Our 1st weekend in the house

Friday:

Everyone's up and ready to go at a decent time. Lino pretty much slept in his bed all night which was nice. We dropped Mike off then headed to Lino's school. The traffic by the primary school was even worst today...u guess because I was early. I mean cars are just stopped on the road, adults and kids walking around everywhere and random stat dogs all over the place...it's like dogging one land mind after another. And maneuvering thru this little street is just scary sometimes...it's so nerve racking for me I have to find a new route before I end up taking off my side mirror or swiping a car or worst...a kid. I don't know how people just walk up and down this street during school drop off and pick up times...it's crazy to me. So I made to Lino's school and I was early...imagine that...so that brought on a while new challenge. Joan has a nice sized car park area for the parents but its not nearly big enough for 30 cars and the drive way isn't really big enough for 2 cars so it sometimes becomes a bit of a challenge to get around. Today I got there and all the logical spots where taken so I thought, maybe I will back up ad park across the street at the neighbours house and just walk down so that I can avoid the congestion. That was a good idea until I started backing up and another car was coming down the ramp...geeze o...so now I had to try and park which was a joke. I was going back and forth, back and forth like a million times to try and get into a spot that was out of the way and finally Joan opened the doors so the parents could drop off the kids so now I'm in the middle of the driveway and no one can get in or out...stupid American. Finally I was able to get out of the way and park to drop Lino off...not soon enough for Lino tho because he was screaming at me the while time telling me to "GO mom!!!" Ahhhhh the little mini back seat driver :-). After dropping Lino off I decided to see if there was a different route to get there and of course there was...it's a little out of the way but not by much...I'll have to try it out on Wed.  Next to Supervalu for a few items for breakfast on Sat...we have been waiting 2 months to have mommys banana buttermilk pancakes so I have to get my self armed with my supplies. Then back to the house for some breakfast and cleaning before getting Lino. I told myself I was going to leave by 11:40 but didn't get out of the house until 11:50 and I made it there before noon but Lino was still the last one to be picked up...I have got to do better...the poor kid. He didn't seem to mind me being the last mom to pick up but I know Joan does :-/. But I got the chance to chat with Joan about Lino's transition and it seems that he is doing fine. His biggest issue is that he doesn't like to stop playing to move onto the next project...I guess he throws a little tantrum or something but she said its not that bad.  Hopefully he will get use to the schedule and the class routine soon but I'm glad that there are no other major issues.  Then back home for a nap for Lino and Shaun even went down for a nap around the same time and I had about 30min of freedom. And what do I do??? I had nothing else on my mind but clean the toilets, sanitize the toys that were shipped and sweep the kitchen...So that's what I did...and u felt so much better after I was done. For the afternoon we didn't really do much. We tried to go to the garden to get some raspberries but there were a bunch of bees and wasp out there so we only were able to get 2 before I was to nervous about one of the boys getting stung. Lino was pretty excited about being able to go and get raspberries in the garden...and so was I. Here is the picture of the 1 raspberry that actually made it into the house to be washed before Lino devoured it. 

So proud of his pick from the garden

Since its Friday we knew Mike would be home earlier than normal so we decided to hang out outside and wait for him to ru up...kind of like a cheering squad. Lino wanted to drive the car while I played with Shaun but eventually I was able to get both boys to take a picture with mommy. I love my boys...all 3 of them!

Mike running to the finish line!!!!  Today he jogged home with his laptop so that added an extra little resistance to his already intense run. But he was happy to see us...2 thumbs up

Once Mike got home we had to leave to go buy a coffee pot. We brought one with us from home but when we were testing out the outlet converters we kind of blew up the coffee pot...oops. Mike was so disappointed too because he has been looking forward to a pot of his coffee so it was kind of a priority to get one before the weekend. So we got a small coffee pot and a hair dryer for me and headed home. When we got home and Mike was unpacking his coffee pot he dropped it and broke the glass pot...he had to tell me 3 times before I would believe him. I can't believe the €50 pot only made it 30min before it was destroyed...you would have thought Mikes puppy had got hit by a car...he was so sad. Well...not much we can do but buy another one...but tomorrow not today. Then we had someone come by to fix the leak in the sink and we finished dinner. After dinner Mike put together the TV stand for the living room...we had to get a new one...at least we convinced ourselfs that we needed a new one.  So now we have TV!!!! Mike hooked up the iTV and we were able to watch our sling box on the TV...super cool. Mike was in ahhhh of the technology and so impressed that we could do that...so was I. It's just amazing that only 3 yrs ago the iPad came out and now we can do all this stuff with it...just amazing. So Mike did bath and bed and Lino wasn't going to sleep easy, he kept stalling, so by the time Lino went to sleep I had feel asleep in the couch with Shaun...sorry Mike. Such a long week...we are all pooped. 

