Where have I gone?

Sooo it's been over a month since my last post. Okay, almost two months if I'm going to be picky!!

I have had so much go on that I don't even know where to start to be honest. I'm back in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for a few more months and loving every minute of it. I moved back up here about a month and a half ago to be with my step-mom Joy and my Dad. If you recall Joy was diagnosed with ALS two years ago. Joy and my Dad were living with hubby and I for just over a year in Cancun until her health really started to take a tumble.... Lots of visits to the Galenia Hospital in Cancun for respiratory problems, and finally the decision was made to go home while she still could. At first I hadn't planned on going, but now I am so happy I did. Joy passed away four weeks ago Friday. It was the hardest time of my life saying goodbye, watching her suffer, and truly realizing that she was gone...

One of the things I will forever remember about Joy was her love of life. She never once complained or felt sorry for herself. Anyone that knows her can attest to this. I have found myself complaining, less, and less myself about all the little not so important things in life. What a breath of fresh air!!! I have to admit that I also don't have as much patience for people who do complain about everything, or feel sorry for themselves. Like get over it. Sorry, that is just my two cents. I am so grateful to be alive and healthy and Joy taught me this amazing lesson in life "remember to dance in the rain"!!

It was not an easy decision when I decided to leave Cancun in mid-June, but now I know I made the right choice. Thank goodness I was here for Joys final weeks. I was there to move her from Palliative Care into her Hospice, and two short weeks later she passed away....

I had a lot going on at the time - I was approached by Mexico Today along with some fellow bloggers and friends to go to Oaxaca Mexico for a paid position with their campaign. Originally I had agreed and was so excited to go! After I received a call from my Dad explaining Joys situation...I knew I had to go home, and miss out on this amazing opportunity.

On top of this, hubby is still in Cancun and I am missing him terribly. Good news he actually flew up here in mid-June with me and helped me settle, and move Joy around. Little did we know that two weeks later he'd be flying home for her funeral. I'm going to be in Cancun again in two weeks, but just for a visit and my nephews baptism. We are the Godparents!!!!

Well, again, my blog is all over the place but I thought I needed to write a brief post explaining where this Chica was at!!!

Joy, I will forever have you in my heart, and you were the most amazing person I had the pleasure to love and know. Non-judgemental, and always living up to your name. Joy you are my angel, and I am so happy you have now found peace. Until we meet again..... I love you.

www.hopeforjoy.ca

It was a party!

My moms 50th birthday bash went off without a hitch, and boy oh boy was it a blast!!! My mom had around 100 of her closest and oldest friends and family here to help celebrate. It was great seeing so many people that I hadn't seen for a while. It was especially fun as I was able to speak English, Croatian and Spanish!!

                                                        How good does she look?

The party was this past Saturday and it was held at my parents place in the City. The party was caterered by Red Tree Catering http://www.redtreecatering.com/ (I'd include the hyperlink but something is seriously wrong with my keyboard). For anyone in the Calgary area these caterers were amazing. I'd recommend them without any hesitation. We had a group of 7 people come into the house in the early evening and started setting everything up. We had 4 servers, 1 bar tender, and a chef with their staff. It was truly unbelievable. They even cleared up almost everything before the end of the night!

                                These cakes were actually from Brulee in Calgary

Our menu was great as it was just some appetizers. We served : Portobello mushroom and Asiago tortilla cakes, Artisan Cheese Macaroni, Carrot ginger soup shot, Tiger prawns, mini Yorkshire pudding,  and Halibut fish n chips (to die for!!).

The bar was also FULLY stocked, and everyone was greeted with a gorgeous glass of champagne served with a hibiscus flower. Not only did the hibiscus look beautiful, but it helped sweeten the champagne just enough. It was a huge hit.

The party ended around 4 am which is always a good indication that people were enjoying themselves. Regardless of the blizzard that was coming in that night. Brrr....

                                         My cousins and some girlfriends
I love milestone birthdays, and it was so nice to see a huge smile on my moms face the entire evening. She looked gorgeous, and most certainly makes 50 look good. I can only hope that I'll be as lucky as she....

