Shattered again

I had 2 solid hours of sleep last night, my insomnia is out of control. I woke up so incredibly tired, my exhaustion seems to know no bounds. Elijah was up early too. He woke up with a sore throat, stuffy nose and he's extremely tired. I decided we would do a lighter load of school, so he could have some time to recover. I had just sat down at the computer when I heard a crash outside. The kids looked at me and I said "That sounded like an accident, and it didn't sound good." Imagine my surprise when I look down and see a car had slammed into MY parked car!!!! I saw the driver climbing out the passenger side of his car. The kids got upset and started freaking out. I grabbed the camera and told them I had to go downstairs to take care of it and that they needed to stay inside. I was worried that he might try to leave! I called Matt and let him know so that he could call the proper people. I got downstairs and my neighbor (thank God for my Greek neighbor!) was just getting ready to call me. I was so incredibly thankful that she was just getting ready to take her daughter to school, so that she could translate for me, if the guy didn't speak very much English.
I started taking pictures, the guy was on the phone. So he said something to me in Greek and I said "I don't speak Greek, but that's my car! It's my car!" There might have been a twinge of hysteria behind that statement. He said, "That's what I asked, if it was your car." And I said "yes." Like he didn't already know from what I had already said. He was very apologetic, told me multiple times he was sorry. I imagine he was surprised that I didn't fly off the handle and yell and scream at him. I asked him if he was okay, he was. I felt bad for him. He hits my car and I feel sorry for him, but I did tell him I was very thankful he was okay. I was already starting to mourn the freedom that comes with having your own car. The kids were worried about Elijah's booster seat and our History CD'S that were in the car.

G4S, the Embassy hired security system showed up, 2 cars, within 10 minutes of Matt's phone call. One of the guys was the supervisor. He started asking questions and took multiple pictures. He sent me back upstairs to get my driver's license. I was thinking, I wasn't driving, why does he need my license? But, I cooperated and got the paper work that they would need.
Anyway, Matt showed up a while later. The police showed up about an hour after the crash. It was very quick from that point. They took the statements, had Matt sign the paperwork, and the other car was towed away. The guy apologized to us again and got on his phone, I imagine to find a ride somewhere.
I had asked my neighbor what happened and she said he had swerved to avoid a black cat that was in the road. He was going pretty fast, he moved my car about 15 feet forward from where it was parked.
Trying to focus on some positive, Matt had just filled up the gas tank in the car yesterday. As you can see from the pictures, this guy hit pretty close to the gas tank. The puddle under the car is the gas leaking. At least the car didn't explode. At least we were not in the car. Thankfully, no body (not even the cat) was hurt. A lot of people were inconvenienced as our road is a very busy road and a lot of people had to deter, but it could have been worse. I have to tell you though, I am feeling very shattered. I hold it together well in an emergency and this morning was no exception. The kids have cried no less than three times each. I plan to have a good cry later, I need to. I feel very broken, like the back of my car. I am so incredibly tired and so frustrated. I know God doesn't give us more than we can handle, but I have to wonder how much more does He think I can take? I have reached my limit and thought I had reached my limit before my stupid parked car was damaged to the point of not being drivable. I have no idea how long my car will be in the shop and it frustrates me. Elijah has soccer practice twice a week and games on Saturday, how am I supposed to get him there? Ugh. I know it's not all about me, but right at this moment it is. I want to quit and throw in the towel. Today, I think I could get on a plane and not look back. I am a strong woman, but I don't feel that strong, I'm feeling pretty weak and tired. I am not praying for patience and I haven't been praying for patience, but being exhausted, I am at the end of my rope. The G4S guy said something about it not being my fault and I'm like how could it be, I was UPSTAIRS, no where near the car. The guy did admit to driving "a bit" over the speed limit coming down the street and the police report says he was "reckless" driving. It was a senseless, stupid accident and I know these things happen (and if one more person says that to me right now, I am going to scream), but it doesn't make me feel any better. I want to scream and shout and throw a tantrum, but really, what would that solve. So, I guess for now, I will put on my big girl panties, pull myself up, take care of the children and try to get through the rest of this day without losing my patience, or snapping at my children, because it's not their fault. It's not mine either, but it is what it is. If you think of praying for me today, I need sleep more than anything else. Matt has gone back to work and I will be here. We will worry about soccer later. It's 10:30am and I am soooooooo ready for this day to be over. I hope and pray your day starts off smoother than mine and you have a fabulous day. By the way, does anybody have a Kitkat? I need a break.

Random stuff

  It's been a few weeks since I've written anything. Quite honestly I just haven't felt like I have much to say, or that I could put a positive spin on what I would say...I still don't, but hate to get out of the habit of keeping up.

  The past few weeks have been pretty routine, school, soccer, piano lessons, violin lessons, work for Matt. I did take the kids on a field trip a week or so ago, with one of my friends. We went to the Greek Museum of Folk Musical Instruments. It was pretty interesting and the kids had a good time.

  We are adjusting to being here and getting into our routines, but we don't love it here. Most days I would say we don't like it much here. I am hoping and praying that our attitudes change, but we are taking it one day at a time. It's hard to put into words what exactly we don't like, it's not like things are awful, they just aren't great either.

  Some things that make it harder being here...Kayla has asked me repeatedly if several of her friends (who happen to live in the states) can come for her birthday. I've tried to explain to her REPEATEDLY that it is expensive and her friends are in school and can't come, but she just doesn't seem to get it (or doesn't want to). And she acts like it's my fault that most people don't want to/can't afford to drop that kind of money for a trip here.

