Busy day in the new house.

Today we have had about 12 different men here to fix the various things that have gone wrong. We do have water again, but something is up with the pump, but I had no clue to what the man was telling me about it. Not sure I would have understood him even if he spoke perfect English. I am not good with language barriers. The air conditioners are mostly fix, except for the upstairs play room, that one is a goner and need to be replaced. I understood that. The telephone is still fuzzy, but it has something to do with the provider. The air purifier is broken and needs replacing. I think that is all.

Fiona kitty and her friend Jinxy arrived safe and sound this morning. I know Fiona is good, but poor Jinxy seems a little shell shocked. He is happiest hiding behind the freezer, calling for Fiona to come visit him. She comes to him every once and a while but she is much to busy exploring the new digs to hide.

It's almost three pm, and I have been told to stay home by J, in case our shipment decides to come today. I highly doubt it, we have only been here three days, but will the amount of people in and out of here today, I wouldn't be totall surprised. The kids are stir crazy, the tv has decided to quit working so they are stuck playing with each other. Sad isn't it? Who wants to play with their sibling?


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Pioneer Mommy

As we settle in to our new home, we find things that aren't quite right. Yesterday an air conditioner went out, and today another one. Lucky for us, the bedrooms are still cool. Our gorgeous clean house, as slowly become the house of bugs. Not sure how they get in, but insecticide might be in my near future. Of course I can not find the broom, that I am sure was provided to us, so I have resorted to sweeping with a Bangladeshi broom, a stick with bits of straw tied on the end. I am not very effective with it, might have to get some sweeping lessons. We have a water distiller to clean our water, because we would get sick if we drink the tap water. We have a water dispenser thing like you find in waiting areas, as well. So we fill the jug from the distiller and use the water from the hot or cold dispenser. Of course the hot side doesn't work, which isn't a problem. The problem is, when I made some juice for the kids with the water, it was foggy and soapy. Oh you have to rinse the jug before you use it. Good gosh, it's a heavy jug to get up to the dispenser.

The power goes out often, but we have a generator that kicks in after a couple minutes. We do have a lovely washer and dryer! Thank God for that, because my hands can only take so much. We do not have a dishwasher, and so I wash by hand. The welcome kit come with dishes, a set of four, and so with this family of four, I wash dishes a lot. It seemed funny to me to rinse the dishes, in the water we aren't suppose to drink but i figure since it air dries, it should be fine. Tonight I decided to fill the other side of the sink, well actually fill a large bowl in the sink since I only have one plug, and put a little bleach in it. Now these dishes are clean! Except, tonight I turned on the water, to find none coming from the hot tap. I am resourceful, so I get a big pot out to heat the water on the stove in order to wash dishes. I soon found we were out of cold water too...and the toilets didn't flush. So I got water from the distiller and got the dishes done. I called our sponsors to find out if this was a normal occurrence, and I should just wait it out, but no answer. Called someone else, and had to have some one come out to fix it.

Well, we are doing well, but I refuse to pee outside, so I am waiting patiently and hoping beyond hope he will fix the water problem. I can problem solve most issues. That's it for now. Hoping for less bugs, more cool air and more water!


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First Days

We arrived yesterday, early morning. J went to work for a few hours to get some stuff in order and the kids and I stayed home. We unpacked suitcases and investigated our huge new home. We had a quick nap before our sponsor, L, showed up with J to take us to lunch at the American Club. It was great, had a good lunch, and the kids played in the kids room while we got our memberships. The kids, L and I went swimming in the pool and it was a blast. Lots of kids to play with. Jack was exhausted so he went home to nap. There was a BBQ to go to so we went and meet loads of people, none of which I can remember today. After dinner we made our way back home. It was a very long day and it was time to sleep!


I had shipped linen for the kids room, so they could make their rooms feel comfy, and so we made beds before tucking in under the mosquito nets for bed.





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Traveling

NYC was great! The weather was perfect and our last day we spent on the ferry going to the Statue of Liberty. The kids were well behaved and did NOT complain about walking for once. My legs are complaining now after climbing all the stairs to the pedestal. I will blame the baby for the extra weight I have to carry.





Next stop was Doha, Qatar. So pretty. White sandy beaches on the Persian Gulf. I did not stay out long in the 111 degree heat but the kids and Jack had a ball in the pool. They look nicely colored up, not burnt, but cute tans from the hour or two in the sun.

