A stake in the ground

So we pulled the trigger on the "big house!" I haven't written much about it because it has been quite the ordeal, but basically our relocation consultant made a counter offer last week on our behalf...WITHOUT our consent. She couldn't get ahold of Bond since he was in a huge meeting that day (and why she didn't think to email or call me is still a mystery!), and so when she didn't hear back from him (not that we had a deadline!), she counter offered. It wouldn't have been so bad had it not been higher than we wanted to go (!), but with the exchange rate we are still okay and finally decided that the hassle of having to look again wasn't worth it. Yes, we were/are a bit confused by how this would even happen as well, but alas, "all's well that ends well," right?! That is if they accept our offer...! Since we don't have our visas yet, we had to push back our start date to June 1 vs May 1, so that was the only thing we changed. Bond is oddly optimistic that our visas will be approved in Brasil any day now, whereas I'm thinking end of April at the earliest. We'll see, we'll see...

A week in review

Sunday night: completely lost it at the airport when saying goodbye to Bond. As in, bawled my eyes out, completely inconsolable. Cried all the way through security. And Customs. Three hours of sleep out of 10 on the way to Houston because of turbulence and the early stages of what turned into the worse cold I've ever had. Another 2 hour flight home and I thought I was going to be carried off the plane in a body bag. Pure misery.

Monday-Thursday: Contemplating going to the ER; sleeping; ordering groceries from Peapod since I lost FOUR POUNDS while in Brazil (!); coughing so hard I got SICK in the shower; sleeping; my mom coming to the rescue and curing me with homemade chicken noodle soup; sleep, sleep and more sleep; drama with the housing situation (as in, we still don't have one); more naps, followed by sleeping 9 hours straight last night with no trips to the loo in the middle of the night! How'd that happen?!

Friday: Long shower, shaved my legs, changed the sheets in the "hot zone" that was our bedroom, getting a manicure and a pedicure and returning to the land of the living!

Never in my life have I been knocked down by a cold like this! But lesson learned, even though I still don't look pregnant (and try as I might to imagine that the little "bump" I've had forever is anything other than a cry for more cardio!), I definitely am and that means taking it easy! Holy cow. Still get tired easily, but to anyone pregnant out there, a word of advice: just don't get sick. Fighting a cold with Tylenol is like plugging a hole in a dam with your finger. 

Hold, please.

Essentially, that is what our potential landlord told us today. Apparently, this rental process is new to them so they want to take the weekend to think about our counter-offer. Understandable since it was a bit aggressive, but it's going to be a LONG weekend nonetheless!

Bond has been working long hours and has to work tomorrow, possibly on Sunday, too. I feel so bad that he has so much on his plate and he feels bad that he can't spend more time with me, but at least we are together, even if only at night for a few hours.

Today I had lunch with one of Bond's co-worker's wives. She is Argentinian and also pregnant! She is very sweet and we had a great time talking over a long lunch. They are looking in the same areas we are for a house, so hopefully we'll be neighbors! We already have plans to find prenatal exercise classes and it will be so nice to have someone close by to commiserate with, especially if our husbands are going to be gone as much as we think they will be! 

I leave for the States on Sunday night and then Bond has a killer week here while I attempt to earn at least one free miles ticket with all the "stuff" we need to buy back home! He gets back next Saturday and is home for a week before he comes back down for another week or so. Hopefully, I can come back with him for the first week he's here, even if I am just eating bonbons by the pool all day and slowly becoming a "lady who lunches!" Ha! So not the case...I only drink fruit juice by the pool! 

I wonder...how many boxes of Cheerios can I hide in our container?

This question, and many others, kept me up last night after my 2nd trip to the loo! So, I mentally started adding to our ever growing list of things to do/buy and then I started thinking about everything ELSE we'll need down the road for us and for the baby. See, I haven't been worried about actually having the baby here, because babies are born everyday all over the world and after seeing 2 live deliveries and a c-section many moons ago, I have been leaning towards a c-section ever since. I think it's the Type A in me that likes the idea of knowing when something's going to happen and what to expect, not to mention, we want our moms to come down after the bebe is born and since my mom still works, we can easily schedule the new grandmas' trips by having it scheduled. And, most obviously, seeing as how c-sections seem to be SOP for having babies here in Brasil, it will be one less thing to worry about. I hope.

