Home Sweet Home

Well, we've been here almost 3 months now...it might be more "home sweet home" if we had all of our stuff...but we are still waiting for most of it.  The good news is that we just found out it's coming on the 27th or 28th!  And our air shipment came last a few weeks ago, which was mostly full of toys, some linens, kitchen items and winter clothing.  We had a 1000 lb weight limit and came in at around 950 lbs.  Not bad considering we had no idea what we were doing back in September when we were trying to divvy up piles. Oh, and we also got our SUV last week!  I am starting to feel complete.  I actually started writing this post in November and kept getting sidetracked...I'm almost to the point now where I could have just waited until we had all of our stuff to show you, but eh, whatever.  I can check off this box now.
So, our house will hopefully look a little less sterile in a few weeks, but until then, here is a look at where we are living.

The outside - we live on a corner.  The street in front of the house is quite busy.  Fortunately we have a gate that surrounds the entire property.

This is what you see when you walk through the front door (ok, so maybe not the most awe-inspiring photo to start with...).  This is the main floor - the kitchen and living room are through the doorway to the right.  On the left, there is the office, a bathroom and the playroom.

 

Here is our living room.  We are anxious to get our own couches and our big tv.  For as big of a house this is, it's design is lacking.  The main living space (living room/dining/kitchen) is quite cramped.  That is a wood burning fireplace you see.  And the white walls carry throughout the entire house.  We're anxious to get some things hung up on the walls, though we won't be able to do it ourselves.  The walls are all cement, so we need to submit a work order into the Embassy to do the job.  This gives my indecisive self a small anxiety attack...but I'm going to have to march on.

So here's the kitchen and dining area.  The overhead lighting is, um, interesting.  And there's a 2nd oven floating in space.  See it there to the right of the window?  It would be nice to have a 2nd oven, if I could actually reach it and not sustain 3rd degree burns by trying to pull scalding bakeware out from over my head.  Ah well, so a decorative piece it will have to be.  We do have a "normal" size fridge, along with a separate wine fridge and beer fridge.  We can barely fit the family at the dining room table.  This house is not good for entertaining.  Which gives us a good excuse, I guess, not to do it.

On the opposite side of the house is the office, a bathroom and the playroom.  I have a wonderful view of the hillside from my office...as well as a convenient way to spy on my Zagrebian neighbors who are always walking by.

Ava has taken over this desk that was left for us and made it into her own little art station.  She has been busily producing works of art and decorating the walls with them.  There is a book series that she loves to get from the school library called The Rainbow Fairies.  I don't know, there must be about 87 fairies (Even a Seal fairy.  Yeah, I don't really get it either, especially since it's part of the "Pet Fairy" subseries.  Who has a seal for a pet?) and she has drawn about 73 of them.



The upstairs has 3 bedrooms and a bath. 

Here is our master.  I will be so happy when our bed comes.  (Disclaimor: Guests - you'll be fine.  This is a fine bed for a week...but it certainly was not made to comfort anyone for longer than that)

Ava's room - Bedding is from, where else, Target.  The door on the right opens up to a balcony which she and Reese share.

Reese's room - Her balcony door is on the left forefront.  Again, bedding from Target.

And, finally the basement.  What may be lacking in bedtime comfort is made up for in the bathroom.  Am I right?  Have you ever seen anything so um, pink?  And industrial?  And large?

And the spare room - I promise it will be a little more spruced up for our guests!  The bed that's in there now will get moved out and the one we are using upstairs will go down here.  There's another room downstairs that we are going to use as a tv room.  It doesn't really have anything in there right now, so I'm not going to attach a picture of an empty room.

 

There you have it!

Few dull moments

This has been a busy, busy week for the social calendar...which was generally not the case back in Minnesota.  :-)

A Christmas party for the kids was originally scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 8th at the Ambassador's House.  But we got about 12 inches of snow that day, so it was canceled.  We managed to still have a good time playing outside in the snow that day and in the evening we trekked down the (unplowed) hill to Kim and Rob's house for some chili and mulled wine (which is really the best thing ever - they even sell it outside on the square...there are so many good things about Zagreb!).  Kim and I watched a movie while the kids played and the guys drank beer.  We trudged back up the hill around 9:30, and then Scot went back down to watch the Army-Navy football game with Rob. 

Anyway, so the Christmas party was rescheduled for Monday evening.  It was a really nice event and Santa showed up with labeled gifts for all the kids!  And I finally met the current US Ambassador (Ken Mertens) - he actually just started in October and was previously the US Ambassador in Haiti (notably during the earthquake).  In the living area, there are framed pictures of him and his family with George Bush, Bill Clinton, Hillary, the Obamas, the Carters, etc....so kind of an important guy.  ;-)  So, it was especially awesome that my first interaction with him was less than inspiring.  I had taken Ava to the bathroom and was waiting outside the door for her.  She finished up and then she couldn't unlock the door.  Couldn't get it open.  And was starting to get frantic.  So I was trying to talk through the bathroom door to help her.  "Just turn the lock to the right..."  Then I started getting more flustered as she continued to struggle.  Scot came over.  And then I could see that the Ambassador was just around the corner checking his cell phone.  He asked if everything was ok.  Sigh...yes, except for my 7 year old locking herself in the bathroom.   A little bit later, Scot officially introduced me to Ken and he asked me if we had everybody accounted for.  Yep. 

On Tuesday, Reese and I went to the mall in the afternoon and I searched frantically for a dress for Wednesday night.  I didn't just figuratively have anyhing to wear...I literally had nothing to wear. Have I mentioned that the malls here have free babysitting up to 2 hours?  Jackpot.  In the evening, I sat in on my first school board meeting.

Wednesday came.  In the afternoon, Reese and I went to Ava's Christmas Sing a Long and then later in the evening we had a party (grownups only) at Colonel Carlson's house.  Colonel Carlson is Army and is Scot's boss's boss.  He and his wife Christine are extremely nice and down to earth - he will be retiring in the spring and they'll be moving back to their home in Virginia.  It was a fun party - probably about 50 people were there (mostly with some kind of US or Croatian military connection), it was catered and they had a bar with waitstaff. 

And then last night we were back at their house again for another Christmas party, this time it was much more casual.  It was just the military people from the Embassy (13 people including spouses).  Christine made chicken curry, which was awesome, and we had a great time visiting and drinking and eating.  We also did a White Elephant gift exchange at the end of the night.  It was a really fun time!  Also glad I found such a great babysitter, we're getting a lot of use out of her.

