November... come and gone

Gigi is often told she has big eyes. She wrote this alphabet sampler on a whim and I told her to smile so I could take a picture to send to Danny.

When I sent it to Danny, his response was, "Where are her eyes?" Gigi responded thus:

I also sent Danny pictures from this gardening class day with the inimitable, superwoman Kendra. We each went around her spectacular garden choosing the specimens that fancied us most and we devised a few methods of propagation to test the efficacy of the different methods on different plants...

Jasminum officinale

Lavandula angustifolia

Fragaria ananassa

Dahlia pinnata

Sempervivum tectorum

We send pictures to Danny everyday. Pictures of lightning storms and super moons. Pictures of us building gingerbread-log cabins. Pictures of my king sized bed lined from one end to the other with sleeping little people. Pictures of us live-streaming a church service from back home because La Paz shut down the city for their elections. Pictures of Gigi sitting on my shoulders, her legs trying to squeeze my neck to my death while I try to finish the puzzle she insisted that "we" do.

Why all the pictures? Danny is in South Florida to replace his ACL. He popped the ligament in a soccer game last month and was "medevac-ed" (medical-evacuation) last week. We have spent the past month agonizing about the details for the procedure and for what the rest of us were going to do. How long could I handle living here solo, without a car? What if we couldn't be together for Christmas? Can we afford five international plane tickets during the holidays, three weeks before departure? In the end, we decided to join Danny a week behind him so we could finish out the month of tennis and instrument classes. And also, because Florencia cooks for me and I really don't want her to have to stop. The mental exhaustion of the process (plus Christmas cards, plus Christmas shopping) shut me down from blogging and personal correspondence. So if you have written me in the past month and I have not responded, now you know why. But I'm trying to catch up so just remind me that I've abandoned you and I'l get right on it!

One of those friends who I've abandoned emailed me more questions which I thought I would answer here for fun. (I already responded to her email personally and issued 100 insufficient apologies):

Has Noemie read all your books? 
Noemie hasn't read them all- my collection has 901 volumes (I have them cataloged on an app), plus her Kindle has another 130 books. The reason, however, that she hasn't read them all may be because she's kind of picky. She scoffs at non-fiction. She eyes historical fiction with suspicion. She's read The Princess Bride about five times; Anne of Green Gables she reads about once a month. And she reads the Hobbit and the whole set of the Chronicles of Narnia as part of a regular rotation as well. So she's actually not read that many of our books.

Do the music instructors come to your house?
Yes. In addition to the violin teacher and the viola teacher (you'll remember, the 12 year old), we have another new teacher now who instructs in "native music" lesson with zampoñas (pan flutes) a skin drum, and these maraca things made our of sheep's hooves. How interesting is that? This same teacher also gives Dominic and Noemie separate piano classes.

Do you have a gardener?
Yes, as a matter of fact I do! What we don't have much of is a garden. But I like having a gardener anyway. I make Dominic sit with him every other week or so to get some Spanish practice and some work ethic. Our gardener, Mario, has taught Dominic all the names of our plants, and how to cut the grass. A few weeks ago there was a garden fair and I bought several rose plants (they were 2 dollars each!). Dominic and Mario's next class was on how to transplant seedlings. Sometimes Mario does extra little things around the house. For instance, remember that hideous peach wall? It's now an electric peacock color. I totally didn't mean to get that color. But. I LOVE IT. I got lime green curtains custom made for the family room too... Sigh. My house is amazing.

As I was looking through photos to add to the blog, I realized how busy we have been! Besides 5 music classes a week and three tennis classes a week, plus an art class and occasional cooking classes and, of course, our regular academic schedule, we also attended a paint party, a mixed family barbecue, game nights, the Marine Corp ball, discovered a new park, shipped out over 100 Christmas cards, researched dog breeds, baked pies, celebrated Thanksgiving with friends, attended a luncheon at the embassy, and set up our Christmas tree. So that's where the time went!