This Week In Review

Can I just say that the girl in this cartoon looks slightly happy. Though at this stage, she might just be delirious. Like me. Minus the smile.

I am tired of boxes.

I am tired of sorting.

I am tired of packing.

I am tired of lists.

I am tired of shopping.

I am REALLY tired of my job. I want to run and hide from it. It was NOT a good day.

I am tired.

Just tired.

I know it will be over soon.

I know I need to stay positive and focused.

I know I get to see my husband soon.

But today I am tired.

And slightly cranky.

And tomorrow I get to go back to work...with my Dad boss, who isn't particularly pleased but that happens when you pay NO attention to the business that is suffering from lack of money and employees and you unrealistically expect someone to make miracles.

Did I mention I'm tired?

Always Learning...

Did you know that the REALLY crappy thing about mock packing all your clothes and shoes?

UNPACKING THEM!

*sigh*

PS- Don't you LOVE my suitcases?? I got them for my birthday from Gma!! She's so good to me! It also comes with a purse to match, a laptop/carry on bag, luggage covers so they don't get dirty, and luggage jewelry (or in other words, luggage tags). It is FABULOUS!

Fire Starter

Back in the day, this guy was everywhere! He came to see us at school quite frequently...and consequently I learned quite a bit about fire, smoke, how to have a proper fire, how to put out a fire, and first aid.

Apparently, Smokey the Bear no longer comes to visit schools. Or at least hasn't visited the school where the kids in my neighborhood attend.

Here's how it went down.

Friday night, I am busy preparing for the yard sale. But this girl was tuckered out and need the rejuvenation that only ice cream can bring. So I start down the stairs open the door and what do I see?? FIRE!!!!!!!!!! in the woods directly behind our house.

So I yell for my Dad, and we go running out the back door. We stop because we hear talking and laughing. Okay, I feel only slightly better, so I turn to my Dad and say, "Shouldn't we say something? That could really get out of control quickly." To which he replies, "No, I think they are fine."

And amazingly enough, they were! Later, they put the fire out, and all was quiet again.

Fast forward to Sunday. I'm in my room, on the web cam with Sidnei, and I am mock packing my bags to see how much fits. When I hear a guy come up the driveway running and saying something about fire. So I look out and say, "Did you say fire?" "Yeah it's out back!" So I went tearing down the stairs, Dad was already on the phone with 911, he threw the phone to me, and ran out to attack the fire with his hose!

Let me tell you, the people from 911, I know it's there job, but the lady kept asking me how big the fire was....to which I didn't know! I just knew it was BIG and DIRECTLY behind my house....like 10 feet. So after asking me the thousandth time, I finally said LADY, if you want me to go out there with a tape measure I will!!

So she finally let me off the phone.

And let me tell you something else, if you don't need the fire department, they are there FIRST, but if you do, it takes them FOREVER. They live 2 minutes from my house. It took them 15 to get there. UGH.

So my Dad and a neighbor charged in and started hosing it down and miraculously they got it under control enough to where they contained it to where it had already burned! I was seriously impressed! Now keep in mind it had been raining recently, the problem is all the underbrush was still DRY and so it took off in a hurry. Thank goodness we were HOME! Normally we wouldn't have been. I don't even want to think about what could have happened....

ANYWAY, back to good ol smokey...

The reason the fire started up on Sunday is the stupid, stupid, stupid kids had been burning the fire in a metal trashcan. On Sunday for some reason, they decided to dump the trashcan. On OUR PROPERTY. The embers in the bottom of the METAL trashcan had held the heat. So it took nothing for them to light everything up in a matter of minutes. It really is scary HOW FAST everything caught on fire. Especially pine trees... Poor little black charred things...

The fire department came, and put everything else that was smoldering out. And I am SO thankful that we were home to be able to put that fire out, that no houses were lost, and no one was hurt while they were bravely trying to save our homes!! Though none of us can get rid of the SMOKEY smell from our hair or clothes, I suppose it is a small price to pay.

Though I would like to go ring those kids necks. And their parents for not supervising! Did I mention that we live in the city limits? In a planned neighborhood? We do have a small patch of woods where all kinds of creatures live, it is a development nonetheless. Have they not seen all the homes being destroyed all around the world from fires? GEEZ. Where were the parents????

Gracie watching the action!


