Happy Halloween!

Today was scary...scary boring. We had to stay around the flat because someone was coming to take a look at the washing machine/dryer and our housekeeper was also due to swing by. By the time they were all done, most of the day was gone. 

Since we have yet to get any of our stuff delivered (our air shipment is here, but we're keeping it in storage until we move to our permanent house), the kids have been on iPods, iPads, and computers way more than I'd like. I'm hoping to wean them once we get all our toys delivered and we have more space to play meaningful games of hide and seek. For today, Audrey kept busy on Starfall and Dorian kept busy...keeping busy.

Other than our pumpkin carving yesterday, it doesn't seem like Halloween is a big deal around here--which is just fine with me! I definitely don't need piles of delicious chocolate anywhere near me. Since we didn't have a costume for Dorian (surprisingly, I remembered to pack Audrey's costume during the move!), we decided to make it a family bowling night. We walked over to a nice bowling alley right across from Stegen's office and had a nice evening.

Bundled up Ariel

 Don't fret, we didn't let the kids go totally treat-less for Halloween--we popped in to Sainsbury's and let them pick out a piece of candy each.

Tonight also marks the first night we will be receiving our home delivery of groceries from Sainsbury's. I know that Safeway also delivers back home, but I'd never met anyone who actually used the service. Out here, it seems most families are set up for home-delivered groceries as well as organic veg and fruit weekly delivered box schemes. Several families we've met also have weekly milk and egg deliveries fresh from the farm. We'll see how this first delivery goes and then decide if we'll continue with it. I'm happy with the £15 discount I got for using the system for the first time though!

We also got a special celebrity video log submitted to our blog today--Audrey has some lessons on how to properly say her name!

 We hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!


 

Call It What It Is

Short post today because, well, I'm exhausted. We've been having some beautiful blue skies these past couple of days, but the chill factor is making me realize I either need to triple up on pants and shirts, or just stay inside! My body is so tense from shivering, that when I get back into our warm flat, everything relaxes and I'm out of energy.

Despite the cold, the three of us got out to take a walk to town centre today. The mall in Maidenhead was having some free pumpkin carving for the kids, so we hung around and spent some time getting gooey with the locals.

Since we've been here, I've noticed that while the Brits seem like they speak a completely different "English", their version of English almost makes more sense! In both the US and UK, the place where you go to mail things off is called the "Post Office". In the US, we call the letters we receive and send "mail", while it's simply called "post" in the UK. Here are a couple other ways that the British make more sense by calling it what it is:

US: bathroom, UK: toilet

US: zip code, UK: post code (totally makes more sense!)

US: stroller, UK: pushchair

US: freeway, UK: motorway

US: stove, UK: cooker

Here were some that we found walking around the stores today:

US: soda, UK: fizzy drink (why, yes...it is indeed a fizzy drink)

US: flu vaccine, UK: flu jab (ha!)

 It'll still take a while for me to get used to the terminology here, but I like their logic so far.

 

 

Adult, Human Contact

I don't mean to discount the time that I get to spend with Stegen on weeknights and weekends, but the lack of other adult, human contact was starting to take a toll on my sanity. Stegen's co-worker, Kirk, has been one of the nicest people we've met since moving out here...but his wife, Mags, is even nicer (sorry, Kirk!). 

Just when I was feeling down and missing some of my friends back home, I opened up my email to find a note from Kirk's wife, offering to meet up and chat.  Like the note from Myra during our home search, Mags' email did wonders--my spirits were up and Tuesday couldn't come sooner. A morning of chasing after kids sprinkled with potential tidbits of adult conversation? I'm for it!

This morning, Audrey, Dorian, and I walked to the train station and took the 20 minute ride out to meet Mags and her adorable boys.  We played at one of Marlow's wonderful parks, ate some delicious pittas and pizza at their park cafe, and walked along Marlow's stretch of the beautiful River Thames. 

Left: Dorian and Oliver, Right: Audrey and "her baby" Joseph

Mags and Audrey at the River Thames

After saying our goodbyes (and promising Audrey that she'd see "her baby" again very soon), we hopped back on the train to head back to Maidenhead. Here are Audrey and I, exhausted, but content and excited that we successfully got around without a car!

When we got home, Audrey went right to her writing journal (without any bribes from me...shocking!) and got to work writing about her "SUPER AWESOME!" day.

Something tells me she really likes Baby Joseph!

