Shake, Rattle and Roll

It's funny how everyday starts out with grand plans. We have all kinds of things we want to do and seem to accomplish few. Today, Matt and I were hoping to sleep in but the kids woke up around 7pm. How can these little bodies play so hard and not sleep until late hours of the morning? Although last night was an easy night getting them IN to bed--no tears were shed--neither M or A fell asleep until almost 10pm. Andres loves to lay in his bed and make faces at me, and he has so many! Happy, sad, mad, flirtatious, aren't I cute, etc., faces. I think he believes it may get him a few extra moments out of his crib because he's so irresistible that I want to pick him up! While I absolutely love this, after an hour of it, you lose the humor in it a bit. I have to admit I will miss this when we get them home and he goes to bed in his own room. It's such a sweet time. Maria, on the other hand, finds every reason under the sun to get out of her bed or stay awake--bathroom, water, find her "la nina" (what she names all dolls), get a book, etc. We constantly have to remind her it's bed time. If anyone has any suggestions, let us know. I think it may get better when we are home and not in the room with them when they are trying to fall asleep.

Our mornings fly by. After we eat breakfast, we usually come up and try to shower. However, all of the kids are so awesome during this time and are also quite demanding of our attention. So while it normally takes me 45 minutes to get ready, I don't think I have completely been ready under 1 1/2 hours. Anyway, the goal for this morning was to try to change our hotel reservations in Cartagena. Matt stayed up late last night and discovered that there were very few positive reviews about our hotel that we will be at in Cartegena. I will let him tell the story from this point on.

Matt: With Carmen’s assistance, we purchased a vacation packaged from Avianca airlines yesterday. She did it all over the phone and when she told me the name of the hotel I checked out their web site and thought it looked okay. However, it was later in the night that I ran across our hotel on a couple travel sites. People were bagging pretty hard on the cleanliness and poor food. So, when Carmen arrived today around 11:30 with her son Daniel, I asked if she might help me changing that portion of our reservation. Long story made short, nothing could be done by phone. Carmen and Daniel agreed to take me to the Avianca office in the Unicentro mall. After about 45 minutes of wait time and 45 minutes of dealing with the clerk, the only option I felt was workable was to go ahead as planned and try to change hotels when we get there. Carmen and her son Daniel were a big help and went way above and beyond the call of duty. Even if we stay at the same hotel, I am sure everything will be fine. We have a pool, a beach and a beautiful city to see. I doubt we will spend much time in the room anyway.

After Matt returned from the Avianca office with Carmen, lunch was over and it was time to lay the kids down for a nap. Andres fell asleep pretty quickly, and Maria actually did too. I had been looking forward to nap time today as I had decided that I, too, would join them. For whatever reason, all five of us were up in the room during nap - which never happens - and all of us had just drifted off to sleep (except Luke because the kids never sleeps). All of a sudden, there was a powerful shake that caused the whole B&B to rock back and forth. We all woke up and it took a minute to get our bearings but finally determined that we were experiencing an earthquake. Don't ask me how we knew what to so, but we gathered the kids and ran downstairs only to find everyone else running out of their rooms as well. Once we all were together in the foyer, the tremors stopped and all of us breathed a huge sigh of relief. There were many people with racing hearts, pale faces and looks of terror! We have heard that the earthquake was a 5.6-5.8 on the Richter Scale and the epicenter of it was about 30 miles from Bogota. I have many thoughts after this experience: 1) I will take a tornado warning any day! 2) I can't imagine what stronger earthquakes must feel like as this one scared me to death and I couldn't quit shaking for about 20 minutes. 3) I hope and pray I never experience another one. 4) I am so grateful that we were all together when this occurred as it helped me keep a clear head. I think the only thing I have gone through that was scarier was when my airplane had to make an emergency landing after losing an engine. (Right Laura and Shawna!!??) All I can say is thank you , God, for keeping us all safe and sound! Fortunately, there were no aftershocks. Maria was able to fall back asleep. Andres was not, but ironically, he still isn't tired. He's sitting in bed looking at me as I type. My heart is melting. : )

