7 months later...

I can't believe we've lived in Mexico for 7 months already.  It strangely feels much longer and much shorter than that all at the same time... It's crazy to think we were both working 50+ hours per week, setting alarm clocks for 4:30am, and dreading Sunday nights because they led to Monday mornings at the beginning of the year... It seems like soooo long ago, and yet this year has flown by.  

Let's recap 2016, shall we?

January

• we (I) started freaking out about our "big plan" like literally as the ball was dropping on New Year's Eve because it was suddenly 2016, and that meant we had to start actually checking things off our giant to-do list rather than just daydream about becoming beach bums like we had been for the 4 months prior
• we spent two weeks in Nicaragua because that's where we were originally planning to move to and had already booked a "research trip" that we turned into a relaxing vacation instead... The trip was great, but it made us even happier to be moving to La Cruz because Nica was way too hot!

February

• we (I) decided we should "probably get married before we move" ....as if we didn't have enough to do already!  We got engaged the previous May (while vacationing in La Cruz!) but hadn't set a date yet.  It seemed smarter to get hitched while still in the states because who knows how alla that stuff works in Mexico?!  (Honestly, what it boiled down to is that I am lazy and didn't wanna research how to get married in a foreign country.)

March

• we both left our jobs (after putting in our notices 6 months earlier)
• we finally obtained our Mexican Visas... A major "this is really happening?!" moment 
• I talked a lot about needing to pack and start downsizing but didn't do it

April

• I started giving away my winter clothes 
• I started packing several times and then stopped because I'd come across some sentimental something or other and I'd spend an hour looking through baby photos and then be too tired to continue "packing" 
• we had the most fun wedding / going-away party in the history of ever!!!  Our (my) "vows" were hilarious, and I literally danced down the aisle to a Bruno Mars song.  Because, duh...I'm allergic to being serious.    

May

• we sold our adorable river house for asking price
• we sold both cars and bought a mini van
• we sold, donated or gave away 90% of our possessions with the help of my estate-selling mama
• we loaded up the van and our pup and drove the 2,800 miles from Seattle to La Cruz...making a few stops along the way 

• we moved into Simply Baku for the off season 

June

• we tried to figure out how this whole "living abroad" thing works
• we ate a lot of tacos
• we got tan 
• I nearly died by way of heart attack thanks to the "nopes" 

July, August, September

• Bloo needed minor surgery and I remained totally calm about it
• we nearly died of mosquito bites, suffered through miserable heat, humidity, mud and thunderstorms 
• Ty survived the biggest storm of our lives by being totally manly and not being a scaredy cat at all 
• a lot of restaurants closed down and the town just seemed kinda grim and blah
• we made a lot of friends! 

October

• I got homesick and depressed and cried a lot because I felt purpose-less and essentially homeless and unimportant and I gave up a career I loved to follow Ty to a foreign country that I was struggling to find my place in all because he was having his second mid-life crisis before the age of 40 and I was questioning the "why" of it all........ 
• I turned into an anti-social turtle/hermit crab hybrid and became too anxious and nervous to do anything without Ty 

November

• all of the Gringos showed up at the same time.  Like, we literally went to Mega one day in November and every shopper was suddenly a white person
• we started Spanish classes and I realized how friggen long it's gonna take to become fluent
• restaurants started opening back up after being closed all summer and La Cruz started feeling alive and buzzing again
• my family came to visit us!!!  

December

• we moved out of Simply Baku and into a new place 

Yes, that's right... We moved AGAIN!  This is our sixth move in less than 5 years mostly thanks to Ty...but at least this was an easy move.  When you only have one van-load of "stuff" and you move into a place that's fully-furnished, moving ain't so bad.  

We spent the summer and fall at Simply Baku helping the staff spruce up the place before high season.... We refinished all of the wood shutter windows (20+ panels per house!), repainted the exterior of the casitas, refinished gate doors, helped with yard work, guest bookings, pup-sitting, errands, etc. etc.  The pools recently got refinished, the garage doors are being rebuilt, new pathways have been paved, new bodegas are being constructed... And Baku is looking fabulous!  Our friends are staying there in March and I'm excited for them to see it...    

When we moved into Baku in May, we knew we'd have to find another place to live before high season started because we'd be taking up a rental space meant for guests to book.... We assumed we'd be renting a small place nearby, but then we were approached with an opportunity too good to pass up.  Marianne's long-time friends own a stunning, beachfront, vacation rental property on the outskirts of La Cruz and they needed someone to manage the property and live onsite, so they could stay in the states and not have to come to Mexico as often.  So, instead of paying too much rent on a cramped apartment in town, we're renting out the main house of a sprawling, magical "estate" smack dab on the beach and renting out the other units for the owners.  

