DC fun

Safe arrival :)

Ty, Starlet, DeNiro and I arrived yesterday afternoon in Dulles safe, exhausted and with all our luggage intact – amazing!  Last night was a bit rough – Ty really has a cold and the jet lag for all of us was rough.  We are in at the Natural History Museum this morning (mee-maw’s place of ‘work’) and it is gorgeous today.  The flight (Virgin) was good – atleast I knew what to expect this time.  People are very helpful for the most part – but travelling by yourself is just a nightmare with a baby.  Turns out he was too heavy to sleep in the bassinets they provide – he was way over to weight limit!  So I had to hold him for most of the flight (when he wasn’t crawling up and down the aisles).  Here are a few pics…

like 10 minutes before landing - he finally fell asleep. GREAT.

We found a Krispy Kreme in Heathrow

Peace Out, England

This is Gretta, Ty, Starlet and DeNiro signing on for the last time in the UK   Jason is taking us all to the airport (Clampett-style) tomorrow morning at 4:30 am.  Fun, huh?   I bet no one wants to trade with me for the day.   Two highly-strung Rat Terrorists and a very strong and loud 10-month old on a 10 hour international flight.  I bet the flight attendants will be happy to see me.  NOT.

It may be a while until I am able to start posting again… I fly into DC and will be there with the ‘rents about 10 days while I frantically get a new drivers license (yup, i let mine expire) and buy a car.  Then we are heading down to Raleigh around the 24th of this month to get settled in.  I am hoping to get wireless internet for a bit until our desktop computer arrives – but I am not sure how quickly that will be.  So stay tuned my friends… a new chapter of the Handleys is about to begin and hopefully it will be our best yet

Our good friend Erin was in town this weekend visiting from Germany via San Diego.  Yesterday turned out to be a shockingly sunny and warm day so we day-tripped it to Stratford to have a canal-side pub lunch and do some sightseeing.

Stratford-Upon-Avon

Saturday night we took Erin and some friends and headed up to our local pub Morton’s for our last ’session.’  We really have spent a great deal of time (and money) there and if you have visited us in the past 3 years I am sure we have taken you there!  I definitely will miss it.

The Handleys

Ty had his last appt. this afternoon with the midwife for a check-up.  She was very impressed with his ‘communication’ skills.  He weighs just under 25 lbs which put him in the 70th percentile and i don;t remember his height but it puts him in the 90th!!! 

Goodbye for awhile friends and fam – wish us luck! xoxo

Frazzled Friday

Today is my last ‘working’ day I have left in England!  OMG.  I have been procrastinating packing like I did studying for finals in college!  I hope Monday doesn’t mean of a diet of coffee and Ramen noodles and adrenaline while I pack up everything in 24 hours.  It is 3:33 here now and I have baked cookies, met a friend for coffee and generally done nothing constructive.  I guess this time I know Jason will be here a few weeks after me to tie up all the loose ends   yeah!

My friends Bill & Erin arrive tomorrow morning sometime so I am sure we will play with them most of the day before meeting up at our local pub, Morton’s for farewell drinks with my old co-workers.  Sunday will hopefully be spent relaxing and visiting with my friends before the chaos begins Monday.

Yesterday I went to the Christmas marker with Julie and purchased some funny little things for Christmas this year.  Ty got his gifts early.. I hand-knitted hat, soft Christmas book and London bus toy.  How cute is he??

over-caffeinated ramblings

As I return from my up-teenth walk around my village with my Starbucks travel mug now empty of instant coffee… i can’t help but be reflective of my time in England.  The last few weeks have gone by way too quickly and I am wondering where the time has gone.  My house is still mostly not packed up and I am just not ready to face starting over again.  This has really become our home.  Jason and I have never lived in a house for so long together.  I think before our 3.5 year stint here we had never lived somewhere more than a year!  So I have really mixed feeling about leaving in a few days.

This mornings walk (we take 2-3 a day) was relaxing and pretty with the leaves changing and the temp cold.  I wish i had a pedometer to see how many millions of steps I have taken walking this child around my village.  I can’t believe it’s been over 2 years now that I haven’t owned a car.  I have definitely done my share to offset my carbon footprint!  Well, I guess I needed to with all the flights I have taken   I wish to God America could come up with ‘villiages’ like England.  I will miss that within 5 minutes I can walk to my doctor’s office, grocery store, hair salon, 2 pubs, dentist and local library.  I love it.  Jason always teases me that it’s like that movie with Jim Carrey about the perfect neighborhood where everyone knows everyone’s name.  It is really like that!  I can’t leave the house without bumping into people I know who want to stop and chat and say hello to Ty.  But it is time to move on…

I have to get in the shower as I am off to Stratford-Upon-Avon for the last time (ever?) for their Christmas market.  That should be really fun and maybe they will have some good Christmas pressies for you lucky people out there

silly ty pics

When I got into the airport to meet Jason and Ty after my trip – I don’t think Ty recognized me! (though I did have a spray tan   But I barely recongnized him either – he seemed to have grown a foot!  And got a ton new crazy expressions.. see below.

crazy expression #1 - Huge fake cheese smile

Crazy expression #2 - Hiss face

and this is 'see how many travel-shampoos i can fit in my mouth' face

and this is Daddy & Ty’s evening ‘romp on the bed’ ritual…

More French Riviera pictures…

Monaco was so awesome.  It was about a 30 minute bus ride from Nice and we spent an entire day there.  We took some evening dresses in our bags to change into for the evening.  What a ridiculously decadant place!  Seriously – we went to this celebrity club in the night (it didn’t open until 2am!) and a bottle of Heineken was $27!  ONE bottle.  Of BEER.  $27.  Unbelieveable.  Nothing will ever seem expensive to me again.

Julie and I in front of the Monte Carlo Casino

Monaco

We also did a tour of the Palace in Monte Carlo – which was cool.  The next day we did a trip to Cannes which was also very pretty.  What a cool trip to cap off my 3.5 year European experience.  My brain is still in vacation mode and I am having trouble realizing that I leave in less than 1 week.  I just want to keep looking at my pictures!

Now Jason is off to Barcelona with his mates next week.  He has been already but a few of them haven’t.  There is no way to can top the time we had!

xo

Bonjour!

I am back from my girly trip to the French Riviera!  What an amazing trip.  I have a million pictures (surprised?) so will be adding more over the next few days.  Not like I should be spending any time doing that – I have a million and one things to do in the next 7 days!

Many of you know that we have been putting the wheels in motion for a move back to the States for about a year now – and we are finally making it happen   I fly out with Ty and the dogs next Tuesday!  Jason will probably follwe me a few weeks later.  We are heading back to good ‘ol Raleigh NC – sun, friends and family!  So I literally have 50 million things to do as I sit here and post pictures and play on the internet.. oops.  I guess my brain is still in Nice – eating pastries, shopping and walking on the beach.. ahhh…..

 

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS CHILD? seriously...