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Thomas Land

2010-04-22T12:05:00.007+01:00

Madeline’s good friend Tyler turned 4 today. For his birthday, his family took him to Thomas Land, which is part of an amusement park not too far from Birmingham—about a two hour drive from here. The Thomas Land section is aimed at younger kids and is, obviously, Thomas the train themed. Madeline and I were asked if we would like to join them. It ended up being a good thing that we did, as their car broke down a few days before the trip was scheduled. So I drove our car, with Madeline, Charlotte, and Tyler, while Tyler’s grandpa drove his car with grandma, Stephen, and Liberty.

We had a good time, and enjoyed the sunshine that we were once again blessed with (it’s been ridiculously sunny here lately—almost as if England is trying to convince me that I should miss it or something…). The kids had a great time riding all the rides, playing at the big playground, and walking through the little zoo that were all part of the amusement park. And Charlotte was nice enough to accompany Madeline on the rides I wasn't sure would be good for my 5 ½ month pregnant body…!

Happy birthday, Tyler, and thanks for sharing your day with us! Madeline will miss you when we move home.

Two Hemispheres at One Time!

2010-04-17T11:44:00.006+01:00

One of the places I told Bill he had to take me before we moved out of England was Greenwich. As a Geography major and former cartographer, I NEEDED a picture of me on the Prime Meridian. Since Greenwich is only about a 2 hour drive from our house, we knew we could do it as just a day trip.

We ended up being ridiculously lucky with the weather on the Saturday we went—it was sunny, and even relatively warm. We even got a little bit sunburned—in England—in April—go figure! I thoroughly enjoyed finally checking the Prime Meridian off my list, and we also liked walking around some of the other areas of Greenwich. The National Maritime Museum is there (and free), there is a neat market there, and Madeline’s favorite part—a really nice kids’ playground. It was a really nice day, so much so that Madeline wants to go back!

A Scottish Easter

2010-04-08T10:15:00.025+01:00

Here in the UK, you get both Good Friday and “Easter Monday” off work, making the Easter holiday a four-day weekend. We decided to make use of the extra days off by making a trip up to Scotland, as it was another of the places we hadn’t been to yet. It’s about a 6 hour drive from Peterborough to Edinburgh, so we got up when Madeline woke up on Friday, got ready, and hit the road.

We planned to stop at Alnwick Castle along the way. It’s the second largest inhabited castle in England, along with being a site often used in movies (it was one of the locations used for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies, for example). We got there at 4:19. I know that specifically, because we discovered when we got there that although the castle was open until 6, the last admission was at 4:15. They wouldn’t make an exception for us. Sometimes the British can be a little too British. One of the staff did take enough pity on us to allow me to take Madeline through to the bathroom, at least, although Bill had to wait for us outside. It looked like it would have been a neat castle, if they had let us in…

So we went the rest of the way up to Edinburgh, and Bill took Madeline swimming at the hotel after we had some supper. We try to get hotels that have swimming pools whenever possible when we travel, since keeping Madeline entertained in a hotel in the evenings can be challenging otherwise.

The next morning we got up and took the bus into Edinburgh’s city center. We were dropped off halfway along the Royal Mile, so we walked up to Edinburgh Castle, enjoying the sights along the way. We got to the castle about 11:30, only to find that the line just to buy tickets was 1 ½ hours long. Luckily, I’d done a little looking into things, and we knew there was a pass you could buy that would give you admission into several sites throughout Scotland. Since we planned to go to a few of the others, we asked about the pass. Turns out we were able to skip the whole line to buy the pass as opposed to a ticket for admission to the castle alone. It would have been worth the extra money just for that!

We enjoyed walking around the castle, especially as the weather wasn’t doing what we’d been told it was going to. Instead of raining on us, it was actually a bit sunny!

We got some lunch at about 1:30, and then walked back down the Royal Mile. Trivia fact: the Royal Mile (measured as the distance between Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace) is actually a little over a standard mile, but was the official distance of a Scottish mile for quite some time. The Royal Mile has lots of touristy shops along it, as well as lots of neat architecture. We really liked the overall look of Edinburgh, and found it more attractive in a lot of ways than London.

At the other end of the Royal Mile is the Palace of Holyrood, which is the Queen’s official residence when she is in Scotland. We’ve actually seen fancier stately houses, but it was still neat to tour. They even had special “family” audio guides, and laminated copies of some of the artwork in the palace for Madeline to find. Those were nice touches. We couldn’t take pictures inside, but we took some outside, including of the ruined abbey on the grounds.

By the time we finished at Holyrood, Madeline fell asleep in her stroller, and stayed asleep the whole ride back on the bus. The promised rain showed up by the time we got off the bus, but it was only a few minutes’ walk to the hotel, so it wasn’t really a problem.

As usual, after supper, Madeline got her daddy to take her swimming again.
Sunday our plan was to drive the whole way through the Scottish highlands up to Loch Ness, then all the way back down again to sleep in our hotel in Edinburgh that night. We’d done some research and found that there are several tour companies that do the trip as a 12-hour day tour, so we essentially copied their route. We got started a little later than planned in the morning—it was 9:30 or so by the time we left.

Again, though, we had unexpectedly good weather for the day.

We stopped at Stirling Castle along the way. The castle itself is closed for renovations, but the rest of the buildings and grounds are open, including the area where they are making new copies of the tapestries depicting the hunt of the unicorn. The finished tapestries were really impressive—really big, with so much detail, and such vibrant colors. It was cool to be able to see what tapestries would have looked like “back in the day”, instead of all worn and faded like you always see them now.

From Stirling castle we drove straight through to Fort William, where we just stopped for a quick lunch. Ben Nevis, the highest point in the United Kingdom, is near here.

The scenery all along the drive was just breathtaking. And Bill enjoyed the driving, as well, though I think he’d have preferred to be driving something other than a Vauxhall Vectra—like maybe the Maserati we saw driving by at one point. I did the best I could at taking pictures out the window.

The drive did take rather longer than we had anticipated, though. By the time we got to the point on Loch Ness where the boat ride we wanted to take left from, it was 3:45, and the last boat left at 4. So theoretically we would have been in time, but it was sold out. We spent some time looking around, since we had been promising Madeline that we were going to look for Nessie all day long. She especially liked the purple one, since that’s her favorite color—we even ended up buying her a little stuffed purple Nessie. It was probably the first time we’ve actually bought her a souvenir any of the places we’ve taken her!

Bill really wanted the boat ride, though, so he managed to find a place about 5 miles back down the road that had a trip leaving at 5. This one was less touristy—it was actually part of an environmental survey that just also took tourists out. But we got to go out on the Loch, at least. We also got some good views of Urquhart Castle, which is along the shore of Loch Ness. It was destroyed by the occupants when they were invaded so their enemies couldn’t use it.

It was pretty late by the time we finished up with the boat ride, so we drove the remaining few miles up to Inverness and just got a quick supper there before hitting the road back down to Edinburgh. Luckily, the route we took back was faster than the one we’d taken up, so we were back at our hotel by about 10:30. We didn’t see anything much on the drive back, as it was dark by that point.

Monday morning we just kind of took it easy, and Bill took Madeline swimming after breakfast while I packed us back up. We had talked about going to the Edinburgh Zoo, but it was rainy and windy, and we decided it would just be better to get going on the drive back home.

We did run into some traffic on the way back—at one point we were at a dead stop for nearly a half hour. People started getting out of their cars, even. When it finally cleared up, we could find no reason for the holdup. We’ve found British traffic planning to be a little odd sometimes.

We didn’t stop anywhere (on purpose) on the way back, but we did attempt to get a few pictures of the “Angel of the North” from the car. It’s a big statue just outside Newcastle that’s evidently supposed to look like an angel. I think it looks more like an airplane on its end!

We liked Scotland quite a bit, and I could see us going back again someday, if we ever make it back to the British Isles.

Cruisin' Through Life

2010-04-07T14:32:00.000+01:00

Warning: this is a VERY, VERY long post. You may want to read it in installments. Oh, and you should be able to click on the pictures to see a larger version of them, if you'd like.

So, since we knew our time here in the UK was getting short (but we didn’t realize HOW short at the time), we started looking into where all we still kind of wanted to see while we were on this side of the “pond”. Some good friends had gone on a cruise last year that we thought sounded amazing. It also seemed like a good way to get a taste of a lot of different countries. So we decided to copy them, and signed up for the same cruise, just a year later.

The cruise was with Norwegian Cruise Lines, and was a 12-day cruise through the Mediterranean. Its port of departure was Barcelona (Spain), and the ports of call were Rome (Italy), Athens (Greece), Izmir (Turkey), Alexandria (Egypt), and Valetta (Malta), before returning to Barcelona.

Needless to say, we were very excited.

We flew out of the UK to Barcelona on the 6th of March. We didn’t really have time to do much but get to our hotel that night.

The following day was our day of departure for the cruise, but as we didn’t really need to be to the ship until the afternoon, we decided to do a little sight-seeing quickly in the morning. We took the metro to the Sagrada Familia cathedral, which was really amazing. It’s a cathedral that was designed and begun by Gaudi in the late 1800s, and has been under construction ever since. Theoretically, they will be finishing it in 2030. The interior is still largely unfinished, and a little hard to appreciate around all the scaffolding, but you can get a feel for how unique and impressive it will be.

The exterior looks much more finished, and has two very different sides. One was built by Gaudi, and represents the birth of Christ. The other was done much more recently, and depicts the crucifixion. There has been a bit of controversy regarding the very different styling of the two. Eventually, there is going to be a third side, which will show the resurrection. I’m curious what style they’ll go with for that one!

We spent an extra few euro to be able to take the elevator to the top of the spires, which was well worth it (especially as we found the one in the back which had no line to wait in!). The views over the city were great, as well as the chance to see the cathedral itself from a different vantage point. The way down was by lots and lots of narrow, winding stairs, but Madeline was a trooper and made it the whole way without needing to be carried!

After we finished at the Sagrada Familia, we grabbed some lunch, and headed for the cruise ship. Bill took Madeline to explore a bit while I did some unpacking. After we had supper, Bill took Madeline swimming, despite the fact that it wasn’t exactly hot. Madeline is quite the little water baby, and the pools were one of her favorite parts of the whole vacation. Luckily for me (since swimming isn’t really my thing), Bill is also a bit of a swimmer, and he’s very good about taking Madeline to pools whenever we have one around.

After swimming, Madeline went to the Kid’s Club for the first, but definitely not the last, time. One of the things we had really been attracted to with this cruise was our friends’ report of the Kid’s Club. It’s for kids 2 years old and up, and is free anytime the ship is not in port. (If you’re in port, you can pay by the hour to leave them there.) As we’d hoped, Madeline really had a lot of fun in the Kid’s Club, to the point, in fact, that unless we were eating or taking her swimming, she’d rather be there than anywhere else! Since parents were NOT allowed inside the Kid’s Club, that gave Bill and I some nice breaks from parenting. We never knew quite what she’d look like when we picked her up, though, as they did a lot of face-painting. Her favorite activity was near the end of the cruise, when the pirate “Stinky Pete” hid some treasure somewhere on the ship and they had to follow the clues all around the ship to find it. We heard a lot about that night! In fact, we still do…!

March 8th was a sea day, and unfortunately, the seas were very rough—12 foot waves. It was also only about 40 degrees, cloudy, and windy. After breakfast, Madeline went to the Kid’s Club while Bill and I went to explore the ship a bit. We made it up to the captain’s bridge, but by then I was rapidly discovering that pregnancy and rough seas mix to create really bad seasickness, even in someone who’s never been seasick before. And of course, I couldn’t take anything for it. I spent the rest of the day curled up in the fetal position in the bed. Bill took Madeline swimming, at her request, despite the weather. They had the whole pool to themselves, for some strange reason… That night, I drug myself out of bed to go to the evening show with Bill—Spanish ballet. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I probably normally would have!

March 9th we docked in Rome. Well, actually Civitavecchia, which is about a 1 ½ hour drive from Rome. I was VERY glad to be on firm ground, although rather disappointed with the weather for our one day in Rome—it was raining and cold. Oh well. We paid NCL to be bused into the center of Rome (and back at the end of the day), but chose to actually “do” Rome on our own. By the time we got to Rome, we only had about 5 hours before we were to be picked up again, so we had a rather “whirlwind” tour of the city. We did hit all the big spots I wanted to see, though.

The drop-off and pick-up location was St. Peter’s Square, so we started off by taking the metro to the Colosseum. Somehow we managed to walk right past the entrance, so we ended up walking around the entire outer circumference before we got inside. We can just pretend that was on purpose, right?! Given the weather, there was no line for tickets, so we were able to get in pretty quickly. It was an awe-inspiring place, to say the least.

From there, we walked past the Forum (along with a bunch of demonstrators?!) to the building they call the “Wedding Cake”. It’s actually a monument to Vittorio Emanuele II. Given the weather, we didn’t stop at either the Forum or the Wedding Cake, but just snapped a few pictures along the way.

Next we headed to the Trevi Fountain, so I could throw in my coin for a future (sunnier, warmer) trip back to Rome. The fountain itself is so pretty, even in the rain.

After that, we found a place to stop for some traditional Italian pizza for lunch (and to dry out and warm up a little bit). This was one of the two parts of Rome that were probably all Madeline really enjoyed. We were extremely glad we had her stroller, complete with rain cover, all day long!

The next stop was the Pantheon. Like many other parts of the city, it was under a bit of construction. This was originally built for the pantheon of Roman gods, but has since been changed over for Christian worship. Since the ceiling is open to the weather, the floor is actually a bit concave in the center, so the rainwater drains to the holes in the floor there. Pretty ingenious, really.

