A Whole New World

London, Baby! (It really works best in my head when I hear "Joey" from Friends saying it)

After months of preparing we finally arrived in England! Writing this blog after being here for several weeks, it is actually pretty hard to put myself back in that place.

David and I traveled to London together four years ago, so coming to this part of the world was not entirely new for us. He lived in London for a year in college. Yet as all parents know, it is totally different once you have kids!

First difference? Instead of waiting in line at Immigration for an hour, an attendant pulled us to the front of the line. The kids weren't even making a fuss, so this was quite a surprise (a much welcome surprise). Maxwell giggled as we lifted him up for the immigration agent to compare his passport photo to the handsome real life version, and a sleepy Darian poked her head out of the Ergo long enough to give a little grin, herself. We didn't have to wait long for our bags at all, but getting three suitcases, five carry-ons, and two carseats on two carts while pushing the stroller with Maxwell in it and carrying Darian did provide a few sitcom-ish moments. David called ahead for the car to be brought down, which would have been perfect if we had been on the right floor.

David bought us a Prius, so luckily it was super easy to put the carseats in, and if we hadn't been bogged down with so much luggage we would have been out of there in no time. As it was, the parking structure attendants had a few laughs at our expense as they watched David and I play a mean game of Tetris to try and fit everything inside! Needless to say, 40 minutes later I was sitting in the passenger seat with the stroller and high chair between my legs, which (like both Maxwell and Darian in the backseat) were propped up on a pile of odds and ends that had been unpacked from their bag and placed in random nooks and crannies throughout the car.

David first real driving experience in the UK was to take himself to the airport two weeks earlier, so getting out of Heathrow and onto the motorway was kind of fun. And by fun, I mean I was chuckling to myself as his unease. (Hey, he criticizes my driving all the time!) We were incredibly lucky to have a navigation system in the car.

It wasn't that weird for me to be in the passenger seat on the left side of the car, or to be driving along on the left side of the road, but what did get to me was the difference in my peripheral vision. Lack of sleep, jet lag, different perspective or all of the above, but I immediately started getting a headache from watching the scenery zoom past in the rearview mirror on my right. I closed my eyes, and figured I would see these sights another day...

We stopped at the letting agency here in town to pick up our keys, and before we knew it we were at the house. My first impression was that it was much bigger than David described!

The ground floor has a narrow hallway with a front sitting room and dining room to the right.
There are these interesting tree stickers on the wall!!

The door you see to the right is our sitting room/living room/office/playroom! It is very small and cramped and I'll have to get a better picture someday if it is ever cleaned up. :o) Behind the living room there is a door to the dining room which we aren't even using. It is not connected to the kitchen in any way, and for me to be preparing meals and keeping on eye on the kids, it just doesn't work for us. So right now our boxes are all stored in there, and I have a bunch of junk on the table to sort through (hence, no picture!!!).

At the end of the hall is the kitchen and there is a garden room added onto the back. There is a very small, cozy folding table in the garden room where we have been eating our meals!

There is a decent sized yard for the kids to play in, and of course a nice long clothes line for me to hang the wash!

Upstairs there is a small half-bath that also has a bunch of shelves for our linens, and then up a few more stairs is the first floor which has the family bathroom and master bedroom. Up another flight is the two bedrooms the kids are sleeping in. We really do just use them for sleeping. No toys, no decorations. Hopefully we will be able to do something a little more fun once we are in more permanent housing, but for now this is just fine!

We really like the house and the neighborhood. We have met our neighbors, the Price Family, and they are awesome! Lawrence and Debbie, and they have a five year old son, Noah and three year old daughter, Coco. Debbie has been a huge help to me in figuring out things about the area, and they had us over for a lovely lunch last weekend. The kids played nicely, and it was great to get to know this wonderful family!

It feels great to be here and start getting settled and begin this amazing adventure!!!

Here we GO, GO, GO, GO on an adventure!

The thing-a-ma-jigger is up and a-waaay!

Okay, so if you don't have a toddler or watch "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That" on PBS, that heading isn't as much fun to you as it is to our little family. We just LOVE to sing that song!

And we have been singing it a lot lately, as the weeks, days, hours, MINUTES tick by before we head off to the UK.

Due to my unexpected spa vacation (hospital stay) in DeKalb, we missed our trip to Pennsylvania and ended up leaving for London five days later than planned. After saying our goodbyes in Illinois, we were on our way! The adventure seemed very far away after everything that happened in DeKalb, but this was really happening. We are going to be living in another country for three years! YIKES!

