Lost in Translation

First of all, here's a picture of my breakfast and my number one food craving for the last month or so:

(mmmmmmm ooey gooey melty chocolaty goodness)

I wish I could say it's the grapes or the water.....does anyone actually crave water? Probably not....but no, it's the chocolate croissant. I swear I could eat these all day. I don't. But I think I could. And it's so weird because I didn't even really like them before I got pregnant. Actually, those of you that know me really well know that I don't even really like sweet stuff at all. If there's dessert, I'll take a piece but I usually only have a couple of bites and then I give it to someone else or throw the rest out. I don't know why, I just get overwhelmed by the sweetness and it becomes to much for me really quickly. Kind of like when you get too much feta cheese...it's like an overdose at some point and you just can't go any further. Anyway, pregnant Tara craves sweets...and especially chocolate croissants...and any kind of threshold just doesn't seem to exist.  I probably eat these about 3 or 4 times a week for breakfast which is so not healthy. But that's nothing compared to the damage I did last night! First I gave into an ice cream craving, which I gotta pat myself on the back for because I hadn't had ice cream for a whole week until last night. That's a pretty major accomplishment these days. But then...Antonis came home with baklava. BAKLAVA! I had just had a conversation about how I don't even like baklava because it's soooooo incredibly sweet and sticky and just way too much. But apparently at 2am, after already having two scoops of ice cream just 3 hours earlier, pregnant Tara thinks baklava is amazing. And then I eat a chocolate croissant for breakfast?!?!?!?! I need an intervention! 


Don't worry. I know myself. Now that I've admitted to losing complete control of my dietary situation, I'll be more diligent about getting back on track. This was a little self intervention...as embarrassing as it is to admit that I ate my weight in sugar over the last 12 hours, it was a necessary self intervention. Oh, and please don't send me any boring "Don't worry, you're pregnant, you can eat what you want, you'll lose the weight later" messages because I might attack you.....Not for real. Just with words. I've noticed my hormones have changed my personality a bit lately. I'm not the over sensitive crier anymore. Now I have no patience for anything and I go from zero to pissed off and yelling in seconds....oh wait a minute, that sounds a bit like the old Tara. Awww, she's back! I'm joking. Kind of. Actually my patience was pretty good last night considering the insanely annoying conversation I had with Antonis after we ate the giant pieces of baklava.

And now I'm finally getting that I had planned to write about from the beginning....wow I really get sidetracked these days. Anyway it doesn't matter, I needed to discuss my recent unhealthy food choices. Now that that's done, here is a transcript of the conversation I had with my husband last night about ordering things for the baby online. I've chosen some things I think we'll need and I was going through the list with him to get his opinion but also to get him to help translate the descriptions of the products so I can make sure I'm ordering what I think I'm ordering. Also keep in mind that he'd had a few glasses of ouzo with his brother last night....that might give you a better visual of what I'm doing with my face in the moments where he's laughing hysterically at his own jokes. Anyway, here's how the conversation went:

