5-10 February 2008             

Post #23: Bloggable Days
 
We've had a few bloggable moments and some real bloggable days lately, but it's seeming harder and harder to have energy by the end of the day to sit and write about what we've been doing.  Not sure why?  Obviously, while Grandma Shirley and Grandpa Bill were here, we simply were too busy keeping them busy, seeing the sights. 
 
This blog is a bit longer as it covers events over the past week, and it includes little miscellaneous anecdotes that we just don't want to forget as well.
 
A few things happened while the grandparents were here that we have yet to mention in the blogs.  Some of the things are just little memories we want to document because they were special, and others, well...they are things we'd like to forget, because they're majorly troublesome now, but we'll likely be able to laugh about them someday. 
 
One day, while cruising with Bill and Shirley, we found ourselves a little bit lost in some backstreets of a town, which is a common occurrence around here.  We almost went down a one-way street, but at the last moment, DeDe saw the red sign, and hit the brakes.  Meanwhile, a very wrinkly, old man, behind the wheel of a very rickety, old truck, came around the corner toward us, and he had to brake and veer around us just a little, as we were still in his path a bit, and he glanced our way, and gave us the cutest, biggest grin you could imagine.  His toothless smile was so precious, and his eyes glistened with such childish spunk, we all were giggling as a result.  Hard to really capture it in words.  Wished we'd had a camera ready, as this was truly a Kodak moment.  His grin was so preciously infectious, it was amazing!
 
Another fun thing that we didn't totally capture on film, though we have some digitals of it, is our last soccer day with Grandpa.  Since they didn't fly out on Thursday as planned, we had a bonus day to play some more soccer, and we decided to sneak through the hole in the fence on the good “pitch” near the flat. Even Grandpa, with his slender frame, managed to squeeze between the concrete wall and the gap in the chain-link fence to get on the field. 

Before starting our game, we decided to work on the kids' skills a little bit.  Grandpa started with heading the ball to Ian and Ian back to him.  DeDe grabbed the camera and caught a little video of this, but then decided some still shots would be nice for the blog, so she snapped a few of those, too.  She even caught a shot of Ian banking the ball off his head and right into the goal!  It was spectacular!  Grandpa would make a great soccer coach!
 
We had another fun game after this, and this time it was Ian and Grandpa vs. Addison and DeDe.  Rachel stayed up in the apartment to help with Bobby when he woke from his nap.  Grandma was also napping, as was Nathan.  David doesn't quite have the stick-to-it-iveness one needs for futbol.  He gets upset when the big boys come and steal the ball from him, so he was happy just playing nearby on his own. 
           
As DeDe thinks back, now, a full three days later, she can't recall who won that contest, but she does recall that it was another sunny, warm day, and they really had a lot of fun.  Addison was very tough, taking on Ian, and stealing the ball often.  He did most of the scoring for their side.  Grandpa pulled a muscle in his leg, so he hung back at goalie most of this game, but he did manage a few offensive attacks with Ian, and they played very well together. 
 
Having spoken on the phone tonight to Grandpa, who is back in Green Bay, we talked about how blessed we are here to be able to go outside and play soccer.  The temps are well below freezing in Wisconsin today, so Dad is missing Malta a little bit now.
 
Another incident happened on Thursday night, DeDe was doing some laundry, when she noticed the fuse for the washer and dryer had burned out.  Here, in Malta, they have switches in the hallway for each electrical zone, and a fuse box in the switch.  The maintenance man had been by to replace one for us last week, and he left a few extra fuses for us.  So DeDe took one of them, slipped open the little drawer-like thingy where the fuse rests, and she set the new fuse in and pushed the thing closed.  Then she flipped the switch on, and turned the washer and dryer back on. 

She and Grandma were enjoying a game of cards (Hand and Foot), while the others were watching a movie, when Ian said, “What smells like plastic burning.”  DeDe and Grandma sniffed their way down the long hallway in search of the source of the smell.  They deemed it to be coming from somewhere near the entry door, but they couldn't pin it down.  They decided it must be coming from a neighboring apartment, and they went back to their game. 

About 20 minutes later, they were just finishing tucking kids in bed when there was a loud snapping noise and POOF, out went all the lights and power in the apartment!  The kids were a little scared by this.  Shirley went for the nice little Maglite flashlight she'd brought along.  Dave got a candle from the table lit, and DeDe found her way down to the fuse box in the hall, as that was clearly where the scent, which was much stronger by now, had come from.  She touched the plastic cover of the fuse box in the dark to see if it was warm, and she burned a finger!  The thing had completely melted!

