Some goals for the New Year

Cant believe tomorrow will be New Years Eve already. I hope everyone has a great night and cant wait to hear about your celebrations. I did not plan on making a list of goals or resolutions but Milena over at Mexi- Can Me inspired me to write one so here goes....

1.  Learn more Spanish, I have improved since last year, but still understand way better than I can speak it. I am more of a listener and not so much a chatty cathy, unlike Javi so that is part of my problem.

2.  Try to find some type of on-line work that I can do while I am here. I spend time helping with the store, cleaning, and cooking, but I would like to be able to make some extra money and keep busy while Javi is away.

3. I want to start looking into getting an FM-2. I have to find out what is involved and get all my paperwork ready.

4. I want to travel somewhere with Javi during his vacation. After these last two years it would be nice to get away just the two of us.

5. Keep in shape and working out. I did not want to wait until the new year to start working out so I started two weeks ago and I feel a lot better about myself and it has helped me with some stressing out.

Well that is all I got for now, its a start anyway. If anyone else wants to join in on the lists for the New Year I would love to hear about some of your goals.  Wishing everyone a safe and Happy New Year.

First Christmas in Mexico

Hey everyone I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas weekend. I just wanted to share a slide show of my first Christmas here in Mexico. It was very different from what I am used to. Here only Christmas eve is celebrated and my Christmas day was like any other, in fact I spent the day doing a major cleaning of our room and laundry, fun stuff I know! All day was spent preparing the Pozole, ponche, and pastel that we would be eating.

Our Christmas tree with our gift exchange presents.

A photo of  almost the whole family.

Another photo of our gifts

The boys firing off their fireworks out in the front yard.

My suegros. So hard to get smiles out of this family. It took me years to get a smile from Javi.

One of our homemade Pinatas.

After dinner and fireworks we exchanged gifts and hugs at midnight. It was exciting to see everyones faces when they got to open their presents. It was weird not having the smaller kids get gifts though. In the states even if the adults don't get gifts the kids always receive them. Because they don't believe in Santa here the kids don't get their presents until Dia deReyes which I am looking forward to experiencing. After the gift exchange we all had some Ponche and sat around the front yard having a small bonfire, it was pretty cold that night but once we brought out the Pinatas and music all that jumping and dancing around warmed us up.

                    

Love this pix of me n javi.

Overall I really enjoyed my first Christmas here. After last year of being separated from Javi for so long and missing all the holidays together it was so nice to be here with him. It was hard being so far away from my family but I did get to see them,  we did  a video chat with the whole family. It was great to be able to see everyones faces and wish them a merry Christmas.

Gripa Gripa go away...

Hey everyone I just wanted to get one more post in before this holiday weekend. I have not been here for a complete month yet and it feels like half of the time I have spent being sick. My eye has finally healed but the weekend after that I came down with la gripa (cold) it has been a week now and I am starting to feel back to normal. This is my first year I will be completely away from my family for Christmas. It feels a little weird being so far away and learning some new traditions.
At least it feels a little like Christmas here, we have a decorated tree in the house and a Nativity set. The house is decorated with lights and so are other houses here in the town. I thought there would be more decorations around the plaza but there are not any at all. The only difference in the center are all the kiosks set up for the holiday shopping. I am not sure how everything works for Christmas eve and day here with Javi's family. Back in the states we would be going over to my moms side of the family and spending Christmas eve with them and then getting up early Christmas day to open presents with my dads side of the family.
  I believe we will be staying here in my suegras house for both days and doing our gift exchange. I am glad Javi suggested it, it makes it feel a little more like Christmas here and I love watching peoples faces when they open their gifts. I am looking forward to spending time with Javis whole family, not all of them get a chance to visit that much and of course enjoying all the yummy food including the tree P's. Pozole, Ponche, y Pastel (made by yours truly). I just wanted to wish my family back in the states a wonderful christmas. I am and will be thinking of you and love you.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas. Have a wonderful Weekend.

Drinks, rides, and a hawaiian performance?

Here in our small town there are fiestas being held for the first two and half weeks of December. I believe today is the last day, but Javi wanted me to experience the holidays here and how everything is celebrated. The plaza that is located in the center of town is just not big enough to hold all the people, rides, stage for performers and all the kiosks. So they made a big area right at the edge of town specifically to celebrate this fiesta. Even though the plaza is small some how people still fit in their stands to sell clothes, food and holiday gifts. There was room for smaller rides for the kids, a small stage for family performances and just enough room to squeeze by everything.

You can see how close two of the rides are in the first picture.

We made sure we went a little early because I hate having to

squeeze by everyone and I am not very patient.

