May Mendez Musings

Happy May to you all! You're lucky, they've upgraded the picture-upload function on Blogger, making it so much easier to upload pictures. So you're getting a ton this month!

First off, EASTER.

Here are pictures of the girls coloring Easter Eggs. The little boy is from Abby's preschool class last year. His family is from Argentina and apparently they don't color Easter Eggs there. His mom was absolutely fascinated by the entire process.

Here are the pictures from Easter morning.

Abby finding the baskets filled by the Easter Bunny.

This picture just cracks me up. I think my mom

has the exact same picture of me at this age.

If it isn't obvious, Lily did not want her picture taken.

Here, she is "hiding" from the camera.

Because, surely we can't see her, right?

And here's her lovely pout. Lily has an A+ pout.

Here is our family picture on Easter morning, right after church.

This is Abby and her little friend, Bridget. They're showing you

that the egg is empty, because in Sunday School we learned that the

tomb was empty just like the egg, because Jesus is risen!

(It was so cute, listening to the little kids recite, "Jesus is Rithen!")

Here are pictures of the girls hunting for Easter Eggs in our backyard.

(Just look at Lily say "cheese" in that picture.)

And this is Abby eating her very first Peep.

The following weekend, we had the Embassy Easter Party - complete with an Easter Egg hunt. I got some of the most awesome pictures of the girls there.

So, that was our Easter!

On the Saturday right before Easter, we went over to Piedra Roja, to get out of the house. I got the opportunity to do an impromptu photo shoot of the gals.

(just wanted to point out - Lily's hair is starting to curl in the back!)

(Now, look how long Abby's hair is! When it's wet, it stretches ALL the way down her back!)

Here's goofy Daddy teaching Abby to be goofy too.

And here are my adorable girls.

(Nope, didn't pose her like that. She did it all on her own. She's a natural model!)

Here's a picture of a sneaky snuggle-tickle fest. I'm very good at that.

One day, the girls discovered the housekeeper's gloves. They have decided that washing dishes is cool! Hey, don't look at me, I'm not complaining a bit!

And here are a few random shots to finish us out.

Ms. Abby Picasso drew this picture of ME in the bathtub.

I never knew how "attractive" I was!

Here is Lily helping Mommy while I attempt to work.

And here are the gals on the swings!

So, that covers just about everything from the month of April. May starts our official countdown to leaving Chile. Yup, we head out of here in about 90 days. Which means a lot of sorting, purging, yard sale-ing, organizing, etc. And I start my Career Coaching certification course this month as well. So, we're keeping busy. The girls are giving us a run for our money too.

PS. (Abby's been dry at night for three weeks now! Whoohoo! We might be down to only one kid in pull-ups soon! Shhhhh, don't say anything, you might jinx it!)

Talk to you all soon.

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

April Mendez News

Wooweee, this was some month. Let's get all the pictures out of the way first.

After a week of pukey flu going through our house (Lily and Joel), Abby and I escaped for the first of several birthday parties this month.

Here is birthday party #1. The mom is a very sweet friend of mine from Abby's school. She told me, "Oh we're not going to do anything big." I learned what "nothing big" means in Chilean culture. Not just the cake and punch and kids running around that you'd think she meant in American culture.

Isn't this such a cool shot of Abby?

Later on, we picked up Lily to give Joel a break. (Yes this "little" party lasted about five hours.)

Then, we got the call that my Grandma Bessie had a major stroke at the age of 89. I rushed home to Alabama, with Lily in tow.
She was able to rally for awhile, and we all thought she was going to be around for at least several more months, but unfortunately on the day that I flew out, she passed away, surrounded by her three daughters.

Just a warning, if you plan to be flying through Santiago airport any time soon, this is what you are going to find.

Yes, the earthquakes (I say plural because we've had, what - 300 aftershocks? And some of those were 6.5 and above. One major aftershock was 7.2 - and I was in the shower. Felt quite a bit stronger when you're naked and have shampoo in your hair.) did a great deal of damage to the Santiago airport. The international terminal is trashed, so we're told. All of the ticketing, baggage checking, etc. are outside in tents in the parking lots. Expect to walk an extra mile or so, toting your luggage. Add in a toddler and a stroller and diaper bag and all that jazz, and you get an idea of the "fun" going to the airport is.

This is the "domestic" terminal that I went out of instead. Notice the dangling light fixtures and missing ceiling tiles. What you can't see is the lack of air conditioning. Honestly, not bad considering what some parts of Chile look like, but not exactly what you want to see right before you get on a plane.

Oh, speaking of earthquakes - I've figured out how to describe it to those of you who have never been through one. Turbulence. That is exactly what it feels like - except ummm, you're on land, not in an airplane.

