The Rosas-Standring Family

Yesterday was a day full of being home sick. But today was a new day. We woke up in the morning and headed over to the ruins for the day. It was absolutely beautiful. The ruins were built on a cliff above the Caribbean Sea. There is access to the beach below so obviously we went into the ocean. The waves are really good here because of the shape of the rocks. It was really fun. Plus going on Sundays is always good because it is free admission for Mexicans. So I was the only one that had to pay the 48 pesos. I cannot wait to get my papers.

I am sitting here in my house, very sad because of some current situations and all I want in the world is to talk to my mom or Tara. I need some sanity. I need to tell my current feelings and mood and have one of these 2 women-- and only these 2 women- they are the only ones that get me, that truley love me. Even those moments when you wonder about the sanity of the person that you are with because you already know that they must be out of their mind to be in love with you in the first place... these women... these women know me and love they love me any way. For all of your faults- they love you and understand you and somehow all of your mishaps after the moment of enlightenment- only go to make you more celestial. Well... I am sitting here, without enough money to pay for my cell phone, with 2 sleeping kids so I cannot go to town to call. All I want is to talk to them. To hear, from women whose opinion I trust that I am not crazy. Since the moment I left Portland that is all I have heard. How I was stupid, following my heart like a little girl, not thinking about the real world. Well, I am here, in Mexico, missing my dearest friends and my mom. The people who knew me and loved me anyway. And then there is everyone else. Who even if they love me... make me remember that it is in spite of...?

I am sitting here totally sad and depressed wanting so much to talk to friends and family and there in no one. I do not even have enough money on Ruben's phone to ask anyone in my family to get online. This is by far the most alone I have ever felt.

It was very strange to wake up yesterday and get Thanksgiving emails from people. It was very strange. It is beautiful here and very sunny. So I did not see Thanksgiving coming. I mean, up in Portland and San Francisco it is freezing by now. A clear sign of the coming holidays and everlasting cold weather. But here, there was no Halloween, no big celebration for my birthday, no big celebration for Lena's birthday. So the idea that it was already Thanksgiving came out of nowhere. I have cooked a large amount of food for many of the past several years Thanksgiving dinners, so it felt really strange to not cook anything. So I decided to try to bake something.

I went to town to try to find a number of things that that I would never walk home with, brown sugar, powdered sugar, lemons. These are all very important things in Lemon Bars. So I blended my own sugar and used mandarins. There is a play by play on my other blog.

I also started to miss some people back home. I was reading about many people that I care about being with each other and eating together. Meals are my favorite thing to do with people. Coming together, sharing wine, food stories. People all gathered around the kitchen preparing different things, eating and drinking along the way. I miss hanging out with friends and family. I hope that everyone had a great holiday.


Kennedy and Akilean have invented a new game- simply rolling a water bottle cap across the floor has provided a lot of entertainment. We were walking back from town and the kids got the urge to boogie. So we stopped off and they added their magical touch to the piano.

I must say that I have been totally spoiled by the cities that I have lived in. I mean, the idea that you could get just about anything that you could want to eat- delivered to your door- at almost any time of the night was such a treat. Especially when I was sitting in my house, pregnant, as big as a sofa and there comes my french fries, personal little pizza and tiramisu cake!!!! God love SF!!! It was worth paying higher rent and crazy parking fees for the delivery alone.

Well, now things are almost as good. At anytime there is someone driving/walking or biking by the house with things that you never knew that you needed right then. I love the man that hikes into the jungle, bags some plants and then walks around selling them. Or the man on the tricyclo that sells helado. Although I can never figure out how they keep it cold. And one of favorites is the man that walks down the street, pulling a cart full of wood furniture that he made. That is just dedication. Then there is the guy selling pots and pans, or the women who tell about their cleaning services.

I mean everything is just delivered to the house. When we need drinking water, we wait to hear the beep beep of the water truck and run out with pesos in hand. When we need to fill up the gas for cooking, that jingle can be heard for a few blocks. But it is very convenient.

The one that absolutely takes the cake though... is the guy that drives around at night and sells tamales. They are great. !!! I love tamales. I love delivery. I love Mexico. I swear, if the ocean was not 2 kilo meters away IU would never leave my house.

