CBS Was Marvelous!

The girls and I went to Bible study this morning and it was great!

Our day started out ominously. We were out of the door to walk Caleb to school at 8.42 a.m. Not good, since the kids go in to their rooms at 8.55 and it takes us at least 15 minutes to walk there. On a whim, I checked the bus schedule at the stop outside our house...8.44 a.m. Perfect!! The bus came up just as I got the bus fare sorted and we hopped on for our 1 minute ride down the street. We actually made it to school before the teachers blew the whistle to signal the kids to line up to go in. Whew! And we didn't even run!

Then the girls and I headed to the bus stop directly across the street from Caleb's school. It is the stop for the #17 bus, which is a good route. It runs roughly every 7-8 minutes (as opposed to the 20 or more on the other routes) and it goes not only to Reading Town Centre, but out the other side. Most routes just go from an outer point into town centre, then back out their original route. Imagine a clock face. The #31 that goes right in front of our house goes from the 10 o'clock position to the middle of the dial, then back out to the 10 o'clock position. The #17 goes from 10 o'clock, through the middle, then out to the 4 o'clock.

Anyway, this was good because we needed to go just to the other side of town centre to the church where the Community Bible Study class meets. The lady leading the class called me last night to let me know that it might be easier to ride the bus to the study than driving since traffic in and around the town centre is a mess at 9 in the morning.

I think we lingered too long at Caleb's school waving bye, because we got to CBS 10 minutes late. But they were still having coffee and chatting, so it was not a big deal. Next Friday I'll leave Caleb's school sooner. Oh - part of the problem was that I got another of those bus drivers who wouldn't let me on the bus because there already was a pushchair and a wheelchair. So we had to wait for the next bus. And as it turns out, the driver of that bus turned away 2 more moms with strollers later in the route after we got on because there was no room. So maybe I'm just not riding the busy buses enough to see them turn people with pushchairs away.

Anyway - we got there just fine. I think Julie wasn't feeling too well this morning. She was in a foul mood all the way to the church, then she cried in the creche (nursery) so much that they had to come get me later. She & Audrey were the only 2 kids there. There's another kid, but he/she wasn't there today.

There were only 12 of us, including 2 core group leaders, the coordinator, and the senior leader. For my CBS friends - she's called senior leader instead of teaching director because the class is just a satellite class right now and not its own class. Anyway, we sat around a table and discussed Matthew 2. The lesson was so short compared to the lessons at home! It was 1 page front and back of commentary on the last lesson and 1 page front and back of questions. This is in contrast to the 5-6 pages of commentary and 4-5 pages of questions in the lessons at home. I think some of the ladies went into shock when they heard how long our lessons are at home!

After we discussed the questions, we all went into the sanctuary of the church to hear the teaching (or lecture as we call it at home). I had Julie with me by this time. They came and got me after our discussion and I went and got her during the 2nd coffee break of the morning. She was doing fine with me, but I was concerned about her noise level because this sanctuary was all wood. Wood floors. Wood pews. Balcony around 3 sides of the room with more wood. Lots of baby noise amplification properties. So I took her back to the creche, which was just off the sanctuary, so I could still hear her crying. After 5 minutes, I went back and just sat there with her. I put her on the floor and encouraged her to play. She's got to get used to this place! The whole time, Audrey was happy and content to just play with everything. The young ladies keeping the kids (Maggie, Charlotte and Jetta - pronounced "Yetta") got a kick out of Audrey. Who doesn't?

Finished up CBS and jumped on a bus back to town (Reading). I actually had to let 2 buses go past without boarding them because they had steps and were not the "low rider" version of buses that I can just push a stroller on to. But since it was a busy bus stop I didn't have to wait more than 10 minutes.

We got off at the mall to eat lunch. We ate in a department store. This particular store has 2 cafes. After lunch, we wandered through the kids' section. I bought Julie a new stroller toy - a very colorful and somewhat noisy giraffe. And we bought Audrey some new boots. They are fabulous! Purple suede with a large purple and pink flower at the top of the front and another at the top of the back and with purple tassels. They are just fabulous!

Then we wandered around the mall and the shopping area beside it. As we were waiting for a bus to get back home, I got a call on my cell phone from the grocery delivery man. He was at the house to deliver my groceries! I had forgotten!!! You know when you get "that feeling?" The one where you know you're missing something or forgetting something but you can't quite nail it down? I had been having that feeling all afternoon. Oh well. He said he'd slip a phone number through my mail slot for me to call to arrange another dropoff.

We got home without incident and I found the number. I was able to arrange for us to pick up the groceries between 6:30 and 7 later that evening. I got Julie fed and changed into more comfy clothes because by now it was 2:45 and we were to go get Caleb at 3. As I was getting the girls' strollers ready to go, I glanced out the window. In the 30 minutes since we got home, the sky had opened up and it was pouring!

So I got the strollers out on our front porch area - out of the rain - got them hooked together, got the girls in and got them covered with the stroller rain covers. Then I got myself set and we headed out. I won't go into the whole wet trip to school, but I will say that the hood of my jacket sits off center and it annoys me. It has a little brim, so it's noticeable (at least to me) that it's not centered. We got to school 5 minutes late and I was wet. My shoes were wet, but that was no big deal since my socks were dry. My jeans were soaked where all the runoff from my jacket ran off, and my water resistant jacket had proved once again that "resistant" is not the same as "repellent." My shirt was wet in a couple of areas.

We collected Caleb and by the time we got about 1/2 a block away, the rain had stopped. We were able to walk without our hoods up for most of the way home, but then it started again. We got home and it took me 5 minutes to get strollers inside, raincovers off, girls out, wet shoes off everyone (Audrey included because the stroller rain cover dripped on her shoes), wet clothes off me & Caleb and wet jackets and shoes into our drying cupboard (the hot water heater closet). Julie was the only one who got home completely dry.

I made the kids a tea party for their snack. They had hot chocolate and a cookie and a toast/cracker thing. It took Audrey the better part of an hour to finish hers. Plus she made a huge mess with the hot chocolate since she insists on drinking it out of the spoon. But they love their tea parties.

Steve got home later than usual - around 6 - and we loaded everybody up a little bit after that to get our groceries. Audrey and Caleb were both personally offended that they were not going in to the grocery store with me. They didn't know that I was just going to pick up the order and not do the full-blown shopping myself. We got the groceries without incident and headed back towards home. We had already decided to get fish & chips for dinner, so it was just a matter of stopping and picking it up.

We stopped at Mr. Fish - who also sells kebabs. Kebabs here are what we would call pitas at home. Steve got a small kebab (lamb), and we ordered 2 fish fillets and 2 large chips. The small kebab turned out to be the size of half a dinner plate, our 2 fish fillets were each at least 12 inches long, and the large chips were enough to take up the whole center of the table when we unwrapped them from the paper they were in. I think a small order of chips would have sufficed. The kebab was fabulous! The fish was ok and the chips were so-so. We kept laughing about how greasy the fish & chips were. You have to laugh because if you stop to think that you're putting that much grease into your body, it makes you ill. Julie even got into the act by eating a couple of chips.

It's now Saturday morning. I had a horrible night full of dreams. Yucky dreams. The kind of dreams where when you wake up you want to slug the person in the dream - this time it was Steve. Poor Steve. I didn't slug him because real-Steve has no control over what dream-Steve does. But I wanted to slug him. I told real-Steve just a few minutes ago that i am not having any more fish and chips. I'll blame the dream on all that grease.

More later!

Marvelous Thursday

Nothing to report, really.

Humid and cool with a bit of a breeze. I would start out with my jumper (sweater) on because I was chilly, but would soon have to shed it because as I walked I got hot and sticky. I don't like humidity. But at least there's the breeze.

Caleb's school is having a harvest festival service next Tuesday morning. I think they have Thanksgiving envy, so they invented a fall holiday. Caleb's class is reciting a poem about Jamaica and how we get bananas and cocoa beans from there. How harvest-y. I guess. And Caleb gets to say "It has plenty of fertile lands which means there are many farms." I don't know why he's saying this, but we have to help him memorize it. We'll take the camera.

I've got a hair appointment set up for after the thing at Caleb's school. I decided that I'm going to keep my bosh hairdo, but make it shorter. I like having shiny straight hair. I've also set up a massage the week after that. I wish I had seen Sandi H. for a massage before we left home! I'm going to need to see her when we get back, that's for sure. I've found childcare for the girls for afternoons when I need a few moments to myself - like the massage. I'm going to go shopping next Wednesday all by myself. Since I saw the summer English styles, I need to see the fall styles now.

Hmmmmm. Steve has decided to watch "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." I don't know why. We've already seen it once and we decided to call it "Crouching Movie, Hidden Plotline." It makes even less sense this time than it did the first - maybe it's because they keep breaking in with commercials. Cool flying through the air and martial art-sy sorts of things, but we can't make heads nor tails of it.

So Steve played skittles the other night. Sort of like bowling. He went with a guy from work to the rec center place at AWE. They sat around in a pub-like place drinking pints and watching the game. There was one lane. This is what he has to say about it:
It's 9 pins instead of 10 set up in a diamond, rather than a triangle. You play 8 "legs" (frames) with 2 teams, 8 on a team. You need that many cos generally they don't have many automated pin resetters. The teams take turns going to the end to reset the pins and roll the balls back. The balls are grapefruit-sized and the pins are set so that there's enough space between each pin for the ball to fit through. You get 3 balls for each leg. If you knock down all 9 pins during your 3 turns, they set the pins back up and you finish your leg of 3 turns. So the best you can do in one leg is 27. Three turns knocking down all 9 pins each turn. Spares are rare. Sometimes players can go several games without anyone getting one. Strikes are as rare as an all-beef hamburger in an English pub. It's a quintessential pub sport. They had a board with team and personal best scores going back to the 1950s. It's truly more of a social event than a serious sporting event. At least at this level.

