Halloween, 2011

This year, Ashley and I spent the Halloween weekend with Weilok and Arasin. They had volunteered to do a children's Halloween party on one of the American Air Force Bases. This was Ashley's first time doing many things (going onto an American Air Force Base, going to the American grocery store, and an American Halloween Party) since moving to the UK. I think she was a bit overwhelmed. She cried in the middle of the grocery store (which, in her defense, was exactly the same thing that I did the first time I went,) oogled everything, and commented over and over about how everyone sounded. It was rather sweet.

At the party, Ashley was in charge of the camera for all but the start of the evening. She was dressed in garb (instant costume!) I grabbed a quick picture...

I was dressed as a pregnant rabbit. Not that inspiring, but to be honest I wasn't really feeling the Halloween costume love. Nothing fits, nothing is comfortable. This was the best I was willing to do. You can, however, see the baby bump rather clearly.

Rayanne (dressed as Madame Dragonfly) and I were doing a booth at the party. We were happily sticking children's hands into gooey pumpkin guts and making them guess what they were feeling. For their bravery, they got candy. There was much silliness.

Baby squirmed all night. Lately, the tiny kicks and punches that we used to feel have become massive twisting, squirming, rolling monster movements. It looks very much like my belly is a curtain, and we are all standing on the outside watching someone behind the curtain rolling and kicking at it. I wonder who that person is and what they are like ALL the time.

I think we are coming to the point that all of us are ready to be done with this pregnancy and move on to the having a baby bit. I feel like a house. I am /so slow/ and bending over for anything is difficult. Sleeping... heh, who sleeps?

Realistically, though, things are going so much more smoothly than I expected they would. I am healthy and feeling good, all things considered. Baby is happy and growing. Stephen and Ashley are happy and not growing. And only 7 more weeks to go. Bring it on. :)

Holiday - (not so) Short and Sweet

I have been on holiday in the US for the past month, and I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time with Tristan, as well as Kelli's girls. Though you might want to see some pictures. Warning: this is not all we did or all I saw. The truth is, I'm terrible at taking pictures. So if you have some that I don't have, please pass them on.
Tristan and Papa being pals.

Tristan and Gramy. He says "She's the oldest person in the world, Mom." Gramy is 90, but she is just as sharp as a tack. I want to be old like her.

Gramy and the 18 week Baby bump. Oh, and me.

It was very difficult to get all three of these children in the same picture, and this was the best I could do. Katy, Tristan (in the red hat) and Angel (in the white hat) fishing and swimming in the river. The fishing lasted about 3 minutes, then into the water they went. Katy sat with me and watched.

Tristan loved all the dogs and cats that he saw on the trip. This is him with Dora. Angel is NOT happy that he is in the picture holding HER dog.

Tristan and Kiera after her surgery. She is still in the hospital, very groggy and out of it. She tolerated her picture with Boo...

...but didn't want to have anything more to do with pictures by the time I got to her. Luckily she tolerated this kiss on the cheek.

Kelli, Boo and I. I think we were all very tired by this point and faking smiles. Except for Tristan, whose expression pretty accurately sums up how we were all feeling at that point.

Having my family birthday dinner. This was Tristan's birthday red velvet cake. "This is too tiny to be a cake! Take a picture!" says Tristan.

Tristan, Katy and Angel were playing whilst at Dar's house. Angel was the mom, Katy was the daughter who had a tumour in her brain and had to go to the doctor (who was very far away) to have it out, the bear (beside Tristan) was the other daughter who stayed behind, and Tristan was the babysitter. This is Tristan teaching the bear he is babysitting how to play video games.

Tristan, Ms. Christi, Noah and Zach.

Tristan loves on Ms. Christi and Mr. Dan's dog, Cooper. Cooper loved to have his picture taken and sat there so still. He was the only animal I didn't come home with 20 blurry pictures of.

Boo and his favourite guy, Mr. Dan.

Tristan and Grandma Holen.

Tristan and Nicky's dog Kahlua.

Tristan and Grandma's one-eyed cat, Sidney. Sidney made Tristan feel a bit homesick, because he has a cat with one eye as well.