It’s not too far from the Pantheon to the Piazza Navona, which is where one of the other famous fountains of Rome is located: the Four Rivers Fountain. Unfortunately, this was also under construction—so much so that we could hardly see it, especially with the rain spots all over what small areas of plexiglass they’d put in for the disappointed tourists. We had planned on getting some gelato (Italian ice cream) here, but all of the gelato places around the Piazza were closed—not sure if it was because it wasn’t quite the full tourist season yet or because with the main fountain closed up there was less to see? We did take a look at the two fountains at either end of the Piazza, though. I’ve forgotten their names, however.

It was a bit of a walk from there to our next main stop: St. Peters. But we walked past a few neat buildings along the way: the Justice Hall (I think) and Castel Sant’Angelo.

And we did finally find a place to get some gelato. This was the other of Madeline’s two favorite parts of Rome!

St. Peter’s Cathedral was amazing, as expected. It’s enormous—the other famous cathedrals of Europe could each fit inside it, in fact. I was glad we weren’t there in the busy season, though—it was pretty packed as it was. We did not, unfortunately, have time to see the Vatican or the Sistine Chapel. Maybe on our next trip… There’s only so much you can pack into 5 hours, after all! In fact, as it was, we only had about 15 minutes to try to find a souvenir of Rome. I didn’t have much luck under those kinds of time restraints!

On the 2-hour bus ride back to the ship, we were told that all of the port workers in Athens were on strike, so we would be unable to stop in Athens as scheduled. Instead, we would be stopping in Sicily the next day. We spent the drive trying to decide which of the Sicily excursions to do instead of Athens. I was very disappointed, but obviously there wasn’t much NCL could do about it.

We had a late supper back on the boat, and then Madeline went to the Kid’s Club for a little while. We picked her up in time to take her with us to that evening’s show. It was called “Showdown”, and was kind of like a staged “American Idol”. We thought Madeline would like it, since she likes to sing and dance, but she got tired of it fairly quickly, so we didn’t stay for the whole thing.

March 10th we had a fairly low-key morning, as the excursion we’d chosen didn’t leave until 1pm. Bill and I decided to pay to have Madeline stay on the boat in the Kids’ Club while we did our excursion, rather than paying to have her come with us. It was only a half-day trip, and after she’d had so much “fun” in Rome, we thought she’d be happier in the Kid’s Club anyway. The excursion we chose was to see Taormina and the Greco Roman theater there.

The ship docked in Messina, which was about an hour’s drive from Taormina. They drove us past some of the main highlights of Messina before taking us to Taormina. Although the day started rainy and quite windy (another reason we left Madeline on the ship), we ended up having some nice sunshine and decent temperatures once we got to Taormina.

We walked with the guide through the quaint/touristy town of Taormina on our way to the theater.

The Greco Roman theater was pretty neat. You could see the differences between the oldest parts, built by the Greeks, the expansion built by the Romans, and the new stuff added in modern days. The theater is actually still used for productions during the summer. We got lucky and were even able to catch a glimpse or two of the snow-covered peak of Mount Etna in the background!

We had about an hour to shop in all the little stores along the way back to the bus. We bought some marzipan for Madeline, some pistachio pastries for Bill, and a little painted ceramic pot for me.

We got back to the ship and picked up Madeline in time for supper, but then just rested that evening, as I was still not exactly feeling 100%.

March 11th was another full sea day. Happily, by now the seas were calm enough that I wasn’t so horribly sick. We pretty much just chilled out a lot of the day. Madeline went to the Kid’s Club after breakfast, and Bill went to the “Captain’s Talk” so he could learn all about the finer points of the ship. After that, he and I just walked around the ship a little bit, to enjoy the sunshine. It was probably about 60 degrees. We did a little “sink laundry”, then picked up Madeline and had some lunch.

Bill and Madeline went swimming after lunch while I tried to write down some of what we’d done so far on our trip. I’m enough of a wimp that it just wasn’t ever warm enough on the ship for me to want to go swimming!

After supper, we all went to the show—“Extreme Vegas”. The Kid’s Club was going to be taking the kids to it anyway, so we took Madeline with us. It was a husband/wife team. The man did magic, and the woman was really good with hula hoops and aerobatic tricks.

March 12th we docked in Izmir, Turkey. Madeline had a really hard time waking up, as she hadn’t slept well the night before. But our excursion left at 8:45am, so we didn’t have much choice! Luckily, she settled down okay by the time we were on the bus. It was about a 1 ½ hour drive from Izmir to Ephesus, which was where our shore excursion was centered. We really enjoyed Ephesus quite a lot—it was probably one of our favorite stops on the cruise. It helped that the weather was good and that we had by far the best tour guide of our whole trip. She and Madeline became quite good friends very quickly! Madeline got lots of special treatment throughout the cruise, in fact. It probably didn’t hurt that she was one of VERY few children on the ship, and she’s so outgoing that she was always waving and saying hello to anyone we saw. Madeline enjoyed Ephesus not just because of her new friend, though—she also loved climbing around on all the rocks (as well as moving a few of the smaller ones around—I hope the archaeologists were done with all the areas we visited!), plus there were lots of “wild” cats around for her to see, even if I wouldn’t let her pet them…

After we finished at Ephesus, they took us to a place where Turkish carpets are made. We had a bit of a demonstration, both of how they get the silk for the carpets, as well as how the carpets are actually made. Then we got to sit down and were shown gorgeous carpet after gorgeous carpet. We saw several we’d have loved to bring home with us, but they didn’t quite fit into our budget at the moment. Maybe someday! Madeline wanted to know which ones were the flying carpets!

We took the bus back to port and did a little shopping in some of the stores right in the port area, then got back on the ship in time for supper.

Madeline went to the Kids’ Club for some “Blues Clues” playtime, while Bill and I went to the evening show—a man who could play more different kinds of instruments than I think I even knew existed.

The 13th of March was another sea day, as well as being Bill and my 6th wedding anniversary. We actually didn’t plan it that way on purpose—it was just a happy coincidence that it happened to be during the cruise.

Madeline went to the Kids’ Club in the morning, while Bill and I just walked around a bit and relaxed. After we all had lunch, we had a nice long nap—something that Madeline had not had anywhere near enough of on the cruise. Plus, we knew the next day was going to be a long one, so we were trying to prepare for it as much as possible. After the nap, Bill and Madeline went swimming again, while I watched. We took Madeline back to the Kids’ Club, which conveniently enough was having a special “Kids’ Club Dinner” that night. So Bill and I took the opportunity to have an anniversary dinner all by ourselves! We booked in a spot at the Japanese restaurant, which we did have to pay to go to, but it was definitely worth it—it was one of those where it’s as much entertainment as food, since the chef cooks it all in front of you, while doing tricks with his knives and such. The food was awesome—I even had calamari for the first time ever, and it was yummy!

We did pick Madeline up before going to the second half of our “date” (the evening show), in case she was getting tired, since by the time we finished supper we’d missed the earlier showing.

March 14th we docked in Alexandria. We had to get up early, as our excursion to Cairo left at 8am. It was a 3 hour bus ride from Alexandria to Cairo, and unfortunately, we had a rotten tour guide. She spent the majority of the ride selling us stuff, rather than giving us information about any of the things we were seeing, or any of the things we were going to see.

Our first stop was a place where it was safe to get a quick camel ride, as well as a good place to get a few shots of the pyramids from more of a distance. I say “safe” for camel rides because if you take a camel ride in any of the other areas, evidently they will tell you it’s either free or very cheap: until you’re ready to get down. Then they’ll charge you exorbitant rates to get off! Anyway, I didn’t feel the need to ride a camel, but Madeline wanted to, so Bill took her. It was only about a 5 minute ride, but it was probably just about perfect for her!

The next stop was up close to the pyramids. It was ridiculously hot that day—well over 90 degrees, which was a real shock to the system, when we had just been having 60s everywhere else. Madeline and I in particular had a hard time with it, despite drinking loads of water. Poor Madeline would turn bright red within seconds of getting off the bus. She lost interest in seeing anything pretty quickly. We were at this stop for about 40 minutes. Unfortunately, due to our horrible tour guide, while we knew that in theory you could go inside one of the pyramids, she hadn’t given us any information about it. By the time we figured out which one it was, and were told we needed tickets (which we had not been given); we only had about 15 minutes left, so we had to settle for just seeing the outsides of the pyramids. They were impressive enough on their own, I must admit. It’s mind-boggling to even try to imagine them being built with so little technology.

Our third stop was at the Sphinx, which is just down from the pyramids (you could easily walk). Here we were given the tickets that we should have had at the second stop, but at least they got us into an area where you could get some good side shots of the Sphinx. We tried to get Madeline interested by talking about how the Little Einsteins went to the Sphinx, but she’d pretty much had it with heat by this point.

From there, we were taken to our “5 star” lunch and river cruise along the Nile. Suffice it to say, their criteria for 5 stars must be rather lower than they are in other places! But at least it was cooler inside the boat. They had a belly dancer and a whirling dervish for entertainment. Madeline had fun learning to “belly dance”, and stole the show, if I may say so myself! If you happen to have Bill as a "Facebook friend", it's well worth checking out the little video he posted of her dancing...

We then were taken to the Alabaster Mosque, also known as the Citadel of Salah Al-Din, which was interesting, but not quite as pretty as I had somehow pictured. We bought Madeline some ice cream, and I left her and Bill for a few minutes to grab a few extra pictures. When I came back, I found them absolutely mobbed by a group of extremely curious local teenage girls, who were evidently on some sort of school field trip. They spoke almost no English, but they were just fascinated by us, and especially by Madeline. Unfortunately, while they took oodles of pictures of her, I didn’t think to take any of them!

Our last stop was the “Papyrus Institute”, which was really a store, but they did do a 5 minute demonstration on how papyrus was made before leaving us to shop.

The bus ride back was long—we got back to the ship about 9pm. We had a late supper, spent a little time in our room decompressing, and got to sleep about midnight. All in all, it was a long day. We are VERY glad we have seen the pyramids and the Sphinx, but we feel no real need to ever go back to Egypt. It was very dirty, rather depressing, and the people were so pushy—especially those who were selling things everywhere. We’ve experienced pushy tourist sales in several places before, but I have to say, the Egyptians took it to a whole new level. Here are a few pictures showing our impressions of Egypt, other than the tourist attractions:

March 15th was our second day in Egypt. It was another port day, and while we hadn’t signed up for another excursion, we had planned to go and walk around Alexandria some on our own. But given how long the previous day had been, and how dirty everything had been, I really just wanted to stay on the ship. It wasn’t too hard to talk Bill into skipping the trip. Plus, when we woke up, we found that one of Madeline’s eyes was quite swollen. We decided to take her to the ship’s doctor, despite knowing it would be expensive. Our first assumption was that it was pink eye, but given everything she’d been exposed to the previous day, we didn’t want to take any chances. The doctor said it was probably just an allergic reaction, and said the best thing would be to just give it some time and keep an eye on it. It was mostly better by the end of the day.

After the doctor, we had a late breakfast, and then Bill took Madeline swimming while I did some more “sink laundry”. We ate lunch together, then watched movies in our room and rested. After supper, Madeline went to the Kids’ Club and Bill and I went to the evening show—an Italian tenor singer. Actually, first we complained about our experience on the previous day’s shore experience. That tour guide really was horrendous. They ended up reimbursing us a little bit, which was a nice gesture, if nothing else.

The 16th was a sea day, and we didn’t do anything all that spectacular. I finished off the “sink laundry” I hadn’t finished from the day before, Madeline went to the Kids’ Club, there was more swimming for Bill and Madeline, we went to the evening show… a lot of the same kinds of things as other days. It was nice to have a combination of busy shore days and slower sea days. That way we didn’t get quite as worn out with all the things we saw and did. This was the evening that the Kids’ Club had the pirate evening I’d mentioned at the start of this post, though, so I guess it was a pretty spectacular day from Madeline’s point of view in that respect!

March 17th we arrived in Malta. Like Sicily, this was only a half-day shore excursion, so we decided to leave Madeline on the ship in the Kids’ Club again. The excursion we’d chosen left about 12:30, and focused on some of the historic towns of Malta.

We saw St. Paul’s Catacombs, so named mostly just because everything on Malta seems to have a connection with St. Paul, since he was shipwrecked here on his way to Rome. They were pretty neat, but a little hard to get good pictures of due to the lighting.

The catacombs were in the city of Rabat, which has St. Joseph as its particular saint. As the feast of St. Joseph began that weekend, they were in the process of decorating the whole town, which was neat to see.

We walked through the town a bit on our way to the walled city of Mdina, which included the really pretty church of St. Paul and St. Peter.

From here we were taken to an area with lots of shops specializing in local handicrafts. Malta is known for its silver filigree work, lace, and glass. One of the common themes in their craftwork is the Maltese cross, which is their national symbol as well. We got to see both filigree work and glass blowing, and did a bit of shopping.

Our last stop was the church in Mosta. It has the third largest dome in Europe (1st is St. Peter’s in Rome, and 2nd is St. Paul’s in London). It’s also known for the “miracle of the bomb”. During the bombing of World War II, a bomb went right through the ceiling of the church (you can still see the spot on the ceiling where it went through), bounced off a wall, and landed on the floor without exploding. The exterior of the church is modeled on the architecture of the Pantheon in Rome.

