Email Log On - Update on First Week

Hi All, Paul and I want to start securing up the blog a little, so if you are interested in continuing to read it, please send us your email that you want to log on with to littlefieldsabroad@gmail.com so that we can add you to our list. IT DOES NOT NEED TO BE A GMAIL.... (though Google likes to think it does.) Along with that, I can share a bit more of an update of my week. I've been catching either the 5:00 or the 5:15 bus for work, that gets me there around 6:00-6:30, and I've been in meetings most of this past week, so I'm leaving the office around 5:00 - 6:00 in the evening. On Friday, I spent the morning at home with our Empregada, Veronica. She and I walked through the house and I tried to explain to her the items that would be washed vs. not (Dry Clean Only - we had a little shrinking incident - no problem...). As well as some other requests.... including cooking a bit. She says she doesn't cook North American/Western Food, but I DID ask her to help with preparing some items. At around 11:00, I left for the office, got there at noon, and left again for the evening at 6:15. This got me home at exactly 8:00 pm. Yes, 1:45 in the car, for what is normally a 20 minute commute without traffic. At one point, we only moved 50 meters in a half hour. This makes for good conversation in Portuguese with Emiquilson (pronounced emi-KEEL-son) though! When I came home, I was re-energized by a pleasant surprise - success! I had several litre bottles of iced tea made in the fridge (just like Starbucks!), noodles cooked, onions and zuchini chopped, and everything was neat and tidy. It worked! Veronica is AAAAAWESOME! So now, I just have to throw ingredients into a pan, and voila! (or I should say ohla! - pronounced OY-ya)... Dinner. On Saturday I cooked multiple meals to freeze, and I also ran errands all morning. I went to the hardware store and picked up a machete and shovel for the gardiner (my first machete purchase!), and I also went to set up the cable, etc. I'm pretty happy that so far, my Portuguese is letting me get by in doing all of this. Emiquilson has been coming with me, and the plan is generally that I explain in the car what I need, and then if I get stuck while we're in the store, he can quickly explain better. This morning, I played my first bit of tennis with another Catherine. I'm just starting to get my game back a bit, and she is a medium novice. She's really fun to play with, and we're both at about the same level. Emiquilson also is helping me to hire a gardiner. We are going to arrange for him to come by on Tuesday when Paul arrives (YAY! YAY! YAY! Pablo is on his way). He drove by another house in the neighborhood and said that the gardiner he wants me to hire also does this house. The yard was looking just beautiful, so I'm quite excited to hear that! I've finally picked up some cards for our iPads so that we have some access to the internet while I wait for the cable company to install high speed at our house - this will allow for a bit more photo action. Photo postings to come. I know I still owe everyone a picture of the car accident I saw. I'm grateful that both of our drivers are very safe, drive responsibly, and know their way around town. Yay! Ciao! K.C.