Waiting…that’s what we’ve been doing. Not moving yet. Waiting as we get the ‘opportunity’ to practice patience. Some days we sound like THE Granddaughter when visiting asking every few minutes, “When’s Uncle Riley going to get here?”
What do we do, since we can’t make a mess?
I weed…a lot! My Loving Spouse mows the lawn…a lot…and fixes the lawn mower…a lot.
Gunner and I go walking along the canal.
…or rather one of us goes ‘walking’.
I visit one of my smallest students and play cards.
My Loving Spouse searches for old sewing machines to restore (when he’s not fixing the lawn mower).
We haul a load of stuff across the road for a large garage sale. Any large furniture that won’t sell, like this old TV cabinet…
I turn it into a bar.
It is possible, that I am ahead of this relocating curve. Whenever we cannot find something we need, we realize that I’ve sold it.
The best benefit of having to wait was the opportunity for Number One Son’s family to visit. His very own Team Offspring weren’t here but a minute before they were in the pond.
Much to Gunner’s delight…
and mine.
This summer ‘waiting’ has given us the fun of our family sport…croquet.
Where a straw hat always gives you an extra point.
THE Granddaughter is small but mighty.
When THE Grandson wasn’t busy playing croquet, he was picking the very last raspberry.
For this time together, I am grateful beyond words.
…and so now we continue to wait.
…and although we are tired of waiting, we are blessed.
Moving to another country is not for the faint of heart. It helps if you are determined (stubborn) have an adventurous streak and are married to someone even more adventurous and stubborn than yourself.
You would think moving to the UK when one of you is a British citizen would be simple. You would be wrong.
My Loving Spouse is currently an Ex-Pat. However, if he leaves the USA for a set number of days he will lose his green card, making it hard for us to return to the USA should we chose to do so.
Our Steps to leaving besides selling the house, etc. yada yada
Step 1 in leaving was his becoming an American citizen. A process for sure, but all in all one of our eaiser steps. (They waived his requirement to prove he could speak English.) They handed him an American flag and swore him in. He now has dual citizenship and is a regular patriot in both countries so he’s a Regular Pat.
Step 2 Filing for a UK Spousal Visa
Gone are the good old days where one could walk into a consulate, fill out the forms and talk to living people. Applying on line with Gov.UK took many hours, most questions required proof. Some of my favorite questions were:
Have you and your spouse met? Do you have pictures of you together?
Do you and your spouse live in the same home. Can you proof this by showing bills with both of your names on them?
Do you have X amount of money? How long have you had it? Can you prove it?
Where did X amount of money come from?
“Once the third party receives your documentation for your application you will hear back from the UK. This will take 8-12 weeks or 24.”
The third party instructions were so confusing!! I finally printed them out, crossing out what did not pertain to me and highlighted anything that did.
Great cheering was heard when we received this!
Now I will be an Ex-Pat
Step 3 Open a Scottish bank account.
While in Scotland we tried to open a bank account.
Day 1 went into Bank of Scotland. “Oh, the person who does international accounts is not here today. All you need is a UK passport. Come back tomorrow.”
Day 2 – ‘Oh, you do that on-line.’ Okay, we’ll do it when we get home.
On-line did not go well. My Loving Spouse spoke to the agent for the Bank of Scotland.
“Oh, Sir, you need to have proof of a Scotland address for 3 months.”
‘How am I going to pay my bills for 3 months, while I do not have a bank account?‘ My Regular Pat asked calmly and patiently (I like to think).
“I don’t know.”
Step 4 Open an International Bank Account
Fill out application. Prove you are a real person.
Currently waiting for an answer.
Step 5 Find a Dog shipper
So far this has been the most complicated and expensive. My Loving Spouse (Regular Pat) has spent upwards of 50 hours researching and speaking with the different providers who can get Gunner on the plane and off again at the right spot. Gone are the days of showing up with your baggage, a dog crate and a large yellow dog. One place said he was 3 pounds overweight and although we thought about putting him on a diet, the Vet said he didn’t have 3 pounds to lose. One dog shipper was going to cost over $5000. We’re feeling grateful to have one lined up at half that rate and we’ve explained to the dog that he is now an Ex-Pat-Dog and will not be coming home for any visits.
