Sorry for the lack of blogging lately, I’ve been doing a ton of writing during the day for my upcoming business launch of CanceRevolution and I just don’t have the energy to do more...
Foreign Service Life
Nia and I recently started going to a weekly music class in our Miraflores neighborhood. It’s a steal of a deal at $4 a session for an hour of music. Carlos, the musician, is quite versatile...
One of our traditions is to collect a piece of art from each country we are posted to. We always purchase it at the beginning of our stay, prior to the Embassy coming over to hang up all our wall art...
So last Wednesday I went to the doctor because my nose piercing was infected (I’ve had it four months and it’s been infected on and off throughout). During the appointment he removed the...
Last Saturday was our long-awaited visit to Mistura, the Peruvian Food Festival. This is a relatively new festival (one cabbie told me it’s three years old), but it’s already made a major...
It’s hard to believe, but our little girl just crossed the one year mark. I’m not going to lie and say that the entire year flew by because there were days in those first three months...
Here are the best of Nia’s 1 Year Photo Shoot! We had them done by Vanessa of Luz + Letra here in Lima. It was a fantastic experience that yielded over 100 beautiful shots of Nia! If...
It’s been non-stop Halloween around here the last few days. Although not my favorite holiday, I have to admit that it’s a ton more fun with a kid. Cuteness just becomes magnified in silly...
I biffed it BIG TIME today. Here’s what happened: I was lying in the bedroom, attempting to grab a quick one-hour nap to make up for my 4:45 AM wake up (thanks Nia). All of a sudden our...
Yesterday I had the amazing good fortune of joining the Canadian International Society (Not just for Canadians!) for a morning of volunteering at Casa Hogar, a home for single mothers under the age...
Tis the season for holiday parties! Saturday was one of our first Embassy ones, a “Morning with Santa” for the kiddos. It was beautifully done – bouncy castles, face painting...
We’re a little behind on our photo books, but here’s the most recent one we finished! Highlights include my pregnancy photos, Nia’s birth and our time in DC. Just click the photo to...
I have a confession to make. I’m addicted to social media. It started innocently enough. I mean, I didn’t even get my first Facebook account until 2008 and even then, I was incredibly...
There’s never a dull day on the Malecon (our ocean-side park near our house) and since we go out there several times each day, we inevitably run into lots of fun adventures. Like yesterday, for...
One of the activities Jenna was most excited to try during her stay in Lima was a Chocolate-making Workshop at the Choco Museum in Lima. This was my first time going as well, so we made for quite an...
January has been plum full of visitors! My sister Jenna was here from January 2nd to the 12th and then my dear college friend Rachel arrived on the 12th and stayed until the 21st. Talk about non-stop...
I get a lot of comments about how much Nia looks like me because of the blue eyes/blond hair thing. What you can’t tell however, is how much Nia looks like Nick when he was a child. Check out...
It’s summer here and we’ve been capitalizing on the good weather by doing lots of fun outdoorsy stuff. One of our adventures this week was a trip to Granja Arriero (Arriero Farm), a small...
As I’ve mentioned before, Embassy Lima does a great job of putting on festive holiday celebrations. Holidays tend to bring up additional feelings of homesickness and events like this really do...
We’ve had helper drama lately. I haven’t written about it because I wasn’t sure how it was going to be resolved, but I’m ready to give you the full lowdown now. In early...
Today we took a family field trip into downtown Lima to see Parque de Las Reserva (or the “Fountain Park” as it’s called when you can’t remember the Spanish name). We’ve...
We’ve been out enjoying the final days of summer while we’ve still got sun. For those who don’t know, Lima loses it’s sunshine for roughly seven months a year thanks to the...
Last week I had the good fortune of visiting the non-profit CIMA with the Canadian International Society, an expat group here that has supported this organization since it’s inception 25 years...
We had two great food-based experiences this weekend and they couldn’t have been more polar opposites. The first was on our Friday night date. We visited a new restaurant in town called Amaz...
