bookmooch

Many of you who have been reading my blog awhile have already read a post about this site. But I have quite a few more readers now and a lot of them are here in Mexico. This site is a book sharing site. Basically you post an inventory and you send books. Every book you add and send you get points and can order from other people all over the world. If any of you join let me know so I can check out your inventory.

bookmooch.com

TB vaccine Mexico 2011 / Also other healthcare info

I blogged about Lilys vaccines awhile back. Here is a bit of an update. Her TB vaccine was given to her Feb 2. Usually with in 2-3 weeks you get the lump then in another couple weeks you have weeks of gross green pus coming out. We waited and waited and waited and never did Lily get her lump. A month after her vaccine she had a cold and we took her to the doctor. While there we explained about her vaccine. The doctor told us to wait until it had been a month and a half and if still nothing showed we should bring her back to the nurse who gave it to here. Its kind of odd but our "family doctor" is a walk in consult out of one of the pharmacies. We tried a couple different pediatricians here and didn't like any of them. We know this particular doctors hours and she is great with the girls. She doesn't jump to prescribing antibiotics every time we bring them in with a cough or runny nose and the girls like her. I told her about some of the things the other pediatricians told me and she agreed that they were off. So we told her she was now our family doctor and she was great with that. The only thing about this is that at pharmacias they dont keep any type of patient records. So you kind of have to keep them yourself and stay on top of things. Also if we ever need to go to the hospital we wont be visited by her. Our appointments are only 30p each that's a little less than 3usd a visit so its worth it to me to have a competent and cheap doctor. We were planning on taking Lily back next week anyway because she is due now for her four month shots. And low and behold yesterday the lump showed up. Its not in a circle like Joslins was but more of a line and almost a 1/2 inch long. I hope this doesn't mean her scar will be like that. So we have some nastiness to look forward to in a couple weeks. We are still going to go get her four month shots sometime next week also. Ill keep you updated.
For my husbands recent procedure we ended up going through the private system. You see here the seguro or public system actually does this procedure for free. But when we tried to go through them we couldn't get a hold of anyone. We looked into the hospital where I had Lily and my OB suggested a urologist. It cost us about 4,000p total including the doctor appointments and labs beforehand. We still have one or two appointments coming up which will be around 500p each. As with before I still think Mexico's health system is structured way better than the US. I feel like I have a lot more options and I´m not paying an arm and a leg for insurance.

St. Patrics Day party

We had so much fun this weekend. We had at least 6 families over for a St. Pats bar-b-q. In order to decrease the work load a little we had everyone bring their own grilling meat and a side dish for a pot luck. My husband had his little procedure done on Friday (yeah for me and freedom), and the party was sat so it was kinda hectic for me. But he helped with what he could help with and it was all really great. We already had the party planned when the doctor gave us his date and he refused to let me change the date. He knew how excited I was about having everyone over. Anyway a couple of the families write blogs that are on my blog roll, arms wide open, the vaca family, and refried beans. The other families I meet either trough facebook or just out and about. I had papers printed up for the kids to color, we had the pool ready for them and they also had fun just playing in the girls room. The only thing I regret is that I feel like I was to busy to talk to anyone very much. There were at least two of the families that this was our first time meeting them and dont feel like I know them much better than I did before. But this was just a start to many other get togethers I do believe. A funny thing that came out of having this party is that my husband and I are kind of rediscovering what we love about each other so much. For example I'm a pretty upfront person, and Issacs is a pleaser. Basically if its not a work situation and your at my house I speak my mind and let you see the real me. I'm far from fake and what you see you get. Because speech, and body language even, have a lot to do with this part of me I guess Issac really hasn't seen it in a long time. Anyway I think everyone ended up having a good time and I hope we get to do it again.

visitors coming

Hey all, we actually have friends coming down in May. We are so excited!!! My mom came recently but other than her no one has come since we first moved to Mexico almost 3 years ago. We want to show them a great time. Any ideas on what we should do in or around Guadalajara would be much appreciated.

