Electricity Woes

We left our large appliances and cars behind. We knew we'd have to. But somehow, we were still clinging to the notion that we could still use some of our belongings. A prelit Christmas tree for example. Why not? We bought some power converters and were on our merry way to decorate the Christmas tree. Plugged it in along with two deer and all was well... or so we thought. After a couple of hours the light bulbs started going out, one strand at a time. We thought that we could still remedy the situation and started changing out the lights and fiddled with it for a week until finally all of the lights were out. It would have made one very sad tree without lights so Chris and I came up with plan B. We took a day to cut out all of the prelit wire and bulbs. Once we had a bare tree again, I set out to the store to find the perfect lighting for our little tree.

An easy task turned out to be a tough one. It appears that in Croatia it is "in" to have blue lights on the tree. I'd say about half of the sizable selection featured blue lights. Finding sufficient quantity of plain white ones was quite challenging. Then, they had at least 5 different types of lights. There were what they called "rice" lights, which were tiny, then "cherry" lights which were larger and round (cute looking too), then regular lights, LED ones, indoor ones, outdoor ones, rope lights... Then there were nets and different quantities and arrangements... Took me some 45 minutes to find what we needed. Another interesting fact that I've learned is that they don't sell strands that plug into each other. Chris couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. My sister couldn't believe that you could buy some that actually plug into each other. See the trend here? I am not entirely sure how people decorate then, especially larger trees. One thing that all of the lights did have though, was a small box at the end of the strand with at least 5 different light settings. That gets you covered, whether you want the frantic seizure-causing blinking or a gentle fade in and out mood-setting lighting. We got it all now people!

I ended up choosing two largest nets I could find hoping that they would cover the tree and provide reasonably nice lighting. What do you know. It took Chris and I just a few minutes to cover the tree, and after all the fuss and effort, the tree lit up and looked perfect. Then we finally proceeded to decorate it. We've been enjoying a beautiful tree since. We cut out the wire and bulbs from the deer as well and strung new lights on them too. They look great as well. Light controller box on the strand of one of the deer is a little messed up though so we can't choose the setting. Lights on it are now blinking on and off in a spastic manner but it all still turned out just great.

In the end, Christmas went well; kids enjoyed the presents. I've attached a few pictures to share. Hope all of you had a lovely Christmas as well.

Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Drink and don't drive

How's this for an interesting fact? Allowable blood alcohol level limit here is 0%. That means not a single drink my friends. Not even a sip. Since fines are rather stiff, I think many people will be walking this holiday season.

Christmas Fair

It was a busy weekend. Domagoj (my nephew) celebrated his 11th birthday on Saturday. The party was successful. Ivor spent a lot of time with the boys and loved every minute of it. He felt as if he were 11 as well, because all of the boys were nice to him and a lot of them spoke some English too.

Then on Sunday we went to the Christmas fair. Kids had fun and we're all exhausted. I suppose that's how it goes. They rode some fairgrounds rides and loved it. Smiled from ear to ear. All four of them, my niece and nephew and Ivor and Mia.

Big Brother

Did you know that "Big Brother" TV show is exceedingly popular in Croatia? No, not the same one you had an opportunity to watch but a local version. Tonight is the season finale and everyone is glued to the television set to see who wins. This thing was on every night since we've arrived in September. Haven't watched it teh whole show but looks as cheesy as the US version. Yes, they have the Croatian Idol too. Can you believe it?

St. Nick came by!

St. Nick came by today. No, not “that” St. Nick, but St. Nicholas from Catholic tradition. According to legend, there were three Italian maidens whose families had fallen on hard times. Because their father could not afford the dowries necessary for them to marry, he was considering selling one of his daughters into slavery to get dowries for the other two. When the good saint heard of the family's plight, he went to their home late one night and anonymously tossed three bags of gold down the chimney. Miraculously, a bag fell into each of the sisters’ stockings, which were hanging by the fire to dry. His kindhearted gift made it possible for all three sisters to marry.

