Mexico, Una Parte

I know it is a bit strange to blog while on a trip, but I want to remember some things and what better way for that than to write it down? So I am going to take not of a few things we have done so far, etc.

This is the view of the beach from our hotel room-

 of the city--

 Closer

 Goofy pic @ Mikado. Hotel restaurants are good, but cost a lot and none of them are really "Mexican". This is dinner Saturday night.

 I know, I am an *awesome* photographer! These next pics are not that great, but they get across the point I am trying to make/remember. This place at night is so serene and beautiful.

 Our hotel- our room is on the 8th floor of the building on the left.

Just a recap-- Jody was bumped to first class due to his status, so he let me sit up there in his place. It was nice. The flight was enjoyable. I watched a show on my computer, until it died, then I read The Help. A friend in my ward lent me her Kindle and I am in love with it. SO we arrive. We get our stuff and make our way out this little corridor. Let's call this the.... paseo de los buitres... the walk of vultures! I could tell they were selling something cause they just had that look, I thought.  So I walked & avoided eye contact. Then someone, Hector, grabbed my attention and asked me if we needed help getting to our hotel. I thought maybe I misjudged them and this was where you contact your shuttles. Haha. No dice. So anyway, he pulled out a map of the area, showed us places we need to go, then said oh do this tour and that. THEN he told us how he could help us do those tours.  OH SNAP. I have been had! So after a bit, we were signed up to go see this presentation for Paradise Village in Nuevo Vallarta. If we do that, we get trans to hotel & back to airport, and THREE excursions. We are uh... sans dinero.... so we agreed. Craziness. Something we really hate, btw.   We had to deposit $60, which kind of sucked. But we would get that back if we showed up to our appt (which they would send taxi for us and pay for that too, as well as the breakfast during the presentation).

So the next morning (Sunday) we headed out to Paradise Village. I am sure, if we had money we did not know what to do with, we would totally go back and get Ricardo, our "host" and buy one from him. We loved the place. But we were able to get through all 3 salesmen with no problems whatsoever and they were so *nice*. Unheard of. We got our tickets to our stuff and we were out of there. SO, in hindsight, we are pretty glad it has worked out this way so far. 

We had our cabbie take us to Costco. We bought a few things, water bottles, Diet Coke, some bagels, cheese, pastries, grapes. Just a funny little note- it was like $5 and a bagel in our deli here at the hotel (little market & they do sammies too) for one is the same amount. We bought skittles, chocolate bars (little), and two sodas and it was like $15. EEK! So anyway we bought a flat of coke for the price of our two.  Here, you kind of need to drink everything from a can or bottle, so we figured it was a necessity.  

It was fun to go to Costco and see it was pretty much the same layout as the Murray one (except the giant alcohol section) and know what everything is even thought it is in another language. Something else I noted as well was most of the milk that was offered is boxed.  A few in the fridge, but the others in boxes. Interesting. Oh and lots of cookies. These peeps like their packaged galletas. 

I forgot to mention Jose, our cabbie from Paradise Village to Costco.  He is 54, has like 4 kids and 4 grandkids or something like that. He showed us pictures of his son & his son's kids. While in that cab, I was noticing the music (his was a nicer car, with a/c and seatbelts- others are just roll down the windows and hope they drive safe!) and I was like.. .I know this song! So I nudged Jody to see if he recognized it and we both cracked up laughing! It was Total Eclipse of the Heart, in Espanol. So funny. I love it. So I was laughing cause of that, and I was envisioning in my head the literal music video (kind of an inside joke). 

Anywho, good times so far. Part 2 (parte dos) will include the rest of Sunday as well as Monday. 

Adios for now!

Madagascar!

My cousin, Jason, is going on a mission.  I remember when he was adopted. He was my favorite little guy to play with. I loved his other siblings too, but Savannah, the oldest (and they were quite the novelty too cause they are half black half white and absolutely gorgeous, babies and all grown up), was always stolen by Rachel (haha), so I latched right onto Jason. Anyway, I used to babysit the Wests, my aunt Leslie & her husband Lance's kids. That was a long time ago (apparently!), and now Jason is headed on a mission. He was called to the Madagascar Antananarivo mission, to teach the gospel (what we call it lol- Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints) for two years.  

Jason's talk was so well put together, he is an amazing person.  I have not spent a lot of time with them since having kids and such, but you could just tell his spirit is big and strong and he has a lot to offer. He will be a great missionary and I am sure the people he will be serving will love him.  So his farewell, he spoke in church then we headed to their house after for food & chats and it was fun.  I love their yard, it is full of big shady trees. I *LOVE* BIG SHADY TREES!

Sister, Erica

 Group shot- that is my Grandpa Harrison back there, colon cancer beater woohoo!

 Another group shot

 My mom and back of my dad's head, Jody, bro Joel kind of hiding behind my mom. 

 Sister Jenni & hubs B-Rad

 AnnE & Talia Harrison, my aunt & cousin

 My Uncle Greg & my Cousin Elder Jason West

 Aidan Baby

St Patrick's Day 2011

The Little Leprechaun trap Great Grandma Kenney made for us. He tried to get the gold, but he must have been on guard, cause he got away. Dang that leprechaun!

