Stateside

Hello out there, where have you been? I've neglected this blog for the past month while we were on the move. So much time has passed and I don't know where to start. Here is my attempt to recapture our last month or so.

- We had to hire two companies in Mexico to move us here because a full move from any one company started at $12,000. We had one company pack and load our belongings from their truck to another truck. The other company just drove our stuff here to Fayetteville. Coordinating this was fun :/

-The packing company was very, let's say, thorough in their service. For example, a plastic tuperware container was wrapped with three pieces of packing paper. When we moved to Mexico we had 49 boxes and we didn't buy anything except large furniture, when we moved back, 135. Like I said, very thorough.

-Our drive from Mexico to the US was uneventful. We waited on the border for an hour or so. The immigration agent asked us about a million questions and then we were on our way.

-The first thing we did after crossing the border- Whataburger. We wanted a "good" fast food burger, STAT. The Cuotas (toll-ways)in Mexico lack food stops. Our first day we didn't eat lunch until 5pm because there wasn't anything. Well, that's not completely true, there was a man who had rice and chicharrón tacos. I ordered a plate of rice for me and Rowan and he gave a metal fork in our to go box.

-We made tons of stops in Texas to visit family and friends. We're waiting for our visitors here, come see us.

-We rented an apartment in a four-plex that has a garage. We've (Esten, really) stored most of our belongings there because we are buying a house and don't want to unpack only to re-pack.

-Of course, all of our boxes are labeled in Spanish. It's a fun treasure hunt to find what you need. We're thankful we learned some Spanish while we were there. See example below.


-Our only piece of adult-sized furniture in our apartment is a love-seat that the legs were removed from during packing (thorough) and is now being propped up by folded cardboard. Classy!

-Our end-tables, shelves, dressers, etc are currently made of cardboard boxes. We've been getting out the jackets and sweaters from our wardrobe boxes on an as needed basis.

-We are under-contract on a house right now and if all goes well, we'll close on the 17th of next month.

-Fayetteville has great farmer's markets, trails, local shopping, food, and we're loving it.

-Oh yeah, my camera cord is in the garage in a box somewhere. I'm hoping that Esten will find it for me tonight, because tomorrow is Halloween on the town square. Believe me, you want me to post some photos of this little man in his costume.