Our British Adventure Comes to a Close

This is our last week in England and we are sad to be leaving. Many of my posts have been about our travels and adventures here, but I'd like to document all the perks of living in England and all of the things I'm really not going to miss. This is going to be a long one, here it goes. We'll start with the negative.

I am not going to miss my fridge and freezer. They are itty bitty and barely hold anything. Plus, let's face it, they're hideous. You can't tell in this picture, but the outsides of them are covered with the wood to match the cabinets. In some homes this is beautiful, as long as the cabinets are beautiful, but ours are not.

So most of the things I'm not going to miss have to do with the house. I'm definitely not going to miss my dryer, which I got two months in to living here. It's what is called an extractor. So it just pulls the water out of the clothes. You then have to drain the water out of the filter drawer (opened on the upper left side). It takes at least two hours to dry a batch, and it doesn't hold very much.

TV here is not what it is in the States. When we signed up for cable we told them that we didn't care about sports, news, or movies, we just wanted American programs. So we have a few shows, like House, Numbers, Bones, but they're at least one season behind, so I've seen them all. Luckily American Idol is up to date. We just watch it two days after you do. Not too bad. Also, thank goodness for DVR. My mom has been recording every Grey's Anatomy, House, and Numbers since I've left. Why is everyone complaining about the writer's strike? When I get home I'm going to spend a week or so just catching up on TV shows. I can hardly wait. But back to what I'm not going to miss. Yes, I'm not going to miss the shows here, but also I'm not going to miss watching the shows on this tiny TV. Even with really good eyes, you have to squint to read the TV Guide.

When we moved into the house it was mostly furnished. The master bedroom is interesting, to say the least. Let's just say I'm not going to miss my bedspread. (But isn't that a cute baby on the bedspread?)

When we first went to the grocery store I laughed at the shopping carts (they're called trolleys here). All four wheels move in any direction. You may think, "what's the big deal?" Well, it's a huge difference from our carts in the States. These carts go everywhere. If you're on the slightest incline, it will move downwards. And I'm not just talking about going forward and backward; I'm talking side to side. It's really quite hard to explain. The hardest part about the trolleys is when you're unloading your groceries into your car. The trolley won't stay still. I have to try to hold it in place with my foot while I unload with my hands. You feel like a complete idiot. But then you look around and everybody looks the same, so it's really not that bad. There is only one store that has normal carts, and that's Costco, our home away from home.

If you can get past all these awful things I've mentioned (JK), you'll see that England is a wonderful place. We have truly loved our time here, and we wish we could stay longer. There are many, many things we have grown to love here and we will miss them dearly. Here they are:

I (and I think Kimball) will miss Sandy Lane Primary School. As I've mentioned before, pre-school is part of the public education system here. So they start school at the age of three, which is how old Kimball was when we got here. He went to school everyday, from 12:45 to 3:15. How great is that? He loved school so much. He made a lot of friends, and he had wonderful teachers. They loved him and especially loved his accent. He learned a lot at school, including how things are said and done here. He would always come home correcting us on the way we spoke. The following picture is of Kimball with Mrs. Reading (left) and Mrs. Walker (right). They were great, and we were so happy Kimball was in their class.

The next picture is of Kimball's class. It was the day before holiday, so there were a few gone. There were about 20-25 kids in the class, but they always had at least 3 or 4 adults there.

We have met some wonderful people here in England and we'll probably miss them the most. I've worked with the Young Women while I've been here, and they've been great. Again, there are a few missing because of Holiday.

Our Stake Patriarch, Doug Boyle, is an amazing man. We haven't gotten to spend as much time with him as we would have liked, but the time we did have with him was spent talking about the Gospel. We enjoyed our discussions and we look forward to meeting up with him again someday. Here's a picture of him holding Kimball. He loves the children in the ward. They call him Grandpa Boyle.
The next picture is of me with Karen Ellis and two of her children. Karen was the first person we met in the ward. She is also amazing. She has a great life story. She is a wonderful mother and has a strong testimony. I'll miss talking to her.
We have been blessed to have great neighbors, which I hear is a rare thing here in England. May and Nigel Fisher have been so kind to us. They had us over for traditional English tea on Sunday. We had sandwiches, scones, cakes, and of course tea (herbal for us). We love them so much. They've really made our experience here authentic. May has had me over to make a number of traditional English desserts, including Icky Sticky Toffee Pudding, and Christmas Pudding.
The last two months we've been here has been spent mostly with our dear friends, the Brodricks. They are from Florida and were also on a six month assignment here. We met them our first week in church. They arrived to England the day before we did, and they just left us on Saturday. Over the last two months, we played 26 games of Hand and Foot. Unfortunately the boys won 15 games and the girls won 11 games. We had a lot of fun playing cards with them. It was also with them that we went to the Cadbury Factory. Since going there, our card games were accompanied with loads of chocolate. We are already going through card game withdrawals since they left. Thank heavens I have enough chocolate to make me happy.

Speaking of chocolate, I don't know how I'm going to survive without the chocolate from here. The truth is Hershey's is nasty compared to the yummy chocolate here. I've gotten quite a few bars to take home with me, but I just don't know how long it will last. What do you think?

Luckily one of the young women here is visiting Utah in the summer and has offered to bring me whatever I want. I'm sure I'll need to replenish my supply by then.

When I first saw this bread in the store I thought it looked pretty gross. It's partly baked and you bake it the rest of the way at home. They are packaged this way on the shelf, and can stay on your shelf for months. (Don't ask me how, I don't really want to know). They also come in small roll sizes, which is how we tried them the first time. After we tried them, I had to have more. They are so good. They taste just like home made bread. They're especially good right out of the oven, covered in butter. Mmmmmm, I'm going to miss this bread.

Believe it or not, I have loved driving on the left side of the road. It was really crazy at first, but once we got used to it, I truly enjoyed it. Not only is driving on the left side of the road fun, but the roundabouts are cool too. They definitely take some getting used to. There are some roundabouts that have only three exits and there are some that have six. If you're trying to find your way around by using street names, you'll never arrive at your destination. The street name signs are about two feet off the ground and tiny. You have to know the number of the road. When we first got to Bracknell, we spent an hour within the city, just trying to find our house. The roundabout closest to us has six exits. It was crazy. Now that we've figured out the system, we rarely get lost anymore. In fact, we like to follow directions to new places. I'm really going to miss driving on the left side of the road. I just hope I'm not too used to it that I have a hard time back in the States.

These are just a few of the things that I am going to miss. I feel very blessed to have had this great opportunity to live here. It is something that Clark and I have always wanted to do (live in a foreign country). We wish we could stay longer and do many more things, but six months was probably the perfect amount of time for our family. Not only have we been able to do so many great things and see so much history, but our family has changed a lot. We added our beautiful Addilyn to our family. How cool will it be that she can say she was born in England? One of the best things that has happened to our family since being here is the friendship that has developed between Sammy and Kimball. Before we left, Sammy used to be the tag-a-long with Kimball and his friends. But here Kimball hasn't really had any neighbor kids to play with, so him and Sammy have learned how to play really well together. We planned to have Kimball and Sammy 15 months apart, but for awhile I thought I was crazy. Now I know why I needed to have them so close together. It was because they needed each other during this time. They have become great friends, and I look forward to seeing how their relationship continues to grow.

So we leave in two days. This is my final farewell to a beautiful country that I have grown to love. Cheers!