Fernandes--Party of Five: playing catch-up

Obviously it's been a while since my last post.... so I'm going to do a superspeed catchup post that will contain a few highlights of the past week and a half.

First off:

My father-in-law and husband started a remodel in my garage. We got rid of the old kitchen cabinets that looked like they were useful and a clever use of un-needed cabinetry, but were in fact a huge waste of space. They then built me some lovely floor-to-ceiling shelves so I can keep all my garage goodies in boxes and out of the way. Happy! That completes phase 1.

I also had a lovely girl's night out with my girls from church.... that is, after I found the place. I have the worst sense of direction God could have given me. If there is an option to go left or right, no matter which I choose, I should have gone the other way. It doesn't fail. My friend, Dear Abby, diagnosed it one time for a writer (not me), it's called Directional Dyslexia. A serious (okay, not) condition. Anyways, a little shopping center 20 minutes from my house took me very close to 1 1/2 to find.... after driving all over several sides of San Antonio.

I got there 15 minutes before the shops closed, but was still on time for our reservations at Bin 555, a lovely restaurant where we dined on the porch. For dessert I had s'mores--can you believe it? After feeling like a grown-up, eating miniature goat-cheese grilled sandwiches with tomato marmalade sauce, naan flat bread with hummus, and pommes frites (haha!) I have campfire dessert. But it was good, and it came with live fire! And although much of our conversation centered around our children's and pets' body fluids (my apologies to the people sitting at the next table), it was a much-needed connection with other moms pretending to be adults for a while.

The next day I headed up to Michigan where my sister graduated from Andrew's University with a BA in Communication & Spanish, after which I traveled down to my parents' house in Kalona for a little R&R. There's so much I didn't do there, I don't even know where to start. Let's say I had a fantastic time being 17 again. No kids. No husband. No responsibilities. No curfew. No cooking. Lots of Lazy. I went through a bunch of old memory boxes in the attic.... man, was I really that much of a drama queen in high school? How immature! Oh, right. I was in high school. And although it was good to get away, it was awesome to get back to my babies & my hubby. Dorothy had it right--there's no place like home.

I was pretty sure the kids would be devastated with their mommy gone. This is how bad it was:

So I think Daddy buying them a pool helped. But I guess there was also a little of this going on:

So that made me feel a little better (isn't that terrible?).

I got back late Tuesday night, then Wednesday Filipe reminded me we have to get the kids' Brazilian passports for our August trip. That requires a trip to Houston, which is where the closest Brazilian Consulate is located. So I packed up our bags, and we left town after the boys' nap. The trip normally wouldn't be all that dramatic, if it weren't for the fact that our portable DVD player mysteriously stopped working. And brilliant mommy didn't bring alternative entertainment. So they made some entertainment of their own.

We stayed the night at a hotel, then in the morning Filipe went to a couple of hospitals to get some work done while we were there, and I took the kids to Hermann Park. The boys almost posed. Sofia was having a "day."

And don't be fooled by the cloudy atmosphere.... it had to have been 99% humidity--it was awful! And that was at 9am! I had rivers of sweat running down five minutes into this adventure, which is why we stopped by the fountains next.

We went to the playscapes next, and I did manage to sneak in a picture of Sofia. Boy, did she give me one dirty look afterwards.

And last, but not least, cooking for Friday night worship. I made Prosage (fake sausage for all of you non-veggies out there) cheese muffins, Chunky Apple and Raisin Bread, Banana bread with chocolate chips, and Taco Turnovers for dinner. Oh, yum. This batch of recipes was a good one!