Oops...

it happened again.
 
This time the "husbird" was driving the van and as he backed out of the church parking lot a cement basketball standard jumped right behind him.  Imagine that.  No, seriously the cement pole is painted white and was in his blind spot.  He hit it hard.  I hoped against all hope that it wasn't that bad. Well, it was bad.  It was completely crunched in two spots.  
I'm beginning to think our bumper is jinxed.  This is the third collision it's been in in the last year.  First when the "husbird" backed over a stool that was in the driveway last June.  Then I got rear ended a few days before Christmas last year and now this. The bad news is our deductible for our Mexican insurance was 300.  The good news, if there is any, is that labor in Mexico is cheap, so we didn't even use our insurance because it was less than our deductible to just pay to have it fixed.  It was done in a day.  Wish we could tele-transport the "husbird's" car here to fix all the scrapes and dings it has, most of which are on his bumper.  Notice a trend here!?  He doesn't necessarily find it useful to look back before he backs up.  Just saying.  He just about gives me a heart attack every time he backs out of the garage. 

I thought maybe we should just leave it, I mean, Taylor will start drivers ed this coming school year.  Since he's a lot like his dad, I for see more bumper injuries in my vans future.  Poor thing.  Watch me be the next one to back into something.  If that happens there is no question the bumper is jinxed. 

Only in Mexico

We were driving home from Mexico when we reached the border town to the U.S., the husbird gets pulled over for speeding.  The speed limits in Mexico are ridiculous.  First of all they are in kilometers, so you have to figure out what they actually are.  We were on the outskirts of town and the speed limit was about 25 mph and the husbird was going probably about 39 mph.  The speed limit should probably be 40 to 50, but I digress.

The cop tells him that we need to come with him to go somewhere to pay.  We didn’t have any cash with us, so the husbird tells the cop we have five kids and a fifteen hour drive ahead of us and  convinces him to take some really delicious homemade chex mix  instead of paying anything. Can you believe it?  He must have been really hungry. Ha ha.  It doesn't hurt that the husbird speaks Spanish.

 

Here's a funny time lapse video of us traveling.  We were obviously eating oranges.  Maybe we should have offered some oranges to the cop as well.

Home Away From Home

Have you ever felt like your heart was in two places at once? That’s how I feel right now.  Mexico has become our second home.  I never thought I'd feel that way, but after going there for over twelve years we feel at home when we are there.  When I’m in the U.S. I think about Mexico and vice versa, wish we could teleport like in Star Trek.

  ("A" watching the sun go down)

We have worked super hard to make our place comfortable,  organized, and stocked with the things we need so that we enjoy our time while we're there.

The weather was unusually cold for December and the pool isn't heated, so we used the hot tub on our deck a lot.  We would go to the beach for a couple of hours and when we would come in the kids would immediately run to the hot tub to warm up.  They had so much fun in there.  

Some highlights from our trip:  

Playing games with "D" in the boys room.  We had to hide away so "G" wouldn't find us and take all the game pieces like he does.  It's near impossible to play games with a three year old around.

Watching the sun set from the deck.

Our generous neighbor taking us out in his dune buggy.  It was really fun, but when we went fast the wind froze us.

Another amazing sunset from the pool next door.  There's no such thing as a bad sunset there.

Leaving our kids with our friends kids (eleven kids total) so the adults could go to dinner together.  We went to an Italian restaurant.  I tried a sampler plate of lasagna, manicotti, and crab ravioli.  I don't even want to know how many calories it had, but it was divine.   Our friends live about a half hour away from us in the U.S., yet the only time we get to see them is in Mexico.  We joke about the fact that we have to go to another country to see each other.  We actually met them in Mexico.  They own a place at the same resort we do. We have a lot in common.
We laughed so hard when we found out we both have two cats.  Then we laughed even harder when they told us their cats names are Puff and Fluff and ours are named Moco and Coco.  Then we ran into another couple that we are both friends with, so visited with them as well.  It was a great catching up, much needed adult talk time.
  The last night there "A" and I took a walk on the beach and when we looked back we realized we were leaving our footprints in the sand as we went.  A great way to end our little vacation, until next summer.

He's leaving on a Prop Plane...

Hope he'll soon be back again.  The "husbird" flew to Mexico today with a man from our church, the pilot, and a buddy we met in Mexico.  The three of them crammed in a little prop plane and took off.  I have been a nervous wreck, praying they make it alright.

The "husbird" has wanted to get his pilots license for years now.  I guess for him this is the next best thing, even though his buddy threw up the whole trip. He was sick before they left and I think flying made it worse. 
The good thing is the "husbird" was able to do some repairs and work on our place.  And despite the cramped quarters and smell of throw up, he had a great time living out his flying dreams.

A Rocky Start

After spending two days in Vegas we set out for Mexico.  It was a long day in the car, but we finally arrived just past dark.  We were all sick of being in the car and excited to see the beach.
I read this book on the way when I wasn't managing the "nestlings".  It was good, other than some occasional cursing.  
The "husbird" and I had a hard time getting on the same page for the first few days of our vacation.  I really hate it when that happens, but it's inevitable in marriage isn't it?  There are times when it's hard to connect with each other and to see things from your spouses perspective.  Unfortunately for us this time landed during our vacation.  Go figure.  Some of it had to do with the circumstances of our vacation and things that happened when we arrived, but I won't go into the details here.  Everything was well in time.
We spent our days at the pool and beach, soaking in the sun and sand as much as possible. 

The "husbird's" sister and her two sons came to visit for a few days.  She likes to cook and made us some delicious food while she was there.  Until next year we bid Mexico farewell.