Thursday, May 29, 2014

Put Some Lard on That

Whenever we get sick, our people in the church here are sure to have a remedy to cure you. I got a really good suggestion the other day.

Rub lard all over your back, shoulders, and chest and your throat will be better in no time!

Auuugh! Talk about a grease ball!

~Bethany~

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

I Went to the Doctor and Got My Ego Pumped

Monday morning I woke up with a sore throat. Ewwwwww! I'd rather have the flu! The pain was not anything I didn't feel like I could handle, but I had other symptoms that had me a little worried. (As much as I would love to get into the gory details, they are kind of disgusting. I will spare you all.) I have not been to the doctor since I was about 12 and am not one to take medicine. I didn't want to give in and go because I felt a little like a hypochondriac and a flat out wimp! I had weird symptoms, but I was able to walk!!! It couldn't be that bad, right?!

I was on the fence all day until Bro. Marchbanks gave some insight into my situation. "Whit's wife, Jenny Whittaker, died of strep throat." Oh mannnnn, so true! Thank God for a man of God in my life that is not afraid to tell it like it is!

After school was over Nicole and I hopped on a bus and headed over to the doctor. Here in Mexico, there are clinics everywhere. A "consulta" is thirty pesos (about $2.50 USD). The doctor diagnoses you then writes out a prescription. You then go next door to the pharmacy and pick up whatever meds you choose to buy based off of what he's recommended.
Trying to discreetly take a picture
When we arrived, there was only a lady mopping the floors and a line of people waiting for the doctor to show up. After about ten minutes, he showed up and started seeing patients. Nicole and I had quite a time in the waiting room. The lady sitting next to me very much enjoyed our entertainment. I was full of all kinds of nervous energy, and anyone that knows Nicole knows that she is very compassionate when someone is sick. She got me a red Gatorade and Snickers bar and let me snuggle, crack jokes, and act just plain stupid for the whole hour and a half that we waited.

Lady mopping the floor, no doctor in sight. 

There was this couple outside the clinic. They were hugging and being all kinds of inappropriate. At one point the guy had a piece of gum........................and in the next, the girl had it!! USE YOUR IMAGINATION ON WHAT HAPPENED. I'm not accusing anybody.........


Sneakily taking a picture of the doctor arriving and going in his office...with a toolbox...lol....

Me, milking this illness for all it's worth
Nicole and I got to laughing so hard in the waiting room. We were looking at this list of common procedures and prices. I gasped when I got to the end of the list. I read, "Extraccion de una enterrada!!! Only $50.00 pesos (less that five bucks) to exhume a body?!?!!?" Someone that is "enterrada" is buried. We both were shocked and incredulous.....until we realized it said UÑA enterra. Ingrown toenail!!!! Extraction of an ingrown toenail! Mannn........that little squiggly line changed everything! (Una enterrada = buried female. UÑA enterrada = ingrown toenail. HAHA)


When finally, finally it was my turn to go into the doctor's office, I sat down at his desk and said, I know this is hard to believe since I have this big, dorky smile on my face and I'm walking without any problem, but "Something is wrong with my throat." Nicole then so kindly interjected, "AND SHE HAS A FEVER!" *awkward silence*

The doctor had me sit up on the table, asked me some questions, then listened to my heartbeat. He checked my temperature, which was at 101.12 degrees Fahrenheit. See you guys? I wasn't faking.

He took his fancy little light out, shined it in my mouth for a second then set it down with a huff and pursed lips. He motioned Nicole over (apparently they were bffs now on account of Nicole's fever comment) and said, "Look at this!" Nicole replied, "Yeah!! I told her it was inflamed!"

He then went on to explain all the nasty things that were going on and that I had this virus and that infection, blah, blah, blah. He told me that anyone else would have come to his office crying and begging him to take away the pain. (He was very dramatic and said this while grasping his throat.) I replied, "Es que soy bien fuerte." (I'm very strong. Ha!) He said I must have a very high pain tolerance and all kinds of other things that made me feel all warm and fuzzy and un-wimp-like. (See blog title.)


The doctor prescribed me an antibiotic, an anti inflammatory, and another medicine. He also prescribed vitamin C. I am not a believer in taking pills to stay healthy. I believe eating healthy, eating fruits and veggies everyday is going to keep you in good health more than a measly pill. So Nicole picked me up some oranges, mangoes, and bananas instead.

