5Jul2008: Day 41: Lazy town

Chris is writing again.

Today, Saturday, was a day of lying around most of the day. We didn't want to take Makenna out much because we wanted her cold to get better. Teri was feeling better this morning, but we just decided to go out and buy some towels, knives, and a fan, which we did at Argos (a catalog store I mentioned in an early blog). We were also looking oven mits, but didn't find any. We'll have to go somewhere else to find it. I'm sure next week I'll be sick.

I went and updated Sunday last weeks Sunday blog for the Church I went to. I looked on line and found a St Marks that is fairly close as well and I'm thinking I'm going to try that out. St. Augustine has a bible in every seat and they gave the page numbers out at the beginning of the readings. So, it is similar to home, but, I thought I would check out this St. Marks.

4 July 2008: Day 40: Happy Fourth of July!

We had over about 12 people from Chris’ work (including two kids). We had tons of food and now we have a lot of leftovers. They all loved Chris’s burgers with his “secret” ingredient – Canadian Steak Seasoning, along with his Chicken wings. We also bought an Apple Pie from Costco and no one ate it! They opted for an Apple Crumble Pie which I made, a Patriotic pie, made by another person who actually came from BAE in Johnson City a couple weeks after we did for a year, and for brownies. Makenna opted to eat Doritos and dessert. I got her to try a cucumber, but it took one bite, that didn’t make it in her mouth, to have her decide, nope, Doritos are better. It’s funny because when we offer her food she’ll look at it and after a few seconds say “no”. But then Chris offered her a jellybean, which she’s never seen, and has no qualms about trying it and eating it. Do kids have some “junk-food” sensor? Nope – that looks to healthy – so I won’t eat it. Oh, look at that….that looks like it’s full of sugar – that’s for me! I don’t get it!

Well anyways, one guy did bring fireworks, but they were more “ground-type” fireworks than anything for the sky. We did have a few that went up in the air and the neighbors oohed and aahhd.

We also got some more English lingo taught to us. We got the history of Yorkshire pudding, which we hope to be able to try at some point, and got some more names of sights we should go see.

Not sure if we’ll get out this weekend or not. Depends on how Makenna feels, and now me, as I think she’s given me a bit of what she has. I already told Chris that when she wakes up in the morning that it’s going to be his responsibility to get up with her as I need to fight off this illness. Not good with a sick parent and a sick child. Especially when it’s the mommy.

3 July 2008: Day 39: Have Sick Child Will Travel…No Where

No play group today. Makenna woke up this morning with a pretty runny nose, so much so that her sheets needed washing. She sounded stuffed up and as the day went on, it was the right choice to just stay home.

I never saw this child drool so much! Her shirts were drenched – which was probably why her sheets were wet too. Plus, the whining, crying, and never ending unhappiness is all one can tolerate in a day. Please don’t let us have another day like that (ever!) or at least tomorrow. Granted she's found out that whining is the one thing her mother (and father) can't stand and she does it with great finesse to try and get her way. But like I said, add crying and a general discontent because your sick, and a language barrier - you're just asking someone to break!

It made it hard to get things done, but somehow I got the house all tidy for tomorrow’s party and got an Apple Strudel made. Of course, I left some of the finishing picking-up for Chris and left him to take care of Makenna while I took a much needed bath. I do love this tub! (Tina would like it too – it’s purple!)

2 July 2008: Day 38: Happy Birthday Cory & Uncle Tom

A couple of birthday’s we won’t be around to celebrate up at our cottage this year, so we thought we’d wish them a Happy Birthday for all to see! (And congrats to Cory for graduating from High School!)

Today Makenna got to go a new play group that’s about a 20 minute walk from the house. We had the car but I had no idea where this group was and the girl from church was meeting me at the park to then walk with me to show me where it was. It only cost a pound and goes for almost 2 hours. They had lots of toys and a small bounce house. They also had lots of mini cars/bikes that she could sit on and ride around. She really enjoys those right now. Then they had a snack and more play time. They also brought out an art activity – painting. We, mommy, steered clear of that. Especially when I saw paint around one little girl’s mouth along with remnants of a chocolate cookie. Then it was pick up time and story and song time. Hopefully we’ll be able to go again if I remember how to get there and it’s not raining. It just started to rain as we were just getting there and then just as we were getting home. So that worked out well.