Tristan and his cousin Nicky. This is her 'normal' face. ;)

Tristan, Aunt Stephanie, and cousins Nicky, Kailey, Maddison and Emily.

Tristan and his cousin Kailey. They had so much fun making mud pies together. According to him, she is his favourite girl cousin.

Tristan and baby Kayden.

Boo and Grace.

Boo and Rachal.

Boo and Aunt Laura.

Laura and I. If the picture had gone down lower, you would find that the baby bump is a bit bigger than it was before.

Mamy and Katy. This was my last night in the US, and Tristan had gone home already.

Kiera and Mamy. Kiera was a lot happier to see me this time, called me Mamy for the first time ever and hugged and loved on me all evening. She was a chatterbox, too, which I was so pleased to see since the only way I could interact with her the month before was to read her a story. A totally different kiddo than the Kiera with a tumour.

Mamy and her girls.

It was nice, it was tiring, it was SO worth it. But I'm glad to be home.

Baby!

Say hello to the newest addition of our family - as-yet-to-be-named Baby! Due to arrive Christmas Eve, 2011 (though I suspect Baby will hang out longer - Ashley did by almost 2 weeks!) My mom is coming to stay with us early December, and will be here for the arrival as well. Baby didn't appreciate the very quick view we took just to make sure there was only 1 of him/her, and these were the best pics we got. The strong white line across Baby's face in the ultrasound is his or her teeth - so they are all there and healthy. Baby was shy too, so the only chance we are taking to find out if Baby is a boy or a girl is now passed without us knowing. But that's ok, because we are going to let you guess! We (and by that I actually mean Stephen because I am increasingly incompetent with computers and especially spreadsheets) are adding a place that you can join the team of your choice - Team 'boy' or Team 'girl'! It should all compile into a lovely graph and we will get to see who guessed right. I'll add pics of Baby's bump in coming weeks too... once there are some.

Long time... no pics. :(

In December 2010, we had professional family pictures done. They didn't arrive until February or so, but of course, I didn't add them here because I have been very very bad about updating the blog. (I'm trying to be better, but no promises.) I thought you might like to see a few of them. I wasn't yet pregnant, so don't get your hopes up about pregnant pictures, though I'll add pre-birth baby pics shortly.


Our family. Notice how Stephen is too cool to smile, and how appropriate his shirt is.


And my favourite photo. Ashley planned this one and the photographer went along for the ride. It is absolutely perfect for the loving dynamic in our household, even down to trying to hide the smiles as they try to beat each other up. (Though sometimes I'm not smiling, since there are times that I end up underneath them while they duke it out, and they are HEAVY!)

T-H-E-C-A-R

The school that I will be teaching in is too far away from my home for me to get there easily. There is no public transportation services. And that means that I have 2 options: either I rent a car on a long-term basis, or I buy a car. After much research, I have discovered that not only is it less expensive to buy, but also to buy a new car rather than a used car. So, after even more research, I found the car I would buy. It is called a Toyota Aygo, and is a "micro-car." It gets more than 60mpg, and is tiny. I ordered it yesterday, and it should be here sometime in September. I'll still have to rent a car at the start of the school year, but for a lot less time than I thought. Here are some pictures of my exact specification.


The outside, which has 4 doors. There is enough space on the inside for Ashley to fit, but it will only ever fit 4 people.

The back, with the tiny trunk. It produces 106 g of carbon per kilometer, which means that I only have to pay the lowest amount of road tax each year. This is good.


The inside. Yep, the driving stuff is on the right. I have discovered that this disturbs me most when I am trying to flick the windshield wipers on, because I end up messing with the turn signal instead. My brain hasn't figured out that I need to think about which side the wipers are on yet.


And the inside from the door. This car is also nice because it has the lowest insurance rating possible, which means that the insurance on it will be low.

These pics are not of my potential car, because it has not yet been built. There is so much demand for this brand that there is a 6 week backlog. It's nothing fancy, but it is safe, inexpensive (comparatively,) and ecologically friendly. It will happily get me to work and home. Don't worry, we still intend to keep walking everywhere locally, though. Our town is so compact that it would be silly to drive. But we may well get to go and do more sightseeing when we own a car. Here's hoping.

