Goodnight England

My favorite children’s book and the book that both girls love to read is Goodnight Moon. So here is our version of the book, as tomorrow, we fly back to the United States.

Goodbye England. Goodbye house in England. Goodbye mouse in the house in England. Goodbye postage stamp size garden. Goodbye small refrigerator. Goodbye tiny-size bottles and bathtubs. Goodbye small bed. Goodbye wardrobes. Goodbye driving on the wrong side of the road. Goodbye strange food. Goodbye people who don’t understand what I am saying. Goodbye people who I can’t understand. Goodbye rain and cloudy days. Goodbye autumn temperatures in the middle of summer.

Goodbye beautiful England. Goodbye fun trips around a new and exciting land. Goodbye good friends we have made. Goodbye school that Bean loved. Goodbye cute accent the girls picked up. Goodbye brand new experiences and fun new adventures. Goodbye beautiful gardens and flowers. Goodbye wellies that Gerbie wore so much. Goodbye ‘big and old’ historical castles, towers and palaces. Goodbye London and Edinburgh. Goodbye European vacations. Goodbye weekends with nothing-better-to-do than explore the beautiful countryside. Goodbye Ohio Mommy Lost in England.

This is the last post of Ohio Mommy Lost in England. If you would like to follow our family adventures as we return to the US, please contact me for the new blog address.

Chester on our last day...

It was really nice to go back to Chester today. We have really enjoyed traveling, but that was one of my favorite places to go. It was overcast and even rained a little (typical England), but it was still nice. We walked by the river, the kids rode the train ride and we ate lunch. Now, we are back to packing. Here are some pictures from our visit to Chester.

Finishing up

The postage stamp size garden has been trimmed with the mower that plugs in, the house has been cleaned and the sign in the yard indicates someone has rented it again already. Our bags are mostly packed. Bean and I walked into town today for the last time, had lunch with a friend, played at the park and walked back....in the rain.....getting wet in England, again, but hopefully for the last time. Today was Gerbie's last day of school here. We took in some treats so she could celebrate with her British friends and she was happy and saying goodbye to everyone when we walked out, telling everyone all day that she was getting on a plane to go back to "merica". She is having her final tea time at school in the picture. Tomorrow we are heading back to Chester, weather permitting. It was one of our first and favorite places to go here in England and we wanted to do something fun right before we left, so it is fitting that it is our last place too. There are many memories here and we will most definitely come back some day to show the girls where they lived for awhile, we are happy we came, we are happy to be leaving. It is almost time to go.....

Boiler room

Last night the British mums I have become friends with from Bean's school invited me over for 'nibbles and drinks'. It was a fun evening. Everything else regarding the move is falling into place, we are just now in cleaning mode but we are having boiler issues. Hubby and I are not used to having boilers, and don't really know anything about them. We think our boiler was turned off by the movers when they were clearing the towels out of the boiler closet(by accident I am sure). We discovered this due to a very cold shower. So we turned it back on and the boiler started gurgling and making noises. It did this all day yesterday, I was even concerned it would blow up it sounded so bad. When my friend came to pick me up last night for girls night, I had her listen to it and she said to turn it off straightaway - it sounded like it was boiling. I got a text from hubby while I was gone that one shower was not working at all anymore and the other was spewing boiling hot water. The landlady has been called, but the way customer service works in England, I doubt anyone will get to our house before we leave, so we are just hoping to keep enough hot water in the tank for our time here. Only a few more days!

Summer break

I have been pretty busy at work these last few weeks and so keeping Bean busy and occupied on her summer break has been a bit of a challenge. She has had some playdates and for the last two days we have had a friend come and watch her. But today, it is just her and I and it is raining and miserable outside. As I mentioned yesterday, a friend brought us a TV for the girls to watch. You can tell from the pictures however, that it is pretty small. This was a picture of her trying to watch a TV show a little bit ago while I was working...pretty cute actually...but I can't wait until we are home next week and she starts summer camp at her old school. She will have three weeks to enjoy the field trips and summer fun they have planned before school starts again. Bean - hang in there for a few more days!

