Our house, the downstairs

This post is mainly for the handful of people who care what our house looks like (i.e. my mom), but let me tell you a few great things about our house/city.
1) Our internet is SO fast (sorry Leslie, but it's like, rocket-fast!) and it costs a third of what our internet did on the other island.
2) We are within walking distance of lots of awesome stuff, including the English Center where we'll later work, a great grocery store and a lovely outlet store. This is important because traffic can be so bad that sometimes it takes an hour to drive around the block.
3) We share cable, internet, and phone bill with our neighbors, since the house is a duplex. All the channels, half the price!
4) Even though the kids are sharing bedrooms (there's 3 total) the house seems much less cramped than our last one.
5) The temperature in this city is quite nice, although pretty muggy because it's rainy season. I think we can expect it to be in the 80's most of the time, though. Not too bad! It's actually chilly in the mornings.
6) The international school is about 45 minutes away from our house BUT, it's really nice and the kids are going to love it, I think. It's located on a large plot of land and is pretty much beautiful. We're looking into a dvd player for the car in order to make the drive less torturous.
Of course, there are lots of challenges to living here, too, but not as many as we are used to. For instance, I got on an escalator that wasn't moving, and started to walk up it because I thought it was broken. Instead it has a motion sensor to save electricity! I'm used to broken, so I just laughed. We loved the island we were on before, but this one is much easier to live on!

Here's our house (pictures are in random order, sorry!):
This is the living room area in front and the toy/play area in back, complete with foam mats to protect Nate's noggin.

This is the dining area, the toy area is behind it. Out the doors there's a little private patio area with wicker furniture.

The kitchen taken from the dining area. This kitchen is 100 times bigger than our last one, and we love it. Except the counters and sink are SO short.

Living room area and stairs to the left. Behind the door is a bonus toilet. No sink but you know, whatever...

Master bedroom, with a monkey on the bed.


Doing dishes in my midget sink. Equally as difficult is the cabinet that requires me to turn my head when I reach in so I don't bonk my nose on the glass.

Outside, our little yard. The neighborhood cats like to poop in our yard, because it's the only stretch of grass within a square mile, or so it seems.
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Master bathroom (insert giggle here...) The square thing is a bak, or tub that holds water that an Indonesian would use for bathing or flushing the toilet. We use it to hold the baby bath tote and toys. And sometimes Caleb when he gets too wild. Just joking, but I think it might be a good idea... For bathing we use the shower head on the wall, and the whole bathroom becomes a shower stall. Wet feet if you have to go to the bathroom later, but glad for a hot shower.