GUATEMALA

so i hear you're all dying to know about how my trip is. well, at least some of you are. anyways, it was incredible. to tell you the truth, i'm having a lot of trouble adjusting to normal life again. i just loved the people and the city and the work i did and the experiences i had! i think it was the best two weeks of my life so far, i learned a lot about myself and the world. here's a few pictures that highlight the main points of my trip. me and my amigo billy, a group of us jumping on top of one of the mayan temples in tikal, my host mom delia and her grandkids, the huge garbage dump in guatemala city, me with some other chapine amigos, and a street in antigua.

Sunshine - Book bashing

I just looked in the mirror and found that my face had ugly, huge, black mascara streaks freakishly framing my innocent eyes. Innocent? Yes. I innocently picked up a book wrongly entitled "Sunshine"- I thought it would be an uplifting and inspiring account of a woman and her deep love for her baby and husband. Yes, it's true that I had read on the cover that she had cancer but I decided to read anyway, hoping for some life affirming truths that would seem to glisten as new snow especially when stumbled upon on the way to the grave. Did I find what I was looking for???? NO. No I did not. WHO thinks it's a good idea to write a book that just leaves you with depression and mascara streaks. I can't remember feeling so down after reading a book....wait, no, my memory is fishing...... Actually, I can remember one other book. The name? "Charly". ALSO, about a woman who is fiercely in love and then..... yup that's right, cancer. I don't remember alot about "Charly" but this book "Sunshine" was just a hugely sad, sad, sad account of a woman slowly pounding out - with pain, impatience and anger - the last days of her life. All I'm saying is this: if any one of you decide to write another book about some broad with cancer - you'd better be thinking of a way to write in a cure.

fun with lost and boys

Hi everybody-

A couple weeks ago the season premiere of LOST was on ABC. Actually, it wasn't the season premiered, but it was the first episode in I think 16 weeks!! Our friends the Wyatts made a LOST cake, a miniature ISLAND recreation. There was the imploded hatch with the quarantine door that flew off of it, a teeny Vincent the dog, radio tower, palm trees... you name it! Luckily for all of us, the episode was so good it was worthy of such a cake.
I also posted about Julian and Caleb's first playdate with cute little Ally on www.thepuentes.com
xoxo

Great Scots

Hey - this is Nana saying 'are you alright?' - that's how they say it here in Scotland. Which - is BTW - absolutely breathtakingingly beautiful as you can tell by the photos - ALMOST as breathtakingly beautiful as my wee escort. There's Oliver and I on the beach on the North Sea - miles and miles of sand! Then we recognized another couple of photo ops 'when we went out in the woods today' for our teddy bear picnic, and then strolled through Braemar, a cool town where I arm wrestled the Jord into posing by the Dee River. I know all of you will love Scotland as much as I have. I'm not showing any photos of castles, but Aberdeen is in the middle of 'castle country' and we got to see one of them today. The countryside is straight out of a picture postcard. It's a must see - just like the Schneider family. Miss you and love you - Nana/Mom

beach mom and auntie

Here's a pic from quite a while ago when we went walking on the beach with the boys. It was gorgeous! What an amazing place where we live!

Karaoke

Here I am on the Karaoke stage at 'The Gas Lite,' a place here in Santa Monica, singing 'Build me up, Buttercup.' We went out as a last farewell celebration before my friend Stephanie left for China. My favorite part about the place is how everyone dances to the music.

'you got to get here earlier!'

So this morning my alarm clock went off at 6:30 but i didn't wake up until 8:30. i think it was because i had been up so late the other night when i did my LA debut of karaoke. Well... here's what happened.

Linds wakes up, checks the clock, no, it's not too late to make it to the pool. So she throws on her swimsuit, and jumps in the car, hair every which way behind her. When she walks into the pool, she isn't surprised to see that everyone there is black. The lifeguard throws out a, 'You got 13 minutes! Lap swim closes at 9:00.' She goes for the gold, swimming, heaving, breathing. When she comes up for air at the end of the 3rd lap, there's this guy right there in her face and he's like, 'you don't got goggles?' Linds is like, 'no...' and keeps swimming, stroking, kicking. . . remembering all those attempts her coaches made to hone her skills. well, before she knows it, times up. Again, the buddies in the next lane are like, 'you got to get here earlier, girl! none of this 2 laps stuff.' it was cute.

i felt good leaving the pool. maybe next time i'll feel even better, if i can squeeze in another lap or two.

Lovin' the culter connection

This post is in addition to the culter connection posted by my favorite person in the whole wide world - Jordan. Speaking of Jordan - Isn't he one of the most understated personifications of kindness, patience, intelligence and good humour? Why do I rave about him so? Not sure, but I think it might have something to do with the fact that I'm still in Canada and he's in Scotland and we've been apart for too long now and "absence makes the heart grow fonder" and "love lifts us up where we belong" and "the power of love", "in the name of love"; Mozart is quoted "Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius." and as Aristotle is rumoured to have said: "Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies." And Wayne Dyer who I don't know but will quote anyway: "Loving people live in a loving world. Hostile people live in a hostile world. Same world." Perhaps this entry doesn't really make alot of sense but "talking about love is like dancing about architecture."