                                 Me and my mom at 4am exhausted
What did you do for your last milestone birthday?

Spring. What spring?

I arrived in Calgary early this morning with our puppy Kiara, and my Bff S picked us up from the airport. What a trooper! Kiara was an angel on the flight, and again the flight attendants told me they didn't receive one complaint - thank goodness for gravol. LOL!!

It was a balmy -3 celsius so not too cold, but still a shock to my system. Poor Kiara was shivering in the car ride, and didn't go out until we woke up this morning!!

Hubby is meeting us on Friday and may only be staying for the weekend as he is starting a new job, and they really want him there for Monday. I hope he doesn't have to go back as we spent $800 on his ticket and would really feel wasted if he's only here for the weekend.

My mom's 50th birthday party is this Saturday and it's going to be HUGE. I'm going over to her house later today to surprise her as she thinks I'm coming in on Friday with hubby. I can't wait to see her reaction. I'm the only daughter out of 5 kids. I also happen to be the oldest, blah!

I will have to write another post about this, but I can't leave you hanging - I'm a student AGAIN. More info to come in my next post!!!!

Off to get ready so that I can surprise my momma tonight!!! EEEE can't wait!!!

There are no rules in Mexico!

I have officially been back in Mexico for a solid week. In that week I have welcomed a new year, visited Puerto Morelos once, Playa del Carmen once, and yet barely accomplished a thing in Cancun. Oh, I did make it to Costco as our fridge was full of nada!

I did however learn one thing, one very important thing. There are no rules in Mexico. Your'e probably wondering what exactly I mean? Aren't you??? Well...lemme start...
We arrived in Cancun with plenty of luggage, our vans were too busy to pick us up (this is a good thing), and our car too small for a single trip. We had our friend pick us up in his truck but had one quick stop to make at my inlaws. For what? Our car. I guess they borrowed our car while we were gone. No biggie. We pick up our car.
Sooo I ask my suegro how his Christmas was, and what they did to celebrate he tells me "Ohhh we were at your house". I thought I hadn't heard correctly as surely my husband would tell me, right? It's not like I really care as they are family after all, but it's just nice to be in the "know". They had a lot of family visiting from out of town, and our house is big enough for everyone. Okay. Then one of the uncles tells me they were at our house playing dominos a few times. Again all I could say was "oh really".
We arrived back to a more than spotless house which was great, but with an empty car tank of gas! I told myself nothing that a little sleep can't solve. Just go to sleep.
The next morning I went straight for our suitcases as laundry was calling my name. Throw a load in the washing machine, and ask the cleaning lady to switch it for me while I'm out. I return a few hours later to be told we have no more gas! Our lines are dry. No laundry, no hot showers, no cooking. Nothing. It was New Years Eve and I knew we couldn't do anything about it. Oh well, 2 days later and the gas company came. Okay, so I'm a little annoyed now as they also did all their laundry at our house cleaning our gas tank dry!! I don't care again if they had just asked!! I couldv'e told them to schedule the gas guy for us when we got back!!
Well, this brings me to yesterday. Our iron is missing, and I ask our cleaning lady where it is and she advises me my sister in law took it. Okay, we'll call and get that back. After dinner I go to put the food away and we have NO tupperware. I mean none. How did we go from 2 boxes purchased at Costco to none? No clue...
So of course I ask hubby to call his family and ask if they have our tupperware as I know they do, he gets all pissed at me as he thinks it's not a big deal, and really it's not in the scheme of things. I just want to be asked or even told - hey we are using your house for Christmas dinner while your away, okay? We are using your car while we are away. Can we have people over at your house to play Dominos'? Can I borrow your iron? We took ALL your tupperware, but we'll bring it back. Oh , and hope ou don't mind but while you were away we had to use your dryer.....
Am I nuts? Am I being a bitch? I know these are all SUPER small things, but really?? I truthfully don't care about any of the "things", but I do want to know what's going on. They are a GREAT family, and would lend me anything they could, but I would ALWAYS ask first. ALWAYS. Also, I never would have said no to anything not in a million years. It's just a common courtesy - let me know!!

