carnival

Here in Jalostotitlan the Carnival is going on. Every year in February this happens. They have lots of alcohol, bull fights and rooster fights, concerts and pretty much the whole town is downtown...day and night.

We enjoyed some tasty beverages and some sun the other day.

Tonight Jorge is going to the bull fights but I am choosing to not participate in that event.

projects, projects and more projects

With limited entertainment around these parts I have to find something to help occupy my time. The girls do keep me on my toes most of the time, but I have to keep a sane mind and find something to do that doesn't involve them.

Lately we have been making trips to the fabric store. Jorge isn't so happy about it, but he puts up with it for me. Also, we have made a few trips to Home Depot in order for me to tackle some of the projects that I wanted to do.

Below is a curtain I made for the door between the family room and the girls bedroom. There is a working door, but it doesn't clear the cable that is running to the TV in the family room. Kind of ghetto, but that is the only way to get the cable to the TV. You can see it has two sides: one brown/tan and the other pink/pink & green print.

After doing that I thought I could make a new curtain for the office.



I had a little extra fabric left over and made a floor pillow. The girls are in love with it.

We were looking at furniture, not to buy, just for fun. I kept seeing chairs that were much nicer looking than ours. I figured that I could recover our chair and they would look just as nice as all those new ones in the stores.

BEFORE

BEFORE AND AFTER

CLOSE UP OF FABRIC

Our shopping trips at Home Depot have been great. The dollar is not worth much right now. When I got here last May we were getting less than 10 pesos for every dollar. Now we are getting around 14 pesos for every dollar. Today the exchange rate was 1 dollar to 14.30 pesos. So, when we go shopping, I use my debit card which is paying in dollar. Therefore, whatever we buy we are paying less for it, by about 40%. With that great deal we have bought some new area rugs. Carpet is definitely something that I miss having with young kids, especially now that Emily is trying to walk.

EMILY & BELLA'S ROOM

THE FAMILY ROOM

OUR BEDROOM

And, we bought some screen to put on the windows. Last year it was horrible because there are a million flies and at night there are mosquitoes. But, the number one reason for me is in May and June there are those gigantic beetles and I HATE them. This summer we can keep the windows open and hopefully that will help us battle the heat just a bit more.

a few steps

Emily has been balancing very well lately. Just standing by herself. In the past week she has finally got up the courage to attempt a few steps.


Here is a little video of her *walking*.