The differences

I have been thinking lately about all the differences between living in a small town in Mexico and living in the city. My life has changed so drastically over the last 6 months sometimes its hard to remember what it was like before. Let me tell you for the most part all is so much better. Just to get it out of the way Ill start with the things that were better in the small town. We seem to be sick a lot more often here. Its like there are just more germs in the city. And... well... that's all the bad stuff so now we get to move on. One of the biggest realizations came a month or so ago. There are so many opportunities here for us. In the small town my husband was working almost 12 hours a day 6 days a week and it was so horrible for our family. We recently found out how easy it is and will be in the future for him to find a job that only requires 8 hours a day, he wont be bringing anything home, and he would get paid pretty well. Just knowing English here goes so far, where as in the small town it was just a novelty. This was huge when we figured this out. Its so freeing to know you dont have to put up with being walked on. The other thing is a social life. I actually have one!!!!! For those of you who have been reading a while you know that this was the big thing I missed from being in the states. Issac and I are both very social people. We love to be in a crowd and having get a together or even going to them is something we have always done so well at. That may sound funny but to be honest he and I have a hard time doing some things together. But we mesh so well when it comes to our kids or social events. I also love going places and just having such a span of a city to check out. There is still so much we haven't seen or done and there will be for some time. We actually have the option of seeing a movie at the theater in English now. We have Sams, Wal-Mart, Superama, better tiangis, and much better options when it comes to buying furniture for much cheaper. The girls have more options for different classes, for example we have Alana in dance now. She loves it and we are already looking forward to her performance in July. Most of all we have found our church. We actually had a family day at the park with church a couple weeks ago and it was so fun. Ill post some pics of it here. I am so overwhelmed by how much God has blessed my family. He really is good.

Fun fun fun

I am absolutely loving living in the city. Iv meet so many gringas lately I just dont know what to do with myself. Yes I said gringas I know the proper term would be gueras but you know what I am one so I can say it. And some days I fee so set apart from this country that I feel like a true gringa. Truthfully things had gotten pretty smooth for me as far as not feeling sad or out of place. And then God moved me into the city where I feel at home. Seriously this place feels like St. Louis except everyone speaks Spanish of course. Super Bowl I actually went to a good friends house (Refried Dreams-check my list) to "watch" the game. Really it was just a good excuse to get together and hang out but that is what the game has always been for me. And Issac really enjoyed getting to sit around and watch the game with some other dudes. Then a different night on a spur of the moment type thing I got to go over and just have a glass of wine and talk. Wow, I finally have people to do something like that with. The good thing is she lives close enough to me that its not dangerous or scary for me to skip over to her house. Tonight I just got home from an awesome play date for the girls. I got to go hang out with the writer of the Vaca family blog you can check it out from the list of blogs I read. while there I got to meet another good friend of hers and all our kids just had so much fun tearing her house apart. Sorry girl I hope nothing was really broken. ;) We talked and talked and before I knew it the sun was on its way out of sight and I needed to get home. Joslin was out not even 5 min after we got in the truck and the whole way home Alana was telling me all about her new English speaking friends. Lily of course had no clue but I'm sure she will fit right in as they all grow a little more. I think the best thing is that as I was leaving we decided to make Easter plans. Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I love remembering that my Lord lives and at the same time I love baskets and candy and boiled eggs and Easter egg hunts and pretty little dresses and... and... I could go on for a bit. And on top of all this my cousin should be sending me a box chalked full of Easter stuff from the states. I feel like I'm on something I'm so hipper and excited about this. lol Well I of course forgot my camera so below are some other pics Iv been meaning to put up. As a family we had all gone on a walk one day and found these huge rolls of drafting paper out by someones trash waiting to be picked up. So we grabbed a couple. We are having lots of fun with it. I'm also adding a couple of the baby to show you how chunky shes getting. At her three month appointment she has more than doubled her wt. She is 6.25K!!! And of course the others are of my handsome husband making flower tortillas. Sigh!!! Could anyone ever wonder why I'm so in love?

Sorry I had to delete the pics off my blog, I have decided to keep my blog public no matter how many hateful comments I get. If I made my blog private it would defeat the purpose so instead I will just delete the pictures and refrain from using names in attempt to keep things safe for us.