Cuttings on a blog: Where is home?

Cuttings on a blog: Where is home?

This post spoke volumes to me and I'm sure that the wonderful B won't mind me linking to it.  She tells it exactly how it is!! I have often felt the same way.  

I think I have now reached a point in my life where here is where home is, mostly because we have created a safe, sound environment for our kids and feel it's extremely important that they have a place called home.  When they are grown this will be their "home". You turn a corner when you start a family and it all goes from "us" to "them" and back to a big fat "US" again, only this time the US is all of us.  That will make sense to anyone with kids who are no longer babies but little persons with opinions and thoughts and most of all input, we have two that will always have their input believe me!!! especially Thing 2 as she's now calling herself. 

So what can I tell B and others like her?  I don't know that we world travellers will all have the same outcome,  some learn to live in harmony with their new surroundings, some go home to where they grew up, and still more like Hubby and myself,  well we just wandered til we found somewhere that felt somewhat like home to both of us and then stopped. 

I am definitely seeing a trend here in the blogosphere; there are a lot of transplants as I like to call them...we must all have more in common than we realize???? Hhhmmm now there's something to blog about. 

 

Conversations with Mum...

Good news... I actually had a rather good conversation over the phone with my mother yesterday! She sounded really good and we managed to talk about general, everyday stuff without toiling over her care, her health, problems with the family etc etc. We just exchanged little stories about our day and she laughed for the first time in a long time. Parkinson's is such is cruel disease as I have said before, it's right up there with cancer as far as I am concerned. It seems though she has finally settled and she's no longer denying the fact that she's incapable of really doing much.

I sent her a calendar recently that has a little quote or saying every day about the relationships between mother's and their kids. She sometimes texts them to me when she feels they may be relevant.... it's comforting. I also made her a calendar on Snapfish... awesome that they just ship it right to her and it's really inexpensive. She loves it and has it hanging on the wall in her room at the nursing home. I can just hear the nurses in their broad Midlands English accent saying "oooh how luverly, is that yer family in America then?". All I can do right now is keep reminding her that we love her and that she's worth another day. It's so hard to be far away and to feel so helpless, all we can do is communicate; as long as the words are soft and gentle and the pictures beautiful she still has something to look forward to.

p.s. the picture was taken about 18 months ago and this is how I prefer to think of her, and I am sure this is how she prefers it too.

The Nosey Neighbor...

This is for the dog lovers... I know that many of you are cat lovers but believe me get a shih tzu and you have the best of both worlds.

Mac is the quintessential lap dog, he's the spoiled little dog of the Emperor of China and still has all the royal pampering flowing though his very being. He follows me everywhere and will find a comfy spot as close to me as he can and lay there for however long I am still and just be with me. I love it when I am lying in bed watching tv or reading and jumps up, lays by my feet, gets into just the right spot and then sighs heavily. Cat's don't sigh!!! I never miss it and I always appreciate that sigh, it's like he's saying ahhh this is the life.

When we are gone the dogs are left in the kitchen with their fluffy bed and a little treat before we leave. We have very tall windows in there that go almost right to the floor, maybe a foot off the floor. Just the right height for him to rest his chin on the window sill and watch the world go by. Of course if someone walks their dog by the house or there's a cat in the yard Maccie boy will let them know he's in there and it's his territory. He also has a fave spot in the back yard, in the very corner of the yard where the fence is a little bare (there are some kind of weeds growing all over the rest of the fence) he can sit there and spy on the neighbors. He LOVES this spot, as soon as he sees one of their kids out there or one of their dogs he's off!!! He can sit there for a loooong time just waiting for something to happen . Now, should their spaniel come out... then all hell breaks loose.. for some reason Moo Moo is the one dog on the planet that Mac cannot get along with. They sound like two BIG DOGS in a fighting ring all the growling and knargling (made up word) that goes on.. that's when I have to intervene and bring nosey neighbor back into the house to calm down. He will then jump up on the ottoman so he can look out of the french doors, he would hate to miss anything. If he's not settled with me.... that's where he'll be. I guess if he could talk we could find out all sorts of things about the people around us, there's not a lot he doesn't see!!!!!!

