All things new…

Well we slept in our new flat last night for the first time. Angie said, “I feel guilty for feeling so comfortable.” That is a pretty good statement and I have to admit that I feel the same way. Soon we will post some pictures of the new place, but first let me tell you about it.

The apartment is the same size as our temporary flat, but this one has 3 bedrooms. Yeah, that makes the rooms smaller, but I think it is a better floor plan. Each bedroom has an air conditioner. (I think this is our favorite part.) The kids each have their own room with a bathroom in the middle. The bathrooms have an electric water heater attached to the wall in the shower. I’m not sure how it works, but it heats the water as you go and does not store hot water. Either way, it takes the chill out of the cold water for early morning showers. Our new place now has our furniture we bought from Bangkok. This here is the reason you haven’t had a blog in such a long time. Imagine buying all of your furniture at Wal-mart. Now I am not knocking Wal-mart, as I am sure Angie would give her right arm for a Wal-mart visit, but I am only trying to get you to think about the style, quality and packaging of the furniture Wal-mart offers. It is made out of fake wood and has about 3000 screws, pegs and glue. The only difference between the furniture we bought and what you would get at Wal-mart is that the furniture from Wal-mart has instructions. Now then, I know that guys dont read instructions, but we do look at the pictures on the instructions and that is pretty helpful. At times putting the pieces together was fun and other times is was frustrating. Several of the pieced were damaged in shipping, but I have learned you just live with that. Some of the pieces did not come with all the parts, so we had to modify. The kids got a bed that has a desk and shelves all in one unit. Each bed came in 5 boxes each and 15 bags of screws, pegs, etc. (I am not exaggerating.)

We are so blessed to have our own place. We have been living out of suitcases for the last 120 days. It was really nice to wonder, “What am I going to do with this suitcase now?” We do not have any closets, but I think we can hide the suitcases behind the kids beds. Angie loves the kitchen and we bought a little stove/oven. The stoves costs what a really nice large stove/oven would cost in the states.

It is strange how our perspective on things have changed. Tile that we would never choose because of color, texture and print is a beautiful site when it is a place you can call home. Tiny rooms just dont matter. So all of you that felt sorry for us, you cant any more. We are settling in and feel very comfortable. Thanks for all of your help to get us here.

We are still meeting people. I had a friend from the islands down south come to visit me. We had a wonderful conversation and even talked about going swimming. Unfortunately time did not allow, but maybe I can go visit his home soon. His house faces a beach on his island and has a great place for a swimming party…. maybe we will take the whole family.

All things new….