funny how life goes

I should've learned by now that I really can't plan my life too much. It seems I'm living proof of John Lennon's "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" (though about tatooing it).

I was sure I'd be able to update my blog and fill everyone in with what I'v been up to tonight, but no. Life had other plans.

F. smashed his mouth against a piece of furniture and we had to hurry to the dentist with him with two teeth quite hurt. In the end, the dentist managed to put one tooth back to its place but had to take the other one off.

My little guy was the bravest! He never cried the whole time and kept on reminding the dentist that he needed his tooth back to give it to the Tooth Fairy. Not easy to lose a tooth before 5 yo, but will see the pediatric dentist tomorrow and discuss the need to use some kind of fake filler while his permanent tooth is not ready.

Anyway, as soon as he got home, he took his little toth to the window and asked for the Tooth Fairy "Hey, I am a good boy and I'd really like if you could bring me one thousand dollars so I could by myself a present".

First thing tomorrow, find him a new dinosaur! (his new addiction, for a new post)

busy, busy, busy

Quite a busy time these last few days. Many things to blog about, many pictures taken, and many, many on-going projects, but no time!

Later on today, I'1ll try to update as much as possible...

In the meantime, gotta get kids ready for Carnival.

see ya

Blue Monday

Just found out that according to a Welsh scientist, today is the saddest day of the year for British people.

Blame it on my deep passion/interest for such people, that's exactly how I feel today.

Lots of things to be done, so little time. And a summer day like this.


Can we say this is a summer sky?

But things easily got better. Thanks to New Order and their Blue Monday.

back to school

Home is going back into its regular routine with kids back in school.

For a couple of hours everyday, the house is silent. Or at least, without the never-ending playing/enjoying/having fun/fighting we face all the time during kids' school-off-days.

But we still sense they're presence 24X7. Like this.

walking in somebody else's shoes

When you have kids around, life seems to be a never-ending argument. They either argue with each other, or with you.

But in the middle of everything, there are always those moments when you wanted time to freeze so you could cherish them a little longer.

This is one of those. C's decided to be F, for a while. And said she'd be in his shoes to see how it felt.



Probably not that comfortable...

Coldplay

Funny how kids evolve. With three kids, so different from each other, we've been through so many different phases that one would think we'd better find a notebook to track things down.

This is C in her new phase: pretending to be a teenager.



Her new best friend: Coldplay

as per your request

Starting with self-portraits. This is F's:

the vacuum cleaner saga

I wanted to be an inventor. Magically solve all issues that afflict my trembling mind.

For starters, I'd create the perfectly silent vacuum cleaner. AFter eight years of faithful work, my old one decided to die on my hands (when I need it the most with my new WHITE kitchen floors).
After three days of research on the net, and visits to 4 different shops, I still questioned: would I rather have a silent thing or another withy incredible power?

Then it hit me, as I live on a very busy street, why would I need the silent one? To hear the phone while I'm vacuuming for instance.

Anyway, in the end, I finally got one that is not THAT loud (and purple)!

an hourglass glued to the table

Have you ever felt that life was just like that? An hourglass glued to the table? Of course that's a fact. But at the same time, can't we just rewrite things for a change?

This is my commitment for 2008. Rewrite everything that needs to be rewritten, change bad habits, adopt new ones (better ones, as well).

No one said that this is going to be easy, but whatever happens, I'll try. Honestly.

For starters, this is already a change. A new post.

Again

Just a side note, Living in China is written by my sister, who's living in Shanghai since October 10.

Once is not enough

For those of you who were curious, we finally managed to end our renovation in kitchen/bathrooms on December 12. Since we are very optimistic people, we have scheduled a Christmas party here for about 50 people on December 15.

Yeah, you're right, that left us with three (I really mean, 3) short days to get everything done...

OK, I admit the final touches were on Dec 12, but the heavy (read DIRTY, VERY DIRTY) part ended on Dec 8. We even managed to get the Christmas tree up on Dec 9!

Anyway, I promise to include some pictures of our new home very soon.

new year's resolutions

It is that time of the year again when everything seems to be open, and things have a new chance to turn out successfully.

Resolutions include, of course, update this blog at least weekly (see how realistic I am, I was about to write daily).

Also, share more pictures and tips on amazing sites.

