Oh What A Night....

Katherine and Madeline finished school for the year yesterday. Madeline even "graduated" from Pre-K 4. Here she is in her graduation ensemble.

In a fit of my new found maternal freedom I agreed to host the third grade end of the year party at my house. We had the whole class, plus some siblings and parents over for swimming and barbecue.

The girls of the class (11 of them including Katherine) also stayed over for a sleepover.

Am I crazy? Maybe, but it was some of the most fun I have had as a parent.

I was armed with a swimming pool/slide/tropical paradise/kid fantasy backyard, movies, popcorn, pizza, chips, and tons of crafts. The girls were incredible, so fun and funny to watch. When the inevitable drama would pursue, I would divert them to a new activity. The crafts required little for me to do other than open the boxes and let the girls rip.

Once the boys left, the girls continued to swim (all part of my ploy to completely wear them out before bedtime). We ordered pizza, took a short break, then were back in the water until dark.

I lured them back inside with the promise of crafts - which (thankfully) kept them fully occupied for about two hours. Chris and I had moved out all of the furniture in the living room and covered the floor in rugs. We put all 11 girls down on the floor in sleeping bag/sardine fashion. The movies and popcorn started at 10:30. By some miracle, I got them all settled down by midnight. Not too bad for me.

The first girls were up at 0700. Chris had already gone to Homecut and hot donuts were waiting for them. After swimming till about 0830, I got them all dressed and started the dance party. I taught them the soul train, running man, sprinkler, grocery cart and rump shaker. Then they begged for "Low" (pictured).

We got the last little girl out the door by 1030. Then I took Katherine and Madeline to Schlitterbahn for a family celebration. We were there for five hours and did not stop the entire time! The weather was gorgeous in Galveston, so we had dinner outside at Benno's with the Seigels.

As I write this, my kids are still asleep and will likely sleep for 24 hours straight! It was a wonderful day.

Things I Will Miss About Galveston

• Book Club
• Seawall
• Finding my Inner Athlete
• May Fete
• UTMB
• Practicing Medicine
• 8 Colony Park Drive
• Going from diapers to pullups to panties
• Everything Gaido
• Laughing until I cried almost every weekend
• Heidi Style
• Unconditional love
• MB
• Mardi Gras
• Bayou Shore
• Bayou Shore "Lite" - down the street from my house
• On a regular basis, playing with babies I brought into the world
• Feeling the world lift off my shoulders as I drove home over the causeway
• Nearly guilt free shopping at Target and Marshalls
• Wearing flip flops to 95% of places on the island
• Dancing at Doggett's
• Not taking myself too seriously
• My parents being only 3.5 hours away.
• Sneaking alcohol into the movies
• Blue Jean Interventions
• Clore/Gabriel Margarita Machine and Campout
• People who like my taste in music
  

My Triumphant Return

Since returning from Venezuela, I have literally hit the ground running. I flew back on Thursday, and began the shopping spree on my way home. I ran into Marshall's and found new 610 count Egyptian Cotton sheets that were screaming that they wanted a new home on my bed in Caracas, the cutest pillow for Katherine's new room (it became the idea piece from which I chose everything else for the room), and a bath mat for Madeline's new bathroom. These "gifts" were my souvenirs from my trip - as I am entirely too frugal to buy the overpriced goods in Caracas to bring home.

Friday, the first annual Mother's Day luncheon was launched. We met at the Pelican Club for a beautiful celebration with our Mothers and one Mother-in-law. It was amazing to see such incredible women, who had produced such beautiful, amazing, and intelligent women who I am so proud to call my friends. Pictured here Heidi, Stephanie, Le, Me, Amy, Mary Beth and the women who are so special in our lives.

The very next night, an impromptu barbecue and swim party erupted at my house. The usual suspects were there. Rick Gaido remains the most under celebrated chef on the face of the earth. What a beautiful meal he whipped up to feed 15 of his closest friends (and Kevin's brother Wumps). Seriously, the man can cook. The grilled snapper with lump crab meat was to die for. Also in this picture is Heidi. She forgot her prosthesis for the evening. MB, love the shoulder baring.

FYI, Chris has developed quite a tequila collection over the years. Sadly for us, we can not take it with us due to shipping issues. Chris and I had decided to "donate" our collection to friends - in exchange for promises of stories of why the tequila was shared and by whom. With Chris still in Venezuela, I invited the guys at the barbecue to go ahead, pick out a bottle, and get started. They chose the Milagro Reposado - with the cool hand blown Agave Cactus in the middle. They finished it. The five of them. In style. Nothing like smooth tequila. Darren felt so good the next morning he got up and ran 4 miles with Heidi.

