Mexican Food for Thought

Next month I will have lived outside of the US for 6 years. I can safely say up until Friday, I had never eaten in the street before. A mom with food poisoning is not a pretty picture. Guapo took risks (and occasionally suffered the consequences) eating hot dogs, of all things, off the street in Venezuela. But, after being laid out flat for 3 days from eating at a ward Father's Day party in Small Town, Mexico, he has been a whole lot more careful.

Ever since we found out that we will be leaving Mexico at the end of this month, I have been craving Mexican food. The three years prior, I didn't much care for it. I always wanted safe, American-style Mexican food. But now I want the real thing.

Here's a pretty picture of some typical Mexican food: Queso fundido- they put cheese in a bowl and melt it over the grill, sometimes with mushrooms or meat of some sort-it is yummy. And the flat green items are "nopal", which would be cactus. I still am not quite loving the cactus, but it is really good for you. And of course the chiles:

To satisfy my craving, we have been frequenting the "safe" taco joint in the mall nearest us. Our favorite type of taco here is called a "gringa" it has some kind of meat that comes off of a spit that's been there for who knows how long (I try not to think about it), cilantro, onions, cheese and pineapple.

So here are a bunch of "gringos" eating "gringas":



Friday, Guapo and I were out and about doing some last minute errands and we were close to a "reputable" (according to our friends) street taco stand; I decided to take my chances and finally try the real McCoy.

All was well; we were sitting on buckets out on the side of the busy street, eating our tasty tacos, tying to fit in but getting stared at like crazy. Then, near the end of our culinary experience, Guapo and I each found a hair embedded in the taco meat.

Ewwwwwwww.

It still makes me sick to think of it. I spent all day certain that I was feeling rumbling in my tummy that would lead to a very unpleasant night. But, happily, the yummy, hair-filled tacos didn't make me sick. Still don't think I'll be going back.

One last word on tacos:

Julio (6 years old) brought home an assignment that he did at school on the computer. He had to sort a variety of foods into three groups: foods you should only eat a "few" of, foods you should eat "some" of, and foods you should eat "lots" of. Here's a picture of his "lots" group:



Yep. Fruits, veggies and, you got it, tacos.

We must be in Mexico!

Update Including Earthquakes and Vomit

I really haven't quit blogging, at least in theory.

I know, I know. I've started all of my posts the last 3 months like this, whining about why I haven't been blogging. Sorry about that. It's just that I am getting practically nothing done right now. No piano practice, little exercise, no blogging, no emailing, no sending photos to grandparents, no cooking, no cleaning, no sleeping.

All I do is produce milk for Pedro, feed Pedro, rock Pedro to sleep, change Pedro's diaper, change Pedro's clothes, bathe Pedro, make sure Pedro is breathing, etc. etc. We have 2 maids now (long story) and I am still getting NOTHING done, and I'm tired! I can't imagine the sorry state I'd be in if I lived in the States with no help. Oh well-I love the time I get to spend with the baby.

So, a little update on our lives for those of you who are still out there.

First Things First: My First Earthquake

We just finished up 2 weeks of Spring Break. That's 4 kids 24 hours a day 7 days a week for 2 weeks. By the end of last week I was going a bit batty. Last Thursday we jumped in the car and headed out for Acapulco.

I had booked a hotel online and it was awesome. Here are some pics:

(here's where Blogger stopped letting me upload photos! Grrrr.)





That night at 12:43 am there was a 6.0 earthquake whose epicenter was 40 miles from where we were at. We were staying on the 8th floor of a 10 floor building. We were swaying like crazy. Guapo, who grew up in California, was not too phased, but me, who grew up in Colorado, was pretty much totally freaked out.

The kids slept through the whole event.

The next night was Guapo's bad night. Julio and Margarita (at separate times) threw up. I only felt slightly guilty about not getting up to help him clean up the floor, the sofas, the sheets, the walls, the clothes. First of all, I figure I have to get up with the baby all the time, and second of all, Guapo always seems to be out of town when there is puke to clean up.

