the party animals come to croughton

Emma Shea danced, she sang, she had a great time. The party Animals came to town. We had never heard of them--not sure if they are big in America or not--but it was music and dancing so we knew Emma would enjoy it.

She enjoyed all of the "Animals" and had to have the CD after the show! She had her picture taken with Kaiya the Kangaroo, Brandon the Bear, Walter the Fox, and Lance the Lion.

It was a fun night!

Next week is a rock band!

a brief summary

Okay, Steve has the girls and I have 20 minutes before the library closes to 'blog' about the trip to the States.

Emma and my flight back to the States began with dropping Michaela off at school--she in tears because we were leaving AND because she wasn't!!! We headed off to Gatwick--with plenty of time to spare--luckily. About half way to the airport a car two lanes over had a blow out--he lost control of his car and skidded across two lanes directly in front of me and slammed in to the cement barrier. Another car, trying to avoid a crash, over steered and rolled his car three or four times. Unbelievably, no one was hurt and Emergency crews just happened to be behind us--so the delay was minimal.

The 8 1/2 hour flight to Detroit went very smoothly. We watched movies, read books, and Emma took a nap. We had a 4 hour lay-over in Detroit. Emma played in a playhouse and then crashed. She slept for half of the lay-over and through the entire flight to CVG.

Upon our arrival to Kentucky, we were met by Joe and Kathy. It was great to see familiar faces!! They drove us to our house. Emma of course did not remember the house at all and was amazed that we had more than one bathroom, that she had her own room, and so much more. Having been awake for over 24 hours, I put Emma to sleep in her bedroom and thought I would crawl into my bed and sleep. But having been gone for 19 months I could not sleep. I looked around the house--I looked through the items of my grandmother's that my Aunt had sent while we were gone. I finally went up to bed and slept ---for 2 whole hours. (Made it very easy to acclimate to Kentucky time!!)

The first week was spent eating out at all the restaurants we missed while living in England and weeding the front yard. Emma was able to run through the sprinkler as I watered our dead grass, (Since it was in the 90's the entire time we were back.)she explored her toys and the house and had a good time finding NEW things everywhere. We did some shopping, had a new battery put in the van, an oil change, and brakes. I also had the appliance repairman out to confirm the 7 year old refrigerator was dead. All the day to day things!!!

On Sunday we visited the Northern Kentucky church we attended when we lived in Kentucky. It was good seeing some of the people we attended with. We ate lunch with the Steeles. Emma LOVED Ms. Ellen and Kaily. We thought there might be some play dates with a few of the children, but Sunday was the only day we saw anyone.

dOn Wednesday, we loaded up and drove to Alabama to visit with my friend, Renea and her family. Emma had a great time with Carley and Rachel became the substitute big sister. We had a great week visiting--Rachel's ball game, Carley's cheer practice, Spring Park.... We hated having to leave.

We arrived home at about 2:00am Monday morning. On Tuesday, we got back into the van and headed to the Brown's house in Indianapolis. Emma had a fantastic time playing with Riley and Sidney. They are in the process of building an extension onto the house, so we look forward to seeing the completed house when we come back.

The final week was spent visiting with Joe and Kathy and the new congregation that was started in Northern Ky., a little more shopping, mulching, moving things up from the basement,... The time went by quickly.

We flew home on Tuesday evening and arrived in England Wednesday morning, where we were detained in Customs for two hours. All ended well and we are home.

we are back home

Emma and I arrived yesterday morning at London-Gatwick at 9:45am. We then spent the next 2 1/2 hours detained at Customs. We had our suitcases searched, papers taken from my purse, questions as to why we stayed past the time our Visa was good, etc. At 12:10pm, our Passports were stamped with a 6 month Civilian/dependent stamp (which we tried to get before and were declined) and allowed to cross through Customs and go to Steve who was on the other side of the doors frantically worried if we were being sent back to Kentucky.

All is well. Emma and I slept until 12:30 this afternoon and I believe are on the correct time now!

Pics to come later--when my 4 year old is not trying to help me type and complaining that she has nothing to do.

we're leaving on a jet plane

Our three week trip to the States is coming to an end!!!!
It began with a car slamming into the concrete median and another one rolling multiple times directly in front of me as I drove to the airport and ended with my neighbor verbally attacking me because of our yard not meeting her standards. The time in between has been filled with friends, craziness, good food(too much of that) and HEAT. Emma and I have enjoyed our visit, but are very ready to be on the plane heading back home.

Please pray for our safe return.

My next update will be from Croughton or here in Kentucky--Due to my being in the UK on an expired Visa for over a year, we are not sure what will happen as I pass through Customs at Gatwick. Makes for an interesting time:)
I will update with pics when we are settled.

our pictures

I finally scanned some of the pictures we had taken last month--and here they are. The girls' pictures are great and the family ones turned out okay. Click on the collage to make it bigger.

emma's first day of school

Have you ever tried getting a serious picture of a clown. These are my attempts yesterday before taking Emma to school. I never did get one serious one. She is a cheeky monkey.

