One thing that I have LOVED about living here is meeting so many amazing people that I wouldn't have had the chance anywhere else. I have friends from all over the world! How cool is that? We love learning about their cultures and beliefs and ah, the food!! I love when they cook for us. Bennett has a dear friend that lives upstairs and she is from India and everyday Bennett begs me to let him go outside to play with her. We love this family! I have learned so much about their culture and it is eye opening. Tabassum (my friend and the mom) has taught me about the religion of Hindi (she is a convert) and not playing outside during the sunset because of the mahasib belief. Her food is to DIE for and she is the sweetest person I have ever met. She tells me that living in America is life changing not only because of the culture, but in India she has help that she doesn't get here like a nanny, cook, maid, and chauffeur. No wonder Americans who live outside of the country don't want to come back...no more pampered ex-pat packages.

Here are Ila and Bennett (the prince and princess) and again as superheros. Good thing they are here to save the day!!

I just love this man...

I was searching through our photos and found some photos of Jesse and I together, but one stood out to me. While I was looking at it, I just couldn't help but think, "Man, I LOVE this man!!" And I honestly do. I love you sweetheart.

Update

Okay, we have had some CRAZY fun adventures and I am sorry that I am not sharing them all with you!! I haven't been for two reasons, one I don't have access to a computer with our photos until Jesse comes home, which doesn't leave a lot of time and two, it takes FOREVER to upload photos...like a game of canasta long. Anyway, I am hoping to keep going with informing you of our AWESOME adventures here in Mexico, but it will take me a while. I do take at least one photo a day for my journal, not that you need to know THAT much about us, but I am keeping record (hopefully nothing happens to J's computer or I would just bawl) and will do highlights as they come.

I started this blog for one main reason and that is for our wonderful sister Shanna who asked me to! So here they are Shanna, I am going out of this world with clean conscious, well at least in this regard...anyway, we love you Shanna and it is just a perk that the rest of our friends and family can read our adventures!! So thank Shanna for our poop stories (which we haven't written even half of them) and our other crazy adventures.

Sunday June 19th Father's Day

A happy day indeed! We were able to go visit a family from Jesse's mission and it was a real treat. Lydia Trujillo is an AMAZING woman, you just know it by looking at her, she just has that look and glow to her! Amazing. I told her son what a treat it was to meet Lydia and he said his mom is great because she is his mom, but is also an amazing woman. Huge compliment! We couldn't speak to each other, but I really felt her warmth and it was a real treat for me because I finally got to meet the woman Jesse has been telling me about for years. They all were so warm and kind. She is going to teach me to make chili's enogados (stuffed chili peppers with fruit and chicken). Here is our trip...it really made for a special Father's day to see her and her family again. We had group shots, but we used their camera.

Not a clear shot, it wasn't the one I wanted to upload, but it is late and Jesse says it is time for bed! So we get what we get and we don't throw a fit.

Monday June 20th Gas Stations

Fun Fact about Mexico...the gas stations. Similar to New Jersey someone else has to fill up your car for you. You pay and you leave...but here is what happened today, I paid with a card...the gas man (I don't know what else to call him) runs to the office window, attaches my card to a string and then threw rocks until he got the attention of the office worker. The officer worker pulled the string up with my card, charges it, lowers the rope with card attached and the gas man runs the card back to me...FUNNY to watch, even though it is a little sketchy. I have it on video, but it is filmed sideways and not pleasant to watch unless you can rotate your computer...I'm working on it!!

Tuesday June 21 B and Q

Bennett's favorite lately...piggy backsQuinn's favorite...
When she wakes up from her nap, she points at her jacket and we put it on her and she wears it until it conflicts with crawling.

Tuesday June 21st We have another walker

We just spoke with our parents on Father's Day telling them that Quinn still refused to walk on the tile. She would walk on carpet and even grass, but not the tile. Sure she would take a few steps-less than 10 (which really isn't that many with how far we know she could walk)...But today was a magical day. Maybe it was the awesome dinner she refused to eat or Bennett attacking her on the bed, but she felt like she needed to be able to walk (maybe get away?!?) and walked...get this....25 steps on the TILE!! Wahoo! She was a walking queen tonight. She walked in between Mom and Dad, walked away from objects to one of us and would just walk.

