Today I saw the place where the ocean is flowing into the lagoon. We actually had to put the truck in 4 wheel drive and drive in the sand to get out to the point. I've never driven the truck in 4 wheel drive before. Ha ha it was kickass. I thought of the Volvo I traded for the little truck and laughed out loud. n

There were alot of people out there. I took some pictures, waded around a little, looked at the lagoon, and in less than an hour I was bored. Pathetic he? Bored in Paradise? But I couldn't sit cause the water sometimes went across the enire land portion into the lagoon, and there was aero shade. And it's hot here, and today, REALLY hot. So I finally climbed back up the hill and sat in the truck and got out my trusty paperback. The cool thing was I remembered a book, the bad thing was I forgot a snack. But, hubby was tired from going out there this morning in the dark again and catching nothing, and this was day 3 of fishing fishing fishing, not great meals, not much sleep. So he showed up at the truck a few minutes later and we came home around 3:30. At 8pm we know Gume and the other guys were still out there. Luckily I had wanted to see the place but knew I wouldn't want to stay that long so we brought our truck- if I hadn't gone poor hubby would be dead.

So we left and stopped along the way once we got back to a dirt road to look at the ocean. The beach seemed endless and had that really sift sandy sand, so we jumped out and ran to the water and splashed around a little. I was overcome with, well pure joy. I love him so much. I am so amazed that this is my life! It's simple and pure, and the simple things are what matter. I was talking to Veronica on the phone yesterday and we were saying- don't sweat the small stuff, and guess what? It's all small stuff. We came back and I took Sam for a walk on the beach since he didn't come with us. It was low tide so we went to the little hole in front of the rocks that Sam likes. Too bad for me, I am still a little afraid of the water, especially near the rocks. Without rocks, my fear is healthy causeof the times of year, the sea is tricky. Anyway I waded in a little and sat down and Sam was having fun. ha ha The other day he was putting his whole head under water trying to pull a huge tree branch up. So then he and I walked back and sat on the rocks in front of our place, and silly dog was chasing crabs that were scurrying across the rocks as the waves hit them.

I don't climb on the rocks as much as I had on earlier visits here cause Sam tries to follow me everywhere, and with Everardo he tried to go around the rock- which meant into the sea. But at some point he will get really used to being here and won't need to follow me every single time ha ha.

Well after that a nice almost cool shower and hit the hammock to read and nap. Then Everardo made a beautiful dinner that we had both missed! I had been eating tuna fish & peanut butter sandwiches for a couple of days (not together) although this morning I had beautiful cantaloupe and this white salty cheese for breakfast. Oh yeah before the fishing expedition we went to Marquelia and had to go to 3 places to find eggs. And they were really expensive as compared to lately, even last week. 60 pesos for 36 eggs is alot! I guess the chickens are sounding like a better and better idea. ilk was easy to find however, and nobody had cantaloupe. But we're going back there tomorrow, still in search of the blanket guys who we found out are from Hildago, and see if any cantaloupes have magically appeared.
We think were may have better luck finding the blankets in Cruz Grande where we have to go anyway for my bank card; and it looks like they have a huge market place. Chela also got me the phone number for someone she knows who does massage there and I am very excited about that. I am sore all over, from exercise, from our crappy bed, etc.

It's a beautiful nite outside, the stars seem so close. The waves are a comfort. All is well.

It didn't rain last nite! Yipee! And this morning, starting before 7am I think, after I had been awake since 5....the steam roller and tractor came and started moving and flattening the huge piles, so ok it can rain now...actually I never seen those guys, who have been working out there since I've lived here (almost 3 months) start this early...but I'm over it.

So this special fishing thing- he didn't get home until 9 last nite and it's 9 now & he just called- they're back at Chela's cleaning the fish they caught today. Apparently this is a 2 or 3 days a year event. The tide comes in really far and washes into the lagoon and so there tons of fish in there & they catch them with nets. Then after a couple of days "they" (not sure who) come and make the place off limits for fishing. I guess kinda like getting your limit of abalone.

This morning Everardo got up at 4:30 and left to mee Gume. However he forgot to turn off the alarm, only hit snooze, so it went off again at 10 to 5am & woke me up. The a few minutes later Sam started barking so I got up and let him in. Another 10-15 min and Sam's barking again so I kick him out, then more barking- I don't know wtf was with that darn dog this morning but a little before 7 I finally started to fall back asleep, then....see above...enter tractors out my open window. So I got up. Another hour and hubby showed up, the sea was too rough for fishing, which is why they went back out about 2:30 this afternoon...

