gone are lazy Saturdays

Yesterday marked the first of many Saturdays in which we (we being Eric and I) will no longer be able to sleep in.  I'm not even that sad about it.  And I might not even be that affected if I have a Sunday following those Saturdays like today.... although that is highly unlikely.  Today I slept in until 10:15, felt like crap, stayed home from church, stayed awake long enough to have breakfast and read my bible, fell back asleep on the couch and slept for another three and a half hours.  While I was trying to drag myself off the sofa around 3:30, I had a very strong feeling that Eric must have drugged me last night.  Now I am functioning, blogging obviously, but my head is still fuzzy and I'm longing to go back to bed.  I'm sure that feeling will last up until 9:00 at which time I will be wide awake, headache-free and perky.

Moving on, Cade and Lucy have started playing baseball!  We are pretty darn excited about it.  Cade's age group is playing machine pitch and Lucy is playing T-ball.  They are playing on an English league run basically by parents whose kids go to Cotopaxi international school (where most North American embassy kids go).  And we are super excited because they are on the same teams as their friends Jordan and Molly Bryans, so we get to hang out with friends too.

Yesterday was just a practice day.  

 Eric helped Cade practice throwing and catching.  He made a lot of progress just practicing that little bit.

 Then it was time for some batting practice and a scrimmage  (Jordan is in the yellow).

 The girls' practice was after, so they played and watched the boys.

 Eric commented on the lack of appropriate sized head protection for our son - likening him to Jack-in-the-Box.

 Then it was the girls' turn.  Mia helped them out a little.

 Lucy has a little way to go with her baseball skills.  I'm hoping, although the evidence thus far proves otherwise, she has not inherited her mother's abilities in the field of athletics.

 While watching the girls practice, I met another mother whose family is in Ecuador because of the military.  Her husband is in the army.  She was great and we connected very well.  But even better was that she told me how she had been suffering from migraines due to altitude!  Now, of course I am not glad that she is suffering, but it was so wonderful to have some reassurance that I am not insane, nor am I the only one who suffers.

She said that she had gone to the doctor with the US embassy about it and he informed her that about 15% of people who move here have this issue.  Some of them never adjust and either have to learn to live with it or move away.  Occasional waves of nausea and dizziness are common too - which I also have but haven't really talked much about since the headache thing is the dominant issue.  Later in the day the topic came up with some people at the birthday party (to be seen later) and they mentioned two other people that they know who have suffered from this as well - and even much worse.  Anyway, it gave me some peace of mind knowing that I am not alone, nor am I imagining what I am going through (sometimes I think I am becoming psychosomatic).

Later in the afternoon, Molly had a birthday party.   Earlier in the week I attempted to make a birthday present for her.  Everything that could go wrong with it pretty much went wrong.  The sewing machine in particular was making a mess of things.  Actually, I think it was the thread.  It kept tearing and I would have to rethread the machine after sewing just a few stitches.  Finally I took the whole thing apart and started again, doing the whole thing differently.... but by that time the shirt I was working on was getting wrecked.  I tried to salvage what I could - it was now a mission of conquering the project rather than a mission of love for Molly, I must say.  I can hardly believe I actually still gave it to her.  From far away it looks good, but looking up close - not so nice.  I'm going on "its the thought that counts"!

 At the party, the kids painted pumpkins!!!  Or, I guess squash.

 But the Bryans found some at one of the markets, so I think I am going to get some to have a little fall festivity and decór.  Pretty excited about it!

 The girls dressed up like princesses - all but Molly and Lucy.  Molly went for the pirate look and Lucy just wore some fancy shoes.

 We all had a pizza for lunch and then cupcakes, of course.  It was a Hello Kitty party - much to Cade's chagrin (even though the party was for Lucy to go to and the Bryans just allowed the rest of us to come).  He threw a fit about having to use a pink Hello Kitty plate for his pizza, so he refused to eat for a while.  Finally they ran out of those plates so he got to have a plain white one.  I pointed out that all the men were using those plates and they were okay with it.  I also mentioned how our identity shouldn't be caught up in a paper product that gets thrown away after we use it - but these things didn't help.

