Livin’

The days are moving fast! My work days are the fastest I’ve ever experienced and that might be something you wish for but I need to slow down a bit because I’m not getting enough done and I’m learning at a pace that’s too fast for me and therefore retaining next to nothing.

On our days as a family, we wake up at 7 (that is, me and the boys wake at 7; Mike is up much earlier and bikes a solid 15 miles before we’re ready to eat breakfast). After breakfast, it’s lunch before we know it and for the past month, we’re lucky if we see Greyson more than 2 collective hours in a day. He’s made so many friends in the neighbourhood that we barely see him. We have to remind him to check in from time to time and to stop in for some lunch or a snack.

Graham, who called Greyson “Nn” for the past year (as in the sound of the letter, nothing else) now says “Gayson” and only saves “Nn” for the times when he really needs to get his attention. Graham’s 2.5 year old vocabulary is amazing and he’s already using a bit of British (garage = “gare-ridge” and backyard = garden). The funny thing is, we can’t tell if he’s picking up the accent because he can’t say his R’s anyway.

Our household goods arrived a week ago Thursday and after the 2nd full weekend of unpacking, organizing and otherwise performing duties that require a daily dose of ibuprofen, we are feeling like home in this place.

47 St. David’s VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We spent a beautiful sunny Mother’s Day in the city where the boys got to see the Buckingham Palace guards for the first time. They got especially excited over the guards’ marching band which was likely a rehearsal for the Queen’s Jubilee- a celebration of the 60th year she’s been on the throne which is being commemorated on June 4th and 5th with a load of pomp and circumstance including 2 bank holidays (i.e. no one works in the UK).

Mother’s Day in London VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

So, a few big milestones in recent weeks but none more enjoyable than yesterday and today- two 80+ degree days with home cooked BGE meals reminiscent of home.  I do miss my food processor though- pesto is not easy with a £20 hand blender!

Remember our neighbours? The guy whose BMW Grey crashed into? Well, after they brought us a nice bottle of wine to thank Greyson for the scratches, they invited us to dinner twice and Mike and Ben go cycling together whenever they can; thus the early morning bike rides which Mike takes with or without Ben.  These photos were from his solo ride at 5:30am today. The Copper Horse statue is King George III. The path is called “The Long Walk” and leads to the King George IV gate at Windsor Castle.  It was paved during Queen Anne’s era apparently to make it easier for coaches to get to the castle.

The Long Walk VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Quote of the week:

(Knock on the door on Monday @ ~10am)

Fede: “Can Greyson come out to play?”

Mike: “Don’t you have school today?”

Fede: “I forgot to wake up”

(Mike’s last line in his email to me: “They must run a pretty tight ship”)

Alive and well

Greyson, who lost his 1st tooth last Saturday, has made a “best friend” in our neighbourhood named Feday (not sure how to spell it but it’s pronounced “feh-day” with emphasis on the first syllable).  He’s a great kid, around 8 years old, and the two boys have been riding their bikes all over the place, running amid the gardens (yards to you Yanks) and bothering the older kids.

Yesterday as I chatted with a fellow expat named Mary Beth, Greyson proceeded to crash into a really nice black BMW sedan at mock-10 breaking the reflector light off of the front of his bike and leaving 2 big gashes in the front left panel of the shiny car. I looked at the woman, whom I’d just met and said with a bit of trepidation “whose car is this"?”

“Oh, it’s my husband’s. It’s OK as long as your son isn’t hurt!”

I proceed to apologize profusely and ask her to let me know what the damages are as I’m simultaneously willing my son not to add stress to an already stressful situation by breaking down in tears from either pain, fear, embarrassment or some combination. I’m telling you, he smoked this car hard. God smiled on me a little bit and willed Greyson to shake it off. So off he and Feday rode into the…OK, it wasn’t a sunset.  Mary Beth continued to be gracious for a few more minutes until her husband, who doesn’t yet know his car has acquired some character, called her into dinner somewhat sternly.

