Today we are starting to get things back to normal again and made our first homecooked meal tonight. The stove top has 5 burners but it is difficult to get them to stay lit and they do kind of scare me a bit.
Since I have no car when it is not raining we go to the park. It is about a block behind our house. It is a big nice park. Otherwise the kids enjoy playing outside in the front of the house. The driveway looks like a ramp since it goes from the street down into the garage so the boys enjoy riding their bikes and scooters down it.
Jason ordered his car today from work. He gets a company car and whenever you want an automatic they take 3-4 months so it will be awhile before we get that. Right now he is just driving a loaner car from the company.
When I unpacked the vitamins I brought one of Amber's gummy princess vitamins melted-yuck! So the whole bottle was just one big gummy.
As I mentioned before we only brought a handful of things that plug in, well today we lost another item. We brought one DVD player from home because ours from home will only play US videos so we bought some DVD players from other people leaving that are muli zoned. So Jason was hooking up a TV and our DVD player in the guest bedroom and he thought he had the TV cord but he really had the DVD cord and he plugged it in the wall without the voltage converter. All of of sudden there is smoke coming out the sides and front. One less thing we will be bringing back!
I am still busy cleaning, sweeping, mopping and organizing things. I am missing my maid I had in Brazil right about now. The people who had been renting this house the last 7 years were from Brazil, how ironic. Since the houses here don't have any closets they took the smallest bedroom on the top floor and had a built in closet put in. So that is nice because we don't need 7 bedrooms. So up on that floor is our room and Amber's room so it works out well. Amber got the biggest room out of the kids. At home her room is the smallest so that is nice for her. The rooms on the top floor all have slanted ceilings and I have already hit my head 3 times on them.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Moving In Day #2
Today Jason went back to work so the kids and I were at home with the movers. They finished putting together the closets, hannging things and unpacking boxes.
The house is in pretty good shape. It is less then 10 years old. The kitchen is smaller then US kitchens but has of storage space, unfortunaly it is way up high. It doesn't have a disposal but it does have a new dishwasher that is almost full size. It has a microwave that my plates barely fit in. And 1 oven that most of my cookie sheets do not fit in only the smaller ones. The fridge is 1 door that is small size and then a box that you open within the fridge is the freezer. The laundry room is in the basement, but is huge. So in here I have a full size American fridge, built in shelves, treadmill, a drying rack that has to be 4 ft long and then in the corner is this tiny litter washer and dryer. So not only are they small, they are front loaders so you have to bend way down to see in there. The washing machine knobs are in English, but the dryer knobs are in German- go figure. The dryer is electic and does not drain the water so when you are done drying- which so far they aren't really dry- you have to empty 2 water containers and dump them in this tiny little sink. And then clean out 2 filters. I wish my laundry room at home was this big, but I miss my big washer and dryer.
Amber has been able to keep herself busy the past 2 days just playing with all her toys, playdoh, dolls, etc. She was so excited to see everything again after almost 2 months. The boys have been able to keep busy with movies, ipads, etc. Thanks goodness for technology! Sean decided he wanted to use his CD player so he got a plug adapter and plugged it in. What he forgot to get was the converter to convert the power from 120V to 220V so he blew it up. This is why we only brought a handful of things that plug in here since the voltage is different. And now we will be bringing back even less things (;
I have been with out a hairdryer for a few days now so my hair has not been doing well. When we first got in the house and I mentioned I didn't have a hairdryer, Jason said sure you do I put it in your suitcase from the hotel. I then told him that was the hotel's hairdryer. So when we checkout of the hotel we returned their hairdryer as well!
We still don't have cable, phone or interenet and won't for awhile-ugh!
