Miracles Happen

Back Together Again

   My last post was about my beautiful dog Ellie. Well guess what, after two long months, we got her back! My friends land lord gave us the great idea to post an add in the island news paper. I don't want to get too into detail so I will try and keep this long story short. The first man to call said he thinks he knows who has our dog but that he wants no part in it and we need to go to a coffee shop, which the people go to almost every day, and on weekends they bring a white dog; which they have only had for about 3 weeks. Anyway, we went every weekend for about 3 weeks and no luck. During that time I had several people call saying they saw a white dog, a couple in the middle of the night; Every time, getting our hopes up. We would, of course, listen to the call and go see. It was never Ellie. Long story short, the first man that called was right. Those people did have our dog. And they saw our news paper add and ignored it. They were very not nice and dishonest people. For safety purposed I will not disclose anymore information about the people or how we found her.
   The day we got her I had a massage so I was not able to go to the coffee shop with my husband. Plus I thought it was pointless anyway. After two months, and going threw so much you start to get discouraged. During the massage there was a knock at the door. Jared Never knocks while I am working so my heart started beating. I thought "No way!". I apologized to my client and opened the door. I could not believe my eyes. There my husband was, holding my beautiful Ellie. I could not believe my eyes. I held her and cried. I was in shock. I only had a moment before I had to go back to work. That massage was the longest massage of my life. I wanted nothing more than to go hold my puppy.

   Talk about patients! Man, it was hard semi knowing who had our dog and not being able to bang on their door and get her. But the miracle is that we got her back. Against all the odds :)

Life without our little fur ball

We Miss you Ellie!!

   It has been 3 weeks since my dog ran away. Every day I think and pray for her. Some moments in my day it still feels like the first day she ran away. We have tried almost everything to find her. The first couple of days we would go out 5 - 8 hours a day looking for her. Now we go out at least 1 hour a day. We have put up posters in local stores and around neighborhoods. We have made little flyers to go in peoples mail boxes with her picture and information, also saying they would get a reward if they found her. We have talked to Groomers and Vets on the Island. And still nothing.
   We have herd so many different things. A couple of days after we lost her someone said they spotted a similar dog that looked distort and was walking in the road. The way she described her sounded a lot like her. Where she said she saw her was about 15 minutes away from our house but you have to cross the Rapida (freeway) to get there. We looked for 2 days all around that area, nothing. We then realized it was very unlikely that Ellie could have made it all the way over there safely, so we stopped looking there and started looking in our neighborhood again.
   Our neighbors said that she is a very beautiful dog so someone probably picked her up and kept her for themselves, which is what we suspect. We go slowly around our neighborhood looking in peoples yards to see if maybe they let Ellie out to go potty.
   Some Portuguese do not speak English so we have to rely on our Portuguese friends if we ever need to speak to anyone. I think finding her would be a lot easier if we were in the states. Plus she has a microchip (which you have to scan and will only work if you have the dog). The microchip company has an alert if your dog goes missing but the alert is only for USA and Canada :(.
   We leave our gate open just enough for Ellie to get threw if she ever were to find her way back home. One night we came home after dark from a friends house. We opened the gate to drive up to our house. Ellie used to be in the drive way waiting for us and would move when she saw us so she wouldn't get ran over. Then when we opened our car door that was the sign for her that it was safe to come close to the car. She would jump on us and be sooo excited that we were home. I miss that! Anyways, as our lights hit the drive way we saw a white small animal running from the drive way to the house. My heart stopped and I gasped. My husband told me to run and see. By the time I got to the door the animal was gone. later we saw a white cat running around. What a Terrible tease that was!
   I have been posting Ellie's picture on websites for the Island. About a week ago a lady post on the bottom of her picture, "I herd she got hit by a car. Is that true?'. I just stared at the screen for a long time. Then I stared to cry, a lot. After some while I began to be a little angry. If I knew she got hit by a car why would I still have a MISSING picture up!!! And talk about insensitive! Then I remembered that English is her second language and I am sure she did not mean it to sound that way.
   Then a couple of days ago Jared and I decided to go explore the island in one of the volcano's. We were inside for about an hour. When we got out we got a call from a friend saying people have been trying to call and that a man says he thinks he knows the house where our dog is and that he is waiting at one of the local stores where he saw the flyer. My heart started pounding. We were about 30 min from that store. We rushed to the store as fast a we could. Along the way we where saying we would not get to exited because there is a possibility it would not be her. But we couldn't help it! We talked about calling the groomer that day because she would be all gross, and how we would not leave her side that the groomer would have to put up with us. We talked about everywhere we would take her and what we would go buy her. We though of how she would get to sleep in our bed the next couple of nights. We finally felt like things would go back to normal. What a relief that would be!
   We got to the store a little out of breath (I dont know why because we were driving). He took us to the house and we knocked on the door. A little white puppy came barking out the door. Our faces dropped from a smile to a sad, sad frown. This was not our puppy. We kindly let the man know that our dog is smaller than that dog and she has fuller hair. We thanked him so much for watching out for her and parted ways. On the way home I kept thinking how things had to stay the same sad way they have been for the past couple of week, how we would probably never see our happy little white fluff ball again. Oh how sad that makes me!

