Today was SEW awesome....Yes, I just did that.

Lately...

I have been hanging out with my friend, Celeste!
We have been cooking and doing crafts and it has been awesome.


There was a party at her house!

We made Pigs in a Blanket!

Final Product

Her Christmas tree was awesome! She made the little flags and yarn balls. ALSO, she strung popcorn... way cool.

These are bacon and maple syrup pastries!

This is simply delicious bacon.

Holiday beer for everyone! 

A cute Celeste :)

Niecedom...

So far today I...

Got the baby up
Lit the Christmas tree
Made Breakfast
Drank Coffee
Cleaned the bedroom
Made lunch in advance
Folded a load of laundry
Cleaned up all toys leftover from the night before
Put away all the clean dishes
Started a new load of dishes
Took out the trash

and now we're about to get our bath on then take a walk.

Aunthood = Productivity to the max. I want to get as much done as humanly possible before my sister gets here. She is going to be recovering and taking care of her new baby. That's enough work for 5 grown men. I wish I could do more.

I'm loving this though. I am so thankful for this opportunity to hang with Khloe before I head to TN.

Some pics from yesterday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY NEWEST NEPHEW!!

Thomas Elijah was born yesterday evening :) I got to meet him for the first time, and it was wonderful. Even more wonderful, I got to watch Khloe meet him for the first time. Life is so cool! As you get older, it gets even cooler!

Love,

"Aunt Coco"

A long story short

I baked some delicious food with a lady named Celeste once.

She has a dog named Chuck...

The cookies were pumpkin flavored.

Then my hand made some homemade cookie glaze...

Dan Russel was there. We made wheat bread together.

Celeste got a pic with the bread baby.

Me too!

Joe was there as well. We made breakfast for dinner.

The next day, I got to packing for Nashville. Maggie was sad, so she sat next to the box and moped.

Then I walked through Target and found this... I wish I could say I didn't want to see it. But man, I do.

Then, I saw this in the impulse aisle at Walmart... I couldn't resist for the life of me.

My niece and I ran some errands together. 

She was super good, so I conceded to getting her a "Birthday Pop" from Starbucks.

Then I brought her to a party.

She and Miss Teen hit it off quite well.

 I am learning about retirement plans, home ownership, loans, investments, mortgages, flexible spending funds, and much more #adulthood #wisdomplease

I took a picture in my Florida State sweater in honor of our game against the Gators on Saturday :D

Then I wanted to make some homemade pizza... so I did.

Even the sauce is homemade.

Ingredients: tomatoes, onion, fresh garlic, spinach, mushrooms, oregano, artichoke, mozzarella, and pita.

Then I saw Leah and Jimmy

The End.

My mom....

This is a compilation of quotes from my mother after just ONE day together.


IN MY ROOM AFTER I BROKE THE CEILING FAN:
[I made a super loud noise and one of the fan blades was on the ground]
Instead of being mad, she ran to my room, saw the blade, grabbed it, yelled:
"NEW SPANKING STICK"
Hit me with it, set it back down again, and left...


WALKING IN TARGET:
Mom: Hey, Cody. What do hipsters call houses again?
Me: Ma, I don't know what in the world you are talking about... I don't think hipsters have another name for houses.
Mom: .....OH! Cribs! That's it!
Me: Mom, hipsters definitely don't call houses "cribs"... Do you even know what a hipster is????


IN THE CAR:
Me: Mom, where is your doctor from?
Mom: Oh, he's a Muslim...
Me: "Muslim" isn't a place... it's a religion.
Mom: Oh..
[A minute long pause and after deep thought on her part]
Mom: Cody, where do Muslims come from?
Me: They come from a lot of places, Ma. Sometimes even the United States.
Mom: Wow...


IN OFFICE MAX:
Mom: Look! That's at least a month's worth of fun..
Me: Where? What are you talking about?
Mom: *Points at a huge pile of bubble wrap*


IN OFFICE MAX AGAIN:
Mom: This stuff is way too expensive. It's ridiculous.
Me: You're telling me, let's get out of here.
Mom: Got it. First let's go to that copy machine, make copies of our behinds (I'm censoring this), and find that box where it asks about what we think about the store! That'll show 'em!


