Global Family

Chrismassy Currans

2011-12-16T11:21:00.001Z

It's Christmas Time! And what fun it is to be enjoying this with a four-year-old. Aiden is so thrilled by everything, and so is Lucy! She loves the decorations, and an say 'bauble'. It's very cute. These ar ea couple of shots of decorating the tree.

Here are the results of our gingerbread house decorating! Aiden was very proud of his, and I was pleased with mine too!

Here is daddy with Lucy before his big Christmas work party. I'm still a bit miffed that they weren't allowed to bring a date, seems a bit stingy, but oh well. He had a nice time.

And here's a picture of our gorgeous girly. Isn't she lovely! She's saying all kinds of words now and convincing us daily that she's a baby genius.

A Pirate Ship Cake!

2011-12-08T07:30:00.000Z

We had a pirate birthday party for Aiden on Satruday, which was lots of fun. Several kids from pre school and church came, and we had games and food and cake. I think one of the most popular things was the 'jungle adventure' that Simon lead them on outside. My crowning triumph was, of course, the pirate ship cake! It was all edible apart from the masts, sails and flag. Simon took the day off work, Friday so that he could help get ready for the party - meaning, so that I would have time to make the cake!

Aiden's Birthday!

2011-12-06T20:55:00.001Z

Aiden is four! He had a great birthday and it was fantastic fun for us as parents to see his excitement now that he really understands everything. He loved unwrapping his presents, and loved taking shark cupcakes to preschool to share with his friends. Here are some shots of the day.

Berlin Part II

2011-11-19T07:00:00.000Z

Here are Aiden and Daddy at the dome above the Reichstag.

These three photos are at the Olympiastadion where the 1938 Olympics were held (quite a history there).

Here are the kiddies and Daddy playing in a fountain at the Botanisher Garten.

Playing around the fountain in the square outside the Berlin Cathedral.

Aiden with a bit of the cathedral and the TV tower in the background.

Lucy just being adorable.
On the way back from Germany we stopped and camped in twice, once in Germany, once in Belgium. It rained on us, quite a bit. There was a big, loud thunderstorm the first night which Lucy slept right through, but scared Aiden quite a bit, not to mention Mummy and Daddy.
The second night in Ghent, it was absolutely pouring when we got up and it was time to pack the tent. The result was that we let the kiddies play in the huge puddles and get completely soaked as we desperately tried to get the tent in folded and in the car as quickly as possible.

They loved it! We changed them and then headed back to the UK! Caught our ferry at Dunquerque, and were back in England ready to Move house - again.

Berlin!

2011-11-17T07:49:00.000Z

Simon was offered the opportunity to do a placement in a law firm in Berlin this past summer. Although it didn't look like a very practical option in terms of time or money, we decided to go for it. It looked like it might be our 'last chance' to be free to do something slightly crazy like this, so we went for it. At the end of July we set off for Berlin, in the car, with two small kiddies and Simon's mum. It was crowded and hectic, but hey, we're used to that, right? Here we are waving goodbye to the white cliffs of Dover.
So, in order to keep costs to a minimum, we decided to camp on the way. We stopped at a campsite outside Eindhoven in Holland and pitched our tent. The Dutch are really into camping. They seem to all have massive caravans (camping trailers for those American readers) that the set up and stay in for weeks at a time in the summer. The woman next to us had been there for four weeks, and was planning to stay another two. It's not wilderness camping, American style, campsites have playgrounds and pools and onsite entertainment. So, we stayed there for a couple of nights, then on to Berlin!
Simon's mission has given him a contagious enthusiasm for German history, especially post WWII communist era stuff, and you can imagine that Berlin is a very exciting prospect if you're interested in that. I can remember the fall of the Berlin wall when I was about twelve, and the story and images still make me quite emotional. So, we were very excited about the prospect of this time in Germany, and particularly Berlin.
We rented a holiday apartment, which aside from the strong tobacco smell which we battled for the first few days (hey, it was the cheapest one we could find), it was perfect. The location was fantastic and Simon walked into work most days. We were in the Tiergarten area, and something I learned about Berlin is that it seems like every block has a children's playground. And not just any playgrounds, really nice ones. It was a great place to be with kids, and they loved it.

Here we are at the Brandenberg Gate.

A remnant of the Berlin wall.

The kiddies being cute in front of the Reichstag.

Aiden Blowing giant bubbles in front of the Brandenberg Gate.

Aiden and his scooter.

Kiddies in a park in Berlin.

Simon's cool photo of the TV tower.

Back to England

2011-11-15T09:21:00.001Z

We had a great time in America, and then it was time to head back to the good old UK. We arrived on about the 17th of July and stayed overnight with some good friends in Bristol - as we had moved out of our house! We then had about two weeks to find a place to live in Exeter from the end of August so we could be ready for Simon's new job. We spent a couple of days with Simon's stepmum in Stroud, and researched and called estate agents. Then we came down and had several appointments to view houses. We had done a little reckie (reconnaissance) back in May and met the Bishop of the Exeter ward's family who had introduced us to their landlords, the Thompsons. We rang them to see if they had anything available and they said the little coach house flat we had talked about last time was let, but they invited us round for a chat saying they might have something that would do if we couldn't find anything else. So we came down to Exeter and met the Tompsons first. To our surprise, they started talking to us about renting the 'big' house. Essentially, thirty years or so ago, they bought an 200-year-old house, almost like a manor house. They fixed it up, added an extension and ran it as a nursing home for fifteen years or so, then they moved into the 'big house' and rented other parts as flats. Well, as they're getting on a bit, they built a more modern house for themselves in the grounds and the 'big house' was left empty for a couple of years. Not long before contacted them they had decided to rent it out, so they essentially offered it to us. We were very surprised, but most shocked, probably to learn that, although it has two huge reception rooms and FIVE bedrooms, it was actually within our limited budget (which has something to do with the fact that the bedrooms still have sinks and emergency pull-cords and various evidences of the houses' past as an old peoples' home. So, we went to see the other places we had arranged to view. Standard, three-bedroom terraced houses with tiny gardens, but in the end, there was no contest. So, here we are with a much bigger house than I had imagined we would ever live in. And the kids can run around the several acres of gardens, and, well, I just can't believe my luck. It's a bit like we've won the lottery.

So, with the house hunting over, we hung out and relaxed for a few days and got ready to head off to BERLIN!

Lucy's Birthday

2011-10-12T07:15:00.000+01:00

Lucy turned one on the 10th of July! Seems a bit silly to announce this in October, but that's how far behind I am. Here she is in the gorgeous flower fairy dress that my mom made for her. Every time she wears it people ask where we got it. I very proudly tell them that her grandmother made it.

Here she is investigating what wrapping paper tastes like:

And, Naturally, here are some cake pictures! It's a girly birthday! An excuse to make a pretty cake! And here is Aiden helping with the icing on a cupcake while I do Lucy's cake.

Here is the cake! I was very pleased with how it turned out. Not perfectly smooth, but nice and tasty. And here are some shots of the cupcakes we had for the open-house party where we invited ALL the family to come round My sister Ruth helped me make them, and I love how they turned out.

Temples!

2011-10-11T06:11:00.000+01:00

It was fantastic being in Utah, we took a little walk around the Salt Lake Temple one evening when we came to meet some friends for dinner. It's changing a lot downtown, it will be interesting to see how it all turns out when the new buildings are done.

We also got some lovely pictures of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, which my parents live next to. We went five or six times in the two weeks we were there. It's quite a privilege to be so close. We also kept dashing out for photos when it looked like we might get some good ones.

Independence Day, Camping and Hanging out!

2011-10-10T07:39:00.001+01:00

For the next installment of our holiday saga, we were in Utah for the Fourth of July! It was great, just like Fourths of my childhood. We took the kids to the West Jordan City parade, in this photo, the three kiddies on the left are Aiden, and my nephews Alex and Joshua, waving at the floats. The kids had a great time, and the weather was great! Usually it's so hot that you can only stay for half an hour of the parade before everyone wilts, but this time there was some lovely cloud cover and even a few drops of refreshing rain. It was perfect.Here's Aiden at my parents house, thought it was nice and patriotic with the flag in the background.

A water balloon fight! My sister-in-law Valeri's idea. The little ones loved it, and so did the grandmas. Here's Jovan about to get Grandma Crockett!

I'm not sure what Aiden is laughing at, but I love his face in this photo. His trousers got too wet, so they had to come off.

Here's a shot of everyone during the barbeque in on my parents terrace. Mmmm, grilled meat, and salads, and cake...home made ice cream, who wouldn't love Independence day?

And maybe my favourite shot of the day: the little boys oggling the massive pack of fireworks that Sue splashed out on. They were so excited! Simon ended up with the job of lighting them, and Valeri and I were on little boy duty, making sure they didn't get too close. They were actually really great, and (as they say in all the Thomas videos) 'Luckily, no one was hurt.'

We went camping with JD, Valeri and their two boys, Lincoln and Jovan. It was fantastic to spend this time with them. The little boys got on so well! Lincoln is a year older than Aiden, and Jovan a year younger, so he was happy playing with either or both. Here's a great wrestling on the air mattresses in the tent shot.

It was fantastic, but two days was certainly plenty. We were tired after sleeping in tents, and Lucy was so filthy! Not quite walking yet; she was very high maintenance. She had a great time, though. She LOVES being outside, and camping is all outside, all the time! I tried to keep her strapped into the stroller when possible, but she wasn't having any of it.

We camped at the Spruces up Little(?) Cottonwood canyon, and it was lovely. The kids were great and all loved it, and I had a great time, remembering childhood and enjoying the mountains. One thing I miss: mountains.

Loooong Summer...

