i'm back

Well, we've been sick. All of us. Ugh, it was the worst! The four of us here at home all achy, coughy, with no appetite. We're better now but still have a bit of a cough. That always seems to be the last thing to go. Rodrigo was amazing to have around. He kept bringing me goodies trying to make me feel better. He bought me a book I really wanted to read, a perfume I wanted, sacks of oranges, vapor outlet plugs, and lots and lots of things to drink. He was sick too but had to leave the house for meetings and such.
A good thing that came of this is that I could not eat anything at all. The only thing I ate for about a week was gatorade and oranges. Now, my pants are all loose.
Yay! I wouldn't recommend the flu diet, though. You suffer too much for it.

Wow, last time I wrote was before Thanksgiving. It went well. The day before, I was starting to feel sick so my mom and grandma offered to come over to help me clean. Well, of course that meant that I had to clean and they would come inspect. I thought they wouldn't be able to find things to clean, but I swear they were here from like noon until about 10:00 at night. They wiped down the headboards and telephones, moved the stove to sweep and mop. My oven was clean but they cleaned it "right" just to get it super dirty the next day. Oh, I wish all of you could've seen my house that day. I've never seen everything shine like that. Those ladies love cleaning more than anything. Since then, I've been calling them Merry Maids. Heh, heh.

In other news, my daughter has turned completely Jewish. I think it's cute. Her school has been teaching a lot about Hannukah. She's been going around singing "Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel I made you out of clay". Today she brought home a dreidel and some Hannukah coins. Tomorrow, she'll be making latkes in class. She wants us to put up a menorrah. How cute. I was raised Catholic. I'm glad that she's being exposed to different kinds of celebrations, though. I just wish I knew more about it when she asks me things.

Anyway, I'm going to try to change my template to something more in season. I'm going to get on that right now. Take care!

feeling: much better!
listening to: Him (Wings of a Butterfly)
what I should be doing instead of blogging: making a new template

nightline

I honestly don't know how long it's been since I've seen Nightline. It's just one of those programs that you don't watch for years but when you look for it, it's still there. I had no idea that tonight would be Ted Koppel's last show. How sad. When I read that his last show tonight will focus on Morrie Schwartz, I thought there's no way I'm missing this. I didn't catch this series back in 1995 when they were first aired. Mitch Albom, who was one of Morrie's former students caught these shows, got back in touch with Morrie and started weekly meeting with him before Mr. Schwartz died of Lou Gehrig's disease. Then again, all of you who've read Tuesdays With Morrie already know this. "Tuesdays" is one of the saddest, loveliest books I've ever read. I really want to see footage of the man who gave these lessons. Those of you who've read The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Well, I just wanted to let you guys know. I'm going to miss Ted Koppel now that he won't be on.

feeling: super busy
listening to: NPR
what I should be doing instead of blogging: mopping

alec

I hadn't noticed how big Alec looks now. I still see him looking like a baby. It wasn't until I saw his latest picture that I thought he looks like a little boy now.

Everybody say "Awwww....".

feeling: BUSY!
watching: The Today Show
what I should be doing instead of blogging: too many things to list

upside down tree

I just heard about this a few days ago and really, I couldn't believe it. All I keep asking is, "Why?". I don't get it. Why would anyone want to have an upside down Christmas tree? Is this a sign of protest or are people just wanting to be trendy? I thought it was a joke until I heard it on NPR. Apparently, these things are hot and are selling out all over the place. Really? Would you really want one of those? I've never seen one in person. Does anyone know someone who has one of these. I think they're, well, too much. I'm not talking about a religious view, although I can see how someone would see this as blasphemous. I just think they look silly. If I went to someone's house and they had this, I'd think they were weird. I can already imagine if I had one my poor grandma would be making the sign of the cross and sprinkling holy water. Hee, hee. (like if she carries holy water everywhere she goes)

Ok, well, in other news, it is finally cold enough here to be able to turn on the heater. My dad came over and he and Rodrigo cleaned out the furnace yesterday. It was nice and cozy all night. I must have breathed in some fumes or something because when I was supposed to be falling asleep I kept being overly silly. I was saying "It's people! Soylent Green is people!" I wouldn't let Rodrigo sleep then I started acting like Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. I was saying things like "I'm just a caveman. Your world frightens and confuses me." Rodrigo was half asleep and was getting mad. Then I woke him up to talk about Phil Hartman and how much I liked him. Poor Rodrigo. Now I feel bad. Well, I have to keep working on getting this house spic and span before I have these guests over. . .

feeling: warm!
watching: The Today Show
what I should be doing instead of blogging: cleaning the light switchplates. they all have fingerprints on them.

answers and showing off

Ok, Ani got 8 answers right and Margie got 7 answers right. Not bad. Here are the answers. . . .

1. B. That's my last name
2. C. I have one brother named Ruben.
3. A. Brianna and Alec
4. D. I'm 29! ARGH!
5. B. THE CHORE I HATE MORE THAN ANYTHING IS FOLDING LAUNDRY. I HATE IT!
6. D. My major was English Lit. so much for that. . .
7. My favorite food is CHINESE! YUM!
8. True I was a flight attendant before I had Brianna and I've also been a credit specialist.
9. False. Although, I am fluent in Spanish, I'm not fluent in Portuguese.
10. B. I drive a Honda Civic. Every other person in this city does too.
11. A. My ideal vacation would be to England. I love everything Brit!
12. C. My favorite band is U2. I think you know that already.
13. D. Werewolves scare the crap out of me. Yes I know they don't exist (yesterday a co-worker was trying to cure my fear) but still I won't even see a preview of a werewolf movie or a picture. Ugh I'm getting chills just thinking about this.
14. B. My favorite color is baby blue. Poor Brianna had lots of baby blue outfits. If I could design a wedding, I would choose baby blue and very white.
15. C. I got my blog name from a Hello Kitty sticker with a picture of me.