So I had 4 kids for school, 2 regulars and 2 newbies. The nice thing is the 2 new kids showed up a half hour early so I could work with them on the original stuff. Then when Monsie & Ronoldo showed up we all worked together. But I need to make a new "10 things" bag that will be new to all of them. The flashcards with bathroom things and house things are pretty new so we all worked on those. I found 8 not 9 used dictionaries and I'll get then next month when I go to Texas for the weekend and see my brother.

I walked up the beach with Sam looking at shells and visited Chela who fixed her and I little quesadillas. Then we decided to go for a long walk, but when we passed the pool we changed our minds...ha ha we lounged in the pool until almost dark.

I also talked to one of my closest friends (& she's my sponsor) on the phone for an hour this morning
so I would have to say....Jus' another day in Paradise....

Well I should not have gone on that walk again last nite. Messed up the back of my ankle or shin, it's inside that it is bothering me, so I took today off.

But class yesterday was fun; I started with only one student, Lupita- and I like her alot cause she is determined to speak English, her parents didn't send her, she asked to come. She's 9 I think. Anyway after about 15 min, everybody else showed up- my 4 regulars and 3 newbies, 2 boys and a girl. It was a wacky day. I had Lupita stay after and we looked at some harder stuff, some verbs, how they conjugate much less than in Spanish ha ha. Everybody else moves forward very slowly. I wonder if the new kids will stay. The little girl can only be about 6, maybe she's 7 but I think she just started school. Her name is Estrella, and she was very enthusiastic yesterday, not shy, I like that. I bought 9 more dictonaries online this morning, but received an email one is already cancelled. They are being mailed to my brother; ha ha I gotta let him know. I just want to have some here in case I get more kids...

The road is looking better. Now they are bringing huge trucks of dirt to build it up and flattening them out with a huge roller tractor; the only problem I see right now is, there are 3 huge piles in front of out house, one at the edge of the driveway. I haven't heard the roller in hours, and it's getting near 5pm. If it rains tonite- we're screwed. Like this: SCREWED! That mountain of dirt will be on our patio....but I will probly not make that observation to Everardo tonite cause he'll say, don;t make up things to worry about, or -well we can't control what happens tonite can we? Sometimes his optimism...aarrgghh

You can't tell by the sky what's coming. It's blue and 5 min later you are in a huge storm. Well hubby is out fishing with Gume, I think near the lagoon, some place they've been waiting to go that's great for fishing, so great Sam couldn't go cause they were worried he'd jump right in and piss off other people. It might be something about letting water into or out of the lagoon? Not sure, but it does run along the beach except across the street. I thought it was fresh water but maybe it's salt..

I go on this other website for expats in Mexico and today joined in a conversation about corn vs flour tortillas ha ha. We eat hand made corn tortillas of course. It's funny tho', one neighbor we buy them from makes them small and you get about 24 in a kilo. The other woman makes them huge and you get only 9. He likes the big ones and I like the small ones....so we get the big ones and I just tear them in half. I like that website cause I read how other people like living in other areas of Mexico. Most of them however live in places where there are English speakers, and I think most of them also live in bigger towns than me. But before I got here that website was an obsession with me cause I only knew I wanted to live here, not really anything else and I asked tons of questions about driving here, about bringing Sam, about visas, ha ha could Sam drink the water. So I go back and read it cause maybe there will be someone like me asking questions that I know the answer to now. At least 2 people I have emailed privately wirh questions; one about teaching and another who was extremely helpful sending me routes and comments for our drive down here.

I went to another AA meeting in Spanish last nite. And I got up and shared too. The good thing is they name a topic so I can think about how to say something in Spanish. I shared Monday nite too, I think it's very cool that both meeting had 4 or 5 women in them. I had heard that alot of women who need/want AA in Mexico don't go- it's kinda a cultural thing, so seeing them was wonderful, and that's why I shared. I realize that in the states I had a message for other alcoholics, women in particular, I have no problem speaking in a group setting, and so I need to work harder on my Spanish because I can carry the message here too. So I got up and spoke even tho' I stumbled alot. It felt great, and we plan to try to attend about 3 meetings a week. Of course "vamos a ver" we'll see...But I'm trying to talk to everyone I see so I can practice, mess up, learn ha ha.

