The Shipment came in

Friday morning is here! We are officially starting to move-in all our stuff into our small apartment. The awaited shipment finally came in! 

I can’t believe the day has finally come!  It feels like we have been living out of suitcases for over five months.  Between two assignments and vacation in July going to Salt Lake, it has been a long process getting settled but it is so exciting to finally see it start to come together now. 

For the last five months, we have been wearing the same clothes, eating out at various restaurants because our kitchen utensils had not arrived plus it was a good excuse not to have to cook. I used a plastic cup to roll the dough when making cookies because my roll pin was trapped in customs.  It has been a huge challenge for us so we are all anxious to start putting things away to make our new space feel like home. 

Daniel cancelled all his meetings today so he could be home to receive the shipment. He is busy tomorrow with meetings so I would have to do most of the unpacking myself but that is o.k. since we are given ten days to unpack and report anything that came broken. However, We need to hurry and get it all done with weekend because on Monday we are off to a seminar for a whole week. 

One big item we had purchased came broken and that was very disappointing. This was a nice 5 feet mahogany jewelry chest with nothing inside it but we forgot to leave the key and the guys at the customs had to break it open.  The next few days are going to be intense to get everything open before we leave on our trip in two days so we will be rolling up our sleeves and getting busy hauling boxes and unpacking the next few days. 

I will post after shots once we get all moved in later in a couple of weeks.  Have a great Saturday everyone!  The weather is beautiful today so go out and enjoy it. I must stay in. 

Con amor,

Vero

Rainy days

It has been raining for days in Buenos Aires since we got in last Sunday and it’s Thursday so our group of explorers decided not  to go out too far but just to walk to an Italian restaurant near where we live and shop. I didn’t think it was going to be raining that much so I took my jacket and forgot my umbrella which was a big mistake. Every single person that walked by me was carrying an umbrella. I hadn’t even walked for a block when my feet felt very wet but that didn’t stop us from going out to enjoy an afternoon. A rainy day didn’t stop us because Just because its stormy now doesn’t mean you aren’t headed for sunshine!

Now that I got back home, I am sitting in my couch wrapped up in a blanket and watching an amazing rainstorm through my window. The sky is black and the sound of the wind and rain is loud. Everything is wet. The streets, sidewalks and our balcony is all wet and I keep wondering how long will this rain last? 

Just like stormy days, Our lives are full of good days and bad ones, happy days and sad ones, easy days and hard ones.  As we go along our journey I think one of the most important things to remember is that no bad day lasts forever, and every sad day eventually comes to an end.  We will have sunny days without a cloud in our sky and we will have days where the thunder rolls around us with a deafening noise.  But no matter how harsh the rain storms that come are, there will come a point like is happening right now out my window – a point where the lightning stops and the thunder quiets and all the raindrops are slowly coming to a halt.  And when it is done it will always be followed by the welcome light of the sunshine as it rises in the sky and brightens everything in this world.

“Don’t confuse your path with your destination.  Just because it’s stormy now doesn’t mean that you aren’t headed for sunshine.”

So many people in the world get caught in the trap of forgetting that the storms they are facing right now are merely a section of the road they are traveling through and they lose sight of the fact that in no way is their current circumstance their final destination.  If they just keep moving forward, putting one foot in front of the other, they will eventually come to the next section of road that is surrounded by gorgeous flowers that were only able to grow because of a previous storm that had passed by them.

The sun will return and things will get brighter again….Not forever, but at least for a while before its time for the storm clouds to once again roll in and the lightning to spark across the sky, but that’s okay…because that is all part of the journey we go through in life…if you can imagine when lightning is shooting through the sky every few seconds followed by the constant cracking of thunder. 

 I have to say that there is something really magical about watching a storm like that.  Perhaps it’s the beauty of the lightning as it shoots out across a blackened sky, or perhaps it’s the contrast of the gently falling raindrops against the loud roaring of the thunder.  Either way, it is definitely magical and  perhaps going forward you might try skipping merrily through the stormy sections as it will help you pass through them more quickly, and when you hit the sunny spots try taking time to stop and look around to appreciate the beautiful flowers you are surrounded by and appreciating how wonderful the sunshine truly feels….recognize that without that last storm the flowers wouldn’t have bloomed and the rainbow wouldn’t display its incredibly colors in that amazing arch across the sky…then continue walking forward, better prepared and less afraid to dance through the next rainstorm ahead right into another bought of sunshine…

Con amor,

Vero

We are in it for the long Haul!

Can’t believe is our tenth wedding anniversary this year!

