Organizing my life

As I stated in some of my past blogs my life had been a bit out of control. Not in a bad way just really busy and I wasn't providing the same quality of care in my home. Much of what was going on is that I had all three girls in a dance academy. Don't get me wrong extra activities are good for kids but this is not just any dance school. This place creates professional. They build and train children to know how to have the discipline needed to be a prima ballerina. This is why i had my girls there. Between the three of them I was basically at the dance school every evening between 2-3 hours,  was working a second job and fighting each month to be able to pay for them all three. We had next to no time for house work, homework, alone times (time spent with each child alone) much less to go to the park and play. God began to speak to me about the issue explaining to me that it wasn't necessary. He helped me to analyze my reasons for having them there and most of my reasons were based in the fear that they would grow up to make some of the bad decisions I made as a youth. He helped me to see the reason I made those decisions was from a broken heart and a broken family and had nothing to do with the fact that I  was not passionate about something. Father God is so amazing like that. I love how he helps me to make decisions based on His reality and not mine. Because many times mine is messed up due to old habits or thought processes. So after fighting with God a bit about the ballet issue I relented and right now I couldn't be happier about His decision. Over the last few weeks I have been making my organizers which I use to always use. After the near miss of moving to Canada all my organizing things got trashed and I just never got around to making more. I hope you enjoy them. I know they are not as crafty as many you will find but I also believe in letting my girls help me a lot with this stuff. And to me having them help makes it even more awesome. 

 The above picture is our weekly menu. Its made from part of a Ritz Crackers box covered in scrapbook paper. Then I used cards to leave a space for writing. After placing a couple pretty stickers I put it in a plastic paper cover so that it can be erasable. Each week on Saturday me and my oldest daughter check out my cook books and Pinterest to find what we want to make for school snack (refrigerio) 2 o'clock lunch (comida) and dinner. Usually we don't put breakfast because we know its either cereal, rice or oatmeal. As we write out the menu we keep track of what we need to buy from the store and write it on one of the papers noted below.

 I did this only because tacks seem to constantly disappear and the the papers seem to always be falling into the floor. Si I made little pockets on the tack board for the most frequent items. Also this way we can use recycled paper for the shopping list.

 This is our chore list. I needed something practical. So I have a list of what we have to finish each day, each week and each month. I have three girls, my husband and a cousin who all live here and help with the chores. This is a way each person who does something can mark it off and that way we are doing what needs to be done and not always the same thing. Again this was made from the other side of the cracker box and was placed in a plastic paper cover so it can be used and reused with a dry erase marker. So far this is working perfectly. I have another small calendar in which I put the girls initials if they help each day with a smile on their faces with out grumbling or fighting. They get 1 peso for each day that they clean in this way. Doesn't sound like much but if they do well all 6 days that's 6x3 each week for Moma.

And last but certainly not least our calendar. I had an old dry erase board from when we were giving classes at home. Its frame was completely gone and looked pretty rough. I simply placed scrapbook paper around the boarder and covered it in tape in case the marker got on it it could be erased. Then I drew out the weekly and monthly calendar with sharpie. The monthly calendar doesn't have the month or the day numbers. Also we decided to start working on memory verses for the girls. Its something that I have always treasured from my childhood and the verses I learned continue to help me in my life. Each Saturday when I do my menu I also write out the activities for the week on the weekly calendar. It starts at 2 pm because that is when we get home from school.

Well thats that folks. My life is a well oiled machine....no te crees, hahahahaha.

Is there anybody out there?

So I have been away from my blog for a whole year now. I wrote a post last week and obviously very little movement there. But then I went to check my blog feed and I noticed that the majority of the people I follow haven't blogged in 2-4 YEARS!!! Wait what?!?!?!?!?!? How did this happen. Now I have to clear out my blog feed and find where all my buddy bloggers have gone. Also I want to find some new blogger buddies. I now am teaching in a kinder and I know I can find and give all kinds of inspiration in that aspect. Sure my blog will continue to be about life in Mexico because... well... that's where my life is but I since I no longer have to deal with immigration stuff I don't plan on posting much on that. I'm excited to get back to reading Leslie's posts so I can get my kitchen spiced back up again. The last year was pretty chaotic and with very little organization or free time for me to do the things I love such as crafts, cooking and blogging. But this is a new year and I am confident I will be able to get back on the ball here. As proof I'm going to post a pic of my new whiteboard calendar that I made. Attached to each side will be our menu, grocery list and chores charts.