After a busy week, we headed out past LaGrange for the annual Alta Vista camping trip. God bless my husband for packing up our tent and supplies and piling them up in a neat pile in the garage for me to just stick in the truck. I pulled the kids out of school early and headed out. We were the first people there and my wonderful friend Lynn was there to help me set up the tent. More people began arriving and suddenly it was tent city. The kids ran and played in the fresh air until dark, then they ran around like crazy with flashlights. Most of the kids went down by 10pm and their stupid parents stayed up until the wee hours of the morning (3 or 4). On Saturday, I loaded up our gear and the kids and headed home around noon. Chris was flying home from Caracas and we could not wait to get home and see him.

Chris and I cleaned out the dining room and living room and started the sorting process to figure out what we were going to store, ship, or give away.... What a process. Every single thing I own in the world has to go into one of three piles. Of the things I am shipping I have to decide what goes on the plane with us in the luggage, what goes in the Air Shipment (a 5x5x5 box which takes a few weeks to get there), and what goes into the Sea Shipment - unlimited, but one time only and may take months to get there.

In this flurry of organization and inventory, it is hard to remember to breathe!

More to come.

End of the Road

We have found a place to live. Hopefully, nothing will fall through on the apartment. It is beautiful. It has 5 bedrooms a living area, dining room, kitchen, family room, etc. Each bedroom has its own bath. It is on the 3rd floor and overlooks the kids pool and play areas. We have a beautiful view of Caracas and the Avilla. Fastidious as I am, I measured all of the rooms and then downloaded a free trial of SmartDraw software! I was able to make a plan of the apartment and then measured my furniture and uploaded the dimensions to the program then happily rearranged my furniture to make sure it would all fit and figure out what I needed to buy.

The apartment is lovely, but like life, is not perfect. At this very moment, they are undergoing water rationing. Water is only turned on for three hours daily - once in the morning, once at noon and once in the evening. Our complex must pay for water to be transported in trucks to tanks at the top of the hill on which we live. We have asked for water tanks to be installed in the apartment, at least so we can shower when rationing is going on. That seems a reasonable solution to that problem. The complex has two towers, each with two columns of 11 apartments. All are privately owned and finished differently. If your landlord decides to sell your apartment, you will have one year before you have to move out and find a new apartment. It seems the market is very tight and the "good" apartments turn over quickly. I feel very lucky we were able to find this apartment for our family.

I flew back on Thursday and Chris remained to do some work and attend the Latin America Leadership Team meeting this week. He gave me my first Venezuelan medical consult today, it seems he has developed Chavez' Revenge and

was unsure what medication to take. You don't need prescriptions in Venezuela - but I had to tell him what to get and how to take it.

I have about two more weeks of work left and three more scheduled calls. My patients are very sweet and most of them are wishing me good luck on our adventure. I know a lot of people who don't know me well have a hard time understanding how I could "give up" practicing medicine - but those who know me best have no questions about it. It gets a little exhausting trying to explain to people my life, my children, my husband, my decisions. One of my patent's FOB (not married, but supportive) was in L and D last Monday as I was delivering their second child on Medicaid. He looked me dead in the eye and asked me if I was crazy. I just smiled. He then went on to say that I would be so bored I would start throwing dirt on the floor just to clean it and have something to do. I just kept smiling and kept counting the multiple tattoos running down his arms. People - be nice. You are not going to tell me anything I don't know, or throw out a scenario I have not considered. I know exactly what I am doing. It is simply another chapter in my life. I have many talents and plan to explore them all.

