run run run

so, in 2010 i was supposed to be getting healthy. remember that?

well. i did okay, but lost track of the exercise somewhere between amely deciding not to sleep through the night and the humidity trying to suffocate me while i ran. excuses, i know, but sleep deprivation is brutal and you've never experienced humidity until you've lived in the DR. (unless you've been to a rainforest, and then i'll exempt you from my generalization).

we did okay with eating choices, but i'll be honest, it's hard for me to passby chocolate. so when all is said and done i'm nowhere near where i need to be.

so. on my vacation, i've gotta get back in the saddle. partly because here in philadelphia the heat isn't going to suffocate me (however, the cold might freeze me!). no promises on the healthy eating, but the exercising is definite because i definitely don't want to gain back whatever weight i did lose this year.

here's to getting back in shape BEFORE the new year!

we have arrived.

i know in my last post i promised continuing posts starting thursday. alas, things got busy and, well, here i am. sunday night.

travelling with two babies and a three hour layover was... not un-fun, but not something i'd describe as fun. it was thanksgiving. people wanted to go whereever they were going and a three year old in the middle of the walkway with his little suitcase was holding them up.

three cheers for samil who walked the entire way from the plane to customs, then to baggage claim and then out and around and through security again in miami airport. three cheers for amely who jumped out of her stroller three times. guess i ought to start using that straps.

we did get home in one piece, and not utterly exhausted, so i'd say the trip was a success.

we celebrated thanksgiving on friday - turkey and cranberry sauce, yes please. and on saturday we celebrated my neice's first birthday. today i headed out sola to the church of a good friend. that brings us to now.

and regular, more interesting than this i promise, blog updates.

happy thanksgiving (belatedly, of course, because that's my style).

absence

blogher so gratefully reminded me about my blog via email this week.

the blog i apparently have neglected for the past month!

don't worry folks, i'll soon have five weeks of unlimited internet access to fill you heads with mindless babble on thursday.

see you then!

craziness that it is.

with all internet excuses aside, i´ve not blogged in a long time. i´ve slacked on a lot of things recently and life is just moving f.a.s.t.

i started back to work ¨full time¨in september. it´s not full.time. please. it doesn´t even count as part time in the states. but for me, it´s consistent but still takes a chunk out of my day. i´ve got a fair amount of students but luckily there´s not a lot of running around and the pay is way better than i´d actually make in a ¨real¨job.

i had decided that i wasn´t going to work more than 15 hours a week, including my SAT prep class early on. but, the opportunity has arisen for some college counseling and i´ve taken it. stupid? maybe. but the extra money is going away for a rainy day.

the kids are getting bigger and samil, especially, is like a little sponge. his language that was worrying just a few weeks ago is taking off (albeit in spanish more than english) and we´re happy not to have to take some (costly) measures to fix a speech problem. i think the reason that he is spitting out more spanish than english is that i´ve been seriously slacking on the educational front.

shame on me. here i am ranting about how horrible it is to stick your kid in dominican preschool because they learn more at home... except, i´m not offering it. so. i went on the cleaning spree of a lifetime to organize and and then create a plan of action. both kids really get a lot out of the more-guided activities and play we do (and behave so much better afterwards). sadly i made it through every room in the house except the kids room.

i´ll blame that one on the plumbing disaster we had yesterday morning when the pipes under our kitchen sink literally exploded.

this week the plan is to get back on the exercise bandwagon, plan out the meals again and finish the kids room. and then create the plan and stick with it.

i´ll let you know if it actually happens.

help with a technical question

so, since i don't have internet at home, i've been trying to write some blogs and then post them - but when i copy and paste blogger won't accept the format.


any suggestions how to fix this?

not so fun.

we've been covered in poop and vomit for the past week.

and only at night.
because when we're at work and the nanny is here, the kids are f.i.n.e.

it's bliss, i tell you, to wake up to change poop filled underwear three times in a night.

though it was pretty funny when the baby threw up all over my brother-in-law :)

dis-connect

Life without internet is relieving. Un alivio grande.
Not perfect. And definitely not easy. I’ll explain.
When you have a constant connection to the internet superhighway, sometimes it can distract you from the little streets and roads that make up your life. That highway is so sleek and fast and has so few potholes, that it’s just more interesting to connect there than to, I don’t know, cook arroz y habichuelas everyday in your boring, provincial life.
Yes, provincial. Because, even though we live in the second largest city in the Dominican Republic, our little apartment is surrounded by little pieces of land used for fincas. I’m not talking about little, urban, community gardens filled with ochre and tomatoes. I’m talking about corn and yucca and banana and platano trees. And those little plots of earth that aren’t filled with the Dominican staple foods are filled with cows. And we’re still woken up every morning with the kee-kee-kiree of the rooster.
Diversion. When you’re life is slow, the internet is appealing. More than appealing. We used to have a broadband in our old house. And we even set forth the paperwork to get internet here when we moved, but one problem after another, al estilo dominicano and we gave up trying for now. And do you know what? I never noticed how much time I (we) wasted on the internet before we didn’t have it.
I check my email almost every day at my students’ house and if I can swing checking the facebook for pictures of all those babies being born in the states right now, I will. But, when I actually make time to sit down and use the internet I find myself, more often than not, doing nada. It’s true, I read my blogs – it’s like the poor man’s celebrity gossip (I’ll be honest, I secretly relish in knowing that other people are having the same (or worse) difficulties – it makes me feel better about not being superwoman). And I try to maintain some semblance of email relationships with my tutoring kids’ school teachers and I really do try to maintain contact with my amigos. But all that can be done in like 10 minutes. Maybe 20.
Everything else is fluff.
Don’t get me wrong. There are days that I need to research something, or need a clipart for a project or would like to just skype with my family – but the amount of time I waste on the internet is incredible. And since we don’t have it anymore, I find I’m more dedicated to coming up with the kids’ “school” activities (and when I do search for their info, I download everything at once and read it at home) instead of stealing things from other people and just wasting ink printing out things that might not suit our little bilingual pre-school homeschool. I go to bed earlier. And this summer I packed away a record ten books in two months! And 1 was even in francais. When was the last time I read in French? And enjoyed it? And when I get the internet, I actually use it for a purpose instead of reading about how so-and-so is potty training her four year old twins and cries everyday that she’s doing a bad job while her husband tells her what a bad mom she is. (because not only should that not be public information on the internet, but nobody should be feeling good about those types of bad situations).
I miss it sometimes, but mostly I’m just enjoying the little side-streets and callejones of life while that super-pista is, and always, will be there waiting for when there’s time for it.