~2008 in review~

This time of year, I always seem to think back over the year and remember all the things we have or have not done during the year. We really had a busy 2008! It was our first full year living in the UK and a busy one at that! We took a few day trips around England visiting....Ely, Bury St. Edmunds, Norwich, Cambridge, the Wash, Castle Rising Castle, Audley End House, Stonehenge....and just hanging out in the local villages around us. We took three big trips..we made it to Edinburgh Scotland, Dublin Ireland and Brugge Belgium. We took the Eurotunnel and drove through France.
Rob went down range for 4 months and the girls and I had a great adventure of taking a military hop from here to the states...with stops in Gander Canada, Brunswick Maine and Virginia Beach Virginia.
While the girls and I were staying with my parents (Memom and Papa) in North Carolina, we saw many family members and friends. We also took a road trip from North Carolina~South Carolina~Georgia~Alabama~Mississippi~Louisiana~final stop Dallas, Texas .
We were not able to visit with any of Rob's family but were able to call and talk to them a few times and we welcomed two new babies to the family...Alyssa born in April and Leo born in November...one for each of Rob's sisters!!
Meghan started Kindergarten this year and lost 4 teeth and counting! Jenna continued preschool this year at Busy Bees.
Rob started guitar lessons and is bikeless for a while. He sold his DRZ and is waiting to buy a new bike in 2009!
We have all been blessed with good health and happiness this year and we look forward to more adventures, trips and fun times in the upcoming year!!
Happy New Year!!!

Little Donkey

I forgot to post a video from Jenna's school program with the kids singing Little Donkey. Very cute song!!

~~~12 days of Christmas~~~

The girls and I have been listening to Christmas songs all month on our ride to and from school (and any other time we are in the car). First off....it takes 6 Rudolph songs to get to Meghan's school. Second, Meghan's version of the 12 days of Christmas......Five golden rings, four calling birds, three pinches, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.....
Jenna sings, but not a loud as Meghan:) And Jenna doesn't ask to listen to the same song over and over...yet.
It's really hard to not laugh when the girls say and do so many cute and silly things.
After Church on Sunday I took the girls to the grocery store and as we were getting back in the car, I stated.."Jenna, honey, you need to try and buckle yourself up..." Jenna states, "I will do it when I'm 16..."!!

Life in England

Living outside the US is really an experience and one I'm really enjoying. Life really is different and it's interesting to see what other's countries do as "normal" behavior.
I'm going to first start by explaining the "travelers"...aka gypies. There are groups of travlers that set up "camp" in any open field and stay put intil the government kicks them off. When I say set up camp anywhere...I mean that. When they set up camp on someone's land, the land owner has to have help by the govt to get them to move..... They also will tie their horses up on a chain (like some people do for dogs) and then they leave a bucket of water for them. We have a camp right behind our housing area, so we have had horses living near us since we moved in...well the other night when I was taking a friend's girls home, there was a horse walking/running all around my neighborhood. And no, there wasn't a rider. It isn't one of the friendly horses, so I slowly drove past it and luckily it was not around when I returned a few hours later. If you are smart and know the "rules" with travlers...you don't call the police on them.....you don't want to get on their bad side.
Wednesday afternoon I was driving the girls home from school when traffic slowed down...thinking they set up signal lights for road repair, I slowed down and planned to wait a while....well it wasn't for road repair....there was just a bale of hay the size of a car in the road...
We do live in the country and it smells really bad some days like cow poo and the roads are narrow and not in good condition..but over all it's fun and interesting to live here!! I will try and take some pictures to post soon!!

Jenna's school program

Jenna's school, Busy Bees had the 20th annual Carol Service and Nativity today. St. John's Church goes to the nursery school once a month for religious education. Jenna's school is a montessori school and it is awesome. For the ones who haven't heard....her school has a farm with animals, veggies, swimming pool, organic alpaca wool shop and much more. I pay NOTHING for her to go too!!! She goes 5 mornings a week for free...thank you to the British government's high taxes. All 3 and 4 year olds in this country are eligible and why not take advantage of the early start with school.