Today we have 2 school parties - Reese's school (she started last week!) is having a Christmas program.  All I know is she is going to be "Blitzen" and has 2 lines, which I have no doubt, she will not say :-)  We shall see..they are also having a potluck and we were asked to bring a dish that is special to our country.  This was especially challenging, given that so many American ingredients are just not here.  I finally decided to make "Cowboy Caviar", served with tortilla chips.  I could get everything but the celery.  Well, and I'm not really sure about the various beans/corn, but it's close enough.  Then, Ava's class is having a party this morning as well.  Scot is taking the day off and we'll divide and conquer. 

Tonight Scot and I are going to go out downtown by ourselves.  I'm not sure that we need another night out this week, but Reese's school is having a "Pajama Night" so we will drop the girls off from 4:30 - 9:00 and enjoy a quiet dinner and the Christmas market.  They have all sorts of fun stuff planned at the school- the girls are excited!

On Saturday, I think I will take a nap. :-)

Christmas in Vienna

We are going to travel to Vienna, Austria next weekend for an early Christmas getaway.  Vienna is about a 4 hour drive from Zagreb.  We are going to stay here:
http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/austria/hilton-vienna-danube-VIEHAHI/index.html

Can't wait!

Sretan Bozic!

Sretan Bozic = Merry Christmas (pronounced Sray-ton Bozh-each)

Ava's school had their Christmas sing a long program this afternoon.  It was wonderful.  It reminded me a lot of the Christmas program scene in Love Actually, which is one of my favorite movies.

Ava's school only has about 250 kids in grades K-12 and everyone participated in the concert.  Each of the lower elementary grades sang a song and then were several other combined performances.  Ava ended up singing 3 songs:
1) The 2 first grade classes combined to sing "Dreidel, Dreidel" (a Hanukah song) in English
2) Kids in Croatian Culture (grades 1-4) combined to sing a Croatian Christmas song, in Croatian
3) All students taking French (grades 1-12) sang a French Christmas song, in French

Two other songs were sung in German and Spanish, among several more in English.

I just love the school community here, seeing all those kids performing together in 90 minutes was really heartwarming, so much more intimate than what we have back at home.

In other school related news, I was appointed to be a member of the school board during our stay here!  They asked for volunteers about a month ago, so I submitted my name, credentials and my hopes for the position.  In the end, I was selected by the school board and the Ambassador (and well, there were only 3 "competitors")...but I'm looking forward to being more involved in the school community.  I went to my first board meeting last night and will become a voting member in March.

St. Nicholas Came!

St. Nicholas comes on December 5th in Croatia (and many other parts of the world)...it wasn't a tradition I was completely familiar with.  But Ava came home from school overjoyed with the prospect of another occasion to receive a few gifts.  St. Nicholas even made an appearance in her classroom yesterday!  She also got to hear the story of Kraumpus, who is St. Nick's "evil" counterpart.  Either Ava and Reese will get some goodies for being "nice", or a stick/coal for being "naughty". 

So, I was out of the house at my wine drinking/painting class from about 7-10 pm and didn't get the complete scoop about what was supposed to happen overnight. So when I got home I asked Scot, "Now what are we supposed to do?"  Put the toys in their boots.  "Are they supposed to be by the chimney?  Somewhere else?"  Not sure.  We didn't know.  I suppose I could have spent more time being a good mom and less time drinking wine last night...but eh, it was more fun the way I did it.  We improvised. We put their boots by the front door and they each got an orange and a fairy doll.  Luckily, I had a few on hand that I was planning on using as stocking stuffers.

When I came downstairs this morning, I was expecting to be met with squeals of delight.  Instead, I got glum looks.  Ava pronounced, "St. Nicholas didn't come."  Huh?  I looked at the boots neatly aligned near the front door with the presents still in them.  Ava said, "The boots aren't on the windowsill, that's where they are supposed to be."   Again, information I would have had if I hadn't been out drinking wine and painting.  Scot jumped in with, "Well, did you put your boots on the windowsill?"  Ava: "No."  Me:  "Well, maybe you should look around the house and see if St. Nicholas found your boots." 

They found the boots and the oranges and the fairies and were bright-eyed with excitement at the magic of St. Nicholas.  Oh, how I will miss this innocence and faith some day.  Sretan Bozic!

G'day!

It was "Australian Passport Day" at Ava's school last week - the school made a neat video which captures the events of the day.  The students were asked to wear Australia's colors, green & yellow, so naturally Ava is wearing her Aaron Rodgers jersey.  ;-)  You can see her briefly in a few of the clips.  Looks like they had a fun time and learned a lot about Australia.  Miss Daniela, the teaching assistant in Ava's class, appears first in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEKW8rb_VfU&feature=fvsr

Semper Fidelis

Last night we attended our first Marine Corp Ball, an annual event to celebrate the birthday of the U.S. Marine Corp.  It was located at the Westin Hotel in downtown  Zagreb, on the 17th floor, with incredible views of the city.  We had a really great time with our new friends and made some more new friends!  We were seated at a table with two couples from the Austrian Embassy, who were so friendly.  And they loved that my name is Heidi.  :-)  In fact, I often get a very warm & excited response when I tell any locals my name.  They love the story of Heidi here.  Anyway, it was a great night.  Good food, free drinks and dancing.  All to honor the Marines, who do so much for our country.

On Thanksgiving, we are actually going to the "Marine House" here in Zagreb to celebrate with them.  There are nine young Marines (seriously young, the youngest was born in 1990!) who are stationed here to provide security to the Embassy.  I'm looking forward to spending the holiday with them and a few other families.  It's not "home", but it's a great alternative.

Some American Flavor

We had a few quick hits of American flavor in the matter of a few days in early November.  Still distinctly missing, however, was cheddar cheese.  But let it be known that I made a recent package of oreos (thank you Julie or Lauren) last a week.  That is self control, folks.

ONE
On November 1st, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came to town.  Wow!  It was her first visit to Zagreb, first stop on her tour of other nearby Eastern European countries.  And, apparently, she makes it a point to visit U.S. diplomatic families at every stop.  So, we were invited to see her just before she left town, it was a can't miss opportunity, but of course, was also quite a racket.  She was scheduled to speak sometime between 8-8:45 am in the Hotel Esplanade, a fancy historic hotel in downtown Zagreb.  That meant we had to be at Ava's school at 6:30 am, to take a bus to the hotel, be searched by security and then hurry up and wait.  And wait.  And wait.  Madam Secretary chooses to take a picture with the children at each visit so a gal from the Embassy staff was trying desperately to get them huddled together on a set of risers.  And then wait some more.  If Apple needed any further adverstising...this would have been opportune.  Ipads and ipods and iphones were distributed by parents like candy in the interest of keeping the kids occupied and quiet.  And miraculously, it pretty much worked.

