30Nov2008: Day 188: Goss

Today's word for the day is "Goss" which is supposed to be gross, but said without the "r". It's another word that I use often for things that Makenna does but she turned it around on Hannah today. Makenna was on Chris's lap during church and Hannah was in our row playing with Hannah. We were feeding them cookies and I guess Hannah had licked her fingers than was wiping them on Chris's pants. Makenna then kept saying "goss, goss," which was surprisingly appropriate at the moment. She is also of the age where sticking her finger in her nose is the newest fad for her. Chris told her not to pick her nose and Makenna repeated, "don't pick nose." Now if she'd only listen and obey what she says.

I had to give a talk today in church and at one point, I saw Makenna running up the isle to come see me. She was a bit difficult and is clever in thinking of ways to get out of Sacrament Meeting. She keeps saying she needs her diaper changed, or that she has to play the piano, or she needs to go for a walk, or she needs a yogurt was another one she kept saying today.

The palace yesterday was definitely huge. We only got to see a small part of it. They also had really nice gardens which, as Chris mentioned, being that it was cold, were not something we wanted to walk to see. The pictures were from the back of the palace so it was right there. I'm sure they're a lot nicer in the spring/summer to see.

These other couple of pictures were also from the palace. If you notice in yesterday's post where Makenna is with me, she is wearing a pink knit hat that Grandma Jones made for her when she was less than a year old. Well, she's out grown it, or it's stretched a bit. It doesn't stay on her head very well, so we bought this other, really cute one at one of the shops at the palace. She likes it, which helps, as she keeps it on her head. She also insists on wearing her leopard coat from Grandma Grosek that she got for her second birthday. The shop also had matching scarf and mittens but I figured they'd just get lost and/or not used, not to mention they cost quite a bit.

In this picture you can see Makenna happened upon a Santa in a chair and she was quite enamoured with it. Hopefully when we go see Santa in a couple of Fridays she'll be just as enamoured with a "live" one as she was with the statue one.

Sorry it's a bit dark, I didn't have the flash on as I wasn't sure if I was supposed to take pictures in this area.

One last thing, if you haven't already tried, if you click on any one of the pictures, you see a bigger version of it. The picture at the top of yesterday's blog is a "panoramic view" that Chris got from a website. So if you click on it, you can then scroll and see a better view of this really big palace.

29Nov2008: Day 187: Blenheim Palace

Today we went to Blenheim Palace in Oxford. I was about a 2.5 hour trip and uneventful. Once we got there we had to park in a muddy lawn parking area and walk about a quarter of a mile to get to the place. It was a very very large palace. It was given as a reward from Queen Anne to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, who lead the battle of Blenheim to success for the English against the previously undefeated Louis XIV of France. Apparently, Louis XIV of France was an intolerant Catholic and when the throne of Spain was vacated, he placed a close relative on the throne there. If this was allowed to stand, then Louis would be in position to take over England and more. This set off the War for Spanish Succession. I'm no historian, so, here is a link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blenheim. This battle in 1704 was a turning point for the English and signalled an end to Louis XIV's campaign.

As reward, Queen Anne setup a building project to build the Blenheim Palace. It took until 1722 for the palace to be completed. She ended up paying 240,000 pounds of the money but eventually the Duke, and his wife fell out of favor and the Queen quit paying. The Duke decided to pay another 60,000 pounds to finish the project, but apparently, he refused to pay Royal rates to the tradesmen and artisans the Queen was paying so they all left and he used his foremen and such to finish the work. Even the Architect eventually left after Sarah, the Duchess, was so aggressive with him about every detail that he finally could not put up with it any more. She was quite a strong willed woman, and quite contentious...she had over 500 lawsuits drawn against people in her life. Unfortunately, they both died without a male heir and the name Churchill was lost. The palace went to their daughters and the next Duke was a different name. The following dukes all squandered the fortune of the first Duke with poor living and sold off paintings and such. The palace is now a world heritage site and is looked after by the current Duke who still lives there, and by the government. The palace was saved by the 8th Duke and his marriage to an American. They put a lot of money into the place and fixed it up. They even purchased the largest privately owned pipe organ in Europe, which is still here and is still played.

Another interesting point of history is that the 5th Duke petitioned to the Crown to have the name Churchill surname of the first Duke re-installed and from that point they went by that name again. This name is another reason why this palace is famous because Winston Churchill was a descendant of the Duke and actually was born in the palace. He spent a lot of his youth and visited often as an adult. There was an exhibition of his letters and his military accomplishments in WWII.

When you start walking into the courtyard of the palace it surrounds you on all but one side with beautiful stonework and majestic spires and statues. The courtyard is pretty much just stone and gravel, but it is massive, probably 100 yards by 100 yards. The building takes up 7 acres. The open side of the courtyard faces a long grass areas and a lake with a column of Victory about 1/2 mile away that focuses your attention. The spire is 134 ft tall with a statue of the first Duke on the top. We didn't go there because it was too cold and too long of a walk. It is starting to get down around freezing now most nights and it was quite cold today.

When you first go in the palace through this small door in the large golden braced door you step into a huge 60 foot high room with a domed stunningly painted ceiling. There was Christmas trees there and later in the day they had a brass band playing Christmas carols which Makenna really enjoyed.

This palace had a few rooms that would rival with what we saw in the Louvre. The painted ceiling of the dining room was stunning. It took 16 months to paint and 500 pounds. Pretty low wages, but money went a much further back then! The palace also has the second longest room in England, which is the library. The library is almost 170 feet long and has several fireplaces and here is where the organ is. There was even a small chapel where the tomb of the first Duke was. It is disappointing that they didn't allow photography inside, but I'm sure Teri snuck a couple.

28Nov2008: Day 186: Stoopid

I am stupid for every saying the word "stupid" in front of Makenna. It was a word that was repeated too much for my taste today. Then on the way home from our "Thanksgiving Dinner" of Chinese food - Chris said it. I was like, "don't say that word!"

I was feeling much better today - more alert and alive. I almost went to the gym but figured I'd just clean the house while Makenna was at nursery. When I dropped her off today, she didn't want me to go. She kept holding onto my hand and walking me to the different areas that she wanted to go to. I finally told her I had to go to run some errands and that I'd be back. She wasn't too happy but she got over it. They said that she had a fun time at song and story time.

She was very animated today which is cute to watch and see. She was saying hello to people at dinner and just being her every so cute self. (Can you tell I'm in a better mood?). She even talked to her cousin Elijah on the phone tonight. She said "hello" after much prodding, and he said, who knows what back.

Another thing that Makenna has been getting really good at is counting. We've been trying to count with her as we go up and down the stairs. A couple of days ago she did one through nine on her own and then jumped to eleven. Daddy made sure she went back and did ten and then she continued to thirteen. We'll repeat the number after she says it to reaffirm that she got it right. I'm just so impressed that she did as well as she did. Okay, can you tell I'm biased?

27Nov2008: Day 185: Happy Thanksgiving

Well, I wish it could've been happier. It was just another old day here. We did go to the sing/dance play group and Makenna seemed to have fun. She really likes the "sleepy bunny" song as I call it. It's where the kids lay down as if they are sleeping and then all of a sudden it's time to wake up and hop like bunnies. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before how when she wants to stay sleeping or go to sleep, Makenna will sometimes say "sleepy bunny."

I really need to take a small video of Hannah at the group too. She is certainly destined to be in entertainment of some sort. This girl just sings and dances constantly. It's very cute to watch.

