Laundry Day, kind of...

I have spent most of the day washing, wringing, spinning, rinsing, wringing, spinning and hanging up laundry.  Those of you fortunate enough to have never experienced primative laundry procedures just won't appreciate that last sentence, but think about doing ALL of your laundry by hand, EVERY TIME and you will come close.  Anyway, I just hung up the last load, grabbed the dry clothes, re-arranged the towels to dry better and came upstairs.  I had no sooner set down the laundry basket and then out of a clear sky, it started pouring rain.  I mean torrents of rain!  I thought about running out there and moving it all to the lines under the house, but then decided the heck with it, God must think I needed an extra rinse cycle.  It'll dry when it dries I suppose...

School is out

Well, school is over for the year! I don't know how I feel about this really. On one hand, I don't have to get the children up and ready for school each morning, which leaves me some quiet time, but on the other hand, they are all over me all day! Let me refine that, CHANDLER is all over me every day. Sierra has all but moved in with Grandma (who lets her read all night, sleep all day, and never makes her do chores) and Trey takes off with his friends at daylight (or earlier) and they are gone all day. I am rather afraid to ask what they do, I am sure it is something that I wouldn't approve of for the safety of all involved, which is why they disappear. Chandler, however, is up my behind! At first he was taking off with Joel or Gabbi, but since he has to stay in out of the sun until these blisters heal, he is driving me up the wall! I know he is my baby and I should cherish these moments, but if he climbs on me again today like he did yesterday, I just might have to kill him.

Oh, I didn't tell you we got report cards on Thursday. Sierra was in Standard III this year, but was far and away above her classmates academically, so next year they are going to skip her to Standard V. She did very well in everything, even Spanish and religion, which is odd only in that the only Spanish she knew was from one semester of homeschooling, and she has never been to a Catholic church or school before. Trey did alright on his report card, he went from Standard I to Standard II. His Spanish and religion scores were pretty low, but they let him slide anyway. I can't help him with his religion studies (I am not Catholic either) but maybe we can practice his Spanish over the summer. Chandler, my little Chandler, he will be repeating Infant I. I was afraid that he was going to have to repeat kindergarten back in the States anyway, and with only two months of school here, they really didn't have a choice. He reads well, but his writing, attention span and self discipline are just not ready for him to move on. He was pretty upset about that, and thought that he had failed and had to do it all over again. As a mother, I couldn't let him feel that way, so we told him that the teachers wanted him to get to do all of the cool stuff he missed at the beginning of the year. He asked me if he had to do again what he has been doing the last couple of months. I didn't want to lie to the little guy, so I said “We'll see.” Which every parent knows is double speak for “You will do what I want you to, but we aren't going to fight about it right now.” By the end of next year he won't remember that he has already done this, so he won't get mad at me. That's the plan anyway.

Lobsterfest is this weekend, and I had intended to go out last night and see some of the festivities, but ended up watching a moving with all of my boys (Rick, Trey and Chandler – Sierra has moved in with Grandma remember?) and then I fell asleep. I hope today to get to wander around and see what there is to do. I would love to try all of the different lobster recipes, but my rice and beans budget will put an end to that! LOL Maybe I will find just ONE that I really HAVE to have, and then convince my wallet that it can afford it! Ok, it is just after 7 am here, and I am sure that boys will start rolling out of bed in the next few minutes so I had better get going. Talk to you soon!

Really?! You have GOT to be kidding!

Chandler's blisters have come back so we went to see the pediatrician who came over from the mainland this morning.  The pediatrician thinks that Chandler is allergic to the sun.  Really?!  We live in the Carribean.  We got allergy medicine and we have to be religious about sunscreen and the clock.  It is not a game changer, but it will be challenging.  Wish us luck!

