So, I keep nagging him about ass cancer and how I’d much rather have brain cancer and even die than have ASS cancer – I mean, what a horribly embarrassing cancer to have, ASS CANCER?!!!??  And we finally got his ass to the doctor this morning.  This referral doc ($35USD) was a gastro doc who verified that the tumor is really not anywhere near the gastro devices (well, geez, *I* could have told him that) and that it is hard and fixed and since it waxes and wanes in size related to Jamie’s cycling, is probably cycling-induced and benign and maybe a fibrous tumor.  But we definitely need to get it checked out.  So he refers us to an orthopedist (which is who we should have gone to in the first place if we’d been thinking and all, but what with my brain cancer…) and tells us while we’re at it to get a pelvic x-ray and take that to the ortho.  He called the ortho and explained the whole situation and I left a message with the Ortho to get an appointment in the next couple days.  We hope.  So we’re on top of the ass cancer situation.  Except we really don’t expect ass cancer.  I mean, cancer is bad enough, but to say you have ASS cancer would REALLY suck.  If it were me, I’d just change it to something less laughable.  If you’re unfortunate enough to have cancer it would really suck to have people laugh at you when you told them what kind.  And ass cancer isn’t really something people are going to respect.  I told you our humour is dark.

While we were out doing our doctor tramites we decided to try and follow the very vague directions the receptionist gave me for the ENT referral and see if talking in person might give some insight into the exam and prices.  After the last doctor visit, I called the ENT I was referred to, was told the consult fee was $500MN (but depending on what he did it could be $500 or $700 but I really had no idea what made the difference).  They gave me vague directions to find the place – 5 blocks from Bodgea look to the left, something about 2 green houses, something maybe about Plaza Chihhuaha, something I obviously missed – and strangely enough we could NOT find the place!  I know!  Surprised me too!  So we stopped at Bodega and got some groceries and headed to Hospiten to see if they have an ENT and what they charge.  Their ENT is at a congresso (I’m guessing a convention or something) but they have an ENT coming down from Cancun on Tuesday and Thursday to cover.  Their charge is only $495MN and I took the bait.  The boys have a dentist appointment tomorrow so I’m sure we’ll be bleeding pesos really soon.

The vertigo is getting really really bad but I’m pretty sure it is bad-attitude vertigo and not brain cancer, though jamie has his money on brain cancer.  Considering that SSD would pay my dependents about $3000USD/month and I have a $300K USD life insurance policy on my head, he’s picked the winner.  I think it is time to knock-off the mommy.  I’m worth MUCH more dead than alive.

In other news, due to the Grito and my vertigo getting incredibly worse, all our routines pretty much fell apart.  I stopped tracking my food intake (but am hanging solidly at 79 kilos – didn’t check this morning – could be I’ve regained all 11 kilos overnight – you never know), stopped exercising (vertigo much worse towards the end of day and due to the heat, we always exercise at the end of the day), stopped reading to the kids, stopped all academics, and yesterday decided to start getting back on track.  Pikey, however, has been motoring right along, continuing with his math, copywork and reading.  I can’t tell you all how incredibly proud I am of that boy.  He learned to read around 10 (just didn’t put it together well until then) and then only read for information; never for pleasure.  I accepted that; I didn’t really like it as I really would have loved to share the joy of reading with him, but accepted that it was just different for him.  The last couple months, however, he has developed a joy of reading.  He picks out books and enjoys them.  I am so happy he has found this little world of reading good books – it just warms my heart.  And he continues to methodically work through his math, even when it is difficult, and strives to understand and master the concepts.  He’s not just going through the motions.  I am just so very very proud of him.

We do a Tuesday Tea Time each Tuesday (or Wednesday or Sunday – however it works out) and a Friday Freewrite (where the boys and I write for 10 minutes straight – no editing, no composing, a free-flow of words) for a few months now.  Last Friday (or whatever day it ended up that we did it) Jesse wrote some lovely prose about fireworks.  I’ll have to see if he’s interested in sharing, but it was so beautiful to see the writing come alive in him.

We’re still slogging through Japan and today I think we’re starting on Korea (but I’m not exactly sure).  I’m finalizing the plans for our stuides of the Ancient Cultures and can’t wait to begin and at the same time, wish I’d done a better job on World Cultures.  If nothing else, I’ll be able to do a better job with the girls on their 2nd go around.  I need to update the homeschool blog but that means I’d have to organize stuff on my end and that’s just not going to happen.

