Romantic Notions Squashed

Do you remember when you were children and sometimes on the weekend your parents would let you build a fort and sleep in it? Sometimes in your bedroom, sometimes in the living room. I have many good memories based around sleeping in forts. My little brother like sabotaging it and then blaming it on our arthritic dog who couldn't make it up the stairs if it was the last thing he did. "Shep did it" is still an excuse that is brought up every once and awhile in our family. I also wondered as a child why we weren't allowed to do that every weekend. Why did Dad only mention it like once every six months and why did Mama never want to sleep with us? I am now almost 26 and I finally get it! Sleeping on the floor is not all that romantic! Beds were made for a reason.

When we looked at this place and found out that it was furnished I was so stoked! A bed frame! I was a little disappointed to discover that every time you move, even the tiniest bit, it squeaked. So, last Saturday Donovan decided to tighten it he took the mattresses off and proceeded to work on it. About an hour later he comes to me and asks me to look at the mattress (The landlady left one mattress here and we bought one) I was very saddened to discover that the entire bottom of the mattress is covered in mold. I was thoroughly grossed out and insisted that I was never sleeping on that again. So, we have been camping out in the living room. Our very tiny living room. We are finally getting rid of the mattress today, so now I just have to start looking into getting a new one and if someone can deliver it.

Another romantic notion that I have always found and was always so excited for was church bells. I love church bells! The first time we heard them being over here was in Stratford-Upon-Avon and it was a foggy winter morning and we were looking over the river Avon and it was so beautiful and the bells rang. It was so perfect and extremely beautiful. Other times have just been so beautiful. Now, before you hear my rant to come....remember, I still love church bells, there is something haunting about them and so beautiful. Now, that saying...I do not like church bells when they are being practiced. Especially at night. Last night around 7:30 the bells started...I looked at Donovan and asked "Is there a fire?" "No" Donovan replied "I think the Vikings are invading." After about 1/2 an hour of  ringing and all sorts of rings, I decided that it was probably someone just practicing. At 9:15 and we were getting ready to go to sleep...I decided I didn't like them anymore.

I still love bells...just not late at night and constantly ringing. I kept waking up thinking I heard the bells. I have bells stuck in my head all the time. I feel like Kirk in Gilmore Girls "I can't tell which are the real bells and which are the Kirk bells."

Life is normal once again...

It has been three weeks since my family has left and I can finally look at the pictures and look back on the visit without breaking into tears.  It was a wonderful visit. Movies, shopping trips, snuggle times, good talks, long walks; having other people clean my house…it was great! I am still going through pictures and have a few left to put up on Facebook but I’ll get to that eventually.  

In other news we are officially moved into our new flat! We moved the weekend of August 26^th. It took five trips in total. Two on Friday, two on Sunday, and then one on the Monday we went in spent the night because we had to drop the car off on the Tuesday in Northampton.  Our new flat is very tiny compared to our other place. You could probably fit this entire flat in the two bedrooms of our other place! We really like it though. We did discover a leak in the pipes behind the toilet and then when that was fixed last Saturday the worker discovered lots of mold behind the wall and under the floor. He was going to tell the agency but now Donovan is starting get a bad cough that apparently he only has first thing in the morning and then again in the evening, while he is at school or if we are out and about he is not having any problems.  So, we are going to go talk to the landlord on the weekend. The agency actually, our new landlord lives elsewhere so we deal directly with the letting agency, but so far they are great. Way better then the last agency.  So other than that, things are getting back to normal!

I have actually been looking for a job! Or volunteer work, or pretty much anything that keeps me busy as I am going crazy with boredom once again. The main problem is that Sandy is a much smaller community and there really aren’t that many opportunities! I am keeping my eyes open and praying that I find something soon. In the meantime I am trying to give myself a project of some kind to keep me busy. My mom bought me some more cross-stitching projects while she was here…they are a huge jump up from the ones that I made my mom and Donovan’s mom for Mother’s Day. But I am handling it. I just made a huge mistake and didn’t really feel like unstitching it all so I get frusterated easily because it is all out of sync with the rest of it. I skipped a row somewhere and I can’t figure out where…and short of taking apart the entire thing…which I am not doing…there is nothing to do but keep going. I shall post a picture when it is done. :)

Donovan is loving the new school. He is teaching mainly History but some English as well. He has 16 classes in total but some of those are repeats. He teaches five different year 12 classes…so, today he gets to teach three of those five all about the Russians, and the other two tomorrow! He’ll be good at that class when he is done! He is already making some good connections with fellow teachers and we both believe that it is going to be a good year.

We also went to church on Sunday! We have three churches to choose from in Sandy. A Methodist, a Baptist, and St. Swithins (Church of England). We went to St. Swithins. We are pretty sure that no matter which one we choose, it is going to be roughly the same no matter what. It was nice to be worshipping with fellow people. We didn’t stick around last week, we are going to go a few times and work up the courage to talk to someone. It’s been awhile…so this might take some time.

Well, that’s all I have for now! Now that things are getting back to normal hopefully I will remember to blog more frequently.