Seeing school and Peter Pan

Our day today started with our driver, Jaime picking us up at 0730 for our trip to la officina. We got there and had to be waived through at least three security checkpoints to actually get into the office. Once inside we met with the LABU (Latin America Business Unit) HR department who went through the benefits of being an expat in Caracas. They were actually very nice and answered all of our questions - although, I seemed to momentarily stumped them when I asked about domestic help getting TB skin tests. The next person we met with was with Simon with Cecon (the Chevron Security Detail). He had a nice little office which had a glass door where all of the monitors and TV's were for security - that other room was filled with men in blue blazers watching TV's and screens. Simon laboriously took us through the Chevron security details/plans and contingencies for different emergencies. He also went through common sense details about looking for danger, watching where you are going, being careful at ATM's etc... Once he was through with the official details, he went on to give us specific details on crimes which are committed. It seems prostitution is rampant here, and several of the prostitutes "don't look like your usual prostitutes." I totally get that; the higher end the working girl, the less she looks like one. Kind of like the girls working on the Seawall in Galveston. But I digress. He went on to tell us - in very hushed tones - and apologizing to us the whole time he was relaying the story - with gusto- about a nice man who was travelling on business, who met a woman at the hotel bar - then he pauses to tell us about Venezuelan women and used his hands to demonstrate the size of their BREASTS - and (with a red face)- one thing leads to another and I guess she had scopolomine on her breasts and SOMEHOW he ingested it and woke up robbed the next day! There are several morals to this story, but Chris and I were in so much shock we declined to comment, thanked him for his time and expertise, and went on to the next part of our itinerary. I wondered how a woman with Scopolomine on her breasts would not get anough absorbed transdermally to cause serious problems. Throughout the interview, he kept having to open the glass door to the security detail which was monitoring the "news" for new developments - to "keep it down, por favor" so that we could hear him. Now, my chair was facing the T.V's they were monitoring, and I SWEAR they were watching soccer and the equivalent to Jerry Springer. Just Saying. I could be wrong. I will DEFINITELY stay away from Venezuelan women's breasts - I don't care how much they would pay me - no breast exams, no way, ever! When he told me that story, I almost Peter-panned (peed in my pants). After CECON, Dayana (pronounced Diana - who works for HR) took me to the school for our offical visit. I met with the Admissions director and she was wonderful. She took me on an offical tour of the school and I got to see the kids potential classrooms - see pictures- and the grounds. She school was built into the side of a mountain and has several "layers" or floors. It is amazing!!! I am excited for the kids to go there. After the school tour we ended up back at Chris' office and went to lunch in the building with Stacey Olson and her husband. They offered us great advice about choosing a home, vacations, child care, etc.... I went back to the Hotel after lunch and Chris stayed and worked until about 6pm. I took adavantage of the time and worked out and caught up on email.

We are heading to bed now, more on house hunting tomorrow.

Caracas Day #2 - Party at the Olson's

Sunday we had nothing scheduled until 2pm. So we slept in at the Hotel - which means till about 0800 Haver time. We got up and did the Plyometrics and Abs workouts then headed down to the buffet for breakfast/lunch. The buffet was pretty much the same, but because it was Sunday - it cost us $90 instead of the $60 we had paid before. Nothing like paying $45 for two fried eggs, toast, fruit, juice and coffee....... I then brought Chris back up to the room and tortured him with the hour and a half Yoga work out. He hung in there and did pretty well. I am so proud of him.

Of note, the expat families/wives are pretty, fun, and look like normal Mom's from the U.S. But I have been paying attention to the local Venezuelan women and I have learned three important lessons: I am considered small chested, I am considered small bottomed, BLING is the THING. The more glitz, the better. There are medical spas EVERYWHERE - sadly, though, there are no nail shops!!!! The land of the $20 pedicure is not here. Some Koren family could move in here and clean up shop. KT Nails #9 (Venezuelan branch). Seriously, inexpensive nails would go over big here!!!!

Jaime picked us up at two and we headed to Stacey and John Olson's apartment for a "fiesta." Chris is replacing Stacey and she is moving to Indonesia to head up a large office there. Her apartment was in the same building as Chris and Tara Turner's (where we had gone for dinner the first night), and was just as GEORGOUS! A third Chevron family lives there as well, and all of their kids get along really well. Several Chevron families were there to meet us and another couple who is moving to Puerto La Cruz - it was very nice, the food was delicious and we had a great time meeting everyone. If we can get an apartment in that building we will likely choose that one for more than one reason: The apartments are beautiful, the grounds are like paradise with playground, pool, lots of green space, incredible workout room, etc. We will be shown other apartments tomorrow - and some may be bigger or nicer inside, but having other children around, and lots of space for the kids to play is very important to us. I can't wait to see what is available tomorrow! We here that the other apartments do not have a nice or large of grounds as the one we visited. We left there at about 6:30 pm and were brought back to the hotel. We then walked accross to the Italian Restauraunt across from the hotel, had a nice dinner, then went back home to bed.

Caracas - Day #1

Our plane landed at the airport outside of Caracas as dawn was breaking. We slept some on the plane but we were pretty tired when we finally landed. We were in first class, which allowed us to hit the immigrations lines first.

As we got off of the plane we were greeted by airport workers wearing surgical masks and gloves. Chris and I had to sign had to sign medical release forms before we cleared immigration/customs and lots of people had masks on. There were signs warning against flu and instructions on how to avoid transmission of the flu as well.