Disappearing act.

Oh Blogging world, how I have thought of you over the last year and a half. I have actually written many blogs but none of them have left my head and gone into the keypad. I'm wondering if I'm even still on your feeds or if I have lost all my readers. If so I hope to earn  you all back with some new and fresh blogs. My life is wonderful right now and we are very happy in many of the things that are going on.

My last blogs were about the process of getting us to Canada. Long story short we quite our jobs, gave away or sold most of our stuff and had arranged for everything else to be given away then our visas got denied. Mine included. It said I didn't have sufficient reason to be going. Which makes no since because I was enrolled in nursing school and had been accepted by the nursing board in Canada. The day we got our envelopes from the immigration office Issac and I were alone and we opened them in the car. We both just kinda sat and looked out our papers a min trying to understand all the mumbo jumbo that they put on them.

I finally said, "I think mines denied." 

Issac says, "Me to." 

We just looked at each other and traded papers. We read each others papers. 

And I said, "Well that's that. What do we do now?"

We decided the first thing we wanted to do was to go talk to our pastor and tell him we are staying and we are ready to serve in any way he needed us. Then we needed to figure out the car situation. We had already started to sell it to a friend of mine from work and he had paid us half the money. Lastly we had to find a place to live. Our lease was up and after three years of living on the fourth floor we were ready for something new. 

That's right folks there were not tears and no sadness just a sense of we need to get on a roll here. I was actually relieved. Not sure if you remember in any of my blogs but I was pretty worried about not having any family, about the cold, about how we were going to make it, about not having the church family we finally had. And by now I know all those answers here in Mexico. 

We left from the immigration office with all this on our minds and headed to pick up our girls. They were staying with Issacs cousin who had recently moved to our city. When we got there and told them about the denial Issac uncle didn't believe him. He knows how Issac is always joking. So he looked to me and said Amanda really whats going on. 

"Hes telling the truth. Were not going." I said.

"But why are you guys smiling and laughing." he asked. 

That's when I realized that we really were happy about the denial. There was a lot to be done but we were glad to get to stay. 

Our cousins were pretty happy to. The reaction of almost everyone one was,"Can I be happy about this?" And our answer was always "Of course. We are!!" Followed by a big hug. 

Our Church pastors and leaders had thrown us a going away party so when we went to tell our pastor we told him we expected a welcome back party. Hahahahahah We actually had a lot of fun with that one. 

God really started putting everything in order for us right away. A friend from church happened to hear a guy needing to rent his house ASAP and cheap so he set us up with him. Went from a small two bedroom apartment on the fourth floor to a three bedroom house. Yeah!!!!! Way less stairs and more space. We now have been in this house for a year and it looks like were on for the next one also. Our friend who was buying the car understood the situation 100% and let us return them money he had paid us and we kept our car. The owner of the girls ballet school who is also a very good friend sent a recommendation to her kids kinder for me to work as an English teacher. I got an email for the job without even knowing. I went in very skeptical but they gave me a great offer and although last year was a year full of learning a lot of new things and growing a lot I now love love love my job. My husband continued teaching private classes but has recently also gotten a job at a call center. And in October of last year we became co-pastors at our church. (thats a blog in itself) Wow I look back at all that and I see how amazing my God is. 

After the denial God brought me to the verses where Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham made the long trip knowing what it entailed, answered the questions of his child the best he knew how and continued with this crazy plan God had given him even though in his heart it didn't match up with his dreams that he was sure God had given him. Thankfully as he raised the knife God said,"STOP!!" This was how I felt. That God had given me back my Isaac. The funny thing was that without telling anyone about what I was feeling the following weeks were full of people giving me words of knowledge referring to the same verses and the same theme. That's the great thing about being in a church with a prophetic awakening, you never run out of confirmation on something God is telling you. 

This last year was insane to say the least but things are going great and God has assured me of many things. One of which is more time for the things I love; my family, my church, crafts and my blog. So I will be seeing you all more. And I'm looking forward to getting caught up on all your lives also. 