He commented to me, "It's as if they don't even try to make it to the bathroom. I think they just open their mouths and let it fly." Yep, that's pretty much what kids do. There was throw-up EVERYWHERE. Yuck.

The last night,Guapo tried to insure he would get a little more sleep than the previous night by placing throw-up receptacles next to each kid:







Luckily, there was neither vomit nor earthquakes the last night of our stay.

Ok, on to other issues:

GMBC: (Gringas in Mexico Blogging Conference)

Easter weekend I got to meet my first ever OLF IRL (OnLine Friend In Real Life). I met Amerimeximadre when she came with her super cute family to Big City. At first we felt pretty uncomfortable talking face so we chatted online for a while:



Then we got used to the whole IRL thing and just talked like normal people.



Ron Brings Kitty Over to the Dark Side



Muchacha Moment

One of our maids came to work sick on Monday.

She told Guapo she had a fever from "eating too many carrots".

Who knew?

One Funny Kid Quote

Julio was talking to Guapo the other day. He asked him to describe himself; Guapo did and then asked Julio how he would describe himself.

He answered, "I have brown hair and eyes and I look like my name should be Nick."

The kid cracks us up. The funny thing is, he does have a certain "Nick-ness" about him.

Kudos to Pedro

My little baby has gained 5 pounds in 6 weeks. What a little piggy!

See? I'm not wasting my time after all!!!

Our Newest Addition

It's about time I get back to blogging. We've been home for a week now with our new little addition and it's been great. The adult to kid ratio has been 1:1.667, not to bad. All that changed today as my mom headed home. Now we are at 1:2, and on Wednesday when Guapo resumes his crazy travel schedule, it will be 1:4, give or take a muchacha here and there.

I still have not given my sweet little boy a blog name-I am open to suggestions.

His delivery went very smoothly: here's a brief recap so as not to bore any of you.

Friday March 3, 10:00 am: I go in for my weekly check-up, the doctor tells me there hasn't been a lot of change, and that I am at a "generous" 1 cm. Generous seems like a weird adjective to use along with 1 cm, but whatever.

3:00: fairly regular, but not hard, contractions begin

3:30 pm: Margarita arrives home from school with her birthday party in tow. We decided to do her party a little early this year so it wouldn't get lost in the baby shuffle. We had 6 girls here for a swimming party. We ate haystacks and I made a very tall, 7-layer, ice-cream cake (Guapo family tradition).



9:30 pm: last guests leave and not a minute too soon- my contractions were getting stronger and I was starting to feel panicky.

9:45 pm: blog

10:15 pm: I tell Guapo I think that this may be it and that I had better call the doctor.

10:20 pm: Doctor tells me to go to the hospital


10:25: I call my friend to come over and stay with the kids.


10:30-10:45: frantic packing

11:00: we leave for the hospital. NO traffic which is amazing for Big City.

11:10: we arrive at the hospital and my doctor was waiting for me. I was at 4 cm.

11:45 pm: Yay! epidural in place!!! (me giving Guapo the "thumb's up", a traditional picture we take during each birth after I get an epidural)



Four short hours later: New little guy born.



Later that day, the kids were able to come and meet there new little brother. Here's Julio (6 yrs old), and Juan Carlos (3 yrs old), meeting the baby.



This was probably the best, easiest delivery I have ever had. My doctor was wonderful and the hospital was very nice. There were several differences that we noted between having a baby in the States and having a baby in Mexico.

1. Number of People that Saw Me "Desnuda": 10 people were in the delivery room. My doctor, the anesthesiologist, OUR PEDIATRICIAN???, two other random doctors, four nurses and Guapo.
   


2. Security. At some point in this hospital's history, some babies must have been nabbed because it was pretty hard to get our hands on our baby. He was born at 4:00 in the morning and we didn't see him again until 9:30 am. When he was brought to and from our room, he was brought by a nurse accompanied by an armed guard. And when the nursery was open for viewing the babies (forget about going into the nursery!!),you had to stand well within the viewing range of the security camera. When they finally handed him over to us, he was accompanied by the armed guard and 4 nurses. We had to sign about 10 different forms to finally get him.

