buggen out

Oh yes its time for some bug stories. Thanks to the rainy season I have a few for you. This year is a little different for us as far as the bugs go. For one reason we are in a house and not in an apartment above a tienda, also we have a cat. The first means that roaches are not our biggest culprits this year. And the second means we have a different way of dealing with any other bug that comes in. When we moved into the house the kitchen cabinets did have a major roach infestation but thanks to a friend we found this miracle paste that got rid of them in just a few days. I did see one roach the other day but it looked like it came in through the door and wonder cat ate him. But just in case its about time to buy the paste again and put it out to be sure we keep them away.
A few weeks ago I was awaken in the night to the lovely singing of a cricket in my room. As you know crickets songs are far from lovely in the middle of the night and in your bedroom. I tried my best to go back to sleep and ignore it (my husband was sleeping like a baby). We have high ceilings and the way our room is it was just so loud I couldn't sleep. I sat up and looked around to where I thought the sound was coming from. I soon saw a large black spot on the wall very near the ceiling. My groggy mind didn't register the fact that most likely a cricket large enough to make this noise would not be just sitting on the wall. So I proceed to grab anything that wouldn't break and started to throw it at the spot. After about try number five or six (in between which the cricket would shut up a min then start back its melody) my husband rolls over and says, "what are you doing."
"Trying to kill that cricket." I say.
"How do you know its a cricket?" he asks. At this point I am just pissed that he seriously hadn't heard it and was sleeping soundly this whole time, so I throw one more item then sit down to let the bugger start up again.
While we wait my husband looks at the dark spot and says it doesn't look like a cricket. I wear glasses but my sight is not that bad and I can tell there is something up there. Im to mad to reply and I continue to wait on the sound. Finally he starts back up and my husband says, "huh, must be a cricket." He of course since we are both awake now decides to turn on the light. The dark spot after all was not a cricket but a whole in the wall. At first we mistake this whole to be where someone must have put a rod for cloths hanging, although I was confused as to why there was not another whole directly across it. From up on the bed and shoving items into the whole to kill the cricket my husband realizes it goes all the way to the outside. I want to cry at this point because how do you kill or get a cricket to go away who can safely run away and then back to the whole when he is ready to hear his legs resonate again. Thankfully hubby wasn't as exhausted with the situation as I was and thought about the bug spray. He filled the whole and thankfully we have not heard another vocalist or legist (jajaja) in our room. (Ok that prob wasn't that funny but I liked it)
Also a few weeks ago I was standing around in the front area of Soriana watching Alana play with the toys, Joslin sit in the cart and eat crackers, and waiting for my husband to get off work. I looked over at a pallet that was on the floor for mattresses that looked welcoming to sit on. I was tired so anything but the floor would have looked nice. Something made me decide not to go sit there and not even a few min later I was so happy. A huge wood spider that had a body about and inch and a half long came crawling out of the same spot I had just been looking at. He of course saw me and my fear and walked right over to where I was and stood under my cart. I like to kill things that scare me but when they are that big I dont like to use any body part that will fill it like my foot. So I start trying to run over it with the cart. I was not successful and I'm sure anyone who saw me thought I was nutz. Eventually he ran back under his pallet, it was like he came out just to let me know that was his spot and I shouldn't have been looking at it like I wanted to use it.
Today was much worse than that though. My one year old is fascinated by bugs. She will point and squat for a better look and shout "bu.. bu.. bu" and so on until she decided it would be a good idea to step on it and see what happens. This was really cute until she tried to do it to a bee. I quickly explained to her that bees could hurt you. Now when she sees a bug she will say, "bee?" and look at me if I say no then she will go on with the other ritual. Any time she says either my four year old also runs over to make sure if its harmful and then goes to get the cat. The four year old hates bugs. Today while I was cleaning I hear Joslin say, "bee?" and the four year old says, "no its a dead fly." and she proceeds to get some tissue and throw it away. I thank her and go about my cleaning. Then I hear Joslin (the one year old) practically screaming "Bee?!?!?!?!" and Alana scream as if shes going to die. "dont touch it its a spider." I turn fairly slowly because just last night Alana was in tears in the bathroom over a spider that couldn't have eaten a fly if it wanted to. Then I about puck and scream "Joslin come here." This thing was no wood spider, or maybe it was but not one I have seen before. Im pretty sure it was a small tarantula from what I have seen in pictures. Ok shivers are going through me again. For a tarantula it was small I guess but the body alone was about an inch long and very fat with fat fuzzy legs. I look for Ke Ke and realize that she is the one that ran the thing into the house. Shes at the door trying to get in. Ke ke is no more than 5 months old and although I have seen her eat many bugs I wondered if this one was to big and dangerous for her. So I threw a shoe at the spider and wounded it. I then let ke ke in and was surprised to see her, nose on the floor, go the direct way the spider had (she looked like a blood hound). This has been very interesting to me because any cat I had before seemed to be afraid of bugs or just liked to play with them. I'm so glad that ke ke finds them to be a good part of her diet. She gobbled it up and I wanted to puke but let her while I had to hold Jolsin back. She wanted to see what Ke ke was doing to the bee. Then I noticed ke ke kept biting at her paw and I got worried. What if the spider bit her or something. I make her let me check out the paw and there is a horn nosed black beetle stuck to it. So she was chasing this spider with a beetle stuck to her paw. I pull it off and she proceeds to try and eat it. Some how this little guy managed to evade her and get back out to the patio. I was fine with that because I was sure ke ke would win out later. I'm still getting willies about the large spider but I am glad the way Joslin asked before she touched and that she listened when I told her to get away from it. Also whoo hoo for having a bug eating cat. Shes an inside/outside(closed patio) cat so I'm hoping she will keep us safe from the biggies as she gets bigger. I still dont know she may have been able to track and tackle this spider with out my help but I didn't want it running around in my house.
That is it for my bug stories for now, things like these come with the territory around here.

