Traffic Jam

Just yesterday I was talking about traffic in Quito, and here is proof! Came upstairs to see what the kids were working on and, not content enough to experience this in real life every day, saw that they had recreated a traffic jam. Caused, of course, by the accident there in the front. But, no fear! The cops have arrived and traffic will be flowing shortly!

A week finished

A week ago today we finished our teacher training course. Which means I have had vacation all week (other than getting grades in) and don't start work again until the 17th or so! Yay!

This week I will be honest, I haven't gotten much done. I love to just lounge around and do a few things at a time, while I read on my iPod. But next week I will get cracking! First on the agenda is to start exercising more regularly, and second is to get last year's December daily finished. I might have some time to go through the kids' closets. But at least get the very minimum done. I do still have to drop them off at school and pick them up, and with the traffic nowadays, that is really no easy feat.

Being Ecuadorian

One of the things I have always wanted to do since I moved to Ecuador was "blend in". Being "blond" (in the eyes of most Ecuadorians, although I would never consider myself so), it isn't always easy, and when I go out for a run or walk there is always someone who has to stare at me as if I am an exotic animal at the zoo. Always makes me uncomfortable.

But one way I try to counter this is to always know more about Ecuador than the very own Ecuadorians do. Know more about their geography, history, food and culture. It helps that my mother-in-law is a great cook and Andrés's family loves to travel. I get to experience a lot of dishes that are not always so easy to find here in the big city, and I have seen a lot of small towns and out-of-the-way places.

And I have learned how to make many traditional dishes, those dishes that only Grandma knows how to make. One is bala de verde (bolón is the much more popular version, but bala is from Esmeraldas, where Andrés's father's family has roots). To make bala is quite easy - put the plantain in the pressure cooker, and cook until soft. Then mash it up with a big rock and add cheese, then eat as is or, more typically, fry it up. (Bolón is different in that the cheese is put in the middle of the plantain, like a hot pocket. I prefer bala, with the cheese mixed throughout.)

I can be proud of the fact that I, unlike many other Ecuadorians of my age or younger, can make things like dulce de zambo, sopa de pan, bola de verde, empanadas de mejido. I love the fact that Andrés and I can go to the market and ask for the zambo, and when the lady at the stall asks what we need it for, we can tell her "to make dulce de zambo". And she looks at us, very skeptically, and asks, one eyebrow raised, "Do you really know how to make that?"

The answer is, yes, yes we do!

Lego Hero Factory...We Build Heroes

Auntie Jennie bought each of the kids a Lego Hero Factory Hero this summer, and started what is now a full-blown craze. We have read the magazines, visited the web sites, and seen the movies (wherein Nico realized that his green guy, Breez, is a girl. Resigned to his fate, he sighed and said, "That always happens to me." And, poor guy, for some reason, it does. But he loves her now, and every so often pretends she is a boy.)

We got more heroes, some of which are 2.0 (3.0 is coming out this fall, I've heard), and now it is a mix and match frenzy around here. The kids love taking them all apart and putting them back together into new hero creations.

The only thing they say they are missing are the "bad guys". :)

Candy break

At this rate I will never shed those extra pounds that I packed on this summer. We opened up a box of Mike and Ikes and Mommy was more excited than the kids to dig in!

Notice our new Ikea bedspread? It was about time. But white? Again, what were we thinking!!!???

Just when you get a little vacation time...

the kitchen faucet explodes. (Gross, I know I need to scrub that sink, sorry!) Anyhow, Andres was doing the dishes tonight when suddenly the arm of the faucet decided to make like a rocket and just flew right off of the arm. Apparently plastic fixtures inside a faucet are not such a good idea - this is the second time we have trouble with this sink, mainly because our pipes are copper and so the water stays way too hot on the first floor (and never quite hot enough on the second and third floors) and the fixtures within actually end up melting down over time.

Ugh. I know what tomorrow will be - searching for a white faucet that matches (which I am sure we will never find) as well as looking for a plumber who might be able to come over and install it.

Until then, we will have to be real careful on the amount of dishes we dirty :(

Back to the old grind

Well, the summer's over, school has started and we are finally getting into a routine (looks like another homework-heavy year, about 2-3 hours a night for my poor Agustin, although he is taking it like a trooper and always comments on how fun his homework is), the teaching course has finished and some of my other obligations are over with, and this next week will be time to stay at home and:

• decorate
• clean
• clean
• organize and sort
• and clean.