The house is in pretty good shape. It is less then 10 years old. The kitchen is smaller then US kitchens but has of storage space, unfortunaly it is way up high. It doesn't have a disposal but it does have a new dishwasher that is almost full size. It has a microwave that my plates barely fit in. And 1 oven that most of my cookie sheets do not fit in only the smaller ones. The fridge is 1 door that is small size and then a box that you open within the fridge is the freezer. The laundry room is in the basement, but is huge. So in here I have a full size American fridge, built in shelves, treadmill, a drying rack that has to be 4 ft long and then in the corner is this tiny litter washer and dryer. So not only are they small, they are front loaders so you have to bend way down to see in there. The washing machine knobs are in English, but the dryer knobs are in German- go figure. The dryer is electic and does not drain the water so when you are done drying- which so far they aren't really dry- you have to empty 2 water containers and dump them in this tiny little sink. And then clean out 2 filters. I wish my laundry room at home was this big, but I miss my big washer and dryer.
Amber has been able to keep herself busy the past 2 days just playing with all her toys, playdoh, dolls, etc. She was so excited to see everything again after almost 2 months. The boys have been able to keep busy with movies, ipads, etc. Thanks goodness for technology! Sean decided he wanted to use his CD player so he got a plug adapter and plugged it in. What he forgot to get was the converter to convert the power from 120V to 220V so he blew it up. This is why we only brought a handful of things that plug in here since the voltage is different. And now we will be bringing back even less things (;
I have been with out a hairdryer for a few days now so my hair has not been doing well. When we first got in the house and I mentioned I didn't have a hairdryer, Jason said sure you do I put it in your suitcase from the hotel. I then told him that was the hotel's hairdryer. So when we checkout of the hotel we returned their hairdryer as well!
We still don't have cable, phone or interenet and won't for awhile-ugh!
Friday, August 12, 2011
Moving In Day #1
Today was the big day to see if all our stuff made it through customs. Yeah it did! So today was a full day of unpacking and let me tell you by the end of the day my knees were so sore from walking up and 4 flights of stairs.
The movers have this cool lift thing they brought since there are so many stairs here. So this lift goes up to the big doors in the guest bedroom on the 3rd floor and brings in all the furniture and boxes.
Let me tell you about the windows and doors here. So all the windows are really doors. And there are no screens here. Some are full size double doors that open and others are normal window size.
So these doors open 3 ways. They have a door handle on them and if you turn the handle one way it opens in like a door and if you turn the handle the other way just the top of the door opens and it leans in. Or if I am opening it the top opens plus one of the hinges on the bottom so that it is hanging on by only one hinge- not good. On the outside of the windows are metal blinds that go up and down. Some are electric but most I need to pull or release this rope. But when the blinds are down it is completly dark in the room.
Everything was packaged great at home and I think the only thing that broke was one of Sean's dinsours tails. And the only thing I can't find is Amber's bed rail so she doesn't fall out of bed.
They got all the beds set up so we were able to spend our 1st night in the house. The boys were excited about sleeping in their new beds. The kids got new bedding too so they were excited to sleep in their rooms. Jason was commenting on how everything looked so new! Ha
The movers have this cool lift thing they brought since there are so many stairs here. So this lift goes up to the big doors in the guest bedroom on the 3rd floor and brings in all the furniture and boxes.
Let me tell you about the windows and doors here. So all the windows are really doors. And there are no screens here. Some are full size double doors that open and others are normal window size.
So these doors open 3 ways. They have a door handle on them and if you turn the handle one way it opens in like a door and if you turn the handle the other way just the top of the door opens and it leans in. Or if I am opening it the top opens plus one of the hinges on the bottom so that it is hanging on by only one hinge- not good. On the outside of the windows are metal blinds that go up and down. Some are electric but most I need to pull or release this rope. But when the blinds are down it is completly dark in the room.
Everything was packaged great at home and I think the only thing that broke was one of Sean's dinsours tails. And the only thing I can't find is Amber's bed rail so she doesn't fall out of bed.
