Signed Contract!

Boy, did that feel great! We signed the contract for the "English House" today - and our wonderful landlord accepted all our requests.

We celebrated with dinner out and took the landlord with us! He is such a nice man it was a pleasure to spend time with him. Unfortunately but not unexpectedly, he speaks very little English so I had the opportunity to listen to John talk a lot. :-)

Our household goods are expected to arrive tomorrow then they'll spend a week or so in Customs before being delivered. We're hoping to be in the house by next weekend but we'll have to wait and see!

Other good news, our car might be here by mid-February. Again, it will spend a week or so in Customs but that's still better than last week's expected date of arrival (Feb. 28th)!!!

Thank you for your prayers, they're helping!!
Lots of Love,
Shelley

Exhilarating Day

This post is from Tuesday, January 30th! Shelley hadn't figured out that hotel computer doesn't communicate well with Blog site yet!! :-)

I guess I needed a "ladies" day out really bad because I had such a great time today!!

There was a luncheon today to discuss the fact that the APO (military mail system) is likely to be closing here sometime around the end of this year. It will be replaced by the Dept. of State mail system so all is well. Sounds straight forward enough? Not that exciting right? Well, I had such a good time! It was hostessed by a lady of Cuban descent so the food was delicious! I knew a few of the ladies there plus met some other nice people too.

The girls have been invited to a church youth group expedition on Thursday so that was great. We've been invited to dinner at John's supervisor's home on Thursday evening. We really like the both of them so that's terrific too.

Jake's wonderful classmates from Navarre sent him an envelope full of letters from them! He also received a phone call from his new teacher and his friend Manny is in his class!!!

Altogether a very positive day!
Hoping yours was too!
Love ya!
Shelley

Backtrack a Day!

This post is from Monday, January 29th - Hotel computer doesn't connect well to Blog site I guess!

Okay, in typical Johnny style - found out at lunch that TODAY is Gnocchi Day!!! So guess what I had for dinner, again. Thank goodness I like gnocchi. LOL

Nicole and I went shopping today, well Nicole did all the shopping. We hit the pavement and found some nice little shops fairly close by.

We also met another new family and had dinner with them and their two little boys. Again, lots of boys for Jake to play with but nobody for our girls!

Happy Gnocchi Day - again!!
Love,
Shelley

Happy Gnocchi Day!

Yup, everything 28th day of the month they eat gnocchi down here. You place money under your plate and it brings you some kind of luck. We're hoping it lasts more than just to the end of the month!

We finally became tourists this weekend! We made it to a "Hippie Fair" and visited the Art Museum. Fun was had by all - plus everyone bought something but me. :-( C'est la vie...I still had fun! John even added to his collection of Hard Rock T-shirts though we didn't eat there. Lisette was wishing one of her aunts or her grandmothers were here to shop with, "Hippie" paraphernalia is not my thing.

Today we read, hung out at the pool and went for a bit of a hike to dine at a restaurant John, Jake and I went to awhile back. While we waited for our food to arrive, Nicole and I zipped across the street and bought her a 220V hair straightener. Necessities of life!

It's warm and beautiful here - not too smoggy today because it's Sunday!!

Here's to a terrific week - eat your gnocchi!!
Love ya!

Ambassador's House

First off, this morning John went to a meeting with some big wigs at the Embassy - there's a general in town and so there was a meet and greet.

Next, he went to the house we're trying to rent to meet with the owner about the security issues. Seems there's a problem with the bars on the doors leading out to the patio. The owner has been absolutely terrific to deal with, this is the house that his kids were brought up in so he's very emotionally attached and very eager to rent it to people who love it like we do! That said, he doesn't want to ruin the aesthetics of this house that he loves but the embassy requires these stupid bars!! So we're in a bit of an impasse, with a wrought iron guy coming on Monday who might be able to figure a way to attach these bars without making the doorways ugly. Keep praying please!!!

