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!

Scottish Top Ten

We took a roadtrip up to Edinburgh (you say it like this: Ehd-in-burrah) Scotland about a week ago. It took nearly 9 hours to get there, but someone without kids might be able to get there in 6 1/2 or 7 hours. Or, if you drive like my brother, 3 hours.

There was so much we fit into the three non-driving days of our vacation, I have decided to present it Top Ten List style for ya.

From the home office in... well, in a non-specified English village, it's

The Top 10 Reasons You Should Visit Scotland!!!

Presenting tonight's list... Old Man With Shaggy Eyebrows! (He has nothing to do with the trip, but has amazing eyebrows, so he got the job.)

Reason # 10: ...to check out the world's only Emo cows :

...and the cows do tricks:

Reason # 9.... Time-out facilities in every castle:

Reason # 8.... for 20 Quid they'll shoot yer kids out of a cannon:


Reason # 7.... Thoughtful hooligans clearly label their work:


Reason # 6... kids love it!

Reason # 5.... Scottish men ain't afraid to show a little leg:

Reason # 4.... Recreate scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail at Doune Castle, where it was filmed:

Reason # 3.... You promised you would take The Ring to Mordor:

Reason # 2... Look what he can do!

And the number one reason to visit Scotland.....

because these guys said to.

Corny, confusing, and politically incorrect, but there you have it. We visit Cornwall next week, so I'll have some blog-worthy tales to tell, I'm sure!

Ho-li-day (say it like in the Weezer song)

Let's go away! Let's go away! On a ho-li-day!

I'm done singing now.

The boys get their summer holiday soon, and since it only lasts about 6 weeks, we already set aside a week for a long "holiday", and a long weekend for a short one. Now we just have to decide where to go! We need some places that both the kids and adults will enjoy and that are relatively easy to travel to, whether by train, car, or cheap plane tickets.

I've been checking out some Rick Steves info on destinations, and asking around to see where other people have gone. Personally, I'm more of a chillin' vacation type. Not so much the crazy-whirlwind-see-it-all-theme-parkin'-all-week kind. Those kinds make me tired to even think about trying with kids. Here's some places we are interested in:

Southern England: Stonehenge, Bath, Leeds Castle

Northern England: nature and villages and stuff. Lots of walks and hiking and things. Maybe better in the spring/fall for a half-term vacation.

Scotland: Edinburgh, castles, kilts, the whole shabang.

Rome: I've already decided this one is a no-kids trip.

The Netherlands: Don't know too much about them, errr, it....? but people we know have been there and loved it. There is a theme park there I've heard is great... even if the pictures on the website look a bit creepy. Isn't that where there's a lot of windmills and maybe wooden shoes and whatnot? (Man, I'm just so cultured it hurts!)

Germany/Switzerland/Austria: My dad will want to go there when he visits, he served his mission for our church there... a long long time ago. Jimmy D's grampa is from Germany, so his parents will want to go there when they visit, too. So, not this summer then.

Spain: It sound cool, and JimmyD speaks Spanish.. Ooo, and flan. About all we have to say, but good enough for me.

There's probably more- I didn't even mention Paris... I'm kind of "meh" about going there.

So, there you have the greatest dilemma facing us right now. Where to "holiday" in Europe. Life's rough, isn't it? ; )

The Super-Kick-Butt-Awesome, Very Good (British) Day

This post can be the yin to the last post's yang. (?) We had a great weekend, and so we thought we'd post about that and a few more of our good times. Our "brilliant" times.

A week-ish ago we thought we'd give the boys a break from all the errands and boringness, and went to a carnival. Or, here in Britland, a "Fun Fayre". There's that "y" again, jumping on in to all sorts of words. Here's a pic or two. Cap'n Jack's favorite was the bumper cars, or "dodge'ms", I think they called them, and Stinker liked the trampoline-bungee cord fun.

This weekend we went into London. There were some more car-related detours along the way, but they went much better than the last ones. We drove Jimmy D's car to the dealership to pick up my car. Then we left both cars there, making extra sure that they would not be sold or locked behind a gate when we returned, and took a double decker bus (!!!) to the train station. Except... we needed to be at the underground station instead. So, back onto another double decker for a 30 minute ride through town to the tube station. I was a little worried the kids would be frustrated at the long ride, but I guess riding on a double decker bus never gets old. I had fun people watching. I love the variety of people you find here. The closer you get to London, the more languages and accents you hear everywhere. I love how no matter where a person comes from, we're all really the same. This seems to be especially true about parents with their kids. You can see a woman in a hijab (the head scarves Arabic women wear) telling her toddler they aren't going to buy the candy today, a dad speaking Chinese (maybe) putting his baby's hat on his own head to get him to smile, or someone with a French accent picking up his kid's socks and shoes after the kid had bolted to the sandbox. Also interesting: there are British rednecks, and we found British oh-no-you-didn't z-snappin' ladies at McDonalds.

Back to our trip- we saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. One tower we passed was almost 1000 years old, and had a moat. It was the tower where some king stored his jewels and stuff. Yeah, aren't we educated? Who cares- it had a real moat!! We also wandered through some great parks along the way. The British Folks are serious about their "green spaces". We had promised Stinker a Happy Meal, so we trekked halfway across London to get to a very crowded McDonalds. I told him to enjoy it, because McDonalds really isn't worth that kind of trek. Or, in my opinion, any trek. When it was all over, I asked the boys what their favorite part of the day was. They both said riding the double decker bus and the tube. Here are some pictures from that day's adventure:

At a tube station, Cap'n Jack pulled out his camera to take a picture of two Bobbies. They were very nice and let the boys wear their hats for a picture, too.

