December

Life sure is keeping us busy here!  My goodness.  Things are going good for the most part and we have all sorts of exciting things to report.  In no particular order, here we go...

First off, the best news of all:  We received a call last week that an afternoon slot has opened up at a nearby Nursery School (AKA preschool) and Ady was given top priority in being offered the position.  We are so very excited about this!  The school is AMAZING & will be such a good opportunity for Ady.  She will go to Nursery School from 12:15 pm to 3:15 pm Monday thru Friday, which is perfect because our second bit of good news is that I was accepted into the graduate program at USU and will be starting class (just one, for now) January 10th.  It works out so well for both of us.

Here is a link to Ady's school.  It is called Robinsfield.  I took a tour of it last month and was so impressed by the facilities, the faculty, their mission & their program.  It is an infant school and only kids ages 3-7 attend, which allows the school to focus on the needs and abilities of kids at this age.  

http://www.robinsfield.westminster.sch.uk/

A note on my school:  I have decided I am a big geek because when I see all the classes I can take, I get REALLY excited, and I want to take them ALL!  You never know... I may have a doctorate degree some day because of this.  Ironically, though, I have realized that getting a Masters of Natural Resource via online classes is pretty lame since on campus classes are always getting outside and doing awesome things!  What the #$&% was I thinking?!  No, it will still be good.  I am very excited.

So now for a bit of crappy news:  Our phone line has still yet to be installed!  Unbelievable!  I don't want to get into the details of it all because it will flare up large and ugly amounts of anger inside me that I have tucked away for now in order to be able to function in other facets of life.  Suffice it to say, two months have gone by without a phone line and good quality internet.  Absolutely ridiculous.  The company we are working with actually admitted that they lied to us and have been giving us false information, which has caused us all sorts of unnecessary running around and scheduling of unnecessary appointments.  So, if your first impulse, like mine, thinks, "cut service with the company and just go with someone else," you might relate with my extreme frustration when you learn that if we do this, it could take up to 6 more weeks for us to get an appointment booked!!!  I am far beyond irate with this company- and it is an understatement to say that I am stretching my patience muscles to the brink to give them one last chance to make this right.  They are scheduled to come and install the line on Thursday (for real this time, we think).  We'll see what happens.  I might just punch them in the mouth even if they do get it right.  

Speaking of waiting... this past weekend we finally got some much needed wardrobes installed in the master bedroom.  Aside from the kitchen, our flat has had little to no storage, which has made it feel like it never gets clean of all the clutter.  If you know me, you probably know what a nazi I was about simplifying our belongings and de-cluttering our house in Stansbury over the past year.  To my surprise, I am having to start from square one again- and REALLY question the necessity of each item we have here so that our stuff doesn't overtake our lives.  This book is my bible when it comes to simplifying and I highly recommend it to anyone.  It has completely transformed the way we live for the better.  At least for me, it got at the real inner-workings of our lives and improved so many things.  Tyler and I actually felt younger after implementing this book because it just lightens burdens you didn't even realize you had.   So go get it and read it if you haven't yet!!!  :)

Okay.  Sorry.  I am off my soap box.  Back to our wardrobes...  So in our rental agreement it stated that the wardrobes must be done before 6 weeks, otherwise, we would receive 20 pounds per day payment until they were completed.  We counted that it has been 12 days without wardrobes beyond the 6 weeks, which comes to 240 pounds for our pockets.  Chick-ching!  Our waiting paid off this time.

Christmas shopping has been fun this year.  I have discovered some great stores on the infamous Oxford Street.  We have a bus stop just outside our door that can take us straight there, which is extremely convenient.  Oxford Street is all decorated up for the holidays.  On the weekends, much of the street is closed to traffic and many of the stores have live bands, choirs, or performers.  It is a really fun treat.  I feel like the stores here have so many thoughtful and unique things, which makes gift-giving much more fun.  There are also several Christmas markets around London and beyond that are magical.  We went to one in Hyde Park over the weekend that was like a Christmas theme park as big as Lagoon with all sorts of good food and interesting little shops.  Ady actually willingly went to Santa this year and informed him that she wants some princess costumes for Christmas.  I think she might get her wish, if she can work on curbing those silly tantrums.  Hmmmmm.... I may, or may not have had to use Santa threats a time or two to get good behavior.

Can you find Tyler in this picture?  Look really hard.

We went ice skating a couple weeks ago with some friends at the museum of natural history. 

We wish all of our family and friends a very Merry Christmas and we send our love!