Curious George and Pretty Panties. . .

Excited about Curious George

Potty training Kitty too!!

We had a very relaxing weekend! Friday night, Kevin came home with another package!! Emma was so thrilled to get another birthday present, this time from her friends, the Sponheims. I was way too excited to open it and had so much fun showing Emma her new clothes! Her friends gave her a Curious George outfit and some pretty Tinkerbell panties! It was too cold to go outside with her new clothes on, so we just let her play on the bed. Emma kept saying, "Joshie's panties, Mama!" Even her kitty got to wear a pair. I think the fact that her kitty is keeping the panties dry is encouraging Emma to do the same! Today she's using her first diaper (during her nap) and she's used the little toilet about 15 times!! (She drinks a ton!) Anyway, thank you Sponheims for the timely gift of panties and the cute summer outfit, which she'll be able to wear in a few more months!

FYI - the weather here is a little different than home! The seasons are opposite, so we're actually starting winter here. It's June and I'm bundled under two layers of clothing, a fleece jacket and a fleece blanket! It's raining and chilly outside! The sky is overcast and it feels like it should be November! It won't snow here. . . at least it normally doesn't, and that's nice. However, the homes (and hotels) aren't built with insulation, nor do they have central heating. We happen to have little heaters in our rooms, but it's hard for them to keep up! Don't worry, Emma is plenty warm, even though everyone here always thinks she's freezing! Because of the lack of insulation and central heating, the buildings are extremely cold. If it's 50 degrees outside, it's probably around 55 inside! Today I am thankful that we live in a two-bedroom hotel room and each room has a heater! Today I am thankful that we are not in our home yet, our home that will be cold during the winter (except for the rooms we choose to heat with our space heaters). Today I am thankful the Keatons told us to pack lots of blankets and I'm even more thankful I listened! I love our fleece blankets! OOOOHHHHH, as I'm typing this, the sun is peeking through the clouds and it's tapping me on the shoulder, saying, "Enjoy." Ahhh. . . the warmth of the sun is beautiful!

Back to our weekend. . . Saturday morning, the three of us walked around Horizontina for almost two hours. We walked into a few random stores and just had fun exploring our little town. We spent about $R6 or $3 total! Kevin found a specific fuse he needed for one of our little transformers and he was excited. I was excited that he was excited! Saturday night I went to Jen's house and Mollie came over. Jen's leaving in a few weeks to move back to Waterloo. Mollie's been here a year and will be for quite a while yet. She works with Kevin at Deere. So the three of us made guacamole and fried some tortilla chips from old tortillas that Jen had. We ordered a pizza and talked and talked for hours. I think I got back to the hotel at 12:45am! They both had a lot to share about their experiences here. I really enjoyed learning from them. Jen's been here 3 years so she had a lot to share. Both of these women seemed so positive about life here and I'm looking forward to being in that place, the place where this town, these people, this country, are all familiar and comfortable to me. Right now I'm still in transition and although it's not the most fun I've ever had, it's getting better. It was really good for me to spend time with those women.

Sunday morning we had church in our hotel room. We listened to a sermon from Northpoint Church about Jesus being The Way and I was encouraged. I do believe that Jesus is The Way. Kevin played guitar and mandolin (no, not at the same time, although I wouldn't put it past him), and we had a relaxing morning. We went to lunch at Divina Gula. They were holding a benefit lunch for a young boy here. He's had heart problems and the community is raising money for the medical bills. We didn't understand a lot of what was being said, but we had a good time with Harald and Silvia, the Germans who are living here. The gauchos were playing music and the people were having a great time. We took a nap in the afternoon and then went for a really long walk around Horizontina. We had a yummy 1/2 garlic and olive oil, 1/2 broccoli pizza delivered to our hotel and enjoyed and evening alone with Emma. FYI, the broccoli pizza is absolutely amazing! Never thought I'd say I like broccoli on a pizza, but wow is it good! The garlic and olive oil pizza is delicious also, but the stench of garlic is still on my breath! All in all, it was a really great weekend and I very much enjoyed spending it with my two favorite people!!

The buffet at Divina Gula. . . normally this is where we eat lunch on Saturdays

My two favorite people. Gauchos performing.

D'Forno Pizza on the right, one of our favorite restaurants

Had to blog a little about Zaleski's. This is the big grocery store in town and it's about two blocks from the hotel. Actually, Divina Gula and D'Forno are about three blocks from the hotel, so I pretty much have all I need within walking distance!! Zaleski's is no WalMart and it's no HyVee, but it has what we need for now! There's plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables to choose from and they even have Gatorade and some Hershey's chocolate sometimes. They have whole grain bread, frozen veggies, lots of canned things and a whole aisle of rice and beans!! Seriously, I didn't even know that many kinds of beans existed! Anyway, this is Zaleski's. This is where I'll do the majority of my grocery shopping, except when we drive to Santa Rosa, 40 minutes away, where they have a bigger grocery store. This is where we buy our giant bottles (Culligan-style) of water. This. . . is my HyVee:)