Crazy Life Update

Today I am trying to finish cleaning up my inbox of email. I have ones that I haven´t returned since September. YIKES! Joe´s idea of my cleaning it up is to hit the delete button and start all over. The last time this happened to me my friend, Kendell, told me to send out a email to my whole inbox and tell them I´m deleting all my past emails and starting over and if they needed a response from me to please write me again. Today I´m thinking that that´s not such a bad idea and really an appealing option since I have close to 300 emails to write, but I´m going to try and stick it out and actually respond to each one since people took the time and thought to write to me. If you are among that 300, please be patient with me. I will EVENTUALLY write you. If I inadvertently deleted your email and you don´t get a reply from me, please forgive me and write again. I´ll try to do better.

In September I actually had the inbox all empty, but then I had Mercy and the emails started back up again faster than I could keep up with a new baby and all. Then I had school to teach and holidays to celebrate and the emails kept piling up. I was getting more and more behind. A few days after Christmas Joe left for the States and my plan was to clear out the inbox then. Instead I had sick kids, busy days, and found out I was expecting another baby and the emails kept stacking up instead of clearing out. After three weeks Joe came home and he brought my parents along with him as a surprise. We had a great time visiting with them, but the inbox list kept getting longer. A week or so after they were here I had a miscarriage and lost our sweet baby. We had a memorial service and my parents were scheduled to leave two days later. The two weeks they spent with us flew by and we were sad they were leaving especially since I was still in the grieving process. Then on the way to the airport for their flight back to the States my mom´s front teeth bridge broke and broke the teeth it was attached to as well. They had to make a quick decision on what to do since they needed to be checking in at the airport ticket counter in only one hour. Mom decided to stay with us and see a dentist and check on getting it all repaired. My dad flew on out on his scheduled flight. A few hours later we were at a dentist office here in Coch with Mom. He did an extensive exam and told her it would be three weeks at least before she could get all the work done and return home. So her next three weeks were filled with dentist appointments one or two times a day for up to three hours at a time along with visits in between to get shots and buy the meds she needed from the pharmacy. We spent lots of time on the road and at the dentists´ office and my inbox unfortunately wasn´t emptying itself and I hadn´t yet taken the time to fully grieve my loss. We were all glad that mom stayed and we had more opportunity to visit with her, but were sorry she was in such pain and had to be away from my dad for so long which was all hard on her. (It´s the longest they´ve ever been apart.) I´m afraid I wasn´t such a good hostess or daughter during that time, but I was just trying to get through each day. Mom was such a camper and endured the pain and suffering of way too many dentist visits and way too many procedures in a relatively short amount of time. I can´t stand to go to the dentist once every two years, let alone twice a day for three weeks straight. She took it all in stride. Joe came to the rescue as always and took a huge chunk of my work load, but emptying my inbox was not one of my tasks that he took on. (In fact he has gotten behind on his since he´s been doing so much of my work for me.) Mom left a week ago and I have tried to spend some time alone and with Joe processing the loss of my baby.

Goodbyes are always hard and I´ve had way too many of them lately. I said goodbye to Joe as he left for the States. I said goodbye to my baby that I will never hold in my arms. I said goodbye to my dad as he went back home. I said goodbye to my mom as she returned last week. Today my dear, dear friend Glenda is leaving Bolivia and moving back to the States as well and I must say goodbye to her too. I know in the next few months I will say goodbye to yet another house (I´m really feeling like a nomad these days) and yet another son as Jake moves back to the States in the fall. My missing and grieving capacity is pretty much at its limit.

Okay, well I have to wrap this up and get on with returning my emails. I just wanted to take a little time and explain what´s been up these past months and give you a glimpse into why I´m so behind. I promise I will try to do better, but you know crazy life happens I make no promises that this won´t happen again. But maybe next time I´ll take Joe and Kendell´s advice. ;^) Please don´t take this as a request for you not to send me email. I love hearing from you all. It´s only a plea for you to understand that it sometimes takes me a while to return them since along with all the crazy extra life events that happen I also have to try and work in the kids school (which I´m sure they would gladly give up in order to clear my schedule more), preparing a meal for them to eat every once in a while (I don´t know why kids think they need to eat every single day!), changing a diaper or two, seeing that my kids get at least one bath a week, nursing a baby, trying to be a help meet for my sweet hunk of a hubby, and thinking about studying Spanish every now and then (even if I´m not actually doing it), etc., etc.

Well, I´m off to face down my monster of an inbox....wish me luck and fast typing skills.

Stuff I´m Loving

I thought for fun I would post pics of some new stuff (at least it´s new to me) that I am enjoying these days. A few are from here in Bolivia and others were sent by friends and family in the States. Thank you to all who purchased or sent gifts recently. There are many more that I could post and some I probably will post later, but here is just a sampling for now.....

A shirt I ordered from Old Navy....so comfy!

A book on miscarriage that my friend Laura loaned me.

An ipod alarm clock so we no longer have to use our cell phones for an alarm.

Wonderful facial products from Bath and Body Works....one of my favorite stores.

Dryer sheets for our new dryer. Hip, hip, hooray! (See Joe´s blog for details on the dryer.)

A Mickey Mouse watch and silver heart ring Joe brought me.

Bath gels from B & BW. Yummy!

Brighton Earrings brought back to me by my friend Glenda.

Blanket crocheted by Courtney, my friend in the States, for Mercy.

Mercy using said blanket.

Decaf Hazelnut Coffee from Target and also one from Alexander´s Coffee in LaPaz (Bolivia´s version of Starbucks) brought to us by our missionary friends who live there. Thanks for thinking of us Scotty and Lisa!

And of course the real deal.

New comfy jersy t-shirt sheets for my bed. (Yes, still on the floor, but the worst of scorpion season is over.)

Krispy Kreme coffe mug....minus the doughnuts though. Joe also brought me and Mercy Krispy Kreme shirts. Her´s says "When I can walk, I´m going to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts."

Globe from Glenda.

Four different cremers for my coffee.

Yum! Yum! From the bag of Hershey´s assorted nuggets....of course my favorites (the Special Darks with Almonds) are already all gone and so not in the pic. ;^)

Baby food grinder

Speakers that broadcast anything from our computer like cds or web based radio stations (even when the computer is in another room) or from our ipod. How cool is that!

Suave shampoo I found at the grocery store here in town. A smell of home.

Wonderful Bolivian juices.

Mocha ones brought back in Joe´s suitcase. (Big smile)

Still funny stuff many years later.

Can you tell I´m into smells? Joe brought these back in his suitcase, but the TSA people didn´t take too good of care of them (note the broken glass at their tops). They still burn and smell delicious though.

Mercy´s new favorite thing.

Another One...

On Saturday we were spending some time with my mom at the park before she had to go back to the States. (More on that later.) Patience found some toadstools that she thought were mushrooms. My mom was explaining the difference to her and told her that she couldn´t eat toadstools that she picks in the park. Right then Joy came up and picked one. Patience quickly told her...."Don´t eat that! It´s no good. It´s tofu." (hehe) Joe and I fell over laughing although he tends to agree with her assessment.