So, here in the UK, they use the chip and pin system for making purchases with debit/ credit cards.  In America, we do not use the chip and pin system for making purchases with credit/ debit cards.  Now, we still get paid into our American account, which means we use our American debit card.  Which is not a chip and pin card. 

I am going somewhere with this.

If you use a chip and pin card, when you go the store, you just insert your card into the little card thingie they have there next to the register and then enter your pin, which is a 4 digit number.  Which, if I’m remembering correctly, that’s the same way that debit cards work in America.  But ALL cards, including credit cards work on this system in the UK.  They all have this chip thingie.  Now, American cards do not have the chip.  So, they have to be swiped here.

Even though chip and pin is the norm here, ALL cash registers will have the little swipy thing, so that you can just swipe a card.  Like our card. 

And let me tell you that probably 40% of the time, the person behind the till gives us flack for wanting to swipe our dumb card. 

Take for instance, at Tesco, the grocery store that we have been going to for almost 4 years.  And I mean, the one store, not just chain, that we’ve been going to for almost 4 years.  

Every 7th visit or so I get the person behind the till that says, “I’m sorry, we don’t take these types of cards anymore.”  To which I say, “I’ve been using it here for 4 years blah blah blah.”  Then they typically call a manager (who I recognize), who says, “We don’t take these anymore.”  And then I beg and pull out a receipt that I have from LAST week when I did use my card.  They usually end up conceding in the end and swiping the card.  And surprise, surprise, the receipt pops out, I sign it, and we’re on our merry way. 

Our encounter at Toys R Us this past weekend takes the cake of all swiping stories. 

We went to get some toys for Nora. I was feeling barfy.  We wanted to make it a short trip because we were heading out for dinner afterwards.  We get up to the till to pay and hand the girl our card and she says, “I can’t use this card.”  And we’re like, “yes you can, just swipe it, blah blah blah. ”  She calls the manager over who proceeds to go to her office (a long line is gathering) and getting one of those archaic card things, you know with manual pressing things from like 1850.  Meanwhile, the SWIPING THING IS RIGHT THERE JUSTSWIPETHECARDI’M HUNGRYANDPREGNANT!!!”

So, she does the machine thing from 1850.  Doesn’t know what to do with the copy that she’s now made of our card information.  And then mutters under her breath to the girl at the till, “just try to swipe.”  Which, she does.  BIG surprise, the receipt pops out and we sign it.  But the manager won’t let us leave until she makes a copy of our Florida drivers license.  

Don’t forget that we’re just at Toys R Us.  

As a side not, Adam made her scribble out our credit card info on the carbon copy she made of our card.

But really, are they really going to make a file just for us with our info?? And further more, does it really look we’re trying to defraud Toys R Us, what with our number refrigerator magnets and cabbage patch kid??  

GEEZ.  That ranks right up there with the post office near our house.  

As a side note, I’d like to thank all of my fellow pee stick addicts that came out of the woodwork in my last post.  :)

I have a confession to make…  you men may want to check out here….  I’m gonna talk about pee sticks.

I have absolutely no self control when it comes to using pregnancy tests.  If they are in my house, I will pee on them.  I don’t know what it is.  A few months back, I thought I might possibly be pregnant, so I went out and bought some pregnancy tests.  While I was there, I went ahead and bought the two pack.  Better deal, right??

Well, the more days went by, the more tests I took.  And I will now not share with you just how many tests I used. And ADAM and JANNA you may not share either.

 Needless to say, Adam said, “I could have just thrown a £10 note in the toilet and you could have peed on that.”  

We, um, ate vegetarian dishes that week to make up for the money I spent on pregnancy tests.

Annnndddd, that may not have been all of the tests that I used. 

And to all who were grossed about by the last pee stick tests.  GEEZ, it’s not like I took pictures of myself actually peeing on them. And the cap is totally on the pee part.  And yes, that glass got throughly cleaned even though NO PEE ever touched it.  

And for all who asked twins for 2 tests??? Oh Lord…  I mean, if I had twins, I wouldn’t like, give one away, but really can you IMAGINE???  There were 2, because any good pregnant woman knows that you have to take a second test to make sure that you are indeed pregnant.  :)

Adam gave me a HUGE surprise for our 5th anniversary, which was on the 20th of December.  He surprised me with a weekend getaway up near the Cairngorm Mountains.  In a little cabin with a fire place.  It was incredible!  And the first time that we have been away from the girls together since Alanna was born.  I will say, we missed them like crazy.  But it was so nice to get some time away.  Funny though… there were times that we were just sitting staring at each other saying, “What did we DO before we had kids???”  

Let me just say right here that I have the best husband ever.  Even though he’s pretending that my foot is a phone right now.  Really he is.

Turns out, I have a slight obsession with completing puzzles.  You can just add that to the long list of all of the other OCD tendencies that I have.  

The view from our cottage.

The cottage itself.

That day, the 20th, we took a drive around the countryside and up the mountains.  It was beautiful!  And really freaking cold.  

We ran into some horse friends along the way.  

Something tells me that he wanted me to give him some food…

This makes me a laugh…

Then this guy joined us.  I asked Adam if we could have a horse.  And he said no.  Durn. 

Next stop:  a little stream on the side of the road.  I wanted to experiment with slow shutter speed and water.  So I whipped out the trusty tripod.

She got lots of use on this trip.

Then we drove up a mountain.  And decided to take some pictures of us.

It was SOOOOOOOO cold.  Did I mention that already?

Then we drove back down the mountain.

And then to one more spot.  That was very quiet. 

Then it was time for dinner.  We found this amazing little place to go to.  It only had about 8 tables in it.  The food was SOOOOO good.

We had to wait a bit to get in, so I decided to try and take some long exposure shots of the Christmas tree across the street.  Unfortunately, the ground was too soggy for my tripod.

The next day, we did nothing.  I didn’t take a single picture.  We sat around in our pajamas and watched movies.  And I tried to complete like a gazillion piece puzzle.  That  I ended up not completing.  I’m still a little bit sad over that…  stupid puzzle.  

And turns out, we brought a little surprise back home with us….  

I came across this one from last Spring.  Now that Christmas is over, I’m ready for Spring!!!

I hope that you all had a great Christmas.  Our was great.  I’ll get to posting pictures soon hopefully!