The kids are doing pretty well, some minor melt downs but generally happy. Mama is very happy for the children's play area in the Doha airport. The kids can get all their wiggles and giggles out before we board our plane. So glad this is the last leg of our journey and can't wait to see our new house and meet new friends.


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NYC

We are currently sitting in Starbucks by the hotel. We could have had room service for breakfast but for 30$ for a continental break, plus 18.5% gratuity, 2$ service charge plus a 5$ dine in room charge plus tip for bell boy we decided to pass.

It was a quick flight, less than a hour it seemed, in the air....but lucky for us we sat waiting to park the plane for 45 mins. I think they just wanted to make sure everyone on the plane was completely irritated with the non stop talking from one cute 5 year old boy. Then we took at taxi to to the hotel. It is located right by the WTC site. We have an amazing view of the foundations of the buildings. The taxi ride only took an hour and a half! Lucky for everyone the kids slept on that part of the journey.

Immediately after arriving at the hotel, R and I, took the subway to 5th ave. And went to the American girl droll store. She had a fabulous time looking at dolls. She got her dolls hair done, had a photo session and their picture on the cover of a magazine. She bought the new girl of the year, Kanini, and we had dinner. Great time, plus cake and ice cream with singing of Happy birthday! Nice time. We didnt get back to the hotel until 9:30, and we were exhausted.

On to funfilled activities for the rest of today.


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Pack em up

Today the packers come to move us out! We spent the weekend, organising and sorting and packing suitcases. They are all hidden away in the bathroom so the mover don't take anything they shouldn't.... like passports and such. I am so ready for all the stuff to be gone from the apt. It's going to look so much bigger. Saturday morning we leave for NYC. It's getting so close. I can't believe it! So soon we will be in our new home!

In other news, we are expecting a little boy sometime in October. Our Ultrasound went awesome, and he is perfect in everyway! Well perfect in everyway, except for the way that R wanted. She desparately wanted a sister! She burst out into tears in the ultrasound room. I felt so bad for her. I just want a baby, but to an eight year old little girl, a sister is a big deal. Everyone in the doctors office was so nice to her, assuring her, that it was such a better deal to be the only girl. Much more spoiling to be had, that way.

On the topic of spoiling... this little girl of mine gets to spend the day at the American Girl store on a shopping spree and funfilled activities. hair do's, photo shoots, dinner and birthday dessert. I think she is going to have a fabulous time.

Ok, must stop writing before the movers come and take the computer away. I'll blog more often from Dhaka, as we will have much to say!

Slow to report

I have been keeping up the blog this month. Slap my wrist. Laziness has taken hold. Well, not really. It's just been busy. Spring Break was here, and the Monpas-Huber boys and their wonderful mother, K came to visit. It was a fun filled week of museums and parks and alot of whining. Little small boys don't like to walk long distances, their legs protest almost as loudly as their voices, and mothers being wonderful loving creatures, take pity on small protesting little ones. It would seem to have it, that everytime we took a break to sit and have a snack on the Mall, no one would sit. They all ran, and ran and ran. Playing tag, and racing up and down the Mall grass. Wait a minute! Their little legs could not, would not, should not go any more! Lo and behold, legs continue to work even when little voices said they most certainly could not go. It was an awesome week to have friends around. The kids loved sleeping four in a room and giggling all into the night. Oh how we miss our friends! Heres a picture of the mall and those little feet, who weren't really tired at all.

Since they have gone, my shopping has gone crazy. Preparing to move to Dhaka, is an interesting process. I hope I am doing a good job, but I won't really know until we get there. I do have boxes and boxes of shampoo, sunscreen, bug repellant (deet free, of course) contact lens solution, soap, razors, Oh the list could go on and on. Well actually the list does go on and on, since I have an detailed inventory of what is in each box. 6 pages later, you get the idea. Only 30 days to go, before we leave this small apartment. I am excited and nervous.

Pregnancy is .... well... just fine. It's still so early that half the time I forget that I am pregnant. The tired feet at the end day reminds me. The morning sickness seems to be better, though last week it came back to remind me, that I was not really in control of my body. This week the reflux has started. I need to get to the drugstore and get some prevacid or prilosec or zantac or whatever. While tums are great, I'm sure their effectiveness will soon wain.