She came in, she spoke for a few minutes, stood with the children, shook a few hands, and exited...all in about 20 minutes. And then the Embassy photographer snapped this awesome shot...

Unfortunately, I didn't get a turn to shake Hillary's hand.  After she took the photo with the children, Ava rushed up to me crying because a boy had stood in front of her...so I was busy consoling her and lost my spot on Hilllary's walking path.  Sigh.  But it turns out Ava's complaint was legitimate, in the Embassy photograph you can't see her at all.  Alas.  We have this one anyway...

Maybe there are some folks out there who don't agree with Hillary's politics, but for me, to be able to be with the U.S. Secretary of State, who just happens to be a woman, was a great honor.  And most certainly a proud example for both Scot and me to share with the girls.  Even better, she's now a household name :-)  We prepped the girls ahead of time and tried to explain who she was...and Scot just happened to have a magazine with her picture on it, so we used that as a talking point also.  The other day, when we were relaying the story to Grandpa Chuck & Grandma Sandy on Skype, Reese heard Scot say "Hillary Clinton".  She immediately went over to the end table, picked up the magazine, showed it to Grandma and Grandpa and said "This is Hillary Clinton."  If anyone's going to go into politics, though, it will be Ava.

TWO
On Sunday, November 4th, we took the girls to Arena Zagreb for Disney On Ice.  The girls didn't even care that Mickey and the Gang elected to perform in their Croatian tongue.  Otherwise, it was all the same as the shows we've seen in the U.S.  The one moment that did give us a little pause...was during the Toy Story act.  Jesse, the cowgirl, started rustling up her gang shouting out "Gihad!" over and over and over again. 

Later we were told it really translated to "Yeehaw", but the jury's still out...


THREE
Ava's school held a mock election on Tuesday, November 6th.  Ava may have voted for the same person as her mom.  But I didn't tell her to.  Obama won at AISZ too.

I love how confident and happy she looks in this class picture.  :-)

I think I mentioned that Scot and I voted before we left.  It was absolutely refreshing to be out of the country in October and November...to not hear a single political ad or receive any wasteful campaign mail.  I could have saved myself even more election related heartburn if I stayed off Facebook (but we all know that's not going to happen).  Being away from it all does have its advantages.

Seven!

Happy birthday to our little Ava, who turned seven (seven!?!) on November 10th!  She's smart, she's sweet, she's beautiful, she's artistic, I could go on and on...I have so much love for this little girl, who gave me the gift of becoming a mom all those years ago.  Sniff.

We celebrated by going to a waterpark hotel in Slovenia, just across the border from Croatia and about 40 minutes from Zagreb.  She had an absolute blast!

Glory

Glory.  As in Reese was in all her glory with babysitter Ana this week.  And, let's face it, I certainly didn't mind the uninterrupted solitude, even if I was working during most of it.  Ana came over Monday, Wednesday and Thursday morning from 8-12.  Reese hasn't had too many chunks of undivided attention in her short life, with Ava always (always!) invading her personal space, or competing for attention with the kids at Vicki's or in her classroom at New Horizon. 

And what a little imaginative thing she is!  She had Ana playing storyline upon storyline with her Legos and Squinkies.  But she can also be a bit bossy.  Maybe directing is in her future.  They walked to the park and came back and played some more.  Today, Ana brought along her little girl Eva (who turns 4 one week before Reese) and they went to the Zagreb Zoo.  Great arrangement.  She'll keep coming back until we have reliable transportation for me to get Reese to school.

Glory.  Ava this time.  We got her first report card from AISZ and she did great, exceling in reading and art, and getting expected marks in everything else.  I had a conference with her teacher on Tuesday and she echoed the report card and said it felt like Ava had been there since the beginning since she had adjusted so well.  Lots to be proud of.

Here's a picture of Ava's class.  Her teacher Miss Michelle is in the back left and the teaching assistant, Miss Daniela, is on the right.  It's a cute little crew!

One on One

Since moving to Croatia, Reese and I have probably endured the biggest changes in routine.  She was at daycare everyday with lots of 3 year old friends (including "boyfriend" Will) and favorite teacher Ms. Julia.  I was at work everyday, working on a big project with other grown-ups.  :-)  And now, we are together all.the.time.  Don't get me wrong, I love my Reesey Piecey to death, but she is 3.  And still poops her pants.  And says "No" to at least half of everything I say.  And throws ridiculous tantrums from time to time (although these actually are pretty few and far between).  Despite these little wrenches...I have really enjoyed spending my days with her.  We have been practicing writing letters, coloring, building legos, walking to the park where nobody else speaks English, baking, playing with a ball in the yard.  One week when Scot was in Germany, we even had the car every day to drive around in.  We shopped, we took the tram downtown, we ate at a cafe, fun stuff!  One other thing, I knew Reese was a big eater, but didn't realize how big of an eater she really was during the day.  Goodness gracious!  She eats like a teenage boy.  One evening, she announced "All this 'venture makes me hungry."  No joke.

But...then I had to go "back to work" on October 22nd.  The great thing is that I'm only working 20 hours a week.  The not so great thing is that I don't have reliable daycare for Reese.  So, the past two weeks I've worked during her naps and while she has watched some TV.  I worked a few evenings after bedtime to get my hours in.  I suddenly felt very stretched and wasn't getting really any time to myself anymore.

So, I looked at an English speaking kindergarten, which I really like.  And I'm checking out another option tomorrow.  Still, we only have one car and getting her there every day would prove to be a challenge.  There are some days I could take Scot to work pretty easily (his office is about 3 miles away), but once or twice a week he is at a different building which is about a 40-50 minute drive. So, in the meantime I have hired a babysitter, who starts tomorrow and will be here 3 mornings this week.  She actually babysat for the family who lived in this house before us (that mom worked remotely for Under Armour).  I'm excited for Reese to have a distraction while I'm working and to recoup some time for myself later in the day.  Hopefully, this is short term and we can get Reese in school soon - she really is such a social creature, I think it will do her so much good to have some young friends to play with again!

Our Stuff

The last of our stuff was packed up on October 31st - and (hooray!), renters moved in to our house on November 1st.

