Smelling Flowers

My mom told me to stop and smell the roses...so I did! Aren't I the obedient daughter???

It was an immensely quiet day. I slept in - again. Then did some CEUs for my nursing license. I have a few more hours to complete tomorrow and I'm done!! Yeah!

Nicole had her toe stomped on last night so she hobbled around on crutches looking adorably clutsy. She's got a big ole bruise but good blood perfusion, sensation and movement in the toe so we decided not to test an Argentinean emergency visit.

Lisette holed up in her room - don't miss her blog today! She was amazing in both of her performances! In her blog she is much too hard on herself so read it but don't listen to her! LOL

Jake played with his friend this morning then spent the rest of the day running up and down the stairs alternately playing and then watching the tube.

John studied while I studied. I cleaned a bit, hung out with my lame Coley a bit. Stopped and smelled the flowers!

Another Busy Day

Our landlord came over last night and started our "furnace" so we all went to sleep cozy as bugs in a rug. Then the alarm went off at 6 AM.

Seems we had a Carbon Monoxide monitor a little too close to the gas furnace. John finally came down and solved the beeping mystery (take that meaning as you will) but I was already emptying the dishwasher, too awake to head back to bed just yet.

I finally returned to bed and slept until 11. Not such a good idea - we had a busy day scheduled. Thankfully Lilian was here today so cleaning wasn't on my agenda.

John made bacon and eggs, I made the coffee and toast. Shortly after scarfing down our late breakfast, I needed to scoot Nicole to school for her to head to her soccer game. Lisette and I then headed to the mall for winter coats as I had promised. Meanwhile, John took Jake for a tour of last night's ship.

Lisette and I had a wonderful lunch at the mall, found jackets for her, me and Nicole! Then spent another hour fighting our way through the supermarket...have I mentioned what a madhouse that place is on a weekend??

We arrived home, emptied the car and the door bell rang. Our first guests had arrived! We had good friends over for dinner - BBQ steaks, salad and fries...nothing fancy. Dessert was store bought and delicious! The wine wasn't bad either!

Unfortunately we had to escort everyone out the door early - as pre-planned we had to cut the party short to head to the school for Lisette's choir concert. We kept Jake's buddy with us and got to the school just in time. The concert was great and Lisette was wonderful, as usual!

Back home we all trucked in then I took Nicole and a friend to a get together...one of my crazy drives as I had to go to Plan B finding this house! For those of you familiar with my driving techniques - when we finally arrived (completely unscathed!!), I told Nicole's friend I hoped his life had only flashed before his eyes once. :-)

So now the boys (two small, one large) are watching "Cars" and the aura of testosterone is rampant.

I'll be heading to pick up Nicole in another 30 minutes - I promise to drive safe....r!

Drama Queens

Today started with a headache but John fed me Motrin and rubbed my feet...made me coffee too!

We walked down to a cafe for lunch, John had his haircut after that but I headed home. The girls came home with a burst of energy because their drama skits were tonight. Jake was picked up after tennis by John.

John headed out about an hour later to a reception on a visiting ship. I bowed out, need to be there to cheer the girls on! Whew! Close call! Though he did look very handsome when he left!

The four of us went to the school and had a great time! All of the short skits were by David Ives. Nicole's skit was so funny, it was called "Captive Audience." She played an exasperated girlfriend whose sweetheart is more interested in the eerily-tuned in TV than taking her dancing. Lisette was a bit of a psycho (but a funny one!) in "Bolero." They both cracked up Jake and made me proud!

John is off to an Irish pub - I was a little envious but I'm getting sleepy. My pillow sounds more enticing than a pint...sad but true!

Sweet dreams!

Very Cool Day!

Temperature-wise, yes even though Kim said I was a wuss. My thinned blood couldn't handle this chilly, chilly weather. The sun was shining though so when I had a wee break between my mani and pedi, I had a coffee and a croissant outside at the corner cafe. Have I mentioned what a rough life I lead?? :-)

I came home after my pampering, wolfed down a sandwich and then headed to the school to watch Lisette read her sonnet in front of the school. Fourty sonnets were submitted - Lisette got second place! Woo hoo!!

Stopped at the grocery store to buy items for spaghetti sauce...Lisette is a pasta-hound. Then home for my Spanish lesson. I had been studying my flash cards during my pedicure. The ladies at the beauty salon got quite a kick out of it. My manicurist actually sat down and studied the English side while I practiced the Spanish side of the cards!