3. Toast: They sell pre-toasted toast in grocery stores here. The slices are like huge unflavored croutons. I never knew what they were for-but I was served this pre-toasted toast numerous times in my 2 day stay in the hospital. Odd. Let's ask our expert in all things Mexican, No Cool Story: what's up with this toast? Do Mexicans just not want the hassle of a toaster?

All in all, it was a great experience and we are doing well here at home. My mom was a great help; she was the official bather and poopy-diaper changer. Here she is with Margarita (9 yrs old) giving little guy his first bath:

Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers. Remember-I need help with his blog name-give me your best suggestion!

Visitors from Springville

We love having visitors. We didn't have so many down in Small Town. I just can't imagine why what with the big shrimp and the monkeys...

Last week our friends that we had made while we were all living in Venezuela came down for a visit from Springville, Utah.

Highlights from their trip:

1. Seeing things we haven't seen before since we have lived in Big City.
Namely: Teotihuacan.

We all climbed the pyramids. I wasn't going to, being 8 months pregnant and all, but my competitive spirit got the best of me and I climbed the Pyramid of the Sun. I have to admit though, that all my kids, even little Juan Carlos (3 yrs old) beat me to the top.



Here's a cute one of my boys getting along for 30 seconds. I was pretty worried the whole time that one was going to push the other off, but much to my surprise, they both survived the close encounter.



Teotihuacan is teaming with vendors that approach you about every 5 seconds trying to sell all sorts of knick-knacks and "one-of-a-kind" artifacts. They really had a thing for our friend, whom they followed around like he was the only tourist there. Here's one following him even though our friend has NO interest in his merchandise:



I can't complain too much about the vendors as I did buy this new tablecloth that I love:



After our visit to the ruins, we had lunch in an honest to goodness cave.



Have you ever been to Casa Bonita in Denver? It reminded me a lot of it in that it was over priced and the food wasn't that great, but it was an authentic cave so I guess you've got to pay for that.

Oh, random side-note. Here's my new favorite Mexican road sign that we saw on the way to Teotihuacan:

Make sense? Good.

2. Eating out.

3. Playing Games. While we were living in Venezuela we would often get together and play games. Our game playing was severely limited due to a discovery that our friends became hooked on "24" last season, but have not yet seen the earlier seasons, most importantly, they have not seen season 1. They didn't even know who Nina was (gasp) !!! Or what a stand up guy President Palmer was, so of course we had to start watching it with them. So, #4 was:



4. Watching the first 9 episodes of season one of "24".

5. I almost forgot-eating homemade cream pies! Banana, chocolate and coconut. I really think think that our friends' visit was worse for my pregnancy weight gain than Christmas and New Year's combined-we'll see next week at my weigh in.

We had such a great time!

A Plethora of Muchacha Moments

Remember our fun-loving, ice-cream eating, flower-borrowing maid? Things finally came to a head in December and I decided enough was enough. Events leading up to the straw that broke the camel's back?

First silly, little, annoying things like this:

Everyday my soap dish and my hand soap were next to my sink and our toothbrush and Guapo's razor would be plugged in to recharge:

Everyday after she came through it would look like this:

Plugs not charging, soaps not by the sink.

Bigger things: after Guapo (who's a lot scarier than me) explained to her that she should NOT take our things to her room without asking (flower incident), we found these in her room:



The lily was cut from the garden; Guapo had been waiting to cut them until they were big enough.

I started to get the feeling that I was paying someone not only to annoy me, but also to hide my things from me.

This is hard to see in the picture, but at the top of the closet I found Julio's (6 yrs old) karate belt. He has karate twice a week (read: she knew he needed it) and she was no more than 4'10" tall which makes me believe she either had to throw it up there, or actually got a chair and put it up there. Either way, I was seeing red.

Why? Why, I ask you???

