London Updates

Since I haven't been posting very often, it's difficult to figure out what to write about...too much is happening!  This has been a red-letter week since we finally, finally got real-live internet access of our very own!  You would expect that living in one of the world's largest and most metropolitan cities, you could just call someone up and get you some internets.  Not so!  It took 2 full weeks from when I requested it to get our home phone and internet access...2 weeks!  Anyway, expect updates more often now (really this time!).

<Simone's 5th Birthday>

We celebrated Simone's 5th birthday last Sunday (her birthday was actually Tuesday, but nothing about "Tuesday" really says "fun!" to us).  We went to a McDonald's right on the Thames and looked at Big Ben while munching on fries.  After that, we hit the London Aquarium right next door and then walked to Hyde Park to see the Christmas Winter Wonderland!  We were expecting something quaint and Christmassy...it turned out to be just like the Spokane Interstate Fair with bigger rides, worse food, more people, and a lot colder.  We did eat roasted chestnuts, which were pretty good.

<Simone in her school uniform.>

Monday was Simone's 1st day of school at Hollickwood Primary School.  It's a really good school and Simone loves it, but it's about a 50 minute commute by bus which is pretty cumbersome.  We're still on the waiting lists for closer schools, and we're hoping that she gets into one at least by Fall.  In the meantime, check out the super-cute pictures of Simone in her school uniform!

Also on Monday, our stuff finally arrived from Spokane (we were promised that we would get our stuff in 1 to 2 weeks...it took 3 1/2 weeks).  We unpacked a bunch of stuff and put it up on the shelves, Simone got to play with her toys, I got to play with my basses, and we all felt just a little bit better having our stuff around us.

Oh, and Sarah and I celebrated 13 years of marital bliss this week as well!  And when I say "celebrated", I mean we said "Happy Anniversary" to each other...over the phone.  It's been stressful and hectic, OK?  We're probably not going to have time to get each other Christmas presents either (Simone's already covered, of course), but that's just the way it's going to work this year.

Finally, Sarah's work seems to have been going pretty good so far.  She works long hours sometimes, but she gets extra days off when she has too much overtime.  I'll let her tell you more about how her job is going (Sarah, this is your cue to post something).