I was bit again yesterday as I dumped the trailer tanks and my ankle swelled but I think it was just normal mozzy bites as nothing else happened.

I’m pretty sure we’ll go to the clinica tomorrow if this keeps up. I can study and do stuff but I’m just not all there and tire easily.

Jesse Reading:
Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry

Pike Reading:
Stone Fox

Mom Reading to boys:
Arabs in the Golden Age
Finished Shadow Spinner
Started Genghis Khan and the Mongol Hordes

Mom Reading to girls:
Finished The Scarecrow of Oz
Began The Patchwork Girl of Oz

Dad Reading to girls:
Parables from Nature
The Discovery of New Worlds

TeaTime books:
Finished Beat the Story Drum, Pum Pum
Started Tales of a Korean Grandmother

Discussions:
What period of time would you like to live in?
Which way would you rather die?
Is punishment effective for those breaking the law? (spurned, amazingly, from The Patchwork Girl of Oz)
Are blacks accepted for their character today? How was racism affected by Arab slaves in the Golden Ages?
What is a treasure you seek and is your treasure measurable?

Spanish words:

Yesterday I was bitten by 2 yellow flies. From what we can tell they are very similar to deer flies and not venomous. I’ve been bitten before and once had a strong reaction, but generally it isn’t much to worry about. I think it might be due to the fact it was 2 bites that kind of did me in yesterday (and continues today).

After the first bite, just south of my knee, my entire groin - especially the fold where the labia meet the thigh were excruciatingly itchy. It was really unbearable, but this has happened before with these bites and it seems the closer to the groin, the worse the itching in that area. I did not notice hives.  After a while of icing my nether regions I got really really tired and lay down for a bit. I finally summoned the energy for our daily exercise walk and just before we left I was bit again. I thought it was just a mozzy as the bite area stayed small enough and we headed out for our walk. I was not able to put a lot of energy into the walk but figured I’d just try to get my heart rate up and get some cardio in. About 15 min into the walk I got to feeling REALLY bad - my head was itching like mad (the 2nd bite was on my tricep area), the ear and side of my head that the arm bitten on were itching like mad and we’d already turned about and headed home. My arms got too heavy to hold my waterbottle and my head was so heavy I didn’t raise it but stared at the ground walking home. My legs felt fine. Groin itched but not like before.

Walking home was like out of body. My head tingled all over and it felt very floaty. My arms and head felt like lead. Home I took a shower and Benadryl and lay down. At this point through the rest of the night it is very fuzzy. Oh, I was unable to walk a straight line while walking home and finally Jamie took me by the arm and steered my home. I did, however, manage to have enough energy to jump out of my skin when a palm frond hit my arm. I just wanted to drop to the ground, curl in a ball and sleep but I knew I had to get home. I felt very out of body all evening. Jamie says I ran a fever and was somewhat incoherent. I remember having only enough energy to mutter one word responses or grunts. i was BONE tired. he said I had hives all over my body but I honestly don’t remember that. The swelling, after Benadryl seemed to be very restricted. Normally it will reach from one joint to the other, but this time the arm swelled (erythema, hot and hard and swollen) from shoulder to just before elbow and leg from knee to just before ankle. From what I read this is a local reaction. After a few hours I woke and had energy. I could talk, was hungry and started to watch a movie with Jamie. Then I suddenly got itchy again, immense tiredness and fever. Another Benadryl and I was down for the night.

Today I woke and felt 100% better. That lasted about an hour. I do, however, have headache, diarrhea and after an hour of being up and around I’m as bone tired as last night. I only took 2 Benadryl because they make my head woozy (but last night my head was screwed up before the Benadryl, I’m not sure if today’s dizziness and heavy head is due to Benadryl or what). The swelling is definitely localized and the erythema is much smaller than it normally is. I’m so tired I don’t want to get out of bed.  I spent the entire day in bed and I think it was mainly the wicked GI and headache symptoms combined with the Benadryl after-effects of dizziness and cotton head.  I think I’ll be back in form tomorrow but now I really need to find some way to figure out when an epinepherine shot is warranted and how to get one.  We have an on-call doc and I’m wondering if, since you can’t get EpiPens here, he can drive by and shoot me up.

