Ecuadorian Adventure, Part 1

Vachel and I, who were dating at the time, went to Ecuador in February 2006. This may seem an odd place for a romantic vacation for a boyfriend / girlfriend, so I’ll tell you it wasn’t very romantic, but we had a reason for going. His aunt, Pat, worked for Foreign Services and her term in Ecuador was almost up—he wanted to go. I’d never been so thought, “What the hell, we’ll give it a whirl.”

His aunt and uncle lived in Quito, the capital, and we stayed at their place. Vachel was farming full-time at that point, and needed regular access to Internet and fax for something related to price matrixes (Maybe price matrixes? It was 2006! You’re lucky I remember the trip at all!). The only reason this is relevant is because before we left we talked about needing access to the Internet and fax, and his aunt and uncle told us about an Internet Café we could go to each morning. I imagined my mornings spent waking up whenever we want, strolling down beautiful Quito to sit at a local coffee shop with public access computers, eating Ecuadorian pastries (in my mind they were similar to croissants) and Café con Leche. We would stroll through all the quaint little shops, have amazing dinners getting to know his family and dining on fresh local foods and have a nice, relaxing vacation in an exotic foreign country.

Clear throat. Cough, Cough.

After this trip I laid out very clear expectations around what I consider a “Vacation” and what we call an “Adventure.”

Vacation:

1. My life is not actually in any real danger from people or immediate surroundings
2. I don’t spend the entire time miserably sick
3. I lay on a beach and wait-staff bring me drinks
4. Shopping
5. Relaxing
6. I DON’T ALMOST DIE

Adventure:

1. Anything other than above

I know what you’re saying here: “Katie, I’m SO intrigued right now. What was your Ecuadorian Adventure really like?” It wasn’t all bad; the people and culture are interesting, the country is beautiful…but it definitely falls more under my “Adventure” category than a “Vacation.”

Ok…so…let’s get this party started:

Let’s begin with the plane ride down there.

On our first connecting flight, the people sitting in front of us were making out the whole time. THE WHOLE TIME. This flight was before I discovered the beauty of Ginger pills to control motion sickness, and I don’t like how Dramamine makes me feel (tired and cranky…Vachel doesn’t like me on it either) so I limited the amount of time I spent reading and instead people watched. You can only watch random people make out for so long before you start to get slightly uncomfortable and pretty much do anything to avoid looking at them. I thought they must have been newlyweds, although in their mid-40’s, and they had both been divorced and re-married and were going away on their Honeymoon.

They (finally) stopped making out and started talking. Turns out they were both married…just not to each other. They both told their spouses that they were going away on a work trip and jumped on a plane to meet up for a week of wild and crazy…um…conferences… At that point I started poking Vachel in the leg so he could listen, however there was no need as he was poking me in the leg for the same thing. We spent the rest of the time shamelessly listening to them. Except when they started making out again, then I went back to staring at everyone but them. Vachel went to sleep.

The second flight to Ecuador was interesting before we even got on the flight. They didn’t allow any overweight luggage—you couldn’t even pay more for it, you had to throw items away. I wasn’t aware of this, but due to the altitude and elevation of the airport in Quito they had very strict weight and fuel restrictions. That didn’t make me nervous at all.

Apparently that didn’t make others nervous as well (sarcasm font) because one of the local Ecuadorians smuggled a flask onto the plane and became DRUNK. About ¾ of the way to Ecuador, he made his presence known by running up and down the aisle trying to hug people. The flight attendants and his very-embarrassed wife were the most hugged.

When it came time to land the plane, all I remember is flying up. We had to drop altitude flying into Ecuador then go up to land in Quito. It was dark, and I couldn’t see anything. I was sitting in a metal flying death-trap. Unlike one of my fellow passengers, I wasn’t drunk. I was terrified.  According to Wikipedia this airport is no longer used, and in 2013 Quito began using a new airport, so I have no idea if you would have that same experience today.

But yea, we landed! Safely!

Vachel’s aunt Pat and uncle Steve were waiting for us at the terminal, and had beautiful roses for me. I found out Ecuador is known for their gorgeous, large-bloomed roses and these are a major export of the country. You learn something new every day. In this case I learned that on Feb. 25, 2006.

