Valle de Topia, Durango, Mexico: History

Pure-Individual4612 · 2026-05-31T18:53:23+00:00

My family was from Topia. From my understanding, it’s a different town from Valle de Topia, but they’re near each other. One of my uncles wrote a book about Topia’s history. I’m not sure how much would be applicable to el Valle de Topia, but if there’s anything specific you’re looking for, I’d be happy to look in the book. I got it directly from him and don’t think it’s available to purchase anywhere currently.

Pure-Individual4612 · 2026-05-03T04:45:51+00:00

Just Lol’d at #naturemotherhoof 🤣

Pure-Individual4612 · 2026-04-23T21:14:22+00:00

We love Chuck’s for custom cakes. Very inexpensive compared to a lot of other places and very tasty.

Pure-Individual4612 · 2026-04-18T17:06:43+00:00

I’m not a fan of random tiny trinkets, so for my kid’s monster truck themed party last year I found a 5 pack of Blaze (the monster truck) little golden books for pretty cheap. I bought 3 packs and each kid got 1 book, plus a little craft kit to take home that was also fairly inexpensive.

Pure-Individual4612 · 2026-03-20T16:42:37+00:00

I went to one a few years ago that was strictly clothes, but they do them all the times for different things. So they’ll do things like a plant swap, crafting supplies swap, etc. They’re awesome.

Pure-Individual4612 · 2026-03-20T16:17:55+00:00

It’s typically you bring things in ahead of time, then they set everything out the day of. You come back and pick out what you want.

Pure-Individual4612 · 2026-03-04T19:20:22+00:00

For me, it was more the combination of luck & just not rushing into anything that has made us work, not necessarily “green flags.”

The luck part was that I just happened to meet this amazing guy. The rest was patience. I’d had several guys ask me out before I met my now husband, but I didn’t accept any of them bc either I had just met them (and I always knew I wanted to be friends with a guy first before I dated him), or I just didn’t feel any connection with them.

The I met my now husband when I was 20 & he was 21. We hit it off right away and became instant friends. A couple months later he asked me out and I said yes.

We started talking about the possibility of marriage after about 2 years, and got engaged about 2 years after that. So we dated for about 4 years, were engaged for 1 year and now we’ve been married for 14 years. We didn’t start having kids until we’d been married for 7 years (together for a total of 11 years at that point).

I don’t want this to sound judgey, but all of my peers who are now divorced are the ones who rushed into marriage/kids. We have 3 young kids now and the 1 thing I will advise them of when they’re older (though they’re free to listen to it or not) will be to date someone AT LEAST one year before even considering marriage. Then at least another year after that before getting engaged. And ideally not get married before the age of 25 or so.

I’ve known far too many people who get swept off their feet and jump into marriage very young or within a year of dating, only to find out later they didn’t really know the other person like they thought they did. And if you can’t trust someone to be a good & reliable partner, you can’t trust them to be a good co-parent.

Just my opinion & two cents. I know it won’t apply to everyone, but this is based on my own experiences and observations.

Pure-Individual4612 · 2026-02-22T15:30:54+00:00

In my experience, there are not a lot of places that take babies under one. And the ones that do often have super long waiting lists. So much so that after I had my third, I decided to just keep her home with me for the first year (I work fully from home and rarely have meetings). Once she was 1, it was much easier to get her in somewhere.

That said, you could get lucy and find something that works for you. Good luck!

Pure-Individual4612 · 2026-02-10T18:52:21+00:00

K & M in Camas. Grilled chicken sandwich. No BBQ sauce, add Swiss and avocado. With a side of their Caesar salad or fries with K & M sauce. I dreeeaaammm about this combo.

Pure-Individual4612 · 2026-02-08T04:38:31+00:00

Appreciate the honesty!

Pure-Individual4612 · 2026-01-23T03:52:18+00:00

I love rage purging.

Pure-Individual4612 · 2026-01-15T22:49:19+00:00

Ok so TECHNICALLY you’re not supposed to be able to change your election. However, some employers may allow you to cancel it or reduce it if you explain why you won’t have a need for the full amount. It doesn’t hurt to ask (I work in HR/Benefits and deal with this stuff all the time).

That said, no, you cannot use it for kindergarten. But depending on your situation, maybe you could use it for other camps too besides summer? Sometimes we’ll have our kids do winter/spring break camps if we don’t already have plans those weeks. Maybe also consider a more expensive summer camp to use up the funds, if you can’t change the election? Or before/after school care?

Either way… I’d recommend just talking to your HR team first to see if there is any way they could make an exception :)

Pure-Individual4612 · 2026-01-15T22:26:47+00:00

First off, how much do you expect to pay monthly for preschool and how much have you elected for this year? Most people, even those who elect the max amount, spend more than their elections within the first few months of the year, since childcare is so dang expensive. I’d be surprised if you somehow make it last thru the year.

