Aerobics- Take One

Recently while visiting with Sidnei’s Aunt, she mentioned that she was starting a water aerobics class. Since I have been feeling rather homebound lately, I decided I would join and invited my MIL to come with us as well. I figured that this was a good thing for me, as I have been rather inactive lately. (Read: Couch potato) Not only that, but it’s been HOT, and I couldn’t think of anything better than getting in a pool!

So this past Monday, we all dragged ourselves out of bed…Israel’s Mom now stays home with him, so he hasn’t been here…and thus we have taken full advantage by going back to bed after the men go off to work. It has been full of wonderful, heavenly sleep. But never mind that, off we went because our class started at 9. We arrived, stripped down, and hopped in the pool. The water was absolutely delicious at that time in the morning. I was thoroughly enjoying myself as it has been quite a while. Though the pool rapidly became FULL, we had about 30 people in the water. Almost everyone was 50 or older.

So first, let’s start out with the obvious. I am WHITE. And everyone here notices and is always concerned. Did I put on sun block? Where is my hat? I really need to shade my face. And my eyes are sooo beautiful, but my light eyes need to be shaded from the sun, I need to use sunglasses! Okay, they were right about the sun glasses, I completely forgot and was pretty much blind with the rising sun. I did use sun block…70 spf. And for only being in the pool for one hour, I still burnt my shoulders and back a little. At 9 AM. Now don’t get me wrong, in the states I burnt pretty easy as well, however, it was usually after a couple of hours, and somewhere between the hours of 12-3.

The actual workout was not challenging AT ALL. Which is alright, it was challenging for a lot of other people there, including my MIL, and I am glad. Part of the problem is the teacher. She only had about 5 different exercises, which we just repeated over and over and over. And over. So I was pretty disappointed by that. She rode in on her motorcycle (literally), she is very fit, and looked very promising. Maybe she doesn’t do more because the women are older? That is very likely, but I still think she could have included some different exercises. Really the only thing we did, was running in place. To the front. To the back. To the front again. And then the opening and closing of the legs…all the while using our arms to push the water.  And I am sorry I don’t know more technical terms for these exercises.

Anyway, truly I was slightly disappointed. I had done water aerobics back home and it had surprisingly (for me my first time) kicked my butt. I was hoping this would do the same. But anyway like I said, it helps my MIL who has a lot of back pain, and if I go, she’ll go. And plus on Mondays and Wednesdays, I get to play in the pool. When it’s over, everyone scurries out, I do a couple of laps, play around like the little fish I used to be and climb out happy!

Question for you…?

Since my sister-in-laws ultrasound I have been thinking about a lot of different things and I just had a question to pose to you all. Ultrasounds—for you and your significant other…or for the whole family? Specifically the one where you find out the sex of the baby? I want to hear your opinions! And since I am asking, I think it’s only fair that I tell you mine.

My sister in law invited everyone—mother, aunts, brothers, cousins, in laws. I went because I was invited and I had never seen a live ultrasound before. But for me personally, I feel it’s more of a husband/wife event and something that you share with the rest of the family later. Also I may or may not have a very romanticized view of the way I want things to go. But, that is typical for me. Of course, I hold the right to change my opinion when I am actually pregnant!

But like I said, tell me what you did or what you think!

Dumpster Diving

They say that one man’s trash, is another’s treasure….or something along those lines.

For my mother in law, this is the golden rule. Which is odd, because generally I found, that many Brazilians (obviously not all) tend to find the idea of second hand items….odd. However, to be fair, this comes from a society that pays A LOT for their possessions, and uses them to the full extent of their worth. Where I come from, if the toaster were to break, you throw it out, and go pick up another one from Wal*Mart. Here you take it to the repair shop. This goes for just about everything. There are repair shops here for EVERYTHING. Appliances, furniture, you name it, there’s a store for it. And this really is a great thing. I’m not saying this is everyone, but I know in the states I had a tendency to be careless sometimes and had a thought that everything was replaceable. No big deal. Well now that same toaster I picked up at Wal*Mart for $20 is $R100 or more (give or take $50…but factor in cost of living, it’s more). Which makes me much more careful (or at least I try really hard…but I have a tendency to be a little accident prone)

Anyway, back to my MIL. She LOVES second hand everything. And she hates to throw away anything. And I mean anything. Even produce that I think has gone bad when I am cleaning the fridge…she’ll bring it back. Stale bread? Stale chips, cookies? Keepers. Keep in mind these are all in separate baggies, so they aren’t mixing with trash-trash..but still. My SIL and I will sometimes clean the kitchen together when she isn’t there to get rid of things and clean out a little. Like Tupperware with no lids, lids with no Tupperware, broken ice trays, things that haven’t been used in 10 years. And then we hide it. Because if she were to see it, she’d just bring it back in.

