Dear So and So...On The Fly

Dear 7:15 AM,

So we meet again old enemy.... you know my feelings about you. I hate how you taunt me with the ringing of my alarm and the way my eyes won't quite open properly at that time. Can't you just let me sleep just a bit longer?

Groggy, Kat

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Dear School,

Could we start the day at a more reasonable hour. Let's say 10 AM? That way I don't have to get out of bed until 9am. That sounds a lot more sensible. Kids get more sleep. Parents get more sleep. It sounds like a win win situation to me.

Just Sayin', Kat

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Dear Children of Mine,

"Time to get up" isn't a suggestion.

I Really Mean It, Mom

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Dear Rain,

Hold off until after tomorrow say 4ish. I need to mow the lawn... yet again.

I'm Begging You A Little Here, Kat

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Dear Grass,

Could you quit growing now? I know all this rain has fueled your growth to ridiculous levels, but have some mercy! I am only one person.

Pleading With You, Kat

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Dear Readers,

I hope you have a lovely weekend full of fun. Don't forget to link up if you have letters of your own.

Love, Kat

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The Gallery- 3 Word Gallery

When my Grandparents were here in April, we went to Bury St. Edmunds and we ran into these morris dancers. I was going to write a long post about Morris Dancing and how much I love it, but then I got side tracked (as I do often). Then I almost forgot about this picture (as I do often). But when I was looking through my photos for this weeks Gallery Theme, 3 Word Gallery, three words magically popped into my head when I saw this photo.

Only In England.

The Pose

As we were walking about Hampton Court Palace on Saturday I noticed that KiKi has acquired a specific pose that she uses in almost every photo taken of her.



Foot back (or up), hands to the sides flipped out at the wrist like she is wearing a dress.










She must think it is the way princesses pose.

The Royal Wedding

I wasn't planning on doing a post about the royal wedding. Yes, I will probably watch it, from home. I have a couple of friends who are going to brave their way down to central London for the event. Can you tell that they are some of my American friends? My English friends wouldn't be caught dead schlepping down to London for the Royal Wedding. I have even heard some of my English friends comment that they won't be watching it on TV. Four day weekend. They will probably be stuck in a queue on the motorway instead. This seems to be the time honored way to spend any holiday in England.

I decided that yes, I will watch the wedding. I will probably also encourage my kids to watch. It isn't because I am a royalist. I am just an American who never in a million years thought that she would be living in England for an event like this. It is kind of cool to me. Though, it isn't cool enough to go down to London.

Withdrawl

Whenever a group of expats meet-up there is always a few minutes that we seem to dedicate to naming the things that we miss about our home country. It isn't that we don't appreciate the country that we are currently living in or recognize the fact that we are truly blessed to have the opportunities that we have in our host country, but one always does miss the familiar.

Having just returned from America I have been contemplating the things I truly miss about home. Here are a few of them:

1. The large selection of restaurants. I know in large cities in the UK there is a large selection of restaurants, but here in the area of England that I live in there is a real lack of dining out options. There is a local pub, a kebab shop, a couple of chinese restaurants and a couple of indian take outs. In the small town I lived in before moving here we had a steak house, multiple pizza joints, a subway, a sonic (fast food burgers/chicken/ etc.) a McDonald's, a KFC, a family restaurant that served breakfast all day (bonus), a Taco Bell, a Wendys (fast food), a Mexican restaurant and more. I guess if my husband and children ate chinese food or indian I might feel less restricted, but they are picky and don't so our options are extremely limited here.

2. Seeing my favorite American shows when they are first aired. Yes, I get my shows here but usually it takes months to get them from the original air date in the States. A mild annoyance.

3. Strangers randomly picking up a conversation with you in a supermarket line. It just doesn't happen here. Of course there are times when in the States it used to annoy the hell out of me when I was in a rush, but generally I miss it.

4. Having family in the same country. I have never actually had family live near me my entire adult life, but there is something comforting about knowing they are at least in the same country, even if it is a 20 hour drive away.

5. Water pressure. At my mom's house her shower nearly pins you to the back shower wall. It is awesome. It takes literally 3 seconds to wash all the shampoo out of my hair. In the two houses that I have lived in here in England the water pressure has been less than desired. Of course I desire water pressure that is near equal to being pressure washed so I guess that might be hard to find anywhere.

6. Having air conditioning. Do I really need to explain this one? Of course on the same side of this argument it would be nice to also have a hot summer than lasts longer than the month of July. Which is why I guess air conditioning would be superfluous in England.

7. Understanding all the cultural references. I understand a lot of cultural references here in England now, but sometimes I will just nod my head or just have a look of pure cluelessness on my face. Every once in a while I just wish I was in on all the jokes.

So if you were to leave your home country or have left already, what would/do you miss?

World Cup Fever

World Cup Fever as I like to call it has struck the Bungalow. Well, as much as World Cup Fever can hit a bunch of typical Americans. As most know, Americans just aren't really into soccer; as we call it. Yes, I know, it's football. If you say football to an American though you are going to be met with questions about first downs, touchdowns and receptions, not penalty kicks, goals and corner kicks. Sure, we have youth and high school soccer teams, we even have a professional league, but as a collective Americans don't pay attention to soccer.