ON THE WAY HOME:
[After failing horribly trying impersonate my Spanish music]
Mom: I think I can pretend to speak Chinese better than I can pretend to speak Spanish...
Me: Alright, lemme hear it.
Mom: Wong, Tong, Dong, Kong, Shong, Bong... 
Me: Ma, you're just saying "ong" and changing the first sound every time... That doesn't sound like Chinese at all....


And folks wonder where I get it from....


Love,


Cody

A birthday party, Karaoke, and a funeral...

My Trip to Xela: Written November 6th


SO. I'm here in my living room blogging about life. I'm listening to One Republic's song "Good Life" because for some reason it makes me chipper.


This is my blogpost about my trip to Xela (pronounced SHAY-la... "x"s make the"sh" sound here). Xela is a city about 2-3 hours away from Panajachel by bus.


I had a free weekend, and I could choose to go anywhere I wanted.


I so hoped to climb a volcano while I was here in Guatemala, but decided that given my money constrictions, and the fact that it was my friend's birthday, it would be all around better if I went to Xela to see some old friends.


[To clarify: I met the folks that I know from Xela when I was in language school in July]


The first night was awesome. I got to the language school and surprised my friend Kevin with a cupcake and a candle ( Christmas themed, because the store was out of Birthday candles)... and of course the singing of "Feliz Cumpleaños."


After sitting with Kevin a while, I went to the cafe to visit my friend Luis who told me about Kevin's surprise b-day party. I was so happy we were celebrating. There was a piñata, music, drinks, cake, guacamole, singing, a little dancing... An all around good Guatemalan B-day.


Here are some of the pictures from the party on Thursday Night:

Kevin ( The birthday boy and friend of mine) and one of the owners of the school. She was with me in the hospital the night I got stupid sick in July. 

Kevin and his BFF Luis. These are some really good guys.

Candlesssssss

Me, Aricely, and Jane

Everyone should be kissed on their birthday. At least I think so. My niece kissed me this b-day. I'm satisfied.

Gag gift. Tiny Undies :)

Anytime I'm at a party where there's cake, you should know that I almost always going to throw it... This was my icing casualty.

In zee face :D

 Thursday night I stayed in a Hostel. For those of you who have stayed in a hostel, you can sympathize with me... The next morning I woke up, grabbed some breakfast, then met my former teacher at the language school. We hopped in a mini bus and went to the market, then to her house to cook some delicious food.


We had pasta and collard greens :D
We also had this drink:

This is stewed pumpkin with sugar , ginger, and cinnamon sticks...

Then you just add water. Suddenly you find yourself drinking an iced beverage that tastes just like pumpkin pie. It was odd to say the least.

Either way, just getting to eat and catch up with Monica was wonderful. After lunch, she had to clean a bit, so I went downstairs and got her laundry off her line outside for her. I spent a good amount of time shooing away chickens from all the clean laundry... then Monica mentioned the chickens were for her mom's stew... after that I started treating them much more nicely.

Friday night I attended a funeral for the mother of a woman I knew from the school. My friend Lupe and I went to pay respects. This was totally new for me. I've never been to a Wake outside of my own culture. In the States, it seems you bring flowers and a card. In Guatemala, you bring soda and a bag of sugar... I didn't even get to ask why. I was taking the whole thing in.

After the funeral, we went to the school because they were having a karaoke night. I met some interesting new people. The gentleman I met from Liverpool was an absolute RIOT. I cannot even explain to you how interesting it was to interact with him. He used the "F" word in almost every sentence. As my ears were becoming accustomed to what seemed like normality on his part, I was loving the conversation. We discussed incest because I am from the South. We also talked about how American "Foot"ball has little to do with feet. Then we talked about bad teeth and the BBC because he's from England... Typical, I suppose. To say that it was clear our cultures clashed was an understatement, but still we had a great conversation. What a joy.

After a full day, I retired to my hostel then headed back to Panajachel Saturday morning.


This weekend is one that I definitely won't be forgetting for a while.


Love,


Cody

Short Story

One night my co-workers and I were driving home from Camanchaj. There were fireworks to celebrate the lighting of the big Christmas tree at the town square in Solola.


I took a picture and somehow captured it...kind of...