To Buy or Not To Buy??

Tim was able to look at one final house before he came back from the US last week and I 'think' we have found a house. Now the issue is when do we make an offer? Tim called the home owner this afternoon and asked a few questions and we are now waiting for an email with some paperwork that Tim requested. Once we get that and look it over we will make an offer and then the negotiations begin. The house has an amazing yard and the house is very nice. Of course, we would need to do paint and carpet, not because we have to but rather that we would want to. What really amazes me is that this is being done without my even seeing the house in person but rather through photos only!!

Too funny...

You know the feeling when something is SO darn funny that you have tears streaming down your face? Well, I have done just that after reading Diana's blog post {HERE}. I was sitting here alone in the house and tears were running down my face as I can so hear her saying this. It is a good thing that Tim 'lost' it with her and not some other strange woman.

We are finally adjusting to the time change after our trip and getting back to a 'normal' schedule. The kids went back to school on Tuesday and are back in the swing of things. The weather still is bad but what does one expect it is the winter in England. We have a had a lot of rain and the river looks like it could possibly flood over the banks. Up in Scotland they are getting snow rather than the rain...it is amazing how different the weather can be especially since we are about 2 hours from the Scottish border.

Blahhhhhhhhh.......

It seems inevitable that upon our return from a trip to the USA I have a period of just the blahs...I am not homesick per se but coming back just seems to put me in a mood for a week or so and I get over it. This time is no different except that I think I am just very excited about the move back later this year and knowing that it is definitely going to happen makes it that much better.

Don't get me wrong our time here has been very good for various reasons but I can honestly say I am ready to move back. I am tired of living in a house that is NOT MINE. I want to be able to paint a room over the weekend just because I want to. I know it is trivial but for someone who likes to paint rooms on a whim...it is a huge thing.

I made ZERO progress in cleaning out the kitchen today, in fact, I didn't even work on it. I hope to get on with it tomorrow as the weather here at the moment is cold, rainy and very windy so I'd rather stay in and clean rather then venture outside. I am probably making the kitchen to sound so much worse that it is, in fact, it is the easiest room to start with ~ maybe that is why I chose it??

Time for a clear out.....

Yes, I admit it we have TOO much stuff and I need to reduce the amount of things we have that are 1) never used, 2) broken , 3) too small, 4) too ugly...you get my drift. I came to this revelation, ok not really a revelation but an admission, as I was putting things away from Christmas. Have you ever moved something from one place to another so you can use said place for the new item? I really don't know how all this stuff fit in our house in the States as it was smaller than the house we are in now.

I have decided that now is the time to start getting rid of things. The stuff will be going to the dump, recycled or donated. There are things in boxes from 3 years ago we still have not used...BIG HINT that its time to get rid of it.

The first room of attack is the kitchen ~ I am sure there are cans of food that are past their expiration date in the back of cupboards YUCK and what a WASTE. I know there are dish towels, old pans etc. that I have not used since unpacking them.

My goal is to do 2 rooms per week until it is all done...this way I won't have to bring crap back to the US just to then get rid of it. I will do this rather than some type of New Years Resolution as this is a more practical thing to do plus it needs to be done.

Life by MY rules??

This about says it all I think!

While we were in the US over the holidays we were able to spend some time looking at houses for our return. We did not find anything that we just LOVED. Tim spent yesterday again looking at homes and still found nothing. So now this puts a wrinkle in my planning for our move back. I had hopped we would have found something so that would be one thing completed for our move, but it has not worked according to MY plans so now adjustments need to be made. Mind you, the changes are minimal and really do not have a huge impact on things but still it is a change.

This just puts pressure on us to find something on our next trip and we will no longer have the luxury of time on our side..oh well, that's life!

Another Tooth Tale....

I was reminded that I forgot to mention a small tale about Christopher's tooth while we were in the US over the holidays. Tim had called Diana when we left the dentist to just give her an update and Tim decided to tell her the following tale:

Well, Christopher's tooth was really bad and the dentist thought it would be best to remove the tooth completely. He was able to put a temporary one in until it could be properly fixed. However, he was out of ceramic teeth so he had to put in a GOLD tooth instead! Tim spoke so convincingly that Diana believed him. So much so she repeated the story to those she spoke to on the phone throughout the day. The truth was finally uncovered when I asked her if she looked at Chris' tooth and she said not yet. I told her tim was telling a tale and her mouth hit the floor...she was shocked. It was very funny....you had to have been there.

We are back from our visit to the US and I know I am a bit late in wishing everyone a Happy New Year! I hope your 2008 brings all that you wish for it and more. Our trip home was very good and we enjoyed seeing our family and friends.

Andrew was able to spend a lot of time with his best friend Nicholas and I know Andrew really needed to see him. The two of them share an amazing friendship and even though they have been seperated by distance their friendship continues to grow. It also helps that I like his mom too ~ Hi Diana!!

While we were home Christopher had a minor tooth emergency which we were able to sort out prior to our return. To make a long story short, the tooth he damaged a couple of years ago the nerve has finally died and he had developed an infection that got pretty bad. His face was swollen and he was in a lot of pain. Our family dentist was out of town so we had to try to find a dentist who would see him. We were able to locate one and he came in to his office on his day off to see Christopher. {Talk about going above and beyond}. The dentist performed a pulpectomy on his tooth. Basically, a small hole was drilled in the back and the infection was removed. I guess it was quite a bit of fluid the dentist took out...Chris will need a root canal in the next few months to finish the repair work. OUCH!! I must say I was SO impressed with this dentist that I am seriously thinking of switching our entire family to his practice.

That is all for now as far as an update goes...I have another whole post just on our return flight back to the UK but I will leave that for another day.