My poor house has been very neglected lately.

Needless to say, my basil and dill did NOT survive our extended vacation, so another project is to go ahead and start new plants.

Because I am so far "behind", and my sisters have written about all the good stuff already on their blogs, I will just bless you with a mini collage of some of our best moments this summer...

State fair moments - always a highlight!

Hanging out with my SUPER smart, SUPER cute, amazingly funny and quirky little nieces!

Trips to the Home Depot to do minor fixups on the new houses!

And one of the houses!

Junior Science Camp at Mommy's old school.

Spending time with my four beautiful and fantastic sisters!

Catching up with dear friends.

Playing a game of marbles up at the lake!

A visit to the Saint Paul Cathedral.

Finishing a 5k, beating my old record of never having run one before. I ran the whole way and made it under 45 minutes!

A couple side trips. To:

Mora... such a quaint, picturesque little town! Andres liked all the Scandinavian touches.

and to Hinckley... (the kids LOVE to stay in hotels - really, I guess, what kid doesn't?)

A behind-the-scenes look at the Grandpa Dan Show!

Como Zoo

The Pine County Fair and Parade! Oh, the candy!

Some moments with everyone's favorite grandpa, the one and only Grandpa Dan!!!

A pre-wedding popcorn party...

Swimming and lunch at Hannah and Hailey's.


Lots and lots of trips to the library!

A little time with the Miller/Mars side of the family.

A great dinner, just Andres and the "girls" :)

The toys up at the cabin!

Tractor rides

Lots of time spent with our beloved Legos.

A visit to Chuck E. Cheese's.



Pontoon rides (even getting stuck out on the lake was a bit of an adventure!)

And, back home, the clean up afterwards!







Whew! What a great, awesome, amazing summer!!!!!!

Needed: Plant Babysitter

Who will take care of you, my little basil and dill plants? Who will check to make sure that you get enough sun, enough water? Who will check to make sure the birds and bugs aren't bothering you or picking at you? Who will take you in out of the hail and the tsunami-like rains? I want to taste you so badly, but fear you won't make it through the summer all alone... :(

Fingers crossed!

A little sun

We got a little sun this afternoon, so everyone ran out into the garden to soak it up.

It lasted about 5 minutes. Oh well.

Saturday Ribs

It's hard to find ribs here, even though they eat so much pork. So when Andres saw them in the supermarket, he grabbed them up in a flash. We had a great meal this afternoon, sticky sweet bbq ribs and baked potatoes and corn. Even the kids ate them!

Family Game Night

One of my favorite childhood memories growing up was family game night. As I recall, and because our childhood minds gauge time differently from our adult minds I could be completely wrong about some of the details, every Friday night we would have a family game night. This was before "the girls", when it was just me and Amy and the rents, and dad had a collection of board games that to this day makes me jealous. I remember Dad reading the rules, explaining them, and always doing a "practice round" (very teacher-like of him!). Then we would play, and boy did I love playing those games! I remember the Las Vegas Nights casino game, horse race game, Uno and Skip-bo (sometimes we'd play these at Grandma's instead) and who knows what else! It was always a surprise. To this day I think that a lot of my "school smarts" came from learning and playing those games. I think people, especially children, acquire a lot of cognitive flexibility from board games and card games, learning things like logic and statistics and cause and effect in a natural, fun way. So, yes, I think that board games can make you smarter!

I have decided to try something similar with the kids. We don't manage to do it every Friday night, but I want to try to play as many games with them this summer as I can so that their brains remain supple and ready to learn, and the beginning of the school year isn't so painful!

One of our favorite games is Multiplication Bingo. We make Bingo boards with multiplication products and then use flashcards to call the numbers. Agustin just sees the equation, and no one can mark a number until he gives us the right answer. It is a complete blast, and he gets good practice with his multiplication tables as well.

Next year we'll be doing addition and subtraction bingo with Nico!

Up with a fish!

The kids made me buy this app, since we got The Cat in the Hat. They will spend hours (well, minutes, because it goes through the iPod battery pretty fast), playing this game. I played the other day and it was fun. Especially with the kids next to me, screaming as Thing 1 and Thing 2 came crashing down to destroy my carefully balanced fishbowls!

Problem is, I get a little hungry when that cake comes down.