American children vs British children

I had done a lot of research by the time we had made our move to England, and one thing I kept running across on blogs was the difference between American and British children. American children, most blogs would say, are more active and energetic. British children are more quiet and reserved. We have been here for two weeks now, and these people have nailed it. I have two active, healthy all American children. I don’t want them to change but I also don’t want them to struggle to fit in for the next two years being called unruly American kids. At a school assembly last week, all the kids in Bean’s school gathered and were singing songs. All the kids were standing still, in a straight line…except for my sweet little girl. She was rocking back and forth to the music, popping her head up and down to look for me and waving every time she saw me. At her old American school – they would have all been doing that exact same thing, I have seen it many times when I was there for an activity. At this school –she really stuck out and the woman sitting next to me even said –you can see the new American girl in the group! Today, our baby sitter started. She is from Sweden and is an au pair for a family that has a 6 and 8 year old. They are in school during the day and she was looking for a daytime job, so she is going to be helping with Gerbie. Since Bean is out of school on spring break – she is also watching her right now. So far, it is going well and since I work from home I am here and can monitor what is going on. Within the first 15 minutes of Annie being here, Bean was telling her about her school in America, her best friend from back home, her new school and pretty much didn’t stop talking for the first hour. They have both been dragging her from room to room, playing games including hide and seek and catch. At lunch, I asked Annie if she has noticed a difference in my American children versus the British children she watches and she didn’t hesitate –YES, she said. Your kids are so smart and talkative and so ACTIVE. They have so much energy. They play and talk and play and talk and TALK. While sometimes when the kids are bouncing off the walls, yelling and playing, we may wish that they were a little more quiet and proper…in the end, my children are all American, active, energetic kids and I hope they don’t change at all.

A few observations after two weeks here

It rains here all the time. All.the.time. Not all day, but every day. Multiple times a day. It will go from sunny to rainy in the blink of an eye. When they say you need to carry an umbrella everywhere you go in England, they mean EVERYWHERE. If it is sunny when you leave and you only have a short distance to go, and you try to chance it? Well, I think you know where I am going with this one….

It takes forever to do laundry. Three hours to do a tiny load.

You can always find old reruns of US TV shows on. At any time of the day. But they are truly “older” shows. We are talking 80’s and 90’s. A few more recent shows, but always a few seasons behind where they are in the US. If you crave old reruns of Murder She Wrote, you have come to the right place.

You cannot drive down the street in a straight path. There are either parked cars, road barriers or my favorite, the lanes just go from two lanes to one lane randomly and without warning.

UK signage is very different. Exits are “way outs”, detours are “diversions”. Stop signs are “give way”. Carry out is “take away”.

Everything is small. Everything. Portion sizes, bottles, packages, appliances, bathtubs, houses, rooms, cars. Small.

It is very, very beautiful. I can’t wait to see how it looks in the spring with everything blooming.

And finally, my daughter loves her wellies. She wears them all the time, even when her PJ's are on. (picture above).

A picture is worth a thousand words

Our trip to London. Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace.

We have contact!

Finally, we have our internet connection. I have been going through some serious withdrawal. It has been over a week and we have not had a good connection. We have been sharing wireless cards, which have had a "very poor" signal most of the time. Finally, we can skype, email, facebook, login to work, and keep in touch with people. Ahhh, yes, I am a technology addict.

Mom is leaving

When I had my oldest daughter, my mom came to stay for about a week to help us get settled in, help us take care of little Bean, cook and clean, and do all the things that moms make seem so effortless. I really appreciated her help and when she announced it was time to go back home, I cried and told her I didn’t want her to go. It’s not that I didn’t think I could do it, I was fairly certain after the first few days I could handle Bean. It was as simple as….she is my mom and everything feels better when she is there. I have always been close to my parents, and have always appreciated everything they have done for me. So when we decided to move to England, I am sure it was not top on the list of where my parents wanted their daughter and her family to move, being so far away. But they have been supportive and understanding. I can only hope and pray that I have the same relationship with my children as they get older. My mom has been here with us in England for almost two weeks, helping us get settled, helping us cook, clean, sort and put away things. She leaves tomorrow morning. I don’t think she realizes how much I have appreciated her being here. We have had some fun while she was here –finding our way around our town, going into London and Manchester, and we have laughed a lot. But we have also shared some bad moments too – a flat tire, learning to drive on the wrong side of the street, minor meltdowns (mine), cranky children adjusting to the new house and time zone. And I am glad she was here for the good and the bad. I didn’t need to pretend I was ok, when I was not ok. I know I was cranky and probably hard to deal with the first few jetlagged, sleep deprived days. And I am positive I will not handle her leaving very well. I got tears in my eyes at Hyde Park yesterday when she put her arm around me and said – we will skype every day. I feel like this has been an extended vacation and when she leaves, we should all be leaving too. But yesterday when we were leaving London to get on the train, I said to her, I am ready to be home now. Then I thought about what I had just said….I meant this place, this cute little house in England. The place I am sitting right now, on my new couch, typing this. I meant my new temporary home. I am sure there are many times I will want to go back home to the US, the other expats have already warned me about the homesickness that will come. The good thing is, I have the best and most supportive husband in the world and two wonderful children. And it struck me…I will miss my mom and dad so much, I will cry (a lot I am sure), but I also know I will be ok, just like I was when Bean was born.