Even though David was with me this time, I was nervous about flying with the kids. This flight was going to be a LOT longer than the one from CA to IL, and I was still a bit tender from my surgery. But we made it through baggage check and security with minimal problems (they had to open my carry on and take everything out....long story short, there was too much in it and it was so haphazardly packed that the x-ray couldn't really tell what was in there!...oops!)

When we got to the gate, Maxwell wanted to check out the plane. He had Ducky with him when I took him to the window and told him that this was the plane that was going to take us to England. He then repeated it all back and explained to Ducky what was happening. SO CUTE!!!!

Darian kept the gentlemen sitting near us at the gate smiling as she danced and cooed for them. Batted those long eyelashes of hers! Man, we're in trouble!!! :o)

We were lucky to have four seats in a row all to ourselves, so with the kids sandwiched between us we started off great. Maxwell and David watched movies almost the whole flight. We had toddler meals delivered for the kids, which kept them happy and occupied for a while. The only trouble was when she got sleepy and Darian wanted to be held. She kicked me accidentally right at my surgery site. Whoa! That was rough!

But we survived the flight, David and the kids got some sleep, and before we knew it, WE WERE IN LONDON!!!!

IL to PA to UK? Nope. :o( No PA...

If I had judged what my "four days" in IL were going to be like based on the first 30 minutes I was in the state, I would have at least been prepared.

The kids did great on the plane and I was so incredibly proud of them. The flight attendants were not very friendly to us. Granted, when we first sat down, Maxwell and Darian both had a field day pressing all the buttons on their armrests. But like I said in my last blog, they shouldn't have put the attendant button on there! My kids are for sure not the first toddlers to fly on that plane! Yet after the newness of the buttons wore off, they were fantastic, so I was pretty displeased with how rude the attendants were the rest of the flight.

I waited for everyone else to get off the plane before I ventured out with the kiddos, and NOT ONE attendant offered to help me a bit. One mom, two kids, three carry-ons. Gee, thanks. Damn, and I had packed my supermom cape...

Anyway, I was already an emotional wreck after the goings-on of the last few days. And I was exhausted. Maxwell wanted to walk like a big boy, but I just wanted to get out of the airport. It was frustrating, but how could I be mad when this is what I was walking behind???

It took us ages to get to the bathroom to change diapers, and even longer to get to baggage claim. But the worst part was actually getting to baggage claim. Not only are the AA flight attendants not helpful, the guys that sit around and pretend to be security are even worse. Since I couldn't get the stroller, Maxwell with his bag and myself with my bags down the escalator, I had to go down the elevator in order to get to baggage claim, (where while all this other dawdling had been going on, Dad already managed to get all five of our bags). Yet in order to get to the elevator, we had to go through a revolving door. Um, yeah right. I looked around at about 6 guys sitting on their asses doing nothing, and then finally the guy sitting at the desk on the other side took notice of me. I asked through the glass, "Is there a normal door we can go through?"

He pointed to a sign that read, "Push button to slow doors down."

I pressed it, and it just wasn't going to be slow enough for me to handle this on my own. But we tried. Unfortunately, I had my hands so full, and the next thing that happened was like it was in slow motion. I explained to Maxwell what I needed him to do, and he walked in just fine. But then when the door started moving and closing in on him, he froze and sat down and started crying. I couldn't get to him fast enough, and the door started closing on his leg. Now, like I said, I was already an emotional wreck. I did not react to this emergency situation how I would have liked. I was screaming and crying and pulling on the door to stop it. Alarms started buzzing, Maxwell was hysterical, Darian started screaming from the stroller. Finally I got him out and picked him up and hugged him. It was terrifying. I was afraid he was going to lose his leg. You know how you read about kids getting their feet stuck in escalators and stuff? Oh, man. My heart was racing! I checked him out and he said he was okay. A little red mark, but nothing more. I think he was just so freaked out because of how I handled it. Finally, those workers sauntered over and asked if I needed help.

YOU THINK?!?!?!?!?!?!

I was so pissed!

We made it down to Dad and the bags, tears and all. At this point I was mostly upset at myself and how I handled the situation. But we had to get moving. We got to the car and I got to work getting the carseats in. Have I ever mentioned that I hate my carseats? LOL. After moving them so many times in the last two days, I was ready to throw them out onto the expressway and be done with them.

The best medicine for a cranky Mama? GRANDMA RUTH FOOD! I had totally forgotten that we had arrived on Easter Sunday by this point, and when we got to town we went straight to Grandma and Grandpa Bodda's house for dinner. It was fantastic...just what the doctor ordered!

