Pregnancy Update

I'm trying to be intentional about having the focus of this blog be about our English adventures, but I figured it was time that I gave a pregnancy update.

So, here I am today, at the start of my 24th week. I feel really good. I'm getting plenty of rest, and I'm trying to eat well. The baby seems to be very busy, kicking all the time. The kids can even feel it kicking now, which they just love!

I went for my sonogram last week (they call it a "scan" here), and it was just incredible! The baby was very cooperative (which I hope is a sign of things to come!). The woman doing the "scan" talked me through all of it, showing me the brain, face (it looked like the baby was sucking its fingers), arms and legs, spine, heart, kidneys, bladder, etc. She zoomed in on the heart so that I could see all four chambers, and she could tell that the blood was flowing in the right direction. She could also see that the whole spine was covered in skin, so that we know the baby doesn't have spina-bifida. Ethan and Maddie got to see the baby as well. Ethan was amazed, and Maddie just giggled the whole time. It was really cute!

And no, we did not find out the sex of the baby. We didn't with Tim or Maddie either... we love the surprise!

Anyway, after my sonogram, I met with a midwife for a few minutes. I have yet to meet a doctor, which is starting to alarm me, but I was guaranteed to have my next appointment with him. Anyway, the midwife asked if I had considered having a VBAC delivery for this baby. (For those of you who may not have heard this term before, it stands for Vaginal Birth After Caesarean- Maddie was breech, and was delivered via c-section). To be honest, I hadn't really considered it much until then. I just assumed I'd have another c-section. But now, I'm starting to wonder if I should be more open to it. Currently, I'm in the "gathering information" stage of the process. So far, I've learned that the biggest risk of VBAC is having your uterus rupture during delivery. The odds of this are 1 in 200, which really aren't great odds. On the other hand, there are more smaller risks associated with having a c-section, much like there are for any surgery.

I was hoping I could get some feedback from some of my blog readers. Do you know of anyone who has had a VBAC? What was their experience? What factors helped them decide for or against it? Any chance you could connect me with them?

In case you're unfamiliar with the comments part of this blog, it really is quite easy. All you need to do is click below where it says "# comments" (I think it's blue) and leave your message to me in the box to the right. Just be sure to type in the security letters and then post it. I would really appreciate hearing from people about this. Thanks!!

Fountains Abbey

Last Monday, when my parents were here, we visited a place called Fountains Abbey. The Abbey is Britain's largest monastic ruin, and was founded in 1132 by 13 Benedictine monks.

I actually visited Fountains Abbey when I came to Harrogate during high school. What's incredible is that now, the Abbey is less than a 15 minute drive from my house. When we were there last week, I bought a yearly membership for our family so we can go there whenever we want.

Here are some of the pictures I took when I was there with my mom and dad, and a few more from when I went back with Ethan and the kids this past weekend. I wish I could blog more about what all of these pictures are of. I need to go back one day on my own and do a tour to learn more.

Maddie's Ballet Recital

Maddie has been in a weekly ballet class on base since April, and she has just loved it. She's loved everything about it: putting on her leotard and tights, carrying her special bag with her ballet shoes, and of course, saying "good bye" to me when it's time for her to go into class. She would come home showing us how she does the "pony dance" and how she can point-flex her toes. We have been thrilled watching all of this, especially due to her gross-motor delay. Not only was she able to do things she hadn't done before (like going up on her toes), but she was really motivated to do them, which can sometimes be difficult with physical therapy.
Her ballet classes ended last week, and culminated with a recital last Sunday. I can't tell you how excited I was when I found out that Maddie's ballet recital just happened to coincide with my parents' visit. They were able to see Tim in a T-ball game on Saturday, and Maddie in her recital on Sunday... things that they probably wouldn't have been able to do were we still in Maryland. The recital was just wonderful, and Maddie did great! She amazed us not only with her new abilities, but with her complete focus during the recital. She knew just what to do for the choreography, and paid close attention to her instructor the whole time. (Now, if she could just follow a 2-step direction at home!!) My favorite part of the recital had to be during the skipping exercise. Maddie simply shouted, "I'm skipping!!" with such joy and pride. I couldn't help but cry. We also witnessed her first jump... a real jump with both feet off the ground! It seems like such a simple thing, but it has been a long-time coming. Thank you God!

