The kids were out of school this week for mid term break.On Saturday we went to Windsor castle. It was a nice day out even if the younger two were less than patient touring the inside of the castle. The Queen was not there so we were able to tour the state rooms, semi state rooms, the doll house, St Georges church where Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and others are buried, and we did a tour of the kitchen. Windsor is a cute old town and I would like to just stroll around some time. We ate lunch at McDonalds and then headed to base to buy groceries at the commissary and got home about dinner time. I am not a huge McDonalds fan but I am glad that they are around no matter where I go in the world because with the kids there are times that I just need to get them fed fast and cheap. If we were to go into any other pub or restaurant here it would be three times the price and four times the time. You really can not eat any where in under two hours here except fast food. If I were chatting with friends waiting is no big deal but with four hungry grumpy kids it is not cool. If there is no fast option like BK or MD then we just go into the grocery store and buy their sandwiches that they sell up front.
On Monday my sister's house flooded, AGAIN. This time it was a little less than two feet and they have flood insurance. However, it is still scary and a huge pain and a huge expense. The insurance does not pay for a place for you to live while your home is being repaired. They have to keep paying their mortgage. My family members there don't have enough extra space to have six people move in with them for a few months, and if they squeezed in they might drive eachother nuts. Mel was looking for a cheap house to rent and I guess she would just have to go into debt but the church stepped in to help out. The bishop came to her and said that the church insisted on paying for a home for them to rent and on paying their insurance deductable. Right now they don't even have much furniture because most of it got wet and ruined. They will have to buy some. A wonderful family at church who have extra space since all of their kids are grown have taken Mel and her family in and are taking care of them, even spoiling them a bit, just as family would. It's so nice to see the members taking care of them in this way. If I lived there I would take them in. It's hard to be far away and not able to help so it makes me happy that someone is. The family they are staying with has dogs and Mel's girls used to be terrified of dogs but now they love them. That's awesome! I think they will move to the duplex the first of March. Hopefully it will not take long to repair the house and hopefully either the city will do something to correct the water problem or they will get bought out so they can move and so insurance doesn't have to keep paying for repairs. It's only been four years since the first flood.
On Tuesday I took the kids to the waterways museum in Gloucester and then to the park. I am trying to forget the meltdown Tristan had at lunch at BK. I just grabbed our food and said we are leaving right now and we went to the car and ate there. Tristan follwed even though he said he wouldn't and quickly got over his fit once we got to the park and they ran and played and climbed and had lots of fun and used up some energy.
On Wednesday I met Cory for lunch at WHole Foods. It sounds silly but their food they cook is really good. It's like a cafe up front. Cory also bought me chocolate dipped strawberries which I love. Nothing beats Cavanaugh's back home but this was still good. That morning he had surprised me with a dozen red roses and a boquet of pink flowers.
On Thursday we got up early and headed to the Harry Potter Movies Studio Tour. It's not quite in London but close so it took a good hour and forty five minutes to drive there. We were the first group in for the day and had a great time seeing all the work and props and sets and such that went into making the movies. We were there about 2.5 hours and then grabbed lunch and drove home. Once back the kids were up for a Harry Potter marathon and Cory and I took a nap. Driving is just so tiring.
Friday was nice so that afternoon they wanted to go back to the park and visit the toy store so we picked up Cory from work and went.
Saturday we got up and drove to Wolverhampton where some of Cory's Newman ancestors are from and we visited St Peter's where his grandparents a few generations back were married. That church is the oldest building in town, from the 10th century, and it sits at the highest point in the city. It was neat to go inside and see this old church and cool for Cory to feel a connection to it. His relatives lived in Willenhall which is a suburb of W'hampton and we drove there and not much there is old. I guess much of the town was burned years back but St Giles where his family attended church and were baptised and buried and such is there and we went there. We didn't get to go inside and it was rebuilt in the 1800's so it may not look the same as when his ancestors attended. The cemetery behind it is rather large. He will have to visit the archives one day and get some more information. It was a neat day out.
Avery came down with a fever Friday night. He seemed all right Saturday but that night he seemed sick again and today I kept him home from church. It's not a really high fever but enough that he isn't playing like normal and not eating as much. His eyes are blood shot and he looks pale. He is not sick enough to sleep a lot though. He was up when Cory took the others to church this morning and he put in a movie. When I came downstairs he asked if we were back from church. I told him that I stayed home with him because he is not old enough to stay by himself. Silly kid thought he was home alone! I guess he will be home with me and Cory for president's day tomorrow. Aiden gave a talk in sacrament meeting today but I missed it. He said people liked it. I'm glad people go out of their way to compliment you when you give a talk. Speaking in church can be nerve wrecking.
Our nice laser printer died. It was not printing for me the other day so Cory moved it over by the computer and plugged it in to a regular outlet instead of the transformer and fried it. I'm not happy about it. Oh well. Can't go back in time and do anything about it. Using it with the transformer may have been messing it up all along anyway and that was just the final straw. I just ordered an all in one ink jet printer from amazon.co.uk for 30 pounds. It will do fine for us for the next couple of years.