London

We just got back from London a little bit ago, we had a great time, but we are all exhausted now. The kids are true world travelers now -they have done so good with all of this travel. The plane to move here, the trains, buses and taxi's. We took a train to get into London and it was very nice --cushy seats, refreshments and the two hours went by in a flash. The girls were fascinated looking out the window, and it was beautiful English countryside that we were viewing. When we got to London we took a taxi to our hotel, got settled and grabbed a site seeing bus. We saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Parliament, the Cabinet War Rooms, Trafalgar square, Buckingham Palace (this is what is behind us in the picture above and if you click on it, it will make the picture bigger), the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, the Crown Jewels...and that was all in the first day. We did a lot of walking, and only got caught in the rain twice. The last time however, we got soaked, luckily, it was our last stop of the day. Our bus was packed with everyone trying to get out of the rain, so we grabbed a taxi and made it back to our hotel, soaking wet, tired but happy. This morning we woke up with one goal - Kensington Palace. When we got there we expected a historical tour, some Princess Diana memorials, but what we got was an enchanted castle. We thought it would be cool to go in and see what it was all about --it was actually quite odd. It was a mystery game where you had to find clues by looking around in the dark rooms and they had some actors doing interactive scenes. However, we got to see the palace from the inside and the rooms were amazing, including King George's gallery with the original artwork still on the walls. We were trying to imagine what it would be like to live in a place like that? We also walked through Hyde Park and took in some beautiful scenery. I cannot believe how great the kids did --we did a lot of walking, meals were sometimes later than we expected them to be by the time we got to where we were heading, and there was a lot of getting off and on the tour bus. They were both incredibly good. The minor meltdown we did have, came when Bean was in the enchanted castle (Kensington) and she sat in a wish chair and wished she was a princess and then got upset because it didn't happen. Poor Bean....seeing all the castles and palaces, beautiful crowns and dresses...she really wanted to transform into a Princess. We took a lot of pictures, but I have not downloaded any of them yet, so those will hopefully get posted tomorrow. Bean is out of school for the next two weeks and tomorrow is the last day my mom is here, so we are going to try to find some time to play in the park with the kids tomorrow and hopefully we will get some sunny weather.

Drop in the Ocean

This is the second post today, I felt compelled to get back on with another update. The last posting showed some of my frustration, but I just came home from Bean's school -they had an Easter program and it made me feel so much better. My children can cheer me up from the worst of bad moods, and watching Bean's beaming smile with her new British friends as they sang some songs, just warmed my heart. She seems really happy and finally a little more settled at her school. The assembly was with the whole school, and they sang some really great songs. One of the songs really hit me. "Every life is just a drop in the ocean, drop of emotion. I can raise up like rain, and fall down like thunder". We will get through this crazy time and we will learn the differences and how to navigate this country. I will learn to call the bathrooms, the toilets. The boots are wellies, pants are trousers (pants are what they refer to as underwear here, so if you say pants, they giggle). Vests are t-shirts, trainers are tennis shoes, the pram is the stroller, the trolley is the shopping cart, lemonade is sprite, chips are fries, crisps are potato chips....and on and on. Trying to cook the other day, I read the directions on the box and it said to use the hob (stovetop) to heat the pan, to use 500 grams of chicken and a 150grams of cheese. They use milliliters to measure liquids. I already struggled with cooking, at least I have an excuse now to be bad at it. Time of day is military time, so I am constantly trying to figure out what 2240 is or 1800. The temperature is Celsius. I am sure we will figure all of this out, it will just take some time. Now on to London for our trip!

Out of something bad, comes something good

I have had my moments here in this new country, that have been bad, and then I have had some that follow the bad ones that are good. Since I still don't have wireless internet, my work has been pretty much been put on hold for an extra week and mom leaves on Tuesday (if I let her get on the plane), so we wanted to take advantage of her time left. So we spent the day in Manchester and had a blast. Manchester looks like a pretend city --almost overly dramatic architecture and people --it was really amazing. We had a good time, found an "American" type mall and people watched (we decided my hair is too plain and boring being one neutral color --apparently, I need to find some fuchsia pink dye and put a streak in it to fit in). By the time we were getting ready to leave, mom was snapping some pictures and to the best we can figure, confused her Starbucks hot chocolate for her camera and lifted it to take a picture...down comes all her hot chocolate all over herself. We laughed so hard, there on the sidewalk in the middle of Manchester, that people were looking at us wondering what these Americans must have taken to be so giddy. The train ride was good --Gerbie was telling the conductor to "go faster". Good thing she likes trains --that is the best way around here. So then we get to today. I am new at the driving thing over here, and I am still learning my way around. Today for school drop off, they decided to close the road to the school....so I figured out another way and was on my way there, and that road was closed too...so I was trying to figure out how to get Bean to school, hit a curb (still have a hard time judging curb distance from sitting on the right side of the car) and POP, goes my tire. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Can't ONE thing be easy? So I called hubby and said - I have no idea what to do. I don't know if they have a AAA over here or something similar? So luckily, mom and Gerbie were with us, we got out and hoofed it to the school, mostly running so Bean was not late. And here comes the good -- a British mum I had met the other day was there and was giving me some materials on some children's classes and I asked her who to call. In the meantime, I got a call from hubby and he and two coworkers were at the car waiting for us, the calvary had arrived. So this new friend drove us to the car, stayed and helped, drove us to the Kwik Mart to get a new tire, drove mom, Gerbie and I to coffee with the mums, where I met several other great women, and then drove us back for our car later. I wonder....was the flat tire on purpose so that I would go to the coffee date and meet more great women to bond with? I was invited but was not going to go at the last minute....this made me go and I am glad I did. They did laugh at me in a good natured way when I asked for the bathrooms, instead of the toilets. So out of something bad, comes something good. I have to admit, I have been emotional and frustrated in the last week. Trying to learn all new things and I needed some friends at that time. I miss all my friends back home. These people will not replace them, but they may be my lifeline here for the next few years. So now some more good --we are all going to London tomorrow and spending the weekend. I am looking forward to going back to London --the last time I was there was pre-kids. I am looking forward to my mom and the kids seeing it - and just spending some family time together after a hectic week. I will update on Monday with how our trip went!! And finally, hopefully get some pictures downloaded (still no internet at our house!).