Emma Shea had a great first day of school yesterday. All of her friends returned and the class is very small. Her class is all the children who missed the cut off for Reception (Our Kindergarten) Emma missed it by TWO days. The teachers feel she is ready, but there is no compromise on the cut-off date. You are either 4 by August 31 or you wait another year. Oh well. I am not ready to have her gone all day yet anyway!!

She had fun playing and meeting her new teacher. Her teacher from last year decided after 20 years of being a Nursery Nurse to go back to school and become a teacher for the upper grades. Emma had no transitional problems and was ready to go back today!

Ballet started back up also yesterday, so we went up the hill after school and went to ballet class for 40 minutes. Needless to say, by the time she got home she was zonked!!

first day of secondary school!!!!

Michaela is officially a "Year Sevener" {i.e 6th grader}. She was very nervous this morning about going to secondary school, but excited about seeing her friends again and getting back into the routine of school. She is attending Magdalen College (this is what they call the secondary schools here. 11 year olds through 16 attend secondary school and then British children are finished with school at the age of 16. They go onto take GCSEs and continue on to Uni at the age of 18--or they can be finished and go into the work force. The system is complex. This is a simplified version). Mornings are easy--Are you wearing the black pants, white shirt, tie, and jumper?" or "Are you wearing the black skirt, white shirt, tie, and jumper?" Stephen or I take her in and pick her up (She nor I were thrilled with the idea of her standing at the bus stop in the village and riding the bus with 16 year olds, etc.)

She had a fantastic day yesterday. She loves her music teacher and history teacher. We are just praying for a successful year in Math:) The school is separated into two sites and her Music class is in the other site, so the students walk 5 or so blocks through town to get to some of there classes throughout the day. She was very nervous about that (as was I since this is such a foreign concept to an American public school teacher--where the students could not even be in the hallway without a teacher), but she made it--to find her long haired, cute music teacher:):)

She was all smiles and full of stories about her day when I picked her up.

I think this will be a great year for her

its unofficially official..

We received approval from Stephen's unit in Blue Ash to stay another year here. We are now waiting on notification that funding has been approved by the government for the Air National Guard.
We are all very excited about staying.
We love England and the experiences we have had so far.
We would also love to stay and continue working with the church in Mildenhall. Having lost three families to PCSing, we are down to three men to do all of the services. With such a small group, absences are truly felt.
Hopefully we now something definite soon-but the government works on its own schedule, so we will know when the orders are in our hands. We will keep you updated.

happy 4th birthday emma shea!!!!

This is just a quick update--more to come when I have more time.

Yesterday, as a birthday treat, we were taking Emma out to a restaurant. This is something we RARELY do over here, so it is a big treat. When we gave her some choices--Frankie and Benny's, TGI Fridays, Nandos, Pizza Hut (the few within an hour of here) she looks at us and says, "I want chicken nuggets from the bowling alley." The bowling alley is one of two places on the base that we have that serves food--the other is Subway--and we can go to anytime. It took about 20 minutes of talking to her to finally convince her to go to a restaurant on the economy!!
What is she going to do in the states when there are restaurants everywhere??? She will probably still want chicken nuggets from the bowling alley:)

Emma Shea has been telling people for over a week that her birthday was September 2nd and she was going to be 4!!! When she woke up this morning she was very excited that the day had finally arrived. Steve and I sang Happy Birthday to her--she had the biggest grin on her face.
She loved the balloons we snuck in last night for her (especially since I do not like balloons and she always has to let hers go outside when she does get one:).
We then headed up to church--where she ran in and told everyone that she was 4 now!! After church services we had a potluck and a small celebration with the entire church (all 14 of us!!.)

Emma Shea chose a princess theme again--I tried to give her other options but she is very headstrong in her opinions(yea, yea, I hear all of you saying "We know where she gets that from.")--so princesses it was. We ate cake and ice cream, opened presents, and had a good time. (I just dread when she grows up and looks at pictures of Michaela's parties and compares her first few parties to those--we are in trouble:):)

Emma and Michaela are at home now playing with the cash register and grocery store goods Emma received today. She is in her element using her 'magianation' as she puts it. Our liberal arts child!!!

Hope everyone has a great Sunday!

michaela is 11!!!!!!!!!

Happy birthday, Michaela!!!

I cannot believe my baby is 11--but it has happened. We had planned on having a ski party (at an indoor ski facility near here) with 5 or so of her friends, but since we have extra children all the time, we thought we would take advantage of 4 days without any extra children and head away just as a family.