One more thing off the checklist...

We might actually be getting good at this moving thing, not that I want to do it again to prove it. The truck is loaded and gone, our stuff is hopefully going to make it back to America and we are sighing in relief that one more step in the moving process is over. I am also very appreciate of our wonderful neighbors here in England...one of them has loaned us a portable cot (or what we could call a pack-n-play in the US) for Gerbie to sleep in for the next few nights and another neighbor brought us one of their TV's to use until we leave. Those were our two biggest concerns and both alleviated by the kindness of neighbors without us even having to ask. We may not miss England, but we will miss some of the wonderful British people we have met here. Pizza's have been ordered and now it is time to relax for the evening after a couple of long days. In a few days we will be making the long journey home.

Moving day

Yesterday the moving company was here here all day packing up our things. Seems like we just went through this, oh wait - we did! Moving two times in one year is quite enough, I would say. Actually two times in 5 months is way more than enough. This was the view from my bed last night - pretty isn't it? Actually, I really didn't mind it at all, the view from the other side was pretty much the same- but that just means we are one step closer to being home. The movers come back today to finish packing and load everything on the truck. We are hoping today goes well and that the ship makes it back the US within the 5-6 weeks estimated (or sooner!). Since it is raining (again), the bottom picture is how I hope to keep Bean busy today - when the TV and toys are on their way back to America. How many computer games can she play before it becomes old? I will let you know tomorrow.

Packing up

Yesterday we were packing up our suitcases to get them out of the way of the movers. Hubby and I were in our bedroom packing some stuff up and I walked around to Bean's room (suitcase central) and the top picture is what I saw. Gerbie apparently thought a half packed suitcase looked like a good place to lay down and suck her thumb. And then both girls decided that they wanted to go back to America in the suitcases...who would have thought that suitcases would be so much fun to play in? The movers are here now so chaos has ensued. Gerbie is at school and we have a friend coming over to watch Bean. Wish us luck the next few days that the landlady's stuff does not get packed to go to America, that all of our stuff that should go, does get shipped and that we have kept everything out for our suitcases that we needed to bring with us immediately. And yes- we have checked, double checked and triple checked that our passports are in the suitcase pile. It will be nice when the movers are gone after tomorrow, that will be one more thing off our minds.

Not Lost in England...but more to come

We are not “Lost in England” anymore… soon, we are going to be on our way home. We are busy packing, sorting and getting so excited about being home. I have really enjoyed writing this blog, for many reasons. It has documented my family’s journey of moving to, living in and traveling around a foreign country and has kept our friends and families up to date. At times, it was also a great outlet for me. Since I have a really bad memory, I have enjoyed being able to read through older posts and remember what was going on in our lives at certain times and I am sure in a few years, it will be even more fun for us to read back through this blog. My hope is that the girls will enjoy reading about it and seeing the pictures from our time here. I have enjoyed blogging so much that I have decided to keep one going. Obviously, this blog will end, as it is about our journey and adventures in England. I will write in it up until next Sunday and it will still be available after that, but after we fly home I will not be posting to it any longer. With that in mind, I have started another one that will be about our adjustment back into the US and our family adventures at home. It obviously won’t be as interesting as trips to London or Edinburgh, but if you would like to keep up with our family and what is going on in our lives, please email me to let me know you would like the new blog address (at my work email or personal email or at mommyinengland@gmail.com). Also, a very big THANK YOU to family and friends back home that are helping to get our house ready for our return. We are very appreciative!! We hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventures in England as much as we have enjoyed living them. We are going to try to have one more fun trip after the movers are gone this week but before we fly out on Sunday, maybe go back to one of the places we loved. It truly has been an experience of a lifetime.