We were back to the ship and picking Madeline up in the Kids’ Club by about 5:30. Unfortunately, she hadn’t had a particularly good day—unbeknownst to us, she was the only child in the Kids’ Club the whole time we were gone! Also, her favorite “teachers” weren’t there, either. I felt soooo bad! But she perked up pretty quickly, and in fact, after supper, she was already asking to go back! Luckily by then, all the other kids were there, as were the staff members she liked best. Bill and I actually went to two shows that night—a “musical” with music from the 60s, and the NCL Crew talent show. We picked Madeline up at the Kids’ Club in time to head to the Chocolate Buffet, which was at 10:30. So obviously it was kind of a late night for her, but she didn’t seem to mind…

Our last day on the ship, March 18th, was another sea day. After breakfast, Madeline went back to the Kids’ Club (we sure did make good use of the place, but it was nearly always at her request!). Bill and I settled up our account, wrote a few appreciation notes to some of the staff (including the Kids’ Club), did a bit of “sink laundry”, etc. After lunch, Bill and Madeline had one last chance to go swimming. We had some supper, then Madeline wanted to go back to the Kids’ Club—they had a “farewell pajama party”. So Bill and I went to the last evening show, which was a Gypsy Kings tribute group.

Friday, March 19th we arrived back in Barcelona. Although NCL makes a big deal out of their “relaxing, no-rush, freestyle” disembarkation, you do still all have to be off the ship by 9am. We got to our hotel in Barcelona by about 10ish. Our plan for the day was to walk along La Rambla, see Barcelona Cathedral, and maybe a few other sites, as our flight for England didn’t leave until the next day. However, I woke up in the morning to find that I’d had some bleeding during the night, and was still bleeding some. Being a little more than four months pregnant, that made us pretty nervous. Happily, to skip to the end of that particular story, once we got back to the UK, we were able to ascertain that everything is fine with the baby. But we did decide to take it pretty easy for our last day of vacation. I took a nap for awhile, while Bill kept Madeline quietly entertained in the hotel room. We did go and walk (slowly) along La Rambla afterward. Madeline especially liked the section with all the animals for sale.

Our flight home was fairly uneventful, though we did end up taking off about an hour late.

All in all, it was an amazing, very memorable trip. We are so glad we took the opportunity to take this cruise while we were here. We saw so many places we might never have seen otherwise.

An Alien No Longer...

2010-04-06T14:28:00.000+01:00

Originally we were going to be finishing up our time here in the UK in October, as that would be when our three years would be up. But, since the baby is due mid-August, that would make things a bit more complicated what with trans-Atlantic flights, house hunting, etc. So the time table has been moved up a bit. Bill’s last day at work here in the UK will be June 11, we will fly back to the US for good on June 12, and he will start his new job back in the US on June 14!! I am very, very, very glad to be going home, especially to not be having the baby in the NHS system. Let’s just say I am not a fan of socialized medicine and leave it at that.

Of course, that means we have a LOT to do in the next two months. We’ll be going back to the US for a house-hunting trip in a couple of weeks, which is exciting but a little overwhelming. Actually, that could pretty much sum up most of my feelings about the whole move!

2010-04-05T13:06:00.001+01:00

Yes, it’s true. I’m pregnant. In fact, by the time I’ve gotten around to posting this, it’s hardly news anymore. I’m already 5 months along, and my husband has already gotten the news he wanted—it’s a boy. Now if we could just agree on a name before the poor kid is born…

It’s definitely different the second time around. I had way worse “morning sickness” this time. It kicked in just as we got to my parents’ house for our Christmas visit. So I was miserable and useless the whole time I was with my family, and couldn’t even enjoy all the American food I was surrounded by!! Talk about unfair… It only finally started to subside by the time I was several weeks into my second trimester—just as the heartburn kicked in.

I’m also showing more and sooner than I did with Madeline. So much so that before the first ultrasound at 12 weeks, I had several people wondering if it could be twins. Thank goodness, it’s not.

Probably the biggest non-physical difference is just that I really don’t have time to focus on the fact that I’m pregnant. To be honest, it doesn’t really even seem real that we’ll have another rugrat running around. I’m so busy with Madeline and everything else that’s going on (see following posts) that I just don’t really have time to think about it. It’s probably just as well—this time I KNOW what I’m in for: no illusions. So I don’t have too much time to dread the lack of sleep, crying, diapers, etc. that are coming all too quickly!!

Chocolate World

2009-11-09T20:20:00.003Z

Today my friend Charlotte and I took our kids to Cadbury World in Birmingham for a day out. Charlotte had some vouchers she wanted to use before they expired, and I'd never been. It's almost a two-hour drive from Peterborough, but hey, for chocolate...

It had some neat displays explaining both how chocolate is made and the beginnings of the Cadbury company. It also had lots of chocolate. And a playground.

For those who haven't heard me talking about all of Madeline's various friends before, Tyler is the only other kid in our church here who's Madeline's age. They have a lot of fun together, and Madeline really likes "baby" Liberty, too. So it was nice to be able to all go together.

The kids had a good time, although we were grateful for the portable DVD player in the car. And that we actually managed to get all three car seats in the back of my Astra!

I should have taken more pictures, but oh well.

Halloween

2009-11-03T10:21:00.004Z

I like Halloween. I like pumpkins. It's probably a throwback to one of my first ever jobs--I worked at a pumpkin farm.
So Friday we went to get "Madeline" a pumpkin for Halloween. I got one too, but that's just coincidence, right?

We got them home, and Bill helped Madeline pick what kind of face she wanted on her pumpkin. She was fine through cutting the top off, scooping all the insides out (she really likes that part), and drawing the face on. But when Bill started cutting the face out, Madeline got really upset: "Daddy, you're hurting my pumpkin!!" We tried to explain that that's how you make a jack-o-lantern, and that otherwise you wouldn't be able to see the candlelight through the face, but she was still extremely concerned. Finally I brought her in to look at all the pictures of us doing it last year, and showed her how they looked when they were all done. That seemed to do the trick, and Bill was allowed to finish the carving. I did mine, too...

And here they are, all lit up. Madeline was pretty happy.

The next day, Saturday, we went up to the Dea's house for the annual ISE trick-or-treating extravaganza. It was so cute to see all the kids dressed up! Madeline was Cinderella, though she didn't want to keep her crown on. She must not have really remembered trick-or-treating from last year (which kind of surprises me, as she has an astonishing memory) because she was saying, "Mommy, they gave me CANDY!" with a rather amazed look on her face the first couple of doors!

Unfortunately, her dress was more than a little too long for her. It wouldn't have mattered, except it had been raining earlier in the day, and I'm not too sure how washable the dress is. We started out having her hold it up, but then she couldn't use her hands to get the candy. So I got to play "bridesmaid". It was kind of cute, actually. I especially get a kick out of the wellies (rain boots). When in Britain...

Happy Halloween everyone!

Disneyland Paris

2009-11-02T21:28:00.015Z

Okay, so I'm making the pictures for this post a little smaller just to save space, but you can still click on them to see the full-size version...

On Thursday the 22nd of October, Madeline's patience and forbearance throughout the ordeal (to her) that was Paris, finally paid off. That morning we got up, packed, and left Paris for Madeline's first experience with Disney. As you can see from the first picture, she felt it was all worth it! They do a pretty big deal with Halloween at Disneyland Paris--everything was decorated with pumpkins and such throughout the park. It was kind of fun. The very first thing we saw (good timing) as we entered the park was Minnie's choo-choo train parade, which was a neat way to kick things off.

From there we headed to the carousel, then Dumbo, then the tea cups, all of which proved to be big hits, and all of which we ended up doing multiple times while we were there. Especially the tea cups. Madeline LOVES spinning rides. I had to sit out once or twice so she could really spin with Daddy, since too much spinning makes me ill...

But the favorite ride of the park (at least for Madeline) proved to be the perennial classic, "It's a Small World". We went on it three (or was it four?) times in just one day. We've been singing the song in the car a lot since we got back, at her request. Lunch was also a big hit--even the pizza is Mickey Mouse shaped! Daddy had fun taking Madeline for her first time driving a car; although she wasn't quite big enough to reach the pedal, she did a great job steering.

We then went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, where Madeline "helped" Bill shoot the laser gun. We later had to go on that ride again and have Madeline help me instead, so Bill could satisfy his competitive streak and prove that he could get a higher score than his father when he was not being "helped" by a three-year-old. After that we just happened to be in the right place at about the right time for the daily Disney parade. I helped Madeline maintain her spot against the pushy older kids so she could see, and Mary Poppins even stopped for a full dance number right in front of us, which was fun, as that's been one of Madeline's favorite movies lately.

We went on a few more rides, then headed back to the hotel when the park closed at 7pm. We stayed in the Sequoia Lodge, one of the Disney hotels, which was particularly nice the next morning when we headed up for breakfast to find Goofy there meeting kids! I had bought Madeline one of the autograph books on Thursday, but we hadn't used it at all, and I was starting to worry that I'd wasted the money. But Friday turned out to be a big day for us to meet characters, and Madeline really got into it pretty quickly. It was so fun to see how excited she got--she's definitely at the age where it's all very real to her. When we found out Minnie would be coming shortly after Goofy left, she was literally bouncing in line she was so happy!
After that we headed to the parks, and went to the Studios first, to check on the Playhouse Disney show Madeline really wanted to see. Since it wasn't until noon, we caught the Stitch Live show while Daddy and Grandma Hardy went on a "real" roller coaster. After that, who should suddenly show up but the Mouse himself!

After that we went back to the main park, and happened to run into Stitch (and Madeline now knew who he was, thanks to the show we'd just seen, so she was pretty excited), Chip, and Dale.

We went on a few more rides, then it was time to head back to the Studios for Madeline's Playhouse Disney Show. Playhouse Disney is the channel that she watches on TV. It has lots of little animated shows that she really likes, each about 20 minutes long. This show at Disney was a "live" show with all of the main characters in it, and Madeline had been really looking forward to seeing them. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins, and Tigger and Pooh are below. Little Einsteins is her favorite, and as this was the only place she'd see them at Disneyland, it was one of the main reasons for making sure we didn't miss the show.

The show was interactive, in the sense that they asked the kids to help do things, like "find" one of Handy Manny's missing tools, help Rocket go "super fast" so he could win the race, help "blow" Roo's kite out of the tree, etc. Madeline really got into it, and it was SO fun to watch her during the show. They had leaves fall from the sky when they blew Roo's kite out of the tree, and streamers fell when they yelled "surprise" for Minnie's birthday. Madeline loved her "goodies" and we had to carry them around in her pockets the rest of the trip.
After that we went on the couple of kids' rides that they have in the Studios: there's a magic carpet ride that's a lot like Dumbo.

And there's a Cars ride that's a lot like the teacups. This was another favorite, and one we got to go on repeatedly. When we went back to the main park for a few more rides, we happened to run into two of Cinderella's mice (who actually all have names--did you know that?!).

We split up for a little while then, so Bill and I could go on a couple of "grown-up" rides while Madeline revisited a few of her favorites with Grandma and Grandpa. My favorite ride was definitely Space Mountain. Bill liked the Aerosmith roller coaster best. Again, we stayed until the park closed at 7pm.

The next day, Saturday, we only had a half day at the parks, as our train back to England left in the afternoon. However, it turned out to be just as well, because it was a very, very wet day. Constant rain. And constant crowds--Thursday and Friday really hadn't been bad--no ride had been more than a half hour line. But even with the rain and cold, Saturday was ridiculously busy. So we mostly just found a few of the characters we'd missed that Madeline wanted to see. We had a bad experience at first--we found Donald and Daisy in the Studios, but they didn't have an actual line--it was just a crowd. Madeline kept getting pushed in front of and ignored, and then suddenly Donald and Daisy just left, without any warning--right as she'd finally gotten to the front. I was livid!!
But we got to see Pooh Bear, and the big one she really wanted to see: the princesses. Two of them were even inside the castle, which was nice as it meant less time in the rain. Cinderella and Prince Charming were really sweet--Prince Charming was the best of the princes we met. But the best princess was Snow White. She was amazing--she was outside (under an umbrella, but still...) but she never lost her huge, sweet grin, she was totally in character ALL the time, and she really took her time with the kids, asking them questions and making them feel really special. She was the only one who signed more than just her name in Madeline's book.

Sleeping Beauty and Prince Philip, unfortunately, stood right in front of a window, so we couldn't get any decent pictures of them, but at least we got to meet them. And Donald and Daisy felt so bad about leaving Madeline the way they did that they bought her an enormous lollipop to say sorry. It kept her happy for at least part of the train ride home...!

So there you have it folks. Madeline really wants to go back. I'm sure someday we will, though probably not the same one--we'll do Florida and/or California sometime when we're back home in the USA.

City of Light, City of Love, City of "Do we go to Disney today?"

2009-11-02T16:07:00.033Z

That's right--I've finally been to Paris! And Disneyland Paris, but we'll get to that...

Bill's parents have made a habit of coming over to visit us in the fall while we've been living here. Something about Bill's birthday being at the end of September and Madeline's the beginning of October maybe? Regardless, we've been using their visits as an excuse to do some travelling. Last year it was Ireland, and this year, Paris.

We left England Saturday the 17th (of October). We went by Eurostar, which was quite convenient. We had booked an apartment for the five of us for our five nights in Paris, as we found that would give us a lot more space for our money than the average Parisian hotel. Plus, it meant Madeline could have her own bedroom--a big plus in my eyes. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures of the apartment, but here's a shot of the outside:

We had the second and third floor, above the brown doors.

On Saturday we mostly just settled in and bought a few groceries, as we didn't arrive until about 3pm. But that night we made the trip over to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night.

Now, my friend Corrina, who'd just been to Paris in the spring, told me that they light up the Eiffel Tower at night every hour, on the hour, for about five minutes. She said this was really special and not to be missed. We got to the metro stop near the Tower at about 8:40 or so, to find that the tower was currently lit up. A little confused by the timing, I nevertheless didn't want to miss our five minutes and have to wait another hour to see it again. So I started power-walking. It was about a five or ten minute walk. We got there, and it was still lit. We walked around, ooh-ing and aah-ing and taking oodles of pictures and being generally amazed, and it was still lit. Maybe because it was the weekend?

