Rainy Day Writing
Topic: This and That
(I call this one, "Helping With The Laundry.")
Friday was the six month anniversary of Ryan and I moving to England. It's strange to think that much time has gone by already.
Yesterday I was trying to figure out what to get out and do. It was really cold out, and overcast. I talked to a friend on the phone who lives out at MHS and she said it was snowing there. I have yet to see it snow here, but it sure gets cold enough plenty often. Today it's just been raining. Most of the time it's a kind of fine rain that doesn't really get you wet.
Yesterday I wound up just putting Ryan in his stroller and going for a walk around the Victoria shopping center. On weekends it's quite busy, making for interesting people watching. I'd forgotten how vibrant the area is on a Saturday, with all sorts of interesting sounds and scents wafting on the air. There was a man in a kilt playing the bagpipes for donations. It was pretty cold, so I was impressed to see him in a kilt! The aromas were fun. There are several bakeries and coffee shops, not to mention a personalized/organic type cosmetic shop with various clean and floral scents emanating from within.
Speaking of cafes, there's a new one that just opened up called, "Caffe Latino." (Yes, there are two "f's" in it, plus an accent over the "e.") It's right across from another cafe, Cafe Nero, and a couple doors down from Starbucks. When I went in to check it out, it was packed, so I guess there's enough business for everyone.
My mission for this particular outing yesterday was to pick up some scones and some clotted cream to put on them. I was going to get the scones from Betty's, but that place was a madhouse. I got a couple scones, along with some savory pasties, from another bakery. I got the cream from ASDA and was all set.
I actually checked out the Caffe Latino Thursday or Friday. I had been by a few days before and a man there told me they would be open in a couple of days. When I came back, the same man, whom I assume is one of the proprietors, opened the door for me and Ryan. I thought that was nice. He gave Ryan a cookie. I got a mocha capuccino. The drink seemed more European in character compared to your average Starbucks. It reminded me of the many capuccinos I've had in various European countries. They had a really good selection of sandwiches and pastries. I think what I would do for a lunch situation would be get food there, then coffee at Starbucks.
A few weeks ago I came up with a concept I would dearly love to execute: "A Cafe A Day." I love the Travel Channel and the Fine Living Channel and the Foodnetwork. There are so many cafes walking distance from my house it's ridiculous. I think it would be so cool and so much fun to go to one a day and review it. Unfortunately, that would get rather expensive in a hurry. Also, as well behaved as Ryan can be, having him around is not conducive to relaxing and soaking up a cafe's ambiance. So I might not be able to do a cafe a day, but I can definitely get coffee and a snack to go from various ones now and then.
Ryan still seems to be sick. A friend of mine said a doctor here told her that kids that live here, who aren't born here, tend to be sick more often than usual. Great. Shall I just consider this immune system building? Ryan seems fine except his nose won't stop running, and he has an intermittent cough that's worse at night. He's taking a marathon nap right now, which is good since I'm sure he needs the rest. The last couple of days he didn't nap much, so I think it's caught up to him.
It's hard because this time of year is a bad time for bugs and such going around. I was supposed to get together with my next door neighbor, but her kids were sick and bronchitis was going around at their school. With Ryan still having a runny nose, we thought it would be better to wait. It was sad though, because Ryan saw the next door neighbor kids, and cried when he couldn't play with them!
I'm mostly fine. I'd say about 90 to 95% over my cold. I think I will try to run again soon. There's a race at MHS around St. Patrick's Day that I would like to participate in.
Lately Ryan's been trying to feed himself with his spoon and fork. I'll try to feed him and he'll push my hand away and say, "No!"
The next three days should be busy. Tomorrow night there's a spouse coffee that will involve something called, "bunko," that I have never played before. Tuesday is a Valentine's day party for moms and kiddos. Wednesday I have a doctor's appointment (woo!) and Ryan has a WIC appointment. The WIC lady intimidates me, but I need some advice on how to get veggies and fruit into Ryan's life. Hopefully she can help.
For those of you who have been wondering about Larry, he's fine. He's busy. Apparently he's fighting off the flu or something there, too. It's quite warm in San Angelo. It's sunny and in the 60's and 70's. Isn't this supposed to be winter? Anyhow, on the weekends I call and he talks to Ryan. I'm glad Ryan gets to hear Larry's voice.
Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Ryan's awake!

