Where in the world is Amanda Tom?

I'm currently, believe it or not, sitting in my bedroom at my parents' house. This is not somewhere I thought I'd be for a year when I left in August, but 4 and a half short months later, here I sit...And here's why:

The last time I posted, Penny and Kevin were out of town on a week long trip, and so it was me and the girls at home for a week. Like I had said, it was snowing, which was great. I loved it, I've never lived somewhere that it snowed before, only visited, so I thought it was really, really awesome. On Friday the 3rd, I Skyped with my mom and she dropped the biggest news on me that I've heard since she and my dad told me in April that they were getting a divorce...she had a colonoscopy a few days before, and they discovered a mass that looked bad. She had a doctor's appointment, and while she did that, Selena and Kiv were over and we did holiday arts and crafts with the girls and started a super long Star Wars Monopoly game. When I talked to my mom the second time that night, she told me that the doctors told her the mass was malignant...my mom has colon cancer. And I immediately hated that I wasn't close enough to give my mommy a hug right away and be there for her.

I had an emotionally tough week and a half between that time and when I was scheduled to fly to Ohio for Christmas. My mom's doctors thought that the had caught it early, and that she should be "cured" by just having one operation to take out the mass, and that she could wait until after Christmas, since my mom and I had plans to maybe go to Washington, DC or New York sometime after Christmas before I went back to England on January 4. We didn't really see much of a reason to change those plans, so on December 14th I flew to Ohio, and was there until December 29th. We decided to come back a little earlier than planned [January 4th], because there was worry that there might be something in my mom's liver too, but she had an ultrasound and the doctors said they're just cysts, nothing to worry about. Over the time we were in Ohio, someone made an [really, ridiculously low] offer on our house, which is for sale. They ended up not liking our counter offer, and moved on, but with that and cancer, my mom and I wanted to be home sooner than January 4th, since her surgery was scheduled for January 7th. We just relaxed and enjoyed being in our own house before the surgery.

I had a great time in Ohio for Christmas. We went to Chicago for a few days to visit some cousins, and got to see my grandma a lot, who is doing absolutely phenomenal. She has come really far from where she was when I saw her in August. She's walking with a walker, and has leg exercises that she does every day...she nearly gave my dad a heart attack I think when she started to do them one day while we visited! But, it is hilarious to see her standing next to my brother, who also sort of looks like a woolly mammoth right now. Also, I got to meet a new baby cousin, and see almost all of my other cousins, plus almost all my aunts and uncles from both sides of the family.



I'm only saying this because Grandma called herself a shrimp after she saw this...
"The Woolly Mammoth and the Shrimp"


Me, Grandma and Nate!


My mom had her surgery almost a week ago now. It was about 4 hours long, which was on the long side of their estimates of how long it would take, but the doctor said it went well. It was Nate's last weekend at home, and we visited mom the last days he was home. Monday came and we were expecting the pathology report, and Nate flew back to Texas that day, so I went to see mom alone and we waited...and waited...and waited...for the doctor to come in and tell us what the report said. We had been told that the report was there, but that "he who removed it has to tell you about it" and her doctor was in surgery. Patience is not our strong suit, but we waited 6 hours before finding out he was gone for the day, but he'd come Tuesday.

I'll be adding Tuesday to my list of "days I heard news I was not at all expecting." We were really hopeful that the surgical cure we were waiting for had happened. But, that's not the news we got. The mass had gone through the colon wall, and 2 of the 14 lymph nodes they took out were not clear. Since it went through the wall, that made the cancer Stage 3, which was scary to hear. The doctor didn't think the cancer had spread anywhere else, but, in "an abundance of caution," my mom will be getting chemo starting in about 4-6 weeks. She has to go back to the doctor next week to talk more about it, but it's looking like probably 4-6 months of treatment. This chemo is supposed to be very well tolerated, and he said she probably won't lose her hair, which is good. Although I did volunteer to donate some of mine if she did. ;)

So, what does this mean for my time abroad?
Well, in short, it means that for now, it's over. Very well tolerated or not, I don't think mom's going to be driving herself around while she's getting chemo. Of course, I also am just feeling that this is where I need to be right now, with my mom, while she goes through this. So, I'm home, for good. And I will say, it's great to be home with my mom again, there's nothing quite like your mom!

