House Quirks

As with any new house, it doesn't take long before you discover the quirks. We certainly love our house here; but we admit, there are a few things about the house that we find ourselves saying, "We have to deal with _________ for THREE YEARS?!"

First of all, with the exception of the kitchen sink, all of the sinks in our home have double faucets. Ethan and I are just bewildered at this. Why would anyone in their right mind choose to have double faucets over single ones? When we wash our hands, it's usually a race to finish before the hot water gets scalding hot. This also is an issue when I wash my face. I often have to finish rinsing by filling my hands halfway with freezing, and topping it off with scalding to get a nice warm. Also, there are no aerators in any of the faucets. So when you turn on the water, you get a lot of water! This actually comes in handy when we're filling the Brita filter or the kids' bath... it fills fast!

Issue number two would have to be the dishwasher. I was so excited to arrive at our home after being in the dishwasher-less apartment last month. That is, until I ran my first load of dishes. Let's just say that the dishes in that first load came out a little less dirty than they went in. Now, some of you may not know this about me, but I hate rinsing dishes before they go in the dishwasher. I don't see the point! Why go through the trouble and waste all that water when you have a dishwasher that does it all for you?! I'm sure that I have judged more than one of my friends or family members for being "rinsers" (must be said as Seinfeld would say "Newman!") Well, as with many things in life, I find that I am doing things that I have judged others about. I am officially now a "rinser." I have no choice. If there is a crumb or a spot if oil or whatever left on a plate when it goes into the dishwasher, it will still be there when it comes out of the dishwasher. So, I am now the pre-cleaning cycle for our dishwasher.

As you may have noticed in the picture above, the dishwasher is also very small. That may very well be a trend among British appliances, and our refrigerator is no exception. We were able to borrow this fridge from base, and are lucky to have gotten a bigger European model, opposed to a smaller British one. Now, I am the type of person who only likes to food shop once a week. I loved shopping at BJs and buying in bulk. I would come home with 3-4 gallons of milk each week, and it was no big deal. Well, first of all, they don't even sell the milk in gallon containers here... only 1/2 gallons. I can fit four half-gallons of milk in this fridge, but that of course, means I need to buy milk more than once a week. There is ample room in the freezer, which is nice, and there is also a standing freezer out in the garage that I haven't even opened yet. But, I think it would be nice if we could get a second fridge here at some point. We'll see. Until then, I will learn to become a fridge juggler... new food can only go in, if something else comes out.

Here is a picture of our stove, or "cooker" as it's called here. It looks so pretty and handy, doesn't it? Well, we are still learning how to cook with it. Issue number one is the degrees for the oven are in Celsius. Fortunately, I have an oven thermometer that has both Fahrenheit and Celsius, so that's okay. Issue number two is that it is electric and slow to warm up. I find myself setting the stove to the hottest setting to warm it up faster, only to burn the grilled cheese sandwich for the 20th time! Issue number three is the size of the ovens. You can see four doors in the picture. The top left is supposed to be a broiler. It doesn't work, but that's okay... I just use it for storage. The bottom left is an oven, which isn't quite deep enough to fit a sheet pan. The top right is a convection oven, which is smaller than the other oven, but overall, works well. And, the bottom right is a drawer for more storage. I think we're getting used to it, but I do miss my gas stove and oven back home.


Here are a few other quirks:

• There is no dryer vent in the house, so the dryer has to be out in the garage.
• There are no towel racks, toilet paper holders, medicine cabinets, or bathroom storage of any kind (even the sinks are all pedestal-style with no cabinets). I think we'll have to ask our landlord if we can at least put up towel racks and t.p. holders.
  
• The rugs. I mentioned this before. They're a weird, rattan-style of carpet, that look like a fine basket-weave. I think we're getting used to them, but I would have no idea how to clean them if say, a kid threw-up on them (which we all know is bound to happen at some point).
  

Please do not interpret this blog as a complaining-fest on my behalf. I can truly say that I am adapting to all of the quirks that this house has to offer... many of them I hardly think about any more. And we are grateful for this house. It is pretty new (built in 2000), and has a lot of space and storage. So, "We have to live in this house for THREE YEARS?!" Yup... we'll be just fine.

I'm Dreaming of a White... Easter

Happy Easter to all of our friends and family! We hope that you had a reflective holiday, filled with joy and time with loved ones.

We've enjoyed our first English Easter celebration. It began with a performance by Tim's school last week. The students performed a number of Easter songs and took turns sharing information about the history of Easter in the UK. The school also had a contest: Tim's class had to decorate an Easter egg with a Spring theme, and Class 2 had to create an Easter garden, which are miniature gardens made like dioramas. All of the entries were very creative, and we were proud of Tim for winning one of the awards for his class (of course, with only 7 students in the class, his chances weren't that bad).

