Nomads No More...

2011 was the year our family became nomads and while it was fabulous, we are ready to get settled into our new place.

Of this year's 12 months, we were conveniently in a different part of the world every 3 months. The first 3 months we finished our time in DC, the next 3 months went to Shanghai, the third 3 months we spent a month visiting family out west, then on to Oklahoma for a couple of months of Tim's flight training and a couple of weeks with Grandma in Kansas, and finally the last 3 months of the year in England! We spent the first month here in a temporary furnished apartment, and now we FINALLY we have moved into our home in Cambridge.

Searching for a home in England was quite a different experience than back in the States. Instead of working with one realtor who will show you all the houses you would like to view, we had to make individual appointments with each listing agent. And they are in no hurry.... if you called on Friday to view a place, it would likely take until the following Wednesday before they could fit you in. Not good news for some impatient Americans.

We actually viewed the house we choose on Friday at 4:30. We called to tell them immediately after that we were very interested and wanted to see what we could work out. She said that was great and to call her back on Monday as it was now the weekend. It was one long weekend for us... painfully waiting! The house has a few quirks, but we absolutely love the location and the area. I really don't need a car as pretty much everything is a 10 to 15 minute walk, but I will happily keep it for when it is cold and rainy (they say it does get cold and rainy here, but the weather since arriving here five weeks ago has been fabulous!).

This is the new place for those wondering what a cute little place in Cambridge looks like. The outside is very English looking and "quite lovely" as the locals would say. It has enough backyard for running around and digging, but not too much where we get to spend Saturday taking care of it. BONUS!

This is the entry way...why is that whatever house we decide on always seems to have funny "coloured" (Brit spelling) carpet?! At least it is all one colour throughout the house!

The living room... yup, radiator heating, we must be in Europe.

This is supposed to be the dining room, but we have decided to use it as the play area for the kids. Aren't the curtains "lovely?" There are matching ones in the living room as well. Hopefully I'll have replaced them before any of you come visit!

If you look at the picture through the laundry room, there are two small doors that are supposed to be used to pass things back and forth between the kitchen and dining room. The girls have already had a lovely time playing store/restaurant!

This is the actually quite large (relative) kitchen, until you consider that our dining room table will be going in here....we are thinking we will take the door off to make it feel slightly more open.

There is a door to the garage, well a door to the outside and then another door to the garage (note, Brits pronounce garage more like we say "carriage"). Whatever, we are just happy to have a garage, even it it is semi-detached!

Where is the dryer you ask? Well it is not a standard item here in the UK. In fact this house has no hook ups for one. THANKFULLY they have what is called a "condenser dryer" where instead of a vent there is a plastic tank in the dryer that collects the water that must be emptied after each use that we are able to borrow from the Tim's work during our stay here (not in picture). Fortunately it actually works great... as that would have been a deal-breaker for me! The weather here is just not conducive to line drying!!

Bedroom #1.....a little bigger than our last walk-in closet. It will definitely be used as a storage/craft room.... or for visitors we don't want staying too long :-)

The girls' room, just enough room for their bunk beds and trundle. It has a great wardrobe built in for their closet.
This is the guest bedroom....so buy your tickets and stay as long as you want... (subject to availability!). I will show you around the first day at least. :)
This is the master, just lovely, right? That headboard is for a double bed. Our king bed will fit (against the opposite wall) and so we are good. And most fortunately, that headboard thingy is detachable so we can use that space for something else.

Hideous curtains must come down! What were these folks thinking with this headboard?
The girls' bathroom, well actually no one really uses it...if you notice the shower has waterproof wall only half way up. So it's great if you want to bathe. We are working on this one so hopefully we have two fully-functioning showers soon!
This is our en-suite bathroom. We are thankful for actual storage and cabinets. We just can't gain too much weight from all the bread that we are eating or we won't fit in our shower... seriously!
Somehow after packing out months ago, our stuff didn't beat us here. UGH! Hopefully just in time for Christmas... then we'll just put bows on our boxes and get surprised with all that we've forgotten that we shipped. Until then, Tim's work loaned us temporary furniture and kitchenware, and we have our 12 large suitcases, two boxes and four carry-ons worth of stuff that we THANKFULLY brought with us on our flight.

Guy Fawkes Night in England

So who is Guy Fawkes, and why is there a huge celebration with bonfires and fireworks all across the country?

Taken from a news story:

"Guy Fawkes was a Catholic who, spurred by religious persecution, led a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament and bring down England’s Protestant monarchy. He was caught, imprisoned in the Tower of London, and tortured for four days under personal orders from King James I."

"Annual commemorations of the foiled plot began soon after, as reminders to defend England from other traitors, especially disloyal Catholics. Over time they became a day and night of fun and pranks, with bonfires, fireworks and the burning of children’s effigies of Fawkes. "

These effigies burned of Guy Fawkes have a mask resembling Guy Fawkes.... Portrait:

Mask:

This mask became famous when:

In the early 1980s, artist David Lloyd and writer Alan Moore created the graphic novel “V for Vendetta,” about a masked rebel named V who fights a fascist future British government. Lloyd suggested having the rebel wear a Guy Fawkes costume.

“We shouldn’t burn the chap every 5 November but celebrate his attempt to blow up Parliament!” Lloyd wrote in a 1983 essay titled “Behind the Painted Smile.”

This inverted Fawkes’ image — from traitor to hero fighting an unjust state. It also separated it from religion. The movie adaptation of “V for Vendetta” concocted a finale in which a whole movement of discontents wearing Guy Fawkes costumes watch the Houses of Parliament burn.