2011-09-27T21:49:00.007+01:00

Here's a photo of Lucy in New York at Rockafeller Center at the end of June.
One may be forgiven for thinking that we had given up on the blogging altogether, but here we are again! I think I need to do this because I've been rubbish at keeping a journal of late. Our summer has been crazy as anticipated. Simon had just finished his exams when it was time to pack up all of our stuff and move house! Well... put everything into storage. Well, when I say storage, I actually mean our friends' dining room. Very generous friends indeed. We got it all moved, handed in the keys, and were off to America! It was such a stressful time, the four to six weeks leading up to all of that upheaval, that I had several nights where I didn't sleep for more than two or three hours. That was new for me, I've never had trouble getting my sleep, it's always been a high priority for me, but now I suppose I can sympathise with those who have insomnia, it's miserable.
We had planned everything carefully, and so apart from the odd, inevitable hiccup here and there, things went swimmingly. We spent ten days on the East Coast of the US, visiting Boston, New York and Washington DC. Sounds great, and it was, but it was also exhausting do do that with kids.

Here are two exhausted kiddies after a day touring around Boston.

Rain and fountains! Aiden in Boston.

This is at Heathrow Airport waiting for our flight to leave. So cute!

All the family at on Liberty Island looking back at the Manhattan skyline.
Simon and his mum at the Capitol Building in Washington.
My Parents, Simon's Mum, Me, Aiden and Lucy in front of the White House. We got to take the tour!
Simon's artistic photo of the Vietnam Memorial with the Washington Monument in the background.

It was a great trip. I'd never been to Washington DC, so that was new for me, and I really enjoyed it. I don't know if I'd do it again with the kids, especially after such a stressful few weeks leading up to it, but I'm glad we did. We managed to pack quite a bit in.

Tune in next time for a bit about our trips to Utah and Berlin!

LPC

2011-06-16T14:53:00.005+01:00

It's been a long time since I've written anything on the blog, but I felt events this week deserved a post.

The Legal Practice Course that has completely consumed my life over the past nine months (in amongst delivering (and occasionally consuming) Pizza Hut pizzas, being a father/husband and ward exec sec) is now over! It's been a very demanding course and this picture shows just how much paper work I've had to get through this year. Guess it all stands me in good stead for September.

Giving In

2011-05-22T22:09:00.006+01:00

Aiden has been suffering from acute scooter-envy for a number of months now. Some of his friends from church have them and Aiden borrows them when we get together for play groups and things. I never thought I would want to get a scooter for my child, I've seen too many mum's pushing prams shouting after their kids on scooters to slow down and look out for traffic. It didn't seem like something I would be willing to do, but after seeing how much Aiden loved playing on his friends scooters, I decided (with Simon's encouragement) we should get one for him. We took him to Asda and found that they had one for £7.50, bargain! We let him try one in the shop, and when we said, 'should we buy it for you?' I think he could hardly believe his luck. So, Aiden owns a scooter. That first day Simon sat out in the front garden so that Aiden could practice scooting up and down the pavement (sidewalk) for probably at least an hour and a half. He really had to practice, it's just a two-wheeled one, not the toddler 3-wheelers. Simon came in and told me that at one point, Aiden scooted away from him for a few metres and then looked back and said "I just wanna say thank you, Daddy." He's been so happy! In fact, he's so happy that he's spontaneously expressed gratitude, a rare event! He said the same to me the next day when I was out with him.
I took the kids to the zoo this week with a friend of his from church. He had a really great time and then in the evening, a friend of ours who is our resident expert in local history came up to 'the Downs' with us to see over the Avon river gorge and have an ice cream. We got Aiden to bed rather late, but as I was kissing him good night, he looked up and said, "It was a really special day with you, Mummy." It's moments like these that melt your heart.

Showing off

2011-05-08T21:55:00.004+01:00

I hate to brag, and I don't want to make anyone jealous of the extravagant lifestyle we lead, but I wanted to post this cute kiddie video. To do so I have to reveal that, for my birthday this year, we went to Ikea for dinner. 'Meatballs?' you might ask, but actually, this time it was hot dogs. Aiden thought we were in heaven. He was so excited for his Ikea hot dog and ice cream. I know this might create feelings of jealousy in our readers, but there was not keeping it secret. It was worth it to see so much enthusiasm in our little boy, it was adorable.

He also discovered how to spin a shopping trolley in near-perfect circles, much to Lucy's delight.

Upon viewing this, it looks a bit more dangerous than it seemed at the time. Well, we stopped it before it was out of control. Simon tells me there' s no need to justify our apparent lack of parental concern. But anyway, isn't it cute?

Holiday Time

2011-04-26T07:41:00.001+01:00

Simon has had a couple of weeks off from his studies for the Easter Holiday, and his Mum has been with us for quite a bit of it, so we've been hanging out a lot more as a family. It's been fantastic to have Daddy around more, he's been so busy ever since we arrived here in Bristol. The past couple of weeks has really felt like a vacation, even though we haven't travelled far. Saturday, we went to the beach at Weston-Super-Mare, and Simon got this supremely cute shot of Lucy.And Here's Aiden after Daddy wrote his name in the sand. Aiden LOVES the beach, he's going to have a great time when we live in Exeter next year, less than 30 minutes from a lovely beach.
And here's Daddy in his new shades, Lucy, Aiden and Nana Sue holding Flat Stanley (something my nephew Joshua sent to us as part of a class project to help them learn about different places.) It was very sunny and warm, very tasty fish and chips were eaten and a good time was had by all.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T18:54:00.004+01:00

We've had a lovely easter, blending our American and English Easter traditions quite successfully today! We just wanted to wish all our family a good Easter Sunday and of course, I'm showing off more cakes. Aiden and I made these last week in anticipation of Easter.I also wanted to show off some new, super-cute photos of the kiddies. It's so difficult to get them both looking at the camera at the same time!

Happy Birthday Simon!

2011-04-21T19:15:00.006+01:00

It's the month of events in the Curran Family! April gives us Leah's and Simon's birthdays, our anniversary, And this year, Mother's Day and Easter as well. Quite a lot to celebrate. In line with last year's tradition, Simon asked Aiden what kind of cake Daddy should have for his birthday, and we decided that what he should have is a whale shark cake. What is a whale shark and why would Aiden request one? -you may ask. Well, there's a kid's programme that he loves called the Octonauts, which teaches lots of facts about sea animals. His favourite one is called a whale shark, the biggest shark in the world! So, I set out to make one, and here it is!Not bad. I'm learning quite a bit with each successive effort at cake decorating; this time I applied a 'crumb coat' and some other things that handy youtube tutorials taught me. I was pretty excited about this cake, and I almost didn't let Simon cut it - almost. We had to eat it, it's yummy chocolate inside!
Happy Birthday Simon! Thanks for being a great Hubby/Daddy.

Cranberry Almond Muffins

2011-04-16T20:59:00.002+01:00

Aiden and Lucy gave me a new cookbook for Mother's day last week, and I had to try out a new recipe, even if it didn't agree with our diet. They tasted just as good as they looked!

Family stuff

2011-04-15T20:34:00.006+01:00

My life has undergone quite a change of late. Lucy is now almost sleeping through the night. She usually only wakes up once, which I'll accept with a grateful heart! It makes quite a change to her four or five times-a-night habit she's just overcome. We've also finally moved her out of our room in with Aiden, which means we can have the light on in our room after 8pm, it's great! Also, she's starting to move independently. She can walk herself along chairs and sofas, she can almost crawl, well, scoot around. And this means she's not as desperate to be held as she has been for the last nine months - her entire life to this point. And now I'm starting to remember what it was like to have two arms to use! Liberating. So, what with more sleep and more ability to do things, I'm feeling fantastic. Also, Aiden is potty trained, which I was starting to think would never happen. But, as soon as he expressed the desire himself, it was almost immediate. Thank heavens!

Updates! A couple of cute kiddie photos to begin. Here are the two kiddies with daddy tickling them on the bed. They both giggle a lot and it's very cute.
Here's one of Aiden's new favourite hiding places. It involves the obligatory pretense that we can't find him and then go have a nice rest on the sofa...'Don't squish me!'

And here's a cute one of the two of them. I can't really remember now why they were laying on a pillow together on the kitchen floor in their pyjamas, hmmm, but it's pretty cute!

Happy Birthday Mum!

2011-03-22T08:37:00.003Z

Simon's mum spent the weekend with us and we celebrated her birthday with her yesterday. I took the opportunity to play with my new set of icing tips. The result was, well, very colourful.

We took her to dinner at the local Harvester, and I had forgotten how much work it was to go to a restaurant with Aiden and Lucy. But why should a restaurant be any easier than home? It was nice, though, and we had a good time.

Some Family Shots

2011-02-28T17:00:00.000Z

We finally made an attempt to get some photos of the whole family. We've got lots of one of the parents and both kiddies, but not too many of all of us. Here's out home-made attempt. We never quite managed to get good expressions from everyone at once; I suppose that's what professionals are for. Our most professional touch is the brown sheet pinned to the wall behind us. But here's our family of four!

Cakes!

2011-02-27T21:17:00.003Z

I have recently been toying with the idea of starting a very small scale cake decorating business. It's something I enjoy, it would be flexible and I think I could learn to do it well. Anyhow, I'd have a long way to go, but a few youtube videos have already shown me some new tricks. Here are the 'Treat Day Sunday' cupcakes we had today! Marble cake with 'Neapolitan icing'.

Ultimately, this ambition will have to wait to come to fruition until we're settled somewhere more permanently, and until Lucy's a bit older and sleeping a bit more. It's nice to have some small-scale dreams though.

Beautiful Babies

2011-02-19T13:18:00.002Z

I've sat down to blog several times lately and just about got past the loggin buttion. Lucy has been a bit under the weather, and she wants to be held ALL the time. Well, that's not too different from the norm, the other element to the equation is the the fact that I've had very little sleep. Oh well, here's another post that's an excuse for posting photos. Look at these kiddies! Awww.

Ooh, we can fit in the toy box!

Look at those beautiful blue eyes!
The suit is still a bit too big...just a bit.

