Week 1

What a week!! I can't believe that week number one is over. We have had many great things happen - met new friends, Ava started school, Ken started work with his new team and we started to learn our way around the city. We have also had some bummers - we are still waiting on our shipments, language is still a huge barrier (and will be for a long time), Ken usually doesn't get "home" from work until at least 6:30 (all of the French seem to work really late), and we are living in a hotel with a mouse. On the plus side, we haven't had any major meltdowns or fights, so I think we are doing pretty good.

This past weekend we had plans to get to Ikea for some armoires (our new place doesn't have a single closet) and we had to order a washer and dryer. Ava ended up getting sick on Saturday morning so Ken had to tackle Ikea by himself. I think that jet lag and all of the changes for Ava finally caught up with her. Thankfully she was sick for only about 4 hours and by 9 am she was acting like her normal self and was ready to eat again. In the afternoon we took the whole family to Darty, which is like a Best Buy, to buy a washer and dryer. We were able to find a nice woman, Aida, that spoke English. She even gave us the name of her 16 year old daughter that is looking for babysitting jobs. The bonus is that her daughter speaks French and English! In the states, I would never be up for this, but in a month or so, we may be desperate for a night out, so I am going to set up some times for her to come and watch the kids while I get some stuff done around the house and pray she isn't a psycho! Anyways, Aida ended up selling us a washer, dryer, microwave and vacuum. The washer and dryer are getting delivered tomorrow which is a good thing because even though we have laundry facilities here, it costs 5 euro for the washer and 4 euro for the dryer. Our microwave was fine, except for when Ken was bringing it in to the apartment, he somehow opened the door and the glass plate fell out and shattered. It is still on the to-do list to get a new one...

Our new apartment is only a 7 minute walk from Ava's school, so Beckett and I have been going there in the mornings to clean. It isn't so much fun for him, but since it is empty, I can just let him run around. The vacuum box was also great entertainment this week!

Ava doesn't have school on Wednesdays, so we made an appointment to go to the Prefecture to fill out some paperwork for our Visas and to obtain a French drivers license. The Prefecture is the same thing as our Secretary as State. After 2 hours there, the kids and I ventured to the other side of the city to turn in some papers to get Ava registered in the school system. Even though she is enrolled and has been attending school, she was not registered. Two days a week, Ava will stay at school for lunch and have an afternoon class. In order for her to stay for lunch, we need tickets to the "canteen" and they won't sell me those until I get her registered. There should be an easier way but there isn't. The good news is that we found it and are a step closer.

Tonight Ken went to the apartment to start to put together some of the furniture. The kids and I walked in town for a bit and picked up a sandwich for dinner. They had the most amazing looking crepes that I couldn't pass up, so we ate our dessert before our dinner tonight!

Nutella crepes in the city centre. It was so good, we didn't even give Beckett a taste!