An American Family in England

Happy happy Spring!

2008-03-23T17:33:00.013Z

Happy Spring or Easter or Sunday - whichever suits you! Enjoy these pictures; the first few are from last week at the park and the rest are from this weekend. The little people sure are growing, aren't they?

Just click on any picture to enlarge it, if you are so inclined.

Earthquake!

2008-02-27T01:05:00.002Z

Recently, we got a new camera - a nice digital SLR that Brandon has been having a lot of fun with. We have some great new pictures of the kids to post...but not tonight. Tonight, instead, you can hear about the earthquake we just experienced.

Well, technically, no one else even knows about it yet. It's 1 a.m., and I'm up working while everyone else is sleeping upstairs. I was sitting at my desk typing, when I suddenly heard a very low grumble. The room felt like it was shaking for a few brief seconds that honestly seemed like much longer. The shaking wasn't bad - just like the dizziness that you feel after a few drinks or after standing up too quickly. I couldn't even believe it was happening at first (I thought I had imagined it somehow), but I confirmed it with a friend who lives nearby - it was definitely an earthquake!

I have always been afraid to go to the West coast because I find the idea of earthquakes terrifying. While this one wasn't bad, it totally confirmed my suspicion that I would not do well in earthquake country! I have lived through really scary and dangerous tornadoes many times, which many people say they would hate to experience, but I'd honestly prefer tornadoes to earthquakes. At least you usually get some warning with tornadoes!

It's back to work for me now, with a new goal to get done and to sleep as soon as possible so I'm not awake for any further potential tremors.

Holidazed: Part Two

2007-12-28T14:54:00.001Z

As promised, here are lots of pictures of the kids opening gifts! We let them open some early (because we're big softies), but most of them had to wait for Tuesday morning. Thanks to Santa, Mom and Dad, and lots of relatives back home, there were lots and lots of surprises.

Please ignore the baskets of laundry. At least it's clean laundry.

I think this one is my favorite. It's Caelum in mid-jump after getting a really cool toy.

We'd like to give a big thank you to everyone who sent gifts and cards for the kids - and for the grownups, too! Though we still miss our families very much, it's nice to know that you're all still thinking of us. The kids enjoyed their gifts very much! Happy new year to everyone, and we hope your days are filled with peace and love.

Holidazed: Part One

2007-12-28T13:16:00.000Z

Happy holidays! We hope you all had a great Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, or any other wintery holiday (or, if you don't celebrate one, we hope you just had a happy week). We have been having a great time getting ready for presents and guests, then enjoying the results of all of those preparations. I cooked and baked for three days in order to give out some candy/cookie plates and make special dinners for the 24th and the 25th. The first night, of course, we did our traditional lentils and fish (this year we ate real fish, but I think I prefer the faux fish cakes from last year), and the next night we hosted some friends for a large vegan dinner. We had an interesting group here that night: our family is non-religious, the family who joined us are Wiccan, and the single friend we had over is Catholic. It was neat to share a meal together despite the different things that the day meant to all of us.

So on the 23rd, we started working on all of the delicious treats to deliver to friends and neighbors. I was sensible and only planned to make a few things, but when it was all done it looked like a lot more than I'd intended! Casey the Kinderbot was my scarecrow, protecting the treats from kids' hands.

I think the kids had the most fun decorating the gingerbread men. See that one in the back that's absolutely covered in red-hots? Olivia was very proud of that one.

This was our very simple lentils and fish dinner. I also made some French bread (because I always manage to ruin rye bread or we would have had that), and we (of course) had white wine for the grownups and "kid wine" for the kids. Those candles are our new LED flameless candles, which are not only more environmentally friendly (er, well, as long as you use rechargeable batteries) but safer around the kids as well.

For some reason, I didn't take any pictures of the dinner I made for the 25th! I think I was too tired to worry about it by the time it was all ready. We had roasted vegetables (potatoes, parsnips, carrots, butternut squash, onions and garlic), yeast rolls, brussels sprouts, garlic-infused green beans (thanks to Miss Teph), veg gravy, and stuffed peppers. I also made some spinach dip and served it in a bread bowl, which was lots of fun and looked awesome.

Now, the desserts I DID take pictures of, mostly because I'd made them a day ahead. I decided to try a traditional English trifle, and I must say I'm still baffled by this dessert. Why so many desserts all crammed into one dish? There's cake on the bottom (sponge cake with a layer of raspberry jam in the middle), then gelatin (actually, a vegetarian gelatin substitute for us) poured on top (which I was later told was not right - it should have been just juice), then a layer of fresh raspberries, a layer of custard, and finally a layer of whipped cream and some more fresh raspberries on top. And voila! You end up with a gigantic dessert that weighs as much as one of the kids. Even with all of the non-dairy and egg-free substitutions, it was well received and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

That dish, by the way, is seriously the size of a punch bowl. That is a HUGE dessert.

I also made coconut pie with fresh coconuts. Pounding open the coconuts and prying the flesh out of the shells was so fun! Like everything else, this was vegan but no one seemed to notice a difference. Look at the mommy pie and the cute little baby pies!

The most fun part of the holidays, according to the kids, is the presents! We decided to let them each open up a few gifts Monday evening. Then they woke up early on Tuesday morning to a living room chock full of bright packages. Pictures of the gift-opening madness is soon to follow!

Parenting Lessons

2007-12-22T23:32:00.000Z

The kids are always teaching me. It doesn't matter how long I've been a parent - they never fail to come up with something new and fascinating every day. They think in a different way than I do, and I love that they are so inquisitive and eager to try new things. This comes to mind because of a dinnertime experience I had with Olivia a couple of days ago. Most people know (or can guess) how difficult it is to get a three-year-old to eat vegetables. You'd think it would be easier for my kids, being very nearly vegetarian, but they're all about the bread, fruit, and potatoes. Caelum is old enough to eat whatever we ask him to (such a good boy) and Ruby eats enough of the healthy stuff to get by, but Livi...ah, Livi has a very strong mind. She won't do what she doesn't want to do, no matter what.

So we're in the middle of dinner, and Liv is having trouble with her veggies. She doesn't want to eat them, but she knows that she won't get a crescent roll until she does. What a dilemma.

I pulled her onto my lap, hoping to convince her to eat some broccoli. On her way from her chair to mine, she caught sight of her reflection in the glass patio door. She loves to look at the reflections in the doors when it's dark outside and light inside - she calls the girl in the reflection "Ghost Lala," and of course the rest of us have "ghost" versions as well. She treats Ghost Lala like an entirely different person, talks to her and plays games with her. That sounds a little creepy now that I type it but it's really very cute. So I decided to use this quirk of hers to my Mommy advantage: I told her that Ghost Lala really likes crescent rolls, but she can't have one until she eats her bowl of vegetables. I said that Olivia could help Ghost Lala by showing her how to eat her vegetables, and then Ghost Lala could have a nice roll. And to my amazement, it worked. That little girl ate every bite of her vegetables, looking at her reflection the whole time. She then shared a crescent roll with Ghost Lala, and spent the rest of the evening looking very proud of herself for helping her friend earn a yummy treat.

Random picture goodness

2007-12-20T19:15:00.000Z

Some recent photos for your viewing enjoyment...

Caelum on Thanksgiving, drinking "kid wine" in the way that he thinks grownups drink real wine. And corrupting our friends' daughter in the process.

My birthday present from Brandon, wrapped entirely in recycled materials.

Decorating our tree...

I think she's a poker whiz in the making.

Ruby is acting very tough.

Livi eating "worms" (string cheese).

Shocking!

Even shockinger!

On the farm

2007-12-03T00:35:00.000Z

I haven't gotten any new pictures of the kids yet (cars and cameras: two things that seem unable to function reliably around us), but I just got this in my inbox from my mom. It made me smile with a little tear in my eye. This is me with mom's new husband, Phil, in front of their new house in the country.

Home again

2007-11-18T08:44:00.000Z

When I traveled back to the US last week to attend my dear grandmother's funeral, I was surprised to learn that so many people missed reading our blog. I had assumed that only a few people read it and that no one was missing the periodic updates. Well, apparently our little corner of the internet has quite a following among family and friends, so I have been asked to revive it and, in the words of one very sweet relative, "START POSTING SOME PICTURES OF THOSE KIDS!" Ask and you shall receive:

Most people who came to mom's house in Glenwood were already treated to all of these photos and more, so I will have to get on getting some new photos to put up here.

It was really good to see so many friends and family while I was back there. I really wish I could have afforded to bring the kids. Thank you so much to everyone who traveled to the memorial service in Louisville, and to everyone who traveled to Glenwood just to see me. Spending a whole day with Aunt Betty and Uncle Jim was a special treat that I'll always, always be grateful for.

Holiday

2007-04-24T07:10:00.000+01:00

For those of you who haven't heard by now, the Prague trip I had planned for this week fell through. Things just didn't align the way I wanted them to and I am postponing the exploration of that city until another time when circumstances are more convenient. I am still extremely grateful to everyone who passed on family information for me to research while there, and hopefully I will still take that trip at some point before we move home.

However, not wanting to waste the time that we'd already arranged for me to be out of the country, I have decided to jet off to Rome for a few days. I'll be staying in downtown Rome in a small hostel and wandering around in the rich history of the city by day. I'm hoping for a relaxing time, a break away from school and dirty dishes and soggy weather (let's hope, anyway). This is my first time away from all of the kids and it'll hurt like crazy, but with Brandon leaving soon I think it's something I should definitely do for myself.

Not that I post here often enough for anyone to notice a 6-day absence, but in case you do...well, it's because I'm soaking up a lovely Italian wine and watching the sun set over the Colosseum.

Picasa

2007-04-19T02:20:00.000+01:00

For the rest of the Stonehenge photos, please visit my Picasa album!

Sorry.

2007-04-15T10:22:00.000+01:00

I didn't exactly forget to post the rest of the pictures - I've just been having problems uploading them to Blogger. In the interest of retaining some sanity and getting an important school paper done on time, I'm afraid they'll have to wait a bit longer.

While I've got your attention, though, I'd like to let all of you Omaha South High alumni know that there is an online forum for all of us to keep in touch. I'm the moderator of the 1990s section! (Yes, technically I am not an alumnus because I got my GED rather than graduating from South, but that doesn't seem to bother webmaster and very cool guy Dave, who was a friend of mine in school and is now the school's theatre director.) So if you attended South and would like to keep in touch with old friends or make some new ones, please have a look at the Omaha South High Alumni Association Message Board.

2007-04-14T00:56:00.000+01:00

You've all been very gently nudging me to come back and post here more often. While I don't have the energy to post anything substantial (or entertaining) at the moment after our very long day, enjoy these photographs of our visit to Stonehenge taken earlier today. There's one more thing I can cross off of my list of things to do before I die!

Since it takes about 10 years to upload photos to Blogger and it's already way too late, I'm going to have to put the rest off until tomorrow. Feel free to continue email-bombing me if I should forget to post the rest. :)

In place of some news, how about a movie?

2007-01-26T17:21:00.000Z

Couldn't they think of a better name for it than "BS"?

2006-11-17T07:50:00.000Z

A number of you have asked what I'm doing in school. I've wondered the very same thing many times over the last few weeks (har, har).

The short story is I'm attending Upper Iowa University online, studying for a BS in Health Services Administration.

The long story is: I don't have much of a choice where school is concerned since I'm overseas. I have to attend an American school if I want to have any hope of paying for it since I'm depending partially on Pell Grants. I registered with a school early this summer and was going for a BA in English, but their shaky billing practices scared me off and I withdrew before classes began, vowing to never, ever do business with that particular school again. Unfortunately, they were the only school I could find through the base Education Office that offered an English degree, so I had to fall back on one of my other interests: health care. I harbored delusions of being a doctor at one point many, many years ago...and then I went on a tour of one of the learning hospitals* in Omaha and got to see the cadaver room. After that, I gave up both eating meat and wanting to be a doctor. But I've always held on to an interest in health care, and being educated in administration will mean that several career avenues will be open to me once I graduate. I hope to some day earn a graduate degree in Holistic Nutrition, focusing on the prevention of disease through optimal diet.

The terms at UIU Online only last 8 weeks, and we're now in Week 4. I'm almost halfway done with my first two classes! This term I'm taking English 102 (Advanced Composition) and Intro to American Health Services. It's been rough because they're both challenging classes, and I've been losing lots of sleep. But I'm keeping my eyes on the prize, as they say, and trying to remember that it's definitely worth it.

*If you read this post earlier, you will notice that I just now replaced "learning colleges" with the more correct "learning hospitals." Now perhaps you know why I have to take another English class.

Happy Birthday, Olivila

2006-11-12T23:27:00.000Z

My poor littlest monkey. She's the youngest, so she gets picked on constantly. She has hardly any hair, and what she does have on top is all spiky and crazy. I never buy her new clothes of her own because she's growing into clothes just as Ruby is growing out of them. She probably never gets to have a toy to herself for more than 15 seconds before one of her siblings steals it from her. But the worst thing of all? She has about 20 nicknames.

She is, of course, formally Olivia Jade. But she's been known as Lala, Livi, Liv, Livia, Olivi-la, Livi-la, Lalalalala, O.J., Leeeeeeveeeeee, Monkey Number 3, and OLIVIA JADE, PUT THAT DOWN RIGHT THIS MOMENT! No wonder her hair is so crazy - she's too busy trying to figure out who she is to tame those locks.

Happy birthday to my tiny monkey, who turned two whole years old today. She is a very special child: she's the only one of the kids who smiles when she's sick, she eats mashed potatoes with her fingers, she carries around a notebook for drawing pretty scribbles in, and she feeds toy trucks to her dolls. And, as you can tell from the above photo, she's a fashion queen and loves to wear lots and lots of clothes all at once.

Less than a year ago we were so worried about her health. Her doctor found a heart murmur that we had to get checked out at the hospital. Luckily, she's fine, but I've never lost that new appreciation that I felt for her when we thought she might be sick. It's easy to take our kids for granted because they are always (and I mean ALWAYS) there, but it's pretty great when you can look at them through new eyes and remember the bliss that you felt when you saw them for the very first time. I am a pretty lucky mom to have three little miracles trashing my house, stepping on my feet and refusing to eat my nutritious meals.

This is a picture that Caelum drew several months ago, just after Brandon bought the laptop. Brandon was annoyed with the girls because they kept trying to climb on and play with the computer while he was using it, so Caelum came up with the idea of a clear "safebox" for Daddy to work in. That's me with the big gnarly eyebrows, apparently being the guardian of the box (are those chicken wings where my arms used to be?). Daddy is inside the box, saying "HaHa" because the girls can't get in. Ruby is happy, Olivia has giant ears, and Caelum is behind me and (I think) holding up his new lunch box. Why am I twice the size of Brandon? Why does Caelum look like he has a lunch box for a body? Why is there a big empty box outside of the safe box? Because Caelum is great, that's why.

Halloween...and other things

2006-11-06T11:06:00.000Z

This is my favorite time of year. It's cool enough outside to feel crisp and clean, and you have to wear a coat but not a hat or gloves, and there are crunchy red and orange leaves all over the streets. Shops are just starting to sneak a few Christmas displays out and while the vivid color is slowly draining from the grass and trees it's finding its way into bright cheery garland and orbs in shop windows. The people have mostly lost the manic summer excitement that causes August streets to be crowded with shouting teens and running children, and they are settling in now for calmer activities and peaceful days out full of hot chocolate and holiday shopping.

Our Halloween was fantastic, even more so since we knew what to expect this year. Last year it was a surprise to see so many people in our tiny estate, but this time we knew what was coming and bought much more candy. We took the kids out for about an hour, then when Caelum said he was cold and tired we came home to pass out sweets. Last year we only had enough to last about 20 minutes, but this year I think there was enough for about 45 minutes. There were some very disappointed kids when we ran out, and later I regretted not giving them those boxes of instant stuffing we've had in the cupboard for the last year. I figure that as long as they're begging at my door for food I shouldn't let them go away empty handed. Maybe next year.

And here's what you're really here for: pictures of the costumes! In case you can't tell, Olivia is a purple winged unicorn, Ruby is Hello Kitty, Caelum is Batman Beyond (or, as he calls it, BATMAN OF THE FUTURE), Brandon was Zeus (he says he was Socrates, but trust me - it was a Zeus costume) and I was kind of a witch. I say kind of because I didn't plan my outfit but threw some stuff on 30 minutes before we left.

Those are chewed up Oreos in Ruby's mouth in the last picture. She's gross.

In other news, I think that my novel-writing efforts are going to have to be elongated a bit. I started school about two weeks ago and it's taking so much more of my time than I thought it would. Between my normal Mommy Stuff and school, I don't seem to have enough time to dedicate to my book to have it finished within the month. I'm disappointed that I can't meet the challenge, but hopefully it will be finished by this time next year.

And speaking of school and Mommy Stuff, I have things to do!

NaNoWriMo

2006-10-06T08:37:00.000+01:00

After considering it for the last year or so, I've decided to participate in this year's National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Every November, insane writers around the world (making the "National" part seem a little weird, but WoWiNoWriMo just doesn't sound as good) go on a 30 day-long caffeine induced writing binge, and attempt to produce a 50,000 word work of fiction in that time. Next month, I'll be among those insane writers. Not that I post here very often anyway, but don't expect to see much of me at all in November. Hopefully I will be spending every moment that I can pry myself away from the kids at the laptop in some remote location (i.e. the bedroom) pounding out a productive little rhythm on the keyboard.

I have to love anything that encourages me to eat chocolate, pamper myself, drink lots of coffee, and be creative.

My goal for participating in this event is to overcome that paralyzing fear that's always stopped me from attempting to write a book. I'm so scared that it will be terrible, or that I won't have anything to say, or that since I've never had any formal training my writing will seem juvenile. But NaNoWriMo encourages newbies like myself to get their feet wet, find out what the creative process is all about, and do something new. (I vaguely remember "Do something new and terrifying" was on my list of forgotten New Year's resolutions this year, so that works out nicely.) Regardless of how it turns out or how rubbish I think it is in the end, at least I will have done it. After all (to go out with a much-loved quote) a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Car killers

2006-09-25T08:59:00.000+01:00

I can't believe I haven't posted in nearly a month. I have a good excuse (kind of) for two of those weeks, though. Brandon's parents came for a visit, and he took that week and the following week off of work. It was a much-needed break for him, but I tend to be lazy about housework (and that includes blog posting because I subscribe to a very loose definition of "housework") when he's around. I guess I'm also a little fed up because it's seemed that things are all going wrong lately. I don't like sharing when the news isn't happy. But, in the interest of keeping everyone in the loop regarding our lives, I'll fill you all in on the last few weeks.

Actually, the story starts about four months ago, when Brandon took his Golf in for an MOT. It's a test that every car in the UK over a certain age has to undergo (and pass) annually in order to be deemed roadworthy. The car failed with a few minor things and one not-quite-as-minor thing; the repair quote we were given was just over £400, or about $750. We couldn't afford it at the time, so we decided to sell the Golf and just rely on the minivan until after the first of the year, when we'd try to get a new car for Brandon with our tax refund. Well, a few months later the van started making unpleasant noises, and when we had it towed to a garage we were told that the engine needed to be rebuilt, at a cost of £4500 or about $9000. We definitely couldn't afford that, so we had it towed back and dropped in the driveway. We scrambled around for a while, trying to find a loan, but it's incredibly hard to get a loan in our circumstances: my credit is good, but I have no personal income. Brandon's credit is bad, but he's the one who makes the money. His parents thankfully came to our rescue (again!) and loaned us enough to fix the Golf so we'd at least have one working vehicle. Brandon made an appointment with the garage to get the repairs done, then went outside to switch the positions of the cars in the driveway. Of course, the Golf refused to start because, well, that's just the way things are going lately.

