"Mary and Bright": Birthdays, Residency, Family Visits, Bishopric, Spring,

enjoying the view....hehe

Well, I am certainly bad at this. I should write more frequently with less information. I guess I am always concerned about uploading photos and then I convince myself it will be to difficult so I should just write my blog post later. But I need to remember something is better than nothing. Right?

Well Lets just go chronologically, shall we?

On Feburary 14th Ulises and I shared our first Valentines day together! We had both agreed that Valentines day was a commercial holiday and that we shouldn't bother to spend the money. Well, that morning Ulises and I both woke up with a start and literally threw gifts at each other in the dark before our feet even hit the floor. I guess we were both worried that the other was lying and was going to buy a gift. I guess we were both right! He got me a picture frame with one of our wedding pictures in it, and I got him a flower (men like flowers too!) So they were both economical....
.....BUT THEN HE SURPRISED ME WITH A COUPLES SPA PACKAGE.

So we went to these thermal baths and jetted tubs and then got a massage........

mmmmmmmmmmmmm

February passed and March came. Both February and March are fun cause I could do crafts with the kids I teach. We did valentines, Leprechauns, green pancakes, and then Easter eggs and Easter cookies! It was a few weeks PACKED with Holidays.

The boys I look after in the morning had never heard of Leprechauns before. I showed them Darby O'Gill and the Little people and they enjoyed it. ( And Sean Connery is quite dapper in his early days! No wonder he is a HOM (inside joke))
Well, while they were watching the video I made green pancakes and told them a Leprechaun must have changed the color. They thought it was the most magical fantastical thing in the world! Then they set some water out and wanted to see if they water would change color. IT MAGICALLY CHANGED COLOR!! They had to tell their parents all about the leprechaun. It was pretty fun.

Easter this year was great.... except for the HOURS and HOURS I spent making sugar cookies not only for my students to decorate, but hundreds for the Youth in our church congregation to sell for a fundraiser. We also bought chocolate eggs and decorated them to package all together and sell. I struggled having the youth decorate the cookies because I knew we had to sell them and the youth were not very conscientious about making them look good. But at one point I had to just LET GO and let the project be theirs. I had already spent so many hours baking and buying and decorating that they needed to earn this for themselves. And you know what? In the end no one cared if the little tulip cookie was decorated as a Darth Vader face or if the bunny had blood red eyes.

The kids made their goal and hopefully with the help of other fundraisers, they can all go to the summer camp called EFY-- Especially for youth.

So it has been quite an investment in time to have Ulises as the President of the Young Men's organization. I have a small assignment to assist with the Young Women's group. It has kept us busy. I still retain my calling as an assistant in the Young Women's group, but Ulises was asked to be part of the Bishopric. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, each congregation is lead by a Bishop and 2 counselors. Ulises was asked to be the second counselor to the Bishop. So now he has even more responsibilities! I hope he reminds the bishop to release him from his Young Men's position....... Otherwise we might live at the church.

But Ulises was honored and felt really fortunate to be given this opportunity to serve. His father was able to ordain him to the office of a High Priest in the Melchizedek Priesthood. ( if this is confusing, you can ask me more about the LDS church or learn more at www.mormon.org) It was a great experience for them both.

So what else was great about Easter Sunday aside from Ulises receiving this new responsibility and ordination? MY SISTER RACHEL HAD COME TO VISIT. All the way from the US of A! It was great to have her. When she was here it was as if time hadn't passed at all. We all drove to Madrid, saw some great museums and sites, and enjoyed the company of each other. We saw castles, visited parks and saw some Easter marches. We even took time to dye Easter eggs and ~~Rachel~~ the Easter bunny hid them!

What else is going on?
I AM A LEGAL RESIDENT OF SPAIN!

The processes was different than I had imagined but quite easy. Our intention was to have residency granted before I moved here but because of the Crisis in Spain the government agencies were behind on granting Ulises citizenship status so I could therefore get residency status. BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH. To make a long story short... after living here illegally (sorry) for half a year, I am now legal! This means we can travel without risk of deportation, I can get a legit job, earn some benefits, qualify for Social Security, etc. So.. Here's to a bright future as a Spanish Resident!

And this week? Ulises turned 27. I now can tease him about being older than me ( Until December) I woke him up with a big song and dance ( that, surprisingly, he didn't find annoying) pancakes for breakfast and balloons. He also got to use his new sound system that he got for his Birthday! (I'm such a nice wife) He then had a big party with his family coming over to our ~~closet~~ lovely apartment and we stuffed ourselves with food and a cake. ( I decorated the cake but he baked it. He made a cake with 12 eggs...... what kind of recipe is that boy using!!?? Then he complained the cake was too dry... mmm maybe use less eggs?)

So what's on for the future? Well.. I'll continue teaching and being a Nanny. As summer comes my hours will change and I hope to improve my teaching pool. Ulises will be studying for the GRE and will take it this summer. Our sights are set on Ulises attending graduate school in the USA. We still have another year here for his masters program to complete... But we will see.

Oh... and its sunny, warm and the beaches are lovely! Come visit us any time!

Ok. and I am too lazy to post the photos in the right order in the text, so here they all are!