Saturday:

Up early in a Saturday. I think Mike thought he was going to be able to sleep in but I needed him to find me a converter for the blender so I could make the pancakes...sorry hun.  So Lino helped me make pancakes while Mike worked on putting together the bar stools that we got. There are actually bar chairs in the house because the land loard knew we were looking for some but we didn't know the were going to leave chairs for us so we had bought some before we came over. The chairs are fine but the ones we got from the states have cushions so its just a little more comfortable...anyway we are going to test them out to see. Plus now we will have extra seats for all the guest we will have...hahahahahaha.  So we had our favorite banana buttermilk pancakes and topped the cakes with peanut butter...gobbs and gobbs of peanut butter and they were so delicious...OMG. I love those pancakes. After our fatty breakfast we decided to take a family walk to Fitzpatrick's. I was kind of hesitant because our road is really small and I don't even know how 2 cars get thru but people walk on that road all the time and with kids so I guess it's not unheard of...so off we went. Here are some pictures from our stroll. 

Look...we found a hobbits house...randomly under a bridge. Hahahaha...actually I have no idea what this is but we thought it was cool. 

The hundreds of cows on the walk

The little road we walked on

Mike pushing the boys up the massive hill with the double stroller.  That is hard hard work

View

Some random plant/flower/fruit I'm not sure...need someone to help me ID it. 

We told Lino that we would stop to pick some blackberries on the way back to the house so we did. It's crazy, we are on this super small road big we decide to take the 3 yr old out of the stroller so he could pick blackberries off the bushes in the ditches...who does that??? Only in Ireland!!!!  It's crazy because there are tons of blackberries everywhere up and down this road and people are out picking them all the time. We really have no idea what we are doing but we had a good time. Lino had a ball and absolutely LOVED the fresh blackberries. He enjoyed then so much we were barely able to get any of them home before he ate them all. We kept tell him we need to wash then off before he eats them but he didn't care...oh well. 

The few blackberries we were able to get from Lino to take home...they were delicious!

After our walk we cleaned up and headed to Douglas so that Mike could get some charcoal from this store so we could BBQ on Sunday. On the way to Douglas Lino and Shaun fall asleep so I on car duty while Mike shops. Mike also makes sure to get a replacement coffee pot for the one that he dropped on Friday. Then back home to do a little unpacking/sorting. My sister called so we got a chance to FaceTime with her and my brother for a while. We showed then the house and I got to wish Frederick happy birthday!! Then dinner, bath and bed for the boys!  After Lino was in bed we had more FaceTime with family..this time we talked to Nini for a while. Then a little TV time before bed...for me...Mike stayed up for a while to work on some things while it was quite. 

Sunday:

We let Mike sleep in since he was up late. So the boys and I had breakfast and Lino for some reason was in a funky mood so I knew it wasn't going to be a good day. We had planned to go to this BBQ party with the group that I'm a part of but once Mike got up Lino went to the other room and pooped in his diaper. I knew he had to go potty but be told be he didn't but obviously he did. Why Lino??? Why???  So we decided to let him sit in his poop for a while to see if he would get annoyed by it...but he didn't. So Mike washed him up and I was going to take him & shaun with me to the BBQ and let Mike put together the dresser for the boys room. But Lino was such a mess and tired at that point that we decided to let him stay home and nap...so me and Shaun went out and left them at home. I had directions on how to get there but of course I got lost. I was planning to see Martha there so I really wanted to make it but after about 30min of driving around and around I about gave up. I had stopped at a house that I thought was the house but there was only one car in the driveway so I wasn't too confident that that was the place but I was going to try. I saw someone peep out of the window and look at me knock on the door but no one came to the door...definitely not the right place...plus no BBQ!  I didn't have the phone number of the lady hosting it so I couldn't call her to get directions...even if I would have had her number it might have been a challenge for her to be able to know where I was at (she lives in the country) so I knew I was just going to have to figure it out or I home.  I decided to call Martha to see if she was already there and see if she could give me directions but I knew there was a good chance she wouldn't answer her phone (she's not very good about answering her phone or text messages) so I tried and no answer...I texted and no response...as expected. So I figured she was already there and busy with the boys. I had even sent the host a message on Facebook and it had been about 15-20min and I still didn't get a response from her but I'm sure she was super busy getting stuff for the BBQ. So I decided to give it one last try...so I traced my steps back to the main road and went slow to give it my last try and I finally found it!!!!!  Once I got there the temperature had dropped so I was totally not prepared for the weather..,and neither was Shaun. So we stayed for a couple hours and I talked to Martha and some of the other moms that I knew and some that I didn't. It was good fun and I'm glad I went. I even made plans with Martha for her and the boys to come over next Sunday...our first  guest!!!!!!  Then we left and went to do a little shopping...need stuff for dinner and food for the week. I left a little later than expected so I had to rush in and out pretty quick so I could make it back to the house for us to FaceTime with Mike's family. When I got home I found out the Lino had pooped again in his diaper from his nap...so my predictions of a bad day was in point...that kid is going to test our very last nerve...he is thick!!!  By this time it was starting to rain so was were trying to figure out what we were going to do about the BBQ and we decided to use the garage!!! Hahahaha...it's almost like our first party in TX that we had for Labor Day and it rained and no one came except our bestie Alicia and so we had all his food so we just set up the grill in the garage and had a BBQ...lots of fun...oh the good ol days.  So Mike made his famous crazy burgers and while he was grilling he said we needed a beer so I made a quick beer run. I love it that I can buy eggs, a loaf of bread, beer, wine, potatoes, even a scone and get gas all in one place!!!!!   So we had dinner and it was great...I'm so glad crazy burgers are just as good in Ireland as they are in Texas