You see, here they didn’t used to do the Christmas gift giving. That’s a novel thing started by the marketing machine just two to three years ago. I grew up waiting for the saint named Nicholas and at the same time feared his mean assistant “Krampus”. Good kids would receive a gift from Nicholas; bad kids would receive a silver or golden switch with a red ribbon on it, with which they could (presumably) be spanked by their parents… or Krampus. I don’t know. I just know that he looked scary and as a kid I didn’t care to see him. Nicholas carried a tall staff and was dressed in Catholic bishop (or similar) garb. Invariably, every year, I got both the gift and the branch. No, I was never spanked with the branch. It was nice and decorative. My mom was creative enough to come up with some other spanking device, be it hand or something else. I never felt that I deserved the spanking, but that’s a story for another blog. :)

On Dec 5, we would polish the biggest shoe of ours that we could find and put it in the window. During the night, St. Nicholas would come by and drop off some goodies for us – maybe candy or a small gift. What fun! My sister now uses stockings for her kids. The stocking custom probably stems from the shoe idea anyway. Couple of weeks later, we would decorate the Christmas tree. Not at the end of November, but on Christmas Eve. The tree was for Christmas and decorating the tree used to be reward enough. Christmas was then reserved for going to church and visiting family and yes – eating cake. We didn’t get to get up at 3:00am to wake up our parents so we could open gifts. By the way, at our house, kids aren’t allowed to open anything until Chris and I are up and conscious enough to take a few pictures. We have to stick to some rules after all.

Now there seems to be some confusion over the whole gifting thing. Marketing is pushing the Christmas gift giving hard which means parents are left with two expensive visitors – St. Nicholas and Santa Claus who seem like the same guy to me anyway. Hardly seems fair to the parents. Don’t know if you read about it but at one of the largest Christmas fairs in Europe held in Germany this year, they have forbidden the use of image of Santa Claus. No Santa ornaments, no Santa pictures, no jolly old man at all. May sound harsh, but I agree with it. They noted that they wanted to return Christmas to baby Jesus. Plus most of Europe already has Saint Nicholas. I suppose that in Croatia this year jolly old man (religious or not) will have to work twice as hard to take care of the kids. We’ll see what happens next year.

No, we’re not going to turn into Grinches here. My American roots are too strong now and we will reward the little children (and big ones) on Christmas morning and sleepily go through the usual commotion that the Christmas morning brings. Pictures to document our generosity will follow at appropriate time.

For the curious ones, here is a link to the history of how St. Nicholas turned into Santa Claus http://www.northpolesantaclaus.com/santahistory.htm.

Here are some pictures of the event. We went to the elementary school where my sister works as a teacher and met St. Nicholas there. Since we know people in high places, St. Nick brought both Mia and Ivor a treat (carefully prepurchased by the parents but kids need not know that). Mia got a little scared but did fine because I held her. She figured that it's safe if I hold her. :)

Exercising

I am on a roll here – here is another post. :) Signed up for another month of exercise classes today. That makes two successful months of attendance now, three times a week. Sure I missed a few classes here and there, but overall, I do OK. My sister and I try to encourage each other. I got a little stronger. I no longer feel like passing out at the end of the class. That’s good news to report. Bad news is that I’ve actually gained some (a little, tiny bit) weight since arriving. Ahem, we won’t mention any numbers mind you. You know, burek (local pastry with cottage cheese, not so low in calories), fresh bread, imported chocolates and daily home made cooking. Yum! Life sure is delicious these days. Now I need to make it through the holidays. Homemade deserts are a staple here at just about every household. You don’t just make one or two but a bunch. I’ll take some nice pictures so you all can collectively drool over them while I indulge a little. :P

City at night

3rd blog in three days! Yay!

We had a really fun day today. We haven't been doing many social things since we've arrived. It's been busy. Work and obligations quickly piled up. Today, however, we made it to a birthday party. We were invited by one of Chris' acquaintances from class to attend her child's birthday party. The kid is Ivor's age and they already had a fun play date so we felt like going. I wasn't planning on it as Mia's naps usually interfere with afternoon activities but she cooperated well enough today so we all went together. It was really enjoyable to see such a great mix of people. I met the hosts, wife is Canadian, husband Croatian. They moved to Croatia about 8 months ago. Also met another couple, wife American, husband Croatian, that have been living in Croatia for about 3 years now. Also met another visiting Canadian. It was interesting to listen to conversations going on. Most people there (including the tiniest of kids) spoke both Croatian and English so the conversation kept switching between the two constantly. Also, they mentioned a number of other people from mixed marriages that they knew so hopefully we'll get to meet them as well.

Night falls early these days so it was already dark outside as we left the party. The street was so beautifully lit up with holiday decorations that we had to take a picture to share (click on images to enlarge) -- note the curious passerbys. :) How lovely. We'll have to do this again.

