School has Began

Autumn Term is finally here and school has began. The kids are in uniform, as is the custom here. Caleb will learn to live in a suit, with tie, every day for the rest of the school year. Belle's uniform is more adaptable with pants in grey, different skirts in grey and she can add the school royal blue sweatshirt or cardigan (jumper) they are called. And she has the option of a full dress, in grey! Both love their schools here. Belle will begin her year relearning vowel sounds and sight words. She will also have a 10 word spelling list a week! Someone who can't read yet, is only five, will have spelling tests! This will be fun, as she does not take teaching well from me. Oh well, we both will learn. Caleb has 14 subjects in one week. They are scheduled around each other, some twice, back to back. He has Italian, French, Math, Science, English, History, Geography, Art, Music, PE, Computer Lab, Food Tech, ACS class,R.E. class. I know, I don't know what the last two are either! Life goes on.

Belle is sick right now with Tonsillitis and has missed 4 days of school. She is running 101 to 103.5 temperature non-stop. They now have her on antibiotics (5 day only of Amoxicillin) and they are letting me give her Tylenol with Ibuprofin, at the same time, to bring the temperature down. It does come down to about 100 and then goes back up after 3 hours. I am looking forward to her getting back into school!

I walked home with an English couple in the village last night from a school meeting. They have a little boy in Belle's class that is full of energy. They were telling me that I should never call for an ambulence because we are in Northamptonshire, so the ambulance has to come from there, (45 Minutes Away) to pick up and take us to Peterborough which is 13 minutes away! (I am thinking I need a self-refresher course in First Aid) :) This couple had friends in another village and half the village was one shire (county) and the other half was in another one, and while the fire department decided who was responsible to put out their house fire, the house burned all the way to the ground! Yikes! It is fun to visit with them and hear their stories of woe. Everyone has been concerned about Belle and asks after her constantly. I am very appreciative of my friends here. I have had offers of help, babysitting if I need to get away, pick up medicine.... They have all been most kind. I feel like we have traded a Church family for our Village/ISE family. God is Good.

Well, that is my week in a nutshell. Lots of Laundry, Doctor Visits, and driving back and forth for Caleb's bus. To leave on a light note: My dad, who lives in Florida, has acquired a new living companion that I have named "Gypsy". It is a turtle that has dug out the sand under his sidewalk and my dad believes it is a protected gopher turtle, so he cannot touch or move it! Ha! God just knew he needed something else to keep watch over! In England, a gypsy is someone who moves onto your property to live and you cannot evict them without a court order. This is not always a homeless person, but working people who live out of a camper because they cannot afford rent. It can be quite a problem in the larger towns. Hence, the name "Gypsy".

Fun Times in England

Dan at Castle Rising

Mike and Jackie at Beach


Big Bus Tour, London

Family at Lincoln Cathedral Square (Caleb stayed at friends house)

The two weeks are over and Mike and Jackie are back home. It is really something when you sit down and think, yesterday here, today, there. It is amazing how far you can travel in the world in one day. We did lots of fun things. Everyday we went somewhere. We visited Baston village where Caleb's school is, and then went to the Waterside Garden Center. One day we went into Peterborough and visited the huge Queensgate Mall (yes, I drove to the city centre and found parking!) (look out Chicago, here I come!). It was the first time I have actually driven, parked and entered the Queensgate Mall! We spent one afternoon over in Oundle for banking, shopping and eating. We then headed to London for sightseeing and the show "Fiddler on the Roof". It was fantastic and now we have decided we are going to go to London once a month and do a theater show! The kids really enjoy them and we feel like we really know London pretty well. We took Taxi's around town this time, and if you are just moving around in the center of London, the fare is not to bad. Mostly 5 pounds wherever are destination took us. The tubes proved a little too intense for a man with a cane! (Mike) Caleb and Belle have decided that a cab is the only way to travel! I am sure we will here lots of whining the first time back to London as we head over to the tubes! OH well. On Sunday we went to Lincoln to see the Cathedral and Castle. The cathedral was lovely and the castle closed early for their mid-summer's eve concerts. Jackie and Mike were only able to see the outer wall of the castle. We ate lunch in a nice little place that had awesome chicken and mushroom pies (pot pie). Our food was really good and we will go back there again.

