Happy New Year !!!

Hola Readers,  Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that you all have a safe and Happy New Year!  Of course I was planning on updating my blog, thought I would manage to get a post in before Christmas but as you can see that didn't happen so you will all have to settle for a new one for new years.

Resolutions :  Well I don't usually make any that way I won't feel bad if I don't keep them. But I can say that I am going back on my diet, seems like some of my pants don't fit like they used to, must be that dryer!! lol

Snow birds:  Well it is snow bird season here in Ajijic, so that means more people out  and about, here at our apartment complex we have lot's of people here from Canada,  they are all really nice but they talk funny, always ending their sentences with Eh!!! so now I find myself doing that !

Christmas:  We had a nice Christmas here, everyone got together and had a pot luck dinner in the club house. All the food was delicious, and we did a gift exchange  that was fun. Being away from family during the holidays is hard, I was fine on Christmas day, but the day after was a little depressing for me, felt that way last year too.  Could go back and visit but traveling during the winter can be iffy and I Hate being cold.

Traveling:  We went to San Miguel a few weeks ago and I loved it there, beautiful city, very clean and so much shopping! they even had a starbucks there. The churches were just lovely and the plaza was alive with people. We had a really good time  and I want to go back and visit again.  I don't think I could live there as it gets cold there in the winter and as I just said I Hate being cold!!!


Horses:  Well as you all know I have a beautiful mare named Melaza, I love her and training her is awesome, we have really bonded. I can take off her tack and let her go and she will hang out with me. I have been riding her on the street now, had to finally get out of the riding ring, we were both getting bored in there. I'm not a big fan of riding by myself but a girl has to do what a girl has to do! I plan on asking hubby to build me a few small jumps  so I can start teaching her how to jump. Poor hubby just when he thought he was done with horsey things! When I first go Melaza she was black, then over the course of the year she got lighter,  but the other day I noticed that her face looked  darker, someone told me that she is getting ready to shed her winter coat and that she will be black under her winter coat, can't wait to see my girl all dark again! I mean she is awesome looking now but she is even prettier when she is black. 

Swimming:  I haven't been in the pool like I was in the summer, the nights get cool and it keeps the water a little chilly, of course there is hot water going into it during the day and we keep it covered at night, but we are spoiled and like it a little warmer. We laugh, cause people up north are getting snow and we complain about the water temperature. LOL

Zumba :  I have started going to Zumba  classes again. I used to love doing Zumba in Florida.  There is a class right across the street from me, it is held on a beautiful piece of property so it is a really nice place to be.   My second week into the class the instructor  went to China for the holidays, so I have been going to a gym in  town,  that way I can keep up with my lessons. Hope the Zumba helps with the weight loss. Will keep you posted.

Pictures:  Ok time to add some pictures to this post. Till next time, Happy trails to you!

 

    Melaza  

 

                   

 

   
                                                                         

                        

                                                                 

 

 

Lunch!

 

 

                   

 

                                                                                          
The pictures of the churches and buildings were taken in San Miguel, and of course I had to add Melaza in my post. See ya next year!

Living Life

This is the new guy at the barn, he is a mule, his name is

Domino and Melaza likes him because she can boss him around!

 

 

Well it has been a long!!! time since I sat down to do a post, so long that I am out of practice. I was out with my girlfriend the other day and I told her, I don't know what I am doing with myself, but it seems like I can never find time to do my blog, so she said that I am busy living my life. I thought that sounded pretty good to me, so if you have been wondering what I have been up to, I've been busy living life!  I have to say it is a good life that we live here, beautiful weather, great people, inexpensive to go out and eat, etc.  Right now the snowbirds are arriving, good for the local business people, but not good for traffic. Our apartment  complex is now full, so we have lots of friends to socialize with, us full timers that live here are now outnumbered by Canadians, eh!!!  .

Weather: Well it is usually beautiful here everyday, but the last 3 days have been cloudy and today
it is raining, very unusual for this time of year.  Last night I took out our winter clothes and washed them all, and now they are in the closet all ready for us to wear, just in time! like right now I am a little chilly, so I have on my jeans and a long sleeve shirt. I think it will be cold tonight. Funny how spoiled we get with nice sunny weather. They say it will be like this till Wednesday I hope not !

Computers: Love or hate them, I am still not used to this new lap top, getting there but not there yet, it doesn't help that this has a Mexican key board so some things are in different places, really makes it interesting to use.