This afternoon I attended a tea at the Ambassador's house. This was a spouse meet and greet for the spouse of the same general, there was about a dozen of us there. The Ambassador's wife was the hostess and she was very, very sweet. It was an informal chat session along with a tour of the house from the architect in charge of it's maintenance. The house (mansion/palace really) was built in 1910-1917 with a French design by the Argentinean Minister of Foreign Affairs and is stunning. Most of the rooms are actually quite cozy while others are strikingly imposing. There's a French garden in the backyard and incredible crystal chandeliers all over the place.

It was great to meet some of the other military wives from different services. I did notice that I'm definitely becoming one of the "senior" wives - how did that happen?? LOL

Goodnight!

Countdown to Leaving the Hotel

Note: This is yesterday's (the 25th) post that somehow was put under January 22nd??? :-)


Please don't get me wrong, this is a very nice hotel with a very nice staff. The restaurant is yummy and our rooms are spacious. However, it is a hotel and not a home.

John received the Security report and there's only some minor items on it so things are looking good for us being able to move in. Our household goods are expected on Feb. 1st now instead of the 3rd. It does take a week to get the shipment through Customs so we still need to stay patient but that light has started to show at the end of the tunnel!!

I spent the day straightening out finances and paperwork at the hotel then hit the treadmill. My first jab at Yoga spurred me on a bit I guess. :-)

John had lunch with a local professor, obviously on Argentina time as this "lunch" took over five hours! It was a group of them, they had lunch in a different part of town then returned here for a coffee. John called the room from downstairs when they got here but I declined the invite to join them...smart move on my part by the sound of it! LOL Thankfully I didn't need him for anything because neither of us expected it to be such a lengthy outing.

Dinner was here at the hotel - I cannot wait for a real homecooked meal, at my own home!!!!

But for now, here's to us finding our home!
Salud!

Security Inspection - Complete!

Atleast initially!

John, Lisette and I went to the "English House" this morning to be there when it was inspected. Well, Lisette and I wanted to measure the rooms too. The Inspector said that things looked good, that there were only a few things that would need correcting or changing. Yeah! The owner was there and seemed eager to complete any tasks required. Another Yeah! The air conditioning units we had requested last week were already installed too. Triple Yeah!

After spending some time at the house, we went and had lunch before heading to a family's house who has a daughter in Lisette's grade. They live in a huge, gorgeous house, the kind that we expected to get but we all agreed we still love "our" house!

The mom took us over to the school and Bethany took us on a tour of the high school. We dropped off Nicole's final transcript which had just come in the mail last Friday. The school is really nice plus Bethany and Lisette hit it off really well!

Before heading to the hotel, we stopped at the Embassy to get our mail and check again on the car. Bad news - it still hasn't been shipped!!! Stupid State Dept!!! Word is, we won't see it until Feb. 28. We were a little miffed to say the least.

So back in the hotel we are (sounds like Yoda!) and wondering what's for dinner. However, it's only 6:45 so nothing's open yet. LOL

Yup, we're hanging in there - how about you??
Love,
Shelley

Three Weeks!

We've been here for three weeks now and still like each other! LOL

I'm writing on the hotel computer, with a very strange looking keyboard and everything except my actual writing is in Spanish on my screen. But hey, I'm doing it! This just illustrates how upside down some things are in our lives right now. We manage just fine but it can be slightly daunting to undertake simple activities.

I'm slightly terrified that John needs to leave for a few weeks when he travels to California to be a guest speaker at one of the bases there. We depend on him greatly for our communication - Lisette and I stumble through things, Nicole is very hesitant to speak Spanish and Jake (who will probably be flying past us all in the next few months) is only just beginning to show signs of interest.

But we've made it so far!! :-)

Lisette woke me up last night with a horrible headache and was complaining about Buddy driving her nuts, constantly shaking his head. I got her some Motrin and took a look at Buddy's ears. His left one was visibly infected - bacterial or fungal, it was hard to say but it was deep red and "dirty." So I was up at 3:30, cleaning and medicating Buddy's ears and waiting to see if he had any kind of reaction to the meds I administered. Of course I looked up the med on the internet, answered some emails and generally waited to get sleepy again. Is it a mom thing that we wake so fully, so quickly?

