Buenos Dias!

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated...call me lazy! We have been settling into life in Mexico more and more, and it's really starting to feel like home now, with a routine and everyt

hing! I've taken to late morning walks with Avery exploring the area and getting her out, she doesn't always make it the whole way but I just figure it gives me more exercise carrying her when she needs it :).

Corey has been venturing out more and more, making customer visits, and even a day trip to another city, so Avery and I have been managing more and more on our own. It's been pr

etty relaxing for me, I've been doing lots of reading (in a week and a half I went through 4 books) and some cleaning every day. It's funny, when I was working, I didn't look forward to housework...at all. I really disliked it. Now that it's my job, I find it kind of rewarding and therapeutic. I have a sort of routine with these chores as well. For the mean time, we have decided against hiring a maid to come in once a week, sinceI have plenty of time on my hands, and I find that I KIND of like to do most of it.

In Minnesota, 3 hours of driving will get you from the Twin Cities to Duluth. The other night, we spent 3 hours on an errand run to Best Buy. Of those three hours, we were in the store for a total of 15-20 minutes. Gotta love rush hour traffic in Mexico City!

Finally, I've got some pictures to post and a video for you all to enjoy of Avery right after a bath. She got *little* excited! We thought it was pretty cute.

Above are pictures of Corey and myself with our 9 checked bags and 4 carry-on bags, including one dog.

On a clearer day, you can see the mountains from our apartment. The pictures above caught a glimpse of the mountains I thought was pretty nice.

Finally, this is the video of Avery. She is definitely an energetic ball of fluff sometimes!

This is it for today; perhaps I'll have morestories after our venture to Costco and the fruit/vegetable market tomorrow!

Until then,

Buenos Noches-

Well after a week of arriving in Mexico City, we are starting to adjust to the different time schedule. Namely the different times meals are had. We tend to wake up around 8:30am, breakfast at 9:30 or 10am, lunch around 3, dinner around 9. It's kind of nice, because it seems to be more natural.

We have discovered that we moved to Mexico during the start of the rainy season here. During our daily outings (to restaurants, grocery stores, walks, etc) I have noticed that a good majority of dogs around here have rain jackets on. Similar to sweaters you see on dogs back in Minnesota, but it's a rain jacket. It's so cute! I have tried to convince Corey that we are depriving Avery and hindering her ability to fit in around here among the other dogs, but I think I have some more convincing to do :)

In the last few days, we have accomplished more outings into the areas of Mexico City to visit Office Depot, Home Depot and Wal-Mart, among other things. Corey has figured out a range of time to figure out how long it will take to get places. If there is no traffic, you can assume around 5 minutes per mile. With daily traffic, roughly 10 minutes per mile, and during rush hour traffic, 15-20 minutes per mile. Now, everything is usually within 3 miles of our apartment, however during rush hour traffic we are talking about a 3 hour long excursion to run a simple errand.

I thought of one more thing that I miss while being down here, and not in Minnesota. I am so used to being self-sufficient, able to run my own errands and do things in my own time, and I miss that. BUT, it's nice that most errands I will need to do can be accomplished by walking just a few blocks, once we get more acclimated to the area.

Well this has been long enough, plus we can't think of any quick tips for this post, so we'll end it here. Hope everyone has sweet dreams!

Big Accomplishment!

Buenos Tardes!

That is "Good Afternoon" in Spanish, FYI. Just showing off my stellar Spanish skills ;)

So this afternoon Corey and I accomplished a major feat! We picked up a rental car this afternoon, and got ourselves to Best Buy and home to our apartment all by ourselves! You'd have to see examples of the driving in Mexico City and how the roads all do NOT make sense to say the least! Needless to say, we are pretty pleased with ourselves!

As for the short tip about life in Mexico, today we have two!