Soda

Here is another deep insight from Chris on a topic very dear to his heart.

CHRIS: I miss Diet Colas pretty badly. Wal-Mart and Sam's Club helped me get a lot of Colas very cheap and with good taste for many years. I miss not only the amount that I could get - but especially the quality of the taste. I know what you're thinking... "But, surely they have Diet Sodas in Europe!" Well, they do; kind of. See over here they do not use the 'Diet' moniker (because it's not as big a craze as it is in the States) - Instead they're called "Light". So instead of Diet Coca-Cola you see Coca-Cola Light. Now, I only drank generic Diet Sodas for years - but my first sip of Coca-Cola Light on the plane ride to Europe I INSTANTLY understood why a friend of mine (who'd recently returned to the States from Europe) avoided Diet Colas like the Plague.

I would say the beverage tasted like ass - but that's not really fair to ass. It wasn't so foul that it bubbled over with mist and tasted like Limburger cheese, but the taste was... WRONG on so many levels. It would be like trying to take a taste of your favorite soda and instead finding out that it wasn't coke you were drinking but a diet, caffeine-free, cherry-hybrid, red code concoction that the only thing that resembled the taste you enjoyed was that it was wet. At first I thought that the one I had on the plane might have been a bad batch or something. But I quickly saw the error of that thought upon our stay here.

I was even brave enough to try different brands of diet colas here - including about eight lesser (and some generic) brands. After all, I've long held to the old Japanese saying that trying something new extends your life by a year. However, the sheer scope in the difference between the taste of these potions is indescribable. About the best I managed to find after about a month was something that when Mirjana asked me how it was I could reply with 'almost bearable - but the aftertaste of mint and some freaky berry is wierding me out.’ For some reason Mirjana refused to even try the drinks after having the first sip of one on the plane. **shrug**

As a result, I am drinking more water than ever before in my life - it's the main thing I drink. I can also drink teas of so many varieties that went I first stepped into a grocery store here and saw an entire AISLE dedicated to teas that I knew I was in Europe... or some friendly part of France (if such can be said to still exist). But for colas? If I splurge and buy one when I'm out on the town to my language class or something I ONLY buy regular - at least THAT formula here seems to be the same as in the states and not some punitive brew like its "Light" cousin.

MIRJANA: I agree with the above assesment with one exception. Even the regular soda formula is different from the one in the States. Definitely less sugar and tastes weird -- all of it, Coke and Pepsi. I think that they try to cater to whatever they think the local population will like. Another interesting fact is the price. 2 liter bottle of soda costs in the neighborhood of $2.50. Ouch! Believe it or not, it's cheaper to buy beer. Too bad we don't really drink beer.

Buying the paper

My sister and I like to read the local newspapers. Chris, the gentleman that he is, has been diligent in getting them for us on a regular basis. Today is Friday so the papers are featuring the TV guide for the week as well (very handy) so we figured that we'd get a copy while out but didn't want to try to park the car (no parking anywhere) to make the purchase. The locals have figured out a way around that. There are guys at larger traffic lights that sell newspapers. I guess they've figured that you have to stop anyway, so why not make the sale. Very clever. 3 kunas (local currency), 30 seconds, one paper and we were on our way.

Strange day

What a strange day it was today. So much has happened that it feels like several days were rolled into one.

I was invited to an art exhibition opening at my sister's school commemorating war events in the city of Vukovar during 1991. Apparently an art teacher at the my sister's school talked to the kids at the time and showed them Picasso's painting "Guernica". It was Picasso's way of expressing anger over the 1937 Nazi bombing of Gernika (in Spain) and the horrors that happened there. (Wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_(painting) ).

Similar events were unfolding at the time at the Croatian city of Vukovar. Croatia has declared its independence from the former Yugoslavia about 5 months prior to Vukovar occupation. Vukovar was under siege for a long time and practically wiped out by the time city fell. Thousands of people were executed and tortured and it was a terrible time. I was already in the US by that time and watched it all on TV and read about it in NY Times. I called home when I could as it cost some $3-$4 per minute back then to call. Frequent air raids then sent people running into shelters on a daily basis. Many were displaced and killed. I still have all of the letters that I have received from my friends during that time and they all wrote about the new war reality they lived in. Zagreb, ended up being only some 30 miles from the front lines but the enemy never managed to make it through and the damage in the city was minimal. Vukovar, maybe 150 miles away, was nearly erased. For those that are interested, you can read more about the Battle of Vukovar here: http://www.answers.com/topic/battle-of-vukovar.

