Neighborhood Fun!

We have had a really good experience here in Aldea Siguila. We have made some friends and are really enjoying getting to know the neighbors. The two families that live nearest to us are cousins. One is Berta, whose husband has been in the states for the last 16 years and can´t come home because he is their illegally. She has two adult daugters still living at home and a grandaughter I believe who is 5 named Sulma. She loves to play with Gabby. The other family has 3 teenagers and a son that´s 10 but loves to play with Brigham. They are best buddies. His name is Boris. They came one day and helped me build a flower bed and brought cuttings from their garden.

Boris and his brothers built our chicken coop and bunny house. He is the one who gave Brigham the rooster. They have a dog that Gabby has named Max because we can´t pronounce his real name. He takes care of both houses because we feed him our left overs and give him attention. He´s a nice dog. Gabby really likes him.

I am teaching English to the neighbors three days a week. I had to split the class once and may have to again. I am hesitant to do so though because I am so busy. I have between 14 and 20 in my children´s class and 7 in my adult-teenager class. It´s fun though and it is helping me with my spanish.

I have also been asked to teach some of the sisters in the ward piano as sort of an unofficial calling. Not sure how it will work out since my spanish is not quite up to task.

I was so happy yesterday because my visiting teachers came and I actually understood most of the lesson. They made me read in Spanish though which was absolutely horrible. We have been getting home taught every Sunday night which is nice. We feel really loved in this new branch.

Xela´s school pics

Xela has been going to a public school near the restaurant this year. It is a school just for girls and lets out at 1pm. She wanted to go really bad so she could become more fluent in Spanish. They also have a basketball team.

She was so happy because she got elected queen of her class and had to dress like a rodeo princess and give a speech. She didn´t win queen of the school. It was based on who got the most donations from their class. She had fun with the process though. Her spanish has become soooo good. Everyone says she has a good accent also.

We are so excited for her because she was asked to join the stake children´s chior. They are preparing to sing at the temple dedication which will be really special and other stake events.

I love you Shaky!

Thank you everyone!!

Thank you so much for all your birthday messages thoughout the year. It means alot to the kids to hear from all of you. I love technology! We are eventually going to turn this blog into a book and so they will have your birthday wishes forever.

Kristina, we would definately love the link. Thank you!

Happy Birthday Brigham!!!

We have a special boy having a special birthday today!!! Please leave him a birthday message!

Happy Birthday Ammon!!

Please leave Ammon messages on this post for his birthday. He is a special young man and I am so proud of him. I can´t believe it has been 13 years! Amazing. Time is flying by!

Ammon had a good birthday. We woke him up with fireworks and breakfast in bed. We had Rodolfo and Melva and their kids over for cake. We only do big parties on certain years so it was just a small celebration but fun. We had a little boxing going on.

I love my Ammon. He is so big now. It is so weird how time flew. Everyone said this would happen but I didn´t believe it. I want to freeze time and keep all my children under my wing!

New Year´s Eve, New House, Tapachula Mexico

Wow!! I have been such a slacker in my blogging. I am so sorry to combine 3 posts into one. Yikes!

The first group of pics are from New Year´s Eve. We had a great time with the Garcia Family. They didn´t get enough of us on Christmas I guess. They also invited another family. He is in the stake presidency and she is a family practice physician. They have two little boys. Melba and Rodolfo are wonderful. He has a business selling auto parts and has a promotion based on volume of sales where he gives people free Gringo Loco Pizza coupons. He has sent us tons of new clients. We go on dates with them regularly. Gabby loves their girls who are 4 and 3 and they have the cutest little boy 1 and a half. We had a delicious barbecue with chicken and chimychury steak. It was sooo delicious. We also let off fireworks and danced and the boys are pretending to be drunk but I promise there was no alcohol involved.

We are really really enjoying the new house. I have been slack and haven´t taken pics of the whole house yet but in all honestly I would like to get some more furniture first. Maybe I will do two posts. One before furniture and one after. It is a beautiful home though and the kids are loving the neighbors and the land. We just don´t have time to shop around for furniture. Our only day off together as a family is Sunday right now. We are thinking about letting Sandra and Sylvia run the restaurant one more day a week though. We are going to wait until after February to figure out which day is our slowest. Probably Wednesday. That being said hopefully one day I will have a couch again.