Mini sizes

Everything here is mini-sized. The fridge is no bigger than my old college fridge, the freezer is even smaller than that. So all the food bottles and packages are tiny, to fit into the tiny fridges. The washer and dryer are so small --I can fit three big towels in it and that is a super size load. It took us all day yesterday to do laundry that would have taken me two hours back home. They also don't use a lot of preservatives or processed foods, which also means more frequent shopping at the grocery store. So today, we had to make another stop at Tesco --and I drove on the Motorway. I was nervous, but I did it - I am getting the hang of this driving thing. Bring on the roundabouts! They use roundabouts on their motorways instead of entrance and exit ramps. But I am still not used to seeing eggs sitting at room temperature in the middle of a grocery aisle. They don't refrigerate them. I also am not used to opening the container of eggs and finding chicken poop and feathers on the eggs. (seriously!) I guess they are fresh though! The bathtub is so small I barely fit into it. Everything is just small. And a general update -we have had a lot going on the last few days. Bean has really gotten into a groove at her school, today was her third day and the kids have been so friendly and helpful to her. This morning she had three friends trying to help her into the school and hang up her coat. She is also picking up the language and the accent --surprising after only three days. I thought it would take longer for that to happen. She does not even realize it, and I have not pointed it out to her, I don't want to make her self conscious. Last night we were sitting at the table eating and she was trying to get my attention and in a perfect British accent was calling me - mummy. My mom and I just looked at each other in surprise. And she was calling the bathroom "the toilets", which is what they call them here. I have also had so much help...there are three amazing new friends, expats themselves, that have been great. Taking me driving, shopping and today to an expat society lunch where I met several others. The English mums have also been very welcoming. We have invitations to play dates, mummy and and me music classes and today I was invited to coffee on Friday after drop off. This is a great town --and people are so friendly. Today after the expat lunch we walked around the town (a neighboring village from where we live) and did some window shopping. Bean has an Easter egg coloring contest and has to take an egg to school on Friday, so we are boiling eggs right now to get ready for that. They are on spring break after Friday for the next two weeks!! I did find an au pair for Gerbie -she starts next Wed and will work part time and have both girls until Bean goes back to school and then just Gerbie. She works as an au pair for another family and once the kids are in school, she doesn't have anything to do during the day. She lives right down the street, so it is perfect. She will be with us during the day. She is from Sweden and has the full Swedish accent, so my kids should have a good blended accent after spending time with her. And we found a preschool for Gerbie, that she will start in July...they start preschool at age 2 1/2 in England, probably because they start Reception (Kindergarten) at age 4. Tomorrow we are taking the train into Manchester. I can't wait to look around and see what is there --it is supposed to be just a 10 minute train ride from our town to get to the city center of Manchester. First train ride for Gerbie - hope it goes ok! I will post some pictures after our trip.

Rain, rain, go away...and in 10 minutes it will

The weather here is almost deserving of an entire posting. Discussing the weather is the national pastime, according to the expat guide to surviving the England experience (a guide that my husband's company sent us). And after one day of dropping off and picking up my daughter from school, I know exactly what they mean. Everyone I passed had a comment about the weather -this morning when it was sunny and I dropped her off, everyone made a comment about the sun being out. When I picked her up and it was raining, everyone had a comment about that too. Every day since we have been here, it has rained and been sunny. In the same day. Every day. And this is exactly what it does...Every Day. You cannot leave your house without rain gear, even if it is sunny when you walk out. Hence the picture of the girls in their adorable rain gear that we had to buy our second day here. Planning an outing to London or the zoo (two of the things we wanted to do while my mom was here), and you better bring a bag of rain gear. Every stroller here is outfitted with the rain coverings. Wellingtons (rain boots) are a staple in this country. We went shopping today and it was beautiful and sunny when we left the house and 10 minutes later we had just gotten out of the car, put Gerbie in the stroller and -wham, rain. I need to become more prepared for this. Speaking of shopping, here are some of the stores that we saw today - Fat Face (a clothing store), Sweaty Betty (another clothing store), Slug and Lettuce (a restaurant). I did buy a sweater at Fat Face, it was really cute. I walked in and looked at the sweaters and could not figure out what size I was. I asked the sales lady and she said double the size you wear in the US and that will be your approximate size in the UK. Going from the UK, the women probably love it, but coming from the US, I was looking at that size and gasping a little. Yes, still in a little bit of culture shock. Bean also had her first day of school today and did great -she loved it. Came home very excited to talk about it and the teacher said she did great. She has school all of this week and then they have their half term break (spring break) for two weeks. We will have to plan some fun things to do while she is off.

They can park where?