Anyway, we started working our way slowly back in the direction of the metro, stopping occasionally for more pictures. Suddenly, it started TWINKLING! Lo and behold, it was 9pm. The twinkling lasted about five minutes. I had a good laugh at myself, but in retrospect, we're kind of glad we didn't fully understand what Corrina was talking about at first--it allowed us to really appreciate the Eiffel Tower as it's normally lit up, before we were blown away by the twinkling. Which, by the way, really IS special and not to be missed! We're glad we didn't.

Sunday morning, Bill, Madeline and I headed to the Louvre. Bill's parents, for whom this was their second trip to Paris, and who had therefore already seen the Louvre, were good and went to church. Even though it was all in French.

I enjoyed the Louvre, but as Bill later said, it would have been better with "More time and less three-year-old." Madeline is a fairly precocious kid in a lot of respects, but fine art is still rather lost on her.
We did make sure we saw some of the most famous of the Louvre's collection (that's the Mona Lisa behind Madeline--it actually is that small...), but we didn't really get much of a chance to truly appreciate them, or to take in much of the rest of the museum. Granted, there's something like seven miles of hallways in the place, but still...

After the Louvre, we walked up to the Musee d'la Orangerie, which is kind of a neat little museum dedicated to Monet's water lilies. There are two round rooms, with four of his paintings in each room. It's a unique presentation, and I thought it was well worth the stop.

After that, we headed to Sacre Coeur to meet up with Bill's parents. We had a gorgeous day to appreciate its beauty.

This was Madeline's favorite part of Sacre Coeur, and what we used to bribe her good behavior with...

Monday we went back to the Eiffel Tower. We tried to get there relatively early, but still stood in line for well over an hour to get tickets to the top. Luckily Madeline found some kids to play with while we were waiting. She demonstrated multiple times on this trip that play knows no language barriers! The view from the top was fantastic.

Once we were back at the bottom again, we found a crepe stand for a quick lunch.

And Madeline found some pigeons to chase. This is one of her favorite pastimes when we're travelling. I know I never bothered blogging about it, but she did a lot of pigeon chasing in Amsterdam, too.

We then went on a boat trip along the Seine. Bill and Madeline shared a "romantic" moment along the way.

After that, it was off to the Arc d'Triomphe. Here Emily and Bryant were rewarded for their good karma by getting to ride to the top in the elevator, while Bill, Stephanie, and Madeline had to take the stairs. Bill got to do them twice. He's in much better shape now. For the full story, ask Bill. I'm sure he'd love to get some sympathy by sharing it with you!

Did you know that many insurance companies specifically will not cover you if you drive on this roundabout? Not that I'd want to...

We walked along the Champs Elysees a bit and let Madeline have a quick nap in the stroller while Bill found a new appreciation for French cars.

Tuesday we had heard that the train workers were going to be on strike, so we had a plan A and a plan B for the day, depending on what all was affected. Since as far as we could tell, nothing was affected, we were able to go with plan A.
First we went to the Rodin museum, which (common theme for our trip) I'd have liked to have had more time at. Sculpture is an art form I tend to enjoy even more than painting, in general.
One of my favorite shots of the vacation: The Three Thinkers...

After that we had a quick stop at Invalides, home of Napoleon's tomb.

Then, after a long walk in the wrong direction we caught the metro to the Musee d'Orsay, where Madeline had a nice nap and the rest of us enjoyed some great art.

Notre Dame was amazing on the outside, but a little too dark on the inside for my tastes. We didn't stand in the line to climb all the stairs to see the gargoyles as it had already been a pretty long, full day. And that's what zoom lenses on cameras are for anyway, right?

Madeline found some more pigeons to exercise, and her favorite part of Notre Dame: the playground! (I bet you didn't know Notre Dame has a playground...)

Sainte Chapelle, while less impressive on the outside, is awe-inspiring on the inside. Too bad you can't combine Notre Dame with Sainte Chapelle somehow!

As our apartment was only about a 10 or 15 minute walk north of Sainte Chapelle, we eschewed the metro for a bit more scenery on the way back. Besides, Madeline was asleep in the stroller again, and we didn't want to wake her up to deal with all the stairs and crowding in the metro!

On Wednesday we went to Versailles. Unfortunately, it was a very rainy and rather cold day, so we didn't spend anywhere near as much time there as we'd expected. We pretty much just did the palace and spent only a few minutes out in the grounds, instead of the full day you easily could use on a nice day. The palace was almost overwhelmingly ornate over nearly every square inch. I was glad it existed for us to enjoy seeing and appreciating today as tourists, but I can definitely see how that kind of opulence would have contributed to fanning the revolution back in the day.

This is the King's bedroom.

And this is the Queen's.

The famous Hall of Mirrors--it's hard to get a picture that does it justice.

Since we got back so early from Versailles, we decided to stop by the Pompidou Centre before heading back to the apartment. None of us are particularly big fans of modern art, but the building in and of itself is kind of neat--they put all the pipes, duct work, escalators, etc. on the outside to maximize space on the inside. Plus it was only about five or ten minutes from our apartment.

We passed these on the way back. I wish we'd stopped...

That pretty much covers our five days in Paris. Thursday we got up and headed to Disney, which was what Madeline had been waiting for the whole time. We did that on purpose, since we figured if we did Disney first she'd never put up with Paris afterward! I'm going to do Disney in a separate post, since those of you who've read this far probably need a snack break before facing the second half!

She's 3! Well, tomorrow she will be...

2009-10-02T16:31:00.008+01:00

But today was the party!

I know--I'm actually blogging about something on the day it happened. Lana, did you fall off your chair in shock?!

Due to circumstances more or less beyond our control, poor Madeline has never had much of a celebration, let alone a party, for either of her previous birthdays. This year, we decided to rectify the situation.
It was an "intimate" group (since I forgot so many of her friends are in school already), but I'm pretty sure a good time was had by all. Madeline told me she "loved it", and her favorite part was "when the big bear came". As we'd been to a party for one of her other friends at the same place last year, she was expecting the bear. In fact, at 11pm, when she was STILL awake last night, she asked, "Daddy, what do you say when you meet a big bear?"
Thanks to all who came and celebrated with us, for making Madeline's party so special and so fun!

Even the Kitchen Sink

2009-09-09T21:42:00.003+01:00

Madeline is really into having "picnics". These are very elaborate set-ups, in which she'll spend a half hour getting everything ready, and then five minutes actually having the picnic. As you can see, she spreads out her picnic blanket, then brings in everything she needs. And she has very interesting ideas about what one needs at a picnic. Obviously there's the usual plates and cups and food (divided into regular food and treats). She sets a spot for herself, and one for each of her friends--today it was kitty and blanky and me. But did you know that you have to have a kleenex at a picnic? She asks for one every time she does this. And toys, so you can play after you eat. And a pile of books. And the phone. And don't forget the kitchen sink. After all, you might need some water. That's what she told me when I asked about it. Silly me!

First Day of "School"

2009-09-06T17:24:00.003+01:00

That's my little girl, all ready for her first day of "school"!

Preschool here starts as early as 2 1/2, and is funded by the government after they turn 3. Since Madeline's almost 3, we decided to go ahead and start her one term early. It's easier to get the days and times you want when they start in September, apparently. She stays from 9:00 to 12:30, and has lunch there (hence the lunch bag). She'll be going twice a week; on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Thursday the 3rd was the big day. She had a blast--I could barely get a good-bye kiss from her, as she was too anxious to go start painting. All evidence when I picked her up was that she'd done quite a bit of painting that morning, as she had paint from head to toes and everywhere in between!! They had warned us not to send them in "nice" clothes, as they do play messy. According to Madeline, she also spent some time on the trampoline, and made lots of new friends, although her social skills are such that she didn't bother learning their names. All things in time, right?

Hopefully she will continue to like it as much as she did her first day.

The Peak District

2009-09-06T08:06:00.023+01:00

So last weekend was a "Bank Holiday" weekend. For those of you who aren't British, Bank Holidays are random Mondays throughout the year that everyone gets off work (except mothers, but we won't get into that...). As far as I'm aware, there is no particular significance to the days they've made Bank Holidays-not like Labor Day or Memorial Day in the US.
Anyway, we decided to take advantage of this Bank Holiday weekend by getting out to see a bit more of England. Bill wanted to go down to Cornwall, but we decided that was way too long of a drive when we only had three days. Since the Peak District is only two hours away and we'd heard good things about it from some other Americans, we decided to give it a go.

On Saturday morning we packed up and hit the road. We drove up to the Heights of Abraham, which is in Matlock Bath. Matlock looked like a really cute town in and of itself, but we didn't stop to check it out. At the Heights of Abraham you get to take a cable car ride to the top of a big cliff, where there are lots of things to do--tour a cave left over from lead mining, see how lead miners lived, climb a tower for an even better view, hike around, check out fossils, and Madeline's favorite: play. They had a couple of different playgrounds, and we went to them all! There was even free face painting that day. Of course her favorite part was the gigantic slide. She went down it again and again and again, so Mom and Dad got their exercise for the day (and then some) helping her get up the huge stairs to the top time after time.

Sunday we went up to Chatsworth House. This is a huge stately house owned by the Duke of Devonshire. Which really didn't make sense to me, because we were in Derbyshire. Can anyone explain that to me? Anyway, for those film buffs out there, it's where they filmed "The Duchess" (it was also where the real Duchess had lived) and it was Darcy's home for the recent version of "Pride and Prejudice". It was amazing. Our tickets encompassed three separate areas: the home itself, the "farmyard and adventure playground", and the extensive gardens. The home, as you can see from the pictures, was extremely impressive. We didn't do much in the farmyard, as the petting zoo animals were "having a rest" (?!), but the playground was great--our little daredevil particularly liked the zipline. We did spend quite awhile wandering around the gardens, but it was pretty drizzly and a bit on the cold side, so we didn't enjoy them as much as I think we would have otherwise.

Monday we went to the Crich Tramway Village. It's basically a "village" they've built up around a tramline and old trams they've saved and refurbished. This weekend was also supposed to be a "Transport Extravaganza" with lots of old cars and motorcycles and things. The advertising for the place (and hence our expectation) was a bit, ah, exaggerated. The ride on the tram was fun, though not all that long. There wasn't all that much in the "village" that we were interested in--the best bit was the organ grinder--we stopped and listened to him several times. There were a few neat vehicles for the "Extravaganza", but nowhere near as many as we'd been led to believe. By far the best one (to us) was the toy-sized one with a teddy bear in it that the guy had a remote control for--he could make the teddy look at the kids and wave to them--it was really clever!! But Madeline's favorite part of the day was the indoor soft play area. We actually spent quite a bit of time in it, since there wasn't a ton else to do and we weren't in any hurry...

Those last two pictures are for my Dad: an idea for the next phase of your own trains, Dad--apparently the guy had soldered each individual light on by hand one at a time. That ought to keep you busy for awhile!

The only thing I don't have any pictures of from the weekend, unfortunately, was our hotel. The best part of the hotel was the really nice, really warm swimming pool that we spent our evenings in. Our little fish had fun showing her Daddy what a good swimmer she is--especially how she swims underwater! He was suitably impressed.

Just so you know...

2009-09-06T08:03:00.004+01:00

I'm not even going to TRY to catch up with all the stuff I should have blogged about in the past five months. Suffice it to say we had a big trip to the Netherlands and Belgium with my parents in April that was absolutely wonderful. If you want to see pictures, go to my husband's Facebook page. We also did a day trip to London one Saturday. And my sister Karen came for a quick visit as part of her whirlwhind Europe tour. Other than that, general "life" stuff has filled our days. Sorry to those of you who haven't completely given up on me, but you're just going to have to live with not knowing what transpired for five months of my life. I'm sure you'll survive.

This Is Why All My Friends Should Come Visit...

2009-04-08T12:52:00.022+01:00

...Because we have soooo much fun!

Missy, one of my good friends from high school (and in fact, from much earlier, since we went to the same church growing up), gets the award for the only non-family visitor who's made the trip over to see us (so far...).

She got in on Tuesday the 31st of March, and we just took it easy that day so she could recuperate from jet lag.

But on Wednesday (April Fools?) the fun began!

Missy is a stage manager for theater back in the US, so anything theater related is right up her alley. Naturally, a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon was in order. The weather cooperated beautifully, and Madeline cooperated pretty well too, for a two-and-a-half year old. We saw Shakespeare's birthplace, the church where he's buried, his wife's cottage, and a few other homes that are connected to his family as well. It was well worth the two hour drive to get there!

Thursday we stayed closer to home, and checked out Peterborough Cathedral and the downtown area in the morning. Katherine of Aragon is buried here, and Mary Queen of Scots was, until they moved her body.

The theory was that this was Madeline's day to actually get a proper nap. Murphy's Law should have warned me it would be the day she decided NOT to go to sleep. Sigh. We headed up to Burghley House in the afternoon regardless. For those who don't know, they filmed part of Pride and Prejudice (as well as a few other movies) here. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but the artwork and furniture and such are amazing. Madeline may not have fully appreciated the culture in the house, but she did really like the little "guard house" by the front gates!

Friday we went to Cambridge, and took the traditional punting tour along the Cam river. The weather was a bit colder, but we practically had the river to ourselves, which was cool. We also had a very good tour guide--thanks, James! Afterwards, we stopped and had some traditional fish and chips at a nice British pub for lunch. Unfortunately Kings College Chapel was closed, so we had to content ourselves with just wandering through the market area in the afternoon instead.

