No More Federal Loans!

Yay! I just paid off my Student Federal Loans!!! So excited about that! I just saved myself like $2,000 in interest that I would have had to pay, had I kept on the "typical" payment plan. I was always paying more than the minimum anyway, so maybe I really only saved myself $1,500 in interest...but still! Wahhooo!!!

I still have one small little loan to pay off, but it is without interest so I am taking my time paying it back and using the money to gain interest in the bank.

Ok, I'm tired and want to go to bed. My little puppy had me up at 5:50am and we are both so sleep. G'night!

The Cuica

This past week and weekend I spent most of my time with Dulcinea. Christian was helping out with an family activity that his work put on for the kids and so he was quite busy all week. He was also at work all day on Saturday for the actual event. So it was me a Dulcinea. Mommy and daughter.

It's surprising that we've only had her for 1 week today. I feel like it has been forever already, but nope--only 7 days. We already expect so much out of her, the poor thing, but we are realizing that she won't be trained over night. We were giving her tap water in her bowl and noticed that she didn't like to drink it. So we would wet her food each time she ate so that she would get some water at least. Then we decided to give her some mineral water (sin gas, of course) to see if she'd drink it and guess what? She loves it. Christian's reaction: "OMG, she's so cuica!". (For those of you who don't speak Chilean, cuica is like stuck-up or richy-rich, someone who always has to have the best of everything.)

Well, we can't really do anything about it, but give her the water she likes. But it really makes me wonder what is in the tap water that even a dog won't drink it. Maybe I should stop drinking it?! We could look into getting a filter for the water...

Today, we put on her harness and had her first lesson of walking on the leash. Since she can't go outside yet (doesn't have all her shots and I def don't want her to get sick from all those stray dogs in Santiago), we decided to practice in the hallway of our apartment floor. Here are some candid pictures, thanks to Christian B Photography, of the little one getting her walk on. She did surprisingly well, probably because "treats" were involved in the process. But that is how they learn. Anyway, her treats are just her food. Now on to the pics:

Walking just like a big girl.

I love the way her head is cocked to one side.

Looking up at Mommy to see what to do next.

My Little Regalona

This little girl is already spoiled!!!! She made being sick much better just because of all the love she gave me the past two days. Today I am feeling better but still not 100%.


So far, the hardest thing with her is getting her to not bite our hands. She loves them! It's not like she doesn't have toys to chew on, she just loves our hands for some reason. She still doesn't understand "no" yet, but we're working on it. We have the Dog Whisper's book, so hopefully that'll give us some good tips!

And now more baby pics:

She loves it when I hold her bone.

For sizing comparison--although she is a bit crunched up in this picture, that gives you an idea of how small she is. About the size of my slipper, just a bit longer.

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡Qué riiiiiccccccaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sick & With Licencia for the Rest of the Week

Ugf......apart from dealing with our little newborn last night, I woke up at 5am puking. No fun. I won't go into further details, but that isn't the only thing that happened this morning.

In Chile, if you miss a day of work because you are sick, you have to go to the doctor and get a "license" saying that you really are sick and giving you a certain number of days that you can stay home. This is then sent to your insurance company after you turn it into your place of work and the insurance company actually pays your salary for those days you are out.

When I went to the doctor, she said I have a stomach/intestine sickness....could be viral or could have been thanks to the piece of cake we ate last night (perhaps the cream was going bad). Either way it sucks. They gave me an IV to rehydrate me and I was connected for like an hour, man those things are slow. Of course, my lovely husband took me and stayed with me the whole 2.5 hours at the hospital, except for when he went to my office to drop off my license. He picked me up some jello, gatorade, and crackers...! Today is our civil marriage anniversary--1 year and 5 months.

Dulcinea stayed in bed with me all day pretty much. She slept at my side and chewed on her toys when she was awake. It probably isn't good to have her on the bed so much, but I definitely can't been running behind her on the floor to see what she is getting into.

Well now it is time to try to sleep and get some liquids.

Our Baby & A New Blog Design

Yesterday we welcomed the newest addition to our little family, Dulcinea. She's a long-haired miniature dachshund and was born on June 3, 2009. We had a heck of a time finding her in Chile because as Christian puts it "her race is practically extinct". But, in all truth, they are not very common dogs at all and thus she was a hard one to find.

The first night home was ok. She wasn't used to being alone at all and so she cried every time we left the room. We finally got her to bed around 11pm. When I tried to put her down around 10ish, she wanted nothing to do with it--all play no más. Turns out that is a sign that she is over tired. Anyhow, she woke up crying at 2ish and it took us a while to get her back to sleep because again, all she wanted to do was play. And then again at 5am she was wandering about the room. I picked her up and put her on my chest in bed where she slept with me for about another hour before my alarm clock rang.