I did it! I drove today. It was not quite as scary as I thought it would be. This morning we woke up to a beautiful sunny day, so hubby took me out driving while it was nice. (it did not stay sunny all day, but the weather here is another post all on it's own). And since it was a Sunday morning, it was not as crowded. I drove to Bean's new school twice and downtown once. I still need to practice on the roundabouts a little more and I am definitely not ready to jump on the freeway, but I feel that I can get around the town I live in pretty well now. I will tell you, it would be a whole lot easier to drive if the lanes were clear of parked cars. People park here wherever they like, even in the middle of a lane. Which makes some two lane streets become one lane streets, so you are weaving in and out of parked cars and dancing around cars coming from the other way. This is all allowed --no parking tickets for any of this --you can just stop and park it. ANYWHERE. Cars are parked half on sidewalks, blocking lanes, even blocking driveways sometimes. So this is where I could get confused, switch lanes to pass a car and stay in the wrong lane by accident. We also spent more time today trying to find our way around and buying some house plants to make our home more cozy. Bean has her first day of school tomorrow. She is nervous but excited. She has adjusted really well I think. Only one time did she say she missed Ohio and wanted to go home, and that was because in our first floor bathroom, the fan comes on with the light and she does not like the noise. Gerbie is adjusting well too --her first night in the house was rough, she ended up in bed with us. I think the jet lag and new house were a little much for her, but now she is back to her happy, feisty self. Tomorrow hubby goes back to work, Bean goes to school, my mom is Gerbie sitting, I am attempting to work (still no Internet, so using wireless card) and we will hopefully start getting into a routine. We are going to head into London next weekend, I can't wait - it will be so much fun.

Lost in England

I have changed the title of my post to Ohio Mommy Lost in England. This is exactly how I feel right now. Today consisted of searching the grocery stores for sour cream-which was quite an adventure, finding things Bean needs for school on Monday, while still navigating the house and the differences within (if you have not read my previous post, go there for more details on this). Getting lost, I mean, finding our way around the town and surrounding areas. But seriously, we are lucky that hubby was here long enough to have general ideas of how to get around. I am going to attempt to drive tomorrow, but I am more nervous than ever --roundabouts, unusual road signs and cow, horse and elderly crossings galore (not joking). People here seem to hit a roundabout and just haul butt around it. And they have them at every corner --no stop signs and very few stop lights. Even the highway we were on today has roundabouts to get on and off. As far as I can tell, you have to guess at how fast to go. We rarely saw speed limit signs. Our air freight came today and it was very nice to have things from home show up. I am missing everyone and everything, but it feels better to have simple things from home. We are still fighting jet lag and by evening we are all exhausted. I am about to put the girls to bed, more to come tomorrow on our adventure.

We made it!!

This one may be long, because I have not had internet access for awhile, which, has been killing me. Even being as busy as we are, I miss my connection with the technology world. So, here is what has happened. The day we left was perfect….it was beautiful and sunny. Flights were all on time and we could not have asked for a better travel day. The kids, were on their best behavior. Bean was perfect. Happy to be traveling, curious, well behaved. Gerbie had her toddler moments, but all in all, did SO much better than we thought. The first flight was a little iffy at first. She was scared, and fussed and wanted to be held, but once we took off, she settled down and even fell asleep. So did Bean. So the little naps they had seemed to help and when we got to Newark we ate dinner and then hung out in the Continental lounge, drinking water and eating snacks until 10:15 when we took off. Because we were in Business First class, the seats were large and comfortable and actually leaned back all the way down flat. We got the kids settled into their seats with blankets, pillows, stuffed animals and snacks. Gerbie was very tired and fussed off and on for the first two hours and then passed out and slept the REST OF THE FLIGHT. Bean watched a movie, ate some snacks and then fell asleep. We woke both of them up right before the flight landed – wow. Could not have been better. The hardest part of the traveling was that we had 8 carryons and 10 suitcases. That was a lot to negotiate with a stroller and two kids. We got to the house, and my mom and I set about getting the kids rooms set up. My husband went grocery shopping with another expat who has been so nice and thoughtful. She came over with wine and flowers, took him shopping and then came back later to take us to Bean’s school interview (more on that later). Anyway, we got all the suitcases unpacked, the house picked up and cleaned and the groceries put away. The hardest part was everything in this house is different. Not just new house different, I mean new country different. And I mean different. Here comes the not so happy part, everything is NOT going ok, moment of this blog. In England, doors lock from the inside and outside of the door. So, to get OUT of the house, you need a key. And it is not just as simple as turning a key, you have to turn the handle up, down, all around while pulling it in, and moving the key around. And each door is different. So you have to know the TRICK of each door. We have 5 doors, and each have a key in them and each have a different trick. I have finally after the second day figured out two of the doors. I laid in bed last night worrying that there would be a fire and I would not be able to get everyone out of the house. Yes, truly serious people, you need a KEY to get OUT of your house from the inside. If someone leaves and takes the key with them –sorry, you are not leaving. When I mentioned this to someone at the bank today, they acted like I was crazy for thinking this was odd. This is just what they do here. I also couldn’t get any appliances to work--you have to flip a switch to the main power, usually a switch that is nearby each appliance and then figure out how to use the appliance. Then there is figuring out what to use to clean dishes, clothes and what to eat. I seriously looked at a box of cleaning tablets for about 15 minutes trying to figure out if they were for the dishwasher or the washing machine. I even had my mom look to try to figure it out. Neither of us could. The dish soap is called Fairy Pink Petals and nowhere on it does it mention it is for dishes. Packaging is all different. I have finally figured out some foods, but who would have thought yogurt was going to be called fromage frais? Cookies are biscuits. And at a restaurant for dinner tonight I ordered Bean lemonade and out came a sprite. Yep, that is what they call lemonade. So what do they call what we think of as lemonade? No idea yet. After a full day of not being able to figure anything out, being tired and majorly jet lagged, all I wanted to do was take a shower and I could not figure out how to turn the shower on so I had a minor meltdown. Ok, a major meltdown. I just wanted a shower. And I could not figure out how to turn the water on. Yes, there is a trick to that too. Push a button, then flip one knob, then adjust another knob for the water temperature. I feel like I am in a foreign country –oh wait, I am. But I feel like I am in a foreign country where they speak a different language. Again, I guess I am. There are a lot of similarities in our languages, but not enough to make this a seamless transition. Aside from the meltdown though, things are going ok. We got Bean enrolled in the school we wanted…we loved the school and they loved her. She starts on Monday. They wear little British uniforms, her school colors are green and gray. They also assign the kids to a “house”, much like in Harry Potter if you have seen it. She is in the House of Gosworth. They can tell which house each child is in from the color of their necktie. So hers is green with darker green stripes. Today is Friday as I type this, and we cleaned and organized some more. We are trying to make the house “ours”. We also found time for an outing to the park down the street, pizza night out at a restaurant, a short walk around the town we live in, and some more shopping at Tesco –which is really like the equivalent of a Target or Walmart. I could have spent more time in there, but the kids were getting tired. So we rushed around and got more of what we needed for the house. This weekend we are going to try to find our way around, view the country club nearby that some other expats have told us about and the great news - our air freight is being delivered tomorrow (Saturday) -yea! That was good timing. I also need to practice some driving. (still petrified to do this, being here and watching it has not lessened that at all). And hopefully we will get our internet connection up soon, right now I am using a wireless card. Until then, not sure how much I will be able to update this. I will also try to add some more pictures when I have all the resources available!