On the days I am home with Brigham and Gabby, Brigham is outside playing soccer or nerf guns or swinging with his friends. He has tons of little friends that actually helped build the house. Just in time for his birthday. We are planning to have a bonfire and party complete with pinata. We will roast hotdogs and have smores and a campout in the backyard. Anyone want to come? We will hopefully have his baptism that weekend.

We are almost done unpacking. I still have some boxes that I am procrastinating because it isn´t stuff we use on a regular basis. Part of the house still isn´t finished but it is livable. The kitchen has nothing but a huge pantry that fits all the food and the dishes. We have a fridge that we brought from the other house and use plastic tables for counters. The sink right now is the pila (a huge sink like thing we use here to wash dishes and clothes) right outside the kitchen door. Also the master bedroom has no doors yet so we are using one of the other bedrooms right now. We will switch when it is finished. I will probably use it for now as the school room. Also Victor didn´t have time to instal the hotwater heater before he left. We have lived this whole time without one so we will survive a few more months till he comes back in March. I still don´t have a washing macine, but a girl in the neighborhood comes three days a week and washes the clothes for me.

It is super cold here. I don´t remember if I mentioned it before but at night it gets to 30 to 40 degrees. I know that doesn´t sound cold to all of you who just survived a snowstorm in VA but we have no indoor heat and a fireplace doesn´t even touch this big house. The days are beautiful though. 60 to 70 degrees and sunny everyday. Everyone says February is warmer, that January is the only really cold month. If you decide to come for Brigham´s birthday bring your long johns to sleep in!

All the neighbor kids have been begging me to teach them English. Apparantly Victor told them I would. I am starting tomorow. I have no clue how many kids will show up and I really am clueless how to teach when I don´t speak their language really well but we´ll see what happens. Also they range from small children to teenagers so I may have to divide that up later. I will decide after I see how many of each age show up. I´m actually happy to do it. It will give me a chance to get to know my kids friends better and hopefully earn a respect for the family amoung the village.

We are thinking about selling pizzas from the house. There are no pizza restaurants near here. Only delivery though. No eat in obviously, and only the days I am home.

We have neighbors that speak english. An older empty nester couple. She is called the Gringa because she has red hair and green eyes and speaks English but I think she is actually from Belize or somewhere. They have a plot of land they grow all kinds of things on and tons of animals. The kids love to go over there and see the animals.

Also on Friday a family came into the restaurant from the states. Unfortunately I wasn´t there because that´s my day off, but I am very excited to meet them soon. They are from Alaska I think Nathan said and have 4 children close to my kids ages. He is ahead of the construction of the temple here in Quatzaltenango. I´m sure you will be hearing more about them later. I would love to have a friend that I can discuss things with in my native language who can relate to our experiences here.

We were blessed to have a guy come in the restaurant who worked in a NY City pizzaria for 23 years. He taught us how to greatly improve our pizza dough. It is sooo much better now. I just wish we had met him earlier. All is good though with the business. Still not where we want it but sales improving every week.

The last group of pics is from our trip to Tapachula Mexico. We had to renew our passports again. It all went smooth this time because we exited one border and entered a different one. It was a great trip. The highlights were WALMART (I know this is nothing special to all of you but when you haven´t set foot in a walmart for 9 months it is a special moment to wander those well loved aisles. We also went to SAM´S club and Tapachula has a beach called Playa Linda (Cute Beach)27 kilometers away. It was a very very nice beach. They also have a Holiday Inn Express in town that is very reasonably priced and had free HOT breakfast. I definately recommend this as a vacation spot and if any of you decide to go there let us know!! We will meet ya there! They have a nice little airport right in town. We did have a few moments where we got the feeling some people didn´t like gringos but for the most part everyone was nice.

Xela starts school tomorow. I know this will come as a shock to most of you who know our strong opinions on this. We decided to let her because it is an all girl´s school run by a member of our church with an LDS teacher. She wants to be more fluid in Spanish and this really is the best way. She already speaks with a great accent but needs more vocab and help with grammar. They also have a basketball team which she is super excited about. She will be wearing uniforms. MWF a plaid skirt, white blouse, long blue socks, blue sweater and dress shoes. On TTH she will wear the PE outfit which is similiar to a basketball warm up. I will definately post pics in the next post. She wants to start getting me up to go walking every morning at 630 so I guess I should go get some sleep.

Until next time......

Oh! Thanks for the comments on the last post. I love to read your thoughts. Robin you had me rolling as usual. SOOOO funny! I look forward to posts from all.

Mel