Oh those chips were a mess because Mike tried to cook them for me while I was out for the beer run.  I almost trashed them but was able to salvage them...and they turned out pretty good.  Since its Sunday that means football so Mike had the Jets game on TV so he was all into that. We had lots of FaceTime after dinner...Nini & PopPop, then my mom then my dad...whew...exhausting. It's grandparents day so it was nice to be  able to tell the grands hey. So the Jets and the Chiefs won so it was a great day for football. Oh there was a serous hurling match on too that everyone was watching...can't remember who was playing it I'm sure it was Cork and somebody else...anyway the game ended in a tie so the match has to be played again. I can't believe there is no overtime or tie breaker...oh well...maybe we will catch the rematch...or maybe not if it's on football Sunday.  So excited to be able to say ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!!!!!!

Midweek grind...

Wednesday:

Lino's back to school and Mike is back to work...busy busy busy. 

Shaun was not interested in sleeping in his crib last night which sucked but it wasn't that bad since we have our bed now :-). Otherwise a pretty good night of sleep...although I still feel tired. Lino popped in the bed around 6:30 and we all got up around 7:30. Mike had breakfast and I got Lino dressed. I made breakfast but for some reason I turned the stove on really high and scorched the sausage links a little...and made it pretty smokey in the house...oops. I hate cooking sausage links, I'm totally a patty kind of girl. Anyway after I smoked the family out and we got Lino to eat we raced out the house. I forgot that I needed to pay Joan and that Mike had the medical papers at his job so I was stressing out...I was suppose to have all that for today...oops. We were running late so I just dropped Mike of and took Lino to school then went back to get the paperwork from Mike and get money to pay Joan. So busy this morning...you think I would have done some of this over the weekend or Mon or Tue while Mike was home. Then back to the house to try and unpack a little but first clean myself up!!!! Using the electric shower is different but efficient I guess :-). I tried to unpack a little but Shaun wanted some attention so instead I sorted thru all the boys clothes and got rid of the small ones in put in the bigger sizes. That freed up some space and boxes so I guess it was useful use of my time. I had a little time left before I had to get Lino so I started to cut up the onion for dinner but when I finally looked at the time it was 5 min from when I was suppose to get Lino...shit!!! Going to be late again...even tho we live close to the school we are not that close and I was late...Joan was nice and understanding with me but she reminded me of the drop off and pick up times...I better not be late tomorrow. After all that I still didn't have the right change to pay her...so all that running around for almost nothing. Lino seemed I have had a good day and he was excited about the sand castle that he built which was cool. Once we got home I made Lino a sandwich for lunch, I finished dinner and started a load of clothes. Lino went down for a nap...with little resistance and I tried to figure out how the heck to use the drying rack when you have sheets from the bed???? It's pretty impossible not to have the sheets hitting the ground...what the heck am I suppose to do????  Does this mean I have to use the crappy dryer for sheets and stuff???  I don't really want to fight with this drying rack and a huge sheet but I don't want to have to pay a huge electric bill at the end of the month because I had to use the dryer for 6hrs in a day in order to dry one set of sheets...oh the drama if washing clothes in Ireland. Anyway, I ended up with some sort of Picasso sculpture once I was done...don't think anyone will pay me for it but its worth millions to me :-)  

Then I decided to take a few min to enjoy the beautiful day and view so Shaun and I sat outside for about 20min and just relaxed...what a beautiful day & view. 

Break time didn't last long...back to house work until Lino got up which was a good wake-up. Once Lino woke up we made a cake, the apple and date cake that Mike & I love. Lino helped a little but mostly ate all the apple pieces. I wanted to test out the oven because I was told things would cook quicker so I wanted to see how quick. Plus if I burned the cake it wouldn't be as bug of an issues as burnning dinner...we don't need cake anyway. Then we played the rest of the afternoon until Mike got home. Mike actually jogged home from work and he said it wasn't very bad...lots of hills but he made it home in good time and in one piece so I guess he will try it again tomorrow. We just need to get a reflector vest for him to make sure the cars can see him. I think he will try out his bike next week but the jogging is a better workout so maybe he will save that for when the weather gets bad.  The cake was done in 30min vs the 1.5hrs it took in the apt...I wasn't expecting that. I thought maybe the top was just brown but the inside was raw but nope it was all cooked...cool!  So dinner, a slice of cake (super good) then bath and bed. Mike finished unpacking the boxes in the garage and putting away some stuff while I did bath with the boys...I guess I could have done it but its kind of hard with the boys...anyway he's more efficient than I am so I guess it all works out.  Lino was really tired for some reason but not in the mood to go to sleep so we had a little fight before bed...just a little one. Then shortly after Lino Mike and I called it a night.