The first game that England is playing in the World Cup is against...tadaaaa...the USA. Of course the first time the US plays against England since 1950 I would be living here. LaLa today came home talking about the last time the US played England that the US won. I really didn't believe her. I mean come on...really? I had to look it up. And yes, it was true. Even when it happened back then people thought it wasn't a joke or misreport. In fact it only made the news in one newspaper back in the United States (yep, that's how excited they were about the victory).

On Saturday after KiKi's birthday party (yes, she is turning four!) we are headed over to my friend's house for a World Cup barbeque. They are England supporters of course. Another American family will be in attendance; most likely supporting the good ol US of A. Me? I am on the fence. Yes, I hope my countrymen do well. I have a hard time having an emotional attachment to the team though. I don't know any of the players (remember I have very little footy experience to draw on here-though I hear some of them play in the UK). So, I figure I will support England. At least if I support England I will know the name of the coach (Fabio Capello) and players (though don't ask me what position Wayne Rooney plays...). The final thing that made me decide to hang my hat on England, at least their country gives a damn about football.

photo credit: Photographer: Salvatore Vuono

Realities of Living Abroad in the Military

When Uncle Sam asked us to live abroad in the UK, we knew it came with a time limit. Four years. We are allowed to enjoy England for four years, and then we will be shipped off to another location. When we got the assignment, we were so excited. Now, it is bittersweet. We have moved here, made friends, have our children in school here and have settled in.

The way the primary school in this area works, all the kids in the same class move up together. This means, she will always have the same classmates. The bonds will be closely formed. The thought of uprooting her in a couple of years makes me sick to my stomach. She already has made close friends. Actually, close isn't even the word for her and her best friend, they are more like sisters. Splitting them up, the thought of it, brings tears to my eyes.

I have already talked to the mother of La's best friend. We are trying to think of a way to get ahead of this speeding train. We are trying to head the pain off at the pass and prepare the girls for the eventuality of LaLa returning to the states. Two and a half years sounds like a long time, but in this case, it is not long enough.

A Year and Thanksgiving

I have lived in England a year now. I know, hard to believe. While I still feel like a fish out of water sometimes (ok..a lot of the time), I have gotten to the point where it is starting to feel a bit like home. I have a normal routine. I have priceless friends. I know the rules of the road. I have my bearings.

Then Thanksgiving rolls around. How do you describe a holiday that has no significance to friends who have no frame of reference? I mean really, it is a holiday that can sound quite silly to those who have not grown up with it.

"It is a celebration of...ummm...a bountiful harvest. The old wives tale is that the Pilgrims and Indians celebrated the first Thanksgiving together, but that is really silly because the Pilgrims and Indians pretty much hated each other. So...anyhoo, we get together as a family, cook a huge turkey, make green bean casserole, and other side dishes...eat until we are about to explode and then watch football...no not THAT football. Oh and pie, there is lots of pie."

This year I was dead set against cooking a Thanksgiving dinner. It is a lot of work and there are only four of us here to enjoy it. That, from my frame of reference, is no way to spend Thanksgiving. Really, the food is only a small portion of the Thanksgiving equation. Thanksgiving is really about being with family and friends. Spending time with people you love (even the ones who annoy you to no end) and reconnecting is then main reason for Thanksgiving. Then I had a change of heart. I am not doing Thanksgiving for me. I am doing it for my kids, so they have a frame of reference. It is part of our culture. They need to build Thanksgiving memories just as I did. Sure, their Thanksgiving might be a little smaller on the years that we can't visit the rest of our family, but it is still a time for us to reconnect with each other, invite over friends (even those who don't understand it), and have a day where we can say "Thanks. Thanks for giving us each other."

Perception

It is spring in England, or well I am told that it is spring.  The flowers are blooming.  I guess that means it is spring.  We get some nice days where the sun in shining and it is a nice 70 degrees F outside.  For the past couple days it has been dreary.  OK the sun did come out for a bit yesterday but the wind outside made it so chilly that I didn't want to spend much time outside.  I let the girls play for about an hour then I had to go inside.  It was just too cold.

I have noticed however that temperature is relative.  What is freezing to me is balmy to the English.  An example of this:  Last week when we were having lovely weather, not hot, not cold, just pleasant, I had an English friend of mine complain about how hot it was.  It was maybe 70 degrees.  Now to me, hot it 95 degrees in the shade and it being so hot that your eyelids are sweating.  Oh you didn't know that your eyelids can sweat?  Well they can.  Live in the deep south of the US and you will experience it more than once.  Actually you might experience it every single day in August.  

The English friend then commented about how his nephew and him had gone swimming in their backyard pool over the weekend.  Swimming?  It isn't hot enough for swimming!  You go swimming when it is so hot that your skin is about to boil off.  If you go swimming now you will catch a chill!  My perception, yet again.  I however have been informed that it does not get "hot" here and there is little chance that my skin will boil off and my eyelids will certainly not sweat.