The next day the kids and I spent the day with Grandma Dort and Grandpa Paul. Maxwell somehow remember that he watched Cars at their house (LAST JUNE!) and of course asked to do that after we had only been there about 20 minutes. Luckily, it was naptime anyway!

(He did watch the whole movie first, while Darian was napping.)

Later that night Brian and Diane came over with Christina and Elaina for dinner. It was great to talk to them and kind of pick their brains about their move to France. Finally someone who knew what I had been going through!

Tuesday was a Grandma and Grandpa Bodda day. It started out fine, even with a surprise run-in with Markie (Williams) Aguinaga at the bank! But by the time we got to Grandma and Grandpa's house, I was in pain. I have had this back pain on and off since Darian was born. It slices right into me, and I feel like I can't breathe. Normally it comes at night after a long day, I take a couple pain pills and go to sleep. When I wake up in the morning, I am fine. But this was the first time I had ever had it happen in the morning. Tuesday was a LONG day. I basically laid around at Grandma's house with the heating pad, and the pain pills were not working. We left early to get the kids in the tub and bed. I took two more pills and finally fell into a fitful sleep.

Wednesday morning I felt better when I woke up, and luckily Renee' was coming to visit! We went over to the Wheeler's to play for a few hours in the morning and to say our goodbyes...we were supposed to be leaving for PA in the morning. At this point, the pain was back, and now I felt like it was all in my stomach. When I hugged my grandpa goodbye, he joked that he shouldn't squeeze too hard, to which I replied, "Maybe you should...squeeze whatever the heck is wrong with me right out!"

Renee'and I were going to go to Eduardo's, but I didn't think my tummy could handle it. We went to VCB to get some goodies first, and then to Jimmy John's to eat. But I was messed up. We went back to Dad's so that I could lie down, but it didn't get any better. I was so lucky to have Renee' there. She agreed that it sounded like something was really wrong, and she convinced me to go to a doctor. And she offered to stay with the kids so that Dad could take me!

Dad and I went to the Convenient Care in DeKalb. Convenient, my ass. I was in so much pain, I was practically in tears. I couldn't get comfortable and I had to wait for ages. When I finally saw a doctor, he said he thought it was my gall bladder, but that they couldn't do anything there and I would have to go to the ER. Luckily, I did get in there pretty quickly. They had me dressed down and hooked up to an IV (with pain meds!) in no time. Then more waiting. Finally I went for an ultrasound (it's way more fun to see a baby on that screen), and after a while the doctor came back to tell me that I had pancreatitis and gall stones. I was going to have to have my gall bladder out!

So much for leaving for PA in the morning....

Dad stayed with me in the hospital until almost 11 that night. Grandma and Grandpa Bodda took dinner over to the kids and Renee', who got them in bed and all tucked in before she headed over to the hospital, too. I am so lucky to have such amazing friends and family!!!

On Thursday, David was on his way to DeKalb as I was getting wheeled into surgery to get an endoscopy. My surgeon, Dr. Monfils, explained that he couldn't remove my gall bladder until they got the pancreas functioning properly. He told me that when they did my blood work that morning, that the enzyme they test for was at 41,000. It is supposed to be around 200. Yeah, it was pretty bad. Most likely one of the stones had escaped and was blocking the ducts.

Luckily, the endoscopy was normal. Nothing trapped or stuck. The next day my blood work was much better, so Dr. Monfils took away my gall bladder. I had been so stressed, overwhelmed, exhausted and plain old worn out that I really needed a break. I just wasn't expecting it to come with the gown and IV. :o)

I had pretty cute visitors, though!

In all I spent four days in the hospital, we missed our trip to PA and we stayed in DeKalb for an extra week while I rested. I had to be careful, but really the recovery for this surgery was pretty nice! Much better than what I went through after pushing out two 9 pound babies!!! And the best thing that will come out of it is that I finally found out what was causing that recurring back pain.

And leave it to Erynn to remind me of another plus. This was a text exchange between the two of us the day after my surgery:

Erynn: You don't need your gall bladder anyway. If anything, you'll lose weight with it gone. What's it weigh, like half a pound?
Me: Gee, thanks. Remind me to laugh when it doesn't hurt to do so.
Erynn: Do you feel different? Did you get to keep it? I'm glad you are doing better.
Me: Gross.

I love my friends!

I have four little incision marks on my belly, but they are already fading and will soon just look like one of my ever so lovely stretch marks. Maxwell still asks me sometimes to see my owie, and when I show him he runs his finger along it and says, "Mommy, you broke yourself? You went to the hospital for surderdy?" :o) I love these kids! They make even sucky stuff amusing!