tagged and stuff....

1. What is your funniest childhood story?
Must have been the time when I was about 8 or 9 and I was out playing on a low roof of a stairway to a basement house. I was using as a slide even thought the shingles were rough. Well they sand-papered my behind and I ended up with abrasions to my bum and back of my legs and sitting was horrid for the next day or so. That isn't the worst though--the cute guy in my class, Ronnie E, and my cute neighbor boy, Brian J, saw me walking back home rather stiff legged with my jogging pants shredded in the back and my orange clock underwear hanging out. Embarrassing enough, but I was wearing the last pair of clean undies in my drawer and I absolutely loathed my blue, pink and orange underwear with a clock print on them. I never wanted to go to school again, lol!


2. What would your dream dress look like if you could design it?
This is the base of my dress that I will wear for our American wedding/blessing ceremony/vow renewal. I am going to have a shawl or something over my arms.

My friend, T., borrowed it for her wedding 2 years ago and she looked lovely in it.

3. What weird habit does your other half have? Bruxism--he grinds his teeth in his sleep.

4. How many cookbooks are in your kitchen? 3, one Marks & Spencers British foods and 2 Gordon Ramsey cook books


5. Granny panties or loyal Victoria Secret girl? sexy drawers in my drawers no longer exist--heck I only have 4 pair of underpants (I am always doing laundry)


6. My favorite memory from 2008 so far is? Duh, birth of Alex


7. I secretly... check the toilet paper. every. time. Gross I know, but I have done it ever since I was 10 and my 12 year old friend told me what a period was, as she was having hers and I was horrified. I had thought a period was the punctuation mark at the end of a sentence. So I started obsessively checking. A 22 year old habit is hard to break.


8. I could really go for... Pumpkin pie with cool whip


9. We are going to have a big snowstorm and you will find me... In the states-finding a safe place to mess around driving in the snow. I used to spin cookies with my 1964 Ford in the snow--I loved it!

Here in the UK-bwahahaha! A mere dusting of snow and everyone panics and car pileups are common. Think of Florida getting snow then replace the bright warm sunny weather with dark dreary grey misty rainy weather.

10. I knew s/he was the one...
I have 2 life-partners:

My Beloved Husband--Almost right away when he talked about loving to hug and cuddle and I announced on the other side of my monitor "Awww He's a cuddler, aww, I could love him." 10 days later I wrote "I love you!" and that I love you changed our lives. No regrets, *Sigh* He makes me happy and all warm and fuzzy. We are mushballs!

My best friend--Ha honestly, ready for this K? I knew that we'd be friends back in high school because she was a "smoker", I knew her family had very little money like mine, and she was cool enough to be dating the guy that I had a crush on. Birds of a feather flock together, right? Added bonus that she was artistic and we shared having the hots for our Art teacher. We weren't super close friends in high school, it was after, like June 2nd, that I knew that we'd be forever friends and then the night she and her 1st hubby left for Cali and stopped to see me and my roomie before they left. I gave them all my money and my blessings as they started their new life together. When she came back from Cali and her hubby was stationed overseas was when even though we were far apart, we were and are inseparable.

Now to tag 3 more people. I choose...

I hate choosing so if you read this and feel like you want to do it, leave a comment and a link back to your blog. Thanks!

I love this picture of the moon. I took it from the top deck of a double decker on 11-11-08 on the 11 bus.


And who doesn't love a happy baby playing on his own and being sweet? Awwww!

Five things I miss about America

At Noble Savage, she wrote a post that sings to this American expat's heart. It also smacks of a top 5 list a la High Fidelity

Here is her list that she did expand on, but you will need to go to her blog to read expansions:
1.My family and friends
2. Wide open spaces
3. Autumn
4. Good, affordable food
5. That wondrous, zany American outlook on life

Mine actually follows closely:

1. I miss Miss MISS my family and friends. Although I call my mom just about every weekday, and my Hillbilly Duhn several times a week, hugging phones is NOTHING like hugging the real live human being on the other end of the line. I crave the day we all are reunited.

2. Driving. I love driving long distances and driving at night. I have been driving since I was 12 mminus the year between moving from the acreage and drivers Ed and the 2 years I have been in the UK making it 17 years in total I have been driving and loving it. I am such a car buff and as much as I am trying to be eco-friendly, I just can not stop loving cars, driving and driving long straight wide roads. Motor oil runs in these veins.

3. American food. I like an indian take away now and again, fish and chips and the tradional English sunday roast, but gosh darn it I want me a valasic dill pickle without any sugar, a corn dog, a miller genuine draft, a root beer float that doesn't cost $3 a can to make, as well as flavored coffees that you don't have to go to a specialty tea shop to buy, and tex mex foods. I would love an apple and a pumpkin pie, and a bone-in wood smoked ham. (I am hungry now, lol)

4. Halloween. Halloween is my fah-vorite holiday evah! I look forwards to Halloween like a little kid looks forwards to his birthday. Where I am at Halloween is barely celebrated and is more of a time where people hide away from trouble youth "yobs and hoodies", lock their doors, turn off their lights and pretend to not be home. Well crap, no wonder the youth are pissy, the candy that they sell to give out sucks. "Here have a packet of pink and white marshmallows!" bleeeh. So as another Halloween passed by like a much anticipated birthday that no one could be bothered to remember--I yearn for a fun filled Halloween with all the kids next year back in the USA.

