Bollullos De La Mitacion

We've made it!  It was a heck of a week getting out of Texas. 

A BIG Thank you to mom and dad for all the help with kids and packing, and for the ride to the airport.  Eight months was well spent with you guys, I'm truly grateful for you, opening your home to us, helping me out with the baby, and listening to my complaints about the very efficient Spanish Government.  Thank You.

Here's a run down of our week.
Friday night - Saturday Big airplane ride 10 hours, smaller airplane ride 2 hours, smallest airplane ride 1:20 hour ride.  Arrive in Seville, Spain  but our luggage does not.  Ride home with baby on lap since car seat was checked under the plane and is with luggage. (Not fun for a mom who's super tired!) Get back to our new home, eat dinner, kids go swimming.

Sunday - sleepless night, lazy day, kids swim 3 times. No luggage.

Monday - Kids 1st day of school.  Landon is sick and stays home. Emma goes and has a great first day! Clara is crankier than I've ever seen her before! Tired mom and dad.  Good news Luggage arrives! Kids go swimming.

Tuesday - Landon and Emma go to school.  Clara finally happy. Landon had a bad day, he said he didn't know the answers to anything (he jumped from 1st to 2nd grade here in Spain, and Emma went from pre-school to Kindergarten.  They do cut offs of age at the calendar year instead of the school year).  Emma had another great day.  Kids go swimming, lots of laundry.

Wednesday - Landon and Emma both had a great day at school.  Mom is sick (stupid long airplane rides, pick up all sorts of things). Clara still happy.  Mom went shopping (by herself, well with Clara, but no help from Jimmy!) and I burned dinner, almost ruined two pans, burned the rice (I miss my rice cooker that cooked it perfectly!) and the pork roast got burned, but just the outside it still tasted great, but the pan was looking pretty rough.  Kids went swimming.

Thursday - Jimmy and I had to go down to the town where he works and fill out some paper work to start the process for our residency cards.  Stopped by his office and met his co-workers, drove back registered myself at the bank, had a small problem with the car, picked up the kids, had a play date with the neighbors, and took the car in to get fixed.  The car wouldn't shift out of park, turned out to be a sensor that went bad (luckily there was a button you could push to release it).

Friday - Took the kids to school, Jimmy stayed home again to get more paper work done that he had to go to Seville for, Clara and I hung out and had an easy going day, picked up the kids, they had a great first week, school meeting, and picked up the car.  Drove home (more problems with the car) movie and pizza night (Pizza Hut!! Yes!  but you have to ask to hold the blue cheese!  Seriously who puts blue cheese on pizza!)

Saturday - Test drove the car still acting up, Jimmy has learned new terminologies in Spanish related to mechanics and cars!  They said we could bring it in, but it would be Monday before they could look at it.  So we drove it to go get the kids their new bikes, and shoes they needed for school.  On the way there the car more or less was fine, on the way back it started acting up again. This time it felt like the breaks were sitting on the tires even when driving when your foot is off the break pedal.  We pulled over at one time and they were smoking! Ugh.  So now the car has to be towed down to the mechanics.  We are so fortunate for a used car it has a 1 year warranty.  You'd think if they are going to warranty it they'd make sure it was in the best condition so it wouldn't be in again! Rest of the day was just spent here at the house, riding bikes, talking with family.  It was a wonderful day (minus the car).

A wonderful start to our time here.  We've made some friends, I've gone shopping twice on my own, )lots of learning to do (for the kids and I both), but overall I think we all are very comfortable here and will enjoy it.

Here's some pictures of the fun!

My dear sweet Clara.  She got her first cold this week, here's her smiling face after a long couple of sick days. This was about 10:30 at night she decided it was play time. 

Emma Lynn, ready for her first day of Kindergarten! 

What a beautiful girl, she loves her uniform.

Landon, on his way to 2nd grade.  He's liking his school and making new friends.

Such a handsome kid.

This was down in Huelva where Jimmy works. 

A statue of a lady with a goat. Not sure why.

I do love the coloring of this photo.

Jimmy walking with Clara.

This is Gato.  We haven't figured out a proper name for him yet.

He hangs around looking for scraps. He's starting to warm up and let us pet him.

Limes, Limes, and More LIMES. 

We have a lime tree that puts out a ton of limes!

A huge pine tree in our neighbor hood.  They are beautiful

very tall and rounded on top.

This house is just a block away from ours

their garden is absolutely beautiful.

Another shot of sweet Clara, she loves her feet.

Sunset from our balcony.  This is the neighbors house you see.

Beautiful sunsets here, the sun gets really big and red before it sets.

Emma's new bike.  She talked her daddy into the one with a

seat carrier for a doll of the back, it also is complete with a unicorn sticker on the side,

a light on the front, a break light on the back for dark, and a bell.

 All pointed out as selling points to her dad.

New bike, Landon was pretty excited to have hand breaks.