Willen Lake Park

I decided to have a day off this week, don't hate me, and avoid all duties to be done. I took the kids to Ikea, we had lunch with Jon and his workmates, and then we headed to Willen Lake park. Another AMAZINGLY beautiful park here just within miles. There are so many parks here it's crazy, and I love it. The next one we're going to explore is Monkston's park.

At Willen Lake Park they have a big path that goes all the way around the lake. Past the Budhist temple, the peace pagoda, and St. Mary Magdalene church (we didn't go that far). There is also an automated waterski park, playground, and much, much more.

The kids weren't that excited about the walk that we took, but they loved the playground. One girl asked Joe to promise he would come back the next day, man, the girls just love him! We are in so much trouble in the future.

Enjoy the pics...

Our House, Is a Very Very Very Small House

So apparently, I have not been blogging enough. Which is true enough. I just haven't hit my hankering for it. More often than not, while I'm laying in bed waiting for sleep, that's when I get my ideas to blog, but of course, it's gone come morning.

So today we're going to talk about how we are living right now and what our house will be like when we move in.

Currently we are living in an executive apartment in the heart of Milton Keynes (MK) downtown area. Central MK is the shopping, restaurant, working, and entertainment area. It has the mall, a farmer's market, a big entertainment venue that has snowskiing/snowboarding, etc. Plus, it has a ton of restaurants.

Our flat is on the 6th floor and outside the 4th floor there is a huge courtyard with a little pond that the kids like to go to and play on. We are pretty much the only people that I have seen that actually go out onto the courtyard, but oh well. I also haven't seen many kids here as most of the residents seem to be young professionals. In fact, our entire building is only executive temporary rentals.

Our flat is a two bedroom, two bathroom with living room/dining room/kitchen open space. It fits us ok, but I am wishing for another dresser and perhaps a bookcase just to put things away in. The flat is only about a year old, so it's nice and new and clean and modern. We like it, but are definitely looking forward to having a house that has a backyard so that the kids can go out to play a bit without us having to go with them every time.

MK is a growing family community. So a lot of young families are moving here and the rental homes and spaces within the schools are hard to find. First, you find a school you like, then you try to find a rental within that catchment area. Good luck, as the search is kind of a pain in the ass, for sure. We were lucky to have a relocation specialist that helped set up meetings with the schools in the areas we liked and then some houses to go with them. We were able to be the first to take a look at a house that came onto the market and as soon as we saw it we applied for it. That was a Thursday and on Tuesday of the next week we found out we were approved. Here, they assume their house payments will be at least 28% of your income. We were shooting for much less as we wanted to use our 'extra' money to do some traveling, so we opted for a smaller house.

Now here when they list houses they list as 2 double bedrooms, 1 single bedroom, etc. Literally that translates to this room will fit a double bed, no more. Same with the single, a single bed only. Our house, that we can move into on 27th of June is 2 doubles and a single. Literally, the single is the width of a door plus a single bed width. It is tiny, and so we are going to start the kids off with sharing a room with bunkbeds so that they can have a bit of space. The single room we will use for God knows what. The living room has a little space under the stairs that the current occupents put a little desk in, and we liked that idea, so we will copy them and do the same. Jon's and my room will have a double bed and actually has a built in closet. We are currently getting used to going from a King bed to a double...with a lot of grinning and bearing it going on. We are going to have to get something for the kids to hang their clothes in, but we're not sure what yet. Mostly, it's just shirts and a few dresses of Joci's so I'd hate to shell out a lot of money for a wardrobe when they aren't really using most of it. So, I may have to get a bit creative on their 'closet' storage.

The kitchen has a washing machine, and an under the counter refrigerator. No dryer and no freezer, and this is where being an American and having those 'supersize' expectations come into play. We are thinking of getting a freezer to keep in the garage, we'll see. I will still have to figure out how to dry clothes most efficiently, without having a ton of wrinkles to iron (I hate ironing...ugh), and do all of that in the winter time as well. Any suggestions about doing laundry 'old style' would be greatly appreciated. This is where I truly miss my ultra-capacity washer and dryer. Even if we were to buy a tumble dryer, they are so small (to match the washers) that it wouldn't be worth it.

The absolute best thing about our house, though, is undoubtedly the location. Two small blocks away will be Joe's school that he will transfer to for the fall term. Then two blocks from his school is Joci's school, that Joe will also attend the end of this term, and then a market right next to that. So, each day I can walk the kids to and from the school and stop and get things at the market as I need them. That's the plan anyway.

We are really looking forward to getting into our house and then going from there, settling in more.

We Have a New Car!

Today was a big day for me. I drove for the first time.
Since we've been here in England I haven't driven a car. I've ridden with Jon a lot while he drove a rental car. To say these were stressful occurances for me, would be a gross understatement. I would come home after, and head straight for the restroom to try and unclench my stomach. Watching Jon shift (manual car), drive on the right side of the car, the left side of the road, and then zipping in and out of the roundabouts (there are hundreds here), made me sick to my stomach.
So when it came time to buy a car, I pretty much begged Jon for us to try and find an automatic. Please don't get me wrong, I know how to drive a manual, but I wanted to keep it a little more simple for myself, not having to shift quickly over and over and over again through the roundabouts.
We went this last weekend looking for a suitable car and were so excited to find an automatic Volvo. We bought it straight out and had to wait till today to drive it home.
Jon bought me a GPS, and I got to drive the car home. I did a damn fine job if I do say so myself.
The scariest part was getting it into the parking garage with literally only inches to spare on each side of the mirrors to get into the car. Admittedly, I'm not really looking forward to getting out of the garage, it's a bit harder as it has a strange angle and curve.