That's all from Steve. I'm supposed to tell you now that he won. The money pot was composed of an ante of 50 pence from everyone, but part of that went to pay for the game, then you had to pay 10p (pence) if you only hit between 4 and 5 and you had to pay 20 if you got 3 or less. Because only Steve and one other guy on their team bowled spares, they split the pot. Whoever bowls a spare gets the pot, but if nobody bowls a spare, it goes to whoever has the highest score. So Steve came home £1.37. Impressive, no?

This Saturday is the Craft Fayre at Caleb's school. They spell "fair" as "fayre" here. Weird. Pronounced the same, though. Like "tyre" for "tire." So I'm going to go to the fayre (but I won't ride no rides, dc) to see what sorts of handicrafts they have here in the UK. I've already done a bunch of Christmas shopping, so I don't anticipate buying much, if anything. But supposedly they have make-and-take crafts for the kids, so I might drag "the fam" along with me. Or at least the 2 big kids.

I'm going to sign off now and go knit. If I don't get going on this cardigan, it will be May before I get it finished.

Oh - one more thing. I'm going to go to the Community Bible Study class tomorrow. They're doing Matthew. I did that one the first year I was in CBS in Los Alamos, but apparently the CBS International classes do condensed lessons, so it will be different. The class has about 16-20 people, including leaders. This is definitely a far cry from my class at home, but I am *so* looking forward to it!

Night!

Is A Mis-Adventure on the Bus Still Marvelous?

Today at 11:38 I got a phone call - Audrey had a fever of 39 C. I had no clue what that was - Val, the teacher, said that they sent a little girl home yesterday when her fever "spiked at 40, but don't worry because Audrey is only at 39." Huh? So they asked if they could give her a dose of Cal-Pol (their version of Baby Tylenol or Baby Advil - I can't figure out which it is) to lower her fever and make her feel better.

Turns out it's over 102. So I hop on the bus to go get her.

I get there and she's asleep. She didn't want lunch, but wanted to lay down. She had been asleep for about 20 minutes by the time I got there. I felt awful for her because we were afoot today and she had to walk to the bus stop.

So we get about halfway to the bus stop and she says she can't walk. I had anticipated this about 10 minutes earlier, but alas, not while I was at home and could bring either 2 strollers or the front pack for Julie. I get Julie out of the stroller and let Audrey sit while I push one-handed. Thankfully we were going down a slight hill, so all I had to do was steer.

We get to the bus stop and wait for about 5 minutes for our bus. It pulls up and the driver tells me something no other driver has: I have to fold up the stroller because there's no room. O-kaaaay. What a hassle! I can't fold up the stroller since I have an infant, a sick preschooler, and all sorts of junk in the basket of the stroller but no big bag to put it in so that I can fold up the stroller. So I say I'll wait for the next bus, knowing that another bus from a different route will be by in 7 minutes. I've ridden this other bus before (#28) and know that it shares a stop with the bus that just pulled out (#33). So we get on the 28. It goes down the familiar roads but takes unfamiliar turns - no big deal. I still know where we are.

Uh-oh.

I know where we are. I got us on a bus going the wrong way. We're heading into Reading - what a pain. So I push the "stop" button and get off ASAP. We hike across the street just in time to catch the 17 back into Tilehurst. Get to the right stop (shared with the 33 and the 28 going in the OTHER direction), get home. By this time Audrey is fully awake and in a great mood.

Misadventure, but mild.

Caleb's Marvelous Day at School

This morning Steve and I were awakened by Caleb saying he didn't want to go to school. Not so unusual, but what *was* unusual was that he said that a boy at his table is causing problems. The kids sit at tables with 5-6 at a table and there is a common box that holds pencils, colored pencils, etc. The kids don't have their own school supplies (unlike home).

Anyway, this Kyle fellow apparently grabs the box of pencils and refuses to share with anyone at their table. Caleb has told the teacher, but she told them all that she's tired of hearing about it. So the only thing I could think of to do was to pray with Caleb for this boy. We did the same thing regarding a kid in his preschool and were pleased with the results. So I prayed, then Caleb, then Steve. My most pressing concern was that Caleb would recognize the course of action he needed to take. Then I got a brainwave. I'm convinced it was a divine brainwave. I asked Caleb if Kyle had any friends. He said "No because he's mean to everyone." Bingo. I mentioned that Caleb should ask Kyle to be his friend and to play with him today.

So our strategy was to befriend the bully. I was nervous about it. I told Caleb to find Kyle first thing this morning and ask him then. Hopefully this would elevate Caleb's status from "another kid to be mean to" to "friend to share with."

I am most pleased to report that it worked. So tomorrow morning, we'll pray the same things and we'll put the day in God's hands.

I am also glad to report that Caleb got a 10/10 on his spelling test Friday! Yippee! We started a new set of words today with short o: dog, top, hop...stop, shop. There are 10 in all. I told Caleb he could play his new Batman computer game after he practiced his words and I have yet to get off the computer to let him, so I'm signing off now to let him play. He earned it!

Latest "Get Fuzzy" Translation

Last frame: "Blimey, this is a cracking banger, innit? Right, wrap your laughing gear 'round this, man!"

Translation aid notes: You should remember "blimey" and "innit" from earlier. I'm not sure if we've discussed "cracking" so I'll tell you it means "the best." Now a clue for banger: they eat bangers & mash over here. I know - not much of a clue, but at least you know it's food. In Scotland they call it haggis, in Spain, Mexico, and NM it's called chorizo. Get the hint? And laughing gear is what it sounds like.

Leave a comment if you need more assistance. ;)

Marvelous Little Auddie

I had to throw away a pair of frilly little socks today because Audrey got her orange silly putty all mashed into the lace ruffle. She did this when she stuffed one sock into the other, then shoved her silly putty in after it. *Sigh* She doesn't call the stuff "silly putty" but "krabby patty" after a food on a cartoon she watches. I guess it sounds similar.

And on another note: the joint was fabulous! Audrey ate two helpings. She totally cleaned her plate TWICE. Meat, broccoli, and bread. Figures, since she didn't eat lunch.

We got another free thing today when we bought a Sunday paper - a Roald Dahl (of "James and the Giant Peach" and "Willy Wonka" fame - not to mention my personal favorite "Matilda") book on cd. It's called "George's Marvellous Medicine." We've listened to about 3 minutes of it - the time it took to get from the newsagent (convenience store) to the house. It's a "fully dramatized" version - which means that unlike the Harry Potter books on cd with just one person doing all the voices, this one has different people doing the different voices. We also have a BBC version of "Treasure Island" that's the same way. Very entertaining.

Changing subjects again.

They're airing the final episodes of last season of "Lost" here. Not as reruns - as first runs. So I'm getting to watch them again. I'm trying to figure out how to get around the iTunes store thinking I live in the UK because I want to download the podcasts of the new "Lost" episodes starting in October. Can you watch those on the pc or do you have to have an iPod? Hmmm.

So now I'm starting to think about the trip back home. I guess the halfway mark made its mark on my brain. I'm not going to get Julie her own seat because we won't fit nicely on the plane. On the plane here, it was configured 3 seats-aisle-5 seats-aisle-3 seats. The plane home is 2-4-2. So I think we're going to try to hold her again. Or at least use the front pack, but not during takeoff or landing, as the "trolly dollies" tell us. And I'm not sure how much carry on junk we'll take with us. I'm going to try to send as much stuff home early as I can - both with Steve's mom and aunt and with Dr. Bubba's crew. That will make things easier, too.

I'm also thinking about moving out of the house a few days early, too. We have to figure out how the procedure will go with the landlady. Plus if we're going to dispose and/or give away all this extra house stuff we've bought, we can't be using it. Steve suggested that we see if the church can find homes for the stuff. But I will miss our jersey sheets and duvets. And we have lovely pillows. So I know what I'm going to be purchasing when we get home! The kids can keep their comforters at home, but I'll buy duvet covers for them and we'll pretend.

Oh - just remembered something about the landlady. When Steve called to ask her for a receipt for last month's rent, she told him that although the rent is due on the 28th, she really needs it on the 24th because her mortgage is due on the 28th. I think because of the banking procedures over here, if we had a bank account and had a "standing order," things would be fine because they start things 4 days in advance. But we have to do an international wire transfer each month because in order to get a bank account over here, you have to go through the equivalent of an FBI background check and pass a blood test. And you have to know the correct order of the British monarchs over the last 5 centuries. Not worth it.

So she tells us on Friday the 22nd that she needs the rent on Sunday 24th. Good planning on her part, I think. Oh well. No skin off my nose.

