Sad, Sweet Goodbye

Last Thursday night, the 25th of June, Mario's father, Deolindo Antonio Resek, passed away. He was 85 years old and had lived an exemplary life. Deo was very intelligent, learned, humble, generous, loving, and many other traits. But most importantly, he was one of those rare people who can really say that he didn't just try, but did his best to follow the example of Jesus Christ every day of his life. I am grateful for the relatively brief time that I knew him, and am even more incredibly grateful to have the blessing of being married to someone who was raised by his example and teachings.

I know that the highest honors and glories of heaven are reserved for men like him. We will miss him.

Polo ~ Pirouetes ~ Pathetic Princesses

Polo Ponies. Argentina is known for polo, and having a taste for all things fine, I've always been interested. Last week there was a polo tournament here in Rosario that was open to the public so I went with Gabe and my friend Janette and her son. It wasn't what I expected. First, the horses are small, which is fine, I jut didn't know that they are called polo PONIES because they are truly small, agile animals. Second, it was so informal. There has hardly anyone there, it was basically just a field and we could have walked right onto it - no real division between us and the herd of charging horses (that didn't seem so light weight when they ran storming past a mete 3 feet from you in a herd, with no barrier in between. And there was no score board, so I had no idea what was going on. But we had fun anyway, Gabe loved the horses and continue to shout "dale caballo, dale!" (go horse go!) The best side benefit from that is when he's piddling along and I need him to get moving I can say "dale Gabe Dale!" and he'll start running like the caballos. Works great.Mateo and Gabe found polo balls and the trainer let them keep them. They're heavy and feel like they're made of fiberglass.

One of Mario's responsibilities in our church is over the Young Single Adults. We were in charge of the regional dance so I declared a snow theme (it is winter here) and taught them how to cut out snowflakes. It was fun to decorate.

We decided to serve soup and water instead of hotdogs and soda. Some were horrified by the departure from tradition, others tried my taco soup and declared that it was so spicy it was completely inedible (I swear it was totally mild) and others were happy. Whatever, I feel like I'm helping to expand their palates and hopefully their minds! (I also made squash soup, pictured below)And in a grand personal accomplishment, I finished my first novel in Spanish. I finally read the first of the Twilight series when I picked it up in English in an airport earlier this year. I couldn't get New Moon in English so decided to try it in Spanish. I had a hard time getting into it, and blamed that on the language but have since heard many felt the same way. Is it me, or is the heroine whiney, suicidal and pathetic in this book?? But by the end I was enjoying the story again. I wanted to get the third in English but then I met a guy the other day that just got back from living in the US for 8 years and his English was not good, and I was really kind of surprised and dismayed, and I don't want that to be me so I think I've convinced myself to read the 3rd book in Spanish as well. But if someone wants to mail me their old copy of the 4th book in English I'd be most appreciative. Santa hasn't come through with my Kindle yet.

The picture was clear

We just got back from the ultrasound and...

Let the shopping begin.

Two = Dos = Two!!

Gabe is "TWO" he will tell you if you ask in english and "DOS" if you ask in Spanish. It amazes me. He is funny, and energetic, and a little mischievous, and his intelligence and the way he connects things often astound me. He also LOOOOOOVES his mommy, and wants to be held all the time, and still gets incredibly jealous if I happen to be holding another child.
He likes to kick the soccer ball, whack the tennis ball with the kitchen spatula, throw the nerf ball, and have someone lift him to try for baskets with the basketball which is truly to heavy for him. He loves his books and can now complete all his puzzles without thinking. But his favorite toys are the cows nana bought him. Seriously, he LOVES the mama cow, papa cow, and baby cows. We have to stop in the grocergy store to examine every kind of packaging that has a picture of a cow on it.
He loves to sing and dance and comes home from preschool singing new songs I don't know. He blew out his birthday candles all by himself...3 times!

And his favorite part of his birthday party was eating the "cream" off the cupcakes. It's all about the frosting for this kid.
He loves his cousins, expecially Vicki and Pilar. And likes to repeat "ojo Paco" warning his uncle Paco that he's going to beat him at golf someday.

We love you baby Gabe!!!

Playing Catch-up

That seems to be my MO with this blog...

A couple of weeks ago we were experiencing unseasonably warm weather here. So we took advantage of it and spent the day at a kids farm nearby. It was fantastic. Gbe LOVED all the animals and it was clean and beautiful.

"zashy, Mingos!!!"

The woman working there came around an got really annoyed that everyone was trying to feed the horses bits of hay that were about, "We've told EVERYONE they are NOT to feed the animals! It makes them sick!!" Yet there was NOT ONE single sign anywhere saying not to feed the animals. We stopped anyway, I just thought their lives might be easier if they actually put up a sign or two.

They day after our visit to the farm, the cold came with a vengence. And that week was "preschool week" in Argentina (random holidays, whatever) so his school celebrated with special activities all week, culminating in a preschool birthday party/costume party on Friday. Since I am expected to be birthing around Halloween this year, I was happy to put emphasis on this costume extravaganza and made Gabe a costume for this event instead. Trying to learn from my failures of last Halloween when I conned my mom into sending me tons of feather boas and then spending hours hand sewing them into a parrot costume that Gabe refused to wear, I attempted to fool him into thinking he was just wearing "normal" clothes...with a small pillow velcroed to his back!

and thus I present Gabe the turtle.

He had fun at his party, and even wore the costume!!

In other family news without photos, Mario has almost finished the golf lessons I gave him before I left to the US (thinking he would use them all while I was gone and not annoy me with this demand on his time, but not so) and is loving them. He is now telling me he needs golf shoes.

I also just finished my first round as teachr for the Self-Employment Workshop that our church offers. It was quite an interesting experience and I liked it a lot. Now if only I can find more ways to make my ifluence felt on the merchandise available in Argentina!!

And like father like son... Gabe and Mario give a shout out to Uncle Matt before heading off to church last Sunday.