As for Thanksgiving itself, well, I wish I had the strength and energy to cook something. I took a NyQuil last night (Wed night) and it seems to have stayed in my system. I have been struggling to stay awake all day and feel like I'm in some sort of haze. So that meant Thanksgiving consisted of left-overs. Makenna was hungry at 5pm anyways, and I figured since it's just another day here, that Chris would most likely not be coming home until 7 or 8 pm, so we might as well eat. When he did get home, 6:30pm, he was probably upset that I didn't cook anything or that we already ate so we couldn't go out, so hopefully we'll go out tomorrow night.

I was only able to hold out until 8:30pm and then I couldn't stay awake any longer. My patience was fading rapidly and I knew I had to just call it a night. I unfortunately couldn't stay awake for the video call with Chris's parents and family but from what I heard Makenna was really excited to see everyone.

It was certainly hard to not be able to enjoy a day with family. I tried to not think about what today was too much. It made me long for turkey, potatoes and gravy. Not to mention Pumpkin Pie!~

26Nov2008: Day 184: I Wuv It!

Our usual Wednesday consisting of going to the play group at church in the morning. It ended up only being Makenna, Hannah, and her sister Bethany. So since it was just us, we cut it a bit short and that gave us more time to eat lunch. I usually feel really rushed from one play group to the other, so it was nice to just take our time.

For lunch, I cooked some penne noodles in sauce (it was a microwave meal that I didn't want to expire). We had the same thing pretty much for dinner last night, but I had made that. So I gave Makenna the microwave meal and I had the left overs from last night. It was obvious she liked the microwave meal better. As she was eating it, she came out and said, "I wuv it." She said it three times. I was like, "you like your lunch then?" It was really cute to hear, even if she wasn't talking about my cooking.

During the afternoon playgroup, she actually kept coming up to me and asking me for "story," meaning story time. I was surprised because when we first started coming she didn't want to sit still for story time. I think because they do songs, like "hokey-pokey", and "wheels on the bus" she likes it, as I have to move her limbs around. Hopefully we'll be going to the song/dance playgroup tomorrow. We haven't been since before Halloween.

Tonight I had my enrichment night at church. It turned out pretty well. Better than I expected. There was only 9 of us, but that was pretty good. We had one table of people sewing a button onto a small bag which candy went into. Then another table of people making sock dolls, and then another table of people putting the stockings together (gluing pieces that were pre-cut onto them), and I was the only one making the reindeer candy canes to also go into the stockings. I guess they hope to finish them up at next month's enrichment meeting. So that's good, another meeting I don't have to really plan. It sounds as though I might not be here for that meeting anyways. I'm not quite sure of the date yet, but it's going to be pretty close to the time we'll be leaving to come home.

As for our illnesses, Makenna is still congested sounding when she coughs, but her spirits are much better. I can tell because she's not as whiny and needy and crying in the morning. Plus it helped that daddy got her out of bed. As for myself, I'm doing okay. I have this nagging cough and I feel like my head is in a fog. I'm hoping to possibly make it to the gym tomorrow afternoon as I haven't gone all week. But I'll have to see how I feel.

25Nov2008: Day 183: Water, Water, Everywhere

Today was a much better day. Even though Makenna was upset that daddy was already gone to work when she woke up, she quickly got over it and we got on with our day. She only had one other outburst which happened when we were waiting in the car to go into nursery. I thought it started at 9:15 so I got their five minutes early. Unfortunately, it didn't start until 9:30 so it was 20 minutes or so of waiting in the car. She hates sitting idly in the car so I tried to let her out to come up front and drive but then she wanted to be buckled. So when I buckled her back in, she wanted to get out of the car and walk. Just can't win! I wouldn't let her outside though as it was too cold to just stand out there.

We finally got in and I filled out some paperwork and met her primary care worker, Sue. Sue is the one who will keep track of Makenna's progress in different areas. Personal, Social, & Emotional well-being, Language & communication, reading & writing, problem solving, reasoning, & numeracy, knowledge & understanding, physical development, & creative development. They write in a journal type book of Makenna achieving different milestones in these areas along with what she was doing and the date. So it's almost like another journal for us while we're not there. We get to review the book quarterly and make any comments we have. They'll also take pictures at times of her achieving some of these things.

I stayed for about a half-hour then told her I was leaving to run some errands, and that I would be back. She had found a kid playing on a computer that had pictures of Dora on the screen so she could care less where I was going or what I was doing. I took off for a peaceful day of trying to Christmas shop. When I returned, they let me in a bit early to let me know she did really well. Sue said that a kid tried to cuddle (hug) Makenna a couple of times and she shied away, and in doing so fell over. I said that was typical. She said she ate a snack of yogurt and a drink, which is typical. I'm hoping this will also help her branch out in her trying different foods.

We went home for lunch, and as I was trying to clean up, I unfortunately left the Brita pitcher on the table as I just don't have more than two hands to carry everything. Well, not even a minute and I heard water gushing and I knew she spilled the pitcher. Lucky for me most of it went on the plastic protective mat we have under her chair. So I just gathered it up and dumped it outside. Unfortunately, later during dinner, I filled my glass with water, than proceeded to tip it over everywhere! The tablecloth is certainly clean now.

Few new words that Makenna repeated today...stupid (that was from me), and spice pronounced "styce" (gotten from daddy). My laptop screen will all of a sudden just go black at times and it can be frustrating. So I usually end up saying, "stupid thing." Today when it happened, I didn't even say anything and I heard Makenna go "stupid." Great, I thought, I've taught her a wonderful word. Hopefully she'll only apply it to things and not people. Here's to wishing.

24Nov2008: Day 182: Another Tough Day

It was another tough day in that we stayed home. It makes Makenna and I a bit stir crazy and I get a little short-tempered at her short temper and not listening. Yes, I know, a typical two year old. Me and her that is. She still has quite a congested cough and I wasn't feeling too well either. So I figured one more day in for the both of us to try and recuperate.

At one point, she got the salt shaker and started to shake it all over the floor. She had done this once before and we put it up so she couldn't get to it, but we used it yesterday during dinner and didn't put it back up. She took full advantage of our forgetfulness. We already have to be diligent about not leaving our drinking glasses around, especially if we leave any type of liquid in it - usually water. She drinks, washes her hands, dumps on other things.

We did take one quick trip out to get a prescription filled for Chris. Makenna was so excited to be out but it was cold, blustery, and wet. That didn't matter to her. She wanted to run in the wet grass. Luckily I had her boots on, and I found the mittens I brought for her. I also finally remembered to take out my scarf. She still fights me on wearing hats but I got her to wear one for a little bit.

Luckily daddy got to come home early, but basically had to play bad cop by putting our little trouble maker on the "naughty step" repeatedly. She is just constantly trying her limits and sometimes she gets sent to the step over and over for the same thing. It can certainly try our patience.

23Nov2008: Day 181: Let it Snow

Woke up to some snow today! Not much as you can see, but it's not too common to see snow here. They've been getting some up in Scotland now for a few weeks on and off, but we are are much further to the Southeast. It was all gone by 10:30 a.m. as it turned to rain.

We had Stake conference at church today. That meant we went earlier (from 10am - noon). It was the most people I've seen at church here at one time. I didn't know but we're actually called the Canterbury stake. I was hoping that they would've combined some of the small wards that make up the area I'm in, but they just released and called new stake leaders. Makenna had a tough day being that it was me and her as Chris went to his church. I did have to take her out a few times for being obstinate. She spilled cereal, which I told her not to, then she started throwing it and then when I warned her not to, she picked up more, looked at me, and threw it. So I took her into another room and made her sit by herself on the floor. She didn't like this and proceeded to really bang her head on the carpeted floor. So now she has a red rug burn on her head that's a little bruised too. Ahh, children, the joys. The problem, besides being sick, is that she was very tired.

