Day 2 of Team Noles visit...

It started raining as we were driving downtown to take in the pre-Independence Day festivities. So we detoured and visited the Bible school. This is Sarah, the kids minus Austin & myself having a snack.




We finally made it downtown and took them to the Cathedral. This is Keith (whose first name is Gregory) posing with a statue of St. Gregory.




This is a mannequin of a little girl, but those are her real hands. She is a saint. Many people pray to her and leave pictures of the kids believing that she will heal them.




The kids were having fun splashing around outside.




Sarah & I being silly which is us really being ourselves. Which takes me back to another memory...



Us in 1999...pre-marriage, pre-children, and pre-post-pregnancy figures. What fun times we have had together.



That night we took them to dinner at Garibaldi's. It's in the Guiness Book of World Records as being the fastest serving or something like that. You usually get your food before you get your drinks. Everybody that we take there L-O-V-E-S it. It is such good food. We take everybody that visits us there. So if you plan of visiting us, plan on eating there.






The boys sucking on limes.



Jude quickly learned that he doesn't like radishes.




These chips & beans are starters and the rest are garnishes for your meal.

Day one of Noles visit...

I figured the easiest way to blog about our visit with Team Noles is to go day by day. I don't want to overload my blog or my readers with 100 pictures & stories. The following is day 1 of their time with us.

Derrick & Keith saw a parade after parking the cars and walking to church.

It was a parade celebrating St. James.

Keith & our baby worshiping Jesus together.

Later that night we celebrated my birthday. This is me blowing out my non-existent candle just for fun & photos :-). Sophia thought it was funny.

The ice cream cake was seriously frozen. I was working hard at breaking off a bite.

Sophia & our sweet baby.

Uncle Keith playing Uno with the kids in Spanish. They had to say colors & numbers in Spanish. It was a great learning experience for Keith, Austin, Olivia & Jude. It was also a great teaching experience for our oldest :-).

Today is the day!!!

It's only taken 2 years & 8 months for this day to happen and now here it is! My Anne is coming in town today. OK, so I guess I should mention that it's not just her it's Keith, Sarah & 4 of their 6 kids.



Flashback to Sarah & me at Green Gables on Prince Edward Island. We are becoming world travelers together :-).

As I am speaking canons &/or fireworks are going off. It's 11 a.m. Tuesday is Mexico's Independence Day and it is a huge celebration around here. Come late Monday night and early Tuesday morning I'm sure we will hear fireworks & canons every hour. There are Mexican flags flying every where and vendors are selling Mexican merchandise at every street corner. Yesterday I saw some cute red & green chili pepper toys with sombreros. I almost bought some but I hesitated.

I need to do some laundry, cleaning, lunch and whatever else to prepare for their arrival. I'm so excited that I will be working off of adrenaline seeing as I still got a crappy night's sleep. Even though Israel wakes me up at night I am full of love & joy as I hold him while he's falling back asleep. I will remember these moments for the rest of my life :-).

We're back in Mexico...

After a rain delay and a piece of lost luggage, we arrived at our house about 12:15 a.m. We came home to a clean house, thanks to my Erika. We also came home to some homemade cookies, thanks to Mandy our house-sitter. We also came home to no power, but thanks to Andy the self-made electrician, we have power. D is trying to pay all of the bills that need to be paid. We won't have much down time because, DUH, DA, DUH, DAAAAAAAAAAAH, my bff, her hubby, and 4 of their six kids are coming this Saturday for a well-needed, long overdue visit! They will be here for ladies Sunday (also my 32nd birthday) which means that they will hear me take up the offering in Spanish at church. Not only will my bff be here for my birthday, they will also be here for Mexico's Independence Day, September 16th (NOT Cinco de Mayo) :-). It will be a wild time and they will hopefully see some cool celebrations. We are planning on having 6 kids sleeping in one room. Are we insane?!?! Maybe, but we'll just chalk it up to making memories.

OK, off to take care of house stuff.

We are in GA...

We arrived last night in GA! Most people thought that we weren't coming until today. So it was nice to surprise people, especially my "Anne". We had a wonderful time at church. Our baby made the rounds and I'm not too sure that he knew what hit him. It's fun & different at the same time to go to church and see so many new people.

Now I am at my Mom's house. Me and the kids CRASHED a couple of hours ago. The kids are still napping. It was a long day yesterday. I'll explain later. Just giving a quick update. OH, and I've eaten Chick-fil-A, had a Cherry Coke, and seen family & Sarah!