I did get up before 9:30, brought breakfast for the kids up to the room. John had headed to the Embassy by 8:30 to keep an eye on the progress of our inspections/paperwork, none of which made any headway anyway! Welcome to the life and times of people tied to the State Dept. and a foreign government.

We did receive some mail (yeah, Books-a-Million!) so while Jake and Nicole were hanging out at our pool, I started the second book of the Eragon series.

This evening, the girls and I attended our first yoga class! I'll let you know how I feel tomorrow but during the class I came very, very close to falling asleep...hmmmmmm.

So, no forward motion on our housing situation...but we have some good books to read...and Buddy's feeling much better!

Sigh ;-)

Love ya!
Shelley

Nice Weekend

We've spent a great deal of time recovering from some kind of virus this weekend. Lisette has a stubborn cold, John and I have had a sore throat with a headache. Lots of extra sleep has helped but none of us has completely shaken their illness.

Today was absolutely gorgeous so we took the subway and went to the zoo. It's HUGE! Right in the middle of the city is this massive zoo with all sorts of animals - including Jake's favourite, the tiger. There was a beautiful white Bengal tiger there. Lisette's favourite was the sea lions - we went to see a sea lion show too. There were really cute Meerkats too. Nicole's not here right now so I'm not sure what was her favourite. :-)

We stopped at a very nice family restaurant across the street from the zoo for "postre" (dessert) for the kids and an empanada for John and I. We were in dire need for some rest for our tired feet too.

On the way back, we stopped at a sports store and bought some swimming goggles for Jake. We ended up with a punching bag too. Hmmm. I wonder if that has anything to do with our cabin fever?? LOL

We decided we need to buy a ping pong table for the new house...we'll see if we follow through on that decision!

The whole family misses our church very, very much! There are no English speaking churches near us, the church we'll likely attend is almost an hour taxi trip away - and we'd need to take two taxis as there's five of us!

No update on our car either, supposedly it's still in Miami waiting to be shipped!!!

Tomorrow is the Security inspection on our "home" - here's hoping.

Happy Sunday!
Love,
Shelley

Just Hanging Out

I wasn't feeling well today, my throat and head was hurting bad all morning and most of the afternoon. So, obviously, not a busy day for me!

I slept, Jake kept me company and kept asking if I was going to be okay (sweetie!) - I consoled him so he eventually left me to go watch Star Wars...fickle! :-)

We missed out on a play date due to my illness but hopefully we'll have a fun weekend. We certainly need to spend some time out of this hotel!

Have a wonderful, love-filled weekend!
We miss you all!
Love,
Shelley

Success!

John and I reconsidered our first choice for a home yesterday. It had some issues arise during it's inspection so we had dismissed it as a possibility. However, it was the one that felt most like "home" to us.

Yesterday we went back for another look and went ahead with a rental offer for it...with the stipulation that corrections had to be made so that it could pass the inspections within the next 2 and a half weeks.

An hour ago the landlord (a retired surgeon, very nice gentleman!) agreed to our terms. So, here's hoping this works out!!

The house has four bedrooms and a huge playroom in the attic. So plenty of room for guests!! The master bedroom is massive, with a large sitting area and a gorgeous big balcony. It's got the most beautiful backyard with a huge covered area for hanging out plus TWO BBQ areas, one with a pizza oven! The pool is the biggest we've seen here. The inside living area is smaller than average compared to the other houses but there's an eat-in kitchen and a study with it's own fireplace!

So please, please light a candle and say a prayer for us!! We need a home!!! :-)

Love,
Shelley

Patience is a Virtue, Right?

Right?? LOL

John went to the Embassy this morning and I met him there at 11 to head out and see a house again that he liked. We had put in a rental offer for another house but are still looking for "back-ups".

