Internet Access

I'm writing very quickly as we're in the middle of an impressive thunderstorm! Buddy, my vicious killing-machine Labrador is huddled at my feet...who's protecting whom??

Our Internet modem is going away in 30 minutes to be returned...????? I figured I'd better get a quick blog in while I could.

All is well. Our car barely fits in the garage but it fits! Our maid is young and inexperienced but she cleans well. Lisette misplaced her homework but what's new?

I get to go house hunting with my friend this afternoon. We found a house for rent just down the street for them. How great would that be?? John doesn't want to go in case he likes it better than our house. I keep wondering how he settled on me when he has such a hard time being satisfied with what he has. Must be because I'm so great!! LOL

We miss you all! I'll be back online as soon as we're back online!
Take Care!
Shelley

Garage...Garage...Garage

The focus of the day was the...garage.

We have a Ford Expedition. Thank the dear Lord that we chose the regular model and not the EL version which is about 4-6 inches longer. "Normal" cars in Buenos Aires are bug-sized compared to our Monster Truck. Garages in Buenos Aires are made for these bugs not the monsters. We own waaaaaaay too much stuff which tends to overflow into the garage.

The funny thing is, this is supposed to be a two-car garage. There's room for a bike beside our car when it's in the garage. Not a tricycle, just a bike.

John and I headed to the local version of Home Depot today turning heads left and right (izquerda y dereche) with our vehicle. The parking lot attendant actually giggled in awe. Then John had to park in a disabled spot at the local version of WalMart because the regular spots wouldn't come close to fitting the Expedition. More looks.

It's now 11 PM and John is still working in the garage. It is starting to look terrific - we'll see how long that lasts! The bummer is, we have four bikes! :-)

Hope your weekend was great!
Love ya!
Shelley

Fun Friday and Scattered Saturday

They were.

On Friday, my first mission was to get my nails done. They had grown to enormous lengths but I was unable to find anyone to do the acrylic nails for me. An Embassy wife led me to a nail tech who works just down the street from me!! Yeah!! $20 dollars later, my nails are beautiful and short!!

We had heard that our car was to be delivered between 4 and 5, so John went in to his school to register while I started tackling the boxes in the office - last room to be unpacked!! We had also heard that the gardener/pool guy (Greco) comes on Fridays. We had also heard that the security alarm system person might come by on Friday. Well, they all showed up within 15 minutes of each other!!

By 5:30, our yard and pool look great and our car is in the garage. The new security system isn't in place yet but we still have the one that was in the house already. I'll try to attach a picture of the car in the crate it came in but first I'll explain.

It took two months to get here after spending a month in S. Florida because the Embassy wouldn't release it to be shipped until our papers were processed here. AHHHH!!! Sometime during shipping, one of the straps METAL buckles broke and the car shifted far to the right inside its metal crate but miraculously emerged from said crate without a single ding on it!!

As we love to torment our children, John volunteered himself and I to attend the school party/dance as chaperones Friday night. It was a semi-formal being held at the Italian Embassy...pretty cool! It wasn't over until 1 AM, by that time I was regularly mentioning to John that "you signed us up for this" - just a friendly reminder that it was his fault that I was tired and bored. We thought it would be funny if we both fell asleep on one of the couches and started to snore and drool a little. Somehow we managed to stay awake. The girls will be forever grateful, I'm sure!

Slept in on Saturday and commenced running around getting ready for a birthday party we were to attend. Had fun at the party then brought a very sleepy pair of teenage girls home to nap. This social life is killing us all!

We went out for dinner with friends but left the sleepy girls at home. Then the landlord came by to go over some minor problems we were having around the house.

So now, I'm caught up with my blog and I'm going to bed!!! :-)
Love to you all!

Sweet Sixteen

I cannot believe that my baby is sixteen!!! I must admit, it actually bothers me. Sixteen seems so grown up. Sixteen seems so close to heading out the door to lead her life away from us. Sixteen seems so incredibly close to independence.