Here are some other interesting things I learned within my first few days in Ecuador:

• There is not a big red line that goes across the Earth symbolizing the equator. I know you would think that’s intuitive, and I didn’t expect a big red line, but I expected SOMETHING to indicate the equator. We found a monument.
  

  

  We're on either side of the equator

  

  Vachel inside a phone booth

• Up until the 1960’s the indigenous people of Ecuador were held in slavery, and something like 12 families owned all of the land. In the 2 or 3 generations since the indigenous people were freed from slavery and allowed access to better food and hygiene, the overall population had grown somewhere around 6 inches in height. I was still one of the tallest people around though (I’m 5’ 5”) and Vachel quite literally couldn’t fit in some locations.
  
• Altitude sickness is a thing. I had it. I had headaches, inability to sleep, didn’t feel like eating much, etc. Wait until I get to the part about Mt. Cayambe though, that was altitude sickness at its worst. http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/altitude-sickness-topic-overview

Pat and Steve took us to some pretty cool places while we were visiting, but the first day we were on our own and I was looking forward to the ambiance I described above…the little café with pastries and coffee, tiny boutique shops, etc.

The “Internet Café” was nothing like I imagined. It was a large room filled with card tables and chairs, and early 1980’s Apple 2e-style computers. There was no coffee or pastries, which was probably the worst part. And apparently it was one of the few places people could actually access the Internet, and the guy sitting next to us the first day was alternating between a dating website for men showcasing mostly nude men, and male porn. Vachel didn’t notice because he was working. How could I not notice what was on the computer screen about 6 inches away from me? The guy sitting next to me, so close our arms were almost touching, looked like he could be a serial killer. Or at least looks like how they’re portrayed in movies, so that must be real. I tried to do a Vulcan mind-meld with Vachel because I was completely freaked out, but he wasn’t picking up on my telepathic abilities. Luckily we didn’t stay there long. It may have had more to do with neither of us having coffee at that point than anything else.

Even though it was the rainy season, the weather was beautiful our entire trip. The fresh avocados that were served with every meal were amazing—anything I’ve had since then is just a disappointment. Oh yes, my friends, the Ecuadorian Adventure continues.

Next up, our trip to Otavalo where we went to a local market, got to meet and have dinner with an indigenous family, Rosario and Louis. Rosario is a medicine woman, it was a fascinating experience. We also stayed overnight at a Plantation and made our way across the Road to Nono to visit Mindo and stay another night in a Cloud Forest.

The One Thing No One Knows About You

I was in Connecticut this past week for work, and knew going into the trip there was going to be opportunity to meet new people in group settings. I like to mentally prepare for these things, which means coming up with stuff like, "What is one thing no one else knows about you?"

I have an AMAZING topic. I love to share it, and tell the story. No one, in any setting where I've said my one thing (so people now know, but I still use it) has ever experienced the same thing. I may have oversold this, but I'm cool with that.

The one thing people offer up about me when it's more trivia-based, and I don't choose the topic, is "Who lives on a cattle farm?" That happened this trip, below is a transcript of the actual conversation, and it's usually the same thing whenever the topic comes up:

Trivia Question: "Who lives on a cattle farm?"
Person 1: "Someone in this room lives on a cattle farm?"
Person 2: "It's Katie"
Person 1, 3, 4, etc: "Bwa ha ha ha ha! It's Katie! Can you imagine if that were actually true? Bwa ha ha ha ha!!!!"
Me: "No, really, I live on a cattle farm."
Room: Silence. Staring as people look at how I'm dressed (amazing), my handbag and accessories (also amazing). Guys...People...do you know what farmers look like? Like regular people. We're crazy like that.

If this is your idea of what a Farm Couple looks like, you may need to expand your horizons.

Ok, so what's the one thing about me that I like to use?

Wait for it...

I fell in quick-sand hiking through a Cloud Forest in Ecuador.

This statement usually leads to the Longest Story Ever (as I've been told) because you don't just say that and walk away. People want to know how that happened, and how I lived to tell the tale. Then all the other random stuff that happened in Ecuador. Like the crazy people on the plane down there. Not being able to breathe due to altitude sickness on the top of Mt. Cayambe. Almost dying on the Road to NoNo on a Pre-Incan trail. Staying overnight in a plantation. Meeting a real-life medicine woman and having roasted guinea pig with her family. Trying on indigenous clothing. Almost getting mugged in downtown Quito because of my atrocious sense of direction. The creepy serial-killer looking guy who was at the "Internet cafe" every day looking at porn. How horribly, miserably sick I got.

