Twirly Skirts & Stomping

While we were in Ecuador, we did a lot of really exciting cultural activities. One of my personal favorites was called Humanizarte, and it was a representation of each area of Ecuador using dance and costumes to distinguish them. It was a whole lot of fun to watch, and we even participated at the very end! 

One of the solo dance performances involved this wild looking man with a crazy mask on. He was eventually chased away by some men from the town who stomped a lot. 

This is a pretty great video (especially considering I took it with just my digital camera) where you can really see the beautiful costumes. Why don't we dress like this all the time?!

At the end of the performance, they had a raffle to help raise money. Two of our students got to draw names and one of our students was the big winner! Here you can see Sarah, one of our pharmacists, about to draw a name. They kept telling her to look up at the "pajarro" (bird), and she thought that was kind of a strange recommendation seeing as how there were no birds on the stage. haha.

Here's Conor, one of the Notre Dame students, dancing with a member of the cast before selecting the next raffle number. Conor also repeatedly leaned into the microphone to announce, "Go Irish!" 

Finally, Annie was the big winner of the raffle and also got a spotlight dance performance! So cute! We had such a great time!

Betsy Marie & Katiuska

While I was in Ecuador, I was able to spend Sunday afternoon with Betsy, my precious friend from WKU. She's originally from Ecuador, but came to KY for undergrad. Now, she's back in Ecuador teaching English and spending time with her family and friends. I miss her, but was SO happy to get to see her during my trip. I can't wait to come back so we can go to Banos together! 

While I was in the country, Andres proposed to Betsy! I wasn't there for the proposal, but I was so excited that she could call me right after!

We found out that Andres had never gone bowling, and Luis (Betsy's brother) had only been once in his whole life, so we decided that we had to change that. It was a good learning opportunity seeing as how none of us were any good, so no one could really criticize. Haha. We had a LOT of fun!

I really miss Betsy, and I'm so glad I got to visit with her. I really hope to see her, Andres, and Luis again soon! Hopefully next time I can meet her parents too! TQM, mi Betsy Marie!

when the wife's away...

While I was away in Ecuador this past week, Mike had his own fun during his fall break. (Yeah...what a bummer is that! We didn't figure out that his fall break was the same week as my trip until like the week before! So lame!)

First order of business, taking apart Batman (my Toyota Camry - name courtesy of Becky!) to repair the damage from Bambi's stupid mom. Why she decided to ram her body into my car and run away with the Toyota emblem lodged in her derriere, I will never know! (By the way, if you know where I can find another Toyota emblem, let me know. I'm considering just going to the mall and doing a little shopping in the parking lot. haha. Just kidding!) Anyway, here's a look at the first step in the repair process - taking everything apart. 

 Mike replaced the headlamp, repaired the body in order to put on the new hood, painted the new hood, and then put it all back together. There are still a few finishing touches, but it looks pretty good! (Definitely much better than before!) I considered posting a pic from the day of the accident, but the bloodiness is totally disgusting. So, I decided to spare you. 

Speaking of disgusting, Mike's other activity of choice for fall break was chowing down with some friends at Bub's Burgers and Ice Cream...and mastering the BIG UGLY.

 The BIG UGLY is a one-pound burger (one pound after cooking!) that apparently is large enough to provide ample space for three whole slices of cheese. If you finish the whole burger, they post your picture on the wall. 

Sick. Yep - that's right - Mike mastered the BIG UGLY...

...and got this pic of him and his friends posted on the wall of Bub's Burgers!

Well...at least you can tell he wasn't completely miserable while I was gone! haha. Pics to come soon of my Ecuador trip! I also got some awesome videos that I'll be posting! So....check back soon!

Hogar sweet hogar

"Hogar" means "home" in Spanish, in case you were wondering. And in case you didn't already know, I love speaking Spanglish. It's one of my favorite things. 

Anyway...on to the post...and on to pics of our new home! 

 Welcome to our dining room with fresh flowers courtesy of our local farmer's market (another one of my favorite things on this planet!).

 You'll notice the table runner is 100% chapina (Guatemalan), with an awesome double quetzal design. This was a gift from one of the teachers at a school in Santa Lucia Utatlan Solola, where I visited my senior year.

Love it!

And on to our kitchen, where you'll notice lots of our awesome wedding gifts...and some great things we picked up with our gift cards (including that bright blue dish towel)!

Hooray for that crazy-growing aloe plant in my window. (Special thanks to Diana for "Edy," the aloe plant.)

