La Casa Cobian

All Gussied Up

2011-08-26T21:31:00.000-07:00

Edgar's sister Elsa got married last week and we finally got some family pictures taken with our new edition--who is none too new. He's already one, big as can be, and loves photo shoots about as much as his old man. Poor Lili's dress was supposed to be lilac-colored, but there was a mistake made somewhere along the line and the little girls' dresses came to us in pink--5 days before the wedding and from China. There was no time to send them back. Her dress was also about a foot too long. Thanks to a lot of help from my sister Marianne (okay, she finally just did it for me after I had to take out what I had done), I was able to hem it. The website from China advertised "Too many colors! Too many sizes!" Unfortunately, that proved all too true.

I also had a tricky run-in with a dress from China (different company). We hosted a foreign-exchange dress in lilac for a little over a week. It was a nice enough dress, but it didn't fit me. I e-mailed the company (there was no customer service phone number) and explained that I couldn't even get the dress zipped up. I had measured myself and was confident that I'd ordered the right size. They sent back an e-mail which said, in essence "prove it." I had to provide a picture of Edgar trying to zip the dress up on me. He had to hold a tape measure, showing that the dress was too small--not that I was too big. After that, they agreed to consider a return. I wasn't sure I'd have time to exchange the dress (it took 20+ days to arrive from China) and the shipping was costly, so I tried to sell the dress on ebay. I took a lovely picture of it on a hanger, but the hanger didn't do it justice. I tried copying the model's picture from their website, but it would only allow me to copy the bottom right hand corner. So I called Marianne (which is what anyone with that skinny sister in the neighborhood would do--she bails me out regularly and particularly when it comes to foreign formal wear) and asked her to pose for a picture. She's a good sport and was willing to do it. When she came over, I put the dress down on the counter. I didn't realize I had spilled oil there that morning when I had made pancakes. Marianne quickly noticed the dress was stained. Would anyone want to buy a stained lilac dress? I was distraught. We went ahead with the pictures--we were able to zip the dress up on slender Marianne. After she went home I noticed some of Edgar's orange soap that he uses to get grease off his mechanic's hands. Would that work on filmy foreign fabric? What did I have to lose? Lo and behold! It took that oil right out, leaving no evidence of my dirty counter! I confidently posted the dress on ebay. I had the option of inviting my facebook friends to view it. I chose not to--forgive me if you would have wanted that lovely gown. Days went by and then a week and nobody was remotely interested in my too-small evening wear. I decided to send it back to China. The company had kindly offered to pay up to half the price of the dress for it to be altered. I asked them to keep the dress and to give me what they would have to alter it. They surprised me by refunding the full cost of the dress and the cost of shipping it back to them on that slow boat. Actually, I speak too soon, They have said they will give me a refund, but I haven't seen it yet. In any case, it was fun to learn a little bit about Chinese culture by having that dress stay with us for a little while. She seemed to enjoy American culture as well, and she picked up English very quickly.

And now, lest you think Edgar doesn't ever smile, I captured him doing this when he didn't realize anyone was watching. Here he is with his brothers Sergio and Osvaldo:

Doesn't that smile look good on him?

Feliz Dia de Las Madres

2011-05-05T20:54:00.000-07:00

While I was looking for a Mother's Day card for my mother-in-law today, I saw one that said, "You're not my mom, you're my wife." I didn't read the inside, but I thought it could aptly say, "So why are you the one buying my mom a Mother's Day card?"

Tomorrow is Liliana's ballet recital. I was going to buy tickets for it tonight. I called Edgar to see if he thought his mom would like to come with us. Now, since we're going to town anyway, we had thought Edgar would take me to dinner for Mother's Day--his idea :). Well, I called Edgar.

"Do you think your mom would like to go with us tomorrow?"

"Oh yeah. I think she really would. Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah." Why wouldn't it be? "It might be long. There will be a lot of little girls dancing to a lot of little songs."

"Oh." He wasn't sure if he should go on. "I thought you wanted my mom to come to dinner with us."

"Oh. Um. No. Do you want her to?"

He knew it was a loaded question. "Well, I know she would like to."

What could I say? A date with my husband and mother-in-law isn't quite the Mother's Day gift I was envisioning. A date with my husband who wanted his mom to be there too wasn't really what I had in mind either.

We were planning to have someone in Edgar's family babysit for us while we went on the date. It turns out they're mostly busy getting ready for a niece and nephew's First Communion on Saturday and our last-minute plea for a babysitter is ill-timed.

"We could ask my mom to babysit," he offered. He hadn't asked her out yet. "We'd have to bring Ammon with us."

Edgar's mom has a bad back and can't lift our overly-chubby (though adorable) baby. I've been on "dates" before with a baby. We take turns walking around and dancing with the baby and eating our food--cold. We don't get a chance to talk much or hold hands or anything. It's almost as fun as dating a mother-in-law.

In a moment of generosity, I said, "You know. It is Mother's Day. Why don't you take your mom to dinner and I'll take the kids to McDonald's and Wal-mart?" I know, either one would be bad enough, but I'm looking for martyr status here, so I threw both of them in.

He was smart enough to put up a fight and say he had wanted to take me. I made him promise to take me another time and he finally called his mom and acted like his plan all along was for just the two of them to enjoy a Mother's Day meal. He gave me a big hug and said, "She sounds really excited."

Ruben, who has been begging to go to Wal-mart (we don't get out much) gave me one of his big hugs and said, "I love you, Mom!"

As I looked at his dirty little glasses, his hair stiff with dried sweat, and his sunburned cheeks, I wondered what kind of woman would someday snatch him from me. I hope she's the kind of girl that will let him take me to dinner for Mother's Day--especially if I'm alone like Edgar's mom. Tonight I feel generous. I might not even file this experience away to bring up in the future when it could be advantageous . . . Time will tell. In the meantime, I'll remind myself that my dear mother-in-law has still cooked and washed socks for my husband for twice as long as I have. Happy Mother's Day!

Liliana's Birthday and Baptism

2011-03-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

I don't know why this is underlined and different-colored. I know what you're thinking, dear reader: Why does Poor Olivia pretend to be a blogger? Well, it only gets worse. I am posting pictures of Liliana's eighth birthday. When I think of her tiny beginnings, I'm filled with gratitude for the progress she's made and that she's mine.

That's my swollen hand and my sick little Lili. These are pictures of pictures--I can't figure out our scanner and Edgar's at work. See, I told you it would get worse.
She was dangerously small--2 lbs., 1 oz. and 14 inches long.

Now she's a big girl who knows how to read scriptures! Lili with Grandma and Grandpa Dahl and the scriptures they gave her for her 8th birthday.This is how we usually do Lili's hair. She wanted to decorate her own birthday cake. She did a great job. It was easier to let her do that since I knew I would get to do her party cake all by myself. I'm a little psycho about cakes, which is a dumb thing to be into since they are very, very temporary.

Cousin Desi did Lili's hair. Isn't that something? She is so talented! This is the birthday cake for the party. I spent about six hours on it. And where's that cake I put so much into now? You don't want to know. Wouldn't it be better to be into sewing or painting or something that lasts? Even learning a few hair-dressing skills would do more for us than cake-decorating.

Since I did spend so much time on the cake, perhaps it deserves a little more press:

Here are the guests (and lovely assistants) of the party. It was a hat/hygiene kit party. Desi helped the girls decorate little straw hats, Jessica Ballard helped them assemble hygiene kits (in lieu of gifts, we asked girls to bring things for hygiene kits), and Liberty served food to everyone. It was the easiest birthday party we've had. It helps that my daughter and her friends are getting older--and that I have such helpful helpers.
With such a winning smile, who needs a wish?

Baptism Day--Deseret did Lili's hair again. Edgar's family wanted to know who did it. I kept trying to tell them it was me. "No, Olivia, really, who did it?" They know me.
All the fam--the boys got new sweaters for the occasion.

Lili in her new baptism dress.

Edgar, Liliana, and Abuelita--Lili got baptized in the same dress I was baptized in--my mom made it for me.
My parents with Lili.

My grandma Jaynes, Edgar, Lili and me.

Morgan, Liliana, and Carolina. We had dinner at the church after the baptism.

Lili's friends gave her new pajamas and a Pillow Pet. (I keep calling it a Pet Pillow much to Lili's consternation.) That night when I tucked her in, she said, "Now I'm really a member of the Church!" She's not faking it anymore.

Holiday Brunch, True Grit, A Baptism, and a 20 Pound Baby!

2011-01-11T14:29:00.001-08:00

I meant to post pictures of my annual ladies' holiday brunch earlier, but better late than never, right? We missed Grandma Dahl, Thelma, and Emma, but Thelma did influence me. I got out some glasses that were wedding gifts because I knew Thelma would have wanted all of the glasses to match, and we didn't have ten matching glasses in our cupboards.The table, complete with matching glasses.

We had a great time. I love the women in our family! Next year, Lili will be hosting with me. The brunch is for ladies 8 and older.The guests.

Johnson Girls and Melanee with the brunch favors.
Grandma, Me, and Katie
Mama, Marianne, Me, and Grandma
Jennifer and Baby Ammon (this was taken at the Johnsons' New Year's Eve Party)

Melanee and Ammon had our family for Christmas. They gave us this lovely rendition of our last name (please note I am sporting my Christmas apron which I only wear at the holiday brunch!).

Melanee also made scarves and hats for each of our kids--they love them!

Was there ever a better-looking group of Ammons?

For some reason (heredity?) my two oldest children are going through a True Grit/"John Waynes" (as Ruben calls him) stage. Naturally, Ruben is named in part for Reuben "Rooster" Cogburn, but when my dad used to call Ruben "Rooster," he didn't like it. I'm pretty sure Ruben won't have a problem with it anymore. He may need a little help with his wardrobe though. This is the best he and Lili could do. After watching True Grit at least 5 times this last week, they wanted to look the part:

Lili's Wal-mart red cowboy hat and her purple plastic belt might not win any awards, but she's doing a little better than her Davy Crockett/Bob the Builder counterpart. I enjoyed having True Grit in the background and it's been good to review the origins of much of my family's conversation.

Marcos wanted to get in on the action. Can you tell we've just been studying about the Anti-Nephi-Lehites who buried their weapons of war in our family Book of Mormon study? We really have been!
Our nephew Morgan was baptized on January 1--a great start to the New Year:
Robert and Morgan
Morgan and his dadsSome of the good-looking kids at the baptism: Carolina, Marcos, Lili, Morgan, Ruben, Luke, and McKenli

In other news, our baby is BIG! The little guy weighs 20 pounds now. When Lili and Ruben were one, they didn't weigh 20 pounds and Marcos was 22 pounds at 18 months old. It's fun to have a chubby one--especially when he's such a pleasant little fellow.
It's not as easy for Marcos to hold him as it used to be:
Finally, Edgar and I are celebrating 9 years of matrimonial bliss today. We are taking the carpool of ballet students (Lili, Liberty, Carolina, & McKenli) to Elko for their class and going to the Star Basque restaurant for dinner. Here's to 99 more!

Santa Baby

2010-12-24T12:23:00.000-08:00

There's nothing like a chubby baby--especially at Christmastime! To my large readership, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2011.

I think they saw the light!
The others are not quite as jolly or as chubby, but they are dear in their own right:

Our Angel Lili
Ruben and Marcos

PICTURE DAY

2010-10-21T12:24:00.000-07:00

We took the day off of school to take pictures. It takes a lot of effort to get all the children looking presentable at the same time. We had a lot of challenges: Edgar got cranky fast. Lili insisted on trying to have her bangs look like fashionista cousin Desi. It was hard to keep them smoothed over. Marcos wanted to get dirty and Ammon spit up all over. Ruben struggled with smiling naturally. I made the mistake of having Ruben say "Lightning McQueen!" for one of the shots. He got rather excited.
Here are some of our best individual pictures:

Hasn't Ammon become a substantial little fellow? He is in the 90th percentile for his weight. That is a first for our family, and we're rather proud of the little chub.

We weren't able to get Ammon to smile for a picture. He is starting to smile, but it didn't happen today during picture time. I wanted a picture of all of the kids to send in our Christmas card, but I'm not completely satisfied with any of them. I don't think we'll get everything together to try again, so we are going to choose one of these pictures. I would like you, my large readership, to tell me which you like best:

Number 1
Number 2

Number 3 Number 4 (AKA: Do you hear what I hear?)

Number 5
These are just to show you what we were struggling against:
I thought Picture Day would be easier than school. It wasn't. It makes me appreciate home school--usually it doesn't matter at all what my kids wear or what their hair looks like.

This just in. I got Ammon to smile:

Now There Are SIX!

2010-08-07T16:22:00.000-07:00

We were going to do our last day of summer school on Monday. We would have completed 9 weeks. I have been so focused on school this summer and I've hardly done anything else.

I was scheduled for my c-section on August 12, so I was going to have about 2 weeks to get ready for the baby--clean the house, pack my hospital bag, go through clothes . . .

Saturday night my water broke. I called University Hospital in Salt Lake City because that was where I was supposed to deliver. The on-call Dr. strongly urged me to go to Elko to deliver. He said everything would be fine since I was exactly 36 weeks pregnant. He also said my beloved Dr. Draper was out of town for the weekend and wouldn't be able to deliver my baby even if I did risk going to Salt Lake.

