So Long Ordinary

Just because we had the costume. As an added bonus, she was willing to wear it and smile....at the same time!

"I" is a hard letter to come up with much about. All I can really think of is Iglu - the place where we stop on occasion to get a milkshake on our way out of Puyo. Anybody from the U.S. would turn their nose up at their ice cream (ice cream in Ecuador is not world-famous) but we've been here long enough to think that a chocolate or strawberry milkshake from Iglu is something pretty wonderful. **** I is also for: I nternet. Obviously, I can't live without it. I'm so grateful for internet - it keeps us connected with family back home, updated on the happenings in the United States, and is a great resource for any information I'm looking for. I could not live without it. I cky. That feeling you get when you watch the Rockies in the World Series. I'm not a huge baseball fan but I am from Colorado. It was so exciting when the Rockies made it to the World Series! Was being the operative word. Ouch. But hey, maybe there is hope for next year. And I ...

We've been trying for a while to find a bunny rabbit for Brooklyn. Sean and I both had them as kids and have great memories. Some friends of ours called us yesterday and asked if we would be interested in taking one of their three bunnies. Of course! We already had a cage from the family that lived in this house before us and our friends even gave us some rabbit food to get started with until we can figure out where to get it ourselves. Brooklyn is in heaven, as you can imagine. We're all quite taken with the little ball of white fur. Bunnies are just so cute - and, unlike most animals, they stay that way even when they get bigger. We named the rabbit Sunny, which is a nice non-gender name because we can't figure out if we've got a girl or a boy. I'm pretty sure its a girl but I can't be sure. Anyway, Sunny Bunny is just the cutest little thing you ever did see. She looks just like my childhood pet, Trixie - all white with pink eyes. Brooklyn especi...

Some of you may know that I was once very interested in the medical field. I took "pre-nursing" courses in Colorado and worked at a small hospital in Alamosa. I loved it all. As a kid, I was fascinated with hospitals. I remember one time in particular when we were at a big city hospital and I just wandered around absorbing all the activity - all the order and effectiveness. To me, it looked like one big team made up of doctors, nurses, lab techs, janitors, and administrators who all worked together to help save lives. I wandered down halls I'm sure I wasn't supposed to go down and eavesdropped on doctors talking a language I was dying to understand. I think that was when I decided I must work in a hospital some day. And I did... For about two years, before we had kids, I worked at the hospital in Alamosa. I started out in Materials Management, which is just a fancy word for supply stocking. While the job wasn't very glamorous, I actually had a good time....

We went to Ambato to do our monthly shopping yesterday. We ended up going with some friends and it was a fun trip. We always end up with a lot of groceries - multiply that by 3 families and you can imagine how full the van was! Brooklyn stayed home with her favorite babysitter and the other families left their kids with someone as well, making it a much more relaxing trip than it might have been - there would have been 8 kids if they'd all come along. Yikes! Maddie and the other little girl that came were great travelers and shoppers. We adults, on the other hand....Whew! That curvy road just about did some of us in! I got a haircut. And I don't like it. All I really wanted was a trim but I guess I didn't quite make that clear. Oh well. Hair grows back. I think the cut itself is good, just not what I wanted. I have a hard time telling people in English what I want, let alone Spanish. I can't really blame the hairstylist for my lack of communication skills...

Honestly, Brooklyn begged me to let her vacuum... Maybe I worked her too hard? (That is Maddie's stroller on our front porch sitting in a rare patch of sunshine and, apparently, Brooklyn found it irresistible.)

After living here in Ecuador for almost a year and a half, Sean and I have made a startling discovery. There is somewhat decent milk available in Ecuador. We've always just bought the kind that comes in a box off the shelf. The boxed milk won't expire until the next century. Yeah, and it tastes just as good as it sounds. You can even buy milk with added fiber here. I'm pretty sure the "added fiber" is the cardboard that leeches into the milk while it sits on the shelf and "ages." It isn't natural and it can't be healthy but it is cheap and easy to store - which has worked for us since we try to stock up on milk in Ambato and store it in our pantry for a month or two before drinking it. Some people have wine cellars, we have a milk cellar. As long as you can't taste the stuff, it works fine. (That sounds like a joke but I'm really serious. I use it in recipes and we use it in our coffee or hot cocoa and it works great.) I have t...

I just can't seem to muster the creativity or time to sit down to blog as often as I used to. I want to. I still like to blog, to share with friends and family what is going on and to record for posterity the happenings of our crazy family. I'm just in a terrible slump. You may have noticed I haven't done "G" yet in my A-Z thing. Honestly, I've had some ideas but when it comes down to actually writing about it...I'm just not there right now. Part of the problem is my inability to write a post in less than one hour. It is terribly time-consuming. And time is at a premium around here. Here is what is happening around this place lately, just so I can't be accused of not keeping you up-to-date: We are all better. We all seem to be having some residual coughing but it isn't bad. I'm glad to be "well" again and looking forward to a better week than last week. Maddie is really pulling herself up a lot. She has even figured out ho...

Ugh. Ugh. And double UGH. What a week! Monday was fine but things went downhill fast. I wasn't feeling too woopy (how do you spell that?) as I went to bed Monday night. With itchy eyes and a runny nose, I was sure I must be having some sort of allergies. I mean, after all, I just got over a cold, how could I possibly be sick again? Tuesday morning was my morning to be the "helper" at Brooklyn's English Preschool and I'm pretty sure I efficiently infected every child there with this cold. Nice. I'll be getting hate mail for that one. Well, obviously, it wasn't allergies like I thought - I discovered this mid-morning on Tuesday when it occurred to me that my allergies were still bothering me...and getting worse. By Tuesday night I was a worthless lump of sniffling misery on the couch. To make matters all the more lovely, Maddie was sick too and extremely fussy. Her sleep schedule was way off and she cried - no hollered - every hour or two throug...

Today is Maddie's first birthday. I can't believe it! I don't know if a year has ever gone by so quickly in my life before. It was a good day. We went to church this morning after a breakfast of banana pancakes, fresh strawberries and whipped cream...Maddie missed her special birthday breakfast because she just had to go to sleep for her morning nap before we got it all together - but the rest of us enjoyed it for her! After church, I decorated our dining room up a little bit and made her cake (strawberry - just like Mom used to make for us on our birthdays , YUM!) Maddie got to talk to each of her grandparents over Skype and they all got to see her lookin' cute in her birthday dress. Oh the magic of internet, Skype, and video cameras - what would we do without them? At the last minute, I decided we needed somebody to help us eat that cake and to help us celebrate Maddie's big day. A few of our friends came over and it was a great time. Maddie went to sle...

A picture of the girls in matching overall shorts.