This is Gonna Take Awhile

I have been suffering from writer's block for, oh… two years now?  I mean, not entirely.  As I have mentioned over and over again, a lot of my reason for not blogging since we've moved overseas is the fact that our internet is sooooo slow.  I don't have the patience to deal with it.  But, also, I have not been inspired to write like I was before.  I seemed to always have an inspiration rolling around in my head and now, notsomuch.  I have been able to dust off my pen and use that part of my brain a few times, late, so I am not completely dry.  This past fall, we had a teacher auction at the kids' school and I was put in charge of the "Wanted" posters for each teacher up for auction.  I did have fun assigning villain names and crimes for which they were wanted.  I have done several other small things throughout the year as well as helped on the decorating committee for school events.  My point is, I DO have a creative outlet, but I miss writing.

I have been fretting over the fact I haven't been writing for months now, but every time I decide I am just going to do it and open up blogger- I just sit and stare at an empty screen, uninspired, and give up and close it out again.

I started this blog to have a creative outlet for myself to write.  I also started this blog because my kids are growing up away from their grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousins and I wanted them to have a way to keep up with those day-to-day things the kids do.  So, until I am inspired to write creatively again, I will climb back in the saddle and use this blog to journal our lives here, so that our family does not feel quite so separated from us.  The last blog I posted about us involved Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night. So.. ahem… I am a wee bit behind.  I will use these next few blog posts to "catch up" so to speak.

First, we are going to back up a little from the post about Halloween.  Because- I left out the lovely crafts the kids did in October for the school library.  A call was put out for the kids to pick their favorite book and use it as inspiration to decorate a pumpkin and the pumpkins were placed around the library for decoration.

As you can see, I helped HEAVILY with Zoe's project.  I mean, really, she picked out the book-Pete the Cat- and painted the pumpkin blue and I did the rest.  But, she was happy with it, I was happy with it and it was done.

Noah, on the other hand, did most of his on his own.  He picked The Hobbit and other than the script on the welcome mat and help with some of the dexterous bits,  he did this on his own.

I think they both did really well, and we had fun out in my craft room coming up with ideas.  I wish I had taken pictures of all the other pumpkins, because they were FANTASTIC! My favorite was the one someone made of Garfield's head using I have NO idea how many pieces of candy corn for Garfield's fur.

In my Halloween post, I showed you the kids' costumes, but failed to show you what I came up with.  We had a spouse costume social for the squadron and when I was trying to come up with a costume idea, it hit me: I am a maintainer's spouse.  I HAD to be Rosie the Riveter.  And so I was.

And here is a random picture just to show you that my daughter has one fierce "stink eye".  She was at a birthday party and slightly annoyed with me.

Karma, You Delight Me!

There was a day a month or so ago that I was deeply offended by my son.  He was looking at the calendar on my phone and saw the entry, "DJ- bazaar" and started laughing.

"What?", I asked.

"What does, 'DJ- bazaar' mean? "

"I am reminding myself that your dad is working the bazaar this weekend and won't be home for dinner."

"Oh, because I thought you were calling him "bizarre"."

"Noah- look at how I spelled it.  Are those words spelled the same?"

"No, I know that, but I didn't think YOU knew that!"

I was offended.  I started into a lengthy narrative about how there was a time in my life when I wasn't a mom and I managed to graduate from college having been on the dean's list and the president's list and also how in public school, I was on the UIL spelling team.

It all fell on deaf ears.  He doesn't get it and I realized I didn't need to justify myself to him.

About two weeks later, he came home with his spelling test from school.  He is a good speller and he made a 100 on the test- having just missed the bonus words- so I almost threw the paper in the recycle bin with barely a second glance.

But something caught my eye…. something so fantastically DELICIOUSLY awesome!

Wonderful parent that I am- I couldn't let it go.  In fact, I circled it and tacked it on the fridge for an entire week.  Lucky for me he is a good sport about it.

Halloween and Guy Fawkes/Bon Fire Night

Halloween

Halloween was pretty low-key this year.  My mother made Zoe's costume for her and I only had to secure the accessories.  In order to participate in the costume parade at school, Zoe had to dress as a storybook character, so she picked Fancy Nancy.

Class parade:

 Class parade- her teacher was Viola Swamp

Noah's class did not participate in the costume parade and therefore he only wore his costume in the evening.  He wanted to be a Minecraft creeper and I spent more time than I care to admit gluing green squares to a cardboard box to make his "head".  He got a lot of compliments, though, and that made me feel it was worth all the time spent.

My kids wanted to pass out candy rather than go trick-or-treating and I was completely fine with that, so I parked them in front of the door with a giant cauldron full of candy and was actually surprised with the number of trick-or-treaters and amount of candy we went through.  Zoe decided after the evening got off to a good start that she wanted to go trick-or-treating but I told her we had to stay home and pass out candy now but thankfully, our friends stopped by to get candy and they took the kids around with them to hit a few houses.

