Prayers, please

These last couple of days have been some of the most painful I've ever experienced. Tuesday the nursing girls and I went to this hospital but we couldn't get in because of this huge influenza outbreak, so we sat playing this game in the reception area for a while, and like always, Molly was making me laugh so hard I almost wet myself (thankfully, my parents did bring me my Vesicare...yes I'm aware that it's for 80-year-olds thank you) so I made it to the (nasty) bathroom okay. Anways so normal day, but when we got back to the SI office and Molly was checking her email, she had one from her sister saying that during the surgery for gall stones that her mom had gone in for, they found cancer. It was in the gall bladder and the liver, and they weren't sure about the lymphatic system. Molly was out in the courtyard just hysterical. It was absolutely awful. We couldn't believe it. We all sat with her as we waited for calls from her family, and then came the news that it was in fact in her lymphatic system and they predicted that she would only make it 2 more months. Her dad's a doctor and he said he agreed with the diagnosis. This is the mother that seemed perfectly healthy to everyone else. I can't explain how much pain I felt for her. And what could I say? You can't tell her that God's gonna heal her, only that He's in control. We set up a flight home for her and she left on Thursday morning, but in the meantime she held up amazingly. Tuesday night she talked with her mom on the phone before her mom knew anything about the cancer, which I can't even imagine. Kala and I made her this photo album with literally hundreds of pictures that had her in them from this whole trip and we all wrote in it, including her teachers and some of the friends we've made down her. We all went out for lunch and tried to support her as much as possible, but what can you do other than be with her and pray with her? I'm such an action-orientated person that it killed me to be so helpless. I cried so hard when she left. It was half for her pain and what I knew she'd have to deal with upon getting home, and half for the selfish loss that I felt on her leaving. She was one of my best friends down here (not that she won't be when I get back in the states), and one of the most incredible people I've ever met in my life. She has this presence that is so selfless and loving and hilarious. There's nobody that doesn't always want to be around her. Dang I'm gonna start crying again here in the internet cafe. So anyways she's doing well, I talked to her on the phone. They brought her mom to Mayo and are having this gall bladder specialist look at her soon. So prayers for that please. Her mom's name is Anita and her dad's name is Tim. Please pray. Please. It's all that we can do and we can't have too many people praying. I have to keep reminding myself that although praying is the "only" thing I can do, it's also the most powerful thing I can do. Even though I'm halfway across the world our prayers are just as powerful as if we were physically with Anita. When I talked to her yesterday she was so strong. She said her mom is physically feeling better now that they drained some of the bile from her liver but that they're losing her. That was so hard to hear. What she asked me to pray for her for is that the time that they do have with Anita will be the best that it can be and that they will really get to know her as much as possible. They have family all over the world right now, sister and brother-in-law and niece in Pakistan, sister in New York, everywhere. We're trying to find ways to support her from down here, so we each signed up for a week to write her an email filling her in on what's happening down here, we pray for her together every day, we're gonna make this thing called "Flat Molly" which is a pic of her on a popsicle stick that we'll bring to places with us so it's like she's there, but not really. We'll send her the pics then to show her hat she's doing down here. Oh my gosh, ok here's something she always does. She'll see some nasty guy and be like "Hey Crista, what's your boyfriend doing over there?" I can't explain how funny it is cuz sometimes the guy will wave then or something. Or it'll be some creepy statue or anything. So anyhow we're gonna take pictures of all of her "boyfriends" down here and send them to her. It's so different down here I don't even know what to do. I'm just grateful that she can be with her family. They need her so badly right now and she needs them. I'll keep you updated with anything I hear about her family. Thank you so much for your prayers. Miracles do happen. They do.

FAMILIA EN GUATEMALA!

