We've Made it to Mexico!

It's hard to believe that we actually are here in Monterrey, Mexico. Including a day for travel, we've been away from home for three days. So much has happened in those 72 hours, it's hard to know where to begin. Due to exhaustion and lack of time, I'm hoping to quickly bullet some highs and lows of the whole moving process:

- High: our flight didn't leave until noon, so we had plenty of time to say goodbye to our home on Monday morning. Ben took the boys to the back yard for one last lap, last slide, etc. It was a beautiful, sunny morning.

Last Pictures in front our house. I'm glad that I got to see my daffodils bloom!

I'm curious how tall they will be by the end of all this; I'll have to take a duplicate picture when we're home for good!

-High: Ben's dad was able to drop us off at the airport with our nine luggage bags, 5 backpacks, and a stroller. It was so nice to have an extra pair of hands to help with the kids as we checked-in and lugged around so many bags. It was also nice to have one last goodbye with Deedo.

-High: the kids were able to have MOD pizza one last time for lunch.

-High: after we landed in Dallas, I stood Josh up on his seat to stretch his legs. The ladies behind us exclaimed, "Oh, we didn't even know he was there!" What a great compliment! It was also fun to watch the twins chat  periodically with a older gentlemen sitting next to them throughout the flight. 

You'll be happy to know that Seth and Sam diligently watched the safety video as well as read the manual. Safety first.

-High: we ate at the sit down restaurant in the airport with what we thought we really squirrely kids (especially Josh). At the end of our meal, the waiter told us that the gentlemen two tables down (who had already left) had already paid for our meal. We felt so blessed! What a kind gesture to two tired parents juggling kids at an airport!

-Low: it seems that we bring the rain with us whenever we fly. There was a massive storm system over Dallas, thus delaying a ton of flights. We were originally supposed to arrive in Monterrey at 9:20, we arrived at 11:30 (CST...which is two hours later than PST). We weren't all in bed until 1:30 CST.

High: the sunset from the Dallas airport

-High: there was an amazing lightning storm over Monterrey as we drove from the airport to the hotel. We were able to watch huge bolts across the sky which illuminated the mountains.

Tuesday

-High: we were able to get help obtaining a rental car, and they even delivered it to our hotel. 

-Low: we realized how bad our Spanish is.

-High: we were given the keys to our apartment and it was even better than I remembered. I love it and am so thankful that we chose this as our temporary home.

How about this for our new "backyard"?

-High: they recently put a play structure into the grass area at our apartment. Also as exciting, the unheated pool is starting to get warmer! 

-High: the owner of the apartment is so kind and energetic! I think he will take good care of us!

-Low: there is still some basic work that needs to be done on the apartment, and as Juan Angel says, "The workers will be here tomorrow...or maybe next week." Which means in a week, or two, or three.

-Low: out of all of us, Josh seems to be struggling the most with adjusting. Or maybe he is just verbalizing it more. He didn't want to be at the apartment, but wanted to go back to the hotel because that's where "Mexico" is. He misses his "Ellie." He is whiny, tired, hungry at weird times, full at weird times (mainly at restaurants when he thinks by saying that we will leave the table and play at the escalators with him), and overall, kind of difficult.

-High: finding Snoopy plates for the kids and a new Starbucks mug for my collection (I try to buy one each place we travel to!)

 

-High: having a Costco to shop at...familiar in an unfamiliar place is wonderful. 

-Low: doing a huge shopping trip with three tired boys in tow. Not my favorite.

-High: buying 8 huge avocados for under $5!

-Low: having the new International Credit Card that you signed up for specifically because you can earn flight points and not have any international fees be rejected at the check-out line with two carts full of goods. We were finally able to make the purchase using our debit card, but were very frustrated!

-Double low: not realizing what was really happening, we headed from Costco to Walmart to load up another two carts, only to have NONE of our credit or debit cards work. Note to anyone moving to a foreign country: notify your banks and credit cards that you are moving so that they don't freeze your accounts suspecting fraud. Thankfully after about half an hour on the phone (and thankfully a box of sourpatch kids for the boys) Ben was able to verify his identity and we made the purchase. It was SO frustrating and embarrassing. 

