Greetings from the UK

I’m sitting down quietly (apposed to falling into a heap at night) with some urge to write for the first time in ages. It has been over a year maybe even more since I last wrote on this blog. But I’ll spare you all the crazy details of our crazy lives over the past and start with today, here, right now as I sit on our loner furniture in the UK.

I still wake up and wonder how we got here? I still get momentarily confused to where I am and where I live. I was so settled in Washington I could have just stayed there forever and never ever have moved…. Well the old saying ‘If you want to make God laugh then tell him your plans’ came into effect with a great (and potentially fun) job offer in the UK.

Ok, Ok so I have been here before and all that stuff… but I have never been here WITH Kids. So my old idea of walking leisurely down the streets of London all day long, only stopping when my feet needed a break and my body needed another coffee… GONE, put on pause.

This is my 4th country move in 10 years – you could say I got it… but sadly I don’t. Every country is different and every age changes things too. I can do one thing a day to settle us. This is because it takes me that long to figure it out and to get it done. The main reason for this is I have been so Americanized. America makes total sense to me. It’s an easy place to live.

So we get here and things are for some reason much harder compared to the US (and more expensive). I am on my 10th pass code for this and my 10th ‘special word’ for that. It’s truly like learning how to live all over again. Our furniture comes in 5 days. I think that will settle us a bit more.

So what’s good about being here … Our beautiful house on a farm where the kids can go out and be outside all day long. Yesterday they went out at 10am and came in at 5pm, kicking and screaming. They even eat their meals out there. They are so dirty and so tired. It’s just what I feel they should be doing at their age.

Secondly is the school they are in. It’s everything a parent wants for their kids. They even have swimming and forest school for them. They both love it – I love it. In a few years when we move it is the school I will be crying about leaving.

Another amazing thing here is I have old friends again. You can always make a new friend but never an old one. It’s so nice to think of my tribe close/er and all just a phone call away.

The pubs! Oh the pubs! Mainly the Cotswold pubs (we are living in the Cotswold’s if I failed to mention that before) Just the smell, I want to bottle it up and take it everywhere with me.

It’s also nice to be only 11 hours from home. Sounds long but I have been doing 33 hours from the US so 11 is a breeze.

That’s all I got for now, I hope to blog more often
If your reading this leave me a comment – I’d love to hear from ya’all (woops there’s my American coming out)

I'm going to blog soon!!!!!

Don't give up on me! Lots to say!!!!!!

Hawaii - say no more!!!!

A wonderful Gift

I had to show these.... a friend of mine is a wonderful photographer and gave me this photo shoot as a gift. She did it to give me a day to myself and about myself at the end of the deployment.

It was such a fun day with a very special lady. She lives 3 houses down from me and is also South African with a husband in the military. Its a small world, my South African network of friends is slowly growing here.

I also love her work and love having these. I am going to love them even more when I am 90! So it was the gift that will keep on giving.
We plan to do family shots soon, and I’m really looking forward to doing those. I'll post them as soon as we have them done.

A letter to my Son

Devin… Oh my dear darling Devin….

I have been taking stock of things over the past 21 months and I have noticed that I have taken about half the pictures of you than I have of your sister. There are less than half of you and me together and most of the stories on the blog are of your sister.

I would like to take this moment and tell you my side of the story. It does not have anything to do with the way I feel about you and certainly has no indication to who is my favorite.

Here is the deal, when Kai was born I had nothing else to do but to look at her. Your Dad had nothing to do but look at her. Nini had nothing to do but look at her. You’re your Dad was getting ready to deploy six weeks after your sister was born and he was trying to take as much with him as possible.
Then we moved to South Africa where your Nampa went camera crazy, and every moment he could take a picture he did – of her, of me and her you name it.

When we moved back to the US and you were born, Kai was 22 months. Let me explain what a 22 month old does…. Everything, none stop, always on the go (actually as I write this you are almost 22 months and now you never stop). I had a lot more to do and a lot less time to do it in. So when you were sleeping I could not just sit and take as many pictures of you as I did of Kai. Your sister was always around and usually became part of the photo opportunity.

Then your Daddy deployed when you were 9 months old and I had no one to take pictures of us. Not only that but when we were on outings I was holding you and your sisters hand all the time and no extra hand to pop out and take a picture.

So if you read this when you are older and see that things are not exactly equal – think that you are my left lung and Kai is my right. I need you both to breathe everyday.

So from now on, I will make sure that things are more equal in pictures and news.
I would like to have a family tradition as you get older…. I would like to have slide show with all our pictures from the past on Christmas Eve. We do it in SA and I love the tradition

To end off… I think you are the most delicious thing I have ever met, you are the most special gentle soul and I thank God daily for the gift of you. I would not change a single thing or one day with you. You make my heart light and full all at once and I love you more than you will ever know …

She did it.....

Yip folks, we have a little girl who ate all her vegetables and is now a proud owner of a tutu.
This was the very first moment she saw it and put it on... look at that face.




She has not taken it off for days now. So on Monday she was allowed to wear it to ballet. As we walked in her ballet friend Chloe had one on too… she squealed and shouted ‘you ate your vegetables too!!!!’




She starts real ballet class this summer!!!!

Oh and my next challange is now to keep eating her vegetables. She now says no thank you I ate all my vegetables.... did not quite see that coming!

Swan Lake

I took Kai to Swan Lake, we had such a great time.
She cried at the end and threw herself on the floor kicking and screaming. When everyone had stepped over her I asked her why she was so upset. She said she did not want it to end.

I took her back stage and she got to see the dancers. One gave her a rose and she almost burst! She now wants to be a swan!

I love girly time!