*If you have facebook you can join Elizabeths fan club.  I have a link in my sidebar.

** He Blogs She Blogs is about to start again.  Captain Dumbass and Petra will answer all questions about relationships in their signature style at their new site.  

Framlingham Castle

The day we went to Framlingham Castle did not start off well. I was driving the Jeep with my handy dandy GPS and The Man was following in the Fiat with my dad as the "spotter/navigator". OK for this to make sense I need to draw a diagram...hold please.

Click to enlarge.

Not 5 min after we began our journey we got to the 5 Way. It is a large roundabout with 5 exits. It strikes fear into most of the American's hearts around here. Not me. I have been to this rodeo more than once in my quests. The GPS told me to take the 5th exit. I checked my mirrors, made sure he was behind me and entered the roundabout. As I got into the round about I counted the exits, took the 5th exit, checked my mirror and saw he was not behind me. He had taken the 4th exit. SHIT! Look for mobile phone. No phone. Left it at the house. SHIT! I drove up the road about a mile. Look there is a phone booth! Well at this point I was so pissed off at his driving and my dad's navigation skills that I litterally could NOT remember his mobile number. What to do? Well surely they will just go back to the house when they realize that I am not on that road and I don't have my phone. We will just go back to the house and try this again. I proceeded th unleash a tirade of cussing all the way back to the house.

I got back to the house and located my phone. Dial The Man. My father answers the phone.

"Where are ya'll?"
"Oh we are just getting to Bury"
"WHAT? Why didn't you guys turn around? You don't have a GPS. How are you guys going to get to the castle without directions?"
"Well I did study the map lastnight. I think we'll be OK. Meet you at the castle."
"Whatever (note this is the whatever that means I hope you wander all over Suffolk get lost and have a really fun day of seeing nothing but the countryside and no castle)"

After I got off the phone I got back into the car hell bent on seeing a frickin castle that day. Well we arrived at the castle about 5 minutes after my dad and The Man did. They, unlike most men, did stop and ask for directions. And although I had wished a day of fruitless wandering on them, I was glad to see that they had made it. Plus they had LaLa in the car with them and it wouldn't have been cool if she had missed the castle.

According to The Man (and I don't believe this for one second) by the time they had got into the 5 way they had lost sight of me and just took the exit that they knew went semi towards the direction that they needed to go. I mean, how to you lose a LARGE, ORANGE, SUV? We did see the castle at Framlingham. It was lovely.

View from just inside the castle gates

Mom coming up the stairs to the castle wall

On top of the castle wall

The Girls on top of the castle walls

The view of the countryside

After the 5 ways debacle, it was a great day. We had a really good time. The girls had a great time running around the lawn inside the castle gates. I got to enjoy the scenery and The Man got his history fix. The drive home, thankfully, was much less eventful.

Huzzah!!!

I have the Internet back!!!! Now it is time to catch up on what you guys have been doing in the past week*. I have been moving into my new house, paying my TV tax, getting my Sky (satellite) installed, waiting on my internet, trying to figure out the cheapest way to call the USA, and Christmas and house set up shopping like it is nobody's business. Oh and did I mention that there are only 10 more days til Christmas? Where did the time go? Didn't Thanksgiving just happen like a week ago?

I guess I should show you guys around the new bungalow. It is a vast improvement on the TLF that we were staying in. I still have hotel like furniture that we are borrowing from the Air Force until our furniture arrives, but it it at least is starting to feel like a real house (even though it is filthy right now because of moving in and such). The new place is a 4 bedroom bungalow (but we will pretend that it is only 3 because bedroom #4 is now going to be the office) and it has a detached finished garage that was used as a rec room by the owner (our landlords), we are going to use that as the "man room". In otherwords when "The Man" decides that it is time to play his guitar at rediculous decible levels, he can go to the "man room" to do so. Right now it is empty and I don't have a picture but once it has something in it and is fully manly I will show you guys!

The kitchen. (Oh HAI! Elizabeast!)The Living Room (lounge). Notice the lovely Motel 6 quality furniture. Don't notice the pile of laundry, sippy cup, or 2 large boxes of moving trash that are in the background.


The poweder room. Nothing too spectacular here other than the fact that this toilet has an American flusher thingy!
Part of my boudouir. See that suck-tas-tic blue stripy comforter...yeah it has been replaced with a 4 inch thick douvet. Did I tell you guys that it gets cold here at night?

This is the shower in the girls bathroom and frankly the only shower in the house that has any water pressure. I hate showers with no water pressure. I think that is actually one of my biggest pet peeves. When I take a shower, I want the water to feel like it is going to knock me into the back of the shower. I have only actually found one shower that is absolutely perfect and it is the shower on the 2nd level of my mom's house. It feels like a pressure washer and it is fabulous! The other shower in the house is in the "en suite" bathroom (master bathroom) and it has just enough water coming out of the shower head to piss you off.

The now empty office. Notice the hideous carpet. This is why it is the office and not KiKi's bedroom.

