More Guatemalan Pictures

This is the barrel that Mariano runs his water into. After he gets water in it he starts a fire underneath it to warm the water.
This would be his two section bath tub. Mariano rinses off on one side of the tub, I am assuming the one with the red bucket and then he goes and washes off on the other side. I believe he might set up on the other bucket. Then after he has washed himself off, he rinses off on the other side. This makes me even more thankful for the American showers that we have. Mariano says this room stays really warm because of the small fire. But I don't recall seeing where the smoke could go so I don't think that it would be good to stay in this room. I will have to ask Mariano about that!!!

This is the entrance to the bathroom from the outside.....
...and this is the bathroom from the outside as a whole....
This room is Mariano's living room......the below picture is how his dad set up the room for us on our first visit. Mariano decided to paint his living room orange. I laughed because on the phone he told me that he thought that it was orange. Mariano is partly color-blind so orange is a color that he has a hard time seeing! I like the orange.....orange and brown in my living room....I think I would like but it would be hard to find things to decorate with...

This is Mariano's bedroom on our first visit. Mariano says that it is common that people do not have much furniture. And every house we went into, we really didn't see a whole lot of furniture. Below is Mariano's room after he painted, I think it adds a whole lot to it!


This this is a chicken fajita that Hector, who is Mariano's brother-in-law fixed for use while we were there. The chicken was fabulous. We had fried rice, potato wedges and then a Guatemalan salad which looked like cabbage to me. They put like a vinegar dressing on this and it was actually pretty good!!!


Well a week from this Tuesday will be three months that the Embassy has had his paperwork and I am looking forward to a phone call!!! I guess this past week has been the hardest for all of us. We really miss him and Thursday when I called him, I didn't know if he was on the phone or not because he was choked up crying. Mariano just said that he had had a bad day and was sad and missing us. I told Mariano that he has to cry it out, we can't keep it inside.....but I told him that I don't believe that it will be much longer. And if I am wrong that I know God will help us all through it!!!

Female post...probably don't want to read if you are a male...

Could today be the day that Mariano gets a phone call that he needs to go to the Embassy? Yes he could get the phone call but I doubt that it will happen in the next 2 weeks so I am looking for a phone call after 3/10. Yesterday he called me, I had forgotten to turn my phone on vibrate at the office and I was 2 cubicles away and heard my phone playing. I took off a running because it was really loud. I saw that it was my hubby and I was excited because I thought maybe, just maybe he had gotten off the phone with them...NOT. Mariano called because he had a question. He wanted to know if I had started my monthly...and I just busted out laughing. He didn't think that his question was funny. I knew Mariano would be worried if I got pregnant so I purposefully did not tell him when the time had come. He said that if he was true, then so be it and he would be praying harder for God to allow him to come back over here so he could be with me. He wants a little girl by the way. He has two nieces that love him and I think that his playing on him some. I would like another boy, save on money, and then another girl but I am having a hard time with Mariano wanting a third child together. That would mean 4 kids for Mariano and he doesn't want that many. So I can tell that he had been worried about me starting and all so I just replied that I had just gotten off of it. He was like, why didn't you tell me??? So I told him I wanted to see how worried he was. Unlike most guys, Mariano does keep up with my cycle...more than I do. So no phone call from the embassy....

Aydan picked up our home phone last night and he is used to having a dial tone. But this time it was dead and he had this puzzled look on his face. He put the phone back and picked it up again and said, "Mommy, phone." He knew something wasn't right. So I will have to put those up. The cordless phone has been acting up and we have had it awhile so I think that I am just going to toss that away.

I dumped Aydan's diapers out from his diaper genie over the weekend. The thing wasn't full but I have been throwing Aydan's diapers in the trash and figured that I could store this in the back closet. Well, I don't know if you have ever had lettuce to go bad in the refrigerator or not. But you know how the lettuce turns brown, slimy and watery. Well have no idea what happened and I wasn't going to investigate BUT, I was in Aydan's room trying to dump all these diapers in a trash bag. I opened the bottom of it and it was like diarrhea had leaked out everywhere. I had to take the thing outside to empty it. Aydan is in the background....EWW Mommy, EWW. Diaper Genies are like $20, so I didn't want to throw it away so I will have to clean it this weekend. Also for this weekend is to unpack the back closet that I just clean and packed so that I can get Aydan's summer clothes out that he wore last summer. They are 12 months but they were always huge so I think he can wear some of the shorts again. I am trying to get things organized before Mariano comes home.

I was talking to my boss awhile back ago about Mariano coming home. My boss told me that he had to leave his wife for a few months. They had been married a few years. He told me why he left but I forget. So he said that when he came home that he was used to his paycheck because he had his own apartment and such and she had hers. My boss said that he moved home and it was like they had to readjust and it was like being married all over again because they had both been independent for awhile. So I do think that is something that we are going to have to adjust and the cooking supper thing. It is just so easy to come home and fix something simple for Aydan and I. But with the Lord's help we will make it thru!!!

It's Monday!!!

