A really long blog for a REALLY long 3 weeks...part 1

So here we are! We've been here for 3 weeks as of today. I can hardly believe it's been only 3 weeks. It honestly feels like it's been 3 months! I've decided to recap the last 3 weeks in pictures...so here we go!

We started our goodbyes with Drew's last day of school. His class made him an awesome little book with pictures and messages from each kid in his class. Mrs. Bergstrom was awsome and Drew really misses her and his class.

On to Saturday...This picture is classic. Our house didn't close on time, so instead of staying in hotel for the weekend, we just stayed in our empty house. The movers had already taken what was going to London, and we'd spent Friday getting everything else into storage. All we had was this air mattress and some blankets we'd left out of storage and what was in our suitcases. Good times!! The kids originally had beds made up on the floor, but in the end we ALL ended up in this bed together, including Wade. I love that my foot is on Drew's face!

A rare shot of the whole clan at the aquarium

Drew and Palmer Rasmussen

Palmer, Drew, and Addison

Saturday afternoon, we decided the kids deserved to do something fun - so we went to the Dallas Aquarium with the Rasmussens. The kids had a good time despite that fact that Addie thought the place was stinky (so did I)!

Drew saying bye to his buds -Jake Kneeland (top) and Ian Blad

Saying goodbye to Ashley and Kirk Rasmussen and Noah to his buddy Will Rasmussen

Sunday was finally here. We went to church - actually we ended up ducking out early because we'd forgotten to put a few things in storage...you know small things that are easy to miss like a dresser and the BBQ!! Not sure how we did that! To top it off, when we got to the storage unit, the power was out which means the elevator wasn't working!! So Wade and I had to muscle that stuff up the stairs in the pitch black. Very interesting. Anyway - afterwards we went and said a few final goodbyes before taking off to the airport.

Group hug! Addison and Drew with the Rasmussen boys at the airport

There we are taking up a whole row!

A typical Addie sleeping position (why should it be different on a plane?!)

All in all - the kids where really good on the flight. We flew the 9 hours mostly through the night so the kids would sleep. Addie ended up having one small night terror on the plane (really embarrassing), but I think we kept it to under 5 minutes somehow. She ended up asleep on the floor under my feet, but I wasn't about to move her lest I wake up the beast within!!

A really long blog for a REALLY long 3 weeks...part 2

So...I'm sitting here waiting for my dryer to be delivered. They said between 7 & 10. At 10:01 I called and they said between 10 & 12. So it's 12:17 - oh, 12:18 - and I'm sitting on the floor in my pajamas (because I don't dare get in the shower because of course that's when they will show up!). This wouldn't be such a big deal except we've ordered a dryer 5 times now and every time something has gone wrong. Either they had a problem with our credit card (we keep getting rejected because the stupid credit card companies throw a red fraud flag even though we've called them and told them we live in London now!!! I'm losing my patience!) or something's been out of stock. It's getting ridiculous! So I'm NOT going to miss this delivery- even if I have to stay in myh PJs all day!! Anyway - since I'm stuck in the house for the time being - I figure I might as well work on this blog. So here we go! I left off with our flight here to London...

We arrived here about 9 am London time very tired, but very excited. We arrived at our hotel to find they'd put us up in a great little 2 bedroom apartment right on Chiswick High Road - main street, basically, with a KFC across the street (for those times when my kids just can't take British food anymore!). The first couple days we were really tired, but everyone slept the first night here - even Noah - so I felt pretty lucky. So it was time to start taking care of things..


HOUSE:
We immediately started our house hunt and settled on a cute 3 bedroom house in Chiswick (SW London)...I'd call it a townhouse because we're attached to other houses. It's been competely refurbished inside -all 1200 square feet of it and is only 2600 pounds per month...yes folks, that's about $5200 each month. Yikes! Keep in mind this is a very conservatively priced place. Here's a few pics of the place from before we moved in. I'll post more when we get furniture (tomorrow - yea!!) and things are organised.
Kitchen & eating area - you can also see our little "garden" in the back. It's small, but nice!



There's the best used space in the house! Those cabinets are the best thing they put in here! I'm making that corner over there a laundry center. The dryer will go there (the washer is in the kitchen) and decking it out IKEA style with a worktop and drying racks as soon as we get our car and I can go pick it all up!The family bathroom! Yes - that's a bidet - or bath toy storage in our case! WE also have a small bathroom downstairs with a shower.
The entry - I love my stained glass windows! The playroom/office (suppose to be a living room) is that door at the left of the picture.


