All those in the US...

[OverRated]

... here is a lovely new thread. With an uninspired but easy to find title. And an old list.

Please update as needed.

1. Mamama - Chicago, DS 2
2. Twirl - MD - married, DD 3 and DS 1
3. Califrau - Milpitas, CA - married, ds1 (7), ds2 (4). sahm
4. Greatgooglymoogly - NY State - married, DS1 (3), DS2 (17 mths)
5. Alipiggie - Erie, CO - 2 DS's aged 5 and 4
6. Tinpot - North Carolina
7. dooneygirl - Oregon City, OR A married SAHM. DS 4 , DD 2
8. Earlybird - TN, DD (6)
9. SofiaAmes - LA
10. LATyke - Redondo Beach, CA
11. NannyK - Boston, MA
12. Marls001 - Bentonville, AR
13. Hellish - Ottawa, Canada
14. Sunchowder - Florida - DD Girlscout age poss 14ish, SDS um late teens.
15. SittingBull - near San Francisco, CA - married,two children, 1 DS 3 years, 1 DD 18 months
16. ChiTownLady - Chicago
17. MKG - New Jersey -ds1 22 months,ds2 3 weeks
18. Yesthereare4ofthem - NY State
19. Albert, Brazil - married to Brasilian, DS(7)
20. Texan Dallas, TX, married to a Scot, DD (7), DS (5)
21. Tiggyhop - Houston. DS (4) DS (3) and DD (20 months)
22. Bananapudding - Texas. married, DD 6
23. jabberwocky - TN married, ds1 3.10, ds2 6 months
24. Brooklynmom - NYC. DD, 14 months old...
25. Vixie78 - Houston Texas
26. TwinMommyToBe - Boston
27. Barefeete - British Virgin Islands
28. Dodgykeeper - Dayton, Ohio 29)Syd - Manhattan Beach, LA
29. Weewilliewinkie ? VA
30. Chocchipcooke - Ohio
31. Mummimamma - PA. Married, DS, soon to be 5, DD 1 (15 months)
32. Shouldalistenedtomymum - Canada - Hamilton, Toronto,
33. Anorak - Bermuda, DD 15 and DS 7

East Coast
NannyK - Boston
Twinmommytobe - Boston
Greatgooglymoogly - NY State
Yesthereare4ofthem - NY State
Brooklynmom - NYC
MKG - New Jersey
Mummimamma - PA
Twirl - MD

The South
Earlybird - Soon to be in TN
jabberwocky - TN
Sunchowder - Florida
Marls001 - Bentonville, AR
Tinpot ? NC

Midwest
Mamama ? Chicago
ChiTownLady - Chicago
Dodgykeeper - Dayton, OH
Chocchipcookie - Ohio

Rockies & Southwest
Alipiggie - Erie, CO

Northwest
dooneygirl - Oregon City, OR

California
SittingBull - nr San Francisco
Califrau ? Milpitas
Syd - Manhattan Beach, LA
SofiaAmes - LA
LATyke - Redondo Beach

Texas
Texan - Dallas
Tiggyhop ? Houston
Vixie78 - Houston
BananaPudding

Canada
Hellish ? Ottawa
Shouldlistenedtomymum - Hamilton

BVI Barefeete Bermuda Anorak Brazil
Albert, Brazil

OMG I went to Wycombe High School, Califrau. Left 1984.

Up The Octagon!

Up the USAF Base!

Up the name of the sports centre at the top of the hill by the M40 that I can't bloody well remember the name of. Got a verruca there. And lots of slush puppies.

Going to bed now.

I love the word wonky.

What is it you craft? I need to know. I am nosy.

HANDY CROSS

I know v little about High Wycombe but have been to John Lewis there several times. I got my bathroom lightswitch pull thing from there! I'm a Berkshire girl myself.

Dooney, I make cards. And occasionally crochet or sew but I am bad at that and too impatient.