Step 6 Set up Shipping Agent
We are taking very, very little with us. However, we still are taking dear and important ‘stuff’, just not much of it and it has to be shipped. It will take 3 months and will be charged by volume. It won’t be cheap, so anything that costs more to ship than the item is worth will not go.
Step 6a Get rid of almost everything you own
WhoaNelly – sold
Pressure washer and my favorite wheel barrow – sold
T-posts, extra chicken wire, 2 bales of hay and a few fishing poles – donated to sweet family friends of ours and we were delighted…but this is just the beginning.
Step 7 Begin collecting those precious hugs
The hard part and the sweet part of living life. They call me their family..
Tomorrow begins the last week of school and it is quite bitter sweet. I’ve spent the last 10 years doing my best to encourage, teach and help others, especially the little people at my elementary school. Most of the time, I did it well. However, I’m far from perfect and some parents make my job (of being nice) extra difficult.
A 10 year old had walked 3 blocks to school. Her mother didn’t want her to walk home (the same 3 blocks). 20 minutes after school had been out, I called her mom to ask if she wanted the child to walk home. “No, she can wait in the office. (My office). I’ll be another 25 minutes. To which I said, ‘I’m not a babysitter.’ It was amazing how fast Mom got to the school. I’d like to say it was because she realized she was being rude, but she just wanted to get to school before the Principal left so she could tattle on me.
Luckily those parents are few and far between.
I will miss those little people who call me Miss Ellen. Who think I run the school or live in the library. To those who wave when they go through the hall or beam when I break the ‘rule’ and let them have an extra library book.
I will miss stepping in to do the morning announcements even though I don’t always stay on script. One day as I was in the middle of the announcements over the loud speaker, I was handed a note. “1 & 2 Boys” I knew what the message meant, but didn’t have time to add any finesse. I said, “First & Second grade boys. We have a problem. The bathroom’s a mess. Ahhh, stop peeing on the floor, it is no pee Friday!”
A few weeks ago, I started the morning announcement music with bagpipes and told the kids they were having haggis for lunch.
I will miss getting kids excited about books. I will miss helping our staff. I will miss being positive and a tad silly in the office with one of my Ellensburg Blessings, my BGF.
I will miss the loving gifts the kids make you. A necklace with a book charm on it. It was a tad too small and choked me a little bit, but it was a small price to pay. I’ll miss the birthday treats they share handed out with their grubby little hands.
The typical response we get from anyone we tell about The Move is,
“Scotland! Really?!! Can I have your dog?”
To which we answer, yes really and no, he’s going with us.
We’ve been getting ready for THE Move for months now. The only places we go are to work, to church, to the dump, (they know us well there), to drop off at the Goodwill and the hardware store. Our mud room the last few weeks gives you some idea of our life.
There was enough on THE List to pick the ‘bits’ we wanted to work on until we started getting down to the end. No one wanted to paint all 4 porches spindles and I mean no one.
“I know, let’s get Mikey to do it!”
Our very own Angel Mikey. He didn’t really want to paint the spindles either, but he did it for two very good reasons.
He knew we really needed the help.
We paid him really well.
No one wanted to wash the windows either, but we could NOT find anyone who was available. It was clear, that I would have to do it. I’ve never been very successful with this task, so I watched a video from This Old House, numerous times and ordered my tools. Right before the tools came, a friend rescued me with her window washer! YES!
The night before my favorite new window washer was set to come, he tore his Achilles tendon. I went back to watching my video and unpacking my tools. I did a very impressive job, if I do say so myself. My Loving Spouse kept saying that they were looking great, but I’m pretty sure he just didn’t want to do them himself and Mikey said, ‘no’. I can also vouch for the child protective window locks, yes I got locked out and stuck on one roof.
We originally told our Realtor we’d put the house on the market when the Iris bloom. There’s one thing that blooms before Iris….dandelions.
My Loving Spouse has sprayed and eradicated millions of the darn weeds, while I have dug up the other hundreds he missed.
