Saturday, November 1

We woke up and carved our pumpkins. I don’t think my children cared that October was already over.

Once the Ladies woke up, we decided to take Kelly and Chelsea to do the tourist stuff in Madrid. We went to Puerta Del Sol and took them to have chocolate at the most famous bakery in Madrid. Everyone was really thrilled to get the actual dream of the best of the best in chocolate y pastres.

After that we walked all the way to Retiro Park, checking out the amazing architecture of downtown’s high rises. We had Sangria in the park and then headed home.
We began Pirate Day, a day early.

Sunday, November 2nd - Pirate Day.

When Brent and I were in Germany, the girls had a Harry Potter Day and stayed in their pjammies and watched movies with Kelly and Chelsea. We decided to do the same thing as a house family - but Pirates!!! We had all three movies and decided to start early on Saturday, so only two to watch on Sunday. We all dressed up as pirates and had swords and patches etc.

A break between our movies, we made dinner and set the table. Our dinner was fish, fruit kabobs, and pina coladas. We decorated the table with our pumpkins, candles, bottles of “Pretend” rum. It was fabulous.

We took all of the cushions off of all of the couches and laid them all out on the floor in the living room. This room has a fireplace in the middle, which makes it difficult to maneuver things. We all grabbed our comforters and snuggled together watching movies from someone’s lap top.

The funniest part about Pirate Day, is that Chelsea was talking in her sleep (Kelly and Chelsea share a room). Kelly heard Chelsea say, “Why is the rum always gone?!”.

Tuesday, November 4th

Today was Election Day. Nothing was happening during the day in Spain, because of the 8 hour time difference.

Jocelyn did have a substitute at school today. The lady asked Jocelyn why she was sitting so close to Belin. They explained that Belin was translating for Jocelyn. Then the teacher asked Jocelyn where she was from in espanol. Jocelyn answered United States. The teacher then spoke in English and asked where. Jocelyn said Arizona. The teacher then said that she was from Glendale. Jocelyn answered that one of our students (Chelsea) lived in Glendale. This teacher goes home to Arizona every summer to see her grandkids!!!!

Wednesday, November 5th

Laurie and Steve left for the Marathon in Greece today. They have been training for this marathon for about six months. This is Steve’s first. It is the actual ancient Marathon from the City of Marathon to Athens. How cool is that - something I would love to do in the future!!!

We couldn’t find the results last night of the election (internet so slow), so we got up early this morning and hooked up to NPR via the web. We were able to see the first polling coming in. We heard the speeches from McCain and Obama. It was pretty incredible and it was difficult being away from it all.

The amazing thing was that I had a hard time speaking espanol, because I was concentrating on English. The other parents were also talking about the American Elections. Everyone in the world was excited about the change in America. I don’t think it mattered who America elected - it was a change.

Thursday, November 6

Gammy arrived today (my mom). The sisters and I pooled our gift money for my mom together and shipped her out to Spain. She came bearing gifts of chocolate chip cookie mix, candy corns, granola, library books (Jocelyn can’t read enough), and Spam (this was the Aunts’ crazy shopping idea!!!).

So while I was waiting to get my mom, there was a lot of whispering in the airport. I couldn’t understand that well, so when we got home, I went to the Spain news to read……Bin Laden’s son had landed in Madrid from Saudi Arabia on the same day and was trying to get asylum. Wow Spain had some tough decisions - Gammy or Bin Laden!!! Thankfully they sent Mr. Bin Laden packing to Egypt!!!

The first thing that Gammy got to do, was go to the pasteria for chocolate. I hadn’t had time to eat yet, and we had some errands to do, I also had Ana’s car.

After our errands and dropping off Gammy‘s stuff at the house, we were able to pick Brent up from the University. Brent gave Mom a wonderful tour of the campus and we had lunch together in the cafeteria. The lunch is similar to most restaurants at lunch time and for the girls’ school. You get primer plata, segundo plata y tercer plata. The first plate is usually a soup. The second plate is a meal with a veggie side. The third plate is usually a salad or a yogurt or a piece of fruit. It is a lot of food. Mom and I shared it and still didn’t finish it all. The girls usually can’t leave until they eat the first plate and most of the second plate.

Then Mom got to go with me to the grocery store. With Ana’s car, we were able to purchase more. Then Mom got to take a nap until we went and picked the girls up from school. It was the usual - “That’s my Gammy” and jumping up and down etc!!! An awesome experience and great for anyone’s self esteem.