Thursday:

Lino Lino Lino...I love my son but he has got to find a way to sleep in his own bed...and his brother!!! Lino was in and out of the bed a couple times during the night. Mike took him back to his room and he would come back, the last time Mike didn't feel him and I was tired so he stayed...but it wasn't a nice stay. He just tossed and turned the whole time, it's like he has to be touching, kicking or pushing one of us at all times...there is no way to sleep with that. Eventually we were up and getting ready to go. Mike got Lino together while I got ready. We were able to get our stuff together and get out of the house in descent time. I dropped Mike off at work then stopped by the Spar for some milk, actually I needed change to pay Joan, then we headed to school. I'm still getting use to the "traffic" or better yet, congestion on the way to Lino's school. There is a primary school down the street from Joan's and barely any parking so all the cars line up on this little 1.5 lane road to walk their kids in...lets just say its a bit of a cluster f#*^!!!!  Still, no excuse for me being late...again but I was. After the drop off I went to get me some breakfast and take care of Shaun. I decided to go to the coffee morning in Midleton because I wasn't going to be able to get much done with Shaun anyway. So I left out a little later than I wanted because I was only going to stay a hour, got gas then got completely lost. I have no idea what I was doing but trying to read directions and drive in Midleton or anywhere in Cork is crazy. There are no street names just land marks and if you don't know the town you kind of don't know the landmarks either. Anyway I finally make it there but by that point it was about 5min before the time I said I was going to leave. I debated about going in since I didn't have much time but I decided to go in anyway...just for a few min I said. About 10min later I leave and I knew I was going to be late...I drive as fast as I could but still didn't make it there until about 5 min after 12...I scooped Lino up and ran before I could get another talking to...I'm horrible. Well it seemed like Lino had a good day, he told me that 2 + 2 equals 4 so that was exciting!!! He also talked about riding the bike and building a train track...he loves his trains. Thankfully he didn't talk to me about being late...I'm sure he is saving that for next year :-)  Back home for lunch, we don't have a microwave so I had to create something on the stove so Lino wouldn't get to use to having sandwiches for lunch. He's already a peanut butter sandwich junkie (he gets that from me) so I have to keep him guessing on what he's going to eat. Most days he asks for a PB sandwich and I tell him no and 50% of the time he eats what I make him anyway.  My GG alwyas told me that if they are hungry they will eat...I believe her but sometimes I worry that he would live on PB sandwiches, eggies, sausage and French fries his whole toddler years if I let him. After lunch I had to convince him to take a nap...I knew he was tired especially since he was up around 630 this morning.  Once he actually laid down it was only a matter of minutes before he was out. Shaun and I worked on dinner and folded some clothes then Shaun finally went to sleep so I closed my eyes too thinking I was going to sneak a little nap in too...wrong! The timer went off for Lino probably only 10min or so after I closed my eyes...oh well. So I laid Shaun down and waited for Lino to really wake up...he needs a min or two. Finally he was ready to get up and we watched Thomas on the iPad until Shaun woke up. I decided to go get a microwave when he woke up so that's what we did...the cheapest one I could find was freaking €100...craziness.  Once we made it back I let Lino and Shaun play in the play room while I put dinner together. One of my missions for while I'm here is to perfect my risotto...so that means I first have to cook one. So I decided tonight I would try my had at it so I looked up a couple recipes and I have about 1/2 of what they call for and I'm missing the critical white wine...do I abort mission or go Robert Irvine mission impossible on it????  I'm not one to back down so I went with what I had. That's another thing I said I was going to try to do...be more resourceful in my cooking like GG is. Hahahaha. So even without all the ingredients my semi rice risotto ended up turning out pretty good. Mike had a nice jog home and we talked about the fact that we were not going to have Internet or cable set up until the 16th and Mike told me that someone from the relocation office was going to bring us a modem to use in the mean time, so that was nice.  Right after that our land loard showed up with our modem!!!!  And to look at the leak under the sink. So we can have Internet set up today...at least that's what we thought. After he left we ate dinner, it was pretty good, then Mike got started on putting the modem together...or connecting it or whatever you have to do to get Internet.  He said it would only take a few min to put it together but 1hr and 45min later still no modem installed and no Internet. He pulled out almost every tool he brought to try and get this cord to fit thru a hole in the wall...so basically there is no phone line in the room we have the computer set up in. Instead there is a small phone cord that has been threaded thru the wall thru a small hole from the other room. Well that's ok except the computer is on the total opposit side of the room from this little cord...so my idea was to take the long phone cord from our room and switch it out with the small one. Good idea right??? Sounds pretty easy yeah???? Hahahaha...that cord was laughing at us all night. Mike tired everything from drilling a bigger whole, hammering a screw driver thru the wall, using a clothes wire to  guide the cord and even using electrical tape to help guide it thru the whole. In the end the end of the phone cord broke off (from all the abuse I would assume) and we still had no Internet. Hahahahahaha...too funny. The issue was that he couldn't get the cord to go thru the hole, it was like something was blocking the path so we gave up. But by before I got a few pics of the "work in progress"

So he gave up for a while and helped me put Lino to bed. Then he had a good idea that we could just hook up the modem to the phone line and bypass the computer...Genius!!!! Eureka....Internet at last!!!!  So we thought we might stay up a little to watch one of the football season opening games on the sling box but the Internet was so slow it was just super choppy. NO!!!!!!!!  We just knew once we got to the house the sling box would work perfectly because we wouldn't be sharing the network with anyone so what is the deal???  Mike tried adding the filter to the line and it only helped a little...so after all that we finally had Internet but it was too slow to use for the sling box. Oh well, we will try it again tomorrow... praying for better results!