OK this is my favorite part of the house. My fireplace. Of course I think it needs to be swept by a chimey sweep before I even chance trying to light a fire in it. I could just see it now, me trying to light a nice ambient fire only to be choked out by plumes of smoke filling the room because the chimney flue isn't open or the chimney is clogged with debris. Face it guys, that would be my luck. Also when I think of having a chimney sweep in my house I think about the movie Mary Poppins...is that weird??

*and make dinner, so this might take a while...

All the Little Pieces

I am feeling much relieved today. Things are have finally started swinging in my families favor. We have a lease signed and keys to our new house. We don't have furniture yet, but that is coming on Friday. Sam the cat has also been rescued liberated picked up from kitty prison quarantine. I now have all my family on British soil legally. Huzzah!

It was no small feat if you remember correctly. I had the NW agent from hell. This lady was no picnic and it almost took an act of God to actually get my animals into the country. When I called the kennel to see if my animals had made it over to the UK I was actually shocked that they had arrived. Today was finally the day that I could go pick up Sam. I was supposed to do it yesterday, but in order to get everything accomplished to move into the house by Friday, we had to postpone. I felt like such a bad mother calling yesterday and asking Steve, the man who owns the kennel if he would mind keeping my Sammy for another night. He of course said it would be fine and actually suggested it would be better in the long run because they were expecting nasty rain the whole day at the kennel.

Today turned into a lovely drive through the countryside. The kids slept most of the way up to the kennel and we had borrowed a GPS navigation system from a guy who is going to be working in the same shop as my husband, so we had no real worries about getting lost. I got to take a few pictures of the landscape on the way up there, which I figure should keep my mother from pestering me for pictures for about a week. I kid I kid, actually she will be asking for more pictures in about three days.

This is a typical house in the area we are living in. Most of the houses around here are made from either stone or brick. They have clay shingles on them and a lot of the shingles are covered with moss. Notice that most of the shrubs are still green. You don't get that much in the states during the winter. Also notice the blue skies, you don't get that much in England during the winter.
This is one of the many churches that I saw on the way up to the kennel. I love old chruches. I think it has to do with growing up in Charleston, SC. They don't call it the "Holy City" for no reason. There are churches all over the place in Charleston, but they don't have any this old I am betting.This is a pub that is located up the road in Lakenheath Village. It is called the Half Moon. Cute little pub. There are pubs everywhere here in England. My friend, D, was actually telling me about a place where she saw a sign that said "Pub located behind Church". Now THAT would NEVER happen in the states, EVER. Good Lord I could just see the riots taking place if that sign was posted anywhere in the Bible Belt.

I have seen a few funny Inn and Pub names here as well. There was the "Farmers Boy Inn", which just kinda sounds a little dirty. Then there was "The Cock" Pub. Now that one made my husbands inner 14 year old come out. He laughed his ass off for a good 2 min after we passed that pub. Then he decided the was gonna call his pub, "The Man's Head", another play on a dirty mind here*. All I do is shake my head, cause what I am I gonna do, I married this guy.
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I have had a lot of questions asking how the girls are taking the move, well LaLa is doing alright. She misses a routine most of all I suspect. She, like the rest of us just needs her own space, her own (borrowed) bed, and a place to call her own. KiKi, well, she could care less as long as she has had a nap and has a full belly.

Everyday they fight about who gets to hit the elevator button to go downstairs.

Everyday they fight about who gets to play with what toy. And then sometimes LaLa does something strange like this:That is a roll of paper towels and stacked on top is: a pad of post it notes, a jar of peanut butter and one of KiKi's sippy cups. Just another one of the many things that I just shake my head at and accept. She totally gets it from her father.

*A lot of pubs are called things like "The Lords Head" or the "Lady's Head", don't ask me why, when I found out I will tell you. Oh and when you buy a pub, you can't change the name. They are passed down traditionally.

Thanksgiving in England

I had a fabulous time celebrating Thanksgiving. The only thing that could have made it any better would have been if I was back home in Charleston, SC with the rest of my family or in Chattanooga with my Dad's side of the family. My friend D, prepared a feast. She had turkey, ham, green bean casserole, potato casserole, mashed potatoes, 2 types of stuffing (one English version with sausage and the other with oysters for her husband), candied yams, and of course I brought the pies (which nobody ate cause we were all too full of food).

There were 15 people in attendance. D and her husband M, their 2 kids, Alistair and his wife Melanie*, their 2 kids, N and L who work with D at the barbershop, The Man and I, KiKi and LaLa, and T (who's husband is in Texas right now for some Air Force school). Alistair, Melanie, N, and L are all English and this was their first Thanksgiving celebration.

Dinner started around 6pm in order for our English friends to get off of work in order to come over for dinner. Since this is an American holiday, of course they don't have the day off from work like all the Americans around here. There was a lot of good conversation, a few pints had by all (or wine), and of course the oohing and ahhing over the shere amount of food that was available. The kids had a great time playing together and when D broke out the ginormous bag of leftover Halloween sweets I thought all hell was going to break loose. Alistairs youngest girl is almost as hyperactive as LaLa and doesn't have an off switch. We added candy into this mix. Then we warned Alistair. His response was classic "Thanks for that" as he lifted his pint.