Bye for now, Ill be back soon. 

The time is upon us.... AHHHHH YEAHHHHHH

Hello everyone, So this post are for those of you who have asked in the past about specifics about our process. I wrote this a couple weeks ago to give to my friends and family because they were getting anxious to hear more about what was going on. I can remember someone telling me not to make to public what all we were doing during our process just in case. But to be honest I believe that God will not let anything bad come from me sharing what he is doing in our lives. Also I reminded myself of why I have this blog in the first place. I was reading some of my old comments from past blogs about Canada and many people had written of the hope it gave them. That is why I blog and that is why I share. So here is the same email I sent to my friends and family (and to be honest by mistake I sent it to the whole world in thanks to a button on gmail... ahi que pena.) Anyway Im excited to share with you all where we are in our process. 

“God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours.”

― David Livingstone

That quote was one of my favorites even before I met Issac. As you can imagine it has stuck with me. Many of you have been asking us a lot of questions regarding our plans and some are wondering how you can help. As some of you know this process has been going on over a year with Shawndra helping me with filing paperwork. Various other people helped us out with the fees and such on those applications and papers and we thank you for that. Many of the questions about what is going to happen over the coming months we still can´t answer. What I want to do through this letter is try to share what we do know and what God has shown us is certain in order of importance.

1.       God is with us: If I have learned anything over the last five years is that God is not going to leave us hanging. More than once we have been wondering how we are going to eat dinner the next day and never have we put our kids to bed hungry. (unless they refuse to eat what I cook of course, lol) Although we have paid bills late over the last five years we actually have very little debt and are confident that we will have all paid off before we go. 

2.       God is going to start a church through us. Issac and I both received this revelation during prayer a few months ago and when we came together to talk about it we were both amazed at how clearly God spoke to us both.  We have been speaking with our pastor and his wife here trying to prepare ourselves for this exciting adventure. God is moving in our lives in amazing ways through inner healing and closeness with him. Everything that has happened in our lives has lead us to this and we thank all of you who have had an impact in our walk with Christ.  The relationship between Issac and I has blossomed into something I never thought possible. Mind you Issac and I have always been in love and had a strong bond but God is truly showing us the meaning of his Joy. As excited as I am about school and getting back into a country where nursing will feel more like home I am more excited about the mission. This revelation about the mission came to us right around the same time I got my notification that I was accepted into the Bridge to Canadian Nursing program. I being the Amanda you all know and love began freaking out a bit about what all needed to be done and how impossible it all looks. I thought of course this is why I love organization, why I know Lean, why I love to structure things.  Oddly enough the thought of having a mission on top of the school thing made me stress a bit more. Why you may wonder well if we were going only for my career it wouldn’t be so stressful because, well, we are happy here. So if we screw it up and can’t go…. No biggy we have figured out how to make it down here and have tons of loved ones who are going to be hard to leave.  But now, God… The Big Guy…. My Creator… My Savior is calling me to go and do his work. Ok so this means I have to do everything right to get this done… that I have to plan it out to the T… that I need to be sure that everything works out and is ready when we get there…RIGHT?

Thankfully God said NO WAY. (I literally just took a deep breath when I wrote that.)  During every devotional, prayer time, quiet time ext. God had been telling me No Way and I was trying to listen. My head was saying I wasn’t worried but my heart was going nuts. And I’m pretty sure I was keeping it hid from everyone except God and Issac.  Then a few weeks ago at church during the worship session God was saying to me, “Amanda please stop worrying, I’ve got this. I need you to let me continue your preparation to be a leader, and to open a new place for me to reach my people.” I of course was like, “Gees God, I know …” But really I still didn’t and He knew that.  After the sermon ended and we were in worship again a man who doesn’t know us and knew nothing of Canada grabbed me by the shoulders and said, “Sra. (miss), God wants to tell you that he has a big change coming for you… I think it’s a change of residence or address… I’m not really sure, and also job opportunities. But He wants to tell you he has it under control. You shouldn’t be worrying about the details.” At the moment I was in a bit of shock and could do nothing but thank him. Issac heard what he said and immediately started laughing and gave me a hug.  After church Issac told me that when that man gave me that message that Issac felt God was saying to him we needed to be preparing ourselves for the church plant and not for immigration.  (I have been amazed at how God has been speaking to Issac and I with the same messages) So within a couple hours God gave me the same message three times and finally it sunk in. I can truly say that my heart is at peace and that I know that he is going to supply all the details.  God knows when you need a smack over the head and apparently that’s what I needed. So for the last few weeks I have been focusing on reading, praying, and just loving God. Please pray for Issac and I that we can continue to move closer and closer to God and continue to be on his frequency.