Tara: I want to order this stuff tomorrow so can you pleeeeeease focus for me?
Antonis: Yep I'm focused. Hey, Captain America's on!
Tara: Ok but can you pause it for just like 15 minutes?
Antonis: Yep.
Tara: Captain America's stupid, do you really want to watch that? Bridesmaids is on too, that'll be way funnier.
Antonis: You don't like Captain America?
Tara: I don't like Captain anything. Can you look at this now?
A: Yep
T: Ok. So first I want to get this baby carrier. I chose this one. But what does 'thesi sti plati' mean?
A: It means you can carry the baby on your back. So this one you can use in the front and the back
T: Good! That's exactly what I want. It comes in grey or black but I picked the grey, is that ok with you?
A: Yeah that's fine
T: you'll still feel manly in the grey
A: yep
T: good! Ok this is the stroller I picked but you've already seen this because we talked about it 2 days ago. But I decided to add the diaper bag as well. Is that ok?
A: yeah. Are you sure you don't want to watch Captain America?
T: you can watch whatever you want if you just get through this with me first. Ok, the next thing is the breast pump. I don't know anything about breast pumps but I want one that's manual, I don't need anything electric, and I want it to come with a couple of bottles. I picked this one, can you translate the description for me?
A: (he's laughing about breast pumps until I glare at him and he gets the impression that he shouldn't be laughing about breast pumps) Ok it says.......EXPLOSION OF MILK INTO BUCKETS BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!
T: It doesn't say explosion of milk! Come on, focus! This isn't funny, this is how I'm going to be feeding your baby, it's serious so can you tell me what the thing says?!
A: I'm not kidding, the first sentence says "explosion of milk into buckets" hahahahahahahahaha
T: I'm not a cow! It doesn't say "explosion" or "buckets" anywhere!
A: It does!
T: Maybe it says "expulsion"
A: No, it says explosion. What's expulsion?
T: it means to take something out
A: yeah, so is an explosion
T: explosion implies something more violent, I will not be exploding milk from my breasts!
A: BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
T: Oh my god, shut up! Tell me what this says.
A: Ok, so it's for "taking out milk into buckets" (looks at me with a look that says, "is that a better way to say it Your Highness?)
T: IT'S NOT GOING INTO A BUCKET!! Cows and sheep milk into buckets, I need to put milk in a bottle, it must say bottle
A: ok, it says bottle. Whatever. So it's a hand pump, it comes with 2 bottles, 2 nipples and the machine that goes on your boob and you suck the milk out. Ok?
T: Yeah I guess so
A: But there's an electric one too. It also has a hand pump so if the power goes out again then you can pump it by hand
T: yeah but it's double the price and I don't really need anything electric.
A: EXPLODING MILK  BAHAHAHAHA OUT OF BAHAHAHA YOUR BREASTS HAHAHAHAHAHA!
T: you're an idiot. Ok, next is the cushion that needs to go on top of the change table. I picked this one.
A: That one's ugly. What's the brown thing on it. It looks like shit. There's probably going to be shit on it once and while anyway, why would you pick one with a picture of poo on it?
T: It's not a picture of shit, it's a teddy bear! A brown teddy bear!
A: This one is nicer, with the giraffe driving a car. Then we can talk about driving while we're changing her diaper and not the shitty bear
T: you're going to talk to a newborn about driving?
A: yeah why not, it's better then shit!
T: It's not shit!! It's a....ok fine, you want the giraffe, we'll get the giraffe. It's 10 euros cheaper anyway so it's probably best. Ok, this is the next thing we need to get. Can you read the description for me?
A:......PACKAGE OF 12 MUSLIMS FOR 24.99???? What kind of terrorist magazine is this you're reading? BAYAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
T: It doesn't say MUSLIMS it says MUSLINS!! With an "N" on the end!
A: Whatever! From exploding milk and now muslims...you're reading terrorist propaganda that's been disguised as a baby magazine hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
T: Oh my god. I'm about to go all kinds of terrorist on you in a minute. OK and this package of cloths....I can't decide if we need the cloths or if I should just get the muslins for cleaning up puke and milk, and then we have the baby wipes for changing her diaper. Maybe I don't even need cloths. But then I'll need a cloth to give her a bath. I don't know what do you think?
A: you're ordering 12 muslims. You can use those for cleaning up everything
T: please stop saying muslims. And muslin's aren't used for diaper changing or baths, they're just for keeping around in case she pukes or whatever
A: oh I don't know, you know better.
T: I'm tired.
A: Captain America?
T: .........(exasperated sigh)...Captain America.

 Just a couple of pictures because I haven't put any up in a while. Last night I met with 2 of my lovely ladies, Johanna and Melina. Johanna you've met before, my beautiful and amazing friend from Sweden. Melina is also beautiful and amazing, and she visits every summer from Holland. She brought a gift for baby Eleni which was very cute and gave me an idea....

Please excuse the creepy Children of the Corn type look on her face, it's just my terrible photography skills because she's really very cute. Anyway, so it's a little Dutch girl doll and also a baby bottle with a Dutch scene on it. Very sweet! But my idea is that maybe I'll collect dolls for her from around the world. We are so lucky to have so many friends and family in different countries in the world that maybe I'll start asking people to be on the look out for little dolls like this that represent the country it's from. Just a thought. Could be fun! But it might end up being more fun for mommy than baby so I don't know, I'll think about it.

This has nothing to do with anything I talked about today. It's just a man and his donkey selling vegetables outside of my house. It was an interesting moment though because not only was the man and his donkey selling vegetables, but there were 3 gypsy's trying to sell stuff too....1 in a van selling bed sheets and rugs, 1 old lady on foot selling table cloths and 1 old man on foot selling, fish I think? Anyway, it was 10:00am and they were all shouting out what they were selling and the prices, each one trying to be louder than the other....my god, it was so loud I couldn't even think! Somehow Antonis slept through the whole thing. You always get people coming up and down your street yelling at the top of their lungs trying to get people out of their houses to come and buy whatever they're selling, but you never have 4 of them at the same time! It was a bit much

That's about it for today. Now I'm going to tidy up the house, order the baby stuff that I 'discussed' with Antonis last night and then I'm going to make this:

EGGPLANT ROLLS!

If they turn out I'll give you the recipe tomorrow. If they don't turn out I'll tell you all about the gong show cooking experiment that went horribly wrong. My guess is that the story will probably end up being a little bit of both.

Bye!

P.S. I promise I'll get a picture of the car today FINALLY! I wrote it on my hand so I won't forget.

Earthquakes and Power Outages

I'm almost afraid to try to write this again because the last 3 times I've tried, the electricity has cut out and didn't come back for hours.

Fingers crossed I can FINALLY finish this without any annoying interruptions! I better make this fast just in case.

First of all:

NO I HAVE NOT GONE INTO EARLY LABOUR. 