More Photo Goodness

2009: Courtesy of Kelley

These photos were taken while out for a simple walk by the river. The day was warm and bright and sunny, and it had been hot enough that the banks of the river looked fairly dry and dead. In these, however, I think it looks really good.


There was a little old man sitting close by on a bench, feeding the ducks. This photo shoot took about an hour, and the man just kept staring at us. I suppose we were a bit more interesting than the ducks were, though if you had given Ashley the opportunity, she would have disagreed. She thinks there is nothing more interesting than ducks.

Personally, I think these photos came out as well, if not better than they would have if we had gone to a photographer. Thank you again, Kelley.

And now for something a bit different...

As I have been tired, busy, and promising someone a chance to be a published blog author for almost a year now, I am very happy to finally offer the chance for a guest writer (as opposed to a GHOST writer, and I am glad for that, let me tell you, as I would never sleep well again after being so well-haunted...) to take over for a bit. Kelley and I have been friends since we were small, and my sister Kelli introduced us. She is here on a visit, and I am happy to put our family blog in her so-very capable hands. (Or so she says, though we haven't actually experienced that massage magic as of yet. hint hint.)

Hi there! Kelley here. Amy thought it might be nice for a small change, so you are to temporarily to be exposed to my version of a little thing we like to call "return to the motherland." Just teasing, I have never actually called it that before, but since this is my second visit to Amy and Ashley in England, and Amy promised a blog from us last time (she lied, naughty girl) I promised that I would write this time. (She just thinks it will be once. I intend to milk her for every word.)

After a long flight from Dallas/Fort Worth airport to London Heathrow (9 hours) and then a trip on the tube to the train station (1 hour) and then a train trip down to Canterbury (1.5 hours) I arrived here on Friday the 2nd. Note that if you should visit from America, these sleep Nazis will NOT allow you to escape your exhaustion and jet lag until what they consider an appropriate evening hour. It gets dark here at four. Tor-ture. (In the infamous words of Sir Stephen: no pain, no gain, so deal with it. Or something like that.)

On Saturday, the 3rd, we visited some friends of Amy and Stephen's for dinner. Here are Stephen and the Transplants (that's actually the name of their band):


By the way, he doesn't always smile like a serial killer in photos. Andy and b00 (the friends) made us a lovely meal, (involving eating anglerfish for the first time, and blood, gore, and medical-grade superglue, but not on any of us) and we played a few rounds of a new game called Bausack. It is a really challenging game where you make a tower of these odd-shaped wooden blocks. The catch is that other players choose your pieces for you. The last tower standing is the winner. The rookie (that's me) won the first round with this creation:


Ashley had a lovely 2nd place masterpiece with this one:


We stayed quite late past dinner, and walked home in the dark (very dark) and cold (really, really cold) and snuggled into beds with hot water bottles and many blankets.

Today, Amy and I went down to the High Street (yes I said down, then high), which is a short, quite scenic walk from their flat. (She says short and quite scenic NOW, but when we were actually walking it she sang quite a different song involving lots of 'Are we there yet'esque statements.) This is a school field nearby.


See the little black hills of dirt? Mole holes. Stephen says to call them mole hills, but I will let you decide. (Kelley and I both called them mole-holes until Stephen corrected us. I suppose I know that they should be called mole hills, and I don't know why my instinct is to call them mole-holes, but it is.) As you stroll down the path alongside the river, the Canterbury cathedral pops up in between the trees and over rooftops like a creepy stalking historical monument.