The celebration broke up around 9:30 and we caught a cab back to the hotel around 10:00pm. Thankfully the cabbie seemed very knowledgable of the base and took us directly to the hotel. We lugged all of our car seats, bags and children back to the room and then watched some American football on the Armed Forces Network. My husband and I caught most of the Dallas game and then a little bit of the Phillidelphia game. We ended up finally passing out around 2am.

I think this Thanksgiving proves one thing. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, as long as you have good food, good friends, and good conversation you can have a fabulous time. Also if you add a pint or two into the mix, it is always a good idea to catch a cab, no matter what country you are in. Happy Post Thanksgiving to Everyone! I hope you are all as blessed this holiday season as I have been. Cheers.

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent, or not so innocent depending on who you speak to.

101 Things about Me for my 101st post...

yeah I know I was "supposed" to do this yesterday for my 100th post, but I was a little busy. Cut me a break. Hey plus I am gonna give you an extra random fact.
1. Birthdate Feb 24
2. That makes me 27 years old.
3. My natural hair color is brown.
4. My hair color now is red. (sorry mom)
5. I have 2 kids. LaLa is 4. KiKi is 2.
6. I have a cat, Sam, he is orange and white.
7. I have a dog, Elizabeth, she is a blond cocker spaniel.
8. My favorite color is pink.
9. I am not one of those people who will only wear their favorite color, or decorates their house in their favorite color.
10. I think those people are kinds weird and may need help. Sorry if you are one of those people.
11. My husband is in the Air Force. I don't let my husbands job define me like some Air Force Wives though.
12. I just finished my degree in Technical Management with an emphasis in Human Resources.
13. I left traditional college when I was 21 years old and only had about 36 hours of courses left.
14. My original degree was going to be International Business with a minor in Russian Studies.
15. I thought my mom was going to kill me when I left school.
16. I moved to Texas to be with my husband..that is why I left school.
17. I had every intention to go back to school when we moved to Missouri, but then I found out I was pregnant.
18. 2 kids later and I finally went back to school.
19. Now that we are in England I am going to have to get a "real" job and not be a stay at home mom anymore.
20. I feel guilty that I am going to have to put KiKi in daycare.
21. But I am excited that I am going to be able to have conversations with adults during the day.
22. I love my children, but I have little patience with other people kids...well except for my friends kids, usually.
23. I think this is because I used to work in a daycare.
24. I also have worked at an accounting office for a senile old man.
25. He fired me on my birthday because he needed someone full time in the office and I could only work part time because of school.
26. My best friend is, D.
27. She is the yin to my yang. When I freak out, she talks me back off the ledge.
28. My husband is also my best friend. He is a little OCD and apparently moving brings out the OCD in him. He lost 62 cents the other day, and he is still looking for it. "What if I lost it on the flight line and it got sucked up into the engine of a plane" This is what I am dealing with folks! LOL!
29. My favorite soda in the entire world is Cherry Coke Zero. They don't have that here in England.
30. I am totally bummed out that they don't have Cherry Coke Zero here...not even at the commissary.
31. I have switched to Diet Dr. Pepper, but it just isn't the same.
32. Man, I sound like a drug addict.
33. I get weirded out by people who start crying in front of me.
34. I am really not good with emotions.
35. I also am not a hugger.
36. I only hug my family and really good friends unless there is a circumstance where I am forced to hug someone or look like a complete jerk.
37. I talk to my mom and my granny almost every single day. They get worried if I don't call at least every other day.
38. If I don't call them, I get worried messages left on my voicemail saying things like "Kat, it's your granny, I haven't heard from you in a couple of days, call me back." or "Kat, it's your mom. Where are you?" Or I check my cell phone and I have 9 missed calls from my mom in the span of 4 hours.
39. My mom and granny both read this blog. They will probably deny #38. It is true though.
40. My favorite moment of the day is catching one of my kids in bed and getting to wake them up gently and cuddle with them. LaLa is especially good at this. Of course then she will whisper "Tickle Me" when we are cuddling and it makes me laugh every time.
41. I miss my friends back in Missouri and my friends back in Charleston.
42. I am grateful for the friends who stay in touch.
43. I believe that a new hair cut, a new pair of shoes or a new purse can fix almost any problem.
44. I am really glad I got a hair cut yesterday. It came at the perfect time.
45. I am not good at worrying about money BTW.
46. I don't think my daughter should get gypped out of a really special birthday just because her birthday is 3 days before Christmas.
47. Christmas is my favorite holiday.
