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!)

  

Mr. Perfect

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram or have like ever met me even once for like 5 minutes, then there's a good chance that you know I'm a mama to the most perfect, sweetest, cutest, bestest puppy gentleman in the whole entire world named Bloo.  He's a chocolate-colored labradoodle and he's about 7 years old (I think...I adopted him as a stray puppy) and he's been my main man since 2010.  He's been with me through 5 moves including moving to Mexico, he's had a couple different papas, and he is the LOVE OF MY LIFE.  We actually refer to him as "Mr. Perfect" around the house, and he responds.  Because, duh.  

Here is Bloo pretending to be a GQ model on Anderson Island....

The definition of a "fur baby".... I was regularly asked, "Where is his face?" when I let his hair get this long.  But isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen?!  Of course he is. 

Anyway... We had our first mini scare this week.  Bloo has had a harmless, benign, fatty cyst about the size of a walnut on the back of his head for over a year and it recently became infected and started oozing and doing gross cyst things.  Let me just interject here for a minute -- wives/mothers are always right!!!  Ty has this really disgusting habit of "popping" Bloo's cyst like a giant zit and our vet back home said it wouldn't hurt him, so he kept popping away...like daily.  (Boys are GROSS.)  I was constantly yelling at him not to do it because A) it's friggin disgusting and B) because I said so.  

When we got here, I specifically told Ty, "Do not pop his cyst anymore.  There are tons of stray dogs and diseases and who knows what kind of bacteria!!!  He doesn't need an open wound on the back of his head at all times.  Just STOP."  Well... Do you think he listened?  Of course not.  

I don't ever look too closely at Bloo's "bump" as we call it, but a few days ago Ty meekly admitted that it's been sorta oozing and leaking the last few days and that he thought it might be infected.  Please insert the biggest "I told you so" wife rant here.  UGGGGH. 

The next day, Ty drove Bloo the couple blocks to the village vet (without an appointment) to have his head looked at.  She instructed him to come back at 4pm and she'd cut out the non-cancerous mass because it was most likely infected and it would just be better to get it out of there.  

Ty took Bloo back that afternoon and the vet gave him what she referred to as "puppy tequila" to sedate and calm him (we were told it's like taking a Valium) and then gave him a local anesthetic before slicing his head open.  Meanwhile, I stayed at home and was being perfectly calm and rational and not thinking of all the worst-case scenarios possible.  I definitely didn't cry and I wasn't even pacing or freaking out or anything.  (Please note as much sarcasm as possible.  I specifically didn't go with Ty, because I knew I would just stress the vet out and probably Bloo too.) 

It took her over an hour to cut out Bloo's cyst because there was so much scar tissue around it.  Hmm, I wonder HOW THAT GOT THERE.  Anyway.... Ty had been gone for about an hour and a half and I was starting to get antsy, so I made the 3 minute walk into town and arrived at the vet just as Ty was about to leave.  Bloo was like a drunk baby....that's the best way to put it.  After lumbering awkwardly out of the vet's office, we had to lift him into the van for the short ride home.  I rode in back with glossy-eyed Bloo and told him that his papa was sooooooooo sorry for doing this to him.  (I was probably being a little passive aggressive and bitter, but....HE IS MY BABY.)   Once we got home, I stupidly tried to help Bloo out of the van (he was like a 100-pound sleeping toddler) and he ended up face-planting into the dirt driveway.  Awesome.  

I, of course, doted on him all night and spent a lot of time sprawled out on the tile floor kissing his puppy face and telling him how brave he is.  That's normal, right?  He was thoroughly annoyed with me, which I took as a good sign that he was feeling okay.  

If that's not a mama's boy I don't know what is... 

The next day, we were doing some yard work around the beachfront casitas and tiny flies were flying around Bloo's stitches (GROSS) and he scratched the back of his head and ripped his stitches open.  Extra awesome.  Again, I remained totally calm and didn't freak out at all.  Oh, wait.... 

We knew the vet was planning on making a house call to check on Bloo (because apparently that's a thing here), so we impatiently waited for her to drop by.  Long story short, Bloo has been re-stitched up (a little sturdier this time) and seems to be doing well.  In fact, I don't think he even knows anything was ever wrong.  He didn't seemed stressed about being cut open and stitched up twice, he's been taking his antibiotics without any trouble and he amazingly doesn't even seem to be in any pain.  (Didn't I mention he was perfect??)  Here's a disgusting pic of his frankenstein head after his second round of stitches....

Side note:  Our vet bill, which included:  initial exam (aka stopping by unannounced), sedation, local anesthetic, hour-long, same-day surgery, antibiotics, a house call and being stitched up a second time = 63 bucks total.  We couldn't even get Bloo groomed back in Seattle for 63 bucks!!!