So I was off the main topic for a little bit......I wanted to share a video and some pictures of the program from today. The little girl beside Jenna is one of her best buddies, Allison.

....don't forget to turn off the music on my page, so you can hear the kids talking and singing.

Enjoy:)

Funny things the girls say

My girls say some of the funniest things. I guess all kids actually say them, we just have to pay attention!
Today when we were leaving the house to pick up Meghan from school Jenna says...."the real Santa is fat". There was no conversation leading up to this comment. I just laughed and said "really"!!
This evening coming home from ballet...
I said "you two can go upstairs and change while I start dinner"...
Meghan states.."but Mom I want a grownup upstairs with us"
Me..."Dad can go up stairs with you"
Meghan...."how do you know he is one?".....
Me......"because he is a Dad"...

Breakfast with Santa

Craft station

Yummy pancakes!

This morning we went and ate pancakes with Santa, played a few games, made some crafts and told Santa what we wanted for Christmas. The girls didn't want to sit on Santa's lap until they saw the elves were giving out gifts!

J..E..L..L..O

Since Meghan has started Kindergarten, jello has been a topic of conversation. I normally ask her as we are walking to the car after school...."Hey Meg, What did you eat for lunch today?". I already know what was on the menu but I want to see if she actually ate what was on the menu....and she normally will only tell me what she ate, not what they tried to get her to eat!
The first few weeks she kept telling Jenna about the jelly....and she liked it and would explain the colors and flavors to Jenna.
As I jump around with this post.....I ate jello all the time as a kid. I remember all the different flavors and when we got sick Mom always made us extra! For whatever reason, I had never made it for my girls.
So a week or so back Meghan asked if we could have jello at the house, just like the kind she eats at school. Sure!!! I made some orange jello today and they ate the whole box....just the two of them.
I never thought jello would be so popular!!!! Next up....Strawberry!!!

Brugge Belgium

Welcome to Belgium

Rob enjoying a Belgium Beer.... Meghan enjoying a sprite...

Standing in front of Lake of Love

Happy Thanksgiving a few days late! I hope each and every one of you had a wonderful day!! Holidays to me are about being with family but since we moved to Jolly ole England we are a little too far to hop in the car for a day trip. I decided this past summer we would spend some of the holidays away from home!! Helps with the homesickness....and it worked! We headed out Wednesday morning for a two night stay in Brugge Belgium. We started our trip with a 2 hour car ride to the coast of England. We arrived at the Euro tunnel station an hour before our train left, so we had time to walk around and check out the shops in the station before getting back in the car. Side note~ The Euro tunnel is a tunnel that was made under the English channel...not in the water...but under it....we drove the car onto the train and then took a 35 minute ride into France. Upon arrival we just drove off the train and kept on going!!!

It only took us 1.5 hours to reach Brugge after we started driving again! Very easy to find the hotel and it was in the middle of the old city center!! Perfect location!!! We ate at a really nice restaurant on Wednesday evening and then walked around before heading in for the night. The girls loved the hotel because it had an indoor pool. We took a short swim each evening...Rob and I couldn't last longer because the water was cold!!

Brugge is a beautiful old city with so many sights to see within walking distance to city center. We really enjoyed the sights, food, chocolate, and lace!!!

Feeding the ducks

Little sun, lots of rain and then finally today we saw the sun and it didn't rain!!! The sun comes up late and starts to set around 330pm. We finally had some outside time today. We have all been sick and still not completely well, but we needed some sun. We took the girls out to lunch today in Mildenhall, fed the ducks/swans and played at a park. It was cold and windy, but I've learned to not complain about the little things!

We were going to take the girls to the museum of Natural History today in London, but will have that trip another time when we are all 100%....or close to it.

We have fed the ducks/swams before but today they surprised us and were more friendly than normal. Instead of waiting in the water a little "gang" decided to come to us! It was cute until the Swans figured out what the ducks were doing. I chased them away and made them get back in the water to feed.

