Viva Mexico!

Last Friday the 16th was Mexican Independence Day.  The celebrations actually start at 11PM on the night before, the 15th.  That's because at 11PM every Mexican turns on their TV and watch the President go out on the balcony of one of the parliament buildings, rings a bell a few times.  And then the President yells some things like ' Viva Mexico!' and everybody present and watching (aka all Mexicans) respond by yelling 'VIVA!'  And he goes through a progressing of maybe 10 different sentences, each one ended by yelling 'VIVA!'

The church in Tlalpan had a service that night, a time of preaching and prayer followed by lots of food.  The food included Pozole (the traditional food for Independence Day), tamales, quesadillas, and sopes.  All very, very good.  Then we turned on the TV, to watch the President and participate in the yelling.  Then we fellowshipped some more and brought out a couple pinatas. We had a lot of fun watching the kids take their shots at the pinata.

On Sunday (yesterday), we celebrated with the church in Coyoacan.  After the church service we went to the home of Rogerio and Cinthia and we all had more pozole and good times.

Here are some pictures....

Things I've been up to.

I knitted this rug and I love it!  It's a simple basket weave stitch, double stranded. I had fun making it.  

I cut out the counter in the picture because it was full of dishes!!!! *oops* :)

This is a chili pot pie.  It was DELISH!  Yup, B for Boyle.  Cheesy, right?  Couldn't think of anything else.

This is a wreath I just finished making today.  I saw it at a friend's house and thought it was so cute, though her colours were very 90's-ish.   I picked blues to match the bathroom (where it now graces the wall).  Here's the process...

It's a foam wreath and I started out by using a glue gun, but, well, that got messy.  I found poking it with a pen MUCH easier.

But wait, there's more pictures!!!!

These are my fall decorations.  Put them up yesterday and I'm feeling 'fall-ish' now.  Since there are only 2 seasons in Mexico (rain and non-rain), its hard to feel 'fall-ish' and, come winter.... bring on the Christmas decorations, its the only way I can get in the mood, since the weather's not doing it for me!

So cute, I love it!

Ok, just one more picture!   My successful transplant of the seedlings!

They're growing like weeds!!!  (um, are they weeds?)...

Well, that's all folks.  I'm sure nobody is actually following this anymore....  But it's just as much a journal for me, as it is a way for you to feel apart of our lives.  :)  

Love you family!!!!

So- keeping up with posts is harder than I thought!

I have been trying to upload some pics of my latest knitting projects, etc.  But we have been having internet problems this last week and my computer in particular has been affected with the evil virus of SLOWNESS!  I think that computer has just about seen its days.

New update:  I had an ultrasound today.  Looks like I have a recurrence of kidney stones.  Apparently that is common, but let me tell you its certainly unwanted!  I have 2 kidney stones now, the bigger one is 7mm.  So I am more determined now to stay on top of my water intake and medicine.  I have to drink about 12 glasses of water a day!  So I filled up our jug (that's 4 glasses), so I need to consume 3 jugs full a day!  When I had my ultrasound in May I only had one kidney stone, today we found out its gotten bigger and there's another one. I am researching more now about getting rid of kidney stones (since this has lingered for months!) and how to keep them away.

I appreciate prayers.  I didn't think I'd be dealing with this for so long.  But trusting the Lord makes going through it easier.  Knowing that He always has the best plan for my life and that He brings me through any trial and temptation for a reason, so that I may be tested, so that I may learn some lesson, but all ultimately to give Him glory!

 I love you family!

Something to brighten the day.

School was hard today, some of those grammar concepts can be hard to grasp.  My teacher keeps on saying 'pan comido!' meaning 'piece of cake!'  And I think to myself 'um, no its not!'  So needless to say when I saw these pretty flowers, I bought them and they brightened my day!  And the wonderful thing about living in Mexico and shopping at markets is that the flowers are only $10 PESOS a bunch.  That's less than a dollar.  You can get a dozen roses for about $2 US, not bad eh?

I like to indulge just a little!  Aren't they beautiful?

Enjoying our Friday afternoon...

 Just some pics for ya'll to enjoy!

We had such a lovely afternoon.  I was ready to throw my Spanish text book against the wall, well lets just say a little break was in order!  And thankfully we could make it work!  It was SO relaxing!

 We played a little Upwords!  

And here's a picture of the pears growing outside. 

They aren't that good for eating, but they're good for baking!

Slippers!!!

We love things that the grandparents have made for us.  I thought of one in particular, our slippers, because we've been making good use of them since the rainy season hit us.  Gotta keep them feet warm!

