Thanksgiving

yes... it is true that...


~ i have been (had been) waiting for Thanksgiving for about 3 months.
~ my mom sent me some impossible to find ingredients such as... ocean spray cranberry sauce, and armour dried beef to make a cheeseball. 
~ as well as beautiful decorative paper plates/napkins/cups, and decorations!
~ that ive been searching for recipes all these past 3 months... but it didn't dawn on me to buy the pumpkin that had been in the stores... until the day i decided to buy it.
~ that i substituted carrot for the pumpkin like someone recommended and it tasted exactly the same.
~ that i cooked all day saturday for us + 10 of family and friends
~ that the elderly sat in the chairs and the rest on tapestries and blankets on the floor and it was quite comfy.
~ that we had chicken instead of turkey to save a little, but i still cooked it like i was going to the turkey, and it was delicious. 
~ that julton and kenedy nearly killed the chicken trying to "carve" it, had it not been dead and cooked already.
~we cut out pilgrim and indian hats from colored paper.
~ and everyone wore one.
~ even Jultons grandpa.
we had lots of fun on Saturday night. I cooked all that day, and had so much fun doing it. I don't think that Julton thought we were going to have enough food... but everyone went two rounds! We had... a cheeseball (i'm not sure how I didn't eat that when I was a vegetarian) - everyone was really fascinated with it, stuffed mushrooms, roasted turkey-chicken (what's gaby cooking), green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole (myrecipes.com), stuffing, mashed potatoes, and corn (which was also different for all our friends since I bought the canned kind which is probably 75% more expensive than buying the other from here... but i figured Thanksgiving was worth it. And we even had Pumpkin pie, thanks to Gillian sharing her wonderful recipe and thanks to taking the advice from another lady of using carrots for the pumpkin. I admit I was fearful... but I really wanted to make a pumpkin pie, so I gave it a try... and it worked!!!

 the little electric ovens i cooked everything in

 a friend working hard to make a pilgrims hat for one of the guys...

 even Jultons grandpa wore his hat... even if it was to distract us from noticing him sitting beside the candy bowl...

 friends.

 kenedy... the king

 i think the glue on Jultons hat was still wet when he put it on... so it was stuck to his forehead!

 we really had a lot of fun making those hats.

 Julton was very ready to eat... 

 the girls.

 Julton and Kenedy killing the chicken for good measure.

 everyone filling up their plates!

everyone!

Thanksgiving 2010... success.

And now I'm enjoying a Pumpkin (carrot) Latte, thanks to Gillians recipe!

hes 25. on 25.

last week, on the 25th to be exact, Julton had his birthday. I am pretty content saying that I/several friends pulled off a surprise party! I was determined to surprise him after he completely caught me off guard for my birthday (he had an advantage though... I was sick and definitely not expecting anything, note to self: never find yourself off guard around your birthday)


i have absolutely no idea why he didn't guess that we were planning something for him. on various occasions he caught his sisters and i in questionably secretive conversations/situations.  he caught me secretively planning with them in their room... to which i later covered us by saying you know... we were going to plan a surprise for you, but what do YOU want to do... we dont know what to do. hehe. this actually worked to our advantage, we got the scoop on what he did or didnt want. like not wanting a birthday cake. he wanted no bake cookies instead! later, the  day before his birthday when i received an email about how many people were coming from his work....14! I ran downstairs very fast to tell his sisters... and ran right into Julton since he had just walked in the door. I burst in the door saying there's going to be..... oh hi!! (we weren't expecting so many to come from there because its farther away, but they did and it was awesome) the day of his birthday.... he got home early and walked in on us preparing the food! for some unknown reason he stalled in the door and we were able to hide all the food, except the popcorn. i thought we were gonners. but his grandma convinced him she was trying out making caramel corn. whew! the day of his birthday (the day before, the night of the surprise party) we had planned to go look at christmas trees. which went smoothly except for me getting mysterious phonecalls and he couldnt figure out why my 'students' were calling me so often, and at night. and i had to make a lot of trips to the bathroom, or dressing room. 


finally, upon arriving home... Julton looked to me and said, the door is open!! We've been robbed!!! He takes a deep breath the throws the door open and jumps inside... and nearly has a heart attack as the first thing he sees is the silhouette of a very tall missionary friend, right before they turned on the lights and said surprise!!!! 
Birthday surprise party.... success.

and, a few memories from the past year...

 graduation.

 marriage.

 too much rain in trujillo + houses not prepared = sweeping out the house and roof.

