Special Requests

We have had some special requests for pictures of our house...

The front of Red Beech.

This photo was taken this week.

For those in Minnesota, we really don't have snow.

And yes, we have to mow the grass -- in January.

Our front door.

I like it!

Others have asked what we're driving when we're in England. Many of you are interested in what could have replaced my BMW. The short answer is ... well I'm not planning to replace it over here. For now Fiona and I are managing with one car. And here it is ...

A Vauxhall Zafira 1.9 CDTi

It's not exactly the Ultimate Driving Machine, but it's a diesel and it gets great mileage. And it's temporary -- stay tuned. It's is weird to me that this is a picture of the driver's side! It happens less that I find myself walking around to the passenger side when I am getting in to drive, but it still happens. Old habits take a long time to break.

Tea and Family on Friday

Fiona happy to be having family over.
(and to have the pen while ordering the food)

Complicated Form? Crossword puzzle? No, take away Chinese menu.

Uncle Geoff -- not sure what he wants from the take away place.

Fiona's Uncle Geoff, Auntie Penny and Cousin Natasha (and her children Cousin Henry and Zara) came to our new house for children's tea on Friday afternoon and stayed over for dinner as well. (We got take away from the Good Earth, a really nice Chinese restaurant in Esher -- another shameless plug.)

It was fun to see them all! Lilian and William were excited to get to play with Henry and Zara. The house really starts to feel like home with a family coming over to visit!

Henry and Zara took baths and changed into pajamas for the ride back to Fleet -- which was great, except that William and Lilian were disappointed. They thought the pajamas meant it was going to be a sleepover! We will try to plan a sleepover for the cousins soon!

Another Week in . . . Well England

Lilian and William had a brief tour of ACS International on Monday. Tuesday was their first day at their new school.

Fiona saw two little girls that she suspected would be Lilian's friends and funny enough but those two little girls, Sarah and Oliva came up and introduced themselves to Lilian. Yes, Lilian has a new friend here named Sarah -- she looks a bit like Sarah Walker from home. (It's an odd coincidence!) Sarah brought a 'welcome to our class' card that she made Monday night to Lilian's first day of school on Tuesday. So things are off to a nice start for her here.

William is quite happy at school as well. They have a play kitchen that he gets to use and he is quite excited about it. And there is a sandbox that is big enough that honestly, I'd like to have some time playing in it when the weather gets a bit nicer out.

I heard it was something like 30 below zero (without the wind chill) in Minneapolis this week. I must admit that as I was headed out the door at work after hearing that I chuckled just a little bit to myself. You see I wasn't wearing a hat, or gloves and my coat wasn't even buttoned. And I while I might have been just a little chilly, it was just fine. Put that in the plus column about the adventure.

Exploring The Back "Garden"

Lilian and William ran around the back garden (the back yard for those across the pond) to explore and see what they might find out about their new house. Not quite home, yet. There is a trampoline that they are quite excited about -- and we're a bit nervous about -- I'm sure there will be plenty of trampoline jumping pictures later.

But there were some very sweet moments with both of them and between the two of them as they came in through the back door. They speak for themselves...

Lilian and William do make life interesting around here!

All Together Now

Fiona, Lilian & William arrived Friday morning! Fiona managed to survive a six hour flight from Newark alone with Lilian and William and six suitcases. She was quite relieved to see me to have some help at Heathrow!

William Enjoys a Treat

Sparkly Lilian
Does this look like jet lag to you?

The children were really excited to see the house and they ran from room to room exploring for quite a while. We had trouble convincing them to leave the place -- even just to get some food for lunch. In fact we couldn't get them to go out for dinner -- so I brought in the original English 'take away' - fish and chips. Actually the children had scampi (which is simply deep fried shrimp here, not the like butter and garlic version of shrimp 'scampi' that you get in America).

The house feels a lot more like home with all of us together. And the two little ones certainly add a lot of 'life' to the place!

Welcome Weekend

Fiona's cousin Natasha invited me to Sunday lunch at their place in Fleet. It great to see Adam and Natasha their children Henry and Zara. And it was very nice to have a lovely meal! I really enjoyed spending the afternoon with all of them. (Again I took some pictures of the kids, but don't have the gear with me to post them just now, but soon!) The house in Cobham feels rather empty at the moment, living out of suitcases with rental furniture.

Cousin Henry

Cousin Zara

Reports from Fiona in New Jersey that they had snow and Lilian and William were having fun sledding! I hope they enjoy the snow while they can -- the weather has been too warm for snow in England.

Very much looking forward to having us all under one roof! Soon enough!

Family on Two Continents!

I spent the first part of Monday with Fiona helping the movers pack our air and sea shipments, then off to the airport for my flight to London.

Packing Up!

I landed at Heathrow just after 7:00 am Tuesday and drove to the CarVal office in Cobham. (A big thank you to Fiona for the Garmin Nuvi -- shameless plug, but the thing was really wonderful for driving here! Especially in the car solo!). I then spent a full day in the office -- much to my own surprise. The jet lag wasn't too terrible.

Then I was off to our new house to check out the rental furnishings (thank you to LSS Relocation, shameless plug number two, but the house has what we need until our things arrive) and a trip to the grocery store. And fun with programable thermostats in celsius (is 18.5 degrees really the temperature I want in the house????)

Living Out of A Suitcase, Or Two

A fairly normal day! NOT!

Meanwhile Fiona continued on with the movers (they managed to pack the contents of the house in a single day, furniture was to be wrapped/crated on Tuesday) while Lilian spent the day at Lake Country School and William spent the day with his nanny Sarah. Then the Mpls Anderson's were off to the Batsons' for an overnight.

The adventure continues...

Packing!!!

Fiona and I spent the afternoon separating things into 'luggage', 'air' and 'sea' categories. At this point our bags are essentially packed. Thank you to Bill and Julie and Rylan for hosting Lilian and William this afternoon!

Bill, Julie and Rylan

Lilian and Rylan

The movers come tomorrow to start packing the air and sea. Fiona and I will be here to guide the process in the morning, then I head off to the airport to fly to London. Lilian will spend the day at Lake Country School -- while William spends the day with his prior nanny Sarah.

The adventure abroad is about to begin as we close this chapter of our Minneapolis story.

We are off to White Bear Lake for dinner with my Mom (and hopefully my sister!).

Grandma (Mom) in White Bear Lake

Farewell Party at O'Briens

This party was back in December, so please excuse the delayed posting, but we have had a couple of things going on!


Fiona and Chuck As the Farewell Party Starts

















Grace O'Brien playing the piano just before the party starts














Jayne arrives -- Jerry declares, OK, now it's a party.











Fiona Smiles as Chuck Opens the NAV Master Photo




Sara and Angie




Jayne, Sam, Kristy, Renee and Melissa



Tiffany and Chris and Jessie



Sara, Jason and Tom


Dave Says Now It's A Party

















Robert and Carolyn



Kari Enjoys (?) the Sing-Along with Jessie



















Jerry, Lisa, Fiona and Chuck

It was an awesome party and thank you Lisa and Jerry for hosting and thank you to everyone that came to say farewell!

We miss you all! (The weather??? Not so much)

New Year's Eve

Today the movers came to pack the things we want to store while we are out of the country and took them off to the warehouse.

On the 29th our piano went off to live with "Mr. D" while we are out of the country -- for those not familiar with the Lake Country School Community, Mr. D is a music teacher from LCS . We know that he will really enjoy the piano once he arrives back from his trip to India.

On Sunday our cats Bugsy and Zoe went off to live with Kendra (one of Fiona's colleagues from the U) and her husband Bob until they are done with the six month PETS program to get into England (and we thought the visa application process was tough for people!). We've already had a few e-mail updates about the cats-- it sounds like it is all going well and they are enjoying getting to know each other.

We had a very nice Christmas at home, with an overnight visit from Grandma Anderson and dinner with Auntie Barb and Cousin Nate (Chuck's sister and her son).

The events of the last week have really have started to make this move seem 'real.' We are already on our way.

Very exciting!

Happy New Year! (almost)