Thank You Lord!

I will not have to wait until December 19th for my surgery! The doctor's secretary rang this afternoon and he can fit me in next Thursday morning!

I realize that is Thanksgiving Day, but that does not affect us here! :) Cerys still has school that morning and then after I get home from my little surgery, we are going to celebrate. I'm not really sure what we will do yet, but most likely make it a fun, eating snacks kind of day and then we will decorate for Christmas. I am not going to cook a Thanksgiving meal just for the 4 of us and since I'll probably be a bit sore in my neck, we will do something easy. We will for sure have some kind of Thanksgiving dessert though! :) Either pumpkin cake or chocolate chess pie...hmmmm...maybe both?

God Knows The Outcome

That was the title of my devotion this morning and Lord knows I sure needed to read it. I've had several frustrations this week and it all came to a head this morning.

Cerys got sick again Monday evening, her birthday!! It's been one illness after another since starting Nursery. They've all been viral according to the doctors so we've just been keeping her home a few days each time to get her well. Unfortunately, some parents continue to send their child to school even though they are sick and it just cycles back around. I took her to the doctor on Tuesday, he agreed she was burning up (they usually don't check temperature, but he felt her head and could tell she had a fever) and her tonsils were red and swollen and her cough was pretty bad- but still gave me the speech about how we overuse antibiotics and it's usually for the parents to relieve anxiety and make you think your child is getting better but in reality it's just the virus running it's course. I'm totally in agreement about the overuse of medicine, but I can't remember the last time she was on antibiotics so I was not really there to beg for medicine. Anyway.

Bailey has had an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor appointment set for tomorrow- it's been on the calendar for about 6 months. I was really looking forward to seeing how her ears were doing and if her "grommits" (tubes) have grown out yet. I also had some questions for the doctor. We got a letter yesterday saying that "due to other circumstances" that appointment has been cancelled and rescheduled for February 12th. Which is 3 days after my due date- it could be a tricky time. On the NHS, you can not request a day or time for an appointment it just sent to you in the post and you either take it or you don't. I guess I learned my lesson here, because I rescheduled the first appointment they sent me and I now realize I should have just changed my plans and taken the first one.

My minor operation, that was suppose to be on Friday, to remove my gland was cancelled today. Marc has to be in London all day and I had arranged for someone to keep the girls so I could get this done. I was told I could come at 10am and it would be about a 2 hour ordeal- by the time I did paperwork, paid and had the gland removed,etc. Well the hospital rang this morning requesting for me to be there at 7am. After explaining that I could not do that because my daughter had to be at school at 8:55am and my husband would be gone from early that morning, the appointment had to be cancelled. Stink! The next time my doctor is scheduled for outpatients is December 19th. A whole month! His secretary was very nice about it and felt bad for the time switch, so she was going to speak to him tomorrow and see if he could work me into his office time and she will get back to me tomorrow. So that is what I'm praying for. I was ready to get this over with and know the results, but God is in control. (This is a private doctor, so it's not all NHS that is messed up.)

To end my day today, I had an appointment with my midwife. I have to have a decision made in the next two weeks about which hospital I will deliver in. The one that is basically right behind our house or the one across town- I have yet to visit but I hope to soon. Some day soon I will have to write about the differences between prenatal care in the States and here. It's not just a matter of me deciding where I want to go- there are many factors involved so I'm just praying for peace. My midwife told me today that she thinks my labor will be super fast and I would not have time to get to the other hospital so that makes Marc really nervous now :)

So, as the tears flowed around mid-day, I felt led to pick up my little devotional book and here is what it said-

"Leave outcomes up to me. Follow me wherever I lead, without worrying about how it will all turn out. Think of your life as an adventure, with Me as your Guide and Companion. Live in the now, concentrating on staying in step with Me. When our path leads to a cliff, be willing to climb it with My help. When we come to a resting place, take time to be refreshed in My presence. Enjoy the rhythm of life lived close to Me."

Thank you Lord that in the midst of this chaos, you know the outcome! I'm sorry for my stinky attitude today and for complaining so much. Thank you for these opportunities to lean close into you.

Happy 4th Birthday!

The day started with a chocolate muffin. Yes, I gave my child chocolate for breakfast. I asked her what kind of Birthday muffin she wanted, thinking along the lines of blueberry or banana- but she said chocolate so I figured why not? She even put her own hair clips in- can you tell?

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The long-awaited Ariel cake! Having that Ariel doll sitting on the counter all last week was torture for her, so the day finally came that she could play with her, after we blew out the candles.