They got all the beds set up so we were able to spend our 1st night in the house. The boys were excited about sleeping in their new beds. The kids got new bedding too so they were excited to sleep in their rooms. Jason was commenting on how everything looked so new! Ha
Monday, August 8, 2011
First Weekend Here
Our 1st full day here was busy just trying to get things organized. We went to the mall and grocery store. The store is similiar to a Super Target and it is in the mall. It is really the only place we know where to go right now and we have to drive past a pasture with cows grazing in it to get to the mall. The first store we went to was a phone store and I ordered a phone. I guess it was a popular one since they were all out. But hopefully it should be in soon so when I frantically need to call Jason I actually have a phone! In the phone store Amber found a cell phone case she liked and accidently got too close to the door sensors and set that off. So much for blending in! Then we walked down to the grocery store and remembered to bring our Euros with us for the carts. You put your coin in a slot on the cart and the chain releases the cart. Then when you return your cart to the chains you get your coin back. So of course when we were there in April we were pulling and pulling on the carts and couldn't figure out why we couldn't get one :)
So we got 2 carts and loaded them up. We found some brands we are used too- of course they are more expensive and some brands we were used to in Brazil. We figured out which salami we liked. We had a 1 in 4 chance of guessing right. Only problem was how to tell them we only wanted 1/4 of a kilo! The milk is all shelf stable and so was not refrigerated. As a mom of 3 kids one of the things I was most excited about seeing was flushable wipes! Weird, but gotta love them with kids!
We were in the store for about 2 hours- the kids were going crazy, but when you are not used to things I needed to stop and look at everything. For those kids that don't like crust on their bread, they would be happy here. Most of the loaves of bread are crust free. My kids weren't sure about this.
Another note about the cart, not only do they go forward but they also go sideways. So I was having a little trouble steering and my cart was sliding all over the store! At check out our credit cards wouldn't work and of course we have a ton of stuff. Thank goodness we had opened a local bank account and so we were able to use a debit card. But overall a very nice and clean store. Then we went back to the house and I spent the next couple of hours organizing, cleaning and putting everything away. We had bought some items from other expiats moving back like bookshelfs, TV stands, TV , DVD player and some small kitchen appliances. It is funny, I knew exactly where I wanted to put everything in the house and which rooms for what, except how to organize the kitchen. When I finally made up my mind I finished everything up.
On Sunday I finished a few things up at the house and Jason had gotten the TV and DVD player hooked up so at the kids could watch movies. It was hard for them to be in their house with none of their things. And it had rained Sat. so things were a little damp outside. They did walk to the park which is just a block away. It was a very cool temperature on Sunday, only in the low 70's. It felt good coming from such hot weather back home. Sean asked if it was fall since it was cooler and there was a breeze. We told him "welcome to summer in Luxembourg" There go are little summer tans!
Sundays everything here is closed. So the one thing that was open and we went to was the Luxembourg US Memorial and Cementary. It is a war memorial with about 5,000 soliders buried there plus General Patton too. It is from WWII. This war Jason's grandpa fought in and was close by in Germany. Thankfully he is still alive and wasn't one of the soliders laid to rest there. But it is a beautiful area with the white crosses and the greenest grass.
Another park we took the kids to today had opened a trampoline area. Yeah, this would not fly in the states. It was an enclosed area with 12 rectanglar trampoline mats and then pads around them and they would let 2 people jump on the same trampoline at once. The kids loved it.
For dinner we drove downtown where there have a bunch of streets and squares closed off to cars and you can walk around and there are a ton of places to eat. Unfortunaly they take awhile to eat there and the kids saw McDonalds after walking for a bit, so that was our lovely night downtown! But McDonalds did taste the same and the kids got smurfs in their happy meals, so they were happy!
Tomorrow is our big moving in day, we have been staying at a hotel all weekend. So looking forward to seeing our stuff again.
So we got 2 carts and loaded them up. We found some brands we are used too- of course they are more expensive and some brands we were used to in Brazil. We figured out which salami we liked. We had a 1 in 4 chance of guessing right. Only problem was how to tell them we only wanted 1/4 of a kilo! The milk is all shelf stable and so was not refrigerated. As a mom of 3 kids one of the things I was most excited about seeing was flushable wipes! Weird, but gotta love them with kids!
