Seis Puerqueños

I hate when anyone has a secret that they can’t/won’t tell me. And also I am bad at keeping non-important secrets. So, all of you who are good at secrets, I commend you. Also all of you who are good at waiting until your first trimester is over to tell people you are pregnant, I am proud of you too. But I am not good at that, so…

I’m pregnant. Whoopee! Due in October sometime according to silly online calculators.

My Mom screamed and said “I’ve been waiting for years for this” which is technically true because since I was 18 she has been asking for a grandbaby. And my Dad cried. I can post that, because he will never read this. Cried in his attorney’s office.

We are excited times infinity.

[Important P.S. After talking to my dad again later today, it turns out since he is in salt lake about to testify in a case against a former business partner who is on trial for tax sheltering, anyway, he was not in his attorney’s office, but with his attorneys walking into the federal prosecutor’s office, crying.]

I’m not supposed to post this until Kelsey’s done because she wants to be the first to post about it.
Too bad! I’m going to be a father. And it’s going to be a boy. Born late in the evening of October 15, 2008. We’ll name him Harmon.

I already admitted earlier today I love things like this. And upon finding this I knew it was for me. My love of to-do lists was too strong. Anyway, the original link is here, it has all the explanations and such.

Here are my 101 things to do in 1001 days. I will keep an updated version here on my other non-used blog. But here is the list:

Started: January 26th, 2008
Ends: October 23rd, 2010

101 things in 1001 days
1. Write my Ecuador book
2. Finish Lorena’s quilt
3. Turn my old shirts into tote bags
4. Read 12 books (0/12)
5. Come back to Ecuador again
6. Get scuba certified
7. Make 5 iTunes play lists (0/5)
8. Learn how to play Acoustic #3 on the guitar
9. Begin sailing around the world with Aaron
10. Re-learn how to crochet, make a scarf
11. Make a quilt for my own bed
12. Have ample food storage supply
13. Go to bed by 10 for a week straight
14. Photograph another wedding
15. Read camera manual all the way through
16. Buy a new lens
17. Hike to Leigh Lake
18. Have a baby
19. Make a skirt
20. Read the old testament
21. Do pilates or yoga 2x week for two months
22. Write in my journal once a week (0/143)
23. Take Aaron to Disneyland
24. Get my foundation set up
25. Go surfing 5 times (0/5)
26. Learn to juggle
27. Read 2 books in Spanish (0/2)
28. Visit 5 temples I have never been to (0/5)
29. Donate hair to locks of love
30. Have a real life dinner party
31. Read 2 more books on teenage self-esteem (0/2)
32. Carve a pumpkin with my husband’s face on it
33. Create storage system for all digital pictures
34. Print wedding photos & put in album
35. Print honeymoon photos & put in album
36. Don’t complain at all for 1 week
37. Take some sort of class
38. Visit a country I’ve never been to before
39. Successfully take care of a plant for a year
40. Buy a bike at a garage sale
41. Not eat at a restaurant for 2 weeks straight
42. Build a bridge out of popsicle sticks or toothpicks. Put weights on it to see how much it can hold without breaking.
43. Write a thank you letter once a week for 6 months.
44. Find at least one genealogy name and do the work
45. Plan a fundraiser
46. Can something other than jam
47. Follow Fly Lady’s schedule for one month
48. Cook 10 new recipes (0/10)
49. Do a triathlon
50. Throw a huge party
51. Go snowboarding twice (0/2)
52. Cook four dishes in the pressure cooker (0/4)
53. Floss every day for a month, 3 times (0/3)
54. Frame 10 photos (0/10)
55. Learn a new song on the piano
56. Learn how to make the ultimately delicious macaroons my dad makes
57. Learn to like one type of fish (is this possible?)
58. Read a book on astronomy
59. Figure out the recipe for El Jordan’s tabbouli
60. Purchase the perfect croquet set
61. Build something out of wood
62. Carve something out of wood
63. Golf an entire 18 holes
64. Beat my mom at ping-pong
65. Find a Google whack
66. Get brows threaded (I hope Liza will take me)
67. Go snowshoeing
68. Road trip to somewhere I haven’t been before
69. Send a real piece of mail every month (0/34)
70. Make baby blankets for new arrivals
71. Submit book to publishers
72. Go to 10 year reunion
73. Give away or sell 101 things
74. Learn Photoshop
75. Join some sort of photography challenge group
76. Skydive
77. Swim across Lake Washington
78. Make Aaron a suit. He says he will wear it if I make it.
79. Make Eden an article of clothing she will wear
80. Make myself pumpkin and coconut ice cream. Separately.
81. Get Ham radio license
82. Acquire unbreakable habit of brushing teeth at night
83. Go to the symphony with Aaron
84. Make and keep updated address book
85. Create sweatpants overalls
86. Eat only healthy foods for 1 week
87. Sell something I made
88. Learn to tie 5 knots (0/5)
89. Launch an Ecuadorian globo
90. Explore stock photography options
91. Use my iTunes gift cards. Seriously, shouldn’t need to be on the list.
92. Buy and complete a big big puzzle
93. Win a contest
94. Make a cake in the microwave
95. Go waterskiing
96. Have a bingo party
97. Put Rosero’s videos on DVD for them
98. Learn 10 children’s songs in Spanish
99. Get wedding dress cleaned and boxed
100. Create will and force husband to do the same
101. Manage to see a sunrise without feeling like death

We’ve had a really fun and action packed week with Aaron’s parents here. We picked them up from the airport on Thursday morning with their signs “Donita” and “Juanald” to greet them. Since then we have done lots of things: visited orphanages, churches, markets, national park, city overlooks, many restaurants, eaten puerqueno (roast guinea pig/cuy), bought eyeglasses for less than half of the price in the US, got mom a root canal at 15% of the US price, and eaten so much candy I think I gained one million pounds. We did some other things too, like sleep and visit the mital del mundo (equator line monument thing) and take a gondola up to 13,500 feet. We safely put them in a cab to the airport in Quito last night and we flew home this afternoon. The house is quiet and empty and we miss them already. It was so fun to have them here, we are glad they came. If you want to read more you should read their blog, because it’s way more detailed.

