UK Peeps, This One's For You!

When I was a young and incredibly impressionable young child, my poor mother was a worn out, unappreciated 35 year-old mother who would try to sneak an afternoon nap in when she could. To do so with what I suspect now was an ADHD child a busy child, she had to find a television show that could ensnare me for the the hour.
Together, we would curl up on the sofa and as her breathing slowed to a restful state, I would watch Dark Shadows.

Yes, my mother had me watching a vampire soap opera.
I loved it.
She's also the one that got me hooked on The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits and Night Gallery, but that's for another post.

You can probably deduce that when Johnny Depp recently signed on as the charismatic Barnabas Collins,  I could hardly contain my excitement. I was eager to see how my beloved Dark Shadows would be interpreted by the fantastically creative Tim Burton.

The result is a giant bat leap from the original, but we all expected that from Burton, right?

Did anyone see it in the theaters/cinema?  Can you believe, I missed it! I was going to have to wait until it was available to rent online or for the dvd to be released. I hate waiting. Am I alone in this?

Luckily, the wait is over...

AND...

Warner Bros. and PartnersHub generously want to give away a Blue-ray of Dark Shadows to one lucky UK RESIDENT (sorry everyone else, my lovely UK readers usually miss out on the giveaways).

"From the incredible mind of Tim Burton comes the hit film Dark Shadows, based on the classic US television series!  Barnabas Collins has been trapped for two centuries by an evil witch (Eva Green) who just happens to be an ex lover.  Barnabas now has to struggle with the ever changing 1970s and save his family’s business!  With an all star cast that includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jonny Lee Miller and more, Dark Shadows will be sure to whet your appetite for fun."


Here's the catch....

Take the Are You Creepy Enough quiz and then post your results in the comments section.

Everyone can play, but since I will be picking randomly on October 25th, please indicate in your comment if you are a UK resident. That's all it takes.

Will you be cuddling up with a family member to watch this?

What great things did your Mom (Dad) introduce you to?

Back to Where We Began

Like the menstrual cycle that comes bearing mood swings and disjointed thoughts, how appropos that this blog has become a once-monthly gift of sorts...

I've been a little busy. Oh yes, traveling, entertaining, traveling (yes, more), but mostly...

ugh. See the previous post if you really want to know what I've been up to. To encourage more frequent posting, I could rename this blog to:

"We'll be Back if We Ever Get Containment On The Flipping Lice"

or

"How to Wash Everything You Own Every Other Week"

or

"Don't Try Leaving Town, The Lice Will Only Wait For You"

I know, amazing. I have actually hit bottom with these blood suckers. I don't understand how people around us say, "Oh, yeah, we had them last month, but haven't seen anything since". And they are the ones who don't turn their households inside out.
I've gotten grumpy at the husband and demanded that my children never hug anyone again for the rest of their lives. We get clear heads- no bugs, no eggs, but then some child brings home a little gift (or a thousand) and we start all over again. Another cycle I won't mind seeing the back side of.

Nevermind. I'll look back and laugh one day.

I'm not laughing today though, in fact, I'm a bit meloncholy. After posting this photo on Facecrack,

I found myself stumbling down that slippery memory lane. Six years ago, I moved to England with a very round belly and we began very new lives. Where did the time go? I can't believe how quickly those six years have gone. My squishy, bouncy cherub is an independent (translation: stubborn), dynamic, sometimes silly little girl now. What a character she has become! She is the darling of the family, the ruler of the house. How she has enriched our lives.... sniff.


I started blogging six years ago as well and that too feels like only yesterday.  I wish I could say the blog has grown and developed in content, but I think I'm quite happy for it to have become a public journal rather than a testament to my creativity.

And speaking of creativity....

Nah, let's not, unless you want to compare notes on everything creative to be found on Pinterest but now have no time to do because of being on Pinterest....


What really great thing did you start in 2006?

What I Didn't Mention on Facebook or How to Get a Head in Lice

Whenever we move (by choice or not), I wash all of the bedding.
I like the new place to smell fresh and clean.

So, I washed all of the bedding and we began moving into this lovely little farm house.

The house sits in the middle of fields of sheep, corn and cows (yes, they're growing cows in the field).
The idyllic country setting brings sometimes easily forgotten pleasantries like biting flies, mosquitos and "thunder bugs". Yay.

Day two of the move, the daughter begins scratching a vicious attack upon her scalp...

(oh dear, not a good sign with our school's lice problem)

While the husband carries furniture up the stairs, I begin the comb-through on the child's hair to discover many black pterodactyls and tiny black dots. The friend helping with the move assures me the black dots are "Thunder bugs" "...and they really bite, no wonder she's scratching".

Oh, ok. I know lice look like small grains of rice, so I'm not worried now, but just for good measure, I wash her bedding and then request everyone's bedding that she has cuddled with- which ends up being everyone. Five beds worth of bedding. Again.

A couple of days pass, and everyone is scratching.  

