Reunited

After 6+ months, Penny finally qualified for her PETS passport and made the trip.  She arrived yesterday and we were all happy to see her.  Of course, some more excited than others.  Owen did not want to leave the room until he had to go to bed.  AJ was not nearly as enthusiastic at first, but now she is all he talks about:  "Penny, ball, in, mouth, broke, ball",  "Whoa, Penny, fast",  "Penny, go, night-night, hmmm (his word for blanket because when you smell it smells so fantastic you go mmmm)".  Now all I need to do is find a way to keep him from driving his monster truck though her water bowl and all will be well.

Really

I am out of excuses.  Truth be told we have now had Internet for 4 weeks, but when I say 4 weeks that sounds like a long time, in our world, it seems like just yesterday. 

So, I guess I was delusional to think that we would move to England and I would have time.  Seriously, I thought that I would be able to hop on a train to London and see a museum with AJ.  You probably have no idea how crazy that idea really is.  First, why would I think that I could take AJ on a train?  Like he would morph personalities on the trip over?  Like somehow we were going to skip 18 months to 2 years all together?  Second, I'm not sure who I was thinking would pick up the kids from school, clean the house, pay the bills and do the laundry, but apparently it wasn't me.  I did plan on going very Euro and grocery shopping at the local market everyday, but waiting 2 hours for that minuscule washing machine to complete a cycle was not on my agenda.  Really, what was I thinking?

Actually, I know what I was thinking, I was thinking that life here would be like a big vacation, with lots of museums, walks, trips and adventures.  If you can imagine, I wanted things to be more foreign. I thought about small cars, better yet, bicycles, a cozy little house, local bakeries and shopping the markets, but was that unrealistic.  Life is, for the most part, the same here as it was in Michigan.  So, for me these past 2 months have been a mental coming to terms if you will.  

So, other than my psychological idiosyncrasies, things are going well - really well. The children love school, Sam likes his new job and we are pretty much settled in the new house. We still have paintings to hang and furniture to buy, but I think the same can be said for the house in Michigan. So, keep that in mind, and here is our life looks like in the UK: 

The Kitchen

Eating Area

Play Room

Powder Room (or Cloak Room as they call it) - Now I know you don't really care to see a bathroom, but I just wanted to draw attention to the fact that there are no toilet paper holders, mirrors or electrical outlets in any of the bathrooms. Keep in mind this is a new house - hunh?

Living Room

Dining Room

Laney's Room/Guest Room

Kids Bath 

AJ's Room

The Other Side of AJ's Room

Our Room

The Boy's Room

The Other Side of The Boy's Room (the Lego tent - my latest attempt to control the clutter)

Same furniture, same toys, same messes just a different house.  Although the stuff is pretty much the same, I hope that we walk away from these years changed people with our eyes just a bit more open to the differences and similarities too. 

Wikipedia Here She Comes

Do you think she might be channeling Gertrude Ederle?  Why else would she get to the UK and refuse to take those darned things off?  She wore them to school on Tuesday with her uniform.  It was interesting to watch the reactions of the other children and parents.  Perhaps we committed a faux pas?  Oh wait that's French.  Perhaps it was improper?  From the reactions she received, it was clear that Laney was the first to attempt such a thing.  I don't think there is a place in Wikipedia for her with this first, but keep working at it Lane.  Swimming the English Channel is taken, but I am sure there is something out there for you too.

Speaking of French, the boys have kept me laughing with their pronunciation of their new vocabulary words.  Their favorites at the moment are "zero" and "bois".  Both are said with a lot of enthusiasm and spit.  I imagine that is not proper either, but it sure is funny!

Stop The Presses

Well, in keeping with everything else that has happened thus far we are not moving into the house tomorrow. The inspection revealed that there was more to be done to the house. It had not been cleaned and the sub floor heating (the only heating) on the first floor does not work. So, the movers have been cancelled and we are now waiting to see what happens next. We'll keep you posted.  In the meantime, I might just need to make some more cookies.

Moving Day (Again)

Tomorrow is moving day!  Our inspection takes place this evening, we get the keys at 9 am tomorrow and the movers come at 9:30.  We are all so excited to get settled.  Unfortunately, all of this comes just when AJ has finally found something to amuse himself.  He loves to open and close the door and spin the barrel.   

