A Visit From Diana

After getting back from our trip to Germany we got a wonderful visit from our friend, Diana Hopkins. It is so amazing to see a familiar face from home sitting in your own living room and carrying on a conversation like we were sitting back in Washington, Illinois. Diana was actually over on business to attend a dealer conference in Peterborough...ahh, it's pretty cool to have some of your greatest friends work for the same company because somehow they all get connected even if it's half way around the world. Not only was it great to see Diana, but she also came bearing gifts...9 containers of Crystal Light packets. They looked so great when I put them up on our pantry shelf. Thanks again Diana!!! It was great seeing you.

It's Pretty Easy Being Green

Since we've moved to the UK we've noticed that their is a pretty strong push to conserve energy and to follow the three R's - reduce, reuse and recycle. So we have decided to take on some new habits that hopefully we can have a good influence on our kids.

Reuse - All the grocery stores offer their own reusable bags and often give you credit for bringing in your own bags. I picked up the Small Green Bag from Tesco the other day. I now keep a few other plastic bags inside and bring them along now when I go grocery shopping. To tell you the truth it's a lot easier using used bags to pack your own groceries than mess with trying to open up new bags...especially when you've got a 15 month old trying to climb out of the trolley these days.

Recycle - Also we do a lot of recycling...half of our rubbish actually gets thrown in our recycle bin. We have three large bins out back...one for garbage, one for recycling and one for yard waste. We had to start putting the recycling bin up off the ground once Addie started walking because she would play with the pop cans...I have horrible fears of her cutting her fingers. You've also heard me talk about some of our trips to the local waste facility...there are tons of huge containers that are marked for separating out your junk so that it can be recycled accordingly. You park your car and start chucking things in the right bin...pretty cool, but watch out for bees...ask Addie!

Reduce - Most recently we've decided to help reduce the amount of rubbish we see around us. We've started taking a grocery sack with us as we go on family walks and pick up rubbish along the side of the road. Yesterday we picked up a whole sack full. It's seems like there are some places in the UK that there isn't much concern over littering so we thought we'd at least clean up our little part of the world. We met a new neighbor while doing this and he actually thanked us. We felt pretty good about representing some values we picked up in the US.

Also we're trying to reduce the amount of fuel we use...when we came to the UK we bought diesel vehicles because of the fuel economy. The price of diesel these days in the UK is now 1.18 GBP per liter (used to be 96 pence when we moved here). There are 3.85 liters to a US gallon so that equates to about $8.90US/gallon of fuel....so all of you in the US complaining about $4.15 diesel...stop it!!! We both get about 35 miles/US gallon and with Kevin being so much closer to work he only fills his tank once every three weeks...lots better than filling that monster 4 door pickup truck we used to own.

Our Holiday in Munich, Germany

To sum things up, Germany was amazing!!! The food, the people, the sights, the good times spent together as a family. On Friday, we got up around 3:30AM so we could make it to the airport by 6AM. It was only an hour and 20 minute flight to Munich and we flew AirBerlin so it was interesting having all the announcements in German then in English. We took the S-Bahn train to our hotel, The Exquisit, which was located just 10 minutes walk from Marianplatz, the big central square in Munich. We started out our day by hopping on the U-Bahn train up to Olympic Park where the 1972 Olympic games were held. The grounds were awesome and it was a beautiful day. We walked to the top of this huge hill so we could get a scenic view of the park and overlooking the city of Munich. We checked out the Aquatic center, the stadium, Olympic Hall, the Olympia Beirgarten (beer garden) and had a beer and bratwurst at another beer garden. The BMW factory is right next to the park so we walked through their "show room" and Kevin said he could have spent hours in there marveling over the cars and the engineering displays they had set up. I thought the coolest part was the cars they were bringing up in elevators for people to either test drive or they were new cars that just came off the factory floor that people had purchased and were picking up. Next we headed to the English Garden where in part of the river the are huge waves created by an underground tunnel so people can actual surf in the river. I believe its the only the place in the world you can river surf.

