What's been going on

Hello all! 

So last Saturday we went and explored a different artesian market called Bazar el Sabado (the Saturday Bazaar). We found it to be a more upscale market with things that were more expensive and a smaller selection, but it was a wonderful way to pass an afternoon once we found out how to get there! (Ask Corey about my "co-piloto" skills :) ) There were also many artists sitting in a garden area outside with many different types of paintings for sale. This was really fun to see because the other market that we like so much has maybe two painters with stalls. There was music playing, nice cafes all around the market, and beautiful old buildings. This was in an older part of Mexico City (our neighborhood, Condesa, was torn apart by an earthquake in the 80's I think it was, and many of the buildings have been refurbished since then, making it look more modern, with a few historic buildings thrown in) and the buildings and houses were gorgeous! Below is a picture of a stall full of "Dia de la Muerta" or Day of the Dead items. 

It's a holiday here that kind of resembles some parts of Halloween in the United States. Basically it is celebrated over two days, the first day is to celebrate those that are no longer with us that were under 18 or not married, and the next day is spent remembering those that were over 18 and/or married when they passed. I think it is believed that on these days the people that aren't with us come to spend time with their families again. Many of the smaller shops and some restaurants were closed on Tuesday, the main day of the festivities. 

That's about the most exciting thing we've done together lately, otherwise it's been pretty routine! Corey's busy getting things set up at the office, it should be done in 2 weeks! Very exciting! This afternoon we'll be going furniture shopping for the desks, chairs, tables, etc. He's been working half days at the office so he is there to make final decisions on things and keep an eye on how things are coming together. 

I've decided to teach myself how to crochet and knit (crochet first...I heard it was easier!) and so far it's going pretty well! I got a "Learn to Crochet in 1 Day" kit for a pink scarf so I'm working on that, but a certain four legged daughter of ours decided that having the yarn in a nice rolled up chain for me to work from was simply too easy. When I left her alone in the area of the yarn for I swear...30 seconds, I came back to the biggest knot of yarn I've ever seen! Since then I've spent several hours unwinding the knot as I crochet, so it's a little slower than normal :)  I'll post pictures once I'm done! It definitely looks like a beginners project, but I'm just learning the stitches and everything. We decided it will be Avery's scarf when I'm done, since she'll need something warm when she lands in Minnesota for Christmas! The coldest weather she has seen has been down here, where it's been about 65 lately. There is definitely a chill in the air in the mornings! I'm not complaining, in fact it's kind of refreshing! But Avery will definitely be in for a shock when she learns what snow is and how cold Minnesota gets! She'll have a new appreciation for being a "Mexican" dog I think! 

Lastly, I don't know how many blogs I'll be doing before Christmas...I mentioned that when I was in Minnesota I had a flare up of my uveitis. For those of you that might not know what that is, it's inflammation that occurs in your iris/eye, it is kind of painful, and for me it's caused by a type of autoimmune problem. Normally steroid drops will treat the inflammation. I have a tendency to get a severe case every year and a half to two years, and I was due for one. I got one injection in my eye when I was in Minnesota, and I've been doing drops since that trip to try to help keep the swelling down. I went to an eye doctor last night because I thought my left eye was starting to act up (I usually only get it in my right eye). Sure enough, my left eye is inflamed, and my right eye is still inflamed despite all the drops and the previous injection. I got another injection near my right eye for the swelling in that eye last night (believe me, NOT fun!) by the doctor (who was in his 60's and shaky as hell...I thought it wouldn't be a stretch if he had Parkinson's based on how much he was shaking...). I am also taking a drug similar to Prednisone tablets for 5 days, dilating both eyes three times a day and putting steroid drops in both eyes every half hour to hour until I see the doc again on Tuesday. When my eyes are dilated, the computer is pretty much impossible (think about when you are at an eye appointment and they dilate your eyes so they can examine you, and you drive home not REALLY being able to read the speedometer, same thing). So...Corey may be guest posting a few times in the next 6 weeks! To those of you who know all about my uveitis, sorry to bore you!

I think this is all that is new with us! We can't wait for the holidays and too see all our family and friends! We'll also be doing lots of wedding preparations like dress shopping, finding a florist, checking out our venue (Corey and I haven't seen it in person yet but his mom took some FANTASTIC pictures of the place...thanks Sue!), securing a photographer and DJ/music, etc. Busy few weeks! 

Until next time!

It's been so long!

Good Evening!


Sorry for the long delay between posts...I just didn't have much to say I guess! Things have been pretty low-key for us the last two weeks, I think the two week trip that each of us took the first part of the month took a lot out of us. 


Corey's building is really coming along! It's amazing what he started with and what it looks like now...he's going to start working from the office next week sometime so that he can be there for the final details and such. The construction company thinks they'll be done in 2 to 3 weeks, so now it's time for furniture shopping! This is an area I can be of assistance ;) He's really enjoyed creating this office from scratch, making it his own and setting it up for success. No one else from Capital Safety has really seen the building yet, I think he's going to have some sort of a grand opening in January maybe, so it will be fun to plan that! It's been his baby for the last 3 months, so it will be amazing to see it to fruition!