All this randomness....

OK this has been on my mind... and that in itself is fairly random... I am really thinking that the word is a little over used, it's everywhere these days. Not that there's anything wrong with that but isn't there an alternative? I am myself a totally random human being. It all began a long long time ago in a different life, we would have random days where we'd get out there and drive anywhere, take walks, visit new towns, just wander aimlessly, randomly.....

So I have consulted Mr. Thesaurus and here's what I found.... 

Main Entry:	random
Part of Speech:	adjective
Definition:	haphazard, chance
Synonyms:	accidental, adventitious, aimless, arbitrary,casual, contingent, designless, desultory, driftless, fluky, fortuitous, hit-or-miss*,incidental, indiscriminate, irregular, objectless,odd, promiscuous, purposeless, slapdash*, spot,stray, unaimed, unconsidered, unplanned,unpremeditated
Antonyms:	definite, methodical, particular, specific,systematic I think my favoured words from above are promiscuous.. ooh er!! adventitious and the winner is slapdash... you can't deny a word that starts with slap can you?? So if I do drop any of these words into future posts you will now know where I am coming from.  Not that anyone ever really knows where I am coming from but you'll have a general idea.  Muchos Besos!!!  p.s....spell check has highlighted some of the words from the thesaurus.. hilarious!

The summer so far.....

A trip to the library for some relaxing reading....perfect if it would stop raining and

I could relax outside with a G&T and a good novel

The girls made a cover page for their summer journals... 

I encouraged them to use a camera while they are on break, they decided to take some pictures while they were riding their bikes.... I think they did a good job...don't know what that is in their hands but it's small and brown...yuk!!! 

Um...yes.. I looked at this and thought she looked like a giant strawberry head!!! LOL.

Good times with the sitter...she has turned out to be a gem, the girls love her and they are so far so good, this could be the best summer ever!!!!!! 

Give your kids a camera and see what they come up with....there will be more later!!!! 

It's all in my head... or at least it used to be

So here's the thing, I used to walk around constantly narrating in my head to myself, making the most mundane of things into a dramatic paragraph for my next book.  You know, taking milk from the fridge became all bejewelled in lovely adjectives and had a dramatic ending with a twist the reader would never have guessed in a million years.  I dreamed of talking with Terry Wogan, David Frost and later Oprah about the jet set life of this millionaire writer whom everyone wanted a piece of.  It makes your life just that little bit more over the top, like wearing a feather boa to work or something... it's just a wee bit of glam where homely is the norm.  

So now here I am still doing it, but openly, in front of cyber friends and cyber family, hoping to create something. I am not really any good with hot glue and ribbons so I turn to my blog and embroider words to make you think, laugh or just to catch up with how we as a species live and relate to one another.  Mostly because I am a great people watcher or more to the point people listener.  They say the darndest things don't they... people in general that is!!! There are trillions of us on the planet and with a look,  a gesture, a word we can change the lives of others, either for a second or a lifetime. The following are examples......

We had to take a long drive today because Sydney had a doctors appointment, Ashley sat in the front on the way there and merrily chatted about "Ashley World" a place in her head where all the Ashley's live especially Ashley Tisdale, she told me how her and Ashley T. would sing songs and be rock stars in Ashley world.  She also said this..." I hate to tell you this Mama but I was running at the Y pool yesterday and the lifeguard called me over and told me not to do it". This child is almost 5 (next week) and says things like "I hate to tell you this Mama"!!!! 

Sydney sat in the front on the way back and chatted about all kinds of things... she's happy to have met the doc and isn't so afraid of the surgery any more.  She liked the way the road curved and we could see farms and all kinds of different landscapes on the way home. She loves her sitter for the summer and is having the best of times.  Then she went into a big explanation as to why she didn't like one of the towns we drove through on the way home. I won't mention it in fear of offending anyone who lives there... but believe you me... no one living there is reading a blog!!!!  She told me how it's all gray and that T-ville is so colorful, then she told that she feels so sorry for one of her friends from the Y because her family moved there!!! Heaven forbid!!! I wanted to tell her that you can get so much more for your money in real estate there but I guess at 8 years old she doesn't care... there's no color so we're never going to live there. 