Saturday morning we woke up to rain which was kind of a downer but it set the mood for our visit to the Dachau Concentration camp. Dachau was definitely an eye opening experience and one I'm glad we did so that someday when Addison sees the pictures we can share what we learned with her. We had a tour guide that walked us through the camp and explained a lot of background on how the camps came about and some of the unknown stories not told in the history books. We walked all over the grounds and through the main work building, the prison baracks, the roll call yard, and the crematorium where they actually used gas chambers to execute people. It was very sobering to be there, but what made it really real to me was the conversation I had with Jewish woman on our bus ride back whose grandparents were sent to Auschwitz. The rest of the day we spent tracking around Munich and checking out Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), Viktualienmarkt (city market), Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall), Neues Rathaus, (New Town Hall), Neuhauserstrasse (main pedestrian street that leads to Marianplatz). We also got to see the Glockenspiel at work that evening where figurines dance around at the top of the Altes Rathus under the clock.

Sunday we took a 2 hour train ride to Fussen, Germany to visit the Schloss Neuschwanstein castle. It's sometimes nicknamed the Cinderella castle because Walt Disney modeled the castle at Disney World around this place. King Ludwig II built many of these stately homes all around Germany and spent the family billions and put them in millions in debt when he died at the age of 40. It was an amazingly beautiful day and we could see the foothills of Germany lead into the Alps in Austria. To get to the castle you could take a bus of the fiercely steep hill or you could walk it...well of course we decided to walk...yes we were crazy, but we love a challenge. We walked 1 1/2 miles uphill pushing a stroller with a 25 pound baby in it while either carrying a 20 pound backpack (Kev) or me being 5 1/2 months pregnant. It was all worth it because the view was amazing. The castle has 80 rooms but only 20 of them are finished because construction stopped after Ludwig died and after going through what was finished you could see why they ran out of money...the rooms where very elaborate. This is a definite must see for everyone, but I would recommend taking the bus.

Monday we headed to Salzburg, Austria for the day. It definitely isn't enough time by any means, but we got a sneak peak. I'm a huge Sound of Music fan so we did get to see some sights from the famous movie - the park you see here is where they sang the "Do, Re, Mi" song. We saw the fountain where Maria splashed the horse when singing "I Have Confidence in Me," and we saw the cemetery where it was depicted that the family hid from the Nazi's at the end (but really those scenes where shot in Hollywood). Salzburg is also the home of Mozart so we saw his birth place and boyhood home. We rode a tram up to the Salzburg Fortress (Hohensalzburg) and got to see some amazing views down on the city and the mountains even though it was a pretty hazy day. One fun thing on this day was that on the train, Addison befriended a group of Greek highschool students. We ran into them again at the fortress so we had to get a picture of them while they sang, "If You're Happy and You Know It" in Greek. Since we only had a few hours in the city we didn't get to see all the Sound of Music sites, nor did we get to spend much quality time at any one place so we will have to go back for sure. We took some time to pick up some souvenirs...Kevin picked out a beer stein, we got a set of porcelain dolls in traditional dress for Addie, and I picked out a charm and Christmas ornament...all things we are going to be collecting from each country we visit. By accident we came across a game store which we popped in to see if they had a cribbage board (we've been searching everywhere for one), but I remembered that our friends the Westphalen's had picked up a fun German card game called Bohnanza (we affectionally call it the "Bean Game")...we asked about it and sure enough they had it. I was elated to find it and now while we are away from our friends Mark and Amity we can still practice our mad trading skills for when we move back to the States and drum up the fierce competition once again.
On our final day we finished up seeing some sites in Munich that we hadn't gotten to. We started out at Odenplatz Square which is famous for the Feldherrnhalle - Field Marshal's Hall where Bavarian police fought off Nazi protesters lead by Hitler. After Hitler took rule, he made people salute him as they passed in front of this hall. To avoid doing this people would walk on the street behind the hall and is nicknamed "Dodger's Alley". Next door is the Residenz Palace was the official home of Bavaria’s monarchs. Out front are bronze lions with bright shiney noses. People who supported the monarchy during the take over of Hilter would walk by these lion's and rub their noses...this practice is still done today as we saw many passers-by do the same. We ate lunch at the world famous HofBräuhaus (Royal Brewery) and Kevin drank a 1 liter beer. Afterwards he wanted to pull an old college trick of taking the mug with you but I wouldn't let him. We headed out to get some more souvenirs and almost ended up with an unwanted one. We were looking through a very small shop and as we were leaving the stroller caught a small table and things went tumbling...including a glass vase that didn't break, but also a very ugly painted tin tree thing. The shop people claimed that we damaged it and it was looking like we were going to be buying a 128 Euro ($200US) ugly painted tree. To our luck they didn't want to deal with calling the "Chief" and they let us leave...it's totally one of those moments that just make you sick to your stomach. We found another doll for Addie, a Germany/Munich beer stein for Kevin, and I found a Bavarian cookbook to take home.

