Mexico Part 17: Year 1 Completed, School Birthday and a Haircut

We have officially finished our first year of med school in Mexico. Okay, so technically, it hasn't been difficult on me, but I know that this has been a lot of work for Matthew. We came back to Oregon for the summer. He gets four weeks of vacation and while the flights are expensive we had to come back home to see Cathryn, Matthew's sister, came back from serving an 18 month mission for our church and my brother Ricky get married. We are enjoying our time here. We came in on Sunday, and thankfully the kids were pretty good on both flights. We had to get them up really early in the morning because we flew out at 7 am, but to much to our surprise when we got to the airport, we were apparently flying out at 6:45 and we arrived at about 6:15. The flight people weren't to happy with us. And while we purposefully, like to show up a little late to the airport, we didn't mean to show up that late. It was a miracle we were able to get on the flight. We were literally the last ones to get on the plane, but thankfully we did. Then when we flew into Phoenix, I think we blew it because they were offering money to take a later flight. the airlines overbooked the flight, and I couldn't do it. Do you know how you want to, but the thought of having kids break down on you because you changed what was going to work for you wasn't my idea of having fun. So, we didn't take the money and instead flew in to Portland and we were all super tired. We recovered quickly though and are having a great time. We split up the trip to spend two weeks in Sisters and two weeks in Hillsboro. I decided to stay an extra week with the kids and fly alone so I will spend that week with my parents. Even though it seems like a long time to be away, it does go by quickly. While on our vacation we have been sleeping the kids in the same room, and I have been surprised how well it has worked. They both go to bed pretty happy. At first they were so excited to be in the same room that it took them a while to fall asleep but now they seem to be fine. In fact, the other day Elijah didn't have his sister with him to take a nap and he was pretty sad. I might have to move them into the same room when we go back to Guadalajara. There really is no need for it, but we might do it if it will make them happier. I will have to wait and see.

The common question I get now that I am not working full time is if I miss it. And what I often tell people is no. I miss my coworkers who are my good friends, and the kids but I don't miss what it means to work. All my friends who work know what I am talking about. I don't miss getting the kids up early in the morning to rush them to daycare, then be late to pick them up because I had a late meeting. I don't miss rushing home to make dinner to a bunch of grumpy children because I just got home and that is their job apparently, to be grumpy. Or quickly get them into the bathtub only to put them to bed and do it all again in the morning. Nope, I don't miss that. This year, I have learned instead that I love my free time. I have watched a TON more t.v., learned to love my sewing machine, read some more books, and hang with the kids. I have even gone on more dates with Matthew. Since we hardly get time together, we have made it more of a point to go out together and that's been fun. We'll see what next year in med school brings me. Hopefully, more good times and less stress. I sure I will have more good times, but I am not to hopeful on the stress part.

Before we left Mexico we celebrated Eva's birthday at school. She knew it wasn't her "real" birthday, but she still thinks she's already five. Whoops, that won't happen until July 14th, but she asked me all year when she was going to have her birthday party at school so I had no choice but to do it before we left. The kids in Mexico are actually still in school. They get out the first week of July, but with Matthew starting school then we couldn't wait for her to get out. She originally wanted a strawberry shortcake party, but I couldn't find a strawberry in my cricut stuff. I convinced her instead to do a bunny party because for the last couple weeks leading up to her birthday she couldn't stop talking about bunnies. So, we had a bunny party. We had a bunny cake, because I lost on that one. I really wanted to do bunny cupcakes, but she refused, saying that all the kids had cakes, so she had to have a cake too. But as you can see the bunny split right open. The roads in Mexico are horrible, and my little cake couldn't handle the bumpy ride. It looked cute at home.

                                      

And, the last thing that happened before we left home, was I chopped off Eli's hair. I think he looks younger, but most people say he looks older. Maybe I am just in denial, because I can see that he looks more like a little boy, than my baby. Now we have just been practicing how to get him from one end of the room to another with a pillow in hand, since he is going to be the ring bearer at my brother's wedding and I think he will be adorable. That's all for now.