Los Matachines

My mother in alw had here celebration for San Judas de Tadeo last night. We had it all: Tamales, coffee, and Matachines!!

Keep in mind, this is the first time I have even been to a celebration for San Judas and seen the Matachines dance! So, I was kind of skeptical about this, I have been asking anybody what this is and nobody would tell me all week.

Well, yesterday, Miguel started getting sick and didn't really want to go but, I insisted. One, I was very curious as to what the fuss was all about. Two, I definitely didn't want Miguel's family mad at me because, we didn't go. So, at about 8, off we go.

I did not regret going, the Matachines is definitely an experience and I highly recommend it to anybody who has not seen them!!! After see this, Jeni and Nando want to dance on December 12 for la Virgen da Guadalupe!!! I can't wait to see them dancing!!

Here are some pictures from the dance last night:

Our nephew, the yougest Matachin.

The one looking at the camera is my youngest sister in law.

Our 2 nieces and nephew.

The 2 closest are our nephew and niece.

The youngest matachin dancing and like everything in Mexico, it is not real without the dog!!!

There were a total of 22 Matachines.

All in all, it was a great night. We didn't get home until after midnight last night!!!

Have a great weekend!!!

Been sick AGAIN!!! And some major decisions are in process!

Well, as usual, I have been sick!!! Before we moved to Mexico, I was never sick, I got sick maybe once a year and really sick every 4-5 years so, this is odd. On Saturday, I started feeling weak and by Sunday, my head started hurting. By Sunday night, I thought, I was dying!!! My body hurt, my head hurt, my face hurt and everytime I stood up, I felt like I had drunk a gallon of Tequila!!! But, unfortunately, no alcohol played part in this!
All the other times I was sick, I had medicine that I brought from the States but, I ran out last time so, I had to use medicine from here! I have proven, Mexico's medicine is shitty! Miguel bought me Next, Contact, and something else but, I don't remember the name, nothing worked! So, instead of just sleeping the sickness off, I suffered it out this time. :( I know, when I go to Texas the first thing I will buy is Nyquil and Dayquil!!!
I am still sick but, I feel better atleast, I am no longer dying.

Now for the major decision, we have been talking and somehow my husband has got it into his head to build an apartment like house on top of his parents house! Now, it would be financially sensible, this way we won't be paying rent which, is like throwing money away but, then, I will have to deal with certain people putting their nose where it doesn't belong. I think that, this problem won't be so bad since, we will have a real house with a fiull kitchen and seperate entrance and plus, they know, I will up and leave if they get too bad, I did this last time and I will do it again. Miguel''s sister would love a free house on top of Mommy dearest! LOL

Our other option is, to move to Panuco, Veracruz which is about 45 minutes from Tampico. I would love that since, it is a small town and not Monterrey which, I do not like. Miguel's grandmother has a huge house with like 5 bedrooms and she is about 84 years old and lives alone. She is constantly hinting that she wants someone to come live with her so, I don't know. first, I would need to find a job comparable to what I have now in either Tampico or Panuco. Miguel could do what his grandfather used to do which is, plant alfalfa and sell it and raise cows. I know that is good money here but, don't know how long it takes to get money from this, I assume atleast a few months for the alfalfa and atleast a year for cows.

My other thoughts are to save money and start over somewhere else but, where I can get a good job and Miguel can earn decent money. I just don't know where. I have just came to the point that, I want to be anywhere but, here, really so, the first option is like a last resort, I think. My boss has told me that in about a year he will want to transfer one of the teachers to DF to be regional manager there and was considering me so, that is an option but, DF?? I don't know how bad it is there. Any advice?

Continuance of Attempted Kidnapping

I just want everybody to know that, my daughter is ok, she is still a little scared but, not enough to stop her from driving me crazy about wanting to go outside to ride the scooter! I told her that, no matter how many times or ways she asks me, it will still be NO!! I think, I am more scared than she is now! Thank God! I can hand;le being scared, it just makes me more precautious but, I can't handle knowing my kids are scared.

