New Blog!

Hello everyone...I wanted to let you know that I have started a new blog with more direction and structure, that will hopefully help keep me more motivated to post on various subjects! It will have recipes, photos, stories of life abroad, as well as more interactive questions! Please visit it and subscribe over at www.healthnewbiesabroad.com. See you there!

Avery and Updates

Hello! 

My name is Amy, I'm a procrastinator. Sorry for the delays in posts.  

What's new lately? 

Corey has hired his first employee at the warehouse, and transferred all of his products over to his new facility from where they were in Guadalajara. Exciting stuff! He's really happy so far with his warehouse guy, and he has more interviews set up for other positions soon. Things are coming along! He's extremely busy, working incredibly hard and long hours, but he knows that in the end it's all worth it! I'm so proud of him for all that he's doing, and with so little help! Seven years later, he continues to amaze me :)

I'm busier lately, as well. I've taken on tutoring a friend's daughter in english twice a week, and with wedding planning, family events planning for the Newcomer's Club and Avery, I'm keeping pretty busy. We are also now preparing to have our first visitors soon...Corey's parents will be coming to spend a long weekend with us in about 3 weeks! We're so excited, and there is so much to plan and do!

Avery has her birthday on Friday, she'll be 1 year old! Yes, we're "THOSE" people...our dog is our daughter. She now has two items of clothing, more toys than I can count and chews EVERYWHERE throughout our house. I've even been known to bake my dog treats. I have a hunch that the reason she doesn't always want to go for a walk is that...when you look around the house....what dog would WANT to leave?? Dog heaven here :) 

As further proof of how we have spoiled Avery, we found a place about 3/4 of a miles from our apartment called the Bow Wow Deli (known around our house as the Doggie Cafe). It's a great deli that has a menu for dogs, and for humans. And they really have delicious and healthy food! Avery is like a different dog when we go there...she knows what she's in for and can't WAIT to get her paws on the food! It's so funny! Yes, we spoil her majorly, but it's because we love her! 

I'll post more (maybe tomorrow) with pictures and everything! We recently visited Chapultepec park and have some photos that I'll share!

Until then, 

I'm back!

I know, I know; it's been forever. Forgive me. It's just that...well, we didn't have a whole lot going on to write about for awhile! And when we finally did...life got busy!


In the month and a half since I last wrote, I have taken on a new position with the Newcomers Club here in Mexico City, planning family events for the club. So I now have two director titles (Corey's jealous :) ), Director of Volunteers and Director of Family Events. I'm having fun, but it's keeping me busier than I've been since I was working! Lots of meetings and things to plan...and it's made even more difficult by the fact that I don't speak the language! So when I want to go rent a blow up castle or a park, it can take me some time to get in contact with the right people and communicate effectively!


Actually...I'm having a group of volunteers over tomorrow morning to host my first "coffee" and have a "Volunteer Kickoff". Hence why I'm blogging....you all know how big of a procrastinator I am ;).  I'm not that bad off actually, I've got the muffins made, the bread made (which was a big fail-blueberry lemon bread...but the blueberries all went to the bottom and didn't cook the bottom of the loaf), most of the cleaning done (still a bit to do!) and some things set out. Still, it's 9pm and I've hit a wall.


Things are going well here in Mexico, Corey continues to make progress on the building and hiring employees. He should be set to hire people within a few weeks (finally!) and he's starting the process of having a company install the training center equipment (a utility pole, scaffolding, etc so the students the come for training can try all the equipment and learn how to use it properly). He has had a FEW setbacks however...one morning about a month or month and a half back, he walked into the office on Monday morning and found his entire office building under about 2 inches of standing water. Turns out the water tank he had just had installed hadn't signaled that it was full, so the water line kept putting more and more water in...flooding the office area. Then about 2 weeks ago, he went into work on a Monday morning, and found two of his front signs gone...melted to smithereens. Turns out someone had thrown a plastic Coke bottle at the signs and broke the neon sign so the neon gas began to leak and started the two signs on fire. Corey later found out that a police officer on the Metro line across from his building called the fire trucks, they had several fire trucks (I think 5?!) and 2 ambulances and several police cars come out to the scene...and Corey had no idea until a day or two later! Pretty dramatic!


Other than this, everything is going well! Corey and I have both been working out and doing a new diet thanks to his cousin Sarah and her husband Taylor...and we're both seeing results, so that's fun! Hard work, but good to see results too!


I'll write more this weekend and let you all know how the coffee went!


Have a fantastic evening!

Sunday...A Day of Walking!

Hello!

A few months ago, I started to get the itch to get out and explore Mexico a little more (only the safe parts!). I started researching some areas nearby to Mexico City that we could do in a day, and came across these ruins about 30 miles northeast of the city, in a town called Teotihuacan. We decided that we would visit them on Sunday this weekend. Our only issue is that we weren't sure if we could bring Avery, and we were both a little nervous about leaving her for 6 hours in her kennel while we went out of the city. We're fine leaving her if we're running errands in the city, but so many things could happen on a longer drive (accidents, car problems, etc) that we didn't want to go without bringing her or finding a doggie daycare for her. 