Porridge and Jam Sandwich

2011-02-17T13:08:00.003Z

Part of my daily battle seems to be getting Aiden to eat. He's not generally interested in food, though he loves peanut butter sandwiches, cheese, crackers and noodles. Sadly, all of these do not add up to a balanced diet. I was trying to get him to try one bite of porridge the other day. ONE BITE! Tears were shed, there was weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. In the end, he had a little nibble of my new creation - a porridge and jam sandwich. Perhaps inspired by the, to me, inexplicable chip butty which is a British favourite. (Hmmm, just realised I've never seen the word butty written down and spellcheck is flagging it up. Buttie perhaps? Nope, still red.) This is two slices of bread, ketchup and chips (or steak fries for all you Americans), usually what's leftover from your fish and chips or sausage and chips. My mind reels. Bread with a layer of potato? Two starches? No, I can't handle it, and it's not too appetising in my opinion either, but Simon always has one whenever we visit a chippy, so I'm trying not to comment on it too much any more. Famous last words, here this blog post has turned in to a discussion of chip buttys. Stream of consciousness writing. I'd better stop.

Preschool!

2011-01-24T22:06:00.003Z

Aiden started preschool today. It was so strange to let him go in there all by himself! He had a great time, though, and didn't want to come home. I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad about that. Mostly happy, I'm glad he's a confident little guy who loves playing with other kids. He came home exhausted.

Birthday Party!!!

2010-12-17T10:00:00.004Z

Aiden finally had his birthday party! After being postponed due to illness and weather, he had his joint party with his favourite friend, Jarom Howlett on Wednesday at the Howlett's house. Here's a shot of two happy boys with Aiden's Thomas cake (a fine example, if I do say so myself). Mummy looking a bit mad...
Claire's demonstration of the pass the parcel prize.
Cameron won the pass the parcel game and all the boys gather to see what's inside!

Lucy's hanging out, literally.
For our party activity, I made gingerbread houses that the kids decorated.
Some of the sweets that went on the houses didn't stay on long, though.
They all enjoyed it and got their sugar highs for the night.
And here's Aiden with his Thomas cake. He asked for some coaches to go with the cake as well, but I told him that Thomas was plenty, thank you!

Photo Day

2010-12-04T21:10:00.005Z

I've been trying to take photos of the kids, but there's no place in our house with good natural light to get any really good ones. Part of it is probably second child syndrome, who has the time to invest in all those photos? Anyway, here are some of the latest. I'll start with this composite of Lucy and Aiden when he was about her age. Could be the same kid almost.

Lucy's first laugh

2010-11-03T07:18:00.004Z

Yesterday Aiden was performing for Lucy and started shaking a little baby rattle at her. To my surprise a full giggle ensued! I was very excited to capture it on video, and glad that I did when she categorically refused to do it again when Simon got home. Of course, I think Simon's favourite bit might be the way I say 'Aiden' at the end.

More Family Photos

2010-10-09T12:25:00.000+01:00

Awww, a sleeping baby photo.

How to get Aiden to eat Vegetables

2010-10-08T11:47:00.002+01:00

Carrot and baby cereal cookies!

Aiden isn't terribly interested in food in general, and he's especially unhappy about fruit and vegetables, so I occasionally get creative and start hiding veggies in things. Here's my latest creation. I added baby cereal because of the added nutrients and all that.

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup honey

1 egg

- mix thoroughly

2 shredded carrots

- mix in

1 1/2 cup wholemeal flour

1 cup baby cereal (I used Cow and Gate Apple and Blueberry cereal)

1 tsp soda

1/2 tsp salt

Drop onto a cookie sheet and bake at 170 Degrees (Celsius of course) for ten to fifteen minutes, they come out quite nice and cake-y.

Of course, although I made them especially for Aiden, but Simon arrived home especially hungry yesterday and ate several. So, I can safely say that they're tasty.

Aiden and Lucy

2010-10-01T07:09:00.000+01:00

Most of the time, Aiden is a great brother to his little sister. We do have to teach the 'gentle' lesson with him several times per day, but other than that, he's great. Here are a few nice photos.

The Beach!

2010-09-30T13:01:00.003+01:00

The seaside town of Weston Super Mare is about 50 minutes from us in Bristol, so soon after our move, when it was a sunny Friday afternoon, we piled the kids in the car and drove to the beach. It was a bit windy and chilly, but we ended up having a really lovely time. Aiden loved digging in the sand, and he ran and ran. He's been asking to go to the seaside for ages, so we we glad of the chance to take him. We didn't do much really, just digging in the sand and a long walk along the seafront to town and back to where our car was parked. It's a good thing we did this when we did, because it's turned rather cold lately.

Lucy slept for most of the afternoon, which made it easier. She stayed all sheltered in her push-chair, and we didn't have to worry too much about her.

And I thought that Simon was looking particularly like a clothing model in this pose, so I've included the photo for a laugh.

In the end, we had a fantastic day and drove home with a car full of sand.

Our Lucy

2010-09-11T12:43:00.003+01:00

Just look at this girl! I don't have much time to write, we've now completed our move to Bristol - I say 'completed' to describe the fact that all of our stuff is here, the state of organisation of the new house is another thing. I've discovered that I have about half as much storage in the kitchen as I did in the old place. Oh dear...

Holiday!

2010-09-01T16:21:00.002+01:00

We've had a lovely holiday and just returned on the 21st. We decided to try to show my parents a bit more of Britain on this visit, so we started by visiting Warwick Castle. It's run by the Madame Toussard's group, so is a bit carnival-ish, but good fun and a rather impressive example of castle-building. It's historically important as well, having played an important role in the War of the Roses, I think.We then went to where we were staying in Wales, not far from Cardiff. We drove up and saw Caerphilly Castle, which was an impressive place as well. We enjoyed wandering around this much more ruined one.
We couldn't miss the chance to let Aiden ride on a real steam 'choo-choo'. He loves his trains and watching Thomas DVDs. He was actually pretty mellow on the ride, but seemed to have a good time.
We spent a day in Cardiff, walked around the castle and saw what there is to see there. It's a nice city.

Here's the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, an important landmark for sports fans...
And those are the highlights. We stayed in an apartment in an old manor house, which was cool, and especially appreciated by American family. Of course, then it was time to come back and pack for the big move! Groan.

Lucy's Blessing

2010-08-11T16:02:00.004+01:00

Sunday was Lucy's blessing day at church, and it was a really lovely day. Simon's Granddad, Aunt Janet and Aunt Rachel came all the way from Doncaster to be there for it. The blessing itself was really beautiful and makes me feel very confident in Lucy's future. We were also very grateful that Simon's Mum was able to make it, in spite of her operation the previous Thursday. And, my parents and sister, Camille, are in town too. What a great, family-filled day.

My mother made a beautiful dress for the blessing. She brought some lace that my Great Grandmother had made (and used for pillowcases), and incorporated that into the dress. It turned out beautifully and I was very thankful to her for putting in the effort to make something so gorgeous and priceless (in terms of family-heirloom points).

Here are some photos. I noticed that Aiden's blessing photos look very similar, both in looks and in the fact that around this time is when Aiden got his baby acne. Is it vain for a mother to be frustrated when her baby's soft, perfect skin suddenly breaks out? Sigh, but from what I understand, it's not uncommon and there's nothing I can do about it but wait for it to go away in a few weeks.

Announcing...

2010-07-20T16:38:00.005+01:00

The birth of Lucy Elizabeth Curran! She was born at 11:02pm on Saturday the 10th of July, 2010! She weighed a stunning (especially for mum) 10lbs (4.5 kilos) and didn't make things too easy on us. But she's healthy and beautiful and we're thrilled to have her in our family! Aiden is fascinated by his new baby sister, and though he wants to bounce her bouncy chair a bit too enthusiastically, he gives her lovely gentle kisses on her head.

My mom and Camille arrived here the Thursday before the birth and I've been feeling very fortunate to have them to look after me as I recover. I think I'm doing really well, but giving birth to a ten-pounder is no easy matter.

Look at those cheeks! What a chubba-lub!
Grandma Sue and her grandkids.
Proud Daddy and Big Brother Aiden.
The whole family; four of us now!

Football Mad - but no fridge!

2010-06-26T09:56:00.006+01:00

Well, the World Cup is here, and there's football everywhere you look. The first game that England played was against the USA, which ended in a very diplomatic (for our family at least) 1-1 draw. I'd never watched a match with Simon where we were cheering for different teams, it was quite the event. Simon really likes his football, but he's not obsessive about it like some people I've encountered.

The missionaries organised a little football kick-about with some of the people from church for this morning, and Simon just left with Aiden to take him along, leaving me some lovely time to myself. Aiden looked so fantastic in his Chelsea kit this morning with daddy that I just had to get a couple of photos, and here they are! I've noticed that a large majority of the photos on the website are of Simon and particularly Aiden. Unsurprising, I'm the one taking the family photos most of the time, and I don't really feel like having my photo taken at nearly-nine-months-pregnant. Yes, the baby is due next Thursday, and here's hoping she's early!

And Here's Aiden's cheesy smile. He's definitely a poser now, and sticks this grin on his face whenever we're taking photos.
It's been a very hot week here in England, just like the summers everyone remembers from their childhood. Not too comfortable being this pregnant and huge and having no air-con (just not worth it in a country where you only need it two or three weeks a year, most people don't have it.) And on top of it, our fridge broke down on Monday. I realised there was a problem by Tuesday and contacted the landlord, who sent someone to look at it on Wednesday. Well, we still have no fridge, but one is scheduled to be delivered this afternoon (Saturday). Madness! Not to mention that I think you're meant to let the thing sit and settle for 24 hours before turning it on. I just want to make some ice-lollies (popsicles for my American readers)! It's a sad thing to see all the stuff in your freezer thawing and knowing you'll never be able to eat it before it goes bad. The fridge was only about 15 months old too.

Dadda Day Ball Cake

2010-06-20T19:53:00.003+01:00

Well, it's another baking blog post...