Saturday morning Missy and I left Peterborough (and Bill and Madeline) behind and headed off for a girls weekend in London!

We took the train down to London, so of course I had to get my Harry Potter photo op at Kings Cross.

After dropping our bags off at our (unexpectedly) posh hotel, complete with amazing views of Hyde Park from our room,

we headed down to get quick photos of Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, etc. on our way to Buckingham for the changing of the guard. I was amazed how many people were there. Granted, it was a Saturday, and the weather was even pretty great, but it wasn't exactly tourist season yet...

Anyhow, after that we went up to Picadilly Circus area for a little kitsch souvenir shopping and some lunch--at TGI Fridays! Thanks, Missy, for putting up with all the American restaurants for me!

We hit Trafalgar Square on our way down to the Globe Theater--another nod to Missy's theater roots. The tour there is actually pretty cool, and had their theater season started yet, I'm sure we would have stayed there for a show.

Unfortunately, that's when the real "fun" began. Due to a mis-read of the map on my part (yes, I'm a cartographer, and yes, I should know better), I thought it was a lot closer to Tower Bridge than it actually is, so we decided to walk to it, then across it, to pick up the tube again. It wasn't a bad walk, just longer than anticipated.

What compounded the issue was that once we got there (and I realized where we actually were on the map, as opposed to my earlier mis-reading) we discovered that the tube line we needed was CLOSED. We asked the tube worker there what the best option was to get to the lines that were open, and he told us to walk up a ways to the bus station. When we got there, it was also CLOSED. Now I ask you: what brilliant person thought it would be a good idea to first close major downtown tube lines on a Saturday, and then also simultaneously close the only other option for affordable transportation in the same area?????!!!!!

Of course, we were by now cutting things close to get back to our hotel and get ready in time for our show that we had tickets to for that night. After a VERY LONG walk (and quickly grabbing some Subway sandwiches along the way for supper) we finally made it back to a tube stop for a line that was open, made it back to our hotel, and made it (just barely) to our show--Hairspray.

It was worth the walk, and then some!

Sunday we slept in, and with our feet and legs recovered from the previous day, we walked through Hyde Park to Kensington Palace.

We then walked past the Albert Memorial, Royal Albert Hall, and the Royal Geographical Society (for me!) on our way to Harrods.

In case you can't read the sign, that cake costs 5000 pounds, or about $7500.

After that we had a quick lunch at Hard Rock cafe--one of Missy's favorites.

And that was, unfortunately the end! By then, Missy had to get to the airport to catch her plane to Switzerland (she was on to visit another friend) and I had to get back to Peterborough to "rescue" Bill from Madeline.

All in all, it was a fantastic week--Madeline wants to know when Missy is coming back, and so do I! :-)

She's Full of Personality...And Then Some!

2009-02-12T07:39:00.003Z

Madeline is going through a phase (I hope) right now where she at least claims she doesn't like to have her diaper changed. I think it's more about obstinacy than anything, but whatever.
She was due for a diaper change yesterday afternoon when we were playing some computer games (one of her favorite pastimes), so we finished the one we were on, and I told her I was going to send a quick email, and then we were going to change her diaper.
About a minute later, I was plunged into total darkness as Madeline turned off the light, which she can now reach (!), and shut the door. She then triumphantly exclaimed, and I quote: "You'll never change my diaper now!!!"
I nearly busted a gut laughing.
But we did change her diaper.

REAL snow in England!

2009-02-05T11:03:00.003Z

We did have a little bit of snow here a couple of days ago, but today, unexpectedly, we woke up to REAL snow. Enough snow to make a true snowman. So we did! With a few breaks in between to go out front and watch all the "big kids" (teenagers) having a neighborhood-wide snowball fight in celebration of school being cancelled. They have no snow removal equipment here, so anything over an inch or two pretty much closes things down. Needless to say, Bill still went in to work today, even so!
Madeline has quickly picked up on the tradition of hot chocolate after playing in the snow. She wanted "five" marshmallows in it today. She usually asks for things in quantities of three or five: not sure why, but I sure get a kick out of it!

Yes, I Am Alive...

2009-02-01T16:37:00.007Z

...And yes, Christmas in the US was wonderful!

I post this blog not because I feel a huge need to document our trip back home, but because if I don't put SOMETHING up on my blog soon, I am in serious danger of being disowned by certain friends and family--you know who you are...!

We flew out of the UK on December 13th, and nearly 24 hours after leaving our home in Peterborough, arrived at Bill's parents' home in Ponca City (as a TOTALLY unrelated, but somewhat interesting side note: here is a list of the cities that Bill has lived in: Ponca City, Provo, Madison, Peoria, Peterborough. Other than that one little blip there, anyone notice a pattern? Pittsburgh, here we come? Or maybe Portland?). Anyway, it was a long and exhausting day of travel, but it could have been worse.

We enjoyed two weeks with Bill's family, including their traditional Christmas Eve get-together with the Foy family, consisting of lots of soup, a pinata, and a reading of the Luke 2 Christmas story. Madeline wasn't totally sure about the pinata, until the candy came out--then she had fun going around and helping herself to things out of everyone else's piles! The privilege of being the only one of her generation there, I suppose... She helped Grandma Hardy illustrate the Christmas story with the Little People nativity Grandma had bought for her to play with--right down to having Mary ride the donkey! I wish we had some video footage of that; it was really cute.

Madeline really enjoyed getting to spend time with her relatives, and her uncles, in particular, were a big hit! They may now never have children of their own, after helping us keep Madeline entertained. :-)

The day after Christmas we left Oklahoma to fly up to Wisconsin to see my family. Madeline and I almost missed our connecting flight because I'd taken her to the play area in the airport not realizing that our flight was so full they decided to board everyone a half hour early (nearly giving Bill a heart attack in the process), but other than that the trip went quite smoothly!

We had a fantastic time with the VanCleaves as well. We finally got to meet "Baby Caitlin", Madeline's new cousin, for the first time (and sent her to the emergency room a half hour after she got there, when Madeline accidentally fell on her face--don't worry, no real damage done). Madeline also got to experience the joys of sledding and snowmen for the first time.

Bill only got to stay in Wisconsin for a week, as he had to get back to the UK and his job, but Madeline and I stayed on a week longer, and had a wonderful, relaxing, fun time with just us and Grandma and Grandpa VanCleave. Madeline especially liked Grandpa's trains, and spent lots of time down in the basement with him, watching them go, pushing the button to make the train whistle sound, and saying "All Aboard!" We even got to make a trip to the zoo, where we had a great time despite the cold weather.

But all good things come to an end, and on January 9th, Madeline and I packed up whatever we hadn't sent home with Bill (we'd spent our entire "Economic Stimulus Check" and then some while in the US, stocking up on clothing, food, etc., so I'd say we did our part for the US economy), and started the long journey home. Apart from a cancelled flight from Milwaukee to Chicago and a resultant bus ride, the trip, even as a solo parent, really wasn't too bad, all things considered.

Madeline was very excited to see her Daddy again, and I think also to be home, although she does talk about missing Grandma and Grandpa a lot, and wants to go back to their house again. Mommy was somewhat less excited to be home, though I suppose it is good to be back in a "normal" routine again, or at least to have all of our "stuff" instead of just what we could fit in the suitcases.

Santa Brought a Tricycle!

2008-12-06T19:50:00.005Z

Yes, I know it's still 19 days until Christmas. But since we're flying out early next Saturday, we decided to have a mini-Christmas for our family today, with the presents we weren't going to pack along with us on our trip back to the US.
And the biggest of those was...Madeline's first bike! Okay, trike, but still, it was exciting. Thanks to Murphy's Law, the camcorder was inexplicably not working, so all we have are some photos, but that's better than nothing.

The tree (yes, we need to get a star for the top of it)...

The trike...

First sight...

Whee!!...

Hell's Angels, watch out?!?...

And here she is, all ready for her first ride outside. She has a lot of fun making the horn honk, and it's very, very loud. Sigh. At least we bought a trike with a parent handle, since she has yet to learn the finer points of pedaling or steering! All things with time and practice, right?

So, one final funny story about our "Christmas" day: We used Madeline's nap this afternoon to get everything ready (assemble the trike, put the presents out, etc.) since we've told her Santa brings presents while you're asleep. When she woke up, Bill was busy finishing up a project outside, so I told her we had to wait upstairs for Daddy, since Santa had come while she was sleeping. Well, she decided she did NOT want to go downstairs. Eventually I figured out it was because she thought Santa was still down there! So I told her that Santa wasn't there any more: he'd gone bye-bye, but had left the presents for her. Then she was all ready to head down the stairs and check it out. Evidently, while she's all about Santa Claus in the abstract, or in photos, or TV, she is not so sure about hanging out with him in her house, face-to-face!

A New Way to Get Clean

2008-12-06T19:41:00.003Z

Yes, that is my child trying to climb into the washing machine. I have absolutely no idea what prompted her to do so, but then, she's been full of strange and unpredictable ideas lately (i.e. "Let's smear large quantities of lip balm all over the pictures in my room while Mommy's cleaning the bathrooms").

Thankfully, although she really was trying awfully hard, she's just too big to actually fit into the drum, let alone get the door shut behind her, so I was able to simply stand back, watch, snap a few photos, and have a good laugh!

Family Outing

2008-12-05T13:39:00.002Z

Bill decided to take the day after Thanksgiving off, since he had one day of vacation left over, and would lose it if he didn't use it. I planned to use that weekend to get him to get all the Christmas decorations and the Christmas tree, etc. down from the area above the garage so I could decorate. He found a new and creative way to side-step "honey-do" lists: propose a family outing instead!
We drove a little over two hours to the area of Stoke-on-Trent, where there is a hotel with a water park inside it. The hotel is part of Alton Towers, which is an amusement park here in England.
Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the weekend, as photography was not allowed inside the water park, and there didn't seem much point in taking a picture just of our hotel room. Sorry!
We had a very good time, though--Madeline loves the water just as much as her daddy does, so she got to do lots of "swimming". She really has no fear at all, so we were grateful for the lifejacket-type vests they make for kids these days! The kiddie water slide in particular was a big hit. My only complaint was that they didn't have the place heated quite as much as I would have liked, so we had to stop to warm up a little too often. But it was still a fun weekend. And Bill and Madeline humored me by letting me have a few hours on the way home to stop at Spode and Wedgwood for a little browsing!
Oh, and we did still get the Christmas decorations down that weekend after we got home, so I guess Bill's little trick didn't work after all...

Thanksgiving, a Little Early...

2008-11-23T16:49:00.004Z

Today was our annual ISE Thanksgiving dinner. It was SO different for me than last year's! Last year, we'd been here for all of two weeks or so. I knew almost no one. We didn't have any of our stuff (our shipment hadn't arrived yet). I was so homesick, and so overwhelmed, and it was so hard listening to everyone talking about how they were all going home for Christmas, when I knew I wouldn't be going home for over a year.
This year, I knew nearly all of the people there, and many of them are good friends. We're about as settled into this country as we're going to get, and I'm leaving to go back home for Christmas in three weeks! Needless to say, it was much more relaxed and much more fun for me than last year.
So, I am thankful for: the new friends I've made in the past year. Having our own furniture, etc. and not having had to pay to get it here ourselves! The opportunity to go home and see our families soon. Being used to living in England, even if I do still like the USA better. :-) And, of course, all of the other blessings we have, even if I am too lazy to type them all in here.
I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few to give an idea of just how many of us there are--I think they said there were about 130 people there today.

I know it looks like Bill's glaring at me for taking a picture, but really, he's not! Those are our friends, the Dobberfuhls, across the table from us--Lana, thanks for smiling so it looks like someone, at least, wanted this picture taken...

And this last picture was taken/made by one of our ISE friends whose hobby is photography. Thanks, Laurie! If you click on it to enlarge it, I think you'll find it's pretty easy to find Madeline...

Trick-or-Treat

2008-11-04T08:19:00.002Z

Here's our fairy princess all dressed up and ready to go trick-or-treating!
Halloween isn't quite as big here as it is in the States, but our friends and fellow ISEs Corrina and Kevin had invited a bunch of us over to a party and some trick-or-treating in their neighborhood, since they knew their neighbors would be handing out candy.
Bill and I had really talked Halloween up to Madeline in an attempt to prepare her for the new experience, especially as she REALLY doesn't like masks and most costumes on other people. So she was super excited to get to "Corrina's house" and go "trick-or-treat"ing to get "candy"!
Murphy's law, naturally, came into force. The drive that should have taken about 15 minutes took us well over an hour, because there was an accident on the road, so we just sat there at a dead stop for a long, long time. Made even longer by having a frustrated two-year-old in the back seat, who didn't understand why Mommy wasn't taking her to the party like she'd promised! By the time we finally got there (and met Bill, who'd just gone straight there after work), the rest of the party had pretty much finished trick-or-treating.
Luckily, it was Madeline's first time truly taking part in Halloween, so she didn't really have any expectations. So Bill and I took her around to about 5 or 6 houses by ourselves, and she didn't know that she'd missed anything!
So all's well that ends well, and we had a great time at the party. Thanks to Corrina and Kevin, for throwing a terrific bash! Sorry I don't have any pictures of the actual event--I was a bit frazzled when we finally arrived, and forgot to get the camera out of the car...

Our Lil' Punkin

2008-10-30T13:18:00.002Z

Well, thankfully the British equivalent of Wal-Mart (Tesco) did indeed have pumpkins.

Although I have since learned that the pumpkin festival we went to actually DID have pumpkins for sale. They were just in a really hard-to-find location and there were no signs anywhere to tell you about them. If we had managed to find them though, and bought pumpkins, we could have gotten free entry to the farm, which would have saved us money. Sigh. But I digress...

