CREPÚSCULO = TWILIGHT

I was feeling left out with all the Twilight blogs from the other side of the world, so I decided to write one too. The other day two girls from my ward came over so I could highlight one of the girls hair and they started talking about "Crepúsculo" a book that they´re reading. I asked them what it was about and they said "it´s called Twili or something like that in English." Iknew exactly what they were talking about! Then, today in the train I saw two diferent girls reading the book and thought....."Ha llegado!" which translated is, "It´s arrived!"

Anyway, I just wanted you all to know that "Twilight Fever" has crossed the "pond".

Birthday Surprises...

Yup I´m 30!!!

To start this story I have to first tell another story... Just over five years ago I celebrated my very first birthday with a husband,living in a different country and with NO friends or family. It happened to be on a Saturday (the same as this year) and David didn´t have to go to school. Maybe I was being a total WOMAN, but I thought for my first "married birthday" my husband would do something sweet and thoughtful for me...after all I lived in HIS country and I turned 25! We woke up that morning and he sang happy birthday to me and that´s the end of the story....there was NOTHING else, no card, no dinner, no present, no NOTHING!! David studied the whole day and I cleaned the

house. My father was already NOT very happy with David (just because he took me SO FAR AWAY from him) but when he asked what David did for my birthday and I said, "nothing" I thought he was going to come through the telephone, kill David and take me back home with him. Let´s just say he wasn´t very happy about how David treated his "baby girl". It was an unforgettable birthday..even though poor David would like us to forget it!

So, what makes this year SO special is that after five years David has improved...thank goodness!

Of course it took some not-so-subtle reminders the week before, you know, things like, "next saturday is my birthday" and "you do remember I turn THIRTY. It´s kind of a special birthday" and "remember your 30th birthday?"...just small reminders! I have to admit I didn´t have much faith in my cute hubby!

The night before my birthday David went to pick up his mom from taking care of his father and they went grocery shopping (which is normal). I was at her house when they got back and David and I left for our house. On the way home we decided to stop for some Burger King (there aren´t many choices here...no Del Taco or Taco Bell..so sad). While we were waiting in the drive-thru David asked me what I wanted for me birthday and I said little things like, spend the day together, go bowling or go see a movie, and maybe go to dinner...I don´t think I was asking for TOO much! Then he said, "wouldn´t you like a little heater so you can heat up your feet, because they´re always cold?" SIDE NOTE: You´d have to know David to know that he would seriously think of something like that. He´s thoughtful in a very LOGICAL way. His gifts always have to be "uselful" not just "fun"...I mean, he bought me a heating pad for Christmas last year!

I figured that he had bought the little heater with his mom and that was going to be my birthday present and Burger King would be my birthday dinner!

When we got home he took a bag out of the car with a wrapped present in it and he told me I couldn´t open it until 12am. We watched a movie that was on TV (well, I watched, he fell asleep) and when it was over he sat up real fast and said, "what time is it?" I told him it was 12:30 and so he gave me my present. It was a box, just little heater size, but I thought to myself, "I´m going to be excited about it (like I always am) or he´ll stop giving me any type of present...good or bad." I unwrapped it and saw "hp" on the box....I was SO confused....does hp make heaters now? But I opened the box and there it was.....the cutest little laptop you´ve ever seen! I was BLOWN away. He´s always so stressed about money etc. I NEVER expected a gift like this. The last year I´ve been telling him that "when we have the money" I´d like a little computer to take on the train or plane etc. and that´s just what he got me. Not to take away from the "wonderfulness" of my gift, but he had no idea what he was going to get me until he went to the store with his mom that same night...the night before my birthday. He said it was between the laptop or a treadmill....he figured the laptop would get used more and he´s probably right!!

So, after 5 years he did good! But it doesn´t stop there.... (see blog below)

more birthday surprises...

See how cute it is!!

The picture below the new laptop is next to Davids big laptop so you can see how small it really is. It only weighs 2.5 lbs!

On Saturday I had even more surprises! We woke up late and went to buy my favorite breakfast...warm, soggy croissants and chocolate churros...YUMMY!