These are the kinds of conversations you cherish, the kind that need to be archived somewhere in a journal (or blog) so you can reflect back on them later and show them to your kids.  They may not remember the actual conversations but hopefully they might remember taking a car ride with you and vaguely making a connection with you on that car ride. 

So all in all I would say today was a success... my inner ramblings have had time to manifest and come out into hopefully some kind of interesting post of the day.  I have had a little time to reflect (that's a necessity to sanity) and I have preserved the memory of the day. Now I can relax and enjoy the rest of the evening. Bon Soir!!!! 

Followers and comments....

Woo Hoo.. I have doubled my readership in one week!!! And best of all the comments are adding up too. It feels like my little corner of the blogosphere is hotting up and becoming more interactive which is FANTASTIC. I am exploring other blogs more too and just love what's out there, it's almost like a gigantic face book only a million times better.

Sydney got in on the act last night too and read a little about other places and left a couple of comments. I think she would be a great blogger but wants to share a site with another little girl so if you have any takers out there please let me know. She preferably wants someone in Europe, anyway, it leads to a lot of learning for the kids and is just like in the old days when we would have pen pals and send them pictures and stuff so if you can help please let us know.

OK gotta go, got stuff to do and places to me...love y'all. Ali.

Things I have learned this week..... or sometime lately....

Once again my blog is inspired (copied) from the Duchess Julochka

She's a tiara wearing Anglo-Dane with a great sense of blog, much like I am an AngloalmostAmerican with a developing sense of great bloggyness. I think I can climb to the lofty heights of Blog Royalty and perch there with my wonderful self, writing and taking pictures and generally having fun in cyberspace... oooohhh the thought makes me giddy!!! You'd be right to assume at this point I am full of it....  now here's the stuff I've learned which hardly makes me a scholar!!! 

• Drinking red wine from this glass that my good friend Holli gave me for my birthday makes me happy.... for one it's big.. always good in a Red glass.... and secondly it's shiny, happy people and should not be reserved for one day a year. 

• I have learned that there is no longer a day without rain in GA. Why then, did I move from England if I have to endure the rain here? What was the point? Other than this is real rain, good hard rain with thunder and lightning and all the sounds that make you want to lay in bed with a cup of soup. OK there are other things here like friends, family and my adorable shih tzu's, the rain can stay! 
  

• This week has been just as busy without school as it was with it. It doesn't matter whether it's Summer, Fall, Winter or Spring if you're a mother of two you're gonna be busy. Get over it or get under it, whatever you have to do just do it.  This is real life and when you read that little blue stick (or whatever it is now) you better brush up in reading, writing, playing go fish, taxiing (does that have two I's) (two eyes... hahaha). Get some practice in on sports of all kinds, they want to try everything and they never want to do the same thing.  Get cracking on your craftyness (all that stuff you forgot about in your oh so chic twenties) it's back and in a big way;  kids won't stand for anything short of a Blue Peter proportioned effort.  My sister earned a Blue Peter Badge (of course) but that's a whole other blog.

• If I drink from my Super Mom mug I really do become Super Mom and no one can tell me otherwise, even if I do occasionally forget to feed my kids, or forget where I left them???? particularly if that mug holds red wine!! 

• I am still master of the dirty one liner, like "What's wrong with your package?" or "Courtney, come and look at my pickle!".  

• This year there are predictions of a plague of roaches and a mighty influx of mosquito's... uh yes people, we live in Georgia.. it's a given.  All I seem to have seen are tons of are toads!!! not surprising considering all the rain and that once again people we live in Georgia.

• I learned that there are false eyelashes being purchased at a Mac store every 15 seconds.... I thought we were in a recession???? or is this a tool to help those trying to gold dig their way out of recession??? 

• Jon and Kate are apparently no longer John AND Kate but Sometimes John and Sometimes Kate plus Eight.  Without the eight they would not have become famous so please give these kids some consideration and get over your selfish selves already.

• And finally... I could go on all night, this is fun!!! However there's always a finally, and this one is that life is probably best looked at from underneath a Hello Kitty Ball Cap!!!! 
  

