My Mummy's Mothers' Day Present

(I think it must have been to Timbuktu on it's way from Texas to London because it took long enough for it to arrive!)

I commissioned blest to make a necklace for my Mum for Mother's Day (which was actually two and a half weeks ago). And it finally arrived today. For Bekki, who couldn't be here to witness it, here's Mummy opening it.(We'll take another picture when she's wearing a different top so that you can see it properly. You can see it here if you want to see it closeup)

'Allo Chickens

I'm looking after Little One and Little Flower again now that their Mum's gone back to work two days a week. Today we went to the farm in Leyton (same place I went several times last spring and summer). They both had a whale of a time...

We spent a lot of time by the 'chickens' (yes, I know that they're actually hens, and chicken is the meat we eat, but try explaining that to someone who's not yet three).
Little one loves saying " 'Allo Chickens".

Although she doesn't look incredibly excited here, she was actually
laughing and giggling most of the time.

We followed these two rogue ducks geese turkeys birds around for a while.

Little one kept watch over them from a safe vantage point (behind the buggy)

There were cute little lambs

And piglets too.HP (my sister)came with usIt was very cold, so we were all thankful to get back in the car.
When we got back to my house we played with the duplo animals.I couldn't find the farm set, so it was actually the circus animals, but who's to say you wouldn't find an elephant on the farm. After all, we saw a hippo and a giant frog while we were at the farm.
(The trash cans were in the shapes of animals!)
(Oh my, I just typed trash cans. What has happened to my vocabulary lately? And I was teaching Little one to say 'good job')

Lots of things to tell you all

but I just got a parking ticket, and now I'm not in the mood. Maybe later. Perhaps I'll go take out the crossness on the treadmill.

Flowers in the window

This is the Amaryllis which was originally meant to be given to HP as a Christmas present back in 2006. My Mum found it about a month later, stuck in the bottom of her wardrobe (it was one of the ones that you start growing from a bulb, you see lot of them around at Christmas time).
It has started to grow in the box, in the dark, in the bottom of the wardrobe (must have been pretty determined!) but had obviously met with some resistance from the box. We got it out and set it on the windowsill, and it did do a fair amount of growing, but we never saw any flowers.

This year, we didn't force it back into a box, but instead allowed it to sit in the light and grow as it wished, and boy did it grow! I kept meaning to take pictures as it was growing, but it just went too quick! I finally remembered yesterday to capture a few shots of it in it's flowering glory. I think there are more flowers yet to come, so perhaps I will manage to take some more pictures, but in case I don't, here it is as it looked yesterday.

Blog blog bloggity blog

Well, blest is back blogging again, so in a minute you can all head over to see her. Hang on, just a minute, you could at least wait for me to get to the end of the sentence.

Tomorrow I am going to see Rachel again, so hopefully that'll give me some good blog fodder, because I don't feel like I've been very inspired recently!
Ok, now you can go see blest or Rachel, I'm done.

In case anyone was wondering...

... my ears are STILL popping all the time. I'm beginning to to wonder if they will ever stop, and if I would miss it if they did!

It's a good good good good good good morning*

I've got yummy baked beans cooking in the oven.

The sun is shining.

I've got several items to pack up and take to the post office (I sold some clothes on e-bay and a book on amazon)

I'm got some photos to take to list some more clothes on e-bay (because they're too big for me !)

I'm going to get on my treadmill a bit later.

My weigh-in this morning was down. (only a bit, and still up 3lb from my lowest last week, but down is down!)

I've got some fantastic fantastic.

I'm listening to Rockapella.


* Line from 'Good Morning' a song by Phil Joel, as reviewed by blest here. I'm not sure my mood is quite as good as all that, but the sun is shinning and things feel brighter.

Life's a see-saw

Is it to do with hormones?

Is it because I'm exhausted from helping out in sunday school this morning?

Is it cos that's how life goes, one week of happiness and then back to gloom?

Is it becasue I still haven't found myself a job, or created a long term plan for my life (meaning something longer than taking a week or evena day at a time)

It is because my weight has been fluctuating this week? (it seemed like I was losing too much weight this week, so I made a concerted effort to eat more, and now I'm really bloated, and feel really fat)

I don't know why it is, but it seems my life is a see-saw and I'm stuck back at the bottom.

Oh treadmill, how I love thee

let me count the ways...

But first, I'd probably better have a shower cos I'm a tad bit* sweaty after my work out.



*tad bit may be a slight understatement. Lets put it this way, I won't be going out anywhere this evening before I've jumped in the shower.

Ten importants facts about Debs

1. If you lie on your back with your legs stretched it is impossible to sink in Debs.
2. In Vermont, the ratio of cows to Debs is 10:1.
3. The book of Esther in the Bible is the only book which does not mention Debs!
4. Without its lining of Debs, your stomach would digest itself!
5. If a snake is born with two heads, the heads will fight over who gets Debs!
6. Japan provides over thirty percent of the world's Debs supply.
7. Without Debs, we would have to pollinate apple trees by hand.
8. Dolphins sleep at night just below the surface of Debs, and frequently rise to the surface for air.
9. Twenty-eight percent of Microsoft's employees are Debs!
10. Plato believed that the souls of melancholy people would be reincarnated into Debs.

Hat-tip to blest and you can get your own version here

I'm alive

Just amazingly busy for someone who isn't really doing anything at the moment.
That makes no sense, but I guess I just mean for someone who doesn't have a job. Yeasterday I was out from about 1.30pm until almost 11pm. I was tired.

I've been on my treadmill lots and lots and am still loving it. I've also been losing more weight, in fact I'm keeping any eye on it because although I feel like I spend all the hours in the day eating, I'm still down several pounds on what I was when I weighed on Sunday morning.

Gotta rush off again, as I'm spending the afternoon with my friend Jenny.

Here are a few more pics from the girls weekend away. These are from Sania Peak, after going up the worlds longest tramway.

Throwing snowballs (actually, I don't think I did throw it in the end, cos blest was so cold I'm not sure she'd have forgiven me if I had)Blest looking lovely, as ever (and this was the last picture I took before the battery died)And just because I saw this sign, I had to share it with you all (I didn't actually see any bears or anything, but, you know, we might have done..!)

Bowled over with love

Right now I'm not in the most brilliant of places mentally. This past week has been so so hard, and it's been tough just getting out of bed some days. However, I know that the are people ALL OVER THE WORLD who love me and want me to feel better, and who really really do care about me.
And that just bowls me over.