I was checking my facebook today (directory where people send little messages...for you old fogies) and got a note saying "dead? or alive?" so I realized that it had maybe been a while since I'd filled people in on my life. This This past weekend was unbelieveable. The family came on Tuesday and it was so good to see them! It was like I hadn't even been away. They were so surprised at my city (yes, it is my city. I own it.), they thought it was gonna be like the poor parts of Mexico but it's frickin beautiful and they loved it. My parents are now convinced they're going to learn Spanish...yeah in all their free time right? No but for real we had a blast. We went to Belize (taking 3 planes to get there...first to El Salvador, then to Belize City, then to Placencia which is where we stayed). We stayed in the cutest little beach hut with a hammock out front. There was literally nothing else around there. It rained one day but we read a lot and the other days were nice. The ocean was seriously gorgeous and so warm! For sure warmer than my showers usually are. I made friends with this dog named Balls...well his name wasn't really Balls, but he had huge balls so I thought the name was appropriate. No like seriously they were enormous. Like painfully huge. Anyways, we would run down the beach together and he would bite and hang on to my hand and drag me along. I only have very minor puncture wounds. Rabies? What's that? We played in the ocean and bonded a lot. So this place is kinda secluded with not a ton to do if you're not in the ocean, so Brett and I invented the greatest game ever. It's called Tribal Ball and it involves a huge piece of bamboo which functions as a bat (Brett's new favorite name is Guillermo, so he named the bat Guillermo), a tennis ball, and large amounts of pain. The pain comes during the pelting part of the game when the pitcher chases the hit ball and chucks it as hard as he can at the batter/runner. I have bruises all over my body. This game has no mercy. The game kinda died when a homerun landed the ball in Cuba (unfortunately I can't claim that one) and we had to start using these little coconuts. It was fine if you didn't hit the ball, but if you did it got rotten coconut nasty juice all over everything (especially the pitcher) which wasn't the best part. K so yeah Belize was amazing and then we stayed at this sweet hotel in Guatie that the Clintons and Julio Iglesias and a bunch of people had stayed in. It was beautiful. Anyways I was sad to see them go but we had such an amazing time and I'm just so grateful for that. K so obviously a lot has happened since I wrote last but I'm gonna limit this blog (I still think that's the nastiest word ever...blog) to family stuff and do separate ones for other stuff. My camera accidentally got in mom and dad's luggage so I gotta wait till it comes back to put pics up but I think it's coming soon. K more bloggings on the way. I promise!

La Cucaracha!

Props to Kala. She just killed this sweet cockroach in our room. All the while I'm jumping on the bed singing "la cuaracha! la cucaracha!" But I'm a supportive friend right? And she's real annoyed. Not really. I hope. Today was an absoultely crazy day at the clinic. In fact these last couple days have been pretty crazy. Our second patient of the day came in (it's like 4 days before her due date), and last week when she came in her baby was fine. He was sideways so we told her she'd have to have a C-section (which she'd already had one so it wasn't a big deal). The doctor told her NOT to go to a comodrona (like the village midwife) to turn the baby, but we're pretty sure this lady did. Because when she came in today, worried because she couldn't feel the baby moving, we could feel that the baby was completely turned around, now ready for a regular birth. This does not happen normally to 8 month babies. The woman's name was Eloisa and she was 28. We couldn't hear the baby's heartbeat with the stethoscope and then when we did the ultrasound we couldn't find the heartbeat. Then we saw the broken umbilical cord. When the comadrona turned the baby around the umbilical cord broke. The baby, his name was going to be something Emmanuel, was dead. We had to tell her. It was awful. She was bawling and holding her stomach and saying "move, my little baby, move!" The doctor had a ton of patients to see so some of us girls stayed with her as she was crying. She kept asking "why me" because it's the second baby she's lost. She said that if her baby was dead she wanted to die too. We prayed with her first in English and then in Spanish. After a while all the girls left and I sat there with her and we talked about her other kid and her husband and the baby. She'd already bought his clothes and her 2 year old son was so excited to have a baby brother. There was nothing I could say to her. We talked about how her baby was in heaven and how it would be so much better there than she could ever give him down here. We also talked about how God doesn't will stuff like that to happen (obviously I'm not Calvinist) but how he can make good come out of it. Then she left. In the ambulance on the way to the hospital with her brother in law. To have the dead baby. They were so poor they couldn't afford a coffin for the baby, so the doctor wrote this thing up so Social Security would cover it. I can't explain how painful it was. The mother in law went back home to get the house ready for Eloisa. I didn't cry. Not gonna lie it worried me a little bit. Is it wierd that, yeah I hurt for her, but it didn't affect me so much? Sometimes I wonder if something's wrong with me. I guess I've just learned to separate myself from my patients. I knew coming down here that I would see stuff like this and I guess I kinda braced myself for it. Instead of being sad it just makes me want to be a doctor so much more. So that I can prevent and help stuff like this in the future. All the other patients that came in today were piled up by the time Eloisa left and I was taking names and medical history and symptoms and blood pressure so the doctor could get in and out as fast as possible. I felt so useless though. I mean, these people call me doctora (that's what the lab coat does for you) and there's seriously nothing I can do for these people. Not even just legally, but I seriously have no idea what's wrong with these people. It makes me want to know everything ever about our bodies and medicine. I want to fix everyone. We had a cute little boy come in today too with a huge gash in his head. I got to clean him up and draw up his novacaine and put some novacaine on a bandage to numb his face. Medicine is fun. Sorry this whole blog is really sad, but here's just a little more. My grandpa died on Saturday. I was supposed to fly home for it but then he didn't die as soon as we thought he would and now I can't miss school to go. Grandma said she'd buy me a ticket, but I think I'm okay. He was so sick: alzheimer's, PTSD, depression, dementia. He was miserable. He escaped out his hospital room window, pulled out his catheter and was bleeding everywhere, thought everyone was trying to kill him. I wish I could have been there with my family, but they're being so strong. I think it's a relief for everyone. This last month has just been physical death. My grandpa's been gone for a lot longer than that. And I was here this summer for my grandma and mom and Shirl when my he was "actually" dying. That was the painful part. When grandma would cry a lot because she was losing her husband. My dad's gonna videotape the funeral for me. If things were lax down here I'd fly back in a second, but I feel like I've caused a lot of problems already getting permission for my family to come and for me to go to Belize with them (THEY COME TOMORROW!! WOOHOO!!!!)and then I was going to go back but he didn't die and wow. I feel bad for all the supervisor people cuz I've been such a pest. Now I just found out my summer class starts a few days before we get back so I'm gonna have to ask them for permission to leave a couple days early cuz there's no way I'm missing my first few days of Physics for Biology and Pre-Med at the U. Crap it's gonna kill me. But seriously prayers that I will be able to return in time for my class would be greatly appreciated (by me and my physics-retarded mind...I'm no Uncle Kurt).


