British word of the day...

OK, so I am still alive. Just no internet. None. Could be another couple of weeks, so I managed to get online at the community center today, and thought I would let you know that we are still alive...

And yes, Jon, a people carrier is a minivan. I had grand plans of posting a picture of our new British spec, right hand drive, people carrier, but alas... no internet. So, soon there will be pictures of our new house, new people carrier, new yard with play structure, new bunk beds for the boys, new play room... ah life is good. If only we had internet, we'd be set!

Seriously, we're doing really well here and have our small shipment all unpacked. No idea where the other 9/10 of our stuff is going to go... but we'll deal with that when it gets here. Hope you are all well!

British word of the day...

So an American cooler is a full sized fridge.  Many older British kitchens have little mini fridges under the countertops, and that's it!  However, we noticed that many of the newer houses had space for a full-sized fridge in their kitchen, or even had them built in so they blended right in with the cabinets.  I can't imagine only having a mini fridge in my kitchen... I couldn't even fit all my milk in that!  I will have a full American cooler in my base kitchen, so I'm very excited.  

Speaking of milk, we have the Korea milk problem here, the largest container you can buy is a half gallon... sort of.  Actually we buy a 2 liter jug of milk.  One of the things that I find strangest about England is everything is in metric except for miles.  They still list their distances in miles and speed in miles per hour, even though weight is in kilograms and they sell 2 liters of milk.  Go figure.

That leads us to today's word.  People carrier.  As in, a people carrier has to follow speed limits in miles per hour, not kilometers per hour!

Local sights

Last week we took a bus tour to a nearby town, just to get to know the area a little better.  It is actually the town we almost rented the wonderful house in, and I'm hesitant to show you these pictures because you will see what a wonderful town it really is and think we're even more crazy!  However, it is only a half hour drive away from our new house, so we will be going there often, I'm sure!

Here we are outside the pub we had lunch in.  We have discovered the only thing cheap in England is beer... it is usually the same price as a soda!  

The Abbey.  Amazing.  They took us on this detailed tour of the inside, but with two little boys at nap time, we took a quick run through and then headed outside.  

Just a little more scenic than the Red Bull air races, wouldn't you say?

The new abbey is much smaller than the old one, and it's ruins are still visible.  They have made an amazing park in the ruin area.  They are right there, no fences or anything.  This picture was taken from the playground in the park.  It is a really neat area.  

One thing that has really struck me about being here after Korea, is that almost all of Korea was destroyed, and then rebuilt after the Korean conflict.  Here, even though there has been war as well, there are still tons of old churches and buildings around.  It's just a refreshing change.  As our tour guide put it, it wouldn't be an English town without a medieval church!

Here are the boys making friends with a little girl on the playground.  Oh, they're going to have an English accent before we know it!

Are we irresponsible parents for letting our three-year old push our one-year old on the swing?  I'd like to think of us as resourceful.  Hey, they're both happy aren't they... well maybe e is a little scared!


Have we convinced you to come visit yet?!

Our first London trip!

Well, we did it.  We took our first day trip to London.  How cool is that.  A day trip to London!  You might think we went to some amazing cultural sight.  Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, or the London Eye perhaps.  However, that is what a normal family would do upon arriving in a foreign county.  No, we didn't go to the Tower Bridge or London Tower, but instead our first trip was too... the Red Bull air races!  Yes, this was my husband's idea (I know you're all surprised), and he had this trip planned long before even arriving here.  Go on laugh.

So we got in our car.  Yes, the Jetta made it all the way from Korea.  We think somewhere along the way a forklift was dropped on it.  There is a rather large dent in the trunk... I mean, the boot, that will need repair, along with many scratches... but alas, that's another subject matter.  We drove the hour to the closest tube stop and headed towards downtown on the tube.  N was really, really excited to be on a choo choo! 

Then we arrived at the races.  The Red Bull air races are an obstacle course of sorts for these aerobatic airplanes to fly through.  Apparently there is a season, including several races all over the world.  Sort of a NASCAR for pilots, but with a much higher budget!  (And as far as I can tell, more reserved fans, or maybe that's just the British.) 

Here the course was set up on the Thames River.  Yes, the Thames River.  The pilots have to fly through the blue cones horizontally, and the red ones vertically.  I have to admit, it was really fun to watch!  I found myself cheering for the crowd favorite British pilots, just because everyone else was.  I'm not secure enough in my loud Americanism yet to cheer for the American pilots... don't yell at me!

This is one of the crowd favorite British pilots flying E's favorite plane.  I know it's hard to read, but that is the Breitling plane.  Yes, it's BRET's mother ship.

Here is the Red Bull plane flying through the blue cones that were right in front of us.  Pretty cool.  

The boys really enjoyed it as well.  After a week of house hunting, I think they were happy to be out of the car and watching a good show!  They're too cute with their raisins. 

Here we are watching.  You can see the yellow towers of the Millennium Dome in the back ground.  At least we saw one semi-famous London sight!

Ah, like father, like son!  Maybe another pilot in the making.

By the end of the day little e was beginning to lose interest in the planes flying, but those folding chairs... they are quite fascinating!  Did we lose anything down there buddy?

After the races were over I tried to get a picture of the three boys with the course in the background.  The boys were beyond squirmy, so this was the best I could do.  But you can see the river and the cones that the planes flew through.  Yes, through... not over.  It was pretty cool!

From there we hopped back onto the tube and headed back to our car.  On our way home we stopped at the quaintest McDonald's I've ever seen.  It was the cheapest dinner we could find (still equivalent to $23... ouch!) and had a play place.  Perfect for little boys who had been in bleacher seats all day long.  It was a great outing, and the first of many.  Maybe next time we will go to something slight more... historic!

