Around town in August

Here are a few photos of things we've seen/done around Szczecin in the last few weeks. I am way behind, I know! Our darling Matthew is a delight, but I do not get much done during the day with him around and into everything!

Saturday, the 1st of August, before we went over to our house we spent some time exploring more! We first went over to the Pomeranian Dukes' Castle. We'd heard that there was a theater series of plays for children on Saturdays during the summer. Alas, it was only during July and since it was August 1st it was over. But we did walk in the museum part and saw some paintings, armor, and the crypts of several Pomeranian Dukes. Since my good camera is on the fritz and the lighting was bad, I do not have any photos from inside, and I cannot seem to locate any photos from the outside other than this one, but never fear, I'm sure we'll be back! In fact, we were back recently (that's another post) and I believe I took a few photos of the courtyard then.

Looking back towards the castle

 After the castle, we went back to Haymarket Square in Old Town to go in the City Museum.  (I previously posted pictures of this area.) Emmy really loved going into the museum.

Front of the Old Town Hall

Hard to capture a good photo, but you can see the windows appear to be tilted. They are! We were unable to talk to anyone in English, but it appears the whole building is leaning slightly. Very odd! 

Another view of the back of the Old Town Hall/City Museum

I cannot remember now what this building is. I'll have to go back and look at my tourist map! It is one of the 40 stops on the Szczecin walking tour. 

Looking from the pedestrian bridge back towards the Brama Portowa (one of the old city gates). The river (and Old Town) are behind us and the Baslica is to our right.

First time on the tram! We did it! 

We love public transportation! 

Walking down the street to our house.

Monday, Aug. 3rd we met up with Zuzanna, the baby-sitter for the former occupants of our house. She was very lovely and we enjoyed meeting her and she showed us around Szczecin a bit. We walked quite a long time, all the way from the hometel to the Town Hall, the huge green space and park behind it, to the Rose Garden, and then to a tram stop to head back to the hometel. It was a lovely afternoon!

Walking towards the current City Hall and the big park behind it, Park Kasprowicza. 

Emmy loved Miss Zuzia! She went to the U.S. to spend a couple of months with her fiance's family, but we look forward to her coming back so she can baby-sit! 

Some pretty sculptures along our walk past the park. 

The Rose Garden, which we now know is pretty close to our house! 

Tram riding pros.

Chicken and spices flavored chips. They were...interesting. 

Saturday the 15th of August we went exploring a bit with Katie. We drove to the other side of the river, to an area that used to be used by companies at the port. There are a lot of old warehouses and equipment there. There is an effort to turn this area into a destination with shops, restaurants, etc. There is a marina being built for private boats that will soon be complete, and more. We came across this restaurant with an outdoor seating area and we needed some refreshment, so we stopped for a bit. 

Emmy taking a photo of her fancy ice cream treat. 

Pedestrian bridge...to nowhere! The building behind us is still under construction, we are not sure what it will be. Part of the new marina is to the left. 

You can see the Embankments with the government buildings in the background. 

Looking back the other way to the area being redeveloped. The building in the center houses the restaurant, where we ate outside, and there is a gift shop, gallery, and some other offices inside. 

Katie and Me, with the Embankments behind us. The buildings in the background are still original buildings. They were spared by the bombings during the war. I've heard two stories, that they used the embankments as a landmark so they knew where to bomb the port area to destroy ships and shipments, and also that they planned to use the government buildings for heir headquarters so that is why they were spared. Either way, the city is lucky to have these lovely original buildings, two of which are government buildings, and one is the Maritime Academy. 

Being silly after supper one night. 

On the way home from dinner a couple of weeks ago, I snapped a photo of this pretty area in town. I took a photo so we'd remember to come back and check out some restaurants here. The symbol of Szczecin is in the stone in the foreground. 

Emmy and Charles, walking down our street. 

We moved in!

Rags overlooking her new territory from
the garage.

So I wrote this a couple of weeks ago, fully intending to upload pictures and then post it, but that has not happened. Turns out moving into a big, old house in a foreign country with a baby who is into everything and a first grader who asks 500 questions a day is rather exhausting. Go figure! So here is what I wrote on the 14th with more to come very soon...promise!

Another week in Poland has passed. We have been here for 4 weeks now, a full month on Sunday! It is hard to believe.

