Ben

this is ben brown and i like to play sports

Lizzy

hi people of the world i am lizzy brown and i like to party and dance i am so cool because i am on the computer say hi to me!!!!!!!

Not again!

The staff at Walmart now officially hate me. Remember how I dropped a watermelon a couple of weeks ago and it exploded on the floor? This time I was getting down a six pack of Dr. Pepper and knocked off a single can, which punctured a hole as it hit the floor, spraying Dr. Pepper all over me and everyone else around me. The can just kept spinning and spraying, like it was break dancing. I wanted to help the cleaning staff, but they asked me to leave.

Stay tuned for cute pictures of Poodle on the beach when this picture upload system gets fixed.

MOMTHEBOMB's New Clothes

As I mentioned earlier, Poodle came to visit last week. Because she is the queen of shopping, I now have a new wardrobe, including:

cute jeans from the Limited (retail price $78.00)



darling black and purple dress (retail price $69.00)
dark blue shirt from Limited (retail price $38.00)
beautiful aqua wrap shirt from Ann Taylor (retail price $36.00)
pretty green crop sweater from Ann Taylor (retail price $79.00)


long-sleeved green T-shirt from Ann Taylor (retail price $28.00)
classy jade bolero jacket from Ann Taylor (retail price $88.00)
earrings - jade chunky dangly (retail price $26.00)
and, classic red hoop earrings (retail price $24.00)

all at the Poodle bargain price of $100.00 Is she amazing, or what?
Thanks, Brittany!

Poodle

Anyone want to see pictures of Poodle water skiing in Acapulco Bay? Too bad. She forgot her camera, and mine ran out of batteries. You'll have to wait until we get the prints developed from the disposable camera we bought.

p.s. She is an awesome skier!

Mexico is SO fun!

Poodle is coming today! We're starting out in Acapulco with some jet skiing, water skiing, and tons of water sports. We're going hiking in Desierto de los leones and we'll probably make a trip to Puebla and pick up my talavera. Anyone jealous?

Fun with the Funks

This week my friend, Dorothy and her family visited Mexico City. We had a great time visiting many sites in and around Mexico City

Acapulco
I actually found my way to our hotel in Acapulco with the help of a GPS donated by a friend of ours. He was having dinner with us Sunday just prior to the trip and sensed the anxiety of dad-the-bad concerning my actually making it safely to Acapulco without him. Good old "Garmen" not only helped us find Acapulco, but found the hotel, which was quite a task given that it was flooding because of the torrential rain, we'd never been to Acapulco, and arrived about 10:30pm searching for anout-of-the-way hotel.
Helpful hint for booking hotels online: Even if the "reviews" online are great, the fact that the hotel is only charging $45.00 (US) per night tells you alot!

The vendors had a great day at the beach. Dorothy bought seven purses!



We also enjoyed a "banana boat ride.




and the cliff divers were amazing!


They climb up this cliff (even in the rain) and dive into the water (after making the sign of the cross several times for good luck.)




We even stopped to buy roses from a sweet little family - $4.00 for 5 dozen.


Next trip was to the Anthropology museum and Teotihuacan.



This is a picture of us at the top of the Pyramid of the Sun.



Cholula
Thursday we drove to Cholula where we explored the ruins of the ancient pyramid, the huge Catholic church built atop the pyramid, and nearby Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl (volcanoes.)




We finished up with the Zocalo, Templo Mayor, Metropolitan Cathedral, and Palacio Nacional with many murals by Diego Rivera.

I had a wonderful week with great friends!

Bored?

I don't think I'm going to be bored for awhile. The reasons:

1. Dad-the-bad and I will be teaching Institute (in Spanish) every wednesday evening.
I have to teach by myself on the days that he is out of town (fairly often.)
2. I continue to serve as RS president because they have not called a new bishop
for the International Ward.
3. That didn't stop the Palmas (Spanish) ward from calling me into the RS presidency
in their ward, so we attend both for now.
4. I just talked with the head of the ABC Hospital Amistad clinic, who is more than
delighted to have me work in their clinic (for free, of course, but I'll take
what I can get.) I even sent him my CV that I translated into spanish.
5. There is still plenty of work to do with the Refugio which we help, although I
decided to scale back after they took the $200(US) worth of food from Costco that
I bought for them (they had a gas leak in their stove and the children were using
it, which was dangerous, so I bought food that didn't need to be cooked and told
them to stop cooking and use the other food) and they sold it on the street
instead of giving it to the children. I don't think I trust them anymore.

Preview of next two weeks

Tomorrow, my friend, Dorothy arrives and we're going to Acapulco. We'll also be visiting the pyramids, Cholula, and the zocalo. The next monday Poodle is coming to spend the week. We're going to do whatever she wants!

Where's Waldo?

Actually, Waldo's is my new favorite store in Mexico City. It is the Mexican version of the dollar store. That may not sound exciting to most of you, but everything is $1 (actually 11 pesos) and guess what I found there? Dots and Baby Ruth candy bars. I know, I'm pathetic!

Visitors welcome

I just booked a flight for Poodle to come visit us in Mexico! We're going to have SO MUCH FUN! Anyone jealous? Because you can come too!