Monday April 14th Final

A lot of unpacking yesterday and today. Katie is a whirlwind of activity, me not so much. I always end up being super tired after getting home, and usually lasts about 3 days. This time is no different.

Now it is reflection time....ahhh MEMORIES!

• casino winnings on the way down $1480
• first trip to Mexico with Sister Maureen, driving across the International Bridge and suddenly out pops our two girls in the middle of the road, with a HUGE sign to welcome Katie and I back. Mom Erika nearby watching.
• Many trips to Mexico and having the girls to ourselves, taking them for lunches, getting their nails done and shopping, and just having fun
• Giving the tablet to Karelly, who uses it all the time, and takes it everywhere. I loaded it up with English programs, music videos, and music.
• Meeting Erika's friends Yasmin and Juan
• House hunting with the family
• Not one golf game...being sick, too busy, and not great weather
• Lots of fun at Erika's birthday party
• Livy doing karaoke at the birthday pary, Eric was hilarious, and fun was had by all
• Meeting Erika's mom
• Katie and I getting our great mugs, and my shirt from our great family!
• the trips with Sister Maureen, Ken and Vickey, and Dena, all over the place, and seeing all the kids, and giving them suckers and chocolate
• Meeting Pat Sullivan, who builds houses in Neuvo Progreso, church halls, bunk beds, what a selfless man!
• Watching the distribution of the education funds
• Meeting Erika's friend Joana
• Meeting Erika's dad who plays the guitar and sings
• Our final goodbye to our family on the bridge, with tears all around
• All the hugs and cuddles and I love you's all around
• More casino winning on the way home $1,325
• Livy singing to Jim at Erika's birthday party
• Our little Vicky and her bookbag almost as big as her
• Seeing our friends in the park, though not as much as we would have liked due to sickness, busy, and weather

There are probably other memories I could write about, but suffice it to say we had a great holiday! Hope those of you who followed along, enjoyed doing so. Sometimes I think I shouldn't write the blog each year, as it might be boring, and it takes time and work, but somehow I always get talked into it, or talk myself into it.

Except for being sick, would not have missed a minute of it!

and so ends another great year in the Valley....

Thanks for coming along!

Friday April 11th and Saturday April 12th

Beautiful weather in Council Bluffs since we got here. Played a little in the casino downstairs, and took the shuttle to Horseshoe Casino, the sister Casino to Harrah's.

Played there until about 6PM, then came back to Harrah's for supper and relaxation. Then a bit more playing downstairs, but they do not have the variety of machines that Horseshoe does and it is much bigger there.

The take for the day???

The total $1,525 less the $200 we started with. I think Harrah's should stop giving us free rooms in the hope they are going to get their money back. $1,400 on the way down, and $1,325 on the way back does not compute for them. Good for us though, and now we will send money to our family so they can get US visas hopefully. Livario's just needs to be renewed. It would open up a whole new world for the kids.

Leaving for Winnipeg today, no rush, so we are just taking our time getting ready. Had breakfast downstairs, used my points so it cost us $1.37...thanks Harrah's.

Grab a few groceries when we get home, then it is down to serious business on the eating properly front. I'll do a bit of a recap as my final post, tomorrow or Monday.

and so ends another great day on our 2014 holiday...

more later....

Thursday April 10th

We got up at 5:30 to get on the road out of Denton, as we had a long drive today. We had breakfast in the hotel, they will make you a fresh omelette of your choice.

Katie discovered there was no hair dryer in the bathroom...there was supposed to be, but she did a great job with the curling iron.

We were on the road by 6:50...fair amount of traffic for awhile, but it would be worse if it was later. There is always a jerk who stays in the outside lane and holds up a whole lane of traffic. The clueless should stay home!

Uneventful drive really...but I was more tired driving today than all the other days even on the way down. I managed though and we arrived in Council Bluffs about 4:45PM.

Got settled into our free room, and relaxed a bit, watched some of the Masters. Mike Weir had a good first day, Graham Delate, our other Canadian, not so much.

We went down to the Casino, and tried to find out about the offers they had sent Katie because of  her birthday being on April 15th. So apparently they gave her 2100 points but she can't use them because it takes 36 hours to a week to get into the system properly. So basically they say,"hey come and see us and we'll give you all this good stuff for your birthday, but you won't be able to use it when you're here." So really they are giving her nothing. Good gimmick, or poor system.

