So this post is about a month over due, but with so much going on I have just kept putting it off until now. Anyhoo after a long long year of going through three facilitators, two immigration lawyers, and a ridiculous amount of international mail and paperwork I finally have my dual citizenship with Mexico. I am now officially a Mexican citizen and I couldn't be prouder.

Dia De Los Muertos Oct 27, Day of the Pets

Fun fact about Mexico, well Puerto Vallarta at least. You can grow your own pineapple plant/s here! The climate is perfect for it. The warm sunny days and constant humidity make great conditions for growing lots of fruits. What we learned about pineapples is that all you have to do is twist the top off, then stick that sucker in some water til it gets roots, or even pop in straight in the dirt. Then just water it once or twice a week and boom pineapples will grow. It is kinda a bummer that it takes at least two years to actually get a pineapple off it, but still very cool that anyone can actually grow them. The most popular fruits that you'll find people growing in their yards here are pineapple, avocado, mangos, papayas, and bananas. All easily grown because this is the perfect climate for them. At this point our pineapple plant is about two months old. Only 22 more months til we can take taste sweet sweet fruit lol. - Nolan

Playa Listo (or Beach Ready) is our newest adventure!

It's crazy the way life works sometimes. Not even two years ago I'd never have even imagined we'd be living in Mexico. Ten years ago Mexico wasn't even a place I wanted to visit lol. Now here we are living in Mexico for the last 9 months, and we just moved into a more Mexicoy part of Mexico lol. We are still technically in Puerto Vallarta, but we are now out of the city and into the jungle! It's all kinda crazy the way it happened. Bridget met a guy on the plane on her flight back from the US, they made friends, he invited us to breakfast at his house, he happened to be renting the lower half of the house, and now were we are living in a Mexican jungle lol. 

There is a local volunteer group here that helps shelter dogs. They go to the shelter twice a week to walk the pups and they hold adoption days at a nearby mall. They needed more volunteers for an adoption day event. Their ask was for people to come and "sit with one of the dogs up for adoption" for 3 hours. Santi and Osa were the names of the two dogs Nolan and I were paired with for the day. There was precious little sitting that day. This sweet, but rambunctious, duo were so fun to spend time with. For dogs that have spent months in a shelter, they were remarkably well behaved. There were a couple of times that a mutually loved toy caused a skuffle between them, but other than that, they were total loves. There was the unfortunate incident (despite us taking them outside a couple of times) that Osa pooped loud and proud and Santi created an impressive puddle; all in the middle of the mall. Best part of that was the volunteers that weren't manning dogs themselves, ran over to clean the messes up while we all got slink away. Hehehe The day was long, and we were as worn out as the dogs by the end of it, but 10 out of 10 I would recommend. Great way to spend an afternoon. ~Bridget 

For anyone who knows my struggles with spelling, it may surprise you to hear that I was just a judge at a spelling bee. How did this happen?!? The teacher Nolan and I went to to learn Spanish also teaches English at a local university. He was running a spelling bee and needed judges. When he asked us to help out, my only thought was “I will do it if we get the answers”. Nolan and I show up to the university and oooo and aaaah over his students decorations of the hallway and entrance to the room. The room was a mock courtroom they use for their law students. We met the other judge (who had done this before and gave us the lowdown). I was so nervous! Knowing they could ask for the word to used in a sentence, I felt the panic set in. What if I can’t think of a sentence on the spot? Or worse, what if the sentence I think of is inappropriate?!? Then I remembered that the students were far more nervous than I was and I got over myself. We took turns picking words and saying them as clearly as possible. One by one they fell. It was heartbreaking every time. They were trying so hard. Down to the last two, and it was a nail-biter. They went back and forth thru 10 plus words until end. Afterwards there were lots of pictures and everyone got a certificate (even us judges!). All-in-all it was an unexpected way to spend our morning and I would totally do it again. 

We have been living in Mexico six months now. It's a different life for sure. I never would have guessed that life would lead me to Mexico of all places. Up until just a few years ago I never even wanted to visit Mexico. I had never even been to Mexico until we moved here lol. Things I miss most from the US are friends, the PNW, Made in China products, and a good steak. Mexico has amazing food on every corner but we just have not been able to find a decent steak, it's crazy! 

Her name was Ava. She was the sweetest little street pup in Puerto Vallarta. She had a seedy past on the hard, gritty streets of Puerto Vallarta but a kind organization found her and took her in. They administered to her veterinarian needs, had a little photo shoot, placed her pics on the interwebs, and she was adopted by a lovely couple is Seattle. Great, right? Well, no, they still need to get Ava to Seattle. Turns out you can’t just put a dog on a plane by itself. That’s where Flight Angels come into play. The organization then has to find someone who will fly from Puerto Vallarta to Seattle while being responsible for the pup and get the pup and the pup’s adopters together after the flight. I jumped at the chance once I saw the post looking for Ava’s Flight Angel. It was so easy and watching Ava and her new family meet was more touching than I thought it would be. I will be sure to let them know the next time I’m flying north. I would love to do this again. - Bridget

We went to the Puerto Vallarta Zoo! I love zoos. Bridget on the other hand is not really a fan but will go for me. She feels bad for the animals in captivity not having all the space and freedom they would have in the wild. And don't get me wrong, I do too. However due to the ignorance and selfishness of people I feel like zoos are a necessary thing. People will care more if you put the animal in front of their face, seeing in person has a much bigger impact than pictures and stories. Plus zoos do more than display animals. They rehab and care for animals that for various reasons wouldn't survive in the wild. 

I am feeling so much better now! The vet gave me antibiotics (which I am done taking now), a medicine that helps your body do something with the water in your system that isn't working right when you are sick (also done taking that), and an anti-diarrhea medicine (which is made for you humans but the vet said it was the best thing for me, so I took it too). Bridget is an excellent medicine giver because she always hide the pills in peanut butter and I really appreciate that. She also made me chicken and rice EVERYDAY! I was almost glad I was sick because that is my favorite! I am now getting that mixed in with my kibbles and I can tell I am getting less and less of the chicken and rice each time, but I guess all good things must come to an end. Maybe she will surprise me still make it for me every once in a while as a treat....I would like that. She also tricked me into taking the liquid probiotic and into drinking more water but putting it in my water bowl then mixing in the chicken juice...I could drink that all day! This was a lot of typing so I am going to nap now. Talk to y'all later. ~ Boltifer P Lopez 

These past few days have been a lil rough to say the least. Our fridge suddenly died two days after we went shopping at costco 💸💸. The owners of our condo decided to do the bi annual fumagation, told us it would be 2hr of spraying, then 6hrs we need to wait to come back in, all starting at 10am. So with no where else to go for that long with Bolty I got us an air bnb for 2 days. Had to do two because checkin isnt til 3pm and what would we even do before that? 💸💸💸 Then it turned out to be 20mins of spraying, and the fumagation guys said we could come back in two hours 🤬 So really we didn't need the damn Air BnB 🤬🤬🤬💸💸💸