SuperMom moment: Jesse and I love this photo because she is EXTREMELY mad...she would sign for crackers and we kept telling her (Jesse wants me to clarify...I kept telling her) that we had crackers and she needed to walk to the other parent to get one (needless to say when Daddy didn't really have a cracker, she got mad). Don't worry, she got a large stack right after this!! (Actually the first photo was taken after the mad photo when we told her she could have crackers, not such a bad mom after all :)).

Saturday June 11th Spanish day

Our water bottles have been breaking left and right and we are down to one. So the kids have had to share, and honestly they are doing great with that! We count to five and then it is the others turn to drink. It keeps them happy and Quinn likes to pretend that she is counting with her fingers like Mommy. Well because we are trying to teach them some Spanish, we started to count IN Spanish (amazing concept I know). Then out of the blue, I hand Quinn the water bottle and Bennett starts counting in Spanish like it is no big deal and then says “my turn.” Sheesh, Jesse and I were a little shocked, where in the world did he know that (Jesse hasn’t heard that I had been saying Spanish to them). I almost forgot to give him the water until Bennett says even louder “my turn.”

And then Quinn pushes the luggage over and Bennett says “Oh Quinn, no gracias”

Well now is my turn to toot my horn…I go shopping by myself (thank you, thank you) and it is at established businesses because, one I fear getting sick and two, I don’t speak Spanish, AT ALL! Plus most tiendas and vendures frown on strollers and it is so much easier to shop at the Bodega or Walmart. Yes I am killing the cultural experience, but we love going to the zocalo (the city center) and look. The zocalo is like a farmers market meets county fair in Mexico. It is quite a sight to see (photos later). Well all by myself I bought two pots, all in Spanish, thank you thank you! Granted all I asked was the price, told her which two, paid her and said see ya later! It isn’t much, but I felt like my training wheels were taken off, Wahoo!

Yoga June 9th

I have LOVED my yoga class. I asked Jesse to take some photos of our class, so while chasing the kids, taking photos inconspicuously (so he didn't appear like a stalker) he got very distant shots. You can't even see my head, but you can see my legs!! It is so much fun to do! Thanks Jesse for going in to work late so I can do this!My friend Gloria from Spain, she is one of the few who can speak any English and has taken me under her wing when I don't know what the teacher is saying!! She is getting her PHD in Astronomy and is studying how long the sun will last! She is great!


Isn't this place so BEAUTIFUL!! I love doing yoga out here!

Thursday June 9th Parks

Parks here aren’t that different than the ones in the states, but most parks are either on church property or across the street from them. They try to plant grass and there is the illusion of grass, but it is a few stray strands here and there mixed with the dirt and some parks, garbage. In all honesty they do try to maintain their parks, but I still don’t feel comfortable with Quinn just playing like she would back home. Bennett yearns for a playmate, but alas, none to be found. Everyone has to work here to make ends meet. Did you know that minimum wage here is 55 pesos or about 5 bucks?!? Oh and that’s a day. Everyone needs to work and that means the kids need to be in daycare. Bummer. Here are some fun photos!I love the graffiti! It really is everywhere...boo

June 10th Failure

Jesse signed us up for dessert for a party that was going to be tomorrow, and I didn't want to BUY anything, lame, but we don't have an oven, also lame, so my choices were limited. I watched a few how to videos and was determined that I could make doughnuts...didn't look too hard.

Wrong...well they aren't hard, but my turned out AWFUL!! I am determined to find the best recipe EVER, but this recipe I picked up was not it. Here is my failure.

Don"t they look awful? yuck. Just in case you were wondering, I made no bake cookies which were a hit!

June 10th Scruffy's Hair Cut

Not that it is a big deal to anyone, but us...

A few weeks ago we took Scruffy to the groomers and they cut her hair to look like a Scottie dog, blah. I have never liked skirts on dogs, so today Jesse whacked it off! So. much. better. I don’t have a before photo, and I barely have an after photo, she can barely hold still unless she is sleeping.

June 13 Slug Bugs

I am now listening to Marachi band practice that happens about 9:30 every night...it is so fun to listen to! All I need is a hat...

