Happy Thanksgiving

WE HAD SUCH A GREAT TIME TONIGHT!

First of all let me say...I LOVE living in here!

We've been here for just over one month now, and for that first month I wasn't quite sure if I was settled with living here indefinitely.
Well, last night we went to the marina with Ed (Spencer's business buddy)...we saw the movie 2012, and then to dinner and THE BEST DESSERT PLACE EVER, Senor Sweets. We get a table outside on the patio right next to some boats in the harbor, then Spencer and Ed get up to go look at what gelato flavors they had. So, I was sitting by myself for about 6 minutes. In those 6 minutes, I realized that I truly love living here. Life here is so unassuming and simple. It's beautiful, rustic, and culturally different from what I am accustomed to...so it has me on my toes at all times, and wherever I go....which is exciting to me.

Anyway, Ed got a bunch of us reservations at the funnest restaurant/bar/grille tonight for Thanksgiving. We were there for about 4 hours eating a turkey dinner, watching football games, laughing, and watching our good friend Steve get up with a mic and bust out Mustang Sally accompanied by an incredible jazz pianist. Great food, AWESOME entertainment, and even though we couldn't be with family on this wonderful holiday...we still felt the love amongst great friends.
I am so thankful to be here, and to be blessed with wonderful people all around.

AnnaMarie's Top 10...

Thankful List

10. Pogo.com. Tons and tons of games and I get rewards for winning. Which is all the time.

9. UPS. For shipping Isagenix to Cabo San Lucas....when no one else will. Even if it does cost $100 to ship one box.

8. Our local movie theater. For having Lazy Boy recliners, and costing only $5.

7. Costco. Whenever I miss the United States, I go to Costco, and the world seems right again.

6. Movies. I LOVE movies. The quotes, the lights, the camera, and the action.

5. Our Condo. It is beautiful, open, has a great view, and most important...I feel safe.

4. My Health. Without which I couldn't play volleyball everyday all day long. Volleyball has been like therapy here. If I feel like I am getting stressed out or just freaking out...I play volleyball and it all just feels better. Plus...I want to avoid the hospitals here like the plague.

3. Church. I couldn't understand a word of it. But I still felt love and the Spirit, and like I was home again.

2. My families. So supportive, and fun, and funny, and competitive, and awesome!

1. Spencer! he's hot.

Reunion

Last night I was reunited with some dear friends that I haven't seen since high school.

Kevin was one of my best friends and Bree was a fellow athlete; crazy they wound up together 10 years later.

It was sooooooo good to see them! Laughter...lots and lots of laughter.

Withdrawals

For the first time in 3 1/2 years I am without Isagenix.

I feel sluggish, tired, lazy, and chubby.

I honestly don't know how I survived day to day before I had Isagenix. I don't know how PEOPLE survive daily without all that good stuff coursing throughout their veins.


There is light ahead though. Isagenix will be opening in Mexico sometime in 2010. Hallelujah. Until then we are paying our friends $90+ to ship us our stuff. I should be back on the stuff starting next week, if UPS is serious about getting it here in 5 days.

But seriously, if you aren't on or haven't tried Isagenix, please do so! A few months ago my mom was worried about her blood work that came back from her doctor regarding her blood pressure and other things. Well, we ordered her a 9 day cleanse from Isagenix, and she has been using the product ever since...well, she went back to her doctor and ALL OF HER NUMBERS were right in the middle of the normal category! And now her doctor and her doctor's daughter are going to try it.

It's not just about losing weight. It's about being healthy and cleansed. The excema on my arms has been gone for 3 1/2 years...my face hasn't broken out AT ALL in 3 1/2 years. Some other problems, which I won't mention to the whole world have been gone for 3 1/2 years.
And that's not even mentioning the 50+ LB's, I have kept off that entire time.

What a blessing Isagenix has been in our lives.

