The Car Park

As I sit banging my head against my steering wheel I have to wonder how some people can be so self centered. We have this woman at school who acts as if she owns the car park. It is a simple process. You either park in the parking lot and walk your children up or if they are old enough you drop them at the roundabout. In the afternoon we all have to park and you either walk up to get your children or they walk down to you. I am always in the walking catergory because of Jordan. The boys are old enough to walk on their own, she is not.

Anyways, where the story begins, 2 weeks ago I went to a Mum's coffee morning with some of the mom's from Jordan's class. I enjoyed a nice hot chocolate and muffin and listened to the regular gossip and complaints. This took place at the local fitness club and somebody asked about the woman outside playing tennis - was she a mom from our school? And then the ranting began about how horrible she was, how inconsiderate and how she wouldn't talk to you if you weren't driving the right kind of car. I said "well I guess I'm out since I just drive a Toyota Picnic." While it is a Toyota we all need to admit any car with the name picnic in it can't be that posh. The main complaint on this woman is her behavior in the car park. She has no problem pulling in and blocking the entire driveway between the 2 carparks so she can chat with a friend. Hmmm, the rest of us would like to drop our children off or pick them up - could you MOVE.

You're wondering what more I could have to add to this post - it's boring enough already, yes I know. So, I see her in the carpark following her usual routine of blocking traffic and I glance at her black SUV. SUV's are very popular here, so if you think all of England is driving tiny little economy cars come to Yorkshire and you'll see how untrue this is. Back to HER SUV. The woman who someone said "wouldn't talk to you if you weren't driving the right car." I take a look at the shiney black car and then I start to giggle. It is a Hyundai! Fine if you drive one, I'm not REALLY knocking it - okay yes I am. It is a Hyundai. In a world of Land Rover's, BMW & Volvo SUV's, and a few Mercedes tossed in for good measure I have to laugh. The car is a Hyundai Tucson - trust me Tucson is not so glamorous as to have a car named after it. I'll stick with my Picnic and truly prove I'm not trying to be anything other than who I am.

Speech Day

Last Friday was speech day at the kid's school. What is speech day? Good question. LOL It is actually very similar to a graduation ceremony. They focus on the kids who are in Year 6 that are moving up to secondary schools next year. Since it is a small school every single year 6 child leaves the school with some sort of an award. They even can win a Cup/trophy but the funny thing is that they can only keep it for a year. Then the cup has to be engraved (at the winner's expense) with their information and sent back to school to be passed on to the next year's winner.

I almost didn't attend speech day this year. It's usually an hour and a half of speeches by the Board of Governors, the Head Mistress, and a guest speaker. I decided at the last minute to go and I'm glad I did. My Jackson got an award - and I actually had the camera to take a picture. What a good mom I am. He is in year 5 and he received the award for progress. There are 2 awards given to each year 3-6 class, achievement and progress. Achievement is rewarding the top student and progress is for most improved. Woohoo!

The picture is of Jackson receiving his award from Peter J Murray the guest speaker. If you click on the link you will see he is an author of children's books. Jackson has read a few of them so this was pretty cool. (We're inside a marquise that they have to rent because the school doesn't have a large enough room for all of the students and parents. They also use it for the school's summer pta ball but we chose not to attend since the price is 55pounds a person - my hubby and I are NOT spending $200 just to go to a dance with people who don't talk to us. LOL)

Oh - and of course our little American contingent sat together and at the end complained again that they hadn't provided us with the words to God Save the Queen. As tempted as we were to sing My Country Tis of Thee we resisted.

Starring Jackson as........

This week Jackson was in a musical at his school. Their class did a very short rendition of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat where Jackson played Judah. He did try out for the part of Joseph but he isn't much of a singer and he needs to work on his stage presence. The part of Joseph actually went to a girl. I think they did a fantastic job. We were treated to 3 productions. All of year 5 did Joseph, one of the year 6 classes did a short bit of Grease. And let me tell you we were all pleased that Greased Lighting makes the chicks scream. It's still a bit weird to hear 11 year olds singing about getting friendly down in the sand. The last group of year 6's did a bit from The Boyfriend.
While the last 2 were good Joseph REALLY outdid them. Jackson's class year is full of girls with very nice voices. The year 6 girls are just average. I took a video with my digital camera but it just doesn't do any of it justice.

Had we figured out that our video camera wasn't working BEFORE the lights went out we could have taken a decent video. Lesson learned and next time we'll give it a test shot before the play begins.

A group of the teachers also performed in the middle. It was quite comical as they all came out dressed as nuns and sang My Favorite Things. Which of course include when the bell rings, our children go home, and a bottle of wine. LOL

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Saw this on another blog - hmm I think I have a spelling problem. Now if I could get my sentence structure back up. LOL

I Scored a 100%!

Thursday Thirteen #5

#5 Thirteen Things I Like About My Kid's School While I know it's the 100th Thursday 13 day I've just been way too busy this week to sit down at the computer and find 13 TT that I have really enjoyed. So - you're stuck with 13 Things I like about my kid's school. 1. Largest class has 14 students in it. 2. They have lots of play time. 3. During lunch they have a whole hour in which to eat, play, or join in a club - like choir, computers, or sports. 4. My son can take guitar lessons AT school. 5. My daughter was able to start school at 4. LOL 6. They learn all sorts of cool history. Ask my 7 year old about Romans and you'll get an ear full. 7. It is such a small school that every child knows everyone. 8. The grounds are beautiful. They have this gigantic tree called The Magic Tree that you can go inside and climb around. This is Jared inside the tree. 9. They perform in all sorts of plays/musicals/speeches and every child participates. 10. They take a class called Religious Studies and learn about other religions each term. While I'm sure sometimes it is on a biased slant I still think it is important that they are able to learn basics of other religions. 11. They wear uniforms and I don't have to buy very many clothes for outside of school. 12. They get a lot of scattered holiday time with Term breaks and 1/2 term breaks - makes for visiting other countries/sites around here easy. 13. And my number 13? They go to school from 8:45-4:00!!!

