One Lucky Girl

There are lots of reasons I am lucky, but I truly believe that one of the biggest reasons, is my online community. I have a fabulous reader named Lisa . Lisa has been with me for a long time. For a long time she has cheered me on, encouraged me when I needed it most, and always seems to know what to say to help me. And of course when I blogged about really feeling the need to try the new pretzel M&M's guess who sent me an email right away? Lisa of course!

This is the face of one happy girl:

And this is the face of another happy girl:

I shared y'all! (I'm growing...you know as in my character, not because of all the m&m's!)
You should have seen Amelia's face of delight when I pulled them out to show her! I wish I had had my camera to snap that photo!

So from two American girls, who only talk about all the food they miss from back home(seriously...food is a close second place to the number one(which is our families)...we talk about it ALL the time.)This was such a nice treat!

Thank you Lisa ! And as promised I love for the rest of eternities. Be on the lookout for some Brazilian goodies!

A Round of Hallelujahs Please!

Continuing on with the theme of happiness, today I am giddy with happiness.
One reason being, I got to talk to my little sister for a good long while today. We made some plans that I am super excited about...once things firm up, I'll explain more on here.

The second reason is, my house is in a flurry of activity. My MIL, SIL, my MIL's aunt (who is staying with us for an undetermined amount of time..she deserves her own post, at 82 years old, she is hilarious), and the baby are are taking a trip to visit Sidnei's aunt in Vitoria, ES. Can I get a hallelujah??

Now, I hope they travel safely and back home safely. I hope they have a great trip! But in the next hour or so they are leaving and the house will be mine to enjoy ALONE. ALONE!! Well, until my FIL comes home and the husband. But still, YAY!! It's going to be so nice to have a little down time!

I am going to miss this face though.

A Vibrant Color

On my walk to work yesterday, amongst all the dry, brown foliage (from the extreme lack of rain) were these flowers hanging over my head. They made me happy.

A Tale of Laborious Laundry (...it is a real word now okay?)

So I was going to start this post with, "Now, usually I try not to complain..." but seriously who am I kidding? I'm a complainer. You know it, I know it, I apologize for it. But can I just try to justify one of my complaints?

Let's talk about laundry. Honestly, laundry has never really bothered me. Except when I had to use the coin laundry. I really hated that. But for me, sort, throw it in the wash, come back later and switch. No biggie. Didn't even really mind putting it away. Of course, I was only doing my laundry, which I'm sure makes a big difference. Having a whole family to put things away for, find missing pieces, figuring out who's is who's, etc is probably where most of the despising of the laundry comes into play.

However, these days, I'm doing laundry pioneer style. Or at least that is what I tell myself. Lucky for me, I do have running water and well, that makes quite the difference.

This past week, I thought I would chronicle my laundry story for you to see.

Hey there. I am not really awake yet and it's a little cold because it's cloudy (and early). Luckily my Ipod keeps me company. Shall we start?



Step 1: Sort


Step 2: Scrub husband's work clothes. Because they get crazy dirty. (and truthfully I'd probably need to do this even using a modern day machine)


Step 3: Put clothes in tank. This tank only spins water. So in goes clothes with laundry detergent, spin.


Step 4: I didn't really get a step of this part, but there is a basin with 2 sinks (see step 2: scrubbing husband's clothes). These are filled with clean water. I remove clothes from tank, wring out water, put in clean water. Take out of clean water, wring again, put in clean water again. This is done to remove the soap. Here is me in front of the sink..caught off guard by my MIL. Don't worry, I do laundry outside in my pj's.


Step 5: After clothes are soap free, they go into a basin filled with water and fabric softner, where they soak for a little bit.


Step 6: This is my favorite. After the clothes soak, we use the washing machine to spin the water out of the clothes. Did you catch that? YES, we have a washing machine. In fact, we have a NICE washing machine. It is so pretty. So new looking. Because they don't use it. See for yourself:





Do you find yourself asking WHY?!?! For the love of pretty nails, moisturized skin, and extra time...WHY?!? Me too, my friends, me too.

My MIL and SIL say that the washing machines wear the clothes out too fast. I wouldn't know. I have had a friend say they are right, it wore her clothes out that she had had forever really fast. However, the majority of people here do use washing machines and they seem to feel it works just fine and their clothes are washed with no more wearing than normal. Any thoughts out there my Brazilian and Americans in Brazil friends?

Step 7: Hang clothes to dry. (I forgot to take a picture because I had to take a shower, eat, and run to work immeadiately after I hung them up)

This whole process takes me normally give or take 5 hours. A week's worth of clothes for myself and Sidnei including towels and sheets. This does not include the retrieving, the folding, or the ironing after all is said and done.

Honestly, it really is exhausting. My back and shoulders hurt because wet clothes are HEAVY. My hands hurt because of over exposure to water, the soap, and the wringing of clothes. I loathe the day I have to do laundry.

For this reason, I will love my washing machine. I will love him for all the work he will do and all the work I won't have to. I will love him because he will save me time and let me have pretty hands and manicures again. And don't feel sorry for me, this is a complaining post, but not a pity one. I have learned a LOT about clothes. Particularly about removing stains. Shout has got nothing on me as far as stain removal goes. So next time you are doing laundry, give your washing machine a little pat on the back (or wherever), we don't even realize just how much work they do!