What a perfect day

This was one of those days I dreamed about before coming here.  The weather was perfect, the breeze was strong, the bugs were absent.  Today was Sierra's last day of school and her class had a swimming/bbq party at the beach.  We went down there this morning while the boys were in school.  It was so nice!  We came home to have lunch with the boys, then Sierra and I grabbed our snorkel bags and hit the water.  We held hands and floated in a school of mumbled that looked like a cloud it was so big.  We found a starfish, but made sure not to harm the little guy!  Sierra went under water with her snorkel to get a shell, this is the first time she has ever done that!  Her mask sadly has developed a leak though, so we had to cut it short.  I worked out a deal with the owner of a local resort though to let the kids use the pool if the hotel isn't full, so she headed into the pool.  When the boys got out of school, they headed for the pool as well.  I sat in the shade enjoying the breeze and drank a Coke.  They swam until almost dark before we headed home to make dinner.  A perfect day, and I only spent $12 BZ.  We have had trials and tribulations, but days like today make it all worthwile.  More days like this please!

Uh oh...

No rain yet, but stuff is blowing off of our balcony.  Going to be a good storm tonight!  Might want to check on us tomorrow, LOL.

Lobster season

Lobster season opened today!  Eating some of the seasons first haul, yummy!  The shell is thicker than any I have ever seen though, we had to use a hammer.

Water Taxi

We made it home safely from San Pedro.  Water taxi was a little bumpy, but everyone fell asleep except Trey.  Glad to be back on Caye Caulker, San Pedro is too busy and loud.  Now it is time to take a nap and listen to the rain.

June 15, 2012

Rick is on the computer again, so quick blog from the phone.  It is a quarter after seven in the morning, and it is looking pretty stormy.  We are getting ready to catch the water taxi over to San Pedro so we can get our passport stamps renewed.  If those storms roll in, that water taxi ride is going to feel like a rollercoaster ride!  WEEEEEEE!!!!

Goodwin Medical Journal

I know, I know. I have been promising daily updates and have failed to deliver. It is not my fault however, Rick has been hogging the computer and it is really hard to blog from the phone. Ok, enough of that you say! What has been happening to that crazy Goodwin family down in Belize?

Have we talked about my leg yet? I don't think we have! I got bitten on the inside of my left calf muscle by what is known locally as a Doctor Fly. It is a little yellow bugger (haha) that is not uncommon in Central America, but really not that common here on Caye Caulker. When it bites it has a venom that normally makes a nice large welt and is very itchy and lasts three to four days. I say normally, because apparently I am painfully allergic to them. I didn't know what it was, it was just another bite among many (mosquitoes just love me too) and I ignored it for several days. I finally got to where I couldn't walk on it at all so I went to the local clinic. *Side note here about the clinic and health care in general in Belize: Healthcare in Belize is free. I can go to the doctor every day (and have pretty much since the stupid fly bit me) and it doesn't cost a thing. They even give you your medication for free. This applies to basic medical care and not specialists or special medication, but hey, it is great! Our clinic is staffed by two nurses and a doctor. They are great ladies, and I will miss our doctor when she goes back to Cuba next month.* Ok, so the bite on my leg. I had let the bite go too long and it had created a pretty bad sore, which got infected and abscessed. Wow, I think I spelled that right because auto correct didn't go nuts, yeah me! Doctor started me on antibiotics, which didn't do anything and I was pretty miserable. It had swollen so much that my entire lower leg was bruised. After a week of that, Doctor decided to cut into it. That was an experience I won't share, let's just say that it was painful and disgusting and leave it at that. It does feel better now, that was just over a week ago, but I still have a very large hole in my leg and my leg is still a little swollen. I may have to go over to Belize City and have a specialist look at it, and that won't be free or even cheap. Sigh. Stupid fly!

On to the kids!

Sierra is fine, great in fact. She has opened up so much since we have been here, I can't believe she is the same child. She smiles, she talks to people, she does her homework with out even being told to. That alone was worth the move! She is far and away more advanced than her classmates, and next year they will probably bump her up to Standard Six, which is the last grade she can attend before taking the entrance exam for high school. She could probably pass the high school entrance exam if she tried, but I don't want to push her too far socially. Being ten and starting high school is tough. Well, she will be eleven next school year, but still.

Trey is doing alright. He has come to terms with the food and water here for the most part. He is still a little junk food junkie and will find change on the ground, or earn a dollar here and there, and run straight to the store for any kind of junk he can afford. It is a great motivator to get him to help around the house though, Sierra paid him $1.25BZ last night to do all of her dishes and kitchen chores, and he jumped to it! LOL He has been getting some bullying at school for being white, but it is only one or two kids and he seems to be handling it well. He has made quite a network of friends, and on Saturdays will often disappear until dark. Health wise he is doing ok, Chandler got infantigo pretty bad, but Trey only has a little. His heat rashes are going away, and if he gets one he will jump in the shower with out being told to. He is happy here now I think.

