Weekend Fun

Friday was a hard day for me!!!  I had to drop my baby off at her first GS event without me there!!!  It was so hard to leave her and see her face as I walked away.  I think (know) it was harder on me than it was her! She has not really gotten to know the girls here yet and I felt like I was leaving her lonely.  I am so used to being the one there with her and trying to run things that giving up control of that is very hard.  I like seeing everything the girls learn and being there.  I know that at this point I would have not been the best leader since we were new here and I am just learning the basics about England so to be a leader would have not been good but I was not ready to give up all I had done with GS.  It takes me back to being at the school all day every day and helping to run things and then all at once pulling out.  I do not like that feeling at all.  The meetings will be the same.  I will drop her off at the meetings and then have to find something to do for an hour and a half until they are done.  With it being Monday, I wonder what is open.  Most everything is closed on base on Mondays.

Photos of the Campfire thanks to her leader...

This weekend we had visitors at our house which was nice!  We planned during the week to have them over for a visit and when we visit we usually spend the day together ...lunch and dinner since it is an hour or so drive.

On Wednesday, Mat spent the day in Lakenheath getting everything changed over on his vehicle. It cost a third of the price that the base wanted to charge us for the change over so the drive was worth the amount saved. He was able to spend the day with his buddy there.  He went to the gym as well as to the stores there and elsewhere on base.  It too ALL day for it to get done.  Luckily his job gave him the day off to get it done!  While he was down there he made plans for him and his family to come up and visit us.  They are the friends that we had made in Arizona and we had travelled a couple times down their way and stopped in.  Usually it was on days we had to be in Lakenheath for something.  But the kids have gotten along so well that it is nice to have visits with them.

I tried to make plans to visit places but all the places were an even further drive from the house.  So we waited until they arrived to make any decisions on the day.

The arrived soon after breakfast which was great!  The kids had been bugging non-stop asking when they were going to arrive so the sooner the better! The kids ran off to play and the adults chatted.  We had lunch... chatted more... we were trying to decide where our next adventures would take us and when we should go.  Some of the places are 4-5 hours away and so those would be weekend trips or at least over nights.  There are a few places that are about an hour away that looked neat and also some that were in the middle that we could visit.  We were looking for areas that we could visit more than one thing in a day or over a weekend.  The problem we have right now is that Mat has his testing coming up soon and he needs to study so travelling has been put on hold until after that.  The kids and I also need to get our passports so we can travel outside of England.  It was something we put on hold but now it is time to get them done!  Mat and Ross smoked some meat on the grill and spent much of the day talking about the JOB and about the good old times.  Dinner was served and eaten... more playing for the kids and then it was getting to be that time of the night... Well instead of calling it a night... we kept our company!!! The kids had a sleep over and Erin and Ross stayed in the guest house for the night.  It was great!  The kids were super excited and it was nice to have night adult time with the 4 of us until one pooped out and was asleep in the chair (ehhhh,,,, MAT!) but he has an excuse since he had to work early that morning.  Once he went to bed, we stayed up watching some TV and then all headed to bed.  The kids were asleep fast!

This morning we woke to Mat making breakfast... I guess it is good that he went to bed before we all did.  And then little footsteps coming down the hall upstairs and finally down the stairs.  Ross and Erin came in soon after the boys were up but the girls remained in the bed until we had them come down for breakfast.  They were awake just not moving very fast this morning.  We all ate breakfast and then got ready for church.  Their family joined us at mass and then the children headed to CCD with ours.  It was nice that our CCD class allowed them to come with them.  They also are Catholic and head to CCD and church on Sundays but being here and church being an hour away it was easy to place them in with us!  While the kids were at CCD we went to the coffee and muffins.  The hour went by pretty fast.

All four seemed to have a great time together and can not wait for the next time.  We miss being with our NJ friends but glad that they/we continue to have friends other places they go.   It is always nice to know some people even so far away from our family!

The kids have both had their baths now and everything is ready for the first school week.  I can't wait to hear how their first week goes.  I am excited for them and nervous as well.  Just hoping there is not too much catching up that they start to dislike school here in England.