48. I think gifts are secondary to being with family or friends that you love.
49. This is only going to be the 2nd Christmas that I will not be in Charleston for. It sucks big time.
50. I am also praying that I have my own furniture before Christmas. Actually that in itself just might be a Christmas miracle.
51. My favorite Christmas song is "Sweet Little Jesus Boy"
52. My favorite Christmas song used to be "Oh Holy Night" until this girl at church kept butchering it every year for like 5 years. My mom and I would sit in the pew and try not to laugh every year. My granny would shoot us evil eye. Hey, you guys have your Christmas/Holiday traditions, I have mine.
53. I kinda like being 5 hours ahead of the Eastern time zone now, because it lets me write my blog posts in more time. I can post by 3 pm GMT and still have by post up by 7am eastern time. Booyah!
54. I am really needing that time today because this 101 facts is really time consuming.
55. The last book I read was "The Christmas Sweater" by Glenn Beck. I think everyone should read it. It had me crying on the plane on the way over here. It isn't just a tired old story about Christmas.
56. It is really hard to cry quietly on a plane and not be noticed. I really didn't want to look like a nut job. I apologize to any fellow passengers on the plane who I may have offended or scared.
57. I love riding on planes. I hate the safety briefing though. I mean really, do they think that I am actually going to use that seat cushion as a floatation device.
58. When I see someone pass me on the highway at double the speed limit I feel angry at them and bad for them. I have actually said "When they wreck they better hope they die, because they won't want to live after wrecking at that speed."
59. I try not to go more than 5 mph over the speed limit.
60. I think that is because I have kids now and I am more careful with everything I do now.
61. Before I had kids, I was a speed demon.
62. I no longer feel the need for an adrenaline rush. I value my life a lot more now.
63. I do get angry at people who don't at least DO the speed limit though.
64. I always seem to get stuck behind this person, when I am running late no less.
65. Sometimes my husband is THAT person. He blames it on having to drive 15 MPH on the flight line.
66. My favorite material possession is my engagement ring.
67. I use my parents and my grandparents as my moral compasses. I often think about what they would think before I do things. I still dyed my hair red. Sorry Mom.
68. My eyes are green.
69. I feel compelled to write something naughty right here, but I won't. That would be so cliche'.
70. My dream vacation destinations are Greece and Russia.
71. I think I will get to Greece one day. I am no so sure about Russia.
72. My favorite saying I heard on Oprah. It is "Trying is failing with honor. Never try, just do it."
73. I hate watching Oprah.
74. Have I ever mentioned that I am a conservative?
75. I didn't vote this year.
76. I feel guilty about not voting. I don't think my vote would have made a difference. I feel guilty about the apathy I had towards voting this year. I really didn't like either candidate very much.
77. Have I ever mentioned that I am glad that I will be living in England for the next 4 years.
78. I am not pissed off that Barak Obama won. I just hope he does the best job he can. I think partisanship has torn the US apart.
79. I am not a fan of Housing Offices on Air Force Bases. They always prove to be a pain in the ass. It doesn't matter what base you are on.
80. Arbitrary rules piss me off.
81. Sometimes I need a time out.
82. I think I am a better driver than my husband. He begs to differ.
83. I can drive stick shift. Sorta. If I have to.
84. I think it is a good skill to have, just in case.
85. I know how to do a lot of things in theory, but have never actually done them.
86. For example. I know how to mow grass. I just have never done it. That is what dads, little brothers and husbands, and good friends are for.
87. I know how to change a tire, in theory. See #86 for the reason I have never done it and add friendly bystanders as another reason.
89. My dad is hillarious and befuddles me with his logic sometimes. Hi Dad.
90. I like to visit my parents at their offices. It is fun to meet their co-workers or talk to the ones I already know. Hi Sandy.
91. My favorite movies are Labrynth, the Princess Bride, Shawn of the Dead, Grandma's Boy, and Army of Darkness.
92. I hate the movie Baseketball with a passion.
93. I will walk out of the room if my husband is watching it.
94. I will also remind him that he will never get that 2 hours of his life back.
95. I do not think pajama pants are acceptable attire for grocery shopping. Ever.
96. I prefer to wear my hair down and straight, but sometimes my hair has other ideas and that is when I throw it up into a ponytail.
97. My hair is naturally curly.
98. My eating habits are questionable. Sometimes I skip meals and then other times I eat everything in sight that isn't nailed down all day.
99. I love my kids more than myself. You guys probably already knew that.
100. I can usually write a blog post in 20 min, though they usually aren't very good when I write that fast.
101. I hate when I try to be witty or funny and end up just looking stupid. It happens. A lot.

