Adventures and Non-adventures of an Accountant

Kitchen Table Makeover

2012-01-26T11:00:00.000-05:00

TA DA!

Before:

After:

I drew the lines on the table but this time I just paid someone to paint it for me. (Labor is very affordable here, afterall.) The guy we hired used auto paint on the table. He finishes it with soft cotton to get a really smooth finish.

It was a learning process. Turns out that they don't have machines here to mix your paint color, at least they aren't as common as they are in the US. Some guys actually mixes the paint by hand so the color isn't every going to be exact. (And good luck trying to get the exact color again. I hope you bought enough the first time!)

Case in point--I used the same shade of white for my guest bedroom set and the white on the kitchen table and they are not identical. (And that excludes that the table is in a glossy finish and the bedroom set is in a matte finish.)

Also a funny side note about paint here, is that there aren't tons of different whites. Many paint stores don't ever have white paint chips. You can buy the can of white paint which is untinted but many places won't mix a shade of white.

We started with a VERY light grey and then went the next shade darker, but it turned out more like two shades darker. C'est la vie. I still like it. Now to do something about that wall behind the mirror...

More Owies

2012-01-19T22:00:00.001-05:00

The Sidekick has had a few more bad owies. Including this one (photo taken a couple of days later.) He tripped over J's foot and hit his eye on his little chair. He did this over a month ago and still has a red scar from it. I tried to put scar cream on it but I think he's going to have it for the rest of his life now. Hopefully his eyebrow will cover it up.

While I was in the kitchen cooking dinner a few weeks ago I heard a thud followed by crying. Evidently the Sidekick climbed on the back of the couch and fell off onto the hardwood floor. He had the biggest goose egg I've ever seen. It scared me how quickly it swelled up! I tried to hold him down to ice his goose egg but he fought me and screamed. Aye, yay, aye. Swelling went down the following day. Can't find the photo from the second day after the accident but here's one from several days later where you can see the bruise it left.

Breakfast

2012-01-15T00:07:00.000-05:00

The Sidekick likes to make his own toast. He prefers a 2:1 butter to bread ratio. (At least he's not as bad as my nieces who at his age were found in their room eating spoonfuls of it out of the tub. Ha!)

New Apartment: Kitchen

2012-01-11T23:56:00.003-05:00

Our new apartment has a great big kitchen. It's wonderful to fit all of my kitchen items IN the kitchen.

One downer is that the stone countertops are not sealed. At least, I assume they are not sealed because they stain very easily. (Same in the last apartment. What's up with that?) Not a fan of high maintenance kitchens. The floors are a light-colored, textured, lined-patterned, ceramic tile. Very pretty but it shows a lot of dirt, which in Mexico city is completely unavoidable.

See the window in the first window pane on the left? Those are slatted window panes. The window doesn't close perfectly so right now during winter the kitchen is VERY cold in the mornings. (It's been in the 40s and 50s outside in the morings and it's rare for apartments here to have heating or air conditioning and our place is no exception.)

(The cabinet above on the far right is ours and not the apartment's but it fits perfectly in this space and matches the cabinets!)

The final view of the kitchen. That table will be getting a makeover in the next two weeks so come back to see the new look!

Every Child an Artist...

2012-01-04T10:33:00.000-05:00

I have to send my laptop back to the US for fixing. So I won't be posting as often. I am reliant upon J. bringing his laptop home from work at night and by that time, I am generally not in the mood to post.

The Sidekick is fickle when it comes to creating art. (Just like a true artist?) Sometimes he'll sit down and paint for a long time and other times he paints a few strokes and is done. I guess you can't force creativity, eh?

The artist at work at full concentration (painting Christmas ornaments and his printer paper canvases.)

Happy Holidays

2011-12-26T11:47:00.001-05:00

This month has flown by, which I blame on moving. It's been a busy time. We're settled in our new place now. A. is adjusting to the new place but for a while he kept asking to "go home."

This month we celebrated Christmas lots. We:
-Played with his Nativity lots and recounted the story of baby Jesus
-Decorated a gingerbread house
-Painted some ornaments
-Sang lots of carols
-Watched lots of Christmas movies
-Decorated the tree a few times. (A. liked to find more ornaments to add to it.)

A. loved seeing big Christmas trees at stores and malls. It was cute to see him excited. However, when we went to one mall that was making snow that was falling from the roof, he got scared. I don't think he liked all the excited kids. Their squeals made him nervous.

Wishing everyone a very wonderful Holiday season.

Happy Autumn

2011-11-12T14:17:00.001-05:00

Happy fall everyone. We made some caramel apples this week with friends to celebrate the season. I brought a can of pumpkin back from the US and look forward to pumpkin bread too. (A big can of pumpkin pie filling is going for $8-$9 US here at one of the stores where sometimes I buy imported goods. I haven't found plain canned pumpkin here.)

I finally finished my autumn wreath--it only took me two months. (Styrofoam wreaths are not found as easily here as in the US either.) I tried using pipe insulator, duct-taped into a circle, as my wreath base but it wasn't strong enough. Don't believe those photos on Pinterest.

I'll get a little use out of my wreath before the Christmas decorations get busted out this year. I'm already listening to Christmas music, so bring on the season.

If you are interested in the tutorial, here's the idea. I didn't want mine so tight, so I used bigger circles (I traced cds for my circles) and tried to not pin them so tightly together.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-30T23:16:00.001-04:00

We had our church Halloween party yesterday. The Sidekick dressed up as Sheriff Woody. (He LOVES Toy Story. I have three different videos loaded on the Ipod for him but he chooses to watch Toy Story 2 over and over on it. He also jumps from the ottoman to the couch and says, "To Infinity and Beyond")

Even with his love for Toy Story, he wasn't big on wearing this simple costume and didn't want to dress like Woody, until I told him if he did, he'd get candy. Oh Bribery--the great motivator. He picked up on the whole trick-or-treating thing pretty quickly. It was fun to watch.

I've been asking around and it doesn't seem that people here trick or treat (it is an American holiday after all) nor does it seem like they have a big celebration for day of the dead. I'd love to join in local festivities for it. I have a couple more days to figure that out.

PS - It's the day after the party, and he's seem to forgotten what happened yesterday. Guess I will be levying the parent tax on his candy and helping him eat some of it. Don't worry, I'll save some for him. ;-)

More Public Transportation

2011-10-28T19:07:00.000-04:00

This is an example of public transportation ("bus") in Taxco. Notice the van is missing one door. You just hop in and out at your stop.

Here in Mexico City, they have a guy that rides on the steps into the bus (with the door open) and he hops on and off at every stop announcing where the bus is going. Also, the buses here are green and are crazy drivers...just like everyone else I guess.

Ready, Set, Go

2011-10-25T04:00:00.000-04:00

Lentos

2011-10-22T04:00:00.000-04:00

One thing that's funny about the Sidekick is he likes to wear sunglasses and he insists that he put them on himself. He also ALWAYS puts them on upside down and refuses help to turn them around.

Football

2011-10-19T06:37:00.000-04:00

J. was watching BYU Football and the Sidekick was not to be left out on this day. (Although watching football never last for long before he starts begging to play games on the ipad.)

J is trying his best to convert A. the religion of BYU football. A will get excited and cheer, but it's no competition against Angry Birds.

One thing I love, is if A. sees any teams playing football on tv he says "Go BYU!"

Old Wives' Tale

2011-10-15T18:21:00.000-04:00

I was cooking the other day and checked one pot handle--it was cool so I grabbed the other one. That was a mistake. The other handle, which was in the corner of two tiled walls, burned my fingers and the palm of my hand. OOOO, it immediately started hurting.

I remembered one of those email forwards saying that you should put whipped egg whites on a burn. So I tried it. I quickly grabbed an egg and separated the yolk and the white and stuck my hand in the whites before even beating it. I left them in there a few minutes then beat the whites and stuck my fingers backed in. It took a few minutes but the burning sensation stopped.

My finger tips were still very tender to the touch. I let the egg whites dry on my hand and then I stuck my fingers back in the egg whites off and on for an hour or so.

Here's a photo of my fingertips a few hours after the incident. You can see where my middle finger started to blister. But the blister never formed. The dried egg white was tight on my skin--so I don't know if that is what prevented the blister from forming or what.

I looked it up on the Internet on various sites and I read that egg whites are not the appropriate treatment for burns and its just an old wives' tale. BUT I'm telling you it WORKED!! My hand healed so quickly. It is probably only good for certain types of burns but I'm going to continue to use it. I've burned myself 3 times in the kitchen in the last couple months and I've done it twice. The two times I did it, my hand was healed very quickly, no blisters (they were immediately starting to form) and the pain went away relatively quickly.