How the other half live....

OK so we went fishing  and then came home satisfied with our outing and the three little three inchers we caught.  So what's waiting for us in our inbox the following morning??? yep this!!!!!! 

The in laws also decided that Monday was a great day to go out and see what they could hook, here's F-I-L with his little fishy!!!!! Amazing!!! It was great to see because it's been a while since he's been out and caught something this big.  Love it!!!! Can't wait to get down there this summer and get out and catch one myself, although I am a bit of a jinx I think, we never seem to do well when I am with them..... except this one time, I caught a barracuda... Urrgghhhhh!!!!! 

Corner View Cityscapes Thomasville GA

Welcome to Thomasville, GA a small town in the south west corner of the state boasting the best of Southern Charm, an eclectic mix of beautiful buildings grand and not so grand set in the old South. 

This is the Scoop, a fantastic spot for lunch or just and afternoon treat of ice cream or a cool drink. 

In a street just off the Downtown area lies a small Anglican Church with the most beautiful gardens you can imagine.  Just a serene little spot with the peace and tranquility you wouldn't imagine finding so close to the bustling Downtown. 

This is one of our many antique stores and you can see from all the trees that we're not exactly New Yorkers, or Chicagoans here. 

This shot provides a glimpse into the old and the new buildings with the mess of utility lines still strung across the street, yes we do have a lot of power outages in storms..... 

Thanks for checking us out.... More cityscapes around the world:

jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad,

caitlin, joyce, ani, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe,kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t.,jeannette, outi, schanett, ritva,dongdong, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise,cabrizette, bohemia girl, dianna, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, jenna, skymring,elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, mon, victoria, crescent moon, erin, otli, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, virgina, april, rebecca, b,sunnymama, kyndale, samantha, karen, kristina, angelina, dorit,goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, nicki, ruth, mcgillicutty

Come here little fishy....

"C'mon y'all lets go to the lake and catch us some dinner!!"

Looks like Madi's going to be hungry...Dad looks real proud though!! 

Little Ashley seems more interested in finding out if crickets can swim.... 

You can't hide the joy in Syd's face as she had the first catch of the day!! 

Now this..... this is what being a daddy is all about!!!! 

Happy Happy Happy times....

Sydney is quite the water baby!!!!! 

Steve had more fun with the sparklers than anyone! 

Three generations of Hutchisons.....

More sparkler fun with Steve!!! 

It's Memorial Day here in the States and we get to have a long weekend of rest, relaxation, fun, food, fireworks and FRIENDS!!!!!!  lots of great friends gathering to enjoy each other's company. 

Yesterday we went over to my employer's house with a whole bunch of friends, I call him my employer because he doesn't use the word boss and he's definitely created an office of 'family'. They are like family to me, everyone is close and we tend to move as a unit, we work together and play together.  It's a strange harmonious arrangement which I hope will never change.  We even had someone there who no longer works for him but she is still part of the family, and now a good friend to me too.  The inner circle gets bigger and bigger, of course there were other families there who don't actually work for Hutch but do have a long history of being friends... once a friend always a friend I guess. 

The kids swam in the pool all afternoon, we had a delicious spread (of course) he is well known for his grilling skills and the notoriety is well deserved. There's never a shortage and it's all just mouthwatering stuff that as he puts it "makes your tongue wanna slap your brains out"!!! We all talked and laughed and had the best time.  It was so relaxing and wonderful.  After a short downpour the kids got out of the pool, got dressed and it was time to have sparklers and catch toads. Can't beat it!!!  Memories that will last a lifetime... and of course I can come back here and revisit the afternoon whenever I want to. That's the beauty of this online journal we call a blog. 

My all time favorite pictures.....

The three pictures I have chosen all include my adorable girls and why not

~~~~~

When they are grown these will still be my favorites

~~~~~

 A moment  in time, a feeling, a memory captured in the lense of a mother

This one's for you B.....

B over at Cuttings on a Blog has a thing for kettles.... here's mine, you likey??? Of course we had to buy it online because they are not easily accessible here in the US of A. 

Fabulous Fabulous Friday....