Holy man, I don't write for a while and I have about 50 messages to return all saying those 8 words above. I realize that's going to be everyone's first thought when I've somehow disappeared for so many days in a row but don't worry, when I do go into the labour it will be announced somehow. I won't make everyone play detective. It has been really nice though to see how many people are thinking about it and waiting along with me for the big day to arrive!

Unfortunately the reason I've been MIA has been because of the electricity, so nothing as exciting as Eleni getting here but I'll get to the  electricity story in a minute anyway. 

Nothing new is happening with the baby, pregnancy or life in general. I don't think I updated everyone after my last doctor's appointment in Mytilini though. Baby brain again! Of course everything was totally fine, or else I wouldn't have forgotten to update you. We just did a quick ultrasound to see if the baby is in the right position for birth...which she is....and they hooked me up to a machine to monitor her heart beat for 20 minutes to make sure she's not under any stress as well as to check for any rhythm abnormalities...and that was perfect too.

Right now my doctor thinks she's about 2.4 kilos, which is about 5 1/2lbs, and her heart beat was on average 140 beats per minute. Both her weight and her heart beat are more than fine, he said they're perfect actually. And as of yesterday we have exactly 1 month until my due date so ladies and gentlemen....the waiting game has commenced!

Everyone keeps asking if I'm ready for the baby to get here. My answer: HELL YES! Oh my god, I'm so uncomfortable with this heat, I can't sleep hardly at all (not that that's going to change much once she gets here but I just figure it will feel more worth it then...right now it's just because I'm too damn hot and can't find a comfortable position for more than 3 seconds at a time. Oh yeah and the constant waking up to pee)...and really, I just want her to be here. Of course I don't want her to come too soon, 5 1/2 lbs isn't much so she needs to pack on a bit more fat and do whatever final developmental stuff she needs to do in the next little while. But once she's ready, I really hope she decides that she's had enough of my uterus and wants to come out and join the rest of us as soon as possible.

On the other hand, her room is totally not done yet, we don't have the dresser/change table being built yet and I haven't been able to order any of the other stuff we need before she gets here. Oh yeah, and my hospital bag isn't packed yet. But all of this is out of my hands at the moment so there's no sense in worrying about it. It'll all come together soon enough.

Why is this stuff not done? And why can't I do anything about it?

Well first, the painting of the room will happen next week. They said they can come over on Monday but Monday I have another check up with the doctor so we have to call and find out if Tuesday is ok. No big deal. We have some problems with moisture getting into the walls (as do all Greek houses unfortunately) so we needed someone really good that could fix the walls first and then paint, and when you want the best usually they aren't going to be available right away. Antonis is guessing that the baby is coming next week though, so if he's right then I don't know what will happen with the painting.....but sincerely doubt my dear husband is winning the baby pool. Next week? No. I don't think so. I think he's a bit excited....so cute!

So anyway, the painting will happen soon it just hasn't happened yet but that's not a big deal. The other thing on my list that I would really like to have finished before the baby arrives is the dresser/change table we're getting our friend Vasilis to build. First I need that stupid washing machine and closet moved off the main wall so I can make the measurements he needs to build it. I've talked about this a bunch of times before but just to remind you, if the washing machine isn't going to fit into the 2nd bathroom then I'll have to leave it in that room and I won't be able to fit normal sized crib and dresser/change table in her room....so that has to be figured out first before we go ahead and just make 'normal' sized anything. Antonis can't move these things on his own either, he definitely needs at least one other person who is capable of lifting anything heavy....that's been the the problem. There's no one to help! He can't get his brother because there always has to be at least one of them in the restaurant at all times. His Dad can't help because he can't lift anything heavy anymore. His friends are all working.......it sounds stupid but really, everyone is slaving away every single day for a minimum of 12 hours during one of the hottest summers we've ever had. It's not easy to find someone that's willing to take an extra hour or 2 out of their day to move heavy furniture around when they're already exhausted from their own jobs and have their own houses and families to take care of at the end of the day. So hopefully when the painters come they can help us since we'll have to move everything away from the walls so they can paint anyway....I hope...we'll see.

Finally, I haven't been able to order the baby stuff yet AND I haven't finished packing my bag. Well this is mostly thanks to the lovely power outages we've been having over the last 3 days...(finally we're getting to that...why do I always say I'm going to just write something quick and then I end up writing a ton of stuff?? oh well...)

So my mom has put some money into my bank account so I can go on a little shopping spree for baby and get myself ready for delivery day. THANK YOU MOMMY! She's the best ever!
But the first problem....I still have the old type of bank card, not the fancy new chip card thingy. So my bank switched over to the chip card completely and cancelled all the old cards. Thank you very much Coastal Community Credit Union, the bank that I spent 5 years working at and have had an account at since the day I was born!! Lovely of you to inform me of this switch over!! Do you hear the sarcasm?? Yeah, they didn't tell me about this so now I have to wait 2 weeks - 1 month for my new chip card to arrive so I can take the money out of my account. GREAT! Ok, no big deal. I can just move money over to my credit card and use my credit card to get everything I need. Most of the stuff I have to get for the baby I have to order it online anyway so I would have been using my credit card anyway. Except.....

