Okay! Finally, I'm sitting down to document my trip to Mexico. But, now that I've waited so long, it won't be just about that. Sorry...I'm not a writer, I'll probably jump around a bit. Hope ya'll can follow me.
I guess first I just want to say that last night sucked! I was going to bore you all with the details, but I'll spare you...basically, a combination of poor timing with poor choices of foods to prevent nausea, ended up making me more nauseous, and so I couldn't relax to go to sleep (I had a bad experience when I was younger of going to bed nauseous and waking up...well, don't want to get too graphic here. Since I don't have a mom to clean up after me anymore, I couldn't relax). So anyway, I didn't get to sleep until 7:30 a.m.!! But somehow by a stroke of great luck the girls slept a few hours longer than usual (Mike kept them up late), so I got almost 3 hours of sleep, and a few more at Colette's naptime.
Okay, so on to the more exciting stuff:
Mexico was great! Much much better than I had anticipated. A little backstory -
When I was 4 my family went on a road trip to San Diego to visit my uncle and family...we went to Disneyland also (a bummer for a 4-year-old, just too short for all the fun rides!), and popped into Tijuana for a few hours to shop for souvenirs. The car we were driving had hit a deer and had a huge dent in the front. This drew a lot of attention by the street vendors...there were people hanging all over the car saying "Body work! Body work!" and it totally freaked me out. That's about all I remember of that trip.
Then, when I was 13 we went on another road trip for Spring Break (also including Disneyland - definitely funner that time! - and many other stops - Salt Lake City and St. George Utah, Las Vegas, and Tijuana again! We didn't have the body damage that time, but same as before, we just stopped in for souvenirs. I don't know if Tijuana just cleaned up a lot in the last 14 years, or if we just happened to visit a very seedy area of the city, but my impression of Tijuana was not a good one. So...that's what I was picturing I was going to, but I was trusting my parents who had been to this dentist many times over the past 10 years with only positive things to say about him.
My mom was planning a trip there anyway, so I went with her. Big relief for me since I would have been completely lost without her - she has all the connections. It was partly because of those connections that things turned out so beautifully, but also because it really wasn't as bad in Tijuana as I had pictured. We flew out early on Thursday morning and when we arrived at the airport in San Diego, there was a van there waiting for us. (Side note: My mom just had a lapband surgery done there about a month ago...the clinic she went to has a shuttle that picks people up at the airport and takes them to the clinic. The doctor's were out of the office that week for a conference, so their driver was free to take us wherever we needed to go.) There were only 3 things that put a damper on the trip, which I would still say turned out a 9 out of 10 - one of the 3 things was getting into and out of those vehicles from the clinic - They say "Obesity Good Bye" on the sides. (My dad said they should say "Sveltness Hello" :-) That was a bit embarrassing, but a small price to pay to have reliable transportation with people we could trust.
The next of the three things was that when we arrived at the dentist's office at about noon, my mom got me settled (or so she thought) and then took off to the clinic for her intended reason for the trip - to get a fill for her lapband. Everything was still so new for me, and I had some questions about the dental work that weren't getting answered because of the communication barrier. I finally was able to get them worked out, but just the feeling of being plopped in a foreign land with strangers that couldn't understand me had me a little concerned for awhile! All turned out well though and I was very happy with the quality of the dental care. The first day he looked at my mouth and determined what I needed (since I still didn't even know the number of root canals or crowns, or even fillings I would need), then I had one root canal done, the one from January needed to be cleaned up, the one from a few weeks ago prepped, and the crown I had done a few years ago needed to be replaced. That was it! It was on the lower end of what I thought I might need done...according to the dentist here, I might have needed one more root canal, and I suspected I had some cavities that needed fillings.
After that we went and checked in to our hotel (again, driven by Julio from the clinic)...all I did that night was continued to read the book I'd started on the plane. We ordered room service for dinner. I wanted authentic Mexican - it was okay, but I have to say, I think I like Americanized Mexican better. Everything tasted just slightly off. (Another side note: Either it was something about Mexico, or I just got incredibly lucky...I wasn't sick on the trip, the food didn't turn my stomach like it might have - "slightly off" might have been enough to do it in the past few months, and I didn't gag during the dental work which was another concern. Take that back...the last day I did gag a little, but it was a short visit, so I made it through)
So, the second day we were back to the dentist's office about 10:00 or so and I had the post and cores done for the new root canal, the couple week old root canal, the couple months old root canal, and the few years old crown was taken off and prepped for the new one. All of the work I had done cost $1,370, here it would have been about $5,500.