I sent an email to the Consulate last night asking if, there was anything else they or I could do to get an investigation started. I know now that what she remebers is not very reliable but, it is worth a shot. As I said, she doesn't seem scared or traumatized by this but, I still think, she needs to go to some counselling sessions atleast a couple so, she can talk this out. She knows very well that they tried to kidnap her and has heard what most of the kidnappers here do to their victims. I don't hide things like that from them because, I think it helps them to try to defend theirselves more. She did tell me that when this woman was trying to get her in the car, this is what went through her mind.

We spent the weekend at home resting well, they rested and I worked! Saturday night we went to the Mercado to try to keep some normality in our life. Today, we cooked Caldo de Res and washed clothes. I washed clothes and planned this weeks Homeschool classes and English classes. Miguel helped wash clothes, some but, mostly just lazied around! The kids played all day, lucky them!!!

I am starting to think that all this stress is getting to Miguel, he is very short tempered and has been having an attitude all the time here lately. I have tried talking to him but, he won't open up and keeps saying nothing is wrong. I don't need psychic powers to see the difference in him. Any advice on how to get him to talk so, that we can get past this hump?

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Talk soon.

Attempted kidnapping is not a crime worth investigating in Mexico!!!!

Yesterday, my daughter was at the neighborhood store which, is 3 houses down from ours, she and her brother were there, anyway, she was outside watching the scooter while her brother was inside. A car pulled up to the curb and asked her if she needed a ride, she said no. Then, the woman proceeded to tell her to get in and she would take her to play at her house and then later she would bring her home, my daughter said, no and turned the other way. The lady and the boy in the car kept insisting so, she went into the store but, didn't say anything to anybody just, told her brother to hurry so, they could go home. When they went out of the store the car was gone. She came home and told me what had happened. First of all, I went to the security guard so, they would stop any car matching that description and I asked them to call the police but, they wouldn't. I then called the police and rode around the neighborhood with my daughter looking for this car, we couldn't find it. An hour later, no police, I called again. Another hour, I called again and again another hour later. No police came. We locked up and went to bed. We decided to put the kids in our room for the night and had 2 scared kids iin bed with us all night.
This morning, I called the American Consulate, they told me to go to the Ministerio Publico (Policia Municipal, it turns out), big mistake! We sat there for 2 1/2 hours and nobody ever called us, the kept saying, we had to wait our turn, nobody else was there except, criminals in handcuffs! All the prisoners are mixed in with the victims in this place! I couldn't believe it, my daughter was getting more scared by the minute and I just knew that the longer it took, she would forget valuable information. My bvoss told me to go to Sedena (Military Police) spo, I called them, and guess what. after explaining everything to the officer, she went through this long BS story saying that there are two types of kidnapping, one is Secuestro, which is for ransom and the other is robo, which is to either keep the child or black market for various reasons most of us already know. And that since fortunately my daughter didn't get kidnapped then, even though it was wrong what the woman did, it was not illegal!!! So, all she could do was take note of it happening but, there would not be an investigation!!!! I cold not believe this, I mean what? Do they just wait around until these people do kidnap a child when, investigating these crimes would prevent it from happening in most cases!!

Needless to say, I have lost all respect for this country and it's f*ck*d up laws! Yes, thank God, my baby girl did not get kidnapped but, that is a major crime, do they do the same thing with attempted murder or attemted rape, since it didn't happen it is not crime?

From now on, my kids will not get to go out to play with their friends and won't be able to go to the little store only 3 houses from us without an adult!! We will become basicly prisoners in our own home, our neighborhood is too dangerous and the police will not do anything to stop it.

I have always taught my kids since 2 years old that, if anybody tries to take you or make you get into their car, to start yelling and acting like a fool and run to the nearest adult but, I guess, she was so scared she forgot what she has been taught and yes, she did get a good talking to about the importance of remembering safety rules at all times especially during something like this.

If you are in Mexico or anywhere, please watch your kids! I just realized how easy and quick it can be for one of these animals to take our babies.

My daughter is very scared but, physically ok and at home thank God!

