Thank you..

to whomever was watching over us, because things seem to be coming together. Our mortgage man talked to the halifax who are still happy to give us the money and have faxed our solicitor to that effect. She is working on the basis that we will exchange on monday os fingers crossed that we do. I won't believe it until we get a call to say it has been done. So, Mom, St. Anthony, Grandma keep looking out for us please!! I can't remember when I last felt so stressed and anxious and so utterly helpless to control a situation. I know that we are not unique and that things always go wrong-perhaps this should be a sign that the system should change. Things don't have to be hard in life, suffering is not good for the soul.

One thing that annoys me about this whole process is that I can't get anyone (solicitors, sales negoiators, bank people etc) to call me by my first name. Half of these people are older than I am and it feels so false to have them call me Mrs. D. What if I wasn't married, would they call me Miss? Why can't they just use my first name? I am sure that they use my last name out of some sense of propriety by why then do they not insist that I use their surnames? It just doesn't seem right. If I can call them by their first names then they should use mine. We are all equals after all, arent't we??

We had an interesting history lesson today. We are doing the rise of the babylonian empire and how nebuchadnezzar conquered jerusalem and built the hanging gardens. It came to me in the middle of our discussion that the Boney M song "By the Rivers of Babylon" would just fit the bill. So off we went to computer and downloaded it from itunes. I always knew my dodgy taste in music would come in handy someday! We both enjoyed singing along and I now can't get the song out of my head. We also had a long discussion about slavery and how it would feel to be taken as a slave. Sam as very shocked to hear that slavery still exists and I was at a loss to explain why we as a race are so cruel to each other.

Went along to Activity World and nobody minded S still having chicken pox. It was nice to catch up with everyone and sam had a ball running around with the other boys. The older boys are so good with him, I just hope he doesn't annoy them too much.

Finally got an appointment at the US Embassy to renew Sam's passport so someone was definately looking out for us up there. Can't believe that we all have to go to renew it, how silly is that.

A busy weekend ahead, more decorating and entertaining the in laws on sunday for mother's day.

It was all going so well...

until that call from the solicitor and then the day went down hill from there. Sam and I had had a lovely morning, got lots of work done, played in the garden, snuck up to sacrewell to feed lambs (while avoiding other children) and then came home to a message to call our solicitor urgently. Seems that the halifax (who are providing our main mortgage) are now claiming that the didn't know about the remortgage on our current property and won't release any funds or proceed with matters until they speak to our mortgage advisor. Of course as this all happened at 5ish he couldn't talk to anyone so we have spent a tense night speculating about the future. Worst case scenario they could take back their mortgage offer and we could be back to square one and if the builders want to they could put the house back on the market. Best case scenario this is all cleared up by a phone call from our advisor and things go on as planned. I suspect that the reality will lie somewhere in between. This whole process is so frustrating and I feel so powerless. I will be so glad when it all over.

Had someone round to view the house yesterday but they didn't seem that enthusiastic so i doubt they will take it. Just hope that the agent gets more calls and soon.

Sam was feeling really well until about 9:30 last night when he woke up shivering and crying. He as running a temp and had had a nightmare. It took us ages to settle him back down and M and I spent a sleepless night checking on him and searching for the calpol. He seems fine this morning and is back to himself. I think we will have a quiet morning doing normals and starting our tudor project and then if he is up to it we may go to Activity World-provided nobody minds. I think all of his spots are crusted over so he shouldn't be contageous anymore.

Plague..

Well, it has finally happened, the monster has come down with chicken pox. He has been exposed so many times and never caught it but now he is officially with pox. Having said that though, it seems to be a very mild case. Only a handful of spots, no itching and as bright and happy as he always it. With any luck it won't get any worse. The bad part from his point of view is having to submit to the calamine lotion. He hates it and wiggles so much that most of it ends up on me. Bribed him with chocolate to stay still but even that didn't work!

We spent the weekend painting his room and visiting with friends. I had not intended to do the ceiling but now the walls look fresh and bright the ceiling looks awful. Guess I know what I will be doing this weekend.

Evil mom that I am we are still doing lesson despite the pox. Our next science kit came so we having been building our own weather station. It seems to work, it can't be any less accurate than the bbc!

Housewise things are ticking over, we have decided to put back our completion date until April 27 as M is working almost every weekend in April. By putting it back we will have time to get the floor laid on the ground floor and hopefully finish up the work that needs doing here. Still no viewings on this house which is frustrating, keep your fingers crossed that we will get a tennant soon.

Good News!

The halifax have agreed our mortgage at last!! Apparently I am not a risk after all. All being well we should exchange on march 27th and are aiming for completetion on april 8th! (YIKESSSS!) This is all moving so fast that I am just in a daze. So many conflicting emotions, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Now the mortgage is settled my main worry is finding tennants for this house, I just hope we can find someone who wants to live here and who will take care of it. It takes all my willpower not to phone the agent at least 4 times a day to ask if they have had any calls.

Today was an indoor day, we spent our time doing science experiments, playing on the computer and doing our normals. J and the boys came to play this afternoon and we had lots of fun. One of the fav toys were the ideal blox from Merry. They are so addictive! Must get some for my nephew for his bday. Feeling very guilty that I am not giving sam as much time as he needs at the moment, I feel torn in so many different directions. One thing about the move happening quickly is that life should return to some semblance of normality fairly soon.

Good News!

