There's this line in Sleepless in Seattle where Tom Hanks' character tells a colleague he's moving to Seattle. The colleague then says: "Do you know that it rains practically all the time in Seattle."
When we decided to move here, everyone kept reminding us of that. We were lucky to have an amazing summer, almost 6 weeks without rain. 25 degree days and clear blue skies.
Now winter has well and truly hit. Most days are rainy, if there's not rain there's cloud and cold. If it gets to above 45 degrees fahrenheit we're cheering.
The other day while at school the sun peeked out of the clouds and one by one the kids marched up to the window and stared out at the sun.
Our attitude has been we're going out and doing things...rain be damned. I've bought some snow boots and a couple of down jackets which keep me very warm and very dry.
We've been making use of the fireplace and recently bought and re-upholstered some ottomans to sit in front of the fire with.
We also had our first snow, a light cold drizzle. Still, we woke up to a white, cold wonderland. We also finally unpacked the snowchains we bought and tried to have a go at putting them on. If the snow stays away, hopefully we won't need them.
The baby
There's less than 6 weeks to go till Baby Ginige comes. He's healthy and happy and doing exactly what he should be doing inside. He's become a bit of a kicking machine lately, probably telling us that he's ready to get out.
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| All his clothes, blankets, wraps and things....clean and ready to go. |
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| The nursery! |
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| Toys |
The stroller and carseat have arrived and are awaiting installation into the car. The bouncer came and we're just waiting on the tub.
Over the last few weeks we've also been going to ante-natal classes, the ones where they teach you how to breathe and show you those scary videos about where babies come from. Nuwan gets a glazed look over his face whenever they discuss all the gory bits but otherwise they're going well. This week we get to tour the hospital, a real glimpse into what happens on this side of the world!
I also found a rocking horse at the goodwill store a few weeks back. I'm not under any illusions about how useful it will be, it will probably be unused for at least a couple of years. The Stepford wife in me couldn't resist the project.
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| Before |
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| During |
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| And after |
My particular favourite, the original Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister :)
For those who are yet to experience the magic of this amazing book here it is:
and hear the story...
BTW did I mention that I am constantly getting stopped and asked about the baby, random strangers offering me advice, talking about their experiences and congratulating me. It's becoming a great way to meet people!
Friends and family
They're getting ready to come here. Which is exciting! Pabs flies in on January 11th and then the influx starts!
Birthday
My last birthday without kids is coming up. I bought myself a sewing machine!
I'm not much of a sewer but always did enjoy it. The machine is a Brother, computerised one with over 80 stitches and the best part...automatic button holes. Boy do I love automatic button holes! I've been having a lot of fun playing with it...fun cushions for the baby's room and some for our new bench seat and fireplace chairs.
Here's another little present I bought for myself....can't wait to try it out!
Christmas party :)
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| The 007 themed dessert table |
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| Rose and I |
So off we went to the Microsoft Christmas party of sorts! It was held in the office building and went from 4-9....usually not a good sign. It was Casino Royale themed and the first thing I saw when we walked in was the awesome DESSERT table full of themes cakes, cupcakes, cookies and cake pops. There was a full buffet of entrees and of course they were serving vodka martinis, shaken not stirred.
We chatted to a lot of Nuwan's workmates and I met his boss and his bosses boss and discovered how much time he spends at work discussing food. There was a photo booth of sorts that produced flip books, there was even a caricature artist and an entire floor decked out like a casino! As is normal for us we spent a great deal of time discussing food with Nuwan's contemporaries and got another endorsement for an Indian restaurant; Naan n Curry. We tried it a few nights later and apart from a weirdly overzealous waiter who tried to serve a Chath curry and made fun of my accent, we had some delicious Indian food!
We met a colleague of Nuwan's who also happens to be a Austen fan who's named her daughter Austen. I put in another push to call baby Ginige Darcy.... to no avail...:(.
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| Queen of hearts....yum! |
Christmas
Christmas is fast approaching and we're spending it with our lovely friends again. We're thoroughly looking forward to it! It's strange being in a country where Christmas is finally cold. We have no snow but the prospect of a hot turkey, hot chocolate, warm apple cider all sound tempting.....not nauseating.
We've decided not to get a tree... Nuwan wants to wait for BG so we can decorate it together....I thought it was a pretty good idea.
Instead we made a few little decorations to brighten up the place!
Cars
My life is strangely getting busier, between school, friends and shopping I usually need the car most days. It also helps get me out of the house even in this depressing weather. Nuwan and I finally decided to bite the bullet and get a second car.
We're on the hunt. It's a strange experience trying to understand how things work here. Do we got to a dealer? Are private sales the way to go? How do we get a diagnostic done on a second hand car? Who can we trust? What car do we get?
In the end we stuck with what we knew. We have become a Mazda family after all. On the right is Nuwan's new/old blue Mazda 3. We're a two car family for the first time. A strange but so far successful experience.
My projects
I've been working on a few projects around the place, you've probably seen them on Facebook. They've kept me busy and are also helping to full up the spaces in our house. Finally starting to look like a home.
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