Inspired by Guernica, the kids then painted and drew what they thought and felt. This resulted in some 200 drawings that this teacher kept and has since displayed in many galleries around the world. I just kept looking through all those drawings and just wanted to cry and cry and cry. There was so much sadness there that it was impossible not to feel it. It will take an untold number of years for people to not be personally affected by everything that happened. My sister wants me to go visit the city and the memorials there but I am not sure that I want to. These things never leave you. The art teacher talked about his experience (before I saw the kids' drawings) and mentioned that some day he'd like to collect all of the drawings into a book and I thought to myself, this is so great, I could help him with the book. I should talk to this guy. In my mind I've already started on the whole thing. After seeing the drawings, I don't know that I would be brave enough to do it. Time will tell. I wanted to share some of the images that you see attached here. They speak more than any words. Just remember how very, very lucky we all are not to had to have lived through such things. Afterwards I've talked to a number of people including one of the soldiers that was at Vukovar at the time.

Then I saw a girl that I used to attend elementary school with. Recognized her right away. Then some happy moments ensued as we reminisced about how things once were when we were kids many years ago. I met a bunch of my sister's friends and we went to a local coffee shop to talk for a while.

Got home, figured the day was over and went to my computer to work. Then I heard screaming and shuffling and running around the house. Ivona (my niece), on her way to bed mind you, tripped, fell and split her chin open. So I assisted my sister to the emergency room at midnight. Ivona lived and went home scared but safe with a couple of stitches in her chin. It's 2:30 am and I think it's time for a break. I hope for a less eventful day tomorrow.

Thanksgiving post

First of all, HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone! It's a boring, regular day here but I know that it's a little more fun (and delicious) in the US today. My sister suggested that I make a turkey for everyone here but I graciously declined. :) Maybe next year when I have my own kitchen and when I don't feel so out of place. We've been so welcomed here but I can't really fully set up house until we're on our own and our things (pictures, toys, beds, dishes...) are out of storage and back in use. Then we'll really know we're home again. I must say it's exciting to watch our place being built. Everything is taking shape and I can really see us liking it there.

In the meantime we're trying to make the best of things. We're enjoying the city and the people. I've attached a couple of pictures from two weeks ago. Kids were feeding pigeons on the main city square downtown. They loved it. Click on the images to enlarge them.

Wired

We've spent grueling 3 and a half hours today meeting with the plumber and the electrician. We went from room to room and discussed everything at great lengths and then decided locations of the plugs and the swithches and the lights and the radiatiors... That was hard. It's hard to decide how the space will be decorated when the roof is still not completed, the doors are missing and the walls are still rough brick. I hope we've made sensible decisions. Time will tell.

For those of you that are tech savvy, here is something to drool over. We've requested cat 5 cable in every room of the condo (kitchen included) for maximum connectivity. So the condo will be wired and we'll be happy computer owners. Yay us! We're so excited. Let's hope the electrician does a good job with it.

I know that you're all curious so I've included a little picture of the current state of the construction. Our condo is in the building on the right, top two floors. Click on the image to see it bigger.

To park or not to park? That is the question.

Well, some days it was not to park as I don't dare park in the street or halfway on teh curb so we would just skip an errand and come back later or park far away and then walk to the destination. Below you will find Chris' first blog entry (yay Chris!). Keep in mind that he's not yet sat behind the wheel. He doesn't have a local driver's license yet. As soon as he does, I am sure he'll have a lot more on his mind. Let's start then...

CHRIS: One of the oddest things to me in this country is not the fact that some people impatiently zip around trams or floor it to get ahead of a bus as it's leaving one of its stops. To me, seeing how people handle the parking in inventive and freaky ways amazes me. Not as much as the fact that it's generally accepted as nothing too special though.

For example, a lot of the inventive parking I can understand due to the size of the city and the general shortage of parking spaces due to the city's age (hey, it's over a thousand years old if memory serves atm -- so it's OLD). Even in the 'newer' parts of the city that have only been around for 100 years or so; the general layout was not originally designed for such a vast need for parking. And that makes perfect sense. However, even understanding that, it's hard to overlook when you see the odd behavior which is just accepted as normal.