I played with my new laptop and then in the evening David told me we were going to go out to dinner at a nice restaurant and I needed to wear a dress (not my favorite thing to wear, but if he was going to make the effort to take me out I´d wear a dress!) He told me that on the way to the restaurant we would stop at his moms house so she could give me the present she bought for me. At this point I was thinking maybe his mom would have dinner for me and it was a surprise because...pay for a laptop AND take me to a fancy restaurant seemed to be TOO much for David. But I wasn´t sure...usually he´s not a very good liar, but he´s improving in that too...I don´t know if I like that! Anway, we got to his moms house and he had a few people over for a little surprise party. Julia had spent all afternoon cooking different foods that I like, it was very nice.

After eating the boys sat and watched BARÇA...of course. I said David was improving - not that he´s PERFECT!!

Here below I´m with Lara my friend Raquels little girl. She just turned 1 a few weeks ago!

Here I´m with Sasha, Abi´s (David´s best friend) little girl. This picture doesn´t do her justice because she is a beautiful mix of her father (from Perú) and mother (from France).

All in all I have to admit that David did a good job this year...let´s see if he can keep it up for the next 50 years!?!?!? Thanks honey!!

Visitors from my home planet.

Last Tuesday I had a lovely visit with Dorthy Dalton and Bonnie Lynn from Capo 2. I met them in Plaça Catalunya and we went to dinner. Poor Bonnie had gotten her purse stolen that morning...I felt so bad for her. She was at a McDonalds and sad to say, that is the first place thieves hit (always lots of tourists). We did stop at a "blanket" and bought her a new purse for 15€ (one of the many blankets on the sidewalk full of fake Pradas and Gucci...). We really had a nice time at dinner and then walking around Barcelona.

Thanks for the visit!!

David´s ego...shattered!

Well, you have all probably guessed by now....David did NOT beat the "older guy". His boss said that David played better than expected...but it just wasn´t good enough. David is really actually ok with it (of course now he´s determined to get into shape...which is a good thing), he knew that it was a long shot. He hadn´t played in over a year and the other has been playing twice a week for the past 20 years!! It was fun for David to play and "get in good" with the bosses.

As you can all see, even #1 Rafa doesn´t win ALL the time!

David and his ego!

Last Friday David had his regular weekly meeting with all the "top dogs" of the company (head architect, developing manager etc.) and when they all went out for lunch they started talking about sports...they´re a bunch of middle-aged men, what else do they ever talk about?!?

So, David started talking about how he loves to play tennis and then the head architect (53 years old) said that he plays once or twice a week.....

To make a short story shorter - David will be playing his "in shape, I play tennis two times a week" head architect this Friday! Of course David the "I think I´m all powerful...and how could a 53 year old beat ME (even thought I´m 30lbs. overweight)", is loving the idea of proving his strength and ability to one of his "bosses" in front of all his other bosses....ALL the "top dogs" are going to go watch the match.

The loser will have to swallow his pride and buy breakfast for everyone!

David thinks he´s as tough as Number 1 Rafa Nadal...

...but he´s more like this poor guy!

Will the young out of shape ego maniac win? Or will it be the slightly older tennis playing veteran?
To be continued....

Follow up on the suegra...

The operation went well. Cristina and I had to take off the red nail polish Julia had on her toenails before the operation. Julia is such a happy person that after they rolled her out of the room it only took her 1 minute to find a friend and start up a conversation... while she was in the hall waiting for the elevator there was a young man also in a bed waiting to get operated on and they just talked and talked! And when she came out of the operation she came rolling into the room laughing and talking to the nurse (a hippy-looking kind of guy and super nice) about his peircings and what kind of peircings she should get!! It was funny. During the operation Cristina and I had a few hours to talk about life!! Especially about married life. It´s comforting to know that no matter how much you love your husband EVERYONE has those "not so happy moments" in their marriage!! We also talked about the good stuff...it´s not ALL negative! Unfortunately, I was unable to convince her to start trying to have kids NOW...I mean if I´m not going to have any of my own and all of my nieces and nephews are in the States, she could at least provide me cute baby neices and nephews over here...right? That´s not asking too much is it?!?!?
The rest of the weekend I stayed at Julias house I even MADE dinner one night and lunch one day...I do have to admit that on Saturday night we ordered Chinese!! It was really quite nice, she rested, we watch a bunch of girly movies, I cleaned up the kitchen and her wounds and gave her shots each night...and still have to go over each night to do it. The whole Rodríguez family HATES needles...it´s kind of funny actually, just the thought of having to give or have shots makes them all grossed out. For me, between my father the diabetic (I don´t even remember a time when he didn´t have to give himself shots) and the whole fertility non-sense (each time I do atificial insemination I have to give myself shots..David won´t do it OBVIOUSLY) it doesn´t bother me a bit. But Julia is basically back to normal. She still has a bit of a limp and she´ll go to the doctor on Wednesday to see how everything is going. All in all, I think I made some "good daughter-in-law" points with her!! It was a nice few days.