I asked Aiden what we should do for Daddy for Father's Day and he said 'ball cake'. There's a photo of a football cake in my 'kid's cake book', so I said that sounded like a great idea. So I taught him to say 'Dadda Day', and he went to Simon and told him about his coming 'Dadda Day ball cake'. He was awfully excited, and it was tasty too!

Aiden loves to...

2010-06-11T08:00:00.004+01:00

'Help-a-Dada!' Which is how he says it. When we recently, briefly had a car that needed work done, Aiden was incredibly excited to go out and hand Daddy tools and try to use a screwdriver on the wheels and generally get in the way. He loves helping Simon mow the lawn, and do all kinds of things around the house. In spite of Simon's incredibly busy schedule for the past year with working and studying, he's still been a great daddy. Here's a few photos of him with Daddy.

A very late post...

2010-06-10T19:46:00.003+01:00

Simon's birthday is the 21st of April, and I've been meaning to put these photos on the blog for ages. Well, here they finally are. I asked Aiden what kind of a cake he wanted to make for Daddy's birthday, and he kept alternating between a football cake, and a 'vroom vroom' cake. Well in the end, we made the car one. He helped a bit, but at 2 1/2 years old, it wasn't surprising that he left it mostly to me to do the work

Simon was a very good sport about having a kiddie cake - but for him, I think it's the taste that really matters.

Exams, and waiting for baby

2010-06-08T19:30:00.004+01:00

I've been pretty poor at keeping any kind of consistency in blog updating, but here we are again! Simon's exams for his Graduate Diploma in Law are this week, and I'm so excited that he'll be finished with them by Thursday. It's been a rather challenging year for him balancing work and a demanding academic course with family and church responsibilities. But, we're nearly there and he's spent a lot of time and effort preparing, so I'm sure he'll do fantastically well. Only one more year of student-hood after this, then it's on to being a trainee - which at least you get paid for!

The baby is due on the first of July, and my life seems to have slowed down to accomplishing just the bare essentials to keep my family fed and the house hygienically clean, if not actually tidy. It's been tough to have Simon so occupied with his studies, and he's promised to become Super-Hubby as soon as he's finished. I'm planning to hold him to that promise. Though, actually, he's managed to be a great husband and father in spite of his other pressures. Here he is the other day blowing on Aiden's stomach, something that Aiden LOVES right now.

Here's a rather shell-shocked looking photo, but I like it for some reason...
Simon will be ashamed of me for posting such a blurry, poor-quality photo, but I love this because one of Aiden's favourite games is jumping on the bed making monkey noises (oo-oo, ee-ee, etc.)
And here is proof that he's learning to fake smile. An important developmental stage, I believe.
So, we're all doing well, and I'm feeling grateful because Simon's mum came and took Aiden for the afternoon and gave me a day off! It's great having some family around, and I'm feeling nice and rested.

Decorating Easter Eggs

2010-04-04T13:29:00.001+01:00

Happy Easter! This year we decided that Aiden is probably old enough to handle working with dye, and I suppose we were nearly right, only one spilled cup. First we had a family home evening about what Easter really means, then we got down to business. Aiden had a great time! He's really understanding and remembering things now, so when I told him that we were going to decorate eggs the next day, and showed him the kit with the pictures, he talked about nothing else until it was finally time to do it. And here are the photos of him in action!

Leah on stage again...

2010-04-03T13:19:00.003+01:00

It's been a long time, but I finally got around to involving myself in a performance that let me access my old acting skills. We performed a musical production based on the parable of the Ten Virgins from the New Testament, and I was the narrator. It was a great opportunity to get to know some of the other women in our ward, and I did enjoy being on stage again. Our constant moving between different countries has made anything like this logistically difficult, and bizarrely, Simon had NEVER seen me act! All he knew was my stories. Aiden came along and though he looked at me rather strangely, at the beginning.

Trying to do better

2010-03-08T08:36:00.004Z

I think I'll be surprised if anyone is still reading our blog after such a long time neglecting it, but here's our little wannabe biker-boy. Every few days, he'll go for Simon's helmet when he gets home, and wobble around with it on his head. It's pretty top-heavy, so it doesn't last long. I particularly like this tough biker look.

I suppose part of the reason for the neglect is being a bit tired, since we're expecting another baby. Yes, this little one is due on the first of July, I think Simon is hoping for an Independence Day baby, just for fun. I'm sure I'll be hoping for an earlier arrival in the final stages.

Sooo, we're still here

2009-12-29T12:48:00.004Z

It's been an awfully long time since a post, but things have just got in the way!

Aiden and I had a great trip to America and it was fantastic to spend so much time with my family. I don't want to do a holiday that long again without Simon, though. It was too long, and Aiden really missed his daddy. He was really clingy with Simon for a couple of weeks after we got back.

So much has happened since our last post - shame on us. Aiden's birthday was at the beginning of the month and he loved his aeroplane cake that I made for him.

He didn't need much time to get the hang of unwrapping presents either.

Just in case you hadn't seen this already

2009-11-13T23:45:00.003Z

Halloween!

2009-11-01T14:30:00.006Z

We got together with all of Aiden's cousins for Halloween last night, and all the kids had a great time. Aiden was an English Bobby (though it was hard to tell because he wouldn't leave his policeman's helmet on.) I made a little navy blue jacket for Aiden with a bit of help from my mom, and it looked great, if I do say so myself. The moms dressed up, but the dad's didn't.

I'd just like to state here that Aiden LOVES his cousins! I think that was at a perfect developmental milestone for this trip to America. The Sunday before we came was his first week staying in the nursery at church without either Mom or Dad with him, and amazingly, he's been great in nursery here so far too. He's also just started being much more interactive with other kids, and he loves playing running and chasing games with all his cousins. I'm finding it very satisfying to see him enjoying playing with them so much. He was so sad to leave Aunt Ruth's house and Joshua and Alex last night. I can even wake him up from a nap (usually a guarantee of at least 30 minutes of grumpiness) and if I tell him that Joshua and Alex are here to play, he'll immediately be happy - if also a bit dazed.

Aiden just ran after his cousins at his top speed to participate in the trick-or-treating. He wasn't sure what it was all about at first, a bit of a mystery for an almost two-year-old. At first he would try to go into every house when the door was opened, but then he realized that they were handing out candy, and it didn't take him long to start trying to grab more. Ah, little ones. Here are some of the best photos I got of the night.

Aiden is becoming much more difficult to photograph as he's developed a habit of running up to the camera and smiling this cheezy smile:Here's Uncle JD with Aiden's youngest cousin: Jovan.

And here is the one photo of Aiden with his helmet: I'm just holding it above his head. In the photo are: my sister Ruth (in purple), My sister Camille, My brother JD and his wife: Valeri, Alex as Scooby Doo, Josh as a ghost, Lincoln as Super Why, Jovan as a lion, and Aiden as a Bobby.Ruth loves halloween and I wish I had a better picture of her front yard, the Haunted Graveyard, it's spooky!
Here's a good shot of Aiden's jacket, couldn't get him to look at the camera though.

Halloween Fun

2009-10-31T19:10:00.002Z

Friday, the day before Halloween, we took Aiden and his cousins Joshua and Alex to a local pumpkin patch. Aiden loved seeing all the big tractors, the corn maze, and of course, Pumpkins! Some of those pumpkins are a bit the worse for the snow we've had here lately, but it was still great for the kids.

Here in America!

2009-10-27T16:18:00.004Z

Aiden and I arrived at my parents' house last Wednesday night after a long, but better-than-anticipated journey. Aiden did really well, and we even managed to get an empty seat next to us for Aiden on the long, 9 1/2 hour flight from London to Huston where we changed planes. I was extremely grateful for the people who moved around so we could have the extra space.

Saturday I helped organise my sister, Camille's birthday party and I made her Halloween themed birthday cake. i was quite pleased with how it turned out.
Aiden has been having a fantastic time with his cousins. He's the second youngest of five grandsons in the family, and he's thrilled to be hanging out with all these active boys! Here's a nice, cheeky, spaghetti-covered smile.

Warning: To all cat owners!

2009-10-24T16:46:00.004+01:00

I was walking home one night and saw this stuck to a tree on our road:

"Warning: to all cat owners"? I was intrigued and had to have a read. I laughed for about 10 minutes. It was funny for so many reasons that I couldn't list them all!

Training Contracts and all that

2009-10-22T14:43:00.005+01:00

For those that didn't know there is good news. I've been offered a training contract with Ashfords in Exeter! Come on you beauty!

It's exactly the kind of firm that I was hoping to go to, great life/work balance, great client contact (Here's an independent write up -> Lex 100). They'll also pay for the rest (well almost) of my legal training.

It does mean that we'll be setting down roots (finally) in the lovely countryside of Devon.

Only one slight drawback. Did I mention that I had to wait until 2011 to start there?

Finally Out and About

2009-09-30T11:57:00.004+01:00

Aiden has been fighting a cold/flu off and on for a couple of weeks, which means that he's been going a bit stir-crazy in the house. I finally decided to take him to the park this morning in spite of his nasty sounding cough and his out-of-control mucus production operation. He was thrilled, and here are a few photos of him looking happy at last!

Is that a cheeky smile or what?
He loves dangling from anything that he can reach.

Aiden Washes the Dishes

2009-09-05T15:08:00.000+01:00

Aiden likes to help. Well, he likes to stand on the chair and get wet. I've worked out a method of keeping him a bit more dry. I've tied the handles of a big rubbish sack around his neck and another strip around his waist.For the most part he just washes the counter next to the sink and gets as many suds out of the sponge as he can. In the process he also gets suds all over the chair, floor and me if I'm too close. But, at least he's helping, right? And it doesn't usually interfere with me actually getting the dishes done, which genuinely makes it very helpful.

