Tuesday, July 27

What a day!

We finally made it to the tax office today - only had to wait for about an hour, so that was pretty fast from what we are told. Hopefully we will have our person numbers soon! Spencer's was taken care of by ConocoPhillips as was his work permit, but the kids and I had to go do ours once we arrived.

After that, another effort at getting our bank questions taken care of. That in itself turned out to be a quite a big effort for the day! More on that in a minute...

Then, it was off to look at a car that another expat family is trying to sell as they will be returning to the Netherlands on Saturday. It is really a good deal for both of us...we need a car and they need to get rid of theirs...the price is right and we started the process of purchasing the car - a 2005 Ford Focus Station Wagon...yep, that is what we will be driving...I know, not quite my style, but, cars here are outrageously expensive and so many of them are super small, so it really was our best option. To put it in perspective...104,600 NOK or about $16,000 for this car, and that is super-reasonable! We should have a car by Friday!

We ran by the apartment after that for a quick lunch and then had to run Spencer back to work. I was then able to take the kids by to see their new school - International School of Stavanger. It turned out to be a great time to visit! We were given a tour by the Director of the school and ended up meeting one of the 4th grade teachers and one of the high school teachers. Both were very friendly and the 4th grade teacher gave me her phone numbers and additional information on the rain gear and things the kids wear for school. Brendan and Kyla ended up playing on the school playground with her two girls and the daughter of the high school teacher too. Two of the 3 girls will also be going into 2nd grade with Kyla. By the time the kids finished playing, it was time to get Spencer from work.

We headed over to pick him up and as I mentioned yesterday, I am not so direction-minded, but thankfully, my son seems to be and caught me when I made a wrong turn! Way to go, B! So we made it to the office and picked up daddy and headed for home.

Now, back to the banking business...long story short, we were trying to make our first wire transfer of funds from Katy to Stavanger and found out that we did not have the paper we needed to make that happen. Thankfully, we had the sense to put my sister on our account and with several Skype calls and numerous emails, we got the paperwork and all the information ready and she was able to get it to the bank! Yea, Vicki!!! Now to see when it posts in our account here... Our debit card has finally arrived and we are feeling a little more confident since we have some funds to work with and a debit card, which by the way is an absolute necessity here!

Dinner tonight - fiskeburgers (fish burgers)! They were actually quite yummy - Brendan loved them, Kyla wasn't so thrilled, and Spencer and I thought we would definitely have them again! Spencer finally managed to get a few bites down Kyla after he smothered it in melted cheese...go figure!

Tomorrow, we go to look at a few apartments that are available. Apparently though, we are very limited since we are looking for a 3 bedroom, furnished place...only 6 anywhere around here and several are just too far from school and work and 1 is way over our budget (but pics look so awesome!), so we will see what pans out! We may have the option of staying where we are, and that may be a definite possibility mainly because the location is so great. But, that is for another day...

God Natt!
(That's good night :))