This is how we roll in Cabo

If you had told me Friday morning, when I woke up, that I would be watching New Moon that night I would have laughed in your face then smacked you for teasing me.
Alas, I have the coolest man ever! he and our friends Ed and Sue surprised me. I was falsely informed that New Moon wouldn't be coming here until like next April. SO DEPRESSED WAS I!
But such was not the case.
It opened here on the 20th!! When I found out my surprise(in my very sneaky ways) I was squealing like a little girl with pigtails.
And best of all...check out the seats in our movie theater here...

LAZY BOY RECLINERS!

It gets even better than that...tickets here are only $5!

Again I ask....whose coming to visit?

I thought the movie was awesome by the way! Leagues better than Twilight. It's kind of funny, the books and movies hold the exact opposite attractions for me. In the books I am all about Team Edward and Twilight was my fave book. In the movies, I am all over Team Jacob and Twilight sucked. Honestly, everyone looked so much better in New Moon EXCEPT for Edward. Beef up the pecks, shave the little dark bush of chest hair (vomit), and stand up straight...don't slouch. AND PUT HIM IN A LEATHER JACKET! Not 1980's Bugle Boy.

La Siesta

One of the things I love about Cabo is also one of the things I don't love about Cabo.

La Siesta.

You know when you call the cable guy, or the plumber, or the air conditioning man, or the pest control man, and they give you a day and time of their arrival. Like Thursday between 2 and 4. And they are usually on time if not a little behind.

Well, when we went to the Telmex store to set up a time for the internet guy to come and hook it up for us...this is the response we received...

"He'll be there between 1 and 10 days."

Excuse me. What are we supposed to do? Wait around?

EXACTLY!

Mexico traffic tickets

It's possible that my blog may just serve as a warning to others

So, we took a client out to dinner at Salvatore's the first Friday night we were here. It was a Friday night...the streets were crowded and over parked. ESPECIALLY the street that Salvatore's is on. We luckily found an empty spot right at the end of the street in front of a jewelry store. So we go have a DELICIOUS dinner, and upon the return to our car we find a ticket on our windshield. Due to the ever increasing knowledge of the Spanish language, I come to read that we were indeed parked on a red curb. The sidewalks are so dusty and the paint so old...there was no telling what color it was. But there was no fee on the ticket, no date of court appearance, nothing. We thought maybe it was just a warning...YEAH RIGHT. a warning...pshaw. They don't do warnings here. We take our client back to her resort, and then we head over to Ed's condo (where we were staying while our condo was getting ready) to pick some things up. As we head back to our car to go home...I notice something incredibly important missing from our car...

the license plate.

they don't play any games here. So I had myself a little bit of a freak out. But luckily, our friend Steve was home (lives next door to Ed), and he has lived in Mexico for 20 years, and he had himself a little chuckle at our expense, and told us we had to go to the JAIL to get it back; after paying a reasonable fee. When then proceed home. Well, in the parking lot to our condos there are 5 cars...all owned by gringos (white people)..and we couldn't help but realize what none of them had on their cars...

their license plates.

yes, we got our plate back..it cost $205 pesos...which is about $17. I did NOT go to the jail with Spencer...all i can tell you is this..

he wasn't in a good mood when he came home

WE MADE IT!!

And what a journey it was!

36 hours of driving...

I haven't driven since...

and I don't plan on it anytime soon.

We got here about 2 weeks ago, but have not had access to a good area of internet service...so all I managed were some facebook status updates.

But here we go with some fun pictures and more detail!

Leaving Crescent City, CA I made sure I had compiled some good tunage to blast in the car since I am not a car talker. (poor Spencer) Some Prince, U2, Footloose, George Michael, the Pina Colada song, Otis Redding, Sarah Brightman, only to name a few. And we were set!

We did about 8 hours down the gorgeous Cali coast until we stopped at my Grandma Anne's in San Jose to stay the night. I love my Grandma! This woman is 97 years old, and everywhere she goes people assume she is in her young 70's. She doesn't miss a beat, this lady. She had Spencer and I laughing so hard. We love her!

The next morning we were up and going at about 10 am after more visiting time with Grandma; we hated that our visit with her was so short. She really is fantastic.