We took Lena out for her 5th birthday last Friday. She wanted to go to a little restaurant she likes for their spaghetti. Both she and Akilean were wonderful. Not the entire time for sure but for a great deal of time. We had to do the customary day off list and then we were on our way home to make chicken tacos. But by the time that we were done with everything we would have eaten at like 10:00. Not that it would be strange to eat at 10:00 here but for us it is a little late. She picked 2 lum, a great little Italian place. She looks so beautiful. And as you can see, the kids really liked the cake.

For her birthday she got a little plastic purse that is sort of like a small pencil box. It holds a few crayons and a few small pieces of paper. And even while we were giving it to her, both Ruben and I felt bad for not giving her any good gifts like we would love to. Here we were giving her a 50 peso toy and it was the only one that she got. So while we were feeling bad about the gift, we got the best reaction out of Lena. She jumped up a down and was so excited and said "thank you Mom and Dad, I have never seen that before. Akilean look." It was so cute. She is such a love. Ruben and I are so lucky.

Back to reality... hold on... sorry, I had to dance that out a little.

Well, we are in the new house. To say that it is better in no way summarizes how much of an improvement it is for us. First of all let me just say... it has a shelf as well as a bar for the cloths in the bedroom!!! That, combined with the fact that it has a counter was enough for me to carry my belongings on over. But even better, my landlord actually cares about her house. She painted the walls a nice yellow and the "back yard" is a mint green. I love it.

I am spending a great deal of time in the back. There is no counter around the sink in the kitchen so I have taken to doing my dishes outside. I wash them in the basin that is used traditionally for cloths. Once we get some plants in the back it will look really good. Not to mention that I will not have a 5000 peso electric bill and the house itself is 1000 pesos less a month. Once the hot water heater is fixed we will most likely be able to have hot water. Not that it is that big of a deal not to have hot water but it would be nice.



It is funny how much your home comes to mean to you. Your space, your things, the things that you surround yourself with that gets a reaction from you. At first, I thought that I was being very materialistic and then I realized that I was not. It is not that these things mean a significant amount or have value, but when I am doing my dishes, or laundry or cooking... I want to enjoy my surroundings. And in this house... it is much more enjoyable.



Well, only 25 days till my mom and Neal come and only 36 days until Barb and Shannon come. YEAH!!!!

Lena has just turned 5 years old!!! I cannot believe it. I am the mother of a 5 year old. That is not the part that catches me off guard. The part that throws me is how old she seems to turn over night. Just today, we took our typical walk to town and went to our favorite helado spot. They have these basitos that are just 10 pesos. They are the perfect little treat. And Lena- when she ordered her helado says..."chocolate en la bajo y cajetas en arriba." I could not belive it. It was so cute. She ordered her helado perfectly.

Well we are going to be with out internet for about a week while we are making our transition to our new house. We will keep our updates on our computer an throw them into cyberland when we can.

Take care..... "catch ya on the flip side"

Mindy and the clan

The longer I live here in Tulum, the more I discover little things about it that make me love it. As I went to town today, set to find the best deal on our basic needs of fruits and veggies and some pantry basics. I discovered a great fruiteria. I had stopped in once before but did not realize all of the other items that I could get there. It is so far the best deal I have found for tomatoes, lettuce and such here in Tulum. I also got my milk, eggs, bread, chorizo and other misc. items there. And I noticed a large amount of spices. Spices are very hard to come by here in Tulum. For only 228 pesos my fridge had a total transformation. Thank goodness too because I hate being hungry. It is not that we cannot afford to buy anything at all- it is that we have no stocked basics to make most things. So you have to be able to afford all of the items that you need for a certain meal. I wrote in an early blog that maybe it was a good thing that we did not have to store all of the spare Costco items like in our USA house. Yeah, I take that back. There is almost no greater feeling that running out of something basic and then simply opening a drawer and having it again. I really miss Costco. I miss having a car to get to Costco. Here it is the other polar opposite. Everything you buy comes in small packaging. Nothing comes in large containers. All shampoos and laundry soap and spaghetti noodle packs- are like buying from 7-11. That was until I found this store. It has a slightly larger pack of noodles.

****Side note--- I did find it funny when I got here to Tulum, I realized that there are no chain food places- no McD’s or even Starbucks. And I thought that was pretty cool. But… There is only 1 stop light so far in this town. And right there on the corner is a 7-11. How funny is that? I would have been happy if I could have gotten a slurpy but they did not have them. Well, on with the post!!!!****

The weather was wonderful today. In the high 70s. It is just a little overcast- I actually got to wear sleeves. And that is an increasingly rare opportunity. Tonight we get to see the house that we are going to be renting and moving into. I am excited because we did not get to see it to clearly the first time. She said that we could start moving stuff in as early as the 18th!!! :)

Exactly 34 days until Mom and Neal come!!!!!

