Getting ready... and waiting some more

Well, we got all the painting and cleaning done, but our belongings didn't arrive from storage before my mom had to to leave to go home.  We were SO sad.  But, at least I had her help with some of it!  I don't know how we would've gone an looked at all those apartments if she hadn't been able to stay with the kids... and we got to spend lots of time with her!!  Thanks, Mom! We miss you! :)

The kids spent lots of time playing their Kindles or watching movies while we cleaned and got the house ready.

During our first several weeks, we stayed in a small apartment.  We actually found our house by our 4th day here, but then we had the hold up from the negotiations of the contract.  And then... it usually only takes several days to a week to get our stuff from storage and delivered to the new house; but for some reason, it took 2 weeks for our things to arrive. Not only did Mom not get to help us get settled in, but we also had to find another apartment to rent; because the one we had been in, was rented for the last 2 days of our wait.

On top of that, we had the stomach flu go through the house during those last several days.  It started with Weston and Nathan and then I got it.  We thought we were going to be well enough to all be able to take my mom the 3 hours to Madrid and drop her off at the airport. But the night before, Carolina got sick.  So... Wes and Weston took mom to the airport and the three younger ones and I trudged down the street with all our belongings to the new apartment.  Poor Carolina.  She was so miserable.  But, we made it, and the kids got to relax all day... although, we were sad not have been able to see "Grandmommy" off at the airport.

The picture below was taken from the 2nd apartment we stayed in; but from here, you can see the building that our first apartment was in.  We are looking directly at it.  It's the brownish orange brick pretty much in the center of the pic.  Off the the right, on the horizon, is the Mediterranean Sea.

The morning after we changed apartments, we woke up to a marathon being run right outside our windows!  It was a really amazing sight!

This was the living room/kitchen of the new apartment.  Good thing those kiddos are still small!

3 in the pull out sofa bed!

When we arrived in Madrid at the beginning of our trip, we left half of our luggage in Madrid with some friends, because we couldn't fit it all in our vehicle.  So, when Wes took Mom back to the airport to go home, he picked up the rest of our luggage.

We had been without this stuff for about a month, and we were wondering if everything had made it ok on the flight.  Carolina had gotten a large Little People castle from my parents for Christmas, and Wes carefully took it apart and we put in in here!  Praise the Lord, it made it ok! (along with my Mint M&M's and our chocolate chips!)