A conversation between foreign service folk would have gone differently...

This week I met a neighborhood mom at the bus stop. We were chatting. I asked her some question, not relevant to the post, and her reply was "I don't really know. I haven't lived here that long." So I asked when she moved.

"We've been here three years."

My jaw dropped. Of course, in the foreign service if you've been somewhere for three whole years you are (1) the resident expert on everything and (2) probably leaving next week.

Life is different for other Americans, I think.

Public Service Message

When the home inspector sent us his report, prior to our purchase of the house, one of the items he noted was that the railing was just the right width for a child to get its head stuck. When we went into the house for the first time, we noticed it was the original railing - meaning, at least one family had already raised children here. We put it out of our minds.

Today Zoltan was having a snack and I went to the bathroom. I heard him trying to talk to me and called out he can wait, because of course there's not much one can do from the bathroom.

When I came out ... his head was stuck in the railing. I tried gently easing it back out and couldn't find a way that moved his head through without it hurting him. He was starting to panic so I calmed him down, told him to just hang on (luckily the position wasn't too uncomfortable) and asked my good friend Mr. Google what to do.

This lovely blogger had the solution:
http://chicmommy.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-to-safely-remove-child-stuck-in.html

So, for anyone out there who needs to know: at least through age almost-4, the head is still the largest part of the body. I managed to help him ease his arms through, then the torso, then I picked him up and the legs easily came around the bend from the other side of the railing. And he's learned his lesson - no more sticking his head through the railing!! 

First day of sadik!

Today did not go as well for Zoltan as yesterday went for Alex :-(  He didn't want to leave mommy. The good news, if it can be described as such, is that he stopped yelling for mommy within a minute of me leaving (the kids were all playing outside and I went inside to put his stuff away so I could still hear everything).

Let's hope this turns out like detsky sad did for, well, both kids, where they clung to mommy at drop-off but didn't want to leave at pickup. And I am now doubly glad we decided to have him in part time now so it wouldn't be such a shock when he goes full time when I start working.

First day of school!

Today was Alex's first day of school. Boy was she excited! I love how excited she was. We walked to school and got there way earlier than we needed to be there (although we were in good company for that) and got to hang out with the other kids and parents from her class. We stayed entertained by noting the various characters or color combinations on other kids' clothes or backpacks. Kindergarten parents were permitted to walk our kids to class and hang out during the introductory routine, variously snapping photos and video of our little cherubs, until the loudspeaker alerted us that our presence was no longer desired in the classrooms. Good work - lay it on the administration not the teachers.  I approve.

Alex came home just as excited as she left. She rode the bus home - her decision. She had great fun today and referred to the different children she interacted with by the color of their shirts. We agreed she would try to remember one child's name each day.

And - my highlight - Alex described the color-coded behavior chart employed by the teacher.Everyone starts off on "green" and can move up to purple and finally blue. Misbehavior drags you down to yellow and finally orange. Guess who was the only child at blue at the end of the day? Yeah.

Zoltan can't wait til it's his turn to ride a bus and go to school.

Photos will be added when Terry edits them. Sigh.
[edited to add photos]

Farmers Market

Yesterday we managed to get the kids' bikes ready for use. Then, of course, Alex wanted to ride her bike immediately. She put on her bike helmet and on it stayed for a good half hour, until we told her it had to come off because we had to run an errand in the car (getting the Subaru titled in MD). When we got home we also remembered the Rockville farmer's market on Saturday mornings and quickly came up with the plan that, we thought, would cover all bases.

We grabbed some snacks and water, bags, the wagon, Alex's bike, and some bungee cords. Some SNAFUs along the way: Alex decided she didn't want to ride the bike after 2 blocks and the first few attempts of bungee didn't pan out; the route we walked ended up involving a massive detour as there was no way to cross 355 at the point where we reached it. But we got the hang of things.

Some thoughts on the farmers' market. In my previous experience - entirely in Pennsylvania - farmer's markets are a place to buy your produce directly from the farmer, where you can chat with the farmer, find out where the farm is and what their practices are and - most importantly for the consumer - pay a discounted price due to the cutting out of twelve layers of middlemen. Not here. Goodness, the prices are crazy high. Like the cheapest items cost around grocery store levels.

