Celsius for Dummies

25 C = Shorts

20 C = Jeans

15 C = Jacket

10 C = Coat and Gloves

5 C = See you next June

Letter

Dear Hurricane Ike,

Welcome to our homeland! So sorry that we can't be there to greet you, to serve up some coffee and cake, but we've been relocated. Please, enjoy your stay, make yourself comfortable around our home. I'm sure that you will find it full of trees to blow over and for your pleasure, we have left some furniture in the backyard for you to toss about. Since we haven't been there in about a month, we would like to thank you in advance for watering our yard.

Really, thank you so much for planning a visit because....we needed another reason for our house not to get sold this month.

Sincerely, the montys

Oui, more rain

I've had a lot of people ask me about the use of French here. We are not in a French speaking province, that would be Quebec. I have yet to meet anyone here that speaks French as a first language. And, while a few people have told me that they went through years of French in school, they do not speak it hardly at all. There are a few French television stations, but no more than the Spanish stations in Houston. However, everything at the grocery store and the majority of public signs must be in both English and French. Which brings me to my point....


There is a much larger population of Spanish speaking folks and primary language Spanish speaking folks in Texas, yet the language is hardy accomodated for. And where it is accomodated for, it is typically protested. I acknowledge that the French speakers here, wherever they might be, are most likely here legally while many Spanish speakers,particularly those that speak Spanish as a primary language, are in Texas illegally. Yet, think of what our children have to gain if we were to embrace the Spanish language and allow it to infiltrate our children's lives. They might, *gasp*, grow up bilingual! Which, would mean more job opportunities for them and a greater understanding of the world around them. I love that Ryleigh already knows some Spanish and I love that she is going to start to learn French while she is here. My desire is that both of my children know several languages by the time they reach adulthood. So, there is method to our madness in moving abroad.

Aside from my soapbox, there has been more rain. Last weekend we got Ryleigh a new umbrella and on Sunday she and Jeramy decided to try it out with a walk around the neighborhood.

I know, I know, I know what you are thinking...Damn, that's a mighty fine garbage box we've got there. Thanks, yeah, we know. Thank you.

This Is How We Roll

I wanted to post a few pics from our whole new world. First off, my new ride. She's not quite as big as the Tahoe, but she is nice and smooth.
Next up is Jeramy's new ride. After having to drive the Jetta for the last 10 months, its a fair upgrade.












Next is my lovely clothes line which I can not seem to figure out how to use. The weather is here is so fickle. It can be so beautiful with the sun shining one minute and then all of a sudden, the rain comes. And it's cold. And the clothes are wetter than they were when I put them out. Ridiculous.










The final picture appears to be just an ordinary wooden box. Nothing fancy. However, this has been my life's pursuit since we got here. Trash pick-up here is a lot like Sugar Land. A big truck comes and picks up whatever you have out on the curb. The problem is that if you put your trash in an upright Rubbermaid trash can, it will inevitably get blown over and you will be picking up trash out of the ditch (just ask Jeramy, he knows). If you just sit your trash out in plastic bags, the stupid ass birds will peck their way through and make a huge mess of your driveway which you have to go pick up (just ask me, I know). It's also worse here than it would be back home because we don't have a garbage disposal in the kitchen. That is an idea that hasn't really caught on here.

What stupid ass birds? These stupid ass birds:

That's not our house, but I got a kick out of this one. I just want to know what the neighbours (Canadian sp) did to piss them off. (Yes, that's birdie poo.) Hehehe.


Anyways, we were told that you could get a garbage box at the local Home Depot type store, but they've been out for two weeks. Most everyone here has a garbage box, so it was just crazy how we couldn't find one. We drove all over this town and finally found a guy at a lumber store that offered to draw us a map on a scrap piece of cardboard to a house down by the cove where he had seen boxes outside for sale. So, score for us!


I'll post more pics in the next few days of the inside of our house. It's just so messy right now (shut up Rebekah). We're still unpacking, but we're close to being done. We ordered Ryleigh a new matress today and I have her room painted and just about ready to go. Once I get her settled, I can focus on Avery's room. Plus we have to get Avery a new bed since hers got broken in the move. She's been toughing it out in the pack and play since we got here. That and in our bed.

Sea Stars and Groceries

Today was the hottest day since we've been here...a whopping 81 degrees. Not too bad, but WE HAVE NO AIR CONDITIONING!! So rather than sweating it out in the house, the girls and I headed down to the beach for our afternoon snack. Ryleigh spent some time chasing the surf, then inspecting a sea star and finally sat down for her snack. Avery tried to eat rocks. What is it with my kids feeling the need to stick rocks into their orifices?

This morning my neighbor came over for some coffee and a chat. She's a very nice person and practices law when she's not on her year long maternity leave. It seems that stay at home moms around here are pretty rare. In Canada, when you have a baby, you get one year off for maternity leave during which the government pays you unemployment. Some companies also supplement your unemployment to bring you up to your full wage for a period of time. My neighbor gets supplemented for 6 months. Awwweeeessssssooooommmmeeee.