Fast forward about 20 minutes and the husband and his two daughters are standing in front of his car looking at it closely, rubbing the panel then looking at it again.  Greyson is still riding and he stops and the man says something to him that I can’t hear and Greyson rides off and then the man and the girls start *gasp* walking toward our house!  I’m literally in a panic in the front room picking up wayward Legos and calling frantically to Mike who is hiding (yes hiding) in the garage.  I am prepared to pay for the damages but I do not want to get scolded by a guy I’ve never met in a country I’ve only lived in for a month!

The door bell rings.  I open it and say hello.  He says (or at least this is what I think he says) “Hi, my name is Ben. I’m the guy who was yelling at your son…” but what he actually did say was “I’m the guy who was yelling at his wife to come to dinner but I just wanted to stop by and welcome you to the neighbourhood” and he hands me a bottle of wine and a bottle opener in a little gift bag and I’m so shocked all I have the wherewithal to say is “I can’t believe you’re giving me a bottle of wine after my son crashed into your car!”

10 minutes later we’re in his living room with his lovely wife sharing a bottle of wine and getting wonderful advice on life in the UK along with invitations to Legoland, the Olympics and a future dinner along with babysitting services from their very mature and polite 14 year old daughter Kathleen.

We are settling in and counting the days until our household goods arrive (into port on 10 May; pray for a quick customs process). The air shipment brought our clothing, some kitchen essentials and, of course, Greyson’s bike. The sea shipment will bring comfort that we’ve been missing since March 27th (but who’s counting?)

Here’s a few pics from recent weeks.  We’ve already had visitors and are looking forward to more. Come soon!

Graham after getting “attacked” by mud in a tree

Mike sent me an email with this picture that said “this is the life…watch the landscapers take care of the back yard while I drink coffee”.  And he says he’s bored.

And the after picture:

GRAHAM*isms*

G: (to me, while taking a bath by himself) “Pweese can u weave? I need to be awone. Pweese cwose the door”

All you needed (or not) to know

We have arrived!

We were blessed to connect/re-connect with so many Wisconsin friends during our final trip to the UK…it was joyful and overwhelming and the well wishes continue to propel us on what is now day 7 of our official arrival to England.  I hope you all felt our gratitude for the big hugs, endless laughs, the hospitality and sacrifices made to visit with us. We might need to find a way to relocate again so that we can create a great excuse to get together.  It was a perfect send off in every way.

Our friends and family were all very interested in the specifics about this move. “Are you bringing everything with you"?”, “How long does it take to get there?”, “Do they have bathrooms?” (Ok, no one asked that).  Without completely boring you with the nitty gritty details, what I can tell you is that the most stressful part of this move was trying to separate our lives into 4 buckets before the movers arrived (the answers, now in hindsight, are in blue)

1. What gets put in storage (not enough)

2. What gets shipped in a 40ft ocean container (too much)

3. What gets shipped via plane (the wrong things)

4. What comes with us in our checked baggage (11 bags of mostly useless crap)

Our checked baggage is unpacked and my little closet is almost full. The air shipment that arrives this week contains the rest of our clothes and shoes along with our favorite kitchen essentials and odds and ends. I honestly don’t know where I’m going to put it all! Stay tuned for future photos. Our garage will not be housing our cars.

The sea shipment which is comprised of our furniture, linens, dishes and beloved TempurPedic takes 4-6 weeks so my patience is being tested. We are in our own home but sleeping in rented beds, eating with rented utensils and sitting on rented couches. Nothing is comfortable nor familiar but on the flip side we are laughing every day whether it’s at each other for being jet lagged and tired, at driving on the wrong side of the road, or our inability to figure out how to use our stove and oven. (The oven is of course in Celsius but to make things interesting, most of the numbers are worn off so we just turn it on and hope for the best).