John got home in the middle of my class and we both eavesdropped a bit during Jake's session. It's so cute to listen to him speak Spanish!

Picked Lisette up from play rehearsal then 40 minutes later, Johnny headed back to the school to pick up Nicole from soccer practice. Nicole was selected to go to a traveling game this Saturday. I love to watch her play so it's bittersweet to send her off to play elsewhere! She was pumped about it though!

We received pictures of our house in Bolivia - it's government owned for the Defense Attache position. What we see is what we get and what we see is gorgeous!! I don't want to post the pictures, it's someone's house right now after all. Most of the furniture stays with the house and it's extremely formal - again, beautiful but formal...I'm trying to figure out what I can do make it more "Alvarish"!! If I've fired up your curiousity, send me an email and I'll scoot you a few of the photos.

Hope your Thursday was sunny and very cool!

Slipping

I woke up this morning to find my children using chocolate milk in their cereal because we'd run out of regular milk! Oops! Not like I have a full-time maid to clean my house, you think I have time to buy groceries??

My girlfriend came in from the city and we headed to the big grocery store. A few hours later, home I came with bags and bags of groceries but no milk. They were out of fat free milk. Here is when you realize I do live in a nearly-third world country. I did eventually find the milk at another local grocery store but it's quite often that the stores will run out of something important - milk, chocolate milk, chocolate pudding...you see how it is? It's rough here! :-)

But seriously, from the outside this city is very cosmopolitan...just don't scratch too deep beneath the surface. The facade basically crumbles easily.

We found out Lisette did extremely well in the Sonnet contest - check out her website and scroll down a bit, her entry is in one of her blogs. Tomorrow we find out her actual placing so I'll let you all know!!

John had an evening presentation to go to at his school so this is the first dinner we've had without him in ages. Jake was a little shocked! Now that's a great thing to be used to!

Wish Lisette luck!
Love to all!!

School Work

I spent hours today looking at the girls' next few years of schooling. I had printed up copies of their current classes, the school curriculum of future schools (plural), emails back and forth from present and future schools. It's insane! With all of our moves (past and future) during their high school years, it's quite tricky to get their ducks in any semblance of a row!

Thankfully, Nicole only has to change one class for next year - Physics is now Chemistry. Lisette is much more complicated. She probably needs to change three classes (already changed one) plus take some preparatory work this summer...all because we were not on top of this enough before the beginning of this, her tenth grade. She's still on the "wrong" track for Science but it just means one less Advanced class - which would have helped her overall GPA.

Our high school counselor is awesome here! It is so unlike the high school that I spent my teen years in, the courses and the system is so very different. Then, you just followed an easy set of ground rules for graduation. Here, there's a myriad of choices on how best to complete four years and the girls will be doing it in FOUR different high schools! Ahhh!

When Jake got home from school, I had him go with me for a walk with Buddy. Mostly I wanted his company but I wasn't sure my fried-out brain would remember how to get home.

We stopped at another cafe for Fanta (Jake), a sandwich (both) and a bottle of agua sin gas (yo). My eyes glazed over a little but I don't think Jake noticed, his stream of chatter never seemed to waiver. I kept looking at his intense blue eyes and felt all mommy-mushy. Buddy stayed at the side of my chair and showed little interest at the people passing by.

Back home it was pick up the girls, eat leftovers and get Jake into the shower. Done! I just got a call from Lisette's English teacher and she's approved to take Advanced English next year - check! One more to go...

I'm tired. But a job well done today!

NCA Day

No Cooking Allowed. I did make coffee this morning.

A girlfriend called and invited me for lunch. I accepted and we went to John and my new favourite restaurant - she hadn't been before. We met up with a few other ladies - one planned and one coincidental. One is Canadian and one is Danish! How cool??

Lunch was lovely and John met me in time to walk home together. We stopped at another cafe to pick him up some mini-sandwiches for his lunch.

I had a double Spanish class today because Lisette couldn't be here again for the girls' class. Our teacher doesn't want to get too far ahead with Nicole so we'll wait for Lisette to be here next week.

John picked up Jake then Nicole and I went to get Lisette. We ended up taking one of her friends home too. Came home only to turn around and take Lisette with her Chorus dress to a seamstress to be fitted.