I thought I'd include a couple more pictures from yesterday. One thing that I really liked about yesterday at the palace house, was the smell. They had a fire going and mixed with the slight mustiness, reminded me of the cottage we have back in the states. It made me think of mornings that my grandparents would have the fire going at the cottage to warm up the place.

This picture is of the dining room in the palace house. What's interesting about this table is that it has knife marks in it from where the servents cut the bread on the table. It also made out of one elm tree. The pewter plates are from the 18th century and were used a lot as they retained the heat and were unbreakable. They also had a lot of very old piano's. I believe from the 18th century. Surprisingly, I only had to stop Makenna once from touching one.

Here's a couple of pictures from the "James Bond Experience." It was only a small, short room with mostly cars, but also a few gadgets and other things from the different movies. This first white car was the original "Lotus Submarine Car" used in the 1977 Bond movie "The Spy Who Loved Me". The Green car is the original Jaguary XKR Roadster used in the 2002 Bond movie, "Die Another Day" Actually, it's one of eight cars used to film a scene on ice. I liked the mounted Gatling gun on the back.

I'm not a huge car fanatic. I don't mind looking at cars, but it's not something I'd seek out to go see. But since we had time, we went into the National Car Museum. I did actually find it interesting. Just to read and see about these cars. Take for instance this first car (the green one on the left), called "Knight" built in 1895. It's believed to be the first British built petrol car to be run on public roads. What's interesting is that was only allowed to go up to 4 mph, even though it's max speed was 10 mph. What's really funny was that because a lot of people were opposed to cars when they first started coming out, when someone was driving this car, they had to have someone walking in front with a red flag. Like warning people that there was a car being driven behind him. I guess if it was me, that person better be walking faster than 4mph! (for that matter, walking faster than 10mph). This other car to the right actually has a bike seat in the back and one in the front. It's an 1896 Pennington Autocar. It supposedly can seat up to four, although I don't know how, or how safely. It supposedly carried up to nine people on it. This picture that looks like an airplane, but is actually a car, was made by the French and is called the 1922 Leyat. There was also a 1901 electric car that we have a picture of. When I was talking to my brother Jared yesterday, and was telling him about this electric car, he said how it's amazing that even back in the early 1900's they were building electric cars and to this day, they haven't perfected them.

22Nov2008: Day 180: Beaulieu Palace, Abbey, and National Motor Museum

Today we debated if we were going to go anywhere because Makenna was in rare form this morning with the whining and crying and we just weren't sure if we wanted to push her. She is getting over a cold and Teri is finally catching it, but we decided that we didn't want to waste a Saturday. I've (Chris) been working late all week trying to get my work done this week and I really wanted to sleep today, but since we only have 52 weeks here I knew we would feel like we cheated ourselves if we didn't just go. Unfortunately, the place we picked was 2.5 hours away, so we just said let's go and we did and I'm glad we did.

This place, Beaulieu (pronounced Bewley), is the home of the Montagu family and they've had it since the disillusionment when Henry VIII took the Abbey that was there and sold it to them for something like 1200 pounds. Henry destroyed the Abbey and used the stone from it to build 3 castles. The abbey was the first Cistercian Abbey in England and many spread from there throughout England. The Church of the Abbey was as large as Westminster Cathedral when it stood all that remained was a portion of the Cloisters (courtyard), the dormitory (now the Beaulieu Manor house, the monk's dinning area (now the Beaulieu Parish church), and a portion of working areas where the lay workers stayed.

They had a whole bunch of other things there including a monorail (which we could not go on because of the stroller), a "James Bond Experience" (which had a whole bunch of cars and memorabilia from the movies), a big collection of cars which is called the National Motor Museum (loaded with old cars and specialty things) and several other things including a corny "Disney-esque" ride that shows the history of the automobile in England...you sit on this car and they have a cheap version of animated people and such like "It's a small world" in Disney. Our particular car in the ride kept stopping the play and saying "Please remain seated if the ride should stop and the bar not rise on the seat. If the bar does rise, please run as fast as you can to the nearest exit before the building collapses on you."...Well the last part wasn't really part of it, but it just kept saying that when it was supposed to be talking about one era of another...really annoying. The cars in the place were really quite extensive in their variety and age. They had one electric car that Queen Victoria drove around her palace. There was also cars that set the land speed record. One car, was running on Daytona Beach and hit the speed record of 200+ mph back in 1900's. It had 1000 hp engine in it, which really surprised me for the 1900's. Once the driver hit the speed he couldn't stop because the engine kept running, also his brakes melted, so he had to drive into the water...luckily the engine kept running and he was able to drive back out and survive.

While in the car museum, I was thinking of my brother Jared who loves cars. So some of these pictures are for him. He would've really enjoyed this place. The red car is a 1937 Ford Roadster. The purplish car (which I can see my girlfriend Tina driving in,) is a 1961 Rainbow Chaser.

Makenna was actually very good all day until we were ready to leave and she was getting tired. Then the whining and irritability set in again. She didn't want to walk, but she didn't want to be in the cart. She wanted to be carried by daddy who can only carry her in his arms so long before his back hurts. We finally got back to the car and she mumbled herself to sleep saying she wanted a bite of sandwich. When she woke up close to home, she again started talking about eating a sandwich. In the end she didn't eat anything for dinner. She just wanted to go to bed.

I unfortunately, started to get chills and a fever. I was somewhat surprised as being outside today actually invigorated me. I'm feeling much better now that I took some Ibuprofen and had some dinner. I'm just praying I don't get the flu (so is Chris,) otherwise I'll really be out of commission.

P.S. Thanks to Chris's parents who bought us a book when they were here. It gave us the idea of going to this place today.

Come back and look for the pictures tomorrow - it's almost 11:30pm here and we're beat!~

21Nov2008: Day 179: Another One for the Perry's

We got the news, via e-mail, that our friends back in the states had another little boy today - Declan Patrick Perry. He was, according to the father's e-mail 10 8 lbs & 3 oz. Daddy Perry then went on to say how he was bigger than all the other kids they've had so far. I laughed about that thinking holy cow that was one big baby. He shortly sent out a follow up e-mail stating that obviously it wasn't 108 lbs but 10 lbs 3 oz. and that because the child showed up just before 3am today, that he was very tired. We just want to send our congrats to their growing football team. They now have 3 boys and one girl, and in my opinion, one insane mother to have that many kids so close together!

Makenna and I had a sick day at home. She was up several times in the middle of the night between coughing and crying. I also was up not feeling to well. So unfortunately, Chris had an early day and late night at work and that left for a very whiny Makenna looking for daddy every moment and a mommy trying not to get sick. She could be fine one moment, sitting in my lap, and the next would just be inconsolable about who knows what. We both ate very light meals today. I think I finally had cereal about 10am and she had a yogurt. For lunch, I can't honestly remember if we had lunch. I know I didn't and I don't think she was up for it either. For dinner I had toast with peanut butter and she had a few noodles and then decided she wanted toast too. I was happy that she actually ate it as it's been a long while since she's had peanut butter. It would be nice to "expand" her horizons of food to include something she ate before. It's unfortunate to think that when people ask me what I remember most about England I'm going to say how we were constantly sick!

There were also a lot of "oh deeyah's" today. I was in no mood to get up and get the camera to capture it so hopefully if we are feeling well enough to get out tomorrow, then we'll get some on tape then.

