Pregnancy in the UK - 2nd Midwife Visit

I haven't written about the pregnancy in a while...well, I guess it's because there hasn't been much going on. It seems like in the States that we are constantly visiting the doctor, getting blood tests done, glucose tests, etc...you can't forget that you are pregnant. Well I just had my second midwife visit and I'm almost 5 months along. I think my appointment lasted a whole 20 minutes and 15 minutes of it was my midwife filling out paperwork. The hospital forgot to tell me that I needed to get blood work done above and beyond the triple marker test that I didn't want to do. So my midwife asked me what I wanted to get tested for...well, I wasn't sure. I didn't feel anemic, I'm pretty sure I don't have HIV, and I know my blood type already, but we are going to go ahead and test for all of this. Next she felt my stomach for about 2 seconds and then asked me if I wanted to hear the baby's heart beat...I thought it was weird that she had to ask. Didn't she want to make record of what the rate was? Nope, just did it to appease me. She did have a tough time finding the heartbeat though because my little one was squirming all over the place. It has been fun to feel the little wiggles lately. Next week I go in for my 20 week scan which should be pretty cool. I heard they do spend a lot more time on this ultrasound and do lots more measurements than in the States. Also they have just started letting people find out the sex of their babies in Peterborough (they hadn't done that before), but we are not going to find out...we like surprises!!!

Spring Cleaning...and Bees!!!!

Today was a beautiful day and we felt motivated to get do some spring cleaning. We hadn't cleaned up our garage since we moved in so we thought it was time to sift through the boxes and random bits that have built up so far. We pulled everything out and lined it up on the driveway...kind of looked like we were having a yard sale. Many times we would pick something up and ask ourselves "Why did we bring this with us?" and other times we were asking "How could we forgotten to pack that?" Needless to say we actually have room in the garage now that we could park a car in there, but nobody does that here so we'll just leave it open and spacious.

We made a trip to the local waste/recycling center thinking we'd drop off some cardboard and chipboard quick. Well as we pulled up the queue of cars was winding all the way out to the entrance...guess everyone one else felt it was a good day for spring cleaning as well. We decided to enjoy the weather by rolling down the windows and turning up some tunes while we waited. Kevin kept getting a kick out of the guy in front of us who kept turning off his car every time the line of cars stopped. He said he wanted to hop out and let the guy know that he was wasting so much fuel...he was cracking me up. All of a sudden we heard Addie start to freak out...I looked back and there was this huge bee on her face. She was screaming and I couldn't tell if she had been stung or not. Kevin popped out of the car to get her out of her car seat and kill the bee. She was in such hysterics that I got out of the driver's seat and went to hold her on the passenger side. We don't think she got stung but was pretty scared...we were too. We let her ride in the front with us as we wound around the line...it took about 20 minutes for us to get up to the unloading zone. She loved leaning out the window to look at herself in the side mirrors, then the vanity mirrors, and then she played with the radio and finally dad let her sit at the steering wheel. I know this is all totally illegal and we were pulling a "Britney Spears", but I felt so bad for her and she had a blast.

That night we got to grill out since Kevin had worked the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the grill. It's amazing how big the propane containers are over here...they are huge and heavy. We made chicken kabobs and there were awesome. I had spent the afternoon sanding the patio furniture we got from some other ISE's because we are going to re-stain all the pieces. I had my palm sander from home plugged into our huge converter and I was getting completely messy and dusty...I loved it!!! Addison played with her golf set in the back garden and we had the iPod playing in the conservatory. It felt like we were back into our old swing of things...it was a great day!!!