Uniforms Ironed...................................for school = )

Some photos from the weekend....


Started a word wall for Mathew so we could start learning how to read.  In order to go outside he has to be able to read me some of the words off the wall.  It has worked great so far.

Lemon Juice and a scrub pad a great duo fighting hard water spots on showers...

bought a shower squeegy today to make it even better!

Driving down a lane fit for one car trying to find a place to get some dessert while sis is at GS Campfire.

Found a pub with some Ice Cream

Sausage, Egg, and Cheese wraps ready for the week = quick breakfasts!

Close to finishing off another week

    I can not believe that it is almost October 1st.  The days here have been up and down.  Some days we wake up and it is cloudy and rainy and other days we wake to a beautiful sunrise and blue skies!  The temps have been cold but we have had some pretty decent temperatures as well.  This week we started preparing for school!  EXCITING for everyone!

Last Friday we received a call from council about a placement in a school 2.7 miles down the road.  It was not the one we wanted but was still pretty close to where we are so we set to check it out.  The weekend passed and Monday came so I called the school to schedule a visit to meet the headmistress and tour the school.  The headmistress Mrs. Whitelaw was busy and had to call me back.  Unfortunately I think she stayed busy for the day and had to have a secretary call me back later in the day.  We scheduled  the visit for Tuesday afternoon.  So the kids were very excited to have a look see around the school.

We arrived at the school 15 minutes early.  The children were getting ready to come in from after lunch recess so the kids got to see what some of the routine at the school was.  They saw all the children in their uniforms, a much different sight than they are used to seeing in the states.  Once we found our way into the school, we signed in and waited for two of the school children to come and take us on the tour.  Both girls that came were in Year 5, Paige's class.  They were very sweet little girls and excited to know Paige might be joining them.  They took us on a tour which took just a few minutes because the school really is that small!  The classrooms are much different than we are used to.  In order to get from class to class, you had to pass through an area to the back of each classroom.  There were no doors closing off the classrooms to the "hallway" where we were walking.  To me this would cause a distraction but the kids were all focused on the teachers.  The Year 1 class was still outside when we arrived there.  They had not come to the door quietly so they had to reset and try again.  Great to know that they expect the children to follow directions and do it right.  The class seemed pretty large.  Probably normal class size in the US but at base the class sizes were always smaller. Once we were finished with the tour, we went to meet with Mrs. Whitelaw.  She answered all the questions we had and was very nice and helpful.  We discussed a start day for the children and decided Monday would be the best day.  It would be the first of the month and also allow everyone to get ready for the children in the class.  It also gave me time to get their papers ready and filled out for the school.  We talked with the nurse about Paige's Bee Allergy and decided to meet up to set up a plan for her in case she did get stung during the school day.  The children received their first OFFICIAL pieces of Uniforms... Green sweatshirt for Mathew, Green Fleece for Paige, Book Bags and PE bags.  Uniforms seem  to be pretty easy to follow there. They are not as stringent as other schools in  regards to shoes, hair, bags, jackets, but they do all look put together and nice.

I have been working on getting the entrance painted.  I took it from a dirty white with holes in the wall to a "Lovely Green" color.  That is the name of the color LOL. It puts a bit of character into that area and breaks up the closets from the walls.  I do need to get more paint for the second coat on the upper part of the walls.  It has not been too bad to paint but the height in certain areas are a bit hard to get to.  I was at one point standing on top of the coat closets.  I am hoping by this weekend it will be done.  Ill just have to make a quick run to B&Q.

We are looking at having some visitors this weekend as well so we need to get this done and then the things put away in that area.  Next week Ill be able to work on the kids rooms while they are in school and hopefully get them done or at least most of it done!

I can't wait to share photos of the kids on their first day of school all dressed and ready to go!

Busy Busy

Things have not slowed down at all.  But I guess that is because we are still settling in.  This weekend was much the same as the others.  RUN RUN RUN RUN.... but that means things have been accomplished.

Thursday, I got our calendars all ready to be filled...

Ready for the message center area!

And Mathew helped to make dinner with me!