So there you have it.


So now I'm going to show off that I am going to the special screening of Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire this Sunday!!!!!! We went to pick up the tickets today and Brianna was given a movie poster. I won't spoil any of it for you (since some of you live in Australia and don't get to see it until December). For now I'm going to try to put a Hermione outfit together for Brianna. Have a good weekend!

feeling: I love days off!
listening to: Hung up (Madonna) you know, I don't always agree with how she acts and the stupid things she says, but I LOVE her music
what I should be doing instead of blogging: finding Hermione pictures.

quiz

I've been seeing lots of those "How well do you know me" quizzes popping up all over the place lately. I went into a few of the sites where you can create your own and the one thing that I noticed that they all had in common were all the pop-ups and ads. I figured that if I made one and everyone had to sign in with their email address to take it, I'd be making all my buddies get some lovely spam. Not nice. Ever the narcissist, I want to know about me and how well you guys know me. So, I made my own. Play along in the comments or email me at helloyvettyatgmaildotcom.

1. I share my last name with a city in Spain. What is it?
a. Madrid
b. Burgos
c. Sevilla
d. Barcelona

2. How many siblings do I have?
a. none
b. one sister
c. One brother
d. A brother and a sister

3. My children's names are . .
a. Brianna and Alec
b. Brianna and Alex
c. Brenda and Alex
d. Brenna and Alec

4. How old am I?
a. 28
b. 30
c. 31
d. 29

5. A chore I HATE is . . .
a. washing dishes
b. folding laundry
c. putting away utensils
d. vacuuming

6. My major in college was. . .
a. psychiatry
b. philosophy
c. accounting
d. English literature

7. My favorite kind of food is. . .
a. Chinese
b. Italian
c. American
d. Mexican

8. I have worked as a flight attendant and a credit specialist
True
False

9. I am fluent in Spanish and Portuguese
True
False

10. What car do I drive?
a. Honda Accord
b. Honda Civic
C. VW Beetle
d. VW Passat

11. My ideal vacation would be in
a. England
b. Italy
c. Hawaii
d. India

12. My favorite band is
a. Coldplay
b. Incubus
c. U2
d. Depeche Mode

13. I am terrified of . . .
a. vampires
b. aliens
c. ghosts
d. werewolves

14. My favorite color is
a. green
b. baby blue
c. pink
d. brown

15. I got my blog name from
a. a childhood nickname
b. my daughter made it up
c. a Hello Kitty sticker
d. another website

All done! I'll post the answers tomorrow.

you'd forget your head. . . . .

My mom used to tell me that I'd forget my head if it wasn't stuck on or something like that. Seriously, I don't know anyone who forgets things more than I do. Not even my grandmother and she swears she forgets everything.
-Brianna's school had a field trip today and I had forgotten to send her money. I had to rush over to the school and pay for her.
-When we moved here, I sent out change of address cards and I sent one to my friend Diana V. to her old address. I received it back, told her about it and said I'd send it out the correct address. I forgot. Today she sent me an invitation via email and pointed out that she doesn't know my address. Oops.
-We had our power cut off once because I carried the check and envelope around in my purse. I just never mailed it out. We got home and there was no power. Rodrigo got mad, of course.
-I went to my mom's yesterday. She called me before I left and asked me to lend her my brown boots. She called me back (since she knows how I am) and told not to forget. I forgot them. She wasn't surprised.
-When my grandmother asks me for something, she'll ask me about three or four times so that I won't forget.
-I missed a mandatory work meeting once. It was my day off and I just forgot. It wasn't until it was almost over that I even remembered.
-Yesterday we went to a wholesale club and when Rodrigo opened the trunk I saw three packages that I was supposed to have sent out. I had completely forgotten about them and said the big "F" word since they were supposed to have been out at a certain time. One of them had chocolates. F*$! Oh and two of those are for people who read this. Gulp, you'll get it shortly. *blush*
-I had to call a plumber when we first moved here. Rodrigo would call to remind me every day for about two weeks. I never called.
-I left the water running in the kitchen sink once. When I remembered the whole kitchen and dining room was flooded. It took FOREVER to clean that mess up.
-I had plans to go to Brianna's Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. I had even asked for time off from work. Today I found out that I've been planning the wrong date. It's next week.

I know there's a lot of other instances that I was thinking about writing but I can't remember them anymore. No joke. For those of you who know me, I'm sure you've had an experience with me forgetting something. My mom was telling me that she's really getting seriously concerned now as it now being something silly but some of sort of problem. Hmm. I don't know. I've heard that some sort of herbs help with memory. Still I'm almost convinced that I seriously have adult A.D.D. and this is just a lack of focus. I don't know. Any advice?

feeling: tired after the field trip
watching: Oprah
what I should be doing instead of blogging: preparing dinner