SNOW!

That's right, it's started SNOWING here in England!!

It started just after Thanksgiving in parts of the UK, but didn't snow here until Monday night. Kari got REALLY excited that she might not have school on Tuesday, but so far it hasn't been that bad. It snowed more last night, my guess is about an inch, but I really have NO idea.
I've been bundling up when I go outside...today I wore knitted tights under my jeans, AND socks. Plus a beanie, gloves, arm warmers, a scarf, and a coat over my shirt and cardigan.

Kari's out for the night for a school thing, and it's just me and Ellie at home tonight, so we had a snowball fight after school, it was awesome. We had one on Tuesday too, and she got me right in the eye, but we've since discussed snowball fight etiquette, which in my world includes NOT hitting people in the face. Much better efforts today, no one got hit in the face.

Other than snow, not a lot out of the ordinary has been happening here...I got to have "Thanksgiving" here, Penny and Kevin were both out that night, so Selena and Kiv very kindly brought over turkey, carrots, cranberry sauce, and some non-Thanksgiving foods like sausages and yorkshire puddings. I made corn bread [my favorite!] and rainbow chip cupcakes...Which I ALMOST messed up so bad. I added 1 1/3 cups of oil instead of 1/3 of a cup of oil, and since it was a box mix, I wasn't sure how to fix it! I ended up putting regular flour in until the consistency looked better, and they turned out pretty good, so hooray for an avoided catastrophe!

I've been doing lots of exploring on walks with Bindi, and there are SO MANY gorgeous green areas around here.

I'm flying back to Ohio on December 14th, I'm super excited!!! My momma and Nate will be at the airport when I get there, the plan is for them to meet me at my gate, I'm really getting impatient! I want to start packing already but know it's still just a LITTLE too soon!

And with that, I leave you with pictures!

The last month or so

I feel like a horrible blogger, it's been almost a month since my last post, and that one was pretty boring [no pictures. I know about 80% of my friends are "visual" people, so they probably didn't read that last post...come to think of it they might not read this one either!]. Sorry!

I'm making up for it though, lots of pictures for this post, in slideshow form again. I'm going to try to talk about everything that I have pictures of, so either skip to the end to watch that first, or read it all first. Either way. =]

My brother turned 20 on October 10th, he got the best birthday ever this year: 10-10-10. Seriously. Not fair. On his birthday, I went into London with Selena and her friends Lauren and Kiv. We were going to see a band from Beaconsfield [not far from here] play a show that night, but also wanted to hang out in the city while we were out there. We went to a couple arcade-type places, which was cool because I got to see all the games that are the same here and at home, and the ones that are different.
We had lunch at a TGI Friday's, which is one of my favorite restaurants back home, so I was THRILLED! And, it was decorated with a ton of American sports stuff, like a old-school Mighty Ducks logo. I was a happy camper there!
One of the best parts was getting to meet up with Allister, an old friend from home who is studying for a year in London. Allister and I probably haven't seen each other in 5 or 6 or more years [since sometime in high school], but it was so great to meet up with someone else who "gets it" about what I'm missing. And I couldn't have met up with anyone who "got it" more than Allister, since he lives about 6 streets away from my family at home!