So next time you get burned, instead of reaching for the ice, try egg whites and let me know what you think.

Clean Up, Clean Up, Everybody Do Your Share

2011-10-09T23:10:00.003-04:00

Sometimes when kids are too quiet kids are getting into trouble. Mine is...well, see for yourself...

The other day he was such, a little too quiet, so I went looking for him and found him:

...Cleaning my bathroom (sans cleaning supplies luckily)! Man, I hlove this kid.

I do try to keep the cleaning supplies out of reach. Although one day I was especially tired, and he wasn't going to nap so I lied down and let him watch tv so I could nap a little. I woke up and he was "cleaning" the living room. He had used a 1/3 bottle of windex all over--floors, windows, leather couches, you name it.

The other day when I was doing just a quick clean of the toilets (wiping things down with clorox wipes in between deep cleans) he started to have a melt down because I didn't want him to use the toilet brush. Then I gave in. Let the kid clean toilets already...supervised that is.

Vintage Nautical

2011-09-30T16:38:00.000-04:00

Last year after my Grandma passed away, her non-big-ticket things were set out for the Grandkids to go through and if there was anything we wanted, we could take it. One thing I took was an old (60s? 80s?) nautical bag. It was falling apart, but cute.

So, I took it to a cobbler (someone who fixes shoes), asked if they could fix it, and they did! They replaced the top part with the zipper and the entire strap part. The old material was like vinyl or something and they replaced it with leather. For a total of 300 pesos (~ $25US.) Granted, if I were in the US, I could buy a new bag for that much but it's so fun and a reminder of my Grandma.

Taxco 2

2011-09-20T20:04:00.000-04:00

This is where J. got a snack:

(Quesadilla)

Taxco

2011-09-18T19:59:00.003-04:00

We went to Taxco for the weekend and had a great time. The city is known for it's silver mines and jewelry. The streets were VERY narrow. Some "two way" streets were so narrow only one car could fit down at a time--see the picture with all the white VW bug taxis. It was so fun to get out and see another part of Mexico.

J. pointed out that no one asked him for money (although one person asked me--at least I think he was asking for money). People would be pretty aggressive trying to sell things to you but generally they didn't askit's a stark contrast from where we live where everyone asks you for money.

A funny story from this trip is one time we went out to eat at a restaurant. (Backtrack: for those of you who don't know, J. speaks Spanish and I don't but I'm trying to learn.) And J. asked for the check and asked if they accepted credit cards. And the waiter motioned to me and said something to the effect of "Didn't she tell you, we only accept cash." It made us laugh because there was no previous conversation with me and the waiter and I barely speak Spanish but oh, didn't I tell you they only they take cash? So funny.

Pure Joy

2011-09-14T09:08:00.003-04:00

We went to a small amusement park. The Sidekick met the mini-bumper cars and it was love at first site. Since school has started it was pretty empty there and so he rode it 5 times in a row. (The last time he was the only kid on it and he just drove around in circles and into the wall etc. And yet he STILL wanted to stay in it.)

He didn't want to stop except we were there with other people and his little friend was over it and more than ready to more on to a new ride.

This amusement park is decent except sometimes it reminds me of the place they send old rides to die. It's run differently than amusement parks in the US. For example,

1) They stamp the inside of your wrist as you enter the park. So what does a kid do when a stranger has been holding on to him? He immediately pulls his arm back into his body which wipes the colored stamp on his wrist across his shirt. (Not fun to get out of his shirt.)

This is why we mostly use wristbands in the US-- or at least stamp the back of people's hands not the inside of people's wrists.

2) No organized lines for the rides just a fence around the ride with a gate. So all the kids crowd around the gate anxious to get in. (Much nicer when there aren't many kids there but difficult when lots of people are there.)

3) Knock-off Disney character ride. Ah, yes, Mexico is the place for illegal copies of things. A. was excited to go in "Donald Duck" for a ride.

4) Still not sure if this place has it's own parking lot. (I've taxied there but haven't seen the parking lot if there is one.) I need to drive there, taking a taxi is a rip off.

Fun times. We hit the jackpot. We bought a kiddie pass a month ago and they gave us a free upgraded pass to use in the next month. So we went again and used our free passes and enjoyed the perfect weather.

Inspiration Skirt - Copy Attempt

2011-09-10T22:27:00.000-04:00

I really liked this skirt (top with the lace shirt) that I saw on pinterest. I found a rusty red herringbone material when I was in the US so I bought it and decided to make a skirt. Not as cute as the inspiration photo, but that's okay.

It turned out fine. It is heavy home decorating fabric, so its really thick (Maybe it looks a little 70's-ish because it's thick?). It also frays very badly. I zig-zagged the bottom before I hemmed it but I didn't zig zag any of the other seams, so we'll see how long it lasts. I didn't spend much on the fabric (less than $10--maybe $5 or $6?), so if it doesn't last long, I'm fine with that.

(I think I need another photo of J. here. His arm above is one of the only pictures I have of him recently here.)

Balance Bike

2011-09-07T13:42:00.000-04:00

Not the best filming, but you get the idea. The Sidekick has finally given in and agreed to wear his helmet. (We wouldn't let him ride his bike outside without it.) We get out once a week specifically so he can ride his bike at the park. Here's a short video of him on his balance bike. He's getting better. It's fun to see him growing.

Another Apron

2011-09-04T21:44:00.001-04:00

I fell in love with this fabric when I saw it. I made up my own pattern for this apron. I was going to make a tutorial on it, but then decided making the apron was enough work--let alone making a tutorial. I think most people can probably figure it out from looking at it, but if you want any of the dimensions or info, let me know.

Metro

2011-09-01T10:40:00.002-04:00

I rode the metro! All went well. I had the cleaning lady who works for us take me into the Zocalo. (It's the part of town with a lot of shopping and the historic district.) I don't know any of my American friends who take it, so I was a little hesitant but after talking to "our lady," I decided to try it out with her help--which was nice because I took The Sidekick and a stroller.

She helped me find what I was looking for at the Zocalo and it was fun to see a different part of the city.

It was cheap (3 pesos ~ 25 cents) and pretty easy. It was busy for the middle of the day but I guess that's what you expect in a big city. I don't think I'll be taking it during rush hour anytime soon.

One thing they do need here is automatic teller machines to buy tickets like they have in every other major city.

I've now taken the metro/subway in Paris, London, Rome, NYC, Boston, Washington DC, and Mexico City. Paris still remains my favorite. ;)

Pillows

2011-08-29T20:40:00.000-04:00

I have been constantly moving things around in this apartment, trying to make the best use of space, furniture, decor, etc.

Last weekend I moved around the rugs. I haven't used this rug in the living room in a long time. So I made a couple of pillows to go with the rug. (Still need to figure out what artwork and/or photographs I'm going to put above the couch. I don't like the mirror with the current room.) Here are the first two pillows. I haven't found great cotton fabric here, so each time I go back to the US I buy fabric to bring back. I didn't buy the yellow geometric fabric specifically for this room, but I thought it worked fine with the rug.

I think I'm going to play up the navy in the rug so I think I'm going to do another navy pillow. It's going to be like one of these...

Which do you like?

Buddies

2011-08-24T10:24:00.001-04:00

This is one of the Sidekick's friends. Aren't they cute together? The Sidekick is loving friends more as he gets older and will sometimes ask to to play with a friend. He's still working on the sharing-his-toys-part when they do come over to play. He has one friend that can be a little shy at first when they get together (clinging to his Mom's leg) and it's so cute that the Sidekick goes up to him and tries to ask him to come play and motions for him to follow.

Advice For My Little Addict?

2011-08-22T13:06:00.002-04:00

Since we've been in Mexico, the Sidekick has become a tv and video game addict. When we moved from the temporary housing unit to our apartment, I just never set up the wii so I wouldn't have to fight him over using it. (Although he recently found a controller and has been asking to play.) Then we got an ipad. Now he begs to use IT all the time. If it's not the ipad, then it's tv or a movie.

If I try to set a time limit or tell him (with warnings) that his time is up and it's time to turn off the ipad he freaks out and has a tempertantrum. I don't want him watching tv and playing video games very much. I do try to get out of the house often--like going to the playground--so he won't have that option. But that's only good for so much time.

I'm curious to know what has worked for you in limiting tv and video games. Advice?

Before & After: Bedroom Set

2011-08-20T00:05:00.000-04:00

We inherited a bedroom set from J's grandmother when we were first married. We had absolutely no furniture so we were very grateful for anything we were given. It is a double bed and when we eventually upgraded to a queen size, this bed became our guest bed. (I guess our guests got upgraded too--from an air mattress to a bed.)