All of these things I was dealing with because I didn't want to go through the hassle of looking for and trying out somebody new, but the final straw came one day when I came home and Julio (6 yrs old) was roaming around the apartment complex by himself. I took him home and found the maid just hanging out (read: NOT looking for Julio) with Juan Carlos (3 yrs). I told her I found him out of the apartment and she said, "Yeah, he got away from me."

Well, that was it. Guapo canned her. We are now on the 3rd new maid in one week. I have more muchacha moments to share, but this post is too long already. I'll have to share at some other time.

Big City Driving- The Problem with Signs

Driving is a major part of my life here in Big City. The traffic is horrendous. Really. Two weeks ago Guapo and I were out and about, at a place approximately 12 miles from our home, and it took us 3 solid hours to get back. Not fun. I could never describe it so you would believe just how bad it is.

But, in this new, informative series I will provide a breakdown of all of the problems that cause us to drive like maniacs and contribute to the major traffic headaches here in Big City.

The multi-faceted problem I wish to highlight today is: signs.

Problem #1: Lack of vegetation maintenance

This one has gotten us before; if you can't read read it, it really isn't helpful.

Problem # 2: Confusing signs

Now, I can figure this sign out; I am an intelligent person. The problem is that signs like this seemed to be positioned right after curves; you approach the sign going 50 mph and it is situated no more than 2 feet in front of the exit you need so that while you are trying to decipher it, whoops, there goes your exit.

Problem #3: the disappearing sign (no need for a photo)

Here's the scenario: you know you have to exit at some point. You see a sign that indicates your exit is approaching, but not in the immediate future, so you feel good. You gain confidence because you know are headed in the right direction. You keep driving. And driving. And driving.

No more signs for your exit.

"But there was a sign," you think to yourself, but now you KNOW you've gone to far. And you find a way to turn around and hope there's a sign for the exit in the other direction.

Grrrrrr.

"Queremos Halloween"

I survived Halloween 2006. I swear we get more Halloween living out of the States than we would if we lived in the States, but maybe I'm wrong. The last time we were living in the States for Halloween was when Margarita (8 years old) was 2.

From my childhood, I remember having a little party at school the day of Halloween and then trick-or-treating that evening. Here, we had 3 different Halloween parties (outside of school), two rounds of trick-or-treating, one round of trunk-or-treating, and of course the school parties. By the end of last night I was exhausted.

So, as sick as I am of all things Halloween, I had to do a post on it because No Cool Story wanted a report on Halloween in Mexico. Mexico doesn't "officially" celebrate Halloween, but Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), and Dia de los Niños Muertos (Day of the Dead Children. Sounds a little morbid, don't you think?). I like these holidays; families remember those that have gone on before them and leave out offerings of things they liked (like food and such) in a kind of shrine presentation. Here is a picture of the "ofrendas" in our building:



But, I have to report that Halloween is alive and well here in Big City. The stores are filled with pumpkins, ghosts, spiders and lots of snack-sized candies. All of these decorations were purchased here in Big City:

My cool ceramic pumpkins and Halloween lights:

A fine variety of gourds (and some more ceramic pumpkins):



Spider webs and Halloween garland:


So, I was thinking, well, maybe just the commercialization of Halloween has struck our neighbors to the South, but then last night as we were out and about driving I was shocked to see TONS of little Mexicans (and some much older ones) dressed up as little devils and ghosts walking through the streets with a loot bag in their hands. So, it's not just the foreigners that are doing the Halloween thing.

Here's a picture of some authentic Mexican trick-or-treaters. It's not that great, but I was driving at the time and I almost got in a crash taking this pic, so I didn't think I had better push my luck trying to get something better:

They don't say "Trick-or-Treat" though. They either just say "Halloween!" or "Queremos Halloween!" (We want/love Halloween! )

Here are my little goblins at our ward party:



And some of the crappy candy we got trick-or-treating (most all of it is "enchilado" or chilied-up. Blaahhhh!) The maid is going to go home with a lot of candy this week. Hopefully that will keep her off of my ice cream:



After we got done trick-or-treating last night, Margarita, distraught with the ratio of American to Mexican candy she received asked,

"Why can't we just be normal Americans?"