We stored pretty much anything with a plug because although converters will work for computers and laptops and a few other smaller electrics, most of our US appliances and electronics would blow up from the high voltage (this happened to me with a flat iron on a business trip once and was enough to keep me conservative). We spent the first couple of days shopping for a coffee maker, hair dryer, BluRay player and other essentials. Yes, we have to buy a TV at some point as well.

We celebrated Easter yesterday by lazing in the morning with the boys and their little baskets and then had dinner last night with colleagues/friends who hosted a wonderful Easter dinner with gammon, twice baked potatoes, mac n cheese, green beans, deviled eggs, salads, a cheese board and cake pops! We are thankful to have friends here who welcomed us with baskets of goodies and necessities, treats and toys for the kids, internet access and answers to questions we didn’t even know we had.

So, before we left I posted what we will miss and 1 week here tells me that there is plenty more to add to that list. But in the spirit of counting our blessings this Easter, here is a start to what we’re already enjoying:

1. Deliveries. Anything and everything we want/need can be delivered to our door with one day (or less) notice. There’s a store called Next that can deliver curtains, a vacuum cleaner, a fruit bowl and clothing for our entire family in a day. We used Amazon Fresh in Seattle for food but the UK has this concept perfected and it’s reasonably priced.
2. The gym. We joined The Thames Club and it’s fantastic
3. Travel. We booked 10 days in Italy for the cost of a weekend in the US. We’ll hit France and Ireland as a family before summer’s end as well.
4. Service. Whether setting up satellite TV or simply making an enquiry, it’s friendly, quite sophisticated and very fast via a telephone call or visit to the internet.

So, all you needed to know and more? We are almost over the jet lag (we had cereal and oatmeal at 2:30am our first night here and have slowly crept out of that pattern) and I report to my new office first thing tomorrow.  If you did not receive a “We’ve Moved” card, please let me know. I have extras and would be happy to send.

Love,
Mike, Jess & the boys

FACT: Did you know that a box of Lucky Charms in the UK costs over $10 USD? No, we did not buy it!

Dear Seattle…Yours Truly, The Guenthers

Dear Seattle,

It took us a little while to fall in love with you and now that we have, we’re leaving. 

Love, Mike & Jessi Guenther

4 years ago we made the decision to move from 33 years of Wisconsin familiarity to a place we’d never even visited.  It was, at the time, the biggest leap of faith we’d ever taken.  In August 2008 we took our final flight from Milwaukee to Seattle after heartfelt goodbyes to family and friends and the first 12 months was the whirlwind we expected it to be with some unexpected events (3 different houses!) to make it more interesting, i.e. stressful.  We had a hard time meeting people that year; at least meeting people we felt connected to.  I often wanted to “just go home”. We were together in our resolve, thank God, or we never would have stayed.

Fast (really fast)-forward almost 4 years and we are saying some heartfelt goodbyes once again to friends and “family” who filled the holes that were created when we moved; who filled holes we didn’t even know we had.  To our amazing friends the Johnsons who are kindred spirits in every sense; like-minds and a loving relationship with the added bonus of 2 amazing kids who, like their parents, wrote the book on what it means to be a true friend. We had the pleasure of spending our last few days with them and I couldn’t think of a more perfect way to close out our time in the neighborhood.

Happy Birthday, Angie!

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We said goodbye to the Pinskis and Herreras who have the shared belief that most adventures are better with friends.  To the Betos, Nichols, Shumakers and Reeds whose 3, then 4, then 5 year-old boys taught Greyson the power of friendship, sharing, Star Wars and Superheroes.   The Loves (is there a better name for our retired neighbors?) introduced our boys to their backyard in the summer and movie nights in the winter; Easter Egg hunts and bubbles bigger than balloons, homemade applesauce, salsa from their garden vegetables and whoopie pies. 

We will also miss:

Pike Place Market.  What more can we say?  It will not be possible to get better fish where we’re going. It’s a big deal.