My space and I'm not talking about the social network.

About 6 years ago I received a package in the mail and inside was a large photo album, how-to books and lots of craft supplies. I received that box from Grammy (Rob's Grandmom) to help me get started on scrapbooking Meghan's life! Well, in the last 6 years I have made sure to make a page for not only major events in Meghan's life but then started making a second group of albums for Jenna.

At times I have felt like I have no clue what I was doing but then I realized it wasn't about how well the pages looked, but that I took the time and tried really hard to make a special page for a special time.

I also stamp a little and don't have many supplies, but love to do it. I recently purchased a kit from Stampin up and it had everything I needed to make 10 cards. I like it when the ideas are right in front of my face!

I have taken the pictures to show you my space!!! It's all mine!!! It is a 6ft table and I can start on a page or craft and leave it, if I need to. The girls love to look at the pictures, but they don't bother my crafts!! My space is in a corner in the girls play room, so we spend time together doing what we love to do!!

Ceramics and black eye

The girls were invited to a pottery painting birthday party today. Meghan and Jenna love to color and paint but this was the first time painting pottery. I took a few pictures and will take some of the finished pieces when they are completed. I did paint some extras on Jenna's keepsake box...which you would have guessed:)

I brought our own paint shirts...so if you are trying to read them, they are from Drew's 12th birthday party:)

The black eye has nothing to do with the pottery painting but I wanted to post a picture of Jenna's eye. It doesn't look too bad but she did get her first black eye. It happened last night at the halloween party...when I said the parents had the most fun....well I bet the kids had just as much. Jenna's eye got in the way of a flying toy...no blood but a little pain. She said it doesn't hurt today.

Halloween

Second annual halloween fest in Beck Row base housing was fun fun fun!! We all four dressed up and had so much fun this year. Our friends/neighbors hosted a halloween party/ haunted garage and we helped out and I think the adults had more fun than the kids did. I took the girls trick-or-treating and we didn't last very long because it was freezing last night. I wish I had taken the time to take more picturees because I'm still in awe at the crowds that pour into my neighborhood for some good ole american candy. It had to be well over a few hundred that came around last night and even a few people had their dogs dressed up (no kids with them either....just taking the dog)!!!

American idol....Meghan style!!

Meghan decided to sing for me:) This is a very cute video and I thought I would share this with you all. This was from August. You will need to pause the music from my page to hear her sing.

Swimming lessons

November 2007 Jenna started swim lessons at her school. She cried and didn't want to get in the water and in 4 weeks she was ok with not holding on for dear life on the side. She is finishing up the first year and you will see for yourself how far she has come in just one year!! Jenna has the red swim cap on.

Meghan started swim lessons January 2008. She was so excited and still looks forward to swim lessons each week. Meghan has had lessons in the past but never really learned to swim from those lessons. Meghan has the blue swim cap on.

My Dad.......

My Dad recently retired from the Wayne County Sheriff's office after 20 years and the news paper did a short article on him. Thought I would share it will you all. He is an awesome Dad and Papa!! (this pictures was taken at Tracy's house this summer)

Wayne County Sheriff's Office Maj. George Raecher, supervisor of investigations, the county drug squad and aggressive criminal enforcement team, has retired after a career spanning 20 years.
Raecher is moving into another public service job on a part-time basis, already stepping into a job this month in enforcement with the county Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission.
That quick transition prompted some questions from friends, the now-retired Sheriff's Office major said during an interview last week.
"People have said, 'Well, George, did you (at least) take a vacation?'" Raecher said with a chuckle at his home near Walnut Creek.
He did -- he and his wife, Jan, whom he married just six weeks after they met at the gates of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, went to Pigeon Forge for a week.
Now, he's training for his new job, which will involve working to ensure that things run smoothly at the county's ABC stores. The job he's taking is being vacated by another former Sheriff's Office major, Glenn Odom, who has moved to the county Magistrate's Office.
