6 More Months to go!!

Can you believe it?

This was us exactly one and a half years ago + 1 day saying good-bye to the states.

This was going on exactly a year ago +1 day when we embarked on our first European adventure to Germany.

I blogged about our 6 month mark here and about our Germany excursion here. 

This was us exactly 6 months ago, oh scratch that I couldn't find any pictures of us during that time. A picture of Mas in the month of March (which was 6 months ago) will just have to do.

Look at his St. Patrick's Day flare!!

Now, here we are today, or a year and half later minus 3 days ago.

I applaud you and your math skills. We will see ya in 6 months!

Who Can Resist Dog Photos?

One of the lovely ladies from the island began a "Doggy Play Day" last summer, and we are faithful in our participation in as many Fridays as we can get to.

We got to keep ourselves entertained here people. Remember Itsy Bitsy Island. Itsy Bitsy Foreign Island. Itsy Bitsy Foreign Island (with a lack of jobs).

Mason usually just gets so overwhelmed with so much stimulation, he is beside himself. 6 hours later he is still passed out on the couch, only waking for stretching and rearranging on the couch.

Look it that fun!

Water Break!

Attempt #1 of Basset Hound picture. Hurley I am sorry this picture is not for you.

 Attempt #1: FAIL.

 Attempt #2: FAIL. so close.

 We have an extraordinary view from our make shift park.

 Mason likes it too.

What a loner.

 "All done mom, I am ready for nap #4 of the day."

 "Bye friends! See ya next time."

We're off to Sao Miguel for the weekend!! I will fill y'all in our found when we return.




maybe.

Update.

• The summer is flown by. Who can believe we are in the second week of August already? Who can believe I have only blogged once and it is the second week of August? 

• We tried one more time to be adventurous at Praia Fest two weekends ago. We grabbed some friends, PB&Js, chips and a bottle of wine (basic ingredients for deliciousness) and were all set to go for a boat ride that took us out for about an hour to the other side of the island. In typical Azorean fashion, the captain of the boat decided he didn't want to do it that day and there was no boat to be found (when we had already confirmed the time and date earlier in the week). No warning, no sign, no nada. The marina shared wise words of wisdom with us and told us "Maybe tomorrow?" FAIL.

• We had our first hiking experience this weekend. We climbed walked up Santa Barbara (the highest point on Terceria) with some friends. 2 hours, about 8 miles and a TON of rain later we were all soaking wet and glad to check that accomplishment of our list. Today's side effects = soreness all over.

• B has wrapped up another class for the semester with a beautiful 'A'!! This past semester along with his classes, he accumulated 15 hours of credit by passing CLEP test (credit by exam test). A paper is due this weekend that will finish up his second class of the semester. He will kick-out one more class for the summer starting August 22nd. Whoop! Go B!

• We are going to Sao Miguel next weekend (the biggest island of the Azores). We are excited and ready for a break of the everyday and some different scenery.

• Next monday, is our 2 year anniversary, so we will probably throw our celebration in with the weekend, especially because we may not end up seeing each other but for mere moments that day. I am gearing up for a killer week starting that day. I have 50+ people to prepare dinner for, for Vacation Bible School, a carnival that I have been coordinating for the spouses group that happens to fall in that same week, and not to mention keeping up with the regular things like work and feeding B. Also add in that we will be gone that weekend prior. Yikes.

• As the summer slowly fades to fall winter, I can see the end of the year approaching and my goals for 2011 still have no check-marks beside them. I am half way done with my book and countries goal and know for certainty I will have those achieved by the years end. The language one was worrisome, how was I going to do this with a lack of self-discipline and time? No other way but to force myself. As a military spouse, I fall under the MYCAA program to receive financial aid for an eligible certificate or associates degree program. Since I am doing this for mere pleasure and self-improvement, and there is a cap to the financial aid I am going with the certificate program. My plan is to enroll this week in the college and program and be ready to go by the fall semester. So I may not get a check-mark by this goal but at least I started the tasks.

• We attended the Quarertly Awards Breakfast last week (was that last week?). I already mentioned how B won Airmen of the Quarter for his squadron. This breakfast was to congratulate him and the others for winning that award along with competing for AoftheQ for the whole base. Unfortunately, we can't win them all, and walked out empty handed. Next quarter.

