Good-Bye Cottage, Hello House!

Sorry for the delay in posting! We don't have official internet until Sept. 5th but we have a pay by the day option until then...definitely a relief but internet speeds are very slow! We were able to borrow some American DVDs from another American family to watch on the laptop, which is helping since we're without tv. We moved out of the cottage on Friday, which turned out to be a relief. While it was adorable, the spiders were really starting to "creep" us out and, as many of you read on facebook, we had a bat in the house on Wed night! Luckily, Wayne got it out on his second attempt and we didn't see our flying friend again but I couldn't help but wonder after everyone's scary advice! Plus, I was scared to open the windows! Here is a picture of one of our spiders.

Pretty big, right?

Despite the creatures, Lyla was getting pretty comfy.

Yes, she's on the kitchen floor!

We moved into our new house on Friday and absolutely love it! I won't put up many pictures of the inside yet because we have loaner furniture that does it no justice. ( : But here are a few teasers... the outside of our house, our kitchen and our conservatory.

Still in her pjs but she wanted to be in this one!

We're not sure when our stuff will be here but we can't wait! 3 of our crates are apparently on a ship over here now and 10 are back in the port of Baltimore. Hopefully Hurricane Irene doesn't delay them any more! We're thinking realistically we're looking at late September. Ugh! I am dreading unpacking though as I'm sure we brought way too much stuff, especially clothing! The good news is that our car is here and Wayne is picking it up on Thursday! Hooray!

We've been very busy since we moved in, taking long walks to the grocery store, High Street and the playground. We also took a double decker bus downtown one day, which the girls absolutely loved. The weather has been beautiful so far...a few drizzles but they disappear after 30 minutes. The day we took the bus we set off in rain gear but the rain was gone by the time we got downtown (a 10 minute drive).

Our new house  is in a private neighborhood called Redgrove Park with a long road to get out of the neighborhood. Riley thinks it's through the forest.

Lyla likes to wear her sunglasses upside down! ( :

Nearby are some great parks, including a Humpty Dumpty themed one that the girls loved! They have lots of very cool see saws and merry go rounds and Riley made a few new friends.

We're also walking distance from the grocery store, library and doctor's office (about a mile and a half) and a smaller market, newstand and family-friendly pub with garden (about three-quarters of a mile). Yesterday we walked over 6 miles total and Riley woke up today complaining about how much her right thigh hurt. Even Lyla was wiped out!

But we did manage to open a British bank account and visit a beautiful garden downtown.

We spotted a duck!

With our sponsor family on vacation, we've learned to be rather self sufficient but were very grateful when another American family in our neighborhood offered us a ride to the grocery store last night! Wayne rode with the husband, Chris, while Riley, Lyla and I went to their house to visit with Colleen (the same name as our sponsor!) and her kids Owen (6), Charlie (4), and Chloe (22 months). Riley had a great time jumping on their trampoline while Lyla enjoyed their toys (she's really missing her toys here!) and "befriending" Chloe. Overall, she did pretty well minus a few mishaps (stealing Chloe's cup and calling her baby all night). Lyla and Mommy are excited to have a friend who will be home while Riley's in school and especially so close by! Mommy enjoyed checking out their house (it's almost identical to ours but looks great furnished!) We stayed for dinner and both girls were exhausted by the time we got home!

Daddy headed back to work today and we are walking back to Riley's school to purchase Riley's uniforms. She asked if she can model them "right away" when we get home. ( : Can't wait until school starts on September 6th!

Stitches & Houses & Spiders--Oh My!

So we may have missed the Baltimore earthquake but we've managed to find quite a bit of excitement here in Cheltenham! Wayne started work on Monday at 9 and was supposed to return home with the housing officer at 11 to pick us up and visit the home we wanted to rent. By 10:50 the girls were restless and we headed outside to the patio to anxiously await his arrival. Fast forward 2 minutes and Lyla is bleeding from the back of her head where she smashed it on the slate patio. Talk about a horrible, horrible feeling! No car, Riley panicking, and Lyla bleeding...what a sight for poor Wayne 5 minutes later! Riley ran out to greet him with "Hurry! Lyla is bleeding from her head and Mommy needs help!" Yikes! The cut actually stopped bleeding pretty quickly but looked kind-of scary. The housing officer suggested we visit the home quickly and then head to the A & E so they could check it out--her son had a similar injury and they sealed the wound from infection with liquid stitches.