When I'm feeling like I don't even like me, there are people who've just been there for more, and surrounded me with their love. And most importantly of all, God loves me, and wants me to know that I am loved.

I was just struck again, reading this post by Boo (will have to fix the link later cos it's telling me there's an error every time I try to go on her blog!) just how many people know me, and even seem excited to want to see me. It blows my mind, but in a good way!

More of my journey home

So, there I was at Dallas airport.... (let me just go check how I got in the story last time..)
Oh I actually got further than I thought. Well, here are some pictures from the journey home. I didn't take all that many cos I was kinda distracted a lot of the time. Who knows why that might have been.

The view from the chair where I sat, and sat, and sat some more (and rang blest every hour to see if we'd heard anything from Christina)The phone I used to ring blest the first time. I think I used it a couple of times, but after I discovered that the phone was eating the credit on my phone card just becasue it was a pay-phone, I got quarters from the shop along the corridor, and then used a phone nearer the shop to call blest.
A random picture of me. Just because I was bored. Note the red face and eyes. could possibly be to do with all the crying I'd been doing, but who knows!
This is on the Thursday afternoon once I was home. I was so so so so so cold. And I didn't have any luggage yet, so I had to go through the wardrobe and try to find something to wear. Most of the stuff I tried on went straight in the bag to go to the charity shop (could possibly be to do with the fact I'd lost 2 stone in weight while I was away!) But I did find one outfit in the end!

Bizzare!

If you've ever wondered what people from around my way can sometimes sound like, try reading this version of my blog. Innit man. Wickid

(Hat-tip to Mrs Wibbz)

Remind me

to never ever ever go to the ER again, unless I know I'm going to be admitted as an inpatient (in which case my insurance would have covered it), or I have some different insurance.
Cos oh boy, was that expensive. Especially just to be told I have a 'non-specific headache'.

It's all paid now, and thank goodness for credit cards and money in savings to pay said credit card bill.

However much people moan about the NHS, I certainly have a lot of respect for the 'free' healthcare I recieve from it!

It's not fair

I don't want to be sat here, in my house, on my own. I want to be somewhere else. I just don't know where that is.

I want to be somewhere that I feel at home. Where I'm with people and feel loved.

I don't want to be here, crying again for either no reason or some stupid reason that makes no sense.

I thought I would have got beyond this by now, but I haven't, I can't.

I just don't know what to do with myself.

Those are the thoughts going through my head this morning.

(I feel like a little kid about to throw myself on the floor and have a big tantrum. heck, maybe I'd feel better if I did!)

Not feeling alive enough to write a proper post

(The whatever it is that's been trying to get me for the last couple of weeks has suceeded and I'm feeling pretty icky today. I've got a sore throat and earache, I'm still all conjested, and my cough seems to be turning into more of an asthma type cough than whatever it was before. But the biggest thing really seems to be that my dizziness has got worse again and I feel almost like I'm on a ship, constantly going up and down on the waves, and if I actually move then, oh my word, talk about headrush!)

Anyway, having said I wouldn't write much, I've proceeded to write loads. Instead I was just gonna show you some pics from our girl's weekend in Albuquerque (and yes, I did have to look that spelling up once again. I don't think I shall ever be able to spell it off the top of my head!)
(Unfortunately I don't have a ton of pics cos my camera battery died on the Saturday morning, but there are some...)

Eating our lunch in the truck on Friday (on the way to Albuquerque)

We were in a place called Truth or Consequences. The toilets we found in the park were, um, interesting. But we survived! More from our weekend away next time..

And a couple of bonus pics. This is to prove how Honey sleeps under Blest's bed - I honestly don't quite know how she squidges her way in there, but she does!

And a final pic of a road sign to Elephant Butte, which is another place we passed by. It made me laugh, so I had to get blest to pull over so I could take a photo :-)

Treadmill is Complete!

You can see it's journey to completion here

Just one more picture

So this is what I look like? Hmmm, interesting.
(and I'm modelling another fabulous blestbeads creation)

Confused

Well, I've given up thinking about what ever it is I'm meant to be doing right now, especially after looking at the weather outside, and I'm uploading pics from yesterday and trying to cheer myself up. I'm sure I'm just tired, and very confused by the constant shifting in my plans for the day, and I'm feeling cold as well, which doesn't help.

So instead, here's a few highlights of yesterday.

At the Park (Samuel and Thomas. I didn't manage to capture anyones faces at the park, they were moving too fast!)
Me and Thomas (Is that really me? I don't think I look like that in my head, but that's a whole 'nother post)
Samuel
Me and Rachel
Ben, and I think that's Samuel in the background

Why so tired?

I am sooo tired. Probably cos I've had a couple of very busy days after several days of doing not much, and now my body is fighting back!

I had a fantastic time with Rachel yesterday, more on that and photos to follow (but today is gonna be another busy one, so probably not until tomorrow). I love making friends on the interblog (new word, as coined by Rachel's husband!)

In about 10 minutes I need to out of the house (and before that I need to finsih getting dressed!) to meet Jenny for breakfast. I was meant to be at a prayer meeting now, but I just couldn't wake up enough to get out of bed. From breakfast I will head to Cambridge and hopefully meet up with a couple of friends who are there for the day to get their MAs. And then I'll hopefully get back in time to go to a quiz night tonight with my Mum.

Right, better get on with it then!

Change of Plan: Was apparently meant to be meeting Jenny now, or 5 minutes ago (I'd got the time wrong!), so it looks like we're not going out for breakfast after all. I'll go and see what I can find here.

I'm going to meet Rachel

Yay! Another chance to meet a blogger in person for the first time.
I'll be gone most of the day, so you can head over to visit Rachel and meet her online while I'm meeting her in real life.
And I'll be back with stories and pictures later on...

(and I suppose later on I might even get around to changing the name of her blog in my blogroll, since she changed it a good while back!)

The outfit I wore yesterday (For Ducky and the goigs to see!)

Today's the day that Debbie goes to see Sarah

I'm going to visit my friend Sarah who lives in south London. But we're unlikely to be having a picnic.
At the moment I'm tossing up whether to wear something that's a bit more exciting, or something that's a bit more warm. I think, having looked out at the weather, warm might win. Definitely layers, at any rate!