K so apart from this being the most morbid blog EVER...some good things are going on too. The Bethel spring break team is down here so we had dinner with them last night. My buddy Scott came down and it was so good to see him! I love the girls down here but it's cool having someone around who really knows me, you know? We showed them around the city last night (and I peed my pants...go figure) and we had 2 of them at our ministry site today. Kind of a wake-up day for this poor sweet freshman pre-med girl. Oh well, she handled it really well.


Oh yeah and my glands are super swollen and puss-covered. Sweet huh? K well hopefully the next blog will be more full of fun, but I thought you all deserved to know what's going on down here. It's not always fun. Although one more thing. That wierd Asian guy Yoshi at our house (yes his name's Yoshi...like Super Mario) got wasted and beat up and robbed last night and came knocking at the door at like 3 in the morning (cuz his keys were robbed too). So sweet little doña Elvira wasn't too pumped about that. Keeps it interesting, keeps it interesting. Oh one more thing. The taxi driver that brings us to Chimaltenango (the clinic) when the doctor's car isn't working...yeah his name is for sure Ceasar Agustus. Cesar Agusto to be exact. Sweet huh? He's 70 something with 11 kids, 20 grandkids, and 2 great-grandkids (and one of his kids is only 16). He's seriously the man.


Oh yeah and this guy Mario opens the gate at the clinic. He has some sort of mental thing and walks with a limp and always takes pics of us on his camera phone. Kinda creepy, but so nice. So nice. This is him watering the plants but staring at us the whole time. Not even sneakily.



The wierd faces pic is me and Rafa. Seriously the biggest goon ever. And the other one is Guillermo, his cousin, aka Willy. They're some of the finca guys. Great guys. So much fun.


This is me cutting Molly's hair on the roof of the convent (during our lunch break of course!) It would have been a lot cuter if it hadn't been for her stupid cowlick! We have a lot of fun on that roof....always ducking quick when the nuns walk by. They probably wouldn't care, but we like to be safe (and sneaky!)


And here's beautiful Tanya after we did her birthday makeup. She's so funny, she hates makeup, but she knew she looked good. Dang!



Oh and her I am peeing my pants ON THE SIDEWALK OF THE MAIN STREET! Wait I take that back. I think those are Molly's pants. Okay so here I am peeing Molly's pants on the sidewalk of main street. Yeah. I know. I need help.


