How do you measure a year? I hate the movie Rent, but I do like that one song. 2010 felt extremely long to me... I thought the older you get the faster the years fly by. Let's go alllll the way back!
January 1, I actually can't remember if I even stayed up til New Years, I know I was at the cabin fishing with the usual crowd.
January 21st, I landed back in Chile after being away from my Ro for 4 months, our longest separation. We once again lived with his parents, but we were very hopeful of me getting a job and moving out.
We filed for my visa on the 24th or 25th of February. Yeah. 2 days later the earth went a rumbling and those plans were shattered. We didn't hear anything about the visa until I had already gone back to the States for June and July.
June 12th, my youngest uncle was married, the last of the family. So I had to be there, the papers for my visa came 5 days after I left Chile. This kind of luck was the theme of my life in 2010.
Anyways, spent an amazing summer at home with my family and my dog, missed my Ro, but knew when I was going back, we were going to be super close to moving out!!
August 10?? ish I landed back in Chile. With Zoe!!! :) IT was almost great. Ro "fell asleep" so he said at the airport and I was very pissed off with the dog that needed to pee and of course the usual harassment by taxi drivers at the airport. Of course I didn't have my cellphone loaded so I couldn't call him. By the time he came and got me, I was almost in tears. Yes, wonderful welcome home day.
August 31st, Ro signed the rent agreement!! We moved in the next day! And so we have our own house!!
September came and went. We celebrated our second wedding anniversary. We had minor problems with the house we are renting, major problems with the landlady and neighbor. I remain believing that he is a drug dealer. The cops have gone to his house for complaints 3 times since we have lived here. We didn't call, but it always scares me that he will think it was us.
October, can't think of any major milestones except I got a call on a job application. FINALLY!
November, I started working, we were FINALLY able to fix the calefont and ended our caveman showers for a little bit. Of course, we had to pay 50% of the fixing cost which is BULLSHIT because it didn't work when we moved in. Good thing we lied about how much it cost to fix!!
December. Still working, but I picked up some in office classes for some extra $$. Discovered that I love my job and I love the people I work with and I am actually excited to go to work most days. Except Mondays... never Mondays. I spent my very first Christmas in Chile. I really didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would.
And now I am going to be spending my first New Years here. I will finally get my first New Year's kiss from my husband!!! :) I am also wearing yellow underwear and I'm going to walk around the block with a suitcase. Happy 2011 to everyone!!!!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
Ghosts of Christmases Passed
I am an English teacher, but honestly I'm not sure if these are ghosts of Christmases Passed or Past. Forgive me. I did fail English several times in high school. Yes, several.
Here I am in Santiago Chile, most of the bloggers that I have "grown up" with, for lack of a better word, the bloggers that I have read, and those who have read me. They have all decided they are not longer writing the "expat blog" the kind of blog that talks about the things that at first may be hard to get used to. I haven't yet wrote that post. Mostly because this is my first Christmas in Chile. I knew it was going to be rough and I knew there was going to be plenty of things to write about that still fit into the newcomer category. So, expect my post sometime in January. For now I want to go back. As far back as I can remember.....
So here I sit, technically it really is Christmas Eve, but to me it is still the eve of Christmas Eve. My husband was working, but now is up in bed listening to music and trying to fall asleep. I am here in MY dining room making cut out cookies and listening to Christmas music. Which I will honestly say has brought me to tears a lot of times. It is 20 minutes to 4 at this moment. 4 am... I am drinking wine. I am doing something that I am pretty sure every other expat has done since they have been in Chile, but I haven't done. I opened a bottle of wine. I have never drank a full bottle and tonight, I will. I am not doing it just to get drunk, I am doing it because I can. Yes, I will probably piss drunk by the time I finish it, but for now I am doing ok. I have half the cookies made that I need to have. I have more of the wine drank. Woohoo.
I have to honestly say that yesterday and this morning, I was very bitter. I was extremely jealous of all other expats that get to go home for Christmas. Yes, I was. But now, I have come to terms with myself. Mostly because I know that it is 100% impossible for me to get home for Christmas, don't correct me if I'm wrong. There are no other flights that I can possibly take to make it home to spend Christmas Eve with my dad's family. I know the schedule, Delta and Lan both leave between 8pm and 11pmish... Continental and COPA have a flight to Panama at 2am ish. Please don't correct me if I'm wrong. That's all. My only options. I'm here. And that is that. So, instead of writing about now, I'm going back back back. As far as I can remember. Well, let's start with my baby book, most of the photos, I don't remember, but I can still tell about them.
My first Chirstmas, I was a little over six months old. I had the chicken pox, so did my sister, and possible 2 or 3 other cousins of mine. I couldn't walk. I probably had no idea what Christmas was. My second Christmas, I was walking and talking. From what other family members have told me, I could talk full sentences since I was about 18 months old. On Christmas Eve I wore a little black velvet dress that matches the one my older sister was wearing the same year. I have a bunch of pictures from that Christmas Eve, my Godmother Kay took a picture of me with her giving me a bottle of beer. I also have a picture of me with my fat bottom lip sticking while I was holding a stuffed bear. And a picture with my mom, she was holding me and I was trying as hard as I could to open a candy cane. Very cute. The next Christmas, I don't remember. In fact there is a space that there aren't photos that I have seen very often to tell me about it, but I do remember the Christmas when I was fiveish, maybe six. You see, we lived in many houses while I was growing up, so I'm not sure what happened most of the time, but I do remember we were living in "the farm house." This was the house that my grandparents built and most of my aunts and uncles (there are 10 not sure who) but they were born there. We lived in that house for 3 years..ish. I remember this year because I got a pink snow suit, a jacket matching the snowpants. My mom got a Kirby vacuum. I also received a Barbie Fold 'n Fun house. I think. I may be mixing some Xmases together. Maybe my Godmother and her husband and 2 kids were living with us.. I think.
A little further down the years, we moved to Htown, the place my parents are still living now. In this house, I first stopped believing in Santa and my sister and I were privileged to walk home from church and bring the "Santa" presents out and set them up quick before my little brothers got home. We each got a sled that year and had fun sledding down our older neighbor couple's hill. My sister sprained her ankle trying to stand sled down the hill. When I was 15, at my mom's side's Xmas we all were drinking Captain Morgan. For anyone that doesn't know me very well, Captain Morgan was, and has been my drink of choice since this time. My cousins set sail with Captain Morgan, I only had the few "sneaky" drinks. Good times.
A few years later when I was a senior in high school, I spent my very first Chirstmas away from home. As this was 5 Christmases ago, I remember very well. But, for many reasons. The first reason, I remember this year was because my cousin Carol gave me a car for Christmas. Yes, a car. I had tears in my eyes when she handed me the title and I didn't have enough words to show how thankful I really was. So after my mom's side's Christmas party, my parents drove to the cities to get my car. They brought it back to me a few days before Christmas. It just so happened that I was going with my grandma to Montana for Christmas. I got to miss an entire week of school for this trip. The day we left Mn to got to Mt, my parents brought me the car. It was snowing, but my mom, even though my dad was kind of cranky about it, let me take my new to me car for a little drive. It was great. I felt like a spoiled princess, not only did I get a car for Christmas, I got to go to Montana for Christmas. So I took my 1995 Lincoln Continental for a spin and then jumped into my aunt's truck with my grandma to head west. It was a nice trip, mostly. We decided to stop at this shithole hotel I really can't remember the name of it, but I think it was close to Steele, North Dakota. Anyways, the power went out in the middle of the night, well we got there in the middle of the night so the power went out somewhere between then and 9am when we woke up and realized we should have been on the road a couple hours before that. Anyways, we made it to Montana all in one piece. I was so excited to spend Xmas there. It really was great, I would like to repeat it. I spent most of my time with my cousin Justin, who is a bit older than me, but we had a lot of Captain Morgan.. I mean fun :)
I remember most of all wrapping presents at his dad's house and him handing me a Captain and Coke saying, we might as well start early. We went to church Christmas Eve and stood in the back of church because it was packed, but it didn't matter because I was already buzzed. After that we all went, my uncle, my grandma, Justin, my aunt, and I, back to my aunt's house for Christmas dinner. We had shrimp, it was amazing. And somehow we finish 3 bottles of wine and half a bottle of Captain before my cousin and I headed off to one of his friend's house for more celebrating. I don't remember the next day, except I got some Victoria's secret lipgloss and lotion from my aunt. I loved that lotion I kept it in the glove compartment of my new car:) I wonder if they still have it.... Anyways. That was my very first Christmas away from my family. I called my grandma K's house and said hi and talked to a few people. Little did I know, that that wasn't going to be the only holiday in my life where I would do the same....
That brings us to the Christmas before I met Ro. Chirstmas of 2006, I had graduated from high school and moved to Montana. My aunt and cousin, the same Montanans as the story before:) they stopped on their way to MN to pick me up in Bozeman, Mt to bring me to MN for Christmas. I had made a bunch of candles for presents the night before. I pretty much woke up threw the candle and my bags in the truck and off we were, bad weather was on its way. My aunt spent the entire trip in the back seat of her truck while us younger ones drove. I have to say when my Justin and I get together, we feed off each other. My aunt was mad when we got to MN, she said we picked on her and teased her the whole way. We did. It was a snowy drive. I do remember one part very clearly because I was driving. It was kind of slippery, but I was going about 60 miles per hour. Ahead of us someone went into the ditch I immediately lifted my foot from the gas and didn't panic. My aunt was asleep, but then jerked forward and yelled, "SLOW DOWN!!!" I knew better than to hit the brakes. I know she wanted that after she yelled again. I tapped the brakes and we slid, fishtailed, a bit then slowed down. My cousin took over driving after that. To this day I will say, and I'm sure my cousin would stick up for me, I knew what I was doing. But because I was only 18.... anyways we made it to Mn. I celebrated Chirstmas with my family and we all headed back to Mt before New Years. I met Ro on the 8th of January of 2007. And from that moment my life has been all about "us."
I spent Christmas and New Years away from Ro in 2007. I went to the parties, but felt like something was missing. NOTHING has been the same since then. I always felt like I was missing something, everyone else had their partners, but I didn't for Xmas. I worked Xmas and New Years, and missed out on "the cabin" that year. But I did experience the first time my younger brother got drunk with me. It really was great. Our parents were up north so we had a party. The following year I was only in MN for a month for the holidays, so I did make it to the cabin. I went to the cabin for my first time. I missed my Ro, but I did have a great time. I went ice fishing, one of my cousin's and his friend took me spear fishing for the first time in my life. It was great we drank, had fun, and fell asleep way before 12.
Last year, Christmas of 2009, I spent with my family again. We had just learned that year that my grandpa was diagnosed with brain cancer. I spent that year with my family and Ro was once again in Chile. I went to the cabin again. And of course it was a great time. I drank and had fun with my aunts and cousins and everyone that was there. At one time we were in a fish house with 3 Shannons!!!! Well 2 Shannons, and one Shannen. : ) Great time!! So, that brings us to now. Here I am. I have finished my bottle of wine, but the cookies aren't done yet.
Merry Christmas everyone. I send my love from here. I may only be 6000ish miles away, but I am away, and I hope everyone has a very Merry Chirstmas!!! If you go to the cabin, remember me, and think of me because I really do wish that I was there!!!
Here I am in Santiago Chile, most of the bloggers that I have "grown up" with, for lack of a better word, the bloggers that I have read, and those who have read me. They have all decided they are not longer writing the "expat blog" the kind of blog that talks about the things that at first may be hard to get used to. I haven't yet wrote that post. Mostly because this is my first Christmas in Chile. I knew it was going to be rough and I knew there was going to be plenty of things to write about that still fit into the newcomer category. So, expect my post sometime in January. For now I want to go back. As far back as I can remember.....
So here I sit, technically it really is Christmas Eve, but to me it is still the eve of Christmas Eve. My husband was working, but now is up in bed listening to music and trying to fall asleep. I am here in MY dining room making cut out cookies and listening to Christmas music. Which I will honestly say has brought me to tears a lot of times. It is 20 minutes to 4 at this moment. 4 am... I am drinking wine. I am doing something that I am pretty sure every other expat has done since they have been in Chile, but I haven't done. I opened a bottle of wine. I have never drank a full bottle and tonight, I will. I am not doing it just to get drunk, I am doing it because I can. Yes, I will probably piss drunk by the time I finish it, but for now I am doing ok. I have half the cookies made that I need to have. I have more of the wine drank. Woohoo.