La suegra

Well, today I´m off to take my mother-in-law (suegra) to get her knee operated on. I will be living with her for the next few days while she´s getting better. I hope she doesn´t expect me to cook much becuase as we all know....Cindi can´t cook! Maybe we´ll live on take-out?!

Planes, trains and automobiles...

The trip turned out to be a "success". In less than three days I took 2 planes, 4 trains, 2 taxi´s and 4 subway rides...when I got back to Barcelona I was EXHAUSTED!!!

I arrived in Madrid and got to the hostel, changed and went to the temple. I had three roommates in my room, a mother and daughter from Portugal and an 80 year old lady from Spain that had gone to live in Argentina for 45 years and is now back living in the northern part of Spain. They were all very nice, but just my luck the portuguese mother had a really bad cough and snored like my Aunt Lou!!! (I thought I was going to get a rest from Davids snoring, but nope!)

The second day I got up at 5:45am took a cab (I was soooo lucky a cab passed by right as I got to the street!) to the Police Station (where they handle the documents) and ended up being lucky number 13 in the line. So, from 6:15am to 9:10am I stood in the cold wind and rain...yes it just HAD to start raining that day...and I was out there for three hours. I called David about 8:00am and told him that if I had to do this again in 5 years I was going to go live in MY country with or without HIM!!! Once I was in the building it took about 15 minutes for them to call my number, do what I had to do and I was out on the street again to go back to the temple. It was still raining when I left and my feet were frozen so I just wanted to get warm. On the way there in the taxi I remembered passing a Starbucks not too far from where I was, so that´s where I headed!!! When I walked into the Starbucks I was soaking wet, my glasses fogged right up, but I was happy to order un "chocolate caliente...grande y un muffin de arandanos". (Large hot chocolate and a cranberry muffin...yummy!) I cleaned off my glasses sat down and warmed up. I took the subway back to the temple (much cheaper than a taxi). My roommates weren´t there so I got into my PJ´s and warmed up for about an hour before getting dressed and ready to go to the temple. I spent the rest of the day at the temple...which I absolutely LOVED!

The third day I got up when I wanted (after another night of symphonic snoring and coughing) and spent the WHOLE DAY in the temple. For those of you that have temples "right-next-door" you probably don´t understand the "spending days at a time at the temple", but for those of us that have to travel "far" to get to the temple that´s what we do. We go for a few days and do nothing but work in the temple. As much as I wish I had a temple close by I have to admit that I like going and being there for days and not just hours. I got to know all the cute little temple workers real well. I even brushed up on my Portuguese!!(that´s a whole other story!)

On Friday it was time to leave the hostel...you have to be out at 9am and clean the room before you leave...and catching the subway to the airport. I got there EARLY as usual, which was good because the Madrid airport is funky confusing!!! I bought some chocolate chip cookies and tic tacs (things that aren´t available on a normal day...the airport has things that no one esle does) and sat and waited for my plane. OH!!!! I totally forgot....I ate my first McDonalds Egg McMuffin in Spain!!! It wasn´t quite the same, but it felt a little like home!

All in all, it was a short-long trip. But hey, in another two weeks I get to do it all over again!! Yup, I have to go back to pick up the marriage certificate....NO, they can´t just send it to me! Welcome to life in a different country!

Living in Spain

Living is Spain is not horrible, but it´s not as exotic as it might sound either! David and I have been here for 5 years and that means it´s time for Cindi to renew her "green card" (that´s not what it´s called here, but you get the gist) and let´s just say the spanish government is NOT making it easy for me!! So, to make a long story short, in order to have all the apropriate documents I need to get my green card renewed I "get" to take a trip to Madrid. I "get" to go to a government building at 6am. I "get" to stand in a line, hope to receive a number and hopefully have all the information I need so that they´ll give me a new marriage certificate. It´s not all bad though, I will be staying at the Madrid Temple hostal and I´ll go to the temple Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday....that makes it all worth while!!