Moving moving moving...

Friday:

Well lets just say we are all glad it's Friday...Lino had a horrible night of sleep and ended up in our bed earlier than normal and Shaun was/is sick so he wasn't sleeping to well so he was basically sitting up in my arms all night...the poor baby. Lino, the tornado, was just wiggling and moving and turning  but not sleeping so when Shaun woke his self up from not being able to breath thru his nose it was bad news. Lino thought that meant it was time to get up so I tried to keep Shaun laying down but he couldn't breath thru his nose so I had to get up and try and get some of the snot out. Lino tried to follow so I had Mike run some defence.  It was working for a while until Shaun started to cry and Lino wanted to come see what was going on. Mike made him stay in the bed so that I could finish what I was doing and when I went back into the room Lino was a mess so Mike took him back to his room. He screamed in there with Mike for about 5-10min before he calmed down but it seemed like hrs then Mike came back. I thought Lino was sleep but Mike said he was just laying there...so you know what that means...here comes Lino a min after Mike. We gave up and let him sleep...that is the last time!!!! So he didn't go right to sleep it seemed like it took for ever before he went to sleep and only 30min or so later Mike got up. Once mike left and Lino felt the cold side of the bed he was up and woke Shaun up too. Great...  It wouldn't have been so bad if Lino was in a good mood but whenever he super tired its always a nightmare...so me and Shaun getting out of the bed just set him off. He screamed the whole hr before we left for school. There was hardly any reasoning with him so at that point we just had to do what needed to be done and couldn't wait around for Lino to try and find his happy place place.   So that just meant more headache for us to get him ready but we survived. I had to put Lino in his place once because he was really going off the deep end then he seemed to find a semi calm place and was fairly reasonable the rest of the morning. We ended up putting a diaper on him because we know when he's tired he will just pee his pants...probably to get back at us. So that was a fight of course...we almost decided not to take him because we were worried he was going to get his self kicked out for being so unruly. But since he calmed down a little I went ahead and took a chance. I warned his teacher and Mrs Joan that he might be off and they didn't seem to be to worried about it...good luck!!!  

So 3hrs without Lino...I need to be efficient.  I had to stop by Supervalu first...seems like I go grocery shopping every other day (the fridge in the apt is pretty small). I was able to get 7 out of the 9 things I wanted to get so not bad. Then back to the apt for a quick little break...I needed a moment. So I had a half a cup of coffee and a scone...the moment went by to quickly...

Next, tend to Shaun for a min...poor sick baby...all he wants is for me to hold him. Then prep for dinner so that maybe I can have some free time when Lino takes a nap. Then wash, fold, hand up clothes...it's such a donating task here. Something that should take 1-2hrs could take 10hrs-2days...absolutely ridiculous. I know I've complained before but I'm pretty sure I'm going to complain about laundry the whole time we are here. By this time it was time to go get Lino...time flies. On the way there I actually saw a cop or Garda posted under the bridge trying to catch speeders...he had one of those speeding guns and everything...I didn't know the Garda actually do that. I thought only the bus catches speeders...good to know.  So I actually got there a few min early...I thought but the kids were already lined up waiting for their parents. Lino apparently had a good day and was happy to see me...that was nice. So I had a quick chat with Joan and she seems  to think Lino is doing well and getting adjusted well...he just doesn't like to stop play time but that's pretty normal for Lino. It was good to hear he was getting settled into the class and still enjoying it. On the drive home I just knew he would fall asleep especially since he missed the last 3hrs of his sleep this morning but nope he stated up...great now that means I'm really going to have a hard time getting him to take a nap.  At least I knew he was hungry and lunch time shouldn't be a fight. He told me I'm the car he wanted a peanut butter and a cheese sandwich...now if he eats them both that would be cool. He actually did eat both half sandwiches so that was nice. I repeated my same trick from Thu about setting the timer and it worked again...Lino was out within 20min I think.  He likes the idea that he doesn't have to go to sleep he just have to lay there until the timer go off. Little does he know he's for sure going to go to sleep before the 2hr timer goes off...so it's a win win for both of us. Now it's time to try and get Shaun to take a nap. Every time he tries to sleep I end up moving him or changing his conditions and he wakes up...so I know he's tired. I was finally able to get him to sleep around 2 and I knew the alarm was going to go off at 3 soooooooooo...guess I should close my eyes too!!! I couldn't lay Shaun down because when I tried he would start gasping for air so I held him and I fell asleep on the couch with him. For some crazy reason I couldn't sleep long and my eyes popped open after about 20min of laying there (15mim of actual sleep) and I couldn't go back to sleep. Are you serious?!?!?!? (Another famous Lino phrase). Oh well I'm sure Lino will be up soon...well Shaun was up not to long after that so I guess it was only meant for me to have a little nap. So I did some more laundry and Lino's was stirring so I made his timer go off. He told me he was still tired so I just sat with him for a little while until he woke up...I had Shaun help me a little which seems cruel but its only payback for all the times Lino wakes Shaun up. Thankfully it was a very good wake up and he was in a good mood!!!!!  So we hung out for a while until it was time to go...today we get the keys to our house...FINALLY!!!!!!!

