Another fun day.

This week has gone so very fast! Wed night we met up with my friend Jill and her trio of boys who are all friends of Ethan for a night at the Newport Aquarium. It was VERY cool. At the end of the ex hibits there is a shark petting tank (yes, you read that right!). The boys were out of their minds with the chance to PET a real, live shark-or many real live sharks. The ML did NOT take part in such activities as it is just not her thing. Oh, ick! I am glad to report however that the baby llama thought it very cool and enjoyed it oh so very much. Well, other than the leaping shark, but that's a story for another post! We are down to three days and I'm having such a mix of emotions that it's like alien PMS. I'm told that this is normal-gee, got to love normal. I'm still not all the way packed but at least I'm about half way there. Today we went to the Children's museum in Indy. Way fun. More later as the BL needs his Mama.
Mama Triste.

Do you fondue?

Ahhhhhhhh, I am way too full. Last night Jill and I had a "girls night out". We had planned on other friends coming but various things changed that. (We missed you girls!). My Mom watched the baby llama and Jill's DH watched her three boys. We did some shopping (got to love bookstores) and the Baby Llama scored another Magic School Bus video and a Raffi in Concert video. Somehow Raffi doesn't bother me the way that some kids groups do. He's very mellow. I kind of think of him as being th e Peter, Paul, and Mary of kiddy bands. I got a fluffy novel and also a travelog of the UK. I am such a dork, who reads travel stuff? (Um, me). Anyway, we also went to see "The Devil Wears Prada". It is such a must see. Chick flick for sure, but so vey funny and good. More shopping and then we finished up the night by going to The Melting Pot. Oh my goodness, soooooooo very good. I think we were both about to roll out of there. It was a really good night out with someone who has become such a good friend. It's great that our kids are good friends too! We're in a Fulbright holding pattern with less than a week to go. I should be ironing and packing not blogging.
Ta,
ML

No!

No, no, no, no, no! You can't make me go. Okay, so I'm feeling a bit like a two year old here. Sitting at my computer, with the baby llama in bed, I think I'm starting to feel the reality of going somewhere far, far, away for six months. Will we have fun-I'm sure. Will we both learn tons-I'm sure. It's just that I'm going to miss my family and friends here so much. How hard will it be to fight with my Mom from six thousand miles away (just kidding Mom!). I have such a great family and I love them so much, it's going to be really hard to be away from them. Then there are my friends. They keep me sane. We have late night phone chats. We talk about hard things, and funny things and everything in between. I'll miss them too. I think posting this has reminded me how very lucky I am in so many ways.
Que Dios Te Bendiga,
Mama Llama, la triste.

11 days......

Well folks, the time is near! We leave in 11 days for DC. Then from DC we leave on Aug. 5 for Belfast. I had a great conversation with a former student/friend of Carol's yesterday. Zara is heading to Mexico for her gap year and working with a local group in the Cuernavaca area. I love the idea of a "gap" year between HS and college where one can go see part of the world and do some good works along the way. It's much harder to do that sort of thing after you have a job and family. I'm really excited to be this close. The to-do list continues to grow-must start packing soon! I had a great talk last night with Reggie from Alabama. We met at the Fulbright Chicago pre-orientation and he's also going to Belfast. He seems like such a nice guy and we talked like we've known each other for years. He's going to be working with special ed in the Belfast area. We know of one other teacher coming to the area and he is another Spanish teacher from Arizona. Have not met him, but I have a feeling that the "Belfast crew" will have a blast in DC together.
xoxo,
ML

The random update ( with very little to update)

Well, here we are about 2.5 weeks away from departure day. There is very little news on the Fulbright front. Just life as normal (or as normal as our life is :): What we've been up to:
-The Baby Llama wants to grow his hair out. It's about 2 in. right now. I did it in little twists all over his head yesterday and I think it turned out pretty cute.
-We're doing another two weeks of swim lessons because he had such fun the first time.
-There are suitcases all over the room and very little in them.
-I've got to go dress shopping on Friday and then off to look for some extra things we need.
-I've ordered Saxon Phonics K as that is what they will use at DS's school here in the states. I thought we could work along with his class first semester so that he's at the same point as they are when we get back in Jan. The school in NI uses whole language the first year so I don't think it will be too much. Hope not.
-Just talked to Carol's son's new teacher here in town. She is fab!
Hasta la pasta (which Mama llama misses on her low carb diet!)
ML

Money....

Well, I picked up some Euros and Pounds yesterday at the bank. I wanted to get enough to last a couple of days as we will get to the UK on a Sat. and I guess almost everything is closed on Sunday there. I'm still trying to figure out packing for six months. Go figure!
I'm getting really excited-we've only got threee weeks to go. I figure that the next three weeks will go very fast or very slowly. I'm hoping for fast. After almost 18 months of this process, I just ready to go! We're heading off for the Baby Llama's swim lesson. Tonight is the final night of the two weeks. His teacher has been so amazing. None of the four kids started out swimming and now all four are floating on the tummy's and swimming in some way or the other. I down loaded the 45 sight words that P1 kids need to know this year and we've been working on them a little bit. Go figure, I spent all spring teaching phonics and they do whole language!
Til later
ML