The long road to Northampton

OK everyone - Here is my first attempt at a BLOG! I'll try to post as often as I can - right now, we still do not have internet access from the house (long story...) But as soon as we do, I'll try to write everyday.

I've written a bit about the move itself - what a totally insane week it was!

The Move

January 2, the “packers” came – after a solid week of sorting our belongings into “stuff going by air”, “stuff going by sea”, “stuff going in our suitcases”, “stuff going to storage” and “stuff going in the trash”, we were ready for the movers. It was an oddly low key day – which we all needed. The kids went to the neighbors and Pat and I took turns running last minute errands and supervising the movers. The guys left rather early on this day, but they seemed confident that they would have a short day on the 3rd as well – when will I learn not to listen to any type of contractor…

January 3 – There is no describing the feeling you get when a big blue sea container shows up to take your things – all of your things – to another country. The reality of what we were getting ourselves into hit us as the truck rumbled up Becky drive… There was a bunch of initial discussion and a bit of ensuing panic that we had too much stuff in our air shipment – I frantically started moving some things from the room where we were keeping the air shipment items into another room to be delivered by boat… Including, my wonderful long black, warm, raincoat that I bought before our house hunting trip – more on that later…

I insisted that the movers begin to weigh the items slated for air so we could make some decisions about what to take out if needed. They proceeded to bring up a bathroom scale and carry each box/bin/stack of clothes into the bathroom and subtract their weight from the total reading and shout it out to the “boss”. After a rather anxious 45 minutes, we determined that we were actually a couple of hundred pounds UNDER our 1000 pound limit. I ran to the other room to retrieve the items that I had moved earlier, but it was too late – it was already packed – did I mention that my WARM black coat was in there?

To make a very long story short, the movers had drastically underestimated how long it was going to take to finish packing/wrapping/loading our things – turns out we have a lot of crap – so much in fact that they couldn’t fit it all into the sea container. Our air shipment had to go into the sea container so it could be taken to Denver and repacked into D-containers (BIG cardboard boxes on Pallets), so the ultimate surface shipment would fit into the sea container, but we had to wait until about 9pm for another truck to come to take the rest of our things to Denver.

The waterworks started for me that night – some of our most treasured friends and neighbors called and stopped by to wish us well – I’d kept it together pretty well over the days leading up to that day, but now that all of our stuff was gone and I didn’t have anything else to freak out about (just that minute, anyway…), all I could think about is how much I was going to miss everyone. We spent our last night in Colorado Springs at our wonderful next-door-neighbor’s house – I wish I could say I had a restful night of sleep and pleasant dreams, but that would be a lie. I didn’t sleep a WINK – I was so wound up all I could do was lie there and think – it was ridiculous. I finally threw in the towel at about 4 a.m. and headed back to the house to finish cleaning and prepare for the walk through with our new tenants.

January 4 – We got the house ready for the 11am walk through and really enjoyed meeting our new tenants – they are from Florida and I expect that they are in for about as much culture shock as we are! By about 1:30 we were ready to shove off – it was really very weird loading the family and our suitcases which contained everything we would have to wear/play with, etc until our possessions show up in the UK, into a rental car – driving out of town and seeing Pikes Peak for the last time – all very strange…

We arrived at our hotel near DIA and had dinner with my mom and Pat’s brother, his girlfriend and her daughter, then took the kids swimming (good to get them good and tired before a long flight, right?). Next morning we went to breakfast and then chilled at the hotel until it was time to head over to the airport. Things went pretty smoothly, except that Zoe had to go potty half way through the security line – and there are no bathrooms until you get to the terminal- there is just no good way to get through security quickly – especially with kids! We made it, but it was not the most fun I’ve ever had!
The fun started when we got on the plane – apparently there was a faulty valve that they decided to replace at the last minute, which delayed our departure by nearly 2 hours. They claimed that there were 30 people connecting to the same London Heathrow flight as us, and they were asking the airlines to hold their flights for us, but couldn’t confirm that they would wait until we were airborne. We heard nothing until we were very close to landing, apparently they were going to delay the flight 25 minutes, we were going to have to RUN! So, we RAN and Ran and took a GD train, and Ran out of one terminal and into another – yes, we had to go through security AGAIN, in a rush, with kids – it was unholy… the kids were amazing, Pat and I were doing everything we could to keep our composure as we pulled off shoes and belts, unzipped laptops and DVD players, poured water into trashcans – it makes my heart race just remembering it! After we got mostly put back together, we started running again – the wrong way… then, someone from our Denver flight, was passing by on a cart and told us to jump on – so we piled onto the cart and raced down the terminal. When we got to the gate, we found it to be FULL of people! They hadn’t even boarded the plane yet – it was very difficult to process as the sweat dripped down my back and Zoe pulled on my pant leg “I have to go potty…”