Mt. Rainier. Majestic. Breathtaking. Unparalleled. (Honorable mention goes to the Olympic and Cascade mountain ranges)

Lake Washington. Our family had so much fun on this lake last summer. The River Thames won’t provide the same level of entertainment but there will be scenery worth photographing.

Downhill skiing. We’ll have to go to France and although it’s not difficult to get to France, a season pass and weekly visits will not be possible. We hope to make it once or twice a year.

Shopping. From groceries to clothes and shoes, shopping here is easy, the selection is great and believe it or not, MUCH cheaper than what we’re about to pay (and Seattle ‘aint cheap).

Appliances. We are going smaller, we are cooking in Celsius and our oven, range and refrigerator will require manuals that will be consulted on a daily basis until we have them memorized. The washer/dryer is small and inefficient and sits in the garage.

Our Church. We found a family at Eastlake and it will be very difficult to replace (especially in a secular England).

What we will gain is yet to be named but we know for sure that we will gain because our first adventure gave us the confidence to know that we can do it again.  We’re looking forward to making a new list.  But we will miss our friends…

So long, Seattle

PS. We sent change of address cards this week but if yours doesn’t make it, our new contact info is below ~

47 St. David’s Drive

Wentworth Gate

Englefield Green, Surrey TW20 0BA

Mike’s new cell: +44 (0) 7798 671643

Jessi’s new cell:  +44 (0) 7798 657463

Maui-licious

What would you do if you were moving to the UK in 10 days?  You go to Maui.



Our nephew Jake (on the right) turned 14 on March 16th.  Greyson (2nd from the left) turned 6 on March 21st and Mike’s dad Lee (see below on the left) turned 60 TODAY!  I can’t think of a better way to celebrate a handful of March birthdays than with a trip to Maui.  Mike’s parents made it their mission to ensure our time was amazing and “thank you” just isn’t enough.  It was perfect (and so was the weather).



Mike and I spent our mornings with a cup of coffee on the lanai watching the humpback whales and their babies play. I’ve never seen so many whales for such long periods of time. At 5am in the morning with the Pacific like glass it was by far the best part of each day.  Greyson chose to go whale watching on his actual birthday so he’s now an expert on all things humpback (and Orca, of course) and informed me that when they pop their heads out of the water it’s called a “Spy Hop”.
GREY*isms*

G: (on our way home from dinner) “I’m still hungry”
Mike: “We can heat up the pizza from dinner”
G: “You stole all of it?”

Have you ever seen sea turtles mating? It lasted more than 2 hours. They put on quite a show…


 

We obviously had a wonderful time. Carmen and Bria look more and more alike every day, Uncle Brian was Graham’s hero but best of all our families got to spend hours and hours laughing and relaxing.  Happy Birthday to the Guenther/Letarski boys. Happy Birthday indeed. Aloha, Maui. Until next time…

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47 St. Davids Drive, Wentworth Gate, Englefield Green, Surrey TW20 0BA

Big Ben…Parliament!

That we’re moving to London is no longer a secret so I’m sure it’s also not a secret that our lives are feeling a bit topsy turvy these days.  I’m blogging from a Sky Club in the Atlanta airport during a layover between our house-finding trip in the London area and our annual AGS trip to Cancun.  You might ask why we would consider staying away from the kids for 2 straight weeks when I just got back from a long trip away from them in January and it would be a fair question.  85 sunny degrees, turquoise ocean and free.  That’s my answer.
We flew from Seattle to Wausau a week ago to drop the boys off with my parents.  We spent Monday night together before our 2pm flight to London Heathrow the following day.  Unfortunately all did not go as planned.  Graham’s cat allergy (just recently discovered during an allergist appointment to check up on the peanut problem, which of course is in full effect) is worse than we thought and even though my mom dropped her cat off at my sister’s before we got there and laundered and cleaned the house top to bottom, Graham had trouble breathing in less than a day and after a visit to the ER, a steroid and breathing treatment, my parents and the boys are having fun/living in a hotel down the road from their house.  And when I say having fun, I’m not kidding.  They swim every day. Chuck E Cheese, the movie theater and light saber fights are the norm.  The boys will be in for a rude awakening when we pick them up as life at home isn’t nearly as exciting.  To say we are grateful to my mom and dad for their help doesn’t do it justice but THANK YOU!!
After a week in London, Mike is excited to make the move.  Our relocation agent on the UK side drove us around the areas we had researched and we’re happy to report that we found a house.  We were prepared for very small and very expensive and we got both of those but we are pleasantly surprised by the light and the space given our expectations.  We have a full guest suite plus a bit of extra room so we’re looking forward to hosting friends and family. (The below is a pic of the living room)

