More images of Mexico...

By popular demand...here are some more images of Mexico:

Some dancers advertising their upcoming traditional dance program:

A typical Mexican scene:

Woodwork in Tonala:

The artist, and the weaving Jared's mom bought in Chapala. It cost $100 pesos ($7.50).

The ice cream man on the Chapala Malecon

Coconut, anyone?

Amazing metalwork on a building side in Tonala (15 feet tall?)

The Tonala street market fills both sides of the street for blocks and blocks. This is "drive by" photo...looking at the backside of the market. If you were to walk into this mass of tents, you would have the opportunity to walk down 2 different isles, with vendors on every side. Then, cross the street, and do it all over again! It is a mad house!

The first time we were in Tonala, we were amazed by a some amazing embossed metalwork we have never seen before in ours lives. We walked into a little store like this, and met this fellow and his wife:

The work in progress...

Much to our astonishment...they were working on a piece that looked like this:

Was it a sign?!! We learned that his couple is very popular with all of the missionaries from Guadlajara. They come to them to get their favorite temples embossed in metal!

So...we commissioned them to do several pieces for our store. We simply gave them pictures of artwork that we liked, and they came up with their metal rendition. This was one of our favorites (2 feet by 1 1/2 feet):

Now our biggest hope is that customers in Alaska will love this work...so that we can support this couple for years to come!

Years ago...

Living in a community of retirees, I am constantly reminded of how young I am. This was no exception...

***15 YEARS AGO (1994)****

1) How old were you? 11

2) Who were you dating? Umm...no dates...but I had a terrible crush on a boy in my 6th grade class. I would bike to his house every day, all the way from the other side of the lake (2 miles each way). Of course, I'd never knock...I'd just ride on by...

3) Where did you work? Didn't.

4) Where did you live? Topeka, KS

5) Where did you hang out? Again...that was the year I was probably biking across the lake every day...

6) Did you wear contacts and/or glasses? I think I got contacts that year, or the following.

7) Who was your best friend? Sarah Petz and Ami Schmidgall

8) How many tattoos did you have? none

9) How many piercings did you have? one in each ear

10) What kind of car did you drive? Hahaha...lest you forget how young I was....

11) Had you been to a real party? A birthday party? Oh, yeah! I even threw quite a few...but likely we all ended up in the basement because of a tornado siren.

12) Had you had your heart broken in love? nope...unless you count the fact that the 6th grade boy didn't love me back :-(

13) Were you Single/taken/Married/Divorced? single

14) Any Kids? no

15) Education? 6th grade, baby, 6th grade.

***10 YEARS AGO (1999)***
1) How old were you? 16

2) Who were you dating? I didn't actually date anyone that year...but the year before, and the year after...

3) Where did you work? Helen Hocker Theater at Gage Park. I did every show I could, and even got hired on to be the musical director of a children's show that toured to local schools.

4) Where did you live? Topeka, KS

5) Where did you hang out? Helen Hocker every day of my life, I think.

6) Did you wear contacts and/or glasses? Contacts

7) Who was your best friend? Annie Patterson.and Sarah Johnson

8) How many tattoos did you have? none

9) How many piercings did you have? one in each

10) What kind of car did you drive? Teal Nissan Sentra (1994?) which I had gotten in a wreck with the year before...so it had a nice gray streak on the side.

11) Had you been to a real party? Lots of parties, but what is the definition of a real party? One where people are doing things they shouldn't? No.

12) Had you had your heart broken in love? yes. My first major crush had come and gone.

13) Were you Single/taken/Married/Divorced? single still.
14) Any Kids? no

15) Education? Junior Year in High School

****TODAY (2009)****
1) How old are you? 26.

2) Who are you dating? Dating? Does that require getting a babysitter?

3) Where do you work? At home and at the store in Alaska every day of my life (Alaska being only partial-year).

4) Where do you live? Ajijic, Mexico (AKA Paradise)

5) Where do you hang out? Home home home...gotta get some work done before we leave in 11 days!!

6) Do you wear contacts and/or glasses? Glasses and contacts

7) Who is your best friend? Jared Jared Jared. I love my best friend.