We were in the store for about 2 hours- the kids were going crazy, but when you are not used to things I needed to stop and look at everything. For those kids that don't like crust on their bread, they would be happy here. Most of the loaves of bread are crust free. My kids weren't sure about this.
Another note about the cart, not only do they go forward but they also go sideways. So I was having a little trouble steering and my cart was sliding all over the store! At check out our credit cards wouldn't work and of course we have a ton of stuff. Thank goodness we had opened a local bank account and so we were able to use a debit card. But overall a very nice and clean store. Then we went back to the house and I spent the next couple of hours organizing, cleaning and putting everything away. We had bought some items from other expiats moving back like bookshelfs, TV stands, TV , DVD player and some small kitchen appliances. It is funny, I knew exactly where I wanted to put everything in the house and which rooms for what, except how to organize the kitchen. When I finally made up my mind I finished everything up.
On Sunday I finished a few things up at the house and Jason had gotten the TV and DVD player hooked up so at the kids could watch movies. It was hard for them to be in their house with none of their things. And it had rained Sat. so things were a little damp outside. They did walk to the park which is just a block away. It was a very cool temperature on Sunday, only in the low 70's. It felt good coming from such hot weather back home. Sean asked if it was fall since it was cooler and there was a breeze. We told him "welcome to summer in Luxembourg" There go are little summer tans!
Sundays everything here is closed. So the one thing that was open and we went to was the Luxembourg US Memorial and Cementary. It is a war memorial with about 5,000 soliders buried there plus General Patton too. It is from WWII. This war Jason's grandpa fought in and was close by in Germany. Thankfully he is still alive and wasn't one of the soliders laid to rest there. But it is a beautiful area with the white crosses and the greenest grass.
Another park we took the kids to today had opened a trampoline area. Yeah, this would not fly in the states. It was an enclosed area with 12 rectanglar trampoline mats and then pads around them and they would let 2 people jump on the same trampoline at once. The kids loved it.
For dinner we drove downtown where there have a bunch of streets and squares closed off to cars and you can walk around and there are a ton of places to eat. Unfortunaly they take awhile to eat there and the kids saw McDonalds after walking for a bit, so that was our lovely night downtown! But McDonalds did taste the same and the kids got smurfs in their happy meals, so they were happy!
Tomorrow is our big moving in day, we have been staying at a hotel all weekend. So looking forward to seeing our stuff again.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Pictures of places
This is a picture of the pirate park in the city. It has a huge wooden pirate ship in it. It is the kids new favorite park!
This a picture of a castle in Viaden. It is a town near the border of Germany. We visited it in April when we went over to visit Luxembourg.
This is a one view of the city. The lower part of the city is called the "Grund" That part of the city is sunken and the big city walls go around it.
Trip Over
Bonjour! We are now in Luxembourg at our home away from home.
So our trip over went well. All 8 bags, 3 kids and us arrived safely with no meltdowns (the kids or us). Door to door the trip ended up being 17 hours-ugh. Amber slept for 6 hours - most of the first flight. I woke her up to have breakfast and then she fell back asleep. The flight was only half full so she was able to lay across some seats. Our layover in Frankfort was longer then before and then we got on a little propeller jet- it only seats about 80 people. Once on that it started to rain so we sat on the plane for 30 minutes waiting to take off. By the time we actually took off, 2 of the kids were asleep. When we landed in Luxembourg I woke Amber up and she asked "So when are we going to take off?"
Local time was 7pm when we arrived at the hotel. We are 7 hours ahead of time at home. At 10pm we all went to bed except one- Amber the one who slept most of the trip. She didn't fall asleep until 1am.
