Night on the Town

My Discovery kids are so darn cute if only they were all just as sweet. In class today (Friday) I showed the kids pictures of all my different haircuts. I curled my hair today so I think they wanted to talk about hair. Just as we were finishing up Frida raised her hand to tell me that I was ugly. I just told her I loved her too and then moved on. The joys of teaching are countless!

Friday, Anaisabel and Ivanna

Ruly (His name is actually Raul but everyone calls him Ruly) and Pepe

I think these two are such little studs... I just love them!

Cristobal and AnaEsperanza... they always remind me that they are the best two kids in my class.

We had a dance party in Opening today and AnaEsperanza and Dani copied my every move. I made sure to be extra crazy!!

... like I said!

Then we played Lover's Leap... Javier, Pablo and Cristobal were my helpers and they called out the actions with me. Pablo is one of the most loving kids I know. I'm always jealous of his teachers because he always gives them hugs but today he came over and sat on my lap and then gave me a hug before he left. It was so sweet!

Ken and Me

I have terrible eye wrinkles.... but I still love this picture!

We made brownies.... always so delicious!

We went to the movie "Couple's Retreat" which I would not suggest going to see. I didn't think it was a good movie at all... however it was still a very fun night and we had a blast.

Adri and I love to cuddle.... we have to make do since we are away from boys for 4 months

I was really debating about going out... but I only have three weeks left of going out with Adri and Ashley. I'm going to make the most of it!

Thanksgiving Futbol

Happy American Thanksgiving!! Since all of the teachers down here with the exception of a few of us are American we made sure to celebrate the holiday as best we could. We went out for a delicious breakfast in the morning with Sandy. Adri and I shared a delicious breakfast... I'm going to miss the food down here that is for sure. I can't even remember what it was called. I will do my best to figure it out so that I can have it again in the future. We actually went for breakfast right after I dropped Mom and Dad off at the bus station. It was a good way to cheer me up after saying goodbye to my parents.

Me and Adri

Ash and Ken

The Discovery kids are always cute as ever and we are trying to do better and bring our cameras along so that we can take pictures of them whenever.

We had Thanksgiving Lunch.... we had potatoes and stuffing and then turkey (actually chicken) sandwiches. It was great!! Happy Thanksgiving!! I am thankful for a lot of things this year but the things that I am most grateful for are Tyson and my family!! And then for the opportunity that I had to come to Mexico so that I could do the growing up I needed to. I love and miss everyone from back home, I can't wait to be home in just a few weeks.

Oh and I am thankful for Manzana Lift

ILP class was funny. The girls were making fun of me with my computer. We always listen to music at the end of class and so I always have my computer with me. Maryfer, Marity and Idalia started mocking me. Its so hard not to love these girls!!

Typical Maryfer...

Then we got silly and started taking funny pictures!!

I'm so thankful for my girls... they have become some of my best friends in the whole world!

How could Thanksgiving be complete without futbol?? Well Adri and I went and there weren't a ton of guys there but my favorite boys Daniel and Nestor were there oh plus Omar (I think that is is his name at least, we usually just call him goalie!! He is the one sticking his head out in this picture.

Adri, Sefi, Nestor, Me and Coco in the front (he is our little translator)

The futbol gang... Daniel and Sefi and Nestor are there every week without fail. They are the best!

Nestor and Sefi

Omar, Me, Salvador, Nestor

Omar has a tendency to just sit down in the middle of the game if he is bored, he makes me laugh so hard every week!

My arms are pathetic....

Best Friends!!

Daniel is very similar to Moroni in that he can never take a serious picture. It was almost a good one until he stuck out his tongue. PS. Girls this guy is a catch, not only is he super cute and good at soccer he has a testimony and is super funny too!!

Adri and the boys

Sefi blames me for everthing.... I hear the words "tu culpa" more often than anything else when I'm playing soccer. Oh that and "Nada Sarah!!"

We are so cool....

I think this is as good as it gets... I don't think I will ever get a serious picture with Daniel

.... or his brother Nestor

I got made fun of a lot this week because I made some stupid mistakes while I was trying to speak Spanish. We were splitting onto teams and I said "Daniel, Sefi y me" I forgot that me in Spanish is YO. Everyone started laughing and the rest of the night everyone kept poking fun. "Yo goal!!" or "Yo culpa" or "Sarah y ME" You know what I speak English.... they kept getting me to say bad words and then they tried to get me to say Spanish tongue twisters. Then Adri ad I got them to say some tongue twisters. I wouldn't really try if I didn't think I could say it close enough but they would just ramble off words if they couldn't remember the words. It was so funny!! We quit playing early and just kept joking around and taking pictures. Oh man I'm going to miss these guys!!

Vacation Time!!

This week was great. I'm a bit behind on my blog posts because I've been so busy and so I don't think there will be as much journaling on this one but I'll do my best to mention all of the important parts. Sunday was a great day, the sun was shining and church was great. Ashley and I actually slept in and so we missed our Sacrament meeting so we went to the 11:00 meeting. I learned once I got there that it was Daniel and Nestor's ward (my soccer friends). They are some of the few YM in their ward and so they passed the sacrament and then to my great surprise Daniel gave a talk. It was great!! After we were finished with that meeting Adri, Ashley and I went back to the apartment and we sat up on the roof for a few hours. It is what we are going to do from now on when we read our scriptures in the morning... go and lay out in the sun and hopefully get a bit of color before we come home.