Jump rope high jinks

A friend of mine came over today and we went outside to play with the girls. Bean grabbed a jump rope (skip rope here in the UK), and my friend and I proceeded to teach Bean how to do it. It was a double rope, so both of us were swinging it as she jumped. She had a hard time figuring it out, so I offered to show her how. I have not jump roped since probably elementary school, so I was not sure I could even do it anymore - but I did! And I only landed on my backside once- which had both girls and my friend cracking up. After seeing me do it, Bean got the hang of it and even jumped 12 times in a row. Gerbie was funny - she wanted to do it so badly, but she would let the rope fall at her feet and then step over it and clap--she was so proud of herself. I wish I had gotten some pictures, but I didn't think of it in time. Daddy got home while we were still out there playing and said he would pay money to see me jumping rope - so after he paid up (okay, he only gave me 20 pence and to be honest, I think me jumping rope at age 38 was worth more money than that), but I did proceed to show him I could still do it. We teased him until he showed us that he could still jump rope also, which had Bean cracking up again. I still have the picture of my husband jump roping in his business suit in my head. I was laughing so hard at all the jump rope high jinks - that I literally had tears running down my face at one point. It is truly moments like this that make me feel so lucky.

Children's medicine

When you are moving to another country for two years and you want to make sure you have enough of the children's medicine that you trust and know, you buy in bulk and have it sent over in your sea shipment. At least, that is what we did. Then shortly after we got here, Tylenol announced a huge recall of almost all of their children's products. After reviewing the numbers on our bottles, it was clear to us that we couldn't use any of them that we brought with us. I kept them so that I could enter the numbers on the recall site for a refund and finally, just today, sat down on the computer and got them all entered so that I could toss them before the movers come next week. We had 13 bottles of recalled Children's Tylenol, Children's Ibuprofen and Children's Tylenol Cold. I kept a log of all the numbers I entered in their site and took a picture before I tossed them, as the website does say you may have to answer some questions before you get a refund. And yes, that is Bean posing behind the bottles, she wants Tylenol to see how pretty her dress is. Yeah, I am sure I will get a call from them, not because they think her dress is pretty, but because I don't think normal households usually have 13 bottles of children's medicine in them.

It's hard to be a toddler

Bean has been my little buddy the last few days as she is staying home with me since school let out last week. Since we are moving in less than 2 weeks, it was not worth trying to find daycare for her. She watches a movie in the morning while I work, then plays out in the conservatory for a little while. We take a long walk at lunch to get the energy out and if it's not raining, we stop by the park. In the afternoon, she goes to her friends house for a playdate while I get some more work done. So far, so good. However, next week when the movers come and take all of our things a week before we fly out, well, not sure how we will manage without a TV, toys or books. Maybe I can give her my computer and some work to do??
Gerbie on the other hand....she plays so hard all day at nursery school that by the time she gets home she is a mess - one big, tired, whiny mess. We get a bath and put pj's on and then she usually collapses somewhere, sometimes even taking a nap before bed. Take a look at all the pictures. Now mind you, she goes to bed between 5:30 and 6:00 every night and sleeps 12 hours, so she is getting sleep, but you would not be able to tell by these pictures, most of which were taken between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m after school. It is hard work being a toddler!

