Just a quick update, we will be moving into our "real" house next Friday. Hopefully, by early the next week we will have internet in the house and Rebecca will be able to spend hours updating the blog with all the events, sights, sounds, tastes, and smells of our experience here in Monterrey. Sorry for the news blackout as of late, but I am not smart enough to have figured out how to get temporary internet in our temporary house.
Andy
The nice lady who helped me load my groceries into the van when I was holding my sleeping Rachel, and then took my cart back for me. She spoke Spanish to me the whole time, and all I could say was “Muchisimas gracias!” What a nice lady.
The mountains that surround the city. I can figure out where I am when I look at Saddle Mountain and Chipinque Mountain. They are very beautiful, especially on a clear day with blue sky behind them. Last weekend we took a drive up Chipinque mountain. At the end of the road there is a hotel, playground, snack bar, and two awesome tall cement slides. Everyone brings cardboard to sit on and slide down. It was fun and it had great views of the valley.
The younger Hermana who taught our Relief Society lesson on Sunday. She used visual aids and spoke very clearly, so I could actually get the idea of the lesson. She also handed me a Spanish hymnal last week so I could sing along. I need to learn her name.
Listening to Andy speak Spanish with everyone. I don’t know why I like it. Maybe just because I admire that he can speak so well. I’m always the one just nodding my head with a goofy smile. Soon, I’m sure I’ll be able to express myself clearly…I’m learning a little every day.
The colorful playgrounds for the kids. Every park has all of those old metal playthings that are pretty-much illegal in the states because they are unsafe. Unsafe, but really fun. The kids love the spinning merry-go-rounds. At the parks we’ve been to, the equipment is well-maintained and painted nice. They’ve been fun.
Full-service gas pumps. All gas stations are Pemex here. There is no other brand. And all of the pumps are full service. I haven’t gotten gas by myself yet, but it seems really nice to not have to get out of the car. You only have to tip the guy like 5 pesos, 50 cents. I think he’ll wash windows too.
Retornos. Retornos are like built in U-turns, but you don’t have to wait for the stop light. I am often passing where I am supposed to go, so it’s nice to know there will be a retorno coming up soon on whatever road I’m on.
People here dress up a bit more than in the US. Men’s shirts are usually tucked in. Women usually wear heels and often wear dresses or skirts. This isn’t dependant on how nice or expensive their clothes are either, though there are many affluent Mexicans here.
It’s true that I’m not very grateful for things until I don’t have them anymore. I usually think this about my friends or my health, but lately I’ve been thinking about garbage disposals. What a wonderful invention! It chops up unwanted food and sends it down the drain. I love that! In this house, we don’t have a dishwasher (well Andy and I…I mean automatic dishwasher), nor do we have a garbage disposal! I really haven’t missed having a dishwasher, but I do miss having a garbage disposal! I’ve been reminiscing about the days when I used to just dump the kid’s leftover soggy cereal into the sink, flip the switch, and let the disposal send it away to who-know’s-where. Now, I have to strain the soggy cocoa puffs and frosted flakes and dump them into the garbage. It kind of grosses me out. I’m sure I’ll get used to it. It’s funny, even houses that have dishwashers still don’t have garbage disposals. Anyways, to look on the bright side, that is really my only complaint about living here. Not too bad, eh?
Sorry, I lied. One other little complaint. No good hamburgers. Not even at Chili’s. That’s it…I’ll stop whining now.
This is our front little courtyard. I didn't get the front patio in the picture.
This is half of our backyard. There's a big tree right in the middle of it, so this is the left half. Not very big, but I think it's pretty, and we have more yard than other FSOs.
This is the view from our front entry room. All the floors are limestone tile, I think (a pain to clean by the way) and the house is very empty. The kids and the toys are all that belong to us. Does our furniture look familiar Erin? Lindsay? Sunny? Everyone says that in the foreign service everyone has the same furniture in their houses (our houses are furnished by the state dept.).
Jake playing video games. I think you can see the dining room behind him. The kitchen is on the other side of the right wall. Bedrooms are off to the left when you enter the house. I can't wait to get into our real house. I just won't feel settled until we have our own things, and I've decorated and found a place for everything. Hopefully soon!
We crossed the border at the Columbia Bridge. This was not one of the bridges in Laredo where we were. We were advised to use this other bridge because it enters Mexico in Nuevo Leon, the state where we’re living and working. People at this border crossing are familiar with the consulate, so I really think it was the best choice. Also, there were hardly any people going in either direction on this bridge. We thought they would make us unpack both of our cars, but luckily, with the diplomatic passports, we can’t be searched. Whew. Our cars were packed to the brim. We parked so we could get our cars registered, and after about an hour of running back and forth from office to office and filling out forms and making copies of documents, we were on our way. We drove for about 2 ½ hours until we reached our sponsors in Monterrey. It was my first experience driving outside of the US. My only near death experience was when a semi-truck driving the opposite direction was passing a slower vehicle and he was still half-way into my lane when he reached me. I swerved in time, and I’m glad I had that little experience, as it gave me a little taste of how people drive here. Our sponsor family met us just at the city limits of Monterrey, and led us to our temporary home, Carl’s Jr., and the grocery store. That evening another little family from the ward came to visit us. It was so nice to meet these American families and make some new friends, and it was so nice to finally arrive in Monterrey!