On Saturday we initiated Madeline into the joy that is pumpkin carving. Daddy helped Madeline with her pumpkin while Mommy did the other one. Needless to say, Daddy and Madeline's pumpkin turned out best. Madeline even helped design the face for her pumpkin: Bill drew several sets of eyes, noses, and mouths, and let her pick the ones she liked best. She wasn't super sure about helping to pull out the seeds, etc. at first, but it didn't take her too long to get into it. We've put our pumpkins outside on the wall by our driveway, and we have lots of fun waving to them every time we go by. Thankfully no one's smashed them yet--I don't want to have to try to explain that to Madeline if it happens. She's rather fond of her pumpkin, as evidenced by the photo of her kissing it!

"Pumpkin" Festival

2008-10-18T16:14:00.003+01:00

I must really have bad karma when it comes to food-themed festivals. It's getting to be something of a family joke.
It all started with the infamous "Cherry Festival" right after we moved to Illinois. There was not a single cherry in sight. All it was was a really cheap carnival.
Today the trend continued. As a big fan of Halloween, specifically the beautiful fall colors and pumpkin farms, I was excited to see that a local farm was having a "Pumpkin Festival" today. I promptly put it on the calendar and informed Bill that he was taking Madeline and I to it. I told Madeline we were going to a farm to get her a pumpkin. She was really excited, and talked about getting a "pumpkin for Madeline" the whole way there. Never make promises to a toddler if you don't have total control over the outcome...
It wasn't quite as bad as the Cherry Festival. There were a few, small pumpkins. They had a pumpkin sling shot, and at specific times (none while we were there) they had pumpkin carving. But we did not see a single pumpkin for sale ANYWHERE.
Now, it wasn't a total waste of time and money--Madeline actually did have fun seeing, holding, and feeding all the animals. And there was play equipment. And the weather was great. All told, we spent about two hours there, in fact.
But we came home without a pumpkin for Madeline.
I told her I'd buy her one at the grocery store. Sigh.

Hardy Visit and Trip to Ireland

2008-10-16T13:09:00.028+01:00

I know I'm a bit behind in posting this, but as you may have gathered from my previous blog, I kind of had other things on my mind...

We recently had the chance to spend some time with Bill's parents--they came over here to visit us, and then we all went to Ireland for a week together. It was wonderful (though admittedly a bit stressful with a two-year-old)! A big thank you to Corrina for helping me to plan the trip to Ireland--I couldn't have done it without all your great advice!

I've decided the easiest way to cover everything is to do a day-by-day recap. This means it's going to be a really long posting. It should probably be more like 7 separate blogs. Consider yourself warned. Oh, and a note on the pictures: even after trying to just keep the "good" ones, I still have about 300 pictures from the trip. That's what you get with three cameras going at once! If any of you really want to see them all, let me know, and I can send you a link to see them on a photo website.

So, here goes:

Bill's parents arrived about lunchtime on Friday, September 26th. In an attempt to keep them awake so they could adjust to the time change quicker, we went to the park with Madeline in the afternoon.

Saturday there was an "Autumn Faire" in our neighborhood, so we went and checked that out.

Sunday was a bit more relaxing--just church and then a bit of a birthday celebration that evening--Bill's birthday was the next day, and Madeline's was the coming Friday.

Monday we drove out to Woburn Safari Park. It's about an hour and a half from here, and it's loads of fun. We'd been there before, but it was nearly a year ago, so Madeline got a LOT more out of it this time. Oh, and the really good monkey shots were taken by Bryant (Grandpa) with his fancy new camera!

We also found an honest-to-goodness Mexican restaurant in the town near there so Bill could have his favorite food for his birthday supper!

Tuesday was mostly packing and preparation.

Wednesday the 1st of October we packed up the "MPV" (a.k.a. minivan) we'd rented for the trip, and were on the road by about 8:30am. We drove about 4 1/2 hours to the ferry port in Wales, and then the ferry itself took about 2 hours. Driving about 2 miles through Dublin once we got to the other side took about as long as the entire ferry crossing had! Hooray for Bill, who did all the driving on the trip. I'm glad it wasn't me.

Thursday we got up and went to the Dublin zoo in the morning, mostly for Madeline, though it is a rather good zoo, even if it is still partially under construction.

That afternoon we took a guided bus tour of Dublin, and went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. I missed most of the bus tour, because by then I was holding a sleeping Madeline in the back of the bottom of the bus. She was not interested in being in a stroller any longer, but really needed the nap! So the pictures of most of Dublin are courtesy of Bill's parents, who were on the top of the bus.

Friday we left Dublin and headed down to Waterford to see the Waterford Crystal factory. This was one of the stops I'd really been looking forward to. We took the tour, which was really interesting, then poor Bill got to "entertain" Madeline while the rest of us shopped!

After Waterford, we drove to Cobh. This was the port that a lot of Irish emigrants left through, especially during the famine years, and was also the last port of call for the Titanic.

That night we had Madeline's birthday celebration, complete with a candle on cake at supper and lots of presents to open! Happy second birthday, kiddo. I promise one of these years we'll actually let you celebrate a birthday at home... (Last year we were on our house-hunting trip before we moved here).

Saturday we started out the day at the Blarney Castle. This was one of my favorite stops on our trip. Bill, Grandpa, and I kissed the Blarney Stone. Grandma didn't want to, and although Madeline did, she wasn't quite big enough. You may not all know this, but to kiss the Blarney Stone, you have to lay down on your back, and scoot backwards while the gentleman who works there holds onto you, then grabbing onto some iron bars, you kiss it upside down. So Bill found Madeline a "big Blarney Stone" on the side of one of the walls, and she got to kiss that one! Also, big kudos to Bill for carrying Madeline both up AND down the hundreds of teeny tiny, curved, steep, slippery steps to the top of the castle. I seriously don't know how he did it. I was holding on with both hands as it was, and I wasn't also trying to hold a squirming toddler... The grounds of Blarney Castle are gorgeous, and worth the visit for that alone.

After Blarney, we drove to Killarney and tried to go to the Muckross House Traditional Farms--a farm set up as it would have been in the 1920s/30s, before they had widespread electricity. Despite all information stating that it should have been open, and specifically timing our trip to be there on Saturday, since that was the day it's open, they'd closed a month early this year. Sigh. The Muckross House tour was impressive, but more than a little lost on Madeline! Although she did like the wool that the spinning demonstrator gave her...

Sunday we drove the Ring of Kerry, and we had absolutely gorgeous weather for it. I think this was the highlight of the trip for just about everyone. And the best part of the Ring of Kerry for us was a little island called Valentia that we took a small detour to. It's not on the main route, and tour buses can't go there, but it has some just spectacular and breath-taking scenery. Thanks to Stephanie (Grandma) for making the decision to go there! Pictures really don't even come close to doing justice to the beauty of the area.

Near the end of the Ring, we stopped at Torc Waterfall, which I'd wanted to see the day before when we were at Muckross House, but the weather had been too wet. I guess it made for an even better waterfall when we finally saw it!

Monday we went to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, near Limerick. The castle is decorated from the 1500s, and the folk park is more 1800s, so that was a little confusing at first, but it was worth the visit. I think the Folk Park would be better in the "high season" (summer tourist time), but the castle (and really, a lot of the places we went the whole week) was probably better during the off season. It was nice not to deal with crowds everywhere (especially on the steps in the castles!).

Unfortunately, after lunch, the weather took a turn for the worse. We did actually go to the Cliffs of Moher (despite a ridiculously confusing detour due to a closed road), but literally couldn't see anything. In fact, I ended up staying in the car with Madeline, since it was so cold and wet and she was half asleep anyway. When Bill got back to the car, he told me it wasn't worth getting soaked for. Stephanie took a picture for me to prove it, and I have to admit it's one of my favorite pictures of the trip, just because it's so ironic! For those who don't know, the Cliffs of Moher is supposed to be one of the best views in all of Ireland, and I'm sure it is, on a clear day!

Since the weather was so nasty and we were a little behind schedule anyway, we decided to skip the rest of our plan for the day (a drive through the Burren) and just went to our B&B for the night. Incidentally, that B&B--the Springhouse, in Tipperary, was the best one we stayed at on the whole trip. I'd definitely recommend it.

Tuesday we went to the Rock of Cashel. It was really impressive, and had a somber and mysterious feel to it. At least it did to me, if that doesn't sound too corny. Some of that may have had to do with the weather--it was another gloomy and wet day. But I shouldn't complain: two wet days out of seven in Ireland in October isn't bad at all!!

I should probably explain that last picture: The inside of a chapel that was part of the Rock of Cashel had been painted with religious murals. During the time of the Reformation, they thought that those types of art were idolatrous, so they whitewashed over it all. They're trying to uncover and protect the old art, but it's obviously a painstaking process.

Unfortunately we didn't have time for our last planned stop of the trip. We were going to go to Powerscourt Gardens on our way back to the ferry, but we just didn't have the time, even if the weather had been nicer. I guess we'll just have to go back someday!

We got in to Wales at about 8:30 that night.

Wednesday, the 8th of October, we drove the 4 1/2 hours back home. Madeline was super happy to be home. Poor kid, she really was a trooper, but two-year-olds thrive on routine, and a "routine" of getting up every morning to leave and go somewhere else just doesn't cut it! Not to mention putting in over 1000 miles of driving (meaning being strapped into her car seat) in one week!!

Grandma and Grandpa left the next day to get to London. Their flight out of Heathrow was early enough that they decided to spend their last night in a hotel rather than try to get from Peterborough to London in time. Madeline misses her Grandma and Grandpa, but she had a lot of fun with them while they were here, and so did we. I'm glad I can now say I've been to Ireland, and it really is a beautiful place; well worth the visit.

I did it!!!!!!!!!

2008-10-16T12:44:00.004+01:00

Yes folks, it's true. I have actually managed to pass my UK driver's test, which I took this morning.

And I passed despite an absolutely abysmal job on my reverse parking (which was the one maneuver I knew I was still awful at...)! Truth is, I kind of got lucky. My examiner happened to be into "Americana"--he loves blues music, collects jukeboxes and Cadillacs, etc. He said he thinks he was born "20 years too late and on the wrong continent." I think my accent was actually a big point in my favor for once! :-)

It is a huge relief to finally have the whole thing over and done with and behind me. Though I'm not sure I'll totally believe it's over until I've received the actual license--it's supposed to come in the mail sometime in the next three weeks.

All told, the process (for both Bill and I) cost 450 pounds, and took over two months, which was actually quite fast for here.

Oh, I guess I should mention that Bill passed too, on Saturday. Not that that was really a big surprise, although he also got "lucky" in that his examiner didn't particularly care whether or not he used his parking brake every time he stopped. Bill still thinks that's a silly rule...

It doesn't matter now, though, because we can both go back to all of our usual "bad driving habits." Yay!!

Good News and Tragedy

2008-09-22T08:52:00.004+01:00

Friday--it was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
First, the good news:

Madeline has officially been released from any further check-ups following all the problems she was having with her eyes and cranial pressure from just over a year ago. We are SO glad to finally have all of that completely behind us, and are eternally grateful that all ended well. It was a terrifying, immensely stressful time, but other than a lingering dislike of doctors, Madeline appears to have no lasting ill effects. Her vision is perfectly normal, and there is no sign that there ever even was swelling in her cranial nerves. Here are some pictures from those days, showing what a trooper she was, even in the midst of it all:

After good news like that, our "tragedy" is not actually all that awful, but we are sad to report that we have lost Madeline's beloved "Puppy". Puppy was a gift from Aunt Karen, from before Madeline was even conceived (though we were trying), and has been one of her all-time favorite "friends" for her whole life. He accompanied us on a journey to the store on Friday, and sadly, upon arriving home, was nowhere to be found. We tried calling the store, and customer services checked everywhere we'd been, but to no avail. After returning from our trip to Cambridge to see the doctor, we retraced our steps and checked all the stores again ourselves, but still no luck.
Puppy, we will miss you...

For nostalgia's sake, here are a few pictures from the early days, when he still looked new and fluffy, rather than raggedy and "well-loved" (he can also be seen in the picture above, helping Madeline through the ordeal of her weeks in the hospital...):

Caitlin Elizabeth Olsen

2008-09-15T16:10:00.005+01:00

Here are some photos of my adorable new niece:

She was born at 10:44 pm on Sunday, September 14th. She weighed in at 7 pounds and 4.8 ounces and was 21.5 inches long.

I can't wait to hold her, but I have to wait until CHRISTMAS!!! She'll be more than three months old by then! Sigh...

I guess I'd better send her some Packers gear in the meantime... ;-)

Pigeons Farm

2008-09-15T14:27:00.009+01:00

We went to Pigeons Farm with our friends Stephanie and Blake today. It was lots of fun! We actually had good weather for it (not too cold and more importantly, not raining!) and we even pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. Madeline and Blake got to pet lots of baby animals, and also got to feed the goats, and just generally had lots of fun playing.

Baby guinea pig...

Madeline and Blake with the baby chicken...

Madeline petting the baby rabbit... Mommy really liked this one--it was so soft and cute she started asking whether or not rabbits make good pets!

Inside the pig pen... Madeline was interested in the pigs, but didn't want to actually get close enough to pet them. We also realized we should have brought "wellies" (boots) for this part--everybody's shoes got quite dirty and smelly.

Fun on the "jumping pillow" with Stephanie...

Madeline was really into the chickens...

Great big sandbox...

Baby cow--less than one month old! We didn't get to pet this one...

Madeline with the "horsie." She did get to pet the horse, but we didn't get a photo of it...