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It's a chocolate cake (yes, more chocolate!) that I covered in a thin layer of white icing- so the "sand" (crushed up Digestive biscuits- or graham cracker like biscuits) would stick. And then of course made blue icing for the water. There is an upside down cupcake under the "sand" that Ariel is sitting on. (The border is not done very well, the icing was too soft that it would not set up very well and it came away from the biscuit crumbs, but oh well.)

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I think she liked it!

Here she is putting on some "make-up" that she got for one of her presents. (It's plastic)

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And these fun window markers were another one of her presents from her cousins in the States. We saw these while visiting some friends during half-term in England and the girls loved them. It just wipes off windows and mirrors with a dry paper towel- sort of like dry erase markers.

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We opened gifts with both sets of grandparents on Skype so that was fun for them I hope. Cerys was sad this evening when the last round of presents were all opened but she sure had a fun day I think.

Happy 4th Birthday my dear sweet girl! We love you!

This Week's Happenings

It's been a full week. One night we had "Crazy Hat" night just to be silly. The girls picked out hats from their dressing up box to wear to dinner and Marc wore his hat he got in Moscow last year. The girls thought it was the best thing ever. Ahhh, the simple things in life.

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I had a doctor's appointment this week for a follow up to my swollen glands in my neck. Remember those? I had another ultrasound sound done last week and a biopsy taken, but of course the results came back "inconclusive" because it was such a small area to sample. After talking with my doctor, who still thinks it's nothing "nasty" he agrees that one of them need to be taken out to be tested just so we can get to the bottom of this. I agreed with him and held back the tears until I got to my car. I wasn't really sure why I was crying- but I'm just tired of dealing with this and was hoping the biopsy would be all clear. So, next Friday the 21st I will be having an outpatients procedure done to remove one of the glands. Thankfully it's only local anesthetic and he said it's a simple procedure that would take about 10 minutes. I'm pleased with this doctor, he's been very nice and thorough I feel- and because we are seeing him at private patients at the private hospital, I can get this procedure done so fast. Otherwise I could get on a waiting list. I am trying to worry about it, but still scared it could be "something." He assured me on Thursday that he thought it was less than 5% chance that it could be anything "nasty" so that made me feel better.

So, in effort to distract myself maybe, I became slightly obsessed with these knitting books. The yarn for these patterns are so beautiful and soft that I could just eat them up. I am not experienced enough to do the whole "double pointed needles" thing so I found these sweet, simple pattern books that only use straight needles, so I got to work!

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And first up, a little beanie for Baby Girl- with matching mittens.

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And up next, are these precious mary janes or ballet pumps. I can't decide so I might just have to make them both!

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How cute are those??

And now the fun begins...My baby turns 4 on Monday!!! It's hard to believe that 4 years ago our lives changed drastically and we began our parenthood adventures! It was definetly a rough start, but God was faithful and here we are 4 years later with a sweet little girl who talks non-stop and is very prissy. Ha. School is out on Monday (for an inset day) so we will celebrate all day long! She wants an Ariel cake, so I will attempting to make that on Sunday. I may or may not post a picture, it could be disastrous. On Friday we were able to take a cake to her school to share with her friends. It's a shame you can't take homemade things anymore -plus it had to be allergy free and suitable for vegeterians. I have no clue what it tasted like, but she took it to school anyway and her teacher gave her a sweet card and a packet of sweets (candy). She was a happy girl.

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We will be on Skype all weekend letting our parents watch Cerys open her birthday gifts they sent. Nothing like a virtual party! :) We decided against having a big party for her, there is no way I was going to invite her entire Nursery class over and then I didn't want anyone to feel left out so we are just having a family party. Even though she was born here, she's had all 3 of her birthdays in Texas at my mom's house, so this will be a quiet affair. Seeing her presents wrapped up in our bedroom is just about killing her, so I think we will have a great time this weekend!

One of the mom's from Cerys' school came back to the house with me yesterday for cookies and coffee and we had a great time. I wasn't sure how much we would have in common, but it turns out more than I thought. We never lacked for conversation and I look forward to getting to know her better. Our girls are a month apart and play well together in school. She's Scottish and as Cerys says, "she has a really English accent!" Ha.

Our good friends from the Pontypool area came for dinner last night and we had a fun time. Their little boy is now walking and is just so cute! And they have another baby on the way! She's so skinny that I gave her a pair of maternity jeans that my aunt had sent me that didn't fit. Still had the tags on them! They are probably too big for her, even when she's 9 months pregnant, but I'm not bitter or anything. :) (Thanks for coming over y'all- and the Sleeping Beauty doll is a huge hit!) They also mentioned that Cerys sounds less American now. I thought that was funny. It's true I guess, she is sounding more British every day.

