it's my birthday

pillows

I just couldn't stop with the headboard for the bed. I wanted that cozy bedroom feel. That is where my next project comes in.

I thought adding some color to the room with throw pillows and a blanket might help. We went to the fabric store and I bought some fabric. Their selection is very limited, but I found a print that I really liked. Below you will see the results.

Yes, those are Christmas lights behind the headboard. It looks nice when the overhead light is off.

I added a chair in the room (after rearranging the room) to help with the coziness feeling.

This shows you the fabric for the pillows.

The blanket on the edge of the bed is what I made.

I am out of projects to do so the next post should be more entertaining...hopefully!

emily

Nothing exciting going on. Just wanted to share a few pictures of Emily. An earlier post gave the spot light to Bella and now it is Emily's turn. I usually stray away from talking about the girls. But, every once in a while they want me to. So I do.

2 for 1 project

I have too much time on my hands and I am in the house way too much. Due to that combination I think about how I can alter things in the house. First, I can't find things I want. Second, I can't afford new things. Third, I hate seeing everything the same day in and day out. I need some change in a place that change is not easy.

I dismantled (with Jorge's help) our headboard for the bed. I wanted to cover it with fabric. I had planned on going to the fabric store and buying something but came across something I already had. Yeah me! Recycling and not spending money.

This first picture will show you the bed prior to me getting my hands on it. Look closely and you will notice a curved piece of wood on the front of the straight piece of wood. We removed the curved piece which becomes project #2, which will be explained later.

Here is the after picture. Notice the fabric on the headboard. It is the blanket that was on the bed. I used the blanket only for decorative purposes (as seen as the third picture below).

Removing the front piece of wood gave Jorge the material to make the spice rack I had wanted. We went to Home Depot yesterday but their selection was crappy so we came home empty handed (good thing). He took the extra wood and made this for me.

There is plenty of room for me to add more bottles (Gerber juice bottles) once the juice is drank from them. I thought that they were a really good size for putting spices in. Right now the rest are in Ziploc baggies in that container next to the cookbooks in the picture above.

Good thing we don't have any power tools or I could really cause some damage!

photos and a find

I always enjoy seeing pictures when I look on other blogs. That is why you will notice that I rarely post a blog without pictures. These are all pretty random photos, but I thought you might enjoy them.

First, this is one of the biggest bottles of tequila that I have ever seen. And, it is at a low bargain of $40.

This is the isle of liquor in the Bodega in San Juan. You probably can't tell, but most of this is tequila.

Here is the front of the sushi restaurant that we order from. Their selection is very limited but it is pretty tasty.

Here is the street where the sushi restaurant is located. You can see on the top of the buildings to the left there are large black tanks. These are the tanks that are our water supply. The city releases water every other day or so and fill up these tanks. A little different than the US.

I had another great find the other day. I love lemon cookies and cakes. There are also some recipes that call for lemon juice or zest, but down here I can't find lemon anything. That was until the other day when I stumbled upon this little jewel...

I thought I would sign off with a picture of me. We were at a little restaurant that is located between Jalos and San Juan. Jorge really likes their food, mostly seafood.

a little more like home

I have always had some obsession with rearranging furniture. Unfortunately I don't have much to rearrange here because of my lack of furniture and belongings. Even so, I have managed to make the place feel more like home.

I am excited about my most recent change and I wanted to share because it brings us up on the scale, since this got the TV off of the floor.

Here is a before picture. As you can see it leaves much to desire.

We had been looking (back in the day when we had money) for a TV stand. In the old house we had an over sized coffee table that worked great. Everything we kept finding was too much money or just really crappy. So, we came to a decision to just leave the TV on the floor. It was our attempt to bring back the old style television sets, you know the one that was a piece of furniture and permanently sat on the floor.

Today I decided to try and use a piece of furniture we already had. I took the shelving unit for Jorge's clothes out of the bedroom and turned it on it's side.

It actually looks decent. The other shocker to this "after" picture is the missing Christmas tree. For the past two years our Christmas tree has been up in February. Taking it down during the first week of January is a record for me.

This just feels a little more like home.

flying solo yet not solo

I know some of you already got the scoop on my trip with the girls, but for those of you whom didn't here it goes...

The morning of November 18 we left our house here in Jalostotitlan with two bags packed as much as one can pack two bags and with a diaper bag of baby supplies. Travelling is not a fun process and adding two small children to it is not fun.

At the time Bella was about 23 months and Emily was 8 months. You can now understand why I was dreading flying without Jorge to the US.

Because I am not Supermom and because they don't allow two babies per lap, I had a seat for myself (with Emily on my lap) and one for Bella. The way to the US we had two flights to tackle. The first flight was just under 2 hours and was in a plane with three seats across (one on one side and two on the other). That was the first thing of greatness. The three of us could share two seats with out worrying about little feet kicking any unsuspecting neighbors. The girls were pretty good throughout the flight except for the descending. When that air pressure changes in the cabin all bets are off. The SCREAMING starts and doesn't stop for about 5 to 10 minutes.

The second flight was even better because the airline changed my seat assignment and we had three, count them, three whole seats to ourselves. That was GREAT! I had enough room to change a poopie diaper. I am sure my neighbors loved that. Descending was the same, screaming girls. Both were on my lap laying their heads on me and thankfully for the flight attendant she didn't ask me to buckle Bella in. You know, safety and all, they want you to only have the "lap child" on your lap. After the 10 minutes of screaming stopped all was great. We were in the US and were within a 5 minute walk of having someone else carry Emily.