Discovering the Library

Today we decided to visit the Peterborough library for a mini family excursion. I thought that it would be good for us to take up some other activities like reading in the evenings other than watching old re-runs of Law and Order and Crossing Jordan every night. As I mentioned earlier I'm not a huge book reader, but I love anything with pictures and books with topics that I can use the information right away. The library ended up having a huge section of travel books and gardening...two of my favorite activities. I grabbed a couple of books on Munich, Germany since we are going there in a few weeks and a book on Ireland since we are going their with my in-laws at the end of June. I've also been itching to plant some flowers and dig in the dirt since the weather has been getting nicer, so I grabbed a few books on container gardening...something I haven't been good at in the past. I figured that if I was going to try it again because we need some color around our back garden. I also figured that this way I could get some nice new pots and such that I could bring back home with me. Kevin found himself a book on his favorite tycoon...Warren Buffet. He was pretty excited and started in on it right away when we got home. Addison did get to join in the fun by getting her own library card. She's still in the stage of wanting to tear up her own books and I didn't fee like buying any books from the library this time around. Also Kevin and I took turns reading to her in the children's library as the other went to look for books. Funny thing is that while I went to look for books, I didn't get too far before I started to hear a little voice call out "ma ma ma" and little feet pattering away. Yes...my little one got loose and was in search of her mommy. During her search she got soooo excited to see all the books at her disposal that she started pulling random books off the shelves. I guess she was a good way to keep me from picking out too many books, since I didn't want her to end up bothering the other people with my very, very expressive and joyfully loud daughter.

A Day at the Museum of Natural History

Today we decided to head down to London to the Museum of Natural History. The nice thing about a lot of the museums in London is that they are free admission. Of course this is possible from from the high amount of taxes that Brits pay, but it is nice that they support the arts and museums and make them available for everyone to see. Instead of taking the train down which is usually the easiest way to go, we drove to the most northern part of London which took us about 1 1/2 hours to the Underground station in High Barnet.

Addison is getting quite independent these days so she sat in her stroller for a approximate total of 10 minutes I think the whole day. So mom and dad took turns holding her as we made our way through the Underground, walking to and through the museum. Funny enough, pregnant mommy was the favored one so I got a big workout that day. The museum was very crowded but pretty cool. The dinosaur exhibit was the best and obviously the most popular because they make you stand in a queue (that's a line for you Yanks). The queue was set at about 45 minutes when we got to it...but it moved so fast that we actually got inside in about 15 minutes. We checked out the mammals section, the human body, reptiles, the Ecology hall, the Minerals hall, primates, the huge Sequoia cross section that was estimated to be planted in the 500's AD and cut down in 1842 AD. We also saw some of the precious stones collection...there was an amazing diamond on display that was traded in Africa for a large amount of goats, cattle and horses to an Englishman. We were pretty beat by the end of the day, but had a great day out!

Easter in England

"Hey Addie, Guess What, It's Snowing!" Again, that's right, 2 days in a row, snow in England. This is the first time I remember snow on Easter. Guess that's what you get when Easter comes in March. We weren't going to let a little snow get us down. We bundled up and headed out to build a snow bunny. We figured if it's going to snow on Easter, then it's only fitting to celebrate with a snow bunny. Later on our neighbors started to trickle outside to play in the snow and things turned into an all out snowball fight and after about two hours the snow bunny's head was sacrificed in the snow war.

The Easter bunny did find it's way all the way to our house in England and left Addison some really yummy goodies but her favorite thing was the mini-golf set she got. Daddy even showed her how to putt. That afternoon we loaded up some goodies and headed to some of our good friend's house - the Kieser's. They brought together a lot of our ISE "family" together for an Easter egg hunt for the kids and wonderful dinner and time of fellowship. In our prayers that night with Addison, we thanked God for all the wonderful blessings we had here and hoped that all of you back in the States were having a wonderful day as well.

We Went to See the Sea

What lay ahead of us was a four day weekend with some of the ickiest weather yet this winter/spring, so what else do you do when it's going to be really cold out??? Go to the North Sea of course!!! I spent the entire week looking up "attractions" for western Norfolk county and I found some interesting things that I thought we could check out in a day's time. We loaded up Addie Friday morning and headed out. We first headed towards King's Lynn to a 12th century castle called Castle Rising. It was home of Queen Isabella who arranged the gruesome murder of her husband King Edward II...interesting huh? It was pretty cold and windy and I couldn't but think about it being the same way back in the 12th century and there were actually people living in this cold fortress we were walking around.

Next we headed north to Hunstanton to see the sea. We walked along the prom (promonade) and felt like we were getting sandblasted from the beach...we had to put the rain cover on Addie's stroller to keep her protected from the wind. There were lots of fair rides that were actually running, but we decided to pass this time around. The water on the sea was rough and dirty looking, but it could have been because water was fairly shallow and the tide was low. We saw wind and kite surfers flying up and down the beach. These people had to be mad because it was freezing (literally it was 40 F with a wind chill of 25 F), but they must enjoy having the wind. We ate at a quaint little place called Cassie's and of course had the fish and chips special as we watched the crazy surfers.