Free Internet

I am sitting at Barnes and Noble right now, trying to take advantage of the free WiFi, because ours at home has been turned off. My IT group could not get my new blackberry connected, and for some reason my US blackberry has decided to stop working (I am guessing this is something my IT group did trying to connect my new one). I am feeling VERY disconnected right now. I am still trying to sign agreements, and communicate with my boss, hence the Barnes and Noble attempt. While I was in my office, I had to try to call our UK cell phone carrier, scratch that, I mean the "mobile" carrier for the UK to see if they could activate what needed to be activated for IT to get it set up. I have to tell you, I couldn't understand what they were saying -partly due to the accent, partly due to the difference in the words they use, partly due to my own ignorance with technology. I just kept saying -enterprise? enterprise? Listen people, I need ENTERPRISE, please take pity on me and understand what I mean. I have a feeling the person on the other end hung up and said to someone else -what a dumb American that girl was. And I didn't get what I needed, it was a very frazzled conversation with three different people and one confused American. Let's hope I don't spend the next two years this confused. On a side note, we are ready to go. The house is ready, the suitcases are ready, the girls are ready, we are ready. Tomorrow is our flight, here we go......let's get this show on the road.

Update

Yes, we are still here, but Wednesday is coming fast! This weekend was CRAZY. All day Saturday we loaded the storage container, with the wonderful help of my husband's parents, and that also spilled into Sunday. We have nothing left in the house, except the things we are taking with us and some cleaning supplies. This morning, we dropped the kids at school and came back to the house where we are going to clean the carpets, patch and paint over nail holes and get the house ready for an open house that is happening next weekend. We are also having our cleaning people come over today to deep clean the wood floors, bathrooms and appliances. Our hope is when we leave the house tonight to head back to our friends house where we are staying, that the house is looking pretty good. Tomorrow we still have time to finish a few things, but we also have errands to finish too --I have to run to my office to get my new blackberry set up and pick up last minute things. Hubby wants to get a haircut and drop off our taxes at our accountant. I am also packing all of our suitcases today to make sure everything fits, we still have time to go buy another suitcase if we need to, but I am feeling pretty confident that I won't need another one. We have 10 right now (we can check 12). The POD is also going to be picked up today. Our cable is shut off tomorrow, and I don't know if I will have time or computer access to update much after that, so if I don't get a chance to update this blog before we leave, I will update it when we arrive (if I have an internet connection!). Hopefully we are going to have one very quickly, but it may take a few days. So for now, signing off from the US - signing back on from the UK in a few days. Wish us luck on our long flights with our girls -

Rainbow

Yesterday went better than expected with the movers. The worst thing that happened, which really was not bad since we are laughing about it, was that the movers got on a packing groove and just started grabbing things and packing them --even things that were meant to stay. Our salt and pepper shakers, that match our dishes that are going into storage....are now on the way to England. Likewise, some table decorations, our silverware, and probably a few other things that we have not figured out yet. Nothing big or important, so we just laugh. And now for the next two days, all of our meals need to be takeout or at a restaurant, as we have no food, silverware or dishes. We still have a lot to load into storage (it is truly amazing how much you can accumulate in a house). On Sunday afternoon we are moving in with some dear friends that invited us to stay with them, and we can't wait to spend a few days with them prior to flying out on Wednesday. Last night, after the movers were done, my husband and I went on a much needed date night. We kissed our girls good night, got in the car and what did we see at the end of the road? A beautiful, very bright and vivid rainbow. The picture does not do it justice, it was taken on my phone. But we both just looked at each other, and knew this was a sign. Things are going to be ok.

