Delayed Blogging - Work in Progress!

Hello blog readers. I have been remiss in blogging about my travels, as I may or may not be constantly reminded by the most avid reader of this blog.

Not to fear though, the travel logs are works in progress. I will post them with appropriate dates for our own archiving purposes, but if you're interested in reading about my summer in Australia, the post in all its glory can be found here: Summer in the Sunshine State

Its tough to keep up with the adventures of P, L and new addition A, but we non Orlando residents do what we can!

RBDIII

Party at The Plaza

Whoa. LDL just called us out. I really have no defense EXCEPT that I have made myself 100% available to help her growing family whenever she needs. Since she is SO MUCH BETTER than me (and the rest of her siblings at this parenting thing), I typically need a tall adult beverage and a nap most evenings after Adventures with Aunt T.

Lately I've been traveling quite a bit to New York City. I think it averages to about once a month over the last year, but since S keeps all these details on his spreadsheet, I'm not going to guess exact numbers. You know, just in case the visits to each other's respective cities is a bit lopsided. Lucky for me, he doesn't care that he travels to Orlando way more than I do New York. Whew.

On our way to put on jeans

This particular trip to NYC was longer than usual (because who wouldn't want to spend 5 days in arctic like conditions?) which led to more adventures! S likes to plan things out when I visit and this trip was no different. Thursday evening we were booked to attend a fundraiser dinner for The Bowery Mission. Because it was a formal affair, S and I rented some formal wear and S witnessed his first ever FTD wardrobe crisis meltdown. He's a champ, but I really needed LDL in that moment. Who else would understand that yes, the dress looks great but I just don't feel good in it and now I will be uncomfortable all night and oh yeah I am meeting a bunch of people that I don't know in formal wear and it is snowing outside so I will be freezing and are we supposed to donate any money???? Thank goodness S knew better than to laugh at my ridiculousness. He just complimented my style, told me I looked wonderful, and we made our way to The Plaza. The food was excellent, company even better, and enough dancing to tide S over for a few months. We had such a great time but my most favorite line of the night (besides making a joke about the box of chocolates sold at auction for $1,200) was this one from S to me: Hey, T. You want to head back, throw on some jeans, and grab a beer at the pub down the street? We both felt a bit out of our element but it sure was fun pretending to be fancy! Plus, S is pretty awesome making sure that I feel comfortable and well taken care of. He's good like that.

Next up, Valentines Day! I'm a lucky gal because it was a pretty amazing day. I got to spend the morning getting a tour of the NYC Googleplex from an old buddy from the neighborhood. Then (after putting in a few hours of work myself) I met up with a friend and mentor who was visiting NYC with her family for lunch at Nobu. S was a big hit, as people were excited to meet him. He apparently felt comfortable enough with them to spill his big plans for the evening -- a plan he had been keeping from me for 8 weeks -- while I ventured to the ladies room. I tried so many times to get him to tell me, so that I could adequately prepare, but secretly I was enjoying how excited he was to surprise me. I feel like I should mention that I was presented with the following e-card prior to arriving in NYC:

Ha. Ha. Ha. No Groupon could have put together this itinerary. We left lunch (it was a late lunch) and tried to take a quick nap before dinner (it was an early dinner). Just as I was dozing off, I was awoken with a frantic "T! We have to go!". My only instructions were to not wear jeans; that's cool, cause I've started to enjoy looking nicer for date night. We sat at the Chef's bar at a wonderful place called Perla, in the West Village. The food was really spectacular and it was entertaining to sit and watch the food being plated directly in front of us. S broke with tradition and order a non-pink, flourish-less cocktail for the evening. Also, we shared. That's right ladies and gentlemen! I shared a plate. It was like lady and the tramp when they share the spaghetti (except he's a dapper fellow, not a tramp and we didn't have pasta). The night was full of surprises. 

And then. . . the mother of all Valentines Day surprises. . . the cab takes us to Broadway. . . and we walk to see: !!!! I'm pretty sure my face lit up with excitement (at least, I hope I did). One of my first visits to NYC, I mentioned to S that I had heard it was a good show and would be interested to see it. There was no mention of the show after that until now! S is awesome that way, remembering things I mention and then executing on a plan. It was awesome and hilarious and just such a joy to watch. I highly recommend it. It's so much fun to be in a crowd full of people being entertained by the same thing, laughing and gasping in unison. And because it was Valentines Day, the cast waiting around at the end of the show to hand everyone Valentines Day cookies. That might be the last time S and I ever get handed a cookie from a Drag Queen (but I guess you never know). It was one of the best presents I have ever received. A well thought out, experience gift picked out just for me. 