So we rearranged our plans again, and decided to buy a car that our neighbors were selling. We now have three cars, two of which do not work. It would be great to just get rid of the Golf and the minivan, but we still owe $10,000 on the van, and even if we scrapped it we'd still be paying off that loan for the next three years or so. I have been lazy about selling the Golf, but I'm going to have to do it on eBay and I'm just not savoring the thought of all of that hassle. I'm hoping to get at least £100 out of it since there are a lot of VW enthusiasts who might be interested in it, but I'm not holding my breath. It's 15 years old and doesn't even start. So we're now paying off two loans, one from Brandon's parents and one for the remainder of the price of the car (we paid half up front and are making payments on the rest), and we can't even think about a loan to fix the van until those are all paid off.

We learned a few things about public transport for those several weeks when we didn't have a car; most importantly (I think) that the train is fantastic and I would take it everywhere if I could. Secondly, it takes two and a half hours to get to the base from our house by public bus, so we have to have a car. We can walk to the local grocery store, but since the dollar is worth half the value of a pound, we pay twice as much if we don't shop on base.

Luckily, Brandon was promoted a couple of weeks ago and his pay raise takes effect on his next paycheck. We certainly aren't hurting for money, but we have never put anything away into savings. We have been planning to do so for the last few years, but for some reason just never got around to it. It seems that our budget always expands to use up the exact amount of money that's coming in, so that there's no room for savings. We definitely need to work on that, and I hope this will teach us a lesson about putting something away for a rainy day.

But regardless of our vehicle woes, we're all doing very well. I just feel so grateful that our problems center around transportation and not our health or anything else gravely serious. We're a lucky bunch of people who just happen to have a knack for killing vehicles. Thank goodness we're all happy and healthy, and not having a car always available has encouraged us to walk more often, which makes all of us (and the planet) a little healthier.

I'll include a few photos here since I know I'm a perpetual slacker in that department. This was just over a week ago, at the Sheep Park where we had a picnic and played all day. The girls are saying "These neckaweens [nectarines] have buuuuuuuuutts!" I'm not really sure what Caelum is doing.

Fate

2006-08-26T12:17:00.000+01:00

Fate's a funny thing, isn't it? Sometimes it can steer you to make just the right decisions, or cause circumstances to align in just the right way. It can lead you to talk to the stranger in the shop who just happens to be your perfect match, or the stranger in the bar who happens to be an art dealer who really digs the little doodles you're doing on your cocktail napkin.

And once in a while, it causes your only form of transportation to break down with a huge, expensive, major problem which then leads you to apply for an emergency loan from the Air Force Aid Society just days before the breadwinner of the household is due to get a raise for exactly the amount that you think the monthly loan payment will be. Thanks, fate. Next time I'd just prefer a winning lottery ticket, though.

Kick me.

2006-08-23T15:49:00.000+01:00

I was informed very ~~pointedly~~ politely yesterday morning that I never update this blog and that I am, in fact, slowly killing my mother by depriving her of pictures. Sorry, mom.

Truthfully, I've been frustrated with Blogger and not feeling inspired to write anything interesting. Plus when I tried to do this update, my browser crashed and I couldn't recover all of the typing I'd already done. Then Blogger crashed, then the uploads were interrupted three times. I'm not making this stuff up. It's just a cruddy connection out here in the middle of the country. So there you go - weak excuses at best, but it's sort of a reflex when my mother tells me her heart is breaking because I'm so lazy. Again: sorry, mom. Thanks for the shin-kick-by-email.

I'm just going to post a ton of pictures from the last couple of months - it's a huge pain to sort them all out and add commentary to each one, and you don't read that stuff anyway. You're just here for the cute kids. Go on, admit it. There are some from Caelum's birthday, some from Ruby's birthday, some with Caelum in London, and a few random ones. And they're in no particular order because Blogger will only upload 5 at a time, and the different batches get all mingled, and...have I mentioned I'm frustrated with Blogger?

I cut the front of Ruby's hair really short because it's a pain to get her to sit still for a trim, so I just do them super short and then I don't have to trim them for a few months. The first time we walked into the commissary after her haircut, the woman at the till, who we're on friendly terms with, got this wide-eyed expression and asked "Did someone get into the scissors?" I said "Yes. It was me." She made a noise like I was joking, then saw that I wasn't and said "YOU did THAT?" Who said British people were always polite? That had me laughing for at least a week.

Those are all I can find at the moment that look interesting enough to post. I am pretty sure that Grandma Pat and Grandpa Mike will be taking lots of photos when they come visit us in a couple of weeks! We're all very excited, and the kids ask us all the time when our visitors will be here.

Caelum is starting 2nd Grade on Monday. It was weird enough that he had his seventh birthday last month, but now he's in 2nd Grade? I remember being a perfectly sentient little person at that age, and I remember almost everything from that year now, 18 years later. Does that mean that now I can't justify being really embarassing in public by saying "Eh, he won't remember it in a few years anyway"?

The neighbor girls have recenty decided to use my daughters as dress-up dolls. It works out well for everyone, I think: the kids get to play with their friends, the neighbor girls get to play Mommy for a while, and I get some much-needed time to update this poor, sad, neglected blog. I promise to dig through some of the older photos soon and look for some more to post, just to catch everyone up. Though I'll steer away from any more photos of my facial hair. That's what happens when the drugstore runs out of mustache bleach.

I give up.

2006-07-27T16:13:00.000+01:00

Blogger won't upload photos from the Mac, the internet connection is dodgy lately, and the PC is infected with super-gnarly spyware. So I'm giving up the idea of posting the pictures I promised a week ago. Because technology hates me.

Happy birthday, Dude.

2006-07-21T00:19:00.000+01:00

Technically it's no longer Caelum's birthday here, but I've been trying for ages to upload some pictures for a post, and Blogger doesn't like the laptop. So I'll have to content myself for the moment with saying that Caelum had an excellent birthday. He got cards and letters from a lot of people who he loves very much, and after dinner tonight he got to open his gifts: a ton of books, some new shirts, a World Cup replica football (soccer ball, if you're in the US), inflatable football goals, a Phlat Ball, and the game Operation. Not to mention the money he received in some cards, which he is really looking forward to spending in London on Saturday.

What other little American boy gets to say he spent a day in London for his birthday? Brandon is taking him there to see the Blue Man Group perform, and take in some of the sights. Caelum is excited to ride on the Underground, much like I was before my first visit to the city....and like I still am now. I know they'll have an excellent time, and I doubt Dude will want to come home at the end of the day!

I'll have to wait until morning to post the pictures I wanted to put up. But for now, the big 7 year old man is in an Oreo cheesecake-induced coma, dreaming about his new toys and counting the hours until he gets to take his first Tube ride and explore the big city.

It's all about me.

2006-07-19T08:17:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow my oldest child, my Prince Caelum, My Monkey Number One, will celebrate his seventh birthday. And tomorrow, I swear, I will devote an entire post to him and only him. But today, it’s all about me.

On Monday, a day after going to the beach and seeing beautiful bodies displayed in tiny spandex costumes, I was feeling a little down because I knew that I’d never again have one of those bodies that can be displayed in public. I never was confident about my body, but after three children - two of them coming within 15 months of each other - it’s now carrying about 20 extra pounds and is stained with stretch marks, saggy skin, and some very strange textures. So as I was lamenting the fact that I’ll never be one of those women who turns heads at the beach, I somehow stumbled across the most remarkable blog I’ve ever seen: The Shape of a Mother. (Some of the photos display partial nudity, so use discretion if you’re at work...Also not all of the photos are showing up right now, probably just a technical glitch.) It shows real women’s bellies after pregnancy - stretch marks, questionable textures, dimples, and all - and celebrates them for the beautiful badges of motherhood that they are. I could only handle reading two or three entries at a time before my eyes were so misty that I had to take a break, do something else for a while, and come back for more. How amazing it is to see images of women who are not airbrushed, do not have personal trainers, and carry around the same emotional baggage as me regarding their permanently changed bodies. How liberating it was to see that I’m not the only one whose belly now lacks any semblance of muscle tone, and to know that there are plenty of other mommies who had no idea that having children would cause such profound physical changes.

For most women, myself included, it’s not entirely about the change in appearance. It’s about feeling like you’ve given up your womanhood, your sex appeal, your youth and vibrance. I’ve been terrified for ages to let anyone see my stretched-out tummy; even when I’m playing with my kids and Ruby tries to tickle my bellybutton, I instinctively reach out to hold my shirt firmly in place. I’ve come to think of it as disgusting, revolting, something to be hidden away, something to protect the kids from ever having to see. I've been miserable when hearing other women talk about their quick recovery time and how they just can't shake that last 4 pounds or so. Four pounds? Ha! I laugh in the face of your four pounds!

I was so young when I had Caelum, and at the time didn’t take care of myself nearly as well as I should have. I gained over 65 pounds during that pregnancy, partly because I’d been malnourished to begin with, partly because of the depression brought on by my partnerless pregnancy. I went on to develop the largest, darkest, scariest looking stretch marks I’ve ever seen. They have faded over time, but I’ll never again have the smooth, soft, evenly-colored skin of youth. And then there’s my large belly scar, a wound won in a battle against a nearly-exploding appendix when I was 6 months pregnant with Caelum. In theory I can be proud of it (“We both nearly died, but thanks to the quick thinking of my doctor we pulled out of it - and look at this wicked scar!”) but in reality it seems just another blemish on the poor stretched-out and ripply skin. My weight dropped pretty low after having Caelum, but the belly never recovered. A few years later I got married and conceived Ruby within 6 months. I hadn’t even weaned her yet, much less lost the baby weight, when I found out I was expecting yet again. My girls are 15 months (to the day) apart, and apparently that’s pretty hard on the body - not as hard as, say, multiple gestation, but still pretty hard. So after the third monkey was born, I tried so hard to get some semblance of a healthy body back, but if you’ve ever tried to go anywhere when you have three very young kids - whether you’re trying to take them with you or not - you know how laughable it is to think about going to the gym a few times a week.

This seems long and rambling and pointless, but I promise I’ve got a point. I’m building up to it, see? Be patient.

One of the entries on The Shape of a Mother affected me more than the others - I’d love to include a direct quote from it here, but I really can’t because then I’ll just start sobbing and this whole thing really will be reduced to me just making small animal sounds and crying and blowing my nose on the nearest item of Barbie doll clothing. The entry basically said that a woman had lost her child when the baby was born by emergency C-section, and afterwards her body went back to normal very quickly, with no stretch marks and no sign that she’d given birth other than a C-Section scar. She was unhappy that her body bounced back so quickly because it was like evidence of her child had been erased. All of the stories were compelling and emotional, but that one really struck me. And you know what? I don’t care anymore that I don’t have an 18-year-old body. I don’t even care that I look older than my 25 years. My body may seem stretched out, and overused, and even neglected, but think of the amazing things it’s done! I’ve carried three children, for a combined pregnancy total of 27 months. I’ve grown these tiny people, nourished them and protected them and given them life, sacrificed comfort during childbirth so that they could be awake and aware and greet the world with open eyes during their first moments. I’ve been cut open to save one of those pregnancies, I’ve torn skin during two labors, I’ve had stitches and swollen breasts and unbelievably painful nipples from over-enthusiastic nursing. My body has been the gateway through which these three tiny human creatures emerged into the world and began their own unique and precious lives. How could I be ashamed of a miraculous machine that can do all of that, yet still have enough life left in it to nurture and protect them even now, when they are learning to live for themselves?

Forget pop culture, which tells us that we have to be young and fertile and smooth and tan to be beautiful. Real beauty, real grace, comes from loving someone else so much that you are willing to sacrifice your comfort and even your sense of identity to give them a chance to thrive and one day discover themselves. My children will grow up knowing me not as the girl I used to be before they came along, but as the woman I have decided to be: proud, and confident, and always sure that there is more to every person than just what you see on the surface.

West Wittering Beach

2006-07-18T08:30:00.000+01:00

The kids have been begging to go back to the beach since about five minutes after our last beach outing, so early last week we decided to make the trek to the seaside again. I did a lot of research, spending almost an entire afternoon looking for the best beach within a 3 hour drive of our house. (This time frame was chosen scientifically, by the way: it's the absolute maximum amount of time we have ever been able to sit in the car, all together, without anyone exploding into sudden flames or magically morphing into a short tempered grizzly bear.) I finally settled on West Wittering Beach, which - according to Google Maps - is a two hour, thirty-nine minute drive from our house. It was perfect: no hideously over-commercialized piers, no thousands of oceanview hotels built up as far as the eye can see, no flashing lights or arcades or overpriced sealife-themed pubs. Just sand and grass and a huge field converted into a nice place to park your car all day for a meager £6. Plus it has a fascinating history, and the townspeople are devoted to conserving the natural beach and keeping developers away from the land. Perfect.

Unfortunately, the day after I decided on the beach and filled the kids in on our plans and got them really excited, Brandon remembered that he had the standby phone over the weekend and couldn't go that far from home. Ordinarily we would have just pushed it back by a week, but since the weekend after that was reserved for Caelum's birthday and we have plans the following weekend as well, we decided that Brandon would stay home to deal with his work stuff and the kids and I would go on to the beach. Luckily our friend Olly was around and willing to accompany us (can you imagine me being the only grownup around dealing with my three unruly little...ahem..."angels?" It's a terrifying thought, to say the least).

The drive down was great and we managed to make pretty good time getting into the town of West Wittering. However, we then hit a huge queue to get into the carpark, where we waited for around an hour. It wasn't terrible, but the kids definitely got antsy toward the end and I had the uncanny feeling that one or more of them was hatching a sinister plot to undo their seat belt and make a wild dash for the sand. Luckily we got parked, walked through the hedgerow separating the carpark from the beach (Britain has some of the best hedgerows in the world, I've been told, although this one wasn't particularly remarkable), and set up our massive collection of equipment. Bags full of extra clothes, extra nappies, snacks, and various cameras and whatnot littered the little plaid blanket we laid out on the wet sand. And this beach...well, I'm still a little stunned. It was absolutely gorgeous. A little crowded, maybe, but it was exactly the kind of landscape I was hoping for. The people were all friendly, so the crowding wasn't really an issue. (Even when Ruby decided to throw some rocks into someone's rubber raft, and Olivia ran across someone's towels and tracked sand all over them. You have to love the British and their deep and resounding politeness.)

After a quick lunch of cheese sandwiches (the kids absentmindedly took a couple of nibbles before throwing their sandwiches down in the sand, screaming "I'm done! Can I go play in the water now?" and dashing off without waiting to hear my answer), we explored the little tidepool left by the low tide, then I took the two older kids wading in the sea for a few minutes.

By the time we went back up to the blanket, it was apparent that the tide was coming back in, and pretty quickly. We gathered all of our stuff and moved maybe 20 yards back, then Olly and Caelum went off to play in the surf while I worked at making sand castles and the girls worked (and failed) at repressing the urge to smash my hard work. I gave up and buried Ruby in the sand instead.

If you remember the unholy fuss that Olivia made at the beach the last time, you'll be pleasantly surprised to hear that she genuinely enjoyed the sand on this excursion. I like to think it was due to the rockin' new pink water shoes I bought her a few days ago. She was able to walk around in that weird brown stuff without it squishing between her toes and getting all over her precious little tootsies. She was so enamored of the sand, in fact, that she decided to eat some. And then some more. It seemed that every time I stopped staring at her for more than three consecutive seconds she shoved some more sand into that little mouth of hers. Cute, but disgusting.

We decided to pack all of the valuables back into the car so that we could all leave the blanket at the same time and not worry about the cameras being stolen. As such, we don't have any photos of Olivia going into the water for the first time. Olly held Ruby and I held Olivia, and Caelum stood between us (due to the fact that the waves had knocked him down a few times already and really, really freaked him out). We crouched down on our knees in the shallow water to get the girls submerged, and when a wave came we lifted them up and over it. It was excellent, and the girls were having the best time. They giggled and screamed, and after a while Ruby would point out the next big wave ("Here comes a really big one!") and laugh like a little baboon as it hit her legs. This was my first time being really in the sea as well, and I am so in love with it. However, a few things did take me by surprise: 1) Salt water HURTS when it gets into your eyes and you're wearing contact lenses. 2) Any attempt to rub said injured eye with a finger dripping with salt water will, in fact, only make it worse and you'll begin to wonder if you will go blind before the day is over. 3) Those waves hit hard. If you're not watching them as they come toward you, they can knock you over and make you look pretty foolish as you sputter and blink furiously and try to shake the seaweed and foam and goodness knows what else from your head. Not that I know from experience or anything. 4) My son apparently does not save his periodic barfing just for long car rides. We drove 2 1/2 hours to get to the beach with nary a hurl, but once we were in the water and playing in the waves, Dude lost his footing, his head went under, and he got back up just as quickly. He was pretty scared, though, and spontaneously vomited up those few nibbles of sandwich, right into the water. Olly and I looked at each other and simultaneously and silently backed away from the evidence. Caelum was fine, so we just pretended we didn't know what that weird slime floating on the water was. (I just realized for the eight millionth time how disgusting it can be to be a parent. Ugh. Here, look at an adorable photo to take your mind off of that last bit.)

All too soon, the crowds started to depart and we realized that if we were going to make the long drive home with a minimum of crying and screaming we should also hit the road. We had a quick snack in the car before leaving, and only had to queue for about 15 minutes to get out of the carpark. The drive home was punctuated by a couple of stops for dinner and potty breaks, but for some reason it seemed to go pretty quickly. We were all worn out, and by the time we got home and said goodbye and thank you to our buddy Olly, we were all too tired to do much more than lounge around until bedtime. (Yes, I let the kids go to bed without baths and coated in sand. Yes, they were probably covered in all sorts of nasty sea goop as well. No, I do not feel bad about it. I was sleepy and had a nasty dehydration headache, and they weren't complaining.)

Today I'm realizing for the first time ever that sun block really works. It's one of those products that, if you use it correctly, it doesn't seem like it does very much - like Oxy stuff in your laundry, or...well, I can't think of any good examples at the moment, but somewhere in my brain there is a valid point that I'm trying to make. I have extremely fair skin, but there are days when I can be outside for ten minutes and burn to a crisp, and then there are days when I can be outdoors for hours and hours and walk away with just a bit of a tan. Being absolutely terrified of skin cancers, I have always used sun block on my kids, but only recently I started using it on myself. I'm so happy I did yesterday, because today I am burn-free, save for a tiny spot on my back where I couldn't reach properly with the lotion which burned to a painful bright red. And the non-burned section connects with the burned section via little finger-shaped peninsulas, so I'm convinced that sun block does work, and I'm going to slather myself in it every time I step out of the door from now on. Or at least when I'm wearing smallish clothes at the beach.

Ruby is already begging to go back to the beach (she's made up two songs today about the beach and how "fun and awesome!" it is) and I've promised Brandon that we'll go back soon to show him the amazing bit of Britain we managed to find in West Wittering. Hopefully next time we'll get photos of the kids enjoying themselves in the water!

One year...

2006-07-07T12:08:00.000+01:00

One year ago today, my family and I awoke in our temporary home, the house of my parents-in-law, to a chilling story on the morning news. The London transit system had been the scene of terrorist bombings. Information was sketchy, even though the time difference between Nebraska and London was such that we were seeing the information a full three to four hours after it happened. I remember hearing that there may have been as many as three hundred dead, though that number was later reduced to 52, with an additional 700 injured.

Being an American, a military wife, and a compassionate human, I was shocked and worried on many levels. Probably the first thing that springs to any American's mind (and I suspect the same is true of any developed nation with a TV in every home) when we see news of a bombing or any large-scale accident or disaster is the September 11th attacks. We have lived with the memory of that day and its aftermath for so long now that we no longer conciously realize how on-edge we are every day of our lives since then. We are all poised at the brink of this emotional chasm, a pit of fear and panic and sorrow that developed in our minds when we saw the planes crashing and the buildings falling again and again, replayed on the news countless millions of times. So when we see that even more people are being forced to deal with this reality, with this shock and horror and the realization that terrible things can happen anywhere and to anyone, we all hold our loved ones a little tighter. We all reflect on how life can change dramatically and permanently at any moment. And, hopefully, we all realize how fortunate we are to be here, right now, given the continuing chance to live and breathe and love...and simply exist.

