In NEED OF RAINY SEASON (minus the heat)

Hello my fellow bloggers!! I'm sorry that I've been off the blogging radar for a while. My journey has been a bit "bumpy" these last few weeks and after some much needed self-reflection and journaling, decided it's (HE was) not worth it and NEEDED TO MOVE ON!! With that being said, I wanted to give my family, friends and fellow bloggers a picture of what I mean when I talk about the rainy season versus the dry season. Although, I think majority of us local immigrants here in PV would love to have the weather we enjoy in December and January in the months of July-October, we do however miss the green we get to enjoy during our rainy months.

Here is what I mean.

This picture was taken in September. A few short days after I moved into my FAB apartment.

And I took these pictures just a couple of weeks ago.


This is the same piece of land from above. I sure do wish we had some rain now to green everything back up again. Vallarta is sooo much more beautiful when everything is green, bright, living and not dormant.

Stay tuned..I have another exciting blog I'm working on and will post very soon as well!!

The Washing Machine

Let me you all in on a little "tidbit" of information here in Mexico. Self-serve laundromats are few far and between to find. Since my journey began here in PV, I was lugging my laundry to the local Lavanderia (sometimes weighing up to 12 kilos) and paying for someone else to do my laundry. After returning home from Christmas Vacation I decided it was time to purchase a washing machine.

It took some breaking into the walls and re-construction to get the machine hooked up. My landlord had to get a plumber here to place the discharge tube in order for me to do my first load of laundry.

A little rest was needed.

There was a lot of chatting about how to make the tube work and fit. Warming the PVC to make it more pliable to move around the water and gas lines already in the wall. Construction is definitely a bit different down here!! The tube was completed. I was so excited to get the machine hooked up, leveled out and my first load completed. Then a frantic call to Dad at home, the "u-form" to place the discharge hose in was not working exactly as it was supposed to. The new tube they had just spent what seemed like 6 hours to install was not high enough to complete the "u-shape" in the discharge hose. "Dad, does it really need to do that? Yes, sweetie it does." So I had to patiently await another day in order to use the new washing machine. Toro to the rescue!! After a few more hours of chipping away the cement and brick, leveling and water hook up it was completed and SUCCESS! I was able to do 3 loads of laundry and WOW so awesome!! And what a HUGE time saver!!!!

Here's the machine!!!
The wall still has to be patched with cement, but I LOVE my washing machine!

Home Sweet Home

Christmas was so fun and enjoyable this year!! Spending time with family, baking cookies with Dad and making all those YUMMY appetizers with Mom!! (AND NOTE....NO broken bones this year..i kept my distance away from the snowmobile :))

I finally took some pictures of all the fun stuff I got for Christmas and put pictures into my picture frames.

I got a really cool piece of art and dishes from Kristin, Pablo & Sophia.

I received some really nice pillows and decor stuff from the family! Here's how it all came together when I got it across the border.


I also just recently purchased some really cool placemats at Liverpool that were on sale and LOVE THEM!!

And some awesome family shots before heading home!


Could not FORGET to get Holly in one of the photos!!


While Mom, Dad & I celebrated the new year in the hotel room we tried our expertise at "selfie" photography. Here are our attempts...

And our final attempt, turned out pretty good!!

TDD Christmas Excursion

Kristin & Pablo surprised all of us to a really FUN Christmas excursion prior to our Christmas vacation. We all went Bowling and then headed to Chili's for some YUMMY food!! Here are just a few pictures of all of us having fun and enjoying each others company. Although we didn't hit any HUGE scores to help out our handicaps (oh well maybe Kristin and Pablo showed us all how to bowl). We all enjoyed the afternoon anyways despite our low scores!




The Sponsors of the FUN-FILLED day!! (Thank you isn't enough!! It was fun hanging out with everyone!)

Toro relaxed and enjoyed the 1st time bowling!


And if you all know me and bowling...I've nicknamed myself the "Gutter Queen" and I continue to live up to that name even in Mexico!! Even with all of the gutters and ZEROS across the score board I still had a GREAT TIME!!!

Look at that PERFECT FORM!!

Christmas Vacation & More....

Well, Hello my fellow bloggers, family and friends! I'm sorry that I've been off the blogger radar lately. Well, December 19th, 2008 will go down in my scrapbook as one of the most exciting days. I was able to experience the Vargas-Crawford's family first trip as a family to the US of A and I experienced my first canceled flight due to SNOW.

We started with a beautiful morning in PV knowing that Milwaukee was getting hit with a HUGE snowstorm and hoping our prayers will be answered that we will get home.

We started the morning with a YUMMY starbuck's coffee.


Then it was off to our gate for breakfast (well Sophia had breakfast) and to anxiously await our departure:

Then it was a happy moment for the family to be OFF THE GROUND!!


Even though we did get stranded in Houston, it was an enjoyable day and a half. We spent our "layover" day and headed off to one of the malls in Houston and Sophia, Kristin & Pablo were able to experience a "Build A Bear", cinn-a-bon and Auntie Anne's pretzels.


As we arrived at the Houston airport once again, we checked in our bags and were upgraded to 1st class!! What a treat and experience. We were given our "snacks" and beverages with REAL silverware, REAL glass and REAL china!! WOW!! As we were waiting at our gate, we were all exhausted and anxiously waiting for our flight to start boarding. As we were just minutes from awaiting the boarding call, it was DELAYED!! OH NO..NOT AGAIN!! Will we get home for Christmas????? Let's just rent a car and drive!! But, lo and behold, we were cleared to board and off we were!! We all did finally land in Chicago, IL later than expected. It was such a great couple of days and I was sooo happy to be part of it!!!

I will posting more later with photos from Christmas, New Year, and updates to my apartment soon!! It's been a bit crazy since we have all been back to work!!

Road Construction

Tonight as I was walking home brought back memories of the COLD COLD winters in Wisconsin and Minnesota. You see here in PV we don't have to deal with Snow, but we do have to deal with RAIN, RAIN, and MORE RAIN!! I remember MANY times when we would get the inches upon FEET of snow that the streets would have to be widened by the grader. Well, when I saw the grader tonight, it brought back memories of those days back in WI and MN!! Tonight instead of pushing snow back to widen the roads, the grader was grading loads of dirt to fill in all the holes, valleys and bumps due to the INCHES upon FEET of rain that we receive during the rainy season.


I'm sure my neighbors were probably thinking why is she taking pictures of the grader fixing the street....

Well, exactly 2 weeks from today the Vargas-Crawford family and I will be heading to snowy and COLD Wisconsin to celebrate the Holidays with our families!!! I'm sooo excited for the Vargas-Crawford family to celebrate together for the 1st time in 6 YEARS!!! If you are curious why 6 YEARS check out my cousins blog for more information.

Everyday at lunch we get to spend a little time with Sophia. If she's not sleeping, she will come down and visit as her nanny Lorena has to eat too!! Well, this week we finally were able to catch a decent picture of her & I. Probably one of the best photos since July. Here's a quick progress...

On her Birthday - May 12, 2008

July - YES IT WAS HOT!! This was minutes before I was checked through security for my trip home for Summer vacation.
A BEAUTIFUL November Sunday morning following an event....We all needed a peaceful breakfast and Sophia was the morning entertainment:

Kristin snapped this photo a couple of weeks ago, but I don't remember when....

And this week during Lunch - Monday Afternoon


Can't wait for Christmas!!!!