Here are two pictures of a little performance that was dedicated to the Virgin, my camera does not take the best pictures at night but I managed to get a few photos.

And only here in Mx, I had to laugh because I was actually watching a performance of  girls  dressed as Hawaiians and dancing.

After walking around the plaza, we had a slice of pizza, enjoyed the Hawaiian performance and headed over to the bigger area of the fiesta, which was more for adults. There were bigger rides, drink stands, a big stage for performers traveling through town and a huge area for dancing.

I loved the colors in the picture, it makes me a little dizzy but t still looks pretty cool.

Me n javi managed to get one picture together.

Javis nephew was taking his turn trying to shoot these tiny little toys off of a shelf.

Javi, thinks he is a professional.

Overall it was pretty fun to experience. We only had a chance to get on one ride because it was to much money. All the performers that came through town were pretty good, one night we actually saw a Selena impersonator who was pretty decent. We were able to enjoy ourselves and the fiesta, and still make it out of there before all the rowdy crowd came in. Only downfall was the fiesta is in the field right behind our house so on the last night we could hear music and fireworks till about 7 the next morning. I was just never that kind of party animal. Me n javi were asleep by 11. LOL

My one good eye

So I have been here for two weeks now and for the most part enjoyed my time since I have been back except for one little problem. Last Monday night I was trying to sleep and woke up with a horrible feeling in my eye. It was like a piece of sand paper was scratching my eye every time I closed it. By early Tuesday morning it felt so bad, I just started crying and I was totally exhausted, I knew there was something wrong. Since javi had to be at work he asked his sister to take me to the eye doctor and yep of course I have an eye infection. The doctor tells me I am not allowed to wear my contacts and to put eye drops in both eyes every hour for the first day. Crap. After the first day I could only see out of one eye, the other was completely blurry. After a week of putting drops in the blurriness has gone away but there is still a little white spot from the infection that I am waiting to go away. Let me tell you it was not a fun week.

I was feeling a little better on sat and Sunday so I decided to go with my suegra to see the parade that would be going through the plaza. Well little did I know I would be apart of the parade instead of actually sitting on the sidelines and taking photos. After we walked from one church in to town to another we went straight to mass. I would have like to actually see what and who was walking behind me but didn't turn out that way. I did manage to get a few photos of inside the church after mass.

This church is so beautiful inside. I love taking pictures in here.

Outside view with all the lights on.

A view of some street decorations I thought were cute.

Here we go again

Alright ladies, I am sending around another set of fun questions. Hope you all join in with me and cant wait to hear your answers and learn something new.

1. If you could picture you life two years from now what would you like to see?

       I would like to be officially married and having our first kid. Javier and I have been together for five years and he introduces me as his wife but I think we would both like to make it official.

2. What is the worst habit you feel you have?

        It is hard for me to share "my feelings"  with other people  and I have always had a habit of biting my nails for as long as I can remember.

3. What is your favorite genre of movies?

        Comedy, I could watch anything that makes me laugh over and over again.

4. What are five thing you would include in your to- do list?

        Travel to Italy and Greece
        Get married
        Have kids
        Have our own house again
        Start our own business
     

5. Are you still in contact with any childhood friends?

      No. I had one best friend from age 10-18 but not any more.
      I really only have one best friend besides Javi, who I have known since I was 17.

6. Do you get along well with family members and relatives?

        I am happy to say that I have a great family, who 90% of the time get along. I have a short temper but when it comes to family I will try and let it go just because I know they have always been there for me and I would not want to do anything to mess that relationship up.
    

7. If you were to win 10 million what would you do with the money?

      I would build our own house here in Mx. and maybe one closer to the beach also.
      Start up some kind of business me and Javi could do together.
      Give some money to my parents and save the rest to give our kids a good life.

8. Have you ever been in a physical fight? Any details?
  
     I have to admit I was pretty feisty when I was younger and I am surprised to say have not been in any huge physical confrontation. There was only one time I remember pushing a girl into a locker because she had been teasing me for weeks. I tried to hold it for as long as I could but, just snapped one day. Have to say after she banged her head on that locker she never came to bother me again.

9. Three things you could not live without?

      My family
      Javier
      My kindle (only thing keeping me sane)

10.  Have you ever met a celebrity if not who would you chose to meet?
 
      George Stults, he played Kevin, Lucy's husband on 7th heaven if anyone remembers that show. I was eating at a Hooters restaurant with my family and they told me to go ask for his autograph. I went to his table where there were about four other guys and asked him to sign my menu. He did and then he asked me if I wanted his number also WHAT? I figured yea right like that would ever happen so I just smiled and said no thanks I'm just here for my aunt ( I mean come on get real, he was really good looking, but I am not an idiot I would have never got the real #). His mouth fell open and all the other guys started laughing at him. It was pretty funny.