Today, my favorite thing to tell Nicole is, "I need fluids. Can you go pick me up some fluids?" She has been very gracious and patient and thankfully, I have plenty of fluids on my nightstand.
I'm highly contagious so I stayed home from school, cleaned Nicole's room and made fettuccine alfredo for dinner. I hope I don't contage you all through this post. (Yes, I know contage is not a word, but you know what I mean.)

Have a great, strep-free week!

~Bethany~

Monday, May 26, 2014

Jack's Travesuras

9 Reasons Why I Hate Jack and 1 Reason Why Nicole Hates Him and I Like Him

1. He chewed up a piece of tile.
2. Chewed the handles off of an ice bucket.
3. Spilled three buckets of paint all over the porch, at the same time. At 6 a.m.
4. Opened a bag of fertilizer and distributed its contents all over the porch.
5. Broke the broom.
6. Shattered a flower pot.
7. Chewed an umbrella to pieces.
8. Chewed up his toys, which sounds ok, but now he doesn't have any toys. LOL.
9. Had to get stitches in two places on his head from getting in a dog fight (other dog shall remain anonymous - ha).
10. Made Nicole fall face-first down the stairs (in her Sunday best), then when she landed, he continued attacking her with kisses as she laid on the concrete. (I'm so sad to have missed out on seeing this one).

He looks so innocent. Not so, my dears! 
I would like to stand and testify, however, that among all the things he has destroyed, he has not gotten any shoes or personal items yet. Thank God! I'll take a bag of dirt and a few brooms over him chewing up my purse or getting in the bathroom trash, any day.

~Bethany~

Friday, May 23, 2014

Busy Weekend

This past Saturday, Nicole and I got up bright and early and went to the historic center of town. We sat out on the patio of one of our favorite restaurants and shared a huge plate of fruit while people-watching. Puebla is such a beautiful city, it never gets old or boring to us. I am thankful for that. 

Fruit plate! Oh yummm! 

We also got some cafe de olla (coffee made in a pot - with cinnamon and sugar). I am not a coffee person at all, but this stuff was so smooth and good. 


These men serenaded us while we ate. "God bless and prosper our city, Puebla..."

The center of town

We got on the bus to head to our next destination and a man also got on the bus selling this gel. He was a good salesman, very convincing. This stuff was supposed to take away any ache and pain you may have. He said it was very thick like gel. He tried to demonstrate this by taking the lid off one of the bottles and turning it upside down........and a blob of it fell out onto the bus floor - whoops! 

The main point of our trip was to pick up some baby things from our Tia Hayde for a Sunday school baby shower and to see our little princess. Her pastor has been bragging for the past couple weeks to us about how well she is doing in it. 

At one point, Nicole was holding her when all of a sudden she burst out into tears. Abner got her and gave her a big hug and she immediately quit crying but gave Nicole such a look of "I am so offended at you!"  


Another errand we had to run was at Elder and Sis. Wakefield's house. They are out of town so we stopped in to water the garden. We also were attacked by ravaging hunger so we found ourselves a bowl of cereal. 
We are loving the timer on our camera - haha! 


Sigh. We had a lot of errands to run this day. Just looking at the pictures makes me tired. We had to stop at the candy store to pick out some baby shower themed candies for Sunday school. Very interesting store! 

We picked up what we needed, ran all the errands we were supposed to then got back on a bus and went home. We got home right before dark then spent the rest of the evening collapsed on the couch listening to Adventures in Odyssey. Great ending to the day!

~Bethany~

P.S. - I have gotten several comments on my last blog post from people who can't believe the earthquake was so strong to cause so much damage in the picture. If you thought that picture was real....go read the caption again :)

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Earthquake!

We've been averaging about one earthquake a week for the past month or so. This morning at five we had another one! I was sound asleep like a good little girl, but it actually woke Nicole up. Turns out it was a 5.6! Nicole says that she is willing to tell her part of the story, but that you'll have to call and I'll be screening them for trustworthiness. If you can't keep a secret, DON'T BOTHER CALLING.