Monday was a bank holiday (Dan is off work). We went up and toured through Burghley House. It was really neat. Everyone will have to go there when they come to visit. It is only 12 minutes from us and some of Pride and Prejudice was filmed there. Very old Manor House. That afternoon we went over to the Nassington Village Fair, where the kids have contests of decorated bikes, things made out of vegetables, games, adult competition with flowers, the biggest vegetables, the prettiest and so on. We did not compete this year, but maybe next year I will compete with some shortbread cookies?? The rest of the week found us back up at Waterside, Dan's office and lunch, over to Corby to visit Matalans (clothing) and Asda (groceries), and lunch over in Ufford at the White Heart Pub. On Saturday we drove over to the coast, stopped at Castle Rising (way cool) and then we went to the beach. When you say "beach" over here, you really mean beach. The tide goes out on the east side of the island and it leaves about a mile of beach before you ever get to the water! There are tide pools everywhere, so the kids can play, but no real water. The english people seem happy with this, as everyone is up against the sand dunes and the water is a mile away! So, we joined everyone else, and the kids built sand castles and just messed around in the tide pools. It was a very enjoyable day and a good one to close Mike and Jackies two week visit.

Now it is time to get ready for School. Belle and Caleb both start back on Wednesday. I am looking forward to having time to catch up on laundry and be able to do computer stuff and gardening. I should have lots of time on my hands to catch up with everything, and still do lunch with the ladies! We have new ISE's arriving all the time and some going home to America. The lunches are a good way to catch up and visit and meet the new ladies.

To sign off with something funny! Yesterday, we went to Yarwell for church and then decided to go for a bike ride. We have not had any rain in almost two weeks now and the temps are in the low to high 70's. Great weather for a bike ride. I have not ridden a bike in 5 years and I thought, no big deal, we will go slow..... anyway, we ride our bikes up to Wansford (not Yarwell) but Wansford. This is where I take Caleb to catch his school bus and it is up and down hills! Anyway, we go there and get on a byway that leads into the woods. Again, we start getting into hills. We took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up stuck in the woods (Sulehay protected woods, 210 acres) for over an hour! I was really getting mad, my butt hurt, and my arms and neck were killing me from leaning over the bike and holding my upper body on them. Caleb was nearly in tears, and Belle, well Belle was just along for the ride in the carrier, so she didn't have much to say! By the time we made it home we were gone 2 1/2 hours and had ridden 5.8 miles. Wayyyyyy too long for a first time bike ride in 5 years! So, today, I started out with a hot shower and 4 ibuprofin so I could turn my head and lift my left arm. Thankfully couches and chairs all have soft padding so my butt bones hurt, but are not paining me to sit here and type! Caleb, Belle and I, all slept about 10 hours last night! Next time I will be more carefull which bridlepath I choose so the family can talk about the fun we had, not how miserable we became! Of course, Dan had great fun and thought it was fantastic!

Signing off for now, an American Mom in England

The In-Laws have Arrived

Hello to all. As you can see, Jackie and Mike arrived safely in England. They started their week off with a spin in the mini cooper around the village and dinner at the Queenshead. Tuesday we went over to Oundle and did some shopping and ate lunch in a coffee shop. Wednesday we found ourselves at Queensgate Mall in Peterborough. We enjoyed the shopping there and went to the city square and took pictures. On Thursday we went up to Caleb's school and to a big Garden Center with lots to see and do. We spent 3 hours up there shopping. The English are all about their gardens, so you can imagine the size of this garden center! Huge! Tomorrow you will find us headed for London for a show and shopping. Check back with you on Sunday!

THOMAS THE TRAIN ENGINE

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you! It is Thomas the Train Engine! We went to the Nene River Valley Railway this past weekend and rode on a steam engine train. It was very cool. I felt like we should have had our cowboy hats on and guns and at any minute Owen Wilson was going to come charging up along side to rob us! Chugga Chugga Choo Choo! This is the oldest running steam engine railway in England. Even on special weekends, Thomas the engine is used to pull trains. The inside of the rail car is preserved just like it was in the old days. It reminded me a lot of Harry Potters scene when the kids are on the train in their compartment. Two big couch benches facing each other. That is the kind we chose. They also have seats facing each other with tables between them for taking tea and snacks.

Sunday we spent the day at Nene Park at Dan's division picnic. Spent the afternoon playing, visiting and eating. I caught up with womEn I had met in February when I came over and met new ones also. I believe there were 4 ISE families and the rest were single British guys and British Families. We had a wonderful time and spent the afternoon there.