1) our "Unaccompanied Baggage", which is the shipment that goes by plane and theoretically should get here in a few weeks or more.  We were allowed up to 1000 lbs for this shipment, which we neatly piled in the playroom back in Woodbury.  It has bath towels, kitchen towels, TOYS, TOYS, TOYS, the new cute bed linens I got for the girls, our own bed linens, and some kitchen stuff.  I also asked Julie last minute to throw in a few Christmas decorations, since not having any seemed pretty damn depressing.  We were also allowed a separate add-on to this shipment for "professional gear", which includes work stuff like my extra computer monitor, printer, binders, etc. 

2)  all the rest of our stuff fit into "Household Goods", which ships by boat and may get here sometime in 2014, just before we're ready to move back to Minnesota.  Ok, so I'm exaggerating but I just have a feeling it's going to take two months longer than I hope for.  We didn't really have a weight limit on this.  We weren't going to ship any furniture, but after seeing the "stock" couches and chairs that are currently in our living room, I made a prompt request to get our nice comfy (clean) leather couches on the boat.  Oh, and man, I cannot wait for our bed to get here.

3) and remember, we left our SUV in St. Louis on September 24.  Still no clue as to when to expect that...

Our first month in Croatia has, for the most part, been pretty glorious...however not having our stuff and knowing we're still not getting it for a long time, has probably been the most frustrating part of the move.  The "Welcome Kit" that was provided to us certainly couldn't have been intended to be used for longer than a week or so.  We have 4 dinner plates, 4 small plates, 4 bowls and 3 glasses (because I dropped one on Day 3).  We have a few plastic mixing bowls.  A loaf pan.  2 pots and 2 pans.  3 knives that couldn't cut through a loaf of bread. Measuring cups that leave my fingers black because the ink keeps rubbing off with each rinsing.  4 bath towels, a few hand towels, a few washcloths (all paper thin, white, hotel style).  Paper thin sheets on all 3 beds with one starchy blanket each.  4 flat pillows.  You get the idea.  Fine for a week or two.  After that, it's like that can't-wait-to-go-home-from-vacation-so-you-can-have-all-your-stuff-back feeling.  So, I've purchased quite a few things to fill in the gaps, but all of our stuff (nice stuff) is coming relatively soon, so I don't want to buy it all in duplicate, you know?  Bleh.  I know I sound whiney and I hate that because I know many people would like to be in our shoes...but you know, whine I must.  :-)  For the love of God, just get me a can opener that works.

*And probably no one is more happier that our stuff is on its way than Julie.  She was a complete and utter angel to supervise all 3 moves over several days in October.  Don't know what we would have done without her!

Fun Times

Aside from the Halloween Party on Saturday, we had some extra fun over the weekend...Scot and I arranged for a babysitter to come over on Friday night.  Her name is Terez, she is a junior at the American School and she conveniently lives across the street from us. :-)   I met her when I did the 5K earlier in the month, as she plays basketball for the school team that Kim coaches (and a lot of the kids did the 5K).  Her family is from Hungary, her dad works for Charles Schwab in Zagreb, and they've been here for a few years.  So, she came over around 5:30, we showed her the ropes, and hightailed it out of the house.

We drove the car to the tram station and rode the tram into the city center.  We wined and dined at a really great Italian restaurant and then walked around a little bit.  It will be so great to be here when the weather is warmer, as they have outdoor cafes/bars/seating everywhere.  We did stop and have some coffee outside with heat lamps bearing down on us.  Date Night #1 in Zagreb was grand.

Yesterday we went to a really big mall.  We shopped around with the kids for awhile and even had McDonald's in the food court.  And perhaps the most fantastic thing of all was that we found they also had a really nice play area inside staffed with babysitters...where you could leave your kids.  2 hours.  For free.  Genius.

Happy Halloween!

The Croatians don't really seem to celebrate Halloween and they don't do trick-or-treating...but the American School puts on a party every year.  We brought costumes in our suitcases.  The girls had a great time!

When we were still in Minnesota, I bought Reese a "Brave" costume with a fantastic red, curly wig...but she wouldn't wear it.  She didn't seem to want to wear it before we left, so I threw her bumblebee costume into the suitcase as well.  And so now...for 3 years running, Reese was a bumblebee.  I forgot the matching wings at home, so a friend was nice enough to lend us some alternative wings (you know you're a mom of girls when you have extra wings laying around the house).

Ava picked out this bride costume at Target. I thought she looked so beautiful. :-)

Ava will get to wear her costume again on Wednesday at school.  Reese and I will go watch the school parade that day and join her class for a little party.

Ne Hrvatske

"Ne Hrvatske".  Is something we've been saying that translates to "No Croatian", as in "I don't speak Croatian".  And hopefully doesn't really mean "Down with Croatia" or something similarily offensive.  I guess I should be glad we blend in enough with the locals that after the "Dobar Dan" exchange ("hello"), most everyone starts talking to us in rapid Croatian.  So then we're back up to the beginning and have to smile awkwardly, shrug the shoulders, and hope that maybe they'll speak a little English or at least get the point across with modified sign language.

Shopping in this foreign land has been interesting.  It's getting better, but still a challenge in some way every time.  I think I mentioned that Kim had stocked our fridge and pantry with some basics upon our arrival.  This was hugely helpful, especially in the stupor of jet lag and not having any clue about where the nearest store was or if our car would actually get us there.  But inevitably, the food started to disappear and I needed to do some shopping.  As if I didn't already hate menu planning enough, my first week's plan needed to consist of meals that required 5 (normal) ingredients or less.  For starters, I just wanted to look for some basics and go from there.  More elaborate meals would have to come later.

Logistics - the first time I went to a larger grocery store, I found that the carts were locked up.  Hmm...not knowing how to proceed, I stood back and tried to nonchalantly wait for someone else to get a cart...Ah ha!  She deposited a coin near the cart handle and unhitched the lock.  OK, thankfully I had the correct coin (2 Kuna - about 25 cents).  When I returned the cart to the stall after I was done shopping, my coin popped back out.  Genius.  Apparently, Aldi in the U.S.does this too (but I had never been to an Aldi before).  Now I know.  And bags.  You have to bring your own bags to the grocery store or buy them at the checkout.  I had always meant to use reusable bags back home but almost always forgot to bring them.  I don't forget anymore.  :-)

Thankfully, produce is produce.  The big difference here is that they don't import a lot of items, so the shelves are stocked with just seasonal items for the most part - I haven't seen much in the way of fresh berries, for instance.  We've been eating a lot of bananas, apples and oranges.  My friends tell me that they also really never stock celery. 

