books i read in 2009

the brief wondrous life of oscar wao - junot diaz
the last symbol - dan brown
death be not proud - john gunther
the hiding place - carrie tenboom
handle with care - jodi picoult
the art thief - noah charney
capitol conspiracy - william bernhardt
breaking dawn - stephenie meyer
new moon - stephenie meyer
eclipse - stephenie meyer
freedom writers diary
a million little pieces - james frey
diary of a wimpy kid 1 & 2
twilight - stephenie meyer
return of the prodigal son - nouwen
my sister's keeper - jodi picault
three cups of tea - greg mortensen
the shack - wm. p. young
fool - christopher moore
the first apostle - james becker
hatchet - gary paulsen
water for elephants - sara gruen
the westing game - ellen raskin
dreams from my father - barack obama
house of dark shadows - robert liparulo
Colors of the Mountain - Da Chen

long awaited...

samil, who used to love the camera, is anti-pictures. i had to bribe him with chips to get this.

5 months old

for reals.

so, the computer finally died. and samil has temporarily incapacitated the camera. beyond that life is super busy. and not with anything really significant. just busy. and eventhough i hate this, just some tidbits

amalio - currently working on a master's degree in applied linguistics. working full time at school and writing papers.

melanie - teaching. same as always. about 20 hours a week. i've got a new little pet project i'm helping with and of course raising the babies. cooking, cleaning. and being without running water for a week.

samil - is completely potty trained (really he has been for awhile but i never said it on here. not to brag. potty trained before his second birthday). understands english, spanish and korean but doesn't have to many words to show for it. he's getting there. if someone touches the baby the wrong way he tells them "careful, baby."

amely - is getting huge. and as seen in the last post is starting to eat solids. she is a bowl of laughter and smiles. and her eyes are still blue... so much for trying to deny her american-ness.

first food.

all in a day´s work.

amalio woke up for work this morning a little late.

and when he got downstairs, the front, drivers side tire was flat in the car.

and it was much easier to leave it for me and take the bus to work.

and if you know anything about latin american culture, you can just imagine the dirty looks from women and disbelieving stares from men as i went downstairs in my house dress (because, yes, i wear housedresses) to change the tire.

one guy even tried to take the job out of my hands...

because you know women can´t change a tire.

(and if i trusted that a dominican man could change a tire i would have let him, but i´ve seen enough in the past 5 years to know that i should never assume a man with a car knows how to change the tires or jump it)

tooooooooooooo early

samil has decided it´s fun to wake up before 7. every.day.

and of course, the naptimes -do not coincide.

which would be fine if amely didn´t go to bed at 930 but wake up at 3am to tell me how incredibly disgusting this unseasonal heatwave makes her feel.

hopefully soon it will no longer reach temperatures of 600 degrees farenheit and 90% humidity.