The River Walk in Augusta, where Fort Discovery is located, is beautiful.

 
Nought wrong with a pint of cider! As you can see from the photos today we went to Fort Discovery. We met Mike and the kids there. Mary was poorly so didnt come. After we went for Pizza at the pizzza joint, 56 beers and Ciders on tap! Yehaw, heres me drinking a pint of strongbow for Kirsty! Cheers babe!

 
 
 
Alex riding the Sky Bike.







The boys at Fort Discovery.









Ethan spinning out of contol again!

 
 
Ethan's class at the Easter egg hunt.






Ethan and his gang!! All the boys have hit it off with everyone!

Ethan's egg hunt

Friday 30th March.
The boys last day at school for a week. It's spring break here!! just in time for the Masters, when everyone with a brain escapes Augusta for the week because of the crowds and traffic! We, of course, are staying here!
I helped at Ethan's class Easter egg hunt, then had lunch with Alex. So that is all three boys having had me for lunch with their class now. We had pizza and it wasn't bad. I thanked all the dinner ladies and told them we just can't do this in England. They were all shocked, and said the schools here welcome parents in to have lunch with their kids. During such a long school day most kids love it.
Sat in the garden after school, pondering how I ever managed before without a 'swiffer wet-jet', then when Mr. Smith came home we went to 'Ryan's' for dinner, steak- buffet type place.
Stopped at Lowe's,(homebase, on the way home for some garden cushions and a blower! you don't even sweep here. you just get a garden blower! Pics to follow!!

 
The guys last night. I wonder if I can squeeze into a suitcase........

Thursday 29th March

Today I got started on my NVQ course work again started school work for Linda. It was odd getting my books out again, but it felt good to be able to continue it and not waste the work I have done.
I went up to school with Ethan to have lunch, grilled cheese sandwich, and then stayed in his class room for the afternoon. After recess we had a fire drill, which with 680 school children worked very well!
Mr. Smith bought home Subway and after Alex went to his footy match. It was his last one of the season now, but he scored two goals!
I went to Kroger (supermarket)for beer and wine as Terchia and the guys are coming round after dinner for their last night and to say goodbye.
Can't believe they are going home and I am staying here!!! Still I get to keep Wallace's Yorkshire Teabags!

 
Alex and his new footy team, the Hurricanes.

Book Fair - Again!

Just back from helping at school the Book Fair again. The best bit was - I didn't realise that parents are welcome to come to school and have lunch with their kids so when Jordan's grade were having lunch one of the women I was working with asked did I want to have lunch with him?
It was great, I lined up in the queue with him and had my school cafeteria grilled cheese sandwich and green beans and fruit cup on my little plastic tray! Jordan loved it!
I came home and walked Coleby, or rather he walked me! There is a health trail around the neighbourhood so we went out for a stroll, he is lovely, but is very strong and pulls a lot and not much fun to walk to be honest!
Did homework after school and then went to stevie b's pizza with Alex's new football team for their end of season team dinner and trophy presentations.

Mr. Smith conveniently put the car in the garage to get the brakes done, and sat at a bar till 6 when we met at the pizza place. Who does he think he is? ME?!?
The coach and his wife are English, Navy, who used to be at Digby and left just before we arrived! and he knows Lannie and Nige. Small bloody world

Alex's hat trick!