Could it get any better?  I have a new follower, yippeee... again it's all about the numbers with me and yes I do need them in order to feel validated!!!!  and believe me this follower makes me feel SO completely whole as a blogger!!! 

The school year has ended and we received several beautiful thank you notes that make it all worthwhile.  The people who teach our kids have such an impact and I feel my kids have truly had some of the best teachers this year... sorry but I can't help but gush!!!! I love you all..... 

Here is a shot of the camera I made for Sydney for career day along side a real camera, can YOU tell the difference.......

And here's one of Sydney posing with said camera on her way to career day.......I have to say she looks very much the part don't you think???? shame her mother didn't think about taking the picture in front of a glass door with the flash glaring in the background... it's all in the details folks!

Does your car have a name???

When we got rid of my '98 Plymouth Voyager.... yep..ugly blue thing, we bought a brand spankin' new Jeep and I love it.  The girls and I named her Flower, husband kept out of that whole naming the car thing.  Ashley likes to talk to Flower now and again but that's just an Ashley thing. 

It occurred to me this morning how kind of attached you can get to your vehicles and how they become a little of who you are.  There are lots of random (over used word but appropriate in this instance) things in my vehicle.  Examples..... a large green pepper shaped tray, various toys, an assortment of shoes, table runners (must get them to Mandy), floaties (the armbands the kids wear to swim in), bird seed(who am I, Mary Poppins?), a bikini (don't spit your coffee out it's obviously not mine) and crumbs of all shapes and sizes.  So you see there's always something to rattle around or fiddle with, no matter how many times I promise to clean out my car on the weekend it just either never happens, or on the occasions I do get to clean it out, it's right back to where it was within a matter of two journeys.  Holli keeps her vehicle nice and clutter free so last night when she graciously gave Ashley a ride, the kid told her "Miss Holli, there's nothing fun in your car!!".

This morning we played music loudly on the way to school because we were all in a good mood... yep finally... the last day of school.  After throwing them out in the drop off lane I turned off the cd player and then it started to sprinkle outside. I wished I had a long drive ahead of me because I love the peace of driving without the radio, especially when it's raining just enough to put the wipers on medium and they swish back and forth, hypnotizing you into a wonderful sense of oneness with your Jeep.  OK yes I know I've finally lost it but for a few minutes there it was perfect, just me, Flower and the rain, and I thought to myself.... "and breathe!!".

feel free to leave comments and let the world know what your vehicle means to you. 

Oh the light at the end of the tunnel....

We're almost there folks.... two more days of this hell and we're done. Yesterday was like a roller coaster, I was everywhere and no where all at the same time. Syd had her "career" day... pictures will follow... Ash had her "talent" show... pictures too will follow. The kids did different things after school and we all met up later to watch Ashley's video of the talent show before bed.  Which may well be AFV worthy!!!

Sydney got mad because she has had a paper in her book bag for the last few days that I HAVE TO COMPLETE...it's a questionnaire from the school superintendent regarding race and ethnicity.  Yep, that is crucial to my child's education apparently and they are terrorizing her in order to get me to complete it.  They are holding her report card ransom for the completed questionnaire.... OK that's just childish, especially when I know she has a perfect report card so I don't care if I see it or not! What does it matter whether she's Hispanic or Hawaiian???? 

I am getting fatter by the minute and can't figure out if it's because of all the stress lately, the lack of exercise, the addiction to blogging or the donuts that were brought into the office yesterday?? I am about to embark on another make Ali skinny program.  Or at least make myself not the blogging blob I have become.  Maybe we should change it from blogging to blobbing... maybe I need an "app" where I can talk into it while I am walking or exercising, then plug it into my USB and, boom, it's up there beautifully laid out in the blogosphere for all to enjoy. Knowing my luck such a gadget would record all the heavy breathing and the stumbling and cussing while I am trying to "shed the pounds" like a dog shedding hair....could it be that easy????

Gotta go and get another day of bedlam under way, water day, ice cream day and mother's 19th nervous breakdown day!!!!!  Au Revoir.

p.s. about the spell check, one day I am going to use the suggestions because they are sometimes hilarious, so if you see random words that don't make sense that's what I have done. Keep up will ya. 