Campbell Park

We had so much fun in Campbell park today. We were going to go to the park that Jon showed us while walking around Sunday, but, I couldn't find it. So yesterday we just ended up taking a nice long walk. Then we stopped for a late lunch at Sainsbury's. The kids had chicken chunks and chips and I had fish and chips. None of us really cared for the vinegar on our chips, it made them too soggy.

Today, after I looked up downtown Milton Keynes information and made my own map, we went to campbell park. The kids loved it. They played soccer and we had a good long walk, talking about how beautiful the park is. Truly different than anything we've ever seen before.

After we walked the mall, which, frankly, most stores were a little hoity toity for me, and all they had were summer clothes when I was looking for a couple of long sleeve shirts for the kids and a light jacket for me. But, nothing there, and so it was home, to make dinner for Jon so it would be ready when he got home. I'm so domestic now.

We are Expats

We are officially Expats in England. Joe, Joci, and I arrived yesterday after a 10 hour flight from Phoenix and a lot of tears with my Mom and Dad. It was really tough to say goodbye, and things here are different than I expected, but we're all good.

It all started in November. Both Jon and I had been working from home when a position within Jon's company was posted for Milton Keynes, United Kingdom. Jon brought it up, half kidding, and something inside of me...just...clicked. I told him to go for it. We talked about it a little and he applied. Then, we were turned down for another associate in his company. We were disappointed, but moved on. We bought lots of big Christmas gifts and didn't think anything of it again until January when Jon got another email asking if he was still interested as his associate had declined the offer.

We began the LONG process of applying for a visa to the UK through a company that Jon's company had hired to help us. To say this process was long and tedious and brought us to the brink of bailing on the whole process a couple of times, would be putting it mildly. But, we figured this was our one big shot and if we didn't go for it, then we could be passing on an opportunity that we would later regret. It took three months to get our paperwork ready, going back and forth by email with our visa liason. We submitted by FedEx by putting our packet on the plane five minutes before it was due.

We were told that it could take two to thirty days for the visa to be approved. It took them about four days to acknowledge receipt, and only two days to approve our visa. After approval, we had three weeks to leave the country, yup, that's it.

I put in my notice at work, we had two final garage sales, entertained two out of town guests, packed up or stored our house, sold our cars, and all the other little stuff that goes along with it. Even better Jon left early, first to go to Copenhagen, then to England, then to Rotterdam, and back to England, just in time to pick the kids and I up from the airport.

If you know me, you know I can get overwhelmed easily at first. Then I recover and am good to go. I told myself again and again through the process that this is a marathon that I have to run, not a sprint. There were going to be several steps to go through, each one a pain in the ass till we get to where we're back on track. Not really my style, and so it's been a bit of a struggle for me, certainly, but I think I did better than I normally would have.

There were some surprises along the way. Like finding out that I have diabetes. More on that in another post. I was surprised by how hard Joci took to saying goodbye to things, our house, our dogs (again, another post), our cars, but especially, my parents. I was surprised by how well Joe did these things. His biggest struggles was with leaving his two best friends since Kindergarten and leaving my parents.

The car ride from my parent's house was really hard. There were A LOT of tears, as I'm sure my parents had after we left as well. Joci and I sobbed while Joe just quietly cried to himself. The good thing there, though, is that they are planning on visiting England in September, and we are already looking forward to that. It was hard to say goodbye to the people in my life, even though we will be back soon. My coworkers were so generous and kind, my Aunt Rene cried, and my friends sent me off with lots of hugs. I can say honestly, the outpouring of love that I felt, truly touched my heart. Everyone was so excited for us.

The plane ride, believe it or not, was not that bad, probably because I was expecting it to be hell, wondering if I should 'drug' my kids, etc. Truly though, it was much better than I thought. The wait at the airport was quick, mostly because of two slow moving kids and things to do. Once we got to the gate, we got a little snack and then I realized that the plane was boarding travellers that needed assistance or had young children, and that was us. To make my life easier next time I will for sure, not be taking so much on with us to the plane. Joe and Joci were perfect ANGELS! I am so utterly proud of them. The only bad part of the trip was being about an hour delayed in waiting to take off because of some luggage issue and the plane was a bit hot and stuffy. Other than that, British Airways was awesome to fly with and super comfy, even in the econo class. Once we got to England the kids and I employed Hooge Teamwork and worked together to get the luggage, all five HUGE pieces onto two trollies, find our elevators and transport, and finally walk out to see...Jon waiting for us.

Now the real work begins...

We have to find a school for the kids and a house to rent.
I have to get used to being a stay at home Mom.
I have to learn how to drive a manual with the wheel on the right side of the car, driving on the left side of the road.
I have to figure out how to make our teeny tiny washer/dryer combo make my clothes NOT come out wrinkled so that I am not ironing every single piece of clothing.
We have to figure out our cell phones.

There's a lot to do and I will try to keep you all posted on what we learn and where we go.

Easter Portraits 2011