Where is Yves?

You might be wondering where I am seeing as the new house is in reasonable order so I thought I’d give you an update.

 

Yesterday Sam went back to work. His commute has increased by quite a bit as it takes 40 to 50 minutes to get into town. He will be taking the bus most days. Usually he gets home around 15:30 or so but with the commute time he will probably be getting home between 16:30-18:00 instead. With that in mind if anyone has any cheap simple recipes please share! I could use some budget friendly dinner ideas!

 

Isadora started school today. I got lost on the way there but I did manage to get her there on time just the same. The weather was miserable snow was replaced with rain and I do not have appropriate shoes for such conditions so I ended up with soaking wet and very cold feet! She was greeted at the main door by a little girl who already knew her name. I hope everything goes well for her! She did not seem nervous.

 

As for the house she loves it and she loves that it is close to the park (close enough that she can walk there alone). She slept through the night the first night. I thought she might get scared being in a new place with so many new sounds and smells but she didn’t come to us for comforting once. She is actually doing very well. She approaches children and has already played with the neighbor.  She seems to be quite confident in herself. The only problem we are having is at meal time and not with every meal just dinner. She is taking a really really long time to eat maybe 2 hours. She doesn’t want to stop talking long enough to eat anything and then she has been complaining a lot about the elk. There is a lot elk in the grocery at the moment because people are hunting and it is a good price but she doesn’t really like it.

 

How do I feel about the house? I love it!  It is so beautiful and spacious.

 

The main issue we had was limited hot water, perhaps 2 minutes worth or less. For the first 2 weeks I did not wash my hair as it takes a long time to wash and I was sick. Luckily my hair does not get greasy or stringy, so it was perfectly normal looking/smelling but I did have to wash it in cold water (I also had to shave in a cold bath). Sam has since replaced a water tank. That didn’t help much despite it clearly needing replacement. He adjusted a valve and that did help I am not sure how long the hot water will last, if it will hold up for a bath or a hair wash (for me, it works for Isadora). The mixers in the bathroom are kind of bad so the water can get too hot, not so hot as to scald an adult but I am very careful with Isadora. Right now she has to take showers too and I monitor the water temp closely.

 

Other than that the bathrooms sometimes smell but they are old and I don’t think the venting is quite the same. I let Isadora’s toilet soak in chlorine and that seems to have helped. We also need to clean out the sink pipes to make sure there isn’t any muck because I detected some odor by the pipes in Isadora’s bathroom when cleaning. Eventually we will update the bathrooms.

 

The other thing we hope to fix at some point is the flat roof over the garage, it is too flat and doesn’t drain so well. The roof is from the 70s it doesn’t leak now or anything but still I think we will replace it when we can to prevent any potential collapse.

 

The furnace is obviously a priority because it will save A LOT of money on electricity and it is environmental. As for changing wallpaper and such that is not an immediate concern, it is just aesthetic and I want to get the others things sorted first since those things will be expensive and require long-term saving.

 

As for me I am trying to establish a routine. Exercise, cooking, cleaning/managing a significantly larger house, therapy exercises, studying. I am spending more time with Isadora now as well though I imagine once she makes friends she will ditch me lol

 

On another note I got word from the Swedish school. I start tomorrow. I will get my official schedule then and that schedule will determine if Isadora will have to be in the after school program. As I will be 50 minutes away from home it is very likely.  Encase you wonder how she feels about going to the after school program, she  really wants to go (she is extremely social and loves school). In preparation for class I have been studying as I need to get up my stamina. I was not successful with Swedish school the first time and there were many reasons for that some were out of my control (taking Epilepsy drugs, illness) and others were not. Though I was in bad health at that time I was also a pretty crappy student. I had been a decent (not exceptional) student in high school and University but I found it pretty hard to return to school. Isadora was also younger then so it was harder to study at home.

 

Anyhow I can’t say exactly when I will resume a normal posting schedule (could be a time change) because I want to see a little a bit how the class will go.