The halifax have agreed our mortgage at last!! Apparently I am not a risk after all. All being well we should exchange on march 27th and are aiming for completetion on april 8th! (YIKESSSS!) This is all moving so fast that I am just in a daze. So many conflicting emotions, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Now the mortgage is settled my main worry is finding tennants for this house, I just hope we can find someone who wants to live here and who will take care of it. It takes all my willpower not to phone the agent at least 4 times a day to ask if they have had any calls.

Today was an indoor day, we spent our time doing science experiments, playing on the computer and doing our normals. J and the boys came to play this afternoon and we had lots of fun. One of the fav toys were the ideal blox from Merry. They are so addictive! Must get some for my nephew for his bday. Feeling very guilty that I am not giving sam as much time as he needs at the moment, I feel torn in so many different directions. One thing about the move happening quickly is that life should return to some semblance of normality fairly soon.

Frustrated

It is maddening waiting for things to happen, I hate it when things are out of my control. We still havent' had the formal offer letter for our mortgage, the Halifax are being picky about the fact that I am american and therefore not on the electoral role. I don't know whether they consider me a high risk as I might skip the country but if I haven't gone in the past 13 years it is unlikely that I am going to go now. Even if I did I am not the one earning the money to pay the mortgage so what does it matter. ARRGH!!! Our solicitor needs the offer by monday at the latest if we are to exchange on the 27. Have been told by the mortgage broker that it should be issued tomorrow and I am going to phone them every couple of hours until it is!! That should annoy them so much that they will beg the halifax to approve us. I feel discriminated against-why should i be picked out for special attention just because I am not english, I have been here for 13 years for goodness sake!! Rant over. Just hope everything goes smoothly though I don't it will somehow.

HE wise things have settled back down and we have been getting on with life. Our next major project is the tudors as we are supposed to be doing two sessions for our EO group next month. Sam is keen to build castles-junk modeling looms again. Junk modeling is very much the order of the day here and we have had some fantastic creations. They were all space related yesterday and today they were all monsters from scooby doo. He is all boy my son!

Met up with a very nice family in leicester today. They invited us over to help us get to know the HE scene in leicester. They have two boys 7 & 4 and they all got on like a house on fire. When we left there were three tired, muddy children so I think a good time was had by all. Hopefully we didn't overstay our welcome and will be asked back again. It is nice that people are being so welcoming it will help to make the transition easier.

my new goddaughter D and her siblings.  

two of our furry friends! 

Sam's musher Chad and his lead dog Patch. 

who lives in a house like this? 

Sammy the Snake

Okay, I caved. I said that when we get to the new house and we are settled we would look into getting a corn snake. They were so cute today, it was hard to say no. Today was the big day and M and I are still recovering. I would post photos but flikr doesn't want to upload from the mac at the moment so photos to follow. After a somewhat stressful morning of cake decorating and sandwich making we headed over to the village hall for the festivities. My in laws arrived early to help (thank you!!!) and by the time everyone arrived it looked suitably festive. Everyone we invied was able to come and it was lovely for us to be surrounded by our friends. The snake man was fantastic and had brought along a nice assortment of critters for the children to hold. They all seemed to be fascinated and were amazingly attentive throughout the demonstration. Everyone had the opportunity to hold or touch the animal of their choice and needless to say sam loved them all. I was amazed that he agreed to hold the spider but he did. Apart from a few wobblies from Sam (too much sugar and excitement) all the children got on well and I hope they all had a good time.

After the party my in laws and sil and family came back for pizza and we watched the start of the iditarod on line. Sam opened all his gifts and was thrilled with them all. I was proud of how well he shared with his cousins-quite a different boy to the grumpy teenager I had yesterday. After they left sam and M took sam's new telescope outside to do a bit of star gazing. Not sure what they saw but sam had a blast.

Still can't believe my little one is now five. We have had a lot of turmoil and tears this week and I hope that this will soon pass. Not sure how much more my sanity and good temper can take. I just don't recognise him at the moment, he is not my sweet, funny, affectionate little guy; instead he is a sullen, grumpy teenager. Not sure how to help him either, other than loving him and reassuring him that despite the changes going on around us life carries on and things will be as normal as possible. Here's hoping for a better week next week!!!!

Happy Birthday Sam!!

Happy birthday to my wonderful little man. He turned 5 today and it doesn't seem possible. Just yesterday he was a tiny baby feeding around the clock and now he is all grown up. (still eating around the clock though!!)I am so proud of him and the boy he is turning out to be. I look forward to the next 5 years and know that whatever else happens they will be an adventure. I hope he had a nice birthday. It started off with presents and ended with presents so it can't have been that bad. In between was filled with party preparations and playing new computer games. We had intended to go and see Zathura but he got too engrossed in his new games and didn't want to go in the end. Instead we took his new plane and his formula fuelers out for test drives. Give me barbies any day, hot wheels aren't half as much fun.

Sort of back on track with normals, though not much got done today. We are eagerly awaiting a book on the Iditarod from Amazon for our next read aloud. The race starts on saturday and sam is very excited because his musher emailed him a picture of himself and his lead dog. It would be so cool (pardon the pun) go to up one year to see the start and finish of the race.

things are progressing with the move but don't want to say too much as I don't want to put the kybosh on things.

Tomorrow is mudpud and party cooking and then saturday is the big day. sam is so excited about seeing the snakes etc.