Just when you think the weekend couldn't get any better, we also managed to squeeze in a trip to see our mutual friends in their new house in Connecticut. The race to catch the train was pretty humorous and I had to remind S that this was Grand Central and I had no idea where I was going. So, he held my hand as we raced from Subway line to the main terminal and still, even with just 3 minutes to catch the train we did a little divide and conquer and managed to snag both tickets and a newspaper before the doors shut. Whew. We walked through a beautiful neighborhood covered in snow to get to the house, literally laughing all the way. Later, I got to sit and catch up with a buddy while S climbed the roof to knock off ice. Always be adventuring, right? Sadly, no pictures from that sweet little reunion. 

We wrapped up the weekend with a small little CGA reunion as Danita came up from Philly to join Rache Hadle and me for some boozy brunch at Calle Ocho. Never ending (while you are eating) sangria's can never be a bad thing (just make sure you read the house rules). We do have a picture from that one. I'm not sure what prompted the facial expressions -- what happens at brunch stays at brunch??

So yeah, I'm on the road, living in two different cities sometimes. It's been worth it so far, this always be adventuring thing. 

Not much happening here...a 3 part series. Part 3. Alternatively Titled: She's Here!

I bet you guys could hardly handle the cliffhanger I left you on last time...What could possibly happen next after so much excitement over Thanksgiving and Christmas!?? Duh, it was playlet set-up day!!  Whoop whoop!  The WHOLE family came over to our house to help construct the playset...that is the 2 grandmothers, 1 granddad, 3 uncles, 2 aunts, & 1 boyfriend and I promise you that all of those hands were needed for construction (side note, that corrected to contraction...foreshadowing!!! :) ) and child wrangling.  We laid out all of the pieces...my job was to write down the serial numbers in chalk on the concrete which required lots of bending up and down.  I quit after about 7 minutes.  The Aunts entertained the kids in the cardboard boxes playing zoo, & boating and after one airport run and a hectic lunch I quietly retreated to my room for rest time around 1:30pm.

Oops.  I knock on the window to Brendan to tell him to get in quick and throw some clothes in a bag because we are off to the hospital!  Baby girl isn't due until January 2nd but she has decided she wants in on the action and she's coming early!  Her sister made her debut 9 days late...so this was a surprise.  We said goodbye to Grandma & Aunt Tess and put Uncle RBDIII in charge of getting them to the airport (also, credit where credit is due...he constructed nearly the whole playlet by himself...long after everyone lost interest..and did most of it with a 4 year old on his back or insisting on helping).  We were off! I'm really not one for TMI so let me just say that if any of you readers are expecting your 3rd baby...I recommended getting to the hospital as soon as you suspect something might be happening.  It was a little crazy town and a tiny bit scary but sweet Adele Elizabeth was born at 4:42pm weighing a whopping 8 lbs 4 oz and was 20 inches long.  She was the smallest of all of our babies but the nurses continued to comment on her large size :).  I love the big babies!

Meanwhile, back at the zoo, the grandparents & aunts & uncles & boyfriend & now girlfriend have all been put in charge of manning the 4 & 2 year old...no small adventure!  B and I were so so grateful to have family in town to help welcome little Addy and also to entertain P & L who didn't skip a beat when we brought their new sister home.  L showers her with hugs and kisses and wants to hold Addy constantly.  P is a little more hands off, but asks questions about A frequently and can be found holding her hand or feet when he thinks I am not watching.

So here we are, a family of 5!  Addy is about 2 1/2 months old now and doing great!  We're adjusting with a lot of help from yay yay and our new play set!  Pictures below...

Adele Elizabeth "Addy"

8lbs 4 oz 20 in

Sisters!

Our first visit to our pediatrician...and I think our first mother/daughter photo.  Oops...3rd kid.

As we like to say "The Gangs All Here!"

 I know, this looks like of cheesy posed...but it actually happened :) Mom and Dad so thankful for adorable Addy!

