Christmas Eve

It is Christmas Eve and the little ones are all snug in their beds. There is banana bread baking in the oven. Stanta is putting their packages under the tree. There are cookies and milk for Stanta and carrots for the reindeer. We also sprinkled some magic dust in the yard to guide the reindeer to our new house.

Today we walked to our Town Center where most of the shopping is, for the first time. It is about a 10 minute walk. We did some shopping and had lunch.

Christmas day we are going to celebrate an English Christmas at some folks from Stans office. He also plays guitar and has asked Stan to bring his. It should be lot of fun.

Hope you all have a wonderful day.

Christmas Tree Farm

We are finally getting our Christmas tree on December 22.

We went to a Christmas Tree farm to get a live tree. The farm was about 20 minutes away. It was a new area for us. We went through some of the neatest little towns.
Afterwards we stopped for lunch at a cute pub that we had noticed on the way. It was fun to get away from the unpacking for a bit.

Part of the reason we went to this farm was that they had lights too so we did not have to make another stop for those. It was a nice little shop with these animated animals including Santa.

Anna and Lauren Visit with Santa

Today we got a chance to visit with Santa. The girls were so happy to see him.

Furniture Arrives!

The MG and other things that were on the truck with the MG arrived on Monday.

Wednesday the other truck arrived. You can see from the picture it is a full truck. This was the same truck that was loaded at our house in Carrollton. It was so nice not having our stuff go to storage.

It was cold day but sunny. It took them all day to unload the truck.







Some of our furniture, like the dinning room table, we had crated. Here they are unpacking them.

We were not able to get some of the furniture up the stairs but most of it worked.

The house has lot of storage but still not has much as our Texas house. Also kitchen cabinets are not as deep. Our everyday dishes barely fit.
More of of the pans fit in oven then what I thought. It is a very narrow oven.




Anna and Lauren helped some but of course had to play some too.













On the second day, they came back to assemble some of the items that were taken apart and to take the paper off items that had been wrapped. They took away the paper and boxes we had unwrapped. They will come back to get anything else we have.

I joined a couple of email groups for buying and selling and giving away things for free. To the free group, I posted about the boxes and family moving to US came to pick up what they could.



We are still staying in the hotel this weekend till we can get beds set up and things a bit more organized. Stan has to go to Italy tomorrow - Friday - and will return late Saturday. We will probably be moving over to house on Sunday.

We have had major trouble getting a phone set up at the house. They are supposed to come on Monday so hopefully it will work this time. We will not have internet access till Tuesday! Also no television setup yet. It may be another week for that.

We are going to try and get a Christmas tree set up. Stan will be in town after next week and then may take some days off. He is also busy getting ready for January and Februay travel. He will be traveling most of those months.

Anna and Lauren Attend School in their Uniforms

Anna and Lauren attended their new school - Abbots Hill Girls school - in their uniforms. It seems like a very good school. They looked so grown up in their uniforms. I did not get any pictures of the school but here is link to website which has some pictures.
http://www.abbotshill.herts.sch.uk/

Schools here are about a year ahead of US schools. Annas age level has been writing in cursive as has Laurens. I am not sure they even do printing. Annas level is also doing multiplication. The school suggested they go back a level so they could build a strong foundation. We understood and thought it was best too.

They just attended for couple of days but will start after the Holidays on January 7th.

MG Arrives!

It is always an exciting day when the MG arrives. It all went off without any problems.


















Stan was there to assist.














Lauren was too!















The MG in its new home. It is also fun that there is an MG dealership not far from us. We did not realize they were still being made.

Day at the Park

People walk everywhere here so decided today to do the same. We walked to our neighborhood pub, then to the village of Boxmoor, then to the playground.

The village is very small and not has thriving with business as some we have seen. It has several hair salons, real estate offices, frame shop, general store, liquor store and fish shop which appears to only be open few hours a day, and another pub. The sign on front says there has been a pub on this site since 1765. I love all the old houses. Everywhere you look there is something interesting.

The playground is at the end of a huge moor as they call it. There are footpaths that connect throughout the city of Hemel Hempstead. There is sign up that shows the paths and history along the way. Their is a canal that runs along the edge of the moor that goes all the way to Birmingham which is quite far. Lady at the park told me you could rent canal boats to take for ride.

Girls had bit of hard time with this teeter totter in that they did not have enough weight to hold it down so they both got on one side and I got on the other.