Going Home

In March, right before we left Ohio, I posted a blog about how sad I was to leave our home, our friends and our family and that while I was excited about our adventure, I was very apprehensive about leaving everything we know behind. We thought we were going to be gone for at least two years, maybe even a little longer. Now, with our circumstances changing, I find myself sitting here in our house in England thinking about moving back home. As much fun as we have had here as a family, there is no sadness at all about leaving England. Maybe that would have been different if we had been here for several years, we may have had more permanent connections by then. There are a few people that I will miss here - some wonderful mums I have become friends with from Bean's school and my next door neighbor that I have coffee with every week. But we will all keep in touch over Facebook and email and they are even throwing me a going away party next week. And there were a few places I still would have liked to have visited. However, I can't wait to be back home. I got so excited while packing some things up when I found my Columbus Zoo membership card, my Barnes and Noble and Graeters Reward Cards. It is not because I have "missed" those places specifically, it is because they are my "familiar". I was happy the other night thinking about going to Target to pick up some stuff we will need for our house when we get back. I can't wait to see our family and get together with our friends. I can't wait to get Maggie back. I just can't wait . It is unanimous in this house - daddy, Bean and Gerbie, we are all so excited. Gerbie can't wait to see her BFF - she literally talks about her every day. She can't wait to be back in school with her when we return. Bean has really missed her friends and is talking about all the fun things she wants to do with them when we get home. I am truly glad we came here, this was an opportunity I would not have missed for the world, but I am so glad to be going home.

Gerbie

I have been compiling photos into online albums to keep all of our memories from our time in England together and in one place. We had a goal from the time that we first got here, that every new place we went, we would try to get a family picture together. For the most part, I think we met that goal, there are only one or two places that I can think of that we missed for some reason. Going through all of these family photos at one time though has brought a few things to my attention.
1. We are wearing coats and/or sweaters in almost every single one of them. Yes, even the ones taken this summer - if you can call what they have here 'summer'. (It is 60 degrees and raining as I type this).
2. Gerbie is looking grumpy or sucking her thumb in almost every one of them. Or doing both simultaneously.
She is actually a very happy girl, but she hates getting her picture taken and does everything in her power to not be looking at the camera or smiling. However, I have gotten her to relax a little bit in front of the camera lately, so to prove that she really does smile, here are some recent pics of my sweet little girl.

Conwy, North Wales

It was cold and rainy today, but we still had a really good time. The drive is really scenic on the way to Conwy, the town in North Wales that we went to today. Green rolling hills, some beautiful ocean views…it was a nice drive. However, we did think it was odd, there were signs that read “BADGERS” by the side of the motorway. And then we started seeing RV’s pulled over on the side of the motorway with “Good Food” written on the side of them. They were selling food on the side of the motorway in Wales! Seriously, you are going 70 mph and on a little tiny pull off there is food for sale. So, was it badger meat that they were selling? Not sure, but we were not going to stop at a roadside meat wagon for a badger burger. So where did we eat lunch? McDonald’s of course. We have now eaten at a McDonald’s in England, Scotland and Wales. I guess we are proud to be...American tourists. We made it to Conwy and first stopped at the Conwy Castle. It was the biggest castle we have been to so far and it was very impressive. We went all the way up in some of the towers (there were 8 in all), which led to some great pictures. After that we walked through the little seaside town of Conwy. It is a quaint cozy little fishing village and we really enjoyed walking around for awhile. Most of the signs are written in Welsh and English and hubby said it was funny to see three or four consonants in a row. We would see a word that had three L’s in a row at the beginning of the word. It was a quick visit to Wales – in and out in one day, but we are glad we got to see a little piece of it. If we had more time, we would have made a return visit, no doubt about it.

School is (finally!) out

School’s out, school’s out, someone let the monkeys out. I have this song going through my head today that we used to sing on our last day of school. Bean is so excited that her longest year of Kindergarten in the history of the world….is finally over. School is out early today so I am picking her up at 2 and taking her to Starbucks to celebrate (yes, my daughter is a Starbucks addict just like me – she loves their kiddie size hot chocolate) and I told her she could pick out a new chapter book at the bookstore. She is reading a fairy series that she really loves, and is excited to get a new one. We also told her we would take her out to dinner tonight and she could pick the place we go, so she is feeling like such a big girl. I cannot believe my baby has finished her first year of school now. Where does the time go? We are off to Wales tomorrow and then back to reality next week getting ready for the move.

