Another side of randomness

 Last week was just nuts. In addition to the gas line at the high school being struck which caused school to be cancelled for Thing Three, I also had a two hour fog delay. We repeated the process on Tuesday, and though the gas line had been repaired, school was still cancelled for him as well as for me this time because the fog was still hanging around come bus time after the two hour delay. I think Wednesday everyone was on time, but I was subbing in first grade instead of hanging with my preK friends. Thursday I was back with my 3 year olds and then Friday was a work day and aides weren't required to report, and Thing Three also didn't have school because his teachers had a work day as well. 

My Mommeee arrived Monday afternoon and left Saturday morning, so we had a great, long visit this time. Thanks for making the trip! I miss you! Dada had been in Mexico for work since Sunday, and he made it back safely to us on Saturday after my Mom arrived home.  

This week will hopefully be a little less bananas, though I'm back in first grade on Wednesday again, and Thing Three has no school for conferences on Friday. Our school has them next week. I can't believe it's the end of the first quarter already...

My hindsight-is-always-20/20 observation is to not schedule surgery wherein your recovery requires no lifting within the same year as having lymph nodes removed in your arm. Hopefully none of you will ever go through the experience, but if you do, be forewarned that the second surgery and no lifting will set back your PT and stretching exercises rather alarmingly. I've been experiencing a ton of tightness throughout the right side of my chest, right armpit, shoulder, and neck. Over two weeks ago it was so bad that I whimpered when bending over to tie my shoes; the combination of extending my arm while having it tightly in front of me pulled all kinds of muscles in what felt like all the wrong places. At times, while stretching, I sounded snappy like a KitKat bar. As anyone with cording can tell you, the snap kind of takes your breath away a second and you're wincing the whole time you're working, either because it actually does hurt sometimes but also in anticipation of it zinging another stab of pain. For instance, I do 10 reps of various exercises, and sometimes the snap won't come until the 9th rep! Then you hesitate in dread a moment before starting the 10th, and breathe deeply when that set is done. I'm not particularly a fan of sounding crispy. Dada, however, is enjoying working on me with the massage gun we got; meanwhile, my vision when he's doing it makes me feel like the Blair Witch Project choppiness and it reminds me of how we'd vocalize as kids riding our bikes on our brick street, "heeeeyyyaaaaheeeeeyaheeeeya"... oh well. This, too, shall pass. I certainly won't win any Heisman trophies anytime soon!

School has been entertaining. For the most part, the kids are a hoot and I love the staff. I am tired of the squabbling over who is the line leader, but generally I am having a ball. I'm thrilled to be able to help. I missed so much time last year. 

Our weather has finally cooled off, I'm super behind on #Inktober, I have plenty of small projects to keep me busy when I'm home, and I'm glad for the time we had with my Mommeeeee. Too bad she didn't take Bos with her when she left. (I can hear you laughing, Mom. Pipe down.)

Did I blog that we had to put Honey down? I don't think I did. Our Honey girl was elderly and way past decrepit, so we made that worst best decision and our wonderful vet helped us send her off pain-free. Bos never even noticed. He still scurried to her dish for days afterwards to see if she'd left him any morsels and then he'd look at us like, "how rude." I think the only reason he'd miss any of us is because he doesn't have opposable thumbs.

One more football game and then the marching band season winds down. They've already had their concert and we learned the hard way to sit in the center of the auditorium versus towards the back. Having a line of trumpets three rows behind you is not recommended. Had it been drums, I'd have been great! I love to feel the beat in my sternum!

Have a wonderful week, everybody, and stay healthy!

Fresh perspective

Dada got to have some fun mixed with work last week in Mexico. 

Lunch in a grotto:

Mass at the Lady of Guadalupe Basilica

A pyramid I don't have the name for. That can be your homework. He was in Mexico City. What are the choices? He said it was a steep 45 degree angle but he did it!

I'm glad one of us is getting sun, at least.

Heavenly Shenanigans

I teased him that I wasn't aware Peggy Gray had a Mexican location. He said these were the small ones and that the larger ones were dinner plate sized!

He also sent me a shot with a VW bug which makes me jealous as I've always wanted one. He said there are lots of them there and I thought probably because there's no salting of the roads regularly to destroy their undercarriages. I remember seeing a ton of them in Arizona when we visited in my childhood. I wanted one that was spray painted to look tie dyed. My friend Mar wanted a white one to paint cow patches on. Maybe someday. Just not feasible with three long-legged kids, a Heinz 57 and a Great Pyrenees...

Bogota photos

Here are some about-town photos. I'm sorry I don't have better labels of what buildings are or which streets we were on or anything, but it'll give you a taste of how varied and colorful the sights were. I am a big fan of street art and graffiti, so you'll notice samples of both. I wish I'd gotten some of the multiple stories high mural headshots of women with their long necks, big earrings, hair, and backgrounds, but as we were often in a moving vehicle I didn't get the chance. Had we walked past any I'd have taken a million pictures!

Why wouldn't there be bagpipes in the middle of the street?

We were told that generally the higher the apartments got, the more expensive because you'd be paying for the view. It was interesting to see how the closer the buildings marched  to the mountains, the taller they got. Then behind them and even higher up would be all these colorful small homes. I loved the variety and the color everywhere. Bogota is impressive to me in that it has 3200 "pocket parks" spread throughout the city. They're trying to combat the pollution from 9 million people living together and at the same time offering green places to get away for a bit. Everywhere we saw people playing with their dogs, kicking soccer balls around, playing field hockey, walking, sitting, rejuvenating. It was delightful!   

Dada and his street vendors, haha. He can't resist an auction, estate sale, flea market... we didn't purchase any of the leather goods from this particular vendor, but on the left is our new friend Jorge who hails from Mexico and came to Bogota for the training Dada was giving. We had a great time getting to know him and were extra thankful for his fluent Spanish, haha.