See? That's my short story, there's no detail in it, and it's still long.

I've decided to try something, which is to write down my Ecuadorian Adventures and post them in my blog. Mainly because it's a good story. And maybe if I do it this way, I can give people the highlights and then send them here for the rest. So if anyone is interested in reading about my Ecuadorian Adventures, I'll be breaking them into several parts and posting them out here as I finish.

Ecuador Cloud Forest. This was after I fell in the quick sand.

To the best Dad

My parents like to take all of their grand-kids and have sleepovers at their house once a week. THEY LIKE TO, People. As in, I get phone calls asking what's wrong with me, and why I don't want my kids to have fun if there's a week we can't make it happen. On our end, this is amazing, as we get to go out and have dinner and stuff...or sometimes we just lay on the couch and watch TV. WHATEVER WE WANT ON TV. Although it usually takes a while to find what we want to watch, because there is so much Sesame Street on our Netflix queue. And Daniel the Tiger, and Wild Kratts, and Jake & the Neverland Pirates...you get the picture.

But that's not why I have the best dad. I mean, that's a pretty great reason (and my mom should be included in there too, although she doesn't usually make the phone calls asking what's wrong with me) but really the whole overnight-one-day-a-week thing has only been going on for about 4 years. I have at least...um...ok, I'm not going to to into how many other years I need to account for. I'll summarize them for you:

He rocked a 1980's mustache like it's no one's business

Movie night, 1980's style

He always kept a very close eye on us growing up

You: "Katie, you look so young!" Me: "Thanks!"

He climbed the highest mountain with us...or the top of Mayan ruins

Top of the Mayan Ruins

He shows us every day how important it is to take care of yourself. He started doing triathlons in his 50's. He does an annual JDRF bike ride. My parents have boxes of racquetball trophies in their house. And this year we did a family 5K.

Dad doing a Tri

He made sure we each grew up with a strong work ethic, and all of us started working part-time jobs as soon as we were old enough.

He made going on vacation a priority. Some of our best family memories are during vacations.

• Dad rolling down the window as an ostrich was coming right at me in a drive-thru zoo in Florida
• Also in Florida, getting lost on Drug Runner's Road (if that wasn't the official name, it should have been)
• Going to a Chicago Bulls game when Michael Jordan was playing
• Again in Florida (it was a pretty epic vacation) Dad renting a catamaran and splashing the water to make me think a shark was coming at me
• Renting lake cabins so we could all spend a few days hanging out
• Trips to Adventureland
• My first international experience--The Bahamas
• Starting to take trips that included friends--like Mexico and Vegas
• The Omaha Royals game, which I'm not going to discuss to protect the innocent. I just want to taunt them a little by bringing it up

He coached or attended all of our activities. My elementary softball (hence the still-current chant, "Kate, Kate the Rusty Gate). My brother and sister's soccer and softball. My National Honor Society stuff (I may have taken a different path than the athletic route).

Those are all little, day to day things that are part of being a family that sometimes get missed. Family vacations are important. Softball games are important. Doing stuff together is important.

Then there are the big things:

Being there for me after boyfriend break-ups.

Taking care of neighborhood bullies.

Rushing to the hospital when I delivered G five weeks early, and in record time (20 minutes after I got to the hospital, that may be another story though) to make sure we were okay (we were).

Walking me down the aisle, twice...both times to the same guy though. I just really like weddings.

My first day at college.

Every time he steps up to help one of his kids, or their spouses, or his grand-kids...which is all the time.

First day at ISU. I know, I made bangs look good.

Being a Dad is not just doing the Little Things, or being there for the Big Things. It's being there for All The Things. And that, my friends, is why I have the Best Dad. 

