Works For Me Wednesday-Rainbow Closet

Ok, this tip may seem weird, but it really works for me. I used to organize my closet according to type of shirt: t-shirt, polo, short-sleeve button down, long sleeve button down, etc., etc. Then one day I was at my friend's, mom to K-squared, house and I saw her closet; she organizes it according to color. So, I tried it and it is so much more aesthetically pleasing. It's easier to put clothes away and it just looks a ton better. Try it, I bet you'll like it!



Works for me!

Thanks again to Shannon for hosting Works For Me Wednesday. Visit her blog for more ideas.

Grrrrrrrrr.

I would love to post a normal post. But, it seems that Blogger doesn't like me or my photos. Neither does Flickr. And photobucket teases me by letting me upload them, but then I can't resize them to fit in my blog. Small Town's story must be told. Using pictures!!!

Someone help. Please.

Look What the Cats Dragged in and Other Odds and Ends

First things first. Look what we found when we got home from church yesterday:





We are totally used to geckos and small lizards, but this iguana really made me scream. Apparently the cats dragged the poor thing in. He was playing dead when we arrived with both cats sitting close by waiting for him to wake up and play.

Guapo to the rescue. It took him quite a while to get up the hutzpah to grab the little sucker. As I was standing there pestering him to remove it quicker, he told me, "You know how I hate being bitten by reptiles".



He was placed outside and was apparently in decent shape despite his rendezvous with Ron (yes, our cat is named Ron) and Kitty (post on cats still forthcoming).

On to soccer. The World Cup is taking place right now. No Cool Story has a great post on her blog about what it's like to be as a soccer fan living in the States during the World Cup. I am like her alter-ego, the non-soccer fan living in Latin America during the World Cup. I have to say though, the enthusiasm is contagious. In these parts, it's bigger than the Super Bowl and it lasts for weeks.

Anyway, yesterday Mexico played and beat Iran, 3-1. The game was tied up when it was time to head to church, so we figured no one would go, but attendance was pretty normal. The US plays today. (not sure against whom. I am getting into it, but I am not fanatical yet)

Thanks to all the well-wishers on our apartment hunting. We found a great 2 story, 3-bedroom apartment in a decent location. We had plenty of great options, all loaded with amenities; check out some of these places: (None of the following complexes are ours. Ours does have a pool, tennis courts, gym etc, but is lacking in waterslides and bridges. Therefore, this post is off limits to my kids so they don't suffer slide-envy!)







However, our place does offer massage services, for those times in life when big city living becomes overwhelming. :)

I was dying to take a picture of our nice realtor lady so I could blog about her. It was as if she had just stepped off the set of a Mexican novela: rhinestones studded sunglasses, cigarette dangling from her super-long-fake-fingernailed fingers, tight pants, pointy heals. She was hilarious! And she called everyone "hijo" or "hija" (son or daughter). She was too much.

¡Hasta Luego!

Best of Small Town-Turtle Releases

One of the definite highlights of living in Small Town has been sea turtle releases. Small Town used to be home to a large population of two types of sea turtles, but with the growth of the human population and the oil industry, the turtle population has decreased. So, several organizations here are dedicated to the preservation of these cute creatures. They find nests of eggs and incubate them until they hatch, and then care for them until they are ready to head out to sea.

At the first one we attended, they set out a Styrofoam cooler filled with turtles. They let all the kids play with the poor little guys for an hour before they were released, in a state of shock I am sure, out into the big-bad Gulf of Mexico.

I tried to hoard as many as I could to keep them away from the toddlers and overly-excited little kids.

The turtles are released at dusk, when the chance of being eaten by a hovering seagull is at its lowest. They are released 10 Ft from the shore, and then they have to make it on their own the rest of the way.

This little guy was a straggler, but he eventually made it to the water:

This is so much fun!

***Side note: here's someone's house that we saw at the last release:

I won't be here on Friday for Freezer Food Fun. I wanted to write it tonight (Wednesday) and post from Big City Mexico where we will be apartment hunting, but @#$@#$ Blogger is really being a pill. Check out Handiemom's blog and utmommy's site for Friday recipes!

Works For Me Wednesday-"Seek and Ye Shall Find"

Want to improve a relationship with someone? Here's my easy tip: everyday, for a couple of weeks or a month, keep a journal wherein you write down one thing about the person that you appreciate or one reason why you love that person.

I have done this little activity with each of my kids and it is amazing how my outlook changes when I am focusing on the good things about that person. When you are searching for the good in someone, you tend to find it.

Works for me!

Thanks to Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer, for hosting Works for Me Wednesday! Visit her site for links to other participants.

Not So Best of Small Town-The Sweet Ride

Small town wreaks havoc on cars. First of all, there is a great infactuation with the speed bump, or "tope" (pronounced "toe-pay"), all over this part of Mexico.

Topes come in several different varieties. Here are the ones most commonly encountered:

1) the multi-purpose crosswalk/tope

2) the big tope

3) the bumpy tope

4) And my personal favorite: the rope tope, used when private residents feel their street is lacking in the tope department.

The streets of Small Town are loaded with topes. On the two mile drive to my kids' school I go over 8 topes. There are several places in Small Town that have a series of 10 topes in a row with about 10 feet in between each one. I don't know what the deal is with the tope here. People seem like a law abiding group here, but maybe if you removed the topes they would all drive like maniacs. I really don't know.

Sometimes you get a warning sign, but not very often. It's not a problem if you hit one at a slow speed in town, but hitting one while going 65 mph on the highway can be a problem.

The second problem is potholes. During the rainy season, the road falls apart leaving huge potholes.

Here's my foot in the above pothole so you can get an idea of how big it is:

Rainy season is just starting, so they are still few and far between, but in about a month or so the streets will look like there has been a war here. When the roads are dry, they are an annoyance that you can usually swerve to avoid (I sometimes feel like I am playing a driving video game), but next week I'll show you what happens when the roads have been flooded. Not good.

Stay tuned!

Julio Sans Bangs

Here's what we found in the kids' bathroom on Friday:


Along with these:

And the result:


Julio (5 yrs old) told Guapo afterwards that he "just wanted to try it without bangs".