Oh my...

On Monday my son stayed home due to a stomach ache. Nothing ever came out, but now I am thinking he was telling the truth. Yes, I thought there was a little fib in there because he wanted to stay home and celebrate my day with me!

So, yesterday, my daughter raised her hand in her classroom with her fingers crossed....that is how her teacher knows that she has to go to the bathroom, without the students interrupting loudly.

Well, her teacher said wait just a few minutes until we finish this page...

big mistake. She didn't have a few minutes...

She stood up and threw up!

Poor thing...all the kids were very nice about it, and to her...not making any bad remarks.

Next time maybe the teacher will think twice about making a child wait to go to the bathroom!

So, I am home again today, and it is actually good. It has been raining a lot here, so I get to snuggle inside with a blanket and catch up on house issues...

Hope you all are having a good week!

Surprise!!

Today is my BIRTHDAY!!

My dear friend Gabriela threw a surprise birthday party for me on Saturday. We had our closest friends and their children there to spend an evening of fun, laughter, and of course, delicious food!

I just wanted to say THANK YOU again to Gabriela! You have made my time here in Brasil so fun and I am so glad we came here at the same time! I hope that we will always stay in touch!

On another note....

My Steelers lost yesterday, but they are right on the edge of being the Champions again..so let's hope they can pull it together for the next game!

5 words

My friend Betty sent me these 5 words. I believe they are random words that the sender chooses to have the person write about. Here are my 5 that she gave to me:

1. Home School

I feel that formalized home schooling is not for me. I can see the benefits if one is in a place where the formal educational system is not up to par, but other than that, I am not sure I understand why people choose to home school. (sorry, just giving my true thoughts) I find that social interaction is an integral part in how a child grows, where they learn important skills to help them succeed in a work environment....now that is not to say that a home-schooled child will not succeed...I am sure they will.

Now, on a more casual side...a child learns from home so many valuable pieces of information...their morals, unconditional love, how to act responsibly with their money, and so much more. So, in some sense, a home is also a school of learning!

2. Summer

This is my season! I do like all of the others because of one reason or another, but I thrive in the sun! I like heat, humidity, and everything that comes with summer. Of course my favorite activity, scuba diving, is best done in the sun.

Summer is when one can let oneself go....and that is how I like to live my life, as a whole!

3. Noisy

Noisy to me is annoying. Now, I like loud music, and even got used to talking above loud music from living in Venezuela. That is not what I consider noisy....noisy to me is when there is a lot of unnecessary interference of noise. I can hold many conversations at once, and maybe this is contradictory to what I perceive as noise too! Noisy to me is when there is something that I don't want to listen to trying to grab my attention....and then it's just noise to me. Did I explain that well?

4. Maid

Hahaha, this one makes me laugh! Maids....oh, where to begin.

Living overseas has given me the opportunity to work with maids. In Venezuela I actually had two maids. One I kept for 5 days, the other for the rest of the 4 1/2 years that we lived there. The 5 day maid just didn't work out. I knew it from the beginning, and feel that I can sense if she is the right person to be involved in my household right from the first meeting. The other maid turned out to be great for the first 3- 3 1/2 years. I should have sensed what was coming, but after that long, I felt a tie to her that was very hard to break. She started living with us (and her daughter) after about a year. She worked really hard, walked my dog if needed, watched the children when needed, and generally worked out fine. It was just towards the end where things started to go a little off. She got greedy and expected many things to just come her way.

I won't go into too much more detail in this post, but it ended up not being very good at the end, but at least we parted with kind words. My maid here in Brasil only comes 2 days a week...for 2 reasons: First, I didn't want the attachment problems I had with the other maid, and second, if they work over 2 days then they are entitled to many bonuses that we chose not to get involved with. We take care of our maid here, she stays in my house when we are away...only for my animals! Her cleaning could be better, but when you find someone that you trust and is more than willing to help out, even if just for the animals, well....it has worked for us! (Plus, we give her our own bonuses that she prefers to receive directly from us!)

5. Traffic

I have absolutely no patience for traffic. Period.

Hope you all enjoyed it!

Now, back to reading the second book of The Hunger Games...Catching Fire! Can you say addictive?

:)

Title : LAST

What is last?

Today, I am sad to report, I finished the LAST of my Hazelnut flavored coffee creamers...

Now, I know that for most of you this is not that big of a deal. For me, it is...

I really like coffee. We have a great machine, the Saeco Vienna DeLuxe.

Those that like coffee should really consider spending the extra $$$ for this machine.

It makes coffee any time you want it... make sure the water reservoir is full, the grinds are emptied, and the whole beans are in place....

push the button...and a delicious cup of coffee is available any time you want it!

I like mine with just the Hazelnut flavoring, but we can not find this here in Brasil. I brought the tiny single serves back, but they are now all gone :(

I guess it is back to milk and sugar for me...but that is what I prefer not to have...

a lot of sugar! I am not sure I can get used to unsweet coffee though...

I do not like saccharin, nor any other fake sweetner...

so now I will be using sugar again...

better get back to the sit ups and exercising more!

Happy Monday!

L

I guess we can't win 'em all

Steelers 14

Chicago Bears 17....

we missed two field goals...

do I need to say anymore?

Keep the faith!

What can I say...

Some things never cease to amaze me....

the latest?