SCHOOL:

So once the house was taken care of - it was time to figure out school for Drew and Addie. The public school placement system here is shall we say different? No, let's just tell it like it is... it's LAME!!!! They only have a certain number of spots in each school and if they're full you're out of luck. So Drew is on the waiting list for the school around the corner. We've put in applications (yes you have to apply for public school here) at a couple of the other nearby schools hoping they might come up with a spot sooner than later. For now, we're just going to have to home school it! As far as Addie is concerned, she is suppose to start in either Sept or Jan depending on what school she ends up in - but her application was suppose to be in by the beginning on January and they won't make an exception because we didn't live here yet. So they'll assign places to all the on time applications first and then Addie will get what's left over. Nice. Our hope is that Drew gets in before year's end which will give Addie priority because she has a sibling already attending. Keep your fingers crossed that we won't have to pay for private school! Here's a link to the school that is looking like the most likely choice at this point:

http://www.wendellpark.lbhf.sch.uk/default.htm



CAR:

We ordered our car on Saturday so we're hoping to get it by next weekend. The choices are pretty limited for someone who wants more than a 5 seater. We ended up with a Volkswagon Touran. Not the most beautiful car ever, but it's definitely functional! It's really a neat little thing - not much bigger than the Golf, just taller! Check it out if you want...
http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/#/new/touran/


CHURCH:
We're in the Hyde Park Ward. It's right in the heart of London across the street from the Science Museum and next door to the Victoria & Albert Museum. It's in a really neat older building. Definitely not your typical meeting house! So far the ward is really good. I'd say it's about 1/3 American. The primary is small, but not tiny - the kids seem to like it. Right now we take the tube to church. Just a few stops down the district line. Unfortuneately they've been doing some repairs lately on the weekends which means we have to take a bus and then transfer to the tube. So if we don't leave with 45 minutes to get there, we're hosed! We'll probably drive when we get our car, but then we'll have to pay the congestion tax - 8 pounds everytime we go to church I think?

This a picture on our way to church - we're in front of the V&A museum next door to the church. Notice all the craters in the buildings? If you can read what is engraved in that wall - they're from WWII. It's very neat to see the pieces of history around the city. I forgot to take a picture of the church building - I'll post that soon.

A really long blog for a REALLY long 3 weeks...part 3

Hopefully this will be the final chapter of this saga! I'm waiting for another delivery (are you surprised?) - IKEA this time with our furniture. They said 7-8 am..it's 9:15. Oh well - story of my life! Thank heavens for deliveries though, even if they never come on time. Without them we'd have no food, furniture, or anything else! Anyway...I just have a bunch of random pics left to post of things we've done since arriving. Honestly, we haven't done anything very exciting yet - too busy taking care of details. These are just pics of everyday life as we now know it in London.

Here we are riding the Tube! The public transportation here is definitely awesome - and the kids think it's fun. We could really get on without a car here, but I think we'll be glad we have one in the end. I'm pretty sure we took these pictures in the first couple of days here - which would explain why I look so tired!

This picture was taken on the day I called Wade and told him I was going back to Texas - not a good day. We were still in the hotel and I needed to do laundry. The hotel will do it for a fee...$3 for a pair of socks!!! It would cost os $300! So we headed to the laundramat. No big deal! I did it all the time when we lived in Chicago, right? So, I shoved everything in a couple of wheelie suitcases for the kids to pull and a dufflebag I could stuff under the stroller and we were off. We did pretty well getting there, but that's where the good times ended. We spent the next couple of hours literally terrorizing this poor laundramat...Drew and Addie were bouncing off the walls getting in everyone's way, Noah was screaming, and I was getting a lot of dirty looks from people who were trying to figure out why I had so many kids and so much laundry. By the time we left, the kids were feeling anything but cooperative. I ended up pushing the stroller with one hand - duffle bag underneath, a suitcase precariously perched on top of the stroller (about to crush screaming Noah) - and pulling the other suitcase with the other hand. Oh, plus, I bought the kids scooters while we waited for the laundry, but Addie needed to poop so she wouldn't ride hers...so it was on top of the suitcase that was on top of Noah! It doesn't end there. Addie wanted to be carried, which I obviously couldn't do, so she kept stopping to throw tantrums on the walk home. So here we are - Addie's sreaming. Drew, on his scooter, is taunting Addie when not running down old English ladies on the sidewalk. I'm yelling at my kids, pushing and pulling this ridiculous looking load, proving true every American stereotype, trying to just make it the half mile walk back to the hotel! It was horrible and embarrassing and I never want to see a laundramat again.

This is how we roll...as does every other little kid here. "Micro Minis" are the thing - great for keeping little feet moving on long treks across the city -that is if you can keep your kids from running people down on the sidewalk. The first couple of days with these things was scary. Some old lady even yelled at me! They're getting better at avoiding people now. Our issue now is that my incredibly competive son, Drew, won't let Addie pass him (because then he'd lose! Isn't everything a race?) which in turn causesg her to scream at the top of her lungs, throw her scooter to the ground and refuse to move. Proud parenting moments.

There's a great park at the end of our street - playground, soccer - I'm sorry - football fields, tennis courts and basketball hoops. We spend a lot of time there already!

Addison is stuck and not happy that I'm taking a picture of it! Drew trying his hand at a little rugby with some kids he met in the park - Wade's so proud!

Yeah - I'm his mom so I have to think so, but isn't he dang cute!?

A little unpacking fun! We had MOUNTAINS of paper and we haven't unpacked everything yet!