You have how many suitcases?!

We finally made it! Well we have been here for almost 2 weeks now actually bit we just finally connected to the Internet so I thought I would update you all on how our trip over the pond went.

We flew from ORD and check-in went quite smooth, or as smooth as you can go when the lady checking you in laughs that she has won the lottery with how many bags we had. 7 bags and 2 car seats is what we ended up checking, oh yeah, and we had a double stroller we gate checked and 4 carry-ons!! Yes, we looked like the Beverly Hillbillies! The plane ride went as well as you would expect with a 1 and a 3 year old. AL was an angel the entire way and AJ, well Mommy didn't get to eat any of her dinner because AJ thought it would be fun to push my dinner tray off the seat back table and into my carry on bag. Yep that's right, I was THAT mom, whit THAT kid!! I couldn't tell if the people around me really felt bad, were just plain annoyed or both! When we arrived in Manchester we had to go through customs and then get our bags. Only 1 problem with that, when we were in Chicago E's parents were there to help us get all of this crazy stuff into the airport...little did we realize how much the 2 of them being there really was a blessing...Scenario: 2 adults and 2 children who just got off of an 8 1/2 hour overnight plane ride with a 6 hour time change. Kids in double wide umbrella stroller, mom pushing said stroller with 4 carry-ons wrapped around her and the stroller. Dad has 2 luggage carts with those afore mentioned 7 suitcases and 2 car seats (pushing 1, pulling the other) through a portion of the airport where there is no reentry (meaning we could not make more that one trip). Ok so do you have this circus pictured in your mind?! Here we go...As we are very carefully and very slowly maneuvering our way through the too small sliding exit doors behind me I hear a very loud thud, thud, boom, and "OH SHIT!!!!" Yep, the cart E is pushing decides to tip over right in between the 2 sliding doors!! Did I mention he was BEHIND me and there was NO RE-ENTRY! Now we can laugh at this whole fiasco but at the time you can just about imagine how much fun we were having! Thank goodness the dogs didn't arrive until that night!

Once we finally made it to the house and got the keys and hit up ASDA (the UK Wal-Mart) we were good to go right?! WRONG! Little did we know when we got in the shower we were going to be turned into ice cubes! I guess the systems over here are a bit different then we are used to in the US...The house runs on a boiler system for hot water and nobody bothered to turn that on but in hind site (yup it truly is 20/20) that was the least of our worries...once we finally figured out the boiler system we had hot water but we no longer had cold water, but only in the showers. So the next day we called the letting agency and the said they would have a plumber over as soon as they could. Well apparently we had opposing views on what "as soon as possible" meant because E and I were showering out of the sink for almost 2 weeks before this issue was finally resolved!

For now the water is fixed so we can finally shower, E and I are getting more and more comfortable driving in the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road. (I will inform you all about that on the next post) AJ's sleeping patterns are FINALLY back to normal and AL is making great friends with the girls across the road, and did I mention I have decided to learn how to play the keyboard while we are over here?! Life is crazy and hectic but we are starting to finally adapt to this crazy, hectic way of life!!

Until next time,
A.