We moved in last Thursday and Friday, the 6th and 7th. I wrote a long email to our parents and siblings on Thursday night I will post at the end of this if you want to read how that day went. Here's the short of it: a little over half was unloaded into the house on Thursday and were able to sleep here Thursday, and the rest was unloaded and unpacked on Friday.

The last week has been long and tiring, and we are still not done putting everything away. Part of this is hindered by the fact that we are still missing our unaccompanied baggage (UAB). Yes, that's right, the "early" shipment has still not been delivered. It is now 3.5 weeks past it's required delivery date. We did find out last week that it was still sitting IN COLORADO.  Turns out there is a document they were waiting on for customs so that they could put it on a plane. A document that, first of all, no one told us at any point (much less when we packed out) was needed. And second of all, we've had a copy of this document in our possession since a few days after arriving in Poland. Sigh. So Charles sent that over and the shipment was flown to Warsaw on Monday, but there is still some delay with customs. It is increasingly frustrating. Matthew's crib is in that shipment. Our knives, can opener and other favorite and frequently used kitchen items are in it (since we expected to have it first). (Note, we did finally receive this shipment on the 20th, THANK GOONDESS!)

Anyways, so we don't have all our stuff, so part of me knows as we organize that still a more things will need to be put away.  Plus, this house is a very different layout than what we have ever had before. The layout is more broken up than our last two houses, which is fine, but the rooms are bigger.  Much bigger! The living room is about 21 feet across and the ceilings are at least 11feet. It is a big, old, beautiful, but very quirky house.  Military families have to be good at making furniture, curtains, etc. work over and over again in different spaces, but sometimes (almost every time you move) there are new things that you have to buy because spaces are different.

This house is all hardwoods and tile and because the ceilings are so high, it is very loud. I've been anxious to get carpets down and curtains hung to help absorb some of the sound, and make it feel more homey. But, the curtain rings for the kids' room and our curtains are in the UAB. I also always love to get pictures hung up as soon as possible, but most of the walls are solid brick. We are going to hang things, but we want to have to put in as few holes as possible, so we are trying to be very intentional and get things arranged first.

I also think I was a bit slow to, say, set up the kitchen, because I wanted to be sure I was happy with it. I pregnant with Sara Hawley and feeling very sick when we moved into our CO house and there are things about how we unpacked I never liked, but I never had the energy to reorganize it. Of course circumstances are totally different, but I think I have also wanted to be sure we were mostly happy with it. Sounds weird, maybe, but I think that has been on my mind.

One of the many arrangements the living room went through.

We have rearranged the living room (or the salon, as Emmy likes to call it - which is what the Polish movers called it) like 6 times and we are still not 100% happy, but I think we're going to live with it, we have to try to work with what we have! But if anyone is good at interior design and wants to come fly out and help me, be my guest!

Here is our new dining table.

We did find a table for the dining room that we both like and we paid for it today and it will be delivered next week. We left our other dining room table in storage since it was my grandparents', along with the china cabinet that goes with it. This dining room has a lovely built in  for storage and display, as well as a large piece in the living room that stays in the house. The dining room is very large so we hope this table will work. It is more rustic, something we could use as a kitchen table later on.

We also found a small round table for the kitchen. It has a nice little eating nook but needs something small and round. It is ordered and should be here in a couple of weeks, along with a bench we an use in the mudroom/entry way.  In Polish culture you take your shoes off when you come into the house, even when you are visiting someone, so we want a nice bench that we can use, as can our guests. The mudroom (as we are calling it) is wonderful and large, but because it is the only way into the house (besides through the garage in the basement) we have to keep it neat! We even bought a little pack of inexpensive slippers to leave out for guests.

We borrowed a car last weekend and were able to do some looking for furniture and do a few errands. Charles had to go to Berlin on Saturday to pick up a new couple arriving that we were assigned to sponsor (long story, but we were not very well equipped to sponsor someone so soon!).  My car arrived this week (yay!)  but we are not registered yet (boo!). However, we do have insurance coverage in Poland (this is all also a very long story) so we are able to drive it, we are just doing so sparingly. Today we had a sitter scheduled for the afternoon so I could have some uninterrupted time to finish up some projects. I find I start things and get distracted (imagine that!) and don't get to finish. Anyways, the midday I found out that tomorrow is Polish Armed Forces Day and all the stores and most restaurants will be closed. We had planned to spend at least part of the day going back to order the table and do some shopping. Charles came home after lunchtime to go to our hometel to fix issues with our receipt.  He ended up staying home and he and I went out and did the shopping today while the sitter was here. It was nice to do that alone!