As such, you may recognize the mask from the current "Occupy Wall $treet" movement, as many of the protestors have embraced the Guy Fawkes mask as the symbol of the movement.

Now that the history lesson is over, on to the fun of Guy Fawkes Night! We spent the evening in Cambridge where there was a a huge carnival area, complete with ride, food, and "candy floss" (British for cotton candy).

The girls each chose one ride to go on. Ryann chose to wait for the Barbie motorcycle on this kids' roller coaster.

Tally chose a big kids' ride that she was probably tall enough for on her toes. Tim joined her because I don't do rides like this. Tally had the face of death after the first couple of revolutions of the ride, but after realizing that she wasn't going to die, and lots of reassurance from Tim, she started giggling and enjoyed it!

Adayla chose the bumper cars. This was chaos. There was no waiting in lines, it was a mad dash onto the floor as soon as the power cut off (cars still in motion) to claim a car for the next ride.
Great fun had by all!

Then it was time for the fireworks. This picture does not do the show any justice. This was the best fireworks show I've ever seen. The high fireworks were right over us.... and they were loud. The girls for the first time since the Katy Perry song didn't sing her song when watching fireworks, they actually cried and were scared because they were so close and loud. By the end of the show they were able to watch the show.

Following the fireworks, it was time for the bonfire. Can you see Guy Fawkes' body on top of the stack of wood?

We should have brought marshmellows!

Walking back home, we looked back to see the lights of the carnival and bonfire along the River Cam.
Already looking forward to next November 5th!

Mouse in the House

So this morning on our way out the door, Tim sees a mouse zip across the kitchen floor. We got out the brooms, but he was too fast.

Everyone that Tally saw today, it was the first thing that she told them. While talking to Little Grandma this evening, she seriously said:

"Little Grandma, there is a mouse in our house and I don't know how he got in because animals can't come in this hotel."

I love that girl's perspective!

Happy Halloween

Even though we are still in a hotel, we managed to find some thrift shop costumes for each of the girls and joined a trunk-or-treat, plus real trick-or-treating on Halloween.

Tally was SO excited to be Lightning McQueen (this captures Tally's personality so well!)

Adayla the Snow Princess

Ryann was a "GO BULLDOGS"as she learned from an Altus High School Football game. She didn't have time for a photo as she was into the candy this year.

Snickers and Butterfingers are always nice, but how about getting Cadbury and Ritter Sport chocolates for Halloween? Thanks UK!

Bury St. Edmonds

Mmm... European Bakeries...

We'll get back to that in just a bit. It was another gorgeous Saturday here in England, and so another little trip, this time to the town of Bury St. Edmonds...

We were just a bit nervous about parking here... can it be this bad? No need to fear, the car was just as we left it upon our return.

The cathedral here is named in honor of Saint Edmonds, who died a martyr when he refused to deny his Christian faith. This was the location where they "buried Saint Edmonds," thus the name of the town: Bury St. Edmonds.

A depiction of how the town once looked before parts of the cathedral grounds were destroyed in wars:

The grounds are now a beautiful park/garden, packed with locals and tourists both:

And the ruins around the grounds? They're part of the children's rock-climbing walls. I just can't believe that they're ok with letting folks climb on thousand year old ruins (we didn't climb on them!).

This cathedral is very impressive both inside and out. The cathedral definitely is effective in making you look heavenward... the girls couldn't stop looking up!

Next was exploring the cute shops downtown. Folks were sitting in various cafes outside enjoying the weather and taking a mid-afternoon break with a pastry and a coffee... after passing several bakeries, we found the one we wanted to try... can a little bakery get any more quaint than this?

We left with full bellies and warm hearts!

Saturday markets in Ely

We've narrowed our choices on where we want to live, so after hours in the car for seemingly days on end looking at houses and getting to know the area, we decided to enjoy the surroundings a bit. We went to the weekend market in a charming little town of Ely, home to a massive cathedral and the birthplace of Oliver Cromwell.

An aerial view of the town...

Morgan in her element, but no bargaining here...
Can't wait to see what it looks like with Christmas lights!
Our first British scones...
And our first Fish & Chips! Tally made Tim laugh by asking, "If the British call French fries... chips, what do they call their chips... French fries?" Who says the Queen's English isn't a foreign language?
Couldn't have asked for a better autumn day...

Pack my bags... all 14+ of them

The time has FINALLY come... after knowing for over a year that we were moving to England, it was time to pack the bags... 12 suitcases, 2 boxes, 4 carry-ons, and 1 over-sized bunny!

A good-night's rest before the big trek...
And then it was on to our own 747 to London!
Ok, it wasn't "ours," but when each of the five of us had our own row to lay down on, it just about was our own plane...
Tim thinks Ryann dreams of touchdowns...
We arrived in one terminal and had to schlep our baggage to another terminal to catch our bus... what do you do when you have over 1,000 pounds of luggage that fits (barely) onto four push carts? Did we mention a bit of jet-lag as well? Start pushing girls!!
Tally and Adayla each pushed one of the carts, while Ryann pulled a small suitcase on wheels the entire way. We navigated through two elevators and four ramps, necessitating that we split the team at times... Adayla & Tally would wait at the top/bottom of the ramp while Mom, Dad and Ryann pushed their carts through the ramp, then Tim went back for one of the two remaining carts, then the other cart and the two girls.
The bus came an hour after we arrived at the platform and we were on our way to our new home... now to find the house we'll call home!