Vacaciones = vacation in spanish:)

So, we went to Asunción last week.

I don't count trips to the capital as relaxing vacations for a few reasons:

1. They don't speak my language in Asunción. I feel the most comfortable speaking in German or English. And Spanish is the principal language there. It's stressful for me because my husband speaks even less Spanish than I do, so I get to order in restaurants, ask for directions and book the hotel rooms. And I'm always the one with the map on the lap, telling the driver (Marv) where to go, shushing the kids in the back, checking for traffic lights (we don't have any where we live),  etc. My head gets tired...
2. Going with 3 kids and my husband means there are 6 different opinions where to go and what to do. Plus we were going with another family with 3 girls in the same ages as ours, but with completley different tastes in activities.
3. It was cold and wet. Enough said.

But it was fun anyway, just not relaxing.

Right before the bridge that takes us into Asunción, we got caught in a traffic jam, which nevers happens here. When we inched closer we saw what was blocking our lane.

A great big tank on wheels was attempting to cross the bridge. It probably came from Argentina.

They even had to lift this sign, so that the tank could drive underneath. I'm glad we weren't on the bridge the same time as that monster truck. :)

We went to a brand new shopping center just across the street from the Expo-site. It's called Shopping Mariano and the prices are high, just like in all of the malls in the city. :( But we did enjoy our first taste of McDonalds, and Amy posed beside the Hulk, so it was totally worth it!

On a walk from our hotel Cindy turned into a tree hugger! Thats fine with me:)

Brianna and Anna found a granny in the Sol-Mall.

This was one of my best moments during our stay there: A real-live Cappucino with a piece of lemon meringe pie from McCafe! Yum!

Ok, it's back to work for me now. We are having a yard sale/flea market this weekend. Brianna and I have priced a lot of our stuff already and I'm still debating if we should try to sell our old sofa set or not. We won't be able to get a new one for a few months because the "carpinterias" are overbooked now.

Thanks for visiting with me, have a great week!

And if you're one of my sisters from up north: I can't wait till August 19th!!!!

Mug Rugness

Hi, has the mug-rug madness caught up to you yet?

I love them, they're cute and fast to make, and the best of all...

 ...you can gift them to someone you care about! I think they'll make great gifts for Friendship Day on July 30th.

 Did you know that Friendship Day originated in Paraguay?

"The Friend's Day had a historic antecedent called Crusader global friendship that is a campaign in favour of giving value and enhance the friendship among human beings, so as to promote the Culture of Peace. It was designed by Dr. Ramon Artemio Bracho in Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay in 1958. From that idea, was set July 20 as the Day of Friendship and is celebrated in several countries in South America. In Paraguay is celebrated on July 30. Its importance lies in the fact that favors the values that enable dialogue and harmony in society and the world." (copied from here: http://news.deviantart.com/article/53388/)

And Wiki says: "Traditionally, the International Friendship Day celebrations take place on the first Sunday of August, among several Friendship Day celebrations on other dates, held by a range of countries. On 27 April 2011, the United Nations declared 30 July as International Day of Friendship. "

We're leaving tomorrow morning for a 3 day vacation to the capital. I hope the 4 hour car drive to Asunción doesn't make me car sick or kid-sick. :) Hope you have  great week! Thanks for checking in on me!

See ya, Brenda

Horses!

 My dad came by last week with a small trailer full of horses. The brown mare in the front is the one we are borrowing (maybe buying) from him. The colt in the middle is here on vacation (to be weaned of his mother still on the ranch) and the black lady in back is sold already and is waiting for the buyer to pick her up.

 And here she comes...

 closer... and closer...

  ...and here she is!

 Brianna is very happy!

Until 10 minutes after this picture was taken and she fell off.


Thank goodness she only hurt her pride. And she might have a bruise tomorrow.:)

Baking results

We are having a ladies meeting tonight at a neighbors house.
The women from my village bring something sweet to eat and the other village's ladies bring something salty. I'm always glad to be in the sweet group, as the salty potluck foods intimidate me:) (sandwiches, enpanadas, chipa, sopa paraguaya and things like that.)

I decided to try and see if my favorite angel food cake recipe would work today, as the last few times I made it, it failed. I have so many eggs now, that I don't see it as a waste if I use 1 1/2 cups of egg whites on this wonderful dessert. I also needed a backup recipe, in case the angel food cake didn't turn out, so I picked a refreshing looking Key Lime Poke Cake from Betty Crocker. Instead of the boxed white cake mix, I used Betty's own recipe for Silver White cake. I also omitted the frosting on top, as I thought the filling was enough. Come and take a look at my results:

You can find the Chocolate Angel Cake here and the Key Lime Poke Cake here.

I hope you try one of these some day!

Here is the Pretzel Recipe from my last post, especially for Ellie! Or this one.

I'll see you all again soon, Brenda



It's me again:)

Ok, picture this: I'm home, all alone. Marv and the girls went to check on the cattle. They left me with peace and dirty dishes.  I've got an almost empty bag of nachos and a cup of cappuccino. Ahhhh..... no more excuses not to post something in my blog.:)

Sorry for leaving you readers for a while. I just didn't have the urge to post anything. But then some of my faithful friends started leaving me messages, asking if everything was ok. One of my bloggy friends even awarded me (I think she gave me the award to wake me up to start blogging again:), thanks Betty! (More on that later)

I started to post something a few times, but it would take forever to post pictures. But I'm here now, so this is what's been happening in my life now.

The cute calf in the first picture is my new project. Her mama stepped on her legs right after she was born and broke 2 of them. We put her front leg in a splint and the hind leg healed on its own. Her name is Toddy (a brand of chocolate milk down here) and she's doing great now. She's not usually in my flower bed, but the girls thought it would make a great photo shoot:)

Our next new pet is a cute little turtle. My mom found it on the road and gave it to Brianna. We started to call it "Chipa" because of it's shape and size, but Brianna renamed it and I forgot what it's name is now. It's so small I could fit two on them in the palm of my hand. This is the kind of turtle that gets to be about 30 cm (12 inches) in diameter.

We went to our parents ranch the other day. This is what the front gate looks like. Can you see the name of the ranch on the sign? Who can guess what it means?  (Sisters are not allowed to answer this:) Whoever has been reading my blog for awhile should be able to answer this.

This is what Brianna likes to do on the ranch.

This is what Cindy likes to do on the ranch.

And this is what Amy likes to do on the ranch.

 I love my girls, even if they drive me crazy sometimes.

 So I baked them their favorite snack last week. Big, crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside pretzels:)

 I received a surprise last week, my friend Betty from A glimpse into midlife awarded me with this sunshine award! Thanks Betty!

Every award has it´s rules and this one is pretty easy.


Thank the person who awarded you and link back to them.
(Did that!)


Tell one thing about yourself.
(I collect more crafting magazines and ideas than I'll ever be able to make in 4 lifetimes! I just checked and I have over 5 GB of crafting magazines in my computer and a whole shelf in my bookcase full!)


Nominate 10 blogs for the award.
( I haven't been blogging for awhile and haven't been keeping up with other blogs either, so I won't do this today. Sorry:)

This is Brianna's cow saying:

"Thanks for dropping in on the Chacogirl, and moooove back here soooon!:)"