forgetting to remember

I'm not sure how this is going to actually sound outloud (so to speak) but I was visiting with some dear new friends last night. They asked me about Brazil and it brought up a lot of tender feelings that I've been thinking about recently. Although it's a world away from us now, it really wasn't all that long ago when I was thinking about things like this and experiences like this.

And I had really strong feelings about things like this.

And I said I'd never forget.

Then I came "home". To a house. With a lot more space. With a lot more yard. In a comfortable neighborhood. With a lot of things to do. And less time to think about so much of what I learned in another place and time.

So I start to forget. And it makes me angry.

Angry when I get wrapped up in my new little world. Angry when I complain. Angry when I get lazy. Angry when I get complacent. Angry when I find myself comparing my house and my "things" to the beautiful homes around me.

Despite the current state of the economy, Americans had a lot. Even Americans who don't have a lot, have...well, a lot.

I never want to forget. I never want my kids to forget.

letting go

Dear Brazil,

I'm breaking up with you. The separation just isn't working for me anymore. Have you noticed how ridiculously long my front page is getting? I couldn't bear the thought of parting with our last memories together and letting them fall away into the archives, so I kept you hanging on.

But let's face it. It's time to move on. I have a new life now. You changed me. You opened my eyes, you won my heart, and I'll never forget you.

Love, Me

For our final farewell, I leave you my favorite sand creation:

I borrowed this picture from Dixie's blog. I remember seeing this very sandcastle down the beach from us in Barra da Tijuca. We loved driving along Copacabana and Ipanema and admiring the amazing sand creations. At Easter time, someone created a sand rendition of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper. It was amazing!

you gave up on me, didn't you?

When I realized we're almost into August I decided I'd better post something, if for no other reason, so that I don't have a gap in my blog archives.

Frankly, July wore me out.

It's been over a month since we left, and Brazil almost feels like a distant dream now. After a week or so of hesitating before flushing toilet paper, drinking tap water, and greeting people in English, we're all adjusted to being in America again. It's really good to be back.

We miss it though. Brazil was an incredible experience and one we will never forget. We miss living across the street from one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. We miss the tropical climate, the fruit, and the juice, but most of all we miss Matt. After nearly 4 intense weeks of business trips around South America, he's almost done with his international assignment. We get him back on Saturday.

We already really like Texas. The kids and I spent a few weeks there before flying to California to visit family. We've had a lot of fun over the last month along with a fair share of tears and exhaustion. We feel a bit displaced and are all ready to be home, to put the suitcases away (for a really long time), and to start decorating this place:

more to come...eventually.

Last Day

We leave tomorrow. Matt took today off. We lived it up.

Ipanema Beach

Ipanema market

The Lagoa

Brothers

Barra Beach

It was a perfect day.

Tchau, Rio. We will miss you.

never forget

This place simply captivates me.

I will never forget it.

The sun is setting on Rio

Such a metaphor... we leave for Texas on Saturday.

extra curricular activities

I am so happy my boys both have passions in their lives.

Garrett's is futebol. He eats, drinks, and breathes the sport. He spends all week anticipating soccer practice with his Brazilian soccer coach. He does a pretty good job keeping up with the rest of the kids and following thePortuguese instructions!

Ethan's passion is music. Passion is probably an understatement. His whole life pretty much revolves around his music. He seldom goes anywhere without his MP3 player in his pocket. He's been going to a weekly music class that he loves. He now wants to play the violin and the guitar when we get to Texas.

Ethan and his music teacher, Claudia

Ethan "hooked up" to his music

And just for fun, the boys talked Matt into taking them to a nearby skate park. They had so much fun. I don't know how long I'll go along with the skateboarding thing, but they sure looked cute.

always remember

In anticipation of our move back to the US, we've spent a lot of time in the last several weeks looking at houses online. While the kids salivate over the large backyards, I easily get carried away in the excitement of furnishing and decorating our new home.

But I'm quickly humbled (once again) the minute we step out of our cushy expat lifestyle and open our eyes to life around us.

Our drive to church each week is beautiful. We are surrounded by beautiful landscape.

But the scenery quickly turns to this as we pass the poorer neighborhoods and the guilt sweeps over me for ever complaining about broken appliances and small apartments:

My heart aches for the people that struggle each day to just put food on the table; the barefoot kids that juggle tennis balls at the stoplights in front of our car in hopes that we'll pay them something for their entertainment. Anything we do never really seems like enough to really help. I hope these images will forever be imprinted in my mind and the minds of my children. I hope we always remember how incredibly blessed we are in so many ways.

Friday Market

One of our favorite weekly outings...

I'm going to miss walking down the beach every week to the market and buying papayas, mangos, bananas, savory fried pastries and cheap jewelry.

favorite family pictures

So, it's turning out to be a little more than one photo-a-day...but it's crunch time for the photo posting. We're down to one week left...

on a walk to school

The school year ended for Garrett last week, so in honor of that I'm posting this slideshow of the beautiful surroundings we walked past everyday to school for the last 4 months. It also includes a few last day of school pictures. Hooray for summer (or in our case, winter) vacation!