YEA!!! Started out by waking up at 7:00 realizing that my alarm did not got off. It would help it I would have set it for 6:35 AM instead of PM. But I got up, was planning on being late for work anyways to have some blood work done. Which I do not think will be good but at least I know where I will stand and I can work to improve it. But took Aydan to Amanda's today, he pitched a fit because he just wanted to lay on me. Makes me feel really good to know that he wants me but also makes me feel bad that I have to leave him like that! So maybe one day I will get to stay at home with him!! Still want to and still want to work so enough said....
I was looking at my calendar last night. Tomorrow, Tuesday March 24Th. Two weeks from tomorrow will be three months that the NIVC will have my husbands paperwork. So I got to thinking that possible, Mariano could be at home in less than three weeks away!!! Let me say that again, IT IS POSSIBLE THAT MARIANO COULD BE AT HOME IN LESS THAN THREE WEEKS AWAY!!!! I got excited!!! Then I looked around my house and noticed that I have a lot of cleaning up today so he can come home to a house that meats his criteria!!! Just kidding but I was excited. I told Mariano that I feel like he will be home in less than a month. Which sounds really good!!! All Mariano said was I surely hope so!!!
Well I don't know about anyone else but I am ready to go camping. Like camping in a tent outside!!!! I think maybe we should try going somewhere different this year instead of where we usually go. So we have plenty of time to look around for that!
I need to get the oil changed in my car!!! I will probably do that tomorrow during my lunch break. Then I plan on disconnecting my home phone and just keeping the Internet. We never use it and the only time someone calls is for a Patricia Lowdermilk who needs to pay her bills so that the debt collectors will stop calling!! How long have we lived there and they are still calling???? I was going to give up the Internet but then realized that I will utterly miss it!!

Mike went shopping. He bought the blue pants, I still think he should wear these to church! The skirt he bought for his wife. He has the skirt folded up. The town that we went and saw, it was common to see a man with pants on with some type of mini skirt on!! We tried the entire time to get Mike to dress in this attire. The picture below is a man standing on the side of the road.
It is hard to tell but he is wearing a skirt!
Mariano was trying to get some pre-employment practice on folding napkins! The ends were supposed to stand up straight but his kept falling down!!!
The hotel had a xylophone!!! I still like him and wish I had one!!! But this was made in Guatemala and it was really nice!!!
I woke up one morning and saw Aydan laying in the bed like this so I had to snap a picture. This is becoming more and more common! I am glad that Mariano got to witness him sleeping like this.
This would be the two loves of my life laying in the bed. We were actually watching the super bowl Sunday. Aydan just kept pointing at the TV screen.
This is the Entrance to a Hotel that we stayed in while we were in Guatemala. Mom is propped up against the van. It was a really nice hotel and was Americanized and cost $50 per night for a single person and $75 a night for couples.
Just another view of the hotel.
In the background was one of the three surrounding volcanoes here in the town. The pictures can't do justice on how beautiful this place was.
This is a picture of one of the hot tubs that the hotel had to offer. These were actually hot springs that were heated by a vein from the volcanoes. The water was pretty hot, I don't think that I could have stayed in there very long.
Here is the other hot tub....

This is a picture from when we were in Guatemala. We stayed in a lovely place called Panajachel. This town had a huge lake called Lake Antitalan and was surrounded by 3 volcanoes. Beautiful place to see. If I ever go back, I would like to visit this place again. I would actually like to go hike up one of the volcanoes. They had tours but we didn't have enough time to do that.

I do have lots more and I will share periodically! I will post pictures of Mariano's family as well!! He had a big family and I haven't met them all!!!!

Tuesday

On my way to work this morning, I got a text from my cousin saying that my other cousin was being deployed to Iraq to serve his remaining time. My cousin came back early because his baby was born premature and lots of complication but once again, My God delivered and she is wonderful and beautiful. So now he has to go and serve again and I just started crying. I know a guy at work that came back from over there, I knew him before he left and seeing afterwards. He was a different person and several of us really wondered about him because he wasn't the same and I got to thinking about my cousin. But I pray that he can come home soon and see his girl. I think she is like 3-4 years old now!!!
Then I get to work and 15 minutes into work, I get a call from a conference room asking me can I meet with our Production team with two guys from France. SURE!!! I love to plan ahead but sometimes you just get called out on the rug. So we go in there and I knew they were coming but never saw an agenda on what they were talking about or anything. It lasted for 2 hours, took a break and now we are to go back in again after lunch. We all work for the same division but we have different "pay accounts" and I think if one side messes up then they need to confess up. Such as, France ships early to one of our American customers. The American customer does not want product early. So we have to store the product in a warehouse in which we get billed for storage fees, transporting fees and everything else. If France recognizes that they sometimes ship early, shouldn't they have to pay the fees??? I think so, but you want to know what their response is, we are all inter company and that would only be taking the money out of the left pocket and putting it in the right pocket. I wasn't really happy with the answer considering that we are paying thousands in storage fees. Why ship early??? Just a bit of my day.
Then I decide to stay and look around on the net. And we have new Internet privileges and I didn't want to abuse mine so I took a leap and tried getting on Blogger. Obviously it worked so maybe I can start blogging more regularly. Aydan loves to type when I am typing. I actually need to get him on video because he tries placing his hands over the keys like I do!!