Just to make this a little bit longer, and drive home my point a little more, I'm re-posting what my sister posted on his last day of radiation treatment, Feb. 6, 2014:

My dad’s better than your dad, and I can prove it.
To outsiders he is the dashing Store Director whom eats twigs and berries, works out daily, raises endless amounts of money for Juvenile Diabetes, and leaps tall buildings with a single bound. All of which may be true; however, the tall buildings could just be the plastic houses his grand-kids play in. It’s tall to them! He taught me to play soccer, baseball, basketball, football (yes football,), and Nintendo. Every trophy I have is because of something he taught me, including the two trophies for sacking groceries!

However, the things most don’t know about and can’t see make him far better. In college, my ovary exploded and I spent quality time in the ICU. As I laid there, breathing thru the mask and arguing with nurses about what’s really going to help me manage; all I wanted was a dark chocolate iced long john. Dad to the rescue! Within an hour I had one. That long john did what morphine, oxygen masks, and blood transfusions could not. My mom sat there with me laughing as she told me there were no dark chocolate iced long johns. There was only maple, gross! So, my dad scrapped all the icing off the long john and re-iced it in dark chocolate. It’s the little things that make him amazing.

Today, my dad gets his last radiation treatment. So, I wanted to take a moment to express how proud and grateful I am of the man who has been there for me my entire life. Even if he does say that my siblings are higher on the list because I haven’t given him grand-kids yet.

Working from Home, not Working from Home and Hanging Out with my Kids

A few months ago I made the decision to stop my 1.5 hour round trip commute I’d been doing for 12 years and began working from home.

My husband and I put a lot of thought into this before making the move. From a career standpoint, I needed more privacy than the cube-farm could allow, and didn’t have an option for an office. My job also entails a very large number of conference calls and working with people in a variety of different locations, so essentially I was driving into work each day, sitting at my desk on the phone for 8-10 hours, then getting in my car and driving home. I very rarely was able to stop for lunch, had very little human interaction outside of phone calls, and although I had standing weekly appointment to go to Starbucks, it was getting more rare to have that date than not. My company is very supportive of virtual employees, and a number of co-workers, as well as my immediate manager all work from home as well. So while this isn’t always an option, as long as I stay with my current employer working from home shouldn’t have a negative impact on my career growth.

Being an Introvert by nature (I took the Myers Brigg test, so it’s all official and stuff), I’m completely comfortable being by myself for large periods of time. Which is good, because, you know…I live on a farm in the middle of nowhere and it’s more unusual than not for me to see people I’m not somehow related to.

Working from home has taken some getting used to, but luckily I have a number of co-workers who also work from home full time so they could give me some insight. Here are the top questions I get now that I work from home full time:

1. “Oh, you work at home? How do you manage that with kids?”

This is the NUMBER ONE question I get. By the way, my male co-workers with kids don’t get the same question, which absolutely infuriates me, but that may be a topic for another day. Here’s how I handle working at home when I have kids: they go to day care, same as they did before.

I work at home. This means I have an office that I go to every day, I have computer, monitors, phone…pretty much everything I had before in my “regular” office. Only now I have three walls that are whiteboard and my commute is me going from my kitchen to my office, on the other side of the kitchen. However, what this doesn’t mean is that I work at home with my kids also at home.

The only exception to working at home with kids is if one of them is sick, and then we also do exactly what we did before: juggle who watches the kids and who works, ask Nana if we need to, and supplement with lots of Sesame Street or Daniel the Tiger. I just read an article about watching Sesame Street making your kids smarter, so really I feel like I’m doing them a favor by streaming it. If we need to either my husband or I will take the day off. This is the same process we followed before I worked at home. I like to call it, “our version of parenting sick kids.” I guess the only other exception is when I have to work on weekends, then there's no getting around my kids being home with me.

What happens when my kids are sick at home: my office gets trashed and Sesame Street streams on Netflix for hours.

This is a weekend checkout. Someone woke up early and wanted to help.

2. “That must be nice, you get to drink whenever you want."

So…I mean, technically, I guess? I’ve been asked if I drink Kahlua in my coffee in the morning (No, I drink International Delight Cinnabon creamer). Or if I have a glass of wine starting at 4 (um…no. I usually wait till around 5:30. Ok, it’s really 5.)

I’ve found, and confirmed this with other work-from-home people, that when you work at home full-time you need to have a mechanism to keep work and home separate. This means I don’t drink at work, just like I didn’t when I drove into the office every day. People frown at you when you add Kahlua in your coffee every morning, bottle in hand while you go to a staff meeting. Bottom line: you just don't do it.

