M2M: A New Tagline

We moved on Wednesday, 12 April from England to Texas with 7 suitcases, a guitar case, 5 carry-ons and 4 carseats. The flights went incredibly smooth. Other than waking up at 3:30 am, we are settling in . . .

The McCarthy party of five (and one on the way). Such an empty flight!

Everything we own.

So M2M needed a new tagline:

Navigating Motherhood from Texas to England (and Back).

Here are some thoughts about the back part:

Holy smokes, cowboy. Hold the phone. I always said that everything was bigger in Texas, but I just ate a blueberry larger the size of a daddy grape. The streets, the cars, the people, the portion sizes, the rubbish bins- I just forgot how big bigger was.

I never knew how American peanut butter was until I moved to the UK. Here is a week supply for our family. Ok, ok, maybe two weeks.

Walmart

We have been on a Walmart run, which I totally dreaded. We didn’t even go to the one in the nicer neighbourhood. I almost couldn’t bring myself to walk into that place. It was wonderful being away from it for 2.5 years, but when those sliding glass doors parted, everyone, kids included, drew in a deep breath.

Wow.

Living in England has made the ghetto Walmart seem magical. One thing I love/hate about America is our advertising culture. It makes us very materialistic, consumeristic, and a bit too plastic. James always uses the word “contrived.” But ladies and gentleman, today, I loved every bit of it. The isles were clean and lighting was perfect, packages are more colourful and the checkout lady packed my bags while she told me about her journey from China to Texas. She was delightful, and we received the world’s supply of plastic bags without paying five pence for each one. This is so different from the pack your own bag while the supermarket checkout lady sits on her chair and people stare at the back of your head sighing under their breath waiting for you to pack. Am I right? My least favourite part was estimating how many bags to purchase before I started packing the groceries and always needing a pound coin to grab a shopping cart. Ugh.

Our total for two trolleys of groceries came to $220.00. We are so used to incredibly secure UK bank accounts. You almost need a DNA sample to spend your own money.  We were shocked when James just stuck his card in the card reader and the receipt popped out. No signature, no pin number, no ID- just Viola!

WHAT!?! That’s crazy.

Money, Materialism, #Merica

America makes it easy to spend money. No minimum spends or penalties for using a credit card, no “cash only” places. Literally, 24-7 you can buy, buy, buy. James says it’s because there is nothing to do in Dallas besides earn and spend money- and he isn’t that wrong. We are considering an appointment at 9:00 pm this evening to look at a mini-van. We expect that if we like it, we’ll drive it home tonight.

In 2015, when we looked for houses in England, we were offered appointments two weeks in the future by Estate Agents. When we called the realtor yesterday at 8:00 am with houses we loved, we were standing in the first one at 10:00 am. And yesterday, she organised seven house showings for us for today.

Welcome home to the land of instantaneous gratification, spend, spend, spend.

Work, work, work.

 

 

James and I found this to be a bit hysterical and horrifying in equal parts. After a bunch of these, we gave up with the photos. I mean seriously?

Hello, America. The environment is calling.

It wants its ozone layer back.

But if the president says global warming doesn’t exist, then it surely doesn’t.