The Moran Clan visits!

We had a wonderful time with our friends, Tricia, Micaela, and Brian - hailing all the way from Virginia. Although I can't take credit for being the reason Tricia visited - her lovely sister, Ali, lives near London, and they have been enjoying their time with the Moran clan. Tricia's brother, Brian, also lives in England, and they will all be together this weekend. Blessed them! Here are photos of the kids enjoying their time together.

Watching Shrek the Third

Fast friends I'm taking Caitlin's suggestion and posting a pic of Joshua and Micaela when they were two. It doesn't look like much has changed!

Our 1st Thanksgiving in Great Britain

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year US style in the UK. We were invited to the home of new friends we've made here - the Horn family. What a feast we had! We did everything American - the turkey, stuffing and dressing, green beans, all of it. It was a day filled with great food and fellowship. The kids had fun later in the evening dancing to the Beach Boys, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Roy Orbison.


We had to get special permission from the children's headmaster to take them out of school for our special American holiday. We asked for Friday off, too, since we had tickets to see the King Tut exhibit in London. What a great day. We drove to the Millenium dome early Friday morning, saw the exhibit and had lunch in London before driving home. The kids all loved the exhibit and the fun family time we had together. Even Aidan did well .... meaning, no screaming fits, demands for "peeeepops" (lollipops) or gummmmm! Oh 3rd child ... if only you knew that your older brother wouldn't even eat his mini M&M's at Easter when he was 3 because he didn't know what they were. He played with them instead. If only you knew that your big brother and sister had never had gum before this past year, much less "peeeeepops." Oh 3rd child ... you are a joy in this family.

Veggie Delivery

I have come to realize that as hard as it has been to adjust to living in a new country - even an English speaking country - there are things I am really, really enjoying about life here. And today what I am most appreciative of is our delivery of fresh, organic produce every week. I know that you can get groceries delivered in the States from the store, and you can do that here, too. But what I am talking about is a brown box that comes to my door once a week full of fresh vegetables that are so fresh they are usually covered in dirt from just having been picked. You can get fruit, too, but I just get the vegetables. And I love it. At first it was hard because I didn't always recognize all the vegetables - there are some here that we don't ever see in the States. And it was hard to try to plan dishes when I didn't know what was going to be in the box each week. But I am enjoying learning about all the different types of vegetables here and learning how to cook each one. And now I am being more adventurous. I always get potatoes and onions and carrots - every week those are a staple. And I used to just make roasted or mashed potatoes, peel and slice the carrots to have on hand as a snack, and use the onions during the week in whatever dishes I am preparing. But now I am doing on-line searches for recipes that include any or all of my boxed veggies. And I have found some yummy dishes! You never know what vegetables you are going to get each week - it's whatever is in season and whatever the farmers have ready. So today I got potatoes, onions, carrots, red cabbage, some sort of green lettuce, a turnip, zucchini, and mushrooms. Instead of the regular zucchini bread I usually make, I am making a new casserole - trying it out this morning for lunch instead of torturing my family with another new recipe at dinner. The butternut squash mashed with Honey Bunches of Oats didn't go over very well last week ...
Later this week I plan on trying out a new recipe I found called "Vegetable Whip." It includes the potatoes, onion, turnip, and carrots. We'll see ... maybe the kids won't recognize it as anything but mashed potatoes with bigger lumps in it that usual.
As much as I love the veggies, what I look forward to the MOST in my box every week are the two loaves of freshly made organic bread. Aside from Megan's homemade bread, I have never tasted anything so fantastic. I can't help myself every week as soon as it arrives I slice into that bread and have a big fat piece of it with jam and tea. YUM.

Things

When I was teenager we lived on Guam for two years because of my dad's job. When we first moved there someone told us that Guam was also known as "Flat Frog" country. Can you guess why? I even stepped on one running through our backyard, barefoot, in the dark once. GROSS. They were everywhere. Which brings me to what I am now calling "Phlat Pheasant" country. Who knew there were so many pheasant in one country? And apparently they are not bright birds. They are beautiful birds, but dumb. They walk out in the middle of the road without looking. They fly low in the middle of the road, without looking. In groups. They are all over the side of the road, smushed. It is sad. I was told that everyone hits a pheasant with their car at least once. And to expect it to happen. It actually hasn't happened to me, yet. But I have noticed these traffic signs up lately - it's a white triangle with a black exclamation point in the middle - I don't know what they mean (see post #9 in July). But I am wondering now if they are in reference to the plethora of pheasant flying/walking around and a reminder not to be surprised (!) when one crosses right in front of you.