3. “So you get to go to work in your pajamas? That must be awesome.”

Hell yeah, it is!

4. “Don’t you miss being around people?”

I’m fortunate enough that I get to travel periodically to either conferences or brick-and-mortar sites that I still get to see the people I work with pretty frequently. I can also make that same drive into the office that I've done the previous 12 years if I need to. Plus I buy groceries and stuff, and there are usually people there.

5. “Aren’t you less productive?”

No. I actually have to stop myself from working too much, because it’s all right here, available 24/7. If I don’t watch the time I’ll find myself working from when everyone leaves in the morning until they get home, which is usually right around 11 hours later.

So far the only complaint I have working from home is that the cafeteria sucks.

Finding The Time

I noticed it’s been a little over a year since I’ve written anything. This is amusing to me, as the piece I had been working on last May was about the time between 5:03 AM and 5:45 AM. What’s that 42 minute time frame, you might ask? It was the time of day I had all to myself. And sometime in the last year I haven’t found the time to write about finding time…

I made the decision to get up at 5:03 because I felt like getting up before 5 AM is nothing short of ridiculous unless you’re getting on an airplane to go somewhere exotic. With a beach. And someone bringing you drinks. While you lie on the beach. Generally speaking, this is not my life. My life is a marriage, managing two small children, two dogs, a full time job, being a friend, sister, daughter, with the occasional exotic vacation thrown in just to keep things interesting.

Crane Beach in Barbados. I've been here. 

Between 5:03 and 5:45 I would feed the dogs, make breakfast…medium egg on one of those thin bread/sandwich things, toasted, with a little bit of salsa and a slice of cheese. ¼ cup of oatmeal mixed with honey and blueberries. My first cup of coffee. I would watch the news and read a book. I didn’t have to talk to anyone. It was quiet. Peaceful.  And for those wondering when I became old and boring and started watching the news, I’m guessing about 11 years ago when I moved out here and no longer had cable so I couldn’t watch HGTV…oh, that doesn’t make me any cooler?

You know what that time was? ME TIME. I used it every day. It was fantastic, and I willingly woke up that early five days a week. So that was the last blog I was working on—making sure to take time for yourself and finding that time each day/week, whatever you need. I needed time each day to myself, with quiet, where I could read a book. I understand this isn’t for everyone—my husband goes for a run. I run so I don’t have to buy bigger clothes. I don’t consider time spent hoping I don’t die as constructive “me time.” But hey, no judgment.

And then something happened—I started working from home full time. Working from home is amazing. I get up over an hour later, the amount of time it takes me to get ready in the morning is sometimes limited to washing my face and brushing my teeth, and  I’m saving about 2 hours a day just in drive time. Love it!!

I’m now almost six months into working from home and one thing I haven’t really figured out is a schedule. That “me” time that I had each day? I somehow lost it. Maybe because I’m now home almost all the time, so quiet time in the morning isn’t as meaningful? Now I feel like my “time to recharge” involves me leaving the house and being around adults I’m not related to…usually doing exciting things like buying groceries. The only downside to this is sometimes I word-vomit to complete strangers. It’s awkward.

Actually, is it more awkward to word-vomit to complete strangers, or to slight acquaintances that you have to see every week at your 4 year old’s tumbling class? Not that it’s ever happened…

Female friends are amazing and I went to London

I wrote a very long blog post yesterday about a particular friend of mine who recently got married. I went into detail about how we met, how we remained long distance friends before the Internet (and email, FB, text, etc) and where we ended up in life. However we've been friends for almost 25 years, so it was getting really long, and it was getting kind of sad towards the end which was NOT my intention at all.

So, to summarize my very long (now deleted) post, female friends are amazing. You have crappy ones in middle and high school who make you feel like you're a dumb (or too smart) fat, pimply loser with bad teeth and no personality (which sucks no matter where you may have fallen in that spectrum of truth), you have friends who you swear are BFF's but your friendship fizzles out with time, distance and/or life experiences. And then you have those friends who you may not talk to all the time, may not think about every day, but when you are together it's like time has stopped and you pick up the conversation right where you left off. THOSE are the friends I'm talking about. Those people are amazing. Everyone should have at least one. I highly recommend it.

