Aunt #4 died this morning.

She’s my father’s sister and mother of my dear cousin E. My cousin called me this morning to give me the news. Although very disturbed, she understands that her mother was suffering a lot and that this was better than suffering a few more days. The funeral will be tomorrow.

Rest in Peace Aunt Q.

I just received a phone call from my mother and Aunt #4 died this morning. Her health condition was critical and she did not resist.

I received the bad news quite well what puzzled my co-workers. I believe they expected me to receive the news in a more sadly way. This doesn’t mean I don’t care but she is an aunt I don’t see in many, many years, I was never closed to her, she’s my father’s aunt I mean not a direct aunt and she’s 90 something.

Do I mean she deserves to die? Of course not, but I’m glad it wasn’t someone younger.

My father has 4 brothers and sisters, my mother has 9 brothers and sisters, from all these aunts and uncles one is in danger right now. The one that died today is aunt of my father and his brothers and sisters, meaning it’s right that she goes first.

I have this point of view because 7 years ago someone I considered my younger sister died at the age of 18 and THAT…it’s not fair. So when someone old from the family dies I always have the thought that: I’m glad it’s an older member of the family and not a younger one.

Rest in Peace.

Well these last 10 days were full of health issues, my tooth problem and four Aunts that ended up in the hospital. Yes, I have many aunts.

• Aunt #1 - Got a back surgery (she’s in her 60’s)
• Aunt #2 - Bronco pneumonia (she’s in her 90’s)
• Aunt #3 - Bronco pneumonia and some neurological disturbs (in her 70’s)
• Aunt #4 - Gangrene in one leg, as soon as she arrived at the hospital, the leg was amputee. (She’s in her 90’s)

Aunt #1 is home already recovering from the surgery the other 3 Aunts are still in the Hospital.

Each time my mother calls me now I ask: who’s sick now?

We have a big back yard, the same dimensions of my neighbors, the big difference is that they have a swimming pool and we don’t. We have been giving a lot of thought to the fact that a swimming pool in the house would be a great help with the kids during good weather.

Although we live 15 minutes from the beach, spending an afternoon there is a little tiring. We have to carry all the necessary items for a good afternoon like:

• big sun hat
• towels
• bottles of water
• snacks
• ice blocks to keep yogurts fresh
• juice

take everything from the car, carry it to the beach and at the end of the afternoon the other way around.

Having a pool at home would allow us to stay at home and at the same time we could use the pool for fun. I’m sure the kids would forget about the beach in no time.

We decided to take a look at the several type and shape of pools available as well as a pool with low maintenance, so that we don’t have to spend a lot of time of our days taking care of the water, pool filters and other necessary duties.

EcosmartePool is the best company I found while looking for pools systems. This company has four products available: Pool system, Spa System, Pond System and Filter Glass Pack. Right now I’m interested in the pool system once it is completely environment friendly.

I had already put away the idea to buy a pool where I had to use chemicals because they are chlorine generators, they are toxic and are a threat to the environment. My neighbor had one pool with chemical system and her son started having ear and skin problems. Salt pools are not a good choice either, salt generators just create chlorine therefore that’s not an option.

Ecosmartepool only uses no-toxic systems that are not harmful for us or for the environment, they are completely chlorine and salt free.

Having two small children, their health is my priority. Both had asthma until a couple of years ago and they are very susceptible to allergies so Ecosmartepool systems is the right one to use on my case. With their system I don’t have to be worried with burning eyes, dry skin, damaged hair and also I’ll be free from that annoying chlorine smell.

Ecosmartepool system also increases the durability of pool equipments once there are no harmful products present.

The treatment they use in the water pool is 100% safe and it’s based in Copper Ionization. What I’ve leaned while looking for what is Copper Ionization is that copper ions are safe and essencial for humans, plants and animals but really harmful to bacteria and virus. Of course this treatment is a good add on to our pool.

This company donates 5% of its profits to environmental charities so besides using friendly products they still help the environment through donations. Wonderful!

What about you, are you a lucky pool owner? What cleaning system do you use?

Tuesday it was our 19th dating anniversary and yesterday it was our 14th Wedding anniversary.

Usual there are no celebrations and yesterday it was not different. Due to the tooth removal I didn’t even have dinner and went to bed early.

19 years is a long time and although things aren’t working out the way I thought they would, we’re still going on well.

Some changes must me made to smooth things out but being full time workers, two kids, a house to take care of, blogging and a million other things, it’s really hard to be always ok. The future will tell.

Every year, on the first Sunday of May, it’s Mother’s Day in Portugal. So last Sunday I received wonderful presents from my daughter and son as well as many kisses.

It all starter on Friday when my son, who had three presents to give me (one he bought, one he did at school and one he did in daycare), insisted in giving me one right on that day. He read a poem and I couldn’t hold the tears from rolling down my face. It was so beautiful.

On Sunday I received two presents from my son and two from my daughter. Now I have poems, a wallet, a purse, a Potpourri bag and two recipe books where I have to write my favorite recipes.

But like my daughter learned in pre-school: Mother’s Day it’s everyday and love should be shown daily.

On one of my previous posts I mentioned the fact that I did not expect extra bills from May, then I posted about my teeth and the extra bills that were coming ahead. Now, my husband’s car broke yesterday and once it is veeryyyy old probably it can’t be fixed. We don’t know how we are going to manage to get another car…….

A new car is out of the question once we can’t afford one nor do we have the chance to ask for a loan, so the only option is to buy an old car in “good” conditions that can be used for a few years. I still don’t know how we are going to do this.

I’ve been in a lot of pain these last days. Shoulders, neck and thorax have been killing me lately. I know what it is, accumulated anxiety and stress from these last weeks. Yesterday I barely could move my head but still, I spend all day in the office working and screaming each time I had to make a sudden movement. I’m taken some pills and although still having a lot of pain I’m better than yesterday.