Not that it stopped us from buying, of course, because the stuff was local and largely if not entirely organically grown.

And then we saw them. The Amish/Mennonites who came down from Pennsylvania to sell their pork, lamb and who knows or cares what else to the Marylanders. Pennsylvania lamb!! Terry and I started concocting the recipes on the spot. It will involve creating rosemary infused olive oil with fresh rosemary that is flourishing in our yard next to the sadly dying mint (what the heck? We once experienced a pot of mint living 2 months in a storage unit. I am very disappointed in this wimpy specimen). So, we will be back with the insulated grocery bag and some ice packs. Cookies sweetened the walk back, as well as the slight down incline that let Alex ride her bike a good portion of the way.

To finish the day, we grilled our antibiotic-laden, forcibly-grain-fed supermarket beef with pesticide-and-GMO-free corn and roasted some local potatoes covered in parsley from our garden. We paired it with beer from Utah (which gives me such a kick) and it happens to be organic too although I didn't notice that when I bought it. It was a good night.

Pictures on the wall

With all the moving we do, it becomes relatively easy to develop an understanding of what I need to be settled, comfortable, feeling like "home".  For me, no matter what's in the house or not, how much is unpacked vs. strewn across the floors, a residence is finally home when we hang the pictures on the wall.

Today is that day.

Hallelujah. 

172 boxes - almost done!

So every box has been touched and 90% of stuff put away. Unfortunately, the moving company only comes back on Saturdays for the empties, and last Saturday was too early, so some stuff can't be unpacked because there is a wall of broken down boxes, or boxes filled with packing material, where the thing should go.

We've been to Target 3 times for different forms of storage.  We may have more pictures and photos than we have walls.

...

And in the midst of all the craziness, Bathfitters finally had all the parts they needed for our install and was able to fit us in within 4 days and we got a new bathtub. The kids are disappointed because the sliding shower door frame (sans doors, of course) was a "railroad" for them to play with - their bath toys took a lot of trips. The adults are about as far from disappointed as one can get.

Photos to come...

172 boxes

... were delivered to my house today. I started unpacking from the first batch. I stopped for lunch and dinner, but as we'd done crockpot for dinner I didn't waste any time with food prep. It is 9pm and I am drained, exhausted, my feet are killing me, and I swear there are still 172 boxes left to unpack. And nowhere to put anything. If I do nothing else tonight, I need to clear off the kitchen table so we can have breakfast.

The kids were amazing amusing themselves pretty much all day with very few moments of real attention. It probably helped I got them to the playground for a while before the movers arrived. I warned them they have a few more days of this. My plan is to unpack a box or two of toys each day so there is always something new to discover.

We have a compost bin! And a car!

Yes, in that order.

Montgomery county has an awesome program where its residents can just go and pick up a free compost bin in one of many locations. I hit up the local Whole Foods for ours (that isn't actually local, so I'll never go there, in that I have Dawsons, Trader Joes, and Harris Teeter closer to me). It isn't the amazing Darth Vader helmet we got way back when through the PA Game Commission or whatever government entity it was, but it is a compost bin and now I feel better when chopping veggies or when I hit on a moldy piece of fruit.

The car ... well, we've been dithering for 6 months or more about the Corolla, whether it would pass inspection in the USA and whether we should even try after 2 Maltese summers and 4 Russian winters. It is a Corolla, but it is also a 1994 vintage that's been travelling more than most. In the end, it did get brought to our driveway where it sat while we debated whether to donate it, try to get some trade-in value from it, or see if we could get it on the road.

Between our fixing-up and our unpacking and our Freecycling (mostly out, but a little in) we realized that our time is worth something. To us at least. So we decided the time sink in managing the Toyota's fixes and getting the temp tags to get it inspected and then more fixes and then hopefully it passes emissions .... we decided if we found a decent car within our low, low budget we'd just go get it.

Thus we hit up the only open car lot last Sunday (I called it, they were Israeli) and drove home in our "new" Accord. Alex is disappointed that it isn't green. I bet anything other than British Racing Green would have gotten that reaction. In some ways she is a mini Terry.

