“WE MADE WAZE!!!”

Aaron and the kids headed out to school, I got the garbage out and made my coffee and settled in with my Butterscotch, who was eagerly waiting for me to finally sit down for a warm lap.  We actually woke to pouring rain this morning, and realize that we may actually be in true rainy season… it’s raining a lot more than it has been, and we haven’t experienced much all-day rain to this point.  Rosy was miffed, as we usually go outside once I make my coffee and the kitty sits looking longingly through the glass panes of the door out at us… thanks to the rain, Butterscotch found a warm lap this morning!  I open my CBC news app to catch up on the news and the phone rings.  I pick up and Aaron says, “Everyone is ok, but we’ve been in an accident…”

They were just about at school, preparing to enter the last roundabout before the road to the school, and “crunch”, they were hit from behind.  “We are just waiting for the adjustor from the insurance company to get here to assess the damages.”  Turns out the driver that hit them is a senior at the kids school; he had good English and insurance (bonus!) and it was determined that he was at fault, so the damage to our van would be fully covered.  Mansell told us that he had met this kid once before at school when one of their teachers fell down the stairs; this other kid caught him and our kid caught his laptop as it went flying.  I teased him that there are easier circumstances under which to meet people!!  First a rescue, and now a car accident!  I called the school to let them know what had happened and that the kids would be quite late for school. Everyone was understanding and quite concerned.  Was about an hour to wait, so Aaron took some pics of the damage for our records and a screenshot of his Waze, exclaiming to me “We made Waze!!”

Yeah, Great freaking morning – thanks Waze Lady!  That’s us – one of those two cute little cars crashing into each other!!  Aaron drove it for the rest of the day – it was a Thursday, his “Hoy No Circula” day for his car, so he takes my van to get kids to school and get to work.  The bumper is actually relatively in tact, but when you see it, it’s a bit alarming, as it really looks like it’s hanging off in the one section – throughout the day he had people telling him emphatically that his bumper was badly damaged, as if he didn’t realize… the one traffic enforcement officer was waving his arms and repeatedly blowing his whistle as Aaron approached and passed, pointing energetically at the back end of the van.  Was pretty funny the reaction our damaged vehicle was receiving.  I had to drive it the next day to get to and from school and to attend an appointment, and experienced the same response.  We took it to the dealership on Friday evening to begin the repair process.  Our Spanish tutor met us there to help with translation, which was very helpful.  Will be without it for a couple of weeks, which has added a new challenge to figure out how we will get everyone to where they need to be!

OUR NEW ADDITION!! 

This was shaping up to be a full day, even without the added drama of an early morning car accident.  Telmex was “supposed” to arrive to work on laying the extra fibre optic cables to allow service to our place and our Mexican cooking classes were set to begin that afternoon once everyone returned from school.  I was in contact with the chef I met at the Newcomer’s meeting and she agreed to deliver her four week cooking program to the five of us at our home! (more to come on that!).  We were very excited to get started and I was busy getting the kitchen ready.   Just before dismissal for Mansell, he texted me. “Mom, can we take Eugene’s turtle?”  All a part of the infamous and much-loved Biology “biosphere” project, and now with the end of the year looming, the teacher asked the kids to take their animals home.  The fish from Mansell’s group finally found a home (almost ended up with a Beta fish) but his friend Eugene was unable to keep the little turtle that his group was “caring” for… had been a concern for Mansell throughout the project, the lack of care that group seemed to provide for the little baby red-eyed slider turtle they chose.  “Mom, he’s really worried about what to do with it…” comes the next persuasive text argument… It takes me all of ten seconds to agree to take the turtle,”Of course, we can take the turtle”… Oh dear… I will now need to figure out a turtle-sitter for the summer… “Thanks Mom” and the texts stop coming.  I’m hoping that he remembers we have cooking classes and that he will give us a couple of days to prepare for a turtle (namely for me to have enough time to gently break the news to Daddy…)  I realize that Mansell is indeed bringing the turtle tonight when Aaron texts, “Is Mansell normally this late?” as he sits waiting in the parking lot at school… Caleigh needs to get a project printed at Lumen and they need to get home in time for cooking classes which start at 4:30… “Cor, do you know anything about a new addition to our family…?” is his next message to me a few minutes later… I figure we can talk about this once they get home… can’t text while driving anyway… 😉

Welcome to Tortuga!  Tortuga (tor-too-gah) is Spanish for “turtle”.  He had to sit in his temporary transport home on the table while we got down to the business of cooking traditional Mexican Quesadilla’s (hint: they are nothing like the Tex-Mex food we consider “quesadilla’s”) and red and green salsas.   The next day we met our dear Spanish tutor, once again, at the pet store to help us translate and get what we need for our new little turtle.  He is absolutely adorable.  Honestly, watching him swim around and chomp down on his baby-turtle food… he’s so little and is very active and seems to have fully recovered from his lack of care.  We learned that a turtle will not eat if the water is too cold.  So that explains why he wasn’t eating, which was stressing out the kids in the group.  But they had not set up a proper environment for him to thrive.  Mansell did a lot of research and we talked at length with the staff at the pet store who helped us understand more about the requirements of a turtle (so much for a “free” turtle!).   Mansell balked at the fact that the aquarium water needs changing weekly… welcome to turtle ownership sweetie…!  🙂

PS – check out updates on “Travelogue” page…