It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

Here in Cozumel, Mexico; Christmas is a little different. It doesn't get cold. There is no hoping it will snow on Christmas Day. There is no snuggling up to the fire and no reason to wear warm coat, boots, or scarfs. (Although some locals think that 68 degrees is enough to do so.) Some may say, "that is not a Christmas at all." Yet with that being said for me, "It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas." The stores and houses all have lights and decorations. The street have Christmas lights hanging on every pole and plate. Every were you look it say Feliz Navidad, or Merry Christmas, or Joyeux Noel. Stores are extending their shelves full of toys, gift boxes and such. Poinsettias or Noche buena are on the side walks in the center of town about every 8 feet. There are big Christmas trees in the Main Plaza. Children are singing Christmas songs walking up and down the streets every night. Tinkerbell has red bows in her hair and a red collar. And my house has the snow man soap dispenser up with green soap. As well as my Santa mat outside and my Santa door knob greeter. I have my Mary and Jesus pictures in place of the other Christ pictures. (I still have a lot more to do in the house but I did these little touches this morning!) I listened to my first Christmas song this morning, of course "O Holy Night." I went Christmas shopping last night. We picked a family in our ward that we will do Secret Santa for. I have been helping plan the Christmas Party for our work. And because of traveling on Sunday back from stake conference we were unable to watch The Christmas Devotional. Therefore we decided to watch it tonight. So you see "It IS beginning to look a lot like Christmas."
We are very blessed and we want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas.

Finally A New Addition

That's right Daniel and I are glad to announce that we got a dog. Her name is Tinkerbell she is 17 cm tall and about 32 cm long. She weighs 3 pounds 3 oz and is so cute. She has already won Daniel's heart as well as mine. I will tell you more about her personality later but here are pictures of our new little one.

Happy Birthday Handsome One

Honey I love you. You mean to world to me. Thank you for being there for me when I need you. Thank you so much for being a hard worker. Thank you for being active in church. Thank you for being a worthy Priesthood holder. Thank you for saying sorry to me when I was the one who should say sorry first. Thank you inspiring me to be a great women. Thank you for always forgiving me. Thank you for your warm hugs. Thank you for having a testimony. Thank you for making mistakes because it would impossible to have two perfect people in the same relationship. I love you so much and I hope your next year was as great as your last. Happy Birthday

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All I Can Say Is WOW!!!!!!!

WOW!!!!!!!!! Love it, Love it, love it. I watched "New Moon" last night with 10 of my girl from my work. The whole night the theater was full of oos and ahhs. I need to see how I can have the excuss to go again. To everyone out there go and see this movie it is so worth it. If you want to read the books I have them. Oh man; did I mention I loved this movie. Oh I just LOVED it.

Cascadas de Agua Azul

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Palenque

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My trip to Poza Rica (Palenque)

Palenque was one of the highlights of our trip we were able to stay in a resort for one night and got the royal treatment. We saw two amazing sites one was the Ruins of Palenque and the second was amazing waterfalls called Agua Azul. I have two slide shows.
To go to the falls you have to drive for an hour in a rain forest up a mountain. It was really scary to be honest. Most of the time the road was wide enough for only one car. At times the tires of the car in front of us; would be hanging of the side. But some how we made it. And what a beautiful site it was. The natural beauty was overwhelming. The rain forest in the mountains are amazing. There where many times I wanted to stop and take a picture of the views but because of the bad road conditions, we decided stopping was not a great idea. The crazy thing about it is there are little villages the whole way to the falls. They build their houses on the side of the mountains. They have corn fields that are on the side mountains. So every day they are working in their fields walking up and down these extremely steep slopes. They where the most fit people as a whole I have every seen. In my slide show of the falls there is a picture of two boys standing with me by a car. When we got to the falls they ran up to our car before we even parked and were yelling, "cuido tú carro." They were so cute. We were one of the last to leave the falls and sure enough when we arrived to the parking lot the two little boys where sitting on the ground behind our car. We gave each 10 pesos and they where so excited.

