The adventures of Mexico Part I

I can't believe I don't have one single picture! The next one, I promise.

Where to begin, really? Well, we did it. We are finally in Mexico. We are living outside of Guadalajara, in a really nice town. It is pretty clean for Mexico and I live near all the stores that I might possible want to shop at. We live in a "coto" which is a gated community with a guard on post 24 hours a day in a dead end street, so I am not really in walking distance of anything but I think we will live. We have a swimming pool for the kids in the rec area with a full size tennis court. In fact, we have Eva signed up for tennis lessons, twice a week, starting this week in our coto. Maybe when we get back to the states she will have some mad tennis skills. We have a little park outside our coto that we can walk to but coming back home and going up the hill is killer on my legs when both, Eva and Elijah want to sit in the wagon. Hauling 70 pounds up a steep hill is quite the work out I tell you. But we love it here in our house. It is pretty big too. We have 4 rooms with 3 full bathrooms, which is a nice change coming from one bathroom! Honestly though, three is a little excessive but when people are here it is nice to have three. The backyard is much tinier than what we had back home but I am thinking about how to make it a little more useful. I have been thinking of adding a sandbox and some chairs with a table. I think they would make a nice addition out back. We are working on the furniture piece right now. The house echoes like crazy. We are hoping that when we get our couches on Wednesday it won't be so bad but I am not holding my breath quite yet. We have some high ceilings in our living rooms so it might be the challenge. I feel safe where I live. Although, believe it or not but the day after we got here, one of the two most notorious drug lords in Mexico was killed about a mile away from where we live. Apparently there were 200 soldiers and various helicopters in the area and I didn't even hear a thing! Crazy huh? Overall, I do like where we live.

We are all making the adjustment. There is a two hour difference, so now that visitors are gone for a while, I am hoping to get the kids on some sort of schedule. We only have one car so I am hoping that I can get them used to getting up early enough to get Matthew to school by 8. I know it isn't that early but we you don't have to rush out of bed it makes for such a nicer morning. He usually then stays at school until around 5:30, comes home and eats, goes back to studying, plays with the kids for a little bit, puts them to bed and then goes back to studying. He is still trying to find the right balance between studying and being with the family, but I know he'll figure it out real soon. I am also trying to get some routine in the life of my kids. It is so different from when I used to have a car available all the time. When we got bored, we just jumped in the car and went somewhere. That isn't the case right now. I have to get a little more creative. But, I am excited to be with my kids all the time. There is hardly a dull moment. Although, if any of you have some creative things you do with your kids, I would love to hear.
I love the markets here. It is so fun to drive a couple of miles and be in a market full of people, crafts, and food! I don't think that will ever get old for me. I don't know yet if things are cheaper here or not. Most food is, but some things are extremely pricey. Especially when you are talking about electronics or something real american like chocolate chips. You can pay twice as much for anything that is electronic here. And milk too. Not only am I paying twice as much for the gallon, it expires, like three days after I but it. Oh, the adjusting. The other crazy thing about going out in public are the parking lots. You have to pay at every single one by grabbing a ticket. Then you have to remember at the store to validate your ticket and/or pay for your ticket, because at some places there is no one to pay your ticket and then you are stuck in this parking lot. These tickets can be quite stressful. And, at the parking lots you have people helping you back out, but of course they want you to tip them. It is quite silly really. The only nice parking lot that I have loved is the costco one. One, because it it free. No tickets involved in the costco parking lot. And two, because they will load your entire cart for you in your car! The other day I got a mattress and they actually tied it to the top of my car for me. Talk about service. You have to tip them of course, and that has been a huge learning curve for me, apparently, I might be tipping too much, but I love that service!
Well, I could go on forever. Until the next blog. For now, know that we are safe and really like it here. But, I do miss all my friends!