Feeding the goats. The gentleman at the farm brought the leaves over for the kids to feed to them, and told them it was like ice cream to the goats!

It was neat to see Madeline seeing and interacting with real animals--she plays with her toy farm animals at home and makes all the noises, etc., so it was good for her to get to see the real thing and make the connection in her mind. All in all, a fun outing.

I'm an AUNT!!!!!!!

2008-09-15T07:15:00.003+01:00

My little sister, Lisa, has made me an aunt!
I don't have many details yet, but here's what I know:
It's a girl! 7 lbs 4 oz in weight, and 21.5 inches long. Her name isn't official yet, but it'll probably be Caitlin Elizabeth Olsen--that's what they'd picked before she was born, anyway.
Lisa's water broke at 2am, and it was a long, difficult labor--they had to give her two doses of her epidural. My mom heard the good news at 11:35pm, so it was almost a full 24 hours of labor.
Lisa and my niece are both OK: both have a slight temperature (apparently that's not unusual when the water breaks so early in labor), but everything seems normal. Caitlin came almost 3 weeks early, so this was all a bit of a surprise!
I'll post more (including pictures) when I can...

Happy Birthday, Take One...

2008-09-14T19:50:00.004+01:00

No, Madeline hasn't actually turned 2 yet. Not for another three weeks. But the package from Grandma and Grandpa VanCleave arrived in the mail, and she was awfully interested in her "Happy Birthday Box." So we Skyped with Grandma and Grandpa on Friday (after the haircut--it was a big day!), and let her open her presents from them a bit early. She got lots of great stuff: new clothes (all of her 2T pants are too short for her now), some purses--one even had real coins in it, some Sesame Street DVDs, a Little People picnic set...but the biggest hit was the present Grandma had gotten for free in the mail: STICKERS!! Figures. (She has rediscovered the other presents by now.)

First Haircut

2008-09-14T19:36:00.005+01:00

Bill finally convinced me to get Madeline's hair cut. I've been wanting to let it grow, but it really was getting kind of ridiculous. It was always in her eyes, unless I tried to put pigtails or barrettes in. But she'd just pull those out, along with chunks of her own hair.

So I bowed to the inevitable and we went to a salon in the shopping mall near us on Friday. Here are the before shots:

She was fairly good, but did present a moving target for the poor hairstylist. It was a new experience in a new place, and she just wanted to be able to look at everything all around her! Here are the during shots:

Here's one after shot (she really didn't want to sit still at this point...):

And here's some shots of her thoroughly enjoying her reward for (at least mostly) cooperating:

I'm glad we did it--she's still got her fairly wild n' crazy hair (goes with her personality), but at least now she can see!

O-R-E-O

2008-09-14T19:31:00.003+01:00

It must be genetic. Or instinctive.
I gave Madeline her first Oreo cookie the other day, left for five minutes, and came back to this:

Yep, that's right. Who wants the cookie when there's frosting in the middle?!? Maybe I should try to get her cast in the next Oreo commercial...

Driving Test, Parts 1 and 2: check!

2008-09-14T19:12:00.003+01:00

I feel like I'm 15 1/2 again.
As Americans, we are only allowed to drive on our US driver's licenses for 1 year. At the end of that time, we have to have gotten UK driver's licenses. Our year mark is looming ever closer, so we've finally started the process. And by process, I mean epic. Like Homer's Odyssey, only filled with red tape and lots of money being spent.
The first thing we had to do was apply to get a provisional license. That cost 50 pounds per person, plus 4 pounds per person to get the "right" kind of photos for the license. You're not allowed to smile for them. We kind of look like thugs. Bill especially. After filling out all of the paperwork, we had to mail it all in, along with our passports. We were told this could take up to four weeks to get back. Luckily it was closer to one week, but it still made me rather nervous... as if we were being held prisoner in the country...
Once we got the provisional licenses, we could sign up to take the theory test. This is comprised of two parts: a 50 question multiple-choice, and a "hazard perception," which is 14 video clips of driving where you have to click at the right time when you see a hazard. And when I say "right time," I mean that they are extremely picky about this. They were booking three weeks out or more for the theory test. Oh, and it was 30 pounds per person. I finally had mine on last Wednesday, and Bill's was Thursday. We both did lots of studying for it (me more than Bill), and thankfully, we both passed.
Next step: the practical driving exam. This is the actual behind-the-wheel portion, and they are booking nearly six weeks out for it. It lasts about 45 minutes, and includes "show and tell" type questions about your car (like how thick your tire tread has to be, how to check your oil, etc.) as well as the demonstration of good driving. Good driving here includes being able to back into a (very narrow) parking space, back around a corner from a main road into a side road, parallel parking, and some other rather difficult maneuvers. I am NOT looking forward to this. I've got mine on October 16th, Bill's is the 14th. Oh yeah, and this costs 57 pounds per person. And there's a 40% pass rate.
I have my first driving lesson on Tuesday. Yes, lesson. I've been driving for 15 years, and I have to take lessons to be able to pass this silly thing. Oh, and the lessons cost 20 pounds per hour. Sigh.

A True Midwestern Girl

2008-08-09T11:18:00.002+01:00

Inspired by footage of Madeline's friend Addie enjoying corn on the cob a little while ago, we decided to give Madeline her first crack at it last night, instead of cutting the corn off the cob for her as we'd done in the past. Other than insisting that she have butter on hers, just like Mommy and Daddy did, it was an unqualified success! Once she figured out what she was supposed to do, she thoroughly enjoyed the process, and finished pretty much the whole ear of corn.
It made her Mommy proud--she's clearly got Midwestern blood running through her veins (even if the actual corn was imported from France...)!

Future Gymnast?

2008-08-05T15:05:00.006+01:00

We've recently discovered a very fun new place to play. It's a gymnastics studio that opens two mornings a week for play sessions for toddlers. Madeline likes it very much, and so does her Mommy--it's an hour and a half that she doesn't have to be entertaining her, and she gets lots of good exercise! Well worth the money. Unfortunately, Madeline has SO much fun that it's very hard to get good pictures of her there--she's too busy playing to hold still for a picture, let alone smile for one. You'll just have to take my word for it that she's happy in all of these shots!!

Have Kitchen Sink, Will Travel

2008-08-04T15:01:00.004+01:00

We have apparently entered the Pack Rat Phase of toddlerhood.

Here's a photo of Madeline, ready to walk to the store today for some quick errands. It's about a ten-minute walk at my pace, though nearly an hour if I let Madeline walk and "explore" along the way. Still, you'd think we were going for the day...

Needless to say, ALL of the things she wanted to bring (insisting, "I carry!") ended up in the stroller within about five minutes. Oh well. It's a good thing the stroller has a big basket underneath!!

Battle Proms

2008-08-04T14:29:00.005+01:00

So, I was waiting to post this in the hopes of getting some better pictures from some of my friends, but I'd better just go ahead and make do with what I've got.

Saturday, July 12th, we went to Battle Proms with a bunch of the other ISEs. It was held at Burghley House, which is a stately house in Stamford, not far from Peterborough. For you Pride and Prejudice fans, it was used as the home of Darcy's aunt in the recent movie...

It sort of felt like a 4th of July celebration (there was even a real American flag there, courtesy of some other Americans who happened to be there--see photo below!), although to my knowledge there wasn't any particular national association to this celebration. We had a picnic supper, and there was music, cavalry demonstrations, a Spitfire plane that did some fancy flying, cannons, and of course, fireworks.

I was, admittedly, a bit hesitant to attempt an outing that started at suppertime and wouldn't end until 11pm or so with Madeline. But it went fine--she was actually really pretty good. It helped that she had friends to play with: especially her good friend Addie, and Addie's mom, my friend Corrina.

I didn't get any pictures of the cavalry or the plane (which Madeline LOVED) or the cannons (which she didn't) or the fireworks (which we sort of convinced her to like), but here's some general shots of the fun:

I'm IT!

2008-07-01T15:22:00.002+01:00

So, I got "tagged." Nearly a month ago.
But I'm finally fulfilling my responsibilities!!

"I've Been Tagged" Rules: Answer these 8 questions and tag 5 people.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

That would have been the summer after my sophomore year in college.
I was living in California, working as an Environmental Education Intern at a National Wildlife Refuge outside San Francisco. I did field trips and then put together and ran week-long day camps for elementary school aged children. I lived on the refuge in a trailer. It was a great experience!

2. Five things on my to do list?

Catch up on all the emails I haven't replied to
Send a birthday card to my friend Kim
Finish the laundry (now that my washing machine's been fixed!)
Read the book I'm supposed to finish by next Wednesday for book club
Figure out what I'm going to make for supper...

3. Snacks I enjoy?

Ice cream!
Popcorn
Chocolate
Really, just about anything that's not good for you...

4. If I were a Billionaire what would I do?

Hire someone to clean my house for me every week
Get a babysitter just to have some time to myself
Buy my husband his dream car (Porshe 911 Turbo)
Buy us a nice (but not ridiculous) house
Put some aside for children's college tuition and for the future
Find something worthwhile to do with the rest of it

5. Three Bad Habits?

Staying up later than I should
Getting into a book and then not doing the other things I should be doing
Procrastinating (hence the month delay in this posting...)

6. Places I've lived?

Wisconsin
Michigan
California
Utah
Illinois
England

7. Five jobs I've had?

Witch at a pumpkin farm: junior high school
Library Page: high school (yes, that's actually what the name of the job was...)
GIS intern: college
Cartographer: after college
Mother/Homemaker: now

8. Five things many people don't know about me?

I like fantasy books (a lot)
I broke my nose as a kid
I ran track in junior high and high school (but badly)
I played French horn (also not very well)
I love the smell of musty basements

The five people I'm now tagging are:
Angela R.
Cathy D.
Corrina D.
Holli K.
Liz S.

You're IT!!!!!!!

Pigtails!

2008-07-01T14:56:00.003+01:00

Here's my darling daughter with her new hairstyle:

I finally got around to actually doing something for her to keep her hair out of her face, and to make her look a little bit more like the cute little "big girl" she is, and less like a wild 'n crazy child. Poor kid: she needs a mama with some knowledge when it comes to hairdos, instead of one who just decided to chop all of her own hair off rather than deal with it! (grin...)

She's even not too bad about sitting (mostly) still and letting me put them in for her--I think she likes her new pigtails. She always wants to "See!" in the mirror once we're done. Males of the species, watch out!!

New Wheels

2008-07-01T14:33:00.003+01:00

Well, I seem to be on about a "post-a-month" schedule, here...
Sorry to any of you who are actually checking my blog more frequently than that!

To those of you who don't know me well; I'm not exactly a car buff (unlike my husband). So for me to be actually blogging about a car is somewhat unusual.
And it's not even that the car worthy of this posting is all that special. It's not super-luxurious, or super-fast, or super-rare, or anything like that. It's just that it's so drastically much better than my previous car!

We bought two "new" cars when we moved here to the UK 8 months ago. We got a decent, not very old car for Bill, and then, since we were trying to save some money in the midst of all the spending incident to a move to a new country, we bought a much cheaper, much older, not as nice car for me. We soon learned that cars here depreciate much faster and more drastically than they do in the US. In other words, we'd overpaid for my car. On top of that, it soon showed signs of some potentially big problems.

Bill is very handy with cars and car repairs, and he did some work on it. But they have an extremely thorough annual inspection here in the UK, called MOT. If your car doesn't pass, it's illegal to drive it. We weren't sure my car would pass, which would make it quite literally worthless.
To make a few months of deliberations short; we finally decided to trade it in and get me a newer, nicer, safer, more reliable car. We got less than half of what we'd paid for my old car (only 7 months ago) back, which really stunk, and meant we had to tap into our savings a bit. But here's my new set of wheels:

As you can see, Madeline likes it, too. Even though it's not yellow, which is what she kept reminding us she wanted every time we talked about getting a new car, and even at the car dealerships. "Yellow car! Yellow car!"

It's only a year old, so it's still got two years of warranty on it, and I don't have to worry about it breaking on me in the middle of the road. And the side mirror isn't about to fall off! And it doesn't put out clouds of blue smoke when I start it! And the display lights on the dashboard aren't broken! And I can actually use my seat belt! And there are no cracks in the windshield!

And I am very happy with it. It's enough to (almost) make me like driving over here...

There's Nothing Quite Like Family...

2008-05-22T15:03:00.007+01:00

As mentioned in my post about our trip to London, part of my family (we missed you, Lisa and Garrick!) was just recently here for a visit. We actually didn't see a whole lot of them, even though they were in the UK for about two and a half weeks. They spent the weeks out being tourists (first week Scotland and the Lake District, second week London, Bath, Stonehenge, etc.), and the weekends with us. But the first weekend, we were being tourists ourselves (London trip), so I only had two weekends with my family. Not that I'm complaining--it was great to see them at all, and I'm really glad that they had such a great time on their vacation. It was hard to say goodbye, though!

Madeline LOVED her Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Karen. It was really neat for me to get to see her enjoying time with her relatives, and obviously bonding with them. It's been seven months since she's seen any of them, so she's changed and grown a lot since the last time they were together. I think they enjoyed seeing her funny, outgoing, strong, sweet personality blooming.

We did make one day trip with my family the weekend we were all together. We drove over to Cambridge (about an hour from here), and did the traditional punt tour along the River Cam. We were glad we'd gotten there earlier in the day, as the river was still fairly uncrowded and quiet. It was very nice.

We also went to King's College Chapel,

wandered through a market, and walked (longer than we expected) to a really nice park to have a picnic lunch. It was a good day, and it wore out Madeline!