Campeche

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My trip to Poza Rica (Campeche)

Campeche it is about 2 hours outside of Merida and 7 hours away from Cozumel. It is a beautiful city. Beginning in the 17 century, Campeche was involved in many pirate battles. Spain built a wall around the city to protect it from European takeover and marauding cutthroats.

Campeche was my favorite city. It was beautiful, on the coast. It had green hills. People were friendly and they had grass in their yards. Now a little slide show of Campeche and then on to the next adverture.

My trip to Poza Rica (part 2)

In part 1 you will see google map click on the arrows so you can see Playa del Carmen. The island off of Playa del Carmen is Cozumel. Our trip was from Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Merida, Campeche, Ciudad del Carmen, Villahermosa, Palenque, Villahermosa, Coatacoalcos, Veracruz, and Poza Rica. I have lots to blog so, "Let's get it started (ha), let's get it started in here."

My trip to Poza Rica (part 1)

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Casa Rebeca

Daniel and I are trying to buy a house. We spend so much on rent every month. Plus right now with the economy the way it is people are more willing to give you better deals. We have been looking for a while now. But have not found a house which is ready to move in under $200,000 dollars. Apperently the real estate agents down here didn't get the economy memo. Although we have found houses that need work for good prices.

This house is called Casa Rebeca every house down here has a name and irronically this house has mine. Here are some pictures of the inside. Definatly we would have to rip up the tiles. They are a different color and patter in everyone. But the bathrooms are what need the most help. We would have to get new sinks, toliets, and seperate shower spaces and on and so forth. But it has potential. Here are a couple of pictures so you can see. I love the YELLOW everywhere. (NOT)

The house has three bed rooms. Two and half baths. Living room, dinning room and kitchen. But no yard at all. As you can see extreemly small space with only concrete.They are asking $70,000 for it. For me it is still pretty high considering all the work we are going to have to do but $70,000 is still a good price for a house right. I don't know anymore. Tell me what you guys think.

This is the kitchen. Did I mention that this house needs work.

This is the same picture which is on top of the post but Daniel decided to discover his talent in "Paint." When Daniel saw me creating this post he asked me to say, "If any of you need his assistance in remodeling give him a call and he can give you a quote for his moc-ups." But I have to admit it is pretty good.

Birthday

Thank you all so much for the happy birthday wishes by phone, email, and texts. It was a great day. Daniel really out did himself this time. We took the day off together. He let me sleep in. Then when I woke up he gave me a present it was two way cute dresses. So I wore one of them. When I woke up we went to a restaurant called Coffiala. There I ordered a apple crape and Daniel ordered a fruit plate then we shared. After our great breakfast. Daniel took me to a spa where we got massages, oh it was so wonderful. After our massage we came home and feel asleep because the massage relaxed us so much. When I woke up Daniel had red roses waiting for me. We then went to a restaurant and had (lunch/dinner) because it was at 4:30. Anyway the food was so delicious. After eating we went for a walk by the beach and watched the sun set. After the Hollywood sunset scene we rented a movie and enjoyed the rest of the night together. It was a great day because I spent it all with Daniel and we had a nice relaxing time.
At the end of the day he asked me if I enjoyed my birthday. I looked at him like he was crazy for having to ask. That's when I quoted the pigeon off of "Bolt" and said in my new york accent. "Are you kidding; this is the best day of my life." We just started laughing. That's when he said, "You see I am learning." I am so grateful for my wonderful husband. KISSES DANNY BOY. LOTS OF KISSES.

Not blogging

I am sure many of you are wondering why Becca is not blogging. In fact some of you have voiced to me my lack of blogging. So here is a recap of what has been happening lately.