Treadmill

I have a treadmill. At least, I have pieces of a treadmill, and a lovely Mummy and Daddy who are helping me put it together (read 'putting it together for me while I wander around vaguely, making suggestions that turn out to be wrong')

Pictures to follow (once I've figured out the whole camera\lead\computer situation)

Small things

After spending much of the day crying, by the time the evening came along I was ready for some light entertainment. This gave me a few giggles, so I felt obliged to share it with you all too:
how to put on a duvet

Thanks for all your kind thoughts and encouragement. I'll keep you posted on how I'm doing.

Coping with Culture shock

Well, the truth is, I don't feel like I'm coping very well with it at all.

Back in October of last year I wrote a Works For Me Wednesday post one week when it was a 'backwards' week - instead of telling people something that works for you, you got to ask a question, and hopefully other people were able to help you with answers. I asked for advice about going to be an au pair in Texas (which was the stage the plans were at at that time). One of the commenters mentioned being aware of Culture Shock, and different stages of adjustment that you go through when you do something like this.

I didn't really think about it much while I was away, and indeed I think on the whole I found it quite easy to get adjusted to being in Texas. Having come back though, I'm finding it a lot more difficult to readujst, and am still having my moments when I want to burst into tears about it all. Anyway, I rememdered what the girl said, and have just been reading up a bit online about culture shock and how to cope with it.

Here's some info I found from the BBC

Reverse Culture Shock Stage
Finally, in the vast majority of cases the immigrant will return to their own country. Once there the fourth, and most unexpected, stage occurs and this is referred to as the reverse culture shock stage. Upon arriving back, the returning resident will be eager to share their experiences of another culture that have made them a different person. However, they have returned to a group of people, and indeed a country, that has changed in the interim. These changes can be subtle or far-reaching, but they will affect the way that the returnee is accepted by, or accepts, their own host country and its residents. Often the change required will be too great. The returnee will in many cases deal with this by returning to the host culture or exploring another culture and language.

The reverse culture shock can be dealt with in part by studying the home culture as assiduously the host culture. In the period between departure and return a number of things may have changed, especially if a number of years have elapsed. The would-be returnee should find out what these changes are. On a more personal note the returnee should get back in touch with old friends and organise to meet them upon their return. Be prepared to find that they have changed markedly, or indeed that they have not changed at all. Some of them may want to hear all about the experiences you had, whilst others will take a polite interest then show irritation as you continue to talk about 'When I was in... ' If the returnee finds out that the former home culture seems more foreign than the one left behind then it may be that another trip abroad is required!

Personally, I like the idea of another trip abroad, but I'm not sure that would necessarily be the right thing for me to do.

I think what blows my mind is that I always considered the UK my home, I was a 'London' girl, and thought I alwats would be. Although I've lived in other places in England, I was always glad to be back in London. But now, I feel like I've left half of me behind in Texas, and no-where feels properly like home anymore. I feel like I've changed, but I've come back to the same old place I left (no offense intended to my friends and family here). And I don't feel like I quite fit in here anymore. I'm sure that in time I can work at it and try to fit in here again, but I don't know if I want to do that.

I'm scared, becauseI have no idea what I want to do next with my life. Right now I'd love to still be in El Paso, with blest and her boys, thinking about things like who's going to go to piano lessons and who's staying at home, or whether the van will be fixed so that everyone will get to go to church this week, but I'm not there. I'm here, in London, and I have to face up to the fact that I have absolutely no idea what to do next. And I'm terrified about it. Living in the 'real world' again, rather than being on an extended holiday or 'time-out' is frightening, and when you twin that with the reverse culture shock, can you blame me for just wanting to get back into bed, pull up the duvet and sit and cry?!

Pumpkin muffins

The muffins turned out well, and the fresh pumpkin I cooked and pureed made enough for another 4 batches after this one.
You can find the recipe here if you are so inclined.
(A warning to non-south beachers - they may not taste as sweet as more conventional muffins)

Edited to add: Christina asked me what the difference woul be between pumpkin pie filling and pureed pumpkin. So far as I know you want the stuff that is just pumpkin - no added ingredients. I think that the pie filling may contain added sugar or sweetners.

Pumpkin Tales

I am looking for canned pupmkin. I am not entirely convinced you can buy it in England! In the meantime I am experiementing with making my own pureed pumpkin from fresh pumpkin. I have a feeling it may be messy. But if it means I can make blest's fabulour pumpkin muffins then I will be a happy girl.

I'll finish my journey home story soon, I promise. Plus, more photos from my last couple of weeks in Texas....

Time Zones

I've just re-set my blog to GMT London time. So if you're reading anything dated between 15th November 2007 and 6th February 2008 you need to subtract 7 hours from the time the post says to find out when I really wrote it. Hope that makes sense, if not don't worry, it's probably not important!

Dallas Airport: Part Three

So, I was sat in Dallas airport for about 6 hours!

Blest had reminded me that Christina (one of the OWOA ladies) lives in Dallas and we were hoping we might be able to get in touch with her in order for her to pop by and see me. Unfortunately we didn't have a telephone number for her, so it had to be done at blest's end by email (and I was checking in with blest every hour or so by phone to see if there was any news) and Christina wasn't able to get to check her emails until the evening, by which point it was too late. I know now for future reference that I should get the telephone numbers of people I know (or at least know online) if I'm going to even be passing through their city, on the off chance that something like this might happen again!

I sat in the checking-in area for a long time, reading a magazine I'd found and taking regular trips to the bathroom, newsstand (to get bottles of water and more quarters for the phone) and the payphones. I'd figured that would be the best place to wait if Christina were to be coming, as I'd be near the door, and also it was less noisy that inside the terminal, so I might have a hope of hearing if I was being paged on the tannoy.

At around 2.45pm I was getting hungry and the security line seemed to be getting kinda long, so I decided it was time to go in to the terminal proper and find somewhere to get myself a meal. I got through security ok, although almost lost my shoe in the process - it came out of the tray all my stuff was in, and tried to get stuck in the x-ray machine. Luckily it did come out again, and I was able to find it and put it back on! (I was glad I had decided to wear my clogs to travel in, as it's so much easier to slip then off and on in a hurry than having to fiddle with the laces on my boots)

I wandered around the terminal for a while, looking at all the food places and trying to work out what I wanted to eat. I finally found a Mexian place tucked away up some stairs and they had fajitas on thier menu so I was happy. It was nice to be out of the hustle and bustle of everything going on downstairs, and to find something that I could eat and be happy with!

