Girl Party!

Bethy hosted a great girl party on friday!

Invited guests included:

Cool Cat Caroline . . .

thoroughly modern Mabel . . .

and adorable Annie!

We feasted on pizza . . .

had "not so much" slumber . . .

and the girls performed their own rendition of "singing in the rain."

Other interesting happenings:

Brandon came home after midnight from his scout campout because his tent filled with water. He returned the next am - I never heard him come or go.

Caroline woke up at about 12:30 coughing and wanting to go home.

In the middle of the night I awakened to find Mabel strutting across the playroom in her high heels (see above pic of said shoes.)
Needless to say, we had lots of fun all around, and little sleep.

Shut Down

Well, it's official. President Calderon has shut down all "non-essential" (essential meaning police, hospitals) businesses in Mexico City until May 5. Dad-the-bad has defined his business as "essential" and is at the office. Ironically, my job - the clinica movil - decided they were "non-essential" and shut down, so I'm at home enjoying my chocolate.

and here he is . . .

Asher Ryan Reed - couldn't be cuter . . .



and Ryan couldn't be prouder . . .












nor could the rest of the fam . . .









A BIG THANKS to: Bethy - for a great birthday party, cake, slumber party, and comfortable housing for several days! , Brandon - for accompanying me and the girls to the zoo and riding the train once again, Carrie - for letting me stay an extra day and making me her awesome roast chicken, and Ryan and Brianna - for having such a cute baby and letting me hold him - even if I am from Mexico - and letting us have a party at their house. Pretty brave!

Not to worry, folks!

If any of you have been following dad-the-bad's blog, you may have concerns that all grocery stores in Mexico may close due to the "swine flu" epidemic and we will have nothing to eat. Fear not, my blogger friends. Having just returned from Houston, I have enough chocolate to get the both of us through this!

We have a Reed!!

Congratulations, Ryan and Brianna!! I can't wait to see Asher in person. You guys do great work!

Semana Santa - Part 3

While the kids in the U.S. are hunting for Easter eggs, Mexican children are burning effigies of Judas Iscariot. We took the metro back to Iztapalapa to witness this. The entire town turned out to the event, including the local band.
Turns out, Judas was not the only "guest of honor." They also burned three other effigies:














These included an archeologist, who had done the town proud, Santo, the famous wrestler who brought fame to Mexico, and a pastor of one of the prominent churches in town. They were all blown to smithereens. We were in the top row of bleachers, surrounded by quite a few children. Because there was a strong wind, when the fireworks began, it blew sparks and debris in our direction. The children all began to cry and ran for their lives.

And now for the special attraction: La quema de Judas:
(Warning: The following video may be disturbing to children)



And once again, good triumphs over evil (well kind of)

One note: Because of the potential dangers and pollution the fires can produce, the burning of these figures was banned this year. Don't you love how they follow the law here?

Semana Santa -- Part 2

The best known of the Semana Santa activities is the Passion play, known as Vía Crucis, which is a performance re-enacting the crucifixion of Christ, including the last supper, betrayal, and procession of the 12 stations of the Cross. Although the annual Passion play takes place in many neighborhoods throughout the nation, the most ornately staged is in Iztapalapa, a suburb of Mexico City. The traditional presentation began in 1833 after a major cholera epidemic killed off most of the neighborhood's population. The survivors decided to express their appreciation to "Nuestro Señor" who they believed had spared their lives. We took the metro to Iztapalapa to get a glimpz of the proceedings.

The entire town gets involved in the celebration - utilizing more than 3,000 nonprofessional actors, and it attracts more than crowds of nearly 2 million people. (I believe we were the only two gringos, however)

It was amazing how much time, money and effort are devoted to the entire spectacular, which is a 5-hour procession. (We didn't stay the entire length)

This is a picture of me with a few of the "disciples." There were hundreds of them.
Being a Roman soldier was also a popular part. Most of them were on horseback. (This is before the procession.)
And here's a small part of the procession . . .



Because we didn't have the five hours to watch the completion of this one, we attended an abbreviated version in another borough.




This certainly has been a week of cultural enlightenment and I have to admit, the people here focus very passionately on the religious aspects of Easter. However for me, the general conference address given by Elder Holland last week was far more moving and penetrating than anything I have seen in the past few days. Go here to view his talk. Audio and video archives
or Easter Message—None Were with Him,"

Semana Santa in Mexico City - 1st in a series of three

Since Surf hasn't made his appearance, we decided to spend Easter in Mexico City, exploring the culture. Easter, or "Semana Santa" is quite an event here that actually trumps Christmas. All schools are out for two weeks, and EVERYONE has at least three days vacation. Don't bother looking for jelly beans, chocolate easter eggs or easter bunnies. You won't find them here. (Believe me, I've tried!) What you will find is a plethora of Easter-related events, albeit each quite different from those in the U.S.