While in town, we also toured the schools that were recommended by friends and colleagues and aside from the expense (Ripon College tuition, anyone?), we are very confident that Greyson is going to be happy at ACS Egham International School.  We looked at the TASIS American school along with a couple of British schools and ACS Egham rose above.  They can also take Graham into their “Pre Scramblers” program for as many half days as we feel comfortable leaving him.  We can walk to the school from our house and Windor’s “Great Park” is nearly across the street with Windsor Castle and the famous Ascot race course just a short 5 minute drive away.  After crossing off the home and school to-dos off of our list, we spent the weekend touring the city of London and eating its amazing food (including a wonderful Gordon Ramsey restaurant).

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March means packing, marking large furniture for storage and selling a number of items including our cars before we head to Hawaii with Mike’s family- something everyone is very much looking forward to before we make the official move.
Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers as we embark on this journey.  We are optimistic, a bit anxious and mostly excited about the next chapter.  Mike is planning to join the Facebook world and he tells me he may take a stab at blogging as well so stay tuned for that! 

“Hi Nana!”

“The first thing that came to mind…is how loved ones have a way of letting us know that they're still there, they never left to begin with.  What an awesome gift”  ~Nathan Kofler (my little brother), 1/31/2012

The craziest thing happened while I was in Copenhagen.

My mom sent me an email link with a note from my Uncle Ted. It said “read this right away and let me know what you think”.  The link was to an article in the Green Bay Press Gazette about a woman, Anne Gallagher, who was searching for a nurse named Maggie who worked in the Pediatrics ward at St. Vincent’s Hospital in the mid-1960s.  Ms. Gallagher, a writer, was doing research for her memoir.  When Anne was a 2-year old girl living in Green Bay she was badly burned in a house fire and the nurse, Maggie, took care of her for 3 months.  Maggie stroked her hair, read her stories and cried softly when she was in pain.  She writes about her connection with Maggie poignantly in ”Her name was Maggie and she was my nurse” from her blog. Finding Maggie was one of the final pieces of Anne’s story and the article in the Press Gazette made it happen.  Anne had a photo of the day she was discharged and standing to the right of her wheelchair, in her pressed white nursing uniform, is the nurse Anne’s been searching for.


Maggie is my grandmother.  My Nana.  In the swell of emotions I was feeling in the moments after reading the article and seeing the photo, I emailed her.  “You brought her back to life” I said.  I spent hours reading Anne’s blog- Anne on Fire- that chronicles her journey of discovery and I found a kindred spirit.
 
Anne will not have the pleasure of meeting her again on this Earth but she is laughing in Heaven at this destined encounter and is so wonderfully alive in our hearts that I feel like I could touch her.  She was German and I spent the day yesterday walking around Denmark; a country similar in so many ways, tasting the local foods and eating off of dishes that resembled her white and blue porcelain. I re-told this story to colleagues, clients and friends and am repeatedly filled with gratitude and amazing memories:  stockings stuffed full on Christmas mornings, the smell of her kitchen, her roses, black licorice candies, the Milwaukee Zoo, homemade birthday cakes, sleepovers on the “davenport”, her big glasses, beautifully intricate handmade Christmas ornaments and infectious laugh... she would have loved my husband and children.  That my boys call my own mom “Nana” is a source of pride for all of us.

