Settling In

Well we have been here for over a month now and it doesn’t feel like it has been that long. We have settled into our house or as its called OX Close Barn, and it wasn’t to long before our stuff was delivered and we had the never ending chore of unpacking. Its been two weeks now and all but three rooms are completely done. I still have a dresser in my dining room, but for now it has to stay since I’m out of commission on lifting things. I think we are going to have to invite some friends over for dinner and make them earn their meal I suppose. We have had the normal brand new house problems and they are sometimes funny. The unfinished shower that ran down the wall under it and out of the light fixture, the wood floors that didn’t settle because of the moisture, and the single nail put into the wall that just so happen to hit the wiring for the light fixture that then caused the circuit to blow every time we turned something on. Some many stories I think we are going to start an England adventure story book and keep track of all the things that have happened. My personal favorite still is the dog poop that was in the back of a car we were looking at buying, not a huge selling point but it did knock 200 pounds off the price.

We are becoming more familiar with our local village and surrounding area and recently discovered that we can walk just a few yards and be at the back side of a horse race track, so you can guess where we will be at the next race in a few weeks. We also get the pleasure of being in the middle of a public footpath that can send you in all directions. We can walk to our favorite pub in just 30 minutes or so, or walk along the river, and even straight into town. Today we rode our bikes into Ripon in just 20 minutes, I can't wait to do this on a Thursday during the market since parking is impossible that day. We couldn't be happier with our location and look forward to sharing it with all who visit. ALL of you better visit!

Scott is still training for his new position and will continue to do so until well into November it looks like. He is currently working 2pm to 10pm and gets weekends off so that has been nice, but short lived since he will soon just work his 4 days on 4 days off schedule. We have made some good friends with his co-workers and they provide a wide diversity of personalities which is good because from what I have seen and experienced through others on base there are some really dry people here.

We are planning s trip to Scotland this coming September to celebrate our anniversary, and Scotts thesis being finished, cross your fingers. 

The bump, as it has been known  is now 20 weeks (half way), we go into the hospital on Tuesday to check for any abnormalities and hopefully whether its a boy or a girl. We are both very excited and can hardly wait, unfortunately we will be going at 9:30 am so you all will be sleeping for many more hours before we can share the news, so wake up early.

Settling In

Well we have been here for a total of 16 days and it feels like its already been a month already. That could have something to do with all the stress and change that we have been going through. We can not say that it was the easiest thing to move here but will it be more than worth it? We think so.

We have been moving right along with getting the essentials and doing everything we can to keep us feeling like normal humans in an unfamiliar place.

The house has been found after a near disaster with the first house that Scott fell in love with. It just so happened that the night we took the lease over to be signed by the owner of the house, we discovered that he and his wife actually lived in a small apartment over the garage. This was never mentioned to us even with multiple questions we asked that would have been a good time to mention this fact. Scott was not ready to call it off but I most definitely was, so I spent the next 12 hours scouring the web for new potential homes since we had exhausted our searches previously. To my disbelief I found what seemed to be everything we were looking for minus the permanent house guest and went to view it that afternoon. Perfect doesn't describe this place enough, it just couldn't get any better. The owners Betty and Pip are so sweet and very helpful it's as if they knew us already. We signed the lease with a handshake ( later officially signed it of course ) and we move in on the 1st of August. Now when our stuff arrives we have no real idea of that yet, so a big empty home awaits us.

What a welcome change it is going to be to have so much space and open land to ourselves. There is river (canal sized) just down our driveway that we will have fishing rights to and we think we can even get a canoe on it and enjoy a nice boat ride along all the fields. We look forward to visits from everyone and hope that we get visitors soon because we do miss you all already.

