Mexico Part 46: Ordinary February

We were out for dinner when before I knew it Elijah was soaked from the fountain. 

Trompo Magico.  

February seemed crazy, fast this year.  Who am I kidding though?  All the months seem crazy fast.  In fact, I think I often start my posts talking about time flying by.  Maybe it really does.  Anyway, my friend today said something that resonated with me .  While the weeks might have flown by, the days were definitely long.  Matthew started a surgery rotation and while some days he came home relatively early, other days he came home way later and had to go in on some Saturdays as well.  If I were to compare this to a couple years ago I would have laughed at myself for thinking Matthew was gone a lot.  But since the last semester we've been having him home more, I realize I have to reprogram myself to having him gone longer and pretty soon altogether.  And I can totally do that, but the adjustment has been hard.  Some days have gone by smoothly, and others I feel like I have turned into the Wicked Witch of the West.  Those days aren't fun.  We are in the middle of some huge decisions for our family.  We think the time has come to leave Guadalajara which is really sad for me.  I LOVE it here!  I came kicking and screaming (ok, not really) and now I think I am going to leave here doing the same.  We are trying to see if we can get accepted to do rotations in the states.  Specifically in Scottsdale, Arizona, because of an arrangement the school here has but it is WAY easier said than done.  It is hard to be accepted into places as a foreign grad.  At this point we are putting ourselves in the Lord's hands and seeing where He wants us to go.  But, if that doesn't work out, we might be crazy enough to live in Puerto Rico for a year.  UAG has an arrangement with PR as well, and frankly it is the easiest thing to coordinate.  Time will tell what happens, but it looks like my days in Guadalajara a finally winding down.  Major :(

My kids, who also rarely get sick, have been sick a lot too.  They have this never ending cough and a fever that comes and goes from week to week.  And Eva keeps breaking out into hives.  It is the strangest thing.  We can't pin point it to food, and it mostly happens in the afternoons right after school.  I finally went to the store to buy hypo-allergenic detergent and softener to wash her clothes in, hoping it might help.  I haven't really thought it has been pouring on us lately, but some days it sure feels like it, even though it is always a sunny 80 degrees here.

School for Eva continues.  She gets random projects from time to time that we have to help her with.  This last one, she did on her on.  I helped her glue things where she wanted but the entire project was all her.  That was nice.  It reminded us of The Jetson's robot.  Remember that show?

Valentine's day was great.  I thought Matthew wouldn't be home until after 7pm, but to my surprise he came home early with flowers in hand.  He's a good man.  We went out that night with our neighbors and our American friends from our neighborhood to Thrifty ice cream   It was new to me.  It's just like Baskin Robins.  We had the kids with us, but it wasn't bad.  Something about it made it an awesome day.  Plus in the morning for playgroup I had the kids over for heart shaped pizzas, a robot craft, and sugar cookies.  Can't go wrong with all those good things.

And finally, our little River.  She gave us quite the scare this month.  She woke up one morning very sad and went straight to our tiny backyard and just sat there, all depressed.  I instantly new something was wrong and panicked telling Matthew I thought she had lost her vision in her only eye.  We quickly took her to the vet and the fun began shortly thereafter.  We were both calling and driving all around the city trying to find her the right medication to save her eye.  We finally were able to get a hold of a human eye doctor that was nice enough to tell me what we needed to get for her to save her eye.  So far, so good.  She is on 4 different medications a day, multiple times throughout the day.  It's crazy keeping it all organized but we manage.  The sad news is that we can really only save her eye for so long.  At this point we are just prolonging the inevitable.  She supposedly has 18 months or less of her good eye left.  So, for now, she milks the system.  Eating human food, since it's the only way she will willingly take her pills, sleeping on our couch and bed for hours during the day.  She is quite annoying but, if this will keep her happy, we do indulge.  But, I draw the line at getting into my garbage.  She still gets in big trouble for that.

Guess there was more to February than I thought.