What?! It's the middle of July?!

The past couple months seem to have flown by. Michael and I were looking at pictures of Caleb from a couple years ago, and we were in disbelief at how much he's changed and grown up. We've had a lot of adventures the past couple years, from taking an amazing trip to Chicago a couple weeks after we met, to living out here in Italy, and all the bouncing around in between. It's been interesting. :-)

We got Caleb a kite, and as you can tell from the video, he has had a blast with it. Daddy was trying to teach him tricks with it, and he was doing very well. It's a Transformers kite with Bumblebee on it. Caleb was interested in Transformers before, but after watching the movie with us one night he is in love with them. He was glued to the TV, pointing and yelling every time a fight scene came about. Caleb grew out of his bike. We were looking at a couple bikes, trying to decide which we wanted to get, when we came across a scooter at Auchan. Caleb had ridden a scooter down in Texas with a little boy he met at the playground, and he really liked it. We gave him a choice between a bike and a scooter and he wanted the scooter, so we bought it. We're still going to get him a bike, but the scooter is good for now until we do. It's great because it's a jr scooter, so he has to learn to balance is and steer it, which he's getting the hang of pretty quickly. He rode it all the way down to the store with me to get some groceries, and then rode it all the way back. It's definately some good exercise! Uncle Nikolas and Uncle Daniel sent Caleb a double barrel shotgun. It's been his new favorite toy lately. We use it to teach him about gun safety too, and it's neat because when you pop it open to take out the shells, they'll fly back out at you just like a real gun, so you have to do it the right way. He's been shooting deer, chickens, bad guys, and of course anything in the house that the darts will stick to.

Michael has been busy juggling work, school, and family time. He's doing great though. They should be switching to nights in the next week or two. It kinda sucks because he'll have to sleep during the day a lot, and Caleb will be starting school eventually so he won't see him too much during work days, but at least he gets time off every 2-3 days. Also it's good for Michael because he prefers to work at night when it's cooler, and there's different work to do at night than during the day. It's only for 3 months, and then he switches back to days again. I'm doing pretty well. I was sick with a fever the past 7 days, but it's all over and I'm feeling a lot better now. I will be babysitting a 3 year old little girl for the month of August from 6:30-5pm, Monday through Friday. I will also be babysitting our friend's baby from the end of August to middle of October. That will only be 2 days one week, 1 the next, and then alternating back and forth. It's only a few hours in the evenings while our friend is at school. I may also be babysitting an 8 month old baby boy from September until June of 2010. They are coming over tomorrow morning to meet me, and then we'll decide for sure if it's going to work. That would only be 3 days a week, from 8:45am-12:15pm or so. It may sound confusing, but it's really not. It works out so that I'll never babysit more than one child at any given time (not including Caleb obviously). There are a lot of jobs like this around the base, so I'm continuously looking to see what's available. I'm also taking ISP's (Independent Study Programs) online to get certificates that I'll later transfer over to college and get another associate's degree. Getting the certificates themselves don't cost money, but they don't really mean much until you transfer them over to something, which does cost money. Michael is taking the same classes and going for another associate's degree as well.

We miss all of you. We're still waiting to see pictures of everyone as well, so get your butt moving! Lots of love from the McGuire family.