Back to Auddie. I had to dump out her beloved pink bowling ball bag tonight. She was upstairs, so thankfully she wasn't witness to this. I needed to do this because her other beloved bag ripped. It was a white plastic bag from the food halls at Herrod's. She loved that stupid plastic bag. Saturday morning, she says to me, "Mommy, my bag has a hole in it!" So I told her to throw it away. She said no, but the next thing I know, she's dumping everything out of it and wadding it up to throw it away. So much for a beloved bag. Back to the pink bag - I have to get it ready for school tomorrow. The previous contents are:
a shaker made from an empty water bottle with tri-colored lentils
a full water bottle that she refuses to let me wash
a set of number and color Barbie flash cards
a little purple purse
12 toy cars (hers, not Caleb's)
a comb
a brush
rolled up papers
tiny "Maisy" books
various sizes of rocks
pink leotard
8 wadded up pipe cleaners
a set of tiny colored pencils that go with a color-it-yourself jigsaw puzzle
the aforementioned puzzle (16 or so small pieces)
4 pink Legos
naked Wonder Woman Barbie
pink Barbie shoes
small Belle doll (from "Beauty & the Beast")
small Snow White doll
Garfield Burger King kid's meal toy
several b-day cards
small book from Scotland about Greyfriar's Bobby (a dog who sat by his dead owner's grave every day for 14 years)
Sleeping Beauty magnet set
and various other little junky things

So now I have to scoop up all this lovely junk and put it in her box. Each kid has their own box in the lounge to put their stuff in. Even Julie. Hers isn't really used, but the other 2 wanted her to have one.

That's all for now. I want to knit now.

They Use 2 "L"s in Marvelous over here

Anyway - Explorer just crashed and I lost the beginning of my post that I have been working on. It wasn't much, but it was enough to be annoying.

Basically all I was saying was that there's a new Community Bible Study class forming in Reading. I'm excited! I've been involved in CBS in Los Alamos for 5+ years and I think it is totally awesome! It's a non-denominational, independent Christian ministry. Our day class at home has over 50 women and over 70 kids. We are from over 20 different church fellowships and somewhere around 15 different denominations. And we all get along - that's the truly cool part.

So I've just sent an e-mail off to see if there's room for the girls and I.

Steve is on the phone with our brother-in-law in Africa right now. We're working on helping them get a cottage for them for one of the weeks they're here. It's proving to be a bit challenging.

I'm roasting a joint for dinner. How does that sound? Like we'll get full or high? It's a pork roast that has been wrapped in a layer of pork fat (yummy!) and all tied with string. Lovely. I'm so used to cooking my roasts in my crockpot at home that I'm not sure how this bad boy will turn out. If it's nasty, we have other food. But I'm pretty sure it won't be nasty - mediocre at worst. Which is bad enough.

That's it for now. I'm going to surf for cottages and rental cars now.

Marvelous Lie-In

This morning we slept in. It was great. We slept until 7:30 a.m. What a treat! When I woke up, I knew that it was a foggy day, even without my glasses on. It was a "pea souper" as they say over here. But the sun burned through and it was a very pleasant day.

We stayed home. It was fabulous. Steve and the kids walked to the bakery to get a loaf of bread and come donuts for themselves. Julie and I stayed here. I spent most of the morning and a chunk of the afternoon looking at hotels in Paris. While Steve's mom and aunt are over here in October, his sister and her family are taking a vacation from their expatriate life in Africa. We're meeting in Paris for a few days. My crew will ride the Eurostar train in the Chunnel to meet the other crew over there. But it was strangely unsettling to try to get a hotel. I know nothing about Paris and I had a harder time trying to figure it out than I did trying to figure out London last summer.

Anyway, I finally just bit the bullet and reserved a hotel. I had to get 2 triple rooms for 3 nights. Maybe that's what was freaking me out. But I got us a place.

All 3 kids are in bed. They were all "put away" by 7:45. All washed and smelling nice, instead of smelling like wet dog. Or sweaty little kids. Same thing. I can hear their Rainbow Fairy story going, but I'm not hearing any little voices. Even Julie.

Speaking of Julie, she is starting to lose the pudgy baby look now that she's mobile. I can actually see her neck now. She scoots, tries to do push ups, rolls, sits up, and kind of crawls all over the place. And she's into everything: shoestrings, dirty socks, Audrey's grass, school papers, baby toys, baby toes, computer cords...you get the picture.

I can't really think of anything more marvelous to say now. Have I mentioned that I bought Julie an exersaucer-type thing? It's called a "Hop 'n Pop." It doesn't swivel around like an exersaucer, but it has the same kind of toys. As Julie bounces up and down, it makes these little plastic balls in a plastic bubble pop and it plays music.

Anyway - Oh! Steve is going to play Skittles on Tuesday night. It's some kind of bowling, apparently. He's going to take the camera, so we'll see what it is.

TTFN!

Get Fuzzy Is Marvelous, Innit?

Latest translation

1st frame - he translates himself. It's the Cockney rhyming slang again.

3rd frame: "Cheers Mate. Yeah, I'm chuffed as well. Cor, your China plate is a bit gormy, yeah!"

Translation: Hi man! Yeah I'm pleased too. Man, your friend is clueless, isn't he? (China Plate = my mate; gormy/gormless = clueless)

last frame: "Any chance of a nosh up?...A little bevvy and that?"

Translation: Any chance of a meal? A drink?

Another Marvelous Sight

English hearses are a sight. Marvelous? I don't know. Weird, for sure. They are a little shorter than US hearses - or at least Andrew's 1970s-era one - and they're taller in the back. But the really weird thing is

THE BACK IS ALL CLEAR WINDOWS.

You can see in to the coffin and all the flowers. Creepy.

The latest "Get Fuzzy" from Gracie:

1st frame: "I'm havin' a butcher's for Boocky, yeah? Boocky? Are you daft? Cor, I'm about to throw a wobbly and that."

Translation: I'm looking for Bucky, ok? Are you stupid? Gosh, I'm about to throw a fit and that's it.

Last frame: "Blimey. You're a hard case, innit?"

Translation: Good grief - you're a tough one, aren't you?

Cor and blimey are actually short and weird versions of "God blind me." And they end most sentences either in "yeah" or some sort of question. I know that sounds weird - to end a sentence in a question. But they always tack on something like "aren't I" or "didn't she" or something. Like this: if asked how many kids I have someone might reply "April has 3 kids now, doesn't she?" This question at the end isn't to verify the statement - it's just how they end sentences. The speaker isn't expecting an answer. So to this end, "innit" is used regardless of number or gender in the preceding statement.

Good night!

Marvelous Countdown

Well, as Sparky's Mom noticed, the days left here are fewer than the days spent here. Yesterday was our halfway point. I have mixed feelings about this. I love it over here, but home is home.

It's rainy and cold today. 18 degrees C for what that's worth. Audrey, Julie, and I spent part of the morning at Karen's house again today. She's a lady from church who lives around a couple of corners from here. I also met a lady named Moira who has 5 kids. Yikes.

We've had lunch and Julie is sleeping. Grocery store and post office are on the agenda for this afternoon, then we are going out to eat tonight. I think I'd like to go to TGI Friday's, but we'll see what Steve picks.

I have decided that the posh hairdo is a royal pain. Especially when it rains and my hair wants to revert to the wonderful wildness that is my normal "do." So I'm compromising and letting it be crazy everywhere except the front and I use my new "posh do skills" to make the front behave.

I think we're going to head south this weekend to spend some time on a beach. It will probably be too cold to get in the water, but it should be fun just to play in the sand and the shallow waves. The plan is to sleep in tomorrow (hopefully), then drive the 1 1/2 hours to the beach. We'll see what actually happens, though.

Uuummm.

Grace M. sent me a series of comics today. "Get Fuzzy" has been one of our favorites for quite a while. The particular one I like is below:

The thing that's funny is that I actually understand what the bloke in the cap is saying! Because the type is small, I'll repeat him, then translate:

3rd frame: "Ah, brilliant! Been havin' a butcher's for your flat all day mate. Thought I'd cocked summit up! I'm well knackered, I can tell you! I could do with a bevvy and a kip!"

Translation: Great! I've been looking for your apartment all day, man. Thought I'd screwed something up. I'm exhausted, I can tell you! I could do with a drink and a nap!

Last frame: "Plus some bloke diddled me brolly in the queue for the khazi back in Blighty."

Translation: Plus some dude stole my umbrella in the line for the toilet back in England.

I only had to look up "khazi" and "Blighty." The rest I actually knew! "Butcher's" is part of the Cockney rhyming slang. Butchers hook = take a look. There's a whole set of slang based on this. If you've seen "Ocean's Eleven," Basher (the black explosives guy) uses it at one point. He says they are "in Barney." Barney Rubble = we're in trouble. Quite entertaining, actually.

Anyway, Julie is screaming at me. I think I'll grab my new MP3 player and go up and stand by her cot to calm her down. The MP3 is another saga for another day. Blech.

Marvelous Details of an Unremarkable Life

Nothing exciting to report, but I have been thinking about life over here and want to share that with my 3 readers.

Today Julie took both daytime naps in her own crib in her own room. But she cried and it broke my heart. All to pieces. It's harder to put her down and walk away when she's crying than I think it was with the other 2. Maybe it's because of all the changes that have happened since the little dear was born. We didn't have a dedicated nursery, so she slept in her bassinet in our room or in our bed until we left for England. So basically 5 months. Then we got here and didn't have a crib for her for another month almost. Our daily schedule has been so weird that she hasn't had a normal nap schedule. Until now. And she doesn't like it. But when she's sleepy she doesn't cry for more than 5 minutes. But that doesn't make it any easier. She's so sweet, I just want to hold her all the time. Well, a lot of the time. Ok - sometimes. My point is that I don't like to put her down crying. Makes me sad.

