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.