Now we are getting back to real life, mutual today, teaching lesson tomorrow, classes on Monday. We only have 2 months left before Ecuador throws us out, time flies so fast, I must be getting old. We are still fighting with immigration, right now Aaron expires on March 25th, but we may be able to get him another 10 day extension. Either way, rude since our tickets aren’t until April 13th. I guess Ecuador isn’t as good at counting as we are.

Chain letters, surveys, and lists. So, thanks AJ. P.S. If you hate those things, you should stop reading right now.

If you were an animal, which would you be? A FoxFish. You can say that’s not an animal, but you are wrong.
If you were a city, which would you be? I typed in “busy loud dirty city” into google and so I’m either Milan or Kathmandu
If you were a flower, which would you be? dandelion
you were a vegetable, which would you be? spinach
If you were a color, which would you be? creamsicle orange
If you were a fruit, which would you be? satsuma with seeds.
If you were a season, which would you be? late summer
If you were a shoe, which would you be? slippers or flip-flops. maybe a slipper flipflop? no those don’t make any sense.
If you were a vehicle, which would you be? 1976 volvo 245dl
If you were an appliance, which would you be? obviously a waffle maker
If you were a Disney character, which would you be? Alice (in wonderland)
If you were a dessert, which would you be? 7 layers of jell-o
If you were a time of day, which would you be? midnight
If you were a cereal, which would you be? frosted mini wheats
If you were a instrument, which would you be? keyboard with the demo music playing.

I tag: Billie, Lois, and Aunt Cornish Game Hen

Ok. I understand that sometimes planes need de-icing. I understand that sometimes cities like Atlanta are unprepared and sometimes you have to wait in a 4 hour line stuck on a plane to de-ice. But what I don’t understand is when you are flying from Atlanta to Quito and you know the Quito airport will be closed and you will re-route to Guayaquil, you don’t tell your passengers so they can tell their waiting family members. And so those same family members could get said passengers hotels. Also, after lying to your plane and landing them in Guayaquil at 3am, instead of in Quito at 930pm, you should not tell them further lies about how the ticketing agent will help re-ticket them and get them all squared away when no such person exists. I would like to tell everyone to how incredibly horrible Delta is, how Aaron’s parents were not only delayed sitting on the runway for 4 hours, but lied to, and locked in the Guayaquil airport until 6am the next morning when they flew to Cuenca (which amazingly took 2 hours, when it is a 45min flight… what?)

You are probably thinking ok that sucks. But tell me this, how come Delta didn’t put them up in a hotel? Or how come no one got vouchers for anything, no reimbursements, nothing. And the fact that they didn’t tell them they could get out in Guayquil, just locked them into the airport. Among other passengers were lady in a wheelchair, pregnant lady with 1 1/2 year old, elderly, etc. Is that ok? It’s not. And why does this happen? Because it’s in Ecuador. Most of the passengers are Ecuadorian, and Delta is a 100% US company. So what can any Ecuadorian do about Delta’s crap? Nothing. But I intend to send a strongly worded letter to them, telling them how unfair and awful I think they are. Seriously? Who locks people into an airport without food, water, sleeping arangements, etc? RIDICULOUS? (Ok I admit that this also happens in the US, but not nearly as much as apparently Delta is said to do this EXACT same thing here.) Ok complaining over.

We have made it back to Cuenca, and will probably have to sleep all day tomorrow. We are so happy to have them here, and have already had fun going out to dinner with the Roseros. Now we are all beat so it’s off to sleep. But remember, Delta is bad.

So normally I am always thinking how awful it is that people don’t write in their blogs every day for me to read it. I guess you could say I find myself with quite a lot of spare time. Last night I was talking to my mom on the phone and she said “didn’t you read my blog?” and I was shocked. How could I have not be up to date? And then I realized I hadn’t read anyone’s blog in a long time (read: a week) and I thought, did I get a life? What is happening?

And then I realized that I have been working hard core on this quilt. It’s not really the same as having a life, but it does make you have less time to read blogs and be angry that no one has posted. Anyway. Here is a picture of what I’ve got going on thus far:

Wait. I just went to take a picture mid-blog and realized something quite disconcerting. My blanket width does not match up. After a bit of shouting Aaron convinced me that it had a lot of give so it would be ok. I may not have a career in quilting after all. Oh well. Ok really here are the pictures:

Progress so far. Note the not lined up edges. Whoops.

A closer up shot. Don’t study this for too long or you will find all the imperfections and go crazy and want to rip your quilt up. I think I lack patience.

Oh yeah, in the middle where it gets sewn together goes white windows. Just in case you were dying of curiosity.

I don’t really like these pictures, so maybe tomorrow I will take some new ones and replace them. Or just leave them and post a picture when it is done. Either way.

P.S. You might be wondering why I didn’t just build square by square and instead have strips. The answer: I decided it would look really cool to not quilt all the way through when putting in the windows, and maybe I could figure some cool design on the back, or ribbons, or something. And then I put on the first square of the next row and realized it was then impossible to not quilt through because blah blah blah you don’t care. Anyway, I almost destroyed my quilt in fury, but Aaron again pointed out to me that I could just make rows, sew them together, and stitch all the way through on the white windows. The man is a genius. Ok, so that was all too much information and I don’t have a life.