Chandler, my poor little white-as-milk toast, red headed, blue eyed baby! He is having the toughest time. He got several bad sunburns when we first got here, despite sunscreen that was designed to protect space travelers to the sun. He got a bad sunburn on his face that blistered, and from those blisters got infantigo that we have been battling for weeks. If you are not familiar with infantigo, it is an infection of Strep and Staph that causes blisters and painful pimples that have to be squeezed to get the pus out. The blisters have not been painful to either Trey or Chandler, but they look ugly and burst, and then the open sores are tender. Trey only had one blister and two or three of the pimples, but poor little Chandler's face was covered with the blisters and he has had those ugly pimples all over. Doctor finally had to give him injections in his little behind of antibiotics, two days in a row, but he is clearing up and will be ready to go back to school on Monday.

Rick (ok, so TECHNICALLY he is not a kid, but...) had an allergic reaction to something. We don't know what, but have narrowed it down to the cheap laundry detergent I was using, or something on a soda bottle. He got a rash with little blisters around his mouth that were weeping, it spread across his lower face. At first he thought it was fever blisters, but it wasn't. He couldn't shave with that on his face, and trying to apply cream to the rash through his beard stubble was darn near impossible! I took him to see the Doctor (you begin to see why I love the clinic here) and she gave him some antibiotics, allergy pills, and told us to boil some guava leaves into a tea to treat the rash. Rick was quite skeptical of the guava tea, but oh my heavens, does that stuff work! We have a guava tree in front of our house as it turns out, and I got a big double handful of leaves and boiled them down. I strained the tea and soaked cotton balls in it, which I applied for ten minutes four times a day. That rash, which had irritated Rick for over a week, and which nothing else seemed to even touch, was gone in two days. Completely gone. If you need some guava leaves, just let me know, I'll send you some!

Oh my, this has turned into the medical channel! Sorry, it's just pretty much what has been consuming our lives the last few weeks. We have medications that are every six hours, we have medications that are every eight hours, we have medications that are every twelve hours... I think I am the only one who knows who is taking what and when! Oh, speaking of medical channel announcements, Bridget, my mother-in-law, has great news to report. I don't know how many of you know, but she was a bad diabetic. Her A1C's were through the roof back in the states, and her blood pressure had been climbing. We spent about $280 a month on her pills up there, and that was with some discounts we got through the pharmacy and the manufacturers. Guess what? She had a small bout of stomach flu, so we took her to (my favorite place) see Doctor. She had been sick and hadn't taken ANY of that damned medicine for her diabetes. Rick told the nurse she was diabetic and when they checked her blood sugar, it was 126!!! It had gotten into the 300's back home, even with all of that medication. Her blood pressure was perfect. She has lost some weight, and since she has to walk anywhere she wants to go, she is getting exercise. So she is getting down toward a healthier weight, has stopped taking all of those medications, her blood sugar and blood pressure are fantastic, and she is getting (unwanted) exercise. I know SHE doesn't appreciate it much, but I am so happy for her. I really felt like we were just watching her die back in Georgia. I hope to get her healthy enough that SHE has to take care of ME when I get old! She is just ornery enough to outlive us all, and seeing the medical road she is now on, she just might!

Ok, so that is the good, the bad and the ugly on the medical front in Belize right now. I have had so many things that I have wanted to share with you that my mind runneth over, and I will be posting furiously over the next few days. Hold on to your hats folks! Since I have been down with a bum leg and can't really go anywhere (except to see Doctor!) Rick has been bored and hogging the computer. I think I finally fussed at him enough that he will let me use it now.

I have to go wake Sierra up now and get her ready for school, she is the only one not contagious with the infantigo, so she is the only one I have to drag out of the bed this morning. See you soon!

Gotta love Chandler...

Laying here here with Chandler, he sick and me with a bum leg, just listening to the ipod together when Steppenwolf comes on.  My son looks at me with his wide blue eyes and says, "They make good noise mommy!". Yes they do son, yes they do!  When Elton John came on he handed me back my other earpiece.  Ouch!