Notting Hill Carnival

2009-09-04T14:50:00.003+01:00

Monday was a Bank Holiday, and Simon and I decided to leave Aiden with Grandma and have a day out to ourselves. Firstly, we went on a historical walk in London, nice and cheap as we had a book of walks to choose from. It was great to get out and actually enjoy the city. There are a lot of great things about living in the vicinity of one of the world's great cities, it's just that when it's there all the time, and money gets a bit tight, you don't usually get around to doing any of it. Also, I've never been to the Notting Hill Carnival and Simon hasn't been since he was about twelve, so we went to see what it was like. For those who may not know, the Notting Hill area in West London has a huge Afro-Caribbean population and they have a carnival every August where they have a parade with floats, loads of steel bands, and costumes, Caribbean food for sale, and lots of people set up their own massive sound systems in the street and blast Reggae music as loudly as possible. Well, it was crowded, noisy and seemed to live up to it's claim of being 'Europe's biggest street party.' We enjoyed looking around, squeezing through crowds and seeing what it was all about. But, I have to say that, like Vegas, once is probably enough.

Here's a shot of the crowds.

This guy had a shopping cart of beer that he was selling to passers-by, while showing off his underwear no less. Pretty impressive.

One thing there was plenty of at the carnival - empty drink containers. Didn't see a lot of rubbish bins, but did see a lot of rubbish.

One of Leah's favourite things about England is...

2009-08-08T08:10:00.005+01:00

Blackberries! Or brambles, as they're called here, assumedly because of their tendency to spread and take over. There are loads of blackberries growing wild, near railways, along footpaths, next to roads, trying to take over my garden, etc. We live about 15 minutes walk from Mitcham common where there are loads. About three weeks ago I started finding them ripe, and it's been blackberry heaven at our house! So far I've made blackbery turnovers, blackberry pie, blackberry and apple loaf (a great internet recipe that I found), and most recently, blackberry and apple leather, which is delicious but lots of work.

Training Contracts

2009-08-01T12:00:00.002+01:00

It's been a while since I've blogged, but I've been busy filling out training contract applications for law firms for the past three weeks. I've collated all of my answers to the applications and made a word cloud out it. Cool eh?

Thanks to http://www.wordle.net/

Box Boy II

2009-07-29T06:51:00.005+01:00

I've finally uploaded a video of Aiden as 'Box Boy' from my phone to the computer. This is probably our favourite one. When Aiden wants to read a book and I'm sitting on the floor, he'll back up to me and plop down on my lap. I'm not sure why, but when he did the same wearing the box I thought I would die laughing.

Goodbye Curly-Locks

2009-07-29T06:10:00.007+01:00

A guilty secret: I love the curl in Aiden's hair which shows up at the back when it's long. Perhaps this is why I waited sooo long for a haircut this time around. However, it needed to be done, so I finally caved it. This time I did the honours. I've never tried to cut a boy's hair before, except Simon's and then I always use clippers.

So here is the before photo:

And her are the afters. I couldn't decide on just one, we managed to catch some great expressions in this photo session. I did tidy the hairdo up a bit after these photos, and it looked better after his bath last night.

Here he is proudly showing us his belly button - he loves it!
Simon and I think that Aiden looks loads like his cousin Lincoln now that he has short hair, but this photo makes me think of his cousin Joshua.

This next expression, we've decided, is Aiden imitating us when we 'play excited'. It reminds me of Simon, actually, who can have a fantastically animated face. Aiden gives this huge, open-mouthed smile, tenses his little arms and shakes them a bit. It looks like this:

We've always had trouble catching this on camera, so we were very excited to get these shots. And here's his typical, 'Come with me Mommy/Daddy!' face.

Sofa Sew Sew and Mouse House

2009-07-27T08:11:00.007+01:00

Last week I asked Simon's mum if she could take Aiden for a bit on her afternoon off so that I could finish sewing the cover for our sofa. Thankfully, she was excited to help, so Tuesday afternoon/evening I managed to finish it! It's been a long time coming. We've had a patchwork sofa effect for the past few months as I gradually finished one cushion every couple of weeks or so. Sewing isn't a simple undertaking with Aiden around. He always wants to come see what I'm doing, play with the knobs on the sewing machine (!!!!) and look for pins - not exactly safe. So, drum roll please, here's the sofa before it's makeover...

and here it is now!

Grandma also requested an Aiden sleepover on Saturday night, so she came and collected him on Saturday morning, and we didn't go to pick him up until Sunday afternoon. Simon is extremely busy completing Training Contract application forms, so I spent a large portion of the day making a matching cover for our armchair to match the sofa. I'll post a photo when It's finished.

Unfortunately, the day wasn't as productive as it might have been due to the mouse hunt that we had to undertake. Yes, we live in a mouse house. We've now caught two in our traps and we've also put some poison under the shelf in the cupboard where we think they're living. But Saturday evening they kept running out into the room and I kept shrieking. Simon was a bit annoyed that I was being such a silly girly girl about it, but they are so fast and so startling...and I'm a bit silly and girly when it comes to those things.

Holiday Part 2

2009-07-13T07:15:00.003+01:00

I thought I'd just put a few more photos of the holiday up, as we managed to see some very beautiful coastline and other things. We went to Tintagel Castle, of Arthurian fame This next photo is taken through one of the arched windows of the ruined great hall. Most of what you see there is actually medieval, but there is a lot of evidence that someone very important did live there around 500-700 ad, the time when King Arthur lived, if he really existed that is.

This is one of my favourites, it's a place called the Bedruthian Steps, 20 minutes or so from where we were staying.
We also went to the Eden Project which is a huge botanical garden/greenhouse, educational experience, built in a valley created by a clay mining pit. These gigantic bubbles are called 'biomes'. There are two different climates represented, tropical rain forest and Mediterranean.

Here's Aiden in the Mediterranean biome.
Here we are, hot and tropical.

HOLIDAY! (part 1)

2009-07-11T15:42:00.004+01:00

We just got back last night from a lovely holiday in Cornwall near Padstow. Simon's Mum has a friend who owns and rents out a little cottage which is quite literally in the middle of a field, ten minutes walk from a lovely beach. We had a great time, and Aiden absolutely adored running around a new place and having so much attention from Grandma, Mommy and Daddy for a whole week! Here's a shot of the beautiful coastline near where we were.And here's Aiden looking cute!

We didn't get any good pictures of the cottage, but here's the side with the decking and the back garden.
And here's Aiden trying to drive. He loved the fact that we had rented a car, and he wanted to drive!

Box Boy

2009-06-25T11:33:00.002+01:00

One of Aiden's latest tricks is walking around with a box on his head. We find this gut-wrenchingly hilarious, and have cut a hole in a Huggies box for him to see through, just so that he can see and will therefore take longer getting tired of it. I really need to catch it on video and try to post that for the full effect.

More Garden News

2009-06-24T09:23:00.002+01:00

I promise I'll put more Aiden photos on soon, but here's the latest from the garden!

This is the view from the back of the house. (The building at the back is a store-room for the shop at the end of the road). Aiden's sandbox is a very popular pastime at the moment.

Here's a view of the vegetable plot. I had almost given up on the tomatoes which you can see on the left. They were such tiny seedlings for an awfully long time, but they've improved so much since being planted out. The green beans in the middle are making good progress, just what you'd expect from such 'easy to grow' vigorous plants. You can see the chaotic mass of peas on the right, looking good.

And here is one of my three blueberry bushes! I read that you can plant them in pots for terraces/balconies, and thought that this would be perfect for us since we may be moving in 2-3 years, and I didn't want to invest the considerable time and effort into planting blueberries (they won't bear fruit until next year, and they require a special, lime-free high acidity compost) if I would just have to leave them behind, in what by gardeners' standards is a short time.

Here are the other blueberries, some peas and squash.

I have to include this next photo, though I'm not sure it conveys the magnitude of these plants. I planted Giant Sunflowers, and they're huge! They aren't flowering yet, but a couple of them are over 4 feet tall, and still growing strong!

And this next photo is just a lovely look at those flowers I posted about earlier. It actually looks like a petunia, but the leaves are this interesting shape, so I'm not sure what they are exactly, but they add some nice colour to the garden.

Here's one of my two flower beds, looking pretty good.

Here are the 3 strawberry plants that I got this season, these strawberries will probably be ripe tomorrow!

Leeds Castle

2009-06-22T21:06:00.007+01:00

A few weeks ago, June 3rd I think it was, we rented a car and had a family outing to Leeds Castle in Kent. (Confusingly, Leeds castle is nowhere near the city of Leeds). It's a beautiful Castle though, in the middle of a lake with fantastic grounds.

Foolishly, I thought that we already had loads of great photos of the castle, so I didn't take any that day: the one above is the only actual shot of the building I took. The only one I could come up with is of when I took my parents and sister to see it in the summer of 2007. So here's that photo.

There are loads of ducks, geese and swans wandering around the grounds, and Aiden loved running around everywhere. They also have a really fantastic castle-themed climbing/play area, so here he is having fun.

Gardening Milestones

2009-05-29T16:32:00.003+01:00

Here they are! My first peas coming! I'm not sure you can see too well in this photo, but there are quite a few pods maturing. It's very exciting for me in a geeky way.

And here is my first flower! I planted loads of seeds in my little pvc greenhouse, and here's the first flower to bloom! I was very pleased to see that I was successful with at least something! There are loads of little seedlings, I'll just have to wait and see what works out. The snails and slugs have been busy in the garden, and I'm trying to figure out ways to prevent them eating all of the sprouts.

I can't tell you what kind of flower this is. I bought a bunch of cheap seeds at Lidl, and they turned out to be in Swedish, Finnish and Danish, so I can't figure out what all of them are in English. Pretty, though.