Munich is a wonderful place. The city is clean and people are very friendly. I was very nervous for our trip at first beacuse I haven't been to a country where English wasn't the main language. Funny thing is that pretty much everyone we met spoke English...they start out in German but then after we apologize for only knowing English they switch tongues and speak perfect English. I feel so ignorant only knowing one language...but I feel it just isn't emphasized in our US education system to be more worldly. I'm sure Addison enjoyed the morning cartoons in German...familiar ones like Mickey's Playhouse and Cailou. Kevin and I would watch poker or snooker in the evenings...it was all in German but you didn't need to understand what they were saying. Overall Germany has to be one of the top trips I've been on...I think what made it most special was experiencing it with my family.

Germany or Bust

Tomorrow morning we are headed to Munich for 5 days of German culture. We are planning on touring Munich obviously, but we are doing day trips to Neuschwanstein Castle, Dachau Concentration Camp, and Salzburg, Austria. I can't wait to eat some really good bratwaurst and see all the great sites...I watched the Sound of Music today so I could be ready for Salzburg. We'll have some great pictures and stories to tell you when we get home on Tuesday!

If You Can't Buy It, Make It

One of the frustrating things about living abroad is not being able to find those trivial little things that you could run to any Kroger or Walmart and pick up to make your favorite recipe. Well I was really wanting to make that fruit dip that you mix a jar of Kraft marshmallow cream with a container of cream cheese. One would thing that was a very simple recipe, but if you can't purchase the marshmallow cream anywhere you have to explore other options. Today was a day that I am glad that God let Al Gore think he invented the internet, because I hopped online and googled "homemade marshmallow cream." To my wonderful surprise I the first recipe that popped up proclaimed it was the best homemade substitute for the Kraft marshmallow cream. Very simple ingredients that I happened to have in the house...it did call for light corn syrup which is another thing you can't buy in the UK, but it had a link from it that told you to mix 2 tablespoons of water with 1/2 cup of sugar instead. Well sure enough I had doubts, but it turned out perfect. I didn't believe that you would actually have to beat it for a whole 10 minutes but it did. I just stood there with my American hand mixer plugged into our big converter in the kitchen and bopped away to some music I had playing. Like other things I've found that I used to be able to conveniently buy and now have found a homemade way of doing it I think I may stick with the homemade versions because I actually know what's in it.

Here's the recipe for homemade marshmallow cream if you find yourself in such a predicament:
3/4 egg white
1/2 cup white corn syrup (1/2 sugar + 2 Tbsp of water)
1/8 tsp of salt
1/2 icing sugar (powdered sugar)
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
Combine egg white, corn syrup, and salt. Beat with mixer on high for 10 minutes or until thick. Add icing sugar and beat on low until blended. Beat in vanilla until blended. Use in any recipe that calls for marshmallow cream. This recipe yields 2 cups and the cream can be frozen if you don't need all that you make up.

Enjoy!!!

Who Took the Cookies From the Cookie Jar?

"Addie took the cookies from the cookie jar..." I was working on baking some treats for my Pampered Chef party. Addison had just learned how to climb up on her little kitchen that we use to block her from getting in the refrigerator and she was pretty determined to get herself an afternoon snack. It was so cute that I had to take pictures, but I quickly helped her down so we didn't have an accident. For the next two days all she wanted was cookies...yikes!!!

