I did it! I made my own Etsy shop. I carved some linoleum blocks and made Christmas prints based on four different Christmas carols. They were really fun to make. They did not turn out exactly as I had imagined, but I suppose that is the fun of hand-printed cards. Check it out at AshleySamantha.etsy.com.
For Christmas, my family and I traveled to do some work in an orphanage in Mexico. We didn't know what to expect and it was even less of what we expected than we expected. It was fun though, and we only wish we had spent longer on our vacation, namely in warm southern California. We had to come home for my youngest brother to go to a New Year's Eve party. Boring. Here are some pictures: Rexburg right as we were leaving:
These are the dorms where we slept. There was a garage door on one side that didn't shut tight. It was very cold. But only $5 a night. My sleeping bag is awesome. The guy from Canada who was across the room from us and snored louder than anyone I've ever heard was not as awesome. They ran out of water while we were there and they told us not to shower unless it was necessary. Same with flushing the toilet. This is one of the girl's dorms. I'm happy to report they weren't as shady as our quarters. Here's a couple of pictures of the actual orphanage. There are nine dorms and a main cafeteria place, plus two camp sites for the volunteers. They run completely on donations. They have 110 kids. Each dorm has a single mom or a couple that live there to be in charge of the kids. It was actually probably the nicest orphanage in Mexico. They were very well taken care of and very used to American visitors. One day when I was walking through one of the kids saw my water bottle, walked up to me, drank the rest of it, than gave it back. Ok kid.
Me and my aunt Charlene loading and hauling trash into this pickup. The dump was WAYYYYY up the mountain. Actually a very beautiful ocean view location. They asked my dad and brother to take down a couple trees. Here is my dad risking his life. A bunch of people donated stuff for us to take down. Thanks to Broulims, a few dentists, the vet and my aunt. This is the orphanage. There were goats right by where we slept. And yes, that is a toilet seat for the goats to put their heads through and let us feed them leaves. We went to the most amazing restaurant called La Fonda. I had banana pancakes with coconut syrup. Char had delicious enchiladas. We shared and were very happy. The wall you can't see is facing the ocean and is just kind of covered, so they have blankets. And chickens. The best part was while we stayed at the orphanage we couldn't put toilet paper into the toilets. We had to put it in buckets. And if you accidentally did, you had to use a stick to get it out. But at this restaurant, flushable. So clean. We went to the coldest beach in the world. We think it might be Rosarita beach. Anyway. Cold. COLD! There was also a seal. Don't try to pet them though. My dad about lost a hand. After my dad and brother were so successful removing the tree other groups wouldn't dare touch, they asked them to take down this Oleander tree that was in the middle of the orphanage. If you didn't know, Oleander trees are poisonous. Why it was in the middle of an orphanage, I do not know. They put up a plastic fence around the cutting down area but as soon as they finished, the orphans jumped in to help clean up. They literally tore down the fence. One kid, I should say, tore it down. With his teeth. Then I looked over and saw the same kid holding one of the saws and attacking the fence. Not so safe. At least he didn't get poisoned. We didn't get to play very much with the orphans because we were working and we didn't have cool toys. They had tons of toys. It is hard to play with kids who are already playing and don't speak your language. They were attracted to the power tools though. My aunt suggested we take a big saw out into the middle and some would come play with us. We painted primer on the bottom side of this roof. (this is my mom by the way) The owner of the orphanage went by the motto, colored paint costs the same as beige. Buy color for happiness of orphans. Here are my dad and brothers putting tiles on the top of the roof. I also helped. I was amazing at it, in fact. The bad thing about this tiles was they were made of asbestos. Yep. Asbestos. In an orphanage. Apparently they don't have any regulations down there. On our way home we stopped in Ensenada. This is my hermano looking at a disgusting giant pescado in a wheel barrow. After it took us two hours to get through the border and hours of searching after San Diego my dad found this hotel for us. I would like to say I learned so much about conserving water, etc., but I did take two showers while I was there and intend to continue taking one every day. This was about the only time we were warm the entire trip. The one hour we sat by the pool on Sunday. Our trip really was amazing. I'm glad we went and equally thankful for my house and parents.
For anyone who didn't get my Christmas card in the mail, here is your digitized version (sorry I can't send them to everyone in the world). I hope everyone has a fun, safe, and Merry Christmas!
This year I have been on a quest to find things we used to have on Christmas when I was a kid. Not decorations, we still have tons of those, but movies and music. First I searched my Grandma's house for her Alvin and the Chipmunk's Christmas record. No luck. But I bought the cd for my cousin for christmas. I'm not sure she appreciated it as much as I had hoped. Maybe it wasn't a part of her childhood.
Then we searched her house for a video of Donald Duck snow fighting his nephews. It is the most amazing thing. We could not find it at her house, but youtube did not fail us! Behold the best snow fight ever:
We laughed our heads off when we found it! I love that coat! Cartoons are just not what they used to be. (Sorry for the german subtitles. You kind of need english ones to know what Donald is saying, things like, "That's unconstitutional!" or "I'll exterminate you!").
That is right. My grandparents have a player piano. (not the same grandparents I blogged about last time.) We had the greatest time tonight playing and singing along with it. (We only had my brother's phone which takes worse pictures even than mine.) It is an amazing machine. It is a regular piano until you open the doors to load the roll of paper and pull down the pedals at the bottom. The roll of paper has little holes cut into it and when they roll over the middle the piano plays that note. The person playing just pumps the two pedals back and forth with their feet. It is quite a workout. The keys just move on their own. Some songs we played were: Linus and Lucy (the best part was when my mom started dancing exactly like the Peanuts characters in "A Charlie Brown Christmas." It was amazing. I've never seen anyone dance like that in real life.) Christmas Melodies Sleigh Ride The Candy Man Can Pennsylvania Polka The Entertainer
The Christmas mix had this sweet sweet paper. You will have to rotate your head to look at it, I'm not sure why it comes in sideways. In every program I have it is rotated the right way, but I can't get it to upload vertical. Lame. But anyway, if you can't tell, those are shiny gold candles with paisley patterns on them. Christmas doesn't get any better than that.
