An exciting week has just passed and the hunt for a 2nd car! Armed with a Craigs List of rusty old trucks longer than my arm, we set off on an intrepid adventure. Into Missouri we went, miles from anywhere, down a dirt track, and there we found Dora the Ford Explorer! A charming couple(?!?), living in a tiny shack, which they both struggled to get in and out of, were getting rid of their 11 yr old SUV. She is apparently perfectly sound, just a faulty brake light and the engine light warning flashing... "oh that's been on all the time we've had it"! 1 mile down the road and we stop to get a new bulb, but it's not a faulty bulb, then we try to change the fuse, neither of us have much car knowledge! 2 hours later we're cruising home, in convoy, but Dora has no number plate so we were a little concerned about being pulled over. Anyway, we made it home and J has been tinkering away with her for most of the weekend and she is now totally road worthy, taxed and plated up and good to go, as they say! So, i'm an independent woman now and it couldn't have come a minute too soon!
Today saw us girls proudly admiring our husbands as they collected their Honorary Citizenship of Leavenworth! We dined with the mayor and his colleagues (think we got the bum table!) and J received a nice certificate and a coin. Tomorrow sees the start of the wives orientation! I have no idea what this entails, except name tags and much coffee drinking. It will be a good chance for us internationals to get to know each other. Then following this more ice-breaking with each other and more meeting of sponsors. Life is really very good right now and we are feeling very lucky for it. The deck is looking like a jungle, with tomatoes and 'erbs and lilies, a new hibiscus (the raccoon has stayed away so far) and a beautiful purple Angelonia! oh, and i'm becoming a bit of a sewing geek and am almost done running up a pair of roman blinds! (quite the perfect house wife!? ha ha). In fact while searching for 'blind rings' the man in the hard wear store directed me to an '-poultry' place. I couldn't quite understand and asked if this was where they kept chickens... he really meant upholstery! Yikes, I must get better at this.
Also have a potential voluntary job on the horizon in an interior design shop... maybe she'll pay me in kind? Here's hoping!
xx

4th July weekend - Independence Day

Sorry about the delay, again. Rather dampened by the torrential downpour, we avoided the hugely advertised Post fireworks, for Independence day, and saw a few pathetic sparklers shooting up from our neighbour's driveway. must have been for health and safety reasons, but they set them off at about 5pm... a little disappointing, fireworks in broad daylight! However, i think my brother more than made up for it in NY where they saw a display of 40,000 fireworks! there have been a few more American flags around, if you could squeeze them in, but apart from that nothing out of the ordinary for this glorious weekend in the land of the free.