Spring Projects

I do say that it is great to have a spouse who gets into the "spring" as much as I do. Maybe it's because we're both a couple of farm kids transplanted into the city, but we have learned to love doing lots of spring projects over the years. We spent three years adding trees, shrubs, and flowers around our house in Washington and leaving all of that was the hardest part about selling our house. Well to feel "normal" this spring we decided to tackle a few things around our new house. In our back garden was a mis-shapened patio with missing pavers and it looked hideous and depressing. Somehow Kevin discovered a little walkway behind our garage that lead to a 10ft x 10ft empty space full of dead plants and yuck, but he found the 5 missing pavers needed to finish our patio. Now that we found the pavers, we had to find out how to get them laid. Kevin instantly got frustrated because to "do it right" he would have tilled up the dirt, laid rock then a 2 inch layer of sand to set the pavers right. Well we didn't have any of the tools to do that and I didn't want to spend that much time on it. So a frustrated Kevin dug up the old pavers and cut away the sod. I sent him off to B&Q (England's Home Depot) to get some sand, because he needed to leave me to get the dirt leveled out and to let himself cool off. By the time he got back I had done my best to make it look pretty. We used three bags of sand to get all the pavers set and leveled out, he even thought to buy some extra rock to put up against the house. It took us 3 hours from start to finish and for the limited resources we were pretty happy with the results. Actually so excited about the results that we have caught ourselves looking outside at it for the past week and just smiling. Here is a picture of what it looked like before...I had to go all the way back to pictures from our house hunting trips to find one.
Now here is Addison showing you how much fun it is to play on her new patio.

I also had the bug to get some new containers to plant flowers and a few plants in to add a little color and character to our home and garden. I had a great time planning things out and shopping for plants at the various garden centers around. I especially loved getting to use my new gardening gloves to plant everything. I felt so in my element again and have been on cloud 9 ever since. It's so fun to look outside and see our new "pretties". I love spring!!!! Here's the front of our house with our new planters out front.

We're Going to Have a Baby Boy!!!

Well it's a pretty funny story how this all came about. Kevin and I were pretty sure we were not going to find out what the sex of our baby was since we enjoyed the surprise with Addison. Even as we went in today for my 20 week scan, we were pretty sure that we would just wait... but we thought it sure would be nice to know if we would need to buy boy clothes or could do with Addie's hand-me-downs and if we needed to order boy bedding from the States.

The day started out interesting...Kevin had to pull himself out of an important meeting to go to my appointment, we were in the middle of prime Addison nap time so she was dog tired, and we were struggling to find a parking space at the hospital. So I guess once the technician started doing the ultrasound and the baby was in perfect position to show the family jewels, we couldn't help but verify our suspicions. I wasn't sure at first, but the more times she kept rolling the wand over that area, I said out loud..."That sure looks like a little boy to me!" Kevin had a huge grin on his face as I looked at him and he asked the tech if she knew what it was...she said she didn't know. We didn't know how she couldn't notice, but then she asked if we wanted to find out what the sex was. We were pretty sure we thought we knew already, but we gave in and had her check it out again. Sure enough we found out that the little one is a little boy! Kevin was so excited. He would have been overjoyed with another little girl but he is super excited to have a son.

I'm still in shock that I'm having a boy...I'm getting so used to a girl, but I think it will be great to have one of each. It's nice now to say to Addison that her little brother is kicking mommy instead of saying brother slash sister. The rest of the scan went pretty well...they took measurements on the head, two parts of the brain, the torso and looked at the heart and his leg length. I never did find out how long he was or what his heart beat was. I guess I should have known to ask those questions, but in the States they just tell you that. We called our immediate family first to let them know they were having a grandson or nephew and they were pretty excited - grandmas are ready to go shopping!

Spring Lambs

Today Addison and I went to my friend Holli's house as we do every other Wednesday, but today was a little extra special. Just behind Holli's house are some public footpaths that go right through a field full of sheep and spring lambs. Since the kids are out of school for spring holiday, we made it a great adventure today to check them out. All the kids put on their "wellies" (rain boots) except for me and Addie...I haven't made the effort to get her a pair yet. We then had to be very careful not to step on any "black pudding" left by the sheepies in the field, so I carried Addison most of the time. We had a lovely afternoon!

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.