For example, No one would be too suprised to see a packed parking lot and not only are people 'making' their own parking spaces by parking parallel to the end of a line of cars (and narrowing the driving area to a single lane). I think most Americans who'd been to other cities would recognize that as a ass-holish - but valid parking strategy on a major shopping occassion (like Black Thursday - the insanity that occurs every Day after Thanksgiving). I'm sure most people would simply do as I do in such circumstances. Namely, to wish a painful plague on the inconsiderate 'jerk' and pray that he gets a stack of very costly tickets in addition to getting his car towed. Here in Croatia though, not only is the parking NORMALLY like this on the weekends, but the attitude of the locals on such parking is a mere shrug.

The things I've NEVER seen before that I'm observing over here really flabbergasts me at times. I'll share a choice few with you and ask the reader to keep in mind that 85% of the cars over here are VERY small when you go to the city. With some more expensive mid-sized taking up the bulk of the remainder with actual American-sized SUV's taking up less than a percent I'd say. Mind you, I've never actually SEEN an SUV parked here; getting room to park in one of those monsters here would require a copious amount of patience that I have trouble asserting to anyone who would actually drive something that not just in Europe - but anywhere. I'm pretty sure most of the vehicles that sized must have designated parking already or use a private driveway if they even dare to go anywhere near the city.

With the vehicle size in mind, here's some of the choicer things that have really warped my world here in terms of parking.

One : Cars parked up on the sidewalk of a housing/commerical area - not just single up on the sidewalk, but a hodgepodge of double parallel parking and horizontal combined. Sometimes, if the sidewalk is large enough (like around a couple of the larger parks in the city proper), you actually have ROWS of them with a teeny-tiny driveway through the middle of them that if you didn't SEE people zipping down it at 20 MPH that you'd swear someone would have to go at a crawl to make it through such a space.

Two : Seeing a narrow parking lot ANYWHERE in the city. The builders provided for horizontal parking on either side of the lots - with a nice enough room for a novice driver to back out of a parking spot without damaging anything. So, what do you think we see in such lots these days? .. ... .. I bet the answer you were thinking of wasn't a Parallel Lane in the MIDDLE of the lot for it's full length with the cars in the middle being bumper to bumper. Even with the amazing turn radius's on tiny cars like they have here the cars basically end up with barely enough room to drive past each side. However, (as empty spaces in them that I've observed seemingly testify) apparently some people with enough patience and perseverence, someone on tte sides CAN escape from a seeingly hopelessly trapped state.

Three : This really has to the top one in my book and it kind of freaks me out every time we see it ('Me' being Mirjana and myself). But, apparently it's acceptable behavior here on the roads in and around the city that if you're in a marked two-lane road and you can't easily find parking to simply pull your lazy (and crazy) ass in the MIDDLE of the street and park. Then, run or walk (I've seen both behaviors) to the side and continue on your way to the bakery or whatever you were planning on hitting. Apparently the fact that they are only PARTIALLY obstructing traffic in not merely a single directions - but BOTH directions on the small streets here is not an issue to the local mindset.

Part of me wonders if there is some kind of odd game in the works that we're unaware of and the players get bonus points for nearly causing accidents - with bonus points for sudden swerving and parking or finding JUST the perfect spot to park the vehicle you're driving on the busy street outside your favorite bakery or grocery store so you can choke traffic to as much of a crawl as possible. If so, I'm sure they get more points for the length of the traffic backups they cause too, and if making other drivers cuss or stunning them counts, then they've been racking up points off me like a hyper teenager gleefully blowing me away again and again and again in their favorite 3D-shooter videogame.

Einstein

Here is something quick I came across that I wanted to share. I like good quotes.

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." ~ Albert Einstein

"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking." ~ Albert Einstein

Weather

Month of October was warmest on record allowing us time to get used to the colder climate. Things are about to change though. Thursday it suddenly got very cold and Friday we saw the first snow flurries. No, it didn't stick but was interesting to see. The colder it gets, the closer my computer (and me along with it) get to the radiators, our source of heat. Ivor is extremely excited about the idea of snow and keeps asking about it. He clearly doesn't understand how it all works. Both Thursday and Friday he complained and didn't want to get out of the car in the morning because he was cold. He has no clue what lies ahead.

Car adventures

We finally purchased a car last Friday. Naturally, we're very excited about that as it's been difficult to keep borrowing one from my parents or to keep asking for rides all the time. We're also hoping that using a new car will stop a string of "bad karma" events that mysteriouslly followed us over the last six weeks. It's worked so far. Nothing bad happened since Friday. We've realized that the bad karma events were limited to one a day so once we would get one out of the way, we were "safe" and could relax for the remainder of the day.

