3 weeks in...how am I feeling?

The last couple of days have been mixed with emotions, mostly frustration. One of my biggest frustrations is teeny tiny ants. These ants are EVERYWHERE!!!! And they are making me crazy. I opened a box of cereal...ants everywhere, ants in my cupboards, ants in my freezer (how does that happen?), ants in the bathroom, all over toothbrushes, toilet paper, in my clean clothes. I even put on my clean bathing suit the other day and did not realize until ants were all over me that they were all over my suit. Does anyone out there have a good way to get rid of ants? What is frustrating is that they are not just in food, but clean, washed items. I have doubled bagged all my food, keeping most of it in the fridge or freezer, have put toothbrushes in bags, and I guess I will also have to put my toilet paper in a bag. We are hoping to get the house sprayed soon and I really hope that helps because I am losing my mind over these ants!!

On Saturday, we went to the mall to find the boys some shoes for school. How does one find children's shoes in a mall with a bazillion people that do not speak the same language as you? Well, you don't. It was very difficult and the 2 places we did find that had children's shoes did not have the boys sizes in stock. Then when you need to use the elevators you have to wait about 10 times before you can finally squeeze in. This mall clearly does not have enough elevators, especially when the whole entire city spends their weekends at the mall. I was about ready to maneuver Britton's stroller down the escalator. After a very stressful trip to the mall we left without shoes. It's funny though, you don't want to lose your cool there because all the Thai's are so calm and would be shocked if you showed your patience was wearing thin. So, you continue to smile even though you are boiling inside.

I am also feeling a bit sad. Ben and I made the decision to enroll the boys Ruamrudee International School (the school Ben teaches at.) This was a very difficult decision for me. When you have the mindset to home school you have chosen to do so for feelings towards public education, religious reasons, safety issues, protecting your children socially against bad examples, giving your child personal attention compared to a class full of 30 kids and so on. Well, for us it was a quite a few of those reasons and I really had no intention of sending the boys to a traditional school. In the states, we had an amazing home school group that kept us very busy. The boys were involved in clubs, field trips, classes put on by the libraries, and fun play dates. Here, in Thailand, there is none of that, which is keeping us very isolated. I need to keep the boys active and have never wanted them to only be with me, so this situation is not really working out here. So, the decision was made to send the boys to school.

We went last Friday to start the registration process. The boys had their pictures taken for the id cards, picked out their uniforms, and met both of the principals. Everyone is so kind and the school really is amazing. It will be a huge adjustment though. Both of the boys will start at 7:10 am, which means they will have to leave around 6:45 am. I will be picking Lincoln up after lunch around 12:30 and Grey will be done with school at 2:40. The boys will have 2 specials a day including PE, music, art, values, Thai, & computers. I am excited to meet with the principals on Monday to hear more about their curriculum.

Now I just have to get over feeling like I failed at homeschooling and on to being excited about the boys making friends and starting after school activities like swimming, soccer, tae kwon do, & rock climbing, I know they will be fine and I am sure it will be harder on me than them. On to a new phase in my life and getting to spend lots of one on one time with my little Britton!