That about wraps up what you missed the past two weeks at the Morris abode. I have been wanting to change up the blog design for quite sometime now. Maybe you will see a change in the upcoming weeks. ;)

Are We Old or Just Boring?

Friday was the kick-off the biggest event here in Terceria. Praia-fest!  A 10 day festival filled with music, food, parades, and Hoobastank. Yes, you read that right. They will be here August 3rd.

People take leave for this. I don't get it?

Being the social butterflies that we are, on Friday we were determined to surpass our 10:00pm bedtime and head out to paint the town red. Some lovely folks were in on the fun too. We thought that if we had a late dinner together, we could all help each other stay awake.

Some rain and a brinner later (breakfast for dinner, which equals YUM!) there were many thoughts spoken aloud,

"Does anyone really want to go?"

"I think it is going to rain again."

"We still have next weekend."

As you probably guessed it we missed the kick-off of Praia-fest.

We made up for it yesterday, by going out with some other lovely folks to walk around to see what there was to offer and enjoying some wine from one of the restaurants from Maderia (another island of Portugal, closer to Africa). This time we did it right, and left the house a little after 6:00pm to assure we would make it home before 10:00pm. :)

4th of July.

I hope this finds that everyone had a splendid fourth!

Over in the middle of ocean, we attended our annual Freedom Fest, which equals 1 hour lines for funnel cakes, $50,000 worth of fireworks, and enjoying delicious food and drinks while picnicking with our friends.

Big Shout out to my 2 darling friends (L & A), whom without them I would never have any picture memories to share. :)

This is our 2nd and final year to attend the Fest. You can check out the firework highlights from last year here. Last summer, we weren't very anxious to get things done, because there was always the thought, "Oh, we have next summer". Now the 4th is over, and we are taking in our summer days here, because we know they will not last long.

This year's fireworks didn't fail to impress. If you have a moment or about 20 minutes worth of moments, please enjoy the whole video, or if you are more like me, just skip around a bit to capture the summary of the show. 

Well actually that video is pending to post...It will not load properly to blogger, and this post has been sitting to be posted all day. So stay tuned for the fireworks.

"Yuk!"

What better way to come back from a 13 day blog hiatus, then pictures of our little Mas-face.

B and I attempted to play vet yesterday. Mason has been itching like crazy!!! It seems a lot of friend's dogs are suffering from some unknown island source. He has been feverishly biting/licking at his front right paw leaving it all red and irritated. A friend gave me some "Yuk!" cream (yes, it is actually called that). It is a gel substance that has a terrible flavor that you put around the area your dog won't leave alone so that they get that bad flavor in their mouth and stop licking. Apparently, Mas liked the flavor or something, because that didn't work. Soo...

Diagnosis: some mystical Azorean allergy that won't go away

Possible Solutions: benadryl, calling an actual vet, yet another bath

Home-remedy: a sock and a string

Poor Mas-face! I gave him some peanut butter this morning to make sure any residual taste of the "Yuk" was gone. :)

Where Are You Sun?

We are 9 days away from May and still awaiting the sun-shiny days of spring, let alone summer. As we wait, we are staying bundled in our closed toe shoes, sweaters and jackets.


Strangely enough, when I looked on weather.com for the current forecast this is what it had to say:

      Apr 21

59° F

Precip:

10%

Maybe their equipment hits a black spot when it tries to read the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, because this morning it is cold, windy, spontaneously raining, and has no signs of clearing up.

March 6th.

Today is a significant day for us. Today marks ONE FULL YEAR of being on this island. We have been excited to reach this point. 365 days done, 365 days in counting (if all goes to plan). We have said new hellos and our last goodbyes to more people in this one year, then probably any other. Like I have mentioned before we are happy, we are content here, tears are not been shed everyday, no one worry. It is just time to move on to our next adventure.

A year is still a stretch but it should go by quite speedily. We purposely mapped out our next year accordingly. Now we know we cannot control what happens in our lives, but we can always have a plan.

May 6th-10th: Paris! (Today also marks 2 months from our next vaca.)

June/July: Hopefully our families will come say hello to us again.