Lots more coming soon!

Email to the parents' the day we moved in...

Hello all, 

We just climbed into our own bed for the first time since June 14th and it was pretty incredible, especially after a long day. 

So I know some of you were wanting an update so here goes...

We were scheduled to have Household Goods delivered today starting between 2&3 pm. Our new friend Katie had told us that when hers came, they unloaded it all and then returned to unpack the next day. We were advised to have them unpack EVERYTHING because they will not return to pick up boxes and paper later, like they will in the U.S., so getting rid of it would be difficult. 

So, we went into today anticipating that might be the case, but just in case we left the bare minimum at the hotel with one suitcase ready to be picked up. We spent the morning packing up and then around Noon the TMP (the unit's vehicle, I have no idea what that stands for) driven by one of the NCOs came to the hometel to pick up our bags. Charles took everything and Rags and headed with him to the house. I waited with the kids in the lobby for Katie (our new friend) who had coordinated borrowing one of the LTC's extra vehicles for the weekend for us since they were going down to Graf. Sweet. So when she finally arrived (she was later than I thought) we put the kids' car seats in and headed over to the house. 

Katie hung out with us and we all snacked on cheese, crackers, meats, fruit, etc I had stocked up on at the store the day before. (Side note: taking the tram to the store with the 2 kids and then bagging groceries -you have to bag your own here-with a sleeping baby strapped to my front and the other child whines about having to go potty and then taking the tram to the house carrying said groceries is not an adventure I wish to repeat.) 

Charles was about to drive her home so we could keep the car when the movers arrived. So she just headed home and we said we would meet back up later. 

They had un-crated 5 of our crates and loaded them in a smaller truck, easier to navigate on the narrow streets I guess. Andrew was in charge and he had led the crew that unloaded Katie's stuff a couple of weeks ago. (To her 5th floor walk up, I almost died walking up there twice on Sunday.) She had told us he was great so we were glad to have him. He speaks good English and he and one other member of his crew had driven with our stuff from Warsaw. The other 4 guys are local. 

They unloaded it all and it went pretty fast. They showed up around 3:15 or 3:30 and were done by 4:45. They headed back to load up the rest. The driver was anxious to return to Warsaw. 

In the meantime we took the chance to check out the rooms and rearrange a few things, get the furniture that was in already where we wanted it and clear a space for the beds. It was nice to have the break! I attempted to order pizza from a place called epizza that someone told me you could order and pay in English online and they would deliver, but that did not work so I texted Katie and she went and picked up pizza from a place down the street from Charles' office. It was good pizza, more NY style than anything we have had, we will get pizza from them again.

First meal in our new house! 

Anyways, so the guys returned, but could not get the last crate plus a little on the truck. The driver wanted to leave, so they asked if they could unload to the garage and then go grab the rest and then put it where it goes. We said yes of course. Katie got there with the pizza just as they were done and about to leave again. I offered them to eat it hot, but they had to run. So we had a picnic the 5 of us in the living room. Matthew seemed very happy to be in his own high chair again and even fed himself some. 

They returned and Charles and the kids took Katie home and I stayed to direct items to the proper rooms and to mark down the numbers. (Each item is number on and listed on and inventory so we have to mark them off as we go to make sure it all makes it). 

They got that unloaded, then found all the pieces to our bed (which took awhile) and got our beds put together. They were very kind to make sure that all was done. 

Andrew had left Warsaw at 5 am so he was exhausted and they had to go take the crates off the truck still, so they left about 9. They will be back at 8:30 tomorrow to take everything out of the garage and move it into it's proper place. Then they will unpack.

So, so far so good. Everything is wrapped in brown paper (except the boxes) so it takes awhile to get it all done. You should see the pile of paper. But they are very fast and we are quite happy with them. 

We are not very happy, however, with the condition of some of our items. The movers here are appalled by the condition of some of our items. Nothing is destroyed (well, Emmy's mirror for her dresser is completely broken), but lots of things have some damage. The brass lamp that was in the basement that I specifically asked them to put in a box is all messed up at the switch, just to name one thing. Sigh. This never gets easier. It is just lots of dings and dents and scratches so we have to document it all. 

Our unaccompanied baggage, we learned yesterday, is still in Colorado. Oh yes. They needed an employment letter from NATO translated into English in order to get the customs forms. Guess what? No one had told us or asked for that when we loaded, nor since we arrived. Charles has had just such a letter in his possession since the day or two after we arrived here. So he sent it over, and today he was told that it will be flown to Warsaw and delivered as early as next Thursday. Fingers crossed. Andrew said he is making a delivery here next week so maybe he will get to drop it off.

