coo coo ca choo

I guess it is more like "coup coup ca choo"..... and no, I am not a walrus.

(if you are saying "huh?", with a look on your face like I am insane, it is a Beatles song)

Yes, life as of late:

coups

bank robberies

presidents in hiding

presidents being overthrown

people driving in lanes going the wrong direction

helicopters everywhere

everything shut down.... stores, schools, and whatever else

Such is a day in the life of a Quito resident.

And I am so glad I'm here.

I say that in all seriousness!! Really!

From the moment we were told that we had to pick up our kids early from school (it was the first I heard of all this lunacy), I had a huge grin on my face. I love this! It is so cool to be experiencing this.... something so different from my cultural norm. I couldn't stop grinning (for real) all afternoon as the whole thing is just so entertaining.

Now if it goes on for quite a while, and if we can't get food and gas* like some people are predicting (are they realists or pessimists??), I might not be so happy. I'm sure you'll hear all about it if it comes to that!

The kids, however, aside from being happy that they have a 3.5 day long weekend (except for Cade - he cried tonight because he doesn't have school tomorrow! I love that!!), are having a bit of a hard time. There have been several tears for fears (sorry, I couldn't resist the 90s reference). Cade was crying quite a bit when we had to pick them up from school. While the school handled everything very well, there was a bit of chaos, lots of bells/sirens, and a lot of announcements. He was quite distressed. Poor guy.

Then there were more questions and tears from all of the kids at bed time. It is certainly a very upsetting thing for them to go through. I hardly understand what is going on and they understand even less. It is pretty frightening for them, having never gone through anything even remotely similar.

The good thing about today was that we had some of the Casa G. boys over for dinner. After dinner we watched a bunch of fun and funny videos on youtube. It provided a great distraction for the kids and was great to hang out with the guys. We love being part of this ministry. I think we benefit far more than the guys do!

Well, tomorrow, I'm just going to call the day off from school a "snow day".

In my mind there will be a blizzard howling outside and we will be staying inside, warm and cozy. Its a little early considering it will only be the first of October..... but if we can imagine that there is a blizzard, then we can most certainly imagine that it is January 16th or something like that!

*We have gas!! They came today. Soooooo thankful - especially because once we heard about this coup business, people told us we probably wouldn't be able to get any.... and then the gas shortage was making it even harder. But as we were heading home from school, I saw our gas truck/guys on the main street.... I flagged him down and asked if he was going to come to our house. He did! Of course, being that there is a shortage and they might not be able to deliver for a while, he charged about 40% more $ per tank.... but considering how cheap gas is, we really couldn't complain! It is a huge answer to prayer that we finally have full tanks, especially now. Thank you Lord!!

so you want more of the kids

I've had several requests for more pictures, particularly more pictures of the kids.

Well, that is all fine and dandy but what about Eric and I?

Doesn't anyone care to see us?

What is up with that?

Do we mean nothing to any of you?

Okay, I get it - we are not nearly so cute.

So you want cuteness?

Here is some cuteness....

Lucy are Mia are posing with their artwork. This is actually from a while ago - one of the projects to make our house a home, while at the same time keeping the kids busy and/or distracted in the long. lonely summer.

I bought each of them a canvas and a bunch of paint colors that matched our "aquarium" (um.... can't remember if I have mentioned the aquarium yet.... Essentially, it is our family room. A small cozy room that has one wall that is all windows and the opposing wall is almost all glass, including a sliding glass door. When we first moved in I said that it made me feel like a fish in a fish tank, so we started calling it the aquarium). The kids then painted fish-ish pictures (again - get the aquarium reference?).

Their pictures, clockwise from the top right:

Lucy, Mia, Cade and Maddy

Yes, Lucy did very well for a five year old..... although she did have a great deal of assistance!

This is Cade yesterday after school.

We walked home from school in a torrential downpour.

- Eric made me go and get the kids while he sat at home doing nothing. -

I brought their raincoats along but we were still extremely cold and got very very wet. There was an awful lot of rain - almost Costa Rican like.

- Eric said that it was my turn to go and get them while he stayed home all snuggled up in a cozy blanket. -

The kids were complaining a lot, their little teeth were chattering, their cute and precious lips were turning blue. My fingers, because you see, I have raynauds disease, were turning white and I could hardly move them. And yes, we were walking up hill, of course.