Today was the first day that at the last minute all three boys decided to go through what we call the "drive through lane" at school. Mr. Smith and I had to go to get my Georgia Driving licence so drove to school expecting to park and have the walk the kids in, as I have done every day with Eth, till he stops getting nervous. I suppose today was the day!!
Everyday if your child is a 'walker', you leave then at the door, but I have been getting a visitor pass and walking Eth to his class everyday.
If your child is a 'buser' the bus drops them off, and if they are 'car riders' you pull up in front of the school-like at a drive in food restaurant!!!
You pull up and the kids with the good grades and some of the teachers wait outside as 'safety patrol' and open your car doors for your kids and they walk in to school.
Really, you don't have to get out of your car for a thing in America!
As we pulled in this morning I warned Eth - don't ask for a happy meal and small diet coke - and then off they went! all three, Alex with his arm around Ethan and Jordan on the other side. Ethan didn't even want Alex to walk him to his class, but went by himself. For the first morning. Yes of course I cried!!It's all I have done for days!!
It took about an hour to get my Georgia Driving Licence, it was all very efficient. Luckily I had a driving licence from Denver, from when we lived in Colorado, so I just swapped it over. I really didn't fancy parallel parking my truck under pressure!!
Have applied for my personalised number plate - Brit Chick. I wanted BRIT CHK as you have to have 7 figures, but it was already taken, so have ordered BRT CHIK, which could be Brit Chick, or could be Burnt Chicken!
Alex wanted to try a new soccer team, so I spoke to the coach, who turned out to be a British Navy guy, and he said Alex could play in tonight's game.
Off we went and Alex scored his first ever hat trick!!!
Sadly there is only one more match till the end of their season, but there is a team dinner at Stevie B's pizza tomorrow night, so we will take him to that.
Just watching Eragon, it's great!!!

 

Sitting on the front porch having a glass of wine, thinking of all my girls and waiting for Tersia and the guys to arrive.

 
I don't know why this photo of Ehron displays sometimes and not others, but here is it again. I was most surprised to see him at poker night!!!!

I couldn't escape it! ChuckE Cheese!

After a very ordinary morning of housework,(can you see how boring I have become??!)I went to the boys school cos I had volunteered to work at the boys school book fair (I say no more!) I worked for the afternoon with Amy and Mary, who were both very nice. I also got to see Alex and even went out with Ethan for recess - which was great! It's nice to see the boys mixing and playing with all the other kids.
We came home and after a snack went shopping to WalMart, after stopping off to play with Coleby. Coleby is our adopted dog we play with. He is a very big black lab and he lives over the road.
Mr Smith joined us at the store, where he and the boys got their second haircut in America, and I still haven't had even a trim. Ethan and Jordan very kindly swept up all the hair in the store while the girls put their feet up! Everyone loves these kids!
After, the boys wanted to go to "ChuckE Cheese's" for dinner, where the world's rudest server served us at the counter. Mr Smith complained and she came over to apologize. As if the place was not bad enough!
"ChuckE Cheese" is every normal sane parents nightmare, and strangely mine too!
It's a pizza restaurant with arcades and games in for the kids. You have to buy tokens for them with which they play the games and receive paper tickets as scores, then with those tickets they go to the counter and choose cheap plastic toys which get broken or lost in about ten minutes! But the boys love it! It's full of screaming kids - worse than any Wacky Warehouse on a rainy Sunday afternoon - but you can't keep them away.
Then we had to come home and do homework! Quick bath - and bed.

 
 
 
The boys have an Easter egg hunt with their cousins in our back garden.



Chris and Leeann help get the trampoline up.



Uncle Chris getting squished by all the kids.

 
Mr. Smith finding dinner - A cray fish.

 
 
 
More photos from the Dam

 
 
 
photos from the Dam and lake

Weekend 24th/25th March 88 degrees!

Saturday.
well we got to the kids easter egg hunt at the club house too late - nothing to do with drinking Jegarmeister and redbull and white wine till nearly 3am. So all the other kids had started and our boys got one egg between them!
got to buy more eggs and do another egg hunt later on at home!
We signed Jordan up for the local swim team, the Riverwood rapids. He will swim every morning and has 5 swim meets in the season. He really can't wait. He was so good at swimming in England and i think he will love it here.
Went out to Strom Thurman Dam and lake. Photos to follow. It's a beautiful Park and Lake, made by the dam and the boys had fun on a little beach.
Finally bought a vacum cleaner (mingers!!!) and vacumed up before Mr. Smith's brother, Chris and Leeann and their kids, Ada Tai and Sage arrived to spend the night from Alabama.
It was so nice to see them and it was like we had all seen each other yesterday! Found a curry house and had our first Indian takeaway in America. And quite possibly our last!

