Jammin on the River Thames

I honestly don't have any London pictures on my computer, but I do have this video from the girls dancing to a drummer beside the River Thames. It's pretty funny.

First Day of School!

I know you have all been holding your breath waiting on those London pics I promised, and they will be here one day - but not today. They are all on Charles' computer - and our long time readers know that it might take a while to get those.

Yesterday was everyone, except Rainey's, first day of school. Carlisle started the five mornings a week preschool at our church. She had a great time yesterday and today. Charles and I both started our last semester of law school yesterday, woohoo!!! Rainey will start mother's morning out, two mornings a week, after Labor Day. So far, so good. Now if we can just get these $&#*#(@ bar applications finished and our house sold, we'd really be in business.

We're home!

After several long days of traveling after Madrid, we are finally home! The girls were real troopers. Only a couple of bad meltdowns. Carlisle and I were up at 6 this morning, but apparently the time change isn't bothering Rainey and Charles as much since they are still in bed.

I've already gone through the massive stack of mail but that is about it. Lots of unpacking and laundry to be done. Not to mention the weeds that have pretty much taken over our flowerbeds, and the million other projects that need to be done before we put our house on the market in a few weeks. Ugh.......

Oh, and a good bit of time that we have in the next 2 weeks before school starts will need to be spent at the gym - I gained 5 pounds while we were gone! I'm sure it didn't have anything to do with daily (sometimes twice daily) icecream or all the beer.

I'll upload the pictures from London when I find the camera.

El Rastro and How to Eat Ice Cream by Rainey

This is our last Sunday in Madrid, so we decided we had to make it to El Rastro (the fleamarket) which is every Sunday morning. It was absolutely huge and extremely crowded and about 100 degrees. We had fun though. Many of the booths are "new junk" - mass produced plastic junk, clothes, shoes etc... But some of the areas have what I consider flea market worthy "old junk". I don't want to divulge too much, as some of you may be discovering some of our treasures as your gifts from Madrid (Bonny...).


After the Rastro we had some lunch, and then some ice cream. Rainey always seems to be walking to the beat of a different drummer - and eating ice cream is no exception. She eats it from the bottom up.

Good morning

It's early here, 4:17am. Something woke me up, but I decided I should get up and study instead of going back to sleep. Our time is still fairly screwed up. We just don't go to bed until so late, the girls included. People here just don't go to bed. There are more people out on the streets at 10:00 at night than there are at 10:00 in the morning. Like last night, the girls begged for McDonald's - so we decided a little "home" cooking (haha, get it?) would be fine. Then we got sidetracked in our favorite plaza by the playground and performing flame baton twirlers (people do all kinds of interesting things around here to try to get you to shell out a few euros), and didn't get home until 10:30. Needless to say, by the time I got the girls bathed, scrubbed some more on the four large places on the wall where Rainey drew with a green marker, got the girls to bed, it was almost midnight. So, seeing as I'm not a night person at all, I usually fall asleep in Carlisle's room after reading her books to her, there is no chance that I will be able to stay up and study - so 4am it is.

Our classes are actually quite challenging and we have exams on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday next week. I can't believe it is already our last day of class today. We have just finally gotten our commute down to an art. Our "35-minute stinky subway dash", as I like to call it. The metro here really is quite clean and nice, but the stations still smell like poo, and no one is wild about being crammed up against anyone else at 8:30 in the morning. I'm also finally getting comfortable with the "rules" of the subway:
1) there is no line to get on or off the train - if someone is standing right by the edge of the track or the train door waiting to enter/exit, if there is close to enough room for you, just get right in front of them;
2) give no regard to people exiting the train, just stand right in front of the open door and make them fight to get off - it's much more fun that way;
3) when you finally do get off the train, be prepared to throw elbows to make it to the escalator first;
4) some of the trains have buttons that light up when the train has completely stopped and after it lights up you push it and the door opens, but it is completely improper to wait until the button lights up to begin pushing it (even though the door will not open), if someone is crazy enough not to start pushing the button upon the train beginning to enter the station, you should reach around them and push it yourself;
5) finally, (although I'm sure I'm forgetting a few) - if you are carrying raw meat and/or fish on the hot metro you should sit next to us - what's the deal - it has happened several times, but yesterday I had to get up and move because I almost threw up from the smell.

Ok, so I really should study now. Like I said, exams until next Wednesday, then we're leaving early Thursday morning for London where we'll spend 2 nights, then one night back in Dublin before we leave on Sunday morning.

I think we are in heaven...

We are at the Sheraton Real de Faula Golf Resort and Spa in Benidorm, Spain. It is along the southeast coast. This resort isn't right on the beach, but you can see the ocean and the fabulous, never-ending pools make up for it. There is actually also an "artificial beach" area where there is a separate pool surrounded by sand and there aren't steps into the pool, it just slopes in.

We rented a car and drove here, it took about 4 hours from Madrid. I highly recommend it if you're ever in the area. It just opened last August, and it's still working out some growing pains and finishing a few projects - like the spa won't open until next year. But - as a result I think they need to fill this huge place (it's actually a Sheraton and a Westin kind of intertwined) so we got a really great rate. We're in a junior suite - so the girls got there own room (aka - pull out couch in the living area) and they slept great together in the bed last night. It was the first time they've ever slept just the two of them in the bed. Anyway, off to dinner. Enjoy the pictures and we wish you all were here.

Sorry, sorry, sorry

Okay, I've gotten a few emails about our lack of posting lately. Let me think of some excuses - I had a big paper due this past Monday, my computer died (so now I only get to use a computer when Charles isn't on it - not much), and Greg and Dalene were here this week. So there, I have justified it.

What we've been up to. Last weekend we met Greg and Dalene in Barcelona. They went back to Madrid with us on Sunday, stayed until Wednesday when they flew back to Paris. Charles and the girls and I all left for Benidorm yesterday (Thursday). Benidorm is on the Southeastern coast of Spain, the Costa Blanca. More about that later.

First, Barcelona. We had a great time. Mainly did touristy things like taking the double-decker tour bus around town, gondola to a castle, oh and Charles and I took the girls to the beach on Friday before Greg and Dalene arrived. The Mediterranean is really beautiful. The beach was made up of smooth rocks. Rainey was in heaven - those of you not familiar, Rainey absolutely LOVES rocks. She collects them everywhere we go. That beach provided endless entertainment. These pictures are all from Barcelona.

Happy Anniversary To Us!

Seven years today! Can't believe it.

cacahuete que come osos loco

We went to the Madrid Zoo on Saturday and saw some crazy bears that really love peanuts. If you can't tell from the video, people are throwing peanuts to the bears and it doesn't appear to the the first time.

Paella

Because we are in Spain and the markets are full of everything you need to make paella, I made some. It was pretty good for a first attempt. It will not be the last. I didn't have the correct pan, but I think this works. Oh and thats about a $6 bottle of wine. Not bad for $6.