We then went to pick up Chris at work later and went shopping at Costco—our Sam’s Club away from home. Unfortunately, I think Chris and I both like Sam’s Club better as they would’ve had the things we were looking for. After we got home, Chris ran down to the regular grocery store to pick up all the rest of the things we needed for a Fourth of July party we’re having on Friday. He invited people from work along with their kids and families so pray we have good weather that day! That means tomorrow is a cleaning day – whoopee.

1 July 2008: Day37: Keys – Where are my keys?

So today I finally got to the gym and luckily Chris left me the car so I drove. I scheduled Makenna at the nursery for two hours (good thing), as it took me one hour alone to get everything situated (paperwork etc.) until I could start working out. So they give you this credit card like thing that you swipe to be let into the gym facility, and then you put it on the inside of the locker you’re going to use and you can then turn the key to lock it and you take the keys with you.

All fine and dandy, I do an hour of cardio work as they don’t want me using weights until I have my “induction” day which isn’t until next Tuesday. (Did anyone ever tell people over here that induction has to do with birthing babies and not being shown around the gym? But I digress). It was time to go pick up Makenna from the nursery when I realized that I didn’t have my locker keys. So I went back to the machine I thought I left them at – nope! I’m frantically searching for these keys as the locker has my car keys inside. I ask the front desk who told me to go back up and check with people elsewhere. I finally when back to the machines and found the one I was at and found my keys – phew!

On to get Makenna – where are my car keys???? I quickly looked through the backpack and didn’t find them. So I thought I must’ve left them in the nursery when I was filling out paperwork on Makenna. Nope – they don’t have them. AARGH! So I pulled apart my backpack and found them. Thank goodness!

Alright well we get home and wait for the cable people to come so that we can now have phone, internet, and cable tv. Well he shows and I can’t get the front door to unlock and open. This just isn’t my day with technical gadgets called keys!

Well, obviously he got in as we now have internet YEAH!!! Time to catch up on my e-mails, and my tv shows on-line as they don’t show the latest shows here.

30June2008: Day 36: Washer/Dryer – One Machine

Well the plan was to go to the gym to start my membership. BUT….Chris called as I was getting ready to go to say that we had left the stroller in the car. So that plan went out the window. It would’ve been a work out alone just to get her to walk that far and I would’ve had to carry her most of the way, and the same would go for getting home. Hopefully tomorrow we can put that plan to work. So we just went to the park for a bit.

Other than that, it was just waiting around in the afternoon for the new washer/dryer combo to be delivered. It’s all the same machine. So you can set it to do a wash and then when it’s done washing it will go right into drying the clothes. Weird! Unfortunately, it’s still a small washer so you can’t let laundry pile up to high. Luckily it’s been fairly nice (nicer than what it is most of the time if you ask those that live here regularly), and I’ve been able to do laundry 5 days a week or so and hang them out. I did have one day, last Friday I think, where I hung them out and then later, I realized they were being rained on. So I had to go back out and get them and hang them in the house. But my percentage is getting better with that than it was in the old location where it happened quite frequently.

The only other thing is that it’s almost 8:45pm and Chris isn’t home from work yet. Boy, some things never change!

29June2008: Day 35: Church

Church at a new ward – Gillingham. It’s divided into three wards. One starts at 9am, then 11am, then 1pm. I’m in the 3rd ward that meets at 1pm. That worked out so that Chris could attend a full service at a church down the road. Hopefully he'll add more to this about his experience.

I guess because of the scheduling, they have Relief Society/Priesthood first, then Sunday School, then Sacrament meeting. It seems to me I recall doing this back at home a very long time ago, probably when we were split into two wards. But here, I didn’t understand why, at least this 3rd ward, is split from two other wards. I only counted about 50 people in Sacrament meeting, which meant a lot of empty seats. I’ll have to ask someone about that. Also the songs for Relief Society were done by a CD as there was no piano in the room. Then in Sacrament meeting the piano player played very fast. There was no “holding” of notes and no pause between the first verse to the next. So the sacrament songs were done very quickly. But that’s not the point.

Since we didn’t get home until after 4pm, it was just a lazy day around the house.

Chris' Day at Church: I went to St. Agustine's in Gillingham. They apparently were in search of a priest and are installing a new one this Thursday. The priest they had was a older man, but very good, though the organist gave the sermon. He said that his 11 month stint was over, so apparently they have been serching for a long time. The new priest has three young children. I'll probably go next week. It is a newer church probably early 1900's. It is large, but probably about the same size congregation at Good Shepherd. A lot of people participate in the services, which is nice to see. Seems very homey, so I think I will like it. It is only about a mile from home, so I may try walking there on nice mornings.