- Eric fell asleep on our soft sofa, cozied up with the kitty, snoring in blissful ignorance. -

When we finally managed to struggle home, fumbling with the keys with frozen fingers, pulling the cold steel gate open and falling, with utter exhaustion into our yard, Eric managed to rouse himself long enough to throw out a few towels to us so we could dry off.

So kind.

Okay, but seriously...

It was cold and we were soaked.

So we all pulled off our wet things (they are still in a pile by the kitchen door - still no gas, and it is raining, so we don't really have a way to dry things), got all cozy in our jammies, made some hot chocolate (heating water in the microwave - still no gas, so we couldn't heat it on the stove.... thank you Lord for electricity), quickly did homework and watched a movie.

The picture is of Cade after we got all cozied up.

The mouse ears must keep his head warm.

This is Lucy eating dinner last night.

She is very good at multitasking (albeit not so politely!).... she can eat spaghetti and talk on the "phone" at the same time. One of her favorite toys is an old cell phone.

She, unlike her mother, enjoys talking on the phone.

You may notice that she is wearing a sundress.

She also is barefoot.

That is her version of changing out of cold wet things and putting on something warm and cozy.

Those are the first words that come to my mind when I think of sundress: warm and cozy.

Okay, well she did snuggle up with me and a blanket during the movie.

And yes, we did have a homemade meal in spite of not having gas.

Fortunately we had frozen spaghetti and frozen sauce which we could defrost in the microwave. Otherwise it might have been another pizza night (we ordered in the night before).

And just so you know, with the gas, or lack-there-of, issue, we are still showering when necessary.

"Necessary" just has a bit of a different definition than it used to!

And okay, no, this isn't a picture of one of the kids, but it is a picture taken by one of the kids.

Mia, knowing my love for our beautiful Cotopaxi, took this picture from our window this morning (while I was still in blissful slumber).

Just the tail end of the sunrise.

A wonderful way to start the day.

Three words: dumb kitty

Before I explain why Nolly is a dumb kitty.... I know I actually said two words, but it is a partial quote from "Cheaper by the Dozen" - a family favorite movie. So don't ask, just watch the show....

Nolly, the kitty, is a tad bit of a lame-brain.

Don't tell Maddy about this, but seriously, she is.

The worst of it is that she seems to pride herself in being dumb.

For example:

One of the places she likes best is the computer keyboard.

I'm guessing that it is because it is warm.

But you'd think that when you continually removed her from her favorite location, she would get the picture.

No, she doesn't.... "And the cat came back the very next day (well, minute, actually)".

One of these days I might just hurl her across the room.

Okay, I won't, but I'll be tempted to....

Then last night, this:

The kids are in bed and Eric and I are sitting in the aquarium reading.

I hear kitty (Lucy hates it when I call her "kitty" instead of "Nolly") meowing.

I look up and see this - Nolly climbed to the top of the curtains.

She must have been scared because she was meowing a lot.

Then again, she usually meows a lot (also part of her dumbness).

Anyway, she sort of struggles with what to do;

looking down with fear and trembling, looking up with uncertainty...

Finally she decides that up is better than down.

And she actually seems to find a comfy spot.

So there she is, cuddled on the curtain rod, eight feet in the air, looking rather smug.

She wasn't very happy with me when I got a chair and took her down.

I sort of felt like the fireman, climbing the ladder to get the frightened kitten out of the tree.

I'm a hero, I thought.

Kitty thought otherwise.

While I am pretty sure she wouldn't have been able to get down on her own, she was not the least bit please with me removing her from her perch.

I think we need to get a spray bottle to instill a bit of wisdom in dumb kitty.

Nothing like a little spritz of water to teach a cat what is what.

family picture

Just had a little break from blogging.

Got a call from school. My poor little Lu-lu is sick.

I was about to leave when my neighbor got home from grocery shopping - so she took me to pick up my baby. That way we didn't have to walk home.

Thank you Lord, once again, for a wonderful neighbor.

Okay - and just one more thing that I have finally been able to do.

Another thing I have wanted to do for quite some time (this is what happens when you have a year or more to have your brain go crazy with ideas but not have the ability or opportunity to actually do them):

A family silhouette picture.

