October 2008

Week 3

Another week gone.. not sure where time is going! I’m sitting here typing this at the beginning of week 4 as we’ve been offline while waiting to be reconnected after the move from the temporary house to the (semi-)permanent one. It’s been hard without an internet/TV connection but a good thing also as it means I have no excuse not to unpack & get sorted! It’s really chilly today but not a cloud in the sky so it’s really warm inside & in the car & the sky is sooooo very blue…I don’t mind it cold when it’s sunny & bright too! So what have we been up to this past week?

Nyah was the ‘Shining Star’ of the week in her class which she just loved, basically she got to do a different activity each day all tailored around her, she couldn’t of been happier! Harley is also loving it at school, she has a ‘very grown up’ expanding file that she carries all her work & ‘assignments’ in & is doing really well, they are also giving her a little help with getting to know the US currency & also cursive handwriting (the posh curly stuff) that they have already covered when they were younger here but not in the UK. The school have been great & the staff have been really keen to get to know the girls, help them feel at home & it has really helped things all round having them both so happy. (keep an eye out for the surreal moment of the week to do with school further on!)

On Monday G & I went with our relocation lady to the social security office to get the highly anticipated ‘social security numbers’ referred to as SSN’s… you need one of these over to here to get most things, credit card, cell phone (mobile to you back in blighty!!) internet/TV, lease cars, the list goes on. We’ve been really lucky to get the basics through the relocation company so far. You have to have been in the country 10 days before you can even apply for one. Some things here are so cutting edge & at the total opposite end some things are a bit old fashioned & tied up in red tape it’s unreal!! What makes me really laugh is they have these little signs they put on the doors of shops/restaurants etc that look like the ‘no smoking allowed’ sign but as you get closer you realize it’s a ‘no guns allowed’ sign…makes me smile to myself as I picture a baddie with a gun walking up to the shop or whatever seeing the sign & thinking “oh darn it, no guns allowed, schucks, I’d better go home then”! Anyway what was my point…oh yeah! We’ve been frisked at the door & bag searched & it’s a bit like going through airport security just to get in the office & we wait. The main thing we were waiting on with the SSN’s is the fact that we needed them to get our lease cars released, they had been ordered & G’s was almost ready & mine was at the dealer & those big fat shiny black ford trucks were a-calling our names big time!! We had the rentals & they were very nice but sensible saloons…we wanted monster SUVs’! More on those babies later!!

Back at the office (are you still awake?!) there was a hitch (things have been going oh so very smoothly hadn’t they?) I was in the system (well of course I was it’s me we’re talking about here!) G of course wasn’t! He was going to have to wait…oh I was so going to get my car first! Then they noticed a letter was missing from my surname & we both get sent away while systems/departments/officials sit back & chat & deliberate the lonnnnnnggg awaited verdict of how many weeks it’s going to be before we actually get our bloody numbers (sorry mum!) The verdict? It’s just one of those things they said, happens all the time they said, but we want our trucks we said! We are still waiting for our SSN’s! The nice people gave us a letter saying we’re waiting on the SSN’s so we can still pick up the aforementioned cars (are you bored of the cars yet?! Keep reading!) & off we go again, we’re a chilled kinda couple, pretty laid back, take it as it comes, blah blah blah….then the car man rings to say Ford have pulled out of the leasing market as of NOW & have cancelled ALL 2 year contracts…YES THAT INCLUDES OURS!!!!! Cars? Don’t talk to me about bloody cars (sorry mum)…sick of silly cars!!! For a day we were slightly concerned (that ‘pretty concerned’ on the normal concerned-ness scale for normal people) then our car man sorts things…arranges us a free rental as we only had the one car up until then but we were moving house (again) & needed 2 cars really & he also come up with two new motors….NOT two big monster trucks anymore (sobbing uncontrollably as she types) one suv & one saloon from a very reputable european car manufacturer (yawn…really wanted American ones, I know I know, no sulking! So got 2 VW’s on order now, don’t hold your breath…will let you know when/if they arrive! (**,)

I helped out at school for a little while one morning in Nyah’s class as they were making cards to give to the vets (the Veterans & not the animal vets like we were originally thinking doh!)…I was a bit scared but thought if I didn’t do it sooner rather than later & everything is worse if you put it off isn’t it & we’re here for the whole experience right?! So I just said yes & did it! Also got to experience a special assembly the school was putting on for local Veterans for Veterans Day (like our Remembrance Day but without poppies) which was all very interesting, with hands on hearts & pledging allegiances to the flag etc etc they must have been wondering who the strange looking foreigner was at the back with the open mouth staring at everything & everyone! Not that much different to a school assembly here, just picture it in your head & double everything…even the kids & I’m talking about their height & how grown up they look here in comparison to ours…boobs in Grade 5?…OMG!!!!