Desperately seeking Susan, or Claire, whomever.... as long as they are 8....

OK Julochka you are so responsible for a lot!!!! I have been trying now for almost a year to find a suitable pen pal for daughter Sydney. She is 8 and she is a well travelled, intelligent, funny little creature who is desperate to communicate with someone in another part of the world, preferably England but anywhere will do.

She wrote a letter to a little boy over there who is the son of a dear friend and he never replied, explanation from Mum is that he's a boy, they don't write letters to girls. OK. So then we tried an electronic pen pal, we emailed the daughter of another friend from home and still no response.

Having seen Addie and Sabin's site I am inspired to try a blog like this for Sydney, so if you have a budding blogger who loves to take pictures, communicate and describe her life please let me know.. we'll be interviewing candidates next week... kidding. Thanks again Julie the fairyblogmother of all Bloggidyville.

The Merry Merry Month of May.....

The madness continues and hopefully all will be well again by the end of this week.... the kids get out of school on Friday!!!! Here's an email that my friend sent me recently and it seems I am not the only one going stark raving mad (British term).

and I quote... "I am a follower...well, I check in on you every month or so. I am loving your most recent posts about the insanity of May. To add to the schedule we have been passing a bug around the home. Maylon was out 3 days last week, Carson has not been to school yet this week and little Emory just started her fever last night so we have a nice weekend to look forward to. My brain is like yours...scouts swim party, ball game tonight too, do I have drinks this Thursday or next Thursday, oops forgot a den leader gift, make note to get teacher gifts, need more motrin/tylenol...add jello and gatorade too, need b-day gift for party tomorrow, Water Day tomorrow, Sunday School party tomorrow night, make dessert (cooking brownies for a trifle as we speak), call sitter and remind them of time, buy pizza for sitter and kids tomorrow night,get cash for the sitter, don't forget to call Astro...bug problem, and take Bell to the vet for check-up(need more heartworm med and frontline), call Y to make swim lessons...BRAIN OVERLOAD" unquote.......

Yes people, for some reason the lives of those with school age kids are turned upside down and back to front for the last month of the school year. I don't remember things like teacher gifts or taking items in for a class party when I was a kid. I guess parents didn't get that involved in their kids classes as they do here in the States.

Tomorrow Syd has a career day, she has to dress up like something she wants to be when she's older. She has chosen to be a photographer!!! YEAH!!! I am so excited. So we have made her a camera from a box, a toiler paper roll and some tin/aluminum foil. She has picked out an outfit that she feels will be appropriate and is adding some of my jewelry - she's excited about that part. Syd did feel comfortable enough to ask to take my camera and as much as I would love to see what she'd produce I just can't bring myself to let her have it. Sorry!!!!

Ashley has a talent show where she's doing some kind of a skit or singing or something so I feel this might call for the video camera and who knows this may be my big moment to win $100,000.00 on America's funniest videos... I just know it's gonna happen one day!!! So another busy day for us..... how about you????

Corner View "coffee" Thomasville, GA

This is our beloved coffee machine at work (probably the only place I actually drink coffee). We have a great selection of coffee and hot chocolate to choose from, clients LOVE it!!!

Ahhh... this is what a beautiful cappucino looks like fresh from the machine, I wish you could smell it!!! The machine makes one fresh cup at a time.

How do you say, "two coffees with milk" in your corner? Hey, it´s up there with "please," "thank you," and "toilet?" (Or in your dream vacation spot.) ...I'd have to say that no one ever utters those words, most Americans drink it black or ask for a Latte. Of course there's all the variances you can have at the local Starbucks... i find it totally intimidating therefore avoid them.

What are the most popular ways to drink coffee? see above, it's both ends of the spectrum really and depends on what the current trend is.

How do you take your coffee? I like it to have bold flavor and I add lots of cream, lately I have been adding a little sugar.... never sweetner... yuk!

French press, percolator, espresso, or other? Love French press but alas my Bodum is no longer, so I go for the cappuchino from the wonderful Flavia machine.

Are you a dunker? I'd have to say no although it has been known.

