Mexico--day 6

Sometimes it is hard to believe how fast and how slow time can move....I miss being with my family on this holiday but realize that this holiday comes around every year so will be ok...this is the first thanksgiving that I have ever been away from family...ever!!! I sit here in Mexico listening to the sounds of laughter in the pool and realize that not all people stay home for the holidays...amazing to me how many people bring their families to a spot like I am sitting at right now to celebrate........also in the background is the sounds of some smooth jazz at the restaurant where an elegant thanksgiving buffet is being offered......way too much food :)

Ok..on to the pics of the day....
Will start out with one that actually happened yesterday but didn't get the picture posted till today :)
This is Marta, Diego and Jose Ignatius...friends of the lady I came down with. Marta works at the resort as a concierge and does a great job at it...imagine handling that many people and their agendas and doing it with a smile on your face all the time....Anyway Marta invited us to her house for dinner...I expected a Mexican dish and was surprised by the amazing cooking of this busy woman. She started our dinner off with some type of squash soup...she told me the name but in my old age I can't remember what it was but the soup was AMAZING! Could it be the fact that it had a tremendous amount of butter and cream in it? Topped with garlic croutons???? NUM! Then for the main course she made Fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp....again...NUM!!!! I must have put on at least 50 pounds just eating the delicious dinner. And the conversation of the evening was very nice also. I have a new friend in Matzalan, Mexico :)

The pics of the day are somewhat similar but kinda cool....They had a bad storm here and it damaged a bunch of trees so today was tree trimming day :) It was amazing to see this man scale the trees and machete chop the dead fronds ...and the coconuts too :)

yep...those coconuts are falling from the tree...hit the ground with a splat and broke apart all over the grass where the flamingos are...no flamingos were hurt in the process :)

Coming back to the room after breakfast the guy was again in the trees and you could see him really clearly from the balcony so more pics :)

some of the carnage from the machete ...you can see the scattered coconuts

then they were breaking open the coconuts and giving them to people...went down there to get a piece and they were between trees...some lady came over with her coconut to have them break it apart so you could get the meat out and gave me a piece...num

the last pic is of sunset....doesn't do it justice but you get some of the colors...again...wish I had my good camera to get a really stunning pic ...but oh well :(

Happy Thanksgiving to all

Mexico--day 5

So today was sorta way out of my comfort zone...first we went to a massage parlor...reminded me of a place closer to a brothel..but then what do i know of brothels? nothing!!!! as i was laying their in my birthday suit with just a small towel covering me thot...hum..if they take my purse and clothes i will be in a world of hurt.......fortunately they did neither but i had a really nice relaxing massage :) she didn't speak english and i didn't speak spanish but we got the idea of what the other person was trying to say? all along she was probably thinking...."crazy american"
then after that experience i was supposed to find my way to the jewelry store where i had left a ring to get fixed...but thankfully lois listened to me when i said if we took the same palmonia cart and then dropped me off at the store i could get back ok...her idea was to take two separate carts but when i saw we had to go right by where i needed to go convinced her to just take one and drop me off...how simple life can be sometimes??? then i took my very own palmonia cart back to the resort :) so proud of myself :)

so now for some pics for today....

the underwater bar at our resort...you can see the seats in the water :)

always like these pictures of lined up chairs :)

the outside of the resort...at the entrance

they keep this place so clean...this guy was washing windows in the restaurant while we ate breakfast...wanna take some of these guys home with me to keep my place clean :)

pueblo bonito :) ha...like you couldn't read that huh?

outside the resort...front gate

the lobby of where we are staying

ok..just to say i was here i took a quick pic of me at breakfast

fisherman monument...oldest statue in the city...wish i could have gotten a closer picture but this was taken driving by in a palmonia cart

the stop lights are sideways instead of up and down like we are used to :)

Mexico--day 4

ok...so you know you are in a different country when....
you hand them a larger bill of their denomination and they can't break it.......so some one else buys your drink for you....then you go to the front desk to get change from that larger bill and they can't change it for you either cuz they have no money ???? never in the states :)

Today we went to another resort...well owned by the same people but different atmosphere all together...
the pool in this place is humongous and there is a place to belly up to the bar...I guess we have one here too so will need to get a pic of the one here...maybe tomorrow....you can see the seats in the water where you can sit while you drink your margaritas and sun bathe

more flamingos..these are the traditional pink ones at the other resort

and the white ones...who would have thunk there were two different colors of flamingos??? not me thot they were all pink

this was cool...it is a huge candelabra??? this is all candle wax that has dripped and then they just put new candles on top when the old ones burn out

this other resort is much more greek in its style...this was a cool fountain in the lobby

koi??? this one was huge....must have shoved everyone else out of the way to get his food...wish i could have some how had a comparison as to how much bigger he was than everyone else in the pond...