Today is suitably grey and damp and somber, just the way you'd expect it to be. The news broadcasts are filled with images of London: memorial wreaths and flowers and notes being placed, notable public figures paying their respects, various average people being interviewed about their reactions on that day and how their lives have changed since then. A moment of silence was held at midday, during which the country paused for a full two minutes to reflect. I'm constantly amazed at the grace and dignity of the English people. While crying and wailing and depression would be acceptable emotional responses to such an affecting emotional issue, you see very little of that here. The English are so different from the Americans in some very subtle but important ways, one of those being that they are so very reserved. In times of strife, they choose to carry themselves with such decorum that it's easy to think they are unfeeling or even callous. The truth is that they just don't reveal their every emotion as readily as we do. Unfortunately, any attempt to simply point out that this difference between our cultures exists is often seen as an insult to one culture or the other. Because of that, many misunderstandings and misconceptions exist between the two countries. Indeed, those misconceptions exist between most of the world's countries. Lately, because of terrorists, wars, and religious differences, it seems that the distance between each culture grows greater with each passing day.

The simple, unchanging truth is that we're all human. We are all affected by great tragedy as well as great fortune. Regardless of how we deal with life - culturally or personally - we all have to find our own way of getting through it. It would be so much easier if we could all strip away those decades of misunderstandings and preconceived notions to just see the basics of everyday life. We are tiny living beings, each of us microscopic when compared to the whole of the planet, each of us convinced that we are alone in one way or another. We fight each other, we insult each other, we turn a blind eye when someone is in pain or in need of our compassion, often because of their religion, or their personal choices, or their nationality. These things matter so very little, but we place so much importance in them. I urge everyone who reads this to put aside those preconceived notions - even if it's just for a day. Don't assume anything about anyone. Let your mind be a blank canvas, and let your conversation with a stranger or with someone you know well paint a picture of them. Open yourself up to the possibility that you do not know everything there is to know about a certain person or the stereotype of a certain type of person - allow yourself to realize that life is very short, and every moment that you waste harboring hatred and fear is a moment that you will never be able to regain. Life is precious, people. We each have a comparitive microsecond on this planet, and as far as I know at the moment, we only have one shot to make it as pleasant and positive as possible.

So whether it's today or some other day, I urge you to take a few moments to reflect on yourself. I do it often, and it's amazing to see how different I sometimes am in reality than I am in my own mind. Maybe the best thing anyone can do for themselves is to take a long, hard, honest look at how they live, and ask one simple question: If today was the last day of my life, would I be satisfied with how I've chosen to live it?

Eep eep.

2006-06-02T23:10:00.000+01:00

My first little person lost his first tooth! He can't be old enough for this yet! Just yesterday he was in diapers and had white-blonde hair, and was using baby words for everything. Now he's reading whole books to himself and running a whole mile (faster than his Dad!) and losing teeth. Sigh. I guess little monkeys have to grow into big monkeys, don't they?

Check out the rest of the photos

2006-05-16T08:40:00.000+01:00

I got tired of trying to post all of the photos here (Blogger is being rude and I'm getting close to my limit on Photobucket), so I set up a Flickr photo set. Unfortunately I'm not at all impressed with Flickr, but I spent way too long uploading all of those photos and arranging them into a set to not use them. I have now used up my uploading allowance at Flickr for the whole month.

So here's how to optimize your viewing experience and hopefully not get frustrated with the lack of order of the photos. When you click on that link up there and see my Flickr account, click on the photo set (on the left side) titled Bournemouth. Then you can see them all in order. Click on the first photo in the set (Caelum and Ruby next to a cool Art Nouveau tile thingy) and then you'll be on a screen where you can view each photo separately. When you're done looking at the first one, there's a thumbnail pic on the right showing the next photo in the set. As you go through the photos, just keep clicking on the thumbnail on the right-hand side to take you to the next one. There's a slideshow feature in theory, but honestly it's never worked for me. I've tried it on three different browsers and two computers, and it's just not happening. You're welcome to give it a try, though. Enjoy the photos and my oh-so-witty captions.

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside...

2006-05-15T12:11:00.000+01:00

English Mother's Day was way back in March, but we celebrated the American version yesterday. The original plan was to go to Sherwood Forest, but when I found out that it's three hours away we made a slight change of plans. We asked our friend Olly about beaches, and he suggested Bournemouth, on the Southern coast. So we decided to go, and take him along with us.

I've lived on both sides of the Atlantic, but until yesterday I'd never actually seen the ocean. Okay, to be fair I still haven't seen it - we were on the shores of the English Channel yesterday. But for the purposes of my happiness at fulfilling a life-long goal (it was on my list of things to do before I die) I'm just going to call it the ocean. Or the sea, to satisfy my English friends.

We, of course, started out for the day much later than expected. Having forgotten to fuel up the van the day before, we had to wait until the gas station on base opened up at 1000. With a 15-minute drive each way and packing up the van when Brandon got back, we left the house at about 1100. We had a 2-hour drive to get to Bournemouth. It didn't seem to take that long, though, because we drove through some magnificent parts of the country, including part of the New Forest, a national park where the only wild horses in Britain reside. It was so amazing to look out of the window and see the ancient trees, and among them were deer and wild horses just going about their lives. Of course, there was a motorway straight through the beautiful ancient land, but...well, it was still quite nice.

The first thing we did when we arrived was find a place to eat lunch. We'd driven straight through lunch time, and the girls were getting a little grumpy from lack of food. We found a little French cafe and ate a light lunch before heading to the sand. On our way, we saw a living statue. Caelum and Brandon were both really impressed by him - Caelum even got to give him some money and shake his hand! As an aside, I'm always awed at how polite British people are. If they see someone taking a photograph, everyone stops and stays out of the way until the photo has been taken. I love that.

When we got to the beach, I couldn't take my eyes off of the water for the first few minutes. Being there gave me a sense of connection with the rest of the world. I started wondering about those grains of sand, about that water, about those shells. What other places in the world had they been to? I'm normally a nature lover, of course, but I've never been so in love with a place as I am now with the seaside. I can't imagine NOT living near the sea now, and I wonder why it's taken me so long to discover it. I've heard people say that once you've seen the ocean it's always with you, but I didn't expect to be this overtaken with that feeling.

Unfortunately, Olivia doesn't share my sense of wonder. She was terrified of the sand! She wouldn't touch it or stand on it. She wouldn't even stand on the blanket that was on the sand at first. She had to be held at all times, and if the person holding her dared to step off of that blanket, she howled in disapproval. We did manage to get her down by the water when we first got there, but after that she'd have none of it. She happily sat with whoever happened to be stuck on the blanket with her at the moment, watching the kids play and munching on Red Vines. After we'd been there for a while and she was comfortable enough to walk on the blanket, I tried to get her to touch her feet to the sand. I picked her up and lowered her toward the sand; she saw what was coming and curled her feet up to her body and started whimpering. I didn't push the issue after that, but it was pretty funny to watch.

The water was much too cold for us to swim in (that wasn't stopping some other people) but we did wade a bit. Even Brandon rolled up his trousers and went into the water a few times. Caelum LOVED it. He would probably still be running around in the waves if he could. Ruby liked the water, but not as much as the sand. She took her shirt off as soon as she saw Caelum do it, and I couldn't get it back on her until she started shivering. There was a speedboat race going on, which sort of distracted from the sound of the waves, but it was a beautiful day. I enlisted everyone's help in finding pretty shells and rocks for me. I'm not sure if I'll make something from them, or just put them in a box and look at them with a big smile from time to time.

We spent a good amount of time on the beach, but since we had a long drive ahead of us we had to leave sooner than we all wanted. After leaving the sand we took a walk along the pier. Caelum got to look through a telescope and then heckle a fisherman. Well, not so much "heckle" as "annoy." He stood above the guy (who was standing on the level below us) yelling "I want to go fishing! I want to go fishing! I want to go fishing!" I bet that man didn't catch a single thing after that - my boy is loud enough to scare off all types of wildlife.

Before loading up for home, we stopped at a pub for dinner. I think it was called The Moon In The Square, but I could be wrong. It was a long day, and I was too happy to care where we ate. The girls did get a bit squealy before the food was brought out, but once they started eating everyone was cheerful again. Ruby was, for some odd reason only a toddler would understand, absolutely fascinated with the packets of ketchup and mayonnaise.

(There are some more beach photos, but for some reason Blogger is having a hard time with photos at the moment. I'll try to upload some more later.)

Brandon drove on the way home, so I got to see a bit of scenery that I hadn't seen on the way down since I was driving. Everyone was pretty quiet on the return trip, except for Olivia who was so tired she couldn't stop crying. It was an excellent day. No offense to the people who've given me Mother's Day outings in the past, but this was by far the best Mother's Day ever. We spent all day outdoors and no one got burned - I think we barely even tanned. We're already planning the next trip to the seaside. If I have any say in it, we'll soon be living in a little tent in the sand.

One of those weeks.

2006-04-27T18:18:00.000+01:00

I am having one of those weeks. You know, even though I haven't got a proper job (one where I leave the house, have a boss and bring home money) I do look forward to the weekends. This week I was looking forward to Friday because it was Caelum's class' turn to have the Rams and Lambs Cafe, which is where the whole family gets to go eat lunch with the kid who is in school; each grade level gets to have one. The one for Caelum's class was supposed to be last week, on Friday the 21st, but on the Wednesday before that I got an email from the school secretary saying that it had been rescheduled to Friday the 28th. I re-marked it on the calendar and made sure Brandon had the lunch hour free. We were both really excited about being able to go to school and have a very special lunch with Caelum.

As I was preparing dinner tonight, Brandon and I were talking about how much fun it would be, and Caelum piped up "But that was today!" We questioned him about it ("Was Tyler's mom there? Was Amanda's mom there?") because we thought maybe he was confusing it with some other event, but it turns out that it really was today. We were crushed. I was close to tears - it sounds silly, but I want to be involved in his life. I don't want to be the parent who doesn't work but doesn't bother going to school to participate in things like this. (I've already given up on the PTA meetings because I'm just not into mommy politics.) Brandon was really upset also. We'd both been looking forward to it, and we missed it because of some stupid misunderstanding. We found out from our neighbors that the correct date had been sent home in the newsletter, but since I got that on Tuesday (day before yesterday) and I'd been informed about the first date change almost a week before, I sort of skimmed over that part and didn't notice that it said Thursday. If you would have told me, before I had kids, that something like this could depress me so much and make me question my parenting ability, I probably would have raised my eyebrow and said "We'll see." But it's true - it's like the time that Ruby put her hand on the outside of the very hot oven and got second-degree burns on her little palm and even though it wasn't my fault I blamed myself for the whole thing, and every time I changed her bandages I cried because I felt like I'd disfigured her. Her hand healed without a scar, though, so hopefully Caelum will forget about this and be okay with me being scatterbrained, and all of the kids will grow up with very little trauma caused by me. Caelum actually seems to be over it already. We explained to him that the email said a different date, and Mommy didn't see the newsletter, and we really did want to go...so now he's okay with it, but he keeps saying he's going to go into the school and get really angry at whoever told me the wrong day. We told him that it's not necessary, that there's no one to be angry at and it was just a misunderstanding, but knowing my strong-willed little man he'll do exactly what he said he would do.

I planned to explain my recent woes with registering myself for school, but really I don't want to complain anymore. I'll leave it at this: the UMUC representative assigned to Croughton (a civilian) apparently got this assignment because it's a small base with not many people, so not too many things to remember. Oh my...I could ask that man the same question on three different days and get completely different answers each time. In fact, I've done just that. It's rather annoying, to say the least. Oh, I said I wasn't going to complain, but look how long that was.

In happier news, though, Ruby is finally starting to warm up to the idea of potty training. We bought her a potty chart several months ago, and she liked it for about a week and a half but got bored with it quickly and stopped caring about the little stickers. We tried different incentives, like getting a new book or having a special lunch with Daddy, but it didn't work for long. So we decided to give her a while and see if she got more interested in the potty later on, since Caelum was a slow potty-er too. In the last couple of days she's been asking us to read her potty-centric books to her more often, and she's even used her little potty all by herself several times today. Maybe soon we'll finally be free of the cursed Pull-Ups.

This weekend will hopefully bring some happy times; we bought the kids some kites last week and plan to take them out on Sunday to see if we can catch some wind. Interestingly, it's been windy nearly every day in England until we bought kites. Now, there's no wind at all. It figures. But we're going to try anyway, even if it means just sitting on top of that hill all day and waiting for a few big gusts.

Brits, Bunnies, and Bananas

2006-04-19T13:38:00.000+01:00

I got the chance to go back to London on Saturday; I went with my English friend Olly and his girlfriend. We did a lot of walking around somewhat aimlessly, which to me made for a perfect day. I hate going out with a strict agenda and feeling pressured to fit as much as I can into a day. We strolled through Camden Market, which is a huge open-air market (or, rather, several of them close together) featuring pretty much everything you can think of. Of the most interest to me were the hand-made clothing and jewelry; London fashion is so very different than the midwestern American fashion I'm used to. It's more daring, more inventive, and seeing it all definitely inspired me to get back to the clothing designing I've been really interested in lately. I'm just finishing up a swap and a competition, which have been taking up most of my free time, so hopefully soon I'll be able to start working on the new ideas which have taken shape in my imagination. Unfortunately, I didn't get many photos on Saturday; I'm always scared of looking like a tourist when whipping out my camera in public places, so I don't do it often.

One photo I did get was of a gigantic sculpture in Trafalgar Square. It's a 13-ton sculpture of a woman who, due to a genetic condition, was born with no arms and shortened legs; she was 8 months pregnant at the time she posed for the carving. I read in a newspaper about it being unveiled last Autumn, but I didn't really have an interest to travel all that way just to see it. Standing right under it was pretty impressive, though.

And here's Mr. Olly (as the kids call him) standing next to the fountain in Trafalgar Square. I told you people do goofy things when I have a camera pointed at them. It's like my superhero power or something.

There was a trip to Kentish town sometime in the late morning to check out a very promising tattoo studio I'd found on the internet a few days before; unfortunately they were closed for the bank holiday weekend, but we did pop into a little bookstore up the street to buy a new book for Brandon. We also made the journey to Harrods, one of the largest department stores in the world. It was completely overwhelming to someone who used to consider K-Mart a department store. The one and only reason we ventured in was to find alfalfa sprouts, one of my favorite foods which I haven't been able to find anywhere since we moved here. Olly promised to find some for me a while ago, but I don't think he knew what he was getting himself into. We had trouble finding the fruits & vegetables section, and when we did there were no alfalfa sprouts anywhere. After a bit of digging, he found some and I triumphantly paid for them; after traveling for an hour and a half, and spending the equivalent of almost $5 on just the sprouts alone, I finally had a bit of leafy green goodness to make my sandwiches happy. It does seem pretty ridiculous in retrospect, but it was great fun walking around Harrods - and how many Nebraska girls get to say they've done that? Later I found out that cress, an extremely abundant sprout available pretty much everywhere you go in England, is nearly the same thing and costs about 87p (which is somewhere around $1.60). Oh, well.

We had a late lunch at an Italian restaurant which actually had Italian waiters; there's something else I've never, ever seen. The food was excellent, the beer was almost as good, and then we had the energy to keep moving. We walked through the rain, very near Buckingham Palace, and I took in the amazing sights of a city I've decided I love. Just a few years ago I never would have pictured myself walking around London - I was terrified of Denver! - but it felt nearly natural, and it was so awesome to think that any time I want to go, it's just an hour away. I'm tempted to say that America won't be getting us back; England has won us over. Even the kids have told us how much they love it here. The only problem I forsee is not being able to buy alfalfa sprouts regularly, but at the moment I'm looking into buying my own sprouting kit to do it at home.

The next day was Easter; we call it Spring in our house, and the Spring Bunny was very good to us this year! When the kids woke up, they had baskets in front of their doors with granola bars, yoghurt drinks, adorable little mini bananas (which the Spring Bunny probably found at Harrods), gummy candies, and chocolate eggs in them.

While I'd been in London the day before, they had been dyeing eggs, but when we woke up they were all gone! The kids rushed downstairs to find all of the eggs that mischevious Bunny had hidden; Olivia had an excellent time smashing the boiled eggs into the hard floors, tabletops, and anything else that would make that satisfying CRACK! sound.

Later in the day, Brandon realized that the Bunny had forgotten to put some movies into the baskets! The kids got Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and Robots.

After the egg hunt and breakfast, we went to the boot sale up the road. Unfortunately it's not in the field where it was last year, which was within walking distance. In theory the field it's in now is within walking distance, but it's down a narrow country road with no sidewalks and it's about twice as far from the house, so now we drive there. The first thing we found was a giant stuffed hedgehog, so of course Brandon bought it for me. We also found a very nice patio furniture set, and the guy delivered it to the house for us. Now we can finally have those outdoor meals the kids are always begging for.

Speaking of being outdoors, the weather's been amazing here for the last few days. From last Friday on, it's been much warmer, with only spots of rain here and there. We've been playing outside every day, and Olivia can finally wear her dresses and feel like the princess we all know she is. Now if we can only make the approximately 20-minute journey to the base that sells propane tanks for American grills, we'll be ready for summer. I can smell the veggie burgers and tofu dogs already...

Have fun storming the castle

2006-04-11T15:29:00.000+01:00

I should maybe have mentioned in yesterday's entry that Brandon is on leave this whole week; he has about 2 months of leave saved up and will start losing it eventually if he doesn't use some. This is also the school's spring break week. That's why we're able to go out sightseeing in the middle of the workweek.

So the good news: we made it to the castle and no one barfed.

The bad news: well, there really is no bad news, but it makes it sound more dramatic when I start an entry that way.

I guess if I had to list some bad news, it would be that we missed a beautiful day to be outside yesterday, and today was rainy and very cold and not the most pleasant time to be outdoors most of the day.

We ended up parking very far away as the parking attendants didn't make clear to us that we could keep driving up the hill and park much closer to the castle. I would happily have paid the extra £2 to park closer and avoid the 5 minute uphill walk, in the rain, carrying Ruby because she was grumpy and hungry. When we got to the top of the hill, we bought our tickets and ducked inside the old stable, which is now a restaurant. We had a light lunch (and Brandon and I each enjoyed a pint) to warm us up. It was probably the most expensive meal we've had in England to date. I got to watch all of the tourists dining since I was sitting in the back corner of the restaurant. Irish people are really great, but I still like French tourists the best.

After the meal we went around the corner to go through the turnstiles and onto the castle grounds. Ruby slipped in front of me and took my place in the turnstile, which is unlocked with each valid ticket passed through it. She didn't have her own ticket since she's so young, so the turnstile wouldn't work for me and I had to have one of the workers unlock the employee gate for me to go through. That was a little embarassing, but when something embarassing happens to me in public I try to keep in mind that I'll never see any of these people again, they don't really care what stupid things I do, and then I go on to enjoy my day. It's fun to be me.

Unfortunately we didn't get to do or see very much while there; the rain and cold and wind made it a little miserable. We went into the private apartments section and saw creepy wax statues of noble people eternally frozen in the midst of going about their daily activities. There were some beautiful pieces of art in there, as well as a really lovely wooden spiral staircase. The kids weren't all that impressed, but they liked the stuffed raccoon and lion-skin rug.

(Click on any of the pictures to enlarge)

Next we were off to The Mound, the highest point at the castle. We went up a steep path and some stairs and came out onto a stone landing that looked down on the castle gardens from one side, and the castle courtyard on the other side.

When we came down, we got to watch a man giving sword fighting instructions to a group of young boys. We didn't get to go to the peacock garden, which is one part I was really looking forward to, because by that time Olivia was really upset and wanted to leave. On the way out we saw an archer giving a demonstration, which Caelum thought was really great. We stopped off at the gift shop for a few souvenirs, and made the trek back to the minivan. The drive back was nice since Ruby fell asleep and Caelum was occupied with a plastic sword he'd patiently waited through the WHOLE CASTLE for.

We're looking forward to seeing more of the awesome things around us, but not until our bank account's recovered from the castle today. The dollar isn't worth much right now, so journeys out into the real world end up costing a ton of money. It's just money, though, and it's totally worth every penny to give the kids an unforgettable experience.