Tuesday Nothingness

Yesterday I was struck down by the sickness. I'm not sure exactly what happened. My family here attributes it to the fan...my husband likes to sleep with the fan on, even though it's not really hot here yet. Anyway I woke up around 2 coughing and was up the rest of the night coughing away and strangely enough needing to pee every hour or so. When I woke up around 6 with Sidnei, I was feeling achy and icky, but I just attributed that to the little sleep I got. When I was trying to get out of bed about 7:30 to go to my aerobics class I noticed that I was chilly and my body was really hurting. Which of course the alarms then went off (late I might add) that I must have a fever. Sure enough at 101.8, I was feeling lousy. So basically I stayed in bed ALL DAY LONG, with the aching. The fever wouldn't go down despite medicine and a shower. The cough came and went but it wasn't too bad. My fever finally broke around 8 pm or so. I felt human again.

My husband who is a sweet man, knew I wasn't feeling well, so when he came home, he had with him treats for the dog (which always wins him brownie points with me since he claims to not like the dog) and my favorite potato chips Thai Sweet and Chili. I'm not sure what possessed him to do this since I wasn't up for much eating, but it was sweet (and spicy..yum!) none the less. He spent the rest of his evening laying beside me fetching water and tylenol when desired.

Today I was going to do laundry, but there is no water in the street. Why? I don't know why. We still have a container at our house that gives us water until it returns (which will be sometime later today). I know it sounds strange. I think it is strange and I don't really get it. Do they shut it off or what? But it always comes back, thank goodness and now it is just one of those things I live with. Anyway when I do laundry Im going to do a post and show you all. So that way you can give your washing machine a little hug. My washing machine and I are going to be best friends.

Other than that I'm feeling lazy. (what else is new?) I have not made my grand entrance for the morning yet and I just wish I could stay in here forever. But I suppose I will go and get my butt in gear and help out (you know Cinderella style), get ready, and go to work. I have one of the coordinator watching my classes today. Keep your fingers crossed that they like it. Our old coordinator left and I have a feeling things are going to be changing..which isn't necessarily bad. I'll let you know. Until later friends...

Things I will never understand...#1

I've decided to post an installment of sorts..when I come across them, feel like it, etc...

I just can not understand why it is so hard to form a single file line. It is IMPOSSIBLE here. It doesn't matter if you are at the supermarket, the bank, gym class, it is impossibly impossible. For me it doesn't even need to be single file! Some kind of control or order would even be fine. But there is cutting, pushing, switching..it drives me crazy.

Case in point today at aerobics class....

We have to go get our mats, weights, ankle weights etc. They are all stacked on a shelf. Instead of forming some sort of organizational line or system, everyone rushes to the front, hands are everywhere, things are dropping, it is a ridiculous free for all that takes about 5 minutes longer than it should because of all the pushing to get to the front, the cutting.

It seriously drives me bananas.

The Traveling Circus

On a whim one night we decided to go visit the circus that stopped in town! It was definitely different than I was used to, but it was fun. It was a small tent, we all hopped in chairs and the show started. We had clowns, we had the juggler, we had the magician, we had this guy who has a LOT of upper arm strength. He pulled himself up on these ropes and did all kinds of crazy tangles and tumbles. In his spandex. See below:

I felt sorry for this girl. She can hula hoop her booty off, it was crazy. But of course being the only female in the show and the fact that she is half naked and in spandex, subjects her to cat calls her ENTIRE performance. But seriously, she's a hula hooping demon!


Of course we had to have the "Globe of Death!" No circus would be complete without it. Actually I have always enjoyed this...I think it's insane how fast they go and how many people they can put inside. This one held 3 crazies.

It was short and sweet. It made us laugh. I missed the lions, tigers, and bears. And the cute horses that parade around. But it was a fun spur of the moment thing, it was corny, but it made us laugh. And honestly, I love watching the amazement on little kids faces.

The Wednesday Monday

Today I feel tired.

Maybe it's the overcast weather?

I should feel full of energy, renewed, ready for my short work week. I just finished a 5 day holiday! It was nice, low key. I slept, I played, I read.

So what's the deal with the general overall feeling of tiredness today?

Maybe I have a case of the misplaced Mondays?

Blah.

Anyway so the aerobics thing is going good. I spent all of last week moaning and groaning about how sore I was. My poor aching body. Seriously people, the teacher does a good job. Every single muscle in my body hurt, it was pretty amazing. I didn't have class Monday, but I had class today..hopefully my muscles will tolerate everything better this week than last! Once I'm accustomed, I think I will start going 5 days a week. Even though every single morning I have to convince myself to get up and go, I really enjoy it. You know, once I'm there.

I'm procrastinating planning my classes. I have procrastinated all the 5 days away, so I am left with this morning before I need to go. One day I'm going to have more ambition to get things done in a timely manner.

My husband is the bomb. I really am always surprised at his ability to fix things. If you remember I have a tendency to break things . I could give you a list...it would either bore you or make you say, "what is wrong with you?"..to which I'd respond my touch is like Midas's minus the gold. Things just break. It is a curse I tell you.

Anyway, it was Sunday I think (the past few days have felt like they all melted together) and my computer kept randomly just shutting off. I finally figured out that the computer was overheating because the fan had stopped working. So I did what I do best: I googled. (Because I was freaking out thinking about the money to fix it, is there someone reliable to take it to?, what am I going to do without my computer?!?) I found out that a lot of times you just need to clean out the lint to get it to run again. (insert sigh of relief) Which makes sense because the amount of dust in this house is beyond amazing. So I found on dell, a diagram showing me what to do. I contemplated getting in my husband's tool box to get what I need. Thankfully he entered the room about that time and questioned what I was doing. He laughed. Then he got the tools and took care of it.

It gives me all those mushy lovey feelings to think about. I research, he fixes. It works for us. Sure enough there was a big ball of lint that had gotten stuck, he removed, put everything back together and I am once again enjoying the very LOUD whirring of the fan.

In other good news, today I get to go pick up my check. Bad news, I forgot and I only have one hour in which to go get it! Ahhh the Wednesday Monday...til next time..