Normally this would not be blog-worthy, but the earthquake knocked out the internet, which means we can't have school. I'm so disappointed! What are we going to do all day?? Oh I don't know...maybe get some tamales for breakfast. Maybe go downtown and enjoy a day in the sunshine? Maybe go sky diving?

The earthquake was so strong, I have no idea how it turned that candle perfectly upside-down! We were so shocked when we saw this scene - mostly shocked at our own creativity and perfect placement of strewn items.

~Bethany~

Monday, May 19, 2014

Terk and Skeleton Faces

Little Terk* had an assignment last week where he had to illustrate the influence the word of God has had on his life and the lives of those of his family. The column on the left says "before the gospel" and the column on the right says "after the gospel".


So for this little guy, before he heard the gospel he watched shooting movies on TV and now he just reads the Bible. Haha!! These kids know just what to say. What he actually should have said was something like "before I heard the word of God I used to sit at my desk and make piggy faces at my classmates, but now....Oh, wait! I still do that..."


On an even funnier note......

I am in the school watching the kids while Nicole takes care of something at the house. She was kind enough to let me use her computer while I blog. Ahhh, so kind! I want to return the favor so just now, I found a really scary picture of a skeleton face and put it all blown up as her background. She is going to FREAK OUT when she finds it later!! Mwahahahhahaa!


~Bethany~


*Names have been changed to protect the overly imaginative.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Ews-Nay

If you are unable to ead-ray ig-Pay atin-Lay, then I apologize from the bottom of my eart-hay. But I am about to ivulge-day some onfidential-cay information. There are many eople-pay from around the city -- aint-says and backsliders alike  -- that read our blog. So for the sake of our rivacy-pay, afety-say, and general sneakiness....this post is in ODE-CAY!! Got it?

This past eekend-way our grand patriarch, and grand matriarch, patriarch, matriarch, and our smaller kinsperson all left for the land of the free and home of the brave. This leaves Nicole and I here in exico-may (is that too obvious?) by our onesome-lay. We do not want any unwanted isitor-vays so we are trying to keep this on the down-low south of the border, but wanted to announce it to our north-of-the-border riend-fays.

We are ooking-lay foward to the next four or five eek-ways. Check back here often, I'm sure we will find ourselves one or two adventures in the days to come!

The happy family! (The dogs are looking off into the distance - so romantic and it was the best we could get from them!)



BLOOPERS:


Beau was NOT havin' it...he just wanted a belly rub :)
Cracking up at our uncooperative dogs!!

Beau......hahahahhaaa. 

Beau - "I don't want to be here."

This is Jack falling down the stairs backwards and me hanging on to his foot as Beau bites it. 

Last one....Beau still not feeling very photogenic and Jack biting the tar out of my arm. Crazy dogs! 

~Bethany~

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Mother's Day 2014

 We had a cute little Mother's Day service. The kids came up and recited a verse they had learned. The moms then came up to the front and were presented with a rose and some chocolate.
 

I passed out the chocolate, Abner passed out the flowers, and Nicole took the pictures. 



Ready to present these roses to the swooning girls of the church :P

We also put all the mom's names in for a drawing to win this set of dishes. Sis. Adriana won! 

~Bethany~

Monday, May 12, 2014

Crazy Beginning, Good Ending

We had an awesome Sunday last week! We worked hard all weekend getting Sunday school props ready. It was the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus. We put a lot of time into this lesson and it turned out GREAT!
Little Miss Beatrice

Craft time!
 (These Sunday school pictures were taken on an iPhone and accidentally had a filter automatically added - whoops! We do not mean to make everybody look like they just got a bad spray tan.)
Giovanny!

Sis. Marisol teaching the Bible verse

Brother Valentin was teaching the lesson, I was hiding behind the puppet theater ready to start the sound effects. The lights were off in the church, and when he got to the part about Jesus being crucified, the spotlight was shone on to the cross. I started with the lightning and thunder sounds. It sounded like chaos! The kids' eyes were HUGE! When Bro. Valentine got to the part about Jesus being put in the tomb, we opened it up so the kids could look inside - we had a man in there covered in a white sheet. It was still all dark in the sanctuary, but we'd put a black light in the tomb to make Jesus wrapped in the sheet really stand out. 
The kids went and sat back down after seeing "Jesus" in the tomb. Bro. Valentin then told the kids that Jesus rose on the third day. The stone was rolled away from the tomb and shock of all shocks.... The sheet was neatly folded and the tomb was empty! 


