busy week

Well, we have had an exciting, busy, exhausting week.

Sunday I was stuck in bed/bathroom with a case of food poisoning. I haven't had it this bad in a while.

On Tuesday I took Josiah to the doctor. He has been complaining for some time now that his stomach hurts. He usually just mentioned it in passing and didn't really make a big deal about it. Finally I decided we needed to check it out. The doctor said it is most likely parasites!! Yuck - guess that is part of living in Mexico. So, we put both Josiah and Abigail on parasite medicine last week. It is so common here that many people take the medicine once a year. I think Cory and I might just take some this next week.

I always joke about my pot luck prayer. Its a short and sweet prayer. I simply ask for a strong stomach and that the food will not harm me or my family. They are not as worried about food safety as we are. I know they think I am crazy that I bring a cooler with ice in it to keep my salad cold. Pretty much any time we eat out I make sure to say my pot luck prayer.

On Wed Cory goes to a new colonia we have been trying to reach out to. I think I have told you about Gerardo and Marta. Well, when Cory showed up this week he was informed that it was Martas Birthday. Cory asked if they were going to do anything special and she told him that her husband was too cheap and that he wouldn't even buy her a cake. Cory quickly called me and I got a cake in the oven. Cory told her we would be back in the afternoon and bring her a cake. Right after lunch we headed to their house (about 30 minutes from our house). When we got there she had lunch waiting for us. Luckily we had just had sandwiches at our house so we had room for a second lunch. We had a good time and I think she felt very honored that we took the time to be with her.

Friday Josiah was invited to an art show. One of his best friends has been taking art classes one day each afternoon. The class is at the end of the semester and they have an art expo at a coffee shop downtown. He was excited to go, as was I. It was suppose to start at 5:30 and Josiah was really stressed because at about that time we were still stuck in construction somewhere between our house and downtown. It took a long time to get there and the directions I was given to get there seemed to take me to a part of town that I had never been too. When we were just a few blocks from where I knew we needed to be I saw that I was only a block from the downtown cathedral!! This is a place I know very well (not the cathedral but the area). I couldn't believe I had taken all these back roads when I could have taken a major road way faster. Oh well, live and learn. So we get to the coffee shop about 10 minutes late and find out that only two families from the class had gotten there ahead of us. An hour after I arrived the art teacher showed up. Half an hour later the entertainment showed up. The entertainment was great. It was a band (3 musicians). They used all kinds of kitchen utensils, rubber animals, swimming gogles, etc for their music. Of course they also played real insturments - trumpet, cello, and accordion. I don't know that I would say they were the best musicians I have ever heard (of course not as good as my brother-in-law Trey). I would most definately say that they were the most entertaining musicians I have seen.

Saturday was another great day. We had our regular little league game (we won for those of you keeping tabs). After the game we had a get together for all the families in little league. There are around 50 kids! I don't know how many people there were in total but there was a great turnout and we had a blast. There are a few families that we are really trying to spend time with and get into their lives. After lunch the kids all received a watergun and had a great time having a waterfight. While they were doing that we had a parents baseball game. It was a blast.

Today I was cooking lunch and Hannah fell off of a chair while sitting at the bar. Immediately her head swole up. It was so swollen that her eye was partially shut. My next door neighbor is a surgeon so I ran to his house and had him look at it. He was amazed at how big it was. She screamed for a good half hour. Luckily she allowed me to put a cold pack on it right away so the swelling went down a lot. Now she is left with a nasty bruise.

It didn't hurt quite as much after a glass of coke!

Tooth Fairy vs Raton Follow up

Well, while I was in Tulsa Josiah lost his first tooth. I just wanted to let you know that it was the tooth fairy that came to our house and not the Raton! Because it was the first tooth she brought $5! Just recently she did her math and realized that in total the Burns children will loose 60 teeth. She is only going to be giving $1 for every other tooth lost.

Parties, Parties, and more Parties

So, I haven't blogged in a while. I actually went to the United States for a week. I saved up my Christmas and Birthday money and treated myself to a trip to the states, I only took Hannah with me (since she is under 2 and doesn't have to pay for a ticket). It was my first time to really leave the other two big kids for more than one or two nights. We all did well.

I went to Tulsa (Broken Arrow) to see my twin sister and her family. Ok, the truth is I mainly went to see my only neice Elizabeth. She turned two last week (12th - the same day that Abigail and my grandmother have Birthdays). I went to Tulsa the week before her Birthday and my sister was kind enough to bump the party up a week so we could be there. We had a great time visiting them and had a blast at the Strawberry shortcake party. My sister Monica and my grandmother were also able to join us for a few days which made it extra special.

Elizabeth blowing out her candles on her delicious Strawberry shortcake.

The girls had a great time together. This was the first time they really got to spend time together since they have been able to talk and interact. It was really fun to watch them play with eachother. I just kept thinking about my mom and how she had two of us at the same time!

I got home on the 10th and started thinking about Abigails Birthday party. We decided to hold it off a week since I wasn't going to have time to get everything ready. On Saturday, her actual Birthday, we decided to go to Peter Pipper Pizza after Josiahs baseball game (they lost for the first time this year!). We dediced to call some friends to go with us. As soon as we arrived Abigail saw some tables that were decorated for someones Birthday party. She ran over to the table and was so excited that they had decorated for her party. She was so happy. Kim talked to the lady decorating tables and found out that for $1 a child they would decorate the table for us. So I ran and payed my $6 and got the table decorated. While eating I overheard Abigail tell Karsyn that she needed to eat all of her pizza or else she wouldn't get any cake. Cake! Luckily there is a grocery store connected to the pizza place so I ran and got a cake, forks, matches, and candles. In the end she was thrilled about her party. If only I would have known I wouldn't have already invited guests to the real party.

