It’s official, starting today I am in debt up to my ears, but I am also a homeowner in the UK.

We got the keys to our new home in Sandbach at 5:00 PM EST, we then took a drive to the property to check how the old owners left it, we were pleased, they removed everything they had to and didn’t left a mess to clean up.

My Co-Workers are actually amazed a the speed and efficiency of our purchase experience, 2 other people in the office bought properties the past month, and their experience was allot worst than mine, actually, I cant fault mine at all, I kept bugging the solicitors to get moving, and they did .. so it pays to be a pain i guess
We wont be moving until the 1st of April, we decided to install new carpets and paint some of the rooms in the house first, this way when we move in, we dont have to mess around with furniture in order to pain and re-carpet.

This is the second house we own, the first was a pre-fab in Florida, which was 1/13th of the price of this one (yeah .. split this house price by 13 .. thats what we paid for our Florida one), house prices in the UK are insane .. but what can you do, one needs a place to cal home.

And the amazing thing is, this is the North of england, where housing is actually cheaper .. this place down South and you can double the price… ouch.

But hey, we are ecstatic, we have a place of our own, on a great and safe community, were we can raise our kids and hopefully, just be happy

Technorati Tags: Cheshire, Family, House, SandBach

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We have just returned from our Paris/Erurodisney Holiday.

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Today I am “sick as a dog” .. now, I hardly ever seen a sick dog, so I don’t understand were the term comes from.

Whatever the term, I feel like shit .. my daughters have been sick, and I got whatever both of them had, doubled, and with a vengeance .. my throat hurts,, I got a high fever, I pulled a muscle on my neck from coughing and blowing my nose … and I literally “look like shit” also :p

So I stay home from work today, no sense in going there and getting the other guys sick as well.

I need to get my tonsils removed, they are so prone to infection, and every time I get a small cold, they make it even worst.

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Today was Savannah’s first day at school, we got her all outfitted with her school uniform, she looked very adorable,, and very British.

When we got there, the teacher tough her the procedures and then she went outside to play, part of me was very sad to see her go outside on her own, on a place she never been before, surrounded by kids she is no acquainted with also, but the other part of me know it’s OK, she will be fine and start making new friends right away.

We usually take the girls to the creche on Saturdays,, and they play there for a couple hours while we shop, and it’ been OK because they go together, to see one of them go on by herself was the tough part .. my girls are growing before my eyes, and I need to adapt to it.

I’m a very protective person, and it is tough to accept your kids will bee away form you our your spouse for such a long period of the day, and you relegate the task of keeping them safe to others .. very tough .. as one always believes nobody else can keep one’s kids as safe as one self ..

I just don’t want her to think we abandoning her at that place called school, or for her to be scared or hungry, cold, hot, […], lonely, or anything else but happy.

But in the end, she seems to have loved it, and will be going back tomorrow (and every day from now on) .. I guess it bothers me more than it bothers her

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Today I took on the task of cleaning the car .. the kids make a constant mess on the back, and there were papers, toys, fast-food wraps, everything on the back-seat floor and trunk.

Once I was done, I had a full trash-bag (and not a small one, but a big black bin liner) .. who the heck do you get a trash-bag full of crap form a back-seat.

Easy .. drive around with a 2 and a 3 year old
Once it was clean, washed and vacuumed it was new again, I love to look at a nice clean car .. hopefully it will be clear for more than 24 hours this time.

Technorati Tags: family, Kids, Car

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… to Manchester

Today (July 15th) we moved to manchester .. I went down to a local rent-a-van place were I got an Iveco white van to load up al our stuff, after driving the Iveco for 1/2 a mile I retuned back and asked for a different one, the steering wheel shaft was too close to the pedals, and my foot kept on getting stuck

30 minutes later and I was loading up a Fort Transit
I drove to Manchester by myself .. and the 3 hour drive would have been very pleasant, was not for a snag on M6 were it took me 1 hour to drive 500 feet.

I made it just on time to meet with the realtor and get the key .. after that I drove by the office were I dropped my computer, I made it back to Cardiff at about 1:00 AM

Then at 9:00 AM I returned the Van, packed the Multipla with the family and away we were to start a new life in Mancs

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For the past week or so, I have been extra busy with preparations for moving the family to manchester (we are moving next Friday) .. so today we decided to take some time off to enjoy the nice weather as a family.

And what a nice weather it was .. so we head out to Barry Island were they have a nice beach.

When we arrived, the whole place was packed, but not so packed to make one turn away, I got into a parking sport that was right in front of the beach, it was on a no parking area, but so were another 20 cars .. so I tough it was safe … I tough ..

Lovely Day

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Thiago Brayner, has just finished the project I commissioned form him, to create a Toon version of my family, so I can use it on my Family Pictures site.

He started by doing a rought line sketch [A] [B] [C], wich I then reviewed and decided on some changes, a few jokes along the way [D] [E], and here is the end result:

His work is just incredible, I can’t imagine being more pleased.

Before I was using a generic avatar set created at abi-station

The images speak for themselves

Technorati Tags: family, NullMind, toonz

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I found this program today called “Comic Life” for OSX .. basically it allows you to import images from iPhoto or any other medium and make them into a Comic storyboard.

I couple of weeks ago, we took the girls to the Pet Zoo, so I tough those pictures taken of them terrorizing the chickens would do a good comic story, and it sure did …

Page 1 & Page 2

We still cant stop laughing over it
Very nice program indeed .. worth the 25 bucks.

Technorati Tags: comics, family, OSX, toonz

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Today we went to the Children’s Pet Zoo in Barry

The Zoo is close by the Cardiff Airport, we took a drive to Barry Island first, for an ice-cream and we watched the waves, the kids were taking a nap in the back-seat.

We then arrived at the Zoo at about 10:45 .. Vannah and Sierra had a blast, Sierra loved (and kicked) the Chickens, Vannah was just ecstatic, she loves animals, I got a few pictures of them chasing guinea-pigs and Chickens.

Overall it was simply great, time well spent with my girls and the wife, we even got to see a bird fly show, were they demonstrated an Owl and a Hawk, the Owl landed a foot from Vannah, she jumped back, then proceeded to trow a bunch of rocks at the Owl … with everybody else looking .. what a nut, the other good laugh of the day was Sally trying to feed a large duck, every time his beak would go near her hand, she would drop the feed and scream.

Technorati Tags: family, Animals, Zoo

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