Later for party favors, Cade was given a Hot Wheels car.  It was purple.  Apparently this was another assault on his manhood and started crying again (Doesn't the crying seem like more like an assault on his manhood??  Just saying....).  Regardless of these particular issues, the kids had a great day and we are looking forward to many more Saturdays filled with fun friendship times.

casa g birthdays

I read the other day that October 5 is the most common birthday in the US - and that it is exactly 40 weeks from New Years Eve.  Hmmm.  Lots of celebrating.  Since not all pregnancies are exactly 40 weeks, it stands to reason that there are many birthdays before and after the 5th as well.  Casa G feels the boom.

 These pictures of Ricardo and Lucy (not sure who used my camera to take them....Maddy?) have little to do with birthdays, but they are just cuteness so I had to put them in.  

 I think we had three September birthdays and then have had one in October already.

This Thursday was Darío's birthday, and he was coming over to our house for dinner anyway.  We had the boys' favorite - fish tacos (the meal where I spend 1.5 - 2 hours solid frying fish!).  Then we had a plain, not too sweet butter cake..... the birthday above I baked a chocolate cake with mocha buttercream frosting, forgetting that they boys really don't like super sweet stuff.  Most of the icing got scrapped off and left!

The best part of this birthday celebration was that Darío had completely forgotten that it was his birthday.  Or I guess, more accurately, not realized.  He came into the house and the first words out of Eric's and my mouths were "Feliz Cumpleaños!" - happy birthday.  He sort of looked at us strangely.  Then he said it wasn't his birthday yet (I panicked, thinking I got it wrong) and his birthday was really Oct. 6.  We busted up laughing, showing him the calendar - that it was the 6th.  The sheepish grin on his face was hilarious.

I just have to tell you how incredible the change in this boy has been.  He and his brother joined Casa G in spring - coming only on the weekends.  They then went to full time in summer.  Neither of these boys would look you in the eye, smile or barely utter a word.  Now, several months later, Darío in particular will not stop smiling.  He is chatty and playful and while still has trouble looking me directly in the eye, will glance up often during a conversation.  He is a different person, to be sure.  His confidence has soared.

It is incredible and a huge blessing to be a part of working with these boys and seeing how powerfully God can change their lives, if they allow Him to.  God's work is amazing.

random

I've been busy - busy doing nothing or busy doing catch-up.  It all depends on whether I have a headache or not.  A higher percentage of the time I do have a headache so I am busy trying not to go crazy doing nothing or enduring some pain and doing a bit of something on the computer.  Right now I am working on a blog book.  I want to have a book made with all my posts each year so that we sort of have a photo album/journal of each year.  That way the kids can look back and have something to remember each year - stuff we did, plus getting a little deeper into their mom's random brain.

I thought it was going to be an easy thing to do.  This company just downloads each blog post, complete with pictures and puts it into book format.  The problem is that sometimes the pictures get mixed up (and the standard layout is kind of boring) and the way I have written takes up a lot of space, so I have had to do much editing.  It is now causing me to rethink how I write.... so from now on, I'll be writing in more regular paragraph style to save myself hours of editing later (I could leave it, with all of my spaces and single sentence lines, but then the book is ginormous and costs a fortune!).  Anyway, it is at least something I can sort of do while having my headaches.... at least for a little while.... until staring at the computer screen makes the throbbing worse.

Since I have been rather discouraged with my physical state (including the rest of my body.... nothing like lying around every day to make you feel like jello.  So much for trying to keep up my fitness level over the summer.  Its just all gone to pot.), I haven't wanted to write.  Plus nothing much has been going on.  But now I am putting my big-girl panties on, sucking it up, and just going to write about all sorts of random things all in one post.

I don't think I have ever introduced you to this man in the photo.  For the life of me I can't think of his name right now, but he is a daily feature in our lives.  While we don't always directly drive right past him, we see him across the intersection.

He only has legs up to the knees and is always at the same intersection, standing in between lanes of cars, waiting for money.  He is definitely not begging or even asking.  In fact, I think what he is doing to earn money is giving away smiles and friendly hellos and waves, and hoping that people might appreciate it enough to help him out a little.  He is one of the most genuinely happy, encouraging people I have ever seen in my life.  He is a good reminder to me, as I slip into bouts of self pity, that I have much to be thankful for.... a little to cry about.