The kids love these new-to-us ramp escalators

-High: the fun of setting up a new home.

-High: listening to Josh yell, "Hola!...Espanol!" at one of the apartment maintenance workers.

-Low: the exhaustion that comes from setting up a home that only has some basic furniture. That means we're purchasing all kitchen goods, cleaning goods, hygiene products, basic groceries, etc. It's overwhelming and exhausting. Especially as all the labels and are in Spanish and I have to read a lot of labels due to our food allergies. Try to convert dollars to pesos while simultaneously trying to convert kilograms to pounds in order to figure out the price of meat. It's so tiring! 

-Double low: as we were unloading groceries I made discovery that there is NO DISHWASHER. Um, how did I miss that before? Such a bummer.

-High: returning to La Felix for dinner, a place that the boys just loved last time, and Ben and I loved the time before that. Again, it was nice to be somewhere that felt familiar. Ben had the boys try "escamoles," which are ant eggs, and they bravely did so. We were proud of them. (They weren't fans).

We love the restaurant La Felix

The bathrooms at La Felix let you write on the walls in chalk, which is the coolest thing ever. Can you see Josh's name? 

-High: the boys fell asleep quickly with no complaints of being scared.

-Low: all the boys woke up in the middle of the night scared and with bad dreams. In fact, Josh was calling for us, which woke Seth up and he thought something was really wrong and started screaming for us. I've never seen him that worked up before. Poor guy. It wasn't a great night's sleep as we discovered that there is a fair amount of road noise and I'm having to adjust to what are "apartment noises" compared to "kid noises." I'm sure we'll all get used to it as time goes by

Wednesday

-High: waking up to a beautiful view of the mountains. Reading my Bible and drinking my coffee in the beauty of the sunshine.

Look closely at the chimney on the house...that's a man standing on the roof of a very tall house, wearing no brace or rope. We watched him lean out around the chimney to clean the outside of it. Things are definitely done a bit different around here.

-High: while I'm used to waking up and putting on sweats and a sweatshirt, I had to rummage around to find shorts and tank top. I haven't had to wear a sweatshirt yet.

-Low: not having pots and pans yet (or eggs) we had day two of granola bars and jerky (or turkey as Josh calls it) for breakfast.

-High: the kids having free time to play games, write letters, and just get used to the house.

-High: setting the twins to the task of sorting and putting up and organizing all their clothes. They did a delightful job. And Josh distributed toilet paper for me to all the bathrooms. It was fun to have their help!

-High: emptying and putting away all the luggage!

-Low: only being able to find one of Ben's sandals.

-Low: struggling to find a restaurant to eat at for lunch. Did I mention our Spanish sucks? Well, it does. However great we thought we were coming along at our Spanish lessons in Portland, we weren't. It's so hard in real life. Try asking if the buffalo wings are dipped in flour in Spanish. Oh, you don't know the word for bun? Or pizza crust? SO FRUSTRATING.

-Low: the restaurant we landed at was brutally slow and we were starving. Except for Josh; remember: he's full when he gets to restaurants because he doesn't want to sit there and wait for the food.

-High: Ben dropped me at the grocery store to shop on my own while he took the kids to the park.

-Low: setting a bottle of salad dressing on top of your cooking spray causing it to start spraying oil on the things in your cart.

-Low: the lack of familiar spices in the store. And no 25 pound bag of Bob's Red Mill gluten free flour either, go figure.

-Low: did I mention that my Spanish is horrible?

-High: sitting down for our first family dinner at the ding room table, eating homemade Thai food and not having to navigate another Spanish only menu.

-Low: Sam stubbing the same pinky toe that he broke a couple months ago. The poor boy also rolled his ankle in the play place at the airport. He's had sore feet to say the least. 

-High: putting on a movie for the kids while Ben and I organized our clothes closet.

-High: having a neighbor stop by and bring us cookies and card. I may had teared up a little as I felt again God's faithfulness to remember us. And I felt lonely for the friends and neighbors we left behind.

-High: having everyone sleep through the night!