11. Do you have any tattoos or piercings?

    I do have one on my the back side of my left shoulder. It is a half moon with stars and it is a light blue color. Me and my ex-best friend decided to do this together for our 18 b-days. Even though we are no longer friends I don't regret it, I actually like the color and the way it looks. I might even get another some day. Only piercings are in my ears, trust me if  I could of ever had one in my belly button I probably would have doe it already.

Back to the land of...

    I am back, to land of no heaters (freezing my tooshi off), where you walk everywhere or ride your bike, have tortillas with every meal, sometimes take cold showers, and get attacked by mosquitos. I am home, here with Javi and my new family. I had a great time in the states being able to visit my family and was able to be with my grandma during her surgery. Im very blessed that we did have enough saved up to be able to travel back and forth so much this last year. While in the states I drove my car around as much as I could, shopped, ate turkey, took many photos, ate fast food, and got to  hang out with everyone.

    I have to say that I did miss Mexico though. I think I was ok, soaking everything in until about the fifth or sixth week and then it just hit me that I wanted to be back home with Javi. I was away for a total of ten weeks and I am so glad that I spent so much time with my family, but I dont think I will be able to stay away this long for my future visits. Even after everything that has happened I am grateful that I dont have any regrets or resentment toward Javi or my decision to move. It is hard being away from everything that was all I ever knew, but I did not want to jump into this journey afraid of being open to everything new and what would be my new future. I wanted to jump in with both feet and just enjoy, learn, and love everything that my future has in store for me.

    The land where "el gas" is waking you up at 7 am, Dora is teaching you english instead of spanish, there is always some kind of vehicle driving around with delicous food inside, festivals every month, your hanging your laundry on the line, tacos on every corner, and where you will recieve a buenas dias, tardes, or noches no matter where you are. This is the land I must call my new home and I am sure I will one day be writing a post about all the things that drive me crazy here, but for now I will just enjoy the part of this culture that I am coming to love and be ready to accept with open arms whatever is next.

San Fran Weekend

So this past weekend we went on our last family vaca before I leave. I have an uncle and aunt who live in San Fransisco and it was a long trip in the car but well worth it. I have to say on the way up there I had a terrible cold and was pretty miserable but was able to enjoy the rest of the trip sat and Sunday.  I just wanted to share some of my photos and send a little message to my uncle. Thanks for a great weekend we had a fabulous time cant wait till the next time we will be able to get together.

The whole fam clan.

My Aunt and Uncle and their new addition!

Just for Fun

Hola friends, there is another questionnaire going around. I love joining in on these and would like to invite anyone else who wants to join in. I first found this questionnaire with  Tara over at http://meandthemexican.blogspot.com/2011/11/just-for-fun.html  and with Jennifer at  http://rubireyes-lifeinthearmpit.blogspot.com/2011/11/just-for-fun.html . Check out their great answers. I would love to see everyone Else's responses!

What was the first thing I noticed of my husband's
 when I met him? 

His eyes, butt, and shoulders

 Where would I like to go on a honeymoon?

Italy and Greece

Do I consider myself an adventurous person?
I would like to think so, I love traveling

and learning about new cultures.


Beach or pool?
Beach


Do you have a secret you've never shared with anybody?
Yes

Summer or winter?

Summer

Kisses or hugs?
Hugs

Sweet or salty?
Sweet

Strawberry or chocolate?
 Chocolate dipped strawberry's 

 
Black or white? 

Black

Favorite color?
I don't think I have one

Your favorite table game?
Aggravation


What's your favorite drink?
Agua de limon


What is your favorite [alcoholic] beverage?
Adios or Wine coolers

What is your favorite movie?

Home Alone and The Hangover

 Your favorite month?
August

 What's the first thing you think about when you wake up?
I should exercise shouldn't I ?

 Would you forgive infidelity on the part of your spouse?
No

How many rings before you answer the phone?

Well I don't have a cell phone and I screen home calls
so could be many.

Do you know how to keep secrets?
Yes

Do you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert?
I would say I am a pretty quiet, but I will fight with anyone who
messes with the people I love.


Do you tell your honest age?
Yes

What's under your bed? 

Dust and shoes


      Have you missed school or work due to the weather?

No

How long have you had this blog?
Just passed my one year Anniversary last week!

 

11-11-11

I am so excited to say that I have made it through my first year as a blogger and I loved it. I want to share this day with all of you because it is also my 24th birthday. It has been great becoming apart of this community and having the feeling of belonging.