Yesterday my father had his new electrical bed delivered and is much comfortable now. I went to the pharmacy and paid for it, a huge amount I must confess.

Today my kids had a birthday party of a neighbor in a “party academy”, I used the waiting time to be in the parent’s area to catch up with some neighbors. Interesting thing, I felt good, relaxed, meaning I really stress at work and I get better on weekends. Damn it…I can’t get stressed, I have to control myself. Yeap…I know there are techniques, I’ve tried them but once my bosses enter into the office…I get stressed and want to go home.

Today a decision was made regarding my father’s health condition. My father has Alzheimer and is totally depending on my mother’s help. He is in bed, with diapers, food must be put on his mouth, making it short: he is a 176 lbs baby, who doesn’t move by himself.

My mother has an hospital bed at home where he stays all day and all night. The bed is very high and my mother is not strong enough to lift him up or put him on a chair, so today we order an electrical bed. This bed has a control attached to the bed and with a touch of a finger it goes up down, lifts the head, the feet and has several positions. I think my father is going to like it because there is one sitting positing and that’s what he begs for everyday.

My mother will be able to adjust the bed to her needs, she can wash him and feed him easily by changing the bed position.

The sad thing is that my parents are retired and the electrical bed costs almost 5 times the monthly payment she receives from social security. We are not really thinking about it right now and we are just interested in getting some comfort to both my mother and father.

There was no big birthday party for Catherine this year. She turned 4 last Saturday but due to Easter holiday most family and friends were away for the weekend.

She’s too young to mind about that and what she wants is presents.

She had a birthday cake and we sang the birthday song together with her godfather (my youngest BIL) and his wife. The cake had the image of the Ballerina Princesses movie.

Her favorite present was something she has been asking for for a long time: make-up case. She also received a puzzle, a book and several pieces of clothes and other accessories.

At the end of the day we received the visit of my best friend E. and a couple of neighbors (she’s starting in the blogging world with: About Portugal).

Catherine was very happy even without a big party and that’s what matters.

Sorry for those that visited this blog expecting new posts but life has been difficult for me.
I know I mentioned this several times before: full time job (leave home at 8:30, arrive at 19.10), two kids, cooking, laundry, cleaning, a husband that requires my attention and all the other stuff I have to do and remember.

Four blogs, yes 4,my blogspot one was supposed to be inactive for a while but guess what: I’ve been receiving linkpost to write there besides PU2B regular work. Blogspot blog is the one receiving more comments (probably because there is no spam filter in blogger) that’s why I’m now moderating the comments there. I really have to decide what to do, I already removed it from some social networks but I guess I have to remove it from linkworth and PU2B and lose a few dollars.

This blog was supposed to be the blogspot substitute due to all the “own domain” and “own hosting” dilema, but the truth is people keep coming back to the blogspot one. I guess I just have to “forget it” and keep up with this blog and the other two I have and where I love to write.

Another headache, I live in Europe and as you know we have the Euro currency. If you get paid 50$ for paid posts you receive 50$, when I get paid 50$ I receive now 31 Euros, two years ago 50$ meant 50 euros (+/-). These last months things got really worse and everyday they are getting worse, so this is another daily worry for me, I work hard with paid posts but each day that goes by I receive less.

Due to all the life, family, work, blogging events, I haven’t been feeling ok for a while, I’m a little depressed, fed up with my full time job, wanted to live from internet income but that seems impossible. The result is anxiety and a 20 minutes Tachycardia that almost took me to hospital on Wednesday. This is not something new for me but a tachycardia so long only happened 8 years ago, usually they last 15 to 60 seconds. I’m better now but still worried about the future.

Blogging is something I like to do and the extra money I earn is really helpful. Here am I now at 02.17 writing this post and already have some tasks assigned to write. Everyday I look for other sources of income. Europeans also have a disadvantage - no samples for us to review, no contests to participate, well…

I really like the blogspot blog but I really have no interesting things to write there besides paid posts so I guess I just have to stop writing there and forget about making money there. With time I hope to get more work for the others blogs.

This weekend was a tough one, I’m not writing about it now because it has pictures and bad and good news, events that hurt my heart but tomorrow or Wednesday they will be written.

I’m sorry Catherine for not being able to write a post on your birthday day (Saturday), you know mom was not ok!!.

I have so much to write, today and tomorrow I’ll be at home, but with the kids I already know time will be short.

Where have I been? Well busy at usual but I’m fine, feeling good. This last week was a real busy one regarding personal matters (not to mention work ones).

Dani is officially in the soccer team, this means a huge initial bill to pay. Why? Well here it goes:

1. He has to have an ID card, which he doesn’t have because he never needed one. A birth certificate is usually enough until children enter the 5th grade or need to go abroad. As he has never left the country and he still is in 3th grade he has no ID Card. Having a ID Card means: haircut (10 Euros), professional photos (9 euros), ID papers (8,75 euros).
2. Sport’s insurance: 15 Euros
3. Monthly payment for being in the team: 10 Euros
4. The equipment: I don’t know the price yet.
5. He will have to get a Medical declaration saying he can practice Soccer, this will probably involve a ECG and a thorax X-Ray … if I go public I’ll waste time to get doctor’s appointments, Dani will miss school but I will save money in the exams; if I go private, I’ll waste money but I will save time. Tomorrow I’ll decide.

I’m not a Soccer fan and the thought of having one at home isn’t a pleasant idea. He’s already playing a lot of Soccer in PS2 so I guess I’m going to get used to it.

I had a conversation with him and I asked if Soccer is really the sport he wants…well, right now it is, let’s see in a few months.