My mom was telling me about a spa that some of my extended family went to the last time they were in Tijuana - another service that is cheaper being in Mexico. I have had different spa services done individually (but not at a spa-that was a first), or maybe at best two-at-a-time - like mani/pedi, or haircut and eybrow wax - but never so many all at once. I hadn't planned on going to a spa, but since it was so much cheaper and I had the time I sprung for it (I had budgeted $2000 for the whole trip and I only went over by a little - that's including the hotel, food, flight, souvenirs, everything. Even still we saved at least $3000 or more just on the dental!). So this is what I had done - facial, eyebrow wax, massage, manicure, pedicure, and haircut! It was SO nice! The people were very friendly. One of the doctor's from the lapband clinic is the owner of the spa, and his wife gave me a ride back to the hotel! But, this is also where the third thing that put a damper on the trip took place - I picked the haircut out of a book. I had a short haircut done in August that I'd been trying to grow out ever since. I've been trying to get my hair all one length and this haircut was supposed to get it there. The picture was of an inverted bob - so chin length, but slanting from the back to the front following my jawline. Well she stacked it in the back and then it slopes down in that angle, only it's shorter than my jawline. So my hair isn't one length and it's too short. The cut itself is actually cute now that I'm used to it, so it's bearable, just disappointing that I'm back to square one since I still have the same goal in mind for my hair. So that's Friday...all in all, it was a really great day.
Saturday morning we left early so I could do some shopping for souvenirs. Another perk to having the connections...our driver almost the whole time was Julio, but that morning Carlos was filling in until Julio got there later, and Carlos knew one of the vendors on the strip of shops that had a bunch of souvenir stuff. So, he took me to his friend and told me that he would take care of me and be sure to give me a good deal so that I wouldn't have to haggle. See below to see the pictures of what I got...
Then we went to the dentist to get the crowns on...it was a quick visit, about a half hour. The crown that got replaced was my first crown, so I had nothing to compare it to, but now I know that it was screwed up from the beginning...it was never tight against my gums. These crowns feel and look wonderful...just like my natural teeth.
So from there Julio took us back over the border where we met up at a restaurant in San Diego with my lovely cousin Ruth Ann who was so sweet to drive down from L.A. just so she could spend a little time with us. We had lunch, but then we had to get to the airport. Everything went smoothly, and we even arrived in Seattle a full 1/2 hour early! Luckily, Mike was early too, and it was perfect timing!
Well, that's pretty much it, although I have some more pictures I'm going to put up later when I get them, and a few more comments, but that's most of it!
But keep scrolling past the pitures for a little post trip stuff.
The souvenirs:
For the girls...
For me...(amethyst, Mike's birthstone. So sparkly!)
For Mike...(safe)
For the house...(wanted something that would fit in with NW decor, but still cool that it's from Mexico)
Mike's got this car as a gift for the girls, and it arrived the day I left...I guess this is Adrienne's favorite direction to drive in
It is as fun as you would think it is...(wanted one of these when I was little)
So, post trip: I came back all relaxed and feeling wonderful, excited to see my family, while Mike had three days with the girls and was stressed. He says his strong point was making them clean up after themselves (something I'll have to continue), and his weak point was keeping Colette from using her Pull-ups. When I talked to him on Friday night he told me he was "sick of kids". This just made me laugh...every few months I get to that point and say something to him...his reply is always something like "shame on you". Of course it's never really about the girls, but just stress in general, but it was funny to me that I only get to that point occasionally, and after two days he was there.
So, Sunday...pretty much a lazy day. Like I'd said before I didn't feel sick in Mexico and thought I'd be feeling better from here on out...but don't know why...maybe stress, maybe it's these small cramped quarters, maybe it's in my head...but I've been sick every day since. Thought it was just pregnancy stuff at first, but by Sunday night I could tell there was something else there as well. I was getting chills, and body aches, and a head ache.
Monday morning I woke up feeling seriously ill (okay, well not serious as in I was going to die, but serious as in I couldn't take care of myself or the girls alone). I had a fever, but I was freezing, and it hurt to move at all. I finally worked up enough energy to get up to grab a phone nearby to call Mike (sometime in the night the girls came in the bed and crowded me out, so I was on the couch)...I asked him if he could call in to work so he could help me out. He did, and he got me some Tylenol and covered me up real good, and we went back to sleep. Sometime before I woke up the fever broke, and things turned up from there, but I was still very weak, so still nice to have Mike around. I was worried about the baby because I know that the reason pregnant women aren't supposed to go in hot tubs is because it's dangerous to raise the body temperature of the mother. So I looked up about it online and it looks like the baby should be okay...it's sustained fevers of over 102 for more than a day that get dangerous. Mine was for a few hours...don't know how high it got. So that's my sad story...I'm really starting to feel like a big bummer every time I write. Basically, I'm not predicting about when the pregnancy sickness will go away anymore...when it does, it does. It felt like torture before, but I'm getting used to it now, so...whatever!
Tomorrow I'll FINALLY catch up on cleaning after a normal night's sleep, and then on to the deeper spring cleaning I've been trying to get to for a few months...I'll have to hurry if I'm going to make it while it's still Spring! Hope all is well with everyone!