So up until this point, I have had a little chuckle at the trash power struggle. But chuckling now, I am not. So the other day, I decided to clean out our closet…since I broke a shelf..and since Sidnei was not happy and demanded I take some stuff out. To be fair it was packed to the gills…also to be fair, I told him I wouldn’t this problem if I had my own house instead of one room. Tit for Tat right? So I went through clothes that were too big and I didn’t want my MIL to sew for me, things I didn’t really wear, winter clothes that I brought with high hopes….and my underwear drawer.

Now my underwear drawer was busting at the seams. I love underwear. Unfortunately, I had lots of old underwear, underwear that was way too big now etc. So I put them in a plastic baggie to be tossed out. Because really, who wants someone’s underwear???

 

MY MIL THAT’S WHO.

 

I came outside the other morning to see her washing my discarded underwear. Asking me WHY? Why would I throw them away?

 

The line has to be drawn somewhere people.

I draw them at my underwear.

**Edited to add** She absolutely plans on wearing them herself and is none to shy to say so. And also despite my brazen attitude here, I didn't really say anything. I think mainly out of pure shock and horror. Though I'm pretty sure she caught that look on my face. I did mention it to Sidnei and he in turn thought it was hilarious and has made countless jokes all weekend. Though he did mention that he will never understand his Mom and her love of all things junk. I am never in lack of stories living here...

I got nothing…

Except the fact I need to turn on word verification to stop the spamming. If that doesn’t work, I need to use comment moderation. BOO to that. It started a while ago and I thought it would stop, but it has just gotten steadily more frequent. So here we go. Hopefully it won’t have to be for long!

Let’s see…other than that we found out the sex of the beast's my SIL’s baby today and I find that to be exciting. I’m convinced (along with everyone else) it’s a girl. I think that’s because we all want a girl since we have Israel. However, I did have a dream that it’s a boy and so did my brother in law. And since there’s a 50/50 chance who knows? But she is carrying low, which supposedly is a sign that it’s a girl, right? Regardless, babies are cute and I’m excited for his/her’s arrival!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

What the heck is a doppelganger?

Seriously I still don’t know. I just know everyone else put up a picture of their look a like celebrity and I wanted one too! So I took my curiosity to the Facebook world..and they didn’t disappoint. In fact, I think Robyn from Lovely Dharma, hit the nail on the head…in my rather narcissistic opinion. 

                     

          

 

What do you think? Am I channeling Liz?

Belo Horizonte

Remember that trip I took back at the beginning of January to Belo Horizonte with my MIL? Well let’s just say, I will only be traveling as long as Sidnei is with me or unless I just go alone. We will leave the details to that. Because as Thumper said, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”

So here is the nice stuff.

We took a train on the way there and despite it being suffocatingly hot (it doesn’t count if it is strike out, just so you know) and the scenery was beautiful! With the rolling mountains, blue skies, and the array of green everywhere, everything, it is a sight to behold. Truly.  I didn’t start taking any pictures until the sun was setting. Mostly because it was too hot to hold anything but water. In fact, I stripped down on the train. Next time we’ll be taking an air conditioned unit. This is Sidnei’s gorgeous cousin, Taina (ty-na), can you believe she’s only 14??

The train is SUPER long. Can you see it heading into the sunset on the bend?

One of the FABULOUS parts of Belo Horizonte is how much cooler it is than Ipatinga. I enjoyed that part VERY much. I even slept without a fan and I was cool in the mornings. I needed my jacket. Heaven people.

The other FABULOUS part was I got to meet Corinne! I was so excited to be able to hang out with someone and speak English to my heart’s content! And get tips and pointers on doing things! That is always a plus! And we went to Outback Steakhouse and had a blooming onion. It was REALLY good. (I’m going to be the girl that goes to visit home and comes back 20 pounds heavier. I miss my processed American food. So sue me. I want a funfetti cupcake people. And that’s not to say I don’t enjoy the food here, I do! But I want sour cream! Tortilla chips and salsa!…you get the picture) Anyway Corinne was fabulous enough to put up with the ‘guidelines’ that were given to me by my in-laws, give me lots of great information, and even extended an invite back! I can’t wait to come back, go see the sites, and partake in the big city fun! Thanks Corinne!

Here are pictures from my trip!

Here we are in Parque Municipal in downtown Ipatinga.

Me in Praca do Liberdade!