(This was the best photo I could get - in all the rest she was spelling her name so they all have her mouth in a K - A - I - L - E or Y)

Tractors

Devin is OBSESSED with tractors. They are building a whole neighborhood next door to us at the moment, and I honestly thought I would hate it – but it has been full time entertainment for Devin.

He wakes up and stands at the window.
He likes to go outside when the tractors are at the fence line to see up close. Then he comes in and again sits at the window.

Nini got him the whole caterpillar tractor set. He now has 4 tractors, the hard hat and the tools. He loves them. When we drive in the car and he sees tractors, he gets so excited!!!! Boys – they are really not girls!

Preschool…… lovely preschool

I’ll start by saying – I LOVE KAILEYS PRESCHOOL!!!!!

At Kai’s preschool they have themed weeks (sometimes for two weeks) and this week they are doing planets. When I heard the theme for ages 3-5 I just thought ‘oh well, cute they will at least play with the idea maybe just open their minds to the concept’ so imagine my surprise today when during Kailey’s bath she starts speaking about the planets. It went something like this:

Kai: Mummy Pluto too small to be a planet!
Me: What?
Kai: It’s just a teeny weeny rock and not a planet – it’s too small
Me: What?
Kai: There are 8 planets not 9!
Me: What?
Kai: ….. and Mars is our neighbor, its red and it talks (not sure about that, I assume the teacher makes the planets speak to teach them)
Me: What about the sun?
Kai: Nooo mummy, the sun is not a planet, it’s just for morning time!
Me: and the moon?
Kai: The moon for sleep time!
Kai: then the rocks that fly are there too (I assume asteroids)

I was so proud you have no idea.

I asked the teacher the other day who decides on the themes and she said she did. She is about 22 years old and has completely blown me away! She said she does and then she tries to see how far she can go with the theme……

They have done the body – that was Kai’s favorite. They learned all about muscles and bones, the heart and the brain. They then worked on what food does for each of these parts. They also did food and where it comes from, they planted veggies and had to look after them to see them grow … and the list goes on. I am so happy she is there!!!!

And here is my mother’s day card…. She did not write this (she is only 3) but her teacher Miss Ashley held her hand and helped her. Break my heart!!!!!

The Tutu Saga.....

Kailey wants a tutu so badly – no I am talking a classical tutu not a romantic tutu.
Classical ones stand out - and romantic curve done (although Grandma sent a romantic tutu that she has to wear everywhere - gym, shops, friends the only place she has not worn it is school)


So added to that she does not eat ANY vegetables. NOT ONE. So I told her that little girls only get tutu’s when they eat all their vegetables. I read a Angelina Ballerina book to her and it’s about how she started ballet. I changed it to how she got her tutu by eating all her vegetables.

I then made this chart and she started eating her vegetables – no fighting, no nagging, nothing. If she does not want to eat them that night she does not get a ‘ticket’ and that upsets her (not me). She is so excited she tells me before dinner what vegetables we need to cook.


The great thing is she has decided that carrots are her favorite. Funnily enough, she only eats them raw and if I don’t have any on her plate she tells me that she needs her carrots!
We saw a little girl at the shops a few days ago – she was wearing a tutu and Kai started clapping for her and saying, ‘good job you did it, you ate all your vegetables’.
I told her ballet teacher what we are doing and she is also playing along, every week Kailey gives her an update on her tutu. I am hoping she finishes this week so she can get it on the weekend and then wear it to ballet on Monday.
I will let you know when she has her tutu!!!!!
I’m not sure who is having more fun with this - me or her?

Best Job In The World!!!

I have the best job in the world. We are in such a great place at the moment. Our routine runs like clockwork and everything is just going well. Of course it would be the cherry on top to have Deric here with us (and he will be soon) but I refuse to mope around and stop my life while he is away.
Kai is L-O-V-I-N-G school. When she wakes up and I tell her its school today she runs around saying ‘lets go, I’ll go wake Debin we need to get his milk’ then she gets herself dressed and sits at the table and waits for breakfast.
She is obsessed with anything ballet lately and now insists I refer to her as Ballet Princess Kailey. So much so that if I say ‘Kai dinner’ she comes in the room and directs me how to call her. Then she runs out the room again and I say ‘Ballet Princess Kailey dinner time’ and she runs in does a twirl, bows and gets up on her chair. It’s so funny!
She says today that she is going to teach Daddy some ballet, then she stops and thinks about it and says ‘oh no Mommy, prince’s can’t dance – but daddy is such a good boy he will just have to watch me’
And so my day goes by with these thoughts coming through her … I love it!

Devin is a dream baby again. We did go through a bit of a rough patch but from December he just became an angel and stayed that way.
He naps everyday AT 9:30 to 11:20 and then from 2pm to 3:20. He is so scheduled! He babbles and tries to talk all day long. He LOVES his sister and bugs her all day long.
They are building a road outside our house and there are diggers and tractors outside the house every day. He will stand at the windows for hours watching them. I got him a caterpillar tractor with blocks in it and he pushes that around most of the day.
As for me I am still teaching on Saturdays. It’s going really well and I have re-lit the dance fire in myself again. I am starting a new piece now so that will be exciting.
Here are some pictures ….




Devin is crazy about teddy bears, he just kisses them and hugs them all the time.


This is Devin's attempt to dress up...


The next 3 pictures is Kai giving some lovin to her brother... he likes it for a bit then tries to get me to help out.






I like these of Kailey. I wish I could however get her with neat hair...






We baked cookies and here I had two kids sitting at once! Does not happen often.


Little man shopping

Over 30"s

I took this from an email that was sent to me... thought it was worth a read and a laugh......



If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!
When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH ways… yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got
it! But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!
And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car.. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy
signal, that's it!

There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOD !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We
didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!

And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that! And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores! And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were luckily, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place! See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980's or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd
(Send this to someone you'd like to make smile)

North West Trek

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