I have to honestly say that yesterday and this morning, I was very bitter. I was extremely jealous of all other expats that get to go home for Christmas. Yes, I was. But now, I have come to terms with myself. Mostly because I know that it is 100% impossible for me to get home for Christmas, don't correct me if I'm wrong. There are no other flights that I can possibly take to make it home to spend Christmas Eve with my dad's family. I know the schedule, Delta and Lan both leave between 8pm and 11pmish... Continental and COPA have a flight to Panama at 2am ish. Please don't correct me if I'm wrong. That's all. My only options. I'm here. And that is that. So, instead of writing about now, I'm going back back back. As far as I can remember. Well, let's start with my baby book, most of the photos, I don't remember, but I can still tell about them.
My first Chirstmas, I was a little over six months old. I had the chicken pox, so did my sister, and possible 2 or 3 other cousins of mine. I couldn't walk. I probably had no idea what Christmas was. My second Christmas, I was walking and talking. From what other family members have told me, I could talk full sentences since I was about 18 months old. On Christmas Eve I wore a little black velvet dress that matches the one my older sister was wearing the same year. I have a bunch of pictures from that Christmas Eve, my Godmother Kay took a picture of me with her giving me a bottle of beer. I also have a picture of me with my fat bottom lip sticking while I was holding a stuffed bear. And a picture with my mom, she was holding me and I was trying as hard as I could to open a candy cane. Very cute. The next Christmas, I don't remember. In fact there is a space that there aren't photos that I have seen very often to tell me about it, but I do remember the Christmas when I was fiveish, maybe six. You see, we lived in many houses while I was growing up, so I'm not sure what happened most of the time, but I do remember we were living in "the farm house." This was the house that my grandparents built and most of my aunts and uncles (there are 10 not sure who) but they were born there. We lived in that house for 3 years..ish. I remember this year because I got a pink snow suit, a jacket matching the snowpants. My mom got a Kirby vacuum. I also received a Barbie Fold 'n Fun house. I think. I may be mixing some Xmases together. Maybe my Godmother and her husband and 2 kids were living with us.. I think.
A little further down the years, we moved to Htown, the place my parents are still living now. In this house, I first stopped believing in Santa and my sister and I were privileged to walk home from church and bring the "Santa" presents out and set them up quick before my little brothers got home. We each got a sled that year and had fun sledding down our older neighbor couple's hill. My sister sprained her ankle trying to stand sled down the hill. When I was 15, at my mom's side's Xmas we all were drinking Captain Morgan. For anyone that doesn't know me very well, Captain Morgan was, and has been my drink of choice since this time. My cousins set sail with Captain Morgan, I only had the few "sneaky" drinks. Good times.
A few years later when I was a senior in high school, I spent my very first Chirstmas away from home. As this was 5 Christmases ago, I remember very well. But, for many reasons. The first reason, I remember this year was because my cousin Carol gave me a car for Christmas. Yes, a car. I had tears in my eyes when she handed me the title and I didn't have enough words to show how thankful I really was. So after my mom's side's Christmas party, my parents drove to the cities to get my car. They brought it back to me a few days before Christmas. It just so happened that I was going with my grandma to Montana for Christmas. I got to miss an entire week of school for this trip. The day we left Mn to got to Mt, my parents brought me the car. It was snowing, but my mom, even though my dad was kind of cranky about it, let me take my new to me car for a little drive. It was great. I felt like a spoiled princess, not only did I get a car for Christmas, I got to go to Montana for Christmas. So I took my 1995 Lincoln Continental for a spin and then jumped into my aunt's truck with my grandma to head west. It was a nice trip, mostly. We decided to stop at this shithole hotel I really can't remember the name of it, but I think it was close to Steele, North Dakota. Anyways, the power went out in the middle of the night, well we got there in the middle of the night so the power went out somewhere between then and 9am when we woke up and realized we should have been on the road a couple hours before that. Anyways, we made it to Montana all in one piece. I was so excited to spend Xmas there. It really was great, I would like to repeat it. I spent most of my time with my cousin Justin, who is a bit older than me, but we had a lot of Captain Morgan.. I mean fun :)
I remember most of all wrapping presents at his dad's house and him handing me a Captain and Coke saying, we might as well start early. We went to church Christmas Eve and stood in the back of church because it was packed, but it didn't matter because I was already buzzed. After that we all went, my uncle, my grandma, Justin, my aunt, and I, back to my aunt's house for Christmas dinner. We had shrimp, it was amazing. And somehow we finish 3 bottles of wine and half a bottle of Captain before my cousin and I headed off to one of his friend's house for more celebrating. I don't remember the next day, except I got some Victoria's secret lipgloss and lotion from my aunt. I loved that lotion I kept it in the glove compartment of my new car:) I wonder if they still have it.... Anyways. That was my very first Christmas away from my family. I called my grandma K's house and said hi and talked to a few people. Little did I know, that that wasn't going to be the only holiday in my life where I would do the same....
That brings us to the Christmas before I met Ro. Chirstmas of 2006, I had graduated from high school and moved to Montana. My aunt and cousin, the same Montanans as the story before:) they stopped on their way to MN to pick me up in Bozeman, Mt to bring me to MN for Christmas. I had made a bunch of candles for presents the night before. I pretty much woke up threw the candle and my bags in the truck and off we were, bad weather was on its way. My aunt spent the entire trip in the back seat of her truck while us younger ones drove. I have to say when my Justin and I get together, we feed off each other. My aunt was mad when we got to MN, she said we picked on her and teased her the whole way. We did. It was a snowy drive. I do remember one part very clearly because I was driving. It was kind of slippery, but I was going about 60 miles per hour. Ahead of us someone went into the ditch I immediately lifted my foot from the gas and didn't panic. My aunt was asleep, but then jerked forward and yelled, "SLOW DOWN!!!" I knew better than to hit the brakes. I know she wanted that after she yelled again. I tapped the brakes and we slid, fishtailed, a bit then slowed down. My cousin took over driving after that. To this day I will say, and I'm sure my cousin would stick up for me, I knew what I was doing. But because I was only 18.... anyways we made it to Mn. I celebrated Chirstmas with my family and we all headed back to Mt before New Years. I met Ro on the 8th of January of 2007. And from that moment my life has been all about "us."
I spent Christmas and New Years away from Ro in 2007. I went to the parties, but felt like something was missing. NOTHING has been the same since then. I always felt like I was missing something, everyone else had their partners, but I didn't for Xmas. I worked Xmas and New Years, and missed out on "the cabin" that year. But I did experience the first time my younger brother got drunk with me. It really was great. Our parents were up north so we had a party. The following year I was only in MN for a month for the holidays, so I did make it to the cabin. I went to the cabin for my first time. I missed my Ro, but I did have a great time. I went ice fishing, one of my cousin's and his friend took me spear fishing for the first time in my life. It was great we drank, had fun, and fell asleep way before 12.
Last year, Christmas of 2009, I spent with my family again. We had just learned that year that my grandpa was diagnosed with brain cancer. I spent that year with my family and Ro was once again in Chile. I went to the cabin again. And of course it was a great time. I drank and had fun with my aunts and cousins and everyone that was there. At one time we were in a fish house with 3 Shannons!!!! Well 2 Shannons, and one Shannen. : ) Great time!! So, that brings us to now. Here I am. I have finished my bottle of wine, but the cookies aren't done yet.
Merry Christmas everyone. I send my love from here. I may only be 6000ish miles away, but I am away, and I hope everyone has a very Merry Chirstmas!!! If you go to the cabin, remember me, and think of me because I really do wish that I was there!!!
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thankful
Yes, I am a day late in writing this, but I wouldn't have anything to write if it wasn't for yesterday and this morning. So, I am thankful that yesterday is OVER!!! Not that it was a bad day or anything. The evening, night, and morning that followed are the story. Last night when we got home from work then Lider, we noticed that my dog was glued to a cabinet in the kitchen. She sat there wagging her happy little tail. Then got up ran along the cabinet and laid down and wagged again, at first I thought she was just being slightly retarded, because she does that sometimes. Then of course Ro said, "What if there's a rat in there?" Well, there was a mouse in there. A little ugly black one. Because I am afraid of things that are smaller than me and move faster than me I decided to take action by standing on a chair and holding a broomstick as a weapon. Ro decided to be brave and trap the mouse in the kitchen with a body board or boogie board or whatever they are called. Then he went in the kitchen and the mouse ran under his legs and he screamed like a school girl. So, we of course had to call for backup. Ro's uncle came with his brother in law to kill the mouse for us. Nico, Ro's best friend, showed up later. Since yesterday was Thanksgiving and I of course wanted to have a video chat with my family, I just stood on a chair while talking to them and let the men handle the mouse problem. My family was busy celebrating so I didn't get to talk much, but while I was talking Ro scared the shit out of me by acting like the mouse ran out of the kitchen towards me. I of course screamed like a school girl and was swearing at him while my family laughed. I said goodbye to them and the mouse was still in the kitchen so I went and watched. They were trying to smoke the mouse out of the cabinet when out came not only the mouse, but a few corner spiders. Apparently there is a nest in the cabinet under the sink. I would say that I am 10 times more afraid of spiders than I am of mice so this just made my night! After all visible spiders were killed and the mouse too we went to bed. It took me a long time to fall asleep and shake the creepy crawly feeling. I would have loved to have taken a shower, but I wasn't in the mood to heat up water for my caveman shower. Today everything was going fine, I was cleaning up the ashes in the kitchen and washing the dishes. Then I was on a video chat with my mom and niece. :) She can say my name now and she's such a ham!! Anyways, we were talking about what I was going to do for Christmas and about how I'm going to get a tree and make it all glorious and sparkly and set up the little plaster or clay Nativity set that I have. I then went to get the set so I could show her. We keep it in a shoe box. I opened it and almost had a heart attack. Instead I chose to panic and grabbed the bottle of windex that happened to be sitting close by. I sprayed the spider, the nest and the egg sack, closed the box, slid it off the table into a plastic bag with a wooden spoon, tied the bag and threw it outside in direct sunlight so it would bake to death! At least that is what I am hoping!! So now, I need to get ready for work, I itch all over again, and all I can think about is how we must buy Raid and lots of it and how I am going to spray every corner and dark place in the house. We probably should buy 2 cans right away. Sigh.... I hate spiders and I hate mice, so I am thankful that yesterday is over!!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Life
So, I haven't been a very good blogger. I have a hard time finding things to write about. Work has been going good so far. I am happy with my job. Zoe spent a week at her boyfriend's house, but nothing happened. Well, she tried to get with a younger male dog and he was too little yet to do anything. So, we are waiting til the next time she goes into heat and the little dog will be old enough then to breed with her. So, no puppies. I was kind of excited about it, but oh well. Other than that I haven't had anything to write about. I have been very homesick lately especially now with the holidays coming up. I probably won't be on here much anymore, at least until I have something to write about. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Teaching English and Zoe
Before I started this job, I was sure that I wouldn't like teaching English. Yesterday was my first real day of work and I was supposed to have 4 classes, but I didn't have any because no students in my level showed up. So, today I wasn't really sure if I was excited, but I definitely wasn't as nervous as I was yesterday. I had 3 out of 4 classes today. And honestly, teaching English isn't as difficult as I thought. Because I don't have a high level of Spanish, I have students that have a higher level of English. The classes are fairly simple, and if we finish the lesson a little early we can all just sit and talk. So, as of now, I like teaching English.
I only work part time right now. Not that I wouldn't love to work full time, but the place I am working doesn't need anyone full time right now. So, I took what I could get and I'm happy about it for right now.
In other news, Zoe went into heat and tomorrow she will meet her boyfriend and hopefully some love will happen. Her boyfriend's owner has been breeding Yorkshires for many years and I am very glad that we have him and our vet to help us with this process. This will be her first litter and Ro and I aren't sure if we will have her bred again. Zoe comes from a very fine family line and over half the dogs in her family tree are champions. This is one of the main reasons we have chosen to have her bred. We paid a good deal of money for her and I really want her blood to continue being contributed to the Yorkshire breed. We don't plan on breeding her every time she goes into heat. And I personally don't want to have her bred a billion times. If she doesn't have any complications then maybe we will breed her again next year. After that we are probably going to have her fixed. I am really excited that one of her puppies will go to Ro's grandma. I am also planning on keeping another little girl for Zoe to have as a companion because I feel like she gets lonely now that she doesn't have my parent's dogs to play with. I have been doing a lot of research, and our vet has been very helpful. I think we are ready for this, and having a part time job for now will probably be a good thing. Well, that's all because its late and I'm tired. : )
I only work part time right now. Not that I wouldn't love to work full time, but the place I am working doesn't need anyone full time right now. So, I took what I could get and I'm happy about it for right now.