I can’t believe we’ve already made it ten years…or another way to look at it is 120 months…480 weeks…3,360 days…80,640 hours…4,838,400 minutes… or 290,304,000 seconds…and still counting…so what have I learned?

I’ve learned that marriage is full of ups and downs, hopefully more ups than downs.

To weather the down- times you need to be willing to try every single day to let the other person know you truly love and appreciate them, and you must be willing to talk to your spouse about everything. 

Share your hopes and dreams with each other. Share your concerns together, set goals together. Hold each other accountable. Communicate, communicate, communicate…and then communicate!

Be quick to say, “I’m sorry”and slow to dish out criticism. Please, please, please don’t ever start criticizing what your spouse does or does not do. Very lovingly, letting know your feelings.

Build each other up.You can’t be best friends with each other without trusting each other with your insecurities and weaknesses.

Have FUN together!!! PLAY…ALOT!  FLIRT! LAUGH!  And LOVE each other completely and without reservation.

Be completely loyal to one another, you must have absolute fidelity to your spouse. Simple as that!

And always be committed to making it work out.I’m grateful that we’ve made it 10 years, eternity to go, yay!

Con amor,

Vero

Aluminum or tin?

Aluminum or tin? What do you think when you hear those two words? 10 years of marriage of course! Aluminum or tin is the traditional 10 -year anniversary gift symbolizing preservation and longevity in marriage. Ten years ago, two middle age people said: Why not? Let’s do it! Just like the song: “Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it, Let’s do it, let’s fall in love” 

Yes,means so much than just your wedding vows 

It is a daily effort, commitment and willingness 

To sacrifice yourself for your spouse 

To remember that when we experience bumps along the way

That is when we need to remember the promise we have made

Real love stories never have endings because the best thing to hold in life is each other. Though it hasn’t been easy to blend together two very different families, marriage has forced us to grow in ways we needed to but would have never chosen to. Tomorrow, we celebrate been married a whole decade and even as wonderful as our lives together have been thus far, I still think that thebest isstill yet to come.Like any two love birds, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into but is has been a wonderful ride. 

Happy Anniversary to us!We hit another milestone and I couldn’t be more happy!!! 

Ten Glorious Days!

We left Buenos Aires on October 2^ndto be ready to attend General Conference on October 5-6 and for meetings the following week. It was a way for us to get our butteries charged and as always to see dear friends and family. 

In Spanish, there is a phrase: “De músico poeta y loco todos tenemos un poco” Which means that we are not all musicians or poets but we can all attempt to capture the beauty around us like song writers and poets do. Take a little time at the start of a new week to think back over the past week with the aid of your journal or calendar. What happened? What did you do and feel? What things did you noticed? Write a few lines of poetic review that gives that week a unique identity. You will notice that more happened than you realized and there were a lot of fun and nice good moments that were not as insignificant as you thought. 

I am going to attempt writing about my daily happening from October 2 to October 12, 2019.

 In a nut-shell this is what we did:

Ten Glorious days

On Wednesday, we took the red eye flight from Buenos Aires to Dallas 

And then going to Salt Lake on Thursday morning but this time we got upgraded to business

Small world, finding an old Bishop from Argentina also going on the same flight to Salt Lake. Arriving at the Salt Lake Airport to get our car and this time is an Armada

And then going to the apartment and to my hair appointment 

And later to see Zulma and Roberto Mazal in South Jordan and the kiddos in Farmington 

On Friday, getting our blood work done around noon so we were starving for Café Rio 

Going to the Zoo for Boo nights with Mandy and spencer at the Zoo and then to Ruth Diner 

Saturday morning session of General Conference and having lunch in the cafeteria

Meeting up with the Dames to watch the boys while Cristi and Brooks go to a wedding

Taking the three boys to the museum and order food at a restaurant to take to the room

Finish watching General Conference so Daniel can take the boys out to Mandy’s house

Mandy started to feel better from a 24 -hour flu 

Gong in the evening with Vale, her friend and mother to watch Women’s Conference 

Walked to a restaurant that was closed so ended up at Café Rio around 10:00 p.m. 

Woke up Sunday Morning to attend Music and spoken word and General Conference 

Attended a nice luncheon inside the Conference Center

Stayed at the apartment with Cristi and family to watch the afternoon session and said goodbye

Went to eat dinner with Jami and Andres and later to see Ann and Gregg in South Jordan 

On Monday went out to have lunch together with Cha, Lolita and Mandy who had been at Jury Duty

Then at night going to eat the traditional dinner with the Sloans

Tuesday was a full day packed with activities at Family Search for all the spouses

Met with the Garganos at the Cheese cake Factory for dinner 

Wednesday testimony meeting and inspired messages, a delicious lunch and entertainment

Daniel gives Mandy a beautiful blessing and then going out to eat again at the Cheese Cake F

Thursday is full of doctor appointment and other commitments
and then out to dinner in Draper with friends 

Friday got Insurance in place, Dentist appointments, Mammogram, the Bank, post office etc.

