The good, the bad and the ugly

THE GOOD

Warning - this blog entry is going to be filled with a lot of pictures. Lots of good stuff has been going on. We have been getting some good time with our Mexican friends lately. Josiahs best friend in our housing edition is Mario and they both love soccer. They have a lot of fun playing outside together.

Josiahs best friend at school is Santiago. He came to our house last week and we had a great time. He likes cooking so I decided that for lunch we would all make our own pizzas. I was really excited about it. On the way to our house he told me that he loved almost every kind of food but that pizza was one of his least favorite. Oops - I then told him that I was really sorry but that was what we were having for lunch. I offered him a hotdog but he gladly made and ate his own pizza. While we were making them I jokingly stated "ok, I am going to get the onions and mushrooms out" thinking that he would say yuck. Instead he got really excited and said that he loved mushrooms - oops again. I didn't have any mushrooms. Luckily my neighbor did. They had a lot of fun together that day. I really like his family and hope that we will get to know eachother better. This weekend we have a first grade mother/child camping trip. His mother will be there and I am really excited about spending time with her and the other moms.
Hi-5 was in town and we ended up getting really good tickets. We sat in the 5th row middle section. Many of you might not know who Hi-5 is. I couldn't believe it when I found out that my parents and my sister didn't know who they are. I guess you have no need to know who they are if you don't have little children. They are "the" singing group of children 2-8. If you want to know more they have a good website you can look up. Anyway we went with my neighbor and her daughter. When we got to the concert we were offered a ticket to get our picture taken with the group after the concert. I asked the guy "now this is the original Hi-5 group right?" Often they have shows here where it isn't the original but they don't always tell you that. He assured me that it was the real group. So, we bought the ticket to get the kids picture taken with the group after the show. Like I said, we had great seats and when the group came out both my friend and I looked at eachother. It was not the original group. We later were told it was the official Latin American group. Oh well. We had a great time and they sang (lip sung) to all of the kids favorite songs and they had a blast.

THE BAD

This afternoon we had one of our AIMers over for lunch. Today was a crazy day so we had jelly sandwiches on hotdog buns and bean burritos. Not together but those were the two options. After the kids had finished their first sandwich Josiah asked for a second. I grabbed a bun and this is what I saw!!!!

A cockroach cooked into the bun!! Yuck. I asked Josiah if it would be ok if he just had a burrito and he was fine with that.


We have had a really sad weekend. Our dog - Josiahs dog - died last night. He had been perfectly healthy but started having seizures this weekend. He ended up having 6 seizures in a day and a half. After bloodwork and brain x-rays we realized that he wasn't going to have a very good life. There was a small possibility of keeping him alive with a lot of medication but the doctor seemed to think that he would pretty much pass the rest of his life needing to be heavily medicated. We decided that this wasn't what we wanted for Arthur or for our family so we had him put to sleep last night. Josiah is really upset. If it were up to him he would just stay in bed all day and think about Arthur - at least that is what he told me at 6 o'clock this morning when he got in bed with me. He has been crying at the drop of a hat but I am sure that things will get better in a few days or weeks. Arthur was very much a part of our life. When we were home he was always at the kids sides. I thought I would throw in some pictures that I found.

He put up with a lot from Hannah but he always followed her around and wanted to be where she was - from the day we brought her home from the hospital.

He was even kind enough to share chew toys with Hannah - what a great friend.

THE UGLY
Hannah and Abigail share a bunk bed. Abigail on top and Hannah on the bottom. Well, tonight after the kids had been in bed for a while, we heard a loud crash followed by screaming. Hannah decided that she wanted to be on the top and ended up falling out of the bed. She has a huge bump on her forhead. It is so swollen and is going to leave a nice bruise for a few weeks.

Were back

We had a really great time at the beach but are glad to be back home with the kids. I took a few pictures of the countryside while driving. Some of you might not know that there are mountains right outside of Guadalajara. It is a really beautiful drive. The mountains are increadible but they do make the trip twice as long!

There is a ton of forestation that we drove though. I didn't get pictures of them but we also drove by a ton of banana trees, mango trees, and coconut palms.