So all that running around made it impossible for me to focus on cooking, soooooo.....Chinese food delivery it is! Yum Yum!

I am so going to the gym tomorrow!

Sleeping In

Last night, the computer was confiscated for silly things like homework so this blog is a day late...

Nicole's friends stayed until about 1 AM (early night for them!) so John and I didn't rest our weary heads until about 2. I didn't open my eyes again until the clock read 11:46! Whew! Waking up at the crack of noon! Part of the problem was the sky was grey and dreary, better to be cuddled in our new 400ct bed sheets! Oh yeah!!

Unfortunately, the sleeping in pretty much set the stage for the rest of the day for me. I did make a huge bacon and egg breakfast - "Jake, please have some eggs with your bacon mountain!" - but the rest of the day I just putzed around.

John hung pictures, I think we're down to just a few more. Lisette and Nicole did homework while Jake kept reminding me that I'd offered to help him "mix chemicals". He showed up with long sleeves, long pants and gardening gloves on - ready to mix. I'm still waiting for someone to reassure me that he's normal! I begged off and John mixed up some concoction with him. Whatever they made, it smells delicious!

I did call my nephew to wish him a wonderful birthday...he's getting much too old! He's home from university for the weekend and sounded like he was on cloud 9!

Now it's time for you to have a great day!!

Happy Fourth of July!!!!

Yes, it was celebrated here today!! The American community, in all of its wisdom deemed it appropriate to have a Fourth of July picnic in April. They say it's better than trying to have one in July (winter here) which is a great idea, normally. However, picnics aren't great fun in rainy, 60 degree weather either. No, not fun.

Of course, we went anyway. We'd bought the tickets already!! John flipped burgers, the girls hung out with friends, Jake ran wild in the rain and I thought longingly of my warm house. I dragged the kids home with some friends after only about an hour. The rain had been coming down non-stop.

So we had friends at our house for the rest of the day - which was wonderful! Then John and Drew came back from burger-flipping and cleaning up. We chatted a while longer then John headed to the Embassy to pick up our Commissary order. It consisted of three bags of Tortilla Chips, one package of Entenman's Donuts (should have ordered more!), 12 boxes of Pancake Mix (should have ordered less!), 24 packages of hot dogs, 12 boxes of oatmeal, 12 packages of bacon and (oops!!) twenty-four bottles of green tea (ordered the wrong kind - I meant to order the Diet kind!) Oh well, this was my first try - still trying to figure out the system. I think the donuts are already half eaten. Plus, the store's been out of pancake syrup so we can't even enjoy the pancakes!!

Tonight, Nicole has friends over and Lisette went to watch a movie at a neighbour's house with the church youth group. I'm waiting for Nicole to point out that we let Lisette have two social events this weekend...yikes!

Jake and I snuggled while we watched "Spirit" - what a cool movie, I haven't watched it in a while. Now John's reading to him for bed. They're reading "Aragon" still - John's been complaining that it's a boring part so it seems to be taking forever to get through.

Soggy day but not a bad day. We did hear that one of the wonderful guys who went to Ecuador with us last year lost his wife. Please keep Jim in your prayers!! He'll certainly be in ours.

School Day

John and I visited the kids' school twice today. First, this morning was Student Led Conferences with Jake. He showed us his work and played tour guide to some of his outside classes (art, music, Spanish). Then John had to head to school himself.

Jake and I went out for lunch then did some grocery shopping. On our way home, we stopped at a Kiosko and Jake bought some Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Much to his delight, there was some super important card in the decks that he bought! Oh joy, oh bliss! Well, he was really excited! Lilian and I just chuckled and shrugged.

At the end of school, John and I headed back and met Lisette with her guidance counselor to plan out her classes for the last two years of high school. Gulp! That's even hard to write much less think about! Her counselor is outstanding, very much on top of what needs to be done and had some excellent suggestions.

Dinner was out for the five of us but Lisette met some friends at another restaurant. Nicole, Jake, John and I had a delicious supper and the timing was right to swing by and pick up Lisette on the way home.

Now, the boys and Lisette are watching TV, Nicole is IMing friends (educated guess) up in the attic. I'm ready for bed.

BTW, it rained off and on today - nothing too disruptive and nothing dismal!! Yeah!!

Don't Leave Me Sunshine!!

No matter how hard I plead...looks like there are clouds in my future! But today, today was beautiful!!