I love all the silhouette pictures that you see now - especially a lot of kids profiles.

I wanted to do something a little different.

I about drove my family batty with doing this, but I think it is worth it!

We took pictures in front of a window (three of us at a time, and then one of the middle two, Eric and Mia) to get as close to a silhouette as possible. Then I printed off the pictures in black and white, enlarged them, connected them, glued them to some contact paper (old and wrinkly, however - so it made the job a little tricky) and cut them out.

Then I stuck the contact paper cut outs onto a canvas, painted white, and painted over it with leftover paint from Maddy's room. Peeled off the contact paper cut outs and ta-da! Family silhouette picture! Because the contact paper was so old and wrinkly I had a bunch of touching up to do, but I was pretty thrilled that it worked anyway.

They have all these wonderful fancy tools nowadays to make something like this much easier, but I had to do it the old fashioned way.

I'm convincing myself that making stuff out of very little gives me a bigger sense of accomplishment.

I do love how it turned out though. Kind of a fun twist on the silhouette trend.

I linked this project to Under The Table and Dreaming, Somewhat Simple and Tatertots and Jello

And Julie from Kitschy Chic on the Cheap featured it on her most fabulous blog - my favorite of several I visit...she is terribly, horribly (I mean, like really and those good kind of words...) creative but I love love love how she brings in history and education into it all. It is so much more than most crafty blogs.

She is brilliant - and I am her friend.

Does that make me brilliant?

See her post here.

you may notice...

You may notice two things:

Thing one:

I am posting a lot of stuff today.

Yes, I am trying to catch up. Haven't had much opportunity lately.

Thing two:

No, I have not been reading a lot of Dr. Suess lately....

I have posted very little about what we are actually doing here. As in - our ministry and all that.

There are two reasons for that:

Reason one:

I keep forgetting to take pictures of stuff we do and it isn't nearly so interesting to just describe it. But we are "missionarying" and we love the guys and are soooo thankful for the ministry that we are involved in.

Reason two:

There's some stuff going on that I am finding a little hard and am a little emotional about - nothing hugely major - but sad and hard. So I am waiting a little so that I don't start bawling while I am writing and ruining our computer with my flood of tears (yes, that is quite an extreme exaggeration). Seriously - not a big cause for concern, but I just don't feel like writing much about it right now.

Flighty, non-eternal, frivolity is much easier to talk about.

chalkboard wall!!

Thank you Glenda!!

She, my sister-in-law, bought chalkboard paint for me and sent it with a bag of stuff for us (I talked about it in another post some time ago...).

This is another thing I have wanted to do for a long long time (even longer than the chevron wall) and finally got to do. Its in the kitchen.

And it only took two coats!

The verse up top is "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you." Matthew 6:33.

You may also notice in the top right corner a lovely new valance, made from the fabric I received in the same "shipment" - Thanks mom!!

One problem with the location of the chalkboard wall.

Notice the "snow" on the peppers and tomatoes?

I will now have to dust my produce with boring regularity.

painting craziness

I have been wanting to do this for a very long time:

Finally we are not moving or living somewhere temporarily.

And we are also in a rental where we can paint!

So I get to indulge my desire for a chevron wall (I think that is what it is called).

That is all blue painters tape - all measured out, applied and ready for painting (after I painted the wall white first - took three coats.... ask I have stated before, not the best quality paint available out here.....)

Then I painted grey/gray (depending on how you learned to spell it - I don't even remember which way I learned) on every other stripe. Yup - three coats again.

Then the kids helped me remove the tape - fun times!

Not only is the paint not the best quality, but the painters tape isn't either(notice the peeled paint?). Actually, you can get 3M brand, which is only 3x as much $, and being the cheap (I mean frugal) person that I am, I bought the local brand. Big mistake.

Fortunately, 1/3 of the wall was done with the 3M that the previous renters left here, so I did have a section that I didn't have to touch up.... nice, perfectly crisp lines.

I did have a lot of touch up to do - and it is times like this when being a perfectionist really is a pain in the behind.

But it all turned out in the end and I am thrilled.

You'll notice that my treasure is there too. I just took the wrecked legs off of it and it is pinned between the wall and the chest. And for now I have left it as-is.

Eventually I plan it mount it higher and have a bench with four drawers (one for each darling child to put their stuff into) instead of the chest.