And here I am with Oscar (seriously my favorite kid at the school.) I can't even explain how adorable he is. Him and his sister Jennifer. Precious. I want them as my own children. It's very possible that I might kidnap them before I go back home.

Oh kidnap reminds me of something else sad to end this blog with. A lady in the clinic today told us that she had twins but the doctors only gave her one. They just straight up kidnapped the other one. It's crazy that that kinda stuff can just happen here. It makes me so mad. So mad.

K for real that's all. Family can't wait to see you!!!!!

Pana!

If you´re on a hunt for the most beautiful place in the world, look no more! This weekend we went to Panahachel, which is a town on the edge of Lake Atitlan. I´m sure you´ve seen pictures of it, it´s super famous. Surrounded by mountains. Clear. Beautiful.



Molly and Hannah and I swam in in it and I can´t explain how wonderful it was. It was cold (but so hot outside...unlike your 8 inches of snow there!) and it felt smooth when you swam in it...so clean and clear (and under control...). We swam with these 2 adorable boys (Marco was 10 and Daniel was 11). They taught us to dive off this wooden thing and we flipped them and raced and had so much fun! The creepy part is that there were like 8 nasty men on the shore taking pictures of us NOT EVEN SNEAKILY! Seriously if you´re gonna be a perv, be sneaky about it right? Sometimes I feel like such a jerk cuz I straight up ignore guys on the street here cuz they´re so freaking aggressive! Oh well if you respond to them they just keep going! We also went to this little village on the edge and saw this sweet church that overlooked the lake, but the vendors there are super aggressive.

I got a ton of gifts while I was there, although I like some of them so much I´m not sure if they´ll make it home! For instance these pants. I know, they´re the man. This pic is me spreading my pants like a tent so Molly could change behind them.

Molly and Hannah and I stayed in this sweet little honeymoon cottage (the other girls were in little cottages around us) with a fireplace and a cute front porch! Although we started off in 2 beds, when we woke up we (somehow) were all in the king sized bed...funny, how´d that happen? Oh yes maybe it´s because I´m a cuddle monster! Kala woke up this morning with me in her bed too, that happens. I GET LONELY OK?

Know how I have a thing for nerdy boys? Well I´m in love. His name is Ricardo...and he´s 6. He goes to school at the convent (where I work in the clinic) and he has these huge thick glasses and always trails behind these 2 other kids and talks really funny and has a suitcase on wheels! It´s true. He´s the one in back of those three boys. How precious are they? One of the other one`s name is Anderson, but I don´t know the 3rd. Today we played ball for like an hour (when I was supposed to be counting drugs in the pharmacy...gag me) and I had no mercy on this kid. I was sweating and chucking the ball as hard as I could at him (which, as my softball team knows, isn´t very hard). But still when his dad came he told him that I had hit him in the face 3 times...whoops! Let´s see, what else have I to report? I saw a patient today who's 2 months pregnant...and 15 years old. It´s so common here it breaks my heart. She´s such a baby herself. People are just so uneducated about family planning and birth control and because of the Catholic church there´s virtually no birth control. I´ve been communicating with my friends back home trying to figure out housing for next year and thanks to God I think we´ve finally got it figured out and I'm really excited. I really love the girls I'll be living with! Well that seems to be all the exciting news from down here. Love and kisses and cuddles from Guatemokie!

Have you ever peed your pants in a convent?

Seriously I think I laughed harder today than I ever have in my life, and I have wet pants to show it. Let´s just say my bladder doesn´t behave any better here than it does in MN! Molly and Hannah and I were on a walk at the convent (taking a break from pharmacy duties) and Molly started doing this thing that always makes me laugh so hard. I would explain it but it would not sound funny at all to anyone else (it has to do with her manipulating my words into sounding creepy). So anyways I´m on the ground and all the sudden my face falls and Molly knows. There´s pee everywhere (on the dirt ground). So I quick run to this little bathroom and wait there for Molly and Hannah to find something for me to change into. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately, I´m not sure), the convent takes clothing donations and sells them to make money. The girls found me a SUPER CUTE outfit...involving a black and white striped pleated grandmother skirt and lacy stirrup tights! Yep, wore that alllllll day! Walking through Antigua on my way back home was not the most inconspicuous thing ever let´s say...crap, I´m ridiculous. But I decided if it has to happen to someone I´m glad it´s me, because I sure have fun with it. But mom if you could bring my Detrol when you come that would be great. Thanks.