As for packaged food items, pictures have proven to be extremely helpful.  They don't really have much in the way of processed foods, so I will no longer have to try very hard to avoid them (ha)....but just even trying to find a particular item in the dairy case causes the brow to furrow.  Think about all the items in that section (cottage cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt, etc, etc) and how much they look alike and are packaged similarly.  Look, look, look..."Oh hey, I bet the one with a picture of a bagel on it is the cream cheese".   :-) Like everything else, it will be a lot easier with time...just a lot to process in the beginning.  What is kind of refreshing is that there is just so much less "stuff" to choose from.  There's one brand of milk (mlijecko).  A few brands of yogurt, one type of ground beef one type of egg, etc. 

What do Croatians like to eat?  They are big meat eaters.  Salami.  Seafood.  Italian. Olives are a big crop here.  Fresh bread is everywhere - they have little bread stores practically on every corner.

What is missing?  Sadly, the following:
Peanut butter
Cheddar Cheese
Giant boxes of cereal (sugary or otherwise)
Cream of "x" soups, chicken broth, things like that
Some processed favorites (like Kraft Mac&Cheese)
More...that I can't think of right now.

I've started to make a lot more things from scratch (well, once I finally figured out what baking soda and baking powder look like!, which incidentally is not packaged anything like it is in the U.S.)...blueberry muffins, banana bread, applesauce, vegetable broth, etc, etc, out of necessity.  I don't mind, in fact, I kind of like it.  Just haven't had much time to do that in the past 6 or 7 years.  :-)  Not working full time anymore really frees up a lot of the day.

Socializing

Already we have socialized a fair amount since we arrived.  I'm mostly grateful for the fast and easy connections, but as a closet introvert, it has been a little bit exhausting.  :-)

Week 1:
Kim arranged a dinner at her house that first week and invited two other families over for us to meet.  Our 4 families have 9 kids 8 and under.  They had their own candlelit dinner on the patio. ;-)

Week 2:
On Monday, we were invited over to Scot's boss's house (Troy & Susan).  They have one 9 year old girl, Randi.  Kim & Robb and their boys came over that night as well.  Todd and Susan just arrived a few months ago and are living in the house that Andy & April occupied (Andy is from Scot's Guard unit who had the job for the last 2 years).  We had hamburgers, hotdogs, and cheesy potatoes.  The taste of home!  :-) The girls had a grand time playing in Randi's room, which was enormous and filled to the brim with toys.

Every other Wednesday night, Kim and her friend host a painting/wine class in her garage, aptly called Bottles and Brushes.  I walked down to her house, drank some wine, and painted a tree.  Not a bad way to spend an evening!

On Thursday, Kim and Susan picked Reese and me up in the morning and we ran some errands.  We stopped at Metro, which is the Croatian version of Sam's Club.  Hooray! And then headed over to the Embassy so Susan could pick up a package (this is where all of our mail will be delivered, not at our house).  By the way, for those of you who might be sending Christmas cards or packages, I just got word that they should be sent prior to December 10.  They showed me around the Embassy and we stayed and had lunch at the cafeteria with Rob (Scot was out of town for the day). 

Kim picked me up again on Friday and took me to a mall so we could meet Christine (the Colonel's wife) for lunch.  We had a nice visit for a few hours, which crept into nap time.  Reese was extremely well behaved, I lucked out!
On Friday night, I got a call from new friend Mica (she was at Kim's dinner party and the art class), asking me if Scot liked to play strategy board games.  She was more or less arranging a playdate for her husband, Todd - ha!  Scot went over to their house on Friday night and got in some good nerd time. 

Week 3:
Scot left on Sunday for a week in Germany so it's just the girls.  I am kind of looking forward to a quiet week, there isn't much on the agenda right now.  After we dropped Scot off at the airport, we went over for a playdate at Mica & Todd's (this time for the kids).  Ava and Mica's daughter Jane are in the same class and could pass for sisters (I'll have to get a picture of them together soon!).  Mica also has a 4 year old boy and 4 month old daughter.  We had a really nice visit with them.  Both Todd and Mica are Foreign Service employees and have been able to get almost all of their assignments together.  They'll be leaving in June.

Exploring

During our first full weekend in Croatia, the weather was gorgeous and the jetlag was finally subsiding.  So, we went exploring around Zagreb.  While we definitely want to get out and see the rest of Croatia and neighboring countries, we felt like starting small was better for our near term agenda.  Hopefully we can see all we want to in 2 years!

On Saturday, we drove the car a few miles to the tram station and rode the tram into the city center.  The tram is awesome.

The girls chased pigeons.

We took a look at the Zagreb Cathedral (built in 1390).

And ate (and drank) at an outdoor cafe.

On Sunday, I immersed myself into the local scene and ran a 5K in the city.  Sponsor Kim picked me up via taxi and we drove down and met some other students and teachers from AISZ.  It was a fun little race - although I got stuck weaving through a lot of walkers for the first several minutes.  The race signup was free, though I voluntarily paid 20 Kuna  (about $3.50) for a chip...and still have yet to find the results online.  Oh well...was hoping to break 28 minutes, though I'm not sure I even broke 30 minutes given the slow start.

Here are me, Kim (right), and Simone (left).  Simone helps Kim coach girls' basketball at the school.  Simone's husband actually plays for the Croatian pro basketball team.  Kim brought the hats - mine is the Croatian flag.

Later in the day, we ventured out to Bundek Park which had a great playground for the girls and a manmade lake with swans and ducks. 

Monday was a Croatian Holiday (their Independence Day), so we drove the Volvo just a little further up the hill to Medvedgrad Castle (you can see it from our porch view)- it was a picture perfect day to see such an amazing site and view of Zagreb.

Our Sweet Ride

I mentioned we are driving a '93 Volvo.  Here it is in all its glory.

It really goes "vroom" in the hills.

The New Digs

Introducing our new home and neighborhood...

We were assigned this house by the Embassy several months ago.  It has about 3500 square feet and a two car garage.  The yard is gated on all sides.  There are 3 levels with a boxy floor plan.  The basement has a guest bedroom, 3/4 bath, utility room, storage room, and another all-purpose room (Scot's pulling for a man cave).  The main floor has the kitchen, dining room, family room, full bath, and 2 more rooms (one that we'll use for an office and another as a playroom).  The third floor has 3 bedrooms and 1 full bath.

This is the view from our porch.

This is the park down the street.

These are 2 happy girls!