Angel baby.

One of only a handful of times P has taken interest :)

One of Addy's namesakes...the Great Grano!

And finally, one shot of all of the babes...Valentines Day 2014.

Thanks for tuning in!  I guess my siblings have a little too much going on in their busy lives to do any blogging.  Don't worry sibs! I've got so much free time I'll take up the slack!  wink wink.

Not much happening here...a 3 part series. Part 2.

Do you mind if I just scoot right past Thanksgiving? It was wonderful, the brothers & sisters were all in town together (also for Christmas...it feels like this is the first time that has happened in YEARS.)  Everyone was in charge of making one dish for the big meal so we started ours at 7am when the kids woke up and finished it right about 1030a...yikes.  Delicious...but took too long to put in rotation!  We all headed north a couple of hours to spend some time together in the woods.  Some of the boys went hunting while the rest of us hung around the lodge and hunted for pinecones, fed the fish, went exploring.  It was a peaceful holiday!

Here is Uncle Mack helping P ride his strider bike.  For some reason P has decided he doesn't like riding his bike, which is not helpful for me at all since I need him to be out of the stroller and out on his own - I want to get him on a pedal bike asap but am having no luck...any suggestions!?  Also, I wish I had the video, maybe one of the other brothers/sister will post it.  P made everyone race in the street to grab a flag from his hand - and you had to keep running the race until the last one standing.  I can't remember who was the biggest loser...but it was hilarious.

We picked out Christmas trees with the whole family.  P thought it was a huge forest.  Kind of sad really...since it was off the side of a busy street...but he loved running through all of the trees and accidentally made one fall over.  He had no idea that it was his fault, or that it almost crushed him.  His uncles helped save the day.

And here are the November birthdays for our yearly calendar..look at who is cheesin...quite unlike him.

The happy happy grandparents...P is playing the choking game with granddad and L is probably about to throw herself backward for fun, never a dull moment with these two (four!)

Ok.  So I guess Thanksgiving wasn't that hard to remember...yay yay took a lot of pictures to help.  Also, P went to his first UF football game in the swamp!  He loved it...next up, a trip to NC to cheer on the Wolfpack!

Christmas.  This picture was too perfect to not send out as a Christmas card.  I decided baby #3 would be here closer to her due date and so I could do a Christmas card and then a birth announcement.  hahaha.  Oh the plans we make...stay tuned.

Every year we put activities or books or fun events in our advent calendar...here are a few examples.  Gingerbread teepees / Christmas trees (P chose the neon colors) instead of gingerbread houses.  These were so much easier & the kids loved them and could do it themselves...less clean up, less candy etc.  awesome.  thank you pinterest.

The Holy Land.  P LOVES this place.  Though as a 4 year old he was more observant of the crucified Jesus & the scary parts of the Easter story so we had to steer clear of that.  But it was just as much of a success this year as it was last!  Except Jesus didn't talk to Peter this time...that attraction was broken. :)

Sweet P got to be Joseph in his school nativity scene.  Probably because the only requirement was to stand next to the manger.  Since that is all he would be doing.  He did shake his jingle bells when it was time, which is improvement from his Thanksgiving worship performance where he stood with his hands in his mouth the whole time.

Cannonball Express to see Santa!  One of our favorite adventures...cookies, hot chocolate, Christmas songs...the weather even cooled down a bit for us.

The first thing P says when he sees Uncle Bale is "can he throw me in the air like his helicopter!!??"  Pretty soon he will be too big...but Uncle Bale will probably throw his back out first.

Santa & the whole family on both sides pitched in to get the kids a playset for Christmas...the elves were up late in the night moving it from Santa's drop point at yay yay and grandad's to our house.

Happy boy discovering what Santa brought him.  Thanks to Aunt Theresa for doing the decorating!

It's not a Christmas day celebration without crackers & party hats!  I am unbelievably close to having a baby at this point. She is supposed to arrive in less than a week...

And so begins playset construction day...Aunt Theresa and Grandma Sue are perfect entertainers...but you will notice that our playset is not quite complete...our plans have gone awry.

Tune in sometime in the next month for the final installment of "Not Much Going On Around Here..."

as usual.  unedited and typed quickly.  At least there are pictures.