It also hailed here tonight. I thought it was heavy rain and I looked out and saw ice chips hitting the windows. I asked Chris how cold it was outside and he said it was pretty cold. Although, I have looked at the weather forecast back home and can say that I don't miss the snow you've gotten or will be getting.

20Nov2008: Day 178: Oh DeeYa

Today's main comment from Makenna was "Oh DeeYa" (Oh Dear). It comes out with the English accent. I know she'll most like lose the accent when we move back, I wish she wouldn't because it sounds so cute. Oh Dear was one of the first things I heard Hannah say at church one day and I thought it was the cutest thing to hear. I'll have to try and get it on film so we always have it to remember.

We went back to downtown Chatham again with Hannah and family to get the things for the enrichment meeting next Wednesday. Luckily the pound store got more Christmas stockings in. As the girls were walking on High St. in Chatham, they met up with another little girl (don't know who she was,) and they all stood in a circle as if they were old friends catching up. Hannah and this little girl started dancing around. It was very entertaining to a lot of people who stopped and watched them.

The girls were pretty good and thankfully we didn't have a repeat of last Thursday evening. Although, Makenna is still sick and had a slight fever after her nap today. Which made for a very whiny, difficult night.

One month from today, we should be back in the states to celebrate the holidays and we're looking forward to seeing family and friends. Hopefully we'll be able to see everyone we hope to. It's going to be a crazy few days as we'll be rushing around to finish our shopping before Christmas and then shopping after to buy things to bring back with us. We're already making a list of things we need to bring back with us. Unfortunately, a mixer and crock-pot would look a little strange in a suitcase, I would think. They'd probably pull me aside as some new terrorist.

19Nov2008: Day 177: See Ya Latah

Yup - sick again! I swear she's been sick more than healthy since we've been here. You can tell by the whiny, not satisfied with anything attitude she exhibits first thing in the morning. Makes you feel like your whole day is going to be extremely long if it she continues to act this way. It's just a congested cough and runny nose (p.s. you should take stock in Kleenex as we've bought so many boxes since we've been here, their shares must have gone up).

She finally had a pretty decent breakfast. Ate a pancake and some cereal. This put her in a better mood and I decided to still take her to play groups. She was fine and enjoyed being with Hannah. At the first play group at the church, the women from another ward were having their enrichment meeting and we joined in. They were just making ornaments from clay. So the kids who wanted, were able to join in. I was also able to talk to the enrichment counselor about our night next Wednesday and the things we need to get to be prepared. We're going to put together Christmas stockings for the primary and nursery kids, then fill them with stuff.

We decided to walk to the afternoon group as it was a nice day. We stopped at the park for a bit first to play on the slide and swing. Makenna, as usual, gravitated toward the different cars to ride on and the kitchen area. But she did go play with some small cars for a short bit. When we got to the park, she wanted to walk again so I let her out of the stroller. She started to lag behind and I tried walking ahead to get her to follow. I was about 10 steps ahead and I just turned around and looked at her and didn't say anything. She looked at me and said, "See Ya Latah." I laughed and told her that if I had to go back and get her she would be sitting back in the stroller. She then started to walk towards me.

Tonight, when I told her bath time, I was busy just finishing up an e-mail on the computer. She then turned it on me and came over and grabbed my hand to take me upstairs to the bathroom. Then when daddy came home and it was time for bed, she wanted him to take her upstairs to get ready and she took his hand and looked at me and said, "See ya Latah."

18Nov2008: Day 176: St. Mark's Nursery

After my work out today, I had an appointment to go to the St. Mark's Nursery. This happens to be the same building that I take Makenna to on Wednesday afternoons for play group. They also run a nursery five days a week from 9:15am - 12:15pm. I've been thinking about having Makenna go to this a couple of days a week. It would replace the gym nursery/creche. It's a bit more cost effective as the one at the gym is 3.50 pounds for an hour or 5 pounds for an hour and a half. Whereas she can go to this nursery for 3 hours for 6.50 pounds. This would give me time to run errands or get cleaning done at the house or work on family history.

The woman who is ahead of the nursery showed me around. It is set up a bit different then how it is on Wednesdays. I asked if they work with the kids on ABC's and numbers and she said not really. They are not supposed to. They don't discourage it if a child is doing things related, but they may only touch upon it in songs. They would assign a child care worker to her so that she gets comfortable with one particular person. She can obviously go to whomever she chooses but the one worker would be responsible for keeping her record up to date. They keep a record of the things they do and the progress they make in different areas.

What was cute was a little girl that was there (Molly,) who goes to the Wednesday afternoon groups came up to Makenna and took her hand was was walking around with her. If I recall, Molly is 3 (maybe 3.5). Anyways, another girl then came up and took Makenna by the hand and started to walk around with her. Makenna at this point got nervous and ran up to me saying, "mommy, mommy, mommy," and clung to my leg. But since she's used to the place she went right back off to play. I think she was confused because it didn't look exactly the same. They had different toys out and none of the normal ones she usually sees when she goes.

I feel somewhat guilty dumping her off on someone else. I didn't mind an hour here or there while I worked out but for three? I feel like I'm not being a good mother by having someone else watch her, now that I'm a "stay-at-home-mom" so to say. But there are some days where I really need to be able to run errands without towing a child behind me so I can get it done faster. I'm trying to tell myself that I'll be spending time with her on Wednesday's at the play groups and on Thursdays at the playgroup or things that we do that day. Plus it will hopefully give her better interacting skills. But then I think, well, she'll be going to pre-school shortly after we return to the states so I'll be missing out on this time. I guess I'll try it. It's only going to be for two days in the week.

Other than that, the day was typical. Makenna did count up to four on her own. I don't remember what she was doing but she came out and said, "one, two, three, four." I was impressed. Chris came home for dinner but then had to go back to work. I was glad he was able to do that at least. He wasn't able to get home until about 8:30pm last night.

17Nov2008: Day 175: Did You Do That?

Makenna woke up a couple of times during the night (I think after 6am) but I let Chris get up as he can fall asleep faster and easier than I can. He thinks she was just cold. Then in the morning when she actually got up, she had a pretty hoarse cough. Here we go again, is all I could think. I was just thinking how we've had a couple of peaceful weeks in regards to a cold (not including the "sick" episode last Thursday). Plus it's easy to tell when she gets into that whiny mode as she was today. Plus, she's also picked up this really annoying habit of screaming when she doesn't get her way. Just a quick shrill, but annoying enough when done, especially done in repetition.

Her eating is still very erratic. She did eat lunch and that was it. She didn't want breakfast, after heating up a pancake for her. Nor did she want dinner. The lunch she ate was mine...of course. I expected it so I had heated up a couple of things.

What she did do happened while I was cooking dinner. I had left a movie in our mini-DVD player that we brought from the states. It was just a DVD of nursery rhymes. I came into the living room and was shocked to find that "Monsters Inc." was now playing. I said, "did you do that?" Well, the answer had to be yes. So at two years of age, she successfully removed the DVD that was playing, pulled out another one from the DVD case of movies, and put it in correctly, and started playing it. Needless to say, when daddy got home, he was elated that he has such a smart, technical child. He can't wait to go out and buy her robots to build and have her fix our computers. I figure, heck, by the time we go back to the states, she could take over my job.

16Nov2008: Day 174: Stop It!

I figured that since Chris was adding his rugby bit that he would go ahead and write up Sunday's blog. I should've known better.

In all fairness, not much exciting happened today. Makenna is still not eating too well, which is making us nervous. But, if you give her junk food, she's all for it. So I think she's just being picky. She did eat a little bit of my lunch.