The electricity keeps cutting out!!! GRRRRRRRRR UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH *pulling my hair out* RAAAAARRRRRRR!! WHYMEWHYMEWHYMEWHYME?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!

Ahhhhh, that felt good. Everything zen. Aaaand we're normal again, ok continuing on.....

So first we blew a fuse which left us without power for half a day on Monday. But it took everyone half a day figure out that we should check the fuse. Maybe I'm just a little cranky, but I would think that this would be one of the first things you do when it's just your house that doesn't have power. Am I crazy? Don't answer that, it doesn't matter anymore anyway, Antonis changed the fuse and by Monday afternoon I had power again. But it was too late to contact the baby stores, they were already closed (you have to order over the phone during business hours, not online...yeah it's pooey). So baby shopping couldn't happen and I gave up on the blog because I had a massive post almost finished when the power cut and erased everything...I was not sitting down again that night to write everything out for a second time. So everything can wait until tomorrow (Tuesday)

Tuesday: I call the baby store. The lady that speaks English isn't in. She'll be in this evening. Ok. I'll call back this evening. I call back in the evening. She's not in. She'll be in tomorrow, would you like to call back tomorrow? I'd love to call back tomorrow, thank you very much to your team for understanding the urgency in which I need to buy things from you. You're awesome! You and Coastal Community Credit Union are awesome! You know what else is awesome? Trying to write your blog for the second time that week when the power goes out again right in the middle of it. That's really awesome. But this time it was everywhere. It was a complete black out over the entire island. Here's something else I think is awesome: Earthquakes! I don't know if this is why the power went out or not but anyway we had an earthquake about an hour before the power went out. Here's a little side story about the excitement from last night:

So at about 9:45pm I'm sitting at my computer...trying to write my blog....when the whole house shakes for about 4 seconds. It wasn't much, but it was enough to really rattle the door and a few other things in the house. At the time I thought it was my mother in law knocking on the door. But she wasn't there (of course she wasn't, she never knocks on the door, she knocks on the window while peering inside...but that's another story). Then I wondered if it was an earthquake. Nahhhhh. Doubt it. So I got back to the blog. About a half hour later I checked facebook and read that sure enough, it was an earthquake. It was just 3.5 but anyway, it was still an earthquake. Crazy! So I get back to my blog. I'm just about finished it, waiting for some pictures to upload and I decide to go take a shower. I get out of the shower and suddenly I'm in complete and utter darkness. I can't see my hand in front of my face. Even the street lamps are out and I can see that people are lighting candles in their houses. I should probably light some candles too. But I'm only wearing a towel. I don't know why that was a big deal but suddenly I just felt extra vulnerable in the pitch black. So instead of finding a flashlight or some candles I go straight to my underwear drawer. So somehow I manage to dress myself and then I go looking for a flashlight. I finally found my cell phone and I called Antonis. He just came and picked me up because there was no point in hanging around the house by myself doing nothing. I probably would start thinking there was ghosts are something so it was best just to get out of here. So I'm at the restaurant and it's so nice. We're looking at the stars and it's peaceful. Something about having the lights out makes everyone talk in a whisper which just makes the whole atmosphere relaxed. It was really a nice night. But then they tell me that we can't leave until the electricity comes back on. Because half of our restaurant is kind of half out doors. That's confusing. Ok. So, the main part of the sitting area in our restaurant has a roof and 3 walls. The fourth wall is clear plastic that we can roll up in the summer so you feel like you're outside, and we can roll it down and lock it into the ground in the winter to keep the heat in like a normal wall would do. At night we always roll the plastic down because we have a big tv in this area and we don't want anyone to steal it. Anyway, the thick clear plastic wall is rolled up and down using a motor, which means we need electricity to run it. And since the electricity cut out at 11pm, the restaurant was still open and so was the plastic. When we called the company to find out when the electricity would come back on they told us it would probably be tomorrow morning because "there is a really big problem we are trying to fix"......GREAT!!

At 4:45am, finally the power came back. YAY!!!!! Finally we can close the restaurant and we can all go home to sleep! Tomorrow's a new day and I'm going to order the baby stuff, I'm going to feel productive and it's going to be a good day!

Wednesday (today): 12:00 noon....the electricity goes out.

$*&(#@&*(*@#&)_~)#()@*#&(@Q*^(*&%)&%^)$#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Must.control.homicidal.thoughts.

Seriously! Can things just work properly for frickin' 5 minutes!!??!?! This is so ridiculous! 

Anyway, the power is back on now obviously so I finally have a chance to update my blog. I would be calling the baby stores right now but this is Greece and they take an afternoon siesta, so everything shuts down from 2pm until about 5 or 6 in the evening. So I thought I'd take this time to update the blog and then hopefully tonight I can order the baby stuff. FINALLY! At least I hope I can. At this point I'm kind of just waiting for the next thing to come in and kibosh the whole plan.