In the end, after talking to the rewards manager, she gave Katie a coupon for the buffet worth $47. Well better than nothing,

We had the Buffet and had $13 left over on Katie's card now, which we can use for breakfast.

We played till about 11PM, and we started around 6:30PM, with time out for the buffet.

The result at the end of the night was net $410. Katie always finds a way, and I guess she got her birthday present early. I held my own during the night as well.

We are going to Harrah's other Casino the Horseshoe just a few blocks away tomorrow.

I made a mistake on the blog the other day when I said the family had driven over two hours to Rio Bravo to get our mugs made. I should have said that Rio Bravo is about 20 minutes away by car.

and so ends another great day on the way home from the Valley.

more later...

Tuesday April 8th and Wednesday April 9th

We're leaving for home this morning...destination for the day...Denton, Tx. just outside of Fort Worth. Day 2 Destination will be Council Bluffs Ia.

Packed in the morning yesterday, got the cover on the golf cart, and all the outside stuff put away. We went and got some cole slaw from KFC seeing it was such a great hit on Saturday. We sent an email to Jazminn, Erika's friend to tell her no food for us when we come.

I'm still not totally over the stomach flu yet. Have a feeling some of the symptoms will hang on a bit yet.

Erika picked us up at the pharmacy at 3:30. Her friend Joanne was with her. We like her as well. We went to the school to pick up Livy. Size of classroom with one teacher 140 kids jammed into one room without a lot of room to spare. Livy was so happy to see us.

Back to Erika's and Karelly was home already. Of course Erika and Joanne had prepared some lunch regardless. Potato salad and Chicken salad. It was good.

When it was time to go after a few hours, Livario came home from working in the area, and by that time Juan the dentist was home. We had gone to his office earlier, which is near the pharmacy but it was very busy. We said our goodbyes to Juan, and he gave us his email contact info.

Then it was off to the bridge. Erika took a plate of food for Jazminn which she will drop off on the way back. So thoughtful.

Katie kept Livy laughing on the way to the bridge, as she had already started to cry. The family walked us over the bridge, after some more pictures. At the final point it was tears all around..everyone...Livy, Karelly, Livario, Erika, Katie, and me. There were lots of hugs and then more hugs and kisses all around. The only one not crying was Eric, and he didn't have a clue we weren't coming back until next year.

So sad...but what great memories, and what a great family. Everyone told everyone they love them, and finally it was into the building to show our passports.

and so ends another great day and year in the Valley....

more later....

Monday April 7th

Katie and I headed off to meet Sister Maureen, Ken and Vicky, and Dena another friend and helper of Sister Maureen, at the Residence.

Shortly after 2, we headed off with them for the last time this year in the red truck. We stopped at the Catholic Church Hall, just around the corner from our little Vickey's house. It was time for Sister Maureen to give out the education money, provided by the myriad of sponsors, so the kids can attend school. Today it was for grades 1 to 6, and there was over $4,000 to be given out in total.

They got a table set up, and envelopes with names, were spread all over the table. Sister Maureen has a local helper named Lupe, who helps her with this as well as all sorts of things, including distributing food, clothing, and household needs.

There was already a good sized lineup, and Lupe's mom sat by the door and let the line advance one by one. It was very organized and obviously practiced much more than once in the past. If Sister Maureen did not have a current picture of the child being sponsored, she took a new picture for her files, and for letters to the sponsors.

This is just a great picture Katie took

Sister Maureen gives the education funds to the mothers mostly, because some of the fathers would simply drink it away. Katie and I are so lucky that we sponsor two families children whose fathers are not drinkers.

We got to meet Pat Sullivan, who not only built the church hall we were in, but got married to his wife JoAnn in the church, where they met, after they had both lost their spouses'. He also builds houses, and bunk beds for the people of Neuvo Progreso.

Here is an article about Pat and his wife.

http://m.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/article_fb48fb5a-6b83-11e3-af31-001a4bcf6878.html?mode=jqm

What a guy, he was like a whirlwind while we were there, getting all sorts of the parts he had pre made for more bed installations, into his truck. He has a local kid helping him, who we are told used to be a problem kid, but not anymore. Then they were off to install bunk beds, so some people don't have to sleep on a concrete floor or worse.