Eating overpriced ice-cream cones at Westminster Abbey.

This poor guard's hat tipped over his eye during some marching, and he can't move to fix it! I kind of feel sorry for him, but mostly just enjoy mocking him.

Buckingham Palace, as seen from (maybe?) St. James Park.

Well, there you have it. Half-term holiday (I feel so Britishy saying that!) is next week, so we plan on having more fun trips to fill the gaping hole left from no school. I am also adding Jimmy D as an author to the blog, so be sure to watch for his posts. I'll try to change my blogger account name to Phyllis so you know who is posting. Right now it's Peanut Gallery, so if you see that, it's me- Phyllis. (And Phyllis is really me.)

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.

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.

House-hunting trip picture-rama

Hello, all. My brain is overloaded- we are home from our house-hunting trip, and now I am overwhelmed with the insanity of packing up, figuring out school things, timing our packing and shipping schedule, blah blah blah. I am still excited to be going, though, don't worry. Just a tired kind of excited.

Since my brain is such a jumbled mess, this post might be, too, but oh-well, here you go!

We were staying at the Grosvenor House (but say it like Super Grover with an "n" and without the "Super") which is right across the street from Hyde Park. We were too busy to actually see Hyde Park, well, at least closer than from across the street, but we will someday, right? On Saturday and Sunday we checked out areas we were interested in, on Monday we house-hunted, on Tuesday Jimmy D had a trade show and I was forced to sleep in until noon and then go shopping, Wednesday we house-hunted some more, Wednesday night we debated and then debated some more over which house to choose, Thursday Jimmy D went into the office and I took the train to check out the area where the house we chose is, and then Friday we flew home. Phew!

Here are some pics for an overview. I will do some little posts tomorrow with details when I take breaks from the chaos.

Jimmy D headed to the Ministry of Magic:



The biggest lamb-i-est burrito in the world from Cafe Naz in Brick Lane: (mmmmmmm)



A very good summing up of our first night there- the rose they gave me as we left Cafe Naz, my umbrella, all against the backdrop of the Picadilly Line Tube Car:



Poor Jimmy D was ready to strangle all the "car-hire" places in Greater London for closing at noon on a Saturday.



The place that was finally open was right in the busy center of London. Here we see Jimmy D realizing we were both, quite possibly, about to die. Or maybe hit a few people or cafe chairs at the very least:



See? This was the intersection about 30 seconds after we started driving. Run, people, run!!



Ehh he he he he heeeeee:



Here's the Tube. We giggled every time the polite Britishy automated female tube voice told us we were on the train to Cockfosters. Juvenille, but c'mon, you'd giggle too, admit it:



These, my friends, are the most exclusive part of our new house. Closets...er... wardrobes. Not a common thing there:



This is where you could be killed with a candlestick if you visit us:



The train station, umm, maybe at Chelmsford?:



Each morning at the hotel's fancy schmancy breakfast, the waitress looked shocked and amazed when I didn't want coffee. I guess all Americans are supposed to want coffee. When I also passed on tea, they would be at a loss for what to do next. So I had hot chocolate every morning, and that seemed to make it a little better since there was something hot they could pour for me. Plus, hey, hot chocolate for me:



Here is Regent St, between Oxford St. and Picadilly Circus:



One day while coming back to the hotel I ran across Narnia. Well, sort of. Right off a busy shopping section (Oxford St.) there is a tiny gap you can go into that opens up into a whole separate shopping street. It's called St Christopher's Place.:



The train from Liverpool St (Jimmy D will take this train to work, and we will use it to get into London) goes right past construction for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Here is the Olympic Stadium and the venue for the Swimming competitions:





And finally, here is a shot of Jimmy D, moments after stepping off a plane back home at the SLC airport. He was panicked to discover that there is no Mt Dew in the UK. If you visit, you have to bring some or we won't let you stay with us:



Okay, it isn't all that late, but I am exhausted, so I'm going to bed. More tomorrow, maybe, probably, well... we'll see...?

Vampires and Toilet Seat Covers...

...Step in Time! Umdiddleiddlee umdiddleye..... Vampires and Toilet Seat Covers, Step In Time!

We are on our house-hunting trip in London right now. Ya' know how I knew the trip was going to be awesome? Right off the bat, we saw a family of vampires. See?

Now, this picture doesn't do them justice, but right next to us at our gate, a group of similar-aged, diverse-looking, even-skinned beautiful teens sat down. I pointed them out as "The Cullens" to Jimmy D, but not with him being a Twilight fan, I had to explain what I was talking about. They seemed flattered when I explained why I wanted their picture, and then spent the rest of the time until our flight deciding amongst themselves who would be each Cullen.

Also, at the Chicago airport for our layover, I ran into this:

Behold, the awesome-ness of

the AUTOMATIC TOILET-SEAT COVER!!!

I have only seen this before once, and it is amazingly brilliant. It is a plastic cover for the toilet seat that rotates through to a clean sheet of plastic for you. No paper covers falling in or off, no one million strips of TP absorbing the mystery spots off the seat- just non-mystery, fresh sitting pleasure.

Ahhhhh......!

I have more posts for you, actually about London and not just the airport, but you might have to wait a day or two before I get to them. But I will. And they are going to be awesome.