RHS Garden Harlow Carr
Topic: Day Trips
(When I took this photo, Ryan was running toward me. Even though he's a little out of focus, the look in his eyes makes the picture.)
Yesterday was sunny after a gray and icky stretch. I had to get out of the house. I never realized how close to our house the RHS Garden Harlow Carr was. (Royal Horticultural Society) It's only a couple miles away.
There's a plant center and shop in front of the Garden. I parked and took Ryan in in his stroller. I saw other people with strollers, so I thought that was a good sign. The shop was really nice. It had all manner of books having anything and everything to do with gardening and plants. They also had general interest books, and a really nice children's book section. There was a gift section, with beautiful journals, cards, address books, stationary, as well as tea sets and all sorts of gift items. One section of the shop was sunken down half a level and was a wide, yet cozy area with a huge bay window overlooking the Garden. It was gorgeous. There were books and flowers everywhere. The wall opposite the window was decorated with metal dragonfly sculptures. That made me smile. I felt so happy and comfortable there. Being in such gorgeous surroundings, I realized that I am lacking beauty in my life. I need to do something about that.
Next to the shop is a plant center. There wasn't much in it this time of year, but it was still nice. It had a conservatory style roof, so it was warm, but the sun came through.
RHS Garden Harlow Carr (Click on this link for the Garden's website.)
I went outside to walk around and explore. It was bright out, but very windy and cold. Since it's winter, there wasn't much going on in the Garden, but I could tell that once spring arrives, it's going to be spectacular.
I kept thinking how much my grandfather Walt would have loved this place. He was quite the gardener and could make anything grow.
I walked around and found a playground. Ryan is still too little for most things, but he loves slides. I helped him up and down the slide a bunch of times. I let him run around a bit. Unfortunately it was a bit wet, muddy, and slick in some places. Ryan was getting away from me and falling down and getting wet and dirty. Since it was cold and windy out, I wanted to minimize the damage and get him back in his stroller. Ryan had other ideas. Of course he would rather run around than be confined. He threw a huge fit. I don't blame him, really. I tried to explain things to him, but he wasn't having it. I think he was getting tired, too.
There's a really nice tea house and cafe there. It's a Betty's. (There's one in the Victoria shopping area.) I wanted to get some refreshment, but I wasn't sure Ryan would cooperate. I figured I'd better get him home. I look forward to going back to the Garden in the spring and summer.
Harlow Carr Snapshots Click here for a few photos from the Garden. I didn't take very many since the Garden is in a somewhat dormant state.

Ryan Report
Topic: Ryan
Ryan didn't get his shots today. The clinic was out of one of them, and also they wanted Ryan to be 100% over his cold, which he's not yet. I did have the doctor give him a quick once over though. Apparently, other than getting over a cold, he's fine. That red cheek thing is Fifth disease, which Ryan doesn't have. It's just called "slapped cheek" over here. Weird.

Four Things
Topic: This and That
Four Things
Stolen from Kate

Four jobs I've had (not necessarily in order)
1. Barista at Starbucks
2. Backup singer on a demo tape
3. Extra in the movie, "Messenger of Death"
4. Drummer for an accordion band in a competition

Four movies I can watch over and over
1. Grosse Pointe Blank
2. Hunt For Red October
3. Under the Tuscan Sun
4. Threesome

Four places I have lived
1. Wuerzburg, Germany
2. Palmdale, CA
3. Seaside, CA
4. Irvine, CA

Four TV shows I love
1. Lost
2. Alias (only the first three seasons)
3. I don't watch much tv over here.
4. Sadly, I am very behind on current shows.

Four places I've vacationed
1. Prague
2. Rome
3. Amsterdam
4. Paris

Four of my favorite dishes
1. My mom's pressure cooker pot roast
2. a #1 with beef from Ernie's
3. kung pow chicken from the Great Wall
4. my father in law's tacos

Four places I would rather be right now
1. Back in Germany
2. At my parents'
3. Santa Barbara
4. Scotland

