Wednesday, February 23, 2011

One of Those Weeks

Just a quick post to let you know I'm still here-I'm not abandoning my blog as I have in months past-it is just a crazy, crazy week. One of those where every minute of every day is scheduled and that allows for no wiggle room.. From now until Sunday after church I am booked solid-student teacher conferences, birthday dinner for my SIL, book club, pack meeting, long run, short runs, temple trip, piano lessons, sports practices, help in classrooms, visiting teaching, tumbling, playdates, taking lunch to a sick friend, doctor's appointment, basketball game.

Hopefully I'll make it to yoga with Tom tomorrow, I could use the laugh.

But, you'll be happy, and surprised I'm sure, to know that my orchid is surviving. Dare I say thriving (?!?) as a new bud has blossomed. It helps that the bishop's wife paid me a visit and showed me exactly how to care for it and gave me lots of encouragement.

So far, so good. (Thanks for asking, Maine Mom :) )


Have a good one!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Good Ol' Tom

I think I mentioned a while ago that I try to go to a yoga class once a week. The teacher and I have the same name in real life, so let's call her "Gabriela the Instructor". Occasionally Guapo goes with me because it helps his back. Occasionally another man goes with the same name (in real life) as Guapo (he, btw, is the best yogi we have ever seen so we'll call him "Guapo the Pro"). So, on any given day we have two Gabrielas and two Guapos in class.

The instructor is very into yoga-as might be expected of a yoga instructor. She starts every class with a lecture that she has prepared about how we can "take our yoga off the mat" and apply it to our lives. She says things that sound strange to me like, "imagine light beams shooting out of your heart/fingertips/head" and "let your butt blossom, I'm the only one can see" and lots of "hug muscle to bone". She is also very positive and supportive even when you know you look like a complete and utter dork and says things like, "Right on!" or "You're rocking it!".

Does this annoy me? No, not at all, she's lovely (with a name like Gabriela, how bad could she be?).

It should be mentioned that we have a fairly small class-but it's a rec center class, so there are always people coming and going. She likes it to be personal and to use your name a lot- I'd say 10-15 times during the hour long class.

Guapo hasn't been going lately since he's getting his new business up and running, but last week he decided to surprise me and show up at yoga without telling me. Problem was, I had a ton of errands to do that day and I didn't go, so I missed him. :(

He tells me after the class that although he corrected her a couple of times, Gabriela the Instructor kept calling him "Tom" instead of "Guapo". He finally gave up. A couple of times when she was offering up some yoga suggestions (calling him "Tom", of course) he didn't clue in that she meant him and she mentioned to the class how "Tom" was really into his practice that day-so much so that he was zoning her out.

After he related the story, Guapo tells me he's pleased with his new name. "Tom" is now his yoga alter-ego.

Well, today we were all there-me, Gabriela the instructor, Guapo and Guapo the Pro. Except for that Guapo is now Tom. And Tom doesn't correct Gabriela the Instructor. And she keeps calling him Tom like every 3 minutes. Tom was having a bad yoga day and Guapo the Pro was having a good yoga day (like always)-so she keeps saying things like, "You've almost got it, Tom!", "Beautiful, Guapo." and "Keep trying, Tom, you can do it!", "Perfect, Guapo.", "No shame in using the wall, Tom." And I can't take it-I am belly laughing every time-seriously shaking with the giggles and Tom is sitting there with a straight face. It's too funny. No more "zoning her out"-oh no,no- now he really is Tom.

And let me tell you- it's next to impossible to hold a decent tree pose when the man I've been married to for close to 15 years is now Tom.

And the best was at the end when Guapo the Pro, who is always way too cool to talk to anyone in the class, goes up to Tom and asks him, "Hey, isn't your name Guapo?" He replies, "Yes, but she keeps calling me Tom, so I'm just going with it." And he replies, "I get it. You've got bigger fish to fry." And Tom replies, "Yeah."

I dunno, maybe you had to be there, but it was hilarious.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Oh, the Pressure of an Orchid

We had a great Valentine's Day yesterday. Gaupo and I had gone out to eat last Friday night-have I mentioned that my mom takes the kids for a sleepover almost every Friday night? How completely awesome is that? (please don't stop, please don't stop, please don't stop)

So, we took the kiddos out for burgers and shakes and had a grand old time.

In addition to a dozen roses, which would have been quite sufficient, Guapo got me some orchids:




Lovely, no?

I saw them and immediately tensed up.

How many times in Brazil did I attempt to keep an orchid alive? And, how many times did I succeed? That's right. NONE.

After he gives them to me he adds, "They weren't cheap, so don't kill them." Great. No pressure. (and super romantic)

He got them from our bishop's orchid shop (nursery? greenhouse?). I have orders to go into the store and buy special "orchid food" and try to keep the very much in bloom, very healthy orchids alive for an acceptable amount of time (is a week enough?). Help!!!