 Update: We've received the signed tenancy agreement for our new home, but the estate agent seems to still be missing a piece of the application. Once we get that sorted out, I'll know that we 100% have the house and will share pictures. For now, we're staying at our corporate housing and looking forward to the Bonfire celebrations (read about it here!) this Saturday.

Free is a Good Price

Well, we did it. We got lost 4 times on the way to the Tube station, but we made it! The crazy winds were coming through from St. Jude, but we were bundled and ready to visit the Science Museum. We didn't want to have to pay for the £10 congestion fee to drive into London, so we followed Kirk's directions and drove to the nearest Tube station to take the train into London instead. Parking at Hillingdon Tube Station was only £1.50 for the entire day and fares weren't too bad. If we bought tickets from the booth, each adult would pay £5.50 for a single-way ticket from Hillingdon to South Kensington. If we paid a £5 deposit to get an Oyster card, however, the fare dropped down to £3 each way. We chose to take the Oyster card route (similar to the Bay Area's Clipper Card) and got ready to board the Piccadilly line. What did I learn from riding the Tube? British people are very quiet...or maybe my kids are just way too loud!

 

From the South Kensington station, we took a short walk underground to the entrance of the Science Museum. Stegen and I were on the hunt for a yummy fish and chips joint, but after scouring the surrounding streets, we gave up (mainly because the kids were starving...and whining) and went to the only place where we knew we wouldn't have to gamble: McDonald's. After our 50,000 calorie lunch, we started our trek back to the museum.

The Science Museum was awesome. There was a floor dedicated to small children (woohoo!), a floor dedicated to airplanes (Dorian was stoked), and the rest of the floors were filled with interesting things for all ages. The best part? Free admission! I might complain about how expensive things are here in England, but the various parks and admission-free museums that we have access to definitely make up for the price increase on bacon.

We ended up spending the entire day (very surprisingly) traipsing around the museum. On the Tube back to Hillingdon station, we had to change trains and hop on the Metropolitan line. This train was clean and bright--definitely a few steps up from Bart!

We got to our car safely and looked up a good fish and chips place near Maidenhead. On our way there, this happened:

I'm confused...

Google Maps is awesome (especially when you're driving in a foreign country), but sometimes I think it makes things harder than it needs to be. Well, anyway, we factored in some common sense and made our way to Ross's Fish Bar. Ross doesn't actually own it, nor does he work there, but I'm not complaining--the food was amazing and the owners were so friendly. "Mum's Specials" are actually cooked by Mum herself! And her son, Jay, runs the front counter and even swapped phone numbers with Stegen!

The "kid's meal" portion of fish and chips was huge!

 I can see why Paul and Jor wanted us to try fish and chips in England--this is the real deal. Rather than eating small pieces of fish smothered in thick layers of batter, our cod was fresh, in one piece, and so perfectly battered that each mouthful was still 99% fish. On top of that, Jay gave us some curry dipping sauce for our meal--I think it's safe to say that I will never use tartar sauce again. Thanks for everything, Jay!

The day was long and the big storm, St. Jude, was brewing. We "fell back" an hour for daylight savings, so for a couple weeks, we are only 7 hours ahead of the US! On another note, my mom mentioned how little Dorian appears in the pictures on my blog. There's a reason for this--he's often being uncooperative and being man-handled by my left hand and arm, while I take pictures with my right. Just so everyone knows he is alive and well, here's a sweet photo Stegen managed to capture of him:

 

Before I go, I'd like to officially say that I love drinking my daily cuppa tea--especially PG tips. Apparently, so do other Costco customers!!

PG: Ensuring you never run out of tea...ever.

 

Argos

Today was a long day of running errands...so excuse me if I make absolutely no sense--my eyelids are fighting my desire to get a post in. This whole relocation got real when we hopped on the plane at SFO, but today, it got even more real as we started buying appliances! Up until now, I could still trick myself into thinking that we were tagging along with Stegen on a business trip. Now that we've invested in UK appliances that won't work back home, I'm pretty convinced we're staying. Here's the loot we picked up from a store called Argos today:

Argos is quite an interesting store. They're usually located on High Street in a town centre mall of sorts. They have a storefront, but not much going on in the store! They sell just about everything you can think of, but instead of walking the aisles and browsing different microwave options, for example, you have two choices: 1) Go online to their website and reserve things that you want, go to the store, pay, and pick your items up. 2) Use their catalogue in the store with accompanying computer to reserve what you want, walk to the cashier, pay, and pick up your items. It was basically set up so that you'd have to buy online, but pick up from the store. Strange... Anyway, they have good prices, so I won't complain too much! Here's Audrey at one of the catalogue kiosks:

We also made our second trip to Costco since our arrival two weeks ago. This time we tried out their Aberdeen Beef Cottage Pie (basically mashed potato baked over beef stew) and seriously--YUM. It even came with a side of cooked beans and cole slaw. Dad (Smith), if you're reading this, get ready to make several trips to Costco when you get here in a few weeks. I think you'll love this! 