Lino wasn't really keen on leaving but I got him to go once I told him he could run around at the house. Mike was running late so we met on the main road to the house so he could follow me there...he wasn't really sure how to get there. Once we got there the owners and the relocation lady walked us around and explained all the little things to us...like how to work the oven so that I don't have the same chicken incident.  How to work the fridge, washer, dryer and freezer. Mike walked around with the husband and asked all the man questions...where's the water heater, how to work the electric heating, where's the 1000 fuses...stuff like that. I told the owner that I wanted to start a herb garden and I wanted to know if that was ok and she took me over to the one that the tenets before us had started...sweet!!!! So we already have a huge rosemary bush, some curly parsley, lavender (what I'm going to do with this I'm not sure...maybe fragrance the house with it), raspberries, strawberries and a time of roses. I think there might have been a couple more things there like onions but it looks like they were from last year and needed to be replanted which isn't an issue. I wonder of we could grow garlic out there??? I know I'll be able to have a basil plant in the house which we will use all the time but I have to find something else to put in the garden and be able to use it...any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. So that was nice and it got me really excited to move in. We also found out that the horses that they use to have are gone so the land in the back can be used for whatever so if we have a big part we are going to have a massive volleyball area...can't wait!!!! Now we just needs a nice outdoor furniture set.  We are so cheap we only have the one that Mikes parents gave us 6yrs ago and I think they had it for at least 5yrs too so needs less to say we need an upgrade but not sure we will be getting one here...it's going to be way more than one in the states. Otherwise it was good. We will start to move the boxes that we have in the apt to the house over the weekend. Lino had a ball too...he just ran around the house like 10x...just because. He also pee'ed his pants 2x because he was too busy running around the house that he didn't stop to pee...that kid is going to drive me to drink...drink more than I already drink :-).  Once everyone left Mike and I tried to decide where to put all the crap we have on the boat ad we both where at a loss...lets think more about it over the weekend...hahahaha. So we have keys to our house and a nice bottle if wine and flowers to welcome us home...only a couple of days until we are HOME!

Well we kind of wasted a bunch of time at the house so we decided to go back to The Fish Wife for dinner. We had a nice stroll there and back and Mike was able to do the night time routine with little fuss from Lino. Lino even wanted him to set the timer so he knew when it was time to get up...this is like a wonderful new tool for getting Lino to go to sleep...why didn't we think of it sooner!

Saturday:

Everyone slept in...and slept in the bed. We had family bed cuddle time which was nice then we got up to go. Since this is our last weekend in the apt we have to go to Liberty Grill one last time....hahahaha...any excuse to go there. The weather seemed like it could go either way so we (not including Mike) dressed warm...just in case. The walk down to the city was nice, it was still a little early so the streets were not completely filled with people, there was a nice breze and the sun was trying to peek out...going to be a nice day in Cork. We got to the restaurant in good time again and the waiter knew how many were in my party before I could even say hello...I guess we have been here quite a bit :-/  So we had a little 15min wait which wasn't bad...everyone got their normal and in true Cutaia fashion...3 Saturdays of going to the Liberty Grill, 3 meals always the same and 3 consecutive Liberty Grill poops by Lino!!!!!   Hahahaha.   

Then to complete the tradition we headed to Mikes favorite chocolate/coffee shop for a coffee and brownie. We got to hang out there for a little while and chat about the house and some of the things we need to do when we get in. We also talked about our garden that we are both pretty excited about. We have no idea what we are going to do with all the rosemary but I'm sure we will be able to find some recipes to use it.  We spent the rest of the morning just hanging out in the city center. Did a little shopping, finally found plain white socks for Lino...it's crazy they. Love their crazy designed socks here and it's almost like a game to try and see if you can find plain whites for the kids. I'm sure at some point I'll be ok with the other socks but for now I would just prefer to keep it simple. We looked for a bike shop for Mike because he is going to start taking his bike to/from work but we didn't see one on the way...we will find it later. By this time the weather had changed and now our long sleeves were too much for the weather and Mikes summer attire was perfect...go figure. Someone told me that you kind of have to wait until its around 10:30am to get dressed in order to have a better idea how the weathers going to be...so true. Either do that or dress in layers so you can add and subtract as needed throughout the day :-).  I'm sure we will figure it out eventually.  Then back to the apt for a little nap for Lino. Mike put him down for his nap and use the timer trick and it worked really well...3x in a row!!!! I think it's safe to say that's a good method to get Lino to nap & sleep with the least amount of fight. While Lino was napping we tried to watch TV on the sling box but it was still really choppy...too many users on at the same time so we just played with Shaun...kind of...he is still sick so he was a little cranky...poor baby. I needed to do a little laundry so I let Mike handle Shaun and this is what happened ...hahahaha. 