End of Sept.: I will go home again (on my own :( ) for a couple of weeks.

Nov 4th-13th: Cruising the Mediterranean.

Nov./Dec/: The holidays are always gone in a blink of the eye.

Sometime around Mar. 6th, 2012: Headed to our new "home".

We're Trapped.

Maybe thats a little exaggerative, but that is sometimes what it feels like. On my quest, to find the best prices for our upcoming trips I have scoured the internet high and low, near and far, and whatever other direction it can go in. Summary of results: Cost of cruise < Cost of flights. Unbelievable right! Aren't we already currently living in Europe??

Anyhow, back to the reason for the title, there are only 2 commercial flights that fly off our island, TAP Portugal and SATA. SATA had the best deals online and they were offering student prices, so I opted to go with them and give them a call to see what qualified us to be students. Apparently, only those presently residing in the Azores but studying in Lisbon qualify. 2 years expired Texas A&M ids apparently don't count. As I was pleading with this women to find me some kind of deal, she enlightens me to say if we are residents of the Azores we qualify for the resident rate. Excellent! Oh, but US military residing on the island doesn't count.

So if you have a free moment to spare to look at www.sata.pt you will see the student and resident rates are astronomically lower than the regular rate. Now there are so many pluses to living on this beautiful island, but when you are asked "How is it?", "How could you not like it?" or "Do you love it?" this could be a valid reason of why people count down their days living on this bubble.

Oops.

We received this email yesterday.

"All,

Please see attached photos about Beira Mar parking lots, where as result of
faded parking spots lettering and lines, some unidentified individuals have
sprayed the pavement to either highlight the letter that used to be there or
just choose another spot in accordance with their convenience. This is
considered Graffiti and they can be charged with vandalizing government
property. 

Electrical underground  renovation has just wrapped up so there is no more
need for ditches digging around Beira Mar (to include parking areas) and
since housing renovation part 2 is on hold, sometime soon might  be
recommended to start repainting parking areas at least close to buildings
where renovation already happened (T-1500, T-1501, T-1503, T-1505, T-1506,
T-1507, T-1508, T-1509, T-1510, T-1561, T-1562, T-1563, T-1564, T-1565,
T-1566, T-1567, T-1568, T-1569 and T-1572).

If you have any questions please call Miguel Maduro at 535-6825 or Mr.
Patrick Henson at 535-3727.

v/r
Housing Management"

Our car is famous! Who would do such a thing?? :)

Hello Dec. 1.

The Christmas season is upon us! It is now deemed correct to decorate ones tree, drink hot chocolate wine and cookies every night and receive Christmas cards. Oh wait, y'all received those weeks ago... hmmm.. at least we waited till after Thanksgiving to set up our tree. It took everything in me to withhold from setting it up early.

We wanted to share our Christmas spirit with y'all, so here you go...

We are in the land of "the ugliest tree-toppers for sale ever", therefore we might be protesting without one this season.

You put us to shame Hillary & Matt. :)

Its the best we could come up with when you have no trees to work, concrete walls and winds that just might knock everything over. Happy Hump Day!

Weekend Highlights.

• Brandon had a day off on Friday!! Woo-hoo! He finished another 6 credits of school work, so there was reason to relax and celebrate. We commenced celebratory events Thursday night with wine! and a delicious dinner of paprika chicken, caesar salad, and broccoli slaw. Along with an unhealthy amount of television watching. (Something very rare for us.)

• On Friday, we soaked in the time together with running along the ocean, play-date at the park for the doggies, some grocery shopping, Christmas shopping in Angra (=unsuccessful), some delicious homemade bbq pizza, and finished the day off with some bowling with our church.

• Saturday was my Saturday to go to "work". Boo.. not too bad, it was just for 4 hours. Continuing in our antisocial theme of the weekend (another rarity), we stayed home and cooked fajitas, no margaritas. We said goodbye to Mason's girlfriend. :( Till they meet again outside.

• Sunday was nothing out of the ordinary, church and Mason walking.