On an unrelated note...we found a venue for our wedding next summer! We have reserved July 9th, 2011 at the Minikahda Club in Minneapolis on Lake Calhoun to have our official wedding and celebration! It's a beautiful place with a great view of the downtown skyline and it's on Lake Calhoun...a favorite area of mine :) We are very excited, so everyone save the date!!


When we are home for Christmas, this is when I will go dress shopping, we will pick out a photographer, florist, DJ/music, etc. It will be a busy few weeks! After that...the bachelor/bachelorette parties!! Corey is set on Vegas...I'm thinking a spa weekend in Minneapolis for myself and the girls! Granted it will be awhile (maybe May next year?) but girls...get ready!


This is all for now...after the weekend we'll hopefully have more to write about/pictures to post, as we are going to try to do some touristy things!


Love,  

Back home at last!

Good morning!

Happy 25th Birthday to my amazing husband Corey! I love you and am so grateful to share our life together!

Avery and I are finally back home in our apartment, finally back with Corey after 12 long days apart, and as nice as it was to see everyone back in Minnesota, I have to say that it feels SO good to be home! I apologize that there was no post update last week, but it was a whirlwind of a time being back in Minnesota, and I was busy seeing most of you! 

Appointments (for Avery and myself), a family wedding and wedding venue shopping for OUR wedding kept me very busy, so busy that the 12 days that I thought would be PLENTY of time to get everything done that I wanted to went way too fast and I don't think I got half the things done that I wanted to! Oh well, I hear that's how it goes :)

Traveling back to Mexico City went pretty smoothly, except that in addition to getting a case of uveitis during my trip, I decided to pick up a nice cold the morning we left, so I was that person on the plane that travels in a small confined space while going through two packs of personal tissues blowing her nose and having my eyes water through the trip. Lovely. Avery was amazing, she is such a trooper on planes! She is definitely happy to be home with Corey, and back on her own couches/play with her toys she's familiar with. 

This is all for now, I'll write more soon once we know more about the wedding venue/dates. 

Love!

Acapulco!

Hey Everyone, 

We had a FABULOUS weekend in Acapulco! We drove down on Friday, left around noon, and immediately were surprised by the beauty of the drive. It's gorgeous in the middle of Mexico! Our drive was full of green mountainside, villages/towns on the hillside and in the valleys, and the road was perfect. Great drive! Unfortunately, I haven't been in a car that long, on such a winding road and up and down over 3000 meters over mountains, etc. so I wasn't feeling great for a majority of the car trip, and Avery got carsick both on the drive over on Friday and the drive back on Sunday, but overall it was a fantastic trip!

Once we got there, it was OBVIOUS we were near the ocean, the humidity level jumped 100% from Mexico City. And it was WARM! Don't get me wrong, it's been great in Mexico City, like 70 or so, but in Acapulco it was maybe 85 or so. We had beautiful weather the whole time we were there, the hotel was amazing, we spent time on the beach and by the pool, enjoyed a few relaxing drinks, and relaxed! I took tons of pictures (I think Corey said the final total was about 165, over the course of 48 hours or so!) and we explored parts of Acapulco that most definitely are not meant to be explored. We went to town on Saturday evening to find these cliff divers, that dive into a very small space off cliffs that are about 100 feet tall...we didn't know where to be to get the best view so we ended up watching from afar, but we got the gist! Next time we know where to be for a better view! After the divers, we were off to find dinner at this highly recommended Italian restaurant that was off beach a bit, and to get there, we went through the longest tunnel we've ever been in. When we finally got out of the tunnel, we were NOT in Kansas anymore. It was a place that seemed less safe than any place we'd seen in Mexico City! Corey wanted to get the heck outta there! Once we finally found our way to the road that would bring us to our hotel haven, we had quite the ride. We faced all sorts of obstacles as we drove home, from cars driving in the wrong direction facing us, to lakes of water in our lanes that were maybe 5 or 6 inches deep, to potholes that resembled craters. When we finally got back to the hotel, we got dinner at one of the restaurants there, and enjoyed a nice, romantic dinner all by ourselves, on the ocean, celebrating the fact that we were safe!

Avery was amazing most of the time, she hung out with us by the pool and on the beach, and was off leash some times and did great! We were such proud parents :)

Below, I posted some of the pictures we took. They have not been touched up at all, some of the colors look like they've been enhanced, but they have not, it was just that beautiful! (There are some photos that I took behind my sunglasses, so that altered the color to look slightly sepia, but you're just seeing what I was seeing!)

Until later!

The drive

Notice the clouds!

Neat Bridge we passed over

View from our hotel room balcony

Relaxing on the beach with Avery!

