If The Queen Only Knew!

I bet she'd be pretty pissed at the people delivering the post in her good name. (At least those sending it overseas, our own postman is delightful...)

January 12th we finally got our end-o-the year DVDs sent on their way to US friends and family. We do a DVD instead of a letter every year. Well, ok, not every year, I mean- you've all seen just how consistent I am with communication. But still... all the more reason this was a special delivery! After a few weeks, we were worried that the "5 business days" had come and gone.. and come and gone again... with no deliveries. After another week, 2 of the DVDs (out of 11 total) arrived.... to ALASKA and HAWAII!! At least if things had to go wrong, it was hilariously wrong. Of course our friends in Alaska and Hawaii get theirs before anyone else! Over a month since sending them off into the unknown, we decided a lonely/creepy postal worker along the way must have decided to keep the DVDs (one for watching, 8 for backup), so we sent them again, but this time in the luggage of a co-worker who was a good enough sport to start carrying our mail. Yes, you guessed it, before he even made it home, everyone else got the originals.

I guess, if I am to be honest and impartial, this could have happened after the DVDs made it to America. They could have been sitting in a USPS office for a month. However, we all know what happens when you disgruntle a postal worker in the US, so we'll place the blame on the friendlier of the two varieties of Post Office employees.

Now, the point of this story is not to complain. It is to warn The Queen about the false promises being made right in her own Royal Mail service. Also, it is to give me a place to post the pictures of a very important present before I send it, in case this is the last I see of it. So, Agelsfy, here are the birds I made for your wedding cake toppers! We'll send them expedited and super-protected and whatever else we can, with tracking, and if you could just hang out in Alaska or Hawaii for a week or so, I'm sure you'll get them before your wedding. Here are a few pictures of what you're looking for:

feathery hairclip to match Agelsfy's

...aaand yes, that's an unpainted gnome behind them. Gnome not included.

APC to the rescue!

What's APC? Read on.

I have a bloggy story for ya, but since I don't have pictures, I drew some for ya. Enjoy.

A week-ish or so ago, I went outside to clean the car out. JimmyD was inside with the kids, and I was in a hurry so I could get done before leaving for Book and Pudding Club. (Which is awesome, by the way.) After a few minutes, JimmyD came outside with a jar of calamine cream.

"How much was in here?" he asked.

I looked inside.

"More than that," I said. "Why?"

"I think Sunshine may have eaten a bunch. I found her with this, and she had it all over her hands and face."

He then went inside to Google the effects of eating calamine cream and get the number for Britishy Poison Control. I finished the car, then went in to see how things were going. JimmyD had gotten Sunshine drinking fluids, and called the poison number he had found online.

It didn't work, so he tried another....

( Several minutes later....... )

(Lots more minutes and lots more attempted numbers later.....)

(That's his phone....)

I went into his office to see if I could find any other numbers to call online. The webpage on the screen was one JimmyD had found about what happens if you eat calamine cream. At the bottom of the page, a phone number caught my eye.

AMERICAN POISON CONTROL!!!!!

Of course! I picked up the phone on the desk that calls America for free. (Voice-over IP phone for JimmyD to call American co-workers... and for us to call family.. and poison control)

"Hello, Poison Control..."

30 seconds later, I was speeding off to Book Club, secure with the knowlegde that the worst danger to come from Sunshine's snack was a few explosive diapers.

THE END

**Just so you all know, I guess you call NHS Direct for poisonings. Or America.

Cornucopia O' British-y Fun

Remember me? No? Well, my fault, I guess. I'll hopefully be a better bloggy-pal now since the boys are back in school (woo-hoooo!) but I was looking over another blog of mine and realizing I've made these empty promises before, so I won't fill this one full of well-intentioned lies, too. I have a lot to tell you, so instead of make a long post about one event and then make more empty promises to post about the rest, how about a Cornucopia O' Britishy Fun? Alright then.