Chaos has arrived

Chaos is here ---the movers have arrived!! There are four of them and they are all very, very nice. They are the same guys that did our air freight last week. We have walked them through the house saying...this stays....this goes....this stays...this goes. Let's hope they remember it all. :) We are here supervising, but trying to stay out of their way at the same time. One of the guys just told me that he went home after last week and told his wife...boy, they sure have a lot of macaroni and cheese! He laughed when he told her that, and then explained it was because we were moving overseas. She told him, if he ever tried to move her overseas, he would need to fill an entire ship with mac and cheese for their three kids. Seriously, does Kraft know that if they started hocking their products in the UK, they will appeal to a whole new group of kids that will fall in love with their products? How do I get them to be there....starting now?

Last chance

Today was our last chance to buy anything that we wanted to get into our sea freight. The movers come bright and early tomorrow morning. We have been "filling" orders for several of hubby's expat coworkers. Deodorant, medicine (children's benadryl and ibuprofen being the most popular), pancake mix. And of course, every time they tell us to pick them up something, we think...hmm, we probably will need that too. Our front room was completely empty --all the furniture in that room had been put into storage. But if you walked in and looked in that room, you would see boxes and packages of food and personal items for us and the others waiting to go tomorrow. Hubby even had an order today from his assistant --grape jelly. And she is even British. But apparently they don't have it there, and some expat has turned her on to the wonder of grape jelly, so off to Sam's club he went to buy her some --and of course, some for us too. Gerbie loves grape jelly toast. There are three guys coming tomorrow to pack and load the truck. I am worried that they will take something meant for storage or for our suitcases, and/or not take something that we want them to take. So, between hubby and I, we need to tag team and follow them around the house. It will be a long day. They are coming bright and early, and said they should finish around dinner time. Tonight, we are trying to make sure things are ready for them as much as possible. I stopped to eat a piece of pizza and type this up, now I am back to work. Hoping tomorrow goes ok....

One week from today

I have spent most of today shuffling stuff into the guest room which has become suitcase central, and trying to finalize things for my job that need to be settled before I go. What seems like it should be really easy, is more complicated than I think anyone thought. Agreements need to be signed and I need to apply for the UK version of our social security number (National Insurance number) when I get to England. I do have a work visa already, that allows me to work there. That was set up from the beginning as part of my husband's visa. And now, I am officially an expat worker for my company. My husband is working for a UK company, in the UK. They have a US presence, but they are a UK company. I am working for a US company, but living in the UK. My company has a UK presence, but is a US company. Even though we are both US citizens, apparently, it is quite a different situation in how we are set up and allowed to work because of how our companies are set up. We are going to need someone very versed in International taxes to assist us for the next few years as we have to file taxes in both locations. Tomorrow will be a very busy day --the last day before the movers come. We will be making sure everything they are packing and taking is well marked or separated from what is staying. This weekend will be a whirlwind, and we leave one week from today.

Sunshine

I am currently sitting on my porch, feeling the warm sunshine and just taking a deep breath. I am looking all around, at our house, our yard, our neighbors, trying to mentally capture the images. I am remembering what my flower beds look like in the warm summer air, and how much I love sitting and just looking at the greenery and the vibrant colors of the flowers. I am thinking and reflecting on our life in this house, in this town. Being a little emotional, being a lot nostalgic. The memories are good. Building this house, starting our family, bringing our two beautiful babies home. The fun times we had as a couple and then as a family. At the same time, I am also excited about this once in a lifetime adventure we are about to embark on. I hope that it is good for my family, that it brings us all even closer than we already are, that we experience things that we will all remember forever. Yes, I am thinking......as I sit here in the sun....about the past and about what the future will hold. I needed this sunshine today. I needed to feel the warmth from it. In our very busy last week in this house, in this town, I needed a moment to just sit, relax and reflect. To not be making a list, packing a suitcase or worrying about something. Just taking a breath.

Cleaning

I can't believe we leave next week. We had a good weekend, and got a lot done. This morning, I thought I would have a (somewhat) relaxing day, getting actual WORK done. I was not going to do much around the house at all today. I did tell hubby that this week I wanted to start packing suitcases so that we know what we are taking and how much room we need. But I was not going to start until tomorrow. And then we got a phone call for a second showing on our house (a second showing!!!). We have had 8 showings so far, but this is the first time we have had someone look twice. So, I dragged myself off my computer and started cleaning. I have literally cleaned my house more in the past two months for showings than I have the whole time we have lived here. (maybe not, but it seems like it). And if that statement seems really odd...don't worry, we don't live in filth. We have had someone clean for us every other week for about the whole time we have lived here. So now, two hours later, the house is sparkling clean, I am taking a moment to blog, and then we are evacuating the house so that people can come in and look in our closets and cupboards and decide if they want our house.....keep your fingers crossed!! Aside from that, it is more of the same, making lists, checking them twice and hoping I don't forget anything major that needs to come with us.

Weekend update

I feel like I should be doing a Saturday Night Live skit with this title. Friday was a hard day, saying goodbye to Maggie. I cried when we left my parents house, and got tears in my eyes almost all the way home, every time I thought about leaving her. However, yesterday made me feel better, because we got a lot done. My parents came down and we packed up the kitchen and put everything into two piles. One being what goes with us, the other being what goes in the pod, which was also delivered yesterday. Hubby went to Sam's club and stocked up on more food items we can send with the movers and we also had two showings yesterday! And still had time to fit in a b-day party for one of Bean's good friends. Bean still seems like something is bothering her, but won't really talk about it with us. On Friday night, we had a date night and our babysitter (who is very close with her) actually got her to open up a bit about it, and told us that Bean was telling her she is nervous about moving. So daddy and I are just showering her with lots of affection, and keeping her busy. She likes to be a "helper" around the house, so we are giving her little things to do. Today will be another busy, but good day. My husband's parents are en route and will be visiting today. This coming week is our last full week of work and school before we are off to make the move. I feel like we are packing for a vacation, and it has not quite hit me yet that this is for two years. I am getting excited...but nervous. Can't wait for the logistics of this move to be over and to be on our way --getting there is the stressful part.

