Kindergarten Halloween parade - Saugatuck Elementary School



Victoria's class all dressed up for Halloween




Victoria and her friend Olivia



One of those days:)

You have those days where everything you do you just have to smile or laugh inside loud. I have thought of so many people today and so badly wanted to share.

No swimming today as I had to wait in for a parcel. Well what a parcel it was today. We got 4 bright and shiny new British passports. I can't tell you what a feeling it feels like to have those passports. Flying high. The early days of when we arrived in the UK and I used to think and make plans as to how I could move back to South Africa because I was so homesick. Wow I used to cry a lot in those days. Now I long for England and South Africa. I want to share my life and my laughs with all my special friends in England and South Africa. Leon and I feel so chuffed to give the kids the passports and off they must go and explore the world with no queues in the visa offices. Little ladies it's all waiting for you.

Then it was a meeting at the school for all the grade two moms - YPD, wait for it. Youth Positive Development. Look I laugh but it's actually quite good. Well the mothers were on about homework. What homework? Kara does reading everyday. When I saw what Kara was getting back into the UK ,these moms have nothing to worry about.

We are so looking forward to Stephen coming to visit us tomorrow night so I hit the bottle store. Cheeky bugger always asks me if I am stocking up????? NO! I told him I have friends, note the friends coming from England. For how long? Cheeky bugger. The weekend (actually one night). Anyway I like the guy so I don't mind all his questions.

Wait for it, first haircut in the US of A. I hate having my hair cut. Leon normally chooses the salon and we all follow. Leon we need to chat because normally you are OK but this time????? Like Leon said the hairdressers are all mutton dressed as lamb. Old woman all wearing far to much make-up, black, stockings and sandals? The ladies have F***K off nails all painted bright red? I told Sylvana, who is Italian what I want. No problems. Then she brings out the bloody hairdryer and starts rolling the hair into curls. Well I nearly wet myself. The last time I did curls and hairdryers was when I got married 15 years ago. Still have no idea why we need to change our whole appearance to get married. Yes I did? The poor guy at the alter gets the shock of his life when he see the bride.
Now Sylvana wants to colour my hair strawberry blond. WOW can you imagine. Next I need the eyebrows waxed. She puts on her glasses and says "Oh my god you really need help". I was laughing so much because her honestly was real. Then we had other ladies in the hairdresser come to look. After the whole ordeal she told me I now look pretty. Can you imagine you walk into a place feeling pretty good and leave now PRETTY. What an experience. Can;t take a picture just yet to show you. Need the box on first. She is now happy about box. Yes and the hair cut cost $80.00. I have never in my life paid that much for a haircut. It won't happen again.

Today is my special sisters birthday. Old tart????? Hope she will hit the night clubs and party hard. Its a celebration today Kate. remember i love you lots and am having lots of laughs today for your birthday. Big hugs.

Love heather

Halloween in Westport

We had a great afternoon today. The Westport high street was closed to traffic and all the shops were handing out sweets and chocolates. So much. Kara and Victoria were in their element. The kids were all dressed up. Wonderful costumes and not all evil horrible ones. Then we walked up to the town hall where there was a disco and more trick and treating. Perry my Irish friend stays next door to the town hall so we stopped there for supper and a glass of wine. A good taste for whats coming on Sunday.



Dog dressed in Halloween costumes




The police hummer bought for $1.00 from the state after a drug bust




Trick or treat girls on Westport high street




Hi Perry




Atumn leaves



Memories

Hi there

The last week has been a pretty low one. My wonderful gran died on the 15 October. Life just carries on and you want to shout from the tree tops to stop and share how wonderful she was to everyone. I truly loved her so much. Never was there a day when she was too busy to talk to me. I miss  our chats.

Kate and I have spent so many of our childhood years at my grandparents house. Every weekend when we were at boarding school. Boy there were lots of tears for her to wipe in those days. I hated been so far away from home. Then when we were in high school we used to cycle to my grans house after school and stay there till my dad finished work. We ate provita and cheese spread like there was no tomorrow. Also loved drinking my grandfathers coke and always snuck in an extra two or three glasses of coke. I bet she knew but never once said anything. I really loved my gran so much.

Technology played a huge rule in our lives right up till the end. How lucky was I to join my grans facebook page at 80 years old. Pretty cool if you ask me. Never too old to get with it. We skyped each other everyday until she went into hospice. I still get this warm feeling ever now and again that she is touching me and checking I am OK. Its hard writing this email as the tears fall. Thank goodness for the school bus I don't have to step into the playground with my red blotchy face.

