It feels great to be back on schedule with my weekly Project Life posts! I am really enjoying the process and glad I made the commitment to this method of documenting our lives. It's going to be pretty cool, come the end of the year, to look through our album and refer to my blog entries and realize what an amazing life we have-even if I am just documenting the boring day-to-day stuff!
Here is what was going on in Week 11:
You know the routine: Click below to download this week's Word Art Titles! This week's layout showcases the Design G and Design A page protectors.
Download SeptBlue_Week11
The week started and ended on a social note! There was a new arrival in Chris's office this week and we had his family, as well as a few other friends, over for dinner on Sunday. My friend Ginny told me about an absolutely sinful dessert to try: a layer of chocolate cookie dough, topped with a layer of whole Oreo cookies, topped with a layer of brownie batter-baked and then served with vanilla ice cream! OMGosh...so much for the diet! It was delish! I will be posting the recipe later in the week, but below are a few snapshots of the process:
Although we had a great start to the beginning of the week, I still wasn't feeling 100% healthy and ended up having to go to the doctor on Monday. The Embassy doctor was out of town all week and that meant I had to visit a local doctor in town.
I was not looking forward to it all.
I remember living in Kiev, Ukraine and having to visit a local doctor. Bad experience-had to bring my own table dressings, the doc didn't speak very good English-it just wasn't pleasant. I didn't know what to expect here in Riga. But you know what? It was totally fine-unbelievably efficient! I had a 2:30pm appointment and when I arrived there was no waiting. The only paperwork I had to fill out was a form needing my name, birthdate, age, local address, email and phone number. That was it. Dr. Karina spoke perfect English, was very thorough and diagnosed me with bronchitis. She explained to me all of the meds I needed and wrote me a prescription to take to the Aptieka.
Oh no...a visit to the pharmacy. That uncomfortable feeling of the unknown set in again. Which Aptieka to go to? Do they speak English? How expensive are meds here? Will I have a long wait? Where will I park?
Again, it was a piece of cake (or chocolate chip cookie, Oreo, brownie dessert). The Aptieka was right across the street from her office, there was no waiting and no paperwork to fill out. The Pharmacist just grabbed the items from the shelves gave me directions on their use and I was on my way. Why can't it be this easy in the U.S.? I was done with everything by 3pm!
I took a photo of the meds that you can see in the second photo of this post (click on the image to make it bigger). When it came time to journal about it, I wanted to use a 4x6 journal card (I had a lot to say about this experience), and forgot there are none in the kits, so I went with a bi-fold journal card instead. You will notice in that second photo I mounted the card to the top of the protector. I've been doing this a lot lately. I am just worried about the wear and tear on the album and card if it is always being pulled in and out in order to read the inside of it. Mounting it to the front of the protector makes the journaling easier to access!
The bronchitis was taking a lot out of me. I really had very little energy to do anything. I did manage to play around with my iPhone photo apps a little bit, though. I took the above pic with Instagram. I've been working with Hipstamtic a bit more this week as well, but I am not sure if I like it as well as Instagram. Hipstamatic is a little more labor intensive-you have to know what kind of effect you are aiming to get by using a variety of lenses films and flashes before you snap the photo. So really the end result can sometimes be a surprise. It's hit or miss, but I am still playing around with it.
The week ended of course with Saint Patrick's Day! Almost a month ago, my trainer Lisa and I decided to go alcohol-free for 30 days. Of course that didn't work out for me as planned due to my trip to Germany, but since I've been back I haven't had a drop to drink-and I feel so much better because of it! Because I wasn't drinking, it meant Chris had a designated driver for St. Patty's Day. We started the night out by taking part in the dinner club the CLO at the Embassy puts together each month at a local restaurant. There were probably 20 of us altogether and had dinner a 3 Pavāru Restaurant (translated it means 3 Chefs). Although the food was good, both Chris and I didn't think it was worth the 31Ls each (that is $62 per person!). But the ambiance was nice, those who were in attendance were a lot of fun, the conversation was great and it was nice to be able to sit and talk to those folks from the Embassy that I rarely get the chance to! I snapped the photo above using Instagram. The decor in the restaurant was eclectic and I loved the lampshade chandelier! After dinner we went to several pubs where Chris enjoyed Guinness and Irish music. We got home at 3am and then Skyped with my sister and her husband until 3:30! Never again. We are getting too old to be out that late!
Thanks for reading! I have a few surprises planned for this week! Keep checking back to see what they are! Have a great Week 12!
This post is linked with The Mom Creative and One Happy Mama
