Belated birthday wishes to Jim! Hope it was great!

Happy birthday Rene!

Happy anniversary, Shawn and Jeremy! Hope you two have a wonderful day!

Much love,

~Holly and Ryan 

The place we're staying has internet! Yay!

This morning when the internet at our house was turned off, I felt like I'd been cut off from the world! All better now.

Actually, our new temporary digs are quite nice. We're staying in a "self-catering apartment" called Ashness. (Once we were checked in, I discovered they had a website. If I had actually visited it, I would have realized a long time ago they had internet, and I wouldn't have had to worry!) We've got a kitchen, living room, one bedroom, one bathroom, and a tiny dinning area. The apartment is fully stocked with flatware, plates, pots, pans, etc. It's right down town, so it's close to everything.

Last night Ryan slept the whole night through (for the first time since the movers came). Yay! And now we're moving out. *sigh* He's generally a good little guy, and adjusts fairly well to things.

We're waiting for the media people to come and get our box (it isn't really cable anymore, is it?). Today and tomorrow will be major cleaning fests.

For a long time now, I've been trying to figure out just how I am going to say goodbye here. I have such mixed feelings about leaving. There are definitely things about living overseas that I won't miss, but those seem so minor compared to the things I will. I'm not sure how to sum up two years in just a few sentences, and really get the experience across. Right now, what I can say, is that I've been incredibly blessed to have gotten to live here. I've gotten to do and see some really great things. Above all though, I've met some wonderful people. They will be what I miss most. 

Tonight will be our last night here. Tomorrow we'll be checking in to our hotel. We lost our internet tomorrow, too, so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to check e-mail between tomorrow and when we leave (the 9th).

We are now without a car - well, at least until we pick up the rental tomorrow!

Today I had my going away do at Betty's Tea Room, and the Turkish Baths and Health Spa at Harrogate. Betty's is one of my favorite places, and it was great to be there with some of my favorite people! Many thanks to Sarah for organizing our afternoon, and thank you so much to Joan, Angela, Michelle K., Michelle W., Aimee, Erin, and Sarah's mom, Nora, for coming to Betty's!

After a very enjoyable luncheon, Sarah, Nora, Joan, Aimee, and went on to the baths. (The spa doesn't have its own website, but this page has a nice photo and description: http://www.harrogate.gov.uk/immediacy-1100) I'd never been to anything like it before. As the name infers, the spa is decorated in Turkish style. They do spa treatments there, but we were there for the baths. There is a steam room, a cold plunge pool, and three dry heat chambers of increasing temperature. You do cycles of heat, shower, plunge, as many times as you like, ending with a 20 minute rest. On the above webpage it says, "At the end of the session, many of our clients report a feeling that combines exhilaration, euphoria, total relaxation and absolute cleanliness." Exhilaration, euphoria, and total relaxation. Yep. That about sums it up! 

It's been a bit of a struggle for Ryan - and us! At first I thought he took the move fairly well. When Sarah brought him back from Winkies on Tuesday, Ryan asked for his chair, but was otherwise ok. However, that night he woke up crying three times. Over the last couple of days, he's been very out of sorts. The last night he woke up twice; once at 12:30am, then again at 4am, and was up for over an hour!

Poor little dude.

I'm sure it's tough for him, not truly knowing what's going on. He hasn't been napping, so he's been exhausted, too. Larry got him to nap this afternoon, but not without a lot of unhappiness - for both Larry and Ryan!

Two more nights in the house, then that's that. We're into the hotel until we leave. 

A Harry Halloween, and a blast from the past (Ryan's first Halloween)!

 (Drawing by Venessa http://www.mudblood428.com/index.html)

Here we are, sitting in an empty house! It's surreal.

The movers got here around 8am. I feel sorry for them - they have to make a four hour drive up from Mildenhall to come get our stuff! (Then of course, make that same drive back after packing up all day.)

Things went pretty well. Sarah - bless her! - took Ryan to Winkies, so that made things a lot easier.

