July 31st
Yay I think I can finally say summer has officially arrived, though only a few weeks ago in my opinion. I am finally able to wear shorts inside the house and not be cold! The last month or so we haven't had any big rains and usually the sun is shining. A few days of clouds or overcast every now and again.
I have a hard time picking up my computer now days after a full and long day of work and classes and staring at the screen. Usually by the time I finish 5 hours (6 ish in summer holidays) of working, the last thing I want to do is look back into the computer light! So I blame my lack of blogging on that.
Mel has grown to an astronomical 37 kilos! Soo she gained 31 kilos from when we rescued her! She is just a little bit overweight though so she is on a little diet to get her hips back in shape! She has really calmed down quite a bit but still has moments! And she still needs lots of practice meeting new people! With different people she is still jumping up on them, and lacks personal space shall we say while sniffing, and loves to lick off strangers lotions/sunscreen. We believe she is officially gotten over her carsickness like she had when she was a puppy. However she never wants to get into the car, but after she sits down, sticks her big head and floppy tongue out the window, we are good to go. We brought her camping a few weeks ago and she did an awesome job, came and snuggled up right next to us in the tent. We celebrated her (decided) first birthday on July 3rd since we really only have an idea of the month she was born based off when her baby teeth fell out.
We have done a lot of small things around the house this winter/spring/summer. And one very big change that we have been wanting to do for so long! We installed fake grass in our backyard last weekend with the help of Joel's family. We tore up a cement path that was cutting between the two squares of grass, took down the permanent laundry poles. Then pulled the grass, pulled the dirt, shoveled rock, and shoveled sand before rolling out the new grass! It is so beautiful and makes the backyard look like a completely different place! We are also incredibly excited that there are no more holes and Mel has no more dirt piles to lay in outside. She brought so much fine dirt and sand into the house it was getting incredibly annoying! Even our roomba was tired of it! Now we just have one little obstacle to figure out which is how to get Mel to stop from
chewing at it, and trying to rip up the seams! The first time we left her alone she completely unrolled half of the grass! For now, she isn't allowed on the grass while we aren't home. She seems to slowly be getting better but we won't risk it again just yet! We spent 3 evenings last week shoveling the dirt into a container. I have never been more sore in my life! It is hard to imagine a pile that didn't look so big could take us that much time and effort to move! Now that it is all said and done and I am so happy with the outcome. Joel and I enjoy our little picnic meals on the grass all the time and there is no better way to enjoy the summer!
We have also painted and reshelved the pantry. Organized the garage and tools. Painted the stairs and surrounding walls. Painted my office pink on two walls.
Our bedroom was also painted by Joel's dad but I absolutely hate the color we chose... it looks way different than it did in the store on the paint stick.. We wanted a sandy/beige color, and it is just a light brown. I think it makes the room look much darker and it's just not a nice color... One day we will go back over it. Coming up next, after a long winters rest will definitely be our closet this time! Joel excavated a very very smelly closet that was there and we have figured out how we will convert that wasted space into our walk in closet.. With the excavated previous closet space we will have even more space, so that is great news! Some other projects for later will be painting the walls in the backyard. After we finished the beautiful grass, they stand out so much with all their black streaks, etc. Some moisture from our rainy rainy winter also got into the walls causing lots of paint to chip.
Okay cut from July..... we are now in September!
Speaking of houses! haha I have had a whirlwind of a time with my property in AZ! Mid April, my water heater burst causing a big flood! There was lots of water damage and a huge stress this has caused me since it happened. I can't even remember all of the details now but so much is still on going. I wish there was some sort of manual for what you should do when something like this happens.... Because left and right I was not informed of the next step and the process has been dragged out. In addition to the damage, some of my tiles started pitching so the process got a lot longer and the financial part became more complicated with the supplement of work.. Then we add the change in HOA management companies mid madness... It has been hell to deal with all of this stuff. Building/Destruction/Rebuilding is still in process. I have no idea when to expect it to be finished at this point. One thing for is for sure, I cannot wait for it to be done with!! The yucky phone calls, and too much time spent writing emails and coordinating things... After I finish my work, it is around the time that AZ was waking up and getting to work so that is when my daily battles began!