Ok - next topic. I'm walking everywhere these days. It beats driving for 2 hours every day. But most people walk around here. Lots of pedestrians and bike riders. I walk at minimum an hour each day - 30 minutes round-trip to deliver and pick up Caleb from school. So he walks at least 30 minutes a day, and Audrey walks 30 minutes every day plus 20 minutes on the days she goes to school, plus another 30 minutes on the days she doesn't go to her school. Make sense? Their whining about the walking is rapidly dwindling, thankfully.

Uuummm. My brain is a blank slate right now. I had all these grand ideas about what to write and now I can't remember any more of them. Oh well. I'll try again tomorrow.

WAIT!

Caleb has his first spelling words. "Spellings" they call it here - like "maths." Anyway, his words are: cat, hat, fat, sad, had, man, ran, bag, clap, trap. He can spell them all, but we're working on being able to write them. He's getting much better. His spellings test is Friday, so we'll see how he does. He's working on reading books, too. He does pretty well.

Now to go.

Guess What I Found in Audrey's Marvleous Bag Last Night?

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GRASS.

A Day Trip to London Sounds Marvelous, Right?

WRONG.


Here was the master plan for the day: catch a bus to the train station, ride a train to London Paddington Station, ride the tube to Waterloo Station, walk around the corner to the London Eye, eat a picnic lunch in a nice park-y spot, tour Buckingham Palace, get dinner at a restaurant, then tube to Paddington, train to Reading, bus home.


The skeleton of the plan worked, but the flesh on the skeleton was rotten. How's that for a metaphor?


As we were leaving the house in a rush, Caleb was goofing off while putting his milk in the fridge and spilled it all over the floor and himself. I just mopped up the worst of it and left the house. Caleb had wet-ish pants for a while until he dried. We hustled down to the bottom of the hill to catch a direct bus to the train station, but we weren't sure which of the 4 stations in the same vicinity we needed and we didn't have much time to figure it out. Fortunately we saw the right bus coming and darted across the street in time to catch it.


Train station. Everything went well here. Tickets, platforms, bathrooms, and train.


On the train to Paddington. We had to find 4 seats together, which can be a challenge, but Steve did very well. We had Julie in the stroller and it just barely fit in the aisle. We got to a table with 4 seats, took Julie out of the stroller, folded it up and stowed it. The kids got bored and restless after exactly 3.2 minutes, so I pulled out our new MP3 player (cheapo off eBay) and let them listen to one of their fairy stories that I loaded on the night before.


We arrived in Paddington without delay, which is not normal. I was counting on delays, so our first tickets for the day's activities weren't until 11.00, and it wasn't even 9 yet. Audrey had been whining that she was hungry, so we decided to get a brunch snack (and yes, we all had breakfast before we left home). Lo and behold, there's a Krispy Kreme in the station. What a treat! The donuts here (with the exception of KK) are like plain bread with icing. Not very good. Right outside of the Krispy Kreme is a statue of Paddington's most famous traveler - Paddington Bear. Of course we got shots of the kids with him. How could we not? Caleb and Steve love the stories!

Post-donuts we rode down an escalator to Paddington's tube station and got tickets. We rode a lot of escalators today. When we did, we'd take Julie out of the stroller and one of us would hold her and the other of us would hold the stroller.


The kids were intrigued by the underground, but that wore off later in the day.


We got to Waterloo earlier than I anticipated - at 10.00. Our tickets said that we should be there 30 minutes prior to our "flight" time, so we were still 30 minutes ahead of my schedule. We had a nice little stroll up to the main building to visit the potties and feed Julie. We decided after this (it was only 10.20) to go ahead and check the stroller into the stroller-check room and get in line. We were in line for as long as it took us to walk the 3 or 4 "back and forths" that there were to go around. We boarded our capsule and were off.


The kids were entranced. For 5 minutes. The whole flight takes 25-30 minutes. It was overcast, so we couldn't see the farther buildings, but we saw Big Ben & Parliament. When I booked our tickets online, I also bought an "Essential Eye" book that had a panoramic view from each direction with certain buildings and other landmarks labeled. So I took Caleb to all 4 sides and we found the different places. It killed the time and I rather enjoyed it.

Overall, Steve and I agree that this is a novel, but overrated attraction. Or at least overpriced for what you get out of it.


Got off the Eye and headed towards the Westminster Bridge to cross the Thames back towards Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham. Literally 2 minutes into our walk, Audrey starts whining about being tired. Thus begins the truly *lovely* dimension that Audrey added to our day.


We got over the bridge, crossed a few streets and headed over to Westminster Abbey, since it was only 11.10 or so. We thought we'd pop in and kill some more time before Buckingham - our tickets for this weren't until 3.30. We got to the main entrance and discovered that for our whole family, it would be £22 - 40 bucks. No thank you.

Audrey continues to whine and now Caleb starts to try to pull his hand away from Steve, which did not sit well with Steve. Thus begins Caleb's addition to our experience - constantly battling Steve when Steve needed to hold his hand.

We made our way over to St. Jame's Park and enjoyed a nice stroll through it. It's on the SE side of Buckingham, so we were close. We stopped at one point to watch some squirrels playing and pigeons landing on peoples' outstretched hands. Caleb and Audrey both tried standing still enough for a bird to land on their hands, but their plans were thwarted by their own impatience. Onward to the playground.


This was probably the highlight of the day. It had a really cool sand pit, and separate areas for swings, play equipment, a teeter totter, and big snails to climb on. While we were there, we could hear the Queen's guard military band playing. It was the changing of the guard. I figured the kids were better off playing, so we didn't rush over to see it. Plus my shoes were off and I was enjoying the wonderfully cool, fine sand on my hot tootsies. But Steve got pictures.

We spent quite a while here and the kids really enjoyed their time playing. We also snacked a bit on the fruit and cheese I brought.


We left around 1 and headed to the palace. The palace warden lady told us to come back at 3.20 for our 3.30 entrance. I didn't really understand how this "timed ticket" system would work, but I knew that if we missed our 3.30 entrance, we missed out altogether because "latecomers not admitted." Ok. So we wandered down the street towards the Victoria Station Shopping Centre. We stopped along the way (after a couple of wrong turns) at a "park." I use the term loosely. It was a green space with benches, but we sat on the memorial statue to somebody-or-other, but where we were was smelly. Unfortunately there was nowhere else to sit, so we toughed it out with our chicken and cheese sandwiches. As soon as we were done, we were outta there. Bye bye stink!

Steve was adamant that there was a shopping centre at Victoria Station. As we walked further past Victoria Station, we saw 2 shopping centres. I chose the one that had the more visually appealing signs. That teaches me to choose a shopping centre by its signs. It was lousy. There was exactly 1 trash can in the whole place and no public toilets to speak of. I *had* to go by this time. I knew the kids were fine, because they had used the "under 5s" toilets at the playground. So we crossed the street to the centre with the ugly signs. *This* is what we had been looking for. Toilets, variety of shops, food court.

We visited the potties and got Julie changed. Audrey and I were entertained in the women's restroom because they had blacklights in there. The whole thing wasn't lit by them, but they were hanging over the stalls. I think it was to help the bathroom attendant see if any of the toilets needed to be flushed. When there was toilet paper in the bowl, the water glowed from the blacklight hitting the paper making it glow blue. We had a fun time looking at our shirts, shoes, socks, etc. under the blacklight. Steve said the boys didn't have the same lighting in their bathroom. Too bad for them.

After the potties, we went to the food court and finished off the last of the donuts. Then down the escalators to the shopping level. At this point, my front jeans pocket started vibrating and ringing. As I was taking the phone out, I noticed Audrey doing the "cell phone ring tone" dance that we always do when the phone rings. It was Mom and we talked for a while as Steve and the kids browsed a PC game shop. Then at a bookstore, I bought a map and guidebook of Paris. We're going to meet Cindy & Alan (Steve's sis and hubby) there in October.

Back out on the street and heading for the palace. It's 3.00. Audrey is whining again. Rather, she's STILL whining. Ever since we left the London Eye, her refrain has been: "I don't want to go to the palace! I want to go home straightaway! I'm tired!" Several hours later, her tune hasn't changed, only increased in volume. Back at the palace at 3.10. The same warden told us that we could either wait in the long line for our entry at 3.30, or we could wait somewhere else and come back at 3.20 or 3.25. So we opted to sit in the shade and let the kids listen to more of the Rainbow Fairies stories.

Back to the entrance at 3.20 and were told that we had to wait in the long line by the same lady. I was thoroughly confused by this time, but we waited in line anyway. Audrey is all but laying down on the sidewalk crying about any and everything. I try to comfort her only to be yelled at. 3.30 and the line moves. It had been stationary for 10 minutes. I see people starting to line up beside us on the other side of the fence. Turns out that's where we're headed: to a holding pen on the other side of the fence. But only those people with 3.30 tickets. Then when all the 3.30s are in, they move us to another holding pen, this one with access to one door that I'm assuming is the entrance. But we wait here for another 5 or 6 minutes. More whining and demands. I know she's not hungry because we just ate less than an hour previous. I know she's hot because it's been a muggy day all day long and we're all suffering from the humidity, but there's nothing I can do about that, now is there?

