School!

It's that time again. Fall term is going to begin tomorrow and we'll be in the thick of things once more. The line-up for this term is Greek, Latin, and Classical Mythology for me, and Electronic Music, Composition, A/V Project, and History for Alyssa, plus an extra C++ class.

Brandy is going to watch Freya for us, so we'll have some time on campus to just be students because Odin will be in class as well. We're excited for classes to begin.

We haven't quite nailed down the grad-school thing all the way yet. I might wait a year before I apply, not sure though, we'll see. We haven't moved out of our old apartment entirely, which is unfortunate because our last day is Friday and we'll be pretty busy with school. Will manage some how. :)

Right now, we're spending some time cleaning up the house so it's nice before things get busy.

School for all

Well, the move to Dad's has gone alright. We finally got all settled with all our stuff put away and the house clean (thanks in part to Sam who cleans it every week). There's still a lot to do at our old place, but none of it involves bringing stuff here - it's all cleaning and taking stuff to storage that we wont use here - so we're relaxing for a week or so to study and we'll take care of our old place when it's closer to our actual move-out day.

Odin's school year started on Tuesday. Unfortunately, his birthday is outside the cut-off point so a lot of his friends moved up to the Ladybug class while he stayed in the Caterpillar class. Some of his Panda friends have moved into the Caterpillar class, however, so he's got some new and old faces. He really misses Armstrong especially. Armstrong asked me if I was taking Odin to his house after school one day when I picked Odin up. I had to tell him no and he looked really sad. We've arranged a play-date for them tomorrow at Armstrong's place.

We're still studying away. Finally finding time to look at our work is helping, the term ahead doesn't seem as bad as it did a week ago when we were busy with moving. We're also doing more research on Grad schools. USCB is the top choice right now, and UW after that, so we're working hard. I've got a lot to do in the coming year to make myself a more appealing applicant for their requirements, so we'll see how it goes. We've also bought a great book for GRE prep and I'm actually more excited than terrified to take the test.

Poor Freya has a huge scrape down her nose and forehead from being pushed by a yet-unidentified big brother.... toughens her up I suppose. She and Alyssa also have the same cold, making them both pretty tired.

It's nice having the park so close because we can let Odin play for as long as he likes. Freya loves the swing and likes to walk around and sit on the merry-go-round.

Did I mention Odin wasn't napping already? We learned a few days ago that Odin hadn't been napping at school for a couple weeks. None of his teachers told us because Odin always flew out of the school so fast when we picked him up. He's never reliably napped on days we had him home, so this lack of sleep kinda explains a few things. We've since tried getting him to bed earlier to increase his total sleep per day. Sometimes he goes down early enough and sometimes he doesn't, but I think when he does get the extra rest, it helps enough.

We're just taking it one day at a time for now.

Moving (again)

We're moving back in with my Dad. There's a lot of reasons for this, and we think we've made the right decision.

Finances is a big part of it. We wont be getting financial aid for Alyssa from school after Fall term because she'll have graduated and mine will stop when I graduate in the Winter or Spring. If we move in with Dad, he lets us live mostly free so we save money for the 9-months to a year that we're here waiting for Grad school to start. We can use that money for all the moving and move-in expenses we'll need to pay in whichever city we have to go to.

Also, the kids behave a lot better here. Odin gets energy out in his room or the backyard, and it's not so cramped here that Freya can't crawl around without being bowled over by Odin. Plus, there's a park about a 5-minute walk from the place and we take Odin there almost every day.

We like it here much better, too. Dad has a huge couch which is totally comfy (we've only ever had a futon) and tons of space, a big kitchen, and the whole place is well-ventilated and well-lit (something our apartment never was). We're more comfortable. Also, while we're here we get to help Dad eat healthier and he helps buy more food, so we all win. Plus, it's on the ground floor, no more 3-story climb (not that it was too bad, but after a while, it gets hard to do it with 2 kids).

Other than that, not much is new. We're still studying hard for our tests and classes in Fall term. Searching for grad schools is a continuing project. Etc., lah-dee dah, blah blah, yadda yadda.