Beautiful sunset effect

Also part of the view from our balcony

Hotel pool area

Beach dog!

This is the life!

A bay we found in Acapulco heading into town!

Beautiful Sunset on Saturday night!

PS About Bribe

One thing I forgot to mention in the bribe post...we found out later that the fine wasn't 40 days of YOUR salary, it's 40 days salary of the neighborhood, which for where we got pulled over was 54 pesos a day (about $43 per day). This means our total fine would have been 2160 pesos, or about $172, BUT with Corey's smooth operations we got by with only paying 1000 pesos, or about $80. 

That's all! 

Monday Blog!

Good Evening!

I can't believe I almost forgot to post on my scheduled day to post! My bad...so Corey is back in Minnesota this week for work, he gets back on Thursday afternoon. Avery and I are keeping the place together, once again! We had a good day today, we went for a long walk (a little over 2 miles) this morning, I made some earrings this afternoon, I went for my own long walk this afternoon (2.5 miles, daily total: 4.7 miles!) then we hung out this evening. Pretty chill day. Although one of these days, it's going to be my deep cleaning day...fun fun!

So in my last blog I forgot to write about the Bicentennial Celebration here in Mexico City! Corey and I left the little one in her kennel and walked about a mile and a half to this street called Reforma, which is a major road in Mexico City. Along Reforma, they have many statues, including their Independence statue. At this roundabout, they had a massive stage set up, with large TVs on the sides and down the street and everything. It was actually a pretty subdued night, we were there for about an hour. We saw some good performers, and although we couldn't name them we were told they were really famous. Once we left, we got home to be with Avery just in time for the fireworks on TV! We could see several displays from our bedroom, but they were mostly all just red green and white. The most amazing fireworks were in the Zocalo, which unfortunately we couldn't see from our room. We watched them online, and boy they were serious about their fireworks this year! They were amazing! We heard Mexico City spend over a million dollars on the fireworks, and it showed! Next year we might have to go to the Zocalo! It was fun to see the fireworks with Avery though, they were her first that she saw, and I think she enjoyed them! 

I think Corey, Avery and I are finally going to be making our first trip to Acapulco this next weekend! We're excited to explore the beach town, and get some time in the sun! I'm trying to convince Corey to stop by Taxco on our way back; it's an old silver mining town, famous for their silver and jewelry! Anyways, hopefully I'll have lots of pictures from that trip for the post next Monday! Until then...enjoy September!

Love, 

A Bribe? Yes please!

Hello!


We had quite the morning yesterday. After a quick trip to Costco, we were following the GPS on a new route home. While waiting at a red light, we realized that we were not able to turn left at this intersection, which is what we were waiting to do. To further confuse us, there was a police car next to us, that was waiting to do the same thing, so we figured that while maybe it wasn't allowed, it was an oops mistake and not the end of the world. We sat there next to the cops for maybe 2 minutes, waiting for the light to turn. As soon as the light turned green, the cops got on their speaker and instructed us to pull over to the side. We were shown a driving manual and shown what law we supposedly broke, and explained that the fine was 40 days salary. Pretty sure our jaws dropped as we were trying to calculate the amount of this fine. Forty days salary seemed a bit extreme...


As Corey explained to the cop that we are new here, it's a rental car, we were just following the GPS, and that he didn't really understand what they were saying (trying to see if he could get us off with a warning with this method) the cops finally told us to pull off the main road, and onto a side street. We assumed this was because of traffic. The second cop, a female, approached us this time, and started talking in rapid fire spanish (so of course I had no idea what was going on) and Corey explained the same things to her that he told the other guy. She told him he could pay the fine to them, right there, and he asked how much the fine was. She told us that it would be 2500 pesos (about $200 USD) and they were going to impound the car, etc. We were pretty scared by this point. Corey then asked if there were any other options, at which point she said she got Corey out of the car, and told him she was trying to help us. She asked how much he had on him, he said 400 pesos. She said that wasn't very much, so he got back in the car to check how much he really had. She explained to him very dutifully that she was going to pass Corey the driving manual book, and he was to calmly place the 1000 pesos they agreed upon inside the cover, hand the book back to her, and she would hand him his license and registration back. She also warned that if her supervisor came along, explain that she was giving us directions to the hospital ahead. 


As we left and drove home, we were shaking a bit, in shock. We just paid off the cops! We had heard that cops were corrupt, and could be paid off, but didn't think it was really true. Guess bribes do work around here. 


Tip on living in Mexico: ALWAYS carry pesos with you ANYWHERE you go! You never know when they'll come in handy!


Among other things, apparently Christmas season in the retail world starts even EARLIER here than in the US. About a week ago, Corey and I wandered over to Sears to get a few kitchen things, and saw Christmas trees everywhere in the store. We thought it was early back in the US, but here they set a new record!


I think I'll end this long entry now, save some more for later! 


Until next time,