Tuesday 3rd May
Its boiling outside, and I know I should be doing the all American thing of letting the kids run through water sprinklers in some park, but quite frankly I can't be arsed! The kids are happily watching some god awful American version of Thomas, where the fat controller (or Sir Topham Hat as he's called here, the fat controller is obviously not pc enough!) has a dreadful heavy northern accent but everyone else has an American accent. Its just not right! Still the kids don't seem to care much.
Last week was a hard one. Was feeling very homesick and was starting to grow a bit of tired of 'meeting people' - is hard to be completely at ease when meeting up with people you don't know. However all the people I've met have been lovely and as long as we keep going to things it should hopefully get easier and easier. What's been even harder though is Sophia has suddenly starting talking loads about home and all the people and things she is missing. She is seeming very bored with life and even said that she missed Morrisons! So desperate to get her into preschool and making some of her own friends although am really hoping she will actually do this and not sit in a corner and draw! Sophia and I have finally come to an agreement about which preschool she should attend (she wanted to go to one where the average age of the women that ran it must have been about 100! but it was quite similar in looks to Little Hands so she wasn't prepared to consider anything else!) So we kept looking and have seen a fair few and have decided on a place called the Wonder Years. Its quite formal in that there is maths lesson, english lesson, art lesson and drama lesson every morning (its more like school than school if you know what I mean!) but the people there seem nice and she can have her lunch and be picked up at 1 before the dreaded afternoon sleep! She'll go 4 mornings a week and she'll start on May 17th. She has agreed to go to this preschool over the other one because it has a metal tortoise statue outside the front! Am really hoping that it will mark a turning point for her as if I'm really honest I don't think I will be able to feel settled until she is.
Wednesday 4th May
My favourite thing about California so far is the beautiful evenings and the 'holiday' smell of palm trees, suntan cream and sweet flowers that fills the air. Even in our built up residential area you still get a whiff of this and I'm really enjoying going for a jog in the late afternoon sunshine when Ste gets home from work. Its really beautiful. Another really nice thing about our area is how well they 'keep' it. The grass is always mowed, there are flowers everywhere, there's no rubbish anywhere. They must spend a fortune of it (which is possibly why the Californian schools are in a right state!) still it is very lovely.
One of my least favourite things about California so far is the driving. It is actually far easier than I thought but the the rules of the road are just very different from home. The situations in which they give up their right of way are completely different so I never really know if I'm doing the right thing! I also dislike very much the fact that we have to retake our tests. I've actually done my written one now which was bizzare to say the least.
'The kids are squabbling in the back. Do you:-'
a) lean over from the driving seat and give them a slap
b) pull the car over, stop, then lean into the back and give them a slap
c) ignore them and keep your eyes on the road
Ok, this wasn't actually a question but some of them were very like this. One the answers to my questions was 'because it annoys people' which I thought was very weird for a formal test! Still all passed and now I've got the joys of the real driving test in a couple of weeks, which I've been reliably informed that only an idiot could fail, so no pressure then! Ste's social security number has now come through so he's taking his written test on Friday. Will be good to get it all out of the way.
Sunday 8th May
It is taking me an age to write this post and so I am actually going to press publish instead of save at the end of this mini installment. We've had a lovely weekend. Ste passed his written driving test getting none wrong, the geek! Granny has arrived, hurray! The kids are loving her being here, especially Sophia, she is so bored of me! Ste and I went to Santa Cruz last to have a bit of time for ourselves which was lovely and very needed. We all took Granny to the 'dragon' park yesterday which is now a very firm favourite of the kids (There are some photos on my facebook page via mum, can't wait till we get our camera back!) Its Mother's Day again here today so I have got some lovely flowers, two mother's days a year can't be bad!
Our ship with all our stuff is due in on Tuesday so it could be only another week or so (it has to go through customs) until we get our hands on it. I think I speak for us all when I say, WE CAN'T WAIT!!. Life without furniture and things is very hard.
