Living in the US - Where we say TO MA TOE and you say TO MAH TOW

[alipiggie]

Wow we filled the thread guys. So as I was about to Say UR you've probably had squirrel if you've eaten Chinese . Think I've had most things. Just don't ask eat. Roasting hot here, very busy but having a blast. Enjoyed our new gym yesterday and picnic in the park tonight which was wonderful. Live music, handsome young men - need I say more.

I keep reading SB and think you are talking about me [self-absorbed]

It is so hot here (just above freezing) that people were wearing shorts and t-shirts on Tuesday

Dooney, do you have power yet?

I do. Yay power!!! Kind of an inauspicious way to start 2009, though.

I found a stollen recipe on a blog I frequent today. I know it is probably too late for you, but this guy is quite a baker. I wouldn't dare try a lot of his recipes, because they're so elaborate, but this one didn't look hard. Don't know how yours went, but I was thinking of you. (And this time it wasn't about marshmallows.)

Marshmallows

There have been lots of recipes for them on Tastespotting recently and lots of amazing pictures of soft fluffy perfect homemade marshmallows

That blog is a good one - I might try his Stollen. The recipe I used worked really well, but I like the look of this one too.

How are you flies, Dooney? Zipped up?

My flies have flown.

With that I'm off to bed. We had both the kids in with us after the power went out, because Colin's afraid of the dark, and I was afraid they'd get cold, so with them kicking and moaning and the transformer making pretty bright blue sparks now and then, we didn't get much sleep after 1 am.

Hi - a very belated Happy New Year from Seattle!

Thanks for the sympathy re: bumping the car. Have now moved on to leaving my bag on a ridiculous car-shaped trolley at Fred Meyer in their car park!! Was v v lucky that someone handed it in, and wallet, cards, cash etc was still there.

Also smashed a wineglass today. Is this late pregnancy carelessness/clumsiness or what?!

I packed my bag for the hospital today! 3 weeks to go... (or longer if this one is late too!)

lol Cali

AL, yoou seem to be having a lot of bad luck atm. Hope it improves very soon.

Oh crikey, SB. Good luck. Hope the day goes quickly!

In today's installment of which utility will the dooney household wake up without, the answer is internet and home phone. However, we were really lucky in that a sewer pipe broke here in the subdivision, and there is a slight enough incline that we are on the top of, it ran off to the other houses. Some people (including one family from Caitlin's class that should have come over for a play date today) were beyond unfortunate enough to have their houses flooded with sewage water. The flood wiped out the internet, but they seem to be back up now.

Crazy weather here in 2009. It rained almost 2 inches yesterday, and was almost 60 degrees, but when we woke up this morning, we woke up to several inches of snow. The county has declared a state of emergency, as a lot of the rivers and creeks are going over their banks, and there's a lot of standing water on the roads. The snow is melting away, and it has started raining again, but not quite as hard.

Today is a momentous occasion in that we can finally get a "hair pretty" in Caitlin's hair. If we take the smallest band they make, and pull directly from the top middle of her head, we can get an eensy-weensy bit in the hair pretty to stay as long as she doesn't touch it. Why was Colin born with a thick, full head of hair, and she still hardly has any at 3.4?

wow, dooney

Oh Dooney What a start to the new year.

But hooray for Caitlin's hair!

Hope SB survived the day.

I know this is awful, but can I just say how happy I am my house isn't slightly flooded with raw sewage. I wish it weren't other people's houses, though, especially two of our friends.

After reading this thread more closely, can I just say, AnnieLaurie, that I can see how you could have left your bag on those stupid car carts. I've almost done it several times. You put it on that ledge thing, and forget about it.

It is snowing again. It was 43 outside, and then the clouds came, and it is snowing.

Dooney, I am expecting your next post to say you have a plague of locusts.

Hoping that next week is much better for you.

No, I think how it will go is that there will be a plague of locusts that have managed to chew through the water lines, and tomorrow that will be the utility I don't have, but somehow they will have been stopped a block away, and while I will have been mildly inconvenienced, being out of water for the day, other people will have had their entire houses eaten, and I will have luckily escaped.

And Caitlin will still be wearing her "hair pretty" that she's been coveting for the past however many months. She's only got a plain rubber band, can you imagine what she'll be like when she can have a decorative one? Of course, she'll be about 14 by the time she has enough hair for one.

Hey Dooney - that is exactly what happened - left on the ledge thing of the car trolley!

So...I was wondering, since I am the new girl on the block - seen 'the list' of who is where in the US, but just curious to have a quick response from you all on what you are doing here, ie dh work etc, is it permanent, or a few years then back to the UK, and how long you have been over?

We will probably be here for 2 or 3 years, I really want to get back to Edinburgh for DS starting school, but you never know how things will pan out, eh...

Ok, I'm easy. I'm American. I was born here. I will probably be here the rest of my life, as DH has a very stable job in a company that only operates in America.

Oh Dooney - here's hoping it all gets better soon. Annie, came for Ex's dream job, only to discover we actually came for his lover . However, on the upside, I fell in love with Colorado got my Green Card, got myself a great job, a good house to live in and got the boys in a great school. So the upshot - no intention of going back to Blighty at all. In roughly 3 1/2 years I intend to apply for citizenship for me and the boys.

I came here 3 years ago next month (where on earth has all that time gone??!!) and am now working towards a Masters in Advanced Pediatric Nursing. I am so happy here and my aim is to either get husbanded up (Joaquin, where the hell are you??!!) or a Green card through a Nurse Practitioner job. In the meantime I am a poverty-stricken student again (and loving it!)