Road trip to Texas!

It's been like four months since my last update. Let's see. I moved to Texas. Chris, Molly and I went on the road and drove from California to Texas. It was fun, horrible and very tiring. Luckily I have the best puppy and husband ever! Puppy slept almost all the way to Texas! Chris and I got to listen to an audiobook on the way here. Other than settling in not much has happened. I got a job and im currently looking for another one. I will update the blog in more detail at a later day. For now here are some of the pictures from the road trip.

Bwahahaha!

"Aww she was so excited thinking we where going to the dog park!"

Woke up early and started our trip.

Yeah... that Mojave desert.

This is the best thing ever while on the road! Look it up girls!

Me and Molly where super dehydrated at this point. She and I had a lot of  Electrolytes.

Bored, bored bored!

Grand Canyon! we drove right by it...

AC heaven

At a hotel in New Mexico

Route 66! it was quite disappointing, I did not see "radiator springs" anywhere.

"So.. we aren't going to the park?"

Amarillo Texas! I really wanted to do the challenge but Chris didn't let me.

Leaving New Mexico

Hello... Texas.. We meet again.

"I hate you two"

So, in Amarillo we stopped at a DQ... there is no bacon in their burgers! I thought this was TEXAS!!

Look guys there is still one open!

I will be updating more often hopefully. I have been waiting for better weather and it's finally here! it's been too hot to do anything other than go from the AC in the house to the AC in the car. Its really nice right now though. I will be venturing out more often.

-Roby

What I've learned:

"Go girl" is a girls best friend while on the road! no touching nasty rest stop bathrooms! Although some are really nice and well kept, but for those that aren't or the portable potties!... this thing is amazing.

Where is home?

Hello everyone! It's been 3 months since I had a new post. There are a lot of things happening. First and foremost, I got a puppy! Her name is "Molecule" but we call her "Molly" She is a "Great Pyrenees" and a quarter "Border Collie". She is the sweetest puppy ever! (but she is teething). I love her so much it's crazy. After my "Atom" passed away I didn't think I would get another puppy this soon. She has brought a lot of happiness to me and Chris (husband).

On other news, I am moving to "Texas". It' not something I want, but it's necessary. We can no longer save money here. California is really expensive. I hope it works out. It's really hard for me to leave my family behind. I want them to come with us. However my sisters are 19 and 18, my mom has a job she likes and they love where they live. I grew up here and it breaks my heart to leave. I am just telling myself "if you survived in mexico you can survive there too". I'm looking at it as another adventure so.. Bring it on!

I also quit my job. They where cutting hours and mine where not even worth the drive there. It was fun working there and a shame I had to leave. Everyone was really nice and fun. Oh well... moving on now.

-Roby

What I've learned:

....Get an older dog. Teething puppies are not fun!

Gardening fun!

Hearts! These are grandpa Otts (morning glory's)

Hello everyone! I just wanted to update everyone. I'm alive and well. So, moving on! I have been really into gardening for the last couple of months and I found a really cute project that me and my niece did together. She loves to participate and I thought I would write my own tutorial for all my friends to try out on their own or with their kids.

Water bottle Bio-dome! 

STEP 1: Get water bottle!

STEP 2: Cut the label.

STEP 3: Cut the bottle in half.

STEP 4: Get your dirt! 

STEP 5: Fill it up about an inch to two inches.

STEP 6: Get your seed or cutting.

STEP 7: Make a hole with a chopstick or some other stick you can find. (Yeah, that's the end of my make-up brush.)

STEP 8: Insert your cutting or seed. If its a seed read on the instructions how deep it needs to be. Some seeds only need to sit on top. Cover your cutting with the dirt to where it's standing up.

STEP 9: Get your top half and put it on top of your bottom half.

STEP 10: Take the bottle cap off (lol)

STEP 11: Spritz it with water. About a table spoon per inch. 

STEP 12: Put the cap back on! You are done! Put your new Bio-dome on a window that gets some sun during the day. If for some reason it looks dry (if you don't see any water droplets) just open the cap and spray it again. Once your seedling gets bigger you can then move it to a different pot.

STEP 13: Don't forget to label it!! 

Yep, That's Chocolate Mint.

I would love to see pictures if anyone tries this.

-Roby

What I've learned: 

Things will just come to you sometimes. I woke up one day and decided to go to get gardening supplies. Don't know why, don't know how. I love it though!

One year ago...

It's been a year since my initial Visa appointment in Juarez. I can't believe how fast time has gone by yet felt so slow living it. After I got home it took me a while to realize that I was really back. I think the moment it hit me was when I went to the yearly festival that they hold each year here in town. The familiarity of it all brought back a sense of being home.

Since I got back from Mexico I have gotten most of my paperwork done. Got my SS# and I will be doing my driving test soon. I even got a job! I have only worked there a week but it has been such a great experience. It's like my little secret. No one knows why I am so happy all the time at work. I wish I could tell everyone how grateful I am just to be back, let alone working.

I am working on getting a loan so I can start a nursing program. I want to become a nurse and then one day go back to mexico and help out over there. For now though... I am taking things slow. This past year has been like a woken dream and nightmare. I never realized how much I could go through. I am glad for the experience though. I wish you all luck if you are just starting out. There is an end to this....

-Roby

What I've learned:
There is no greater feeling than earning your own money.

Home...

So much stuff has happened that I will be making this into a diary type of entry... lol

seeing my sister again after 9 months!

