How We Spent the Rest of the Summer

I'm a little behind in uploading photos of the later half of our summer. Isabelle, Mom and I went to Paris as a day trip in late July. They were both excited to see the Eiffel Tower. However, I think Isabelle's favorite part was riding the Eurostar and buying souvenirs!

Tony and I went on a week long Mediterranean cruise with our friends Joe & Khalen. We have taken a trip together, some with kids, some not, every year for the past 4-5 years. Just like the past trips, we had a really great time. We started in Barcelona, then to Monaco & Monte Carlo, Pisa, Rome & The Vatican, Naples & Pompeii and Mallorca, Spain. I absolutely fell in love with the Amalfi Coast!!! It's an incredibly beautiful part of Italy. I hope to spend more time there in the future. Tony and I also visited the Monastery on top of Montserrat in Spain. Below are a few pics but if you want to see more you can go to our gallery page:

http://gallery.me.com/fowler99#100051

We took family day trip to Windsor Castle. The castle state rooms were interesting. The little town of Windsor is quaint. Logan was impressed by the Queen's Guard but Isabelle wouldn't get any where near him!

Lessons Learned

Today, someone stole Mom's purse.

Mom and I took the kids to the theater for an afternoon show. We went to lunch before the show.

My mom, who realizes this was not a good decision, put her purse on the back of her chair. I noticed a woman sitting very close to Mom but I try not to be suspicious of everyone I see. But I did have a gut feeling. I made eye contact with her and if I had known Mom put her purse there I would have asked her to move it.

So she lost £60, a cell phone, Tube travel card, debit card and, of course, the Coach purse itself.

It stinks but at least no one was hurt and she didn't have her passport or FL driver's license in there. It could have been worse.

What I'm PISSED about is the process of reporting it to the Police. The security guard at the Mall told us we needed to go to the Police station to report the crime. Mom and I schlep the kids all around trying to find the Police station. I swear Police are always around until you need one!

Once we find it, I explain to the nice officer what happened and that we were here to report it.

The nice officer asked if we actually saw the purse being taken. I explain that I did see the woman but I did not actually see her walk away with the purse... otherwise I wouldn't be in a police station with my children because I would have screamed bloody murder!

So the lovely London police officer informs us we can't report a crime that we can't prove happened. What the hell?!? Sure that I have misunderstood him, I say, as politely as possible, "Excuse Me". He restates it as you can't report that you have a suspicion that your purse was stolen. My response... Are you kidding me??? It's not a suspicion! My mom had a purse when we arrived and she didn't when we left. Does he think we are senile and we can't remember for sure that we had a purse there?!?

I wanted to argue with him that if being able to prove a crime was committed was truly a requirement for reporting a crime, no one could ever report one!!! That should really help their crime statistics go way down! Can't report what you can't prove!! That is the stupidest ******* I have ever heard!!!!!

But I didn't argue that last point with him because at this point my children are both are sitting there staring at me. I decided it was not a good idea for them to see me arguing with the nice officer so I thanked him for his lack of help and we left.

Lesson learned today.... just because you leave with a purse but come home without one does not mean a crime was committed! Welcome to the big city!!

Isabelle's First Day of School

Izzie started school last week. She was so excited to ride the bus. I have to say I was quite excited by the bus also... it picks her up right outside our door (so we can stay indoors until it pulls up which will come in handy during the winter months) and they are really nice buses (most of them are made by Mercedes Benz). The bus driver got out and introduced himself to me. His name was Tommy. The afternoon driver's name I have already forgotten but apparently he tells jokes all the way home.

The school seems to be amazing (as it should since one year's tuition cost almost as much as my entire 4 year college tuition)!! To start off, I emailed to find out where I could find the school supply list... there isn't one!!! All the things she needs for school are supplied by the school (good to know that the above mentioned expensive tuition covers more than just walking into the school).

Tony and I attended a 4 hour orientation on Saturday at the American School. A 4 hour orientation seemed excessive but it was very informative about the school and living in London. There were resource booths setup during lunch... it felt a lot like being in college when you go to the student center to find the right group you fit in with that is also trying to recruit people. There were clubs for adults, sports groups for after-school, even churches in the area were represented. I signed up to volunteer at the school in several areas, one of them is working in the front office in hopes of getting to know the admission people. So operation "Get Logan into ASL" is now under way.

As much as I do look forward to moving back home one day, I think I will miss the opportunities Isabelle and Logan could have had spending their school years at ASL.