We have been busy. I am finding this babysitting stint with the boys to be a double-sided coin. I LOVE spending time with them. But, I sure do miss the 10 or so hours it takes out of my week! Will has been the sweetest little guy, very obedient with very little questioning or argument, and very helpful. If I need him to keep an eye on Atticus while I go down the hall to the bathroom, he jumps to the task. If I ask him to help get dinner on the table, he is right there to help. If Atticus gets fussy in the car, Will amuses him. He helps me find what I need when I don't know where to look. I couldn't ask for more from Will. I am so proud of the little boy he has become! Atticus is a hoot. He wears a sunny smile the vast majority of the time. Even when I know he is tired, he's still smiling. It is such fun to walk into his line of vision and see the sweet sweet smile I get from him. The little stinker has learned about the camera. He knows that there are pictures of him in there and he wants to see them. I think he has a real desire to get his hands on the camera, but I try to be particularly careful that doesn't happen. I'd just turn up my toes and die if something happened to my camera--it is one of my all time favorite "things" in life. He's pulling himself up on EVERYTHING now and I predict he'll be walking very soon. Anyway, we've got a bit of a routine going. I'm on my own Mondays which makes them hard. Joe comes along on Wednesdays. He's not a lot of help with the kids but he is a help with Jason. That alone takes a lot of stress off of me. Of course, Jen pays me and the little bit of extra cash is a help. It allows me to do a bit extra without going to the joint bank account which has been downright anemic lately. But, I'm not getting rich. I had to giggle when I figured this next bit out--I will babysit two nights this week and Jen will pay me $50. I will give Joe $6 for gasoline or put $6 of gasoline in the car. I need to pay tithes of $5. I will need to do a drive thru meal tonight because there is just NO TIME to cook anything after Will's swim lesson. For Will, Joe and I, that will cost about $18. And, Will has been selling those entertainment books (go to the XYZ restaurant, buy one dinner for $10 and get half off a second dinner). I've agreed to buy one for $20. So, subtract all that out, and I will make $1 for babysitting two evenings. Not that I am looking at this as a grand money-making venture! Jen offered me more money and I just couldn't take it. These ARE my grandchildren, for heaven's sake! And most weeks, I don't have to buy an entertainment book so I make more like $20 for babysitting. But, I DID think it was kinda funny how it worked out this week.
Some friends of ours popped in yesterday for a visit. They are also clients so the purpose of their visit was to drop off the records for the year to date so we can do the accounting necessary. But, it was really interesting to talk with them. They retired and moved to Mexico. Joe and I are thinking we're going to have to do something like that ourselves since we certainly aren't able to save anything. The amount coming in is literally less than the amount going out each month....... Our friends have been in Mexico about 5 months and they're very happy with their decision to move there. They've moved to an area outside of Guadalajara where there are a lot of "gringos". In fact, according to them, everyone on their street, except one house, is a refugee from the US. I think maybe one thing caught them by surprise. They found they really have to wait 2 years for medical care there. Mexico has a kind of socialized medicine--you pay $300 a year and that is the total cost for doctors and hospitals. And, if you've read this blog, you know that medication in Mexico is dirt cheap compared with what it costs in the US. But, there is a two year waiting period under their law. So, one of the things they were doing back here in Vegas was seeing their doctors to check on meds, etc. Because they bought a home in a substantially American area, they paid more for it, about $120,000 for 2000 square feet. And, Dottie, being the perfectionist she is, has already put about $30,000 into the house. Part of the upgrades was a water filtration system to make the water potable. But everything else was to pretty-fy the place. They were able to pay cash for the house with the money they got out of their home here and their car is paid for. So, they just have monthly expenses. Car insurance which is a) car insurance and b) takes the place of licensing and registration runs them $200 a year. Water is free and unlimited. They pay about $30 per month for gas and electric combined. She says food is substantially cheaper there as long as you are willing to buy Mexican brands. Of course, if you insist on US brand names, it's costly. She feels she'll be able to bring their food cost down substantially with time--more time to learn about different resources, more time to learn more of the language, more time to become more familiar with Mexican products. There is a Costco about half an hour away in Guadalajara, but she's only been there once. Some canned good are hard to find so they are taking 3 suitcases full of canned goods home with them! She has a cleaning lady she pays $4 an hour. She says she could probably get someone for $2-$3 an hour but this lady came recommended as being hard working and honest so she's more than willing to pay the extra. Their yard guy charges the same--$4 an hour. Gee if we could get that kind of a deal here, our yard maintenance expense would decrease from $85 a month to something more like $8! They have all their mail sent to a Mail Boxes Etc in Laredo, Texas and the MBE trucks the mail down to them every few weeks--this is a facility used by a lot of people in their area so it's worth it to the MBE to add this extra service. But, they do all their banking and receive their bills via the internet so the extra delivery time is no problem. Their phone service is through Vonage so no one has to pay exorbitant rates to call them because it's international. Phone service costs them less than $30 a month. But their Social Security (US) benefits are roughly equivalent to what ours would be and they are living well and saving!