3.       The next fact that is that I have a required student orientation that is in AUGUST and I start classes this coming October so my family needs to be in Canada and somewhat settled before then.  AHHHHHH so excited to be a student again!!!!!!!

4.       Our family easily qualifies for the visas. And Alana will actually be ahead of her classmates when we get there so there is nothing to worry about if she has to skip a month or so of school during the move.  More so because she’s receiving all A´s this year in school, sorry had to through that in there, I’m soooooo proud of her.

5.        I need to send the application for my student visa in April so that it is processed in time for me to start classes. This visa automatically gives Issac an open work permit (which means he can apply for any job just like a resident) and the girls’ temporary residency (which gives them permission to go to school).

6.       Due to me going to this nursing process the immigration process is going to be fairly smooth.  But we don’t have the following requisites:

A.      One requisite we do not have are the girls’ passports.

Each passport will cost us $120 US dollars including shipping fees. The total is $360 US dollars. The need for this has been provided and we have ordered our passports they should be here within 3 weeks. YEahhhhh Praise God for his provisions!!!!!!

B.      The other requisite is that we have to prove to the immigration department that we have enough money to provide for our family during the year of school. The plan is that when we get there Issac will quickly get a job and provide for us during the year.  An acquaintance, who is an immigration consult, told me that Issac has an excellent profile and will have no problems finding a job. But that doesn’t help when applying.  The amount we have to prove to immigration that we can access is $37,000 Canadian dollars or a person or company  that will provide a certain amount every month during the year which is $3,000 Canadian dollars per month.  It sounds like a lot when you see it all together like this so I am going to break it down for you. Really its not over the top.  This amount includes:

a.       Schooling (including books)- $14,000

b.      Living expenses for the applicant (me)- $10,000

c.       Living expenses  for the spouse (issac)- $4,000

d.      Living expenses for each dependent- $3,000 each one = $9,000

The idea is that we can get this money as loans or donations and the loans would be paid back within a year or so. Because by then Issac will have his income and within one year when I'm out of school I will also be working. 

C.      As far as money for the move we are going to sell all our stuff to pay for the tickets and such.

D.      Because we are going to show up the whole family together we are going to need somewhere to stay when we get there until we can find housing and such, unless God provides us with that before leaving. Other things we will need are Issacs job, babysitting and Alanas school again not sure if God is going to enlighten us with his plans for these things before or after we go. A few of our friends have friends who live in or near Calgary and we are convinced that God is going to set all that up without much effort on our part. 

The main thing we are asking of our friends and families is prayer and support. Please pray that we continue to listen and keep our attention on God and on his ministry. As far as all the needs we stated above we don’t need prayer that God will provide them because he has already told us he would. We wish for all to pray prayers of thanksgiving that God is moving in hearts and spirits and that those people respond to his calling. We are so very thankful that God has called us to this change and are excited about what he is going to do in our lives and the lives of the girls.

If you feel led to donate or to loan us any of the necessities we stated above you can contact me or you can  click the Donate to Canada button. It’s a paypal account that is in Shawndras name (my younger sister who has helped me out through everything).  We did it that way so that we don’t have to pay fees to change the money from us dollars to pesos then to Canadian dollars. This way there will only be one money exchange fee.  For immigration we will only need to prove that we have access to the account.

Thank you all so much for your love and prayers. Issac and I are overwhelmingly blessed by people who love us and who love our girls. We could never thank God enough for the amount of love he has put into our lives. Thanks so much for believing in us and always supporting our decisions as crazy as they may sound at times. ;)

I plan on writing a longer blog about our new ministry to be honest its what we are most excited about and since I originally wrote this letter God has reveled more and more about His purpose. 