One year mark in the Azores

As of yesterday it has been one year since we moved to this Island. I can't believe it! On the other hand it feels like we have been here for a while. Crazy how that happens. Being here is a really good experience but I can't say I would want to live here forever. Maybe if I had a house with air conditioning and heating and the electricity wasn't so expensive. Then maybe I wouldn't get so much mold in my house.
Anywhoo, I am sad to say I have not yet done a whole lot of exploring on this beautiful island. I know there is a couple of things I really want to do like go inside the volcanoes and travel to split rock. Also, fishing is free here and I still haven't done it. I Love fishing!
 Every time I move somewhere it seems I have so much time to go see things and then by the time I know it I am getting ready to leave. I'll probably never learn that lesson. We are going to try and go out this weekend and explore a little more of the Island.

Things I dislike about Portuguese Restaurants

My husband took me out to a nice restaurant last night. I orders Alcatra (a Portuguese dish kind of like pot roast for Americans) and my husband ordered some type of fish served with rice. While we were waiting on our food they brought us bread and butter with jelly and some type of goat cheese. About 10 minutes later they brought a deep fried sausage out to us. We thought, "how nice!" A while later, the waiter brought out my Alcatra and tells my husband that the chief got his order wrong and he can try it or he can have him make what he originally ordered. My husband of course said he would try it, wouldn't want food to go to waist, plus it took a while for the chief to make that one and we didn't want to wait any longer. He tried some and then apologized to the waiter because he did not like it. He told the waiter that he would just share the Alcatra with me. There was plenty for both of us with some still left over. It was very delicious and cooked perfectly. For desert I ordered Chocolate Mouse! Mmmmm!
After we were all done we went to go pay. The total was €33 (about $43) which at first glance wasn't bad for a nice dinner. Then I remembered that we only ordered one dinner (Alcatra €12) and two drinks (coca cola €2.50 and Sprite €2.50) and a desert (Chocolate Moose €3.50). I looked at the receipt and there was a lot more than that on there. They charged us for the bread, butter, jelly, cheese, deep fried sausage, and not only that, because my husband shared my meal with me, they charges us €8 each when it was the same amount of food that they give for one person. We paid and tipped the waiter, because he was one of the nicest waiter we have had in Europe and non of it was his fault, and we left. 
Hey, at lease they didn't charge us for the food that my husband didn't order! We probably wont be going back to the restaurant again unless we are craving Alcatra. But honestly, it doesn't matter where you go because they charge people for water, for bread and butter per person, and what ever else they put on the table. Even if you didn't eat it you have to argue with them before they will say fine, and think, "stupid Americans", in their head.  

Changes

Many things have changed for us lately. My husband is cross training for a new job in the military. So after our time is up here we will be moving to Texas for a short while. It is a bitter sweet. We are excited about his new job but now we have lesson duty stations to choose from because he will not know very much about his job so that limits the bases we are aloud to move to. At first I did not want to stay over seas. But after thinking about how young we are and how we have yet to have children, I did a quick 360 and wanted nothing more then to stay overseas. Now that are bases our limited we only have 2 overseas bases we are aloud to move to. And that is only if the Air Force picks on of those. Otherwise it is in the states we stay. On the plus sides, I will only be one flight away from my family and will be able to spend holidays with them.

Only a couple of months before my husband and I have to separate. I guess that is what you get for signing up for military life. This is our first deployment and I hope it goes by fast. We found out a while ago but it seemed so far away that I shoved it far back inside my head. Now it just keeps getting closer and closer. As that happens it is becoming more real to me. At first I was telling myself it was fine because we had our whole relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend living in different countries so we know how it goes. Well, since then I have forgotten how hard it is and we have grown a way stronger connection. I am honestly freaking out about it. Not because i think anything bad will happen but because I remember how lonely it gets to know you have someone but can't be with them. Then at the loneliest time you hold onto the phone praying he will call. And after having him by my side for two and a half years straight I don't know how it will be without him. At night i find myself laying in bed not being able to fall asleep. I start thinking about lots of thing, then of course the deployment comes to mind and as much as I try to shove it back, it resurfaces. I then turn over to my husband and hold him as tight as I can until I fall asleep. Gosh I love that man! The time I get to spend with him now is more precious then ever.

Some women might read this and think "I wish my husband would go away for a while". And yes, there are moments where I find myself thinking that. But when it boils down to it and I really try and imagine my days without him, no way sistas! I'll just keep my annoying, smelly, non house cleaner husband with me thanks! Because I know it is way better then what I am about to experience next.