Dave went to the livingroom and called the manager of the building, and he said he'd be sending someone straight away.  Before long, Deaux (the man who picked us up at the airport) stopped in, and he flipped the breaker for us from downstairs somewhere, and we had power again.  He taped up the melted box so no children would touch it, and he promised someone would come right away in the morning to replace it.  He didn't have any explanation for why such a thing would happen.  When DeDe asked if it could be the wrong fuse, he just said, “I don't know.” 

The next day, nobody came until well in the afternoon.  DeDe finally called at 1:00 and asked if they'd remembered to be sending someone, and the manager said, “Yes.  He will be there in the hour.”  Well, he didn't actually show up for another three hours.  We have decided that we are living in the land of broken promises.  Salvatore, the maintenance man we are getting to know so well, replaced the entire fuse box, and fuse, and then he said to DeDe, “You probably shouldn't run the washer and the dryer at the same time.  If you must, take this extension cord, and run it from the outlet in the bedroom to the washer.  This way, you are not on the same fuse.”  Oooo-kay.  We're learning new things every day!
 
One more thing that happened this past week, which we truly would like to forget at this time, but will hopefully find humorous “someday,” has to do with our lovely, speedy rental car.  On Monday morning, Rachel and Grandpa offered to take a walk to the grocery to get bread and milk for breakfast.  Grandpa had left his hat in the rental car (the nicer of the two rental cars, by the way) and because it was cool in the morning, he wanted to retrieve it before going to the store, so DeDe handed Rachel the key and she and Dad left. 

When they returned, we had a big brunch of pancakes and French toast, and then we went down to play soccer on the infield by the track.  We had first made the lap around the track, and Rachel road the scooter we've got on loan from friends here, and then we played soccer for a bit, but Rachel got hot, so she went up to the flat to change into shorts.  We played the game, and went back up to relax later that afternoon.  At some point, before dinner, DeDe asked Rachel what she did with the car key.  Rachel went to get the key from her jeans, and she came back saying the keys aren't in her pocket. 

This caused us to begin a thorough search.  DeDe and Grandma rifled through the bedroom and the flat.   When Dave got home from work, and we still hadn't found the key, he, Rachel and Grandpa re-traced their steps to the grocery.  They left their name and phone with the store manager, should the key show up.  DeDe went out later and looked around the track and everywhere in between.  Can't imagine where the key could be!  It's a week later, now, and we still haven't found it. 
 
We haven't called the rental company yet because we keep thinking it's got to be around her somewhere.  The other thing that makes this a little more complex and stressful is that the keychain has the make and model name plus the license plate number of the car!  This was how we received the key from the rental people.  The car remains in the little lot across the street from here.  Rachel can't seem to recall when she last knew she had it, other than right after they locked the car.  You can't lock the keys inside the car, as you must use the key to lock these foreign models!  If you're so inclined, please be praying that we do find that key!  Thanks.
 
Finally, just another thing to note in this blog of miscellaneous events and situations...it has become obvious that Bobby, the baby, is becoming very attached to his mother.  At home, we have opportunities to leave him with others more often.  We go to church on Sundays and Wednesdays, and we were getting babysitters on occasion, even if for short periods of time, but here, we have not been getting away as much, so DeDe has noticed that Bobby is becoming a real “momma's boy.”  This is not good, as we don't want to have difficulty with separation anxiety with him in the future.  Even while the grandparents were here, Shirley would offer to stay with him while DeDe took kids down to the pool at the hotel, and he would scream the entire time.  Now, we must note, he was much better with Grandma by the end of their stay.  That is likely because he realized what a wonderful Grandma she is!  These kids are truly blessed with sweet, sweet grandparents!
 
There are more “bloggable days” to be documented, yet.  We're trying to keep up, but it's a challenge.  We have yet to share with you the trip we took with Bill and Shirley to the island of Gozo.  That should be coming next.  And then today was a seriously bloggable day, as we went to church here for the first time, and it was great!  We met some very nice people, and would you believe the pastor and his wife  are from Detroit?  Yeah.  We were shocked, too!
 
After church, we went to share the “mid-day meal” with Joanna and Mauro Zingariello and their children.  It was fantastic!  More about these experiences soon.  This blog is long enough, and DeDe needs to get some rest. 

We are thrilled to be able to share this experience in Malta with so many people.  DeDe asked Dave the other day if he had any idea how many people are actually checking in on the blog.  He said, “Yes.”  Then he showed her the record of “hits” to the website.  At one point, right after we announced that the site was up, there were over 750 hits in one day!  That includes hits to each “page”, so typically, if you just went to the Quality Street home page, that counts as one, then you click on the Malta link, that's two, so it adds up quickly, but still, that's a lot of “hits!”  We're hoping you're enjoying these little stories and anecdotes, and that you'll forgive the detail.  We simply don't want to forget anything about this unique and special time together in Malta.
 

 Send us an email about this post!  dgibbs at uwsp dot edu  or  dedegibbs at gmail dot com