24May2008 Arrival In UK

It was a hectic day of running around getting ready, but we managed to get to the airport. Teri's brothers followed us up and helped us get the 7 suit cases and 7 carry ons into the airport and tagged without names and shipped off. I had no idea how we were going to get the bags around the airport once we got to London Heathrow, but it was all we could do to get what we needed into those bags, so there was no reducing. We had my video camera case, and my roller laptop bag filled up with a DVD player and numerous other electronics, Teri's carry on bag and laptop bag, Makenna's diaper bag, a bag of books and food, carseat, and stroller. We later saw someone with a suitcase roller with a car seat (with child) strapped in and we though that was a good idea, but the stroller actually turned out to be a good carrier for several of the bags, but carrying the car seat was tough. I later figured out that putting the car seat on the roller bag was the easiest way to carry that thing. Car seats are not designed for carrying at all!

Makenna did really well on the first flight (to Washington) without any problems. Teri on the other hand nearly couldn't contain her stomach after the shaking we had on our approach. I didn't even really notice it, but Teri hasn't flown as much. Makenna seemed fine as well. Aside from having troubles getting the car seat unhooked after the first flight (the captain came back and beat on for a few minutes without luck...I got it lose after she went for maintenance) the flight was uneventful. Makenna had leaked out her diaper so this was the first change of clothing for the day. Once we got to Washington Makenna did ended up throwing a fit when we tried to feed her some pizza. She has been very finicky about food recently, foods she used to love, don't meet her taste anymore. Anyway, we eventually got her settled and onto the plane to London. We had a pretty good flight, Makenna didn't fuss at all. I think she is used to being in the car seat and realizing she just isn't going to get out so she settled in very well. We noticed about 2 hours into the flight that she was completely soaked through. We had been feeding her water to keep her ears popping and we didn't think that she would blow out her diaper, but apparently so. I was on the end so, I ended up changing her in the batthroom. It had a drop down panel and she loved standing on it and looking in the mirror as I changed her. This was the second clothes change of the day, but it was also the last change of clothes we had available, so from then on we were watching her diaper loading very carefully.

We arrived at the Airport and loaded the suitcases on two carrying carts, I pushed on with about 5 bags on it and pulled one with two more and some carry-ons distributed. We made one guy laugh when he commented at our train of stroller, person, cart, person, cart and we said we thought it was enough stuff for the week we would be here. Teri, helped guide the front one, but strollers are impossible to steer with one hand!

We made it to the Hertz rental car place eventually and found a car that was about the size of a Honda civic was reserved for us. I had told them I would need a big car based on what we were taking, I guess the thought that was a big car. If you look at some of the matchbox cars they drive over here, you can see why. We then arranged for a small minivan like vehicle...ford galaxy. Sounds big right, well it really isn't and we were packed in there. There was probably enough room for another large suitcase and us to sit comfortably though. Anyway, we tried calling the agent for the house we are renting for the first couple of weeks and no answer, but I left a message trusting that they would be there one hour after we called. It was good we had bought a GPS because I would have no clue how to get around, even with the GPS I tend to take wrong turns, but the GPS then recalculates and gets you back on track. I made Teri incredibly nervous as I drove and she asked me "Aren't you nervous?", I said "I won't be until I do something stupid which almost gets us killed." Five minutes later I had almost killed us...twice.

We ended up waiting about 10minutes before the guy showed up in a driveway that is sided with brick walls which put the walls within a foot of the car door on either side. (I'll take a picture and put it up as an attachement response) We found out that the minivan has these nice beeps that come on whenever you are getting close to something. Well those beeps are really handy let me tell you...unfortunately, you are always close to something. Makenna's picked up this new thing: "beep!" "beep" "beep!". And she has really perfected the word "Nuts!" with extremely clear diction. Car says "Beep! Beep! Beep!", Dad says: "Nuts!", Makenna's say "NUTS! NUTS! NUTS!". Tuesday, work is going to give me a smaller car.

Once we got in and settled a bit into our small new home. We set out to explore the area a bit. We found a grocery store and spent the equivalent of $57 on some cereal, bread, milk, water, a couple other things and apparently air. Little did we know we had to pay for the air we breath over here, either it is that or they feed the cows and chickens here gold! I swear to you that 100 grams (5 slices) of chicken luncheon meat was the equivalent of $5.00. No joke. It is ridiculous. We went home somewhat concerned that we were going to be out of money well before I get my first paycheck in two weeks, but I'm sure we will make it. Anyhow, a person from my work, Darren and his girlfriend Andrea showed up once we got back to the house with groceries in hand as a gift, which was very nice and they told us that the grocery store we went to is the priciest in town. So, now we have plenty of groceries. They offered to take us out exploring tomorrow and we took them up on the offer. They are going to pick us up at 11:00 am and we will go.

We are without cell phones and it is amazing how much we rely on those things. We will have to get one tomorrow. Also, the power converter I bought from radio shack doesn't work, so Makenna is going to not be happy sleeping in a strange place without a sound machine, or a nightlight.

Oh well...at least we made it. Oh yeah, Makenna bumped her head a million times today (well at least 4 times) falling tripping on stuff. We picked everything up, but she still insists on tripping on the smallest of steps. The big scare for us was that we were off doing something for one minute and she was up at the top of the stairs before we caught her...incredibly steep, all wood stairs. I nearly killed myself running up them as she started to do her favorite thing now whenever we say "Makenna Stop!", which is: "hop! hop! hop!" as she stands up and bounces up and down. Ugh. She's going to kill me.