Every time we drive past him, I have to pray that he doesn't get run over.  Because he is so low to the ground, and traffic is so crazy, people are bound to not see him until they are right up to where he is standing.  It is rather unnerving.  God protect that man.

Last week was spiritual emphasis week for middle school and high school.  My desire was to go to each daily session, but just didn't have the stuff to make it each time.  By Wednesday, after not being able to go, due to a pounding head (Tuesday was a really rough day  and I was about ready to jump head-first into the pit of depression.), I finally told myself I was going to go regardless.

I needed to put on some make-up and some happy clothes.  So a donned a cheery yellow cardigan and my newly named happy shoes.

I bought these plain wool shoes a while ago and was waiting to wear them once I had made a few shoe clips to put on them.  The idea was have interchangeable little extras to pin on depending on what else I was wearing, but I scrapped that and just hot glued these little blue circles of cheer straight onto the shoe.  

Then I stuck a smile on my face and off I went.  And it was great.  I skipped out of some of the loud worship music part, but it was so good to be there, and the speaker (from Guatemala) was fabulous.  I made it one more day, but Friday was back to bed for me.

Do you remember the canopy thingy that I made for Lucy's bed?

(She added some butterflies)  Well, it has been hanging in her room all tied up like that for a month now. She said it was always in her way, so I finally just took it down.  I thought all that work went for nothing, but now Maddy said that she would like it.  So, in a year or two, once we actually get the hook up in her ceiling, it will be back in action.

About two weeks ago a friend (and another missionary for Youth World) got engaged.  Her boyfriend and some friends took her to the beach for the weekend, where he proposed.  It was all very romantical from what I understand.  They asked if I could decorate their house a little for a surprise engagement party for the night they got back.  I said I would, with their understanding that I might not be able to do too much, depending on how I was feeling.  I did work on a little bunting sign while feeling poopy-ish one day and then thankfully the day it was too be done wasn't a too bad one.

The bunting sign says "Yahoo!  You're getting married"  It all went well, she was very surprised and delighted and I was quiet thrilled to have a happy creative project.

I neglected to mention that on that very hard Tuesday, my friend Marlo cheered me up.  She brought me cookies and some homemade mora (kind of like blackberry) jam.  Oh so very good.  

 I didn't share the cookies, but I am sharing the jam.  But the jam.... so good.  It is slightly reminiscent of homemade raspberry jam from Manitoba, and has definitely motivating me to make my own.  I didn't think that there was really any point in making my own jam because it is hard to find raspberries.  But this is so good, it doesn't matter.

Look at that toast perfection.  Homemade jam, Canadian (Kraft) peanut butter, on brown bread toast (and not the prepackaged kind, either).  That is the way to start a day!

Last weekend the kids had a somewhat spontaneous three day weekend.  September 30 was the 1 year anniversary of the attempted coup and the city was expecting many grand protests.  Thursday night the kids' school decided it would be better to shut down due to possible riots and traffic issues.  Of course, the kids were thrilled.  They spent the day enjoying some of their own creative projects.

Cade dipped into the scrap wood stash and built himself a little bench for two people.  Then he and the girls decided it needed some color, so they all worked at painting it together.

They are such charming children, aren't they.

This Friday was one of Lucy's teacher's birthday.  Her name is Miss Lam, so as a play on her name, I decided to make some lamb cupcakes for the class.

They look a little more like a cross breed of albino lions and sheep, but the kids didn't seem to notice.  They were quite thrilled.  Miss Lam wasn't in the classroom when I brought them in, so I'm not sure if she appreciated the play on her name like I knew the kids would.  But I figured if she is working with first grade, she must be somewhat impervious to people tying her name to the cute little baby sheep, right?

welcome fall

Technically, fall is here.

As Cade reminded me while I was making this, there is no fall here.  I told him that is why I made this sign - to invite it.  He didn't believe me.

 Well, since fall is my favorite season and I don't get to enjoy it here, I thought I'd do what I can to manufacture as much fall as I can.  Don't worry, I won't go so far as to paint leaves and/or pull them off the trees.

Even though I love fall, I'm not crazy about fall decor.  I like the pumpkins and stuff, but it isn't my favorite.  And even most of things I've thought of making to bring more fall here I haven't been terribly thrilled about.  I'm not sure what it is, but it just isn't my thing.