Other than that, we just kind of hung out at our house, and enjoyed the amazing weather we were having. My poor family packed for normal UK spring weather (highs in the 60s, rainy) and instead ended up being here for near record highs (mid to upper 70s and sunny). We had to go buy them some short-sleeved shirts and shorts at Tesco! (Kind of like Walmart)

Thanks, Mom, Dad, and Karen, for making the trip out to see us! I miss you already.

Angel Sighting at Toys R Us

2008-05-16T21:40:00.006+01:00

I've been wanting to get Madeline some play equipment for the back yard for a month or so now. With the amazing weather we were having (that has now ended, of course), my motivation was increased. I mentioned this to Bill last week Tuesday, saying that I'd like to get her something within the next week or so, and he said "How about tonight? Toys R Us is open until 8." It was probably about 6:30 at that point, but we'd already been there to see what they had, and discussed generally what we were going to get, so we didn't think it would take all that long to pick something out.

We got to the store about 7, and had made our decisions by the time they announced they were about to close the store. We checked out, and waited for them to bring out our purchases. Evidently the stock people had already left, so a bunch of other employees went back to get our things, since they wanted to leave to!

I'd already asked Bill how we were going to fit our choices (a play house and a slide) into the car, and he said we'd manage. The moment I saw the size of the first box, I knew we were in trouble. The second box was even bigger.

As four or five employees carried our two purchases out to our car for us, even Bill realized we weren't going to be able to manage. Nostalgia for his truck back home in the US was mentioned...

That's when the amazing thing happened. One of the employees, a woman named Danni (if I remember her name badge correctly), asked where we lived. I, assuming she was going to tell us if we could get our stuff delivered, told her, and her reply was: "If you don't mind waiting a few minutes while we close the store, I'll follow you home with your stuff in my car." She had a mini van, or at least what passes for one here. We were floored that she would actually volunteer to do this, but didn't have much choice but to take her up (very gratefully) on her offer! We ended up having to put BOTH boxes in her car--we couldn't get either one of them in ours, let alone both of them.

Evidently she's done this several times before--poor naive first-time parents like us get to the store, pick things out with which to spoil their kids, then realize they haven't a clue how they're going to get them home.

We tried to pay her for her time and fuel (which is insanely expensive here) and she flat-out refused. In fact, it turned into a "who's more stubborn" match. Those of you who know me will be surprised, but I actually lost. I tried sneaking the money into her car through the open window. She found it, ran and put it in our house (the door was open), then locked her car so I couldn't get back in. Yes, grown women can act a little silly some times...!

To sum up the story in two points: Madeline is very happy with her new toys, and evidently Toys R Us hires angels. I sure hope they pay them well!!!

London's Calling!

2008-05-06T14:39:00.010+01:00

My parents are in town (more on that in a later post), and after much arm-twisting (yeah, right!) agreed to babysit Madeline for Bill and I so we could go on an adults-only trip to London for a couple of days. I had been looking forward to this for MONTHS! I love my daughter, I really do. But sometimes it's good to remember what it's like to be able to do whatever you want to without worrying first about whether or not it's "Madeline-friendly." And talking to someone who can talk back in full sentences is nice, too!

We left Thursday late morning and took the train into London. We stayed at a VERY nice hotel in Kensington, which was a great neighborhood to be in--easy access to the heart of things, but nice and quiet and residential for when you want a break from the hustle and bustle. We walked around the Natural History Museum for awhile in the afternoon (free is always good...)

Supper Thursday evening was at the Texas Embassy Cantina--Bill's choice. He's been dying for some Mexican food for the past 6 months! Thursday night we went to Les Miserables!!! I've wanted to see that for years, and it was well worth the wait. Our seats were amazing--dead center and only 4 rows back from the stage. What a show! I wish I'd brought my camera. I didn't know I could...

Friday we slept in (no automatic alarm clock courtesy of Madeline!) then went into London to do some of the typical touristy things. We took a boat ride on the Thames and toured the Tower of London courtesy of Bill's parents (tickets for those things were our Christmas present from them this year).

Did some just walking around, then took the bus tour of the city--a nice way to see a little of everything.

Walked around Buckingham palace and Green Park a bit, then headed back to Kensington for supper at a nice Italian place and a movie back at the hotel.

Saturday we slept in a little, then went back into London to catch a ride on the London Eye (great view!) before going to the train station to meet my sister at noon, at which point we headed back to Peterborough together.

It was a short weekend, and there are still loads of things I'd like to do and see in London yet, but it was a great trip and so relaxing to do it sans toddler! Thanks, Mom and Dad!!

20-something?

2008-05-06T14:31:00.002+01:00

Not anymore!

Yes folks, it's true. I have (finally) left my 20s behind me. Not that they weren't good years; it's just that 30 somehow sounds more "sophisticated." The big day was the 19th of April (yes, I'm behind in posting...again!). We didn't do anything too exciting, but Bill did get me a cake. You'll notice Madeline has her fork poised and ready, and is focused and pointing right to the object of her desire. You can almost hear her little thoughts saying "CHOOOC-LATE!" Sigh. She has her mama's sweet-tooth.

Sheep go "ba ba"

2008-04-09T20:49:00.003+01:00

Every other Wednesday, a bunch of the ISE wives here get together for what is technically a book club, but has lately been more of a play group for the kids, and a chat session for the women.

Oh, I should maybe explain "ISE" for those back home. I actually don't even know what it stands for, but it's what they call all of us Americans who are over here with Caterpillar on temporary overseas assignments. There's a pretty strong network within the group, and it is VERY nice to have some other Americans going through USA withdrawal along with me.

Anyway, last Wednesday, since all the older kids were off school on break, we took a field trip (pretty literally) to see the baby sheep behind Holli's house. It was a very pretty walk, but a bit longer than I'd expected. Not that it was actually all that long of a walk. It's just that I was attempting to accomplish it with an independent, strong-willed daughter who does NOT want to be carried anymore. She will walk by herself, thank you very much. (She doesn't even want to have to hold my hand anymore...) Which would mostly be just fine, except for two things:

One, she has a very unique sense of direction. If everyone else is going straight, she will go right. Then left. Then do a 180 degree turn quite abruptly. Then go right again. Another 180 degree turn. All within the first minute of being on her own two feet. Personally, I think she gets a kick out of making me dizzy as I try to keep up with her...

Two, even if she were walking in exactly the same path as everyone else the whole time, she has much shorter legs than everyone else, and hence moves significantly slower.

Anyway, we did eventually get to the sheep, and the baby lambs (there were a LOT of them) were very cute. Madeline did an excellent job of telling everybody what sheep say. She's definitely got "ba ba" down pat now! I guess first-hand experience really is the best teacher!

The little white specs behind us are the sheep--there were some much closer, although we didn't get super close, or Madeline would probably have chased them. Note the "Wellies" (a.k.a. rain boots): doesn't she look British?

Sometimes having a secure house is not a good thing...

2008-04-08T20:45:00.000+01:00

Well, I'm extremely behind in posting, but this is one story I really need to document.
On Wednesday, March 26th, I was doing my usual weekly cleaning. I was nearly done, and just needed to empty the vacuum cleaner one last time (side note: I usually have to empty the dust container on my vacuum cleaner here about 3 times just to get my whole house vacuumed. This really annoys me). I've found it's best to do this outside. I've also found I need to latch the door behind me when I go, or Madeline gets the door open to come join me. I should probably explain--our door here, if you just shut it, isn't latched. You have to turn the handle to latch it. And you have to use a key to lock it--either from the inside or from the outside. Anyway, I finished emptying, took the dirt to the garbage can, and tried to get back in the house. Key word being "tried."
My darling 18 month old daughter had evidently indeed attempted to come join me. She'd turned the key (which I'd left in the lock inside) just far enough to lock me out, and her in. I had no coat (it was about 45 degrees), no cell phone, and most importantly, no keys. Oh yeah, and it was almost nap time. Madeline tends to get increasingly cranky when it's her nap time, even if she hasn't been locked alone in the house.
So there I was, in stunned disbelief. I must have tried the door 5 or 6 times before I really believed I was truly locked out. Then I tried pushing my shoulder against the door a few times. Yeah, right!! This was followed by quite a bit of attempting to get Madeline to get the key out of the door and pass it to me through the mail slot (you know, the mail slot, a very British thing, was actually quite useful in this whole ordeal). "Come on, baby, get the key. Get the key for Mommy. You can do it, honey; get the key! Come on, Madeline, get the key." Despite the fruitlessness of this, I kept going back to it.
Anyway, eventually a woman and her son walked by. I ran up and explained what had happened. She called her husband, who was home painting, to bring his tools and come take a look. Once he got there, all he could really see to do was to break off the mail slot to see if that gave us enough room to get to the key. I'd already tried shoving my hand in as far as I could, which wasn't far enough. We'd tried all other doors, and windows, all of which were shut and locked quite securely. I was still talking to Madeline through the mail slot, trying to get her to get the key. She did actually go and get me one of her books, and passed that to me through the mail slot. Maybe she thought I needed some light reading to pass the time?
The woman asked if my husband could come home from work to let me in. I didn't have Bill's number memorized--it was in the computer and in my cell phone, both of which were inside my Fort Knox of a home. So she called the main desk at Perkins. I explained the whole situation to them. They transferred me to Human Resources. I explained the whole situation to them. They looked up Bill's schedule and found he was in an all-day meeting. They contacted his boss, and explained the whole situation to him. He went and pulled Bill out of his meeting, and, finally, relayed the whole situation to the one who needed to know! I wonder if I've become an office anecdote yet?
By the time Bill got home and let me in (thankfully, he had a key to one of the back doors, as well--with the key still in the lock, we couldn't get in the front at all), I'd been stuck outside for almost an hour.
Thankfully, other than being tired and confused, Madeline was fine. She hadn't gotten into any of the serious trouble an 18 month old left alone in the house could have gotten into. And, other than the damage I'd done to my hands trying to shove them into the mail slot and being a bit chilled, I was fine too! Bill, bless his heart, didn't give me the really hard time he very easily could have. And needless to say, we're no longer leaving the key in the lock (even if it is better for fire safety that way) and I am now ALWAYS taking keys with me when I leave the house--even if it's only to empty the vacuum cleaner!

Spring Snow

2008-03-22T14:17:00.002Z

So, lest my friends and family back in the Midwestern US think they're the only ones facing blizzard-like conditions this year, I'm posting this picture of the "snow" we got today. It may be the first snow we've seen since we got here, but hey--it may still be record-breaking, at least by Peterborough's standards! I wonder if we should try to find a sled for Madeline...?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, as an update, it snowed the next day, too (on Easter), and even if it was all melted by the afternoon, it did look like "real" snow for awhile--I know some people even made snowmen!

A $700 Failed Date

2008-03-21T21:38:00.000Z

Bill and I were going to go out for a date tonight. He actually suggested it himself. We planned to grab a really quick bite to eat, then catch a movie. I haven't been out to a movie in a year and a half--the last movie I saw in a theater was the Bond movie that was out at Christmas of 2006. We got a babysitter--we were even going to have her put Madeline to bed, which would have been the first time she'd been put to bed by someone other than her parents.
Instead, we're home, calling insurance and pricing windows and SatNavs. We were only in the McDonalds about 15 minutes. We drove our old, nearly falling apart Saab. But we left our SatNav in the car. We came out to a smashed window and no SatNav. Words really can't express how angry and vulnerable and frustrated I'm feeling.
The kids who did it (an employee saw them running off--two teenage boys) have gotten away scot-free. Our insurance deductible is basically the same price as a new SatNav, so we're swallowing the difference to avoid having a claim counting against us. It all feels very unfair.
The world does not seem like a very nice place at the moment.

Wells-Next-the-Sea

2008-03-15T20:46:00.000Z

So my husband decided to surprise me with a weekend away for our fourth anniversary. All three of us went to Wells-Next-the-Sea and stayed in the Arch House Bed and Breakfast (behind the sign in the picture above) for three days. It was a time of many firsts:

Possibly the first time the North Sea got referred to as a lake by a cartographer. Not my fault! Bill was being quite secretive about the whole thing, even going so far as to program the SatNav when I wasn't around. So we're driving along, and I notice the edge of a body of water on the screen of the SatNav. I comment that it looks like a big lake and ask Bill what it's called. He gets a really funny grin on his face and says he doesn't know, but probably should. Huh? Not too long later, I actually get a glimpse of this "big lake" out the window. We were laughing about that one most of the weekend.

First time we ever got locked inside our room. The lock on our door was a little messed up. It was a good thing Bill had his cell phone and the number for the bed and breakfast--they came and let us out pretty quickly.

Madeline's first time to the sea (at Holkham Beach, where we had to pay £3.50 for parking in the off season!):

It was cold and windy, and with the tide being out, a really long walk, but Madeline loved it. She was more of a trooper than her mama, who was tired and cold by the time we got back to the car.

First time learning that just because all information available says activities will be open, it doesn't mean they actually will be. Poor Bill! We ran into this time after time, but we did still manage to have fun. Pensthorpe Natural Centre had a lot of really neat birds, even if the off-road tour wasn't running. And Madeline loved Langham Glass even though the demonstrations weren't happening, because they had a children's play area!

Madeline's first ever boat ride was to see the seals at Blakeney Point. She acted like she hated it the whole time (being forced to sit still instead of climbing all over the boat like she wanted to) until it was time to get off. Then she was mad it was over.

Last, but not least, we experienced the first signs of just how dangerous Madeline is going to be to the males of the species when she grows up. While eating lunch in a pub on the last day, she blew kisses and smiled quite coyly at a random grandpa-aged man who was talking to her. He was so charmed he bought her a whole chocolate bar! Sigh...

All in all, it was a great 4th anniversary present, and quite unexpected.