High Tide {on a different beach}

Low Tide

p.s. why the hat?  all the time?

I live in fear of the heat rash.

Plus my hair is out of control.

{think Monica from Friends}

Lunch Today {amazing!}

Bedtime

Last night after I was already in bed and the live was

in the kitchen for his nightly water refill {an annoying habit, by the way}.

TLI: ohhhh shoot!

Me: what?!

TLI: oh nothing.

Me: what happened?!

TLI: I'd rather not say.

Me: I'd rather you did, so spill it.

TLI: well, you know at home how our sink is on the left?

Me: the left of what??

TLI: the kitchen

Me: okay???

TLI: well, I forgot that the sink was on the right here.

Me: and???

TLI: well, it's dark and for the last two nights I've been pouring out my old water on the left.

Me: into WHAT?

TLI: the stove.

Me: ----------------

Enough said.

Feliz Navidad!

Merry Christmas from the Dominican Republic!  

love, our family of two

A Riddle

What does $3,600 Dominican Pesos buy you?

Two new tires for your Kia rental car.

A moped ride for your live in {and the blown tire he is carrying}.

An invite into a Dominican home to watch Spanish soap operas and curl each others hair while you wait for your live in to come back from the tire "store".

A chance to meet some of the nicest people in the world.

So yah.  An hour out of the airport and I run straight through the largest pothole that has ever 

been seen by mankind.  I'm not kidding, it was huge.  

Don't ask how I didn't see it, but I didn't.  And frankly, neither did the live in.   

So, realizing immediately that we had a flat, we pull over to the side of the road and park near someones driveway.  One flat would have been fine, but two makes for a more dire situation.  

The live in, who remained very calm and instantly proved why he's so darn good at his day job, started going to work on replacing one of the tires with the spare.  

By this point the family who's driveway we'd be parked in had come out of the house to

 take a look at the crazy Americans dressed for 35 degree weather.  

With no other ideas about what we were going to do for the 2nd blown tire I make my way up to their house.  I take our car rental brochure, which has a picture of a nice damage-free car on the outside, and I point to the tires and then I say "POP".  

They got it. 

They made a phone call and within minutes a friend rides up on his moped {which is the transportation method of choice for most Dominicans}.  He's speaking in Spanish, we're speaking in English, nobody understands anyone, but somehow somehow we figure out a plan.  They are pulling tire pumps from out of their house, they are bringing me a chair to sit it, they {a mom, a dad, a 14 year old daughter, a 7 year old daughter, plus the mechanical friend} are all huddled around the car - just hanging out.

After they are sure there is no salvaging the 2nd tire {I told you it was a big pothole} there is a lot of hand motions, and loud talking, and the next thing I know I am waving good bye as the live in rides off on the back of the mechanical friend's moped carrying the flat tire.     

I am taken back up to the house to hang out with the girls.  They are curling each others hair using hair gel and a twig.  They would drench the hair in gel then curl it around the twig- it actually turned out really cute.  They showed me baby pictures of the two girls, they talked in Spanish, while I talked in English.  And while I was on my way out of the 

house to go back to the car to grab my camera - the live in pulls up.  

He's smiling.  A lot.  

I must have been smiling too because when he realized I was only coming out to get my camera he asked if I wanted to stay for a little while longer while he went back to "his homeboys".  

I said no, but turned back around to say goodbye to everyone.  

There were hugs and kisses and Feliz Navidads all the way around.  

The live in exchanged phone numbers and bro-mance handshakes with the mechanical friend and we were off, back to the tire store to replace the spare with a new one.  

{Since he could only carry one tire back on the moped}.  

The tire "store" was not Les Schwab, let's just be clear.  It was the side of the road.  Literally.  But, as anyone who knows the live in will attest to, they had already become his homeboys.  

It never takes long with him.         

And as we were driving away we agreed that we wished it wouldn't happened, me driving into the Grand Canyon of potholes, but it a way we were kind of glad it did.

Hands down - the nicest people in the world live here.  Hands down.

p.s. It's to die for here - I'll post pictures and more stories as the week goes on.

{Mom, please don't freak out by this story.  I promise, everything was fine the entire time.}

      

Portlandia

For those of you who haven't seen this yet...

Check

We decorated our Christmas tree last night!  

And...more importantly...I'm able to check a project off of my 

massive projects-to-be-completed-by-Christmas list. 

I made a felt garland for our tree! 

As we were carrying our tree up the elevator of our building someone asked if we would be making a popcorn chain to decorate it with.  I really loved this idea, and had I thought I could actually work with popcorn without consuming it all, I may have tried it. 

But I really wanted our tree to have a homemade vibe, so I went the felt route.  

It turned out cute, it was fun to sew, and it was very inexpensive.  

Priorities

My new swimsuit came in the mail yesterday!

I’ve never bought a new suit in December before, but I must say if feels nice.

Do we have a rental car booked yet? No.

But I have a new swimsuit.

Priorities.

Here's a pic of the house we're renting while in the Dominican Republic:

I'm watching Sport Center's Top 10 right now.  

The announcer said (while reviewing a play): 

"That's awesome.  And if you don't think so, you need awesome lessons." 

Sometimes that's how I want to describe the live in. 

The Christmas Tree

Once again we went on an urban Christmas Tree hunt this year.  

Living is this loft has brought us so many unique experiences and memories.  