Ethan and Sydney were so excited about catching him this year.

Oh well, at least he left a treat, eh!

Green Eggs

 And ham for her, and daddy saying goodbye for the morning

Post Run-- We both ran a St Patrick's Day 5k with my friend Susan Bogenschutz. It was a lot of fun, great temperature, etc. 

St Patty's Parade 2011

We had the usual crowd, sans Chris and Debbie-- they are renovating and just want to push through till its done. Here is Alan and Tracy, my uncles, and a friend of Al's.

Linda, Daniel, Ethan, Harley & friends of Calleen

Up: Sydney and her Great Grandma Kenney, the Queen of St Patty's Day

Ryder, Hailey, and Maia

Squid, GG and Ryder

Some clown in the parade, riding a circus'd up jazzy, lol.

Jenni, Aidan and my little cousin Kyra (daughter of Al and Calleen, sister to Maia and Harley)

Up: A men's chorus, I laughed and thought that would be what Jody does when he is their age

Down: Me and Jenni, she was my "spouse" haha cause Jody was off with the Jazz

Up: Crazy Baby, being goofy

Down: cute Kyra

Apple obsessed-- all my kids are

Jenni and Taid

 Aidan being silly & shy.

 Until he wanted a cracker! LOL!

Gender Roles

This is a very touchy subject, and it can be a very personal one as well. I have struggled with this like crazy over the last ten years, and I feel very strongly about it, as well as family teamwork. I can not go into everything right  now as time does not permit, but I wanted to repost a comment I made on Facebook.

A friend posted about how women of Y generation (whatever generation that is, I really don't know) are losing valuable skills, such as ironing, cooking, and sewing. I don't necessarily agree completely with that, at least with the people I call my peers. However, a few people's responses got me thinking and a tad fired up. Like I said, I feel very strongly about this. I am kind of a mix or traditional and forward thinking.  Do I believe in home-cooked meals? Well yes, if time permits, if not, as long as kids are fed, then who cares? I personally like to cook, and I will not criticize a family who eats cereal every day for breakfast when I may make oatmeal, smoothies, whatever. Or even eggo waffles. LOL. Who cares? 

Other stuff I do care about.  Anyway, this is kind of in response to what others had said, so I am sorry I did not copy their responses, but here is mine:

I love to cook, I refuse to iron and I do not sew (though, I would like to, eventually). I think for me, I realize that a marriage is a partnership and I need not do every thing (nor should I have to) or maybe I would be better off just doing it all myself :) 

I am sorry but, if my spouse needs a shirt ironed, he can do it himself. I have plenty of other things I am doing, if he is sitting and watching tv, then why is it my responsibility? If I am free and he is stressed out and busy, then sure, I might oblige, but it is not my "duty" and I feel absolutely no obligation. He did it till he was 30, why would it all of a sudden fall on me, just because we married?  {just adding these thoughts now-- Visions of a man getting married-- now he has someone else to cook, clean up the pee he misses around the toilet, clean up the clothes he leaves out,  etc someone to take care of the children he agrees to bring into the world, etc.  Visions of a woman-- free, take care of herself, etc, then marries to gain all these new "duties" of taking on all these things from her new husband, washing all the laundry, be pregnant, have your body pretty much destroyed from butt to boobs to mind, care for and run ragged after however many kids are born, do everything for them from the time they are born till they leave home, keep house cleaned, including cleaning up after everyone all.day.long, plan and prepare, from scratch, three meals a day, etc. I am sorry, but if that is what marriage looks like, who wants that?  I know I kind of painted a dramatic picture, but face it, a lot people live this life and wonder why they need antidepressants or are so unhappy.}

I am a stay at home mom and I firmly believe that household duties, etc are an equal thing. I do not sit on my butt and watch tv all day, and I*do* have a full time job-- chasing my three crazy kids all over, teaching them, cleaning up after them, driving them places, etc. Just wondering what time the SAHM(D) gets off? Oh yeah... never. 

When a man comes home from work (or woman), they are now in the home phase of the day. Kids need caring for, dinner needs preparing, cleaning up after, etc. This is shared among every resident in the house. It is the responsibility of each and every person to make sure the house is cared for and cleaned up.  It is mom and dad's job to teach everyone to clean up after themselves, etc and how can they do that when only one of the spouses does everything while the other is lazy and does nothing of value after 6 pm?

I have very firm beliefs that it is not mom's job to do everything except earn the main income and maybe mow the lawn. If the duties were a little less lopsided, more women would be interested in marrying, more women may stay at home as opposed to working, and there would be way more happy homes.  I would say this is my opinion, but I don't really think it is an opinion :)

** I am amending what I said about ironing. I ***hate*** it. SO.MUCH. But, I realize as my poor children go to church with wrinkly shirts, I should probably start ironing their shirts, lol, its kind of embarrassing for us all. So I prob will, but I hardly ever break out the ironing board and iron. I simply do not wear things that require it, cause I hate it so much.

Another Great Quote!!

((From Dani Lassiter)