Admittedly, Lisette's always walked to her own drummer and it always felt like she would have been just fine without us. Sure, Lisette has been Miss Independent since before she got out of diapers. But she still needed me to change them!! :-)

Now my baby is undeniably a young woman. Sigh. She's thrilled beyond words, as I was ummmmmm...nearly 27 yrs ago! I am happy for her but only because her face was lit up so damn bright this morning!

The bad news is, she's now allowed to date. The good news is, her sweetheart is still in Florida...yes!

Day Two
Maid...$10
Dog walker...$1
Organic Food Delivered...$7
Green Tinge around your face...priceless!

There, that made me feel better!! :-)
Love to you all!!

Maid Service

Our new maid started work today.

My day started with sending the kids off to school on the bus then searching for twenty minutes for a transformer so I could make myself a cup of coffee. It was worth it! I had my coffee and hung out with Buddy on the patio.

Buddy's dog walker showed up and off Buddy went with his new pals. You see dog walkers here all over and they usually have at least half a dozen big dogs walking along with them. Hopefully Buddy won't flunk out of dog walking etiquette and pee on another dog or something. BTW, the two hour walk-a-day costs us about a dollar!

Buddy came back at the same time the maid showed up. He drank a gallon of water and promptly took a nap. :-)

Lilian is twenty years old and pretty as a peach. I had sworn we were going to get a 60 yr. old grandmother type but the only one matching that description was quite grumpy. So John won that round without even trying. However, our pool guy's name is Greco...that's my mental balance of the situation. LOL

Day One with the maid is proving to be great. She just laughs nicely when I make my "I have no clue what you're saying" face and we call John to help. So far, so good. I'll keep you posted. For better or for worse, Lilian doesn't cook...thank goodness for the delivery system!!

I am so sick of boxes the sight of them makes me cringe. Thankfully they're all piled behind my back while I write this or I couldn't even sit in this office. Somehow I do hear them calling my name though so off I go to find more things a new home!

Cheers!!

Recovery

One busy day!

Jake was up at 2:30 AM with a bloody nose - fun, wow!

Off to a PTO meeting at 8:15 and to meet up with a friend of mine. Got some paperwork completed at the school while I was at it.

Back to the house until the groceries were dropped off (Hee Hee) then to the Embassy to check on the car, get mail and buy some Commissary stuff. John and I had lunch with said friend and her husband in the Embassy cafeteria (quite delicious food there!) Then John and I headed back home before the kids got back from school as Lisette forgot to take her set of keys! You may wonder why we chose to bestow that particular responsibility on that particular child - we're rethinking that move too!!

Nicole just returned from a shopping trip, bought a beautiful dress for herself but totally forgot to get Lisette a birthday gift. Hmmmmmm. Nice to see how responsible our kids are, you know?? :-)

Time for dinner!
It's sunny and beautiful out, maybe dinner will be on the patio!
Salud!

Servicio

Okay, here's one thing that the Argentineans have mastered!

Remember how excited I was that they would deliver the dog food to the hotel? That was such the tip of the iceberg!

In total, today - now, remember that we still do not have a car! - we had ~

Laundry - picked up, will be delivered back to us on Wednesday
Ice Cream - delivered and John says "Heaven!"
Pizza and Empanadas and Drinks - delivered
Groceries - John and I went to the big "WalMart type place", instead of lugging the stuff home in a taxi, our items will be delivered tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow the carpet guy should come and pick up our area rugs to clean and then return. Friday, we rented a movie that they delivered and then picked up from the house. They are all about delivery here, it's simply amazing!

The moving guys were back today, finished moving things up to the attic playroom for us, removed empty boxes/garbage and put together storage shelving as well as our new basketball net.

I'm digging the service!
Oh, and our full-time maid starts on Wednesday!!! Hee Hee
Cheers!

Bed Sheets

John is having a fit about the poor job the packers did in Florida...with good reason! We've found my black leather jacket with multi-coloured sparkles glued on it because it was packed with Jake's school work against it, figurines broken because they were packed in a pile, one figurine wasn't even wrapped in paper at all (a father and daughter one that miraculously was unscathed) and our bedsheets which I've been searching for for four (don't you love the English language??) days now was in a box labeled "Books and Nightstand Items"!!