Friday, I received a call from the Council (The people that place the children into schools).  The gentleman on the phone apologized for the amount of time it took for them to get a hold of us.  I said it was "okay", being polite, and he said," No, No it's not!"  Well okay then it is not... which I agree.  LOL.  He stated that he was not able to place the kids into the school I had requested but offered them the school down the street about 3 miles away.  Upwood Primary School.  He explained that they could be bussed to the school if needed and that it would be covered by the council.  Then he said if I chose to take them then they would reimburse me for the expense of driving them back and forth.  I told him I would need to research and talk to  Mat about it and we would decide.  He encouraged us to contact the school and make arrangements for a visit.  So tomorrow that is what I get to do.  The school grade is a 2... which is pretty good.  1 being the highest.  I also asked around to people on base who have children there and they like it.  All good signs.

On Friday, the kids and I also made a weather chart for the message area.  

Saturday... sounds of the rainforest at 3:30 am is not my favorite.  But that is what I heard on my Saturday morning. Mat had forgotten to turn off his alarm!!  After that, I was awake and could not sleep.  After twisting and turning in the bed for a half hour I got up and went to the couch with my pillow and blankets.  I searched for a movie to watch for a while and then finally found Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  I was able to fall back to sleep for about a half hour before the kids came down and woke me back up for the morning.  Paige snuggled in and watched the rest of the movie with me.   We got up had some breakfast.. thanks to Mat and the breakfast scramble!  Then we got moving for the day.  We needed to do some running so we went north to Peterborough.  We went to B&Q and Tesco.  Tesco was super busy so half the stuff I wanted to get did not happen.  Then we hit B&Q and picked up some paint and paint supplies to start making this house our own with colors!  We have a huge arrangement of colors!  A green for the entrance... then the kids picked colors for their rooms.. Paige a brighter pink and Mathew a grey... he wanted ORANGE but that did not match his bedroom things at all.  Soooo we chose Orange for his bathroom but I told him we were only going to do one wall in the orange so that it was not too much!  Paige will probably use the entrance green for her bathroom wall.  Mat chose browns for the spare house and a dark blue for the bedroom over there.  We are still deciding on colors for the rest of the house here.  I think we will probably stay pretty natural through the house with colors.  Tans mostly.  I do not want to go too crazy with the main part of the house because once we leave, I do not want the landlords to have to do too much to get it ready for the next people or to get it sold at that point.  I just really need to get rid of the sunshine yellow that is throughout the house!

We finished off the day with one of my favorites!!!!

Today, we went to church.  Then the kids had their first day of Sunday School here in England.  While they were there, Mat and I enjoyed some starbucks coffee and time together.  Headed over to the commissary and picked up a couple things and then headed back to the kiddos.  Both seemed to have had a good time.  We then went to the other Tesco by base.  I needed to get the kids uniforms for school.  No matter which school they go to they will need the basics for uniforms.  The Tesco near us did not have them or atleast, I could not find them within all the craziness of the store and people.  We found a few items but some of them were all sold out in the sizes we needed.  I guess we should have grabbed them when they had a ton of them on the rack!!  We also picked up some other things that we needed while we were there.  Then we headed out to Argos for booster seats... which they were all out of and then over to Halfords to see if they cut keys which they did not but we found some booster seats there. We headed home.  We drove to the school so I could see where it was in case I needed to take the kids there for a visit by myself.  It is not too far from the house but the road to the school curves a lot!  No bike riding for us! After we arrived home the kids and I made cupcakes for dessert, we talked with uncle Rob and Nana and had some yummy dinner and movie.

Overall it was a good weekend.  It just went by too fast!  

ONE MONTH!!!!

I can't believe we have been here for a month already.  In some ways it seems like we have been here for months but in other ways the time feels like it has flown by.  We have accomplished more in this last month than we would normally do but some things still wait to be done.