Amanda, Issac, Alana, Joslin and Lilian

The Chicken or the Egg

That is my current question, and isnt the first time either. Im going to go back over a year ago in June of 2012. Wow that seems like forever ago. I wrote a blog about the reasons I felt it was necessary to move from Mexico to Canada. http://bordersaside.blogspot.mx/2012/06/cold-hard-truth-and-dream.html

Suprisingly after reading this blog post I feel the same today. I love Mexico but God is surely pushing us toward Canada. 

Then again in June I posted this http://bordersaside.blogspot.mx/2012/06/taking-it-few-steps-at-time.html. And again still today we are doing the step by step thing. Taking the process as it comes, not looking behind nor to far ahead. 

The follwoing month in July of 2012 I posted this http://bordersaside.blogspot.mx/2012/07/asking-for-and-accepting-help.html Basically saying if anyone wanted to help with our fees and such  there is a Donate button. A huge change in what immigraiton process we will be doing has occured which I will explain in a bit but the need for assistance for fees hasnt. Button is still there hint hint. hahahah ;)

After almost 6 months of not hearing much from me about Canada I posted this http://bordersaside.blogspot.mx/2013/02/clearing-air-about-canada.html Which was my acceptance letter from the Canadian board of Nursing saying I could take the test. I was excited and scared to death at the same time. 

Well what happened next you may be wanting to know... if not dont read on. 

Well in April of this year I recived an email that almost shook me up. (Had God not been constanly reasuring me that this was his path I would have given up on the idea all together.)

Here is what the email said:

CARNA previously referred you to a Substantially Equivalent Competence (SEC) assessment with Mount Royal University (MRU) at one of their Internationally Educated Nurse (IEN) assessment centres in Edmonton or Calgary.

Recently, MRU confirmed that it is no longer accepting bookings and that both Alberta IEN assessment centres will be closed as of June 30, 2013.

We are sorry that at this time it is not clear how this will impact your application for registration withCARNA. We understand that becoming a nurse in Alberta is important to you, and that you may be worried about how this will affect your application or feel frustrated by this uncertainty.

CARNA is also very concerned by the loss of SEC assessment services in Alberta and how the closure affects applicants like you. We are working with the Alberta government to address this serious situation as quickly as possible.

We will keep you informed by email as we receive more information.

Well they held true to their word and have kept me well informed and have stayed in contact. This last September they notified me that they would be accepting the exam from other providences. But that they  now had a new option which as they said in their email was to:

 Skip the step of SEC assessment and

·   Complete the full Bridging education program satisfactory to the Registrar.

Bridging education, which includes theory and skills lab courses and a supervised clinical experience will provide you with opportunities to learn about nursing in Canada and help you acquire the knowledge and skills needed for practice in the Canadian health care system.  Mount Royal University (MRU) in Calgary, Alberta offers a full Bridging program in nursing

So I chose the bridge program. I have been informed that I  have been conditionally accepted pending the arrival of my language requirement, which CARNA has assured me is on its way to the university. 

So why the Chicken or the egg question???????

Our current plan is for all of us to go to Canada when I go for school. The Canadian immigration system allows the spouse of a student visa holder to get an automatic work permit and the children can go and enter the school system. It all sounds pretty strait forward and the only thing we are seeing that may be a complication is highlited in yellow. . 

Who is eligible to study in Canada?

These requirements apply to everyone who wishes to study in Canada, whether or not you need a study permit. To study in Canada, you must:

• Have been accepted to a school, college, university or other educational institution in Canada,
• Have proof that you have enough money to pay for your:
  
  
  • tuition fees,
  • living expenses for yourself and any family members (spouse or common-law partner and/or dependent children) who come with you to Canada (According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada guidelines in addition to the cost of tuition fees, you will require approximately $10 000 per year to cover your living expenses. If your dependants are planning to accompany or join you, you will require an additional $4 000 for the first dependant, and $3 000 for each subsequent dependant), and
  • return transportation for yourself and any family members who come with you to Canada.
• Be a law-abiding citizen with no criminal record and not be a risk to the security of Canada,
• Be in good health and willing to complete a medical examination, if necessary, and
• Satisfy an immigration officer that you will leave Canada when you have completed your studies.

