Happy Mothering Sunday

A very Happy Mothering Sunday to my fellow U.K. Mommas! In Canada we don't celebrate until May so this always seems to creep up on me and with Tim not being here this year it won't really be a big celebration. I got a lovely card from Delsin that he made at school and I was amazed to see his writing in the card, my baby is growing up **SOB**. It's just a normal Sunday around here, Mae is off to the stable and the boys, Dad and I will hang out here. I have more cleaning and sorting to do and I have to watch Mae's jumping lesson at noon. Life goes on in Bicester.

My heart goes out to two mothers who are not going to have a very happy day; knife violence has gripped London this week as two teenage boys lost their lives, one on Wednesday and one last night. It troubles me to see the violence that I still associate with being on the "other side of the pond" marring the U.K. Knife culture is becoming increasingly worrying and I can only hope that this will stop so that more mothers and families won't have to live the nightmare of these two families.

On a positive note, I have a several friends that are celebrating this year with gorgeous new babies to cherish, congrats ladies! They grow up so fast, the time goes by in blink, enjoy every moment!

Cheers from here,
Laura :o)

Maharishi's Phucknuckel's Guide to Zen...

Jan sent me this one, it's killer and just what I needed to read this week!! Enjoy!

Laura :o)

Maharishi Phucknuckel’s Guide to Zen

1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either, just fuck off and leave me alone.

2. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a flat tyre.

3. The darkest hours come just before the dawn. So if you’re going to steal your neighbour’s milk and newspaper, that’s the time to do it.

4. Sex is like air. It only becomes really important when you aren’t getting any.

5. Don’t aspire to become irreplaceable. If you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted.

6. Remember, no one is listening until you fart.

7. Never forget that you are unique, like everyone else.

8. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

9. If you think nobody cares whether you’re dead or alive, try missing a couple of mortgage payments.

10. Before you judge someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you judge them you’re a mile away and you have their shoes.

11. If at first you don’t succeed, avoid skydiving.

12. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

13. Have you ever lent someone a 20 and never seen that person again? It was probably worth it.

14. If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.

15. Some days we are the flies, some days we are the windscreen.

16. Don’t worry; it only seems kinky the first time.

17. Good judgement comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgement.

18. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.

19. A closed mouth gathers no feet.

20. There are two theories about how to win an argument with a woman. Neither one works.

21. Generally speaking, you aren’t learning much if your lips are moving.

22. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

23. Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.

24. When we are born we are naked, wet, hungry, and we get smacked on our arse. From there on in, life gets worse.

25. The most wasted day of all is one in which we have not laughed.

Remember not to forget that which you do not need to know.

Getting on with it...

So after crying for two days, yesterday was the "okay it's happened, now we need to just get on with it" day. I've had such amazing support from people here who are reassuring me that this is just a blip and we will sell our house and be on our way before we know it. I wish I could be that optimistic but it's lovely to have people trying to keep me positive and focused. I snapped on the rubber gloves yesterday and started upstairs and will work my way down. I guess I'll call it "spring cleaning" so that I don't feel so deflated. Remember I'm trying to stay positive about all of this!! One of my wonderful friends offered to come around and help me clean, how amazing, but I actually found it therapeutic to scrub the hell out of my bathroom!! I know at some point I will have to lean on people for help and that is really hard for me, I'm just too damn stubborn.

Last night was supposed to be my girlies night out to say farewell as I was supposed to be boarding a plane on April 1st. I was, obviously, not up for it after what happened so my lovely friend Jan organized Chinese food and beer at hers last night instead while we watched the Comic Relief coverage on BBC. Not sure the viewing choice was the best as it's a fundraising event held every two years in the U.K. and interspersed with the comedy are clips from both the U.K. and Africa showing people living in and dealing with horrendous situations. How can you not give money, if you can afford to, to people after seeing their stories?? So tears were shed but tears that put things into perspective. Yes I didn't sell my house and my move is delayed, but my family is healthy, we have a roof over our heads, and we have wealth at our disposal. So many others just don't and it's shocking that we live in a world that can allow people to live in abject poverty, and in despicable conditions like was broadcast last night. Okay, I'll get down off my soapbox now!

I had another lovely thing happen yesterday that showed me just how lucky I am! Every day I walk my dog, Oscar, up to school with the kids and after dropping everyone off I head to the park with Jan, and Benson, and our regular doggy walking crowd that converge on the park daily. When I came out after dropping Delsin off, the usual suspects were present and I suddenly found myself surrounded by all these lovely people and their canine friends. Jan, seeking revenge after I embarrassed her on her birthday in said park (LOL), presented me with a wonderful photo of Oscar along with all his fellow canine friends and their humans from the past 3 years of park walking. What a joy to have this picture and once again the tears flowed. Oscar is still leaving next week, with Schat-the-cat, so Friday was his last regular morning in the park. I felt truly loved and I now have a wonderful memento of a daily ritual that was a huge part of my life here in Bicester.

So despite a crappy week, I know that I have found some wonderful people during my time here and know that there are many more happy memories to take back to Canada than the current frustrating events. I am one lucky lady.