Matt: Wow, that earthquake was interesting. I had never been in one before and I really can’t say I would ever want to do it again. At least, not one that strong. And if we didn’t have an earthquake we’d probably have a pretty boring blog because we didn’t do much again today. I was laying in Maria’s bed and had just gotten her to sleep. I was somewhere between asleep and awake myself when I heard kind of a loud noise. It’s amazing how many thoughts can run through your head in a nano second during moments like that. First, I thought it was the wind because the windows were rattling. Then I thought it was a train, but didn’t remember seeing any train tracks near by. That’s when the possibility of an earthquake ran through my head sort of like this, “earthquake? They don’t have earthquakes here do they? I don’t recall seeing anything about that in the travel brochures?” At about that time, it literally felt like the ground beneath us was rolling under our feet. Traci and I kind of looked at each other for a few seconds like “what the heck is going on and what do we do?” Then one of us, I can’t remember which, said, “earthquake?” I kind of thought about just staying put (the quake had been going on for a few seconds by then) but then I started to think about how old and fragile this building might be. That was enough to make me jump out of bed, grab the kids and run downstairs. For some reason, I think we also grabbed our shoes. Gawd knows you don’t want to be caught in an earthquake, or worse, a collapsed building without shoes. When we got downstairs, my poor French lady friend I wrote about the other night, Cathy, was shaking so hard she looked like she was vibrating. I guess they do not have those things in France. Traci was pretty shaken too, but was keeping it all together. It probably would have been a comfort to everyone if the Adelman family were still here. They live in San Diego and I would imagine they have experienced an earthquake or two in their time.

More Matt: Speaking of France, we had yet another French family move into the compound last night. Is Colombia being slowly and quietly invaded by France? Nice family. I chatted with the new dad for a little bit this morning. He doesn’t speak English so we had to use Spanish (kind of the official back-up language around here). They just adopted a little boy who I believe is around 18 months old. So, there is a lot of French being spoken at meal times now. I can’t understand a word of it, but it is a pretty language to hear.

After nap, Matt and I knew we had to get the heck out of this place. When I say that, know that we really like the B&B but you just need to get out and do normal family things! So, we've heard so much about the infamous Crepes and Waffles restaurant here and we went there for a snack. On the way, we noticed no damaged buildings, etc., from the earthquake and it looked like life resumed as usual (Matt: funny, I had forgotten about the quake or to look for damage at this point. I was just having a nice walk with my family). Back to Crepes and Waffles. . . Well, let me tell you, this place lived up to all of my expectations plus more! It was absolutely fantastic! The kids all got ice cream: vanilla (Luke)--the BEST I have ever had, chocolate (Maria)--I actually ate most of it and I don't even like chocolate all that much, and strawberry (Andres--not a strawberry ice cream fan but it was great as well. Matt and I ordered a crepe filled with mozzarella cheese and topped with caramelized onions, prosciuotto (sp?) and arugula. It was amazing with a tasty sauce on top. Bottom line, I want to open one in KC--River Market or KCP&L district. You just haven't lived until you eat this food!

The rest of the day was pretty much routine: baths, Skyped with Matt's folks and ate dinner. That takes us to bed time and this blog.

Some thoughts/observances:
1. We hear car alarms all the time. None sound the same. Do they personalize them here? We don't know.

Matt: and apparently they are very proud of them because they set them off all of the time!! Car alarms has reached the point of being pretty annoying for me

2. There is no worse feeling when something scary happens and you can't understand what anyone is saying so as to clarify your inquisitions. Matt and I had to log onto the computer to try to figure out any news about the earthquake. I think we both hit a spot of being a little homesick today. When you can't communicate with anyone because of a language barrier, it drains you after a while.

Matt: After the quake, I turned the channel on the main room TV to the local news. We stood around watching a bit and there was some damage to older buildings in parts of Bogota. No word on what kind of damage there was out in the rural area where the epicenter was located but I understand it was pretty bad and resulted in HUNDREDS of dollars in damage (kidding). As you know, our Spanish is not good and when people talk fast, like on TV, I can just pick out pieces. So, kind of the ironic part is that I had to have the French people interpret the Spanish for me.

3. Clearly, men must take the lead on most decision-making here. When I wanted to go with Matt to Avianca this morning to go discuss our options, Carmen was a little perplexed. Whenever things need to get done here, it's never the female that does it. I find this interesting as Maria has such a strong personality, and I KNOW she will be a very strong woman one day. That just seems to go against this culture.

Matt: I'm sorry, I don't understand what Traci's issue is here. Isn't it the same way in the States?

4. I can't wait to get home and take a shower in MY shower! I have gone from one who loves to take my time to one who can shower and shave in five minutes. We don't have a lot of hot water here and it is gone within 2 minutes. The worst part? I love my showers HOT and there's no such thing here! It's killing me!

Matt: Yet, she still can't get ready in under 45 minutes.

