Mexican Moments with Greg and Peg: Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Birthday Greg and Happy going to Salt Lake!

Monday, Nov 23rd HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!!!

Mondays are usually quiet days because the missionaries have p-day and so they are not usually sick on Mondays! Greg had his final (hopefully) appointment with the dentist to seal the deal! He had his root canal finally finished! I'm so funny! He didn't even get numbed up or anything traumatic! We had to get our visas renewed since we have BEEN IN THIS COUNTRY FOR 1 YEAR YESTERDAY!! WHAHOOOO! One of the office Elders took us in a taxi down to Immigration. We had to get our pics taken again and go through the whole boring routine again. Greg had to get a rush on his since he is leaving the country in the morning to take an Elder back to Salt Lake. We got a taxi back home, got the car and took off to go do a house call to Sister Hall - Presidents wife. She is having horrible pain in her shoulder. It took us so long to get to their house. She did have a bursitis and we needed to go to the Temple clinic to get some cortisone to shoot in there! She followed us over to the Temple clinic and that took another forever time! She got the shot and we got to visit the Zapatas who are being sent home😥 He does not look very good since his heart attack and following his surgery. He wants to push himself way too much and for sure doesn't want to leave! The Zapatas are the ones that were in the MTC with us and we became fast friends then! We have enjoyed being around them now for one year!. This is very sad to see them go! I'm not sure who is most sad - us or them! He needs to go back to Arizona to get some good cardiac rehab and hopefully return in 4-6 weeks. We had a nice visit with them and the Smiths too! They have suitcases everywhere getting packed up! We needed to get back to Immigration to get Greg's green card so off we went. It only took us 1 1/2 hours to get back to Immigration. If we were driving the same roads in Salt Lake we could have been there in under 25 min. UGH! Greg finally got his card, but they weren't very cheerful about having to hunt it down. UGH! We got home in time for a little dinner and off to FHE. President Pieper was the lesson giver tonight. It was on gratitude. He seemed quite distracted so we didn't get the best lesson ever, but it was nice to see him, his wife Lisa and daughter Dora. A new couple have come to the area - The Carlsons just arrived today. Elder Carlson will be taking Elder Montoya's place as an Area Executive Secretary. They are from Sandy, Ut. but both fluent in Spanish. Actually Sister Carlson is Sister Munoz sister so we have seen the last of them! They will always be together. I hope Elder Carlson is up to the tasks! The Montoyas haven't heard where they will be serving as mission president yet!

My ONE year anniversary roses
of being in Mexico!

Tuesday, Nov 24th

Today has been a nice quiet day since Greg got up and left the place at 4:25 am this morning. He had to get to the airport and catch a 6 am flight to Guadalajara to pick up that missionary that keeps fainting. He caught that flight and then a flight to LA at 9:30 to LA. He got to Salt Lake around 5 pm. Sara is in Salt Lake for Thanksgiving and so she picked Greg up at the airport with Grandma Elaine. They went to the Cafe Rio in Bountiful to meet Scot, Jack, Madi, Sara, Hadley, Jeff, Kaylee, Taylor, Channy, Ollie and Spencer. They had a fun birthday party including a spice cake that Katie had made for the occasion. The kids all sang Happy Birthday to him and he had tons of fun while I sit in good old Mexico City! Life is not fair! He did get to see Rachel and Beka who were working at the time, but not baby Beckham! Darn! We also found out that Katie has to go in for neck surgery on Dec 3rd. She is having tons of neck pain and needs to get that fixed before her baby gets too fat and she can't carry him around! Ha! All that baby does - I hear - is eat and sleep!
I had a nice quiet day. I got to exercise, clean up the house, iron, make some cookies and entertain everyone who stopped by to check on me. All the couples here (my dear friends) check on me and take very good care of me when Greg is gone. In the late afternoon I took the Griffins and we went to the mall! Why not?? If Greg gets to go to Salt Lake that means I get to spend money! I bought him a new tie for his birthday - big deal! We went over to Olive Garden for soup and salad for dinner and walked around the mall looking at the Christmas decorations. Good times!!