*We went on a family vacation to Cornwall. It was rainy a lot and kind of chilly for the beach, but we expected that, so it was still buckets of fun. Buckets. On the beach just down the road from where we were staying they had a contest I've never seen before. No, no, before you even go there, everyone was fully clothed. Come back to me now... out of the gutter... there. They had about 30 numbered stakes in the sand along the shore. Groups of about 4-8-ish people each had around 45 minutes to build a giant sand pile by their stake, and then everyone from the group had to stand on top of it. Then you wait. And wait. Eventually the tide comes in, and if anyone from your sand mound gets wet, your group is out. Last ones standing win. It was about as exciting as it sounds.... "C'mon, Liam, dig faster!" "Go on, Gav, pat that sand down 'round the sides there!" "Here comes one! Oh! 'Bout got yer foot there, eh?" Really, though, it was a great example of Britishy competition. Americans would be too easily bored and give up after the first hour...or two... or three... but the Britishy Folks are amazingly patient and awesome and like their slow-paced fun times. Even when we gave up after a few hours, there were still about 10 groups standing and a whole crowd of eager sand...mound..standing..(?) fans there cheering them on. I love it.

About 2 hrs into the contest:

...and now about 3 hrs in...

*Another Cornwall highlight was Kynance Cove. It's like the Disneyland of beaches, and we had a blast. You have to hike down some cliffs to get there, and it's only there at low tide. Since the sand spends half the time underwater, it is perfect for sand castles. The tide leaves little kiddie-sized pools in the sand behind the big rocks, and the ocean-although freakin' freezin'- has good boogie-boarding waves. You can buy wet-suits, sand toys, and boogie boards in the beach shop, and the whole place is just amazingly beautiful. If you are in Cornwall, go there. Or else. (fist shaking)

*Moving on from our "holiday", Cap'n Jack (our 7-yr old) had a whole day of Culture-Training. (shaking head sadly.) He now is filled with such vital information as the fact that Britishy Folks like to talk about the weather, don't embrace change, and are often found waiting in queues. I don't know how he could have survived life here without that amazing 7 hour course. JimmyD had to do his business-y Culture Training at work, but we weaseled out of the whole Saturday they had scheduled for the entire family session. It would have been a great thing if they had bothered to do it before we moved here, or even within the first month... or two... or three of getting here. So the moral of the story? If they offer you culture training, get them to do it before you go or right after you arrive, or else just laugh at them and tell them you "couldn't be bothered" to do the course, thus showing your Britishy culture skills in your diss.

*The TV Licensing people are after us. We haven't gotten a license since we don't watch live TV, so they keep sending us threatening letters. We might have to get one, I don't really know. They have threatened a few times now to stop by and inspect our TV setup, and I really wish they would, so we would know once and for all if we really have to get the license. (Our TV is hooked up to a computer with all our TV shows, movies, and music on it. I don't know if we could get live TV on our setup.) On the plus side, it makes me feel all edgy and wild to be evading the TV police.

*Stinker has officially decided to refer to tomatoes as to-mah-toes. It was a long and well-thought out decision on his part, and he seems to be pleased with the course he has chosen. He also now refers to "having a turn" as "having a go". Like this: "Mom, can I have a go on the Wii now?"

*Here's a brief overview on shops (stores to us Americans):

-Boots sells beauty products and medicines, not... well... boots.

-Aldi has super-kick-butt-awesome prices on food. Go there.

-Go to the Market (market stalls, sometimes everyday, sometimes weekends, depending on where you live) for your butcher, cheese, and produce.

-Next has such cute little tiny girl clothes and shoes that it is dangerous, but in a good way.

-Marks and Spencers is pricey and posh, but has good quality and inexpensive school uniforms.

-Lush is... well... lush. Ahhh, the hippie-meets-valley-girl goodness of that bath and body store is heavenly.

-Sainsbury's has everything, like a Super Wal-Mart or Super-Target, but not at the same low prices. You can find deals on things like clothes or home supply stuff, but not really on food.

-Argos has what you need for your home and toys for the kids, and my kids can be entertained for hours looking through their ginormous catalogue. Once they are done looking at it you can use it as their booster-seat at the table.

Well, time to pretend to help as JimmyD gets the kids into bed. What? No, I mean... time to get them in bed. I hope the uber-random post I've just given you will fill the void I've left his last month or so, and I plan on doing smaller posts more often. Oh, I did it, there's a potentially empty promise. At least know, if it goes unfulfilled, that I have every intention of keeping it right now. Life (and amazingly slow internet connections) just get in the way sometimes. Until next time, may your oversized car fit into the tiny parking spaces of the Britishy world.