So, we went to Elko and on August 1 at 11:56, our little miracle was born. We named him Ammon Alejandro. He weighed 6 lbs. 3 1/2 ounces and was 19 inches long.

The next day when our other kids got to come and visit, the first thing Ruben said was, "Now there are SIX Cobians!" He went around the room and counted us--just to verify. There really are six of us now and we are so grateful.

(It is rather humbling for me to include this picture of myself.)

Ammon is an absolute blessing. So far he only eats and sleeps (for at least 4 hours at a time!). While I was pregnant with him, I said he was my favorite because it was such an easy, nice pregnancy (despite recently being very hot this summer). So far, he's also been our easiest baby once he's come home. He definitely looks like one of us (rather he looks like Edgar--just like all of the little darlings).

We are all enjoying him so much:

So far, Marcos has been very tender and loving with Little Ammon.
Ruben is as exuberant about having a new baby in the house as he is about everything else--VERY.
Lili is a great big sister.
It's amazing how tiny these little ones start out.
So that's our big news. We are now six.

Easter

2010-04-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

Don't die of shock: two posts in one day. I just wanted to include a few pictures of our Easter egg-decorating party. We had a lovely time. I think Marcos had at least as much fun as anyone. I gave him one egg and one cup of dye and he went with it. He ended up with blue dye all over his hands and hair and the floor (of course). The egg didn't fair so well--the yolk even was exposed and dyed blue:

Some more good-looking Easter bunnies:

Isaiah, Ruben, & Morgan

Liliana, Hyrum, Carolina

Liberty, Deseret, and Clarissa (Marianne's backside in the background)

LiliBirthday girls Grandma Corba and Clarissa (sporting her new make-up!)

Remember Me?

2010-04-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

We are still here. It will probably take another trip out of the country for me to become a regular blogger. We are just doing our normal things--school (Edgar hasn't worked much overtime lately and I love when he does Spanish school with the kids), preschool (we had it at our house today), gaining weight (that's me, no one else), and craving things like cheesecake and chocolate. (That's also me--I finished off the cheesecake I made today. Nobody else wanted any--really. Those are the kind of people I live with.

Lili had a girl party last week. She feels a bit slighted that we are having another boy, but if you can't have sisters of your own, neighboring cousins like these are the next best thing:
Marianne's four girls dressed in their formal wear and came over for some girl time. Those Johnson girls are so dear. Even though they are quite grown up (thinking about things like getting ears pierced and stake dances and cell phones) they are still willing to twirl around and play on a swingset with their little first-grade cousin. Lili was in heaven. She showed off her bike tricks and they made her feel like a star.
Lili's not the only one with a few bike tricks up her sleeve. Marcos loves to go outside and the blessed thing about it is that Lili and Ruben are very responsible about watching out for him. I love having old-ish kids and a toddler at the same time. Ruben and Lili took turns pushing Marcos on the tricycle.
This is our nightly ritual: "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider. Marcos insists on standing in the middle during the performance. He seems to think he's singing too. At the end, he enthusiastically claps.
We also have nightly rodeos with Edgar acting as the animal. Maybe Marcos will be a jockey or a bronc rider, as his grandpa says he will.
Speaking of Grandpa, he made Lili's day on Saturday by taking her on a little horse ride.
Lili got a haircut. It is really cute. Well, it was especially cute when Mindy (who cut it) did it, but it's easier for me to brush now. These are the little monkeys ready for church:Marcos insists on doing whatever his siblings do. That's why he's started putting the silverware away. He gets one or two utensils at a time, walks over to the silverware drawer, opens the drawer, throws the utensils in and then shuts the drawer. Then he goes back for more. So far it's working out (as long as I don't mind having a messy silverware drawer--I don't).

Guadalajara

2010-03-24T21:14:00.001-07:00

Before I take you to Guadalajara (on the most miserable bus ride ever), here are some parting shots from El Grullo:

This is Dona Chayo. She was Edgar's first grade teacher at La Escuela Las Pilas (the same school Edgar's mom and Lili went to). Dona Chayo is retired, but she picks her grand kids up from school every day. She stopped me and asked Edgar's name. She taught for 30 years. When I told her I was surprised at how big the class sizes are in Mexico, she said, "Oh, this is nothing! I used to teach 50 or 60 at a time!" I wondered how she would remember Edgar out of all that. He says he caused a lot of trouble. (Lili's looking a little like her aunt Thelma. :))

On my journey up to the Capilla, I encountered the tile that Edgar's family donated when the Capilla was dedicated. They paid for that stair.
I love these flowers. They were all along my hike up to the Capilla.

My view from the top.

The first sunset I saw in El Grullo. I had to hike up to see it.

Our bus ride from El Grullo to Guadalajara was probably the hardest part of our whole trip. I found our bus driver before we even got on the bus to ask if we could watch an appropriate movie. Between puffs on his cigarette he told he had no control over what movies came on--that it was all controlled from Guadalajara. I don't know if I believe him or not, but there was nothing more I could do. The movie was a violent one, followed by one with sex scenes. Ay, Mexico! I kept covering Lili's eyes. We both felt queasy--and not just because of the movie. The road is so windy. The most difficult thing, though, was Marcos and his incessant crying. We had been so busy packing up and running here and there, that Marcos had missed his nap. I read in Parent's magazine years ago that before traveling, one should still have one's child nap, and not just assume said child will sleep on the trip. They were right. Marcos was so exhausted and he wouldn't sleep. I bet he cried for 2 hours. I know everyone on the bus hated us. I decided it was their punishment for wanting a trashy movie. That didn't make me feel much better though. At one point, a little old lady said, "Senor!" (Edgar was holding Marcos at the time.) "What is wrong with that child? GIVE HIM TO ME!" Edgar handled it well. I wouldn't have known what to say. Edgar said, "He's just tired." We kept passing Marcos back and forth. At one point Edgar looked pretty desperate and I suggested taking the little lady up on her offer. Edgar finally got Marcos to sleep by standing up with him and holding on tightly as the bus swayed him around the curves. Edgar was holding sleeping Marcos when Ruben started throwing up on Edgar. Again Edgar had the worst of it all.

Fortunately, there was a happy end in sight: The Hotel San Francisco Plaza. It's a "historic" hotel that gave us a good deal--the third night was free. It is very old, but I liked it. They didn't have an elevator, so we made the wise choice (considering all our luggage) to bunk on the bottom floor. We were usually the only people in the lobby, which was right outside our room:

The kids loved the birds in the lobby. I liked them too, but there was an old boiled egg in their cage that made me feel sick whenever we walked by.

Our room had a wonderful, HOT shower with a lot of water pressure and the shower head was taller than I am! I loved it so much I took a shower that night and the next morning. We all slept great that night too--even Marcos. The next morning, we met the Sorensens for breakfast. That afternoon we took our kids to their house. They had arranged babysitters for us so we could all go to the temple together.

(Yes, dear reader, I am pregnant. My figure is not just the result of too many taquitos.)

The Sorensens back yard.

Marian told us a lovely story about the temple. There are pigeons everywhere in Guadalajara. They are always making a mess on the statues downtown. The Angel Moroni on the temple, though, never gets dirty. There are night hawks that scare the other birds away. Recently they took the Angel Moroni down to re-gold him. There were no bird droppings on him. She said that even the animals respect the Lord's house. It was so great to be with the Sorensens.

The Mariachi Square in Guadalajara. We never did get to hear the mariachis there. We saw them, but you have to pay to get them to play. I was hoping someone else would pay and we could get a free concert. It didn't happen.

Saturday Edgar's Tia Lupe and cousin Gaby took us all around downtown Guadalajara. This is a theater.

The Cathedral

We bought some souvenirs that day and walked A LOT. We got back to our room at about 8:00. We packed everything up, set our alarm for 3 am and went to bed. Our poor children had a hard time getting up, but they were cheerful about it.

They weren't so cheerful at 4:00 when we got to the airport and found out our flight had been canceled and that we would be waiting FIVE HOURS until our flight.

Marcos was perky for awhile. We fed everybody and then took up residence in a dark corner of the airport Burger King. Liliana fell asleep on a booth, I got Marcos to sleep in the stroller, and Ruben fell asleep on Edgar. I put my head down on the table and fell asleep. Poor Edgar's the only one that didn't sleep. The good news was that we got a direct Mexicana flight. It was a nicer airline. They served breakfast and didn't charge us to check luggage. If only we'd known we were flying with them, we could have enjoyed 4 more hours of sleep at our hotel. We got to Las Vegas around 1:00. By the time we got our car, ate, and drove all the way home, it was 9:00. We were thrilled to be home. We unpacked that night. Marcos helped:

He carefully arranged the stuff from our bathroom bag into the toilet. (As if I haven't put enough about toilets and toilet paper in this travelogue!)

So now we are home. We are loving the reliable plumbing, having the kids in their own rooms again, having our queen size bed back (we are far too large for the double bed we were using in El Grullo), having more than one bathroom, hot water spontaneously coming out of the tap, and our washer and dryer!

Looking at these pictures, though, I already miss Mexico a little. As Lili said, "It's our country too!" The kids are now dual citizens.

Shhh. Don´t tell Edgar

2010-03-18T09:06:00.000-07:00

Edgar is over at our house cleaning and packing and I´m sneaking in a little blog session. We are taking te bus (ugh) to Guadalajara this afternoon. Tomorrow we will spend time with the Sorensens (Traci, they are David Sorensen´s parents who serve in the Guadalajara Temple as President and Matron). They´re from our home ward. We will go to the temple tomorrow night and we get to do the work for Edgar´s great-great grandparents. We´ll get sealed for them and then seal their four boys who died as babies to them.

Yesterday we went back to El Limón trying to get birth certificates (Edgar´s Tía--the one who is a nun, actually she´s the Mother Superior at her convent) is gone now. She´s in the hospital with her mom, who isn´t doing well. I took this picture from the balcony of the City Building. It turns out they only have birth certificates from 1900 and later. We´d have to go to another town, and we´ve run out of time.

This morning Edgar´s dad and his Tía Malena were waiting for me at Ruben´s school. That´s a little awkward since they don´t talk to each other. Edgar´s dad wants us to eat with them. His aunt just wanted to say good-bye. I don´t think we have time to eat with Rafael before we go, but we´re doing it anyway (we might not have time to blog either). I´m giving Malena some leftover food. The other day when we ate at her house she had made this delicious corn bread that she doesn´t make very often because it uses 5 eggs. We had 4 eggs left over. She also charge some meat at the butcher´s to feed us. Edgar gave each of his aunts some money. I´m glad. They´ve all been so good to us.

We spent our last night like we did our first--entertaining visitors until very late. It was lovely of them to want to say good-bye. I feel melancholy this morning. I´ll miss this place. I have people I say hi to every morning on the way to Lili´s schoool. There´s the one-legged man who sweeps i the plaza and the ancient beggar lady who sets up at the mercado about the time we pass by. There are also two very nice shop keepers on our street who always greet me. They know Edgar´s family.

One of my goals here was to hike to the Capilla (a chapel dedicated to who else? The Virgin María). It´s only about a 20 minute hike up, but it is all uphill. I finally went up for the first time last night. I was going to go every morning, but it didn´t happen in our morning rush to get the kids off to school.

This just in. I´m having trouble posting pictures and I have to hurry back and help my husband get ready to go.

Burning the Castle?

2010-03-17T10:40:00.000-07:00

Another new experience for me: celebrating "Las Fiestas" in Melaque. Every town, it seems, here in Mexico has a time when they celebrate. Four years ago when we came to El Grullo, we came during the Fiestas here. The first ten days are to celebrate the Catholic Church (mostly the Virgin María) and then the remaing ten (?) are to celebrate the town. This time we didn´t want to come during the Fiestas because we wanted the kids to go to school. There is no school held during the Fiestas.

When we were in Melaque (the town we stayed while at the beach) though, we caught some of their Fiestas. I don´t how I missed this when we were in El Grullo last time, but for the ten nights of the Church celebration, there is a "castillo"--castle that is burned at 10 pm in the town square. It is to honor María somehow. People who have experienced a great miracle or blessing, buy a castle (that doesn´t look like a castle--it looks more like a really tall stick full of fireworks) in honor of the Virgin and donate to the celebration. Each night the castle is more elaborate until the final night. I think we caught the 2nd night.

We forced our kids to stay up that late. (They were exhausted. It reminded me of when I woke everyone up from their nap our last day in Disneyland and insisted on going back and getting our money´s worth. The kids just wanted to sleep!)

The burning actually started late (what a surprise--here in Mexico!). The whole event was accompanied by a Mariachi band and another band.

Every few minutes fireworks from the castillo go off and sparks and actually sparklers fly into crowds of people. The people scream and laugh and run. Children run under the castillo, directly under the sparks, with cardboard slabs or boxes over their heads. Edgar did that as a child.

Edgar was talking amiably (I try to catch photos of him looking pleasant because his natural reaction to a camera is a frown) to a man from Ontario Canada. We encountered more English speakers than Spanish in that town. A lot of northerners winter there.

These aren´t friends of ours, or even acquaintances. They just were in the right place at the right time.

These are the kids running under the castillo as it burns.

I´m late to pick Ruben up from school. His teacher will have my hide!