So there is our very long day. The kids are in bed and let's hope everyone sleeps all night. I am off to dreamland myself. 

We had lots of damage, Emmy's dresser mirror was one of the casualties.
Most of it was fairly minor, there is just a lot of it. 

We tried this living room arrangement...

...and this one. And finally wound up with the sofa back under the big window.

And for fun, here are some kid photos...

Emmy reading us a story before bathtime. Matthew playing with the bidet.

Picking plums. We have plums, quince, and some other fruit we are not sure what it is in the backyard. 

Matthew is 10 Months old!

That's right, our little Pickled Peaches is not so little any more! He turned 10 months old last Friday, August 7th, our first full day in the house. We had his orange chair back for pictures! We could not, however, find the poster board, so part of a moving box was an appropriate stand in for his sign.

This one is my favorite.

After a few shots, he was done! This is how he really wanted to be...standing!

At 10 months he is crawling, still a lot of Army crawling, but he crawled fully on hands and knees across the living room floor of our new house on the 1st. He switches back and forth and he is quite mobile!

First time making it more than a couple of "steps"
on hands and knees! 

Look at what I did Mama! I was sitting right
there on the steps with him when he did this
behind my back! 

He has 3 teeth and is working on at least 3 more that we can see just below the skin of his gums. Poor guy!

He loves to pull up. He thinks he is pretty hot stuff. Charles and I have found him in some funny (sometimes scary) places in the last few weeks, including on top of luggage, halfway up the staircase, and the bottom shelf of one of the end tables.

Found him on the luggage. Oh that face!

It's the only way to drink a bottle, really. 

Watching Daddy and Emmy swim in the hotel pool.

See Charles' feet? That is where he stopped to pick Matthew up. Charles was in the dining room and turned his back and Matthew crawled out of the dining room and halfway up the stairs in like a minute. He's FAST! 

He discovered the footstools are great walkers, they slide easily on the hardwood floors. 

I just need to make a few calls...

He also likes to "help" unload the dishwasher, even if it is dirty...

He loves to eat. He will eat pretty much anything we offer him, and he is doing great feeding himself. He had not been very interested in feeding himself before we left the U.S., though he has enjoyed eating from the first day we gave him solid foods at 6 months old. Mostly he would pick up pieces of food and drop them on the floor, and then with his bark/grunt sound indicate he wanted food in his mouth NOW. So, when we moved here and were always eating in restaurants, not always with a high chair available, we just fed him out of convenience. Plus, this meant we did not worry about making unnecessary messes across Szczecin. Polish folks don't take their kids out to eat quite as often as Americans do. We do see children out, just not as many or as frequently as we do back home, so we did not need to attract any more attention.

First meal in the new house, sitting on the few chairs we had!

Thursday night for our first meal in the house, our friend Katie picked up pizza for us and the movers and brought it by. We set up a picnic of sorts in the living room and dragged in his newly unpacked high chair, plopped him in it with some bites of pizza and he went to town feeding himself. It is great! He's quite adept at it and Rags is happy to help out with whatever falls on the floor.

He has developed quite an affinity for yogurt. I have always though European yogurt was better anyways, so I can understand where he is coming from. At least one of us ate yogurt basically every morning in the hotel since it was on the buffet, so he started having a few bites. By the second week, he was doing his bark/grunt noise as soon as he saw the container hit the table. It is hilarious.

He also loves to drink ice water. Loves it! Which is funny since in Poland apparently they don't give children cold drinks, much less drinks with ice in them.

He is not saying much other than Dada and babbling. Sometimes we think he says Mama or Emmy or Ragsie, but who knows. He does have a big sister who talks for him and around him a LOT so maybe when she goes back to school and there is more Mama-Matthew time he will tell me more about what he is thinking.

He does not like getting dressed, particularly after bathtime. He loves taking a bath, just like Emmy always has, but take him out of the warm water and try to wrestle him into pajamas since he is now getting tired is really just a big annoyance to him and he lets you know. 

He is still pretty much the happiest baby ever. Even when he is cranky, he is still 10 times happier than some non-cranky babies. We are very lucky to have this sweet boy in our lives! I cannot believe he is 10 months old already and one year is just around the corner!