Here is a picture looking out of our room. It was a really pretty view. The weather cooperated a little bit. It rained all three days that we were there but it didn't keep us from getting into the ocean - that is until the lightning arrived. I mentioned it earlier in another post but it was an all-inclusive hotel. Which means all meals etc are included. This restaurant is a reservation only restaurant. There are only about 6 tables and two reservations per table - 6:30 or 8:30. We choose the later apt since we didn't have lunch till 3. Right after this picture was taken I noticed something really big moving on the beach just right on the other side of the red wall. It was a sea turtle!

Right now is the time that the moms come onto shore (at night) and lay their eggs. They dig a hole in the sand and lay around 100 eggs at a time. Then they cover them up and head back to the ocean. The eggs take about 1 1/2 months to hatch. These sea turtles don't have a very good chance of survival. They are highly protected. Infact there were 3 or 4 night guards at our resort that all they did was work the graveyard shift and watch for turtles. Two guards were protecting her. They made sure that no one took pictures of her while she was in the process of laying her eggs. They said she could get scared and head back to the ocean before finishing. They also guarded the eggs. They called a marine biologist who later came and picked up the eggs to take them to a protected area to hatch (check out my posts from last November - there you will see our family releasing the baby turtles into the ocean). The guard actually had to move one of the chairs you see behind us because that was where she wanted to lay her eggs. Even with human intervention they only have a 95% change of living until adulthood. The waiter we had that evening told us that often when you are in restaurants in Vallarta they will quietly offer you the eggs and turtle meat. He said the eggs cost $10. He didn't say how much the meat was worth.
We foud out the next day that if you get caught eating one of the turtle eggs you get one year in jail per egg. If you get caught eating the meat you get 5 years. They allowed us to take pictures of her when she was heading back to the ocean.
Cory was taking a picture of me standing behind her and the guard told me that I could touch her. Notice the guard is holding a clip board. They monitor everything, what time she arrived on land, how long it took her to lay the eggs, and what time she went back into the ocean. On Wed we got to meet up with Kris and Barb Smith (my coordinators when I was in AIM and really good friends) and Jeff and Stacy Smith (Cory's coworker at Sunset and really good friends). We had a really good time with them. The guys went deep sea fishing in the morning while the women went shopping in town. Then we all met back up at the resort where they bought day passes and we got to spend some time at the beach and then in the pool. It was a lot of fun.

Phone Number

Hey guys, I wanted to tell you guys that we now have a stateside number. The number is a Lubbock number but it will come through to our computer in Mexico. We are looking into actually buying a handheld phone that will receive the calls through the computer. This will be great because now we have to be sitting at the computer to talk and with three kids that isn't always the most convenient. Anyway, the call will not cost you any more than if you were calling Lubbock, many of you either live there or can call there free on your cell phones.

Last week we got a call from an old friend in Tulia, TX and it was really exciting to get to talk to her. I just got off the phone from talking to some good friends or ours in Oklahoma. Feel free to call anytime - there is even an answering maching hooked up to it so if we don't answer just leave a message and be sure to leave your number so we can call you back. The number is

1-806-589-0911

Tree planting

Every year Starbucks has a re-forestation program. They plant trees in a nearby forest. This is our second year to attend. We didn't have as big of a turn out with church members this year because we only found out about it 5 days ahead. There were probably around 25 of us. Cory was out of town so I took the three kids and the AIMers and we had a good time. Hannah really thought it was fun and enjoyed getting the trees from me and dropping them into their holes.

I didn't get a picture of Josiah. He and his friend Quincy were on "tree police" duty. They went around making sure that the trees weren't getting stepped on etc.

So as you should know we are big time Red Sox fans. This is how Josiah woke me up yesterday morning. He worked so hard on it I thought it deserved being published on my blog. He made it out of magnetic letter and a board that my parents got him. He loves it and I think it is a great learning tool.

Heres a picture of the kids before they ate up their pink and blue pancakes with their initial on it.

ME DO IT!

We are right in the middle of the "me do it" stage with Hannah right now. She is definately two and wants to do everything by herself. Even more so than my other kids - I think mainly because she wants to be like the other two. She wants to do everything they do.

Everything is "Me do it" wether its getting out of her car seat, getting out of the car, shutting the car door, opening the house door, shutting the house door, putting my purse up - are you getting the picture? Everything! It gets really old at times and a lot of times I just don't let her. When its not an inconvenience to someone else and we have time of course I let her. Its always fun when she is intent on doing something and after much trying she has to give up and ask for help. She is really good at eating her cereal by herself but once she gets to the end she has a really hard time getting those last few cheerios on her spoon. That is when she always gives in and asks for help. I am only allowed to put the cereal on the spoon and then she wants to have the spoon back and feed herself.