*******************************

Guy Fawkes

November 5th is the date the English celebrate Guy Fawkes/ Bon Fire night.  This goes back to the foiling of a plot to overthrow the King and government in 1605.

Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603 and many of the Catholics in England hoped that her successor, James I, would be more tolerant of them as they were persecuted under Elizabeth's rule.  James did not turn out to be any more tolerant of Catholics than Elizabeth and so a plot was formed by a few men to blow up Parliament with hopes of killing the King, members of Parliament and overthrowing the government.

Thirty- six barrels of gunpowder were placed in a cellar beneath the House of Lords in anticipation of carrying out the plot.  They were betrayed, though and on November 5, 1605, the authorities stormed the cellar and found Guy Fawkes with the barrels of gunpowder. He was tortured and killed.  All around London, bonfires were lit in celebration of the safety of the King and this has become a tradition ever since with the addition of throwing effigies of Guy Fawkes on the fire for burning.  There is even a poem that is recited about the event:

Remember remember the fifth of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

We see no reason

Why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

On the night of November fifth and often the weekend closest to the date, villages all over England have bonfires and fireworks.  Our village had a bonfire and fireworks this past weekend.  The fireworks show was excellent and the kids thoroughly enjoyed the whole event.

in front of the bon fire (it had died down, it was big) with a Flat Stanley with are hosting:

effigies for the fire:

If you would like to read more information about Guy Fawkes, you can find it here.

Our English House, Part 5

So- I kind of left y'all hanging.  I was all into showing you different parts of my house and then I just quit blogging.  Sorry about that.  I have no excuse except that life gets in the way.  I intend to blog- especially with family so far away -I want to keep y'all updated about what is going on with us, but it just doesn't happen.  A big reason is that I can't post a blog heavy with pictures at night- the internet is too slow.  And I am used to getting things done at night. If I plan ahead (like I did today, but that doesn't happen often) I can upload the pictures earlier in the day and then write the blog at night.  But, yeah... that kind of planning is not a regular thing here.

For a refresher or if you missed the first four parts, I brought you inside my kitchen and three of the bedrooms in part one.  In part two, I mainly concentrated on the outside and now reading it again, I remembered that I wanted to take more pictures of the outside when everything in the garden was in bloom.  And now that has all passed and I forgot.  Oops.  Hopefully, I remember next summer.  We took a look in my craft room (an out building) and the office in part three.  And part four brought you inside the dining room for a cup of tea beside the wood-burning stove.

I decided today was a good day to take a look in the bathroom since my lavender is in bloom outside and I have been waiting for it to bloom so I could put a few sprigs in there.

The entry:

 In England, there are no electrical outlets or light switches in bathrooms. Because of their 220 voltage, they fear the possibility of electrocution with all that moisture in the bath.  So, older homes have these pull cord light switches that turn the light on (newer homes have a light switch OUTSIDE the bathroom door in the hallway).  The other cord you see there is a pull cord that turns on the shower.

 I was elated to see this clawfoot tub when we looked at the house- and it is beautiful.  But, the reality is that it is pretty cold in this cavernous bathroom and you can freeze to death while sitting in that bath.  It is also quite a pain to clean.  

 I found a beautiful pitcher and wash basin at an antique store and thought it would go nicely in this bathroom.

 I found the towel rack at an antique shop but it was in bad shape.  I gave it a nice little paint job and now it looks great!

 The picture there on the wall is a canvas print of one of my photos I took this past summer of the roses around the back door of the house.

 I found this little plaque while shopping one day and had to have it!  I have also placed the little bottle here with sprigs of lavender from the plants I put in a few months ago in the back garden.

 Lavender from my lavender plants:

 The shower:

I think the only rooms left are the guest bedroom and the living room. Hopefully, I will get to them before we leave (in two years).

In other news, the kids started their new year of school end of August.  Noah is now in his last year of elementary school and I am choosing not to think about the fact I will be the parent of a middle school kid next year.  Zoe is trucking along in first grade, working on reading and memorizing poems for class.  

Noah starts back up with piano lessons and his new piano teacher (the last one moved back to the US) this week.  Both kids started swim lessons two weeks ago and are doing well considering their hatred for getting their faces wet. They are still in the "armband" class and I imagine will be in that class for some time.  I feel bad for Noah, though, because he is ten years old and in a class, wearing floaties, with a bunch of children all five and under.  Even Zoe seems a little old for the class, but they both have to learn.  As much of a lover of the water as I am, I did not pass that trait on to either of my children and I was unable to teach them to swim.  

As for school, they are both currently working on a project for the librarian sponsored by the PTO.  They are hosting a pumpkin decorating contest where the children are required to decorate a pumpkin like a storybook character and the pumpkins will be used as fall decor for the library and school.  Both kids know what they are aiming for and I am going to a craft store tomorrow to see if I can find supplies.  Stay tuned for those reveals later.  

