It's Been a While

It feels like I've been so busy lately. I can't believe it's been a few weeks since my last post. I've been sort of wrapped up in work in a good way. I've been hurriedly preparing my host families to receive their high school exchange students. It has been so much fun meeting different families in the area and then meeting my exchange students. We had a sweet young boy from Austria stay with us overnight this week and it was so fun to have him in our home. I took him to the store to buy a calling card before he went to his 'permanent' host home and it was neat to be able to teach him how to use his debit card and teach him about American culture in general. I have an Italian student flying in next week and an Australian girl arrived last Saturday. She is loving the fact that she is the only Australian in her school. It's really rewarding to be involved with these students and ensuring that they have a good experience in the US. I'm usually on the other end-- the traveler and the one that feels slightly out-of-place.
On another note, Adam is still searching for employment. In a weird way, it's been more of a blessing than a trial. Last semester, when Adam was working full time and going to school full time, it felt like we hardly saw each other. We were home together only three nights a week and even when he was home he was usually holed up in the office working on homework. It's been nice to be able to spend so much time together. It almost feels like it did when we were newlyweds, except for the two kids.
Ruby is growing so fast. She is so fun to be around. She is the best baby ever! Even when she had a double ear infection over Christmas, she never cried or fussed. I only knew something was wrong because she wouldn't eat. James was the exact opposite of that.
James amazes me everyday with how smart he is and the length of his memory is astonishing. He is so funny. Last night, he kept singing the same song over and over again and I finally realized it was 'TNT' by AC/DC. He was also singing a Talking Heads song the other day. He was laying in his bed and kept singing over and over again the line 'drop me in the river, drop me in the river.' He's also started calling me 'woman.' 'Clean this mess up, woman!' Ah, my little misogynist. Don't worry, we're doing all we can to stop him from saying it. He doesn't miss a thing. It's really frightening. He was in the kitchen the other day and dropped something and he said, 'What the hell!' That one came from Adam. Adam truly believes that hell is not a bad word because it's not a swear word in England. Apparently, the British would say 'hell' and 'damn' in church all the time and not in the biblical sense. I think I finally won the argument on that one. I just know that he's going to drop a toy in nursery one week and out it will come. We're honestly not bad parents. He can also point out the Nauvoo temple by name and then he'll say, 'Mom, take me to the Nauvoo temple.' How sweet is that? On that note, I will end this post.