To celebrate the most recent life event of said Forever Friend, a mutual girlfriend and I went to London, England for 6 days. We had a blast. I love the history mixed with modern that maps out this great city, the restaurants we went to were Ah-mazing! and London-towners are extremely friendly. I feel like I completely sabotaged two stereotypes I heard both from acquaintances when I told them I was going to London, as well as from fellow Americans on the way back. Plus my liver hasn't worked out that much in years.

On the Double Decker bus after the wedding. Unfortunately I couldn't find a pic of us in Middle School (or fortunately, I don't know if I want that floating around the Internet)

We took selfies everywhere. This was before the wedding with our Fascinators. We're almost locals. 

Other than the fact that I always have a good time when I visit her (pausing for a moment to recollect visits to Venice Beach, CA; NYC; Bali/Hong Kong; previous trip to London; the Denison, IA Pizza Hut to get white sauce for our breadsticks, etc), I didn't really get to spend much time with her this trip. She had a wedding in a few short days with 50 of her closest friends and family and there were a ton of visitors in town. As much as I'd like the trip to be all about me, she had other things going on. So we bonded with her siblings and some of the London friends.

But thinking back, here are some ways to have fantastic food and a really good time in London-town:

1. Know someone who lives there who can show you around. Failing this, find someone you know who has been there who can provide recommendations. Can't think of close friends or family who've been? Use Facebook, it's the new thing these days.
2. Stay at a nice hotel. This time we stayed at a boutique hotel, The Hoxton on Shoreditch, because that's where the groom and his friends were staying before the wedding. Other than regular amenities, people at the front desk are key in providing directions, where to find coffee shops, and instruction on how to use your converter (which in this case led to a conversation about how we're really intelligent women, contrary to what they might have been thinking). 
3. Stay away from chain restaurants. The worst food I've had in England has always been at chain restaurants. For lunch/coffee/afternoon snack places like Eat or Pret are fine (sandwiches, salads, etc) but if you're looking to sit down for a meal stay away from the chains. Would you recommend someone visiting the US go to Applebees? I wouldn't. Probably the best meal I had was at The Rivington Grill, which is "standard" English fare done up all fancy. I almost licked the bowl clean with my Shepard's Pie. 
4. To save money, use the tube. Our hotel gave us a map of London, which included a map of the tube. Sometimes I needed help from the front desk to point me to which stop I needed, but from there I could figure it out when/where I needed to make changes. The first time it was kind of intimidating, and we ended up going the wrong way, had to jump off and get on another train, but after that adventure it was no big deal. 
5. When you do have to use a cab (like you'll have to do 5 train transfers and it's going to take 2 hours...or it's late at night), use the black taxi's or hire a private car. Restaurants will often call a car for you, and the black taxi driver's have to pass certain tests with their knowledge of the city before they can drive. And all of them were extremely friendly. BTW, you can tell a taxi is for hire when their light is on, and just step towards the street with your arm all the way up to flag them down. In case you're from an area where taxi's aren't that prevalent (like me).
6. Hit up the tourist spots. Yes, you'll have to wait in line, but most of them are worth it. I have every intention of going to The Tower again, Borough Market, Trafalgar Square. I've done a double decker bus tour in Oxford, I would say do it once but guided tours get boring to me after a while. This time we went to Kensington Palace--and seriously, whenever am I going to get the opportunity to walk through a freaking palace again? (Probably next time I go to London to visit, but that's beside the point). 

   

   Kensington Palace. Where my new BFFs Prince William, Princess Kate and Prince George live.

   

   The Tower. It's awesome.

