November 28, 2010 (Part 2)

Part “dois” – that’s 2 in Portuguese

See how the days just slip by?  I’ve tried to finish part 2 several times and look – it’s 4 days later. 

Well, I forgot to mention about the car situation…  Here, in Portugal, gasoline vs. diesel is not so easy to tell the difference.  I am very paranoid about putting the wrong type of gas in our car (therefore, I haven’t offered to pump the gas).  In Portuguese the word for gasoline is “gasolina” and the word for diesel is “gasoleo”.  See how you could easily put the wrong kind of gas in your car?  And when you’re tired and it’s raining and you have a bunch of young punks getting annoyed with everyone at the gas station, it would be very easy to error on the type of gas.  So, I have to cut Rick some slack.

The next day (or actually the same day, since it was 2:20am) we slept in.  We figured we didn’t need to get up for church since we didn’t have a way to get there.  We didn’t really know at this point what would become of the car situation.  But, all we did know is that we were carless for the time being.  Our Sunday was nice and restful.  We had planned on taking a walk around to see if anyone claimed the dog that had spent the last few days with us.  A few hours had gone by and the groundskeeper, Francisco, showed up to rake up the leaves.  He’s an older man, probably in his 60’s or 70’s, and feels that it’s very important to clean up the leaves.  I told Rick to ask him if he knows of anyone missing their dog.  He said he didn’t.  I was secretly happy about that because I was hoping the kids would be able to keep this puppy – he was very good natured.  But, about an hour later he came back with his 2 nephews that live down the street from us.  Turns out the dog belongs to them, and Francisco hadn’t known that they were missing one of their dogs (they own 6).  We had named him Rex (short for tyrannosaurus rex – because he bites a lot), but his real name was Flash.  The other dog that had run through our backyard with Rex/Flash was his mother (nice mom for not coming back to get her son).  Anyways, the boys were thrilled to get their dog back.  I guess the day that we had kidnapped their dog, they had spent looking around the neighborhood asking everyone if they’d seen him.  They told our kids that they could come see him anytime.  They also told us that there is a pound in Tomar if we wanted to adopt a dog – they probably didn’t want us stealing any more of theirs!!  Just kidding – we had asked them if there was a pound.

We had planned on just hanging around the house on Monday because we didn’t have a car anymore.  I had looked up some recipes online to make pancakes and my mother in law had sent me a recipe for homemade syrup (that doesn’t require maple flavoring – because they don’t have that here).  We had a very yummy breakfast.  After that we just hung out and did school work.  But, a little while later, and much to our surprise, Fatocha called – she had arranged for a taxi to come pick us up and take us to the car rental agency, in town, to get a replacement car.  So, we quickly got ready for the day and headed out to pick up the rental and go car shopping again.  The kids just hung out at home and got some school work done.  The next few days were spent car shopping.  Obviously last Saturday was NOT the day to get a car.

THURSDAY was actually the day to get a car.  We had found 5 cars that would work.  SERIOUSLY – 5!!  We took Kaylie and Tanner with us again and headed out.  We had decided that today was REALLY going to be the day to ACTUALLY buy a car.  We drove 1 ½ hours into Lisbon.  We test drove the cars, went to lunch at the mall, talked about it, then headed back to one of the dealerships to “seal the deal”.  Everything went well, price agreed upon, paperwork filled out, then Rick was told we couldn’t take the car for a week because it came from France and they had to have a week to get the registration in Portugal done.  BUMMER!!!  We were all set to drive home in a new car.  That was a disappointment.  But, at least we were finally done car shopping.

So, Friday was good.  Felt like a weight has been lifted off our shoulders – house hunting, DONE; car shopping, DONE.  Now we can move forward.  Today Kaylie and I went for a walk.  The first time we’ve been able to experience our nice surroundings.  Our neighborhood is wonderful.  Not your typical neighborhood.  It’s very hilly with a single, narrow road, old homes, very green, very quiet, very quaint.  Perfect!!  In the back of our property is a very nice lake.  It is actually formed by a dam on the Rio de Zezere.  We are on one of the “fingers” of the lake.  So, it’s calm and quiet.  Later in the day Kaylie colored my hair – I was considering going gray while in Portugal, but I guess vanity won!!  Luckily, my wonderful hair lady (Julie Bainter) taught Kaylie how to color before we left Utah.

