No Place Like Home....s

Hey! I'm gonna blog.

Lots of things have happened since I blogged last. Here's a one sentence synopsis: We moved to a new house, had visitors for a month, visited America, then another visitor.

To get the ol' bloggin ball a rollin again, I thought I'd do a Britland vs "The States" list. See, there were a lot of things we were looking forward to in America. Space, fountain drinks, space, food, space, oh, and friends and family... Once we got there, though, I was looking forward to some of the Britishy things I'd left behind. So here they are, all organizationally layed out for you and whatnot!

God Bless American...

* fountain drinks * road space * Mexican food * mountains *

smoke-free beaches with sunshine * boating * junk food * hot dogs

* campfires * Old Navy * friends & family * country music *

exchange-rate making everything on sale for us people who are paid in pounds *

campfires * lack of inhibition * Slurpees and SnoCones *

Reeses anything * stores that stay open past 5:00 pm * SUVs and pickups *

weaponry (pocketknives, bb guns, etc) *

Good Old Britishy...

* roundabouts * cheese * chocolate * Indian food * public transportation *

accents * politeness * wellies * rain on the conservatory roof *

markets * healthy eating * spunky old ladies * friends *

international holiday destinations * history * villages * London

* Caramel Digestives * teapots * Lush bath ballistics * footpaths * countryside *

Primark * double-decker busses * the kids saying Britishy phrases *

overall Britishy-ness *

It looked all cute and in different fonts and sizes, but then it all went away, because sometimes blogger hates me. Enjoy anyway!

Quiz Night, Expat Edition

Not the cool pub kind. Even cooler.

I thought it might be useful to have some Q & A from real-life expats living here in Britland. I'm hoping to make a set list of questions and post answers from a different expat each month.

I've got a lot of questions I remember staying up at night thinking about before our move, and I think I broke the internet with all my millions of Britishy searches. I'll add my own questions to the list, but also want to hear from you!

So, here's the pre-quiz quiz:

What have you potential expats been Googling in hopes of insider information? What worries about your move have been keeping you up at night? What do you need to know to help you make all those life-changing decisions about your future in a country you might not have even been to yet?

Leave your questions in the comments for this post, and I'll try to include them in the quiz. If no-one has any real questions, I'll try my best to make a Q & A list of actual, useful questions, but I can't promise it won't just end up as a random list of insanity. That's just how my brain works, people!

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.

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.)

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.

Visas Schmisas

Okay, so we can't just say "Visas Schmisas" and hop on our plane. Which is why we may have to delay our move a few days. Hopefully the company (supposedly) in charge of getting our Visas taken care of can do enough overnighting and expediting and ...fist shaking? Bribing? I don't know, but enough to get our Visas here before our flight Monday afternoon. Enough of being homeless- it's time to move already!

Keep your fingers crossed!

Ode To Payson

All the sentimental...ity has begun. I was driving through Payson a few days ago, and realized I have lived there longer than any other place my whole life. Kind of scary. The billboard as you drive into town used to say, "Come for a day, stay for a lifetime." I thought it sounded a bit threatening...

So, in honor of the place that has become my hometown, (does that make me a hick?) here is a "pome" and some pictures from the thriving metropolis of Payson, Utah.

"Come for a day, stay for a lifetime"

Sounds more like a threat than a welcoming tag line.

Yet somehow it happens, to people like me

We move in for a year, then two, then three...

You feel a strange yet urgent desire

To buy a pickup, then jack it up higher.

Ride your 4-wheeler to Wal-Mart for huntin' supplies

Grab yer best shotgun to shoot skeet with the guys.

Wranglers and boots just can't be beat, oh

For Friday night dinner at Mi Rancherito.

And I know no matter how far away I roam,

The smoke from the poop-plant will always welcome me home.

I could have done much better there if I didn't have a little person next to me saying, "Push that button, type XPTY, did you push that button yet?" Oh well- what're ya gonna do...

Here are the pictures:

Goodbye, generally hilarious Oil-N-Go sign. I enjoyed the last display of "New oil! Nom Nom Nom."

Goodbye, Polar Queen! You have slow service, strange hours, and fickle payment rules, but mmmmmmm, greasy delicious chips... pregnant Phyllis would thank you, too, if she were still with us.

Goodbye, Wal-Mart. I forgive you for not sponsoring my volleyball team- it was a lot cooler to have my OBGYN sponsor it, anyway. (Look, I got the flag in the picture, because what's more American than Wal-Mart?)

Goodbye, oh majestic "P" mountain. I wish you luck during this year's wildfire season.

Goodbye, Mi Rancherito! Just because I want maybe an Olive Garden or something to come to Payson doesn't mean I don't love you.

Goodbye, tiny library! Remember that time your computers went down and you had to re-catalogue all the books? Ah, fun times, fun times...

Goodbye, McDonalds! Well, I guess you'll follow us wherever we go. I'm not too excited about that, but the kids will be glad to see your British cousins.

Goodbye, Payson Pool! Hey, what was the deal with the lightning always shutting you down 2 seconds after we got there? Psh- lame!

Goodbye, fountain drinks! You may be the hardest of all to leave behind. (sigh!)

Well Payson, there you go! It's been a good 6 years. We'll be back!

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.

"When I speak of home, I speak of the place where-- in default of a better--those I love are gathered together; and if that place were a gypsy's tent, or a barn, I should call it by the same good name notwithstanding."

Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby



A few years ago when I was reading Nicholas Nickleby, I wrote that quote down. Now, as the movers are packing up our things and we are getting ready to actually move, I keep wondering what I am doing to my family- especially my poor husband who has only lived outside of Utah once- for 2 years he served a mission for our church in Honduras.

But then, this quote comes to mind, and I realize that it is a good thing for us to move. Hopefully, our family will be able to realize that it's not a certain house, or familiar things that make home, it's the people in it and the relationships you have. Those things will pick up and move with us wherever we go.

But yeah, it still might suck for a while...
But it'll it'll suck for all of us together? That's the spirit.

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!

Cheeky People

This morning I had to call the rent-a-car place to let them know we wanted to drop our car off at a different location than where we will pick it up. The last day or two the amazingly large amount of tasks left on out "to-do" list, coupled with extra irritable kids, etc. has left me anxious. Even hearing the automated menu selection from the UK Enterprise location stressed me out- the British accent was a reminder of how much we have left to do, and how much we'll have to figure out when we get there. Usually it makes me think of the adventure, in a good way, that awaits us.

After being put through to a man at the airport location and asking about our car drop-off, I explained that since we were moving there and the car was to hold us over until we bought one, I wanted to know what to do if we needed to extend our rental a few days. Then, bless his cheeky heart, he laughed and said, "You're moving to England! Now, why would you want to do that? Move all the way over here?" I told him he was sounding like my mother-in-law, and he laughed again and said, "I'm sure I am! (and then continuing on in what he thought might be an impression of what she would be saying) Moving all the way to England! Don't you know how dark and rainy it is there every day? Why would you want to go and do a thing like that?"

I felt better. There's nothing like a cheeky British person to remind me how much fun we'll have moving there. Here in the U.S. (especially here in Utah) everyone seems to have zero ability to understand sarcasm. Sarcasm is usually met with confusion. The only people who would banter with me in the U.S. instead of remaining very serious are my family, so the British Folks have already won me over there. Here are a few more of my encounters with The Cheeky for you to enjoy:

When we landed in London for our house-hunting trip, we had to fill out a card with our information to present at the booth where they check our passports. In the space for occupation, I had put "Super Mom". We filled the cards out on the plane, and by the time we were at the booth at the airport, I had forgotten what I had put. The lady at the booth looked over my card, and then got a half smile on her face, which she quickly turned back serious as she said, "Super Mom, eh? Maybe I shouldn't let you in after all. You might show the rest of us regular mums up, and then where would we be?" Now, if someone here in Utah had read that, they most likely would have looked confused and then asked me if that was some sort of day-care business I had started or something. Five bonus awesome points for the cheeky British Folks.

Later on our trip I went in to a Forever 21-ish style store to buy an umbrella. British Folks "queue" into one line, and then go from the front of the line to the next available register. From where I was standing, I could see a few younger girls and one older, white-haired, pot-bellied, bearded man behind the counter. I assumed he was the manager or something. When I got to the front of the line, no-one seemed to be across the counter from him, so when he glanced over I raised my eyebrows at him in an "Is it my turn?" look. I did this again with a head nod ('sup style head nod) and then asked, "Am I next?" He laughed and said, "Not unless you want your electricity worked on!" He was there working on a broken register. The girls behind the counter stifled their laughs. He then said with a twinkle in his eye, "The way you were looking at me I though you were going to ask me to coffee!"

I'm sure I'll have more stories as I go, don't worry.

So, I guess if I am ever feeling overwhelmed and anxious during the move, I just need to call England and wait for a cheeky person to cheer me up. God bless those cheeky British Folks!

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.

I'm the Redneck American

...but what else do you expect? Really? I have now lived in Payson, Utah longer than any other place my whole life. It's gotta have an effect on a girl, ya know?

Jimmy D filled me in on my Redneck status after our conference call with Naven, our house-finding guy. See if you can find the mistake...

Naven: Are you quite set on two bathrooms, or would one bathroom and a WC do..
Phyllis (me, remember?): Well, the reason we want two bathrooms is mostly because we have two little boys who pee all over the place, so it's nice to have a toilet of your own."
Naven: (shocked laugh) So I guess that means no carpet in the bathrooms then?

So, did you spot it? Good work. Specifically it was the phrase "boys who pee all over the place" that gave me away as a Redneck American.

This being proper business is going to be tricky for me.
I'll either have to learn to lose some shock value and be nice and proper, or there will be a trail of shocked British Folks scattered in my wake.

Sigh.

Get ready for the trail of shocked Britons.

Kick yer heels up...

Step in time! Ummdiddleiddlee umdiddleye... Okay, now that you know where the blog title came from, here's what it's all about...

Our family is (really) moving to London for at least a year, possibly up to three years. It's been a long wait, and I'm pretty sure our neighbors think we're making it all up, but we really are going now. So, here's a blog about our journey. I'd like to make it a public blog so I can share any info I've found with other people who may be Googling their guts out trying to figure out how to do this move like I was. So... sometimes pictures of my family will be facebooked instead of blogged. And, let's give my family super-secret "blog names". Hmmm...

Husband will now be known as Jimmy D
I will be known as Phyllis
Oldest son (7) will be known as Cap'n Jack
Second son (4 1/2) will be known as Stinker
Baby girl will be known as Sunshine

So, Let the bloggity fun begin!