes his occasional fits so hard to take. He is stubborn, just like me and Steve.
   Boy parenting is hard. Does anyone ever know what they are doing? I mean  it seems like the plans Steve and I had about how we were going to be as parents and what we wanted to teach Jackson have really fallen away.  I feel like Jackson pretty much runs the show and I am a little tired of it. I don't want him to turn out to be a spoiled brat. 
    I also removed the presents from the Christmas tree that I had put out for him. I told him that he was going to have to earn them back. Do you think that he is too young for this? He will be 4  at the end of January.

Well I hope that everyone is having a good holiday season so far.
Take Care

Well it has been forever since I have posted anything. Life has been a  little busy and I always find it hard to get to the computer during the summer. Well now it's fall, although by the weather we are having you would never know it.

Jackson is in preschool two days a week and I am loving the little bit of free time I have. He absolutely loves it. It's only for 2 1/2 hours 2 days a week and I think he would just as soon stay there all day.

We have been trying to sell our house and we are closing on a new one today. We are really excited. It's a new house just outside of town and it's in a neighborhood of 1 acre lots. The house is bank owned because the builder/developer filed bankruptcy so we got an awesome deal on it. One we just couldn't pass up.  I think we probably will rent out our current house and try again to sell it next spring.

I think that is all that is happening in my life right now. I hope that everyone is doing well. I have been reading just not writing.

Hello there, did you forget me?  I can't believe I haven't written since May 8th. Well we just got back this week from vacation in Cape Cod. We were gone almost 4 weeks.  We stayed in the most adorable cottage just a few steps from the beach. The weather was good for the most part. We had a few chilly/ wet days but got to spend almost every day at the beach.  We took a ferry to Nantucket and spent the day going to shops, restaurants and beaches.  The temperature stayed around 75 degrees so we were in shock when we got home to 90 degree weather.  Well I hope that everyone is having a great summer and I'll try to write a little more often.