We are here in Monterrey! This is the front of our house. It is surrounded with a cement wall and gates. Inside the wall is a small but very pretty yard. Our house is big and empty...can't wait for our stuff to arrive. We will be in this house for a few more weeks until our permanent house is available. Yesterday, I had my first adventure to WalMart by myself(with the kids) and made my way back through all of the one way streets to our house. I was pretty proud of myself, and finally decided I'll be able to enjoy living here, even without speaking spanish very well. I'll learn though! Monterrey is surrounded by beautiful green mountains, I believe they are the Sierra Madres, and it totally reminds Andy and I of Salt Lake. We can navigate by the mountains! I think Andy likes work so far...it's just been a lot of in-processing stuff and meeting with people. I think he'll start the real stuff in a couple of weeks. Anyhoo, we are here and alive and doing fine! I'll write more the next time we visit Carl's Jr. It is WiFi and we don't have any internet access until our next home. I'll try to survive without being "connected"!
Our last stop in Texas was Laredo. We stayed in a hotel right on the Rio Grande, between two bridges that cross over into Mexico. We were there for 2 nights, as Andy spent a day with someone from DHS at one of the bridges, so he could see the process of what happens when someone illegally comes in to the US. From what he told me, it seems that most people have a visa of some-sort, but they end up using it wrong. For example, a mom had a work visa which was valid, but she brought her son with her to go to school in the US, so now her work visa will be taken away and she’ll probably never get another again. Lots of Mexicans living in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, enter the US everyday with work permits to work in Laredo, then go back home to Mexico in the evening. Crazy, huh? Each morning, I watched dozens of Mexicans walk across the bridges to come go to work or school or whatever. It was a steady stream of cars and people immigrating pretty much all day long. 
I also watched our border patrol go up and down the river, decked out in their uniforms and weapons. They moved slowly along the shore on the US side of the river. So weird. I half expected to watch them find someone who had just swam across. Other than watching the bridges, we didn’t do much in Laredo. We shopped for school supplies, ate at the Olive Garden one more time, and swam in the beautiful hotel pool(of course). Swimming was really fun. Too bad, that was our last pool for a while.
We stayed in San Antonio in a hotel on the river-walk. I’d never heard of the river-walk before. It’s a little man-made river that runs in a circle with tons of restaurants with mostly patio seating at the edges. The water is a bit brown and the river-walk is below street level, which makes it seem like it should be the sewer, but the little bridges and fountains and greenery make it very pretty and pleasant. There is a sidewalk on either side, so we walked all the way around and found an ice cream parlor. The kids enjoyed cones while we sat on a balcony and people watched. When we returned to our hotel, we all swam in the pool which was on the roof of this hotel! It had a beautiful view of the lights of the city!
The next morning we visited the Alamo! No picture taking was permitted inside the church, but we did get some pics of the beautiful grounds. Jake enjoyed seeing lots of Davy Crockett’s personal items that were found in the area. We were all humming that song for the rest of our visit…”Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier!” Now we really can “Remember the Alamo!”
We spent last night with Great Grandma Ricketts, Aunt Nancy and Uncle Bill. They live in Midlothian, outside of Dallas, out in the country. They have a beautiful home and a beautiful piece of property, complete with certified butterfly gardens, chickens, a small lake, and a trampoline! We all had such a nice visit with them. Grandma treated us to dinner at another barbeque place (we were comparing Texas barbeque with Memphis...they're about the same to me...YUMMY!)
When we got back, we jumped on the trampoline and played with the chickens. Their rooster kept crowing, which was really fun.
This morning, Uncle Bill taught the kids to shell pecans, and Aunt Nancy made a delicious country breakfast with farm fresh scrambled eggs, homemade biscuits and blueberry muffins, bacon and fresh fruit. Needless to say, it was delicious!
Grandma is such a sweetheart, and spent so much time with the kids, telling them stories, showing them old pictures, helping them with puzzles...I think they will really treasure the time they got to spend with her and get to know her better. It was fun for all of us to get to know Grandma and Bill and Nancy better. We might plan another trip to their house now that they'll be our closest relatives!
We spent Friday night with our friends the Thrashers in Plano, Texas. Rich has been Andy's friend since high school. It was fun to visit and enjoy real home grilled food (especially fruits and veggies)! The kids had a great time with Grant and Evelyn on their inflatable water park in their back yard. (It was really cool, we totally want to get one...I'm sorry I didn't get a picture.) Rich showed us cool pictures of surgeries he's performed which were very impressive, and Heather took wonderful care of us...arranging our sleeping quarters, complete with a cold water bottle on our nightstands. What a great hostess, and what a nice family! 
We left the Thrashers to visit more friends, the Warnocks! We met Bryan and Colby and the kids at Beale AFB, and haven't seen them for about a year. It was really fun to hang out for a little while and see their kids all growing up! We hung out at Colby's mom's house, where the girls played Barbies, and the boys played their own version of poker. Then we had yummy diner food, and 25 cent prizes out of one of those claw grabbing machines. It's always so fun to see old friends and just pick right up where we left off the last visit!
