How the Universe Sucked Out My Sanity

There are times in my life when everything is roses and sunshine. There are other times when I am certain that the universe is having a grand ol' laugh at my expense. Do you ever feel like that? Well, as much as that would suck for you, I hope that you do. I would hate it if I'm the only one the universe is laughing at.

So last week was our special needs support group meeting. I was super excited to go! I even baked like 4 dozen cookies for it because that's what happens when I'm excited (well, excited, stressed, angry, sad, pick an emotion). I bake.

I picked up the kids and got everything ready - grabbed our cookies, some "driving snacks" for the kids, their homework, a change of clothes for the mister and headed out the door. And yes, I remembered to check that I had all 3 kids with me in the car. We drove 45 minutes back to the base they had just come from. I pulled up to the gate on the base, reached next to me in the seat and went "oh sh*t!" when I realized at that very moment that my purse was sitting on the counter in my utility room...you know, along with every picture ID I have that verifies my identity. (Epic fail)

Eventually I get a hold of Brian and he comes off base to meet me and take us all the way around to the visitors center to see if they can work their computer-type magic and verify that yes, I am me, an no one else. But. Their computers were down so no dice. (Ugh!!) I changed cars with Brian, because our van needed gas, and I took his car back home. Two minutes into my foray back home, the GPS falls off the windshield and ends up in the passenger seat floorboard where I can't reach it. So now I am driving on a road I don't know and it's pitch black and pouring down rain so I can't see anything - including the road signs. As I'm mildly panicking about how I'm going to get home I hit the world's largest pothole and a case of Guinness (the cans with those CO2 balls in them) exploded in the backseat. (And I'll go ahead and tell you that I was already so stressed that I would have sworn someone shot at me).

It was a weird, weird day.

So jump ahead a week. A week, to the day, actually. I will spare the long, drawn out story of how I had to listen to my refrigerator sound like a dying cow all day. It's not broken. I think it was just in mood. Or maybe it's the fact that it was Thursday. Maybe Thursday is "sound like a dying cow" day. I don't know. But the crazy part....And I hope you're not eating. If you are, please stop. I wouldn't want you to choke.

Brian comes home from work and tells me we got packages (Yay!) and I got one from someone named "Maurice". I was all "Maurice?? Do you mean Maurices? That's a store, not a person. I didn't order anything from them though." I grab the package and, sure enough, it's from Maurices. I am now very confused because, like I said, I didn't order anything. I opened it anyway.

There was a form in front telling me that they're returning my return because they can't accept it at this time. (Did I already tell you that I didn't order anything? Well I didn't return anything either.) So now I'm super confused. And I start unwrapping all the stuff in there.

- 3 red microfiber pillow covers from (what I think might be) Germany. The wording looks German and the price sticker is in euros.
- 12 packets of some super-sugary-vanilla smelling powdered pudding-type stuff
- 1 broken mini camera tripod

What.The.Hell.

Their customer service has no idea. I have no idea. But for serious y'all, if next Thursday is filled with crazy, I'm going to hide. I'm going to find a nice little cave and not come out for awhile. My sanity needs to remain intact y'all.

A Year in Review (with lots of pictures)

A few days ago I got an email about things we have coming up for the girls in the world o' Girl Scouts and it hit me that it is almost the end of January. That kind of caught me off guard. And then I realized that a year ago right now we were getting everything ready for the movers. In fact, Friday will be 1 year to the day that the movers came to pack up our stuff and ship it across the pond.

That just blows my mind. This year went by fast. So in honor of that, I thought I'd look back over the last year - the good, the bad, and the crazy.

A year ago, we said goodbye to Florida - our home (for better or worse) for the last 9 years. It was bittersweet knowing it would be a while before we were back again.

We watched movers come and wrap, box, and generally pack up every single thing we owned and said goodbye to our home.

We moved through 4 different hotels (one of which I was pretty sure hadn't been cleaned or occupied since 1973 and was prime real estate for very bad things to happen). And then we eventually said tearful goodbyes to our friends and family, and the friends who had become family.

We boarded what would feel like the longest plane ride in the history of ever...

...And came out feeling very tired, a little grumpy, and pretty hungry.

We were more tired than I thought was humanly possible. And spent almost a week trying to teach our bodies that 3 or 4 am was most definitely not bedtime....

We learned to drive on the left side of the road (and the right side of the car) and figured out that "mind the ditches" was serious business.

We tried very hard to understand everyone because even though we're all speaking the same language, it just didn't feel like it. We were appreciative of the locals who were patient with us when we asked them to repeat something at least 3 times, and then still weren't sure what they were saying.