  Driving is difficult and frustrating. It would be easier if the people on motorcycles didn't drive between cars (in your lane, not behind you!), cut you off or knock into your mirrors as they pass you and then cut you off. Pedestrians never have the right of way. This rule must only apply to foreigners because they are not going to slow down if they see me crossing the street with my children, in fact, they might just speed up. However, if they are crossing the street, even when they don't have the right away you expect me to stop.

  The language is difficult and frustrating to me. I really do wish I had known before we got here that we would need Greek to make things easier. The kids and I have been learning the Greek alphabet since July. Matt started Greek lessons last week, he came home and promptly told me all that we had been learning wrong. I also realize that the Greek curriculum we had bought for school was New Testament Greek and not modern Greek, which isn't going to help at all. Sigh. We are thinking of hiring a tutor to come in and teach us Greek, but it's so hard to find the time to fit that in.

  My health hasn't been great. I have been through a battery of tests in the last two weeks trying to find the cause of why my blood pressure spikes so high and then later goes low. With the understanding that I might not ever know. I am hoping and praying for answers. I am still awaiting the results of most of my tests. Although, on a great note, my heart, arteries, liver, spleen and pancreas is all good. I won't even get into the frustrations I have had just going to these medical buildings for the tests. My insomnia has also flared, where for the past 2 months I average between 3-5 hours of interrupted sleep. (maybe, just maybe this is the cause of my discontent, although it doesn't explain the rest of the family)

    There are several other situations that are causing me to stress, but I really can't go into them on here, but I have no idea how I am going to resolve them.

  Some things that are going well...

 Kayla likes her piano teacher and is now practicing an hour a day on piano. She continues to improve.

Kayla loves her violin teacher and practices 30-45 minutes a day. She also continues to improve with violin. She doesn't love practicing the violin as much as the piano, but I hope with time that she will grow to love the violin. She thinks it's too much work and I love that something is finally challenging her.

Elijah loves being back in soccer. Even though most instruction is in Greek and ALL instruction is in Greek at the games he is enjoying it. He had his first game on Saturday and didn't actually seem to be in it as much as he was in the states. I am hoping as he picks up the language that will change.

We almost have our apartment like we want it, still waiting on one more rug to arrive.

We have made friends, which always makes things a bit easier.

School is going okay, we are still making adjustments, trying to figure out the best way to make everything work, especially with Kayla having so much practice time for music. However, we have finished the first 6 weeks, which feels like an accomplishment!

Matt and I have had one date night since we've gotten here and it went well :)

We have started doing family game nights and family movie nights, we alternate weekends and we have such a good time with those.

That's about it from here, for now. One of my friends asked me recently what we missed the most that she could put in a box to mail us, well, unless we've started putting people in boxes to mail them, there's nothing anyone can send:) We don't miss things as much as we miss people. We miss all of you so much. We love getting letters, phone calls, text messages, emails and Facebook messages from you! It helps us to stay connected. I do apologize if this sounds whiny or sounds too much like complaining. That is truly not my intent. It's hard for everything to come out sounding positive, I just wanted to update on where we are and this is it.

The Olympic Stadium

Sometimes, the best days are the one's where you make plans at the last minute. That was today. Originally we had decided we would go to a beach we hadn't been to. But, Elijah didn't want to go to a beach today because we had just been to a beach on Saturday. So, last night Matt and I were racking our brains trying to come up with a plan B. Finally after we had been in bed for a while, it hit me. One of my friends had told me that the Planes 2 movie had just come out here and that it was only in English until Wednesday, and then it switches to Greek with English subtitles. We didn't know what time the movie would be, but we decided we would go to The Mall (truly, that's it's name), have lunch and catch the movie. Well, when Matt got on the computer this morning he found out we could either watch it at 6pm or 7:15pm, which are both too late for our kids with school the next morning.
It always frustrates me when we have plans and they don't go the way I planned. It's one of my character faults. I woke up with a headache this morning, so I was already grumpy and then our plans fell through and I did not want to sit in the house all day. So, I started looking through our Athens tour guide books for something to do.
We decided we would go see the Temple of Zeus and the Olympic Stadium. Even though it was pretty hot outside the kids were on board and excited. We quickly got ready only to sit in traffic! Things die down in August in Athens, especially the traffic and with it only being the first day of September we really didn't anticipate any traffic. Anyway, we circled around where we wanted to be and finally found a parking spot pretty near the Olympic Stadium. We had planned (there's that word again!) to go to the Temple of Zeus first and then hit the Olympic stadium, but we were so close to the Stadium we went there first.
Across the street from the stadium.

The Stadium.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I was excited to be able to use the Greek alphabet that we are learning to translate where the Olympics had been held!

 

 

 

 

 

 Kayla is pointing to Lykavittos Hill, which we hiked a few weeks ago, it's the really tall hill in the distance with a Church sitting on top of it.

 

 

We really enjoyed the stadium, but we were hot and hungry when we were done exploring it. We walked around trying to find a place open for lunch. We didn't have any luck, so we decided to skip the Temple of Zeus for today and head home for lunch.

That afternoon we did a fitness mile run/walk, trying to gauge how fit the kids were before we started our PE program this year. Elijah ran/walked the mile in 12.44, and he slowed down a few times for Matt to catch up with him, or his time would have been faster. Kayla's time was 15.31 and I had slowed down for her so I wouldn't leave her behind, and my time was 15.21. We had fun and plan to shave time off of our time as we work on being more fit this year.

As I was putting Kayla to bed she exclaimed again about how much fun she had had. A successful Greece day :)