Well, we've been here about a week and a half. Sunday will be the second group meeting ever of Saints in Montenegro. The mission president and his wife will be here to have meetings with us. Some of our air shipment has arrived... we are still short 1/6 boxes but it will get here eventually. The blue bedroom is now empty. It is going to become the TV room. It was the biggest room besides the living room so Zoe is now in the corner room next to Ethan's closet, Teac is in the Club house, and when our TV finally shows up, we will put it upstairs. Not sure if our Ayi from China is going to come. I think it is not looking good. She is having such a hard time deciding, we think she might be happier if she stayed, but we'll see. I am getting more organized than I have ever been with the kids. We have a job chart and everyone did their jobs this week with minimal complaining. I have clothes baskets so everyone can trudge their own laundry from the basement (minus Ethan)and Marlo seems relieved by the raised level of set organization and routine.
We have a tiny little store just a half a block out our back gate. Marlo has gone to get bread and carrots a couple of times now, all by herself. She feels very independent and I love that the area is safe so that I don't worry about her. In fact, they now walk to and from school everyday. This is a huge deal since they have to leave before Ethan wakes up and I would have to wake him from his nap to go get them. There are several other foreign families in our neighborhood and the girls and I are hoping that they can walk back and forth to have play dates. Almost sounds like some kind of normal life. The people here have been so great.
We stopped by the little old lady's house behind us and had juice and she brought out some chocolates for the boys. She always waves and smiles at us. I recognize people when we go for walks. The people from the embassy have been so helpful. They are coming Monday to install pantry shelves and fix the other little things on my list. So, I am doing well, I just need to learn the language so that I can speak to people better.
Papi is a little stressed because he has so much going on, but we figure in a couple of months things will calm down a little and he can have more normal hours. He even has to work today... and I am taking the kids to an embassy party all by myself. Not sure how that is going to go...maybe I will let the girls bring their nintendos...

 
Patio... you can see the steel shutters.

 
Patio outside the living room... the patio furniture was just delivered.

 
Basement 1/2 bath.

 
Laundry room.... again no shelves.... and I have two flights of stairs to wash the clothes... my legs are already feeling it.

 
Hallway in the basement... there is a lot of space wasted in this house with hallways...

 
I am standing with my back to the back of the garage.

 
From under the stairs....

 
You thought you were through with the tour... down to the basement.

 
View from the balcony.

 
Master bathroom, complete with bidet that shoots warm water.

 
Walk-in closet. James took the sliding doors off the second day. We couldn't get into the closet at the same time and they pinched the sleve on one of his coats and smashed the buttons. Better to be without some doors since it is inside the closet anyway.

 
Master bedroom.... we have our own bathroom and the only closet in the house. The hanging rod is about 3 feet long so we are trying to come up with other solutions.

 
This is the room that has yet to be decided. If our nany is able to come from China, this will be her room. If not, this will be the office... so we'll see. Nice double doors to the shared balcony with the master bedroom.

 
They had a crib for Ethan waiting for us. We put him in this small room/closet... it could go either way. But it's dark and no one needs to go in there so it is perfect.

 
Right next to Zoe's bedroom door is the door to the fish bathroom. (Named for the fish on the walls of course.) In Bogota, we only had showers and a huge jacuzi tub. Here, in true European style, all tubs with a shower nozel. Once they solve the hot water problem, it will be great I'm sure.

 
Another view of the blue room.... I love it. None of the walls in the house are white.

 
Zoe's room. Teac's bed is now in the club house and when the bunk bed comes we will set it up in here. I hate to give up the beautiful head board though.

 
This is Marlo's/ guest room. There is a door out to a shared balcony. It is a little larger than her room in Bogota but she likes a smaller room because then the other kids don't want to come in and play.

 
The other 1/2 of the club house room where his bed and dresser will go.

 
When we first saw this room Teac said "cool a club house". So this is going to be his room and all of the toys will go in here. We moved his bed in yesterday but I think this is one of the coolest rooms a kid could have. That being said, he was running in circles in there on Friday and he hit a low beam head on and it layed him out. He got a huge goose egg on the back of his head, a scab on the bridge of his nose, and a black and blue line accross his forehead. I think he will be more careful from now on.