Settled In

I've been thinking a lot lately about what seems normal, what seems weird, what is still cool, and what I'm used to about being all Britishy. (Did you follow that? No? It's cool- read on.) We've lived here about 3 months now- and we've had our stuff for a little over half that time. We are now... officially... settled!

For the first month or so after arrival, people's favorite question was "Are you settling in alright?" The answer then was "No, because I'm sleeping on the floor and cooking with less stuff than you take camping." It took a while, even after getting our belongings... and unpacking and assembling all the Ikea furniture... to feel settled. I guess for all you future expats, here's what we found needed to happen (besides having our stuff) before we felt settled:

- Getting financial things set up.
This meant bank account here, transferring money home, reimbursements for our moving expenses all sorted out, setting up bill-pay for utilities, (well, first figuring out what utilities there were to set up), getting checks, figuring out how to write them, getting our debit cards, figuring out how to use them, etc. There are a million of things like that to get all set up and arranged. Even getting used to the new appearance of cash takes a while before it feels natural.

-Getting the kids in school and a routine.
This involved researching and visiting local schools, applying to the county school board, waiting, waiting more, meeting new teachers, getting uniforms figured out, and getting Stinker used to even attending school at all. He was only in pre-school at home three mornings a week, and here he's all-day real school. He did pretty well. Even after getting all the official things figured out, there are still new habits to form- where to leave backpacks and homework so we can find them, when to do homework, what to do in the morning vs. in the night to get ready.... all those things. We figured them all out just in time for school to let out for the summer.

-Meeting people.
No matter how outgoing and friendly you are, you can only remember so many names and info about people in the first few weeks. Some people can remember all that easily, but for me it took three... or four... or more times of hearing or asking some names before I really knew them. You need to know people's sense of humor, attitudes, etc. before you can really feel comfortable chatting with them. Even if you put forth a huge effort, you just have to hang around people for a while before you feel like they are not a new person to you. And then you have to hope that they aren't scared off by your vast amounts of crazy. Maybe that's just me, though... ; ) I was also busy worrying about the kids... and JimmyD... hoping they were getting to know people, too.

- Feeling like everyday things are familiar.
Roads, stores, pubs(restaurants), what food is at the grocery store, how your appliances work.... Whenever you move to a new place there are a few things that you have to get used to. In a new country, it sometimes seems like everything is just different enough to throw you off. Road signs are different, shopping carts are different (they move sideways like at Ikea and you have to pay to unchain them! You get your money back when you return it.) how and where you go out to eat are different. I can go to the store now without having to really concentrate. I swear I'm not a blonde. It's harder than you'd think!

-Language.
Now, I know that in England they speak the same language as we do in America, but they really don't. I felt extremely handicapped when I tried to speak. It's not just that some words are different- the phrasing is different, too. Then there are the times when a word or phrase that I know, but just don't usually use, is what's normal here. Confused? Here, I'll show you. An American would say "Just park by the curb while I run into the store real quick for some milk." Or at least a Rednecked American. A Britishy person might say, "If you'll just wait by the kerb to stop us getting towed, I'll pop into the shop for some milk." This is actually kind of a fun game. Let's try another one. Hmmm.... A Rednecked American out to eat with a kid throwing a tantrum would say, "Kid, if you don't knock it off right now you'll be sittin' in the truck while we eat." A Britishy person out to eat wouldn't have a child throwing a tantrum, but if they did, they might say "Thomas, let's not have a strop in the middle of the pub. I shouldn't like to have to put you in the Mini whist the rest of us all sit comfortably indoors to eat our supper. There's a good lad." The point of all this was: it takes a while before you feel like you can talk without sounding like an idiot. Then there's the whole accent thing. It threw me at first, but now I kind of forget that people have an accent. I forget that I'm the one with the accent, I guess. I'm always a little surprised when people on the phone know who I am before I say my name, but then I remember that I have a crazy American accent giving me away.

Things now are just about right. I don't feel so out of place that I have to figure out everything I do or say all day long. I do still notice the differences enough to feel like I'm on an adventure. Jimmy D and I still say to each other, "Hey- guess what? We live in England. Weird!"