Well, we found out yesterday morning that dogs are NOT allowed at the ruins. So we decided that we would explore Chapultepec park instead. It's the largest park in all of Central and South America, it's twice the size of New York City's Central Park. There is a lake in the park, an old castle, a zoo, and museums, among other things. And it's only about 2/3 of a mile from our house, yet we haven't yet been there. After a morning brunch at a local cafe, we set out to explore (Avery came too)! 

We were in Chapultepec park for no more than 5 seconds when a park guard came up to us and told us that our dog was not allowed in that section of the park. I think there are 5 sections total of the park, dogs are only allowed in section 2. It was too far for us to walk to the entrance of section 2, so we walked a winding way back to our apartment. We couldn't believe it...our neighborhood is so dog friendly, that we couldn't believe that a public park didn't allow dogs! 

Later in the afternoon, Corey and I walked to this gym near our house (about 15 minutes away on the circle path on Amsterdam Avenue) and signed up! Gyms here are terribly expensive, but we decided that our health is worth it, plus it's time to get into shape for the wedding! It's a gym that is affiliated with Aveda in the US, at the top of it there is a spa where you can get massages, facials, etc. The gym is very nice, like Lifetime back home, but smaller. Plus, there are a lot of americans and english speaking people that are members there, so it is a great place to meet friends and feel comfortable! 

Lastly, as the afternoon was winding down, Corey decided that Avery needed one more walk. We walked a different area of Condesa (our neighborhood), and discovered new restaurants, streets, etc. We restrict ourselves to such a small area in our neighboorhood, that I think we forget how big our neighborhood actually is! We had a nice relaxing walk to end the night, but we were all EXHAUSTED by dinnertime last night!

All in all, a little over 5 miles walked yesterday! Lots of exploring, fresh (sort of!) air, and lessons learned yesterday!

Sorry it's a little boring today, but this is all! Have a great week everyone!

Are you still there?

Wow, I have got to be the worst blogger in blogging history. Sorry for taking sooo very long to update! 

We've been home now for a week, and slowly life is settling back into normal. We have done our grocery shopping, I've cleaned a good chunk of the place, our washer/dryer machine is getting fixed tomorrow...life is good. Hate to brag, but it was SO nice to walk out of the airport, into the 78 degree day and feel the sun on my face, and see the palm trees that decorate the lawns of the airport. Ahh...it felt like vacation! 

Avery has been enjoying being back to her daily routine with a few walks to the dog park (it was too cold in MN for more than a walk or two while we were there!), although I think she missed all the commotion and people around the first few days back home. I think she got used to having all sorts of people to play with, and other dogs to interact with, that now she's bored with just "me". Oh well...she's getting back to normal. 

We had a great trip home, it was so wonderful to see everyone! It was very productive, as we had many appointments, saw lots of friends, and got lots of wedding things underway! I had a fantastic group of girls with me to help select my wedding dress and the bridesmaid dresses...thank you so much girls! You're a great group of girls and I'm so lucky to have you with me during all the wedding process, and there on our big day! We met our photographer, toured our venue, got the dresses all picked out, and got the bridal party all lined up! I'm so excited for my trip home in May, to get more of the wedding finalized/picked out, our engagement pictures taken (I know, a bit late!) and for my bachelorette party!

I haven't done a post since my trip out of town to the "Christmas town" of Tlalpujahua, Mexico. I went with some ladies from the Newcomers Club, and it was so much fun! We drove about 2.5 hours out of Mexico City, and ended up in this tiny town in the mountain with cobblestone streets, and a magnificent old church...it's been deemed a "magic town" by the country of Mexico. Magic towns, or Pueblos Magicos, is a type of program that was started by the tourism branch of the Mexican government to help restore and preserve towns/villages/cities that are of significant historical importance, in hopes of bringing tourists to more areas of Mexico. 

The Newcomers club does a tour of a Christmas ornament factory there every year. Tlalpujahua has the 5th largest ornament factory in the world. They make hand-blown glass ornaments that are sold in stores like Target, K-Mart, Home Depot, etc in the US. What was amazing to us was that it was ALL done by hand, from the shaping of the glass balls to the painting of the designs. Below I have some pictures of the process. After this, we were able to buy ornaments from the factory for an average of about $0.25-0.50 a piece. I stocked up :) There were many shops in town that sold Christmas ornaments and decorations, and in the center of town there was a beautiful old church, which we had lunch across from. Such a beautiful day and town! 

Workers shaping glass ornaments (3 working)

Ornaments drying under heat lamps after being dipped in paint cans

Woman hand-painting ornaments

Men hand-painting design on ornaments

Example of finished products

View of the old church in town from below the steps

View down the cobblestone street

Different view of church from the side

View from our table at lunch on November 30! 

This is all for now! Hope you enjoyed the photos! 

What a weekend!

Hi!