Other than that incident, we went out for food and then back to the ¨Casa de Mil Flores¨ yesterday with the rest of the girls (and of course the guys) and gave them the tour. Molly pooped in the toilet and it wouldn´t flush so I had to go find the butler guy and try to explain it to him...he was so sweet about it, he was like ¨don´t worry, I won´t say anything. I´ll clean it up once you leave.¨Yeah then she did it again today at the clinic. Nice job girl.

Oh yeah today I got beat up pretty bad. By a girl. With Down´s Syndrome. Seriously it was so painful. She´s probably like 11 but she wanted me to carry her (she lives at the orphanage at the convent), so I did. She immediately pulled my hair binder out and visciously ground my hair into my face. Then she got all worked up and started pulling my hair really hard and scratching/clawing at my face and eyes. It was awful, I couldn´t get mad. But then Molly came and pulled her away from me. I saw her coming later in the day and I booked it pretty fast!

Oh and also we got to learn how to make tortillas today! We went down to this little place in the convent and these cute indigenous women taught us to make em! It was so sweet, except I was wearing the 80´s zebra hooker outfit and I kept dropping my tortillas on the ground and ripping them. Guess I´m not cut out to be indigenous. Oh well.

Well the internet cafe´s about to close and I still have to pack for Panahachel/Lake Atitlan (we leave tomorrow morning!) Miss you and love you (well most of you anyhow!)

Non-indigenous 80´s prostitute
Creest

everything else (other than the finca)

So as sweet as the finca was, there's been a ton of other stuff going on recently. This past Friday was the Jornada Medica (medical fair thing) that we did for this school in Ciudad Viejo (like 10 minutes away up the volcano), and let me tell you it was a blast! My teacher Lucky, member her? Yeah, she teaches 1st grade there in the afternoon so she and I went ahead of the other nursing students to get stuff set up for the jornada. All the little girls and boys came running out with Lucky and I came and gave us kisses and hugs. So cute. But when we looked in where Lucky teaches in the afternoon, there was no teacher in the 2nd grade class (this is not abnormal, remember I'm in Guatie), so I decided I should probably teach them some English. So I walk in and fake yell at them to sit down and then start laughing. I taught them all about the weather in Minnesota and we did head shoulders knees and toes. That was fun, especially when we did it really fast and they got all flustered and I couldn't stop laughing at them. Then we went in to the 5th grade class and I gave them a 15 minute talk on hygiene. It was actually pretty cool, they were really responsive. Then the other girls did stations with the kids (eyesight, hearing, height and weight, lice), and being that I didn't have a station (because I did the talk) I got to teach them English and sing with them and we had so much fun! The kids would hang on so tight to you (all except 3 had lice)! So anyways that was amazing. We also started our ministry sites this week, so for me (and the nursing students) it's a clinic in Chimaltenango (like 20 minutes away) and it's B-E-A-UTIFUL! It's owned by an Italian doctor and has like marble walls...it's part of a convent, so on the property there's a school, an orphanage, housing for all the sisters, everything! It's so cool. The doctor is so smart, it boggles my mind. We have a blast. We alternate 2 at a time being with her seeing patients and organizing the pharmacy. It's actually not so bad (although I'm still not feeling called to pharmacy). But seeing patients is the best. It makes me realize how much I love medicine and how much I still need to learn (obviously). Yesterday was hard, we did a ultrasound on this indigenous girl (18 years old) who has chronic renal failure. Her whole abdominal cavity was filled with fluid and she's on dialysis. She was all yellow and in so much pain and barely spoke Spanish (mostly Quiche, her native language). Her dad hadn't let her get treatment before because he didn't want her to see a male doctor, and he thought God would take her when He wanted to. Well as she's laying there the doctor explains to Hannah and I that she won't live another year. It was so hard to see. Even if she could have a kidney transplant her body wouldn't support it because she has diabetes too. As much as it broke my heart, I felt kinda wierd because it didn't seem to affect me as badly as it did Hannah. I don't know if I'm just heartless or what, but I think I've just learned already to separate myself from patients (thanks to momma and dadda). You can't think of them as a family member, but a patient. You do what you can for them but can't take everything on yourself. I guess it's important to learn. It was cool though we saw an ultrasound of a 5 month fetus which was CHEVERE (Fernanda taught me that word, she's from Colombia). We got to tell the momma that it was a boy! Hoorah. Fernanda is the cutest woman, she's an eye doctor that works at the clinic and she's a blast! Seriously so beautiful and fun, likes to go dancing and always invites us to everything. I just found out today that her husband lives in the US right now (1.5 years out of the 2 that they've been married) and she can't get a visa to live with him so she's all alone. That's why her and the doctor hang out so much. It sucks to see problems like that that you have no control of. Our culture in the US is so "you gotta fix it yourself" that it frusterates me so much to not be able to do anything. I'm thinking about just giving Bushy a ring-a-ling. Crap I hope I still have his cell phone number. Well that's about it. It's about time for class (we're taking the holistic ministry and human needs class right now Tu and Th in the afternoon with Profe Hector). Salsa tonight, I need to get a picture of Carlos. He's great (not gay though I found out, bisexual!). Hope all's well in the world. Thanks so much to all who have sent me emails, it means a lot to me. Loving it here!