 
Next to the green bathroom there is a currently empty room that will be the tv/game room. Now we are going up stairs.

 
Just to the left of the kitchen door is the down stairs bathroom. I love the tile and the colors.

 
This is our fridge for now. If it isn't working, ie too small, they offered to bring us a full size one. I just don't know where we would put it.

 
My kitchen. To the right is the door outside and another door to a large pantry that so far has no shelves. The kitchen counters are the perfect height for the girls to do dishes so we already have a job chart going. I have electric everything, there is no gas this far out of the city, an extra freezer, and US-size stove and oven- even a hidden dishwasher.

 
From the dining room you can see into the kitchen with the stairs to the left. They did a wonderful job of getting the house ready for the kids. There are baby gates at top and bottom of the stair cases, plastic shielding on the banisters, and plastic shielding on the outdoor balconies and patio. They love kids here and the boys especially have already made friends.

 
Dining room... you may notice some of the windows look brown or blocked off. All of the windows and doors have heavy exterior metal shutters that only open from the inside. Some of them stay open better than others. We don't worry about break-ins but I believe they are to close up the house when it is not in use.
I met some of our neighbors yesterday and they are wonderful kind people that know what is going on around them. My Slovenian is helpful but I am so anxious to learn the language so that I can start having conversations with people.

 
In the back is the dining room... and straight back through the dining room is the soccer field.

 
The furniture is all for us to use from the embassy... hopefully our things will arrive this week. :)

 
View to the living room, with doors that go out to the patio, fire place, room for the piano and lots of dancing space.

 
This is what you see when you come through the front door. Stairs down to the basement, to the right, living room, to the left, what will be the tv room and the green bathroom.

 
Front entry... it looks like there are fruit trees in the front of the house. I am guessing plum or cherry... and maybe even some grape vines that have been grafted onto trunks so that they support themselves. It will be cool in the spring to see what they are.

 
This is the front view of the house. The brown door goes down to a large garage connected to the basement.

 
This is the House of Plastics that separates our house from that main road. It is the landmark used to find our house since addresses don't really exist where we are.

 
This is the road out the front gate that goes to the left.

 
This is the house from the back gate. The stairs to the right go upto the kitchen door, the left stairs up to the patio which wraps around to the living room and front door.

 
Mountains to the other side..

 
This is on the road to the school, about a 15 min walk from our house at "kid pace". The day was so clear, it was our first glimpse of the mountains around the city.

 
Back gate just to the right of the field.

 
This is our back yard. You can see our balcony up in the top left corner. The house sits in its own compound with white walls surrounding it and front and back drive-through gates. Doesn't it look like a perfect soccer field?

 
Here we are on our way to the first day of school. Rain boots for the mud but nice sunny skies. The night before at the mall we had some snow, not enough to stick, but it was fun.

 
The second night in Montenegro we went the new mall at Delta City. It is a beautiful mall with arcade games in the middle of the aisles in places and an indoor play area for kids. We met two other families here that both have 4 year olds. They were so welcoming and supportive, it was a really fun and exhausting night.

 
The lounge bathroom was the coolest. If you can see the glass doors with leaves trapped in them and the beautiful glass tiles...

 
walls of string

 
Well, the flight was not fantastic but not bad. James and I slept for maybe an hour while the kids took turns dozing off. Ethan had the roughest time of all and just couldn't get comfortable. We flew Austrian Air and some of the flight attendants were very nice and some were just plain annoyed with the kids. That was frustrating. We waited to be the last ones off the plane since we had to undo the carseat etc and she came back to tell us they were waitning on us even though not everyone else was off the plane yet. Lame.
We spent about 5 hours in the Vienna airport. We were flying as a United co-chair so we tried to use the Star Alliance Business class lounge for our long wait. They wouldn't let us in with the kids. As a business person, I would have been relieved... as a mom, I was annoyed. So we walked down to a different lounge and they let us in. The only thing was it was beautifully decorated with these white nylon strings hanging all allong the walls, surrounding the tables... they were everywhere. How do you keep kids out of them? They did pretty well considering their parents were exhausted and they had to keep their voices down. Boy was I relieved to leave Vienna with its snow covered runways and kid unfriendly demeanor.

