Sunday, August 19, 2012

Week of August 5th, 2012

Sunday I got up and started loading up the washing machine for laundry, well a bit later we hear all this banging noise and go downstairs and the washing machine has walked as far as it could across the floor with still being attached to the wall, yikes.  I quickly shut down the machine and can't figure out why it is doing this.  I ask Jason if he read the instructions when he installed it and he hadn't.  So I go and read what you are suppose to do and it looks like he was suppose to unscrew these big bolts from the back of the machine that would unlock the drum from the back wall.  Lovely now I have probably damage my new machine b/c he didn't read the directions!
Can I tell you how many times I have had to tell the boys, mostly Sean, about how important it is to read the directions on your worksheet before you start.  Well now I guess I need to be telling one more person as well!  So Jason takes a look at it and they are bolts in a metric size and his tools aren't in that size.  Of course today is Sunday and everything but one grocery store is open.  So he runs there, but it is a little store and they don't have anything like that.  So I start trying to think who may be in town and calling to see if they have any metric tools.  Since Jason was leaving today to head back to the states for a week and a half!  I find a friend in town and her husband has the tools so Jason picks them up and gets the washing machine fixed.   This is exactly why I wanted them to deliver.
So now it seems to be working fine.  It is so much quitier then my old machine and I can't even tell when it is done besides going down there.
Later I ran to that little store that was open since we didn't have any food in the house from being gone and then vacation.  In the afternoon Jason left to fly back to the states.

Monday I just kept on doing laundry, so fun and so much of it.
After the chiropractor we went over to a friend's house for lunch and all the kids played together and were excited to see each other!  It was nice to catch up!
Then one of her boy's came back to our house for the afternoon.  I was still busy trying to unpack from our summer and put all the stuff I brought back away.
I think an American family moved in just kiddy corner from us.  There used to be a family from Switzerland there that had the 2 cats that always came by to visit.  They were there when we left this summer, but now there is another family in that house.  I just overheard them talking one day while they were picking berries across the street from my house, so we will have to try and meet them.  It looks like they may have older boys and a girl maybe around Jacob's age.

Tuesday morning, before 8am the electrician showed up to replace the outlet that my old washer fried. So many issues with this item!  So that is all working now.
We then ran to the mall, so we could do all my errands, post office, dry cleaners, cash station, grocery. store, car wash and gas!
After lunch one of Amber's friends from school came over to play.  His mom stayed for a bit to chat too.  These 2 will actually be together this school year too.  But the rest of their little group of 5 kiddos all got split up into different classes.  There will be 4 classes of 4 yr. old preschool this year.  Later we dropped him off at home.
A friend told me today that she met another American who lives down the street from me.  They just moved here and the oldest is a year older then Amber.  Before there were no Americans in this area, so this might be nice.
When the kids come to the store with me it always ends up being more expensive, right!  Well Jacob wants to buy a coconut today.  Really Jacob what are you going to do with this?  The one coconut is like over $3.  So I let him get it to try.  He spends an hour on and off trying to get this thing open.  I google how to open them and we are trying everything and making a mess in the process.  Then after dinner I tell the boys to take it outside and just hit it against the corner of the cement.  Well that finally did it.  We get it out of the shell and break off some pieces.  Jacob was like this taste awful!  I don't know what he thought it was going to taste like.  The other 2 didn't like it either.  Then Jacob said well if I shred it it will taste better.  So he shreds some and still doesn't like the way it tastes.
I finally finshed at the end of the day all the laundry from prior to leaving, vacation clothes, towels, etc.  My machine at home does the laundry in about 40 min, I believe except the whites.  Here all cycles say 3 hours.  Really my clothes don't need that long.  Maybe it is b/c they have smellier clothes here if they don't use deodorant. I don't know.  But we do and I don't need them to wash that long.  So I always press the fast wash cycle.  Guess how fast that is?  2 Hours!