Ok I feel I have satisfied my obligation as a blogger to spill my 100 facts about me now. Feel free to comment or discuss amongst yourselves.

Quick Funny Story

On our arrival to the UK we had to take a bus from Heathrow Airport to the RAF base that we are stationed at. The bus driver who drove us to the base was English and had a fairly heavy accent. Our friends had met us at the airport and they took the bus back with us. When we got on the bus LaLa did not understand what the driver was saying because she was not accustomed to hearing a British accent. She looked at our buddy, M, and asked him in a most serious tone "Is the driver speaking Spanish?"

Driving in England a.k.a. Roundabouts and Give Ways

I should really preface this entire story by saying, my husband does not deal with change well. He is very set in his ways, gets frustrated easily, and has high expectations of himself. In other words, God forbid something not go according to plan. I am very go with the flow, I like a challenge, and I see most everything as a learning experience and it takes a lot for me to lose my temper. I am not saying that my way is better than his way of learning, but at least I don't punch inanimate objects when I get frustrated. Just sayin'.

We had been here about 5 days when we decided that not having a car was just not an option anymore. Sure we could walk around the base, but in order to get to D's house we had to call her or her husband to come pick us up and frankly it was getting exhausting for all parties involved. I hate having to depend on others, she was getting behind in her everyday activities, and we couldn't fit all members of both families into one car.

Finally on Thursday my husband, the kids and I walked our behinds down the the local base car rental office and paid entirely too much money to rent a shoe on wheels, I mean car. We rented a VW Polo, with an automatic transmission and UK specs. In other words it has its steering wheel on the right hand side of the car.

Now at this point I have been riding with D all over the area for days. I am pretty used to what it feels like in a UK spec'd car. The Man, well he had been at work for most of the week and then on Wed. he was struck down by the 24 hour stomach virus from hell. He was still not up to snuff on Thursday when we went to go rent the car, and had not had much time in a UK spec'd car or riding around learning the rules of the road. So what possessed me to let him be the first one to drive the car is still beyond me. I am not saying it was the worst decision ever made in the history of the earth, but it might be right up there on the list.

So there we are sitting in the parking lot of the rental company, armed with a map of the surrounding area outside of base, a map of the base, and a vague idea of where the base hotel is. We just need to get to the base hotel. Not hard, right? Yeah, that is what I thought. So wrong, so so very wrong. The Man inches out onto the road, left hand side. Good. We head down the road at a turtles pace and I am telling him the directions to get back to the hotel. Everything seems to be going fine.
Me- "Now we need to take the 2nd exit on the roundabout to get onto this road to head back to the hotel"
Him- *confused* "What? Do we need to go left, right or straight?"
By this time we are entering the roundabout and he takes the first exit to the left and we are heading off of the base into the English countryside. Wonderful. Just wonderful.
Him- "Damnit Kat, you didn't tell me which way to go!"
Me- "Ummm yeah I did, you just didn't listen buddy."
Him- "Oh great, now what do we do?"
Me- "Dude, just turn around."
Now we are heading down the road towards one of the towns near base, but I couldn't tell you which one, because the map of the local area...yeah it sucks. I get him to pull over onto a little road so that we can turn around. Then I realize that I have left my ID to get back on base in my purse which is in the trunk of the car...ya know, cause going off base wasn't exactly in the plan. He pulls to the side of the road, I hop out like we are doing a chinese fire drill and grab my purse out of the trunk.
Me-"Ok now go. Remember, pull out onto the LEFT hand side of the road."
Him- "I know that much."
Me- "Alright. I was just reminding you. I mean it isn't like you have had so much experience driving or riding around."
Him- "It doesn't help that the roads are only 3 feet wide."
Me-"They aren't 3 feet wide, it just feels like it."
We head back down the road, me clenching the door handle so tight my knuckles are turning white and praying we don't hit the little curbs on the side of the road and flip the car. Lucky to be alive, we make it back to the base.
Me- "Ok now when we get to the roundabout, just take the first exit. That should take us back towards the room."
On the way back we hit a four way stop intersection*. Now that is something my husband can deal with. This whole looking for cars coming at you, paying attention to turn signals and guessing where the car you are merging in front of is going thing. My husband, I don't know if he is gonna catch onto it really quickly. He has already tried to kill me roughly 4 times since he has been driving.
To quote my husband when we got back to the room a couple days later after yet another near miss at a roundabout where he tried to kill us all. "I love the feeling of almost dying everyday. It really makes you feel alive."
For the record the first time I drove here. It was dark, a Friday night, and I made it there without one near death experience and the kids were screaming and talking the whole way. I am not saying I am a better driver than him, but ya know, I didn't almost kill anyone.

*These are the only stop signs on base. Anywhere you would think there would be stop signs are roundabouts or give ways. Also, give way does not mean stop. It is basically a yield sign.

In England!

Oh man... how do I squeeze a weeks worth of activity into one post? Well I guess I am just going to have to go in broad terms and then talk about specific events later on in the week. I got to England last Saturday at around ten in the morning. I then forced myself and the family to stay awake until around 10pm. So I had roughly NO sleep in 40 hours. I would have slept on the plane except for the fact that my seat reclined roughly a quarter of an inch and everytime I closed my eyes the air waitresses would start another beverage service. I mean really, how many apple cranberry juices can one person drink during an 8 hour flight? The kids slept pretty well during the flight with KiKi leaning her head on my arm and stretching one way across the seats and LaLa laying against her dad and stretching across the seats in the opposite direction. Heathrow Airport? Oy! That place is a mess. Apparently, in the UK, trash bins are totally optional outside. I have never seen so much litter on the side of the road. My friend, D*, tells me that they have some sort of clean up crew that comes by every so often to pick up the sides of the road, but when people finish a drink or something, they just throw it out of their car windows. This is completely foreign to me because in the States, this would be a huge fine if you got caught by a police officer.

For the record I did not help myself in my no sleep department by consuming a couple of pints of cider that night around a bonfire in my my friend's backyard. Cider is however some yummy stuff. I like the brand Strongbow the best (I had 3 different types to sample from that night thanks to my new English friend, N**.)