I had a long talk with the boys about the academia we are starting to delve into, having never had any formal schooling, and they are enjoying the ride.  Well, the ride so far has been incredibly easy and we only do that which they have chosen and decided they want to do.  Pike is interested in honing his mad speling skilz, math, writing, reading and art.  Jesse is not loving the idea of writing (which to me is so ironic because I think he has a real gift waiting to be discovered), but enjoys math, reading and Spanish.  He has decided to try the Art stuff I bought but will probably bow out.  So, we’re heading off to curriculm land where Sonlight will still rule the base of our daily flow.  I’m sticking with 1+2 for the girls and will go with Core 6 for the boys.  Jesse says he likes learning about new math concepts but (this is where he really shows his healthy self-esteem) it doesn’t do anything for a sense of self-achievement or satisfaction.  Pike says he gets a real feeling of achievement from the math and writing.  Since all we’re doing right now is math, writing (once a week) and me reading to them nightly, it hasn’t been a huge change in routine.  As per usual though, Runescape is providing their best education.  Jesse says he is really noticing punctuation and asked today if quotes could indicate sarcasm and can really see the unimaginable concept of a million (since he has something like 6.5 million GP).  So, if you’d like to personally come down and collect my unschooling membership card, can you bring some curriculum with you?

We have a backyard that backs up to a jungle so why am I surprised to find a family of snakes living in the bushes?  Jamie, the boys and I watched them the other day and then employed Dr. Google to figure out what they were.  Other than the fact that they were trying to get INTO the recamera (the doors are now duct-taped shut) we’re ok with them.  They seem to tunnel down though and one was trying to dig a tunnel (snakes dig a tunnel with their heads) right next to the door.  Little creepy.

Jody requested a budget post, so here is my attempt.  When we first started traveling i looked around the blogoshere and found a couple who had planned on spending $40 a day average to stay on budget.  I figured out that $100 a day for our famiy would be about what we were already spending in a stick home and we strove for that.  i kept track of expenses in Notepad and kept a running average.  As long as we were under $100 for the average, I was fine.

When we decided we wanted to stay out on the road longer than a year, I decided I’d need something better than Notepad and stole acquired Excel.  I just found out I have Office 2003 around and should upgrade poor little Excel 97 which won’t even install anymore.  Spreadsheets made it easier to track and now I had a year of data I could use to create a budget.  We weren’t really strict with the budget (as you can tell from some months) but generally came even on a yearly basis.  This year I really wanted to get serious with the budget and even cut $5000 from our operating expenses.  That has made it more dirricult but I still think the numbers are achievable.  Jamie would probably disagree.  He HATES the idea of limiting spending.

For me, the first step is determining what is a need and what is a want.  For example, we must have some means to obtain purified water.  We cannot drink from the tap.  So a dispenser of some kind is a necessity.  it could be a 3 peso pump thingie but we soon found, by the limitations of all designs, that it would leak and we would waste water.  It was also very difficult to use and the kids would dump water.  So a cheap solution but not effective.  At the other end of the scale, most people here in PaaMul have fancy water dispensers that dispense hot and cold water.  I can’t think of anything more lovely than a cold glass of water on a typical day down here.  They are pricey though, at $2000+ pesos.  I figured that we could buy a sack of ice at the restaurant (local) each and every day, and it would take us 3 YEARS to come to 1/2 the cost of the dispenser and by that time the dispenser would have rusted and need to be replaced.  We found some $70 peso dispensers which can sit on the counter, not leak, dispense water and buy ice if we want cold water.

It is easier for me to stick to a budget because I don’t see it as a deprivation.  I’m very conscious of conspicious consumption (thanks to my Dad!) and we’ve never been terribly materialistic.  When I decide I don’t want to spend money on something and can do without or do with lesser, I see it as a positive – we’re able to spend money somewhere else or save money towards something (debt, treat, emergency fund, etc.) so there is no deprivation involved.

I’ll proofread and maybe add more tomorrow, but if I don’t get this out tonight (well it is 12:37am) it may leak out my brain and be lost forever.

I have been slaving over curriculum choices the past week and have completely forgotten my studies.  On the plus side, I have Math, Language Arts, Literature, History, Geography, Fine Art, Latin and Science figured out.  Well, not the Latin.  I still don’t know exactly what I’ll get for that.  Jesse and I will be doing Latin together and I’m trying to find something not dry and engaging.  Latin Prep looks good but I still need to look at others.  Now I just need to find a mule with empty suitcases to bring all this crap down to us. 

“Our” turtle nests are beginning to hatch and we caught one the other day on the beach.  A Meridano happened along with his family and informed us that after all the little tortugitas left the nest we would need to dig down and get the stragglers.  Jamie ran back to get my camera (and the boys) and as our new friend dug up a turtle he would hand it to someone, we’d make sure they walked on the sand for quite a bit to the water and then the kids couldn’t help themselves but hold them in the water to make sure they got out as far as possible.  We’ve seen the laying and now we’ve seen the hatching.  The dissapointment is knowing that most of those little greenbacks won’t make it very far in life.  Luckily, the boys were awake (at 6pm) because they have decidedly swapped day for night and night for day, going to bed between 3 and 6am and getting up between 2 and 5pm.  I was getting irritated with their schedule as it really limits me (I don’t want to wake them with my noise) but I’m willing to wait and see how it goes.