The sun was shining and nary a cloud in the beautiful blue sky. According to the Weather Channel website, it's supposed to rain for the next five days. Such a bummer. But wait, it was sunny and gorgeous today!!

The girls had soccer practice after school while Jake and I had Spanish lessons. Again, all my teacher and I did was talk, again mostly in Spanish. We talked a lot about the Virginia Tech shootings then about life in general.

After picking up and delivering the girls home from practice, I announced we needed to walk to a restaurant for dinner. With the nasty weather on the horizon I was anxious to enjoy the clear, warm weather while we could. The kids bowed out - homework and such - so John and I headed down the street.

We returned to the restaurant we had enjoyed so much at lunch a few days ago. It proved a good choice for dinner too! This time, two excellent steaks, two BIG glasses of wine and a Diet Coke - $35 with tip. We had considered ordering a whole bottle of wine, I'm glad we didn't because the amount of wine in our glasses had to be close to a full bottle. Another lovely bonus of walking to dinner - no need for a DD.

I miss spring, we've gone from winter to summer to fall. Very strange and kind of sad. It's weird to be in April, preparing to air out the winter clothes and put away the sleeveless shirts. Today was a typical spring day but in reality it was a typical Indian summer day. How messed up am I going to be for the next three years??

Time to cuddle my husband while I listen to the clouds being blown in. That's not so bad! :-)

Happy Birthday, dear sweet Aunt Marilee!! Besitos!!!

Bitter Day

I've had a bitter taste in my mouth all day. Most of the day was spent working on my CEUs for my nursing license - I learned all about Arterial Blood Gases and Telephone Triage (thought that looked interesting!) so I wasn't sure why I felt so grumpy.

Jake headed back to school and then to Circus Club. He reported good behaviour in school but some kid was bugging him at Circus Club so he ran and sulked in a corner. Grrrrrr! I lectured him on dealing with mouthy kids himself or making sure an adult is aware. No running away! John suggested a head butt would solve lots of problems. I did not concur (out loud at least!)

Lisette had play rehearsal so Jake and I picked her up just after he finished the Circus Club. Nicole is growing her hair really long and sometimes lets it dry naturally - giving it a kind of sloppy but "cool" look. She walked in the door from school and I thought she'd gotten her hair messed up so I said "What the heck happened to your hair?" Oooops. My bad! She wasn't really amused! Poor baby!

About 20 minutes ago I finally realized why I was feeling so out of sorts. Virginia Tech. I've been following the story via CNN and the Internet. My heart feels like it's having spasms in my chest, it hurts. The pain of the victims, their friends and families. This young man was so very sick, what pain must his family be in too??

So now I know where the bitter feeling is coming from. Lisette just wrote a long blog on the VT shootings too. Will the U.S. every be able to clean up the guns? Seems like the "gun control" issue is completely out of control. Somewhere in there there's an answer, but for today we only have grief.

Catch up blog

With his fever on Monday evening, I told him to stay in bed and skip another day of school Tuesday. He came downstairs yesterday morning looking bright and chipper. No fever all day long! I should have sent the rascal to school after all!

It was a quiet day, I worked in the office cleaning and sorting though there's still a mountain to do. Lilian commented on what a great amount of space there was in the office now! :-)

John and I went to the electronics store early in the evening - our American bought (made in China though) transformer killed my blender and our coffee maker. Two of the most expensive items I have in the kitchen!!! AHHHHHH! Painful but again, what can you do?

It started to pour down rain just as we left the store, we were going to go pick up Jake and take him to dinner but it was raining too hard. I called Lisette and asked her to play cook - she was already in her PJs, showered after a muddy soccer practice - she happily agreed to it. These are the times I wish I could buy her the moon. What an angel!

John and I went for a steak dinner (surprise!) We had a really nice time and the dinner was excellent (no surprise!) My rib-eye, John's NY Strip, salads and sides, two Diet Cokes cost a sizzling $25. See why we go out so much?? BTW, you only tip 10% here. Life is good!

Now I need to order a new coffee machine - our new fancy transformer should keep it safe!!

Monday, Monday

I'm eating delivery ice cream...it's a really, really good thing that sweets aren't my thing. This is good ice cream but I'd rather have french fries with gravy. Weird, huh?


