Day 19

Kelli asked that I set the alarm for 7:15am. Somehow I did not. Fail. I rolled over and looked at my watch: 7:18am. Saved! 1 hour later we've pulled the kids out of bed, fed them, and dressed them, ready for Maria and cousins to come by and take them to their first day of school. And Kelli looks at her iPhone: 6:18am. I had not changed my watch from Finland. Complete Failure.

So we had two hours to kill and what would have probably been a pretty good transition to England time was destroyed. 

And it was my fault...

We played on the playground nearby, and read until the cousins came by at 8:10 or so, and we all walked over to the school. The kids seemed to fit in pretty well (Maija was a bit nervous) and came back saying they'd had a fun day. It was a little taste of school in England, because they got to wear uniforms and be with their cousins, but then it was the last day of school, so it was mostly games and fun. Success thanks to Maria for making it all happen.

Meanwhile, we started laundry, then Rod, Kelli, and I went to the grocery store.

For the afternoon, the kids played around the yard; then up in the kids' rooms and then outside again, while Kelli did laundry and I would occasionally help pin it up between times when I was just sweating. It seems we've come to England just in time for their hot weather.

In the evening we went to the Maria's parents' house for dinner. Sasha and his kids were there as well so the group of kids got bigger and everyone continued to play pretty well. Jonny had a little sheltered off section of his covered back porch area with air conditioning unit pumping cold hair toward us and hot air the other way---which sort of worked. Maybe I should say it barely worked (like a leaf blower in 40 mph wind?). But the shade was welcome.  

Seka organized a little skit for the kids to do, and besides that there was a lot of jumping on the trampoline and ball throwing and cricket-batting-activity (insert correct verb). I had a fun conversation with Jonny that certainly helped me know a bit more of what he is about. 

And then as could have been predicted the 5:18 wake up time hit all the kids almost at once, while on the trampoline, and everything quickly went to pieces. So we beat a quick retreat for home.

After the kids went to bed, I took a jog, and Kelli did some reading. When I came in she was comfortable in her chair with a book, but mentioned that the hot water heater had started making loud noises and she'd closed the kitchen door. I went in to hear the noise, and immediately smelled gas. I opened the window and she came in to turn off the hot water heater. 

Now we'd noted the night before that the oven had not been working and we'd mentioned this to the maintenance guy on the way to school this morning, so now we had 2 symptoms and two problematic appliances. We ended up getting Rod (interrupting their bit of evening peace) and then finally got a hold of maintenance, who came out and of course could not find anything wrong other than the fact that the water was getting much, much too hot (it gave me a very minor burn when I accidentally went to wash my hands). He was convinced though that heater is not the cause of the gas, so while the oven now works (the maintenance guy must of have made it there after all) it seems to be responsible for the gas leak, but there is also a hot water temp problem which will mostly likely have to solved on a week day by the water heater maintenance man.