Aidan Draws Jeopardy

Every night we watch Jeopardy together as a family. Aidan has taken to "drawing Jeopardy" each night. You can see Alex Trebec in the front of all the players. He painstakingly writes out each competitor's name every night. And then he presents his drawing to "Mammy and Daddy." Love this kid.

Things I Love in the Fall in America

My mums. And all the fall flowers. And the crisp chill in the air.Pumpkin carving time. Which also means roasted pumpkin seeds. Yum.Girl Scout cookie time! Oh thin mints, how I love-hate you.
Views such as these everywhere you go in Maryland. Aaahh the beauty of God's creation. We are so blessed.

This is my most favorite time of year. As one of my running buddies recently said, running in the fall makes training year-round totally worth it. I missed Autumn in England. It often felt like we went from spring right back into winter with not much of a summer and no Autumn. Here, I love the mornings waking up where there is just a bite in the air but the sun is still shining, and by afternoon it is still warm. We have our windows open letting in the fresh, cool air which offers the most perfect sleeping weather.

Then we have Halloween:With Thanksgiving soon to follow. Ahhh we live a good life. We are so blessed.

Family and Friends Visit

So, yes, half-way through October and I haven't blogged. I have a feeling this non-blogging bit is going to get the best of me.

I have been bugged by my brother to blog, so I have lovingly threatened to blog about him. Which I really think I will. I need to get on the ball to do that, though, so I can find the BEST pictures available to post. If any of you have some good ones, do send them on.

In the mean time, pictures of a recent visit from some long, lost family of mine:

Craig is my dad's first cousin. Years ago he left America and settled in Germany, then Holland, after he met and married a lovely German girl. They had four children. Irmela, in the middle, is their youngest. She and her siblings, my other cousins, all live in Holland now - near Amsterdam. Craig now lives in Pennsylvania - about two hours away from us. While Irmela was visiting this summer, they decided to come visit us for a day.
I loved meeting Craig - we had never met before, and meeting Irmela was the icing on the cake. What a lovely cousin I have living half-way across the world! I wish I'd known her while we lived in England. I'm sure we would have been doing more Chunnel crossing than we did!

And yes, this is the best photo we got with my darling children who can't help themselves in front of a camera ... I don't know where they get it.

Then, a few weeks ago, I flew to Colorado for a memorial service for my great-aunt Imogene. It was a sad reason to be in Colorado, but I had a super duper time spending the weekend with my AhMAHzing sister and her rockin' hus. I didn't get to spend as much time with the rest of my family who was visiting, but I chalk that up to these family gatherings - there's never enough time to spend with everyone.

And THEN, a few weeks ago, our dear friends, the Sparks, flew from Australia - yes, allllll the way from Australia with their 4-year old and 10-month old and stayed with us for a couple of weeks. Sadly, I did not take enough photos. I think we were too busy having fun and running around to various doctors' appointments and such, but we sure loved having the Sparks with us and we sorely miss them.Erin and Sara on our way out to Beck's GNO - celebrating Sara's birthday
Josh feeding Sam - not the best pic of Sammy, but he's an adorable little - I mean BIG guy!
Jed loved Gillian so much, he could often be heard telling anyone around how much he loved Gillian - it was so, so sweet. And I couldn't resist this photo of Sammy getting ready for his bath ... look at that body beautiful!

Visiting the pumpkin patch/farm:




Now looking forward to several more visits from friends and family on the horizon!

Huh.

Often, when I'm driving, I think about how Kris wanted me to post pictures of our new car. Sorry I haven't done that. But I will one of these days! Here is what has happened:

We became busy, busy, busy, on-the-go Americans again almost overnight. And I hate it. We promised ourselves we weren't going to do this, but it feels almost unavoidable. With three children who each have several activities, we are too busy.

We do love our life here in America. We miss many things English. More than anything we miss our family and friends. We also miss traveling. We miss people who don't live in a small-town bubble.

But I also miss my veg delivery. And I miss grocery delivery in general. I am not a fan of grocery shopping. Which leads me to say that after living in England for three years, I finally sort of figured out where things in the grocery stores went. At least, I knew the layouts of the grocery stores where I shopped.

Here, though, I get a headache going to the shops. There is so much choice, there are too many options, and the store is so big I feel like I've gotten a workout just walking through the entire store.

We are all still adjusting. I think we've been too busy to even notice, but we are still adjusting. I have to remind myself of that as the kids ask to be home schooled again. The smiles you saw in those first-day-of-school pictures have been replaced by complaints about having to get up so early.

So what are we happy to see here again? Our friends. Our house. Not worrying about not having a chip-and-pin. Not worrying about being too loud.

I feel awkward a lot out in the shops because people keep looking at me and smiling. Just not used to it anymore!

When I'm out running and walking I have the right-of-way again! WOOHOO!

Drive-thru ATM machines. Drive-thru pharmacy at Walgreen's. Aw yeah.

One-stop shopping. Big, FAT parking lots. With wide parking spots for the SUVs and mini-vans.

I guess I'm not having as hard a time adjusting! I do appreciate what we have, and I'm truly thankful. We just miss our English life.

The Blueberry Bombers

It's Aidan's turn this week. He is playing soccer for "The Blueberry Bombers." They played "The Raspberries" today. No joke. Aidan is doing rather well for not having any soccer experience. He runs fast, chases the ball, is getting somewhat adept at turning the ball in the right direction, and has a general understanding of where the ball should go.

I love watching these little ones play. They just want to chase the ball! They don't care who wins (no score is kept), they hardly recognize they are playing another team. It's just fun. Aidan is #1. In more ways than one!

He's Tough

The kid with all his patches, pins, name tags, etc.:

Soccer Rockers

That is the name of Gillian's soccer team this year. Yes, the kids pick and vote on their team name. Which is why Aidan's team is called the Blueberry Bombers.

Gillian's first game was today, and she was as aggressive and quick on the field as we could have hoped after three years away! She is a natural.

Gillian scored the first goal of the game (and season). I did not get video or photos of this great feat, but you can enjoy the few action shots I did manage to get. The 2nd half of the game Gillian played goalie. She, again, is a natural and really stays in the game which is not an easy thing for goalies of this age. We are really, really proud of her.






For my English readers: Girls play soccer here in America as much as boys. In Gillian's league there are over 20 girls' teams just for HER AGE GROUP. I love it!