Before (Yes we had all the drawers, but they weren't all in the dresser when I took this photo):

It was in perfect condition for decades and then we received it, moved a few times and the moves took a toll on the set. Since labor is less expensive here I hired someone to do the grunt work for me. I had it refinished in white. The guy who did it, refinished it in auto paint. He said it's supposed to be more durable than normal paint. He went over it with a cloth as he painted it and it has a nice smooth finish.

Before looking at the after, keep in mind, that the rooms is a work in progress and ideally the walls would be painted, and the bed would have a fluffy duvet, and the lighting for the photos would be MUCH better. But right now, it was this or nothing because I'm not getting around to taking better photos of this anytime soon. Anyway, you get the idea.

After:

(Side note--Despite me not doing any of the work, I still was not able to avoid a disastrous clean up. Adam tipped over the paint can onto our hardwood floors. Oh that was a joy to clean up! Also, something that just touched the auto paint then touched the dresser prior to being refinished and the auto paint took off the finish on the dresser. Whatever is in that auto paint is potent stuff to take the finish right off the dresser. Luckily, we were able to clean up the floors immediately and were able to get the paint up and it didn't look like it took off the finish on the floor. Thank Heavens I had just bought Goof Off. Unfortunately our balcony was not so lucky, which also got a dose of white paint all over it.)

Kickin' it at Home

2011-08-15T14:26:00.000-04:00

This weekend we made the Sidekick his own little fortress of solitude...i.e. we cut a door and window out of a big cardboard box. We topped it off with a working light fixture, a doorknob of sorts, and decorated it with crayons. I think his favorite (only?) game he really likes to play with it is peek-a-boo out the shutters (window "flaps" cut out of the side of the box). I love easy toys.

My Sweet Little Addict

2011-08-06T23:22:00.001-04:00

The Sidekick loves his Uncle B and LOVES electronics. So of course, he was happy when his Uncle showed him how to play Guitar Hero. We're trying to be pro-active with his tv/video game usage;, as he's already a video game addict in the making. Oh man, it starts early.

Snips and Snails

2011-08-03T18:00:00.001-04:00

The Sidekick's cousins caught a snake and kept it as a "pet" for a week and played with it everyday. The Sidekick joined in the fun.

He would not have learned that from me. I hate snakes. I was a little nervous he was going to hold it too tight and pull a Lenny or squeeze it too tight and make the snake bite him. Luckily no, no incidents other than the snake being traumatized for the rest of its life. Oh, the love.

A Worthy Steed for the Sidekick (I.E. Pony Rides)

2011-07-17T15:53:00.002-04:00

We're on vacation to the US visiting family and enjoying the benefits of being out in the country. The sidekick is having a blast. He has a great time at my parents' house and having cousins here doubles the fun. He's gone horse back riding three times already.

My parents' kind neighbor has been letting the grandkids take pony rides around his little arena in his backyard. It's great and even better that I'm not paying $5 a pop for each ride. He LOVES feeding the horses and we go visit them often.

The kids went riding immediately after I finished jogging one day, so of course I walked next door to take the sidekick for a little ride too. He was nervous at first, but warmed up to it. I got the horse to trot a little (sans A.), during which time I was reminded why cowboys wear jeans and not nylon running shorts.

:'( Another Bummer

2011-07-06T00:27:00.002-04:00

Our Ipad went missing one day last week--the day when we had both our cleaning lady and a recommended guy (that we hired to take care of some car things) here. It was only 2 months old. We've asked both of them about it; of course nothing came of that. I won't go into all of the details here. We do suspect one more than the other, but how can we prove it?

I'm so sad. AND on top of all of this, it's the worst timing. We are flying to the US this weekend and I was counting on it to entertain the Sidekick. Last time we bought it, I thought, "Finally, I never have to worry about entertaining the kiddo on the plane again!" Back to square one.

Now we are trying to file a claim with American Express. The problem is that they require a police report. We called the police and J. met with them. (I was nervous about that since police don't have a great reputation here.) But, basically they aren't going to write a police report, which we need for the claim. I'm hoping the insurance person takes pity on us and covers the loss. Otherwise we are out several hundred dollars.

Pray that it goes well.

Baby Shower

2011-07-01T20:01:00.000-04:00

I threw a baby shower for a friend. I love seeing the parties on hwtm.com blog. She posts the coolest parties. I made marshmellow pops (dipped in white chocolate) and other goodies, little treat bags, pom poms, and personalized labels. Photoshop wasn't easy but the labels turned out well enough. (I think my favorite were the water bottle labels.) Practice makes perfect, right?

Planting

2011-06-29T01:32:00.000-04:00

Looking forward to having a garden someday; but due to city living, we'll stick to potted herbs and flowers for now. We are trying to grow some from plants from seeds and others we are using starters. (Basil, cilantro, decorative chiles, and flowers).

The Sidekick loves to scoop and pour so he enjoyed potting and loves to water them with his own little watering can.

Here's to our little balcony, which will hopefully be blooming soon.

Yes Ladies, He Does Windows!

2011-06-23T07:12:00.001-04:00

... and floors.

October 2010

This is one of those videos, that as a parent I think is adorable, but for anyone else it's probably just boring.
(It's from a year ago when we still lived in Miami.)

Notice, he has the paper towel rolled up into a ball in his hand. Why do little kids always do that? Toilet paper, wipes, etc--they wad it up into a ball.

He's always wanted to be involved in whatever I'm doing, until the last few months--he'd now rather watch television. (Ya, we're working on that problem 'cuz this kid is already hooked on tv & video games. How did that happen so fast? Not good.)

It is cute that he wants to help clean, but it is rarely "help." I'm just hoping that if I let him do it now, he'll be a good helper in a few years and I won't have to teach him how to do it because he's already been doing it with me for a while. Here's to hoping that it will last through those teenage years...I know, it'd take a miracle.

Bruiser

2011-06-21T02:09:00.001-04:00

Man, it hasn't been more than a couple weeks and the Sidekick had another mini-traumatic event.

For those of you who saw my Fb post, you already know the story. Last week, I was trying to get him to take a nap after church and put him on my very tall bed. He was mostly asleep but tossing and turning. He rolled to the edge of the bed and I went to grab him but before I could he tossed himself off. I have a small bookshelf next to my bed and I think he hit it on the way down. He's a pretty tough kid when it comes to getting bumps and bruises, but I could imagine how badly this would have hurt.

Oh, so sad! That's why his bed is against the wall with a bed-rail.

These things are hard on him and his Mama.

Silly

2011-06-17T21:30:00.000-04:00

Nothing too exciting. We've been chilling and having fun with friends.

Just this last week the Sidekick discovered how to make silly faces.

Above: very first silly face . (I didn't have my nice camera with me but you get the idea.)

Watching him grow and learn is so fun

Run-In with Law...er..The UN-law

2011-06-08T14:46:00.000-04:00

I've heard about it happening here and now I've experienced it. We've been warned that you can't trust police officers here. Traffic cops are nototrious for pulling you over (and often making up reasons for why you are at fault) and threatening to tow your car. They often say something to the tune of offering you the opportunity to pay all of the fines directly to them so you don't have to go to court or something similar.

If you insist you don't have any money, as was the case from some of my friends, the officer may do as he did to them, and offer to escort you to an ATM. (Afterwards he told them that it would buy his lunch. Really discrete about it, huh?)

I was riding with some ladies from church. (Luckily, I wasn't the one driving--that's why I say I've only sort of experienced it.) I was glad the lady that was driving was a native Spanish speaker, although the cop wasn't giving her any slack. Anyway, I think our experience was pretty typical, as per above. But the cop was relentless and kept threatening to tow the car.

She kept telling him she was on her way to pick up kids from school but he had no sympathy. She told him we didn't have much. And he wasn't going to accept our payment of the "fine." (We only offered to scrape together after going back and forth with him for a long time.) I think he saw four (adult) foreigners in the car and thought he could get some serious cash out of us. JERK seems like too nice of a name for him.

Finally one of the ladies remembered she had a diplomat card so she pulled it out and showed it to him and told him she was a diplomat. He looked at it for a moment and finally let us go.

Talk about highway robbery, right? Except this is by the police.

(p.s. in case you are curious, we paid 300 pesos, which is roughly about $25 US and he kept demanding 3000 pesos.)

Busted Stuff

2011-06-03T00:17:00.005-04:00

The Sidekick proved that he isn't invincible when he tripped when running around on the sidewalk. He scraped up the outside and inside of his lip. (I think he bit down the the whole length inside on his top lip.)