This past weekend, Marika and I went to London to go to the Tower of London, which I know I went to when I was here with People to People when I was 12, but I don't remember a lot of. It was great to get to go back as an adult and see it all again, and maybe this time I'll actually remember more of it! =] Another reason that going here was such a big deal to me was that my Aunt Monica, whom I stayed with while I was in Ohio this summer, LOVES King Henry VIII, and I've been on a mission since getting here to find her a great Henry postcard. Since the Tower of London was where Henry kept his prisoners [including a number of his wives], there were BOUND to be postcards and souvenirs of him aplenty there...and there were! There were some really cool ones, but I stuck with the post cards for her and a charm for my charm bracelet for me. I did see some postcards that I'm positive are in my People to People scrapbook in a box at my parent's house, which goes to show you that they keep the same ones for at least 10 years. King Henry VIII's armor was there, which was super cool to see, because he was rather large for his time.
Anyway, the Tower is spooky, pretty much all the way through. When you think about the loooooong history the place has, it's hard to not realize how spooky it is! So many people were prisoners there [a lot probably for reasons that wouldn't be considered "good" nowadays]. One part that really stuck with me was The Princes in the Tower, which I don't remember hearing about before. Supposedly, these brothers were taken to the tower after their dad, the king, died, and they were seen a few times after that, but never again. There are 3 people who are suspected of possibly killing them, if they were actually killed. I like mystery things, so this was super-interesting to me. But I also like solid, for-sure endings, so I don't like that there's no conclusion about how these poor boys died. Also, it's confusing to read about because everyone had the same names, and people have a lot of titles that are used to identify them. I feel like I'm still in school when I read about these kinds of things!
I also have always been really interested in Henry VIII and all his wives, and this kind of history was always so cool to me, from a social perspective, not from a fighting and political aspect. It's nice to be able to "study" things the way you want to and not the way schools and textbooks force you too. =]
Anyway, the Tower was a lot of fun, but now my cousins Jason and Dawn are mad at me for not going to a cheese sandwich place near there that they went to and insisted was life changing. Sorry guys!!!

In other news, fall has definitely started here, but I think it might be confused with winter, because it has been COLD here recently! We had a few weeks where it barely got above 40 or 50F during the day, and the nights are obviously colder than that! Taking Bindi for a walk has involved a lot more layering up, including but not limited to coats, scarves, gloves, arm warmers and beanies. BRR. I asked Penny and she said it's not usually quite this cold this early in the year, so I'm guessing winter will only get worse. No snow [yet] but I'm kind of hoping that it snows before the end of the month, at least once. Of course, once it starts I'll want it to stop, but oh well!

While taking Bindi for walks wasn't 100% my favorite thing at first, I've really started to enjoy it because it gives me a chance to explore new places around where I live. There's a great area just down the street that's all enclosed where I can let her off her lead and she can run around. It's beautiful right now with all the leaves, but I've been told it's even better in the spring, so I'm excited for that. I've gone the other direction with her a few times too, and found a HUGE wooded area/open area that is absolutely beautiful. We just don't have these kinds of things in California...they're all "national parks" or trails, at least where I'm from. Plus, going on long, meandering walks has been some great exercise! That's my excuse for not working out, at least! =]

Halloween was pretty low-key. Ellie decorated a LOT a few days before, and we just took the decorations down today. We carved pumpkins and Selena was here for that too, so she did one. Penny's a HUGE Elvis fan, so Selena made an Elvis pumpkin for her that turned out pretty awesome. I was really impressed with what Harry, Kari and Ellie did with theirs, I think all 8 pumpkins looked great. The kids got two each, and then Selena and I each did one. Harry ended up staying at a friend's house on Halloween night, and both of the girls decided they didn't want to trick or treat, so we stayed in.

The past week, Penny and Kevin have been in California/Las Vegas, so I've been in charge. No one has been injured and nothing is broken, so I'm feeling that it's gone well. =] Ellie's been a little sad, but we've made it and Mum & Dad come home tomorrow, she's very excited! Ellie had "Roman Day" at school today, and she got to wear a cool costume to school for it. She liked it so much she didn't want to change when she got home! There are a few pictures of her goofing off before school this morning [which I'm sure she'll be mad about when she sees, but oh well!] Selena's been over most days while Penny and Kevin have been gone, she's been great in providing me with grown-up company. Also, we're determined to finish the 1,000 piece puzzle the girls started on the kitchen table a few weeks ago, so secretly, I think that's why she keeps coming back! ;-] We decided we HAVE to finish it before I leave for Christmas...December 14 is the deadline! I think we'll be done before then because we [mostly Selena] made awesome progress on it this past weekend and week.


