Allie in the South of Spain

It has been a year since my last post so as you might guess, there´s been some changes around here. The biggest being a new addition to our family, Carla who was born this past July. Obviously that means I spent the better part of this past year pregnant (and not feeling great). Jose and I both taught the last school year in our respective schools and we´ve been doing well overall. We celebrated Halloween with a group of friends at a park and the girls dressed as ladybugs. They also did some quick trick-or-treating with the neighbors on our floor at our apartment. At Christmastime my parents, sister Katie and niece Daphne came to visit us for a week or so and we loved having them. My favorite part was our ride on the Christmas train and our trips in our big rental car to visit close villages. We celebrated the holidays with Jose´s family as well and I am excited to say that this upcoming Christmas we will be visiting home in Michigan! I am absolutely kicking myself for not doi...

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 ...

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...