We've been scouring spice aisles at all of the markets, looking for some Lowry's Seasoning Salt. We even asked GG to pack us some when she came for a visit next month. Well, Mom, I think you might be able to save some space in your suitcase! We found this at Costco today, and while it's not Lowry's, it tastes similar and is also made in the US.

While we were out of Maidenhead, it seems the locals were busy getting ready for their annual "Zombie Walk" around town...nice.

I joked about getting a diesel vehicle in a previous post (kinda), but after reading up on how difficult the driving tests in the UK are (and experiencing the anarchy of driving in the car with Stegen today), I think we might try to go without a car for a while. There was so much white-knuckling and screeching today that by the time we were finally home, Stegen turned to me and said, "I love you, but I want to kill you right now." Touché!

I'll Take the Footlong Chicken Tikka Sub, Please.

Yes, it's true--Subway UK has Indian cuisine on their sub menu!! If you love Indian food as much as Stegen and I do, then you're going to love it here in England. It's not just Subway that has an array of Indian menu options, every grocery store that we've been to carries large quantities of Tikka Masala, naan, aromatic rice, and everything else you need to either make your own Indian meal or take home a pre-packaged one. Needless to say, we've had Indian food at least 5 times since our arrival. Here's Stegen in heaven with his Chicken Tikka sub (FYI, it wasn't truly a $5 footlong. With the conversion rate, it was more like a $7.50 footlong!):

After meeting up with Stegen during lunch, we got a chance to check out his new office (and take home a few bottles of juice from their handy-dandy fridge de juices). It was a beautiful, bright, and vibrant space. It seems the people at this office value their privacy much less, as they favor long, communal tables, rather than walled-off cubicles. Here are Stegen and Audrey at Adobe:

Oh, Audrey...

Well, aside from our awesome visit to Adobe, our host country was also abuzz with other news: Prince Williams, Kate Middleton, and Prince George shared their beautiful family portrait after Prince George's royal christening.

We plan on attempting our London trip again this weekend. Kirk gave us a detailed email with driving and parking instructions to ensure that we do not get lost again. One step closer to having a mom-date with Kate!

To Diesel or Not to Diesel

I wish I could start this post by sharing photos of our potential new home, but alas, the lease will not be signed until this weekend, so there is still a chance that things might not go as planned (but I hope not!). As soon as we've bound ourselves to a contract, I'll be back on here to share the news. What I've learned through this process? Renting is scary...at least the paperwork is! 

Well, it seems that the four of us can't get away with being well all at the same time! Dorian became suddenly feverish yesterday and I've had to keep him on regular doses of Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen to keep him feeling good. We thought we'd stay home and keep him comfortable, but the weather was surprisingly beautiful (and we needed to head to the bank anyway), so we took a walk to town centre. Myra mentioned to us during our recent meeting that England is a place where you can experience all four seasons...in one day! And she is completely right. Shortly after taking this picture with Audrey and our £1 broccoli and £1 banana loot from the farmer's market, the blue skies were gone and temperatures dropped at least 15 degrees!

It was warm enough to leave out giant parkas at home!

 For dinner, we decided to take the advice of our friend Paul (the one who used to be the Queen's guard!) and try out the British sausages that he promised would blow our minds. Paul, if you're reading this, you were...RIGHT! Maybe it was because of all the free-ranging that goes on with British animals, or maybe it's just because I bought the sausages from my favorite place in England (Waitrose)--whatever it was, we're going to have to add this meal to our weekly menu. Thanks, Paul!

So now that we might have our housing situation figured out, Stegen and I are looking into either going without a car for the next few years, or buying one to keep in case of emergencies (or Costco runs). Back in the US, diesel vehicles are few and far between. Here in England, you'll notice that most of the cars on the road are, in fact, diesel. Since I didn't know much about diesel vs petrol prior to our move, I was a little unsure about Enterprise giving us a diesel VW Golf to drive around. Then I saw the range. One small tank of diesel fuel would take us more than 550 miles?! And their engines will literally never die? Helllloooooo, diesel! Why haven't the Americans caught on to this awesome money-saving scheme yet?

