Some 2 year old time!

I have been watching Kai this whole week. It's definitely been harder than it has before. Two + potty training is sooo hard! Luckily my mom came back on Wednesday so it got easier. Here are some momentitos:

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Ok for real?? These look amazing! Check out the link: http://www.recipegirl.com/2011/03/01/cinnamon-roll-pancakes/

Camping & Waterfalls

Luke got me out of the tent so we could come up to the top of the waterfall
Ignore the sickly look

My first back-in-the-U.S. post! preeetty excited about it. If I wasn't lazy I would just start a new blog buuut I don't feel like it. Anyway, I've had an amazing few weeks back. I am so incredibly happy to be back with my friends and family I can't even stand it sometimes!

So Luke and I went camping this weekend with his BFF Henry and his wife Sunnie. We left Friday and it took seriously like 5 hours to find a good camping spot. We couldn't find a place that didn't cost a million dollars to stay for two nights. When did camping get expensive?? It's crazy! Anyway so we eventually ended up finding this AMAZING campsite up past Leavenworth that was beautiful! It was right next to a waterfall and had a super good view and it was totally worth the 5 hour search. Also it was free.

So Friday night I was super tired so I went to lay down for a little before dinner and when I got up I felt really sick. I ended up throwing up several times and I kept waking up that night feeling soo sick. It was horrible. So then the next morning I woke up feeling better and got up and around and then before we even had breakfast started feeling sick again. I had to lay down. This went on allll day. I would lay down for an hour or so, start feeling better, get up and around, and then start feeling really nauseous and have to lay down again. It was ridiculous. I ended up spending basically all day in the tent. I started feeling better (for reals) that night though and was able to get up and eat dinner and roast some marshmallows (the best part of camping) and eat them...without throwing up. And then the next day we left. Not the best camping trip...but I survived.

Either way I wouldn't pass up spending time with Luke whether I'm on a sickly camping trip or not. I'm just happy to be back!

Chao Valdivia (Ojala)

Oh man. What an interesting few days it has been. I am not going to go into all the details of what happened yesterday when I DIDN'T go home but let's just say it started with too much ash and ended with no flight reservation. It was such a frustrating day for everyone but by that night (after many tears were shed) we got it all figured out. I will be leaving tomorrow and arriving home on Thursday. At this point I'm just happy I'm actually leaving.

At 8am I take the bus to Temuco (the planes are so backed up here that even if the flights DID go out, because I didn't have a reservation (thank you American Airlines) I couldn't get on one anyway. I arrive at 11 and I'll have a guy waiting for me with a sign that says LACEY BILES on it (I've always wanted that to happen. Except I always imagined it would be in Hawaii and the guy would be waiting with leis...but what can you do). He will drive me to the airport (for a mere $16 but lets just focus on the getting home part) and at 1:35 I will board the plane to Santiago (POR FIN). I'll get there...I dunno an hour or so after and then I have quite a few hours to get to my gate and suck down as many starbucks as possible. Then I will take a bunch of sleeping pills and be knocked out until I arrive in the United States. Yayyy U.S.! So fingers crossed that whole plan works out. Thanks to my mom and host mom for figuring all of that out. It was a huge mess.

So after a horrrible night and not sleeping much I had planned to stay in bed all day because...well...it was warm. Did I mention it's been stupid cold for the last few days? But then Gloria came in around 11 and told me I had to get up so we could go to the bus station and get a bus ticket. So after we did that the kids were basically attached to me because they didn't want to see me go (they were super happy when I couldn't leave and kept asking when I was gonna come home. "it costs money? like...50 pesos?") Anyway they left to go to their dad's which was kind of a relief because I had been getting attack hugs all morning. We said goodbye, exchanged a million hugs and kisses, took some pictures, and they left.

Gloria told me I HAD to leave because otherwise I would just sit in the house worrying. So I left and went to the mall, tried some retail therapy but seeing as how my suitcase is way too full already, I gave up on that. I bought gifts for the kids and Gloria instead. I ate a really good lunch and left to get my hair done. I know I know I've gotten my hair done like a billion times in the last few weeks (ok twice now) but I couldn't handle having my hair gross looking and ugly! So I went and got it toned down to my NATURAL color! and most of the damaged parts cut off. So now it's darker blonde and I have a cute new cut and it's waaay better than it was.

And then on the way home I got hit by a car. Not. Even. Kidding. Well okay I don't know if HIT is the right word but I definitely got bumped. I was crossing the street on one of those green means go but cars still have a free right (or left in this case) and a car came zooming around the corner (not a BLIND corner, they could see me before they turned) and totes hit me! well they more hit the big bag I was carrying. I was so shocking I just kinda pushed off the car and kept walking. I could hear them screaming inside though-it was two girls. This has ALMOST happened just about every time we go out so I'm surprised it just happened for the first time but still. What a good way for Valdivia to wish me goodbye.

Anyway, I am now 100% ready to go. Hopefully everything goes alright. If not...I'm probably somewhere lost in Chile right now.

Black White & Blonde

I have to say I've been a little insecure about my hair but I LOVE it in black and white! It makes me feel so happy to be blonde again! It's been awhile! When I get back I'm gonna put some more natural highlights (low lights) in it so it should look better.

I'm in a good mood today! Probably because it's not raining for once! (knock on wood) It's supposed to start raining at some point but for now I'm just enjoying the blue sky. I'm sitting in front of the fire with my sugar-cinnamony coffee because it is cooold in this house. But I'm home alone so I've ventured outside my room.

I need to start packing! I really don't want to though. I would much rather just grab a few of my favorite clothes and leave everything else here. My host mom told my that the housekeeper would focus on helping me on Monday so "calmate!" Haha I was definitely not worked up at all but that's ok. It sounds like I'm gonna have to get up earlier than planned though. Which is annoying because I was totally planning on sleeping in late so the time would go faster since I don't leave till late afternoon.

A lot of people seem to be getting stuck in Santiago so I'm crossing my fingers that that's NOT going to happen to me. I need to have a smooth flight! Gloria's taking me to the airport on Monday so I'm glad that she'll be there for moral support since I'm flying out alone. Last time everything went super smoothly so I'm expecting something to go wrong this time. I'm hoping wishing praying that somehow my suitcase will be belowwww 50 pounds. That would make my whole life easier. Last time it was 60ish and it wasn't a problem but I also didn't have to recheck my luggage in Santiago so I was lucky. This time I'm sure I'll have to recheck it so it would be easier cuz they're kinda sticklers on that kinda thing. Also I don't want to pay a billion dollars to get my suitcase through. I'm pawned a lot of my stuff off on Laura (sorry Laura!) so I'm hoping I'll be good to go. She got a little shopping trip in my closet :).

Sooo meanwhile I hope my mood sticks. So much waiting! Maybe at some point I'll start packing...

An unconventional independence day

So we didn't quite have a way to celebrate independence day but we still tried our hardest. We decided to go with Mexican food and a huge study session on Chilean history (we had our final the next day). Definitely not the funnest thing but we felt a little better about being away from our families by doing at least something out of the ordinary. My host sister asked if this is what we always did to celebrate independence day. We assured her it was not.

Warmin' up some refried beans

Giant donut looking thing

It was actually some kind of fruity cake inside.

Mondo waiting to be served.