5. It was a great day with Maria and I! I had to discipline her a number of times and after each time, she came around quickly and gave me hugs. I can't even remember how many times she came running to me with her arms open, screaming, "Mami!!" (which sounds like Ma--Meee where the Ma is short and the Mee is long and loud). Huge step today. Plus, I'm pretty sure that I received my first set of besos (kisses) tonight before we turned off the lights. Your prayers are working!

4. Notes to individuals:

Melanie--yes--a scrapbook night will definitely be in order! I hope all is going well with the baby!

Laura--Do you still have those bed things that you hook on to keep kids from falling out? Maria has fallen out of bed twice and tends to hang her body off. I have a feeling we are going to need to invest in some!

Matt: I came into the room late one night and Maria was sleeping perpendicular in her bed with her head and arms dangling over the edge. It was one of the craziest things I had ever seen. I've seen it in movies but didn't know people could do that in real life.

Cindy--Yes, I can see how we will miss his time and we are cherishing it. . . even when it gets tough! Oh, and Luke can't wait for a golf re-match with Behr!

Marilyn--the clutter! Oh you know me so well! Yes, it drives me insane, but the great news is that Maria is just like me. She goes around and puts things in their "correct" places all day long.

Nicole--We will try to give you some Cartagena details when we are there. We are unsure if our hotel will have internet access or not so we'll do our best!

Matt: If no internet access, we will probably invade an internet cafe like we have done when we go to Mexico.

Mom--Can't help but wish you were here. We'd have a blast shopping the streets. The clothing and furniture are absolutely amazing!

Dad--I know you are still worried about us even though I have assured you that we are fine. Know that I love how you worry about me as it shows a love that I think will be found between Matt and Maria as well.

Denny and Judy--thought you'd appreciate this. I have already made it painfully clear that I will be the one to keep track of all of Maria's wedding plans and expenses. As if Matt doesn't have a hard enough time on his own, Maria is going to bat those eyes and end up with a multi-million dollar wedding if he's in charge! Oh, and thanks for taking care of my dog. I miss him so much and was so happy to see him on Skype tonight!

Matt: I got to watch some of the Pistons v. Celtics game tonight. Of course, the commentary was in Spanish, but we kind of had the volume turned down because the kids were sleeping. I think it helped Luke and I feel a little more at home. I couldn’t find the Red Wings v. Penguins game though (wearing my Wings jersey today). I guess hockey hasn’t made its was further south than Florida. Tonight was really about the first time I have watched much TV down here (aside from a few kid shows and the telenovelas which seem to be on 24/7 on the local channels). After the game I got to flip around and found the Daily Show (in English with Spanish subtitles) which is one of my favorites. There wasn’t a Colbert Report afterwards though. I don’t know how many English channels we have but there seems to be a few. I don’t have a channel guide so I just flip channels until I see subtitles along the bottom of the screen. It’s also kind of fun to see the US movies where they have dubbed in Spanish. It’s weird to see Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson and Matt Damon on TV but with a Spanish voice coming out. I am now watching the end of Independence Day and just noticed that while some “curse words” in the English audio have not been dubbed out, they are “sanitized” in the subtitles. Weird. I don’t know what the thought process is there.

Sorry, but we only have a couple pictures to share tonight. The rain continues to confound any plans we try to make. On the brighter side, El Refugio can now boast that it has a pool in the back yard with a swing set in it.


This is quickly becoming known as "the Andres face." Whenever he gets mad or upset, that bottom lip sticks out. I think part of that had to do with the pretty nasty under bite he has. And even though he is made or upset, it kind of makes us all laugh because he's still such a cute little guy.


Maria let mami put another pony tail in her hair this morning and it lasted for quite a while.


And that wasn't a tube a toothpaste Maria was holding in the previous picture. It's the new foot medicine we purchased for her. Poor kid. In addiion to the stomach issues she has been dealing with lately, she also has a small case of what looks like athlete's foot. I tried to purchase some medicine, but it didn't work for beans. So, we have new. I first have to put an iodine like substance on her feet & toes and them rub this cream on them. As you can imagine, she giggles and squirms the whole time.


No, Andres didn't land in jail . . .


He's in his crib. These are some of the sunny faces he makes for Traci when he is in there.


After reading libros to Maria, I was pretty exhausted. The Pistons weren't doing too well and I kind of fell asleep in Maria's bed. I guess she had her little arm around me, but moved it when Traci was trying to get the camera. Yep, she's a daddy's girl. However, as Traci mentioned, there were great strides made in the mommy department today. By the end of the day, I felt like it was a really family. We just need some papers signed and a flight home.