The house is coming together nicely.  The rooms are almost all complete.  We have tons of boxes to recycle but we need to have Mat off a day in order to do that and the recycle center open at the same time!  We still need to fill some holes in the walls and decide on paint colors.  I am not sure what to do with that yet.  We were told we could paint to our liking so that gives us a big range to work with.  But in the end do I want to go with that or paint more neutral so that we will not have to worry about the landlords being blown away with colors!  We do have a paper that the landlord gave us saying we could decorate as we pleased... so I don't know.  I do want to make it more ours and this yellow is a little much going through the whole downstairs of the house.  

The kids are doing well adjusting.  Paige does not like the fact that we see the same people multiple times throughout the weekend on base.  She says this place is too small and she doesn't like it.  I guess it will be a good thing if we get her off base and into a school where she knows no one and can have a separation from the small base and outside world.  Mathew enjoyed being outside all day and riding his bike around the house over and over again.  He has crashed many time and now his horn on the bike is just pieces.  He broke his front brake as well so now he just has to use the pedals to brake.  BOYS!!   They both love picking the fruit in the back yard and cooking and eating it.  We get to talk with family back home often and see them through skype so that helps them to adjust as well and not feel like they have went so far away.  Mathew still thinks that we can drive up to NY or so other places for his birthday which I have to keep reminding him we are in England and everything we know from the states is a plane ride away.  

Mat's job is a lot more stressful that we thought it would be. He is having to deal with things everyday and learning everyones' personalities is not easy.  There are a lot of young airman here that have not full grasped the idea of being in the military and following the rules of that.  I hope once he has settled in there in one JOB and the airman know him and his expectations of them, he will be ok.  I just hope that they are fast learners so the job gets easier and not harder!  

Me... everything is coming together here so I am pleased with that.  I feel like I have trashed so many things that should have been trashed before we shipped over but it is easier when it is in your face in boxes needing a place to go.   Many of the things I asked the packers not to pack got packed so it was easy to just toss these out.  The paperwork took a day to shred and I still have more to do but that is coming along.  The kids are kind of on a schedule with chores and keeping their things cleaned while I tackle the downstairs.  Life will be much easier during the week when I am not cleaning one room and moving onto the next and the room that I had just cleaned is not a mess due to crafts and other activities the kids choose to do.  I feel bad trying to keep them from keeping busy doing things like that but I am also tired of cleaning up after them all day when they are done.  They clean up the main things but it is the little things that get messed up  and need recleaning.  I have a car now so I am learning how to drive with that.  It is easier than I expected but the people here drive crazy!  They have no care in the world and are in a hurry to get where ever they need to go.  Plus the huge farm equipment and lorries on the road scare me because not always do they fit on their side of the road.  I could go 20mph under the speed limit and feel comfortable but going 60 on these roads is crazy to me.  They curve around without notice.  I am ok with people passing me.  I'd rather make it safe then not make it at all.

We are enjoying getting out of the house and seeing things.  Right now it has slowed down because Mat has not had a set schedule and when he is home we are trying to get things ready at the house. I am hoping that before winter time we are able to see a few more castles and visit a few more towns.  

Things are a bit different here but not as much as I thought they would be.  I enjoy waking up each morning to the sunrise and seeing the sun set at night.  The weather has been pretty good since we arrived with minimal rain and many blue sky days!  It helps me to get going each morning and get things done.  

Other than that, life is pretty good in England.  I am excited for all our new adventures still to come and look forward to sharing with everyone as often as possible!  Posts here will probably shorten since things are slowing down but there might be a few here and there that are picture heavy and full of information.  = )  

Til next time.. Enjoy you day

Day 31- GS Emergency Prep

Normal day here... Got the office cleaned out and semi organized. Kids played.  Breakfast, lunch and Dinner made and Ate.  Then Paige's first activity towards a badge.

Things do not change much from day to day.  It is very redundant throughout the day with lots of cleaning and doing things with the kids to keep them entertained and interested in things without getting at eachother.  This day was just that.  But at the end of the day we finally had a place to go and something to do.

Mat was completely exhausted from getting hardly any sleep.  Mathew had crawled into our bed wide awake a little after 1am.  He thought it would be great to wiggle around and try to talk with Mat who had to be up in just a couple hours for work.  So Mat, poor guy, got little sleep.He did not really want to go with me back to base  but I was still nervous to drive the car and wanted his support a few more times just to get used to it all.  He was there to yell at me if I was not doing something right.  Plus a section of the highway is closed off due to construction so we have to ignore the GPS until we get to a certain point and it redirects us.  I think I will be ok after a few more times driving.