We headed to the home and, while a little distracted, decided we LOVED it! Riley is very excited about the bidets and Mommy is very excited about the conservatory! We quickly signed our lease and headed to the A & E, which we were informed was three times more crowded than normal. Great! Eventually, our sponsor, Colleen, picked up Riley and dropped off snacks and books for Lyla, which really helped during the 3 hour wait! The hardest part was keeping the cut from reopening because Lyla was running around like a crazy person, oblivious to her injury, bumping her head as she went. She likes to head butt Mommy & Daddy when we pick her up against her will and that kept happening when she tried to repeatedly run out the front doors! Mommy asked about her boo boo and she showed off her mosquito bite so we suspected she was okay. ( : Eventually she was seen and got liquid stitches, which seem to be healing quite well.

Daddy returned to work to fill out housing paperwork and we are lucky enough to move into our house this Friday! Our stuff won't be here for a few more weeks but we will be issued loaner furniture from the base nearby. We can't wait to move in and post pics--the house looked even better than it did in the pics we had been sent and we're all very excited to get settled! Daddy even made friends with the landlord and may be joining him for some golf!

Since then we've been trying to keep Lyla from being too active, which is like trying to keep a fish away from water. The only quiet activity she enjoys is watching Bubble Guppies, which are not shown here so we had to download some episodes from itunes. ( :

She is still happy and smiling but is very difficult to manage in this cottage with no gates, especially with the winding staircase.

To keep her busy, we've broken open the boxes of toys we sent and, as you can see, both girls are hard at work.

We have spent the last few days touring the neighborhood around our new home with our sponsors and meeting some of their friends. Riley fit right in with the children here, making lots of new friends, and Lyla had fun chasing around the big kids. Mommy loved meeting some new British friends and may even join them out tonight for a pint! We have a pub right next door to our cottage with a big garden where the girls like to watch the locals play Skittles (a game that looks just like bocce).

We've tried out some local food including fantastic fish and chips, jacket potatoes and a children's drink called "squash". Riley has begun asking to use the loo, take out the rubbish and give Lyla her dummy (pacifier). She loves trying out the new words she is learning! The only thing Riley says she doesn't like about England is the abundance of spiders--we have tons around our cottage and found 2 GIGANTIC ones inside. We're not sure why the windows don't typically have screens but now Riley doesn't want any windows open so the spiders can't get in. Here was one web on our door this morning that the girls enjoyed looking at (since they spider was trapped on the other side of the glass!)

Colleen and her kids are away for a few days so we are on our own--wish us luck! Can't wait to move into our house on Friday & share pics!

FAQ ( :

Figured tonight I would tackle some FAQ. ( : But I needed to start out with this adorable picture!

How's the weather?
It's been gorgeous since we've been here with nothing more than a 5 minute rain shower yesterday! We actually had to break out the sunscreen today! Good thing we brought the summer clothes!

Are the people nice?
Everywhere we go, people are so friendly! We met a really nice waiter tonight who went to school in the US and he gave the girls cute British flags.

Lyla played peek a boo with them!

An older woman also sat down with us today at lunch and spent 20 minutes talking to us. She was quite nice and really seemed interested in our adventure! People we meet on the street are very friendly, probably in part because Lyla yells "Hi!", "Hiiiiii!!!!!!" until they smile and answer! She also stalks any people with dogs...and there are lots of them!

Wayne's boss and his wife visited us today and we went for a walk and had lunch in a beautiful outdoor beer garden. I've never seen pubs with huge outdoor areas but this one had picnic tables, apple trees, a wonderful singer and lots of kids and dogs!

How's the food?
We actually hadn't eaten out until today. Before that we'd been cooking and the food was pretty familiar to us since they sell American brands at the commissary. Today we ate out for lunch and dinner and the food was okay. Wayne loved the food--very very meaty! The girls shared a "cheese and pickle" sandwich for lunch and wouldn't eat it (it was basically cheese crumbles on a huge hunk of bread...I guess they forgot the pickles?) I tried a hamburger but it tasted very odd...I'm told it's because the cows are grass fed. It's also true that they serve beer warm... must be an acquired taste! Yuck!