New Printer

Sometimes buying particular things can take a long time and some planning when living in Mexico.  Electronics are for some reason more expensive here.  Because of that, we knew that we wanted to buy a printer/copier/scanner/fax machine combo online.  Jason found a good deal.  The only thing was getting it here!  You don't exactly put a thing like that through international mail!  Fortunately our good friends the Goldfuss' went up to Texas for a little summer family time.  And, well, we got our printer sent to an address there in Texas and they brought it back for us!!

Jason didn't want a picture of himself on here.  However, this is what it looks like when Jason is at work in his office.  Now with our printer we can print thousands of invitations, church bulletins, sermon notes, and much more!  Right now, we aren't printing anything quite in that kind of quantity, but Lord willing, not too far in the future we will be printing church invitations.

Keep praying for the Bible study!  We had someone new last night.  He is from the family that we had originally started the Bible study for (and he is the first to come from that family).  They live very near our house, please pray that we will be able to get to know the family and develop a relationship with them.

Celebrating Canada Day and the 4th of July...

Canada Day and 4th of July fun!!  We invited another American family over.  We had a nice time.  Check out the cake I made.  I took pictures in stages.  It *may* be hard to tell what it is, so I'll just give it away- It's Uncle Sam's Hat.  How American, I know.

 Just a bit of watermelon thrown in there- can't have a summer celebration without watermelon and burgers!

 Nooow.... the finished product.  Yup, that's 4 cakes stacked on top of each other, covered in icing.  We had an interesting time contemplating how we were going to cut it.  

We decided to go with a layer at a time.

It didn't feel *quite* the same celebrating what is normally a hot-summer's-day-sort-of-celebration during the rainy season.  It just pours and pours.  Our yard becomes a swamp!  But we had a fun time just the same.  Thankful for my cozy dry house.

*Sorry there's no pictures of us.  I always forget to take pictures 'in the moment.'

Plants

Yaaaa..... I'm writing about my plants.  People know how giddy I've been about my plants, Jason just shakes his head. :)  But, I DON'T talk to them-ok, it's not that bad. My Dad is helping me work on my green thumb, he happily responds to my emails. :)  My very first house plant- an aloe plant- it died.  I think I watered it too much.  And I have two plants in front of my house, they're in rough shape.  I don't think I watered them enough.  But I am trying to salvage them, they aren't completely done for.  Here's my new 'ponytail plant' -it's lookin good. It's been around for a month, and, so far so good.

These are my little seedlings.  I think it'll be the highlight of my week when I see the first little sprout come out of the dirt.

I've got some herbs, some flowers, and some cactus' in there.  

I like to write the English and the Spanish.  I'm trying to encourage the bilingualism to come through. :)

Well, be assured, I will probably post a pic of the seedlings when they actually poke through.

I love seeing new growth.  I love that we're in the rainy season right now, and everything is sopping wet.  We have to make sure our house is in shape for the rainy season.  A couple days ago, when it was storming, it was flooding behind our house (that's where our washer and dryer is).  Jason went and unclogged the drains.  And we decided that we need to put some wood underneath the washer and dryer to protect it from the elements. 

We also went to Home Depot and bought some containers with little balls that soak up moisture in the air.  We put those in our bedroom.  Last rainy season, our first few months in Mexico, we had mildew problems in our bedroom, and our bed sheets were always quite damp.  These should help.  Things are a bit different here, but we wouldn't want to be anywhere else.  We love that the Lord has sent us here to be a witness for Him.

Learning the Language

These are my Spanish study materials.  The pilgrim's progress (on the left) is just for fun, reading really helps me understand.  I've read novels without a dictionary, though I didn't understand a lot of words, just reading it through like that helps me to absorb and get the whole picture.  Though I don't understand some words, it really makes my brain think.

'Asi hablamos' is my text book for my Intermedio 1 course that starts next week.  *Maybe* I'll have a peak at it, and see if I can get ahead (HA-not likely).

In my Spanish class, besides going through the book, we have many discussions and role plays and other conversation times, that really makes these classes invaluable.  We go everyday, Monday to Friday, 9AM-12PM.  We leave our house at 8AM and get back by 1:30PM-ish.  So, ya, it takes out half our day right there.  Fine for me, I just have to worry about lunch and the house.  Jason, however, has sermons and Bible studies to prepare.  He is so diligent, and such a hard worker!  

There's also some flashcards there.  Those are from my Basico 4 course and previous courses, so I can remember the main grammar concepts taught in the courses.  And so I can review what I'm supposed to know up to this point!

Underneath my text book is a book called 'First 1000 Words in Spanish.'  It has a lot of common words, but also, it does have some obscure ones.  Each page is set in a different location to learn all the words associated with that location, ie. the grocery store, a shed/backyard, hospital, etc.

Yup.  So that's what I'm doing to learn Spanish right now.  My view of language learning so far: Reading and writing are by FAR easier than speaking.