Not the greatest picture but one of the best I got.

Thursday rolled around and I had double booked her school party and her real party. So in the morning we had a party at the school and in the afternoon we had a party at the house.

Here is Abigail standing infront of her classmates as they sing Happy Birthday to her.

The party at the house was a girls only party. We live in a housing addition where there are about 40 kids. No matter what they all end up coming to parties invited or not. I have had around 100 at a party before. Incase you are wondering my house isn't that big and my back yard is only about 30 feet x 5 feet. So, itsn't kinda crowded when there are that many. This time I made it an exclusively girls and their mothers/grandmothers only party. It was a lot of fun there were 7 girls in total and they all dressed up like princesses. We did about 4 crafts, made princess wands, crowns, etc. It was a lot of fun. Abigail is already talking about next years party.
Personally I am partied out for a while.

This is just seconds before her hair cought on fire. Luckily Kim was standing nearby.

This time we did the pinata inside of the house. We got a pinata that you don't hit! This kind has about 20 ribbons attached to the bottom of it. One of the ribbons is attached to the "door" which when opened releases all of the goodies. The kids take a turn and pick one ribbon to pull until the special ribbon is choosen. This year Hannah was the one who pulled the special ribbon and released all the candies.

Tulsa Workshop

This weekend is the Tulsa Workshop. I have so many memories of the workshop and have found myself thinking about it a lot this weekend. I have even had dreams about it. I figured since it is on my mind and since most of the people that read my blog are at the workshop I would write about it.
The first time I attended the workshop was the year my twin sister was an AIMer (1996). It was a little overwhelming for a small town girl. I had never in my life seen so many Christians. I remember one of the days at the workshop I was walking with my friend Felicia. I remember exactly where we were standing when she pointed to a guy and told me "hey he is going to be in your AIM class". I remember we said hi to him and I told him that I was also going to be in AIM that fall. We talked for 30 seconds and then parted ways.
The next year I found myself back at the workshop but now dating the guy that I had briefly spoken to the prior year. I remember we went for a walk in a "park" right next to the main pavilion. While on the walk he told me that he loved me! This was a big deal because a few months earlier I had heard him tell one of his best friends that he had never and would never say he loved a girl until he was 100% sure he was going to marry her. We missed the next year since I was in Slovakia and he was in Russia. But in 1999 we found ourselves back at the workshop. After listening to Terry Rush speak Cory asked me if I wanted to go for a walk. We found ourselves back at the same exact spot where two years earlier he had told me he loved me. Next thing I know there is a ring on my finger and I am engaged. We went right back to listen to the next speaker (Jim McGuiggan). I don't think I heard a word that he said! I know Cory didn't because he fell asleep during the class and Jim called him on it infront of thousands of people! I guess he hadn't been sleeping very well and felt such relief that he had asked me and I had said yes that he fell asleep. Don't think he will do that again!
A few years later we found ourselves at the workshop and pregnant! My how time flew. Three kids later here we are in a different country. We would love to be at the workshop. Maybe we will make it next year to celebrate 10 years since we got engaged! Who knows. There are many people we would love to see, speakers we would love to hear. We would love to see the AIMers flag presentation and most of all would love to be at AIMapaloza. Hope you all had a great time. Can't wait to hear about it.

Tooth Fairy VS El Raton (the mouse)

VS

Josiah got his teeth pretty late in life. His first tooth cut through right after he turned one. From the moment that he found out about loosing teeth he wanted to loose a tooth. He had his first dentist visit when he was almost 3. He asked Dr Epperson when he would start loosing his teeth. Dr Epperson was great about explaining that it wouldn't be for a long time especially since his teeth didn't come in until late. I am pretty sure that by the time we got to the car he was back to asking "when will my teeth fall out?" He is always telling me that he has a loose tooth. I usually feel and then inform him that it is not loose yet. Today as we were walking out of the movies he had his finger in his mouth. I asked what he was doing and he said playing with his loose tooth. So, I felt and it was moving!! The time has finally arrived - lets just hope it doesn't take weeks for it to actually fall out.

Tonight when I was putting him to bed he was explaining exactly what he is going to do when the tooth falls out. His plan is to put the tooth under his pillow and then in the night time the mouse will come get the tooth and leave him money. Yes, in Mexico it is not the tooth fairy that comes but a mouse! When you live in a foreign country you learn a lot about our customs. I always assumed that the tooth fairy was universal but she isn't. In Asian countries you throw the tooth on the roof (if it was an upper tooth) and bury it under the house (if it was a lower tooth). For more interesting tooth customs here is a fun website.

http://www.toothfairys.net/aroundtheworld.htm

Back to Josiah and my converstation. I asked him how much money he though the mouse would leave. We finally agreed on 20 pesos (A little less than $2 but it is the smallest bill). He quickly decided that he would rather have the tooth fairy come because she could give him dollars and he could buy a skateboard in the states this summer! Pretty smart to know that Pesos are for here and Dollars for the States. He then asked me how many dollars would the toothfairy leave. I quickly looked at Cory, he thought $1 was good, I told him that she wasn't that cheap. I then commented that she will probably just have to leave the smallest bill she has because there aren't many dollars in her house only pesos. I better start digging around the house for some small bills. Its kinda fun that Josiah gets to be a part of two cultures. The Easter bunny doesn't come to Mexico but he makes a special stop at our house! Another advantage is that here there is a Kids day - you know like Mothers day, Fathers day - why not Kids Day.

So I am curious how much does the tooth fairy leave at your house? I would love to hear about it.