1. One of our Team Leaders left our company the last week of August and since Daniel did not have someone who he thought was ready for the task he asked to me be the Manager of the Down Town store while he finds someone who can replace the Team Leader. I am doing this temporally because I still need to do my job which at the moment is being neglected.
2. I was released as the secretary of the Relief Society. Because the president moved out of our ward boundaries
3. We celebrated the Mexican Independence by watching fire works from our balcony up stairs. They were beautiful.
4. We had spirit week at work. I had been wanting to do this for a long time and so we arranged it during the week of the Mexican Independence. (Pictures to come on that.)
5. Taught little girls in our ward, age 8-11, how to make cookies and they ate the entire batch. They were so excited because they had never used an oven before. Some have an oven in their homes and some do not. But for those that do have one in their homes they don't know how to use it because their mom never had to to learn either. Crazy right. We sometimes and say I have no talents; but when you truly ponder about it, everything you know is a talent. Just because other people know how as well does not mean it is not a talent. It was good to help these girl discover something that we some times take for granted, so never say you are not talented. Start to look more fully at things you already know and appreciate your special gifts and blessing that God has given you.
6. My car has been in Cancun for 3 months. We had a friend working on it to fix the big dint in the door and while it was in his shop. His company got froze from the government and our car has been stuck there since June. I am going crazy but we are getting it back on Tuesday. I am so excited.
7. I am just going to say it. No I am not bragging. I just want everyone to know what is going on. In fact sometimes I feel so inadequate when it come to the calling. Daniel was called as the second councilor in the stake presidency. It keeps him very busy and me home by myself almost every night of the week. I am very grateful for the blessings we have received from his calling but sometimes it can get a little lonely around here. I need a new book. Any ideas.
8. I am playing the piano for the stake choir. You maybe thinking, I did not know Rebecca plays the piano. Well you are right I never exposed my little knowledge to you because everyone in Utah and Idaho can play so since I am not that great you never knew. But down here there is not one person in the stake that knows how so I am trying to get better. I have a lot to learn and I need help. If you have ideas on how to read music better and good tips on key fingering please let me know.
9. My birthday is on Thursday and Daniel and I are going to Tulum not the ruins but the City. We are planning to stay the day and night just for fun.

So you see we have been busy. Hope everyone is doing great.

Visitors

Daniels family came and spent the weekened with us. His mom, his sister Lili, his brother-in-law Zoram and their kids Anel, Helam and Anai. Also his neice Deneisse who is the daughter of his other sister named Consuelo. For those of you who saw my blogs with Monica. Deneisse is her younger sister.

And of course because it is a good price, close, and everyone wants to see it we went to Tulum again. Here are some pictures of the fun we had.

Anel

Anai

Again Anai

Anai with Voladores in the back ground. A traditional dance/thing they do in Veracuz, Mexico.

All the kiddos. Anel, Anai, and Helam. Sorry the picture is not that great.

Zoram, Helam and Daniel. I always realized the Zoram, Helam BofM thing but with Daniel there it is now the Scripture names. Cute!

Lili, Deneisse and Daniel's mom (Hortencia)

Me and Deneisse at the beach in Tulum. It was a great weekend.

Family Pictures

Back in June during our family reunion I was able to take some pictures of the family and how they are all growing. Here is Brad and Katie's family Ben is 6 years old and Emily is 4. They also have a little one on the way. A girl will be born to this family in December. They are living in Rigby Idaho and keeping themselves busy. Alena and Andrew's family. Kurstyn is 5 in this picture but is 6 years old as of July. They are living in Cliff, New Mexico. And are loving all the help they are able to give to the small ward and community. Scott and Lindsay's cute little family. Shelby was about 18 months in this picture. She will be turning two in December. They are living in Vancouver B.C. in Canada. Scott is studying at UBC and they are enjoying the culture diversities.

This is Melissa She won a prize for racing her car with the grand kids. She is living in Provo and attending BYU. Sorry this is not a good shot of how cute she is but it definitely shows her personality.

I was unable to get a picture of Randy's and Heidi's family. Hopefully next time. The reunion was great. It was all focused on service, thanks Alena and Andrew. I am excited for Scott and Lindsay's reunion idea for next year; Family History.