So all the furniture arrived intact from its sea/land journey all safe & sound & still snuggly wrapped & the first thing I unwrapped?? Why my ironing board of course, we were very happy to be reunited! Oh & I’ve bought a cool new iron (Oi…no snoozing, I love my iron!!) where the cord gets sucked into the base after you’ve finished…how cool? Well I thought so! We’ve unpacked everything & have tried to spread out our meager few bits in this huge house we keep getting lost in! It’s as beautiful as we remembered & we love it already! Yoji has found the best sunny bits as so many many windows, (11 of them in the front room alone, thank god they left the curtains!) & she’s baking herself in the sun as I type…I worry about her you know, doesn’t she know the sun is ageing & she’s very red already!

Surreal moment of the week has to be standing at the end of the drive of this beautiful house that I can’t quite believe we’re living in, feels like someone is going to come along at any minute & kick us out! Anyway, standing at the end of the drive waiting for the school bus which arrives & then the girls get on without me & the door closes behind them & it drives off leaving me there waving at them….the last time I saw that scene was in the film Nightmare on Elm Street!! If you’ve seen the film you’ll know what I’m talking about & if you haven’t you don’t want to know!!

This week I’m loving the way the kitchen appliances all work faster here (on a domestic roll sorry!).

This week I’m not loving the fact that on the PC keyboard there’s no pound sign only a $ sign & back home we have both which is much fairer I think!!

Think that’s it for now…hope all is good with you & keep in touch!

October 2008

GB’s view of it so far!

Well I thought it was about time I said something of our move to STL.. well I was prodded actually!! In the scheme of things it has gone very smoothly, well that’s what it feels like, but then, just like child birth (so I’m told) you forget the really painful bits quickly because there is something good happening that makes you forget!

The time has passed really quickly and I’ve already had my first full week at work. I have my own office and acquired all the mod cons that go with it, including a new ‘Blackler’berry that is making Dee very jealous. So much so, she thinks I’m already addicted to it.. Hello! Does she remember being Edward scissor hands with her mobile phone back in Blighty!?

I’ve had fun and games sorting cars out with the my car (SUV actually) not being ready until 9^th December so I’ve now had to take on a long term rental car, while Dee’s mummy sized SUV should be ready to go this week.. and it’s black, so Dee is happy!

Picking the dog up from the airport was fun and games as I had to go on my own and it was late in the evening when she actually arrived. So armed with our (Danya’s) trusty Sat Nav, off I went to the airport to find some sort of cargo place that’s not listed, so obviously I arrive at the wrong terminal! Eventually made it to cargo who were about to close and said they had no-one to clear Yoji through customs so they sent me to the main terminal.. Having now found the car park for the main terminal (2^nd lot of charges) and found baggage services, they redirected me to Continental help desk, who contacted the ground crew to find out if a big eared, ginger fluff ball had arrived on the flight! Luckily she had, but it did take them about 15 minutes to determine she had cleared customs in Texas!

They now delivered her in a big wooden crate to my feet on one of those airport luggage trolley’s and after explaining I only wanted the dog and not the crate as it was far too big to fit into our sensible choice of a 4 door saloon car (my fault, it looked the nicest car at time of renting!) they nicely explained that I’d paid for it, so it was mine and I had to take it!

Do you know how hard it is to fit a big dog crate into a lift, no? Well it is very hard and I had to do some modifications to the crate and a bit of brute force to get it in.. and out of the lift! Once I got to the car, I let Yoji out to see if she would do a pee, and I can tell you, she didn’t look happy! She gets panicked going in a car for short trip to my mum’s, so you can imagine what she was like flying on two airplanes half way across the world.. you guessed it, feeling very sorry for herself! Anyway, she didn’t do a pee, she did a great big poo in the middle of the car park road! Having not brought any poo bags with me, I had a quick scan of the car park to see if anyone was looking (thankfully not as big fines over here and it was 10.30pm) before shushing her into the tiny foot well of the car.

Now was the problem of the crate. It was a sturdy wooden thing with stapled wire mesh ends that no matter how hard I pulled or pushed, would not come apart. I delicately scanned the crate for any evidence of my name or anything that could link it to me, before taking it for a walk around the car park to see where I could conveniently accidently leave it in the confused state that I was in! I did find somewhere and have been waiting ever since for a lorry to turn up to deliver it back to me. That was until I noticed that on the receipt I had, they had put the wrong address for us, so felt much better after that!