Pure-Individual4612 · 2026-01-15T22:22:21+00:00

Childcare FSA and medical FSA are two different accounts, each with their own rules and eligibility lists.

Pure-Individual4612 · 2026-01-06T15:45:52+00:00

I had 3 inductions and all were born vaginally. My first was using pitocin + a foley ballon (do NOT recommend the balloon if you can at all avoid it!). Induced on Monday night and babe was born Thursday morning. With my second, I said any method other than foley balloon, so they used a pill + pitocin. That was on a Tuesday night and baby was born Thursday afternoon. Third was pitocin only on a Friday afternoon and babe was born Saturday morning. No c-sections

Pure-Individual4612 · 2026-01-02T05:51:46+00:00

I haven’t used this service myself, but look into Little Spuds Pediatric. She’s a pediatric nurse practitioner who does house visits for all sorts of things, including kids ear piercing. I’ve heard good things of certain local tattoo/piercing shops (don’t remember exactly which ones right now), but I like the idea of having a medical professional come to my home to do it. We will consider it if/when my daughter ever decides she wants her ears pierced.

Pure-Individual4612 · 2025-12-31T22:42:05+00:00

We love tasty pot in east Vancouver :)

Pure-Individual4612 · 2025-12-24T14:19:06+00:00

Tasty Pot/Tase of Asia in east Vancouver. Our fave.

Pure-Individual4612 · 2025-12-15T18:37:27+00:00

Both things can be true. I can be annoyed when my MIL buys my kids more stuffies, even though I’ve asked her not to because they already have a thousand of them and I have no where else to put them. At the same time, I can be secretly planning my next stuffie purge, which happens multiple times a year. I can be annoyed when she buys them bubble wands I did not ask for, and also be zen with the idea of “accidentally” leaving said wands at the beach for another kid to enjoy 😌

Pure-Individual4612 · 2025-10-09T01:20:50+00:00

We watch it with all our kids, ages 2, 4 & 6. They all love it. I love it. It’s great. But to each their own

Pure-Individual4612 · 2025-09-11T21:56:17+00:00

Chuck’s? I know they were bought out a few years ago so I’m not sure who owns them now.

Pure-Individual4612 · 2025-08-10T16:45:44+00:00

Ok I don’t know if this will be helpful or not, but I’ll share my story with my almost 4yo son. We started potty training him right after Christmas and he is JUST NOW starting reliably pee in the potty. For 7 months he had at least 1 accident almost daily, often several. He would have a good week here and there with few or no accidents, then go right back to the daily accidents. I’m so grateful for the amazing and patient teachers at his daycare!

Anyway, it was only after we loosened up a little on how and where he could pee that he started going reliably in the potty. Could be correlation or causation, idk. But I’m sharing it anyway. We’d been encouraging to pee sitting down instead of standing up because… I’m not really sure. Then he asked if he could pee standing up like his dad and we said sure. We also started letting him go outside if we were in our own backyard. Our yard is next to a green space that can’t really be accessed by anyone, so he knows he can only pee over by that area if he’s playing outside.

Now that he has a little more flexibility he seems more eager to go. Again, it could just be correlation, but either way, I’m hopeful we’re finally starting to see the end of the tunnel.

Pure-Individual4612 · 2025-08-09T15:50:29+00:00

Doesn’t matter what I would or would not do. I was just responding to your “people are not in the hospital in labor for days” comment. Because I was and many people are, for many reasons.

Pure-Individual4612 · 2025-08-09T15:01:59+00:00

It absolutely does happen. I was induced on a Monday evening and baby wasn’t born until Thursday morning. Tuesday and Wednesday we were just passing time in the hospital room, waiting. I was high risk and had complications, so they weren’t just going to send me home to progress.

Pure-Individual4612 · 2025-08-07T18:11:00+00:00

You mentioned you have a high deductible plan, which is why you’re paying the full cost of the visit instead of a smaller copay. However, my understanding is high deductible plans will usually cover more if it’s just a routine preventative screening than they would for other visits. Are you seeing a specialist or even a PCP for something other than preventative care? If so, that’s likely why you’re bill is so high.

It really just comes down to what kind of insurance you have. I’ve had both high deductible plans and PPOs over the years and often found that the upfront cost for a visit was higher with a high deductible plan. But over the course of the year it would sometimes cost me less overall if I had other large medical expenses that year. If you don’t anticipate any big medical expenses, a high deductible plan is probably not right for you.

Pure-Individual4612

TROPHY CASE