The big 21 and I missed it.

1.31.10 On in this day we went to get avocados from this lady that Porfirio always buys avocados from. She usually gives him 3 large for 15 pesos. Porfirio didn't join us today so we went to purchase from her without him. Wouldn't you know it, she charged us TWICE the amount she charges him! She wanted to give us 3 for 30 pesos. So we asked how much it would be for 2, and she said 25. WHAT!?! Frances said that when these independant Mexican vendors see pale skin & blue eyes staring back at them you can count on paying more than the locals. Ugh. It's so dumb! I understand they do what they have to do to make a living but when this is not the first time we've purchased from this lady, you don't just up the price when the Mexican is not with us!!! This happened with an orange juice vendor as well. When you're living on the peso instead of the American dollar, it can get frustrating being upcharged because you're white. Needless to say, we shop at the Bodega Aurrera for most stuff because it is an actual store that cannot change their prices due to the color of your skin.

I miss my family & my dogs terribly. Today is Shonnie's 21st birth day & I am going to miss it. :( I called her & wished her a happy Bday. After our conversation I started to cry. It's a milestone of hers that I won't be there for. She is probably at the Bayou as we speak eating dinner & having delicious beverages with Erik, Kelly & Dave. In lieu of celebrating with them in America, we are having family movie night watching Mr. Bean's Holiday. Sidenote: It's really a challenge for me to watch Mr Bean because the manner in which he goes about things drives me crazy! There are literally parts in the movie where I want to jump into the TV and do it MYSELF! For example, when he asked a random guy to take his pic in front of the train... it takes him like FIVE times to capture Mr Bean the "right" way and then Mr Bean spills the dudes coffee! DAH! I would have thrown the camera at his face after the 2nd attempt. Back to my story, I was sitting on our nice cold tile floor in the living room trying to watch the movie(because our 3 peice sofa set still isn't enuf to accomodate 9 Romeros) and pretty soon I started to feel an unusual sensation in my bottom. Concerned, I stood up and immediately felt that pins & needles feeling in my BUTTOCKS! For the first time in my life I actually made my bum FALL ASLEEP!!! This was definitely something I had never experienced before.

Weather the Storm if Only For the End Result.

A rainbow after the storm makes the storm completely WORTH IT.

¡Feliz cumpleaños!?!

1.27.10 Today is Javier's 28^th birthday. I thought (& would feel better if) it was his 29^th because that would mean he is THAT much closer to 30. But alas, he's only 28. And I'm 31. Gross. Anyway, he still hasn't found a job. He's turned in applications here, there & everywhere but no one has called nor cared. Here, to get a job, you have to KNOW SOMEONE. Which is bullcrap! Javier is MORE than qualified for ANY position but since he is white & knows no one, no one will hire him. They look at Javier as more of an EXPENSE than an asset because he is American. He's not willing to work 5 days a week, 12 hours a day for a weekly paycheck equivalent to $50 USD. This we did not see coming. ARGH! Back to my point, since he has NO JOB, we have NO MONEY. Since we have no money, we won't be celebrating his birth day. Lame. It is fortunate for him, I suppose, that he doesn't give a crap about birthdays or holidays. He could care less if we celebrate anything. Needless to say, it was harder on me today that we couldn't celebrate than it was on him. All he wanted was a good dinner- picadillo and tres leches cake. Fine! And that was the plan until Frances & Porfirio decided to take a trip to Guadalahara for a white board which in turn meant we had to make tacos for dinner & no dessert. Lame. With Javier still in good spirits, the end of his day got even better. I put on my little black number, dimmed the lights & gave him a sensual massage which of course led into happy birthday "relations." :)

A Small Part of Mexico

Beauty exists in all it's forms here in Mexico.


The petals on these flowers look more like leaves with veins and their triangular shape.




Corbin is helping Janette wash dishes in a standard Mexican sink outside on their cement patio situation.

Muy Frio!