We headed off to our next destination - Holkham Hall near Wells-Next-the-Sea (and no it's not Wells-Next-to-the-Sea). The trip from Hunstanton to Wells was only to be 15 miles but the SatNav said it would take 50 minutes...that usually isn't a good sign. We drove through lots of little villages on some pretty narrow roads that reminded us a lot of driving in Ireland. For the folks in the States, try picturing the one lane of traffic you drive on and now split it in half and put 6 inch banks of dirt on each side and some hedges, plus put some nasty curves in it as well with oncoming traffic...that's what we drove on. The hall wasn't open yet so we drove around the grounds and through the deer park which was loaded with hundreds of deer grazing about. It started to down pour on, so we couldn't get out to look around and it put a cabash on the rest of the day as far as getting out and about. We drove through Wells and decided not to check out Holkham beach this time because of the weather, but it will be a place we go in the future when it's warmer and drier.

We made one last stop at Bircham Windmill which was supposed to be our break for Addie to run in their play area and pet the farm animals they have on site, but the wind and rain kept us to looking around the bakery, tea room and gift shop. We did get to see a mini pony and funny looking goat, and we took a quick picture out front.

There are lots of little places that claim some fame all around us where ever in the world we are, and I have never taken advantage of them in all the places I've lived before, so I decided we are going to exploit as many of them as we can while we are here in England. Anything is better than sitting around the house all weekend...even if you get rained on and blown away.

St. Paddy's Dea (Day)

Well in full Kevin and Corrina Dea family tradition we were to have corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day. One would think that being so close to Ireland you wouldn't have an problem finding such things, but I searched three grocery stores for a roast of corned beef. I finally found corned beef but it was in the lunch meat section and it didn't look like what I've purchased in the past so I settled on something called "salt beef." The packets were small so I bought four of them at 2.48 GBP each...which translates into $5US each...yes...I spent $20 on something that looked like little packets of corned beef. I boiled some baby new potatoes, carrots and cabbage to accompany the "salt beef" and I made green deviled eggs. For dessert I made chocolate cupcakes with green frosting (Kev and I had been craving chocolate cake for some reason). Other than our special meal, it didn't feel much like St. Paddy's Day...no advertisements on TV, no specials at the pubs, no decorations in the store. I guess the English don't like the Irish much. Or I guess I've discovered that Americans will find any excuse to have a party!!!!

The Power of Books

For all my life I have not been a huge book reader. Whether I haven't made the time or that I find they make me sleepy or maybe I feel like I have to go back and read something over and over again because I don't really read into what the words mean. During my training days at GROWMARK, I read lots of great books about improving customer service skills, sales skills, supervising skills and I could relate them to helping others and I would put my heart and soul into developing a great training program for my "customers." Throughout my schooling from elementary through college, teachers seemed to make us read a lot of crazy books like Tale of Two Cities, The Piano, The Scarlet Letter, Bridge to Terabithia and amazingly these are the books that I ended up loving and have copies in my "library" still today. Addison has really started to like pop up books...well at least the ones that you lift up a tab or pull out something to reveal a hidden animal. Needless to say no matter how deep I bury them in the stack, she pulls out the same ones every time and she carries them to Kevin or myself and we can't help but read them to her 3 times each.

Well I want to tell you about a few books that I have read or am starting to read. It seems that I have lots of time on my hands while being a full time mom and wife and I've been searching on how to be the best I can be as both. I was invited to be part of a Christian book club with some of the greatest women I have ever met and they have introduced me to some great books. The first book is called Creative Counterpart by Linda Dillow. This book focused on becoming the woman, wife and mother you've longed to be and focuses on showing women on how to become more like the wise woman portrayed in Proverbs 31. She is the ultimate woman that God wants us to strive to become over our lifetime. I think the greatest gift this book gave me was the chance to really focus on different thoughts and doubts I've had about myself and get me reconnected with God, my husband, and my child. I felt I used to be so very strong in my faith when I accepted Christ as a fifth grader back at East Iowa Bible Camp. I was on fire!!! The over the years as my life got busier, God was there but I wasn't talking with Him as much as I used to. I'm on a quest to become a better follower which I know wil fill my life with the answers I need to be a better wife, mom, daughter, sister, friend and more. I want to start sharing with you through this amazing blog tool all the amazing things I learn so that I may be able to touch you all with the knowledge of some of God's great gifts as well.

