Found a new apartment

Hi there. Well, I have to say I didn't think it would happen, but we've pretty much found another apartment here to rent. I say pretty much because we are waiting for the rental company to change the contract so we are not locked into a 30 month lease, but rather a year to year lease. It's been quite a process, involving asking friends of ours to provide documentation of their income, their tax returns, ownership of properties, paychecks, bank statements, and identification. And then asking them to provide more documentation. And then even more. And it's involved my dear wonderful hubby driving back and forth between the rental office, the application office (because you cant' submit an application to the rental agency--they only do the renting, NOT the applications), and getting all the correction documents and signatures. Whew.

Thankfully the place is only about 1/2 a mile from where we currently live, but we still have a big list of things to do within the next month:

-find someone to help us clean the old apartment
-find someone to help clean the new apartment
-find someone to paint the new apartment (they say it's been painted, but that's not really true)
-find someone to help us remove light fixtures/ceiling fans/curtain rods/shower heads from our current apartment and install them in the new apartment
-find a moving company
-figure out how to change our address
-update our address with various companies
-cancel our phone/internet service at our current address and start it at the new address
-buy an oven (the new place doesn't have an oven)
-buy some extra furniture to make things work in the new apartment (shelves, storage, etc)
-buy a armoire for the bedroom that doesn't have one

This is just my "off the top of my head list." So, I probably won't be posting much in the month of July. BUT, not only will we be paying 1/4 less a month in rent (!), but we will have 600 sq feet of outdoor area that is all our own. I'm dreaming of container gardening, a little bbq for churrasco, and space for the kids to run around and do arts and crafts. And we won't be right next to two construction sights, a crazy loud public school, and a very busy street. Maybe, just maybe it will be a little quieter and we can make it our own space.

Dora's 10th Birthday

How did this happen? How did I get a kid that is a DECADE old?? Pretty amazing how those 10 years just flew by.

Dora really only wanted to have a sleep over with a few friends, but I thought it would only be fair to do something at school too. So we invited over 4 of her closest friends to spend the night, and had a little party at school. It's much different having a school party for 10 year olds than for 4 year olds. First of all, they eat A LOT MORE. And secondly, they are not as easy to control. But I'm jumping ahead. We decided to order salgados (salty snacks that are oh-so-popular here) from a local bakery and to have fruit and juice, and I would make my infamous cupcakes. Matt was so helpful, and went to the padaria to order pão de quiejo and coxinhas (Dora's favorites).



Would they be ready by 1:00 pm on the party day? "Claro! Com certeza!" And what happens? We show up, and they are not ready. Ok, no problem. I planned for this, we'll come back on our way to the party. "Of course they will be ready then!" So we come back, and are they ready? No. At this point, Matt is getting really frustrated, and calling me every 30 seconds on the cell phone with an update. I can hear him saying, "no, it's not tudo bem!!!" He asked to speak with the manager. The manager comes out, offers no apology. Matt asks what the manager can do to make things better. The manager says he can't do anything. Matt says it's too bad, because he's not coming back. The manager says, "that's okay."

Really?!? You don't want our business?

Matt actually asked him that, and he says it didn't matter to him. AAHHHHHHH!!

At this point, not only are we without salgados, but we are late to our party. I just tell Matt to grab something so we can make a bee-line to school. Thankfully, we weren't too incredibly late, and nobody seemed to mind that we only had a few coxinhas and some biscoitos (I guess it was less food to throw for the food fight--yikes!) Dora was happy, and I think she felt loved.





Then over the weekend, the friends came over. We made banana splits,



watched a movie and the girls stayed up late painting their fingernails and giggling. I made waffles the next morning with whipped cream and we all played outside until the friends got picked up. Happy 10th Birthday Dora!

Cheese Popsicles!

We're just coming off a 4 day weekend here (Corpus Christi). We took a trip to the zoo (I'll have to do another post for that), went to a friend's house for dinner, watched movies, and went to the park. It's a great little park, not too far from our house, that has been remodeled in the past year or so. There are swings, teeter totters, monkey bars, and lots of kids. And with lots of kids and their parents, come the vendors. On Saturday, the picole or Popsicle vendors were out in full force, pushing around their little carts and shouting, "PICOLE!"



I was feeling generous, and the popsicles were only R$1 (USD $.63). AND he had some of the fun flavors: sweetened condensed milk, avocado, corn, and cheese. The girls got the leite condensado (which essentially just tastes like sugar), Sebastian got corn


and I got the cheese.




Nice picture of Beatrice whining the background, eh? I definitely liked the corn better than the cheese. With the cheese you end up with a mouthful of grated cheese at the end, but it is pretty sweet. It's so Mineiro (meaning of the state of Minas Gerais, where we live). Mineiros do love them some cheese.

Sebastian's 7th Birthday (or how to have a Star Wars party)

So, Beatrice's birthday happened, and then I had a month to prepare for Sebastian's birthday. His birthday just happened to fall on the same day as the all school picnic, so I decided to take advantage of it and just add onto the picnic fun. I made the invitations, this time on the computer:


We made a Death Star Piñata, made a game of "Pin the Light Saber on Yoda," and decided to make balloons into light sabers so we could have battles. I went to 1001 Festas to stock up on candy for the piñata and balloons. I started the piñata waaaay in advance to make sure it would turn out okay, but it still ended up being a little lumpy. I also made cupcakes, and topped them with these images that I'd downloaded and color copied.

