I dont know what to say first.

Yeah, so it has been a long time since I posted & for good reason too. We are in Mexico now. Our house, which sold just in the nick of time, was all packed up during the 3rd week of July. Since then we have been homeless. We did get to stay at my mom's house--the kids couldn't have been happier. Then we attempted to drive to Utah to stay at my sister's house for a couple days before we flew out to Mexico. Let me explain, first, we had to be all packed up by professional movers. You are not allowed to pack anything when you are going across the Mexican border and your "goods" have to go through customs. Anything you pack is labeled PBO (packed by owner) and customs agents will sieze it. Since we would eventually like to get our "goods" (code for everything in our house) we decided to stay out of the way and let the packers do it. Which, by the way is easier said than done when you are a germaphobe like me. Thanks to my mom keeping the 4 kidlets for most of the FOUR days it took for them to pack everything, our house is now empty. Second, the int'l moving company also takes your vehicles. So, my brand new ride had to be all packed up too--and guess what the rental doesnt have a movie player, so the kids no likey. Third, in order for our goods to get processed through customs we have to have visas. We sent in all of our paperwork a long time ago. However, the mexican immigration department does things all on their own time. So, all our "goods" are in route to the border, where they can sit until we get our visas. We finally get authorized to get our visas when we are most of the way up Cajon Pass on our way to Utah. We are desperate to get our goods as soon as possible so we turn around and head into LA to the Mexican Consulate. And thanks to some bogus info we were given we get there and find out we are 2 hours late for accepting visa applications. So, we drive back to my moms house and plan on getting out to LA first thing the next morning. Tyler is not in the mood to unpack the car and repack it tomorrow, so we scrounge around for pj's, toothbrush, & everything else we need for one night. We rise early early early in the morning & get to the Mexican consulate at 7 am. I dont even take in the diaper bag because I think we will only be there an hour or so. Now, imagine this, we have all four kids because they all have to be present to get fingerprinted a thousand times & have photos taken several times. After filling out 3 different forms per person (3 forms times 6 family members equals 18 forms with the same exact info) and THREE freaking hours later, I am telling the lady we need to run to the car to get the kids some food. Again, I had tons of snacks in the car, but didnt bring them in because I thought we would be in and out in an hour--boy was I wrong. The lady tells us only 30 more minutes. So, at 10:30 she tells us we are good to go. Also, visas usually take 2 days to process, so we have to come back 2 days later to pick them up. So much for a trip to Utah. We decide we will leave anyway, and have Tyler fly back Friday to get them. However, on our way out she tells us that our visas will be ready at 1pm. That way we dont have to bring the kids back out. Hooray!!! We decide to hang out at a McDonalds for a couple hours, let the kids work out all their energy on some jungle gym get the visas at 1 and then head for Utah. It would be a late start, but at least we would have our visas. (at least that is what we thought). So, we leave the consulate which is in the middle of some "historic fillipino town" that is what all the street signs say. It is not exactly a place I want to get the kids out of the car, so we drive several miles away to a real town and try and find a decent McDonalds with a play area. NO FREAKIN LUCK! We must have passed 10 mcd's with no play areas. we finally decide to sit in the car and eat--at least the kids can unbuckle and crawl around in the back. Tyler is optimistic and heads back to the consulate at 1230 to pick up the visas. I stay in the car with the kids becuase I think he will be right back and we didnt want to have to pay another $12 to park. 45 minutes later I call Tyler on his cell. He is fuming and tells me that the visas wont be ready until friday after all. Oh my gosh I wanted to scream. We have been here since 7 am, spent 3 1/2 hours in the consulate filthy lobby with a broken drinking fountain, waited almost 3 hours in the car and now the visas wont be reay till friday. I was furious. So, back to plan a, we will leave for utah, really late now, but Tyler will still fly back on Friday to pick them up. We are about 30 minutes into our 90 minute drive to my moms house when we get a call saying the visas "might" be ready in an hour. We say forget it & continue our drive. For another reason, I wont explain now, we meet my mom in Ontario because she is driving to Utah with us and as soon as we pull into the gas station where we are meeting her, the consulate calls and says the visas are ready. OH MY GOSH! The kids have been in the car like all day now. I am in no mood to drive back to LA and then leave for Utah. So, we head north to Utah. On our way we think maybe it would be faster for Tyler to stay in Cali tonight, pick the visas up early in the morning, (if they really are acutally ready) and then fly up to Utah Thursday. That way we wont lose all of Friday together. So, we drop Tyler off at the airport in Vegas and my mom and I continue to Utah with all 4 kids. We arrive at 3:45 am MST. Four hours later the kids are wide awake and ready to go. Tyler is suppose to fly back in aournd 1. He calls me at 10 and says the flight was cancelled and now he wont be in until 5. So, now we lose most of Thursday together. By the way, the only reason I am counting is because we are moving out of the country and only have five days (make that 4 now) to spend with our family. But, Tyler makes it back with visas in hand and this little bit of info to really drive the knife in further. Our visas were finished at 10:30 when we were all there, except for 1 signature from the "counsel" lady and she couldn't be bothered to spend 5 seconds to sign them. UGGGHH! And by the way, there is a mexican consulate in San Bernardino, which is 12 miles away from our house, not 90 miles away like the LA consulate. Good to know, huh.
Anyway, we got to spend 4 fabulous days at my sister's house in North Salt Lake. Attend a surprise party for my Grandpa and say Hi to tons of cousins and extended family members we havent seen in forever, shop like crazy for all the last minute things we need before we move because things in Mexico are like twice the price as goods in the US, and then go out and buy 2 more duffle bags so we can fit all our stuff in.
We make it to the airport in 2 suburbans with 15, yes FIFTEEN, pieces of luggage to check, including 3 carseats, and 6 carry ons, plus a double stroller. We lucked out and are in first class, so we have a 70 pound limit on our luggage instead of 50 pounds and can check 3 bags per person instead of 2 since we are flying international. we definitely needed this, a couple of our bags weighed in at over 60 pounds. We did not have to pay extra for anything--miracle! we could hardly believe it.
We arrived in Saltillo last night. Had to have a van and a suburban meet us at the aiport to get all of our stuff to the hotel, but we are here all safe and sound. We even got the keys to our house today. Although, we have no idea when our "goods" will be here. "They" say 7-9 days IF you have all your paperwork in order. After my experience with the mexican government at the consulate, I am planning on double that. That way if another miracle happens, which I doubt, I will be pleasently surprised.
We already miss everyone in the US--it was a very tearful goodbye. I am already counting down my 3 years here. We are lucky to have Tyler's mom with us for 3 weeks in Mexico while we are getting everything settled. We are excited for our adventure, just hope it goes as smoothly as possible. If anyone wants to take a trip south our door is always open--we will serve you lots of yummy tortillas & we are only 3 hours from the Texas border!
Peace out!!!