The Beach

2010-03-15T13:17:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful time at the beach. We were mostly at Cuastecomate--a calm little cove. We drove the 2 1/2 curvy hours in Edgar´s dad´s truck. It was better than taking the bus, but was rather uncomfortable--especially for me. I held both boys on my lap. Incredibly enough, we all managed to fall asleep (except Edgar) twice.

The view was lovely on the drive, but Lili and I had a hard time enjoying--be both felt so sick.

We left so early that we got to the beach at 9:00 am on Thursday. We had the beach to ourselves most of that day. There were more people on Friday and Saturday. When Edgar´s relatives came (they own a restaurant right on the beach) we ordered wonderful seafood from them--shrimp and fish and octopus. After eating, I felt so sleepy. I stretched out on a lawn chair and the lovely ocean breeze lulled me to sleep. Marcos had a long nap in a hammock.

After I woke up, I went swimming with the kids. Edgar didn´t get in the water until Friday.

We rented a bungalow from Edgar´s relatives. It was new and nice and had hot water coming out automatically from the sinks and shower. Amazing.

The view from our bedroom there.
Across the street.
We did everything we could think of to do at the beach. Lili collected seashells.
We dug about in the sand.
We sipped coconuts and then ate the meat from inside.

By about 12:00 on Saturday we were tired of sand and salt and being beach bums. It was lovely for a few days, but I don´t think I´m really a beach person. We piled back into the truck and headed for El Grullo.

The kids and I all fell asleep, but then woke up when Edgar stopped to get gas. We went inside to buy water and ice cream and go to the bathroom. (The bathrooms were free and they had toilet paper!) The problem was that right before the entrance to the women´s bathroom, were horrible trashy magazines at my children´s eye level. I covered up their eyes. When I bought the ice cream, I told the woman I had a complaint about the magazines by the bathroom. I told her they were inappropriate for children and that they were right where my children could see them on the way to the bathroom. She was very unconcerned. I repeated that they are inappropriate for children and adults. I don´t think she cared.
Yesterday we went to church again. (Edgar´s aunt told me I look very "weird" in this skirt.) As the dear sisters were hugging and kissing me good-bye, I felt so grateful for them. They´re this country´s answer to the trashy magazines, horror movies on the bus, and Vegas-style dancers to honor women. They are beautiful and modest and they know who they are.

I am late for a dinner engagement. So long.

Sunday y Algo Más

2010-03-10T11:30:00.000-08:00

I forgot (in my haste to report about the ranch) to write about Sunday. Our first Sunday here Marcos had a fever and so Edgar, Lili, and Ruben took a taxi to Aútlan (about 1/2 hour by taxi, an hour by bus) to go to church. Nobody was there and it was all locked up. They waited about an hour and then took the bus home. They were gone about 3 hours.

We weren´t sure what to expect this week. The branch members were there, though, in full force. They had had stake conference the week before in Manzanillo (3 hours away). During the opening song, "Praise to the Man," I started crying. They were singing with such fervor and I felt the Spirit so strongly. It was great to be in the familiar church setting. Also, the man who blessed the bread for the sacrament spoke so humbly and reverently, it brought tears to my eyes. There are four full-time missionaries there and they were planning to have 5 baptisms that day. They ended up having only 2 since the other 3 investigators (all in the same family) didn´t come to church. The Church really is the same everywhere.

Marcos went to his first hour of nursery. He loved the snacks and playing with toys. I stayed with him. Lili didn´t want to go to Primary unless she could be right by Ruben. They came and got me out of Sunday School (Edgar was with Marcos then) because Ruben kept bugging Lili, and they didn´t know if they should separate them or not. Again, the Church is the same everywhere! Ruben could cause trouble in any Primary, anywhere. We caught a bus quickly from Aútlan, and the ride to El Grullo was so long and hot and sweaty and smelly. Poor Marcos fell asleep in Edgar´s arms. After we got off the bus, it seemed like we had to walk forever to get home. It was so hot.

That night we went to the Plaza to hang out with the rest of the town. They were getting ready for some event, and we decided to stay and see what it was. It took quite awhile and I was worried about the kids getting to bed on time. Then they started. A woman was introducing the evening. She is the president of a women´s group here, and she said March 9 is International Woman´s Day. It was an event to celebrate womanhood and they had chosen 24 women from El Grullo to honor. Women went around giving carnations to every woman. I got one. I was thinking it was all so nice and then I saw one of the performers. She was so scantily-clad and looked like a Las Vegas show girl. I couldn´t believe it. I asked Edgar if she was one of the performers. He said yes, and we left. I was so bothered. What a slap in the face to womanhood! I couldn´t believe a women´s group would honor women by objectifying them. I also hated that we seemed to be the only ones that had a problem with it. There were so many families and children there!

We continue to have lots of invitations to eat. This morning Edgar´s Tía Malena met me at Ruben´s school to invite us to eat at her house at 2:00 today. I stayed at Ruben´s school awhile to volunteer/observe and when I got home I told Edgar about it. He had been out and about with Marcos and had run into his Tía Bertha and agreed to have lunch with her at 2:00 today. They both wanted to have us before we go to the beach (tomorrow morning). Edgar called Tía Malena and we are going to her house now on Monday. On Sunday, Edgar´s cousin Noé invited us to eat and then other family members invited us for the same day. We´ll go there later. We will have a day of feasting rather than a day of rest.

It was interesting to be at Ruben´s school. The teacher is very strict and doesn´t seem too happy in her work. The 3-4 kids who misbehave get most the attention. She kept wanting me to translate for Ruben. I think Ruben will learn more if I don´t go. I told her she does a good job with so many kids. She said last year she taught 37 three-year-olds!

The clock on her wall (like the one at Lili´s school) doesn´t work either!
We couldn´t find Ruben´s glasses this morning. He looks so different without them. Some of the kids wear uniforms and so don´t. The same is true of Lili´s school.
Ruben loves wrestling with other little boys.
I don´t think Ruben would love school nearly as much if it weren´t for the playground.

Yesterday we had a calm day. We didn´t visit anyone and nobody visited us. It was kind of nice. We had Family Home Afternoon because we thought someone might come. We went to the Plaza and also a playground place lasat night and bought tacos and ice cream. Here are some pictures of the kids. They love playing on these things.

Marcos loves horses as much as his brother.
Lili prefers a good horse.
Marcos wants to do whatever his siblings do. Last night he insisted on having Edgar floss his teeth.

Tomorrow we´re off to the beach for 3 days. I don´t think I´ll be blogging. Edgar´s dad is letting us drive his truck there so we don´t have to go on the bus. Also, it´s a great time to go. Lili´s school is cancelled tomorrow, Friday, Monday, and Tuesday! I think her teacher just needs a break. I found out that he has an afternoon session of about 40 first-graders too! Ruben´s school is cancelled Friday as well.

Family History and El Rancho

2010-03-09T07:31:00.000-08:00

All my ranch pictures are at the beginning, so I´m going to start with that (yesterday). We met Cecilio and Guadalupe on Friday. Cecilio is Edgar´s dad´s second cousin. His grandpa (also Cecilio) was shot when he was in his early 30´s. Cecilio´s dad was his only child. Edgar did the temple work already for Cecilio Sr. This Cecilio lives on a ranch, Yerba Buena. They invited us to come today. Edgar´s dad was driving out that way yesterday, so we went yesterday. It was better because we didn´t have to get the kids out of school. Cecilio and Lupe were not expecting us, but they dropped everything, called their kids to come. They all live close-by and share an outdoor shower and toilet. The women got making tortillas. They grow the corn that they grind to make the maza for their tortillas and they make tortillas every day. They were the best tortillas I´ve ever had. Edgar´s dad took steak and Cecilio started a fire and started grilling it. They had beans and homemade salsa and their own homemade queso fresco--cheese. It was heavenly. They have cows and chickens and dogs and cats--there was even a dead lizard (the kind you eat, Edgar told me--who knew you eat lizards?) that the kids liked playing with. They live right by a river and they swim in it, only when it´s hot. We were dying--sweating like crazy. I touched the water. It was warmer than Boulder Creek on its hottest day. They let us swim, but only if I got the kids heads wet (to prevent coughing). I didn´t understand how those two were related, but Edgar told me just to do it. I didn´t put water on my own head, but I did the kids. The funny thing is, that last night, in bed, I kept coughing. None of the kids did.

We had a great time. We were there about 4 hours and they acted like they had nothing to do but entertain us. They were so kind and so self-sufficient! I was really impressed and told Lupe so. She said she can do a lot of things, but she never learned to read. Her grand-daughter was there. She´s only 16, but she quit school after 7th grade. I don´t know why. Their school there goes to 9th grade.

Swimming in the river. Until 15 years ago, they didn´t have electricty or plumbing. Lupe washed clothes and children in this river. She has 8 kids!

The dead lizard. (We didn´t eat it.)

Most of the family that was there.

Their living room--a little blurry. It´s full of Lupe´s handiwork. She gave me a table runner she´d just finished to remember her by. She is so kind.

We gals in the kitchen (though I had nothing to contribute to the meal).

Cows here.

Lupe was very concerned about the safety of the children.

Cecilio barbequing.

There are amazing flowers all around their house. I love this picture of Marcos.

The outside of the house.

We had a wonderful time there. I felt like I´d stepped back in time. All the ancestors I´ve been researching lived on ranches. Now I feel like I know what their lives were like (a little).

We have been on the go. Friday we ate at Edgar´s dad´s again. We ate fish (people are very strict about not eating meat on Fridays here). The fish was looking at me, but it tasted very good. We met Rafael´s second cousin, Cecilio, and his wife, María Guadalupe.
We also drove around the outskirts of El Grullo. We saw sugar cane fields. The kids loved it because Edgar let them sit in the back of the truck.

On Saturday we went to El Limón--the town where Edgar´s dad grew up and where I´ve found the most family history information. We started out at the cemetery. It was kind of disappointing. When I was at home I thought that if I could only be here where all these people are buried (I have copies of the death certificates saying they are buried here), maybe I could find out more about them--like when they were married and when they were born. I realize now I was thinking of the well-groomed and thorough cemeteries we visit on Memorial Day in the Salt Lake Valley.

Here (and I guess anywhere) the quality of the grave depends on several things--how long ago the person died, how much money the family had then and how much they have now. There are all extremes.
I was standing in the same place when I took these pictures. The above grave is a mini church. It has names on it. The one below has some bricks holding the tin down. There are no names.

About half the graves are unmarked and when we got there, Edgar told me that his dad had heard that some of the family had extricated (is that the right word?) some of the older dead family members to make room for new ones. I still can´t believe that would be true. I think folks here respect their dead more than that. I started on one end and Edgar started on the other. We were looking for his great-grandparents, some of their children who died, and maybe even his great-great grandparents. We found nothing. It was hot and humid. Our kids were hungry and tired. I felt defeated. We went to visit Edgar´s dad´s cousin--María del Refugio Cobián.

She was darling. She never married and she runs her own little shop in the town. She has cancer and has been pretty sick off and on for the last 6 years. She didn´t have much information for us, but she did remember her grandparetns. She said her grandpa was a grump, but that her grandma was a dear woman. I said, "Isn´t that always the way?" No offense to anyone intended. She said we should visit another woman (Rafael´s cousin on his mom´s side) who might know a lot.

This other cousin owns a store too. We went there, but she had gone to Guadalajara for the day. Her two sons were there. We told them who we were. I tried to buy chips and bananas for the kids, but they insisted on giving them to us for free. We´re cousins, after all. They directed us to their aunt--Edgar´s paternal grandma´s neice, Tía Trini. She was great. She has 10 kids and there were grandchildren all over the place. She made each of them come and shake our hands because we are their tíos. Our kids were outside playing with her grandkids. A aldy came buy selling something. She couldn´t see Edgar and me, but she talked to Tía Trini.

She said, "Who are these white kids?"

Tía Trini said, "Part of my family, that´s who."

"Well, why are they so white?"

"That´s just the way they are and they´re part of my family!"

She had valuable information for us. She told me where Edgar´s grandma was born. I hadn´t been able to find her. She said that the family had to move around a lot in those days because it was during the Mexican Revolution.

Next we went to the convent in El Limón to visit Rafael´s cousin, Elvira. She is a nun. I wasn´t sure if the kids could go in. The only convent I´ve been in was in Poland I didn´t have kids with me. The sister that opened the door was so kind and welcoming to our kids. She took us into a garden area. Edgar couldn´t remember Elvira´s name to ask for her, but I did. When she came, she looked confused.

She didn´t know us. Her mom is the last surviving child of her generation. She´s had a stroke and if not doing too well. Elvira takes care of her in the convent most of the time, but that day she was in Aútlan at the hospital. She told us she´d call when her mom is back so we could visit her. I told her I wanted to find out about her grandparents´birthdates. She told me she could go to the civil registry on Monday (yesterday) and get me copies of their birth certficates because they were registered in El Limón. She was such a dear woman, and seemed to be a pure, kind soul. The convent sells bread to make money. She gave the kids some. We were about to leave, and I asked her if she knew where her grandparents are buried in the cemetery. She did! She told us they are near where her sister is buried, so she knows. She said they are simple crosses, about in the middle of the upper section of the cemetery. I was so excited. We went back to the cemetery and looked and looked. There were a lot of unmarked crosses, or crosses where the writing has been worn off. The care-taker was there. He hasn´t worked there long, so he didn´t know where everything was. He was really old and he knew Edgar´s great-grandpa. He said he knows all his kids and grandkids too. He showed us one of Edgar´s great uncle´s graves. It was nice, but didn´t have a name anywhere. Weird. He didn´t know where Edgar´s great-grandparents are buried. We were all exhausted, hungrgy, sweaty, and really hot. Edgar promised me we´d return, and we came back to El Grullo.

