Today we've been in Costa Rica for one week! Today also happens to be the day we got our internet and cable hooked up! Yay!! I'm so happy to be connected to the rest of the world again!
We've been really busy since we got here. Our sponsors (someone the Embassy asks to help us out for a while) have been so great. The wife took me shopping last Friday for groceries at the Wal Mart owned store called Hiper Mas (Malachi calls it the Whale Store because of the whale logo). It was so overwhelming for me because my Spanish is so poor and I'd been in CR for about 20 hours. None the less I picked up a lot of cleaning supplies but not much food.
That night we went to our sponsor's house for their son's 10 year birthday party. It was great for us to meet people. Saturday was the big Embassy yard sale. We were looking for a crib but didn't like the one we saw. I did get a Baby Bjorn carrier for $20 - it's great!
Sunday our sponsors invited us to their church, but we decided to chill. We got bored though (in case you don't know the sun rises at about 5:15 here because they don't observe daylight savings time) so we took a walk into the central area of the town we live in. Just from that hour long walk Malachi and I got sun burned, we're so close to the equator and we're a bit higher in elevation too. Next time Malachi went out to play he had sun screen on. Luckily I had aloe with me, that really helped us.
John went grocery shopping and got a ton of stuff that afternoon while the kids and I napped. He was not overwhelmed at all by Hiper Mas.
Monday the kids and I went to the Embassy for a couple of meetings. We went to see the nurse in the MED unit and the Community Liaison Officer who works between the Embassy and families. They were both so nice and great to meet. I'm actually applying to be the asst. CLO. It would be only Wednesdays at the Embassy and about another 8 hours at home. The application is in, and I'm waiting to hear if they're going to schedule an interview. I have no idea how long that'll take. If I get the job, I get to have a Top Secret Security Clearance!! That'll make me feel really cool.
Tuesday I went back to the Embassy for a meeting with the Security Office about how to stay safe in the country. The crime threat level is high, but as long as we stay smart I think we'll be ok. There are certain areas where the crime is prevalent and he just told us where they are and to avoid them, seems easy. Also most of the crime here is geared toward tourists and rental car companies.
Yesterday we got our UAB!!! What a great day! It was so awesome to get our stuff. It came right before John came home (I had just opened the first box when he walked in). We went through the boxes and then set up our Wii! John, Malachi, and I had some fun with that and the Wii Fit before going to bed last night.
And today. Oh today...getting the internet and cable installed was so awesome. I had no idea that 8 days with out internet would be so hard. I was really starting to feel very isolated, but having internet really, really helps with that. And our cable is great because we have several channels from Denver, CO. Tonight we watched Survivor! Next week we'll watch LOST on TV instead of having to figure out a way to get around international restrictions online.
Our house is great! John's birthday present to me (a Nikon DSLR) will be arriving on Monday, so once I get that together and take some great (and security safe) pictures, I'll get them uploaded so you can see (parts of) the house, neighborhood and the town we live in.
I'm off to bed, Simon's done eating and the sun will be up in about four and a half hours. Ick!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Dallas
We spent the last five days in Dallas. We got to see A LOT of our friends and say our final farewells to them. We ate a lot of food that we're going to miss like our favorite Tex-Mex, Sushi, BBQ, and of course our favorite American restaurant. We were hoping to have some Papa Murphy's tonight in Houston, but two things are stopping us: 1. No oven in the hotel suite despite the person on the phone telling us there was.
2. There are no Papa Murphy's in Houston. Crazy, right?! Dear Papa Murphy's, get on the ball and move to Houston.
We've made about four trips to Target since we got to Dallas and have to make at least one more. We're planning on watching Lost tonight. We're really going to miss our Lost night friends from VA. We had friends over every Tuesday since the beginning of the season (including two days after I came home from the hospital) to watch and discuss the episodes. It just won't be the same tonight without the pause button on the TIVO, and without you great people to enjoy it with.
Soon we're heading out of the country. I've started having mixed feelings about this. I am really excited to start our journey, but part of me is becoming less excited. More...nervous and full of questions. Will I be accepted in the San Jose embassy community? Will I get a case of cabin fever because I won't have a car or a place to go? Will I get the job I'm applying for (that's right...I'm applying for a job)? Will I be able to keep up with the awesome friends that I made in VA the last 10 months? John has been my rock during all of this. I know he's nervous but he's been very strong for us.
Things get a little tense with us sometimes, but overall I've been surprised at how well things are going with us. I expected that this close to leaving we'd be clawing at each other's throats and that hasn't been the case. I've been very pleased with how I've been handling myself by not getting overly upset by things in order to keep the peace. It's been hard work, but it's worth it.