In other news, Zoe went into heat and tomorrow she will meet her boyfriend and hopefully some love will happen. Her boyfriend's owner has been breeding Yorkshires for many years and I am very glad that we have him and our vet to help us with this process. This will be her first litter and Ro and I aren't sure if we will have her bred again. Zoe comes from a very fine family line and over half the dogs in her family tree are champions. This is one of the main reasons we have chosen to have her bred. We paid a good deal of money for her and I really want her blood to continue being contributed to the Yorkshire breed. We don't plan on breeding her every time she goes into heat. And I personally don't want to have her bred a billion times. If she doesn't have any complications then maybe we will breed her again next year. After that we are probably going to have her fixed. I am really excited that one of her puppies will go to Ro's grandma. I am also planning on keeping another little girl for Zoe to have as a companion because I feel like she gets lonely now that she doesn't have my parent's dogs to play with. I have been doing a lot of research, and our vet has been very helpful. I think we are ready for this, and having a part time job for now will probably be a good thing. Well, that's all because its late and I'm tired. : )
Monday, October 25, 2010
Working!!!
Last Thursday I received a phone call from the place I had an interview at the first week of October. It took them long enough!! But, I now I have a job! My first job teaching English in Chile and I am kind of excited about it. I couldn't find a full time job so I took what I could get and will be working 5 to 9:15 Monday through Friday. This institute just happens to be located about 10 feet (really little more, but not much) from Rodrigo's taxi base. I have to take a colectivo and then the metro and then Ro will pick me up at the metro and bring me to work everyday. He will also be bringing me home everyday, so we will be working pretty much the same hours, Ro will just go to work earlier than me. I am happy that I finally have a job because we really need to buy some things for this place. A couch or some chairs for the living room would be nice, and since our TV died it would be nice to have a new one of those. Those are Ro's main concerns. I on the other hand will be buying immediately a new cookware set because my "non stick" saucepan is very much STICK and is rusting... I didn't know that could happen. I am hoping to buy a nice new set and a few other things for the kitchen as well.
This house seems to have more and more problems and tonight Ro is going to talk to the landlady because he has had enough. Last night I was turning on the califont, which doesn't work very well to begin with, and since I have to immediately turn on the hot water when I have it lit, I did. Only problem? The pipe under the faucet started leaking like crazy!! So we had to turn off the line for all the hot water in the house. Which made me super happy because the only reason I was turning on the califont was to take a shower. So, Ro gave me a shower last night. It was a much faster caveman shower because I had him to pour the water on me so I could use both hands to wash myself and my hair. I should have had him do that a long time ago because now he sees how damn difficult it is. Since I refuse to take a cold shower like he does and he doesn't really want me to anyways because I will get sick and die from the cold water, now he knows exactly what I have to do just to take a shower. So hopefully very soon, the landlady will have everything fixed for us and we won't be so stressed out about this stupid house.
Well, I don't really have much else to talk about. So, until next time!!
This house seems to have more and more problems and tonight Ro is going to talk to the landlady because he has had enough. Last night I was turning on the califont, which doesn't work very well to begin with, and since I have to immediately turn on the hot water when I have it lit, I did. Only problem? The pipe under the faucet started leaking like crazy!! So we had to turn off the line for all the hot water in the house. Which made me super happy because the only reason I was turning on the califont was to take a shower. So, Ro gave me a shower last night. It was a much faster caveman shower because I had him to pour the water on me so I could use both hands to wash myself and my hair. I should have had him do that a long time ago because now he sees how damn difficult it is. Since I refuse to take a cold shower like he does and he doesn't really want me to anyways because I will get sick and die from the cold water, now he knows exactly what I have to do just to take a shower. So hopefully very soon, the landlady will have everything fixed for us and we won't be so stressed out about this stupid house.
Well, I don't really have much else to talk about. So, until next time!!
Monday, October 18, 2010
For Dad, with love.
Once upon a time, many years ago, I was little, maybe 5 or 6 years old.. Back then time went by slower and life was simpler. Christmas Eve was THE day of the year. What kid doesn’t love the day when they receive a bunch of presents and looked forward ONLY to the toys?? I was that little girl. I had my list to “Santa.” Most of my requests at that time had something to do with Barbies. I loved them and having more and more sets and accessories for them was the best you could get for Christmas. At the time opening the present and immediately playing with it was THE goal of the night. At the time I never thought about how much time it took to set it up and put it together. Maybe there really were more instructions then what came with my mom’s new vacuum, but I was more worried about my blonde Barbie (at one time I probably had a name for her maybe Dacia or Allison, but I do remember she came with paint to decorate her own “cowboy” clothes) sleeping in her new bed in her new house. I remember that my older sister’s present was a Barbie Camper and my two little brothers each got a remote control car. All toys obviously weren’t set up and “ready to go” right from the box. The cars needed the stickers and batteries put in them, the camper needed to be put together and have stickers put on them too, and my Barbie Folding Fun House needed the most time. It had a LOT of pieces in the box and needed to be put together before it would fold up. My mom helped with the sticker for the boys, Dad put the batteries in and got to work on the Barbie stuff. Yes, on Christmas Eve, it was probably 11pm way past any little kid’s bedtime. I’m sure it wasn’t easy, but my dad sat down and put it all together for me. I played with it that night and for a long time afterwards.
Later in life, when I was 16 years old I got my first car. It was a gift from a cousin and I loved it. My beautiful 1995 Lincoln Continental was my prize gift that year. My dad and mom had to drive to Minneapolis to pick it up for me. They also had to do all that title stuff to put the car in my name and set up the insurance for it. They brought it home the same night that I was leaving for Montana with my aunt Karen and my grandma. That was my first Christmas that I didn’t spend with my parents. In fact, it is the only Christmas that I haven’t spent with my parents. This Christmas will be the second and I have a feeling it will be very hard for me, but that’s another story. My dad drove my Lincoln home and I just home from a basketball game, I think. It really is funny how hard it is to remember things from not so many years ago. I had all my stuff packed and we had my aunt’s truck packed for the long drive to Montana. Before I could go though I had to at least take my new car for a spin! It was snowing and I took the car to the end of the road and back. At that time my car didn’t really have any problems, but later the transmission died. Of course my dad took it in to get it fixed and also to get a new windshield for it because it had a crack in it when I got it. He fixed that car for me and I ran it until I couldn’t anymore. Of course when I crashed it in January 2007, there really wasn’t much I could do to fix it, but I drove it with the thing still and now it sits in our yard, covered by weeds in the summer, leaves in the fall, and snow in the winter. After that I had already semi moved to Chile and only needed a car when I was in Minnesota. Last year when I went to the US with Rodrigo, my dad and uncle fixed up a “work car” for me. This work car really wasn’t for work. My uncle used it to drive a quarter mile each day to the Kasella Concrete yard. It had a layer of dirt inside because that quarter mile happened to be a dirt road. I cleaned that red beast up and Ro and I drove it for the summer. Of course we had problems with it. One time it just decided to stop on 15 in St. Cloud in the middle of rush hour. Of course rush hour in St. Cloud really isn’t too bad compared to other places I have been, but there we were in the middle of the summer on a day that was hotter than hell and super humid. Dad came and tried to start the beast, but it just didn’t feel like starting. He called triple A and had it towed to a garage to be looked at. They couldn’t find anything wrong with it. From then on it started when it felt like it and sometimes not at all, but I still drove it. When it started getting cold, and Ro was already gone back to Chile, my dad fixed his “work car” for me. This car had been sitting in the yard with the Lincoln for some time, but he got it running for me, fixed the starter and put in a new battery for me. This car at least had heat. Of course it wasn’t beautiful and I did get laughed at by some guy driving a brand new Mustang at a gas station once, but I didn’t care. It got me from point A to point B. Most of the time.
These days, my dad really can’t do that much for me since I am a billion miles away. But when I go home, he takes me fishing and usually I don’t even have to put bait on the hook and I never have to take the fish off the hook, unless they are sunnies or something small. When Ro was in MN with me, he took us fishing, Ro caught an eel pout. Eel pouts are very ugly fish covered in a very smelly slime and usually they are only caught in the wintertime, but Ro caught one in the summer because he wanted to be cool. Of course Ro had no idea at the time what he was catching and I am sure even today he would have a hard time telling the difference between any kind of fish, but I think he knows what an eel pout is now. Anyways, Ro was reeling in the fish and Dad caught a glimpse of it. “Son of a bitch!” was what my dad said. Of course Ro started to feel nervous and thought he did something wrong, but it wasn’t his fault he caught that ugly thing. Dad netted it and brought it into the boat and of course Ro had to have a picture with it. I had never seen and eel pout caught in the summer time, neither had my dad. So dad got his pliers and picked the fish up with the pliers and handed it to Ro and took a picture. Dad also drove us to Canada that day on the boat, just over the border quick and back. In the winter, we went back up to that same lake to ice fish over New Years. Ro was back in Chile, but my mom and I, Shannon, Shannon and my aunt Judy were all in a fish house drinking something good talking and fishing. Yes, 3 Shannons in one fish house. We did even though we didn’t do it on purpose manage to as my uncle says, “get things all bunched up nicely.” We caught a fish. Yes, WE, meaning 3 of us, caught the same fish at the same time. Obviously we weren’t paying too much attention to our lines at the time because my mom caught the fish in the mouth and the fish proceeded to struggle and swim around and get snagged up on my line and my aunt’s line. Of course we called Dad, who was in a different fish house, to come and help with this mess. After everything was untangled and we were went back to fishing Dad went back to his house, but came back whenever we screwed something up.
This is Ro with the eel pout, the picture doesn't do it justice though, they are much more disgusting in person.
So, today, I would like to wish Dad, one day early, Happy Birthday! Thank you for all you have done for me, and mostly thank you for helping to make me the person I am today. I love you and I miss you! Have a great birthday.
Later in life, when I was 16 years old I got my first car. It was a gift from a cousin and I loved it. My beautiful 1995 Lincoln Continental was my prize gift that year. My dad and mom had to drive to Minneapolis to pick it up for me. They also had to do all that title stuff to put the car in my name and set up the insurance for it. They brought it home the same night that I was leaving for Montana with my aunt Karen and my grandma. That was my first Christmas that I didn’t spend with my parents. In fact, it is the only Christmas that I haven’t spent with my parents. This Christmas will be the second and I have a feeling it will be very hard for me, but that’s another story. My dad drove my Lincoln home and I just home from a basketball game, I think. It really is funny how hard it is to remember things from not so many years ago. I had all my stuff packed and we had my aunt’s truck packed for the long drive to Montana. Before I could go though I had to at least take my new car for a spin! It was snowing and I took the car to the end of the road and back. At that time my car didn’t really have any problems, but later the transmission died. Of course my dad took it in to get it fixed and also to get a new windshield for it because it had a crack in it when I got it. He fixed that car for me and I ran it until I couldn’t anymore. Of course when I crashed it in January 2007, there really wasn’t much I could do to fix it, but I drove it with the thing still and now it sits in our yard, covered by weeds in the summer, leaves in the fall, and snow in the winter. After that I had already semi moved to Chile and only needed a car when I was in Minnesota. Last year when I went to the US with Rodrigo, my dad and uncle fixed up a “work car” for me. This work car really wasn’t for work. My uncle used it to drive a quarter mile each day to the Kasella Concrete yard. It had a layer of dirt inside because that quarter mile happened to be a dirt road. I cleaned that red beast up and Ro and I drove it for the summer. Of course we had problems with it. One time it just decided to stop on 15 in St. Cloud in the middle of rush hour. Of course rush hour in St. Cloud really isn’t too bad compared to other places I have been, but there we were in the middle of the summer on a day that was hotter than hell and super humid. Dad came and tried to start the beast, but it just didn’t feel like starting. He called triple A and had it towed to a garage to be looked at. They couldn’t find anything wrong with it. From then on it started when it felt like it and sometimes not at all, but I still drove it. When it started getting cold, and Ro was already gone back to Chile, my dad fixed his “work car” for me. This car had been sitting in the yard with the Lincoln for some time, but he got it running for me, fixed the starter and put in a new battery for me. This car at least had heat. Of course it wasn’t beautiful and I did get laughed at by some guy driving a brand new Mustang at a gas station once, but I didn’t care. It got me from point A to point B. Most of the time.