So, my real worry for our baby (today!) is what to do when it's about 6 months old. I want to breastfeed as long as I can (and I can't even THINK of the possibility that we'll have problems and breastfeeding just won't work for us...) and then my plan was to finally get that food processor we just had to have as a wedding gift, (but never got!) to make baby food, preferably organic. But, what about the next fingerfood phase? What am I going to do then? Do they have Cheerios here? Can I bring a year supply down with us and somehow store it?! Probably not, so what do Brasilian moms feed their toddlers?! I shared this early morning panic with Bond and as he patted his crazy, pregnant wife on the head, he enlightened me with the fact that there are millions of babies born in Brasil every year and he bets that there is something like Cheerios that will do just the trick!

Sigh. I had to agree with his logic, but while I love food and pride myself on being somewhat adventurous, I'm having a hard time getting used to a typical Brasilian diet. I like the rice and beans (especially for the um, fiber!) but eating beef at lunch is a bit heavy for me, and even more so now that I'm pregnant. I'm LOVING all of the fresh fruit and trying to get used to the different veggies, but I'm a little worried that I'm not getting all of the vitamins I need, much less the baby. My diet for the last week and a half has consisted of yogurt, fruit, wheat bread and juice for breakfast; lunch is up in the air, but normal options have been chicken, pasta, bread, pizza, rice/beans, some salad/tomatoes, and fruit; and then dinner is usually the same as lunch, if I'm lucky, but even though I'm not showing yet, my ever-expanding uterus must be pushing up on my stomach, because I can only eat a little bit before I feel full...and then I'm hungry again about 2 hours later. So, by the end of the week, I had gone through the groceries we got to keep in the room AND the mini-bar.

Which leads me to the mini-meltdown on Friday night. It was late and I was starving (typical) and Bond and I decided we needed a little slice of Americana, so we planned for a "date night" and decided to go to TGIFriday's and see a movie. Well, because we got a little lost, we ended up short on time and ended up going to a knock-off TGIFriday's type place where I could only order from the appetizer menu to avoid having popcorn for dinner. I wanted a burger and fries, but could only get their version of mini-burgers, fries and a salad. No problem, right? Well, shame on me, I was so hungry, I didn't read the menu closely to see that my dinner choice was 2 "burgers," 2 chicken sandwiches, and then some mystery meat that I think must have been bife. 

Well, the food came quickly as promised, but as soon as I took a bite of the burger, I knew it wasn't the taste I was craving. I tried the chicken sandwich and same thing, and the last option, just did not look appealing, despite my loudly growling stomach! Que Niagra Falls and a very concerned Bond, not to mention, our sweet waiter that was distraught that I obviously didn't like what I had ordered and I had my first, "I want to go home!" moment here in Brasil.

Bond, bless his heart, just hugged me, and I went to the bathroom to really let it out and then calm down. When I came back, my salad had appeared and so did Bond's dinner choice...chicken wings! Now, back home, Bond orders his wings "center of the Sun" hot and STILL slathers them with whatever super, spicy sauce they have, but miraculously, these wings were like little fried chicken wings and PLAIN! There were a lot and Bond had eaten my dinner, so I dove into those little chicken wings (after removing the skin!) like no one's business and ate my salad and fries and couldn't have been happier walking out of there. I think I even told Bond, "it wasn't that bad!" Amazing what some caloric intake will do for a starving, hormonal pregnant woman!

Now, I know it won't be the last time I just want to run home, but despite my list of worries, I'm trying to keep it all in perspective and realize that even though things are going to be different here, I really believe the "good different" is going to outweigh the "not so good different." Bond and our family will have more time together with a 10 minute commute (vs the 2+ hours each way at home!), I get to "retire" for a few years and be the stay-at-home mom I've always wanted to be while our kids are little, learn a new language and about a new culture, travel to new places, meet new friends and loads of other great things that I probably can't even imagine right now! 

But, I still think I'm going to try to horde as much Cherrios in the drawers of our dressers before they are packed up. Just in case.

It's all about options.

This is Bond's favorite phrase and we finally have some as it relates to housing! Hooray! We have 3, but really 2 since 1 isn't even on the market, yet, and is currently housing some expats I met back in October that move out at the end of April.