Today was her first day home alone. She did really well! We tired her out in the morning before leaving for work so she fell asleep right before Christian left the house. Then we both came home for lunch to check on her and play with her. It was fun to have that break during the day. I came home tonight to her, while Christian was at his English classes, and all was well. She was playing in "her room" (ie. our bathroom). She had done her business on the newspaper that we left for her (she is a quick learner) and was soooooo excited to see me. Our neighbors, who also have a dachshund puppy, came up to meet her but she didn't want anything to do with Panchito (their puppy).

Tonight we played with her while cooking dinner and lunch for tomorrow. She is quite a handful, always running around, sometimes too quick for your eyes to catch where she goes. Right now she is snuggled up on my lap and sleeping as I write. We tried to keep her awake longer, but when she is over tired, she gets destructive....so I guess it's better to let her sleep.

I wish she'd stay this size forever, she is the most adorable thing ever!!! But, she'll still be really small when she is adult (8lbs or less)! Her beautiful long hair is already showing on her little ears and she has a fun personality once she warms up to you. It's now time to sign off and enjoy her when she sleeps, my little cosita linda.








P.S. I thought the blog could use a new look, so I've been working on this new design for quite some time. Hope you like it!

Go With the Expensive One

I went to the doctor today to get the xray done that he wanted of my pelvis to see if there were calcifications on my ischial tuberosity. Luckily the xray came out right away and I was able to swing by the doctor's office so he could take a look. The result? There is nothing and so he prescribed me some heat treatments and pushed me out the door. I felt like he didn't even hear what I was trying to say. I have been in excrutiating pain all day long and wanted to explain that. Especially since when I saw him last week, my leg wasn't bothering me that much. He also didn't even take the time to explain the treatment that he had prescribed to me. In any case I was pissed. My leg is killing me, I have been super uncomfortable all day and the damn doctor doesn't really want to help.

So what do I do?

Go with the typical plan of going to an expensive doctor at a good clinic. Normally I take this route always (my gyno is at Clinica Las Condes) because well, there are just too many crappy doctors & crappy resources here in Chile and I don't want to take my chances on out-of-date medicine. But this time I figured I'd give the Colmena clinic a try since it is my insurance and would be cheaper. It is also relatively close to my work, but it costs about $1200 pesos in taxi to get there because of the location. Let's just say that is the last time I go the cheapest route just for the heck of it. Actually, I did get a recommendation for the clinic from another gringa, but since I am not happy with how he treated me I am going to the specialized clinic tonight: Meds. It is a sports-specific clinic with some of the best doctors and specialists in the country. I am hoping the doctor who sees me tonight will actually give me the time of day to explain the pain I am having, the injury itself and everything in between. Wish me luck.

Some Days....

...I hate living in Chile and today is one of those days.

News Article About Jake Swartwood

The Pueblo Chieftain published an article about Jake Swartwood's death. You can find it here. Although it is quite short, the details demonstrate the wonderful kind of person Jake was and how the loss of his life will affect the Colorado City-Rye community.

Again, my heart goes out to his family.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today is our 3 year anniversary of our 1st kiss and when we started pololeando! It is also the 2 month anniversary of our US wedding!

I can't believe how fast the past three years have gone and I can't possibly imagine what I would have done if I had never met Christian. He is the reason the stars aligned and destined me to come to Chile. And every minute we are apart, I miss him. There is nothing better than spending my whole day accompanied by him.

Tonight we are celebrating by making a yummy Mexican dinner for two. Ooo I might just have to pick up some ingredients to make margaritas too!


Te amo Christian!!!

Week(end) en Resumen

We've had a lot going on in the last week which has been quite entertaining. I thought I'd share a bit...

Friday afternoon my work had a "Recreation Day" where we all left work at noon to go to Ciudad Deportiva Ivan Zamorano in La Reina to play games like soccer, paintball, ping pong, fooze ball, and karaoke. I did the latter three of that list because even through I wanted to play paintball, my leg was killing me and I knew I wouldn't be able to run much. It was a fun day nonetheless and I love the fact that my company plans things like this! They had Dominó sponser lunch (boo for me cuz I hate completos, but still cool to get free food) and there were cocktails (the non-alcohol type) in the afternoon.

Saturday we went to our Cuban friend's house in Quillicura for some delicious Cuban food. Oh man was it good! Our friend Jorge came to pick us up with his girlfriend, who is from Argentina, since his house is quite far from where we live and it is almost necessary to have a car to get there. Jorge is an ex-coworker of Christian's and along with his parents, who cooked the amazing lunch, another coworker of Christian's came and a couple who also knows Jorge. We left our house around 1pm and seriously didn't get home until like 7:30pm! We really enjoyed spending time with Jorge and his family--they are just so much fun to be around. I definitely hope we go back sometime soon. Saturday night we went to a gringa friend's bday party and met quite a few new people. It was fun, but we called it a pretty early night b/c we were exhausted from eating and drinking so much at Jorge's house.

