Same blog - new look

After a year of blogging, I've been doing a little "blog surfing" (thanks to Amy S. for that new vocabulary word) and I realized I needed a new look. Just trying it out. I will be adding some new elements as I teach myself how to insert them onto the page. I have some free time today - DA went to the city for a museum tour, L is on a middle school church retreat and B is at a sleepover -so I am doing something creative without making any mess to clean up. No wonder I haven't sewn anything lately.

Enjoy the melting snow in Dallas!!!!

Mothering Day

Mother's Day in the UK was on Sunday. Most expats around here like to celebrate on the UK date, and if the hubby and kids dont get it quite right, they can always try again in May! I get a kick out of the "mum" and "mothering day" cards. Fortunately, my family got it right so we only have to celebrate once. It helped by me saying "I really want THIS" for mother's day. After DA called on Friday from the store to confirm he was buying the right thing, I was assured. B picked out a lovely necklace for me (from the grocery store) and L did some fine, "couldnt care less" wrapping by a teeny-bopper age boy!

On Saturday we rode our bikes on a long ride out to the Cricketers Pub.

There is a bakery along the way, so we picked up lunch and ate outside in the sunshine. Kids flew kites and rolled around in the mud on the playground. Of course B had on a brand new pair of pants that I bought the day before. Grass and mud stains on the knees, check, fully broken in within an hour of trying them on!!! ugh. The Cricketers is where we take lots of guests to eat, so if you've been here, you know where I'm talking about. Dont be too impressed about our ride, there is a short cut bridleway that we rode along! It was lovely through the English countryside, walkers, cyclists, horse riders, etc. were all out enjoying the spring time. I wished my photos showed more of the beautiful scenery, but you need to come visit and see it yourselves.

Earthquake in England?

Apparently England experienced a significant earthquake last night. All is well around here. I didnt feel it or even know about it until a friend told me late during the morning. I normally dont watch the news on tv, so you probably know more than I do, but just wanted to assure everyone that we were fine. No pictures off the walls or anything. Safe and sound in our little house.

Ardingly Antique Faire

Today some friends and I went shopping at the Ardingly Antique Faire. It is located about 40 miles away in West Sussex. It was my first time to drive there and I was a little nervous about finding a tiny town way off the main roads in the remote English countryside - especially because I could not find a postcode for the address. (My TomTom (satnav) needs a postcode so setting off without one was very risky!!!). Fortunately we stumbled upon the showgrounds without too much effort. Shopping was fun. It's alot like Canton except there are English antiques everywhere. Well not exactly like Canton - many people wear Wellies - the expensive 200 GBP kind - and even saw a man wearing a "sherlock holmes style" cape and funky hat today - very funny looking. I was with 3 other super shopping friends. I ended up winning the award for spending the least (15 GBP for some Copeland pottery), but I saw some fine shopping being done! I would love to take any of you visitors there if the faire is going on while you visit. It's very interesting to compare English antiques with American ones. Also if there is anything you collect and would like me to pick up for you - let me know and I will keep an eye out as I shop the antique markets. You'd have to wait until we move back home to receive it, but hey - what's another year in the life of an antique?!
We mainly got a kick out of all the egg cups for sell. I never knew there was such a market for egg cups. We saw sterling silver cups, old antique cups and cute ceramics too. Coddled eggs must be a mainstay for the English breakfast, which is news to me. I thought baked beans were the breakfast specialty! (yuk, I know, but true). All in all, a great day out on a beautiful English, sunny, cool day.

Birthday success!

Finally, I was able to pull off a kids' birthday in England with success!! whoopee. In order to accomplish this, I started a few weeks ago ordering US cake mixes that I could use to make a cake and cupcakes - for you in the "older" set - now kids have a little celebration at school hence the need for cupcakes for school and a separate cake for the party. The one thing I forgot was that I didn't bring my muffin tins with me. I was not going to let that defeat me. Little "fairy cake" papers squished together in a cake pan should work, right? WRONG. The first batch of cupcakes spilled out of the muffin papers creating a huge globby mess. Into the bin they go. Fortunately for me, I had ordered an extra box of cake mix. Found some foil muffin liners and started all over. Success, although they were misshaped and kinda funny looking, but once they had icing (canned icing, see next story) and sprinkles B was happy. Next, the cake. Now I used to do cake decorating as a hobby and had brought a few of my basic supplies with me, but I am fairly particular and expect things to turn out looking well. B decided she wanted a "dolphin" cake and I made the mistake of asking her to draw what she wanted it to look like. After I reigned her in from the "dolphin world in the sky" I finally talked her into a basic cake that I could make with the 4 colors of icing tint I had since I cant find any different colors here. She insisted on helping, which is great, except for the comment at the end of a l-o-n-g baking, decorating day - "Mom, it's not the best cake you've ever done". thanks alot! I think little 9 year old hands had a part in it too, which she was completely forgetting. Part of the problem - as usual - is that my US icing recipe does not make up as well with English ingredients. Yes, it seems like it would, but no. I even saved a bar of Crisco for the day so that I could make sure and have what I needed. I thought 1kg of icing sugar would make up the same as 2lbs of powdered sugar, but not exactly, which caused several trial and error icing issues. In the end I think things turned out fine - one smiling dolphin in the middle of the sea. Not too many colors needed. Then at the party her friend (from a European country) says, "dolphins are brown, not gray" Well not in America they're not! We have gray dolphins just like the cake! All that aside, she had a great party at the ski center where they did sledging and mini ringo riding - basically riding plastic sleds and inner tubes down hills covered in a white AstroTurf type surface. The place told me to invite 20 and to expect about 10 since I was having it on a week night. I agreed since it on a school night, in February, outside in the cold air - but surprisingly, all but 2 children were able to come. They had a blast! It was pretty cool and had rained just prior to the party, but the kids were dripping with sweat. B did one more very nice thing, she suggested a coin donation in lieu of kids bringing gifts. I expected her to raise about 20 GBP, but instead she raised more than 165 GBP. She is donating it to Global Angels where she can designate to feed and educate a child for a year. With that much money, I think it pays for 4 kids. We were very proud of her and thought it was a lovely gesture to make.