Funny thing happened on the way to the castle...

2006-04-10T16:26:00.000+01:00

We've been asked by several people why we don't do more touristy things, being in a prime location to enjoy all that England has to offer. For future inquiries of that nature, I will point people to this entry.

We have been wanting to visit Warwick Castle for a very long time, but it's expensive and it's hard for us to part with that much money for entertainment. But after realizing that we've been here for nine months and haven't done much in the way of actually exploring the country, we decided that £45 and a tank of fuel is a small price to pay for an afternoon of history and getting out of the house. Unfortunately, the kids are famous for throwing little monkey wrenches into the works, and when we were about 5 minutes outside of Warwick Olivia got sick all over herself. And while I'd had the foresight to pack towels and a blanket for emergency purposes, I forgot to pack extra clothes. We had some hope of cleaning her up and continuing with our plans, but soon after we cleaned her up and got back on the road, Caelum shouted at us from the back of the van: "I have to go potty! I've had to go for a hundred years!" We got him to a restroom, but a little too late. So, after driving the 40 minutes or so to Warwick, we stopped at a petrol station for caffeine for the grownups and snacks for the little ones, turned around and came right home. It wouldn't have bothered me that much, but Ruby has been in a very mouthy phase lately, where it seems like everything she says is shouted in a rude little voice. So all the way there and all the way back, I did my best to get her to speak in her normal voice without resorting to shouting myself. The calmer I was, the more she shouted. So I tried shouting back, and guess what? It made her shout louder. In the end we all tried to ignore her, but it's amazing how loud that tiny girl can be. Brandon came home with a headache and I was just glad that this whole thing played out in the minivan instead of inside the castle. If there's one thing England doesn't need, it's one more loud American family spoiling the peace in a beautiful place.

So the plan is to set out early tomorrow, make sure each of the monkeys has at least one favourite toy to play with on the way, and pack at least two changes of clothes for each of the kids and one for each of the grownups. Crackers and juice boxes to calm the growling tummies that sometimes attack on those oh-so-long 40 minute drives. Towels and a blanket for unforseen wardrobe changes on the side of the motorway, and why not throw in a flare gun, a candle, and some kitty litter, since it seems that we only need the things that we don't remember to take with us? When you have three small children, little trips like this can seem like week-long pilgrimages. On foot. With no shoes. Through a blizzard. While carrying a lame pregnant camel. But hopefully with more careful planning on my part, we will make it to that castle tomorrow with a minimum of shouting and barfing. And if all goes well, you'll have pictures and a nice story by tomorrow evening.

Filling the spaces in my storytelling ability with photos

2006-04-04T16:03:00.000+01:00

I've been neglecting this blog, haven't I? Honestly, I don't know why you people still put up with it. I can't believe how many regular readers we have (based on our Sitemeter stats), being the boring common people that we are, but I might as well give you something in return for the time you spend faithfully checking for new updates. Thanks for your support.

Last Sunday - that's nine days ago, not two days ago - I took Caelum to Stoke Wood for a walk, just the two of us. When we went there the first time I promised to spend more time there because it's such a beautiful place, but because of the lovely erratic weather here lately it's been hard to find a nice day. So the boy and I headed out for a little one-on-one time; we took a different path than before, this time walking around the outer edge of the wood. We encountered a lot more people than last time, but somehow it was still very peaceful. We noticed a few rain drops, but carried on anyway, and the taller trees blocked most of the rain from reaching us. I told Caelum that once, long ago, there were woods and forests all over England, and not so many buildings and roads. He wanted to know if there were wild animals, and I told him that once there would have been boars and bears, but I wasn't sure about others, not knowing much about the history of indigenous English animals. Being a little boy, he was most interested in if the animals ate people. He was so sweet when he hunched down and squinted his eyes and pointed off in the distance and asked if there could have been a wild pig over there hundreds of years ago.

Watching him developing stories and imagining histories in his mind conjured images of me when I was a little girl. We lived in a big green house on top of a hill in Weeping Water, and just outside there was a patch of trees that we reverently referred to as "The Woods." Really, there probably weren't even enough trees so that you could go in and not clearly see the houses on either side of you, but when you're little and full of imagination, everything is wonderful. There were two or three huge flat rocks there, and I jumped from one to another pretending to be an explorer, or a hunter (cringe), or a woodland fairy. Fast forward 18 years or so, and I finally feel that woodland fairy sensation again. The incredible feeling of lightness that I get when surrounded by trees and living things has never left me entirely, even though I've spent most of my life in a mid-sized city, surrounding myself with technology and other trappings of modern life. When did we get too busy to take a couple of hours to just go and look at plants and listen to birds? From my beloved grandfather I learned the importance of knowing the names and calls of all of the local birds (why was it important? Who knows? But he told me it was, and I believed him), but I've fallen woefully behind since moving here. I did buy The Big Book of British Birds secondhand many months ago, so maybe I'll just have to buckle down and do some serious studying.

This is one of those stories that goes nowhere. Forget about the fact that it's missing a plot or an ending, and enjoy some more photos of some pretty cute kids.

If you've been around for a while, you'll remember Caelum's love of raisins when he was a toddler. I could set him down with one of those paper cylinders full of raisins and he would tip it back and drink the raisins like water. Olivia's like that now with Sesame Nut Mix; she's really too young for it since it's made of nuts and sesame sticks, but once she accidentally got hold of some a few months ago we can't open a can of it anywhere in the house without her coming at it, running and screaming with hands outstretched. She always rejects the peanuts and cashews (she'll throw them down on the floor if we're not watching) and weasels out every last sesame stick. We really need to find a source of them around here rather than fueling her expensive habit of begging for the snack mix and then only eating 1/3 of it.

She takes after her daddy, don't you think?

There's a little ledge behind the toilet in the main bathroom upstairs; Ruby likes to hide on it and pretend she's toilet paper when she's supposed to be brushing her teeth.

This one's long overdue. This was Caelum's holiday program at school. It's super blurry and way too far away, but if you squint you can just make him out in the back row, wearing a black shirt. The batteries in the digital camera and the video camera both decided to die in the middle of the program, so we didn't get any better pics.

...I was running out of pictures to display. This was from Olivia's birthday party, when we let the kids decorate their own cupcakes. I couldn't let them have all the fun. These are a few that I made; not shown are the totally awesome hedgehog cupcakes I made and gave to our neighbours.

Things you haven't seen before

2006-03-20T23:02:00.000Z

A few months ago I was really cocky and said something about not getting sick very often since moving here. I've been paying for that lately, haven't I? After the really bad cold a month ago, there was another, smaller cold, and now I'm feeling poorly again, though it's not a cold. I'm sure I'll get over it soon enough, but I will never again say how great it is to live in a place where we're not getting sick several times a year.

So I'm not feeling up to thinking enough to write a fascinating story for these pictures. We like cocktails but don't have anywhere to put the supplies, so we bought an antique cocktail cabinet on eBay, Brandon drove to London to pick it up and the sellers gave him an Art Nouveau mirror because they were very nice. Here are pictures.

It was made in the 1920s and looks to be handmade. Not a bad find for not much money, but there are a few glaring and annoying defects, like the skeleton key's little sticky-outtie part is broken off.

And more random photos...

He was Superman. If Superman wore a dress.

I wanted to take a picture of Ruby, but where did she go?

Angel with butterfly wings.

I was cleaning out the fridge and putting new groceries away and the girls made off with the mushrooms. They're very proud of themselves.

Dizzy

2006-03-15T20:33:00.000Z

I'd like to say that they learned their lesson and never asked to be spun around in the office chair again, but you wouldn't believe me anyway.

Ramble warning

2006-03-13T13:29:00.000Z

Tired of the damp and chilly weather we've been having lately, we decided to get out yesterday. (And by "we," I most definitely mean "I." Nobody else was really thrilled about leaving the house.)

I've been wanting to walk around in Stoke Wood for months, but thanks to the almost constant rainfall of the last several weeks, and the bitter cold before that, we haven't had a chance. It wasn't any less cold or damp yesterday, but I was going stir crazy being in the house all day, every day. So we bundled everyone up and started out on a nice, quiet walk. The wood was really beautiful; I read that it's one of the few in the area to have been regularly coppiced for almost its entire existence, so the trees are very well managed and not as big as you'd expect. The main trail was pretty hard packed so it wasn't muddy at all, but being the sturdy adventurers that we are, we decided to wander down a side trail which was pretty soggy in places. Poor little Ruby fell down a few times, but she's so tough that she insisted on walking most of the way. She carried a little Pooh backpack with our supplies (trail mix and fresh nappies) and kept saying "I wanna walk!" whenever Brandon picked her up. Olivia rode in the baby backpack and probably had the best time of us all. About twenty minutes into the walk she started growling and making weird animal noises. We figured that getting back to nature made her revert to the wild beast we know she would be if we just set her loose in the back garden one day. Caelum...well, he's a city boy at heart and just doesn't understand the reverence for nature that we try to instill in him. I kept telling him to stop talking for a while and just listen to nature; there were some birds there that we'd never heard before, and some dry leaves blowing on the trees that sounded like a waterfall, and the gentle chittering of the woodland animals. He would listen for a fraction of a second and then start commenting loudly on how beautiful nature was and how great this mud was and how tired his legs were because we'd been walking forEVER. We lasted about an hour, which disappointed me but everyone else seemed okay with it. It would be really nice to go out there by myself so that I could just explore and wander and find that connection with the Earth that sometimes seems to slip away from me when life gets very loud and complicated.

(Click the pic to make it big)

Before we even got back to the car (well, technically before we even started on the trail, but we ignored it then) the kids were asking for trail mix. We fed them their snack and headed to the Sunday market in Finmere. For some reason it was much colder there than it had been in the woods, and everyone was tired and cold and grumpy. We found a stall selling books for £1 each, so Caelum picked up three new books and even got to pay for them himself and keep the change. He forgot to take the change out of his pocket before putting his jeans in the laundry, though, so it's mine once again. We stopped by a food stall and got burgers and chips before heading home. I managed to drop the girls' chips on the ground because I was holding Caelum's burger while he did the potty dance, trying to hold it until we could drive over to the loos, and holding Ruby's hand, and carrying a baby in a backpack, and something had to give - I'm glad it was the chips and not the baby. Luckily there were enough chips in Caelum's tray that I could give some to the girls and he didn't even notice. But I still feel really, really bad about dumping them. There were some very well-fed pigeons and seagulls there after all the people left, I bet.

Well, the day wasn't all that interesting to write about (or, I'm guessing, to read about), but it was pleasant. I really liked getting out and walking around in the fresh air. I hope it starts to warm up soon so that we can go out more often. The weather here reminds me a lot of Nebraska because it's erratic at times, and just when you think you've gotten through winter with no problems, it starts snowing in March. Next winter will be easier for us because Olivia will be a little older and more adapted to being out in the cold. Not that we'll be going out in snowstorms, but a little walk through the neighbourhood every day would keep me from going insane.

I just noticed that I spelled "neighbourhood" with a "u." Why is that? I think it's because that's the way I see it now, on TV and in print and on the English message boards I visit, so now it looks sort of weird without it. I don't do that will all of the words - color is still noticeably missing the extra letter - but some of them just seem to look better with it. It's so strange to think that we're the ones with the accents and we're the ones who spell things strangely, since the English spoken here is closer to the roots of the language. Growing up in America it always seemed that the British way of speaking and spelling was the deviation, but turns out we're the deviants. I never even thought about it before living here. My English friends have been very nice about the funny ways I do things and have yet to tease me about my accent. I really have to remember to say "Autumn" instead of "Fall," though, because that one seems to be confusing.

Again, the quick entry I meant to type up has turned into me rambling about random things which make reading this blog more complicated than it should be. Maybe I should put a ramble warning at the beginning of the posts that will start to wander from their intended subject. I can usually tell beforehand, because it usually happens on the days when I have a pile of laundry or dishes or garbage to take care of.

Before I go finish the housework that I'm avoiding, though, I should take a moment to wish my very special mother a very special birthday. She's 28 today. How do I manage to have a 30 year old grandmother and a 28 year old mother when I, myself, am 25? It's because we're all magical. Happy birthday, mom.

...And Brandon Posts Again

2006-03-09T05:13:00.000Z

I've been feeling more apt to writing lately so hopefully I'll start posting more often. I've actually had a few things I've been thinking of writing about.

First, I'm finally starting to get the ball rolling on school again. I recently had my transcripts sent to the Community College of the Air Force. Once they decide to apply my credits to my associates degree I'll be 3 classes shy of my degree. Most classes should transfer over according to their guide on Metro's classes. None of my tech stuff will though but that's all been covered by the Air Force tech school anyway.

This has got me thinking very seriously about what I want to for a bachelors now. Doing my web project at work has really gotten me ino doing web pages again. Specificly web applications and interface design. I've found a degree I'm thinking I want to persue at the Art Institute online so oddly enough for me I'd be getting a BA. They also offer a video game design degree but it involves more drawing. This is not a strong point for me. The web degree seems to put some emphasis on interface design which has become a big issue with me since owning a Mac and planning out this project at work.

The thought came to me that this is showing my combined genetics of an engineer and an artisit/graphic designer. You've got the design aspect on the front end that you need to make attractive navigatable and then you have the code side behind the scenes and figuring out the mechanics behind getting the data presented to the user in the best way possible. Now, if people at work could decide on exactly WHAT they want.

I want to work on totally redoing our blog design some time too.

(My appologies ahead for Grandma Z or anyone else non-technical that's reading this. This may get boring.)
In preperation for school/homework... No I lie, I got it because I'm a big geek and love computers. We bought a laptop. Brand new HP zd8205us. I know that doesn't mean a lot or anything to most people but it's big (17" screen, 2" thick, 9.4 lbs.), pretty, and powerful (Pentium 4 2.8 GHz). One of the first things I did when I got it: Patched it! (Oooooh yeah!). Then I started installing all the games that can run on it (It has a good graphics card for a laptop but still doesn't beat the desktop) then I installed Dreamweaver (web page editor) and Photoshop. I am really excited to use this for school as well. Seriously.

I also got myself a new iPod. Went with a 2GB Nano since I hate to be encumbered when I run and having an MP3 player weighing more than 1 oz. is just too much. I've really gotten into Podcasts lately. Which, for the uniniated, is like a syndicated radio show. I get some news, some commentary, and I'm learning to speak Chinese (not very well).

I could write about a lot more but now I've put myself behind on my morning schedule so I should run.

Good day.

2006-03-06T23:52:00.000Z

Realizing that I haven't posted in quite a while, I decided to think of something quick and witty to say.

But since I'm not quick or witty, here's the best I could come up with: the weather's been getting a tiny bit warmer, I managed to get myself lost between here and Towcester on Saturday, and the maintenance people gave us just more than one day of notice before coming for a warranty inspection tomorrow afternoon. Maybe after they're done we'll finally be able to turn off (or at least turn down) the radiator in the living room. We still won't be able to wash the crayon and pencil marks off the walls, though, because the paint just comes right off. I have no doubt that by the time we're out of here we'll end up owing the Air Force a completely new house. The kids are little destruction-bent monkeys.

Someday I hope to regain the ability to compose an entire coherent (or close to coherent) post, rather than these little pieces of not-quite news.

Logical

2006-02-28T08:13:00.000Z

I can't think of any logical way to adhere all of these small things into a proper entry, so here are some snippets.

-I removed the tag board to the right. We have a popup blocker so I didn't notice all of the obnoxious popups it was causing until today. That should go away now.

-The Superman of our family, the little dude with the immune system of steel, is succumbing to the plague like the rest of us. When I told him on Sunday that he might not be able to go to school the next day, a look of terror crossed his face. I wonder how much longer he'll actually be able to look forward to school.

-Speaking of school, if transcripts are received and grant money is applied, I will once again be a college student very soon. It didn't even occur to me to be nervous until yesterday, when I realized that it's been over four years since I left school to support Caelum and me. It seems so long ago now. I've decided to major in English, with an as-yet undecided minor. I've thought about studying English before, but there was some insane notion in my mind that if you don't have to struggle for something, it's not worth doing. Writing is the one and only thing that I don't have to work at, so I figured that I couldn't make a career of it. I've gotten over that and made the decision to go for it. Although what I'll do with an English degree, I've no idea.

-Things I never thought I'd hear my offspring say but did anyway: "Aw, Mom, I can't put my shoes on yet - just let me help you clean up for a few more minutes." True story - Caelum said it this morning.

-It's funny because it's not me: We got an urgent email last week from the clinic saying that, due to a manufacturer's error, something like 400 units of birth control pills prescribed from the base pharmacy (which is actually at a different base) were rendered ineffective and had to be recalled. I know it's not nice to laugh at the misfortune of others, but just thinking about all of these couples suddenly looking at each other with a look of panic on their faces as they rush out the door to replace their pills had me rolling on the floor for a while. Ugh, that makes me sound like a bad person. Well, I'm not the only one - Brandon laughed, too.

-We finally broke down and bought a mobile. I'm not really sure how we lived in England for seven months without one. I mean, even the schoolkids here have mobiles. Texting their little lives away, filling up their memory cards with horrible quality photos taken with the teeny-tiny camera lens on their phone. But when it became clear that it was very inconvenient to have one of us unreachable when we were out of the house, we decided to go for it. I sent Brandon out to get it, which I realize now was a stupid rookie mistake. I should have learned better years ago. I thought he was buying a £20 basic model, bare-bones and nothing fancy, and instead he comes back with a £60 phone that does texting and photos and videos. But I'm semi-proud of him, since I'm sure there were phones there that were much more exciting and much, much more expensive.

-I made 3 dozen white cupcakes with white frosting for the school's Mardi Gras party today. It hurt my heart to make cupcakes from a cake mix and put canned frosting on them, but that's what the mommy in charge wanted. I'm not typically a cake mix type of person, and when I do accidentally get my hands on one (there were about nine of them in the holiday care packages we got) I tend to do weird things with them, like making crescent rolls or cookies, but hardly ever use them for their intended purpose. I like the tactile pleasure that comes from putting basic things together and making them into a beautiful and tasty creation. I like to connect with the soul of my baking (as long as that doesn't sound too crazy - if it does, then I submit to you my theory that at key moments in my typing, I wander off for an apple or a cup of coffee and some completely random person walks in through my front door, sneaks up to the computer, and posts weird things that sound like they came from me, but really are just the ramblings of a lunatic on a blogging spree). There's no soul, no art in white cupcakes with white frosting, all of which came more or less readymade from the grocery store.

-Ruby decided yesterday that I'm not her mother. She got mad at me for trying to hold her hand as we were walking through a car park, so she told me to let go of her. I told her I had to hold her hand and she greeted me with her typical answer/question: "Why?" I told her that I was her mother and I had to keep her safe. She screamed at the top of her little 2 1/2 year old lungs "YOU ARE NOT MY MOTHER!" I have a feeling that's not the last time one of them will try that trick.

-I got a little weirded out when an issue of some health food magazine arrived in the mail yesterday, addressed to me specifically. Don't get me wrong: I'm not against health food. It's just that I don't subscribe to any magazines because I don't believe in wasting all that paper and ink for information that I can get on the internet anyway, and for free. That, and I'd never heard of this magazine. I don't know where it came from, so I started having paranoid fantasies that someone saw the pictures of my giant bottom here on the blog and decided to give me a little fitness nudge by buying me a subscription to a health food mag. It's not my fault, okay? If you're not supposed to get fat in England, why do they have all kinds of delicious cheese and bread? And sweets...mmmm....mint fondants....

-There was some more stuff, but since I started this post at something like 8 this morning and it's now 10:48, I think it's time to pack it in. But before I do, please join me in wishing my beautiful grandmother a happy 30th birthday tomorrow. (After about 10 years of getting smacked on the arm for telling her real age, I'm playing it safe this year.) I love you, Grandma!