My mom said the funeral was very special. My gran played a huge roll in so many families lives. She has done 64 funerals which was why she was so practical and straight forward about the whole process. She had been going to the same church for 30 years.

My grandfather is now living with Kate and Jaco. I feel quite lazy been so far away because I have done nothing to help in any way. He is settling down nicely and getting used to life in a house full of children. Once again never too old to adjust and fit in.

I have basically been coasting with no emotion lately and doing what needs to be done. Leon would look at me and say come on Heather smile dammit all is not so bad!

Victoria is at home with me as she is on antibiotics and has strep throat. The joys.

I had a look at some of the information that was given to us when we moved to try help us settle after arriving in the USA and the whole move process was translated so nicely. The first stage of moving country starts with the ENDINGS, which is fear, shock, anxiety and confusion. All our reactions to change. Done that big time. We ran around like mad people getting everything sorted. All the last goodbyes.

The next stage is the NEUTRAL ZONE, where you feel in limbo, miss familiar surroundings and have not yet formed roots. The neural zone provides rejuvenation and self examination. To be perfectly honest this character building nonsense is getting a bit boring now. I think, even if I say so myself I am fairly OK!!!!!!!! Jokes aside, hopefully we should all start discovering new talents and passions and get off the moan chair and tackle the US of A. This moving country is quite hard.

The final stage is BEGINNINGS , where you make an effort to meet people, join groups, feel part of the community. Best this stage hurry up now.

The weather has been such a blessing. I carry on and on about seeing the sun everyday. We are at the end of October and the doors are open with the sun streaming in. The colours of the leaves are stunning. Ever orange colour your mind can think of we have it. The whole of Westport is in a glow of reds and oranges. Add it to the list of travel to come see The Fall. Halloween soon. The houses are decorated with evil horrible things. You know me and my skulls thing, no evil goodies in our house. We have George who is a scarecrow, dressed in pink hanging from the tree in our front garden. The kids wanted to buy decorations. Leon was away thank goodness or else he would have shopped till he dropped with Kara and Victoria getting him to buy everything Halloween. Mommy style we don't buy it we make it. The kids have made a fire with blood splotches????, spiders, carved pumpkins and we are happy. Poor George is looking a bit tired.

Tomorrow we walk down to the town hall to gets CANDYYYYYY from all the shops. Friday the kids wear the costumes to school and Sunday they hit the streets. We have been told the kids get so much sweets they can't eat it all. The doctors rooms are trading CANDYYYYY for a toy. Last year they posted 400 pounds of candy to the Iraq troops. We will for sure be getting rid of some sweets.

Miss you all. Think about you all lots.

Love heather

Saugatuck River swim

This morning I headed down to the beach to watch an open water swim. I said to one of the girls I share a swim lane with I would come and wave her good luck. Not keen to swim but very happy to support. I saw her coming in and got to say hello. She was so chuffed I was there.

Well Done Bonny


Views of the Saugatuck River

Saturday, Kara was asked by her friend Evelyn to come and watch her last tag football game of the season. So we were up and ready to watch the game at 8.00am. Evelyn is the only girl playing tag football.





Sherwood Island



Look at the beautiful colours of the tress.



The fall

We had a good weekend. We managed to get out and explore which was so good for the whole family. Lots of laughs.

Firstly we headed out to Newtown and the colours of the trees were so beautiful. The OOOOOO's and AR'SSSS were many. We only drove about 10 minutes out of Westport.

Next it was a hay ride at Stew Leoanards which was fantastic for the kids. Riding on a trailer and tractor in the parking of a shopping centre???? Mom the chrysanthemum are beautiful and the shops have rows and rows of them. I always think of the beauitful crysanthemum you bought us at Columbia market.



The crates are full of pumpkins. People buy bales of hay, pumpkins, mealie (corn) stalks and decorate the fronts of their houses.




Riding on a tractor at shop??????



Kate thought you would like this. Sell our corn stalks for £12.00 from the allotment. Always looking at ways to start a business. What do you think????? Rows of corn next year and we leave the onions/???

New York to meet Susan and Adrian



Susan it was good to meet up with you. Who would have thought New York city?????





Victoria the Yankee girl or should I say hanky girl. Victoria thought it was hanky instead of Yankee.




Just for Isabelle.



Kara took this picture and I think its fantastic with the yellow cab speeding behind.