The first house is HUGE. Like we could fit our 2200 sq. ft. condo back home inside this sucker three times over! BUT, because of the "global economic meltdown" this property is within our range. Amazing. Why such a big house for 2.5 people and a dog? Excellent question! Simple answer...it's secure, has A/C and we could move in by May! It also has room for all of our "big, American" appliances that we plan to buy in the US, use here and then upgrade ours back home when we return. 

The second house is stuck in the 80s. It has gold and silver accents throughout (gold handrail, gold and silver handles on everything that has a drawer or door) and some considerably dated bathrooms. It's also very big (like only 2 of our condos could fit in it!) is secure and has A/C and a great outdoor area. This is the one though that is still occupied and the current residents haven't even told the owners they are moving, yet. The timing really doesn't work for this one for us, but it could if we were willing to live in a hotel. For a month.

The third house we are referring to as the "estate." Holy cow. So, when the real estate agent first told me about this place, she said that there was a little lake when you drive through the gate. "Oh, that's nice," I thought. Thinking she meant the gate leading into the entire community, NOT the property itself. Language barrier...won't be the last time! So, I just stared laughing when we drove into the gated community and then pulled up in front yet another gate, where I could see a very nice little lake inside! (Again, amazingly, due to the crisis, this property is within our price range and actually only a few hundred dollars more than our condo back home!) The house itself is big, of course, but not so big that it feels overwhelming. I actually love the floor plan and it has a security alarm (Bond about did a cartwheel when he saw this!) and A/C in 2 of the rooms and fans in the rest. But, because it's in a fancier community and has it's own gate, I'm a little concerned about feeling like a lonely, little princess in this castle! There are other expats in this community, too, but it's smaller than the other 2 options are (like 30 houses vs 1800!) and the street outside of this little gated casa doesn't have a sidewalk, which is a necessity for using our fancy, new stroller and walking off the baby weight I'm sure I'll eventually gain!

We made an offer on the first house yesterday, got a counter-offer today, and then putting in another counter offer tomorrow. If they don't bite...we walk! Yikes! So, though we have options, nothing is ideal, but I know we'll have a house one way or another. Even if I do get lost in it!

Still homeless

Well, I guess I shouldn't really be surprised that we haven't found a house yet, considering that we looked at over 80 properties before we bought our condo...and still had buyer's remorse for about a year after that! It's not that we didn't see a lot, but out of 24+ properties in 2 days, we only have 2 contenders and neither Bond or I are really excited about either of them. Several of the houses just wouldn't work at first glance due to glaring security issues (windows that don't lock, for example) and others were really old and out-dated. 

So, we're hoping that we find something this week that can be negotiated into our price range, has A/C in at least 2 rooms, a security alarm, that it can pass Bond's company's security test and will be available in May! What? Too much to ask for?! ;) A girl can dream, right?

Honestly though, I'm a little worried about what happens if we don't find something now! I have already extended my stay until next Sunday to give us more time, so I hope that helps, but we need to buy appliances (most places might have a stove, but nothing else!) before the movers come to pack up our house in about 5 weeks, not to mention I (read my mom and I) need to make curtains, as all of these things are very expensive here! Actually, after finding Bond's razors at a drugstore this weekend at US$50 for 4 razors, we've decided most everything is more expensive here, despite the exchange rate, except for produce (dirt cheap and oh, so good!), Starbucks coffee (US$3 for a latte!), manicures (US$7) and massages (US$35 for an hour!)

I know that everything will work out though, as it always does, but I just hope it happens sooner than later! Wish us luck!

A room with a view

This weekend we got out of town and the business hotel we've been staying out and headed to the country! We went to a fazenda (farm) about 30 minutes from here to stay at a resort that used to be a coffee plantation in the 1800s-1900s. All of the buildings were original (except where the actual guest rooms were, we think!) and were Colonial-style architecture set on rolling, green hills over looking a river. It was really beautiful and peaceful and perfect for laying by the pool (also probably a modern addition!), if not a bit musty! :) They had a lot of fun things I couldn't do like horse-back riding and a cachaca tasting of the family's secret recipe, which Bond said was quite good! Oh, well...next time! There were a ton of kids there and the resort had a few young, college age girls that kept them all busy with activities. 

