the secrets

I'm spilling the beans. These are the things that go on here that I don't blog about in fear that people will never come to visit and work with us, but my family has come and gone, seen them, and survived, so I feel as though its okay to share. So prepare yourself, but remember these things don't just happen here, they just happen to still be secrets everywhere else.

1. Lice comes and goes from this house. We try and keep it out, but with 14 girls living in close quarters, and going to a school where it is commonly carried, we are bound to end up with it here occasionally. I have never gotten it, but I would like to consider myself nearing the point of expert in the field of picking it out. The older girls are real experts, like professionals. But this afternoon was one of those times that my back and shoulders were sore after picking 'piojos and juevos' (lice and eggs) for multiple hours. At least its good bonding times between us all! But I would like to announce that as of tonight, we are LICE FREE! ;) Or in the case we missed an egg, shampoo was applied first to kill them all, so at least its dead.

2. Cockroaches. There are no escaping them. We have done a pretty good job keeping them thinned out, but they still peek out occasionally. The real secret is that I have arrived to the point that I no longer kill them. I scare them away from where I am; it almost grosses me out more to hear the crunch than to just know that they are running around somewhere behind the wall.

3. Mice. They run around. Sometimes they jump out of the silverware drawer, and once one ran into my foot while I was cooking breakfast in the kitchen. I have never seen one in my bedroom, but one ran across my mom's suitcase when they were here.
P.S. As I was writing number 7. a mouse was sighted in the family room where I am sitting with the kids watching a movie. The oldest 3 girls decided to coax it out the front door by baracading it and smacking at it with flip flops until it went the direction they wanted. In the end after some squealing, racing to move Ruby out of the path on the floor, and standing on couches. . . SUCCESS, the mouse is out of the house.

4. Sometimes we forget to put left overs in the refrigerator after dinner and they sit out all night. We still eat them the next day. No one has gotten sick from it yet.

5. Sometimes we leave rice in the rice cooker for long periods of time. Its still good a couple days later.

6. When rice gets old (not bad, just old) these little bugs called gorgojos start to get into it. We always wash the rice before cooking it, but occasionally we find them, pick them out, and cook the rice anyways.

7. We ride an average of twice the number of people in a vehicle than we have seatbelts for. There is no seatbelt law, so its not illegal. Every week our 12 passenger van carries at least 25 people to church, but we've had up to 30. Also its not illegal to ride in the back of the truck, so we do, well a house rule is that only the big kids are allowed (older than 12), but they are just as happy riding in back as inside (as long as its not raining) 

So those are a few of the secrets that have now come out. Don't let them stop you from coming PLEASE! All these things can be avoided or worked around :) And the benefits way outweigh these little possible mishaps.