Saying a simple ‘thank you’ to Ms. Gallagher doesn’t seem like enough. We will all follow her story and line up to read her book.  Her email response to me this morning summed it up for all of us:

“It never occurred to me that I would bring to life someone so loved. I spoke with Maggie’s son Ted and Aunt Shirley.  I told them that when I was burned, I was just a child of 2 (turned 3 in the hospital) and that one of the reasons I wanted to do this research was to understand if the images and memories in my head were real or if I had made them up.  It’s really beautiful to know that the memories are real.” ~Anne Gallagher, 2/2/2012

To my Nana, who touched our lives so profoundly, we miss you. We will see you again.  We will hear your laughter and listen to more stories of the children you loved and cared for, like little Anne on Fire.

Scandinavia, it’s been fun but…

14 days and nights. This is how long I will have been away from home by the time I land in Seattle on Saturday.  14 nights in 4 different hotel rooms, 14 mornings of waking up without the kids and by far the longest stretch Mike and I have been apart since the summer of 1995. 

On the not-so-negative side, I’ve managed to workout every day but one since I landed and aside from struggling to fall asleep at a reasonable hour, am adjusting to the various time zones quite well.  We are enjoying the local cuisines and the few sightseeing excursions we’ve managed to squeeze in.

We’ve experienced Norway trolls, a lot of cold fish, reindeer and veal.  Pea soup and pancakes (more like crepes) are served on Thursdays in Sweden and was so good that if you’re visiting Stockholm in the future, make sure it’s on a Thursday.  The “Rock Church” in Finland is the highlight there- a Christian church in the middle of the city that was built amongst the rocks. 

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We had dinner at Gondolen, a restaurant that “floats between the sky and the sea” in Stockholm; we asked our client to choose their favorite and later read that it’s the most expensive restaurant in the city (lesson learned, but it was good).

I depart tomorrow for my final stop- Copenhagen- and am looking forward to it not only because it’s the home stretch but also because in Finland it’s –15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit)!

I typically don’t travel for more than one business week per trip...I’m definitely ready to come home.

The Rock Church- Helsinki, Finland

SNOW DAYS!!

Sorry, no time to post…6 inches fell on Sunday (enough for a snowman) and we’re expecting somewhere between 2in-16in tonight. Apparently the weather men out here suck worse than the ones in Wisconsin so that’s the best they could estimate.  School’s cancelled, work is cancelled (sorta) and we’re going to do our best to juggle and play.

2012, hang on, we’re coming!

We spent a wonderful week in Wisconsin with our families, New Year’s Eve with friends and neighbors back in Seattle and are, in true high speed fashion, back to work, school, ski lessons and travel. The year is off to a fast start and we’re not quite ready for it!

Our trip back home was a whirlwind but well worth it despite the fact that the flight home was a stressor so much so that we left our Nikon SLR on the plane.  Thankfully the airline found it and when FedEx brings it back, I’ll be able to post a handful of great photos from the holidays.

The boys embraced Christmas this year- the entire experience - Giggles’ daily visits, looking at the Christmas lights, opening gifts and laughing endlessly with their cousins was magical.

We went out to dinner on NYE for the first time in well over a decade.  Our “old” nanny Sara watched the boys (they miss her terribly) and although we had fun at dinner, I think they had more fun than we did.

It’s nearly 60 degrees and sunny today.  I’m thinking about upcoming trips to Cancun and Hawaii and wishing I could skip over the last 2 weeks of January when I’ll be in the Nordics where it will be freezing cold and dark!  If you’re reading my blog and have some suggestions for places to see in Finland, Norway, Sweden or Denmark, let me know.  Though it will be cold and dark I will as always embrace the experience.

GREY*isms*

• G: “The guy in Tin Tin had a drink problem”

We wish you a magnificent 2012 and hope to blog more often this year!