Reality sets in

Life is starting to settle down a bit. So it's been a while since the last post. We've been spending our time doing fun exciting things like getting the bank accounts up and running, getting phones so we're contactable, organising accomodation for when we get kicked out of our apartment here and so on... As the company paid-for accomodation runs out on July 8th, we have had to find another place to live for the short term. Most of the places require a 12-month lease but we've been lucky (?). We've found some more temporary accomodation in Plainville, Massachusetts, at an apartment complex called Village Green. We've signed a three month lease (the shortest we could get) to give us a bit more time to try and get everything organised. The new place looks good, has a nice outdoor pool and lots of grassy areas for Lexie to explore. It's a 2-bedroom place on the 3rd floor and has a balcony. It's sorta like a gated community, with a laudromat, the pool and a gym. Looks really nice. Andy's being sent to New York for training at the start of next week. He is going down on the AMTRAK train leaving Providence on Sunday arvo. The trip is 3 hours and he arrives at Penn Station. However due to a bridge being replaced in Conneticut, he can't get the train back. Fortunately he's going with a work collegue who is driving and he's been offered a lift back. At least he doesn't have to do the driving. These Yanks are crazy!!! Lexie and I would love to go with him, but it just didn't work this time round. But hopefully he'll have some fun and Lexie and I will have fun trying to get around without him and without the GPS system. Thats right.... we had to hand back the hire car today and we got Andy's work car. What a beast of a car!! It looks like a car a Mafioso would drive, but very nice inside. Not as blue as Jen was hoping, but what can you do? The only problem is, without the hire car, we don't have the GPS system, which has actually been a godsend, especially whilst househunting. Without it trying to find our way around would have been very hard, we got lost enough times as it was.... The bank we are with (who shall remain nameless) has finally decided to give us credit cards. Tim: it is the same deal as you and Anna had. A very small credit limit. And we have to follow the same guidelines as you had to. That is: put all purchases on it, don't spend any more than 50% of the credit limit and pay it off immediately. In a few months we'll have the bank falling over us to give us an increased credit limit, more cards, etc. It's all necessary to build a credit rating in the USA. Without one you can't do anything! Anyway there are no photos with this post - we are going to see another Waterfire tomorrow night, and then NYC for some of us.

Photos Finally

OK well we finally figured out how to get some photos onto the computer, I've added a couple to the existing posts and then rest I'll put here. Firstly, Lexie's decided that peas work better on the face rather than in the mouth. Very stylish girl. To remove the peas what do you need but a bath. We've decided that even better than a shower with Daddy, is a bath with Daddy, especially when there's turtles involved! She's also been practicing her standing, on the couch, at the coffee table...wherever she can And all that practice really pays off. She decided to stand herself up at the coffee table yesterday...and wasn't she proud of herself... Well that's all we've got at the moment. We'll try and get one of her new teeth...if she'll ever open her mouth for us. Lots of cheeky giggles too! Stay tuned for more........