And here's the other thing: I have to order the baby stuff first so I know which things I can pay for immediately with my credit card and wait for them to be shipped, and which things will be available in Mytilini for me to pick up...the stuff that can be picked up right away I have to deal with in cash because businesses hardly ever deal with credit cards here. So once I know what I'm picking up in Mytilini I'll know how much cash I need to take out on my credit card AND THEN I can take out a bit extra so I can go to the pharmacy and the super market to pick up the final stuff I need to pack my hospital bag...because I'm taking foreign currency out on a credit card which means I get charged for the cash advance of the credit card as well as a charge for the foreign currency. So obviously I only want to do this one time or else I'm going to get hosed with bank fees.

Are you still with me? I don't know if I am, this is all making me kind of dizzy. 

Anyhoo so that's what's happening over here and why I haven't been online in a long time.

I don't dare upload any picture now because something tells me the power's going to cut out while I'm waiting for them, so I'm just going to post this now. Hopefully everything makes sense and there aren't too many spelling and grammatical errors but I know you guys will forgive me anyway so no big deal.....some of you might correct them which is fine (you know who you are) but at least I'll have finally managed to get something accomplished while the electricity is fully functioning. Yay me!

Have a great day guys! Watch out for earthquakes!

Zzzzzzzzzz........

Morning!

I am feeling great today! I slept like a baby for the first time in....I don't even know, months probably. Antonis got home from work around 1:00am, I babbled on about my evening for a while, asked how his night went, he turned on Fast and the Furious 289 (maybe it was the 5th one....) and I instantly fell asleep on the couch. Actually, first I fell asleep and then I woke up because something was touching my arm. Actually, I jumped up freaking out because I thought a bug was on my arm. That's when I realized it wasn't a bug....I'd been drooling like a Saint Bernard......

Pregnancy symptom 8756: excessive drooling.

Nice. So attractive. And how nice that I get to experience this as I'm nearing the 9th month. You'd think I'd finally get some kind of a hall pass on the pregnancy symptoms at this point. Nope. No dice!

And the sexiness that is currently me, didn't stop there. After I'd realized I'd drooled all over myself, the pillow and the couch cushion, Antonis tells me I'd been snoring like a freight train for the last half hour. Actually, as he was laughing hysterically and barely able to breathe he managed to sputter enough words out to get this point across.

Nice. Make fun of the pregnant lady.

Pregnancy symptom 15,923: snoring. But not the cute little endearing snores. Snores that make the neighbours think you've started a pig farm in your bedroom.

But the good thing was that for the first time in probably a month and a half the temperature was actually comfortable. I wasn't sure if the temperature had dropped or if it was because I wasn't laying next to Antonis The Radiator, whatever. All that mattered was I wasn't soaked in sweat (I don't know if that's a pregnancy symptom or a 'living in Greece' symptom...probably both). So I asked Antonis to get my pillow from the bedroom and I camped out on the couch while he finished watching his stupid boy movie.

He must have fallen asleep too because the next thing I know he's putting me in bed and the sun was already up. It was probably about 6am. But how the heck did he get me from the couch to the bedroom??? He's still asleep right now.....AND SNORING LIKE A FREIGHT TRAIN I MIGHT ADD...so I'll have to ask him when he wakes up. Anyway, I fell asleep again instantly and woke up at 10:30. I don't think I even woke up to pee like I usually have to do a million or so times.

So that's the story of the first good night of sleep in a really really long time. I thought I'd document it so in the coming months (or next 18 years...) I can look back and remember it fondly. Or at least it's a reminder that sleep is something that human beings do and that I had been able to achieve it at some point in the past...so Future Me, if you're reading this: Yes. It is true. Sleep exists. And if you can find some way to experience it every now and then TAKE IT! Because it's unbelievable how good you feel and how well you can function again after 8 hours of sleep. Colours are brighter! Your thoughts are clearer! You feel like a Super hero! And it's all because of sleep. So if Yia yia wants to look after her grand daughter for a little while so you can lay down, or if Baba wants to take the night shift one night....let them do it. You'll thank yourself in the morning.

In other news.....

Unfortunately I still haven't taken a picture of our car for you. I keep forgetting. I bet I'll remember today though! Or maybe it's been my subconscious telling me it's not really "our" car yet so I shouldn't count my chickens before they're hatched. We have the money sitting in an account to pay for it and we just have to sign some papers for it to be a done deal, but until these two things have happened I might still be thinking that it's not quite a reality yet. I'll try to remember to take a picture today though.


Miltos and Valerie, if you're reading this, we're having your Dad over in about an hour. He's going to take a look at the house so we can talk about painting the baby's room and finishing up the painting in the rest of the house as well. The rest of the house is painted but not exactly to my liking. Antonis, Nicci, Yolber and myself  decided we could paint the whole house in a day. That was last October. We almost finished but not quite....and despite a lot of talk and planning, the "not quite" areas have never been touched again. Until now! So this is very exciting because I thought we'd end up moving before this place was ever painted properly. What a relief! I'm not sure when he'll be able to start but I'm sure it won't be too long from now, so stay tuned for new pictures of Eleni's room - the painted version!