The thing is we are planning on Issac working and acourding to these amounts and how much the school costs we can make it if he can get a job making at least 3,000 a month. But here is the chicken or egg situation. Right now we cant prove we have this income in order to get the visa until he gets a job offer. But will they give him the job offer without the visa? 

This is our next step... Any sugestions, or even better anyone close to Calgary area want to give my hubby a job offer????

In all seriousness what we need most from our loved ones at this point is prayer for guidance and prayers of thanksgiving for the things God is going to do in order to flatten this speed bump or help us over it. 

Thanks for keeping up with our journey through life. I love sharing with you all and most of all I love getting your feed back. Please give me your ideas, comments, ext. 

Gluten Free Life

After a life of digestive issues a resident physician from our hospital decided he thought I should try to cut gluten out of my diet. He suggested studies and what not but at the point I was talking to him I was so fed up with tests and exams that I refused. He was great with me really. I was at the point of tears at work and was asking around for a naturalist who could help me. As we were talking he was suggesting all the normal stuff that Iv had over and over throughout the years. When I said to him, "look I'm not trying to be rude and I appreciate your help but Iv had IBS since I was like 8 years old, as a kid the doctors all said I was faking it or that it was PMS and as an adult they enjoyed sticking tubes in me and finding nothing. I'm pretty much done with you guys at this point." He took it in stride and reminded me of a very important medical point. IBS is caused by stress and children at the age of 8 usually dont have the amount of stress to cause it. He said, "I can tell your fed up so I suggest you investigate Crones and gluten allergies and change your diet. See what happens." He also gave me a medication that basically lays a coat over your entire digestive track in order to help the healing process.

That was almost three months ago. Almost immediately I had more energy, could think clearer, and NO DIGESTIVE PROBLEMS. I was very surprised to find that the brain fog and extreme sleepiness had nothing to do with stress or my history of being a not so great teenager. These are things I have delt with since I was a kid. One of my sisters recently joked about how I could fall asleep at any time and any place. Now I realize in reality it was from having a life of malnutrition. Basically if you are constantly irritating your digestive system with something that damages it you can not receive the nutrients your need from your food. If you struggle with digestive issues please look into different diet and eating styles and not just medication. I cant express enough how much this has changed my life. I feel like a new person. Mind you I'm still a klutz and forgetful as all get out but I don't have to drag myself up the stairs to my house each day after work (I skip up them) and I don't HAVE TO take a nap each day, now its only if I want to and more of a power nap and I actually feel good afterwards and not worse. Oh and I also droped 5kilos in the first couple weeks of the diet and didnt really even feel like I was dieting. I recently lost 2 more and again dont feel like Im dieting. Im currently at my highschool size.... crazy!!!!

 Well Iv had a couple mishaps and am learning and experimenting with my level of sensitivity. For example there is a preservative that has gluten in it, some foods have more than others and because the Ingredients on foods don't have amounts sometimes its a coin toss. Of course its a good idea to avoid it all together but I'm trying to figure out my sensitivity. For example chicken broth and Zuco both make me sick but eating Frijoles chips doesn't. Although here in Mexico you can live quite happy with things made of corn I missed bread. So I started looking for gluten free recipes. There are a ton out ther but if you are in Mexico and are broke buying all the glutten free flour is not an option. All of this to say after many trials with different bread recipes I have finally found one that works in my bread machine. Let me warn you I had to do a lot of tweaking and if you are not in Mexico you may need to tweak this also. Altitude makes a huge difference in recipes.  Also one problem we have found is the storage of the bread. I use to make home made yeast bread with regular flour and never had this issue. The oatmeal breat always perfect the first day but would start breaking down and getting gooey in just one day if we put it in a plastic bag for storage. If we leave it out completely it gets stale. Right now we just make sure we eat it within a couple days while we find the best method. My most recent effort was to slice it right away and put it back into the bread machine. This worked pretty good. It went three days and on the fourth it started breaking down a bit. I decided the next trial will be wrapping it in a tortilla napkin and putting it in the fridge. Ill let you know how it goes and if you have any suggestions or experience with this let me know. Here it is folks, in this pic it looks a little dry but actually it sticks together nicely and I can even make sandwiches with it.

