Sam & Liza woke up around midnight and were up for an hour or so before going back to bed. I woke up at noon (5 a.m. Central) and slowly woke everyone else up for lunch. Sam was disappointed he didn’t get to eat breakfast. We spent the afternoon unpacking. We didn’t take any naps, hoping the kids would be tired and sleep through the night. Our great upstairs neighbors (who have helped us out so much) took us on a tour to see downtown Albertville. Being New Year’s Day, most of the businesses were closed.
Friday, January 2, 2015
Sam & Liza both woke up at some point in the wee hours of the morning (at what would have been the end of their nap times in Milwaukee). They were wide awake and ready to go. After a couple of hours Micah got them back to bed. I woke up at 9:15 a.m. and woke up everyone else, thinking we’ve got to get on schedule before Monday comes. We met up with our amazing neighbor, who took us to Carrefour, a 15 minute walk from our school, to get some food and other basic necessities. We had “fun” carrying everything back in and on the stroller or on our shoulders avoiding piles of snow while navigating upon not completely shoveled sidewalks. In the afternoon Micah went to register Sam for school. Sam has to go to pre-4k while we are here. This was probably my biggest concern coming here, because Sam has never dealt well with going anywhere without Micah or me. Thankfully this past year he’s done well as long as Liza is with him, but that wouldn’t be the case for this school. He would be going all alone. I was afraid we would have a few really rough days. More on this when I get to Monday! We put Sam & Liza down for naps hoping that maybe their bodies would figure out nap time vs bed time.
Liza's morning hair in France
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Sam & Liza woke up in the middle of the night yet again, but thankfully it’s been a little earlier and a little shorter each night. They were only up for about an hour before going back to bed. I woke up at 9:30 a.m., but left Micah to wake Sam & Liza. David and I went to the market downtown and bought a variety of vegetables, sausages, and cheese. FYI: French Munster cheese is not to be confused with the American Muenster. Thankfully Micah likes it anyway, so it wasn’t a complete loss. I bought some kind of sausage that was very tasty, and what looked like bratwurst and some sauerkraut. I am extremely pleased to share, I was right. The sauerkraut will be a weekly buy, if I can help it. It was hot and fresh and had bits of pork and sausage in it. Extremely good fresh, not so much warmed up again, however. We decided to just nap Liza, so that Sam would start to adjust to not taking naps. We also decided to try putting Sam and Liza in different rooms for now; even though they were going to bed alright, we didn’t know if they were waking each other up in the middle of the night. Since David has been refusing to sleep alone in his room, we figured we might as well move Liza in there.
This is what happens to candles when they are placed on a radiator over night. Oops!
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Sam still woke up for a little while in the night, but thankfully Micah was able to at least keep Liza in bed when she woke up. Since there aren’t any LCMS churches within 4 hours of Albertville, we had a service in our apartment. Followed by Sunday School.
Ready for Matins
Monday, January 5, 2015
Somehow everyone slept through the night, except Micah who kept thinking the kids were going to wake up (that and the Detroit Lions were playing). Micah had his level tests in the morning and then took Sam to see his school. They came home for lunch. Then Sam was off to his 1st (half) day of school... Micah took him and returned about 15 minutes later without Sam and apparently without any problems. The teacher took his hand, said “ready, set, go” and Sam went without looking back. Wow, prayers answered. When we talked about school back in the States, Sam didn’t want to go, so we decided not to talk about it much. But ever since we’ve been talking about it in France he’s been okay with the idea and looking forward to going, even knowing that Liza could not go with him (His comfort is saying Liza is going to 2 yr. old school, which is really just the school’s nursery). Thank you Lord for preparing Sam for school. Of course we pray that he continues to enjoy going to school here, especially with everything being in French.
Sam's "serious" look, in front of his school.
After picking up Sam from school we ventured to the big store, comparable to a Super Wal-Mart, on the edge of town to buy a few things needed for school and around the apartment. To get there we had to catch the bus; being new to town and not knowing much French, this was a big thing to prep for. Getting to know the schedule, map, prices, etc. The bus ride was fine and we started out alright in the store, but then both Sam and Liza had melt downs and we wondered, “do the French take their kids to the store?”
Riding the bus back from the store
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Everyone slept through the night again. We are starting to get into routine! Micah took Sam to school. I took Liza to the nursery. Micah & I went to orientation. Micah picked up Sam from school for lunch. I picked up Liza from the nursery. We all had lunch. We all went back to school/orientation. I did laundry for the first time in France. Really not all that different than in the United States. Although, we have drying racks in our apartments to dry our clothes on vs using the dryer. It was interesting finding the best way to get as many clothes as possible hung up. Don’t worry, I mastered it and got 2 baskets full of laundry to fit.
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Wednesday will be a day off for all of us except Sam, who will just go to school in the morning. Micah dropped Sam off at school and the rest of us went to Lidl (Aldi) to get some groceries. We got back just in time for our appointment with the bank to set up a checking account here in France. Sam has been getting worn out from going to school and not taking naps that we decided to give him a nap, along with everyone else. It was a little harder getting to bed at night, but I think the naps helped in the long run.
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Our first day of classes were today. It was a long, tiring day of focusing hard on the phonetics of vowel sounds. Especially hard for me since I have TMJD (jaw problems) and the French really work their jaws when they speak. For those of you wondering about David. I’ve decided to take David to class with me for now, until he gets to be a distraction. Today he pretty much just ate and slept through class. Hopefully this will continue.
We are still working on getting cell phones.
Email & Facebook are the best ways to contact us.
(we still use our personal emails too)
Our mailing address is (mail is always welcome!):
Wildauer Family
50 Chemin de Galibouds
73200
Albertville
France
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