I was seated next to another solo diner, who happened to be wearing the same coloured top as I was (in fact she also had turquise earrings and glasses frames!). We got chatting, starting with our excellent choice in colour, and moving on to talking about blogging and all sorts of things. That was the first time I've ever eaten in a restuarant by myself, so it was nice to have someone to talk to. I was telling her about how blest and I met online, and it turned out that her job is actually to do with promoting software for colleges\universities to use blogging as a teaching tool - in particular for those subjects which are wordier, like English or History, as a way to refine the editing process and allow for peer assesment, cutting down on the sheer amount of student-written text that lecturers have to wade through.

After I'd eaten I went to find my gate with plenty of time to spare (which is good, because it had changed in the time between being checked on to my flight and now) and of course went to the bathroom a couple more times! There didn't seem to be many people at the gate, so I wondered if my flight would not be as full as the one I'd had from Heathrow to Chicago on the way over. I knew I had an asile seat as the woman at the check-in desk had sorted that out for me. When we finally boarded I discovered that I was actually sitting at the end of a row of five seats, and the only other seat that was occupied was the one at the other end of the row. In fact, the plane was probably half-empty, or certainly not much fuller than that.

Part Two: Dallas Airport

So, I step off the plane, go up through the tunnel and out into the airport. I head to the right as that's the way most people seem to be going, and come to the departure boards. I finally find my flight (everything's in perfect alphabetical order until you come to London Heathrow, which was just stuck in there randomly) and it says my flight is cancelled.

There's a lump in my throat, and everything seems swimmy for a second. I look again, convinced I've got it wrong, but it still says cancelled. The tears are building in my eyes now and I look around blindly for someone to help me. I spot an information desk and head over, but realise it's manned by a volunteer, who seems to know as much as I do. We walk back over the the screens, and he agrees with me that yes, it would appear your flight is cancelled. He suggests I go and find some American Airlines people, and then turns to help someone else.

I walk over to a desk nearby, and two women try to tell me that they are flight-attendants and can't help me, but then they see my face and ask me what's wrong. I hand over my boarding pass to them and try to explain while also trying to stop the tears from flowing. One of them helpfully says 'I didn't know we flew to Heathrow from here, I know we go to Gatwick', although frightening, her words are also comforting. I think, maybe they can send me there instead, I know that's London, so there must be a way for me to get home. Perhaps I'm not stranded in a foreign city after all.

The flight-attendants look on their computer and see that my flight was meant to be going to Chicago, and then on to Heathrow, but that due to bad weather in Chicago, nothing is going that way. They tell me that there is a flight leaving at 5pm (it's now around 11am), but that I will need to go to speak to a ticketing person. They suggest I head to terminal D which is where most international flights leave from, so I go up the stairs and head from the tramway.

I'm still trying to to cry, but I'm sure that by now my face is blotchy and my eyes bright red. I stand in a corner and try to hide. When we arrive at terminal D I get off and head down the stairs. As I walk in to the terminal I spot a man and woman standing at a desk idly chatting and go to speak to them. I blurt out my story, and it is only once I'm finished that I realise it's not an American Airlines desk. Luckily they were friendly when they told me they couldn't help, but it still made me start to cry again. I spotted the toilets and went in there to calm myself down andto splash my face with water. I thought for a moment that it had helped, but then when I put my glasses on I realised I still looked a state!

I asked a security man how to get to the AA ticket desks and he directed me out of the secure area to the check-in desks. I finally found the AA desks and got in the queue. I chatted to the couple behind me a little, and they were very supportive and understanding, and helped to make me smile a little. As I stood in line I was saying to myself 'please can I get the lady, and not the grumpy looking man!' I got to the front of the queue, and somehow the person the man was helping was more complicated that expected and I got to talk to the woman.

I told her about my plane being cancelled, and that I would be willing to go to Gatwick instead of Heathrow if they could get me on a flight there instead. She was wonderfully friendly, and although I did cry a bit more, she was able to make me laugh and smile too, and most importantly book me on to the 5 pm flight. She also took note of my baggage and was meant to be getting it put on my flight too. Finally, she let me ring home to tell them I would be arriving at Gatwick at 7.55am rather than Heathrow at 6.50am! (And it was early enough that my Mum was still at home and hadn't left to go to church small group).

With my new boarding pass in hand I headed for the phone to tell blest about my change in plans.

The Journey Home: Part One

Well, it seems like I need to tell you about my journey home in all its crazy detail before I forget all the important details...

I set my alarm for 5.15am, but actually woke up around 4.30 and then dozed for the next half hour before getting up at 5am. I wanted time to have a shower and put the last few things in my case before we left, and we were aiming to leave around 6.30\6.45 to allow time for traffic hold-ups etc. I think I managed to find most of my stuff (and blest is going to kindly post me the couple of things that got forgotten!) and just before we left I went and woke up the boys to say goodbye to them. I'm not sure they quite took it all in, but we didn't have time to wake for them to properly wake up as we had to get on the road.

We listened to Michael Buble in the van, as that CD would probably have to be our theme Cd for the time I was in El Paso - apart from possibly Rockapella, I'm sure good old Michael was our most listened-to artist! We arrived at the airport and parked and heaved my two suitcases out of the trunk (Danny had taken then downstairs and put them in the van for us, so I'm not sure I'd realised just how heavy they were! But, he's a marine, so I'm sure he was fine!) and headed in to the airport. While standing in line we attached extra luggage labels to both suitcases (a fact I was thankful about later) and then finally got to the front of the queue. One of my bags was actually 8lb over the limit, and although the guy offered me the chance to remove some stuff and put in my hand luggage instead, I decided it would just be easier to pay the money and not have the hassle later (I blame the extra weight on blest and Danny's extended families who were so kind in their giving of gifts to me for Christmas, but which unfortunately meant I ended up with a lot of books and journals to take home!)

We didn't have time to stop for a starbucks, but I did take a picture of blest in front of the starbucks sign (it just seemed appropriate!), and my last view of blest was as she headed into starbucks to buy a coffee, and I headed up the escalator and into the line to get through security. The line was pretty long, but kept moving, so I got through and found my gate. The flight I was getting was full, and since they hadn't given me a seat number when I was checked in I had to wait for them to call my name once they'd assigned me one. I ended up sitting inbeteen two middle-aged Mexican men.