The iris are getting ready to bloom and the house will be on the market this week. We’ve got to keep everything tidy. We’re at that stage where everything looks great, but we can’t find a thing. We’re not sure if we kept ‘it’ or if we just can’t remember where we stashed ‘it’.
Time for our first goodbye.
My Buddy Beau is about 32 years old. He’s losing his teeth and has arthritis in his hip. He is a lovely old gentleman. Finding a home for him was realistically going to be very challenging. Our fear was that no one would really take good care of him, so did we need to put him down (the last resort)?
The alpacas know something is going on.
We couldn’t have imagined a better situation for Beau. When his original Ellensburg owner heard of our situation. They jumped at the chance to take him back home. They love this old boy and he will live out his life with the care and nurture he deserves.
Many of my co-workers headed straight to Hawaii for Spring break. We went to Scotland. They bought swim suits and Mai Tais. We bought a raincoat, a scarf and plenty of pints.
We made it to Scotland after a plethora of traveling mishaps. Canceled flights, re-booked on the Airline we wanted to avoid and the airport we wanted to avoid, a late take off, missed connection and we got to sit next to the crying baby…. We were retelling a fellow Hungarian traveler how it was all going. He said, “How come you’re laughing about it?” We said, “All we have left is our attitude, we’re picking a good one.” Then I got him to teach me a bad word in Hungarian.
I’m pretty sure it just means, “darn it”.
We did make it to the lovely town of Pitlochry where even the back sides of the buildings are charming.
We stayed in a pup/hotel in what was called a ‘cozy double’ (cozy might mean charming and tiny). I said I wasn’t going to eat it, but I did.
Haggis…not bad. My tall cider was delicious, while My Loving Spouse enjoyed his Bitter all the while questioning the glass it was in.
Stonehaven on the Scottish coast was booked primarily so My Loving Spouse could stand in this B&B and see the North Sea.
The Bay Water B&B had everything we needed including a coveted parking space. All you had to do was make a left here.
I thought I was going to have to buy some grease and rub it on both sides of the tiny rental car, but My Loving Spouse took a deep breath and squeaked that baby in.
The car was lavender, so we named it Heather. It was a small China made MG. It had no guts and no glory. The GPS was ‘pretty‘ good, but did show some attitude. At one point in our wanderings it got mad at us and sent us down this road.
We were supposed to make a “right” but turned around when we reached a barn. We didn’t know which path was the ‘road’ and which would end up taking us to the farmhouse.
We’re not city people, but Edinburgh doesn’t count. What a fabulous historical, magical place. It will take 10-20 more visits to do it any justice.
I couldn’t get a good enough picture of the writing on this building, but the words in Gaelic are the answer Jesus gave when asked what was the most important commandment.
The Scottish people are the friendliest people, even if we couldn’t always exactly understand what they said. We’d smile and nod, then look at each other.
Our irrigation water goes on in April. We had two jobs that had to be done prior to the water going on. We were going to handle them this weekend “come h@ll or high water”, said My Loving Spouse. It was actually “come 2 arguments and one worker who fell in the mud (me)”. There was no waiting for better weather, there was only getting it ‘done’.
After job one was finished, we took a quick break. We had babies to see.
You’d never know by this photo, but I am something of a Baby Whisperer. Crying baby? Give it to me. Tired baby? Give it to me. This 3 month old is an adorable muffin with a whole head of hair, but she clearly did not get the memo. Miss Ellen is a Baby Whisperer.
Nope, she was not having it.
No worries, we had more babies to see.
Twin baby bull calves! Agnes has done it again! We brought her some bananas.
What a great mama. She’s in great hands.
We went home to finish job #2. Humored by one of our own goofy group.
Leaves anyone?
ALL irrigation jobs got done! They are not hanging over our heads anymore. Great glee was had this morning when we saw this.
12 more days until Spring break….we’re going for a week in Scotland!
We’ve been hibernating since the very first snow fell in early November, except we clearly didn’t stop eating and live off of our fat. My Loving Spouse handled the snow, all the while muttering, “I can’t ever remember the snow starting this early, Bad British Word.” I was ‘handling’ fevers, headaches and fatigue which quickly turned me into the Queen of napping.
