Homesick...

Paul and I have been talking a lot lately about our life here and how it's not really turning out to be anything like we expected. We find ourselves constantly adding up pros and cons and wondering if we will ever be able to make a home here. 

America is a beautiful country and full of opportunity for us but unfortunately all of that beauty has been masked by the horrible reality that no matter how hard we try we just can't seem to get our feet in the ground and build the foundations that we need to help us feel at home. 

When we first came out here we were full of hope and ideas with a big list of things we were going to do. As the weeks have passed by it seems like it's not as easy as we thought it would be. Getting a car for example has been an endless circle of "No you don't have a credit file", "Yes, but you have to pay 50% interest". And as I am now without a car, I feel like my legs have been chopped from underneath me. Just to the end of our street it is a mile walk. Which isn't something I want to be doing in 100 degree heat. 

The house we live in, although we have added all our personal touches still doesn't feel like home. I am constantly reminded when I tell Calleigh no to draw on the couch or the TV that none of this stuff is ours. We didn't have much back in England but at least I could say it was ours. 

It was OUR home and OUR furniture. 

And also Paul and I haven't felt like husband and wife in a while. I don't know if it's because we are both a little bit unhappy here or because we haven't spent much time with each other. Every night seems to be the same, he comes home from work, we eat, watch TV and then go to bed. 

It also doesn't help at the moment that I am constantly being eating alive by bugs. I have a total count of 9 bites on my body at the moment, three of which are on my arm which has resulted in a huge lump the size of a lemon sticking out of it. We definitely didn't have that to worry about in England. 

I think the reason we have been thinking and talking so much about it lately is because we have booked our trip home for Christmas and both of us are finding ourselves counting down the seconds until we get on that plane. The thought of going back to England has brought up all of these reminders of the things we miss.

This doesn't mean we are giving up, we are going to see it through. As the saying goes "things can only get better". 

We are just hoping that they do and soon. 

Our first night out

Whilst my Mum and Sister were here visiting us we celebrated a lot. It was Paul's birthday, my Mum's birthday and also our 3 year Anniversary. As a present to us, my Mum and Sister said they would look after Calleigh for the night so we could have some time to ourselves (it has been such a long time since we have been out just the two of us). 

As my gift to Paul (and a little for myself) I booked us a Deluxe King Bedroom Suite at the Ameristar Hotel and Casino in St Charles. 

The room was beautiful, it was the fist hotel room I have stayed in that had steps in the room that led from the bedroom to the seating area. It was a lovely place too, everything was attached the the hotel in a lovely courtyard type thing that made you feel you were outside. All the restaurants, bars and the casino were literally right next to us so there was no need to leave the hotel at all.

We got dressed up to have a nice meal together, I felt a bit out of place as we seemed to be the only ones in formal attire but I didn't care, I had a pretty dress on and we were finally having some alone time together.

After dinner we went to the Casino. It was ah-may-zing.
There were so many machine's in there and it was lit up like a Christmas tree. This being our first time in a proper Casino we were pretty dumb struck at how amazing it was. Unfortunately, the good feeling didn't last long. After a really good win on the first machine I sat down at it all went terribly downhill from there and we ended up back in the hotel room after half an hour without a dime to our name. This is defiantly a sign that we wont be taking a trip to Vegas anytime soon.

Nevertheless we had a really great night and it was great to feel like husband and wife for a night, not mummy and daddy.

Home for Christmas

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted here. A few reasons for this- firstly, my Mum and Sister came out to visit us at the beginning of August so I spent most of my time enjoying the company and making sure they had a good time here and secondly, I was a bit down when they went back home. It's now been 3 weeks since they left and everything is back to normal and although I still miss them it's not as bad anymore.

I will try to keep up on here as much as I can. At the moment we are in the process of applying for our Green Card to live here in the United states so I will be posting a bit about that. We have had our vaccinations done and the next step is for us all to get a check up which we are trying to get booked soon. 

In other news we have booked our trip home for Christmas. We were planning to wait a bit but the flights seem to be going really fast so we decided to jump on and get everything booked early. I am so happy to be visiting home, especially at Christmastime. I can't wait for everyone to see Calleigh again and how much she has grown. And I'm very excited to catch up with all my friends. 

It's still a good while away yet though, we have a few things to look forward to before then. I am most looking forward to experiencing Halloween out here with Calleigh. There are already tons of Halloween stuff in the shops and I have started thinking about what I want to dress Calleigh up as. 

There is also Calleigh's birthday and Thanksgiving (both on the same day)!

Until then though, I will be counting down the weeks until I see you again England!