Considering that apart from one or two great things and some few people we had a chance to see late in the year, 2007 was not so good. I am sure 2008 will be absolutely GRAND!!!

See y'all

Terrible blogger

I've been the worst blogger ever.

Remodelling around here is still on going, and with so much to do, there's little time left to gthe blogsphere.

In the meantime, don't forget to check these amazing people:
Amanda, Simone, Gabrielle.

See you soon (as I truly hope)

long time no seeing

It's been quite a long time (almost a month, wow!) since I last posted here.

Please bear with me since we are undergoing very heavy renovations around here (bathrooms and kitchen, all at once).

I'll come back slowly since things are starting to fall into place again.

In the meantime, enjoy my angel - one of the reasons I survived this month despite all the dust, dirt and noise... I give you Regina Specktor

new me

Gotta learn to do nasty things to others and I refuse to do so.
How can it be that some people are natural experts in the art of being distasteful, obnoxious, and wicked, all at once?

This is something that bothers me ever since I remember, but I believe it is time to try to act like that.

I am hating myself for that. And will try to think it over in a cold shower.
Sorry for ranting.

3 degrees

While I walked the dog this morning I remembered reading somewhere that with the Internet, there is no longer six degrees of separation, but five.

As one thing lead to another, these are some brief considerations on this:

1 - since we used to live on the same street as a famous Brazilian actress and her famous rock star husband, we are only one degree away from many, many celebrities - not a big deal. The list could include all major Brazilian actors, actresses and musicians. But most importantly it brings me only three degrees away from Mark Ruffalo.

2 - since hubby has been working with model agencies for almost ten years now, we got to know many of the now-tremendously-famous models from the beginning of their carrers (Gisele included). Again, this brings me close to many, many international celebrities. And again, not more than three degrees away from Mark Ruffalo.

3 - since I have friends who work at that famous hotel which cannot be named, once again, no more than three degrees away from Mark Ruffalo.

After thinking for a while, I found out that:

1 - I'm definitely, only, 3 degrees away from Mark Ruffalo (and the President, and President Bush, and many others, for that matter)
2 - I'm most definitely starting to get obsessed about Ruffalo
3 - It is time to focus something else (while I wait for Blindness)

late night discoveries

Now that's a weird thing.

During a late night conversation with hubby we made this awful discovery. We only love each other. Can a marriage survive only on love? Isn't love the secret feeling people look after their whole lives? Why are we complaining then? We were blessed with our love for each other, right? Not that right.

How about butterflies? And the never-ending doubt should-I-call-him/her? And the anticipation? No more of those? Bah, that's no fun.

We decided we have to find passion again. That terrifying/consuming/crude feeling.
Otherwise, will be destined to a marriage only based on love.

And that's definitely not enough.

KFC

Here we are in the middle of a makeover in the laundry room and innocently I decided to look for a lanudromat nearby. What an illusion.

There are NO self-service laundry rooms in town! I figure that Brazilians are too "lazy" to say the least to do their laundry and then go home and iron it when we can pay someone to wash it and iron it, and delivery it to our door, paying by the kilo.

This means that in the end, I'll spend about R$ 100,00 for someone to do my laundry for this week. That is truly outrageous.

It seems that some of the big hits in the world will never have a chance here. It's just like Kentucky Fried Chicken (but then, Burger King seems to be going pretty well in his fight against McDonald's).

Alice

You can bet that when I write a book one of the characters will surely be named Alice. And not because I think much of this name.

First, this name is one of the few truly international names I can think of, I mean, it's the same writing in almost every language. It is also a timeless name, you find little girls named Alice and grandmothers named Alice.

And then, Alice in Winderland is one of my favorite child stories, where Alice is an amazing little girl, bold, brave, independent, not to say dreamy.

This is all to recommend to anyone "About Alice", by Calvin Trillin. One of the best love-stories I read this year. A pure love statement from a husband to his wife.

PS - Note that I said "when" and not "if" I write a book. Now that's progress.

Springtime

This is the firtst time the kids will have to celebrate spring in a different way. There is no garden here to be honored, no plants to be planted, or cared for.

That is why we decided to bring spring into our home.

{Pictures will come in tomorrow}

Also, if you see a crazy-kinda-nut guy watering plants using a large green water can on the streets, or maybe talking to them, be aware that it's my dear hubby. That's his way to celebrate the most colorful of the stations.