drum roll please, 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!

yep, we made it. Today is our 1 year anniversary in England!!!!! We are all still here, still married, kids are still in school and I can drive. Considering those things, it must be a success.

In honor of our "big day" B jokingly 'cried' on the way to school. I have to say remembering those days makes me laugh because she was really miserable which in turn made me miserable. We are beyond all that and are just living our little life here. Admittedly though, once we returned from our first trip to Dallas at Christmas (after 11 months being gone), I had to kinda "re-buy in" for the English experience. It was so nice being home with all our friends and family and church that coming back here to the rain, and rain, and rain was a little depressing. I am trying to remember all the good things about being here which one of my friends who is moving back to Atlanta tomorrow helped me with. It is a slower pace of life in many ways, DA doesnt have to travel, we do MANY more family things together, kid sports dont rule our calendar, the kids and I ride our bikes every day, we are getting to travel the world and are gaining the experiences of a lifetime, plus the strawberries are fabulous!. and, oh yeah, it is green, green, green here. Even with the trees bare, it is so green. see photo. that is our garden (backyard) in January. One funny note is that when we were landing on the plane in Dallas in December, the very FIRST thing I said after looking out the window was "look how brown it is here", not 5 seconds later B tapped me on the back (she was sitting behind me) and said, "Mom, Dallas is so brown!" It was very striking to us and wasn't an observation I had even considered before.

So here we are enjoying the English life. I am going to try to find an American box of brownies to cook for dessert tonight. I might hang out our 4th of July decorations and just get into the spirit of things.

1 year down, another to go!

COME SEE US!!!! (as you can tell, I am in a multi exclaimation point mood today).