It aint all just fun and games...

Well, today was to be my first outing on my own. In the car. With the girls. Without Chris.  We set out and found where we needed to go, and then worked on finding parking. We found a side street with a parking spot available. I had seen Chris download a mobile app and pay for parking by phone by registering his credit card and using the phone's GPS and entering the tag number and location of the pay box on the street.  So, I am a big girl, I can handle this.  I do all of the above and the girls and I walk around the corner to our intended destination... a sewing store.  When we picked up the girls' uniforms, we were told that we would need to move the buttons to adjust the waistbands on their skirts to fit properly. Okay, no problem. I can certainly handle that. Only one problem... I have no needle and thread or scissors. I have all of those things, including my sewing machine, in my air shipment. Only it hasn't arrived yet. So, I have to go buy a needle and thread and scissors. (You can imagine all the eye rolling I did at the silliness of that!)

button display

A row of solid color cotton fabrics, priced at 2 pounds 50 pence per meter.  That equals about $3.76 a yard.

Downton Abbey fabric

This cotton print equals about $16.50 per yard.

A wall of yarn

The sewing store was interesting.  Not terribly impressive, I have to say. It seemed quite old fashioned and the fabrics didn't warm my heart. (Consider that it is very rare when fabric doesn't warm my heart).  And pricey! Oh my word!  I purchased the items that I needed, and headed back to the car with the girls.

Our next stop was to be the lower school of Broomwood Hall, where Olivia and Sophia will be going to school. Their teachers had invited them for a visit.
We returned to the car to find this.

I almost burst into tears right there on the spot.

I did everything I was supposed to do.

And, now I am the proud owner of a parking ticket. And they take this business seriously. It is for 110 pounds. I would totally use the cute little pound symbol here, but I can't find it on the keyboard.  110 pounds, my friends! Holy toledo batman! That is $180.28 by today's exchange rate.  Crap. I couldn't wait to tell Chris. (insert sarcasm here)  My heart hammered in my chest and I wanted to cry. But, I decided to just rip the band aid off and I texted a picture of the ticket to him.

I am not sure what I did wrong, but I think maybe I paid for parking on the wrong side of the street. Sigh. Really, the street is so narrow anyway, can't it just count??
I will try to appeal it. Hoping for the best.

To his credit, he didn't freak out. I think he probably guessed I was only a smidge from completely falling apart and I was still driving around town with the children in the brand new car. I expect he decided that taking a deep breath and not giving me a ration of crap was the smarter move if the children, and the car, and I was to return safely to the parking garage.

Our school visit was really nice. The girls' teachers are delightful. Their classrooms are really adorable and I think it will be a very special experience for them. And, I almost cannot stand the anticipation of seeing them all decked out in their uniforms tomorrow. The hats... oh my... the hats are beyond adorable. Darn that Georgia wont be wearing one. The oh-so-mature girls of sixth year (that's the equivalent of 5th grade) don't wear them. And, when you see these hats, the winter hats, just know that they are only half as cute as the straw hats they wear in summer! :)

So, I wont post this until tomorrow, after I get the girls off to school, when I will have time to put the pictures in place where they belong.  But, right now, as it is late my time, I am picturing the scene tomorrow... I will be a little soggy-eyed and taking full advantage of the free bonus that came with my grocery delivery this evening - a bottle of champagne. Maybe this place aint all bad... but...

I miss America. I miss my family. I miss my friends. I can be walking down the street and hear a laugh that reminds me of Emily. Or Sophia accidentally calls me Mrs. Halsakey (that is how she says Michalski) or I think of Allison, or Miriam, or Joanne, or Sydney, or Soni, or Stephanie or Jessica or Currie or Kelly or Amy or Liz, or... and tears spring to my eyes.  I consider myself so lucky that those friends wrote on my heart with indelible ink (that's SHARPIE, people!).  I think that the teary feelings will soon get farther apart, but part of me hopes that they wont. I am so loved, and so blessed by some really nifty people.  And those people expect me to pull up my big girl panties and keep on going. So, I will.