one month down...

A few thoughts about the last little while...

• I love it here.
  
• I get lost all the time. The other day I went out, yet again, looking for a store that I had been trying to find for three days. I made another wrong turn, so I stopped to turn around and back track. Ethan, noticing what happened, said, "Mom you don't find store? Silly Mommy."
  
• Now, anytime we make it back to the hotel Ethan very triumphantly says, "WE MADE IT."
• I absolutely miss family.
• I get lost all the time.
• I have found that a good portion of the people here are not used to children...especially two young ones. When I go out with my kids, anywhere, it is always interesting. I enjoy the humorous looks I get from bystanders. My personal favorite is the look I get from people as they stand and watch me open a door and struggle to maneuver my "wide load" double stroller through. My kids nearly loose a foot each time I do this...but hey, who needs feet?
• I now consider shopping exercise.
• I have had at least 20 people say to me, "Wow, you've got your hands full." I want to give them an ear full.
  
• Granted, most the time I hear this is when I've been walking out of a store with a screaming kid in each arm.
• I have on more than one occasion left my shopping cart full of things and walked out of a store. One time I did this and accidentally left Thomas (the train) in there. I left my kids in the car, ran back in, grabbed Thomas and booked out. I bet the cashiers still wonder what I shoplifted.
  
• In all actuality, I have met some really great people that have nothing but nice things to say about the boys.
• Ethan misses home. The other day we were getting in the car and he said, "Let's go home. No hotel, just home."
• I get lost all the time.
• We are in a great Ward.
• I love living in a hotel. No lie.
• I am not sure if I'm going to come home.
• But if I'm being honest, I really miss home.
• I got completely wasted by a pregnant woman and a mature (ok, old) woman at my spinning class.
• The zoo in Florida is "punk". That's what an 8-year-old boy told me.
• The weather is absolutely unpredictable. Which actually makes it really quite fun.
• But when it's hot, it is miserable.
• There is fabulous shopping.
• But my husband was raised by a banker...
• ...So I've become a really great window shopper.
• Ethan loves the swimming pool. He cried the other day when I said it was time to get out. A young boy (maybe 7 or 8 years old) that was swimming asked me if Ethan threw tantrums a lot. I said it was only his second time.
• We miss everyone so much.