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.

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.

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}

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.

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...

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.

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.