The smart way to store your weapon when you sleep

Britain's got (big) spiders

We get lots of spiders in our house here.  Usually they are of the Daddy-Long-Legs variety, or the smaller-slightly-meaty-but-hey-they-eat-bugs-so-I'll-ignore-it variety.

Tonight, we saw this meatball scurrying across the living room floor:

I realize its hard to show how huge he is with a photo on the floor.  The most standard thing I could quickly grab was this [old fashioned] Ipod Shuffle.  But I can assure you that he was both big AND meaty.  Too big and meaty for me to ignore.

He quickly took cover under the couch, which we then moved around different ways until he came back out.  After our little photo shoot, Brad went for him with a paper towel, but he sprinted for Ben's quilt.  Brad grabbed the quilt, went out the door, and assured me that he saw the spider take off for the footpath next to our house.  

I suppose this spider in my house is nothing, really, compared to scorpions and rattlesnakes...

House shopping

So we are still waiting for details on our impending move to Texas.  In the meantime, however, Brad has been scouring Realtor.com for his dream house.

In England, when you are looking at houses, there are certain things you may be used to but cannot take for granted: mixer taps, closets, hook-up for a vented clothes dryer...

In Texas, we've found, there are other things that you may be used to that you cannot take for granted, like green grass.

Amsterdam

We have just returned from a four-day trip to Amsterdam.

Neither of us had ever been there before, and though we now have children and couldn't properly "enjoy" the city, we were still keen to check it out.  (Not like we'd want to do any of that stuff, anyway...)

We stayed in a holiday apartment very close to the centre of the city.  The apartment was nice and comfortable.  Its always nice to have a separate bedroom for the kids and a kitchen where they can eat, since that is their favorite holiday activity (and it starts at 6 a.m.)

Once we figured out some of the local transportation, we were on our way through the city.  We spent a bit of time traveling by boat through the canals.  Entertainment, relaxation, and transporation all wrapped up in one nice package.  

We also did a bit of walking.  On the first day we walked to the flower market, which Susanna enjoyed (while Ben napped on a bench nearby.)  On the second day we visited the Van Gogh museum.  We managed to get through the whole thing, but it didn't take long.  We followed some good museum advice: buy a few postcards at the shop when you get there, and then go looking for those paintings.  Susanna did well with the game and found most of her pictures.  Not sure what happened to the rest...  Susanna and I also visited the Anne Frank house and talked a little bit about what happened there.

On Tuesday, our last full day, we went to the science museum, called NEMO.  It was nice to be in a place where the kids could touch everything and explore at their pace.  They managed to stay interested for a few hours.

The highlight of the trip was the pancakes.  We found a good pancake restaurant on Sunday and went back on Monday and Tuesday.  They had lots of toppings and combinations of toppings and every one that we tried was excellent.  The kids' pancakes came with really good prizes - Ben ordered a Fireman pancake and got a fireman's hat... Susanna ordered an Animal pancake and got a stuffed monkey.  Good stuff.

Here are a few photo highlights:

We ended up lunching at Hard Rock Cafe on the first day.  They had free face painting, and that made eating there totally worthwhile.

Riding the boat through the canal.  
We visited this replica of the Amsterdam near the science museum.  They loved exploring the ship.
Walking (running) along a pedestrian bridge towards the centre.
A little love by the canals after our last meal at the Pancake Bakery.

Ready for Texas

We still have no idea about when we might be moving, but Ben is ready to go thanks to this outfit his Grammy and Grandpa sent!  It goes perfectly with his new cowboy hat...  Now all he needs is the boots!

Noodles

On Saturday, the kids and I had a day out in London with Susanna's best friend, T, and her mum and sister.  

After spending the whole train ride to London eating the snacks we packed, we headed to Wagamama for lunch.  Ben ordered his usual - "spicy" soup (which isn't spicy at all) with chicken, noodles, and veggies.  He takes his time with food, but he eventually emptied the bowl, and was the only child in our group to do so.  I just can't get over his enthusiasm for this food!