We had quite the eventful weekend, starting on Friday. As I mentioned, we went to the local craft/art market, and started our Christmas shopping. We got a few things, and enjoyed walking around deciding who would like what! I always enjoy walking around this market, called La Ciudadela; there is just so much to look at! After about an hour and a half, we were leaving and Corey mentioned something about "Hope my car is still there", an offhand joke I paid no attention to, but as we walked closer...we realized the car was NOT there. A few moments of panic, then we found out from a couple that was making out on a bench (this is common here...apparently since it's common for multiple generations to live together here, people don't get much privacy, so they consider a park bench to be private...you can get quite a show sometimes in the parks!) that they had seen our car get towed. We had the car for not even 3 days and it had already been towed. We had no idea where the tow lots were, how you find out which one your car was taken to, how to release the car, etc. We ended up getting home by waving down a taxi, and then later in the afternoon Corey went with some people from the company he leased his car from to release the car. It was a scary few hours for him/us! Luckily, it all turned out fine.

While Corey was getting the car, we had no power at the apartment. From about 4pm until 6:45pm we had no power, which means no lights, no internet, no nothing. It got pitch black around 6pm, and I think Avery thought it was time for bed, she was a little confused! It's one of the joys of living in Mexico (or more specifically, in our building, since they are constantly doing construction on at least two apartments!) that every now and then your power will just shut off, and you have no idea when it will be back on. 

On Saturday, we visited Corey's building again (ALMOST done!) and then we went and visited this very upscale mall in Polanco called Antara. We were told we just HAD to check out this place, so we decided to spend a few hours just browsing. I have to say, this was the most upscale mall I have ever seen! Everything was very high class, beautiful. It was an open air mall, with stone/wood floors, all decorated for Christmas with garlands lining the levels and a hugh Christmas tree in the center! Very nice! Unfortunately, there weren't a TON of stores, and the stores that were there were stores like Burberry, Carolina Herrera, Hugo Boss, Armani, DKNY, Tumi, among others. In other words, we won't be doing our shopping there, maybe just window shopping! They also have a very high end home store that is probably the largest home store I've ever seen, called Casa Palacio. It was a fantastic store for walking around! 

After this, we got home and did a bit of heavy cleaning at the apartment. 

Sunday we headed out to Home Depot and to find this store called Petland. It's a chain they have in the US, and they have one branch here in DF (Distrito Federal, another name for Mexico City). I was just curious to see what it was like, if it was like the other pet stores here (very small with limited selection) or if it would be like PetSmart/Petco. We drove for quite awhile, found ourselves just outside the city in the mountains, and in another area we didn't care to find ourselves, and we ended up not finding the store, after about 2 hours of driving around! Later found out it's in a different city than our GPS thought it was! Oh well...maybe another day :). Then we got home and hung up our pictures and cleaned some more. Very eventful/productive weekend!

This week Corey's building should be done (they said Tuesday, but I'm doubting that!) so that will be fun! Also, I will be going to tour a Christmas ornament factory outside of town with some ladies from the local Newcomer's Club. It's the 5th largest ornament factory in the world, so I'm excited to see it and get some ornaments! Should be a fun week!

On a final note, Corey and I just had our 7 year anniversary yesterday! It's crazy to think we've been together that long! We have enjoyed every second of it, and can't wait for the next 70 years!

More later!

Happy Turkey Day!

Good Morning All!


I guess Corey's been too busy to do a guest blog, so I'm sorry that I've left you without updates over the last few weeks! 


The reason Corey is so busy is that his team is kicking it in sales and his building is on the CUSP of being done...within days! The date keeps getting pushed back, which is to be expected, but currently we're hearing that construction will be done on Tuesday, and his furniture will be delivered Tuesday or Wednesday. Super excited to post pictures once it's all done! 


Another positive note: we finally got our car!! After living here for over 4 months, we are finally done with rental cars. Corey is a happy camper, although it's a little nerve-wracking to drive a brand new car in the midst of Mexico City driving (see previous posts :). It's one of the final touches that really makes us feel settled. 


We celebrated Turkey Day yesterday by visiting a supermarket chain that we hadn't been to before (we tend to stick to the local markets that I can walk to called Superama...it's a small grocery chain that is owned by Walmart. It's supposedly one of the more expensive grocery stores, but it's accessible!) We LOVED this new place though, it's like a SuperWalmart but higher-end/nicer, and a much better selection! No more Walmart for THESE Target fans...yay! We even found a turkey for Thanksgiving. 


Speaking of which, I spent from 2pm yesterday until 7:30pm cooking yesterday. We did a whole turkey (we'll be eating turkey every meal for the next 3 weeks!) and some really good mashed potatoes with gruyere cheese and a horseradish cream sauce topping, and some green beans with bacon and onion. We couldn't find sweet potatoes, but we made do! It was a very pleasant evening, and even Avery enjoyed some turkey!


Today we'll be heading to the local craft market to get some Christmas shopping underway! I'm very excited! I also did a fair amount of online shopping early this morning (who says you have to be in the country to get deals on Black Friday!)


This is all for now, I'll post again this weekend with some pictures. 


Love to all! Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving!