Hello everyone!!! Just wanted to check in real fast and tell you what's up. We are safe here at Lakenheath, if you have heard about the riots we aren't anywhere near them. We wouldn't even know about them except that our yahoo home page is the UK news now and they are on that page. I actually just figured it was like that all the time in London, but I guess not.
I'll just give a recap of our week. Saturday we kept the kids awake all day, and we stayed awake too. We put them to bed at like 8:00 so they could sleep and wake up and be on England time! Sounds good, right? Well, it would have worked except Parker woke up around 12:00am, I fed him thinking he would go right back to sleep. NOPE. He was wide awake and would just cry when I laid him down. So we brought him into our room to play on the floor and be happy, so everyone else could sleep. At like 1:30, I tried laying him down again and he wouldn't sleep still. He cried and woke up Alissa. I thought Blake was with her and Parker got quiet. Then I hear Blake banging around in the bathroom trying to fix the toilet by filling up the garbage can and dumping it into the toilet. A heroic thing to do during the day, not so much at 1:30 am. He was still half asleep and not thinking clearly.
So Parker started crying again. I thought Blake had him, but went into his room and Remi had him. She loves to be a little mom, but it doesn't work very well when Parker is going to sleep and she just wants to rock him and hold. Now everyone was AWAKE! So we said they could watch a movie downstairs if they promised to go to bed when it was over. Of course they said they would. Blake and I went back upstairs, I fed Parker and he went back to sleep. Then Blake and I fell asleep.
I think after the movie Broden went to bed, or maybe Blake took him to bed. I'm still not sure what Remi and Alissa did for 2 hours, but at 5:45 they brought Blake breakfast in bed. He wasn't too happy. He told them to go to bed. Remi was in the same room as Parker, so as soon as she got in there, he woke up. I fed him, but he again wouldn't go back to sleep. So we headed down stairs and he ate Blake's cereal.
At 7:00 Parker went back to sleep, so I slept until 8:00, then jumped in the shower. At 8:45 everyone was still sleeping. We had someone coming to pick us up at 9:15 for church. I was set that we were ALL going to church. but, that didn't happen. The kids wouldn't BUDGE!!!. So I went to church with our friends. It was weird going to a new ward with no family.
Church was great and everyone was really nice. It has a lot of military people in the ward and the bishop said 20 families are moving out in the next couple weeks. That is crazy! By the time church was over I was SOOOOO tired. I came home and slept for a few hours (got a stiff neck) The kids didn't wake up until noon. After my nap we went to our friend's house for dinner. This family has taken such good care of us. Food, rides, car advice, everything!
When we got home we put the kids to bed and went through the same thing almost. We just did the movie and had them go to bed after. Monday Blake went to work. I spent the day looking for houses and trying to set up appointments. We rented a van that night. Cars are only like 80 dollars a week, but vans are like 300 a week! We found one to rent for like 180 a week, so that isn't as bad and it is tiny. I have to slide my seat on the left(passenger side) really far forward so I can jam Parker's car seat into the car.
Monday night was a little better. Alissa woke up, but Blake layed by her and she went back to sleep. Remi woke up and wanted music. So we gave her the eMP3 player. She has learned the words to most primary songs and I could hear her singing out loud! Parker woke up! I had her go into my room and got him back to sleep. It was funny trying to talk to her.
"Remi."
"WHAT", she yelled.
"Don't sing out loud."
"WHAT?!?, she yelled.
"You can't sing out loud when we are sleeping.
"OH, OK! I WON"T", she yelled.
I thought this was so funny. She didn't understand why I was laughing. I had her just sleep in our bed and she still hummed until she fell asleep.
Tuesday we all got up at 9 and got ready for lunch with Blake. He said he would come get us at 11:45. We were all ready early so he wouldn't have to wait for us. We went outside at 11:40 and waited, and waited, and waited. We went to the bank across the street to sign papers and came home. We waited and waited some more. Finally around 1:30 Blake came home wondering where we were. I guess while we were in the bank he came home and we missed him. He thought we were already at the lunch so he went there. It is hard getting used to not having cell phones and texting! That night we went out and looked at a few houses. So sad to see our first 2. They were small with small washers and dryers if they had them at all. Some of them you choose between a dishwasher or clothes dryer. Then we drove around for fun and had a picnic with food from a real england grocery store. It was yummy cheese, crackers and chicken. Dessert was kind of dry though. Brownie was not too yummy.
I shouldn't make fun of Blake's driving skills, because I'm sure I'll be just as bad when I get up the guts to try driving. He hit the curb and about killed us only a few times:) Just kidding, but it was scary sometimes. Like when he is turning right. In the states when you turn right you only check traffic coming from the left. So he checks left and proceeds to pull out right when a car is coming from our right. Because you have to cross the traffic to turn right. We are alive though and he is getting much better.
Today I went with him to class. It was a driving class and we already have 2 babysitters we can use here. They live across the hall from us in our temporary living quarters. They watched the kiddos so we could go. It was a 3 hour class on safety and driving. Then we took the test and both passed!!! It is a hard test if you haven't heard.
This afternoon I looked at houses and decided I loved the first one I saw. It felt good when I walked in. Nothing like US homes, but it felt like something I could make a home and be comfortable in. It even has a laundry room, which I haven't had unless I am visiting someone else. I don't count our basement laundry areas as a laundry room. It is still a British house, but at least I get American washer, dryer, fridge and closets!!! It even has 4 bedrooms, so we will have a guest bedroom for visitors:)
We will hopefully post pictures soon!
So I stand by the car while he goes to get some change to pay for parking. Then we walked to the cell phone store that is in the middle of a big shopping area. It was really nice. About 5 minutes after getting into the store the Ingersoll's walk in. YAY!!! We made it without phones. Lauren and I took the kids into a store while the Men figure out the phones. Then we explored the city and a church. It was a cute place and someplace I want to go back to without kids, so I can shop. I have a hard time shopping with kids. It isn't my favorite thing in the world to do, but with kids it really stresses me out. They had some really cute kids clothing stores though and a great antique furniture store.