What was the funniest topic of conversation over a recent cup of coffee? Well it's hard to say there are so many in the office, most of which we can't talk about here. There was a time when myself and a coworker over heard our boss tell another man that he was holding his thing and of course this led to a lot of hilarity. It's never good in the retelling but had you been there, you too would have snorted coffee down your nostrils.

You can find more views here. Next week´s theme comes from Cele and is "cityscapes." Thanks Cele! Sophie would you mind going next? Have fun everyone! I´ll catch up with you all next week. Besos!
jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad,caitlin, joyce, ani, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t.,jeannette, outi, schanett, ritva, dongdong, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, dianna, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, jenna, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, mon, victoria, crescent moon, erin, otli, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, virgina, april, rebecca, b, sunnymama, kyndale, samantha, karen, kristina, angelina, dorit, goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, nicki, ruth, mcgillicutty

After the rain....

When the rain stops Ashley loves to go out and explore, she dons her wellies and off she goes... she notices the colors, the textures, the smells and this time her fascination was with the worms. A new friend to tend to for a couple of days, Wormy, her new pet.

The Gardenias only bloom very briefly once a year, the frangance is just beautiful, almost unbelievable as it carries into the house and all around you smell the wonder of nature. It makes you feel very small in the grand scheme of things. Stop and love the worms, smell the gardenias.

The confusion of being an Ex-pat....

I have been thinking of sharing some of these things for a while now...... I have lived in the States for almost 12 years and it feels more or less like home, but when you relocate at the tender age of 28, your roots are firmly set in the world in which you grew up. Everything you have ever learned to do and say is distinctly British (in my case). Although they speak a type of English in America it's a type of English foreign to anyone not raised here or by American parents. There is still much to learn and I have been through some sticky situations in my journey here.

Mail ... and Steve loves this one.... I would always place my mail in the Express mail box, why would anyone choose the other box? You want it to get it there quickly right, how was I to know you had to pay extra for the Express part of it???? We didn't have such a thing back home so it made sense to put the mail in the fasted box available.

Driving... this is an obvious one isn't it, we need to learn to drive on the other side of the road when we come here. I thought I did a great job other than trying to shift with my left hand all the time. Occasionally (and it STILL happens) I will get into the passenger seat, it's just downright embarrassing when I do this while travelling by myself. I once got into the back seat at a gas station!! What was I expecting?? my chauffeur to get in and drive for me? I had to look around and slide out of the back into the drivers seat, didn't think quickly enough to cover myself by making it look like I was hunting something in the back seat.

Food and Restaurants....OK this is an ongoing source of amusement to me and to those with me when it's meal time. Firstly, restaurants, in England you get what you get and the menu is pretty simple, don't expect choices. Here you get a million offerings but you should already know what you want. God forbid you ask what dressings they have, the waiter will quickly rattle off a thousand choices really quickly and leave you with your head spinning and forcing you to mumble... I'll have whatever you're having!!! I like to try new stuff and it's amazing when people take for granted the stuff they have grown up with, they are incredulous that I have never tried all the several thousand different types of beans and peas available in S. GA. Or that I have only recently become fairly fond of Grits. Of course then there's the whole language thing... rutabagas... well that's just plane old turnips to me.

Telemarketers.... OK this is one I quickly got to grips with, that is, after I had changed phone companies a thousand times when I first got here. I had been used to good old British Telecom and at that time there were no other phone companies and no one back home would ever call and "switch" you after a phone conversation. Poor old Steve couldn't keep up!!! Now I don't talk to telemarketers at all and advise everyone to do the same thing.

Money... this is also kind of ongoing and I don't know why I have such a block about it. The coins in this country are the opposite to the ones in England and we don't have names of them like you do. Our 5p piece is smaller than the 10p but the dime is bigger than the nickel?? why???? so it often gets confusing and it's not right on the tip of my tongue what these coins are called. I often like to call paper money notes instead of bills too. It's just part of me.

So if you're living in a foreign country and are having similar problems, please let me know... I love the crazyness.

Here's the Scoop.....

Icecream with some special little girls....


Giggles and goofballs............