I keep forgetting to post funny stories.
So, we have friends that were going on a long vacation and asked if we could "watch" their car for them. Yay! A 2nd car! But it is a standard. I told them I was not an expert at driving one, but they said it was okay. I couldn't mess it up. They just put a new clutch in.
So, the time comes for me to drive it home. I should say that when I said I was not an expert at driving a stick shift I meant to say I drove my sister's car twice when I was 16 (which is almost 15 years ago). But I only stall it once on the way home! I was pretty proud. But Manny, on the other hand, was laughing and kept saying, "This is a silly car," as I was not the smoothest driver (the car did jerk quite a bit).
The next couple of weeks I would be proud of myself if I only stalled it once a day. You don't realize how many stops you come to on your way to somewhere. It's amazing. I remember coming to a stop light and saying, "Please be green, please be green" or "Change, change, change" because if I could just keep rolling, I wouldn't have to stop and then have to put it in 1st gear (and most likely stall it).
I am now doing great driving the car, almost a professional (okay, maybe not, but I at least can't remember the last time I stalled it). And we don't call it the silly car anymore (which Manny did for quite some time, he would ask, "Are we taking the silly car?"). We just call it the "black car."
Manny has started preschool and he absolutely LOVES it. He was so excited to pick out his clothes the first day, and wear his backpack, and pack a little lunch. It's only Mon-Wed-Fri from 9:15-12:15, but he loves to talk about how he goes to school like Papi.
3rd day, but this was the first real day. The first 2 were just a half hour or hour to get to know his teachers and get to know his class.
Okay, so this may be an exaggeration. I didn't actually find this guy in our apartment. It's one of Manny's toys he liked to scare Abuela with, but sometimes it seems like these are in my house. I actually find the following-
And since you can't really tell his shape I will tell you-this is a cockroach. He, at one time, had been about 1 1/2 inches long. And in case you are horrified about the cleanliness of my home-little cockroaches mean that your house is dirty, but big ones just come no matter what here. And 1 1/2 inches is big. I've been talking to our neighbors and they say they get them all the time here (and this lady is constantly cleaning her house). But apparently the apartment complex knows about it and you can get on a list for them to spray your house twice a month. I will be calling.
And this is what I find when I am not the lucky one to catch him. Luis will smash it and leave these marks on the wall. Maybe to scare off other roaches?
And Manny made these beautiful matching necklaces for us all. Who knew Fruit Loops could be so crafty and stylish?
We had to say goodbye to Dani at the end of August. He was going to Peru (to eventually make it to Holland to be with his girlfriend). This is a picture of Manny tring to see what is in Danilo's mouth. Danilo would often tease Manny that he would eat his toys, and then when Manny would cry Dani would "spit" it out and give it back to him. There were quite a few tears shed, but Manny had just learned that Dani was just teasing him and was trying to figure out his tricks.
Manny and Dani
The cute Vergaray boys
And sadly this is the only picture we have of all of us. A friend (who may or may not be an expert at taking pictures) was nice enough to take it for us.