1 lg egg

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup water

1 tsp honey (sometimes I add a little more)

1 Tbs butter

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups oatmeal flour (all i do is grind up oats in our coffee grinder)

1/2 cup whole oats

1 tsp instant yeast

Using the bread machine you always put the liquid in first and make sure its at least room temp. You then pile up all the dry material and make a little hole in the top so it look like a volcano. Last you put the yeast in the volcano.

In a couple hours Enjoy! Ok now I gotta go make another loaf. Iv been making at least 2 a week. lol

Oh That..whatever.

Oh yes readers I am posting after only a one month laps. Is this a come back? I don't know. lol

So in my last post I mentioned that there were many things that use to bother me and no longer do. Now when its mentioned I think "oh that.. whatever". I must say there are still many things that get under my skin but just from being on facebook I see that would be the same if I were living in the states. And maybe even worse.
Something that use to really get to me was when Mexicans would speak in Spanish "like a gringa". If you haven't ever heard it you wont get this, but those who have well, you know what I'm talking about. Basically the draw out the words and don't put the accents in the right place and they say the r like errr instead of rolling it. For a long time (were talking years here) I felt like they were making fun of me. Then one day I decided to spend some time with the Abuela and sat down to watch one of her old black and white films. Every single white person in the movie spoke like that, and it was hilarious. They were always some rich dude coming to take advantage of the Mexicans. I found myself laughing so hard at the movie and it was one of those days that I really connected with Abuela. After that I realized they were not making fun of me but more so laughing at an age old joke that came from the films. Many of my family members here have expressed the respect they have for me for being able to learn and communicate in Spanish and the same family members will do gringa speak at me. Writing about this gives me a since of peace and happiness that I cant really express on paper. So many times we get offended or hurt when we don't really understand the intentions behind an action. I was letting something upset me when really my family was trying to let me in on a type of inside joke. They think its hilarious when I do gringa speak.
As I'm sure many of you know the Time Space Continuum actually slows down in Mexico. When someone invites you to a party at 2pm you should plan on going at 3, they are not expecting you at 2.  This also extends into the workplace. If a meeting is at 10am do not show up at 945 because you will be waiting at the least 30 min before the meeting starts. I wasted many precious hours this way my first year or so. I have adjusted well, I'm still responsible in the fact that I always show up a little early or at the least right on time, but I also always bring with me something to do while I wait. Therefore I don't get disgruntled about my time being waisted and I don't have to feel anxious about being late. Oh and as for the parties depending on if its someone who knows me well I ask if the time they gave me was Mexican time. I always ask because we showed up after the time on the invitation once and the person told me they had put the actually time only on my invitation because they knew I always show up when its stated on the invitation. hahahaha That memory still makes me laugh really hard. And on the flip side once we invited some friends from work over for a barbq and put 2pm thinking they wouldn't show up till 3. When they showed up we were not ready and I actually mentioned I had planned on them being late. My friends fiance told me she rushed them out of the house saying that I was American and would expect them to be on time. To be honest I'm sitting here laughing really hard as I write this because I love the quirkiness of what my life has become.

Noise... ahhhh the noise. So I remember being in the states and being like what is the deal with all the hooting and horrible singing as loud as you possible can and laughing so loud the whole freaking world can hear you. Now after countless Christmas parties, weddings, holidays, birthdays ext. I love it. Its really fun to just let loose and let out a typical Mexican yelp or to sing even if you don't have a beautiful voice. Its funny just yesterday there was a party going on at 5pm next door to my house and they were all Aheee Aheee Aheee Aheee... (not sure if that's how you would spell it but you know when they are dancing and someone gets in the middle of the circle to do some funky move) and hearing it made me want to dance and spin around. These people really know how to have fun. It makes you feel like a kid again.
Speaking of the noise something else that doesn't bother me any more and actually I hardly notice is all the gas trucks, bread vendors, junk vendors, water vendors, the sweet potatoes whistle at 9pm... on and on and on that drive up and down the street all day and evening. I remember when I first moved here being like, gees how can these people stand that crap. And why don't they just call the companies when they want something. But there has been plenty of times when we are out of water or itching for some sweetbread where the truck happens to roll around and I'm like man I'm glad they are so loud so I knew they were coming.

So what have you adjusted to, or are hoping to adjust to?