 
Good friends can be like cousins and we sure appreciate how much they love each other.

 
One of the best things that has happened to us is making all of the wonderful friends we have. It doesn't seem to matter how far away we are, or how often we come back, we love them all. It means that we have family all over, and are so blessed to never be alone, no matter where we are.

 
Grandma was such a good sport about food. We had kababs one night, 5 Guys burgers, steak, BBQ, and lots of mashed potatoes. She told us she was on vacation and wanted to go out to eat... so we did.

 
Interesting how much pop culture contributes to our world view. The pop icons that are in the US History museum are fun... like Kermit, and the ruby slippers...

 
Wonderful Grandma Fowler came to visit us our last week in VA. We dragged her out to the US History museum and had a great time looking at everything... here we are in the sculpture garden... not sure why I took it so crooked... uh

 
This is Zoe modeling the beautiful skirt Aunt Janie made for her in the entryway in VA.

 
A few days later we made the trip back to VA and the land of the cold. This is the kids all huddled up watching TV on the couch down stairs. We had one of the most pleasant trips ever. The plane wasn't packed so our lap child got his own seat, and we had a row all to ourselves. Security was helpful and quick, and everything went very smoothly.... go figure. I hope we didn't use up all of our good Karma in one trip. :)

 
He got two cool '57 corvettes, a Diego set, and a phone that rings and calls you back.

 
For Teac's 4th birthday Bekki helped us make a cool train cake. We played and decorated it at her house and then took it back to the Smith's where the LAN party was in full swing.

 
Do we look exhausted?

 
This gives you an idea of the crowds. It is beautiful this time of year with all the decorations, parades, and fireworks.

 
We were some of the insane people that went to Disneyland over the Christmas break. Teac was just tall enough to go on most of the big kid rides including Space Mountain. This is him sitting next to grandpa as they came down the hill. When he came off and I asked him if he liked it, he was clearly shaken and a little distressed. His conclusion was that it was too scary. Poor guy, we took him on lots of big rides. We also did Dumbo, Autotopia, Buzz Lightyear, and the Carosel. Considering how packed the park was, we did very well. It was great fun.

 
Isn't he growing up so fast.

 
Well, as crazy as it is, we only took video Christmas morning. We had a great morning with lots of chaos and presents. We were with family and are so blessed to have so much. This picture is the morning after with everyone in their new pjs.

 
K, this is kind of a scary picture but I had to blog about the story that goes with it. Teac is wearing an outfit that some of you may recognize from his first Christmas picture. I had it made in China and it is currently obviously too small. With all of the packing going on, he found it and put it on all by himself. Then he cam out and asked if we would help him button it. We were surprised and he told us he was a china boy, he should wear chinese clothes. We laughed and convinced him to change into his normal pajamas after I took the picture of course. Who would have thought after a year he would still have some tie to China?

 
In between shopping for consumables to send on to post, Papi went with the kids to a model train display. Teac loved it.

 
Moon buggy :) There was a whole exibit of art done by a former astronaut of images of astronauts on the moon and on the space shuttle.

 
We took a field trip to the Air and Space museum. I think the kids were inspired to become astronauts.

 
Poor Bob 3 days later. Such a short life span.

 
Snowman Bob.

 
Building a snow man.

 
This is the sled run on the side of the house. Apparently the favorite and best hill in the neighborhood.... except for the small stream at the bottom ;)

 
Family in the snow. Ethan was not so thrilled about the cold stuff and all of the clothes etc. that made it hard for him to walk. And going down on the sled was too much for him- just too fast. I'm sure he'll grow into it.

 
They had such a blast playing in the snow. It hung around for a couple of days and was a great way to play outside, and to go through socks. They are so lucky to have a papi who likes to play.

 
Our friend found us a gingerbread house and had her husband bring it to us in Colombia, then we brought it back to the US and put it together. It survived amazingly well.... for a few hours anyway. Now... it is bearly alive and working its way into the trash....

