We've Returned!

Just a quick post about our return to America. The girls did well on the plane, though not much sleeping ocurred due to excitement. We received plenty of positive comments from passengers and the flight attendants and the girls were proud (righteously proud, of course) of themselves.

Morning started early today (3 am) and we enjoyed a good American breakfast thanks to Grandma and Grandpa. The girls have had fun going down memory lane--playing with Grandma's toys, watching missed PBS shows and visiting with cousins.

Here's what our list of things to do looked like in England:
-get rid of lots of food (one mover had to rip open one box when he realized he had packed some food items , everything was taken out until he found the culprits--a bottle of corn syrup, a bottle of vanilla and a tiny bottle of almond extract. I thought our whole shipment was done for!
-try to rent vans and end up quoting lines from Seinfeld to help us through the experience (It took two vans to get our family and luggage to the London airport; it took one American-size van to pick everything up from the Chicago airport.)
-sell van (4 day process)
-take loose change in to bank (1 hour before we left for the airport Jon took a big ziploc bag full of our UK coins to the bank, parked illegally and went in to find long queues. A bank manager came over to Jon to speed up the line, saw his big bag of change and said, "What do you want to do with that?" Jon's reply: "I want to deposit this." "You can't do that here! You'll have to seperate each denomination into these little bags." Apparently the automated coin counting machines have not yet made it to the UK. Jon survived the ordeal laughing.)
-try not to get kicked out of hotel (Hannah reached a breaking point very late at night which was loud enough for her to be quickly removed from the hotel by Jon--he took her on a drive. Sadly, the move has been hard for her to understand.)
-Forward our mail to the US (it costs $15 a month versus our free year from the US)

Here's what our list of things to do looks like in Chicago:
-See friends!!!!
-Pack up house
-Enjoy driving our very missed van
-Go to Wildberrys (a great place for breakfast)
-Go to Portillos (a great place for lunch)
-Go to Giordano's (a great place for dinner)
-Go to Target!
-Go outlet shopping
-Go see Wall-e
-And some boring stuff thrown in there about selling a house, closing on a house, coordinating shipping cars, finding out when all of our stuff arrives--but who cares, 'cuz we're home!!!

Goodbye London

The movers show up tomorrow (which means I lose my computer!), and even though I feel that life is hectic and chaotic right now, it's only going to get more so. The three things that are keeping me from totally breaking down are: hugs from Jon, saying to myself, "You chose to do all of this" (though to be fair, who really ever knows what 'all of this' ever entails?) and thoughts of my new house in California--which will be filled with boxes as our things trickle in from Chicago and England, but it will be my house for more than a year!

Here are the last little things we're doing before the movers come tomorrow:

*Filling out inventory forms of all of our things and the replacement costs. The forms were sent to us late. At this point I fill like saying, "Just sink the ship if I don't have to fill this out!"

*Figuring out who can take all of our food. Many of you know I was able to bring over many food storage items that helped out greatly in this expensive place. Our movers in America were 'happy' to pack 100 pounds of flour, 75 pounds of sugar, 50 pounds of rice, 40 pounds of oats, lots of peanut butter, chocolate chips, 50 boxes of mac n cheese, 6 big bottles of syrup and other really important foods. A few days ago we were informed of some Bioterrorism Act by the US Food and Drug Administration. Darn those terrorists! Because of them all of our food stays--well, "all" I should say.

*Laughing at how complicated little things are like: selling our van, closing down UK accounts (Jon finds it helpful to quote lines from this comedy bit after dealing with someone), finding hotels in the UK, Chicago and San Jose for our family, getting rental cars for the size of our family (we're renting 2 vans to get our 12 suitcases, 5 carry-ons, 4 car seats and one stroller to the airport) dealing with the people who are paid to help us find hotels, rental cars, airplane tickets (which were booked on the wrong day) and set up moving details.

Amidst all of this, here's what we did yesterday (which I'm sooo happy we did!):

America, here we come!

Snapshots (with words) of My Week

Awkward moment: A health visitor from the local health centre came to check up on Lizzie. After the nurse weighed her (she's a few pounds shy of Hannah's weight) I took her off the scale only to have her pee all over me and the carpet. Not wanting to interrupt the appointment, we carried on with me drenched in pee. Awkard!
Sad things: A teething Lizzie. A teacher telling me she's seeing the effects of moving on my child at school--negative effects. Kids who are going through a lot of emotions right now due to moving. The tooth fairy didn't come for 2 nights to pick up Emily's tooth!