Finally everyone was boarded and we headed away from the gate. The pilot was doing all his brake checks and everything, and it sounded kind of odd, so I, for one, wasn't surprised when her announced that we had a mechanical failure and had to go back to the gate to get it checked out. They got that sorted fairly quickly, and then had to refuel because all the taxi-ing we'd done had used too much, and otherwise we wouldn't make it to Dallas. We finally took off around three quarters of an hour later than we were scheduled to.

Before we touched down in Dallas the air-stewars were announcing terminals and gate for connecting flights, and I was pretty sure I hadn't heard anything about Heathrow. So when he walked past me I stopped him to check if I'd just not heard him say it, and he re-checked the list and agreed that he had no information about Heathrow. He told me I ought to be able to look on the departure screens and locate the information easily. By the time we landed, taxied to the gate and were finally able to de-board the plane (it was a full flight, and I was over the wing, so had to wait a long time for people to get out the way in front of me) I only had about an hour before my next flight was due to take off, and I was slightly concerned as I had no idea which termianl I needed to be in, let alone which gate....

Jet-Lag and Tears

One of my suitcases was returned to me last night, and the other has arrived in London and is due to be delivered some time today.

Today I'm feeling tired and emotional. Apparently it's 1pm according to the clock on the computer, but my body doesn't have a clue! I finally got to bed around 10pm last night, I'd been ready to go sooner, but then we started unpaking my first suitcase and it seemed sensible to get it all out and as much put away as I could. I woke up at about 2.30 feeling really thirsty so I got myself a glass of water and then went back to bedand fell asleep really quickly.

The phone rang at 10.30 this morning, which I was aware of, but there was no way I could get up to answer it in time, and after all what are answer phones there for if not to take a message for you? Around 11am I did manage to get out of bed and came to turn on the computer (priorities, people!). I need to do something more productive soon I guess, but I've been checking my email, etsy forums and facebook, and crying!

I didn't realise how hard it was going to be to come back home. I love my family and can't wait to see my friends back here, but it just feels so quiet and empty here. My Mum and Dad are at work, so it's just me here, and it's just so quiet. I'd gotten used to having a constant stream of noise from having four boys about the house, not to mention people drumming on the table or wall, and the piano, and music playing, and even the sound blest's laptop makes when an email arrives! I miss blest and the boys soooo much, I've having to restrain myself from looking at flights to go back over there right away!

I think Andrew put it well when we were sitting in the van on my last evening there (we were about to go out for dinner) "Ms Debs is going back to England? But I thought that she was part of the family now"

Home

I'm home, have no luggage and a journey story that needs to be blogged once I can write coherent sentences again.
Right now I'm freezing. Think it must be to do with being so tired, cos no one else thinks it's cold.

ROAD TRIP!

Tomorrow blest and I are heading off to Albuquerque for a couple of days. It's gonna be so cool. Photos to follow later (although maybe not until I get home)!

Overheard

"Benny, I'm not going to eat your cheerios, I'm just going to calculate them."

Not ill, just coughing

Cough cough, sniffle sniffle, sit around in pyjamas. That's where my body's at right now, so I'm sat with the littles watching 'Bear in the blig blue house' (so called by Joshua) while blest takes the bigs to piano lessons.

I do endeavour to get dressed soon, but I figured if I let my body chill for the morning it might manage to find some energy to do fun things this afternoon!

Houston and Waco

Well, I did have lots to say about last weekend, unfortunately there was lots of other stuff going on this week which got in the way of writing it, and now I'm struggling to remember all the stuff I wanted to say. So, here's a brief summery of the rest of the weekend...

Firstly, if you want to see more pictures you can check out an album I made on facebook which is right here.

On Friday morning I got to have a bit of a lie-in (Boo and her Mum had to go to work, and her Dad would be taking me to join them for the afternoon). I watched some TV, read a book, and felt a bit homesick for El Paso and blest and her family! For lunch Boo's dad took me to a Mexican restaurant and I have fajitas which were yummy, and then we went on to her school. The weather was really yucky - raining so much that you couldn't really see out of the car at some points, but I decided that it would just be wasting time to worry about Boo's Dad's driving, so I just sat back and enjoyed the ride!

Oh, Boo is a kindergarten teacher, so I got to spend the afternoon with her and her class. Actually, we took her class in to see her Mom's class (who are second graders I believe) and they got to have a question and answer session with me. My favourite questions was 'what language do you speak in England?', closely followed by 'what clothes do you wear?' and 'do you eat food?' They also sang their National Anthem to me, and I sang the British National Anthem to them.

After school we headed back to Boo's house to pick up our stuff and got some dinner at Chick-fil-A and then started on our way to Waco. Unfortunately the rain meant that we were running pretty late so we didn't manage to make it in time for the first session of World Mandate, but we had fun on the journey, and then when we arrived I got to meet Bird and Brandi for the first time, which was pretty cool :-) Some highlights of the evening included Bird showing off his magic tricks; ringing blest to say I was there safely, which meant the three B's got to talk to her on the phone for the first time, and attempting to explain the differences between the UK and Great Britain.

Saturday morning we went to the World Mandate session, which was really powerful, and then to lunch at 'Chilli's too'. After picking up a steamer for me and coffee for Boo we headed back for another WM session, and then went back to Bird and Brandi's. On the way home we took this picture, which we found highly amusing, especially since moments after I took it a guy came out and started trying to talk to us. (Notice the sub-title!)

I got to meet Bird and Brandi's lovely childen for the first time (they'd been staying with their Grandma overnight, which meant there was room for Boo and I to stay!) and they seemed pretty fascinated by the fact that I am from England. Bird and Brandi decided that they really ought to take me out and about to show me more of Waco, so we all piled into the van (To see more about that follow the link to my facebook pictures!)

The Saturday evening session was great, although went on a bit late for my poor tired brain! Sunday morning Bird, Brandi and the kids got to come too as the all the people from that church were meeting with all the WM people. We ate fajitas for lunch, which were delicious (Brandi, you must tell me what you put in the marinade so I can try cooking it. In exchange I will make blest put up the curry recipe I told you about!).