 
They insisted on climbing on every statue around, and that I take their picture. Very cute.

 
Just the second before I took this picture the orangutan was in the middle of the kids posing, but of course it took too long to get my camera out. Lesson learned.

 
We went to the zoo. It was a beautiful day..... in the 40s and sunny. Hardley anyone was there and all of the animals were out walking around.

 
This is Dan with the kids. He has been helping out with them while we have been here. It has been really great to have another adult around.

 
We took a field trip to the Smithsonian Natural History museum.

 
We have been so busy since arriving here in Virginia. Inspite of all of the colds and other illnesses, we have done a few fun things. Here we are at the park one cold wet Saturday.

 
This is Ethan with our nanny/maid. She was awesome. We were just sad that it took us so long to find her. She was sad that she had to leave the kids, especially Ethan.

 
The Saturday before we left, Marlo had a sleep over with her best friends. They were an awesome group of girls. So fun and kind to each other. I am sad that she had to leave them. They had a great time that night.

 
This one is better.

 
This is what you do for fun after they pack up all of your toys.

 
This is Rosa in our ward who took care of Ethan for me everyweek while I was in primary. She had the magic touch and he was almost always happy with her.... she even got him to sleep most days. That is his favorite blanket in the picture. Ever since we started packing we don't dare leave home without it.

 
This is our primary minus a couple of families who weren't there that day.

 
Zoe and her buddy Alicia at her last day of girl scouts.

 
Since when are Superman and Batman afraid of pirates?

 
Here they are on their way in to collect candy. Teac changed costumes 3 times before we actually made it out of the door... a wizard, blue's clues, and finally settled on superman. Ethan was a construction worker....

 
This is pirate Zoe as she walked in the costume parade at school.

 
Marlo was Glinda the good witch this year. And yes, amazingly enough her curls lasted all day long. This is how she looked before she went to school that day. Then in the afternoon we went to the embassy party.

 
This is Zoe's choir performance during a school assembly. It was a huge but very young choir. She had a great time playing instruments and learning songs.

Pumpkin carving.... oh how the personalities come out. :)

 
Monday night we carved our pumpkin.

 
We went out to dinner, met some friends that are in the ward there, hung out by the pool, and just enjoyed walking around together. One morning my new friend took me shopping to the souvenier spot the tourists don't usually go to. I found some fun trinkets to bring back. And then it was time to come home. I hadn't realized how much I miss the ocean and the breezes, the smells, just being outside. We loved the sound of the waves so much we slept with the sliding door open and got mosquito bites. It was a great breath of fresh, hot, humid air.

 
More castle pictures...

 
I heard this squeeking coming from the walls and I thought for sure it was rats..... but it was baby pigeons.

 
Doesn't this look like a perfect escape route?

 
After walking around the old town, I went to see the old castle. I was really sad to be there on my own because it was a perfect place to have a game of tag or hide and go seek.

 
I just really like the roof lines. In some old cities all of the roofs are the same. All red tile and all the same shape. These are all totally different... just cool.

 
View of the old city from the wall. We were there during the off season and it was fantastic. Not crowded at all. Aparently there is actually less crime in Cartagena than in Bogota because the mafia keeps the crime down so as not to discourage the tourists and hamper the money laundering that goes on there.

 
This is a picture of the new part of town, where our hotel was from up on top of the wall.

 
This is a picture of the wall from the outside.

 
One of the main squares. My back is to the old wall that surrounds the city. There are walled cities all over the world.... but not so much in the US.

 
The first day I walked around the old city by myself and took pictures of the architecture etc. Then when the sun came out in the afternoon I hung out by the pool.

 
So last week James had to go to Cartagena for work and I got to tag along and spend 3 glorious days all alone. We left the kids in Bogota with the nanny and a friend. This is the view from our hotel room balcony. It rained a little the first day but the rest of the time we had sun mixed with clouds. It was great. That is the caribbean sea off in the distance.

 
I forgot to include this picture of the kids licking the walls of the salt cave. Papi tried to get Teac to do it but he wouldn't do it until he saw his sisters do it first.