From My Anne...

My Anne (SarahBeth) sent this to me via email and I decided to do it via blog.


Four Things About Me:

A) FOUR PLACES I GO OVER AND OVER:
3rd level laundry room, Superama (kinda like Wal-Mart), the Lee's house, Oxxo (kinda like QT)

B) FOUR PEOPLE THAT EMAIL ME REGULARLY:
Mom, SarahBeth, Carrie Pruett, Facebook

C) FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS:
(see post below) Quiznos, Chick-fil-A, Pizza, My father-in-law's steaks

D) FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
In Georgia, Hawaii, Paris, Prince Edward Island

E) FOUR PEOPLE I THINK WILL RESPOND:
This is a retarded question. Oh the pressure that can be put on people to respond. And then what if they don't respond, then you feel like a boob for thinking that your friends would respond but didn't.

F) FOUR MOVIES I WOULD WATCH OVER AND OVER:
"Anne" Trilogy, Groundhog Day (no pun intended), Pirates of the Caribbean, About a Boy

Air Conditioning & rain...all in one day!

Our beautiful, new A/C unit!





My silly son & myself getting cooled off!



I have never slept better at night, or napped better, than with this A/C unit in our room! If you have ever lived without A/C, then you know what I mean. You can try to sleep, but you're so hot that you just can't get fully to sleep. Anyway, I now sleep beautifully! Thanks again to my BFF, Sarah, and her hubby, Keith, for blessing us with this. Not only has Sarah been my shoulder to cry on, my partner in crime to laugh with, my prayer partner, my supporter, my encourager, my workout partner, my dancing partner, my venting partner, baby sitter, Momma of the kids that my kids are best friends with, my "Anne", and so much more (whew!), she has been such a support for me here! Even though we don't see each other face-to-face and we are seperated by miles & miles & miles, she still remains an awesome friend and support to me. Her family has had their lives rocked over the past 7 months, and yet somehow she still finds the time to call me, pray for me, and encourage me. What a wonderful friend that Jesus has blessed me with!





This is a picture of Keith & Sarah and their crew!




Well, not only did Jesus bless us with an A/C unit, He also blessed us with rain yesterday...IN THE MIDDLE OF DRY SEASON!!! What a blessing! Because we are such a high altitude and there is no humidity, cloud cover automatically drops the temperature 10 degrees. For example, when we walked into the mall it was 95 degrees. When we left about an hour later ( and after the clouds had come in), it had cooled down to 86 degrees. How wonderful it was. I'm not sure what the weather will be like today, but I know that I completely enjoyed our afternoon of freshness.




My husband is walking me to death :-). No labor yet, though.




And a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to my friend, Jo! She had her 2nd baby girl yesterday! I'm so happy for her!

I have the bestest friend EVER...

My best friend, Sarah, and her husband, Keith, were discussing me & the pregnancy. Keith did not know that we did not have air conditioning down here. So they have decided to bless us with a window unit! WHOO HOO! We looked today at Home Depot and found the one that we want. But we are going to wait until Chuck, my father-in-law, gets here before we buy it and install it. He's coming tonight. THANK YOU to Jesus and THANK YOU to my best friends!

When we get it installed, I will take pictures!

Prince Edward Island!

Since I started this blog after my trip to Prince Edward Island, Canada and Boston, MA, I am going to post a few pictures from the trip. Of course, my best friend and I are huge "Anne of Green Gables" fans. My bff is red-haired and I am brunette. So we fit the description of "Anne" & "Diana", but not the personalities :-). We had a blast! We have wonderful husbands that sacrificed their vacation time to indulge our passion!

A stop that we made while driving through the gorgeous state of Maine.

Keith, Sarah's husband, drinking Rasberry Cordial. YES, they sell the stuff and it is GROSS! Carbonated cough syrup. But Keith is like Mikey and he'll eat anything.

Sarah & I at the beach in Cavendish.

The house that inspired L.M. Montgomery's "Green Gables."

Matthew's Carriage Ride!



"The Lake of Shining Waters...that's it's rightful name."



Sarah & I at another beach.






Keith & Sarah eating "chow-dah" in Boston!



The largest Chicken Parmigian(sp) that I've ever seen! We also were blessed w/ seeing a bar fight, arrest, & winning a trivia contest at this restaurant in Boston!


That's all for now! I'm tired of uploading.