After our time at the beach we made our daily run to the grocery store. I attempted to locate poplano peppers and adobo peppers to no avail. I settled on jalapenos, which I paid $2.50 for four of, and a red bell. The Canadians, not so big into Mexican food. By the way, milk here is $3.77 for a HALF gallon (well, actually 2 liters, but close enough). Most all the food is more expensive and while most of the time I can find the same stuff, it doesn't always have the same name. For instance, half and half is called mixed cream. That one took me a while to figure out. And then there is something called coffee cream, which is a milk product, but I think has more fat in it. Low fat items don't seem to be as big here. The yogurt is better, even the Activia seems creamier. High-fructose corn syrup is banned in this country, so no worries in that direction, which totally rocks. Even Coca Cola has no HFCS. Score one for Canada!

Another thing that Candadians are into...their coffee and donuts. The most common and popular chain style place here is called Tim Hortons. They are everywhere...kind of like our Starbucks. Only they're more like a Shipleys...with waaaayyyy better donuts and they also serve sandwhich stuff.

All in all, things are going well. I'm soooo ready for Ryleigh to start school, but that doesn't begin for a few more weeks. She is literally driving me crazy. We are going through a very head-strong time right now. She asks a question, I say no, she asks again, I say no, she asks again, I still say no, but louder...she asks again and then it's on like donkey kong. She goes to time out and when the four minutes are up, she lets me know that she now wants to be in time out and will be staying there until she's ready to get up. Seriously?? So that's how it's going to be??? Then you don't get bubbles in your bath tonight....what?, you don't want bubbles...well, then guess what....there is not Santa Clause and I killed the tooth fairy...there, are you happy???

Then I go stare into these big blue eyes...these eyes will never turn on me...they will love me forever...or at least until the milk runs dry.

Getting into the Groove

We have been in our new home in St. John's for a little over a week. There is still much to be done, but we have definitely made great progress in getting settled in to our new home. There have been a few adjustments already, for example, the metric system and our house does not have air conditioning. Granted, it's much cooler here than Houston, but this is the hottest week of the year so yeah, at the moment an air conditioner would be nice.

The girls are doing very well. Ryleigh has already met a few girls at the park and Avery is as happy as ever (aside from the whole teething thing). Two days ago Avery took her first two unassisted steps. She can point to her nose on demand and loves to snatch any phone within her reach, hold it up to her ear and say "hello". When I say "yaaaayyyy" she claps her hands...she really is just more and more amazing every day. Ryleigh has entered a stage I refer to as "complete make-believe". She is in a constant state of make-believe and always has some elaborate story going on with her dolls and figurines. She seems to always have "a plan" and wants to make friends with every kid she sees walking down the street.

Jeramy is doing well. His job is keeping him very busy and his work continues to be challenging, but I know that he loves it. We went to the beach last weekend and I had to restrain myself from throwing his blackberry into the Atlantic, but I know that he's doing his best to strike a balance. The greatest moment of my day is when he walks through the door and I get to see not only the girls' faces light up, but his as well. We always have dinner together and he always reads to the girls before they go to sleep.

And me, well I'm doing just fine. I've settled into a routine and have gotten to know my new kitchen and my new house enough to feel comfortable. The air is so clean here and the scenery is just beautiful. When I look at the view out of my kitchen window I just can't believe it. The pine trees are so beautiful. Last weekend we went down to the beach and did some wading. That was short-lived because there were jellyfish hanging out just a few feet away. Ryleigh didn't want anything to do with being even within 10 feet of the water after we pointed out the jellyfish, but I couldn't quit looking at them, they were just so beautiful. Then Ryleigh decided to put pebbles in her ear so we had to jet off to the emergency room where we enjoyed sitting in the socialized healthcare's waiting room for four hours to have 4 rice sized pebbles washed out of her ear. Yeah, the perfect Sunday afternoon...:)

Jeramy will be in Houston for a week in November for training, then we will all be back in Texas for Christmas.

All our love and best wishes to everyone back home and elsewhere.

The First Week

I don't have a whole lot to say about our first week except which box is the tequila in??

Our things arrived on Tuesday and since then things have just been a blur of opening boxes and trying to find my way around town. I'm making good headway on both fronts. The house is slowly but surely coming together. Having Jeramy home this weekend has really helped. We don't have cable, internet or phone yet. We're up at Jeramy's office today so I can check my email and do a little blogging. I did get my new ride and she is soooo sweet.

The kids are doing fine. Avery is actively teething and attempting to walk every waking moment of the day. And there are plenty of waking moments since the teething keeps her pretty much miserable most of time right now. The movers broke her baby bed, so we've been attempting to keep her sleeping in the pack and play, something she is becoming more irritated with each day.

Last night we went over to a couple's house, the husband Jeramy met at work. They have a little girl that is Ryleigh's age and they played all night. When we first arrived I told the couple that Ryleigh is bossy and to feel free to keep her in check to which they told me that their daughter is bossy too so not to worry. By the end of the night they had a whole new definition of bossy child. Ryleigh made sure the whole evening went exactly according to her plan.

As soon as we get internet I plan to resume regular posting complete with pictures. I would like to say that we miss everyone, but I honestly haven't slowed down enough to begin to miss folks back home. That's probably not a bad thing.