Assistance needed please!!!

I am in the process of trying to get my Fm2 but, the INM says that I need to have our marraige certificate apostilled. I have found out that I have to do this in Georgia but, I can't go there now. Does anybody know of a way around this? Or, has anyone been through this? Any advice is welcome!!! Please!!!

Finally!!!!! It has cooled off but, is it here to stay?

Well, it has been very cool, the past few days. Sunday night it rained way too much but, that caused the temperature to drop about 7 degrees celsius. So, that was a benefit!!

The bad thing, though, was, we flooded!!!! we were upstairs watching Voz De Mexico (Justing Bieber was on ther and I have a 9 year old daughter ;)) Anyway, we were watching this show and Miguel got up for some reason and the floor was full of water. immediately, he asked the kids which one of them had spilled water. All said, It wasn't me! Of course, kids always say this so, we didn't believe them! We checked their glasses and neither had water or any other clear liquid so, no they didn't spill anything. Well, while inspecting the floor and cieling, I noticed a waterfall from my windows! Water was coming in around the window frame
, not just a little but, we had Niagara Falls from our window seals!!! Well, all we could do was clean it up and send an email to our landlord. Miguel went downstairs to get the mop and some old towels, he returned and told me that I didn't want to go downstairs! Well, that got me worried so, of course, I went down! My whole floor was covered in an inche of water!!!! Thank God, we haven't bought any sofas or anything like that for the downstairs!!! I looked outside and my yard was about a foot deep in water. we have a wall around the house, the only thing that didn't have that much water was the parking area. My poor dogs were cuddled in a corner and the chihuahua (the crybaby) was crying! Miguel swept what water he could out of the house and the yard and I mopped up the rest. We gave the dogs an old blanket in the farthest corner so, it wouldn't get wet. That made them VERY happy, you see, our dogs are spoiled, they used to each have a bed but, Chata, the pitbull, decided she was going to use them as a chew toy! She uses everything as a chew toy, even my car!!!!

Now, it is 27 degrees celsius, I think around 75 degrees farenhiet (spelling?) but, that is warm compared to the last few days! We had the perfect excuse for hot chocolate!!!!! We have officially went through 2 gallons of milk since Monday!!!

I so hope it doesn't get hot again but, everybody says it will. I can only pray that this year is the exception as it has been all summer. Everybody tells me it is never as hot as it was this year. All summer it never went below 40 degrees celsius, except at night then it dropped to 33 more or less.

I haven't had anything to post, life has been boring but, good. This past weekend, I decided I needed some new clothes for work so, I went shopping!!!!! Yayyyyyy!!! This is something, I haven't done since December of last year!!! We went to my mother in law's twice this weekend!!!! RRRR!!!! But, it was ok. then we went to the mall and spent a day like when we were in the US. We went looking in all the stores and shopped, had Starbucks, watched a clown show, and ended the day with Peter Piper Pizza (Monterrey's version of Chucky Cheese but, not as good and more expensive). The only difference was, when we left we had to pay 48 pesos for parking!!!! I couldn't believe that, we had to pay to park in the mall parking lot and there are NO security gaurds at all outside!!! Or, atleast, I didn't see any. I found a store here that is sort of like Kohl's in the US, it is called Suburbia, they only need Apt. 9, Candies, and Tony Hawk brands. Oh, and closed pointed toe heels with heels that are not stripper hieght!!! LOL I have yet to see why a culture that is so reserved sells mostly stripper heels and boots!!! I still cannot find business style heels, all are sandle like and have atleast a 1/2 inch platform with 5-7 inch heel!!! Who can work in those, other than a stripper? I wouldn't think they are appropiate for business. I don't know, maybe people here think differently, who knows? I guess, I will keep looking until, I have time and money to go to the US.

Enjoy your Tuesday everyone!!!!

Technology issues!

For some odd reason, everytime I post a comment on a blog, it does not post. I have rewrote and rewrote it but, nothing! Does anybody have any idea why this is happening? I have tried logging out and all. Any help would be greatly appreciated!