So trying to stay positive and just get on with it! Canada is still there waiting for me and my family, it's just going to take a bit longer than I thought.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend. If I ever need anything to cheer me up, I need to look no further than here ---------->

The kids after their latest haircut last weekend!

Oscar after his last grooming session with Sandra!

Love to all,
Laura :o)

NOT SOLD...sigh...

So, the nightmare scenario has happened. Our "chain" has collapsed with "buyer number 3" changing his/her mind and pulling out causing all of the stress and worry over the last two months to multiply exponentially. We are devastated. The moving van was supposed to arrive on March 26th, the dog and cat are leaving next week (and they are still going to stay with Mom and Dad), the boys and my Dad were supposed to follow on the 27th and Tim, me, Mae and Del were supposed to be arriving in Kingston on April 1st (Mae says that's because "we're the fools"). Maybe Mae has a point. We were wary of this whole "chain" right from day one but were so happy to have sold for full asking price and we knew the people buying our place were so damn happy, hell we even have their mail already arriving here! This country SUCKS and I can't wait to see the back of it. So, many phone calls and emails later we have canceled everything in regards to the move and reinstated everything here that we had canceled like utilities, taxes, school placements, selling our car, etc. etc. I don't know how people sleep at night knowing the stress and pain they cause others by changing their mind. Why the English don't revolt and demand a revamp of the real estate system is beyond me. You hear stories like ours every day, yet on and on it goes. Our estate agents were terrible and sat on their laurels after having to do almost nothing to sell our house, they let this bumble on for the last 2 months and because of the complete inability of all of the agents to stay on top of things, this is the result. The only bright spot in this is that I won't have to give one red cent to our agents.

I'm not a happy bunny today. Poor Tim is trapped in Canada and feels so helpless in all this. To top it all off, I have to tell the kids after school that their lives are turned upside down again, poor little things.

I hate this,
Laura :o(

The story so far...

It's been ages since I posted and the long and short of it is that we SOLD our house! On the first viewing...before it even hit the papers...hehe. Truth be told, we know the people, they are from the neighbourhood, but I didn't realize they were house hunting! That's the good news! The bad news is that we are stuck in what the English call a "chain"...sigh. In England just because you accepted an offer and the house is "sold" doesn't necessarily mean it will stay that way. There are no guarantees here. No money changes hands, no contracts are signed, so until you actually have the money in your bank you grow ulcers and grey hair. The people buying ours are solid and we trust them but we are at the mercy of 3 other people below them in the "chain" so now we sit and wait...and wait...and wait. Good news today from our listing agent is that the "survey" the buyers did came back with no major problems, just a few niggly things that the buyers aren't fussed about so things look good there. Now we just hope that within the next few weeks the others below us will have things sorted and start talking about a closing date. Fingers crossed please.

In other news...Christmas came and went in a blur it seems as I spent so much time getting the house ready to list! My folks were here with us so that made it very special as we knew it was our last U.K. Christmas! My folks and Tim left in the new year and my Mom returned a week later to help me out with the kids while Tim started his new job in TO. Mom just left yesterday, Dad arrives on Sunday, Tim leaves again on Monday (after spending a week home with us), Mom arrives back AGAIN next Friday afternoon and I fly out the same evening to TO for a week long "house/school hunting" trip! Are you tired just reading that? I know I am! Shame that I have to suffer along with Tim in a crappy room at the Royal York Hotel, life is really rough sometimes. :P Mom and Dad are taking on the 4 kids for one week while they are off school for the "half term" holiday. I've said it before and I'll say it again, my parents ROCK! What would I do without them? They are making sure that I am not alone with the kids until we can all be reunited somewhere in the GTA! I'm thinking it will be the end of April if things work out, at least the weather will be better by then as I'm officially a Euopean wimp and am in for the shock of my life next winter! We did actually get a little blast of winter last week but you wouldn't know it now and it wasn't exactly the -29 that my Dad woke up to a few days ago...EEEEKKKKK!



Speaking of the kids, they are all doing fantastic! Everyone is accepting of our move to Canada, even Mae, and I think they are just anxious to get on with it now. I'm more anxious about it I think as I'm not looking forward to uprooting to new schools, peers, etc. I know they will be fine but Moms worry, it's in our DNA! Connor is my biggest worry but I guess there is no point in getting too worked up as I haven't even checked out the schools yet. Worse case? We homeschool. Best case? I find an amazing, tolerant, understanding high school in one of our towns of choice. More crossing of fingers, please.

Here they are after their haircuts yesterday...Connor is the disembodied head on the bottom...hehe



Delsin is in his school uniform, he started "nursery" in January...oh my aching heart! He just seems way too little to be going to school. He is actually doing the same amount of time that he did at preschool, but it's more like a "jr. kindergarten" now. Not sure if he'll go to school in Ontario yet but he is loving his nursery so far. He looks so grown up in his uniform...waaaaahhhhhh. I will MISS uniforms, I think they are fantastic!

Heading off to "nursery" with his very proud sister and brother!



So that's our update for now, more later as it happens! Love to all.

Laura XO