1.16.10 "Come to Mexico. It's so WARM there!" I swear I have been freezing cold since we got here (with the exception of maybe two days.) It's been overcast nearly the whole time we've been here and these Mexi-casa's don't have HEATERS or air conditioning of any kind. Just windows galore. I've been questioning the rumors of wonderful winter weather in Mexico until we learned the other day that this is the coldest winter Mexico has seen in 10 years. OF COURSE the "coldest winter in ten years" occurs when we come along! I shouldn't even be complaining, it's not even that cold. Today it's maybe 65 degrees (compared to Utah at 25 degrees) BUT in these cement houses until the sun comes in, it's pretty chilly (keep in mind the no heater situation!)
This morning was the first morning I actually got a HOT shower since we've been in Mexico, granted the hot doesn't last long, but it felt good while it did. I finally got to shave my legs for the first time in 2 weeks! Another thing I took for granted-shaving in constant hot water. My feet were so cold that when I showered THEY HURT! I had to turn the water to cold to warm my feet first, then turn it back to hot. I wish so badly for a little space heater. My FEET are TIRED of being COLD. This having been said, my advice to you... Don't EVER take your heating elements for granted!

The Laundry Debacle

1.14.10 Yesterday was not the greatest day and probably the first day I realized how I miss the ease of life in the United States. This really is a 3^rd world country! We don't yet have a washer & the dirty laundry of a family of 5 is piling up fast. I needed someone to take me to the laundry mat (since I don't know the way.) Three o'clock rolls around, Frances & Porfirio agreed to take me. We got to the "laundry mat” which consists of a huge room full of ladies sitting at sewing machines mass producing Old Navy knock-offs, as well as 3 washers & 3 dryers. Laundry mat??? Ok. Porfirio left to park the car & never came back. One of the seamstresses came over & guarded the washing machines like I was a laundry terrorist looking to stop the machine mid-cycle & put my dirties in. She started speaking spanish which I could not understand, but I quickly got the point that our laundry was not welcome there. So Frances, the twins & I packed up our dirty clothes 'cause Porfirio was still missing & we walked a block & a half to another “laundry mat” which consisted of two washers & dryers! Seeing the garbage bags full of laundry piled up in this place gave me a clue that we weren't going to be serviced here either. At this point, Frances told me it's best to get there early in the morning. DANG IT!!! Porf was still “parking the car” so our options were limited to WALKING HOME dirty laundry and all. Sweet! So we walked about 5 blocks back home and when we arrived my fingers were yelling at me because Frances & I carried the heavy laundry complete with a BIG jug of liquid detergent in that same green plastic tub that we all bathed in which has only 2 tiny handles.

Back home, I could do laundry whenever I wanted without thinking twice. Here, this day, there was absolutely NO option to wash my family's clothes. That was hard to realize. The clothes are building up & I can't do anything about it...and that's frustrating.

To add insult to injury, confirming our location in this world, this was the eve we discovered a new friend in our casa....the scorpion.

The Market

1.10.09 The market. Oh chaotic, musical, dirty land of many unusual smells that is the market. With red meat hanging from the ceiling, raw headless chickens sitting on the counter waiting to be purchased, right next to fresh picked fruits & vegetables, and just across the way you can get a bag of fresh squeezed orange, carrot & green (???) juices. Yes I said bag. They take what resembles a sandwich bag, fill it up with several ladels of your choice of juice, stick a straw in it & tie it up with a rubber band. These are what I like to call ghetto juice bags...ghetto but delicious! After juice we wander over to the little pastry shop where you can get fresh baked goods like chocolate donuts, sweet breads & pastries with a cream cheese filling. But you have to get there early cause they sell out quick. At the market you can pretty much find any piece of junk you are looking for from plastic kitchenware to used shoes to exotic starfruit. My least favorite part is all the stinky raw meat just hanging out waiting for salmonella to take in. You will not catch me buying meat from the market. Or probably not at all here in Mexico. I just don't trust it. They have a store called Bodega Aurrera which is basically WalMart in espagnol as they sell Great Value everything, this is where, if I was going to, I would buy products of a meaty nature. And they sell a huge stack of corn tortillas for 5 pesos which is pennies in USD & these fantastic little hoagie type rolls called BOLILLOS for 1 peso each. That's a STEAL!!! However, I did see their egg section which is on a non-refrigerated shelf. I'm not sure that's safe at all! But we have eaten them & I've yet to get sick . Knock on wood.

Market Fresh!

The fresh squeezed orange juice is fantastically AMAZING. Each time I take a swig from my bag of juice complete with straw and tied with rubber my taste buds sing a song about the wonder that are ORANGES.
"This is my Ode to juice at the market,
for YOU I'll definitely get out of my car & park it!
I happily walk past meat hanging from ceiling,
'Cause I know when I swig, it sends my heart REELING!
I watch Maria open the bag, fill it up & tie it,
Reaching for the sack of delight, I can't fight it!,
I grab it, I suck it, and my thirst I QUENCH!
At that moment I no longer am a wench.
For the juice that rushes into my mouth,
Makes me HAPPY & quickly heads south."