I lied; but not on purpose

To many of you out there I told you that a member from our corporate office came down to our store about 2 month ago. I told you he used my camera and left it in a place where it got stolen. Well when I was cleaning my house during swine flu drama I found my camera in a laundry basket mixed in with the clothes. Concussion I lied but I did not mean to. I do not remember getting the camera back for him. I think it was Daniel but he will not own up to it either. Maybe Aaron (corporate person) come to my house found my laundry basket full of clothes and mixed it in. So I would finally get around to it. This is the only reasonable answer to me.

P.S. Kristen have you checked all your laundry baskets for yours. Maybe it is hiding inside.

Swine Flu

OK so Swine Flu; was it some crazy thing that the news was making a bigger deal then really was. Yes or No?

Well my answer to this is yes and no. Because I ladies and gentlemen am an official survivor of the swine flu. You see I was not feeling very well on Saturday the 11 of July. On Sunday I went to Church not feeling well but it did not hit me hard until Sunday afternoon. That afternoon I was so sick. I had a high temperature and was weak. I could not eat anything. Daniel had to go to Cancun for his church calling and when he got back that night. He had an extremely high temperature. I am not exaggerating when I say it burned my hand to touch him it really did. Finally around 3 a.m. Daniel's fever broke. He was so hot that it left a body outline of sweat on the sheets about 8 inch out in every direction. My fever had broke about 30 minutes before his. Because of the major sweet I had to change the sheets for us.

The next day we still felt really bad but I had to go to the store and close the last hour. I just sat in a chair and waited for the hour to be over. I had an employee go and buy me a thermometer. When they got back I took mine and Daniel's temperature mine was 100.1 and Daniel 104.5. We were so sick. I even puked. So we decided to go to the hospital. We get there did all the doctor stuff and took all the test and sure enough the doctor told us we had the swine flu. She gave us masks and sent us home with a prescription that we had to present to the City Hospital and we would get our medication for free. We had to take the medicine for 5 days and we were corinteened to our house for 7 days. After the first 4 day I was feeling just fine so we did our spring cleaning. That was the best part of staying cooped up in my house for 7 days. Which can become very boring with no Internet and no cable. But it was nice to spend time with Daniel.

It was funny though. We ran out of toilet paper during the 7 days so we had to call some friends and have them drop off a package at the gate. I learned many lessons during this trial one being a year supply in everything is a great idea; not just food. :)

In closing yes the news made a big deal and made it seem like the world was coming to an end. But for a couple of day it kind of felt like that but after I got some good cleaning in. Thank you swine flu my house looks great.

Jen and Dario's Wedding

My friends Jen and Dario got Married on May 30 and Daniel and I was able to attend their wedding. I meet Jen through a friend named Ale that I work with. Jen is a sweet girl and her new husband's is great too. I wish them the best of luck in their new and happy life together.

Jen taking off her shoes in this picture. No one could wear shoes during the ceremony. That was kind of fun. Jen looked really Pretty.

These are some of my friends that I have meet down here. They are my English speaking friends. Faith, Cindy, Sonya, Ale, and me. Everyone has their champagne glass and I have my water. Yes it is water. :)

Jen and Cindy are both from Canada. Cindy played a little game with the guest where we had answer facts about Jen and Dario. As the price for the ones who guessed right Cindy gave out these little rapped packages that are full of fun games and toys inside. As I understood this is a Canada traditional prize. So one of our toys in our prize was these crowns. We ware them for the rest of the night. P.S. Daniel and I did not guess any of the question we just got them because Cindy had extra left over and she sat at our table so everyone at our table wore crowns that evening it was fun. I also got a little tic-tac-toe game as well in my prize and I can't remember what Daniel got I think a picture to color.

Congratulations Jen and Dario we love you.

Happy Anniversary

I love you so much Daniel. Already 2 years I can't believe it. It is true what people says, "Times flies by when you are having fun." Thanks for being my best friend. I love you so much.