Bank Holidays in the Sun

2009-05-27T21:55:00.005+01:00

It was a bank holiday weekend this past weekend. (For our non-UK readers, 'Bank Holiday' is a term which refers to any national holiday where most people don't have to work. This still rubs me the wrong way a little bit. Why not just call it 'Memorial Day' or something so that it means something?) Anyway, Grandma Sue got a little paddling pool for Aiden and it was actually warm enough to use it on Monday while she was here for the holiday. Of course, we did fill it up with warm water from the tap inside - something I think was rarely allowed when I was growing up. Aiden was thrilled. He loves bath time, he loves being outside, put the two together and voila! A very happy little guy.

Yes, he did drink a considerable amount of the water, something he does in the tub as well.

I want to make a small note here. Yes, Aiden is effectively wearing a speedo. Why? Well, it was given to us in France, of course! I've read about Americans' culture shock at the ease with which European men sport such swimwear, but I guess that I don't even notice it really anymore. What does that say about my national identity?

And check out that belly!

Here he is inspecting some of my seedlings. Some of them, admittedly, are a bit the worse for Aiden's attention.

Gardening

2009-05-26T13:43:00.003+01:00

I thought I would put a better picture of our back garden on the blog. The last one was a bit obscured by laundry. So, this is it! The building at the back is storage for the corner shop that's 3 doors down from us, very convenient! There's not much in bloom at the moment, most of what I've planted flowers later in Summer, hopefully. Right now I'm really tempted to get a couple of blueberry bushes to plant in pots - so that they can travel with us on the next move.

And here is a picture of my peas! They're doing quite well, and some of the snow peas are just about ready to pick. I'm looking forward to that, and enjoying the feeling of success. I planted peas in little pots on our balcony in France, but we went on holiday for a week and due to that period of not getting watered, they didn't really survive very well.
I've got some green beans sprouting now, though the snails have now eaten my basil sprouts, twice! It's getting very annoying.

More about our little guy

2009-05-23T21:38:00.002+01:00

I'm sure that most people who read this blog, do so mostly for the photos of Aiden. that's one of the results of having such an international family, I guess. A lot of our keeping up is done using the computer. So this first one is Aiden with a Thomas the Tank Engine ride we found at the local mall. He doesn't care at all if I actually put money in to make it go, he just likes climbing on it.
This is in the same place. A London Tour Bus for him to pretend to drive, too exciting! He loves this thing, playing with the steering wheel and bouncing around.
We took Aiden to the Battersea Park Childrens' Zoo a few weeks ago. Aiden was really interested in the animals. We actually managed to get him to look at the camera here.
And here is Aiden looking at the strangely upright ducks.
We got him to pet the goat a bit.
And here he is playing in the gravel around the peace pagoda. He loves gravel, and plays in our front garden which is gravelled over all the time. He's a great little guy, and never happier than when he's exploring a new place. He especially likes being outside. We try to get him out to the park every day, or at least let him have a good run around the garden. He does have a tendency to try to dig up or stomp on my vegetable plants while he's out there, but he's pretty good when I'm there to keep an eye on him.

Aiden Update

2009-05-22T09:23:00.004+01:00

I thought it was about time to update the blog. I've been very negligent lately, and I'm sure certain grandparents are unhappy with the lack of photos! Sorry! This first one is Aiden at the playground outside Ikea. They have some stuff there that Aiden really likes to play on, not to mention everything inside that Mommy likes to see. This second one is Ikea as well.

And here's a photo of Aiden and Daddy reading Aiden's new Thomas the Tank Engine books that I got on ebay. Aiden now LOVES watching kids shows on TV, especially Thomas and Bob the Builder. We don't actually have a TV, but we can watch quite a few things on the internet, and we have a few DVDs. Untill a couple of months ago, Aiden wasn't really interested in watching TV, but that has certainly changed. It's now a big temptation that I have to resist to sit him there so that I can get on with my own projects during the day. Actually, I'll make a confession that at this very moment, Aiden is sitting on my lap watching Thomas on this very computer in another window. Every time we use the computer he wants to climb up and watch something.
We're all doing well and settling in here very well. I've got loads of projects and the garden is coming along nicely. We had a barbeque last weekend and it was great to do something so Summer-like.

Haircuts!

2009-05-07T10:11:00.004+01:00

Aiden and Simon were both looking a bit shaggy, but they finally had haircuts on Tuesday! Here's a before picture of Aiden. Actually, this is from the 31st of March, so it was even longer. I do love how it goes all curly at the back when it's long, but it was getting a bit ridiculous. We were lucky that one of our new friends is a hairdresser (not sure anymore if that's the PC term). So, we were lucky enough to have a very patient person to cut Aiden's hair. And here are the results!

I do like how Aiden starts out nice and smiley, and ends up with his pouty face. We've been seeing this frown a little bit too much lately, he's definitely expressing himself. I'm not sure Simon will be happy that I'm posting this particular photo of him, he hadn't had time to actually do anything to his hair yet, but it's the only photo I've got.

Our New Place

2009-04-28T13:50:00.001+01:00

We're finally getting around to putting up some pictures of our new place. We've moved to Croydon, where we can actually come closer to affording the rent. It's a borough of London, but we're really kind-of on the border of London 'proper'. In some ways it's London, in some ways it's the county of Surrey. There's loads of shopping which is walking distance which is great, especially as we got rid of our little car when we left France. We're only about 15 minutes walk from Ikea, which is such a temptation, especially when we've just moved! I've definitely spent too much time (and money) there already, but it's easy to do. They have an outdoor kids' playground there, and 40p ice cream, and meatballs... so many things to draw you in.

So, here are a couple of pictures of what our house is like. Our front room is small but nice with the little fireplace. I've made some roman blinds for the windows. Simon isn't a big supporter of the English tradition of net (lace) curtains, so the Roman blinds are a nice alternative. I've been sewing up a storm, actually. As you can see from the first photo, our sofa which was generously donated by a friend, is in the process of being re-covered. Doing upholstery is something I've never really tried before, but so far it's going ok. I'm finding it extremely time consuming, as I have to make the piping for the edges of the cushions before I even start with the main event. But I'm pleased with the outcome thus far.

Aiden's room is looking good, I've got his quilted wall hangings up again. It was such a pleasant surprise for me to realise that I'd made a great choice in using a airplane/balloon motif. Aiden LOVES aeroplanes, helicopters and pretty much anything that flies. He was so excited when he saw those planes on his walls and still points to them excitedly when we're in his room.

I'm quite happy with the kitchen, and we have a dining room too, which is quite the added bonus. There's even a little utility room at the back where the washing machine is.

When we moved in there wasn't much to speak of in the back garden except weeds, a few patches of grass and quite a bit of rubbish, including broken glass. I spent quite a few early mornings out there digging it up and cleaning it out and now we've got some fairly good-looking grass growing. Simon's mum gave me a hand spending a couple of hours one day digging out there too. The grass is still a bit young for heavy use, but it's doing really well.I'm afraid that all you can see in this photo, though, is the laundry drying outside.

So, that's our place! It's great to have somewhere to 'nest' a bit and we're hoping to actually stay put for two, maybe even three years! Wouldn't that be nice? We'll see how things go.

Handy Little Boy

2009-04-26T19:13:00.002+01:00

Aiden loves tools. Having just moved, you can imagine that there has been a lot of use for the old screwdrivers, drills and due to our proximity to Ikea, a profusion of allen keys. We were putting up some shelves in the utility room the other day, and Aiden just couldn't stay away. So, finally daddy let him give it a go and stand up and do some work with the screwdriver himself. As you can tell from the looks on both of their faces, this is very serious work.

German and English

2009-04-06T07:26:00.004+01:00

We've been a bit stressed financially lately, wondering about paying for the move and everything, and though Simon has made a lot of effort to be taken on by some translation agencies as a freelance translator, nothing had really come of it, until last week! Suddenly, after several weeks of nothing, or offers that didn't work out, he's got some translation work, and it's quite a challenge. 16 different documents to do within two weeks. They're tricky German, too: employment contract stuff. He's working hard at it, and I'm really proud of him. Like most things, he's been so stressed lately about not having any work, and now he's made a quick transition to being stressed about having loads to do. We're extremely grateful for the work, though, and it does end up paying quite well, though he's got to essentially work 10-12 hour days when you include his work at the Law Firm. It's stressful, but we're sure this is a positive step.

A microwave, and other sundries

2009-04-04T12:14:00.006+01:00

We're really enjoying our new house, but are swamped with all of the things that still need to be done. We have shelves to put up, closets to organise, lots of other things to organise, and lots of general cleaning. But one of the small things I'm a bit excited about is our new microwave!
Simon's mum has one, so I haven't really been without one lately. However, we didn't have one in France or Germany, so it feels like quite the luxury at the moment. One thing that isn't too luxurious about our place right now is that we have some really nice armchairs that someone donated to us in our front room. Why the lack of luxury? well, they're far too large for our little room, and are therefore stacked one on top of the other, dominating our big front window. Here's our ebay photo, let's hope somebody is looking for a comfy, if large bargain.I've got loads of sewing projects underway, I'm doing curtains for the whole house and some roman blinds. I'm also re-covering the sofa bed that our friend Stuart gave us, and a (much smaller) Ikea armchair that we bought for when the gigantic armchairs are vacated.

I'm also very excited about the little garden we have out back. I've even got a little pvc/plastic greenhouse and I've been growing flower and veggie seeds! Loads of them have sprouted now, and I'm getting rather giddy about the whole thing. Less encouraging is the grass-seed I put down, which is showing a disappointing lack of willingness to sprout. Well, it's only been ten days, and rather cool days at that, so I've just got to be patient. I was excited about this garden, but there was really nothing out there but weeds when we arrived, so it's been a lot of work. Aiden seems not to mind the fact that there's just dirt out there, he loves digging around with a little spade and picking up handfuls of dirt and placing them on his little plastic chairs.

So, that's our update for today. We'll try to be a bit better about this soon!

Moving House!

2009-03-14T05:59:00.002Z

We haven't been posting much lately, life has been crazy and we've been moving...