This is not a bag lady as one may think at first glance. I'm pretty sure she's been selling her fresh veggies here in this same spot for probably 75 years. I've noticed people with a Spanish background don't age gracefully.


















This picture is a demonstration of child labor still in full force. It is part of the Mexican culture that ALL members of the family pull their weight in supporting one another. This child is the vendor of this fried pork stand.

The New Home

1.9.10 We got a home! It is a 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom, completely tiled, home with what I'm pretty sure is the SMALLEST KITCHEN IN THE WORLD! At first I was not open to renting this home due to this fact & this alone. To me the kitchen is the HUB of the home. That's where deliciousness is prepared and shared, all the while SMILES are created! To try to create that same environment in a room big enough for one is near IMPOSSIBLE. But the Romero's plan to remedy this. So we agreed to rent the home for 6 months for a measly $300 USD a month, which will be split into three paying parties. Not bad if we can find the Mexican income to support it. The entire home is painted a soft yellow with the exception of one wall in the living room which is LOUD ORANGE. It caught me off guard but we can work around it I suppose. The "laundry room" is outside of our living room on a cement patio where we wash our clothes & then take them up the metal spiral staircase to hang them up on the clothes line on the roof (which also makes a nice spot for tanning!) Now we are faced with the task of furnishing set home (since we sold all our stuff, remember?) We were able to get a 3 piece brown, leather sofa set for about $450 USD. Nice and a steal!

Home, It Is What We Make It.

Our living room, complete with ONE very bright orange wall!











This is our sons room large enough for 3 twin beds and still enough room for play!









This is what I like to call the "laundry room!" And our washing machine was definitely something we had to learn to operate ourselves. The controls are in Spanish & make little to no sense.









The roof of our home makes a good hang out spot, it's good for catching a great view of the neighborhood and most importantly it's helps us whiteys get our TAN on so we won't stand out like sore thumbs.

These are our neighbors to left, The Roosters. They are kind enough to stay up ALL night long Cock-A-DooDle-Dooing to all the roosters across town. Urban Myth- roosters DO NOT cock-a-doodle-doo only the the am hours. Consider this before you move next door to some.










Having furnished our new home, we feel it is important to give the kids as much normalcy as possible at home, given the new environment they have to adjust to. Corbin takes FULL advantage of this.

The First Mexi-Casa

1.8.10 The home we stayed in when we first got here belongs to Petra which is Porfirio's sister. This home is a cement haven in which spiders and mice keep shelter. It is a surprisingly large home which you would be shocked to see in Mexico. The fact that it is PURE CEMENT from floor to ceiling gives it's location away. Something funny did happen our first night in this house though. We were all sleeping and suddenly Frances & Porfirio heard someone calling “Daaaad!” they woke up & asked each other if the other had heard that. Again “Daaaaad!” So Porfirio runs up the stairs to where we were & saw we were all asleep. Perplexed, he was wondering who that could be. Then there it was again “D A A A A D!” it was then, he realized it was the GOATS next door crying out “BA-A-A-AH!” We got to hear their desperate hunger cries for several days & I came to know them very well. From the young one, to a few middle aged ones, all the way to an old crabby one which had the funniest voice of all. I can best describe it as a very old, gruff and MEAN man yelling at a punk kid to get off his property.

Back to the house, there is a lack of hot water in this house as well as a finished shower or bathtub, so after enduring about FIVE showerless days, we became innovative and we took our first ghetto bath in Mexico. Frances bought a small green tub & boiled up some hot water which was poured into the tub and then placed into the cement bathtub (that was never finished). The goal was to bathe oneself as quick as possible (because it wasn't fun standing in the nude in the cold.) This was not my favorite experience.

We're definitely in Mexico! Anyway, we stayed in Petra's house for a handful of days while we looked for ourselves a more permanent situation which we found in just a matter of a week or so! The house on Jose Santana 426, Jocotepec, Mexico!

Crossing and Customs

Crossing the border sounds like an intimidating experience, but for us, was relatively pain free! We left Laredo, Texas at 6:30am to get through customs as quickly as possible. This was our last day of driving & we still had to get from the top of Mexico, down to the middle of Mexico. So the sooner we got done, the better.




This is the money exchange place right by the border in Laredo Texas. This is where we trades U.S. dollars for our first Mexican pesos.






Everyone say "Queso!" no, even better..... "PESOS!!!"