PS- We dicided to take a long weekend holiday to Edinburgh, Scotland and a week holiday to Cornwall here in England. We'll fill you in on those as they happen.

Bits and Bobs

If you read my Britishy translation post, you'd know that means odds and ends. Here are some of the pictures I have been wanting to share, but they just don't seem to fit into any posts.

Okay, I had to show you the real picture of this because it looked so much like the stick figure one I drew. Eh? Eh?

Now, when deciding whether or not to move here, we were reeling from sticker shock on the price to rent in London. We kept saying we wanted to make sure we weren't going to be eating "London Ramen" for three years to compensate for rent. Well, we found the 'burbs and rent is much more manageable, but I thought you might like to see "London Ramen", so, here you go.

This is part of the wall that surrounded London in 80 AD when the Romans lived here. It is right outside Jimmy D's office.

This is one of my favorites. I might have even used it already, I dunno. I love all the footpaths here. You just mosey through fields and stuff. Sweet.

Now, I know it doesn't look like much, but this is a picture from the happiest day of my life. No joke. This is.... The Day Our Stuff Came!!!! Ahhhhhhhh!

This looked like strips of bacon, or bacon as I know it, so I bought it. After opening the package, I realized it wasn't two stacks of 5 or 6 pieces of bacon, it was just 2 really thick bacon-shaped pieces of meat. We tried to cook them like bacon, and they got really dry and tasted like burnt popcorn. Don't worry, we've hunted down a near-real bacon product since then.

I spent a looooong Saturday recently painting peacocks for a service project as part of Mormon Helping Hands. We did a mural on the wall of an education center for an animal reserve we were fixing up. Overall, it meant 10 hours of peacocks for me. Next time I'll sign up for sheep or something less... feathery.

We all made it to the London Temple a few weeks ago with a Primary activity. (The kids' classes in church.) A few wonderful adult leaders stayed outside with the kids- having a picnic, a scavenger hunt, and going to the Visitor's Center while a couple of us parents used the opportunity to attend the temple. It stayed sunny up until about 10 minutes after we came back out to get our kids, and then it majorly downpoured. I was very thankful Heavenly Father held off the rain while the kids were outside.

You can't see it well, but look closely- it's a 3 wheeled car! Crazy!

This is my favorite picture.

See ya tomorrow!

Comfort Food

Look, I'm here, as promised! Oh, yes, the blog-tastic week is here! It will kind of be catch-up, since I have a lot of things saved up for blogs, like pictures and whatnot.

Since we've arrived, I have been thinking a lot about different cultures' ways of doing things. Everyone on the planet has the same basic needs, and everyone has their own ways of meeting them. No two people are alike, which means there are as many ways to do things as there are people on the earth. When you take that into consideration, it's surprising how many things are similar about cultures and countries across the world. Aaaaand now I'm sounding too much like I'm about to break into an off-key rendition of "Heal the World", so let's move on.

One of the things we take for granted is the familiar food that surrounds us. We don't stop to question every thing we come across on the shelves at the grocery store, because we have seen those items for our whole lives. We know to look for a blue box if we want mac and cheese, or what to expect out of salad dressing. (Betcha didn't know you had expectations of your salad dressing! Well, you do.) There ends up being a lot of value in that easy relationship we form with the things around us. I never would have put it that way until I went food shopping here. It's like the twilight zone: everything is almost exactly the same, but just different enough to make you think way harder than you should have to about things like cheese and canned corn.

I had noticed this, but it didn't really hit home until I took a trip to The Food Company. They are a pricey store that sells a lot of foreign foods. (I'll do the exchange rate conversion for you and tell you the cost in US Dollars) Including...

MOUNTAIN DEW!!!!

only $2.12 a can!

American Marshmallows

$4.01 a bag

Cereal

$9.01 - $12.04 a box

10 packets Quaker Instant Oatmeal

$10.07 a box

(Are you couponers from the U.S. just dying at that?! I used to pick them up on sale, with coupon, for like 50 cents at Albertson's.)

Good ol' Aunt Jemima syrup

$8.56

Box o' Jell-O

only $2.65!

Reeses PB chips (my cookies miss these!!)