The flight from Santiago from the States is an overnight flight and blessedly there was an empty seat next to me. This is how Lily spent the night. She behaved extremely well and was a great little flier.

While in Alabama, I got to visit two of my favorite places, Walmart and Target. God bless the USA - I saw a jar of mayonnaise that was bigger than my head. Really - I measured it. (Nephews thought I lost my mind.) Only in the US could you find a condiment like mayo in a container so large. What in the world would you do with that much mayo????

The Arts & Crafts Festival was going on in my hometown while we were there. I was a good girl and resisted purchasing. Mostly. But we did stop and enjoy the Fairhope Middle School Band play. Lily loved the music.

While we were in the US, Joel and Abby stayed back in Chile. Mainly because the tickets were too much, but also because we thought it would be best for Abby to stay in her routine with school and such. But don't worry, she and Joel stayed super busy. With THREE MORE BIRTHDAYS. Yup.

So, here are pictures of birthday party #2.

This is Abby's bestest friend and partner in crime, Kata, from our neighborhood.

Don't look so angelic, now, do they? LOL

This is her other partner in crime, Isadora, from across the street.

And here's a photo from birthday party #3, for Kata. Ummm, this was not a "little" party, by ANY ONE'S standards. Held at the Chilean version of a country club. Super swanky place. Wish I had been able to be there.

Then, finally, here are pictures of Abby and Joel celebrating Joel's birthday with our neighbors. Unfortunately Lily and I weren't there because we missed our connection in Atlanta.

On the flight home, Lily discovered boys. Really. Miss Obsessively-shy-and-clingy-to-mommy saw the guy sitting next to me and decided to make friends. Then proceeded to make friends with the 20 year boy across the aisle. And that worked so well she wanted to stand in the aisle and talk to everyone on the plane. All of the sudden, she decided strangers aren't so bad and needed to hold conversations with every person in the airport. It's like she was possessed; it happened so quickly. Crazy. Makes me laugh every single time she's starts acting outgoing now.

Once home, I snapped this photo of Lily collapsed on the couch. It reminded me so much of this picture I took when she was three months old. Can you believe how big she's gotten? Who is this little toddler and where did my little tiny baby go?

Oh, y'all will love this. Abby's doing T-ball now. Here are some pictures of her first batting practice. (And no, I did not dress her. She picked out those clothes all by herself. According to Abby, they "match" because they both have pink. Couldn't convince her otherwise.)

Here is one of our Embassy friends, Alyssa.

So, as far as the rest of our month went:

With all of the mess of the earthquake, we just didn't see Joel much this month. Thankfully they were able to complete the majority of repairs to the embassy and work has gotten to close to normal for Joel again.

I'm staying busy with work as well. I've been planning my way through some certification and assessment programs and new marketing plans and all that fun jazz. Never seem to catch up, which I guess is normal.

Abby started preschool this month and we got adjusted to our "normal" schedule. Every morning I drop her off at her class, pop Lily in the stroller and go power walking. So far I'm up to power walking two miles. I really want to progress to jogging or running but every time I attempt it I get shin splints. So for now I'm sticking to power walking.

Joel and I also attempted to do South Beach this month. Stress and dieting are not that great of a mix though. I did end up losing four pounds in the first week and a half, but then I went to Fairhope and gained three pounds back eating my dad's BBQ ribs. Oh well. Just teaches me that I better lose that last fifteen pounds for good before we move back in August. Maintaining will be hard enough.

Speaking of moving back, Joel and I thought we should update y'all on our plans. After thinking hard about it for the past two months, we've decided that the girls and I will be moving to Fairhope, Alabama while Joel is gone to Afghanistan. Our current plan is that we will be in Fairhope until January of 2012, then join Joel in DC for about six months while he works there until we head overseas again in June of 2012. Yes, it does look like we will be heading back out overseas again after this brief break. We hope to purchase a condo there that we will have as our summer home when we're overseas. Right now we are doing all of the homework on buying our first home. I did view one place while I was home and it looked really good, but I don't want to jinx it by saying more. I'm even looking at Pottery Barn catalogues and decorating in my head. Craziness. But I'm really looking forward to it, and to Abby starting kindergarten in my old hometown, and getting to do all the fun "US" things like go to high school football games, participate in a "large" (as in larger than 20 people) church with tons of kid activities, ballet classes for the girls, parades, Arts & Crafts, picking strawberries at the strawberry farm, that sort of thing.