Our next book for book club is called "Lies Women Believe and the Truths That Sets Them Free." We start discussing this book in April and continue through July so every two weeks I should have updates on what I've learned. If any of you out there want to start reading the book too and discuss thoughts via email I would love to do that. It has a companion guide that we will be filling out.

We Went to the Ball

Saturday night Kevin and I went with our good friends, Danny and Min and Simon and Sarah to the Diamond Ball. It was a fundraiser to support the Glinton/Peakirk primary school. Since it was a black tie event all the guys had to dress up in tuxes and the ladies wore evening gowns. It was an amazing event and like nothing I've ever been to. We were presented glasses of wine (I got orange juice of course) and the ladies got roses when we walked in. We had a three course meal and participated in various fundraising activities all throughout the night. A highlight for me was getting to see my first celebrity, Mr. Warwick Davis!!! He's starred in movies like Willow, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and the new Chronicles of Narnia. Granted I've seen many politicians (George W and Al Gore during the elections when they were both on ISU campus), but I've never met a movie star. I was definitely star struck all evening and finally gained up a enough nerve to ask him to pose in a picture with me.

Kevin and I had such a wonderful time with our friends. Several times throughout the evening we looked at each other and said in amazement that we couldn't believe that we were here dancing to club music at a ball in England!!! We had so much fun, but of course had a sticker shock at the end of the evening after we figured how much money we spent (converting to US dollars still sucks), but it was all worth the experience and to help out the school that Addie may get to go to if we are here long enough was great. The school did raise over 3000 GBP to purchase the sound system they wanted for their weekly school assemblies so that was awesome.

My Chica, Norma, Visits

I got one of the most wonderful surprises this week...one of my closest friends, Norma Aldinger was coming to the UK on business. You see Norma and I go way back to our college days when we interned together at Becker-Underwood and then she talked me into joining NAMA (National Agri-Marketing Association). She even tried setting me up on an interview with CAT, but I foolish and didn't do it because I had already accepted my dream job as a chemical rep with Dow Agro...I often wonder what life would have been like if I would have head down that path instead. But life has turned out great they way things transpired and through it all Norma and I have been great friends. Our phone conversations always start with "Hey, Chica!" (Norma did a semester in Spain while at IA State). Norma has done lots of moving and traveling with CAT but over they years we've stayed in touch and gotten to hook up when she would come back to Peoria, but it was sooooo cool that she was going to be in the UK of all things and even though it was for a day, we made the most of it.

Addison and I packed up after the ISE tea on Tuesday and drove the 1 1/2 hours to Leischester (pron - Lester) to meet up with Norma at her hotel. Now the drive to Leischester is beautiful but as for the actual city itself I wasn't too impressed so for any of you coming on a visit you can pass around this place. Anyway I got to spend 2 1/2 hours visiting with Norma and we caught up on stories about our hubbies, our children (we each have little girls), and how we were both adapting to our new homes...she recently moved from Nashville to North Carolina. We could have talked forever but we had a haul of a drive to get home through evening rush hour and some icky snow/sleet weather. A colleague of hers is trying to get her to come back over for a meeting in April so I'm hoping we get to hook up again.

Grandma Sue and Grandpa Jeff Come to England

This past week we thoroughly enjoyed a visit from my mom and dad. Since neither of them have ventured too far away from the Mid-West most of their lives they had a wonderful and eventful international experience. It was such a great moment to see them come through the doors at the airport...they were really here. For the next week it was such a joy to re-live the excitement of being in a new place through them. Of course the first night they were wiped out and I felt so bad waking them up to eat dinner (their lunch). On Sunday we went to Cambridge and ate a lovely Sunday roast meal at The Anchor (famous pub claiming to be the starting point of the group Pink Floyd). Following lunch we went punting on the Cam (River). We got a great deal on a chauffeured ride that I would recommend to everyone to do. The trip brought us through all of the colleges at Cambridge University and our guide told us great stories about the history of the city, the colleges and the extra "goodies."

Monday we stayed close to home and did a walking tour to Glinton and spent some time out on the public footpaths that wind all throughout the English country side. It was fun watching mom take pictures of houses and hedges and cars...everything that has been so ordinary to me is so new to them.