Adaptation

The backyard at the Pump House (the place we are staying)

Everyone in Michigan is always complaining about the weather and, I have news for all of you Michiganders, the weather here is terrible too.  It is gray all of the time and it's cold. The temperature is not as cold as Michigan, but it's a damp biting cold.  Fortunately, there are some signs of spring here with bulbs beginning to sprout, but I think it will still be a while. 

In the meantime, I have some new favorite things:

• Radiators - you know they give off a really nice cozy heat.   
• Grocery delivery - well, the idea of it anyway.  All of the grocery stores deliver here and when you spend 50 pounds it is free.  It is really quite sophisticated here.  If you go into the store and purchase something, you can go on-line and it will be in your favorites.  I imagine I will get quite a bit of use out of this. 
• Prepared foods - Whilst (see, I am really getting into this) on the subject of grocery stores the prepared food isles here are amazing and, most importantly, the meals are really tasty and seem to be fairly healthy.
• Duvets - Man, I had no idea.  A fitted sheet, I think I would like all of them to be the "valance type", which is like a dust ruffle and sheet all in one and the duvet on top.  No top sheet to bunch up - brilliant!
• Jaffa Mini Cakes - Well, what can I say, they were on sale and they seem popular here, so I gave them a try.  I wish I hadn't.  With vanilla sponge cake, orange jam in a dark chocolate coating, they are like a fancy Ho-ho.  There are all kinds of jokes on the wrapper about "Jaffaholics Anonymous", but seriously, if I had a phone I might just call. 

There are a few things that I am still getting used to:

• The "other" side of the road - this is particularly hard when backing out of a driveway.
• 220v - it scares the bejesus out of me. 
• The 24 hour clock - way to much math.
• The plumbing - hmm I'll just leave it at that.
• Roundabouts - they really aren't free-for-alls.
• Carrying a sizable amount of money in coins - they coins worth 2 pounds!?
• Shifting the car with my left hand - I'm just not that coordinated.
• Writing the date in the day/month/year form - I guess I'm just thick because this is really hard to remember.
• Driving on "lanes" - sometimes I have to turn my head so I don't have anything in my peripheral vision otherwise I panic.  Really is is just plain SCARRY!
• Words like: football, trolleys, chips, biscuits, jumpers, trousers, car parks, coaches, lorries, bins, rubbish, and bits...- really this list could go on and on.
• The expression "cheers", which seems like it is used as a "thank you", oh, and maybe "you okay?" too - I'm really just not sure how to respond.
• The shopping carts with 4 pivoting wheels - can you say backache?

Whew, and that's just the beginning.  Adaptation - it's not as easy as it looks, but we are getting there.

Longing

We have been here for 3 1/2 weeks now and I've got to tell you I needed a chocolate chip cookie. The biscuits are fine and all, but I wanted that taste of home.  AJ has been a challenge to say the least and it seems that every little thing that could go wrong has, so I needed to drown my sorrows in a little butter, brown sugar, vanilla and melty chocolate chips. 

I bought all of the ingredients at the store, which was a bit of a challenge.  I guess they really don't use chocolate chips here because all I could find was a tiny 100g bag of chips and those were $1.60.  The next challenge arose when I went to mix up the dough and he measuring cup was in liters.

You know I have been wearing the same pair of shoes since we got here, but I did manage to pack my favorite chocolate chip recipe.  It, of course, uses American measurements, so there were a lot of conversions on the computer, but fortunately, butter, sugar, vanilla and flour tastes good in grams too. 

At Least Something Is Going Right

Laney completed her first week of school and she loved every minute of it!  I take her to school with the boys (who she sees during the day and appropriately harasses) and pick her up just after lunch.  She also gets to wear a uniform, learn French and swim.  After the first day she ran around to every teacher she could find and gave them a hug, but the true test was passed when she wanted to go back the next day. 

First Day of School

The boys started school today and loved it!  We had a lot of clothes to put on today and I imagine by the end of this school year I will be an expert at tying neckties.  We have been running around trying to get everything put together here and at the same time trying to establish a routine.  The time difference has been a challenge too, but we are getting there.  So far so good.