Fair and Expo

This week was the culmination of the Tepabril festivites. We went to the fair which had a free circus with the tickets and we also went to the animal expo. Both were great fun although Alana and I were still getting over a stomach infection for the fair. I have no idea what we had or how we got it but it didn't go away until we took antibiotics and it was pretty nasty until then. I will post a few pictures of the fair and expo here. A few of the pictures are of the pictures of saints that people put on the rides. It never fails to amaze me where people will put these things and how they will adorn them. I don't do or say this to offend any Catholics out there it is just different here and they do this kind of thing more. Aside from things like this and some different foods the fair just feels like a fair and same with the expo except at home those two were always together and not in separate places.

The Ultrasound: No sure explination

Joslin is napping and we cant go to the park until after shes up so I'm going to put this post out now. So after my blood work was done we decided we should go ahead and get the ultrasound out of the way that morning before Issac went to work. I had already been fasting for the blood work so this would work out fine. As soon as I got home we got the girls dressed and headed down town. As I had said in an earlier post the public hospital didn't have room for an appointment so we had to go through a public clinic. The doctor at Soriana suggested one to us that was downtown. Its a walk int and is very cheap, the clinic we were going to go to we had been told would be like 2,000p but this one was only 500p. We found it easily and a parking place which was close. When we went in around 830 they told us that the doctor wouldn't be in until 9 but that we could pay and therefore would be first in line for him when he came. The told us we could leave and come back a little after 9 and would be ok. They also confirmed that I shouldn't eat until I came back. So we walked downtown and Issac and the girls had breakfast, while my mouth watered over what they ate. ;) We went back about 15 after 9 and waited on the doctor till a little before 10. He was very nice and the first part of the scan went great, he said so far so good and that there were no stones nor slugg or mud so they call it here. He then sent me off to have the greasiest breakfast I could find. We went down town and I ate a bowl of soup that is made from fried goat meat. I don't remember the name but it was soooo good. I also ate a cheese quesadilla and had a soda, all of which are no nos on my diet for my gall bladder. Let me tell you this was the best meal Iv had in a long long time, I enjoyed it and tried not to think of the pain that was sure to come from eating it. The we sat and waited a bit. My husbands worried face turned toward me and said, "how do you feel honey." I stunned him by saying, "great, and full"
Listen I didn't even get the immediate heart burn that I always get. I then went and got a chocomil which is chocolate milk made with prob the fattiest milk you can get. I could only drink half of it because I was so full from my meal and even with only drinking half I was sure to bring on an attach. Get this NOTHING. We walked confused and slightly dazed back to the ultrasound office with my husband constantly asking, "any pain," and me saying "nope". When he did the second part of the ultrasound I didn't know how to feel when I plainly saw my gall bladder contract then open back up and then contract again. Smooth as butter and clear as day my gall bladder was working. The doctor was a little confused at why I wasn't happy but to be honest I didn't know what to think at first. I was almost in tears thinking that now I have a problem that cant even be diagnosed and Ill forever be eating fruit and veggies. My husband asked a few question and he said that sometimes the gall bladder can get infected with a bacteria and if I had taken antibiotics it may have taken care of it. And that he still thinks we should bring the films back to out appointment with the surgeon. After leaving we discussed many things, the last time I had taken ATB was in November and I had had pain in the area of my gall bladder since then. The only other thing I had recently done was to make a natural gall bladder cleanser out of fruit and drank a whole liter of it. This was sometime last week and it made me so sick, but maybe that was because it was cleaning me out. I had tried this once before maybe last year some time and nothing came of it. Really I just did it this time to make Issac feel like we were doing something to make me feel better. Even just two days before the ultrasound appointment, I ate a doughnut and got a lot of pain and had to lay down all day.
Let me tell you something else. Every time we visit Issacs lovely grandma and the surgery comes up she always says to me, "you wont need this surgery, God is going to heal you," Dang it I cant remember exactly how she says it in Spanish but she says it every time. And we were out there this last weekend and she said it again. I'm not sure that I'm healed and I'm scared to be to excited and to not be excited, but after that meal and no pain I also ate Doritos yesterday and drank a glass of milk, and today I ate cereal with milk and at snack time I ate cheese with Alana. And I feel fine, not even indigestion. After a lot of discussing it we have decided I'm just going to eat like a normal person this week and see how it goes. Either way I think we will go to the doctor appointment and discuss with him what we should do if the gastritis or gall bladder symptoms return. For now we are going to praise the Lord that I have had two days now of eating normal with no pain. I do believe that God can heal and that he still does and that it has nothing to do with someones faith or how much they pray. I feel that when God does something like this it is to show his power and glory. So even if its just yesterday and today I want to give him all the glory and say thank you God for healing me. And no matter what happens tomorrow I will continue to thank him. Thanks to all of you for your prayers and we will for sure keep you updated on whats going on. I'm still slightly in shock and not sure what to think but am happy that's for sure.

