The Moving Vans: So far, so good

We have past the one week mark here in the UK and I think we have made some great progress. Most days have been spent in a flurry of paperwork, searching for houses/cars, homeschooling, breaking up the boys' arguments, breaking up more arguments, and trying to discuss lots of odds and ends when we can. Dave went out one day to do some house hunting and came back and said, "I bought a car." Well that was easy! Buying a car took us about a month last time around!

This is a not-so-flattering picture of me beginning our homeschooling for the day. I try to start as soon as Natalie takes her first nap so usually I haven't had time to change... at least that is my excuse.

With the car taken care of, we were full speed ahead looking for a house. When we lived in DC we had a pretty small, dated place just because it is such an expensive area. Here we are grateful to have a housing allowance so we were looking to maximize that perk and find a comfortable place. But it is a tricky thing because we could look for up to 90 days and still stay in our temporary lodging, but who wants to live out of a suitcase in a hotel for 90 days? With three kids! No way. So we didn't want to settle for a place, but at the same time, know that waiting may or may not pay off.

Dave set out looking for houses as there was no way we were going to drag our kids around looking as they are just crazy these days. Only one house passed the "Kate come look test." For our old LN friends, the house was almost just like the Watson's house. It is a great house. 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths... lots of space. Some crazy colors (par for the course for many British homes) but the letting agency offered to paint everything I didn't like, take down ugly wallpaper, and recarpet the dining room. But most importantly... it is a new house and so it will be WARM. When we were here before I was always cold in our house. This will be different. So we said yes to the house and we will move in in about two weeks.

So this week we will start applying for schools for the boys and should have a decision in 2-3 weeks. They will go to public (as we think of it) schools, but they aren't guaranteed a spot in the closeest school; they may have to go to one that is a few miles away. it all depends on if there are spots available. If you think of us we would appreciate your prayers that they can get into the closer school. We visited it and it seemed more friendly and brighter than the school further away. Plus we would like the boys to go to school with the neighborhood kids.

It seems like the village doesn't have many Americans in it, so John and Adam may be the only Americans in their class. When we were taking a tour of one of the schools, our tour guide (an administrator) said, "Well don't you have quite an accent!" speaking to me. Ha! If only she heard some of my southern friends :) Also, we have told John that sometimes he may not understand a word or phrase and it is okay to ask for clarification. He said, "Mom, I speak British so I will be fine."