Winnie the Pooh?!

Micah has been needing new glasses for a while, his blue sports goggles are pretty scratched up and falling apart in places. But, we really didn't have the money to get him some new ones. So we prayed about it and then later, I found out that Micah shared this request with his class at school and then they prayed about it, too!

Recently, I found out about a place online that sells very cheap glasses, think less than 40$ including shipping! So I ordered Micah a new pair of dark blue, titanium framed glasses (we'll see about the quality...boys are rather rough on glasses!). We were pretty excited about this answer to prayer and we eagerly opened the package yesterday when it came in the mail. Then we noticed some funny yellow markings on the sides...Winnie the Pooh?! Definitely NOT appreciated by a certain 8 1/2 year old boy!




The glasses are SO cute on him, though, and I got him to wear them for a while in spite of Winnie. And he commented that it's great to have glasses that he can actually see out of...so things were going along swimmingly until little sister came in, took one look and said, "You look silly in those glasses!" That's all it took to bring on a major breakdown...sigh...he's convinced that the other kids at school will make fun of his glasses (even though Winnie is nearly microscopic!), so we'll see how it goes today...I reminded him that most people are rather ego-centric and tend to think more about themselves than about Micah, but sometimes that's hard to accept when it just FEELS like everyone is looking and laughing.

I also reminded him that these glasses are a huge answer to prayer and that he can share about that in his class, since they had prayed for them, too. I don't think anyone would dare make fun of an answer to prayer, right? Besides, Winnie is kinda cute...the sniffles lasted for a while, but then he did recover enough to take some goofy shots...

Yep, pretty much back to normal...

Doña Tota

Last Sunday after church, we went to our favorite little gordita place, Doña Tota, in the food court at a grocery store. We usually sit outside at the tables, but this time we got seats at the counter inside the little restaurant. It was fun to watch the whole gordita process right there in front of us and to snap pictures even though people were staring at me kinda funny! I felt like a tourist...

The term "gordita" literally means "little fat one" and is commonly used as a term of endearment for women and girls (although not in our house!!!)...in Mexico, however, it is also a very yummy food! Gorditas can be made of cornmeal or flour and are stuffed with a variety of fillings. When we first arrived in Mexico last fall, the kids didn't care much for them, but now they look forward to trips to Doña Tota! :) It's good to see them adapting to the food here...

Says "More than a 100 million gorditas sold!

...years of tradition, experience, continual success and clients served!"

Sorry, didn't catch how many years exactly...

Doña Tota gorditas...oh, so yummy!

Says "Gorditas of flour and of corn"

Prices are in pesos, about 55 cents per gordita.

I like the Cochinita Pibil and the Pollito Pibil, which

is shredded pork and chicken in a red sauce.

Cheese can be added for an extra cost.

We usually get the Picadillo for the kids,

it's ground beef with chopped vegetables

that is not spicy at all.

Most of the rest of the fillings are quite spicy!

We are in Mexico, after all...

Rolling out the flour gorditas...

Next, they are placed on the griddle...

Closer look at the griddle...the press is used to make

them poof in the middle so they can easily be filled.

After that, the gorditas are filled to order.

You have to order and pay at the cash register

and then get your order when your number is called.

Waiting for our gorditas...

Jojo didn't want his picture taken, apparently.

Ah! Well worth the wait!

Total cost of the meal, including drinks was about $12.50 USD.

(not pictured are the gorditas that just had cheese...quesadillas)

Gracia

I am woefully behind on posting! Seems like life continues to thunder by at outrageous speeds these days...this last week we celebrated two birthdays in the family! Miguel's birthday was last Saturday, the 16th (sorry, no pictures, it was a rather low-key event! I made lasagna and pound cake and we watched several episodes of Andy Griffith with the kids). Gracia's birthday was a bigger event on Tuesday.