Then Stegen and I sat down to watch a show and BAM--our diesel dreams were shattered. Apparently the discharge (particulates of soot and such) are damaging to the environment as well as our lungs. So the questions is: Do we choose the economical route and buy a diesel vehicle to use for the next few years? Or do we think about the future inhabitants of England (well, and the world) and try to make a "greener" choice (which also costs more "green" from our pockets)? Eh, diesel it is.
 
 

I'll Break Your Conker

I was hoping to have some awesome news after our second day of home viewings today, but since a lease has not been signed yet, I'll have to confirm news in a future post. I will say, though, that today was a much nicer day to see the beautiful homes in Henley-on-Thames and that we are 99% sure that this will be our new village/town for the next 3-5 years! Yippee!!

When we met Myra (our realtor) for the first time, she told us about a little game that British children like to play called "conkers." While walking around to see one of the properties last week, Myra saw a conker tree (more formally known as a Horse Chestnut tree) and helped Audrey collect quite a large collection.

Conkers are the seeds which come from the Horse Chestnut trees found around England and Ireland. Young (and old) British children usually pick out a conker, drill a hole in it, and thread a piece of string through it. Once their conkers are ready, they pick a friend and sling their conkers at each other until one of them breaks. This sounds pretty violent and dangerous to me, but if sweet, old Myra was encouraging Audrey to have a go at it, it couldn't be that bad, right? Well, as you can see from the photo above, we were lacking some drilling equipment as well as string. Instead, we've been using the giant bag of conkers as math manipulatives during our homeschooling sessions to help Audrey with addition and subtraction!

When we saw Myra today, she had a surprise for Audrey: drilled and threaded conkers! Here are Audrey and Stegen trying their hand at playing conkers. I can't report that anyone actually won...since I don't think there was any actual conker contact. We'll have to try again tomorrow!

If you have some time and have any interest in reading about Henley-on-Thames, I would suggest visiting their town website (click here!). If you follow rowing at all, you'll be happy to know that we'll be living in the center of all the action during the Royal Regatta every summer...it takes place right in Henley! My fingers (and toes) are crossed that we'll have good news to share soon. In the meantime, Audrey would like me to let everyone know that in England, ladybugs have a different name: ladybirds. Fancy!

Small Victories

Today was just one of those days...the kids were kooky, we were out of milk, and things were just...off. We'd planned on going to visit a primary school in Windsor, but simultaneously, Stegen and I felt down in the dumps. We never thought things would be easy when we moved across the world to a different country, but I don't think we were prepared for how real the challenge of finding the right house and school would be. 

We had so many things to sort out before we could even attempt to reassess things with our realtor and UK liaison--Do we choose a village based on a possible school for Audrey? Or do we choose the village and house we love and hope that the school situation works out for the best? So many decisions, so little time, and no inkling as to what the right answer might be. Right when we were ready to give up all hope, we got an email from our realtor:

Hi Jenise

Please believe me when I say that we will find something suitable and we will not abandon you. I have spoken to Davis Tate and they are showing us the two houses you had arranged to see plus another one. I will now contact all the agents I spoke to earlier and will arrange to see quite a few more houses in Henley. I would also like you to see Marlow which also has a similar feel to Henley and where there are some houses you might like.

In the meantime, please have a relaxing day with the children.  They, too, need reassuring that this will be a great adventure for you all. I will be in touch tomorrow to give you an update on what we will be seeing on Wednesday.

Kisses to the kids.

Best wishes,

Myra

It's funny how a few kind words of reassurance can change a person's mood completely. I have faith that we'll find our home come Wednesday and if not, well...I guess we'll cross that bridge then. For now, I fully plan on taking the day off from researching and worrying--I think we'll hunt down a new park instead.

Before we called it a day, Stegen and I decided to take a post-dinner drive with the kids. On bum days like today, we need to focus on celebrating the small victories to help us stay sane. So we braved the roundabouts and drove to Waitrose (an awesome grocery store here) WITHOUT using Google Maps!! There it is, people...we may survive after all.

Lost in Uxbridge

We didn't make it out to London after all...Not because we didn't want to, and definitely not because we didn't give it a good try. We didn't make it out because, well, we got lost. The morning was beautiful--sunny skies (they happen once in a while!), sandwiches packed, and snacks galore. We were armed and ready for a day in London.