Sunday we took a break and did the normal--sleep in, go to the grocery store, cook for the week.

Monday I had a happy hour with some gringa friends. It was great to see them and catch up a bit more. We went to El Huerto, which is this yummy veggie restaurant in Providencia, but I was a bit disappointed with the guacamole they served us and the fact that every 5 seconds the waitresses wanted to take our plates even though we weren't done eating. Not sure what the deal was with them.

Tuesday my husband decided to be romantic and came to pick me up at work. I stayed late because it was my boss' last day before her vacation so we had a lot of stuff to go over before I left. One of the things we had to do was review my goals that we had established earlier this year to see how I am doing and see if we needed to add/remove anything. I'm thrilled to report that I got an excellent review from my boss who said that she is so happy with my performance and has nothing but high expectations for me. Even though most people hate doing their goals and stuff like that, I find incredibly helpful because it gives me the feedback that I need to hear every once in a while. Sometimes I feel like I still have to ask too many questions or don't know enough, and to hear that I am above the level I am expected to be at makes me realize that I am a lot harder on myself than others are with me. Not that I am going to stop being auto-exigente, but it really gives me a new found motivation to strive for even more at work when I get that positive feedback. After work, I met Christian down below and he had bought me 3 pink roses!!! He's so cute :) We went to Akai Sushi on Carmencita and had a nice dinner together. It was fun. I love our date night.

Today I went to the traumatologo to see what the deal is with my leg. It started hurting a lot last week and frankly I am sick of it. I just want to be able to work out and do stuff without it hurting so much. It hurts to sit all day, to lay down in bed, to do everything...and it sucks. The doctor was really nice and wanted to speak English with me the whole time (which is fine). He ordered me to get an x-ray to see if there are calcifications in the area where my injury is. He said that typically with these type of injuries the calcifications that grow can cause the pain. We'll see what the final verdict is, but I'm guess from what I have researched that I will need to do some physical therapy and then continue with the exercises so that the muscles never loose strength. I'll keep you posted.

On a sad note, a close friend of my sister's was killed in a rock climbing accident yesterday. He was only like 21 or so. I don't have more details, but please just keep the Swartwood family, as well as his friends & our community, in your thoughts & prayers. It is really unfortunate.

P.S. Why the hell are plane tickets in December so freaking expensive?!!! I need the crisis causing the low prices to come back....

Wedding Inspiration Blog List

I started following a million wedding blogs during my year-long wedding planning process. I now need to take them off my Google Reader because I hardly ever read the posts anymore. Not that they stopped being awesome, but my interests have shifted somewhat and my Google Reader needs a thorough review to eliminate unnecessary blogs. But I definitely want to give props to these bloggers and provide an all-in-one place to find awesome blogs for those of you in the wedding planning process. So brides-to-be, have at ‘em & enjoy!!!

2000 Dollar Budget Wedding

A $10,000 Wedding

A Backyard Wedding

A Farmhouse Wedding

A Practical Wedding

Bridal Buzz

Budget Savvy Bride’s Weblog

Classic Bride

Green Wedding Shoes

Lo & Co. Blog

Lovely Morning

Mason Jar Bride

Offbeat Bride

Once Wed Blog

Pearls Events

Snippet & Ink: Daily Wedding Inspiration

Something Old, Something New

Style Me Pretty: The Ultimate Wedding

The Bride’s Café Blog

The Bride’s Guide

Tying the Knot

VintageGlam Weddings

Weddingbee

Weddingbee PRO

With This Ring...

Chilespouse Anniv Dinner Sans Photos

Monday night was the Chilespouse Anniversary dinner. I went straight from work with my boss, a co-worker and another gringa over to Zanzibar, a top restaurant in Vitacura that I have been dying to go to. A few weeks ago, when I put the dinner plans on my calendar, I thought "I better take my camera with me. This'll be a great dinner". And low and behold...guess what was the one thing I didn't take with me? Yes, my camera.

Boo.

I was already at work when I realized I left my camera at home and it was too late to run back home and get it. Heck, it was about time to leave for the dinner when I rememberd. Oh well.
Lucky for me, someone else did not forget their camera and not only that, she wrote an awesome article about our group. Check it out at Cachando Chile .

It really was a fab evening. Got to see a lot of peopla that I haven't seen in months. Met some new faces. Ate yummy curry (although I seriously think we need a side of rice to go along with that dish). I even won a doorprize. Can't wait till next year. The 10 year anniversary will be a blow out I'm sure!