The Leaves Don't Lie

First let's start with the boring part.

Three months ago, me and my six year old son moved from Essex, England, to the US. Five months previously, my husband had relocated to start a new position as an office manager in the heart of Houston, Texas for his British based company and although the time apart was not ideal, it was a life changing opportunity that we couldn't turn down. This left myself and my two children back in the UK - my task to tie up all of the loose ends before our reunion in the summer. My daughter needed to finish her final year of secondary school and sit her GCSE's and as she sadly chose not to come along for the ride,  to orchestrate her new living arrangements, college courses and such like, we really needed that time so we could have an outcome we were all happy with. It was hard being apart from my husband, my son son away from his dad, and many tears were shed during those 5 months. I often questioned our decision and wondered if the children would ever forgive us for changing everything in their lives. Were we being selfish or would we truly gain something that was of a once in a lifetime quality? Doing everything myself and having to clear a whole house with four peoples worth of stuff while working full time was difficult and I never want to do that again, BUT, here we are. IN TEXAS.

Our American Dream was born back in 2014, when eating breakfast at a lovely little B&B in Taplow, we had freshly brewed tea and Charlie read his tea leaves (See image 1 below).... It looked like America to us.

(Image 1)

As we sat at the table that morning, eating our full English, enjoying our English Breakfast Tea, we talked about how amazing it would be if did actually move to America! We discussed what we thought it would be like, what the people would be like, how confident and self assured Americans have always seemed to us. We both liked the idea meeting them and thought that most Brits would find them annoying, choosing the stiff upper lip approach over the chest bumping, fist pumping, loudness and fun approach to living we saw Americans as having. We loved the idea of being surrounded by that energy. And then we laughed it off, like 'Yeah, if only. We can dream i suppose.' kind of laugh. Little did we know however, that serendipity was about to take place and that a quiet, unacknowledged perseverance had planted itself inside us to make the American Dream come true.

So three years later here we are, living in the Lone Star State. Texas of all places! Bit random I know but I'm happy to report that so far, it is exactly how we imagined, if not better and as there is so much to tell and so much going on, I'm going to have to tell you all about it. 

I've had to the boring background bit so you can fully appreciate the real point of this blog which is the fun stuff, like the driving, the weather, the Whattaburger drive thru, the customer service (you'll be surprised at this one), the schools, the food, the ego of the woman who created her own book signing, the love and kindness, the first time I was called a 'fucking hooker'... amazing! But for now I'd really just like to point out the irony of all this. How ironic that we should see our future in tea leaves, when we you can't get a decent brew in this place for love nor money!

Until next time my darlings, when I'll explain why all of my sentences now begin with 'Hello, I'm British..'

Ashley