My idea has been to live in a small town just across the border in Mexico. Los Algodones seems as good to me as anywhere else. At least we know they have water and power available. Then if you want or need something only available in the US, you're literally only 15 minutes away. Just cross the border and go to Yuma to go to Sam's Club, a US doctor or hospital, or to see a movie if you can find one fit to watch. But, your home, your electricity/gas/water, the bulk of your groceries could be purchased south of the border at substantial savings. And, since Joe claims he'll NEVER retire, he could always set up an office in Yuma and do loans and loan signings just like he does now. A fifteen minute commute is no big deal! We have agreed that on our next Mexico trip we'll take out Mexican insurance on the car, and do some driving around to scope out the area a bit better than we're able to do on foot.
In scrapping news, I've been asked to join another Creative Team. This one is for a store and I really like the way they operate. When a designer puts up a new kit, it goes straight into a download area. Every morning when I sign in, it's like Christmas. All sorts of new goodies to play with with absolutely no effort on my part! I don't have to crawl through the store picking and choosing what I might want to work with, ask someone for links, wait for the links, and then finally get to scrap. When I have a photo I want to scrap or an idea for a page I want to do, I want to do it NOW. I don't want to wait and wait to even start. So, I'm thinking I will accept this new offer. Time demands being what they are, I may decide to drop the store I scrap for now. It will be less frustrating, I think. I'm trying to cut back a bit on the CT demands anyway as I have a mountain of scrapping products I've never been able to use or have only used once and, as I get older, I like deadlines less and less, LOL. I've got some other places I need to spend a bit more time too.........
Well that's all the blather for today. I'm going to post some pages, just to push through a bit of the backlog and get on with other things I need to do.
I took these photos of the border crossing on our first trip to Mexico. I used Katie the Scrapbook Lady's International Flags Background Papers and International Flags Glass Buttons for this page. The stitching (recolored) is by Andrea Burns; the palm frond is by Dani Mogstad. The chipboard palm tree (recolored) is by Mirranda Reinhardt. The dotted ribbon is by Christine Smith. The cardboard edging is by Amanda Rockwell. You can find Katie's International Flag papers and buttons at The Digi Shoppe. Amanda's Cardboard Edges are available at amandarockwell.com.
Well, what can I tell you? This started out as a page using page 1 of Melanie Colosimo's Backyard Adventure 2-page template set (available at Elemental Scraps). I've rotated it and done a lot to make it my own--which is one of the great things about templates! Melanie, do you recognize it? The papers are by Amanda Heimann from her Summer Lovin Collection (greens slightly recolored). I've also added an All Stuck Up negative frame by Amanda Heimann (CUTE collection), decorated with a Rose Farver bow and some Poppin Swirls by Tracy Ann. You can find Amanda Heimann's designs at Plain Digital Wrapper.
I have so many photos from Will's baseball season. When I saw the Ad Challenge at DSD, it was the perfect inspiration to use some of my baseball photos. The red paper is by Amanda Heimann, her Cinco de Mayo kit, available at Plain Digital Wrapper. The alpha is called the Victorian Circus Alpha and it was created by Lynn Grieveson. Lynn's products are available at Designer Digitals.
I had forgotten how frustrating it can be to try to feed a baby. Everything that goes in seems to come right back out! Grabbed this shot a couple of weeks ago during a carrot-feeding adventure. At least he's not going "phbbbbt" with it yet! I used Lynn Grieveson's new kit, Lazy Days, available only at Designer Digitals, for this page. The applique carrots are by Mary Fran and the orange ribbon is by Natalie Braxton.
Recently, my cousin sent me a CD with over 500 old family photos on it. As I was reading blogs, I ran across the words to this old hymn on Janet Phillips' blog. I remembered how often we called on Aunt Ethel to sing this song, and a layout was born. LaWanna Desjardin has a kit that fit the colors I needed beautifully--Sons and Fathers at O Scraps. Lynn Grieveson has these cute little birds available at Designer Digitals, her element pack called "Tweet". I recolored the bird slightly and gave her a new wing using LaWanna's papers. (That makes that little bird kit amazingly versatile, y'all!). I used the Rounded Fillabet by Katie the Scrapbook Lady for the title.
Love this photo of DGS Atticus and his Mommy. I used Cindy Simon's Relic paper pack, available at NDISB. The frame on the photo is by Katie Pertiet. The big bow is by Natalie Braxton. The tiny flowers are from Amanda Rockwell's Flower Punch element kit available at amandarockwell.com. Cardboard fold by Linda GB. The closure holding the fold back is by LaWanna Desjardin, her Soft Hearted kit, available in the Friends and Family (to benefit the family of Carla Gibson) part of the store at O Scraps. I saw this quote on someone's layout recently but I can't find it again to give proper credit. The quote stuck in my head but I didn't put the layout into my faves. Sorry.......
I recently received a CD of old family photos from my cousin and these photos were on there. This is my cousin, Anda,.... I used a shape template by Dani Mogstad to create the rays. The scalloped frame is by Jennilyn Designs and the ribbon embroidery is by Becky Vosburg. The beautiful flowers were extracted from one of the beautiful papers in this kit. The kit is called the Floriade Collection and it is by Anita Stergiou whose creations are full of beauty and great attention to detail. You'll find Anita's work at NDISB and Pickleberry Pop.