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Happy Birthday Parker

Hi Parker. It is your turn for me to wish you a Happy Birthday. I love you so much. Man you have such a soft spot in my heart. You are such a cute little boy with such a sweet spirit. Your hugs and so wonderful. I am so happy that you are growing up and becoming so smart. You were such a cute little baby. So big and chubby. Thanks for being my buddy. Daniel says Happy Birthday as well. He loves it when you ask to talk to him. Happy Birthday little man with the big heart. You sure melted mine.

Happy Birthday DAD

I am sorry that it is so late but I wanted to say Happy Birthday Dad.

Thanks so much for teaching me the Gospel. Thanks for making me read well at the time I felt llike it was making me but I know now that you were helping me. I am sorry that I did not see it then. I still think the girl should have ended up with Andrew and not Johnathan in "They Loved to Laugh." Thanks for reading me my History Text Book as a Senior. I know that you love me and I love you too. Happy Birthday Papa.

Daniel and My trip to Merida

(These are called the Twin Sisters Mansions. They are right in the middle of the city. )

When the Swine Flu hit Mexico many people lost their jobs. So when I got back for visiting family in May. Daniel and I had to go to Merida so Daniel could attend a Regional meeting on the wellfare system. We went to visit his family on Saturday but they were not home so we went and got a hotel. That Sunday morning we woke up and headed for the church which is next to the temple. That is where Daniel's meeting was it is also about 30 minutes away from where his sisters Lili's house is. I decide I would attend a church meeting while Daniel was in his meeting. The Building is like some student ones in Utah where there is two sacerment rooms so you can have two meeting going at the same time. I went in the first one I found. While I am sitting there singing the opening hymn. I keeping looking at a lady that looks like Lili but it can't be because she has short hair. And Lili has long 80's hair. She has had long 80's hair in every picture I have ever seen and ever since I have know her. Plus we are so far away from where Lili lives and there are 5 stakes in Merida. But she looks just like Lili. So I have to check out the kids and see if they look like Daniel's nieces and nephews. But it took the opening hymn, the announcements, and the sacerment for one of Lili's kids to turn their head around far enough for me to recognize them. Anai got up to have her mom fix her hair clip that was falling out. That is the only time those cute little kids moved. I told Daniel later I am going to have to take some serious lesson on how to get your kids to sit perfect in sacerment from his sister because I for sure was not that good in church when I was a kid. After the sacerment I moved up to sit next to them. When I did they all looked at me with sup rise and Helam asked his mom who is that? He could not remember me. Well he recognized me but could not remember who I was. This picture was taken after church in our hotel room. The kids though it was so cool to have two beds in one room. They screamed for joy when they got to go into the elevator. Man it is so funny what seems so cool to you when you are a kid. Anel-8 Helam-6 Anai-4
THEY ARE SO CUTE!!!!

No I have not died

So I have been very busy. I last blogged over a month ago. I have not blogged about my trip, or crazy swine flu my families birthdays Alexia, Katie, Dad and mothers day or my crazy work schedule or my new calling or the trip with weekend. So here I go I am going to start. Wish me luck. I feel like I am going to die know when I look at this list.

Crazy, Funny, Fun

I wanted to write a list of crazy, funny and fun things that happened on my trip to Phoenix.

Crazy
For those who are going to read this first one it is not G rated. The rest are fine after that.

The night before Alexia's baptism I got so sick. I was staying at somebody in Heidi's wards mom's house and did not feel so hot. That night I threw up three times. Poor Missy because of me she got sick too the next morning. We were sick the whole day. So there we were laying on the floor, in Heidi's room, on our belly's right up until the baptism. Dad and Darren gave us a blessing after the baptism. We started drinking soups and juices and liquidy stuff like that when all of the sudden I needed to threw up again. But right at this moment Daniel called to see how I was doing. So I am holding the phone in one hand and the other is hold my bowl I was barfing in. Poor Daniel had to hear me up chuck.