8/21/12:

Only after a day of me being back from juarez my little sister came over to visit! I showed her around Rosarito and she had a blast. She thought she was in paradise (she LOVES the beach). We also stopped to get some groceries and look around the little stores that they have there. I ended up buying her a really pretty summer dress and a big poster of Marilyn Monroe because she loves her. We had a nice day and night talking about our shared memories about our childhood. She is going to be eighteen now and I shared with her a lot of my memories of our father and why I wasn't his biggest fan. It was really nice spending time with her.

Now that is a burrito!

My sister Mariel enjoying the view of my apartment.

8/22/12:

I woke up to the news that my Visa was in transit! it was on it's way to Tepic, Nayarit! I started freaking out and tried to get a hold of DHL for them to re-direct it again but no luck... It's "sensitive information" and they can't re-direct it without the consulate giving the "Go". I called Juarez and they told me to call the DHL, I called DHL and they told me to call Juarez... In the end after talking to my husband we just said fuck it and bought two plane tickets for me and Mariel (sister). The next morning we where on our way to Guadalajara.

8/23/12"

Mariel and I woke up early and got ready to take the plane to Guadalajara. The "fun" started as soon as we walked into the airport. I had forgotten that Mariel needed a tourist visa and the line was HUGE. So we where going to check in our luggage then wait in line when the lady told me that my bank did not authorized the purchase and my flight had been canceled. I ended up using two ATM's in order to get enough money to buy two more tickets for the next flight. We got mariel her tourist visa and we where on our way. Now we didn't have tickets to come back so we would have to buy tickets when we got to Guadalajara. Then we had the bus tickets to worry about from Guadalajara to Tepic and from Tepic to Santiago.

on our way to Guadalajara

She has no idea what's coming to her.

Damn ATMs!

When we finally arrived in Guadalajara we asked how much a taxi would cost to take us to the bus station (270 pesos!) ugh.. well I had to pull out more money but I was already maxed out for the day! I ended up exchanging $100 USD to Pesos then using all the ATMS that I could in order to pull more money out. We got the tickets then we where on our way to Tepic. It was raining like crazy! I have been on a lot of buses in mexico but I had never been on a bus during a thunderstorm. Once we got to Tepic we called my mom to tell her that we where fine. Turns out my husband noticed me taking money from different ATMs and told my mom and she started freaking out because she thought we had been kidnapped and the kidnappers made us pull out a lot of money. After calming her down and telling her that we where fine we took the bus to Santiago. Once we go there my aunt and uncle where there to meet us!

As soon as we got off the bus I had horrible flashbacks of the weather in nayarit. It was raining warm water and it was humid and hot. I looked at Mariel and laughed because she was in for a hell of a surprise.

8/24/12

After a horrible night of thunder storms and bug bites, -oh and mariel waking up screaming in the middle of the night because she had a bug on her face- we waited around for my uncle to get home so he could take me to Tepic, it was still raining and I did not want to take the bus again! Finally he got home and we went to Tepic to pick up my visa!

Visa in hand!

it would not stop raining!

After we got back to my aunts I showed Mariel around town and a guy selling Churros. Mariel by the way was already ready to go due to the crazy amount of mosquito bites we both had (and still have scars). I told her that it would be fine, My aunt had told us that the next day they where taking us to a river!

8/25/12:

There is a river by San Blas that is really nice to go swimming in. There is a hot spring and the water is so warm you feel like you are in a Jacuzzi. I thought I was going to get a chance to Tan but... Once we got there it started pouring rain! I love the rain and was more happy in the rain than in the river. My aunt told us that the next day we would go visit my moms oldest sister so Mariel could meet her.

I love the rain...

8/26/12:

After we woke up Mariel counted the bites on my back (32)... it hurt.. a lot. Later in the day we went to visit my moms oldest sister and she was really happy to see us and meet my sister for the first time. Her daughters (my cousins) made us food and we had a nice time talking to them. -I did not have any internet this whole time by the way.

8/27/12

Our last day in Nayarit was nice, I took Mariel to Santiago so she could look around where I was born because the next day we where going to have to travel back to TJ. She loved meeting the family but the weather and humidity where horrible. Not to mention we where covered in bites.

8/28/12:

We said our goodbye's to the family and promised to return soon. I think Mariel had her fingers crossed when she said that though. We once again traveled all the way to Guadalajara taking two buses in the process. Then finally home! we got there at maybe 2:30am and the next day I was going to wake up early to get my Visa stamped because Chris was on his way to bring me back home!

8/29/12

I got woken up early by my awesome neighbor Lara, she works in san diego and i asked her if she could take me to the border to get my stamp. Once we got there I was maybe 15 minutes in there.. at first they told me that it would take 3 hours because there was a lot of people there, minutes later my named was called and the guard just handed me my passport and had me put my fingerprints on a piece of paper and said that I was done! I was like "really? that's it?" He handed me my welcome letter and send me off!

 

8/30/12

Chris, Mariel and I went out to Puerto Nuevo to celebrate we went to a nice restaurant and then went home and started packing!

8/31/12

Time to go home! A lot of people have asked me what it felt like crossing... My answer is this: I was in too much of a shock to react. It took me a while and it's still taking me a while to adjust to being back in the U.S. I am so happy to be back home with my family that I have no words to describe this feeling. The last 10 months have been a very humbling experience. I don't look at things the same way anymore. I appreciate everything around me. My journey is far from over, I still need to get my SS# and my Green Card. I am about to start a new chapter in my life and I couldn't be more grateful. Stick around!

Adios Mexico!

Hello Home...

-Roby

Things I've learned
....with hard work, you can make miracles happen.