Jake stayed home from school today. He slept in a little and when he did come downstairs, he had the cutest red cheeks! Yup, a temp of 100.9 - Motrin brought it right down and then I couldn't feed him fast enough. He had chocolate pudding for breakfast...then about 11:30 the hunger hit. Two grilled ham/cheese sandwiches, a large bowl of chicken noodle soup with Gatorade and multiple glasses of water mixed with a healthy dose of cartoons and our boy was feeling good.

His fever returned just before dinner so he had Motrin with his pasta.

Nicole and I had our Spanish lessons today. According to John, my Spanish is coming along really well. I tried to pin him down on "really well" but he just kept saying I was doing "excellent" and "really well"...I need my teacher to keep a grade book on me. There's my type A personality shining through!

Lisette started a blog - I'll try to hook hers onto mine. She's already done it but she's a teenager, she's supposed to computer literate!!

Here's to Jake's health - may he be up and running soon!

Headache and Sore Throat

Unfortunately, they aren't both mine. I've had a headache for 24 hours straight, with little to no relief from meds. A bit of a fever but otherwise just the headache. Most likely a virus - what can you do?

Poor Jake has the sore throat. He's coughing pretty regularly, seemed to respond well to the Motrin but he was feeling pretty miserable this evening. At present he's soaking in a very long shower. I've already deemed him worthy of a day off of school tomorrow. He cheered! Quietly, because his throat hurts.

Maybe Jake and I'll do a Disney movie marathon, stay wrapped up in our super soft snuggly blankets (aren't they Deb?) all day tomorrow! The house will become magically clean thanks to dear Lilian. We'll eat pudding and drink fruit smoothies ordered from a nearby Cafe!

So the quiet Sunday was quiet. A quick trip to the grocery store by Lisette and I. John hung a few more pictures. It rained just a little bit. Nicole stole a few hours with a friend to practice their dance for her Aerobics (PE) class. Leftover Chinese food for dinner.

Time to cuddle my baby boy to sleep. Wish I could take on his hurts but Mommy-magic does help!

Stay healthy!!
Love to all!

Wild Goose Chase

What an adventure! I'm calling that because I could just as easily get really frustrated and curse the whole trip...but what can you do?

Last week, Lisette had found some information through the Embassy about a creative writing workshop. Emails were shared and things looked good to go for this afternoon. We had the address, we had the time, we had the day.

Last night I checked my brain AKA the calendar, for any events for today (Saturday). I was delighted to see we had none! A relaxing day! Silly me!!

This morning I picked up the girls from their respective sleepovers and then zipped Nicole over to her (surprise to me!) soccer game just before noon. Things were going smoothly.

Then my friend called and in the conversation, she reminded me that Jake was supposed to go to a birthday party this afternoon at 4. Okay, we can handle that. Gift, party...no big deal.

Lisette chose to remind me early (12 - bless her!) about the writing class. Okay, gift/writing class/party. Got it! Ooops, gotta pick up Nicole somewhere in there too! Where did the relaxing day go???

So Jake, John, Lisette, Lilian and I piled in the car around 12:30. We dropped off Lilian off at the train station, dropped J & J off at the toy store and drove around looking for a parking spot. Found one! J & J find/buy/wrap gift and off we go to the writing class.

It took an hour and a half just to get to the part of town the class was!!! Brutal traffic! By the time we got there (around 2:15) we were hungry and rather cranky. We found the cafe then headed to a nearby restaurant for lunch.

The class was supposed to start at 3. No one showed up. Nicole had called at 3 looking for a ride home. We told her she was about an hour away and to get comfortable. She got cranky, she was lucky to not be within striking distance of me!

Food was comforting. John napped on the ride home. We picked up Nicole, drove home and then John took Jake to the party. I took 800mg of Motrin.

I'm afraid we're already planning to skip church tomorrow. Nothing's on the calendar and we're trying to keep it that way!!!

Here's to a relaxing day - tomorrow!

Guacamole Friday

There was a huge pile of guacamole on our lawn today - unfortunately it was an inside job...seems Buddy has been eating the fallen fruit of our avocado tree. Avocado doesn't agree with him. I'm just glad it wasn't in the house!

John and I met with Jake's teacher today. She's not too concerned with his behaviour but wants to make sure we keep the communication lines open about it. We didn't learn much that we didn't already know but it is nice to know she's keeping a close eye on him!

Lunch was a walk away - another cafe close by. It was really good and really nice! We agreed that it was somewhere we'll have to try again! Somehow the fact that they served us a liqueur with the bread basket elevated them considerably. :-)

Jake had tennis after school, Lisette had play practice and Nicole had to organize her social life for the weekend.