Let's see if I can recall the car related ones... There are others that will be reserved for some other post. While supervised (by me) Ivor grabbed the back windshield wiper of my dad's car. Don't know why he did that or what he wanted to do with a widshield wiper. I promise you that he has plenty of toys. The wiper broke off so there was Ivor just waving the thing around. We tried replacing it but it turns out they've stopped manufacturing a wiper like that. We're still trying to correct this one. Then, the gas gauge mysteriouslly went nuts. Then after a day it fixed itself. We're trying not to question that. Then the lock on the driver's side, once again mysteriouslly, stopped working so one can't lock or unlock the car that way anymore. Now the driver has to go to the passenger door to unlock the car. Hassle? Yes. Will we fix it since it happened while we borrowed the car and drove it around? Yes. Could it have been user error while messing with the car door? No way.

Then we got hit by a bus. Yes, a bus. Driving around here is like driving an obstacle course. I figured that after driving here for a few months, I'd be ready to leave my graphic design work behind and start a new career as a stunt driver. It was during the height of a morning rush hour. There was a long line of cars so I stopped before an intersection until the cars in front of me moved and so I wouldn't block the intersection. So much for being nice. Everyone coming from the right then figured that this would be an easy way to get in. Seeing that, I crossed an intersection and got against the car in front of me. I was very pleased with myself. Car behind me got halfway into the intersection too. I imagine he was pleased with himself too. Then a bus came from an opposite direction. He eyed the gap between me and the car behind me and deduced that he can certainly sqeeze by with room to spare. Right? Well, he miscalculated and slowly but surely I felt the back of the bus lean on my car and push it aside. The bus driver just kept on going and I remained behind mouth agape. The car is now missing some paint. I called the bus dispatcher and they said that there is nothing they can do about the damage unless I can prove their fault. So I was supposed to go around and find a bus with a big smear of red paint on it? No I didn't do it. Will see about fixing this one too. Driving my dad's car proved to be too expensive so we now have our own to break.

Driving here is interesting. You never know what waits around the corner. Or in the middle of the street... Did you know that parking is at a premium here? We've seen people get extremely creative when trying to figure out where to park their car. One that tops it all is parking in the middle of the street. Literally. Apparently this is how it goes. You're in a rush and don't see any available parking. You look left, then right, then you just stop the car, lock it and go run you errand. The car stays in the middle of the street until you happily return and reclaim your car. You see, if you park on the center white line then you're not really blocking traffic. Wow! One way streets, construction, people randomly driving or walking around not paying attention, two way streets with only one lane because the other lane is blocked by parked cars... Just another day driving in our beautiful city. Chris decided to opt for public transportation for now.

First Things First

Sure a lot has happened since we've moved here but let's start with things that count. How about bread for instance. Take a look at this picture and you will figure out the real reason why we moved. All bakery items are fresh and in many cases still warm out of the oven. There is a bakery at every corner and prices are decent too. Ivor asks us to stop by every day after daycare. Just take a look at his face. Mia caught on extremely quickly too. We've stopped by this place twice. Third time we drove by she started giving me instructions where to turn and got really upset when I drove by. I couldn't believe that at two years old and in a new city she could learn where she is so quickly. There's no tricking those two.

Finally here

Here we are, finally getting started with a six week delay. I suppose better late than never, right? I wanted to start our family blog so it would be easier to keep up with and share with our many friends all over the world. It's a lot easier to share information this way anyway and we don't have to worry about overcrowding your e-mails with numerous pictures. I had these grand ideas about learning how to host my own blog and make my very own templates and have control over the whole thing... Those of you that know me well will nod their heads. Overachiever in me couldn't resist. It took six weeks for me to come to my senses, throw in the towel (I really don't have much free time) and decide to just use one of many free blogging services. I suppose it made sense. It only took 5 minutes to set up as opposed to hours it would have taken me otherwise.

I'll try to go back to my notes and fill in the blanks about things that happened over the last six weeks. That way our story is complete. I'll also dig up some pictures to document the events. Keep up with us and let us know what's new in your lives too. We've already heard some happy news about people getting engaged and new babies on the way. We love hearing about that.

Chris has also promised to contribute to the blog on a regular basis. His take on the events here is quite different from mine and I am sure that his posts will be interesting to read.

Talk to you all again soon...