She was cranky as ever at church. She only had a 45 minute nap before hand as she sat up in her room reading books. I had to take her out and sit with her and as I was having her sit calmly, she would yell, "stop it!" She kept yelling this. Another new word she obviously learned from me.

There's a couple of things I forgot to write about that happened last week. The first one was on Thursday, a kid bit Makenna at the nursery at the gym. He got her pretty good on the upper right shoulder blade. It almost made me think maybe that's what had gotten her sick -rabies. But since Hannah had been sick too I realized that wasn't it.

The other thing has to do with the poor reporting they do here. I know I mentioned this before about the news reporters doing a pretty bad job but this one had me laughing. When I was at the gym last Monday, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister was giving this excruciatingly long speech about how he plans on working with the new President-Elect Barack Obama and other leaders in trying to rectify the banking and financial issues around the world. Well anyways, they kept panning to this group of reporters asking questions and I don't know if it was only a small pool that they kept showing the same group or if these people were the only one's asking questions, but either way, there was one particular reporter who was just as bored with the talk as I was, but he was sleeping! They kept showing one reporter after another asking questions and this guy seemed to be in the middle of them. His head was bobbing from side to side and falling over. I was like, "he is so fired." I have to admit it was the best part of the speech.

15Nov2008: Day 173: Howletts Zoo & Rugby

Makenna and I went to Howletts Zoo this afternoon with Andrea, and her friend Fran and her two kids April and Thomas. It was a small zoo compared to the Whipsnade Zoo that we went to a few months ago. But they did have some "new additions" to the zoo. Such as baby tiger cubs, baby leopards, and some baby monkeys.

They also had elephants, lemurs, rhinoceros, and some wild pigs, wolves, wild dogs, capybaras, and other types of animals. Mostly monkeys though. There was one weird thing that I just couldn't get over, and that's a cat. They had cats in cages! That was just so bizarre. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why they would possibly have cats in cages. Then I realized, well, they'd probably walk away if they weren't caged. The cats were called Pallas cat or Manul. Unfortunately, my picture taking wasn't the best today. The camera focused more on fences than on animals. Or the animals showed more of their backsides than the fronts.

Makenna really enjoyed the leopards and monkeys. She kept saying leopard but it came out more like wepard, and lemur was “ wemur”. She was good for the most part. She unfortunately did not eat lunch before we left as she didn't want to. So when we got to the zoo, she was a bit irritable. I wanted her to eat somewhat healthy, of course, and of course, she did not want to. I tried to get her to eat cereal, but she wanted chips. Then Fran had mini cupcakes and I relented. Then again she wanted chips, but I asked her to eat cereal first. But Fran again had some organic cheese rice puffs and I relented again. Then I just finally gave in and let her have the chips and another mini muffin.

After the zoo, we went to Fran's where she put together a quick meal of pizza, pasta, breaded mushrooms, and potato skins. Makenna ate....nothing. She just kicked up a fuss. She finally ate a yogurt, but it was more like a pudding than a yogurt. She enjoyed playing with April and Thomas's toys and their cats.

Chris went to a Rugby match and will write about his time later.

Yes, I went with Darren, he is Andrea's fiance and a good friend from work. They are the couple who took us out the day after we arrived here and showed us around...they also bought us groceries. Very friendly people and I was really looking forward to going to this game since he offered it to me a couple weeks ago. We went with Jess a friend of Darren's. We left around 9:00 to get to the train station. It was about a 45 minute journey to Victoria station and then we took several other trains eventually making it to the Richmond station, where we walked to a pub by the Thames and had a couple of Guinness extra-cold. I always thought that most Brits like their beer warm, but in fact extra-cold Guinness is everywhere, so I'm not sure who drinks it warm.

But, anyway, we left there to walk to the stadium about a mile away. Along the way there were people selling hamburgers and sausage outside their houses, and one spot that Darren always stops at, was a South African steak sandwich place so we grabbed a sandwich there, which was good. We then headed to the stadium.

It was a huge place, apparently 80,600 people attended. The match was between England and Australia, apparently a pretty good grudge match. So, I was surprised that when the Australians came out that everyone stood up and clapped quite loudly, with no whistling or booing. (The Brits are sooo polite!) Earlier, Jess said to me that they thought that the Brits should be more patriotic like Americans. So, I was blown away when they started to sing their national Anthem...they BELTED it out. They sang it with such power, I was truly moved. The Brits are actually very patriotic, perhaps more so than even Americans. I've been at plenty of Baseball games and other stadium sports in the states and no one sings any more - I bet more than 50% of Americans won't even know the whole national anthem, and that may be generous. These folks were like they were on the American Idol finals...the sound must have travelled for miles! Now, one thing you may or may not know is that the founding fathers of our great nation changed the words to the tune of the British national anthem to "My Country ‘Tis of Thee". I started to sing it with the tune to have a chuckle with Darren and Jess, but was totally washed out making it rather sad and even perhaps rude, so I stopped. At the end of their singing, I turned to Jess and told him that Brits are very patriotic and explained why. Anyway, the game started from there.

Rugby is a very fast paced game. It is only 80 minutes of play, 2 halves. I don't know why we changed it so much into what is American Football now. Rugby is actually quite a lot better. I think the reason it was changed was because you can't really do commercials very well with Rugby, so it is not very marketable. There is no stop in play. I think I saw the clock only stop once during the entire match and that was at the last 6 seconds of the game and the bonehead Referee called a penalty. Let them play! I thought that a lot during the game as it was basically won by the Referee. He called so many penalties near the goal against England that Australia just kept kicking the ball and scoring. Very disappointing. The ref was from South Africa, so I don't know if there was bias there or not.

It is a very interesting game though, again very fast paced. Basically, the two teams charge one another and at some point the ball is grabbed from behind and passed back. You can only pass backwards and kick forwards. Scoring is either by kicking the ball over the opposing team's goal or crossing the goal line and planting the ball "with downward force" into the ground. Basically, if you manage to keep the person with the ball from touching the ground, then it is not a "touchdown" (they call it something else, but in football you don't have to have it touch down, just cross the line...so why do we call it a touchdown and they don't? Strange.) When the ball would go out, you could still catch it and run, also when it was dropped out the team would throw in and they would lift up the catcher into the air (like a cheerleader lift) above their heads to intercept the ball and toss it back to their team to start the charge. (Speaking of Cheerleaders, there are none...I thought that was odd...I guess cheer leading is an American adaptation.) A normal charge would be a series of back passes along the field with small runs and tackles in between. The cool thing about the game that really keeps it moving is that if you are tackled to the ground you have to immediately release the ball. This makes the action go on forever. Only until there is a penalty, out of bounds, or score does the action ever stop.

So, basically, a 40 minute half , 10 minute halftime, and another 40 minute half and it was done. It all went so very very quickly. Baseball, kills me with how long and boring it is - 3 hours plus. Football can be the same way, so many stops in play for commercials and timeouts, boring! Rugby never stops...just play...except penalties. Those stink. Most of them were because of people coming into the side of a scrum...or whatever...its is when someone gets tackled and you can only enter the pile from behind, not from the side. So, the team in control normally charges their own tackled man, from behind, flipping him over his head to reveal the ball under him which they grab as if they were in some sort of violent Easter egg hunt and toss it back like a hot potato...it is quite amusing.