He now has his first fat lip.

I was nervous I was going to have to take him to the hospital at first but the bleeding stopped pretty quickly. I tried to get him to suck on a popsicle to keep ice on his lip but since his lip hurt, he didn't want anything touching it and would only lick the popsicle. He was a good sport about it and our friends who were with us were impressed at how quickly he stopped crying despite the bleeding.

day 2 after the accident

Not looking forward to future injuries. I hope they are very few and far between.

Another Bakery

2011-06-01T12:01:00.001-04:00

We walked a slightly different way home the other day and passed by a bakery that I hadn't noticed before. It was cute and tempting. The sidekick put his finger in the cookie monster cupcake so that's the one we bought. The other one was a cookies and cream cupcake with cookies in the actual cake part. I'm not a huge cake fan and I'm not into the cupcake craze that seems to have taken over everywhere but they were good. They were pretty and more afordable than the $5 cupcakes we ate in California. Seriously bakeries must be making bank on those little desserts.

Retro Inspired Party Dress

2011-05-29T22:00:00.000-04:00

I just finished making another dress. I've been itching to make something for a while now so I took a break from organizing and my household duties and broke out the sewing machine.

On my recent trip to California, my s-i-l took me to a clearance fabric store in the fashion district of LA. The store sells the fabric by the pound. The fabric I used for this dress came from that store. I estimate I spent about $7 making this dress--including the pattern. Wahoo!

I've been wanting a vintage-y dress. The pattern was as close as I could find. It reminds me of a garden party dress.

New Favorite Time Zapper

2011-05-26T19:35:00.001-04:00

Are you familiar with Pinterest? I don't remember how I came across it but it's definitely my new favorite website. It's a photo based way to catalog things you find online. There's so many different things on the site but my favorite are the design ideas. You should definitely check it out and if you need an invite, let me know and I'll send you one.

Future Stylist?

2011-05-24T16:45:00.000-04:00

The Sidekick and I played with his doll the other evening. (Some people have issues with their children-- specifically boys--playing with gender stereotypical toys. I don't have those issues so please don't tell me I need a girl.) This is the outfit that he came up with--sweatsuit, cowboy hat, and cowboy boots. He might just have a future as a stylist...or maybe he's channelling his inner redneck. ;-)

Cali

2011-05-21T16:56:00.000-04:00

We recently took a trip to California. My first time to CA. We had lots of fun with family. The Sidekick especially loved his cousins and uncles.

Disney:

The Sidekick's favorite ride was the Buzz Lightyear ride. I think he could have stayed on that thing for hours.

LA:

Graumin's Chinese Theater

Beaching:

My computer is running super slowly right now, so that's all you get.

Our Place

2011-05-16T00:01:00.002-04:00

So, the apartment search wasn't as fun as it could have been as I have mentioned, but we are finally moved in. Here are a few things I thought I'd share about our apartment.

The apartment has the blinds on the interior and the curtains closest to the windows (never seen that before):

Sorry this one is sideways, and I'm too lazy to rotate it. We live a couple stories up from a yummy frozen yogurt shop: (I know not an exciting photo--just a roof and the street, but it's the roof of the frozen yogurt place.)

We have two little balconies. The door to this one ALWAYS stays locked (except for this photo) because it doesn't have a railing! There is a door on this balcony outside. I think it's the hot water heater, but there is no way I'm going out there to check.

That's one thing that I noticed here. Either they have no building codes or they are very loose, or no enforcement or something because we noticed a lot of apartments had things that were dangerous especially for small children. It does make me appreciate construction back home more. :)

PS - In case you are spending sleepless nights over my balcony sans railing, our landlord is putting one in. They've already come twice to measure.

Flashback: Easter

2011-05-10T16:30:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure what happened with the last post, why it doesn't just show up. Oh well. Here are some photos from Easter. We dyed eggs with friends and the Sidekick loved it! We had an Easter Egg hunt in a little bit of fenced in grass by our apartment--really it's a really large median with a fence around it. It's the closest thing I know of with grass around. A. had fun collecting the eggs. He kept opening the eggs and spilling all of the jelly beans on the ground; he couldn't quite figure out how to open the eggs another way.

PS - Jelly beans from Costco were the only Easter Candy that I could find here. (I was happy to get more left over Easter Candy when I went back to the States last weekend. Thanks Mark!)

A Little Heartache

2011-04-27T19:47:00.001-04:00

Well, I haven't been blogging because we finally signed our an apartment and moved in and I've been unpacking, unpacking, and more unpacking. And now that everything is out of boxes, it's a matter of organizing everything and finding a home for everything, which for me isn't easy. I keep second guessing how I want the furniture. I'm indecisive.

I realized upon unpacking (you may have already read this on fb) that I never saw my camcorder or my back up hard drive. The camcorder I'm not too upset about--but the back up hard drive hurts. I've been heartbroken about it. All of our files from previous computers were on that thing, plus all of our tax documents, ssn, bank documents, credit card documents, you name it was on that thing. PLUS, all of my digital photos. I have 2010 forward on my laptop but everything previous was on the hard drive.

Hence, all our family photos and all of Adam's baby photos--gone. I think I'm probably most sad about the baby photos. I do have some that I printed out and I have some that I emailed people, and of course the few that I put on my blog but I took literally hundreds. And I do sit down and look them all on my computer--at least I used to.

In organizing I found the cord to the camcorder plus the instruction book. HA, serves them right! (I wish the chargers were more difficult to replace.)

We wrote down the serial and model numbers for all the electronics...except these two items, which we forgot. Coincidence? My guess is no. I'm assuming it happened at customs and not Miami, but who knows. What are the chances that they'd come across both during customs--neither of which were written down.

I know that a lot worse things happen to other people and I'd obviously rather have Adam than just photos of him, but I'm still mad and hurt by the whole thing.

I really hope that no one tries to steal our identities. We're going to try to take some preventive measures and we're going to be monitoring our credit etc more carefully. But hey, my sister-in-law already "stole" my credit history (true story) so maybe if someone does something bad with my name & credit, maybe it will hit her instead. ;-) (I can write this because she doesn't read my blog--she doesn't even own a computer! Hard to believe, I know. And watch, this will be the first time she reads my blog. HA! I love you, Sarah!! And I hope no one steals your identity either.)

Ay, Caramba!

2011-04-19T17:54:00.001-04:00

The search for our apartment here was not exactly fun. I was not happy with our real estate agent. She was not professional. She was always late (once up to two and a half hours), she was always re-applying her make up in the car, elevators, and apartments that we were looking at. She would show us only a couple of apartments at a time and several days or a week in between and we wanted to see a bunch and just pick one. We ended up finding most of the apartments ourselves and telling her to call and ask about them.

Well, we ended up signing an apartment that we found ourselves and called and followed up with ourselves. She is mad that we didn't go with an apartment that she showed us. (We did like one that she showed us but she told us that it had blinds, w/d, fridge, etc and it didn't; and we would have had to buy all those appliances ourselves so we didn't end up signing there.)

She has been asking for $$ from us because of the time she spend with us. J told her to submit a receipt for expenses (gas, cell phone bill, etc) and he would try to get it reimbursed from his firm. (They agreed to pay the realtor fees.) Well, she sent an email stating she wanted 20,000 pesos (~1,800 US) for her time and expenses. Of course that didn't fly. J. told her that his firm needed something more concrete to submit to the firm. (I.E all the previous things he mentioned to her MANY times--cell phone bills, gas bills, etc.)

Now, she's irate and she's harassing J on the phone and sending him hate e-mail. She's saying nasty things about us, our religion, and our nationality, and threatening to attack J. on the street when/if she sees him. (I assume that applies to J. and not me but who knows. Either way I'm not scared of her.) J. is much more kind to her than I would be if she were giving me that crap. Despite this holy week, I don't have sympathy on her. My mindset from business says she did a terrible job, and she's suffering the consequences. That's how business works. If you wanted the profit, you should have tried harder. She didn't do a good job and she's having a temper-tantrum about it and trying to bully J.

One funny thing is that she's threatening to complain to the US Embassy here. I'm not sure what she expects to accomplish by doing it, but Good Luck with that.

Easter

2011-04-14T17:45:00.001-04:00

Has anyone see decorating or art with Peeps. Yes, take another look--those are peeps. (A lot of people don't like to eat them but I do. Marshmellows rolled in sugar? Sure, yum.) I loved the Peeps diaorama contest help by the Washington Post. Check it out. Clever.

Power to the Peeps!

