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.

Saturday at the Park

We decided to go to Wales next weekend, so today we started off without a real plan. We started out at Starbucks and the bookstore and then decided it was too nice to stay at home, so we went to Tatton Park. The pictures are pretty self explanatory (click on them to enlarge them): After the kids played at the playground and had a sweet treat of ice cream, we walked out on the nature trails...took some pictures of the deer...I took some pictures of hubby taking pictures of the deer....the kids were exploring....and posing (look at those two in the second to last picture, God help us when they are teenagers) and finally....I had my picture taken with two monkeys sitting in a tree. It was a perfect low key Saturday - and much needed before the madness of our impending move starts.

Across the pond.....and back again

It has been an amazing experience getting to live in and experience a new country and we will always appreciate that we lived in England for awhile. We have seen and experienced things we never would have, had we not actually lived here.
However...
When hubby received an opportunity that allows us to move back to the US, it didn’t take us long to realize that this is what we were going to do. There are some things we will miss about England and I will always be thankful for the experiences we had while living here and the closer bond we have from going on this once in a lifetime journey together. But, the chance to go back home....well, that was not a hard decision to make. We have missed our dog, our families, our friends and our home. It will not be easy moving again and I am not looking forward to all the time and work it will take to get our house in Ohio back together again. But home is where we belong, so back across the pond we will go. We have a few weeks left to still have some fun in England and I will keep everyone updated on our adventures here and progress on moving home during that time. Here we go again.....

Wales

I have been doing some research on North Wales to plan for our next trip. We are hoping to go either this weekend or next weekend, weather permitting. North Wales is actually a fairly short drive from where we live, less than 2 hours, and I would love to see the beautiful country side, the gorgeous coast lines and of course - the 'big and old' castles. We are planning to head towards Snowdonia National Park and the towns of Llandudno and Conwy. We will check out the walled city of Conwy and the Conwy castle, which was constructed by the English monarch Edward I between 1283 and 1289 as one of the key fortresses in his 'iron ring' of castles to contain the Welsh. The description is : 'Soaring curtain walls and eight huge round towers give the castle, a World Heritage Inscribed site, an intimidating presence undimmed by the passage of time. The views from the battlements are breathtaking, looking out across mountains and sea and down to the roofless shell of the castles 125ft Great Hall. It is from these battlements that visitors can best appreciate Conwy's other great glory, its ring of town walls.' It sounds and looks like something we just can't miss.

The Heart of Midlothian

The Heart of Midlothian is a heart-shaped mosaic built into the pavement on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, not far from the Parliament House. Together with brass markers set into the pavement, it records the position of the 15th-century Tolbooth of Edinburgh, demolished in 1817, which was the administrative centre of the town, prison and one of several sites of public execution.
Some people spit on the Heart for good luck. One popular legend says that by spitting on the heart, one is destined to one day return to Edinburgh. Another legend states that it is bad luck to walk directly across the heart; those that do will apparently never find true love. I read somewhere else that, apparently, during the plague one of the symptoms was a dry mouth, so if you could spit, it showed that you were okay and therefore lucky. After another American we had been talking to told Bean about spitting on the heart though – she spit well and good right in the center of the heart. So, she definitely does not have the plague and she may be destined to return to Edinburgh in the future.

