First day

July 1st 2013 or should I say 1st July 2013.... Today is Mikes first day at work. He was so excited or nervous that he couldn't go to sleep until after 1am...poor baby. I slept in today but not for long. Shaun was ready to get up not too long after daddy left. 

But I guess I should back up a bit to explain how we got here...here as in Ireland. Well the quick and dirty is that this process started a few months back, like Feb, when Mike was approched about this position. We had talked about an overseas assignment before but to Ireland???? Anyway after a night of discussion we both agreed that this would be a great opportunity for Mike and a wonderful experience for the family. So 4 months later here we are. This move has been so fast but so slow all at the same time. We just bairly went to look for houses 3 weeks ago and now we are here...minus Lino :-). We will be in Ireland for 3-5yrs depending on Pepsi. Right now Mike has a 3yr contract so that part is clear, but what happens after 3yrs is not so clear...we just need to stay flexible. Whatever or wherever we end up I'm  sure it will be fine. 

So the story on Lino...well with the quick move I never really got a chance to get a lay of the land. So we decided that its would be a good idea to leave Lino in NY for a few weeks so that I could have a few weeks to get adjusted to being a stay home mom in Ireland. It would also take a little pressure offvofvdaddy while he starts his new role. Plus it would give the grand parents a chance to bond more with the little tike before he's off in another country...so many reasons to send him to NY that we couldn't resist. So while Lino is enjoying the pool in the sun in NY Mike, Shaun & I are getting acclimated to Ireland. 

Our first weekend was pretty uneventful. Saturday we landed in the afternoon and got checked in to our apartment.  We have an appt because the house that we are renting wont be ready until 1st Sept, so we will be in corporate housing for 2 months (ugh). After that, we all took a little nap then out to Mahon Point to get our new Irish numbers  iPhones so we can iMessage all of our US iPhone user friends/family for free...that was a €550 trip!!!! Geeze. On Sunday we slept in, Mike slept until past noon, he was pooped. Then off to Tesco for some interesting grocery shopping. First off you have to put a coin in the cart dispenser in order to get a cart. Of course neither one of us had any coins (with us....we probably have €20 worth of coins at the appt but we didn't bring any. So instead of a cart we had to use the hand baskets and carry Shaun in his car seat, talk bout a pain in the arm ;-). So shopping was interesting. We had scoped out the groceries on our home finding trip a few weeks back so we thought we were prepared, but we weren't. Everything is so different and in different aisles it just makes the whole experience an adventure. The selection is way less than the US so u would think that would make it easier and faster but not for us. But eventually we got all of our crap, one of the last items we picked up was eggs. And boy were they fresh, one egg still had a feather attached to it and they don't refrigerate them...just weird.

So we had our groceries for the week, but no cooking was going to be done that night, we went to the Cornstore downtown for dinner to celebrate the move and prepare for Mikes first day of work. It was a nice stroll to the restaurant even with all the freaking hills...can't believe it's already time for Mike to start work. 

So now that all the history is clear we can get back to today...Today Shaun & I took a walk downtown for some more shopping. Weather was nice so I got a nice sweat going.  Then back home to make dinner. Making dinner is already going to be a challenge in the appt because I don't have all my "stuff". The appt comes with 1 skillet, 3 different sized sauce pans and 3 different sized glass baking bowls. And we didn't buy a lot of spices at the store because we didn't want to have to take a bunch of crap to the house...such a freaking pain. So the few spices that we did buy (salt, pepper, garlic blend grinder and olive oil) was all I had to work with. I made the seasonings work but when it was time to put the chicken in the oven that was a whole other issue. I had to call house keeping up to the room to explain how to work the washer/dryer (that's a whole nother story) and once she was done explaining that I asked her to make sure I had the oven on right. Well obviously she doesn't cook because she was confused too. She told me to turn this nob and this other nob and it SHOULD work. Well 1 hr later my chicken still looked 2/3 raw.

So I start twisting and turning all kinds of nobs and about 40 min later I think I found the right combination of turns and twist. So 2.5 hrs later the chicken was done...what a ridiculous battle, all for cooked chicken. In the end the chicken was cooked and Mike said it tasted fine and wasn't dry (what a good husband).

 So while I was working on my first home cooked meal in Ireland and in our appt I was working on washing a load of cloths. This turned out to be a 4hr ordeal just to wash and "dry" what Americans would consider a "small" load.  So first off the washers are washer/dryer combos at least most of them are and the one in the appt is and they are super small. So after a 10min tutorial from housekeeping I was able to get my few items going in the washing machine. Three hrs later the was was done...3hrs...seriously???  So then I start the dry cycle, which isn't as easy as it sounds...took a couple test runs to actually get it to the drying cycle. So a hr of drying and my cloths are still wet/damp. Now you could tell that they went thru a drying phase of some sort but it was a pretty pathetic phase. So instead of fighting the dryer for another 2hrs I decided to go with the drying rack. I'm going to have to  get use to using this thing because everyone uses it. Mainly because its so expensive to use the dryer (electricity is high and the dryers are not that efficient).

While my day was interesting Mike had a nice uneventful day at work as well. Got to meet with his boss for a few hrs and some of the people who will be working for him. He was pretty excited about his first day...I could tell because he only had 6hrs of sleep and no coffee and he wasn't cranky when he got home and he even stayed up until half past 9 (ie 9:30). I can only pray for another good day for him tomorrow. 

Well That's enough adventures for today...God bless and good night.