Sunday

Gizmo stuck

Today was Ulises's confirmation.  I went with him to church.  Afterwards, we came back to my house.  Lately I've been letting Gizmo go outside in the backyard.  I always shut the door afterwards because I don't want to let cold air/animals/dust into my house.  I also often forget that he's out there because I spend the majority of the time in my house upstairs.  When I remember Gizmo was outside, he had already decided he was not only ready to come in, but not willing to wait for me.  Instead, he got himself jammed between the screen and the bars on my door.
By the way, there is this bumper sticker that I've been wanting ever since I moved to Juarez.  It says Amor por Juarez (love for Juarez).  I'm the kind of person who tells everyone when I want something like this.  Yesterday it paid off because the missionaries knew where to buy one, so I finally got it!  Hooray!

Still stuck and feeling blue because instead of helping
him, I'm laughing and taking pictures.

Gizmo trying to say warm under Ulises's leg

Same thing

Amor por Juarez sticker

Baptism

Ulises and the Elders that first taught him

Ulises was baptized today!  It was pretty exciting.  He had invited some friends from work, so I met up with them at the Consulate to drive to the church.  We arrived on time . . . Ulises did not.  A little after noon, the missionaries asked me if Ulises was coming.  I called him and he said he was coming, he was just purchasing a while shirt.  I expected it to start on Mexican time, so I wasn't too worried. :)
The service was nice.  Afterwards, Ulises and I went to Soriana's to get food.  We had invited our friends over to my house for dinner, but only one person could make it.  But we still needed to get the food.  We went to Soriana's because Ulises's dad works there and he always gives us advice on the best meat to buy.
We returned to my house and cooked dinner, just in time for our friend to make it.  It was a nice day.

Ulises and I with the other Elders (from his ward)

Roses from Ulises - he gave me one on
Thursday and one on Friday

Ciudad Juarez

Things have been pretty normal around here.  Today Ulises and I went to his church.  After church, we decided to drive nearby and take some pictures of the area.  I've included a picture of Gizmo just because I didn't want to make a post just for that picture, but I thought it was a cute photo.  Enjoy!

Gizmo sitting in his toy

View of Ciudad Juarez

Ciudad Juarez: view including the Bible is the Truth Mountain
(On the far left - vaguely can see the white
lettering on the mountain).  It actually says, La Biblia
es la verdad, lealo, or the Bible is the truth, read it.

More Ciudad Juarez

Another view of Ciudad Juarez - these were all take from the
same mountain, just different angles

Friggatriskaidekaphobia

Do you suffer from this phobia?  If so, today is NOT your day. :)
Friggatriskaidekaphobia is the fear of Friday the 13th, and today is Friday the 13th, if you hadn't already noticed.  I didn't realize that until I saw someone post about it on Facebook.  I've never been afraid of Friday the 13th, but I was reading a little about the origin, just because today is that day.  Apparently it is a combination of two prior beliefs, that Friday is an unlucky day, and that 13 is an unlucky number.  I also read that in Spanish speaking countries, it is Tuesday the 13th that is unlucky.  So I guess as long as I'm in Mexico, I have nothing to worry about, right?  And when Tuesday the 13th rolls around, I can just hop the border to the U.S. and once again be safe :)

Dinner at My House

Molletes from McDonalds

Today was a busy day.  This morning I needed to take a friend to the airport, so I didn't really get to sleep in.  I also was invited to a rhythm fitness class that my friend was guest instructoring.  After taking my friend to the airport, I didn't have time to go home before the class, and I was starving.  Since I hadn't been to McDonalds yet in Mexico, I decided to stop by and see what interesting additions they had to the menu.  I was delighted to see molletes on the menu, so I ordered them.  If I had realized that instead of using the normal bread that they use for molletes, they put their molletes on english muffins, I would have thought twice.  It just wasn't as good as the real thing.  But at least I didn't faint during the class.

The rhythm fitness class was really fun.  It is kind of like aerobic dancing.  I really enjoyed it and it was a good work out.

After that, I went back home.  Ulises had invited one of our friends over to my house for dinner.  I invited one of our other friends to join us, but she wanted to get out and do something during the day as well.  We ended up going to central park to just walk around.  It was a lot of fun.

Then we stopped at my friend's house.  I needed to go get gas, so Ulises stayed to watch a football game, then when I got back, we went to get the food to prepare for dinner.  By that time, both of our friends were waiting in my house.  Ulises made up some meat, one of my friends made guacamole, and then I made a salad.  My other friend watched the game upstairs.  Making dinner together was fun, then we ate.  I really enjoyed tonight.  The friend that didn't help cook was nice enough to do the dishes at the end.