Stegen and I decided to take our friend Kirk's advice and drive out to the nearest tube (London Underground) station and then take the tube into the city from there. We Google Mapped our way to Uxbridge station, taking a few wrong exits along the way (what's new?). When we finally got there, we couldn't figure out where to park our car. We continued to navigate around the Uxbridge area, hoping that we would find a friendly "Park Here" sign, but 10 double roundabouts (scary!) and 30 minutes later, we had lost hope and the ticket offices were officially closed for a Sunday. Ay, caramba! Perhaps we need to stick with taking the rail first and then transferring over to the tube. Driving is just a little too confusing right now...and I blame the crazy signs!

I'm sorry...what?

 A sidenote about things you see whilst driving in England: You can drive on your foreign license for one year without having to take a driving test to get your UK one. Meanwhile, if you were to get pulled over, the police officers (who drive around in their highlighter yellow cars) are not allowed to ask to see your ID. Apparently the British have a big aversion to having their identification checked--privacy is very important here. Even on the motorways, there needs to be very clear signage that speed cameras are in action because the drivers need sufficient notice that their picture may be taken. If you look at the picture below, you'll see that after several large signs stating "Speed Cameras Ahead", the cameras themselves are big, bright, and very noticeable. Very interesting!

It took us another few wrong exits around confusing roundabouts to get back into Maidenhead. We found a new park near our flat and let the kids enjoy some lunch and run around. Almost every park that we've been to has a playground that's completely fenced in, with heavy gates so that little kids can't easily make an escape. As a parent with a crazy child, I am extremely grateful. 

Several of them also have pretty awesome zipline-like equipment! (These videos might only work on a computer)

 

 

 Anyway, aside from the failed London trip, getting lost, and torrential downpour halfway through our park excursion, I'd say today was a good day.

Village Life

Never in my life did I ever think I'd be looking for a home in a "village"...I mean, who says that anyway? Today, Stegen's co-worker offered to spend the day with us, touring around some of the beautiful towns and villages in the area. Not only did Kirk give us the best tour since we've been here, he left his wife and two small kids behind to do it. Kirk, you are awesome and please thank your wife for letting us borrow your expertise! Here are Kirk and Audrey in the town centre of beautiful Henley-on-Thames:

Kirk picked us up from our flat and drove us around to show us the quaint (and very English) towns and villages outside of Maidenhead. Before our tour today, we were almost positive that we wanted to live in Windsor--easy access to London, the castle, shopping malls. After seeing what the rest of the area had to offer, I'm sold on village life. 

Our first stop was to a small hamlet village. A hamlet usually refers to a subdivision of a larger parish. This particular hamlet was so small, you could stand at one corner of it and see it in it's entirety! The buildings have maintained their original features, including small doors that people, today, would need to crouch under to get through. Here is Stegen standing next to one of the taller doors in the Hamlet (the really small ones were behind little gates). If he were standing directly in front of the door, you'd see that his head is a bit above the frame!

We then drove through the beautiful town of Cookham and some parts of Marlow. Because these two towns are small, there are very few rental properties (known as "lettings" here) available. Just West of Cookham is the beautiful town of Henley-on-Thames. The town centre was everything you'd imagine when you think of England, and the path along the River Thames was absolutely stunning. Here is Kirk at Starbucks in Henley-on-Thames town centre:

We walked around the entire town and stopped off at an amazing park by the river. If today's trip has taught me anything, it's that 1) Kirk has very impressive (and scary) driving skills through narrow roads, 2) This area is made of narrow roads, and 3) We NEED to live in Henley-on-Thames!! I'm planning on calling some of the schools on Monday to find out if there are any spaces available for Audrey. We were scheduled to go see more houses in Windsor on Tuesday, but I think we might need to go back to the drawing board with our UK liaison. Show us the village life, Karen!

Walking the bridge over the River Thames

 It's been a long and eye-opening day! Tomorrow we head off to London to visit the Science Museum with the kids. It's time to hit the sack, but not before some FaceTime with Uncle Charles, Aunt Joyce, and Han Solo! We love and miss you guys so much!!

 
 

Temporary Homeschooling

Stegen started work on Tuesday and even though it's only a 5 minute walk away, reality has really sunk in with him gone. Before he started, there were challenges to our move, but it still felt like we were just on one of our annual family vacations. Now that he's at work, the kids and I have had to readjust and figure out what to fill our days with. 