My sweetest Valentine came from Margarita, who will become a real live teenager in just a couple of weeks. People keep asking me how things are going now that she is quickly approaching the age when kids supposedly turn into a nightmare and I keep saying, "So far so good!"



I had originally posted what she wrote but then I felt funny about it-I don't want her to feel like things she tells or writes to me will end up on my blog. But, take my word for it, my eyes were not dry by the end of it. She is such a sweet girl and I am so lucky that she is my daughter. :)

It made my day.

Hope your day was wonderful.

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Friday, February 11, 2011

Junkyard Dog

Oh the joys of dog ownership.

(That's very un-PC, isn't it? I can't really "own" my dog, can I?)

Quakey has turned out to be quite the little scavenger. Kitty's a scavenger-but we expected as much-she was a little skeleton when we got her-she'd been living on the streets of Small Town and almost didn't make. So, I would expect that she would eat whatever she could find. And she does (bunnies, birds, voles).


Quakey, on the other hand, was a very expensive purebred who has never suffered even a pang of hunger in his short little life.

And yet, he loves, loves, loves the trash. Loves to dig through the trashcans and hoard the trash in his crate.

I finally made Guapo clean it out the other night and here's what we found:


1. A bag of potatoes he stole out of the pantry.
2. Julio's lunch thing-a-ma-jig (what do you call those?) that he scavenged out of his backpack. I guess he doesn't like blueberries. He does, however, like PB&J sandwiches.
3. The lid from those delicious little lemon cakes Costco sells-have you had those? Yum. He somehow wrangled it out of the lidded-recycled trash can.
4. Kitty litter remnants-he still has the disgusting habit of eating the cat pooh.
5. One of his chews-the only thing he's supposed to have in his crate.

Here are some of the potatoes I found throughout the house that day, thus inspiring the edict to clean out the crate:



I'm telling you-the dog is like the 5th child we don't have. The messes, the fighting and teasing(with Pedro), the cleaning up of the pooh (both his and the cats), the guilt when I leave him home alone. It's awesome.

Luckily he's fairly cute and is always happy (especially when he's got some fresh trash).

It's been a LONG week here.

Have a great weekend!

Monday, February 07, 2011

Help Me Out

Can someone please explain the show "Glee" to me? The premise, the fascination with, the hype surrounding, etc., etc.

We were out of American entertainment for so long, and to be honest, I am not interested in putting in the time or effort to catch up. Guapo flipped to the Golden Globes the other night and the only actors I recognized were those who were in movies when I was a kid. Kind of makes me feel like an old person who always says things like, "Oh, those were the days, honey".

I do know who Justin Bieber is-but that whole situtation just makes me wonder, "what in the WORLD?!?"

I should start figuring this stuff out so my kids aren't totally embarrassed of me, but I just don't really care, you know?

I suppose I could google Glee, but I'd rather have you explain it to me.

Thanks in advance.

Saturday, February 05, 2011

The Times I Most Want Another Baby...

... are when they are like this (Pedro this afternoon after a tough couple of days of preschool):



Look at that little face, what an absolute angel (again-when he's asleep-whole different ball game when he's conscious):


Of course, those two shots were hard to get because Juan Carlos was intentionally trying to ruin the picture running back in forth in front of me...


...thus bringing me back to reality.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Cold Days

My kids have never had a snow day.

In Caracas, Margarita had some days off thanks to Mr. Chavez and his political craziness...

In Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico, they had lots of days off for flooding (oh how I don't miss that place)...

In Mexico City, they never had a day off, but it did take them 4 hours to get to school once due to some very bad traffic...

In Rio, they had days off due to flooding and days locked in their bulletproof classrooms while the drug lords and police battled it out right next door to their school...

Yesterday and today the kids have been off NOT due to snow-but to extreme temperatures so we're calling them "cold days" instead of "snow days". We have very little snow-just lots of cold. At times, it's been almost -30 with the windchill factor. The funny thing is, on Saturday we were up hiking in the mountains in short-sleeved shirts; the high that day was in the upper 60's. That's Colorado for you.

So, we've been hanging out, watching movies, having play dates-it's 11:30 and I'm still in my jammies-that sort of thing. Actually, it's kinda cool because everything is still open and the roads are clear-so we can get out of the house and get a break from all the "togetherness" when necessary. Margarita's bowling right now, Julio went to a movie yesterday. Juan Carlos had a sleepover here last night-they finally went to sleep around 11:30 and they were up this morning at 5:30, running around the house with all the lights on. Not exactly how I wanted to spend my "cold day" when I normally get up at 6:45. I'm sure we'll suffer a meltdown later today.

But the kids are thrilled! And I have to admit, it's nice to get a break from all of the running and activities. The only one suffering is poor Guapo with his "OC" blood-he just can't get warm. The guy is a human popsicle. And Quakey, too-he hates the cold. He took one step out the door this morning and squatted right then and there and ran back inside.

The missionaries just showed up to shovel my driveway-how nice is that?

Well, hope you're all warm.