5. Hearing my own Accent. Something about being able to not translate things in my head from British to American and back again is so nice. A trunk is a trunk, not a boot. Chips are chips, not fries, and toe-may-toe not toe-maah-oh for tomato.

I am going to be cheeky and put a sixth because it is actually a tie between number 5 and this one.
6. Affordable clothing that fits Plus size. I needn't say more than that.

Happy Hawking Castle Walking Fabulous Pre-Birthday Dearest M!

For M's birthday present we went to Warwick Castle so that he could attend a falconeering class, as he has always been a HUGE fan of Owls, Hawks and Eagles and, well, ALL birds of prey. He had a "fabulous time!" Turns out he was the only student that day so his teacher was able to focus all her attention on to both the birds and to M. Due to M's wish to remain anon at this time, I'll post the pictures without him in them, but there are some great pictures of him with Woody a Harris Hawk, Louis the Eagle Owl, and Mouse the Golden Eagle.

http://www.warwick-castle.co.uk/

Alex loves the BIG kitties--edited-Now with promised pictures!

I love this picture as it looks like Alex is trying to eat the antler.






Today we went to a drive through it type safari park, and there were several enclosures with Lions, Lionesses both yellow and white, Tigers both yellow and white, and Cheetahs and Alex love Love LOVED them. He slapped the car window and hollered "kitty, kitty!" We'll have to upload our pictures to the pc so you can see how happy the little dude was. (btw, yes he was out of his carseat to snap the pictures, and travel around the parks but we didn't go any faster than three [3] mph)


As you can now see he loved it :D

Happy Autumnal Equinox!

Wow! It feels like Fall today! Cold, grey, rainy--Oh wait! that was thee ENTIRE British summer this year, minus one week in July, and then the 3 last official days of summer. It was one extended Spring into Fall--makes it ?Sprall? ?Fring? Sprumn? Autuing? Well whatever one calls it, for the most part it was cold grey and rainy.

So, although never a huge fan of Autumn, as in my mind Autumn is quickly followed by that fiend-winter, I do like the cooler days after hot and humid Midwest summers. I love the smell of harvest time on my grandparents Iowa farm and the crinkley sound of dried corn leaves and the smell of coffee and ham sandwiches on buns for the adults helping harvest the crops. I love the multi-colored leaf piles, and carving pumpkins, and thinking out what I want to be and helping my kids decide and dress up for Halloween (my ALL TIME FAH-VORITE holiday). This year, I am hoping with all. that. I. am. that M and I are able to return to the States to be a part of these wonderful smells, and sensations. I want ALL of us, M, Z, L, A and I to dress up as a family and go out trick-or-treating. For now, we wait.....

While we are waiting, how about some Babylove :)






Mmmm I loves me some pudgey Baby piggies!

Picture post-In which we take a nap, chase Betty, go to the park, & stroll through a cemetery

1. nap time for all

2. Angelic sleeping baby-awww!

3. Sleepy Betty

4. Alex loves the Kitty Kitty

5. And he's coming to get her!

6. Psst! watch out Betty!

7. Run Betty! Run!

8. At the park, with his Grr Rawr Grr butt on, Alex crawls away to some mischief

9. He's found Daddy's keys. Wow he looks golden in the warm rays of the sun!

10. Seriously playing

11. Look at that concentration!

12. While young mister is concentrating, Mommy and Daddy steal a smooch or two--awww!

13. Here he comes--"Break it up you two!" he says.

14. After playing at the park, we stroll through an old cemetery so I can take some photographs

15. I love these old Celtic crosses

16. Detail of the center of the cross

17. Cool looking trick of sunlight glinting of the camera lens gives this detail a smokey other worldy look.

18. Out of all the graves, this one and a smaller one near by had these beautiful flowers.

19. Better picture of the flowers

20. Stone angel with a fist of ?judgement? ?fury? Interesting pose for a memorial statue

21. She has such an odd expression for such a wrathful looking pose

22. I just love how this picture turned out.

What *I* do to be "Green"

On the subject of being "green" (my brain wanders off on a tangent thinking 'hey world! when has *my* favorite color become such a buzz word that it is now fashionable to be? *I* was into green as a favorite color as a child-but anywho...) I was off surfing green natural living blogs and quite a few had ways for you, the anonymous reader, to do, steps to take, and pointing the "you shall be eco-friendly finger" away from themselves. As my very wise Mother has always told me that it isn't nice to point and that when I pointed at someone or thing, I had three fingers pointing right back at me.....Ha! I see you pointing away from you and checking out your hand to see that indeed Mr.Tall, Mr. Ring, and Miss Pinkie are pointing right back atcha!