A wee Scottish good time

As you can see from my post last night, I had a lot more to add about our trip. On Saturday, we walked towards the castle again and then headed all the way down the Royal Mile, window shopping and making our way to the Palace and Arthur’s Seat. Arthur’s Seat is a group of hills that make up Holyrood Park and it peaks at 823 feet. Bean and daddy climbed part of the way up, but there was no way Gerbie or her stroller would have made it, so we watched from below. After that we took the site seeing bus tour. Since Edinburgh is not very big, the bus tour only takes an hour, but they give so many stories and so much of the history of the city that it was great to just sit and listen and look around. Somehow, I ended up on the “horrible histories” bus channel at one point (Gerbie’s little fingers were playing with the buttons) and started listening to some of the ghost stories of the city. And let me tell you, they are plentiful! In fact, as you walk around the city you see ghost tours advertised everywhere. I think it is a combination of the plague victims which were said to be locked under the city in one of the closes and the team of men who helped find bodies for the local anatomist. They apparently found their victims by murdering them. Oh, and there were plenty of public executions back in the day as well. In any case, after the bus tour we went to the castle and actually went inside this time, touring the property and seeing the crown jewels of Scotland, which are in the castle (and really consisted of a crown and a scepter – not really worth the wait). After some shopping, we called it a day. On Sunday we woke up to the windy, gusty rain showers, so we went to a science museum called Our Dynamic Earth. It was the coolest experience, so I am glad we had a chance to go to it. They start by having you enter a time machine (an elevator) and flashes of the past are shown all around you as you blast through time back to the Big Bang. Right off the elevator, you watch a movie clip explaining the Big Bang and then you get to enter a volcano. The floor shakes, the movie shows the volcano, the lava lights up the floor. The kids were giggling. After that you walk into the Ice Age. The room is cold and there are snow banks on the floor and another movie clip. After that you can explore in the interactive museum. The kids loved it – it was so kid friendly…lots of things to touch, to see and to do. After you make your way through all of that, you watch a 3-D movie that takes you on a tour of the world –from the desert to the rainforests. It was so fun to watch the kids trying to touch things that came up at them while their 3-D glasses were on. After that, we walked into the rain forest, which included watching a thunder storm. We capped the tour off by watching a film of the planets and stars on the astronomy dome ceiling. It was fun watching two little faces looking up and showing such awe for what they were seeing...we could see little scientists forming right before our eyes. After that, we toured Holyrood Palace, which is where the Queen stays when she is visiting Scotland. We noticed a sign that the Palace is closed as of today (July 6th) for the Queen’s annual visit, so we saw it just in time. As it started raining again, we made our way back to the hotel for swimming, pizza and an Uno marathon. And I do mean marathon!! We played three games and one of them lasted for over an hour. We were giggling so hard and having such a good time…..these are the little things vacations are made of! On Monday we rented a car and went to Rosslyn Chapel in Roslin, Scotland. It has exquisite architecture; it literally took our breath away. Photos were not allowed, so we did not get any. The only thing we wanted to do in Scotland that we were not able to do was tour Mary King’s Close. We discovered on our first day in Scotland that they do not allow children under the age of 5 on the tour. All in all, we had a wee merry old time. I put a few more of the hundreds of pictures that I took on this blog, but if you are friends with me on Facebook – I posted some more there.

Edinburgh overview

Edinburgh definitely lived up to the hype. This was, I think, my favorite place of all the places we have been since we moved to England. On Friday after our long train ride, we were anxious to start seeing the sites, so we went for a walk around the city. Edinburgh is actually a lot smaller than expected and you can walk around the city pretty easily. We walked to the Edinburgh castle and then down the Royal Mile a little. There are tons of pubs and shops and it is exactly how you would visualize Scotland: pubs every two steps, colorful buildings and store fronts, shops that specialize in kilts, fudge, Christmas decorations, maps and books and vendors set up in front of the store fronts selling Scottish Celtic hand carved stones, handmade journals, lambswool tartan blankets, paintings, jewelry and of course, there are men wearing kilts and playing bagpipes. The Royal Mile starts at the Castle and ends at Holyrood Palace and everything in between is shopping. You can see the ocean from almost anywhere on the mile and it is breathtaking and scenic. What the guidebooks don't tell you about Scotland: The mile is a hill…a fairly steep hill. Going down towards the Palace is easy – coming back up, eh, not so much, especially pushing a stroller. Actually, all of Edinburgh is very hilly. The Castle is on an old inactive volcano and right behind the Palace is Arthur’s Seat – also part of a volcano that rises above the city for a great view of Edinburgh. The other thing no one mentions –the weather. I expected it to be cooler and a little rainier than England – and it was, but the wind…we were not expecting. And the sideways, gusty rain – another surprise. But luckily, Friday and Saturday were uncharacteristically warm and sunny. Sunday we had a backup plan of indoor activities and today was cooler, and fortunately did not start raining until we were almost to the train station for our ride home. We had an amazing time, but it will take several posts to describe everything we did in the detail that I would like. So for now, here are a few pictures, but check back over the next few days for details on some of our events and activities from our fun weekend in Scotland.

