a blended life

The past few weeks have been a health nightmare. I have fatigue to end all fatigue, major nausea and a huge gut. Stop asking me if I'm pregnant. All of you. I have a CT scan tomorrow. Last week's tests were inconclusive and caused a very frustrating moment for Jacob and I, who were feeling quite desperate for some answers. We still are, obviously, but have come to more of an acceptance that I really can't do much of anything. Sometimes I vacuum. Sometimes I sleep for 2 hours. I go day to day right now. It's no life. I bit the bullet one Saturday and hauled the girls to South Beach. It's their favorite beachy spot and my least favorite. It reminds me of Las Vegas in a lot of ways. There are some blatant evils everywhere--nudity, inappropriate shops, people smoking pot right next to you and blasting songs with nasty lyrics. Somehow my kids are oblivious to all of this and just jump in the water. They don't even look around at who's there and what ever...

(Do you like how my blog titles are all phrases from You Can Call Me Al ? Eh?! YA?! Wonder how long I can keep it up.) I think my week can only be summed up in pictures. Graphic content, viewer discretion advised. First of all (no pics for this one), we had a lightning strike that destroyed everything from Comcast. Nothing else, just Comcast. It was so loud the cat jumped and Hannah started screaming. And we were without internet for 6 days. SIX DAYS. That's enough to cry about right there. So a few days later, and a fever and an eye infection later, I decided to take a drive to the Everglades for some nice, relaxing walks and pretty scenery. My first stop was called the Pa-hay-okee Trail. The first thing I saw when I got out of the car was this enormous golden orb spider. Two of the them. SWAYING ON THEIR WEBS. Picture a spider as big as your hand. I don't care how poisonous or unpoisonous it is. It's a big, fat pile of icky. I turned around and drove away. ...

One thing I really love about Miami is it doesn't fool around with ethnic food. Mexican food is actually authentic Mexican, otherwise they call it Tex-Mex or Southwestern. There is distinct difference between Cuban food and Jamaican food and you's a fool if you mix it up or just refer to everything as 'Mexican', like you'd see in other more northern states (ahem, Utah).  The same is true with Spanish. I thought I spoke Spanish, but I actually speak Mexican. Spanish from the Caribbean countries is so incredibly hard for me to understand--so bad that I can usually only pick out of a few words and piece them together. The other day I got my eyebrows waxed from a non-English speaker and as I was leaving, she started fussing and getting worked up. I could pick out the words 'eyebrows' and 'red'. I figured she was worried about how red and splotchy I get after a wax, so I said (in Spanish) "It's ok, this always happens and it will pass." Sh...