Is it what you expected?
We are staying in Prestbury, which is a suburb of Cheltenham. The Queens in me was very afraid of being so far from city center but it has turned out to be great! A super quaint town with thatched roof cottages and tons  of room for the girls to play.

Here's the Prestbury High Street.

They even have cute British phone booths!

Our cottage is across the street from a beautiful church with a very old cemetery that we read was haunted. Yikes! There's a path through the cemetery that takes us to High Street, which raised lots of questions for Riley. The oldest tombstone we saw was from the 1830s but there were a whole bunch that were too old to read.

What are your plans for the week?
Wayne starts work tomorrow and hopefully we'll be visiting the house we want and signing a lease! Stay tuned for updates tomorrow! The girls and I are planning to visit a local park as well. No big plans beyond tomorrow...trying to take it one day at a time! Thanks for all of your love and support! Cheers!

Tired Out!

Here is my family at 6:30 pm tonight.

And here they are at 6:45 pm.

Busy busy day! Lyla went to bed at 7:00 pm last night and Riley followed at 8:00. Wayne and I thought we had beat the time difference until Lyla woke up at 9:00 pm and Riley followed at 10:30. Oops! Both girls went back to bed at midnight and slept until Mommy woke them up at 8 am this morning. We had no time for naps today (although Lyla did lay down on our sponsors' couch from 5-6:15 and fall asleep) and apparently nobody (including Wayne!) can make it any longer!


Why so tired? Well...our wonderful sponsors picked us up at 9 am and the girls spent the day with Colleen and her kids (Isabella, 8; Quinn, 6; and Scarlett, 4) while Scott drove Wayne and I to the air force base to open bank accounts. It was about a 90 minute drive through some cute English towns and, while we were gone, the girls hiked, painted, jumped on the trampoline and played dress up. The family lives at the top of Cleeve Hill, where sheep graze freely and giant cows wander around.

Our city girls were amazed to see the sheep, cows and horses and had a fantastic time! Lyla tired herself out chasing around the family's German pointer while Riley made fast friends with Isabella. We stayed for dinner and had to lure Riley away with promises of future playdates! Riley was even invited to her first birthday party in the UK!


Everyone is really liking England so far and hasn't had much time to be sad or homesick! We are very, very lucky to have great sponsors who have made us feel so welcome and kept us occupied in these crazy first days! Cross your fingers that the girls sleep tonight and that tomorrow brings more fun adventures!

We've Arrived!

After three weeks of sad good-byes, we've finally made it...but not without mishaps! ( : We could barely fit all of our suitcases in the shuttle to Dulles Airport and shortly after we arrived, a big storm rolled through. While it was short-lived, the storm delayed our boarding (which was scheduled for 7:00) to 7:30 because they lost power in the tunnel where you board the plane! We did get to see a great rainbow though! 


Boarding went smoothly but then the storm rolled back in and time crept by...we ended up sitting on the plane from 7:30 until 1 am, turning our trip into 12+ hours!!! Both girls were amazing and slept over 10 hours! So lucky! We were 6 hours late getting in, so the airport was empty. We took our time getting to immigration and when we got there there was literally nobody else in the room. We were through in 2 minutes and our bags were waiting on the belt. Tossed all 12 of them onto 2 luggage carts...Wayne pushed one, I pushed one and Riley pushed Lyla. Our driver picked us right up and the 2 hour drive was nice and everyone had a little nap time. We met our sponsors at the cottage we're staying in and Riley and Lyla played out back with the kids while we unloaded and went over paperwork and schedule for the weekend. We stayed in for dinner - our sponsors stocked the place with some stuff! Awesome! Lyla asked for night-night at 7 pm and Riley followed an hour later!


The cottage is adorable! Maybe we won't be in a rush to find a house after all!

There's a big field to play in and a little patio with a pond. Lyla loves to make kissy faces at the fish!

The cottage is "upside down" with the living room upstairs! It's got beautiful exposed beams throughout the house...so English! ( :

Things are going well! Stay tuned for more updates!