Wednesday.  So you think the washing machine story was a pain, here is another one!  So glad I came back!  Today is a holiday so everything is closed.  So I am now busy going through the kids rooms cleaning out clothes, and going through all the school work and such.  So after lunch I thought it would be nice to get them out of the house, it was a nice day, and go to the park.  So we walked to park about 15 min. or so from us.  I had taken the stroller and we had brought water and the garage door opener.  When we were finished at the park we are walking back and I go to grab Amber's water under the stroller I see that Jacob didn't screw his lid all the way on and now there is a pool of water in the bottom of the stroller and the garage door opener is right in the middle of it!  I was ready to beat him with the empty water bottle.  I opened the garage door opener up and was trying to dry it out.  Of course it started to rain on us a bit on the way back!  We get home and sure enough it isn't working, so nice!  Of course things always happen when Jason is countries away!  We first had Jacob climb up to the second floor since the windows were cracked open, but you have to close the door and then turn the handle a different way to get it to open as a door.  He tried to stick his arm in and turn the handle but it didn't work.  Since there was work done on the house over the summer Jason's house key is actually at his office, but since it is a holiday no one is there.  I don't have his secretaries cell number and she lives in France and is about an hour from work.  I can't get ahold of Jason either.  So I call the relocation lady that helps us and she says she can call a lock smith but it will be expensive esp. since it is holiday and if they break something trying to get in I need to fix it.   So she tries calling the secretary and Jason to see if there are any other solutions.  I ask the neighbor if she had a key to the house.  She didn't but she tried the owner of the house and she was on holiday so couldn't be reached.  So we ended up being outside for about 2 1/2 hours or so.  When the locksmith gets there he looks a little bit funcky himself.  He has piercings all over him and some funcky hair.  He is a stocky guy and he climbs up to my dining room window ledge that is open and pops out a piece, it took about 5 min, and then throws in Jacob through the opening.  He says this is how people break in to people's houses when their windows are cracked opened.  Ok good to know.  I am never opening my windows again, on the other side if they had all been closed it would have been major damage to get in.
Then I have to pay him on the spot.  Oh well.  At least nothing got damaged.  Once inside he put that piece back in and we are good to go. 
On a positive note since we were outside for so long today I met the 2 new American families.  The one I met the girl who is Sean's age and then has 2 older brothers, and the other one has a 2 yr. old and then a girl in Kindergarten.  So she ended up having Amber over for a playdate.  After we got settled back in the house we walked over and got her.  It will be nice to have a friend so close esp. for when things happen like I get locked out or my washer blows up, etc!
Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Thursday was a good day and no one got locked out!
The cleaning lady came back today and now I finally feel like we are settled, unpacked, washed and back on track again.
Today Amber did a camp with 2 of her friends from preschool at the place where she had done her gymnastics class.  She went at 12 and had lunch and stayed until 4pm.  Since she was going to be there for so long I decided to take the boys to the pool close by.  It is an indoor one that has a bunch of different pools inside and then one of their pools goes outside from inside as well.  It was so hot in there.  The boys spent most of their time just jumping off the low and high diving boards.  They had a great time!  I was able to bring my magazine and just watch them and read.  It was very nice!
Amber was a sweaty mess when we came back to pick her up but she said she had a great time.  So I signed her up to do the same thing tomorrow!
Good day for all!

Friday I had signed Amber back up for lunch and the afternoon camp with her friends.  So we go at lunch to drop her off and the one friend that was coming for lunch wasn't there.  Amber wasn't too sure about staying.  I got her in the lunch area, but she was saving a seat for her friend.  She was close to tears.  I called the mom from the parking lot asking if her son was coming for lunch since we signed them up together and she said that she had forgotten she had an appt this morning and he would be coming after lunch.  She should have let us know and we could have easily taken him, but she was fine when I picked her up and she was playing with her friends. 
While she did that we came back home and had lunch and then a bit later I decided we could try out a park not too far from us that we hadn't been too before.  It was a hot afternoon here and this was a spaced out park, but the boys weren't really that impressed.  They played on a few things and that was it and they were ready to go.  So we just sat in the shade for awhile until it was time to go get Amber.  After we picked her up I told them I would take them out for pizza.  So of course it is early and the only place open is Pizza Hut.  Not really crazy about it but they like it. 
When we got home the boys and I clipped a bunch of really long weed/trees that were growing around the front.

Sat. Today was going to be hot here.  A high of 87 and tomorrow is suppose to be 92!  Not very common here.  My house is going to get quite warm on the top floors without air!
So today I planned a play date at another park with Amber's 2 best friends that were back in town at a park that was shaded.  It worked out great.  We went in the morning and stayed until early afternoon.  There was enough stuff to do to even keep the boys busy. 
Did a few things around the house today later, but that was about it.
Tonight as I was closing the blinds I saw the fox coming out again from the wooded area across the street.  He must live there, because I have seen him quite a few times coming out of there at night.  One of the cats that is still here was sitting on my walkway watching the fox.  I don't think the fox saw the cat. 

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