Mexico is such an interesting place. Old and new all mixed together, guys on horses with cowboy hats, sometimes herding cattle right down the street. It's so hot here that even when wecome home after 10pm, there are people sitting outside, kids and adults- I wonder how the kids get up for school, but as Everardo says, it's too hot to sleep. And this is a poor town, I don't think anybody has AC except the little hotels. Electricity, cable, internet come and go throughout the day, it simply is what it is. Shoes are optional everywhere ha ha, but the sand gets so hot on the beach, and the road is so rocky, I usually have flip flops on Tennis shoes are only for exercise walking, otherwise the rest of my shoes are packed upstairs. I find people so open, so willing to help and/or teach....viva Mexico

Ok today is day 3 of  exercise, ouch, ouch ouch....day 3 sucks! Day zero we walked out to Casa de Piedras, and I was winded. Everardo was fine and Sam of course wa bouncing all over the place. Walking back up the hill just about killed me. So day 1 was 20 min on the eliptical and was easy. Day 2 the same plus the walk in the evening with Chela. I will say last nite I was a little stiff- ok pretzel...This morning the 20 minutes took forever! But- I do feel good, I don't know why I stop exercising- does everybody do that? I feel so good when I do, regardless of whether I lose weight or ha ha firm up. But it does feel good. I noticed that I was sweating like it was rolling off me- but I feel that way alot of the time just being here, so is there only so much you sweat? I mean it's so hot here that I don't have to pee that much even tho' I drink alot of water.

The internet had been up and down last couple of days. The rain too. Yesterday was nice all day and then in the middle of the nite the thunder woke me up- coming in less than a second after the lightening. We let Sam in right away and poor baby was spooked.

Yesterday I drove Chela and Tony (3yr old) to Copala so we could have an ice cream. For me this was a bit of a biggie- people here drive like lunatics and I thought I'd be fine never driving ha ha. But off we went and it was fine. I was a little nervous in Copala, people, cars, dogs, various farm animals. I was laughing to my self when I saw a couple of truck, a car, then a horse all parked. I sang car car car HORSE! and Tony thought that was pretty funny and started singing it- he speaks no English of course but mimicked me pretty good. We went to this little store that was just three freezers, the long kind not the tall ones, full of popsicles and ice cream bars. Chela bought a bunch of different ones and they loaded them in a cardboard box she picked up in front of another shop when we were walking....then the girl put a small bad of ice on top. For the chocolate covered vanilla ice cream bars, the girl put little individual plastic wrappers on them. I'm not sure how much they were but the 4 little red juice bars I bought were only 5 pesos each.

We saw the dark clouds coming and thought we were in for a tormenta (storm) but nope. A few hours later I heard Chela yell my name and she was coming in our back gate. Then we went for a long walk back out to Casa de Piedras. It's funny here when you stop by someone's place, you give a yell or a whistle and they come out. The same with the water truck- they honk or give a yell. So she gave a yell when we walked past the German's place. She is Mexican, and she walks alot. Anyway not sure what was said but a while later I glanced back and she was gaining on us. Her name is Zoya or Zoyla, and she's very nice. She had her dog Natasha, the German Shepard who only gave Sam a little grief. The road- and that's a term used loosely here, is even a bigger mess on the way out there. It as little ditches in it and it winds up and down and around, A car driving there has to really watch where they're going...a truck does better, but wow not a place I want to try. Helmut (Zoyla's wife) says theyare going to pave out that way and beyond, but who knows how long that will take. I'm sure when it's dry it's not so bad.

This morning it was still raining slightly at 9, but by noon the sun is now out. I have kids today for English class at 1:30. They had fun Monday so I hope they do today too.

I think I'm gonna buy a few more dictionaries and send them to my brother's place in Texas. Looks like I'm gonna do a quick trip there in Sept to pick up my credit card. It's waaay cheaper than flying to SFO, and quicker, so we will make the plan for that in the next couple of days. It will be fun to visit them, I've only been in Texas for work, and it's funny, my brother said the only thing is, it will be really hot- ha ha ha ha you mean like here? It's perfect cause I won't have to go upstairs and dig out some long pants. Everardo is not working today, Gume and Chela aren't home- probly with no customers they can take care of a few things. They've been busy all summer even when everybody else has had no one or hardly any...they have the perfect spot for swimming/playing in the ocean and they have the pool.

So Everardo ran (yes ran!) out to Casa de Piedras this morning with Sam while I was on the eliptical, which is good cause I tend to scream out the words of the songs playing n my ipod ha ha. He and Sam are both napping right now since he came back from finding Gune not home. Well gotta get ready for the kids...