Now to come to the UK and expect to have an easy time getting a cell phone and bank account set up is a huge mistake. From day one we attempted to get cell phones and not till days 14 were we allowed to have one. First you must have a British bank debit card with a chip in it (supposed to be more secure than ours, I don't wee why) but you also have to make 5 transactions with that card paying utilities or such meaningful things. Well having no home and having paperless banking and bill paying, not only could we not get a phone but we couldn't get a bank account either, not even one we have to pay for monthly. The bank would not except a print out of our bank statement or our insurance cards/records or anything else we had with us. Thankfully (making this story shorter and hoping it still makes sense) we found a random bill that had our old address on it and they accepted this as a legal document.
So then we waited for debit cards which finally came but were sent to the bank instead of our current address and they sent us a letter telling us this. So then we waited for pins which they can not change until we get it in the mail because how can they know if we are actually who we say we are,(I don't know maybe because this is a tiny village, you opened this account for us, and we have been in here almost everyday since trying to get this stupid account open and running). Skipping many more painful moments and we finally just go to the phone store with less coverage in the area, but one that doesn't need anything but our military orders and an ID card and we walked out of there with two iphones without paying anything. The pin came that day.

A new car! Scott searched for about a week for the best deals on cars, we went to look at two and decided to wait do to the bank problems and not having anyway to actually pay for the vehicle. We start looking again and find a funny looking one that fits the criteria. It's a 2005 Renault Scenic, a French car with 30,000 miles for 2,900 pounds. Sold, it runs like a charm is incredibly roomy and everyday we find new hidden gadgets that make this a perfect family car. The back seats have flip up trays as well as drawers under every seat, the windows have in-door shades that snap into top of door, a flip down back seat mirror, driver controllable child door lock button (no getting out to flip the lever in the door), and just today we notice that the headrests expand to support your head while driving or a more comfortable road trip nap.

This week we will be enrolling with the NHS (Britain health care) and will hopefully get our third ultrasound shortly after. We are at 16 week and could be able to find out the sex of the baby if it's willing. Cross your fingers! I have started to show in the last few days and have had strangers ask when I'm due, making it much more real and exciting. I have also started eating like it's nobodies business which is very welcomed change after losing weight during the move and it's process, so let the fatness begin.

I think thats more than enough for one post so if you need more I've been loading our adventure pictures onto Facebook for you to enjoy, and I will be attempting to load baby belly pictures through this blog soon.

Love you, Scott and Stacie
Holy cow this is long sorry.

Final Hours

Well the time has come and we are once again packing up our belongings and changing locations for the final time. We have had a wonderful week here at the lake in Minnesota, and actually got a little tan whoohoo. We have really lucked out and were able to see most of our family and that makes this a little easier of a move for us.
We have a 2pm flight tomorrow from Minneapolis that will then take us to New Jersey and from there we cross the pond to Manchester, and should arrive the next morning at 7am. Hopefully there are no delays and no complications and we can be on our way smoothly (cross your fingers).

We will miss and love all of our friends and family and hope that you all make it over to visit at some point over the next few years. We will do our best to get back to the states as often as we can and we will keep you all up to date with our new life events.

If your have SKYPE my sign in name is vballer77@yahoo.com but I think you can find me by my maiden name Stacie Parks.

BON VOYAGE!!

Getting Ready

Well the count down has begun and we are officially 22 days from being Britain's newest residents. Our possessions are already on their way there and are probably in the middle of the Atlantic somewhere.

We are very excited that we have and will be able to see almost everyone before we make the move which makes it that much easier, especially since we know you all will be visiting frequently......we know we will have those memories to cherish and reflect on when the dark rainy days hit us a little to hard.

And then there's baby, I'm am now almost 11 weeks which makes (it) the size of a lime, but if you ask me (it's) definitely the size of a grapefruit. I have not felt very well the last two days but I think it's more to do with what I ate not the baby, at least that's what I'm hoping. I have my next appointment on the 27th so new picture will be coming and I am really hoping that there are actually some baby like features this time, we can hope. So after only two visits my American pregnancy experience will be over. I am a tiny bit concerned but I have a contact that is helping with some information about European births, so that is reassuring. I do already know that they favor natural births and we are definitely considering that option, but I need to figure out what tests/testing and vaccines are done over there or more likely not done over there so we can make some important decisions.
Stay Tuned...