Mexico--day 3

Yesterday we moved to a room with a different view :) (the first one wasn't good enough) so this is a new pic of the view that I get to look at...right now as i type this i am seeing this in live form

coconuts in their natural state...or should i say...unripen state? hum...wonder what happens if you happen to be walking under those palm trees when one of them decides they are ripe enough to fall??? ouch :)

even the flamingos weren't up to getting up early this morning :) you can't see their heads resting on their bodies in these pics :)

i have already forgotten the name of these birds..but they cracked me up...having breakfast they were getting on the dirty plates and helping themselves to left overs...if the waiters would walk toward them they would fly off...so the waiter that was helping us actually left my plate there so i could get a picture of the little scavengers :)

this is the mode of transportation in matzalan....they are everywhere talking the "tourists" around...this is roberto in his rig after having taken us to old matzalan. i got a chance to converse with him while we waited for lois to get done with the eyeglass place.

happy hour...two for the price of one :) i like pina coladas..not getting caught in the rain

no set of pics would be complete without a couple of sunset pics :)

Mexico--day 2

Went for a walk on the beach this morning...oh so lovely and oh so quiet other than the roar of the waves crashing on the beach

ah for the lives of the rich and famous :) this man is raking the sand in the morning so all will look spiffy when the beachers arrive

always like pics like this of rows of the beach chairs

this is a bridge across one of the pools...yep you heard it right..one of the pools

Ok..so looking out our room is a grassy area with flamingo's walking around...heck I thot those were only pink things you stuck in your yard :)

there is water everywhere here...this is one of the koi ponds that there is....

my tootsies after going swimming :) see you can even see the droplets on them for those who don't believe

Mexico

So here I am in sunny Mexico :) For those of you that know me this is WAY OUT of my comfort zone :) But I got talked into going and am here for a week....

This is the room with a view :) Amazingly beautiful!!!!

the view of the beach from our room


these next two pics are ones that I wish I had had my other camera with me....they close this street down at dusk and put tables in the street and the local restaurants serve customers here...it is hard to see but you get the picture

another end of the street...then along the sidewalk part of this part of town some local crafters set up tables selling their wares :)

Impromptu

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL :)

it is kinda what our family does best....impromptu get togethers :)
we were supposed to have our thanksgiving on wednesday due to stan leaving on deployment and me not being home on thanksgiving day...but several of the culbertson's got sick so we called it off...the turkey had already been unfrozen and i figured it needed to cook so it came out yesterday and got itself cooked...
noel on the way home from errands called and asked if we would like to come over for dinner...the girls had wanted to do a turkey day with their dad before he left...all this without knowing that the turkey had already been cooking in my oven.............so...to make a long story somewhat even longer...we decided to do an impromptu thanksgiving with the culbertsons...then the chollars got invited too so we had the family minus the great grandparents there for a turkey dinner


here are the popped poppers royalty complete with crowns...
you had to have been there :)


there is sign of intelligent life on the planet :)

the table set and ready to dig in ...do not let the extra decorations fool you into what holiday we are celebrating

the girlie cousins...wow when did they get so big and OLD????

aaron and danica....

once again...don't let the decorations fool you into what holiday this is we are celebrating :) with stan being gone this year for christmas they put their tree up before halloween and it will stay up till after christmas i am sure :)
aaron loves this train that goes around their tree...think he wore out the batteries making it keep circling

emma's doo of the day


torrey and emma coloring before chollars arrived

my picture....but i forgot it at their house...it was a picture with emma, stan, noel and a snowman...noel was on an ice throne...hum...maybe i have been replaced as the ice queen :)

and surprisingly...this was taken without a lot of "spirits" being imbibed...........??????

Bosco

I went and saw Bosco the other day and got some pics of him in the leaves..he is so cute and doing so well in his new home...


he is such a tiny boy...maybe weighs 9 pounds soakin wet :)

he looks like he dipped his face in some bosco and didn't lick it off all the way...for those of you too young to know...bosco is a chocolate drink...kinda like hershey's syrup...there is a whole ditty that goes with the bosco name...now i have all the people old enough to remember what it is and it will be going thru your head all day....you're welcome :)

Offending holes

thot i would take pics of the offending hole...unfortunately they didn't turn out quite like i wanted them too cuz you can't see how deep they really weren't for the bigger dogs to get out of...on the second day of escape the little wheely seat thingy was still kinda in front of the hole and they still snuck out. the back wheels are totally blocking the hole in this pic

here is the shot without the barrier in the way...i should have moved the gate and gotten on the ground to take a straight shot of the hole

closer up of the naughty hole...oops...it wasn't the hole that was naughty but the dogs that dug the hole and went under the fence to roam the wide world...or at least the neighbors yards...

Pixie and Gracie

A full day of excitement on the home front...5 of the 6 dogs dug their way out and decided that coming back into the yard wouldn't be a good thing but visiting the neighbors would be too fun...gggrrrrr.........so off I went chasing dogs in the neighborhood :( Got 4 of them back into the house leaving 2 running the street........to say the least I was a bit MAD at them....

So after that fiasco I decided to make today grooming day...or at least 4 of the 6 got baths and 3 got a clip job....on the last of the dogs being groomed I clipped more than just hair...got Gracie's pad snipped too...I felt really bad but the nurse came out and she got her paw stuck in cornstarch to stop the bleeding and then wrapped in a sock...she was not happy with that arrangement at all...poor puppy....

she looks so sad in this picture...she doesn't like having the sock on her foot but trying to keep it clean and her from licking it


another picture of her poor foot............

Pixie got clipped today too....she is really curly and needed to get her curls under control...she reminds me of someone with curly hair that is nice and straight until the wet weather frizzes it up :)

another picture of her new doo

she looks like she is smiling in this picture :) Too cute