Maggie

Full disclosure: This is not a happy posting, read at your own risk. I am having an extremely difficult time today, I have been cranky and melancholoy, even with the sunshine that is finally here, and I finally realized why. I am sad because tomorrow, I am saying goodbye to Maggie, my stubborn, wonderful, cuddly little Scottie dog. Yes, you may remember, that she has not been living with us since shortly after Christmas, as we have tried to prepare her (and us) to be separated. However, we have visited her many times....and I always knew she was there, close by, and that I COULD visit her. The last time we went, the girls were on top of her for the first 20 minutes of our visit, and my parents said that was the most spunk and energy they have seen in her since the last time we were there. The hardest thing for me to think of, is that she may be wondering why she is not with us. Is she wondering if she did something wrong? I know she is happy with my parents, I don't doubt for a second she is well cared for (even spoiled). But she is not with us and I wonder if she misses us. I KNOW she misses the food the girls drop on the floor constantly. I never knew how much food ended up on the floor until Maggie was not around to clean it up. Today, the thought has been with me all day that tomorrow is it, we are seeing her for the last time before we leave. To some people, it may seem silly to be upset about a dog, but to us, she is a family member. A very valued, very loved family member. I remember holding her in the palm of my hand 12 years ago when I adopted her. She was three pounds of fuzzy black fur. She got me through some rough times, she was protective of the girls, and would lay with me on the couch every evening. She also cuddled with daddy at night when we slept. Today we bought her some pupperoni's (her favorite treat) and some new chew bones. Yes, tomorrow will be a very hard day for me, finally saying goodbye and knowing I won't be able to see her for a long time. I am hoping I hold it together for the girls sake, because I know they are sad too. Bean has been going to bed with a stuffed Scottie that she calls Maggie and Gerbie still tries to feed her french fries under the table, and then remembers that she is not there and says "Maggie go?". Maybe we will meet some of her family members while in Scotland??

Feeling good about the air shipment

I am so surprised at everything that we got into the air shipment. Turns out hubby and I severely underestimated what 500 pounds looks like. We had put out sheets, towels, blankets, comforters, stuffed animals, clothes and shoes. And we STILL had more room. So we grabbed diapers, baby wipes, toilet paper, paper towels, personal items like soap, shampoo, deodorant, boxes of cereal, mac and cheese, ranch dressing, Bisquick (for pancakes) and syrup. And we STILL had more room. So we grabbed kids books, work papers/binders (for me), play dress up clothes, puzzles and board games. I am feeling very good about what went in this shipment. We got a lot more of the girls things in there that I thought we would have to save for the sea freight. Now godspeed to the shipment --please be there when we arrive, or shortly thereafter. Next up...next week they come back for the sea freight and we have another storage container delivered for the rest of the furniture in our house.

Air freight

The air freight shipment is our best chance to have our personal things get to us right away that are either too large or bulky to fit in our suitcases or that we just don't need in the next two weeks, but want to have with us when we get there. Our hope is that by having this shipment picked up this week, that it will get to us very shortly after we arrive in England. (if not beat us there --that would be even better!). So as I walked through the house thinking about what to put in this shipment, I am hoping my logic is working. I went through closets and pulled out clothes (leaving enough here for the next two weeks). I put in blankets, stuffed animals...not the most precious stuffed animals that need to be with us, but some comfort ones for beds, shoes and extra coats, towels and sheets for each bedroom. Also, I put in some personal items like diapers, baby wipes, potty seats (we are starting to get there with the little one), her booster seat, etc. We only get up to 500 pounds, so anything not deemed important or necessary needs to wait for the sea freight (unless it has been designated for a suitcase). I hope I don't forget anything because once they pick this up, if I find something else, it either needs to be able to fit into one of our suitcases, or we will need to wait 6-8 weeks for it. No pressure or anything!