These days, my dad really can’t do that much for me since I am a billion miles away. But when I go home, he takes me fishing and usually I don’t even have to put bait on the hook and I never have to take the fish off the hook, unless they are sunnies or something small. When Ro was in MN with me, he took us fishing, Ro caught an eel pout. Eel pouts are very ugly fish covered in a very smelly slime and usually they are only caught in the wintertime, but Ro caught one in the summer because he wanted to be cool. Of course Ro had no idea at the time what he was catching and I am sure even today he would have a hard time telling the difference between any kind of fish, but I think he knows what an eel pout is now. Anyways, Ro was reeling in the fish and Dad caught a glimpse of it. “Son of a bitch!” was what my dad said. Of course Ro started to feel nervous and thought he did something wrong, but it wasn’t his fault he caught that ugly thing. Dad netted it and brought it into the boat and of course Ro had to have a picture with it. I had never seen and eel pout caught in the summer time, neither had my dad. So dad got his pliers and picked the fish up with the pliers and handed it to Ro and took a picture. Dad also drove us to Canada that day on the boat, just over the border quick and back. In the winter, we went back up to that same lake to ice fish over New Years. Ro was back in Chile, but my mom and I, Shannon, Shannon and my aunt Judy were all in a fish house drinking something good talking and fishing. Yes, 3 Shannons in one fish house. We did even though we didn’t do it on purpose manage to as my uncle says, “get things all bunched up nicely.” We caught a fish. Yes, WE, meaning 3 of us, caught the same fish at the same time. Obviously we weren’t paying too much attention to our lines at the time because my mom caught the fish in the mouth and the fish proceeded to struggle and swim around and get snagged up on my line and my aunt’s line. Of course we called Dad, who was in a different fish house, to come and help with this mess. After everything was untangled and we were went back to fishing Dad went back to his house, but came back whenever we screwed something up.
So, today, I would like to wish Dad, one day early, Happy Birthday! Thank you for all you have done for me, and mostly thank you for helping to make me the person I am today. I love you and I miss you! Have a great birthday.
This is Dad and little bro Carl, it was Carl's birthday yesterday!
This is the only picture I have with my dad. But you can see he's waiting for me to turn around so he can take a pic too and text message it to my mom. :)
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
When you visit my house
I don't have a lot of visitors at my house and after I reread this and thought about it, it really probably is a good thing.
When you visit our house, first you will notice that the neighbor lady will come out and see what is going on. She acts all dramatic like she thinks you are actually climbing over her gate and about to rob her house, then she mutters, "Ah, you scared me." After that she goes back into the house. I think she is just nosy...
When you enter our house, you will probably not notice or you probably will that the house is a mess. You have probably 5 chances out of 7 of coming in and wondering to yourself what the fuck happened in here. I fail at being a good housekeeper. I hate cleaning and as soon as I have everything clean I feel like an hour later it looks horrible again. I think this may have to do with the fact that I have a tiny house. If I had a bigger house everything wouldn't get so cluttered so fast. I also never make my bed unless I wash the sheets not that it matters because visitors don't really go in my room.
You will also notice that there is a red piece of yarn tied around one of our chairs, if I was you, I wouldn't sit in that chair. I was thinking of making a warning sign for it because I'm sure someone will sit in it and break it 100% before we around to getting it fixed. I would just put the chair away somewhere, but I don't have a somewhere to put it. Also, the toilet seat cover is broken so when you pick it up you have a good chance of standing there holding a toilet seat cover in your hand and wondering to yourself, "How the fuck does this happen?" I don't know how it happened, it just did and now its broken and we are going to buy a new one soon, I think. You probably won't notice, but there is a melted \ / shape on the top of my washing machine. That's because one day I turned my hair straightener to 410 degrees F and set it on my plastic washing machine. Yes, I am so intelligent.
I also have to say that I have ADD when it comes to being a hostess. We never have alcohol in our house. Yes, we drink, but when we do, we drink it all. So a quick trip to the little liquor store a couple blocks away is always needed. After returning from the little trip, I will bring out the rum, coke, and ice then wander off while you wonder where the hell your drink is. Usually Nico (Our neighbor and Ro's friend) will just go into the kitchen and get classes and make the drinks. Then when I come back I will pick up a drink like I made it and didn't forget about anything. If you come on a bad day, we won't have very much food in the house, but I am pretty good at making snacks out of anything. I mean all you need is an apple and manjar or peanut butter and wahoo a snack. Or onions, flour and beer and wahooo onion rings!!! Usually though, if we know we are having people over we will have completos and we always have chips and golf sauce. Also, if you drop food on the floor one of two things will happen, depending on what you dropped I will just say, "Don't worry, Zoe will eat it." or Zoe will have already grabbed it and if it is a grape or an onion I will grab her back legs and lift her into the air and give a little shake so she drops it. Anything other than a grape or onion, she can eat. She's part goat, I think. If you spill a drink, she will drink it, but I try to keep her alcohol consumption to a minimum since the last time someone dropped a glass of wine and she drank almost all of it up before we could get it cleaned up and she walked into things for a half an hour before passing out in the middle of the living room floor. Bad dog.
If you want to play Rock Band, I am always willing and after a few drinks I even sing! But, I do have to tell you that sometimes our TV fades to black so we have to push pause while I give it a good slap or kick and the color will come right back and we can continue playing for a few minutes. Sometimes this happens a lot, sometimes it can go a whole hour without fading to black. Also, don't be fooled, I really do suck at Rock Band and usually will fail out before people who are playing for the first time, so make sure Ro is home so he can do the secret button pushing thing and set it on No Fail Mode. Then everyone can be happy and we can continue to play the whole song and probably not get more than three stars because, I really do suck.
There is a big chance that instead of playing Rock Band, I will bring out the cards, dice, and Jenga Xtreme. Usually we play Bull Shit with the cards, and the loser has to drink a half shot... be careful... you so don't want to drink HALF a SHOT, OMG! I really don't mind losing as much as the others. In fact, I wouldn't mind taking a whole shot for losing. We play Greedy with the dice I think some people call that game Farkle too and of course the loser has to drink HALF a SHOT!! Hahahaha! After we get a good buzz on we pull out Jenga Xtreme where the loser has to drink HALF a SHOT!!! I think this is the best part of the night. I love playing games. If presidents and assholes wasn't so complicated for the Chilean man brain, I would try to get everyone to play that game because it is a way better drinking game!!
Well, apparently I started writing a blog a few hours ago and was too busy watching the news to finish it and now I don't even know how I was going to finish it...sigh.
When you visit our house, first you will notice that the neighbor lady will come out and see what is going on. She acts all dramatic like she thinks you are actually climbing over her gate and about to rob her house, then she mutters, "Ah, you scared me." After that she goes back into the house. I think she is just nosy...
When you enter our house, you will probably not notice or you probably will that the house is a mess. You have probably 5 chances out of 7 of coming in and wondering to yourself what the fuck happened in here. I fail at being a good housekeeper. I hate cleaning and as soon as I have everything clean I feel like an hour later it looks horrible again. I think this may have to do with the fact that I have a tiny house. If I had a bigger house everything wouldn't get so cluttered so fast. I also never make my bed unless I wash the sheets not that it matters because visitors don't really go in my room.
You will also notice that there is a red piece of yarn tied around one of our chairs, if I was you, I wouldn't sit in that chair. I was thinking of making a warning sign for it because I'm sure someone will sit in it and break it 100% before we around to getting it fixed. I would just put the chair away somewhere, but I don't have a somewhere to put it. Also, the toilet seat cover is broken so when you pick it up you have a good chance of standing there holding a toilet seat cover in your hand and wondering to yourself, "How the fuck does this happen?" I don't know how it happened, it just did and now its broken and we are going to buy a new one soon, I think. You probably won't notice, but there is a melted \ / shape on the top of my washing machine. That's because one day I turned my hair straightener to 410 degrees F and set it on my plastic washing machine. Yes, I am so intelligent.
I also have to say that I have ADD when it comes to being a hostess. We never have alcohol in our house. Yes, we drink, but when we do, we drink it all. So a quick trip to the little liquor store a couple blocks away is always needed. After returning from the little trip, I will bring out the rum, coke, and ice then wander off while you wonder where the hell your drink is. Usually Nico (Our neighbor and Ro's friend) will just go into the kitchen and get classes and make the drinks. Then when I come back I will pick up a drink like I made it and didn't forget about anything. If you come on a bad day, we won't have very much food in the house, but I am pretty good at making snacks out of anything. I mean all you need is an apple and manjar or peanut butter and wahoo a snack. Or onions, flour and beer and wahooo onion rings!!! Usually though, if we know we are having people over we will have completos and we always have chips and golf sauce. Also, if you drop food on the floor one of two things will happen, depending on what you dropped I will just say, "Don't worry, Zoe will eat it." or Zoe will have already grabbed it and if it is a grape or an onion I will grab her back legs and lift her into the air and give a little shake so she drops it. Anything other than a grape or onion, she can eat. She's part goat, I think. If you spill a drink, she will drink it, but I try to keep her alcohol consumption to a minimum since the last time someone dropped a glass of wine and she drank almost all of it up before we could get it cleaned up and she walked into things for a half an hour before passing out in the middle of the living room floor. Bad dog.
If you want to play Rock Band, I am always willing and after a few drinks I even sing! But, I do have to tell you that sometimes our TV fades to black so we have to push pause while I give it a good slap or kick and the color will come right back and we can continue playing for a few minutes. Sometimes this happens a lot, sometimes it can go a whole hour without fading to black. Also, don't be fooled, I really do suck at Rock Band and usually will fail out before people who are playing for the first time, so make sure Ro is home so he can do the secret button pushing thing and set it on No Fail Mode. Then everyone can be happy and we can continue to play the whole song and probably not get more than three stars because, I really do suck.
There is a big chance that instead of playing Rock Band, I will bring out the cards, dice, and Jenga Xtreme. Usually we play Bull Shit with the cards, and the loser has to drink a half shot... be careful... you so don't want to drink HALF a SHOT, OMG! I really don't mind losing as much as the others. In fact, I wouldn't mind taking a whole shot for losing. We play Greedy with the dice I think some people call that game Farkle too and of course the loser has to drink HALF a SHOT!! Hahahaha! After we get a good buzz on we pull out Jenga Xtreme where the loser has to drink HALF a SHOT!!! I think this is the best part of the night. I love playing games. If presidents and assholes wasn't so complicated for the Chilean man brain, I would try to get everyone to play that game because it is a way better drinking game!!
Well, apparently I started writing a blog a few hours ago and was too busy watching the news to finish it and now I don't even know how I was going to finish it...sigh.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Changed my face again... and my Simple Sunday.
I was having issues blogging and someone commented that it might be the background so I changed it. I hope you like it.