Joel and I joined a gym after my mom left in May as we weren't as keen on playing Ultimate in Aveiro anymore as we were a bit fed up with the leadership and how the team was treated by the coach. In addition it was another way/place for me to go to get out of the house, hear more Portuguese, practice and meet people. Our gym is actually in a nice hotel, and has classes and everything else but is small. They also have a pool which won us over and we decided that factor alone was worth it to pay a little more than the other gyms nearby. In addition, Joel didn't exactly want to be working out with tons of his colleagues. So this is a perfect little place. We mostly do a lot of class, enjoy swimming, the turkish bath, the hot tub which has several different types of massage jets, and sauna. It is also really nice to have a really nice warm shower. Not that our shower at home isn't warm, but the air around us is cold therefore as soon as the water stops, I am freezing! #Whitepeopleproblems right? :) While I wouldn't say it is the best way for me to be practicing Portuguese because in several of the classes, like Spin Bike which go to every week or so, I can barely understand because the loud music. However in classes like pilates where it is quiet, I can practice. As we go more and more we are slowly getting to know people as well. Our favorites are one couple, the woman is 72 years old, rocks her thongs (not the aussie kind) haha, and they workout every day in the same classes as us. The husband is always joking around. A lot of the gym members are older, there are a few younger ones. We like all of the teachers of the classes and everyone is super friendly. The hotel hosted a Summer Gala party which we were invited to attend for free. It was incredible! The food and desserts were amazing. Then outside on the water there was a marching band playing all sorts of fun cover songs. We didn't win any of the raffle prizes somehow! :O
I finally caved in and made Joel go with me to an eye doctors appointment. They said from my previous glasses prescription my bad eye had deteriorated quiet a lot.. Sooo I have some cute new glasses which have a special lens for those who spend a lot of time looking at screens. I also have prescription sunglasses.
Funny story, I had to switch my AZ Drivers License for a Portuguese one. In order to do this, I had to have a doctors appointment and an eye test... I could barely see the first line she asked me to in my bad eye. Because I was only covering my eye with my hands, the doctor and Joel were looking at the eye chart, in front of me, I totally cheated and opened up my fingers so my good eye could help out! I didn't want to be denied because of my bad eye, plus why would I be driving with only one eye? hahaha OOPS! Shhh don't tell! I promise I am wearing my glasses always when I drive now that I have them! :)
An organization called SPEAK recently started up in Aveiro and has been holding language exchange every two weeks for the past month and I really enjoyed both events. It is a consistent way for me to practice Portuguese. It is kind of like speed dating. You talk with a partner for ten mins, five mins in Portuguese, five minutes in English. There are some question cards if someone runs out of things to talk about, but usually people just talk. There are people from all over, several Brazilians, people from other places in Europe, and Portuguese. It's a great mix! This organization also offers very affordable Portuguese classes in a more relaxed setting than in the University. The classes start this week, so I am excited to give that a shot.
In July, Joel and I decided I was over due to get a bicycle. We had a BMX bike and his bike, but the BMX needed some repairs done to be consistently ride-able and I would need a bike anyways! We ordered a bike online from the super (and affordable) sporting store here, Decathalon. We also purchased cycling shoes when we started going to spin classes so am all set up for falling when I forget to clip off my pedals! Don't you worry, I have already had this joy twice! The first one I was on a mountain and fell into a spiny weed.. what fun! :P Mel has also been getting pretty good at cycling along with us and when we call her, she comes. So we cycle near the fields and love seeing our little horse galloping through the fields. Sometimes playing with the horse and donkeys!
At home I have still been eating mainly vegetarian style meals. Occasionally we have some meat. I am still madly in love with my Yammi or my little cooking robot. I am always trying new things and my own random ways to make normal things a bit healthier. Lately I have been doing a lot of baking where I substitute in apple sauce in place of sugar and half of the oil/butter! And most of my cakes always have some sort of fruit/veggie inside of them! Eat your veggies peeps! :)
I was quite nervous leading up to this weekend because Joel and I signed up to do a 10k (6 miles) mud race with 20 obstacles and the furthest I had ran in the last year was a few Saturday morning 5ks... I laughed thinking about when I showed up to run a 5k in Pohang (Korea, 2013) and my friend Mary convinced me that I was going to run a 10k, not a 5k! I did it easily, no problem... 5 years later I wasn't sure how I would fare. But maybe all the gym workouts and lots of 2-3k runs with Mel in the morning paid off. We finished in 1:18 and 24/25th in our time slot. Only 30 minutes slower than the person who completed the race the fastest! haha. The obstacles were a lot of fun, except I did not like the ones where we had to walk a lap and carry things like sand bags. Some of them were extremely heavy! The mud was no joke! I am not sure if the mud in our shirts or shoes will ever completely come out! However, no fire jumping like in Warrior Dash, oh and no free beer at the finish! Anyways it was a great time, and we said we will definitely do it again next year!