Photos

2011-04-11T12:16:00.000-04:00

We took a brief visit to the Anthropological Museum here. Here are some quick shots of the sidekick from J's blackberry.

Whistle While You Work

2011-04-09T06:29:00.004-04:00

One thing that is interesting here is that people still use brooms made of sticks. It reminds me of Snow White and the "Whistle While You Work" scene or something from a couple hundred years ago.

It seems that most people only use these brooms for sweeping outside sidewalks etc. However, I saw this guy sweeping the grass. Have you seen that before? Seems like something out of a comedy--the OCD person is sweeping the grass. Grass like this little patch is rare here. I guess that's why they want to take good care of it by sweeping and keeping the the dirt off. Ha! (Really they use it like a rake to clean up the leaves.)

I was a little embarrassed to take his photo sweeping, so I took the photo when he turned around to prune the grass--seriously he was using pruning shears.

(PS - they also sweep rugs here instead of vacuuming them all the time.)

Homeless

2011-04-07T00:09:00.001-04:00

Well, here it is--April--and we still don't have an apartment. We had...well sort of had...an apartment but things fell apart during negeotiations. That was a long painful process and I don't think J or I really want to talk about it. It was ridiculous.

We have it narrowed down again to a few apartments. I just wish we could find the perfect apartment, but apparently it doesn't exist or if it does, it's way beyond our price range. Every place seems to have at least one thing (generally several things) that we don't like, so it's a matter of figuring out what we're willing to live with and without.

Really, what it's coming down to is that we have requested contracts for a few apartments and J is reading (or read) through all of them and negeotiating various things in the contract. Perhaps one of the places will come through during negeotiations.

My dream list was a 3 bedroom apartment that isn't hideous, close to the park, with a little terrace/garden and a bathtub for the sidekick was a big plus.

Things we've learned about DF Apartments:

-A lot of apartments don't have bathtubs (showers only)
-Most apartments do NOT have a dishwasher (You are expected to have your maid to the dishes.)
-As a rule of thumb the tenets often supply the refrigerator and the washer & dryer
-It is RARE to find an apartment with Heating or Air Conditioning
-It is recommended that you do not put the bills in your name. You leave them in the owner's or previous tenent's name.
-A lot of apartments have big fancy stoves & ovens. (But I don't think many people here use their ovens--stoves only.)
-A lot of the older apartments have locks with keys to open all the interior doors. (Wouldn't the sidekick have fun with that one? I can just see it now--getting locked out of a room because he was playing with the key and not being able to find it. No Thanks.)

Our stuff is through customs we just need an apartment for it to be delivered. I'm REALLY hoping we have a place by next week.

Party Idea

2011-04-04T00:41:00.004-04:00

I saw this on a blog. Isn't this the coolest boy's party ever? Check it out--it's amazing. One expensive party, I'm sure; but what a party. See & read about it here.

Metepec

2011-04-02T18:35:00.000-04:00

I went to a nearby town this week with some ladies from church. I got up the courage and drove!! I've only driven a couple time and it's been close here around DF. (That's how the locals refer to Mexico City.) I got a little lost and ended up taking a detour through Toluca, but we lived and laughed to tell of our misadventure, so it's all good. I'm really grateful for cell phones!

Metepec is known for a sculpture that artists produce called "The Tree of Life." It typically depicts the story of the Garden of Eden, however there are other biblical stories depicted as well as other random things--like day of the dead, which is popular and celebrated here.

Here is a mini tree of life where the clay was pigmented instead of being painted:

Supposedly small ones like this take three months to make.

Unpainted sculptures:

My favorite tree of life sculpture showing Noah's Ark (It was $$$ but very intricate):

Popcorn Anyone?

2011-03-30T14:06:00.000-04:00

On a random convenience store...

You know-- for those times your going along and then get those overpowering urges for popcorn. Now you know where you can get it. It made me laugh.

Cacaxtla

2011-03-29T08:35:00.001-04:00

On the way home we went to see this pyramid outside of Puebla called Cacaxtla...or maybe that was the town...I'm not sure and I'm too lazy to look it up right now. It has the oldest known paintings of humans. At least some of the murals (maybe all?) depicted war. Supposedly the pyramid/community reached it's peak between 700-900 AD.

I was impressed with the lattice work & the sculptural detail in the columns:

After all these centuries the colors are still vivid. The murals wrapped around the wall and you can also see it on the back wall:

A view of another pyramid about a mile away...

A view looking out of Cacaxtla--you can see the volcano in the backgroundg:

So the funniest thing is how Google maps had us returning back to the Mexico City. The road it told us to take turned into a dirt road and then sort of disappeared under this bridge. And the "on ramp" it told us to take to the highway, was a dirt path--not even a real road let alone an on ramp. We went up the dirt path and it dumped us in the middle of two lanes on the highway. CRAZY. Josh took a picture with his phone, I'll try to post it. We have an suv and we were so glad that it handles off roading because that's what we were doing. Oh, but it made us laugh.

Puebla Trip 3

2011-03-26T04:09:00.000-04:00

Somewhere between Puebla and Cacaxtla we went through this town. It was nice to see a farm community. We saw several tractors and mules pulling carts. It was a holiday so most places were closed.

This last picture, Josh and I thought was funny. Check out the brands that are advertised to be sold inside the store. They say they sell GAP and Old Navy.

Puebla 2

2011-03-23T13:38:00.002-04:00

Santa Domingo Church:

Aren't the ceilings exquisite?

A view from the side nave out to main chapel (okay, i've forgotten most of my Catholic cathedral terminology/identification):

Side Nave (unfortunately you can't make out the artwork on the walls):

Main Alter

It's some serious ornate-ness...if that's a word.

Puebla

2011-03-21T22:51:00.000-04:00

We got out of the city and visited nearby Peubla. We had a great time: A little bit of Puebla architecture:

Oxygen Anyone?

2011-03-20T23:15:00.001-04:00

You don't go outside for fresh air here. See that haze? That's pollution. They say living here is like smoking 2 packs a day...or so that's what we read, who knows if that's true. But after seeing this pollution leaving the city, I (the skeptic) don't doubt it. *Cough, Cough.*

Close up with the telephoto:

Foam Quiet Book

2011-03-18T02:23:00.003-04:00

I don't have my sewing machine and I had been itching to make something so I went to the craft store. I saw lots of differnt foam (and some felt) cut outs so I decided to make a quiet book out of foam and magnets. The first page is a Noah's Ark Page.

I backed the removable animals with an extra layer of foam in hopes that it would help perserve it. (The sidekick started playing with an animal when I opened the package and was easily able to rip limbs off. Foam isn't so sturdy, so I've learned anyway.) It's also hard to cut foam intricately so I am very grateful for the pre-cut animals and felt letters.

So far, the sidekick has enjoyed playing with it--Success! Now if it will keep him quiet during church. I'm planning on saving it just for Sundays so it will seem "new" when he plays with it once a week.

The funny thing about this page is that I bought a packet of letters and in the entire package of letters there was not a single letter "k." According to J. it's not a common letter in Spanish. I did my best to create my own. I still think it's funny to buy a package of letters and discover some letters absent--Yeah, we the manufacturers put in most of the letters of the alphabet. We figured you wouldn't need all of them. Happy spelling.

(More pages to come...)

It'd Take a Miracle

2011-03-14T19:13:00.001-04:00

Just a few photos to show that I was not exaggerating about the sidewalks here--not stroller friendly. Giant curbs, broken up sidewalks (even in the "nicest" parts of the city), and sidewalks will just abruptly end, forcing you to go down stairs with the stroller to the next sidewalk segment. Seriously, if this stroller lasts the whole time here, it will be nothing more than a miracle.

So many bumps when we walk down the sidewalk, I feel bad for the kido riding in the stroller-not a smooth ride.

The sidekick holding on for dear life & getting an ab work out in the process.

Fun

2011-03-10T20:56:00.000-05:00

I had a whole blog post written up and somehow it mysteriously was deleted. So instead here are some photos of the sidekick. As a sidenote, the sidekick will be perfectly clean when we go outside and he gets SO dirty just playing on the playground. The other day we played outside and I had some great photos of him but his face was dirty in all of them. I tried to photoshop his face clean but it wasn't amazing. Oh well. He's cute, even with a dirty face.

Slippers

2011-03-05T17:17:00.000-05:00

We are living in temporary housing still, which has "free" cleaning services. They mop the floor here every day, but our socks still turn so dark from walking on these floors. So I made the sidekick some slippers so I don't have to keep scrubbing his socks so much. He doesn't love wearing them, but I try to convince him to wear them. We call them his inside shoes. I think they turned out pretty well.