I liked this house less this time around than when we saw it first. Oh well!

We picked up some uniform shirts for Jake then had lunch at a nice outdoor cafe.

Back to the Embassy for a short (my timeline was 15-20 minutes, John took TWO hours!) trip to check on our car and pick up the mail.

Returned to the hotel and then headed out to get my nails done while John took the kids to the mall.

FYI, I have acrylic nails w/gel overlay. I thought I was getting an acrylic fill but it didn't work out that way...and I don't have the communication ability to work it out! I now have a lovely manicure over what was left of my acrylic nails...my toes look great though!!! Deep breath - what can you do? Hopefully I figure things out before my nails start looking gross again.

John tried calling me multiple times on my cell phone without success. Seems the volume was turned down. When I returned his calls, he happened to be in a loud area and couldn't hear it ring. We actually arrived back at the hotel within minutes of each other but he was immensely frustrated - between my phone and the kids...yup, a day for both of us to work on that virtue!

We found out the second house we wanted has been rented...bummer. Onto option #3...

Love to you all!
Shelley

Friendly Day!

We started the day by having breakfast with a new family in town...even more new than we are! They have four kids under the age of eleven so have their hands full. Very nice kids too - one boy is Jake's age, so you know he's happy about that!

The kids and I cleaned up the hotel rooms - the maids don't come until late in the afternoon and the rooms couldn't wait. We watched some soccer on television and hit the grocery store to buy things for the BBQ we were invited to.

We all (all eleven of us!) headed to the paaaarrrrrtttttyyy! The food was delicious, the company excellent and the wine was wonderful. We met two additional families there too. The kids all got along and enjoyed themselves, young and older. I got to get my baby fix with a precious little six-month old baby girl. It was our first "official" gathering and we had a great time...I'm already looking forward to returning the favour! BTW, they take their BBQing very, very seriously here in Argentina!!

Salud!
Love,
Shelley

More Houses!

Nicole went with us today to see four more houses and revisit a house we liked from earlier in the week.

Two of the new houses have now become our back-ups in case our favourite (but expensive) house falls through. That one is being inspected by the Embassy Safety offices and then we need to talk the owner into lowering his price! Say a prayer!

Looks like we should be in a house by mid-February at the latest! I can't wait to get out of the hotel already - although we're quite comfortable here, it's getting old.

For lunch, the three of us went to a restaurant in the area that we'll likely be living in. It was excellent!

Back to the hotel and we're wiped out - house hunting is emotionally draining! :-)

Besitos!
Shelley

Melancholy Day

I was rudely awoken this morning by a moist nose in my face - thanks Buddy! He's never done that before so I figured he'd been keeping his legs crossed long enough. I hurriedly got ready and took him to the park for some relief. Forgave him for the wake up call too!

Today was a day to feel way too far from home. John was at the Embassy filling out his paperwork mountain - I've seen it and it did take down an entire forest! We still haven't been able to get a cell phone, the internet wasn't working and I'm heartsick about not only being unable to be home in a time of need, but even communication is limited right now.

Obviously, the internet is back up! :-)

It's amazing to be in this country but the most serious backlash is being away from our loved ones when they need us.

Love to you all!
Shelley

More Important Things...

John and I spent the morning looking at houses - frustrating but turned out to be the good part of the day.

Someone very near and dear to us has been diagnosed with a serious illness. Without their blessing I don't feel right mentioning who they are. I found out about it shortly after returning from house hunting and it was an ice cold slap in the face.

In honour of this person and the battle they are embarking upon, please hold your loved ones close tonight - either in person, via phone or email.

God bless you all!
Shelley

An Embassy Day

We all piled into Remises (private taxis) at an early hour and headed to the Embassy for our security briefing. I was brilliant enough to suggest we bring a DVD player for Jake! Wow, was that a great move!

The briefing lasted close to two hours and was rather eye-opening for the girls and I. From across the table, I could see John's blood pressure rising. There is nothing unusual about this city, it's simply a huge city with some tough financial issues going on. Couple that with a larger than average availability of weapons and it's a place with serious concerns for safety.

