February's "Affetto"

Oscar and I have this thing where we speak in accents to each other (Oscar especially). When we really like or really hate something, we will say it with a flair..it kinda sounds like this: " I jest eh luvet theeze zing". Conversely, when something is not so pleasing Oscar might say, "eeen my cuhntri we hab a werd for thiz, eh... papaniplush!... it meens, thiz sucks" (excuse the crassness). Anyway, I thought since it's been so long since our last post and being that tomorrow is Valentine's Day I would write about the things we both love but which probably not many of you know of-the small, everyday, trivial, (maybe superficial) things. When deciding what to name the post, I thought that I would write the Arabic word for love (since that is what Oscar's accent sounds like to me when he talks about the things he loves) but thanks to my friend IGoogle I discovered that no one would understand the characters. So I decided to title it "Affetto", which is Italian for "love" or "affection";our play accent sometimes sounds Italian-y or French-y to me. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading it,and if it seems a little weird just remember this is probably more entertaining than my other idea for a Valentine's post-gushing about how much I love my hubby :D

Oscar and Fabi's newly discovered affetto's (yes, we mutually love these, which in and of itself is a cause for celebration!):

1- The Bachelor. I mean, we are ADDICTED to this show since the new season with Jason started. Every Monday Bianca, Oscar and I will rush to the t.v. and watch this show as if it wasn't staged and Jason was family. (Maybe I should have labeled this post DONT JUDGE US).

2- Creme Brulee. Oh my GOODNESS. I tried it for the first time in Las Vegas at the Treasure Island Buffett, and none of us could get enough of it! Seriously, Jr, Bianca, Oscar and I probably ate 4 little dessert plates each!

3- Ben and Jerry's Creme Brulee Icecream. This one is obvious.

4- Ben and Jerry's Pumpkin Ice Cream with a graham cracker swirl. Did Ben and Jerry not have a wife? If so, did they purposefully want her overweight????

5- Le PETIT ECOLIER butter bisquits topped with pure dark chocolate. One of my Japanese students gave me a box of these French cookies for Valentine's Day-and I thought Oreo's were good!

6-Adagio.com teas. JR discovered this gourmet tea site on the internet and ordered about 6 flavors of their herbal (of course) teas. Seriously, I had my doubts, but the smell alone erased them all. They are very savory and now I am afraid I can't go back to good 'ol Bigelow (or maybe I can if the economy stays the way it is).

7-True Beauty. Yes, its another reality show. In Bianca's, Oscar's and my defense, it used to be on immediately following the Bachelor so it isn't like we went out looking for it...we just kinda got hooked.

8-Lindt Lindor Stracciatella Truffles. These have a white chocolate shell with cocoa pieces and a smooth filling inside. Another Valentine's Day from a Japanese students. They definietely have a good taste in chocolate!

9-Kanye West's LOVE LOCKDOWN. Don't ask. It puts us in a happy, lovey-dovey mood.

10-The group Dispatch. Oscar found them on Pandora.com, they have a similar style to the Dave Matthews Band which Oscar loves and I am beginning to appreciate.

DISCLAIMER: Oscar WILL NOT admit to about 5 of these, but it's true :D

Christmas Holidays

We certainly had a very fun (and well deserved) Christmas break. Sadly, it didn't feel much like Christmas probably because of the stinkin' weather (brown all around). Still, it was nice to be with our family and take some time off from work and school and everything else that's just not so much fun. Christmas eve we spent at my mom's house, with our grandparents and Kris and Chip. It was a little sad because Ariel wasn't there with his goofy comments and crazy personality, but we were able to speak to him on the phone and say hello. Because there were less than 10 people it was very intimate but nice, this time we actually got to talk to each other and play some board games. Of course, no holiday is complete without a little bit of Rock Band for my 5 year old. :D. Good thing Alexa and Chip were more than happy to play with him.












