Aug 3 2007 TOP TEN

So here we are the long awaited date, and do you believe it? NO NEWS FROM THE GOVERNMENT! Typical, really, but still disappointed. I have been so depressed this week, really bitter, angry, beyond sad, is more descriptive and accurate. I don't know if you noticed that I didn't even write a top ten last week. But here we go again, I think I have surfaced enough to muster the positivity to write this again, so her goes...10. On Mon the 23 I went to the red cross here and they took out an ingrown toenail that I have had for months. I looked into having it done in the states while I was home, and it costs hundreds of dollars with no insurance, so I thought I could stick it out. Not so much It was a little more aggressive here, but it cost 7 dollars, 70 pesos, NO PROBLEM!!

9. Two Sundays ago they out Jusitno in the bishopric. They interviewed him during sacrament meeting and sustained him ten minutes later. The stake president said that in other wards often a lot of prayer and fasting is needed because so many people could do the job, but he laughed as he said that in our small branch the choice is so obvious, that no prayer is required, and said he was sorry that the counselors kept leaving the stand. After every one thrilled, and I was angry. No one asked me if I would give away my husband for MORE church work, as if a stake calling and four ward callings wasn't enough, he didn't get released from any others, by the way, He took me home and spent the whole day at the church. I prayed and swore at God, and told him how angry I was with Him, He sent me to the scriptures and D and C 100 comforted me. Especially when it says that Zion is chastised for a time but will be redeemed, or something like that, it means we will be home someday.

8. I also got the feeling that I need to make my life more conducive to it being just me and Eva, so we rigged some gates around the stairs so that she can crawl outside and not die, and that has been really fun for her. She is still not walking, she stands alone, and takes a few steps but still

not walking, but really have you seen a cuter baby?

7. I got mad at Justino one day last week and so I ran away, and drove all the way to the beach by myself. It took an hour and a half, and I was triumphant that I knew the way and didn't get lost. It was very healing. I need to be alone. That baby never leaves my sight. I am a little sick of here, and her dad.
6. On the 24th I was said that I was missing the party, and wanting to feel American so we bought a dominoes pizza. It was fun.

5. I went to the grocery store alone at 10p the other night to buy food. Another personal, all by myself, triumph. By the way that is not the time to shop here, I waited in line for like 30 minutes. When I go at 9 in the morning, there are no lines. Mexican are night owls.

4. This Sunday I cooked for the whole bishopric and their families, gotta love crock pots, we had chicken legs and frijoles charros. SO GOOD, I was really impressed with my Mexican cooking skills, so were the members. We ate at the church and then I went home. Justino was there until seven. The poor other counselor lives so far away that his family has to come and stay with him the whole day. I can't believe the way members sacrifice here. Church is so hot, that I rarely feel the spirit with sweat in my eyes, and I just sat there Sunday and thought about how nice the chapels are in Utah, and how close to home they are for every body. IF you live in Centerville you can throw a rock at your church. WOW I miss that.

3. After the marathon that is Sunday, Justino and I laid in bed all day and played with Eva and watched "Friends". At one point I turned to him and said, " Remember when we lived in Mexico and we laid in bed all day and watched friends and we were so sad and missing the states, and longing to work, don't you wish we could go back there?" We both had a teary cry and got some perspective.

2. The flea market on Thursday has been on my top ten lots before, but I LOVE it so much. This week I took pictures. Someday I am really going to miss Thursday mornings.

1. In the middle of writing this we had a HUGE thunder storm. The maids downstairs started yelling, they call me Justino, because they don't know my name, because I had clothes on the line. Jusitno is visiting his sister, with Eva, and I am having a break. In a panic I ran upstairs and took down the clothes. The water hadn't come yet but the thunder was shaking the building. I got the clothes down just in time, and then the biggest fattest wettest rain began to fall, and something old inside of me came alive. A part of me that has been stifled by adulthood, and motherhood, and third- world-country hood, and I stood in the rain in my white night gown and gloried in the rain, until I was so wet that I slipped down the stairs to my apartment. It was like God had sent a cleanse for my truly troubled soul. I have been hurting so deeply, and he washed it all away. And for a minute I didn't have to wash by hand, or kill cockroaches, I was just me in the rain. And when it was all over, Brook Ann the Great was back.