The fire department closing up shop and draining the rest of the water out of the hoses!


It was an eventful Easter none the less!!

Oh yes, and poor Sidnei. I was on the web cam when all this was going on. He didn't know what happened, what was going on because I just took off! All he heard was something about fire. But all is well, his heart has now returned to normal beating patterns...

It's Official!

I got my Visa in the mail yesterday! Which means in 46 days (in a couple hours that is, but I count today as OVER!) I will be in BRAZIL. Okay well in 46 days I leave for Brazil, I will be in Brazil on the 47th day! I am SO excited!!

To answer all your questions, Sidnei is doing GREAT! He is happy to be home with his family! We are talking constantly of course which is going to send us to the poor house, so we have to stop! But being able to get online and chat online helps a lot too!! But it has been wonderful to be able to talk WHENEVER we want. But I am of course ready to get on with it and move already!!!

Things are going good. Just packing, packing, packing. Saturday I am supposed to have a yard sale to get rid of a LOT Of stuff. I am hoping that this will be possible...we'll see. I'll be doing this by myself so I am hoping that it will go smoothly! Other than that I just work, work, work! I did find a shipping company that will be coming to get my stuff at the end of this month! Woo hoo!!

Now I just need to know from my Brazilian friends...Is there anything I need to bring with me, stock up on, or just something you think would help me in general? Well this question is for everyone really! What are those last minute items I need to ship off so I can have them with me??

**PS Don't mind that it is late at night and I am looking RAGGED (read: exhausted) in this picture!

Finally HOME!

It has been a LONG road! For Sidnei anyway, for me it was just so frustrating to be here trying to fix things there!

The run down of events:

Sidnei got to Sao Paulo last night at 9 PM. He had US Dollars, but they would not exchange them for him because he had no ID on him. Therefore he could not buy ANYTHING. So I scrambled around to see if I could get him a flight out that night to Belo Horizonte (BH), but they wouldn't let me buy the ticket over the phone because it was less than two hours before the flight left. They wouldn't let him buy it at the counter because they won't accept dollars and he needs to have a credit card physically present (i tried to give him the card numbers) and when I called the ticket counter they could not sell me a ticket over the phone! I was SO frustrated.

Sidnei did have a document stating that he had been deported. We asked the airport if he would be allowed to come back the next day to fly home and they said yes. So then started the search to get Sidnei into a hotel for the night so he could catch a flight at 1 PM the next day. Found the Marriott close to the airport, made Sidnei a reservation online. Well apparently they needed a credit card authorization. So they emailed it to me, and I tried to fax back, but the fax was down, etc etc. But we finally got him into a room at 1AM. Poor thing he was so overly tired and so emotional, it was breaking my heart! So, I then proceeded to buy him a ticket with GOL airlines, but the website kept going down. But I had it secured by 2 AM. Went to sleep, completely exhausted!

This morning Sidnei felt MUCH better. But I imagine a good nights sleep and a hot shower would do that for a lot of people! He was actually allowed to get on his flight (I personally was SHOCKED that this step had gone well, I thought for sure they would deny him re-entry into the airport! so YAY!). He got to Belo Horizonte about 2:30. Still was not allowed to exchange US Dollars for Reais...So he couldn't buy a bus ticket. Luckily I had bought him a phone card online that worked in Brazil(something right for a change!) and he was able to call his family, who gave him the number of his uncle who lives in BH, and the Uncle came and bought Sidnei his bus ticket home! I was so grateful when Sidnei called me and told me he had finally arrived!!


Here is the VERY first picture of our reunion! **Exclusive to the Blogging World!!**



It was wonderful to see his face and to see him HAPPY!

Thank you all for enduring the last couple of days with me. Greg from Gringo in Bahia put it best from his post today (not related to mine at all, but..).. "It's just that sometimes when you keep hitting brick walls you need to let off a little steam."

I am SO close!! What was a really rotten day has blossomed into a really wonderful night! Tonight I will sleep well!

Thank you all for your prayers and support! It means SO much to me!
53 DAYS!!

Remember how I thought, "Problem Solved?"

I was SO WRONG.

It has been a hell-ish night.

The good news is Sidnei is in a hotel for the night in Sao Paulo.

The bad news is we need to work on tomorrow.

I'll keep you updated.