Mexas...Texico...I mean Texas

I thought I'd tell you about our last few weeks with a picture story, since A LOT has changed and it'd be boring if I just wrote about it.

So we no longer live in sunny CA. Within 3 weeks (actually 2 because Brett and I spent a week in Texas looking for a place to live) we packed up, shipped out, and moved to Mission, Texas.

We left on a Wednesday and averaged about 10 hours on the road each day to get here by Saturday, November 21st. Everyone we passed got a kick out of Tavin riding shot-gun in our moving truck!

With the help of some great guys from our ward (Bishop, 1st Counselor, and EQ Pres.) we got our truck unloaded. Ready to return our Penske rentals, someone, who will go nameless, hooked the trailor back up to the truck and we were off. We rounded the corner of our street, me following with our kiddos, when suddenly the trailor was swerving out of control back and forth, back and forth. It was hanging on by two little wires. I was honking my horn like a mad woman and flashing my brights, but the truck engine was too loud for Brett to hear me. Suddenly the trailor broke loose, flew across the street, launched off the curb, shattering concrete, and into a ditch!

Brett said it was like a moment off of Christmas Vacation as he saw in his side mirror, and then next to him, the trailor that should have been behind him, now passing him. Neighbors came out to see what the commotion was about. All I could think was and yes, we are your new neighbors. THANKFULLY we had insurance and roadside assistance came and towed the trailor out for us because the thing weighs like 1000 lbs. We laugh about it now!!!

We live 2 miles from the border and our subdevelopment is the last before the border...our street is the very last. It's a great community though, called Sharyland Plantation. It has lots of parks and 2 awesome pools, one with a water slide and another with a beach front entry and kid toys. I was very surprised when we first visited because it felt so much like Florida.

It's amazing what you get for the money here, esp. compared to California prices! It puts a little (very little) band-aid on the move far away from ALL family.

Anyone who knows me knows that I HATE bugs!!! Since this house sat empty for quite a while before we moved in, we were welcomed by MANY bugs, spiders and spider webs, numerous red ant hills, and even a mouse in the garage. Thankfully Brett caught the mouse!

I'm afraid to let the kids play outside because of the CraZy amount of red ants we have. I've already been bitten like 10 times just standing in the yard for a minute. Also, a lot of people have been having problems with ticks and chiggers. In our ward, one lady's 18 month old daughter went to the dr. for a bunch of huge red bumps and, oh, it was just chigger bites.

Because of the extreme heat and humidity, most homes use carpet as little as possible. Our home, for instance, is 100% tile. While I DREAD the never ending sweeping and mopping, my kids LOVE to cruise around on their bikes all day long!

Here are just a few interesting things I learned about our new hometown already:

**Birds definitely migrate south. Kirra's new favorite words are "tweet-tweet" because that's all we hear.

**I am a minority. That's an understatement. But I couldn't be surrounded by a nicer people!!!!!! While there's quite a language barrier, I live in the friendliest neighborhood EVER and have already made some really good friends. I don't think I could have done this move without Melissa Hunter, who I feel has been my best friend my whole life. Our husbands work for the same company and she's lived here for 8 months. She found my house; her kids are my kids age; she's made us dinner too many times; she went and saw New Moon with me even though she's never read the books; she came over one night just to hang out with me; she showed up at my door to help me unpack; etc.

**There are the COOLEST palm trees all around down here called Foxtail Palms. I LOVE THEM!

**There are 10 elders in our ward alone and that's about 80% of our ward. Just kidding.

**Don't go shopping on the weekends or it looks like this:

(I was trying to somewhat hide behind the batteries to try and take this as discretely as possible.)

Everyone crosses the border on the weekends and stocks up!!!!!!!!!!! This is no exaggeration! I'm actually bumbed. I went to Sam's Club today (Saturday) on purpose, just to get a picture for my blog. I didn't get their till around 5pm and the insanity had died down. The first day we got here I went to get a dryer (no gas down here, just electric) and it took me 20 minutes to get through the door. Once in, there were so many people I couldn't move my cart. So I left my cart where it was and walked out. Upon exiting I found a covered loading area where there was a huge line of cars, trucks, vans, and so on, loading up their vehicles with their carts full of stuff. The manager told us that this is the #1 Sam's in the nation.

**It's kind of a dangerous town because it's a border town (you know...drug trafficking, auto theft, abductions, and all that jazz), but we make sure to be careful.

**Mexicans are VeRY supersticious and I've been told they believe that if they see a blond haired child they must "pet" them or something bad will happen. I've also heard it's good luck. I don't know if that's for the child or the one doing the petting. At first it was a little bizarre, but now it's just hilarious. We seriously can't walk 10 steps before my children are pet, sometimes from the forehead to the chin and sometimes across their hair. Kirra seems to be the main target. Sometimes people will comment about how beautiful they are, others will wave their families over to look at my kiddos, and some will just pet and go right on about their business.

Brett (the worrier in our relationship) is worried about the kids getting sick with so much petting going on, so the other day I tried beanies to keep the petters at bay. Just kidding...it was just a cold day and I thought they looked cute in their hats.

**We still live fairly close to a beach! We are also in a hurricane zone.

We are finally settled in, every box unpacked, and even decorated for Christmas. Since I am now a "single mother," I even hung the Christmas lights myself. (Just don't ask how many hours it took me.)

Although we couldn't be with my family for Thanksgiving and won't be with Brett's for Christmas, we did have an AMAZING Thanksgiving dinner with our new life-long friends the Hunters.

Brett is working, and working hard, at his new facility. His company just bought 3 buildings down here and Brett is the administrator at the Mcallen Bldg. We rarely see him because of the hours he has to put in during this trasition period, but look forward to when the 100 days of 100 hours a week comes to an end. Hopefully things will calm down for him by then.

Brett's new home. The beautiful Grand Terrace Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center (long term healthcare, aka: an old folks home).

We really are excited for this new ADvEntURe in our lives!