We spent the rest of Christmas Eve with Oscar's side of the family, which is always a HUGE reunion. It was nice having a small and a not-so-small family reunion because I felt like we got the best of both worlds...plus we get to eat twice! We had a Christmas story (which is a very nice tradition), afterwards the kids had their gift exchange and the adults had a white elephant. Christmas day was a little bit more relaxed, we had dinner with the Flores side of the family and spent the rest of the evening with Oscar's parents and siblings. The 30th we also celebrated JR's birthday (my brother-in-law) at a very delicious italian restaurant on the northeastern side of town. All of our immediate Escobar family was there, as well as JR's parents and sister, with a couple of his friends. We had a very good time, JR's birthday gives us a chance to continue the Christmas festivities, because not only is the family together on Christmas Eve, Day and New Year's Eve, Day but on his bday as well. New Year's was a little more relaxed for us this year than Christmas because of our Las Vegas trip the following day! Still, we managed to have a good time at Tia Dora's. We ate pozole and bu~uelos, and broke a pi~ata which has become a tradition for the Chavez family. We get to divide our family time quite neatly on the holidays because the Escobar's don't start doing anything till it is almost midnight, and by that time (and you probably know this if you know Kristal or my dad) the Chavez family is already winding down. I love the holidays and I know it is waaaaay too early but I can't wait for Christmas again. Except next time, I hope I won't have a cold sore in all my pictures, lol. :D

8 Favorite TV shows...
1. Friends (don't judge me)
2. The Office
3. America's Next Top Model (I LOVE seeing the final photo product of the models, the transformations are always amazing)
4. Smallville (Crossing my fingers for another season)
5. The Hills (Again, please don't judge me)
6. The lighting of the Rockefeller Tree ( don't know if it counts but I love watching it)
7. Planet Earth
8. The New Detective

8 Favorite Restaurants...
1. Wing Stop (hmm I love their original hot wings, and I'm crazy about their fries)
2. Katsura (Best Sushi I've ever had anywhere!)
3. Chicos Tacos.
4. Taco Tote (Oscar doesn't understand why I love this place so much, even though its crazy expensive my mouth waters just thinking about it)
5. Some pizza place in Scottsdale, Arizona. Wish I could remember the name, all I know is it was delicious and extra cheesy, just the way I like it!
6. In-N-Out Burger...animal style. You know what I'm talking about.
7. Paly's in Juarez.
8. China Wok (Sesame Seed Chicken...yum yum)

8 things that happened yesterday...
1. My first class of the day cancelled on me.
2. I watched Indiana J0nes and the Crystal Skull for the second time.
3. My Japanese students made fun of my sock because it was "hole-y". :)
4. Watched like 8 episodes of Friends in a row with Oscar...besides The Office, it is one of the few shows we mutually like.
5. I ate a LOT of texas sheet cake.
6. I cleaned the house.
7. I didn't have to make dinner..yay!
8. I went to bed till 1:30. Again.

8 things to look forward to...
1. Going to Las Vegas for New Year's.
2. Christmas Eve and Christmas!
3. Ariel's Xmas Phone Call from Washington.
4. Kristal and Chip's visit.
5. Smallville's next new episode Jan. 15th.
6. Going to a Cirque du Soleil show.
7. The movie Marley and Me, out Christmas day.
8. The Price and Sandberg and Morales baby, all due in '09!

8 things I love about Fall...
1. The variety of colors
2. Cooler weather
3. Scarves, sweaters and cute outerwear
4. Thanksgiving
5. Fall decorations
6. Pumpkin anything
7. Vacations
8. Halloween

8 things on my wishlist...
1. Point and shoot camera
2. Convertible American Eagle gloves
3. A spectacular Christmas outfit
4. A videorecorder.
5. More hours at my job.
6. A new black velvet blazer :(
7. Songs for my ipod.
8. Sunday and Monday night football to hever have been invented ( I hear you Jessi)

8 people I tag...
1. Kris
2. Jr
3. David...
I don't know 8 ppl who blog....sad for me!

Oscar's Dream Girl

First of all, no I am not referring to myself. For Thanksgiving we traveled to Arizona to attend one of our cousin's sealing and wedding reception (btw, and no offense to all of us who had our own at a chapel's cultural hall, but there is nothing like a wedding in a ballroom...absolutely gorgeous!) I had never been inside the Mesa temple and I felt like I was inside a castle, it was amazing and I'm so glad we were given the chance to be there. So anyhow, JR's (our brother in law)sister and their family (the Kemps) were kind enough to host not only her parents, JR and Bianca, but Oscar and I as well. On Thanksgiving day, while we helped Amy prepare the meal, Oscar watched little Sarah. One minute they were "playing" soccer, and then 30 minutes later Oscar started yelling my name. He was watching football so I wasn't surprised he was calling me, Oscar usually does when there is an "awesome" play he wants me to watch. However, when I got there he simply pointed to Sarah; she had fallen asleep with her furry friend on his lap. Oscar says that she had crawled into his lap and actually been watching the game with him for a good 20 minutes before she fell asleep. For those of you that dont't know, Oscar is a huge sports buff, and his dream is to have several boys (Jessi, he's so jealous of your soon to be 3 boys) who he can put into teams and play sports with...but he says that if he were to have all girls, he'd do the same thing regardless. I'll bet little Sarah probably doesn't know this, but she just encouraged Oscar's thinking that his girls will love sports just as much as he does.