Well, we made it nearly 19 months before having to trim those beautiful blonde locks…. I delayed as long as I could, but her bangs were starting to cover her eyes and the stubborn kiddo refuses...
As many of you know, the College of St. Benedict (St. Ben’s aka CSB) is near and dear to my heart. This one-of-a-kind institution shepherded me from girl to woman and left an indelible print on...
Nick decided to take up the guitar while we were gone for five weeks in Minnesota. Since arriving home, Nia’s been positively fascinated with it, constantly wanting to go in our room to touch...
Good news! We learned this weekend that all it takes to keep our toddler still for two hours is a Parade! Now if only we could have a parade every day then we’d be in great shape! Ok, kidding...
Patience has never been my strong suit. I love information and I’d prefer to have it NOW. It’s almost laughable that I ended up in a lifestyle that is basically one perpetual waiting...
I discovered Yoga during my pregnancy with Nia (fyi, it was a Godsend for dealing with back and hip pain). I maintained the practice after her birth, primarily doing Hatha yoga, a very gentle type of...
It was a normal weekday in Lima and I was standing in front of a high-end hotel waiting to hail a cab. A guy calls out to me asking if I need a ride. I decline and walk away. Totally innocuous right...
So, as I mentioned in my last post, I was a bit rattled after my sketchy cab incident and decided to *FINALLY* pick up this book, The Gift of Fear, after five years of it sitting on my shelf...
Friends, can I tell you how fortunate I feel that my advanced little girl has decided that being two is not a prerequisite to displaying Terrible Twos behavior!? Every day I am blessed to practice...
It’s that fabulous time in our tour when the USG ‘requires’ that we leave our 3rd world home and spend time in a 1st world nation. The official name is R&R (Rest and...
The update is that there is NO UPDATE. I’m freakin’ going insane here people. Everyday I get up expecting that we’ll start seeing changes to the list and every day it’s the...
Sorry for the lack of posts folks, we’ve been too busy having fun with my in-laws, Robert & Joyce who live in bea-uuuu-tiful Bend, OR (home of every athletic person who ever walked the...
If you’ve spent any time with Nia, you know that there are three people/things she talks about incessantly. The first is Elle, her BFF who is only one month older than Nia. These two run the...
It’s hard to believe, but we’ll have a two year old in our family as of the 22nd. In order to celebrate this momentous occasion, we decided to throw the most Elmolicious Party we could...
When winter starts to get long and we haven’t seen the sun in months, we hop in the car and drive to Cieneguilla. This city, while only one hour from our house, is technically considered the...
The end is in sight folks. Post assignments officially start going out on November 4th and we’re expecting to hear something between the 4th and the 12th. It’s been a surprisingly...
Each year, the best designers in Peru pool their talent to restore a historic mansion in Lima with the help of CasaCor, an organization that rehabilitates neglected historic spaces. This year’s...
Wanna know something? I’ve never been too fond of Halloween. Sure, I enjoyed it as a kid, but by the time I got to my early teens I was pretty over it. It all seemed kinda silly. But then I had...
I’m not sure where the time went, but I recently did the math and realized that this month is the seven-year anniversary of my Life Coaching Business. Whoa, huh? It’s been a wild ride...
All I have to say is that mid-level bidding SUCKS. We’ve been on pins and needles all week hoping and praying that we’d get an email telling us that we had received an assignment. On...
Photo by Mike Mozart on Creative Commons The good ole US of A! That’s right, we’ll be setting up our home in Washington, DC for a two-year assignment. Nick will be working as a Press...
Hey folks, long time no talk. Sorry bout that. I wasn’t feeling it. But I’m back now, so that’s the good news. So when we last talked we had just received our long-awaited...
“Mom, we’ve talked about this before. I’m too busy to have my picture taken. Please leave me alone.” “No, I’m really serious this time. Go away. This is your...