My Mare:  Love this mare of mine, she is awesome, so smart, learns everything quickly. I am teaching her to play soccer, yes that's right, soccer, she can roll the ball with her head, or she can
move it with her legs, she will now run after it, when she gets it in between the cones I make a big deal out of it and give her a treat.  Last week I rode her out on the street with 2 other woman, it was nice to get her out of the riding ring, have to say I miss my Florida trails. I am having so much fun training her, she makes it easy for me.

Diet: Well now that I took out my winter clothes seems like some of the pants shrunk, imagine that shrunk just sitting up there on the closet shelf all summer, don't know how that happened, but it looks like if I want to wear them and be comfortable I need to go back on my diet!  oh well I guess I have to give up my ice cream bars and my chips.

 Going places:  We have been able to go to a few new places here in Mexico, which I love doing, of course it is easy for me to say as Billy drives, but I do have to do the packing if it is an overnight trip, so I guess we both do our fair share.

Blog Friends:  One of the perks of writing a blog, you sometimes get to meet your readers, last year we met Collette & Rick and they came back again this year. We went to the open market on Monday with them and we will getting together while they are here for the month of November. They are a really nice couple, very easy to be around, wish they could stay longer.

Holidays:  The stores have their displays up already!! We were in Costco the other day and while everything looks so pretty it also makes me sad that I won't be spending my holidays with family. I have family in R.I. and Florida, so if you go to R.I. it will be Cold which we are not used to, and if we spend it in Florida it will be warm and it never really feels like Christmas. I guess we will just stay here in Mexico and Skype our family.  Living outside of the states has its ups and downs, and holidays without family is one of the downs. I won't be putting up my decorations to early, I did that with my Halloween things, and I couldn't wait to take them down.

Election night:  I am writing this on election night, none of our shows are on so I thought this would be a good time to finish this post, I started it a few days ago and then had to go out so I didn't get a chance to finish it. Hubby is watching the results, so glad to see so many people at the polls, and I will be so happy,  just like the rest of the country  when it is over.

Ok for some reason I am at a loss for words this evening, maybe I'm just tried, I did ride my mare this afternoon, so I am going to attempt to add the pictures now. Happy trails to you.

We thought our back splash was to boring!

Not anymore!

                                                                

My mares tail all done up
 

 

Sunset from our bedroom window

 

                                       


One of my favorite drinks Lemonada
 

Lunch of fried shrimp, so much I had to bring some home

 

 

 

A very interesting  plant

           

What a good way to reuse your old auto parts
 

 

     
                                    
                                                   
                                                       

Well good news, the pictures loaded really good for me, will wonders never cease?????

Our Summer Vacation 2012

Ok so it took me forever to find enough time to sit and write this blog, we have been back from vacation for 2 weeks now and things are back to normal, what ever that is!

Memories:  We spent one day driving around our old neighborhoods, and favorite places, things have changed so much here it doesn't look like the same state I grew up in. Some of the changes are for the better, like the beach we used to take the kids to, it has been all fixed up now,  nice showers and bathrooms they even put in a concession stand.  We went to a park that we both used to go to, the riding stables are back, the  barn was rebuilt, I didn't get out to check on what the price was to ride.
Seeing the park brought back some nice memories!

Cost of living:  Wow, everything is so expensive, the price of fruit and veggies are so much more than in Mexico, of course there are things here that cost less than in  Mexico like linens, and furniture. I found that living in R.I. would cost us a bundle.

Lifestyles:  I really like the laid back lifestyle that we have here, no one is in a rush, people talk to you instead of texting on their phones or listening to the tv, We went to a Mc Donalds and they had a tv in there, Really when did we become people that need to be entertained every waking moment??
Seemed like everyone was walking around with a smart phone and checking their messages or face book etc. When you do this are you in the now, how can you be aware of what is going on around you with your eyes glued to a phone screen. I found it rather sad.

Family & friends: Of course it was great seeing everyone that is why we went, Had some really good times,  Our grandson Ayden is getting big and he is so smart, he knows how to set up the Wii, I don't even know how to do that, and he's only 4.   We  went  and watched him take a swimming lesson at the Y he is going to be a good swimmer! We taught him how to play the card game war, and we said Ace beats everything, so every time one came up he would say Ace beats everything! So cute


Food: Had some good food and some not so good food. The prices at the beach for lunch were outrageous!! Had some little necks on the half shell, oh my they were delicious. Our  son cooked up some chicken and steak that was awesome, along with everything else that people brought to the cookout. Thank you Juile & Joey for having us all over, it was a wonderful day!


Weather:  The weather was really nice, we only had one day of rain. We managed to go to the beach in Rhode Island, I even went in the water which was very cold. Our son went in and managed to find enough clams so that Billy could make us a chowder, which was fabulous !