Tonight, we dropped Lisette off at a sleepover then Nicole at a sleepover. I had dinner at an excellent restaurant with my two favourite men.

Thankfully, Buddy seems to have recovered from his bout with guacamole-enteritis. Hopefully there will be no further reports on his digestive system products!

Happy Fin de Semana!

Spouse Lunch

This morning I balanced the checkbook and did my Spanish homework (early - kind of!) after taking a shower, getting the kids off to school, sending the dog on his walk - my usual morning routine.

This afternoon, I attended a lunch that was in honour of the Southern Command admiral's wife - an exceptionally nice lady. It was held at John's boss's house - his wife is also an exceptionally nice lady! We had a great chat before lunch was served, the food was delicious and the discussion at the table was lighthearted but we discussed quality of life issues here as well. Language instruction was one of the big ones, plus cost of housing/living. The rental prices here are skyrocketing even higher and they are already outrageous!

I got back in time for my Spanish lesson. We spent the entire class just chatting but mostly in Spanish!! That was pretty cool!

Jake had his class next...I zipped Lilian to the train station then to the bank so I could pay our tutor!

Italian style chicken for dinner was enjoyed by all. We've been pretty consistent with eating dinner at the dinner table. It really is fun to spend time talking as a family. All the books say it's important but I just love to "catch up" with everyone.

Bedtime for the little guy and cuddle time for me and my big guy!
Salud!

Just Cause

Yesterday started out fabulous!!! News from the family that a well fought battle with cancer was being won "significantly" - Hallelujah!!

Then an email from Jake's teacher. My little man is continuing to have problems adjusting. Sigh. Walking a line between slapping him upside the head (okay, not really but in my imagination!) and just wanting to hold him is slightly exhausting. I've already told him that having hissy fits is unacceptable. He's having a hard time controlling his temper though has thus far remained non-violent, just meltdowns. John and I are going to meet up with his teacher tomorrow.

So when a friend of mine was having a rough morning and suggested a stiff drink would help, I jumped on that band wagon! We had lunch with a beer. Not the other way around if you catch my drift. Actually, we ordered two appetizers with our salad bar lunches - not recognizing what the appetizers really were. We received a skewer of mozzarella cubes wrapped in bacon and a plate of fried fat with sauteed liver. Oh yum. Can you guess which one we skipped? We then shopped some of the mall and had a makeover at Mac's...that was awesome!

Lisette went to my hairdresser's in the evening and now she looks even more mahvelouser than me! But then, she always has!

Love and Kisses!
Shelley

Mahvelous!

That's how my hair looks! Simply mahvelous!

Had my hair done today - highlights, lowlights, cut...same price as in the States but in pesos!! Woohoo!! 130 pesos = 40 USD. Great colour and great cut. Read it and weep! LOL

Okay, I'll stop now.

The girls got their report cards. Not bad, not bad. They're so smart! Nicole - 5 As, 3 Bs Lisette - 5 As, 2 Bs and a C!!! Where did that C sneak in??? Algebra 2/Statistics...she'll work on it. This is the first time Nicole has outdone Lisette in high school grades. I can hear her smirking from here. Good kind of competition though!

The rain is back - supposed to stick around for another 24-36 hours. Grrrrrr. Maybe it'll drown the mosquitoes again!! We were mosquito free for about 2 days after it rained for 10. Silver linings, always look for them!!

Poco Mal

I wasn't feeling well yesterday...hence no blog!

I took two Aleve just before going to bed (late Sunday) and about ten minutes later, experienced really bad heartburn. Bad me - just took it with water on an empty stomach. So I didn't sleep well at all.

Dragged myself through the day, drank tea and popped Pepto Bismol but did my Spanish homework. Yeah! My teacher was gentle with me, didn't ask me to use my brain much. We chatted about life (mostly in English) and then it was the girls' turn. I headed to bed for three hours.

There are plenty of times when I have reason to squawk a little or a lot (sometimes) about my husband. Now is not one of them. He let me sleep, worked with Jake on a school project and ordered dinner (who needs to cook here, really??) I woke up at around 7, kissed on my hubby and little boy, ate a sandwich and drank some water.

Bedtime was at 10 - I slept like a log. Today I feel great, with plans to move and groove.