(Just look at those creepy stalker-building spires. You can't miss those, it's how you differentiate between a regular historic monument and a creepy-stalking one.) I kid. It is really quite stunning, but for some reason never fails to surprise me when I'm walking down the road surrounded by buildings and all of a sudden, Bam! No, it doesn't mow you down. It's more like, Boo! Here I am! Again! This is the creepy wooded path that Amy will not go down in the dark unaccompanied. Can't say I blame her:


(That picture may well be the favourite one that Kelley took today. I love the muted colours and it actually looks just like a creepy pathway should. Well done, Kel.) Here are a couple of buildings within town. This is a synagogue on one of the side streets (Story: This building used to be a synagogue, and it has since been bought out by The King's School, a swanky private institution that charges more in tuition for the boarding children than my tuition does. It is now a recital space used for music performances.):


This is an official Canterbury Historical Building (according to the sign)--there are quite a few of these in town. (In the midst of a variety of small shops, this house is actually residential. I almost feel sorry for the people who live there, as every tourist in the area has to stop and take a picture of this house. One time I actually saw someone taking a picture of the residents as they went in.)


Not sure if this sign is old, but it was on a historical building and I just liked it.


And this lovely old building houses...the Gap.


Here is a shot of the high street (also called the Parade) (Or at least 1/3rd is. There is St. Peters, The Parade, and then the High street all as names on this one straight, 1/2 mile stretch of pedestrianised road.):


And just around the corner, this sign wishes you a Happy Christmas. (On January 4):


And here is the cathedral again. I think it's following me.


Before we left town to head home, we made a couple of stops, one of them at Tesco, which is one of the groceries.


Now, the grocery stores amuse me, because one of the first things my mother said to me when I told her I was visiting England was "Yuck. You'll hate the food." (She doesn't yet hate the food, because no one here eats English food. We all eat Thai and Indian and American food, and French and Chinese and Spanish food. England is all about World food, anymore.) And it's not that it's just different, but they have odd names for things. For a complete mental perv like me, it is a joyous place.

For instance, there is an entire aisle dedicated to biscuits. Don't care that they are covered in chocolate or cinnamon flavored, they call them biscuits. Check out my picture of the cookie aisle. (I love biscuits. And cakes. Darn them. And this picture looks as bright and colourful and makes me want to bring them all to a much better home: namely mine.)


And this is the pickled portion of the store. Never seen so many pickled things in my life. And guess what wasn't in this section. Pickles. (Though there are pickled eggs, and onions and beets and garlic and sauerkraut, and lemons and shallots. English people like their pickled foods.)


And here is mince. Supposed to be ground lamb or beef or pork or whichever, but tell me truly. Doesn't this look like the bits in 'Kibbles n Bits'?


(If you don't think that looks like kibble, go HERE and look. I have thought that it does ever since I saw it for the first time, and I was so glad when Kelley said she thought so too.) For those of you curious about the edible porn, there are cans of things like this:


The can says things like "Everyone loves a pair of bangers!" and "Size isn't everything!" and "Hide the sausage!" These will henceforth be referred to as "Porn and Beans." And this:


Now, I saw the movie "The Full Monty", and I think that its funny that this is a can of sausage and beans. I'll let you run with that one. For those of you that haven't seen the film, and this joke is doing a complete flyby at the moment, go HERE. You'll see what I mean. (The Full Monty, in this case,refers to the full English breakfast, which the English have held onto tooth and nail despite being a culture of world foods. The full English breakfast consists of as many of the following items as possible: Eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, toast, mushrooms, black pudding, hashbrowns, fried bread, and tomatoes. The Full Monty=coronary heart disease. In a can.)

And after the Tesco, we stopped by the candy shoppe, called the The Sugar Boy, where you can see these:


Ahhh...Uncle Joe's Mint Balls. They keep you all aglow. You say immature, I say nevertheless amusing. Our last stop was to get kebabs, which are lovely pitas stuffed with meat shaved off these huge roasters, like this lamb one:


They are really yummy, I totally recommend them (mom's advice be darned). Afterwards we headed home and had dinner, including a yummy custard desert, which is like pudding, but a bit thinner, and served hot. We are now all huddled in Amy and Stephen's bed as Amy reads aloud, and I will shortly have to haul myself from the warmth to my own bed and hot water bottle (Best. Invention. Ever.) Thanks for letting me hijack your favorite blog, and I hope you will let me share again. Cheers.

No, Kelley, thank YOU. We all hope that you will hijack this blog again in the near future. Even Stephen is happy. Ill and delirious with fever (no Dearest, I am not a reindeer and I don't need to eat another carrot...) but happy nonetheless.