Forgiveness: I just finished reading a book about this and it said that you need to forgive yourself
along with the person who you need to forgive, so I decided to that on this trip. Do I feel better now
that I have done this, yes I do.

Taking things personally: Ok I really fell down on this one, I have read my book on this and I know
I am not suppose to take things personally but boy is that so hard to do, I took things personally and others took things personally which created bad feelings on every ones part. I re read some of my book when I got back,  Here is a quote "Don't take anything personally because by taking things personally you set yourself up to suffer for nothing". When we really see others as they are
without taking it personally, we can never be hurt by what they say or do. Guess I should
have brought the book with me. So now maybe we can all work on the forgiveness part?


Shopping:  Love the shopping, did so much that we had to buy a suitcase to haul all our new stuff home. I should be all set in clothes department for awhile now! There was so many nice things that I could have bought, good thing there is a weight limit on what you can bring back. LOL


Had a wonderful time in Florida too, I went to see my friend Chris, who I gave my mare to and they are both doing great.  We spent some time with our son and our gran daughters, the girls are growing up so fast . Went to the beach which was awesome, we do miss the beach. Had a chance to go out riding with my friend Helen, we went out twice! Thanks Helen. My friend Pam and I went shopping together, something that we used to do when I lived there, found lot's of good buys at my favorite store Beal's outlet!

Home again:  Back to our routine, lazy days, lot's of sunshine, rain at night, riding and training my girl, swimming in the pool, lunch with my friends, yes life is sooo hard here in Mexico! Before we left to go back to the states I wasn't in love with our new place thought about moving out, but something strange happened, when I got back and I looked around I realized that I do really like it here, it may be small but it is all we need and with our stunning views and the pool it is a wonderful place to be. We have decorated it to suit our taste, we are even going to put some tile up on the backsplash, which I already bought, it will look amazing when it is done. Maybe I will post some pictures when it is finished. Speaking of posting pictures time to wrap this up and post some of our vacation. Just a few don't want to bore my readers. LOL!




Lunch at the beach, I had the clam roll and yes I ate
the whole thing!

boats at the dock

The Beach! in  R.I.

Clams that Steve  got out of the ocean, Billy made chowder
from them sooo good !

Ayden enjoying the water

Clams on the half shell, these were so good!!!

Master chef Steve at the grill

Getting ready to Jump, watch out!

Our son Steve, wife Laurie & gran son Ayden

Juile & Joey

 

My Sister Linda

Billy at the beach

Lunch

Gran pa & Ayden

Last family picture before heading back

Billy & our son Brian

Gran ma & her girls

My friend Pam

Helen and I going for a ride

Chris with our girl !

A Woman Can Change Her Mind, Can't She ?

Well actually it wasn't so much as me changing my mind as it was Billy making the decision for me. I wrote in my last blog that Melaza's owner has decided to move back to Canada, so she was going to sell both horses. Well Billy thought that we should keep Melaza since I made the mistake of falling in love with her as I was training  her. Of course, Melaza made that real easy to do, she has a great personality  and is a very quick learner. So when Billy told me I needed to keep her I didn't argue with him.  Despite my last post where I wrote that I didn't want to own a horse in Mexico, I now own one! Dulce is Melaza's mom and we
had a few people come out and look at her and we had her sold to one lady, but we didn't think it would be the best fit for Dulce.  But we didn't have any other options so it looked like she was going to get Dulce. But then the universe lined up and I found out that the woman, Stephanie, who bought all the equipment from Sherry might be interested in a nice safe riding horse. I was like OMG you have to buy her she would be great for you! I had been out to Stephanie's place a few days ago so I knew just how nice Dulce would have it there, plus Stephanie takes great care of all her animals.  I made arragements for Stephanie to come out and ride her right away, we had to close this deal fast!  She came out along with her girlfriend, Elaine, and they both rode her, thought she was great and showed me the Money!!! Deal done, happy ending! I had to go out and find a place to board Melaza. I managed to find one not to far away from me, and the woman who runs it also does Parelli! so that should be a good fit for us. Melaza is not used to a stall, she had free run at our last place so that will be an adjustment for her, and she has never been away from her mom for more than a few hours so that will be new for her too. There is a horse next to her so hopefully she will like him. The new place has a dog park and there are all kinds of obstacles that we can play with . I am looking forward to that, but not sure if Melaza is. I will let you know how she feels about that in a future post.

Waiting: When you live in Mexico you have to get used to waiting, like right now I am waiting for the guys to call me when they get close to the ranch because they are going to be taking the fencing down and the two shelters that are out there. Then today at 3 we have someone coming to trailer the horses out. I hope that they load right up for us as they are not used to being trailered so we shall see how this goes.

