In This Issue....
You'll be happy to know that Phillip the Fireman saw a little bit of action last week. And of course I have this week's Jello recipe!
Oh, and in case you haven't registered yet, here is the url for the National 'Do Not Call' registry. If you sign up for this, most telemarketers will not be allowed to call you. Mom thought you might appreciate this.
National Do Not Call Registry
http://www.donotcall.gov/
Make sure you check out the 'Back Issues' page. Even if you don't want to look at the old newsletters, you have to see how my Aunt Lisa redesigned this page. It looks great! Oh, and did you know there is a guest book on this page also? (hint, hint)
A lot of people have been asking mom is she has copies of the stores and poems she wrote earlier in the year. Specifically the T'was Two Weeks Before Christmas poem and the long email she wrote to everyone that talked about my science fair and all of the other stuff that happened during those couple of weeks. Mom does not keep copies of these things. She just writes them and sends them. So if anyone has copies of any of those emails and any of the recent things she's written, please email copies to my me at Crabby_Cakes@msn.com or to mom at MLHCrews@msn.com.
Articles and Links....
Wild Kingdom
The Wilkinson Chronicles Part II
More on the White Family
4th of July Poll
Jello!
Phillip the Fireman
Back Issues
I don’t know if these last two things qualify as wild, but they had to do with animals. Recently, mom discovered a mouse living upstairs, the first time she saw it, it was running from Paul’s room and has been discovered in closets, the bathroom, and behind the entertainment center. We have set out some mousetraps but so far they aren’t working. There is also this strange cat that showed up at our house, we think it might be our neighbors. Well, one night the cat was being annoying by meowing really loud. Mom told me to make it go away so I got a glass of water and the dumped the water on the cat, it jumped and ran back a few feet then came right back. I thought that was really weird that the cat did not freak out; I wanted to experiment so I went up to the cat and started petting it and then I just poured water on it and the cat actually seemed to enjoy it. Weird!
What kind of jobs are you looking for?
Well, I have only applied a few places, at English language schools. A couple of weeks ago a really good one emailed and wanted to hire me. The problem was that I had to attend a one-week training (unpaid, of course). I would not have cared but it was on the week that we were planning on going to the coast. So I decided to be a bum a little longer.
Is Ryan looking for any jobs?
He has applied a few places also. He thought that he had a job for a minute, but then they asked him how much he wanted to be paid. I guess he wanted too much. It would have been a sweet job too, as a secretary at one of our favorite restaurants. Guess how much money he asked for? $2 per hour! People don't get paid very well here. My job would have paid $7/hr. I probably should have taken it, but the beach was so fun.
Isn’t the money different in Mexico, though?
Yes, its pesos. So actually Ryan asked for 20 pesos per hour. And my job would have paid $100 pesos per hour and a half class. There are a little more than 10 pesos to a dollar right now, but it changes every day. I can buy like 5 or so homemade tamales for 20 pesos and we get 5 fresh homemade tortillas every morning for 2 pesos and 50 centavos.
How is Rowan?, I heard he is going to day care
He is the only one who works... That is our joke. He is the only one who has to be anywhere at a certain time. We take him to daycare M-F 10am-noon. We are kind of frustrated with it though, because he is sick like every week from something he catches there. He just came down with a cold yesterday. He is learning a lot of Spanish, though. Ryan said that the day before yesterday he asked him ¿Te gusta (some tamales, I think)
and Rowan said: Si, me gusta.
How is it where you are living?
Well, we live just on the edge of the western city of Oaxaca. There are not that many services this far out. A bunch of corner stores, with snacks and stuff, a pharmacy, taco shops, and of course some computer labs to access the Internet. There are no banks or grocery stores though. All of the roads here in Pueblo Nuevo are dirt, except for the ones right around the school. It is really, really muddy because it has been raining for days on end.
Besides rain, how is the weather over there?
Well, it is beautiful. Normally, it is like 85 in the daytime. Then in the early evening, the temperature drops a little and it will rain for an hour or so. It makes everything all green and the air get clean and cool. But the last two weeks it has been cloudy and raining all day. In some parts of Mexico, the flooding is so bad that people are dying. Did your mom tell you about our little water problem?
What water problem do you have?
We have a well at our house. We are on the edge of the pueblo and it is like living in the country very peaceful and beautiful. Anyway, in May it is very hot and dry and the well was almost dry. We had to be very careful with the water. Now that we have more water than we know what to do with. The pump broke and has not worked for like three or four days. I meant that the well is full, there is no pump to pump it out of the well. We were out of water for a day or two.