Simon was dedicated on Sunday. We were so excited that we got to do this at our home church in Dallas. It was great to see everyone there. I miss my church family so much and was happy to see everyone one more time.
This is probably going to be my last entry written from the states. Good bye States! I love you so much and will miss you.
2. There are no Papa Murphy's in Houston. Crazy, right?! Dear Papa Murphy's, get on the ball and move to Houston.
We've made about four trips to Target since we got to Dallas and have to make at least one more. We're planning on watching Lost tonight. We're really going to miss our Lost night friends from VA. We had friends over every Tuesday since the beginning of the season (including two days after I came home from the hospital) to watch and discuss the episodes. It just won't be the same tonight without the pause button on the TIVO, and without you great people to enjoy it with.
Soon we're heading out of the country. I've started having mixed feelings about this. I am really excited to start our journey, but part of me is becoming less excited. More...nervous and full of questions. Will I be accepted in the San Jose embassy community? Will I get a case of cabin fever because I won't have a car or a place to go? Will I get the job I'm applying for (that's right...I'm applying for a job)? Will I be able to keep up with the awesome friends that I made in VA the last 10 months? John has been my rock during all of this. I know he's nervous but he's been very strong for us.
Things get a little tense with us sometimes, but overall I've been surprised at how well things are going with us. I expected that this close to leaving we'd be clawing at each other's throats and that hasn't been the case. I've been very pleased with how I've been handling myself by not getting overly upset by things in order to keep the peace. It's been hard work, but it's worth it.
Simon was dedicated on Sunday. We were so excited that we got to do this at our home church in Dallas. It was great to see everyone there. I miss my church family so much and was happy to see everyone one more time.
This is probably going to be my last entry written from the states. Good bye States! I love you so much and will miss you.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
So much to blog so little time
Those of my readers who are in the Foreign Service know what we're going through right now. But to those who aren't that I promised I'd update my blog with what we're doing, I realize I've been breaking my promise. I hope I can update you guys enough right now to give you somewhat of an idea of what's going on.
We finally purchased the furnishings for Malachi's bathroom (very cute btw). John's been doing lots of research on where to buy a TV. He's looked at Target, Costco, and Micro Center. Our neighbor is going to take him to Costco one more time tomorrow, and I think he may be coming home with a TV in hand.
We went to our storage area and went through all of our stuff designating our things in two categories: staying in storage and going to Costa Rica. We have been going through our apartment organizing our things into five different categories: throw away, give away, suitcases, UAB (Unaccompanied Air Baggage 700 lbs), and HHE (Household Effects 7,200 lbs). We have a big area in our living room that is devoted to HHE, and a smaller area devoted to UAB. We also have a corner in Malachi's room devoted to HHE because the area in the living room isn't big enough.
Everything we have in the apartment came UAB (at that time it was only 600 lbs for us - Simon added another 100 lbs) from Dallas or we acquired after coming. While looking at everything we have, I realized that we acquired A LOT of stuff (having a baby will do that to ya).
It's interesting and not easy to go through your things to decide what you can live with out for two - four weeks and one - three months and what you can't live with out. All of the packable food items will be in our UAB as well as the utensils and what not from the kitchen. We might be packing our computer in that as well. I've set aside a few games for adults as well as for kids and some activity books for Malachi, our tennis gear, pool gear, sewing kit, etc. We'll send what ever clothes we don't pack in suitcases in UAB as well. Everything else is going HHE.
We pack out soon, and shortly after that send off our car and very shortly after that leave for vacation. I'm very, very excited.
In other news I haven't heard from the school I applied to yet. I've emailed them asking the status of my application. I really expected to have heard by now if I've been accepted.
Simon is growing quickly, too quickly I think. He'll be out of 0-3 month clothing soon and is developing in other areas. He will hold your gaze for quite a while and smile real big at you, he bats his hands at things, he holds onto my fingers quite tightly and for a lengthy period while I feed him, he purposely coos while smiling at you, he eats a 4 oz bottle every 3 1/2 - 5 hours, sometimes going as many as 7 hours at night which is a big blessing for mommy and daddy.
Malachi is excitedly awaiting our move. His room is being torn apart so unfortunately he can't play with everything the way he would before, but is being very good about not playing with the stuff we have set aside. He's been a big help with the organization when we ask him to help. He's played with and said good bye to his friends.
