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.