How I spent my summer vacation!

How I spent my summer vacation or at least 10 days of my summer, since we are retired and it seems like one endless vacation! The taxi ride to the airport was good, checking in was good, but then we boarded the flight and we had to sit on the runway for an hour while they fixed the gps on the plane. Lucky for us that we had a long layover in Atlanta so it didn't affect our next fight.  As soon as we went outside in Orlando the humidity hit us, wow, not used to that anymore. We picked up our car and off we went to the in laws house. We had a great visit, this time we spent more time with Billy's parents, Billy even cooked for us twice. Visiting is always nice but hectic trying to see everyone and hitting all our favorite spots. Oh did I mention that for the first 2 days my stomach was not in a good place, but it worked out ok because I didn't eat all the food that I was planning on eating, so I didn't gain any weight!

Shopping:  Oh my, all the stores all the choices, I brought two empty suitcases with me and they were packed full  by the end of the visit. Mostly clothes, some food and a new Samsung tablet, that I am still trying to learn  how to use!  My  friend Pam  and I went to my favorite store Beals outlet and I had lot's of fun trying on things and  getting great deals! While we were standing in line we were talking about how fast 3 hours went by, and the man in front of us couldn't believe we spent that much time shopping, men, they just don't understand shopping! LOL

Food:  Well like I said I didn't eat all that I thought I would, but I did manage to have some of my favorite things. Went to a local place and had a delicious lobster roll, yummy!  also had a Publix sub that we brought and ate on the plane,  just as good as I remembered them!!! Oh and we brought back chocolate covered potato chips sooo good! and  some Dunkin Doughnuts coffee, like I said the suitcase was Packed.

Family & Friends:  So great to see everyone and so sad to say goodbye, a year is a long time between visits especially when you miss people that have been a huge part of your life.

What we did?  The time just flew by,  went to the beach, shopped for things we wanted to bring back, went out to dinner a few times, got to see my mares foal, sooo cute! went on a boat ride in the river with our friends Helen & John. Which almost didn't happen, it was a rainy day but it finally cleared up enough for us to go out.  Took our granddaughter to Chuckie  Cheese, she had a great time.  Billy played cards with his parents and friends. Hung out at night and one night we played the wii, the woman against the men we beat their butts 3 games!!

What I know for sure:  I miss the beach, my gran daughters, my in laws, my fiends, Beal's outlet, looking at the river, and hearing the train whistle . Not in that order but just some of what I miss. Of course there are things that I don't miss too.  In the states it seems like everyone is connected to their cell phones,  does anyone talk to each other ?   It is  easy to see how one could so easily  start buying Stuff all over again, because in the states there is so much stuff to buy.  I am so glad our apartment is small, can't fit to much stuff in here.  I didn't miss the humidity at all,  can't believe that I used to train and ride my horses in the summer, but  I did.  I do know now that  we are ready to sell our house there, and we will be putting it on the market if our tenants don't buy it from us. Now is a good time to sell as things are starting to move again in Florida.

 Our flight back:  First leg of the trip Orlando to Atlanta no problem, second part  Atlanta to Guadalajara, get on the plane, Billy looks out the window, Cher there is a guy in the engine, that can't be good! 5 minutes later, pilot is out there looking at the engine, 5 minutes later he comes on the pa and says, this plane is not going anywhere tonight, we will find you another plane to take you home, ok 2 hours later we finally get to board a new plane and fly home, what are the odds of two of our flights not going well???  

Done for now:  ok I think it's time to wrap this up and try and add some of the pictures that I took on vacation. Hope you enjoy the post !

Beach beauty Brianna
 

Gran pa  and  his girls
 

It's too cold !!!
 

Mud Fight!
 

Waiting for lunch!
 

 

 

 

Fun on the river

Captain John

Gran ma and Kaylee
 

Gran pa and Kaylee

Having fun yet?
 

Helen and John

Helen enjoying the boat ride
 

 

 

Chris and  Rango
 

 

Mom, Chris, baby

Saying goodbye to Kaylee
 

Having fun in the sun!
 