I knew that a car and driver would be awaiting us, and I imagined a young chauffeur and a sleek black sedan. Much to my surprise, a chubby middle aged man met us - his name was "Jaime" (pronounced Hy-mae) and brought us out to a slightly beat up mini-van. Once I got over my initial disappointment, Jaime turned out to be a sweetheart and we loved having him show us around. He spoke in broken English, and we spoke in broken Spanish - but managed to understand each other for the most part. The drive to Caracas from the airport takes about 30 minutes, and goes up about 3000 feet. The views are breathtaking. Caracas in in a valley and is surrounded by mountains, nothing is flat here.

The airport was very near the beach and we could see hi-rise hotels along the water as we landed. The foothills of the Mountains started just behind the airport and were riddled with 'barrios' - neighborhoods of the poor people. These meager dwellings are carved into the hills and mountains surrounding Caracas.

He whisked us to the J.W. Marriott and we checked in around 6 am. We were still pretty wired from the flight and new environment so we decided to do our P90X workout in the gym at the hotel. After that, we went to the breakfast buffet - very different than what you usually find in the U.S. First of all, the fruit was different and I did not know what half of it was. There was lots and lots of meat options, sliced, shredded, grilled, fried (yes, fried meat). There was ONE kind of milk. No skim, 1%, 2% - just plain leche. Oh, and as far as Spanish goes, everyone speaks it here. I know that sounds funny - but it is a little freaky to realize that almost no one outside of the guy checking you in at the hotel speaks any English!

After a nap, Tara Turner came to pick us up for our tour of the school, neighborhoods and potential places to live. God bless this woman. She patiently toured us for several hours stopping at grocery stores, pharmacies, the school, and an apartment. Tara is wonderful, she is a spouse of one of the management team in Caracas. She is an RN with a master's degree in public health, but now stays at home with her kids. The school was beautiful and looks like Katherine and Madeline are going to have a great time there.

We are going to live in a high-rise apartment and will have a pick of a few to choose from. We saw a couple of apartments, including Tara's that are coming available soon. After touring grocery stores, pharmacies, etc.. to get an idea of goods sold here we ended up at Tara's apartment to meet her husband and kids and hang out with them for dinner.

They are very nice and have four beautiful kids - they love their life here and told us about the good things and challenges of living here. They ordered in Sushi and we drank wine and talked for hours about life in Caracas. Jaime brought us back to the hotel and we are about to fall into bed happy, excited, and exhausted.

First Class is the Only Way to Fly

Chris and I are sitting in the "E" terminal President's Club enjoying 'free' glasses of wine waiting on our 11:59 flight to Caracas. This is our preassignment trip and includes meeting the other members of the Chevron Family in Caracas, visiting the kids school, and hopefully, finding a place to live. I plan to update this frequently - so stay tuned.


By the way - the President's Club ROCKS. I highly recommend scoring a pass to get in here if you can.

The last time I was in this room was in 2005 with Christy Abair - we were flying to Chicago to the Oprah Winfrey Show - another great story - for later.


My In-laws are watching the kids while we are gone - as an added bonus - they are also helping us show and sell the house. The house is not even officially on the market, but I have potentially four families interested in it.


Swine flu is still an issue - we saw two people wearing masks in the airport tonight. That's not saying much, but the airport is very empty due to the lateness of the hour. I have masks tucked into my purse - just in case someone is coughing next to me IN FIRST CLASS (in case you forgot) on the airplane.


Chris and I and the girls went to Houston on Wednesday for our medical clearance. Chris and I went to the Occupational Medicine Clinic in Chevron's building in downtown Houston. I had a 1.5 hour screening, exam, blood work, and 4 vaccines. My deltoids are so sore. My exam was perfunctory at best. I did not even have to get undressed. Chris, on the other hand was a little freaked out because it seems the doctor was a little more thorough on his exam - it included a prostate and testicular exam and he just did not see that one coming. After that fun experience we found enough time to head to Rice Village for a little shopping and lunch. At 1:30 we had appointments for the kids at the Texas Children's Travel Medicine Clinic (I mean seriously, these people think of everything!). We did not walk out of the hospital until 4:00. The kids each had 3 vaccines and a TB test AND blood work. Katherine did pretty well, but Madeline was PISSED. She screamed bloody murder when they had to draw blood, on my lap, with me holding her.

Its getting late, and I am tired. I'll sign off for now. More to come soon.