And just a quick mention (I have to make this really quick because Miltos' Dad will be here soon), I saw the weirdest thing yesterday. I'll give it to you in point form to save some time:

• giant yacht in the harbour
• massive Turkish flag so must have been Turkish people
• RICH Turkish people
• they had lots of toys
• Jet skis
• Jet boat
• JET PACK!!
• like Back to the Future Jet Pack
• big circle thing on the water, hose from circle thing to jet pack, jet pack strapped to some guy's back
• water and air forced through the jet pack = MAN FLYING ON WATER
• not really high
• he stayed mostly vertical
• fell in a lot
• only could stay up in the air for about 10 seconds max before he'd flop back into the water and have to try again
• BUT SO CRAZY!

Ok, I have to go because the painter is coming any minute and I need to make the house and myself somewhat presentable before he arrives.

Ciao for now!

Just a Few Photos

Hi everyone!

Just a quick post today. I have a doctor's appointment early in the morning in Mytilini so we'll be up early tomorrow doing the big drive into the city. With the crazy temperatures we've been getting lately (40 degrees in the shade...pfffffft) it's impossible to feel comfortable even if you're not pregnant, so lack of sleep would definitely not help anything.

Monday I had my usual monthly check up at the health center in Kalloni. I skipped out on waiting to see my doctor because I figured we'd be seeing him in Mytilini tomorrow anyway so I'm bringing him the results from my tests and we'll just talk those over as well as do whatever other exams he has planned for me at the hospital. I have a ton of questions for him and a hospital tour booked so it should be an interesting appointment. I've already done a tour of the maternity wing (except the delivery room because there always seems to be someone giving birth at the time..."helloooo! Don't mind me, just havin' a look around." *thumbs up*...yeeeah no thanks) but I thought it would be good to do this with the doctor so he can give us any other information we might need....the other tours I've done were just me, myself and I being nosy and poking my head into random rooms I probably wasn't supposed to be poking my head into. Meh. You get away with a lot when you're pregnant.

I'll let you know how everything goes after tomorrow.

So here's a few pictures from the last few days:

The pistachios are growing nicely! These aren't ours but no one seems to mind when we bring a bag and pick a bunch so sometime next month we should have fresh pistachios in the house at all times.

This is what they look like before you pick them off the tree. That red and yellow pod is peeled off and you find the pistachio in its shell inside. Don't eat the red and yellow pod. I don't know if it's poisonous or not but it tastes so bad you wouldn't be able to eat enough of it to kill you anyway. We don't roast them or salt them or anything, just eat them right out of the shell...they still taste like pistachio when they're fresh but 100 times better than the dried out salty store bought kind.

This is what the trail to the nude beach looks like right now after weeks of 40 and above degrees. Dead. Dry. And thistles everywhere (kind like the people who actually get naked at the nude beach OOHHHHHH BURN! or was it? Actually I'm not really sure what that meant but I put so much enthusiasm into it I can't bring myself to delete it)

 Not as beautiful as it usually is but with the pistachio trees all lined up perfectly it could never lose it's character.

Here's the trail last Spring. We still hadn't had much rain at this point but at least it's enough to keep everything looking green. 

Saturday was dinner at our restaurant of course, with live Greek music. This is/was my grilled sardines...a pregnancy must-have for the last few months. Not a bad craving to have since they're loaded with Omega 3's which helps the baby's brain development...and mommy's but mommy's brain is a lost cause at the moment so hopefully all these Omega 3s just went to Eleni

Here's me becoming Greek in my story telling. If you don't throw your whole body into it, you just haven't told a very good story. 

Starting to look tired but refusing to go home because I've actually made an effort to get out of the house, so why go back into the house? No thanks! Just wake me up before you go.

Baby girl clothes! Remember these? These were 2 of the pieces of clothes that were soaking in the sink in the last video blog. I took both of these pieces out to give you a closer look at the disaster I'd created. The little pink hat used to be very purple and the white onesie was very baby boy blue. As you can see....all is normal now!

Here's the rest of the load that used to be blue...looking bright and girlie again!

Here is the source of the blue baby clothes. It's so cute but I will only be hand washing it from now on...which means Eleni will probably wear it once because Mommy is not a big fan of hand washing clothes.

And that's all for today guys. I forgot to take a picture of the car today unfortunately so I'll do that tomorrow. We haven't officially bought the car yet but we did part of the paperwork today, tomorrow we won't be around so Thursday or Friday we'll finalize everything. YAY! If you're interested and I can't wait for a picture, it's a Ford Focus. 4 doors. Light blue. Basically it's a total family car but it's comfortable, feels safe, good on gas, in great shape....it's funny how having a baby changes the way you shop for a car. I never would of bought a 4-door anything before now.

Anyhoo, I'm off to bed.

Good night!!

Update on the Greek Crisis

No this isn't an update on the real Greek crisis...that's still basically at the same point as it always was. This is an update on the Mallis Greek crisis which, if you haven't been following,.....it's about baby clothes

If you haven't read it already, a few days ago I started washing the baby clothes to get them ready for when she arrives. Long story short I accidentally dyed my little baby girl clothes BLUE!