Crazier
So as we all know while I was in the states the crazy swine flu broke out in Mexico. Daniel was a little nervous for me to come home because if I were to get it most likely I would not have the medicine to take care of it. Plus the news made a huge thing about it, "Everyone in Mexico City is dropping dead like flies." Daniel wanted to keep me safe so he had me extend my vacation. No complaints here. So I stayed I think about 8 more days at Heidi's. I had a blast Heidi and I made cards. Even Alexia and Parker made one with us. I played games with the kids read with Lexi and too Parker. It was so much fun. (Daniel was so worried about me he started trying to find out all he could about the swine flu. While doing so he discovered where it all started. I think the picture speaks for itself.) *
Craziest

This one is a toss up between two.

First one of these is that a continuation of the topic above. Well you see while I was talking to friends down here through e-mails and watching the news I started freaking out. So all us girls decided to go to the stores and get masks and hand sanitizer so that when I went back home I would be safe. Well we found the hand sanitizer but no masks anywhere. Not any Wal-Mart, not Target, not any of 4 Walgreen's we tried, and the one CVS like a Walgreen's. So here comes to the crazy part I walked into a doctors or worse a pediatricians office and asked for 3 masks. I told them I live in Mexico I was flying out tomorrow. I told them them that my friends had told me that they could not find masks anywhere any more. I told them I would be traveling to Huston where the baby had died and crazy enough the lady went back asked the pediatrician and returned with three masks. Thanks to whoever you are. ** Second is I was crazy enough to actually let people take pictures of me with my ridicules hair. This is one of the first and thank heavens one of the last pictures of this crazy school bus hair.

Funny
Parker and I where sitting across from each other talking about I don't know what when all of the sudden looked very serious with his head turned a little to the side eyes looking up at me opposite of the head turn I call it shifty eyes. With his lips pressed together and said so randomly, "You need some children." I laughed so hard. I told him he was right, kissed him on the head and started laughing again. Then like all children conversations we went right back talking about what ever we where talking about before.

Funnier
Elijah had a hard time letting himself like me. Until Heidi told me that Lij loves to be tickled. So I just had to try. After a few times Lij would come into the room where ever I was, look at me like he was ready to run out of the room and say, "Beta tictle me." I did it so often that I taught him him he needed to lay down very still with his hands raised all the up so I could tickle him perfect. I have never met a child who wanted to be tickled so much and was so willing to raise his hands up. Silly little boy.
Funniest
I know that Heidi already told the story so I am not going to tell it again. But the funniest thing said while I was at Heidi was the store of Parker asking his mom if she could baby-sitting his stuffed animals. For complete store please click here. http://yepthesearethedays.blogspot.com/2009/05/nine.html
Fun
Of course visited Cold Stone twice. Had to get my doses in until next time. Thanks Lex and Parks for eating ice cream with me. I still can't get over what Parker ordered. Watermelon Sorbet with Oreo's. I love you Parks but I don't know if I could sallow that one down.

Funner
As you have seen from others posts we meaning Alexia, Missy, Heidi, Darren, and I tried to take the pictures us in the air like Missy always does with her roommates. I was so much fun. We took so many stick pictures. There were a few that turned out on Heidi's camera but here is some mine the last one is hers.















Funniest
This as well is a toss up.

First going to the water park here in Phoenix it was way fun. Everyone played in the water and I pretended I was getting a sun tan. ***
Second was Shopping. Shopping oh and shopping. In the caption this poster reads, "All she ever wanted was a little credit." You want to know the scary thing is about this movie the name of the character is Rebecca and she like to be called Bex not Becky, SCARY.
Extra explanations that go along with the stars.
*This photo was actually send to Daniel in an email. It is gross as ever but still cute how kids ever manage to do both at once I will never know.
**When it was finally time to fly home. I got to the airport after all of this drama and realized I left my masks in Heidi's guest bathroom. I had take them while I was getting ready that morning so I could use it on the air plane. Man I was so angry with myself.
***You see I say pretend because I can rub myself with the Cancer, -10 SPF creme and still not get tanned.