This week I am busy getting groceries ordered, laundry folded, and the house cleaned (when am I not???) awaiting for Dan's parents to arrive. We are looking forward to spending time with them and going sight seeing. Hope you all are having a wonderful summer! Pam

Paris

Steak Tartar on Top And a view of Paris from the Eiffel Tower

Paris

Let me start by saying that Paris was a beautiful city. It was crowded, very hot, and seemed to take forever to get anywhere. The French are very proud of their language and we entered one cafe that repeated the menu in two words of English for each item. The rest of the time we "guessed" what we thought the meal might be and ordered it. We were only stung once, and that was poor Luke. He ordered something and what came out was Steak TarTar. Raw Hamburger Patty that is supposed to be good. He did try it, (I wouldn't) and ate about half. It really looked like worms on a plate. I will include a picture of that. We also found that since Paris is up "so late" we could not find breakfast anywhere! Not even a bakery around the city centre. The cafe's did not start serving food until 12:00. We found this out because we missed the breakfast served by the hotel because we were up twice during the night with fire alarms going off! The boys did not even hear the first one, so after getting dressed, and putting my contacts in, I stepped out and banged on their door. It ends up that someone was taking drugs and smoking to cover it up. (Thats what we were told anyway). We were so tired, that we didn't care and nobody got up for the second one 5 hours later, except me, the "mom". I just had to make sure that it was a false alarm before I could go back to sleep.

I learned from this trip that I am a "Beach" person at heart and my Bella does not do well walking in the heat, nor myself, dragging her along and trying to deal with the heat! She kept asking where the "pool" was! Dan said that the city was much like New York, but not as closed in and suffocating. I believe that at that point, I decided that I never have to see New York! It was very crowed, (summer holiday for kids) and there were thousands of People out and about. The Eiffel Tower was very impressive. The pictures do not do it justice. It is so large! I will include pictures from Ben and Lukes camera as they went up in the tower to see the city. The lines were large, and we didn't want to wait with Belle and Caleb. Luke and Ben hopped off the bus, they had their tube tickets and knew where the hotel tube stop was, and we said "Adios", call if you need anything! It took them 30 minutes to climb to the first level and then 1 hour wait for the elevator to go up farther! The pictures are beautiful and I am thankful that I had two young strappin boys that just had to go up! We were able to get into Notre Dame Cathedral. Absolutely beautiful. On Sunday we hired a driver to take us to Versailles, the Palace of King Louis the XIV, XV, XVI, and home to Marie Antoinette (wife of Louis XVI). It was beautiful and you can view the pictures on the album sight.

The subway was very fast. I guess it covers a lot of city and to be efficient we felt like we were flying. I shouldn't say "felt", we really were. This was not a "brace the feet" type subway; you had to hold the bars or sit. The subway is also open from one end to the beginning and you can watch it snake along under ground! London subway's are not like this and they are not as fast.

The Louvre is the worlds largest museum and boy, do they have that right! After about 1500 hundred paintings, I was done! You cannot imagine the hallways, galleries and rooms filled with art, and Roman statues! And that is just the part we went into. We could not even get a picture to encompass the museum as a whole. I am sure that the Ben, Luke and Dan could have spent another 2 hours there, but Belle, was not doing well. We walked her little legs off the first night. The next day, the first staircase that we walked up in a subway, she exclaimed, "oh no, not again. My legs are tired!" It was definitely a "walking" vacation as the city centre is very spread out and to even get to a bus or a tube stop, you have to walk. Over all, it was very pretty and I am glad that we "saw" Paris. Will we go back? Yes, just not in the summer and when we have a sitter for Bella. It is not a vacation for little children. She could care less about the art and the Eiffel Tower, she just wanted to know where the next Disney Store was!

Cornwall Coast

A picture of the Cornwall coast through a wall from Tintagel Castle.

On Saturday we drove down to St. Michael's Mount. It is a castle that is on its own Island and the family that owns it still lives there on the backside of the island and castle. Little did we know that the castle is not open to the public on SATURDAY! We still made the most of our time. The walkway that leads over to the castle is only usable at low tide. We decided to walk over anyway (lots of people were) and we were warned that the tide was coming in and there are no ferry's on Saturday's either. So, you know, we figured we had time. We get over there and they blow a whistle to head back, tide is coming in fast. We started back, and the water was starting to cover the path of stones. The seaweed was slick and it was slow going. Only eight minutes had past since we started across with a dry path, and the path was covered in water. It gets like 8-10 feet deep, so you cannot just wade across. You will see on the photo site the difference in the path! It was cool. We then played on the beach, (cool day) and decided to drive over to "Land's End" the farthest most western tip of England. It had started to rain by this time, so we took some pictures, shopped a little and then headed back to the castle. Overall, we had a great weekend and got to see alot of the countryside. Lots of patchwork fields and hills. The kind we see on the postcards. Another great weekend, Signing off, An American Mom in England