Street Food: Quesadillas

2011-02-27T21:51:00.000-05:00

We have all tried street food at the Saturday Market by our apartment, which we've heard good things about. This is a blue corn Quesadilla. It's filled with a cheese that's similar to Mozzerella. There's another that I like even more, which they top with sour cream, lettuce, and cilantro. I'll have to take a photo of one before I gobble it down. Yummy.

I'm So Mad

2011-02-22T11:00:00.001-05:00

Can you believe in the weeks that I have been out of the country, I was lucky enough to be selected for Jury duty? Our mail up to this point has been forwarded to J's parents' residence. My in-laws recieved my summons last Friday, Feb 18, and my period for when I was supposed to be available to serve began last Wdnesday, Feb. 16. I've called and tried to explain the situation AND that I'm the primary care taker of a two year old, which is one of the exceptions for not serving as a juror. But because I didn't mail in the paper SAYING that I was the primary taker of a child--no forgiveness whatsoever. They don't care about someone being out of the country. Seriously, there has got to be SOMEONE with an ounce of reason that can help us.

Now, I can either surrender my license or appear in Miami-Dade County in front of a judge within the next 6 months. So, I will probably be shelling out money to buy plane tickets for myself - and my now-two-year-old to return to Florida to explain why I am currently unable to serve as a juror. South Florida is a terrible place to live, ignore anyone who tells your otherwise.

ps. I also HATE the US postal system. If they could just deliever a stupid letter (in my case summons) within a reasonable amount of time, this wouldn't have even been a problem. They should have to pay from our plane tickets back!

Oooo

2011-02-18T11:50:00.001-05:00

I love cute organization. I'm totally going to make these. I'd pick different liner fabric, but these boxes are such a great idea and it looks pretty easy. I love them. I don't think I'm creative enough to come up with my own ideas, I just take other people's ideas.

Here's the link to make them...

http://www.positivelysplendid.com/2011/02/lets-make-something-together-lined.html

Reverently, Quietly...

2011-02-15T11:28:00.000-05:00

Keeping the Sidekick entertained AND quiet during Church is always a challenge. When I get my sewing machine (and the rest of our belongings) in a few months, I really want to make a quiet book. I also saw this cute little church alphabet book. You slide the pages into one of those little photobooks at the photo counter.

You can download and print it out for free at the link above. It's from a blog called Serving Pink Lemonade. They have some adorable ideas for things to make. I especially like their felt/pellon quiet book.

Quickie

2011-02-12T13:49:00.001-05:00

This is the market bag I bought at the Saturday market by our apartment. Isn't it cute? They also had some Burberry colored ones, but I really liked this one. It was 40 pesos ~ $3.50 US.

Round 2 - Beware it's about Body Fluid

2011-02-10T12:18:00.000-05:00

The sidekick is sick again. It was only month ago that he was sick last. I don't know if it's from something he ate, drank, or just a bug. He started being clingy last night and then in a taxi last night he let it all go--All. Over. Me. It was bad--very bad. I had let him eat rasberries yesterday evening so it made for some lovely red chunkage and stains.

We got home, we each jumped in the shower and then J. tried to get Adam to bed while I finished cleaning up everything. Of course, he only wanted me so he wouldn't go to bed. I walked out of his room and a moment later he threw up again. So, then I'm cleaning up *that* mess and the bedding etc and he still wants me and won't let J. take care of him. And it goes on.

He didn't go to bed until so late because he was waiting for me. Writing this makes me think that J. should have been the one cleaning up all the vomit! I wouldn't say I'm picky per se, but I think I knew that J. would have done it his own way and not my way. I.e. He probably wouldn't have cleaned up the chunkage before tossing everything in the wash or trying to get the stains out before tossing them in the wash. J.- if you're reading this, I'm sorry, but it's true. I'm much better at doing laundry than you are because I care more about it. You give up too easily on the stains. I care more about getting the clothes clean whereas you'd just assume buy a new unstained article of clothing. There I said it. Airing our dirty laundry for all to read. (Pun intended.)

Anywho, the sidekick threw up or tried to like 4 or 5 times last night. I was doing laundry a lot last night, even switching out loads in the middle of the night, because we are staying in corporate housing and we don't have extra sheets or bedding and I was rotating the towels between the wash and catching Adam's vomit. Fun stuff.

On the bright side, we were able to catch most of the vomit in the taxi and it didn't seem to get on his car. ( When I say "we" I mean "me" and I use the term catch loosely--I'm talking in my hair and everything!) This is the second time he's gotten sick in a taxi. We really need to get a car before taxi drivers start avoiding us or charging triple when they see us.

p.s. I am grateful that I have so many pairs of pajamas for the sidekick. I think he wore 4 different sets of pjs last night.

Desayuno

2011-02-10T11:55:00.000-05:00

Breakfast at a French cafe. Adam loved the hot chocolate. Isn't he adorable?! ;)

To Market, To Market to buy a Fat Pig...

2011-02-06T23:19:00.000-05:00

Er, well, no livestock at this market--mostly vegetables. (Same market as the one with the food stands I posted last time.)

The prices at the market at pretty good. I've seen produce there that I've never seen before and the biggest pile of avocados that I've seen in my life, as well as the biggest bowl of guacamole that I've ever seen. They have a few other random stands like one stand selling tuperware (ain't your mama's tuperware party), and a stand selling things like handmade hampers, some clothing, and some random household goods. I bought a lime press and a wisk for 50 pesos~ just over $4. (The price of the wisk at the store was $20-$30!! Stuff here is crazy expensive, but perhaps I shall save that for another post.)

We all tried our first street food this week from one of the stands from this market. We each had a quesadilla. The carne-quesadilla was so spicy so I stuck to the queso-quesadilla. It's been 36 hours and none of us are sick. Actually, the food stands at this market have been there a long time and people come every weekend to eat there. From what we understand from talking to several people, it's reputable and pretty safe as far as street food goes--that's why we tried it.

J. on the other hand, is willing to try street food at places that make me nervous...like in an underground walkway by his work. I'm going to need some warming up before I'm that brave.

Street Food

2011-01-28T22:22:00.000-05:00

There is a market every Saturday across the street from where we are staying. It has a row of stands serving food. Here's a glimpse of what it looks like. We haven't tried street food...yet. We've heard it's really good, but it can also be dangerous. We've been hearing tips on how to pick a safe street stand. Some tips are to pick a place that is making the food on site not brought in, pick a place that consistently has a lot of people, and...I can't remember the other tips off the top of my head.

One thing they do here, that I haven't seen in the USA, is that they cover the plates in plastic (as per the photo below). This is so they don't have to wash the plates, they just take off the plastic and replace it. Interesante. Maybe I won't try the street food after all.

Not in Kansas Anymore, Toto...

2011-01-25T22:59:00.000-05:00

Check out this homage in our parking garage...

Sarah Victorious

2011-01-23T15:56:00.000-05:00

We have a dvr box (now in storage) which we used to record episodes of Barney. Always available on demand. Unfortunately with the limited amount of space in our 2 suitcases each, I only packed a single Barney dvd. (A Christmas one and the only one we own.) The sidekick constantly asks to watch Barney. And we are subjected to the same little movie over and over again. I've looked a handful of places here so far and haven't found any Barney dvds.

Well, I went to an outdoor market on Saturday while J. stayed home while the sidekick napped. They had a stand selling dvds at the end of the market. They usually have new releases and such but to my astonishment they actually had 3 Barney dvds!!! I was so excited. I bought all 3 they had, hoping that one of them would work. And to our good fortune, all of them played and one of them is actually in English! WAHOO. And, I even talked the guy down a little in price..sort of...in my limited communication.

Then I continued my walk over to a grocery store that someone told me about, which supposedly carried Oxyclean, an essential ingredient for my laundering. I found the store and the oxyclean and made my way back home without getting too lost. All.By.Myself.

In my world this was a fabulous day, a great sense of accomplishment, and a boost to my confidence.
I went, I conquered, and I returned victorious! ...or something like that anyway. ;)

Pleasing to the Eyes & the Mouth

2011-01-22T17:44:00.001-05:00

My blog has been lacking photos and I've been itching to take photos of something. Remember that bakery I mentioned a few posts ago as one of my favorite things? Well, here is one of the things we bought there. It was like an apple crumb cake. It was yummy. If you come to visit, I'll get you one. ;)

First Week Funnies

2011-01-15T16:25:00.001-05:00

A couple funny things so far (not laugh out loud funny, but nonetheless humorous):

Ha #1) Mexico uses the same electrical current and outlets as the US so we can use all our electronics down here. Our Temporary Housing place didn't have an iron in the unit so we requested one. The one that they brought up was from Europe and had the two circular prongs instead of the standard outlet. Then when we called about it they tried to bring us a converter, which didn't even fit with what we were given. We're in Mexico and you can't even bring us an iron that works in Mexico?! (We did eventually get one that worked.) I guess someone from Europe must have brought one and left it here on accident? I can't think of any other explanation.