Pat explained to me the reason they put a couple of layers of carpeting on the beds is because if they were to use mattresses, they would get all infested with bugs and rodents because of the conditions they live in. This helps greatly to alleviate that problem.

Pat's bunk beds...fantastic...he puts them in about 40 houses a year

After the envelopes had been given out, we went to Vicky's as we had a few things for her. We said our goodbyes to Vicky and her family and told her we would see her next year. Much different departure from Erika and the girls, no tears, perhaps just a little sadness.

Then we were off to see Erika and Karelly and Livy. They were anxiously waiting. Sister Maureen and the group came in as well, as their job for the day, giving out the education money was done.

Wasn't long after we got there, the kids told Katie and I we had to close our eyes, they had a surprise for us. We did, and when they counted to three in English, we opened our eyes to this...

A shirt for Jim

Jim's coffee cup and picture with wind blown hair

Katie's coffee cup

Now was the time for some wetness in our eyes, not the kids. What a wonderful gift!!!! They had the shirt, and the mugs made by travelling to Rio Bravo, which is over a two hour drive, and we only took the pictures on Saturday.

We had a great visit then, but Katie and I decided we did not really want it to end quite this way. We didn't want to say goodbye to our family right then, and we just felt like we wanted to have some really private moments with them. So even though Tuesday was to be our complete packing day, ready for departure for home on Wednesday morning, we told Erika and the kids we would be back for a couple of hours on Tuesday afternoon, after the girls got off school. There were big smiles all around.

So off we went again in the red truck, and when we got back to the residence we said our goodbyes for now to Sister Maureen, Ken and Vickey, and Dena, all of them our good friends, and our many thanks to all of them for accepting us so warmly and putting up with us every year.

and so ends another great day in the Valley....

more later....

Sunday April 6th

Departure time draws nearer...4 days to go.

Seeing as I was feeling better...still not 100 percent though, Katie and I went to Mexico in the afternoon. We wanted to give the family a treat that they normally don't get, so we went to Kentucky fried chicken, and got a big bucket and some sides. We wanted them to have some left over. They had little packets of butter and honey for the biscuits..too bad we forgot to get ketchup for the fries, as they were putting butter on the fries. Katie told them it was for the biscuits but that didn't seem to matter.

One of the big hits which we didn't expect was the cole slaw. They all liked it, even little Eric. Too bad we only bought one. Well maybe Monday we'll take them some more. I took it really easy, and only had a small tidbit sandwich and water, as my stomach is still not back to normal.

After eating we had a fun time with Erika, the girls and, Eric. We were playing a combination of basketball and soccer both inside and outside, and it was a ton of laughs. When we first got there I kept watching Livy to see how she was doing. She is still a little sick....but once the games started you could hardly tell.

Katie and I brought the girls a purse each, with a wallet, and some change and dollars. Who wants a wallet that's empty? Katie put quite a few girlie things in each purse, little containers of lip gloss, nail polish etc. They were thrilled. Karelly's has enough room for her tablet.

Then I fixed my old laptop so that Karelly could use the wifi on her tablet. The last software I used didn't work well. She is incredible, I show her something once and it is locked in. She has this great desire to learn, and is so focused on my, every move. Then she repeats it to make sure she has it right. It is the perfect definition of Demonstration Perfomance teaching with the best student.

She said she had a surprise, so off to get her report card she went. All perfect 10's and 9's across the board. I told her in English I was so proud of her, and so would her sponsor Durga be, and I could tell by the look on her face she knew exactly what I was saying.

Every year, we give the kids a 5X7 frame with one of the best pictures we took that year. Erika showed us later how she had already put them on the wall with the others, then she indicated that she wanted to fill every wall in the room with them for many years to come.

It was time to go on the house hunt now. Livario showed us a picture of a house he had found. Looked pretty good to me. It was many blocks from where they are now, over the dike, and a very bumpy road. When we got there, I was pretty impressed, considering what we had looked at before, which are basically nothing but shacks which need a lot of work.

This one had a fence and gate on the perimeter, a concrete pad in front, a very nice front door, and what almost amounted to bay windows. It was painted nicely and there were some flowers planted on one side. Typically it had rebar sticking out of the roof, which means it is not finished, so no additional taxes to be paid. We could not get in as the gate was chained. Unfortunately we did not get a picture, as we stayed in the van while Livario talked to some of the neighbors, making enqueries. It is not a good idea for Katie and I to be out looking around as the price immediatly goes up...gringos are interested.