I said, "We are normal Americans."

To which she replied, "Then why can't we just live in our country? My whole bag would be filled with good candy if we lived there!"

Then I told her about the mean Americans who who hand out raisins.

Hope everyone had a safe, fun night!

A Birthday Party with No Pinata (Gasp!!!)

Wow, a whole week has gone by since I last posted. My excuse? A six year-old's birthday party.

I am not much of a hostess. I like making dinner and inviting one other family over, but anything beyond that (even if the attendees are only 5 and 6 year olds), stresses me out. Besides, there's a lot of pressure in Latin American countries to have fabulous birthday parties. Parties here are not just for the children, but for the entire family. Most are catered, involve at least one or two bouncy houses, a larger than life pinata, and last for hours. One party we went to in Venezuela (for a 3 year old) had an entire petting zoo complete with pony rides.

I do not cave to this pressure. We still have "American" birthday parties where the kid invites a few friends, it lasts a couple of hours, and parents, grandparents, siblings and cousins stay at home.

But, I still don't enjoy being the hostess.

Julio invited 5 friends and we took them to a kind of children's museum. I've been to several children's museums in the States but this place takes the prize. It was so cool, I wanted to ditch the kids and play! It is called "Kid City" and the kids go around earning money by working and then spending it on things they want. Here are some shots.

Here are some of the kids preparing hamburgers at the little McDonald's:

Julio giving Guapo a shoe shine:

The kids building a brick wall:

Shaving at a barber shop:

Making pizzas at Domino's:

Pretty cool, huh? They had a sushi restaurant where you could make your own sushi, but no one wanted to go with me. :(

***Random side note: we thought one of the kids, who was in fact a boy, was a girl almost the entire party (the kid with the blond hair in the McDonald's picture). When he had to go to the bathroom I took him to the women's restroom and while the boys went to the barber shop to shave, I tried to take him and Margarita to the beauty salon instead. He didn't really dig that.

Finally, Julio heard Guapo referring to him as a "she" and corrected him. That goodness he did before his mom came to pick him up or I really would have embarrassed myself!

Happy Birthday Julio! We love you!

Muchacha Moment(s) #2 and #3

Ok, here we are again discussing my "muchacha" and the interesting moments I have because a complete stranger lives with me and cleans my house.

Our apartment has a sit in kitchen and a separate dining room. I am more of a kitchen type person (read: too lazy to get out the placemats). If we eat in the kitchen as opposed to the dining room, the maid stays in the kitchen with us. I have told her she doesn't need to, but apparently she wants to and I don't have the heart to tell her to leave.

But, she just stands there and watches us eat. I feel like I can't relax or have normal conversations with my kids even though she doesn't speak English. I've gotten to the point of getting out the placemats when Guapo is home, but when he's not I feel too bad not eating in the kitchen. I just think maybe she's lonely. I don't know. But it still bugs me!


Ok, that was my vent. To assuage my guilt for venting online about a very nice girl, I will share a funny muchacha moment from Small Town. In Small Town I had a maid that came 3 mornings a week and she was a delightful lady that I got along with well.

One day I came home and the house reeked of bug spray. This lady was really good at finding ants nests (ewww, huge ants, I get the shivers just thinking about them) and she was kind enough to take care of the problem for me. So, anyway, I go into the house and the smell is overwhelming. I was thinking I had better get Juan Carlos out of the house before he dies. So I ask her if she found a nest and she replies, "No, you were out of Lysol." So I say, "We were out of Lysol AND you found some bugs?" "No, you were just out of Lysol and the bathroom smelled (home of the kitty littler box), so I used the bug spray instead"

I never did figure out her thought process there. "Hmmm, lets douse the place with a poisonous spray so we can't smell the cat box." Luckily the cats (and the kids) survived the massive fumigation.