And thanks to Suzzy for this awesome wine rack! Mike bought me quite a few bottles because he thought it would look better all filled up. (Not a bad plan in my opinion!) 

At the top of our stairs, I have this cute table with a little wedding spread. No pics yet...but they'll be here soon! 

We actually have a lot of frames that are either empty or still have the same pics in them from the store. There was one next to the couch in the living room for a while that kept throwing Mike off because he would glance at it and think, "cute kids!" and then realize that he didn't know any of those children in the pictures. hehe. I promise I'll put pics of people we know in there soon! (Send some pics our way if you want some prime picture frame real estate in our new place! haha.)

The living room! Love the table and the Guate pics! (Special shout out to Amy Wolff for selling me her awesome table before moving to Cali to work for Tom's Shoes!)

Downstairs bathroom....I just love the pretty-ness on the counter.

Pics hanging in the bathroom...because I'm a nerd....and I totally geeked out decorating our new place!

Grown up bed set! The picture doesn't show the aqua in the bed spread, but you get the idea. Mike thinks throw pillows are ridiculous. ("You just throw them on the floor at night to get up the next morning and set them on the bed where no one really pays attention to them," he argues.) Fair enough, but they make me happy.

And hanging in our bedroom...

All in all we love our new place. Our neighbors are rather unique characters and some of them could easily be cast on an episode of Reno 911. But what good is your first home if you don't get any funny stories to tell! I'm sure they'll be even funnier 5 or 10 years down the road.

We have silly friends.

And now...the countdown of the top three silliest wedding gifts we received! (drum roll please.....)

If this isn't proof that our friends are SILLY, I don't know what is.

#3 - Mystery cans

Our dear friends Claire and John got us a box full of unidentified canned goods for our wedding. Silly? Indeed. The instructions are as follows: You are to open a can before you begin to plan your meal, and then you must somehow incorporate the canned item into your meal. It brings mystery and adventure to every day life! 

Haha. It still cracks me up when I think about our puzzled expressions when we opened a box of unmarked canned goods. (And to their credit, Claire and Jon did also get us a very nice "real" gift. haha.) Thanks, Claire & John, and congratulations on placing in our Top Three Countdown!

 

#2 - El tigre

From our friend Krantz, with a message that reads, "I hope you don't mind the card. It was selected for me. Hopefully it will add some variety to your card reading." I don't know which of the other Triangle guys is to blame/thank for this card selection, but, Krantz, you'll have to thank them for helping you qualify for our countdown! It definitely did add some variety to our wedding card reading. haha! Hilarious.

#1 - ???

There are not words to describe our winner. 

Haha...yeah...some wonderful, anonymous soul (although I have a suspect in mind) dropped this in with our wedding cards. Unique. Creative. And proof that our friends are totally nuts. 

Also, as a contest bonus, we'd love to be able to put a nice "thank you" to the person who is responsible for this creative winning masterpiece. So.....tattle away! :) (Inquiring minds are dying to know!)

Up...up...and away!

This is the very last of our honeymoon pics, and it should be seeing as how our honeymoon was in August...and now it's October! Good grief...where did September go?! 

I had this conviction that on our honeymoon we should try something out of the ordinary. Something we wouldn't do on a normal vacation, and definitely not something we would just do at home. My adventurous pick - parasailing! Neither one of us had tried it before, and we found it to be surprisingly relaxing.

Up....

 ...up...

..and away!

You can see so far out when you are a few hundred feet up in the air! We actually saw some of the oil spill clean-up efforts from our parasail view. 

Funny thing to note about this adventure -- I decided that we should parasail to try something new. Mike's vote? ...massages. haha. We unfortunately couldn't get in anywhere in Orange Beach, but we made sure to get a massage as soon as we got back to Bloomington. (Mike got the deep tissue. BIG mistake. He hurt pretty badly the next day. I got the hot stones and I HIGHLY recommend it. It was awesome!)

Crash landing? More like "splash" landing...haha. (Sorry, I know it was cheesy, but I just couldn't help myself!)

Here's the proof that it really was us up there! Here we are getting disconnected from our 'chute!

We spent that evening walking out along the pier. There were fish flopping all over the place! There must have been some sort of fish-baby boom during the fishing ban following the oil spill because it seemed like people were catching fish left and right!

 On the pier...

 

This last pic is Wild Woman II. We weren't able to track down Wild Woman I, but this crazy guy was parked in the lot for the pier. haha. Classy. 

Well, folks, no more honeymoon pics, but I actually have lots of ideas lined up. I'm sticking to my guns...I really am going to keep up with this blog! Cross my heart. :)