It was a very exciting lesson, even the adults were very engrossed in the story. 


 


Abner comes over on Sundays to play the drums for us. When he got to the church he started setting up the drums and tinkering around. I was on the piano getting ready to start the service when I see Abner with a funny look on his face and my dad talking to him.  It was the look of "deer in the headlights". Turns out my dad was asking him if he had anything to preach.
After a long "uuhhhhhhhhhh...." he said that yes, he had something. He then walked off the platform and went upstairs to print his message. 
Church gets going and I'm wondering what in the world my drummer is doing. After a few minutes, Abner walks in the back door and starts mouthing something to me. He knows I can't read his lips (ever) so I just roll my eyes at him.  I am on the piano....what can I do??? So Nicole *also* walks off the platform to go help him out...leaving me alone on the platform to play and sing all by my lonesome. (Turns out they could not get either of the TWO printers upstairs to work, so he couldn't print his notes).

All of this to say that I lost my main singer and drummer for the whole.entire.service. Frustrating.

HOWEVER! Once we got past that, we had an awesome service! Just goes to show that the piano player can be in a bad mood, the preacher can be flustered, not have his notes printed out, and you can still have a great move of the Holy Ghost!



There is a man in our church who got the Holy Ghost for the first time many years ago, but had not spoken in tongues since then. He said that God started dealing with him during the Sunday school lesson! He testified that during the service he began repenting and getting his heart right with God. After the preaching he came up to the altar and God filled him with the Holy Ghost once again!

Through this Sunday school program we started last year, we are not only reaching the kids of our colonia, but their parents, and even the adults of our own church. Good things are happening! 

~Bethany~

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Jack the Bull Terrier

Many months ago, Austin got on a kick of bull terriers. He was asking about them, reading about them, dreaming about them. Dad had one when he was a teenager and has tons of funny stories about his bull terrier, Leo, and his quirky personality. Austin got it in his head that he wanted one. The only problem is that they are extremely rare here in Mexico. Extremely! But Austin was determined. He started praying and believing God for a dog of his own. Specifically, a bull terrier. He absolutely bugged the tar out of us, and especially Dad, with his constant talk of his dog. 

We would find Austin hanging out the window and random times in the day. When asked what he was doing his reply was, "Seeing if my dog is outside." 

He was relentless!!

He asked Dad one day if he thought God cared if he got a bull terrier or not. Dad thought about it for a few seconds then replied that no, God really didn't care if Austin got a bull terrier. God wants to save people, heal people. He is mostly worried about Austin's attitude if he never gets his dog. Thou shalt not covet! :) So for the past couple of months, the talk and questions lessened, but Austin's prayers continued.

Then we go to Uriangato a couple of weeks ago....

It was early one morning. Dad and Austin say they are going to walk down to the coffee shop to get breakfast. About 15 minutes passed and I hear someone knocking on the door. I yell "Who is it?" And Dad yells back, "It's me! We found something really neeeeat!" I honestly thought they were bringing me a parrot. My heart jumped, but my brain was saying "Ohhhh no....." Haha!!! I am enjoying this time in my life, being bird free, no animal responsibilities! I do not want another bird right now, but I knew as soon as I saw it my head would go to mush.
So I open the door..................and this little doggie snout pops its head through the door. WHAT?!!



Austin's answer to prayer.

He is a little snuggler! Likes to burrow and shove his snout into things and sleep.


Austin's buddy!


Front...

...back! :P

We went through many, manyyy names. It is Austin's dog so he was given the responsibility of naming him. Matthias, Charger, Challenger, Dude (that one was my idea....can you imagine?! Hey, Dude! Sit, Dude! Dude, get over here! Ahhhhh...! One day...)
Finally we settled on "Jack". I'm not completely sure why. But it is definitely fitting since lately, he has been tearing up jack! He is very mischevious...

Just to let our ever-faithful Beau know he hasn't been forgotten...
Beau wants to ride in the car too!

~Bethany~

Total Pageviews