We are still making plans to head to the US for fall – leaving early September we think, but due to budget and US fuel costs, we’ll probably only visit in Texas and New Mexico before turning tail and heading back to PaaMul.  I don’t know why I even bother to write a budget when I know we’re going to completely blow it by buying our combined weight in STUFF when we hit the US.  Jesse has been saving his money and has his eye on an X-Box and i don’t even want to THINK about what jamie has planned.  In the spirit of full disclosure, I personally, have my own list.

I can’t remember the last time I listened to Prarie Home Companion; it comes on at prime mosquito hour and I’m thinking we’ll just have to set up the Sirius and receiver in the recamera so we can listen in peace.  On Sundays, the re-broadcast is at prime sleeping hour for my nightowls, so that isn’t a good time either.  Ellen is BEYOND pissed if she wakes and I’m not around because she likes to slowly wake while I plow through another of the Oz books.  We finished “The Road to Oz” last night and began “The Emerald City of Oz” and the Nome King is VERY angry.  I found a lovely quote from the first chapter that I’m going to use as copywork this week, “An unsuspected enemy is doubly dangerous.”

Gee.  It sure seemed like there was more news that was fit to print, but maybe it wasn’t, afterall. 

Oh, maybe 83 kilos.  I never get the chance to weigh myself until after breakfast, and that has been 83.5 for the past couple days, so I’m thinking that first thing in the morning I’m probably 83.  I’m pretty convincing sometimes.

UPDATE: Jamie, the girls and I are in the recamera, looking out on the hot steamy backyard and listening to Garrison Keilor. I actually got chills hearing the intro. It has been FAR too long. Either NPR or Sirius has changed the two NPR channel schedules and we can listen as long as we get out of bed before 1pm.

I lost 2 days of study and 2 days of exercise and i can swear that my thighs are already flabbier.  But I’m SO ENJOYING being alive again!

But now I’m off to bed because pretty soon we’re going to be going to bed at dawn.  Last night I had to force myself (and Ellen) to be at 1:30am as I just didn’t feel tired enough.  Sigh.  The boys regularly stay up until dawn playing Runescape and downloading TV shows (during the non-FAP hours of 2am to 5am).

In “educational news” today the boys and i researched the Gregorian, Julian, Julian-reform, Chinese (which, in actuality is NOT a Chinese calendar) and Coptic calendars.  We found out the reason the days of the week are named as they are (in both Germanic and Romance languages) and tomorrow we’re delving into ancient Isreal.

More later, I have to earn my cup of coffee tomorrow by actually sleeping tonight.  Oh, the animal shelter is rumoured to have a poodle and Ellen and I are going to check it out tomorrow.  She has been begging for another puppy wash and tomorrow she’ll finally get her wish.

Jamie and I salivated over all the property between Alburquerque and Santa Fe; we took the “Turquoise Trail” and it was absolutely beautiful. We were told in Madrid, a tiny town we stopped in for the afternoon, that the route we took was an old indigenous trade trail from Mexico. Madrid, New Mexico is an amazing little town. Each and every home along the main street (one paved road through town) had art in the front yard, if not hanging from the rafters and eaves. It was a gorgeous town but real estate was incredibly expensive. We’re beginning to think that we’ll need to hit Missouri or Arkansas for cheap land. Course, we’re still a bit up in the air as to what we will do; our plans seem to change with the tides (which we haven’t seen in forever).

We’re currently boondocking in tribal lands near a casino between Santa Fe and Española. Last night we meandered along highway 14 up to Santa Fe, taking many breaks and stops to enjoy the scenery or tiny towns or mountain passes and ended the evening at Lowe’s. I wanted to construct the girls’ beds and have Lowe’s close by incase I needed to make adjustments or get more material. This morning we spent too much money at Target but now have many options for storage for the kids and I really don’t want to hear another word about how it is impossible to open a drawer (Jamie replaced all the drawer sliders with super expensive, durable and heavy duty sliders) to put their “stuff” away. Of course, with the girls’ new beds, they’ve taken over our bed and now our room is their playroom. But at least they are loving their space. They really need their own space and the boys simply will not allow them in the bunkroom.

It is a lovely feeling knowing that my dream will not have to come to an end unless I choose it and that Mexico awaits this winter and that we’ll actively seek out opportunities for the kids to interact with other kids. I’ve been mulling over the idea of contacting schools of tiny towns we pass through to see if they’re interested in a presentation by the kids, but never really voiced the idea. Maybe the kids would enjoy that.

Anyway, we’ve been doing a lot of conferencing and traveling lately; I’m really looking forward to some time in Chama.