At first this thing did not look like much but when they got on it they realized it was to spin around. This was probably their favorite.










This slide was great and quite high.








They could climb this in all sorts of ways.

You can see in the background some of the houses and the moor in this one.



It was another fun day.

Our Air Shipment Arrives!

Our shipment arrived in fine shape.

Anna and Lauren had great time with the extra paper and boxes.

Here is link to the pictures. Let me know if it does not work.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jakesjag/AirShipmentArrives02?authkey=k34mMcV0iQU

They expect the rest of our household to arrive Dec. 3. Living in hotel is going OK but looking forward to being in the house.

Marilyn

Visited Winnie the Pooh 100 Aker Woods

One of the parks close by has several hiking trails including one for Winnie the Poohs 100 Akre Woods. It was so much fun to spend time here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jakesjag/HikeAt100AkreWoodInHertfordshire?authkey=ZPzOPqvgmuk

Almost a Week in England

We are coming on a week here in England.

First thing I had to overcome was the driving and am well on my way. When we were here in July, I was very uncomfortable driving. When Stan went into office Friday, the girls and I spent most of the day in the car. We had heard about some villages in area behind hotel so started there and just kept going. At one point I followed a student driver car for several miles to see how they handled the roundabouts.

It also helped that we got with the rental car a gadget that gives us directions. We just enter the address, postal code, or some things like the hotel, are preprogrammed into it, and it directs us with voice and pictures to where we want to go. That makes it so much easier.

I still think I may take some driving lessons to learn exactly what to do on roundabouts and reading the street signs.

Today we went to library by our house to get library cards - even Anna and Lauren got their first library cards. They are so proud. We also had lunch at our neighborhood pub. Turns out own has dog that is their too which Lauren loves.

I took more pictures of the house. What I find most interesting is that their are no open rooms, each room has its own door. This was tradition years ago from what I understand so they would not have to heat all the rooms. This house is only 3 years old though. Also house has coils in floor so floor is heated.

I like the house and grounds a lot. The kitchen is the largest room in the house with lots of storage and wonderful gas stove. Only problem is, again as many had told me, it is too narrow for our size cookie sheets and pans.

I am worried how we are going to get furniture up and down the stairs which are narrow and sharp turns. Moving in day should be interesting.

Stan has been in Shanghai this week.

Here is link to new pictures of house and our neighborhood pub.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jakesjag/PicturesFromHouse?authkey=iDk5PidQfDw

First Day in England

We arrived in England just fine - tired but all our luggage and Simba arrived.

We arrived about 7:30 in the morning. By the time we got through customs, picked up Simba and got to hotel via taxi it was about 11:00. We had showers then went for lunch in hotel. I was suggesting to Stan we should go ahead and rent the car. We could not reach the car rental place by phone so there was some time while we tried to figure out what to do. I layed down and was asleep before my head hit the pillow! Slept for 3 hours! Stan took the girls swimming in the indoor pool.

I have tried to put link of time and weather on this site with no success. There must be a way to do it and will continue to research it so you will always know what time and weather is here. It has been perfect weather to me with high of 60 degrees and partly cloudy. It gets down to the 40's at night. Supposed to be like that for the rest of the week.

Today we met with landlord at our house. I took camera and tape measure and used neither. There was someone from company who looks over the house and documents any problems or potential problems. He took us around inside and out to point out any problems. The landlord was there too showing us details of how things work. He and his wife lived in house next door and then built this one to live in so they know the house and the neighbors. It was great to talk with them.

I love the house and the neighborhood. We are up a little bit of hill and tucked back in end of street. The garage is bit smaller then ours but also has great loft or attic area as does the house. The kitchen is huge with plenty of storage. Landlord was on phone when he saw me looking bit startled. He knew I was looking for dishwasher and walked over to open the door.

Another interesting thing is that each room has seperate door that closes - even the living room. I had seen people talk about this on groups I am on. They do it to help with heating. However in this house he put coil heating throughout the floor too. Because they also like cooler house, they would just turn this on and it keeps the house pretty warm.

The rooms are small but they have made good use of storage. I wish I had sold off more furniture. I asked about garage sales and he said they really don't do that in this area. There is huge flea market in spring that everyone attends. It is good we did sell our living room furniture.