But other than that, pretty boring here.

82 and holding.  I am VERY happy to have finally dropped that damn kilo.

Dysequilibrium/vertigo seems to be ear-related.  Taking garlic and putting drops in ear.  I’ll try this for a week and if no improvement in dysequilibrium I’ll go back to doctor.

Still no cubano roast.  I might have to start chopping off one of Jamie’s fingers for each time he comes home without it until I get it.

Words of the day; aprender (conjugated in the present tense), cuchillo, tenedor, and cucharra.  I’ve been consistent with the Spanish daily, though yesterday was less Spanish than previous days.

Chaos.  More later.

We call Sundays “Mexican Sunday” because it is about the only time that locals have to enjoy with their families.  And it was doubly lovely to see entire Mexican families, just like we were, busting into the resorts to lie on their loungers, sit under their palapas and enjoy the beaches that are supposed to belong to Mexico (but that the resorts generally prohibit anyone other than a resort-goer to enjoy.  I know we totally stick out from the resort folk as we schlepped all our stuff down the beach (in stark contrast to the resort folk who have a swimsuit (many times, just the bottom as it is Italian and French season now) and a towel and a book.  Pretty much just that.  Oh, sometimes cups of stuff from the resort.  I still can’t believe they don’t just tell us to leave.

But it was a lot of fun, people watching, listening to the Italian and French, looking at all the bare breasts and basking in luxury.  I got the boys up early; we were going to have Sunday teatime on the beach with cinnamon rolls and drinks.  We’ve started reading “Takes of a Korean Grandmother” and so far I’m really enjoying it.  Teatime is supposed to be poems, but we ain’t got no poems.  Maybe after we finish this book.  So, after such an incredibly early start (the boys as it turned out were up until 5am) we got to the beach early enough to get a little sun.  And for some reason, this Sunday was woefully lacking in both English-speaking folk and freakishly white skin burnt to a red crisp.

I FINALLY managed to lose that damn kilo, after bouncing from 83 to 84 all week, the week before, and heading steady at 83 all this past week, this morning I think I’ve made a solid landing at 82.  I’ll probably bounce between 82 and 83 this week, but I’ll take it, just to be done with that damn 84.  At least I’m heading downward again.

I managed to give myself that enormous kick in the rear and have had TWO WHOLE CONSISTENT days of Spanish.  Jesse, very cranky from lack of sleep this morning, begged for English so I relented to speaking first Spanish and then translating for him for the day.  I’ve also concentrated on 2 words each day and even when I’m speaking English, those words are always Spanish.  Today’s words were “rollo de canela” and “tollala”.  (Cinnamon Roll and towel)

The van is F.I.X.E.D. after spending two days with the mechanic.  We’ve been wondering just how good this guy is; he comes highly recommended, but you just never know.  He earned our trust with this past job though and rigged the starter so that it will now actually start without replacing the whole thing.  He had one bad diagnosis, was proven wrong and took that well and then went on to fix the problem.  That isn’t something that happens very often here.  AFter spending $950MN ($92USD) a few months ago for a new solenoid, he charged us $400MN ($41USD) for taking the starter apart, cleaning it and installing an auxillary boost.  We’ll see what happens and might just pick up a new starter when we get to the US.

Tomorrow I head to the clinica to see if I can find out what my vertigo/dysequilibrium issue is and to get GOOD FREAKING CUBANO ROAST coffee.  I’m sick of this acidic, bitter, POS Starburst stuff Jamie got on his last trip to Costco.  It is better than nothing, but now that I’ve had the Cubano Coatepec beans, I don’t thinkit is possible to go back.

And that was our Mexican Sunday.

Oh, and the weird thing today (cause none of the above was weird) was that during Sunday teatime (and “Tales of a Korean Grandmother“) I noticed that the bay at our beach was PERFECT for snorkeling.  We have had wicked windy weather for weeks now and today, when Tropical Storm Fay (checking WU just now to see if she is still TS or Cat 1) is offshore and over Cuba, we have beautifully calm seas.  Of course, by the time we were south of Akumal (and out of the lee from Cozumel?) we had wicked waves and it was a red flag day.

