October...

This could be a lengthy, newsy sort of post... I started it on Tuesday, but here we are on Friday and I'm still trying to finish it!

(Does anyone else find the new photo uploader in blogger to be difficult to use? I'll do my best with the photos, but no promises I'll post them all. I will happily accept tips on how to use this new uploader better.)

Evelyn is in a k-1 split class. She is technically in Kindergarten again. It's okay though...I guess. To quote Evelyn "You get what you get, so don't complain" I am pretty sure she heard that first from one of her parents. While it's sort of a cute quip, I always feel a little sad when she says it. Why should she settle? Why NOT desire the moon and expect to get it? As long as you can be gracious if things don't work out...I'll ponder this a bit more I think.

She has made a few friends in the class. She's had a couple playdates, and I hope to arrange a few more in the coming weeks. Her class welcomes parent volunteers to read with the kids each morning from 9-9:30 and younger siblings can come and play in the room during that time. So, On days I don't work, I've been able to meet a few of her classmates and read with them.

We are loving our house and neighborhood. It's very friendly and has a lot of young families. We are also very central to shopping and recreation so it's pretty perfect. The kids will be starting swimming lessons next week on Tues and Thurs for 5 weeks. Anyone who needs a christmas gift idea - lessons would be wonderful! I hope to be able to keep them in lessons for the rest of the year, but they fill up fast!

I'm still working on getting Ethan together with similarly aged kids. We've met a couple at the school that play for a bit after their older siblings are dropped off. I also just found a day care that we will be using starting next week. She has 2 other 4 yr olds that Ethan will meet. He's been discovering and LOVING Lego lately. Ryan lets him have a set or two at a time (Star Wars and Toy Story) and he gets to play with the basic set downstairs with Daddy too. Loosing Lego is his biggest punishment right now. Most days, while Evelyn is at school, he will quietly play with his cars, figures, or Lego. We fit a little `school` type stuff in there too. 

We`ve found a church that meets in a movie theatre. It`s called The Meeting Place and is affiliated with the Baptist Church. It`s a very young and contemporary congregation. Ryan has gone more often than I have because I`ve had to work. He likes the speaker and says he can keep focused on the talk the whole time. We haven`t really met anyone there yet though, and likely won`t until we join some sort of group. The music is of a really high caliber also. Both kids love going. Last week, Ethan got to take a super hero cape and mask home as they are talking about super heroes. He wore them all around the mall and at home that day. It was close to the cutest thing ever.

Ryan is enjoying his class. Having all boys has changed the dynamic of how he structures his lessons. So far, it seems to be a very positive experience. His class has a blog that he updates to keep the parents in the loop. He has received some really great feed back from the kids. Apparently, according to some of his students, `He is the best teacher - ever!` He has also had parents ask him for prayer requests and has been told that families are praying for him. How totally amazing it that! He is finding, however, that his planning time and teaching load is far more than the 0.6 he was hired on for. He teaches all the core subjects in the morning all of them require a lot of planning. He`s probably teaching more like a 0.8 position for time.

I`m settling into work. The fact that I love being a nurse makes it easy for me to grow to love most jobs that I have. I`m starting to know my co-workers and the bureaucracy of  the environment is starting to make a bit of sense to me. It is still nutty and confusing though. I continue to be amazed and impressed with the caliber of nurses that I am working with. I`ve been consciously praising people when they do something well, and I have the impression it`s a bit like water to a parched garden. I`ve heard the positive things I`ve told people repeated by others when the person has come up in conversation and I know it`s appreciated. There is a sort of nit-picky, fault-finding atmosphere there with some of the senior staff, so praise and graciousness is well overdue.

Ryan went down to Seattle a couple weeks ago to see a Mariners game. He bought tickets soon after we decided to move. It turned out the timing was not ideal, but he made it work (with the help of his Mom - Thank-you!) He went down with his friend Scott (his best man at our wedding) they enjoyed them selves. The following week, he had to go to Vancouver for 2 nights for the Christian Teachers Association conference. Again, the timing was horrible because I was working nights while he was gone! Again, his Mom came to the rescue and watched the kids while I was at work.

Our babysitter Emily asked me to keep an ear out for alternate child care, and she was unable to cover some days next week. So, this morning, I asked the school secretary if she knew anyone. She gave my number to one woman. She was not available, but gave me another woman to try. That person is able to take the kids!! She`s about a 15-20 min walk from our house, but I think I can manage to drop the kids off before work. She`ll drop off Evelyn, then keep Ethan until Ryan picks him up in the afternoon. The bonus is that Ethan can go there to play while I sleep when I`m on nights! We will go and meet her this afternoon (before I nap before work).

We were able to had down one evening for a birthday dinner for Ryan`s Dad and Aunt. It was the first time the entire side of that family has been together since...well, almost a decade! It was exciting because there are now 2 new baby boys (Tyson and Matthew) to enjoy as both Ryan`s sister and his cousin had little boys this past July.

We have been enjoying the humming birds at our feeder outside the dining room, and we`ve taken in 4 garden snails to watch and care for. We took several books about snails from the library and have become snail experts! I think though that they are going into hibernation now. Also, Ethan has reached the magical 40 lb mark which means he can use a booster seat! So, he has Evelyn`s old one, and she graduated to a smaller seat. 

And that`s all I have time for now!