Archive for May, 2008

Not my usual post

18 May 2008 at 7:47 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

My friend Nicole and I met at our how-to-give-birth class at the hospital in Denver before our oldest children were born. Little did either of us know that we would both have surprise c-sections and beautiful little girls born just a few days apart. We were also the only ones from our class of 20 couples who decided to be stay-at-home-moms. So we bonded over that, and now she’s in the middle of chemo for another surprise in her life, and she asked me to do this. So, of course, I am.

“The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.”

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
Hmm.  1998.  I was finishing up my “last” year in Chile, wondering what my life would bring in the future, and eating a lot of ice cream in the winter. It seems that I haven’t moved very far along in life…

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

Get up early to practice with the worship music team before church, find something my kids can eat at the food court that isn’t full of coloring and preservatives, drink one of the precious Dr. Peppers that we found at the store last week, finish Megan’s scrapbook except for the 1st birthday page, and check Google Reader for new postings on my friends’ blogs.

3) Snacks I enjoy: chocolate, cookies (any kind), jelly beans (but it’s been a LONG time since I’ve seen any around here).

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Give it all away. No really. You aren’t what you have.

5) Places I have lived: Kansas, California, Concepción Chile, Florida, New Mexico, Colorado, Santiago Chile. (I’m not going to count places I have only lived 2 months, because there are too many to keep track of.)

6) 3 peeps I wanna know more about:

Jessica Caughey, Renée Horlbeck, Angela Dormish.

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Groceries I never buy

17 May 2008 at 7:25 pm · Filed under food, jobs, purchases, travel ·Tagged , ,

Today I bought groceries, as I usually do on Saturday mornings. Since we don’t have a car anymore, I walk to the store about 15-20 minutes away, do my shopping, and take a taxi back to the apartment with groceries for a week. This time Mark reminded me to buy snacks. Something about it getting colder outside makes us snack more. But anyway…

I was thinking today, as I passed the masses of people waiting in lines within the grocery store, of all the things that Chileans buy that I never buy. Like sliced cheese from a deli window. I just buy a package of sliced cheese, but Chileans buy slices from the deli almost every day for that evening’s meal. Take a number!

Also, ham. I never buy lunch meat EVER. Don’t get me started on all the chemicals that they put into your “meat” so that they can make it that shape. But Chileans stand in another line at another deli window almost every day so they will have ham (the generic word here for lunch meat of any origin) for their evening meal. Or breakfast the next day. Just let me say, “yuck.”

Then there’s the fresh bread weighing line. I do occasionally buy one kind of fresh bread rolls that don’t have shortening. But usually I buy it fresh on the day I want to eat it from the bakery on the corner by my apartment, not at the grocery store on a weekly trip. So I can skip that line too.

The only line I have to wait in (before I head to the check out, of course) is the veggie and fruit weighing line. Four guys (I’m not being sexist, they are all men!) sit there at their special table near the produce weighing fruit and veggies on their scales that print out stickers with the price. I guess that saves the checkout clerks time, but it seems to me like one more ineffeciency of Chile. And more time spent in line.

Finally I get to the checkout, and pay for the food I DO usually buy. Then I head outside and wait again for the taxi. Mark wonders why it takes so long to go to the grocery store, but I’m not worried about it. July first will be our first day back living in the States, and I can be more efficient again.

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