   
   

   

   Parliament and Big Ben

7. Don't be obnoxious. I'm not saying I'm never obnoxious, but don't be one of those people who stands in a large group right in the middle of where everyone else is trying to walk. Or expects everyone to speak exactly in American-style English. My travel partner and I would often joke to each other, "Why are things so hard?" and then laugh hysterically. London is a crowded city, so restaurants/bars are often loud, and when  you have difficulty understanding the dialect anyway...we smiled and nodded a lot. There are a lot of different nationalities and cultures living in London, so as long as you're not a jerk most people won't be one back. This can be said for pretty much everything though, regardless of where you might be in the world. 
8. Things can be harder than you think considering you're visiting an English-speaking, first-world country. Like the converter--did you know you need the third prong to be included? It's not like in the US where it's two prongs and the third one is optional. When paying, you get money back in actual change. Including single and double pounds (instead of dollar bills). I bought a coin purse to throw in my bag because it was all jangling around in the bottom of my purse, and my pockets were starting to bulge out. 
9. Be careful when going shopping, or buying pretty much anything. One, have a credit card with no international fees or you'll probably get hit with some kind of transaction fee for each thing you purchase. And two, remember about the currency exchange. It takes more per dollar to equal a pound. For example, piece of an actual conversation, "70 Pounds for this dress! Totally worth it!" Two seconds later, "Oh wait, what's that in dollars? Crap, is there Wi-Fi in this place so I can Google it?" I still am not quite sure how much I spent on that dress, but it was really cute and no one else here will have it, so totally worth it.
10. Last, but not least, is focus on having fun. Don't do things because you have to (i.e. the London Eye--if you don't like heights or ferris wheels, it's a total waste of money. I sat in the pub with a pint of cider beer while the fools I was with went up in that death trap. I don't like heights or ferris wheels.) At the end of the second day, walking around London in the rain, I was definitely wishing for a Hover Round but I was having a great time. We stopped and had Pimms at Borough Market, I bought an umbrella where the polka-dots change color in the rain (oh yeah, wear good walking shoes and bring an umbrella), we watched Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace in the rain...we had a GREAT TIME. It doesn't matter that it rained, or that we had to dress in layers because it was cold, or that we couldn't ever tell the temp because it was in Celsius. We were there to have fun, so we did. The rest just helps make it all a good story. 

I just like this picture

You can tell it's planting season when...

Every once in a while I see the lists people put together around being married to farmers. Honestly, I mainly see them because Vachel shows them to me. So I decided to do my own around planting season. The same may be said for Harvest as well, but as it's not yet Harvest I haven't really put a ton of thought into that one.

1. The answer to any attempt at making plans is, "Sure...if it rains." This is usually followed by me saying, "It's an outdoor event. If it's raining I don't want to go."
2. You start to make plans every weekend that include things you can take the kids to, and at some point have to remind yourself to invite your husband again because you get so used to running solo + 2. Speaking of this, the kids and I had a surprisingly good time at the Des Moines Farmer's Market last weekend. G loved it, and V loves any time she gets to hang out in the Baby Bjorn. Success!
3. You start to make plans with friends based on the weather report for the week. Example, "It looks like Thursday it's supposed to rain with possibilities of hail and severe weather. Can you watch the kids so I can go out to dinner with some friends?" 
4. You look outside to see your weed garden and try to calculate how bad it will be before he can watch the kids so you can go at it with a machete and back-hoe.

   

   You thought I was kidding about the weed garden.

5. Family Fun Night (Wednesday) is the best night of the week. I don't have to cook and we get ice cream sundaes. 

   

   Vachel and G making dinner for Family Fun Night.

6. You get to play chicken with tractors and planters driving down the gravel road. And when I say "play chicken," I mean pull over as far as possible to allow them the room they need. Let's be real people: car vs. giant tractor, car loses and people get hurt. Don't be a jackass. 
7. During severe weather alerts everyone runs around trying to put all of the trucks in whatever covered place they can. Why can't they use the garage? Because that's where the seed is.
8. While in the car together you have to turn the radio to NPR specifically to hear the crop report and % complete. And then listen to mutterings about where they are in comparison. He might actually be talking to me at this point instead of muttering to himself, but I don't really have a lot to add to the conversation so I may not be paying much attention. I imagine it's what he feels like when I talk about...never mind, I can't imagine what he feels like. Everything that comes out of my mouth is pure gold. 
9. You feel the need to buy all of your single-parent friends flowers and chocolates, because having to be the one responsible for kids all the time and still manage not to be a zombie at work is exhausting.
10. Sometimes you get tired of the whole working/taking care of kids/cooking/cleaning thing so you do stuff to cut corners. Such as not do any dishes for two days (with the exception of the bottles that need to be washed for day care) knowing that it will drive him crazy enough that when he comes in late at night he'll eventually just wash them all. Oh, is that just me?