A Window of Curiosity

I can't walk past this window without stopping to look. It contains quite an interesting menagerie. It appears to be a window of someone's apartment not a store. Somehow that makes it even more intriguing.

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Tomorrow we're off to Trier, Germany to visit their Christmas Market. We're also going to get our Christmas tree. Happy weekend to you all!

Neighborhood Notes

Meet our neighborhood flock of sheep. We can see them from Audrey's bedroom window. The mist you see in the picture is very typical of mornings in Luxembourg. Although the weather in Luxembourg is often compared to that in Seattle, we've found it to be much colder. It has been between freezing (O degrees Celsius) to 2 degrees Celsius since we got here. During the snow it was down to -2 degrees. Brrrrrrr.

Whoooop there it is!

Now we can begin! I have so much to show you. It's going to take a million posts just to get up to real time. I'll do my best. Here's what been happening since my last post.

* Had a field trip to the post office. Yup. I now know how to send snail mail and packages!
* Speaking of packages we've received some great mail - cards from Jodi and Abbi, picture from Jack, birthday gift from Emily & Jeff (couldn't wait, opened it today.)
*I got lost today trying to take Audrey to The Little Gym. Think I went as far south as Germany and then trying to compensate, ended up going north-west to Belgium. Luckily we made it back home. No, we never found The *!@!?** Little Gym.
* When backing into our garage, I knocked the rear view mirror loose on the passengers side. oopps. Poor rental car. Our garage is the size of a shoe box. Actually it's the size of our parking slot in Seattle. Small. Not kid friendly.
* We had dinner guests. A spouse (and her daughter) of one of Bryce's colleagues. We met her on our preview trip. She is very nice and had lots of tips. She invited me to go grocery shopping with her on Friday. Sounds silly, I know. But it's not!!! I'll take all the help I can get!
* We're getting mail. Luxembourg mail. Stuff about our utilities, cell phone, internet connectivity. I can't read it!! It's all in French. Bryce and I can kinda make out some of it. But seriously. This is a hiccup I didn't foresee. Guess I'll be dragging our mail into Assist for Assistance. hee.

More soon!

Euro-kids

I have evidence that my kids are turning into proper little European children. They like Nutella. More factually, the LOVE Nutella. Yesterday while I was frantically searching the grocery store for the Nutella stash, my sweet children were chanting Nutella, Nutella. Audrey says Tella, Tella. This morning I noticed it's grown into NEW-tella. NEW-tella. Whatever it is, it's adorable and it's another protein source which my almost vegetarian children need.

Speaking of almost vegetarian, the kids are more than sustaining themselves on the wonderful salami here. Eva has requested it in her lunch each day and Audrey for lunch. She calls it lami, again so cute.

More evidence: Yesterday after school Eva asked me what Je m'appelle means. Seems her French lessons are sticking! I told her what it meant and then we practiced the phrase with lots of different names.

One of the parents at Eva's school struck up conversation with me while we were waiting for dismissal. Eva and her daughter are friends. I was so excited to be talking to another adult I almost ate her up. I think I may have scared her off. She is from England and they are here for 3 years. They are relatively new to Lux, as her daughter just started school in September. I was a second away from asking her to the house and to be my best friend when the bell rang announcing dismissal. I realized that from 8:30 am to 6:15pm each day I talk only to the girls. Mostly my 2 year old. No really, it's fine. I'm totally sane.

Sleep update: Eva's school schedule has saved us all. Sleep is about 95% back to normal. That was a tough few days - thanks for listening to my whoas.

My wonderful husband ordered me a cable cord for my camera from Amazon.co.uk. Turns out it is possible and I was just entering something wrong (shocking, I know) in the shipping section. It shipped yesterday! Yipee!

The laundry lesson was a total bust. Think Assist forgot about me. Finally at 2:00pm someone showed me where the laundromat is. Didn't get any laundry done obviously. That is today's chore. Still have the post office to figure out. Tomorrow I think we're going to Bastogne as recommended by Catherine.

Happy Saturday!

Wednesday Evening

Short post tonight as I'm whooped. The first day of school was a huge success! Eva greeted me after school with a big grin and a chocolate muffin in her hand. They did a baking project today. She loved her trip to the library and reread her book all the way home in the car. We've since read it 6 more times. Tomorrow is gym class. She needs shorts, sneakers that are *only* for gym class and her school T-shirt. Found shoes today at Auchan but no shorts. Hope she doesn't get detention for being out of uniform. Smirk. How in the world does the teacher get 18 4 year olds into their gym clothes and then back into their school clothes? Whew, makes me tired just thinking about it. After today, I now know how I'll be spending my time in Luxembourg - transporting Eva to and from school. It's a full time job.

On Friday I'm off to the laundromat with our Assist contact. Little does she know, I'm going to try and squeeze in the post office too. I know, I'm such a rebel. Laundry and the post office. How jealous are you?

