Home Sweet Home

After a long, long wait our stuff has finally arrived with us here in St Louis. It was very exciting to get back all our belongings and find places for them around our new home. 

For me the best thing was getting all our family photos and home decorations. Straight away from getting them out of the box I was hanging them on the empty hooks I have been looking at for the last 8 weeks. Now I can say that this place is really starting to feel like home. 

Paul was most excited about getting his Xbox and all his technical gadgets. Although his excitement didn't last long, as because we are (once again) without Internet or TV there wasn't much he could do with them. We decided to change service providers last week but unfortunately there was a long wait for set up. Hopefully they will be out on Thursday (I can't wait!).

Calleigh's toy box arrived safely with all her toys inside, she was so happy to see all her toys again! 

Although she did seem more interested in playing with the boxes. 

We are so happy everything arrived safely and although there is still a bit of cleaning and sorting to do everything went well and our house is now a home. 

Home Comforts

Whilst we were out visiting St Charles last weekend we came across Historic Main Street. 

This quaint little street boasted pebbled sidewalks, tea shops and small boutique shops selling vintage items. 

After we stopped for some tea in Alice's Tea Shop we walked down and came across an English Shop. Not being able to resist we took a look inside. It was just like walking into your local corner shop back in England (only a bit prettier). 

There were shelves full of English tea, cakes, sauces and foods. 

We indulged in some Weetabix and Heinz Beans for Calleigh, some Daddies Brown Sauce, Colman's Mustard, and some good old Bisto Gravy for our Sausage and Mash. 

(The tea I brought with me from home)

It's the little things that make you more comfortable and less homesick. 

I'm sure we will be visiting again soon!

Welcome To Our New Home

Firstly I would like to say how happy I am that we finally have the Internet and TV set up in our house. This last week has been so hard, I missed technology! 

And more importantly, we are finally in our new house. 

We moved in on Wednesday the 17th and since then it has been an endless mission of making it a home for all of us. This included installing stair gates to stop the little monkey getting upstairs, Cupboard latches to stop the little monkey emptying them out on the floor and adding some personal touches to each room. 

A moving in gift from my Mum

St Louis and London cushions for the Bedroom 

The hardest challenge we faced was changing the upstairs office into Calleigh's new bedroom. After browsing tons of lovely bedroom furniture sets, we decided to start off small with just an basic cot, until we decide what we want to do with her room. 

Obviously we are quite limited on the decoration front as we are only renting, but I'm sure once we get to grips with things out here we can make her a lovely little place of her own. 

We are still in the process of buying things and figuring out where everything so expect a few more posts of our new little space and how we are making it ours. 

Day Two: Still Travelling

At 6am on Friday morning we caught the bus back to the airport. After checking in we got rid of the mountain of suitcases and made our way to security. 

As Calleigh woke up at 4 she was very tired and fell in to a deep sleep right before. I will tell you one thing, it's not easy trying to manoeuvre your way through security with a sleeping baby in your arms. But we made it and with plenty of time to spare before our flight. 

So we set ourselves down and had a nice breakfast before making our way to our gate. Whilst we were waiting (the plane was delayed a little bit due to broken wiper blades) Calleigh woke up and had a banana for breakfast. 

The flight went well again and before we knew it we touched down at our final destination- 

Our new home- 

St Louis. 

We checked in at the Wildwood hotel and conveniently my Mum's room was right next door to ours. 

We spent the next few days couped up in a hotel room eagerly awaiting our move in date- the 17th of April. 

More to come soon... (when we finally get the Internet in our house!)

Day One: Leaving Day

We left the house on Thursday 11th of April at 6:30am after a sad goodbye to my sister, Lana. 

We somehow managed to squish 4 large suitcases, 1 small suitcase, several large bags, a pushchair, a baby and 3 people into the car. One thing I will say- most uncomfortable ride ever!

Once we arrived at the airport it was all a bit of a rush, it always seems to be that way with Calleigh beans. So we quickly checked in all our luggage and managed to get a quick breakfast and before we knew it we were boarding the plane. 

We waved a little goodbye to England as the plane took off and prepared ourselves for the journey ahead. 

Unfortunately we couldn't get seats together on the plane, so Paul volunteered himself to sit with Calleigh, while I sat and kept the mother company. 

The flight went really well and 7 hours and 20 minutes later we touched down in Newark, New Jersey. 

The flight actually landed 25 minutes late which meant we missed our connecting flight to St Louis- Ahhhh and we were unable to get a direct flight until the next morning- double Ahhhh.

Luckily, the lovely lady at the service desk gave us a complimentary hotel for the night and $120 in meal vouchers. 

We left our bags in the room at the hotel and after freshening up we made our way down to the bar for happy hour, after all, missing your flight and being stuck in an airport hotel is a perfect excuse for a few beers. 

We turned in early that night so by 4am the next morning we were all wide awake getting ready to go back to the airport and start all over again...

We Are Here At Last

Just a short post to let you all know we have arrived safely in St Louis.

We had a minor hitch when we arrived at Newark which meant we didn't get to St Louis until the day after we were supposed to but we took it all in our stride. 

I will fill you in with more details once I have a bit more time. 

Until then xx

It's Official

Well everyone, It's now official. 

Our leaving date is Thursday 11th April (only 10 days away!!).

The flights are booked and the packing is going into overdrive (and so are the emotions). 

On another note...

Paul arrived back from his 2 week trip out there very early Sunday morning, after a shall we say, bumpy trip back. 

He was meant to land Saturday morning but after an engine failure 3 hours away from home his plane was turned around and diverted to some army base in Canada. 

13 hours later he finally landed in Birmingham. 

I couldn't be happier that he arrived back in one piece.