We still have to return my brother's car, and we are waiting on a part to repair the Subaru so we can get its registration transferred to Maryland. So, right now we have 3 cars out front, with license plates from 3 different states. 

Childhood friends

One of the perks of having to come back to the USA early was that Alex got to see her best friend. They were coming to the end of language training but haven't left yet and we were able to get them together for a play date. After some initial shyness they remembered their deep and old friendship and played happily.

The mom made a comment to me about how happy she was that we were able to get together, and that it is important for our kids to have "childhood friends" but with this lifestyle that's pretty hard to keep up. I had never thought of it that way.

A different friend told me, after our kids/families had met up in a couple of different countries, that she wanted her children to know there were other kids like them, growing up here and there, and that friendships can last beyond the time you live in the same place. As we make our plans to meet up in yet one more "new" place this week, and as my children are about to settle for a couple of years in a "normal" USA town/life/routine, I wonder how they will look back on their childhoods and whether in adulthood they will have friends who knew them now.

HOME

We move into our home tomorrow. Without the stuff that makes it feel like home. Without bowls or coffee mugs (well, I borrowed 4 from Terry's mom). But we will be home, we will be together, and except for a few short trips to PA for doctor appointments and cabin weekends, we will be permanent. I mean, for 2 years.

Alex and I got on a plane May 6. In the intervening almost 3 months, we have spent one consecutive week in the same place - the recent trip to the cabin where we were without Terry for the first 5 days. She and I, especially, are looking forward to being in one place every day.

More local finds

Last weekend Terry wanted to check out the archery range at a nearby section of Rock Creek Park, so I went along for the ride.

In addition to the range, we found a playground, lots of hiking and biking trails, clean, "proper" bathrooms, and lots more! We also got to watch a myriad of Monarch butterflies fluttering around - they seem to like it around here, I've never noticed so many.

Then after the grocery run we checked out a local Asian food market. Wow! The produce is amazing and cheap cheap cheap. Plus every possible sauce, seasoning, and snack. They already have mooncake out! Best of all, once we get a crate on the back of my bike, I can get the groceries powered by "me".

Wordless Wednesday

We survived the 7 year itch!

Well, not like there was an actual incident reminiscent of the "7 year itch", but as of today we have been married 8 years. For a super special anniversary, we are currently located in different states. I came to PA yesterday to transfer kids from Camp Grandparents to Slightly Less Like Camp Because Mommy's Here being held at Other Grandparents.

I'm too tired from parenting solo for 24 hours to say anything witty, pithy or adorable and loving, but hey, isn't that what marriage is really about?

Love you, dear!

Mosquitoes

I have been overseas for the last 6 years. I was also pregnant when we left the USA 6 years ago. Lots of things happen to a woman's body during pregnancy, some are enduring changes such as my friend's mom who went up a shoe size with each pregnancy (my friend is one of three. By the way, why the $&^%&^%$ couldn't that have happened to me? I need a southeast Asia tour just to get some shoes that fit!).

For the last six years, I have been almost entirely untouched by mosquitoes. I ignorantly figured that my body chemistry changed enough with those babies that my sweet, sweet blood was no longer so attractive to mosquitoes.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

It turns out that my blood is unpalatable to EUROPEAN mosquitoes. American ones, Maryland varieties especially, are still driven to me like little vampires.

I may not enjoy the last month or so of summer as much as I'd wish.

Homesick

As I discussed in painful detail, we received our HHE from storage last week. Some things we haven't seen in 4 years, others in 7 years. It's 95% of our furniture. It's a few special items we didn't want getting thrown off a ship (think gifts from deceased grandparents).

And it's nothing at all that makes a house a home. Receiving the stuff made me homesick for our home in Russia.

:-(

F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre

One of the things I do love about our house is the walkability. Just a few blocks away is the Glenview Mansion, F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre, and a playground, huge field, tennis courts, and Croyden Nature Center (all in one big site).

