Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Enough's Enough

Ok, no more excuses. I've been here for 6 weeks now.

Yes, there's laundry.

Yes, there are dirty floors, toilets, and windows.

Yes, there are meals to be cooked.

But there always will be-so I must return to blogging so as to please my fans (ok, really just my mom) and to record a bit of our new life.

***

The kids are adjusting nicely; it's been like watching little baby birds attempt flight the last month. They have lived with constant adult supervision their whole lives, so to be here, where they can ride their bikes around the neighborhood without me is something completely novel.

The flip-side of that is that they are adjusting to living in a house without a guard and with so many bar-less doors and windows; it's taking some time for them to feel comfortable in the house, especially at night. I don't blame them, all they've ever known are apartments that have had security. I just find it ironic that after having lived in Caracas, Mexico City, and Rio de Janeiro, they feel unsafe in a small town in Colorado.

The other day Margarita commented about the mailboxes. "I can't believe people don't just steal the mail-I mean-it's just out there in the open!" I've never thought of that, but it's true. She's grown up with a totally different perspective of the world. We had the missionaries over tonight for dinner and she and Julio sat and told them stories about watching favela drug raids from their classrooms in Rio. The missionaries' eyes got HUGE as they described the hovering police helicopters shooting down into the favela before their very eyes.

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I'm feeling less overwhelmed with the house responsibilities-the kitchen is clean for the most part when I go to bed at night and I'm keeping up with the laundry (for now). I've even read a few books and have been running fairly consistently. And once the kids go to school in a couple of weeks, I may have a tad bit of free time. Although I do miss some things about having a maid, it is wonderful to have my house all to myself. I do try to channel her energy when I have to tackle the bathrooms though. :)

I have been called to be a cub scouts den leader in our new ward. After years of avoiding Janice's posts on cub scouts (telling myself that if I didn't read them, I would never have to be involved), fate has caught up with me. She even emailed me within days of our arrival here telling me to let her know when I needed Cub Scout information (ummm, never?). Sure, enough, days later I was asked to be a den leader.

It will definitely be a learning experience...

***

Kitty and Ron are in heaven with our yard. Kitty caught a baby bunny the other day. :( I found just the head in the boys' closet. Not pleasant. She sat in one spot the rest of the day with a distended belly and a smile on her face.


***
Pedro told everyone in his nursery class his first day that instead of "Pedro" his name was actually "Paulo" causing many a raised eyebrow and comments like, "Wow, you're going to have your hands full with that one."

Tell me something I didn't know.

9 comments:

nikko said...

Glad things are going well. What an adjustment your kids are making! It is kind of funny that they are used to something that's so different from what most American kids experience. Good luck!

Awesome Mom said...

I am glad you are adjusting. There is always a lot of things to get used to in new places.

Ballerina Girl said...

Ah, life sounds good my friend.
I'm about to leave back to the craziness today,
Wednesday! Wish me luck and please know
how very much I'm going to miss you and all of
your family there.
My girl was just mentioning how she will miss
Julio in class.... But that she felt special
because he gave her a picture of your whole
family! I never knew that!!

Love and miss u
BG

Super Happy Girl said...

Hey, I am a fan!

"I can't believe people don't just steal the mail-I mean-it's just out there in the open!" Absolutely. I still think things like that after all these years. Like how do people leave furniture out, stores leave produce sitting out all night long...It's amazing to me.

You will like scouts Gabs. Really.

Paulo = :D

andalucy said...

Are Kitty and Ron your cats? Our dog (smaller than most cats) caught a baby bunny a couple summers ago. He was so proud of himself. Speaking of which, do the kids like Bunnicula?

Sounds like everyone is settling in just fine. I knew you'd adjust to life without a maid.

I think Scouts is a great program for boys. My son adored it. I wasn't a fan of how Scouts played out in our particular corner of the Church. It seemed to be the source of a lot of contention. I'm sure it's better there.

Betty W said...

Love to read the update.I´m glad you and the kids are adjusting well.

Kari said...

HUGE adjustment, Gabriela! Give it at least a year. It does feel good to wake up to a (relatively) clean kitchen. AND, I'm very impressed that you have already had dinner guests! :)

K-cube's mom said...

I'm also regularly checking for new posts!

Unknown said...

It's great to hear from you. :-) I'm glad you are all adjusting well. It's interesting to hear about your kids and how foreign it is for them to be living in America now.

I hope to never find a bunny head in my house! What an experience!