 Last year at this time I was pretty much a wreck, our lives turned upside down and any plans for our future were going down the drain. It was all of you who helped me make my decision of taking the big step to move and keep my family together. Never once in my life did I think I'd say "Yes I am living in Mexico" and "Yes I actually like it." I don't think the weird looks of, are you crazy? ever going to stop, but I don't regret my decision. Being apart of this community has let me be open to my future and accept what challenges we have been given. It has taken us a long time to get to this point but at least together we are able to start making plans for our future and move on with our lives. Knowing that we are not alone in this makes all the difference and I am excited and ready for the future and  to the next step.

So to my next year as a blogger!!!!!

MIA Checkup

Hey everyone I know I have been missing for about two weeks now. There has been kind of a lot going on. First of all I just wanted to thank everyone for all of the thoughts and prayers that were sent our way. My grandma's surgery went better than expected. They were able to remove all of the cancer and last week we were told that all the pathologies that were taken were not cancerous. We are so grateful for this outcome. This morning we found out she will be getting out of the hospital this week. My grandma is so much stronger than she lets on and we are more hopeful looking toward her recovery.
On another note I am missing Javi everyday, it has been five weeks now. I have to say I am loving my video chatting, it is much easier being able to see each other while we are so far apart. It seems like me and Javi are going through very similar situations right now. As my grandma is getting out of the hospital his will be going in. She is having a problem with her lungs and will also be going through surgery. We will now be sending our prayers back down across the border. It is so hard to be so far apart and not be able to hug each other during these tough times, but I think everything that is going on is just making us stronger and more appreciative of each other and everything that we do have in our lives.

Lastly I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Early Halloween. Hope everyone has a safe and great holiday. I will be leaving you with two creepy photos.

Prayers needed. Thank you

hi everyone i am not able to get to my computer but thank goodness i have my kindle. i just wanted to ask everyone once more for their thoughts n prayers for my grandma. she goes into her surgery bright n early tomorrow morning. they say she will be in surgery for 7 hours if everything goes well. we are all just trying to stay positive and keep her spirits up. thank you everyone i will keep you updated and we all appreciate all you prayers.

What kind of artist are you?

So I just wanted to share with everyone how talented some of my family is (brag, sorry). The first shot is the front yard of my house and as you can see there was once grass. After javi left I had a hard time keeping it up and eventually there was only dirt and pine needles in the yard. After my parents moved in, my dad decided he would do a make over on the front and bring it some life.

He and my brother surprised me with this when I came back from my last trip.

Isnt it beautiful, they hand made all the rocks and put a whole bunch of beautiful flowers.

This last pix I had to share because this last week I got to find a little bit of the artist in me ( as my dad says) while working on my yard. All these rock in this picture me, my dad, and my brother made. It was a fun experience and just so javi would not feel left out I carved our initials on one the rocks.

30 pounds down and 9 weeks to go

I cant believe I have been here for a week already.  I am planning on staying for about two months this trip and heading back before all the holiday traveling. I know it will fly by and I am going to enjoy my time here as much as I can. Being away from Javi is tough, but I am so thankful that I installed  the video chatting on our laptop in MX. Of course it is not the same as being there with him but it makes it easier being able to see his face. I did have to give him a little lesson on computer basics before I left and make him his own email address, but at least he is able to do everything on his own now.

Since I have been back I have been able to visit with my moms side of the family and go to a couple doctors appointments with my grandma. Speaking of my grandma she is still being a trooper and it is getting closer to the day of her surgery. We have finally been given a date and it will be in early October, so not to much longer. Poor thing is so nervous, I could not imagine how she feels, we have decided not to tell her what the day is until she is only about a week away, because what is the point in making her stress out more. There is nothing she can really do to prepare anyway until a few nights before. So until then we will figure out some fun things to do to keep her busy.

In other news, lol, I have been able to keep up with my workouts while I am here. When I left I was finally able to run a full mile and a half without stopping. I could not believe I was able to get that far without having to take a brake. So I have been keeping up with my three miles on the treadmill in the mornings at least three days a week. It was so hard getting back into that mode where I actually wanted to work out, but I am so thankful to be there. I have also started drinking my protein shakes again. This is actually what I did to start my whole weight loss program a year ago. The protein shake makes me full throughout the day and it helps me build muscle while I work out. Only bad part was seeing the affects on the scale. It takes about a week for the protein to get into my system and kind of even out before I can start losing weight. So in the meantime I have gained three pounds since I have been back as a result. Oh well just have to keep it in the back of my mind that I will eventually see results again. I am very proud to say that I lost 30 pounds!! It took me a year but I did it. My first goal was 20, second 30 and now I want to lose about 15 more pounds to get to my big goal, but now I have the confidence to keep going. Yea!!!!!