He kept pulling up on the folding market basket I stored the toys in while we were in the hotel and it collapsed on him every time, yet he was undeterred! 

No one can make him laugh like his sister can! He's waving his arms giggling at her. 

Riding on the tram. We love public transportation! 

He stole a piece of bread out of the bag I had out, getting ready to make a picnic lunch on the floor in the hotel. Mommy paid for leaving on the bed with crumbs all over her side of the bed! 

Babies in overalls make me happy. 

He won't be little forever, but for now we try to stop sometimes and enjoy him just like this. 

Hello blue eyes.

He sure loves his sister, and already is being forced to do her bidding, here she was "putting him to sleep" before naptime. 

It's moving day!

Hello friends and family!

This will shorter and sweet, and no pictures (sorry!). Just a brief update to let you know what's going on in our world.

This week has been busy!

• We successfully have figured out the tram system (at least the basics), thanks in part to a fabulous app that our friend Katie told us about. 
• We have taken said tram to the house a few times. We moved the box groceries we bought at Graf, the microwave and a few other things to the last weekend when Katie and her borrowed car took me grocery shopping. I stocked up on some dry goods (pasta, flour, sugar, canned tomatoes, oils, etc.) and dropped those at the house, so hopefully we can start eating at home soon. 
• Matthew got his 3rd tooth and started crawling on hands and knees! He actually crawled for the first time more than just a couple of "steps" on Saturday when we'd gone over to the house. 
• I've successfully set of the panic button on the security alarm remote twice, to include yesterday when they came over and knocked on the door. I'd taken the kids to the grocery store to get some perishables for the fridge and we were inside unloading. At least now I know it works and which one is in fact the panic button! Our landlady does not seem to know much about the system, so I think we will ask her if we can pay for a service call and have someone who speaks English come out an explain it to us. 
•  We had dinner with some of the other members of the U.S. contingency from the unit last night in order to farewell to the current company commander that we fall under and meet the incoming commander. The outgoing one was stationed in the Netherlands but the incoming one is down at Graf. She seems nice and anxious to work out some issues for us (like mail) to make things better for us here. She does not have a job that I envy, she is in "command" of 7 different locations in 5 different nations. Anyways, this also allowed us a chance to meet a few other members of the unit. One of the guys has Woffords in his family genealogy and his mother's family was originally from Greenville! Small world.
• On Saturday we went to the City Museum, which Emmy really loved. 
• We got Emmy registered for school! We dropped off her paperwork and met the school secretary, who seems very nice. She let her see her classroom and we saw the playground. She is very excited to start school September 1st. And there will be a week of orientation for the new students the week before. It is every day for not quite 2 hours and she is looking forward to that. There will be students from Poland, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, and China in her class, to name a few. 
• Emmy is missing Colorado, and her friends there, a lot. She wants to read her "C is for Colorado" book that her pal Max gave her as a going away present a lot. And sometimes it makes her cry. Send special prayers for her, it's been a rough couple of weeks behavior wise, and some of it is her, and some of it I'm sure is related to the move. And pray for us, we're not always handling the behavior in the best way. 
• Charles got stung by what we believe is a German yellow jacket in the face. They had set up shop under the roofline on our upstairs balcony. The landlady had a professional out to take care of the problem and he will come back in a week to make sure they are gone. Yikes!
• We found out where our unaccompanied baggage is! It is in Colorado still. I kid you not. We are NOT happy about this, and hopefully it will be rectified soon, but we have no idea when we will see that. And it has Matthew's crib, all our silverware and all our knives in it. And probably other stuff I really want but currently cannot remember and am trying not to think about because it will make me more angry. Apparently they needed a document for the customs forms and won't put our stuff on a plane until they have it. Except no one told us they needed this document. In fact, we've had it in our possession since we arrived here and could have emailed it over 2 weeks ago!
• But, we get our HHG starting today! We are mostly packed up and waiting on some folks to come help us move the majority of our luggage over to the house. We are leaving the basics here so we can sleep here tonight. IF all our beds are unpacked and we can locate sheets, then we will sleep at the house tonight, but we're playing it by ear. 

Once we are in the house, we will not have internet set up until Monday, so no more blogging until the Internet is good to go. Plus, we want to work really hard to get everything unpacked and as set up possible (since a portion of our stuff is still missing) as quickly as possible. We've been living on the go for almost 2 months, so we need to do this for ourselves and the kids. We can still respond to emails and text messages via Whatsapp and imessage, though, even without the internet.

Love to all!