I'm amazed...

Two things have amazed me today. The first one being Aydan who learns or does something new everyday. Today he stayed at Amanda's house today. Usually she takes Carter to the Bee-Bee bus. Aydan stays with her while Carter is gone. Usually I take lunch break and go see Aydan and eat lunch. So today, she texts me and told me that Aydan was asleep at 12:00. So I texts back saying to let me know when he wakes up and I will be there. So I went ahead and ate and was working. Finally she texts back @ 1:40 and says that he is still asleep. So I just told her that I wouldn't be coming today that I would see him when I got off from work. Well when I got there so informed me that he got up @2:00. So I asked how long did he sleep. She said No Wendy, he didn't get up until 2:00, he never took a nap!!! The funny thing is, Aydan didn't go to bed until 11:30. So on the way home from Bible study, he falls asleep again. So I am amazed that he is tired but I am starting to worry. It is 10:00, he woke up when we got home but he is tired so I hope everything is okay.

So the second thing...didn't get much out of Bible Study because Aydan was being trifling but that is part of being a 2 year old. But what I did get out, I will be feasting on for awhile. In Matthew 24Th chapter. Jesus is standing on Solomon's temple and he is telling the people that the "Earthly Temple" would not stand and that in the future when the "Seven Years of Trial and Tribulation", that the Christian's should flee to the mountains for protection. Where do we flee to today?? Mount Zion!!! Well there was ones that fled to the mountain and Jesus told them that they would safe!! Well the king and I forget his name knew that there was people in the mountain, so that is where he started to head. Could you imagine looking down in the valley and seeing the army coming. I know the Doubting wheels would start turning in my head. And I know those people starting praying and I imagine that when they were through praying, they looked up and saw that the army had turned around. Why did the army turn around? Because the King heard that there was a battle at his camp. That just astonished me so much tonight!!! Just another time that God had a promise and it was kept and God's people were safe. A type and shadow of today, if we stay in God's Mountain, Mount Zion, then we will be safe thru it all!!! I was so exciting and then I got in the car and the song below was playing and I was just uplifted!!!


So let the storms rage high, the dark clouds rise
They don't worry me, For I'm sheltered safe within the arms of God
He walks with me, and naught of earth can harm me
For I'm sheltered in the arms of God

Aydan's 2nd Birthday Party

Aydan and Levi was impatiently watching Sister Dawn spin a top. They kept wanting to grab it and do it themselves. But I hope they grow up to be good friends!!!


Aydan's friends that were sitting close by him. Surprisingly, Aydan didn't fuss too much when I put him in his high chair. I am looking for a booster sit because Aydan wants to sit in a chair. That is depressing because recently he has just taken an independent growth spurt!

Here is part of the table cloth and of course the theme was Curious George. In all actuality besides 8 cups, 8 napkins and 8 plates that was the only thing that had Curious George. I got that at Rose's for $5. I thought that was pretty cheap! But something that really turned out great was, the only thing that I could see of the table cloth, is what you see above. So I just decided to decorate in balloons all over the house because kids like that. But I went to lay the table cloth out on the dining room table, and it was covered with balloons so I was really happy.
Just some shots of my lovely decorations...but I didn't want to spend too much considering you just throw the majority of decorations away and two because I didn't have that much to spend anyways!!
But we had a good time. Aydan got lots of things to help him with potty training which he has already told me "no" a time or two when I want him to sit on the potty. Then he got a farm house set, few outfits, a kids song cd and some building blocks! and some cash, can't forget the money!!! Good thing is that we didn't run out of any food or drinks or cup cakes. Actually have enough leftovers for Sunday dinner too!!! Maybe for Monday's lunch too!! So we might be sick of spaghetti for awhile!

Saturday!!!

I can't tell you how much I have been looking forward to this day. For many different reasons!!!

• this is the day that I can lay in with my son
• it is going to be warm weather
• I don't have to work
• I can do whatever I want!!

Today is Aydan's 2nd birthday...still really don't know what to do about the party. Since I left for vacation I haven't had much time to go and look so I plan on doing that today. It is nice outside and I think Aydan is dying to get out because of the cold weather. In 3 days, it will be 2 months that Mariano's paperwork has been progressing. I can honestly say that the days have gone by fast!! Mariano has said the same thing to.
Something has happened to his phone. He dropped the phone the other day at work and sometimes his calls go through and other times they don't. So I was going to call him today at 1:07 because that was when Aydan was born and let him tell Aydan how much he loved him but the stupid phone wasn't working...but that is okay because God is still in control and I still have my promise about God keeping his promise that I will see my husband again on the USA soil!! So I am keeping that.....I am trying to find the words to I know that God's promises are true. It is a song that my Aunt Faye and my dad sing and we can't find the words. But it is a good song.
Some of my girls came over last night and hung out. Four ended up staying the night and we had a really good time. Kind of like old times, oh how I miss the 'old' times!!! But I am also looking for 'new' times.