On Monday, I baked cupcakes and the birthday cake for the next day. But then I realized that we should probably celebrate as a family on Monday night since Micah's baseball practice on Tuesday would interfere with supper...so I scrambled to wrap her presents and get the cake frosted before supper. She was pleased with her presents, mostly things sent in a package from some friends back home...that night, Gracia asked me to tuck her in as usual and we read the story of Esther from her little picture Bible. Afterwards, we talked about the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers, which got us onto the topic of leprosy, sickness, death, and then heaven/hell. As we talked, I realized that Gracia was being unusually vocal about spiritual things-it's not that she hasn't been interested before, just not very vocal about it. We talked about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and then I asked her if she wanted to pray and ask Jesus into her heart...and she did! What a precious moment for me to embrace her not only as a daughter, but as a sister in Christ! And it's neat that she'll be able to celebrate her spiritual birthday every year right along with her physical birthday!

Gracia at one month

Love that smile!

Celebrating six years!

Wearing one of her new dresses to school.

Handing out cupcakes at school.

Jkaile enjoyed the special attention.

Jojo and his friend James.

Back to School

It was back to school this morning, much to Micah's "disgust" (I think it was more show than anything...). Although other states in Mexico have extended the school closures due to more cases of swine flu, the state we live in decided to go ahead and begin classes as scheduled today. Ironically, our school (being an MK school and on a U.S. schedule) only has 2 1/2 more weeks of classes before summer break anyway!

There's a smile...sort of.

Okay, now it's just getting silly.

Notice Jkaile in pjs with full baseball gear! :)

Mother's Day

This morning the kids gave me their Mother's Day present, which consisted of the following:

1 large can of Arizona tea

1 six-pack of Diet Coke

1 package of prune granola bars

1 bag of peanuts with salt and lime flavor

1 bag of sweet plantain chips

1 package of gum

Can you tell they went shopping at the grocery store?! :)

Instead of cooking me breakfast in bed, Miguel is grilling me lunch. Looking good so far!

Apparently, some of the meat will be for steaks...

...and some for shish kabobs!While Miguel was digging around in our storage closet for the extra propane tank for the grill, Jkaile found the choke collar...he quickly found out it doesn't make a very good necklace! And here I am snapping pictures of it instead of taking it off...what a Mom! I figure that these will be the memories we'll laugh so hard at when he's older...

Influenza Update

This morning we had an opportunity to Skype with the 9:30 a.m. Sunday morning Prayer for the Nations at our church and it was awesome! This is the second Skype with groups from our home church in the past month and it was very encouraging...good to know we're being prayed for! We updated them on our family and ministry and the swine flu...mentioning that it had not yet reached our city. After hanging up the Skype call, we were talking to some other friends here and found out that it HAS reached us here! There have been two laboratory confirmed cases here in this city and two more in a city further north, as well as quite a few suspected cases...and so it moves closer to where we are. We keep in mind, however, that this city's population is somewhere around a million people, which makes the chances of our exposure limited, but still...I guess it's the idea of it being so close.

A friend recommended a really good article by Answers in Genesis that gives good perspective on the entire issue. You can read it here. I really appreciated their information (since I know it's reliable) and their recommendations. This swine flu isn't exactly the killer flu that has no treatment available, and yet it is a strong flu that we would be wise to avoid if at all possible. One reason for my concern is simply that our family has really struggled with health issues (mostly colds/upper respiratory icks) in the past few months and I know our immune systems are down. And yet, just like in any other situation, we know our lives are in God's hands and we are confident that He has our future in His hands...

In the meantime, we continue to hang out here at home for the most part (going out means more exposure to more people). We were excited to get some plants for our garden on Friday! Micah's teacher at school gave us some tomato plants, raspberries, and some other things that Miguel and the kids enjoyed planting. :)

And I apologize that these paragraphs are kinda squished together...I cannot get the spacing to do what I want!!!! And at this point, I'm too cranky to try to figure it out...seems like this is a good time for a nap...LOL!

Micah and Jojo in the 'garden'.

Posing for the camera, as usual! :D

Miguel rigged up a bit of shade for the plants...

Garbage for the compost pile...
Close-up of the cactus...they are so cute!