Questions and Answers

I have been getting some questions lately, things I have mentioned in past posts and never followed up on. So here are some of the answers:
Are you keeping your job or not? This has changed multiple times in the past few months. I telecommute right now, so I wondered if this would be a possibility for me, but assumed it would not work out because of the time difference (5 hours). So we took this assignment in England, assuming I would not work. When my boss told me she thought it would work out after all, we decided that I would keep my job, at least for now. It will give me some stability in a world where everything is changing, and extra income will be helpful, especially until we sell our house in Columbus. We will probably constantly reevaluate this, as we both have agreed the children are the main priority. It also may be decided by my company that it isn’t working out. If they need something at 5 p.m., which does happen fairly often, that will be 10 p.m. for me, and I won’t be available. We will see. But for now, the answer is: yes, I am keeping my job.
Where are Bean and Gerbie going to be during the day? Bean is 5 and is in Kindergarten right now. She will start going to Reception (what they call Kindergarten in England), as soon as we can get her into school there, hopefully no more than 1 or 2 weeks after we get there. We have an interview at the school the day we get there, but with paperwork, etc, not sure how long the process will be. Our goal is to get her into school and back into a normal routine, asap. Gerbie will need some sort of childcare now that I am working. Daycares sound too scary for me (strange country and all), so we have feelers out looking for someone who can come into our house to watch her, at least for the better part of the day. Since I work from home, I will be there to make sure things are going ok.
How long will you guys be living in England? Our plan is 2 years. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less, but that is the goal. We are viewing this as a good opportunity and a once in a lifetime experience, but most definitely not a permanent thing. As the girls get older, we want them to grow up in a stable environment, and not have them be moved around. Right now at their ages, they will handle this experience just fine. But as they get more connected to school and friends, we don’t want to keep moving them around.
Why do you call your kids Bean and Gerbie? Someone who just started reading my blog who had not read previous posts asked this one and I laughed at it. I do pass this blog out to close family and friends, but it is also an open blog. You can find it from google, or by just stumbling across it in blogspot. I never mention the town we actually live in, in Columbus or in England. I don’t mention our last name. Or even our first names. I do put pictures sometimes, and probably will a lot more after we move and start doing things in Europe that I want to share, but without those other facts, no one stumbling across this blog would know who my children are. I want to keep friends and family updated, but I don’t want to risk our privacy for it. So I use nicknames. Bean is truly the nickname for our oldest daughter, she has had this nickname since birth. Gerbie is what we call our 2 year old sometimes, but because she is only 2, we use her real name most of the time when talking to her, so as not to confuse her. If someone comes across this blog that happens to know us, I am totally fine with that. It is the internet predators that I am trying to keep away from. It always surprises me when I come across a blog that has last names, first names and the town they live in, sometimes even home addresses. This scares me. If you are a close friend of ours, you will have our new address or be able to email us for it, if not, you don’t need it.
I am excited about having this blog and committed to keeping it updated. It has proven to be a great outlet for me, and keeps multiple friends and family updated on what is going on in our lives right now. I am even more excited to update it once we get there and have new experiences and travel adventures. Right now, it is all about the logistics of our move –which is totally crazy right now...and probably a little boring to anyone reading it. But this is what our life is right now. My husband and I had to go to lunch yesterday to get out of the house for a showing, and we were coordinating our calendars. Blackberry’s and notebooks out, going through every day until we leave with what is going on. This is also partly because we have one car right now. It takes a lot of coordination to keep this move on track. 14 days until our flight!

Random thoughts

Aside from the fact that we are stressed out and busy right now, I am still looking forward to our adventure. I find myself getting very excited about spending a weekend in London or Paris or driving around Scotland, which is only a few hours away by car. It is fun to look at a map of Europe and say –I want to go here on a vacation, or a school break, and know that we will really do it. My husband has been living in England since the beginning of January and this weekend when he was home, was telling us of some of the things we will need to get used to(aside from the obvious things, like driving). I have a feeling I take the groceries that are available to us (and the FDA) for granted. Eggs are pulled right out of farms, and not refrigerated. It is apparently not uncommon to open the cartons and find feathers. Not to mention, they are impossibly hard to crack. Not sure what the scientific reason is for this, but I have read about this on other expat blogs and hubby confirmed –they are next to impossible to crack open. Someone probably knows the answer as to why this is so different and I would really like to know why. Beef smells different over there –but I have read this is the difference between grass fed and corn fed cattle. Bread has none of the same preservatives that ours has – so a loaf of bread is huge and goes bad within a few days, if not refrigerated or eaten right away. Also, in our salad dressing aisle, there are probably 50 types of salad dressings. My husband saw three at the grocery store where he was shopping. Salad Cream, Vinaigrette and Balsamic Vinaigrette. I have a feeling that the first time I go grocery shopping, which will be the day we arrive, will be quite the experience. On another note, we have an interview with the Head Master of Bean’s (hopefully) new school on the day we arrive. She will be jetlagged, and tired from being on the plane all night, but it was important to get her in asap –as they have only one spot in Reception (Kindergarten) at the school we have chosen. This is the closest school to us, has a really good rating and some other expat’s that we know have their children in that school. If you want to read more about the school system over there and the differences, please see my past blog on Schools (on the right side under archives, November 2009). The school systems in England are NOTHING like ours in the United States. Also took Bean to the doctor today and she has a double ear infection, so praying the antibiotics work and her ears are clear before our flight – that would not be good to be on a plane that long, with infected ears. Tomorrow we need to do a dry run with our suitcases to see how much we can fit in them, so that the air freight movers can take the other important things that we can’t fit in the suitcases. Good thing the guest room is now empty of furniture after this past weekend, as it currently has about 10 suitcases scattered around waiting to be filled. I am really worried that I am going to forget something important that we need with us, I am making lists and trying to stay organized. Now I have to see how many Ranch Dressings I can fit in one suitcase.....

First one down

The first storage container is full....100% full. Our things are packed in tighter than you can imagine. It was funny this weekend, we put stuff out there all day long, the guys would walk around the house looking for the right size object to stuff in every crack and crevice. The big things were left behind for the second storage unit, which is coming this weekend. We still have our kitchen table, couch, loveseat and our master bed and dresser. These things, plus more little stuff, including the kitchen items, will be stuffed into that one. And then the movers just need to come and get the rest....the items that are going to England. Last night, just as everyone was finally sitting down and relaxing, I received a phone call for a showing today. Off the couches we all flew, trying to organize our disorganized house. And I have spent the better part of this morning cleaning and making it spotless. Fingers crossed, that these people love our house and want to buy it!! That would be perfect, as we are about to vacate the house, to have someone make an offer.