So for a few reasons, I was glad Jake was off in "Ice Age 2" land and not hearing the info we were. He was also quiet as a mouse for the entire brief. :-)

We found out our Express Shipment has arrived. It wasn't expected until at least next week! Thankfully they can have it stored for us. Picked up one more of our boxes from the mailroom. Got some Christmas cards - thank you Sandercocks, Angellos, Andres, Padillas and Max!

We obtained our Embassy passes, did some grocery shopping at the Embassy (peanut butter - yeah!) and then the kids and I headed back to the hotel. John stayed for an additional brief of some sort.

Dinner was delicious - the kids and I totally misbehaved while John rubbed his face. It's a good thing the place wasn't too full, our table had more than its fair share of laughing going on!


Tomorrow is more house hunting, so please say a prayer for us!
Love,
Shelley

Idiosyncrasies or just plain crazy??

Yes, it didn't surprise me but always disappoints when you try to complete a seemingly simple task and it becomes a major undertaking. This is the world of cell phone insanity I found myself in today! Ha!

We took our laundry and dropped it off (10 bags, 20 dollars - yeah!), it will be delivered to our rooms tomorrow afternoon! Yeah! Okay, that was the sweet side of life here in BA. Then John, Nicole and I headed to the office of the Cell Phone Hell. Not really, just exaggerating for effect.

Well, it seems you must be a documented, registered, bloodline-worthy human being to give them your money. As we have not yet been thus blessed (Embassy says 10-15 days), no cell phone plan for us. Home we went with our heads hung low. Again, not really but it seemed to fit.

The rest of the day was pretty lame, lunch at an Italian place. I'm reading "Eragon" so I spent the afternoon with my nose stuck in the book (excellent if you're interested) wishing I'd taken the time to see the movie before we left!

The kids had a grocery store cooked meal (grilled chicken and tortilla chips) while John and I went to a nearby restaurant to celebrate our anniversary a bit late and the fact that we still like each other after our first week in Argentina! :-)

The weather is still beautiful, warm and sunny but not too hot. I'm still excited to be here and the kids are all getting along. Okay that very last part is a bit of an exaggeration too but I'm feeling imaginative tonight!

Love and Kisses!
Shelley

Happy Anniversary

It's John and my 18th anniversary today! :-)

Another quiet day, another slow start this morning. I took Buddy for his walk while John got the kids together and met me at our friendly neighbourhood cafe for breakfast. Brutally slow service but delicious food and drink!

Jake's not feeling so well, has a croupy cough so we stayed in for the rest of the day. John has taken him up to the sauna to try and relieve the throat pain. No fever, just mild pain and a horrid sounding cough.

The kids will need to fend for themselves downstairs for dinner while John and I wine and dine each other somewhere else. I don't like leaving Jake while he's sick but then again, this may be our only wedding anniversary in Argentina! Wonder if there's a tango place nearby?

Love and miss you!
Shelley

Sweet Saturday

We slept in!! First time in a while and I now feel completely over the jet lag.

It is a cool day but sunny and absolutely gorgeous!! We all took a long walk to the shopping area close by - quite fancy-schmancy too. We checked out the method and costs of getting new cellphones and service here. Looks like getting that completed will have to wait for Monday when their business office opens! Hurry up and wait - the motto of our lives! Ha!

There are lots of beautiful parks around BA and the streets are relatively clean for a big city. Jake's tender heart and keen eye kept us somewhat short on loose change, we pretty much let him drop coins into whoever's cup he chose. There are a variety of "lost souls" here, nothing different from other cities I suppose but he's not used to seeing it.

We found a lavanderia but it was closed. Our family is starting to get very short on clean clothes so that'll be the first stop of the day on Monday when they open again. Word has it that it's very inexpensive to drop off your dirty clothes and they'll be delivered clean and neat back to your hotel! Now white socks may not stay so white but hey, beats hanging out in a hot laundromat!