It's Monday, but I'm gonna write about Sunday because I like days like Sunday. Ro and I slept in and woke up because our room was hotter than hell. The sun was out and it didn't really matter that the heat woke us up because we needed to get moving anyways. Of course we are out of gas again and I didn't have time for a caveman shower, so I washed my hair with cold water, jumped in the shower rinsed off and got the hell outta there before I froze my ass off. We went to the feria and I was super excited because I didn't go with Ro last weekend and we finally have a little money to buy food. We spent 10,000 pesos, about 20 bucks and came home with oranges, strawberries, bananas, apples, kiwis, potatoes, tomatoes, avacados, onions, carrots, cucumbers, a potato masher, garlic powder, oregano, and one bottle of flavored bubbly water to drink while we wandered. We have a lot of fresh food now and I am kind of excited. We just need to buy some sugar and cinnamon and I'm going to make me a yummy apple pie!! Going to the feria is fun for me, I hate when it is packed and start freaking out if Ro or I get lost in the crowd, but I love the smells of everything, all the fresh produce, popcorn, and the spices!! :) I love it! After that we had lunch at Ro's grandma's and then went back home to put away all our food. Then we took a nap. I love Sunday naps : ) After our lovely nap we decided to drink some beer which is always fun. Ro's friend came over and they went to go buy some more rum at 1am.. yeah. We watched Role Model and it was hilarious!! Then once again I found myself awake at 5am wondering what the hell I was thinking so we went to bed. Today was not as lovely as Sunday because someone had his crabby pants on... ALL DAY! Ok, I'm going to eat an apple and go read in my warm bed while I wait for hubs to get home. Hope everyone had a great weekend!! : )
It's Monday, but I'm gonna write about Sunday because I like days like Sunday. Ro and I slept in and woke up because our room was hotter than hell. The sun was out and it didn't really matter that the heat woke us up because we needed to get moving anyways. Of course we are out of gas again and I didn't have time for a caveman shower, so I washed my hair with cold water, jumped in the shower rinsed off and got the hell outta there before I froze my ass off. We went to the feria and I was super excited because I didn't go with Ro last weekend and we finally have a little money to buy food. We spent 10,000 pesos, about 20 bucks and came home with oranges, strawberries, bananas, apples, kiwis, potatoes, tomatoes, avacados, onions, carrots, cucumbers, a potato masher, garlic powder, oregano, and one bottle of flavored bubbly water to drink while we wandered. We have a lot of fresh food now and I am kind of excited. We just need to buy some sugar and cinnamon and I'm going to make me a yummy apple pie!! Going to the feria is fun for me, I hate when it is packed and start freaking out if Ro or I get lost in the crowd, but I love the smells of everything, all the fresh produce, popcorn, and the spices!! :) I love it! After that we had lunch at Ro's grandma's and then went back home to put away all our food. Then we took a nap. I love Sunday naps : ) After our lovely nap we decided to drink some beer which is always fun. Ro's friend came over and they went to go buy some more rum at 1am.. yeah. We watched Role Model and it was hilarious!! Then once again I found myself awake at 5am wondering what the hell I was thinking so we went to bed. Today was not as lovely as Sunday because someone had his crabby pants on... ALL DAY! Ok, I'm going to eat an apple and go read in my warm bed while I wait for hubs to get home. Hope everyone had a great weekend!! : )
Friday, October 8, 2010
Well
For some reason I am still having a frickin hard time getting blogger to open and let me write a new post!! But it looks like today is my lucky day.
I still haven't heard anything from the place I had an interview at last Monday. So, I am moving on, I sent out my CV this morning and now I have to wait again. And again. Always waiting. In the mean time I have cleaned my house a few times, done the dishes a billion times, and now I'm making bread.
I don't have anything new or any thoughts to write about so I am posting this so you all know that I am still alive and still living a very boring life!
Have a good weekend everyone!!!
I still haven't heard anything from the place I had an interview at last Monday. So, I am moving on, I sent out my CV this morning and now I have to wait again. And again. Always waiting. In the mean time I have cleaned my house a few times, done the dishes a billion times, and now I'm making bread.
I don't have anything new or any thoughts to write about so I am posting this so you all know that I am still alive and still living a very boring life!
Have a good weekend everyone!!!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
WORK DAMN YOU!!!!!!!!!
I have been trying to write a post everyday for the past 5 days. Apparently both Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome are hating me right now and don't want to do anything I try to make them do. Anways!
I am still alive. I had a job interview on Monday and I haven't heard anything back yet, but I am still really hoping that I get the job there because it would be perfect because I would work like 5 steps away from Ro. Not that I need to be right next to him 24/7, but it would definitely be nice to have a ride to and from work everyday. Since I haven't heard anything back, I am starting to assume that they found someone "more qualified" which means they found a Chilean with an English teaching degree. They are more qualified than me because I am a degreeless loser. So, as I wait patiently for a call back from that possible job and an email back for an interview at another possible one, I have been once again left with more time on my hands than I really need. I have watched Phantom of the Opera twice. And have searched the house high and low 3 times for Moulin Rouge, but I still can't find it. I am starting to think that Ro hid it from me so I wouldn't be able go on one of my Moulin Rouge rampages where I watch the movie every single day and burst out singing along with it...or randomly burst out singing one of its songs as I go about my normal day... I only do that sometimes. Not very often. I have also been for lack of a better verb, scratching the floor with steel wool. Ro's dad dripped a lot when he painted the walls so now it is my job to scratch it all off. Unfortunately that means that most of the wax comes with so I will soon have to learn how this cera roja crap works and how to take care of this kind of floor. Or I won't. I haven't decided. It would look "rustic" if I just left it. A little shabbiness never hurt anyone. With all the scratching comes a lot of red dust so I have to sweep and sneeze a lot too. Other than that, life has been going by just the same as always, slowly. It is once again the end of the month so Ro is working a lot taking advantage of all the shoppers who seem to have ran completely out of food after the 18th celebrations. Rent is paid, wahoo! I have a home to live in, we still have gas to cook and shower with, and we even have a few noodles and half a bag of mashed potato flakes in the cupboard to eat. So, for now we are alive and well and only waiting for something great to happen.
Ro's uncle and his girlfriend have been in Santiago for almost a week now, they live in Puerto Montt. They have been telling us of how wonderful and "country" life is down there. I am jealous and have been plotting in my head ways of making Ro take me down there to live. They can buy a 50 kilo bag of potatoes for 3000 pesos! Not that I really ever need THAT many potatoes at one time, I don't think I would even be able to carry it, how lumpy and uncomfortable! But the thoughts of leaving this city and moving somewhere less city have been polluting my mind and I think if I could get Ro to see how life could be, he would like it too. Anyways, I don't really have anything else to write about... I made brownies the other day and burnt the bottom and edges, but the middle tasted just fine. : )
I am still alive. I had a job interview on Monday and I haven't heard anything back yet, but I am still really hoping that I get the job there because it would be perfect because I would work like 5 steps away from Ro. Not that I need to be right next to him 24/7, but it would definitely be nice to have a ride to and from work everyday. Since I haven't heard anything back, I am starting to assume that they found someone "more qualified" which means they found a Chilean with an English teaching degree. They are more qualified than me because I am a degreeless loser. So, as I wait patiently for a call back from that possible job and an email back for an interview at another possible one, I have been once again left with more time on my hands than I really need. I have watched Phantom of the Opera twice. And have searched the house high and low 3 times for Moulin Rouge, but I still can't find it. I am starting to think that Ro hid it from me so I wouldn't be able go on one of my Moulin Rouge rampages where I watch the movie every single day and burst out singing along with it...or randomly burst out singing one of its songs as I go about my normal day... I only do that sometimes. Not very often. I have also been for lack of a better verb, scratching the floor with steel wool. Ro's dad dripped a lot when he painted the walls so now it is my job to scratch it all off. Unfortunately that means that most of the wax comes with so I will soon have to learn how this cera roja crap works and how to take care of this kind of floor. Or I won't. I haven't decided. It would look "rustic" if I just left it. A little shabbiness never hurt anyone. With all the scratching comes a lot of red dust so I have to sweep and sneeze a lot too. Other than that, life has been going by just the same as always, slowly. It is once again the end of the month so Ro is working a lot taking advantage of all the shoppers who seem to have ran completely out of food after the 18th celebrations. Rent is paid, wahoo! I have a home to live in, we still have gas to cook and shower with, and we even have a few noodles and half a bag of mashed potato flakes in the cupboard to eat. So, for now we are alive and well and only waiting for something great to happen.
Ro's uncle and his girlfriend have been in Santiago for almost a week now, they live in Puerto Montt. They have been telling us of how wonderful and "country" life is down there. I am jealous and have been plotting in my head ways of making Ro take me down there to live. They can buy a 50 kilo bag of potatoes for 3000 pesos! Not that I really ever need THAT many potatoes at one time, I don't think I would even be able to carry it, how lumpy and uncomfortable! But the thoughts of leaving this city and moving somewhere less city have been polluting my mind and I think if I could get Ro to see how life could be, he would like it too. Anyways, I don't really have anything else to write about... I made brownies the other day and burnt the bottom and edges, but the middle tasted just fine. : )
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The Celebration is OVER!
I didn't take any of these pictures. I got them off google.
To start out September 17th, we started in the evening. Rum and Coke with potato chips and salsa golf. (ketchup and mayo mixed together)
+ 
+
To start out September 17th, we started in the evening. Rum and Coke with potato chips and salsa golf. (ketchup and mayo mixed together)
+ 
+7:00AM September 18
11AM Woken up by Ro's dad who came over to paint the downstairs of our house. One huge cup of coffee plus
and constant thoughts to self that included, "I am not going to throw up, I am not going to throw up!" And "I CANNOT barf in the blue toilet!" And, "I am never trying to keep up with the boys again!"
I managed to keep my face out of the blue toilet. Yay! But, then I realized that I needed to take a shower and get ready because we were supposed to be at Ro's grandmas for a bbq at 1:30.
2:30pm we arrive at Ro's grandma's and are immediately served an empanada.
Yum, that helped me feel a little bit better. After downing the empanada and a glass of coke, I was offered....
Chicha, wine and other forms of alcohol. I sipped on a glass of chicha and was offered
choripan. This is like a spicy sausage and at the bbqs that I have gone to with Ro's family this is always the first thing served off the grill. I ate one, Ro ate 3. He is obsessed with choripan, he probably could have eaten 10 if there would have been enough.
Next came lunchtime. We had the various types of meat, beef, pork ribs, and chicken. I had a chicken leg and a small chunk of beef. I love eating beef that Ro's uncle cooks on the grill because he doesn't cook the life out of it and it is still a little bit pink. YUM! Ro's mom's side of the family cook the meat like it has the devil in it and the must rid it of all badness it turns out chewier and harder than the deer jerky my dad makes. ANYWAYS... After lunch, Ro and I decided to go back to our house so I could lay down and sleep and try to feel better. The was maybe 5pm... While taking a nap Ro took advantage of the fact that I was sleeping and put his PC in our bedroom even after I specifically said that that computer was never ever allowed to be hooked up in our bedroom. So when I woke up even though I did feel better, I was crabby. So I went downstairs to drink some water and get ready to go back over to Ro's grandmas for the rest of the day.
I bought myself a 5 liter bottle of water for the weekend. I drank 3 glasses in a row before we left to go back to Ro's grandmas house.
At about 8pm we were all sitting around the table, of course drinking. I had another glass of chicha and then decided I needed to try another drink. I know there is a name for it, but I don't remember what it is.
It was basically white wine with chopped up peaches floating around inside. YUM! We watched some special of the bicentenary and after that Ro decided to go back to our house to bring a bunch of games. He brought the Xbox 360 and the guitar, drums, and microphone so we could play Rock Band; cards; dice; and Jenga Xtreme. We ended up playing dice and cards until 4am. So, we went home and went directly to bed!
Only to be waken up at 11am because Ro's dad came over again to paint. Sigh. So, I got up and decided that I was going to make pizza. I don't know why, but it just sounded really good, and we had almost all the ingredients. Ro and I went out to find a store so we could buy some cheese and meat to put on top the pizza. We drove all over and ended up going to a little tiny store. We bought cheese, ham, salami, and mushrooms. Of course we also bought 3 empanadas because while we were in the little store the empanada man came and we couldn't resist. So we ate an empanada while I was getting the pizza ready.
Yummy pizza!! Then at about 8pm we went back over to Ro's grandma's with Ro's friend Nico. Nico fixed the cd thing for their computer because the little girl broke it and shoved bread inside it. We were going to play Rock Band, but we decided to watch Tomb Raider instead. Then we watched the movie Wrong Turn. It was kind of dumb. After that we started drinking some more rum. Of course we also had empanadas de queso with pebre. More yum. At this point I felt as though I was going to explode.
We played cards for awhile and then dice and then suddenly it was 5am! And Ro remembered that we have to wake up and drive to the beach to pick up his mom and sister. So, off to bed. Before going to bed I downed a gallon of water, some Tylenol, and Pepto Bismol.
After feeling like garbage and sticking my face in the blue toilet, we made some sandwiches and headed for the beach. Blah. My guts were screaming at me the whole time, but we stopped in the middle so Ro could buy some new sunglasses. He also bought himself an empanada and me a bottle of Fanta. Ro ate half the empanada and gave me the rest. When we reached the beach we were given beer and that actually made me feel a lot better. Then we had to sit down for lunch. Which just happened to be leftover bbq from the night before. I had the smallest piece of chicken and some beets and some kind of bean. I was so ready for a nap, but we still had to drive back to Santiago and of course it was going to be a long ride home because a lot of people went to the beach for the weekend and were also driving back to the city. On the way back I had some more Tylenol and more Pepto and tried to sleep. Then Ro told me to keep him awake because he was tired and falling asleep. I gave him some Pap and played rock music and talked to him to keep him awake. On that ride home, I realized that people here apparently don't replace their brake lights when they go out and almost pissed myself twice because we came up to some of these fuckers very quickly and thought we were going to hit them. The ride wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but when we were pretty close to Santiago the road was very plugged and we hadn't stopped completely, but I could have walked faster than what we were moving. By this time Ro had drank the whole bottle of Pap. My fault. And all he could think about was our blue toilet. We finally got to Ro's parent's house to drop of MIL and SIL and the nasty little thing they call a dog. Ro went straight to the bathroom and I went straight to Zoe. Zoe didn't come with us, she stayed with Ro's dad instead. After that Ro told him mom that we are leaving right away and she got mad that we weren't going to stay for teatime. We finally got back home around 7:30pm and I tried to clean up the house a bit, but failed and just put my pjs on and went right to bed. And now, the weekend is over and I am very very glad because I'm sure I easily gained 10 pounds this weekend and I really don't think I could eat another empanada.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Um.....