We've only been here a week and a half, but things are going well enough so far.  We're getting settled into our new digs and new routine, we're getting to know the staff and the resident pup, Luna, has turned into my little shadow... Someone please pinch me, because our life doesn't seem real.  

Sappy side note:  As a creative person who loves to customize/design/remodel/decorate houses, it is very strange moving into someone else's house.  Yes, it's convenient to rent a place that is fully-furnished and already decorated, but it's also very weird having no control over your "home" and your surroundings and not being able to customize spaces to your liking. 

I was a homeowner by the age of 21, so for the past 10 years I've had that really comfortable feeling of "home" and pride of ownership and privacy and all that... But, I've essentially felt "homeless" since we moved here and it's a really depressing feel for me.  (Ty, of course is unscathed and fluid as always.)  There have been many times where I've broken down in tears and said "I wanna go home" only to be reminded that we have no home to go back to... It's definitely been a big downside to living in Mexico for me... I feel like I'm been tiptoeing through someone else's house for the past 7 months.  I honestly don't feel like I have fully relaxed since I've been here because of it.  But, don't tell anyone that I actually have feelings!  

Jardin del Mar, as our new place is called, has been mostly unoccupied for the last two years while the family took a break from the rental business, but now that we're starting it back up again, Ty and I are in the process of thoroughly checking each of the six rental units to upgrade outdated, rusted, broken or mis-matching items and deep-cleaning everything.  Never ever did I think I would be scrubbing mold off a fridge with bleach and a toothbrush, dusting palapa rafters, doing loads of laundry and pulling (someone else's) hair out of drains on Christmas Eve.  But... that was my day yesterday because we had guests arrive from Canada last night and I wanted Casa Palapa to be as clean and comfortable as she is cute! 

The owner's family is here for the holidays taking up most of the other rentals and we have two other bookings arriving for New Years Eve weekend, and we've been handling all of the behind-the-scenes goings on that are required to run a rental business...so we've been very busy since moving in.  We (I) have been acting as graphic designer, webmaster, writer, booking manager, photographer, social media manager, interior designer, problem solver, and just all-around badass boss lady.  Because...have you met me?  There have been several days where I've sat in front of no less than 3 screens all day like a multi-tasking rain man working my nerdy magic all over the place while Ty brings me food and water as if he's a pit crew boss and I'm racing in the Indy something or other.  

It's been such a strange way to spend the holidays though... It doesn't feel like Christmas in the slightest.  Ty's going to the airport today to pick up some Baku guests and I plan to do more room inventories and admin work.  I'm currently sitting on the couch in my (Ty's) pajamas with wicked bed head like I would any normal Christmas morning, but I feel like I gotta make myself presentable here soon since we have guests around and whatnot.  Weird.

I hung up our stockings about a week ago (the only holiday stuff we kept) but they're looking pretty sad and empty this morning.  I plan on being doted on and spoiled and snuggled with and kissed and cooked for and treated like a Christmas queen today though because Ty loves me soooooooooo much and his gift to me today is undying love for his awesome wife!  (Actually, I've been threatening him for days with homesick tears if he doesn't make my day special and he'll do anything to keep me from crying, but whatever...same thing.)  

Feliz Navidad to you and yours!  Much love from your favorite weirdos south of the border!!  And also...book your vacation for 2017 and come visit us!  Duh. 

Some Blah Blah for my Mamas...

I've been slacking on my posts... I have about 8 posts in draft or just in idea-mode at the moment and I've been bad about seeing them through.  I have absolutely no topic for this particular post, so I'm sorry in advance.... But the two leading ladies in my life are overdue for their dose of nonsense from their favorite daughter.  

IT'S NOVEMBER?!  Seriously.  How did that happen?  Time is such a strange and unfamiliar sense here... Feeling the temps drop from warm to brisk, seeing the leaves turn orange, opting for boots and scarves and smelling that crisp autumn smell are all the ways most Americans internally know fall is coming...but not for us.  I'm seriously stuck in Groundhog Day here and sometimes it's kinda a bummer.  Everyday feels the same and I have to remind myself regularly that it's almost December.  Not gonna lie... flip flops and tan lines are fun, but cozying up on the couch with my family and a fire on a frosty Sunday to watch football doesn't suck either.   

The weather changes here are much more subtle.  Suddenly you realize you feel just slightly more comfortable and less sweaty during the day, the mosquitoes gradually disappear and you're finally able to put makeup on your unsightly face without sweating it all off in the process.  The last 4-5 nights I've actually gotten "chilly" (it's been low 70s in the early mornings) and I needed a light blanket instead of just a sheet.  I guess these are the ways I'll now know that "winter" is coming.  Weird.  