Photos from my last days in Jalisco

I have now been home for a week, but thought I would share some of the photos from my last days in Jalisco.

These were from the plaza for " El Grito"

I very much enjoyed my first Mexican Independence day.

Photos of me with my new family. We were celebrating the 3 Birthday's of my sobrina, suegro y cunada.

I wanted to make a really cute cake but did the best with what I had. I

really need to take some more decorating supplies back with me.

Parque Aquatico

It is about time for me to leave again so javi  and his family took me on one last adventure to the parque aquatico  (water park) close to town. It was not as cheap as we would have liked, but it was a nice day to get away and enjoy time together. Javi was dreading going because he said the last time he had been here there was only one pool and a kids area, but was pleasantly surprised when we found out they have been expanding. There are now about three seperate areas for the little kids, one big pool, and four different areas with huge water slides.

The park was really nice and clean, there was more than one area to shower/ change/ and banos. Tons of chairs and sitting area, and a restaurant inside the park. You definetly get what you pay for, so it was worth it. We packed up some ensalada, refrescos, and fruit and went on our way. We we spent most of the day in the area where a machine makes waves in the water like you are at the beach. It was cute to watch his niece who is just shy of a year enjoy her first time in the water. I had to gather up some courage to go down the water slides, I like going down, but I cant stand walking up the stairs to the top, I have a fear of heights and it just freaks me out.

Since I have been here these last three months my skin had actually turned more pale. I dont think I have ever been this light during the summer time, I used to be a little river rat and loved getting tan during the summer. Since I have not seen much sun these last couple months and we could not buy a bottle of sun tan lotion I fried like an egg. My skin was red and irritated for about three days and now my back is starting to peel, but at least I will go back to the states with a little bit of color. One other downfall from the water park was when I got water in my ears which would not come out at all. I swear I could not hear for about three days until they finally popped. Very annoying!! But other than that I have had a great time since I've been here and will miss everything when I leave, It is such a bittersweet feeling. Until next time Happy Mexican Independence Day!!

You cant have Hot chocolate without the bolillo!!

I went into the kitchen the other night to make some Hot chocolate and Javis dad mentioned to me why was I making it because there were no bolillos in the store that I could eat with it. UMM.... I was just thinking I wanted some hot chocolate because it was cold outside. I had no intention of including a bolillo in this.

Before we came to Mexico sometimes Javi would bring up things like this saying, I could not have one item without the other (example: I could not eat a tamale without a glass of milk) or that I could not mix two items together because it was just not right. Most of the time I just ignored him and ate whatever I wanted, but now that I am here living with his family I see where this problem has come from. Also all the "Mexican food" that I loved in the states is usually not the kind that you will find living here. (Enchiladas are just not the same, quesadillas can be to different items here and I dont think I have ever seen a burrito or chicken taco/ sandwhich)

I remember my grandparents taking us to Olvera St in L.A. when I was younger and we loved ordering the taquitos and huge bean and cheese burritos. I had taken Javi there one day and he did not like it at all. He said that it was not real Mexican food that he was used to and that he did not eat burritos because that was just too much food for one tortilla. What??? I was so bummed and amazed, that was the first time I have ever heard someone say that. That was when I started to notice his problems and obsessions with the way he ate his food.

Like most things here there is a tradition to doing everything and when someone brings up something different it just doesnt fly. I am lucky that Javi had spent enough time in the states that he was more open to trying different thing but now that we are here it is like all that weirdness is coming back. Another example: the other day we went to pick up some tacos de manteca ( I know sounds really bad, but sooo good) and I was eating it with a glass of agua de limon and his mom went on and on about how it would taste so much better with a coke or refresco. I try not to listen to his family most of the time because while I am thinking they are weird for having to have things a certain way they are most likely thinking the same thing about me, how can she eat those tacos with water.

There are many types of foods here that I have learned go great with other things, but that is not going to change my mind about anything, I am going to eat whatever I want anyway. Back to the first story that night I learned that they eat the hot chocolate with a bolillo and a plate of frijoles. It was definetley a great combination but I did not magically get tunnel vision and now cant just have a cup of hot chocolate. I am so glad that I have never been one to care about what people think, otherwise I think many things would be a lot harder to deal with here.

So here is to eating a big fat burrito, a chicken sandwhich, cheesy enchilada, and some real chocolate when I get back to the states!!!

Anyone else have any weird stories or encounters with food and your husbands you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them.

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