Weekend 24th/25th March

I spent Thursday and Friday at home with Ethan, who had a tummy bug so couldn't go to school. Alex walked Jordan to school like a big brother should, and home again. The school is only 10 mins walk away but I still worried and rang the school to check they had got there!
By bedtime I thought Ethan would be ok but Friday morning he was still sick so Alex took Jordan to school again and Eth and I chilled out.
Friday was the Poker night. Tersh, Wallace, Tom, Chris and Tony came over and I made chili.
When they got here they had a look around and then went looking for snakes!!!!!!!!!!!
Tony was desperate to find one!
After dinner, the guys played poker and Tersia and I watched "Chocolate" and discussed how much Johnny Depp would get it!!!!!!!!
Mr Smith won one round,and Ehron even joined in! 
 
 

 

Alex being a big brother and taking Jordie to school on their own for the first time, as Ethan was sick.

Digby Count- 19, including children, 14 not including.

Dinner at Jan and Jez's

This afternoon I went to the boys school to join the committee making plans for the fifth-graders graduation party! Just trying to get a bit involved, and get the chance to meet some mums. The kids are going to have a pool party with bbq and music and games on the afternoon of the day they graduate, on May 18th. This is just for the kids who are moving up to middle school, (which starts at bloody 0730!!! - middle school that is, not the graduation party!)
Encountered our first hornet! They are HUGE!!!!!!!The bugger was only building a nest on my front porch!!! How dare he! He obviously didnt know who he was dealing with! I sprayed him to death, knocked him down with a broom handle and stamped on him. He's dead.
At just after six we went to Jan and Jez's for dinner. Sue, Dave and their girls from Digby were there also, and Kate who was visiting from Digby but going back tomorrow. Sue used to run the creche at Diggers.
We had a lovely dinner and a great evening chatting. I don't know if it was the totally English company but the boys were so soon out of their shell and acting normally for the first time since being here. Think I prefered them before!!!!
Going to meet Jan and Sue and some others tomorrow for lunch after helping out in Ethan's class for the morning.

 
So proud of these boys!

Tuesday 20th March

Jordie went back to school today, but Alex still poorly so he stayed off school again.
It's so quiet during the day, but I saw Christina from over the road and met some mums on the way to school. The schooling here is so different, and we are all confused. The boys are doing great and just getting on with it, but behind the scenes it's very different so I'm going to have to set up appointments to see the teachers and the principle. They just all seem to think we know what we are doing even though we have just got here from England, and their grading and testing systems are so different.
And the big tests are coming up which say if the kids move up a grade or not! Even just in Elementary school! They are test obsessed! and everything is about grades and points and extra credit??!?
I'm so proud of these three boys. They have just taken it all in their stride. From the first day of walking into a strange classroom and having everyone look at them, and opening strange books and just doing the work! Everything is very different, and when you think Tedder had approx. 100 children in and this school has approx 650!!!
It must be so hard to sit at a strange desk next to strange children and watch your mum leave the room.
Brad the Builder - Can he fix it?- came and helped measure up our property line so I can get quotes for a fence around the back yard. Then when it's up, put sulphur around the outside of it to keep the snakes out! Although really, that is not the only reason. I'm just not used to everyone's gardens running into each others with no fences, and I want to get a puppy.
Did homework , with the dining table groaning under the weight of their books, had dinner, and then Ethan and I went to Publix. Again met a very nice young man who packed our groceries and loaded them in the car. Now I know they do this for everyone, but we have to spend twenty minutes explaining where we come from and why we are here. it's fun ....but it adds hours to shopping weekly!
Had a call from Jan, (come on....keep up - Jan from accounts at Digby!!) and we are all going over for dinner tomorrow. Got to look out for house with a Union Jack outside! Oh Yes!!! It will match my truck!