Driving home Boo took me through campus so I got to see some of Baylor and then we got on the road properly. On the way on Friday we'd passed by a Dairy Queen, and I'd mentioned to Boo that I'd heard of those, and that they seemed to be one of those things you find in small-town America. We'd decided that we really needed to stop at one on the way home to take pictures, and somehow we decided that we would get Blizzards. These are kind of like McFlurrys (ice-cream with some sort of sweets/chocolate/cookies mixed in. I had one with oreo, and Boo had mint oreo. Then we went outside and posed for some pictures (see facebook). Now, I feel obligated to tell you that the blizzard did give me a headache and later on a bit of a bellyache, so I won't be eating one again anytime soon, but I did enjoy it :-)

Back in Houston we stopped briefly at Boo's house and picked up a ribbon to tie on my suitcase (to make it more identifiable for the way home) and then drove to the airport. I asked a man who was sat waiting there to take a picture of Boo and me, and then we had to say goodbye and I headed through security and Boo headed home.

The way they phrased the 'last boarding calls' made me laugh as I sat waiting at the gate (Our pilots were coming in on another flight which was delayed, so we ended up waiting for a while). They would say thing like 'This is the last boarding call for flight 340 to Dallas. Paul Smith, we love you, but we will leave you behind if you do not board immediately'.

When I got back to El Paso Danny came to pick me up at the airport, and took me back home. It was great to see blest again, and we stayed up far too long catching up on the weekend. The next day the boys were so excited to see me, and at one point I thought I was going to be smothered with love as Andrew, Benny and Joshua all tried to climb on top of me to hug me!

Stretchy Men Save The Day

Well I'm looking after the boys this morning (blest is getting a haircut and Danny is helping to put down the new AWANA square) so I decided it was time to break out the stretchy men that my Mum sent at Christmas. So far they seem to be a sucess!

I have nothing to say

so I won't.

This is Me, Boo, Brandi and Bird to prove I really did meet them! I will try to write more about last weekend at some point, I promise.

Love and Hate Meme

I was tagged by Mrs Wibbs a week ago, so I figured it really was time to get around to doing it..

I love to eat: Chocolate, blest's pumpkin muffins, curry, lots of other yummy stuff...
I hate to eat: Fish. It doesn't agree with my stomach, so we have an agreement not to eat it.

I love to go: To El Paso to see blest; to Houston & Waco to see Boo, Brandi and Bird; home to London; to Jubilee Church...
I hate to go: Home. Yes I know that's a contradiction, but I just don't want to leave blest and her boys (I include Danny as one of the boys!). Anyway, that's all I'm going to say about that.

I love it when: I get a hug from one of my friends or family.
I hate it when: I have to do things like ring up my insurance company (actually, those sorts of things are generally ok when you do them, I think it's more the anticipation that I don't like).

I love to see: The sky from an aeroplane - particularly when you're just above the clouds and the sun reflects on them. I may have only flown 4 times now, but I have a feeling I may be addicted now!
I hate to see: People suffering, especially children.

I love to hear: Joshua's giggle (Joshua is blest's youngest son)
I hate to hear: The sound of my alarm clock. It goes... well actually I can't figure out how to represent the sound it makes with letters, but it's really not a good noise.

I tag: HP and Barney. (After all, I did tell you on the phone today that you really need to blog more!)
Also, a big Happy Birthday to HP. However did you get to be 21, I mean, you're my little sister. What's that about?!

Thursday - Home and Away

Blest and the boys took me to the airport on Thursday afternoon. We arrived with enough time to spare to take the boys in to have a look around the airport and to stop at Starbucks for a drink and some cookies for the boys. (In case you're interested, my Starbucks drink of choice is currently a (take a deep breath) grande, non-fat steamer with sugar-free cinnamon dolce, and hold the whipped cream)

Joshua, especially, was disappointed that he didn't get to come up the stairs and further in to the airport (only people with boarding passes could continue to go through all the security checks). Blest managed to get them all to leave eventually, and I'm assuming she managed to make it home ok (she was in pain and had to go home to take some more of 'the good drugs'!) I headed upstairs and went through security scans and then found my gate. I had a while to wait, but just sat and read my book, after all I'd much rather have plenty of time than be rushing and concerned I might not make my flight.

As I said in my last post, I got to sit next to the window on the plane. I loved looking out, especially as we ascended out of El Paso. Once again I was reminded of the fact that I'm living in a desert - the land is so flat, and plain that it's really hard to gain a proper perspective of how high up you are. Like, you might see what is probably actually a big bush, but because it's hard to judge the distance you brain just sees it as a little clump or grass or something. At some points it was almost scary, because I'd think 'surely we shouldn't be flying this low', until you saw a building or a road with cars on, which put the distance back into perspective.

When I arrived in Houston I was more concerned about the fact I had checked my suitcase, which was one I'd borrowed from blest, than the fact that I had never met Boo before. (Let me clarify that, I wasn't so much concerned that I'd checked my suitcase in the 'I might not get it back' sort of way, as the 'it's a medium sized black case and I didn't spend enough time looking at it to notice any particular features that might stand out, so I will just have to look at all the medium black suitcases that come along') As it happened, Boo not only recognised me before I even saw her, but she also spotted my suitcase first (the tag the airport people put on it had my name on, which she noticed, and then I got to go chase after it on the carousel!)

We headed out to Boo's car (He's very nice and is called Earl), left the car park (there was an incident with the car-park ticket, but we don't need to talk about that!) and headed for a Mexican restaurant. We were very good there and stuck to our diet (we're both doing South Beach) which involved ignoring the tortilla chips and salsa on the table, and for me (since I don't know any Spanish) trusting that Boo was ordering what I wanted her to! After dinner we drove home to Boo's house and I got to meet her lovely Mum and Dad, and then we finally went to bed around midnight. (Well, Boo had to pack for the weekend, and we had to check stuff online and, of course, just chat and enjoy spending time together!)

* I can't remember what I said in previous posts, but in case of confusion I will explain that Boo's real name is Debbie. I've been calling her Boo in this post because it's shorter to type than Debbie, and also because it's confusing calling someone else Debbie! Boo is also a member of 'One Weigh or Another', and her blog can be found by following a link on the OWOA sidebar. I will be adding her to my sidebar too, but I can't promise I'll get around to doing that right away!

