sorry i've been a bum!

I think because I never upload my pictures from my camera, I forget to share my life!  So a super quick recap and maybe I'll get back up on the horse and get back into a routine.

I went home to the States for 10 days, and it was great.  I really think I was able to recharge my batteries.  It's amazing how quickly life changes.  Greg and I still don't have a nitch here in Spain, having dogs has been a HUGE help in meeting people, but it's definitely not the same.  And life has gone on at home, so there isn't really a nitch there either.  It's an interesting spot to be in... and I'm not exactly sure I like it.  But a season is a season.  

Some of my awesome friends accompanied me to New York City to get my visa.  It was a really fun time, we took the train (which has always been easiest for Greg and I.. but this time was just a hassle) and used the subway to get around, the city isn't ready for Christmas yet, but it was very cold that day and definitely felt like winter.  I've never been into F.A.O.Schwartz, and let me tell you... COOLEST STORE EVER!  They have tons of Harry Potter stuff, and since I'm a huge fan, I was going crazy-I must have called Greg at least 10 times to tell him about all the wands and scarves.  Jessie and I were in heaven.  

But I was REALLY excited to come back home.  Unlike our first trip out here, we actually have a home, which made it much more exciting.  I was ready to sleep in my own bed and hang out with my puppies.  And my really wonderful husband mopped and vacuumed the whole house so I wouldn't have to do any cleaning when I got home.  Amazing.  

I came home just in time for Thanksgiving, to a country who has NO idea what that is.  I would try to explain to our Spanish friends what Thanksgiving really means, and I've decided that unless one attends Thanksgiving dinner, they'll never understand the beauty of an American all out feast.  We weren't able to have Thanksgiving on Thursday (everyone had to work) and Greg was quite jealous of everyone back home who had the long weekend.  But we celebrated with a group of Americans (and one Dutch family) on Saturday, and it was great!  We had two turkeys, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, mac and cheese, cranberry sauce, the works!  I was amazed!  

We also got our dog neutered last week.  Talk about a difficult task, trying to keep a dog "calm" for a week, when we have his best friend trying to attack him at every moment in the day.  But after a week of only walks on leashes we finally got the stitches out and I took them to the beach for the first time in 2 weeks, and I've never seen dogs so excited!  I seriously thought they might jump out of their skin they couldn't stop shaking.. and they ran for an hour, they didn't stop!  It was great when they passed out on the couch later that evening!  

good 'ole U.S.A

Asturias hasn't stopped raining for over a week, so I left.

Just kidding, but it really is raining like crazy.. my poor dogs haven't been to the park in a long time, but we've relocated to the beach where they return home as the sand monsters, it's lovely.

But about leaving... I did hop on a plane this past Thursday and travel back to the United States to pick up my visa in New York City.. and it's so cool how God plans things. I've been attending the women's retreat with my church for the last 4 years, and as fall was rolling around realized I was going to miss this year. After Greg and I talked about it-we decided I would fly home just in time for the retreat and hopefully my visa would be ready, but we'd take the chance, even if I meant I'd have to stay in the US without him a few extra days to wait for it. But the moment we took the step of faith and bought my ticket, we heard from the consulate that my visa was ready.... I love how sometimes God just waits for us to trust Him.
After a 9 hour flight (no one sat next to me, yay!) I got home, and spent the night catching up with my family. Went to bed early, and woke up at 12:15am ready to make my husband breakfast when I realized I was in Delaware and it wasn't 6:15am. Gotta love jet lag.
Friday I indulged in my FAVORITE sandwich, low fat chicken salad on a whole wheat everything bagel from Newark Deli, with one of my best friends and went to the beach for the retreat, and it was fabulous. I don't think women often realize the importance of female relationships and we live in a world that tells us we can't be "women"... oh they're so wrong! I've missed so much all of the stupid joke telling and talk about shopping, etc. It was like breathing after holding your breath underwater for just a second too long. There is beauty in the way women can heal each other. Shopping can heal too =) Tax free Delaware + Outlets = super fun.

