This week seemed to fly by. It’s hard to believe that it is already Friday night.

Sunday and Monday was the Notting Hill Carnival. We heard crazy stories about it, and while it had its interesting moments, it wasn’t as intense as I thought. One funny moment was when Rob and I were sitting on the couch at about 10:30 Sunday night. We heard a strange noise. Unsure of what it was Rob looked out the front window and saw two people moving our large potted plants into the middle of the street. They were setting up a little courtyard for themselves with plants and chairs in the middle of the street. It looked lovely but we did ask them to move the plants back.

Now that life is starting to get into a bit more of a routine we are trying to explore something new in London at least once a week. This week we went to The Marlborough Contemporary. We saw The Salt Bride exhibit. I read about it online and was happy to see that the exhibit was so close to us. The photos were pretty amazing. It was a fun afternoon. We stopped for doughnuts along the way, so that made it extra fun.

Rob and I signed up for a half marathon at the end of September. Signing up for a race is great motivation to go on a run. As our training miles get longer we have been able to explore more of the city while running. It’s been great to spend some time with Rob too. He has been really busy the last few weeks, so I look forward to the longer training runs.

While we are in an English speaking country, we still have words to learn. Here are a few examples:

• “no fly tipping” – dumping trash in an area you shouldn’t.
• “does the school have good tuition” – Here tuition means curriculum. If you want to know about the cost of the school you ask about their fees.
• “off license shop” – a shop that can sell alcohol but not serve it.
• “biscuit” – a cookie, one that has a bit of a crunch to it. If it’s soft like a chocolate chip cookie they call it a cookie.
• “trolley” – shopping cart

We are definitely feeling more at home here. Life is feeling more normal. We found a hairdresser, we have library cards and a grocery club card. What could be more normal than struggling to find the dumb club card somewhere in your wallet!?

Our television viewing has changed quite a bit in the last 6 weeks. We watch a lot of BBC stations and especially the cooking competition shows. Masterchef, Masterchef Jr. and The British Baking Show are our two favorites. Watching those shows, especially Masterchef Jr. (The girl that won is only 9 and most of what she made I have no idea how to create. She was amazing!) made me realize that my children don’t know very much about how to work in the kitchen. So this week they had to make dinner. They each were given a day and they had to find a recipe, make a shopping list, go with me to the store and pick out all the things they needed, and then they made it. If they needed help I was there to help, but they were 100% in charge of everything. They both did a great job. We had Veggie Carbonara and Salsa Spaghetti. It was fun to see them figure it out, and it was wonderful to not have to cook! The youngest is already planning her next meal.

Life is so good. This is such a crazy adventure and we are having a blast. It still hits me every so often that we are living in London. This is nuts. Who would’ve thought that we would be here? It’s pretty amazing.