We got into the line for pre-boarding only to be told we had to stand in yet another line because the machine wouldn’t read our boarding passes. At this point Audrey began to cry – I honestly wanted to do the same, but I was too damn tired… While standing waiting to talk to the gate agent, the woman at the jetway called out (screamed, really, apparently the PA system was not working…) “EVERYONE FOR LONDON HEATHROW, LINE UP!” and all 500 people who did not pre-board lined up – I have never seen anything like it… and all we could do is stand there in the other line and watch… We were amazed once we finally got onto the plane that we had been given fantastic seats – all four of us in a row in some special upgrade area between business class and coach- it was a very pleasant surprise! Poor little Zoe fell asleep before we took off – which was a very LONG time after we boarded the plane. Audrey enjoyed her kids meal while she watched a movie, well, part of a movie – she was so wiped out!

We made really good time in the air, but as we approached London, we were given instructions to circle about London for 20 minutes… 40 minutes later we were approaching for landing – because we were so late, we did not have a gate, so we sat on the tarmac for about 45 minutes waiting on a gate. Zoe slept almost the entire time, in fact, I had to wake her up to get her shoes back on and stuff…

Bleary eyed, we stumbled off the plane, went to the bathroom (of course) and made our way to immigration – this went smoothly, but it didn’t matter, because we had to wait over an hour for our luggage to show up – ours were the last bags off, sans Zoe’s car seat… kinda needed that, you know? So, we queued up (in England now, gotta use the right terminology!) in the line to deal with luggage issues – again, the kids were like angels – they were hungry, tired, thirsty, and we went to the bathroom 65 times, but they were awesome! We filed a claim for the lost car seat and were given a brand new replacement (Britax – nice!) by British Airways. Lovely to get a new carseat, yet, a nightmare to set up and install. We bumbled our way with two trolleys full of luggage to the rental car shuttle and drove what seemed like 63 miles to the Hertz office – Pat left me outside to adjust the straps on the new carseat and the kids marveled over the jets taking off about 100 yards away. After much cursing and utter exasperation, I got the straps adjusted and went to put the luggage and car seat in the car while Pat dealt with some kind of problem with the payment for the rental car. At this point the girls were past being angels and had gone full demon on me – they were running around, giggling and being generally obnoxious, which made me feel like I was going to go insane… quite literally. Pat finally came out and we got the luggage and car seat loaded, snacks into the kids and underway. Thank goodness we had our GPS, because it was now nearly dark – yes it was 4pm. We were to have arrived at 9:30 am – I have never done so much waiting during any of my travel experiences – this was truly unbelievable…

We stopped at a roadside rest stop to get something to eat since Pat and I were both feeling sleepy (didn’t want to add a car wreck to our remarkable trip!). So, we ate and drank and went potty (seeing a trend here? I think Zoe just wants to try out all of the stalls in each public restroom in every public place we visit while we are here!!!) As we were piling back into the car, I noticed that I had the new car seat straps were at two different levels – OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was absolutely beside myself – the last and I mean the LAST thing I wanted to do was take the GD carseat out of the car and undo those F-ing Straps again!!!! I figured out a way to get behind there and unlatch everything without taking the carseat out, but it was FAR from easy! I tore my hands to bits trying to get the stupid thing set up right - I was SO OUT DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

After about 15 minutes, we were on the road for Northampton. We arrived at our Hotel and decided to unload the stuff and the kids before parking the car. Zoe had fallen asleep - she'd had all the fun she could take, I suppose... When I went to take her out of the car seat I found that she had wet her pants - a lovely capper to a perfect day - not only would I need to bathe the child and deal with wet clothes, but I was going to have to take the car seat apart - again - to wash the padding..................... do they have a looney bin in England? If so, I think I'd better make reservations!