The view from where we were staying at night…

Day time…

Me with Sidnei’s Aunt Lete and cousin

The glorious dawn on the day we were leaving!

I am excited to go back to Belo Horizonte to be able to see more! Hopefully we’ll be making that trip soon! There is so much to do and see!

The time I went to the hospital…(and way too much TMI)

I have really had quite the time with my health here in Brazil. I blame this on my body adjusting to the climate, to the different strains of whatever..but a couple of weeks ago was different.

Sunday night starting around 9 pm, I ended up in the bathroom about every 20 minutes. ALL NIGHT LONG. ALL NIGHT people. I swear to you, there was no reprieve. There was no break. There was just every twenty minutes. And not only was it the obvious, but there was also the vomiting. I just kept thinking it would stop. There was no way that there was anything left inside of me. It’s impossible. But my friends, it was not. It kept coming. So when Sidnei got up for work around 6:30 am..(yes that is over 9 hours later….9 hours people) and found me leaning over the sink and crouching over the toilet at the same time, he told me it was time to go to the hospital. He got no argument from me.

Now since I don’t have health insurance yet and I knew the only thing I needed was an IV to get some fluids and medicine in me, we went ahead to the city hospital. The free one. It was strange. Definitely different. There were LOTS of people. And from what Sidnei tells me, it’s because Ipatinga is the only city for quite a ways in all directions that has a hospital. And it was a Monday. Mondays seem to be busy no matter where you go.

So I waited, got called in by triage, and had to go back to the waiting room. Then we got called back behind the entry doors, where we waited some more. Then we went into an office type room with the doctor, where I told him what was wrong with me. He listened to my heart, took my blood pressure. And prescribed me my IV. Then I went into a waiting style room, filled with chairs, and IV bag hangers. I waited for my medicine, hung out in a room with everyone else getting an IV. Then I waited for the doctor to look at me again, give me prescriptions and we were on our way 4 hours later.

I was definitely grateful for the medicine. It made the madness stop. It was weird to be hanging out with everyone getting my IV. I guess you don’t get a bed and a room unless absolutely necessary. I felt like it wasn’t a very sterile situation…and that’s not to say the hospital wasn’t clean, because it was. I guess it was just my perception of how things should be.

Let’s just say I will be happy when I have my insurance and I go to the private hospital. But I am grateful that I have a place to go and I’m not scared to death I won’t be able to afford whatever treatment I need. I did live in the states before I left without health insurance (my company had to cancel due lack of money, so we lost benefits instead of our jobs) and I was constantly worried something was going to happen and I was going to have huge bills. So it is nice not to worry about that.

I’m sure I will have more to say when I have more exposure to the hospitals, doctors, and health system here.

Oh and the doctor think I ate something bad..but no one was sick but me? Who knows…SO GLAD that is over.

#26 Off to a good start!

First, thank you for all my birthday wishes! Saturday was a really great day!

Sidnei woke me up at 1:30 a.m. to tell me Happy Birthday, which was sweet…but you know me, I’m good at 7 a.m. too. Sidnei went to work, so my day was pretty normal, got up, cleaned, all that good stuff.

My parents called (both sets) and sang me Happy Birthday. I can’t tell you how much I miss my family. I have a big, gaping hole and it just aches and aches. It makes me all weepy on holidays, celebrations.…even just sometimes when all of Sidnei’s family is together. My plan is to go home in August and I’m counting down the months. Hopefully the next 7 will pass as quickly as the first 8.

Sidnei came home at mid day and brought home a big bouquet of roses! They were just beautiful and made me feel special!

I also got a beautiful card filled with money! So I can go on a shopping spree for clothes!

The rest of the day was filled with errands and shopping for my party! And of course a milk shake…or two…

True to form, I ran around like crazy getting everything ready, just to get all hot and sweaty. Which made me not want to straighten my hair (since sweat makes it curl back up anyway), so now you get to see the curly hair too! Let me just say…it was hot! But I really had a great time. We set the party for 8, so of course everyone arrived about 9:30. We had about 30 people there (all family except 2) and they were so cute. They sang to me Happy Birthday in English and Portuguese! It was so funny and terribly sweet!

Enjoy the pictures!

                                     

                            

                            

P.S. I’ve already been a good girl and I went walking this morning! 26 has started off with a bang. (And that bang would be me breaking a shelf in our guarda ropa (closet)…again. Sidnei is THRILLED. Supposedly today I’m getting a dresser to combat the overflow. The bang could have also been the plaque that had a beautiful saying of my MIL’s that I dropped. And shattered. I’m hoping one day I’ll stop breaking things…and so do my in laws.)