1. Everything moves at it's own, SLOW pace! You can try to email and ask for things to get done, but it won't get done until you call and call and borderline harass people to accomplish things. (This tip comes from Corey :) )

2. Almost all surfaces meant for comfort (beds, couches, chairs, etc) are NOT. We encountered this first on our look-see trip, when we got to our hotel room and laid down on the bed for the first time. Honestly...like a brick. Couches, other mattresses we've found, etc are all like a ton of bricks. Disappointing. We get our furniture sometime in the next month hopefully, but in the meantime there was a mattress left here at the apartment by the previous owner, and as we were moving it up to our room it seemed soft and comfortable! We were excited, as we were exhausted and had been up since 3am that morning. We both plop down, ready to be enveloped in softness, and are met with a stiff unforgiving wall that again feels like...a bunch of bricks. We can't WAIT until our things arrive! I haven't yet figured out what this trend in having uncomfortable sleeping arrangements is all about, but I keep wondering if the locals have better posture than us Americans...I usually forget to notice, my theory is because I am so tired :)

All right, sorry this was such a LONG short tip, but I felt it necessary to share. For those of you who are thinking about visiting us, you will rest comfortably on one of the two mattresses that we are shipping down, so rest easy!

Sleep well and Sweet Dreams!

We Have Arrived!

Hello Hello!

Well the three of us made it safe and sound to our new home yesterday afternoon. I'm amazed at how smoothly everything went...considering we were moving to a new country with a dog in tow and 9 checked bags. We DID have to be at the airport at a ridiculous time (4:30am anyone??) but we made it and everything (so far!) has gone off without a hitch!

Our apartment is amazing, even better than we remember it! Plus we found out that the owner left some great pieces of furniture that we thought he was taking, so that has definitely worked out in our favor! I will get some more updated pictures posted soon so you can all see our place!

Avery is adjusting amazingly well. We are both so in love with her! The only thing...we are litter-training her (yes, like a cat) and we had her going so well back home but we couldn't find a box or the litter we were using before so we have downgraded her to a kitty litter box and cat litter...she is NOT taking to is as well, but it HAS only been a day so I guess I'll have to be patient!

Someone back home was asking me what I was going to miss the most once we left Minnesota, and I've come across two things that I for sure miss...Target (obvious) and the convenience of Petsmart and Petco. I didn't realize how nice it was to have a pet superstore so close, so far I haven't found anything here like it!

And finally, quickly, I will share one random thing about life in Mexico at the end of each post.

Today's random fact:

-Speed limits and driving laws are treated as mere suggestions, and are rarely adhered to.

Much love to everyone back home! Now that we are getting settled, I will try to be posting more often!

Amy, Corey and Avery

Hey Everyone-

We are just over a week out from boarding a plane and arriving in our new home, Mexico City Mexico. There is so much to do in that week...it's amazing. And yet this is how I spend my time getting ready....starting a blog :) Go figure....I've always been a huge procrastinator (or as an article I once read called it, an incubator). What can I say, being under pressure is a good look for me!

Just some quick background...we rented our townhouse in record time, and have an amazing lease deal signed with our renters. We have sold both of our cars, and we did a quickie "legal" civil-union marriage, so that I could get his health insurance since I won't be working. Our original plan since getting engaged last November was to have the wedding next spring, and that is still our plan. Everyone can hopefully be expecting their save-the-dates in the next month or so, most likely for a destination wedding in Mexico somewhere! Unfortunately, since the possibility came up to move to Mexico, there has been ZERO wedding talk. Somehow there is always something else to discuss...

Anyways, we spent the first few weeks after we found out about the potential assignment to Mexico City selling almost all of our large furniture, and have been living with a bare first floor for over a month now. Our plan was to rent a furnished apartment in Mexico, and save save save! During our look-see trip to Mexico, we found an amazing apartment, however...not totally furnished. Actually, only furnished about 20%. So in the last few weeks, we have been spending money like CRAZY purchasing new furniture (and bedding, towels, clothes, toiletries, books for me...) for this place that we don't really have measurements for, and are relying on a few photographs and our memory as far as how things will look. Not to mention that as soon as we arrive (like the same day) we will have to go out and purchase chairs or seating of some kind because there is NOTHING to sit on currently in the apartment, and our shipment won't get to us until 6 weeks after it leaves here according to our movers. This should be interesting....

Last but not least, we have our new(ish) puppy named Avery at home with me. She is just over 13 weeks old, and the most adorable puppy you have (or at least we have) every seen! Her cuteness makes it very difficult to discipline her though! So as we are preparing for this trip, we now are scheduling appointments for her (vet check 2 days before we leave, grooming, vaccinations) in addition to ourselves. We are averaging 2-3 appointments per day all next week. Sounds like a fun last week home!

I realize this is all fairly boring so far, hopefully it gets better once we get settled and the real adventures start! If you have any questions about life in Mexico, let me know and I will do my best to answer!

-Buenas tardes!