Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween


Halloween is starting to grow in popularity here in the UK when compared to when we arrived here 3 years ago! Yes, it has already been 3 years!

Maggie went to a party this evening and she decided to be a witch. She was not a scary mean one but a pretty and nice one!! There is no trick-or-treating tonight which is a good thing as I usually end up eating a fair share of the candy that is collected.

Hope you have a great night where ever you are ~ enjoy the photos!

Monday, October 29, 2007

NFL Game


On Sunday night we were able to go to the NFL game at Wembley Stadium in London and it was AMAZING! I have always loved American Football at to take part in such a historic game was perfect. Our seats were on the 10 yard line and OH SO close to the field ~ the 2nd row of seats. Yep, we could see everything. The boys and Tim LOVED the fact that the cheerleaders were right in front of us. Here is a selection of photos from the event. The couple in the bottom are strangers but I had to take their photo as they were in Cleveland Browns shirts!!

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Temple of Poseidon

Located in Sounion, at the southermost tip of Greece, sailors both past and present knew they were close to Athens when they spotted the Temple of Poseidon. According to legend, it was at Sounion that the great Athenian hero Theseus's father, King Aegeus, awaited his son's return from his journey to Crete to slay the Minotaur. The King told his son to have his ship return with white sails if he survived the encounter, with black sails if he met his death. In the excitement of his victory, Theseus forgot his fathers instructions and returned with the black sails. When Aegus saw the black sails he threw himself into the sea {forever known as the Aegean Sea} to his death. What makes this so interesting is that 15 of the original 34 columns are still standing so you can really see what the Temple originally looked like ~the temple was built in the 5th Century BC.

We had lunch at a cafe located close to the temple and here is the view we had from our table...pretty impressive!!

Greetings From Greece....

The kids were off school this past week for fall break and as one of our final trips while living over here we traveled to Greece. We stayed outside of Athens in Marathon. The area had a large battle with the Persians in 490 BC. The Greeks were victorious and they sent their best runner to Athens to announce the victory, he ran the 26 miles then collapsed and died on the spot...see this is why we should not RUN!!

Here is the villa that we stayed in....we were on the lower level and had AMAZING views of the Agean Sea and the surrounding areas both during the day and at night.Parthenon ~ This was the epitome of ancient Greek Classical art, was built as a temple to Athena. The site is undergoing some preservation so there was scaffolding around a lot of it, but it was still a great thing to see. Take notice of the boys' height- they are BOTH taller than me now with Andrew a bit taller than Christopher.I will post more when we get back later tonight.

Friday, October 19, 2007

A Reason To Drink.....



This was sent to me today and it is too good NOT to share ~ enjoy!!





As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.

In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichiacoli, (E. coli) - bacteria found in feces.

In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop. However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer(or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.

Remember:Water = Poop, Wine = Health

Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid, then to drink water and be full of shit.

There is no need to thank me for this valuable information. I'm doing it as a public service.

More Rugby....

Andrew had a rugby match yesterday but this time he played on the 15's team rather than the 14's. THey played a really good game but they did lose by only 2 points. I will say it was one of the more exciting games to watch. I think the extra year of playing time really showed. Andrew did well running the ball as well as tackling the opposition.Bad news for the Cleveland Indians as they lost their game last night so now the series is 3-2 and the games head back to Boston. Here's hoping they can win the next game and move on to the World Series.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Go Tribe!!

I am not the biggest baseball fan {ok...really don't like it} BUT I have to support the Cleveland Indians on their run for the World Series. They won their game last night and are only 1 game away from going to the World Series. How cool is that?? The best part is that the next game is played in Cleveland so they can possibly win at home. What a great acheivement and a what a great thing for the city. I can't wait to read about the results Friday morning - hopefully it will be a win!!

Monday, October 15, 2007

Rugby Match

Andrew had a rugby match today and as they were short players a few boys from the 13 and under team played with them and this included Christopher! So, I was able to see both boys play in one game and get photos of them at the same time. It was a well played game and it ended with a tie. Both Andrew and Christopher did a really good job and they seem to really enjoy rugby. Guess we will need to find a league in the US for when we move back.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Cancelled.....nope just postponed!

I just opened an email a little bit ago to receive the news that the Police concert on Tuesday and has been CANCELLED/POSTPONED!!

Hello..........do they not know how I was SO looking forward to it? In fact the scheduled concert for tomorrow is cancelled as well. It appears that Sting has a throat infection and had to cancel a few other shows too!

I guess they will re-schedule and if it doesn't fit into our own schedule we can get a refund of our tickets. It is so unfair...I wanted to go!