So he went with me because he loves me and knows how I am.  I am thankful that he cares and even though he is exhausted still agrees to do things to make life easier on me!  When we arrived we were a couple minutes late.  We had been stopped by a train and then once the gates opened, people we slow to get through and the lights started flashing again saying that another train was coming.  Of course I stopped... even though I could have went but I would rather be safe than sorry.  And of course it is not just one train that comes each time.  It can be 3,4, or even 5 trains you are sitting for to pass.  That can take up to 20 minutes.  Sooooo of course it has to be one that has 3 trains... after already waiting in line the first time.  Which made us 3 minutes late.  OOPS... the good this was that they had not started yet so we were there for the whole thing.  Paige was super quiet and Mathew yelled the answers out.  I was surprised at how much he actually paid attention.  I think this boy will be a little smarty pants once school starts.  Everything seems to soak in with him pretty quickly.  The kids both got to sit in the fire engine and Mat took their photos. Something they had done several times before because Mat worked in a yard that had a fire truck and we took a lot of trips as GS to places that had Fire Engines.  But it was the icing on the cake for the night.

A lesson for some- Girl Scout Motto "Be Prepared!"

Testing to see what chemical is in the next office - see me glowing in the background?

Earthquake drill

                                                                            The group

We headed back after the hour meeting and driving at night was ok.  The lights on the car seem to work pretty well even without the brights but it still makes me nervous driving when people are coming at me and I can not see the road ahead because there are no lights on the roads.  It always seems like they are heading right at me.  The lorries are the worst.  They take over the whole road and just one miss calculation, they are into the side of the car.  UGH!

I think Ill take my time and drive mainly during the day.  Ill leave night driving to Mat as much as possible!

DAY 30- VROOM VROOM

Woohoo... it is car day.  After searching and searching and seeing cars go on and off different sites online within a day, today is the day to go find a second car.  I also had lots to do at the house.  Cleaning and shredding papers were on the top of the list today!

We woke to another beautiful morning.  The normal Tuesday morning laundry and dish put away. Breakfast. Then moving on to other things... like cleaning the office area.  I have always wanted an office but starting out with so many things already stuffed in there has not been the easiest to make the area mine and be able to have it to where I can work on anything in there.  We have so many papers from the last 10 years of being married.  It is finally time to go through it.  A few years back we went to paperless bills for many things but I had held onto bills and bank statements since 2002.  Now was the perfect time to get rid of them all.  So I sat down and started one to two papers at at time and then moved on to trying to shred the max in the shredder.  I emptied the bottom of the shredder once and started again and then the shredder stopped... It has a great safety feature that when it overheats it freezes up LOL.  Yep... so I unplugged and moved on to sweeping floors and sent kids up to clean their rooms.  Mathew did great but instead of going to his room he cleaned the play room up... great.. then he was off to his room.  Paige is a snail when it comes to cleaning. She gets distracted easily so it is a push to get it cleaned.  She doesn't argue about doing it but it takes a day!

Mat called in the middle of this all and asked if I had cars that I wanted to see and what the plan was for when we left the house. We needed to see as many cars as possible before closing time here. Everything here closes by 7.  He gets home around 4:30 and so that gave us just a little time to drive to where the vehicles were, test drive and do paperwork.  In the states, this takes all day to do!  I was skeptical that it would be done in the amount of time we had with everything that might need to be done.  I found a used care dealer that had a few cars I wanted to look at.  

When he got home we left and headed there.  When we got there they had a lot full of cars... unfortunately for me, I do not drive manual... nor do I want to try.  I do not want to have to think more than I have to especially when already driving on the opposite side of the road on the opposite side of the car.  Mat found a car that he like... so we looked at that one first.  It was a 2000 MG and only had 38,000 miles.. but when it started it seemed like is was a bit rusty.  I think the car sat way too long during it's time.  It ran but not smoothly.  So we moved on to the next .. this one was a Renault Clio... way to small... Mat barely fit behind the wheel and Paige's legs barely fit in the back behind his seat.  It would not last long with us!  Plus not enough storage in the back to put any amount of groceries.  The third was the Renault Megane Scenic. 

