Granpda turned 80!

My grandfather turned 80 this week! He is my mother's father. He has been a source of strength for our whole family all these years. When I was little I used to think he was the best grandpa in the world, now as a "grownup" I realize he is not just the best grandpa in the world, but an example of man for us all. He has lived his life with integrity, with respect, always placing his family at top priority. I have learned so much from him and will continue to learn. And we are so lucky that he is so strong to be around for a while and teach Isabela and any other children we have the many lessons in life I have learned from him. We threw him a big birthday party! He deserves it! Everyone had fun, I'm posting some pictures down below of Isabela at the party.





Another note... my father is visiting China at the moment for a citrus congress. He has sent us some pictures and already is telling us amazing stories about China. I never was really interested in traveling to that side of the world to be honest... but now I am! He says it is so neat, the culture there is incredibly different from anything we've seen. The world is so huge.. it makes me realize that when I think about the fact that I'm living 10,000 k away from my home in Clearwater, my brother is in California, my father at the moment in China... technology has made it possible for such an immense world to be connected. Thanks to skype we've been able to talk to him during his trip.

We had a blast!

The weekend was full of fun! Isabela cooperated wonderfully and we were able to go to our cousin´s wedding! She went to sleep at 7:30pm, and only woke up at 5am. So we went to the cerimony at 8pm and were back at home by 2am. Sure it was no fun waking up in 3 hours to take care of baby... but it was worth it. It had been so long since we were up past midnight, we had a great time. We ate good food, danced, had a drink, got crazy and everything! I´m posting some pictures below. Enjoy. And btw- go RAYS!

Wedding

This coming weekend we are going to my cousin´s (Antonio) wedding. We are so very excited since the wedding starts at 8pm, so this will be an event for mommy and daddy only, Isabela will be home (HOPEFULLY!) asleep. The plan is to put her to bed as usual around 7:30pm, then finish getting dressed and go to the wedding. An aunt of my cousin (Aunt Ana, she is awesome!) will be staying with Isabela. We are praying that she will just sleep through until about 2-3am, which is usually what she does, and by that time I´ll be home to feed her and get her back to sleep until 5am at least. Now all of these plans are just that, plans! Isabela needs to cooperate in order for it to happen. And we´ll be so happy if she does since it has been a long time since Jason and I get to enjoy dinner and dancing.
The topic of wedding also reminds me that in about 5 months we will be comemorating our 2 year anniversary! wow.. it goes by fast. We are hoping (again dreaming..) that we maybe able to take a trip together. We never got to go on an official honeymoon. Since we got married here in Brazil and at the time were living in the US we didn´t have the time to take a honeymoon. But now that Isabela will be 1 and more independed (again HOPE), we are starting to plan a trip together.
The weather here is full on Summer already! 100F during the day and a cool 90F at night. Yeap, I said 90F... and no central AC. My oh my.. I thought it was hot in FL, but here without AC seems like the desert without water. Jason and I sleep with fans and windows open and we´re still hot. And since the window is open we wake up with millions of scary looking buggs in our room, and some mosquito bites. Isabela, poor baby, wakes up wet from head to toe ... she loves standing in front of the fan too (although I´m not sure that´s a good idea).
This weekend is a bye for the Gators, so we´ll try to follow the other SEC teams. And wait for the Gators next weekend vs Kentucky.

Saudades

There are words in each language that are unique to their traditions and culture. There is no straight translation into other languages. And this word Saudades is one of them in the brazilian portuguese language. It means to miss someone dearly..., to have that knot feeling in your chest when you think of someone who is far away or who has departed, to feel empty inside when you think of those (things or persons) you miss. It is a word that is constantly in my vocabulary! Unfortunately... even though the world is much "smaller" nowadays I still live with this feeling of 'saudades' quite often. When I'm in the US I feel saudades of my family, my mom, dad, sister, brother, cousins...etc. When I am in Brazil I now feel saudades for my friends, my home, the beach, even my work! It is a healthy feeling though I think. It means you have ties in many places, that you have found meaning in many encounters in your life. And although it hurts, its nice as well because you always know in your heart that you'll get to cherish times with those people, places and things again. Well, this feeling of saudades is what our friends left behind this weekend... they were here visiting us for a week. Dylan and India came all the way from Cape Coral to spend a week with us. We had a great week, we went to Santos (beach, deep water port city), to Pocos de Calda (city near by with lots of water springs and waterfalls), Caconde, where we went water rafting! I'll post some pictures soon!
We are now hoping more friend will come visit!!!
This will be a long post.. sorry! I also wanted to update you all on Isabela! She is 10 months old!!! and now had 4 teeth. They all sort of came in at once. She has her two upper and two lower front teeth. She wants to chew everything now.. no more pureed foods for her. She is sweet as ever, she is playful and now she is starting to understand what we are telling her. She is a little sponge! Whatever we do she tries to do it too. She has a little purse from Fisher price that she got as an early b-day gift from her cousin Lucas and it has a lipstick inside (a fake one made of plastic) and she looks at me and rubs the lipstick on her lips like she is putting it on! So adorable! Such a girlie already.
Well, Jason and I continue on our quest to try to watch gator games, we've been able to watch a little bit b/c my awesome brother!!! who is now living in California puts the skype camera towards the tv and we can see the game a little. Got to watch the 4th quarter of the LSU game, GO GATORS!!! great game and good timing to win! all the other ranked teams lost!
okay, I better get some things done around the house before Isabela wakes up from her 30 min nap!
much love.
here is a link to a video our friend Dylan taped of Isabela:
http://www.youtube.com/v/onWEwgJy1ic&hl=en&fs=1

why don´t you like to sleep?