Here he is getting the last drops.

And his empty bowl.
After lunch we walked to a small theatre that was doing a children's production.  It was a 45 minute play called "Theodore and Margarida".  Theodore was a bee and Margarida, a flower, was his best friend.  The kids really enjoyed it...  they got to sit right in front of the actors in little chairs and sofas, and were able to participate throughout the show.  After the show the actors held a little drama workshop where the kids learned, of course, to be bees and flowers.  

Then it was back to the train, where we had more snacks, and a walk back home.  Overall it was a very fun day!

Fiesta

On Saturday afternoon, we had some friends over for a little fiesta...  This is what Ben looked like by the end of the evening!

The next adventure

When we signed up to come to England for two years, we knew it would go fast.

Now we are finding that it might be going faster then we thought...  We have recently learned what our next destination is:

Texas!

Specifically, the Dallas area.

We are still waiting to find out exactly when we will have to move, but quite possibly it will be sooner rather than later.

So now that we've been in England for a full year and are finally starting to feel settled here, it time to start thinking about packing up and doing it all over again.  Deciding where to live, figuring out where the best schools are, packing up our stuff, and, oh yeah, dragging two little kids away from their home and friends.  

We are sad to leave here, but happy about going to Texas.  We always knew we wouldn't be going back to Lancaster and quite possibly not Philadelphia.  But Texas will be almost as different for us as England was... and the adventure continues!

Peanut butter and jelly

Peanut butter and jelly is something that every kid loves.  Or at least every American kid.  (Except the ones who are allergic, of course.)  

Mention a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in England, however, and you will most definitely get some funny looks.

First of all, what they refer to as "jelly" is what we call "Jell-o" (or gelatin if you are avoiding brand names.)  What we call jelly, they call jam.  Peanut butter is the same here, if not better.  But putting them together?  That's just crazy!

Sandwiches here tend to be simple - take two pieces of bread, butter both, and put something in the middle.  Cheese or ham or jam or something.  Usually just one thing, but gourmet sandwiches are available.

So I'm not really sure what they do with their peanut butter here.  There is plenty available at the supermarket, so somebody must like it.

But don't even think about combining it with their chocolate!

House without a name?

From what I can see, pretty much every house around here has a name.  Or at least it seems that way.

Most houses also have a number, but they didn't always have them and some still don't.  So you'd have a house name and a road, and you'd still get your post.  I suppose the detailed post codes help with this.

Most houses have nice little plaques out front with the names on them.  When we moved into our first house I noticed the absence of such a plaque.  I wondered what its name was, if it had one at all.  After getting a few pieces of mail with the word "Trevose" on it, I figured it out - that was the name!

Then we moved to another house with no name plaque.  Since I didn't notice anything that looked like a house name on our post, I queried the owner.  As far as he knows, the house has never been named.  I have to admit that I'm a touch disappointed that I live in a no-name house!

I'm not really sure what the history of house-naming is.  I don't know who gets the honor of naming houses.  Or if they can ever be changed.  But I think its a neat tradition and its great that it still goes on in this modern age.

3 day weekend

Its 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, and we are all up and ready for our three day weekend.  Monday is a bank holiday (May Day) so that means no school, and no work (well, for most people.)

Ben was up and down not feeling well all week, and yesterday evening around 6 the doctor confirmed he has an ear infection.  He also has a goopy nose, an icky-sounding cough, and a bit of a fever.  And some sort of skin infection on his leg.  

So our main activity for the weekend will be administering an assortment of medications to Ben.

Susanna has been better but woke up this morning with a cough.  So now I have two sick kids...

And Brad isn't even here!  He was summoned back to the States for a few days, which inconveniently coincide with this holiday weekend.  Its not a holiday in the States of course, so he will be working Monday.  And hopefully flying home Monday night. 

So it looks like I'm in for a fun holiday weekend!

(Okay, I'll stop complaining now...)