packed and ready

I am exiting the blogging scene for a month. I am flying into Indianapolis tomorrow and staying for a month. Hopefully my trip will be both fun and enjoyable. It is going to be difficult walking away from Jorge tomorrow in the airport. I hope that Annabella doesn't cry or I will probably lose it. Our flights are doable. Two hours to Houston and two hours to Indianapolis. I hope the girls cooperate with me. We are on a small plane for both flights. One seat on one side of the plane and two on the other, making my life easier. Two seats to ourselves and no worries of little feet kicking neighbors.

Wish me luck and I will see most of you soon!

hanging on & free time

There comes a time when those favorite little outfits don't fit your baby anymore. Or in my case, babies. Having the girls so close in age was a benefit to my pocket book because most of the clothes that Bella wore, Emily wore as well. Having done that I have grown even more attached to some of the clothes I bought for them.

I had always known and planned to go through their clothes and give them to Goodwill. I also knew there were some clothes I couldn't come to terms with parting with them. You see the little clothes and it reminds you of them. How can you give that away?

The problem is there is no Goodwill here. If we try to give them away, most likely that person will sell them. That is not my intention. I came up with a better solution (and I am sure I am not the first person to think of this and I know this for a fact after talking to Colin). Plus, I have plenty of free time. I cut up all the clothes and made a blanket for each of the girls. This way I can see the clothes that I love and remind me of them being so little and hopefully they can use them on their babies (ok, I am thinking ahead a little too far :) ).

Here are the results.

Bella's blanket

Emily's blanket

If you look closely you might see something you bought for them!

a little early

Next week at this time I will be packing my bags to get ready to catch a flight the next morning. I won't return until the evening of December 22. I don't want to mess around with putting the tree up so close to Christmas Day.

We went to the Home Depot to look at their selection of trees and decor. They were cheaper than Wal-Mart/Bodega. We got a small tree and some lights and just two boxes of ornaments. I have a box of ornaments that I plan to bring back. You know, the kind that don't match and have been collected over the years. My mom has bought a few for the girls to start a collection for them.

So far Emily has been pretty good around the tree. She gets interested and wants to touch, but "No, Emily" has been working. Annabella, on the other hand, has broken one of the ornaments (**update; now two). She wants to touch them. She grabs them and says, "ball".

I love having the tree up. I would keep it up all year long if it weren't too tacky. I hope having it up doesn't make Jorge too sad while we are gone. We will miss him.

the little things

I am usually not the type of person that gets excited over the little things. Actually, I don't get *excited* that often. I am going to blame that on my personality. When things happen it is usually because I have planned it that way. All of you reading this blog know that I am pretty anal when it comes to anything.

Living here has changed that. I have been removed from my element and thrown into a place where nothing is familiar. So when I see something that is familiar I go crazy with excitement.

In this little town there isn't much in the way of grocery items that I would want or need. There is one store in particular that I always joke about only having cookies, rice, beans and cleaning products. The aisles are crowded with those. I should take pictures the next time I am there to show you what I mean. I can't talk total trash about that store because it does carry Dawn dish soap (the only place I have found it so far--I am brand loyal and that is a big problem here).

We found a gemstone the other day when we were driving back from the border. We needed to stop and buy a gift and a birthday cake for Jorge's little brother, Paul. He turned 8 on the 23th of October. We stopped at the Bodega (a branch of Wal-Mart) in the town that is about 20 minutes from our town, called San Juan. We walked through the automatic doors and I thought I heard the angels singing. It is just like a Wal-Mart. Big, lots of stuff like electronics, clothing, decor and groceries. The Bodega here in Jalos is small and has no variety of anything. Of course we found the actual Wal-Mart in Aguascalientes (about 1 1/2 hours from us), where we go every 3 weeks or so. But to go there is a much longer trip with toll roads. This place is like driving to Greenwood for us. I LOVE it!

I needed some groceries and certain ingredients that I know we don't have here so we went there today and I found a BIG jackpot. I have been craving brownies for a long time and couldn't find them but today that all changed. Jorge thought I was going to cry I was so happy when I saw them.

I have also found block and shredded mozzarella cheese, romaine lettuce, Welch's white grape juice, a oh so lovely frozen cheesecake, Kraft Singles (you know the slices of American cheese) and the list could go on.
They now have all their Christmas decorations out. Whoa! They are pricey. A standard set of lights to go on the tree are $19. I will be buying some items in the US and bringing them back.
I get to experience the joy of the small things down here. My mom always laughs when I tell her my crazy stories about finding items that I couldn't find before. I am sure there are plenty of things down here but there is a lack of those giant stores that carry everything under the sun here which makes finding things more difficult. Shopping in the US is easy and you can find anything. I am stuck here now so I will look forward to all the things that have yet to be found.

another circus

Yes another circus is in town. The previous one just left a few days ago and the new one is setting up. This will be the third circus to come to Jalos since I got here in May. I guess the people in the circus business know there is not much to do around here so people will attend all of them.

Well, I think we will pass this time. The last one was enough excitement to last a year or so. We were able to take advantage of them being in town just by seeing all the animals. They have them scattered all across the big lawn where they are setting up. You could walk up to all of them. I guess they are not worried about anyone being bit or hurt. We kept a safe distance. There were a lot of different animals there: monkeys, tiger, lion, pumas, bobcat, ostriches, pigs, ducks, goats, camels, miniature horses, llamas... We took our time (we have plenty of it here) and walked around letting Bella see all of the animals. She gets pretty excited.