The Ritz - Or Something Like It Anyway

Our new place is awesome.  It is clean and spacious and each child has his/her own bed.  The kitchen has everything we need and the garden is amazing even in the snow.  One of the best parts is the view.  We get to look at this:

It is St Mary Magdalene Church, built in the 14th century. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the weather vane that in on the steeple in the photo - it's a rooster and I think I need one! 

Trekking

Today was Sam's first day at work, so the children and I decided to take a walk to a park that the front desk clerk told us was a 10 minute walk.  I'm pretty sure minutes are still minutes here, but it was not a 10 minute walk.  After walking up a hill on a 18 inch wide sidewalk with 4 children and cars whizzing by for 45 minutes, we decided to turn around.  I kept thinking that it has to be just around this next bend and, although it was scary as anything, it was really beautiful with horses and quintessential little English cottages all around.  The children were growing weary and when we finally came to a little village and met the nicest woman who told us we still had a ways to go and we had better get the car we headed back.

Fortunately, we were met at the hotel with some good news.  Sam found a place for us -laundry, Internet and a kitchen.  Things are starting to look up here in England. Tomorrow we will move out of the dump and get the boys fitted for their uniforms. 

The Hatchback

Today was our first full day in England and I spent most of it in the hatchback of a Ford Focus. Go ahead and just take a moment to get that mental image.  It was a bit humiliating to crawl out of the back of the car, but I suppose I should be thankful we were not assigned a sedan... Anyway, the cars we ordered will not be ready for a month or so, so we have been issued pool cars and, unfortunately, they will not accommodate all of us unless someone rides in the trunk. I was chicken to drive, so I was cargo. Maybe chicken is a bit harsh, I just did not want my first experience driving on the other side of the road to be with a car full of family. After running some errands including picking up the second car the children needed to rest, so I mustered up my courage and set out to find a stroller, alone.


Yes, we forgot a stroller  We intended to bring an umbrella stroller, but as we were driving to DTW we realized that it was not in the stack.  We were bound to forget something, but the stroller?  Anyway, I made my way to the high street (that is what they call the main street downtown), parked the car and did my shopping without incident. As I was driving I thought that when I damage the car it will be to the left side because I really lack depth perception and everything from the parking spaces to the roads are much more narrow than they are at home.  I can just see myself taking off the side of the car.

Unfortunately, the first car related incident happened much earlier than I would have imagined.  You see, as I was returning from the shopping trip, I was driving along and all of a sudden I heard a pop and then another. Before I knew it, there was a huge crack in the windshield. It is really quite cold here and I turned on the defroster and 2 minutes into the drive, pow! So, we will be adding windshield repair to the "to do" list.

Can you believe it?  We have a joke in our family about the 10%. You know, when the repair man comes to the house and says he has been doing this for 30 years and he has never seen anything like it before.  Yep, that is me, I'm special that way and apparently my talent is not limited to the US.

Accommodations

Our hotel is a dump - moldy bathrooms, sagging ceiling tiles, dirty toilets, smudged water glasses and stained carpets.  Now I know that I have a bit of a reputation for being, um, particular shall we say, but this really was horrible.  See:

 How are you supposed to get clean in here?

This was the ceiling just outside our room.

My personal favorite - the stair well.

I was prepared to camp for a bit, but it was worse than I expected.  Our hotel rooms are not "family rooms".  They are regular rooms with sofa beds crammed into them and the drink refrigerators do not keep anything cold so we can't even keep milk for AJ.  They want $22 for a personal pizza in the restaurant and there is very little within walking distance.  Plus, have I mentioned it is filthy. I think I hit bottom when I found out that Internet access is $125 a week and there is no way to do laundry except to send it out.  Our underwear alone would be $163.  Long story short, okay so not so short, we are looking for other arrangements.

The Voyage

Would you like to see how see how we got to the airport?  Here it is:

We had 4 children, 2 adults, 16 pieces of check on luggage (including the 3 car seats), 8 carry-ons and 1 giant car seat.  In the shuttle we had all 4 car seats lined up in the back and the kids loved it!

