Summer update

We're pretty much pure evil.  Sissy was NOT looking forward to her 2nd day of school but she was a real trouper, trying to find her way.  I've been working on her all summer trying to wrap her brain around going to school and finally she agreed to go.  She wasn't looking forward to it.  She was very worried about the lack of language and what would be expected of her.  She was also worried about being behind in math.  She was looking forward to the uniform though which totally surprised me.  She went along with my suggestion and pretty much went with the faith that eventually she would look back and recognize it was a good decision and would be glad (in the long run and, TBH, I wasn't sure HOW long of a run that would be) she did it.  I really expected it would be maybe early next year before she would be "okay" with going to school.  Go figure, but it has been 2 weeks and 1 fight (mine) wiht the art teacher and she seems very happy there.  She has made a couple of friends and has one who writes her homework down for her and one boy who is always looking out for her, making sure she has the right books, etc.  She is working in groups with other kids and being exposed to lots of new ideas and situations.  It is a huge change for her and were we not so isolated here with absolutely no kids other than siblings to interact with, she'd still be at home.  But so far it has been a positive change, even in her opinion.  She is taking a huge variety of classes; Geography, Biology, History, English, Spanish, Mathematics, Dance, Art History (and practice), Computer, Physical Education and I might have missed one or two in there.  For now she is doing the Art History homework in English but everything else in Spanish.

Ellen has returned for a 2nd year at Ak Lu'um.  It is a strict Waldorf school from the veggies produced at school for their organic lunches to handwork as math.  She loves it there and it really touches her soul.  Unfortunately the school only goes up to secundaria so these will be here last 2 years there before she joins Sissy at Papalote.  Both girls took sailing lessons over the summer and had a great time and continue with horse riding.  I am hoping to convince them to continue with sailing or start swimming at a brand new pool in town (with transportation directly to/from school).  We'll see.  Pike spent the summer babysitting two boys from the US and I'm hoping to get him back on track academically in the next week but that has been an uphill battle recently.  He also refuses to do any interaction in town and is very isolated here at home.  I'm quite worried about him but outside forcing him, he's just more interested in staying in his cave playing Xbox all day.  Jesse has decided he really wants to experience another year of music school so instead of heading back to the US for college he's staying here with us (can't complain about that) for another year at El Playarte.  I've made our financial support (he is legally an adult) conditional on him taking online college classes, but like his brother, he is much more interested in Xbox than anything academic and I'm quite worried about both of them.

The dog has recently broken his hip (falling onto the tile from the 2nd floor) and now that he isn't in constant pain we're constantly battling with him to STAY and not walk anywhere.  This has proven to be quite a challenge.  Luckily we only have 4 more weeks of this.  I have a triathlon end September in Cozumel and another end November in Cozumel and I'm alternately freaked out I'm terribly under-trained and hoping for a good time.  I also found an interesting 10K in Tulum I'd like to do, mostly because of the great rates we'd get if we stayed at the host hotel.  Course with it being only a week before the triathlon, the $ outlay is concerning, but it is quite tempting.  Jamie and Jesse completely replaced our kitchen sink recently and only needed 1 day of abanil work for it to fit and then a couple days of fixing leaks but we now have a super deep sink and one without a failing bottom.  So, life keeps going on and so do we.  Not sure where we'll end up but we're doing fine so far on the Caribbean.