Last night my husband and I were playing WWE in our bed. This can be dangerous because our bed is very old, very creaky, and we have been know to break it. Anyways, he started it. He stopped while holding my ankle and trying to pinch me in the thigh skin where it really really hurts. Then he started laughing. Lucky for me he didn't pinch me because I have been known to knee him in the nose and other places after he pinches me in the thigh skin. I was kind of confused, usually I have to fake that I am laying on my arm wrong to get him to stop and let me readjust before he continues. He held my ankle up and said, "Look at this hair!!! Its like 3 centimeters long!" then he said, "Oh my god, don't you ever shave anymore?!"
Then I took the opportunity to "accidentally" kick him in the other places. I asked him (in a very angry voice), "How do you expected me to shave my legs when I have to take an almost caveman shower?"
Then he said, "You can't shave when you take a caveman shower??"
Me: "Your face 8 billion less square inches than my legs and you don't shave your face when we you take a caveman shower!"
Ro: "I don't shave in the shower."
Me: "Well I do!!!"
Ro: "Can't you just shave without water?"
Me: "Can't you?"
Ro: "Yeah, but it hurts and leaves red bumps"
Me: "And what do you think it does to me!?"
Ro: "Okay, okay, I'll buy gas tomorrow."
The moral of the story is, I no longer have hairy legs, but Ro still has a hairy face. Its not like I don't shave just because I don't feel like it.... like some people.....
Then I took the opportunity to "accidentally" kick him in the other places. I asked him (in a very angry voice), "How do you expected me to shave my legs when I have to take an almost caveman shower?"
Then he said, "You can't shave when you take a caveman shower??"
Me: "Your face 8 billion less square inches than my legs and you don't shave your face when we you take a caveman shower!"
Ro: "I don't shave in the shower."
Me: "Well I do!!!"
Ro: "Can't you just shave without water?"
Me: "Can't you?"
Ro: "Yeah, but it hurts and leaves red bumps"
Me: "And what do you think it does to me!?"
Ro: "Okay, okay, I'll buy gas tomorrow."
The moral of the story is, I no longer have hairy legs, but Ro still has a hairy face. Its not like I don't shave just because I don't feel like it.... like some people.....
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Brands
As I currently ponder our next trip to the grocery store, I have been thinking about brands and how I have very little knowledge of the brands here in Santiago. Almost all of the stuff I buy here, I usually buy the cheapest brand, or the brand that Ro's mom always had in the house. In Montana, I would always buy the cheapest of everything except when the penny pincher coupons came, then I would use those and buy whatever the coupon was for. In MN, I ate whatever my parents bought, and if we were to move back there, I know what to go cheap on and what not to. So here's my list of what I bought there, and what I buy here.
US: Heinz Chile: Carozzi or JP
Milk
US: Cass Clay or the cheapest at Sam's (1%) Chile: Lonco Leche sin lactosa semidescremada
*I don't drink this... yuck! But Ro does.
Spaghetti Sauce
US: Ragu traditional or Hunts mushrooms Chile: Carozzi salsa lista or Mama Mia
*occasionally spurge and buy Great Value veggie.
Bread
US: Cash Wise Split top wheat Chile: Ideal integral
Noodles
US: Sam's Bakers and Chefs elbow mac. Chile: Carozzi espirales or spaghettini
Soup
US: canned Food Club Chile: powder Maggia
Mayo
US: NEVER MAYO always Miracle Whip!! Chile: Hellman's Light
Mustard
US: French's Chile: JP
Mashed Potato flakes
US: Idahoan Baby Reds Chile: whatever's cheapest
*usually make em from scratch!
Orange Juice
US: Minutes maid frozen concentrate Chile: Andina or Watt's 100% jugo
*Ro doesn't drink this....
Powder Juice Mix
US: Kool-Aid Chile: Livian
* I don't drink this very often....
Rice
US: Minute Chile: whatever's cheapest
*I fuck it up everytime...watery or crunchy...sigh
Margarine/butter
US: Country Crock/ Land o Lakes Chile: Next margarina/never butter...
Ranch Dressing
US: Hidden Valley Ranch Chile: Great Value (Walmart brand)
Honey Mustard
US: Newman's Own Chile: Great Value
Barbecue Sauce
US: Sweet Baby Ray's Chile: Hunt's or Great Value
*have a great homemade recipe!!
American Cheese
US: Baker's and Chef's Chile: Santa Rosa Cheddar
*It's not really cheddar....
Canned Tuna
US: Chicken of the Sea Chile: Robinson Crusoe
FOOD
KetchupUS: Heinz Chile: Carozzi or JP
Milk
US: Cass Clay or the cheapest at Sam's (1%) Chile: Lonco Leche sin lactosa semidescremada
*I don't drink this... yuck! But Ro does.
Spaghetti Sauce
US: Ragu traditional or Hunts mushrooms Chile: Carozzi salsa lista or Mama Mia
*occasionally spurge and buy Great Value veggie.
Bread
US: Cash Wise Split top wheat Chile: Ideal integral
Noodles
US: Sam's Bakers and Chefs elbow mac. Chile: Carozzi espirales or spaghettini
Soup
US: canned Food Club Chile: powder Maggia
Mayo
US: NEVER MAYO always Miracle Whip!! Chile: Hellman's Light
Mustard
US: French's Chile: JP
Mashed Potato flakes
US: Idahoan Baby Reds Chile: whatever's cheapest
*usually make em from scratch!
Orange Juice
US: Minutes maid frozen concentrate Chile: Andina or Watt's 100% jugo
*Ro doesn't drink this....
Powder Juice Mix
US: Kool-Aid Chile: Livian
* I don't drink this very often....
Rice
US: Minute Chile: whatever's cheapest
*I fuck it up everytime...watery or crunchy...sigh
Margarine/butter
US: Country Crock/ Land o Lakes Chile: Next margarina/never butter...
Ranch Dressing
US: Hidden Valley Ranch Chile: Great Value (Walmart brand)
Honey Mustard
US: Newman's Own Chile: Great Value
Barbecue Sauce
US: Sweet Baby Ray's Chile: Hunt's or Great Value
*have a great homemade recipe!!
American Cheese
US: Baker's and Chef's Chile: Santa Rosa Cheddar
*It's not really cheddar....
Canned Tuna
US: Chicken of the Sea Chile: Robinson Crusoe
HOUSEHOLD SUPPLIES
Napkins
US: Mardi Gras Chile: Lider brand
Toilet Paper
US: Charmin or Cottonelle Chile: Lider or Comfort
Paper Towels
US: Scott Chile: Nova or Elite
Dishsoap
US: Dawn Chile: Quix or if I spurge, Dawn
Toothpaste
US: Crest Chile: Ro uses Colgate, I always bring Crest!
Floor cleaner
US: Mr. Clean lemon Chile: Lysol disenfectante, the blue kind.
I am sure there are more things, but I can't remember right now. And as far as fresh fruits and veggies go, we buy most everything at the feria. We buy carrots, potatoes, kiwi, bananas, cilantro, tomatoes, and onions at the feria. In the US, we have fresh food from the garden and trees in the summer and fall, canned food from the garden through the winter and store boughten frozen or canned fruits and veggies also. In the US I buy canned mushrooms, here we buy fresh mushrooms at Lider or Jumbo. And we rarely buy meat because we can't afford it, but when we do, Ro's uncle has some connections and gets some beef for cheap. In the US, I eat the beef my dad raises and it is obviously much more delicious. All other meats that I eat in the US like fish, venison, pork, or chicken usually comes from the stockpile my dad has in the deep freeze. The fish is obviously caught by us or a relative, the venison usually shot by my brother, pork from and uncle that raises pigs, chicken from an uncle or frozen chicken breasts from Sam's.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Well...
So, we are out of gas again, I thought the califon was more broken, but we are just out of propane. For those of you that don't know, the califon is the thing that heats the water, its hooked up to the propane tank. Ours happens to not work properly it only half heats the water, but at least we have warmish water to shower with. Except when we run out of propane.
At the moment we just have one propane tank that we use for both the stove and the califon. So, we have to drag the tank into the bathroom, hook it up, then go into the kitchen light the califon and back to the bathroom for a shower. If we want to use the stove, we have to drag it into the kitchen hook it up to the stove and cook. Eventually we will have a smaller one that we can fit under the kitchen sink so I don't trip on it and that one will be used just for the stove. Then we can leave the larger one in the bathroom. I'm not sure what to do about the califon. I think we should talk to the landlady and explain to her that it is a piece of shit and also tell her that the 2nd plugin thing in the kitchen doesn't work so that she can get them fixed. Ro doesn't want to because he doesn't want to cause problems. Well, I strongly disagree, we are paying to rent this place, we were told that everything worked properly and we were also told that a new kitchen window was going to be put in because the one that is there now is broken. I also don't think that we should have to pay the August electric bill since we moved in on the first of September.... but hubby is going to pay it anyways. He really needs to learn about renting from someone... we have rights even if we are renting the house from someone, he just doesn't understand because he has never rented before.
Anyways, this post is supposed to be about the hmmm... shower... bath.... throwing buckets of water on myself... whatever that I had to do this morning because we are out of gas. I think it is hilarious and was laughing at myself through the whole process. Here's my play by play hehehe.
Step one, heat water with electric teakettle thing.
Step two, pour hot water into bowls and pitchers, just fill each thing half full. I filled the teakettle 3 times before I had enough water.
Step three, get all your clean clothes ready, find your towel, and take strip.
Step four, wash hair with cold water. I stood over the side of the tub with my head upside down so I wouldn't get myself wet with the cold water. Brr!! I had an instant headache from washing my hair.
Step five, squeeze as much of the freezing water out of your hair as possible and condition.
Step six, take one bowl of half hot water and add cold water til its full. Get in bathtub, sorry if none of you are enjoying a lovely blue tub. Crouch down like a cave man and splash your legs with the water. Lather up and rinse. This should use 3/4 of the bowl of water.
Step seven, splash remaining water on arms and lather up.
Step eight, take a pitcher half full of hot water and add cold water. Rinse arms and pour the rest into the bowl you just used. Add a little bit more cold water... to make the hot water stretch a bit.
Step nine, kneel in bathtub, don't slip and bash your elbow on the wall. Dunk your head into the bowl and sort of rinse the conditioner out of your hair. Then take the bowl and pour it over your hair and try to rinse some more out.
Step ten, take the other bowl and add cold water dunk your head in again then pour it over your head.
Step eleven, take the final pitcher of water add cold water. By this time you should be pretty wet and you can stand up later everywhere else. Then rinse with the last of the water.
Not only does taking a shower/bath like this save gas, it also saves water. Unfortunately it isn't very comfortable and it feels like it takes 5 times as long as taking a normal shower.
But at least I am clean and I have clean hair!!! :o)
I better get back to scraping the cracked paint chunks off the walls!!! We will be painting soon!!! The paint is in the living room and I have been resisting opening it and painting just one streak on the wall so I can look at the color for 2days!!!!
At the moment we just have one propane tank that we use for both the stove and the califon. So, we have to drag the tank into the bathroom, hook it up, then go into the kitchen light the califon and back to the bathroom for a shower. If we want to use the stove, we have to drag it into the kitchen hook it up to the stove and cook. Eventually we will have a smaller one that we can fit under the kitchen sink so I don't trip on it and that one will be used just for the stove. Then we can leave the larger one in the bathroom. I'm not sure what to do about the califon. I think we should talk to the landlady and explain to her that it is a piece of shit and also tell her that the 2nd plugin thing in the kitchen doesn't work so that she can get them fixed. Ro doesn't want to because he doesn't want to cause problems. Well, I strongly disagree, we are paying to rent this place, we were told that everything worked properly and we were also told that a new kitchen window was going to be put in because the one that is there now is broken. I also don't think that we should have to pay the August electric bill since we moved in on the first of September.... but hubby is going to pay it anyways. He really needs to learn about renting from someone... we have rights even if we are renting the house from someone, he just doesn't understand because he has never rented before.