I was able to record most of the recital on my digital camera. We uploaded all of the clips to YouTube. Feel free to watch a clip or two (but please don't feel like you have to watch all of them).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iwPqgfeLgQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp6UauM-wKc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaIB_SG3ARM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJIr73W3Ueg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uRbZwunwKs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiU6_ERx-XU

Yellow Fields

As I was driving with my parents last week, we kept seeing these fields that were completely yellow. My mom said she could even see these fields when her plane was landing. We had a few guesses as to what it was, but didn't really know (knowing how many dandelions I have in my own yard, that was the first thing that came to my mind). Well, we Googled it when we got home and found out that they were fields of rapeseed flowers. According to Wikipedia, rapeseed is grown for the production of animal feed, vegetable oil (including canola oil), and biodiesel.I couldn't help but look out as I was driving, and be reminded of the yellow brick road from the Wizard of Oz (I guess the fact that I'm reading "Wicked" right now may have something to do with that.)

South Shields

As I mentioned in my previous blog, my grandmother (my mother's mom) was born in a coastal town about an hour and 45 minutes away from here called South Shields. My grandmother was born there in 1905, and moved to America with her family when she was two. My mother had always wanted to visit South Shields, so she brought the actual address where my grandmother was born, as well as a few other names and addresses from my grandmother's hand-written address book.

I typed in my grandmother's birth address (yes, she was born in her family's house) into my GPS. The GPS couldn't find Regent Street, but it did find a Regent Court. We thought we'd give it a try. The GPS led us beautifully from my driveway, all the way to Regent Court, South Shields. From the look of the buildings on the street, it looked like we were in newer development. There was no 55 Regent Court, but we found number 54, and took a picture of my mom in front of it. On the way out, we noticed that where #55 would have been, there was now a horse stable. So, the on-going story will forever be that my grandmother was born in a stable!

We then put another address into the GPS from Granny's address book that my mom believed were friends or relatives of hers (the Holts). When we reached the address, we found a woman gardening out front. My mom struck up a conversation with her asking if she knew the Holts, and the woman said that she did know them, but the last that she had heard, they were living in a nursing home. We were still quite satisfied that we found a person, who knew some people, who knew my mom's mom!

We spent some more time in South Shields in the town center. We found the South Shields museum, and learned more about the city. We then walked along a pedestrian walkway with shops and even a flea-market. You can imagine my delight when I found this shop:That's right... Pound World... the British equivalent of the Dollar Store!!! I went in with Maddie and let her pick out any one thing she wanted. It's nice to know that it exists over here.

We really had a lovely day. We didn't quite know what to expect, but we suspect that Granny Ethel would have been proud of us for taking the time to explore around her home town.

They're Here!

My parents are here! Yipee!!

They arrived early this morning. Their flight landed at 6:17am (1:17am their time) in Manchester. Unfortunately, we had some traffic on the way home from the airport (rush hour and then a few tractors), but now they are in Tim's bed sleeping peacefully!

It's wonderful to have them here. They will get to see Tim play in a t-ball game, and Maddie has a ballet recital this weekend, too! We also hope to visit a town on the eastern coast called South Shields while they're here. That's where my mom's mother was born (my mom has the actual address of the house she was born in!). I was unable to find any relatives still in the area, but it should still be an interesting day trip.

I'll be sure to blog about our time together soon.

Happy Mother's Day!

Hello, and Happy Mother's Day to all of you "mums" out there! Actually, the British celebrated "Mothering Day" about a month or so ago. We decided to wait for the American calendar, and I'm so glad we did.

I had the most amazing Mother's Day! First of all, the weather around here has been gorgeous for the past week. We've been spending as much time as we can outside, and have even been wearing short-sleeves!!! Yesterday's weather was perhaps the nicest day of all that we've had in England so far (a high of 22 degrees Celsius!).