And meeting up with Paola to do temple sealing for Papa Meme to his parents

Off to Farmington to give Sariah her birthday gift and Danielito his paper towel donation 

Daniel gives blessings to Vale, Andres and Paola and Saying goodbye to the family 
Dinner at 10:00 p.m. to say good bye to Vale, Mandy and Spencer at the CCF

Saturday morning the cleaning ladies came at 6:45 a.m.and we got packed and ready to go

Took the flight to Dallas and the red eye flight back to Buenos Aires 

But this time it was delayed and no luck getting any upgrades. The plane was full

Sunday morning, home sweet home, at last and time to unpack

Today is Monday and guess what? today is a Holiday! Yay! 

Con amor,

Vero

Watching the debate

We are back! Today after we got home from a long flight, we turned on the TV to watch the debate between all the candidates running for President in Argentina. It was a great discussion and we enjoyed listening to their debate except for Fernandez who is from the Peronist Party. He had a sarcastic tone toward the current President that annoyed me. Fernandez is favored to win this next election and that is why the Argentine peso has been devaluating like crazy which will be a disaster for Argentina if he wins. 

As we draw closer to the upcoming elections later this month I am completely amazed and frankly disgusted by the number of negative campaign ads being shown on television toward the current President.  I typically enjoy letting the news play on TV while I get dinner ready in the evening so I can keep up with current events, but it’s gotten to the point that the last thing I want to do is turn on the television for fear that I will be listening to yet another negative ad.   

The number of negative ads against Macri alone is mind blowing.  Here is this nice, classy, professional man running for a second term but the amount of money spent from the opposing party that are throwing into negative ads against him is ridiculous. It is completely out of control.  It makes you wonder what they are so afraid of that they would spend that kind of money to try to keep him out of office…just the fact that they are so afraid of having him win alone makes me want to vote for him at this point if I could but frankly I would have voted for him anyway because he is trying so hard to help the Argentines.  

It was the same in the U.S. The one thing that turned me off the most was when someone trashed the competition in order to make a sale themselves.  I always felt that if your product was good that you didn’t need to do anything but show that product – if your product is good, there is no need to trash the competitor because greatness shows all by itself. My feeling was that if someone felt the need to trash a competitor that they must be doing it to hide a flaw or shortcoming in themselves or their own products, and it was always a huge turnoff for me.  

I feel the same way about political figures. Why trash the other candidate?  Why spend so much energy talking about anyone else?  Why not spend your time just showing who you are and showing what you stand for?  Wouldn’t that be a much better use of campaign dollars? Think how much more we would actually know about these candidates if they spent all that airtime telling us what they stand for and what they believe in and what they want to accomplish as our representatives rather than trashing each other!  

I have to say that I am really proud of the way Macri is handling the negative ads with such class. That takes a lot because despite the fact he knows they are not true, they still have to hurt.

There are many life lessons from all of this.  Don’t trash-talk other people. Don’t spend your time trying to prove your competitor is wrong, rather spend your energy making yourself the best person you can possibly be.  Doing that will scream without sound that you are the better person…no words necessary. 

No doubt this next election both in Argentina and in Uruguay are going to be intense and only hope for the best. 

Con amor,

Vero

When a day trip turns into two or more...

Well here is what has happened to my poor husband.  Daniel went for a day to Uruguay for meetings. He felt that he could wake up at 2:00 a.m. to get the earliest flight to spend a whole day in Montevideo before coming back to Buenos Aires late at night so he didn't need to spend a night unnecessarily at a Hotel and did not take any clothes with him but he was not aware of an Argentine Airlines' pilots' strike was happening so they kept him delaying his flight until it was cancelled and too late to look for other options. Don't you hate when they do that? Why couldn't they simply say the truth: "You are out of luck" from the start.

There are so many on the same boat that they could not confirm if he would get home the next day or any time soon. This is when you never want to be on stand by. Daniel had to spend the night and is trying to get home so we can get on another flight tomorrow to go to Utah. This time is not an Argentine Airline, thank goodness!

I don't usually post negative things ever but this strike is the most ridiculous thing. What a perfect way to lose customers but I guess they don't care, all they want is to bankrupt the hand that feeds them and that is too bad!

I can't wait to see my hubby safe and sound because there is a big storm coming our way and he is taking a boat over here and does not sail if it's too stormy. Crossing my fingers.

Con amor,
Vero