Thanksgiving!! (this year).

sweetie

i can't get enough of this song recently. 

Josh Rouse - Sweetie


“I know it’s kind of funny, this Midwestern guy doing Brazilian songs in Spanish,” says Josh Rouse about his new studio album, El Turista. “I don’t know if it fits, but I like the way it feels.”


his newest album has some spanish.... i can't figure out if i like it.... however i love this one... thats not in spanish but set in a spanish town...

a cat. a cat!

it is quite possible that we are going to have a kitten friend joining our home this week!! (in approximately one week). i am pretty darn excited. i love cats. well.. most cats... well... im just not very much of a dog person. now... we have to start thinking of names... i haven't seen it yet so we don't know what we are going to call it.... but i wonder if i could get it to do some yoga with me..(or as Julton says... breakdancing...)
1. yoga cat

or just be as cute or awesome as any of these...2. adorable.

3. too cool.

either way... i'm just excited about having a cat. and having a little friend around here to make me smile... and undoubtedly sometimes make me not smile so much, but i'm okay with that. I'm counting down the days until it (she) comes. one week until thursday. Jultons not counting down the days. but he has accepted that its happening... we'll work on his love for it once it gets here. as long as it doesn't go near his books... or his pillow... i imagine they should be pretty good friends... or is that just me imagining.. hmm anyway... to be continued!

coffee on a sunny afternoon

coffee and i have had our times. and we've not had our times, when we have liked each other. but generally speaking i could potentially be seen drinking a cup of coffee in the morning or afternoon or anywhere in between if not all. but come late afternoon or evening and you won't find me near it. 


that stated, its not really the same for Julton's family. I don't know exactly that I could generalize this to Peruvians, or even to Moyobambinos... because I have really only experienced it with his family, specifically his awesome grandparents. Since they've been visiting we've gotten into the habit of going down to the other apartment in the evenings to spend some time, and naturally we all drink, although instant, coffee. Altomayo is a brand of coffee from Moyobamba. I, even though I already said I can't drink coffee at night drink it anyway because it seems that the instant doesn't have as much caffeine.. I don't know how true that is. They offer coffee because they usually drink coffee with the bread or eggs or bananas and cheese that they usually have for dinner. And because when someone visits your house in Moyobamba - or maybe in the jungle in general - you offer them coffee, and its rude not to accept. 


Fast forward to a few days ago when i was eating lunch with Jultons grandma and it happen to only be the two of us. Julton and one of his sisters were working and not home yet, and his other sister and their grandpa were traveling so she could take a law exam. So we were just relaxing together watching her soap opera, when I had the craving for coffee. Especially since we had just eaten a pretty heavy lunch and I was feeling my eyes start to droop... not a good sign since I had a class that afternoon. No one likes a yawning glassy eyed english teacher. I made some of my coffee from the states, showed her the bean and how I ground it and how I made it with a french press. It was her first time to see or drink coffee like that. So there we sat the two of us and her soap opera... our non instant coffee with milk and sugar, hers with equal. It was a pretty great afternoon.


I only found out later she had never drank coffee in the middle of the afternoon before, and everyone thought we were crazy for drinking hot coffee in the middle of the afternoon on a sunny day when we weren't cold, and didn't need to be warmed up!

a relaxing morning

i recently went to spend the morning...get lunch... and the early afternoon before a class with my friend katy at a nearby beach. what a welcomed relaxing morning!!

this is a photo katy put together from some we took while there :)

for warmth

I am so excited about this, I had to say something here too. I wrote on my other blog more about the subject, but I just had to share this here too, because I am so excited! I remember one of the churches I went to in college, had a crochet group.. and as an effort to be more involved with the church I joined... to say the least, I was the youngest! But it was a great time. This project reminds me of that time with that group of ladies each Thursday.

Lands End partnered up with the Foundation, Warm Up America. ( I say in the past because they have recently ended their project) The passed out their yarn to groups of knitters and crocheters, along with selected patterns, the knitters/crocheters used the yarn to make squares.. mailed their squares in and they were made into blankets to be passed out to families in need of a little extra warmth! As I was reading about their project I could feel my fingers tingling wanting to be a part of it all. I think it's such a great, thoughtful idea. This company willing to donate the yarn, and giving it to individuals to make in their home, then create blankets with it! I just love it! It makes me want to start that project here for next winter! It's certainly an idea...