Is this ringing a bell with anyone? It is reminding me of myself a lot (not as a kid) but now. Sometimes I am just too stubborn and want to do it myself when really I need to have help.

Why is it so hard to ask for help sometimes. The sad thing is that God intends for us to ask for help. If He hadn't intended on it He would have made us with the ability to do everything but He didn't.

While we were in Zacatecas we took the kids to a McDonalds. Hannah isn't quite big enough to climb on the playground equipment yet. Usually Josiah picks her up each level. For some reason this time Josiah decided to let her climb on him. It was the cutest sight. He was happy to help her and she looked so proud to be able to do it with her brothers help. They had a lot of fun working together.

This is how it should be in our lives also. We should both be happy to help and proud to acknowledge when we can't do it on our own and choose to ask for help.

Beach here I come

So, Cory and I just celebrated 9 years of marriage in July. We were in the states and didn't do anything for our anniversary. I had wanted to go somewhere without kids while we were in the states but that seems really complicated. To be honest with you in nine years we have only left the kids twice overnight. I don't think we have ever both been away from them for more than 24 hours.

Two of our favorite couples (Kris and Barb Smith and Jeff and Stacy Smith) are taking a cruise this next week. It just so happens that they are going to spend a whole day in Puerto Vallarta which is only 4 hours away from where we are. They asked us if we would like to come spend the day with them. We love Vallarta, it is where we honeymooned. We talked to our teamates and they agreeded to watch the kids for us. Since the boat arrives early in the morning we are going to go a day before they arrive and since the boat leaves late at night we are going to stay a day after they leave. Thats three days at the beach and no kids!!!!

The really fun thing is that we are going to stay at the same hotel we stayed at 9 years ago for our honeymoon. It is a great hotel and the best part is that it is all inclusive. That means all meals, drinks, snacks etc are included. If any of you ever come to visit it is a great place to go. Right now the rate is $120 with tax - that includes everything for two adults and two kids stay and eat for free (maybe next time)!

This is a picture I got off of the website but it looks like it was taken right out of the window we stayed in 9 years ago! I will post pictures from our trip next week!

Summer pics

Last night I was talking to my mother in law. She mentioned that she wished I would blog everyday. As much as I would love to both she and I know that there just isn't enough time in my day. She has motivated me to try and post more often but no promises it will be on a daily basis. Sometimes I wonder if anyone is even reading the blog. Then, I hear about people that are reading it.

I was thinking that I had some stuff from the summer that I still hadn't posted.

We had a great time at my parents house in July. We were in South Dakota for a week. Being South Dakota there is a lot of snow but we obviously weren't there at the right time. Well, my parents had made snowballs and stored them in their deep freezer! So we ended up having a small snowball fight - lots of fun.

One of the greatest things about the summer was getting to spend time with people we love. Here is a picture of Hannah and Elizabeth. They had just gotten done swimming after the 4th of July parade.
Of course we had to go for a ride in dads 1949 Jeepster. He has worked really hard on this car it was in pretty bad shape when he bought it some 12 (more or less) years ago. We took the car for a spin to Dairy Queen (which was closed because it was the 4th of July). We ended up at another mom and pops ice cream shop.

This is a more recent picture. It is a picture of the hair that Abigail cut off of herself while doing homework. The section on the right was donated by her Cabbage Patch. It is pretty un-noticeable. In fact I had a really hard time figuring out where the hair had come from. One day as I was pulling the sides up into a ponytail I easily found the section she cut. It is a straight cut about 2-3 inches long on the back of her head at about ear level. Luckily there is hair on top of the part she cut so the only time you notice it is if her sides are pulled up.
Well, against my better judgement we are now owners of a Playstation 3 (Corys Birthday). Of course we also have guitar hero. The AIMers love it and so does Abigail. She is really cute when she plays it because she taps her food and rocks. We also got a guitar for Cory's dad for his fathers day/Birthday present. Watch out Papa you have competion!
Cory is still in Lubbock. He has been gone 6 days and will be back in 6 days. We are ready for him to be back but are glad that he is having a really good visit.