Since the kids are not in school this year I had totally forgotten about school pictures. We took a walk and took some cute pics. Compared to the ones from last year at the very bottom of this page-- there is such a difference. These are the ones that we have so far. We are going to take some more on the beach. I cannot believe the difference from last year. They have both gotten so big. Kennedy did lose that other tooth. And her hair has gotten so long.

Well, Luckily I picked the perfect time to have my Internet cut off. There have been ridiculous situations that I have been thrilled to be ignoring. Had I of had the opportunity I would have gotten sucked into drama where there was none to start. It was literally a self made drama fest. And I called it from the beginning. So anyway I sit here, enemy number 1, because of half stories, screwed words and just negativity. So I am glad that I was lost in the abyss for a few days.
Ruben finally had a day off. He has worked the last 12 days straight. We started off with the "to do" list. There were lots of little things on that list. One of which was dealing with our 5,000 peso electric bill. That is about $500 US. that is almost double the rent of our new house. But after a great walk to town - doing all of the little stuff we had to do. Got ice cream for the kids. Then, we were done and we were off to see our land.



More about that in another post.

After hiking around and getting measurements and ideas, we set back to the house to go to the beach. This is by far our favorite thing to do here. It is amazing. We have been hitting the beach at 3:00 or 3:30 and it is just amazing!!!! Akilean laid on the beach and played with his trains :) and Lena played in the ocean with daddy.

It is another crisp morning here in the mayan rivera. I do not know why, but ever since I came back from Jordan's I have been waking u pvery early. I like the mornings here. I took a run this morning. It is my new thing. I am going to try to go running/ walking in the morning. It is the only time that it is cool enough to go running and I definatly NEED to be running. One of the best things about living in Mexico is also one of the worst things... fresh corn tortillas at every corner!!! Then there is the down side to eating cheap is that it is filled with rice, beans, pasta etc. Oh well. There are worse things.

Things are getting seriose however. I am not sure how much longer I can live with out a coffee pot. Sitting with a cup of coffe in the morning is one of my favorite things. To get a nice cup of coffee and sit outside as the day warms up or with a nice book. And my mom is bringing me some coffee which makes me soooooo happy. We are getting into our new house in about a little over a week. And I will have just enough time to get the house really cute for them.


I miss the kids waking up and going to school and having kids to interact with other kids. It is a lot of presure to try to teach them from home and teach a new language. We are trying to get better at. I think that the classes at the cultural center will be good until the schools have room. The area where we are trying to build our house is going to have a new school. I am not sure when we will be at the point of building let alone moving in.

But as it stands, everyone is sleeping.

Akilean is really sick. I hate it when that happens. He has a really bad fever and an upset stomach. I hate not being able to make him feel better. We do not have a ton of options for food. We really need to stock up on the food. The produce is not really something you want to buy a lot of at once. And usually we would just walk to the store, but with how Akilean is feeling, I do not want to risk a huge hike to the store in the hot sun. Especially because the one that is close to us is so much more expensive. Anyway. Akilean is in the mode where he just wants to be held. I better go. I must say I am always surprised that they always have enough energy to fight. Amazing.

...for a Costco run… 1 good Costco run. And my coffee pot! Ever since I visited Jordan I have been missing it so much. Not even the actual coffee itself but just the act of drinking it, the ceremony in the morning. I could go to Costco, pick up and grind some great coffee beans for $10.

At every turn it seems that we turn around and reach for something that we used to have. Things like lint rollers, extra toothpaste and other toiletries, spaghetti noodles and baking powder. There are so many times that those little things are needed. I have been trying to figure out what I am going to make for Lena's birthday but we are missing little but vital things to make a cake, but the selection is VERY limited and expensive in the little stores here.

I mean, do not get me wrong, we have a lot of what we need, good pots and pans, silverware etc, but there are all of those little things that we had already built up a surplus of. Maybe it is good thing? That way we do not have as much stuff to store in the dark corners of the house. But like, this morning for example, Akilean wakes up with a stomach ache and a terrible fever. Usually I would head over to my arsenal of stuff and pull out what ever would help him most. But I could not. I am glad that I bought a bottle of children's Motrin before I left.