Ripping my scalp off is sounding more and more appealing since it's got to be more comfortable than what we're going through at the moment.
That's when my good friend exclaims, "Oh, didn't you know? There was a terrible case of lice going about that last week of school and I found loads on my children's heads".

You know, her children's heads that my child's head spent the night with.

Further checking verifies that the infected daughter's other close friend (who also spent the night there) was also blessed with it. "...and the strangest thing, they're black!" They say.

Thanks for the heads up (no pun, really) ladies. I can imagine that prevention would have been a little easier than what we face now.

Everyone gets deloused.

Everyone's stuffed toys, pillows, outside gear etc... get smashed into air-free bags and thrown into the freezer. Everything else gets washed. Again.

Moving sucks.

Oh, yay, we just got an invitation to camp!
"Brilliant!" we say, and off we go to the coast for four days. Really needed that break from the stress.

Six people, four days. One always forgets that unpacking and washing bit that comes with traveling or camping don't they...
I begin the laundry when we get home. Nearly finish when the itching begins again...

Not joking.

Everyone is deloused. No need to worry about the pillows (etc) since they never made it out of the freezer, but a LOT of clothing and bedding has been by these six heads in the last week. So I wash. Again.

The people who live near us must think I'm a compulsive clothes-washer trying to single-handedly deprive Great Britain of it's water resources.

And for some reason, I chose to leave all of that interesting information off of the social networks.




What are you not saying on Facebook these days?



 

“Life is either a daring adventure...

 or nothing.” – Helen Keller


My adventurous spirit is hiding under the covers in a quivering mess.

When did this happen?

Where is the woman who would jump on a plane, last minute to travel to a foreign country-with a three-month old baby, no grasp of the language whatsoever and no reservations?

Where's the woman who decided that no transportation wouldn't deter her from walking around the Italian countryside alone at night in a downpour?

The shell left behind from her sudden departure had a mini meltdown a few months back. "I've lost the person I used to be!" She wailed. "My free spirit has died!" She bemoaned.

”Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

So the Sexy Guy decided he must fix it. Because that's what men do when the little woman is a hot mess of blubbering nonsense, they fix it.

And fix it he did. So he thinks.

He booked an international flight for one scared-of-her-own-passport wife and said, "There. All better?"

"NO I AM NOT ALL BETTER. I can't drive your car, the shift is on the wrong side. And parking at the airport is insane and I'll be doing it while trying to shift with my left hand. And what if I get there late and my rental car (which also shifts on the wrong side) is a problem or I drive around in the dark for so long that I miss my B&B check in?"
"WHAT IF MISS KY HAS A BAD FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL?"

Yes, I will miss the first day of school.

Every confirmation that comes through my email box reignites the anxiety. "You must check in online and print your boarding pass..." Where's the paper bag, I need to breathe! "Print your airport parking confirmation to show..." in and out, in and out...

I miss my 34-year old self. But I'm not sure if throwing the older, scared version into the deep end is the best way to teach her how to swim on her own again.

Just sayin'.



“Remember what Bilbo used to say: It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” – JRR Tolkien

Our New, Last, House

Well we're in.


If one could see how loaded that statement is...

This was not one of my favorite moves, and it certainly wasn't the smoothest. If one were to go back and read all of the fears I had of what would happen when we vacated our last house (with the shady landlord), one would discover that landlords shouldn't be prejudged.  The recent landlord, who I (wrongly) thought "also being military would understand the stresses and paperwork involved to extricate our lives from this country" bit us in the backside BIG TIME... and is still biting. I see all of the red flags now. The ones I didn't pay attention to as I moved us while the husband was deployed.

Our new landlords (a couple), are every bit as lovely as the other was conniving. Having known them for the last 6 years, and know of the reputation they have in our village and schools, I feel safe. An additional assurance is that the people who share the other buildings associated with this farm (there's a bungalow overlooking our farmhouse and two barn conversions adjacent to it), all love Mr and Mrs C.

My kids are so joy-filled I often find myself standing at the window watching them laugh and play. The little ones have two new friends their age to ride bikes with, the two older ones-who were without internet for a week- joined in for the first time in ages. My garden has been filled with kids of all ages from the minute we moved in.

I could quite happily lie down and die in my new kitchen. There is a cupboard for everything.

The house has a great "feel" to it.  It's been filled with happy families for decades (Mr. C was born and reared in this house).



So why am I depressed?

I think the stress of it all has hit and it's everything I can do to keep plodding through the unpacking stage.
I'll survive.

Would you like a tour? Pre-my clutter added photos perhaps?

 This is the room I am writing from and yes, it IS really that small.

 The kitchen- before I covered the work tops with boxes

 From J2's bedroom window. To the left is the bungalow, straight ahead the 

barn conversion they hope to have finished by Christmas.

 Our front door -which is silly really, as we park and enter from the back.

The "front" of the house.

It would make a perfect haunted house, don't you think? 

our driveway.

See? It's all good. What was all the fuss about getting the shock that we'd have to move a few weeks back?