Now, I thought things went pretty smoothly during the trip over and was wishing the same for the return flight. I guess the genie had already granted my three wishes.

The flight on December 22 I was to catch in Indy was delayed because of the weather up north. It was scheduled to leave at 3:05 pm but left at 4:46 pm instead. The airline staff told me it would be a close call but I would have enough time to catch my connecting flight in Houston. That flight was scheduled to leave at 6:25 pm and it did...without me. I was running down the airport (a lady from my first flight running with me carrying Emily) and it was 6:37 pm.

Still in shock from missing the only Continental flight to Aguascalientes, I stood in line to reschedule my flight. At this point I am totally exhausted and my arm feels like breaking off from holding Emily. I only have a couple diapers left and one bottle for Emily. I was told there were no flights available until the next day. I am surprised I didn't scream like the girls were earlier.

The airline offered to put me up in a hotel and gave me food vouchers. Both were greatly appreciated and momentarily gave me a little relief. I was told were to go to catch the shuttle to the hotel. I went there (Houston's Bush International airport is HUGE!) and waited while struggling to get change out of my pocket book to make a phone call while holding Emily, the diaper bag and fighting with Bella to stay standing and stop crying.

After making the calls I went back outside to ask about the shuttle. A guy on the airport staff called the hotel and the hotel wanted me to go to a different terminal to wait for the shuttle. Now I have to trek across this HUGE airport (using an underground tram at one point) and wait AGAIN for the shuttle. By now my arm is about to give out and Bella has really had it. She is refusing to walk and crying like someone has stabbed her with a knife. I have no other choice than to continue dragging her. Poor girl (and poor me).

I approach an airport staff member for the second time asking her to recall the hotel. Just as I did the shuttle shows up. THANK GOD! Now I am on the shuttle hoping that this hotel has a mini store so I can buy diapers and other needed items. Let's just say my luck was gone by this time.

The hotel was a dump! They have nothing, no store, no food, no good customer service. After settling in the room and wondering how the night is going to be with a 9 month old and a king sized bed I call to the front desk offering to pay someone to go and buy diapers for me. The guy at the front desk tells me he would but he can't leave his post. But, he says I can come ask the shuttle bus driver.

Bella is sleeping in bed and Emily has fallen asleep on my shoulder so I walk down with my wallet with Emily. The shuttle bus driver motions for me to get in but I motion back for him to roll down the window. I reminded him I have another little girl in the room. He told me that the gas station is right down the street and would only take a minute. I pray that Bella remains asleep and hop in the van.

He was right, no more than 20 seconds and we were at the gas station. There was ONE pack of 10 diapers left. They were mine! I bought some milk and bananas as well. I offered to buy the driver something but he refused. All of 3 minutes later we were back at the hotel. I hurried upstairs to hear silence. Bella never woke up.

We made it through the night and got to the airport to wait out our wait. There were 2 more planes in our future. The first to Mexico City and then to Aguascalientes. We made both flights and finally saw our dear daddy and husband at 5:35 pm on December 23. Since Continental had to rebook me with Aero Mexico I had to wait at the airport until the Continental flight got there at 8:37 pm with my bags. The airline told me that my bags would be on that flight.

We waited around and no bags came. When was something going to go right. My bags ended up coming in the next day in two different flights. When they had all three bags they sent them in a taxi to us. We leave about 1 hour and 15 minutes from the airport. So, around 10 pm on Christmas Eve my bags showed up.

That is my crazy story of travelling with the girls by myself. You can now see why I don't look forward to the next trip. Of course they will be older but still a handful.

back to "normal"

It's funny.  When I moved to Mexico my world was turned upside down and I wasn't ready for the ride.  Everything was different.  Whenever Jorge and I talked about anything we referred to how everything was not "normal".  The food, the people, the house, the way the water runs to the house, the water heater, the stove, the grocery stores, THE DRIVERS.  It is a different culture and that was hard to come to accept.  We had a life started in the US and that was "normal" to us.

I just returned from the US after being there for a month.  The trip was not as I thought it would be.  Prior to going I was dreading the trip.  I thought it would just be a big tease.  Put everything in front of me that I can't have.  It would be like the time in May, leaving all over again.

Surprisingly it was not what I had expected.  It was nice seeing everyone and working a regular 40 hour week while the girls were at Janet's (the daycare).  But everything I did I was wanting Jorge to be there.  Places I went with friends brought up strong memories of my husband.  I wanted him to be there with me.  Don't get me wrong, I had a great time with my friends, but it just didn't feel right.  It didn't feel..."normal".  How funny is that.  I am in the US and it doesn't feel "normal".

When the time came to return I was ready.  Ready to get back to *my* life and *my* husband.  Now things here seem "normal" to me.  Maybe this is the turning point for me to accept my life here and stop complaining.  I am ready to stop *waiting* and start *living*.  It is kind of a calm feeling I have about being here.  I am going to stop worry about the future and start living the present.

Thing will never be easy here but from my experience life is not easy.  There are challenges around every corner ready for you to tackle.  This is a big challenge but I am up for it.  I know I will come out the other side stronger and ready to fight the next battle.

I miss being around family and friends.  That is something that will never change and will never be easy to deal with.  But if all I do is worry I can't create a healthy or fun environment for my children to grow up in.   After 8 months Mexico is my "normal" and I think I am ok with that.