On Tuesday we did a whirlwind tour of Peterborough. I brought them to village south of Peterborough call Fotheringhey which is home of the famous church where Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded (she was one of Henry VIII's wives). We then headed into Peterborough city centre where we had a lovely lunch at the new Pizza Express (one of my favorite places to eat). I wanted to expand mom and dad's horizons on different types of pizza toppings. Mom got a pizza with artichokes and asparagus on it and dad got one with lots of spice and red peppers and I got my favorite Pollo Con Astra (pulled chicken with sweet onions and peppers). Then we headed to the Peterborough City Market where mom and dad had an eye opening experience with lots of different people and lots of things. We then visited the Peterborough Cathedral...another must see!!! Admission is free but you can pay 2 pounds for a "photography permit" so you can take pictures inside. Mom and I learned about Catherine of Aragon who is buried at the cathedral (another late wife of Henry VIII) and dad was fascinated about how they constructed the building. I cut our tour a bit short because I only paid for 4 hours of parking and we had to high tail it back so I didn't get a ticket. Good thing we left when we did because as we got close to the car park I saw the parking office walking down our row and then move to the rear of my car to get my registration. I took off running proclaiming that I was back and going to be leaving...not the kind of exercise I wanted that day.

Wednesday we headed down to London on the train which was a big thrill for mom and dad. Once we got to London, we hit the Underground they got another taste of awesome public transportation options we have in England. Afterwards I found out that my dad was a little leery of the Underground at first because I kept bringing him down deeper underground and he was worried about the electricity going off or something. We got off the Piccadilly line at Piccadilly Circus (London's "Time Square" per say) and then head straight towards St. James' Park to get us to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. We got there just after the band started heading down the road so we sent my mom running after them to take pictures. Dad watched her like a hawk and I just giggled watching her trying to fight through the crowd. We then went to get our pictures taken with the guards that stand outside St. James Palace (where Price Charles lives). We made our way to Parliament Square to take pictures of Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey the quickly rushed off over the bridge on our way to ride the London Eye. We did a quick lunch at McD's where dad just handed me some cash and said, "Uh, can you just order and pay for it." I thought it was pretty funny because he seemed afraid to spend money because he was afraid they were going to give him the right change back. They both were pretty fascinated by the coins and the notes we use here and tried really hard to learn all the coin pieces. Addie let loose in the Eye and ran laps around everyone in our pod. We then checked out all the street entertainers and got our pictures taken with all of them. Finally we made our way to Tower Bridge before we rushed back to King's Cross Station to catch our train home.

Thursday Addie and I needed to catch up on some sleep, so while we slumbered Mom and Dad went on a walk back through Glinton and checked out the butcher shop. They wanted to pick something up for us to try and they settled on sausages, they didn't know what kind they were getting but they weren't the little ones. That afternoon we headed back to Peterborough's city centre for a farmer's market where I bought some lovely crumble pies and mom and dad bought "Millionaire's Shortbread" - they have a thing for shortbread.

Friday Kevin took the day off and we all headed to Stamford for the weekly market. Mom and Dad really found the markets to be the funnest things to do. Dad got into an in depth conversation with farmer who raised red deer...my dad is an avid outdoorsman and has been fascinated with the fact that bow hunting is outlawed in all of England. Friday night we all went over to Danny and Min's house for some "real" Chinese food and it was absolutely amazing. My dad said this was one of the most wonderful parts of their trip. Mom and Dad both thought Danny and Min's hospitality was so gracious and they loved learning about English culture from Sarah (our lovely English neighbor). I think it was great for them both to get exposed to other cultures in a more intimate setting and I think the evening left a real impression on them both.

Saturday we ventured off to Lincoln - Kevin and I have found this to one of our favorite places to go shopping. We checked out some fun little shops and ate at a cute little place where we taught mom and dad how to eat fish and chips the "English way" - fork in left and knife in right. Since it was pretty chilly and windy I thought it would be fun to put Addie in the camo snow suit that Mom and Dad gave her for Christmas. She was sooo cute. That night we went to the Coucko for dinner so Mom and Dad could enjoy one last "English" meal. Dad ordered Addison a big bowl of ice cream for dinner...I guess grandparents are supposed to spoil their grandchildren.

Sunday was a tough day, since we had to drive Mom and Dad to the airport.