I went to my last mom's group meeting on Monday and we went to our last church service the week before Easter. We would've gone to Easter service but Malachi had a fever on Saturday and his cough was still pretty bad on Sunday so we decided to stay home. If I had been a parent and heard someone that sounded like Malachi in the Sunday school I'd be really upset. Malachi's well now, his cough is gone, and that was the last thing to go.
John's preparing to take us to Costa Rica. He's got a few more things to do at work before we take off. He's very, very excited. I think he's most excited to actually start working. He's had the job for almost 10 months and hasn't done any "real" work yet, he's quite eager to start.
Last night we had a Costa Rica BBQ at our complex. There are two more couples that are going down in May or June, and two more FSO's coming down later this year. We also met another FSO who's going to be joining the family next summer after she serves a year in DC. By the time she gets there everyone in the consular section at the embassy will have cycled out. We'll be the oldies there by then (only in that section mind you).
I hope this has been informational enough for everyone. I apologize for the blog silence. Please know I'm not doing it on purpose.
We finally purchased the furnishings for Malachi's bathroom (very cute btw). John's been doing lots of research on where to buy a TV. He's looked at Target, Costco, and Micro Center. Our neighbor is going to take him to Costco one more time tomorrow, and I think he may be coming home with a TV in hand.
We went to our storage area and went through all of our stuff designating our things in two categories: staying in storage and going to Costa Rica. We have been going through our apartment organizing our things into five different categories: throw away, give away, suitcases, UAB (Unaccompanied Air Baggage 700 lbs), and HHE (Household Effects 7,200 lbs). We have a big area in our living room that is devoted to HHE, and a smaller area devoted to UAB. We also have a corner in Malachi's room devoted to HHE because the area in the living room isn't big enough.
Everything we have in the apartment came UAB (at that time it was only 600 lbs for us - Simon added another 100 lbs) from Dallas or we acquired after coming. While looking at everything we have, I realized that we acquired A LOT of stuff (having a baby will do that to ya).
It's interesting and not easy to go through your things to decide what you can live with out for two - four weeks and one - three months and what you can't live with out. All of the packable food items will be in our UAB as well as the utensils and what not from the kitchen. We might be packing our computer in that as well. I've set aside a few games for adults as well as for kids and some activity books for Malachi, our tennis gear, pool gear, sewing kit, etc. We'll send what ever clothes we don't pack in suitcases in UAB as well. Everything else is going HHE.
We pack out soon, and shortly after that send off our car and very shortly after that leave for vacation. I'm very, very excited.
In other news I haven't heard from the school I applied to yet. I've emailed them asking the status of my application. I really expected to have heard by now if I've been accepted.
Simon is growing quickly, too quickly I think. He'll be out of 0-3 month clothing soon and is developing in other areas. He will hold your gaze for quite a while and smile real big at you, he bats his hands at things, he holds onto my fingers quite tightly and for a lengthy period while I feed him, he purposely coos while smiling at you, he eats a 4 oz bottle every 3 1/2 - 5 hours, sometimes going as many as 7 hours at night which is a big blessing for mommy and daddy.
Malachi is excitedly awaiting our move. His room is being torn apart so unfortunately he can't play with everything the way he would before, but is being very good about not playing with the stuff we have set aside. He's been a big help with the organization when we ask him to help. He's played with and said good bye to his friends.
I went to my last mom's group meeting on Monday and we went to our last church service the week before Easter. We would've gone to Easter service but Malachi had a fever on Saturday and his cough was still pretty bad on Sunday so we decided to stay home. If I had been a parent and heard someone that sounded like Malachi in the Sunday school I'd be really upset. Malachi's well now, his cough is gone, and that was the last thing to go.
John's preparing to take us to Costa Rica. He's got a few more things to do at work before we take off. He's very, very excited. I think he's most excited to actually start working. He's had the job for almost 10 months and hasn't done any "real" work yet, he's quite eager to start.
Last night we had a Costa Rica BBQ at our complex. There are two more couples that are going down in May or June, and two more FSO's coming down later this year. We also met another FSO who's going to be joining the family next summer after she serves a year in DC. By the time she gets there everyone in the consular section at the embassy will have cycled out. We'll be the oldies there by then (only in that section mind you).
I hope this has been informational enough for everyone. I apologize for the blog silence. Please know I'm not doing it on purpose.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Only Two And a Half Hours
until I get to see my first born again! The last two weeks have gone by pretty fast. John's work schedule has been pretty free so we've been able to hang out a lot the three of us.
I can't wait to see Malachi again!!!!
I can't wait to see Malachi again!!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)