Raecher said he's preparing for a new job that will provide new challenges, but probably less excitement -- and 3 a.m. phone calls -- than his old position.
He said he expects to miss the feeling of being a criminal investigator.
"I'm going to miss the activity. I love the detective work -- I love being involved in those situations. I love fighting crime."
But there are things that he will not miss, he said.
A detective carries memories that don't fade away easily.
For Raecher, one such memory is the case of then 16-year-old Antonio Leonta McKinney, who was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life terms in the July 30, 1999, murder of Peggy Lofton, 41, of Dudley.
That was one of the many mornings in his career, which included at least a decade in crime scene investigation, that Raecher took an early morning phone call. The call about Ms. Lofton came around 3 a.m., Raecher said.
"The Lofton case was a young man that broke into a mobile home in Dudley, shot the mother in the forehead, and killed the 22-month-old baby," Raecher said.
"I'll always live with that picture, of (infant Kelly Nicole) leaning against her momma's shoulder, and she had a pacifier and she was hanging on to the Pooh bear," Raecher said in recollection, clearly moved by the memory.
Raecher has three daughters who are all married, and one of his grandchildren got word of what had happened.
It was one of many times that Raecher struggled for a way to explain the behavior of others to the people he loves, he said.
The granddaughter asked, "'Poppa, why do people kill babies?' I said, 'I don't have an answer for that.' There's my grandchild, asking me why, and I say I don't know," Raecher said.
Dealing with scenes like that make the long hours hard sometimes, the retired Sheriff's Office major said.
"I get up, and get dressed and go do it," Raecher said, not long before a sentence in which he trailed off. "(The memories), I don't dwell on them, but you start thinking of some of the things that I did ...."
How does he deal with the memories when they do crop up?
"Do a lot of praying," Raecher said.
Raecher said he wouldn't define his career by his work in a particular type of crime, and added that he never reached a point where he wasn't willing to help with any aspect of an investigation, even if he wasn't the lead investigator.
"I'm a worker. I like to be a team player," Raecher said. "And sometimes, the sheriff (Carey Winders) would say 'You need to back off a little bit.' I would go with an officer today, if they wanted me to go and do an interview, I'd be up there helping them."
Raecher said much of the success he has enjoyed in law enforcement has come through good relationships with other officers.
"I have to brag on the ... deputies, and the Sheriff's Office personnel," Raecher said. "I'm proud of their accomplishments. They've got some great people in there right now."
Raecher said a few promotions and personnel acquisitions in particular, those of Chris Worth, Mike Cox and Jerry Maxwell, among others, have been instrumental in combating serious crime.
When asked about what 20 years of policing had taught him, the retired major said it's that you cannot identify a criminal by looking at him or her alone.
"You can't judge a person by looking at anybody," Raecher said. "I've seen some people (ask), 'Does a murderer have a certain look? Do people that rape children have a certain look?' No. You can't judge somebody by looking at them.
"I don't know how you characterize it, you talk to them, try to talk to them and ... figure out what's going through their head," Raecher said. "(The idea) that a certain group of people commits this certain type of crime -- I've not found that to be something that I can identify."

My Borndest Baby and weekly news

Having the girls adds extra fun and laughter each and every day. I have to tell you that Jenna comes up with her own words for things and then sticks with the new words. Well, a few months back she decided that a newborn was called your borndest baby.......I try to tell her the correct word but she doesn't care to hear it! She has even rubbed that word off on Meghan. I can hear them playing and they are talking about who is their borndest babies!!! Their babies are also zero....instead of aged in months!

This week was a busy week even though it was just a 4 day "work" week. We started out Tuesday with me going to help out in Meghan's class for an hour and a half. I really enjoyed myself and look forward to my Tuesday mornings in Kindergarten! I moved the girls swim lessons to Tuesday right after school and it worked out really well this week. They are both catching on so fast with swimming. Jenna is able to put her face under the water and is practicing how to move her head out of the water to breath. She still doesn't go very far but is trying very hard. Meghan is able to swim all strokes and is getting better with her techniques each week.

