Progress and a weird eye story..

This may be boring to most but for my sanity, I decided to post about our apt progress (or lack thereof...).   Have I mentioned that it's COLD over there?!  Here's Anabelle ready for a day of playing and napping in the cold.  All the rooms have these nice shiny radiators built in but to operate them you have to buy a large amount of diesel that from what I understand is very expensive (around $1000) to fill your tank) and then it doesn't really last that long.  Most people use what are called "sobas" to heat.  We finally bought one this week so we can push it around from room to room and at least keep our area warm.  Anabelle has on three layers, is wrapped in a blanket and her hands and nose are still like ice cubes when she wakes from her nap!  And it's still like 55 or 60 degrees outside!  We're gonna be cold this winter!  This picture was yesterday when Anabelle and I spent most of the day at the apartment organizing and cleaning and Jason spent some of the day.  We still have to make trips back and forth to the house we're still living in to meet the girls school buses so it's hard to get in a good groove for getting a lot done.

Speaking of heat, we had an electrician come yesterday and install our electric water heater in the hall bathroom.

(white tank towards the ceiling)

Yah!  Now we have hot water for all bathrooms and the kitchen!  2 steps forward.

On the same visit the electrician put an extra outlet in our guest bathroom for the washer that Jason installed after removing the bidet.  Unfortunately in that process, he somehow knocked the water hose out of the wall causing water to go everywhere so we still don't have the washer connected...  1 step back..

(yeah, our guest bathroom tile is this weird iridescent silvery black stuff- groovy...)

The electrician also hooked up my gas tank to my stove.  Yah- I can cook!  Question- here's a pic of my stove.  What do you think is intended to go above it?  I hate to waste the space if I could put a shelf or something up there but it seems it would get nasty from being right above the cook top.  It's not deep enough to be for a microwave- thoughts?

Still haven't gotten my mind wrapped around the drawing for Abbey's bed (something else we have to have built by the carpenter).  I"m thinking a medium height loft bed with some shelves underneath and maybe a desk that rolls in and out.  Anyway, AJ and Anabelles' room is still utter chaos.  Maddie and Naomi's pink room is coming together nicely even though it may not look like it from this picture...

Naomi was so happy to have her play mobile grocery store stuff and blocks.  She played play mobile and toy story all afternoon...

Ended the day with a beautiful sunset out our kitchen window...

Had big plans of getting back over there today for another full day of cleaning/organizing.  My stainless steel stove top is rusted, my frig and freezer are growing black mold- lots of other small cleaning jobs as well.  Not to mention no outlets in the other bathrooms or mirrors (usually installed together). 

Anyway, my plans of getting back over there today were thwarted last night when we got home and for about an hour I saw weird zigzaggy lights and rainbows, arches of light and blurry spots.  My first thought was retinal detachment as I had been warned this was possible by my eye doctor in the states.  Jason and I made a trip to the ER (very thankful for dear friends who drove us and whose daughter came to babysit the girls).  No retinal detachment thankfully.  Apparently I had what is called an ocular migraine.  One of the websites I looked at actually said that it can be caused by "emotionally exhausting stress"  hmmm, not me much...  hormone imbalances (nursing a baby).  Anyway, all of this led to my sitting in the waiting rooms of two different retinal specialists, having VERY dilated eyes all day and finally having an area on my left eye lasered to prevent future problems.  Not such a fun day!  And definitely not very productive apt wise!  Oh, and I didn't mention that in the midst of the laser surgery, the machine (yes, the laser machine that was at the time lasering my eye) quit working.  The doctor pitched a fit, we left without paying, went back to her office where I waited for 45 more minutes while she saw patients.  She then gave me a ride to another hospital where we walked in and she took me straight to the laser room (I'm sure it has a different name...) and she finished the procedure.  Enough time had gone by that more drops and goop were applied to my eye.  oof.  Like I said, not such fun...  

Ended the day on a good note though with Thanksgiving meal prep!  Naomi and I hit the streets and went to two different stores to purchase lots of goodies for our meal tomorrow.  We're having a big meal with friends on Friday (schools aren't closed here for Thanksgiving so tomorrow is just a regular day) but we started the tradition in Lebanon of doing our own family meal so I'm cooking a big meal for just us tomorrow.  Yah for Thanksgiving cooking!  Stress relief for me too!!