The movers were done by a little after 2pm. The only hitch was that someone tracked cat poo into the house. However, it wasn't a lot, and it's been relatively easy to clean up.

It's funny the things you don't think about while packing until it's too late. Some time back, our land lady had an upstairs window replaced. We took down the blinds for the occasion, naturally. However, we never put them back up, because they got in the way of opening the window. I never gave it a second thought until I saw that whole room packed up, and no blinds in sight. Oops. Luckily, I was able to retrieve them!

I wasn't so lucky in Ryan's room, though. I took down the ties that hold the curtains back, because I have that insane mom thing where you're afraid your child will somehow hang himself on something stupid like that. I had the ties set aside, but somehow they managed to wind up inside a bin. I didn't think about it, until that bin was packed up. Oh well. I can always mail it back if my land lady gets upset. (However, I don't think she will.)

It was funny the things the movers packed up, and the things they left out. They packed up a moldy old dish rack (which we were actually going to throw out), and took an instruction sheet that was taped to the top of the dryer (the dryer is staying here). However, they left out a diaper holder that was hanging on the back of Ryan's door, and a lamp shade (I was able to add those items before they were done).

We had two "safe rooms" set up, with all our stuff we didn't want packed. That was handy. Now that the movers are gone, our stuff is leaking back into the rest of the house again.

It occurred to me while watching my stuff get packed up, that you don't realize exactly how dusty and dirty your house is until you move. Without all those pesky possessions in the way, the dust really stands out!

Also, you don't realize how big a part muscle memory plays in your life until your house is turned upside down. I keep looking at the wall where the clock was, somehow expecting it to still be there. It's amazing how much we bumble around the house on auto pilot, simply because things are where we expect them to be. 

So, next up, we're checking into a hotel (well, it's more like a B&B) on Saturday. We'll have our phone on in the house until the 5th, and we do have voice mail. However, if you need to call us, our cell phone would be a better bet. I'm not sure what the internet situation will be at our hotel. We'll have internet at the house until the 5th as well, so at the very least, we'll check our e-mail one more time then. 

Hello again. Just wanted to let everyone know we had our daylight savings time here today.

Also, the movers are coming tomorrow, Tuesday, and (if needed) Wednesday. Things are about to get hectic (or more so than usual). We're out of the house by Nov. 5, and lose our internet and phone that day (we'll still have our cell phones, or as they call them here, "mobiles"). We're flying out on the 9th, visiting Larry's family for a couple of days, then you'll be able to get a hold of me and Ryan at my parents' house in CA. (Drop me a line if you need our phone number and/or address there.)

I'd like to keep updating here as long as possible before we leave, but in case I don't, you'll know why!

I'll be keeping my same e-mail address, and also have my myspace http://www.myspace.com/hkvl and facebook accounts. Please keep checking this blog, because I plan on starting a new one once I'm in the States, and I will post a link to that here.

Hope everyone's had a great weekend, and hope to be back a few more times over the next couple of week. Stay tuned!

(Click on the above slide show to view as a web album.)

This year, Menwith Hill Station had its Halloween festivities on Friday, the 26th. There was all sorts of stuff for kids to do, but it was mainly for older kids. Around 6:30pm, we met up at Carissa's house to go trick or treating with her and her boys. (Carissa's friends Dana and Ken were there, too.)

Ryan was Harry Potter for Halloween. My mom made his robe, and did an excellent job! The rest of his costume was simply British school clothes.

The last couple of years, Ryan was too young to really know what was going on. This year he seemed to really enjoy himself! He loved yelling, "Trick or treat!" at the top of his lungs, usually after getting his candy, not before! We all had the best time taking Ryan trick or treating around the base. It was a lot of fun!

Interestingly, I didn't see any other Harry's (Larry said he saw one), only a Ron. I would have thought with the book and movie coming out this summer, there'd be a lot more.

When we were done, Ryan kept saying, "Want more trick or treat!"

Here is a blast from the past:

Halloween 2006