Apparently the owner lives in the US, so the family will try to get a phone number and check on the price and the availability. It would seem the owner wants 195,133.50 pesos or about $15,000 US. Compared to some of the other things we've seen and the prices they want for almost nothing, this one had promise. It is four rooms, but with the opportunity to add on to the second floor at some point.

We continued on after that, and we showed them the vacant lot where the owner wants to sub divide. Livario already knew about this one, and said the owner wants $6,000 first and then an additonal $30,000. Hmm...forget it!

We looked around some more, and Livario showed us some more places where he said they wanted too much money. We headed toward downtown and on to the other side of the Main Street. Now we are in the so called "Centro" area, basically the centre of town. Livario told us that in this area, they want more money because it is "Centro".

Kind of strange really, many of the places are the same, or worse than others we looked at, but they are "Centro". One thing is that the streets are a bit flatter. and without quite so many ruts, but that's not all of them by any means. We looked at one really nice corner lot with a shack on it, but in the end Livario said they wanted way too much money for it.

It was getting late, and the kids were getting tired so it was time to go back home. Livy held my hand from the back of the Van most of the trip. She is such a sweetheart.

When we got back, One of Erica's good friends stopped by, and a lot of pictures were taken. Katie and I started to pack up, and Karelly said we should sleep over. We said there was no room, but she said we could sleep in her bed. What a kid! Livy was not happy we were leaving, and started to cry pretty heavily. Erika also said she didn't want us to go, and then she started to cry...another sign how close we are all getting.

This is before our last visit on Monday...I can just imagine what that is going to be like, when we finally wave goodbye for the last time this year.

One of the best things I ever did, was get a translator app called Jibbigo. The reason I picked this one is because it loads the dictionary right onto your phone or tablet, so you don't have to have internet access to make it work. You can talk into it in English and it translates it into Spanish, or you can type in English and it does the same thing....and vice versa. You can even do it ahead of time so it resides in History, and you can play back the translation whenever you want. We discovered it is better to type into it rather than speak, because speaking it just gets too many things wrong, but typing and translating seems to work really well!

Katie and I pre prepared, questions and thoughts for Livario and Erika before we went, and it worked out great during the house hunt. We told them they have to be happy with what they end up with, and do what is best for their family. We obviously won't get this resolved before we leave, but the good thing is with the computer, and how smart Karelly is, and the internet stick they now have, we can stay in touch constantly. They know we will help them!

Livario and the kids drove us to the bridge, and with tears from Livy and lots of hugs and waves, we were off. No lineup at the border as it was after 9PM.

When we got home, time to relax.

pictures later....

and so ends another great day in the valley....

and the Jets won 4-2 over Toronto...Yay!

The Three Amigos

The Girl's Wall

The Three Amigas and Eric

more later...

Saturday April 5th

Back to the land of the living today. Was brutally sick on Wednesday and Thursday, had a banana and some toast in two days. Haven't been that sick for many years. Went to the Doc yesterday just to be on the safe side, he was very good, and said he has seen plenty of people going through what I am.

Gave me a couple of prescriptions, but said I likely wouldn't need them, just fill them if I do.

Today though, feeling much better. Had soft boiled eggs for breakfast and toast, I was hungry and it was good. Also coffee for the first time in three days. Not perfect yet, but feeling so much better.

Katie and I went for a walk to say goodbye and safe trip, to a couple of our friends who are leaving tomorrow. It is a very nice morning, nice and cool.

We got back, took the cart, and went and fed the goats, as Katie had lots of pulp and leftovers from making juice this morning. They were hungry too.

We are going to Mexico this afternoon to see the kids, but we found out that our little Livy is sick, and in bed. I feel so sorry for her. We are going to continue to try and solve the housing situation. We are also going to take them supper...likely Kentucky fried Chicken or something.

We are also going back on Monday with Sister Maureen, and that will be our last time to Mexico until next year. Karelly is already sad, and says "no,no,no, I want you to stay in Mexico". We're just trying to let them down gently so that it doesn't hit them on the last day.

more later....