Walking our Christmas Tree home ranks pretty high up there...

We went for a mini tree this year.  

I really, really wanted one.  I think they are adorable. 

Oh this weather here in Portland is making it real easy for me to get excited about the vacation we have planned next month.  Real easy.

Here's a couple photos in case you need a mental escape too...

We're headed to the North Shore of the Dominican Republic.  I'll share more details as it gets closer.

Chad: Engaged??

I'm sure you're all wondering how I'm holding up, given the recent rumors of my boy Chad's alleged engagement.

Truth is, it hurts.  What hurts even more?  Hearing that the pair allegedly met via twitter.  Twitter was our thing, Chad!

And 10 carats?  Come on!

My tarot card reader said...

Has it been awhile? Yes, hi!

In October we went to a fabulous Halloween party, complete with a tarot card reader! I had never done anything like this before and was really excited to have my fortune reveled. Sure it’s a little hocus pocus, but it was a ton of fun. I walked away without any big revelations or surprises, but she did “predict” a few (very vague) events.

It’s become a little bit of a joke amongst my friends…several sentences are now starting with, “well, my tarot card reader said…”!

Except today not one, but two of her predictions came true. Oh my oh my. It’s not really important what the predictions were, it’s nothing juicy or interesting, but what is important is that apparently this woman has an insight into.my.soul. It’s so obvious, guys.

Next up, placing a phone call to my doctor. I wonder if they will make a ‘mentally insane’ note on my chart if I call up and say, “my tarot card reader thinks I have low iron and I’d like to get tested asap, please.”? I’m sure this type of referral will fly with the insurance company…

Adios, Santa Fe

I’m cutting myself off from posting any more about Santa Fe*.  I could go on for days.  We truly enjoyed our time there, and for us it was the perfect getaway. 

We ate some of the best food we’ve ever had.  We spent hours cruising art galleries.  We hit the spa.  We hit the pool.  We saw shooting stars.  We relaxed by the fire.  We can’t wait to go back…

{Pictures taken at the resort we stayed at...which we loved!  

Honestly, it was the most luxurious and well thought out place we've ever stayed at.  Ahh...}

*Except for the post I promised about the Mercedes.  Can't skip that.

Santa Fe Plaza

Here are a few pictures from Santa Fe's historic plaza:

The Big Rig

Before I talk about Santa Fe I should rewind…I forgot I had written this post until the very subject came up tonight...

 

It’s 11pm on the night of our arrival and we had just gotten to the rental car counter at the Albuquerque airport.  Everything was going fine until the rental car representative says, “sorry ma’am (strike one) we’re all out of compact cars (which is what I reserved several months ago) – you can choose between a truck or a suburban.”

 

Are you kidding me?  A truck or a suburban.  I drive a Jetta in real life.  It’s small, zippy, and doesn’t cost $100 fill up with gas. 

 

A suburban was out of the question.  Way too big and not enough rear-view visibility.  Plus my last name isn’t Duggar.

 

So, I asked for a tiny truck.  He laughed.  I told him I didn’t have a special license or anything, like the one I assume you need to drive a truck.  No special license required he said.  Hmm.  So I called the live in over, who until now had been waiting with the luggage out of line.  He agreed – we’d be less likely to do damage in a truck.  So, we signed up for a big ol’ American Ford F150. 

 

Honestly, I have to give people who drive this kind of big rig on a daily basis a lot of credit.  Not only is it nearly impossible to get in and out of without flashing your Brittany, it’s also extremely difficult to simply drive between the lines.  And in New Mexico everyone drives a truck, so the buffer between you and the next car truck is pretty thin.

 

And I’m not even going to talk about backing up.  That’s just a huge liability.  Let’s just say it’s not easy. 

 

Parking in town.  Also, not easy.  All the other little cars got to park close to the square in their tiny little spots. But the big rig had to be parked a few block out with the other 4X4’s.  Oh, how did I know we had a 4X4?  It was plastered on the side of the big rig for everyone to see.  Way to keep it classy, Ford. 

 

We thought about asking our concierge at the resort where a good spot was to go four wheel driving…or asking if anyone needed help moving…

Balloon Fiesta Pictures

We’re back.  And we’re a little sad about that.  It was hard to leave the charm of New Mexico behind...

Many of you have asked about New Mexico as a vacation destination…so over the next couple days I’ll do my best to share our experience with you. 

 

We stayed the “night” in Albuquerque prior to going to Balloon Fiesta.  I say “night” because we were literally in our hotel a total of 4 hours.  Getting about 3 hours of sleep.  For Balloon Fiesta people wake up extremely early to catch the early morning events, which start around 6:45am.  This in itself was one of the craziest experiences the live in and I have had – waking up at 4:15am and driving in terrible traffic with thousands of other people to see this thing.  We felt like those wacky storm chasers you see on TV. 

 

But once you are there it makes perfect sense.  I don’t know that I can describe the event with any justice, but I will say it’s one of the most amazing things we’ve ever seen and experienced.  Some of my favorite pictures are below.  But, what they won’t show you is the crazy energy of the crowd.  When the first balloon lit up the dark early morning sky the cheers were goose-bump inducing…

The Road To Taos...

Here's a little bit of what we saw on the road to Taos...it's a gorgeous drive to say the least.

{I promise to do an entire post just on this car...}

{Our final stop...dinner}