Again, after a dozen moves since we met in 1988, we're pretty much used to packing/unpacking and have come to appreciate the work of competent packers. Most of the time it's comical when things are poorly labeled or arrive somehow unscathed by insane packing practices.

I'm just glad I'll have sheets that fit tonight! We've been sleeping with Full size sheets (our guest bed sheets Mom!) on our Queen size bed. :-)

Off to dinner at friends' house two blocks away!
Wish you were here!
Love to all!
Shelley

Wonderful Aches and Pains

We're in!

The aches and pains are definitely a part of moving a family of five plus a dog into a house with three stories! This is a great reason why we can't keep doing this though! In a few years, someone else will need to unpack all the boxes because it'll kill me.

The kitchen is 90% unpacked, the dining room is 90% unpacked, the "music room" is all unpacked but it now stores our pictures that we'll hang sometime in the next month. I barely can breathe in this office, it's full of boxes but my next room to tackle is Jake's bedroom followed by our master bedroom and bath!

I figured I'd better write in the blog during the day because I'm collapsing into bed by 9:30 every night! :-)

Nicole is brutally jealous because John bought me a KRZR - if you don't know what that is, just ask a teenager! It's a really cool cell phone. As it was in Italy, every task takes hours to complete so we have yet to get the girls their cell phones and Nicole, of course, can't understand that this isn't a priority right now. We're sooooo mean! LOL

Well, the boxes are calling - I'd post pictures but the camera's in one of those boxes!!

The great news is - the wine got here and is already unpacked!
Cheers!

Work Day

My back is killing me! My feet are killing me! But I'm so happy!

John and I spent the day at the house - technically, I spent the entire day at the house, moving boxes, emptying boxes, throwing boxes away. John headed out to try and set us up with cell phones...then he helped with all of the above! We both worked our tails off and tomorrow's going to be even more work.

It's good work though! Motrin is definitely my best friend! The movers will be at the house in the morning and most of the day. I tend to unpack the kitchen first but that doesn't start happening until the movers leave!

The Embassy changed our locks at the house - it now takes FOUR keys to get in our front door! We basically live in a cage. It's a beautiful cage though! :-)

I'm headed to bed, you may not hear from me for a few days while things get set up so no worries!

Lots of Love to you all!
Shelley

Success!!

Yes! We have approval and a move-in date of Wednesday!

A huge sigh of relief...as much as we enjoy the thrill of traveling, it's painful to be without a home!

So this evening, we have been busy packing and repacking boxes we've partially unpacked. Tomorrow morning, we've hired a van to come and pick us up with all our boxes and suitcases. We'll spend tomorrow night in the hotel but we don't want too much to take to the house on Wednesday morning.

Unfortunately, something happened to our Vonage hook-up - the box seems to have burnt out! So we'll need some time to replace it before we'll be able to make/receive calls...I'll keep you posted! I'll also post some more pictures once the house is settled a bit.

Cheers!

One Last Weekend?

Hopefully our last one in the hotel!!

Yesterday, John headed to pick up the girls from their sleepover and take Lisette to another friend´s house to hang out. Then John and Nicole went to the house to pick some things up and basically wait for Lisette. Worked out really well because we´d forgotten about an appt. with the Real Estate company to complete an inventory of things being left in the house for us!

Jake and I had a pleasant day in the suite, he had his nose in his new Avatar DVDs but I pulled him out to spend a nice lunch with his Mom. As with all of my kids, it´s a matter of sitting quietly while they chat on about every thought that crosses their minds. Sometimes I listen, sometimes I just gaze at their bright faces and get all mushy inside! LOL

Today the kids got a little too grumpy with each other (mainly Lisette and Nicole) so I canceled my trip with John. We were going to go to the house but I figured I needed to babysit my beastly teenage daughters. They´ve been grounded off of the computer, I decided to add all screens to list of banned items for the day (TV, DVD player) just to make my point. Mean Mom! :-)

It seemed to work, we´ve all got along nicely! Jake played with his toys then went upstairs to hang out with his friend for a couple of hours and the girls relaxed with music and books.

Tomorrow is ¨D-Day¨ for us, please light a candle, say a prayer!