The plague

2006-02-23T08:57:00.000Z

Our little community seems to have been overtaken by the plague. Everyone's getting sick lately, and it's not one of the short-duration colds that were going around earlier in the winter. This is a high temperature, body ache, extreme fatigue and general malaise super virus. Brandon had it for about a week and genuinely thought for a day or two that he would die. In his two and a half years in the Air Force, he had only missed work due to illness once before. Last week marked his second and third call-ins. Now the girls are miserable, too. I'm feeling sick, but not as sick as the girls. Caelum, as usual, is some kind of superhero and has managed to avoid the virus altogether. That's pretty funny, considering that we've managed to track the source of the plague down to a little girl in his class. So, if you notice today that my ever-present attempts at wit and humor are missing from my writing, forgive me - I believe the only thing keeping me from passing out at the moment is the fact that if I do, Ruby will draw on my face.

As promised many, many days ago (well, most of us are sick - I'm moving as fast as I can) here are some photos from Jump Rope for Heart. I was one of the volunteers so I didn't get to see what Caelum was doing the whole time, but Brandon said he had a good time.

waiting patiently for the fun to begin

cheesy!

My baby girl is a little comedian. That's Ruby's purse that I'm holding, by the way. Not mine. She carries that purse everywhere, then makes me hold it while she's playing. I'm like the husband sitting on the bench in the shopping mall, looking humiliated while clutching his wife's massive purse. Except I'm not a husband, and her purse isn't massive. But it's the same concept.

Caelum with his new best friend, Micah. His best friend changes about once a fortnight or so.

Doing the warm-up before the jump-roping starts. Caelum didn't want to do the Chicken Dance because he said it was stupid. He's totally like me at that age: easily embarassed and not willing to look silly, ever. Good thing I've gotten over that and can now do the Chicken Dance in a crowded gymnasium full of near-strangers with no embarassment at all.

Olivia spending some quality time with her favourite guy in the world, Mister Kevin. We're very lucky to finally have some neighbors that we really like. The only problem is that our kids seem to like them more than they like us.

I look like an Amazon in this photo. I think Brandon was sitting on the floor or something, because I'm of above average height, but I'm not THAT tall.

All right, that's it for now. The girls just laid down for naps, so I'm going to try to get some rest before they wake up. Wow, this was possibly the most boring post ever. I'm just going to go ahead and blame it on being sick.

I walked to the Taj Mahal and all I got was this delicious curry

2006-02-16T20:57:00.000Z

It's not the purpose of this blog to review eateries, though goodness knows I probably could if I had more time and money. We have had some very interesting food experiences since moving to England (the cheese alone...I could write pages and pages about it), and probably one of the best (besides the cheese, of course) has been the abundance of Indian food. There is a curry shop every thirty feet or so in the towns, just to remind you of how hungry you are and how much you love curry. We've sampled three or four of them so far, including a Chinese place that does curries - it was interesting to find out that I may actually like English Chinese Indian food better than plain old English Indian food.

Brandon has been very sick this week; on Wednesday evening he had a 102.3 degree temp and I had to get him into a cold bath. The next day he paid me back by begging me to get him curry takeaway to clear out his sinuses. The only place that was open in the afternoon - Taj Mahal Tandoori - didn't deliver until dinner time, so I had to drive out there to pick it up. It wouldn't be a problem except that I didn't know where the place was and I'm not good with maps. I was nervous about having to get to a new place within a certain amount of time. And on top of the curry he demanded (okay, he asked very sweetly for) cough medicine and absinthe. So I found the curry place with no problem, then walked about six blocks to Tesco, stinky curry in hand, and got the rest of the stuff I needed (plus some cheese - I can't resist English cheese) and annoyed everyone around me with my pungent bag of lunch. I then had to trek back across town to get back to my car (...maybe I'm exaggerating a tiny bit. It was maybe half a mile. But do that with a bag of heavy Indian food which is rapidly becoming cold, and two bags of groceries, and it feels a lot longer).

But all of that was totally worth it when we dug into the food. Veggie samosas with mango chutney to start - why have I never had mango chutney before? I demand to know why I have never before graced my taste buds with this magnificent condiment. It's amazing, especially on greasy fresh samosas. Then I had vegetable masala, which was also glorious. Brandon had some lamb something or other - I try not to know too much about which particular meat he's eating at any given meal. We also had a very large garlic nan (Indian flat bread) which was the only thing that wasn't totally awesome about the meal - it was okay, but not as chewy and nutty-flavored as we've had elsewhere. In all, though, it was a fabulous lunch, and Brandon seemed to feel better when he was done.

As far as I know, there were only two or three Indian restaurants in Omaha, and they had the reputation of being dirty and having pest problems, so I never ate there. Those are probably false rumors, like most restaurant horror stories are, but it was enough to put me off of going there, ever. Where ever we end up after here, though, I think I'm going to have to hunt out the nearest Indian restaurant and open a credit account with them. Greek food may have been knocked off of its perch at the top of my favorites list.

Here's a random pic to send you off with a smile. I can't keep that girl out of the bowl cabinet.

Carsick

2006-02-11T22:21:00.000Z

Last Sunday, the day after London, we were feeling refreshed and ready to take on another journey. We decided to go to Mildenhall and Lakenheath, the two nearest "major" bases, for some shopping. They're adjoining bases and each of them has different specialties in their shopping facilities. We figured we'd make a nice day of walking around and shopping in a store that isn't too tiny to accomodate all five of us.

The day started out pleasant enough, with a nice breakfast and everyone getting dressed after only being asked to do so two or three times. Just before we moved here we bought a portable DVD player/video game player to keep the kids entertained during the long, boring moving process. It worked so well while our old house was being packed up, and before we had anything when we got here. We planned to let the kids watch a movie on the long drive to keep them from going completely crazy on one another. Unfortunately, by last week it had peaked in usefulness and was now ready to lay down and die. Maybe 30 or 45 minutes into the two-hour drive, it died in the middle of a movie.

Not long after that, just after we'd passed the halfway point of the trip, we found out that Caelum gets car sick. Would you like to know how we found out? No, you wouldn't, so I'll leave out the uneccessary details...suffice to say that the little dude now had no trousers, no coat, and a booster seat that we had to cover in plastic. After pulling into a layby to get everything sorted out, we asked Caelum if he wanted to turn around and go home, or keep going and buy him some new trousers to wear when we got there. Since we'd already promised Burger King for lunch, he decided to keep going.

Here's after we got things cleaned up. I had just made them all smile and say "Barf!"

Brandon was so great - it was a pretty yucky situation, but he took control and got everything sorted. He's my hero.

So we kept going for a long, long time, and when we finally got there Brandon went in to get Caelum new trousers. By this time it was after lunch time and, although the kids were being civil, I could tell they were restless. He was gone for maybe 10 minutes when he came back and informed us that we were at the wrong base; they didn't have clothing there and we'd have to go to the adjoining base, which is about a 10 minute drive away. We decided to eat lunch there in the van, just so that we wouldn't have to deal with hungry squealiness in addition to tired grumpiness. So after Brandon went back in to retrieve some Burger King stuff for lunch, we had a little picnic in the minivan.

When we got to the other base, Brandon ran into the BX and found trousers for Caelum and Olivia (did I mention she also managed to get a little sick on the way there? All over her legs.) and a hooded sweatshirt for Caelum. It took forever because their debit payment system was down, and by the time he got back we'd been in the car for about four hours straight. They don't look too distressed, though. I made them say "Grumpydoodles" because they hate it and it's fun to be mean like that.

We finally got the clothing situation taken care of, and did a lot of shopping. We bought an ice cream maker which we used two days later and burned the motor out of within 10 minutes of plugging it in. It's annoying that they sell American appliances here that can't run on the different frequency.

We stopped at the Scottish store outside of the BX at Mildenhall and Brandon found this county cap. He's starting to look more and more like his father every year. Nothing wrong with that, of course...he looks adorable in his new hat. I made him say "Birthday hat!" because I was being sadistic that day and making them say strange things. Why do they listen when I tell them to do something silly, as long as I'm holding a camera?

At the time it seemed like so much more happened, but I guess that just came from having a somewhat stressful ride up. The ride back was nice, other than getting lost a couple of times. We got to take a detour through Towcester, which I've wanted to visit since we moved here. American readers: please pronounce Towcester. Did you come up with a three-syllable word? It's actually pronounced like "toaster." It's the funniest thing I've ever heard. There was also a sign just outside of Mildenhall, pointing to a town called Brandon, but for some reason Brandon refused to get out and stand next to it for a photo.

Here I go again falling asleep while typing. Sometimes I wish I could still type while sleeping, but so far when I try it I always wake up with awkward squarish indentations on my forehead and the typing doesn't actually get done; my head always falls forward, pinning my fingers so that they can't move.

Jump Rope for Heart was great fun today, and Brandon took something like 50 pictures! I will share as soon as I get time.

London!

2006-02-10T20:57:00.000Z

Gah. I can't believe it's taken me almost a week to post this. I'd say I'm really sorry, but I'm pretty sure there wasn't anyone out there on pins and needles, just waiting breathlessly to hear about our weekend adventure. If I'm wrong...then I'm really sorry. I managed to get myself committed to too many projects at once, and the deadline for many of them was today, so after 3 hours of sleep I got up early this morning and finished them all. Now just a few more small things to get done this week and I'm project-free for a while. Whew.

So about last Saturday...London was amazing. I know it sounds cheesy, especially to those who've lived in England their entire lives, but when I was growing up in Midwestern America I always dreamed of going to London. Of course, those dreams usually included being rich and famous and going there on my own private jet, but this way was good, too. It was everything I'd hoped for: it was full of history, rich with new things to do and see, and brimming with amazing people. I'm pretty proud of being heckled by a London punk, bright red mohawk and all.

I've never been on a train before, and the only public transport I've ever taken was the city bus in Omaha, which was a far cry from the public transport in large cities. And it's been a full seven years since I've been on a bus, at that. So taking the Underground around London was a very new experience for me. Although I have to say that it was much more pleasant than I thought it would be - no urine-soaked seats, no intoxicated vagrants asking for spare change, no angry mob of football fans...oh, wait, there was that, but that was later.

So we went first to the London Eye, which I am not supposed to call a giant Ferris Wheel, but how else can you describe it? It's a very large wheel with compartments that people ride in. It's ridiculously tall - I think like 14 stories - and 25 people can fit into each compartment. We were encountered with a huge queue for tickets, and another for the ride itself, but both moved very quickly and we were in a "pod" within an hour of arriving.

We got to spend quality time with many tourists. I liked the French ones the best.

Look! That's Brandon! Oh, and the River Thames is behind him.

Me modeling against the handrail.

House of Parlaiment and Big Ben.

After the Eye it was off to see the International Anime Expo, or something. I forget the name of it. It was an exhibit of Anime from around the world, including some wicked-cool robot stuff. And a few giant cardboard robot cutouts.

We walked around for a while and heard the sound of bagpipes drifting to us on the wind. That's like a magical sound for us since Brandon's parents are both musicians in a Scottish pipe band. One of my best memories with the extended family is sitting in Grandpa and Grandma Barnes' back garden and listening to my father in law play his pipes one summer evening. So we tracked this piper down to the bridge, but unfortunately we didn't get there in time to watch him play; he was just packing up. We gave him a few coins anyway, just for being there in the miserable cold on the river in a kilt. Hey, there's Big Ben in the background.

We went to the Namco Station then, and I think I'm still there in spirit. Namco is a company that makes video games, and the Namco Station is like a giant playground...there are wall-to-wall games, and in the basement is a bar area. We played Dance Dance Revolution as soon as we walked in. Despite my protests that I didn't know how to play and my insistence that I wanted to read the instructions on the screen, Brandon decided to press the "Start" button before I could figure out how to play. He's such a cheater. He won the first round, we tied the second, and I beat him in the third. Luckily we'd bought the home version of the same game the day before on eBay, because after that I was hooked.

We went downstairs then and ordered some beer and nachos to hold our appetites until we found a nice restaurant for lunch. (We would have eaten at the Chinese place next door, but I'm a little leery of any restaurant whose "Vegetarian" menu consists of fish and shellfish. They don't grow on trees! They're not vegetables!) We got to spend some very nice relaxing time there, just talking to each other, which we don't normally have the opportunity to do.

Back to the Tube station then, and off to London Bridge.

Yeah, that's the one the song is about. A little underwhelming, isn't it? When we Yankees think of London Bridge, we're usually thinking of the Tower Bridge, which is the big, pretty one. (Another American made that mistake famous in 1968...bonus points to anyone who knows what I'm talking about.) Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit the Tower Bridge, though I think that's on our list of things to do on our next visit.

This was a random sight on our walk in the London Bridge neighbourhood. It looks like a very old wall from another structure was left in place and a new building built adjoining the wall. It was really stunning in person, but that doesn't come through in the photo. (If any of my English friends know the story behind this and can enlighten me, I'd be very grateful.)

Pirates! I should have written down the details on the placard beside this boat. It's a replica of something, and it's travelled a long, long way...that's pretty much the extent of what I can remember. I think they give parties on it, or something.

We went then to Vinopolis, a wine-tasting experience and wine museum. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the front of the building with its impressive engraved pillar. It was a very pleasant and relaxing hour or two, walking through all of the exhibits and learning all about wine. We purchased the upgraded tour, so we each got five wine tastings, a Bombay Sapphire cocktail, and two shots of Absinthe. Surprisingly, we both walked out of there just fine at the end. We stopped by the gift shops on the way out (hey, I just realized how unfair it is to give people lots of alcohol and then make them go through a gift shop to get out) and picked Brandon up a bottle of 24-year-old Scotch. After all, the next day he, too, would be 24. It seemed fitting. We picked out a few souvenirs and left, and we realized that it was already starting to get dark (which isn't saying much since it gets dark at 3 pm here in the winter - lately it's more like 5 pm, though) and we probably wouldn't have time to go to Soho like we'd wanted.

We walked for just half a block or so, down a narrow street, and were struck by the holy sight of a sushi restaurant. Ahh, sushi. It was a tiny little place with rubber strips hanging from the doorway instead of a door and a fireplace just inside. We sat down and ordered and laughed about how sadistic it is for a sushi restaurant to have an aquarium with live fish. We reflected on the day and ate the best sushi of our lives...mine veggie, of course, and his with like 6 different kinds of fish. We made off with the paper placemats as souvenirs, and remembered to snap a photo before leaving.

I don't think you can see their slogan in that photo, but it says "If our fish were any fresher, you'd have to slap it." I love that place.

We stopped by a newsagent on the way back to the station and picked up some sweets for the kids, then went to get back on the train. Just after getting into the station we saw a huge, seemingly endless line of chanting, pushing, shouting football fans (remember football here is what we call soccer in the US, and they're even more passionate about it than Americans are about American football - personally I don't care about either). They were headed for the train we were going to get on, so we quickly changed routes and eventually made our way to a train, then back to our car. An hour's drive later and we got home...or, more accurately, to our neighbours' house where the kids had been all day. They made a homemade pizza just for us and we got to sit down and chat for a while before going home with homemade chocolate cake in hand.

It turned out to be one of the best days ever...the two of us definitely needed a day by ourselves to just be a couple.

The next day, however...was not so fabulous. But that story will have to wait, because I'm falling asleep on the keyboard as I type. Have to get up and get to school in the morning because I volunteered to help out at the Jump Rope for Heart event at school. Thanks so much to those who donated - Caelum is so thrilled that he raised $100! I'll try to get Brandon to get some photos of him jumping around tomorrow.

Details soon, I promise

2006-02-06T18:15:00.000Z

Many of you have heard about our London trip this weekend and are anxious for details. I swear to you, I'm anxious to post them, but I'm still completely wiped out from our big weekend. It was the busiest we've been since we moved here, and I don't think any of us were prepared for it all. So I'll post soon, hopefully tomorrow. I would have posted a photo just to appease your need for photos, but Blogger's refusing to upload it for me. So you'll just have to be patient.

This is why no one ever comes to our house

2006-02-01T13:54:00.000Z

I knew I would mess up the whole serving tea to a Brit thing. The greyhound home-visit lady finally made it over on Saturday, after having to delay for two weeks due to some family issues. As soon as she walked in, I offered her some tea, then ran off to the kitchen to make it. I made sure the water was boiling, not boiled (thanks again, Douglas Adams), then filled up the lovely teapot, and carried it and the itty-bitty cups and saucers, and bowls full of milk and sugar cubes out to the coffee table. (I lack a serving tray, which I regret at times like that.) I set it down, and she smiled and said "That's lovely", and then we chatted a bit about greyhounds. And the tea just sat there. And we chatted some more, and the tea continued to sit there. I asked "Would you like me to hold your dog's lead so you can drink your tea?" and she said no, she was fine. And we chatted more, went outside to check out the garden, she remarked on our nice big kitchen, and we returned to the living room. She perched on the end of her chair and glanced at the tea a few times. By this time I'm thinking that she's heard about how awful Americans are at making tea and I'm thoroughly shamed and wondering what I should do about the stupid pot of tea that's just sitting there and not being drunk and reminding me of my shameful lack of tea-brewing skills.

So finally, the poor woman looked at me with this weird smile and said "Are you not having any tea?" And I said "Oh, yes, I'll have some tea," and moved around to sit on the sofa and pour some tea...and then I realized that for the past 20 minutes she's been waiting for me to pour the tea. She showed incredible restraint in not chucking the steaming pot of tea at my thick head and even had the grace to thank me several times.

It seems that since we moved here, my excuse for acting stupid is always "Uhh...I'm not from here." I use it a lot more than I'm comfortable with.

We sure know how to waste time

2006-01-27T08:07:00.000Z

I know this is supposed to be our "travel" blog, detailing all of the glorious fun we have traveling around England, but...it's the middle of winter, and England is cold. Plus, due to the recent ginormous expenditures we've had to deal with regarding the vehicles (having the van modified, inspected, licensed, and renewing the tax disc on the VW) we're a bit broke. But not to fear, because we are champions at amusing ourselves. A few weeks ago, for example, we made some doughnuts in our new deep fryer (as an aside, we almost never eat fried foods, but for some reason when we saw it in the BX it seemed like an extremely good idea to buy it. When you're bored and don't want to watch TV, frying stuff seems like fun). When the doughnuts were all done and the oil was still hot, Brandon started hunting for other stuff to throw in there. Unfortunately the first thing he found was a slice of turkey - the lunchmeat kind, with a high water content. Now, not to turn all sciencey on you, but water + hot oil = bad. As soon as he dropped it in there, it started sputtering and popping, getting hot oil on the counter and cabinets, and scaring my poor hubby half to death. He reached over and yanked the cord off of the back of the fryer (it has a quick-release cord on the back held on with magnets, probably for just such an occassion, when you need to cut the power RIGHT NOW). When the sputtering died down a bit he fished the little crumpled piece of meat out of the oil. He was unimpressed with the taste of the deep-fried turkey slice of death, but I was pretty happy with the entertainment factor that came out of the whole incident. It was a good week before he was brave enough to fry anything again.

Earlier this week we played around on myheritage.com for a couple of hours. You can upload a photo to their site and their face recognition software will, in theory, when the site is complete, tell you your ancestry based on facial structure. At the moment the site's not complete and the only database they have to pull results from is a celebrity database. So basically you upload your photo and they tell you what celebrities share facial features with you. I got some bizarre results, like Michael Jackson (YOUNG, cute Michael Jackson, before he got all scary and monsterish) and Jimi Hendrix...which sort of surprised me, because I'm a white chick of eastern European descent. I got some which I expected, like Uma Thurman, because as unattractive as I think she is, people have made the comparison before. Some were just way out there, like some actress from the 30s who I'd never heard of, some athlete guy, and a bunch of male politicians. Way to boost the ego. Brandon uploaded a photo of him with his glasses on and the first return he got was Elvis Costello. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen - they really did look identical in the photos. He also got Colin Farrell, and some old people that I can't remember...but no women, as far as I recall. Hmm. So I look like a black man, and he looks like Colin Farrell? Neat. Brandon also uploaded a picture of a baby's bare bottom, but the website didn't find any matches. I told him he should have drawn some eyes on it.

We were also greatly amused by this, found in the commissary:

I'm too lazy to rotate it, but you get the idea.