Emotional Reck

  I have recently discovered Good + as a way to be able to video chat will all my family at the same time. I love it! I keep trying to find new ways to not miss my family so much. I thought being able to see them would help. It is nice, but it does not feel the void. I was messaging my mom on facbook today. I haven't spoken to her in what feels like a while, even though it has only been about 2 weeks. I can't help but to miss her so much right now. People always tell me how lucky I am to be living in all of these cool places. Well perhaps I am, but what they don't see is how hard it is. Not only is the move and the cultural shock hard, there are so many things you miss about where you came from. And if you have a close family like mine, it is just so difficult sometimes.
 There are a lot of things that will be happening in my life this year that I just can't seem to get out of my head. I lay in bed at night just thinking about the outcome of these things. I know it's not healthy but I can't seem to stop it.
  On the plus side, I am so blessed! I know that I do not deserve all of  the things I have in my life but I am sure grateful for them! I know I am all over the place with this one. I just have so many different emotions. And no, I am not pregnant. Its funny how every month someone in my family thinks that. To bad it will have to wait another year...

Another Blog?

I am thinking about making a food blog. I used to love cooking and baking but now it just feels like a chore. Maybe if I create a blog I will get excited again about cooking, possibly because I will want to see what people think about my recipes. And hopefully I will use it more than this blog haha.
This has been on my mind because a friend has invited my husband and I over for dinner a couple of times and she is an amazing cook. Everything she makes is so delicious. I wanted her recipes and then found out she had a blog where I could get them from. Her blog is so professional along with her pictures as well. I know my blog wont look that good. I am secretly a little jealous at how good she is with is. Still, she has motivated me to want to try.
The only think I am concerned about is, while making this blog I will waste a lot of food. Coming from a family of 8 and some of the time 10, because grandma and grandpa would live with us on week days, it is hard for me to only cook for two; especially with baking. Now is this a legitimate concern, I don't know. All I can say is I hate wasting food. I love cooking for a lot of people, it's just easier. I guess I better learn now though. I will not have a big family of my own for a while.

One busy lady

Ok so, November I went back to the states for a month for my sisters wedding. It was beautiful and a lot of fun. I enjoyed spending that time with my family. It is always difficult to go back because sometimes you don't feel very welcome and you feel like you are a burden. Its not that your family feels that way its just they have their own lives that they cant just put on hold for you. It took me 3 visits to realize that. So there was some crying and some wanting to go home and thinking why did I even come. But I am glad I did because my family means everything to me. Now that I realize these things, next trip will be even better.

December I spent the month getting ready for Christmas and continuing to try and put together my house. We had my husbands Squadron Christmas party which was nice. I dressed up a little too fancy this time though. You never really know what everyone is going to wear to those because every time you move it is different. My very first Christmas Party my husband said it was semi casual so I wore jeans and a nice shirt, big mistake. Everyone was wearing fancy dresses and suits. So the next year when I went I knew what to wear. Then we moved to the Azores and I thought it would be the same. They say semi formal but everyone wants to dress nice because they don't get very many opportunities to do so. Nope, not here. At lease not in my husbands squadron. That's ok though, I got dirty looks from the women but I could tell the men thought I was hott :). 

Another thing that happened in December is, the base announced they are downsizing :(. I think that is a big mistake. And I feel really bad for the Portuguese people who work on base because many of them will need to find new jobs. And the base is what helps this Island with its economy. Not only the base but the American people who hire nanny's and cleaning ladies, and go get their nails and hair done, and go shopping on the economy. The base will be a tdy/unoccupied base only. No more children and families. Pretty sad. But I am happy that I got to experience this Island before they do that. My husband and I will be one of the last families stationed here because we have no children so we wont need to move for the children to go to school when they shut down the school here. That will be interesting.  

At the beginning of January I was so overwhelmed with how my house looked and it was so overly messy that I didnt want to clean it. Here in the Azores you can hire a cleaning lady, a nanny, or a cooking lady for a lot cheaper than you could in the states. I never wanted to hire one though because I don't have any children and I don't work so it would just make me feel and look super lazy. But my husband told me to. So I found a Portuguese lady that goes to my church and really needed the money. I asked her to come clean my house just one time. So I felt a little better that I was helping someone out and not so lazy because I was only doing it one time. The sad part was that I obviously didn't know how cleaning ladies work because I was cleaning for the cleaning lady to come over. I spent all day, the day before she came, cleaning my house. So sad. Well next time hopefully I wont do that! 

My Grandpa just got out of the hospital about a week ago. Hopefully he gets better and better. We pray for him often and for my grandma too. I don't know what I would do without them. They are two of the most loving and kind people I know. I really wish I could be there for them. I sent papa flowers while he was in the hospital just to make his day a little brighter. I think it worked but its not enough. I want to be there and help them with everything just to make my grandma a little less stressed and make grandpa smile just a little bit more. My mom was there for most of it. Thank goodness for her!

My brother and sister in law just had their second baby together. They named her Jerzee. I just want to hold her. Her pictures just look so cute!! My other sister is about to have her second baby in March. I feel like I am missing out on everything. Oh well, skype will have to do. I spent so much money on my trip out there in November that I can't afford another one right now. 

Now I am trying to get my massage business up off the ground. I have made websites and ordered business cards and gift certificates. I made an add in the local online website last week. It's staring out really slow were I only got one or two people saying I will maybe make an appointment. It has been a week in a half and so far I have only made one appointment :(. The good news is word of mouth spreads like wild fire around here so if she likes her massage, which I know she will, then I will get more business. Plus Valentines Day is coming up and that's a big one in the massage industry. Wishing myself luck!