our fun / frustrating night . . .

So I know I just posted yesterday, but I had to tell you about our adventure last night . . .

First, after we finished cooking, Keith turned off the burner on the stove, but it starting clicking every 2 seconds like it was trying to ignite. Click. Click. Click. Keith couldn't get it to stop, which was boiling point number one. You could hear it everywhere in the house because he figured out that all five burners were trying to ignite at the same time. He called the property management company to tell them, and hopefully get someone out to our house last night (which didn't happen). Click. Click. Click. Click.That was the beginning of our crazy evening.

Excuse me, where's the nearest Big & Normal?

Before getting into our weekend, I got two pieces of great news . . .

1 . . . We now have home phones, so our friends and family can call either of our Atlanta numbers and it will ring on our house phone -- free of charge! (well, free for you, anyway, and really cheap for us) Keith ported our numbers using VoIP, which sounds complicated and fancy to me, but he assures me it's not that hard to do. Regardless, I am totally impressed and happy that I can pick up my phone, call a friend (without using country codes or anything!), and not be charged with international fees. So feel free to call us anytime! (but check the time zone first : )

. . . baby stuff (with a car picture for the guys)

Fair warning to the guys who read this blog -- the beginning is all about baby stuff, so if you want to skip ahead to our grocery shopping excursion and car stuff, head towards the bottom. For anyone else interested in the baby stuff, read on . . .

You'll cut my pony for free??

What a wonderful day! The first good thing that happened today was that the moving company came back today to remove the dozens of empty boxes and trash that has been on our mail floor for the last two weeks. Things are already looking a thousand times better! Then I headed out to my midwife appointment, and instead of taking the bus I walked the whole way there. At 8:30 in the morning it was breezy, cool, and perfect for a 25 minute walk. I was happy to meet with Susan today, who speaks great English, and I was able to get in a lot of questions and talk about lots of fun baby stuff with her. She also examined Liam and me, and found that his head is "engaged" in my pelvis, meaning he is in position and ready for what's to come! That made me really happy. : ) She also estimated that he will be about 3.5 kilos at 40 weeks, which is about 7 1/2 pounds. Obviously that number changes if he comes earlier or later. She's basing it on what she sees and feels, so we'll see if she's right!

mishaps, midwives, and kraamzorgs, oh my . . .

There are a lot of great things about living in the NL, and some not-so-great. As I mentioned before, stores keep odd hours, which makes it difficult to accomplish errands at convenient times. You probably remember that we have a dead car battery -- thank goodness we bought Keith's bike this weekend! -- so Keith spent the better part of the morning trying to figure out where to buy one. In the states there would be a half dozen places within a stone's throw where we could buy a battery at any time, day or night. Not so much here . . .

. . . bad day, good day, and great day!

Thursday - "Mama said there'll be days like this . . . "

After not having posted much this week, I guess I should explain why . . . Wednesday was boring and I did absolutely nothing. And then Thursday started out as one of my worst days here so far, and it was unfortunately because of my sick dog. Without going into too much detail, Murphy must've gotten into something because his stomach was tore up. By 11:00 am I had done enough clean up to last any person a year, maybe 18 months. I literally texted Keith "I'm a mess" as I'm bawling on my hands and knees with my second roll of paper towels (yes, second roll). Thirty minutes later he was home and found me in a zen-like trance in Liam's room, trying to calm myself. But as soon as I saw him I burst into tears and went all hormonal and pregnant on him . . .

One month . . . but who's counting?

So it's official : we've been here for one month, and have been in our house one week. Things are starting to shape up around here, which is nice, considering how most people like to actually live in their house comfortably. All the boxes are finally unpacked (though the moving company still has to come pick up the empty boxes, which are currently taking up about a third of the main floor), things are semi-organized, and we are settling into the new crib (pun intended). I've actually been working on the nursery for the past two days and got all of Liam's clothes (his many, many clothes) organized, washed some of his laundry (like blankets, towels, etc.), and am slowly working on the decorating aspect. But so far I am loving everything and can't wait till it's finished so I can share some pictures!

" Are they fresh? " " . . . Sure . . . ? "

Now that we've dropped off Jenna and Brandon at the airport to head back to the states (with a twinge of jealousy - *sigh*), I guess I failed to mention why they were here. Jenna is in law school and has been doing study abroad in Rome for the past five weeks, so knowing we would be living here, she extended her stay by a few days so that she could come visit before heading home. Her boyfriend flew out last weekend to take advantage of the trip and spend time with Jenna in Europe. Having them here was awesome and made me feel like I was on vacation with friends! : )

You should start nesting . . .

I realize I haven't blogged in a couple days, and it's because we've been super busy . . . my first task was to get our kitchen organized so that we could actually eat at home instead of going out three meals a day. So on Tuesday that's exactly what I did -- and six hours later the kitchen was done! Keith came home from work and said, "You must be nesting . . ." to which I replied, "No, this isn't nesting, just making the kitchen organized and manageable! Nesting is when I start deep cleaning the entire house." Keith's response? "Oh, then you should start nesting." He cracks me up. : )

Day 21 - Independence Day

Let freedom ring! The movers came today and we are officially free from our prison life (if prison life meant someone who cleaned your room and brought delicious food at your every whim, then yes, prison). Wait, why did we leave there again?? Oh yeah, because I am blogging right now from my very own couch with my feet propped up on my very own pillow. While there is still a LONG way to go, it feels incredible to look around and see our belongings that we haven't laid eyes on in eight weeks. As movers were unpacking, we were saying, "Oh yeah, I forgot about that!" and "Where are we going to put all this stuff??" Luckily, it's all in the house now, and while there are still some boxes to unpack and lots to organize, it's definitely starting to feel more like home. I've included some "before" the move pictures and will hopefully soon post some "after" pictures as we finish rooms and get things in their proper place (as opposed to the magazine rack I found in the kitchen or the wine rack in Liam's room -- hmmm, maybe we're on to something? . . . )

bravery . . .

Welcome North Americans!

We weren't quite sure what we'd encounter at the 4th of July BBQ yesterday, considering we were walking into someone's home whom we had never met and didn't know a single person there! Luckily there were a couple women I had met at the potluck lunch on Friday who said they might be there on Saturday, so my hopes were high. We drove about 25 minutes out of the city into the beautiful countryside -- for one of the most dense populations in Europe, you wouldn't know it where we were.

apparently I like food . . .

Errands . . . with a little spoiling thrown in

Yummy lunch 

Thursday was a busy and productive day for me here! I was out and about for most of the day, and my feet paid for it later. My first exciting find of the day was a maternity store! I hadn't found one yet and couldn't believe my luck when I saw pregnant mannequins in the centrum today. I made a beeline for the store and was able to walk away with a few necessary pieces to help me get through the next six weeks in cooler weather (Victory #1). At another shop I bought a scarf and interacted with the cashier, who never even knew I didn't speak Dutch (Victory #2). My next good find was a couple pairs of flats for €10 a piece -- but I unfortunately returned them today because they were out of the size I wanted to exchange them for (Victory #3). Oh well. By that time I was starving and had a nice lunch at a bistro I hadn't seen before. The server suggested a baguette with chicken, bacon, and chili mayonnaise -- it was uh-mazing (see left).