 This one I liked.  It has a spacious inside and plenty of windows to see in all directions.  The kids fit perfect in the back and all the seats could lay down or be removed if I needed extra space... not sure why I would need that much and when we would be without the kids needing that type of space...but it was an option.  The other thing about it was that it has cupholders in the back of the seats as well as lots of storage compartments for things.  The kids little car toys could go in front of each of their seats and be put away and the front seats also have little drawers under them.  Plus the normal storage in the dash.  The interior was pretty clean compared to many of the car we had seen and the MOT was good until May of next year.  I was sold on the looks but we needed to drive it.  It started up easily and seemed to be good.  Mat took it for a drive with us in there as he would know if something felt off more than I would.  It definitely is a larger vehicle with a small engine.  The get up and go is not what I am used to driving but I felt safe with it.  We were pretty sold once we got back to the lot.  The MPG were good for our second vehicle and the price was good as long as it lasts the whole time we are here we will be good to go.  So we signed the dotted line and off I went driving on the opposite side of the road on the opposite side of the car.  I actually was pretty comfortable doing this.  I think being on the opposite side for the last 4 weeks help me to adjust instead of just jumping right in when we first got here.  I just had to remind myself at turns which side of the road I was supposed to be on at the turn.  The round a bouts are not bad, but not having my GPS with me was not my favourite!  I need to know where I am going even when following because not always is the driver in the front using turn signals or there are cars that zoom around the circles and get in between which always makes me nervous for the next move!

 Now we have to get UK  car seats to go with the UK car.  So we are all legal and stuff.  I guess our American car seats are not legal in the UK cars so that is another expense we have to incur to drive in the UK.  The ones we have seen are here are definitely not comfy looking at all!  The padding is minimal on the seat.  Poor kids!

Day 29- Beautiful Monday

I can't believe we have been here for 4 weeks already.  Well I guess that I can.  We have done a lot in just 4 weeks but some things seem to be standing still!

This morning the sun was beaming through the clouds.  I love morning like that.

I did some laundry, sat down with my coffee, and waited for my kiddos to wake up.  Soon after sitting down with some TV, Mathew comes down the stairs upset that I was up.  We had set his alarm to get up before I did so he could come in and snuggle up with me.  Unfortunately the alarm did not go off and so he did not wake up in time.  So instead of letting him whine, I took myself back to bed for a half hour and snuggled up with my boy.  Then I got up and made some breakfast.  Paige was still sleeping until almost 9am.  I think she must have stayed up late.  She came down and said that she had finished her book.  So that means she was up past bedtime.  I am going to have to set a limit with her.  She has picked a new book to read tonight so I am sure it will be another late night!

After breakfast, I got to work on Paige's uniform for GS.  She has a function on Wednesday and I wanted her to have everything put together.  Unfortunately we are still missing her council ID but we should be getting that soon from a parent that had an extra.

After sewing everything on, it was time to clean up the house.  Sweeping, folding laundry, dishes, dusting, and normal everyday pick up! FUN FUN!

Lunchtime with the kids.

Then Mathew went outside and road his bike while I picked some blackberries from the bushes outside.  Paige stayed in and worked on clothes for her monster high doll.  She has always been a great clothing designer.

I emailed the council today so I am hoping that we hear back about schooling sometime soon.  I would like to know where we are in the process so we can gauge how much longer it will be before they are actually in school.  I know the longer we wait the more nervous Paige gets.  But she now does not want to go to school on base and is happy to hopefully be going off base.  She said that there is not enough people on base and that she sees everyone from church every where we go and that is just a horrible thing.  I told her to get used to it, it is a small base and she did not like that at all!!

More cleaning up and then dinner time.