 Well, I made this anyway.  It's sort of cute although it is a little busy or fancy or something for my taste. One too many ruffles or something.

The good thing is that it cost virtually nothing.  The frame is more cardboard, the fabric is all scraps except for the orange, which was a 99 cent per yard purchase at Ikea this summer. 

(Have I ever told you how much I love Ikea?  I do, I love it.  I'm anticipating Ikea coming to Quito the same year as Trader Joes.  By the way, why is it that they have Ikea in the Middle East of all places but don't have any in South America.  It's just not right.)

Moving on, the "welcome" was stamped with stuff I have and the "fall" was embroidered with floss scraps.  That was the goal (and is the goal for many up and coming projects) - use what I have instead of moaning about the fact that I don't have access to Michaels and JoAnns (also coming to Quito in 2051).

It ain't the cutest thing I ever made, but it still makes me happy.

So fall, you are very very welcome to come to our house.

I miss you.

I linked up to Southern Hospitality.

waiting

sick.....again.  A cold and throat that doesn't want to cooperate.
I want hummus and pita chips.
When will Quito get a Trader Joes?

a new face for you

Is this a new face for you?

 Thankfully for me, it is quite familiar.

Let me introduce to you Alaina.  Alaina and her husband Loren worked with Youth World (same mission as us) in the Chaplains' office at the school the kids go to - Alliance Academy.  This year Loren is working as the youth pastor (essentially) at English Fellowship church here in Quito.  They have a passion for reaching third culture kids - missionary kids, embassy kids, etc.  And they are perfect for it - they both grew up in Latin America themselves.

Last spring, before we left on furlough, I asked Alaina if I could take some pregnancy photos of her in the fall.  I wanted to experiment, hone some skills and try out my new camera, purchased for Fotografía Pescador.  Well, I don't have the new camera yet, but I still got to play around with photos and have a great time with a great friend for an hour.

 We had made several attempts to do this here little photo shoot, but between my headaches and bright sun-shiny days, we kept postponing.

It was another bright sun-shiny day when we took them but Alaina wisely figured that we better take them or she might not be pregnant much longer!  So we dealt with what we had.

The background for these three shots was tarping set up to block off a construction site.  I saw it and loved the glow that it gave off with the sun shining on it.  So we took advantage of the positive parts of the sunny day and took a few photos there.

 It was kind of limiting as there were a lot of piles of dirt around, also in the background (we were on a slop) and there were a lot of nasty wood pieces holding the whole thing together, but we managed to get a few with a nice blue glow behind her.

Then we found a nice shady spot.

 Alaina was so great - the perfect model.  Tried whatever I suggested, even in her uncomfortable 9-month state.  And if I said "look mischievous" - she could (like in the second picture from the top).  She should be on the cover of some maternity magazine.

 I asked Alaina what type of photos she wanted - more on the soft, tender usually black and white type or something more playful and fun.  She said playful.

Yes!

I asked her to bring a few props - a coffee mug, as I knew she loved coffee (and they were helping her to get through the pregnancy!), a book or two that she had been reading about pregnancy and childbirth, and then I made a little prop myself (seen in the picture following this one).  She seemed pretty excited about the whole idea.

 She not only had the things that I requested, but also had about 10 extra books (all given to her!) and chalkboard markers to write on the mug!  Nicely done!

 Needless to say, we had a great time setting up and taking some fun pictures using these things!

(The sign?  It turned out cute, I thought, but our printer was running out of black ink.  Grey letters are not nearly as nice as black!  Oh well.)

Obviously, however, Alaina doesn't need props to make a great picture.  

 She is such a beautiful person - and no, not just on the outside.

 Already I know that this little boy is one blessed child.... how could he not be with a momma like her?

 And Loren?  He's pretty great too.  Definitely great father material there.

 He stopped by just as we were finishing up, so we thought it might be nice to include him just a little.

He also had the brilliant idea for the next shot.

 I love it.

(although I wasn't quite as brilliant as him - I forgot to change my aperture settings for these shots, so they aren't quite what I wanted... oh well)

Needless to say, it was a very fun morning.

Thanks Alaina!