Finally I hear Steve say, "I think they've just let in the last of the 3.15 group." I think this around 3.50, because the first holding pen behind us is filling up with the 3.45 people. Eventually, we get to the door. We hadn't been able to see in until this point. It's a security checkpoint like in the airport. There are 2 lanes each with a metal detector you walk through and an x-ray machine thing for bags.

All along, I had been operating under the assumption that we would have to carry Julie because our tickets say that people with pushchairs (strollers) may be asked to check their strollers to pick up at the end of the tour. Steve takes this literally - it's not a given, but a possibility. Up to the doorway of the security room, nobody had mentioned having to leave the stroller, so we have all of our coats jammed in the bottom of it on top of the front pack. Then the girl at the door tells us that we need to fold up the pushchair to put it through the x-ray machine and that we would have to check it. There are literally100 people behind us from the 3.30 group, not to mention the 3.45 group and probably by now the 4.00 group, waiting to get in past us while we are messing with the stroller, the kids, the coats, the backpack, the front pack, not to mention all the junk from our pockets that we have to put in bowls to go through the x-ray machine. It was a nightmare.

Get through, get everything checked, get Julie settled in the front pack. At this point, we only have 2 children to hang onto. No bags, no strollers, just Caleb & Audrey. Audrey is a little better by this point and I'm optimistic. Then we enter the next room where we pick up the audio tour devices. It's a little electronic thing that hangs around your neck and has headphones. Steve gets his, I get mine, then I ask for some for the kids. When they find out Audrey is 3, they won't give her one.

Total meltdown time.

It takes us 5 minutes to walk the 20 steps to the actual entrance to the palace. She is having a complete and total tantrum and will not be mollified. An older warden (grandfather age) at the door has pity on her and asks what's wrong. When he finds out she wanted an audio tour, he immediately gives her one, but not with headphones. She can listen to it like a phone. Problem solved, right?

Not even close.

I can't tell you much about the interior of the palace. There's red carpet throughout and a lot of portraits and gold gilding. Opulent. Lovely. Palatial We get to the dining room and I'm very excited. Maybe Audrey will be excited with me. This is the area where they put each year's special display. The state rooms of the palace are open to the public every year from late July through September and each year they have a different special display. This year it's 50 years of the Queen's designer ballgowns. They are sorted by color and the room promises to hold fabulous sights.

The room also holds hundreds of people and is very stuffy and hard to get around in. Audrey is *not* impressed with all of the dresses and immediately announces that she's going to wet her pants. So Steve takes her out to find the toilets. I know that the toilets are at the end of the tour in the gardens. The general unwashed masses are invited to see the state rooms, but not to wee in the royal potties. Caleb stays with me, but after a couple of minutes in the room, I decided to give it up as a hopeless task and we leave. We run across Steve who has discovered the fact about the toilets being at the end and who has decided that Audrey's pronouncement was a ruse to get out of the palace sooner.

At this point we only have 2 more rooms and a big stairway to go, but we don't know it. I think if we did, I could have weathered the storm that was Audrey a little better. We get to the end where we turn in the audio guides and pick up checked items. Audrey wants to keep hers and the meltdown goes totally nuclear when I return it. In the palace garden, we let Audrey ride in the stroller and after a stop at the toilets (where Audrey announces she doesn't have to potty, thus proving Steve's suspicion earlier) we're off on the mile-long path through the garden to the back gate. When we get back on the street, Caleb mentions that his head hurts.

We walk down to Hyde Park tube station and catch the tube to the next station where we get off and make a connection to another line that will take us to Paddington. Except Steve got Picadilly stuck in his head and takes us on a line that will take us to Picadilly but not all the way to Paddington. So we have to change trains again. There is quite a bit of walking when changing trains. You usually have to go up some stairs or an escalator, walk a little bit, then go back down. We get on the right train and only have 4 stops until Paddington. Caleb is leaning back with his head buried in Steve's arm, so I can't see his face. It's hot on the trains and we're all tired.

Paddington Station. Out of the tube station and up the escalator to the train station. I turn to look at Caleb and switch into hyper-drive when I see his face. He is as pale as a sheet. His lips are the same color as his face. I grab him by the hand and start walking as I'm looking frantically for a trash can or an empty bag or a sign for the toilets. As I'm walking, I'm telling him to breathe in through his nose and out through his mouth slowly. I'm looking, I'm walking, I'm talking, and I'm thinking "Please God, let me find something for him to puke in. The last thing I want is vomit on the floor." For those of you who don't know, I can handle everything that comes with being a Mom except vomit. That's Steve's job. Instead of a trash can or the toilets, I find an exit. We go outside and sit on the curb so he can get some fresh air. He's ok - for now.

I leave Steve with the kids (listening again to the Rainbow Fairies) and I go find some Sprite for Caleb. No crackers, though. These people love their biscuits, but darned if I can find regular crackers!

Caleb doesn't want the Sprite, so now I go to the Burger King to get dinner for Steve, Audrey, and myself, planning to eat on the train. Get the food, collect the family, head to the platform with the train leaving the soonest. Get on the train and discover as Steve is pushing the stroller down the aisle that there is nowhere for us to all sit together.

Marvelous.

So we have to park ourselves in the space between cars. It's hot, it's wobbly, and there are only 2 pull-down seats. So the kids get those. I start getting the food out and Caleb gets sick in one of the empty bags I had for him. Poor little boy. He's all sweaty and doesn't feel good.

There's one stop between London and Reading and Steve is hoping to find a place to sit after that stop when people (presumably) get off. Sure enough, he finds a set of seats for us. Julie stays in the stroller in the aisle. I have to push her out of the car back to where we were waiting originally 3 different times to let people through. Finally I just stay there.

Off the train at Reading. Rude people cutting in front of us again at the gate to get out. Hello, we have a stroller and 2 kids!

Steve has been looking for a trash can ever since we got off the train. He's got the bag of sick inside a plastic grocery bag and wants to throw it away. I'm not kidding you - there are NO trash cans in the train station. None. He looks all around. I'm starting to get paranoid that we're going to miss our bus because he wants to find a trash can. I'm thinking "just leave it somewhere" but he's insistent. We walk towards the bus stop and find several trash cans. sWe have to wait 20 minutes for our bus, and Caleb throws up again in a different bag but that one doesn't hold and it starts to leak. We run to the nearest trash can and take care of business.

While this drama is unfolding, a little girl walks up to Audrey and starts talking to her. Her name is Rachel and she's 4 and she lives in Tilehurst. They are best friends within 30 seconds. At least she's keeping Audrey and Julie occupied while Steve and I take care of Caleb. Bus arrives, we board. Steve and Caleb sit in the disabled seats facing Audrey and Rachel who are sharing a seat. Julie is between them in the stroller and Rachel's mom is across the asile, also facing the girls. Her seat is a sideways one. I'm on the next row by myself.

And a drunk guy gets on and sits by/on me. As he was lurching to sit down, the bus started moving and he plopped down mostly in his seat, but partially on me. I don't think he even noticed. Grandfather-aged. Nice man. He enjoyed watching the little girls chatting and singing and was not too smelly. He teased them a little and talked about his granddaughters.

7.45 p.m. Home. Everybody to bed. Lights out and all asleep by 9.30. Even me and Steve.

Today we're recuperating. I'm not too sore, even though I picked up and carried Audrey 2 or 3 separate times in the palace. I was expecting my back to really hurt. Caleb is fine. I think it was overexhaustion and overheating and over-everything. Julie was a dream the whole time.

It's Too Humid - Not Marvelous

It's cooler today, overcast and very humid. Yuck. Feels like College Station in the late fall/early winter. I miss the NM lack of humidity. My hair is a ridiculous frizzy mess, even straightened.

Anyway - I feel yucky today. Julie was up several times last night. I think she has an ear infection, but I'm not sure. She has a fever and tugs on her ear every now and then. So I used some ear drops and gave her some Motrin. But she was still up a lot. And my back is just killing me. I sent Steve to work in the van - he took Audrey to school and Julie and I walked Caleb to school. In about an hour, I'll ride a bus to Audrey's school and pick her up.

Now on to the last part of our trip around the islands - the drive home.

Not much to report. After we got off the ferry, we navigated through little Welsh towns to the motorway. Actually we just followed the loooooong line of other cars from the ferry to the motorway.

Wales was very pretty. Very green. Sheepies in a field. We stopped at a services area along the motorway for lunch. As in Ireland, things are bilingual. But it's a little disconcerting because we had no idea what the other language meant. For example, the name of the town we stopped at for lunch is Pont Abraham in English, but Llanedi Pontardulais. No clue how to pronounce it.

See what I mean? Can you read these signs? At least English is on the top lines of these signs. In Ireland, the Gaelic was on the top and the English was on the bottom. It caused more than a few minor moments of silent panic while trying to navigate for Steve over there. He agreed that it wouldn't be so bad if English were on the top.

So that's pretty much it. We got home around 6:30 or 7 after stopping at the grocery store to get milk and a couple of pizzas.

Just yesterday I finally got everything put away from the trip. I already had the laundry carnage and suitcases put away, but hadn't dealt with all of the books and other souvenirs we bought. Got it all put away.

Oh - the sun came out! Wonder how long that will last?