Anyways, this post is supposed to be about the hmmm... shower... bath.... throwing buckets of water on myself... whatever that I had to do this morning because we are out of gas. I think it is hilarious and was laughing at myself through the whole process. Here's my play by play hehehe.
Step one, heat water with electric teakettle thing.
Step two, pour hot water into bowls and pitchers, just fill each thing half full. I filled the teakettle 3 times before I had enough water.
Step three, get all your clean clothes ready, find your towel, and take strip.
Step four, wash hair with cold water. I stood over the side of the tub with my head upside down so I wouldn't get myself wet with the cold water. Brr!! I had an instant headache from washing my hair.
Step five, squeeze as much of the freezing water out of your hair as possible and condition.
Step six, take one bowl of half hot water and add cold water til its full. Get in bathtub, sorry if none of you are enjoying a lovely blue tub. Crouch down like a cave man and splash your legs with the water. Lather up and rinse. This should use 3/4 of the bowl of water.
Step seven, splash remaining water on arms and lather up.
Step eight, take a pitcher half full of hot water and add cold water. Rinse arms and pour the rest into the bowl you just used. Add a little bit more cold water... to make the hot water stretch a bit.
Step nine, kneel in bathtub, don't slip and bash your elbow on the wall. Dunk your head into the bowl and sort of rinse the conditioner out of your hair. Then take the bowl and pour it over your hair and try to rinse some more out.
Step ten, take the other bowl and add cold water dunk your head in again then pour it over your head.
Step eleven, take the final pitcher of water add cold water. By this time you should be pretty wet and you can stand up later everywhere else. Then rinse with the last of the water.
Not only does taking a shower/bath like this save gas, it also saves water. Unfortunately it isn't very comfortable and it feels like it takes 5 times as long as taking a normal shower.
But at least I am clean and I have clean hair!!! :o)
I better get back to scraping the cracked paint chunks off the walls!!! We will be painting soon!!! The paint is in the living room and I have been resisting opening it and painting just one streak on the wall so I can look at the color for 2days!!!!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Cooking with nothing... Recipe
At the moment, Ro and I are broke, mostly because I don't have a job and because we just moved into our own place and had to buy a lot more things that we realized. But, we are making plans to get out of this hole in the near future. For now, we have the bare essentials for groceries and have been eating noodles everyday that we have to cook here since we go to his grandma's house on Saturdays and the other on Sundays for lunch. Well, today I am not in the mood for noodles! I am sick of noodles! So, I dug out everything we have for food and realized it was pathetic and that we can probably unplug to fridge to save energy. So, here is a new recipe I just invented and am waiting for it to be cool enough to taste it.
Mystery Monday Meal
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups warm water
1 chicken broth cube
1 packet of baked chicken seasoning that came free when we bought mashed potatoes one time....
the last cup of milk
the last of the rice, approx 1 1/2 cups
2 in by 1 in chunk of cheese
Aluminum foil
Neosporin burn cream
Hot pad or cheap dish towel, preferably hot pad....
Mix chicken broth cube, seasoning packet, and warm water together.
Add rice and milk.
Pour into baking dish.
Cut or tear cheese into small pieces place on top of everything.
Put in oven, be careful not to burn your finger hairs off when lighting oven, it smells bad.
Realize that you probably should have covered dish with aluminum foil, pull out dish, be careful not to burn your finger, if you have a hotpad this won't be a problem, if you are using a towel bought from the kid that stands between McDonalds and Lider asking for money and selling towels, be careful because they are very thin and the printed pattern on them melts.
Put back in oven bake for 30 min and check on it. Poke with a spoon, if the rice is done, pull it out, if not leave in oven til the rice is done.
Hopefully enjoy......but if its gross, sorry.
Mystery Monday Meal
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups warm water
1 chicken broth cube
1 packet of baked chicken seasoning that came free when we bought mashed potatoes one time....
the last cup of milk
the last of the rice, approx 1 1/2 cups
2 in by 1 in chunk of cheese
Aluminum foil
Neosporin burn cream
Hot pad or cheap dish towel, preferably hot pad....
Mix chicken broth cube, seasoning packet, and warm water together.
Add rice and milk.
Pour into baking dish.
Cut or tear cheese into small pieces place on top of everything.
Put in oven, be careful not to burn your finger hairs off when lighting oven, it smells bad.
Realize that you probably should have covered dish with aluminum foil, pull out dish, be careful not to burn your finger, if you have a hotpad this won't be a problem, if you are using a towel bought from the kid that stands between McDonalds and Lider asking for money and selling towels, be careful because they are very thin and the printed pattern on them melts.
Put back in oven bake for 30 min and check on it. Poke with a spoon, if the rice is done, pull it out, if not leave in oven til the rice is done.
Hopefully enjoy......but if its gross, sorry.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Never, ever, ever!!!
*Its quite possible that culture shock may be getting to me again...so,
*If you don't want to read bitching then go away and read some other blog about someone that is overjoyed with their perfect life!
I hate being a housewife and I see no reason ever that I would ever need to do this again!! I hate cleaning by myself, I hate cooking by myself, I hate making the bed by myself! But more than anything, I hate the feeling that I have when my husband is working and comes home tired. I hate the feeling that I need to be the one that cleans and takes care of everything just because he is working. And I really really hate the fact that he takes complete advantage of the fact that I am not working! So, for that reason, I am going back to job hunting and have a fresh handful of CVs printed out. In the mean time, I have cleaned the bathroom, kitchen, living room, and backyard. I have washed all of the clothes that need to be washed. I have organized my dresser and closet and realized that I own very very little clothing. Sigh. But I do have a nice collection of shoes, though none of them are anything really amazing.
Now that everything of mine is unpacked, my hiking backpack that I just bought keeps looking at me. My mind is wandering and I know this feeling. The feeling of wanting something different, the need to pick up and go somewhere. That damn travel bug has been pestering me.? Well, I guess a mini-vacation is going to have to be planned. I don't care if we go for a weekend to cajon de maipu as long as we get out of this damn city! I can't even go to sleep at night without laying in bed thinking about what the hell is going on in the street. I swear 500 cats live on this street and for some reason I think our backyard is the headquarters of the cat's nightly mayhem!! First it starts out with cat fights under Ro's taxi that usually ends in a pile of cat shit and piss that I have to clean up the next day so my "special" dog doesn't eat it or drag chunks of it into my house. Then they proceed to the backyard, if they make it past the fight. It must be some kind of entry fight.... the backyard is filled with the whores and the night goes on with the horrible screeching that comes from cats procreating, if you have never heard it, LUCKY YOU! I lay in bed and try to think of horrible ways to get the damn cats to go away. I want to set a trap and catch them and bring them to the vet and get them all fixed and release them into the wild, and I mean like halfway from here to the beach not in this city.
On another note, I have been doing other things to keep myself busy in this crappy housewife situation. Today I am making bread. At this very moment the dough is "resting" ...I guess from all the hard work that it has done today. Within the next 2 hours I will be munching on warm bread with melted butter oozing out of it! I have also decided to get back into crocheting and finish the blanket I started a hundred years or so ago. It was so long ago, I don't even remember what more I need to do before I put it all together. I have also been considering crocheting some kind of net like bag to stuff our grocery bags in. We do have a few of the reusable ones, but we use the plastic ones in the garbages instead of buying garbage bags, so sometimes I don't like using the reusable ones. And right now, they are taking up way too much space in one of our 3 cupboards, so they need a new home. Okay I better get shit done.
*If you don't want to read bitching then go away and read some other blog about someone that is overjoyed with their perfect life!
I hate being a housewife and I see no reason ever that I would ever need to do this again!! I hate cleaning by myself, I hate cooking by myself, I hate making the bed by myself! But more than anything, I hate the feeling that I have when my husband is working and comes home tired. I hate the feeling that I need to be the one that cleans and takes care of everything just because he is working. And I really really hate the fact that he takes complete advantage of the fact that I am not working! So, for that reason, I am going back to job hunting and have a fresh handful of CVs printed out. In the mean time, I have cleaned the bathroom, kitchen, living room, and backyard. I have washed all of the clothes that need to be washed. I have organized my dresser and closet and realized that I own very very little clothing. Sigh. But I do have a nice collection of shoes, though none of them are anything really amazing.
Now that everything of mine is unpacked, my hiking backpack that I just bought keeps looking at me. My mind is wandering and I know this feeling. The feeling of wanting something different, the need to pick up and go somewhere. That damn travel bug has been pestering me.? Well, I guess a mini-vacation is going to have to be planned. I don't care if we go for a weekend to cajon de maipu as long as we get out of this damn city! I can't even go to sleep at night without laying in bed thinking about what the hell is going on in the street. I swear 500 cats live on this street and for some reason I think our backyard is the headquarters of the cat's nightly mayhem!! First it starts out with cat fights under Ro's taxi that usually ends in a pile of cat shit and piss that I have to clean up the next day so my "special" dog doesn't eat it or drag chunks of it into my house. Then they proceed to the backyard, if they make it past the fight. It must be some kind of entry fight.... the backyard is filled with the whores and the night goes on with the horrible screeching that comes from cats procreating, if you have never heard it, LUCKY YOU! I lay in bed and try to think of horrible ways to get the damn cats to go away. I want to set a trap and catch them and bring them to the vet and get them all fixed and release them into the wild, and I mean like halfway from here to the beach not in this city.
On another note, I have been doing other things to keep myself busy in this crappy housewife situation. Today I am making bread. At this very moment the dough is "resting" ...I guess from all the hard work that it has done today. Within the next 2 hours I will be munching on warm bread with melted butter oozing out of it! I have also decided to get back into crocheting and finish the blanket I started a hundred years or so ago. It was so long ago, I don't even remember what more I need to do before I put it all together. I have also been considering crocheting some kind of net like bag to stuff our grocery bags in. We do have a few of the reusable ones, but we use the plastic ones in the garbages instead of buying garbage bags, so sometimes I don't like using the reusable ones. And right now, they are taking up way too much space in one of our 3 cupboards, so they need a new home. Okay I better get shit done.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Moved... belated post!!!
We MOVED!!!! Finally! Well, actually we moved a week ago, I just have been too busy to put up a post! I have been busy because it was a three family move. Ro's parents and sister moved out of the house we were all sharing so we had to help them move, then Ro and I moved out of that house into this one. Before we even got settled in this house (not quite there yet!) we had to help Ro's aunt, uncle, gramma, and two cousins move into the house we were just living in. Yeap, lots of moving, lots of helping. Although most of my helping was to watch over the little 18 month old cousin. So here we are! In our nice 2 bedroom house. We have the downstairs organized and the only thing left to do down there is hook up the washer and for some reason that has been causing problems... something about the faucets that are supposed to hook up to the washer not being the right kind. I say just change the damn faucets, but everyone says why change them if you can find the attachment parts... somewhere. Well, we haven't found that somewhere yet. So, no washer and a mountain of dirty clothes. Our house looks a bit pathetic right now. We don't even have a couch. We have a "pouf" as Ro calls it, just your average bean bag chair and we also have this foam thing that Ro sits on... it can be folded out into a bed. I am pretty sure it is some kind of common child's room accessory. So, our first big purchase for this place will most definitely be to buy a living room set. We have a beautiful old table and chairs set. I love it and I am so glad we found such a great deal, 70,000 chp for the table and six chairs! We are very grateful of the gifts that family has given us for our new place. His grandma bought us a washing machine and it came with a free microwave. We also received a medicine cabinet type thing and a little "balon de gas" from his aunt and uncle. My parents bought us, well me, a kitchen in a box set for my birthday so we have everything basic that we need for the kitchen. His parents gave us their old fridge and stove and his dad is going to buy the paint for painting the downstairs. It is going to be so nice once everything is finished. The upstairs of our little house is still a mess. Our room is pretty big and we have our dresser and bed organized and set up. We have two closets, neither of them in our room, but one is going to be for me and the other for Ro. The closet in the extra room also has a big storage space above it, so Ro will have that place to put all the crap I told him I didn't want in our house. Like his bag full of random cables for charging things, old phones, old phone lines, old cable boxes, crap that I would have thrown directly in the trash because it just takes up space. He also insisted on bringing a broken keyboard, not a computer one the musical kind. It is missing 17 keys and doesn't work. Why he needs something like that, I have no idea, but he insists that he can get it to work...not that that will matter because of all the keys missing. After moving I realized just how must stuff we have. I am trying to get the clothes organized because we have all of our summer clothes packed into our suitcases. Sigh... we have way too many suitcases. Hopefully I can get everything put away in the closets and we put the smaller suitcases inside each other and store them under our bed. It will take some time, but eventually our little house will be a home. : )
*If anyone knows a good place to buy material for a good deal, please let me know! The back door needs a curtain ASAP walking past it to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night creeps me out!!
