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.

Mexico Part 45: January Happenenings

Eva in her classroom.

Just imagine a picture being taken of me. The curse of always being the one behind the camera. Never in any pictures. 

Elijah makes this face a lot while he plays. We call him a gently giant. Or a WWF wrestler because he does such a dramatic wind up but never really hurts anyone.  

My beautiful Eva

Henry's 3rd Birthday

Well, we got back to Mexico on the 11th of January.  No free plane tickets this time.  Major bummer.  It is always crazy to get back into the routine of things.  It takes forever to unpack and clean all the messes that were made.  We came back to River being alive, which was a sigh of relief, since it is getting too expensive to take her with us on vacations.  But it is good to be home.

 The first week back Eva had an Open House at her school.  They showed us how her math curriculum works, which as a teacher, I totally love.  She sits in the front row of her Spanish class.  She must be there to keep another poor kid out of trouble, or she probably could use the extra help ;)

A week later we went to Colomos, a park, for some horse back riding.  Matthew and I both got on a horse with the kids and took a little trail.  It was fun although I did have a very strong willed horse that didn't want to listen very well and got way too much dirt all over me.  Next time, we are putting the kids on ponies and having everybody ride their own horse.  I am sure that would make for a more pleasurable experience.

And lastly, a friend of ours, Henry, turned three and we were able to spend his birthday with him.  It's funny how with everyone who lives in our neighborhood now, you don't need to really invite extra people.  We can have a party with just the families who live nearby.  That makes things simple and nice in my book.

Christmas Break in Oregon

Christmas Eve and ready to open presents.  That's how we do it at my parents. And the kids were excited!

Eva had been DYING to open presents.  It's really hard when they are all out staring at you.

They spend a lot of time on this recliner with my dad.  Elijah always is wondering where Pap is when he isn't around. He doesn't really know what a job is.  I think he even asked my mom if he was at school.

My brothers are so awesome!  They love my kids and played lots of games with them. And of course tease my Eva to no end.  They treat her like a sister.

I don't know how many years its been since I was around for Erik's birthday. But this time I was. On the 26th of December he turned 23.  I remember his birth like it were yesterday.

Zoo Lights

This took a lot of courage for her.  

Portland Aquarium

Ricky and Keri invited us to come.  It took me over an hour to find the darn place, but it was fun. 

Out of this World Pizza.  Lily is always the sweetest to Elijah. She plays with him and loves on him.

These girls will be best friends forever.  Just like their mamas.  

These cute kids are only ten months apart and are cousins. Something about it cracks me up.  

Our Christmas morning on the 30th

Cousins.  I think these girls will be good friend one day.  They already are.

Sledding

Kids left and the adults had fun.

Eva lost her first tooth in Sisters.  I technically yanked it out for her. She had been so patient. 

Puzzles.  I just watch.  

Cannon Beach

Christmas Day Dinner with the Wilkinson's

Christmas Eve.  Eva was cute and went to my mom and told her she really wanted a boy barbie because she didn't have one.  And of course they got her one.  My kids are spoiled.

Christmas break was quite different for us this year.  For the first time we, Matthew and the kids and I spent it apart.  It really was an accident the way it happened.  Matthew bumped some classes to be able to take his USMLE test and by doing that he had to make them up in December.  Well, imagine our surprise when they told him he would have to be doing a shift at the hospital Christmas Eve and would then be finishing up on the 28th.  We were very disappointed.  We tried to make the best of it, but it wasn't the same not having your whole family together.  The truth is, if we wouldn't have been so naive, we wouldn't have come to the States.  I would have much rather been together as a family.  But, we did it.  And hope to not have to do it again anytime soon, but we aren't counting on it.

So, from the 17th to the 28th I spent time with my family.  My brother Alex was there from the East Coast, which is always such a treat when he is around, and then Erik, of course was home and Ricky and Keri weren't to far away in Washington.  We managed to see them quite a bit too.  On the 29th, Matthew flew in, happy day for me.  I REALLY missed him this time, I normally can hold it together, but holidays are different I suppose.  Then we headed to Sisters.  We were there for the New Year and spent some time with his siblings, and the kids' cousins.  Then headed to Cannon Beach for a few days with Nana and Grandpa, only to head back to Hillsboro for a couple days before we came back to Mexico.  This trip flew by!  But we managed to do some of our favorites.  Oregon in the winter isn't the best, but we always love the people we leave behind and they make being there worth every penny!

Mexico Part 44: Winter Ballet Recital

Waiting for the performance to start.  He really does enjoy Eva up on stage. 

Eva's ballet recital happened the beginning of December.  She is now one of the oldest girls in her group.  She really should have moved to the next level, but at the time we were talking new school, and new ballet class too, didn't seem like a good idea.  The teacher agreed that what she really needed was an intermediate class, which she doesn't have, and instead told me that no matter where Eva stayed she would modify things for her.  She stayed with the little kids and she is quite the leader in there.  It was funny to watch her take charge of all the little kids during the recital.  They have the performance with the college students, so it always a breath of fresh air and humorous to see the little ones.  I LOVE my little dancer.

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving.  A time to be with family, and in our case our awesome friends who have become family.  This year we were able to gather together with Matt and Mckensie, Aaron and Sarah, Sarah's parents, Josh and Amy.  Between all of us we were able to make a successful thanksgiving.  I wish I would have taken a picture of our table because it really did look beautiful.  Since our homes are on the smaller side, we used our park and used our card tables to make one big long table.  We brought our own chairs and everything was set.  I took the task of making the turkey.  In almost ten years of marriage it was my first turkey.  I felt very proud of myself when the turkey was done and it looked nice and golden brown.  I used my friend Monste's brining recipe, which didn't disappoint.   While we always miss taking turns spending time with our families every year now that we have been in Mexico, we really are thankful we have good people here to share this holiday with.