Anyway I really have run out of things to say so will update soon. Miss you lots of everyone in England reading this xx
Its boiling outside, and I know I should be doing the all American thing of letting the kids run through water sprinklers in some park, but quite frankly I can't be arsed! The kids are happily watching some god awful American version of Thomas, where the fat controller (or Sir Topham Hat as he's called here, the fat controller is obviously not pc enough!) has a dreadful heavy northern accent but everyone else has an American accent. Its just not right! Still the kids don't seem to care much.
Last week was a hard one. Was feeling very homesick and was starting to grow a bit of tired of 'meeting people' - is hard to be completely at ease when meeting up with people you don't know. However all the people I've met have been lovely and as long as we keep going to things it should hopefully get easier and easier. What's been even harder though is Sophia has suddenly starting talking loads about home and all the people and things she is missing. She is seeming very bored with life and even said that she missed Morrisons! So desperate to get her into preschool and making some of her own friends although am really hoping she will actually do this and not sit in a corner and draw! Sophia and I have finally come to an agreement about which preschool she should attend (she wanted to go to one where the average age of the women that ran it must have been about 100! but it was quite similar in looks to Little Hands so she wasn't prepared to consider anything else!) So we kept looking and have seen a fair few and have decided on a place called the Wonder Years. Its quite formal in that there is maths lesson, english lesson, art lesson and drama lesson every morning (its more like school than school if you know what I mean!) but the people there seem nice and she can have her lunch and be picked up at 1 before the dreaded afternoon sleep! She'll go 4 mornings a week and she'll start on May 17th. She has agreed to go to this preschool over the other one because it has a metal tortoise statue outside the front! Am really hoping that it will mark a turning point for her as if I'm really honest I don't think I will be able to feel settled until she is.
Wednesday 4th May
My favourite thing about California so far is the beautiful evenings and the 'holiday' smell of palm trees, suntan cream and sweet flowers that fills the air. Even in our built up residential area you still get a whiff of this and I'm really enjoying going for a jog in the late afternoon sunshine when Ste gets home from work. Its really beautiful. Another really nice thing about our area is how well they 'keep' it. The grass is always mowed, there are flowers everywhere, there's no rubbish anywhere. They must spend a fortune of it (which is possibly why the Californian schools are in a right state!) still it is very lovely.
One of my least favourite things about California so far is the driving. It is actually far easier than I thought but the the rules of the road are just very different from home. The situations in which they give up their right of way are completely different so I never really know if I'm doing the right thing! I also dislike very much the fact that we have to retake our tests. I've actually done my written one now which was bizzare to say the least.
'The kids are squabbling in the back. Do you:-'
a) lean over from the driving seat and give them a slap
b) pull the car over, stop, then lean into the back and give them a slap
c) ignore them and keep your eyes on the road
Ok, this wasn't actually a question but some of them were very like this. One the answers to my questions was 'because it annoys people' which I thought was very weird for a formal test! Still all passed and now I've got the joys of the real driving test in a couple of weeks, which I've been reliably informed that only an idiot could fail, so no pressure then! Ste's social security number has now come through so he's taking his written test on Friday. Will be good to get it all out of the way.
Sunday 8th May
It is taking me an age to write this post and so I am actually going to press publish instead of save at the end of this mini installment. We've had a lovely weekend. Ste passed his written driving test getting none wrong, the geek! Granny has arrived, hurray! The kids are loving her being here, especially Sophia, she is so bored of me! Ste and I went to Santa Cruz last to have a bit of time for ourselves which was lovely and very needed. We all took Granny to the 'dragon' park yesterday which is now a very firm favourite of the kids (There are some photos on my facebook page via mum, can't wait till we get our camera back!) Its Mother's Day again here today so I have got some lovely flowers, two mother's days a year can't be bad!
Our ship with all our stuff is due in on Tuesday so it could be only another week or so (it has to go through customs) until we get our hands on it. I think I speak for us all when I say, WE CAN'T WAIT!!. Life without furniture and things is very hard.
Anyway I really have run out of things to say so will update soon. Miss you lots of everyone in England reading this xx
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