The first event we are highlighting is a tour of "las siete casas - arte y simbolismo en Samana Santa". This tour is hosted by the "gobierno federal," or federal government. We immediately noticed a quite obvious lack of "separation of church and state." As we boarded the bus, we were given a small tin enclosed with rosary beads, and a Catholic prayer book.

The two-hour tour of seven magnificent churches in the Centro Historico was guided by a very exhuberant Catholic host.

Our first stop was at San Francisco Grande, a Catholic church built in the 1600's. Note the flat surfaces on the face of the facade, which once displayed saints and apostles, but were stolen or removed by the "gobierno federal."



Next we visited San Felipe de Jesus, another Catholic Church. Interestingly, many of these churches were founded by Jesuits trying to save the "Church" from reform.


Just around the corner was San Felipe de Neri, yet another magnificent Catholic church.
Services were in process when we arrived, but that didn't stop our guide from taking us on a tour explaining all of the interesting architecture while the pastor and congregation were worshiping.


We next visited the Templo de San Bernardo. Note the beautiful engravings, all in pure gold. This one represents the "sacred heart."


Next, the tour took us to a beautiful church, the inside adorned with mural mosaics. We found this one the most interesting. It reads: "Maria Salvadora del Genero Humano" (Mary, Savior of the human race)


Another church - Nuestra Senora De Valvanera - boasted similar sentiments. There they displayed this image, which they call the Sacred Heart. Our guide was quite distraught about this, because he said it was incorrect. The heart displayed actually is of the "Siete Dolores de Maria" (seven pains of Mary.) He didn't seem to be bothered about the description of Mary being the "Savior of the human race," however.
Our final stop - at Concepcion Convenio - one of the city's first churches - actually a convent. At that time there were 40 others, all but this one were destroyed. It also contained the first hospital in Mexico. Cortez had the church built, and was buried here. Ironically, we couldn't go in because they were cleaning. (Apparently it 's OK to interrupt a mass, but interrupting cleaning is a no go.)

Very interesting tour - we visited seven churches - all within a few blocks of the Zocolo. I almost felt like I was in Utah, except with a Catholic flare.

Hey Harpdogs!

How do you like the color you picked out?
Comments, anyone?

San Miguel de Allende

Since we had a weekend off from church duties, we decided to take advantage and take a day trip to San Miguel, a quaint little town 3-4 hours north of Mexico City.

This is the entrance to the city.
Visiting San Miguel is like taking a trip back in time.
The town owes its founding to a few hot dogs. These hounds were dearly loved by a courageous barefooted Franciscan friar, who started a mission in 1542 near an often-dry river 5km from town. One day the dogs wandered off from the mission and were later found reclining at the spring called El Chorro, south of town. The mission was subsequently moved to the site. This picture is looking down from El Chorro.

One of the most famous landmarks in town is Parroquia de san miguel arcángel. The parish church's pink wedding cake' towers dominate the landscape. These were designed by indigenous stonemason Zeferino Gutiérrez in the late 19th century. He reputably based the design on a postcard of a Belgian church, and instructed builders by scratching plans in the sand with a stick.
Less famous is Templo de la Concepcíon, a splendid church with magnificent old oil paintings.

San Miguel is internationally recognized for its magnificent light, colonial architecture and enchanting cobblestone streets.

The people are pretty laid-back . . .
and quite creative. Here's a tip: If you want to sell your house - buy a can of spray paint and advertise on your garage door. Much cheaper than a realtor!
All in all, it was a great day. Unfortunately, the town was swarming with federal police and national guard. There were big trucks full of police armed with machine guns on almost every street. By the time we left, they had blocked off the entrance to the city and we had to exit via an alternate route. We were glad we hadn't made reservations to spend the night.

Dear Fernash,

Please post another blog entry so that the last one people see is not the "Dirty Pants" story. I would be happy to provide a plethora of embarassing stories of you, (such as the incident in McAllister Park) if you're at a loss.

Love,
MOMYOURFAVORITEBOMB

our lovely neighbors . . .

Regarding the aforementioned police activity of my previous post, I found out today that they were capturing Vicente Carrillo Leyva #2 in command of the Juarez drug cartel. He was exercising in a park - the park which DTB and I have frequented on our sunday walks, approximately 1/2 kilometer from our home. His father, dubbed "Lord of the Skies" for sending entire planes filled with cocaine to the US, was considered the #1 drug trafficker in Mexico until he died in 1997 during plastic surgery trying to change his appearance. If you want to read the article, go to my gmail inbox or ask me to send it to you. (the link won't work from blogger) And you guys thought I was going to be bored here!

This makes me even more uncomfortable

Many people ask if we have been affected by the "drug war" here that has gained world-wide attention. I usually admit that I have only seen it on TV. Today, however, I was taking my usual route to the hospital through our lovely, peaceful neighborhood when I encountered a massive blockade of police cars with a crew of men dressed in black guarding the blockade pointing machine guns at me (and other drivers) to persuade us to turn down another street. I was persuaded. I would have taken a picture, but didn't have my camera, and I've heard it's not a great idea to take pictures of the police (or anyone else pointing a gun at you.)