Getting Up to Speed

We've gotten ourselves moved into our new place, with a great deal of help from some young missionaries. Karl is having a good time, for the most part, playing with one of the kids here. He's 8, only two years younger than Karl, and also has trouble reading. Karl is slowly getting better at it, though. We moved in over Carnaval weekend, so there were a lot of water fights and so on. I took a few videos. I thought he was going to be able to play with both of the two boys who live here, although I didn't know anything about the other two, who have turned out to be horrible little brats. Their parents are quite nice, though, and fairly patient with the two kids. These two boys scream like little girls, super-high pitched and shrill, and are constantly at it.

The other boy who I was hoping that Karl would be able to play with, and he did during Carnaval, has turned out to be an animal abuser. He was chasing one of the cats that I got as a gift from our new landlord's granddaughter. Chasing it with a stick, screaming that he was going to kill it. I asked him if he was crazy. I told Karl to not play with him anymore. When his dad came home, I told him what happened. Surprised to find out, the man loves cats! He went and spanked the kid, which got him an argument with his wife, and he slept outside on the concrete that night. The kid still had the stick in his hand when I told him about it, though, so he knew I was telling him the truth. He's tried to get Karl to play around his kid, and I'm really antsy about it. I don't want any kids around Karl who like to kill animals. This kid is only six, by the way.

Anyway, we are just really thankful and feeling blessed because we found a place that let us have all the cats and all the chickens. I still have to get most of the chickens over here, though, and that's proving harder than what I expected it to be. So far, I've only been successful getting Brownie and two more chicks here.

Getting unpacked has been a lot easier than packing up and we've found a couple of things we had forgotten about, but now, I can't find my debit card, and I only have about a hundred on me in cash. I need to keep looking. I know it's in here, and I haven't allowed anyone to come in, plus I changed the padlock, so I know nobody has been in here. I just have placed it somewhere safe, mainly so that I wouldn't lose it, and now, like usual, I can't find it. At least I have my Viva card and can hopefully get the numbers off it for the new phone. But it's been easier unpacking partially because I went and bought two big bookshelves that have storage underneath, with three shelves that hold taller books, and a little nightstand for Karl that he picked out.

The bookshelves look sort of like this except these don't have the legs, and they are a bit darker. Each one was under $50, so I am really happy to have somewhere for all our books and papers and stuff. I have them placed side by side at the door, making that area closest to the door like the kitchen, and also keeping the heat from entering into where we sleep and use the computer.

Oh, and I got another fan after giving up trying to find someone who was skilled enough to open the other one up and clean it so that it works again. It's a Daymared Air Circulator with Japanese Technology, lol. Anything to sell to the public, I guess. A fan is a fan is a fan, I always thought. But I told her I didn't need the stand and left that part there. Then I got home and realized, I had already given the old stand to Karl for a flag pole holder. Ouch! But he said he would rather have a fan than a flag pole holder and he will just find another way to put his flag up outside.

But now I have the time to work on my own books, my own blogs, and my own websites. I am really having trouble with the websites, though. The FTP software programs I've downloaded don't seem to want to work well, and the online editor they offer doesn't seem to like me, either. I'm working on an adult coloring book, and I go to Amazon for inspiration to see all the other books available. Sometimes, though, I feel like mine won't ever measure up, some of these books have fantastic drawings.

I saw one where she is getting great reviews, but she also has a bachelors in illustration, so she not only knows how to draw and has years of practice at it, but she also has all the tools. I look at her one single 1-star rating and it turns out, someone can't get the pages to print out. I've had similar problems with some books I've had where they wouldn't come up on my Kindle. The one I left negative feedback for made a comment that he would send me the file through email, which he did, and I changed my rating from 1-star to 5-stars.

This author made the comment that she would send the files by email, too. Sadly, the customer never changed the rating. So with my books, I'm definitely saving the files. I don't have a scanner, so I need to take pictures and then put them in black and white, then clean them up, and then add them to a document, and when final, save as a PDF file. Then, I get to upload it! Yay! But each one takes time, and I only have about 12 drawings so far. I'm also working on a maze book. Some are easy, some are super hard. One of the mazes is so difficult, I needed the answer key to finish it!