Okay back to the Slug Bugs: They are everywhere. Volkswagon has a manufacturing plant here in Puebla and one out of three cars are good old volkswagons (I just made that stat up, but it sure feels like it). And out of that deeply research statistic...more than half are bugs! Not the new ones (although they have many of those) but the old school kind. So for your pleasure, the rainbow in bugs. May I just mention that Mexicans LOVE color (there are many purple, pink, yellow, blue houses and stores...more on that later). All I am missing is that illusive lime green bug (seen it, but no picture). Just thinking about these cars makes my arms hurt...

Happiness

Things that make me happy:My Red ShoesQuinn's adorable red toes (the secret is to paint everything: well try to focus on the toe nail, but don't worry about getting skin, just paint until the toe nail is completely painted. Let dry, and here's the secret...stick them in the tub or in our case the shower...when you towel them off, rub their toes and the paint comes off of their skin easy peesy).

Put them together and it is complete happiness...isn't it great that simple things can make you so Happy?!?

TMI Be Forewarned!!

LIME GREEN POOP! That is what I am dealing with today. Don’t worry, no pictures for this entry, tempting because this was a marvel to behold, but I refrained. This is very detailed and personal, so be forewarned. Poop is a huge part of our lives, more than I ever thought it was possible. Without getting too detailed, I think people in Mexico poop a lot! And Alicia, I don’t think it is because they are really healthy. And do you know that they believe flushing toilet paper down the toilet will clog the system so they don't flush their TP?!? I'll let your imagination run wild with that one. Anyway,

I am not exaggerating when I say we run (like we are about to win the gold and put our whole hearts into this) to the bathroom when Bennett says he has to poop. We either get there super fast or clean up a poopy mess…I honestly don’t know what it is about Mexico, maybe the air we breathe, but Bennett doesn’t eat “Mexican food” or anything out of routine. And Bennett is so good about pooping in the toilet, that really this is a big deal when he poops his pants.

I had a poop day on Monday (Quinn has always been a great pooper, but now that we are in Mexico, she is a poop MACHINE), Bennett accidently locked himself in our room while I was making dinner and pooped his pants and I am constantly picking up Scruffy’s poop (outside, but still poop is poop), just a poopy day.

Just a side note: Quinn really poops a lot, so much in fact that I asked our doctor about it (because Jesse and I were shocked that so much can come out of such a little being) and the doctor said it was normal-I don’t know how that is normal, but she is growing and healthy so we trusted him. So, now she poops even MORE and we are over run with poopy diapers. We have had to resort to sticking them in little plastic baggies to seal the smell in…we can’t leave them outside or the dogs will get them and that is even more of a poopy mess. Anyway, just a fun fact of our lives…back to our story:

Well today was no different. Bennett found that he couldn’t make it to the bathroom on time and was trying to tell me he pooped, but I was distracted with our company (yes leave it to me to have company when something like this happens) and I saw this lime green bouncy ball on the floor. “Weird,” I thought because we don’t have any lime green bouncy balls, maybe it was our friend Santiago’s who was over. But then I noticed the smell and it finally clicked what Bennett had been trying to tell me…MAN, we just sat down to dinner.

Super Mom of the year award: I made Bennett wait until after prayers to take him upstairs…Unbelievable, I know. Line up if you want any parenting advice from me because I feel I am going to do great things!!

As you may have guessed, my bouncy ball was poop and I am NOT kidding when I say it was LIME green. We haven't even eat anything that color (ever). I mean it was so bright, like one of their quinsenera (I spell that different every time I write it) dresses bright. Poor kid.

I can honestly say that I fear two things in Mexico, accidently pooping my pants and hitting someone on their bike and or dog. Both I feel are inevitable. Thank goodness for Oxy Clean.

Well I guess I can say, everyone poops, but can you poop lime green?!? Maybe that should be on the tourist guide: Why yes I want to experience lime green poop, let’s go to Mexico!!

June 8th

After much sign language and speaking slowly, the Relief Society president asked me to feed the missionaries (it is really quite sweet how patient the sisters in our ward are with me in trying to help me understand and try to include me)...and the missionaries came on Tuesday.

