Boricua en la Lima

This is the time of year where I'm actually glad I live in Lima. Photo from my sister from this morning -- Branford, Connecticut. Photo from MY view last weekend. 1 hour drive south of Lima. Life is good this time of year... However, after being away from Europe for 2+ years my body is absolutely craving travel. Hopefully 2015 will bring lots of travel! And not the business kind. :)

It has been a whirlwind of a month! First Mom came to visit for about a month and that usually coincides with one of our kid´s birthdays (this time it was Sebas´ turn). So there was a lot of running around in the beginning of April to create the most magical of Star Wars birthday parties! Except if you´re a girl or a boy under the age of 6 and then you pretty much hated the party because Darth Vader and Darth Maul were the scariest things you had ever seen in your life. Then Mom left right after the birthday party and Dad came with his wife about 2 days later to spend Easter weekend with us. It was a great visit, we did a lot of touristy things that I don´t normally get to do with Mom.   We went to the Ballesta Isles in Paracas to see the wildlife, we went to pisco tours to learn about that whole process, and we went to do the sand buggies in the Ica dessert, something I had never done before which was really cool and highly recommended, except a little scary much like this...

A lot has been happening which is taking up a lot of time and not letting me write much! Not to mention not inspiring me much either. First, work continues to be a lot more time than I initially bargained for. I think I am getting more used to it by now but it´s still not at a level I want it to be at long term. But either I´ve learned a lot and I´m starting to do things a bit faster, or we haven´t had enough high pressure visits or I don´t know what, but now I get home around 7:00 pm or 7:30 pm at night instead of midnight almost every night.  Watch me say that this week and jinx it for next week. But the good thing is that because of the better recent work schedule I´ve been able to do my week runs around 8 pm or so once the kids are tucking in for the night.  It hasn´t been easy because most days I just want to get in bed and watch some TV before zonking out for the night, but I think I am somewhat on track to run this marathon on November 3 rd .  But basically betwee...

I can't write anything about the Newton school tragedy because it still hurts to even think about it. I've been trying to avoid the news and Facebook because every time I hear about one of the children or one of the teachers who died helping save children my heart breaks all over again.  I was literally sick to my stomach all day Friday and I cried at all hours of the day in the most inconvenient places.  I drank half a bottle of wine to numb the pain and cried myself to sleep.  And I'm just a spectator in this whole big mess, I can't even imagine the pain the parents are going through right now. So instead I'll just write about the last race we did which included Sebas and had a very festive Holiday feel to it so those were my two favorite things about it.  I did 8 Km (5 miles) in 45:54 which is a personal best for me but it was also hard because I was trying to keep up with my husband the whole time.  Then towards the end when we wanted me to go faster becau...

We are staying at Jose's grandma's house.  House hunting has been tough - prices have gotten crazy expensive in real estate it's almost like Miami before the bubble burst! So of course for the price we are looking for we can't find something great and everything we fall in love with is outside of our price range. :)  We think we will wait for one that's building right now which will be ready in December but then after it's ready we will have to do some remodeling to get a master bedroom out of this area so long story short it'll be a while before we move.  I don't mind living at Jose's grandma's place (too much) but when our furniture (all 200 boxes) arrive I don't know where the heck we're supposed to fit it.  And living out of boxes for a few months is definitely not my cup of tea.   The kiddos officially started school last week but today was Gabi's first full day.  Thankfully that's one issue we resolved quickly although...

We started the weekend with really wonderful summer-like weather and sunshine and we went down to the lake for some paddle boat time. Unfortunately Saturday and Sunday were not quite as nice so we did what you do when the weather is crappy...eat!  For breakfast we had Mother's Day "brunch" at one my favorite breakfast places in Geneva.  Then we barbecued while it was sort of warmish and watched the first Venezuelan to win a Formula 1 race.  I guess if someone's gonna beat Fernando Alonso he might as well be Latin.  And the fact that I'm talking about this means I've been totally brainwashed by the husband and son.  :) Anyway, here are the little cards that the kids gave me for Mother's Day which were both so sweet.  Sebas' definitely reminds me that while we sometimes roll our eyes at kids being kids because they can drive us a little bit crazy, this time goes by so fast and before we know it they are all grown up. And since it was Mothe...

Not much to report here except that this weekend in Geneva felt like Spring and we even saw the Swiss version of lady bugs start to crawl out of the ground on Saturday which is a clear sign of Spring so I hope for our sake the lady bugs are right because after having that taste of Spring I can't go back to Winter, especially the Winter we've had here in Geneva this year!  Taking advantage of the awesome weather (the SUN makes all the difference!) we went to our favorite Peruvian restaurant on Saturday where the kids could actually play outside. And on Sunday we went to the Museum and then to pizza with friends of ours who were celebrating their kid's 3rd birthday.  After that my always-prepared friend had brought loaves of bread to feed the ducks and swans so my kids squealed with delight at the birds eating their bread.  On Saturday we are traveling to Cincinnati to meet up with Jose who everyone has missed terribly.  I am also looking forward to getting cheap hairc...