So excited... Today after lunch, we are going to look at a condo! We aren't that serious about buying one, but I really want to see it. When we were originally planning on moving here, we were looking at condos here in the neighborhood we live in. We wanted to be close to Carlos' family. Well since we are back and forth this year, and his parents wanted to let us live here, it's where we are. So the two options that I was all about were 1) the houses here, and 2) the penthouses. These are the the two floor plans that are the biggest, and possibly the best for having kids run around in. I was done when I saw this:
6 A/C units. The fact that a house needs this many is concerning to me. It is so cool here because of the breeze, and the airflow. We have 1, and we don't even use it all the time. Option 2 is the penthouse. It is a 2 story huge condo, and has a lot more space for the kids, and visitors. In our apartment, we have space for one extra person, but the penthouse would have much more space. The first floor is pretty much the same as what we have here, but then it has another floor that has a large master bedroom, a little office, and then tons of space outside. (Well, tons may be a little generous, but we will see soon enough :) There are two potentials problems that I forsee: 1: The view. We overlook a lot of green space and the mountains, this is facing the road. I don't know what else we will see from that angle. Since it is on the 16th floor, we may not really even see much of the street (unless we look for it.) When I update, I will add a picture of the view
This penthouse condo was pure heaven... All the open space on the patio would be perfect for Emma and Charlie to play! Emma could ride a bike/car/whatever up there, and it would just be PERFECT! There is so much space for them, that it would be just perfect.. BUT- we are coming and going this year, so it would be stupid to do anything drastic now. But there are a lot of those units here (4 per building) so we are hoping that one will be open next summer, and we could lease it. So we will see. We are SO happy where we are that it won't be bad at all to stay here :)
2: The extra patio. I don't know how that will be with Emma. Already, we can't just let her hang out out there since she's a monkey, and we are afraid that she will climb on something and be able to climb over. So we will have to see about how that will work out. But today I noticed that this penthouse has extra bars on it. (Look at the top floor, in the middle, slightly to the left) We also saw, when we were looking at the penthouse, that the one across the hall had covers that came down from the ceiling, past the bars. That would help keep monkey inside too!
I will do an update later to share how it is. We love it here though, so this is mostly just for my curiosity :)
Also, I know this is very late since sweatybands are not new.. BUT anyone who sweats a lot NEEDS one. I always used one at home, but I exercised in my house, and didn't sweat that much. Once I got here, and ran outside in the humidity, I was begging for one. My mom sent one to me, and OMG... it makes a HUGE difference. I had no idea what a change it would be. The first time I used it, I was shocked at how sweaty it was, and no sweat got into my eyes :)
And a picture of the little (almost) 1 year old :)
Well, we are STILL waiting for our car. Ugh. Things here are so different. At home, you wake up one morning, think, "I want a new care..", go to the dealer, sign, the papers, and then you take your new car home. You don't even need to put money down. Here, you cant go sign the papers, and drive home with it. You go, find out the cost, get the bank to approve the amount, then once you get approved, you have to wait a couple days for the bank to disperse the money to the dealer, then it takes a few days to get the tags, THEN you have to wait for the car to be shipped to you. Dealerships don't just keep a large supply of cars. We were off and on about for a little while, since we would be getting the car so close to when we were leaving for the US, but Carlos was still shopping around for banks since it is SO expensive here. In the US you can get 0% financing for a car without too much difficulty. Here it's a pretty standard 14%. Carlos has been able to get it down a little, but enough to make it a good enough deal to get one this close to us leaving.
I also can't believe that we have started potty training Emma!!! At school this week, they started to teach them, and Em has been doing so well! In three days at school she has had 1 accident! Here on the other hand...... She has been really stubborn here and hasn't wanted to cooperate too much with our plans. I thought potty training would make things easier, and I guess eventually it will be better, but right now, it is definitely not easy. At all. People say it usually takes about a week of work, and they get better at it. I am hoping that is the case. I would LOVE to start getting the hang of this before we get home to our house, and our hard to clean floors. Here it is so easy. The floors are all glossy marble (well- marble-esque... I don't really know what they are made of) Plus, I have help. Not that I make Johana clean up after Emma- I do that myself, but she can take Charlie while Emma is in a precarious situation. That is HUGE. i am not too too worried about the trip home. There will not be potty time on the plane, so Ems will need to just suck it up and use a diaper since I can't easily take her to the potty with Charlie.
Well, it seems I have wrung this trip out the way I rang in it. Sick as a dog. I am pretty sure that it was food poisoning this time. I was violently ill 3 days after arriving here too. And here we are, 3 days from leaving, and I am just getting over it again.
I ate leftover steak for dinner Wednesday night, and 2 hours later, well regretting it doesn't even come close to covering it. Seriously, I would much rather recover from a c-section than go through that. This morning is the first time that I am really out of bed and eating real food. And I am not too sure how I feel about it either. My stomach is still quite sensitive. Thank goodness this happened now, and not right before we left. Oh that would be misery. I would probably need to change my flights. I don't know what I would have done without Johana. She is a godsend. She stayed late yesterday to take care of the kids. I didn't have to get out of bed all day. It was heavenly. And she made home-made chicken broth with potatoes for me :)
Today I am going to meet Carlos' boss, so I better snap out of it. And quick for that matter. He will be here to pick me up in half an hour :)