The back yard or garden as they call it is so nice. There is a stone patio area outside the living room area. Steps on either side go up to grassy area across the top. It is just wonderful.

I am so sorry I did not take pictures. I was just soaking it all in.

There are several pubs close by. Pubs in England are more about eating then drinking. They are also where neighbors meet. Landlord told us about the best one close to us and knew one of our neighbors stopped there every day after walking his dogs. Again I wished I had taken pictures because it is everything you think of in a British pub.

Afterwards we stopped at ASDA owned by Walmart to pick up some swimming goggles for Lauren. Also found a magazine on Hertfordshire the county we are living in. Great information about all the little villages in area.

The firs 24 hours have gone very well. I think I will enjoy our time in England.

Flight to England

We had so many things to do the last couple of days after furniture left. On Tuesday we had to be at airport by noon to drop off Simba. We still had so many last minute things that came up we had list to do on Tuesday morning. We got most of them done and made to airport on time.

I can only put so many pictures on this blog at a time so have put them at google with this link. Hopefully all you have to do is to click on this link to see pictures of our trip and editorial comments.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jakesjag/PicturesOfMoveToEngland?authkey=D89rkUSoKq8

Last Days

The time has come to say good by to our friends. The first started with the Chinese school the girls have been attending longer then any of their schools. They handled it very well but as we turned the corner from the school, Anna said I miss Mrs. Fang already. I think they handled it all very well. I am the one that it was hard. They have had such wonderful teachers.



Their friends and teachers at Mary Immaculate put together wonderful books with pictures done by the students. We will treasure them.



Finally we had going away party at home of friends with friends from Mary Immaculate school. We will miss them all so much.



Here is link to pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/jakesjag/LastDayPictures?authkey=RTK1r5YVD0I

Trucks Arrive

The trucks and packers arrive to start packing our house. It was an unbelievable process. We could have some items shipped by air to arrive in couple of weeks. We had these seperated out. It was hard to try and anticipate what we would need over next 2 months. It took 5 days to pack and load. Items were loaded like the truck in back. MG was also put on another truck like this with other items. They were sealed. Unless they are opened by customs, items will go directly to our house where we will break the seal showing that items stayed on this container. The container goes to Houston where it will be put on boat. It should take 6-8 weeks before they arrive.

Jacobs Family Is Moving to England

We are on the road again! After almost 13 years in Dallas, we are moving to England. Stan received promotion with Hilton Hotels to Vice President of International Brand Support for the Hilton Family hotels which include Hilton, Doubletree, Garden Inns, Embassey Suites, Hampton, Homewood Suites. The Hilton office is in Watford England but he will be traveling to all countries but the Americas. Next week he travels to Rome, after that to China.

This is a perment move rather then a expat move where there would be a definate time that we would return. We are selling our house here. Movers will be coming October 22 to pack our belongings.

We visited in July for a week with Anna and Lauren. With help of relocation we visited 4 schools and picked one of those. It is called Abbots Hill School and is an all girls school for grades up through high school. It seems like a great school and the girls are looking forward to attending. The school is on southern edge of Hemel Hempstead. Here is link if you would like to see pictures of the school. http://www.abbotshill.herts.sch.uk/index.htm



Watford is northeast of London. We decided to find the school first and then find a house close to the school. I started looking online for houses to rent. I found several while Stan was in England so he went to see them. One turned out to be perfect in that it was 5 minutes from Abbots Hill school with added pluses of having an upstairs and a basement! Also 2 car garage with space for Stans tools. It is in village of Boxmoor but is part of Hemel Hempstead. It has a long history.








House in Boxmoor





Love this kitchen




Bedrooms are small but master is made for English size king and rooms for girls will handle twin bed.




Before movers come we have been trying to downsize. Since the electricity in UK is different we have been getting rid of electrical items. We have had one garage sale and planning another for Oct. 20 before movers come. We will be selling two of our cars but moving the 1960 MGA. Stan gets a car with his position but we also plan on buying a electric car. We are also 5 minutes from train station.


While the movers are here, we will be staying at local hotel. Hopefully furniture will be on its way by Oct. 26. We will be flying on Oct. 30. We will have few days before Stan has to leave for China. Furniture will take 4-6 weeks to arrive but will be able to air ship some things which will arrive shortly after we do. We will have access to the house but will be staying at Watford Hilton till furniture arrives. Girls start to school week of Nov. 19.