$7.50 a bag

Betty Crocker cake mix

$5.30

I didn't buy any more than Jimmy D's Father's Day Mt. Dew (it's like liquid gold!) and a bag of Goldfish crackers, but just seeing the familiar boxes and bags was enough to tempt me into being ripped off for the sake of the warm fuzzies they brought! I didn't expect to feel so emotional about those things! It's not like there aren't substitutes here that are as good (or better) than these products, but they are not mine. It's like rooting for the home team.

Still, I'm not gonna pay 12 bucks for cereal, even if I kind of want to hug the box and bask in its familiarity. So, send me some stuff. ; )

OUR STUFF IS HERE!!!!!
WOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOO!!!!

I would have made the font even bigger, but that's as big as it would let me go. So... I am blogging to you from MY COMPUTER!! (Not the one lost on the airplane, we've written that off as lost forever.) I should be unpacking more, but I thought I'd take a minute to share the joyous times with you. The moving truck was here first thing Friday morning, and it was like Christmas, but better since we knew we would like everything we opened. Ahhhhh. The house is in utter chaos right now, but it is a comforting chaos. I was starting to feel like a pioneer there before it all came. I mean, yes, I had running water and electricity and whatnot, but at least pioneers had cooking utensils and mattresses. I'm just sayin'.

Everything we own is out of place and scattered throughout the house, but I'm just so happy to see it that I don't really care. The kids are the same way. I unpacked about half of they boys' room, and after Stinker saw it he came running downstairs to hug me and said, "It's perfect, mom!" I explained that I still had more to do before it was all unpacked, and he said, "No mom, it's perfect," and ran back up to play.

A lot of our furniture came to us still flat-packed in Ikea boxes. We decided what new things we would need, and then bought them in the U.S. and had them shipped with our things. It seemed like a good plan at the time, but there is only so much allen-wrench and wooden-peg assembly you can do in one week before you start to go insane. As I was trying to force the wooden pegs to go where the diagram said they belonged, I started to wonder why no-one has ever just gone off the deep end after all the assembly and decided to attack Ikea. Then I realized maybe they had, but once they got there and smelled meatballs, they decided to stop in for lunch first, and then bomb the place or whatever they were planning. So they headed up to the restaurant, and as they wandered through the maze of brightly colored and low priced furniture, they noticed a chest of drawers to match the bed frame and wardrobe they had just assembled. They faltered for a moment, and then carried on, only to run across the perfect storage solution for their home office. They glanced down at their blistered fingers, and then back at the home office storage, and then their stomachs growled as the smell of meatballs wafted down the showroom, and it was all over. So, with stomachs full of meatballs and a carload full of boxes, they drove back home to repeat the cycle once more.

Well. I am clearly off subject, and I have things to do, so lets call that good for now. More later. Really, since I can blog on MY COMPUTER!!! Awesome.

Bloggin' It Old School

If you need the pics bigger to read them, click on them. Or get glasses, you old person.




Moving on to things we've been up to here in Britland... (I wrote that out too, but the picture of the writing didn't work.)

The Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad (British) Day...week...

Jimmy D is about the easy-going-est person I know. So when he nearly exploded at the vending machine, I knew times were a-gettin rough. There's been a lot of fun times the past few days, but we'll focus on the car-finding fun. Here, let us tell you a tale...

Phyllis: We needed a car fast so we could ditch the expensive rental car. I have been well trained to research my guts out before making a major purchase, but had no computer. So... with minimal knowledge, an unhappy baby (the one I've blog-nicknamed "Sunshine", remember? She was not too sunny...) and a very quickly approaching deadline, we went car shopping. This involved getting money for a car from the bank. Jimmy D, I'll let you take it from here for a while...

Jimmy D: You can take that out.

Phyllis: What, the part about the bank?

Jimmy D: No, just the "Jimmy D. I'll let you take it from here for a while."

Phyllis: The people of the internet want to hear your part of the story. Why don't you tell them about the fun times at the bank?