We were a little lost at this point but knew we were in the right general area. One U turn, driving on the wrong side of the road, almost getting pummeled by a bus & a left turn later, we arrived.









CUSTOMS! A mere 2 hour set back and we were on our way to finish one more day of driving.

If only a drivers license was REQUIRED.

1.6.1o The drive through Mexico was crazy. There are no speed limits, no highway patrol of any sorts, the roads suck and lack SERIOUS organization, and people just do & drive HOWEVER THEY WANT. I swear we were driving 85 miles per hour the WHOLE WAY through Mexico on a road that had no end. Along the side of the road as we drove I took note of HUNDREDS of crosses and what I can only assume were memorial boxes where people had died probably because 75% of the Mexicans don't have a drivers license and they ALL pile into one car, or even in the bed of a truck! No wonder! If they were to get into an accident they would SURELY perish. Thankfully the Romero caravan arrived safely!

The sign on the side of the never-ending road, in the middle of no where with NO crosswalks says "Pedestrian Crossing." Given the circumstances surrounding the sign, this made me chuckle.

It's time for Good Bye.

1.4.10 So we left our home in Utah on December 29th, 2009 and headed to St George to spend New Year's with Javier's family. On January 2nd, 2010 we left St George and headed for Arizona. We drove through to New Mexico and stayed the night there. The next morning (1/3/10) we drove from NM to Texas, got another hotel for the night and left the following morning (1/4/10) for Mexico. We thought crossing the border & going through customs would be wretched and time consuming but it was relatively pain-free and didn't take more than a couple of hours. Once that was finished, we continued on the last leg of our journey & drove from the top of Mexico down to the middle of Mexico arriving at 9:30pm in the little town of Jocotepec.

The BIG Decision- Mexico or BUST.

My little family & I made a decision a few months ago to move to Mexico only on the premise that my mom & dad-in-law, Frances & Porfirio, would come along & give us 6 months to help us get established. My brother-in-laws Amon & Jordan of course agreed to come along.

We made this decision because we've been wanting a change for a while now. Ideally we wanted to move to Oregon or Washington but a move like that would prove to be VERY costly. So instead, we decided on cheaper living in Mexico. Not only for that reason, mind you.

We needed the money to do this so we decided to sell just about everything with the accord that we would re-buy everything when we got there. Javier quit his job about a month prior to our departure date while I continued to serve at the Cheesecake Factory saving money. Minus necessities and sentimentals, we had 3 yard sales & put our “big ticket” items on KSL.com. We were able to come up with just about $3000.00 to get us there. It was hard to let go of items like our lush reclining micro-fiber 7-seat sofa (sold for $500) and my 2000 Dodge Neon that I'd had almost 10 years (sold for $900) and to GIVE AWAY a good portion of my kitchenware! But I was able to do it all with Javier continuously saying “It's all replaceable babe.” All we were left with was just the stuff that would fit into a Dodge Grand Caravan and a Chevy Suburban.

Javier was able to let go of a lot because he's not sentimental. Neither are his parents. I, on the other hand, had the most stuff to pack. I absolutely LOVE kitchenware so I brought as much of that as I possibly could & had to get rid of the non-essentials. I also insisted we bring the cedar chest my mother gave me, which I reorganized in order to bring some sentimental items like baby clothes & childhood toys, as well as some of my scrapbooking stuff. They wanted me to fit all my clothes into one suitcase but that was near impossible so I was also given a large duffle bag and a “carry on” bag. I had to give my wedding dress a new home (mom's storage shed) and a good portion of my clothes went to D.I. Another thing I was desperate to bring was my cosmetology stuff with the dream that I may do hair & nails in Mexico. As for my sons, luckily they break most of their toys so it was easy to trash or D.I. those. Their Grandpa Bill made them each their own cedar chest so I allowed them to fill those with their most favorite things & we got rid of the rest. They were ok with that as long as we got to bring the Gamecube. And so we did.
The absolute hardest part of this move was having to give my dogs Athena & Leonitis as new home (temporarily) and to say goodbye to Mom, my sister Kelly, & my niece Shonnie. They've ALWAYS been a big part of my life and to have to LET GO of my BEST FRIENDS was tough.

It seems like MEN screw everything up! Once you find a boyfriend or a husband, you MOVE ON with life & those important women somehow DON'T MATTER as much as the new beau.
He somehow has the power to convince you to move to Mexico!!! It's ridiculous, I know.