A few other random pictures

¨Sunday night at the Plaza.

Another Tía. I don´t even remember her name.
Rubén and his finished homework. He obviously did the work himself. He was proud of it. I hope the teacher will be pleased. I saw another little one´s homework yesterday and it was obviously done by her mom.
Clean clothes! We finally broke down and paid to have our non-white clothes washed yesterday. It cost about $15 for three loads and we´re thrilled. After all, we are on vacation. Who has time for laundry?

Lists

2010-03-05T08:27:00.000-08:00

I feel like everytime I post something on here I am so scattered, so I decided to make two lists today. My first list is

THINGS I LOVE IN MEXICO

1. Fast internet. It´s crazy that here, right across the street from our house with primitive plumbing, laundry facilities, and bare lightbulbs, I´m at this internet cafe with speedy internet. Most people in the US have much faster internet at home than I do though.

2. Gorgeous colorful houses. I wish this one were ours. It´s on a hill overlooking El Grullo. There´s a gorgeous view and flowers and trees all over the place.
3. Watching Edgar share his childhood with our kids. Yesterday he taught them to suck nectar from these flowers. Also yesterday when I was picking Lili up from school, Edgar´s first grade teacher (who taught at that same school, but is now retired and was picking up her grandkids) stopped me. She asked Edgar´s name. She had seen him that morning, dropping Lili off and recognized his face. She was a sweet little lady.
4. Having our whole family together all the time--especially having two full-time parents all the time. The other day Edgar said, "You know, the women here always do the laundry." I asked him what the men do here. "Work." And what are you doing here, Edgar? I think he got the point. He did the laundry yesterday, and this morning I woke up to him doing more. He´s a dear man. He even mopped and made it look like no big deal. The kids are loving all the time they have with him. If only we were independently wealthy and he didn´t have to work!
(From our trip to Augua Caliente the other day.)

5. The wildlife. I know chickens aren´t that out of the ordinary anywhere, but they are everywhere here. This is at Edgar´s Tía Malena´s house, where we visited yesterday. Marcos kept "bock-bocking" with the chickens.
(note also the little papaya tree in the background)

6. I love the vegetation! Amazing trees and flowers grow everywhere year-round and seemingly with very little effort.

7. It´s great to get to know Edgar´s family and friends here. Yesterday we visited his aunt, uncle, and cousins. One of the cousins looks a lot like Edgar´s sister, Elia. Here we are with most of them (the one that looks like Elia is taking the picture). They have a gorgeous view from their house on the hill.
(note the lima tree above us--limas are wonderful fruit, kind of like limes, except very sweet)

Below is Edgar´s friend, José Cruz and then his daughter Valeria. Rubén loved hugging her. He saw a man selling roses on the street the other day and said he´s going to buy all the girls a lot of roses when he´s "Big Kid Ruben Superman." Uh oh.

8. Saying good-bye before we even say hello. I haven´t gotten used to this yet. If you pass someone in the street and you aren´t planning to stop, you just say "Adíos," in a real friendly way. Yesterday I saw a mom of a kid from Rubén´s class at school. I said "Buenas Tardes," but she was already saying "Adíos." It´s kind of nice. I wonder if it would work for me when I´m at Wal-Mart and I´m trying to hurry and I run into someone I know. Could I just smile real big and say, "Bye!"?

9. I love how we are outside all the time. The kids love being outside and it seems like a breathe of fresh air to be out and about. Marcos is loving walking around outside.
10. THE SUNSHINE!
11. My hair is naturally curly here! I love what the humidity does for my parched Nevada-born skin, lips, and hair.

12. How clean everyone is here--especially since it takes so much effort! Every morning shopkeepers sweep and mop (even though they sweep and mop before they close). Everyone is so clean and pressed. It´s impressive.

13. I love the birds that accompany my scripture study in the morning. I love the fresh morning feeling here--well, anywhere.

14. I love, love, LOVE agua fresca! They have little stands here where they have fresh water made from real juice from exotic fruits. The other night, after Edgar´s Tía Bertha finally left, and I had put my pajamas on (again), Edgar asked me out for an agua fresca. I got dressed again, we locked the door (the kids were all asleep and we were only gone for 10 minutes maximum, I promise, Cor) and walked down the street to buy agua fresca. It was heaven! I had pineapple and Edgar had lime with kiwi. They are to die for!

THINGS I´M GLAD ARE TEMPORARY--I WON´T BE SAD TO LEAVE BEHIND WHEN WE GO HOME

1. Our water situation. I have become much better at conserving water. We went through our first purified water jug so quickly. Yesterday I washed strawberries in purified water and saved the water to rinse my boiled eggs in. Then I used the hot water from the boiled eggs to wash dishes. I was proud of myself. I have mindlessly flushed toilet paper down the toilet more than once (and not even because you dared me, Leigh). Some toilets seem more robust than ours, but ours seems terminally ill and as it struggles to flush, I´m afraid I´ve done it in. I also don´t like our shower here. The whole bathroom (which is all tile), gets wet and for hours after anyone takes a shower, I have to roll up my pants to enter the bathroom.

2. Laundry! It piles up so quickly. Especially because we are outside a lot and the boys especially get very dirty.

3. My sad cell phone problems. I´m so bothered that I can´t get a signal here. Edgar took my phone to a cell phone place here today. The gal said that there´s only one tower here and that on cloudy days phones don´t work too well. There were a few more clouds yesterday, but not THAT many.

4. The kids´homework. I get resentful when they have homework. I guess we´re trying to fit too much in at once (I know, I´ve never been one to do that!). We are trying to get the kids educated, visit everyone, eat all the good food Edgar loves, have a vacation, and keep the house and clothes and children clean all at the same time. I think if the kids are at school the whole time, the teachers shouldn´t expect us to spend time outside of school on school. I know that´s irrational. We just have other stuff going on!

5. Night-time noises. The kids and Edgar sleep great, but I´m so at home here, I´ve brought my insomnia with me. It doesn´t help that we live in a commercial area. The band of El Grullo practices each night, starting around 10. They´re really good, but it´s bedtime. Church bells ring all night--at least from 4 am on. You can also hear a rooster at any given time. There´s also the occasional drunk singing his way home or someone driving by with obnoxious loud music in the middle of the night.

The positives are definitely outweighing the negatives. I´m sad at how fast our time is already passing. I love waking up each morning and remembering, "I´m in Mexico!"

Birthday and School in Mexico

2010-03-04T12:36:00.000-08:00

I don´t want this to be underlined, but I´m very short on time and don´t know how to fix it.

Lili had a lovely birthday. Thanks for your calls. I don´t know who called because my caller ID and my voice mail don´t work here, so I´ll just assume you all called and I thank you. We spent the afternoon at Augua Caliente, a gorgeous natural hot spring made into a pool, or five pools. We were the only ones there (besides three cute older ladies) for most of the afternoon.

The trees are painted like this there. Edgar says they think it´s pretty.
At our house. _Lili bought this guitar with the money from Grandma and Grandpa. She loves it.
Agua Caliente. Ruben said it was a kingdom of swimming pools without a king and queen and guards.
Lili, Edgar, and Marcos. Ruben preferred playing with some other kids at the kid pool.
Ruben was teaching Lili to swim. He´s a good swimmer. They had a ball racing each other.

Marcos in his new swimsuit.

The kids also bought balls with their money from Grandma and Grandpa. Ruben´s popped.

Things have not gone as planned today. Edgar walked both the kids to school. I was going to do some laundry if he would mop. The whole house is tile, and believe it or not, is more intimidating to clean than even the clothes. He came back from taking Ruben to school and told me they were having a meeting with all the parents from 10-12! I didn´t have time for that. If I had known earlier, I could have planned, but the meeting was in 1/2 hour! Edgar ironed my clothes and told me we could have sandwiches for lunch (two of Lili´s "friends" invited themselves to our house to eat), and that he would do the laundry (no loss without a little gain) if I would go to the meeting.

Lili´s friends are at our house now. On Monday, they helped her find the bathroom (they were the ones who asked me for toilet paper). On Tuesday Lili said she invited them to our house. I was surprised that Lili would and could do that in Spanish. I asked her what she said. She said all she had to say was "Si." They asked if they could come. They are in 6th grade and I guess they´re just intrigued with the new American girl (who doesn´t talk) and her chatty mother. Every day at lunchtime, they hang around while Lili eats. I wasn´t thrilled about having them come because I knew wouldn´t talk to them and that I would have to entertain them. Lili was so excited about it, though, and as I thought about it, I realized we would be speaking Spanish while they were there. I had wanted to blog this morning, but I had the parent meeting. It turns out, I left Edgar in charge at home. The girls were playing a ball game with Lili and I can blog for a spell.
These are Lili´s friends. They are cute girls. There names are Valeria and Roxana. Roxana lives with her grandma. The grandma met me today after school. I guess I didn´t understand her intention. I told her I would walk Roxana home later. I didn´t realize she wanted to see where we lived first (understandably). When Valeria finally finished jumping rope for her PE class (we had to wait about 15 minutes--she hurried as fast as she could and was all red-faced at the end), we took off. We had gone a few blocks, when Roxana said, "Can we wait for my grandma?" I hadn´t known Grandma was coming, but we waited for her to catch up. I tried to slow down so she could keep up. She was painfully slow. It´s tricky because we had to walk single file since the sidewalks are so narrow and there are a lot of pedestrians. We finally got to the house and I invited everyone in. Edgar was there and was as friendly as could be to Grandma. They got talking and she said, "I'm your tia!" I have learned that "tia" is not a strict term for aunt. It can be anyone with a familial connection. It turns out that Roxana´s grandma and Edgar´s grandparents were neighbors. We had a lovely chat and the grandma left, confident that her Roxana would come to no harm.

Yesterday I spent the morning in Lili´s classroom. It was a zoo! I´ve been rushing to get her there on time, but I´m going to stop hurrying. Kids were streaming in for the first 20 minutes or so. Moms were hanging around, bringing in breakfast, and about half of the kids were eating breakfast until 9:00 or so. The first hour I sat at the teacher´s desk. Bless his heart! He said I could sit there, but that the back is broken. Indeed it is. He has very little to work with, it seems. There was a clock on the wall that doesn´t work. He has 39 first graders all jammed in the little classroom. My father-in-law told us that kids who get expelled from another school get sent to Lili´s school. It would be hard for anyone, and the poor man has no classroom management skills. Lili had told me that a girl was mean to her. Yesterday and today the girl (Cynthia) sat by her and they seem to be friends now. Kids were constantly getting up and running around, smacking each other, screaming, and always at least talking. About half of them never know what´s going on. Many are slipping through the cracks. He gave them an assignment and was going around trying to help them. They had to copy something from the board. I decided to walk around too and help. Some kids don´t even know their letters. About 10 are doing great and get done quickly and then have to wait for the others. Some never do the assignment. One of these, Kevin, was just sitting there. I asked him which column from the board (they got to pick) he wanted to copy. The boy in front of him said, "He doesn´t know his letters!" I said, "I´ll help him." I helped Kevin along and he loved me. The rest of the morning, if wrote something down, he´d run over and show me. Kids started calling me "Maestra!" and they showed me their work and told on each other. It reminded me of my student teaching days in Chihuahua, and I thought, "Maybe I should come and volunteer every day. They certainly need me." I eventually got a headache though. The constant noise and chaos is grating and I don´t think it´s good for Lili for me to be there. She came and asked me to explain everything in English. She came and told me she had to go to the bathroom. I told her to ask the teacher.

I took cookies for the class for Lili´s birthday. When I asked the teacher, he said, "We do that here too!" Ha, Edgar. The teacher spent about 20 minutes on her birthday. The kids sang both versions of "Las Mañanitas" and he showed a little computer birthday e-card to the class. I let Lili pass out half the cookies. Kids started hiding them and saying they didn´t get one. Then they asked if they could have one for their brother, etc. I finally put the rest of the cookies away. Kids kept asking me how old Lili is and if she speaks English. I think they think she can´t talk. Sometimes I think she thinks she can´t talk.

I wish her school situation were different. I thought about trying to get her in a different school, but the other one that is kind-of within walking distance is the one I called first and they wouldn´t allow her to come for such a short time. I talked to the teacher about their reader and how it´s above Lili´s level (by then I knew it is above everyone´s level). He said three of them can read from it. I know Lili knows as much or more about Spanish phonics, reading, and writing than most of those kids. I don´t expect her to learn anything academic there, but she is hearing Spanish for 4 hours a day. That´s worth something. I guess it´s the best we can do for now. Tomorrow she doesn´t have class. I wish we´d known earlier. We would have gone to the beach this week. We are going to go next Thursday morning and the kids will miss two days of school.