Hope your weekend was refreshing!
Love to you all!
Shelley

The Waiting Game

Unfortunately, it's a game we seem to be losing at!

The Security office was unable to send anyone to do the inspection today. A little more than a little frustrating. We were told face to face on Monday that the inspection would happen on Wednesday or Thursday then on Thursday I was told it would happen Thursday afternoon or Friday. Today, John and I were told it would definitely happen by the end of the business day. At 5:30 this evening, we were told it would happen Monday afternoon. I'm seeing a pattern, you?

The good news is - John's home!!!! He was late getting to the gate in Atlanta and found out they had given his seat away. Thankfully I wasn't the only one to keep their temper in check yesterday as John did too. He ended up with the last seat available on the plane - First Class, thank you very much!! Yeah John!!

So, jet lag and all, I let John talk to the Security lady because I didn't trust my temper today. Again, she's very sweet and working short-handed but I just think this is unacceptable. This all meant that our furniture delivery needed to be delayed until Wednesday but there's still a few things needed to be finished inside the house, IE. the floors, so that probably works out for the best - but Mrs. Nice Guy is leaving the building come Monday afternoon if there isn't an Embassy person at the door. John has even given me clearance to go ballistic, now that doesn't happen often! LOL

The girls are at a school Luau and then sleeping over at a girlfriend's house. Jake has the other Embassy family's (here at the hotel) little boys over right now and the oldest will be sleeping over too. Our kids took the news of the delay like the troopers that they are. They really have been outstanding with this move - I'm so very proud of them!

Still taking those deep breaths - hey, I forgot my glass of wine tonight! Oh well, just the fact that John's here is wonderful enough!

Take a moment to enjoy your home tonight - there's no place like it!! :-)

Anyone Have a Punching Bag?

I need to borrow it! Actually we bought one didn't we?

Yesterday was a good day, I headed to the house to be there for the Safety inspection and the house passed! I then went to the Embassy and talked to the household goods lady, we're set for deliveries starting with our Express (small) shipment Friday morning.

Things went downhill starting this morning...

The Security inspection that WAS supposed to happen today was delayed until tomorrow because the Security office was too busy with VIPs. Yeah, like that excuse worked for me. Ahhhhhh! To add to the frustration, the inspector lady is really nice so I couldn't bring myself to scream at her - not that I would...well probably not. By the way, this whole inspection is because they are treating the security of some doors like they were windows, which they aren't, they're doors. You'd think it would be easy to tell the difference. Obviously not for State Dept. people.

So I've been moping around all day, John's not here to encourage me and I feel like a cloud of doom is hanging over my head. To stop myself from obsessing, I curled up with good ole Buddy by my side and read a good book (the Fourth Summer of the Traveling Pants). I even took it to lunch with me, I got out of the hotel to our favourite Italian restaurant. Unfortunately, I've finished the whole book and am back to obsessing.

Now, to add to the fun, John just called to let me know he might miss his flight back here, he's delayed out of California.

Okay, I really do know things could be worse but this just sucks.

I am going forward with the Express Shipment delivery tomorrow, if worse comes to worse we can bring the stuff back here to the hotel.

A bright thought just entered my head - they serve a really nice Malbec downstairs!

Here's to dissipating clouds!
Love ya!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow! I was able to get so much done this morning, I probably deserved a nap this afternoon! LOL!

Got the kids up, breakfast downstairs and to the bus on time (bus was late as usual). Took Buddy for his morning drop off (He He) then paid for John´s eBay purchase. Finally, I headed via Remise to the house.

The remise driver was very kind to me as I butchered his language but somehow we managed to communicate and we arrived without a single wrong turn. He also offered to wait for me and bring me back to the hotel! Bonus!

I marked the furniture that we´re asking the owner to leave in the house and took pictures for the Embassy security office. I was in and out of the house in about 20 minutes. Whew!

Back to the hotel. Then down the street to buy envelopes so we can file our local "tax return", something we´ll need to do monthly but it´s literally for tax return, as in they return taxes to us.

