Cameron is here

Awwww - what a face!

Our second grandson, Forrest's little brother, came to us on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 4:55pm -- 11 days before his "official" due date. By the way -- this is President Obama's birthday too little man!

He is perfect and muy guapo como su hermano y Papa! He looks a lot like Forrest, except his hair is dark brown like his mommy's hair was when she was born -- so it may be that Cameron will favor his Daddy's side of the family.

Forrest has been checked out and poked and is ready to come home. His Pediatrician said he's perfect too! And why not?!!!!! Papi (aka Roy) took Forrest to the hospital this morning to see his Mommy and meet Cameron. Lauren, Joesph and Cameron are supposed to be going home today and get started on a new adventure in all their lives.

Roy has been in town since last Thursday helping with Forrest and at their home while Lauren was at the hospital having Cameron. I know, from what Roy has told me, he's exhausted but thrilled to have had so much one on one time with Forrest. Taking care of a two year old takes lots of stamina! And Forrest is a very lucky boy to have gotten so much of Papi's undivided attention too!

I'm going to be going up for my visit next week around the 12th or 13th. They want to get home and get settled so we have agreed it would be better for me to wait a bit -- which I am happy to do.

Saying Adios to an old friend

This is our rental house on Aldama 2005 -- Beau, Susie and Rey

Christmas 2003

Beau in our casita where we lived while remolding was going on in the big house 2006

I said goodbye to our oldest dog, Beau, this morning. He has been getting worse and worse over the last year and Roy and I have been talking about when we would let him go. I was ready sooner then Roy, but hey you get there when you get there and I'm glad we had him for so long. Roy finally understood that Beau was suffering and we needed to be able to let him go and end his suffering. So today at 11:25 am, August 6, 2010 I said adios to an old and sweet, loving friend.

Beau took very good care of us while we lived in Bellaire, Texas. He loved to sit at the glass front door and wait to terrorize the mailmen when he came up to deliver mail. When we lived on Aldama, here in Ajijic, he loved to stand on the roof and command respect from the passersby. When we drove here to live, Beau was our "big black dog" who protected us from the crooked traffic police who tried to shake us down for money.

We will miss him and his fierce loyalty and love! Everyone needs to have a Beau in their lives and we are so grateful that he came into ours. I will miss you my friend.

We think Beau was maybe 16 years old. He was a lab/chow mix that Roy adopted from the Houston SPCA when Beau was 6 months old. Roy and I have been married for 11 1/2 years and I think that Beau came to live with Roy and Lauren when Lauren was 12 or 13 and she is 28 now -- so that puts Beau around 15-16 years old. That's a very long life for a big dog. AND he was never sick a day in his life.

Beau's hips started getting bad about a year ago until finally he wasn't able to get himself up when he fell down (which he was doing a lot towards the end). He lost his hearing a couple of years ago, which was a blessing because we live in a town that loves to shot off cohetes whenever there's a reason, e.g. a visit from La Virgen de Guadalupe, La Virgen de Zapopan, Las Fiestas de San Andres, La Virgen del Rosario, funerals, parades, birthdays, Las Chivas score a goal, you see what I mean. The doctor explained to me today the reason Beau walked around a lot (which was incredibly painful to watch) was because he was getting dementia.

It's been a while - Ramblings

We are going to be grandparents again soon with a second grandson, Cameron. He will be coming any day now. Roy left yesterday to go to Houston to be on baby watch and to take care of Forrest when Cameron does come -- wanna have some normalcy for Forrest in the midst of the impending chaos.

As much as I love to see Roy walk into the airport and fly away (love, love, love having the house all to myself sometimes) I also really miss him not being here. I'm invited to another Baron family fiesta tomorrow afternoon, and I will miss Roy not being there with me. I can speak some Spanish and understand a bit more, but it's hard to go by myself. I feel like a bump on a log. But I know he would say to go, so I will do what is best for me and include myself in their party. Mama Chuy's sister from Santa Ana, CA is coming for a visit -- and they always invite us to join them. Such a wonderful family!

Spent the morning untangling yarn that Magda got into and winding it into balls. There were 3 skeins of yarn so it was a bit easier then I thought it would be because the skeins were still tied in several places so the mess was not so bad. Good thing I love this dog so much cause this is one of her favorite pass times -- messing with Mommy's yarn.

I've been reading a bit more this summer too. Finished "A Reliable Wife" and "Litte Bee" -- both great books, well written, character driven with lots of personal turmoil and conflict. Now I'm reading Ann Pachett's "Run" which I need to have finished by next Wed for another book group.

So far since the rainy season began on June 13th we've been having A LOT of rain. Today actually is a very pretty blue skies trimmed with cirrus cumulus clouds around the edges day. Enjoying my hummingbirds and other birds at the fountain and lots of beautiful flowers in the garden.

