That thing called "The Flu"

I just wanted to post today that we are all ok here in PV. We have had some flu-like systoms, but have visited the doctors and are now on anti-biotics. I've had a sore-throat since Saturday and it has moved into my ears, but we are all ok.

Today I learned that every school, daycare and public event across the entire country of Mexico will be cancelled until May 6th. All bars and discos in PV are closed as well. Unfortunately many of the peeps in Mexico City thought, "hmmm... kids are off school - what a great opportunity to head to the beach!" Grrr.... But the government has taken precautions and is screening all visitors by land, sea and air to current non-infected cities (like Puerto Vallarta). We've been advised to hunker-down at home and keep trips into public places to a minimum and only if necessary.

We've been trying to take all precautions and have decided not to work at the office this week. I headed to the office this morning to pay the employees for the events we had this past weekend and headed back home to rest and work. I think we all might be feeling a bit anxious by tomorrow. I'm hoping after 24 hours of anit-biotics I'll be feeling better.

Please keep us all in your thougths and prayers!

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!

This year was sooo fun and enjoyable!! Pablo, Kristin, Sophia and I started our Easter morning with our church service. Following church we had brunch at my house, searched for our Easter bunny treats and played a game of cards. (well until Soph woke up from her nap)

It was such a fun day. Here are some pictures that documented our fun day.

We started the afternoon out with some family photos:


Then searching for our goodies from the Easter Bunny....(sorry I think Kristin has some photos of this) You'll have to check her blog out for pics of the goodies. The Easter bunny brought Kristin and Pablo an oversized package of peanut. Sophia got an Easter basket with suntan lotion, multi-grain puffs, body wash, some lego type things and a book. Then the Bunny wrapped up a puzzle and a fun little "first walker" that she had to find.


By the end of the afternoon, she was grooving all around the apartment.


As many of you may or may not know. Kristin and I have been on a "no-carb" diet since the beginning of January and to be honest trying to find a breakfast casserole with out bread was not as difficult as I thought it would be. We had breakfast casserole with little smokies.

Then it was time for breakfast.....



Soph took a nap....
It was such a GREAT day!!! I was asked to post the recipe for the "best egg dish ever". So, here it is folks. It was YUMMY!!

Basic Breakfast Casserole Recipe for 9x13 casserole dish: (6-8 servings)

14 eggs
1-2 tsp. of any spice you like on eggs
salt and pepper to taste (i only put in pepper)
2-3 T. sliced green onion (i put in 3 green onions)
1 1/4 cups diced ham, Canadian bacon, turkey sausage or other meat of your choice (precooked - I used bacon)
1 1/4 cups grated cheese (I only used 1 cup)
6 oz. cottage cheese (completely optional - but SOOOOOOO recommended)
10 oz. sauteed mushrooms, red pepper, broccoli, zucchini, or other veggies (I sauteed 1/2 green pepper, 1/2 yellow pepper, and about 6-7 fresh mushrooms)

Preheat oven to 375. Spray glass or non-stick metal casserole dish with nonstick spray. Dice meat and grate cheese. Saute any veggies you're using in a small amount of olive oil for 3-5 minutes (depending on what type of vegetable.) I pre-cooked the bacon first and then added my veggies to the bacon drippings. Harder veggies like broccoli should be briefly boiled and drained well.

In bottom of casserole dish layer meat, veggies, green onions and cheese. Mix eggs with seasonings, salt and pepper until whites and yolks are well combined. (Edit: eggs should be well combined, but not beaten together like for egg whites, just mixed with a fork. Add cottage cheese to egg mixture if using.) Pour eggs over meat/cheese mixture, then stir gently with a fork so that all the ingredients are evenly distributed in the eggs.

Bake until eggs are firmly set and top is lightly browned and bake 30-35 minutes.

I prepared the egg dish the night before and it turned out FANTASTIC!!

Until next time folks......xoxo

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!!