Yes! On Wednesday we moved into our new little house in Croydon. We're very happy with it so far, and Aiden has been adjusting well, though he seemed a bit reluctant to go to sleep in these different surroundings for the first couple of days. He's always been a baby who enjoyed seeing new things, so he's been great running around between our piles of boxes and seeing what there is to see. He loves his new room too, he definitely has the best room in the house. Simon has been bemoaning the amount of toys that Aiden has, and I just keep telling him: when you have a baby, intentionally or not, you collect loads of stuff.

So, we now live in Croydon which is sort of on the border of being in London. We don't have a London postcode, but it is called 'The London Borough of Croydon'. It's convenient for Simon to get to work, and we even have a little garden out back.

I'd better get back to unpacking...

Chelsea's future top striker

2009-02-07T08:00:00.001Z

Just wanted to show off my son's footballing talents. Not too shabby for a 14 month old!

Photo Competition

2009-02-04T11:00:00.000Z

If you were wondering whose photo won the photo competition that we had a month or so ago, it is with much regret that I have to say that Leah won the photo competition with the lion's share of the vote (55%) with this photo. I still think the shading effect was an accident - but she claims otherwise.

Monday Morning

2009-02-02T13:22:00.002Z

You think I'm going to work today? Forget it.

What Time is It?

2009-02-02T05:24:00.001Z

It's time for some cute, baby-trying-to-feed-himself-and-making-a-big-mess-while-doing-it photos!

A Funny Story

2009-01-30T05:14:00.000Z

Because my family all chipped in most of their Christmas Savings to help us get our plane tickets to America this year, we decided that we'd have a Dollar Store Christmas for each-other. Great idea, we hit up the Pound shops on this end, and for the most part avoided cheating and spending too much.

On Christmas morning, we opened the presents and Simon got a nice hardcover spy novel by John Le Carre from my Dad, very proud of such a good Dollar store find. My Sister Ruth and her husband Garrett didn't make it to our place that day because of the snow, but when they came the next day we were amused when we opened presents and Dad had given Garrett the same book, well, it's a good idea, and a good deal, right? But the best part was when Dad opened his present from Ruth and Garrett, you guessed it! Three copies of the same book...they must have gone to the same Dollar Store.

Late News

2009-01-28T11:46:00.007Z

We have recently been justifiably chastised for neglecting our blog. Both Simon and I have felt like we're not exactly going anywhere at the moment, which I suppose is one reason we've not been posting much - but shame on us! There is plenty happening with an almost-14-month-old boy running around and holiday trips to America. Good grief, we should have something to post!

Christmas was lovely. There was loads of snow, which gave Sue the white Christmas she had hoped for. In fact, there were lots of cancelled plans because of the volume of snow that was falling Christmas week, but it was just good to be with my family and spend time together. Here are some photos of our snowy Christmas morning. Simon and Sue even built a snowman outside my parents house.
Unsurprisingly, there were a few snowballs thrown around.
Aiden wasn't sure what to think, and in that outfit he couldn't touch anything anyway.
I liked this action shot of my dad shovelling.
I took Sue for a drive one evening to see some good examples of the famous American home light displays. There's a street not far from my parents' where every house does something big. Here's an example:
We also made the obligatory trip to Temple Square, I loved it, it brought back quite a few memories of childhood and growing up in Utah.
And, I think I should, in this entry, include one standard cute Aiden photo, this is when he discovered how to unroll the toilet paper, doesn't he look pleased with himself?

Merry Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T05:57:00.004Z

We just want to wish all of our friends a wonderful Christmas! I love this season, it's a time to pause and think about the greatest gift every given, listen to lovely carols and show a bit more generosity toward each other. So, feeling generous I thought I'd share some...photos!

Here's the little guy with his favourite new birthday present.
And here he is with Grandma Sue trying to figure out what to do with his birthday wrapping paper.

Cuddle me!

Aiden does the laundry and shows off some stellar moves

2008-12-23T12:19:00.005Z

We're off to America tomorrow, and weather permitting, will arrive Christmas Eve evening. We're so excited - especially me, I think. But as we've been neglecting the blog lately, I thought I'd throw a couple of videos on here. This first one is from the end of October, Aiden being very helpful around the house... well, maybe eventually.

Of course, we could look at this as an alternative bathing solution, but maybe not.

This next selection shows of some of Aiden's best skills.
1. His dancing moves, even when kneeling
2. His curiosity
3. His love of all things electronic, especially computer equipment. One of his favourite places is on top of a keyboard.
4. His love of credit cards, worrying at this early age.

Visa Woes

2008-12-10T10:45:00.003Z

I've spent the past three weeks or so super-stressed about documentation. My family very generously all pitched in to give us tickets to visit this Christmas, and we've been so excited about the trip. However, due to a lengthy and probably not-too-interesting series of events, I was required to send my passport to the UK Border Agency in order to have my visa transferred to my new passport. Since this seems like such a minor thing, I felt very comfortable sending it off at the beginning of October. When we booked the flights, the 24th of December seemed ages away. However, as the weeks passed and my passport didn't come back, I started to worry, and worry and worry. Actually, while we were in Germany we had a holiday planned with Simon's Dad's family that we had to cancel because the Border Agency had told my completely wrong information and I had again not received my passport back in time. So, I was stressing and praying and sending begging faxes and letters, and finally yesterday, it came! I'm so relieved I don't know how to describe it, but thank goodness, Christmas is back on!

Finally have some Photos!

2008-11-18T21:45:00.004Z

Aiden has become very difficult to photograph recently. Now that he's mobile, he likes to try to grab the camera whenever he sees it. Fortunately, when one person distracts him, the other can sometimes get a good shot. It's seems like it's been ages since I got any good ones, but I had some success today. So here's our little star!

Disenfranchised but proud again

2008-11-05T09:11:00.007Z

I've spent the past six years or so living outside the US - more time than I'd ever planned, but life takes us to unexpected places. During that time I've become progressively more inclined to answer with a touch of embarrassment when someone asked where I was from. I never stopped feeling that America is a great place, but it seemed that all that I believe America stands for, freedom, aspiration, hard work and equality, were being made a mockery of by the Bush administration. How can one claim to stand for peace, democracy and fairness when glaring abuses of human rights like Guantanamo exist? I remember just before the Iraq war started, there was a poll done in Europe where people were asked what world leader was the biggest threat to world peace. The answer? George W. Of course this proved to be correct when he then engaged in a regime change unsanctioned by the UN. Anyway, I've had this feeling since 2000, really, that our country was, instead of using it's incredible global influence for good, ignorantly charging in where it was neither wanted nor needed. I was raised in a conservative, patriotic home, and this disillusionment actually came as quite a shock.

I admit that John McCain represented a much better choice than Bush, but I was unwilling to use my vote to support the Republicans who had abused their power for so long and made me doubt the validity of American ideals. I had been looking forward to casting my vote for Barack Obama in yesterday's election with great excitement; even if he did not win, the fact that his name was on the ballot represented a renewal of what I think America at its best should be. But, to my chagrin, my absentee ballot never arrived! Disappointed, that I couldn't participate, but aware that as my vote is counted in Utah - it doesn't really count (frustrating thing, the electoral college). Of course, being 8 hours ahead of California here in England, I went to bed last night before any results of the election were known. I prayed that something positive would happen, even if I was not able to directly participate.

When I woke up this morning and listened to Obama's victory speech on the BBC, I was nearly moved to tears. They were interviewing British historian Simon Schama, who stated that slavery had been America's 'original sin'. That while preaching ideals of freedom and equality, the founding fathers, some of them by owning slaves themselves, had laid the foundation of racism and intolerance. This legacy has finally been undone as citizens, regardless of colour, have awarded the highest office in the land to someone who 150 years ago would have been sold as a slave. Not only has my country done something wonderful in rejecting the last eight years of folly, the people of the USA have proved that the past really is past, and have re-invented the nation again as a place where regardless of where one is from and who their parents are, anyone with the ability and willingness to work hard can achieve anything. Fifty years ago no one would have thought this would be possible, but today it is a real, tangible testimony that the American dream and American ideals are not just talk, but are possible and do happen. I am so proud today to say, Yes, I am American. Yes, I come from the country which has finally broken free of some of the darker parts of its history and I can't wait for the next time someone asks me where I'm from.

Of course, our new president may not be able to achieve all he aspires to in office, I wonder if ever before a president has been handed such a mess to clean up, but I'm so glad that the best person for the job has been given a chance to tackle it.

The Job

2008-10-29T14:55:00.006Z

When you look up the word "job" in the dictionary you will usually see an entry like this...

job noun, verb, jobbed, job⋅bing, adjective

–noun

a piece of work, esp. a specific task done as part of the routine of one's occupation or for an agreed price

What I am doing now almost fits perfectly with the definition above, but sadly falls short at the last hurdle. I've found an opportunity to work in a solicitors office as a trainee immigration case worker. It's exactly the kind of opportunity I have been looking for - use my language and legal skills. If things go well it may develop into a full-time position in the middle of November.

Need a laugh?

2008-10-28T11:00:00.001Z

Read this...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7693386.stm

A family dispute

2008-10-27T21:12:00.005Z

Leah and I both took a photo that we eventually never got round to entering into a local wildlife competition. We both argued that our one was best - What do you think? Vote on the right hand side for photo A or B. We'll let you know who took which photo after the vote... oh and don't forget to click on each photo to see it up close.

Photo A

Photo B

The Interview

2008-10-15T07:00:00.003+01:00

Had my first interview last week and just got the phone call to let me know that I had been unsuccessful, despite the fact that I "interviewed really well". I would've been working for a housing association in Newbury as a rehousing officer.

Anyway, I'm changing tack slightly now and I'm going to look at entry level jobs in immigration. I'll be able use not only my legal skills, but my language skills too.

The world's worst early morning seminary teacher

2008-10-13T15:47:00.003+01:00

The problem with moving back into your home ward is that most people know you and the callings come thick and fast. I was asked to cover the early morning seminary teacher's classes, whilst she takes a couple of weeks holiday.