My things, in no particular order:

1. I breastfeed--free milk in fun containers!

2. I cloth diaper my baby. Had I had what is available now when my 11 1/2 year old and my nearly 8 year old were babies, you bet your fluffy butt they would have been in them too. And as soon as my family are settled, I am scouring thrift stores, craigslist and freecycle to find a sewing machine and sewing my own out of 2nd hand towels and sewing 2nd hand fleece for covers!

3. I wear my baby. Not so much a huge green thing but more of a natural/attachment parenting thing. However, it is greenish in that very little resources are used in making a simple no-sew piece of cloth wrap, and my little guy rarely needs a coat if it is cold out as he is wraped up safe and warm next to me under my coat and cutting down on the need to buy extra clothing. To watch some videos or look at diagrams on babywearing go to http://www.mamatoto.org/ No more strollers for this family!

4. I'm a happy thrifter. I love me a big old thrift store, a garage/yard/rummage sale, and with the advent of the interwebz craigslist, freecycle, and ReUseIt. I love discovering things, and making old things useful again. I scored 35 all-in-one diapers in size 1 and 2 and 12 cotton pre-folds on freecycle Yippee! I want to turn around and give the AIO's away right before we move so another mother/family can cloth diaper even if it is part time cloth. There is also the joy of giving away on freecycle as M and I gave away some baby items that we were done using or barely used to a family that despirately wanted them and how happy they were to recieve them. Craigslist is great too because it is where we found our minivan.

5. I ride the bus. Because of M's job, I get free bus transportation. Now I know that public transport is not glamorous by any means and sometimes one must put up with the buttmunches that play crappy tinny music on crappy tinny speakers on their phones rather than listening to their music like everyone else does by using their headphones, or the occational eedjit who thinks they can smoke and no one will smell it (it is illegal to smoke on busses, public transport, bus stop shelters, well just about any public place here in England) HOWEVER, I get to do some good old people watching in. Unfortunately, no matter where we move to in the States, we will have to give up the public transport, as nothing is within walking distance. For now it is the bus! yay!

6. We live frugally. I stop and consider every purchase. Do I need this or do I want this item. Can I use an alternate item/way/item at home to do the same thing? For instance, I have always had it in my head to bake bread I needed a bread pan and not so! I now can whip up a lovely braided herbed bread in a few hours. No need for a bread pan. If it something that I need, can I source it locally or buy it from work at home mothers. My baby's fun yet super functional diaper wraps I buy from English moms who also source their items locally. Less items bought, less resources used.

7. We use reusuable shopping bags. Yes we have to remember to bring the bags with us, but the majority of the bags that we have are easier on the hands and fingers than plastic carrier bags.

8. We have a super energy and water efficient washing machine. It is a front loader, and I thought that Id hate a front loader because I was so used to the ginormous American style top loader, but when the clothes come out, not only are they clean, but nearly dry, which is great for number 9.

9. We hang up everything to dry. When I first moved here I was amazed that there weren't laundry rooms in the apartment buildings and gasp horror how do you wash and dry your clothes?! There are nifty compact racks to hang and dry clothes, there are airing rooms with clothes lines and there are airing cupboards here. A little extra work but hey, our shirts and trousers and jeans are already on hangers so easy to put away.

I can't think of a number 10 right now, but if I do later, I'll pop that in another post.

Time to make supper--Scottish Angus beef burgers, British baked potatoes, and British salad leaves and Tomatoes grown in my Mother-in-Law's back garden greenhouse. YUM!

MMMmm It's Been A Long Time!

Living over in the UK, I have missed certain foods that I had all. the. time back in the States. There are also certain sodas, like the ones in the following pictures that can't be found, that is, until now! M and my Mother-in-Law and I found these American goodies at a candy store of all places that was selling American food as novelty items. M bought me a can of A&W root beer, a can of Mountain Dew, a jar of Jif peanut butter (they do have PB here but it tastes funny like it is "almost peanut butter") and real Welch's grape jelly! Woot! What time is it?! It's peanut butter jelly time! MIL bought me a can of Mountain Dew as well. The cost...well I'll get to that later.

To me nothing tastes more like summer than an A&W root beer float, and now that summer is ironically over here in the UK, I finally had my first root beer float of the season.

Proof that there is MD here! YAY!
Peanut butter jelly time! peanut butter jelly time! peanut butter jelly time!
It has been over a year since I have seen items like these together.
oh, root beer, how I have missed thee!
soon, vanilla ice cream, you will married to your perfect mate
oh, dear dear pint glass, you are the vessel of devine delight for me this night
do you, root beer, take vanilla ice cream, to mix in creamy foamy yummy goodness? to be chock full of calories that will go straight to my adipose tissues?

Look at that crown! Mmmm bliss!
It was worth the wait!

Oh and the cost for all this American novelty food and drinks- Sodas at £1.45 (or $2.54 a can) Jelly at £5.69 (or $9.98 for 18oz) and the peanut butter £4.39 (or $7.70 for 18oz) for a total of £14.43 or $25.30!!! So indeed, they are treats. Oh and a box of Lucky Charms was £7.69 or $13.50! Wow!