Things I Will Miss

I don't know how far this list will go - mostly because I don't know if I can type very long through the tears.

I will miss the green. It is green everywhere here. Beautiful green dales. Beautiful green fields dotted with white sheep.

I will miss lambing season. Green fields dotted with big AND little sheep.

I will miss the history. To stand in a building that was built before Columbus sailed the ocean blue - fantastic.

I will miss the stone houses. I am returning to the land of stucco.

I will miss having a front yard with grass. My new home will have rocks in the front.

I will miss sticky toffee pudding at the Queens Head.

I will miss the secure feeling we had on base. I could do my shopping and the kids could sit on the floor near the tv's and watch a video - with at least 5 other kids they knew sitting on the floor too.

I will miss that in just a few hours I could be in a different country - seeing things I never thought I would see.

I will miss our church family.

I will miss teasing A. Stewart about his Scottish accent. He'll tell you that if you want to know what heaven looks like just go to Scotland.

I will miss my friend Ellen. Good thing is she's from Tucson so we're sure to cross paths again.

I will miss our friends, our neighbors, and probably all those things that in the last post I said I wouldn't miss.

Next blog will be coming from Arizona - where I probably won't ever be called Mum - but I'll keep this blog to remind me of where I've been.

Things I Won't Miss

I decided since I only have one full day left in England to create a list of the things I won't miss. Everyone asks what I WILL miss - but we'll get to that later.

12. I won't miss tv here. You never know if the language will be acceptable - not to mention the material in general. I am sitting here at 9:55pm watching BBC1 - a news program much like Dateline is on and during the interviews they have no problem saying the F word. BLEEP!

11. I won't miss the driving. When I take my kids to school in the morning I spend the majority of time driving on the wrong side of the street because their are cars parked on the road on the side I SHOULD be driving on.

10. I won't miss the small parking lots - also known as car parks.

9. I won't miss the amount of children I see sitting in the front seat of cars. They have great carseat laws here but seriously put those babies in the back seat!

8. I won't miss the exchange rate. We went out to dinner a few nights ago with friends and I can tell you if we went out to a restaraunt in the States and spent $180 we wouldn't be going back. And we probably would have gotten more than ice water and pizza!

7. I won't miss the lack of closets. We had wardrobes in every room - and we had to purchase those. I want a house with closets that come with it - not purchased from ikea.

6. I won't miss paying to park. You even have to pay when parking in the ASDA (owned by the Walmart Company) parking lot. It is 1 pound to park and you get that back if you make a purchase in the store - but having to remember to have it on hand is a task in and of itself some days.

5. I won't miss carrying two currencies. We use dollars on the base and pounds on the economy. Nothing like dumping out your change purse and sorting out your money to make a purchase.

4. I won't miss transformers. No, not those robots in disguise - but the electronic transformers that I had all over my home so that I could use many of our US appliances. You might wonder why - but it's just not cost effective to buy new crockpots, game boys, blenders, curling irons etc etc when the ones you own will work just fine when plugged in to a transformer.

3. I won't miss the smell. Those sheep in the corner of this blog aren't there for looks. We are in sheep country. There are cows as well. I have been asleep in the car and woken up and without even opening my eyes could tell we were close to home just by the small. If you don't know what it smells like when the farmers slurry their fields you're lucky. When a green field gets sprayed brown I'm sure you can figure out the result - especially if the wind is going the right direction.

2. I won't miss the winters. I won't miss dropping my kids off at school at 8:30 in the morning with the sun barely up and picking them up from school at 4pm while having to use a flashlight to get back to the car.

And lastly -

1. I won't miss the rain. It rained today just to remind me that I won't miss it!

Things I've Learned

There are a few things I have learned in the last week and I thought I would share what those are:

10. I am too involved in my boy's scout program - I cried after picking them up from their last meeting.

9. When a tent pole hits you in the mouth there is a strong possibility you will end up with a chipped tooth.

8. I need to clean my house more often - we took way too many trips to the tip (British version of the dump - but actually a parking lot full of dumpsters that they THEN take to the real dump.)

7. I should have packed my son's clothes, that way I wouldn't have had to buy him new underwear because the movers packed them. I should have packed my husbands too - because apparantly he thinks he only needs one pair of levis for the next 2 months.

6. A child can play for hours with a cardboard box and some packaging tape.

5. All walls should be painted with paint that is washable.

4. The guys at the moving company use a lot of sugar in their tea.

3. Don't say no when someone asks if you need help with anything.

2. Don't say yes when you are asked to speak in church your last Sunday - when the previous week was spent packing out.

And the number 1 thing I have learned this week is:
1. I don't want to move again for a long time.

House Hunting!

I officially do not like house hunting. For 3 1/2 years I have looked at houses online and I usually enjoy it. Now that I'm actually serious about house hunting I hate it! We have our plane tickets and we are headed back to the US for good on August 1st - and we are homeless. I spend way too much time lately on the internet looking at houses, looking at neighborhoods, reading about schools. We know where we don't want to live, I know what school district I would prefer and I know which school district is a NO WAY. I thought I found the perfect new community - we could build a house and start brand new. Of course I then find out the lots are small. If I wanted to borrow a cup of sugar from my neighbors I could practically reach through the kitchen window in to their kitchen window to do it. So, do I want to spend money on a HOUSE or do I want to spend money on land. I could get a house for the same price - but 1/2 the size on a lot 2x as big.

Something like this - 2400 sq ft house on almost an acre - with a pool.
Notice you can't really see the neighbors house?

Or the brand new house - that is 4,000 sq ft:


you can see how close the houses are from the backyard view:



Ugh it is just such a pain. What do we REALLY want? Do I want the BEST school district (new house) or the 2nd best (the other house which was built in 1990). Do I want to start from scratch or move right in? Maybe we'll just stay here.