Yesterday I went on a date with my husband.  I NEVER call him “my husband” but it was simply too delicious to write.  He was stomach-virus addled for much of his birthday so we arranged with the kids to take an afternoon off and go to his favorite fish taco place.  The fish wasn’t the best (IMO) but the camarones (shwimp) were wonderful and fresh.  This restaurant (La Floresta) is on the carretera (highway) and has very little parking out front so I initially began to park in the enormous (and empty) refraccionaria next door, wondering why no-one else did so.  La Floresta is always so hard to park at - they have just a handful of places out front and to get out you back up into highway lanes.  Today they had a “viene-viene” guy helping people park and when we sat to eat I noticed a HUGE dirt lot out back!  I really enjoyed the people watching, especially when I realized that I had not left Paa-Mul all month, but for one shopping excursion with Ellen.  I REALLY need to get out more.

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.

To do list

Hopefully organizing here will put it all in one place

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.
8) 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?

(to a tango)

the rolling boulder crashing down the mountain
thaaaats kinetic energy
KINETIC
the boulder sitting high upon the mountain
thaaaats potential energy
POTENTIAL

energy in motion is kinetic
energy that’s waiting is potential
but whether its kinetic or potential
both of them are energy
ole! Read the rest of this entry »

Alerta amarillo

TS Dolly is heading through the channel and onwards to the GOM.  We’re stocked on Rum (first thing I checked!), water for showering, drinking and are now putting everything away that is outside.  Since more than 1/2 our house is outside it is a project.

More later.  Just a tropical storm, so no huge biggie, but it is a bit of a hassle.

9pm - according to our governor, Alerta Rojo will begin at 10:30pm, impact should be along the coast between Xel-Ha and Cozumel.  Cozumel airport is still open and will remain open.  Ports are closed.

10:45 - still pretty much a non-event.  Rain intermittant but no gusts like earlier this afternoon.  Checked out Cozumel’s lights just a bit ago.  Rain isn’t bad and so far this is not even as bad as simple storms we get here.

the day in numbers

Yesterday was a rather numeric day…

30 - the number of minutes I jogged.  Jamie and I generally exercise WALK but yesterday I turned our hour walk into 20 minutes of walk and 30 minutes of jogging.

84 - kilos today.

4:30 - the time Pike got up for the “day”

5:00 - the time Jesse got up for the “day”.  He was astonished, “you’re going for your WALK now?  WHAT TIME is it???”

3 - the number of people down with the stomach virus

1/2 - the amount of my coursework left to do before I become gainfully employed.

3 - number of Sundays we haven’t gone for our family excursion.

4 - number of contacts I’ve left with the dentist so we can get appointments going.  I really need to call instead of texting and emailing.

Trampitas

Mexico is full of little tricks and traps and unless you have a smile about your face and a willingness to laugh you can get very frustrated.  Someone recently wrote that one way the culture shows how downtrodden it is is in the form of asking for things.  I caught onto that early on in Mexico and have always asked, “you DON’T have water, do you?”  I suppose it can be looked at as further evidence of how the culture expects to be kicked in the ass, but honestly, I think it is because if you ask the question in that way you are frequently surprised with a “why YES!  we DO have water” and it is such a lovely surprise that you are all warm and happy.  Now if you’d received a “no”, well, you were already expecting that they DIDN’T have water so no big deal.  But when you’re already expecting “No” and you get “Yes” it is a very nice surprise.  And being happily surprised is very rare when you’re doing tramites in Mexico.  :) Read the rest of this entry »

OMG I”m ALIVE AGAIN!  I must have either picked up something at the 4th of July bash or some weird viruses attacked me because I have been 1/2 dead since Jesse’s birthday.  I had the headache of death, very Typhoid-like, incredible weakness (couldn’t even hold my head up), constant fever/chills/fever/chills/sweat buckets/chills (you get the picture) and nausea.  I am pretty sure the nausea was simply related to the headache from hell.

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.

Free books

Ellen has fallen in love with the Oz series ever since I found “The Marvelous Land of Oz” at a thriftstore and read it to her. I have since found the Gutenberg project and I can’t tell you how wonderful it is, in our life which precludes libraries, to read classic literature without filling the trailer with books. I just might have to get one of those Ebook thingies. Anyway, we fininshed “Ozma of Oz” and I eavesdropped on a conversation between Sissy and Ellen.

Ellen “…and the cowardly lion and his friend the hungry tiger was never satisfied - he wanted to eat Dorothy - sissy!  He wanted to eat fat juicy babies but he didn’t because he knew it was wrong. Then he asked one of the servants to get him 10 or 5 pounds of ice cream and some meat maybe and finally at the end he was satisfied.

Sissy: “What, did he get all the food at the picnic?”

Ellen “No the feast.  Except for 2 pieces of bacon.  And there’s this Nome King and he thought eggs were poisonous and when Bellina laid an egg and the stuffed -”

Sissy “What happened to her first egg?”

Ellen “maybe it hatched, i don’t know.  And then the scarecrow threw the eggs at the King also they were poisonous to them.  And then the royal family of Ev, they were turned into ornaments and Bellinea -

Mom, what is Bellina’s real name?”

Me: “Bill”

Ellen “Yeah, Bill.  And then Bellina saw the Nome King and one of his servant were talking and Belllinas was under his chair and she heard them talking about what the ornaments were -

Mom, how many soldiers of privates were there?”

