TJ is tucked into bed and sleeping peacefully, Eric is reading in bed and beginning to doze and here I sit, torn between wanting to go upstairs and crawl into bed and needing to get this blog caught up. Sleep can wait (can't it always?)

Wednesday - June 23rd brought the movers with all the rest of our household goods as well as our shipment from Aviano (fridge, microwave, washer and dryer, wadrobes and most important - AFN receiver and dish to get a few US TV stations!). Busy, hectic day. I'm sure the neighbors on our very narrow street were less than thrilled to have the big moving truck parked all day in front of the house and virtually blocking the road. Unlike NJ, in Papa we have to pay for garbage removal by the square meter so it was necessary to have the movers unbox and unwrap as much as possible and haul it off. The main problem with this is suddenly all our stuff was piled in rooms all over the house without benefit of a neatly labelled box saying what was inside and where it went. I can't even begin to describe how overwhelming it is to end the day walking from room to room faced with mountains of stuff and no idea where you're going to put it. It felt like I had been dropped into an episode of "Hoarder's - Best of the Worst!" I just wanted to walk out and lock the door behind me!

Friday - June 25th, 2010 was a party at Sandor's. I can't remember if I have mentioned that although our ex-landlords name is pronounced Shandor, it is actually spelled Sandor (S is pronounced Sh in Hungarian), so I will be careful to write it correctly from now on. Anyway, with his wine cellar/party room and covered patio it's a great place for our parties. He continues to develop it making more improvements every time we go back! The playground for the kids is complete and makes it great to bring the entire family to the get-togethers. It was great meeting more of the people from the HAW and to have a chance to hang out with my Hungarian friends as well. For a time I sat on the patio with Sumer, Aga, Jeannie (I need to find out how to spell her name - it's pronounced zsa-nay), Sandor and G (we can never pronounce his sons name so it's G from now on). With the help of Aga and G translating I learned a few things about Gypsies. I didn't realize that there are both Romainian Gypsies (whose women tend to wear the bright colored long sleeve blouses and long colorful skirts) and Hungarian Gypsies (who tend to have darker complexions and wear tighter clothing). It was interesting to hear their stories and opinions, to discover that dogs are good to have because gypsies are afraid of them, and it's often safer to live by them than in a neighborhood where none live, because as I was told, "Gypsies don't steal from their neighbors!" I laughingly said I needed to hire a few to come take all my stuff so I didn't have to figure out where in my house to put things. Sandor's immediate reply, "How do you know they aren't there right now doing just that?" LOL Aga even offered to teach me a good Polish curse so if I ever offend a gypsy and they put a curse on me, I can yell one even better back! As the night wore on I was cajoled into trying Palinka for the first time. Not a fan!

I know we were busy doing something every single day through the end of the month but I can't remember when we did what. I know there was a trip to Gyor where we went to McDonalds, much to TJ's delight. We also stumbled upon a small festival with knights and swords. TJ got to do a little sword fighting, despite the fact they all spoke only Hungarian. We had The Lingens over for a playdate and Sean (8) and Amy
(11) hung out in the pool with TJ while Dawn and I talked about McGuire and Papa. TJ got the courage to actually put his face in the water and then learned to hold his breath and swim under water. He now wants to spend all his free time in the pool! It's been delightful to watch him go from being fearful to fearless.

Friday - July 2nd, 2010 - another party at Sandor's! They are all fun, but this one was exceptional. John's wife and kids had flown in on Wednesday from WA state for a two month visit. Eric and John hit it off from the very beginning, their friendship nurtured on their shared love of Heavy Metal bands and WA state. We'd been anticipating the arrival of Toni (his wife) and Lauren (6) and Johnny (2 1/2) for a few weeks so it was great finally meeting them. TJ and Lauren were already friends since Eric had taken him to John's the evening before so they ran off to play while Toni and I got a chance to talk. I could tell right away that this was a person I was going to enjoy hanging out with. She's really laid back, easy to talk to and interesting. A few of the girls decided it would be fun to have a girls night out so we got our husbands on-board to watch the kids and we walked downtown for dinner. It's been a long time since I've done something like that - it was a blast. There were 6 of us in our group but lots more from the HAW at the restaurant. As we got talking we found out that all of us had huge WA state connections. In fact I think I was the only one who hadn't grown up and gone to school in WA! It felt a little surreal to realize that I was making friends in Hungary that I will maintain when we move back to WA. Funny how life happens. We ended up taking the party to a little basement bar a few blocks away and just hung out and talked as more people joined our group, also from WA. LOL We finally walked back to Sandor's to get the kids and our husbands by midnight and get back home. We needed to get some sleep so we could go to the big Independence Day celebration the next day!

Saturday - July 3rd, 2010 I tried to sleep in but that didn't happen. Got a few things done around the house and got packed up for the party and our overnight stay. Around 3 PM the Burnett's and Luis met us at the house and we caravaned about 30 miles away to The Brown's. They live in a beautiful home overlooking a valley that looks like Tuscany (at least like Tuscany looks in the movies I've seen). We had made reservations at their landlord's Panzio next door (it's like a hotel/bed and breakfast with a dining room that serves breakfast). We got checked in and put Chip's dog bed and food in the room, then we all went up the hill to the party. They hosted a July 4th party last year so everyone who has been here since the beginning was familar with their place. It was fun to have such a big mix of people from different countries sharing their favorite dishes. The food was amazing and never ending and everyone seemed to have a great time. They had a bouncy house and face painting/temporary tattoos for the kids and they all had a blast running around. Chip went to the party at first but it was hot and there were so many people he soon became nervous and tired. As much as I knew he would hate being separated from me and left alone in the room. I knew it would be far better than him having to deal with so much going on, so I took him to the Panzio, turned the fan on and left him in our quiet room. Later on when things wound down and it cooled off I brought him back and he was fine. It was such a fun party and so nice not to have to make the drive home when we were all tired and ready for bed.

The next morning all of us that stayed at the Panzio (5 families in all) ended up down eating breakfast around the same time, then went back up to the Browns to hang out, enjoy Dunkin Donuts coffee and chat for a bit before heading home. We had a few hours to get organized before the Burnetts and Luis came for a little BBQ in honor of the 4th. Fun weekend!!!

The next week consisted of play dates and swimming at the Thermal Baths (awesome pools in Papa) and very little cleaning and organizing of the house. We're just having way too much fun to stay home! Eric got to fly for the first time from Papa -left early Monday morning (TJ and I took him to the base at 1:30 AM....yawn) and got back Thursday early evening.

Friday, July 6th, 2010 No party at Sandor's, weird, huh? I had planned on having leftovers for dinner so when Eric suggested we could go out I jumped at the chance. We ended up meeting up with Luis, The Langs and the Burnetts and ran into a few other couples there as well. It's a kid friendly restaurant with a little TV playing kids shows in a small room upfront, so the adults sat outside talking while the kids hung out, watched TV and played. It's such a different environment here, so casual. We hung out for almost an hour before they took our order, then dinner was long and casual with the kids eating then going back to their area while we took our time. It was a relaxed 3 hour meal with no one needing to rush back to watch a show or something they DVR'd. I love this place and our life.

Saturday and Sunday were the slowest we've had since moving here - but only because Eric insisted on NOT making plans to go away anywhere. It was kind of nice actually. We did end up making a trip in to Gyor on Saturday since we had several things we needed for the house. Took Luis with us since he hasn't ever been there yet and won't be here much longer. Found the walking street and several of the more famous statues and building in Gyor. It's a beautiful city with some fun shops and restaurants and gelato stands everywhere!!! It was a hot day but fun.