I worried about getting sick here and I tried to prepare myself for the possibility, and I got sick and it was worse than I imagined. But.. I got to try all kinds of alternative Chilean medicine and so that was cool, ha ha. Charcoal tablets and sulfur & nasty homeopathic drops.

Today I made my sickly weak self rally and go out. We were very late for church, but the crowd was out the door and in the street anyway. It was a beautiful and joyful Easter Sunday. We drove way up in the mountains ( when i figure out how to post pics down here it will be awesome!) and had a classic Chilean barbeque with salads, rice, meat, bread, loads of red wine. I ate very lightly, but it smelled great. We are back in our mountainside home now, with the stunning views of Santiago all lit up. Tomorrow, if all are well, we plan to hit a winery...

I'm sitting here at a table across from a huge bowl of avocados and olive oil, butter , fresh rolls and wine. We are visiting the condo of the husband's oldest friend. Earlier, at lunch we went to the Mercado Central and had a huge bowl of seafood soup. It was delicious, but... it had things in there I had never seen before and I had to lay down when we first got back to the condo. They warned me that the seafood here was really strong and would knock me out for awhile, but I thought I could handle it. Now, I feel much better and am enjoying the company and this amazing place on Good Friday.

I am in South America! I can even blog here, its amazing. This is a totally different world, but I could stay here for a long time. Chile agrees with us. Nobody is sick ( so far) the weather is 80 and sunny, the house we are in has verandas all the way around, with one side facing the Andes and the other side has an unbelievable view of Santiago. There are lemon, lime, avocado & apple trees. 7 adorable puppies and their parents are outside. The actual city is really intense, more later...

Internationally anxiety free

I was having a horrible morning, then it was a great morning, friendly people were everywhere, the sun was beaming & I liked my new drastic haircut for the first time. Then I had a great, peaceful lunch with my 2 youngest guys. It was a horrible afternoon, I actually had to pull over the car and try not to lose my mind I was so mad at the Creature for smacking the oldest. Now its not too shabby again. That's why with kids, its always a minute at a time, not a good day or a bad day, maybe a good hour or a bad hour. But for the first time, I also feel less worried about our big trip. I am thinking we might survive and we might have fun.

I love babywearing dads!

This is my favorite celeb family, they always look happy and they are all so good looking too. I love the way they seem to fit little Kingston in and he doesn't seem to be raised by a team of nannies(although a team of nannies sounds pretty darn good to me sometimes :)

Check out the most precious preemie ...

Little Gwyneth is now 2 months old, still just under 2 lbs and is doing amazingly well. I've written about this young family before and I was thrilled when Gwyneth's dad was finally able to hold her. Please look at the link and at the end of the video is the most amazing sight, her beautiful mama finally holding her too! What a great week for them. They are never far from our thoughts even though we've never met. http://www.cfhusband.blogspot.com/

11 days...

I love my life most of the time. The Creature is being very sweet lately, I am using what I learned in my "positive discipline" class. I went down to the basement a minute ago and got a fresh beer out of the keg, a Belgian Wit that is out of this world. I opened the storage room and found a box of wooden beads and string that I knew would delight the little guy that was on my hip this whole time. I love my husband and today, he was hurt ( by a nerf dart in the eye) and I enjoyed being with him in the ER as I read out loud to him from Mother Jones and the Frommer's guide to Chile, unencumbered by small people as my mom was watching the little guys and My Friendly Neighbor had the big boy. It was a good, relaxing day.

In the midst of this peace I do stop and realize I will never get used to the idea of one of my kids not being here. Its not self pity, it just is. I will always parent the one boy who is not here, as much as I do the other ones. I am starting to carry him in a different place, but he will always be carried along with us. There's not much else to say, because that's how it is; have fun, stop,think , go back to fun, and remember that its different here.

2 weeks from today!