Red tape and phones and things

Interesting day today. It started wet and grey. That's right, some strange wet water-like material was falling from the sky. Apparently the locals call it "rain", but having lived in Sydney we don't know what that means. Although we're being told (by family) that Sydney has had nothing but "rain" over the last couple of days. We don't believe it though - it's all an urban myth! Andy was dropped off at work and the girls went house-hunting. Once again the realtor was excellent. She even took Jen and Lexie on a tour of the local areas, to show them the highlights: such as dress shops, the supermarkets, local restaurants, bakeries, schools and ice cream shops. One of the houses visited had a great surprise in the cellar- the washing machine, dryer and furnace were all up on concrete blocks. And there were two mysterious looking pumps set up in the vicinity. You can guess what the problem was minor flooding in the cellar. Minor flooding!!! That requires 2 pumps!!!! I don't think so! Unless the cellar doubles as a koi pond?!? As Jen and Lexie walked around this place, Lexie gave her opinion on the house, by blowing several loud raspberries. Seems she had insider knowledge, maybe we should listen to her in the future! Got some good leads, which Andy will view this weekend, when he's not working. Fingers crossed you lot! Maybe we will have put in an offer by the end of the weekend! 3pm arrived and meant we had a rendez-vous at the Social Security office. Everything you have heard or seen about these places in movies and on television is absolutely true. Know what I mean????? Once inside we took a number and waited. As we'd arrived 20 minutes before our relocation consultant, by the time he arrived we were well into the process of getting our social security numbers. Again, Lexie charmed the pants off the local ladies and the security guard (Barry). Barry was a lovely bloke - who went out of his way to help us and was really interested in why we were over here. And they say New Englanders are rude and dour. Now, guess who had the most problem with their social security number?? The Aussie who entered the US on an Aussie passport or the American passport holder??? C'mon........keep guessing.........you'll never get it........ Time's up: Correct answer = THE AMERICAN PASSPORT HOLDER. Andy's application was processed in minutes. Jen's took 30 minutes. And required intervention from 2 separate clerks. They couldn't understand how a US citizen at age 30, didn't have a social security number. Jen: Lexies been a bit of a pain for the last couple of days and today I found out why. the second tooth in the bottom is coming through too. Arggggg my little girl is growing up way too fast. But I still can't complain about her, even after getting up at 6:30am, out of the house by 7 am, viewed 8 houses before lunch, quick nap in the car, then another 3 hours at the social security office and bank, she still allowed us to go out for dinner. shes really such a good little girl.

Realtors, buying and renting.

Sunday...yay a day of rest. Well, it would have been if we had curtains in the main bedroom. With the sun coming up early every day (being Summer and all), the light comes through the venetian blinds and is really quite bright. Based on some advice from Aunty Mel and some Alaskans we met in January last year, Lexie is getting black garbage bags taped to the venetian blinds in her room. Hopefully she'll sleep in a past 4.30am....yeah and pigs are currently flying past the window! :-)

Today was the first weekend of real househunting with a "realtor". Jen had manged to find a really nice one during the week whilst Andy was at work - 20 years+ of experience and a really nice family atmosphere. The real estate agents over here are just sooooooo nice - well the ones we're going with are. They pretty much took Jen under their wing when she first contacted them, gave her the run of their office to use as she needed. When Andy met them Sunday last they were equally as friendly, even offering us free soft drinks after we returned from house-hunting. We spent the whole of Sunday driving around, saw about 5 houses. Yes, SUNDAY! Apparently this is the prime day for real estate agents to work on. Unlike in Australia when Saturday is the #1 day.

Most of the places we saw required a bit more work than we're willing to take on, and some were actually rubbish. There was one really nice one, it's just that its right at the top of, if not out of our price range. We'll have to see if the sellers are willing to drop the price at all.

In the mean time, we've still got a tonne more to see. We've only looked at the 4-bedroom ones so far, still have the 3 -bedroom ones to go. They're lined up for tomorrow (Thurs) when Jen and Lexie will continue the hunt.

Jen has only one real problem with Providence.....these people don't seem to believe in craft. JEN: I've been looking for a store where I can buy some knitting needles and wool, but they don't seem to exist. I thought I had it, found a place in the Yellow Pages, so took a hike over to the other side of the east side of Providence to find it, only to find that it had closed down. So it's back to reading books in my spare time.

Our airfreight arrived this (Wednesday) morning. We've got a few more clothes and things now which is good. Really liking having the high chair, it makes "food time" so much easier. Andy is feeding the little sparrow as we speak. Seems she's back to her old self again sucking it down like it's going out of style.

ANDY: She's polished off three helpings and nearly taken my arm off at the elbow!

As for our unit back in Sydney, does anyone want to rent it?

No! I'm really serious!! Anyone?? Anyone?? Bueller??... Bueller???...Bueller????

Seriously from what we've heard, there is strong interest in the place. But so far this interest ends before people pick up an application form.

For those interested in how things are going at work, oh....there is no-one interested. OK! Nuff said.

Tomorrow we get our social security numbers and open a bank account. This should get things moving. More adventures to follow, stay tuned.