Jimmy D: *crickets chirping*

Phyllis: Fine. The bank was long and obnoxious, the day's car-hunting was frustrating, overwhelming, and unproductive, Jimmy D had wasted a day off work. The next day we drove to a few lots farther away, found one with a bunch of cars to choose from, but I had no idea which one to choose, and Jimmy D was busy with a crying baby for a few hours and needing to do calls and things for work, so I more or less put all the cars in a circle around me, closed my eyes, spun around, and pointed at one to buy. By that time we had missed getting Stinker from school early (we called to let them know, don't worry.) I was still stressed that I had chosen the wrong car. (IT WASN'T A WELL RESEARCHED CHOICE!!), and now we were cutting it close on getting both the boys from school. (hyperventilating) JimmyD had previously found a car online that he wanted to get as his commuter car so I dropped him off at the station. He took the GPS so he could drive the 2 hours home with the new car. I took the wrong exit at a roundabout (hyperventilate more) and one roundabout leads to more roundabouts that take me farther from where I think I might need to go (hyperventilate more and get honked at a lot) I call Jimmy D in tears to tell him I'm lost (while getting honked at and more lost) and finally make it to a roundabout that looks familiar and get to school just in the nick of time.

AACK! And then.... (Jimmy D, you have to take the story now. It's your story.)

Jimmy D: I took the train to Liverpool and then needed to take the tube to Paddington station and catch a train to Oxford from there. I accidentally got on the wrong line and had to wait a long time for the next stop to get off and come back. I had started the journey late in the afternoon so by the time I finished the 1:45 min train ride from Paddington to Oxford it was 6:45pm. The entire train ride I kept calling the woman that was selling the car to let her know when I would be there because she was picking me up at the station. I kept getting a message that the person was not available. Finally after I sat at the station for awhile I realized I was calling the wrong number. I am retarded.

She takes me out into the country to a place that looks like it used to have horse stalls. A giant shed. That is where she keeps the dozen or so cars she has for sale. I purchased the car, and knew that by now Phyllis would have the kids in bed. I called her and asked her to get online and get insurance. We had been told by car dealers that you can do temporary insurance online. Well it turns out not if you have a US drivers license. None of the UK sites would give us insurance without a valid UK license. So then we tried calling American insurance companies with no luck. For several hours we called anyone and everyone we could think of and at 11pm came to the conclusion that we wouldn't be able to get insurance until the next day. I reclined the seat and settled in for the night in the British countryside.

During the night it was coldish, but I couldn't run the car because they had left the tank completely empty. My iphone was dead from all the calling. I didn't want to run the radio, because again I couldn't start the car to charge the battery. I made it through the night and the next day entertained myself by throwing pebbles at other pebbles. Finally at 12pm Phyllis had the insurance done so I was able to make the 2 hour drive home.

Phyllis: Well done, Jimmy D. I'll finish it up now. That night as I was making dinner I heard a "crunch" followed by screaming from Ellie. She had put her fingers into the hinge side of a door Jimmy D was closing. We grabbed some ice in a towel and the kids shoes and hurried to the hospital to make sure the "crunch" sound wasn't her little bones. They got her in for an x-ray right away, but then sent us back to the waiting room until a doctor could look at the x-rays. It was a long wait. Jimmy D went to the vending machine to get the boys a drink. They chose one, Jimmy D paid, and it got stuck. He gritted his teeth, found more change, and had the boys pick a different drink. It got stuck, too. Have you ever seen the part in Father Of The Bride when Steve Martin finally loses it in the grocery store over the hot dog vs. bun ratio? Get it in your mind.... ok. That was poor exhausted Jimmy D once the second drink didn't fall. He roared, then ripped the vending machine off the floor and hucked it through the window. Okay, so not really the last part, but he was close. The receptionist must have noticed, because she brought him a bottle of juice. I think she envisioned the machine ending up though the window as well.... or maybe she could tell it had been one of those days.

Here's a reenactment of Jimmy D's night in the uninsured car:

Here's his car, now fully insured and finally in our driveway:

We pick my car up tomorrow. Wish us luck!

Ups and Downs...and repeat

So, SOMEONE left my laptop on the plane...coughJimmyDcough...so I keep having things happen that are blog-worthy, but no computer to blog with. So, here's the overview, and I'll possibly...or not... get more details in if and when I ever have a computer again.


The days here so far have been rollercoasterific. Just the last few days alone have been...well, I have no words. That tells you something.