All of this years travels will be coming up on the next post! I hope it doens't take me another 9 months to finish that one! Happy Fall!
Nicole Joel and Mel :)
Yay I think I can finally say summer has officially arrived, though only a few weeks ago in my opinion. I am finally able to wear shorts inside the house and not be cold! The last month or so we haven't had any big rains and usually the sun is shining. A few days of clouds or overcast every now and again.
I have a hard time picking up my computer now days after a full and long day of work and classes and staring at the screen. Usually by the time I finish 5 hours (6 ish in summer holidays) of working, the last thing I want to do is look back into the computer light! So I blame my lack of blogging on that.
Mel has grown to an astronomical 37 kilos! Soo she gained 31 kilos from when we rescued her! She is just a little bit overweight though so she is on a little diet to get her hips back in shape! She has really calmed down quite a bit but still has moments! And she still needs lots of practice meeting new people! With different people she is still jumping up on them, and lacks personal space shall we say while sniffing, and loves to lick off strangers lotions/sunscreen. We believe she is officially gotten over her carsickness like she had when she was a puppy. However she never wants to get into the car, but after she sits down, sticks her big head and floppy tongue out the window, we are good to go. We brought her camping a few weeks ago and she did an awesome job, came and snuggled up right next to us in the tent. We celebrated her (decided) first birthday on July 3rd since we really only have an idea of the month she was born based off when her baby teeth fell out.
We have done a lot of small things around the house this winter/spring/summer. And one very big change that we have been wanting to do for so long! We installed fake grass in our backyard last weekend with the help of Joel's family. We tore up a cement path that was cutting between the two squares of grass, took down the permanent laundry poles. Then pulled the grass, pulled the dirt, shoveled rock, and shoveled sand before rolling out the new grass! It is so beautiful and makes the backyard look like a completely different place! We are also incredibly excited that there are no more holes and Mel has no more dirt piles to lay in outside. She brought so much fine dirt and sand into the house it was getting incredibly annoying! Even our roomba was tired of it! Now we just have one little obstacle to figure out which is how to get Mel to stop fromchewing at it, and trying to rip up the seams! The first time we left her alone she completely unrolled half of the grass! For now, she isn't allowed on the grass while we aren't home. She seems to slowly be getting better but we won't risk it again just yet! We spent 3 evenings last week shoveling the dirt into a container. I have never been more sore in my life! It is hard to imagine a pile that didn't look so big could take us that much time and effort to move! Now that it is all said and done and I am so happy with the outcome. Joel and I enjoy our little picnic meals on the grass all the time and there is no better way to enjoy the summer!
We have also painted and reshelved the pantry. Organized the garage and tools. Painted the stairs and surrounding walls. Painted my office pink on two walls.
Our bedroom was also painted by Joel's dad but I absolutely hate the color we chose... it looks way different than it did in the store on the paint stick.. We wanted a sandy/beige color, and it is just a light brown. I think it makes the room look much darker and it's just not a nice color... One day we will go back over it. Coming up next, after a long winters rest will definitely be our closet this time! Joel excavated a very very smelly closet that was there and we have figured out how we will convert that wasted space into our walk in closet.. With the excavated previous closet space we will have even more space, so that is great news! Some other projects for later will be painting the walls in the backyard. After we finished the beautiful grass, they stand out so much with all their black streaks, etc. Some moisture from our rainy rainy winter also got into the walls causing lots of paint to chip.Okay cut from July..... we are now in September!
Speaking of houses! haha I have had a whirlwind of a time with my property in AZ! Mid April, my water heater burst causing a big flood! There was lots of water damage and a huge stress this has caused me since it happened. I can't even remember all of the details now but so much is still on going. I wish there was some sort of manual for what you should do when something like this happens.... Because left and right I was not informed of the next step and the process has been dragged out. In addition to the damage, some of my tiles started pitching so the process got a lot longer and the financial part became more complicated with the supplement of work.. Then we add the change in HOA management companies mid madness... It has been hell to deal with all of this stuff. Building/Destruction/Rebuilding is still in process. I have no idea when to expect it to be finished at this point. One thing for is for sure, I cannot wait for it to be done with!! The yucky phone calls, and too much time spent writing emails and coordinating things... After I finish my work, it is around the time that AZ was waking up and getting to work so that is when my daily battles began!