As Dee has mentioned before, the temporary accommodation is really good and we feel very comfortable here, but soon we need to pack up again and move on. Next weekend is move day and we look forward to the big house in the country! I’ll be back to commuting to work while Dee can walk the girls to school.. well she would have but they’ll get the bus for the long ½ mile journey to school.

Life is really hard right now and I’m not sure how we’ll cope with the two new cars, big house, cheap petrol, cheap food and cheap restaurants. Oh well, I suppose we’ll have to be brave and strong and just battle through!

October 2008

Week 2

Phew what a week..feels like it’s been 10 not just one…in a good way though! Saying that it’s not all been good, I’ve got this horrid cough/cold & I’ll never hear the last of it if the girls & G get it too!

We had a quiet first full wkend it was nice to just laze about & not have to do anything in particular where we’d been so busy. We took Yoji to one of the ‘local parks’ remembering that you have to drive everywhere & she slobbered all over the nice clean interior of the hire car which of course we rented late at night after flying for god knows how many hours & by the time we chose the car we’d forgotten we even had a dog, hence her having to sit in the front foot well & slobbering all over it! I know I know but we can’t help it, car 1st dog 2^nd!! We also visited a ‘local’ outlet mall which had 6 neighbourhoods inside & also an ice skating rink, roller skating rink, cinema, food court & various soft play places along the way for the kids & that was one of the small malls!!

Monday was a big day & I was very prepared in advance….i.e packed lunches made on Sunday night & up at 4.30 (up so early due to coughing I hasten to add not general preparedness!) it was G’s first day at work & the girls first day at school….they were so excited.. the girls that is G not so much! That made it much easier for me, not sure what I would have done if they’d of been hanging onto my leg begging me not to leave them…though if I don’t write for a while you know why! Where we’re in our temporary house at the mo & we’ve also only the one rental car, we drove & dropped G at work & then onto school, about a 50 min trip in total so going from literally a two minute walk to school it was a bit change for the girls but they did me proud & didn’t complain once…although might not be the case after a few days! I imagine the novelty of counting the yellow school buses on route (36 this morning) may wear off & not just for them!

This week I’m loving… my little laundry room, such a fab idea (you may not all agree though, but I’m loving it!)

This week I’m not loving… struggling to find normal baked beans, don’t want them with, bacon, brown sugar lumps, bits of sausage, honey, hickory smoked chips, marshmallows or big brown bears…just want bloody beans!!

The girls are really loving school, Nyah hasn’t said once (yet!) that she doesn’t want to go! They love wearing non – uniform & it’s not even taking them too long getting ready each day, they’ve both made some little friends & like their new teachers…obviously not as much as their old teachers but they’re happy & that makes us happy!

The dog is much more settled & more like her normal self, is eating for England or should that be America & sleeps all day, calm & normality have been restored!

It was a bit strange not having Fireworks here, missed them but not the lead up to it when fireworks are going off every night for a couple of weeks, why do people do that…like those people who set them off at 11.50 on New Years Eve, what’s that about!?

We’re still counting yellow school buses too!

It’s been another good week & the longest we’ve ever been away from the UK now. G has caught my cold but he’s only got a cold at the moment rather than ‘Man Flu’ which is good! (**,)

We’ve still got just the one rental car but we hope to be able to pick my long term car up this week which’ll be good!

October 2008

Week 1
We finally arrived after getting delayed at Philadelphia on route & also after missing our connecting flight to STL, but we're all ok & the temporary house is lovely, like moving into a show home! Still a bit jet lagged, but we're all happy & even happier now we've been out & bought a lap top & got back online!

We've been to the bank & opened an account & we're off to take the girls to visit their new school tomorrow & our air freight has arrived & has been unpacked & put away & it's only monday!

I've even managed to work the washing machine & tumble dryer...YEY, but not had a chance to try the ironing board yet...BOO!

The dog is flying out in the morning & all being well we will be able to pick her up Tues evening!

At the mo it feels like we're on holiday...all is good! (**,)

Yoji has arrived & was very excited to see us & is ok!

We've been to the school for the proper visit & then we had to register the girls at their Dr's which was good but they had to have 3 'shots' each (in their arms not down their throats!) which they weren’t that happy about, but it's done now!!

It was chilly yesterday but today is lovely & warm & the flip flops have gone back on! G had to go into work today (thurs) just for a few hours so the girls & I went off to the mall(!) to get the school supplies as you don't get anything in school i.e pens, pencils & paper etc over here. It was a bit weird driving on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road but we did it & it was cool! Mr sat nav got us there in fact we wouldn't have been able to get anywhere without him this week (thanks sis)