We learned to negotiate a whole new school system & got the kids enrolled in what has become the most amazing educational opportunity for them.

We explained to them that things were different here, and if they ever had a problem (like getting lost) to find the nearest military building and tell an adult they needed help. It was a conversation I would later regret when, on their first day of school, I was a few minutes late getting to their bus stop, they panicked and went to the BX where the base cops were called.  

After many painstaking hours on the phone with British letting agents (aka realtors) we found a house. One that I fell in love with and was 100% positive was perfect. ....Well, until the utility door fell apart the night we moved in, and the upstairs bathroom started leaking 2 weeks later. And realized that we were sharing our house with hoards of roly polies and spiders. LOL

We learned to enjoy the pub with all the crazy that goes on there, especially during football (aka soccer) season. And we also learned you don't order hamburgers here unless it says the meat is "certified beef".....Yeah....

We have explored our local area...

...And found out all about market days.

We learned that it is a lot colder here than it was in FL. We learned that jackets, coats, and windbreakers are not interchangeable. And you will need all 3 of them living here. And wellies (aka rain boots), we can't forget those. They are a must as well.

We also learned that umbrellas in the States are much larger than here in the UK, and Brits don't really appreciate them at all.

We had our first snow...followed quickly by our first snowball fight and first snowman.

We learned that the British tube (or subway) is no joke, and always wear good walking shoes in London.

And here we are a year later...

We have become accustomed to the local accents (though I still don't understand Brummie or Scouse at all). We don't even have to ask people to repeat themselves anymore. In fact, we're so used to the British accent it's surprising when we hear American ones. We are even getting used to the different words they use.

We have learned that trainers are really tennis shoes (or sneakers, whichever is your preferred word) and plimsolls are athletic shoes. That lorries are delivery trucks, and jugernauts are really 18-wheelers. A breakfast sandwich is a biscuit (to us), while a biscuit (to them) is a cookie. Chips (to them) are actually french fries, while chips (to us) are called crisps. A chemist is a pharmacist, and a solicitor is a lawyer (well, I actually learned that one in a book). Queing up means to line up. A dust bin is really a garbage can and a skip is a dumpster. And it is illegal to "fly tip" (which means leaving large items on the side of the road for the refuse pick up...or trash day really...you know like we do on State-side bases LOL).

We have gotten used to the cold, even though I never thought we would. When we first got here, it was not uncommon for us to have on 2 or 3 layers of clothes and our "FL coats". And now, a year later, we are fine with a short sleeved shirt and a jacket (and sometimes sandals) when it's 37 degrees outside, though we don't actually do that often.

We have learned to automatically convert the price of something from pounds to dollars in our head, so we're not shocked by our bank statement every month.

We have met new people and made new friends, some who have already become family.

We have learned to love the differences. We're a third of the way through this tour, with no way of knowing where we'll be headed next, and that's kind of scary. There's still so much to see and so much do. The sad(ish) part is how much we miss everyone. The time difference sucks, and the price of airfare sucks. But as with so many other things here (like internet speed and cell phone services), we're learning to deal with it. 

Painting Lizards

Since I have a quick minute, I thought I'd pop on and say hi....

Hi.

...and share a little story with you written by my very own Hayden. I'm sure the publishers will be calling any day to sign him up for a series, it's just that awesome. Here's his story -

I am Hayden. 

I like to paint. 

I like to paint lizards. 

My lizard is pink. 

The End. 

It's fabulous, isnt it? His teacher helped him type it up, add some fun pictures, and print it so is oh-so-awesome mom can keep it forever.

I thought I'd also fill you in on a little secret. So last week I realized that when I got rid of my Facebook account, I didn't really get rid of it. It was sitting there deactivated, being sad and lonely (or so I've been told). I thought I'd take advantage of the opportunity and grab some stuff from the messenger and reactivated it. And then forgot all about it once again. Jump to today. A friend saw my un-deactivated FB account and made a suggestion.

If you didn't already know, our cell service out here is horrible. I miss more texts and calls than I get - it is a serious pain in the booty and I inevitably make someone think I'm ignoring them - I promise you I'm not. And I'm sure some of you have noticed by now how well I reply to my email. I'm not so great at that. So many emails and only 1 me so I have a tendency to think I replied to you when I didn't. So anyway, my friend suggested not re-deactivating my Facebok account (don't you like how I make up my own words?) and instead using the messenger to converse with everyone. As of last October, the Facebook messenger had never failed to deliver my messages and that is a huge step above all my other apps.