I know this was a LONG post again, but here's your reward: Pictures!

London Weekend + I Grew A Monkey

Hello there blogworld! Thanks for being here today!

On that note, I never know how to start a blog. Any tips would be greatly appreciated...here goes!

Last weekend I went to London on Sunday with Marika, the Finnish au pair who drives a Fit aka Jazz. We also went out on Saturday night to Beaconsfield, to meet up with a Canadian au pair named Stephanie that we met. [This is relevant, I swear...] Saturday night we got to the train station to take the train ONE station up, and found out that there were NO TRAINS running this weekend out here. They had planned closures for repairs to the lines, so they were running buses that left once every 20 minutes, which was kind of lame.

Anyway, in the early afternoon on Sunday we trekked back to the station to take a bus out to Hillingdon, where we would be able to get on the tube to take to London.
It had been raining a LOT last week....this is what the road near my house looked like Sunday morning on the way to the station...flooded all the way across both sidewalks and the whole street:

And just for some reference, here's an extended map of the tube station, and I put a big X where GX is, just so everyone can see!

The tube system has SO many lines that go so many different ways and have different ending points/offshoots. It's going to take me a while to get this one down the way I have Muni down...I *think* that if you click on this it will get bigger...or it might just go to the site I got the map from in the first place, where you can make it bigger anyway!


Instead of a 30-45 minute ride on one train, we had a 15-20 minute ride on a bus, then a 30-45 minute train ride. Oh well. While we were on the bus, another passenger caught our attention. While we walked into the train station I told Marika that I thought she was an au pair, because I'd over heard her at the station and on the bus that she was an Australian and she wasn't sure if she was going to move to GX or not, and she wasn't familiar with the area yet. We ended up talking to her at the Hillingdon station and it turns out she was going to be an au pair in GX pretty soon. We exchanged contact information and are now Facebook friends, and I'm excited to have someone else near by who is an au pair!

So, Marika and I had plans to meet up with her friend Caroline, also an au pair, who is from Germany. Caroline wasn't/isn't happy with her house family, so she's actually leaving this weekend to work in France instead. Marika and I both wanted to go to the Tower of London since I haven't been since my People to People trip nine years ago and she's never been. It turns out Caroline had been already, so she didn't want to go, but we decided to go to Harrod's, a huge, fancier-than-Nordstrom's department store, which is a biiiiiiig deal, just to look around. We got there after a number of train changes and waiting, and also ended up eating at McDonald's. It's cheap and fast and the same in every country, what can I say! =]


Marika outside Harrod's


Me and Caroline outside Harrod's. [Hi mom, see, I am here! ;)]


Some of the sweets in Harrod's...SO MUCH CANDY EVERYWHERE!


Santa candy already!


Cupcakes!


Marika resting on a display in the store.


Olympics souvenirs...even though they're almost 2 years away...


I might have to go back and see if they make this shirt in my size...this was the kid's department. =]


What I thought was the best part about Harrod's was at one point while we were on the escalator, all of the sudden I thought the music changed a lot. It turned out there was a LIVE opera singer in one of the balconies singing. It was AMAZING. I'm crossing my fingers that this video uploads before I'm done writing this, because she was really good! [UPDATE: Okay this uploaded but I can't tell if it's working or not...someone let me know! Thanks to everyone who let me know it's working!]

My first video upload success!!!!! [I hope!]


We also went up to Notting Hill to see where the movie was filmed/set, even though I've never seen it. It was nice to see it without all the carnival madness going on! There was supposed to be a tube strike that night, so Marika and I needed to head back to GX before about 5, and we got home just fine, luckily. 