 

Best friend Pam and I shopping at of course Beals!
 

Billy's dad making us breakfast
 

Final thoughts:  Of course as I was doing the pictures my computer ran out of power, so ok plug it in get back to the pictures all is going well then slow down pictures stop loading, ok take a few off,   then some didn't load where I wanted them but all in all it got done,  really hope my readers enjoy my efforts, lol.

38 years OMG!!!

38 Years and Counting:  Well if anyone had ever told me that being married for 38 years would fly by I would have probably said to them yea right!!! but then if someone had ever said I would be living in Mexico I would have told them they were crazy!!! So I guess it's good no one has ever said those things to me. But getting back to that 38 years thing, I have to say it did go by fast, of course like every marriage we have had our ups and downs but we have survived them and came out stronger. My husband still makes me laugh and he's my best friend too, he hates it when I say that LOL! One of our friends asked me what was the trick to staying together,  I guess it's different for every couple, but having different interests,  respecting each other and knowing how to pick your battles really helps! and then there's our good role models, Billy's parents have been married for 70 years!

4 years and counting:  This month we have been living in Mexico for 3 years, so we are now entering our 4th year here. Don't know where the time went, I guess just living our lives and getting to know our way around. My Spanish is not good, still working on it, but Billy's is getting good, of course he talks to everyone, and I mean everyone!!!! You should see him at the market, talking to the vendors! He loves it here, have to say it is exciting living here! going to the supermarket in the states is boring compared to shopping at the open markets.  Not to mention how much you can buy for so little.

Going to the States:  Billy and I are going to Florida for a visit, finally taking the trip we had to cancel because of his eye. Really looking forward to visiting family and friends. Not to mention shopping for clothes. My mare that I gave to my friend Chris is due to foal any day now, so I will get to see her baby. Can't wait to see them. I ordered some new things for our place here, and they are waiting for me in Florida, it will be nice to finally pick them up. They are going to look so nice in here. I'm  also going to order a few things for my mare too, can't forget about her. That is one down side about going away, I will miss my cats and my horse while I am gone but they will be well looked after. So much so they won't even miss us, well I hope they do a little!

Training my mare:   Love, Love my horse, she is so awesome, learns everything I throw at her, every once in awhile I look up and I have someone watching me train her, we get lot's of nice comments regarding her good looks and what she can do. Of course I never get tired of hearing them!

Weather:   Well what can I say. I have said it before and I will say it again, so nice!!! love it, the pool is beautiful, you can walk right in now, no one foot at a time anymore. It has started raining at night, thunder and lightning rolls in does it's thing and rolls out, can't wait for the mountains to turn green again.


Pictures:  I sometimes think it was easier in the old days when you actually had pictures in your hand, and you put them in albums, the other day I took our pictures off the camera and put them on the computer, I hadn't done that in awhile so I had lot's of pictures, and then of course if you want to use them on your blog it helps to name them so I have been working on that. Not fun!

Ok going to wrap this up and try and add my pictures, that is always exciting, of course if I did this more often, it would be easier !

                                    Sunset view from our apartment

 

 

                                                 Riding on the beach

                                                my friend Pat

 

  always a nice view  on my mare!

 

 

                                                     fishing on the lake

 

 

                                          not your average seat in the back

 

 

Puppy on the beach

                                        