I have been meaning to update forfreakingever but honestly, there is really nothing to say.  Nothing new to report; the boys are still sleeping all day (Jesse had a new record yesterday when he went to bed an hour after i had goten up (7:30am)), I am still wading through curriculum and choices, a new Waldorfy school opened up and luckilly, their tuition keeps me from even considering the place (minimum of $400/month/kid), sky is still brilliantly blue, water still impossibly tourquise and clouds still heavenly white.  The weather has been kind; no storms or hurricanes but we’re now at the part of the season that it really gets started.  So we keep watching and waiting.

Jamie and I have had some medical stuff going on and I had hoped to have had some answers before I even posted but it is taking forever for us to get to a clinic or a doctor.  And that is just so incredibly sad considering the bounty of opportunity we have here.  We can have a well-respected and recommended doctor make a housecall for $500 pesos (around $50USD and rising due to the dollar jumping off skyscrapers), we can hit a decent enough clinic (on Constituentes just off the carretera if anyone is interested; something with “Rosa” or “Ana” in the name) for $300MN/consultation, we can make an appointment at Hospiten (European and uber-expensive hospital in town) for $600MN/consult and I’m sure there are more options, but these are the ones we’ve tried and have been very satisfied with so far.  We will both probably need an MRI though, and we’re wondering why pay for a consult when we’ll need to pay again after the MRIs…  We had firm plans to hit Hospiten (for information and to make an appointment) this morning, then to the coffee lady (I’ve been a month on non-Coatepec beans and am DYING for my Cuban roast) and then to the Clinica but Ellen isn’t feeling well so Jamie begged off.  He really doesn’t like to go alone without his trusty translator.  I have been very dizzy for a good couple weeks now (thus the lack of updates) and kept thinking it would just go away.  That, combined with remembering that my eyesight is getting wonky (after an exam this Spring) makes me think an MRI might be in order.  Or a CT scan.  Jamie has an ass lump that we’re thinking is muscle related but Google makes us want an MRI of that too.  So between his ass and my head we’re really overdue.

What could a 6yo be saying when she wants you to tell her how to spell “completely boots”?

The kids decided a while ago, before the constant stomach issues (and as an aside, do you think it is possible they stem from a dirty water dispenser?  Jamie found crud in the water dispenser.  ugh) that they would rotate Sunday excursions between themselves by age.  The last excursion was Sissy’s turn and she wanted to go to the local (pay) cenote.  After seeing the crocs along our walk I have no desire to swim in our local (wild) cenotes.  Unfortunately, the cenotes are not free so she reconsidered and decided she’d rather go to our local beach.

Jamie and I have noticed during our exercise walks over the last week that a yellow rope had been strung across the road leading to the beach on our neighboring property (which we have always had permission to use) and wondered why.  Today we found out.  This beach is always deserted when we go and many of us go naked, but today, Mexican Sunday, we expected it to be crowded and took our suits.  To our surprise, the beach was empty but for one family and we couldn’t figure out how one little yellow rope would keep any self-respecting Mexican from simply lfiting the rope (as we did) and heading down the road.  A rope or even rocks blocking a road are no deterrent in Mexico.  The girls and i stripped down but Jamie (wisely as it turned out) kept his suit on.  It was absolutely lovely, the beach was calm (we’ve had an unusually windy summer this year) and we saw a GIGANTIC fish (long and skinny and, did I mention about a meter long?) and we could see forever.  I noticed that the family up the beach from us had left and thought it rather odd, to leave so early, but kept to the sea.  Soon afterward a security guard came up and yelled something from the beach.  I was certainly NOT going to head out and talk to him so I sent Jamie out.  He REALLY hates speaking Spanish and seemed a little put out that I didn’t take care of the situation.  The guy yelled something and I said, “OK” and Jamie finally went out to talk to him.  Turns out they’re discouaging people from using the beach.  Well, unless you live in PaaMul.  This guy is new but recognized some of the names of guards we know and Jamie told him our palapa number (well, the wrong one, but whatever) and I’m sure the guy has a great tale to tell the other guards about the naked family.  If this guy sticks around for winter he’ll get more than an eyefull of naked PaaMulians. 