Wednesday, Nov 25th

Another quiet day since Greg didn't get home until 4 pm. I was up puttering around most of the morning. Sister Anderson needed to go to the store, so around noon we took off shopping for food items for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. We went to Costco and it seemed like the day before Thanksgiving there - except for the fact that the Mexicans don't celebrate Thanksgiving so I don't know what everyone was doing at Costco in the middle of the day. We got what we needed and got back home before we got into any trouble! That's easy for me! Sister Anderson colored my hair in the afternoon so I look 20 years younger now! Greg got home, we had a little dinner and went to the Andersons for movie night. They don't have those very often any more! We watched Turner and Hooch. Very funny and amazing how young Tom Hanks is! I am getting older every day!

Our Christmas tree with the homemade snowflakes
cards, letters from home!
Love my grandkids!

Thanksgiving Day and HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREG!

Today has been a very nice - gratitude filled - day. Greg did some errands this morning including a haircut and buying me my 1 year in Mexico yellow roses. They are beautiful and I can't believe we have been here one year - some of the time! In some ways it has gone fast and other ways - slow!
I was in charge of making the rolls for the Thanksgiving dinner. I babied those rolls right up to the time to go to the Whiteheads at 1 pm for dinner. We were driving up there and Greg asked me - what about the stuffing you were suppose to make? Oh my gosh! I completely forgot about the stuffing cause I was so focused on the rolls. We dropped off the rolls and ran back home to make the stuffing. I sautéed the onion and celery while Greg microwaved the stuffing out of the box! We got a double helping made in no time and still made it to Thanksgiving dinner on time! Whew! All of our hotel buddies were there - the Griffins, Andersons, Pratts, Munoz, Carlsons, Toblers, Rices, Hackings and Sandbergs. The Whiteheads were so nice to offer their home plus we had 4 office Elders as well! Everyone made such good food, we were all sick by the time dinner was over - but it tasted like home and was so good! Poor Sister Pratt has only been here 1 month and she was pretty emotional about it all - just like I was one year ago! Her family had 40 people over to her house in Texas for dinner and she was missing out! She does have 10 children so that makes for one big household! We were able to enjoy a good visit after dinner and got back home around 5 pm. The Griffins invited us over to their place for the Maze Runner 2 movie. It was dumb but good to get our minds off missing our families on Thanksgiving! By the time the day was over, Greg heard from all 6 of his kids, his brothers and mom. So - ANOTHER FUN DAY IN PARADISE!

Greg's birthday present - a new tie!

I had to make rolls for Thanksgiving dinner

They turned out pretty well!
and no the ones in the back are not burned
actually they turned out the best
the others are 30 sec. undercooked!

Dinner at the Whiteheads with the L-Griffins, Munoz and Carlsons

At this table L- Pratts, Sandbergs, Hackings and Andersons.
The table beyond are the Rices, Toblers, 4 Elders,
the Whiteheads and us.

Greg and Elder Munoz birthday cheesecake
with a big birthday candle from China
per the Whiteheads

It shoots out quite a flame!

Then lights the little side candles while it spins around
and plays happy birthday.
It played happy birthday for over a half hour.
No one could figure out how to turn it off!

Friday, Nov 27th

We were up and back to the routine today. So much for holiday pay around here! The Sandbergs wanted to go to the temple today, so they were here by 9:30 and we were off to the temple. It only took us 40 min to get to the temple. We found out the Zapatas were going home today so we went to say goodbye to them. I went with the Sandbergs to the temple while Greg did his clinic thing. The temple was very crowded and the session was full with some of us sisters sitting over by the brothers. I told Greg it was the session of misfit toys! So many things kept going wrong. It took us an extra 45 min for the session. Oh well!! We headed back home right after the session because the Sandbergs had an appointment at 4 pm. We were going to stop for some lunch, but decided to head straight home. Lucky plan due to the fact it took us 1 1/2 hours to get home! You would think it was Black Friday here in Mexico. I never know what's going on, but people are everywhere in this crazy town!
We got home just in time to pick up the Griffins and head out again to meet the Smiths for dinner at PF Changs. The Griffins wanted to say goodbye and we are always up to a get-together since the Smiths only have 3 more days until they go home. We tried another way to get to the Lindavista mall where we were meeting the Smiths. It isn't even as far as to the temple and it took us only 1 hour and 45 min to get there. The Smiths had gotten there a little early so they had a nice loooooonnng wait for us! We made it and had a great dinner and visit with them. He treated us to an ice cream cone at Dairy Queen after wards. Time is running out fast to be with the Smiths. Luckily they are letting us take them to the airport on Monday so we will get to see them one more time! Driving home was not too bad and now my nerves are completely frazzled! Good night!!!