I am the dog's new security blanket

Everyone else is out at Awana\Choir rehearsal at church this evening, and I have plans to get some serious blogging done. Since everyone left the dog had followed me around constantly. Well, she spent the first couple of minutes checking all over the house to see if she could find anyone else to play with, and since realising I'm the only one left she has been at my side. When I went into the kitchen to make dinner she lay in front of the gate (we have a gate in the doorway to stop the boys getting in the kitchen) until I came out. Right now I am sitting at the table and she is lying at my feet under the table, and every now and then she'll look up at me to check I'm still there.

The view from the sky

I got to sit next to the window on the aeroplane both on the way to Houston and on my way back to El Paso. This was taken as we got near to Houston and it was mostly because I loved the way the clouds looked like icing on a cake. The sun was setting as we neared Houston. I tried to capture the way the sun was reflected on the clouds, and the wing of the plane. I'm not sure it shows that, but I still love this picture. The funny thing about it was that soon after I took this photo we continued our descent to below the clouds, and down there it was already dark. I guess somehow being higher up we got to see the sun for longer, but once we got lower, the sun 'disappeared' below the horizon. This photo was actually taken on the way home as we headed up and out of Houston. I was trying to capture the way that the street lighting reminded me of Rangoli patterns. (Those links don't really tell you what they are, but are more the sort of thing I was reminded of!)
It doesn't really come across in the photo actually, but I liked the picture anyway!)

Morning Conversation

'Well we're not being very productive today'

'Hey, I'm dressed, and it's not even 11 o'clock yet'

'I take it back, we're a hive of activity.'

Q and T time

I'm at school with Debbie, and we took her class to see her Mum's class, and together they all got the chance to ask me some questions about England. It was great fun. I told them about the difference between what I call football, and what they do, and about the crisps/chips/fries language differences.

My favourite question was when one little girl asked me what language we speak in England!

Ok, gotta go cos it's the end of school and once all the kids are gone we are going back to Debbie's house and then driving to Waco. More about that and pictures (hopefully) on Monday.

Safely Landed

I've arrived safely in Houston. Debbie is lovely. We've been out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Now we're back home, and I'm doing important things like checking blogs and my emails :-)
Tomorrow I'll get to visit Debbie's school and then in the evening we'll drive to Waco.

Three More Weeks

I can hardly believe that I only have three weeks more before I have to head back to London. I know it'll be great to see my family and friends again, but I've grown so much a part of this family that it will be so so hard to leave them. And with that said I don't want to talk about it anymore because it will make me too sad.

However (one more mention to make the post flow), I do have some great stuff planned for those three weeks. Tomorrow I am flying to Houston to meet Debbie. I will stay with her overnight, and then hopefully on Friday I will have the chance to go into school with her (she is a teacher) for a short while, to see what her school is like. Then Friday evening we will drive to Waco (I think it's a 3 hour drive, which is apparently a short one. One day I might get my head around the American sense of distance!) to go to this. It's a Missions Conference called 'World Mandate' and is run by Antioch Community Church. From what I've heard from Debbie and seen on the website it looks like it'll be a fantastic weekend. And, that's not even all... I'll be staying Friday and Saturday at Bird and Brandi's house. Bird is Debbie's brother and Brandi is his wife. All three are also members of One Weigh or Another (the weight loss blog I'm a part of) and that's really how I got to know them. I can't wait :-)

Blest and I have a road trip in the works, but I shan't blog about that until all the details are confirmed...

Phrases heard a lot around here.

I left you all hanging too long, and I apologise. This post is now updated with who says what, and where the phrase originates.

"I almost hate to bring this up" (I don't know where this one comes from, but a book or movie most likely. It's said by Andrew or Benjamin at the most randon of moments, and usually don't have any relevance to the conversation)

"If you don't mind my sayin' so, It wouldn't have hurt you To find out what the gentleman wanted. " (This is a favourite of Benjamins, and he'll launch into it at any time, any where. It's a line from 'Music Man')

"I've never worked this hard in all my life" (Another quote from a book or movie. Usually to be heard from Andrew, Benny or Joshua while they're clearing up at the end of the day)

"I sure hope" (Benjamin's response if you ask him if he would like a cheese slice\to go outside\to watch Barrage...)

"Oh snap" (Most likely to be heard from Daniel or Andrew, this is an 'oh shoot' type phrase, and would be ok if they didn't say it twenty times in a row!)

Cheerios everywhere

I think I was quite restrained to only say 'oh shoot' when this happened earlier.

And I'll even admit to the world, that yes, it was my fault!

Blest Update

I just got off the phone with blest… and she’s doing ok.

When they got inside they found that the mesh is still in place, and that there was no new hernia. It looks like what you can feel/see is actually peritoneal fat (which is a layer between the muscle wall and the skin). Anyway, you can ask her more about it once she’s back home, cos that’s about as far as my knowledge of it goes!

They are keeping her in overnight, but she’ll be home again tomorrow, and could be up and about again as soon as Monday, with a lot less pain than last time

A big thank you to HP and Elly

This afternoon when the boys had got to that "we're bored and won't want to do any of the run of the mill stuff that you might like to suggest" I remembered the aeroplanes that my Mum and HP had sent me for Christmas. That might sound strange, but they had sent them with the intention that I could give them to the boys at some point. I didn't give them on Christmas day because I figured they had plenty of stuff to play with then, but saved them for the right moment. And that was definitely today. We went from mutiny to excitement in one easy step. So once again, thank you my family :-) (And I still have the other things you sent, and they are waiting for another such moment!

Here they are enjoying their planes (before they escaped and went all over the house, and before we needed to employ tape to fix Andrew's plane!)

Good morning

Well blest and Danny headed off the hospital a few minutes ago (they have to be there by 7.30). Blest wasn’t allowed to eat or drink anything this morning - I don’t think the lack of food was as much an issue as the lack of COFFEE!

I’ll let you know news as and when I know it, but in the meantime please pray for her - for peace while she waits, for the doctors, that the surgery is successful…. etc, and for me as I look after the boys (and hope that the lego castle continues to be as exciting to them as it was yesterday!)

11am: Danny just called to say they've taken her into surgery.

The castle is finally complete

We got the castle out this morning and built the final section. Now all four of the boys are enjoying playing with it, and we have peace and quiet. Long may it last (I hope...!)

International Differences

I just about caused a riot eating baked beans and bacon for breakfast.....

Daniel and Andrew looked at my plate and said 'baked beans? Eeewww. You should be eating pancakes, waffles, oatmeal or biscuits', to which I replied that pancakes shouldn't be eaten for breakfast, but for dessert after dinner, and that biscuits were what they called cookies.