Abby is still not adjusting to the old nanny leaving and we've been in the midst of that this past month as well. It's caused some serious behavior problems and regression that we're having to deal with that, trying to help her get through it. Lily, thankfully is oblivious to that, but however has hit her terrible twos early. She literally laid herself down on the floor of the grocery store last week in protest. It was hilarious. How in the world do you not laugh when they are doing things like that? Thankfully we were there early in the morning and the store was fairly empty. The new nanny and I just let her sit there as we continued to ignore her and "shop." My cure? Fruit Loops. Lily discovered Fruit Loops while we were at Nana and Papa's house in the US and she's addicted. I just started talking very loudly - "Oh wow, look what I found. I have Fruit Loops." (the Chilean version, but close enough.) Man, she perked up so quickly and came running over begging for them. Hahaha.

I did purchase a "chore chart" for Abby at Arts & Crafts that she is really is responding to (she loves to get the "stars", and we are trying bribe. . . I mean, convince, Lily that using the potty is fun. She gets an M&M for sitting on the potty. Because she totally CAN use the potty, she just doesn't WANT to. Do you see what I mean about the terrible twos?

I guess that's all I can think of to catch you guys up for the past month. Oh, and I did our taxes, too. Honestly, I wouldn't mind having a boring month with nothing to report for a while. But with our move to the US happening in just FOUR MONTHS, I don't think I will get one of those any time soon. Oh well, right?

Coming up in April, Joel and I are plowing ahead on our preparations to get ready for our move. We're holding a HUGE yard sale this month to purge our house of everything we can get rid of now. Joel is processing his way through all of the bureaucratic nonsense our move will entail. The girls continue to run amok. I'm trying to crank my way through the never-ending to-do list.

Love to all of you,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

March Mendez Madness

Hey There, Folks!

February for us, started with Abby's first Vacation Bible School. It was a bit of a rough week, but wouldn't you know it? Abby was upset that it was all over, and still asks me when she can go back to church. And even though she refused to sing during music time, she knows all the words to every single song and sings along at the top of her lungs when I play the music in the car. Go figure. Kids.



The rest of the month we enjoyed the summer. Here, our new housekeeper figured out how to make a little car work for two kids at once.


Here at the girls having one of their many, many, many Popsicles.


And here is Abby watering the plants, which is one of her chores on her new chore chart.


Also this month, my Canadian friend was hosting a book club meeting and they were reading a book based in the South. She asked me for food ideas. And of course, I needed to test the recipes first. So we fired up the little Fry Daddy and made fried okra and hush puppies, and then we grilled shrimp, chicken and sausages. (No, we did not eat it all once!)

Then, I went over and helped her cook everything. We even made fried pickles, which were a huge hit. We even pulled out my "secret" family sweet potato casserole recipe and made it "Chilean style." (Which really means we couldn't find "American" sweet potatoes, and used the Chilean version.) It's official, E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E loves southern food!

Also, this month, we hit a new milestone. Abby went to her very first dentist appointment. She did absolutely great. Great checkup and she thought everything was "cool" and was so well behaved and angelic. Maybe we should go to the dentist more often.



And one hot afternoon, we headed on over to Mampato. That's a preschool-size amusement park. The girls absolutely love it there.

And of course, we had the earthquake. I've posted a blog post about it here if you guys are interested.

And talk to you all next month!

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

The Mendez Story of the Earthquake

I noticed several of my friend had posted "their story" on their blog, so I thought I would do ours too.

That night was actually going really well for us. Lily woke up once at 11pm for a diaper change (completely normal in our house) and actually snored the entire time I was changing her. I stayed up too late vegging in front of the TV and playing on the computer and went to bed around 12:30am. Abby woke up at 2am, and I put her on the floor of our room by my side of the bed.

And then, as you all know, at about 3:30am the earthquake hit.

I woke up instantly. Joel says he doesn't remember much of it, though I know he was awake as well. At first we just laid there in bed waiting for it to be over. I kept thinking, "Don't you dare wake up the girls." But it just got stronger. And it didn't stop.

The windows started rattling (we had them open because it was a nice night out) and we instantly jumped up in bed. I told Joel, "Get Abby" and he ran to her room. Except she wasn't in her room, she was on our floor. Apparently he had slept through me bringing her in there. I thought he was going to Lily's room, so I turned around and basically just covered Abby with my body in case anything fell over. Joel figured out I had Abby and ran to take care of Lily.

The earthquake lasted about one full minute. Let me tell you that was one long minute.

And of course our power was out when it was over, so Joel stumbled down the stairs to get the flashlight we leave in the kitchen (note to self: it would be helpful to have a flashlight on the second floor, too). Abby had woken up while I was leaning over her and decided she was not going to let go of me. As soon as everything stopped moving, we got the kids downstairs and I got Joel to pull the portacrib out of the basement and we put Lily in the nanny's room. I was only able to pry Abby's fingers off of me by bribing her with a sippycup of milk and telling her she could sleep in the nanny's bed with her. Well, Abby just thought that was the coolest thing in the whole world, so she curled right up with Patty (the nanny) and went right back to sleep.