When the game ended we decided to hang out and wait for the crowd to dissipate so we had another Guinness. After that we headed for the buses to the train station, but we stopped along the way to visit Darren's Tombstone, which he had mentioned all day and I had no idea what he was talking about. I thought maybe we were going to tip toe through a graveyard to find a tomb labeled with his name or something, but apparently, the stadium was raising funds by selling of 7x7 inch squares of ground around the whole stadium. His finance had bought him one for his 40th birthday and this was his first time seeing it. So, after about 5 minutes of looking, we found it and took a couple pictures of him lying on the ground next to it (on Jess' cell phone, so I don't have it) and then headed for the buses to the train station. We got home about an hour or so later and met up with Teri and Makenna at Jess & Fran’s house.

14Nov2008: Day 172: I Told

Today was much better. Makenna woke up a couple of times during the night but she would just start talking, as if it was morning. She would start by saying, "milk, milk" then switch to "water, water" or "juice, juice". So Chris got up and gave her a little bit of water. She was able to keep it down and when she woke up later and asked for more, he got up again and gave her some more. She woke up her usual self, albeit a bit tired. That went along with the rest of us. Hannah is doing better too but I guess her mom is starting to feel a bit ill now. Hopefully I won't get that.

I cancelled her nursery at the gym and made my work out cleaning. She did eat a bit of cereal but only drank the milk from her bowl. Otherwise, she just wanted water. She did eat a bit for lunch too, but again, no milk. I figure she knows best at this point so I let her just drink water. She didn't really eat for dinner. We had kielbasa (their version of it over here). She had one bite and decided she didn't want anymore. She used to love it back in the states, but I cooked it differently - in a crock-pot with a mustard sauce.

I also could tell Makenna was better as she was getting into everything and being a little trouble maker. She took the floor cleaner (for mopping) and squirted it on the living room rug. Plus was constantly trying to go upstairs. Her new word for today is "I told." She got that from me always saying, "I told you...." Usually, "I told you not to do that," is my full sentence. So today she's gone around and said "I told, I told."

She also had this thing that indicates when she wants a nap, or doesn't want to get up from sleeping, called "sleeping bunny." When we go to the Thursday play groups with the singing and dancing, they have a song where the kids lay down on the floor and pretend they're sleeping bunnies. Then they wake up and hop up and down. So about a week or two ago, she started laying down on the floor when she's ready to go to sleep and says, "sleepy bunny." Sometimes when I go to wake her up from a nap, she'll just lay there and say "sleepy bunny." Tonight, she keeps laying across myself or Chris and saying "sleepy bunny." Not sure if she's trying to tell us she wants to go to bed, or if she just wants to lay across us to relax.

When Chris got home last night, I told him of the joyous occasion she missed. The first time he went out with the guys after she was born, back in the states, Makenna got sick like this, although not as bad, and on a laminate floor which was much easier to clean. I'm not sure why this happens when he goes out, as it's very rare that he does. It makes me nervous though because he's going out with the guys all day tomorrow to a rugby match. Makenna and I are hopefully going to go to a zoo with Andrea. She's a girlfriend of a guy Chris works with and who he's going to the rugby match with. She has another girlfriend with kids who knows all the kid-type places to go.

13Nov2008: Day 171: Happy Birthday Jared

Today is my brother Jared's birthday. I won't say how old he is so as to not give away my age in any way, shape, or form. I was hoping to make him a cute little sign to post but the night went very wrong as you'll read. P.S. Jared if you're reading this - I tried calling twice to wish you a happy birthday but the first time it went to your voice mail, I figured I'd call later when you were available. The second time it went into your voice mail...I was going to leave a message...but I had an emergency on my hands and had to hang up.

I was hoping to write about how I was excited that I finally found some decent saran wrap (or cling film as they call it here). You'd be surprised how excited that made me. I can't begin to tell you the many days of utter frustration and anger that I had over crummy saran wrap. Ask Chris's mother how bad it was. They just have no-name brands. I was almost tempted to ask for that as birthday and Christmas gifts - a real brand like Glad.

I was also going to mention how Makenna is now off of whole milk and onto 2 percent. Or what I think is 2 percent. Again, hard to really tell. They don't clearly mark milk like they do in the states, except for the whole milk. The rest say less than 4% milk and so on.

On to the emergency. Well, the day started out pretty good. We went into downtown Chatham with Hannah and family to do a little shopping. I have to say Makenna was fairly well behaved. She did try to wander off a couple of times but I told her that if she wandered off again that she would be in the cart. That pretty much kept her by my side. Plus it helps when you have another adult to keep eyes on her.

Then this evening, I had a text message from Hannah's mom telling me that Hannah had gotten sick and hoped that she hadn't passed it on to Makenna. I texted her back and said, "nope, Makenna is fine and we hoped that Hannah felt better." After dinner, Makenna and I were just vegging on the couch and I didn't even realize that she had gotten up. Then I heard her coughing and realized she had gone to the other couch and was actually getting sick. I wasn't sure whether to be glad she had gotten up and didn't get sick all over me or to wish she had, as it would've been gross, but easier to clean up.

I tried getting her to the bathroom but left a small trail along the way. By the time we made it to the bathroom, she was done. So it was onto the clean-up. Yuck! Also, a quick bath. We got through that and she seemed to be much better. I was surprised she didn't cry at all. I was also more surprised to see more of her lunch contents instead of dinner that had come up. Oh, did I mention that her father is out with the boys tonight?!?!?!?!!!!*&*!%^&

Well, part of me was thinking I should keep her up and the other part was like I should get her to bed. I was debating whether or not to let her have a drink and I was thinking if it was me, I'd like something to clean off the taste from my mouth. Bad idea as you can well guess. More of a trail on the floor, another pillow from the couch, and some on the bathroom floor, but yeah, we made some into the toilet. Then it was time for clean-up number two. I tried to get her to sit on a blanket on the floor while I was cleaning up but she thought it was more entertaining to watch me.

I usually clean some part of the house every week - one week downstairs and the next up. I thought it was funny how I had no energy all week to clean anything. God must have known this night was coming. I figured, well, while I'm in here, I might as well clean the bathroom. I didn't do the full bathroom clean, but figured, at least I got some done for tomorrow.

Makenna decided that she wanted to go to bed, so I figured, okay. I got her dressed, again, for bed. Just to let you know, I've had to take two breaks while writing this to run upstairs to deal with her being sick. I've run out of sheets for her bed, and just put a towel under her. I'm almost out of pj's and might have to resort to plain old clothes for pj's. I've had to take away every blanket she really wants as she keeps getting sick on them. I guess I'm lucky that she's being fairly easy about giving up her blankets. She had a tough time giving up her favourite one..."let go" she said. I know she got that from me. Plus, she still hasn't cried once about all this. I've decided that I like the other end of her being sick than this one. At least that one happens in a contained area.

Did I mention that her dad is still out with the guys!!##$?(&*$#_

It's going to be a long night!

12Nov2008: Day 170: Cook!

This morning, Makenna was insisting that she had to have pancakes for breakfast. So I relented and I sat her up on the counter next to where I cook. I sometimes do this as long as it's something simple and I can keep an eye on her. As I was cooking, I had put on the Ipod to listen to music. I was dancing around getting Makenna to dance a bit, but then she pointed to the pancakes and said "Cook!" It came out like, stop this silly dancing mom, and cook me my pancakes!

She at least enjoyed the pancakes. I figured she would since she didn't have dinner last night. She seems to be in a stage of eating a big breakfast and a pretty decent size lunch and then very little if anything for dinner.

We went and got Hannah and family to go to playgroup. Makenna was less clingy and I think that was because Hannah was there to play with. I was going to run an errand and have Madonna look after Makenna but since there was only one other mom, I figured I'd stay and run my errand another time. I was glad I stayed. The other mom is from another ward at church and we started talking about how we can combine for activities. So hopefully next week, we'll hammer out some ideas.