Christmas in Canada

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

My last post I shared some photos of our place in Cancun, and I promised to share some photos' of our Christmas in Canada!!! There are no palm trees, but it has been surprisingly warm and pleasant.

Christmas this year was one of the best ever. My mom baked some of my favourite cookies (vanilla kifle), snow on the ground, lots of family, and who am I kidding, some fantastic gifts!!!

We will be back in Cancun in less than a week, and that is where we are ringing in the New Year.

Christmas morning... our stockings and tree!!!

Hubby and I in front of my parents Christmas morning

                                                                       Kids Table!!

                                                              Adults table

                                                                My beautiful mama!!

My Goddaughter and I

Seasons Greetings!!!!

Whirlwind of a week

The last few weeks seem to have flown by in record time. We have had family come and go. Over 60 family members to be exact. Ohhh and what a crazy family we have ....uh-hum... in a good way of course!!! My dad finally married the love of his life, and his best friend.

I can not believe that after the months of planning it is already over, and everyone is gone. Well, except for one of my uncles who is still staying with us. Don't you ever wish time could just sit still, just for a little while?? Just enough to enjoy it for "that" much longer? Don't get me wrong I do look forward to the future, but when am I going to get that side of the family altogether again in Mexico? Probably never.

The wedding was amazing, and my family had a blast. Seriously, no one complained about anything and we sure had our fair share of mishaps. The second day at the resort one of my little cousins (2 year old) fell off a chair and was rushed to Playa del Carmen for surgery! She landed on her chin and bit through her tongue..... She was a trooper and back in action the following day!!!

My dad and stepmom had a Mayan themed ceremony on the beach. It was amazing, and very emotional. It was later followed by a wonderful Italian meal, and a party around the pool with Trio's to start the night, and a DJ to finish it off.  Fun, fun, and amazing.

I guess what I'm trying to say in a round-a-bout way - there is nothing like family. Enjoy all the time you get to spend with them, and treasure the memories for life.

Getting personal

For the most part I have kept my "real" personal life completely separate from the blog world. It's not that I don't trust most of my blog readers, but for me, and only me, there are just some things that I don't want people to know. I've always been this way, and think I always will. Heck - none of my family, nor friends from back home are even aware I have a blog!! I don't want to tell them, why? I can't explain it...I just don't.

Anyways, today I wanted to share something. I have no one to really talk about this with, but maybe all my friends who live here can give me their two cents? My friends who don't, well I'm sure you can give me an outsider's perspective.

I am married to a Mexican. Okay, well I'm pretty sure everyone already knew this. The part that you don't know? OMG....How hard it is to be married to someone when you share completely different cultural backgrounds, and beliefs. Don't get me wrong, it's also an added benefit at times. I love learning a new culture's way of life, but I still love my own.

Hubby lived in Canada with me for almost 6 years, and that is a long enough time that he was able to learn how life north of the border is. It is face paced, everyone stresses about everything, go, go, go, and do it all over again tomorrow. This is a life I thought I used to hate. A place where everything works, where the litter is taking over the streets, where laws are obeyed..albeit not by everyone, but most!

Hubby and his family are very close. Very, very, very, very, very, very, very close. To me, almost tooooo close. They speak on the phone every day maybe 5, 6, 7 times a day. I mean allll of them. They adore each other with love, and kisses, and such. Sounds nice, right? Well, what's wrong with me then? To me it's smothering, and I feel like a third wheel. Don't get me wrong, they love me, and I do love them, but let a man be a man and move on with his life...errr...wife!

It's gotten to the point where I don't go to his family's house as much anymore - hubby doesn't want to feel rushed to leave. Okay, I'm cool with that, but you go 4 or 5 times a week! There are only 7 days in a week.... For the record I do still go at least twice a week.

Okay, well I am going to stop there as this could go on forever.... Am I a terrible person? Is this all just me???

Final days

My visit back home is coming to an end, and I think I'm satisfied with all that I was able to do. Of course I was not able to see everyone I wanted, and I'm sure some feelings are hurt, but what can one do?? I have been running around non-stop and still have a ton to do before I leave Wednesday morning!!!