British word of the day...

Yes, I have more funny phrases for you.  This one is my new favorite.  I heard it on a television commercial for a new appliance store.  They were advertising new "American coolers."  As in, I feel so lucky because I will have an American cooler in my new kitchen!  I'm off to study for my driver's test.  Look out UK, I'll be driving soon!

We have a winner!

So I believe in the last week I have looked at 11 houses.  That's 11 kitchens, 11 gardens, 11 hobs, countless tiny bedrooms and a lot of stairs.  We have seen some not so good houses.  Like the one that had a view of a dump yard across the street.  Or the one where I could stand in the kitchen and touch all four walls from one spot... wow.  

Or there was this one that was enormous, but hadn't been updated since 1973 and had a purple tub and toilet, and a green tub and toilet... but no shower.  Hmmm.

We have also seen some amazing houses.  Like this one with the most amazing stove I have ever seen.  This house had huge amounts of character, but was right after a blind curve on a really busy street, so cars were driving by it really fast... not safe for the boys.

Did you see the eight burner hob?  Now I could crank out a dinner on that thing!

We also saw a really neat brand spanking new four bedroom 3 1/2 bath house in a new development.  

Then we saw the house that beat all the houses.  Here she is...

This house has five bedrooms.  Three of them have their own attached bathrooms, making 4 1/2 baths.  It has hands down the best kitchen I have ever had the opportunity to call my own.  Built in fridge, freezer, microwave, double oven, and six burner stove.  The entire third floor would be the master suite complete with closets (rare) and built-ins.  It has a cute little back yard that doesn't require much maintenance.  It is situated in the exact neighborhood that we have been looking at, playgrounds galore and is within a walk or bike ride of town center.  It is even within our budget.  We loved the house.  We loved the neighborhood.  The only negative is that it is a 25-min drive from base, which is farther than we really need to be, but we were willing to make that sacrifice for the experience.  

But even though the house was seemingly so perfect, we were still having reservations.  But then we would talk ourselves back into it.  British neighbors we would say, what a neat experience.  And our guests would have plenty of room and their own bathrooms.  And the kitchen.  Oh the kitchen.  I was in love.  So yesterday we decided we would rent it, and would file the paperwork first thing in the morning.  We were done, decision made.

Then we slept on it.  And woke up this morning, and both of us felt like it wasn't the right house for us.  And oh yeah, the day before we found out we could get a base house near the base next door.  Yeah, I was thrilled to hear that after being told I couldn't have a base house, and then spending weeks of my life looking for off-base houses in the area.  

So after a week of house-hunting and seeing the house of my dreams, we decided to take the base house!  Ah the irony.  We're laughing at ourselves quite heartily.  We will be living in a 3-bedroom base house just outside the gate of the base next door.  It is a 15 min drive for E to work, and a 15 min walk (or 5 min drive) to N's amazing preschool.  (More about that in another post... it has a farm!)  Because it isn't actually on base, we can still walk to the local pub, and I can walk N to his British pre-school.  Our back yard leaves a little (OK a lot) to be desired, we will need to give it some love.  But through the fence topped with razor wire (it's a tall fence and the razor wire poses no threat to the boys... it's just the base boundary fence), you can see a horse pasture.  Yes, our back door neighbors are horses.  Literally.  The house is built to American specs, so the bedrooms are really big and there is an open kitchen / family room layout.  We're planning on using the dining room as a playroom.  We will still have a guest room, so still plan your visits.  

We just feel that this is the house God had for us, and that we were being tempted with the larger house.  The base house felt like home as soon as we saw it, and I think it will be a really good fit for us.  The big house was a great house, but I don't think it would give us the best life.  Life is going to be much simpler for us in the base house, and I think we'll all be a little less stressed for it.  So sorry, when you visit you won't get your own bathroom attached to your bedroom, but we'll show you our new favorite pub, and you can walk with us to N's school!

So now you're all going to complain that there are no pictures of the house we will be living in... bear with me.  We should move in next week, and I'll get those too you!  God is good, and we just needed to stop and listen to hear his plan for us here.  I think we found a home.

Conversations with N and e

So much to tell you. House hunting goes on. I'm learning more British words to share with you all... But for now, I thought I needed to tell you some of the funny things we've over heard this week.

E and N were in a public restroom for a potty break.  N went and then it was E's turn.  When he finished, N gave his daddy some instructions, "shake it daddy!"  Yup, we're all about pee pee here.  

On Saturday night we were driving off base to a little party.  This is what we overheard in the backseat from N (to the tune of ABC's).  "Go pee pee, shake it off, underwear up, pants on, then I zip and snap."  We started cracking up so we missed the end, but there was something about flushing and washing hands too we think!  He always sings EVERYTHING to the ABCs, but this was an original, I'll tell you!

Then, lest you think we're all about potty talk, here is a wholesome conversation.  We had been driving around for a long time looking at different neighborhoods, and we were almost back to base when the boys got a little giddy.  This is the conversation we heard from the back seat:

N:  Dear God, thank you for the food, dear God, Amen.

e:  (while laughing hysterically) 'gain, 'gain! (again)

N:  Dear God, thank you for the food, dear God, Amen.

e:  (while laughing hysterically) 'gain, 'gain!  

It went on like this for quite some time, they were both cracking up, and during the praying, were holding hands across the back seat.  We didn't know if we should be proud of them for praying, or scolding them for yelling in the car!