This morning Caleb had one of those moments that makes me laugh and feel heartbroken simultaneously. Steve and Audrey had gathered up their stuff and were in the van and Caleb was watching TV in the lounge and I was in the kitchen with Julie. Our lounge looks out to the driveway, so when Steve started to drive off with Audrey and Caleb heard the van crunching on the rocks on the drive, I heard a little voice say, "Wait! You forgot me!" I hustled into the lounge and realized that we hadn't told Caleb what the plan was for the morning. As I hugged him, I felt his little heart racing. Poor baby!

Last Night's Marvelous Dinner

Dinner last night was marvelous for more than one reason. We had chili & rice with FRITOS!! We received a box of stuff from the states which included Fritos and a box of Fruit Loops. Thanks, Nana!

Audrey fell asleep on the way home from getting Steve at work, and when we got her home, she staggered in and went back to sleep on the couch. She came to dinner, but didn't eat anything and asked to go to bed. We excused her and she went upstairs, then came back down and went back to sleep on the couch. She slept until 6:30 this morning. Actually, she slept until the wee hours of the night, then came and got in bed with us and slept until 6:30.

So that left Caleb, Steve, Julie & me for dinner. At one point I was talking about the start on the new season of "Dancing With the Stars." I had looked at the abc network's website earlier that day and had seen pictures of the new lineup. I was telling Steve that Jerry Springer is one of the dancers and that he and another "star," an MSNBC anchorman, both look very wooden in their poses. Caleb immediately says in a very Steve-like voice, "What, are they brown and have nails in them?" Steve laughed for 2 straight minutes. I still don't know if Caleb was serious or joking. It doesn't really matter. It was a marvelous moment for Steve as he saw his little smart-aleck protege shine.

I was asking Caleb questions about school and he started obviously embellishing his tale. I glanced over at Steve just in time to see a rather stern look on his face. Caleb immediately stopped talking and got up from the table and went around the corner to the restroom. I thought he was relieving himself until we heard him crying. I could hardly understand what he was saying when I asked him what was wrong, but finally heard him say, "Daddy gave me the 'punishment face' when I was at the table just now." I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry! Once we finally coaxed Caleb back to the table, Steve explained that he wasn't in trouble, but that Steve was a little worried about his tendency to embellish.

Anyway, it was still funny. Punishment face. Ha.

I'm going to bed now. The girls and I will go to Slough tomorrow (25 miles to the East) to pick up an exersaucer-type-thing for Julie that I bought on eBay. I was hoping to send Steve off with the van so that I wouldn't have to drive tomorrow, but no such luck. Oh well. Maybe Friday.

The Marvelous Ferry Ride

The 2 pictures above are the before and after behind where our van was. The cars are just jammed in. We're at the front of the hold. You can see that the cars are starting to aim towards the left in the 2nd picture - we're at the apex of this curve.

The picture just above shows what was in front of us when we docked. We drove out that little door on the left. Steve wanted to get a picture of the cars up on the 2nd level. We're not quite sure how they got up there or how they got down, for that matter. The cars directly below those on the 2nd level are actually facing us.

When we got on the ferry, as I said earlier, we found a spot in the kids' area. Not as nice as the other ferry, but what choice did we have at this point? Got breakfast for us all sorted and by the time we finished and returned our dishes and trays to the cafe, the ferry was ready to set off.

Now comes the horrible "seat neighbor" thing.

Mom: Petite 40-something with dyed hair and barfly voice wearing snug denim capris and too-high wedge sandals. Would disappear for stretches of time and come back in a cloud of smoke. Didn't even have the sense to appear embarrassed by her children. Didn't seem to even know if they were around.

Dad: Didn't see until the last 15 minutes of the 3 1/2 trip. He laid on the floor in the kids' area and played with the baby while ignoring the other kids.

Daughter: Early teenage girl. Mostly watched after the baby while Mom took smoke breaks and read her tabloid. Takes up 4 spots on the soft seating area for the little kids by laying down. About an hour before we dock, she pukes in the kids' area, then gets up and returns to her table next to ours. Mom does nothing. Steve flags down a ferry employee and says, "Some teenager got sick over there and left it" rather loudly hoping she would at least have the good grace to blush or something.

Son #1: Early teenage boy - younger than the daughter. Broken arm. Could be a bit rambunctious, but didn't see much of that. Laid around the kids' area and watched "Bug's Life." Not much of a bad neighbor.

Son #2: Pre-teen boy. At one point Steve sent him the evil eye because he was pulling on Caleb's balloon sword. Other than that, not too bad.

Son #3: Early elementary-aged boy. Typical early-elementary aged boy. Had tendency to be wild at times.

Wild Child (a.k.a. Son #4): Hellion. Brat. Ran around poking other random kids with his balloon sword. Finally another dad got up and asked him to stop poking his rather lovely little red-headed daughter then gave him the evil eye. Couldn't sit still for more than 3 seconds.

Baby (a.k.a Son #5): Baby about Julie's age. Spent most of the trip in his car seat. Was not a crying baby.

This whole family was a train wreck. Enough said.

There was a magic show in the middle of the trip. The magician was a young-ish guy - maybe early 20s. He was good with the kids. His over-the-top reactions were perfect. Towards the end of his act, he asked for a volunteer. The first boy he chose didn't want to go up, so then he asked Caleb. Our little eager beaver was up front before I could blink. Here are some pictures:

Caleb was an awesome assistant. The top picture is him catching all the colors in the air with the magical color catcher. The next picture is him flinging the colors onto that black & white drawing. Notice the umbrella the magician is using. The 3rd picture is the result of a magic trick where Caleb somehow changed the umbrella into just a wire frame with scarves around the edges. When I asked him how he did it, he said, "I'm just magic, I guess!" The 4th picture is him with the 5 wands the magician gave him to change the picture from black & white to color. The umbrella trick came in the middle of the black-and-white-to-color trick. Anyway, Caleb is wiggling magically while all the kids watching are saying, "Wiggle your fingers, wiggle your thumbs, that's the way the magic comes." Except the "th" in thumbs sounds like "f." It's just the way they say it here. And the last picture is one of his prizes for being the assistant - a bike made of balloons. It lasted all the next week until he decided to take it apart.

They did balloon things for any kid that wanted one. Audrey got a dog. This is what she did with it when we got back to the van:

I kid you not - SHE STUFFED IT IN HER BAG! Now, 11 days later, the same dog is upstairs in her bedroom (but looking deflated). She pulled it out and stuffed back a couple of times, but it stayed in there until the following Monday. So from Friday to Monday it survived life in the bag. Did I mention that I found a huge rock in her bag the other day?

Anyway - back to the ferry. Since I didn't really get a chance to shop for stuff in Ireland, I placated myself by going to the gift shop on the boat. They had tons of perfumes - all the usuals that you find in any store. One thing I really wanted from this trip was a new perfume. I wanted something unique with a nice smell that is from the UK. I found some nice Ralph Lauren fragrances at Harrod's, but I can get that back home. Anyway, none of these perfumes tickled my fancy, so I just wandered around looking at all the cheesy touristy stuff.

I almost didn't wander over to one side because it was mostly alcohol and that doesn't tickle my fancy, either, but I did go over. There was one little display that ended up having 4 different "made in Ireland" perfumes. One was truly nasty, one smelled like soap, one was OK, and the last one was LOVELY. And not expensive! Yippee! I had found both my perfume and my Irish souvenir! http://www.perfume.ie/

I will have to conclude our trip (just the drive through Wales) later. It's time for us to go fetch Steve.

Marvelous Pictures of Alnwick Castle, Falkirk Wheel, Wallace Monument

Where the flying lesson scene from Harry Potter was filmed.

Audrey & Caleb in the grounds outside the castle. This green area was beside the place where Hagrid's hut was.

Sir Caleb & Lady Audrey at the jousting event.

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Falkirk Wheel

It's rotating counter-clockwise in this picture. The top circle will go from 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock. There's a boat in the bottom circle and it will go up to the top to the canal up there.

Now it's going clockwise. It's lowering a barge down to the water from the upper canal as well as raising a barge up to the upper canal. Make sense?

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Wallace Monument
This is me and the kids at the base of the monument looking out over Stirling...windy day.

A view from the top. Audrey kept saying, "I can see the whole wide world!"

Inside. I think this was on the level with the white marble busts of people I didn't really know. I liked the windows, though. You don't have to know who windows are of to enjoy them.

This is the bottom of the hill that the monument sits on. The 3 of us walked all the way up the hill, then up the tower to the top. Impressive, yeah?

That's a cheesy statue of Mel Gibson as William Wallace. It doesn't flatter either of them and cheapens the whole place.

Trying To Finish The Marvelous Recounting of the Marvelous Adventure to Ireland

Ok - I'm back from not writing. Friday was interesting. I sent Steve to work with the van so the kids and I were afoot. We walked Caleb to school then walked home, then changed Audrey's clothes into a pretty dress, then the girls and I walked back into Tilehurst (to a green area surrounded by shops called The Triangle) and caught a bus that dropped us off near the not-as-nice Asda, then we walked around the corner from there to her school. It was picture day. We waited for an hour and got her picture taken (alone and with Julie). After a quick lunch that we got from Asda, we caught a bus back to the Triangle. From there we browsed in a couple of shops then went to the post office to mail a birthday card to a certain aunt... After that we went to a playground near Caleb's school where Audrey played for about 15 minutes before it was time to go get Caleb. Then we walked home. Audrey and I were just about wiped out when we got home. Then the grocery delivery guy got here with all our food. He and I had a discussion about Dr. Pepper and America. His wife has family in Indianapolis and they visited there a few years ago.

