Finally some progress

Ok, so many of you have been asking about my progress on the house....questions like - am I getting settled, do I have furniture, can I send more pics of the house and yard, etc. The answer is no, I am not even close to being settled as I only have furniture in my bedrooms and kitchen. And the reason I have not sent pictures of my back yard is because when I look at the yard, all I can here is the theme song to "Welcome to the Jungle". It is overgrown and needs some serious work as there are grass and weeds over a foot high. One of my friends went through the yard a few weeks ago with a machete and got it under control but it is now crazy once again with recent rain. The previous tenant did not really use the back yard nor look after it. As a result, there is alot of work to do. I have contacted a friend of mine here and am going to enlist the help of her gardener since I not only have the tools to work on it, I really have the opposite of a green thumb.

So what has been my problem on getting settled exactly? Apprehension, procrastination, feeling incredibly overwhelmed, where do I start, what is my vision, etc. Then, I envitably think to myself.....ok, look at your list where you have prioritized everything and start on just ONE thing. Simple right??? Ok, then, YOU come here and do it.

Do not lose hope on me yet - I accomplished an UNBELIEVABLE amount of things on my list today. Yes, it is true, I am not a complete lost cause. One of my girlfriends phoned me to let me know she was going to Colima (a city one hour away with many other shopping options). So off we went to places like Home Depot, Liverpool (large department store), Sam's Club (similar to Costco) among others. By the way, there was a huge sale EVERYWHERE we went...anywhere from 25% to 50% discount! Love it!

Colima is a beautiful city full of lovely "jardins" like this one


We got an early start and at the end of the evening, managed to arrive back in Manzanillo with her large Ford Truck filled to the brim inside and out with our purchases. Note to all my friends - I put in a record shopping day........in fact, I think there has never been a longer day of shopping EVER in my life. My friend Kris and I started the day out at 10am and finished unloading all my stuff and opened a bottle of wine around 11pm. Good news.........I FINALLY purchased living room furniture! This is a huge step considering all that is in my living room at the moment are dog beds, dog and cat dishes and various toys for the animals.

I am very excited about the living room furniture - it will be delivered to my home in a few weeks (at no extra cost)! I cannot even imagine having something comfy to sit on...... well, other than a dog bed anyway. But a sofa, loveseat and oversized chair will definitely be a step up, don't you think?

In addition to my living room furniture purchase, I purchased many other items for my casa like:

-ceiling fans Note: I had already purchased 3 for the house but that is clearly not enough in this crazy heat and humidity. When I moved into this house, there were not any fans whatsover, just bare light bulbs hanging from the ceiling
-sheets for the guest room (yes, you can now come visit and not have to "camp out" or sleep with me!)
-storage items and organizers

It feels really really good to finally have some major items crossed off my list.

And some more good news....I talked to my immigration lawyer today and my FM-3 visa application has been accepted for processing. I should have it in a few weeks just in time for my birthday!