My grandma taught me how to crochet. It was very dull. The only thing I wanted to do was crochet a really long, straight line and then unravel it. My mom tried to teach me to sew. It was beyond very dull. I used to sew whatever it was I was sewing to my clothes on purpose so I wouldn't have to do it anymore. I have the utmost respect for anyone who does that sort of thing. DH is responsible for sewing on buttons around here. I decided my great talent was to find clothes for DD and DS for so cheap, it would be more expensive to make them.

lol Dooney. Making clothes can be really expensive. I have never tackled anything as tricky as something to wear but have managed a couple of quilts and afghans and even some hats. Scarfs are always best though. And I quite like unraveling it all. It's very satisfying

Just read the stuff from last night about how "bad" Ohio is. Expat, you are totally out of order to go on like that about the place some of us choose to live. I love Scotland and I really miss home but its mainly my friends and family I miss. I love where we are now and we have a great house, lovely neighbours and an excellent school. The state of Ohio is bigger than some European countries and has all the diversity of an area that size. Im sure there are many parts that I would not like to live just like we have turned down several moves within the UK because I didnt like the area. Nowhere is perfect but a negative attitude doesnt help wherever you are living.
Rant over.
On a more positive note, Ive found a toothpaste that my kids will use!! We had finished the stash I brought over and neither the kids nor myself were keen on the "bubblefruit" option which seems to be all you get for kids here. Even the organic, healthfood type brands all do strawberry and things like that. I was considering getting my mum to post some when I discovered that Crest do a vanilla mint one in the adults range. I know it sounds bad and it certainly wouldn't be my choice but its a bit like milkteeth from home. Kids happy, mum happy
Overated - I love making cards but people usually assume the kids helped me.

You see, this is another reason I no longer live in the US and never will.

I mean, why take the opinion of some random stranger online personally?

I've honestly never met a group of people who get so easily offended, bent out of shape and waste loads of energy over what is really nothing and nobody.

Big deal if one person out of billions found one place out of billions not to their liking.

I mean, a lot of folks don't like Scotland or the UK. What's it to me? Who cares? Good, more for those of us who do!

What's the point in getting tetchy - 'oh, you're out of order.' 'you should apologise.'

To what? A state? I mean, it's not like I said anywhere, 'Every single person in there was awful.' or got personal.

Steady, Expat - those kind of words got me banned from a board, remember!

Seriously, Ohio is fine - it's middle America. I can say that my own experiences were fine - I took the good, and left the bad. I was lucky to be on an expat package (ie triple the local salary), and would have found it difficult otherwise. We lived in a nice neighbourhood (which was known as 'the bubble' in Cincinnati because it was surrounded by not so nice places).

I found many people to be highly materialistic in that any smalltalk would inevitiably be about going to the mall, or wondering which seasonal flag to buy next for the outside of their house (barf!).

I liked living there because we were near family, but it's really a no brainer to choose between London and Cincinnati, if you take people out of the equation.

lol @ discussions of which seasonal flag to buy next.

Dodgy - you made me larf! No-one has suggested my cards look like DS made them so hopefully that means they look slightly more impressive than what a 2 yr old can be expected to do. Either that or people are too polite to tell me!

Cali - I need punchy thingies and rubber stamps. Where should I look. Am on the Archivers and Oriental Company mailing lists but no others.

I don't think anyone's bashed Oregon yet. (Except for some nameless person who shall remain nameless (Califrau) that made fun of it for being the Beaver State. I think some or all of you should come out here and entertain me. DS's preschool is less than $100 per month (it was only $60 per month last year), and there's only one neighbor who has seasonal flags, and they seem to only think there's 2 seasons, so that isn't too bad.

You all could bring me some culture, even, and teach me to appreciate Russian literature. (Small voice) I actually do own a copy of Anna Karenina, but I relegate it to the Country music depressing genre. I draw the line at card-making or crafting, though. I hate it. But there's lots of other people here who love it.