Soooooo....yes, if you look on Facebook, you will see me showing up once again. But. (And this is my disclaimer part) I am going to be hiding in the corner of the Facebook world. Right now I don't really want to get back into all of that. I may never want to, who knows. But I will have the messenger. So feel free to send me stuff there rather than something else we've been using to chat. Or keep using the other apps, or both - whatever floats your boat. I'm not going to be posting pictures or anything else there though, just so you know. Sorry. You'll still have to visit me here for that.

So that was my little secret. Really, nothing has changed except me taking advantage of a, hopefully, easier way to get in touch.

But I hope you're having a wonderful week. Mine has been...eh. Maybe next time I'll tell you the story of how I became the butt of the universe's joke. Or maybe I'll have a fabulous time at Ikea tomorrow and can tell you about that instead.

Until then, my sweets! <3

Sleep is for Sissies

So yesterday was the first day back to school for us. As much as I enjoyed having the kids home during the break, I was happy to send them back. Hayden hates being away from school for too long and will drive me crazy asking if he can go every single minute of every single day. LOL Not to mention that the girls were bored out of their minds and just itching to get back to see their friends.

The icing on the cake was that I was able to get back to my normal routine - grocery shopping and running errands by myself. I love my kids but taking them all to the store is not for the faint-hearted. Although, I will count my blessings that I'm not having take them to some place like Walmart or Target. At least the commissary doesn't have toys or video games or anything. Just boring ol' groceries, which often is bad enough when I get to the checkout and find out exactly how much they've sneaked in the cart when I wasn't looking.

The downside to them going back? Now I can't sleep in until whenever I want. No more staying up late reading doing something exciting. :) Not when my alarm starts annoying me at 5:30. (Which, btw, ask me sometime about yesterday morning when my alarm wouldn't stop buzzing even after I hit snooze. It was not pleasant). So, anyway, I went to bed last night at a semi-decent hour (11 rather than 2 or 3 like every other night since the break started) crossing my fingers that I would be able to go to sleep. No such luck. I tossed and turned forever, and this is what started going through my head...

Ugh, I need to go to sleep! I'm going to be exhausted tomorrow.....ok I need to stop thinking about sleep and think about something relaxing....the beach is relaxing....oh I miss the beach....I need to email Hayden's teacher about our meeting this month...and I need to reply to those emails that I got today...I still haven't bought my bedside lamp yet....ohhh!! I'm going to Ikea next week....I finally get my desk - yay....I really need to look at bookshelves....I need to check the tracking info on those books I ordered....maybe I should write this down....this would make an interesting blog...(*this is where I started thinking about what the blog would say*)....oh this is ridiculous! I have got to go to sleep....I hope we have some coffee, I think I'm going to need it tomorrow....

Needless to say, at 2 am I finally fell asleep. And when my alarm went off three and half hours later I almost threw it across the room and refused to get up. Thankfully we had coffee and I made a huge pot. It's going to be a long day. 

All Things New

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 

So it's kinda weird to think that it is now 2014 for us, and still 2013 for you (at least it is if you're still in the States). In fact it's like dinner time in 2013 for you. That's just strange. We've been here for 11 months now and I'm still not used to the time difference yet. Do you think that will ever change? Well, it probably will, just about the time we're getting ready to move somewhere else. (It always works like that doesn't it?)

So goodbye 2013 and hello 2014!

We have brought in the new year in a very "us" fashion - hanging out together in the living room. We've watched some tv, played some video games, read together and just generally spent time together. The kids were a little sad that they couldn't watch the ball drop, since that's typically been a tradition for us the last few years. But once we explained that "the ball" was a States thing and they'd have to stay awake until 5 in the morning for that, they kind of understood. Well, they understood but vowed to wake up early enough to see it anyway. (Ha!) I'm fairly certain that none of them will be up before 9 though. (At least I hope not.) Hopefully the televised London fireworks show will be enough for them.

So, as another year ends and a new one begins, here are my 2 cents worth of wisdom for you...

*Don't make a resolution - resolutions suck and inevitably end up being something you quit after January. So don't make resolutions, make changes.

*Make mistakes - lots of them. Mistakes mean you're still learning, still changing yourself, and becoming a better you.

*Promise to do one thing (or hell, 5 things....10 things) you've never done. This goes right along with still learning and changing, and overall living.

*Look at the big picture. Small details are great but don't forget to look at the whole perspective.

*Smile more. Laugh more. Have more fun.

*Don't forget that every day is gift and we should all enjoy every single second we're blessed enough to have. Be grateful for that. Be grateful for the people that bless your life. They are amazing people.

So again, just my 2 cents. :)

Know that we wish so much we could bring in this new year with all of the people we love, that we miss you and love you all.

Happy 2014!!