As usual Spencer took care of everyone (check out their hair - there was so much static even AJ's few little strands stood on end):

I must admit, I was feeling pretty good about the day of travel when AJ slept in and took a great nap before getting on the shuttle to DTW. He had a blast with Spencer on the shuttle, but the minute we got into the airport, he threw a fit and if you know AJ you know what I mean by "a fit".  For those of you that don't know him that means among other things, ear piercing shreiking, a crimson face and violent shaking. Fun! This was the first of many including several on the plane.  He threw the mother of all fits when he didn't want to sit in his car seat and stiffened his body so that I could not get the straps buckled - I thought for sure people were going to start throwing things at us.  At that point I am not sure who was more red, AJ or me.  It was a long flight made longer by a 1 hour delay on the runway, but we landed without being pelted by other passengers.


Amazingly, we made it off the plane and through customs, only to arrive to a "frozen Britain".  The BBC was abuzz with the biggest snow storm since 1965.  Can you believe it?  So much for saying good-bye to the snow. 

A Michigan Sendoff

We are less than 24 hours from the big departure and lets just say I am less than pleasant to be around and leave it at that. 

     

On a different note, Michigan came through for us at the last moment dumping a bunch of snow in our yard.  The kids love the snow.  Don't ask me why, but they do.  I must admit that it is really beautiful around here when it snows and that sound of the snow squishing under your boots - it really is serene.  Anyway, this was are real first snow of the year and it could not have come at a better time.  It was just enough for the kids to play in, but not enough to cause life to come to a screeching halt.  The only thing that came to a halt was our outing when I realized that I packed AJ's snowsuit.  Fortunately, (hee, hee) I had one of Laney's old suits in the closet.  I don't really think he noticed - he had work to do.

At the end of the day, with the dripping boots and noses I think I am glad that we will bypass this for a few years.  Yes, mom, this is a public apology - we're sorry, but we will be back before you can say "snow-blower" 10 times fast.

Ready Set Go

We had a great Christmas and hope you did too.  Although it was our last holiday in this house for a few years, we did not linger.  There is, of course, no time for that!  The tree was down before we could say "Happy New Year" and we were on to the next thing - packing. 

The movers have come and gone and we are, for the most part, ready to go.  We received our visas yesterday afternoon, so we will be boarding the plane Saturday.  Once we arrive, we will move into a hotel until February 5th when our house is ready.  I think we are all quite excited, slightly nervous, a bit sad, and a touch exhausted. Okay, maybe more than a touch... I guess it is England or bust!

Our Latest Adventure

Glad you found us.  Yes, it's true we are packing up and heading to England for the next 3 years.  The movers are coming the 28th and we'll hop on a plane as soon as our visas are here.  The last few months have been filled with a spectrum of emotions: excitement, panic attacks, frustration with the experts and consultants that don't seem to have a clue, and, most importantly, worry about selling the whole idea of leaving a new house and friends to the children.  So, there are a few more gray hairs, a few butterflies and many promises of castle tours and train rides. 

We'll keep you posted about our progress, but for now here is the house and school we chose when we took our trip to Essex a few weeks ago.  Unfortunately, there weren't any homes with thatched roofs available, so we wound up with this modern number.  Although I am still getting used to the idea of a house without beams in the ceiling and a walk in fireplace, this house has a lot of nice amenities that will make our transition a lot easier (the, ah hem, bathrooms for one). 

Unlike the home, the school we chose is quite traditional.  The children are required to wear uniforms and they must eat the school lunch.  Spencer was less than thrilled to hear about the lunches, but I bought him 8 jars of peanut butter to take with him just in case he comes home from school starving.  They do have peanut butter there, but it is not as popular as it is here and the selection is very limited.  Sam and I checked at least 4 different stores to find the best supply.   Anyway, the school seems great with small class sizes (around 12) and the children will learn French and swimming is part of the curriculum.  We just hope they will call for help in English when the are drowning in the pool due to a lack of body fat from being forced to look at things like butcher's sausage and peas on their plates.   

It will be a new experience for us all.  Personally, I'm terrified of driving in the UK and petrified of taking a driving test.  I am sure we will all survive our new challenges, but there might be a story or two along the way. 

We are looking forward to our new adventure and whatever it brings our way - we hope you will join us for a story or two.

Sam, Heather,

AJ, Owen, Spencer, Laney

(aka ALSO)

We are an American family of 6 living in England.  Welcome to our adventure.