Unfortunately, Matt was on tour before and during Sebastian's birthday, so I had to do it all myself. I stayed up WAAAYYY too late, several nights in a row, and as a result I got totally wiped out, and ever since I've been sick, with one cold or another. But, it was total crazy fun. The location was beautiful, it was a nice warm day (sunburn for mommy), and I think Sebastian felt celebrated and loved.


Beatrice and some colegas (classmates)

Sebastian, preparing to Pin the light saber on Yoda

Setting up the piñata



Beatrice on the sidelines

Mommy, getting burnt.

Beatrice "hitting" the piñata

Shower of candy!

Welcome, new tooth!

I have bad teeth. Not just "I need a filling this year," kind of bad teeth. But extraction, root canal, and implant bad teeth. This was compounded by the fact that I had spotty dental coverage in the states, and we decided to postpone some visits. And then I had three kids, and being pregnant is hard on your teeth. Add all that up together, and you get my mouth. I used to joke with my dentist in the states that she must like it when I would visit, because I needed so much work and made her so much money. She laughed and then caught herself, realizing that she shouldn't be laughing.

So when we moved to Brazil, looking for a dentist was important. We have Unimed insurance, and opted to buy the dental coverage. It covers annual cleanings, fillings, part of a root canal...basically the same kind of coverage you get with a dental plan in the states. It took a few tries, but I found a dentist that I really like. His name is Marcelo Saliba, and he's at Rua Ceará 1431/402. He will probably be there forever, because his Dad is a dentist there, and I think that his sister is a dentist, and I think the secretary is his sister too. Gotta love the family businesses. He speaks not a lick of English, so there have been some times that I didn't really understand what he said. But I trust him, and I think he's done good work. One thing I have learned here is that if you need x-rays, you have to go to a lab. Dentists here just don't have x-ray machines in their office. Just a FYI.

I also found an implant dentist/oral surgeon that is GREAT! He was highly recommended by Mr. Saliba, and right upstairs. His name is Geraldo Luiz Guimarães. He speaks excellent English, and did a great job.

So today, 1 1/2 years after losing my tooth due to a failed root canal (done in the states), and after 4 appointments just with the Mr. Saliba to get the tooth made and crown put in, I got my tooth. I love it. It is beautiful, and I am going to eat peanuts and learn how to chew on the right side of my mouth. And I feel like I paid a good price, considering what the cost of getting an implant would be in the states.

Mistaken purchases

I'm sure that I bought the wrong things in the states, but it seems like we are constantly purchasing items that are just not what we wanted. I think that part of what burns me about these mistaken purchases is just how expensive groceries are here, and that I know that returning the item is just a hassle (Portuguese! Return policies! Another trip to the store!)

*Spicy Ketchup? I've accidentally purchased spicy ketchup TWO times. The kids do NOT like spicy ketchup. And in a state where people are notorious for not liking spicy food, I have to ask, "why?"

*Raisins WITH seeds. Huh? But I just did a google search, and apparently eating the seeds makes raisins a whole lot healthier. But I don't think I can convince the kids to crunch their raisins.

*Conditioner instead of shampoo. We've got an overabundance of conditioner because the bottles look exactly the same. Arg.

*Fabric Softener rather than detergent.

*The wrong kind of toilet paper. You get what you pay for here. It's just better to pay more. Go for the Personal VIP Folha Dupla
I just have to make sure I don't get the scented kind...

*Dedo da moca peppers. Sometimes it looks like a spicy pepper, but it's not.

*Margarine without salt.




On another grocery note, Beatrice is having some weird skin reactions to certain things. Tomatoes, oranges, pineapple and ketchup make her mouth get all red and irritated. Then one day, all she ate was chicken, beans and rice, and she still got splotchy. I was trying to figure out what was different, and I realized that I'd bought tempero (seasoning) so our empregada (help) wouldn't have to mince garlic by hand, and I had purchased some with MSG in it! The last time I went to the store, all the tempero and the caldo da galinha (chicken broths) had MSG in it. Anyone had any recommendations for a brand of broth that doesn't have MSG?

Beatrice's 4th Birthday party

We are not Brazilian. We didn't do the candy tables, the bouncy toys and the rented hall. But we did want to celebrate our wonderful kids, and do it our way. Beatrice loves butterflies, so we planned a "borboleta" butterfly for her.


I made invitations with cute little pastel butterflies on them, and sent them to school so her teacher could send them home in each child's agenda. This way the parents know they don't have to send a lanche (snack) to school with the kids, and they can bring a little present if they want. For some reason, I decided that we had to have her birthday on her actual birthday, even though it meant that I couldn't be there because I had to work. So essentially I planned and prepped everything, and Matt took it all to school, set it up and took the pictures. Beatrice's teacher asked us to bring healthy snacks, so we did. I cut up carrots, cucumbers and had cherry tomatoes. Then I made a nice fruit salad with strawberries, watermelon, grapes, mango and banana. I also cut up salami and cheese for crackers. And of course there were cupcakes, with butterflies I made from gumdrops. Very cute. I also made little gift bags with butterfly coloring pages, butterfly stickers, cheap plastic toys and a little candy. Simple, but I did all the work myself (so NOT Brazilian).


The helpers!


When Matt showed up with the snacks, the teachers were surprised. "Wow, this really is healthy!" I guess they say to the parents to bring healthy snacks, but the parents never really do. Of course, the kids did not even touch the veggies, and hardly ate any of the fruit. But they loved the cupcakes, they showered Bea with love, and the teachers did a great job of using the whole thing as a learning opportunity, teaching the kids to use their manners, to take turns, and to say "please" and "thank you." Happy Birthday Bea (two months late)!