What I've Been Up To.

Well, I've been back for just about a week. What have I been doing other than sweating, you ask?

Recovering from Strep

When I was in college I would get so worked up over finals that as soon as I was done and let myself relax, I would get sick.

That trip last week? At least as stressful as finals. So, when I arrived Thursday and got in bed, I pretty much didn't get up for three days. By Saturday night, I realized it felt a lot like the strep infection I had about 5 years ago; you know-the totally raw throat, the fever, the dreams about your 31 year old brother-in-law hunting gnomes for some kind of boyscout certification (yes, you Arnold). Being in Latin America where you can buy pretty much whatever you want at the pharmacy without a prescription, I began to self-medicate myself with amoxicillin.

24 hours later-no fever, no sore throat.

Ahhhh, much better.

Entertaining my Kids

My kids are STILL out of school. Until Monday. The Wii is coming in handy when it rains. Other than that, we've been swimming a couple of times and had some play dates. The beach is TOO crowded right now for my liking and will be until after Carnaval in the end of February.

Inauguration

I don't care what your politics are, yesterday was a pretty cool day in the history of our country.


Eating Cheese

For the first time ever, I was stopped in customs and my bags were searched.

I have always felt confident coming in with kids that they would let me pass no matter how many bags I had, simply because I had the kids with me (they love children here). Well, this time, the customs agent looked at me and the kids, smiled and let us by, even after I *vaguely* motioned to my 9 bags that were coming in tow with the nice little man that was helping us through immigration (read: butting us right to the front of any line we approached). So, I left the customs area (I was chasing 4 kids after a 24 hour ordeal). When our friend didn't join us momentarily, I knew I was in trouble. After chastising me for leaving my bags (to which I pointed out my 4 kids), they let me re-enter the customs area where I saw my poor bags, lined up in a row, ready to be searched. :(

You are not allowed to bring any product related to cows into Brazil. I know this. But, I love cheddar cheese. Real, American cheddar cheese. So, I took my chances, knowing it was going to be me with the 4 kids going through customs. 15 pounds of cheddar spread out in 6 different suitcases.

As my heart raced and my palms sweat, he missed the first one. (Yay!!!!)

He quickly found the second and told me it wasn't allowed, to which I gave him the, "Really???????-but-look-how-sad-my-eyes-look" look. He gave me the "stupid-gringo-my-job-is-so-lame" look and shoved it back in my bag. He then proceeded to find my entire stash, and since I had distributed it as such, it was quite obvious that I had been aware of the rule. But, the nice man let me keep all my cheese and all my other food too!

I gave him a smile and the thumbs up and left the airport with my 15 pounds.

I like that man.

Dealing with the Staff

I think 2 maids and a driver constitute a staff, don't you?

I had a new maid start yesterday.

The pregnant maid situation has continued to steadily deteriorate- Ohhhh, I have stories I could have blogged about, but 1) I always feel guilty afterward and 2) unless you've been through the maid situation, I'm sure after a while it's like, "OK girl with a maid, we're sick of hearing about your 'problems'".

She's going to go on leave pretty soon anyway, so I am starting her replacement a little early.

This woman is a cleaner. She has been scrubbing the walls and the floors and the corners. And she's fast-sometimes you can get a good cleaner but they take like 2 hours to do one bathroom. Not this lady-she's a speed cleaner. And she cooks 4 nights a week for me.

So Vanessa now basically has to do noth-ing. But I prefer that to paying her for sitting at her house doing nothing which is what I'm sure she'd prefer. Today was their first day together. Oddly enough (hear my sarcasm here, people)-it didn't seem to really bother her that someone else was here to do her job. She was perfectly happy today to putts around watching Super-Cleaner do her thing.

Obsessive Quilting

My sister-in-law found out she's having a little boy. So, it's time to obsess over another quilt. (Don't worry, I will reach my quilting-limit soon and take another 3 year hiatus-that's just what I do)

Here are the squares that Margarita and I got done tonight (Guapo's out of town so we could work all night without guilt):




Aren't they sooooo cute??? (Yes, they will have eyes eventually. They will not be blind animals)

And, that's about it.

Back By Popular Demand...

my header.

Ok, so it was really only demanded back by:

1. Guapo (the photographer)
2. My mom

and I think Maine Mom might have said she missed seeing it on my blog.

It was a relaxing trip and I kind of wish I was sitting there right now. So, it's back.

Happy Inauguration Day!

25 Hours 12 Minutes 37 Seconds

I made it.

A little sweat, a little throw-up (mine), a little diarrhea all over the place (Pedro's), and a fair amount of tears (mostly mine) and I arrived.

8 of the 9 bags are unpacked. (the 9th contained a candle that exploded and I just couldn't face it tonight. The one thing I didn't put in a ziploc bag.)

I am showered and no longer smell like poop.

And now I am about to drop.

(hopefully not wake up at 3:00 am, wide awake)

Thanks for all of your well wishes. :)

Night night.

Grounded

Our flight to Brazil is delayed (an estimated) 5 hours. Which means it will (supposedly) leave at 2 am bringing my layover time in Houston to 8 hours. So, instead of flying the 10 hours when Pedro is normally sleeping, I will only be traveling for 5 sleeping hours (if I'm lucky).

Not good.

Thank goodness my dad is with us. We are all at a hotel close to the airport. We just ordered Chinese food.

The worst thing is that because it is an "estimated" time delay, they could change it at a moments notice, so I can't even get a few hours of sleep because I have to keep checking the status.

Grrrrrr.

On the bright side (forcing myself here to be positive) first flight was really easy; Pedro slept about 1 hour and 15 minutes of the 2 hour flight. And, I have my dad here. And my toothbrush. And I have an Internet connection.