Today has been a good day. The electricity went out a couple of times, but now for long and I didn't need it anyway. Everardo is working today with Gume helping him to build a very tall rock wall. There's some other guys working there, too. I walked by with Sam around noon, but it's almost 6 and I'm surprised he's not home yet. I kinda can't walk down there cause Eriika, Chela's daughter is doing her weekly house cleaning job right now. Today was the first day of school so she came late> We really hired her to help her make some pocket money, we pay her 200 pesos a week, and she cleans the bathrooms and kitchen, and sweeps/mops all the floors and dusts. Worth it to her and worth it to us- I HATE cleaning toilets!

I'm wondering if maybe they quit work and Chela's feeding them, which would be good cause I didn't do one thing about dinner. We don't have a ton of food, the meat & fish are in the freezer- maybe tomorrow morning I can take something out...but I was thinking of making bacon & eggs, avacado, torillas and cantaloupe...mmm sounds good to me. Well I guess I can do that if he's already eating.

I started my exercise routine today. Did 20 minutes on my eleptical, which was probly too long after 3 months of doing nothing. My legs do feel kinda tight. Last night we did the walk almost to Casa Piedras, and I thought we'd do it again tonite, but if he's still working, he's gonna be dead. After my workout & shower this morning- and listening to my rock and roll was great!, watched the end of a silly movie, then had some cereal, then Sam& I walked down the beach to Chela's and back on the road so we could see poppa. Sam wanted to stay with him but I made him come back with me. Then the kids came at 1:30 for English, just my usuals, Monsie & Ronoldo, Miguel & Ilse, and Lupita. They were all very lively, but I guess being the first day back to school after summer vacation, by the end of the hour they couldn't remember anything and we were all laughing!

After that I napped and read in the hammock. Came back in and checked my emails, and yipee one from my sister come back from France. I wasn't really worried, but starting to wonder why I hadn't heard from her. All in all a really nice day. Kind of by myself, but sometimes that's ok too. I had wanted to hit the AA meeting tonite, but probly hubby is going to be too pooped to pop, so maybe tomorrow nite. I can always jump on the AA chat website after this. Oh and I got my first comment on my blog! Very cool. But maybe I make it sound like my life is really hard here cause the comment said I had alot of challenges.....well it's interesting anyway! But not too hard by any means. I am so happy to be here. Oh and today I got a pretty good picture of an iguana sunning himself on a rock. They are either very shy or very smart- I guess people eat them- I only had a camera was never got close. I'm thinking a telescopic camera might be a good thing....it's been beautiful and sunny all day, not even too hot, but the sky is starting to get gray.....

oooh Aug 19 and electricity all day- oops better knock wood. Went to Ometepec today. Such a nice drive, we basically went for the drive. Saw another lady walking a pig- but this was remarkable. The lady had to be 110 years old, maybe 57 pounds. The pig, at first I thought was a small cow, was hug and had to weigh 500 pounds. She was pulling on a rope around his neck and he never even moved his head. He had stopped in a patch of nice green juicy weeds and he wasn't going anywhere. She was yelling at him with a toothless scream, but he ignored her completely. I waved to her with a big smile, she looked at me like I was nuts.

We had to brake once for a dog who ran out into the street when we were going about 60, and once for an iguana, he looked black, who was hurrying across the road, luckily we were going much slower, it was just a few minutes after passing some donkeys who had a baby doneky with them who was all jumpy and cute.

It seems Everardo is going to work with Gume next week, starting tomorrow to help him build a rock wall with the rocks he got last week- turns out he bought them and we're gonna buy some too for future projects. He'll work for free and down the line this will be a good thing, Gume will help us out when we need it. Gume also told us that there's going to be a radio tower built here in the next few days. Anyone who buys a radio will be connected by walkie talkies and it will be used for emergencies- I guess everybody trusts the phones as much as me ha ha. So we think we will go in on this project too. Right now the radio and handsets sound expensive, it might be $300, but we'll see once it all becomes available. And as a community project we will probly join even if it is $300.

We went today sort of looking for those blankets/throws, but not expecting to find them and we didn't. Everardo says they come from Hildago. There are lots of items that come from other states in trucks and people then walk the roads of the towns selling them. We got 2 wood chairs that way- they guys selling them cam form DF. So we are just gonna relax about it and when we come across them we'll buy them.

Well tomorrow school starts so we'll see if any kids come for English class afterwards. Also if Everardo's going to work with Gume I will have to keep myself busy. Shouldn't be too hard. First I need to start an exercise regimen, we got batteries for my elliptical, but I need to do it early before it gets too hot. I also need some organization! I have been throwing all paperwork into one spot, so every time we need to check something we go thru the same pile. Ugh.