So yesterday we were supposed to drive down to Portsmouth to see the tall ships, but I decided (with Steve's encouragement) to stay home and recuperate. My back still hurts. So yesterday we worked on laundry and I took Caleb to a shop to get more pants for school. It's getting chilly here and shorts don't cut it anymore.

----------------------------------------
Now back to the adventure in Ireland. I hope to get through most of it this morning.

I got us as far as Newgrange last time. It's a passage tomb. Nobody is buried in there. It's basically a stone mound that has a chamber inside with 3 small nooks that are the size of the average kitchen table. Each nook has a large stone basin in it. The passage that you walk through to get in the chamber has a low ceiling and is narrow in one place. It's about 30 strides long. It's engineered so that the sun for 5 days at the winter solstice shines in and illuminates the chamber around 9 a.m.

Steve says:
There's a traditional Irish story called "The Architect of Newgrange." I read it in a book called "Ireland" by Frank Delaney that I picked up in the Albuquerque Airport back in March on my way to California. It was built before pyramids in Egypt.

The dirt on top of the mound slid over the course of a few thousand years. It was rebuilt in modern times to what they think it looked like originally. The guy that bought the land thought he was getting a quarry because all of the white facing rock was lying around. This was in the 1800s.

Back to me:
We didn't tarry long at Newgrange, but got back on the bus. The bus driver said he thought Caleb looked like Harry Potter and he let Caleb push the button to close the door. On the way back to the Visitors' Center, we got stuck in a traffic jam. Actually we got stuck behind a herd of slow-moving bovines. A man was moving about 20 dairy cows down the paved road from one field to another. But we kept pace right behind them and arrived back at the Visitors' Center just as it quit raining.

We started the walk back to the center and the kids would race across the bridges. One time I ran with them, then the next time, Steve waited until we were all almost across in front of him, then he started running, too. All of a sudden, I heard a great THUD and as I slowed down to turn and look, I wondered to myself, "How can a girl as little as Audrey make such a big THUD?" When I turned around, I was surprised to see Audrey standing and Steve not. He said he was trying to bounce the bridge, so he was goofing off to begin with.

I'll have to post pictures another day - Blogger isn't cooperating. AGAIN.

So we left Newgrange and headed to Dublin. We had to stop at a grocery store before we got on the toll motorway to Dublin because we had no Euro currency for the toll. Euros are worth more than dollars, but less than pounds. We hit the northern outskirts of Dublin around 7 p.m. We had no maps with good detail of Dublin at this point. I think if either of us really had our wits about us, we would have stopped and bought one.

We thought that going through a downtown area after 7 p.m. would be relatively easy. We were WRONG. Not only was it congested, but it was *hugely* confusing. The directions to our hotel were pretty lame, too, but they were the best I could find. We had no idea what intersection was coming up until we were almost in the middle of it. They don't do such a nice job of making it clear what street is what over here. Makes driving extremely frustrating. At one point while we were ON THE RIGHT ROAD, we drove in a figure-8 figure without crossing over our own tracks. Does that make sense? The road turned left 90 degrees, then right 90 degrees, then left by 90 again, then made 3 right turns, then a left turn, then a right turn, then straight on. All this because they had a median so we couldn't turn right originally.

We were getting testy, cranky, rude, snippy, and any other adjectives that can describe the state of mind that combines feeling lost, hungry, frustrated, and irritated with our preschool passengers. On top of all this, Caleb has been saying for about 15 minutes that he needs to potty. So we switched our focus from finding the hotel to finding a restroom. We are so focused on finding a gas station that we almost missed the hotel. I saw it as we zoomed past heading to the Texaco on the other side of it. We pulled into a side street on the far side of the Texaco, then the boys hopped out to go pee in the Texaco restroom. So I get the van turned around in the side street, get back on the main road to backtrack a whole block and find that I have to go past the hotel and do a U-turn because there's a median. By the time I pull into the parking lot, Steve and Caleb are waiting for us. Steve decided that since he couldn't get the guy in the Texaco to pay him any attention, he would just head to the hotel to use their facilities.

We get checked in to yet another hotel. This family room is the nicest on the whole trip, I think. It had a queen bed and 2 twin beds. It also had 2 steps down to a living room-type area with a table, 4 chairs, a sofa and a TV. There was also a TV in the bedroom. We could have had internet in the room if I had notified them in advance. But silly me, I didn't know they had an internet box they could put in the room.

It's well after 8 p.m. now and we're all starving. We got directions from the front desk to the town center area of Stillorgan - the Dublin suburb we were in - and assurances there were several places to get take-out. We took a minor wrong turn and ended up at McDonald's. I didn't hear any complaints from anyone. The kids were thrilled, and Steve was too tired and frustrated to care. He was so irritated with the whole "Driving in Dublin" experience that he requested the not-on-the-menu 20 piece chicken McNuggets box.

We got our food and got back to the hotel. I was tired and frustrated but I felt compelled to figure out our plan for seeing Dublin. I was so not motivated, but I finally decided that we'd drive into Dublin and take a bus tour of the city. Steve was in agreement - both on the lack of motivation, but the drive to at least try to see Dublin. I mean, we are in another country!

Silly me, when the day dawned on Thursday the 31st, I thought the kids would let us sleep a little more. We had nice thick curtains that blocked all light and our room was on a quiet hall. But NOOOOO. Caleb got up and TURNED ON A LAMP. Turned on a lamp! I could have killed him. I don't even know what time it was - probably 6:30 or 7. Respectable time to get up when you're NOT on holiday, but much too early for this road-weary mom.

So we got up, got dressed, got packed up, and checked out. Then we went back to the McDonald's for breakfast. Actually we went to the Marks & Spencer grocery store next door to it. We got some fabulous breads and milk. It was a nice breakfast. Then we were off to Dublin.

We got back downtown to the vicinity of the ticket booth for the bus tour, but got a little lost after we parked the van. I was disoriented and since we didn't have any map to speak of, we were doing pretty well. We got pointed in the right direction and made our way to a shopping center to find a restroom before we got on the bus.

There are restroom Nazis in Dublin.

I had Julie in the front pack, and the other 2 kids by the hands and we were heading into what I thought was the family bathroom. Then bathroom Nazi came running up and started scolding us, "Disabled! Disabled!" She was an oriental lady and any form of English/Gaelic had not been her first language. That's an odd experience - trying to speak to someone from another country in a country neither of you are from. Does that make sense? Anyway, the restroom Nazi shooed us out and I think she told us which bathroom was the toddler bathroom and which was the baby changing room. I'm not sure what she was saying. I was just irritated to have been shooed out of a bathroom with 3 kids and a cranky husband in tow.

Went to the toddler bathroom - short potties, short sinks - and Steve ducked out to go to the Men's room. When we came out, I headed over to the women's, but was met AGAIN by the bathroom Nazi. She was now demanding 20 cents (Euro) to let me in the restroom. I was steamed but paid her because I didn't want to wet my pants.

Ok - next order of business after calming down post-restroom Nazi was to find a bookstore and buy a map.

All during this time, the kids had been bickering, whining, and talking back. Steve and I came to the conclusion together that we were not going to ride the bus after all. The kids were so wiped out and their behavior showed it. Once back in the van, we found the quickest way OUT of Dublin and took it. We put "Paddington Bear" in the CD player and made our way south to Wexford. The last stop of our holiday.

When we got to Wexford it started raining. It was about 3:30, I think. We checked in, got unloaded and went and had tea there in the hotel's bar area. It didn't feel like a bar or even a pub - more like a big living room with snacks and the occasional beer. We had scones with cream and jam. I had coffee, the other 3 had tea. Caleb & Audrey like having "tea parties." After tea, we all put on swimsuits and headed down to the pool. I was hoping to go into Wexford, but the rain made me reconsider.

The pool experience was different. We all had to have bathing hats in order to get into the pool. They were 3 Euros each. So 12 Euros to go swimming - we didn't bother with one for Julie. All 5 of us got in the pool. I had Julie most of the time. She liked to splash and to watch everyone. We stayed at the pool until 5 p.m., then got out and headed back to the room. Got the 2 big kids cleaned up, then headed back down to the bar for a Family Platter. We had a coupon for this, as well as the tea we had earlier. The platter had chips (french fries), fried mushrooms, crispy potato skins, chicken wings, and another fried thing I can't remember, plus a big salad. Caleb devoured the chicken wings. Julie fell asleep and we laid her on the couch Steve and I were sitting on. The big kids were standing up to eat, since we had chosen a 2-couch-plus-a-coffee-table setting arrangement. It worked well.

Dinner over...back to the room for the kids to watch a DVD on the laptop. All the while it's raining and getting colder and colder. Since it had been pretty cold all day, the kids' milks from our late breakfast had stayed cool. Steve put them out on our balcony in the rain to keep cool overnight, along with his Coke and a jar of babyfood I had opened. It worked - all 4 things were very cool the next morning!

This family room was nice, as well. We had a queen bed, a twin bed, and a sofa bed. The bathroom had a separate shower and bath. The most interesting thing about this room, as well as the one in Dublin, was that in order to get any electricity in the room, we had to put a room card in a little slot on the wall. When you take the card out, the lights go off. Interesting. This bathroom also had Dove soap in big bottles that were attached to the wall. They were mounted so that when you pushed on the bottle, it would dispense out the bottom. The bathroom sink had handwash, and the tub and shower had a body wash/shampoo combo.