Well Sunday started off the week well but it just kept getting better. Monday night Mom and Dad came down for a visit. It was awesome. I was supposed to meet them at the bus station between 9:00 and 9:30 on Monday night but when I showed up at 9:30 I learned that they had been waiting since 8:20. I guess I'm beginning to function like most Mexicans... it's not Mormon Standard time it is Mexican Standard time. Everyone is late for everything. We got a taxi to the hotel and were able to get settled there and then just to make the night ever better Teo and Moroni graced us with their presence and went out for tacos with us. Moroni was back from San Luis and was leaving the next morning for Puebla so it was awesome to be able to see him again. Teo and Moroni had been telling me earlier that they couldn't believe that I would call my own father a redneck. I had used that term to explain what Dad was like. I guess it was interpreted as quite disrespectful. After they had a conversation with Dad and he explained it to them I think that they understand that it wasn't meant as a bad term. We went to El ta Canon... such a delicious restaurant, some nights I can say that I love it more than Teo's Tacos.

Our favorite Moroni!!

I think I look pregnant in this picture.... other than that its a good one.

Yes we watched TV for the first time in a long time... it was a great vacation! We were officially on vacation from 8:00 until 10:00 Tuesday morning. Mom and Dad took Ashley and I out for breakfast and it was just the best!!

Tuesday Mom and Dad spent the day with me and came to classes. The kids love them and I think Mom and Dad enjoyed it too. All of the kids at Discovery had so many questions for them about Canada. Most of them were just asking if the stories I had told were really true. They are so funny. They all wanted to introduce themselves and then ask questions and then we played games. They were so well behaved. I am not even a little bit biased, I have the best class ever!! At both Discovery and ILP... everyone is jealous of me and I don't blame them!

Anaisabel and Frida

Ivanna

Dad played futbol with the kids and I... it was fun! The kids were so impressed with Dad's skills... its amazing what being 3 feet taller than someone can do... apparently it can fool them to think that you are good at a sport.

Mom and Dad with my kids

The tree behind us is a mandarine tree... every day we eat mandarines during break or after class... they are so delicious. There is an orange tree out in this garden too and a poinsettia tree. It is so beautiful.

My ILP girls were nuts for my parents which was nice. They danced and joked around... I think Mom was crying most of the class because she was laughing so hard. I love hanging out with my girls!! They did the Jai Ho dance for Mom and Dad and then they also wanted to do a few other dances... I spent almost all of the class laughing too! These videos are from class... doesn't even do justice to just how crazy these girls are!

Tuesday night Ashley decided to stay home and so I invited Adri to come on vacation with me. It was super fun!! I talked on Skype and then Adri and I had a great sleep... its the best when you can cuddle!! Then we went out for breakfast again and took some pictures of the hotel. It was a really nice hotel and probably somewhere I will stay when I come back to visit.

The courtyard right outside our room.... I love that the buildings down here have both indoor and outdoor rooms. The weather is so nice.. but it did kind of suck when it started to rain on Wednesday morning.

When we showed up at the school in the morning I walked around the corner and looked through the window to find a huge surprise. "No freakin' way" was all I could say when I saw Ashley's boyfriend Ken sitting in our apartment. I guess he had been plotting with Kelsey and Teo for quite some time to come down for Thanksgiving. It was pretty lucky that Ashley had decided to stay home that night. I was super excited for Ashley... I ran into the kitchen where she was standing to give her a huge hug. We all went to dance that morning with Teo. We pretty much had to drag Ken there. I learned that dancing is not one of the talents my dad has been blessed with. However stubbornness is and so he refused to stop trying. It wasn't all bad, he had a good time and Mom learned quite a bit. It was fun!! Then Mom came to classes with me and Teo took Dad to get a haircut. I was pretty sure that all of my kids were going to be on a field trip to Mexico city (to go see where the President lives) but it ended up that Ruly was there. The other teachers volunteered to just combine him in their classes so that I could go hang out with Mom and Dad but it didn't turn out that way. I presented Ruly with the option to either play games with the younger kids or to read with me for an hour and half. He chose to read with me. I made sure to try again but he just kept telling me that he wanted to spend the time with me... I couldn't help but be flattered so Mom and I hung out with Ruly all day. He is so smart and I got so much language out of him. He is very quiet when the rest of the kids are there and so it was good to hear him practice and to see how good his English really is. What a stud... I love that kid!! We read a story, we played an alphabet game and then we played HORSE and then we played another game with a soccer ball and words. It was a good day of classes! After classes were done Teo and Rachel took Dad, Mom, Adri and I to one of their favorite restaurants. It was some of the best food I have had the entire time I have been down here. Even better... it was a four course meal for 50 pesos. It was so delicious.

Rachel and her girls and Adri

Me and my awesome parents

Helena and Me

Madison, Helena and Me

My beautiful girls

While I taught at ILP Teo and Rachel took Mom and Dad to a really neat cactus garden and marble market. It is supposed to be a really cool place... I haven't been there before. I guess I will have to see it before I go home. That night Mom, Dad and I went back to the hotel and watched the hockey game. It was great and something I really really really miss from home. I talked on Skype and then went to bed early. The next morning I had to get Mom and Dad to the bus station early so that they could catch the bus to Puebla and then get a taxi to the airport. I didn't cry but I did have to get out of there quickly so that I didn't. I really have great parents. Teo thinks the world of Dad and I think Mom and Dad grew to love Rachel and Teo a lot too. It was super nice that they were able to get to know Rachel and Teo so well... now I don't have to convince them to come and visit with me. I know now that I will get to see the people I love so much down here again which makes me so happy!! It was a great week, I'm very blessed to have the parents I do. Mom went around and gave everyone a mother's hug. It was sweet and I think that a lot of the girls really appreciated it. I couldn't have possibly asked for better for parents. Teo told me I was a perfect mix of my mom and dad which I think is pretty awesome... I have the best of both of them!! Kelsey told me that I was the spitting image of my dad, I guess I can handle that!!