Home. MN. Cold. Winter. Sick. Family. Friends. Marin.

Those are a few words that describe my life these days. I'm back at home in MN, enjoying my family and seeing some friends. My 24 hours of travel got me sick with a cold. Jet lag with the cold makes me tired all day long. I can't stop thinking about Marin and wish he could just be here with me or that we could talk more easily/cheaper. He needs to get internet so we can Skype. It's actually hard to believe I'm back. Doesn't really seem real quite yet. It's going to take months to get in a normal feeling mode. I look forward to Thanksgiving with all the great food and company and playing games. Why can't we just have the best of both worlds. Maybe I can once Marin gets his sexy booty over here!

2 weeks...and counting!

Who can believe that in exactly 2 weeks I'll be somewhere in the sky, flying over the Atlantic, on my way back to the land of the free and home of the brave!

It's hard to believe this chapter of my life at IMM is coming to an end. I know "once an IMMer, always on IMMer" will be a part of me, but I won't actually be here doing the IMM stuff. I'll be...doing something else. In the near future, planning a wedding and trying to land a job I enjoy and that pays the bills!

However, as this chapter ends, yet another one opens! And one that is sure to be exciting, adventurous, a learning experience, lovely, happy, stressful and fun! Of course, you all know that I'm talking about.

Until my next post...have a great day!

PORTUGAL=AMAZING

When Christina and I decided to venture our way on over to my neighboring country of Portugal, we mostly wanted to go because "it's another country to add to our list" and "we've never been there" and the beach! We did not expect it to be as great as it was. Really, almost everything was great. Everywhere we went-stores, restaurants, hostel--everyone spoke English! Portuguese is a Latin language, but somethings are quite different from Español and we may have not understood if they didn't speak the great international, business language of English.

The beach--best part. Thanks God for giving us PERFECT weather! The forecast said it would rain Saturday, but it didn't! Good memories made on the sand. Relaxing time. People watching. Picture taking. Taking in the sun!

This cute beach city was easy to navigate. We found our way to the beach/city centre from the bus stop-without a map, without directions, just following another couple, reading signs and using our great sense to find our way!

Many great photo ops here. Loved it!

Albufeira, Portugal, I don't know if we'll meet again in this life, but know that you were the perfect last hoorah with Christina as we bring our European travels to an end.

I'll miss....

this guy and the beauty of España! Olive and sunflower oil. The warm weather. But I'll mostly miss Marin while we are apart.

2 Años en España!

August 1 was my 2 year anniversary in Spain. Whoohooo!! I'm late blogging about this but that's cause I have more important and real life things to do. It's good when real life has more things for me so I'm not wasting my time doing internet/blog/fb things. But of course those still take up hours of my life every week.

A few things I WILL NOT miss about Spain when I leave:

1. everything is so SMALL here....roads, parking spaces, elevators...

2. the non-customer service you get when at stores

3. the euro stealing 26-50% of my money!!

4. how things/people work and think in Spain. I won't be saying "this is Spain" much when I'm in the US.

A few things I WILL MISS about Spain:

1. MARIN until he gets to MN!!

2.the awesome fruit and veggies, and Friday market to buy these

3. working at a job that I love (mostly cause it's ministry and going to touch lots if lives, but the whole editing for 8 hours a day thing--I won't miss that too much for a while)

4. diversity

5. my great co-workers

6. my sweet and short commute to work...I'm going to miss this A LOT!

who wants to lose weight...?

in my first year living in spain, i lost about 10 pounds. i guess from walking (yes, we walk in europe, we don't have the luxury of driving door to door to every place we want to go), eating healthier--fruits and veggies are amazing here and i don't really buy pre packaged and ready to go food. i think last summer helped shed some cause it's soo HOT here and i just don't eat as much when it's HOT. so, i just weighed myself today to see where i am... 57.5 kilos (approx 127 pounds)! that's, if my memory serves well, about 19 pounds smaller than when i left mn for los hueros. i put that exclamation point not for excitement but for shock! i'm actually not too thrilled that i keep losing weight. my pants seriously are not fitting me, i have to wear belts with everything except my shorts that have ties or elastic! i don't have money to buy a new wardrobe! i guess the surgery and not eating for a day then being sick last week and not eating and puking up acid and saliva is the cause of this most recent loss of fat. i hope my muscle isn't going away. my butt doesn't seem smaller, but i guess it is since my pantalones are sagging on me. let's just hope my breasts don't deflate into nothingness. i need what i have to fill out my wedding dress next year!! :)

moral of the story: move to spain if you are in need of shedding some pounds or kilos.

Some nasty pics of me ears...

Last Thursday, I had a stapedectomy. Here are some pics that represent my life in the last week. This first one is my ear with the drops just sitting around because it cant' get through the packing that's in there.

Here's my ear after it's been cleaned with alcohol by my Mr. Piper. Nasty, huh.
In one way, I look forward to getting this packing stuff taken out of my ear cause it's quite annoying...the feeling of your ear being plugged up for 2 weeks. Annoying it is. But I can also imagine it will not be pain less when the doctor pulls this thing out. I hope it is quick!And here's me laying on the couch in Barcelona for 3 days post-surgery, in a non AC'ed apartment. Not fun but I survived.
Keep praying for my recovery. It's been quite the week as not only did I have this major surgery, but before the surgery I had a slight cough, I still have the cough and today I got my period and it was a bad time, I pretty much wanted to die. I guess all the pain I've been through is prepping me for some babies in the future, eh?!