Monday, April 27, 2009

Don't Grocery Shop While Hungry, Don't Blog While Grouchy

We had a great weekend. When you live somewhere in the circle of this photo:




It's nice to get away where there's a little bit of space around you.

I was so worried about the house being creepy, but it was fine. Old, but at least not haunted. The only problems were: 1) several of the mattresses were non-existent, there was only a box spring where their should have been a complete bed. Interesting. And very hard. We took a couple of the free single mattresses and put them on our bed. Problem solved.

The second was a lack of hot water. We had (barely) lukewarm water, but that's not really good enough for my showering needs. I came home greasy-headed and in much need of a shower (see below).

Besides that, we had a great time-the kids ran around and got to be "normal" kids instead of apartment dwellers. Margarita's best friend's family joined us for a couple of nights so we had 7 kids total-2 girls and 5 rambunctious boys.

The grounds were huge.

We had our own soccer field:



Here's the fishing pond where the boys caught lots of little fish using homemade fishing poles and worms they dug up themselves (ewwww):



we had lots of trails to explore:



and even a place to have a fire outside where we roasted hot dogs:


(what is it with boys and fire?)

And, since we were up in the mountains it was much cooler. We were able to have a fire in the house each night. One night we even roasted smuggled-in marshmallows. Mine was per-fect:



Pedro's new thing is praying before he puts anything in his mouth-even if it's a second serving of something we've already blessed. So, before he ate his marshmallow:



He had to say a prayer:





Too cute!

So, why am I grouchy? I'm just having one of those month long phases days where I just want to go home. Wednesday night before we left, the water stopped working on the second floor of our apartment (where our bedroom is and three of our bathrooms) after the building had cleaned out their water tanks. So, we left Thursday and the building manager told us he would have it fixed by the time we got back on Sunday.

I returned ready for a hot shower yesterday afternoon and it was still broken. No matter how many times I reminded the kids NOT to use the toilets, it seems they all had impaired memories and very active bowels. Grrrr. Someone came today to fix it and it turns out we needed a new water pump. So, $200 later, we've got a new, installed pump. I'm entering the shower (finally), when I realize that although there is now water, there's no HOT WATER. I get my towel on and call him back; it finally it gets fixed right, but ugh! Why is everything so hard here sometimes?

Besides that:

1) I'm almost out of my smuggled-in Tide detergent (I don't know why but having American-scented clothes really cheers me up)

2) I'm almost out of Pedro's contraband huggies

3) I'm completely out of my stash of American candy

4) Pedro is 1/3 angel, 2/3 tyrant right now (ok, so being in the States probably won't alleviate this problem, but he is playing a large part in my grouchiness)

I want to go home and eat cheese and chocolate chips without worrying about how much longer until they run out. I want to drink cold, fresh milk from the container and water from the tap! I want good ice-cream that doesn't cost a small fortune. I want one-stop shopping instead of going to 6 different stores to get what I need.

I want Target. Now.

The good news is that my brother- and sister-in-law are coming on Saturday and they've agreed to be my mules (suckas!). So, at least I'll get a few things to hang me over for the next 53 days (no, I'm not counting or anything) until I go home.

Thanks for letting me vent. (Don't get me wrong-Brazil's a great place. I'm just missing the conveniences of home. I'll be better tomorrow. Or at the latest, Saturday, when my stuff gets here.)

9 comments:

Ballerina Girl said...

ok, my friend...
I have an extra box (or 3) of Tide...feel free to have one.
I am going home around the same time as you and have 4 extra suitcases coming back with me (at least) since I have the small army coming back with me again...(I will post about this later)

Glad that the trip was not all bad, but I am the same way with hot water...it HAS to be scalding for me to enjoy it!

What else...how about lunch this week? Say tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday??? You pick, I'm there (I picked last time!)

call you tomorrow
BG

Abby said...

I blog while grouchy sometimes, but those posts are usually so bad that I end up not publishing them. Yours didn't sound that grouchy at all (I also go grocery shopping while hungry a lot).

That said, we are coming in four days!! LOAD US UP! Give me a nice long list--don't hold back:)

Janet said...

What are you talking about? Pedro looks 100% angel to me. He's so dang cute!

Vent away. Blogs are the best place for it. If that's as grouchy as you get, that's pretty good. :)

Have a great week!

Janice said...

I honestly don't know how you do it. I get grumpy dealing with American problems. Having lived abroad three times in my life, I get all of your frustrations. (I remember crying one night because all I wanted was a hot bath and no bath tub to be found.

Anyway, your vacation looks delightful. And, I am dealing with a little tyrant in this house. It is 10:00 am and already, I have dealt with about 5 tantrums. Oh I hear another one starting . . .

Code Yellow Mom said...

That Pedro is too adorable - I have some of those adorable tyrant types at my place, too.

Looks like a fun getaway...

I like to hear venting. Makes me feel more normal. :) I've been chiding myself because I've wanted to go home since we arrived at post - months ago. I never knew I was such a pansy. But I finally decided that at least a little bit of grouchiness and chocolate chip wishing is OK - it doesn't mean you hate where you are, it just means that you love Target. And that's totally OK! :)

Unknown said...

I'm glad you were able to get away during Spring break. Space IS good!

I'm also glad your brother and sister-in-law are coming for a visit and they will provide more American goods. These posts make me appreciate all the American goods that I take for granted!

Kari said...

Roasting Marshmallows!!! Too cool. The praying-over-seconds story made me smile.

I remember the incredulous feeling in Mexico City of "why can't something just be fixed when they said it will be fixed???" You're awesome!

Super Happy Girl said...

ITA w/Janice.

I love it that Pedro (he might be an angel-tyrant, but he's all adorable) said a prayer over the smuggled-in marshmallow.

You are awesome Gabs.

Fabiola said...

I DO hope you are feeling better. After all tomorrow is Thursday already.

I am supose to go to RJ in May for two weeks in a row. I was wondering do you think we can try to setup a lunch date (you, BG and me). I will have more details of the dates next week.

I have pretty crazy schedule, but I can try to work around.

Let me know!!!

Fabiola

PS: About the mani/pedi situation.... Lady, you have to take advantage of the cheap cost of these things down here ; )