My day started out with the kids climbing into bed to cuddle (which happens every morning). But the real treat was that they actually slept! The four of us "slept in" until 7:45! Just glorious. I was then able to relax and have a leisurely shower as I awaited a nice pancake breakfast. I got to read my wonderful Mother's Day cards, and received a box of truffles from my hubby (he knows me so well). Tim's card for me was so cute! It had a picture of the two of us playing Connect Four. The best part was that he told me, "...and I let you win!" In his picture, you could see that I indeed had 4 checkers in a row. What a kid!

After a nice morning at church, we came home for lunch (leftover bbq chicken pizza, yum!), and even got a nice nap in.

Then in the afternoon, we decided to go to a local village called Knaresborough. It's less than a 15 minute drive away, and I had heard that it was fun to walk along the river there. Well, it was just beautiful. When we arrived, we were first greeted by Knaresborough Castle (or what was left of it).
As we continued walking, we looked out over an amazing view of the village alongside the River Nidd. The view was breathtaking!
We decided to head down to the river and rent a boat. Ethan was kind enough to row us around for about 45 minutes or so, while I steered (we only crashed a few times!).
We topped off our time there with an ice-cream, and then headed into Harrogate for a nice meal. It really was an incredible Mother's Day.

Jacket Potatoes

On Sunday, our church had a fellowship lunch they entitled, "Spuds and Puds!" Spuds stands for jacket potatoes (which we Americans know as baked potatoes), and puds is short for pudding, which is used synonymously with dessert around here (as in, "Would you like some pudding?" "Sure, I'd love some cake.").

Anyway, back to the spuds. The British love their jacket potatoes. It's on just about every menu we've seen around here. They also like to pile them high with toppings... toppings such as baked beans, coronation chicken, prawns (like shrimp), tuna & sweetcorn, chili, or bolognese sauce.












I didn't really feel that adventurous on Sunday with my spud. I went for the standard sour cream, cheddar cheese, and bacon. I know... I'm not following the rule of "When in Rome..."

Well, how about you? Do any of these topping sound good to you?

Maddie's Parade and Tim's First Game

We had two exciting events happen this week.

On Wednesday, Maddie's preschool had a parade! Maddie made a flag of streamers, and a hat decorated with feathers. Then, she and her classmates walked around a part of the base, following a fire truck, and shaking their streamers and musical instruments. It was pretty cute. The second picture shows Maddie walking with her teacher, Miss Hannah.

Yesterday was opening day for baseball for Timothy! The base sponsors different sports throughout the year, including baseball. We really enjoyed having Tim in t-ball back in Joppatowne, so we were so glad to hear that they played baseball here on base. (The British don't play baseball really... only a game called "round-about", a precursor to baseball, and cricket, of course.)

Ethan volunteered to help out with the season, and found out just a week ago that he was the coach of Tim's team. We found this out the day before the team's first practice. Yikes! So far, he's doing an incredible job.

Here are a few shots of Tim's first game.

Thornton Hall Farm Country Park

Tim had the day off from school yesterday, so I thought we could find something fun to do. A friend of mine recommended a place called Thornton Hall Farm Country Park that was about a 40 minute drive away. She had gone there with her sons on a class trip, and said that they had a great time. What really sold me on it, is that she said there was a lot to do indoors. The way the weather has been lately (sunny, rainy, sunny, rainy,...), that was a necessity.

Anyway, we did have a lot of fun. The main barn had a huge slide that the kids both loved. There were so many animals, and they were all so cute! We saw baby goats (the picture makes it look a lot bigger than it really was),

bunnies, goats, llamas,and of course, baby lambs.
Some other highlights included seeing a new baby calf standing with his mama.
(Pardon the big pile of poo!)
And, I'm not sure why, but the farm had wallabies. It was so exciting spotting the joey in his mama's pouch!
However, the highlight of our day was when Tim got to feed a baby goat and a few baby lambs! It was a great day at the farm!