Scotland for the 4th of July

Since we will be missing the American festivities of the 4th of July – no fireworks, cookouts or parades, we are instead planning 4 days in Scotland. We will spend the majority of our time exploring the Royal Mile. The Edinburgh castle is on one end and the Holyrood Palace is on the other end. We will also probably take advantage of the double-decker bus tour, to make sure we catch all the other must see sites of the city, and our neighbor told us we must check out Mary King’s Close. This sounds interesting but I had never heard of it, so I looked up the story of Mary King’s Close:
The Close was a street back in the 17th century and much of it is still intact. It runs from beneath the City Chambers -- Edinburgh's Local Government. The Close is said to be named after the daughter of wealthy advocate and owner of the property, Alexander King, although little evidence has been found in that respect. A woman by the name of Mary King did live there in mid 17th century. 'The Real Mary King's Close' presents tourists with a historically accurate interpretation of life in these narrow alleyways from 16th up to the 19th century. The presentation also includes local legends about the alleged existence of ghosts in this underground close. In mid 17th century the Old Town had been infested with black rats from ships at Leith Docks and disease spread out. The local council attempted to contain the plague and the decision was made to block up the entrances to Mary King's Close. Some plague victims are thought to have been locked in. In the following years the close had been reopened due to overcrowding in the Old Town and sightings of ghosts, mainly headless animals and disembodied men, have been reported. The most frequent sighting in recent years has been that of a young girl, no more than 5 or 6 years old called 'Annie' by those that have seen her.
Alrighty then, let’s hope we don’t see any ghosts. We also plan to rent a car and drive to Roslin, Scotland to take a tour of the Rosslyn Chapel, also more recently known as the ‘Da Vinci code chapel’. Maybe we will find the Holy Grail, which is said to be hidden at this chapel? And someone that clearly does not know me well at all suggested that while we are in Scotland, we need to try the Haggis. In case you are not familiar with what Haggis is, let me enlighten you with a description: ‘Haggis is a dish containing sheep’s ‘pluck’ (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt, mixed with stock and traditionally simmered in the animal’s STOMACH for approximately three hours. Most modern commercial haggis is prepared in a casing rather than an actual stomach.’ Are you kidding me? There is NO WAY I would try eating that. But all in all, I am hoping we will have a great time. I will post pictures next week when we get back. Happy 4th of July!

England A&E

We figured out last night where the A&E (Accident and Emergency) was and how it all works in England. This was something we would have rather not had to figure out. When we first moved to England, I did look at the NHS site to see where the local hospitals were, but had long forgotten this since we fortunately have never needed to go there. But last night, Bean was playing in her room and fell hard against the corner of her nightstand. My husband fortunately was with her and picked her up right away and carried her downstairs. Blood was just pouring down his hand and all over our sweet girl’s hair. As soon as we could see past the blood, we realized it was a pretty deep gash. I ran next door to ask my neighbor where the A&E was, and fortunately she was home and gave me a general idea. She actually just moved here from Scotland, but I knew that they had taken one of their kids to the A&E recently for an eye injury. We raced to the hospital, with me in the back holding on tight to Bean’s head with a paper towel. We were able to remain really calm for her, she was not even crying at that point, just upset that she might need stitches and I was even joking around with her in the car trying to ease her anxiety – but it really hit me later that night after she was home and in bed. My knees started shaking and I felt sick to my stomach. My little girls have both had many minor injuries – that is part of being a kid. Some near misses (one of them got poked right under the eye by the corner of our coffee table in Ohio), and some illnesses that required urgent cares or hospitals. But NEVER have either of our kids been injured to the point of needing to go the emergency room. This was an experience we did not need to have and we especially didn’t need to have it while in a foreign country! The A&E overall was not bad. The wait was within reason, the fact that they use the NHS system here made things so easy – no paperwork to fill out, no insurance cards to produce, no copays to figure out. But we never did even see a doctor. We saw a few nurses and a nurse practitioner. We got a pamphlet on head injuries and signs to watch for (so she slept on her mattress on the floor in our room last night) and how to care for the glue that they used to close up her wound (no stitches, thank goodness). We knew by the time we left there that she was back to her old self. Actually, we knew while we waited in the A&E that she was feeling ok – “mom, I’m bored, I’m hungry, I’m thirsty – can I go play?” Ummm, no, see this paper towel I am holding on your head? On the way home we took her through McDonald’s for a milkshake and she was talking nonstop about her experience. Her head is tender and she is home from school today with me so I can keep an eye on her, but watching movies and seemingly no worse for wear. Kids really are resilient.