4 February 2008             

Post #22: Miracles!

We are so excited!  We have a full-pressure, hot shower working here*!  Dave found a kink in the hose that sends the water up to the shower head, and after twisting it to make it straight, the hot water came gushing out!  DeDe was so thrilled about this, she's taken TWO showers today!!!  Okay, she took one this morning, and then went to the track to jog and play soccer, so she seriously needed the second one.

Grandpa announced, a few moments ago, that this “was the best day he's had here so far!”  This was after a two-hour soccer match, where he scored the winning goal!  It is a seriously warm day, and after a wonderful breakfast of pancakes and French toast, we put Bobby down for a nap, and everyone, but Grandma, went outside.

The teams were Grandpa, Ian and Addison, versus DeDe, Nemanea, and Rachel, (with some spurts of help from David).  Nathan was happy playing with the white gravel.  Before the soccer game started, DeDe decided to get a little jog in as her first formal “training day” for the half-marathon she intends to run in three weeks.  (Yes, she knows a person really ought to train more for such a race, but you must understand that every day is a workout for her.  With this long hallway, she's “doing laps” daily!  Lifting weights, too!  (Bobby, and occasionally Nathan... as well as heavy bags for our “day trips”...)  Squats occur frequently with floor pick-up and baby rescue.  You'd be amazed how much her day resembles a full-body, 14 to16-hour workout.

After pacing with her through lap one, Ian, and Addison, decided they'd had enough jogging, and went to join Grandpa to warm up for our soccer match.  DeDe paced herself through a 9 minute mile, and then stretched a little and the futbol game ensued. 

It was a heated match.  Nemanea scored one goal from mid-field.  That made the opponent a bit nervous.  It was 8-5, when Nemanea took a break, and DeDe and Rachel were left to protect their lead.  At this point, the boys and Grandpa snuck in a couple goals to bring themselves within one.  The lead then changed a few times before Grandpa and Ian teamed up to score the deciding goal on DeDe.  It was an excellent match, and Rachel, Ian and Addison are really getting better at protecting the ball and being aggressive on defense as well.

We took a water break about half-way through the game, and Rachel went up for sunscreen and to get Nathan a snack and nap.  She returned with a treat of carrot sticks and apple slices for the hungry athletes.  Thanks, Grandma! 

We had a quiet evening, after our French ratatouille on rice meal.  The kids watched some DVD's we got from the nearby store.  Renting DVD's has also been a learning experience.   Some DVD's are formatted to only work on a player set for “Region 2,” which means some other country other than the US or Canada.  After changing one of the laptops for Region 2 videos, we learned that you can only change your region four times, after which time, the driver will remain in whichever position it is left in at that point, and you can no longer play the other region on your player. 

We thought we'd outsmart the system by leaving DeDe's player on Region 2 and then play any Region 1 videos on Dave's laptop.  We did make an attempt to set up a DVD player on the TV here, having borrowed a player from Nemanea, but the cords would not work with our TV. 

During the daytime, the frustration for DeDe has been that her laptop is the only one available, as Dave has his at work, and when she wants a break (quiet kids), she would like to have them sit and watch a DVD movie, while she works on writing these blogs.  Well, if the laptop is being used as a viewer, she can't be typing on it at the same time.  Another small inconvenience here in Malta, to help us appreciate the blessings of home.

* Editor's note:  after the exhilaration of the moment, I (Dave) have come to experience virtually the same drizzle at 7am I had before "fixing" the mesh hose.  It's a little bit warmer now, but I think the whole apartment building is waking up at that time and the pressure is dismal.

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