Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday - Jumped in the shower first thing and soon wondered why I bothered. It's so hot and humid lately that you always have a thin layer of sweat on your skin. No moisturizer needed! I am finding I need to get more sundresses as that is the coolest thing to wear. TJ was bouncing off the walls waiting for it to be time for Toni and the kids to stop by and take us over to Kelly's. Another day to play with Lauren and the little kids under the watchful eye of Kelly's nanny meant another fun mommy's day out with the girls - we were all happy campers!

Soon we had the kids settled (if you can call having them run wild in Kelly's backyard settled) and Kelly, Toni and I climbed into Summer's SUV for our outing to Gyor. I'm not usually much of a shopper but having a chance to do more than walk by all those fun shops on the walking street (like I do when I go with Eric) was going to be fun. Sumer was making it a girl day with her 3 1/2 year old Jocelyn and I found myself in the seat next to her on our way to Gyor. When you think of a day out without kids it doesn't sound fun to have a 3 year old tag along, but she is so adorable it was fun. When childless couples begin longing to reproduce, this child is what they are envisioning. She is sweet and quiet and happy to be coming along. Sumer claims that much of the credit goes to the early schooling in the Hungarian pre-school and Kindergarten. The children are kindly but firmly expected to take turns, be respectful and follow instructions. She could be right that some of that helped, but I think combined with good parenting that Jocie basically came this way.

Gyor is so beautiful with it's centuries old buildings and flowers everywhere. The walking street is perfect to just stroll and talk and wander in and out of shops. I even tried on a few things and ended up buying some shorts and a top. I assumed they accepted visa (wrong, silly me) but luckily I had enough forint on me. We made the mandatory stop to get gelato (to die for here and sooooo cheap) and then a few more shops. None are air conditioned so you really have to find something you love to be motivated enough to try things on - after the first shop I was done, but it was fun watching the others. By the time we got to the big plaza we were ready to eat and picked a restaurant that had outdoor seating with plenty of shade. I ordered the salmon for the first time since moving to this land-locked country and was delighted to find it cooked perfectly. Lunch of course was like every restaurant meal here, long and casual. Thank heavens the nanny was happy to stay longer so we could extend our fun. By the time we got back to pick up the kids and go back home we were all wiped out. I told TJ he could watch TV or play his Wii but that I was going to take a nap in my cool air conditioned bedroom! As it turned out I only slept for about 10 min but it felt good to just relax. When I woke up I saw I had missed a call from an unknown number. I flipped on the computer to check Facebook (a major source of communication here with each other) and saw a message about a girls night of dinner and a movie (DVD of course) that had been thrown together as a last one for Dawn before she left for the states. A quick check with Eric to make sure he was up to have TJ and Sean for the evening, a change into a cool shirt (my pj top wouldn't fly) and Dawn swung by to get me for another girls night out. FUN!

Dinner was at The Storks Nest (the first place Eric, TJ and I ate the day we arrived in Papa) which is aptly named due to the giant stork nest on the roofs' chimney, complete with stork and babies. We ate outside and were treated to the mama stork's interesting sound when she landed to to feed the babies. I found it fascinating and borrowed Kelly's camera to take several pics. She was less than thrilled by the stork - she hates birds of all kinds but finds large ones with long beaks particularly creepy. Dinner was a few hours long followed by walking over to The Family Center and picking from their selection of movies. We settled on Alex and Emma (or is it Emma and Alex???) which turned out to be looooonnnnggg and booorrrriiinnnnggg. It got to the point where we had invested too much of our lives watching it to just turn it off so we put on the sub-title feature and fast forward until it mercifully concluded. It was fun nonetheless. I met a few new women from the HAW and got to share Dawn's last movie night. Too bad it was spent watching such a boring movie. By the time I got back home Eric had dropped Sean off to his dad, tucked TJ in to bed and was fast asleep himself.

Wednesday - Another early morning taking Eric to work. I sooooo want to find a cheap 2nd car he can drive back and forth to work in, especially before winter! I needed the car because it was the weekly playdate at The Thermal Baths. It was so much hotter than last week so we swam in the outdoor pools. TJ is doing so well simming under water that I think by the end of summer he'll be able to be in water over his head. If not then he'll probably get the whole swimming with his head above the surface in swim class during school. After awhile Dawn offered to keep an eye on TJ so I could swim a few laps in the deep pool. Wow, I feel like I've really recovered from my surgery in March until I do something like that. My stomach muscles are sooooo weak! I need to go swim laps every morning to stretch out and get strong again - maybe when Patty comes. After several hours of swimming and going down the outdoor slide things started to get crowded. Large busloads of kids were arriving and soon it felt like all the people in Papa that weren't at work were coming to the pool. Can't blame them, it's a great way to beat the heat!

We finally pulled the kids away from the water and had lunch at the little cafe attached to the Thermal Baths. When we got home, TJ and I both sighed with relief to be in our nice cool house. I told him no more playdates for the rest of the day, but then the phone rang and Aga was calling on behalf of Sandor. He had Panka at the house and wanted to know if TJ could come over and play. It was too hot to go out again and besides, he was always going there, so I had Aga ask if she could instead come to our house until I went to pick Eric up from work. Not long after Sandor and G delievered Panka and the kids ran off to play. I chatted with the guys for a bit about not wanting Eric to simply get a scooter to get back and forth to work because he can't drive it in bad weather (which is when I most want to NOT have to take him to work). I told them I was pushing a Maruti on him but Sandor said we need to look at Trabant's instead. They are much cooler beater cars than Maruti's I guess, although to me they look about the same. It was good to get this opinion I could pass on to Eric. I don't care what kind of car he gets as long as it makes it to the base and back every work day for the next 2 years!

After the kids played in our pool and then chased around the house with nerf guns, I dropped Panka off and picked up Eric. We had a relaxing evening of puttering around the house, organizing a few things and visiting with Eve and Tamara when they stopped by to get the rent. We showed them the dirt piles that keep springing up in the lawn from some little critter, likely a mole or something. Apparently they have fought the beast for years to no avail. They showed us the latest weapon, a small alarm mounted on the garage that emits a high pitched noise that is suppose to drive all such critters away. Obviously it's not working. Eric stomped the mounds down last night but I noticed a fresh one has risen in the same location this morning (Thursday). I am beginning to take it personally and am going to read up on what our next move could be.