Firsts

To say we've experienced quite a few firsts in the last week would be an understatement.  I'll start with a few...

Driving. 
Our house is located in "the hills" of Zagreb, north of the city center and just beneath a castle.  The terrain is ridiculously hilly, the streets are narrow, and the natives drive aggressively.  After leaving the driving to Scot for the first several days, I figured it was time for my debut on Sunday.  Not that I felt ready, but with Scot on a trip to Germany next week, I wasn't going to have him to fall back on anymore.  So, I started with a relatively short drive to a dinner at Scot's boss's house on Monday.  It was pretty scary, yet kind of exhilarating, and also made me feel like playing a little more MarioCart on the Wii would be to my advantage.  Happy to say I delivered my family to our destination in one piece!  Oh.  One more tibit.  Right now, the only car we have is a 1993 Volvo which has seen better days.  At least one or two check engine lights are on at all times.  This makes driving even more exciting.  It's anyone's guess as to when our SUV will arrive.  Until then, we'll keep driving the Volvo.  Scot has also poked around at used cars and has a nice little Beamer picked out...we'll see.

And then there was today.  Ava's school had a "World Family Assembly" today from 8:15 - 9:00, where the students were asked to dress in their country's colors and they would parade around in groups  (I'm picturing something like the Olympics opening ceremony?).  I really wanted to go, but Scot had a meeting he needed to get to, so I was left with the option of driving him to work and then going back to the school to watch the assembly.  Hmm.  OK, I'll give it a try.  We do have a GPS after all.  So, getting him to work wasn't a problem.  We dropped him off and he thought it might be easier if I wnet back towards our house and then to the school instead of driving through downtown.  It was going well, until Ms. GPS told me to go right on a road that was under construction.  She corrected the route, but then I ended up at the end of a dead end road, and really had no opportunity to turn myself around so I had to back the car up about 1/4 mile.  That was awesome.  Ms. GPS really couldn't seem to get me in the appropriate direction to get myself to our house (and I can hardly blame her, if you'd see these streets you'd understand).  So I ended up almost back by Scot's work and then went from there.  But, traffic was busy and I didn't make it to the school until about 8:45, so I decided to forget it and go home.  We did make it home.  Only about an hour later ;-)  I'm sure, like everything, driving will get easier with time.  And I'll have the taxi number on speed dial.

School.
Ava will be attending the American International School of Zagreb (AISZ) for 1st and 2nd grade.  This has been one of the easier processes of getting ready for our international move - the Embassy was a huge help and so far the staff has been great.  Ava was assigned to Miss Michele's class back in August when we thought we were coming.  When the move became delayed, Scot sent an email to Miss Michelle and copied Ava's Woodbury Elem. teacher (Mrs. Solheim).  After that the two teachers connected and began sending emails back and forth as sort of a pen pal effort between the two classes - very cool!  Ava was able to see pictures of her classmates and ask questions about life in Croatia.

Last week, our host Kim arranged a visit for us to meet the teacher and see the school before Ava's first day.  Ava's class has 13 students in it, and just she and one other girl (Jane) are the only Americans.  There are a few from Croatia and then a number from other European countries.  I love that she will have such a diverse group of friends!  AISZ is a private school and they teach in English.  The good news for us as an Embassy family is that we don't have to pay tuition (which is around $20K/year - yikes!).  The visit was great - it was fun to see her classroom and then Ava joined the class for recess and circle time at the end of the afternoon.  She couldn't wait to go back!

Tuesday was her first day of school (Monday was Croatian's Independence Day).  She was so excited!  Unfortunately there was a miscommunication with the bus coordinator, so she didn't get picked up in the morning...but Scot was able to drive her to school and he got the logistics settled so that she came home on the bus that afternoon.

She had a great first day!  She was disappointed that her American friend Jane wasn't there (we had met her at a dinner party last week and could be her twin sister), but was able to rattle off some other names of friends she had made.  She tried hot lunch and had her first French lesson (we were able to choose between French or German).  She came home with some homework which she will have every day - writing practice and 10 minutes of reading.

The Big Day

Moving Day finally came on October 1st.  It was the day we had been both looking forward to and dreading all at the same time.  Travelling with 2 kids, 2 cats, 9 pieces of checked baggage and 6 carry-on bags for 24 hours couldn't be anything but magical, right?

Huge thanks to my mom and Julie for carting us to the airport in the wee hours.  Because of the amount of "stuff", we needed 2 vehicles to get there.  Upon arrival, we said goodbye to my mom (sniff) and made our way to the Delta International counter.  And stayed there for over an hour.  The biggest obstacle of the trip would turn out to be our cats - because we were flying different carriers on each leg of our trip, we had to reclaim and re-check our cats in at every layover.  The gate agent in Minneapolis had never seen this before (which always breeds such confidence for a customer), so she was busy making phone calls to confirm how it would all work.  At last, we were finally released and wheeled Sam and Rocky over to Security.  I got teary-eyed as we left - I was stressed out for them!  And really hoped we'd see them again.  Here we are with our mound of luggage, the cats are on the left.

 

 

We made our way to the gate and bumped in to 2 friends!  Chad, our friend who flies for FedEx, and Jerry, who works for Compass Air.  It was fun to see familiar faces just before leaving.  :-)  Eventually they called our flight and we said goodbye to Julie (more tears). 

Our first leg flew from MSP to Washington D.C.  The kids did great, we watched shows and colored and read books.  Piece of cake so far.  ;-)

Upon landing in D.C., we needed to go to baggage claim to get the cats.  They finally arrived by a handler, and then we were off to go back to ticketing to get them on the next flight to Paris.  This process took about 2 hours and by the time we were done, we had just enough time to grab a few snacks and board the next flight.  This plane had tvs in each seat, so the girls were excited to be able to get to watch their own shows.  We had dinner and breakfast served to us on that flight and we each logged a few hours of sleep over the 6.5 hour duration.  When we landed in Paris, it was about 10:30 pm Minnesota time.  We had left Woodbury at about 6:45am so we had been moving for about 16 hours then. 

Watching movies, snoozing...





In Paris it was the same thing, we had to hoof it down to baggage claim, get the cats, and then go back to ticketing.  That airport was something else, there were people everywhere.  We finally found the right counter and had two very nice agents helping us with the cats.  We were exhausted and thirsty and really looking forward to the end of the trip.  Same thing, it took about 2 hours to do all of that and then we were off to the gate where we had a short wait before the bus left for the plane to Zagreb.

Pooped out in Paris...