Both Tim and Maddie came home from school last week singing "Hot Cross Buns". Hot cross buns are an Easter tradition in the UK, so we gave them a try. The ones we got from the supermarket were basically a raisin bread, and I was the only one who liked them. However, a friend of our made ones from scratch, and we all loved those.

On base, they had an Easter egg hunt for the children. Due to the weather, it was in the gym. To make it fair (and more challenging) for everyone, they broke the children into age groups, and gave each child a card with one or two stickers. The children then had to find an egg that matched the sticker(s) on their card to redeem their prize bag. It was a good idea, and most everybody (except Maddie) had a great time. Maddie was terrified of the Easter bunny of course, and just wanted to go home. Ah, good family fun!

We woke up Easter morning to a beautiful view of freshly-fallen snow! What a surprise! This is the most snow that we've seen since we've been here (probably around 2 inches). The kids were so excited, and Ethan ran outside with the camera to take a few shots of our neighborhood.
















We had a nice Easter morning. The kids enjoyed their Easter egg hunt, and were relieved that the Easter bunny was aware of our new location. We tried out a different church (we've been to 3 or 4 churches since we've been here), and enjoyed some good worship as well.
















In the afternoon, we had three friends come over for an Easter dinner. We missed being with our families, but it was so nice to be together with friends. We each brought some traditional Easter food from our families (including Granny Libath's corn pudding, and the bunny cake we used to make when I was a kid), so it helped it feel like home. We did start one new tradition, though: lamb! As you may imagine, this is the area to be if you'd like to find fresh lamb. We were able to buy some from a local farmer, and it was just delicious!

Some New Feathered Friends

As I was unpacking and organizing in the kitchen yesterday afternoon, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I looked out of our front kitchen window, and there were three ducks waddling across our front yard. I called to Maddie and the two of us threw on some shoes and ran outside with the end of a loaf of bread.

Tim came and joined us, and the three of us stood there in our front yard, feeding the ducks. It was a lot of fun, and also a little weird seeing as how we were tossing the bread crumbs onto pavement instead of into a lake or something.

When we ran out of bread, we said "good-bye" to the ducks, and headed back inside. Well, the ducks didn't budge. They got quite comfortable laying in our grass and waiting for more. They were still there about an hour later when we had to leave in the car.

I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but we have a stream that runs about 50 yards beyond our back yard. I suspect that these ducks were making their way to the river. I also suspect that this won't be the last we've seen of them!

A Day in the Life of Maddie

I blogged about Tim and his school last week, so now it's Maddie's turn!

Maddie turned 4 two weeks ago, and really seems to be maturing. Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones speaking, but she just seems like such a big girl to me. Don't get me wrong, we still have our times of tantrums and foot-stomping, but overall, she seems to be becoming more independent, which is nice. I think the arrival of our belongings (and specifically, her dolls and toys) has helped with this. She loves to play "family" or "school" with her stuffed animals and dolls.

During the last week of February, we were able to get Maddie started in a pre-school on the base. She goes MWF mornings, which is just one morning more per week than what she was doing in the States. The pre-school is no Noah's Ark (her school back in MD), but as with Tim's school, it is very child-centered. Her favorite part about arriving at school is that they have a child-sized door as well as a door for the grown-ups. She's very proud to walk through her own door. The class is small... only 7 children, and there's one teacher, Miss Hannah, and an assistant.

Maddie just loves it. She's always excited to go, and always has a lot to tell me when I pick her up. Her favorite thing to do is go to the gross-motor room, which I guess is an indoor playground, with a curly slide and everything. She eats lunch there, and always brushes her teeth afterwards. It's so nice for her to have this time, and I am delighted to have some free time as well to go to the gym, go food shopping, etc.

We celebrated Maddie's birthday a couple of weekends ago at a place called the Wacky Warehouse. We've been in England for less than 2 months, but we've already been to the Wacky Warehouse 3 times! It's basically a big ball pit with climbing things, slides, etc. Maddie loves going, and hates leaving (this is when we see her lovely tantrums).

We invited our sponsor's two daughters, whom Maddie just loves to be with. It was a fun birthday for her!



Maddie's bedroom was the first one in the house to be unpacked. I was even able to find the wall stickers I bought at Lowe's before I left, to put up on her wall (we won't be painting at all while we're here, so I thought wall appliqués would be a nice alternative). Here are a few pictures of Maddie's room.