After nap we tried a new method to wake up Lino...Mike found a Thomas the Train YouTube video and was playing that kind of loud in the front room while the timer alarm was going off in Lino's room. Within 2 or 3 min Lino came running into the front room all smiles because he was excited about Thomas...sweet move daddy!!!  So we planned to go to the playground after nap since the weather was so nice but Lino didn't want to let go of the iPad. He had found some YouTube video about an airplane game simulation that was 45min long and he kept telling us we could leave after it was over...uhhh I don't think so little guy. We tried to negotiate but he wasn't really in the mood to negotiate so we had to strip him of the iPad and take him out kicking and screaming...you know...the normal method. He wasn't happy at all but after a few min in the car he finally got over it. He was happy to be at the park, I think, so it was worth it. Today Mike was in charge because I'm always on playground duty plus I had Shaun in the sling. Lino was running around from swing to swing but not really riding or playing with any...he seemed content but just wasn't interested in riding...ok. So while he was playing Shaun and I sat in the cushioned playground area and were playing. We were next to this spinning thing and eventually Lino wanted to ride it then Mike wanted to ride it then I felt left out so I rode it too. It was fun but I couldn't spend very much time on it because I was getting dizzy. Lino tried to push us but it wasn't as easy as he thought it would be...it was funny. At some point I had to feed Shaun and went to sit on a bench in the corner and I caught Mike talking to the guy on the bench with him. The guys son and Lino had found some bug on the slides and the were "playing" with it...the poor bug. It was more like Chinese torture or something because the little beetle like bug had wings but wouldn't or couldn't fly away...poor thing. Anyway the boys were showing their dads what they had found and Mike and the guy must have sparked some conversation...I was really proud of my husband because normally he's a true NY'er and he won't talk to random people and even tho he's getting better about it he's really not to fond of random chit chat...but he did it today!

It's a bed pic because I was all the way across the playground but you get the point. 

After the playground we went back to the apt to get the stroller so we could walk to dinner... I totally didn't feel like cooking especially since we only have a couple more days left in the apt and near the city.  We let Lino bring his iPad so he could watch ad movie and let mommy and daddy eat in some piece. We had a good dinner but Shaun was just exhausted because he wasn't able to sleep much all day...couldn't breath so I had to keep walking around with him.  Then we picked up a little dessert (won't be having all this dessert when we get to the house because we are both getting fat...or at least not loosing any weight) and wine on the way back to the apt. We saw the aftermath of an accident on the intersection to the hotel...first accident we've seen. But there was only one car there and he was sitting right in their slow of the intersection...and his front bumper was smashed and on the street so he was causing quite the back-up. We were trying to figure out of he got hit of if he was the one who did the hitting...it was hard to tell. But it was funny because as we were crossing the street, with the long line of cars behind the car, the driver of the car behind the crashes one got out of his car (after sitting there for about a min) and asked "is there a problem here???"  Hahahahahaha...are you serious??? Mike and I were dying laughing...the driver of the crashed car was like "yeah...there was a crash! You'll have to go around."  I couldn't believe it, it was too funny. And it was also interesting that there was no Garda around to direct traffic or help the crashed car...just interesting. We make it back to the apt for bath and bed and Lino tells Mike to set the timer again do he knows when to get up...and he crashes...we could totally get use to this!!!

Sunday:

Time to start moving the crap from the apt to the house...so the morning was spent packing up crap and trying to get organized. 

It's amazing how much more room was in the apt once all the boxes and junk was moved out.  Shaun wasn't in the greatest mood when we were packing up the car...poor baby is still sick. 

Once we got to the house we unloaded and had to do some cleaning. I guess we didn't have to but the place wasn't super clean...it was a little dusty and most of the cabinets / drawers needed a fresh wipe because of the dust that had settled.  Mike had to go back to the apt to get another load so stayed with the sleeping boys and started on the cleaning...they love to sleep in the car. 

The boys love to sleep in the car!!!  They slept for about 1.5hrs in the car so we decided to meet at Tesco and get our groceries and some moving in items. I used the timer to wake Lino up and he was in good spirits and nice and rested...good deal!  Shopping was exhausting...not sure what we needed it didn't need exactly but I wanted to get started in cleaning so I kind of just got the stuff I needed and will take it back if we have it in the shipment.  Then back to the house where we spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning and trying to figure out where we were going to put all of our crap. Lino had a ball running around and finding bugs to play with and Shaun enjoyed being on the ground and watching Lino so it all worked out. Once we were done cleaning we went to have dinner...decided we were done cooking at the apt. Then back to the apt for bat h and bed. We did FaceTime with my family and it was kind of sad because normally for Labor Day weekend we would be in KC with them but now we are all the way across the world.  Lino was already sleep by the time we got to FaceTime (he told us he was tired...again!!) so the only got to see Shaun and he was so intrigued by the video it was funny...he was full of smiles so that was nice. I told my mom about Lino telling us that he was tired and that he wasn't fighting us as much about going to bed and she just laughed because about a month ago she said he would eventually do this and I told her it would be at least 10 more years before he was telling me he was tired...I guess moms know best. After that Mike and I crashed because we were pooped from the day and excited to start the moving in the morning...need to be rested!!!

