Author: Dina

Found this via Scoutie Girl…(a very cool indie craft blog). Here’s a gift for the mom who has everything! You can turn your child’s artwork into a piece of sterling silver jewelry.

Prices range from about $100 to $200, at Totally Out of Hand.

*Number of loads of laundry done: 9.

*Number of loads of laundry folded & put away: 0.

*Number of soda ounces consumed: 36.

*Number of dollars spent at Costco: $180.

*Number of legos vacuumed up: 5.

*Number of tasks still to do: 49.

*Number of kids who are supposed to be doing their homework right now but who are actually hiding in their rooms playing Nintendogs: 3.

Feeling unsettled today. Sad about decisions that I did not make that still affect me. Tired of loss when I just do my best, when I am loyal to a fault. And there’s nothing I can do about it.

is sunny and breezy…gorgeous. I am finally over the jet lag and the suitcases are put away and the laundry is already cycling over to this week’s dirty clothes. I’ve scrapped this week, but need to paint. Need to. Need to get down to Stampotique to talk about teaching a class there (was invited to by Carol, the fabulous owner of that great store). Need to purge the toys in the boys’ rooms. Need to pick up my studio. But messes are not my top priority. I’d rather paint. I’d rather enjoy every beautiful minute of being.

      

      

      

1. Finally getting there. The big storm in Philadelphia on the 16th caused us major stress and headache. We sat on a plane for 3 1/2 hours here in Phoenix, only to find out the flight was cancelled due to the storm. The airline industry cancelled over 2000 flights that day. No one could get in or out of that area, and flights to other areas filled up immediately as people made alternate plans. We stressed and freaked and after 12 hours at the airport, went home dejected. We had one last hope…to get to London from the West coast instead of the East coast. We decided to try to get on a Virgin Atlantic flight leaving out of LAX the next day. It was dicey, but we made it to LAX, only to find out the first VA flight was oversold. We waited 5 hours for the last VA flight…and we made it on the plane. We were so relieved and exhausted. Overall we spent 24 hours in airports trying to get to London.

2. Seeing King’s Lynn and Terrington again. I lived in Terrington 25 years ago. It was a thrill to be there again after all these years. I have longed to go back, and it was surreal to stand on those streets again, to see my own children standing on those streets. I don’t think I’ve quite processed it all yet.

Below: The house I used to live in and the sign of the street it is on.

      

Below: Post Office in Terrington and the Terrington Church. I once played my flute in that church.

      

Below: TKMaxx (I guess England’s version of TJMaxx, one of my favorite shopping spots…that wasn’t there when I lived there but it cracked me up and I had to photograph it) and St. Margaret’s Church in Lynn (one of Reed’s ancestor’s was christened in that church in the 1600s–so cool since we lived in that area for 3 years!!).

      

3. Cadbury chocolate (Star Bars, Double Deckers, etc.) and Pickled Onion Monster Munch. Need I say more?? Also ate cornish pasties and sausage rolls. And Indian food!

4. Showing my boys some of the most famous sites in the world (Roman Baths, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, National Gallery, British Museum, Stonehenge, Tower of London etc.).

      

      

             

5. The National Gallery was amazing to me. I got to stand mere feet away from masterworks by Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne…it truly was a thrill. I want to go back and spend a few days in that museum!!

6. Just being immersed in so much history. 300-year old buildings? They’re all over the place, walked by dozens of ’em. Even slept in one of ’em. Burial places of the most famous people on earth? Yep, stood 2 feet away from Elizabeth I’s tomb, Richard IIIs tomb, and many more. Legendary streets? Sure, stood right on Bloomsbury St., where Virginia Woolf and her fellow writers worked and supported one another. There’s so much to see and take in and appreciate there…and I love it. I’ll be back.

(P.S…lots more pics in the England album that I mentioned below.)

Look in the left column for the Photo Albums for the England album, or click HERE. I’ll try to do a brief trip summary later…home w/ a sick kid today.

Thanks to those of you who left me kind comments…they helped me. 🙂

but not adjusted, had a crappy day, have so much laundry that I must do or the kids will be going to school in their skivvies, so many things to put away, have to figure out what smells funny upstairs, and just so tired and sad and I will post pictures in an album later this week but do you really care anyway.

Methinks I need some creative time.

(Above: Roman Baths)

(Above: Kids & Reed in front of the Duke’s Head Hotel, King’s Lynn)

(Above: The house we lived in Terrington St. Clement)

Yes, we are in the UK! I have lots to tell & lots of pics to share, but it took me 25 mins. to get this one photo uploaded and we’re paying for the internet by the minute. So…more later. And us desert rats are COLD, yo. COLD.