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.

Happy Mum's Day!

Okay, quit looking at your calendars - it's only mother's day here in England. I know I don't want to be called Mum but I'm a bit selfish and I still think I should get to double dip in the joy of 2 mother's days in 1 year. Jordan brought home a daffodil that bloomed as soon as I put it in the window and a few little gifts she had made at school. The boys - well they forgot their stuff at school. I think they get this from their father - who went in to a whole thing about me not being British and that he didn't forget Mother's day because it isn't May. Blah blah blah. I'll get over it though as long as he doesn't forget in May. The kids sang at church today but it was so quiet and a song I had never heard before so I couldn't hear it that well. Not to mention it was the prelude music and my cell phone rang RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of it. Stew was on his way to church when he got called in to work so I then had to hop in the car and go back home and get Jared who was supposed to ride in to church with Stew. Fortunately the kids sang again at the end of RS so I got to hear them again and they were much better. Once again they sang a song I had never heard - but they had learned it better and it was great.

So - happy mother's day to all the moms out there.

Sick Day Take Two!

Yesterday Jordan decided to take a sick day. She woke up with red goopy eyes so I decided a visit to the doctor was in order. As I thought she has pink eye. The doctor had the nerve to say to her "normally I tell sick children to lay on the couch and watch tv all day but when your eyes aren't well you shouldn't watch tv it strains your eyes." UM then what are we supposed to do all day? On doctors orders we had to play. We also went out to lunch - it hardly seemed fair for Jared to be home sick the other day and that he got to go out to lunch and then to NOT take Jordan. So, off we went for a nice little lunch of chicken strips, nachos and cheese fries.

She is back at school today. Her class had an assembly this morning - I'll have to explain. Every morning the children of the entire school have assembly. There is a focus to each morning - Tuesday the older children have class assembly, Wednesday is performing arts assembly, Thursday the younger children have class assembly. You know in the states when they give announcements over the loud speaker and the kids say the pledge? Well there is no loud speaker so the children meet in the gym - have their assembly, get announcements, say a prayer and move on with their day. Jordan's assembly was today. Her class has been learning about weaving and they even went on a field trip to a factory that makes fabrics so they were able to see how it all works. In the assembly today they presented what they had learned. Each child has a speaking part, there was a poem and then they presented a fantastic round. It was a round of all the sounds in the factory and the children did a fantastic job.

Sick Day!

Yesterday Jared had a sick day. He wasn't even sick as far as I could tell but he took one anyway. He woke up at 2am complaining that his ear hurt - I gave him medicine and again at 3am he was up. By 7:30 am he was NOT awake nor was he going to wake up so I let him sleep. I took the other 2 to school and then when I got home Jared decided to get out of bed - well it was close to 10:00 by then. We just spent the day hanging out at home aside from our excursion out to Burger King for lunch. As Jackson says, Jared is "LUCKY"! Actually he isn't so lucky he is just normally a bit run down. He has asthma and has trouble sleeping restfully on a normal day. When he gets less sleep he REALLY gets run down and sometimes he just needs to sleep. Plus, being the middle child I enjoy spending time with just him - since it isn't something he gets very often. He is a funny little boy. He is also a collector. I'm sure if I didn't keep it in check he would have stacks of paper and happy meal toys piled to the ceiling in his room and you would have to walk sideways to get from the door to his bed. He also has an incredible laugh. One of those silly laughs that you can hear from any room in the house and it just makes you smile. He has always struggled whether it is with asthma, eczema, school, or making friends but he is just always happy. It's like he came in to this world thinking "this kind of sucks - I can't breath and I'm all itchy - but I'm going to make the best of it" and he does. Here's to less sickness but more sick days.

Party Party Party!

Well, the party was a success. Of course, since it wasn't completely thought out that did lead to a few hurdles. I sent out invitations saying I would pick the girls up from school at 4:00 - um I work until 4pm on Friday. Ooops. Luckily since it was Friday it wasn't a problem to leave a few minutes early to get to the school. Then I loaded up my car with 4 girls and 2 boys - since I had to pick up the boys too - and headed to the bowling alley. We had a great time bowling and the girls all got along with eachother just fine. One of the little girls had never bowled before and she was sooo afraid of the ball. She would take the ball, drop it on the lane and quickly cover her ears. After a few attempts we got a ramp and things went smoother. I think everyone had a good time and Jordan was happy so that was good.

Of course one party per weekend is not enough for us so today we had the Blue and Gold Dinner for cub scouts. I wasn't in charge of the event so that was good - no stress on my part. Our cubmaster is an absolute loser though and he was in prime form tonight. He actually received an award and wasn't even in the room for the presentations because he was out having a smoke. Rumor has it he is going to be "removed" from his post in the next week so that should give me something to blog about. He handed out all of these awards that nobody even KNEW about and neglected giving awards to people who should have also been recognized. Nothing like having an event where people walk away totally offended. Hopefully we can fix it all and we don't lose any more families. In the end though the night was good - good food, good location, all that stuff.

Last Minute Planning Anyone?

I am the worst and planning things. This Friday my daughter will be SIX! My mom has just left after being here for a month. We spent 10 days in Germany. I planned NOTHING for Jordan. I decided I would have a birthday party for her and the girls in her class. This is easy since there are ONLY 4 girls in the entire class. I figured we would do it next week - after her birthday. One of the Mom's convinced me to just do it this Friday on her birthday. So, here I am Wednesday morning handing out birthday invitations and running over to the bowling alley to reserve the lanes. They'll only get about 40 minutes or so of bowling because there is a kid's league that bowls at 5:30 - but knowing 5 & 6 year old girls - 40 minutes should be enough bowling. Then we'll have pizza and presents and cake. Voila - party is planned! I'll let you know if it all turns out as planned. My one concern is she is also inviting her friend Sophie. I just hope that the "school" friends are not real cliquey and that they remember to include Sophie. Sophie's mom thinks she'll be fine but once again - knowing 5 & 6 year old girls you never know.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow

I'll love ya tomorrow. Or at least I will return to loving you. My mom goes home tomorrow after a full month of being here. After she is gone I will return to my normal computer addiction and I will catch up with all of you. We have had a fantastic time. We spent the week in Garmisch Germany, the kids were in ski school Mon-Thurs and my mom and I played tourist. We went to Dachau, which was a great experience but it is soooooo sparce and redone that I don't think you get the real feel of what happened there. Everything was too clean. We spent a day at Oberomergau - I'll look up the spelling on that one later - and purchased same great Nativity scenes. We also went to Neushwanstein Castle - the Disney castle. It was my 2nd visit there but it was still beautiful. We had a great time and the kids loved skiing. Watch for them in a few more years on the Olympic ski slopes. We may have another Peekaboo Street on our hands.

Now I'm off to make dinner. Who knows what we'll come up with since we've been gone for 10 days and the commissary was closed today for Presidents day.