Ryan Report
Now Playing: Blue purring
Topic: Ryan
Last night did not go well. I got myself into bed early - well, earlier - which was good. However, for some reason, Ryan decided to be up a lot during the wee hours. He wasn't crying or anything, but his room is next to mine and you can hear pretty well. I went in there a couple times to check on him. One time he had a dirty diaper, which is unusual during the night. However, I don't know why he was up after that. His schedule during the day was the usual. Oh well.
Today after a morning nap, Ryan's cheeks were really red. A day or so ago I had talked to my friend Sarah, who told me her youngest son just had a virus that made his cheeks red. Apparently it's some British thing and it's basically harmless. It was still weird though that Ryan came up with it right after Sarah had told me about it. She saw Ryan today at the URG meeting, and told me that's what her son's cheeks had looked like. Ryan has an appointment for shots tomorrow, so I will talk to the doctor about it.
Speaking of the URG meeting, that was a nice break. I don't know if I've described this before or not, but there's free childcare during the meeting. The kids and adults are in the same room, with a room divider. It's nice for Ryan because he gets to play with other kids and different toys. It's nice for me because I get a little break and get to socialize a little with other adults. There was free pizza at this meeting. I'm all for free food!
What's really nice was that when I mentioned my husband is TDY (temporary duty) for two months, fellow spouses said call if I need anything, or want to get together, or need time to myself. I really appreciate that. It helps me not to feel alone here. It's good to know I have people I can call, even if it's just to chat to another adult for a little while.
I want to mention that we now officially have a missing crayon. It didn't take long. I'm sure it will turn up, probably in several pieces. I'm wondering when Ryan will figure out that you're supposed to color with crayons. On the flip side of that, I'm grateful that I don't have to worry about him coloring on the walls (or everywhere else) for now.
Whenever Ryan is around other kids, I have such mixed feelings. I know he needs to learn how to socialize. I definitely want him to have friends in life! But there are two things that bother me: one, I don't want him picking up bad behaviors from other kids, and two, I don't want him picking up diseases from other kids. I suppose to a certain extent both are unavoidable. I think I am going to take the track that I will do what I can (like make sure his shots are up to date, and intervene if I see bad behavior going on from him or a playmate), but after that, I'll just have to let it go and realize that I can't keep him in a vacuum. There will be playgroup politics between the kiddos, and there will be viruses passed around. That's life, I suppose.

The Wrong Side of Otley
Topic: This and That

Let's try this again.
These two pictures were taken from that weirdly foggy day I wrote about a few posts back. The one on the left is closer to my house. The one on the right is farther, looking back.
I would like to say a big "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!" to my longtime close friend Tara.
So, my day yesterday didn't go quite how I'd planned. Things started off well. I needed some wood glue so I went to the local DIY store, Focus. I got the glue, no problem.
I wanted to go geocaching. (If you're not familiar with geocaching, check out geocaching.com.) I'd printed out some caches to find, put the waypoints in my gps, and thought I was good to go. I drove a bit and parked where I thought I was supposed to. I put Ryan in his stroller and took off. I realized that the terrain wasn't really suitable for the stroller. However, we were right next to what I thought was the clue to find the cache: "Big holly bush." Sure enough, there was a huge holly bush. Two, actually. The only thing was, my gps said we had something like 48k to go. That didn't seem right. Ryan laughed at me while I looked around the holly bushes to see if I could find the cache (which I didn't). I walked back to the parking lot and realized I'd parked by the wrong place. So I packed everything up and drove a bit to what was supposed to be the right place, according to the description. This time I loaded Ryan into his backpack (much to the apparent entertainment of a woman staring at us). We set off and I quickly had a feeling this wasn't it, either. My gps still thought we had about 50k to go. I was thinking then that somehow it wasn't calibrated properly. So I trudged back to the car and unloaded everything. There was an ice cream truck parked nearby (I was at a national park and reservoir type place). Even though it wasn't exactly ice cream weather, it looked good, so I shared a cone with Ryan. Actually, it was in the 40's out, which is a lot warmer than it's been recently.
After the ice cream, we took off. Unfortunately I couldn't remember how to get back to where I wanted to be. Since I apparently don't know how to work a gps, I didn't trust it to get me back home. I wound up going the wrong way. I saw signs for the town of Otley, which I know isn't far from a main road leading back to Harrogate. Unfortunately, I wound up on the wrong side of Otley, and more than halfway to the Leeds/Bradford airport. On the bright side, I knew where I was. However, Ryan was getting fussy and I really just wanted to get home, which we did after a while.
A few nights ago something kind of strange happened. Someone rang the doorbell. It was a guy with short blond hair and blue eyes, holding up a piece of paper (quadrille, I think) with a hand written note on it. The letters were spikey and the note basically said who he was, and that he was a Polish art student from Krakow trying to sell his drawings. He had a bunch of 11x14 sized pencil drawings. They weren't bad. I asked him how much. He said ten pounds. I thought, "No way!" I said, "Five." He came back with, "Seven or eight." Part of me thought it could be a scam, but part of me thought he was, after all, out in freezing cold weather after dark, and probably a certain amount of time and effort went into the drawings, so I bought one for seven pounds. The drawings were of things like landscapes and kittens and horses, reproductions of popular images. On an impulse I bought one that jumped out at me. After I closed the door, three things occurred to me:
1 - I ought to have asked if he had any originals.
2 - I ought to have written down or remembered his name.
3 - I ought to have had him sign it.
Oh well.
I still have my cold. It's getting old. Ryan still has his, too, but he's a couple days ahead of me so I'm hoping he'll be over it soon. At least he's been sleeping through the night. For myself, I need to be getting to bed earlier. I've been staying up too late and not getting enough rest.
Today Ryan and I have been back in the UK a month. Seems a lot longer, actually.