So all in all good trip and no incidents like when we were trying to travel back home in April. For those that didn't hear this before: We were flying home on a Friday morning and had an early flight like maybe 6:30 or so. So we thought we gave ourselves enough time to get to the airport. We had to wake all the kids up and give everyone something to eat and we had a rental car that we needed to return. So the airport is only about 20 minutes from the hotel and we got a little lost getting there. Once at the airport we couldn't figure out where the garage was we were suppose to drop off the rental car. It doesn't help that everything is in French. We finally find the garage to park the car and then you just drop the keys in a drop box and we are running as fast as you can run with a 3 year old and suitcases. We get to the check in and she says you are just in time to check in - whew we think we are ok, but no. She then tells us Amber doesn't have a ticket. How can this be possible? We are telling her we all had round trip tickets. So she goes to talk to her people. It is taking awhile so Jason's goes over to see what is going on. They say she still has no ticket, so Jason asked if he can buy her a ticket, and they tell him yes but now it would have to be on the next flight, because we are no longer checking people in for this current flight. So we tried to persuade them b/c we had already started the check in process, but no. So the next flight out of Luxembourg is the same time as our flight from Frankfort home so that wouldn't work. We had a jam packed weekend back at home and had to be home. So Jason runs outside and finds the biggest cab there which is a station wagon car and luckily the guy speaks English. Jason asks if he can fit us all in his car, he thinks so. So we run out and stuff all the bags in and the kids in I in the back seat. Of course we don't have enough Euros to pay him so Jason runs in to go to the ATM. The ATM eats his card, so he takes mine and tries and now it is frozen and won't let him withdraw any money. So we ask if we can try again at the Frankfort airport. So the drive to the airport is about 2- 2 1/2 hours. The cab says he can get us there in time. So once we start driving he asks us which airport in Frankfort so once we find out he said that is on the other side of town and will now be more money- ugh. We drive on the autobahn and he is going over 100 miles/hour. Since there are 4 of us in the backseat, Amber is sharing a seat belt with Sean and I am tightening every one's seat belts. We get to the airport and Jason runs in and is able to get some money out but now half is in US dollars and half in Euros. So the guy agrees to that. That was probably the most expensive cab ride in history, about the same cost as a couple of airline tickets! So we were able to check in ok and we got to the gate with only 15 minutes before boarding an international flight- whew we were able to get home! So that was an interesting trip.
So now we are just trying to get organized and get used to life here.
Au revoir (goodbye).
So our trip over went well. All 8 bags, 3 kids and us arrived safely with no meltdowns (the kids or us). Door to door the trip ended up being 17 hours-ugh. Amber slept for 6 hours - most of the first flight. I woke her up to have breakfast and then she fell back asleep. The flight was only half full so she was able to lay across some seats. Our layover in Frankfort was longer then before and then we got on a little propeller jet- it only seats about 80 people. Once on that it started to rain so we sat on the plane for 30 minutes waiting to take off. By the time we actually took off, 2 of the kids were asleep. When we landed in Luxembourg I woke Amber up and she asked "So when are we going to take off?"
Local time was 7pm when we arrived at the hotel. We are 7 hours ahead of time at home. At 10pm we all went to bed except one- Amber the one who slept most of the trip. She didn't fall asleep until 1am.
So all in all good trip and no incidents like when we were trying to travel back home in April. For those that didn't hear this before: We were flying home on a Friday morning and had an early flight like maybe 6:30 or so. So we thought we gave ourselves enough time to get to the airport. We had to wake all the kids up and give everyone something to eat and we had a rental car that we needed to return. So the airport is only about 20 minutes from the hotel and we got a little lost getting there. Once at the airport we couldn't figure out where the garage was we were suppose to drop off the rental car. It doesn't help that everything is in French. We finally find the garage to park the car and then you just drop the keys in a drop box and we are running as fast as you can run with a 3 year old and suitcases. We get to the check in and she says you are just in time to check in - whew we think we are ok, but no. She then tells us Amber doesn't have a ticket. How can this be possible? We are telling her we all had round trip tickets. So she goes to talk to her people. It is taking awhile so Jason's goes over to see what is going on. They say she still has no ticket, so Jason asked if he can buy her a ticket, and they tell him yes but now it would have to be on the next flight, because we are no longer checking people in for this current flight. So we tried to persuade them b/c we had already started the check in process, but no. So the next flight out of Luxembourg is the same time as our flight from Frankfort home so that wouldn't work. We had a jam packed weekend back at home and had to be home. So Jason runs outside and finds the biggest cab there which is a station wagon car and luckily the guy speaks English. Jason asks if he can fit us all in his car, he thinks so. So we run out and stuff all the bags in and the kids in I in the back seat. Of course we don't have enough Euros to pay him so Jason runs in to go to the ATM. The ATM eats his card, so he takes mine and tries and now it is frozen and won't let him withdraw any money. So we ask if we can try again at the Frankfort airport. So the drive to the airport is about 2- 2 1/2 hours. The cab says he can get us there in time. So once we start driving he asks us which airport in Frankfort so once we find out he said that is on the other side of town and will now be more money- ugh. We drive on the autobahn and he is going over 100 miles/hour. Since there are 4 of us in the backseat, Amber is sharing a seat belt with Sean and I am tightening every one's seat belts. We get to the airport and Jason runs in and is able to get some money out but now half is in US dollars and half in Euros. So the guy agrees to that. That was probably the most expensive cab ride in history, about the same cost as a couple of airline tickets! So we were able to check in ok and we got to the gate with only 15 minutes before boarding an international flight- whew we were able to get home! So that was an interesting trip.
