So much to say

... and so little time

(primarily because we haven't got internet service yet, and are using someone's unsecured wireless connection ... poor signal at the best of times, very slow, and highly sporadic. So blog posting is difficult).

But ... I'M BACK!!

I LOVE MY HOUSE. I really do! It will take some work to get it "perfect", but it's very livable now. And it's so quiet. No sirens, firecrackers and drunken serenades all through the night, every night. So better suited for kids than our DC house too - we even have dedicated 'adult-only' dining and living rooms which is a nice touch. We also have a huge unfinished basement ... not that we really need even more living space! Still excited about our view of Mt. Rainier (although we have only seen it 1 day due to the rain!!), and I'm oddly very excited about our laundry shute (of all things!) that goes to the basement. I'm like a little kid - I fill it up about twice a day then go down and pull the cord and get showered with a bunch of laundry!

As an aside - I always remembered that it rains all the time in Seattle, but I had forgotten that it REALLY DOES rain all the time. This did use to bother me, so I have to also remember how stinking hot and horribly humid it got in summer in DC, and how bitterly cold it was in winter - both not conducive for young children enjoying the outdoors every day.

The biggest news of the week is daycare. It was NOT looking good at all at the start. We live near the large University of Washington so we are not only competing against local residents for daycare, but against faculty and students who are looking for places near the Univ. We called and visited so many places only to be told (typically) the waitlist was 18-24 months. Yikes! Finally we got on some waitlists that had probable openings in ~ Sept, so we accepted the fact that Lance was likely to be providing daycare for the next 6 months. Not ideal at all, but not much we could do about it.

But Lance was unbelievably successful this week (I liken this to getting a free, spare seat on an airplane .... if there is a female at the check-in counter I send Lance up with a cute daughter in his arms and, with only one exception, a spare seat magically appears (whereas if I go up ... nothing); I had been getting nowhere with my daycare searches - but I send Lance out during the week, armed with 2 cute daughters, and all of a sudden problem solved! Similar also to our first day in the house - I'm upstairs with my head stuck in a million boxes while Lance pops outside with Kara for just a minute - when suddenly he is descended upon by 4 female neighbours (all with kids too) who just had to meet the new arrivals. Lance was even introduced to the "local babysitter" within his first 5 minutes, a 13 year old neighbour, who only charges $5 per hour!!! Score!!!).

Anyway, Sophie starts this next week for 3 days a week (Tues, Wed and Fridays) and will become full time as soon as a spot opens up. It's about 1 mile away. It's not 100% ideal (and I will still have her name on 1-2 other waitlists) mostly because it's about 1 mile from Kara's daycare, but the place looks fine enough. There are only 6 kids total in the place with 2 teachers I think. I haven't seen the place yet but I'll do this on Monday.

HOWEVER (!!), we have got Kara into a Montessori program - yippee! I'm very, very excited about this. Her name was down at another Montessori school but a place would not have been available until Sept (best case) or, more likely, Jan 09. Lance must have been at the right place at exactly the right time as they offered Kara a place starting in 3 weeks (and I know this place has a waitlist!! Lance certainly has the magic touch!!). Only slight catch is that your child is meant to be fully potty-trained ... hmmm ... Lance mumbled something like "yeah, sure ... she just has some current lapses due to the move and all that ..." - so we now have 3 weeks to fully accomplish this. I wonder if they will really kick her out?

Kara's school is about a half-mile from where we live, and Sophie is on the waitlist for a daycare center just 2 blocks north of Kara's, so we are really hoping this works out in the end. But even the current arrangement takes a huge load off my mind.

My work ... I think I can say that I'm going to like my work a lot - it's going to be incredibly hard and a lot of work (and press unfortunately) but I realise now that I love these crazy, stressful, demanding jobs. I hate being bored, especially at work, so I think this will be very rewarding. My press conference went OK. I can't remember a whole lot about it (and I refused to watch the TV news that night). I was just happy that I got through it without any embarrassing and/or awkward moments. I knew I was OK when the reporters starting asking questions like "and why did you decide to come to the U.S. in the first place".

Well that's it for now. Suffice to say that the girls are doing really well. Sophie has been really sick this week as her stupid, stupid mother gave her some unfiltered water out of the tap which resulted in 5 days (and counting) of vomiting, diarrhea and hugely disrupted sleep. Kara on the other hand is back to her 12-13 hour sleeps at nights and, if we wear her out in the mornings, also a 1.5-3 hour nap during the day. ((But Sophie, truly, I could do with some more sleep ... please!!)).