We quickly ran home, and got lunch and off to the next playgroup. After that playgroup, went home and as I was getting Makenna ready for a nap, she slipped on a rug in the bathroom and went down and hit her head pretty hard on the toilet. I think it was a combination of being tired and getting her feet tangled up in the rug. Well, I kept her up for another hour to make sure she was okay and keep an eye on the goose egg growing on her head. I took her downstairs and she wanted to watch "Nina and the Neurons." After the fourth show of it, I could tell she was fine and put her up for a nap.

One other thing she's been doing this week is singing bits of songs. So all of a sudden, I'll hear "twinkle, twinkle, sky, up high, how I wonder, twinkle, twinkle star." She also today sang row, row your boat but they add a few verses here I've never heard of. The version she was singing was about an crocodile where you scream. I hear her singing, "row, row, ??????, aaahhhhhh." I can't quite make out what most of the song is but I could tell when she gets to the part where you scream.

She also blessed our food tonight. I didn't realize that was what she was doing at first but then all of a sudden I heard, "Amen." We were walking into the dining room with dinner and I heard her babbling and then the "amen." So I figured that her blessing was sufficient.

11Nov2008: Day 169: Holy Moly

Just when you don't think their will be anything to write about...Makenna comes up with some things to make life interesting.

Her new words today were "Holy Moly" (but said with out the "L"s) and "my goodness." These came about as I was changing a massively disgusting, stinky diaper. As I was saying these words, she would copy me and laugh. Then we would both say "stinky." I was able to get this video of some of our highly educated conversation.


Then, as I was getting her ready for a nap, I was in my bedroom and she came in and got the phone. This was nothing new, as she loves getting the phone and playing with it. But this time, she actually dialed someone...unfortunately...it was emergency services! In the states it's 911, but here, it's 999. When I heard a voice coming out of the other end of the phone, I grabbed it and saw on the display that it actually said 9999 (maybe for a super-emergency?). I heard the voice then ask if there was an emergency, and I apologized profusely and told them that my daughter had accidentally dialed the phone. I'm not sure if when she dialed the number it automatically turns on and dials, as it's the emergency number, or if she had turned on the phone first and then dialed or dialed and then turned on the phone. Hard to say, but either way, it made for an interesting moment.

In the evening, we again spent time with Makenna, playing with different toys. Chris even did that whole "got your nose" thing but Makenna just walked away like, "so what?" She did go back once and put her nose against his fingers to get her nose back.
Tonight, while I was finishing putting her to bed, I was going through our normal bedtime routine, and adding our earlier conversation of Holy Moly and My Goodness - I'm a sucker for cute baby laughs. Well, as I gave her one of her many goodnight kisses and said "I'll see you tomorrow," she replied, "See you Latah" (that's the English accent that comes through). I just thought it was so cute.

10Nov2008: Day 168: Cold, Wet, Rainy, Windy

That about sums up the day. It was too cold, wet, windy, rainy to go anywhere besides the gym. Makenna, of course, wanted to stomp in every puddle she saw from the car to the gym, and back again. I swear there's some magnetic force that happens between her feet and a puddle.

On the bright side, Chris came home fairly early (just before 5pm) as they lost power at his plant. He's not sure why, and his side of the building actually had a generator, but they still couldn't connect to the network. So I guess they told everyone to go home. It made my life easier so that I could cook dinner without a child clinging to my leg begging to be picked up.

One other nice thing that we did tonight is to shut off the t.v. and computer (albeit for 15 minutes), before Makenna's bedtime to spend time with the three of us doing something. We tried to play with toys but Makenna didn't really want to do that. So we sat and sang different songs where you had to move body parts. I think this is something we should try and incorporate into our nights more often.

9Nov2008: Day 167: Day of Remembrance

Today is what's called "A Day of Remembrance" here in England. It's like our Veteran's Day. Today in church, they had a two minute silence as we stood, to commemorate this day and of course, our little Makenna, could not quite handle the whole concept of being quiet. Not that I really expected her to but it's what she says that kills me.

Imagine if you will, all is quiet, and then you hear "poopy" "poopy" (then a sniff), "no poopy". Not sure what brought that on but I guess she was letting everyone know that she, Makenna, was not poopy. Maybe she smelled something and wanted to make it known that it wasn't her who created the bad smell. I do have to say, that overall, for the two minutes, she was fairly quiet, other than that little commentary above.

She is also now getting more into "sauce". She wants to have sauce with every meal. She's actually having mustard on occasion, when she sees daddy eating it with his meal. She also wants A1. I've probably mentioned this in the past, but A1 is like gold over here to us. Chris's parents brought us some more and so we use it sparingly. Makenna insisted that she have it with her meal tonight. I tried to give her the cheap UK version of "HP" sauce but she actually told me "No" and made me get out the A1. Much to Chris's chagrin.

One neat thing from yesterday was that Makenna actually ate a sandwich. When we were at the Roman Palace, we got something from their cafe and I bought a chicken salad sandwich for myself and we had a kids meal for her. Which consisted of a ham sandwich, chips, a cookie and an apple. Well of course she wanted my sandwich, but we eventually got her to eat her ham sandwich. We wouldn't let her eat a chip until she ate a bite of sandwich. Chris put it best because just when we think we're going to lose the battle, she actually gives in and she found that she liked it. Even tonight, we put corn on her plate and at first she was dead-set against it but by the end of the meal, she was actually eating it.

She also has a knack for messing up our computers. Today she made my screen turn 90 degrees so that I had to tilt my head to see anything. She had done this once before and I have no idea how she does it! I think there must be a hot-key combination that she happens to push. Last time it took me close to 2 hours to figure out how to turn the screen back the right way. This time I remembered how to fix it. Then later, she made it so all my icons went big, but again, I'm not sure how. I couldn't fix it the way I normally would. I had to do it a different way. She also does things to Chris's electronics and shut off the volume to his computer tonight.

Tonight, as we were finishing our Skype conversation with her grandma and grandpa Jones, Makenna went up and gave the computer screen a kiss to kiss them goodbye. She also all of a sudden, felt the need to go on the training potty. So we got her stockings off and diaper off so that she could sit on the potty. But alas, that lasted all of 5 seconds and she was up and running around naked. We quickly clothed her so that we didn't have any accidents. Not to mention that we were still on Skype at the time so all of her antics were going across the internet.

She is getting good at mimicking us. Right now, Chris is telling her to "stop it" as she's trying to get at the video camera. So she looked at Chris and said, "stop it!" She tells me to "let go" when she has a hold of things that I don't want her to have and I'm trying to get it out of her little paws. She's definitely in her two's - no doubt about it.

I just had to add to this as Makenna did something else that had me laughing (silently as I could). She took off her diaper and than ran around naked (from the waist down). Chris was yelling at her to stop taking off her diaper - but that didn't stop her. Then she was climbing on an small table that we had and Chris was frantically trying to get her to come to him so he could put her diaper back on. It was quite a sight to see. I had to duck my head behind my laptop screen so she couldn't see my laughing and be encouraged to continue such outlandish behavior :>)

8Nov2008: Day 166: Roman Palace and Chichester Cathedral

Today we went to two places in Chichester: a ruin of a Roman Palace and the Cathedral that was there. The Roman Palace was built around 75AD and it was destroyed by fire sometime after 350AD. The ruin was found after a ditch was being dug to lay a water main and some mosaic stones were unearthed in 1960. After carefully removing the centuries of earth they found the ruins of this amazing palace. The main surviving artifacts being the mosaic floors. The mosaics are some of the earliest ever found in England and are amazingly detailed even after so long being covered by dirt. Evidence of plow marks from later centuries are some of the things that have damaged the area, but even features from buildings that were there before the palace have also cause settling in the floors that the mosaics were lain on. There were spots where the mosaics had sunk in due to old wooden post holes for previous buildings that had been filled in. Also, the palace was built over an old drainage ditch which cause some of the floors to settle too. There was even a skeleton found where someone was buried in later centuries right into one of the floors.

