A real date

To make a long story short, we got invited to meet the US Ambassador for Portugal tonight. There was an appetizer reception at a very fancy restaurant in the harbor of Funchal. Sadly (I really mean that) kids were not allowed, so if we wanted to go, we had to leave Alexander with someone. After some debate, and an amazing trip to the mall to buy clothes nice enough to wear, we went. This was the first time in a really long time I felt like a woman and not a mom. I spent the entire night thinking of my teething toddler with frequent text messages to my friend to check in on him, but it was really fun. I got to flaunt my new hair cut and 6 euro dress; I even worn makeup, foundation, mascara, eye shadow, perfume!!! It was great. I would have posted the entire picture of us, but the angle I was standing made me look fat and I don't want anyone to think I have gotten lazy and put on a few!!! J/K. It was so nice to walk down the street, holding Josh's hand all dressed up with somewhere to go.

Big Change

So Alexander and I both got our hair cut this week. I decided it was time for another one of my big changes. I was tired of all the same things to try and get my hair to look normal and Alexander was starting to look more like me. I cut his, and for a firt time with scissors I think I did alright. The back was done with clippers. All I needed to do to get him to sit still was set him down in front of our bathroom cabinet with the door open and he did great. As for me, I went downtown with Mary (one of our roommates) and we walked around until we found a place that looked nice. The best part is it only cost me 15 euros. I would have paid anywhere between $45 and $60 for what she did. It is actually longer than what I wanted, but the hair stylest was concerned with the amount of body in my hair. She felt if we went shorter I would have had a really hard time controlling it. I'm fine with it because at 15 euros a month I an afford to get my hair cut more than once a year!!! What do you think?

Blog Changes

We have lived here on Madeira for almost 2 months now. As you all know, I had a hard time cooking when we first got settled into our appartment. Mainly because they cook different types of food and the things I am used to cooking are not typically sold in the grocery store. If it is, it is very expensive and not worth the price. I have been greatly streched in my cooking skills and have come to love, and look forward to, what I am going to cook next. In fact, Sunday has been "from scratch day". One of our friends, Mariana, comes up from her place after church and we make dinner and dessert entirly from scratch (even if we don't have to). We have had some amazing meals! My favorite so far has been the chichen rice burritos because I had to make the taco seasoning and it was so good. Josh and I both just feel inlove with it, sorry Costco I won't be purchasing yours anymore. So all of this to say that I took my list of "things we didn't eat" off my blog because I have not had anything crazy happen for a month now. Everything has been good. Some recipes need tweeking, like the spaghetti I made last week, it needed more spice. I have also be enjoying desserts, we have made apple pie, cream puffs, chocolate chip cookies (which is harder here than you think. Our German roommate had never had a chocolate chip cookie before I made them last week!). Tonight is banana cream pie. This part of our adventure has been so much fun.

Tagged

I always love it when I get included in something. Expecially being over here I fear, out of sight out of mind. Thanks Andrea for including me in this. Here is my 5th folder 5th picture.

This is Alexander eating left over pumpkin pie the day after thanksgiving, the next picture in the file is my favorite. The picture above is during the first bit, the one below is after. Every kid needs pie for breakfast during the holidays!!

Okay so I am going to tag, Aimee, Kesha, Anna, and Chris. Let's do 2nd folder last picture.

100th Post - Brownie time

Brownie Time

Tonight after dinner Josh was craving brownies, so since I had everything in the house to make them, I whipped up a batch (far cry from my past brownie in a box method). I also decided to use this opportunity to pay tribe to the reason I started this blog. With camera in hand, I let Alexander lick the spoon. He had never licked anything before so Josh and I had to show him what to do. He did good at first but then decided that putting the entire spatula in his mouth was a better idea. I took a few "self" portriats with him just for fun. I am pretty sure we put him into bed on a sugar high, but that's just being a kid right?

Knee Bouncer.com

So today we allowed Alexander to play on the computer for the first time. Josh found this cute website that has very simple toddler games. It didn't take long for him to figure out what to do and he was laughing and having a great time. If you are okay with your toddler banging on your keyboard you should check this website out. http://www.kneebouncers.com/