We got up, got dressed, gathered up, checked out, and drove the 20 minutes to the ferry in Rosslare. We were expecting to sit in the van and wait like last time, but almost as soon as we had checked in, they let us get on the ferry. It was weird. There were only a couple of cars in front of us and only one behind us at this point. It was nice to not feel like we were in a big race to get the best seats.

This ferry was different from the first one. It took us 3 1/2 hours to cross this time, and the kids area was on one side of the ferry, not smack in the middle like before. Plus there was no Burger King. But there was an eatery and so I got breakfast for everyone and brought it back to our seats in the kid area.

I'll finish later - I need to tend to Julie.

Marvelous Pictures of Giant's Causeway

Pictures from yesterday's post. This is us at the Giant's Causeway.

This was taken after Audrey got all wet. Her solution was to hike up her pant legs. The people looking on were Kiwis, I think. I wasn't too keen on conversation at this point and even less so later when Caleb pushed past Audrey and knocked her down. She almost cracked her head on one of those rocks.

We were *not* on top of these. This was right before we caught the shuttle back up the hill. It's a cool picture though!

Off to get Steve now!

A Marvelous Promise Fulfilled

Ok - now to conclude our journey.

The Marvelous Trip to Ireland - Wednesday, 8/30/06

The day dawned - our children woke us. Yet again. Oh well. Goes with the territory, I suppose. I knew that breakfast was from 8-10, so I was trying to leisurely yet purposefully get the fam ready to go down. Our price for the room included breakfast.

Let me say a little more about the hotel before I describe breakfast. When I went in the night before, I was somewhat pleasantly surprised to find a whole gaggle of people milling around waiting to get into the restaurant for dinner. I guess it was a restaurant. It has no name as far as I know - it's the place where you eat. I think this place must have once been a house. A HUGE house. I told Steve during breakfast that it reminded me of places where people in Agatha Christie novels would holiday. It was 2 stories and sprawled. Our room was upstairs past a very large sitting room. Our room, as I think I said before, was big. So the dining facilities were large dining rooms.

I had been told the night before that when we went down to breakfast, we didn't need to wait to be seated. Our name would be on our table. And, wouldn'tcha know it - it was! It was a little namecard (that I kept) that said "Mrs Nolen." No punctuation after the "Mrs." That's still weird to see. Anyway, our little table was set and waiting for us - 4 chairs and one highchair. We ordered "mini breakfasts" - basically normal breakfast fare minus the baked beans. The kids had about 12 pieces of toast each, loads of cocoa puffs, apple juice, and milk. Then more toast. They really like toast. Good thing Steve bought a toaster in Falkirk!

After breakfast, we packed up, checked out and walked across the parking lot to the visitor's center for the Giant's Causeway. It was a cool, windy day. We needed our windbreakers and the kids had on sweatshirts under theirs. We walked down a very steep hill and around a curve.

Steep hill. Notice Deputy Dawg's face? He's aged before his time, I guess.

This is the bottom of the steep hill.

Anyway - the water you see is the ocean. Very picturesque and photo-friendly. So here are more photos.

Dang it - Blogger isn't working again, so no pictures. I'll try again later.

Anyway. Around the corner were the really cool rock formations. Thousands of hexagonal pillars that were about 18 inches across and packed tightly in together. We could walk out on them and be surrounded by the sea. It rained all night the night before, so there were little puddles on about half of the pillars. Caleb went toodling off and, of course, Audrey followed him. Before we knew it, she slipped in one of the puddles and got both pant legs wet up to her thighs. Because the day was cold and windy, we decided to cut our hike short and catch the shuttle bus back up the 1km hill that we had walked down earlier. We also decided just to head straight to Dublin after we got Audrey changed back at the van. It was an uneventful, rainy trip until Steve reminded me that we were going to take a side trip to a spot called Newgrange.

Newgrange is an ancient burial mound. We drove around literally 30 minutes trying to find the visitor's center to gain access to this place. We were literally right beside it but couldn't either see it or get to it because of a big hill and a big fence. Turns out we needed the road on the *other* side of the hill and fence. Duh. Didn't even know there *was* another road.

Found the road, found the visitor's center, got inside just in time for a mousy little man to bully us into going on the 5.15 bus tour to Newgrange. Come to find out, the only way to see the burial mound is to ride their bus out to it. So we did. It's raining while Steve is running across bridges, down paths, up and down stairs to finally arrive at the bus to hold it for us. Caleb was right up there with him for a while, then Steve put on a burst of speed, not realizing Caleb wasn't keeping up and that the girls and I were so far behind and poor Caleb got left behind. As the girls and I were hurrying to catch up, we rounded a corner and Caleb popped up from where he had been crouching behind a rock. I thought he was hiding to scare us, but he thought he was lost. Poor little baby. Makes me sad now even thinking about it.

We got on the bus and rode 5 minutes out to the mound. It's still cold and rainy and now the wind is blowing, too. Nice. Our tour guide comes out and is a fella in his early 20s. As he's giving us the spiel about the place, I'm starting to get the feeling that he thinks that nobody speaks English. After the whole thing is over, he tells me, "Nobody had a word of English but you and your family."

I'm actually going to leave off now. It's 9 p.m. and I'm wiped out. I hurt my back today. I'm frustrated because I feel like I'm getting old. I know that it happens, but I think we all deny that it happens to us until it does, then we're really surprised when we get these aches and pains. All of a sudden my back went from being fine to having a horrible dull ache that made it hard to breathe. I checked into mobile massage therapists - hopefully I'll get some info back ASAP. There's one lady who will do an hour of back, neck, and shoulders for 35. Plus she'll do evening appointments, so if we can get an appointment soon, Steve and I can both get worked on here at home. Doesn't that sound absolutely luscious? A massage here in my own home by a professional.

Anyway, I'm going to bed. I'm tired and I hurt. Now I'm getting a headache to go along with the backache.

More on Newgrange tomorrow. Night!

A Marvelous Promise

It's 4:19 p.m. I'm about to quickly clean the kitchen and start the beef marinating for dinner before we go get Steve at 4:45. I promise that after kids are in bed and dinner is cleaned up, I will finish the story of our trip to Scotland and Ireland. Actually, I'll finish the Ireland part, as Scotland is done.

Check back after 10 p.m. my time (3 or 4 your time, depending on where you live). :)

April

The Marvelous First Day as a First Year

Just got back from picking up Caleb from school. We made a detour at the convenience store (also known as "newsagents" over here) and picked up 2 M&M cookies and 2 chocolate bars. Each kid gets a cookie, each adult gets a chocolate bar. Julie yelled at me because she liked the shiny wrapper on my "Yorkie" chocolate bar but I wouldn't give it to her. The Yorkie has a black stick figure on it like what you see on a women's restroom door but then with one of those red circles with the bar through it that means "no." The point is that Yorkie bars are for men only. Fah!

Audrey just came strolling in and informed me that she doesn't like her cookie. When I asked her what was wrong with it, she said, "nothing." Hmm. This is the same girl who insisted that we take her bag with us to get Caleb. Is anyone surprised? Then she insisted that we stop walking over to the school so she could fish out her baby doll from her bag. Lovely.

Caleb just came in. Now to get the dirt about school straight from his mouth.

It started after we had dropped off Steve at work and Audrey at school. We got a prime parking spot then walked into the schoolyard. The whistle blew, the kids ran to their teachers and queued up, then all went inside. Now for Caleb....

My teacher showed me where my peg was. It was 18. I hanged my bookbag on and then I hanged my P.E. bag. And then Miss Pells showed me where to put my bookbag. I had to take it off the hook and put it in my little drawer. It's on the very bottom of the other kids' drawers. It's the only one that's on the very bottom and it has a trophy on it that says, "Number 1." I went to the carpet and sat. There's a big screen that hooked to the computer and the thingy showed to the thing. The picture that was on the computer showed to the screen. Each time we don't touch the computer, the screen saver is on, but when we touch it, it goes back to where it was. The teacher doesn't let us, though. I didn't, but Ricado did. I think he means RicaRdo, but he's insistent it's not.

Me: Did you do reading?
Caleb: No.
Me: Did you do math?
Caleb: Uhhh, nope. And we didn't have a free time like we do in class RP (Reception). They don't have an additional recess like the 4-year-olds do. And then we got a snack while we listened to the story. This was a story about a bear named Blimplet (Blimplet?) and his friends. At first he was sitting in a toy shop and his friend Pickles the Mouse had a joke but then forgot it and then they were going to do a silly dance for Blimplet and, well, the little mouse remembered his joke again and we'll carry on tomorrow.
Me: How was lunch?
Caleb: Good.
Me: How was recess?
Caleb: Good.
Me: What else?
Caleb: Uummm. Uummm. (As he's watching an ad for Dettol surface cleanser...weird kid.)
Me: What was your favorite part?
Caleb: Meeting everybody and going up and telling all the kids what they like most. We went up 2 after 2 and I questioned with Ellie.
Me: So what did you ask her?
Caleb: I forgot.
Me: What did she ask you?
Caleb: She asked me what my holiday was and I said "Alnwick Castle."
Me: Ok - is there anything else you want me to put on the blog about your day?
Caleb: Yes. That I had a good day.

There you go. Hope you enjoyed this disjointed account of his first day as a first year.

:)

P.S. He had chicken pie for lunch and says it was really good.