Joel and I joined a gym after my mom left in May as we weren't as keen on playing Ultimate in Aveiro anymore as we were a bit fed up with the leadership and how the team was treated by the coach. In addition it was another way/place for me to go to get out of the house, hear more Portuguese, practice and meet people. Our gym is actually in a nice hotel, and has classes and everything else but is small. They also have a pool which won us over and we decided that factor alone was worth it to pay a little more than the other gyms nearby. In addition, Joel didn't exactly want to be working out with tons of his colleagues. So this is a perfect little place. We mostly do a lot of class, enjoy swimming, the turkish bath, the hot tub which has several different types of massage jets, and sauna. It is also really nice to have a really nice warm shower. Not that our shower at home isn't warm, but the air around us is cold therefore as soon as the water stops, I am freezing! #Whitepeopleproblems right? :) While I wouldn't say it is the best way for me to be practicing Portuguese because in several of the classes, like Spin Bike which go to every week or so, I can barely understand because the loud music. However in classes like pilates where it is quiet, I can practice. As we go more and more we are slowly getting to know people as well. Our favorites are one couple, the woman is 72 years old, rocks her thongs (not the aussie kind) haha, and they workout every day in the same classes as us. The husband is always joking around. A lot of the gym members are older, there are a few younger ones. We like all of the teachers of the classes and everyone is super friendly. The hotel hosted a Summer Gala party which we were invited to attend for free. It was incredible! The food and desserts were amazing. Then outside on the water there was a marching band playing all sorts of fun cover songs. We didn't win any of the raffle prizes somehow! :O
I finally caved in and made Joel go with me to an eye doctors appointment. They said from my previous glasses prescription my bad eye had deteriorated quiet a lot.. Sooo I have some cute new glasses which have a special lens for those who spend a lot of time looking at screens. I also have prescription sunglasses.
Funny story, I had to switch my AZ Drivers License for a Portuguese one. In order to do this, I had to have a doctors appointment and an eye test... I could barely see the first line she asked me to in my bad eye. Because I was only covering my eye with my hands, the doctor and Joel were looking at the eye chart, in front of me, I totally cheated and opened up my fingers so my good eye could help out! I didn't want to be denied because of my bad eye, plus why would I be driving with only one eye? hahaha OOPS! Shhh don't tell! I promise I am wearing my glasses always when I drive now that I have them! :)
An organization called SPEAK recently started up in Aveiro and has been holding language exchange every two weeks for the past month and I really enjoyed both events. It is a consistent way for me to practice Portuguese. It is kind of like speed dating. You talk with a partner for ten mins, five mins in Portuguese, five minutes in English. There are some question cards if someone runs out of things to talk about, but usually people just talk. There are people from all over, several Brazilians, people from other places in Europe, and Portuguese. It's a great mix! This organization also offers very affordable Portuguese classes in a more relaxed setting than in the University. The classes start this week, so I am excited to give that a shot.
At home I have still been eating mainly vegetarian style meals. Occasionally we have some meat. I am still madly in love with my Yammi or my little cooking robot. I am always trying new things and my own random ways to make normal things a bit healthier. Lately I have been doing a lot of baking where I substitute in apple sauce in place of sugar and half of the oil/butter! And most of my cakes always have some sort of fruit/veggie inside of them! Eat your veggies peeps! :)
I was quite nervous leading up to this weekend because Joel and I signed up to do a 10k (6 miles) mud race with 20 obstacles and the furthest I had ran in the last year was a few Saturday morning 5ks... I laughed thinking about when I showed up to run a 5k in Pohang (Korea, 2013) and my friend Mary convinced me that I was going to run a 10k, not a 5k! I did it easily, no problem... 5 years later I wasn't sure how I would fare. But maybe all the gym workouts and lots of 2-3k runs with Mel in the morning paid off. We finished in 1:18 and 24/25th in our time slot. Only 30 minutes slower than the person who completed the race the fastest! haha. The obstacles were a lot of fun, except I did not like the ones where we had to walk a lap and carry things like sand bags. Some of them were extremely heavy! The mud was no joke! I am not sure if the mud in our shirts or shoes will ever completely come out! However, no fire jumping like in Warrior Dash, oh and no free beer at the finish! Anyways it was a great time, and we said we will definitely do it again next year!
All of this years travels will be coming up on the next post! I hope it doens't take me another 9 months to finish that one! Happy Fall!
Nicole Joel and Mel :)
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