Then how did you get your water?
Well, you have a well at your house too, I think. Except your pump pumps the water right into your house. At our house, the next door neighbor/gardener, Seraphin. Climbs on our roof with a hose and fills this tank up there. Everything is gravity fed. So, sometime lst week, when he went to fill our tank, he found that the pump was broken. There was still a little bit of water in the tank. So we just did the bare minimum. No washing dishes or showering. And we only flushed the toilet when it was totally necessary. Still, we ran out and then we had to pour bottled water in the toilet to make it flush. We were just getting ready to have Ryan lug water bottles up to the roof when Seraphin told us that he could hook up a hose to a spigot that has municipal water. The only problem... the city water is only on three days a week. Can you imagine only having water three days a week? Anyway, got city water this morning. But we still have not taken showers because the hot water tank was empty.
This interview/article is part 1 of 2. Since our conversation was so long I decided to continue it in the next newsletter.
My father's name is John White. He died 11 years ago. I don't remember anything about him, but if you want some really funny stories about him, email my mom. (MLHCrews@msn.com) I have 5 uncles; Daniel, Shawn, Jason, Paul and Michael. I also have two grandparents, Grandpa Stan and Grandma Sherry. I have a few cousins, Brandon, Nicholas, Jessie, Jason Jr., Matthew, and Joey.
The Uncles
Uncle Daniel: Uncle Daniel is a Jedi apprentice. (That’s what my Uncle Shawn says he is) But most of the time he works as an electrician’s apprentice and also helps out at our house. He helps my dad in fixing up the house and he also helps at my grandpa’s (my mom’s dad) house. Mom likes it when Uncle Daniel comes over because he gives really good back rubs. I like it when he comes over because we discuss the importance of various characters in The Lord of the Rings. This drives my mom and dad crazy as they think I'm obsessed with that movie.
Uncle Shawn: Uncle Shawn is the middle child, an I’m not really sure what he does for a living. When mom asked him, even she didn’t really know, he said, “I do what I do.” He finally told her that he installs (and removes) equipment in the sbc(formerly pacific bell) offices. Last year, Uncle Shawn took me to Six Flags. He actually persuaded me to get on the roller coasters. He lives with Uncle Daniel at my grandparents house where they spend most of their time in a really cool refurbished garage. He also REALLY likes the Miami Dolphins.
Uncle Jason: Uncle Jason is the 2nd youngest child, he works as a manager at Round Table pizza. He is married to my Aunt Margarita and they have 3 kids, Joey, Matthew, and Jason Jr. I remember when I was little, I could never remember his name so I would call him Uncle Pizza guy.
Uncle Paul: Uncle Paul is the oldest White child and he works as a part time tow truck driver. He is married to my Aunt Jackie, they have 2 kids, Brandon (remember the article I wrote about his birthday party?) and Nicholas. He also has a daughter named Jessie. Uncle Paul likes hunting and the last time I went over to their house they had a bear rug that was made from a bear he shot.
Uncle Michael: Uncle Michael is actually Michael Spinelli I really do not know anything about Michael, except for the fact that he is Grandma Sherry’s oldest child from a previous marriage. He used to live in Fresno but moved to Oregon years ago when I was a baby (which is probably why I know so little about him) Uncle Michael is married and has at least two daughters. The Aunts
Aunt Jackie: Aunt Jackie is married to Uncle Paul and they have Brandon and Nicholas. She works at the Rainbow/Earth Grains plant in Fresno. She works in an office. I think she’s a Personnel Manager or something. Once when a whole bunch of people went on strike there, Phillip worked at the factory for a few days.
Aunt Margarita: Aunt Margarita is married to Uncle Jason and they have 3 kids (Joey, Matthew, and Jason Jr.). She works as a teacher. I do not know a lot about her.
The Grandparents
Grandpa Stan: Grandpa Stan is the father of 4 of 5 of my uncles. He is really, really good at Chess and sometimes beats the computer Chess games. He can speak a couple of Languages including Russian.
Grandma Sherry: Grandma Sherry works at the People’s Church. She also enjoys Lord of the Rings just like I do. She also likes aromatherapy stuff and used aromatherapy for my Science Fair project.
If you have any other questions about my family, ask my mom. She can give you more information than I can. She's known all of them for like 15 years.
