viva las vegas

kim and i decided there is no better way to say farewell to summer than a quick trip to vegas. the first event of the weekend was lunch with maddie and mal at hash house a go go.  i really wanted to love this place but they were struggling that day...at least we had good company!

at night we headed to the jubilee theatre for an old school vegas 
showgirl revue with lots of sequins and feathers

after a breakfast of dunkin donuts and some quality time at the pool kim and i 
headed to the strip for lunch and some more of that vegas sunshine

then we got all fancy for our last night on the town...

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a day in the life at project manuelito

there's a certain rhythm of life we encounter in honduras. this being my third visit to the project, i know the pattern of the days. it's an amusing balance of a predictable schedule, coupled with the necessary flexibility needed when encountering the latin american culture. a culture where plans are virtually unnecessary, due to the fact that they often tend to change on a minute by minute basis. but even so, this is a fairly accurate glimpse of a day in the life of the manuelito family...

1: the big white bus that gets us to and from teguc for the week

2: we wake up to this glorious honduran sky...the sky is SOOO big here!

3: the kids get dressed in their school uniforms and we all eat breakfast together

4: manuelito now has it's own school on the property, the kids are in classes between breakfast and lunch [which is a typical school day here]

5: when the kids go to school, we go to work...this almost always involves the mixer and bags of cement

6: my first job was bending two hundred pieces of pencil rod into rectangles

7: then everyone else used metal wire to tie them to the rebar to make 'baskets'

8: then the baskets were laid on top of the walls to create the header...this was later filled with concrete

9: once school lets out, we usually end up with a few eager helpers

10: in the afternoon the kids have different chores to do like sorting beans or cutting grass with machetes...that one is not fun, i tried it

11: and of course there is never a shortage of laundry to be done

12: these guys are often wandering by and like to 'help' with the laundry...and by 'help' i mean they eat the clothes off the line when no one is looking

13: usually the kids have some homework to do...there was a lot of cursive letter practice going on last week

14: there is also time in the afternoon and evening to just play...soccer is usually the most popular option

15: once we're done working for the day we get to play too

16: electricity at the project can be sketchy. we went without for about thirty hours in a row this time...a record for our particular group. this is what no electricity looks like. no electricity means no running water. no running water means bucket showers and bucket flushes.

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the mouse in the house

i have a fear.

a highly irrational fear.

what scary monster gets me shakin' in my boots? mice. ick. while this is not necessarily unusual for someone of the female persuasion, i have the gift of taking this fear to new heights. normally, a mouse sighting would constitute squealing and standing on chairs. this seems only natural. but when there's a mouse in my house...it's a whole different story.

we recently had the unfortunate experience of just such a thing. it's life. it happens. but when it does, i cannot contain myself. when a mouse is heard or spotted on a different level of the house than the one i am currently occupying, my immediate response is to curl up into the fetal position on a chair and cover my head while repeating "mouse get out of the house". [the rhyme does make me feel a teeny bit better] but if said mouse is in close proximity on the same level, well then my insides start to shake and sheer panic sets in.

the extreme level of emotion that follows is not a normal occurrence, although my mom could make a case for my dramatic nature. i'm glad i don't have to wonder if she'll still love me when my crazy comes out. plus, she should get some kind of medal for being the only one who has to deal with it most of the time.

the 'incident' occurred when i came home alone one afternoon. after giving myself a pep-talk on being brave, a lot of banging, a very slow open of the front door and many shouts of "mouse, mouse get out of this house", i ran up the stairs thinking i was home free. instead, as i rounded the top of the staircase, i was met with an unwelcome surprise. after a few moments of near hyperventilation on my bed, i quickly ended up on top of the file cabinet in my closet, where i remained until i was rescued about thirty minutes later. [shout out to kim's dad and aunt for their kindness and patience]

see what i mean? irrational. thankfully, said mouse has now permanently vacated the premises, and i couldn't be happier. i know i'm bigger than they are, but i just don't want a mouse in the house.

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