Disney's Desperate Housewives

Recently I've had time to stay home and hang out with Oscar because last week he woke me up around 5a.m. complaining of an excrutiating pain. Turns out he has (or had, we aren't sure) kidney stones and worked from home all week. Since I work until 12 p.m. every day, we were able to wake up pretty late and eat breakfast we normally would eat on a weekend (mmm I just LOVE chocolate chip pancakes!)...It has been awesome (and I feel pretty guilty saying that being that he was in so much pain). I love being at home. I seriously don't know why some women would rather work than stay at home..sure, I guess it can get boring at times but there is ALWAYS something that can be done or something that can be cleaned.So anyway, while all of this has been going on, Oscar happened to send me this following cartoon strip of Disney's housewives. I thought it was too cute not to share. :D

Good Food, Good Shopping, and some Hungry Hungry Hippos

So today is my one week marker here in Des Moines. Oscar had to come up here for work, and since it is a three week stay for him, (and I'm currently unemployed) we decided it would be a good idea for me to fly up and stay with him. Des Moines is so pretty, it's as green as the Yucatan peninsula but obviously in a foresty way rather than jungly way...which is nice because I don't think I've ever been this far north (aside from New York City and New Jersey).

During the day when Oscar is at work I wake up pretty late, chat for a while with Kris and my mom, and get ready to have lunch at 12 with Oscar and his coworkers. When I come back I'll usually read or watch Smallville. I am pretty addicted to that show. Oscar brought his PS3 with him (are you surprised?) and downloaded the demo for FIFA 2009, so whenever he wants to play I just whip out the laptop and stream Smallville. It's worked out perfectly! After work we usually go out to dinner at a nice restaurant. My favorites have been The Cheesecake Factory and Joe's Crab Shack...and Granite City (I have never seen any restaurant serve as big portions as they do here, and it's delicious!) Even their appetizers serve about 6 people perfectly! Anyway, after dinner we usually come back to the hotel, watch some t.v. and either swim in the indoor pool or work for a full 15 minutes. It's been really nice. The pictures are from last weekend. Oscar and I hung out at a mall which is honestly the coolest mall I've ever been to. They have my favorite store, Forever 21, plus a Godiva Chocolatier, a Pottery Barn Kids and regular Pottery Barn, Heritage (which is like Forever 21 but the clothing is more casual, similar to American Eagle but dressier), etc etc. Afterwards we took a walk by the lake which is right outside the mall. It is beautiful, there are restaurants all around this lake and a huge fountain right in the middle. I had saved a fortunte cookie from Lunch and mashed it into pieces so we could feed the gold fish (I hope they are all still alive). Out of nowhere many fish appeared and went crazy feeding off my f.cookie. It was pretty funny-they swim around opening and closing their mouths, not targeting anything in particular, just hoping something falls in. Oscar started calling them hungy hippos (like the children's table game) because honestly that's what they look like!

Once we ran out we still had about an hour to spare (there is a theatre inside the mall and were waiting to watch Traitor) so we crossed the street and checked out Archivers and this children's toy store. I had never been to an Archiver's, just read about it in Scrapbooking magazines. I definitely wish I had half of the stuff in that store, and the scrapbooking talent of probably every lady that was there shopping like it was the 1.00 dollar store instead of the expensive store that it is. This motivated me to finish Oscar's mission scrapbook and begin building my repertoire of scrapbook supplies. Next we checked out the toy store, and found some serously funky things-like these wigs! They are made out of some type of plastic but are so neat! Who knew green and pink hair could look so good on us???

Anyway, we had a fabulous time. And I do recommend Traitor to anyone who hasn't seen it. It's kind of slow at first, and hard to follow, but very entertaining once you get it.

My five year old

Oscar and I have been going through some really sad times recently but it has definitely reminded me of how much I love him and why I married him. He is really fascinating...I jokingly call him my five year old because of the way he loves playing around with everyone (and everything; when we go to Best Buy I know not to pass through the video game section because he always has to play the demo games. It doesn't matter if another kid (usually 10 years younger than him) is already there; Oscar will hover over the kid's shoulder until the kid "gets the message" and leaves. I always end up apologizing to the unlucky kid, lol. Anyway, I love my husband so very much and feel like we can get through whatever might come our way in the future.