Support the Moon Boot Drive...I mean, the American Heart Association

2006-01-19T14:37:00.000Z

Okay, apparently the APO schools are listed under Pennsylvania on the AHA website. I don't know why, but apparently the AHA woman was surprised that I didn't know that.

Anyway, here's the link to Caelum's personal donation page, in case you want to sponsor him in Jump Rope for Heart. They'll not accept donations less than $25 on the site, so if you'd like to donate but not quite that much, there is the option of sending a check (I can give you the address if you don't have it). And you could also choose not to donate, of course. I'm not going to bully anyone into handing over money. I'm just happy the little dude wants to participate in a physical activity at school.

***Edited Jan. 20: Fixed the link. Sorry about that.***

***Ten minutes later: Had to fix the link again. Twice. I'm beginning to hate the AHA website. Okay, so use this one, and just enter his name in the search boxes. It's too early to get frustrated with computers, so I'm doing it the easy way.***

***45 minutes later and I realize that neither of the links is showing up. Sigh. Okay, if you want to donate, email me and I'll send you the little form letter thing from the AHA site that will include a direct link. I'm about to get obsessed with making this stupid link behave the way I want it to.***

Etymology for the masses

2006-01-18T09:44:00.000Z

We've had ourselves quite a month. Just before the holidays, Olivia went to the doctor for a routine check-up and he found a heart murmur. Being the holiday season, we had to wait three weeks for an appointment with a pediatric cardiologist in Oxford. Since I'm a modern worried mother, I devoted those three weeks to researching heart murmurs on the internet and pretty much freaking myself out. I'd start to read an article, and it would say something like "Almost all children will have a heart murmur at some point in their lives, and about 90% of them are harmless." I would breathe a sigh of relief and smile widely until I read on: "If you doctor thinks there is anything to worry about, he/she will refer you to a pediatric cardiologist." D'oh! So, finally, last Friday we drove down to the hospital in Oxford. After a very tense hour or so of the (extremely kind and wonderful) doctor trying to listen to her heart and take ultrasound pictures, and Olivia pushing the stethoscope away and eating the ultrasound jelly between screaming fits, he gave her the all-clear. We'll have to watch it over the next few years, and if it's not gone by the time she's four we'll have to take her in for another ultrasound. But for now, we can be immensely grateful that she is the healthy, mischief-making monkey she's always been.

Brandon and I have always had superstitious worries about her health. We hadn't planned to have a third child so soon and it was a complete surprise when we found out we were pregnant again - although a happy surprise. We talked about it just after she was born, and found that we'd both been terrified that something would be wrong with her since we already had two very healthy kids. Statistically, it just didn't seem likely that we'd be so lucky again. We really are a very lucky bunch of people.

Speaking of heart health (do I know how to segueway or what?), Caelum is doing Jump Rope for Heart at school. In case you don't know what that is (because unless you have school-age kids or were an American school-age kid in the last 15 years or so, why would you?), it's a fundraiser for the American Heart Association. The AHA does very good work educating the public about heart disease, strokes, and other heart health issues. So basically Jump Rope for Heart is where kids get people to pledge money, then they go and jump rope for an afternoon at their school, and they get prizes based on how much money they collected. At the moment I'm waiting for a response from the AHA because their web-based solicitation system doesn't allow you to select AE as a state, although it's supported elsewhere on the site, so as soon as I get his personalized donation page set up I'll post the link here for those of you who care to donate. He's shooting for $200 in donations (or, as he puts it, "I WANT THE MOON BOOTS!!") but...well, I'm trying to explain to him that it's all about the big picture and helping the cause rather than getting something out of it. Which is like trying to explain nuclear fusion to a puppy. He'll look at me with big eyes, and nod appropriately from time to time, but all he really hears is "Wah wah wah wah wah MOON BOOTS, wah wah wah wah wah MONEY, wah wah GOOD PERSON." I remember trying to do Jump Rope for Heart in grade school and only getting like $50 in pledges. But, admittedly, I'm not and never have been a salesperson...and, come to think of it, I don't think I ever actually went to the event and did the jump roping part of it. Yeah, that sounds like me.

(Language geek warning: this next bit will probably bore those of you who are not language geeks like me.) In spellchecking the word "segueway," I discovered that it's not actually a proper word. It's more like one of those common misuses which has found its way into mainstream speech, though not into dictionaries yet. I think I want to be an etymologist when I grow up.

This day just keeps getting better

2006-01-11T18:41:00.000Z

As if the German yogurt translation wasn't enough to make me giggle all day (which it was - what can I say...I have nothing more thrilling than yogurt going on right now), the phone rang as I was preparing dinner. When I picked it up, it was one of those annoying telemarketing recordings that's meant to sound like it's not a recording ("Hey, sorry to bother you at home, but I have something I'd really like to talk to you about..." and then the dude keeps talking without a pause, so that you think it's just someone who doesn't care about two-sided conversation). The guy launched into how he knows I've always wanted to live in America, and he can help me to fulfill my dream of living on the Florida coast and owning my own business there. I'm glad it was just a recording, or my hysterical laughing as I hung up would probably have hurt his feelings a little.

What my yogurt says to me

2006-01-11T08:36:00.000Z

Translation from the lid of the yogurt I ate for breakfast (the label is all in German) courtesy of AltaVista's Babel Fish: "With clockwise rotatingly milk-sour."

Once again, I'm confused about tea

2006-01-06T23:45:00.000Z

Last week, the boys both got to stay home due to holiday breaks, so we got some good family bonding time in. We headed to Milton Keynes on Friday. It's a city about 20 minutes or so away; a new Ikea opened there the previous week and, since there weren't any Ikeas where we came from, we thought it would be fun to check out the cheap Swedish stuff that everyone complains about.

Milton Keynes was (I read somewhere) modeled on an American city, with a layout that's more friendly to motor vehicles than most English towns (how in the world are two cars supposed to fit on a little 7" wide strip of concrete with buildings so close on either side that you can roll down your window and ring their doorbells? End of rant.). We never did get to that Ikea because, like the modern American city, traffic was backed up for a good mile away and people were parking in the neighboring shops' car parks, so we decided to beat a hasty retreat and come back in a year or so when it's not as new and novel.

That turned out to be a good thing for us all, because driving toward the city centre we noticed a Toys R Us. Since Brandon was driving, and I have never seen that man drive past a Toys R Us without stopping and/or whining that he wanted to go in, we stopped. Caelum and Ruby each picked out a toy, Brandon picked up some DVD-Rs for our new super-awesome DVD writer from his super-awesome parents, and I got some plastic lacing (Scoubidou? Boondoggle? Depends on what decade and what country you're from) to waste some time with. I really really really wanted to go to the craft store because it's the only one near us, but we never made it over there. I'm sure Brandon planned it that way, because once I walk into a craft store he and the kids pretty much cease to exist to me for the next thirty minutes to an hour while I fondle all of the yarn, glue, and bizarre array of seemingly useless implements that I just know I could make something really stellar out of. He even herded me away from the kids crafting section at the toy store (Him: "Come on, you know you'll just get stuck there." Me: "Stuck how?" "Stuck like the kids will want to buy a bunch of that stuff and you'll give in just so you can take it home and play with it yourself." "So?" "Didn't you want to find the restroom?" [It was much funnier in person, like almost all of my stories.]).

Look how many punctuation marks I just used in a row - it's 12:02 am and I'm headed to bed very soon, I promise.

Just one more thing, and then I swear I'm leaving: for my English friends, is it appropriate (or expected?) to serve tea and biscuits to someone who comes to your house for a semi-social, semi-business type of visit? A dog adoption person is doing a home visit tomorrow, and I'd hate to offend her by offering her tea/not offering her tea/offering her the wrong variety of tea/preparing the tea entirely the wrong way because, according to the late great Douglas Adams, Americans know absolutely nothing about the proper preparation of tea. Ugh, I'll never be refined enough to live here.

Movies

2005-12-31T23:39:00.000Z

At the end of the year, I always take time to look back over the last 365 days to reflect on how I've changed, how my life has grown, what has gone well and what has strayed from my plan. This has certainly been a busier year than most, since our first trip out of the country was also our first overseas move. The memories play like a movie, the sweet sentimental kind of movie that always makes me cry, but I'm always a better person for having experienced those memories.

I remember spending last New Year's Eve in our house in Bellevue, the one with all linoleum floors, and falling asleep on the couch in my husband's arms. I remember being exhausted because the new baby just wouldn't sleep. Then, a few months later, our trip to Mahoney State Park, when it was cold and windy and the kids were grumpy, but it was so much fun. The day it started raining at the playground and I ran up the hill with the baby strapped to my chest and the other kids in the wagon. A trip to the zoo with Heather. A visit from Kyle and Nicole - and the woman with the soup not understanding the idea of a garlic allergy. Having a garage sale to get rid of things before moving; Caelum selling brownies and making tons of money. Watching all of our things being packed up and loaded into a truck. Spending two weeks at Mike and Pat's house. Sweating because the air conditioner broke when it was 100 degrees outside. Then tearful goodbyes, a strange overnight drive, a pleasant day in a hotel, a stressful flight. Friendly faces at the airport, lost luggage, tiny hotel room. Making new friends, beautiful new house, walking around with the kids. Settling in and feeling at home, yet so far from home. Worrying about my Grandma, planning for the next year.

My mind is filled with these movies, each filed neatly away for convenient viewing when I need reminding of how sweet life is and how precious every day is. Even if it's spent in my pajamas, smelling of coffee and diapers, cleaning up after the messy little devils - as today was - it's precious. Cherish each and every moment.

Happy new year.

Kitchen meditation

2005-12-17T18:08:00.000Z

Usually, when I'm stressed or nervous or just in a foul mood, I bake. For some reason, taking flour and butter and sugar and a few other things and turning them into something delicious (and occasionally nutritious) is like therapy for my soul.

Even though I'd been under plenty of stress worrying about Grandma's health, I think I was, for once, too upset to bake. Upon hearing of the successful outcome of her surgery, I downgraded my emotional state from panic to severe worry, thereby apparently opening up my mind to the therapeudic properties of dough. And this happened:

So, two dozen Honey Wheat cookies, one loaf of Cinnamon Whole Wheat Bread, one pan of English Flapjack, one pan of chocolate fudge, and eight whole wheat bagels later, I was tired and sweaty and feeling more relaxed. Things just always seem less dire when you live in a house that smells of yeast and brown sugar.

And here is what happens when you let a one-year-old and two-year-old help with making cookies:

Flour on the counter and the pet stuffed kitty

Flour on the chair and (yuck) in the mouth...and apparently paper on the floor, although I'm not sure where that came from

And flour all over the little girls.

They each had a bowl and spoon, and Ruby's bowl had a spoonful of flour in it. Only a toddler can take a spoonful of flour and manage to cover an entire kitchen in it. She has to have her special little apron on whenever we're in the kitchen. She's getting her very own custom made apron for the Winter Holiday (Shhh...don't tell her)!

Pacing

2005-12-15T01:52:00.000Z

I'm doing my own version of pacing the hospital corridors: alternating between sewing, watching TV, and cruising the internet aimlessly. Have finished my sewing project at the early hour of 2 am. I don't know if I'll be able to sleep. Grandma's having surgery tomorrow - in the afternoon her time, in the evening our time. Which means another...what? Nineteen hours or so until I get some news? I'd better start another project.

Sad, but caffeinated

2005-12-14T13:19:00.000Z

For those of you who haven't yet heard, my dear grandmother is in the hospital. There's something going on with her colon. She is having tests done at this stage. I think it's even more nerve wracking to be so far away from her while this is happening, because due to the time difference and the fact that I communicate with the family via email, I have to wait by the computer for updates. But my grandma is the strongest woman I've ever known, and she will be back to her old hijinks in no time. I just wish I could hug her right now.

Not much other news to report - I got all of the holiday packages out yesterday, but was assured by the guy at the Post Office that they will not arrive before the holiday. So, everyone, I'm very sorry, but you'll get them eventually. It'll be like you get two winter holidays!

Brandon has been moved to a different office, which will be effective on Monday. He's excited about going into a new environment and getting to use his skills in a different setting. Speaking of Brandon, don't I have the best husband ever? He was so upset about the broadband thing that he finally just did it himself. And now we have a fast connection! He's so great. Now if we can just get my car stuff taken care of so that I can finally drive, I might just feel at home here. Although we just found out that Tesco, a big grocery store chain, has online shopping with cheap delivery...so maybe I'll just never leave the house again.

I've been planning so many things to write, but with the Grandma thing happening, and a miserable bout with a 24-hour flu a couple of days ago, I'm pretty much blank as far as writing is concerned. Everything I could write at this point seems frivilous and silly. So I'm going to sit down with a cup of coffee (courtesy of a very thoughful birthday gift from our neighbors) and a basket of laundry, and watch some silly American TV and wish I was nearer to the people I miss.

We are now connected... better

2005-12-11T18:53:00.000Z

My first post just because I'm so happy right now.

It's been building and building. There's been a few days where all I could do was obsess over the fact that we did not have broadband. I would get angry, spout off some scheme to get our DSL working, and then become depressed as I'd figure out it would not work.

Today I don't know if it was all this reaching a boiling point or the fact that I'd had some Guinness. I finally decided to rip out all the phone connections and put back each cable one at a time to find where the fault was.

Then it got dark. I borrowed the neihbor's flashlight and continued on. However, color-blindness and low light don't work out too well. Hearing Delana dealing with the kids through the walls to the outside I decided to try to make it short. I had gotten to a point where I thought I had it so that we could have phone in the living room and DSL in the office. I should have taken more time to test it outside because after I came inside I found it didn't work.

I took a break for dinner but stewed over it the whole time.

Once I got back outside I tried just the office hooked up again and found the DSL wouldn't sync. Tried the living room again, this time forgetting to turn off the DSL modem. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the DSL stayed connected after I had connected the only two required wires. I finished connecting all 6 and looked back down at the modem and found it disconnected. I then disconnected the last two wires and the DSL almost instantly reconnected. Checked inside... DSL worked and the phone did as well. Went back out and hooked up just the office and living room... They worked together!

So here we are... systems finally patched (a pet peeve of mine)... and a much happier household.

Hello, my name is Delana and I shake the hands of unwilling strangers.

2005-12-05T07:10:00.000Z

I'm socially retarded. I'm shy and afraid of rejection, so when I try to talk to people and come off all cool, I end up sounding like a ten-year-old non-English speaker with a stutter. Not only do I not speak well; I make snap decisions in social situations which, more often than not, turn out to be wrong. Case in point: when we took the van to the garage to get the light conversion, a nice older man came up and stuck his hand out at me. Since I'm American and a little like an overeager puppy when it comes to making first impressions, I grabbed his hand, pumped it up and down a couple of times, and said "Hi! I'm Delana!"

He looked at me for a moment, then said "....Yeah. Hi. Can I have the key?" See, he was sticking his hand out for the key, not for some pushy weirdo to grab it and start shaking it around.

I wholeheartedly believe that the last page in the story of my life will go something like this: "...and she turned around, embarassment overwhelming her, and tried to run away. She didn't get more than three steps before the poor thing just exploded, the social ineptitude that was her curse swallowing her at last."

Heh. I'm so dramatic.

But seriously, I'm a big idiot. I have actually argued with English people about how to pronounce my name, not even realizing until recently (uh, thanks, Sally) that it's the accent that makes them pronounce it differently. Long A sounds seem to feel awkward to the British tongue. But I can't help it. After 25 years of hearing it pronounced 25 different ways, I've developed this reflex. If someone says my name even slightly differently than I say it, I automatically correct them. Even if we go back and forth for hours, them saying it the wrong way and me saying it the right way, as long as they don't break the chain and say something else, every time they say it the wrong way my brain just forces me to correct them. I can't make it stop. I once called in to a radio show and won tickets to a concert, and while I was on the air with the DJ I corrected the pronounciation of my name about six times. There was this little voice inside saying "Shut up, you moron! They're giving you free tickets to a concert and you're worried about how he says your name?" but it's like a disease.

Anyway, why so much talk about myself? Because there's nothing going on. Life is peaceful and boring. I am working on a new BIG project (think bigger than just a craft project) but prefer not to spill the details just yet. The kids are content for the most part, but unhappy that we don't get to play outside much anymore. It's gotten cold here and we spend most of our time indoors to cater to Princess Olivia's dislike of all things not warm and cozy. Caelum is starting Art Club at school soon. It's an after-school club where the kids will get to make artsy things. We're both super excited about that. And Ruby is, as always, a one-toddler wreckin' machine. Brandon's back to his normal shift, and they even moved his start time back by 30 minutes, so it's back to 7:30 like it was when we first arrived. I did like the early shift because I had some time alone after everyone went to bed, and Brandon was home at around the same time as Caelum, but it's nice to have time together after the kids go to bed, too. Not that we actually spend it together often, but we try to take time out from our various other activities to just sit down with each other whenever we can.

The girls and I are off for a jog in the park this morning. I'm going to pack them into the bike trailer that turns into a stroller (I love you, Mike and Pat - that thing just rocks so much) and cover it with the windscreen so they don't get cold and cranky. I've let myself get lazy since we started moving (in JULY!) and I'm feeling it. So, while I still lack motivation and my subconcious is trying to invent a reason not to go, I know it'll be good for me. Plus, my friend Kyle recently set out on a thousand-mile bike ride, and how lazy am I for not wanting to go jog at the track that's practically in my back yard? Thanks for guilting me into it, Kyle. Wish me luck at not passing out in the middle of the track.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2005-11-24T16:58:00.000Z

While your day in the US is just starting, ours is nearly over. The meal's been eaten, the pie has been savored, and Brandon is now half-comatose on the couch. It was a good day, but not as good as it would have been with our extended families.

Brandon brought home a bottle of 10-year-old Scotch yesterday, smiling widely, and told me "Now it'll be like real Thanksgiving!" That's one of the things he misses most - standing around with the men, drinking Scotch after a holiday meal.

Although battling a nasty cold, I've been up since the crack of 8 o'clock cleaning and cooking. I realized recently that this is the first year I've done everything myself. Thankfully I only had 5 people to cook for, and somehow I managed to time the cooking so that everything was ready at the same time. It wouldn't be a holiday without an injury, though, and I have a big burn across my forearm from trying to reposition the stupid pie in the oven. Overall, it was a very nice holiday, with some time taken out to help Caelum with his crafts and to play Candyland.

There isn't much left of my brain after the little cold viruses went and ravaged it, so I'll just go lie down now. Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family back home. We're thinking about you today, and always.

Gratuitous pictures

2005-11-23T21:14:00.000Z

They've been requested by various family, friends, and well-wishers. Here they are: pictures for the sake of pictures.

Birthdays and turkey days

2005-11-21T08:20:00.000Z

I am lazy. So, so lazy. I keep sitting down at the computer to make an entry, and I just get distracted by nothing at all. For example, I was trying to write an entry last night about Olivia's birthday party, then I started thinking about how she dumped her ice cream all over the floor, and how I was glad that I had that vinyl mat on the floor under her chair, and then I started wondering if I could find some attractive oilcloth to make a new mat out of so I could throw it in the washing machine when it got dirty, and then I went to fabric.com to check out their oilcloth, and then I got distracted by the clearance fabric because they had some stretch velvet with embroidered shooting stars on it, and it was really pretty but I couldn't think of what I would do with it, and then I spent about half an hour looking at various sewing project ideas to figure out what to do with embroidered stretch velvet, and then I remembered that I had some fabric from my last project left out in the dining room, so I had to go put it away, and then I noticed that the dining room floor was looking dirty so I got out the vacuum, and on the way to the dining room I noticed that the stairs were dirty so I vacuumed the stairs, and when I got to the top the floor up there was dirty, too, so I vacuumed up there, then I came back down and did the dining room, but then I saw a pile of pots and pans that needed to be washed, so I washed those and cleaned the stove, and then there was a pie pan full of a dessert/cookie type thing that I made a week ago that I needed to pry out of the pan to throw it away (you said you liked it, Brandon. Why didn't you eat it?!) and then I put it in the sink to soak, and then I remembered that I was doing something on the computer, so I came back to finish my entry but Brandon was sitting here, hogging the computer even thought I was clearly using it.