Here's the highlights for ya:


* Our air shipment had been delayed a few days, but finally arrived today. Our sea shipment, however, will most likely not arrive to our house until (maybe) the first week of June- not next Monday like we had been originally told. So on the upside: I had a wonderful time unpacking the dishes I sent. It was like Christmas. I have never loved a 9 x 13 pan or a pot more. Sigh. However on the downside: if I had known our air shipment would need to hold us for a month and not a week, I might have packed more wisely. Back to the upside: if they are giving us a date of arrival at all, I have to hope that means our sea shipment is not on the ocean floor...yet.

* Our house is amazing, and I love it. However... it probably has an oil leak. It has reeked of a garage since we moved in, but we were told that it was because of a new boiler being installed and would fade as we used the heating. It hasn't faded. Today when the movers came, one of them kept saying "Wot is 'at 'orrible smell in 'ere?" "I fink it's a gas leak, it is. It's poison! Gonna make yer li-ul ones sick! "Ave the children play in the garden and call the lan'lohd!" He even made the postman "pop in and smell the 'ouse!" The postman agreed- there was a poisonous leaky smell of some kind. We did call the management company about it- the oil...boiler...guy is supposed to check it out tomorrow morning. If we wake up.....


I'm tired, so I'll give you more tomorrow. (It's late here, it's not the poisonous gasses making me tired. Maybe.) There are still a bunch of ups every day to outweigh the downs though. Here are a few of my favo(u)rites and a picture or two to end the post.

*Wandering with our little family through the footpaths into the forest.
*Making Indian food for dinner...and it was cheap and easy! Out of a jar! Wooo!
*The fields of rabbits. It's like a cartoon in some places.
*Going to the church Market Fayre up the road.
*Seeing the letter "Y" in unexpected words, like "fayre" and "tyre".
*My donut friend at the Market in town.
*All the roundabouts. Efficient and awesome.
* Hearing the boys pick up new words and phrases, like "lorry", "squash", and "biscuit".
*Looking out my window and saying "Holy crap, I'm in England!"
*All the green outside.
*The old houses on the road in our village.
*The radio station playing...well...not Miley Cyrus, for one.
*All the new things mixed into everyday life.
*Wandering through golden fields, as pictured below: (Don't worry, we didn't really wander through, just walked carefully a few feet in for a picture.)

We're Here!!!

We're here, schtep in time, we're here, schtep in time, umdiddleiddlee umdiddleye, we're here schtep in time!

Okay, sorry, but the event merited the singing.

We made it!

One 4 hr flight, one 2 hr layover, another 8 hr flight, a shuttle to the rental car place, and a 1 1/2 hr drive later, we made it to our house in England! Yay!!!

The flight was actually better than I thought it would be. We only had one major meltdown from a kid (Stinker didn't want to take his Dramamine because "it tastes bad", so he screamed, we threatened, and after everyone at the gate was staring at the parents forcing drugs into their child, he relented.). All three kids slept soundly through the overnight flight. We found a car large enough to transport our crazy large amounts of luggage. (A "people carrier", actually.) Our beloved SatNav got us smoothly to our house. There's a video of our SatNav/people carrier adventure on my Facebook page*.

I LOVE our house. I can't wait until our things get here to set it all up. I think we really got lucky getting it at the price we did- it is amazing. I was prepared for a tiny place with no closets, but this house is big and abounding with fitted wardrobes. (I would have usually said it has a plethora of closets, but "abounding with fitted wardrobes" sounds more British-y.)

Our first grocery shopping trip was... interesting. It didn't start well- we were barely off our nearly 24 hr. traveling adventure, so that was fun to start with. We went to the center of our town, to the shopping center, to see if we could get a phone, but the shops all close early. The shopping center was right next to a Tesco, so we decided to stay there and get some basics for our empty pantry. Outside I had to wait a minute and watch someone else to figure out how to get a cart. They were all chained together with locks on each one. Apparently, you put a one pound coin into a slot, the chain comes unlinked, and you shop. When you return the cart, your coin pops back out for you to take. I don't know if all grocery stores are like that, it might have just been this place. Inside was pretty normal- we found the essentials, but then at the register you bag your own groceries, but I guess everyone usually brings their own bags. The clerk gave us a stack of plastic ones to use, but they weren't on a stand, so we took a long time trying to get them open and unstuck. They are very thin, so I snagged a few extra for when our things inevitably broke through. Outside, Jimmy D had to take a few trips to the car. We were parked across the street in a car park. I'm pretty sure that while he was gone, Sunshine and I watched a drug deal. I'm think we'll find another place to shop next time. At least one with a parking lot outside and no drug dealers.