But I do miss my husband terribly, and he's so wonderful that there were flowers at my parents doorstep when I arrived on Thursday. I'm so blessed.

sorry for the delay =)

I can't believe I haven't posted in so long!  So much has been going on, I had a temporary technical problem with my computer, one of my lovely puppies chewed through my power cord and I was without power until we bought a new one.  The joys of being puppy parents...

This past weekend we had sleepover visitors for the first time!  One of my good friends from college is teaching at the American School in Madrid this year, and her boyfriend Josh is working for the Spanish public school system teaching English.  All of their friends in Madrid told them they had to visit Asturias (the province we live in), so they came up for the weekend before it got to cold.

It was awesome!  They took the bus up from Madrid (which takes about 5 1/2 hours if anyone is interested, and costs about 25 Euros) and got into Gijon at 10:45 pm on Friday night.  We stayed up talking until 1:30 am or so, and then went to sleep for a LONG time =)  Saturday we went for a long walk along the coast.  San Lorenzo was an early explorer of the area and they've since made a beautiful trail/path on his original route.  So we took the puppies (of course!) and had an awesome time walking in the beautiful fall weather.  Needless to say, I think they'll be coming back to play in the ocean once it's warm.  Saturday night after dinner, we took them to see our famous drink-sidra.  Sidra is a drink made in Asturias from apples, it's kind of an apple cider type thing, that has to be aerated before you can enjoy it, so the bar tenders/waiters, pour it from above their heads into a glass that they hold down low with their other hand.  After watching professionals pour, we bought a few bottles ourselves and let Becky and Josh give it a shot, I'd never poured sidra before either, so Greg made me do it... I did pretty good, I probably only spilled 100 mL on the ground =)  It's really difficult.. if you come visit we'll make you try!  We've been told young boys practice with water.. when they're about 10-16... so they can pour the sidra for girls at the bar when they're old enough.  

On Sunday Greg and I got up as usual and got ready for church, and rushed out the door to get there on time.. we made it-at about 10:59 and realize no one else is there (church starts at 11).  Weird, right?  So I go into a little bread store and ask for the time... it's only 10!  Apparently Day Light Savings started here this past weekend and we didn't know!  I always laugh at people when that happens in the States... what comes around goes around.  

So for those of you in Delaware, for the next few days we're only 5 hours in the future.  

And lastly... we're turning into "those" dog parents, it's been really rainy and cold here, so Lola HATES going outside, I literally have to drag her to go out, Goyo loves it, so I look pretty funny with one dog running ahead and one being dragged behind.  So we bought her a sweater today, and she looks adorable!!! Pictures to come.. I promise.  Tonight we took them down to the beach and let them run around.  I love that dogs are allowed all over here, they get so much exercise-it's great!  But they were COVERED in sand!  It was worth it though, they look so happy when they're just chasing each other all over!

visits from the U.S of A!

Just 10 minutes ago, we were sitting in our living room with our friend Trevor, from home!  It's so much fun to see a familiar face... he's here for some work with DuPont, and we had the privilege to eat dinner with him, and spend some time just catching up and talking.

I don't think I had any idea how much I actually missed home, but having someone from our church family really reminded me of the community back in DE.  

Everyone always asks us about the differences here between churches, and in one word I would say "community".  Evangelical churches in Spain are almost 'underground'.  There are no big buildings to call church, here when we refer to our church, I feel more as though we are referring to the group of people we meet with every Sunday... I think it's just starting to click that this is actually the purpose of church.  It's not about the sanctuary or the Sunday school classrooms.  Not to say that that doesn't help.. it's nice to have a place to refer too, but I think too often I associated church with the building on 273 in Newark and not with wonderful people I worshipped with every Sunday.  I'm thankful for this opportunity to learn such a thing!

But I was also lucky enough to have the same kind of "family" back home.  I wonder how many people go to church week after week and never take the initiative to get involved.  We live in an egocentric society and always want things to be done for us... and although I wholeheartedly agree that we should be inviting to visitors and others, I also think we need to take it upon ourselves to get involved and to meet people.  A wise man once told me that we are responsible for our own isolation.  It's so easy to feel like "you're left out"... go find somewhere that you fit, it might not happen on the first try, but do it until it works!  Go to every Sunday School class, every bible study, get out there.  It can change your life to have a group of people who care about you as much as they do themselves.  