Beau is really not doing very well -- hasn't been for about a year now. Roy is struggling with saying goodbye to him and I have such sadness when I look into his eyes. I am watching our sweet, proud lab slowly dwindle away and it breaks my heart. About every other meal he proceeds to vomit up directly after eating (and Magda proceeds to clean up (yuck)) and he's not able to stand up and poop because his hips and legs are too weak to support him long enough in a stooped position for enough time to finish so we have lots and lots of accidents in the house now. He kind of walks and poops these days.

Roy's going to be up in Houston for probably 2 weeks and I'm thinking I may have Memo come by the house and check on Beau and get his opinion about letting him go. If it were my decision alone, I would have done it a while ago, but he was Roy's dog before I came along so I don't feel I can make that decision on my own. Maybe it will be easier for Roy, for me to do it, while he's gone...no se!

more later once Cameron arrives...

Thankful

Sorry, no pictures right now, just wanted to say again how thankful I am that my hubby has gotten to a doctor before some huge life altering event happened to him as well as the rest of his family and friends!

I am also thankful for my friends and family too. I am planning a trip North to visit family and friends in Dallas, Longview and Houston. I just wish I could stay longer -- it seems like a long time away from home when you're buying tickets, but when I get there I don't want to leave as quickly as the return home date arrives.

We had a nice thanksgiving dinner with friends from my Tuesday book group. We bought a pre-lit Christmas tree too which has been connected, plug in, fluffed, and is awaiting ornaments! I will take lots of pictures of the house once it's all decorated and will post them shortly.

Just wanted to say again home grateful I feel for my life here in Mexico and for my generous husband for providing me with a life of a princess! I have "heard" from many of you on Facebook that your thanksgivings were good too! I hope you have a fun time getting ready for the next big holiday -- Christmas! Be safe and well -- I am looking forward to seeing some of you in a short time!

Peace and love to you and yours...

Mazatlan, October 2009

This is the beach on the hotel where we stayed in Mazatlan.

The cool Fowler Family, Joseph, Forrest (in the shades) and Lauren

The dudes on the beach. Forrest didn't like standing in the wet sand when the waves went back out. The mountain in the background is called Rock Island and you can tour it. It's very near the airport for the town -- which you can see is on the other end of town from our hotel.

I have no idea what I'm saying, but the hands are in motion -- must have been something good.

My sweet baby with the big, blue eyes.

Joseph took a surfing lesson and made quick friends with the instructor. After they were finished surfing, they headed into town and Joseph got a tour of all the GOOD places to eat fresh seafood.

Sunset off our balcony -- all the rooms have an ocean view -- amazing!

We stayed at the Rui Resort, Emerald Bay, Mazatlan. The hotel was just opened in March 2009 so it's very new and at the far end of the beach. All the rooms face the ocean so everyone has a view like this no matter what you pay. You could watch the cruise ships going out in the evenings on their way to Cabo San Lucas. I hope we go back again in May next spring.

10 Reasons to forget last week!

I wanted to show you pictures of our trip to Mazatlan, but I can't -- no pictures on my computer.

Let's go back a few weeks...my hard drive crashed again on this laptop for the 2nd time, so I lost all my bookmarked pages (again) and Roy had to reinstall Windows (again). I have no sound on my computer so I can't hear videos, or my aquarium or my farm animals (that's another story). Very frustrating.

So, just now, I was going to write about our trip to Mazatlan and add some of our beautiful pictures and now I find I am not connected to our home network and cannot access our shared pictures file. Another frustration. So I'll tell post pictures later.

First off, we were leaving on Sunday morning around 3:45 and Lupe was going to pick us up at 3:30 to take us to the bus. I waited until Saturday afternoon to do laundry and during this process the dryer decided to stop working (#1). Roy is a master fixer -- so he fooled around and it started again so I could finish doing laundry before we left on our trip.

On Tuesday, our trip coordinator Marta (Lupe is her husband), came to Roy and asked for a favor. He said, of course, which he always does. It seems the hotel where we were staying had gotten our reservations wrong and only had our group confirmed for 2 nights and not 3 so Roy whipped out his good 'ole AMEX (don't leave home without it) and he put 1 more night for our entire group (about 40 people) on his credit card $29,000 pesos (#2)!! We're going to get the money back, not a problem with that -- we were just the only ones there with a credit card with a large enough credit limit to help her out.

We were scheduled to leave on Wed afternoon around 1:00pm. At 2:30 am on Wed. Roy woke me up complaining (which he never does) about severe pain in his lower belly. We called for the hotel doctor who came to our room and by 3:30 am he was on his way, via ambulance, to the hospital in Mazatlan to figure out what was going on. He (we) stayed in the hospital for 2 nights and he was diagnosed with a kidney stone and had surgery to break up a 1cm stone in his kidney that would not pass! (#3). We have insurance here in Mexico, but there is a one year waiting period so this expense comes out of our pocket too (#4). The hospital, urologist, cardiologist, GM, hotel doctor, meds, nurses, etc was about $50,000 pesos.