Clouds here were beautiful!


And the houses are so colorful!


Cute wellies I saw on Portobello Road!


Hi again Mom!

This week I had somewhat of an adventure with Bindi on Monday. I went to the wooded area down the street to take her for a walk. It's an enclosed area, and usually we let her off the lead when she's in there and she's pretty good about not going too far away from you...almost like she's afraid you're going to leave her there [which is a good reason to be afraid, I think!]. I was taking her lead off right outside the gate, and usually she walks right through the gate just fine, but this time she didn't, and ran off down the street. I felt like I was chasing Sparky, it was awful. Luckily she didn't go TOO far away, but it was still a nice little run I took!

This weekend both of my parents are in Texas to see Nate for his birthday...the big 2-0 for him this Sunday! My brother is living on his own for the first time this year, and he seems to be...well...he's surviving, but struggling. He hasn't had lights in his bathroom or half his kitchen since he moved in in early August because he had to flip surges and didn't know. That's my brother for you! I do miss him a lot and am excited that my parents are there for his birthday and the beginning of his baseball season. I'm looking forward to reporting highlights for everyone as Nate continues to kick butt on the diamond this season [last season he was the division record holder for doubles!]!!!

While Nate turns 20 on Sunday, I'll be going to London with Selena, who's also Ellie's tennis coach, to see a local band play a show. It turns out Selena and I have pretty similar music taste, so hopefully we find more shows to go to!

I also have dates for going to the States for Christmas. I'll be in Ohio/the east coast from December 11-January 4, and hopefully my mom and I are going to take some kind of little road trip while I'm out there. No California trips though, sorry guys!


Oh, and the "Amanda Grew A Monkey" bit...Ellie likes to hang on me like a monkey some days...see?










Then she falls and can't get up because she's laughing so hard.


And finally, one more picture for mom...Proof I'm here again! [I post ONE picture on Facebook mobile and suddenly she thinks I'm not here!] This one's by Ms. Ellie!

Best Skype Chat EVER!

My dad is spending this week and the two surrounding weekends on the East Coast. In Ohio both weekends to visit family, and in Toronto during the week for business. The BEST part of this for me is that I got to Skype with my Grandma, who is 88 years old. Just this past week, my cousins Matt and TerriLynn had a baby girl, Madison Lynn, bringing my grandma's great-grandchild count up to 9...Then more cousins, Lex and Lindsey, announced that they're expecting their second baby! Very exciting!!!

My dad's not 100% perfect at aiming the camera, so he cut Grandma's head off a few times, but honestly this was the best Skype chat I've ever had!!!
She didn't entirely know what to think, I think...She thought it was super expensive, then dad told her it was free..and she tired to kick me off a few times "okay well you have a lovely time and I miss you and I love you" type things, then we'd stop her and say I wasn't going anywhere yet. It was funny. Hopefully we'll get to do it again when dad is there next weekend.


Grandma and Dad.

Uncle Bob, Dad, Aunt Monica, Uncle Terry and Aunt Chris around Grandma's head.

Dad giving Grandma bunny ears...how rude! ;-]

And bonus: two shots of what I sent dad for his birthday...


He was moving it around in front of the camera and singing the Jaws theme song.....Yup, this is my father...

Pictures!

This weekend I went to London again. I left on Saturday afternoon after taking Ellie to judo [which was fun to watch, I've never seen so many small kids safely tackling each other!]. I met up with Hannah and Mollie at Oxford St. where they were shopping. We had plans to go to Church, another Australian bar that people flock to on Sundays, the next day. Apparently people wear what they call "fancy dress" to Church...In my mind, fancy dress means, well, a dress and heels and the like. Here, it means costumes. This place was like being at a high school dance that had a theme...but with booze. Anyway, we were going as crayons, and had to make my dress/buy fabric to make it. We made a pit stop in Hamley's, a HUGE toy store. It had 5 stories and basically every toy EVER.

