This is the Week

Will I ever post regularly again? I hope life slows down so that I can. We thought the 1st house-hunting trip was a success, but when it was time to sign the contract, the owner changed the whole contract and we were unable to come to a compromise. So last Tuesday we (Dave came with me this time) flew to Santiago for the day. Dave worked all morning while I looked at houses, then in the afternoon we took him to see my favorites. We agreed on one. I loved the kitchen & Dave loved the size of the house. The only problem was that we wanted one more bedroom so we asked that the owner put up a wall in the HUGE master bedroom to create 2 smaller rooms. She AGREED!!! Wait... there is one other problem... the house is Mediterranean style (aka modern & boxy). I don't like this style. The house that fell through was cute & like living in a fairy tale. Oh well... on the inside it's nice & much larger than the rest of the homes we've looked out. This week the wall is going up, the house is being painted & we're moving!

We still don't have a school picked out. I've found one that is a whole lot cheaper that I'm extremely interested in. Once we move we'll tour my favorites and make a decision from there.

This week we are tying up a lot of loose ends. It's sooo much easier in the states. Instead of calling to cancel our utilities we have to go into the office with a letter saying when we want our services cut. Instead of just letting the front office at school know we're pulling the girls out of school we have to have a meeting with the Headmaster to let him know (only to find out later that we have to pay until the end of the year unless we write a petition letter to the Headmaster , who will review it with the board of directors). And Dave shattered the back window of the car on Friday. The soonest a replacement can be here is Wednesday, but that's just not enough time, so we'll fix it in Santiago I guess. Good thing it doesn't rain here (knock on wood).

The last little while we've felt so loved from our dear friends in Antofagasta. The ward threw us a farewell party, and then posted it on the ward website... you can witness my horrible spur-of-the-moment speech, as well as many of the musical numbers, here. For those of you who speak Spanish, please ignore the spelling errors in the letter. The original one was correct & talked about how people helped us, etc. Also, please ignore my crappy Spanish... it really was not a planned speech & I was caught off guard. We've also had other little parties from friends & the expat club. This week the girls school classes will be throwing them parties as well. Although we are looking forward to starting a new adventure, we will certainly miss everyone here.