*If anyone knows a good place to buy material for a good deal, please let me know! The back door needs a curtain ASAP walking past it to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night creeps me out!!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Oh YES I am Blonde!
Tuesday night, we were at our new place scrubbing and cleaning. Well, when I say "we" I mostly mean that I was. Ro was more worried about trying to break a lock off the back door and drinking beer with his friend.
*Note to self, do not let husband invite friends over when the goal is to get things done!
Anyways, Ro and his friend decide that they want to try to see if the car fits in the little parking spot. Well, I was pulled away from my scrubbing and scrubbing to stand by the front door to make sure he didn't back up too much. So, stupid little me takes Zoe and puts her in the house and shuts the door. Instantly my brain tells me to try to open the door. "SHIT!" Yeap, definitely locked us out of a house that is not quite ours yet, and the only key that exists to open the door is hanging on a hook on the stair case. Did I mention that it was 1am?? Well, if I didn't, there we stand, locked out of the house, my dog locked in, in the middle of the night. Good thing I opened the windows to air the place out. Unfortunately, this is Santiago, Chile, pretty sure there isn't a single house in the city that doesn't have bars over the lower level windows. If we were in Minnesota, I would have had Ro shove my ass through the window, here, we have to stand outside the window and look at the creepy doll key chain and the only keys for the house hanging there 15 feet in front of us. Good thing that Ro's friend lives right across the street. So, he went and searched his house for something long that we could use to try to fish for the keys with. While he's gone, I get Zoe to jump just high enough that I can grab her sweater and pull her through the window. Ro's friend comes back with a long wooden stick, its nice and light so not to difficult to hold steady. But, of course, its too short, so we have to use masking tape to stick on the only other thing that would add length, a metal rod. Heavy, yes, but for it worked. Ro and his friend held the wobbling stick and we all stood there like morons trying to get the stick to catch the key chain and pull it back. Ro knocked it off the hook and thank goodness it fell straight down and didn't take any detours while it fell. It landed in the perfect position the doll and keys landed at an angle so that the chain that connected the doll and keys gave a good spot to pick the keys up with the stick. Ro got the keys on the first try. It only took a few minutes to get the keys and get back in the house. Yay!! : ) Now, Ro and his friend have something great to show how dumb I am.... sigh.
*Note to self, do not let husband invite friends over when the goal is to get things done!
Anyways, Ro and his friend decide that they want to try to see if the car fits in the little parking spot. Well, I was pulled away from my scrubbing and scrubbing to stand by the front door to make sure he didn't back up too much. So, stupid little me takes Zoe and puts her in the house and shuts the door. Instantly my brain tells me to try to open the door. "SHIT!" Yeap, definitely locked us out of a house that is not quite ours yet, and the only key that exists to open the door is hanging on a hook on the stair case. Did I mention that it was 1am?? Well, if I didn't, there we stand, locked out of the house, my dog locked in, in the middle of the night. Good thing I opened the windows to air the place out. Unfortunately, this is Santiago, Chile, pretty sure there isn't a single house in the city that doesn't have bars over the lower level windows. If we were in Minnesota, I would have had Ro shove my ass through the window, here, we have to stand outside the window and look at the creepy doll key chain and the only keys for the house hanging there 15 feet in front of us. Good thing that Ro's friend lives right across the street. So, he went and searched his house for something long that we could use to try to fish for the keys with. While he's gone, I get Zoe to jump just high enough that I can grab her sweater and pull her through the window. Ro's friend comes back with a long wooden stick, its nice and light so not to difficult to hold steady. But, of course, its too short, so we have to use masking tape to stick on the only other thing that would add length, a metal rod. Heavy, yes, but for it worked. Ro and his friend held the wobbling stick and we all stood there like morons trying to get the stick to catch the key chain and pull it back. Ro knocked it off the hook and thank goodness it fell straight down and didn't take any detours while it fell. It landed in the perfect position the doll and keys landed at an angle so that the chain that connected the doll and keys gave a good spot to pick the keys up with the stick. Ro got the keys on the first try. It only took a few minutes to get the keys and get back in the house. Yay!! : ) Now, Ro and his friend have something great to show how dumb I am.... sigh.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Four Leaf Clover
I found a four leaf clover in the front yard, after that I got a hit on a possible job, after that I found out that : D we are moving on Friday and after that I decided that I was going to win the lottery! Sigh... I think I used up all my luck from that pretty little four leaf clover, we didn't win the big prize, but we won 3,660 pesos. Hahaha! Something is better than nothing. Today, I had a kind of job interview and now I have to wait to be called to set up another final interview. Now I am waiting for Ro to get home from work because we are going to Lider to buy a car full of cleaning supplies and going to spend some quality time in our new place scrubbing it until it shines. I wanted to go while Ro was at work, but we don't have the key and the person that has the key isn't home. So, Ro told me to stay here and relax, read a book, watch movies, and plan how I want to decorate the new place. HA! Me decorate??? HA! Besides the fact that I only know what colors I like together, we really don't have anything to decorate with. He told me to think about which way I want to put the table in the dining area and which way I want the bed and everything in the bedroom. Problem. I have only been in the house one time, and really how am I supposed to know what is going to look good if I don't go there and just try it out then move it if it doesn't look good??
And that's really all I have to blog about today. What a boring life I live! Well, unless you want to hear about the spider nest that we found behind a bookshelf that was not only full of dead spiders, I'm guessing the victims of the 2 owners. Bleh! Arana rincons give me the creeeeeeeps!! Ro stepped on them, but I doused them with plenty of Raid...every few hours. Yuck!
And that's really all I have to blog about today. What a boring life I live! Well, unless you want to hear about the spider nest that we found behind a bookshelf that was not only full of dead spiders, I'm guessing the victims of the 2 owners. Bleh! Arana rincons give me the creeeeeeeps!! Ro stepped on them, but I doused them with plenty of Raid...every few hours. Yuck!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
In which we end up staying at Ro's uncle's house til 4am.
Of course the supply of wine had a lot to do with it : ) Nothing like a yummy glass...or 2 or 3 or 6 of Chilean wine. Yesterday was Ro's cousin's birthday party and we went for the usual family before the friends event. But it wasn't the usual. Ro was working so I wandered there all by myself and hung out for a few hours with everyone before Ro arrived at 10:30pm. By then the rest of the family except the grandparents were still there because they were staying overnight. Of course it was the usual me sitting there trying to understand the conversation and just replying yes or no when asked a question. Then Ro's parents and sister left. Ro's uncle turned to me and said "ok, now we can talk right??" Um... a little awkward. His family seems to know that Ema never talks to me and never lets me speak for myself because she thinks I don't understand anything in Spanish and can't say anything in Spanish other than si and no. Of course my pale face turned red. I didn't realize that they all knew and mostly because Ro works with his uncle and I guess word gets around. So, after a few more glasses of wine we talked and talked and talked. Ro showed up and had some birthday cake and pizza and some wine of course. And we talked and talked and talked all night! We talked about getting moved into our new house. We talked about the bones of humans that were recently found and dated back like a bazillion years. We talked about earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes. About college and wanting to study. Of course the usual topic of when we will be adding a bundle of poop and giggles to the family came up. Where are we going to move. What we would do if we won the lottery. We talked about how Ro is interested in learning more and more languages and how I would like to study to be an herbalist. We talked about how the earth is heating up and how in 15,000 years there is going to be another ice age. And on and on and on. Sometimes it was hard to understand how the conversations switched. Pretty soon it was 3am and time to tell the boys at the party they had to go home. Of course they didn't really leave til almost 4. By the end of the night Ro's aunt, grandma and his aunt's mom were the only ones still awake in the house and of course the girls. By the time we finally got home the sky was starting to get that morning glow and I was exhausted. I fell asleep and didn't wake for anything! I guess Ro's dad woke him up at 8am to help move stuff from the house into the car because : D they are moving out today!!! Last night was the last night of living with them!!! So, its 2:00 and I'm ready for a nap!
I hope everyone is having a good weekend!!!
I hope everyone is having a good weekend!!!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
And they MOVE OUT before WE do!!!!
Rodrigo's family is moving out!!! They have decided to rent another house closer to Ro's mom's mom's house. (Aka. Mami) Since MIL goes to Mami's house every single day, and Tito (FIL) has to drive her there almost everyday as well as drive SIL to college he finally decided they would move closer to save on gas. Mami is getting older and as happens in old people (old people no offense) things start to fall apart. So, for the next year or so, they are living in a house closer to Mami's. Like 2 blocks away. They wanted us to live there too because there is an "apartment" built in the back of the house. Well, the apartment really is just another kitchen and a 2nd bathroom, there isn't really anything that makes it our own space. We would still have to "share" mmm I think that is the wrong word... the backyard and washing machine. But, we said no. I guess they just don't understand that we want something that is OURS and to be able to live how we want without being watched and have our every move criticized. Anyways, they are moving out!! : ) They started moving yesterday and the living room is very very empty. They moved their table and chair set and brought back the set that was in the house they are renting. Ro and I are going to buy it! And its beautiful! Its older so it was built very well and its in really good condition with new fabric on the seats of the chairs. I think its too big for us... we don't really need 6 spaces. But, its only 70,000 pesos and I think its pretty! : ) So, broke Ro and I, and really I mean broke broke! Are going to be living here in this house by ourselves for a few weeks. And hopefully for only a few weeks, until we can move into our little house a few blocks away. Ro's other gramma, Gueli is going to move into this house with Tia S and Tio JC and their 2 kids. So, we are caught in the middle and I have to say I am a little bit scared. If we don't get the money to rent the other house, we are going to be left with no other option but to move into the "apartment" of the house Ro's dad is renting.
On a less stressful note, I sent my CV out to a possible workplace, and now I am waiting for info about the interview before I start working. As always the name of the workplace will not appear here, but I don't see anything wrong with telling you all that the possible job is teaching English. And I won't leave it out... to children! I have the possibility to teach 6 to 11 year olds, or 12 to 16. I have no idea what to do!! I do love children and babies, but my experience with Chilean children is a bit different. My experience with Chilean children consists of playing with Kote, Ro's 1 year old cousin. Pretty much she walks around talking and babbling in baby Spanish which is really hard for me to understand until she drops something or gets her coche (stroller) stuck in a corner and says, "chucha" (fuck) then I laugh. Or she picks up the smallest piece of lint, fuzz, paper, or whatever off the ground and hands it to me. My only other experience is holding Ro's other cousin who is 3 months old, oh and I fed him a bottle one time when he was just a week old and burped him the wrong way. I don't know what the wrong way is so I can't really explain that to you. ANYWAYS, I never know about the jobs I get when here until I try them out. So I guess I should just wait for the email about the interview and make sure they don't blow me off because I am too young, don't have a TEFL (or whatever) or don't have any kind of degree. But at least I am going to try!!
On a less stressful note, I sent my CV out to a possible workplace, and now I am waiting for info about the interview before I start working. As always the name of the workplace will not appear here, but I don't see anything wrong with telling you all that the possible job is teaching English. And I won't leave it out... to children! I have the possibility to teach 6 to 11 year olds, or 12 to 16. I have no idea what to do!! I do love children and babies, but my experience with Chilean children is a bit different. My experience with Chilean children consists of playing with Kote, Ro's 1 year old cousin. Pretty much she walks around talking and babbling in baby Spanish which is really hard for me to understand until she drops something or gets her coche (stroller) stuck in a corner and says, "chucha" (fuck) then I laugh. Or she picks up the smallest piece of lint, fuzz, paper, or whatever off the ground and hands it to me. My only other experience is holding Ro's other cousin who is 3 months old, oh and I fed him a bottle one time when he was just a week old and burped him the wrong way. I don't know what the wrong way is so I can't really explain that to you. ANYWAYS, I never know about the jobs I get when here until I try them out. So I guess I should just wait for the email about the interview and make sure they don't blow me off because I am too young, don't have a TEFL (or whatever) or don't have any kind of degree. But at least I am going to try!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)