Wait, I'm not lazy - I just have the attention span of a gnat.

Olivia playing with her non-dairy chocolate ice cream. The store on base doesn't have it, so we had to poke around in Bicester until we found a health food store. We hadn't gone looking before because when we go into a health food store...well, we were just lucky we didn't have any more money with us that day. We tend to buy out the whole store. Which is funny, because I'm into health food, but if I wasn't around Brandon would live on Hot Pockets and Ramen. You'd think he would talk me out of buying so much stuff.

She didn't want to feed herself with a spoon, and she didn't like the feel of the ice cream on her hands, so Brandon tried feeding it to her. She still wasn't too keen on it. We have produced the only child in the world who dislikes ice cream (and chocolate soymilk, apparently - she'll tip the cup to put some in her mouth, then she'll just open her mouth and let it fall out. Then she keeps doing it, like she's expecting it to taste different or just transmutate into something entirely different).

She does like cupcakes, though. A lot.

Speaking of kids liking cupcakes, some of you may remember that last December we had a party at our house; sort of a combination housewarming/my birthday/we just found out we're moving to England party. After everyone had gone home we gave the kids baths and let them run around for a while before bed time. Ruby managed to sneak into the garbage bin under the sink and pull out someone's half-eaten piece of cake and get herself absolutely covered in it before we found her. I have pictures of it somewhere, but can't seem to find them at the moment. (It may have been before we switched to the Mac, in which case I'm far too lazy to go retrieve them from the PC.) Anyway, a few days after Olivia's birthday party I threw away the leftover cupcakes, only to come into a the kitchen a few minutes later to find Ruby in the trash closet, hands and mouth all stuffed full of chocolate cupcake that she'd pulled out of the garbage. They were just sitting on the top, not buried under other trash, luckily. Unfortunately the camera was nowhere to be found, so you'll just have to trust me that it was totally precious.

As usual, we were too busy having fun at the party to take more pictures. But just picture six children running around and being crazy, lots of screaming and chasing and "Hey! I had that first!" and you get the idea.

On Friday we found out that we had been selected to receive a free Thanksgiving meal. I'm not sure of the selection process, but I think that people recommend families who need some extra help around the holidays (and, let's be honest - it's not cheap to feed all five of us), then a decision is made based on the recommendations. Brandon said something about part of the criteria being that he was well liked. So today someone is going to bring by all of the ingredients for our Thanksgiving meal, including a giant turkey - rumor has it, it's around 20 pounds. Being a vegetarian, and having a husband who is vegetarian for the moment on a silly bet, I wondered for a while what the heck we were going to do with 20 pounds of poultry. But if there's one thing my dear grandma has taught me, it's that you don't turn down a free meal. Even if you aren't hungry, you stuff a few rolls in your purse because you'll be hungry later. (I love you, grandma!) So we will eat the turkey. We will probably be eating the turkey for the next four months. And I will give thanks that there are people who care about us, even if we may not know them. I will be thankful that we are well taken care of, even so far from home. I will be eternally thankful for my husband and children, without whom I honestly wouldn't know what to do with myself. I'd probably spend a lot less time vacuuming, though.

Noche de las princesas

2005-11-01T21:56:00.000Z

Oh. My. God. We heard stories about surviving Halloween in an American community in England. We bought lots of candy. We thought we were prepared. We bought one or two bags on every grocery-shopping trip since mid-September. We had at least 10 or 12 bags of candy.

We ran out in 20 minutes.

It was insanity. Picture Mardi Gras, but instead of people flashing other people for beads, there were tiny witches and princesses and Pokemon, some remembering to say "trick or treat," some just opening their bags, all begging for candy. They were EVERYWHERE. The English, I'm told, don't really "do" Halloween, but it seems that every child for many miles around knows about the Americans who give out free candy on that special night. I've heard rumors (but haven't seen for myself) that kids are actually brought into Caversfield on buses. Buses. A whole bus filled with British kids, riding for who knows how long just to get some sweets. A woman who works on base told me that she was out shopping in Milton Keynes, a city maybe 20 or 30 minutes from us, just before last Halloween. The clerk at the till saw that she was buying candy and gave her a tip: there's a whole neighborhood full of Americans who give out candy for free on Halloween.

I can't even describe the craziness that went on last night. Our usually quiet neighborhood was jammed with hundreds (I am not exaggerating - I mean literally several hundred) of people, all shouting and making the rounds to all of the houses (some of them twice, cheeky little buggers). In years past, when we lived in Omaha, we would buy three or four bags of candy and still be left with tons at the end of the night because there were only a few kids actually going out in our neighborhood. This year, I haven't heard of anyone who ran out of trick-or-treaters before they ran out of candy. As we were walking home, everyone had hastily handwritten signs taped to their doors: "OUT OF CANDY." It was like the symbols they used to put on plague houses - everyone saw the signs from the pavement and avoided those houses. I heard of a family who had 25 bags and still couldn't meet all of the demand.

We walked down our street and the next street, but the kids were getting frustrated with the amount of pushing that was going on, so we headed over to officer housing, and it was a bit quieter there. (This was the first time I'd seen officer housing here, and it is very, very nice. I was actually jealous for a moment.) In all, the kids got much less candy than we gave out, and much less than they'd ever gotten before, but they had a lot more fun than ever before, too. It was like the Halloween that Brandon and I always pictured but seldom experienced as little kids, with everyone making merry and laughing and just having a fun night. Most of the locals who went out with their kids dressed up, too, as well as some of the residents handing out candy, and we had some good laughs at the outrageous costumes that the grownups came up with. We were out for just over an hour (apparently not many people were informed that little kids were to be out from 6 to 7, and older kids from 7 to 8 - we had knocks on the door from 5:30 and people were walking around until after 9, though there was no more candy by then) and had to come home when poor little Ruby got cold arms. They all did very well with all of the confusion, and Olivia had the best time of all. She just danced and jumped and squealed the whole time - she seems to love chaotic, loud situations. She's going to be a party girl some day.

Despite warnings we got from Security Forces, no one egged our house or smashed our pumpkin or kicked our cars. The English kids were, for the most part, very nice. A lot of the other Americans were annoyed that there were (again, literally) about 15-20 English kids for every American kid. I was amazed, but not annoyed at all. After all, we're in their country. If we want to carry on our traditions and our holidays, I think that the locals should feel free to join in. True, some locals don't want us here and don't particularly like us (as a country, not as individuals, as far as I know), but I see the giving of candy as a goodwill gesture between countries. Besides, it's just a bit of candy. And we were all free to put the nice little sign on the door that said "No Trick-or-Treaters."

I wish I'd taken photos of the whole madness, but we forgot to take the camera when we set out, and by the time we got home it was raining. Plus, as soon as we got back to the house Brandon was trapped outside by a huge, never-ending stream of kids. He didn't even get to come inside before I handed him the bucket of candy and a chair and let him give it a go. He was back very quickly with an empty bucket and an exasperated expression. It seems that when it came down to his last piece of candy, there were three kids who wanted it and he had to choose which one got it. He picked the baby, of course - he's a sucker for babies.

Here is the picture Brandon got of the kids before we set out.

For all you hardcore Zelda geeks, yes, I am aware that Link wears a green shirt under his tunic, not a white one. But I had to special order the shirt directly from the store of Mom in the US. Have you ever tried to describe a particular shade of green to someone from 4000 miles away? Not a simple task. So I compromised. I think he looks smashing in the white. It's more reflective, anyway.

Now it's off to the living room for me to finish up one of the birthday gifts I'm working on for the little boy whose birthday is coming up on Thursday. And here's a special birthday hello to another birthday boy: my good buddy Marc, who is...could it be?...TWENTY-FIVE today. Old man. Love you lots, Marcus.

Showoff.

2005-10-31T07:53:00.000Z

Just to prove that I haven't been lying about being busy (actually, just to show off) I'm going to post photos of some of my recent projects.

This is a bag I was making for our sponsors for Christmas. When I found out that the female half of the couple had a birthday in October, I made it into a birthday gift instead. I had to hurry to finish it, and it was two days late, but she loved it. I won't be making one this big again until after the holidays - it took forever. It's made entirely of crocheted plastic grocery bags and it takes a lot of time to cut them all into strips and join the strips together.

Poor, poor Hello Kitty. I was dead-set on making a Hello Kitty purse for our neighbor's sixth birthday, but I couldn't find a crochet pattern. So, foolishly, I decided to freehand one. Brandon can attest to the amount of swearing that Hello Kitty heard coming out of my mouth during the process of making this stupid thing. It took a good three weeks and about four or five lopsided and conical ovals of yarn that I had to throw away before I finally got one that looked almost decent. It's not lopsided like the picture makes it look, but the back looks weird, and I didn't get the face right. And, for some reason, the front piece and back piece didn't come out the same size. But at least it's out of my house now so I can stop fiddling with it.

I recently learned book binding, and I LOVE it. It's so much easier than I thought it would be, though I did royally screw up the first two that I tried. I've been making blank journals, and this is the one that I made for Paige to go along with her Hello Kitty purse. It's covered in a blue floral fabric and adorned with pretty Friendly Plastic heart sculptures (made in my toaster oven). I don't know why I didn't think to take any pictures of the inside covers, but those look very cool and I'm quite proud of myself.

This is definitely my favorite project this year. I wove together strips of magazine pages into a purse, then used bias tape around the top edge and lucite handles I bought from Joann.com. There was much packing tape involved. The inside is lined with some fabric one of the neighbors gave me; there's also a small pocket for my keys since I lose them pretty much whenever I don't have them in my hand. In the bottom you can see my checkbook, and a wallet also made out of magazines. I used Wired magazine since we have about 30 of them laying around the house. I have since acquired a big stack of women's magazines which I think will look really nice when torn up and encased in packing tape. I'm trying to convince Brandon to part with some of his "junk" comics because I think that would be the ultimate medium to use for this particular project. I intended to put this up for sale on Ebay or Etsy, but...I think it has become mine now.

And here are some random photos, just because uploading them to Blogger seems to be working much better than my previous method.

She's so cool.

This is a snail shell Caelum found on a walk. Unfortunately our digi camera doesn't like close-ups. It's next to a quarter so you can see how huge it is.

This is just awesome. We went to Finmere market yesterday for some fresh produce and I found this huge box of fresh dates (it must be about a kilogram) for £1. And I love the writing and the pictures on the box. I will have to think of something very cool to do with this box when the dates are all gone. But I'm the only one who eats dates, and they don't expire until 2008, so I have some time to decide on an appropriate craft.

Even though it's cold today, I promised the kids a bike ride in the park. They're getting annoyed with me always working on something and not playing as much as they want me to. I'm swamped with birthday and holiday gifts at the moment, but they can wait. The kids are calling.

PAR-TAY!

2005-10-30T20:07:00.000Z

I set out tonight to post some photos, no matter how long it took or how frustrated I got with how long it was taking...but technology is against me. Photoshop keeps closing itself so I can't edit the photos, and Photobucket doesn't want to let me upload anything. So I'm going to try uploading directly to Blogger and see how that goes.

This weekend has been pretty busy and I'm almost glad for it to come to an end so I can have some relative peace. On Friday night we had some neighbors over for dinner, then on the next morning I was up early making and assembling the various components of the kids' Halloween costumes. In the early afternoon we went to the bowling center on base for our neighbor's 6th birthday party. There was bowling, chicken nuggets, and cake: everything Caelum dreams about every night. After the party we went grocery shopping, then rushed home to grab a snack, put the finishing touches on the Halloween costumes and take showers. Then it was back to base for the base Halloween party. We had a good time there, though it was a little chaotic and crowded. The kids all got to go up on stage and say their name and what they were dressed as into a microphone (well, I spoke for the girls, but they still got to go up on the stage). Olivia got to eat a few bites of cake (without frosting) at the birthday party, and at the Halloween party she got a plain sugar cookie. She then experienced her first ever sugar high and didn't go to sleep until well after her bed time. I think she likes Halloween.

Caelum decided a few months ago that he wanted to be Link (from the NES Legend of Zelda games) for Halloween, so naturally, being the nerds that we are, we decided that Ruby should dress as Princess Zelda. (You can see the drawings below for reference if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) They make an adorable little couple! I was able to find a green hat and tunic for Caelum's costume, and my mother was nice enough to find him some white clothes to go underneath. I made shoe covers out of brown felt to go over his new Spiderman snow boots to look like Link's bulky leather boots, and I used a long piece of brown felt and some Velcro and a creatively cut piece of cardboard for his belt and buckle. The sword and shield we were able to pick up for reasonable prices on Ebay and at a boot sale, respectively.

Ruby's costume was a little more difficult, since apparently not a lot of parents dress their kids like Zelda, so there weren't any ready-made costumes to buy. I bought a Sleeping Beauty dress and cut off the existing shoulder-wrap type thing, then replaced it with a pretty gold silky material. We couldn't find a tiara that was even close to what we wanted, so I made that from a plain headband, the same gold material, and some Friendly Plastic - which is truly awesome stuff. I'm having a ton of fun playing with it. The apron thing is just a piece of blue flannel with the designs painted on with fabric paint. She has white full-length gloves, too, but she was eating a frosted cookie and, well...you can guess what happened to those. You can't see it in this photo, but she also has a lovely gold sequined belt which I'm positive the kids and their friends will all fight over after Halloween when I let them use their costumes for dress-up. As an aside, I should mention that Ruby called me "Mommy MEAN" because I wouldn't let her wear her princess dress every moment of her life since we got it in the mail. You'd think I was depriving her of food or cartoons or something.

Olivia is beautiful, as always, in her recycled ladybug costume. We couldn't decide on a costume for her, so she wore Ruby's costume from last year. It suited her well, though, and she even made friends with the only other ladybug at the party last night. You may be able to tell from her maniacal smile that she was plotting to steal candy from other kids.

Here are a few more random party shots.

There was a leaf pile candy-digging activity, and Livvie decided to make off with a few of the leaves. She was dancing with them when I took this photo.

What a ladylike little princess we have. By the end of the night, she was so tired but so hopped up on sugar that she really didn't know what to do with herself.

Well, as usual I've been doing other things while waiting for the pics to upload, so it's now very late at night and I must get some sleep. Caelum has the day off of school tomorrow due to a teacher in-service day, so I can bet I'm going to be hearing "Can I put my costume on yet? Can I put my costume on yet? Can I put my costume on yet?" ALL DAY tomorrow. Then it's off for one hour of trick-or-treating (that's all we're allowed, and we'll get much more than enough candy in an hour) and showing off the costumes to the neighborhood. Tomorrow Brandon starts one month of very early shifts, working from 6 am to 3 or 3:30 pm. That means that it's bedtime at 9:00 and up at 3:30 for him for all of November. But at least he'll get to be home for a bit more of our waking hours. And he'll get to see me making dinner, which at the moment is noticeably meat-free. I jokingly told him that if he could go vegetarian for three months I'd let him buy a new laptop. I didn't expect him to agree, but...I guess that's what I get. It's been a lot of fun so far to see him paying attention to food labels and stressing about takeaway menus that don't say exactly what's in the food. It's teaching him to be more aware of what he's putting into his body, which is something that I think everyone should pay attention to.

Enough of my ramblings. I am off to change into my sock monkey jammies and drift to sleep.

Busy work

2005-10-18T21:24:00.000+01:00

I'm such a bad blogger. I have been meaning to sit down and update for the last week and a half, but never seem to get around to it. I've been keeping myself busy lately with a lot of crafts because I always feel good when I'm occupied with creative things. I've been crocheting carry bags out of plastic grocery bags; some of the other mommies saw them, and so far I've sold one and have orders for three more. I also started weaving purses and wallets out of old magazine pages, and I've had fun working out a technique for it. Two of the neighbor kids have birthdays within the next two weeks, so I've been freehand crocheting gifts for them since I know what I want to make but I can't find any existing patterns for it. A neighbor gave me a large garbage bag full of fabric to use for my crafting endeavors, so I'm having lots of fun with that. I should be getting a box this week with some glass painting supplies, too. I have so much to keep me occupied right now that I've been staying up way too late every night, trying to make as much progress on all of my projects as possible before going to bed.

All of this busy-work is serving a very good purpose: it's helping to keep me from panicking about the impending demise of our internet connection. It seems that BT (British Telecom, the company that owns all of the phone lines around there) has decided to make dial-up unavailable on their lines in the near future. They called us on Saturday night to tell us this but couldn't give us a date at the time; they were supposed to email Brandon with the cutoff date, but so far we haven't heard anything. Brandon's been fighting with the housing office about our DSL issue; they claim it's not their responsibility to provide phone lines that can handle a DSL connection since it's not a neccessity. Before, it was a question of maintaining our quality of life (since DSL is better than dial-up, but at least we could get a connection, cruddy as it may be) but now that we're losing our dial-up, it's becoming more of a neccessity. We have to do all of our banking and personal business by internet since we're 4000 miles away from home - if we can't get an internet connection in our house it will greatly affect they way we live. It's not something that'll kill us, but it will definitely make the next four years very unhappy.

Enough of my complaining. Brandon has been a sweetie and folded two baskets of laundry for me so that I could get to bed at a decent hour tonight, so I'm going to take advantage of that and get myself some sleep. Sorry once again to everyone that I'm supposed to be keeping in touch with. I'm a bad, bad, bad distance communicator. I'd like to say that I'll try harder, but...I don't want to set you up for disappointment. I'll probably always forget to return emails.

Here are a few more

2005-10-07T13:07:00.000+01:00

I've been waiting until I could upload some more photos to make a new post, but I'm not having much luck. I don't know if it's the unreliable phone lines not wanting to carry so much data or if Photobucket just really isn't liking me right now, but either way the majority of the photos I've been trying to upload just aren't getting to where they need to be. So here are the few that I've been able to make work recently.

We knew houses in England would be small, but...

Juuuuuust kidding. This is our real house, seen from behind. Complete with cute little utility shed. The little room jutting out at the back of the house is the dining room that was just added on in the recent remodeling, finished shortly before we got here. So now we have an office/playroom and a separate dining room with sliding glass doors. The house is very, very nice and has THREE bathrooms (sorry, I mean loos) and is completely carpeted. The carpet was great when we first moved in, but with three messy kids and us not able to buy a £150 carpet cleaner (that's almost $300) it's pretty stained already. We're saving up for that carpet cleaner. It's a duplex (semi-detached, in England - see? I'm learning), so that last window on the top right belongs to the family next to us. They way the houses are set up, at least our building and the one across the driveway from us, is one 3-bedroom attached to a 4-bedroom. The family attached to our unit has an 8 or 9-month old boy, then there are two 6-year old girls and an 8-year old boy in the units across the driveway from us. There are plenty of kids to play with and it seems that, whenever the kids aren't in school, at least some of them are over here. It makes life colorful to be surrounded with children.

And here's Ruby, who, in true Ruby fashion, decided one evening that she wanted to take a bath RIGHT NOW and didn't want to wait for a grown-up to help. She also didn't want to go to the trouble of taking all of those clothes off.

In other news, I took and passed the driving test on Tuesday. But the Pass & ID office, where I would get my license, was closed by the time the class was over and Brandon hasn't been able to take any more time off of work to take me there. But I wouldn't be able to drive the van yet anyway since we have to have some work done to it to make it meet English standards. Something having to do with fog lights and side blinkers. That will mean more time off work for Brandon, since I can't take it to a garage and wait there with two wiggly girls while the work is done. But we have the better part of four years left here, so there's plenty of time for sightseeing when all of this is sorted out.

It's off to school now for picture day - they let younger siblings come at the end of the day to have their portaits taken with the siblings that are in school. That makes things easier on us, since there really aren't many places around here to have portaits taken that we can afford. It's hard to earn money in dollars and spend it in pounds. So I'm off to wake up the napping girls and daddy (it's a base down day again today, so no work) and make the long trip to the school.

As promised...

2005-10-03T21:23:00.000+01:00

Pictures!

Daddy and the girls in the glass elevator at the hotel in St. Louis.

Here's the view from the inside. (Did I mention Caelum REALLY liked this elevator?)