I guess I could have much larger things to complain about then having too many friends, and family that want to see me!!! I think with this trip home I truly realized what I meant to so many people. I dont' mean that in the "oh I'm so popular" kind of way. I mean it in the WOW thank you for caring enough to take time to want to see me kinda way.

Main Street, Canmore, AB

This weekend my mom., step-dad, brother and his friend decided to head up to Canmore, Alberta. Spend some time in the beautiful Canadian Rockies!!! My parents have a place out there, and it would have been a shame if we didn't take advantage and head out. It's roughly 45 minutes drive from their front door!!

My favourite sitting place

We have had a great time together walking around the town, shopping, cooking, and drinking some great bottles of wine. Its hard to believe that in less than 72 hours I will be back home in Cancun, and not a mountain in sight. I think Canmore is one of the places I miss the most to be honest. We always have such a wonderful time when we come, and it's so relaxing. 

Main Street, Canmore, AB

As I post this I am sitting on their couch next to their stone fireplace, staring out the huge bay windows with a view of the snow capped Rocky Mountains..... What better way to end my trip!

Back in the real world

Wow, so I am back in my hometown Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Instead of beautiful clear skies, and fresh mountain air we are breathing in smoke from all the BC forest fires. It is terribly sad, and in all the years I lived in Calgary we never had a air quality warning that I can remember, until now of course.

The weather is not great, and is getting cooler. The forecast shows it warming up a bit sometime next week.... Oh please, oh please!!!

Weather aside, I am actually missing some things about Mexico. Not all, but some noticeable things. For example, in Mexico when someone enters an office, store, etc... you usually greet everyone  "buenas tardes", or "con permiso". Here in Canada not a word! I dont' know if people in Canada just don't have time, or we just learnt to be scared of everyone! LOL! In all honesty, I never would have walked into a room and greeted everyone before living in Mexico either.

However, I also realize how much I really do miss in Canada. My famiily is an obvious. FOOD. I miss all food. Kidney beans, baked beans, Salt n Vinegar chips, super great restaurants!!!! Wearing high heals, wearing make up, straightening my hair, shopping. My list could go on and on....

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm happy in Mexico, and I find myself always saying the same thing "Yes, the weather is great". I don't know what that means exactly? I know hubby never wants to live in Canada ever again....Oh well, for now I'm just gonna enjoy my family, and friends, and in a week I'll be back to my new life in Mexico.

Thank goodness I'll be back here for Christmas...aww...I miss my family already.

Quinta Luna Cancun

It has been a really long time since my last post, but I have been soooo busy with everything going on down here in Cancun. Hubby and I are still busy moving things from Canada to Cancun, and often don’t we know where we are, or what we are doing!

Anyways, I thought I would quickly write about my suegros’ 60th birthday surprise party!!! We have been busy planning it for months – actually my Cunada and my husband have been busy planning it for months.
We rented out a place called Quinta Luna Cancun (http://www.quintalunacancun.com/ ) it was a fantastic venue for the evening. We invited about 100 guests in total and had probably that many show up!

The venue has a dance area that is covered, but over looks the pool area. A bar near the dance area with an EXCELLENT wait staff. Service was incredible and I never saw anyone without a drink in their hand.

We surprised my suegro by flying in his mom from Mexico City, and she greeted him at the entrance to the party. Wow – was that a surprise, and if he did know he did a great job pretending. We also had about 30 of his brothers, sisters, and their kids fly in from Cuernavaca. WOW – what a great evening.

Unfortunately my camera was dead, but I am gathering pictures from some family and friends – thank you. Go to the link above and check out the venue as they have a great gallery!
One of the last things I wanted to mention for all of you out there with kids – it is kid friendly! I can’t believe how great the set up was for kids. We had an air conditioned room for the kids with 2 mattresses (bring your own sheets) a TV and NANNIES!!! Okay, we had to supply the nannies, but it was wonderful. Parents didn’t have to worry about their children…as much J.

Total for the evening including venue rental, alcohol, food, etc…. $800USD. Now to me that was more than reasonable as back in Canada it would have been in the thousands!!