The flight from Paris to Zagreb was about 2 hours and we all crashed for the entire flight, as it was about 2:30-4:30 am Minnesota time then.  And then we finally landed!

In Zagreb, we were met by Scot's new boss (Troy), his wife (Susan), and the woman from our host family (Kim).  Troy and Susan are both from Minnesota coincidentally and just moved to Zagreb from their last assignment in Romania about 3 months ago.  Kim is from Virginia and has 2 boys (5 & 8), her husband is the Navy attache at the Embassy.  They live just down the road from us.

The cats appeared near baggage claim again (yay!) and 6 out of our 9 bags arrived.  We were unfortunately missing our carseats and Scot's garment bag (which had all of his dress clothes in it).  We filed a claim and then left for our house!  Susan ordered some pizzas on the way so they'd be at our house shortly after our arrival.  They stayed and ate with us for awhile and then left us to get settled. 

24 hours later we were in our new home.  We will have just what was in our suitcases for the next 6-8  weeks (maybe longer!) before the rest of our belongings arrive.  Fortunately, the house is mostly furnished and has some basic kitchen stuff.  Here we go!

The blur that was September

So, after getting notice that our move was back on, we had to get that dreadful list back out and start tackling it again. 

Thankfully, our days at work were numbered.  Scot declared his last day as September 14th and mine was on the 20th (annoyingly, I was still putting in a gazillion hours right up until my last day).   To preserve our sanity and actually be able to cross things off our list, the girls would keep going to school/daycare right up until the last possible minute - the 28th. ;-)

We made phone calls, we sorted, we organized, we debated, we worried, we got excited, we took the cats to the vet for the umpteenth time, we said goodbyes, etc., etc.  Our airline tickets were purchased by the military for October 1st - it was surreal to finally again have a departure date.  We went to WI over Labor Day weekend to see my family.  We also made last minute plans to make a roadtrip to IL to see Grandpa Chuck & Grandma Sandy over the 3rd weekend in September.  We drove down both of our vehicles and had a wonderful visit (I'll try to log a separate post for that)...and then while Julie & I drove the girls back up to Minnesota, Scot headed west to St. Louis to drop off our Honda Pilot at the vehicle shipping port (yes, somehow St. Louis is the closest drop-off from MN) and he flew home after that.  Sigh.  He got home just in time to watch the end of the dreadful Packers/Seahawks game with me.  You may have seen that controversial ending once or twice...

After getting back from Illinois, it was "go" time.  I'm not sure I've ever been more mentally or physically exhausted - those 6 days were pretty grueling.  Our stuff basically had to fit into one of 6 categories: trash, charity, suitcases, UAB - unaccompanied baggage (plane cargo shipment), HHG - household goods (boat cargo shipment), and NTS (non-temporary storage).  The kicker was that we learned sometime in mid September this gem of news - that because Scot's orders didn't start until Oct. 1st, they couldn't make any moving arrangements before then.  Thank you, Government.  We had to prep everything so specifically because we won't be in MN when the movers actually come to our house.  However, we are so, so lucky to have Julie taking care of this now in our absence, but what a burden it will be for her. Anyway...somehow we got it all done by 10:30 pm on the eve of our departure.  And we still managed to do some fun things that week (lunch at the Happy Gnome, dinner with the Listons at Chino Latino, birthday pizza & cake for me on the 29th, a few motorcycle rides, etc. etc.)  I even "celebrated" my birthday by running a 10K that morning in Golden Valley.  I haven't had a lot of time to run this summer (mostly because of work - blah), but had upped my mileage to about 5 miles for a few runs so I crossed my fingers that I would finish 6.2.  I did it and I met my goal of finishing under an hour - just barely at 59:38 :-) 

So that was September.  October has been much better so far. 

The final answer.

And just like that, Scot got the phone call this morning.  We are moving to Croatia!  Sometime around October 1.

Onward with Crazytown.

Marching On. Or Maybe Not.

As many of you know, our Croatia move is on hold until further notice.  The notice will likely come this week...so after 4 weeks of living in limbo (on the tails of 6 months of banking on an overseas move), we will either find out we're still going as planned (just later) or not going at all. 

The news of the delay came just one day before our scheduled Going Away Party at our house on August 4th.  We didn't have much time to soak in the news before party prep began (tons of food, food, food, bouncer for the kids, a keg for the grown ups...).  Scot and I considered not telling anyone about our news as we dreaded the subsequent conversations that would ensue.  But, it's hard to keep mum about life changing details to life changing moves, so we opened up about the situation and our friends and family, of course, were great about it.  The overriding themed to be, "Oh, we're so sorry for you...but happy you aren't going right now."  It's good to be loved. 

To my surprise, I haven't gotten all that stressed about this living in limbo nonsense.  There were phone calls to make to uncancel things that were already canceled.  Get Ava back in school.  Get the cleaners back on the schedule.  Tell my boss my last day wouldn't be August 24th after all (ugh, that one especially sucked).   But otherwise, it was back to life as usual.  In fact, in some ways the delay came as a relief, because there were things that should have been happening with our move that weren't, because Scot was still waiting on his orders.  It was nice to take a break from things to worry about like, "how will I unlock my iphone?" to "when and how will we get our Ford Fusion to St. Louis to get on the next boat to Europe?" to "how in the world are we going to fit our 2 cats in soft carriers under the airplane seats and withstand 20 straight hours of meowing since Delta won't let them fly in the cargo hold between May 15 and Sep 15?"  If we do find out we are in fact moving this week, we will have to worry about these things once again, but we will know 100% for sure that it will be for cause.  We knew these things would be hard when we signed up for this gig back in January and we were willing to pay up in the form of a really ugly transition in order for the pay back to get to live abroad for 2 years. So, we shall see.  If we don't go, we don't go.  And we'll need to find another way to spice up our lives.  (Scot is already working on Plan B for himself.  Plan B has 2 wheels. And a motor.  Not that we have anything else going on right now.)

In silver lining news...It turns out the woman we hired to manage our house as a rental was an idiot.  Well, she hadn't rented it out yet.  We could have gotten the news that we weren't moving to Croatia at the same time we were moving out of our own home.  Anyway, we have since given her the boot and have Scot's cousin on standby to get things moving again on this front when/if the time comes. 

As far as why we're in limbo, well that comes down to lots of government beaurocracy.  "They" decided that after all this time (after hiring Scot, after sending him to a school for 3 weeks, after sending him to Croatia twice), that "they" were changing the rules and not approving an Air Force guy for an "accompanied move", meaning they won't pay for all of the costs that the girls and I would incur to go over there and live for the 2 years.  It would also mean I would no longer be on diplomatic status, which means I would not be able to work. If Scot were an Army guy, it's not a problem - they'd pay for it all.  Awesome. 