Walking in the park

Basketball Game

Tonight we went to see a professional basketball game.  It was the start of the season and the Ciudad Juarez team (named the Indios) was playing against the Indios of Saucelio (not sure how to spell that).  It was supposed to start at 6:00 and since it was basically a consulate event (not that we put it on, but it was to take the kids that participate in the basketball clinics to see their coach play - he plays on the Juarez professional team) we left from the consulate around 5:30.

Los Indios de Ciudad Juarez practicing

Imagine our surprise when the game didn't start until after 8:00.  The other team didn't even show up until just before 8:00 and they took their sweet time to walk across the auditorium and go down to the locker rooms to change.  They started the program just after that, but it was mainly filled with talking.  Then the dance shows began.  Finally the game.  I'm not much of a sports fan, but I have to admit that this game was fun to watch.  Ulises came with, and he doesn't like basketball, but other than getting angry about the way fouls are given in the event of an attempted charge, he said he really enjoyed it as well.  The Juarez team lost in the end, though not by much.  I think they were just tired because they were there more than 2 hours before the other team.  Oh well.

Kids welcoming John, they love this guy who is from
the British Virgin Islands and works with the Consulate's
Basketball clinics as a coach

Introductory dancers

More dance

Tacos



Ulises and his dad



Tonight we went to get some meat from the Soriana's where Ulises's dad works.  I'm not really sure why we did that when there is still meat left over from Saturday, but what can you do?  We went to his dad's work because he works as a butcher and we figured he would know what the best meat was.

When we got back, Ulises made tacos.  I have to say, it was really good.  I was surprised at how good it was, even though I've had tacos and I like tacos.  These were possibly the best tacos I've ever had.

A la Mexicana, because the colors are the same as
the Mexican flag

Washing dishes, its only fair that I clean
when Ulises cooks, right?

Giving away food

Ulises with his nephew, Packers fan?

We still have lots of food left over from our dinner on Saturday.  We gave some food away to one of my guards, and then Ulises's brother-in-law and sister stopped by.  Gizmo was terrified of their little son.  He's about a year and a half.  At first I thought that was the first time he had seen a little kid, but I'm not sure.  My cousin used to come over when I was at school and bring his little son, but his son couldn't walk at the time, and since my cousin's wife has allegies, I always shut Gizmo in my room.  It's possible that he never actually saw my cousins's son.  In any event, Gizmo ran from Ulises's nephew.  And of course, being a little kid, he was really interested in Gizmo.  He followed him upstairs.  Eventually I pulled Gizmo out and had him gently pet Gizmo.  My cat still wasn't convinced.

Gizmo ran away, but still wanted to be able
to see this strange creature known as a
toddler.

Lazy Day

Ulises holding my purse in the park

I did basically nothing all day today.  Slept in, ate breakfast, slept some more, and generally just relaxed.  This evening Ulises and I went back to the place we were going to go for our anniversary.  They had the park all lit up.  They also gave us a couple tickets to get a free drink that I remember what it is called.  It was a hot drink.  It was good, but we only got one of the drinks and though we shared it, I was sick of it by the end.  Still it was fun.

Afterwards we stopped by to see Ulises's brother-in-law and his sister.  We were there for a little bit.  The funny thing was that their son kept staring at me the whole time.  I guess he's starting to get used to me because the first time I met him he was really timid.

Lights spell paz (peace)

Santa going down the chimney

Me directing a choir of animals

Ulises with some fighting bears . . . ok, they were actually
skating, but I thought they were fighting at first.

Ciudad Juarez

The lit park

Airport

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My cut finger the day after - started bleeding again this
morning.

Today was a pretty relaxed day.  We went to a new ward today for church (the one that Ulises SHOULD go to based on where he lives).  I really liked it.  They were super welcoming and seemed very excited to see new faces.  And the church building is very close to Ulises's house.

After church, we came back to my house.  I slept while Ulises washed all the dishes from the day before.  Then when he was done, we watched Its a Wonderful Life.  I hadn't had time to watch ANY Christmas movies prior to Christmas, so I wanted to watch something.  We didn't manage to finish it, though, before we had to go to the airport to pick up a couple of friends.  We brought them back to my house to make them eat some of our leftovers.  They were more than happy to oblige.  Then we went to my friend's house to watch the football game that she had recorded that morning.  It was a pretty good game, and I don't really care about football.

Gizmo sleeping, he was sleeping with me at first, but I
think he got really hot and moved to the other bean
bag chair.

Eating leftovers, yum!