I Guess It's Time to Shave My Legs

I haven't shaved my legs in 10 days. That's why I love cold weather so much. No one even knew; Guapo's been gone, I wore tights to church. It's been great.

But alas, my departure time draws near. I will be going from 30 degree weather to 100 degree weather.

It's been a great trip. If Guapo weren't in Brazil, I'd just travel between my parents' and my in-law's homes indefinitely. But, we miss him, so we'll return to the heat, the maid problems, and living without Target for another 5 months until the kids get out of school in June.

My stomach is churning thinking about the next 24 hours of my life. My sweet dad is traveling with us to Houston today. He'll get us as far as boarding the flight to Brazil which will help a lot-checking in, 2 trips through security, a 3-hour layover in Houston. But I'm still so nervous. I think I'll be giving myself a dose of Pedro's Benedryl.

I've got 9 bags stocked full of I couldn't even tell you what at this point. Christmas presents, comfort foods, and a bunch of other random stuff including:

Trash bags in Brazil are so expensive, and I really love the forceflex thing.

Ok, this might just be my imagination, but most Brazilian bar soaps have a sligtly odd scent to them. ???

I love the smell of Downy.



This is a must, thelocal liquid dishsoap is awful! The very few bubbles that it produces last for about 45 seconds.



Close to 20 new books for bookclub.



End of the year teachers' presents. This year purchased at V's secret, 75% off, for a grand total of $6.25 each! Not bad.

Well, the razor is calling. I have to face the music and get ready to leave.

Wish me luck.

Vacation Update and Quilt

Wow. What a lame blogger I have been. It's just that this has been the best vacation we've had in a long time and I've just been enjoying relaxing and having fun.

We went to Utah for 10 days and finally got some snow.

We skied:

We tubed:

We played:

We spent 4 days in one house with 12 adults and 13 kids and no one fought (well, maybe there were a few kid brawls, but nothing out of the ordinary) and no one got sick. Amazing! Guapo headed back to Brazil a week ago and I stayed on at my in-laws for a few more days for some extra snow time and quality time with Guapo's folks.

I got to have a mini "bloggers-convention" with my friends Janice and Diane. We actually went to high school together, so I'm not sure it really counts as a blogger event, but they both blog, so I'm going to say that it does count seeing how I miss out on all other blogging events living in Brazil. Janice got take out from Cafe Rio and it was de-licious.



Thursday I made my first ever flight alone with the 4 kids. My mother-in-law came through security with me and played with the kids until it was time to board which helped immensely. And we got to curb-side check, and we only had 4 bags, and there was no line in security, and the flight was only an hour-so it was pretty easy. And pretty much not representational of the flight I am facing on Wednesday back to Brazil (no curb-side check-in, at least 8 bags, 12 1/2 hours of flight time, and for some reason I am almost always selected for the extra security check). Oh well.

My sister had her baby shower yesterday (which I might add was larger than my wedding), and I gave her the quilt I was frantically working on the first part of December. So now I can show you:



Here's a close up of one of the dresses:



I was pretty proud of myself because although I followed a pattern, I thought up and, with Margarita's help, designed the applique dresses. (creativeness is not one of my strengths)

We've got 2 1/2 days left which means it's time to finish up my shopping. You can bet I'll be hitting Target at least five times before Wednesday afternoon.

Christmas Trip: Colorado Portion

I can't believe it's already been 10 days. We've had a great time in Colorado and we are headed to Utah in about 15 minutes for the second part of our trip. Here are the highlights of our trip so far:

(This picture was taken minutes after arriving at my parent's house) Pedro, obviously feeling very comfortable in his new surroundings, got right on making a mess of my mom's bathroom:



They ended up putting up a gate to keep Pedro out of the bathroom.

We got to pick out a real tree this year (Guapo's dream):




Although we were hoping for a white Christmas, it only snowed for about 5 minutes one day. I don't even think you can see the snow falling in this picture, but I promise it was:



We went to a Nuggets game in my dad's office's fancy-shmancy box. They were giving out free reindeer webkinz to all kids and the Nuggets won-so it was pretty much a great night for all involved:



They climbed the wall at the mall:



They got to make fudge and cookies with grandma (I can't tell you what a treat it was NOT to be in charge of these activities!):



(of course, no one wanted to eat Pedro's creations).



The one bad part of the week (and it turned out ok in the end) was that on Christmas Eve day we lost Juan Carlos and Julio for about an hour and a half. Unbeknownst to any adults in the house, they had gone over to a neighbor's to play and were in the basement where no one could here our repeated knocks, so we assumed the neighbors were gone. We frantically searched the nearby park and pond; finally, worrying (well, more like hoping at that moment) that maybe they got lost and wouldn't know the address or phone number of my parents' house, we called the police and they started searching. I'm pretty sure it was the worst hour and a half of my life. I felt like I was suffocating, about to throw up, and pass out all at the same time.

Guapo kept returning to the neighbor's with no luck; then he just felt like he should go inside, so he just opened the front door and he saw their shoes by the stairs (after, the officer joked that he was going to have to charge him with trespassing). They were fine and had no idea they had caused all of us such grief. The nice policeman in charge of the search talked to them about always telling someone where they are and he gave them a sticker:



What an ordeal! I so thankful am it ended happy. The experience served as a very strong reminder of what is really important in life.

That night we did our traditional steamy fondue with the family:



...and later that night Santa visited the house:



We finally joined the 21st century and got a Wii for Christmas. I am a staunch opponent of video games-we'll see how long before I regret the decision. Speaking of the which, please let me know if you can recommend any good, ACTIVE, games for the kids.

And, Guapo and I got a "grown-up" camera. So hopefully the quality of our photos will improve (I'm still scared to use it-so I've got nothing to show you yet.).

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas holiday!