It just wouldn't have been complete without it...

Remember this? Could there really be more to add?

YOU BETCHA.

The refrigerator stopped working this weekend. No, I'm not kidding. I'm throwing out food right and left. We'll see if we get it fixed before we move next weekend.

I guess now we have all kinds of justification to order out at all our favorite Brazilian restaurants one more time before we go...

Coco Gelado

A favorite refreshment at the beach is coconut water, available pretty much everywhere including every 30 feet or so at the beachside snack huts.

We really just buy them to take cool pictures drinking out of a coconut. They look and sound good, but we think they taste a little strange.

a praia

With plans scheduled for next Saturday, today might very well have been our last Brazilian Saturday Family Beach Day. We're really going to miss it...

lunch date

At a remote restaurant with a spectacular ocean view and monkeys that climb down the trees, through the windows and right onto the tables...

bananas

Sunday stroll around the Lagoa

Tchau

I'm signing out for awhile.

I'm not sure when I'll be back. Our time is winding down here, things are getting a little crazy and we want to soak up every last minute of the time we have left.

Tchau.

all part of the adventure

Okay. I've tried to somewhat refrain from publicly complaining about our maintenance woes, but enough is enough. We have been here just over 3 months. In that time we have:

• used the back door exclusively for two weeks while we waited for a key to the front door
• waited 2 weeks for a working oven to be delivered
• waited 1 more week for that oven to be installed
• waited 2 more weeks for the old oven to be removed
• waited 3 weeks for window locks to be installed
• went a week with out A/C because it was leaking water into the apartment below us (I know we are spoiled with even having A/C, but it was the middle of the summer and seriously hot and humid!)
• waited 1 month for our TVs to be set up properly
• waited 1 1/2 months for a working dishwasher to be delivered
• waited 2 more weeks for that dishwasher to be installed (I'll come back to this one)
• evacuated our apartment due moldy, leaky kitchen pipes
• had a guy spend an entire day working on the patio doors, only to have the same opening/closing problem resurface a week later
• had two bathroom sinks worked on
• had two toilets worked on
• waited 3 months for a new working cordless phone

And the cherry on top: In the middle of doing laundry earlier this week, the washing machine started pumping water out all over the kitchen floor. They can't fix it until next Monday and Rio doesn't have self-service laundromats.

How does anyone get anything done in this country?

I have spent the day hand washing about a week's worth of laundry for my family of five, including that of a potty-training two year old.

After throwing a tantrum about it, I've decided to just get over it. As I boil the water, scrub the clothes, and try not to think about the dirt and bacteria I'm not removing, I just tell myself over and over that it's all part of the adventure. At least the dryer still works. Knock on wood.

We have a large utility sink next to the washer and dryer. The plug is too small, but if I stick a rag in the drain with the plug, it holds water long enough to wash the clothes. I've always thought it was a weird looking sink with a long slanted side in the front with bumps on it. After my first load, it dawned on me that it's a built in washboard.

Duh, Mary, you spoiled American.

It actually works pretty well, and I'm sure I'll never complain about doing laundry in my super capacity washer back home again.

At least it's a holiday, Matt's home, and we didn't have much else planned for the day.

I said I'd come back to the dishwasher. It was hit and miss if it worked for 2 months and it constantly leaked water all over the kitchen. Ironically, it started working right before they came to install the new miniature dishwasher. The new one is so small that I run it 4 (sometimes 5) times a day. I threw a fit about this one too, and still do occasionally when I have to practically dismantle the thing to get the dishes in and out because they don't fit, but I'm trying to find the positives. Here's what I've come up with:

1) most Brazilians don't even have dishwashers, so I'd better just be grateful I don't have to wash them all by hand too, especially with no hot water from the kitchen sink.

2) It's so much shorter than the old one, that there's about 1 foot of new storage space on top of the dishwasher below the counter. It works well for the dish towels and the new giant "dirty dish bowl" I got for the kids when they clear their dishes so they don't have to launch them over the high counter into the sink.

3) I'm becoming quite effective at cleaning as I go when I'm cooking. I have to load and wash the breakfast dishes before lunch, and I have to load and wash the lunch dishes before dinner. If I load the dishes I use to cook dinner right before we eat, they're done in time for us to empty the dishwasher and load our dinner dishes. By the time we're done eating, the kitchen's completely cleaned up.

Maybe I should print out my list and tape it to the front of the dishwasher so I can read it next time I feel like yelling at it.

Okay, that's it. I'm done.

tropical popsicles with Grandma

Grandma's here!

We get her for a good long visit this time and everyone's a little bit (more like a lot) happier around here!

We walked down the beach this afternoon and ate melting tropical popsicles.

These are some darn good popsicle. They taste like mashed up fruit that has been frozen.

Our flavor choices:

Garrett- tangerina (tangerine)

Ethan- limao (lime)

Lydia- manga (mango)

Mom- maracuja (passion fruit)

Mary- abacaxi (pineapple)

I never imagined so many tropical flavor existed in the popsicle world. We were all a sticky mess (mostly thanks to Lydia) by the time we got home!

Hooray for Grandma visits!