But life trucks on... The rainy season has ended. It is as if someone has turned off the rain switch. That is defiantly not what I am used to from back in San Francisco and Oregon. We are getting ready ... well that is not true, there is nothing really to prepare... We are getting excited about our move to our new house. I think that it is going be better. And not only is Mom and Neal coming to visit for Christmas, which I am just head over heels for, we just found out another duo from Oregon is coming to visit and they will be here for Ruben's birthday!!! I am so excited.

The kitten is getting huge. She eats a ton. Calvin and Hobbs are getting along great now. That is another thing on the Costco list… cat food.

I cannot believe it... Kennedy is about to be 5!!! That is just insane to me. Her birthday is coming up in a few weeks. Not even... 11 days! She has another loose tooth. It is in the front on the right. When the baby tooth came in there were actually 2 teeth that came in. Not uncommon and certainly not a big deal. But now they are loose. I hate it when she wiggles it. And of course she thinks that is just hilarious.

It is a beautiful morning. I woke up crazy early and started to clean the house. I must say, it is very chilly. I really wish I had my coffee pot. That is one of the biggest things that I miss. My Mom and step Dad are coming to visit for Christmas which ahs just made me so happy. To have them here at all but even more so during the holidays is going to be so amazing. I have not stopped smiling since she even mentioned it but now that everything is booked. And they are staying right here in my town. It is going to be incredible.

I have decided the gifts that I want to give the kids for Christmas. I want to get them each a bike, training wheels, the helmet and of course the bell for each of them, as we live in a place where it is ALWAYS nice enough to ride your bike. And I want to get them each some classes at the cultural center. That way everyday we can walk to town with a purpose, (usually we are wondering around aimlessly) and the kids can interact with other kids their age and learn Spanish.

That way I figured they could get some cool gifts. I feel really bad for them. You cannot send things to them from the United States. And even if you can get it through the rules of customs, it is unlikely you will get it passed the customs inspector. Anyway. I thought that it would be a good gift. I think they will really like it.

Well, Lena is up now. It is time to start the day.

Sorry I dissapeard for a few days! I have been visiting a dear friend of mine, Jordan. It was so amazing to see her. She lives in a town about 4 hours away. It is always so good to see her. She like Tara keeps me grounded.

My visit to Oxkutzcab was amazing. We arrived on Wednesday evening and took the kids to the plaza in town. There were beautiful casitas all over the plaza with beautiful decorations and food out, lots of candles and kids running everywhere. It was very cool. They have a nice play area and we had a great time walking around. One thing was for sure, this was not on display for the tourists, as Jordan is literally the only white woman in this town. She commented to me once, that if I "feel like people are looking at you... they are." Everyone was so nice and many people had spent time in San Francisco and even Hillsboro, OR.

Of course as soon as we get there, my camera dies. SO I do not have any pictures currently of the trip. I have some trapped on a disposable camera. We spent a good deal of time every day at their land which is currently covered in Calabasas squash and corn. There are also a large amount mandarin, grape fruit and sour orange trees. We would sit out there after hiking to get back towards the fruit trees, hiking with a 5, 4, and 3 1.5 years old and her 6 months along and me. It was awesome. We would eat our little picnic, flick the ants off the blanket and eat as many mandarins as we could handle. It was great. We walked home one night and found out that it was a very pleasant walk, so we walked to and from the next day. I must tell you every one thought we were crazy. But it was very beautiful, flat great for all those tamales we ate one day. Maybe it ahs to do with living is SF. In SF we walked every where. I remember being pregnant with Akilean and Lena in the stroller and we would go on 4 hour long walks, get lunch, look around, and then catch a cheap cab ride home.

They have the greatest marcado in this town. For one it is the citrus capital so the land is so productive. I bought 20 pesos worth of seeds and I have all sorts of stuff I am getting ready to grow. The only thing that is impossible to find is seeds for herbs. Hopefully I can find those.

I also found out some great recipes. Jordan is a really great cook and uses a ton of veggies. I cannot wait. I am cooking them for my mom when she comes.

There was nothing going on for Halloween but that was okay. Our kids were dressed in their costumes, running around the park and having a great time. For the Day of the Dead we had lunch with our friend from San Francisco and her family. And every other moment we were just hanging out at the house. Drinking coffee in the morning, sitting in the garden with the kids doing loops. It was amazing. And to see all the work that they have done on the house is amazing. It gives me hope.

Well, now I am back and I have to get going on our house. And we are moving into our new rental on the 20th. I am so excited. We will have exactly 1 month to get it ready for my Mom and Neal to visit!!!!