Pat, bless his soul, went to the hotel bar and brought me a MUCH needed beer, which I savoured after bathing the girls - who were now wide awake - hell, it was lunchtime at home! I ended up in Zoe's bed because she just couldn't settle down - I have vague memories of hearing her rustling around the room that night - I was delirious with exhaustion and I don't think a nuclear blast would have woken me up fully....

Next day, we were up and headed to our new home! Check in time was 10am, and everyone was on time - no waiting! Cool... Within 30 minutes a truck pulled up with some rental furniture! It was like a dream sequence watching everything happen - the estate agent showing me things and asking questions, handing out keys... the relocation dude doing an inventory on the state of the house, movers bringing in couches and beds, sheets and towels, dishes and silverware. I remember my main sense was holy shit - this house is A LOT SMALLER THAN I REMEMBER! I was cataloging all of the crap we put in that sea container, and, in fact I think the sea container is actually bigger than our house... Seriously, I think our bed is only slightly smaller than our bedroom - the rental bed is just a double bed with a headboard - we have a queen with big Mission style head and foot boards - nevermind the bedside tables and dressers we sent... And the small bedroom I was planning to use for a closet for all of us, is, I believe, smaller than my walk-in closet at home - and I had planned to put a couple of clothing racks and a dresser in there - OMG OMG OMG OMG

Thank goodness we have a "two car" garage - it is going to be FULL of our stuff!

Once again, through all of that chaos, the girls were amazing - they were running around upstairs picking bedrooms, coloring, playing with their stuffed animals - its cool how they have risen to every occasion. Don't get me wrong - they have annoyed us plenty over this experience. You know, asking questions I don't know the answers to, and wanting snacks every five seconds, oh yes, and needing to go potty every 8 seconds - ugh. But all in all, they have made us very proud! Within the first couple of days being here, we were complimented several times on how well behaved our children are - I guess the beatings have paid off (KIDDING!!) :)

When everyone left we hoofed it down to The George - the closest of the three village pubs to our house. The food is not terribly good at this pub, but the girls each found a little something to eat - they kept asking for the kids menu - not exactly standard at a country pub... again, they adapted just fine - Audrey and I shared a cheese and tomato baguette and chips (fries) and Zoe had "pizza". Pat ate "chili" I don't think they got the recipie from Wendy's - not that Wendy's has the best chili, but at least it resembles chili - I don't know what Pat's meal resembled - he ate it out of sheer hunger :)

We dropped by the office to pick up our new phones and to make some calls to set up phone service at the house, etc. Zoe fell asleep on the way there and stayed asleep when I took her out of the car. I held her for a while as I waited on hold with British Telecom trying to get a phone. She was so out, I finally laid her on my jacket on the ground. Audrey kept busy drawing pictures and visiting with the "grown-ups".

My dealings with BT were ridiculous, at best. Long story short, it will cost us ₤125.00 to have the line activated and we had to wait until 1/16 to have it done. I still don't have the internet going -we are going with a different provider for that - crazy...


Then we venture off to the grocery store. How weird it was to have to buy EVERYTHING -it reminded me of going to college... and everything was laid out differently, and I couldn't concentrate from the jetlag - I couldn't figure out what to buy -it was like I forgot how to cook - I bought some meat and some produce, but couldn't think of anything to make - I just couldn't get it together... I still managed to spend over ₤150.00 (yes, $300.00) on stuff...

Needless to say, we went out for dinner at this cool place called Two for One - everything is Two for One, which makes it more affordable than most dining experiences - the food is decent, they have good beer and it was only ₤20 to feed all of us...

Then it was back "home" and to bed.

I need to post this now - more later