Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

*update at the bottom

We made it! We are exhausted, but we made it!

We got into London yesterday (Wednesday) around 9am and drove back to Cardiff, a 3 hour drive. Bailey cried most of the trip. Yes, on the plane and in the car. I was crying at several points along our journey as well...from sadness at saying goodbye to my family again, from exhaustion, and from trying to hold on to a tired baby who was doing her best to try to get out of my arms. I've decided I will not fly again with Bailey...ever. Just kidding of course. I think. You just can't reason with a 17 month old. Cerys did great on both flights, even slept most of the way yesterday. When we got home it was dark and rainy, our house was cold from having turned off our radiators while we were gone, and we had no milk or food in the kitchen and the tears flowed again...from me and the girls who only wanted milk. But it didn't last long as we warmed up and got some food in our bellies. We went to bed early and even though Bailey was awake from 10-midnight, crying off and on, we all slept great from that point on and woke up at 10am when the postman knocked on our door! Good thing he did, otherwise who knows how long we could have slept! We needed to get up and get going to try and get our bodies back on this time zone!

The postman delivered our Christmas tree we bought, so as soon as our suitcases are unpacked and everything is put away, we will decorate for Christmas! I'm so excited! We have not really decorated for Christmas in about 5 years- since we didn't have any of our decorations with us the first 3 years here, then the 4th year we were living with my parents back in Dallas and didn't decorate with our things, then this last year we were crating and packing at this time and we had to crate all our decorations! So, finally, we get to use them this year! The funny thing was that I didn't realize how little we had!! Marc got up in the loft this morning to get them out and he came down with a small plastic box, much like a file holder, one old diaper box was labeled "Christmas decorations" and another tiny box. I just stood there and looked at it and said, "Is that the first load to bring down?" He laughed and said, "No, this IS IT!" So, we may have a tree, but not much on it! Oh well, at least we will get to have a tree with lights! :)

I have so much to say about our trip and so many pictures, so I will try and do that later!

Wouldn't you know it...the tree we got from the postman today was suppose to be pre-lit...and it wasn't. Nice.

Coming to a Close

Well, our 2 weeks has come and gone super fast. We leave on Tuesday to head back and I'm sure it will be a hard day for all of us. In one way, I'm ready to be back to my routine, my house, my bed. But on the other hand, I've enjoyed hanging with my family and seeing some of our friends, walking the aisles of Target just because I can, and watching the girls play with my mom, dad and brothers has been so sweet. I'm not sure if Cerys will understand on Tuesday that we are going back to our house. I get a lump in my throat just thinking about the questions she might ask..."Are Gigi and Papa coming to our house too?" "Are we going to their house after we sleep at our house?" "Where's Uncle Josh and Uncle Caleb, I want to play with them?"

Tomorrow we will get to fellowship with our class at church and I am really looking forward to that. Our class has been so supportive of us and have just amazed us the past 10 or so months that we have been in Wales. Care packages, phone calls, emails, prayers, etc. We love them dearly and just enjoy the times we get to be with them.

So, in the last 2 weeks we've had a birthday for Cerys, celebrated Thanksgiving with extended family and had Christmas with my family. We are taking back more luggage than we came with and a lot of new toys and clothes for the girls. I'm so thankful and grateful to my family for blessing us with new things for the girls. I think I've got enough clothes for the winter/spring for them and enough shoes too! Thank you!!!

Not sure if I will write again before we go to the airport. If not, just pray for our flight (oh, I'm dreading it already!) and for the girls to sleep!!! It is an overnight flight, so it should be easier to get them to sleep! Then we will have a 3 hour drive back to our house, so pray for Marc to be awake and alert! Pray for our families as we say goodbye once again.

Thank you!

So Much For Vacation!

We are exhausted. I'm realizing that coming back to the states is not a vacation. There is too much to do, too many people to visit with and too many restaurants. Just kidding about the eating out. We have enjoyed that though.

Our first week went by like a whirlwind and I'm sure this second will too. We had a great 3rd birthday party for Cerys, then we enjoyed catching up with friends at our church on Sunday, and then we've spent the last 2 days in Denison, TX with Marc's brother and sister in law and 2 cousins. What a blast that was! The girls played and played with their 3 cousins who are only months apart in ages! It was so fun to watch them. They enjoyed playing with all the boy toys and the boys enjoyed playing with the princess toys :) Then last night we drove from Denison to Arlington to get together with some of our dearest friends (minus a few couples who live in other parts of the world! We missed you!) from college and all their children. I think there were more kids in the house than adults! It was a blast though!