And last, I have mentioned over and over how the Air Force world is a small one and it is amazing how we tend to cross paths over and over again or with people that have mutual friends.  Back in New Jersey, I had a friend that I made when we were both pregnant with our first kids and our husbands (in the same squadron) were deployed at the same time.  Our boys were born 6 weeks apart and were each other's first friends.  They left New Jersey in 2006 and we haven't seen them since.  Well, they found out last summer they were moving to England this fall.  Her husband arrived today and she and the kids will arrive on Friday.  We are so very excited to see them again.  DJ met up with Jeff today to take him to get a rental car and hopefully, once Claudia gets here, we can maybe see them this weekend.  Here's hoping they can find a place to live near us.

Geocaching

Back in 2009, one of my friends that lives in CA was talking about geocaching with her kids and posting pictures of her family hiking these beautiful, fun mountain trails on the hunt for them.  I had no idea what geocaching was, so I decided to look it up.

From the geocaching website:

Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.

At its simplest level, geocaching requires these 8 steps:

1. Register for a free Basic Membership.
2. Visit the "Hide & Seek a Cache" page.
3. Enter your postal code and click "search."
4. Choose any geocache from the list and click on its name.
5. Enter the coordinates of the geocache into your GPS Device.
6. Use your GPS device to assist you in finding the hidden geocache.
7. Sign the logbook and return the geocache to its original location.
8. Share your geocaching stories and photos online.

There are many other levels to the game. Keep reading the guide to learn more!

Rules of geocaching:

1. If you take something from the geocache (or "cache"), leave something of equal or greater value.
2. Write about your find in the cache logbook.
3. Log your experience at www.geocaching.com  

There is a ton of information on their website under their Geocaching 101 page located here.  The very short version is that it is like a global treasure hunt.  People hide geocaches and list them online, you can search for one near you (they are all over the world), plug it's coordinates into a GPS device or GPS enabled smart phone and head out to search for it.  It sounded like a blast, so I signed my family up for a free membership and then started searching the area in New Jersey where we lived.

It was not as fabulous as what I had envisioned (or seen through my friend's photos).  There were a few in my area, but they all had hints and comments like, "Bring your waders- had to wade through a small bog to get to this one.", "Spiders, spiders, loads of spiders have taken up residence here.", "Found it- but after cleaning out quite a few cobwebs and nearly being carried away by the mosquitos."

So.. ummm... yeah.  We never went on a single hunt.

Fast forward four years.  This past June, school was out, England (where we live now) was enjoying a very nice summer and I couldn't get my kids outdoors.  They just wanted to lie around on the couches playing video games and watching television.  I turned the tv off and took the games away and instead of going outside or doing something creative, they just got demanding; always asking for food, something to do, water or entertainment.  One day (probably day TWO of summer vacation), I had enough.  I was trying to think of something to do outdoors that would peak their interest.  I suddenly remembered geocaching.

I looked up the site again, verified we did still have an account and then searched for caches in my area.  Much to my surprise, there were loads.  I would love to tell you that the kids and I happily talked about it, set out on our first hunt, found it, had a good Brady Bunch moment in the woods where the kids said, "Gee, golly, Mom, this is SWELL!  Can we do it again?  I LOVE spending time with you in the outdoors!"  But, that didn't happen either.

The first three attempts over about a week to locate one resulted in me sifting through stinging nettle (ouch) and digging in various wooded areas while the kids stood on the path and whined and moaned that they were (pick one): bored/ tired/hot/hungry/thirsty/being subjected to child abuse.  I am stubborn, so I spent up to an hour in each location looking while the kids got increasingly crabby and totally ruined family fun outing time.

And then something miraculous happened.  One day, we found one.  And we opened it and there were prizes inside the kids could swap and suddenly they were interested.  That is until the next time I mentioned it and they moaned and groaned and had to be forced out of the house and into the car.  But then, we found another one... and a third and suddenly, they were hooked.  From that point on, they were constantly over my shoulder looking at the listings online, trying to figure out which one we would attempt next and plotting our "attack".  When we would arrive at  "ground zero" and could practically smell the geocache, they would frantically begin searching, trying to be the first to find it.

What started out looking like a LONG summer where I yell at the kids and throw them outside, turned into a wonderful adventure that seemed to pass very quickly.  We found geocaches during the week while my husband was at work.

 We all looked for geoaches while we were out on the weekends.

We even found one in Germany and two in France while we were on our summer vacation!

 (Germany)

(yes- that IS a lipstick container!!  In France)

Geocaching forced us to go places and see things we wouldn't otherwise have visited.

 (caching in England)

 (caching in England)

 (Le Jardin de la Liberte- Liberty Garden- in Gravelines, France.  There is a geocache in the garden, but not where this picture is taken)

(geocaching in England)

We have definitely caught the "bug" and although our momentum has slowed considerably since the kids are back in school, I hope to continue to find a few here and there throughout the school year until next summer when we can go full force again!