the new job

I have had a great year so far!

2011.. please keep being great to us :)

I woke up 31 on the 18th of February and I was thinking to myself...  "who am I?"  For so long I have been "Terry's wife Jill" and there is nothing wrong that because I would never in one million years trade the life experiences I have gotten over the past 8 years... but... I am always thinking in the back of my mind, What will I be when I grow up??  Well NEWSFLASH I am grown up.. 31 years... and I should be asking myself not "what will I be..." because I know.. I am a good person, a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a friend.  I am rich with life experiences and I will never NOT have a great story to share with you..  What I should be asking is.. What kind of career or job will I have when I am ready?

This is something that is somewhat a sore spot.  I have always put it on hold and it changes every months into something new. There is just so much I want to do!

All these deep thoughts were interrupted that morning of the 18th by a phone call that I was hired to work for a building company to show and sell their custom built houses.

Happy Birthday to me.

WOW.

This is what I want to do right now and I am so excited!

For the rest of that day I pictured myself as an Annette Bening in American Pie.. except when I walked around the house I talked with the Carrie Bradshaw accent in the movie when Big took her to their new home and she said.. "hello.. I live here"

Another great chapter in my life :)

Laughter is the Best Medcine

Little A was so tired the other day from all the fresh crisp air, I had to swaddle him up with a warm bottle to sleep.  Everything I said to him was funny.  It made me remember when i was little (not as little as A) but when I was old enough to go to sleep overs with my friends.  We would stay up so late that at a certain point everything was so so funny.  Laughing so hard you can't breath... even a snort or two.

How great does it feel to laugh!  

Here is some info about Laughter..

• Laughter relaxes the whole body. A good, hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes after.
• Laughter boosts the immune system. Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease.
• Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.
• Laughter protects the heart. Laughter improves the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow, which can help protect you against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.

Just a blown up gas line... meh

We were woken up from family nap today by a giant boom that shook the whole building.  

I jumped out and ran to the window and saw people gathering outside and staring up at the building..

Is the building on fire??

Smoke and Steam

Everywhere.

I went on the balcony and there was a manhole open with steam shooting out of it and sirens on their way.

Do we need to evacuate??

I made TH go downstairs and get the scoop and I dressed Little A and thought about what do I take if we need to get out..

What would I take?

His food/bottles/water

Passports

Blankets/Diapers

Stroller

Heck... I have 6 hockey bags sitting here.. give me 10 minutes and I can pack up everything we own here and be waiting outside the shady elevator.

TH came back to report.. 

"just a blown gas line.. blew the manhole lid off"

Wow.. that was loud.. and thank god nobody was standing on the manhole.

So now 6pm ish.. I just walked in the door from the store to buy dinner, there are 6 men digging up the line in the dark snowy cold.  They are all actually working. 

They also have a bobcat type tractor with a drill.  

So I guess tonight I will be falling alseep to drilling and ding dongs... which is still better than blowing up in a gas line explosion obviously.

The Big Tub

In another lifetime I was probably a mermaid.. and that is where my love for water comes from..

This is the 4th time we have had a Big Tub..

not only is it VERY deep.. but it is also very long.

One of my favorite things to do used to be to fill the tub with the hottest water and then open the windows in the winter.. so it is nice mixture of hot/cold.. then chill out and watch a show on my computer or read a book. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this!!

Since little A came I haven't been able to do this... not because of the 'no time' factor but more because our house tub in Windsor Park is shallow and short... then in Holland we only had the classic shower on the bathroom wall... where the water goes all over the floor.. gross...

But here..

the tub in giant.. 

You have to flip the hot water switch a couple hours before so that you have hot water but it is worth it.

When it is full it is up to my neck and when I lean back it is sometimes scary because my feet don't touch the end of the tub.. 

I could drown because I am human and not a mermaid.

Shady little Elevator

Having lived in Europe for 3 hockey seasons before this one I was already aware of the fact that they don't always have the same safety standards as some things in North America.

In North America, we are taught to always put your baby in a car seat when you are driving...  here I was told tonight by the cab driver who wasn't being patient as TH hooked the car seat inside..

"JUST throw your baby on your lap.."

YA RIGHT BUDDY.

I remember watching out the window of our apartment in Holland as children played in the playground outside.. 

a rope play structure jungle gym.... 

Something that would have been taken down at home in a second.

Another example is when mom and I went to the catacombs in Paris.  Underground cemetery... rows and rows of skeletal remains.. right there in arms reach.. mom even stuck her fingers in someone's eye sockets which I was NOT impressed by..  

This would be a health issue at home..

I am VERY grateful to having an elevator.  

I basically need one for the stroller now.

Our elevator here is VERY small. It fits me, TH and the stroller in it tight.  

Then you must close the main metal door, then the 2 wooden doors have to close which means you have to lean and step backwards so they can close.  