So Monday morning, after dropping Hannah, Alyssa, and Max off at their house, we loaded into the van and headed towards the beach. Our first birthday surprise for Michaela was a stop at RocBlok--a rock climbing facility in Rutland--near a man made lake. She had a great time doing the climbing walls and the obstacle course--in the air!!! We had a great time WATCHING!!! She is actually a natural at the rock climbing and is interested in finding a club!?! Who would have thought!!

We decided to take advantage of the sunshine and walk around the lake and watch the sailboats and windsurfers--

and of course Emma NEEDED an ice cream!

We then headed towards Whitby. We took a chance on finding a hotel--which in this country is a gamble--but we found one and we found a Frank and Benny's--a little touch of America. We ate dinner there and then headed to the hotel for a good nights sleep.

The next morning--Michaela's birthday--we got ready to go to the beach!! We packed up the van and then went down to eat breakfast. The restaurant had the proper English breakfast--we all opted for portions of it and we convinced Michaela to try some Marmite. It is either a love it or hate it kind of thing.

Can you tell what Michaela's reaction was!!!
It is VERY DISGUSTING--taste like thick beef bouillon

We then headed to Whitby--to swim in the North Sea!!

Or maybe not--cloudy, windy, and COLD!!! Of course, a few weeks of sunshine--until we decide to head to the water.
Oh well, we had a great time walking the boardwalk, seeing the Whitby Abbey, walking up and down the 199 steps to the Abbey and shopping.

We headed back home yesterday. On the way we saw a sign for an 11th century priory that was used during the preparation of the attack on Normandy--D-day. So we stopped. Walked around fro an hour and then headed back on the road.

We made it home safe and sound--ready for the next birthday adventure in 2 weeks--when Emma turns 4!!!!

family portraits!!!!

Today the Martin Family had their first ever family portraits taken. We went to a huge landscape garden with stone temples scattered everywhere. The weather cooperated--was actually gorgeous--too sunny at times for the photographer--and the girls (or more accurately, Emma) cooperated. Paula does black and white photos and hand develops them so we will have the proofs in a couple weeks. I am anxious to see them because I HATE my photo taken. We'll see if they are shared with others:) I have many other pics to upload but have to pick up my surrogate children for the night in a short time, so I will come and do them tomorrow. Now I am going to go out and enjoy the fantastic sunshine!!!

last dance

leaving barbeque

michaela's class presentation

The two Year 6 classes had their leaving presentation this last week of school. The play was based on British shows. There were spoofs on Supernanny (Michaela's part), X Factor (Our American Idol), Mr. Fix It... It was quite humorous. I had planned to video tape the play, but unfortunately my camera is here and the charger is in Kentucky!

pizza party

On Tuesday, Steve and I treated the two Year 6 classes to pizza, crisps, and ice cream cake. 16 large pizzas, 100 bags of crisps, and 3 ice cream cakes were devoured by the 57 students, teachers, and head mistress in record time. They LOVED all the American food!!!

rain rain go away....

There's nothing better than a pair of Wellies and a puddle--this one was not as deep as she would have liked, but it was still some good splashing!!!



But with the rain comes the rainbow!!!

the last week of school!!!!!!

This is the girls last week of school. YEAH!!!
Michaela is very busy with Year 6 presentations, special lunches, leaving barbecue,...
Emma is wanting to stay home and play with the various kids I am babysitting this summer, but she goes to Nursery--usually happily.

I will have loads of pics to share on Friday. I just needed to update so the Fourth of July was not the most recent posting:)

another 4th of july in the UK

We hope everyone had a great 4th of July celebration.

We had a fantastic day here. The weather was off and on all day--thunder and lightening, torrential downpours and then sun. So we had a great time doing what we could do when it was dry and then hiding under the pavilion when the sky let loose.

We played lots of games--the three-legged race (which George and I almost won), spoon and egg relay (I actually won that once, tug of war, and the balloon toss (which George and I won TWICE!!!).

Michaela and three of her friends left school at noon to come to the celebration.

They had a great time riding the bull and "fighting" on the podiums (I am not sure what it is called). They also rode the kiddy rides.

Emma had a great time seeing her friends and riding the rides. She got her face painted--AND SHE CHOSE SPIDERMAN. My little girl who wants to wear a dress and 'clickety-clack' shoes everyday chose spiderman. She made it until about 10:45pm and Steve had to take her home to put her to bed.

If any of you are following Wimbledon, you know what crazy weather England--actually all of the UK--is having this year. We are wet and COLD. The weathermen are actually saying we are not having a summer this year. WE wear long sleeves and have had the heat on a few nights lately. I am quite happy with the cold--better than 90* and humidity:)

Fireworks were great, but it was funny seeing everyone in coats or wrapped up in heavy blankets--It is July isn't it???

We also had a special celebration to honor the men and women who have just returned to the base from Iraq. In your prayers please remember the 16 Security Forces who are still over there from this base and the spouses and children we see every day trying to maintain some normalcy as they wait for their loved ones to come back home.