(Our town is very nice, we just found the most interesting place in it to go for groceries, I think.)

Well, folks, more to come later. Just wanted to let you know we're here, we made it, and everything is going well!

* Any pictures or videos that are too specific on who we are and where we live will be on my facebook page. That way I can leave my blog public. I mean, we're not that sneaky, but then at least I feel like I'm trying.

Tedious Insanity

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. We've been amazingly busy, but with ultra-boring, non-blog-worthy things. Here, I'll list a few, and you pay attention to the *pop* *pop* in your brain as the cells die.

Wiped out the 5 yr old stickies in the fridge
Removed outlet covers and switchplates
Painted all the doors white
Painted all the trim white
Painted all the walls (ugh) tan
Replaced outlet covers and switchplates
Moved stuff upstairs
Moved same stuff to living room
Moved same stuff to the boys' room
Moved the same stuff to the boys' closet
Moved some of the stuff to the in-laws where we live now
Moved that stuff to drawers there
Listened to information from a 4 yr old about Ben Ten and/or Spiderman (repeat daily)
Stained the deck
Scraped gunk from between kitchen floorboards
Called to cancel my cell phone
Called to change our magazines
Called about changing our homeowners insurance to landlord insurance
Blah
Blah
Blah


So, yeah. Only a week and a half to go of the boring, draining, mind-numbing details to finish up here, and then we can actually MOVE!

And then we'll have more of the details to take care of, but they will seem cool because they'll be all Britishy and new. Well, new to us.

A Dose Of Awesome

During the last week or so we have had some of the craziest, busiest, most discouraging, stress-filled days of the whole England-y thing thus far. Days that require bringing out the big guns to cheer us back up. Days that we give ourselves a dose of this:




I just DARE you to try and be anything less than optimistic after that.

Thanks, Brian and Chelsey!

Just don't let the movers pack the passports...

That's really my only goal in the whole packing insanity. I have higher aspirations, most of which involve a million carefully prepared lists, but even if they all go to pot we'll still be okay just as long as our passports don't accidentally go with the sea freight (40 days to arrive) or air freight (2 weeks to arrive) shipments.

Trying to figure out what should happen first was kind of like deciding where to place the dominoes so that all of them would fall down in the right order. We need to get our house ready to rent, which means new paint and carpet, which means taking the furniture out of the bedrooms, so maybe we should pack our stuff out first, but then we have to declutter, buy furniture and things we are going to want in our sea shipment, sort storage and airfreight things, but then.....

you get the idea.

So, our plan is this:

1. Declutter (mostly done)
2. Make lists of what goes in each shipment (sea, air freight, our airline luggage, giveaway, storage)
* I wanted to move everything except the sea shipment items out of the house or into one of the bedrooms, but then I realized those things are the ones we use day to day, like dishes and clothes, so I can only list them and then separate them last minute when the movers come for the sea items.)
3. Buy things we want shipped, like furniture, clothes, uhh, teacups...? etc.
4. Paint and recarpet

and that's as far as I want to get right now. I'll plan further ahead when we get there. I am also trying to arrange the flight out, decide if we want a long enough stopover on the way to break up the trip, or to just go for it and do it all at once, if we stay at our house right away and get air mattresses or something, things like that.

And there you have a small glimpse into the insanity we have right now. It is pretty chaotic and overwhelming, but we'll get there one way or another. So, if we accidentally pack all our blankets in the sea shipment and go without for a few weeks, we can get more. If I choose wrong and have a long and horrible flight over, at least we'll know better for our next long flight. There is a very easy to see light at the end of this relocating tunnel, so it's all good. True, we'll have a new set of things to deal with after we get there, but we can handle that when we get to it.

Now- I'm off to get our passports and put them in my diaper-bag.