Cheesy grins on the balcony of the hotel room.

Ruby decided she was luggage.

She was very devoted to the idea.

(Just posting these few photos took me two hours on the dial-up connection. I mean, I'm grateful to have any connection at all, but...)

Stranger in a strange land

2005-10-02T12:03:00.000+01:00

Today we went to the weekly boot sale. It's held every week in a large field about 3/4 of a mile from our house. It's basically like a large communal garage sale; not so much like a flea market, since most of the items are sold by individuals and, for the most part, it's their old junk that they try to sell before donating to a charity shop (thrift store). We've been going every Sunday since about two weeks after we moved in here. The first few weeks, since we didn't have anything at all, everything we found was a treasure and we were all thrilled to get a new pair of pants or a new toy or whatever it was that we happened to walk away with. We still manage to find something we want every week and usually come home with our bags full of great finds. As the seasons have changed, though, fewer and fewer vendors are coming out. The attendance by patrons hasn't gone down much, so now there are more shoppers but fewer things to buy. I set a challenge for us today: Brandon and I were to split up and find a gift for each other, but neither of us were allowed to spend more than £2. I was sure that when we met up at the end Brandon would be wearing his sad face and telling me that he just couldn't find anything that suited me, and I would be beaming and holding out some fantastic piece of fabulousness and he would be forced to revel in my awesome gift-buying powers, and then we'd both have to admit that I'm just better at this sort of thing.

However, when we met near the end I was trying to get a bloke to give me a £5 thermos for £2 (he laughed at me) and Brandon looked victorious. I ended up buying him a foot bath for £3, thus losing the game by going over the limit. I did get him a thermos, but I bought the bigger one which was way over the limit. So I guess the lesson I learned was that you can't get a decent gift for Brandon for under £2. And if there's another, larger lesson in there, I've missed it.

The boot sale was our first exposure to real British culture, and it continues to be the best way for us to get out and interact with the community. I've never felt like a foreigner before coming here, and I must say it's a little uncomfortable. When we got this assignment, everyone told us how lucky we are that we already knew the language. Well, in theory, American English and British English are the same language...but in practice, they are completely different. There seem to be two different kinds of British English that we've encountered: the BBC Newsreader English, which you hear on TV, and functional English, which is what you hear out in the real world. BBC English is not hard to understand; it's like watching My Fair Lady, but with weather reports. Functional English includes all of the different dialects, slang, and damn near incomprehensible phrases used in everyday life by the locals. I had a rather embarassing encounter the first time I went to the boot sale; I was by myself and buying some potatoes, and when the seller asked for "two quid, love" I had to admit that I had no idea what a "quid" was. Turns out it's like asking for "two bucks." Luckily that was pretty much the worst of my misunderstandings, as far as I know. I do feel like I'm missing a lot of the conversation when I speak with some people. It's not just the phrases and words that are different; it's the inflection and the rhythm of the speech that I'm not familiar with. I've often felt like I'm learning a foreign language through immersion. But I'm getting better, and we're even on friendly terms with a few of our English neighbours. Little by little, I'm losing my fear of being a foreigner. Maybe eventually I'll even try driving.

The journey

2005-10-01T20:56:00.000+01:00

So, now that we're settled, I guess there's time to talk about how we got here. Short story: it was hell studded with a few bright spots.

Long story: we drove overnight from Omaha to Illinois to drop off the van at the Vehicle Processing Center. The driving wasn't so bad...or, at least, it doesn't seem that way now because my concious mind went to sleep after about an hour on the road. I drove the whole way except for about 30 minutes when Brandon took over and I tried to nap. Here is the one and only photo I took on the way down; I didn't take more because it was the middle of the night and, honestly, it's not that interesting a drive.

I took this photo because the sign on the vending machines said something unbelievably funny which, after two months of rattling around in my brain, has been worn down to something not all that entertaining. Something like "If you have a problem with the vending machines, do not bother the rest stop attendants. Instead, please send a letter to (some address)." I think I thought it was funny because you would have to spend 37¢ on a stamp to get your $1 back. Not that funny now. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation, or the fact that I was really hungry but not hungry enough to eat a $1 bag of potato chips from a rest stop vending machine.

Once we got to the VPC, we were early, so we backtracked a few blocks and came to a Denny's. We had some very unpleasant tasting food, Brandon spent a good part of the time in the bathroom dealing with car sickness, and the kids, running on a few short hours of sleep, were horrible. I'm glad we don't live around there or we'd probably be banned for life from that particular Denny's. When we went back to the VPC they told us that the van had to have less than 1/4 tank of fuel, and with the needle sitting slightly above 1/4 tank, we had to waste some gas. We drove up and down the street several times until I realized that if I drove any more I was going to fall asleep and possibly send our entire family careening through the picture windows at the yucky Denny's, so we decided to try to nap in the VPC parking lot with the engine running. We then discovered two very important things: fuel economy is usually a very good thing, but not when you're trying to waste fuel; and our minivan is great for hauling kids and other stuff around, but not so good for sleeping in. Not in the front seats, anyway. We went back to driving up and down the street until we had an acceptable amount of gas in the tank. The rest is sort of a blur, except for standing outside with three hungry and grouchy and tired children in the exceptionally hot summer sun for about an hour waiting for the shuttle to come and take us to our hotel. It cost something like $30 or $40 to get us there, which at the time I was pretty upset about, but they did take us from Illinois back to St. Louis and a private taxi would probably have cost just as much. It was reimbursed in the end, anyway.

Once we got to the hotel we ordered room service and then all curled up in the big fluffy beds for an afternoon nap. I think it was the first time ever that we all took a nap in the middle of the day, all at the same time. That was definitely one of the best parts of the trip. Then we played on the cool balcony that looked out over the indoor pool and rode in the glass elevators. Which, coincidentally, is what Caelum will tell you his favorite part of St. Louis is. He was asked to give a quote for his class's weekly newsletter, and it went something like "I went to St. Louis. It was fun. There were a lot of elevators there." For the record, there was only one...but we did ride in it a lot. After breakfast the next morning we took the hotel's shuttle to the airport and found out that we were about an hour too early to check in, so we schlepped all of the luggage and kids around for the next hour, killing time until the ticket agent could check us in. We headed straight to the USO office then and enjoyed some very nice play time, watching movies and playing Legos and eating free snacks. When it was time to go wait at the gate, we nearly left poor Olivia at the security checkpoint. It's not easy to take care of 6 carry-ons while removing your shoes, emptying your pockets, and making sure that none of the munchkins takes a ride on the X-Ray conveyor belt. We got to the gate to be informed that we weren't leaving on the plane we were supposed to be on, I don't remember why now, but we'd get on a later flight going through Chicago instead of Washington Dulles. We waited for about two hours, I think, at which time we were informed that our original flight was leaving as planned but we couldn't be put back on it because we'd already been moved. A very nice couple at the gate amused Ruby by giving her an Energizer Bunny sticker dispenser which she put to good use by plastering all of us with tiny Energizer stickers.

The flight to Chicago was not terrible, but not good, either. Ruby was so tired that she cried for about half of the one-hour flight. When we got to Chicago we didn't have enough time to make our connection all the way at the other end of the terminal. We ran through the airport, weaving our way through thousands of other travelers, shouting the occasional hurried "excuse us!" when we plowed into someone. We were exhausted and grouchy and sore, and there was no way we were going to make that flight. And then an angelic man approached us, said that he had four kids and knew what a nightmare traveling with kids could be, and helped us carry our things and get to our gate. By some miracle, the plane was delayed, giving us just enough time to take Ruby to the potty and buy a bottle of apple juice before boarding. Apparently even the taste of apple juice isn't enough to disguise the taste of 1/2 a Dramamine to a little girl.

Between Chicago and London was pretty pleasant, except that Brandon and I found it nearly impossible to sleep in the uncomfortable plane seats. We watched movies and ate some yummy lasagna and Brandon spent $10 on two beers, which I, of course, thought was way too much. Caelum had a great time watching our progress over the ocean on the screen in front of him; there was a cartoon map with a little cartoon plane showing exactly where we were at that moment.

When we arrived in London it was rainy and chilly, and the skygate thing that we were supposed to pull into wasn't working, so we boarded a standing-room-only shuttle to the incoming terminal and made our way through Passports and Customs. We were informed that, although the airline knew where and when we were going, they'd conveniently put our luggage on a different flight. So for the next day and a half, we all had one set of clothing; but at least the toothbrushes and some of the diapers were in our carryons, so we had some very small measure of comfort. Our sponsors took us to our hotel and gave us the best gift we've ever gotten: three bags of groceries. We had no money and our stockpile of canned tuna and instant soup was lost somewhere in one of United's planes. Eating Wonder bread with peanut butter seemed like an unbelievable feast.

After three days in a two-room hotel suite, we moved into a Temporary Living Facility, which is a fully-furnished and equipped house. We were there for another three (very comfortable) days. Then we signed our housing papers and moved into our own house in a little village called Caversfield. Since then, things have just gotten better and better as we've settled in and our lives have developed new routines. Caelum is having a great time in First Grade, Olivia is trying so hard to learn how to walk on her own, and Ruby is ever the fashion queen, playing dress-up every waking moment. The weather has turned cool the last couple of weeks and it's been raining nearly every day. This is just what I pictured England would be like. There are actual seasons here, not just crazy erratic weather, and pretty much on the day that Autumn began on the calendar, the air got more chilly and the leaves started falling.

I've been waiting for some pictures to upload as I've been typing, but my photo hosting site is being finicky and I want to go to bed. So I'll post photos of the hotels and other stuff later.

We're connected! ...sort of.

2005-09-30T06:50:00.000+01:00

If you can call dial-up being "connected," that is. It took me six minutes to navigate through three pages to get to the new post page. I'm so spoiled.

To start off my first post from home, I'd like to make a few personal messages to some people I've neglected over the last two months or so.

Mom, I'm fine. Really. Caelum found the bus pass, but lost a new coat at school the first time he wore it (still haven't found it after about three weeks and I'm getting mad - but it only cost £1, so it could be worse) and he keeps losing the same £2 coin that I'm paying him to do chores. So I keep finding it and paying him with it again. He thinks he's getting rich.

Mike and Pat, I hear you kicked some piper band butt at your competition. Yay for you! Thanks for sending the various debris that got left at your house - we leave a little path of destruction wherever we go. Thanks for letting us bunk with you for so long.

Kyle and Nicole, congratulations! You both looked so beautiful in your wedding photos and I got all gooshy thinking about how much I really wanted to be there. So I've decided that you have to come here and do it all again. With the dress and the guests and the whole thing.

Joolie! I must say that you are the last person I would expect to join the military. Please oh please keep in touch. I think about you all the time. I miss you and your craziness.

And everyone else, I'm sorry that I haven't responded to emails lately. I've been going to a neighbor's house to use her internet connection, and I always feel guilty when she takes care of the girls while I'm on the computer. So I've been making it as brief as possible and just doing the essentials. Things should be better on the communication front from now on, though.

In other news, we're picking our van up today from West Ruislip. Well, I should qualify that "we." Brandon is going with our neighbor, and the girls and I will be able to tag along if the AFN (Air Force Network) installer comes early or if I can find someone to let the installer in for me. I really want to go because we need several things that we can't get at the teeny-tiny BX here, and since I STILL haven't taken the driving class this will be the last chance I have for a while.

It's time to go wake up the oldest gremlin and stand over him while he thinks of excuses to stay home from school. Oh, yes: that has started already. As promised, photos and exciting (well, not really exciting...interesting, at best) commentary are on the way.

Have I got news for you

2005-09-13T08:20:00.000+01:00

Last Wednesday, three very significant things happened: we got our household goods shipment, we found out our phone wiring won't support a DSL connection, and Caelum lost his bus pass for the first time. That last one is obviously more important than the others because we had bets on how many times he would lose it this year. My guess was two times, so it looks like I'm going to lose since the first time was so early in the year. Maybe that's a little more important to me than to anyone else.

So, as for the other happenings...well, it's nice to get all of our stuff, but after living so simply for such a long time it feels like a massive headache to have all of this junk cluttering up our home and our lives. We've begun getting rid of things that we don't use, which is long, long overdue. Some of the furniture was ruined in the move thanks to the careless packing of the US movers, and they lost the hardware to all of the kids' beds. While the movers were bringing things in, Brandon was on the phone with BT, trying to figure out why our DSL wasn't working...and found out that the house phone wiring is faulty. The account is activated and the BT line works up to the house, but once it gets inside it's no-go. So now I'm at the house of a very gracious neighbor who is allowing me to use her computer to update all of you on these little annoyances.

It's time for us to walk on home now and get to sorting out some of those piles of boxes. Hopefully the housing office will not be too hard to deal with and will take pity on us internetophiles being deprived of instant information and communication. I'm telling you, military life is tough.

Still not connected

2005-09-02T10:13:00.000+01:00

Oh, dear friends and family...what else can I say but...Oi. It's been such an inconvenience to be here for over a month with no internet access, and it looked like there was an end in sight. We got our phone line activated last week. There were some troubles, but in the end it was connected. We received our new BT router yesterday and the internet account was supposed to be activated by 8 pm last night. Unfortunately, it's now 10:15 am the next day and I'm typing this entry from the base library's computer room. So, although we get closer every day to being able to communicate reliably with all of you again, at this moment it's uncertain when it will be resolved. BT advised that the problem was with hardware on their side and they have engineers working on it at the moment, so hopefully it will be soon.

Our experiences here just in the last month could fill a book, and we haven't even been anywhere yet. I have only a short time before Brandon and the girls get here to pick me up, so I do need to finish up some business before we set off into Bicester for a shopping day. (The base has a down day today due to Labor Day on Monday, so Brandon is available to cart us around since I still haven't taken the UK driving test.) I tried to dig up the garden to plant some flowers I bought last weekend and found that it's all clay and rocks. BIG rocks. So we're on a quest today to find a garden store with potting soil, which our English neighbors informed me will not be an easy task.

I have so much to tell, and rest assured that the moment our internet connection is up I'll be posting like mad, trying to catch up on all of the stories that have been building up in my head. I'm so sorry for all of the unanswered comments and email I've not been able to take care of, but there will soon be much catching up in that area also.

And special hugs and well wishes to Kyle and Nicole, newlyweds extroaordinaire. I wish I could have been there. Come see us soon!

We're here

2005-08-04T16:31:00.000+01:00

We're doing fine, England is great, Croughton is....small. Our stuff will take a long time to get here. We have no computer. Grr. Updates, photos, and more interesting things to follow sometime.

The USO saved our sanity

2005-07-26T20:54:00.000+01:00

We're currently at the USO office in the Saint Louis airport...I didn't even know these existed until yesterday. What a lifesaver this has been; the kids have a little room to play and watch movies in, there are free snacks and sandwiches, and we got a care package when we walked in. It's sooooo much better than sitting at the gate for four hours.

The hotel was beautiful (pictures will be posted when we get our new home set up) and the kids thought that eating in restaurants and getting room service was a really novel thing. Our long trip will come to an end in about twelve hours when we arrive in England. We just keep hoping that the kids sleep on the plane...otherwise we're in for a very long ride.

The next you hear from us, we'll hopefully be all set up in our new place. Wish us luck on the plane!

On the Road

2005-07-25T04:18:00.000+01:00

One last entry before we set off - in about 10 minutes we'll be en route to our new home. Many updates, emails, photos, and stories to come when our computer is up and running again. But now, we look forward to an 8-hour overnight ride through the Midwestern US. We love and will miss all of you.

FINALLY

2005-07-22T18:48:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was the best day we've had in a while: we passed the housing re-inspection, the visas arrived, and we got our new flight information. We're now leaving on July 26th. We're driving down on Sunday night/early Monday morning, getting the van checked in for shipping on Monday, then spending Monday night in a hotel and flying out, all refreshed and energized if we can manage it, on Tuesday afternoon. Finally.

Counting our Blessings

2005-07-20T13:48:00.000+01:00

We found out late last night that our visa applications weren't sent when the passport/visa office at Offutt said they were sent. Consequently, the information was just entered into the British Consulate's system on July 18th. That would be enough to upset us, but on top of that, we found out that when the applications were sent, the $12 for return postage wasn't enclosed...so as of now, the British Consulate won't be sending our visas until they get some money.

So instead of fuming and yelling and cursing the name of the MSgt who screwed up our travel plans, I'm counting my blessings.

-Little hands to hold
-Big strong arms wrapped around me
-Bakery-fresh croissants on the kitchen counter
-Air conditioning with a high temperature of 100 degrees outside
-A beautiful home to camp out in with hospitable parents-in-law who, remarkably, don't seem to be bothered that their family of two has just morphed into a family of seven
-My favorite skirt in my suitcase
-Short walks to the swings at the middle school up the street (and swinging until our legs are sore)
-Games of peek-a-boo and wild giggles from the girls
-My little guy celebrating his birthday in the U.S.
-Getting to see the brother-in-law after all (it's only a blessing if he skips the wet willies, though)
-Access to email and internet
-No matter how much our current situation may suck, we are healthy and we are together

Waiting to fly

2005-07-16T15:32:00.000+01:00

Remember back in my first entry when I said we'd look back on moving and say it was nothing?

That was before I spent 15 hours cleaning the house to get it ready for inspection.

We got some more news yesterday: the visas did not arrive, so we are still here until they come. It should be some time next week, and after they get here we will have to wait for new flight reservations. The upside is that now we'll have a few days to relax and do nothing and just enjoy being together.

They slept like babies

2005-07-11T14:02:00.000+01:00

Our kids, like many young kids, are usually up at the very crack of dawn, and they usually all wake up at the very same moment. They like to see Mommy stumbling around, bleary-eyed and confused, trying to locate the Honey Nut Toastee-Os while simultaneously changing two diapers and preparing a bottle. (Hey, when you can't change the TV channel yourself, that has to suffice for entertainment.) This morning, though, I awoke to the blissful sound of my alarm clock rather than pitiful cries of "MAAAAMAAAA!" After Caelum's birthday party yesterday, the three of them were so worn out that, once we tied them down in their beds and forced them to stop balloon-sword fighting and go to sleep, they actually slept well into the morning. Ahhh. Peace.

We have an update on the travel arrangements: we will be leaving here in the very, very late night on Sunday the 17th, arriving in St. Louis on the morning of the 18th, dropping the van off, and then our flight leaves St. Louis at 5:30 in the evening. We're connecting at Washington Dulles, then straight through to Heathrow. In our original plans we were flying into Gatwick, which I was looking forward to because it's smaller than Heathrow, but it will be an adventure to go through one of the busiest airports in the world, right after a terrorist attack, and be the ones with the funny accents. Not that I'm expecting any problems, of course - I actually am looking forward to the adventure.

It's time for us to get going, but I want to thank everyone who came to the birthday party yesterday, especially Diamond the Clown. The kids had a great time, and so did we. Diamond is probably safely back in Texas by now, in the flat that she shares with Superman and Spiderman, but in case she gets the chance to read this: you made a very special memory for a very special little boy.

We're still in Bellevue

2005-07-08T14:01:00.000+01:00

We thought it would be fun to start a travel blog to update our families on our upcoming time in England. We're leaving in just over a week and will be spending four years at RAF Croughton. We'll be posting news here about our adventures, as well as photos of the kids and how they're growing. You'll notice that the time on the time stamps is for the time zone that we'll be in, which is 5 hours ahead of Central US time .

We aren't sure how long we'll be without a computer after we get there, so please be patient if I don't post or answer emails for a while. As of today, we're supposed to leave on July 16th, but our things will all be packed up on the 13th. That's only 5 more nights in my own bed! Brandon's parents are graciously allowing us to stay at their place after our things are packed so we don't have to bother with a hotel. After that, it looks like an 8-hour overnight car trip to St. Louis to drop off the minivan for shipping, possibly a night in a hotel, then off to the airport on the 18th or 19th. Brandon is still working out the details with the travel office to get our flight information changed from Omaha to St. Louis.

It sounds like a lot of work, but I'm sure after it's all done and we're in our new home we'll look back and say "Eh, that was nothing."