Ha #2) We are paying extra to have a w/d in our unit. It's a weird w/d and all the buttons are in English but then they have a strange dial in addition to the temperature and spin speed. This dial doesn't have any words just pictures. They brought a manual (which didn't look original) for the unit written in Spanish. I tried to have J. help me figure out the manual but he said he didn't understand it.

I've been trying to do laundry as per the previously posted vomit required clothes to be laundered. Anyway, the big dial just starts slowly spinning sometimes when my laundry cycle was going and it didn't seem to matter what temperature I had it set on. I'd pull warm clothes out of the washer that I'd attempted to wash on cold. Very frustrating, since I'm particular how my clothes are laundered. Until it dawned on me that it shouldn't matter what temperature I washed on because the machine should rinse in cold and I realized that the machine was installed with the hot and cold lines reversed.

I requested someone come fix it and the guy who looked at it was a little insistent that it was installed correctly. He got someone else who at least understood a little English to come and look at it too. Turns out that the Canadian washer was labeled with a "C" and an "H" for the water hook ups. He thought that "C" stood for caliente not "cold' (i.e. Frio). I'm glad that we figured it out. Onward with the laundry!

Taking it a Day at a Time

2011-01-14T16:05:00.003-05:00

We're in Temporary Housing place number 1 and will be moving to a different place next week. (I'm so glad I'm not a Nomad. I don't know how they do it.) Our Vonage phones will not be hooked up for 3 or 4 months until we are in our long term apartment.

We went to Costco this week and it was interesting to see the prices. Some stuff was reasonable and other things were exorbitantly expensive. There were several (Most? All?) things that were exactly the same--imported from the US.

The sidekick keeps asking to watch Barney. I brought one Barney dvd with me (a Holiday one) and I should have brought a few more. It's not on tv at our temporary housing and we usually just record it on our dvr at home. Someone here told me that you can't just buy dvds here either because they don't play in American Dvd players. Although that doesn't really matter because I haven't seen any barney dvds in the stores here.

Bonus: They have Fruity Pebbles down here. (I hope they taste the same)

Bummer: Sidewalks are NOT stroller friendly. You need a serious off-roading stroller for these sidewalks. Sometimes cars are parked up on the sidewalk and you have to squeeze between the cars parked on the street up against the curb to get down to the street and around the cars on the sidewalk so you can get back up to the sidewalk. Or you have to cross the street and there is no ramp from the sidewalk to the street AND there are cars parked all along the curbs--including the corners--and you have to squeeze between the cars on the street to get down off the curb. The sidewalks are broken up just enough that it makes pushing a stroller difficult - an inch or two but sometimes the sidewalk will turn into steep little steps to get down to the next portion of the sidewalk so I end up curb hopping down to the street and then back up to the sidewalk. It's also common for the curbs to be pretty high (seriously some are like a foot high!) so it's not as easy to curb hop. Overall not as big of a deal, if you are not clumsy, but if you are pushing a stroller--NOT EASY!!

One thing I've learned so far: Mexico is the place where "A Grilled Cheese" really is a slice of grilled cheese and not a sandwich. Not too bad and J. quite enjoyed it too.

Favorite thing so far: Found a great little bakery with yummy treats. Reminded me of a French bakery. Not sure if it was authentic Mexican but the treats we bought were yummy! (I actually did find a french bakery and cafe. I was hoping that I'd be able to order in French, but alas they only spoke Spanish. Oh well, at least pointing to what you want translates in any language.)

Hola from Mexico

2011-01-10T17:35:00.000-05:00

We made it here safely and we are on the hunt for temprorary housing until our things arrive in several months (April?). I think we found a place we'd like to stay, but there are no openings until February. So the search continues.

We've had some yummy food and enjoying the cuisine.

A. started out with a runny nose the day we left and then added a cough the following day. He started a little fever which went away the other evening and came back last night. In the middle of the night he started puking. Generally I can tell it's going to happen but the second time this morning, I was caught off guard. He climbed upon my lap and seconds later emptied his stomach all over me. (Oh man, what did people do before washing machines?!) I'm anxious to throw some clothes in a w/d instead of just rinsing them out in the tub.

We're keeping our US cell phones for now. Although we don't get in-network benefits, bummer. We have a vonage phone that we will be able to set up as soon as we get to temporary housing (we hope.)

Another bummer is that we can't stream hulu or netflix down here. Evidently those are USA services only.

We went and got photos for our visas so we're moving forward.

Next Up: Mexico City

2011-01-04T13:05:00.001-05:00

We're jumping into 2011 with both feet! I've been trying to get out holiday cards. I'm not sure I"m going to be able to get them all out. In case you haven't heard, we are moving to Mexico City, Mexico for two years. We estimate that we will be in temporary housing for about 3 months while we wait for our visas to be processed and our things to be shipped down to us. We registered a vonage phone number so when we get internet set up, we will be able to make and receive phone calls to and from the US without International charges (for you or us.) So please call. :-)

Our place here has some amazing perks (i.e. the view) but I think what I'll miss most about our place is the olympic length pool & the hot tub. :( It was fun while it lasted.

Now it's back to packing and getting things ready for the move.

Happy Holidays

2011-01-02T22:54:00.000-05:00

Sanibel & Captiva Islands

2010-12-28T21:26:00.000-05:00

We took a trip to the west coast of Florida to Sanibel & Captiva Islands. They are well known for being covered in shells. The sidekick liked throwing the shells into the water.

Captiva Island:

Sanibel Island:

Covered in tons of exoskeletons. You can see some outgrown shells of horseshoe crabs here.

Cousins

2010-12-20T17:31:00.002-05:00

The Sidekick & I had so much fun with all our family who visited recently. Adam enjoyed his youngest cousin. My niece is such a little sweetie pie. I love visitors and I miss everyone already.

Holiday Party

2010-12-12T20:41:00.000-05:00

We went to to a Holiday Party. The combination of running late and a little boy who was very attached to his mama made this the best photo we could get. (Dang, you can't even see my cute headband with it's bow and rhinestones, but you get the idea.)

Flashback

2010-12-07T14:59:00.002-05:00

I took the sidekick to Orlando and we together had our very first trip to Disney together. We met up with our fabulous friends Emma & Madeline & their parental supervision. They knew Disney well and were the perfect people to lead us around. They also converted us to Dole Whips. YUM!!

The sidekick loved the shows and the parades. He didn't get too excited about the rides but he did like to control the knobs to make Dumbo and the Flying Carpets move. Later we were able to go again for a couple more days with J and my sister's family. Good times were had by all.

An Evening of Beauty and a Little Bit of Blackmail

2010-11-24T13:49:00.001-05:00

The other evening J got to go out to dinner at a nice restaurant for work. I was at home (as usual) with the sidekick. The sidekick loves my drawer in the bathroom and gets into it constantly. He especially enjoys any make up he can open, the lipstick in particular makes quite a lovely mess.

I was attempting to paint my nails and he insisted on being in on the action, so I didn't fight it. This was the result.

I then sent this photo (and other "scary" photos) to his father while he was at the dinner and proposed that he think twice before leaving me home alone with his son while he dines in a fancy restauarnt ;-) However I will say, I was embarrassed enough about his toes that I didn't let the sidekick wear sandals or flip flops out-of-the-house until I removed said polish.

Apron

2010-11-18T09:24:00.001-05:00

A friend asked me to make her a fun apron. Here's the finished product.

Berries, Cholesterol, and other Stuff

2010-11-14T22:37:00.000-05:00

This little boy loves berries. Now that berries aren't in season anymore, we buy frozen berries. He will often go to the freezer and open it and ask for the frozen blueberries. I'm happy that he likes them, but frozen blueberries make a terrible mess. They stain the carpet (or in our case the cheap rug we have down under the table so we don't stain the actual carpeth) and he needs a full washing after he eats them. Plus, they turn under his fingernails dark so it always looks like he has dirty fingernails...for a long time. People probably think I don't wash his hands, but I do all the time I promise.

Other than that, all he wants to eat is cheese and hot dogs. (I buy the low fat hot dogs, but if he has cholesterol problems early in life, we'll know it stemmed from his early eating habits.) He even asks for hot dogs for breakfast! And when we are at the grocery store he tries to open the hot dogs and begs to eat them as soon as we put them in the cart.