Something I didn't know was how late Mexican's eat here (not all, but many). They eat lunch about 2-3 and dinner about 8. I understood from the sister's that they were coming at 3, but I misunderstood our crazy spanglish/sign language we were trying to do and they came at two...no big deal.

It was our lucky day because the Elder's were on splits today and I got two American Elders: Elder Dunn and Elder Good. I guess when Elder Dunn told Elder Good he was eating with an American family today he got really excited!

We ate yummy Hawaiian Haystacks and Elder Good and I were both shocked when Elder Dunn said he had never had Hawaiian Haystacks? WHAT? You're an American Mormon?!?

They commented on how different it was to speak and teach in English. I think it was fun for everyone to have them come.

Bennett LOVED playing with them, and when I called them into lunch, they were sword fighting. Bennett would shout, "Yes, I made it to the next level" when he got the missionary...so funny.

June 9th

Bennett was downstairs playing, Quinn was in her room, and I was cleaning in my room. I could hear Bennett and I just left Quinn, but it got a little too quiet in Quinn’s room…being the over-paranoid mother that I am…I rushed in her room only to scare the pants off of her…she was…

Reading her books quietly by herself, how cute is that! She LOVES her books. Guess what she’s getting for Christmas?!?!

Dianna and Family Come to Dinner

My dear sweet friend, Dianna, brought her family over to eat an American dinner. We had Lemon (we used limes because of the abundance they have here in Mexico) pasta, a green salad, and bread. For dessert chocolate cake with a raspberry layer and fudge frosting!! YUM.

Okay, so I don't have an oven and yes I baked a cake, I tried to use a friend's oven this morning, but they couldn't get it to work. Dianna had left her electric skillet and so I thought, why not...I turned that baby on and baked myself a fine cake :) after I scrapped off the burnt bottom...extra fudge and no one noticed!!

I've got to get me one of those!!See how pretty?Not so pretty. Bennett thought it was a riot to help cut the cake :)So for the look of the cake, not so pretty, but it tasted YUMMY! And that's all that matters anyway, right?

So I have been postponing this post for a while, but Jesse says it must go up so we can remember! I don't know if I am just embarrassed that it happened to us or shocked, anyway here we go...

Mexico has been awesome and for every new place, there are things to get used to. Cleaning is a little different here (we squeegee instead of mop our floors or the fact that I scrub each individual piece of clothing instead of letting a machine do it for me) and the food, the language, etc.

Well the kids and I had just dropped Dad off at school/work and Quinn was acting REALLY tired. She just wanted to be held and rocked...it was only 9 am (she usually naps around 11), but man she was tired and fell asleep in my arms.

I started our normal Tuesday ritual of soaking our clothes then started to "squeegee" our floor. When I got to the laundry Bennett was running this way and that and I told him he either had to stay outside with me or go upstairs until the floor dried. He choose to stay with me.

I got through all of the clothes but about 4 items which were soaking inside. I threw the clothes in our scrub sink and all I heard was a CRASH. All I could do was cringe. I knew it was the door. Bennett was being so helpful and shut the door for mommy! "NOOOOOO" was all I could say! Then I just laughed and thought, no way! This cannot be happening. Bennett had no idea what happened or why mommy was acting funny until I explained, "Bennett we are now locked outside." It was now about 9:30-10 o'clock.

Funny thing about the doors in Mexico is that most don't have handles, the ones that do would be doors like the bathroom door or the bedroom door, but never gates/garages and outside doors. So THEY LOCK AUTOMATICALLY WHEN CLOSED!! WHAT ?!?! And the only way to get in: to have the keys (which I didn't) and for someone to open the latch on the inside. Plus, it was so early that I hadn't opened our windows yet so the two windows facing what I like to call "the square" were locked!

HOLY COW?!? What could I do?!? So, I finished the remaining laundry and looked about our prison. All I had were wet clothes, a clothes line, a bottle cap, broom, dust pan, and a squeegee. What would MacGyver do?

