Potties, Power Plugs, and Pyromaniacs

Hello all!!!

I am having a great day, I hope you are too. Yesterday I unpacked the entire kitchen, it was so nice to cook dinner using my own stuff!!! I missed my potato peeler, I have been craving potatoes so I'm going to make mashed potatoes tonight, yum! I did manage to find room for everything, although there are still a pile of boxes in the living room and I'm hoping that none of them are for the kitchen.

This morning marks the official beginning of Maddy's potty training (again). She had a go of it for a while in the winter but lost interest, so I think she wasn't really ready. Now that her potties have made it across the big pond, we are going to start at it again. We had a great start, she peed in her potty three times this morning!!!!!! Let's hope we keep this going.

It is so wonderful to have our things, but I'm glad that we're too busy to notice that we can't use our TV/entertainment unit/surround sound/Playstation 3. Andrew did a bunch of research and ordered a whole pile of transformers/converters/adaptors, whatever we need to use the appliances we brought from Canada in the European plugs here in Finland. Not only does Finland use a totally different plug than us, they also run on 240 Hz while Canada runs on 120 (I might have this wrong, I'm sure Andrew will correct me) so this means that we also need transformers so that when we do plug our stuff in, it doesn't fire up in smoke. So, he ordered everything online but it is free shipping to Canada and it would have cost around $500 in shipping charges alone to Finland, so we shipped it all to my parents house and they are going to bring it when they come (two weeks!). It's a good thing that we're too busy to actually want to sit down and watch tv, because we can't.

For the last week, Andrew has been following me around looking for things to burn. Now that we have an open fireplace, he's gotten a pyro itch, I believe. He'll start up a fire for like 5 pieces of paper just to start a fire. Anyways, now that we have our stuff here, he spent about 2 or 3 hours last night burning boxes and paper, so I'm pretty sure the itch is gone. And there's still plenty more where that came from!!!

I did figure out some information about recycling. They do have a recycling program here in Finland, but you actually have to take your bottles and glasses and stuff to the grocery stores. They have special machines (look kinda like vending machines) that you feed in your bottles and you get money back. I'm all for recycling, but I would do it for free, not because I get paid for it. But anyways, now I have to start saving all my recyclables and then bring them with me next time I go to the store. It likely adds up, each beer can is 0.15 euros and one big plastic bottle of pop is 0.40 euros. Hmm, I wonder how Canada's recycling programs would differ if they implemented this type of incentive....

I unpacked Maddy's room this morning, holy cow she's got tons of toys. I guess I never realized how much she had because we had it spread out amongst three floors of house. Here we are in a single storey house and we're trying to fit most of it into her bedroom. Hmm, yeah, that's so NOT happening!

Anyways, there's tons to do but I think I'm going to nap instead. Yup, that sounds better. Hope everybody is doing great. 12 more days until my parents get here!!!
Kim