Halloween and Other News

 So, I am sitting here in Caracas.  Today is Halloween.  We had a big Chevron Halloween party last night for the kids, and Chris left for California for a meeting today for 10 days.

The kids had a wonderful time on Friday at school.  They got to come to school dressed in their Halloween costumes and then had a parade around the auditorium, followed by parties in their classrooms.

As I am a room mom for both classes, I spent the next couple of hours running back and forth between classrooms helping with snacks, games, decorations, etc.  It was a little bit exhausting, but fun.  

Above is Madeline's first grade class - and denotes one of the things I will miss most about the international experience - DIVERSITY.  In Madeline's picture are Madeline (USA), Jae Yeon (Korea), Jose (Venezuela), Juan David (Venezuela), Arif (Indonesia), Gaby (Columbia), Amelia (Poland), Sofie (Venezuela), Marta (Spain), Josef (Venezuela) and Andres (Norway).    Katherine's class is just as diverse, but I was not able to get a picture of her class all together.

After the party, I rushed down to the pool for my swimming session with my coach.  There is a small group of Mom's - at all levels, that work out with the swim coaches at the kid's school.  Of course, I grew up swimming, but never really learned the proper strokes until I moved here.  Pedro is my coach and I just love him.  He also coached Madeline last year, and he is her absolute favorite.  He has agreed to "train" me for the Galveston Lone Star Triathlon 2011 - and my goal is simply to beat my best time (not hard to do).

On Saturday evening, we headed to the Kelly's apartment for a Chevron Halloween Party.  Rhonda really outdid herself.  The decorations were fantastic and the food incredible.  The kids really had fun.  Our favorite was the "mummy making contest".  The kids had to wrap a "volunteer" in toilet paper to make the best mummy they could and it ended up being so much fun.

Chris volunteered and I think the kids did a pretty good job.  The finished product of all of the dads is below.

Today I am on back rest for some low back musculoskeletal injury that has gotten much worse over the last two weeks - I finally had to break down and consult one of my old orthopedic text books to see what the heck was wrong with me and how to treat it.  Shockingly, it seems that resting for two days then running 6 miles or the like was not the best therapy.  I am now on back rest for at least a week.

AND I am FINALLY feeling better from the mononucleosis.  That was horrible and I would not wish it on anyone.  Although, I did lose 10 pounds without trying.  I am on oral corticosteroids for the back inflammation (and boy did it go a long way to help me regain my appetite!).  Quarantine from aerobic exercise and my kids Halloween candy should go a long way to helping me regain some of the weight.

My next big adventure is going back to New Orleans in 10 days for my best friend's (from childhood) wedding.  I'll keep you posted.

Fall Break 2010

In lieu of time off for Thanksgiving, our kids get a Fall Break in October for one week.  Last year we went to Curacao, but this year we decided to go home to Louisiana and Galveston as we are not going to the States for Christmas or Spring Break this year.

Fortunately, my best friend Stephanie decided to celebrate her 40th birthday in New Orleans the weekend we arrived.  When we touched down in Houston on Friday, Chris took the girls on to rent a car to drive to Galveston, and I boarded a plane to New Orleans.  

New Orleans was a blast, and a bit of a blur.  Stephanie rented us beautiful rooms at the Royal Sonesta on Bourbon Street.  We even had a balcony to watch all of the activities below.  I laughed until my sides hurt, danced until my feet hurt (my shoe choice, although stylish, was not conducive to a long night on Bourbon Street), and had a fabulous time.  I got smart the second night and packed a pair of flip flops in my purse to change into when my feet started hurting and I just didn't care about fashion anymore.  Highly recommended.  

Here is Heidi, me, Steph, Pamela, Emily and Margaret on Friday night.  I think the guy behind us is the bellman from our hotel.  Gracias to the photographer.  

 On Sunday, we headed to Mandeville and Madisonville to see my cousin, Marla and some old friends from medical school.  Marla is as funny and gorgeous as ever.  Here we are at a lake front restaurant in Mandeville, having, what accidentally turned out to be a 5 hour lunch/pub crawl.  Got to love family dinners and it was worth every minute to see her and my aunt and uncle.

After lunch, we spent the night in Madsionville with Jherie (my roommate from medical school) and her husband Charlie and their beautiful kids Trent, Kate and Lauren.  She asked me what I wanted to eat for dinner before we arrived and I told her good seafood is hard to find in Caracas.  She made the MOST fabulous gumbo with lump crab, shrimp and crab claws AND had seared tuna steaks and scallops on the side.

Uncle Jude and Aunt Jamie came in from New Orleans for a visit and Uncle Jeremiah was able to bring cousin Juliana over for a day to play with the girls.  On our last night in Louisiana, I was able to drag myself out of bed to take the girls to Randol's, their favorite cajun restaurant.  Aunt Leah and most of the uncles were able to make it and we had a wonderful dinner.  The girls love it so much because they play cajun music and dance.   

I captured a short video of the girls dancing together - but as cute as they are, they did not steal the show.  You have to watch the video to understand what I am talking about.  Some people really know how to have fun. The next two days we spent in Galveston, running errands and visiting our loved ones there. 

On Saturday night, we returned to Caracas. 

We have a couple of months of routine, and then we head out to Peru and Argentina for three weeks over the winter break.  Expect a blog with video and all of the usual trimmings.  

We plan to visit Lima for three days then head to Buenos Aires to meet up with Chris' sister and her family there for Christmas Day.  On December 26th we leave for Bariloche - a resort high in the Patagoinian Andes.  After exploring the lakes around Bariloche, we will head to the Glaciers National Park to see Mount Fitzroy and the surrounding glaciers and finally we will head to Tierra Del Fuego and Ushuaia - at the end of the world.