So this morning I went to Ruben´s school meeting. It is 100 times better than Lili´s school. There are 22 kids in the class. Quite a few. And they all seem to be around Ruben´s age. The teacher is a bit condescending. The meeting was an opportunity for us to see the kids in action and note where they are falling behind. She would point out students´faults to their parents. That´s a little awkward in front of everyone. I realized that she and I have very different goals for Ruben. I was thrilled when I came in to see a girl grab a toy truck away from him and hear him say, "Es mio!" He´s speaking Spanish! The teacher let me know he doesn´t hold his pencil right. They were doing a counting activity and she was counting for him in English. No, honey, that´s not what we´re looking for. The child can already count in English. I can´t blame her. She´s just trying to do her job and she just wants Ruben to know what´s going on. Ruben has already learned the routine. When the bell rang, he said, "Now we go eat!" His personality is so different from Lili´s. He left immediately to go eat and then play and I didn´t see him again until
I went and found him to go home. Anyway, the teacher is very in-charge and the kids are always engaged it seems. The teacher had several requests for us parents. We need to bathe our kids every day and clean their ears and teach them to clean their noses. The school is in need of more erasers and toilet paper (big surprise). Ruben needs to bring his own cup if he wants a drink (they hadn´t told us). It´s just a good thing we had the meeting. The parents here at both schools seem to have plenty of time to give to their kids´schools. That´s good. There were 18 parents at the meeting. Perhaps the rest of them had more notice than I did.

I have got to go. We are going to walk Lili´s friends home and visit some of Edgar´s family. Maybe if we visit them, they won´t visit us. The last three nights, we´ve hoped to have family home evening and get the kids to bed early. Without fail, someone from his family has come to visit. I eventually just put the kids to bed. Then I sit by Edgar and try desperately not to fall asleep. His Tia Bertha is our most frequent visitor. She is so much like his mom! They look alike, talk alike, and both enjoy giving unsolicited advice about any topic. She told us last night that Marcos must drink warm water before bed and walk a lot to help his bronchitis. As you can see, Marcos is taking her advice:By the way, for an unknown reason, I can´t get a signal on my phone today. Hopefully, tomorrow the phone will be better!

Isn´t this lovely? It´s our neighbor´s house. I love how people here have the inside part of the house that melds right into the outside part. It is gorgeous here and we are loving it.

2010-03-02T09:40:00.000-08:00

I only have 8 minutes until I need to go pick Ruben up from school. I woke him up this morning by saying "Buenos Dias." He automatically said, "¿Como estas?" I told him he needed to get up. He said, "Why?" I told him he had to go to school. That was all it took. He sat up and said, "I LOVE my school!"

Edgar (surprisingly) has different ideas than I do. Last night we walked to the really old, residential part of town. His friend, Jose Cruz, lives there in a cement/rock house he inherited from his grandparents. They are so poor and very nice. On their street a teenager was riding a burro--right there in town. I wanted to take a picture, but Edgar forbade me.

Here are some pictures I was able to take. This is Sunday night show-off time when everyone gussies (is that how you spell it?) and walks around the plaza. I was surprised Edgar let Lili wear shorts. They didn´t quite seem formal enough.
This is the back of Edgar´s dad´s house, under the mandarin orange tree. They are so delicious. We brought home a bunch of them. Do you think the men in this family will ever learn to smile?

Finally, a toilet at the bus station in Guadalajara. We had to pay 4 pesos to use it. Toilet paper cannot go down the drain here. It will get clogged. I keep forgetting to put it in the little toilet paper basket. All Edgar´s family has a toilet paper basket in the bathrooms--even in the USA.
By the way, Edgar tucked some toilet paper in Lili´s backpack this morning. He said the school can´t afford TP. I can´t complain. They´re educating our child at absolutely no cost to us.

Laundry and School in Mexico

2010-03-01T12:49:00.000-08:00

Do any of you regular bloggers have any advice? I can´t post more pictures here and I don´t know why.

Our trip here was challenging. Marcos was the main problem. He didn´t feel well. He had a fever and he cried almost constantly on the plane. By a tender mercy, he and I had a row to ourselves on the second (long) flight. That was good, but Edgar and I just passed him back and forth, over and over. The bus ride from Guadalajara to Autlan was the hardest. It was on very windy roads and the driver went about 40 kilometers (around 20 mph) an hour. It took about 5 hours. He started showing a horrible movie about vampires. At that point, Lili and Marcos were asleep, but Ruben was watching. I tried to get him to look out the window and I tried to read to him. I was waiting for the bus to stop so I could go ask the driver to change the movie. Edgar told me the bus wouldn´t stop again and that I couldn´t ask the driver to change the movie. I decided yes, I could, and I went forward. I was also trying very hard not to throw up.

The driver offered me a seat right by him and I stayed there the rest of the trip (about 3 1/2 hours). I asked if the movie could be changed. I told him that it was inappropriate for children, that my child was scared, and that I try to protect my children from such things). He said that if I´d asked earlier, he could have had another movie, but that the other passengers would be mad if he changed it at that point. He said, "Next time, talk to the driver first." It´s crazy that they would think it is appropriate to show a horror movie in a public bus, where children are present.

The driver and I talked the rest of the way about family and values and religion. I wished for a pass-a-long card. He was a nice man. He ate and drank as he drove and gave me a piece of gum. Lili got sick too and came up and sat with us. Marcos also got sick and threw up all over Edgar.

After Autlan, we took a taxi to El Grullo. Our kids couldn´t believe we STILL weren´t there. Neither could I. We had traveled for 22 hours. Edgar´s aunt was here to greet us and then another aunt, uncle, three daughters and a boyfriend. We were starving, grumpy, sweaty, exhausted, smelling like vomit (Marcos) and urine (Ruben had an accident). WE DID NOT WANT TO ENTERTAIN! They were just happy to greet us. They FINALLY left two hours later.

I need to write more--especially about yesterday, but I need to leave now. We have to go visit Edgar´s friend. I want to post more pictures too, but I don´t know if I´ll be able to.

Edgar told me his mom has a washer here in her house. I was glad. Today I learned that there are washers and then there are WASHERS that also RINSE and WRING. I knew I´d be hanging clothes out on the line, but that´s no problem. I mean, I used to be The Laundry Queen. Well, I´m still the queen, but it is a whole different kingdom down here. It takes a lot more to rule with these laundry tools. This is the "washer," and I use that term very loosely. In this "washer," we add soap and turn it on for up to 19 minutes, depending on how fragile the fabric is. It agitates, and that´s all.

This is the washboard, where we scrub the clothes against the cement indentations to get the soap off. We also douse the clothes with water from the bucket (which we don´t go far to fill--it´s just right here in this basin).

I only had one hand here so I could take the picture. In reality, it takes at least both hands and maybe a foot or two. Marcos was taking a nap and Edgar (after doing the first half of the laundry load), went to pick Lili and Ruben up from school. Next time, I´ll go for the kids. This is intense work.Then we wring out the clothes. This also requires two hands. Edgar used Lili´s blanket when Marcos threw up on the bus on Saturday, so we had to wash it. It was so heavy (flannel and all). After I finally got it somewhat wrung out, I hung it up on the brittle rope and the rope broke, spilling all the other clothes on that line on the cement floor. I tied the rope back up as well as I could, but it was falling apart.

Finally, we hang the clothes on the old brittle ropes. With my first light pair of pants, I didn´t think of wiping the rope off first. They got a little grimy. Later they fell off during another line break, when our clothes were too heavy and pulled the nail clean out of the cement wall. I´ve decided that clothes are going to have to be pretty darn dirty if I´m going to wash them here. Those pants finally got clean, but it took a lot.

I don´t mind the view. Those flowers just grow spontaneously and the blue sky goes all the way up. There´s also no wind.

Since we had some line breakage, I ended up hanging some clothes up on some random nails on the wall. That was only one load of clothes. I might do another load--next week or so, when I get up my courage. I had to take a nap after this. I hope I will always appreciate my washer at home that does it all. I´m sure such washers exist here too--we just don´t have one.

I didn´t sleep well last night. It was the kids´first day of school. I was so nervous. Lili didn´t go to sleep until almost 11. We still are affected a bit by the time change (we´re two hours later here). She was exhausted when I got her up. We had corn flakes and "creamy" milk (it´s whole milk and Ruben said it was very creamy--that it must come from a "real cow" with bananas). Edgar went shopping Saturday night, and we didn´t have much. Tomorrow I´ll do a better breakfast. We went shopping while the kids were in school. I was loading up the cart and Edgar kept telling me I was getting too much stuff. I told him I don´t want to go to the store everyday. My usual shopping experience involves Super Wal-Mart and my mini-van. As we were paying it dawned on me: we have to carry all these groceries home! Fortunately, Edgar´s a big, strong man. He had Marcos in our hiking baby-carrier backpack and had both hands. We made it home.

Anyway, Lili was very excited. When it came down to it, the boys weren´t ready (we had to wake Marcos up--which I hated to do, poor child), and Edgar said I should just take Lili to school. I was a little nervous about that. We walked by the school yesterday, but I´m terrible with directions and Spanish is not my first language, you know. I wanted to be there with Lili, though, so we went. We were late--we left just a few minutes before 8, when school starts. There were other mothers walking their children to school. I didn´t think there could be too many schools around, so I started following a nice-looking mom and her daughter. She started talking to me about getting to school on time. I asked her if we were going to La Escuela Las Pilas (Lili´s school). "Oh, no," she said. We had passed it. We had to turn around and run back two blocks and up another street.

We went in and I asked a teacher where we could register. I´ll take pictures of the school another day. It´s different. There is a big metal fence all around it that is only opened when kids come in and go home. Every room opens to outside and the walls to the rooms seem to just be metal mesh or something. It´s never too cold here. I went to the director´s (principal´s) office. I said I needed to register Lili. A guy (whom I found out later is the computer teacher) told me they were all full and we couldn´t register. I told him I had called the director a month ago and that he had said we could. I looked at the group there and said, "I don´t know who the director is, but . . ." and they told me he´d be back soon. Meanwhile, I looked at the wall of pictures of teachers. Most of them looked like glamor shots--it reminded me of Uncle Rigo (is that his name? Napoleon´s uncle?). The director came. His hands were wet, so he offered me his forearm to shake. He said, "Oh, yes, from the United States?" and went to find a teacher that would take us. They didn´t need her birth certificate or anything. Because we´re just visiting for 3 weeks.

We went to her classroom. It was very full. There are 20-30 kids there. The teacher is Maestro Ramon. I was expecting a woman (I even brought a gift for "her"--lotion. How´s that going to work?) He has a very kind face, and that made me happy. He had Lili sit down by another little girl--they share a little table right in the front. They were in the middle of something (we were late), so I didn´t get to talk to him as much as I would have liked. He told me I could come back at 11 to pass Lili her lunch throught the fence. School gets out at 12:30. Even better than I thought (1:00). As soon as we got to the classroom, Lili became a turtle. She huddled into me. She was no longer excited. I helped her get to her desk. I told her to be brave. I told her I´d be back soon with her lunch. Then I just had to leave. I tried to hold back my tears until I left the school yard and walked past the director´s office, but then I cried openly on the street. I haven´t felt so helpless since we had to leave her in the NICU everyday after she was born and we couldn´t even hold her. I feel mostly in control and in charge of her happiness, and today I felt out of control. It was 6:30 at home, so I called Cor. She told me she cried each time she left her kids for school--and that was in Wells. She told me to wait until I left Ruben. I told her I wasn´t as worried about him.

Ruben´s excitement in going to school never waned--especially when he saw the swingset (Lili´s school only has a place to play soccer). And, he will talk to ANYONE in English. He doesn´t care if they understand. He knows how to say "Can I go to the bathroom, please?" perfectly. Everytime we practiced with him, and asked him his name or how old he is, he´d ask to go to the bathroom. Last night he said, "I know one thing in Spanish. ¿Puedo ir al baño por favor?" What a nut. His school is for kids about 2-5, and he was excited to be there. We talked to the teachers. We have to pay 25 pesos (we thought that was what they said, which would be less that $2.50) for the month. Edgar went to pay and we found out it´s actually 250 pesos (more like $25 for the month--that makes more sense). Edgar was embarrassed though because he didn´t have that much money with him. Ruben had no problem when we left and seemed to have no problem the rest of the morning. His school is from 9-12 and they feed him (for 5 pesos a day--less than 50 cents).

Edgar and I (and Marcos) got to Lili¨s school 20 minutes early to give her her lunch. She is a brave little sport. We sat and waited forever. Finally, at 8 minutes to, I stood up by the fence and watched for her. The sun was very hot. The lady with the key had helped us in the morning and when Lili finally came out, the key lady directed her to us. She ran to us, and said, "Mommy!" She was so thrilled to see us. Lots of parents were there, feeding their children. It was interesting. Some of the kids sat down and ate on the cement sidewalk. I talked to Lili. She said she was okay and that she liked it. I asked her what the girl´s name is that shares her seat. She didn´t know (still doesn´t). She took her lunch and said, "Bye, mom." Then she went about 20 feet away to a bench in the shade and ate. Edgar and I (and Marcos) stood there in the hot sun and watched her from the other side of the fence. A few girls talked to her, but she didn´t answer them much. Then they moved on. I wanted her to go to the bathroom, so I asked some older girls if they knew where it was. They kindly took her. (It was so weird to be separated by that fence--like she´s an inmate or something. I guess it´s for safety.) Soon one of the girls came back to ask if I had any toilet paper. What? What kind of school doesn´t provide toilet paper for the inmates? I had a leftover napkin for her lunch. We kissed Lili through the fence and told her we´d be back in about an hour. She looked like she might cry, but she was brave and went off. She had about 8 minutes left to play.