The interesting thing to me was that we saw a couple with 1 small child (probably about 8 months old) that had brought along their nanny (baba.) I know that this is really common in Brasil for wealthy families to have a maid, a gardner, and a driver even, but I was surprised to see a nanny on a weekend getaway. The parents played with their baby at the pool, but when it was time to change him, the nanny came to do it. Yes, I realize that's her job, but it was just odd to see the parents standing by while the nanny did the dirty work. Again, it's her job, but this just falls under the "different in Brasil" category, I guess! 

And now back to your regular program!

I know, off to a bad start already, but I have good reasons! :) 1. Nothing really Brazil related was going on as we're still waiting for our visas and 2. I was crazy busy finishing my old job and getting ready to come to Brazil for a week and a half! 

I arrived on Saturday and have just been enjoying time with Bond over the weekend after a week apart! He has been staying at a business hotel in town near his office, so we went to a resort just outside of town for the weekend for a change of scenery. The pool alone was reason enough to go, as it had several cabanas you could use and as much pineapple juice a girl could ever want! I'm addicted to it and it tastes even better when they add mint! Yum! So I recovered from my 10 hour flight on Saturday, sleeping in the shade at the pool and then we went to a pizza party that was planned by the local expat group that night.

We had a great time and it was so wonderful to meet so many families. There were several Italians (I had no idea that outside of Italy, Brazil has the largest Italian population!) a Belgian couple, a French couple and 2 other American families and us. It was a lot of fun and everyone was so nice and genuinely helpful. I am hoping to "job shadow" a gal that volunteers at the American School here, so that will be fun and hopefully lead to a volunteer position for me, too! 

Then on Sunday, we hung out at the pool again and then drove around town, did some price comparing at a local grocery store and found my favorite ice cream place in town! When I was here in October, some of the ladies from the expat group had met me for lunch and they took me to this ice cream place afterwards. It's so great because, like several places in Brazil, it's like a buffet and then you pay by the weight. I'm not sure what the local name is, but we call them "kilo restaurants." Great for quick lunches, but even better for ice cream! They have all of these different waffle bowl and cone options and then you can serve yourself from a huge variety of ice cream and then every kind of topping imaginable! Heaven! After that, we checked into the business hotel near Bond's office and called it a night.

Then today, I met up with a Scottish girl here who is married to Brazilian. We have been emailing for a few months now, so it was great to finally meet her. She is super sweet and we talked for a few hours and will definitely be getting together again soon! Yay! A new friend! :)

So...now, just waiting for Bond to come "home" from work and grab some dinner. Wednesday-Friday, we're going house-hunting, so that should be post-worthy, but other than that...consider yourself updated in my "limboland" life! Hopefully the "adventure" part will kick in soon or else I fear this will be one boring blog! 

"Introduce yourself!"

That phrase comes from one of my all time favorite SNL skits with Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri in the 90's, I think, where they were reject cheerleaders! ("My name is Craig. I give good hugs. I'm not your friend, if you do drugs!")

At any rate, I thought since I now have comments (Plural! Wow, thanks!) that I should divulge a little bit more about the girl in the hot pink shoes! (You can't tell from the picture, but they are faux snakeskin, too, and by far my most outrageous pair of shoes that I never wear because they are completely impractical!)

As for other fun facts, I'm taking a cue from all of those posts on Facebook lately. No, not the one about giving birth. One, for obvious reasons, and two, there is no need to share those kind of details with hundreds of your "friends" much less all of you nice (four) people!

So, you already know I have a pair of hot pink shoes that I never wear, but here are another 20 random facts about me. I think the ones on Facebook are "25 Random Things," but I can't think of anything else and this seems excessive enough as it is!

2. I am an only child. Sort of. I come from an "all-American" family. Not the 1950's kind, but rather the 1970's version where divorce was nearing the "1 out of every 2 households" statistic.

3. I have been contributing to the GNP since I was 15 and worked at an after-school day care program at the YMCA. I have had 16 jobs since then in my 31 years, including college and summer jobs. It's hard to think about "retiring" for a few years, but I'm excited to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Besides a mom, I guess I should say!