For Thanksgiving, Number Two Son, My Loving Spouse and I decided to ‘step out’ and dine at the fancy resort in the nearby town. We ordered the family Thanksgiving dinner, but then the chef showed up at our table.
“Are you the one who’s allergic to garlic?” She asked me.
‘Ahh, yes‘, I said apologetically.
“You can’t eat that.”
‘How much of it can’t I eat?’
“All of it, except the pumpkin pie.”
Visions of chicken nuggets passed before my eyes.
“I’ll make you something else’, she generously offered, which is how I ended up eating Thanksgiving Trout.
December brought more snow and cold. It was extremely cold over our break from school. I’ve never lived anywhere with a minus.
This is the day I cleaned the refrigerator and then spent the rest of the day by the wood stove, reading and perfecting my nap. It was too cold to do anything else.
Christmas Eve brought us many regular traditions, Christmas Crackers, food and church. We returned from the Christmas eve service to fresh snow and 3 out of our 4 ‘frost-free’ water stand pipes frozen, right, they’re not supposed to do that. The only one working was the one farthest away from the water tank. We hauled the frozen hose reel into the house to spend the night near the wood stove.
Christmas breakfast became Christmas brunch. Cooked every year by Number Two Son, he’d gone by work to discover a burst pipe, so as he was sopping water up, we were doing our best to get water out.
I came to accept the unique Christmas decorations called ‘pumpkins frozen to the porch’.
…and we might have had a nap.
…and we are blessed…
by the birth of our Lord and more importantly our Savior,
and grateful beyond measure for health.
(Should you have the weird symptoms I was experiencing fatigue, fever, headache, painful to chew and stabbing pains in the temple don’t wait for ‘it’ to get better, as it could be GCA and your eyesight could be at risk).
“Hey, are you still quilting and do you take on commissioned projects?”
I immediately thought ‘baby quilt’.
‘Who needs a quilt?’
“I have a lot of my kids old clothes sitting in bins, but don’t have time to quilt something.”
‘Well, that could be sort of fun, I’d be worried about disappointing you…’
“You couldn’t disappoint me, plus you know my kids so that would make it more special. Let me know what you charge…”
The truth is you can never really charge for something like this (although I don’t turn down wine). This is a gift, as there are more hours in it than anyone would believe. You do it for the creative endeavor and the challenge and to make someone happy.
Then the clothes arrived.
It was a rather imposing amount. There were many piles of clothes as I went through them multiple times trying to figure out what could work together and keep all 3 children represented.
My Friend was interested in a more modern quilt. She’d given me full creative license, which was good as I don’t enjoy it when people tell me what to sew or do or how to do it…
I’d had the fore thought to have My Friend signify a few special pieces from each child. She went a step further and included a dress she’d worn as a child and that both her girls had worn as well.
That pink dress became the compliment for both corners of the quilt, paired with the special pieces from each child.
I choose one piece of clothing for every ‘band of color’. In this combination, the brother’s purple shirt becomes the constant.
The problem with all the different fabrics is some stretch more than others. Sewing on the diagonal only exacerbates this problem.
The only solution is to trim each and every small square otherwise you’ll end up with a quilt that, how shall I say….is a Bad British Word.
The 9 patch. I tried to keep little pockets, buttons or appliques wherever I could.
There was enough of the Brother’s purple shirt to make it the stopping border. I managed to use the placket complete with buttons and button holes that were only a tad tricky to quilt around.
This quilt was a challenge. I think I touched each piece of clothing 3-4 times, but then I’d fine something new that needed to be represented like these sister dresses.
All in all, I was pleased with the finished product. It is always more difficult to use other people’s ‘colors’.
The gift is now in the hands of My Friend…
I got to use my time and my talents for someone else, so I am blessed.
After living for most of my 50++ years in the suburbs of Southern California with pools and sidewalks, I am now living on a farm in the Pacific Northwest with animals and dirt…and having the time of my life! Change is good….and I am blessed.
Retirement brought the end of our time at Glory Farm and a move to Scotland, where we live in a historical small fishing village along the North Sea...To God Be The Glory