If someone forgets  to close the metal door on one of the floors the elevators just won't work. 

GEEZ..  

When this happened TH ran up the levels above us.. the doors were closed.. then he stayed with A and I ran down the levels below.. main floor.. door open.  

I got inside closed it and rode up to get them.

We live on the forth floor but here they don't count the first floor as 1 so we press 3 to get to our place.  

When we first moved in nobody told us that the bright red button with the symbol on it meant main floor.  

We figured... red button = emergency stop  

So when we got in and went downstairs we pressed 0.  

When we got to 0 we opened the little wooden doors and the metal door was locked. 

WTF

It is that nightmare that we all have about getting stuck in an elevator except for us... we don't speak Serbian and nobody knows us here to even come looking for us.

We closed the wooden doors and pressed 0 thinking we were on the wrong floor... wouldn't move.

Panic sunk in... 

TH pushed the doors harder and I lost control and pressed buttons 1, 2, 3.. finally it moved to floor 1.  

We get out.. and it is actually floor 2.  

So we walked down the staircase and carried the stroller.  

Same thing happened the next day when I was with TI except she pressed the red button when we were stuck on 0 and the elevator went to the main floor. 

OF COURSE THE RED BUTTON MEANS MAIN FLOOR!!??

When TH got home a while later I couldn't wait to tell him what we figured out (we meaning TI).. he said that he figured it out too because he was stuck in there for a while until someone else got in on a different floor and he thought he would be nice and pressed the 0 button for him.. when he did the guy was like... agghhhh and then pressed the red button and they finally got off. 

Floor '0' is the bomb shelter.

Which you would expect to be a RED button right??

NOPE. 

Simple as that... if you are a local I guess.

Here Doggy Doggy.... yikes

I love dogs.  

When I got here about a week ago one of the first things I noticed was all the dogs around.

At home when you see dogs walking without leashes you figure that the owner is right beside them.. the only dogs I really worry about are the ones that are on the roads. 

This is when I would normally pull over and try to lure them into my car for safety and then drive around looking for their frantic owner.

Last summer I couldn't do this because I don't trust dogs in my car when little A is back there in his seat.

There are so many dogs here.

Then when I was talking about it with my friend TI, she told me about how there is a stray dog problem here and even dogs with collars are sometimes stray because the owners leave them out on the streets.

SAD

Then after she opened my eyes...

I started noticing that the dogs were homeless strays.

On the way into the rink I witnessed a dog fight.. doberman vs. popular tv dog (fluffy grey and white)..  the gm of the team scared them off and then laughed at me and how fast I pushed A into the doors of the arena.

On the way home that night... many dogs were crowed around the garbage bins looking for food.  

Kinda scary seeing many dogs together.

While this is still a serious problem in Serbia they are taking steps to control the problem.  

They have started teaching in the schools that it is wrong to abuse animals.  

They have developed laws that you cannot kill dogs on the street anymore.  

One article I read said they even made special shelters for dogs but the problem with that was they caged stray dogs together and then didn't have the supplies for them.. dogs were not fed properly, vaccinated or 'fixed' and the problem became bigger and some dogs became cannibals. 

I also read that there are many animal rights groups who are catching the dogs and adopting them out to other countries... I hope this happens more.

I feel so bad for these homeless doggies.

Church bell.. hell!

Have I mentioned the amazing location of our new apartment in Belgrade??  

It is pretty much prime location right in the centrum.  

Stamped paved walking streets, hundreds of people, patios, great shopping, restaurants and bakeries....... but there is one thing that makes it less than perfect.

DING DONG

The church across the street is old and beautiful  and for some strange reason it's bells ring every hour on the hour, one ding dong for 1:00... 2 ding dongs for 2:00 and so on up to 12 ding dings... 

then...

all night long this continues..

  Not only does it ring every hour on the hour.. it also rings once to let you know that it is 15 minutes past the hour and rings twice to let you know it is half past and then one ding dong again at 15 minutes to the hour.

THIS IS A LOT OF DING DONGS.

The first night I thought I had lost my mind at 5am when I got up and warmed a bottle... 

how could this be?? 

then when it rang at quarter after I was like.. 

holy moly this bottle is taking forever to heat up (waiting for water to boil) .. it has been an hour!  But then I saw only 15 minutes.

ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT.

The craziest part of this is that there is this stupid video game that I wish I could make disappear off TH's computer.  Every now and then he will put in a session at the command center and try to beat this one game he started like years ago and he can't beat.  

Anyways..it is a medieval times war game and for YEARS I have been falling asleep to the sounds of a church bell and trumpet and the words to declare war on other armies...  

That bells sounds like this bell!

Every time I hear the bell.. I look to see if he is playing that game.. and I get a little mad.

The ding dongs may just drive me to insanity... and if it does...  GOD help TH if he decides to put in a 'session' of that damn game when I am trying to sleep.