4. I am married to a spy. Okay, not really, but he's quite the linguist and has lived all over the world, so when we first stared dating, this was a constant joke. For the purpose of this blog, I will refer to him (usually!) as James Bond, or 007.

5. James Bond and I met on match.com. On our first date, we had wine and cheese (two of my favorite things), talked for 4 hours on a Wednesday night, and left holding hands. Our moms met 2 months later and I moved in "officially" (ahem) 6 months after we met.

6. I have an unhealthy appetite for parmigiano reggiano cheese. So much so, that when I found out that there is an entire TOWN in Italy (Parma, no less!) where it is produced, I promptly told Bond that we were going there for our 5 year wedding anniversary. Don't worry...Bond loves Parma ham, so he's on board, too.

7. I used to drink pickle juice from the jar. Actually, I still would but that's a lot of sodium and I'm puffy enough as it is these days!

8. I moved to the "big city" 7 years ago without a job. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.

9. I am a trained speed reader. In 7th grade, my English teacher had a fancy projector that would highlight blurbs of sentences from a story and it would eliminate the "little words" like "and, the to, as, etc." It was timed and as we progressed the time each blurb was highlighted would get shorter and shorter, training you to read and comprehend more quickly. It definitely worked as I have been known to inhale books.

10. I can sleep most anywhere, but at night, I have to sleep with an eye patch and a white noise sound machine. I blame the eye patch on our neighbors' bathroom light that FLOODS our bedroom with light at night and wakes me up. The sound machine is also a byproduct of city living when I lived with my girlfriends in an adorable duplex, with nothing but plywood between the ceiling and the floor. For 3 years. I literally cried tears of bliss when the 3 college guys above us moved out.

11. In a previous life, I wanted to be a nurse. My background is in Exercise Physiology and my first job out of college was in cardiac rehab, with the plan that I'd always go back to school. That all changed when a nurse I worked with offered her veins for me to practice sticking her for a basic blood draw. I promptly passed out from seeing the blood.

12. I never met an argyle sweater I didn't love.

13. I paid off $25,000+ of credit card and car loan debt in 4 years while living in the city. It was one of the hardest things I ever did, but I completely learned my lesson. I now have 1 credit card with a reasonable limit that I pay off every month.

14. My spice rack is organized alphabetically.

15. I have helped to deliver 2 babies and got to videotape a c-section! One of my aunts was a Labor and Delivery nurse and I job shadowed her one day (before the passing out incident.) It was by far one of the best days and though I have always wanted to be a mom and have kids, it was a great form of birth control at the time.

16. I used to secretly unwrap my presents before Christmas and very carefully re-wrap them. I still feel guilty about this and have vowed to never peek again!

17. When I first moved to the city and got a job, I had the biggest crush on my Greek co-worker. He was gorgeous and such a hard worker that he had 2 jobs! For his other job, he worked in a bar and stayed up all night, rarely sleeping before he would come to his day job, but somehow always wide awake! He was very successful and frequently would pay for our lunch, dinner or night on the town (with other co-workers, of course! Think group date!) with one of the many $100 bills he always had on him...in a roll with a rubber band. He also had really bad allergies and I would buy him allergy medicine because I felt so bad for him. But the meds must not have worked so well, because his nose would bleed all the time. It wasn't until his birthday party 2 months later that I saw him using what was really causing his nose bleeds. Did I mention that I grew up in the mid-west in a town that was recently named the "best county to raise your kids in?" What can I say, "love" really is blind and yes, I really was that naive. And he really was that hot!

18. I make really, really good rice krispie treats.

19. I got lost in Disney World. My half-sister and her husband took me and my nephew when I was about 12. We had a great day and when we were walking out en masse, I heard someone shout out my name behind me. I turned to look who was calling me and no sooner did I turn around, my sister was gone! A vendor took me to some assigned meeting place where kids go with "lost parents" and I was promptly found about 20 minutes later. I don't think my mom ever found out...until now! :)

20. I just got laid off today. I was going to quit in 2 weeks anyway, but never in my life did I think this would be happy news! With Bond traveling back and forth to Brasil 1-2 weeks at a time now, it will be much better that we can be together more and I can get ready for oh, you know, an international move...while pregnant! ;)

Okay, that was way harder than I thought as I started it over the weekend!