ohhh why?
Isabela is not a sleeper! Jason says its because she is so smart and she doesn´t want to sleep since there is so much to explore. That´s one way to look at it, but really, waking up at 4:30am, and taking 2 thirty minute naps is just not working... I am so sleep deprived! How can she do it? its a mystery to me!
on another note, next weekend is elections here for city mayor. So I wanted to share how that stuff works here for those of you who might be curious.
Well, starts off with the fact that everyone is obligated to vote, that´s right, everyone has to vote! Yes, its a democratic country, but if you don´t vote and you are between 17-70 yrs old you will have to justify and pay a fine. Wierd huh?
Since so many people that have to vote don´t really even know how to read the candidate pictures appear on the ballot as well. Their campaign is crazy, lots of musical cars drive around the city with catchy tunes to remind you to vote for them... they distribute freebies all the time, bags, sodas, chips, cell phone cases, koozies, all sorts of stuff.
Also, for 8 weeks prior to election we have what is called "horario politico", this is an hour show, twice a day, at noon and 8pm where all your TV channels just show this same program which are the candidates introducing themselves and making their promises for a better tomorrow. So crazy b/c they interrupt normal TV programing for this daily!
For city seats of vereador (sort of like senate? of the state?- i´m not a political person) many of the candidates are very low class individuals. Usually they are school lunch ladies, house- maids, bar keepers, school security man. Most of them have middle school education at most. The political parties pick them and launch them so that they can get someone in the government... they are manipulated and paid for it. Very strange and corrupt unfortunately.
Anyways, its an interesting process.
So on Sunday that we have the election I have to justify why I haven´t voted in the past 4-5 years and pay a fine.. probably will have to stand in a line. I have to justify why I choose not to vote in a democratic election where everyone is obligated to vote?!
enough of that.
I´m on countdown for Dylan and India!!! 3 days!!!
missing everyone very much ~~ Carolina

Next event

The other day I was thinking about life... trying to reflect on life and how wonderful the gift of life is in itself. Then I realized how I'm always living my life waiting for the next event... and I think a lot of you can relate to this. I am a planner, therefore each event has to be scheduled ahead of time, and it must be on my calendar or else there is no chance that it will actually happen. Our next event is the arrival of our friends Dylan and India, they arrive Oct 4th. So for the next couple of weeks my job is to get through things efficiently and planning for their arrival. We just finished the last event on my calendar which was a bbq at the farm with my cousins. So now, on to our next. But then I realized how weird that is... because by living by events we forget to appreciate the gift of normal days... the routine days. Which are a blessing just as much as the "event" days. So today, I'm making a point to celebrate the routine-normal day of Monday! Back in the day... when Isabela was in my belly, and I worked full time, Mondays were dreaded... oh boy, another Monday. So far from the weekend... 5 full days of work ahead! Now I realize how silly I was for that... really! Full time mom, there is no Monday, there is no Sunday for that matter.. every day is work day. Don't get me wrong! It is the single most rewarding (not in the money sense.. ) job there is! And I am so very lucky to be able to dedicate my full day to that. But it is work also! So much work! No breaks, no lunch, no 15 minutes surfing the web on work clock, no quick run to the store for a snack, no chatting with grown ups about how much the boss sucks; just plain work... sometimes silent for hours, sometimes dirty work (ohh the poooohhhh), sometimes creative work (trying to keep her busy with a paper towel and a bib), and non-stopping work. My paycheck, her smile, her peaceful sleeping, her clapping, her crawling, her health... all of that is more than enough.
Anyways, its Monday, and she woke up at 5am, and now is down for a 45-60 min nap... so I enjoy this little time to surf the net. And oh yeah... I am so so anxious for Grey's anatomy this week! I hope I can find it online on Friday or Sat to download! I can't wait.. also back this week is How I met your mother, Heroes and 2 and 1/2 men.. .all very good shows. Lots of downloading this weekend.
much love and missing you all.

Go Gators!!

I must start off by saying how glad I am that we beat the Vols!!! We didn't get to watch the whole game, but we did get to see a little bit because my brother, who lives in California, called us via internet video phone and put the camera toward the TV so we got to watch about a quarter of the game. It was nice!
We went to the farm this weekend for a bbq with my cousins, and we had fun! Around 3pm though the weather turned, and we had some rain with ice! Crazy weather here.. went from 80 to 50 in about 3 hours. We got in the car and drove home then... but the dirt rode was wet so it was quite a challenge.
I'm adding some photos, Isabela loved the bongos that were there!