Jamie’s family is dealing with some medical issues, so if you can keep them in your thoughts I’m sure they’ll really appreciate that.

So, you see?  Really, nothing but nothing is going on.  Hot, sultry dog days of summer.

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.

Anyway, Bead Beach is situated at the end of two MegaResorts. I honestly don’t even know which ones. That would probably make it easier to find, but I just look for the access road I’ve managed to memorize. Through massive throngs of resort-people our family trudged looking for our spot where we usually look for treasure. Past the red red red sunburnt people. Do people not realize when they are sunburnt? I have to ask because almost each and every person we saw was RED RED RED and NOT covering up! No t-shirts, no towels - nothing to save them from the sun (they’d obviously had WAY too much of). Course, it did provide much entertainment for Jamie and I while the kids frolicked. I had a really hard time finding “our spot” because the resort has gotten MUCH larger since the last time we were there and we finally figured out that they had almost (but not quite) obliterated “our spot”.

I know we MUST have stuck out like six giant sore thumbs trudging up the beach with plaid plastic bag of towels (colorful, not the blue resort ones), bag of horses (doesn’t everyone travel with a bag of plastic horses?), cooler bag with giant water bottle, mucho snorkel equipment and our treasure hunting materials, a plastic box, a small garbage can lid (honestly!), and other crap. Yes. Sore Thumbs indeed.

We’ll be going back soon though, as lounging on the loungers under a shady palapa, watching all the RED tourists, the kids playing on the whales (protectors of the beach erosion) and hunting for treasure makes for a more than marvelous afternoon. I’m not sure it gets any better than this.

Treasure courtesy of El Matancero. Sissy picks our destination next week, but we’ll definitely be coming back to Bead Beach. This time we’ll drag food down too.

UPDATE:  Why, oh why, did NO-ONE alert me to the plethora of typos in this post???

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.

1) Decide on an art curriculum and purchase it. (Artistic Pursuits) K-3 book 1, 4-6 book 2
2) Find and purchase art materials
3) Decide if I’m doing grammar with the boys and choose a curriculum.  Easy Grammar, Analytical Grammar and Growing with Grammar.
4) Decide if I’m going to do grammar with the girls.
5) Organize Friday Freewrite.
6) Organize Tuesday Tea Time.
7) Purchase TT 7. Figure out TT 6 or go with Life of Fred.
Purchase Singapore 1A, 1B TB and 1A, 1B WB, 2B TB.
9) Purchase ETC 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6 for girls - 2 each of 1, 2, 1.5
10) Decide on Latin. Purchase Latin.
11) Decide on writing/composition curriculum for boys.  Writing Strands, Bravewriter, Classical Writing, Lively Art of Writing.
12) Purchase Writer’s Jungle - Bravewriter.  (pending)
13) Check out check out Write Shop, IEW, Apologia’s Jump In, Wordsmith/WS apprentice, Peace Hill Press’s new writing series, Put That in Writing, Sonlight’s writing, write@home, Hake Grammar, First Language Lesson 1 (FLL1)
14) Decide on Science
15) Purchase TOPS 19/32, 20/33, 10/12, 9/13, 15, 21, 3/23, 31 (most pending)
16) Decide on further Science materials
17) Purchase TOPS kit materials (pending)
18) find mule for TT7
19)
20) Purchase Usborne Book of Biology (or is it Book of Science)
21) Purchase Science Experiments You Can Eat
22) Purchase “The Lively Art of Writing”
23) Decide on Usborne Astronomy, Electricity/Magnetism, Microscope books
24) Decide on backup Grammar for boys.
25)
26) Purchase Sonlight 6 stuff
27) Purchase Ancients History stuff.
28)

Ugh. Does it ever end?