A Day of Antiuqing

A few Saturdays ago, our sponsor Mary invited me to join her and a group of people from base for an antiquing day. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to get out of the house and meet some people. I also thought that I might look for a desk, as we left our secretary desk in storage back in the states.

The group met early that Saturday morning, as we had to travel almost 2 hours to the antique warehouse near the western coast of England. It was a nice drive overall, and I was glad to spend some time getting to know the other 3 women in the car.

The warehouse was incredible! It was wall-to-wall antiques. There were rows and rows of wardrobes, as well as dining sets, bedroom sets, desks, etc. I don't know how else to describe the furniture except that it was GRAND. Everything seemed to big and there were many pieces that were so ornate. There were also some really fun finds like this basket-woven motorcycle (this picture is for you, dadd), and a complete bar!

There were plenty of desks to choose from. I told myself that I wanted something that was functional and not too expensive. There were plenty of pieces that I couldn't open the drawers to, and so I didn't even consider them.

I found this desk, and just fell in love with it. All of the drawers opened, and it had a lot of slots for paperwork, bills, etc. There are no price tags on anything in the entire warehouse, so you have to get a quote from one of the two brothers who are running the business. I asked the first brother how much it was, and he said it was 185 pounds. I told him I'd think about it, as it was a little pricey. Well, a little while later I told the other brother that I'd like the desk. He told me it would be 285 pounds, not knowing what the first brother had quoted me. So, I was able to get the 185 price, and went away feeling like I got a good deal.

Now, we're just waiting for them to deliver it.


I hope to go back sometime before I leave to buy a hall tree. A hall tree is a stand that has hooks to hold coats and hats, and a shelf with a well to hold umbrellas, etc. There were a lot of them there, and they were really neat. We don't need one for our house here, but hopefully I can get one to bring back to use in the States.

Bishop Thornton Church of England Primary School

I've been meaning to blog for a while now about Timothy's experience at school. Sorry for the delay. Anyway, here you can see Tim all dressed up in his school uniform. All of the public school children wear uniforms, and from what I've seen, most are similar to this.... trousers (pants), polo shirt, and school jumper (sweatshirt). I think the girls have the option of wearing a skirt, too.

Anyway, we are thrilled with the school that we chose. Bishop Thornton is a small village just up the hill, and it's only about a 5 minute drive from our house. Tim gets to school around 8:55am, and I pick him up at 3:15. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, this school is VERY small.... only 22 students total, broken into 2 classrooms. Tim is in Class One, which includes children from Reception (pre-school) through Year 2 (first grade). There are only 8 students in this class, and Tim is the only Year 1 student (Kindergardener). Class One has a main teacher and two teacher assistants... not a bad teacher-to-student ratio! From what I understand, the main subjects like literacy and numeracy are taught in the morning, and the afternoon usually includes project work, outside time, etc.

Tim just loves school. When I picked him up the first day, he said, "I had a great day, Mom!" He often tells me how much fun he had at school, which is wonderful to hear. He has made friends with the other boys in his class, although he really misses his friend, Justin, back in Joppatowne.

Overall, I feel like his school experience isn't as structured as it was in the states. This school seems to be very open and flexible, which of course wouldn't be possible with a larger group of students. I'm really pleased with the individualized education he is getting. He is working with the older students in math and even some reading, which is great. But mostly, I'm so glad that school is fun for him. There's no doubt that this school is child-centered. The classroom itself is kid-heaven! The room is broken into centers: reading center, computer center (including a smart board that the students are allowed to play with), building center (with blocks, puzzles, and unusual building toys), etc. When Maddie and I went to visit one afternoon, there was a kiddie pool filled with bubbly water and lot of toys to play with. The class also has a playground right outside that is an extension of the classroom, where there are more things to learn from/play with out there. It's just great.

After the first week, Tim received an award for "Settling into School Well." And he has... He's even starting to develop a British accent already. Actually, it's not so much an accent as it is his intonation when asking a question. My plan is working.... :)

5 Smiley Faces

I have to say, I'm slightly disappointed in some of my friends back home. I sent off a mass-email to all of you the other day, and signed off with 5 smiley faces. I thought I'd get all of these emails back from you nosy women (you know who you are) asking if I was pregnant. I didn't get one response... not one.

Anyway, if you didn't figure out my BIG clue, or if you haven't spoken with my mother recently, the big news is that we're expecting!

We found out that we were pregnant just one week before we flew to England. I went to see Dr. Lenowitz in mid-January, not to see if I was pregnant, but to see why I wasn't getting pregnant. He sent me to get blood work to make sure that I was ovulating, and he also "snuck in" a pregnany test without me knowing. Surprise!!!