I admit to being one of those moms that opens the food before I check out. It's so much better than the alternative. I'll do practically anything to try to keep him happy in the cart while I race through the store and feeding him while we shop definitely helps. I bring stuff with me but he wants the new stuff I put in the cart. Sometimes I don't even stop to check the prices, I'll just keep an eye out for the generic and try to keep the cart moving. Shopping with this kid is like shopping with a ticking time bomb, it's only a matter of time before he blows up and refuses to stay in the cart.

Usually shopping with him is a nightmare, but the last 3 times we shopped I was able to keep him in the cart for the entire trip! WAHOO! It is not easy trying to grocery shop and chase a toddler who won't stay in the cart or your arms. He'll run away from me, likes to rearrange everything on the shelves, knock things over, and will put anything in the cart that's at his eye level. (Recently he put 5 boxes of Swiss Miss Cake rolls in my cart.)

But I'm hoping this streak of recent good luck of him staying in the cart will continue because on my recent trips I've been able to do my shopping in just shy of an hour. I'm talking--from the time stamp I receive going into the parking garage (yes, our grocery store has a parking garage) to the time I get back into the car and start it after shopping and loading the groceries in the car! Holy Cow, that's a record for me with a toddler--where's my trophy?

More Swimming

2010-11-07T17:00:00.000-05:00

We swim a lot here as the weather allows for it. (Although this weekend it's been chilly so we haven't swam much and the pool water has been warmer than the air.) Here are some videos from a couple weeks ago. A.'s swimming is improving.

Dress 2

2010-10-30T11:24:00.002-04:00

I made another dress. This one was a lot more difficult than the last. I worked really hard to try to tailor it to my body, as a result it took a lot longer to make. I would sew and rip out the seam and do it over again. I'm happy with the result though because it fits well. The kid-do interrupted my photo shoot so I don't have a good shot wearing the dress, so you'll just have to come see me in person to get a good look at it. :)

Not as much of a steal as my last dress, but not bad at $37.

Laundry Boy

2010-10-23T18:37:00.001-04:00

When we are home A is my sidekick, for better or worse. He is curious and wants to be involved in whatever I'm doing, so I try to let him help me when possible. His favorite chore, by far, is loading the washing machine. He LOVES to add the detergent and when applicable the oxy-clean.

He is now tall enough to stand on his tip toes and reach the washing machine lid a crack. He will pick up rags that I've tossed in a bucket by the washer and put them in all by himself or he'll pick up whatever is on top of the hamper and go put it in the washer. I'm nervous that one of these days he's going to add something red to one of my white loads without me seeing it.

He will lead me to the washer as his way to tell me that he wants to do laundry and he often has a melt down after we add the detergent and start the machine. Oh, how he LOVES to scoop the oxyclean. (I bought him a big bag of rice and gave him some measuring cups so he could play in the rice and scoop from the bag to an empty oatmeal carton. It entertained him, but he still begs for the oxyclean. He prefers the powder--even flour or sugar. He loves to help me bake too and boy, is it a mess.)

Check out these videos below. Note that he always shakes his head "no" even when he means "yes." So if he does nod his head yes, it's a rarity and a big deal to me. We're still working on that one.

Laundry 1

Laundry 2

Life on the High Seas

2010-10-14T09:22:00.001-04:00

In the words of the great Jerry Peyser, "The thing is you gotta go private." (From the movie The In-Laws. It's one of the best movies. You have to watch it if you haven't.)

Just Playing Around

2010-10-10T23:05:00.000-04:00

Adam is turning into quite the climber. He tried to use my dresser drawers the other day as steps to climb up to the top of the dresser. It's amazing what he can reach and that he figures out to move things to climb on top of them to get to other things he wants. He even tries to climb up us!

Off with Her Hair

2010-10-04T15:05:00.000-04:00

I had my hair chopped off again. Nine plus inches are now gone. I was constantly wearing it in a pony tail so I thought I should force myself to actually do my hair. I'm going to be donating it to a chairty that makes wigs (most likely pantene because I think they have the shortest hair length requirement.)

I also learned about Matters of Trust which is looking for hair donations (they prefer human hair but will also take animal fur). They use the hair in making booms & mats which soak up oil from oil spills. Isn't that cool? Evidently human hair is more effective than animal hair. I don't think they have any length requirement, so keep it in mind. :)

Death at a Funeral and other Adventures

2010-09-27T15:12:00.003-04:00

A. and I travelled west for my G'ma's funeral. We saw cousins that we haven't seen in years. She's been wanting to die for a few years now. She's been in relatively good health but she missed her husband and her children who have preceeded her in death. She was recently diagnosed with cancer. Her tumors were doubling every 3 weeks. We knew she wouldn't be around much longer and I'm sure she was happy about that. She looked forward to what she called "graduating" and moving on. She was just a few years shy of 100.

One great misfortune on the trip was that I lost my cell phone at the airport. ARGH! I told you no matter how hard I try to keep everything together, I always seem to lose things.

On the bright side, A. is LOVING my parents' house. New toys, a huge yard, lots of animals to see, fresh apples to pick, the list goes on. The weather is absolutely gorgeous, which is nice because A. just wants to be outside ALL the time.

When it comes to the animals, he wants to touch them and then when they get really close he gets scared and backs off or runs away. He always wants someone else to touch them too. His favorite thing to do has been feeding the neighbor's horse, Macaroni. We go visit Macaroni at least twice a day--today we went and fed him 4 times and he wanted to go yet again this evening!

Another Talk

2010-09-27T13:59:00.000-04:00

I also read this talk recently and really enjoyed it.

It was given by James Faust and is titled, "A Message to Our Granddaughters."

A Speech on Women

2010-09-04T15:01:00.003-04:00

I just read this talk by Spencer W. Kimball. I especially enjoyed the second half of this talk, it had some great points and advice.

Little Update

2010-09-01T14:53:00.001-04:00

I love this photo of J & A. I think it's funny how they sometimes sleep with their hand above their heads. The other afternoon A. was napping with his hands behind his head. It was so funny and cute and I wasn't able to snap a photo of it--dang.

A. has passed the 18 mo. mark and is now enjoying nursery at church. He still has some acid reflux but not nearly to the degree of when he was smaller and he no longer takes medicine for it.

He seems to have food allergies and sensitivities, unfortunately. We have discovered that he's allergic to peanuts and he's still has problems with soy. Berries seem to make his face break out in a rash but he loves them, so we give in and give them to him. Anyway there are other foods that we're suspicious of as well. We're considering taking him to an allergist. I've heard that food allergy testing can have very unreliable results, so I need to do some research on the matter.

When it comes to feeding him, he is a picky eater. The only thing he seems to want to eat the past several weeks is hot dogs and cheese. The battle for fruits & vegetables has begun.

Book Deal...Photo Book That Is.

2010-08-26T22:56:00.003-04:00

Picaboo is having a sale right now for new customers. A free custom photo book with 20 pages. You can get leather, linen, or custom covers. The deal ends August 31 so I've spent the last 2 days pouring through my hundreds of digital photos to put together a book. I've been wanting to do a book for a while so I can't wait for it to arrive.

Enter coupon code "Freebk"

ps - you do have to download a (free) little software program to do it. I usually avoid stuff like this, but I figured I could always uninstall it later.

For the Love...of Fabric

2010-08-23T10:46:00.000-04:00

There are no fabric stores here. None. The closest thing to a fabric store here is Joann's. Not a great selection. But when I visit my sister in UT I go to the most amazing fabric store.

I go in there and I'm in love. The fabric collections they have are amazing. It just begs for a project. I'm like a kid in a candy store in there--mouth watering and just lusting after so much of the fabric. I love a lot of the retro fabrics like the 40's and 50's prints, and geometric patterns are probably my favorite, and who doesn't love a damask style print or adorable polka-dots? I love bright happy colors and soft cool colors. I've found I really like Michael Miller fabrics. They aren't cheap but they are beautiful.

So I bought a bunch of fabric and I've been sewing. One thing I made was this tote bag with a 70's inspired fabric. I'm working on an apron. I made both on vacation but haven't finished the apron yet.

ps - I lovey dove love ric-rak. Especially that big oversized ric-rak. I hope to use some on a project soon.

Dish Towels

2010-08-17T20:33:00.000-04:00

I bought the cutest dish towels so I thought I'd share in case anyone is looking to get new towels too.

They are cupcake towels from Ikea. I'm too lazy to take my own photo of them so here's someone else's photo of the same towels.