B has started a new chaotic schedule this week. Work along with a Monday -Thursday stats class from 5:00p-6:30p and a Tues, Thurs class from 6:30p-9:30p. Whew, tired just thinking about it. For me, a little of this and a little of that, a little of being here and a little of being there. Although, I am sure the majority thinks a military wife with no job, no kids and no school must just sit around all day twiddling her thumbs. Oh if you only knew. We need "A Day in the Life..." camera crew on this island. :)

From Halloween to Christmas.

Christmas Cards are out! I dropped them at the post office yesterday, so everyone should be getting them anytime between today and February. However, normally letters take anywhere from 4-6 weeks to reach there destination. Spread the word, so that way if they actually do reach the states before Thanksgiving, they know that was not my intentions and that I am not some crazed-Christmas person. :)

Let us know when you receive them!!

Sidenote: We bought our Christmas tree last weekend too. :) The adjustment of island life.

Tropical Storm Otto.

You wouldn't believe the weather here. On my trip back to Texas, I kept updated with the weather going on in the Azores and prayed the worst would be gone by the time I got back. No such luck. The cold, the sideways rain, the strong winds have continued for a good week and a half now. The once Hurricane Otto which digressed into a tropical storm I believe has died out. However, it sure did blow out are summer, literally. You can read about it here... the Azores was in the news. :)

I keep trying to mentally prepare myself for winter and it is not working. The past two days, I have spent a significant amount of time googling Northface jackets and Ugg boots. The ocean is mad, the waves have been huge. Its a beautiful sight to see, but I will take my sunny skies and calm seas any day.

One-Quarter Marker.

We arrived on our island officially 6 months ago, today. That makes 1/4 of our tour here done! Not that were waiting to leave or anything, but 6 months is a significant amount of time. We can finally stop telling people that we are "new" to the island. Although then that makes for the other problem, that people think we know what we are talking about. :)

We can definitely say we have been and seen all around our island.

*These list our mainly for my memory and keepsake*

• Wine Musuem
• Praia Fest
• Angra Fest
• eaten at numerous restaurants
• bullfights
• Angra gardens
• Cheese Factory
• both caves
• Duck lake
• Monte Brazil
• Serra do Cume
• golfing
• Suphur Pits

However, our island offers some thing that are still on our list of things to do, such as:

• 45 minute hop to Sao Miguel (the biggest island)
• Deep-sea fishing
• numerous more restaurants to eat at
• Carnaval (in Feb.)
• I have yet to go up to Santa Barbara (the highest point), B has
• Horseback riding
• swim in the swimming holes
• apparently you can swim with dolphins here
• Wine Festival

I am sure I am missing and forgetting many things from both list.

It has been quite an adventure these first 6 months, and we are ready for more!!

New Blog Design.

I hope you like the new blog layout. Something very bright and cheery, something to remind us of the summer, as it slowly slips away. We are not ready for the winter!! There is no fall here. It just skips right past it from sunny 80 degree days, to cloudy, rainy and windy ones.

The days have already begun to get shorter. Our summer visitors have come and gone. The kids go back to school in just 2 weeks. The pool is closing until next year. New "fall" activities will be beginning soon. Holiday talk is already upon us. Where did the summer go? It flew by us. It has been a beautiful couple months, and we have felt truly blessed and fortunate to be here (especially as parts of the US heat up over 100 degrees). Although we will continue to be blessed and know this is where God wants us to be, we will have to dig a little deeper to find the beauty and happiness amongst the clouds. :)

Things to look forward to:

• at least 1 more month of sunny skies and warm weather
• our anniversary!
• Air Force Ball
• Brandon's birthday
• trip back to the states in September
• and then again in January with Brandon
• wearing my rainboots!
• cooking our first Thanksgiving turkey
• Christmas trees
• planning our cruise around Europe

So that is what is coming up in our lives. The winter may be brutal, but nothing we will not move past from. I will probably have a whole lot more time to write, due to the lack of being able to go outside. :)

This is where we live.

The start of our Island Tour.

Cows are included in the traffic on the road, seriously, we were stopped 3 times on our trip.

Swimming holes.

Coffee shop.. ordered dos um cafes = two shots of espresso.

Beware of cows.

We were at the spot where they keep the bulls they use for the bullfights.

We found the bulls.

Duck Lake.

Our first Portuguese restaurant to eat at.

Mason's new friends.

An old version of the FJ.

Statue of Mary.