Purchase of the Day

I spent the day at Stoke-on-Trent - the English Pottery district. My big purchase of the day? 12 Spode Dessert plates. Total cost? $30!! Woohoo!

About Me meme

I'm off to the Teapottery today but thought I would post this meme I saw on another blog.

What zodiac sign are you? Aries


Do you regularly read a horoscope? No – but when I was about 10 I was obsessed with horoscopes.


If not, why not? I don’t have time and I don’t “believe” it like I did when I was 10.


Married or single? Married – 14 ½ years – yes since I was 19.

What do you like to do with your spare time? Things like this. LOL Also, reading, watching tv, hanging out with the family.

Is your life worse, better or about the same as you imagined it would be someday? Definitely not worse – sometimes it is just different than I had imagined but it’s all good.


Is your family larger or smaller than you expected? At one time I wanted 5 kids – hubby made me compromise with 3.

What do you collect? Thimbles from all the places I’ve been. I collect snow globes for Jordan. I also have a fairly large Disney Winnie the Pooh beanie collection.

What are three major turning points in your life? Graduating from college, getting married, having children.

What do you think your greatest talents are? I am a great teacher – wow that’s humble isn’t it. Let me clarify I am a great teacher for those that are 18 and under. Right now my specialty is Sunday School.

What do you think your greatest weaknesses are? I am sure that I don’t have any real friends here in England. I have convinced myself that I am not “church friend” material. I also get frustrated with my children a bit to easily.

What books have affected you the most? John Steinbeck’s The Red Pony – this was the first book that made me cry that actually brought reading to life for me. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby – I decided after I read this in 9th grade I was going to name my daughter Jordan and 15 years later I did. I also loved Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible and my list could go on and on. But there – one book from childhood, one from highschool and one I read as an adult – that should suffice.

Are you left- or right- brained? Right

What magazines do you subscribe to, if any? People Magazine and 2 church magazines – The Ensign and The Friend.

What’s playing on your C.D. player right now? Currently on my Ipod was Hannah Montana as I was taking the children to school. Yesterday I had it on shuffle and you name it it was there.

What are some of your accomplishment you’re most proud of? Graduating from college and teaching for 3 years. My oldest son is 10 but so far I can say that I’ve raised some pretty good kids.


What are some things you still want to accomplish? I am in a rut right now and I can’t actually think of what I would like to do. I enjoy staying at home with my children and I hope that I will be able to raise them all in a way that they make the correct choices as they grow up.

What kind of athletic activity do you like? I do not do anything athletic. I attempted skiing this past February in Germany. I made it through the 3 hour ski school class but that was enough for me. As far as my children – we encourage Jackson to play basketball – we are fair weathered sports fans and he is a good ball player. They all enjoyed skiing this last year as well so we will probably continue with that and I can get a lot of reading in during the week. Nothing like a ski lodge and a good book.

The Inlaws

I bet I could make an entire blog just to rant about my inlaws. Hmm now I wonder if there are blogs out there already devoted to this? Now that will give me something to do this afternoon while my scuba washes my kitchen floor.

Okay back to my topic/rant of the day. Saturday I was discussing with my husband the fact that we only have a few more weeks before our vacation to the states and that we need to plan a few things. My middle son will turn 8 on August 5th and in our church that means he will be baptized. We are choosing to do this at the inlaws because we were told since father in laws heart attack just a month ago he isn't up for a lot of travel. Fine we'll make this easier on them and do it there. There are arrangements that need to be made. We will have family from both sides coming and a few friends. This also means that we will need to feed these people afterwards. Can't really baptize your kid on a Sunday afternoon and then take everyone out to dinner. Well we COULD but probably not the first example we want to set in keeping those commandments like "keep the Sabbath Day Holy". Okay, so I decide that we should ask my sister in law if we can have a bbq or something at her home. My mother in law is a horrible cook as of late and the whole thing would stress her out and me out. Plus I've never done the dishes at her house and I am not going to start now - so I am NOT having a party at her house that I would have to clean up after.

So, we make these decisions and the hubby gets on the phone to make arrangements. He calls his parents several times, no answer. He calls his brother, no answer. His sister, NO ANSWER. Finally he tries his sister's cell phone. She answers and yes she knows where everyone is. Yes they are all together. And here comes the best part: they are at a family reunion celebrating hubby's grandmother's 90th birthday! HELLO! We didn't even have a clue. I know we are in England but don't you think this is something that you would mention? So Grandma is there with all 8 of her children, their spouses, their children from all over and nobody tells us a thing. The sick thing is that hubby turned down a free trip to Tucson last week. Had he known about this he would have taken the work trip and stayed 2 extra days and driven up to Salt Lake. The good thing is that he got to talk to his grandmother and wish her a happy birthday so we don't look totally worthless over here.

I married in to this family 14 1/2 years ago and I still can't figure them out. Actually I think I'm going to quit trying.