But I have very good news....they've been saved!!!

After washing them again in the washing machine, soaking them overnight in vinegar and lemon and then washing them a third time....they were still blue. So it wasn't me that saved them. But the lovely, wonderful, amazing people at our local laundromat did! I have no idea what they did, I guess they must have some kind of magic potion especially for Soon-to-Be-Mommy's suffering from Baby Brain. Whatever it is they use or whatever it is they do, I have a bag full of fresh smelling white and pink baby clothes sitting in front of me right now. Thank goodness someone knew what they were doing!! 

As happy as I am to have the clothes back to normal again, I've actually spent a lot of time wondering why this was such a big deal to me. Unfortunately, I still don't have an answer. I would have thought my reaction would be: WHO CARES! Who made up the "rule" that only girls wear pink and only boys wear blue anyway? That's so stupid! I have always been a fan of breaking stupid rules like this one. In fact I've always said that if I ever have a boy he can have all the dolls he wants and if I have a little girl she can have a whole toy box full of cars and trucks or fire trucks or whatever! Whatever gender "rule" is out there I fully intended on breaking it at some point. And then what happens? About a month before the baby gets here I have a complete melt down because my pink baby girl clothes are turned a lovely shade of powder blue.....????

I really don't know what to think about this. My best guess is that it was just hormones. One day when Eleni comes to me and says she wants to join the football team or be a race car driver or some other "boy" type activity, I'll say "Absolutely!". This little pink/blue laundry incident does NOT mean that I'll be one of those traditional parents who tries to enforce gender roles....right?....yeah this didn't mean anything. Everything's going to be fine. I'm just Pregnant Lady Crazy and I'll get my normal brain back eventually. No big deal. 

I hope!

With that in mind, I don't intend to go to extremes to push my kids to break free from gender roles either. If Eleni wants to take ballet or piano lessons some day, or if she's just obsessed with throwing tea parties for her stuffed animals while wearing a tiara and a pink tutu...absolutely! What will be will be and as long as she's happy, that's really all that matters. 

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures for you today because I forgot the camera at the restaurant last night. Tomorrow I have an early morning doctor's appointment so I'll pick the camera up on the way there. Then tomorrow or the next day I'll show you the drastic improvement to the baby clothes. Also I have some photos from the restaurant last night. It was our second Live Music night this season and it was super successful which we're very happy about, so I have some pictures of that. And tomorrow we'll be taking the car we're interested in buying to our mechanic so I'll take a pic of that too to show you our new car.....well it's not our new car yet. If the mechanic finds something wrong with it than it won't be our new car but if everything checks out then we'll be buying it this week. So we might have our first family car this week! YAY! So anyway, tomorrow or the next day I'll have a bunch of random pictures for you.

Now, I'm off to bed so I can hopefully hop my extremely heavy body out of bed in 7 hours.

Good night!!

The Greek Crisis

While the news is flooding us with reports about the Greek financial crisis and all conversations revolve around this topic, the Mallis house has encountered a crisis of its own. If we don't find a solution soon we may have to change the title of this post to The Greek Tragedy.

Here's what happened:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnLMkQc--TY&feature=g-upl

Since I made this video, here's our progress on the issue so far:

(obviously you'll want to watch the video first before reading this or else it's just not going to make sense. But you're all very intelligent and capable people so I'm not sure why I'm even writing this right now. Clearly I'm still in a bit of a tizzy)

SO while Martha may have the cocky swagger to make us believe she has all the answers...SHE DOESN'T!  The water/vinegar/lemon overnight soak didn't work. Not even a little. 

I just got back from the grocery store but unfortunately the one I usually go to for all my daily staples didn't have anything other than laundry detergent. No fancy extras that could even begin to remove baby blue dye from baby girl clothes.

Antonis is currently discussing this situation with the owners of the laundromat next door to our restaurant. Actually I'm typing this post with one hand because the phone is in my other hand waiting for him to call back with the magical solution. As of 1:39pm Greek time...the phone has not yet rung.

So that's where I'm at with the Mallis Greek Crisis. I realize I'm being a little over-dramatic (just slightly) but please keep in mind that the only job I have right now is to grow a baby and get everything ready for the baby for when she gets here. Dyeing her clothes just the perfect shade of blue suitable for a baby boy is the perfect example of exactly what I'm NOT supposed to do right now. BIG FAIL MOMMY!

Ohhhhhh UPDATE: Antonis just called back. Our friends from the laundromat said they can try to get the colour out as long as I haven't allowed the clothes to dry. So mommy hasn't totally failed because I knew if I let them dry there would be no chance of saving them. There's a glimmer of hope people!! SO I've got my bag of dripping wet, vinegar and lemon scented blue clothes and I'm off!

Wish me luck!