We now have to get home another way because our return trip was to be by bus with our group. On to the Mazatlan airport and tickets on Mexicana Air (#5) for both of us -- $1500 pesos. After a 5 hour wait at the airport -- we arrive back at the Guadalajara airport and our friend, Tom Faloon, is waiting for us to bring us to Ajijic.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, that while Roy is in the hospital, we receive word from our friend, Tom, that Beau is near death (#6)! Beau has been Roy's big, black, dog for more than 16 years! He is part black lab, part chow and has the sweetest disposition and temperment of all our dogs combined. When we get back to the house, Beau is laying on a pallet outside our bedroom covered with blankets and not moving. Roy, who is just out of surgery and hospital, lies on the floor with Beau for several hours because we both think he won't be with us for much longer.

Monday, I have a dentist appointment at 9:30am. I go out to leave and the car won't start (#7). It's the battery, of course it is! So we call our mechanic and he buys and installs a new battery (#8) for $2000 pesos but it's not taking a charge when the car is running -- it's the alternator (#9). We give our mechanic $3000 pesos to buy parts in Guad so he can repair our alternator. No car Monday or Tuesday (#10).

Today is Tuesday. I am without a car and low on cash! LOL The total for our trip to Mazatlan and the car so far has been about including refills on prescriptions here $58,800

The good news is that we are home, Roy is healing, and the dogs got groomed this morning $350 pesos.

Our trip to the beach was not what we had planned for it to be. However, the hotel was wonderful, the weather was perfect, we had a balcony with a magnificent view of the ocean and sunsets. The food was good, the pools were beautiful and Lauren, Joseph and Forrest were a delight to spend time with. We all had fun (except maybe for Roy because he admitted to me this morning that he'd been feeling poorly and had back pains for 2 weeks before we left). That's my husband, suffer in silence. Very frustrating, but I think he's gotten the hint that he needs to take better care of himself -- if he wants to be around to take of all of us. Even while Roy was in the hospital he was worrying about Lauren, me, and Keith, his business partner! That's what I love about him the most -- and find it to be very frustrating too!

When I have access to our pictures I'll post some of them -- Mazatlan is a great place for a vacation.

I wanted some more yard

I wanted to remove the slate patio for more yard and a place for another tree. We had workers here repairing the leak in the roof of the covered patio so while they were already going to be here for that job we included a "re-working" of the large area surrounding the fountain that was slate. It was very "hard" looking and hot when the sun was beating on it, which most days here in Ajijic it is sunny.

Most work in Mexico is done by hand. A man and his pick axe hacking away at the slate. The picture above shows the beginning of the project.

This next picture shows what was revealed when the worker got under the slate. What we found was an entire other patio under the slate and concrete...a very common occurence here. You don't like your floor, we'll just lay a new one on top of the old one -- no one will ever know! The patio below the slate was laidout in a parquet design so obviously it was planned and designed that way.

Apparently the previous, previous owners had gone to a great deal of work to have this brick patio installed. However, the previous owners, from whom we bought the house, decided they wanted slate. It is handsome and elegant looking, but it doesn't wear well in the elements.


This picture shows how thick the concrete layer was they poured over the brick and then the cement layer for the slate to attached to...OMG how deep does this go down? I am going to guess about 6" deep. I was off a bit -- I just went out and measured and it's at least 5" thick. That's a lot of hacking and pounding.


This morning, I went out to take pictures and this is what was left of the "patio" before the guys came back to keep hacking and pounding and digging away. Magda had to come out and make her inspection prior to today's work beginning.


Well, as you can see in this picture, the one guy in the foreground seems to be leaning on, what's that, a machine of some kind. The Maestro decided to rent a jack hammer for the day so the work would go faster for the two fellows working here. Thank you Miguel! It's an electric jack hammer so not quite as loud as a pneumatic one -- thank goodness. The pounding will be done by this evening as well as the digging!

Magda is super angry she can't go outside and flirt with the trabadores. She's been whining for 2 days now. It's a really good thing Roy's working in Houston because between Magda's pathetic crying and scratching at the door and the pounding and noise -- he wouldn't be a happy man right now.

The next part is the fill dirt and some new flagstone steps to and from the house to the garage and grass! It will be much cooler and softer looking too. AND I have more areas to grow flowers, etc. I am hoping we put in a plumeria tree (that's the blossom the Hawaiian's use to make leis) and maybe even a little lime tree for fresh limonadas y margaritas!

I'll post the after pictures once the yard is in so you can see how much nicer it is and will become!