WAKE UP -- do you feel that?!?!?!

I woke up this morning at 1 a.m. to a horrible loud rumbling noise (kind of sounded like the London Underground trains) and realized the whole house was shaking. I laid in bed for a second thinking I was dreaming, but ended up waking up Mike to ask if he felt it too. Having not felt an earthquake since I was in 8th grade, I wasn't really sure if that is what it was OR if the house we live in that was built in 1625 was going to blow up from a problem with the gas tank or something (tons of things were running through my sleepy head at 1 a.m.!). The shaking ended after about 10 or 11 seconds, so I attempted to go back to sleep. When I woke up this morning, I turned on BBC News to see if they were saying anything -- and thank heavens, I'm not crazy...they were talking about the earthquake that happened at 1 a.m. this morning and was felt almost all across England. Since we don't have any damage, it was quite a relief to know it was an earthquake so now I don't have to worry about if there is anything terribly wrong with our house. While we felt it in Peterborough, it looks like the worst hit area was in Lincolnshire (which is about 1 1/2 hours north of us). It was the first earthquake England has had since 1984 and it registered a 5.2 on the richter scale. There was even a man who lives in Lincolnshire that used to live in Los Angeles talking on the telly this morning confirming that this was the weirdest and worst earthquake he has ever been in. Needless to say, it was quite an odd way to be woken up and I'm hopeful that it doesn't happen again anytime soon...

Amsterdam and Brussels

Well, we took our first trip to Amsterdam a few weeks ago. And, oh boy, did that city open our eyes to lots of new things?! Travelling to and around Amsterdam was fairly easy (besides me attempting to purchase tickets at the train station's ticket machine in Dutch rather than English!). Once we arrived at our hotel, we were pleasantly surprised that they put us in one of their nearby apartments which had a lot of space -- guess they felt sorry for us travelling with three small kids. ;o)

When walking down the street the first night and smelling an "odd" smoke aroma, we realized that there were a lot of people smoking things other than cigarettes. Then, of course, we weren't sure what to tell the children when they asked why there were so many ladies behind the windows (in the Red Light District). We spent only two days there as we had seen as much as our eyes could take and decided to take a train to Brussels for a day trip. We decided to do our sightseeing on one of the tour buses and were able to see everything we wanted to in just a couple of hours. We ate lunch inside the Atomium which had quite a view ... and before leaving Brussels, we treated ourselves to a belgian waffle in the Grand Place (central square). ;o)

I'm finally a blogger...

I have finally done it -- I've created a blog! It is hard to believe that we have lived in the U.K. for over a year (and sad to say I'm just getting around to updating everyone via a blog as well as sending out the monthly photo gallery).

The past year has been quite an adventure for our family. Moving 4,000 miles away from our family in 2006 was definitely difficult; however we found a great number of friends here through Caterpillar/Perkins as well as the surrounding English villages.

For our opening blog, I'll just give everyone a brief update on our family.

Brett is 7 1/2 and is in Year 2 at Elton Church of England Primary School and seems to enjoy school very much. His favorite subjects are reading, PE (thanks to his daddy), and, of course, socializing (he can blame me for that wonderful feature). When he gets in trouble at school for being too talkative, I really can't get too upset at him because that is what I used to get in trouble for at school, too. As my mother always said "what goes around, comes around" and "paybacks are @#$%^." ;o) Brett is very excited that baseball season is coming up. We have just signed him up to play baseball at the Alconbury Royal Air Force Base. All we can do is hope that the English weather is kind to us this year and he actually gets to play in springlike weather rather than lots of wind with the occasional rain.

Kendall and Kameron are quite the little young ladies. While they are only 3 1/2, they sometimes act like they are 13 (and, oh how I am already dreading that!). They go to Warmington Playgroup three mornings a week and enjoy playing with their friends. Their favorite subject is -- can you guess -- socializing! ;o) They have been participating in Gymmies (a gymnastics class) one afternoon a week for the past four months or so and really seem to enjoy it.

While it may take me a little while, I will begin posting some photos from all of the adventures we have had over the past year as well as begin putting photos and updates on this site from all of our future adventures.

And we thought speaking English would be easy...

Brett and I have compiled a list over the past year of the words that we use all of the time in America that mean totally different things in England. It would seem that living in a country that speaks English would be a fairly easy transition; however it definitely comes with its challenges. We have received many confused looks from English people -- but once they hear our American accent, they begin focusing on that rather than the weird words that are coming out of our mouths. It is amusing how I would love for Brett, Kendall & Kameron to pick up the English accent and bring it back to the U.S. with them -- and everyone over here is intrigued by the U.S. and loves our American accent. That's funny, I didn't realize we HAD an accent. ;o)

Words we used on a daily basis in America and their meanings in England...
Rainboots -- Wellingtons (or wellies)
Oversize truck -- Lorrey
Graham cracker -- Digestive biscuit
French fries -- Chips
Potato chips -- Crisps
Stroller -- Pushchair, pram
Cookies -- Biscuits
Umbrella -- Brolley
Trunk of car -- Boot
Television -- Telly
Hood of car -- Bonnet
Shopping cart -- Trolley
Cast -- Plaster
Bandaid -- Plastie
Windshield -- Windscreen
Sweatshirt -- Jumper
Wait -- Queue
Bathroom -- Loo
Diaper -- Nappy
Diaper cream -- Nappy cream
Long pants -- Trousers
Boys underwear -- Pants
Girls underwear -- Knickers
Tennis shoes -- Trainers
Canvas, velcro-type shoes -- Plimsolls
Crib -- Cot
Soccer -- Football
Pencil eraser -- Rubber
Sausage -- Banger
Hamburger bun -- Bap
Garbage can -- Bin
Guy -- Bloke
Fantastic, Great -- Brilliant
School lunch room -- Canteen
Scotch tape -- Cellotape
Naughty -- Cheeky
Thanks, Good-bye -- Cheers
Pharmacy -- Chemist
Throw -- Chuck
Bus -- Coach
Toothpick -- Cocktail stick
Buckeye -- Conker
Oven -- Cooker
Appointment calendar -- Diary
Unclear -- Dodgy
Two weeks -- Fortnight
Period at the end of a sentence -- Full stop
Ham -- Gammon
Yard -- Garden
Pickle -- Gherkin
Stove top -- Hob
Vacation -- Holiday
Vacuum sweeper -- Hoover
Boy -- Lad
Elevator -- Lift
Candy sucker -- Lolly
Popsicle -- Ice lolly
Friend, buddy -- Mate
Zero -- Nought
Mini-van -- People carrier
Gasoline -- Petrol
Mail -- Post
Pound (money) -- Quid
Awful, terrible -- Rubbish
A fruit concentrate you mix with water -- Squash
Unit of weight -- Stone
Candy -- Sweet
Faucet -- Tap
The drink or evening meal -- Tea
Children's game of Tag -- Tig
Cash register, checkout -- Till
Lottery, raffle -- Tombola
Flashlight -- Torch
Undershirt -- Vest
Crosswalk -- Zebra crossing
Speedbump -- Sleeping policeman