Later, when Edgar went to pick her up, the teacher told Edgar she can read. That´s good to know. Edgar asked if I could go and observe. He explained about our homeschool and how hard it is to get authentic materials. He told us we can keep Lili´s reader. That´s great news. It is HARD. It has so much writing on each page. If it were English, Lili couldn´t read it too well. I feel like she must be way behind. He did say she can read. Anyway, I get to go on Wednesday (Lili´s birthday--I´m so glad). I´m going to pay a lot of attention and see if these children really read this book. Lili read two paragraphs to the teacher, and otherwise they were all reading "silently." She wrote numbers and an assignment on the board. At the beginning they went outside to play some kind of ball game. Lili started crying because she wanted me. The teacher took her back to the class. Lili told us all this later--not at lunch. Despite it all, she can´t wait to go again. She said she loves school and she made a friend (it´s her seatmate--whose name she doesn´t know). Some older girls asked if she wanted to play with them, but she said no, because they weren´t in her class. I told her she can play with anybody and that maybe tomorrow she can ask to play with them.

I also want to take treats for the kids on her birthday. Edgar said they don´t do that here. He also said you can´t complain about movies on the bus or volunteer in the schools here (I´ll be going to Ruben´s school anyday I want as well, BTW). I guess Edgar hasn´t learned yet that he has an outspoken, American wife. Well, maybe he has.

H and G

2010-02-24T15:51:00.000-08:00

Jennifer has my children so that I can get something done before our big trip. We leave Friday for Mexico. I thought I'd better say good-bye (not that I ever really said hello). It is good to get the hot cocoa-winter wonderland motif off my blog. Though we woke up to fresh snow this morning, we are heading south where Edgar says it was 85 degrees on Monday. It sounds like it will be a lovely, warm, maybe even sweaty, 3 weeks.

Here are a few pictures to catch up with. On Christmas, we took some 4 generation shots.

Ruben comes by his 4-eyes quite honestly.

Ladies in red. Big guys in plaid.

The children in their new Christmas church duds.

Little Marcos got his first haircut on Saturday. The baby look is gone. He's all toddler now. He's even starting to toddle. He mostly prefers to walk at the Johnsons' house and for the Johnson family, but he'll walk here once in awhile too.

Isaiah turned seven and Lili will next Wednesday. We celebrated on Sunday. I made these giant cupcakes. Lili really wanted to help decorate. I let her work on her own cake, but Isaiah's was all mine. I know I need to let go and let Lili try to do more things. I haven't let her scrapbook yet, but what's the big deal about a cake? It was eaten in a few hours anyway.

Lili's new dress she's getting for her birthday. We're not taking it to Mexico, so she tried it on here. Also, we wanted pictures of it to show Hannah. Hannah made Lili a paper doll for her birthday that looks like her (looks like Lili, not Hannah).

Well, good-bye then. I'm planning to blog in Mexico, if possible. I'm also planning to volunteer at the kids' schools, do family history, walk to the top of the hill over-looking El Grullo everyday, and take Marcos to the library. We'll see if I get half of it done. I will be on vacation, you know. Now, Jennifer, I will go and make use of this gift of time you've given me. Hasta luego.

O Christmas Tree!

2009-12-06T15:58:00.001-08:00

Hurray for Christmas! Yesterday we went to cut down our tree. The day was sunny, but freezing cold.

Marcos, Me, Lili, Abby, Saul, and Ruben. Abby and Saul are our neighbors who came along for the fun.

Edgar the Chopper.

Ruben and Lili helping Edgar carry the tree.

Marcos had to go into his exersaucer--though he's too big for it. He wanted to eat the tree--and the camera!

Ruben and Lili were very excited about putting ornaments on the tree.

You can't even tell that most of the ornaments are at Lili/Ruben height, right? Also note that all presents will remain above our cabinets this year. Marcos loves to tear wrapping paper.

I love sitting by the lit tree and breathing in that pine smell!

Christmas Season!

2009-12-02T10:17:00.001-08:00

I had to get a new Christmas look for my blog--for all two of you who are out there reading. I just have to make note of the fact that I'm back to the Cutest Blog on the Block. They just had a lot more options for the blessed season than Hot Bliggity Blog. It's time for school, so I will post something later (it might not be until next year), but at least I'm current with my background.

Ruben Superman

2009-11-23T17:18:00.001-08:00

Lately when I call Ruben by his name (something I've done his whole life), he says, quite indignantly, "Mom! You forgot to call me Ruben SUPERMAN!" When Edgar calls him Ruben, he says, "My name's Ruben Superman, but you can call me Ruben if you want to." I am not granted that privilege. It's difficult to believe that Ruben Superman will turn 5 on Friday. We survived his birthday party, thanks to a lot of help from Aunts Marianne and Jennifer and Cousins Deseret and Liberty.

Here we are at the party: Ruben's cousin, Luke, me (in my polyester "grumpy shirt" I bought for $1 at the thrift store in Wells my Junior year in high school). It was supposed to be a Thomas the Train cake.

Ruben with his cake.
Our birthday boy is also sporting a new look. Lately I had noticed that Ruben Superman was squinting and running into things often. Edgar thought we just had a clumsy kid on our hands, but last week the pediatric ophthalmologist confirmed that the superhero needs glasses. The glasses came today:

Can you imagine a cuter superhero? You can see why 4 eyes are better than none!

Lili's pretty sure she needs glasses too. She told me she was having some trouble seeing. Everything "looks a little yellow." I think the appropriate color may be green--as in with envy.

Last night I let the children stay up too late. Edgar was working all night and my brother Tabor called. We talked for a few hours which is very easy for Tabor and Anyone to do. I finally got the children to bed. Then Ruben needed a drink. As I tucked him in again, and said, "Goodnight, Ruben." He gave me his usual response about forgetting to call him "Ruben Superman."

I said, "You forgot to call me Mom Superwoman!" He assured me that I am not "Mom Superwoman," that I'm just "Mom."

I went back to my bed only to have the little superhero show up again. I said, a little impatiently, "What is it this time?" He burst into tears and said, "I just wanted to tell you that I guess you can be 'Mom Superwoman' if you want to." I gathered my little hero into my arms and bed and told him it's enough for me just to be Ruben Superman's mom.

Another new Background--So Soon?

2009-11-12T21:07:00.000-08:00

Jennifer told me my blog had lost its background. I was hopping mad, of course, and decided to get to the bottom of the problem. I wasn't sure I would still be endorsing Hot Bliggity Blog, but as you can see, I am. They had a little section on their website to find out why my background was no longer showing and apologized appropriately. It was also easy to remedy the problem.

Here are a few pictures to catch up:

The boys' costumes are hand-me-downs (thanks, Thelma!). Each of my kids has worn this cute little clown costume. Part of my obsessive-compulsive disorder is that I do things like that. Every Thanksgiving I wear the same sweater that I first wore my Junior year in High School. On my mission I wore my brown corduroy dress to every district or zone meeting. Some Elders would say that Sister Dahl was "brown-bagging" it again. Do you think they were making fun of me? I left that dress in Poland for Elder Lukengay (who wanted it) when I left. I told him he could make a pair of pants out of it. His response: "Oh, Sister Dahl, I could make two pair of pants out of it."

The best thing about Lili being a witch was that we didn't have to struggle over brushing her hair.

Marcos loves the rocking horse. Lili and Hyrum love assisting him on it. Hyrum asked his mom for a baby for his birthday. Today Lili told me that she's been praying Marianne would have another baby. Watch out, Marianne. Beware the faith of a child.

Poor Marcos had his first haircut yesterday. Ruben and Lili were getting into the Christmas spirit and putting gift bows on everything. Ruben stuck one on Marcos's head using masking tape. Poor Marcos tried to get it out, and got it even more stuck in his hair. I couldn't remove it without hurting him, so I cut the tape out. He looks a little different without that bit of hair that always stuck straight up.

Here they are, all ready for the Primary Program, which was last Sunday. This is, as Ruben says, "the best we can do" at looking nice. Marianne told me there is no future for Lili as a cosmotologist with me as her mother. I can only say I come by my lack of hair skills honestly.

Hot Bliggity Blog

2009-10-21T21:39:00.000-07:00

Dear Reader, you may notice that I am now endorsing "Hot Bliggity Blog." That's because their site was able to explain to my addled mind how to change my background from summertime cherries to autumn patterns. Their explanation was more thorough than that of "The Cutest Blog on the Block." I am sure that the deficit has nothing to do with my tech-deprived mind.

So here's what's new:

1. Marcos's boots. It's not that cold yet, but they stay on. He pulls most shoes and socks off much more quickly than I can put them on him. It makes me look like a bad mom (especially in the eyes of my mom). He also loves eating apples by himself now--a very fall-ish pastime I believe.

2. Ruben's Song. Ruben's a little singer. He loves to perform and he goes around singing or humming constantly. His new song is "We're off to see the LIZARD! The Wonderful Lizard of Oz!" We went to that play (starring the lovely Johnson girls) last week (the children went twice, thanks to Aunt Jennifer). Ruben loved it. He's such a nut. He insists on goggles in the bathtub. The other day my dad said, "He is so much like his mother." He could have sounded a little more complimentary when he said it.

3. Liliana's Christmas Wish List. It changes daily. We got an American Girl magazine today and now she thinks one of those would be lovely. I have already decided to follow the Johnsons' example of having her read all the books first before she gets one. Maybe next Christmas. Her other news is that she has learned to ride a bike without training wheels. Thrilling.

4. Cormac Ammon Dahl. Our newest little nephew was born to Ammon and Melanee yesterday. He's darling, and if I were Adam, I would be able to get his photo off of facebook or something and put it here. He's a doll.

5. I won! Thelma won some shoes (http://thelmadavis.blogspot.com/2009/10/id-like-to-thank-academy.html--there's no way I can figure out how to let you click on something to get to her blog), but I (think) I won an award for my glittery pumpkin at Jessica's pumpkin carving/decorating party. I'm pretty sure I won in the adult category AND in the glitter category. I might have been the only contestant in each category, but here is a picture of my award-winning pumpkin.

More pictures of the pumpkin party:

It was a gorgeous day. Grandma is holding Hannah's youngest, Norah. Hannah and her three beautiful little ones made the trip from American Fork to visit. We (Hannah and I and sometimes her daughter Laurel) stayed up way too late having a wonderful talk. Hannah is holding Laurel, I'm there with little Marcos. Emily Smith (who's married to my cousin) was there with her darling Jason. He and Norah make Marcos look like a peewee. Marianne has Hannah's Maisy.

Jessica--founder of the party and some of the contestants (Liberty, Clarissa, and Deseret--Marianne made her gorgeous dress) in the children's/adolescents' categories. I let Ruben use a knife, much to Cor's dismay, and she was right. He did end up with a very minor cut.

Grandmothers and Babies. Savannah and Marcos are enjoying Grandma Corba (she's thinking "I told you so") as Grandma Dahl looks on with a smile.

Carolina, Luke, and Ruben

Liliana and Hyrum

This has gotten longer than any of us wanted it to. Happy Fall!

It's Autumntime

2009-09-30T21:53:00.000-07:00

Since it's a new season (and since I've been enjoying others' blogs even though it's way past my bedtime--yes, 10:00 is way past for me), I decided to post something.

I'm even trying to add a fall-ish feel to the blog. I don't know if I'm smart enough to change my background. "The Cutest Blog on the Block" is very user-friendly and that's why it's fine with me to advertise for them on my blog. As you know, my blog gets a lot of traffic. Hannah and Thelma both told me that their computer-savvy husbands both know how to remove the "Cutest Blog on the Block" insignia from their blogs. My husband is food-savvy more than anything, but even if he did know how to do something like that, I think CBotB (do they go by that?) deserves credit--especially if I am successful in changing seasons on my blog tonight.

So why am I even bothering to try to blog since I don't seem to have anything to blog about? I am just rambling about because it's been so long and I don't really know where to begin. Perhaps I should just end.

Maybe some pictures would be nice and give me some direction:

On 9/09/09 little Marcos turned one. I gave him this quick bath in the sink yesterday because he got into our liquid soap under the sink and spilled it all over. The bubbles are just from what he had poured onto his clothes and his skin. The other day he slathered himself and the furniture and carpet around him in Vaseline. Yes, Lili did do that too. No, I didn't learn my lesson. And to answer Edgar's "Why did you leave it where he could reach it?" I wanted to ruin the carpet. Actually, this time I Googled carpet and petroleum jelly, and I think I got it all out. I bet Enoch and Jennifer wish I'd done that the first time since their living room now sports the stains from Lili's petroleum jelly experience.