Tonight it was my night to cook and I had plenty of food to do it with.  But I still have not mastered our big English oven.  The dials are very different than what they are on the one we had in America.  They are numbered 1-9 and each number is a different temperature range.  I had to print off the manual so I could try to use it.  But after an hour of the meat in the oven, it was still not done and everything else was so I took it and threw it onto the grill and finished cooking it up.  Once it was done, it was good.  It just took a little extra love to get it that way.

After dinner was clean up and getting ready for bed.  Paige and Mathew both headed to the showers while Mat and I relaxed and researched vehicles.  We are still looking for an extra vehicle so I can get back and forth and also to help with cutting back on gas usage.  Sometime this week, we might have another car depending on what we can find.

Tomorrow is another day. Lets see what we can get into then.

Day 26/27/28- Errands/an all day Visit/Church

Hello to another day x2.  Friday we did some baking, more cleaning, some shopping and sight seeing.  Saturday we headed back to Lakenheath because Mat had a meeting.  The kids and I visited with some friends and all enjoyed each others company.

The kids have been dying to bake apple pie using the apples that we have picked in the back yard.  I sent them out to pick some more and then we sliced and peeled them and started our baking.  We made some cupcake size apple pies as well as a loaf.  The apples are very sour so we used cinnamon and sugar to sweeten them up a bit.  Once they were  finished they tasted pretty good.  

Peterborough Cathedral

Setting up for the Italian Festival in Peterborough

The reason we came to Peterborough... Nandos.  Mat's new favourite chicken Eatery in England.  

http://www.nandos.com/

If you are close to Virginia, Washington DC or Maryland, you can visit a Nandos there.

Saturday we got up early and had to be in Lakenheath early for Mat to go to his Knights of Columbus meeting.  Every month they have their meeting at a different base.  This month was Lakenheath so next will be probably be Mildenhall and then back to Alconbury.  While him and his friends were at the meeting the kids and I stayed with friends we had in Arizona.  The kids ran around and played while Erin and I sat and chatted.  Once the boys were home, we had lunch and then took the kids to the park in Brandon.  They ran all over the place there and then we took a walk and visited some wild ponies which scared the crap out of me because one kept coming over to us and following us.  He was a pretty horse and it seemed like he just wanted attention but every sign we read before going into the pasture warned us not to touch the horses or try to feed them.  

A swing at the park

The walk and the horse

 Today we woke up and got ready for the day.  I made a pancake breakfast with juice for the kids and coffee for the adults.  Well, Mat made the coffee.  While eating breakfast,  Mathew was in a horrible mood but Mat made his bad attitude go away for a bit.   Mat got a rude surprise.  He took a drink of his coffee and voila, a fly had landed into his coffee and he almost swallowed it.  Instead he ran to the sink... not getting there in time and spit the coffee all over the floor.  Then, he started gagging!  I laughed so hard!  Mean me, I know!  But you had to be here!

After Breakfast we got ready for Church and left to get there on time.  We made it there with plenty of time to go.  Today there were four baptisms.  Last week there were two baptisms.  It is nice to see all of these little ones being baptised.

After church we headed to the BX.  They did not open until 11 so we headed to the commissary to get some shopping done, they also did not open until 11.  Goodness gracious!  So we went back to the BX and waited for them to open.  We needed to get a nightlight ( We bought one for Mathew for his room from Tescos... unfortunately the box was empty!!), a thing for the shower to hold the soap and get it off of the ground, and printer ink and paper.  Paige also decided to use some of her money on her first Monster High Doll.  Here they are on sale so it did not cost her much and she had been begging for one since they first came out!

We then headed to the commissary.  They were having a case lot sale there ( YES... a VERY small one!) but we also needed to get groceries so since we were there we did what we needed and got some good deals on several items that would last us a while...quick meals, veggies, toilet paper, paper towels, snacks, cereal.

Once we finished grocery shopping, we came home and put it all away.  I was surprised that we found a place for everything.  Especially the meat that we purchased that had to go in the freezer.  I do not think we will ever get used to having such a small fridge/freezer!

Nice to have plenty of food now! Hard starting out at a new house and having to rebuy everything all over again!

Oh... and we had a delicious dinner on the Smoker... Some Brisket... Mat did a great job cooking it!