Look what I got today...

Today I had my first experience with a "missionary sale". I had heard of these sales shortly after I moved here, but since I'm not really in the complete missionary "loop" (you know I really just hang out with all the cool missionaries) I always seem to hear about them a day too late. Missionary Sales are basically yard sales that happen when a family moves back to the country they are from and they usually sell EVERYTHING. Well, I got the word from my friend Kirsten, who is always in the know, about a sale that took place this morning. The family moving has lived here for 15 years or something like that and has run a school, so you can imagine all of the possibilities of things they might be selling. It was packed and I saw a lot of my friends there, which was fun. And, I'm not sure where all of the stuff came from, but there was a ton of very random things, not unlike what you might find at a yard sale in the states, but a little surprising for me to see down here.

The best part, by far, was going through all of the school supplies and books they had. I really had to use self-control because I could have bought so many more fun finds. I just kept hearing those 6 famous words spoken by my well-meaning husband (words that have changed my pack rat tendancies)..."What do we need this for?"

Well, I came home with all of this for $265 pesos, which is something like $8:

REAL vintage (can I say that if they are from my childhood) Bristle Blocks and Lincoln Logs, some really fun fabric with numbers and equations, which I am sure will become PJ bottoms for little E, 2 christmas trees, a Barney puzzle, a NEW red recorder, a flowered mug, and 4 vintage books (Little Men, 2nd grade Social Studies book, an American History reader, and a children's Bible that I bought because I thought the pictures looked funky and cool).

And, then as I was walking out the woman selling things asked me if I wanted any plants. And, I got this beauty for another $200 pesos. It's a lime tree!!! How fun is that? It doesn't really look like much, but I know the potential it has if I don't kill it first. She said it has pretty little white flowers that turn into little limes. I am wondering if it is a key lime tree.

So, all said and done I spent something like $12...and Big E never asked the million dollar question.

After playing with his Bristle Blocks, Barney puzzle and recorder he pooped out on the sofa. He was so into the recorder that while we were eating lunch he put his hotdog down, picked up his recorder to blow on it a few times, put it back down and resumed eating his lunch.

The Social Studies book was published in 1958 and is awesome. Even though some things are really outdated (like the clothes or the fact that the part on the neighborhood park says that "I can go there alone.") little E and I were reading it together and he seemed to like it. Check this out:
These kids are helping to build a library area in their classroom. Check out the kid with the saw?!

And, then there are these sections called Who can help? where they ask the kids what they would do to help if they were in the picture, and What would you do? where they have these scenarios with blank bubbles above the kids where the reader can say what they would do if they were that particular kid that particular situation. I LOVE THIS and it seems so appropriate for our time, too. I'm sure President Obama would approve (wink, wink).

He's a breadman like his mama.

While I was unpacking the groceries yesterday I kept hearing "mmmm" sounds and this is what I found. Guess he likes those carbs, too. And, couldn't wait for lunch.

Colegio is back in session.

I didn't realize until just now that I only blogged once in August. I guess between power outtages (don't I sound like a broken record, but it's true!) and summer schedules it's been difficult to find a peaceful moment to sit down and gather my thoughts. And, although the weather is no indicating so, the calendar is telling me it's fall and time to regather and organize. Eric started back at his "colegio" pre-school last week. He is in the 3-4 year old class. That's right, I guess he's already showing signs of his father's intelligence and skipping grades left and right. No seriously, he is in the older class at his little school because he is with his same teacher and students from last year. The school just added a classroom for his "pre-kinder" class. It's so cute to see the little table with eight chairs each with the name of a student in the class. And, the room has all the toys and things that are perfect for his age...tinkertoys, a play kitchen with play food (which the kid needs to seriously learn how to "play" eat or we are going to have a cold a month in our house), dress-up clothes, all kinds of puzzles and books, and walls filled with letter, numbers, the calendar, weather, etc. When he started going to colegio in January it was a needed break for me, but now I am more excited about all he is learning. He is exploding with language, colors in english and spanish, letters, of course all of the names of his trains, body parts. And, his time at colegio will really help him with his spanish. I think we are taking advantage of all we can to give him a full bi-lingual experience while we are here.

I am actually kind of busy these days, too, which is a welcome change from the first few months here when I felt a little lost. I have several sewing projects in process from hemming pants and making curtains for friends, to my volunteer work with the women at Cercadillo. I am tuning up all 9 of the sewing machines while Ina is away on furlow in the states. I continue to go out to Cercadillo with my friends, Kirsten and Mercy each Friday to help lead the women's bible study. I am also about to start leading a discussion group in Spanish (hold on everyone) on relationships with a new leadership school that my friends Kirsten and Rich Root have started called Legado. The 10-week series is a DVD driven talk about relationships that Kirsten and I will lead a discussion on afterward, so the Spanish part is really aided by her fluency. But, speaking of Spanish I am about to FINALLY start spending time once a week with a tutor. It's really quite overdue, partially because my previous attempts at tutoring with a few members of Eric's family kept falling through, and partially because Eric thinks I don't really need a tutor and that I just need to talk more. Well, "talking more" has gained me vocabulary and the ability to understand what people are saying to me better, but my grammar lacks a LOT and needs a LOT of improvement. So, my friend Marta, who teaches in a local elementary school is going to come over to my apartment each Thursday afternoon and get me going ahead.

I know I sound like a broken record as I stated earlier, but it's H-O-T. I mean, man it's hot! August and September are supposed to be the hottest months and then it should get cooler (for all my upcoming visitors!). It's just hot and humid from the time you wake up until the time....all the time. We have been kicked in the but with very high electricity bills the past two months (that with regular times when we don't have any power), so we are really trying to conserve and not use our AC until we go to bed at night. Whew! But, at least it's not like this all the time, which is what I thought before I moved here, because every other time I had visited was during this hot season.

We keep hearing stories about thefts and robberies being on the rise, and then on Friday Eric's computer bag with his computer and everything for work was stolen out of the trunk of our car while parked in a supposedly secure parking lot at a mall at 10:30 a.m. with full security all around. How does this happen? Well, no luck in recovering those items, which included some really nice pens in a leather case I gave him for graduating from grad school. And, we have bumped up our family "security alert" to orange, meaning no walking around outside, doors locked at all times, and the particular mall where the theft has taken place is off limits. Bummer.

Well, here are a few pictures of Eric's first day of school. I forgot to mention that his good buddy, Esther or "Esto" is in his class. They kind of look alike with their light hair and olive skin, too.This is the night before Colegio, he was running around like a crazy man in his Thomas undies (potty training has NOT officially started) and his Plaza Sesamo "Fake" eating the food.