Lili and Ruben have bike helmets (and knee pads--Lili's are supposed to be elbow pads, but only one of the helmets came with pads, so we're sharing). We are now a 4-wheeler owning family much to Edgar's joy and my chagrin. The kids love going with him and of course, safety is always first with Edgar. Cousin Jessica called tonight to let Edgar know she saw two bucks right by Grandma's garage. I texted Edgar about it right away. Edgar's hunting season starts Monday. We are so pumped. I even cleaned out our freezer (which hadn't been done in more than 3 years) in anticipation of keeping the venison there until Edgar's friend comes to pick it up. Though Edgar is blood-thirsty and likes to kill the poor deer, we don't like the taste of venison.

Marcos was weaned way too quickly. I wanted to do it gradually. He took to the bottle far too quickly and too well.

And here are a few pictures from our wonderful vacation to Washington. We visited the Davises--please see Thelma's blog (thelmadavis.blogspot.com) for a more complete, though perhaps biased description. (And do ignore the part about me being psycho. There's not an ounce of truth to it.)
We got to go on a ferry ride.

We got to go to Vancouver to Stanley Park. My children wish they were Davises. Lili said, "I wish Emma were my sister." The best part of the trip for Ruben was "playing with Mark's toys."

Seeing Thelma's tastefully decorated home was inspirational until I tried my own decorating project. Then it was rather depressing. Some sisters have it. I don't. We three sisters enjoyed comparing the lengths of our limbs and our flexibility. Mostly we laughed a lot.

Multnomah Falls, by Portland, was lovely and very accessible.

There are more pictures that I uploaded, but they got lost in cyberspace I guess. There's a reason I don't blog more often. I've been working at this for over an hour and I am not even sure I was successful in changing my background. If you're still seeing red cherries instead of fall leaves and colors, I take back everything nice I wrote about TCBotB or whatever that website's called.

Behind

2009-05-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

The only thing I don't like about having a blog (not that I should even be allowed to act like a normal blogger or even that I have a blog because I could be convicted of blog neglect) is that everyone knows when my last post was: February 14. More than three months ago. I am behind on everything in my life--laundry, dishes, housecleaning, scrapbooks, weeding, and anything else there is to be behind on. Fortunately for me, the date I last cleaned the toilet isn't posted anywhere on the internet. My name is not listed anywhere on the internet for others to see that I last changed my kids' sheets seventeen days ago (or so). I feel a little anxiety every time I see my name listed at the very bottom of someone else's blog list along with how long ago my last post was. As the days have turned to weeks and then months, it has seemed more and more hopeless that I would catch up.

I have so many cute pictures to post--Lili's birthday party and Spanish and English family parties, Easter, Women's Conference, Cor's 60th birthday celebration, Sunshine Generation performances, T-ball games, Memorial Day. Then there are these zany people I live with that I could write about--Edgar now has his concealed weapon permit, Ruben is fond of saying I'm the "BIG mommy ever!" I hope he means "best". Poor Lili is struggling with allergies and mosquito bites. Little Marcos, whom I've always called my little monkey, is finally eating solids and he adores bananas.

So there. That's as caught up as I'm going to get for now. I look forward to seeing that my last post was hours and days ago. Maybe I'll come up with something else in the next quarter.

Happy Valentine's Evening

2009-02-14T21:39:00.000-08:00

Edgar's working tonight--all night. Liliana, Ruben, and I played Candy Land to celebrate Valentine's Day. I wasn't going to cheat at that game tonight, but I did. Lili was stuck, waiting to get a blue forever and I rigged the cards. I've cheated every time we've played that game--just to get the game over with. Then Marcos started throwing up. Four shirts and five vomiting episodes later (I finally quit changing shirts), he snuggled up to me and fell asleep.

It's not the most romantic Valentine's evening I've had, but it might be the most loving. I'm amazed at how much love I feel for my sweet little baby who's sick for the first time in his life. I look in at his siblings sleeping peacefully and feel the same incredible love for them. And when I called Edgar to report the throwing up episodes, I felt so grateful that I have someone to call who loves and cares about these little people we're raising as much as I do.

Our Family Got a Haircut!

2009-02-02T18:41:00.000-08:00

When I was growing up my dad cut my three brothers' hair (usually on a Saturday night) and my aunt Mary (a professional) gave us three girls and my mom haircuts and perms (during the same trip to Salt Lake). We always got our hair cut together.

It had been eleven months since I'd had my hair trimmed and twenty years since I'd had bangs, so I got both. Mindy Uhlig is set up now as the local beautician in Wells so Liliana and I left the boys home on Saturday afternoon and got our hair cut. I'm trying to get used to having something on my forehead and still don't know how I feel about my new look. Anyway, our haircuts coincided with Edgar cutting Ruben's hair so our family got a haircut.

Our other big news is that Marcos is starting to dribble cereal down his chin (I can't say he's starting to eat it because none of it is getting inside him). I only try to give him a few bites every night, but Liliana is more persistent. Our first night of solid food, I came out from giving Ruben a bath to find this:

There's just something about feeding a baby that makes you open your mouth really wide.

Marcos enjoyed the experience--socially, not nutritively (is that a word?).

Here's Lili doing math. I love that I don't have to fix her hair before school.

I NEED A NEW NECK!

2009-01-17T11:58:00.000-08:00

Last night the missionaries and a Spanish-speaking family they're teaching came over (Edgar and I are ward missionaries, called to work with the Spanish speakers). The Elders had a little game that involved opening up bubble gum and chewing it. I foolishly let Ruben have some gum and he somehow got it on his neck. I was trying to scrape it off and it hurt, so he yelled, "I'm going to die!" Then he told me he needs a new neck.

I like some of the things our kids have said of late. Lili gave me a picture of a heart she made for my birthday and told me she gave me a heart because she "loveded" me. I hope she still does and it not just double-past tense.

On my birthday Liliana and Ruben went to a birthday party. Edgar and I took advantage of the free babysitting and went to dinner. The party had an "under the sea" theme and each child left with a goldfish. We have recently gone through three goldfish in quick secession. When the first one passed on, Lili was really upset, so Edgar quietly disposed of the second and third ones when they went the way of all the earth. On our drive home, Liliana said, "When (not if) my goldfish dies, I want to bury it." I guess she has a good grip on reality.

Ruben has started saying the following prayer, "Heavenly Father, we miss you." I never would have thought to say that in a prayer, but I like it. This week we found out that he no longer qualifies for Speech Therapy. The teacher said, "You don't have to come back, Ruben." He "loveded" going, so he said, "I will!" We decided we could visit . . . sometime. During the test, he said some funny, but factual things.

"Ruben, what's the opposite of good?"

"ME!"

"Ruben, a ladybug is little, but an elephant is _____________."

"Eating the ladybug!"

Marcos doesn't say many words, but he does squeal and laugh in delight.

Aren't kids fun? Here are some pictures of us of late:

Lili invited the cousins next door to a tea party. They were so nice and not only humored her, but got really into it, dressing up for the occasion. Carolina even walked over in flip flops! Yes, it is January, but she's a Johnson.

Don't tell my in-laws, but we returned some of their Christmas gifts to us (our kids had too much) and bought the kids snow pants and a sled. If only the children could have brought themselves to look at the camera (and the sun) at the same time!

And here's the chubby-bubby, roly-poly, fun-loving, laughy-jokey, should-be-in-a-country-song one:

Wearing Grandpa's hat:

Stalked in Spanish--This Close to Navidad too!

2008-12-22T11:05:00.000-08:00

Saturday I answered the phone even though the caller ID said "unknown name." I was greeted with "Buenas Tardes" and a fast-talking hispanic trying to get me to accept a phone card that would allow me to call free in the United States. I already can call free in the United States with our phone plan. I made sure we couldn't use the card to call to Mexico and told the nice fellow that we didn't need his card. I also told him I didn't know Spanish too well. He didn't give up, but he did start saying "free" instead of "gratis." Isn't it funny how the words someone will change to English for you are the most basic ones that you already knew in the other language? "Puede usted llamar en los estados unidos FREE." Oh, now I understand. I admired his perserverance and I eventually thought that maybe we could use the card from another phone sometime in a pinch. So I gave him my address. Then he wanted to transfer me to his supervisor to "confirm."

I started to be nervous that I had agreed to buy something because I didn't understand everything the guy said. I knew something was free, but . . . I told the supervisor that I didn't feel comfortable enough with my Spanish to confirm and asked them to call later when they could to my Spanish-speaking esposo. The supervisor and the original guy both panicked that they were losing me and started saying, "Senorita Olivia ..." I thought I was a senora, being married and all, but they were calling out desperately for Senorita Olivia. I gave a brusque adios and hung up.

Right away, they tried to call back (thanks goodness for that caller ID). They called back six times and I didn't answer. After Edgar got up to go to work (he's working nights) they called again. I made him answer. They explained it all to him, he thanked them for their attention and said, "No gracias." They called right back and told Edgar that his wife had really wanted the phone card. Sure. Blame it on the wife. Edgar knew that wasn't true and he did something completely out of character. He got sassy. I didn't know he could do that (fortunately for me, I don't think he can in English). He said, "Mira, Senor . . ." and went off and then he hung up.

They didn't call back until just a few minutes ago. I didn't answer the phone. You've got to admire their perserverance.

May your days be merry and bright

And may no one phone-stalk you tonight.

Wesolych Swiat!

2008-12-20T12:20:00.000-08:00

Grudzień 2008

Drodzy przyjaciele!

Szczęśliwego Bożego Narodzenia! Pozdrawiam was wszystkich. Mam nadzieję, że ten list znajdzie was w dobrym zdrowiu oraz szczęśliwych. Jeszcze raz, będę prosić o pomoc Renatę, moją przyjaciółkę z Warszawy. Naprawdę, jest błogosławieństwem mieć Polkę tutaj w pobliżu. Ona mówi bardzo dobrze po angielsku, więc, nigdy nie rozmawiamy po polsku.

My mieliśmy dobry i zajęty rok. Najwaƶniejszym wydarzemniem tego roku byly narodziny naszego drugiego syna. Nasz synek urodził się we wrześniu. Jest zdrowy i bardzo ładny. Tym razem nie miałam trudności jak byłam w ciąży i nasz syn urodził się bez problemów.

Styczeń zaczął się pracowicie dlatego, ƶe brałam udział w przygotowaniach do przedstawienia w teatrze muzycznym. Premiera sztuki odbyla się w marcu. Moja siostra takƶe brała udział w tym samym przedstawieniu. Było to dla nas bardzo fajne doświadczenie.

Ruben ma juƶ cztery latka a Liliana skończyła pięć. W tym roku, w marcu, mieliśmy możliwość przejechać do Disneyland. Odwiedzieliśmy takƶe naszych przyjaciół oraz rodzinę mojego męƶa. Było wspaniale poznać jego rodzinę. W Kalifornii dobrze się bawiliśmy i podobało nam się bo było ciepło.

Takƶe w tym roku, zaczęłam uczyć Lilianę w domu. Ona juƶ moƶe czytać oraz pisać troszeczk ę po angielsku i po hiszpańsku. Ruben chodzi do preschool (cos w rodzaju przedszkola) jeden raz w tygodniu. Kilka mam ze Starr Valley zorganizowalo takie domowe przedszkole dla dzieci.

Chcialabym życzyć wam zdrowych, spokojnych świąt Bożego Narodzenia oraz szcześliwego i pomyślnego Nowego 2009 Roku.

Boże Narodzenie jest ważnym dla nas świętem. Są to urodziny naszego Zabwiciela. Bez Niego nie możemy wrócić do Naszego Ojca w Niebie. Wiem, że Bóg żyje i że On nas zna, i bardzo nas kocha. Czasami mam doświadczenie, którego nie rozumiem, ale wierzę, że On wie wszystko i On chce to, co jest najlepsze dla nas, Jego dzieci. Jestem bardzo wdzięczna za Syna Bożego. Wiem, że Jezus Chrystus jest moim zbawicielem. Czuję się, że On mnie rozumie i pomaga mi w trudnych chwilach.

Niech Nasz Ojciec w Niebie ma was w swojej opiece. Pozdrawiam was serdecznie.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-20T11:54:00.000-08:00

Since I know I missed people on my Christmas card list, I am posting our Christmas letter here, for your reading pleasure. Thanks to my Polish friend Renata, it is also available po polsku (see next post).

Our year in review:

On my birthday (January 15), we found out I was pregnant (Hooray!) and I also started practice for a musical production, Quilters, that I was in with my sister Marianne and five other women. It was a big commitment, but a lot of fun. We didn’t finish until mid-March.

At the end of March we went on vacation to Southern California. We spent 2 days meeting/catching up with Edgar’s friends & family there. Edgar and his childhood best friend, Luis, hadn’t seen each other for 14 years. We also went to Disneyland for 3 days. We decided not to return to Disneyland until our youngest child is 5. Ruben loved the rides, but was very unhappy when they ended and he hated waiting in line. Getting to know Edgar’s family and friends made the long trip worth it. They were wonderful.

In the summer we went to Twin Falls, Idaho to attend the Twin Falls LDS Temple Open House. It was a lovely experience to have as a family. It was great to see our children’s attitude change to reverence and awe as they felt the spirit of the temple. They felt the difference of being there. Also this summer, I started teaching Liliana kindergarten in June (she will be 6 in March). With our baby coming, I felt like I needed to get a head start. Other than school, I did nothing in the summer. I was hot and pregnant and the cilantro and sunflowers took over our garden. Lili is doing well with school. She is starting to read and write in English and Spanish. The poor child is our little guinea pig and we have yet to see how well our little bilingual experiment will turn out.

