Starting to look like Sring (that should read SPRING)

Not much news here right now. It has been raining for three days. It looks like it will be raining all weekend. Next week looks like SUN SUN SUN!!! I did get out for a little while today and found this peeking over the fence in the backyard. I hope Spring is just around the corner!

Easter Morning

I'm a little late posting. Here are some snapshots from our first Easter in the UK. It will be memorable because it snowed all morning. The bunny managed to make it across the pond with perfect timing (unlike the boxes that were sent with all our Easter goodies - thanks to the good ole US & Uk mail services). They do not hunt eggs here or dye them. I looked for dye kits and food coloring but could find neither. I came up a unique alternative... we painted the eggs (notice that they are brown free range eggs). The kids all had a good time painting the eggs - even Cael. They do not have Easter baskets here either. Luckily, the bunny found our old baskets from last year. All in all it was nice. The bunny hid the eggs outside (joy joy) in the snow. It was really really really cold. The cold didn't bother Cael, he did not want to come back inside. We missed seeing and talking to everyone. It really hit us hard the next day. We were all out of it on Monday. We took the kids shopping to try and cheer everyone one up and we rode our first double decker bus! I think it's now time to start planning our first holiday. I was looking at the weather and it's supposed to hit 60F next week. I CAN'T WAIT!

rAndOm

I forgot to mention that we already had a visitor over here in London. Michael was in Belgium and stopped over to visit with us a couple of weeks ago! Drew had dinner with him Friday night and we all met him in town on Saturday. We did a whirlwind tour of the city (London Eye, Big Ben and Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abby, St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, and The National Gallery. It was great to see you Michael! You and Caroline (and kids) are welcome to stay with us anytime!!! (as well as any of the rest of you family members out there in blog land :)

Here are some pictures from our visit and a few odds and ends (reason for title of this blog entry).

Was Chicken Little right?

Ok.. As promised here are the pictures of the leak and the ceiling. The saying "THE SKY IS FALLING" comes to mind! We still have a leak and the repairman is no where to be found!
I've waited at home all day for him to show up (he was supposed to be here at 6:00 this morning). Tomorrow we will be here again because we will get our cable turned on. Also, I tried ordering groceries online yesterday. They will be delivered tomorrow as well. I am excited about both of these things!

It's raining at our house...

BUT NO WHERE ELSE IN LONDON!!!

This is what we woke up to this morning! We sent an email out last Monday letting our property manager know that we had a leak in the bathroom. We heard nothing from them all week. Sunday night, the leak started again in the kitchen. I thought "oh great-no more shower" but the last time we had the shower leak, it stopped shortly after the shower was turned off. This time the drips continued. It's the sink! I called this morning and "Claire" (Property Manager) came by to look at it and take pictures. She called and said the builder will be here tomorrow. So tonight we listen to the rhythm of the falling drips :) and wait for the ceiling to cave in!
TO BE CONTINUED (wait till you see the pictures I took tonight)!

UK and patience do not go hand in hand

Good news to report here! They have fixed our heaters! While it was freezing in here this morning...tonight it its hotter than Hades! We had to open a window in the girls room so they could cool off enough to get to sleep. Turns out we had a valve issue and the entire system had to be rewired! The first repairman to come out reminded me of Dick Van Dike (actions - not looks in Mary Poppins). I don't think he really knew what he was doing. All he seemed to do was turn the knobs on each of the radiators. He came back 4 times to "fix" the boiler. Then the landlord must have complained because they sent in someone more skilled. He has been here twice. I must admit I haven't a clue about radiators and boilers. I found it odd that they would work while the repairman was here then an hour after he left they would stop working.

On the home front, we think we may have renters for the house in Houston :)

We get our sea shipment in tomorrow. Today has been filled with moving out the furniture from the house to make room for our stuff. I can't wait to get my own bed, couch, table and chairs.... well everything!!!

Sorry if I'm rambling tonight. We stayed up way too late last night enjoying being connected again! I'm so happy to be connected to the world again (my part of the world anyway). Must go get some rest! Tomorrow will be an extremely busy!

First Few Weeks

We are LIVE

Only took three weeks to happen! I have felt so isolated! Not having any kind of world news has been awful! You wouldn't believe how much you really need these things. Just Monday, we had storms blowing in. About lunch time, the sky had cleared and I felt the all clear to hang out a load of "Washing" for the day (it's not laundry here - it's the washing). I got another load done and went to hang it out and the sky was growing quite gray. I came inside only to see my laundry blowing sideways in the rain! Turns out the clear sky was the eye of a little hurricane that had blown in! If I could have seen the weather online or on tv, I would have known what was going on! Picture me running out in the freezing rain and blowing wind trying to get my laundry in before it was totally soaked! Not a pretty picture.

Update

I was trying to post pictures to the internet but there was a problem! We are doing pretty good. Getting settled has been a bit rough but things are getting better. It will be so much better when we get our stuff in from the sea shipment!
We will get our internet on Wednesday or else!!!
Love everyone!

We are here

We are here but we have no internet connection until Thursday! We love and miss everyone!
Sammie