8) How many tattoos do you have? none

9) How many piercings do you have? 1 in each ear

10) What kind of car do you drive? 2001 Pontiac Montana that we got a killer deal on.

11) Have you been to a real party? Again...definition? I've never been big on parties...but I love small get-togethers with friends.

12) Have you had your heart broken in love? Yes. With my kids every day. Ella says "I'm NOT going to be your friend" when she gets mad at me.

13) Are you Single/taken/Married/Divorced? Married forever and ever

14) Any Kids? 2 crazy girls

15) Education? Bachelors in Theater Arts Studies

DO THIS POST!! You are TAGGED!

Ready for an Optical Illusion?

Click on this link with someone sitting next to you. Decide which way this girl is spinning...and share it with the other person (the more people...the better)!! It is waaaaay crazy (and please ignore the immense detail they put on this womanly figure):

http://www.moillusions.com/2007/06/spinning-sihouette-optical-illusion.html

Images of Mexico

At our local market:
From our balcony:
Our favorite pottery in Mexico (and of course, the highest priced)
The Tonala market:

4th File, 4th folder, 4th picture TAG

My friend, who lives in Germany, got tagged with the above instructions. Okay, so I tagged myself in return, but not because I wanted to talk about my photo or myself (although Ella was so darn cute in my Little Mermaid socks...and she loved to do the splits...not to mention this was the age before she really learned to talk back...):
The truth is, my friend posted this photo, with a link to her prior post to explain how this photo came to be. I read the story for the first time, and she had me laughing SOOO hard that milk would have been pouring out of my nose (if I happened to drink milk). She gave me permission to link to her story, so you could read up, and I sincerely hope that you never have a day like this :-) Prepare to LAUGH!

And if you want an excuse to post a photo or talk about yourself...you're TAGGED!!

Riding Sharks at Tobolandia

A few weeks ago, when the weather started warming up into the low 80's, we finally took advantage of our local water park, Tobolandia. It was surprisingly great! Gee, I wish we would have known this before driving 2 hours out of our way to the lame water park back in November. Oh well!! Now we know!!

One of the most amazing things about this waterpark is that they let children ride SHARKS at no extra cost!! You read that right!! SHARKS!!! No dolphins here....

The girls also had a great time in their innertubes

And as usual, the Mexican children flocked to them. They wanted to touch them, talk to them, and play with them. Ella and Maiya eat it up.

The park was quite large, and this "children's" area had a lot of slides. The adult slides were in a different section, and although there were likely 9 BIG slides, they would only open 1 or 2 at a time!! Seriously!! They had a schedule posted with the opening times of each slide. I'm sure it was a money-conservation issue. If you only open one slide at time, that means you need only 1 or 2 staff, and water running on only that slide!! The water park was so full on this particular Holiday, so we had to wait in line for quite some time to go down the 1 available slide. Kind of frustrating.

And at long last, here is that shark photo. Ella ate it up, but Maiya had a breakdown. Can't win them all...

Problem was...the sharks were entirely lifeless.
Entirely. Meaning: Fake.

Love Affair with Tortugas...

The tortugas have become a part of the family quickly. As I said before, they are MUCH happier in their new, larger home. Ella and Maiya think they're great, and I've finally found some foods they'll eat (they like broccoli and LOVE cilantro). So much for that turtle food they sold me...they don't eat it at all!!

I really don't know who loves the turtles more. The girls or Jared? I'm voting Jared. He is obsessed with his new funny friends. He took this glamorous photo of the duo:

And I just thought I'd post a typical view in our house. I'm sure the girls were contemplating doing something mischievous in the backyard.

Our doors stay open like this all day. We would prefer to work outside, but the "deck" isn't shaded, so it's a bit too bright and warm for computer work (it can't really be considered a deck, since it's all brick...I can't think of any other word for it). The weather is in the mid 80's all this next week. It is warming up!! (from the 70's, that is) The hardest part is simply not being able to actively enjoy it, although we are definitely enjoying it from the comforts of where we work on the couch.