Funny things: The tooth fairy came while 'everyone' was at church--she had to leave a little extra to make up for the missed nights. Her note said she's been very busy picking up so many teeth all over the UK--she must be short-staffed.
Yesterday a light came on in the van telling me to fill up my washer fluid.
Questions Jon and I recently asked: Did you notice if there's a microwave in the new house? Where was the dishwasher? Was there a dishwasher? I wonder what the garage looks like. I wonder if the washer and dryer come with the house (they don't.)
Waking up at 7:30 am, 15 minutes after the bus had already come to pick up the girls.

Worrying things: One of my kids said: "Every time I touch someone I just want to bite them!"

Sickening things: Looking up registered sex offenders to see their proximity to our new house.

Things that cause headaches: Crying kids. When does our air shipment arrive? When does the ship freight arrive? What do they mean we're over our weight limit? When does the moving van arrive? When do the cars arrive? When does the rental furniture arrive? Trying to reserve rooms for 6 people at three different hotels in three different cities during summer. Dealing with 3 houses. Packing. Reading house inspection reports. Deadlines. Trying not to complain, but wanting to everyday.

Happy things: My kids saying 'I love you' even after long days of putting up with an ornery mom. Having all of our things in one house. Thinking about seeing great friends!

What's Been Going On?

The past few weeks have been filled with great memories. We had a very fun and very much appreciated visit from my Mom and sister. Here are some highlights of their time with us.

My sister (the self-proclaimed Queen of Everything) attracts royalty wherever she goes!

We visited Hampton Court (home of King Henry VIII) and Windsor Castle. Ashley hoped to have a personal tour from the Queen, but she was away that day.

We played 'Who's that Statue of?'.

Mom learned how to make collect calls.

We took a tour of the Houses of Parliament.

We took 3 kinds of tours through London: by car (we survived my driving!), on foot (with me as an amateur tour guide), and by boat (I happily let the professional take over).

I had fun showing off some great sites to Mom and Ashley. Good memories were made!

But, the best memories were made while Jon, Lizzie and I were in California and Mom and Ashley took care of the girls.

The week could not have gone better and I've had fun talking to the girls about all the fun they had with Granma and Aunt Ashley! Not only did my Mom clean my house (thanks!), make meals, get the girls ready for school, get them ready for bed, do the laundry, help with homework, and dry lots of tears, there were also: sleepovers, homemade cookies, movie night, special treats brought from America, walks, visits to the Model Village, picnics, reading books and playing with impossibly small Polly Pockets! No wonder they're looking forward to visiting Granma in August!

And what did Jon, Lizzie and I do in California?

Well, we enjoyed the sunshine while looking at close to 100 houses. And although 99% of them did not make it to the final list, we only needed one. We close on our new house the middle of July!

A few hours after we flew back to England we went to Family Fun Day at the girls' school, where Ray got her face painted like a cat.

But wait! There's more! We still have to celebrate Hannah's birthday! Hannah's been talking about Granma coming for her birthday for at least 3 months! Hannah was ready for her cake and presents as soon as Granma walked through the door her first day here. After much patience, her big day finally arrived.

For her birthday, we visited a Safari drive-through park where the animals roam free.

She made it almost all the way through the park before getting sick. Totally, completely, utterly SICK. It was a long one hour drive home with a lot of clean up afterwards. She barely held her head up while we showed her the birthday cake and all the presents that had to wait until the next day (the day that Granma and Ashley flew home!)

Thank you, Mom and Ashley, for helping make a big task possible! Thanks for everyone's prayers, especially my sister's whose faith is as big as her heart.

