Finally, a house!!!!

6 weeks after leaving our lovely home in Dallas, we have finally found a place here to lease. woo hoo! I am so excited about having more space so that we can all sit in one room at the same time, or better yet have our own little space away from everyone. Either way, it will be a good thing. It is a great house and has several elements on our wish list. The papers were signed on Friday. We get the keys on Monday and our air and sea containers will be delivered on Tues and Wed. Busy week. The wonderful thing is that the packers will unpack everything and haul off all the packing materials. This will ensure that we will actually be unpacked before next year. My two favorite parts are that it is a 20 min walk to the kids school and that it has a huge conservatory (pronounced "conservatree" here in the UK). For those who don't know what that is, it is a glass room attached to the house, window walls and glass ceiling to ensure you get the maximum of the very scarce sunlight. It looks like something from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. There is a beautiful yard, so I think I will be spending all my extra time in the conservatory. We are trying to get the TV, phone and broadband figured out. We hear it takes about 4 weeks for them to come out to set things up, so we will be living in a nice, quiet house for a while - just put your ear to the ground and hear the whining about no TV. I'm sure the sound waves will be carried over the ocean water.
This weekend we went into the city to see Mary Poppins for B's birthday. It was a great show and we really enjoyed ourselves. There is one weird, scary scene where the toys come to life and have a loud courtroom session, but it was over soon enough as not to ruin the show. The leads were very similar to Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, so it was fun to watch. Bicycle rick shaw's were all over the place and all ringing their bells when the show was out. It was quite a spectacle. The red lanterns were hanging all down the streets for Chinese New Year. Another new site for kids who have never seen Chinatown.
Sunday afternoon fun was walking through the woods around town. The kids loved it. There are tons of people walking and riding horses through the woods. It was pouring down rain and we were running through the mud. I just cant wait to do all that muddy laundry in my 5 shirt maximum washing machine. Others riding their bikes on the path were covered in mud - in their hair, helmets, shirts, coats etc. That activity might have to wait til next week - US style washer and dryer in new house - cant beat it.