Wish I was moving and grooving with you all!
Miss you tons!
Love,
Shelley

Happy Easter!

Hope your Easter was happy and full of chocolate!

John and I had coffee on the patio then woke the other two kids up - Lisette almost always beats us all at getting up in the morning. Jake jumped out of bed - he gave up cookies for Lent so there were cookies to be had for breakfast! He actually gave them up late, we all didn't notice when Lent had started but he was still the only one of us to give up anything so kudos to him!

I made a banana bread to take to church. Easter service was great and the potluck lunch was yummy. Unfortunately the mosquitoes are now back in full force. Another Easter gift for the church members was our can of Off.

The rest of the day was quiet and cuddly. Jake got more than his fair share of cartoons but I snuggled with him while he watched them so I feel no guilt at the mind sucking orb being on for so long.

Roast chicken again tonight. The carcass has been boiled and we now have a terrific base for the soup we'll have tomorrow!

I ate too much chocolate but that's Easter for you!
God Bless!
Shelley

Good Saturday

Last night bedtime wasn't until almost 2. I slept in until almost 11. This Argentina time is killing me!

I cleaned up the kitchen, picked up stuff here and there, watched some TV - all this while John and Lisette headed to the hotel to get Jake. Lisette and Jake ended up hanging out there all day - Lisette babysitting while our friends did some car shopping. John stopped at a big grocery store on the way home and then had the car washed.

John, Nicole and I walked down to a restaurant for lunch then did a little bit of shopping as we walked back to the hair salon. I left them there to get dolled up and headed back home.

Lisette and Jake got home around 4:30, Jake must be going through a growth spurt because he didn't stop eating from the moment he got in the door. Two PB&J sandwiches, almonds, pudding...the kitchen had a revolving door!

When those amazing looking creatures returned from their hair appointments, John took Nicole to her daily social outing - this time to a nearby restaurant.

Right when Nicole called to inform us her friend's mom had picked them up to transport them to the gathering spot house of the evening, I left for the grocery store and bought more snack food for Jake plus dinner for the next few days. Pasta night tonight!

Have you noticed how active Nicole's social life is? Well, Spring Break is about over so life is going to change now. I'm not looking forward to the misery that will likely produce but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Bedtime will be earlier tonight - tomorrow, the Easter Bunny visits!
Happy Easter Eve!

Plans Change

Don't they? When you least expect them to? Would you have any idea that "Viernes Santo" would mean "Good Friday"??? Okay, viernes is Friday but what the heck do Saints have to do with good??

Another family went with us to a zoo about 30 minutes from here. I did my homework, checked it out on the web - gate times and ticket prices. Didn't take much notice of the Saint Friday because that must be an Argentinean holiday of some sort. Ooops. My bad.

Zoo was closed. The kids couldn't have cared less - thank goodness! We went to a mall down the road, had lunch, the females shopped while the males hit a Chuck E Cheese type place. Everyone was happy.

Jake headed back to town with our friends for a sleepover. Nicole threw a mini-party up in our attic. Pizza and friends. Lisette and I watched "Much Ado About Nothing" - good movie!

Quiet evening, now it's finally time for bed!
Goodnight!

Seder Dinner

This day flew by - well, technically since it's past midnight - yesterday flew by!

I woke up just in time to feed/water/business Buddy before the dog walker picked him up. Made myself a coffee and sat at the patio table to do my Spanish homework (a whole 30 min. before class - that way it's still fresh in my mind!)

Spanish class - mad dash to the grocery store - mad dash to pick up Nicole from her sleepover. Quick shower then off to the Ambassador's house for an Easter Egg Hunt. I still drive like I live in Italy so we were an hour early.

Had a great time at the Easter party. Lisette and I cheated on the egg toss. It had evolved into raw egg tossing but no one noticed ours was hard-boiled until the egg split in midair and the yolk went flying off in a different direction. Busted!! The Ambassador's wife cracked up when that happened! Sorry - pun couldn't be avoided!

We zipped back home, I chopped the daylights out of the fruit and off to a friend's house for Passover Seder Dinner - Christian style. It was really, really interesting. I didn't get to research it all very well but I'd love to see how closely it was done to the Jewish dinner. Another cool thing about it, the husband of the other family that was there graduated from McMaster! Small, small world!

So home we came - seems I blew up the blender when I tried to make a fruit smoothie out of the leftover fruit salad. AHHHH! C'est la vie!

