England

Picture Casey drew at nursery. On the back if it the teacher wrote what Casey said: "Its me and mummy, CJ and Daddy, its raining like it always does here." From the mouths of babes come the truth:)

Show and Tell

Okay - I am over my pity party (cure -train to London, sushi, 2 sappora beers, and premiere screening of Angels and Demons)(spoiler alert- good but not as good as the book or the first movie- plus Mr. Hanks looks so old which will remind yourself of getting older- yuck)

CJ has show and Tell tomorrow- ( an yes you can't bring in any toys- so mummy (as CJ refers to me) came up with the posterboard idea of taking pictures of toys (legos) to get around their rules. (Yes I am a rule breaker)

My little guy came up with the concept all by himself-

4 Things you need to do legos:

1. legos

2.patience (note all those bitty pieces drive me nuts -kind of the way I hate Polly Pockets or Lil Petshop :)

3 Partner (daddy- Chris is in heaven that CJ loves legos-kinda like when I took Casey Jane to ice skating and the American Girl Cafe)

4 Pocket money (poor guy get 1 pound a week and the legos are pricey- luckily the grandparents dumped some treat money into both kids piggy banks before leaving.

F

Lets see 19 years of driving experience gets you nada in this country. I FAILED my driving test- no I did not commit any serious penalty (I even parallel parked like a rock star)- I got 16 minor faults (didn't use mirrors 100% of the time and undue hesitation for roundabout) and yes 15 is the pass score. So I am livid- the instructor/test giver was an arse from the get go 1. He mentioned a zillion times how he believed England's driving standards were so much harder than the States. 2 that most experienced drivers have not kept up to date on the highway code.3. of course it rains for my test- lest I expect anything else

So yes- I have a test date in july (some reason they are all booked up for the next 6 weeks and yes I have to pay another $100 to retake the test). Feeling like cher from clueless when she fails her test.(except its not sunny and my closet is so super small here) Feeling like this is a nice out for the company to send us home- can't drive anywhere need to go back home. The biggest joke was the test guy reminded me to remove the L plates to drive home since I can still drive on my USA licence until fall. I am going to start with the fake english accent and see how that works next time around:)

Mum's Day

So yes- we were the only family celebrating Mother's day in our village- since England celebrated it 6 weeks ago. I woke up to a latte (homemade - did I mention starbucks doesn't open until 10 am on the weekends- just thinking in a down economy they might want to sell some java before I am on my third cup) and a bagel w/ cream cheese (I miss my einsteins this was a sad british bagel with philly) in bed. So nice as I flipped thru In Style magazine while Chris battled breakfast duty- then daddy and chris left for swim lessons while I had casey sorting through my makeup (so scary she could probably curl her eyelashes if I let her)- Church- and then a sunny day at a converted farmhouse/pub. Food was good and we toasted the day with some bubbly.

Chris left his blackberry at home most of the day- I would love to say that is a pet peeve of mine but its not- since I get out the iphone to check weather and other random updates way too much.
I got a gift- heart was in the right spot but its not me (crystal ball sees a return in the near future)- but no gift compares to bagging chores I hate- bath time and emptying the dishwasher:) All in all it was an awesome day- will post pictures later.

Grabbag

Well- we had a girls night out last night- met at a mexican restaurant for margaritas (felt a little guilty that Mexico wasn't celebrating Cinque de Mayo) but still managed 2 margaritas. My British friends were stuck with angry husbands who didn't want to do the bedtime kid routine due to the Arsenal vs Man U soccer game but were stuck dealing with it anyway:) I guess complaining about men is an universal language.

Speaking of men that need to be complained about- how about Jon of (Jon &Kate plus 8)- how is it that a man with 8 children has any time/energy to have an affair with a 23 year old? Chris and I actually watch the show occasionally (totally realize anyone would be hard pressed to find a tv show we haven't at least seen once). Jon definitely looked beaten down in the early years but it seemed after potty training the sextuplets (another version of hell on earth) Jon and Kate were more relaxed. Not sure how much cash for dates- Jon is going to have after the alimony pymts but we shall see.

My mom casually (not that casual is ever a good adj for my mom) noted I have a very free flowing blog (e.g A LOT of spelling and grammar mistakes). The truth is I quickly type an entry- reread it once and then post. If I spent any time editing it- I wouldn't post:) (would be nice to have a cute copy editor like I did on the high school newspaper)( FYI- it was very Cool to be on the newspaper st THS)


Obama is speaking at my alma mater for graduation. I am okay with this (although a lot of students/alumni are not). I personally know alot of alumni that voted for him-so yes there are Catholic Democrats out there. Here's the deal its the President of USA so it is a huge honor to have him say yes to our university. Totally for free speech and healthy debate but this whole mumbo jumbo that a Catholic University should not let a pro-choice,pro stem cell research President speak at commencement in my mind is ridiculous. (please note he is not even talking about these hot topixs)(and yes I voted for the other guy but being an American overrides my political party affiliation). Okay I am done preaching.

Last gripe- my driving instructor is mysteriously out of the country. So my last cram sessions were cancelled so now I am stuck with the hubby trying to teach me how to parallel park (think the worst couple from Amazing Race )- and yes we will probably have to do it on Sunday (Mother's Day). Oh joy!

Au Revoir

So we had some tears sunday morning- the grandparents left bright and early at 6:30 am- and CJ happened to wake up to see them leaving. Poor little guy had begged them not to leave on sat evening. He then cried waving goodbye at the door to Nana and Pappou- he then said he wasn't going to eat breakfast until they returned.(Casey Jane ever the opposite child happily siad goodbye sat night and slept in:) Glad he was a kid because 20 min later he was chowing on cheerios. I hosted a bar b que Sunday so I wouldn't be too depressed that my parents were gone. Man-it's nice to have people help you out with meals and kid duties- the school crew knew soemthing was going on since my hair was flat ironed daily and I wasn't habitually in my running gear. So gone are the 25 minutes of me times (yes-I know I could get up before the munchkins but unless a starbucks IV system is invented that is never going to happen)- gone are my mom's 3 course dinners and glasses of wine (don't know what it is with parents in their 60's but they like their pre dinner drinks (or at least mine do), gone are my dad fixing our graden and random oddjobs (and yes he knew it was a rental but he still wanted to help fix things). So yes I miss my mommy and daddy:)

Strength

So I haven't felt like blogging lately- a few days ago I forwarded a joke email to some friends and woke up the next morning to a reply to that wasn't what I expected (one awful thing about living overseas is I tend to get a lot of info by email that normally I wish I could hear live)

One of my friends for the last month and 1/2 has been going through a very rough time in her marriage and right now is separated. So the last 6 weeks she has been throwing childrens birthday parties, doing school dropoffs, driving to ballet, working part time and not sleeping or eating worried what the future holds for her family. I spoke to her yesterday and in spite of the mountain she is facing (right now it looks like Everest)- she is trying her damnest to still keep her childrens' lives as carefree and effortless as she can.

When I asked her how she was coping she simply answered "I have to- no other choice." I can think of some other choice she could have chosen - stay in bed, have family take care of her kids,complain excessively, call in sick to work/take a sabbatical- yet somehow she has found the strength to carry on despite this bleak period. Strength, Faith, and a general feeling that this will pass. I came away from our call inspired,(I tried my hardest to just listen (very hard for opinionated girl like myself that wants the very BEST for my friends and would gladly tai bo anyone getting in the way of that) and understanding the true meaning of being a Mom. I guess this whole motherhood thing isn't for the timid or weak- no days off from being a parent. So from a long way away - I am sending some healing POSITIVE prayers to a supermom that isn't going to quit in the face of adversity.