star struck...

(I was interested in writing some emails and doing some job research today...just a temp job while I'm home for Nov/Dec, but the kids keep talking to me, and I can't really hide from them. I am the adult available! my brain is beginning to fry. 13 days the Manzanos were gone! They come home fingers crossed* tonite.)

This weekend was my 16 year old's birthday!


We got to go see Alex Campos in concert. There were a jillion people there, but we got there 4 hours early, and in Mexican time, that was probably more like 5 hours early because it didn't get crazy crowded until 9ish. Alex had a piece in his ear, presumably to hear his own voice singing/the other instruments, but it was RED and super obvious. My daughter who is deaf is embarrassed of her hearing aides, so I pointed it out, that he had a "hearing aide" too. No, she told me. That's so he can hear the piano and guitar.

After the show my girls took photos with a bunch of the touring band members. I tried not to take away from their excitement, but it was midnight, and cold, and I surprisingly wanted to go home!

The next night we saw the opening act again, Gerardo Mejia, perform at a local church. Yes we saw him twice in one weekend, but he was pretty good, and I only took my big girls to the concert. The second time we saw him, Joanne and I took all THIRTEEN kids to church. That was CRAZY. I don't ever want to do that again. We got to talk to Gerardo after he rapped his life away, I talked to him about Kentucky- He'd made a joke about it during his testimony "There are no Latinos in KY", and I LOVED that there was someone in Mexico making a joke that probably only I understood. The girls took pictures with him while I waited in the car.



(did you know how impossible it is to type an entry when every 30 seconds someone asks you "when are we eating dinner?" "who is cooking dinner?" "can we have chips while we wait?" "when are Mom and Dad getting home?" "so and so is making fun of me" "can I come out of my room yet?" "please can I listen to your music" "she wants to get me wet" gah. They are very dramatic about being hungry, and very literal about "well, you said we could LATER")

We have a couple children that think they need your undivided attention ALL the time. Do you know what makes them uncomfortable?? Public concerts. Everybody is focused on the performer! She ended up beginning a conversation with strangers by us, and manipulating the conversation so they'd ask her questions about herself. Then she made it very dramatic..."I wanna leave" "no I wanna stay" trying to get me to ask her what she wanted to do. Then she went and was taking someone's hat from them and hiding it, and putting her cookies in their pocket (one bite taken out of each) for their reaction. And then she made sure I knew all the silly things she was doing. Luckily I only had one child with me like that and not any others. When we are at home they need to continually be "helping" you do whatever you are doing, but really it makes you accomplish things slower.

We get a lot of people stopping by for help, food, clothes, applications for house builds, etc. As much as I love putting people in the right direction, I'm sometimes grouchy about being interrupted from whatever I'm doing to talk to these strangers. There are no "work" hours here. Today a man and his wife came, and actually knocked the door- instead of shouting "good day" from across the dirt road. It was a pleasant surprise as they gave US a gift! Tomatoes. I almost had the urge to invite them in for coffee even though I was on my way out the door.

One of our supporters sent down Starbucks beans and I've had a lot of fun grinding them and drinking TOO MUCH coffee. I don't nearly drink this much coffee when its not a fancy bean. I'm sure it's all in my head.

Today I tried making salsa with one of my "helping" children. I started to do it myself, but then she took over, then I said, "how am I supposed to learn if you're the one doing all the work?" She let me finish it, and it turned out good. Maybe I can make you some salsa while I'm home? (and hopefully tortillas too!)

Yesterday we were up late doing hmk b/c my kids said "our hmks easy, we just have to draw our house." I should have asked more questions, b/c when bedtime came it turned into "we have to draw maps of our house with every piece of furniture in them"

I enjoy watching the older children showing the younger ones how to play. They were jump roping this week, and even reading to each other.

I'm really looking fwd to a rest.

sigh.

by the way. I think ya'll should guess Gerardo's age.