We found the park from the previous post and have been regular visitors, but we're always at the mercy of the rain. Since there have only been two clear days since our arrival, we've had to find other ways to entertain ourselves indoors without staring at the telly all day. Instead, they're staring at other devices...but I'm trying to keep it educational! We started a schedule of Starfall reading work and math worksheets for Audrey and Dorian plays with his Bob Books games on the iPad. "Homeschooling" is a lot harder than I thought!

We've also been keeping busy with some FaceTime visits with Uncle Sean. There was quite a commotion when we got him on the phone...I think the kids miss the family back home.

Today we had an appointment to visit one of the schools that we'd like for Audrey to attend. Holyport Church of England Primary School has really good ratings and after our visit with a tour guided by two Year 4 (3rd grade) students, we could definitely see why. The school was extremely organized (love it) and the students were all well-behaved and engaged. 

The Head Teacher was very sweet and when I told Audrey that they have a sewing club (if you've chatted with her recently, you'd know that she's been on a sewing kick for some reason), she was SOLD! The problem is that they only have one spot left in their Year 1 class and can't take an application from us until we have a permanent address. I hope no one else applies between now and Tuesday!

In other news, I finally figured out how to use the towel radiators that you find in homes around the UK. Now that we've switched them on, we never want to live without one! I'm sure our energy bill will be through the roof, but who cares?! We have toasty, warm towels everytime we shower! In a country where the temperature rarely rises enough for anything to fully air-dry, these are the best invention...ever.

ooohhh...aaaaahhhhhh

Well, TGIF (seriously)! We're hoping that the weather is pleasant this weekend so that we can hop on the train and head into London city center. I'm personally looking forward to seeing the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace!

Still Homeless

We spent the longest day in history (totally being dramatic) searching for a nice home to move into today. Our realtor, Myra, was the sweetest lady and had the patience of a saint. She has 4 grandchildren of her own, so naturally, the kids were drawn to her and getting their grandma fix since they miss seeing their own. Here is Audrey with her adopted English Grand-mummy, Myra:

Myra and Audrey after lunch in Windsor

At a fancy McDonald's

Well, as you can probably tell from the title of the post, our home search with Myra was unsuccessful. We looked at a total of 7 properties--all well over our initial budget of $3000USD/month--and were shocked at just how old everything was. I completely understand that most of these are Victorian homes and are just that--old. But seriously. Stained, green carpeting is definitely something that a landlord should be upgrading...right?! And random cutouts in walls to accommodate more storage? That's just not right.

In the US we're used to more "open plan" living, meaning you walk into a house and most likely see a living room, dining room, and walk through a doorway to the kitchen and family room. In most English homes, every single room is separated by walls and doors. For example, we walked into a house today and right away we were in a tiny hallway. There were three doors that led off of the hallway and they were all closed (mainly because you can't use the entire space behind the door if it stays open). One door opened to a tiny sitting room (reception room). Another opened up to a toilet (literally, that's all that would fit in it). The last door opened up to a small kitchen with a table jammed against the wall and just enough room to crab walk around it.

We did get to see a house that had more space and a better floor plan. Stegen fell in love with the exterior, but the interior...well, that's a different story. This is the house with the green (stained) carpet down the hallways and up the stairs. Each room had a different colored carpet (watermelon pink, oatmeal brown, lighter stained green). The letting agent told us that most likely the landlord wouldn't be willing to change out the carpet for us. ((Sad trombone)) We'll wait to hear back from her, but we won't hold our breath. For the amount that they're asking for it, I can't justify "dealing" with the awful flooring. Here we are in front of the house...it's really quite lovely (from the outside!):

I'm completely happy living in a smaller space, but my heart hurts for all of the furniture that we decided to ship over and won't be able to accommodate. Well, we're scheduled to meet up with Myra for more property searches on Tuesday of next week. The saga shall continue and hopefully have a happy ending (shipped furniture included)!

Meanwhile, we finally found a park that has more than just luscious, green grass. The kids had fun finally getting to play outside for a bit. It's interesting to note how big the swing seats are. There's definitely more real estate for your bottom to work with!

Then Dorian went down the slide...this might be why you don't find too many playground around England:

 And when the wind hit him a few seconds later--well, let's just say that play time ended early. At least we had a good 5 minutes of fun!

We're hoping for better luck on Tuesday, so please cross your fingers and kiss each other for good luck--the kids did!