From the office supply shop, I stopped in at a veterinarian shop to buy Buddy more food. I had the choice between a 7 lb. bag or a 30 lb bag. Buddy´s an 80 lb. Labrador who would eat the 7 lb at one sitting if given the opportunity! I pondered if I could manage to haul that big ole bag two blocks, decided I could and then was delighted to understand (barely!) that they´d deliver it for me! I was so excited by this fact I gushed about it to the guy behind the desk at the hotel. He looked at me like I was weird, go figure! :-)

All this before lunch and in a foreign language! Yes, I´m patting myself on the back.

This afternoon was much less taxiing on me. Just balanced the check book and took a quick trip to the pharmacy before dinner. The kids and I ate downstairs again, thankfully they have a good menu but tomorrow night has to be leftover night!!

The kids absolutely love their new school! What a blessing!! Even they seem kind of surprised at just how much they are enjoying it.

Jake just finished his shower so I need to go tuck him in then hopefully get to bed at a decent hour myself!

Please say a quick prayer for our inspections tomorrow! Don´t forget to keep praying for Don´s mom too! She´s still pretty deep in the woods last I heard!

Wish you were here, especially if you speak Spanish!! LOL
Love, Shelley

First Day of School!

Yeah!!

The kids were up bright and early - hardly bright and very early! They were excited though, it's been boring for them at the hotel.

I've got a really nice picture of them but figured I'd better not include it for security purposes. If you'd like to see it, let me know and I'll email it to you!

John and I got the dog walked and the dropped off the laundry first thing. Then off to the Embassy before heading to the Realtors to pay them ($2000! Luckily we can have it reimbursed) before going to see the house again. This Wednesday is the final (pray!!) inspection and we're hoping to move in on Saturday. I'm sweating this inspection thing big time!!

We met the kids when they returned on the school bus to the hotel. They were all very happy and chatty - Yeah, again!

John headed to California tonight for a few days. He's doing a speech at the base's National Prayer Breakfast. Too bad he didn't get me to go as his chaperone! I miss California!

Lots of Love!
Shelley

School Orientation

We had to drag the kids out of bed nice and early this morning. None of us were well rested but we had places to go, people to see.

Off we went to the kids school. First up was Jake's orientation, we visited his room and met his teacher. He's happy and we're happy! She's a very nice lady and her reputation is excellent!

Next we completed some paperwork for lunches, school bus and IDs.

The girls completed their schedules and then met with some of the other new kids that were coming into the High School as well.

By early afternoon, we were all exhausted. Jake headed back to the hotel with another family who's staying here. John, the girls and I went for a quick visit to the house then back to the city. We dropped John off at the Embassy to work some house/household goods issues out then the girls and I headed back here.

Everyone had a nap! :-) No more late, late nights for us for awhile I think!

Just pluggin' along, looking forward to having our home!!!! Maybe next Saturday but it's not for sure yet!

Love and Miss you all!!

Homecooked Dinner!

The girls had a very, very busy day. First John took them for their Spanish test (both will begin in Spanish I, as expected!) then they went to an English speaking church to hook up with the Youth Group for a trip to an area amusement park. John spoke with the Youth Minister and he's Canadian (Yeah!)

I stayed at the hotel and watched two little boys while their parents went househunting. Jake was thrilled with the company and the boys were very well-behaved. However, I still don't understand boys, they are so strange!! Ha!

Jake and I picked up John at the Embassy on our way to get the girls before dinner. They had a great time and made new friends that they'll be going to school with and playing soccer with!

We had dinner at John's boss's house. Both he and and his wife are terrific plus they have two very nice kids. Their son is Lisette's age and their daughter is a year younger than Nicole. All the kids get along really well.

One of the exceptional things about being overseas is how friendly the people usually are that are in the same boat as you, so to speak. We've already found that with the majority of the people that we've met. The Argentineans seem friendly too although we've basically only met the people working here at the hotel and at the real estate office. Plus our wonderful landlord of course!

It's almost midnight, tomorrow is school orientation day so I'd better get to bed!

Please say a prayer for Don's (Sandercock) mom who had some serious complications after surgery on Tuesday. Our thoughts and prayers along with our love is with them!!

God Bless!