On another note, some of you very close to me know about a little girl in Gillian's class who was giving her a very hard time at the beginning of the school year. Let's just call her "Dizzy." Dizzy was rather mean and bossy - telling all the girls who they could play with and when, and she actually made some derogatory remarks to Gillian about her being an American. Which, coming from the mouth of a babe, makes you wonder about what she is hearing at home. In any event, Gillian and I started praying in the afternoons for Dizzy. Actually, I should clarify this - Gillian really didn't want to pray for Dizzy, so she closed her eyes while I prayed for Dizzy. And things improved. Truthfully, they improved right away when I spoke to Gillian's teacher about Dizzy. However, things were still rough on the playground. But I have continued praying for this little girl and her family, who I don't know at all. Yesterday, I went to pick Gillian up from school. The parents have to pick the children up from the door of the classroom and so you get a chance to speak to the other mums and see the children. Gillian's class was coming in from recess (break) and Dizzy stopped when she saw me. She said to me, with her little British accent, "Do you know what Gillian calls me?" And I said, "No, what does she call you?" And she said, "Bob."

I could barely contain myself. Dizzy wasn't upset or anything, she was just stating a fact. Later I asked Gillian how things had been with Dizzy lately. And she said, "Fine."
I wonder why ...

Visit from Grandpa and Grandma

The Bolines in England were extremely blessed the past two weeks to have Patrick's parents visit from Minnesota. We weren't certain Grandma would be able to make the trip as she has been suffering from a terrible bout of poison ivy that just wouldn't go away. But despite all the obstacles, Grandma and Grandpa got on an airplane a little over two weeks ago and made the trip across the ocean. We had a GREAT time. Joshua and Gillian had the entire two weeks off from school as it was half-term break, and we spent every single day doing something fun.

Grandma, Grandpa, Joshua and Gillian overlooking Cheltenham

At Bourton-on-the-Water

Listening to the audio tour at Hailes Abbey, Winchcombe

Grandpa and Grandma riding on the Eye in London

At Stonehenge

Taking a break to have fish 'n chips at the pub

We visited many towns in the Cotswolds as well as driving into Wales and visiting an Abbey there. We went to Stonehenge and to London. We ate bangers and mash and played cards almost every night. We loved having Grandpa and Grandma here, and it was a sad day in England when they got on their plane for home. Thanks for coming, Grandma and Grandpa! We love you!

A Knight, a Princess, and a .... baby GAP model?

Halloween isn't a huge deal here. Not like in the states where you see decorations everywhere, pumpkins and bales of hay and scary skeletons hanging from trees. I was thankful, grateful, that Halloween wasn't so celebrated here. So grateful that I have not been on top of things at all. Costumes not at the ready this year, only one big bag of candy bought as I am not sure we will have any trick-or-treaters. In fact, you wouldn't have even known Halloween was coming except for the fact that my children were watching the calendar. And it was October 30th when Gillian said, frantically, Mommy, it's the day before Halloween and we haven't carved any pumpkins!
So I went out that morning and got two pumpkins and we carved them. They loved it.
The children enjoyed trick-or-treating at a few houses in our neighborhood. We then went on to our American friend's home and trick-or-treated there. Everyone had a great time. Especially sampling all the new English candy! However, Aidan absolutely refused to wear his costume. He has expressed a huge interest in Thomas the Train so I ordered a costume for him a month ago. We received it and proceeded to try and "try it out" on him. At which point we realized he was not going to have it. Aidan was not going to wear that costume, period. At any time or any place. Gillian did her best singing the Thomas theme song, marching around the house train style with Aidan trying to get him to put on the costume, but he was no fool. He went along with the singing, the marching, the stomping around.
Last night I went as far as to bribe him to wear the costume: Do you want to go trick-or-treating and get candy? Then you have to wear the costume! NO!! Do you want to carry the flashlight? Than you have to wear the costume! NOOOO!!! So, off he went in his jeans, GAP sweatshirt and bucket to trick-or-treat as the "American 2-Year Old."