The House of Gosworth

Bean had sports day at school today (yes, she is STILL in school, but Friday is her last day!). I really had no idea what to expect, it was from 1:00 to 3:30 and parents were invited. The school that she goes to has four "houses". Bean is in the House of Gosworth, and their team color is green. They wear ties in her school that reflect what house they are in by the color of the tie and they have house points awarded for various things. At the end of the school year, the sports day is the final event. All the points from the day and from the year are added up and a winner is proclaimed. Sports day involved lots of relays and races and Bean had a great day. Attached are a few pictures from her day. On another Bean related note: she is obsessed with wizards now. She actually wants to be a wizard and pretends to be one quite often, and even has her own "wand". I blame the Disney Channel on this (Wizards of Waverly Place). So we finally decided to let her watch Harry Potter - we figured with all this wizard fascination that she would enjoy the movies and we thought maybe she was old enough for them now. Well, she loves them - since Sunday she has watched The Sorcerer's Stone, The Chamber of Secrets and as I type this, she is watching Prisoner of Azkaban. What's funny is that now that we have lived in England, there are several things about the movies that I find interesting. The closet that Harry lives in during the first movie is exactly like our closet under the stairs in this house and they have "houses" in the school in the movie also. Such good timing for us to have a renewed interest in the movies. I am sure that Bean will want to keep watching until she reaches the end of them which is fine with us, as long as she doesn't want to go to school at Hogwarts, then we are doing ok.

How many?

How many chicken nuggets and pupperoni's (her favorite dog treat) do you think it will take for this sweet, hairy face to forgive us for leaving her behind for so many months? She has been spoiled rotten by Papa and Honey - we are so grateful that they took her in and treated her like their child. She will miss chasing their squirrels and watching life through their porch window, no doubt about it. But we are so happy to be coming home to claim our first "child" back. The girls are talking non-stop about Maggie, Bean even wants Maggie to start sleeping in her bed. We just need to buy a BIG bag of treats!

Sisters

Our girls love each other - there is no doubt about it. They always have a playmate, someone to share with or even fight with. Just over the past week I have caught these pictures of them: Sharing a bowl of cereal (this was kind of a surprise, they DID have their own breakfast food, we DO feed our children, but I guess Gerbie thought Bean's breakfast was better and Bean didn't mind her diving right in), sharing a computer (one with the keyboard, one with the mouse), watching TV together, posing together, playing together and exploring together. They are truly the best of sisters.

Moving overseas is no fun...even in reverse

We have a date booked for the movers to come get our things here in England and ship them back to the US. With a kiss and a prayer, we will be sending our things back over the pond by way of ship and will pray that we see it on the other side in 6-8 weeks. We are also starting to get the logistics of our move figured out. This move presents challenges that are a little different than when we moved here. In some ways, it is easier, as we are going back to the land and products that we know and can buy things that we need, and in some ways it is harder. On the way here, my husband had already been here multiple times and had brought a lot of his things with him already. Now, going back - everything we need immediately or of value needs to be with us. Between us, we have 4 laptop computers (one work and one personal computer each),cameras, multiple electronic gadgets, jewelry and then the personal things you have to have with you on a flight, and the most important things for the kids. Also, since our things will not get to the US for 6 weeks, we need clothes, shoes and various other things with us. We will most likely take advantage of having two carry-ons each (that would be 8) and three suitcases each (that would be 12). BUT...there are only two of us that can carry this stuff and one of us (me) will also be pushing a stroller with a toddler in it and keeping an eye on Bean, which leaves daddy to do the heavy lifting and let's be honest, even Superman could not manage that many bags. We have decided that moving overseas is no fun - no matter which way you go. Anyone looking for a really expensive way to waste some time, feel free to fly over here and then fly back with us- we would appreciate it - ha.
And I came across some pictures the other day that I actually took awhile back. If anyone doubted me when I said how small the roads were here - these pictures should speak for themselves. I personally LOVE the one where it goes from two lanes to one AS you drive around a corner and a building is blocking the view from both directions.