The most famous mosaic is the one of Cupid riding a dolphin. They lifted this mosaic and others and found even earlier mosaics underneath that have been over paved. These are the ones that are the oldest in England. It is so interesting to think how such beautiful artwork was done so long ago and that evidence of it can survive this long buried. Another feature of the palace was that it had heated floors added at one point in its history...called a Hypocaust. It had a furnace room and hot gases would rise from the room into passages built under the floor and heat the floor.

After we convinced Makenna to stop running away from us so that she could climb up and down stairs, we left to go to the Chichester Cathedral. This is probably one of the more plain Cathedrals we have visited from a stone work and quantity of stone carvings, however, it has the most amazing walls of paintings of old bishops and kings that I have seen so far and its stained glass is extremely nice. The picture of the stain glass below is the entire story of the bible from Adam and Eve to Christ's Resurrection...sort of a story board of the Bible. The Cathedral is having its 900 year anniversary this year. It was one of the first Cathedrals built after the Norman invasion.


One other thing happened today that might be interesting. I was called something by my wife that I never thought I would here someone say to me: "You are most pathetic looking man ever!". I was not upset, but it certainly sounded like something a wife shouldn't say to her husband to the people walking by. I gave her a smug smile and she said "Well, you know what I mean!". I did, in fact, know what she meant, but that didn't stop me from playing with her a bit. It started a few minutes earlier with me asking her for the camera. She handed me the backpack and after a few moments of me sifting through the various pockets, I said to her that I could not find it. She immediately started thinking she left it at the Roman Palace on a chair and both of us were starting to have a bit of a panic attack. She started sifting through the bag herself and after about 1/2 second she pulls out the camera and yells: "You are the most pathetic looking man ever!"...so, I guess I am the most pathetic AT looking...at least I hope that is what she really meant...

7Nov2008: Day 165: Olmsted Manor & Colchester Castle/Museum

We found it! I can't explain how incredibly lucky we were to find it and how excited I was to actually see something that belonged in my family history back in 1242! It fell out of the Olmstead hands (although it was owned by someone by the name of Olmestede), but eventually bought back by a John Holmested or Olmested in 1526. I'm not sure how these two are related, yet, but a James Olmsted emigrated to New England in 1632. I don't think, as far as I know, that James Olmsted ever lived at Olmsted Manor.

There's a book called "Olmsted Family in America" and that's where I got the information above. I have to say I wouldn't have known any of this unless it was for this relative I contacted through our new family history website.

We set off and I drove to the town of Helion-Bumpsted. That's where the book above said that the manor was located. I figured it would be a long shot but I took a picture of the manor from the book that I had printed out (it was just a sketch) and when we got to the small town, I stopped at a pub. I went in and asked if they happened to ever hear of it. The bartender, a woman, said yes that she had and she knew right where it was. I couldn't believe my luck! She was trying to explain to me where it was and there was a patron at the bar who said he was going to drive past the area that it was located after he had another pint. I figured it was best to just try and get directions so I had Chris bring Makenna in along with our GPS. The guy sketched out directions and we were able to see it on the GPS. In the meantime, the bartender called the owner of the house (manor) and got the post code. (Post codes are like our zip codes but it's pretty much encompasses about a street of houses instead of a big area like it does where we live).

So off we went down these really windy roads that only is one car width. We found this sign and knew we were on the right track. We kept going and at the end of this bumpy, muddy road, we found it. It looks different from the sketch, but not by too much. I knocked on the door and asked the owner if we had the right place, which he said we did. I asked if he minded if we walked around and took some pictures, and he was very kind and said that was fine. I asked him if he happened to be related to the Olmstead line at all and he said no. He said that is family acquired the hall in 1919 and he bought it in 1987 from his grandfather. I would've liked to have gone inside but I didn't ask, and he didn't offer. I considered myself fortunate to find the place and left it at that.

So we walked around it about three times or so taking pictures and video, and comparing it to the sketch from the book. We saw the moat which still runs around the back-side of the house. According to the book, parts of it were filled in to create the roads leading to it. Makenna enjoyed it because we had brought her wellies and she was able to stomp freely in the puddles.

After, we took off to find Colchester Castle. We were going to scrap that idea and go to another castle in the area but it was closed (as most are at this time of year). So we decided to continue on to Colchester Castle as I knew that was open as it was turned into a museum. We got there in the very busy city of Colchester and got to the museum. We only had about an hour before they closed, but we figured that would be enough time and about the length of time Makenna would be agreeable to walking around. It was only took us about an hour anyways, so it worked out well.

Colchester castle itself was a Norman castle ordered to be built by William the Conqueror. It was built on the foundations of a Roman temple. In 1215 the castle was overtaken by King John and ceased to be a royal castle after the Magna Carta. It then became a prison most noted to imprison suspected witches. It eventually became the museum it is now. They did have some history of Colchester along with things they found in different archaeological digs in different areas around Colchester and other areas of England. They talked a lot about the Roman way of life as many of the materials used to build the castle were from Roman times. They also had a lot of Roman mosaics.

It wasn't anything spectacular but I was glad to fit it in to our day. We then left and went to Costco's on the way home and got home in time to see neighbors setting off fireworks which Makenna thoroughly enjoyed. We hope to get out to another place tomorrow along with possibly going somewhere to see fireworks as tomorrow is a big night to see them in different parts of the country.

6Nov2008: Day 164: Jane Austen

Today didn't go quite as planned. We had planned to go to a activity center with Hannah and family. I guess it's an indoors play area with balls to swim in and other play things. But, Hannah's dad forgot to leave the car seat for her so we just ended up going over to their house to play. They still seemed to have fun and Makenna gave Hannah a kiss goodbye when we left.

Went to the gym and I asked the nursery where she goes, how she gets along with the other kids their. They said she'll play along side them, which is typical for this age. She's interested in what the other kids are doing, and she's become a lot more talkative then when she first started to go. So that was good to hear.

I recorded a "Meerkat Manor" show today and we watched it, although it was an old one that I had seen back in the states, just with a different voice narrating. Makenna liked it and kept saying "Meerkat". Which is better than the warn out Fi-Dough. After her nap we watched some more of it and she had a good laugh when she said that the "Meerkat Stinky."

When we first moved here, and had no tv, I found a book of Jane Austen's stories. I started reading it and actually got into it. It has all six of her books in this one big one. I really enjoyed the first one, "Sense and Sensibility." I figured I'd have something to talk to my two sister-in-laws about as they are into Jane Austen. But I do have to say by the last book, "Persuasion," I had it. They stories seemed to all be along the same lines more or less of a person in love and in the end gets the person she wanted. I was hoping to finish this massive book but I just couldn't. I gave up a couple of weeks ago. I'm hoping to maybe get back into it and finish this last book. The problem with her stories, in my opinion, is way too many characters. I had to start printing out a list of characters from the web just to follow. I'd get confused as I was reading, about who was who and why they were doing what they were doing.

I'm excited for tomorrow as Chris has off work (for working last Sat,) and we hope to try and go up and see the area where this farmhouse from my family line is. I doubt we'll actually find the house itself but it would be neat if we could.