I was at the club where my children take swim lessons. Now, I am not sure if I have mentioned, (though I know Gabriela has), many children are taken care of here by their nannies. Here in Brasil they are called Baba's.

Now usually, they are very caring, loving second (sometimes almost more than the first) Mothers.

Well, I guess they need to find time in their busy schedules, too....

and obviously they are not making that much money....

So what did I see?

While their kids were in class, there was one Baba leaning over another one that was sitting.

I noticed because she looked like her shirt was a little too small, but anyways...

she had a razor blade in her hand, and she was doing the eyebrows of the other Baba.

I went to take a picture with my phone after I got over the shock of it, but by then, the job was done!

Quick, cheap and all in a day's work, I guess!

Trees, roots, flowers

NATURE!

I really love to observe, photograph, admire

the outside world....

I find the colors amazing, even in the rain like today....

I didn't have my camera to snap a picture, but the yellow of this one tree stood out like a neon light in the middle of a field in the dark desert.

When the glistening water after the rain drips off the flowers the sight is stunning. When the spider spins her web, it is entrancing...

I was always teased because I say so much...

"look how pretty the sky is!"

but oh how it is

the different clouds, the storms, the blue, the white,

the sun rising and setting with dizzying colors from heaven to the line of the water

the colors of the water itself can reel your mind!

Nature

let's protect it, let's help it along, and let's thank it for sharing it's beauty by keeping it safe

W

Tough, first game...

valiant effort of the Tennessee Titans

Over Time Win

Steelers 13

Titans 10

It's that time of year....

t- 3 hours and counting...

Tonight is the first game of the season!

Super Bowl Champs,

here's hoping we can repeat!!!!!!!

Pictures of Paradise

I finally figured out how to get a few fotos on here of our new house.

I hope that I am not jinxing anything with the inspection and closing by posting about this!!

Who wants to be the first to sit and have a cool lemonade with me?

How about a reading a good novel in here?

One day maybe we can stroll along here to our boat (which we do not have yet)

to sail into the seas...

Or just watch the sun set from the balcony....

When I was a little girl driving to my ballet classes, we used to pass a big yellow house and I always commented on how I love yellow houses...

I think it is just meant to be :)

Signed, sealed, delivered (almost)

Ok, so I figured since once again, I have not been a very good blogging friend

I would put in some really good news here...

WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!!

Over the weekend we were going back and forth on the price...

he came down some, we came up, he came down a little more, us a little more

and finally a meeting in the middle.

We are so excited!

Granted, the house still has to be inspected and then the closing is towards the end of October, but it seems like it should be smooth sailing from here!

Now please do not delete me from your list, but I do not have any pictures! I thought that I would be able to pull them off the internet, but nope...they must be protected or something.

When I was there, I liked the house so much, and felt like it was really the perfect house for us, that instead of snapping some shots I took video.

And I can not get my video to download onto my computer! That is a bigger problem than you think...this is going to be really not a good situation if I take all these videos and can not download them!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I have a MAC computer, with Leopard OSX, and a Sony HDC-HC 9.

Any advice would benefit us all

:)

A good trip

I had a really good time in Key West.

The trip from Tampa was a bit long, especially since I got caught behind these two big trucks!

It was at the end of a 7-8 hour trip which had started at 6 in the morning.

No problem, I was excited and looking forward to it. Then at the last 30 miles or so, these two big trucks pulled out ahead of me. Then they started going about 30 miles an hour!

Ugh, didn't they sense there was a tired driver behind them, looking forward to this:

hahaha, well it turned out ok.

The day that I went to see houses, I actually found that the 4 that I saw were quite nice. Two of them were real possibilities...well, let me explain.

There was one house that was really nice, close to the beach, a lot of space,(especially for Key West), and seemed to be a really good contender.

Then we went to another house, that in all fairness, had really great ideas, bones and structure.

This was actually the house that I was really looking forward to seeing.

The house itself had pretty floors, nice kitchen, even though they took out the good appliances and put in yucky ones, pretty master suite all on it's own upstairs, and a beautiful pool.

The problem was in the 15 people, (literally), 10 dogs and chicken that were "renting" the space. They just killed the house. There was a baby pushing around on a walker with no t-shirt and Mr. T starter kit necklace. There was the guy still high or drunk pulling up his pants coming down from the master suite, then there were the two yappy dogs with the chicken outside, the fenced in playpen...which I wasn't sure if it was for the kid or the other 8 dogs inside the house, the other set of renters in the separate mother-in-law suite, and the big guy jumping and splashing in the pool.

Needless to say, the poor realtor was appalled that she had to show the house like this, the renters seemed content at "their" house not being liked by someone which meant they could stay, and myself and my two realtors had a great chuckle afterwards about it all.

So, the day went well but I was still excited to see one more house, that was just a little bit outside of Key West, by about 10 minutes drive, that seemed to be good.

I went out for a dinner excited about the one house, plus with the anticipation of another good possibility. I was treated to this beautiful sky:

Then the next day came, and the meeting times changed. So, I met with the owner, no realtors. Neither of them could be there because of some other conflicts. Well, I loved it!

It really did feel like the right house. It has beautiful wide open ocean views and a cute remodeled house on the property. I had a good chat with the owner and it seems as if we may have a house soon!

Let's see how the bidding process goes, and when I am certain that we have it, I will post the pictures! I am very excited and feel like this is "it"!