Nescafe´

Here I am sipping my gross cup of instant coffee and it dawned on me how I should have long ago dedicated a post to it. I normally brew coffee in the mornings but my husband had to work nights last night and when he does he brings the pot with him to work. For this reason and for guest who come over we keep a jar of Nescafe´ around. I use to be a major coffee snob, I only drank Starbucks coffee and only certain types. I knew what I liked and its what I would drink. This is at home of course if I was a visitor I would drink what ever they had. I was lucky in the fact that at the time my pastors wife worked for Starbucks so we got to drink it at church to. Considering home and church were the only places I was it suited me quite well. Never in a million years did I think that Coffee would be so different here. Not only is there no starbucks in my town but honestly there is only one brand of coffee that is even slightly good. The funny thing is that Nescafe´is such a big deal down here that the brewed coffees attempt to emulate its taste. We have a couple coffee shops around here that sale whole bean and actually this whole bean would be worth a lot in the states because its pure and strait from the farm. Sure they have to do the roasting process and stuff but after that its literally put on a truck and shipped into town in huge brown bags. Funny that the one that they all suggest is the one that tastes just like instant coffee. When I first got here I knew it was custom to offer coffee and a snack when visitors come over. I quickly found that people often refused my offers after the first or second time they came around. Finally I asked some of them about it and it was because either A) my coffee was to strong or B)it was brewed. They wanted water heated on the stove pored into a cup, Nescafe´and a little jar of sugar so they could make their own. This is when I realized this is how everyone does it when I visit them. From then on out we keep a bottle handy even though my husband and I neither one like it much. There are times now when it does seem "right" to have a cup of Nescafe´. For example at Abuelas house if its late and she is the one handing it to you, it has become become sort of a comfort food. We have recently found a coffee shop in Guadalajara not a far walking distance from where we park while at the immigration office. So we stock up when there and get the other stuff in between visits. Nescafe´isn't as hard to get use to as I had originally though.

Flying south for the winter

So it just dawned on me that I have reached and surpassed 42 followers (that's something right?), Oh and that I live where some of the birds fly to in the winter. Iv realized the different perspective on things that my kids will grow up with here. Most of it not bad just so different. I'm not sure why its so hard for me to rearrange some of these things in my head but oddly enough it is. Like the fact that when I see a flock of birds flying on an October evening it doesn't mean they are leaving town but that they are nesting in a tree across the street. I guess this didn't hit me last year because there chosen nesting place wasn't across the street from my only opening window. They are not a bother really just kinda loud in the mornings. They wake up and get to chirping about 7 but by 10am or so they head out. And every evening we can sit on our patio (roof) and watch them fly back to there tree. When I say a flock I mean the sky looks almost black as they fly in, and this takes almost 2 hours. And because there nesting place is so close they look so close that you could touch them. Luckily so far no poopy has fallen on our heads. There are tons of them and only two trees that they all perch on. I wonder to they pick the same branch every night. Because in the evenings they are actually very quiet. The fly in and I suppose go to sleep. The first night we saw them fly through I explained to my daughter that birds need to fly to warmer weather during the winter and that we needed to say good bye to them. Then a couple days later my husband was like, I think they are landing across the street. A week after hearing them every morning I thought, "Aaahaaa, we are the warmer weather. Actually I think this came to me as I was on the web cam with my sister (who is in Missouri) and saw my nieces coming in with coats on and her telling them to get warmed up before there bath. Don't get me wrong its not horribly hot here but its been quite warm this last week or so. It seems to get warmer right before it cools off. But in this area you don't need and AC unit. And for that matter don't really need a heater. We bought space heater units last year but in this new smaller apartment I don't think we will need them. So I'm wondering will we have these new neighbors all winter or when it does get a little colder here will they move even further south.