Me “26″

Ellen “all 26 got turned into orngmanets and so did Queen Ev and Ozma and she got turned into a pretty green grasshopper and then Bellina almost ate her and then she decided that wasn’t very tasty.

And then in the end they got all the princesses and prices back to their land where the napkins and lunchboxes and dinner pails grew on trees

and then in the end they went to Munchkinland and the other land.

and then the hungry tiger lost his appetite and he was finally satisfied.

Oh no, in the end Dorothy - she went back home by magic belt because one of her granpas was sad she was gone.”

And now you know the story of “Ozma from Oz”.  We’re now working on “Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz”.  I’m surprised how much she rememberd.  Each day I’d ask her what had happened in the previous chapters (I always do this with the kids when I read books to them) so that probably kept her memory fresh.

Fourteen years ago I became a mother and my life changed so profoundly, I hardly recognize the woman I was before. I hadn’t planned on motherhood at 34; when I was 9 I remember very clearly telling my grandmother that I would NEVER marry or have children. She wisely told me I’d change my mind and that I did.

Jamie and I had been living in our teensy little house (though mansion-like in comparison to our current home, the trailer) for about 2 whole weeks when this journey began. I was only about 38 weeks along and had expected a long haul, especially when my mom told me I was a 10-month baby, but during the Tour de France, when Abdoujaparov was attacking like no-one’s business, I went into labor while doing the dishes. At first I though I’d peed my pants; that happens sometimes when you’re carrying a watermellon above your bladder, so I headed to the bathroom to check things out. Jamie continued, oblivious, focused on the TV, to watch Le Tour.

I had very much considered a homebirth with this baby, but when we were figuring these particulars out we had no place to live and had so much chaos in our lives that it was enough just to focus on simply growing the baby. I did, however, go on to have the following 3 at home. Once I figured out that contractions followed the water breaking I let Jamie in on the secret and he did the perfect Dick van Dyke impression. I was CERTAIN the baby was coming out NOW as, after an hour, the contractions moved to 2 minutes apart (and stayed that way until transition). Unfortunately, I had many hours to go. Labor was only 14 hours or so - for a first time mom, that’s not bad (and they got progressively faster; Pike was 6 hours, Sissy was 3 and Ellen was 3 or 2?) and we had a sweet little baby boy at the end of it. He was a SKINNY little thing with almost no fat on him and we had to strip him and keep him against our skin so they wouldn’t take him to the warming table.

He was also a sleepy little thing and I had to lie to the nurses and tell them, “oh, he took 2 ounces” (or 4 oz or whatever - I mean how can a brand new mom even imagine how much a baby nurses the day after giving birth???) so they wouldn’t give him formula. We filled up a huge box of photos that first year, that continue to live in our storage area and he has blazed the trail for his siblings.

I don’t think he minds being the guinea pig; he probably did when he was younger, but he has taken on the role without a peep. He is So Very Much Like Me that I think I can see inside his head and honestly, it is so refreshing because Jamie confuses the HELL out of me and it is nice, for once, to know what is going on with at least ONE member of the family. He will still let me pull him onto my lap and call him my baby boy at 14. He becomes more tolerant as the years pass, as the maturation factor grows, but will always, I suspect be very much like his mother in that regard.

He has taught me so much, along with the other 3, that I will be in debt for a lifetime for the lessons they have given me. He was the first to change me and I will always be in his debt for that. We were stupidly simple with him, as a baby, and I hope he forgives us. He is a beautiful young man and I am so incredibly proud of my mini-me. He rises to almost any challenge and I think the best is yet to come. He brings me joy, he brings me hope, he lights up my life. (sniff sniff) He teaches me SO MUCH and I am so much better for having learned the lessons he shows me. He challenges me to grow and be a better person. And I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Happy birthday my boy. May each year get better and better.

(I meant to do this on Pike’s birthday also, but I was so terribly sick that I’ll do Pike’s tomorrow)

4th of July

The stomach virus has slowly been winding its way through the family and I thought Sissy and Ellen would have been the last to get it. I was pretty sure I was the first. Apparently, I am the last. I hate these stomach things - I never know if they are parasitical or bacterial or viral. Drives me nutz. I have a whopper of a headache to go with it and that makes me think of Dengue to boot. Sheesh. So I haven’t had much to write about other than kid 1 sick, kid 2 sick, Jamie sick, me sick, ad nausuem. During their down time, the boys were almost magically cured by the wonder that is Runescape because Runescape has updated graphics! But a magic cure would mean they couldn’t play 24×7 so they remained sick but VERY HAPPY about Runescape’s new look. Blah blah 3D blah blah graphics blah blah caracters blah blah sandwich lady blah blah. I really should take more of an interest, but there is only so much Runescape I can take. And unfortunately, it isn’t much.

Today we’re going to the tourist area of Playa. We have never been there, which is the reverse of almost everyone who comes here. They spend almost all their time there. So I’m guessing it should be pretty or something. Anyway, there is a local bar having a pig roast for $10 a person, unless you bring a dish. Then it is free. Guess what we’re bringing! If you know me, you know I am not about to pay if it isn’t necessary. We’re bringing brownies, chocolate chip cookies and Spanish rice. I thought it was an evening thing but I guess it is actually an afternoon thing which means we need to get our collective asses in gear.

Have a great 4th!

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