Time for bed!
Hugs and Kisses!
Shelley

Tennis Anyone?

I asked for a tennis racket for my birthday, which my husband got for me. I haven't played tennis since high school and have no mental images of great tennis form - just tennis fun.

So, two lady friends of mine met me, Jake and his sleepover buddy at the school to hit a few balls around. The kids (four in total) took over one court and we watched and helped them for awhile. I thought Jake held his own for a munchkin who's only had a few lessons. Then it was the adults' turn. The kids headed for cover at the playground next to the courts.

Marybelle can play. Mary and I can't. Mary and I teamed up against Marybelle and she still kicked our butts - not that we were keeping score! It was a good workout and I am proud to say I was the only one who had the strength (read spasticity) to hit the ball over the very high fence - twice!

Lunch was at the table on the patio watching the sun soak into the waist high grass of our backyard. Jake had mentioned yesterday "Don't you love the sound of nature?" - typical Jake comment, but I did enjoy it today during lunch.

I did the maid/husband/kids shuffle this afternoon - Nicole is at a sleepover, Lisette is having a sleepover and Jake is now in bed - it's 10:30.

John and I walked down to a nearby restaurant. My steak was excellent but poor John's was overcooked a bit. Wine and salad - final bill was about $25.

Life is definitely good!
Love you all!!

Happy Happy Birthday!

The sun was shining, there were no mosquitoes, I received great news...that was a good birthday!

Yesterday was my 43rd birthday - I was successful in finding a grey hair the other day and in typical strange-Shelley fashion, I was quite excited about that!

I started the day reading birthday greeting emails and blogs - how nice is that? Then I headed to the nail salon and returned to a clean house! Lilian magic!

The kids and I met John at the Embassy, picked up mail and a few groceries at the Commissary then to a sushi place for lunch. We laughed a lot and put chopsticks where they weren't meant to be.

I received an email wishing me a happy birthday from my wonderful sister-in-law. She also forwarded the news that her son, who had numerous seizures years ago when he was but a wee lad, had a perfectly normal EEG and they were now able to finish weaning him from his medicines. I wept tears of joy!!!!

John made dinner, friends came to surprise me, we ate on the patio (mosquito free!), more laughter but no misplaced chopsticks this time.

Cake was yummy...I think I'm up for another 43 years!

Sunshine!!!

The storms kept me up a good part of the night but when I did wake up this morning - sunshine!!!! I sung as I opened the doors and windows!! Sun Sun Beautiful Sun!!

John and Jake had a great time burning papers in the BBQ - I think we have a piro in the making! Then we couldn't find our car insurance papers and John thought they might have gone up in smoke...whew, they were found, unsinged.

I forgot to tell a Jake story from yesterday. Jake really doesn't like April Fools jokes. I told him we were going to raise his allowance to $100 a month - yippee! Sorry, April Fools! He actually took it well then headed to the office for a piece of paper and some tape. He spent the rest of the evening with a sign taped to his shirt - "I Don't Selebrate April Fools Day!!" Surprisingly, his sisters respected that...or they were too busy with their own lives to bother with him! :-)

Jake went swimming then to school to play at the playground with his friend. Lisette went to watch a movie at church with the youth group, Nicole is heading out to go see a movie at the movie theater with friends. John is rubbing his face, his daughters have too active a social life for him!

I wish a beautiful Spring for you all - plenty of rain/sunshine/flowers - an abundance of whichever you'd prefer - I'll take the sunshine/flowers for my lovely Autumn!

Much Love!
Shelley

More Rain = Grumpy Shelley

Yes, I was a grumpy lady today.

Yes, it was rainy again today.

I think the worst part of it was that it seemed to be over yesterday evening - I was so happy when the wind appeared to have swept the rain away! Such a bummer to wake to more soggy weather.

Nicole didn't leave her party until after 2 AM so she just slept over at the host family's house. The rest of us went out for brunch and picked her up at a nearby restaurant that the kids went to for lunch. Then it was nap time, especially for Jake - he's been staying up much too late recently.

Lisette spent some time at her friend's house watching DVDs - then came home and watched "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with me.

Jake had a bath in our giant jacuzzi tub, I had to make him get out after over an hour!! John read to him for awhile while Lisette and I watched the movie.

And it rained...it's still raining...and I'm still grumpy! :-)