Monday:

Moving day!!!! Moving day!!!!  Mike could barely sleep because he was so excited about the move...I slept fine. We headed to the house with a load of stuff in the car but before we left I put out a load of wash because I figured I would be able to get it after lunch and we wouldn't have a billion dirty clothes. We figured we would check out after the movers left but we got almost everything out anyway so that we didn't have to worry about bringing a lot of stuff later...Hopefully we will be able to stay at the house tonight. So I left before Mike and once I get to the house the movers hadn't arrived yet. I wasn't sure if they were lost or not because I know I would be lost trying to find this house. But eventually they showed up and they said they had no problems finding it, they got "general" direction so everything was grand!!! So they had unloaded our container into two trucks, actually it was four total that they had to bring. They said that the container would never make it up this road and there would be no where for it to park which is what I was worried about initially. So let the moving begin...

Once the movers started unloading, we found out that he was going to take two days to get everything unloaded and they didn't think we would be able to stay at the house the first night because they wouldn't have the beds were together by that time. So that meant we had to call the hotel to let them know we needed to stay an extra night. Hopefully that wouldn't be an issue but later we found out it was a little bit of an issue. Apparently they had already planned for someone else to be in our apartment on Monday so that meant we had to go to a different apartment room for the night. That wouldn't have been an issue if we had know before we left that morning so we could have got everything our...we still had clothes outside drying and a few things inside the room too. We called the front desk to ask about the clothes and what not and they seem to not know where they were ...so maybe we lost a few items on our last day...oh well.  Otherwise we spent the day watching the movers move and unloading our stuff. Lino made sure to bless the house as well with a nice yard christening 

Some pics from the move...

Shaun enjoying some toys in the yard

Lino being a big helper with the move...the guy let him hammer the table and he thought that was the best thing in the world. 

While we were unpacking and tossing a bunch of crap that we packed for no good reason we stumbled across a used In and Out burger bag...now why in the hell would we pack a used fast good bag and ship it across the Atlantic Ocean just to throw it out????  Talk about stupid things we do...anyway it makes a good blog pic. 

End of day one and 4 truck loads of crap has been unloaded!!!!

Mike and I continued the unpacking for a few more hours after the movers left. We got the pantry and most of the kitchen done!!! Tomorrow we will tackle the bedrooms and the boys play room.  Since we are in between homes and because Mike needed to get on the Internet for his Fantasy Football Draft we went to have dinner at The Elm tree...really nice kid friendly place and super good food. Glad it's close to the house too...I think we will become frequent diners here for sure. Unfortunately Mikes draft was a bust...something wrong with the site so try had to reschedule it for Tue at midnight our time...doesn't look like Mike will be making it so my sisters boyfriend will draft for him...maybe.  Late night for the family and everyone is tired...only one more night in the hotel!!!! 

Tuesday:

Lino was up early so up we all were. We didn't have anything at the hotel...clothes, tooth brushes, bath soap, nothing...so we got up...changed Shaun's diaper, took Lino's diaper off and left :-). Got to the house and had breakfast..our first meal together in the house

Then we got to work on our bedroom...We had to stop about 45min later because we had to go to the Garda station to get our residency information filed. The relocation rep told us what all we needed and Mike was in charge of getting it while I got the boys together but half way there he realized he had forgot one document...hopefully they will still process us without it :-/  We ended up on Cobh (pronounced Cove) which is the last stop the Titantic made before...pretty cool. And whe we get to the Garda station a big cruise ship was just docking...the boys were sleep and since we didn't have one of the documents Mike just went in to see if it would be OK or not and I stayed with the boys. After 30min of waiting it seemed to be "no bother" as they would say here, so I got the boys and we went inside. Lino wasn't to cranky but I think it was the big boat that kept him in good spirits. So it only took 10min and we were pretty much good. We have to go back on Sunday to take pictures for our cards but that should be a quick visit too. On the way out we had to stop to look at the boat because Lino was just in ahhhh about how big and close it was. On the way down the stairs to see the boat I nearly fell to my death...had to take a picture and share with my old Dannon buddies...can you say "safety contact"!!!  I can't believe there was no gate or chains or nothing to stop you from going into the water...crazy. 

Then on the drive to the house we see this...just seems a little out of place...

Spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking. We stopped to have a sandwich from Fitzpatrick's but otherwise it was all business. The movers got everyone put together and moved around kind of like we wanted it and where gone before 4. We finally called it quit around 6 because we wanted to make sure Lino go to bed at a decent time since he had school in the morning...oh and my son decided not to nap today other than the 45min in the car on the way to the Garda at 9:30 so he was a mess with his pee pee's. Pee'd on the floor 2x because he was so busy playing with his toys that he didn't want to stop to pee. Eye yi yi...he's killing me. Anyway, we got our bedroom and the boys room unpacked and in order which was nice.  Lino needed to go to bed so I ran to KFC and got us a quick chicken dinner...it wasn't bad just sucked because they don't have crispy chicken...it's all original recipe...or at least it looked like it was. I did bath and bed while Mike finished up a few things.  

The boys first bath in the house!

We don't have any Internet or TV so Mike hooked up the computer and we transferred a movie from there to the iPad to watch. We probably should have went to sleep when Lino did but we wanted to have a moment to take in the fact that we were finally in our house...so we had a glass of wine and watched Inception...feels good to be home!

Oh and I saw the biggest spider scurry across the floor while we were watching the movie...it freaked me out!!!  Thankfully Mike was able to find and kill it!!!!  There are so many spiders here, I'm not OK with that!