Know what's even weirder?  The American holidays are alive and well in Mexico!  Which has been a big surprise to me... Any American could walk into Mega right now and feel like they were in any big store back home... American Christmas music playing over the speakers, mountains of glittery holiday decor for sale, fake Christmas trees decked out in lights and bows...not to mention tons of white people!  It's like November 1st hit and all of the Snowbirds showed up at once.  After barely surviving our first Mexican summer, we totally get why people go home July through September (and we have no intention of staying here next summer.  Yuck.) 

We even saw real (exported) Christmas trees at Home Depot yesterday.  Um, what?!  The biggest surprise... Mexico even has an equivalent to Black Friday which is called "Buen Fin" and it starts the third weekend of November.  Aside from it being 85 and sunny everyday, it's like we never left the states... Just kidding. 

Last night we had Thanksgiving dinner with some new friends who just docked in the La Cruz Marina last week.  We (me) had originally thought it would be "fun" to try to recreate Thanksgiving dinner at home, but then the idea of having to go to several different stores looking for limited Gringo ingredients (along with every other American in the bay area), and then having to cook everything on our small stove all day in the heat...and then deal with the mess and clean up.  I must be getting old because all of that just sounded like too much work for one nostalgic meal.  It's even harder to get in the holiday mood when you're still sleeping with all of your windows open and ceiling fans on.  

Instead, we booked a table at the La Cruz Inn around the corner from us because they advertised they'd be having a traditional turkey dinner.  Perfecto!  The company, conversation and food was all great...and for 250 pesos per person, it was a perfect evening!  

The only downside to Thanksgiving this year, aside from being away from family, was not having any leftovers to gorge myself on late last night and again for breakfast this morning.  And not having an entire pumpkin pie to eat in shame during the course of the weekend.  Oops.  On the other hand, this will be the first Thanksgiving weekend where neither one of us gains weight for being little piggies!  Ha.  All in all, we had a great holiday south of the border.  

What else.  My family was here visiting last week!!!  I've known for months that my grandma and aunt and uncle were coming, but lo and behold when we picked them up from the airport they had a few stowaways with them... My parents!  I've suffered a few bouts of homesickness over the last six months while trying to adapt to an entirely new life, language and cultural and it was refreshing to have a sense of home for a week.  We went fishing, zip lining at our friend's family ranch, swimming, beach-ing, snorkeling, boating, shopping.....and we ate a LOT of good food.  I had also intended to throw a mini Thanksgiving while they were here, but again, the heat and laziness won and we went out to a tasty restaurant last Thursday in Nuevo instead... 

What else.  Ty and I have been making more of an effort to get outta the house on the weekends (hence the lack of blog posts) and explore Mexico more rather than just stare at computer screens all weekend.  It's led to some, let's call them "interesting," adventures.  

I mentioned in my last post that we found some awesome hot springs about a scenic 90-minute drive from us and a couple of weeks ago we tried to find the "back way" there hoping it would be less of a drive.  Picture a couple of gringo kids in a mini van with their pup asking at least a dozen non-English speakers, "Donde estan las aguas termales?" as we got lost in little villages and farm lands trying to remember where we had come from the previous trip... We asked an old man on horseback, a man working at some sort of power plant, women chilling in the shade on the side of the road... We understood almost none of what they told us, but hand gestures and waving and pointing are more useful than you realize until you move to a foreign country.  

Amazingly, we found the hot springs...buuuuuuuutttt not before being stopped on a dirt road in the middle of the mountains by a caravan of AK-47-toting Federales.  Watching a man with a gun strapped to his chest ask your husband to get out of the car while your dog is barking at the men in the back seat, makes you wanna crap your bikini bottoms, turns out.  They didn't speak any English, but motioned for Ty to open up the trunk, which he did.  We think they were looking for drug traffikers and we explained we were headed to the hot springs.  The camo-clad military man in charge told us it was about 5 more kilometers and let us continue on.  

Needless to say, I did a bit of freaking out the rest of the way to the springs.  Luckily, they weren't there on our way back home which was a big relief... We're always reminded that the military are the "good guys" by both expats and locals, but DAMN, they're scary.  I wish I had a picture for you, but I was too busy mentally planning my husband's inevitable funeral and trying to quiet our loudmouth pup to think of taking one.  In hindsight, that probably wasn't a good story for my mothers to read today, but such is life in Mexico!  Never a dull moment! 

Happy Thanksgiving from your favorite kids (and pup) south of the border.  Love and miss you all!  (And GO DAWGS!)