I am not an early morning person and the 6.15am start is a bit of a killer. So today, with only two of the five regular students available and who happened to live locally I asked them to meet at my place as opposed to us all making the 15min trip to the chapel. I also took the liberty of changing the start time to 6.30am.

My mum, aware of me making these changes to solely suit my needs, teased me and said that if I really wanted to stay in bed I could always give the lesson from my bed and use the baby monitor to relay the lesson to the students downstairs in the front room. What a waster I am... the early morning seminary teacher that just wants to stay in bed.

Things not to scrimp and save on

2008-10-07T18:25:00.004+01:00

In these times of economic uncertainties with banks collapsing daily and stock markets more nervous than a turkey when it sees the Christmas decoration being put up many people are trying to save money to beat the rising prices.

There are, however, a list of things that I most definitely would not do to save money:

1. buy cheap cornflakes - the texture of cheap flakes closely resembles chewy cardboard.

2. buy cheap towels - even one regrets those cheap towels that they bought on holiday when they forgot to pack them. Those towels that seem to move the water around your body, rather than absorb it.

3. buy cheap bread - why do we do it? We do it every week. That bread that tastes like a strange mixture of dry, fluffy and stale air.

4. give up broadband - no youtube?, only checking emails at work?, no blog?, what seems a luxury and unnecessary to people over 40 (I would agree if you only checked your email once a fortnight) has become a fundamental part of modern life.

Any other suggestions? Leave your comments below...

Incentive umm... what incentive?

2008-09-30T10:06:00.004+01:00

I will officially count to the increasing numbers of the unemployed this week as I signed on on Friday. Bizarrely, when I signed on for a few weeks in France they told me that I wouldn't get any money as I had worked for a public body and they had their own unemployment schemes. When I contacted the school they told me that I'd needed to work for over 400 hours in 2 years. My 7-month-12-hours-a-week-job just didn't even come close.

Here, however, it looks like I will be receiving a 'job seekers allowance' which works out at about £60 (75€, $108) a week. This is a number which the government has calculated as being enough for someone to live on (except for rent which is calculated separately and for which we don't qualify for seeing as we're not paying rent at the moment).

The problem with all this is that if I do any work and get paid for it then that money gets deducted from that £60. There's absolutely no incentive to work. I've jacked in the job at my mum's surgery, where I was doing a couple hours a week to supplement the old income. There's no point... might as well get paid for doing nothing.

I found some excellent cartoons about the job centre that I have no legal right to put on my blog, but you can click here to see them.

Job Hunting

2008-09-25T08:43:00.004+01:00

The thing with applying for jobs within the public sector means that I'm constantly filling out questionnaires about my racial background in order to comply with "Employment Equality Regulations" - which is fine. But, you'll see however that this questionnaire got a little more personal:

So I thought wouldn't it be fun to write something other than my boring white British and make something up this time . If I'd had more guts I would've marked down that I was a Bisexual Chinese Sikh. What's the best you can come up with?

***Please note that this blog does not endorse any type of racial discrimination or racial mockery. Out of my frustration with filling in 1000 of these forms a day I am solely seeking some sanity***

Bath time with Aiden

2008-09-20T10:08:00.003+01:00

Somebody Tagged Me....

2008-09-17T11:20:00.006+01:00

I haven't been blogging long enough, I suppose, to have participated in the blog-tag game, but I was just reading my brother's family's blog and realised that I've been tagged by Valeri. Well, I'll have a go at my response, but I'm not sure that I'll obey the rule about tagging others. If this interests anyone reading, then by all means, consider yourself tagged. So first, I'm supposed to insert the rules:

The Rules:
1 - Link the person(s) who tagged you (Valeri tagged me, but their blog is private, so I could put the link in, but I won't because any of my readers are invited to read it will probably do so anyway.)
2 - Mention the rules on your blog
3 - Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4 - Tag 6 fellow bloggers

So, off I go to play the game while blissfully ignoring 50% of the rules.

1. I love kung fu, and studied the Wing Chun style for 4 years around the time I was at Uni. I also love Kung Fu movies, particularly Bruce and Jackie movies.
2. I'm a morning person (except on days like today when a baby with a cold had me up every couple of hours all night). I stop functioning properly at about 10:00pm, which irritates my hubby, who loves the evenings, but has trouble conducting a conversation for about an hour after he's woken up.
3. I love learning languages, and studied Chinese while in Taiwan, German in Germany, Spanish in school, and yet during my year in France I didn't make too much progress. Of course I blame this on being very pregnant when we arrived, and subsequently having a baby to look after, but I found this extremely frustrating. Can I get by in French? I suppose. Can I understand 50% of church in French? Yes. Can I talk about babies in French? Most definitely. My strongest french consists of conversations that would go something like this:
French Person: 'Is that a boy or girl?'
Me: 'He's a boy.'
French Person: 'He's so cute.'
Me: 'Thanks, I think so too, but that's natural, I'm the mother.'
French Person: 'Oh, but it's true!'
Me: 'Thanks'.
French Person: 'How old is he?'
Me: '___ months'.
French Person: 'Wow, he's big for his age!'
Me: 'Yes, he's big. But all the babies in my family are big.'
French Person: 'Babies grow so fast.'
Me: 'Yes, he's grown very quickly.'
My guess is that I've truly mastered this conversation, and most of it's variations. Simon and I joke about this all the time 'Oui, il et grand!' If asked to teach a french class in a few years, this would probably be what I'd be able to teach. Trouble is, I can't spell in French.
4. I'm a very competitive person. That's one reason I loved studying, martial arts. It's the ideal way for me to exercise - I always want to have the best kick/punch/stretch/form in the class, so I work REALLY hard to get there. If I'm working out on my own I get bored. Especially with jogging - I can't understand jogging. Boring and painful, what could be worse? I tried it consistently for months on several occasions as a teenager and it was never, never fun. These efforts have been repeated since, but to no avail.
5. Deep down, I'm still slightly disappointed that London doesn't look like it did in the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series.
6. My favourite television programme at the moment is 'Mythbusters' (which comes in marginally ahead of 'The Simpsons'.) A show about slightly nerdy technicians who have a show where they get to blow stuff up is just hilariously fantastic.

Here's where I'm supposed to tag people, but choose not to. I hope that this tag is enjoyed by one and all and I'll sign off from this gloriously Victorian house in modern London. (And Tiffany/mamabug, if you read this, please invite us to your blog!)

Mobile Baby

2008-09-14T11:41:00.004+01:00

Don't bother turning your speakers on for this one... There's no sound.

Guete (pronounced Gwert-A)

2008-09-10T11:00:00.000+01:00

Don't be surpised if you're slightly confused by the title - it's Swiss German and it means Guten Apetit. Still confused, so am I.

I've been wanting to write about this for a while and I didn't get a chance until after I'd left, but whenever somebody enters the room in Switzerland and they see somebody else eating they say "guete". The person who is eating is obliged, according to the rules of social ettiquete, to respond and say "guete" back. What happens is everytime someone comes into the staffroom, and you're eating you end up saying "Guete" 5 or 6 times. It's a shame that they fail to understand that they are infact stopping you from having a "guten apetit" if your food is cold.

Thought I'd add a picture of some good old swiss chocolate - toblerone - for good measure.

A sign of good things to come?

2008-09-08T22:02:00.003+01:00

We'll we've been back just over a week and the job search began at the end of last week. Now that all our plans have dramatically changed in the past 6 weeks the first hurdle is figuring out what I want to do. I've been so busy moving country that I haven't had much time to focus on the whole getting a job thing. Use my language skills, law degree? Combine both some how? All stuff that will figure itself out eventually.

I found this in my fortune cookie that I had on Saturday night. A sign of good things to come?

Moved House

2008-08-30T19:39:00.002+01:00

We'll this is just an email to let everybody know that we are still alive and have every intention on updating the blog! We've just successfully moved back to the UK (and I mean just... I only returned the hire van this morning!). We have no photos that we can post seeing as things are still in boxes, but we'll be up and blogging regularly soon!

Back in the good old USA

2008-08-13T18:06:00.000+01:00

Aiden, Sue and I left Mulhouse at about noon French time, took the train back to London - about 8 hours, and spent the night at her house. Then, we left at 7am for Gatwick airport to get there a bit early in order to arrange Aiden's flight; we hadn't been able to book his baby ticket on the computer. So I waited at the ticket desk for quite a while with Aiden getting progressively more tired and hungry, (thank goodness Sue was there to help!) and when I finally got to the desk, explained that we were going at the last minute for a funeral and so hadn't been able to arrange for Aiden's ticket to be sent to us, the lady said, "Are you aware there's a 6 hour delay on that flight to Cincinnati? You'll definitely miss the last connection to Salt Lake City." Oh dear. Of course they had a couple of hundred people to re-assign, but because we were going for a funeral, she managed to get us a flight through Atlanta, a longer flight, but we made it.

Aiden was such a good traveler, I'm so proud of him! He was quiet and quite cheerful for the most part, and I felt extremely grateful for that. He's having a bit of a rough time now adjusting to the time difference, but overall, he's doing great. I didn't count on him being such a momma's boy when we arrived - it's making it a bit more difficult for me to sleep in...but I guess it means I don't miss any time with my family of early birds.

And yes, as Simon mentioned, Aiden has learned to crawl since we arrived. I can't post the video because I don't have the right software here, but it's awfully exciting. He's looked like a vampire for a few weeks, his canine teeth have been coming in before his front teeth, though now one of his top front teeth is in the way, but here's the best photo I could get of VAMPIRE AIDEN.

The funeral was really lovely - just what the funeral of a fantastic woman who had an amazing life and lived to be 92 years old should be. It was full of amusing stories about her, warm memories, plenty of chuckles and only a few tears. She was ready to go, and didn't want us mourning for her, so we did our best to make it a celebration.

Here's a photo with Aunt Camille and one with his Grandpa Crockett, it's so great to see everyone.