Emotional at work

A normal day at the office turned out to be a very emotional day for me. And the whole thing was triggered by such a simple question... I was working and my officemate just mentioned "San Francisco is such a beautiful city...". That sentence flew me back to the years I spent in CA, I remembered my friends, my work, my life... then I started thinking about Madison and ... and tears started to roll. I just couldn't put myself together and I was feeling so embarassed I had to leave the office. I talked with Pedro on the phone, then I met him for lunch (well, I just had time to eat a soup, he's always in meetings and no time for anything). Then at work I talked with one of the girls (she lived in France all her life and now lives here) and she said something really interesting: she doesn't see France as an opportunity that she missed (like a missed train). France is still there, she keeps contact with friends and family there, she can go there... it doesn't need to be a door that is closed forever. And after thinking a lot about it, I think I should think like that too. I think I really miss all the friends I left in the USA but I never acknowledge that to myself and I try to ignore it or not think about it (because it hurts). Then moments like today happen and I feel really sad and melancholic.
I'm still not feeling ok so I was looking at some silly photos to cheer me up. Here they are:

Recruiting at FEUP

I'm at Porto today, in a recruiting fair. People pass by, a few make questions about the company, some resumes are delivered to us and that's it. Simple but not so easy. Time goes by slowly... I'm glad we brought candy to offer to people. Some people stop, talk and make it a little less monotonous. Some people ask for candy, some take without asking and some are funny and pretend they are stealing. Some people take long time picking a flavour. Some don't care about flavour. Even the cleaning ladies came to us asking for candy. 6 pounds of candy are gone. Now its time to remove our stand and go back to Coimbra. Tomorrow (thursday) will be a normal day at the office, the first "normal" day of the week (Mon-Tues I was in a workshop in Lisbon. It was the first night I spent away from Diogo and he's now 4 yo!).

Here's our stand.

These two are so silly!!

Being a mother of two boys at this young age means being always on the go. They, really, never stop. But along all the work (and the extra work because they never stop) also comes a lot of fun and a lot of cute moments.

This afternoon Diogo just came laughing to the living room with a "turtle head" cap. He was laughing so much that he could barely breath. I don't know what was so funny about it but he was having this laugh attack. Along came Hugo with these big sunglasses. He wanted to wear them so I helped. They looked so crazy that I just shouted "Wait!!" and, of course, I went to get my camera.
Here they are being them-super-silly-selves. :))

Muffins and ribs

Pedro is in Rome and I promised I would send him photos of the muffins I made (from scratch, obviously) with no measuring utensils and with Hugo in my lap. Diogo's help to make a big mess, I mean, to mix the (unmeasured) ingredients was crucial. :))))

I couldn't believe they turned out so nice because it was a new recipe for a cake (not for muffins). The taste was excelent and they also looked really good. So I think the trick for baking is... a good oven and a lot of motivation. :))) The kitchen afterwards was a big mess but ahh, what can we expect baking with a toddler and a 4 yo? :))

And then the ribs. Hugo looked so cute eating ribs I couldn't resist taking a photo (yep, I'm that kind of mother that always have a camera attached to the finger) :))

Fun on a schedule

This weekend we did a lot of fun stuff: we played a lot with the kids, we've been to a BBQ in a friend's house, we took Diogo & Hugo to see Noddy Live, and we also watch the Euro final game (Spain won like we predicted). The weather was really hot so nothing better than a family swim on Marilia's swimming pool. Hmm... the water was at 27º C. Perfect!
The only problem was that Pedro was always running for meetings and to catch the plane to Rome. :((
Here's some photos of Marília's beautiful home:

And the Noddy show on sunday:

Euro

The country used to stop to watch the games but now Portugal is out of the game and everybody feels this emptyness... We still watch the games at home but the excitement is gone. :((

Hugo is still very excited about the games (he gets the scarfs and waves it up and down, totally thrilled about it) and his enthusiasm is contagious because Diogo starts dancing too and when we realize we're all having fun again and cheering for whoever is closer to the goal. :))

Here's how it used to be when Portugal was still in:

The party... and the missing dessert! :(

Friday afternoon was the day care party and it was so cute!! Each class made a little performance. (We were all dressed alike for the party :))

Hugo's performance was a cute song about bubbles while the parents and teachers were making bubbles. Diogo's performance was very cute and the kids had so much fun. They danced under a "parachute". I was so proud of him... :))))))


The only bad news: they forgot to take my dessert out! I looked around all the tables and I couldn't see it and then at home it hitted me: the lady put the dessert on the frigde and forgot about it! So much work for nothing... :(

Starting the morning with the left foot...