Attempt #2

A little over a month ago I announced on the blog Jon's new position as head of communications in California. Some of you noticed that the post disappeared. The post was deleted when I found out that the new job was not official yet. I found out how important "official" means to someone in the field of communications. Do you think Jon will ever hire me as his assistant? Here is my version of the official announcement:

May 9, 2008 Some president of some company today announced that Jonathon has been named senior director, Public Affairs. Jon will assume his new role in the next few weeks as he transitions from his current position in the UK to his new role in Santa Clara, California. Really all that means is he will be working 20 hour days and commuting between 2 countries as he relocates.
In his new role, Jon will be responsible for too many things for one person to handle in a normal work week. He will take care of all things that happen outside the company and inside as well. He'll also manage a team of people. Jon has spent the past year doing a lot of stuff and being very busy.
Jon holds a degree in Public Relations from some university, and an MBA from some other university.

What a Day!

Here's what happened: To get the full effect of this story, read it as fast as you can with your heart beating very quickly!
I was a little late picking up Emily after her after-school club yesterday. I was late with another mom and her son was in the office waiting. My thought was, 'The school must have put her on the bus when I didn't show up!' Instead of asking the school to call the bus driver to let him know I wouldn't be there, I went into panic mode. I ran back to my car hoping I could make it to the bus stop at the same time as the bus. We live 15-20 minutes away from the school, traveling mostly on the motorway (freeway). As I hit the long queue to get on the motorway I remembered I had forgotten my cell phone when packing for the day. So there I sat, not moving, feeling very bad, realizing there's no way I'm going to be there in time to pick up Emily. Hannah starts in with her series of questions (Why are you not going? Where's Emily? Why are you not talking? Why are you going so fast?) and Rachel is too quiet. I try to stay calm and look like I know what I'm doing, but Hannah and Ray think I have lost their sister forever. Lizzie's starting to fuss because it's time to feed her. I'm out of bottles, though, because I used them all during the day-long field trip to the farm with Ray's class. As I'm driving, I fill up one bottle with water hoping to pacify her as long as I can.
The late bus drops the kids off at the entrance of a different neighborhood, a few blocks from us. At the beginning of the school year Em and I set up a back-up plan that if I wasn't at the bus stop she was to go home with some kids we know from church, and thankfully we had reviewed that plan a few weeks ago, so I just hoped that the kids were on the bus and that Emily spoke up to one of them. It took me 35 minutes to get to the bus stop. She wasn't there. I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know the address of the family I told Emily to use for our back-up plan, so I drove home to get it and see if there were any messages from anyone who knew what happened. There were 5 messages from Jon, so I called him, but he was only calling for passport info. I called the family and YES! Emily had come home with them and the 16-year old daughter was walking Emily home. I drove over to meet them and I was so relieved. I could tell Em was shaken up a bit, but I am so proud of her! When I wasn't at school to pick her up she figured she was supposed to get on the bus. When she didn't see me at the bus stop she asked the oldest girl in the family we know to walk her home. She was very brave and forgave me easily saying, "We all make mistakes, Mom." Thanks, Em!
I will now be accepting my Lame Mom of the Year Award!

Brussels the Movie

Our last European trip (for awhile) had all the makings of a great movie: cool scenery, likable characters, good plot. Our 'movie' would fit into several different genres:

• adventure (2 adults, 4 young kids traveling in a place where we don't speak the language);
• action (lots of walking and running after kids and carrying a double stroller up and down many, many stairs);
• drama (we have 4 girls!);
• comedy (Manneken Pis);
• horror (trying to find a path out of the city center to get our young kids away from a huge, loud, rated R gay pride parade that circled us on every side)

There are a several movie titles we could use for our 'movie':

• "Rachelle, Rachelle" (what the passport control man called Rachel--very cute)
• "Is that Our Hotel?" (asked about every building we passed on our way to our hotel)
• "Cinderella's Ugly Step-Sister" (what we told the girls a drag queen was)
• "Trapped!!" (what we felt like as we tried to find a place to get away from the parade)
• "Girls and Chocolate" (It's all we--the girls--wanted!)
• "Rain, Rain Go Away" (Saturday's weather, which unfortunately stopped during the long parade)
• "Where's Hannah??" (asked a few times)
• "Where's Emily??" (asked a few more times)
• "Where's Rachel??" (asked several times)
• "I Want to Go Home!" (I think everyone said this!)

But the best title is from Jon--said on the train ride home:

• "We Should Have Gone to Paris"

The Grand Palace (the market place) was nice to hang around: Belgian waffles, a wedding, more Belgian waffles, lace shops and innocent pigeons to chase.