Es Regnet Ganzen Tag-Woche 21

So, Summer came and went.  We had rain, rain, and more rain this week.  We're not to the flooding point here again yet, but things are pretty soggy.  This made for an interesting week stuck inside with all the kids.  There was a lot of T.V., movies, Wii, and toys.  We only went swimming in the pool once, and it was still too cold out for me.  Although this is a huge house for Vienna, we still find it pretty confining when we're all packed inside.  We weren't really stuck, but I didn't really want to take the baby out in the rain.

Dan and I had our physicals to get Austrian driver's licenses.  We had to do an eye test which I nearly failed without my glasses in one eye, but she said that I barely passed.  Then we had to do a series of hand-eye coordination tests, to make sure we were fit for driving.  Luckily, we passed those without any trouble!  We still don't have our licenses.  I'm not sure what comes next in the process, but we'll keep working on it.

 Dan spent a few days in Madrid.  He found it to be a fun city.  In Spain, dinner doesn't begin until about 9:00 or 10:00 at night.  That's when the city really comes alive.  He spent most of his time in meetings, but did find time to do a walking tour of the city and see a flamenco show.  He was really impressed by the dancers.  At least one of them is a Spanish celebrity and treated much like the movie celebrities in the states.  Dan is excited to go back.  Ole!

After returning home, Dan had a very hectic schedule.  He had been asked to speak at a luncheon for the entire Lilly Alps staff.  It was a little nerve-wracking as this was Dan's first public exposure to the entire staff in the Vienna office (not just the Elanco team).  Typically, the leaders from the different business areas use this as an opportunity to provide a business update, but Dan decided to mix it up a little bit, and say nothing about business results.  Instead he chose to focus on corporate responsibility and introduced the entire office to the seriousness of global food insecurity and how Elanco is working to address this issue.  He was even able to get the country director from Heifer International (a non-profit that Elanco works with to provide livestock and training to needy families in third world areas) from Romania, to fly in and share the program with them.  The meeting went really well and Dan received a lot of compliments on mixing it up and getting the office to think about the bigger impact Elanco has in helping to produce food around the world.  Since the guest speaker was from Transylvania, we thoroughly checked Dan's neck over when he returned and found no bites.

In his absence, we were not without excitement for the week, however.  Tuesday night, I tucked the kids in bed and I headed to bed myself.  I watched a movie as I waited for Dan to call.  By the time he called, it was close to midnight.  I finished my movie and went to sleep. 

It seemed like seconds later that I was woken by the sound of my alarm clock.  I rolled over to turn it off, and realized that it wasn't my alarm--and it was 2:25am.  It came to me, as I slowly was coming to my senses, that it was the smoke alarm going off.  At this thought, I jumped out of bed, and headed down the hall to get the kids out of the house.  As I went past Dyllan's room, she was already up and followed me down the hall to the boy's room.  As I passed their room, Dane asked what was going on.  I told him that it was the fire alarm and to get out of the house (I was glad that he was at least awake, as per previous posts, I thought he would sleep through it).  He and Deagan followed me down the stairs.  I got them all safely outside, and headed back in to find the fire.  With the alarm still blaring, I searched every room in the house on every floor and could not find any fire or smell any smoke.  I was so scared that I checked every room in the house again, just to make sure that I hadn't missed it.  After the second time through, I decided to head outside to look things over out there.  I searched all around the house and still could not find anything.  I told the kids that they could come back into the house, and that it was safe, as far as I could tell. 

The alarms were still ringing.  I went in and tried to remember how to turn them off.  I finally got the one in the dining room off, which turned off all the alarms up stairs as well.  However, the kitchen and entry alarms were still ringing.  I got the kitchen one off.  Then moved to the entry way.  I got a ladder and tried to get that one off, but could not ever get it to stop ringing.  I finally just took out the battery and left it unplugged for the rest of the night.  The kids were all still terrified and asked if they could all sleep in my room.  As I was still shaken up too, the thought of having them all close to me in case there was another incident, made me feel better.  So, we all piled into my bed--Dyllan, then Deagan, then me, with Dane, Marco, and Pollo, (oh yes, the cats even found a place to snuggle in) across the end of the bed.  If Danyon were not still in a crib, I would've had him there as well.  As it was, the kids and cats were able to fall asleep.  I sat there in bed for at least another hour or more just listening and sniffing, and trying to decipher if there was a fire or not.  I'm glad that we had already told the kids what to do and where to go in case the fire alarm went off, but it is still VERY nerve wracking to be in charge of the safety of all the kids, animals, and anything important in the house all by yourself.

 Dan said that if he were there, I would've made him check the house while I slept (obviously he wasn't here, because no one can sleep through the smoke alarm, but if you could, he's probably right!)  That all made for a very groggy Wednesday which added to the fun-ness of being stuck inside.  Luckily, later that day, the landlady happened to have an appointment with me for something else in the house.  I mentioned the smoke alarm scare the night before.  She informed me that the smoke alarms were sensitive and would go off even with dust in the air and that it was probably from an open window.  I was still iffy on the reason, and the electrician also happened to be in the complex so I had him look at the smoke alarm.  I was relieved to find that he could not get it to turn off either.  Phew, it wasn't just that I was dumb!  There was a malfunction in the smoke alarm and he will be back later next week to put in a new one.  Can anyone tell me why the malfunction had to happen at 2:30 in the morning AND on a night that Dan wasn't in town???

Later in the week, we did have some fun.  It had been a long time since I took portraits of the kids and I was getting antsy to try some pictures again.  We went out and tried to get some good shots, then we stayed and played at the park.  The kids really had a good time.  Anything to get out of the house!

Dyllan made her basil quesadillas and refried beans this week.  They turned out superbly.  Deagan made yogurt parfaits for his dessert.  He used plain greek yogurt and made an apricot compote to mix in.  He even baked his own granola to sprinkle on top.  They were a perfect dessert for calorie counters.  Dane made spicy nachos and they were yummy!!

We found an English speaking movie theater here that was playing a kid friendly movie on Saturday.  We thought it would be so much fun.  The kids are free on public transport now, for the rest of summer, until local kids start school again in the Fall.  We decided to take the u-bahn (subway) over to the theater and surprise the kids.  We saw (well, some of us saw) Monsters University.  It sounded like a good idea and the movie was cute, but Danyon apparently does not like surprises.  He is now to the point of not being able to sit quietly through a movie, no matter how much food or bottles we stuff in him.  Dan spent the majority of the movie in the hallway.  Needless to say, we won't be going to another movie for awhile.  So, back to buying movies at the Saturn or Media Markt, and auf wiedersehen to movie theater popcorn, which they sell sweet or salty here.

The church bell that we hear every hour

Allynn had a little communication mishap at church today.  I was teaching the older kids (7-11 years old) a lesson about the sacrament and the importance of renewing our baptismal covenants each time we take the sacrament.  Dyllan got the question:  Who can pass the sacrament?  She didn't seem to know the answer, so I tried to help her out a little.  The first clue I thought of was that the Deacans need to hold the priesthood.  Boys are the only ones to hold the priesthood, so I asked Dyllan, "What do boys have that girls don't?"  I immediately realized what I said and chuckled a little bit, but to quickly smooth over the situation, the first thought that came to mind was to give Dyllan another hint.  So I then said, "It starts with a . . ."  I didn't even finish, as I realized that I really put my foot in my mouth even further, so I just said, "Priesthood.  Deacans that hold the priesthood are allowed to pass the sacrament".  And then I quickly moved on to the next question!  This happened at 10:00am this morning and Dane is still laughing uncontrollably as I write this at 6:00pm.  We'll see if I still get to teach the kids next month.