The conversation got a little confused at that point, until I reassured Andrew that I wasn't telling him that he was wrong, just trying to explain that there were differences in what people call food over here and back in England.

I also explained to Daniel how English people traditionally eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, which is the day before the period of Lent starts (the 40 days before Easter). I told him some of the things you can eat on pancakes, and how they can be savoury or sweet. When I said some people like cheese and ham on pancakes I about thought he would throw up!

Here are a few translations for you
American \ English
Cookies \Biscuits
Chips \ Crisps
Fries \ Chips
Oatmeal \ Porridge
Jelly \ Jam
Jello \ Jelly

Weekend antics

This weekend I was meant to be staying with the lady I met at the Christmas cantata. Did I talk about that already? Basically, I got chatting to the lady sitting next to me as we were both there pretty early (blest was singing and the lady's husband was playing in the orchestra). She was a lovely German lady who had married an American and consequently moved out here a long time ago (I can't remember how long exactly, but her children are all grown up now, so it's a fair while!). We had a lovely time talking and afterwards she told me that she would like to invite me to stay with them for a weekend and go to their church with them. She briefly introduced me to her husband and we exchanged addresses and phone numbers.

I remember now that I must have talked about her a little bit because I posted the photo of the big bag of presents she gave me for Christmas.

We've talked on the phone a couple of times and they were going to be picking me up yesterday at 1pm and then we'd have been going to Las Cruces, which is actually in New Mexico, so I was excited about the chance to visit another state, even if it was only an hours drive away. Unfortunately she rang yesterday morning around 9am to say that she'd come down with a nasty cold, and it didn't seem a good idea for me to go to stay with them, especially since blest is having surgery next week, and we didn't really want either me or her coming down with anything with that coming up.

The German lady is off to California for a couple of weeks, but once she's back she'll get in touch and see if we can manage to fit anything in to my last couple of weeks here. Talking of time, I can't believe how quickly it's gone. In one months time I'll be on a plane heading home. Part of me can't wait to see my family and friends there, but I also know I'll be heartbroken to leave this new part of my family here behind. But I don't want to think about that at the moment!

So, anyway, there I was left with no plans for the day, and no chance to visit New Mexico, when blest suggested that I could come with her to Las Cruces. Yep, by strange coincidence she would be spending the day there with a friend of hers who had to clear stuff out of her mother's house (her mother passed away a little while before I got here).

At this point I also have to tell you that as we tried to leave drum lessons on Friday the van wouldn't start. This is at least the third time something like this has happened. The van is back at the garage, hopefully having whatever they thought was already fixed, re-fixed, and we're back to only having one vehicle in action.

The plan had been that I would watch the boys in the morning while Danny dropped blest off at the church, which was the rendezvous point with her friend. However, blest persuaded Danny that instead we would take the truck and that he would stay at home all day with the boys. (He'd have been at home with the boys anyway, but in the original plan he'd have had the truck to go out and about if he'd wanted to).

We set off and met blest's friend at the church, and after waiting for a while for someone else to arrive we set off for Las Cruces. I would have taken photos as we drove, but somehow forgot, but at some point I will put up some 'look, we're driving through desert' pictures! We arrived and spent several hours packing up obscene amounts of china and books in a former smoker's house. It wasn't the best place I've ever been, but that's all I have to say about that.

Once we were finished and had packed much of the china into the van (we left the truck at the church and all went together in the friend's van) we headed back to her house for a chance of clothes, and then went back to church. There is a Saturday evening service with the praise band leading the worship time. Blest's friend often sings for it, and blest was hoping that she'd be able to sing too, as her operation will put her out of action for several weeks.

However when we arrived the parking lot seemed remarkably empty, and that's when they realised that this week the youth are running all of the services, including the Saturday evening one, so neither blest or friend would be singing on the stage. At which point we decided to head to Starbucks for a coffee (I had a 'grande non-fat steamer with sugar-free cinnamon dolce' which is the alternative we've figured out, considering I don't like coffee or tea) and then went into Goodwill for a wander. We spent probably an hour or more in there (it's a lot bigger than the charity shops back home, and blest tried on lots of stuff!). And then we were hungry so we went to Chilli's for dinner. YUM!

Today I am staying home and the rest of the family have gone to church. Yes, I know that's the same thing as happened last Sunday, but there were a number of considerations and factors which were considered before that decision was made. So here I am, blogging, running the dishwasher and washing the clothes we wore yesterday, because what with the dust and smoke there was no way we'd be wearing them again before washing them. Not to mention trying to catch up on emails and blog reading, and having the chance to sleep in a bit longer.

Chaos reigns

Right now, as I type, Blest and all her boys and her friend Karen and two of her kids are playing with the nerf guns the boys got for Christmas. I had to duck into the kitchen to avoid being caught in the crossfire!

Where have all the flowers gone? Long time passing.

Ok, so I haven't slipped off the face of the earth, just been otherwise engaged. For the last few evenings I've been playing scrabble with blest during the moments when it might have been possible to blog without an audience that demands 'please can I be wrapped around your arm?'.

We've had some good games, with several 'bingos' (where you get out all your letters and get 50 bonus points) and some pretty closely matched play. I haven't beaten her again yet, but it's been touch and go a few times!

There's been lots going on.
Some of this: (working out on the treadmill, lifting weights, and posing for photos for the challenge that's going on right now over at One Weigh or Another) Lots of Honey love, and a little bit of Honey being at the vet. (She wasn't pregnant, surprisingly, and it's now been made sure that she won't be!) And, with a lovely blurry picture. some of this:
The new dance praise dance mat, to which we have discovered you can add the veggie tales 'dance dance dance' mat, so that 2 people can dance at the same time. And then of course you can dance without the mat too (which is what I'm doing here, even if it doesn't look like it!)

If we get the kids to bed early enough this evening, or if I disappoint blest and don't play scrabble, then maybe, just maybe I might manage to blog a bit more this evening. But not promises.

when does the year start anyway?

Well it's 10pm here and I'm about ready to hit the hay, so I won't be staying up to see the new year in. However, I did ring home just after 5pm here, which was just after midnight there, so in a way I've seen the new year in already. I guess it's just all relative, and my reality right now is that I need to go to bed.
So good night all, and a happy new year to you as and when it happens!