The girls had their nails done - a whopping $5 for each. Buddy's hanging around at my feet waiting for me to finish so I can take him for a walk. The noise of the city is outside the window, it's not a loud city but I'm still glad we're not going to be downtown BA for much longer.

We've decided to have a Spanish word for the day each day - so far it's been guest ~ huesped, minivan (Jake's choice) ~ la minivan, and pickle ~ pepino. FYI, pepino is also used for cucumber.

So we're having quite a Saturday, making plans for laundry and obtaining new cell phones on Monday - just living that exciting lifestyle! It has been a lovely day - after a crazy week!

Update on our housing search - turns out the castle is too far away (Embassy rule), another "mansion" we found just felt too cold, right now we settled on an old English-style house or a brand new house that feels like a much larger version of our house in Italy! John's trying to jumpstart the Embassy folks to get the houses approved starting Tuesday. It could take up to three weeks to complete the assessment! And I thought the military was slow!!! It's got nothing on the State Dept. Wow!

Hope your Saturday is as mellow as mine!
Love,
Shelley

Jake's First Friend

We took the kids to check out our favourite houses, they immediately preferred two different ones from each other! Jake initially rated each of our favourites as "negative zero." He was feeling quite grumpy and homesick today.

A trip to McDonald's helped his mood but what really helped was meeting and playing with some boys that he'll be attending school with. We visited the school the kids will be attending but basically only saw the playground as pretty much everything is shut down for summer vacation! We spent the rest of the afternoon playing with another Embassy family.

We headed home where Jake and I took Buddy for his afternoon stroll then surprised the girls with a trip to a newly opened bakery! Yummmm!

The boxes that we sent to ourselves last Saturday arrived yesterday! Wow! Not necessarily a good surprise as we're slightly short on space in our hotel rooms but that's still impressively quick. Go USPS!

Worst news is that our Express Shipment will be here in ten days - our move into a house is still probably weeks away! Atleast my computer will be here. Always look for that silver lining!

Miss you guys (fighting some homesickness myself!)
Love,
Shelley

We've Arrived!

Hi Everyone!

We're happy to be on land, it was a long flight but we've arrived in Buenos Aires and begun our latest adventure.

Traveling on New Years Eve was a great idea, we were upgraded to First Class from Ft. Lauderdale to Atlanta and then from Atlanta to Buenos Aires. It is the only way to fly!! If only I could count on that kind of travel everytime we went anywhere!

Buenos Aires is HUGE but relatively clean and friendly. We're staying at the Feirs Park Hotel in downtown BA. It's a nice hotel, has security around the clock. John and Jake just now returned from the rooftop pool. I haven't checked that out yet but they're quite happy.

So we arrived on Monday morning and were greeted at the gate by a fellow Embassy guy here. Diplomatic passes were thrown around and we whizzed through immigration and customs. God Bless diplomacy! Ha!

Monday was spent chilling out in the hotel. Unfortunately our rooms weren't ready so we literally hung out in the restaurant lounge area. We then moved into our two adjoining suites.

Tuesday John and I went to see a realtor and looked at a castle - yes, a Normandy-style, 10,000 sq. ft house. Awesome but pretty far away from the kids' school. Lisette and I did some grocery shopping, high-fived each other for surviving our first Spanish outing alone, and we found a park for Buddy (our lab) to do his business. Dinner was down the street and around the corner but cost a whopping $100 so perhaps it will have to just be a "date" site from now on!

Today (Wednesday) John and I hit the rental market today and found two "maybes", one being a very strong contender. This afternoon we dropped by the Embassy to start the in-processing. We made the mistake of bringing the kids with us - waaayyyy boring for them! Here I thought we were doing them a favour by getting them out of the hotel for a bit.

So now it's approaching dinner time ( for us early eating Yanks), it's 7 PM and the restaurant downstairs should be open.

My hope is to keep you all updated on our comings and goings. Here's hoping for good internet connections and time to post!

Love to you all!