Escaping the Chill in Chile

As fall semester came to a close at HKS, the Boston area was in the throes of what would turn out to be one of the coldest and longest in history. I had signed up for a class in January during what's called the J-term that I was very excited about: a fast-paced and very dense all day course in Persuasion that would count for one credit. My excitement about the course wasn't enough to override my distinct hatred for the wind and wet, snow and sleet, and when a classmate mentioned a different J-term class that would take place in Chile, I eschewed a course with known benefit for one with, well, a LOT of unknowns.

A group of about 20 HKS-ers headed to Santiago Chile to embark on a course mean to rebuild communities post natural disasters. The Bio Bio region in central Chile was hit devastatingly hard by a massive earthquake followed by a tsunami that wiped out many communities of many different sizes. After a few days in Santiago learning about the event, its effects on communities, and the efforts that had already been undertaken to assuage the population and rebuild, as well as some team building and extracurricular bonding, our group split into three teams. 

Team Perales with our Advisors

The three teams were headed to Cobquecura, a town of about 8,000, Dichato, a town of about 3,500, and Perales, a town of about 500. The Cobquecura team was running a grant competition for small business, the Dichato team was exploring was to rebuild the town economy through aquaculture, and the Perales team was embarking on a needs assessment to determine what could be done to further assist the residents there. I was on the Perales team, and was dropped off with seven other students in an extremely remote coastal village, whose residents were often said to be descendant from gypsy survivors of a shipwreck.

Perales was decimated by the 2010 tsunami

Walking to the school to start the day

Hombres community meeting

We completely embedded within the town for the next ten days. We worked out of the school learning about the community and trying to figure out how best to approach the residents to reach our end goal of distributing $15,000 USD in the best possible way for the town. We held town meetings and went door-to-door listening to and recording the needs of each of the citizens in Perales and Alto Perales. Many of these conversations were emotionally heart wrenching, but it was also difficult to get people to move on from immediate personal or household needs to look at the bigger picture of community needs.

Mujeres meeting

Our classroom work space

Working outside the girls cabana

Work sessions spanned the entire day, including into the cabanas where at least we could have tapas and wine.

Many of the needs were about better warning and easier tsunami escape paths, and protection of the coastline from high water, but these proposals were already in progress by the government, albeit slow progress. We were finally able to ascertain that the greatest need was a long term solution for potable water for the residents of Alto Perales, who often went four days without potable water and whose water supply was being reduced each month.

The end of the water at the Pacific Ocean

Talking about the water flow with Oscar

The source of potable water for all of Alto Perales (150 people)

Discussing strategy

We ended up writing multiple letters and reports to government officials to increase the pace of government initiatives, as well as explain the water problem in Alto Perales. We offered the residents a step-by-step plan to pursue government subsidized well projects, and explained it to each of the water committees of Perales and Alto Perales. Finally, we gave our $15,000 USD to the Perales and Alto Perales water committees to help pay for technical plans and surveys needed to jump start the project.

Meeting with water committees

The experience was extremely difficult, but very rewarding. I learned a lot about human nature, both positive and negative. I learned about working in teams in an unknown environment, trying to accentuate each person's strengths and shield their weaknesses. Lastly, I learned that many of ideas of "helping out" are seen as unhelpful and too far outside the community; yet many want to complain about these aspects while being completely dependent on outside help.

Perales rugged beautiful but rugged coast

Fishing at sunset

Damage and hope

After the hard work, we returned to Santiago for a debrief. It was obvious that the other teams had a quite different experience than we did, but it solidified and strengthened the experience for our team. Later, a classmate and I joined up with a former classmate and fellow Morocco traveler to explore the Santiago area.

We enjoyed delicious Chilean wine in at a great winery, known for being a plantation whose owners shield Chilean forces in their struggle for independence against Spain. We explored the Andes mountains and then spent a day in Valparaiso checking out street art and eating delicious seafood lunch and dinner. We also spent some time at the beach at Vina.

Awesome tasting area with a bougainvillea that would make LTD jealous

The vacation crew

Underground barrels

Verdict? Delicious

Mike checking the color

Street art in Valpo

Vena Beach

Santiago castle

Chile was an incredible experience and an enjoyable country. I will definitely go back to enjoy the beaches again, and especially to explore the south and Patagonia.