By this point I was sick of hotels so we decided to stay the night at my friends house. The next morning we started getting settled into our new hotel room. This room isn't nearly as bad as the room we had at the last base. This hotel room has 2 bedrooms, one with a queen sized bed and the other has two twin beds in it. It also has a fairly large kitchen and living area. It also has a washer and dryer (English sized...that is another post there!) and a dishwasher. The only problem we have had here so far is that the water temp was lukewarm for about 3 days until we got the maintenance men up here to fix it. Now we are getting to shower with hot water again.New room

Thankfully we won't have to stay here for very long because we have already found a house that we want to rent. We are just waiting for the OK from the landlord to have pets. It is a cute little detached house (to Americans that is a single family house), with 4 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, and a detached garage that had been turned into a play room by the previous family. The Man is going to use the garage for his "Man Cave", in other words a place for him to go play guitar and be a man. Why do I all of a sudden hear that Home Improvement guy Tim Allen?

My new love is also Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bars. Someone will have to try to pry on of these suckers out of my cold dead PMSing hands. Hershey ain't got nothing on Cadbury chocolate. Whitmans, kiss my hiney. Mars...pfft. Cadbury is where it is at. Maybe I should have a contest for a chocolate bar...I need to think about this one.

This week was also marked by the 24 hour stomach virus from hell. First KiKi got a little diarhea and the next thing we know, The Man is laid up in bed for the next day and a half going at both ends, KiKi starts puking her guts up and then D's family all get it. Thankfully Me, LaLa and D were all spared from the virus. D felt a little queasy on Friday, but never actually got sick and I felt a little queasy this morning. When The Man and KiKi were sick I was feverishly Lysoling the bathroom and kitchen repeating the mantra "I will not get sick, I will not get sick, I will not get sick" I think it worked. Mind over matter, right people?

Umm..WTF the steering wheel is on the wrong side.

Anyhoo other than the stomach virus, I think we had a pretty good first week. We found a house, we met some really nice people, went to a birthday party***, got a lot of our inprocessing done, learned to drive a car on a different side of the road****, and got lost in the middle of the countryside with D while we went to pick Elizabeth up from quarantine. Did I mention that we also got a dusting of snow this morning?

*Need to think of a nickname for best friend D
** Don't know enough about new English friend,N, to make a nickname for him yet.
*** For another post
**** see above.

Happy Trails To You...

...until we meet again! Happy Trails to you, keep smilin' until then! Don't worry folks, I'll be back as soon as I can. I am also leaving you in the capable hands of 6 of my favorite bloggers who are going to be guest posting here at the Bungalow through next Friday. By then hopefully I can be settled enough to update you on our progress settling into the new country. Make them feel comfortatable, give them comments, you guys know the drill.

Today we are off to Kansas City to spend the night so that we can catch our 6am flight to Minnesota and then wait 12 hours for our flight to London. Needless to say we will be busy bees. Wish me luck. I just may need it!

Monty Python Put It Best

"Always look on the bright side of life!" This is what I am going to have to do until I can get this whole pet situation dealt with, which hopefully will be resolved in the next couple of hours. Hopefully.

On the bright side, last night my good friend Angie, who used to live across the street from me here on this base, cooked dinner for my family and a couple of other families that we are friends with. It was a nice dinner and the kids of all the families got to play with each other for a few hours while us adults sat around and had some nice conversation. The food was great too.

On the bright side, Christine one of my other friends who was at the get together, had a picture of herself, Angie, our other friend Amy, and myself printed out and framed for me. It was very sweet. I am gonna miss my girls when I leave this base, but they are only an email or myspace message away.

Note: This is a before picture of this night. I don't have the guts to post the after picture for fear that Angie would KILL me. Fun Times. Good Night. Well for me, Angie maybe not so much.

Also on the bright side, I will be in England in 3 days. That's right folks, in 3 days this nightmare of a move will be over. No more living in this tiny TLF room. No more having do deal with airlines. No more having to live out of a suitcase. No more having to type blog post while sitting on a pull out couch, watching Playhouse Disney in my pajamas. Well I might still blog in my pajamas watching cartoons, but hey, it's comfortable.

Bright side. On Saturday morning, I will be at London Heathrow airport seeing my best buddy Dawn for the first time since September. This will all be worth it in the end and I just have to keep that in mind and always look at the bright side of life.

I Just Have to Say...

I hate NorthWest Airlines. They have terrible customer service. They do not keep their passengers informed of changes that they have arbitrarily decided and their cargo agents are the worst.

This morning I called the clearing agent and they said NorthWest decided they were not going to ship my animals. They told me as long as my kennel picks the animals up, they will clear the animals. When I called NorthWest, Kimika (yes I am using names at this point cause I am sooo pissed), decided that she would ship the animals if she got confirmation from the clearing agent that they would clear the animals and the kennel would pick them up. I called the kennel and they said they would do whatever I needed them to do (they are waving the white flag of surrender as well). I hope NorthWest realizes with crappy service comes pissed off customers. This pissed off customer also has a blog. I hope I get a million hits on this post and I hope NW see it themselves.