Highs and lows and highs again

Hi there

For all my English friends you will be happy to know the weather has changed to cold, rainy and windy. The leaves are falling and changing colour pretty fast. I survived the first week of Leon been at work and kids been at school the whole day. It was great making the house pretty. Still in the process but that's changing the already placed stuff so it all works well. We have Sean from the UK coming to stay this weekend and we both excited. Always feels so good to be around old friends. Maybe we can tempt Sean and Elaine to make the move to the states too.

I made a friend.:) Victoria has a little girl in her class called Anna and I met her mom. Perry is Irish and a good laugh. Perry does Ironman and I thought that's just my luck. Ironman not some small easy triathlon race, the bloody ironman. Perry offered to take me out on a bike ride. I said she was going to leave me on the other side of westport and I must make my way home. Never did the bike ride because we had a big storm here but have joined up at the WMYC and will start swimming again. So hopefully Perry will whip my ass into gear and get me fit and healthy again. Julia no one will beat you. I can still see the evil twinkle in your eye making me do horrible hard swim exercises. I did enjoy it as I kept on coming back for more. I even had a coffee with Perry. So I am no longer a loner or friendless???? I got lots of recommendations on where to buy furniture at good prices. I found a charity shop and got Victoria a rocking chair for the porch. So back in action again. we love the idea of sitting on the porch in the evening with a glass of wine. The rocking chairs need a bit of work but I will paint them nice bright colours.

Kara has made a special friend Evelyn. I will have Evelyn and her sister Francine over which will be great. September the mom (yes I know the name, she is still cross with her mother for the name and she is 40 years old) offered to bring pizza and wine over. I nearly jumped up and down -  a friend to have wine with. Wow!

I have just come back from a field trip  for Kara's class. It was fantastic and so great to see Kara interacting with her class mates. She really is a happy little girl and slotted into American life easily. The class are studying communities so we did the Police station, bank, library, ice cream shop. Good fun and I got lots of information out of it to.
Every morning this kids have to swear allegiance to the flag. So there I was in an American school hand on heart moving the lips. I nearly wet myself with laughter. Kara said I was smiling, which was very true. The accents every now and again change. I need to video the kids so they can hear themselves in a few years time that they really had an English accent. 

Kara does not need to have her TB medication as the second test showed up to be so slight it was not necessary. TB showed up because she had BCG injection in SA. Thanks Nadine for you kindness and advice.

Last weekend we had Mark and Stacey over for a braai. Good fun. Still can't believe we all ended up now in the states together. I feel for Stacey as it's so hard having two kids under 3.5 years on your own in a strange country. It's hard work. I tried to help and took Kaden gave him a bath, fed him which is so little but at least Stacey managed to finish her wine in peace. Then Karina and Terry who I made friends with in Darien in our temporary accommodation arrived to say HI. So we had a good laugh and all so very new to the country. we traded advice on how to make things easier for ourselves.

I am currently driving a Cadillac. Yes a great big ugly Cadillac.  Quite a nice car to be honest. The kids sit 10m away from me in the back and the boot is another 10m away. Lots of exhaust pipes sticking out the boot. Our car is in for repairs.????

We went to Woodbury common which is a huge outlet store outside New york to stock up on winter gear. One thing we have learnt from the UK is make sure you have the right clothes and life will be better. Everyone says the winters are extreme here. So kids have snow boots now and Leon i still need to get sorted. Lisa i got a decent pair of sunglasses. My primark ones broke and the sun shines bright here. Need to preserve the face wrinkles so decided on a decent pair of shades.

The Americans absolutely love the English here. So when I get introduced to people it's I am South African but have been living in London for 6 years and people only ask about the London bit. Rain starts and everyone wears Hunters wellies. They drive the kids to the bus stop wait in the car for the bus and then drive to the shops and walk around in the Hunters wellies. No mud anywhere to be seen. If only they knew how the English really did it.

Darling Victoria will no longer wear dresses or skirts. She is in boys clothes from head to toe. I should say football / soccer boots and soccer shorts and whatever t-shirts the mood dictates. Kara is coping well with the casual clothes as long as we put them out the night before. i still make them tie their hair up for school and they are happy with that.

My gran is very sick at the moment which makes me very sad and especially been far away. I think about her often and pray lots. It's hard been so far away and you really do question what is the right thing. Is been far away from family good.

My mom sent a lovely email today where a dad passes a message onto his daughter saying "I wish you enough".