Cmokaboji

FINCA FINCA!!!!!!

K so it's possible that I just got back from the most amazing weekend of my life. Yes, it's true. When we were in San Jose last weekend we met these guys (cousins) on the beach who were super nice and we talked to them for a long time. Well so then we're hanging out with them in Antigua and it casually comes out that they are from one of the 8 families that control all of Guatemala. Yeah, it's true. They brought us to their "weekend house" in Antigua which is bigger than a city block and an official nationally protected monument because of all the history. They did a huge special on it on the discovery chanel. Yeah. I know. Everything in the house is either from the Mayas or the conquistadors. It's like a frickin museum. There's a bunch of rooms that you're not allowed to take pictures in and fresh flowers everywhere and 2 chapels and 35 bathrooms and wow. I can't even describe it. The gardens are bigger than my house at home...way bigger, and there's a huge mosaic thing on the ground with a picture of the Santa Maria made with HUMAN VERTEBRAE! Seriously. Fountains everywhere. A bunch of houses where the servants and stuff live. The house has it's own house wine...it's called "Casa de Mil Flores" if you wanna look it up on the internet...and the family is the Cruz family. Anyhow, they're like the nicest guys, super gentlemen. When we went there they ordered us Pollo Campero which is like KFC and they served it to us on silver platters in the huge dining room with crystal glasses and everything. So they invited us to their finca, which is like huge farm, so 6 of us girls went there this weekend (me, Molly, Hannah, Kala, Amy, and Laura) and LET ME TELL YOU WHAT. WOW! There were 5 guys there (cousins: Guillermo, Rafael, Sebastian, Joco, and the friend: Pablo). We stayed in this sweet beach housish thing with a pool and 2 maids/cooks and a butler...JUST US (well, and the guys). Joco's parents lived like 10 miles away (still on the finca) so we visited them one night in their house (these people have houses everywhere) and they set off fireworks for us and everything. K but I haven't even gotten to the best part. There were like 30 horses there (and like 5,000 cattle, this farm is 15,000 acres) and we seriously rode all weekend! We went to this bull ring (still on the property) and they had the cowboys (who live on the farm) show us the show horses, and I got to ride one. It was so cool. The guys followed us with the truck so we had music from the truck and drinks (non-alcoholic for us, don't worry!) constantly. Then the next day we rode the horses all through this huge field and chased cattle and everything. My horse wanted to go fast the whole time and one time it ran super fast into these trees and I got beaned by a branch and got all scratched up. Crazy horse, but I got to name her because she was the only one that didn't have a name! I named her Teepee because I was trying to find English words that Guillermo didn't know and that's one of them. Anyhow, then Joco (who was like the host all weekend) asked me if I wanted to ride a bull...OF COURSE I DID! So like 4 cowboys tackled this teenager cow and then I got on it and they let it go. I rode it around and it was just like in the movies when the ride bulls. It was jumping and freaking out but I stayed on! It was amazing. We milked cows and fed them with bottles and...oh yeah, they just casually have peacocks in the yard, just hanging out. Nobody even usually lives in this house! We were honestly in the pool the whole weekend just chilling. Pictures won't do it justice. But yeah. That's the Cruz family. I'll write more later about other stuff that's happened since last time I've talked to you, cuz there's been a lot! Sorry it's been so long, hope this one made up for it!!!!!

Tee