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Changing it up.
When I go through any sort o traumatic experience or bout o depression- I do an revamp o the house- in some cases a pretty extreme revamp- like painting the front of the house bright purple. And it must run in the family because my mom does it too. 1 time my dad came home when they were first married and found that she had literally changed apartments. haha
Well, I have been dealing with some stuff lately and Ruben- knowing me as well as he does had a surprise for me when I got home yesterday. He had done an extreme makeover of our room. He ends up with some random paint colors and so he painted 1 wall in the bedroom with this sort of water and rag technique. He had like maybe 2 cups of paint - but this trick makes the paint go a long way- and it allows for the color underneath to come through. 
Here there are a lot more of our friends that do card readings or at least understand and respect the practise- so I am not as far out there to him. He has a picture of me and my mom when I was a baby and a picture o me when I was 5 on the table. It is really sweet. 
And a lot of it is not fancy or particularly special- but I love it. I found a copy of Van Gogh's Starry Night at the goodwill in a great wooden frame for like 3 bucks- yeah I could have sold it in the garage sale- ironically for more then I bought it for I would bet- but I love it- And when was I going to stumble on a copy of this painting in a great frame for only a few bucks. It looks great hanging in the kids room. Just clicking on
I have not been writing on my blog for a while- really I have not been doing much of anything at all- but we have been knocked way off our normal routine and life and we are trying to get back on. Schedules are getting back to crazy- and life is just clicking along. 
Anyway. It was not a big deal- but the kids had their dance performance so we headed to the casa de la cultura but unfortunately--- there was still no electricity- which meant no music which meant no performance. Now at least for this event there were tons of things going on. 
There were games all over the place with facts about Tortuga's and how and why to protect them. there was great art to look at - I fell in LOVE with one piece- but - that is certainly not in the budget. But still fun to look at. There was a huge group from Global Vision International http://www.gviusa.com/ - they are a group of young adults that do dive training and also do a lot of volunteer stuff and they had such great energy. It was a lot of fun. They did face painting- more games and more games- it was great way to keep the kids occupied until the lights came on. 
But we were starting to wonder if that was going to happen. It was getting dark now and we knew that if all of the lights are off in Tulum it is going to be pretty dark. It was sort of cool to see the all the little candles in all the restaurants. But then at the last minute- the lights came on and the kids did their show. It was really great. 
I dissappeared for a bit and got old!
well... older. I had my birthday this past week. My mom and my brother came down to visit me and it was such an amazing time. They got here late Saturday evening and had a really interesting flight. It was done on miles and they always bounce you all over the place. Well, this flight was no exception. But they landed and we started our good time.
On Sunday it was mostly just getting settled- seeing the kids and getting into the house. We rented a great little spot on the beach. It was a small little house with 1 bedroom downstairs and 2 beds in a loft upstairs. For us it was perfect.
We hung on the beach for the better part of the day with some friends and then we went to Le Zebra for salsa dancing. It was so much fun. We took the kids and Akilean did not take long to ask a very cute little girl if she wanted to dance. At 5 he is already a ladies man. And such a little gentleman. He holds open the door and the screen for me and Lena and he even did a little bow to the little girl after he danced with her and told her thank you. It was so cute. I can already see that he is going to be a wonderful man.
The food at Le Zebra was very good. The last time I ate there I was not totally blown away and I had heard that the food is really good here. I was glad that it was so good this time. The tortilla soup was killer- almost as good as my own. We all had a really great time dancing and eating. It was a really great start to our vacation.
Monday brought with it some real obstacles in the morning. I am having to deal with something that I never wanted to or ever thought that I would have to. But I guess all major problems and struggles are that way. The really amazing part about Monday was that the 100 chairs that were being donated by the Rotary Club of Cloverdale California were being delivered this morning. The local Rotary Club had sent out a notice and I was really surprised by how many people were there.
The chairs are beautiful. Brightly colored and perfect for the kids. They are very secure and that is wonderful. Some of the old chairs are totally falling apart and so this made a big difference. Elvia found out about my project and was able to secure funding to buy 100 new chairs and school supplies. I was so happy that my mom could be there for that. We used to do charity work together in Oregon and she was my inspiration for starting my project.
That afternoon we hung on th beach the whole day with some friends and my momma and brother. It was wonderful. The water was perfect and very calm and the whole day was a lot of fun. I even had some friends from San Francisco visiting Playa del Carmen and they came down to hang on the beach.
Then it was off to eat again - we went to Mateo's on the beach road and it was awesome. The food was great and I can see why this is such a popular spot. Then we headed off to La Llorona for my party. My friend Desire had gone and gotten me some beautiful flowers- my favorites- Lilies- then she had hung beautiful pieces of purple and green fabric to really make it MY party. Ruben had booked 2 killer bands. The first band is bandiCoral and is amazing. We had a great time dancing to them. Then the 2nd band was DNA and then were great too. We had so much fun and I danced my little but off. Everyone seemed to have a great time.
The party continued back at the beach house but when we got there- we found out that we had no electricity. :( There was a problem with water pump and so it ran and drained all of the generator. But we still had a great time.
The next day we hung on the beach again and enjoyed the water and the waves. For dinner we went over to Om and that was great. The food was great and we had a good time. My brother and Ruben were hardly able to stand up but we went out anyway. We had a good time but it was not a crazy late night- we were home by like 3:30 or 4. Well, I guess that is a late night.
On Wednesday it was time to get things picked up and got ready to head to Cancun. Mom and Ryan were leaving really early on Thursday so they were staying at a hotel right next to the airport. We hung out with them for a bit but then headed back to Tulum to have the hardest nights sleep in our lives. Man we crashed out.
There are so many more things to write about and tell about- but for right now... no.
Today is my 5 year wedding anniversary and I am going to go give myself a pedicure and manicure before I get a massage from my friend Gina- What a perfect birthday gift- and cashing in on a perfect day.