Eftalou

I don't know why but I've been EXHAUSTED the last 2 days. Ok I do know why, I'm 8 months pregnant. But even still, don't I have to be actually doing something to get this tired? Saturday night I was out as you saw but I was home by about 1:30. Sunday I did absolutely nothing but laze around the house all day and fall asleep on the couch occasionally. Yesterday was pretty much the same thing except we had a car to test drive during Antonis' break so we went to one of the beaches in Eftalou for a swim.

I love Eftalou beaches because they always reminds me of swimming at a Canadian lake. Not really sure why, maybe it's the trees or the pebble beach or the really clear, clean, usually cold water. It's probably all of that combined. We don't usually go there because there aren't any beach chairs so you're stuck trying to get comfortable with a towel on the ground, but it's not so bad. It is a little bit hard if you're 8 months pregnant though....good thing I didn't go alone or I'd still be sitting there, stuck on my towel and rolling back and forth trying to build up some momentum to stand up. Like a beetle stuck on it's back. Antonis had to help me up every time but unfortunately he doesn't understand the importance of pausing to readjust a bikini bottom before you stand up all the way (especially when they're just slightly too small because you're still wearing your bikini's from last year) so I flashed a little cheek a couple of times. Oh well. If there's one thing I've learned to get used to in the last 8 months it's that pregnancy is not a very graceful time your life.

Embrace your inner elephant, laugh about it and move on. 

The sooner you learn to accept this, the better off you'll be.

Any dock will do. 

I don't know what that means but I liked the way it sounded

They look like they just can't wait to be taken out for a spin. Kind of like when you ask your dog if he wants to go for a walk and he just stands there staring at you crossed eyed for a moment, trying to figure out if you're serious or not, before he starts jumping and running around like a maniac looking for his leash. 

No? Just me? 

Huh. 

Well anyway, if I were into naming my photos I'd call this one: 

Anticipation

Sounds like a Calvin Klein perfume. 

What am I even talking about right now??

Swollen feet and ankles covered in sea grass. 

It doesn't look as nice as swollen feet and ankles covered in sand but it still feels lovely

Our neighbours.

Here they're our beach neighbours

Back at home, they live next door to us

Life in a small community 

The hubs started a new book today. 

I can't wait to hear what insane conspiracy theory this one's about so we can 

get into yet another screaming match about the credibility of the authors he adores 

have a civilized debate about it.

That's Turkey on the other side. 

I just saw on the news that they had some really devastating flash flooding in Istanbul over the weekend. Crazy since it's so close to us you feel like you can touch it but we're getting nothing but 40 and above degrees here and it's dryer than a (insert one of Nicole's dirty analogies here...and I honestly don't have one in mind but we all know she does)

The beach. Sea grass and small rocks.

We don't get the kind of sea weed or sea plants in general here that we do over in BC. Here you'll just find long strands of sea grass, and not very much of it. For my Greek friends reading this, when you swim in the ocean where I come from you swim with tons of different varieties of sea weed in all different colours and shapes and sizes. It can be a little freaky because you never know what kind of fish or sea animal is hiding in it. 

The difference, I'm guessing, probably has to do with the salt content of the water because there's a lot more salt in the water here. And the higher the salt content also means that it's easier to float, which I'm sure everyone knows already. But it's especially funny now that I'm pregnant because this also helps me float better. I don't even have to move my arms or legs to keep my head above water. I can literally 'stand' straight (not touching the ground I mean, in deep water) and slowly my big round belly will float up and bob to the surface. It's so funny!

Relaxing after my "water yoga" as Antonis calls it. 

I decided that since I've been too tired to do anything active the last 2 days that I should do some kind of a water work out. Not just swimming because that gets boring but some aquasize like the old ladies do at the pool at the gym. And even though I say old ladies, I'm not making fun of it. I used to go to aquasize twice a week in Vancouver and I absolutely loved it. I just happened to always be the youngest one there by at least 40 years. And even though old ladies and pregnant women can do it, you can still count on it to get a really good work out. You just adjust the intensity to whatever suits you but because you're using the water resistance it's much easier on your joints...which is why it's good for everyone. Even women with giant, 8 months-pregnant sized bellies. Yesterday I "ran" for 20 minutes in deep water and then I did some arm, chest and back strengthening exercises for another 10 minutes. 

Not bad for this lazy butt!

I have to confess, other than the occasional "water yoga" session, some really light swimming and a little walking around the village, this is all the exercise I've done in about a month. With the temperatures being so high, yoga on the balcony has been out of the question. I get uncomfortably hot really quickly but most worrying is I get dizzy easily. And this is any time of day. But I think I need to commit to doing more swimming and water yoga (no quotation marks this time...the name has suddenly grown on me) because the lack of exercise could be one of the main reasons why I feel so tired lately.

Anyway, that's enough for today because now I'm not just tired but HUNGRY!! Time to figure out breakfast before I break down and buy a chocolate croissant from the bakery. I swear I can smell them right now....ohhhh this may be a difficult battle....

(UPDATE: I lost the battle. I ate a chocolate croissant. It was delicious)

Bye!