The next few minutes were spent trying to find the matches and the candles and the embassy radio (walkie-talkie). Apparently I packed the candles in with the Christmas decorations and the walkie talkie decided it didn't feel like working that day. So we called in to the embassy on the neighbor's radio, and Joel changed clothes and headed in to work. Yes, at 4am, about 30 minutes after the earthquake. All of the other embassy kids and families were parked at my neighbor's house sleeping on the living room floor together, but I didn't want to move the girls - I knew I'd never get them back to sleep. So I went around the house and filled up every pitcher we had, and then filled up the bathtub with water. (All those years of growing up in hurricane country came right back to me.) Then I took a shower, figuring we probably wouldn't have hot water for much longer with no power, and I better shower while I had the chance.

So, that puts me at about 5:30am, finally laying down on the couch and closing my eyes to get whatever sleep I could. And yes, you guessed it, the girls woke up bright and chipper at 6:30am. Wanting to watch Dora and not understanding why the TV didn't work.

And can I just point out that LILY SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER ON THE NIGHT OF THE EARTHQUAKE!! Yes, through the actual earthquake, through carrying her down the stairs, through putting her down into the portacrib, everything.

That is just so not fair.

We spent the next 48 hours cut off from the world. No power, the landlines went dead, and the cellphones weren't working. Us embassy "spouses" basically shuttled kids from one house to another trying to keep them all entertained. The only bit of information we had was the random scraps that the "employees" would tell us before they fell on the bed unconscious when they came home.

Joel came home around 11am - his office/department was demolished. Major water damage, everything. A total and complete mess. He and I took all of our freezer stuff over to his boss's house - who got power back right away, and then tried to hit grocery stores. Only one gas station was open, and you should have seen the people. Buying up all the junk food like crazy, because there was nothing else available.

Anyway, that night us neighborhood embassy folks started doing group BBQ's to use up the meat in our freezers before we lost it all.

The following day, Sunday, one grocery store opened and we ran in before they changed their minds. And yes, we did this WHILE we had the kids with us. What in the world were we thinking? We didn't get much. Hey, we still had no power, so what was the point, right? But these other crazies? They all had power, so why were they preparing for Armageddon? You guys who have lived through hurricanes know what I'm talking about. We picked up more charcoal and matches and candles (have tons of those now, hahahaha) and then waited in line for over an hour to pay. It was craziness. And I ended up bribing the girls by buying them candy and toys to make them behave. Bad mom/good mom, depending on your point of view, I guess.

By Monday, I was absolutely stir-crazy. I went in to the embassy with Joel and got on the computer. Answered emails, checked Facebook, cancelled my client appointments for the week. (Wouldn't ya know, the week I have a FULL roster of business - an earthquake hits.) I got on CNN.com and printed out the news for everyone back in our neighborhood. Before we left, Joel and I filled up the ice chests from everyone from the neighborhood (trying to keep our food from going) and headed back home. And were greeted with fabulous news - that power had come back on five minutes before we pulled up.

It was not until that night, when we watched the news for the first time, that I had any true understanding of what you guys had been seeing on the news for days. My first thought was, "Ohhhhh. That's why everyone was freaking out all over my Facebook page. Aaaaaahhhh."

Thankfully, our phones and Internet started working again on Tuesday. Cellphones are working as well, though it still flickers in and out from time to time.

Many of our friends were quite shook up and understandably freaked out about the entire situation. I have to say that while both Joel and I are stressed out (Joel more than me, after all, he has to go to work and deal with it now), I did not react like I expected. I actually have stayed more or less calm about the entire situation. It's not 9/11 --- nothing could compare to that. And I'm used to hurricanes that can last for days and days, so one minute didn't seem that bad. At least at the time. I had no idea this thing was going to register as an 8.8 or cause so much devastation.

But you know, for me I think it was that I realized that my kids are completely oblivious. Abby still thinks it was some kind of party, like a holiday or something. And Lily is just her normal crazy self. Maybe them being calm helped me be calm? Or perhaps I just "decided" that I had to stay calm so they continued to not notice what was going on? Not sure. Whichever way works for me. As long as my kids are safe and happy, that is all I need.

So, we are all dong fine. The girls are their normal wild selves. Joel's working a million hours a week and probably will continue that way for a while. Our house is fine with only minor damage - our dryer is broken, I think one of our hot water heaters has a short in the wire, I just noticed our kitchen floor tiles aren't "flat" anymore, and we lost two ugly pieces of pottery. That's it.

I hope to help out with some of the relief and volunteer efforts soon, but I'm waiting until things calm down a bit before I start investigating the best way to get involved.

So that's our story of the Chilean earthquake of 2010. May that be the only one we have to talk about this year.

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily