Quito, Day 1 Monday, October 18, 2010

We travelled from Naples to Miami without incident along Alligator Alley.  Ken and I were disappointed with Alligator Alley as we were hoping to see more swamp and alligators.  Along the way I discussed with Camille that we were going to Miami.  She now refers to the city as "your ami" when talking to me.  I now officially have ownership of the city "my ami". 

At the airport, it did not take us long to go through customs.  I guess the US is more worried about what's being brought in than what is leaving the country.  We actually brought Camille's car seat onto the plane, which worked out great.  She was strapped in, surrounded herself will airplane pillows and took a nice nap on the flight.  Landing in Quito is an experience.  Since the city is in a valley surrounded by volcanoes and mountains, the plane has to pretty much drop itself onto the runway.

We experienced our first encounter with Ecuadorian hospitality in the airport.  During passport checks, there was a special line for handicapped and pregnant women.  Because we had two small children, we were ushered into this much shorter line.  It was nice to be in a country where children, the elderly, and families were valued.  Step 2 was getting our luggage and Step 3 was putting our luggage through an x-ray machine.  Just beyond the x-ray machines were automatic sliding doors that led out to an area to meet our friends.  Because Camille is at the stage of taking everything literally, she saw the sliding doors and knew that we must have arrived at "Equa-door".

Our friends Andres and Sol greeted us at the airport with a cute balloon for Camille and drove us to our hotel a short distance away.  We freshened up a bit, then went to a restaurant for dinner.  The restaurant overlooked the entire city of Quito and was encased in glass doors that opened up for a spectacular view.  Unfortunately it was too dark to get a really good picture.


We ate cheese empanadas encased in sugar.  Yum!





The orange round food is potatoes with cheese and onions.  We also ate eggs, beef, sausage, and avocado.

By the end of dinner, it was very late and the kids were tired and fell asleep!





On the way back to our hotel we stopped at a little grocer to get some breakfast food.  Ecuadorians are so helpful that they even have people that "usher" your car to the best parking spot.  Interestingly, most of the food in Ecuador is made by Nestle and the milk is preserved and kept on a shelf rather than in a cooler.

We had a good night's sleep at the Howard Johnson La Carolina, our home for the week.



Soup on Sundays!

A few years ago I started a habit of making a pot of soup on Sunday when the weather starts getting cooler.  My mom makes wonderful soup, and I have heard that my mom's sister can really whip up some good soup.  I guess soup making is in my blood.  Thankfully, Ken and Camille love to eat soup.  We usually eat soup on Mondays when I have class until late and on Thursdays when I'm too tired to think about cooking.  A big pot of soup rarely lasts until the end of the week.  This week I decided to try barley in the soup.  It was wonderful!  Here's roughly what I threw in the pot. (Formal recipes and soup just don't go together.)

Turkey, barley, vegetable soup

1 chopped onion
1 large soup spoon of garlic
~ 2 cups sliced carrots
~2 cups sliced celery
~1 cup broccoli stalks, diced and frozen to soften
~2 cups black beans with a bit of their sauce
1 can corn, undrained
1 can diced tomatoes with basil and oregano
1 can tomato sauce
a few cans of water (so the soup looks brothy)
3/4 of a bag of Publix barley (no soaking necessary)
cubed cooked turkey breast (we had some left-overs)

I usually have carrots and celery (including the leaves) sliced and stored in the freezer.  I also prepare several lbs of black beans at a time and freeze those, too.  Whenever I buy broccoli, I chop up the stalks and freeze them.  They really are a delicious addition to soups!  Also, when I steam veggies, I save the left-over water in the freezer for soup broth as it's full of nutrients.  We don't let much food go to waste in our house.  I didn't add any bouillon or salt to this recipe as the canned corn, tomatoes, and sauce added plenty of flavor.

Throw everything into the pot and cook until it's done :-)

Yum!  This was a really hearty soup!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...fall has arrived to Gainesville!  Leaves have fallen to the ground.
I am thinking...Camille is not taking to staying home with me and Meghan very well.  I think she just realized that Meghan demands a lot of my attention.
I am thankful for...an employer that values family.

From the learning rooms...Camille is working on writing her name.  I gave my first lecture ever today.  It was for work and was on how to write a manuscript clearly and cohesively.  I think it went pretty well.  Thanks for asking ;-)
From the kitchen...it is almost 5:00 and I have not even thought about dinner yet.
I am creating...blogs about our trip to Ecuador.
I am going...to work tomorrow.  Ugh...another 12 hour day.
I am reading...nothing...but thinking about checking out a few Kurt Vonnegut books from the library.  It has been a while since I read for pleasure.

I am hoping...Meghan gains some weight.  She had her 6 month check-up today and we discovered she has lost weight in the last 3 months and hasn't grown any taller.  Please pray for her growth.  Her pediatrician (and I) am very concerned about this.  If she doesn't grow remarkably in the next month, she will have to undergo a battery of blood tests.

I am hearing...Camille's "white noise" fan in her bedroom.  She finally took a nap!

Around the house...I am slowly restoring order.  I have aspirations of keeping things tidier as a work at home mommy.
One of my favorite things...Meghan can now pull herself to standing in the co-sleeper and likes to lean over my bed and smile at me in the morning.  (Even though she's not growing, she has managed to learn how to crawl and pull herself up at a very early age.)
A few plans for the rest of the week: SAI meeting on Saturday morning at our house.  Otherwise, we have no plans.  Hooray!
Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...My sisters and I love to get pictures of the 3 of us together at wedding dances.  Here is a cute "sisters" picture of Camille and Meghan at the wedding in Ecuador.

Ecuador Vacation, Part 1

We actually started our vacation two days prior to flying to Ecuador.  First was a trip to Tampa where Ken refereed and the girls and I ate in the hotel restaurant and just relaxed.  Unfortunately I got food poisoning from the hotel salad and started our vacation a little green.

The next morning we drove to Naples to go to church and spend the day with Ken's friend Jorge and Jorge's wife Veronica.  Jorge used to be a math professor at NDSU in Fargo, which is how Ken knows him.  We haven't seen Jorge and Veronica since their wedding two years ago.  We went to mass with them Sunday morning, took naps at their townhouse, and then went on a nature hike.  Here are some pictures from our adventures:

Off we go!

The trees form "flying buttresses" at their bases to support them in the moist ground.



Jorge and Veronica, our nature guides



Neat sayings were on the railings of the trail.



Can you see the green heron in this picture?

At the very end of the trail we saw a wild hog with her piglets.  Sorry for the poor resolution; it was dusk and the pig was a ways away.

We spent the night at Jorge and Veronica's and then it was a 2 hour drive down Alligator Alley (quite a disappointment; no alligators) to Miami.

Up next...Quito, Ecuador!

I need a practice room!

I really miss my days as a musician when I could retreat into a little tiny room all by myself and practice my French horn.  Talk about having inner peace.  Practicing gave me time to think and meditate.  Lately I feel like everywhere I go someone is trying to start a battle, and I'm not much of a fighter.  I guess we should have purchased a house with a practice room!

On a side note:  I started to give Meghan some solid food on Tuesday.  This Saturday she will turn 6 months and I usually like to introduce food right around that age.  So far she has tried bananas at home and green beans and cereal at daycare.  She seems to understand the spoon concept, but is always trying to hold it for me!

Counting My Blessings

Note: I wrote this post waaay before we left for vacation, but forgot to post it!  Ooops!

Woohoo!  Today is definitely a day to count blessings!

1. Exercise!  It was workout day #2 for my friend Laura and I.  She drives over to my house at 6AM and then we go work out for about an hour while our husbands and kids sleep.  When I'm getting up that early, it is so wonderful to have a buddy to say "good morning" to.  Thanks, Laura!

2. The Chilean miners have all been rescued.  Ken and I have been watching the event live on-line for the past several days.  It makes me proud to be Chilean.

Oh wait...I guess I just got caught up in the moment.  Honestly, though, the rescue was really heart-warming.

3. Milk!  Meghan is a few weeks shy of 6 months old, and I have been able to pump enough milk for her every day to bring to daycare.  When Camille was this age, I had a dwindling supply and a lot of stress in providing enough for her.  I have so much milk in the freezer right now, I'm running out of space for big people food.  Praise God I am able to completely provide for my daughter without the added stress!

4. A clean desk!  My desk at work is slowly getting more visible as I have gotten caught up on many projects the past few months.  (The physician that usually demands the most of my time has been studying for his boards.  I am sooo thankful for the break!)

5. An understanding boss and husband!  For quite some time, I have felt God calling me to stay home with the kids.  Right now our weekdays consist of whisking them off to daycare at 7:30AM and picking them up at 5:45PM.  By the time we get home, have dinner and take showers, it is time for bed.  This means we only get to see our kids awake for less than 2 hours a day.  I knew something had to change.  Thankfully my boss is going to let me work 2 12 hour days in the office and 3 hours in the very early AM before Ken goes to work.  This means only 2 days of daycare for the kids and I get to stay home with them the rest of the week!  We are sooo looking forward to this change in our lives starting November 1st!

Visitors!

We welcomed my sister Becky and her good friend Sarah to Florida for a few days.  They thought they were coming for a relaxing weekend.  Here is what we did while they were here.  I'll let you decide if it was really relaxing.

Thursday
Meghan and I picked Becky and Sarah up at the airport in Orlando and went shopping at IKEA.  I found a cool mirror and lamp and a ton of other bargain items for the house.  Sorry, no pics.  You'll have to come visit to see what I bought.

Next, we went to the outlet mall and bought some warm PJ's for Camille and some soccer shoes for Ken.

We arrived back to Gainesville just in time to kiss Camille goodnight!

Friday
We went to the beach in St. Augustine.  We always park right next to the Castillo Real hotel because there are free restrooms and showers and the beach is usually not as busy as the main St. Augustine beach.  It was a beautiful day!

You can click on the pictures to see them larger.



Sarah



Camille and Aunt Becky



Mommy and Camille




Sarah and Meghan relaxing under the umbrella




Meghan found the sound of the ocean relaxing!




Camille was covered in sand by the time we left.



After the beach, we looked in the little shops around the city and had dinner at the A1A Ale house.  We had a great view of the pier!

In the evening we went to a Greek festival and had some yummy cake with custard.  It was a long day!

Saturday
We all got up early and brought Camille to soccer practice.  Since Ken was out of town, one of the other dads, Coach Kenney, was in charge.  Camille wasn't interested in playing soccer at first.  A phone pep-talk by daddy seemed to help a little.  Eventually Mommy and Aunt Becky realized Camille was more than happy to chase us up and down the field.  By the end of the hour, Camille was kicking the ball with her teammates and running on her own.

After soccer we took Becky and Sarah around town to see all of the tailgaters for the LSU-UF game.  We also stopped at Sam's to purchase some juicy carrots and apples.

Then, we visited a retired horse farm with our friends, the Kenneys.  Here is a link to a few pictures Lorrie took.  More pictures are yet to come from the horse farm!  Sarah was the only one with a camera so we still need to get the pictures from her.  The retirement home for horses is officially my new favorite activity in Gainesville!  Camille was a little scared to feed the horses at first, but was so disappointed that we ran out of carrots by the end.

After naps, we ended our day with sushi at the Bento cafe with two of Becky's Florida friends.

Sunday
On Sunday we went to church, picked up a rental car for Becky & Sarah to drive back to Orlando on Monday, shopped at the mall and found a beautiful dress for me to wear in Ecuador and at Becky's wedding, and went to Lake Alice to see the alligators.


One big gator

 Camille refused to nap, so Becky and Sarah took her to the swimming pool late in the afternoon while Meghan and I cooked dinner.  Finally, we went to the bat house at dusk and saw all of the bats disperse across the city.  There were fewer bats than usual, maybe because most of them have flown south for the winter.  What a great way to end a fun weekend!