So now we are just trying to get organized and get used to life here.
Au revoir (goodbye).
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Last Week
So our last days here are upon us. It was official that we were doing this 6 months ago, and I can't believe how fast that seems to have gone by.
Since we are going to be gone for awhile I decided it was best to get all our favorite foods in and restaurants in before we left. So the kids have been enjoying a kitchen full of non healthy items! I am hoping that I can work off all the extra calories in our new house since it has 4 floors. We live right outside the downtown city so we have a house, more like a duplex. We are attached to one other house. And the houses go up not out. So we have 4 floors. With the garage and the laundry room in the basement and our bedroom on the top floor I will have plenty of stairs to work out on!
We had a great summer at home, again trying to get in all the things we enjoy. We did water parks, lots of pool time, the county fair, ice skating to cool off, lots of baseball, play dates and sleepovers with friends, camps, parks, lots of movies (a 1st for Amber), parties, outings, we managed to squeeze in some school work so they don't forget everything they learned this past year, library, lots of ice cream, girls nights out, seeing family, and the hardest thing- saying goodbye.
And of course we couldn't leave town without a few problems like ants deciding now would be a good time to move in, and a leaking pipe.
As for the trip- it is 14 hours. That is the length of time it took me to have Amber, but at least I had medicine to get me through that! I got everything in our suitcases, but between the 8 suitcases and 3 kids and backpacks we are going to look like a 3 ring circus at the airport. I hope we don't lose a bag or worse yet a child! Customs is going to have a field day with us.
I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their summer. August will be a stressful, and crazy month for us.
Until next time signing off from the USA!
Since we are going to be gone for awhile I decided it was best to get all our favorite foods in and restaurants in before we left. So the kids have been enjoying a kitchen full of non healthy items! I am hoping that I can work off all the extra calories in our new house since it has 4 floors. We live right outside the downtown city so we have a house, more like a duplex. We are attached to one other house. And the houses go up not out. So we have 4 floors. With the garage and the laundry room in the basement and our bedroom on the top floor I will have plenty of stairs to work out on!
We had a great summer at home, again trying to get in all the things we enjoy. We did water parks, lots of pool time, the county fair, ice skating to cool off, lots of baseball, play dates and sleepovers with friends, camps, parks, lots of movies (a 1st for Amber), parties, outings, we managed to squeeze in some school work so they don't forget everything they learned this past year, library, lots of ice cream, girls nights out, seeing family, and the hardest thing- saying goodbye.
As for the trip- it is 14 hours. That is the length of time it took me to have Amber, but at least I had medicine to get me through that! I got everything in our suitcases, but between the 8 suitcases and 3 kids and backpacks we are going to look like a 3 ring circus at the airport. I hope we don't lose a bag or worse yet a child! Customs is going to have a field day with us.
I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their summer. August will be a stressful, and crazy month for us.
Until next time signing off from the USA!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)