Ruben started going to our Starr Valley cooperative preschool this fall (he turned 4 in November). He loves it. Lili is part of our local Sunshine Generation performing group (her cousins next door teach it). Also this fall, Edgar’s friend Luis and 5 of his relatives came from California to help Edgar shoot his deer. When I met Edgar I never would have dreamed he would want to hunt—you never really know what you’re getting into. The silver lining is that Luis and his family were able to take the meat home and enjoy venison birria. Though Edgar is bloodthirsty, he doesn’t like venison. Edgar has continued with his woodworking hobby, which I much prefer to hunting. This year he made a beautiful bookshelf and a dresser.

Our biggest miracle and best news of the year came in the form of little Marcos Edgar. I had a much better pregnancy than anyone expected and went 37½ weeks! Marcos was born on September 9. He weighed 6 pounds, 14 ounces and came home with us! He has been completely healthy. It is a delight to see the little fat rolls on his legs when we change his diaper. Our greatest misery of the year was that I had a tonsillectomy in November. It seemed like a good thing to do because it was free. We had met our out-of-pocket limit with our insurance because of my pregnancy. The recovery was rather painful. I learned the hard way that there’s no such thing as a free surgery.

As Christmas approaches, we are grateful to remember the miracle of our Savior’s birth and life. We rejoice this Christmas season in Him and pray that you will feel the peace and joy that He brings.

With Love,

Olivia, Edgar, Liliana, Ruben, and Marcos

Marcos, My Good Little Monkey

2008-12-10T07:28:00.000-08:00

The most amazing thing happened at La Casa Cobian last night! Marcos celebrated his 3 month birthday (and his Uncle Enoch's 31st birthday) by sleeping for 8 hours. What an amazing child! Liliana came home from the NICU the week she turned 3 months and she was not even close to sleeping through the night. I know Ruben didn't sleep for eight hours at a time until he was at least one. Needless to say, Marcos is my favorite. I, of course, did not sleep that long (I haven't since I was pregnant with Lili). I woke up and worried about the little guy and checked him several times. He's a cute little monkey, isn't he?

Monkey pajamas courtesy of Uncle Enoch and Aunt Jennifer & Family.

The Original Strawberry Shortcake or Why You Should Never Throw Anything Away

2008-11-25T14:54:00.000-08:00

If you are annoyingly sentimental or excessively frugal (I'm both), you will see why today is such a happy day for me.

The other day I was looking through the American Doll catalog (such an impressive publication--we save them all and Lili chooses them to fill her literacy needs during Sacrament Meeting). I was thinking how fun all the doll accessories and furniture and clothes looked, and I remembered my Strawberry Shortcake dolls.

For about two years, all I wanted were Strawberry Shortcake dolls, their pets, vehicles, and anything else that came with them. Several times I wished on the first star to have "every Strawberry Shortcake doll in the world" (I think I just wanted one of each). Throughout this time, I collected more than 20 Strawberry Shortcake dolls--each with their fruity name and pet. Raspberry Tart and her monkey Rhubarb and Lime Chiffon and her parrot (whose name I've forgotten!) were the first ones I ever got.

Thelma had a few too and we played with them all the time. Later when we were really into Barbies, the Strawberry Shortcake dolls became the Barbies' children. When the time came to outgrow the Strawberry Shortcake dolls, I couldn't bear it and I insisted on keeping them. I put each of them, with their pet, in individual plastic bags with twist ties. A few shoes, hats, and combs are missing, but for the most part, I have them all.

Lili has been exposed to some of the new Strawberry Shortcake propaganda (which just isn't the same), and I've told her stories about my glory days. The American Doll catalog made me think maybe Lili is old enough for my Strawberry Shortcake dolls. So we made a deal. If she could go ten nights without wetting her pull-up (is this the kind of thing that's too personal to blog about?), she could start playing with them. Four nights came and went without success. Finally I told her that if she could go just one night without wetting, she could get one doll. Last night she did it!

Today I went under the house with Ruben and Lili to search for the Strawberry Shortcake bin. They loved it under there and I wished to be their height. We finally found it. Ruben wanted to be involved and he picked "the boy"--Huckleberry Pie of course with Pupcake. I wasn't surprised that Lili picked Sour Grapes (the villain) and her snake (whose name escapes me). Ruben quickly turned back to cars and they are playing some kind of bad mom/car game. Lili just said, "Let the mom get it--you don't even have arms." I assume she was talking to Lightning McQueen.

By the way, we are holding on to all of these Pixar Cars cars. Someday Ruben Jr. might just love them.

2008-11-14T02:51:00.000-08:00

PICKLED TONSILS, ANYONE?

Countless times I have thought I would die because my ears and throat hurt so bad. Countless times I have thought that I just wanted to cut my aching head off because it hurt so bad. Now I have learned, through my own experience, that cutting was not the painless option.

Yesterday I had my tonsillectomy. The prep nurse (she's kind of like a prep cook, but different), Cindy, by name, first asked if I'd had surgery before. I told her I've had three C-sections.

"In which decade?"

"What?"

"80's, 90's?"

Did I look as hurt as I felt? "THIS decade! My last one was in September." How old do you think I am anyway? The questions remained unanswered and stood there, awkwardly, between us.

I started filling out the paperwork. There was one point on the paper I had to sign that got my attention--whatever tissue, organ, etc. that was removed of me would no longer be my property and would be sent to pathology. Ever since I began fantasizing about cutting off hurtful parts of my body, I thought it would be rather swell to then have that part, in my room. It's always been hard for me to throw anything away. Thanks to me, Ammon's umbilical cord can still be found (unless it's all decomposed or was eaten by a mouse) in the wall between the shower and the storeroom over home.

So I nonchalantly asked Cindy, "So, are there a lot of people who want to save their tissue or body part that is removed?"

Cindy was experienced (she looked like the 80's were her birthing decade) and she took preventative measures before another nutty patient asked to keep her tonsils: "We just have to send everything to pathology."

It was one thing for Cindy to think I was old. Quite another to have her think I was crazy. "Oh, I just thought it was funny that that point even has to be on the paperwork."

"You'd be surprised." Cindy answered.

No, not too surprised. I had thought it would be neat to keep my appendix too, but that darn pathology beat me to it. When you really think about it, though, tonsils probably wouldn't hold up too well. Unless they were pickled. Hmm. That might make a tempting addition to my Ladies' Holiday Brunch. Pickled tonsils, anyone?

Don't worry. I didn't get to keep them. I only get to keep the painful sensation that my tongue has been cut off and a fuzzy sock was stuck in my throat to stop the bleeding. That and my HUGE pain pills that are next to impossible to swallow. The depressing news is that my worst day is supposed to be a week after surgery. ow.

The End of an Era

2008-11-12T19:57:00.000-08:00

As I turned to go up Mama and Daddy's lane today, I saw a white mailbox. It was odd, but I figured they must have gotten too old to keep up with the commitment the mailsack required. Not so.

Daddy informed me that he was "agin it" and that " change is the enemy." Cor explained that the US Postal Service will no longer deal in mailsacks.

Why does that make me sad? Maybe because ever since I can remember someone in my family has been "taking the mailsack down" every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (the three days the mail is delivered in Starr Valley). We had two mailsacks and the mail deliverer would just switch the sacks, exchanging our sack with outgoing mail for our sack full of incoming mail.

I remember Daddy sewing some mailsacks on the sewing machine. That was the first time I'd ever seen him sew, and I didn't know he knew how. The sacks were off white and canvas and said "Mark Dahl" in bold black letters. Later, when I was a teenager, Thelma decorated our mailsacks--one with a frog and the other with a flower. They still said Mark Dahl.

When I was a preschooler, I'd go down to the end of the lane, put the sack on its hook, and run until I was out of sight of the road. I was afraid of kidnappers, and figured I was safe once they couldn't see me from the road. Later, I'd take the mailsack and put it on its hook while I waited for the school bus to come. When I could drive, I would drop the mailsack off at the post at the end of the lane. I never was a good enough driver to get close enough to just reach out the window and hang the sack on its hook. I always had to get out.

Having a mailsack was a hassle. Even on days that we didn't need to mail anything, we had to take the mailsack down. If we didn't get the mailsack down in time, it messed everything up. The Post Office wouldn't have a sack to put our mail in for the next delivery day unless we drove the six miles to Deeth and dropped the mailsack off at the Post Office. At least once, I picked the outgoing mailsack up before the mail had come. I learned that I had to check inside the sack and see if the newspaper, The Elko Daily Free Press, was inside. If it was there, I could bring the mail home. If not, I had to wait for the mail.

From the time I left home for college until I returned home to be a schoolteacher, I sent a weekly letter home. Mama sent a weekly letter to me, telling all about their week (Daddy usually wrote a short note in pencil on the bottom of her typed letter). My brothers who were home would write--some (Tabor) more faithfully than the others (who shall remain unnamed). From Provo and London and Poland and Mexico, I loved thinking of my family taking the mailsack down with their letters in it. I loved thinking of them getting the mail and walking it up the lane. Whenever the mail came, Daddy would come in from his shop. He'd take the sack and empty it out on the kitchen table while everybody watched. Because I knew of the excitement we'd experience when Marianne and Thelma wrote home, I knew my family was excited to get a letter from me. I pictured Daddy opening it with his pocket knife and Mama reading it aloud. After we'd perused the mail, somebody would fold up the canvas mailsack and put it on top of the dryer in the storeroom until the next delivery day. There's something quaint and uniting about emptying out the mailsack on the kitchen table as a family.

Because having a mailsack was a hassle, I didn't use one when I moved back to Starr Valley after I was married. We have an impersonal mailbox that doesn't care if we check in with it before the mail comes. Now my parents do too, and I'm going to miss their mailsack.

A BLESSED DAY

2008-11-02T13:22:00.000-08:00

Three happy kids. Lili and Ruben love having a baby in the house and it shows.

One blessed (and chubby) baby. I hadn't tried his outfit on Marcos until the morning of the blessed event. I had just held it up to him. It looked long enough. It was a little snug though. We couldn't do up the buttons in the back (luckily the vest covered up his embarrassment).

Our happy family. Notice how Lili and I are color coordinated and how Ruben and Marcos are looking at each other and how Edgar is smiling so big. Well, two out three ain't bad.

Marcos was blessed in Church on November 2, 2008. It was such a happy day for us. Almost all of our family was with us (minus the Davises and Edgar's dad). Edgar's mom and Osvaldo's family came to Church.

Edgar blessed Marcos in Spanish and I asked Elder Moreno (a missionary serving in our ward from Mexico City) to write down what he remembered of the blessing. He wrote the whole thing out, bless his heart.

My dad and three brothers and Bishop/Brother-in-law Robert, and Jeff all stood in the circle. (By the way Jeff, Hannah, Maisy, & Laurel stayed with us Saturday night. Among a lot of things, Hannah helped me set up this blog.)

Thanks to a lot of help from everyone, we enjoyed a fall feast of soups and bread, cheese and fruit (and Kool Aid for the Cobians) and cake for dessert. My only sadness was that everyone liked Mama's soup better than mine.

It was one of those days I'll always treasure.

Halloween

2008-10-31T16:40:00.000-07:00

Edgar was off work this Halloween! That never happens. I was especially glad this year, because I wanted to leave Little Marcos home with Edgar while I took the older kids trick or treating. Edgar was glad to stay home, but when I gave him instructions about passing out candy, he was concerned. "Do I have to open the door? Can't we just leave the bowl of candy outside?" That man is such a social butterfly!

We had our traditional Dinner in a Pumpkin (or as we said over to Poland, "Dinner in a Dynia"--the alliteration is nice and dynia, of course, means pumpkin) to commemorate Halloween. Cor and Big Guy came over (though Daddy brought his own gruel--he's never been a Dinner in a Pumpkin fan) with Hyrum and Carolina (the other Johnsons celebrated Nevada Day/Halloween out of state--with Barack Obama in Chicago). Tabor, Katie, and Baby Olivia also attended the festivities (Tabor brought his own mac n' cheese since he doesn't eat hamburger. The dinner was kind of a BYO Main Dish affair).

We got the children decked out, took the necessary pictures, and set out to enjoy the rainy evening. At the first stop Hyrum (Zorro) had Lili (Dorothy) carry his sword between the car and the house. Once in the house, he wanted it back. Dorothy also had her pumpkin and her basket with Toto in it to carry, so I told Zorro to leave his sword in the car if he didn't want to carry it. Later, Hyrum said, "You know why I didn't want to carry my sword? There were dogs and if dogs see a person carrying a stick or something, they attack that person."

"So you wanted the dogs to attack Lili?"

"Better her than me."

Honest Hyrum.

This is an after-Halloween photo of Lili in a wig I bought the day after Halloween at Wal-Mart for $1.

Ruben kept wanting to go home. In between houses, he would ask to go home. About halfway through, we were getting out to go into a house, and he was asleep, holding his pumpkin of candy close. It was easier to have one less trick-or-treater to worry about.

Marcos had been asleep most of the afternoon, so after we got home, I put him in his Halloween regalia (a gift from Aunt Katie) and took pictures. Such a cute little punkin.