¿Que Tal? Madrid, España

We left Germany without a hitch (a welcomed change) and arrived in Madrid on May 7th. We stayed with Jose and Eva who we met diving on the Palau Aggressor back in October of last year. We had such a good week with them that we exchanged contact information at the end of the trip and bid each other "Until next time."

When Erin and I first started talking about where to go on this trip we thought about spending the entire time in South America. Our thoughts were that we could see a land that we had yet to visit and learn Spanish at the same time. For what ever reasons, we chose Asia. After we met Eva and Jose, Erin and I entertained the idea of going to Spain to partially fulfill that desire. We ran the idea by Jose and Eva in December and their response was "You're late already. Come home. We've been waiting for you." Needless to say, incredibly nice people.

They picked us up at the airport and brought us to their flat in Alcorcon (20 mins away from central Madrid) which we quickly renamed the 'Hotel de Eba'. All the modern amenities and another reminder that we were done "backpacking".

We spent the following day visiting academies that taught Spanish in an effort to gather as much information. We wanted to start as soon as possible in order to maximize the 8 weeks that we had intended on staying in Spain. We went to 5 schools and when we got home later that night, we were pretty disappointed. We had not done ANY research prior to arriving in Madrid and had this pre-conception that it was going to be affordable for us to do an 8 week course.

We weren't even close! The cheapest that we could find would have cost us 1800 Euros and the average was around 2500 Euros. Do the conversion to dollars after that and Erin and I had to do some serious thinking. We had the money BUT had to consider where it would be best spent (especially with Siobhan coming in December).

It didn't take long to make the decision. We order our tickets to go back home the following day and spent the next week as 'gearies' (tourists). Madrid is a beautiful city where old meets new. We came just at the right time. Flowers were in bloom and everyone was out and about enjoying the warm weather and long days.

Along with the numerous plazas, outdoor cafes and narrow alley ways in Madrid, we visited the towns of Toledo

and Segovia (where we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the annual puppet festival).


Our hosts were kind enough to give us a crash course in Spanish culture where we had much to learn. We only scratched the surface in beginning to understand the food/daily time tables and will have to go back some day to take in the rest. Thank you Eva and Jose for opening your house to us. We look forward to returning the favor. Hasta luego!

FMP

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da...

We are at that point in life where everyone around us is popping out babies. All of my best friends from high school either have or are having children. Victor has 2 and his wife Brenda just gave birth to their second, Jasmine Marissa Hailey . Dave and his wife Wendi just gave birth to their first, Carly Jordyn, last month.

Chris and Rachel are due with their first in July.

Even my younger sister Jenn (I'm her elder by 5 years) and her husband Jaime beat us to the punch and are due with their first in September.

Erin's best friend from high school, Jenny and her husband T.J. are due with their second sometime in August. Her other friend, Jenny is expecting in June and another classmate, Amanda recently gave birth to her first child. My 2 younger cousins, Roque and Mari Cris are both due with their first children over the summer. Thom and Eva, just had there third girl Marlena, last month.

And that's just the recents. My older sister (she's my elder by 5 years) Christie and her husband Mark have 3 girls.

My good friend Greg has 3 girls. His brother Dan, also a good friend, has 1 and their other brother has 2. My buddy Glenn has 2 as well. Erin's sister Shay has 2 and her older brother Sean has 4. Her younger brother Kenny already has 1.

With the exception of our good friends, Jason and Adrianne (he'll say it's because they just bought a house and kids are the next phase but I say that he doesn't have a penis) that accounts for all of our immediate family and married friends.

We're not much for playing "Keep up with Jones' " but I must admit that there was a part in me that was ready for the next step before we went on this trip (Erin certainly was). But our plan was to enjoy our freedom and indulge in one last selfish act before starting a family and becoming self - 'less'.

Well....we're on the board baby! Say hallo to my little friend. A little earlier than planned but after Erin stopped taking birth control in October of last year, let's just say that we were not "not trying". A funny side note is that Erin did not intentionally take herself off the pill. She ran out of her supply and had my sister mail her some when we were in Japan. We found out the hard way that you are not allowed to have more than 1 month's supply of any medical prescription in your hand at a time. My sister had mailed 3 months worth as we requested and did the honest thing by listing it on the packaging slip. They held the package at customs, called to inform us of the rules and asked us what we wanted to do. Since it cost more than the price we paid for the 3 month supply for them to give us 1 month's supply (they would charge us for the cost to have a pharmacist divvy up the meds as required by law) Erin just told them to mail it back and decided that it was time get off the pill. Now 6 months later and here we are.

Erin visited the doctor here in Bonn and the sonogram showed a healthy 12mm baby and heartbeat with a due date of December 20th. We don't know if it is a girl or a boy (and won't find out until the birthday) but I am preparing for a girl. That way, when Siobhan comes out, it's what I will be expecting. If "he" comes out, that will be the icing on the cake.

At the end of the day, we'll be totally happy and pray for a healthy baby. As they say in Bangladesh, "Enshallah".

...life goes on bra! Lala how the life goes on.

FMP and Erin