I promised pictures, and here they are! Instead of a loooooong scroll through of photos, I made a slide show! It might go a little fast [sorry! I'm going to try to find a better site to make the slide shows on...], but you can pause it and just click through the pictures at your own pace. It's pretty much the whole past month, from the Adidas Women's 5K challenge that Penny, Kari and Ellie ran to the trip to London from this past weekend.

Picture summary!:
A few shots from the Adidas 5K that Penny, Kari and Ellie did.
The "American food" section at the grocery store near here. Penny's sister found a website called usafoodstore.com that imports a bunch of American food [mostly cake mixes and cereal, but still cool!] that I'm excited about.
London weekend: On Saturday we went to the London Aquarium. No flash photography allowed, and honestly, I'm not going to bore you all with photos of fish. A turtle shot, but no other fishies. We tried to go up to the Prime Minister's house but it was blocked off, so Mollie took a few pictures of me outside the gates. We went to Buckingham Palace also, which I remember from my People to People trip from 2001, but not too well. The Pope was here over the weekend, so there was a lot of security stuff set up on the way to the Palace, which was cool to see. No real need to see the man himself though.
Then shots from the crayon's trip to Church on Sunday.

Another week!

Last week all three kids started school. Harry went back on Tuesday night, since he boards during the week and classes started Wednesday. Ellie started Wednesday morning as well, and Penny, Kari and I took her to school, since it's also Kari's old school. We went to Westfield, a huge mall, that day, and I gave in to my love of stationary and pens at Paperchase, which was awesome.

Kari started school on Thursday, so that was the first day all the kids were gone all day. Friday I watched Cassidy for the morning while Penny and Kevin were out, and we had a great time.

I had a nice weekend, I went out on Saturday afternoon with two other au pairs, Marika and Elin. Marika drives here and HAS A HONDA FIT. Okay well it's a Jazz here, but it's a Honda Fit and makes me miss Little Blue! We had a nice time in High Wycombe at the Eden Center.

This week is the first full week of the kids being in school. Here's an idea of what my schedule is every day:

7:00 am-7:20 am Get up and dressed.
7:20 am-7:35 am Eat breakfast, usually make Ellie breakfast and get Ellie upstairs to get ready. Usually around 7:35 Kari and Penny leave to take Kari to the bus.
7:35 am-8:20 am Make sure Ellie is totally ready for school, has all her stuff for the day, do Ellie's hair, and usually we have a few minutes that Ellie will use to play a game before we have to leave for school at 8:20.
8:20 am-8:35 am Either Penny or I will take Ellie to school and come back home.
8:35 am-3:40 pm Do whatever needs to be done at home during the day. Each week it's cleaning the floors downstairs and dusting, ironing, cleaning/dusting the kid's rooms and bathrooms, cleaning the stairs, and anything else that comes up during the week.
3:40 pm Leave to go pick Ellie up at school, come home.
3:40 pm-7 pm Eat, do homework with the girls, help get Ellie into bed for the night.

That's pretty much it during the week.

Yesterday Kari and I were brushing up on our British history...She's preparing for her common entrance tests in the spring, which is basically what she'll be studying for all year. The exams are a pretty big deal. We learned about Edward I, Alexander III, and that back in the day [okay, and today still, but not as bad] that people are SUPER uncreative in naming their kids. Alexander III's wife was named Margaret, they named their daughter Margaret, and SHE named HER daughter Margaret. Um, like that's not confusing...

Tonight I'm going to a meeting with some other au pairs which will be nice.

I sent out some more letters, so write me back or send me your address so I can send you some too! Oh, and let me know who's out there reading this, leave me a comment [with your name, pretty please...Jess P, was that you with the ranch comment???]


Edit!!!
I can't believe I almost forgot this!!!! I finally got my diploma in the mail this week!!! Here are some [okay a lot of] Skype screen shots of my dad opening it, and a Sparky appearance!