Ok, I am going to have a bit of a rant because I need to. Right now. Don't care if anyone reads or responds. Just need to get steam off.

MIL died a very drawn out and painful death of cancer of the pretty much everything in Dec 2006. Her best friends (which are more DH's age) said they would go out to dinner with us the next month. (Get Christmas out of the way, etc., very understandable). We still haven't gone out to dinner with them yet. DH was very disappointed. I think he really needed to go out to dinner with them. They e-mailed last month, and it was planned to go out to dinner today (once again, get Christmas out of the way, very understandable, etc.)

DH sends them an e-mail last week. They wanted to know where to meet. DH sent one back the next day. We heard nothing. DH called. No answer, nothing. About 15 minutes ago they called and wanted to know where we wanted to meet. I'm having a minor fit (in my head only), because they've been really flaky about it in the past, and figured since we hadn't heard, it was off. I've been really sick, feel like crap and now have to get the kids ready for an hour drive down there (DH in the shower, having been in the garage fixing things because he thought we weren't going anywhere, either). I'd say not to go, but I know DH really wants this, in fact probably needs to do this. I realize they're under no obligation, but aaarrrggggghhhhh. If they only knew how disappointed he was every time they canceled before. I don't really think they want the kids either, but we didn't get a babysitter, because they never got back to us.

Okay, thank you. As you all were.

dooneygirl am at the way they have behaved. That is just so impolite! I hope the evening turns out OK anyway for you.

Dooneygirl. How thoughtless of them.

I hope you had a lovely time in the end.

And you are very lucky to live somewhere as lovely as Oregon (even if it is the Beaver State ). It is one of the very few places in the US where I would consider living.

Thanks Califrau - both those links have lovely stamps. And somehow lead me to this

I'll have a look on Amazon too - didn't think of that although they sell pretty much everything these days.

Oh Dooney, what a nightmare! I would find it hard to bite my tongue in that situation. I hope your night wasn't too stressful.

Wow its cold here this morning - 7degF!! Sounds more impressive in C (about -12 I think). What is strange is the sun is shining and the sky is bright blue. I wandered out in my jammies to get the paper and could hardly breathe! I should have noticed that our Scotland flag by the door is frozen solid!

Well, after them being 20 minutes late, DH had a good time in the end. He really doesn't talk about his mom's death that much (he's a big talker otherwise, I tell him he's the woman and I'm the man in this area of our relationship). His brother died about 3 1/2 years ago, and he hasn't said anything about that and he talked some around them about both of them, so that was good. He's had quite a few people die in his family, and he was very close with his family.

It is very frustrating, because they were the first ones to bring up going out to dinner, and they would bring up a date on their own and then cancel, and bring up a date again and cancel. If it was just DH chasing them down and them blowing him off, it would make more sense. They want to come up here in March, and made a big deal about that. Boy did I have to smile and bite my tongue on that one.

It is hard to breathe when it gets so cold, isn't it, dodgy? I always get breathless, like I've been running. And it hurts my eyes. I thought my ear had frozen yesterday - I was worried it was going to snap in half. I love that you have a Scotland Flag outside your house Califrau - do you have a Welsh one?

Glad DH had a good tome last night, dooneygirl. I would not have been able to bite my tongue about them visiting in March - I would have made a fuss about committing to a date and sticking with it. But I'm mean.

lol @ your organization & vast collection of flags, Califrau!

When I bought the Scottish flag, the woman in the shop made a comment about making sure it wasnt bigger than our American flag or our neighbours might be offended. Feeling spiteful, I swapped it for the bigger size. As it turns out many of our neighbours are not Americans (some Canadians, a German family, one from Pakistan, and an Australian couple) and the rest all claim to be Irish or Scottish. Isnt it funny how the Americans are so patriotic but are despirate to claim another nationality! I had to smile when our lovely neighbour across the road told me he was Irish because one of his rellies came over to New York during the potato famine (around 1860).