Well, I better get ready for the day- there is another Nearly New Sale in town today that Marc and I are going to visit in hopes of getting a few things for Baby Girl. No, we are still sure of a name. So far we've only liked one name but I can't bring myself to make that final decision. I'm sure that does not surprise any of you. :) Now my mom is going to ring and ask what the name is.

Have a lovely weekend!

Rainy Monday

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This picture was taken this morning at 8:45am

Since the time change two weeks ago, it's getting so dark. By 4:45pm last night it was fairly dark and I just couldn't believe it. You would think after several years I would know to expect it and get use to it! I don't mind the occasional rainy, dreary day but now that we are headed into winter, there will be many of those days.

Cerys was home sick again last week- Thursday and Friday. Bless her heart. I took her in to the doc, but all they seem to ever say it's a virus, "give her Calpol" (Tylenol equivalent). She seems a lot better now and had a good restful weekend. I had plans today to have one of her friend's mum over for coffee and blueberry coffee cake but guess what? As I was going to be last night I heard a barking noise coming from Bailey's room and when I went to check on her I realized she was shivering and coughing- argh! Sure enough, she had 101.5 temperature. So, my plans for today were put on hold but I'm okay with it. I will reschedule with my friend and snuggle up with Bales today. The only good thing about this is that it's POURING down with rain and Marc was able to rearrange his meeting this morning so he could drive Cerys to school so Bales and I didn't have to get out in it. :)

Holiday Recap Part 3, it's a long one!

Okay, here is the last recap of our Lakes District Holiday! I know you are glad! It's a bit out of order, but you still get the gist of what we were up to.

This is the "town" we stayed in. I need to research but it may have just been a village. If there is a cathedral there, then you are officially a city. Then town, village, hamlet I think. Anyway, our cottage was just outside of Appleby in Westmoreland. Or as the girls called it "Apple-bumblebee."

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The train station.

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We rode the train one day to a near by town (village/hamlet?) and walked around for about 10 minutes and decided it was too freezing cold to be out there so we rode the train right back to Appleby and got warm in our cottage! :)

Some of you may know that when we lived in Pontypool several years ago we had a crazy lovely dog named Skip. He is a Patterdale Terrier- very closely related to Jack Russel Terriers. We had heard that Patterdale was a tiny place near the Scottish border, and we always wanted to see where our little Skippy's breed was from. Come to find out, we were only a few minutes drive (okay, about 30 minutes) from Patterdale so we had to stop.



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Yep, that's it. It became very clear to us the reason Skip was so anti-city. He was probably disgusted with us for taking him out of this into Cardiff. And who could blame him? We love you Skippy wherever you are now!


Another day we stopped at the Motor Museum. I was actually quite interested in this because of the famous American cars they have here. I watched Knight Rider, A-Team and Dukes of Hazzard with my brother so this was pretty cool for all of us to see. It was a tiny place, but full of famous cars. I think if you enlarge the picture you can see the list of cars better.

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Pub names are always funny to us, but this one takes the cake!

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Another day we drove to Durham, England to spend it with some college (university) friends, Ben and Heather. Ben is studying there- I can't even tell what he's studying because it sounded really smart and way over my head :)




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Their cute little family! Aren't those boys precious? So cute!!

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Our poor girls were in the car a lot on this holiday and after we had lunch (woohoo for Nando's!) we went back their house for tea and biscuits so the girls could play with the boys. (Heather, Cerys is still talking about those window markers! I've got to get some!)



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While in Durham, we saw this street sign and thought it was cool.

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Just another random, gorgeous picture. Look at that blue sky!

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And finally, here are some pictures of our cottage.



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The bedrooms/bathrooms were downstairs as you walked in, and living room/dining room/kitchen was upstairs kind of loft style.



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And our view, the morning we drove away from the beautiful Lakes District. If you are ever in England, you must go here!

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It All Makes Sense Now

I know I haven't finished our holiday recap, but this is just too funny not to share.

We received a care package in the post on Monday- full of Halloween candy!! What wonderful friends we have for thinking of us. It included Candy Corn, Circus Peanuts, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

I can remember my grandpa eating circus peanuts when I was really young and I could not stand the smell of them! Many years later, I meet Marc and find out he LOVES circus peanuts. Gag. In fact, he's sitting here right now eating them and trying to make me sick. I decided to look them up online and found this on Wikipedia-

In 1963, General Mills vice president John Holahan inventively discovered that Circus Peanuts shavings yielded a tasty enhancement to his breakfast cereal. General Mills formalized the innovation and created Lucky Charms, the first breakfast cereal to contain marshmallow bits (or "marbits").

If any of you know Marc personally, you know that Lucky Charms are his favorite cereal in the world. It's makes sense now.

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