Sometimes things just get out of control, like this morning.
We all woke up late, I got to work late, when I got there I realized I had left the dessert for the day care party out of the fridge. The cleaning lady is in the house but I don't have her phone nr, so I call Pedro but he's not there either. He goes back to ring the bell and tell the cleaning lady to put the dessert back in the fridge.
At work, I realized that all the papers I planned to read today were left
at home, next to the dessert. I don't want to print hundreds of pages again
so I decide to go home and get all the stuff I forgot.
In the meantime, a close friend starts a chat and tells me
shocking news. I get all disturbed. I feel bad to rush my friend but I
really had to go home. I went home. When I got there I realized I forgot
the key. Fortunatelly the cleaning lady is there. Unfortunatelly she is
using the vacuum cleaning and can't hear me ringing and knocking.
Minutes pass and I'm still there, knocking, ringing, calling her name (at some point desperately).
Eventually she finishes to vacuum. She opens the door. I get the papers
AND the dessert. I drive back to work. I'm so distracted about all this that in a roundabout I didn't notice a car coming. I break abruptly. The dessert falls, I stick
my fingers in it to grab it and... well, it looks miserable and the car is all dirty.
I park in front of the door at work. Take the dessert out, clean a little bit
the car (I even tried a little piece that fell out of the dish and its GOOD!).
I'm finally sitting in my desk, with my papers and with the dessert in the fridge.
I'm going to drink a coffee, relax for a few minutes and then re-start the morning
hopefully with the right foot. :)

Terrific 1's

Ok, to be fair, I also need to say the funny things about Hugo.
Yesterday morning I told Hugo, "lets go wake up Diogo". Hugo runs to his room, climbs to the mattress, gets 1 centimeter close to Diogo's face and says: "Olaaaaaaaa!!!!"
I don't think Diogo liked it that much but it was soooo cute. :)))

The other thing was this afternoon. Diogo was starting to throw a tantrum because I was not giving him yogurt before dinner. I was talking and Hugo decided to intervene. He got really close to Diogo and saying "no" with his finger he yelled to Diogo like a little dictator something like "No no no no". It was so funny.

Sweet 4's

Diogo is in the nightmare stage. He has nightmares quite often and in the morning he tells me about it. Usually they are about monsters but on sunday he dreamt with something worst than monsters! He told me:

Diogo: "Mommy I had a really bad dream. It was worst, worst, worst than monsters!"

Ana: "Really? What could be worst than monsters?"

Diogo: "Giant... eggs... of... a grey chicken!"

No need to say, I couldn't stop laughing... :)))))))

The other hilarious dialog:

Hugo was destroying Diogo's "buildings" made of legos. Diogo was getting upset and I stepped in saying "Look at Hugo, he's like King Kong destroying all these buildings".

Diogo: "Mommy, can I also be ping pong but one that builds things?"

:))))

One more weekend, one more party ;)

This weekend was my niece's 1ª comunhão (catholic celebration for kids around 6 yo). Here's some photos of her special day. :)

My niece Beatriz

The proud parents: my brother Ilídio and his wife Olga

Her sister Patricia

The whole family at lunch

Quinta D. Maria (Diogo's class get together)

These days, the weather is just perfect here in Coimbra. And fortunately we have a few parties to enjoy during the weekends. :) This weekend was Diogo's class get together in one of his friends' farm. I didn't know there were such farms so close to downtown. It was so big and so beautiful. Probably the most beautiful place to live I've ever seen. They had a nice pool, a big playground, lots of animals (including several peacocks, 8 horses, a poney, etc. etc.). Both me and Pedro were amazed. That house looked like a resort and they actually live there everyday. Diogo and the other kids had a blast. And so did we! :))

Back to blogging!

Uauhh! Long time I don't write here. A lot of things happened since my last post: we moved back to Portugal, Diogo & Hugo started a new school, we moved to our new house (packing once more... sighs...), Hugo turned 1, I started a new job, we had a few parties in our house, we've been to IKEA a dozen times, we've seen a play and a few movies at the theater (rare events these days), we've even spent a day at the beach! And last weekend was Diogo's birthday. We had a big party for him with the traditional pinata and 2 cakes: one for singing happy birthday in portuguese and another in english. Its been fun, the only problem is that I still didn't manage to find time at the computer to keep in touch with all you guys. I hope this blog will fix that. :)
For more pics of Diogo's birthday check this site (Diogo is the one with the light blue shirt with nr 6 and Hugo is the one in the green/white striped shirt with nr 1): http://picasaweb.google.com/anabizarro/4AnosDiogo?authkey=zYkLZMrqZ90
Have fun and keep in touch!!
-Ana

Happy 4!!

Today was Diogo's party. He's 4!! :)))) We had a lot of fun and a lot of good food.The kids loved the pinata. This was a hard one to break and the fact that we just hadgirls hitting (except Diogo) didn't help. But eventually the girls broke it. :))))The party lasted about 10 hours, reminding us the parties we used to do in Madison...