My Mom Comes To England!

I just had the best two weeks, ever, because my Mom came to visit me! She made the long 8 hour flight over the Atlantic so she could check me out in all my pregnant glory and try and see as much of the local area as possible in 14 days. We were super laid back about this trip. We were big on sleeping in (a lot!), shopping (a lot!), and cooking (a lot!). I have mentioned this before, but I am not so impressive in the kitchen. Well, that sure has changed in the past 2 weeks. Of course I will need more practice and there are times when my meals will not turn out the way they are supposed to, but I have acquired some basic culinary skills that are good enough to at least get me started. I haven't eaten this well since high school!!! FYI: eating three well balanced meals makes the baby really happy. She was kicking up a storm the entire time. I'm sure it was her way of paying compliments to the chef! I have been living on leftovers for the past few days and it's been fabulous.

Aside from all the cooking going on in my house, here are a few highlights from the past two weeks:
1. Spent the Day in Bury walking through the gardens (she has a pretty impressive green thumb so she just loved this!), shopping for Baby and browsing the local market. I had the best cherries of my life that day! Why is the commissary still selling crappy produce, I wonder?
2. We drove out to see Windsor Castle and the local town that surrounded it. It was great! The traffic to and from there was not so great.
3. Spent the day in Norwich walking the town and shopping in their huge Mall. Lots of baby clothes were purchased that day!!!
4. Day One in Cambridge: the Grafton was very good to us and I managed to find tons of (what I think are...) great deals on Winter clothes and supplies for the baby. So cute!
5. Day Two in Cambridge: Punting!!! I always take my guests punting to see the amazing colleges lined up in Cambridge. It's such a relaxing way to take in the sights. We were also given the most beautiful day to do it. It was perfect!
6. Hours and hours of watching the Olympics. Great!
7. This is more exciting for Curt than me, but my Mom refinished a rod iron table for him that he found in our old garage. It was quite the project, but thankfully my Mom loves stuff like that. Curt also got a new Dremell and Drill. Hopefully he uses them!!!
8. My Mom finally got to see Lakenheath Elementary School!!! I took her there to see my old classroom and she was even able to meet a lot of the friends and co-workers that I have made and told her about. It was great because she teaches as well, so she was really able to appreciate seeing where I've been the past 3.5 years.
9. Doctors Appointment and Baby Basics! My Mom was thrilled to take part in some of my appointments and classes while she was here. It was a "refresher" for her, although I'm sure she didn't need it, as she prepares to become a default baby sitter for two grandchildren.
10. Pottery, pottery, pottery!!! There is BOXES upon BOXES of pottery in my house that Curt is going to help me ship to my Mom once he gets home. She made sure to get her souvenirs while she was here, and there are a LOT of them. :)

Like I said, our past two weeks has been busy in the way that we wanted it to be. My Mom teaches school so even though she has summers "off", she still manages to take on daily "to-do" lists and projects that keep her up and moving for those 2.5 months of down time. While she was here she read about 100 books, slept in, and overall had just a great time. It was great that she was unable to over task herself in the way she does when she's home, and that is what made it a real vacation. For once, I don't think she went home thinking, "I need a vacation from my vacation". We were easy going and it was wonderful!

Here are some pictures that she took while she was here. There is also tons of video that was shot for my family, but that all went home with her. Enjoy!
(UPDATE: My Mom's camera is too fancy for my pain in the rear computer...) I will have her resize them and resend the pictures today, so check back later!!!)