So today I sit back, clean up the mess and pat myself on the back for FINALLY having a successful birthday celebration in England. Took a year to get here, but made it.

B is in red helmet

B, L and another friend

The cake!

The Swiss Alps

The kids doing their new favorite thing - sledging!

Last week was the kids mid term break from school and we had the opportunity to go to Zermatt, Switzerland to ski. Wow. Skiing at the base of the Matterhorn mountain is really cool. The view is spectacular. Glaciers surround the area too. The weather was crystal clear. Not a cloud in the sky all week. We werent complaining about the lack of snow while there because we were so happy to see the sunshine for a whole week. Zermatt is very unique in that it is a town at the end of a valley and there are no cars allowed there. Every single person has to arrive by train as well as all the town supplies and necessities. (well you can ski over the mountain from Italy, but that doesnt count) The hotels do have these little electric vehicles to haul luggage back and forth from the train station and there are also electric taxis along with horse carriages, but no personal cars allowed. Zermatt doesnt have ski in/ski out facilities, so us spoiled Americans are a little confused by those things. The ski pists (runs) are basically on the OTHER side of the mountain so every morning the lifts have to carry every single skier to the back side of the mountain. They have some really cool lifts though- from 5 person chair lifts to regular gondolas to huge gondolas that carry 100 people at a time (think James Bond movies) to a mountain hugging train that snakes up the mountain edge. The coolest "lift" is the funnicula (I have no idea how to accurately spell that). it is a train - like a subway - in a tunnel that is cut into the mountain and basically goes straight up. The weird thing is that it goes so fast. very strange to shoot up a mountain in a tunnel at flying speed. I still cant figure out how the train gains so much speed so quickly.
We stayed in a aparthotel type place. Nothing too scenic, but nice and in a great location. The funny thing about European beds is that every one is a twin size (at least that is what we have come across on our budget!). They have the bottom sheet and then just a duvet. No top sheet. All that is fine, and we are used to it, but in Zermatt they had the duvets folded to a 4' x 3' size. After I woke up the first morning, DA was complaining that if they wouldnt give him an extra blanket, he was just going to have to buy one. I was like what??? you were cold??? then I realized he didnt know to unfold his duvet (in his defense, it was very thin and you couldnt easily tell it was folded) - so he slept the whole night with a 4' x 3' blanket. I wish, wish, wish I would have gotten up in the middle of the night and seen that tug of war.

We all had fun skiing, but the kids' new favorite activity is sledding, or sledging as it is called in Zermatt. They had 2 runs specifically for the sleds. It was hysterical and so much fun. You just steer with your feet sliding across the snow and dig your heels in when you want to stop. Needless to say, you are covered in snow after you stop.

Since we were there over Valentine's Day, I thought I might buy DA a new watch. His broke the week before our trip. I thought what better place to buy a watch than Switzerland, right? there are watch shops everywhere. No shortage there, but my, oh my - The prices were crazy. Some so outrageous that we kept looking at them in the window trying to figure out what was so special about them (to the tune of 157,000 francs). Well he didnt make it home with a new watch. Just a valentines card. And our valentine dinner you ask? Tex Mex meal. delicious. Tex mex in the mountains of Switzerland when we cant even find decent Tex Mex in London. crazy. The chips and dip where funny though. menu said "nachos con salsa" which was nacho flavored Doritos and good salsa. no cheese. We just laugh at the "nacho" flavoring. give us some good, plain, salted tortillas please. DA ordered the chicken fajitas. They were interesting too. Chicken cooked in coconut, served with bananas and kidney beans with flour tortillas. DA said they were very good. I just took his word for it and enjoyed my veggie fajitas alone.

All in all, a fabulous trip. No broken bones. oh, L's assessement - "it was cool". I define that as success.

Superbowl laughs

As we are waiting the start of the Super Bowl (11:20pm kickoff our time), we got a big kick out of the color commentary on SKY Sports. Get this - the American "specialist" for the broadcast is the"SMU Special Teams Coach" . DA cant stop laughing. It is so funny. - the SMU special teams coach for the Super Bowl. We know a coach in Abilene Wylie that should have applied for the job! Hugh's got more creditials than that.
We'll probably watch the first quarter and then just wait until we wake up in the morning to hear the final score. Now if the Cowboys had made it, I might be staying up REALLY late. DA would really like to see Eli play well tonight.
There are several spots across London who have all night Superbowl watching parties, but being the old fogies we are, NOT US.
Update: At kickoff they switched over to Aikman & co. on Fox - yeah! now we only have to listen to the British guys and the SMU coach on timeouts. whew.