Thursday, August 2, 2012

Back!

After two weeks without internet, I am finally stepping back into the connected world! We moved on July 17th to a new country, city, and home and have spent the better part of the first week just wading through boxes. About the one week mark we were done with boxes and down to the nitty gritty details of organizing and then cleaning the house again. In perfect timing, our water pump went out, which meant five days of no shower (say it with me, EWwwww) and having to fill the toilet tank manually with bottled drinking water.

Awesome.

No house cleaning or laundry could take place either. Finally though, they figured out a temporary solution while the pump part is ordered.

And really, that temporary solution is that an Egyptian man comes to our house every three days, plugs our pump into an inside electrical outlet, and fills our outside water tank. But, you know, I can shower and clean so I am not complaining.

Our internet took forever to get set up, but we really didn't miss it until about day ten. We were so busy we didn't have time to even think about checking emails or reading blogs. My biggest concern was that I knew I had scheduled a post but hadn't finished writing it. Sorry to all of you who saw that blunder.

The house is beautiful and we are in love with our new home. I've said it to many people, but our apartment in our old town never felt like home to me. It was temporary, someone had picked it out for us, and it just didn't feel like "us."

This house has tons of natural light, room for Grace to move around, and great neighbors.

Did I mention the neighbors? At our last apartment, our building sat vacant, except for us, for over a year, then when we finally got neighbors they could not speak English or Arabic, so, there wasn't much of a community atmosphere. Here though we are surrounded by locals and they all have kids and all four of us women are pregnant!

Grace is loving our new home. Before we moved she was really whiney in our house. She didn't want to play. Really, she didn't know what she wanted. Apparently she just wanted a little more space and sun light, because Grace is a different child. She laughs and babbles all day long and is so content to play by herself or walk around the house bringing toy to different rooms!

We spent most of week two putting up curtains on our eleven windows and exploring the different grocery stores within driving distance. It's so nice to have choices! My grocery budget is definitely taking a hit though, since all of the stores have imported items from the States. I displayed excellent self control the other day when I walked away from chocolate chip cookie dough.....

Though I wish I hadn't. Yum, that sounds good.

Speaking of cookies, we finally got a stove, and it's Electric! No more gas powered stove for this woman! I know all of the great chefs love their gas burning ovens but I was not a fan. It's dangerous (about once a week I hear tales of a gas explosion on the news) and it can leave black "smoke" marks all over your kitchen! I made my first batch of cookies in our new oven and they came out perfectly, as opposed to the char grilled baked goods that my other oven always produced.

I can't wait to share pictures of the unpacked, furnished, and decorated house with you, but for now, we are in that awkward phase where not one room is actually finished yet! Each room still needs a rug, wall art, or furniture, but hopefully we'll start completing a room or two soon!



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