And on that note, spending the evening with Trevor was awesome!  I'm so glad we got to catch up and talk about life, etc.  And he brought me a present from home!  (Thank you Klumbachs!) 

Everything else is going well.. we're still moving into our place, it's hard to get everything done when you've got puppies and errands and cleaning!  But we're almost done, I promise to put pictures up soon! 

lots of exercise

Greg got his official residency card yesterday!  He's a legal Spanish resident.. so exciting!

Today we went hiking with Greg's boss and his boss's boss, and of course Brian and Jodie Which is not something you usually get to do in the states, but since we're our own little ex-pat community, it's really cool to hang out with everyone.  We drove about 45 minutes south of Gijon and went on an "easy" hike.  I don't know who decides what level the hikes are.. but I don't think I would have called this one easy.  The path was paved for the 2 hour part that we walked, but beyond that it was just a trail.  But it was pretty steep.  Since we can't leave our puppies for too long, we brought them with us, and we had SO much fun!  They've never stayed awake as long as they did today... and they've slept since we got home.  The windy roads didn't agree with Goyo, and when we stopped for gas he threw up his breakfast-but other than that it was a smooth ride.  We rigged up Greg's backpack so we could carry them when they got tired, which turned out to work really well.  Lola had to take a few breaks, but Goyo did really well!  And he stayed behind the first person in the pack.. so he's learning his place, we were proud of our training.  

They also experienced running water for the first time as they explored a bit of a river with Greg.  We're having so much fun with them, and we hope they'll grow up to love hiking with us.  It's starting to look like fall here, and reminds me of home, when my family would drive up to Bloomsburg, PA and all along the highways the trees would be orange and red.  There aren't any red trees, but there are lots of yellows and oranges.  It's breathtaking.  I can't wait until they start to get all snow capped!

Other cool things that happened this week.... 

-my best friend and her husband opened for Charlie Hall in Newark, DE.  I think that's pretty awesome... i miss her.  (jennyandtylermusic.com)

-I had my first Spanish class... it's a Spanish class for foreigners that is offered by the city.  There were a few people from all sorts of countries- Germany, England, U.S.A, Tunesia, Brazil, Italy, Australia.

-Thanks to my puppies, I've made a few friends.. We go to the park every day at 2 to run around with some other schnauzers.  It's amazing how with the two dogs-all of a sudden I have a plethora of people to talk to, I love it! 

So, here are a few pictures from our aventuras en las montanas:

 

so much responsibility =)

We're loving our two puppies, Lola and Goyo, and I promised some pictures.. so here they are!  Lola is half the size of Goyo, but she's rather fiesty!  We've been working on potty training and learning names, and so far-it's going really well!  We also have discovered that if you take your dog out to play then at home all they do is sleep, I'm loving it.  We had our first vet visit, and I must admit, I was rather proud of my Spanish today, Greg told me we couldn't get a dog until I found a vet and did all the right research, etc.  So of course, I did =)  So he had off today, we finally got internet/phone/tv and we went together.  

In the E.U you have to have your dog microchipped, and they get this super cute passport that makes it really easy to bring to other countries.  They also had some ear mites, so the vet had to give them drops and stuff... but she speaks NO English, so it was quite fun.  

  

Other exciting news, we've finally moved into our apartment, the movers came early on Friday morning and stayed until 5 and we've been unpacking boxes ever since!  Once everything is in order we'll be sure to put up a bunch of pictures.  

an addition to the fam..

Did you have any good guesses?

Well.. we decided we were going to make an addition to our family.. and we did!  After we found out we were getting our furniture on Friday, we were planning to get a puppy on Saturday.  Well.. there were only 2 left in the litter of Black miniature schnauzers.. so we have 2 puppies!!!!  I promise I'll put pictures up tonight or tomorrow, but they're the cutest things in the world, and their names are Goyo (a boy) and Lola (the cutest little girl)!