Fatocha, Luis, and Tomas were coming to stay for the weekend.  They arrived in the late afternoon on Saturday.  Rick and Tanner wanted haircuts before they got here, but the clippers didn’t work (cheap).  Rick ran back to the store to buy a better pair and while he was there – he bought me a dryer – whoo hoo!!  A dryer!!  I won’t have to hang clothes outside in the cold and all over the house anymore.  They are supposed to deliver it on Monday.  When Fatocha’s family arrived we showed them around the place, hung out for a while, then headed to buy food to make Fatocha’s yummy “bacalhau” (which is dried codfish).  We were going to have American food (tacos – ok, Mexican), but we decided to save that for Sunday night, when the missionaries were coming over.  Before bed, Kaylie and I made homemade syrup for the next morning; and homemade dough for flour tortillas (for the tacos). 

Sunday, we took Fatocha’s family to church with us – after having a delicious French toast breakfast.  Luis is not a member of the church, but he really enjoyed the “services”.  He is originally from Angola and he connected with Elder Duarte, who is from Cabo Verde.  Elder Duarte (remember he’s our branch president) had asked Rick to give his testimony during Sacrament.  He seems to do that – he has a member bear their testimony and then has a speaker, then a song, then another speaker.  Rick seemed to touch a lot of people.  That evening the elders came over and we all feasted on tacos.  Devan had been harvesting crawdads for the last several days.  He keeps them in a pool area in the back yard.  Fatocha taught Devan how to cook them her way – which was WAY DELICIOUS.  He spent about an hour gutting them and then had them in the tacos.  Crawdad tacos – yum yum.

Monday – we waited for the dryer to be delivered, but they never showed (not surprising).  Have I said it before that nothing is ever easy in Portugal?  Oh yea – I have.

Tuesday – After doing Seminary and some school work – we took Tanner and Kaylie into Sao Pedro, where the elementary school is.  We have been contemplating having Tanner go to public school.  But, he’s been fighting us on it.  He was wanting to go at one point, then completely changed his mind.  Well, we took him there to check it out.  We had a tour of the school by the administrator.  We met the 4^th grade teacher, who was very nice and introduced Tanner to the students.  Everyone was very nice and we’re still considering enrolling him.  Although, he did leave me a giant note on my pillow, that night, that said “I am NOT going to Portuguese school”.  I guess he’s serious.  After traumatizing him at the school, we took the kids to the dog pound to possibly adopt of dog.  But, the pound was closed.  We figured we'd check it out tomorrow.  Devan got invited to go to the movies with the friends from Marinha Grande (the friends we first met when we arrived in Portugal) to see Harry Potter.  So, Rick being THE nicest dad in the world – drove him 45 minutes to see a movie that started at 9:30pm (which is already past Rick’s bedtime).  Rick was going to go shop around for a bike, but everything was closed.  So, he ended up back at the movie theater and watched a different movie, by himself, to kill time until Devan’s movie was over.  Harry Potter had some technical difficulties and therefore started late, so Rick’s movie ended before Devan’s.  Anyways, by the time they got home it was about 1:30am.  Crazy!!  Oh – PS, Devan went with 5 girls & 0 boys.  Oh – PPS, they all like the cute American boy.

Wednesday – So today was a big government workers strike.  We found this out a couple of different ways.  1 was because we were wondering why the kids would be seeing such a late movie on a school night; 2 was because Rick received an e-mail from the guy at the car dealership that said we couldn’t get the car until next week, due to the strike (the paperwork was delayed).  Really?  Can you believe that?  And, can you guess why they went on strike?  Well, Portugal’s economy is one of the worst in Europe right now.  They have made all the workers take pay cuts, they’ve put tolls on their freeways and highways.  Things are just a mess right now.  Anyhow – I don’t know how the strike turned out since we don’t watch TV here and we don’t get the newspaper.  All I know is kids didn’t have school and we didn’t get our car.    Just a few other thoughts for this wonderful day – I HATE HOMESCHOOLING!!  I really don’t know how parents home school their children.  Takes a lot of patients.  Tanner drove me crazy ALL day.  I think he’s out of sorts with himself.  He really doesn’t want to go to public school, but then he drives us completely crazy at home.  Doesn’t quite make sense.  Kaylie is a great homeschooler, though.  She keeps track of everything she does, she’s very organized, and she’s actually interested in learning so she reads all of her stuff on her own.  Devan, well, it’s taken him 2 months to get motivated to work, but he’s actually doing it now.  Luckily for him, it’s a self paced program; and, he has a year to complete it.  So, he’s doing good now.  This evening we went to the church for FHE.  A new family came.  They have 3 kids.  A boy who’s almost 13, a girl who’s 15, and a little boy who’s probably 3.  Elder Duarte gave a spiritual message and then we played “Pictionary”.  Very interesting to play “bilingual Pictionary”.  It was fun, and the branch is growing a little more.

I’m going to make this a 3 part blog.  It’s late again.  I seem to always do this when it’s late.