Friday, October 12, 2007

Morning Walk

I took Millie out for her morning walk today to the local park over by Maggie's school and we took advantage of the beautiful fall morning ~the weather was perfect, mid 60's with sun. I brought my camera along as I was hoping to see some great color in the leaves and I was not disappointed.

Check out the colors in this photo:
The park as an amazing duck pond in the middle and I was able to get a good photo of this swan as it swam by the edge.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

It has been a few days since my last post and I have had some emails asking if we are all ok. I can report that Christopher finally went back to school today BUT Andrew is now home and not feeling well. I think this bug is going to make its way throught the whole family. Tim leaves for China again this weekend so hopefully it will miss him. I have a bit of an upset stomach but that is all so far and I hope that is all I get.

I have just made some of my FAVORITE fall candy treat ~ candy corn and peanuts ; a special thanks to someone, hmm wonder who THAT is, for introducing me to it a few years ago. If you have never tried this combination DO IT...it is amazing. Of course, they don't have candy corn here in the UK so we had someone bring some over for us.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Chicken Soup ....


Christopher is still not feeling well, temperature is 101-102 so that is good, and although he has no appetite he did ask for ...... chicken noodle soup! So of course, I was able to honor his request.



We did not go to the doctor as we know they will tell us it is just viral ~ plus the health care system here stinks.

I am SO not a fan of standardized medicine....even though we have private insurance they don't want to hear it and they treat everyone as if they are on the government medical plan. Imagine that.....they don't want to take our money but would rather use everyone elses. {Government waste at its finest}

Sunday, October 07, 2007

It's Official.....

After much thought and discussion the kids and I are leaving the UK next summer!! Yipppppeeeeee....we are currently approaching our 3 year anniversary here in the UK and it is time to go. Tim will not, however, come back with us until about December of '08. It is important that the kids start school next fall in the US and are settled for a month or so before school starts. So it looks like we will move back early July. This means that there will be many trips back to the US between now and then and we are excited for the change. Our time here has been very good with lots of travel and the kids have done well in school. The one thing we won't miss is the weather :-}

ps...a few of you already knew this information but now you can tell your kids too!!


Update on Christopher: He is still sick. His temperature has been between 102-103 all weekend and goes down to 100 with medicine. He is going to the doctor in the morning to be checked out so no school for a few days for him.

Friday, October 05, 2007

World's Worst Mom Award

Yes, if this award were being given out today I could be the winner hands down.

1.) Maggie had a jeans for genes day at school {raising money for charity} and being the wonderful mother that I am FORGOT! So we arrived at school and she was the ONLY one in her school uniform. The look of disappointment on Maggie's face was pathetic. I did get points back as I drove her back home so she could change.

2.) Last night Christopher was saying he didn't feel well as he is at the start of a cold. I told him he'd feel better in the morning. SO he did go to school today even with complaining of his cold...I REALLY wanted him to go as the whole school photograph was today. When I picked him up after school he again said he didn't feel well, put his pajamas on and went to bed!! I took his temperature and it is now 102.

So there you have it....today I am the worlds WORST mom!!

I leave you with a photo taken of Maggie and Millie {the dog} last night...

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Slow Week....

I wish I had something fun to post about but not much has been going on around here.

Today was the weekly meeting of the Mental Health Alliance {MHA} which is always a good time. The MHA is made up of 3 of us...yes only 3!! Our husbands all work for the same company and we all moved here at various times from the same location in the US. It was just two of us this week but it was still fun. There is just something about having someone else in the same situation who understands life as an expatriate.

We usually try to visit a new location around the area where we live but it seems like we often end up at Starbucks :-) I guess it is our taste of home!!

Christopher made the rugby team this year and had his first home match on Wednesday. The dog and I walked down to see him play but I forgot to bring the camera with me. I know SHOCK, HORROR.... no camera. He has another home match next week so I will take photos at that one.

Monday, October 01, 2007

Shout Out To Ryan & Cara


While in the US, I was able to spend time with Ryan and Cara and their OH SO CUTE baby ~ Arthur. We went to lunch at Pompilios , where the restaurant scene from Rain Man was filmed. It was a neat place and although we were there at lunchtime you could see why it would be a popular dinner and late night establishment.

As not much else is going on I leave you with some other local Rainman tidbits of information.

*The Cincinnati Trust where Cruise finds out about the 3 million dollar trust fund is the Dixie Terminal Lobby located at 49 E 4th Street (4th and Walnut) in Cincinnati.

*Their childhood home, Beechcrest lane, is located in the East Walnut Hills area of Cincinnati.

*They spent their first night away from Wallbrook at the Vernon Manor Motel, 400 Oak Street Cincinnati.