Where the Deer and the Antelope Play - Living in the USA (visitors welcome)

[SuperBunny]

East Coast
MaNanny - Boston
Twinmommytobe - Boston
MuminCT - CT
Greatgooglymoogly - NY State
Yesthereare4ofthem - NY State
Brooklynmom - NYC
alarkaspree - NYC
MKG - New Jersey
Mummimamma - PA
Poetmum - PA
Twirl - MD

South
Earlybird - TN
jabberwocky - AR
Sunchowder - Florida
Marls001 - Bentonville, AR
Tinpot - NC
MadameDeathStare- AL

Midwest
SuperBunny- Chicago
Dodgykeeper - Dayton, OH
Chocchipcookie - Ohio
MonkeyLover
KickAssAngel - Ann Arbor, MI

Rockies
Alipiggie - Boulder, CO
Ribena

Northwest
AnnieLaurie - Seattle, WA
Dooneygirl - Oregon City, OR

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

Texas
Texan - Dallas
Tiggyhop - Houston
Vixie78 - Houston
BananaPudding - Austin
Cosmicdust - East Texas

Canada
Hellish - Ottawa
Shouldlistenedtomymum - Hamilton
Nooka - BC
Jacksmama - Langley

Exotic Islands
Anorak - Bermuda
cp - Trinidad
Barefeete - BVI

Brazil
Albert

At least that wasn't in stereo like I'm getting here.

Geeks snore. It's just what they do. Leave him there. Kind of like the whole don't wake a sleeping baby thing.

dd has just been out to complain that he's keeping her awake!

I asked dh to get me some nail varnish coming through duty free.
i asked for something pink or gold
he got me beige and purple

Kickassangel, Joanns is my favourite store, after Target. It's very hard 'not' to spend any money if I go in there. Which Joanns did you go to? My daughter was working today, you might have seen her, she's at the Carpenter Road store.

As for snoring....my DH has finally arrived home, give him five minutes and he'll be joining your DH.

was on AA/Saline. didn't have time for target as well.
dh now woken up & said i should have got him up (he's slept since 5). well, he did sleep through me burning the toast (twice ), us having dinner, putting dd to bed etc etc.
i only worked out today what 'broil' means in american, and that i can have cheese on toast!

Kickass, at least he got you nail varnish. Purple and beige is almost pink and gold. Yes, we have Meijer. Well, out in the burbs. Not that sausages are any good for me (veggie) but I do like to go every now and then and browse their 'Irish' section for Jelly and Digestive biscuits and Lemon Barley Water.

I tried to hack my DVD player to make it region free but failed. Maybe I'll save up and get one of those Philips ones.

What's this body hair business? Don't humans just have hair? Which is basically fur, just less than animals. But fur nonetheless.

I like Cali's suggestion for a drive-thru craft place. MUCH better than going in a suddenyly NEEDING to buy everything you see. I have to go to Target tomorrow. Which is next to Whole Foods. Which is above Michaels

Hi everyone! Figured I should introduce myself here. I moved to San Diego in September. I'm originally from the Channel Islands but been living in Yorkshire for a few years. My husband is from New York and he's lived with me in the UK for almost 10 years.

We've got two girls (7 and 5) and a 9 week old boy. I'm a bit of a bohemian by San Diego standards and went for a HBAC with the new baby with a wonderful midwife. Just as well because I couldn't have afforded hospital care - couldn't get insurance while I was pregnant!

I'm slowly getting settled but a little lonely perhaps. But that's probably my own fault - been cocooned a bit as all the time I've been here, I've been pregnant/had a new baby and didn't feel like getting out and socialising much. I discovered Mumsnet a few months back and it's been a comfort to me to just lurk and hear some more familiar British 'mum' opinions.

I love the weather and have become quite housewifey since I've been here - cooking a lot of food from scratch (oh, I miss M&S but love Trader Joes). I'm studying business with the Open University though and hoping to do management consultancy in the future but this may be a little way off.

Ahh.. anyway, that's me. Hello everyone

Also, sorry to Califrau for starting my name with Cali too. I hope that doesn't cause any difficulty. Perhaps I could be Brit?

