"However far away...

However long I stay...
Whatever words I say...

...I will always love you."

L- was telling us tonite that he planted a watermelon seed thinking that it was going to become a tree. And that we should pay him for planting it for us. Well, it didn't. But it certainly grew into a watermelon. I guess we have good soil. It's huge! We have also grown one other watermelon (small) and a cantaloupe. All of these plants grew seemingly accidentally. The kids plant things all the time for the fun of it. I have yet to see carrots grow even though the girls are always putting the tops of them in the ground.

This is the third time (or so) that I've biked at night, and I absolutely love it. I was trying to think of a good metaphor for our night sky down here, but everything that came through my head has already been said about the night sky. I'm torn between biking down the roads with street lamps and biking down the roads that don't have light so I can see the stars better.

I thought it was fall here and got out my down comforter and all that jazz, but it's not. I was tricked with just a few days of cold. The kids went swimming yesterday, and it was so hot outside I was sweating. It smells fresh at night, a hot summer night. I breathe it in deep and try to hold that feeling in, so I can take it with me to the land of snow. It will warm my toes after the novelty of cold has warmed off. But I am SOOOO excited to see snow. THIS EXCITED. and babies. my friends babies.

C-- shoplifted the other day. But not really. and the grocery store knows us, we are there spending the same amount of money in one trip as a Mexican family makes in one month. I ran out to the car to get something I'd forgotten, when C-- followed me out there with a baggy of garlic salt in her hand asking me if that was the right thing to buy. I shooed her back into the grocery store, while lecturing her :) The security guard just smiled at us.

I wrapped 23 presents today, and that was just for my immediate Mexican family. I still need to figure out 2 gifts. It was a little overwhelming!

We played soccer on Monday and 55 minutes in, my team finally scored a goal. It was great. My team had a lot of perseverance. We had 14 kids at the field, and they were ALL ours. I guess that's a benefit of having a big family, instant team games. no neighbor kids needed!

One of the little girls, 10, let a teenager cut her bangs without asking if it was all right, and I told her she should always ask permission for hair cuts. Then on Friday I came home with my hair cut and she noticed and said to me, "Did you ask Mom before you did that??"

Two of my kids don't like to brush their teeth before they are actually leaving the house to go somewhere, so it can be gross in the morning if I don't intervene. I ask them EVERY MORNING about brushing their teeth when they get up, and I'm generally good about it for myself as well. On Monday I was cooking breakfast, and had gotten caught up in the yumminess and hadn't brushed my teeth, and right afterwards one of my big offenders asked me to read a book to her (C goes to school in the afternoon) so I started reading it to her, still in my jamas with coffee breath and everything. 3 sentences in she's all "fuuuu-chi" (which is what the kids say when they think something stinks) and "go brush your teeth!" I think she enjoyed having the chance to be the boss.

I'm home Sunday night. Not that I'm counting or anything. Save me some snow!!