Allie in the South of Spain

It is official, we have 2 two-year-olds at home and although I was afraid, very afraid, things have been pretty good so far. We haven´t had many meltdowns or tantrums but we have been hearing a lot more NO! The girls want to do stuff for themselves and they have their own ideas about everything. Laura and Vera have been talking a lot more in general, too. They are still mixing languages and using their own twinspeak but have a lot more words and are making short sentences.  We hosted a birthday party for the girls at the beginning of the month and invited both family and friends. We ended up having a lot of people come and I think everyone had a good time. First we had a paella with Jose´s family and then later cake and treats with the rest of the guests. Vera and Laura had a blast playing in the bouncy castle and ball pit. It was a great day that started with birthday pancakes and ended with two exhausted toddlers and two wrecked parents. On the actua...

A few years ago, before I turned 30, I created a list of thirty things that I wanted to do before my next big milestone birthday. I had a lot of fun creating the list, revisiting and revising it and of course, crossing things off. That list helped me focus my goals, what I wanted to do, see and accomplish over a few years. It was a good experience for me and I have been throwing around the idea of doing it again. I recently finally decided to try to do the same thing before I turn 40 which is still 8 years away but is looming out there in the future. At first I thought making a list of forty things I wanted to do, experience, try, accomplish, see, etc. would be easy. Turns out in some ways it was, I mean, I want to visit more than 40 different places. But my idea was to try to focus on more than just a travel bucket list. I wanted to include goals for different aspects of my life. It actually had taken since about the start of this year to come up with my first definitive list of wh...

I figured that before this first month of this new year ended I should probably post about our adventures during Christmas and the holiday season (mostly before I forgot what everything we did and who we saw). So here goes: Jose and I being teachers have a nice long break from work during Christmas and this year it started on the 22nd, a Friday. That day at our girls´daycare the fantastic and ever patient women who work there created a living Nativity scene with all of the children so we dressed Laura and Vera up like shepherdesses and in my opinion they were the stars of the show. I know that every parent thinks that and realize that they were being plied with cookies and cheetos to sit there nicely, but they looked so damn cute! A bonus was the chocolate and churros that they served all the parents after the "performance." We had basically just enough time to get everything organized and prepared for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day which we always celebrate ...

Merry Christmas! Here I am again to carry on the tradition of my annual Christmas card blog. This is officially year six and you can look back at all our other posts in the following links if you are curious: 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 Even though 2017 started out on a bad note with Laura being in the hospital for a few weeks and me having to leave my job, it ended up being a pretty good year. Looking back through past years´posts makes me realize how much things have changed over the past six years. We no longer travel as much, although we did get to visit Michigan this past summer. We have been living in our apartment for five years, although we are quickly outgrowing it and may be on a new house hunt in the coming year. Our lives are no longer consumed by bottles, feeding times and naps, although we are still holding on to one daily snooze for the girls. What I mean to say is that, life is good. Really good. And we have a lot to look forward to. As always, here is our top...

Hi everybody! I just wanted to log on here today to give a bit of a life update for our family before the craziness of the holidays begins. Time has flown since we got back to Spain from our summer in Michigan. I could say that I don´t know where the past three months have gone, but I do know. And soon you will, too. I started working in mid-September at a private academy one town over. I was looking for a teaching job this year that would let me stay home with the girls as much as possible and this position is perfect. I am with Vera and Laura all morning, drop them off at daycare around 3pm and then go to work until 10pm. Getting home that late sucks but for now and until they start preschool it is really important for me to be with them as much as possible, partly because I love being a part-time stay at home mom and partly because I really want to solidify their English before they start school. Even though they will be going to a bilingual school, I think having a strong bas...