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My Mother-in-Law has been visiting us the past 2 weeks and we took her to a couple of places. One was the ruins of the Abbey of St Edmunds. It is so amazing to think that some of these buildings have been around for almost a thousand years. This Abbey was built in the 11th century, I imagine thats why its in ruins now.
Coffins
The church is in the middle of town and I have to drive past it to get to work. On Sundays you tend to not drive past it since parking is along the road and its difficult to manuver around the cars on such narrow roads. Well with it being Monday I assumed everything was fine to go by the church, unfortunately there was a funeral going on. Coming home to take the kids to school I noticed that the pub was unually packed for a Monday morning. So I decided it was packed because of the funeral, not sure if thats why but thats the reason that made the most sense to me :) This pub is one of 2 in town. You can't have churches out number pubs, so we have 2 pubs and 2 churches. We have been to this pub only once even though its pretty much in our backyeard. It gets pretty packed on nights that they have live music, but it seems like its mostly kids that go there.
I love Crumpets...they are one of the best foods placed here on this earth by Jesus himself. Ok maybe not Jesus but someone spectacular made these things. Now I know youre thinking they are just English Muffins...but they aren't.
Those craters are perfect for Peanut Butter
Yum...look at it melting into those holes. Then you slather on some Orange Marmalade and make yourself some tea.
Look at that gooey peanut butter. Delicious! Im gonna miss these when I leave England.
Every 2 weeks we have the weekend off, so this weekend we had plans on getting pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, Ben had a Halloween party at school, we had to get Katies ballet outfit, and then we had a Squadron Kids Halloween party.
Ben had his first school party/dance on Friday, actually it was a Halloween Disco. He dressed up as Steve-the Zombie Janitor. He said he had a good time and even danced a little. He said it was so load he couldn't talk to his friends.
We also went to the pumpkin patch...which was a field with pumpkins...not as patchy as the one we would go to in Denver. The kids picked out their pumpkins then we were back home to get ready for the squadrons Kids Halloween party.
Today we went into the big city to find Katies ballet outfit. She needed everything so we found a store that had all of it so we wouldn't have to run around all over England to get everything. This is the store I talked about on Facebook, the one that I called and asked what time they closed and he said he would have stayed open for me if he didn't have something to do. When we got there it was a costume/party/dance store and quite packed since Halloween is just around the corner. The man was very helpful and tried on different shoes to find out what size Katie needed. Of course she picked all pink. Well here are some pictures.
When I was in Japan I didn't really take many pictures of the town. So Im trying to take pictures of different places we see here in town. One of my favorite places is the Post Office. It is nothing like an American Post Office. you can do anything from mail a letter, pay your bills, banking and even buy Top Ups (pay as you go phone time) They also sell cards and gifts there. We pass by here every morning when I walk the kids to school. I love looking in the window seeing what little nick nacks they have.
We had a busy week this week. I had parent teacher interviews with both kids teachers on Monday. They are doing really good adjusting to the English way of school. It was pretty easy for Katie since its her first year in school. She is doing great at reading. The teacher said she was definately ready to start school, and that Katie is enthusiastic about learning. Ben is also doing good. He is behind in Math here. In Alaska he was learning to multiply and here they are learning division. So he needs a little help in catching up. He has signed up for Cross Country and he is playing football. So he is turning into quite the little sports guy. We haven't found a Cub Scout troop yet but I dont think he really cares.
Tuesday, Robert and I had our mock PT tests. Every month they alternate between a 3 mile 'fun run" and a mock PT test. the weather was ok a little windy but not Alaska. I ran my best time, 14:54. Also, they determine how many Squadron PT sessions you have to go to by your score, so we didn't want to do worse and have to go to more. We both scored above 80's so we only have to go 2 times a week. Its really not the fact we have to exercise, its the fact we have to do what they tell us.
Wednesday I had my stupid dental appointment. As I sat in the chair dreeding the drill (yes, I had some cavities...I can't seem to remember to floss if my life depended on it) the assistant said "I can't find her records" I was just there last week (yes, getting fillings...) So now the Dentist says "we'll just take a look and if I see something that needs filling we'll do it" of course he found something...filled it and said...'make an appointment so we can fill the last one" geez 3 trips to the dentist... Katie had ballet on Wednesday too. Robert brought her this time. The teacher told him that she wished all the kids we're like Katie. She is very good and listens to the teacher. Wednesday night i downloaded abunch of actions from here and played around with some of my pictures. I completed 2 scrapbooks so Im taking a little break and playing around with Photoshop and trying to figure out my camera. I have been enjoying adding different actions and seeing what I can create with them. Heres what I did
Local Post Office
England
Ohio
Ohio
England and Ohio pretty much look the same.
Ben has signed up for Cross Country this year. He has practice on Fridays and is really enjoying it. He comes home and says "Mom, you have no idea how far I ran today" I guess me being in the Air Force he doesn't think I run..."I ran 4 football fields. You know when I say football I mean soccer, they call soccer football here. Whats for snack." You can see his little wheels turning as he keeps going from subject to subject. He is in the 9-11 class so it kind of sucks for him being youngest in is class. He rans 1.2 miles and his first race he finished it in 13:54. Pretty good :)
Before the run...notice the earphones...isn't that cute?
Here ihe is getting some advice from the pro. The kid thats pointing came in first:)
Chugging along
Done!
Katie also started ballet..at least she starts tonight. Well see how it goes. She has been dancing all over the place lately.
I finally have a kitchen that I like being in. The size is good, I have a great stove, my cabinet space is ok but we bought a rolling island and that seems to help. We also use our utility room as a pantry. The one thing that is weird here in England is the size of the fridge. It is tall and skinny. We even went to Currys, Britians Largest Electronics store, (its about a third of the size of Best Buy) and they had big fridges and they called them US refrigerators. Well if you notice in the picture at the bottom that is 2 sheets of paper next to each other. It makes grocery shopping very difficult. The freezer is 3 drawers, I always have to have a talley of whats in the fridge/freezer so I don't go overboard and not have room.