Feliz Cumpli Suegro!!!

You have what? Must have positive thoughts....

Well it’s been quite some time since my last post, and usually I try and keep them upbeat and positive…. Well I’m still going to try to do it with this one.

My step mom Joy who I am EXTREMELY close to and love as much as you could ever love someone who is not blood family was recently diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrigs Disease). I don’t want to even go into too much detail as I get upset, but for those of you who don’t know it is terminal, and a terrible debilitating disease.

Joy’s cousin recently designed a website : http://www.hopeforjoy.ca/ that talks about the disease, and has a blog where Joy can write about her day to day experiences with the disease and treatments.

Health care in Canada is scary, and thank GOD my family could go through the private sector and get some answers. 11 months public and she was still waiting for a CAT scan. 2 months in the private sector and she was diagnosed, and has already begun treatments. I won’t even go into the costs so far… However, you can’t put a price on your health!

Coincidentally enough, they are now in Mexico! They are actually going to a clinic in Mexico that was recommended by their clinic in Canada – it deals with neurological diseases, and detoxifications. http://www.sanoviv.com/ .

I will write more when I know more, and let you know how the experience at the clinic is. It’s supposed to be World Class, and really promote healthier living which is essential to a person living with ALS.

So from the Rockies to the Baja she goes!! Funny isn’t it? Free health care in Canada, free my ass. Sorry, but that part really frustrates me… I’m going to have to let that go!

That’s it for now, but again I’ll make sure to post some pics of the clinic and let you all know how the treatment(s) go!!!

Here is a picture of our family with Joy ... the last time she was able to hold a golf club. WOW. Who knew that would be the last time?

A little bit of paradise!

Well, I just got back from 16 days in what I like to call the European Paradise .... Croatia!

My brother and I enjoying a laugh by the sea

What an amazing trip I had, but oh boy oh boy was it scorching hot!! This heat was out of this world insane. It was drier than Cancun, and there certainly was not a breeze to be had. There is a heat wave going on along the Mediterranean, and Croatia was hit with temperatures ranging from 40-50 degrees Celsius!!! YES, I said 50. To me this was unbearable, and I honestly sat in the shade for the most part! My poor grandmother... I drug her all over the place in that heat - she was a trooper!

I don't want to bore anyone with too many details, but I"ll fill you in with a shortlist of what I did:

-Cousins wedding - starts at 1:00 pm and ended at 5:30am (literally best wedding I have EVER been to)

-Beaches of Split, Makarska and Dubrovnik - all AMAZING, but VERY expensive

-Visit family, family and more and more family

-Went to Medugorije, Mostar, Omitski, etc...

-Another cousins wedding - not as good as the first one, but still nice

-Much, much more!

Here are a few pics, I hope you enjoy!

Me shopping in Split

Feliz dia de los padres!

Happy Fathers Day dad, and mi suegro!!!

Your husband doesn't look Mexican....???

Okay, well I'm sure soooooo many of us can relate to this topic....

I can't tell you how many times I've heard "Your husband does'nt look Mexican". I used to laugh politely and go into a schpeal..... Now, I am actually finding myself getting a little more irritated by the minute.... I now say "What does a Mexican look like?".... The reason it bothers me isn't because they are just making a comment...It's actually the tone of their voice. They are acting SO suprised. Like I'm lieing and have something to hide.

Oh you should hear the answers they give me when they tell me what a Mexican should or does look like. I can't wait until we have kids one day.....

Anyways, I always tell everyone the same thing.... Mi suegra has blond hair blue blue eyes. Mi suegro dark hair, dark eyes. Mi cunado brown hair, blue eyes. Mi cunada brown eyes blond hair. Mi sobrino blue eyes, brown hair.

Okay, so this being said.... Is anyone shocked, suprised?? Honestly - tell me/us!!!

Mexicans, Canadians, Italians, Portugese.... We all look different AND the same!!! We come in all shapes, sizes and colours..... That's what's so great about it!!!!

Just thought I could post some pics of a few of my MEXICAN family members!!!

www.gocancuntransfers.com