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more. 
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.
I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

So to all the special people in my life "I wish you enough"

Lots of love
Heather

Arrival in America

Hi there

We have arrived finally. Yes it's been quite a big build up and we have finally left Harpenden. We will all miss Harpenden so much but for now we are riding quite high. The packers were amazing and are so efficient. Thanks to Carolines advice, we were complimented on our organisation skills. We dismantled Victoria's room and set up camp with all all precious items for the month. Passports the key, make sure they safe. Boy when the packers arrive there is no stopping them. We made one mistake so far and forgot the document to sell the car (VO5). Anyway thanks to Internet and mobile phones Leon sorted it out while we shopped in New York Gap.

Everything is huge. It's amazing. Still need to get my head around driving on the right hand side. It will come. We hire a car tomorrow, so will keep you updated.

Our temporary apartment is fantastic. It feels about three times the size of our house in Harpenden. Space is a pleasure. Washing machines, tumble dryers huge. Beds huge. It's lovely. Lets go big or go home.!!!!????

So far our experience has been fantastic.

We took the train into New York to meet my friend Kate and her family in Soho. Leon and I were singing First Capital's praises. Leon normally is trying to close them down??????? There is absolutely no signage or information as to when  a train is arriving or where it's going to. First Capital rocks for now!!!!!! We manged and were like sheep following the masses.

New York was fantastic. Soho was unbelievable. I will definitely be back to shop. The people so interesting. I could sit anywhere and watch the people. The kids also loved it. We did the yellow cab ride. Traffic is bad and the yellow cab drivers will give the South African taxi drivers a run for there money. Also strange to see lots of cops and armed with guns. Feels like we back in SA.

So we are well and happy for now. Off to see where we will be living tomorrow. Meeting the school on Monday.

Sending lots of love
Heather

Driving in the Us of A

Hi There

I did it????? I drove and we all survived. That's the whole family and Leon included.  The journey was not pleasant but I did it, motorways and all. In our space age car. It's ugly and even more ugly. Leon and I fought the whole way because Ii kept on wanting to drive on the pavement. The freedom of been able to drive was great and the sooner I get my confidence up the more freedom I will have to explore. The distances are huge and no nipping around the corner for a quick drive.

We hit the mall and it's like Sandton or Harlequin and bigger. The goodies are amazing. Kara split salt all over one cookery shop and she nearly got taken out. The shop assistant of course was very friendly and we left with "have a nice day". Everyone says it as you leave.

The stomach was rumbling so we thought a nice Mexican take-away would be great. Leon and I ordered Burritos with refried beans and the kids got a taco. Well the portions were huge, there was enough food to feed a family of six. Have to admit have not seen that many larger people, but Leon recons it's the area we are in.

We saw Mark and Stacey and they are staying in a beautiful area in New York, called Scarsdale. A lovely town. Their house is huge and they are so organised. Been there three months and their life seems pretty normal. The UK rules are nothing compared to the USA. We all went swimming in this outdoor pool area. A dream place. Four different pools all for different ages and very clean. Loads of families. Kaden who is a year has to wear three layers - nappy, plastic swim suite and swim costume. no driving off daddy's knees, no hanging on mommy's back. Just little pleasant swims. We will cope and fit in, we have to.

Westport the area we are going to live in is beautiful. Once again the houses are unbelievably beautiful and so big. We drove past our new house which looks great and the kids school looks posh according to Kara.

Today at 12 it's the school visit to meet with Mr Bob Buckley. So lets see. We hit Gap and got a few uniform things for the kids. It's also visiting the FORD dealer to have a look at cars. We need to get a car urgently as the cost of renting are huge. We also need to get a residence permit to go to the beach otherwise we have to pay $40 per visit. Anyone who thinks the US is cheaper must be smoking their socks. Nothing is free here.

Yesterday was a hard day and the realisation of the whole move hit home. The stress levels were high and I was tired. Today feeling more positive and ready to tackle the world. We all have to have a full medical when you register for the doctors. So lets hope the body is all in working order.

I promise to take some pictures today.

Lots of love

Our new home and the unpacking

We were all so excited to see out stuff. Ready to start making a new life in Connecticut.

Leon and his new braai. Yes it is the fourth one but hey a South African boy can never have enough braais

Fun times with the girls. I just love the weather and being so close to the sea.

Our V8 Ford explorer. Go big or go home. You look at the petrol tank and we need to fill up with GAS!!!!!!!

Leon bought himself and the kids a baseball glove. So we now throw ball. It's actually great fun. The sports opportunities here are fantastic.

Hula Girl on the beach