The first month here was very difficult. I felt sick as a dog. Looking back, I'm pretty sure that it was due to the apartment we were staying in... being in a cramped space, and not getting much fresh air. Also, we were eating out all the time, which would normally be wonderful, but it was hard to find food that was really familiar. Even the soda is different here. They make it with sugar instead of corn syrup, which leaves an unfamiliar after-taste in your mouth. Ick! What I would do for a caffeine-free Pepsi right now!!!!

Since moving into our house, I've been feeling a lot better. The house is very spacious, and it's good to be preparing our own meals again.

So, I'm anywhere between 10-12 weeks along right now, and am due sometime towards the end of September/beginning of October. I already have a baby-belly, and have been wearing nothing but sweats for weeks now. (By the way, if there are any friends out there who have more up-to-date maternity clothes, and would be willing to ship them to me, I would gladly pay for your shipping, and return them when I'm done.)

We are all very excited, and are constantly reminded of how good God is. We were hoping that a third child would be part of His plan for us to be here, as I won't have to work during these three years. God is good.

I saw a doctor just yesterday for the first time. She used the time to inform me of some of the differences that there are to prenatal care here in England. The biggest difference so far seems to be that I will be cared for by a mid-wife for the duration of my pregnancy. I will have my first appointment with Isabel (my mid-wife) next week. I'll be sure to keep all of you not-as-nosy-as-I-thought friends informed.

A Frosty-Fog

The day that we moved into our house, there was a very dense fog everywhere. The fog apparently stayed over night, and by the next morning, everything was covered in frost. It looked completely magical... so difficult to capture on film.

Here, you can see the view of the field across the street from our house. I also took an up-close picture to show you that it indeed is frost, and not snow. Cool, huh?

Back in the 21st Century

Oh, it's good to be back.

Sorry for the complete lack of blogs for the past 2 and a half weeks. I'd like to say that things have been crazy, but actually, it's been the opposite.

We moved in on the 19th of February to one big, and very empty house. Later that day, we received a delivery of beds, sheets, army blankets, and pillows from the base, along with a kitchen table and chairs and a small sofa set. We were also able to borrow some kitchen items like plates, cups, utensils, microwave, etc. from the Family Support Center on base. The only thing we really lacked was towels... not one in the house. Thankfully, my friend Kelly came to the rescue, and lent us towels and some real blankets.

Tim started school that same day. He's doing great so far, and his teachers say he's "brilliant!" Maddie also started pre-school last week. I'll blog more about their schools another time.

Upon moving in, we quickly discovered that our new "mobile" gets no reception in our house. We literally had to drive down the street to make a call or check messages. We had to wait a week for our phone land-line. I can't tell you how happy I was to hear that first dial tone.

In this area, you have to wait to get your land-line before you can order cable or internet. We ordered it the next day, of course. We were told that someone would be here on Monday the 3rd to set up the cable. So on Monday, even though I spoke to three different people telling them that I had to pick up my daughter around noon, I received a call from the installers at 12:06 saying that I wasn't here when they came, and to call to reschedule (You see?...some things are the same as in the States!). I was literally crying on the phone to the cable-lady. She didn't know what to do with me.

Anyway, they rescheduled for Thursday the 6th, and we now have cable!!! The children were so happy to see some of their favorite shows, like Backyardigans and Max & Ruby. The funny thing is, all the characters have British accents!! :)

Ethan was away all week at a conference in a city called Cheltenham (about a 3 1/2 hour drive from here). His week went great, and he was able to see co-workers from the states, which was really nice for him.

The kids and I had a nice week together. We celebrated Maddie's 4th birthday on Tuesday with a cake and presents from family. (We will have a small party for her tomorrow with a few friends, too!)

Ethan came home early from his conference to be here yesterday (Friday) because our stuff from the states was being delivered! They were here with their 40 foot truck at 8:15 am, and they were gone before noon. What bliss it was seeing box after box being brought into the house. The kids were so excited to see their toys that they have been without for nearly two months! We barely made a dent unpacking yesterday.... I have a feeling this will take weeks, if not months!! Oh, but it was so nice going to sleep last night in our own bed, with our own sheets, and my own pillow!!!!

As far as we can tell, everything is accounted for. We only had a few casualties... a leg broke off of Tim's dresser, the bottom of our computer desk got damaged, and a leg broke off of one of our dining chairs. Not bad for such a long journey.

And, because everything happens at once, we also got hooked up to the internet yesterday. It's official.... we are back into the 21st century... and it feels great!