I miss crafting and baking. I think I'm going to start another baby quilt. I brought some fabric and my rotary cutter. I'm 2 baby quilts in the hole. Both babies have been born.

Posting with pictures tomorrow - our visit to the BEST shave ice place on the North Shore, Hawaii.

Tuesday Evening

Getting to the computer has proven challenging since Bryce is back to work (along with his laptop.) Glad to be posting again. The trip to Cactus was thankfully uneventful. I didn't get nearly half the things on my list, though. Too many new things to take in. The store is so huge, I spent lots of time just trying to find the section I needed. We went back this evening to pick up the things I didn't get.

Today we visited my daughter's school! She starts tomorrow. It was so warm and welcoming. She gets to go to library and PE once a week and music twice a week. Her library day is tomorrow and honestly I'm as excited for a new book as she is. I know the 5 we brought from Seattle by heart. We got her a lunch box that she is most excited about. I'm to pack a snack and lunch. I bought her this unicorn shirt for her first day of school right before we left for Lux. I gave it to her tonight as I tucked her in bed. She's all set! I think it is going to be a wonderful place for her.

As for the sleep stuff, we did have a better time last night. I think Jojoebi's comment about skipping naps is good advice. We've all been taking naps in the afternoon although I've try to keep them to just 2 hours. I'm going to try that with my 2 year old tomorrow. My oldest will be at school during nap time. I think the school schedule will be good for all of us. Up in the morning, busy during the day and early to bed.

I try to remind myself that we haven't even been here for a week. Transitions take time and this is a big one. I easily loose sight of that when I'm so sleep deprived. Just want to be settled so badly.

Bobbie, I love your idea about finding a cooking companion. How lucky the expats in your church are to have you!! You are providing an invaluable service, trust me! Thanks again to all of you for the comments. Your suggestions, offers, and hugs are so appreciated.

Oh, we got our first piece of mail today! My daughter got a letter from a preschool friend. It was thrilling. She immediately drew a picture and dictated a letter and story to mail back. Now I have to figure out how to mail a letter to the states. Ha!

Sunday Evening

Thank you Catherine, Paula and Sheppy for your support, links and help! I truly appreciate all of it! I'm excited to follow the links you sent. I'll have some time after the kiddos go to bed.

Today was a difficult one. Fatigue was the reason, of course. We did get out for a drive so I could practice driving Bryce to work. We went back and forth 4 times. I got it! The girls and I are going to drop him off tomorrow. After nap time we took a very short walk around the neighborhood and talked with some neighbors. They seem to be very friendly indeed. We then drove to the Cactus grocery store so I could learn the way for tomorrow. Our outing for tomorrow is to grocery shop. I'm excited.

Bryce found the oven manual in English and downloaded it. Our landlady will be happy about that too. She doesn't read German either and learned to work the oven by trial and error.

The kids are not eating well. We're not eating well. Tonight I made Annies Arthur Noodles (only one box left!) for the girls and they nearly ate the whole box. It had an amazing effect on their mood! My oldest is having the hardest time adjusting to the food - even the basics. She announced this morning, in the middle of a fit, that she is NEVER going to eat toast the whole time we're in Luxembourg. Just a small taste of what our morning was like.

Fingers crossed for a better night. Thanks for your well wishes!

As predicted

No sleep for the grown-ups last night. Feels like we're back to having newborns. Two at a time. The horror! Our goal was to make it to 5:00am this morning. Oldest daughter prefered 4:00 after getting up many times from 3:00am on. Little one is still asleep after a very restless night. Bryce and I both had multiple slumber parties in her bed last night. This is all part of the fun, right?

Yesterday we managed to get out of the house by 3:30. We headed over to the pirate ship park for some fresh air. I think the 4 of us basically stood and stared - trying to take it all in. The park was full of families. Darling little European children calling "Papa!" across the park. After a short visit we headed to the mall and had dinner at an Italian restaurant. The girls devoured their bottles of apple juice. We then attempted to grocery shop only to discover 30 minutes later the store was closing. It was 6:00pm. We paid for what we had and will have to try again on Monday. The grocery store as most stores in Lux are closed on Sunday.

Today we're going to try and get some fresh air. May be hard as it is rainy and cold today. We'll see. Actually I'm not sure at all how we're going to fill the day. Nothing is open and we don't have much to do around the house. Perhaps we'll just play a game called Stir Crazy.

I attempted to purchase a new camera cord through Amazon.co.uk only to discover they do not ship to Lux. Tried Amazon.de and then Amazon.fr. No luck. Apparently there are strict laws on shipping electronics. The address wasn't the problem, the item was. What are the chances I can find one in Lux? Who knows?

Bryce goes to work on Monday. I'm pretty nervous about that. My goals for the week are grocery shopping, locating a laundry mat, figuring out how to use the laundry mat and lastly figuring out how to use our oven. I think it is a convection oven. It's all in German. Didn't expect operating kitchen appliances to be a challenge.