So, there you have it.  We should know in a few more days because time is running out - they need to fill the position one way or another, either get Scot (and the rest of us approved) or offer it to someone else.  I think we've gotten used to the idea of not going...but we sure would like to still go.

Over the weekend, I had another Going Away party - just girlfriends this time.  I'm a lucky girl. Much love to Jess, Kelly, Julie, Tricia, Linda, Mandi, Sarah,and Cami.  And to Angie, Lauren & Laura who couldn't make it.  It's hard to think about saying goodbye so I'll ignore that for now.  :-(  Good thing I got some fun bath stuff (thanks S & C!) - going to unwrap one of those babies now.

Vacation Days

July was filled with vacation days (12 for me in fact!)...we spent the 4th in Duluth with family and then just returned from a week in Playa del Carmen.  Every month should be so fun and relaxing!  :-)  Pictures and stories to come!

Over the river

and across Hwy 29, to Grandma's house Ava goes!

Ava spent her 3rd (!) annual week with Grandma Nola and Grandpa Bud the third week of June.  As usual, she had a blast! Grandma had all sorts of fun planned - the circus was in town so they went there first thing Sunday night.  Ava loved it!  They spent 2 days at the waterpark, they went to the library a few times and during one visit Ava got to read to a therapy dog, and they saw "Beauty and the Beast" at the local Children's Theater.  Grandma and Grandpa had plans Friday night, so Aunt "JoyAnn" took over and took Ava to McDonald's, bought her a new dress and accessories, and capped the evening off with seeing "Brave" on opening night.  Despite all the fun, she still missed "Mama" a lot - we skyped every night and she was glad to see all 3 of us when we met them in Chippewa Falls the following Sunday.

While she was away, I had a chance to spend some 1:1 time with Reese.  It was especially nice to have only one kid at home since Scot was in his third week of class in Ohio.  We went on a few long bike rides, played games, played with toys, went shopping...ah, it was quite peaceful!  :-)  At the end of the week, Aunt Julie had Reese over to her house for a sleepover and Scot came back home. Everyone won!

Homestretch time

My parents came to visit for the weekend - they were nice enough to watch the girls Friday night while I had dinner and a much needed margarita with friends Jess and Mandi.  Saturday was a pretty lazy day, capped off with a cookout in the evening.  And then Sunday...they packed up and took Ava with them!   With some new found freedom, I took Reese on a 10 mile bike ride before we spent the rest of the rainy day inside. 

The week shapes up to be pretty easy with just one short person in the house.  And Scot found out recently that he doesn't need to attend the 4th week of his 4 week course, so he's home this Friday night.  Yahoo!

Marching on...

To first grade?  Sniff.

Ava had some fun events to mark the last few weeks of kindergarten.  Her last day was June 6th.

In May, we were invited to their class "Spring Fling", which was all over adorable.  The kids sang songs and told jokes and poems.  I'm not sure there was a dry eye when they ended with singing "What a Wonderful World".  Afterwards, Mrs. Lloyd showed a video montage of pictures she had taken throughout the year and even burned copies for each family to take home. 

A few weeks later, I snuck out of work for a few hours and watched her at Track & Field Day.  It was always my favorite day as a kid :-)  It was fun to see her participate in all the events and excitedly count up her "golds".  For each event, they had 3 kids participate at a time in no particular order, so everyone was always assured a gold, silver, or bronze standing in each event.  Low pressure and lots of fun.

Ava brought home a lot of stuff over the last few days, my favorite being a scrapbook she made.  It's a great overview of the year with pictures from Mrs. Lloyd's camera.   And we got another great report card for the last trimester.

 It also marked the end of her time reading with the friends she made in the special needs classroom.  She made cards for all of them and they made one big Thank You card for her.  I'm thrilled she had that experience this year.

Here's my big girl on the last day of school, sporting her new end of kindergarten haircut!

If only...

Me: Reese, I really wish you would poop in the toilet.
Reese: Wish, Mama? Get a wand and I'll poop in the toilet.

Potty training, six months and counting.  Sigh.

What Happens in Vegas...

isn't really all that scandalous when it involves my sister and me, but we had a great time!  Like over a month ago.

It all started when I was supposed to take a weekend jaunt in February to Phoenix with my BFF Jess...but Baby #3 (hers, not mine) got a little too wiley in the womb a few weeks prior to our departure date.  Dr. L. said it was a no go.  And wouldn't you know it, Baby #3 ended up being 5 days overdue in May.  Sigh...

With that trip canceled, I had a whopping $105 left on my Delta account and figured I might as well use it for something.  Hey!  My big sister JoAnn is turning 50 later this year - why not a trip with her!  We discussed options and settled on Vegas for a 4 day trip in April.

We stayed at The Mirage...spent our mornings with Starbucks & books at the pool, walked the Strip down and back and back and down, marveled at Cirque Mystere (with front row seats no less!), went up to the top of the Eiffel tower at night, watched the Bellagio water fountains several times, rode the NY NY rollercoaster, ate amazing steak at Stack...and just had a fun, relaxing time.  It was pretty awesome.

Reese & a Bug

Reese's class got a visit from "Bruce the Bug Guy" today.  Happy day! 

I've been putting in a lot of hours for the last few weeks - 55ish/week...and let's just say, being a workaholic is not really my style.  :-)  One week Scot was gone too...which really added to the fun. Last week was better and this week should be closer to 45. 

Scot is in Dayton, OH for the month taking a training course for foreign service type recruits.  So, I don' know how much blogging I'm going to get to, I'm so far behind already.  Boo.  We'll see how it goes...

Status Quo

Same as always - busy!
I'm behind on blog posts again...we've been prepping the house to get it ready for rental agency pictures and (hopefully!) subsequent showings, I went to Vegas with my big sister, we went to Ava's school for her kindergarten Spring Fling, I got assigned to lead  a huge project at work, Scot prepped for and passed his last big checkride, etc, etc, etc.

The coming weekend is pretty open so I'm hoping to play a little catchup.  I'm also hoping I get to go visit my BFF in the hospital with Baby #3.  It can't stay in there much longer!

Mountain Climbing

A few weekends ago we were in Wausau.  On a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, we headed up to Rib Mountain, the 2nd highest peak in Wisconsin.  Ava got the climbing gene from her dad.