More about our prison...it is literally an enclosed cement square (with no ceiling) with two laundry lines, our gas tanks, and a scrub sink. The shortest wall is just under 10 feet (I measured), the wall parallel to our apartment is about 12 feet with broken shards of glass cemented in it (to keep people from getting in...or out) and the next wall is about 14 feet. I noticed that our front window was open, if I could just scale over the wall, drop down into the backyard and we would be alright. I climbed on our scrub sink and climbed the wall. But it was in vain! I don't know what I was thinking but we have an apartment right next to ours and their scrub sink was on the same wall as ours...and there was no way I could climb the outer wall without a little boost.

We were stuck until someone let us back in. I'll spare you all of the details, but we tried to find things to do...scrubbed our prison, played in the water, killed some bugs, watch the sun pass us (when we started there wasn't any shade, when we left...all shade), sang songs, marched in the square. We drew letters and animals on the cement with water. We were blessed with water to keep cool, but it isn't drinkable.

Bennett was such a trooper the whole time. I tried to explain (without blaming) our situation and he played as much as he could. He never napped, but would lie on me and ask him to hold him over and over again. I hadn't snuggled this much with him since he was a newborn.

Bennett would say the funniest things like "I'm sorry someone closed the door and you forgot to open a window" or when we thought our landlord was there he would shout "Victor come help me before our Cheerios get soggy" and "Victor your mommy says to come here right now and open this door." He would holler for Jesse and ask him to open the door or just shout his name. He would say to me "Mom let's go inside and play the iPad" or "let's go inside and eat."

I think around 4 he got really hungry (no way to know the time there...I felt like the man in that time sensitive study in the movie IQ where he is shouting and acting crazy because he didn't know the time), but he never whined or cried, he really had high spirits. When I would try to rest and put my head down, he would say "don't be sad" or would ask me what was wrong and I would tell him I was bored and he would look and me with a confused face and ask "Why?" I would laugh and say "it's because I am stuck in a cement box and have been for hours."

Bennett thought it was so cool to go potty outside...

Then the church bells rang...like they do every day and we shouted for JOY!! Daddy would be home in about 45 minutes! HOORAY! We marched around for a long while shouting for joy. When we heard outdoor open, it was like Christmas morning. I told Bennett that Daddy was home and he says "let's hide." Right, because that is what I want to do, spend more time in "the square" until he finds us...but we compromised and hid and jumped out at daddy when he walked through the door! It is always great when daddy comes home, but for some reason, today it was even better :)

Dad opened the door and had the NERVE to be laughing and said "I hope you weren't out there for too long." It was now 6 o'clock. Bennett ran past dad to the food asking, can I have this, can I have that...I told him he could have anything he wanted. I too ran past Dad because there is something missing from this experience...Quinn.

I rushed upstairs to my little girl (who had been crying) and just held her. Poor girl, she was stuck in her own prison all day. We were blessed though, she slept a long time (the day before and after she took three hour naps each). She was so happy to see us! She was all smiles when we held her and VERY thirsty, but a happy girl despite her imprisonment. And another blessing was that her diaper was barely damp (she averages three poopy diapers a DAY)! I didn't let her out of my sight all night and just held her. My sweetheart.

So we were in "the square" for over 7 hours. Jesse decided that we deserved a treat (and if it involved cookies and ice cream I was in) and took us to MacDonald's to eat and let the kids run a muck. We DEVOURED our food and it turned out to be an awesome night.

I did learn somethings: cement is never comfortable, my kids are TROOPERS and that I would HATE prison.

I do feel that we were blest even in this situation: Quinn was safe and had a comfortable place to sleep (and she wasn't stuck outside in the sun), and didn't have a poopy diaper, that Bennett was so optimistic the whole time, he would tell me "I love you SOOO much" over and over again. Another blessing was that I had been sick the previous days from food poisoning and I didn't feel sick until the following day. We weren't in want of water or food until the end and really (I know this sounds strange but) it could have been worse.

I did worry about Quinn not wanting to go to bed that night and I wouldn't blame her if she didn't want to, but SUPER Bennett stayed and went to bed too so she wasn't alone and really she was just fine. I waited outside their door to see if I needed to rush in there to "save" her, but she fussed once and I heard her amazing brother immediately say, "It's okay, It's okay. I'm here." I know it's cheesy, but it really doesn't get better than that!!