MRI in Mexico:  I had to get Billy's permission to post this as this story is about him. Billy has had pain in his neck now for a long time, (no, not me) so he went to a doctor who ordered an MRI for him, so that we would know what is going on in there. We had to drive in to Guadalajara, because that is where all the big medical facilities are. We find the place, go in and pay for the test, which by the way was only 351.00 dollars, and wait downstairs for our turn. After a few minutes they call us in, they lay Billy on the table, put this plastic cage-like mask thing over his head to keep it still, oh no that is not going to fly, they have to take it off him, and try to calm him down. Ok so then Billy makes the mistake of asking "How long do I have to be in there"?  They replied "35 minutes". NO way he said I can't do this I'm sorry Cher. I couldn't believe it!!!! the nurse said don't worry this happens all the time. Did I mention that Billy is claustrophobic!!!! So upstairs we go agian to make another apointment for him, this time they are going to knock him out. At that point I wanted to knock him out!!!!! lol  I guess it is hard to understand if you don't have a problem with small spaces, he doesn't even like elevators. Not a big fan of flying either. No problem with it the next time, just gave him a shot and he was out like a light.( where did that saying come from?)  We got the results back, brought them to the doctor who then told us Billy had a pinched nerve and would need surgery. Set us up with another doctor of course in GDL again, we go and see him, did I mention this one was really cute??? He examined Billy and looked at the MRI and said you don't need surgery you have a very weak neck muscle, gave him muscle relaxers and told him he would need PT. We are very glad he doesn't need the surgery but he still has pain in his neck.  Billy will be going to PT next week and we  will see if that helps.

Vacation:  I am on count down mode now, one month, 4 short weeks away and we will be in the states. All we talk about is who we will see and what foods we are going to eat!! I am going to have to do some kind of exercise while I am gone or I will gain to much weight . I haven't left yet and I already miss my animals, never thought I would be saying that but you do get so attached to them. We are having a friend, Dale, come in and spend the nights here so the cats will have a person around. We thought that would be the best way to go, 3 weeks is to long for some one to just come in and check on them. Now  I have to decide on what to pack. I don't plan on bringing to much with me as I want to buy some new clothes once I get there. I have a date with my friend Pam who lives in Florida, she's a great shopping buddy. Clothes shopping,  lunch,  and catching up! Gran Kids, we are so looking forward to seeing them, they grow so fast, it was hard saying goodbye to them when we moved here.  Then there's the beach. Oh I can't wait to go to the beach in Florida, I miss it, beautiful sandy beaches warm water! Then I have my horsey friends that want me to go out and ride with them, ok so they won't have to twist my arm to get me to go out.  Rhode Island will be fun, lot's of  family to see  things to do, and food to eat !!!! I might need a vacation from my vacation.

Wrap it up:  This is post is being done in 2 parts, I am going to take some pictures of the horses moving today, so I will finish this later, of course that is if the internet is working. Till then Happy Trails to you.

Back Again:  Well I am so happy to report that the girls loaded right up, and the guy who did the hauling for us was right on time! so off to their new homes they went, they are both doing fine, Dulce, Melaza's mom got a little upset when Melaza got off the trailer and she didn't, but I have heard from Dulce's new mom that she is doing fine, and she already has a buddy out there. Life is good.

Pictures: ok time for me to try and load them for all to enjoy wish me luck!



Stephanie taking Dulce for a test ride




Melaza checking out her new place

 

Melaza running the fence line





checking out the riding ring, where we will be spending lot's of time.



one of her stable buddies  Nubay




The view from the riding ring.




The view of the mts. from out bedroom this morning those are clouds running
down them, so cool !



You Know It's Time To...... When ?

You Know it's time to  do a new post, when one of your readers emails you to let you know that she is Waiting for you to write a new post. Nice to know that there are a few people out there who actually read my blog. So I guess I could give you all some excuses as to why it took me soooo long to finally sit down and write, the first being it takes awhile for me to do this so I have to set aside the time, and then I have to be in the mood to write it, have to get all my pictures that I want to put on here all ready to go, and then there is the Internet problem here!!! sometimes you're on and sometimes you're not! So lets hope this stays on and I get it all done in one sitting.


What is going on in my life: Finally all settled in our new place, love the pool and the views, still can't believe that I managed to fit all our stuff in here. Took some pictures and posted them for all to see.