Meghan has a loose front top tooth and it is hanging half in/half out. She won't let us touch it and will only wiggle it when we ask her to. This will be her forth baby tooth to fall out and hopefully it will be the first she pulls out on her own. I actually think it will fall out on it's own before she will try to pull it! I really hope it's out by next Wednesday because she has her school picture taken. We decided she looks like Nanny McPhee with the tooth and she thinks it is very funny!!! Her other three teeth all came out without her help....the first one was caught on a rope at her school last year, Rob pulled one and the dentist pulled the other one during a routine cleaning.

Ireland trip

Malahide Castle Coast of Ireland

Bewley's hotel

Rob and Chris
Me and Crystal

Ireland.....check!

I have been able to see two countries this year that were on my list of things to do! We went to Scotland earlier this year and Ireland was checked off the list this past weekend. We took a short 45/50 minute flight from London/Stansted and arrived in Dublin Saturday evening. The bus system is very easy to use and we arrived safely at our hotel, Bewley's, without getting lost! Our hotel was an old school house and was beautiful! We went on this trip with our friends and had a wonderful time seeing all of Dublin (I actually think we made it twice around the city on the hop-0n-hop-off bus. Our main stops were Guinness Storehouse and Kilmainham Goal (old prison). We also walked around city centre and checked out the shops. Along the bus route was Phoenix Park....I believe it is one of the largest parks in the EU. Ireland's president lives in a house located in that park and across the roundabout is the US ambassador's house!

We also took a North Coast & Malahide Castle tour! It was a three hour bus tour with a stop at Malahide Castle and a surprise stop at the beach......I almost forgot to tell you.......IT DIDN'T RAIN THE WHOLE TIME WE WERE IN IRELAND!!!!!!!!!! Our bus driver on the coastal tour was funny and he said it only rains twice a year in Ireland....."the first time is for about 6 months.......!!" We took over 200 pictures so I will post just a few!

Blogging and Fall

Ok, I really need to get in the routine and really start blogging because I love to read blogs and I'm sure all our families would enjoy seeing/reading what we are doing. We are busy with Fall and all that goes along with it. Rob returned from his trip down range and we are busy with school, ballet and swim lessons. Meghan and Jenna grow a little more each and every day and I'm so thankful to have two healthy beautiful little girls. I will try to keep this going and blog each week or whenver something cool happens.....or when nothing cool happens!!

We are looking forward to a weekend trip to Dublin, Ireland!! I'm so excited. Ireland was one of the places I wanted to see and my dream is coming true!! We will be packing a lot of sites into two days and will post pictures and details of the trip!!! Stay tuned.

We took the girls today to the pumpkin patch. I think we all 4 love Fall and all that goes with it. Going to the pumpkin patch is one of the highlights of the season! Today was the perfect day.....it was windy, chilly and really felt like fall

Castle Rising Castle

We took a visit to Castle Rising Castle up near the Wash and it was a beautiful out of the way castle. We are taking this pictures sitting in the ruins of the old Chapel.

summer plans

Rob is gone until Sept and the girls and I are going to head to North Carolina for some family fun!  My girls have never been away from Rob for more than a few weeks (that they can remember) and they are having a hard time with this.  Meghan and Jenna don't get to live near any extended family because of Rob's job.  Meghan said the other day, "Mom I miss Daddy way more than I miss Memom and Papa"..........what do I say to that?  Memom and Papa are very special to the girls and the girls talk about them all the time and seeing them once a year is hard because you have to try and fill a whole year of  fun into just a few weeks.   

I hope having the month and some change with Memom and Papa will help the girls with Rob working away from us this summer:)     

I will post some pictures when I have the time.

Just the beginning

I'm going to start something that most of you have been doing for a while.  I don't think I will leave anyone spellbound or amazed at my writing skills but you will get to see updates from us and our family!!  I will try and post pictures and updates as often as I can and it's up to you to read my blog comments and check out the pictures.