Monday 19th March

Had two poor little sick boys today, off of school. Alex and Jordan both poorly with throat infections. Ethan was a bit worried about going to school on his own but bravely went!!With a couple of sugar cookies for good luck!!!!!!!!!
Ethie came home and wanted me to watch "Flushed Away" with him. That's when I know he is having a homesick day, cos it reminds us of London, and England. The boys have been to London a few times and Eth recognises all the places in the movie. Especially Big Ben!
Everyone else seems settled in, but Eth and I still have a little cry everyday, we are just so homesick and would really like to come home.
Mr.Smith has been fiddling with computers all evening, getting them all set up, and decided at around half nine he needed a new monitor, so out he popped to Walmart. That is the sort of convenience he has missed.
Eth is running a temperature and getting croaky. Hope he is not getting the lurgy!!

 
 
Housewarming flowers from Mum and Dad, which also came just in time for Mother's Day

Sunday - Jordie sick again- Mothers Day !

Woke up Sunday, Mothers Day in England, and Jordie was running a high fever, sore tummy and very sore throat. SO took him to hospital on base at Fort Gordan where after a two hour wait they said he had strep throat. Thats a throat infection to me and you!
Took Alex and Ethan to the PX and for lunch while we waited, it was like sitting at Alconbury, the base in England, and I felt really sad knowing we weren't about to drive home to Digby.
Had no water in the house this afternoon, the connector to the mains cracked and water was gushing out all over the street. Mr. Smith turned the water off at the mains and we called the builder who sent out a plumber.
Spoke to Mum and Dad, they have booked their tickets!! Yey!!!!! They are coming on June 23rd for 2 weeks, and will be here for 4th July. Dad said he has already packed half his suitcase!!!
Met the man across the street, Brian, who seems nice.
Had my lovely Sunday phone call with Christine and Tony. It's so lovely to hear from them. Especially when we are all having a wee dram while we are chatting hee hee!!
I took Alex and Ethan grocery shopping and we met another nice young man who took our groceries to our car, introduced himself, shook hands. He dad was military too and had moved here a few years ago to work at the Fort. People are very friendly here, and when you don't know anyone and have only had Mr. Smith to talk to all weekend , you'll talk to just about anyone!!

All our stuff has arrived now from home. It only took a few days to get the place straight and the boys have now got all their stuff and their bedrooms are straight.
Alex's surf room looks cool! and the other two boys monkey boy/jungle room is half bedroom and half living room ,as we put a couch, the computer and the x-box up there for them. It keeps them very quiet!
Their first week at school went very well, they have made lots of friends and have all settled in very well. The only problem is that Ethan has been put into the wrong grade, his age puts him into first grade and they put him into the second grade. As it is so near the end of the school year-it ends May 18th- they are keeping him where he is and then in August,when they go back, he will start second grade again. His teacher, Mrs.Klapthor is lovely and very good with him, so I think we will keep him where he is. Unless of course he WANTS to go to first grade and be with the kids he will have in his class in August.
After a good week for them and lots of new friends made, we took them out for Chinese Friday night and spent all day Saturday getting the boxes unpacked and getting the house straight.
Alex's friend Grant rang to see if Alex wanted to go and play at his house, so off he went.
Had the electrian round as none of the phone sockets were working, and he sorted that out for us so we now have a home phone!
Tersia and Wallace came round for the evening. It was lovely to see them again and chat to people who know Digby etc. Had Barbaritos burritos for dinner and lots of wine! well me and Tersia did! and watched Casino Royale.
What is that all about - Who gave Mr. Potato the job of being James Bond!!?!

 

Brit Network

SO I think you can see what we have been up to this week. I had a phone call today from a lady called Jan, who has a sort of Brit network out here and they meet up and chat and lunch etc. I think that will help with the homesickness!! Her Husband works with Mr. Smith, and they used to be at Digby!! Turns out its Jan from Accounts at Digby! Small bloody world! She was always so lovely and friendly, I can't wait to see her!!
I have decided to start a Digby count, of everyone from Digby, I meet here. It's already got to be nearly 10!!!

 

 

So it's bye to our home for the last month. Ethan loved the apartment!!

 

 

We really had no furniture! This is the boys getting their school bags ready on Monday night in the kitchen /diner. You have to buy their supplies - exercise books, post it notes(!)glue etc. And one of their first morning off to school. Look, No uniforms!!