But now we are here and settled, almost, so I can start churning out stuff for my own blogs and websites. I have been writing all sorts of things for clients from gardening and lawn care to car crashes to health care warnings, pre-surgery guides, and health and beauty articles, plus exercise tips and everything else. Now I am going to take those ideas and write them how I wanted to, without someone else directing my writing skills. I'm going to post them on my blogs and on my websites, and hopefully, you, a member of my slowly-growing audience, will share with your friends what you think will benefit them.

Looking forward to reading your comments, suggestions, questions, and even your complaints – interaction is a wonderful thing!

Releasing Mikoh

We released Mikoh Sunday in the late afternoon.

This is where we went to release him. They are adding trees here, and trees are not allowed to be cut down, which means Mikoh, who loves trees, won't have to worry about his tree, whichever one he happens to be in at the time, will be cut down.

Karl saying bye bye to little Mikoh. He will get bigger, but not by much.

And there he goes, bye bye Mikoh! Eat lots of snails and slugs and get bigger!

Karlitos and I on our way to the reforestation area. Trees are forbidden to be cut down here and the neighbors police the area. The only saws you ever hear over here are when people are cutting lumber to build their houses.

The area where we released Mikoh at. Karl was worried the monkeys would come get him.

Letting Mikoh out of the bag ended up in me gently dumping him out. He didn't want to come out! Then he was okay with being in the jungle again, and this is a lot bigger area for him than where he was from.

We Found a Baby Snake!

We think it's a baby anaconda, which if I remember right, isn't poisonous. Karl wants to keep him, but we are no where near being set up to keep a snake. Not yet. Hopefully soon, though. Going to release him outside in a bit, which Karl most likely will be upset about. But, he can't stay in here, lol.

Heavy Rains Last Night and It's COLD Today!!!

I think our friends in the USA sent us some icky weather! But, the rain also cause my tomato plants to sprout, and there is another container of watermelon seedlings sprouting. The bean plant made it through just fine, too. So what am I gonna do today? I've already taken in the cuffs on a pair of scrubs I have, they were too long and I got tired of cuffing them, only to have them roll out and down, and get dirty again, and again, and again.... SO I'll work on this article about black combat boots for a client, then do some sewing, play with Karl, work on an article about how to use Minecraft in a homeschool, and wash some dishes. I have to sweep in here, too, and get some things more organized. I actually have real furniture here, and now I don't know what to do with it! Oh, and I just checked my email. I got hired at Examiner.com! Here's the first part of their email to me: Dear LorriAnne, Thank you for your interest in joining the Examiner.com team! We've looked over your application and we are excited for you to take the next steps to becoming a Fort Wayne Domestic Violence Examiner. In the next 5 days, please publish your first article. SO I am going to work on that, too. Very excited! We're drinking chocolate milk to celebrate! Which, in the USA, powdered milk is all skim, here, it's whole milk! And they said it wasn't possible, so that's why they don't have whole milk in powdered form. I bet the New York politicians had something to do with that big lie!

Cookout time!

(Click on the pic to see it full size.)

Instead of trick or treating like everyone was doing in America, we decided the weather was perfect for a cook out here in sunny Bolivia. The only thing is, all I have to cook with are plastic utensils! I left all my metal cook out gear in the USA, thanks to American Airlines' new one-only suitcase regulations!

I need to get us some metal cook out gear like we had before.

This is the cheapest set I found on Amazon, and I've had one very much like it before. I think I'm going to get another one, so Eli and I can cook out. We'll probably hang them on the underside of the table we are putting out there for us to use when we are cooking out.

Some of the seeds I planted on Evo Morales' birthday on October 26 are coming up, particularly the beans Eli gave me, and the watermelon seeds. I need to get the land cleared super quick so I can get them planted in the ground. Right now they are in tiny tomato paste cans! They won't last long in there at all.

The picture where Karl is standing in front of the flowers, that is in about the same area I am planting stuff in.

And my friend told me on Facebook that I looked skinny in the pic, it's just the way I re-sized it, Karl looks skinnier than he is, too. LOL, so does the pan with the taters in it! It's not just us, I'll have to tell her that ASAP.

Orbs or, gasp, PoLlEn?????????????

Karl at Hipermaxi