                                                     Melaza doing tricks

The Eyes Of March

The Eyes Of March:
Well once again, it has taken me Forever to post a new blog!!!! Life just keeps on getting in the way.
I have lot's to say today, I guess that's what happens when I don't post to often. Now, I know my post
heading is not right, but in my case it is, and when you read my story it will all make sense, ha that's
funny me making sense! Anyway, this is a story about our adventure with Billy's eyesight, and it
is a true story. A few weeks ago Billy had a slight problem with his vision he noticed that in a
small section of his eye he couldn't see, he took a look at it in the mirror and there was a small
bubble there. He called a local doctor and he got in right away. The doctor did some tests and told
him that he needed to go see a retinalolgist, now Billy and I never even heard that word before, but
the doctor set us up with an appointment in Guadalajara. The night before the appointment I googled
eye problems, and there was the symptoms that Billy had a torn retina, is what we figured he had
which would mean surgery. Billy looked up a map on google so we would know where were
going, I asked him if he wanted to print it out and take it with us, no he said I know Exactly
where we are going! Our friend Brian came with us so he could drive us home after the test.
The appointment was for 11 o clock, at 10:45 we were still looking for the office! so we
flag down a taxi and followed him to the office. We get there right at 11:00, boy was that close.
We approach the front desk and check in, the woman does not have an appointment for
us, and the doctor will not be in till 12:00. OK, we said, we will wait. Meanwhile the doctor
that Billy saw in town told us that he would be meeting us so that he could translate for us,
doctors here are so nice!  So he shows up and explains to the woman why we are there. Turns
out that the retinalolgist forgot to tell her we were coming in! anyway at 12:40 we got to see
the doctor. He started taking pictures of Billy's eye and we hear him say detached retina, so
we knew right away what that meant. So after he finishes with the bad eye he takes pictures of
his good eye and he tells us that he doesn't like the way that one looks either, I thought Billy
and I were going to fall off our chairs. Seems like that eye had a very thin retina and it needed
 to be fixed right away, especially if the surgery didn't go well. We asked if they could fix it
today and they said yes, so they used a laser all around the outside of his eye to hold everything
together. Right before they were going to do the laser I asked Billy for the keys to the car, I
wanted to put my book away, so he checks his pockets and says "I don't have the keys, you
must have them in your purse". I check my purse no keys, can you guess where they are???
Yes that's right in the locked car! So we ask if anyone has a coat hanger so we can try and
unlock the door. Brian and I are trying to get the door unlocked, meanwhile someone went
and got a locksmith for us, he arrives with his tools and can't get the door unlocked. I guess
maybe that is a good thing? I mean how is a thief going to get in if the locksmith can't? A
very nice stranger who is standing there watching all of this go down, said "Can I try"? We
said go for it, well he is the one that got the door open with a good old fashion wire coat
hanger!! and I still had to pay the locksmith!!! Billy was so nervous that he left the keys in
the car, and then he said well if I left the keys in the car how did the car get locked?? Well it
turns out that Brian locked it on the door. What A Day!!!  Billy's surgery was scheduled for
Thursday at 8 am, so we had a driver come and get us at 5:45,  as we had to be there at 7 to
get him prepped. Our driver knows Guad, so he got us there right on time. The surgery was
done at an outpatient clinic, very nice place and the staff was great. There was one nurse
there that spoke English so she told us what was going to happen, and she translated any
questions we had to the doctor. The whole thing took 90 minutes, when they wheeled Billy
to his room he was wide awake. They told us that the operation went really well, and that
we needed to come back to the doctors office on Friday, so that he could check the eye.
So today we went back with our driver who helped translate for us. Thank you Rafael!!
Doctor said it looks good, the most important thing Billy has to do is to be real careful about
 is not  to look down!!! The retina has to have time to heal and reattach itself. We are glad
that this happened here in Mexico, (well if one can be glad about this)  and not the states,
we don't have insurance in the states and it would have cost us double what we had to pay
here.

The best laid plans:
Before all this happened we had booked a trip to Florida, we were going to help Billy's
parents celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary, yes I said 70th!!! I know, who is married
that long!! So being as you can't fly with that kind of injury we had to cancel our flight, along
with our rental car. We are very upset that we won't be a their party.  We do plan on going to
Florida maybe at the end of May. Will just have to wait to buy some new clothes. I did order
a few things and had them sent to Florida so I guess I will just have to wait to pick them up.

Cooking: OMG I am going to have to do some cooking!!! lol

Pictures:  No pictures with this blog,  will post some on my next one, which won't take me
2 more months to write! I promise. I actually know what I am going to write for my next one.
Just have to set aside the time to do it.

Till next time, stay safe and have your vision checked!

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 !