You don't need to buy anything very expensive to hack the region free thing. Just find the instructions first. I got mine from British Expats (the instructions that is!) then bought the DVD for about $40 at Target, and pressed the various buttons recommended. It won't last, because cheap DVD players don't (but then more expensive ones don't seem to last that long in our house either). It's done about a year though, so not bad for us. It did have fierce letters on the outside about not working outside of Region 1 (or whatever it is) which did worry me, but I think that's because it was on several websites as the one to get. I expect there is something different now though.

Hello, CBrit & welcome! I've seen you on a couple of other threads and wondered why you had not registered here

I used to live in Yorkshire too.

The insurance thing is ridiculous. It never fails to anger me that pregnant women cannot get insurance. Although, having seen the cost of DS's straight forward, no intervention birth, I see why. But still,

How do you manage to study with OU? When I looked into it they refused to let me because I live in the US.

Califrau, my non fruitcake eating babysitter stole a piece of DS's Bara Brith, said it was delicious and demanded the recipe, hurrah! I told her I'd email it but I forgot to tell her I cook by weight not volume.

Hi Superbunny!

I really should have joined here sooner. Only recently delurked. I'm loving the tips about spices etc. although I wish I could track down decent sausages.

Re: Insurance... I have superlong labours and a C-Section with my first birth (second was VBAC in hospital). Number 3 was a 29 hour labour at home. If I'd been in hospital, it would have been a C Section for sure (the obstetricians here were really against a VBAC anyway, let alone with such a long labour) - and I was told $35k minimum for a C-Section! WOW! I didn't really do my research before we travelled! Midwife was a tenth of that and covered all my antenatal/postnatal care and is now someone I really count as a friend so it all worked out in the end though

The OU sre tricky - they'll only let you carry on with a course of study you've already done a module on. Luckily I'm registered on about three different degrees because I kept chopping and changing although I'm only doing the MBA right now, but it leaves options only. It's a real shame they won't let expats study from scratch. I can't see why not - there's a load of people doing the online version of my course from some very varied locations - one guy is in St Helena in the middle of the Atlantic.

Brilliant suggestion Califrau, thank you! Sorry for toe-treading.

Welcome Carmen!

Thanks for the suggestions on the dvd. I think I'll do a bit of surfing to see what I can find that might work with our current player and take it from there. Both boys are soooo hard to get down to sleep and I've heard great reviews about In the Night Garden. Would love to give it a try.

hi CBrit. or whatever you decide. welcome, no-one will be bothered about which name you choose, you just might find people waffling on to you, thinking you're califrau & getting confused. i think CBrit may be fairly original? i don't keeep track of a lot of names & people who name change really confuse me.

congratulations on your little one, i'm sure you'll start getting out more when you feel ready for it.

just a very quick Q from me, even though some of you are still in bed. have you ever travelled home with the dc's but not dh/dp?
i keep hearing there's some funny rules to stop estranged/divorced partners from kidnapping kids, and that i need some proof that i'm going (and returning) with dh's blessing. any suggestion?
gotta post & run, due to help out at book fair for the next 2 hours (why did i volunteer, why? slaps self on forehead)

Kickass, I've heard of this rule but not had any personal experience of it. A friend says she was told by her airline that she needed to carry a copy of her marriage certificate and a letter from her dh to say she was travelling with his knowledge and consent. Why that's helpful I don't know, because you could write the letter yourself in advance and they would be none the wiser.

Anyway I suggest you check with your airline before you travel to be on the safe side.

And I find Whole Foods' Irish Bangers are an acceptable sausage.

Sadly the OU's definition of international just covers Europe and a few other places. They don't support the USA unless you're already registered on a course. (Or didn't when I checked a few months ago). I don't see why - they seem to have all the provisions in place, sent me all my course materials here and let me sit the exam at UCSD. I suppose they don't have the infrastructure in place to deal with a mass of people registering from the US though. I keep my fingers crossed that they will open it out soon though. I'm ok because they'll let me finish my MBA, but it would be nice to be able to take other modules if I fancied it.

Ohhhh, just taken a look at that British Bangers website. So tempting!

Hello all, delurking for a minute. I travel back to England with the DC and no DH all the time and have since they were very little. I have never taken any special documentation. The only time I had a problem was when the immigration man asked my DD who the women she was with was (it was me), she said "It's my Mummy" and promptly burst into tears.............he just waved us through!