I say it is the Piter influence, but Terry and I decided to take advantage of our child-free status to go ... see a show. A Gershwin musical, to be exact. Turns out the theater troupe is fully volunteer, from the actors, to musicians, set designers, etc. We were incredibly impressed with the quality of the performance in every aspect, and it was lovely to just walk home at the end.

The space also hosts plays, concerts and ballets, with all tickets I've seen so far being less than $25. We're already planning who's taking which child to which performance.

we are idiots. IDIOTS

Wednesday should have taken up 3 days, at least, for all that has happened.

It started just fine... movers said they would arrive between 8-10am and I was at the house promptly at 8:10am.  Terry sort of forgot one step of the directions when he took Garmin from me, so I had to pull out the map and figure how to get to the house from the hotel, or I would have been more timely. I kept busy until the movers arrived. They were bringing the stuff from ELSO storage, so it was a teeny weeny 850lb.

Unpacking and putting things away took til lunch. Then we did some yardwork and Terry started getting the sandbox together that my mom bought as a housewarming present for the kids. It had a roof/cover that cranks up and down, pretty cool, hopefully Terry will deign to edit the photos of it soon so I can post it.

When he ran off to Home Depot for various necessities, the crew from Home Depot arrived to install our new washer and dryer. I do love them (w/d, not Home Depot or the crew although both impressed me today), but note that they were delivered only TODAY. It figures into the story later.

Then the waiting began. The movers with the big load - almost 4000lb from 7 years ago storage, weren't to arrive until between 3-5pm. At 4:30pm I called the person at the shipping company assigned to us. She didn't answer the phone so I left a message. Then she replied by calling Terry instead of me. Can you tell she's my new best friend? The movers arrived just barely shy of 5pm so I was pretty freaked out about how late we'd be working on unpacking. Shouldn't have bothered to worry, these guys were fast.

First off the bad news: Our dining room table is broken as well as the table Terry's dad built for our table saw. I guess it could have been worse, but having to buy a new dining room table will suck. It looks like it may be fix-able so keep your fingers crossed! Oh, and 3-4 items were missing and between the warehouse and the moving company everyone is playing a game of "not it" so I don't think they will ever be recovered
:-(

But on to the story. The moving crew was like lightening. Of course, there were few boxes of stuff, and the stuff was 90% tools, gardening supplies, and home renovation supplies (we were almost done with our 2 year renovation project of our Philly home when Terry got The Call). What did make up 3000lb and more was the furniture....

and ...

the washer and dryer that we put into storage. That we were sure we had left in the house when we sold it. That had we been just a tiny bit less stupid, we would have checked our inventory in preparation for the delivery and noted that we already owned a washer and dryer.  Here's the thing: not only did we already own a set, but we didn't have Home Depot carry away the set that was here because we planned to bring them to the cabin some day soon, as I am getting tired of the laundromat and hoarding quarters as laundry tokens when we go up there.

So now we have THREE washing machines, and THREE dryers, in our very too small home.

On a similar and much less dramatic vein, we had pretty much the same experience with a vacuum cleaner. We remembered bringing our vacuum to the cabin when we left. In fact, at the cabin we frequently use the old vacuum. Apparently, though, we brought the vacuum to the cabin some time before we left, and it was enough of a gap in time that we decided to buy a new vacuum cleaner. So now we have 2 perfectly new cleaners in our very small house.

But no coffee mugs or drinking glasses. We rock.

Wordless Wednesday

Receiving HHE from storage

A big, big day today week - receiving our stuff from storage!  What an experience, to look for the first time in 7 years at the stuff we thought was important enough to save even though we didn't know when we'd ever see it again :-)

Here's an interesting tidbit:  storage in Hagerstown and storage from ELSO are both, physically, in Hagerstown. BUT they have different delivery schedules and different companies delivering!!!  This means that we get our 850lb from Malta between 8-10am, and our 3500lb from storage between ... wait for it ... 3-5pm.  Yeah.  With Home Depot delivering our new washer & dryer between 12:45-4:45.

I think there may be some downtime today. The good news? I can use that down time to take a bike ride, courtesy of the bikes we brought to Malta and never used. Assuming the bike pump is in there too.

Kids' rooms

Way, way overdue.

Here's Terry edging Alex's room.

And the finished product ...