Trading in one set of problems for another:  So now that we have been here for one month there are somethings that I don't like about living here. We never thought we would have the internet problems that we have been experiencing, very frustrating. The pool pump for some reason has burned out twice, lucky for us they get it fixed right away. One of the washing machines takes Forever!!! to fill up, which means it takes a really long time to do a wash in that one, so I have learned to only use that one on a low setting, yes I can be taught LOL.  When the snowbirds come back we will need another washer & dryer  there is 2 there now but that won't be enough.  At our old place we had our own washer and dryer in the guest bath. Thank god we decided to stay upstairs, the parking lot is right up to the building and you can hear the cars pull in at night, if you are downstairs your bedroom slider is right there, not a good design idea, I would put up a short wall to solve that problem. Plus it gets very dusty, it would be worse downstairs. Put my Biggest compliant!
they are putting up a new apartment building!!!!! only 2 units but it is across from us which means at night I will have to close my blinds so no one can look in, not happy about this at all!!! It is going up really fast and the workers are all very nice, just wasn't expecting this to happen.

Can you believe it:  Billy still plays cards at our old apartment and he found out just the other day that the man who lived next door to us, the one that complained about our cats, which led us to move out, is going to be Moving, yes that's right he is moving out of the complex, I hear that management is not Happy with him, now they will have 2 empty apartments there, and right now it is the slow season.

Horses:  I have bad news on this subject, my friend Sherry who owns the horses has decided to move back to Canada, so now the horses are up for sale. I can take Melaza if I want her, but owning a horse here is not something I want to do. Getting feed can be a problem, not like in the states where you just go to the feed store and get what you need, here you never know when they are open or if they will have the feed in stock, getting hay is difficult, Sherry had to buy a truck load of it, to last till the winter. Then there is the problem of not owning a place to keep her at, board here is expensive, yes I know you wouldn't think it would be but it is. If I keep her on the land she is on  now it would be up to me to carry all the expenses and the feedings 2 times a day everyday. I love this little filly and it breaks my heart to think about not having her in my life, but it would be complicated to keep her, and I moved here to uncomplicate my life! So now I think I should look in the mirror and repeat : I Will Not Fall In Love With Another Horse !!!! I don't think that will work though as I tried Not to fall in love with Melaza but she just made it to easy. We did have someone come out and look at Dulce, the filly's mom and the lady really liked her so Dulce may have found a new home, we shall see. I will keep you all updated.

Weather:  Well this sounds like a broken record, it is always beautiful here, sunny and warm, great for swimming. We are just waiting for the rains to start, we did have a small storm the other night, but nothing like we will be getting.

How can you stand it?  My friend asked me the other day, wow how can you stand being out here in this heat working the horses? My answer, I'm from Florida, heat and humidity this is nothing, plus I don't think about the heat, just focus on playing with the girls.

Violence:  One of my readers asked me the other day how I felt about living here after the  recent events. Well we are not happy about the drug wars, I don't think people understand the vast and I mean vast amounts of money that is involved with the drug trade. Up until now it was always in someone Else's back yard, are we going to move, no! there is to many good points in staying and there is violence everywhere. I am a firm believer in when your number is up it's up, doesn't matter where you are.

Vacation:  Going back to the states in July, looking forward to seeing family and friends, not to mention eating all the foods that we can't get here, I still want to take off 5 lbs before I get there, cause I  certainly don't want to add them to my weight. Can't wait to go clothes shopping, Beals outlet here I come!

Didn't your Momma?  It never ceases to amaze me how people don't think before they talk, didn't their momma ever teach them that " if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all" I mean is it so important for a person to have something to say that they don't care what they are saying?  Or how about when you are talking to someone and they are not really listening because they are thinking about what they want to say, has that ever happened to you? I think observing people is very interesting, you can see who has the A personality, who is having a bad day etc. Maybe I like observing people now because of the horses, you can learn so much from them by just watching, I often say your horse will tell you everything you just need to learn how to listen to them.  

Wrap it up: Ok I think that should do it for now, time to add the pictures, I was going to do that first but I don't usually so I forgot to. Oh well hope they load for me. Till next time, and I will try and write sooner, Kip!




Living Room before  the wall  was painted.



insperation for the mural

wall being painted, after  3 days of looking at the mural we
decided that we didn't like how the top part came out
so we painted over it, now we love it.

our living room now

 Our dining area
after we took  out the top of the mural.

Our bedroom, first time we have ever had a king size bed, the cats love it!


view of the kitchen, we bought the ligths that are hanging down,
 adds a ncie touch  to the place.

Sooo, it took me two sessions to finish this post, the pictures would not upload, due to our terrible internet
connection, good new is that on Monday we should have a new line, I am keeping my fingers crossed!

Today I am going to be showing the filly to a lady who is Suppose to come out and see her, that is if she shows up! Mixed feelings on this. Will keep you posted.