Sunday Funday Holiday

One of the things about being in a different country is that while one part of your life is remembering somberly (9/11), the other part of your life is celebrating in the street (September 11 is when we celebrate Carpina being founded). The world is small, but not that small. We also celebrated Independence Day this past week:

and part two of our cooking series--fish and chicken:

Ana Sofia has learned how to say "please" in sign language, and how to climb out of her crib. It has been an exciting week. I hope everyone had a lovely Labor day--and here is an interesting (and important!) Labor day tradition. Talking about sex, here is a beautiful article about sharing with your daughters. 

Tomorrow is a big, important day: my parents have their 35th wedding anniversary! (so if you are near them, give them a hug from me) It is hard for me to wrap my head around 35 years. It is longer than I've been alive, and certainly longer than I can remember. As someone who has been married less than 3 years, I don't have much to say but WOW. 

When I think of being married a long time, I think of my grandparents, and the 50th anniversary video that Uncle Dan made. I watch that video every year. I made Caid watch that video. That video is amazing. And it makes me hum "Through the Years" just thinking about it. Mom and Dad--you only have 15 more years until that! What a thought! 

Mom and Dad, thank you for working through things. Thank you for sitting me down and explaining that just because you were arguing didn't mean you were getting a divorce (when I was young and scared and first understood what the word meant). Thank you for showing me that being in a marriage relationship wasn't easy, but it is worth it. Thank you both for still growing, still learning, still changing. 

So the only really cool thing I ever did for my parents' anniversary was on their 30th anniversary: I wrote some kind of "family" story every day for 30 days on my blog. I was single and had much more time back then. But the website is still up, and you can read those 30 days here. There is some good stuff, and I had almost forgotten about it five years later (meaning--mom, please print it out for dad to read)! 

I love you guys so much! I am excited about making my own 35 years (slowly) married someday. It is hard to be away on special days like this, but I am hoping we can save up all the celebrations (including your big 6-0 mom) and celebrate when we are home.