We got to L.A at about 4pm to see our fantastic friends L and T Earl. I had forgotten to bring in the camera, and considering it was a tiny hike from our car to their apartment, I wasn't going back to get it. It was so great to see them and their beautiful children. They only had 1 the last time we saw them, and now they have 3 of them. Good ones too!
We were planning on staying the night at their place but after traversing L.A traffic we decided we had better try to get as far south as possible that night. So we headed back out on the road at about 8 pm and got to Chula Vista (the last city before the border) at about 11.

I woke up the next morning....scared. I had been so excited for months before about getting down here, but once it was right in front of me; I wanted to chunder.

The border in one word: INSANE!

We made it unscathed and unchecked~phew.

Drove straight through Tijuana, and Ensenada. We didn't even stop until we needed gas which was about 5 hours into Mexico. No idea where we were, but there was a PEMEX gas station. A really really nice one! Right in the middle of nowhere.

*NOTE TO PEOPLE DRIVING INTO MEXICO*~ Bring your own toilet paper.

That's all I have to say about that.

We drove 14 hours that first day into Mexico. We made it all the way past the border of Baja California and into BCS (Baja California Sur). We stayed the night in Lareto. I've got to be honest...I was having a pretty rough day that first day. I can't tell you how many times I had the thought "What the crap are you doing?" Driving thru Baja Cali, there is nothing. Tijuana, and Ensanada...but other than that...bleakness. Land of D.e.s.o.l.a.t.i.o.n. Not to mention about a dozen military checkpoints with armed militia carrying huge rifles wanting to dig through all your personal belongings. I didn't even want to take any pictures...as I wanted to expunge it from my mind.

BUT THE NEXT MORNING WAS GREAT!
As we left Lareto we came upon the AMAZING site of the Sea of Cortez



GARGEOUS!

We weren't far from Cabo at this point, and when we made it to Constitucion, we decided to stop for lunch. Constitucion is only 30 minutes from the Pacific side where Magdelena Bay is and where the resort that Spencer is working with is being built. Constitucion is such a beautiful little city too! They are a major farming community and keep there city very clean and orderly. This is where I wouldn't mind living once the resort is finished!

We ate at a DELICIOUS little restaurant called El Taste. (I chuckled)

Oh, and you know how when you drive pretty much anywhere in the U.S that has trees you have to keep a sharp eye out for deer. Well, here you have to keep a very sharp eye as well b/c if you smack one of these you will NOT be the winner.



The only place where cows may be considered a predator.

They were EVERYWHERE! I almost annihilated us and 3 cows the previous night! No sense of boundaries.

This is what the highway looked like sometimes


So we had driven thousands of miles and numerous hours over potholes and in these sand dunes, swerving to miss cattle, and circling huge mountains, in our little tiny Lexus, and had no injury whatsoever to the car...then we get 10 minutes outside of Cabo. The truck in front of us spewed off a metal plate; we run over, and it punctures a hole in our exhaust pipe. Now, our nice Lexus sounds like it belongs in The Fast and the Furious and looks like it needs a spoiler. 10 minutes left!! Well, I guess we should just be grateful it wasn't worse...but honestly...10 minutes left out of 36 hours. Isn't that a Murphy's Law somewhere?

Awww...but we made it!

Love those Pacific sunsets.

The hurricane that blasted the shores the previous week had created this cliff of sand on the beach. At least 20 feet high.
Behind this beach cliff is Terrasol. Condos we were staying in while finding a place to live and waiting for it to be ready.

And now we are in, and can't wait to have visitors!!

To tempt you....here it is...


our back patio and my fabulous tan.
You can't see it in the picture,but that is the Sea of Cortez and the famous arch behind the palm trees

There...that's better.

That is our room

And here is your room
Two Full size beds


This place was a STEAL! Normally these 1300 sq ft condos rent for about $1300/month. But thanks to a dwindling economy...we got these for $800!

PLEEEEEEEEASE COME VISIT!! Or even if you are stopping here on a cruise ship....LET US KNOW!