 

... seen here with what will be the bunk bed's top bunk but for now is set up for pre-furniture-arrival naps [edited to add: the room is now complete with its adorable wood and white furniture and sweet pink floral bedding, courtesy of an off-to-college cousin].

Zoltan's room got similar treatment

He also, however, has received most of the furniture that will fit in his room. Yes, that's TWO pieces. Hey, at least he has a closet - better than he had in Russia!

Back in civilization

One more wonderful week at the cabin. Should mention though, we had never before spent time there during actual summer. It was HOT and of course there's no a/c in a cabin. Thanks goodness for the beach club, where we spent a lot of time in the water to cool off. Thanks goodness too for decent sunblock because although Zoltan now looks like a total surfer dude with his sunstreaked hair and a bit of sunburn across the bridge of his nose, nobody got any real burn.

We got to snack on red and black raspberries and blackberries from the property! Of course, there were single digit numbers of each of them, but they exist and that's what matters. We also got a few photos of a really funky looking bug. We checked out the Lands at Hillside Farms and ate ice cream from the cows we petted. We got lunch at Grottos for their a/c one particularly miserable day and ate lots of frosty treats. The kids played and fought, laughed and cried, and begged me every day to watch shows. Alex tried and decided she liked couscous, and Zoltan continued his love affair with green veggies (yay!)

As much as I love exotic adventures and cultural excursions, there really is nothing like a week at the CABIN.

Wordless Wednesday

Because that couldn't be the end of the story

I approached tonight's dinner a bit hesitantly. I made sure everyone was awake and on the potty and all essentials were in my bag before turning the burner on low to melt the butter and begin the risotto. Sigh. A few minutes into the warming, the burner starts smoking. Of course I turn it off and call the hotel, which sends up an engineer. She and I seem to have a major miscommunication as she's all focused on the disconnected burner from yesterday's debacle and ignores the more recently smoking burner. At one point when she's testing things and something starts to smoke gently, Zoltan proactively puts his hands over his ears. Poor guy.

In the end, she cleans the burners and it's all fine but too late to make risotto as that takes an hour. So, tonight's adventure was the Afghan Kabob house where we tried to entice the kids to eat by repeating over and over that "it's just like shashlik."  Worked on Zoltan, the budding carnivore. Alex ate bread and rice.

Wordless Wednesday

An exciting day

Following the amazing list of recommendations of things to do with the kids while in NoVA, today we took advantage of the cloud cover and headed to Clemyjantri Park in McLean. It was everything everyone promised it would be and more, we will definitely be back.

As a testament of the morning, the kids took lovely 3 hour naps. After Alex woke, I decided to start on dinner, so I got the pan warming on setting 5-6 as I took out the chicken and other ingredients. When it seemed warm enough I poured some olive oil into the pan. It started smoking immediately, which was unusual, and then ...

the pan caught on fire.

Cue up Zoltan being awakened by the sound of the fire alarm and handling it much better than I would have predicted; my attempt to contain the fire by turning the pan over on the stove (which did contain it but I guess I peeked too soon as it flared back up when I lifted it to check); and the front desk reacting not quite as fast as I would have thought, although it certainly may have been no more than 1-2 minutes. Oh yeah and I had a horribly delayed out-in-the-heat headache.

So I guess we're going out to eat tonight.

* Edited to add: We did go out for dinner, and serendipitously wandered into the Nepalese Momo Restaurant in the strip mall across the street from the hotel. Today was its very first day of business! Their official opening is Friday and we may very well be be back it.

UAB delivery, sort of

A mere 7 weeks after packing out, we received our UAB. Oh, wait, no we didn't as 2 of 5 boxes were missing. I know some posts in remote parts of the world this is a normal turnaround. For where we're coming from, 2-3 weeks is the norm. When the deliveryman showed up at 11:30am we discovered the problem. He kept suggesting that maybe the 5 boxes were consolidated into 3. I kept saying this isn't 700lb. Yes, apparently I DO know what 700lb of stuff looks like. By 5pm the moving company insisted the missing boxes were in the warehouse but nobody had physically verified this yet.

More to come (hopefully, soon!!)...