ACK!
Mood:  irritated
Topic: This and That
#&%$*@!!!!!!
I had a good entry going and hit the wrong key and of course now it's gone. *sigh*
FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!!!
Anyway, I don't want to try to reconstruct it now.
I will say what the title was: The Wrong Side of Otley.
(I'm putting that there as much to remind myself when I come back for a rewrite, as to horribly tease!)
When next I write, I will try to cover:
Geocaching mishaps, the Polish artist, and the photo from the foggy day.
Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Ryan Report
Topic: Ryan
Ryan still seems to have a little bit of a cold, but it hasn't slowed him down at all. Vapor rub at bedtime's been doing the trick.
My mom got Ryan those cute Pooh slippers he's wearing in the photo. Unfortunately he pulled them off shortly after I took the picture.
Ryan likes to sit at his little table. He also likes to scribble. I thought I would pull out an old box of crayons I've had forever. (To tell you how old they are, they were $1.69 for 64 crayolas, and the price tag said, "Sprouse-Reitz" on it!) The crayons had actually never been used. I gave one to Ryan, and the last thing he wanted to do with it was color. I showed him how, but he entertained himself for quite a while just taking them out of the box, playing with them, then trying to put them back in. He also made a game of handing them to me, then I'd put them back in the box, then he would try to take them out again faster than I could put them back.
For some reason the last three nights bath time has been rough. The night before last, Ryan pitched a serious fit when I put him in the tub. The water temp. was fine. I have no idea what his deal was. Last night it was looking like he was going to have a fit again, so I saved us both some agony and just for that night skipped it. Tonight I drew his bath and when I put him in, you would have thought I was trying to drown him from all the noise and commotion. After a few very long seconds, he settled down and played a bit. I really don't know what's bringing this on. I was extra careful with the water temp. Normally Ryan really enjoys his baths.
Next week Ryan has his shots. I'm not looking forward to it. The following week he's got his WIC appointment. Definitely not looking forward to that.

100
Topic: This and That
Happy Groundhog Day!
This is my 100th blog entry. Usually tv shows feel it's a big deal when they reach episode 100, so I thought I would point out the milestone.
So six more weeks of winter, Punxsutawney Phil says. I don't know if that counts in England, but from how the weather's been here, I'd believe it. I took the photo to the right yesterday. I had to go to MHS to run some errands. As soon as I got a couple miles out from Harrogate, everything was covered in frost. It was really weird. The landscape was very monochromatic. The photo doesn't really do it justice. It's been so cold here, but I didn't realize how different everything looked just outside of town. For some reason it really struck me.
I seem to have acquired Ryan's cold. It hit me hard this afternoon. Thank goodness for Tylenol! Ryan's been doing better though. The last couple nights I put vapor rub on him at bedtime, and he's slept right through the night.
I had some more things I wanted to write about, but I am really tired. It's hard to be sick and be the sole caregiver of a little one.

Nessie
Topic: This and That
I forgot two things yesterday. One, while we were at the toy store, Ryan grabbed a toy. What he grabbed was a beanie Loch Ness monster! I thought that was pretty funny. Since I've been to Loch Ness and the beanie was half off, I decided to get it. The other thing I forgot to mention, was that once we were home, I set my eggnog latte down on our coffee table. I was sharing an apple pastry with Ryan. After he took a bite, he real casual-like picked up my latte and started to walk off with it! I thought that was pretty funny!
Last night didn't go too well. Starting around 1am, Ryan was up off and on until around 4am. I think his nose was the cause. He's had this crappy running/stuffy thing going on that just doesn't quit. Poor little guy. I put some vapor rub on his chest. Don't know if it helped, but he eventually went back to sleep, and thankfully he slept in a bit this morning. After a night like that though, we're both tired. My legs are feeling all the running and walking I did yesterday, too.
It is really cold out today. I got myself and Ryan ready to go outside and once we went out, I wanted to just turn around and go back in! However, since we were all bundled up and ready to go, and that takes a certain amount of time and effort, I went ahead and ran down to ASDA. It is definitely one of those days you just want to hang out and drink tea and hot chocolate all day.