We've had many late nights, and it's hard for me because I'm pretty strict on routine and bedtimes...but it's been so fun and I know we will all adjust back to our regular routine once we return. We made a Target run this morning and when we got home Bailey was just crying and crying and hanging on my leg, I was so frustrated with her because 'I have so much to do!' but when I sat down on the couch with her she fell asleep on me and it was just so precious. I was reminded that in all this craziness, that I am not the only one who is tired and needs some loving. :)

Anyway, again this is so random and doesn't really say much. We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow (to those in the UK- we'll eat some for you!) and enjoy being with the ones you love.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's A Party!

My firstborn is 3 today. My baby. There are pink decorations in the dining room of my parent's house and a princess cake on the table. My mom has worked all morning to make Cerys her own Snow White Cake, and it's precious. There is a Snow White dress, complete with sparkly shoes for her to wear to the party. While the little princess is sleeping (or laying down in her bed talking) we are busy running around getting it all ready for her.

I can't wait to show you pictures!

We are having a great time. We went to 2 basketball games yesterday (my dad is the varsity coach and my brother plays JV for TCA here in Addison) and even managed to squeeze in a trip to the mall in between. The girls were so tired last night, not to mention this momma....to be going so much all day long is so tiring! But we are trying to do it all while we are here! :)

* If my posts seem random or I leave words out, it's just because I'm so tired. I've already edited this one 3 times because I've found so many mistakes!

Everything is Bigger in Texas

**Forgot to mention the two blessings we had on the flight over...seems I was so exhausted and tired last night that I was only focusing on how hard the flight was. I'm working on trying to stay positive in all situations! Anyway, when we checked in our bags at Gatwick, a VERY nice man asked us if we knew we didn't have a seat for Bailey. Yes, we knew, and we were saving money so she was going to sit with us. Anyway, he said that the bulk head seats were empty so he moved us up and gave us a seat for Bailey! Praise Him! We had a row of 5 seats- one man sat on the end and I'm sure he was hating that, but oh well. So we had a seat for Bailey- not that she used it, she was too busy. And the other blessing was a very sweet flight attendant who we got to know from our walks to the back of the plane really took to Bailey and said to me, "You look exhausted honey, you just go sit down and I'll take Bailey for a walk around the plane." Bless you sweet lady whoever you are!!! I was so tired I didn't care that a perfect stranger was walking my child up to first class and back. I figured they couldn't go anywhere with her.

Thank you to those who were praying for us!


Is it just me or did I just forget how wide the roads are here??? And not to mention the SUV's everywhere!

Anyway, we arrived in Dallas tonight...exhausted. Our flight was LONG but we survived. Cerys did just great and entertained herself quite well...then there was Bailey. 17 months is NOT a good age to fly anywhere...especially not for 10 hours. We did a lot of walking and talking to strangers. She slept a total of 40 minutes the entire time. Yep, only 40 minutes out of 600 minutes. Not cool.

And, one thing I did not blog about before was that we surprised my mom by showing up a day early. She thought we were arriving tomorrow (Thursday)- so it was quite fun to ring her door bell and see the look on her face as we stood there with all our luggage and weary looks on our faces. But it was worth it. :)

Big D- here we come!

Signing Off

About half way down our alley this morning I was thinking it was rather frigid, and wishing I had some gloves on. By the time my run was over, my hands were stiff and freezing! When I got home I went to our outdoor/indoor thermometer in the kitchen to find this:

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And to my surprise it was 36 out there, no wonder I was freezing! I only had a lightweight sweatshirt and trousers on, so next time I shall bundle up! :) And yes, it was 59 in our kitchen. It's the back of the house, and an add-on at some point in our house's history, so it gets quite chilly in there in the mornings and evenings.

Anyway, I'm signing off here until a bit later...got laundry to finish, packing to do, a plane to catch later in the week and one very excited almost 3 year old on my hands! (She will be 3 on Saturday!!! Where have the last 3 years gone?!?) Please say a prayer for safe travels- a drive to London and a flight to Dallas! I hope I have nothing exciting to report about flying with our girls, but somehow I feel there might be a few stories.

Cheerio y'all.

It's over!

Last night was the last night of the Coal House. I am so sad. It was an hour long finale and I thought it was just so sweet. The families did so well, and you can see how much they learned to appreciate in just one month. None of the children missed their ipods, dvd's and toys- but found that they can be quite creative...gee, what a concept. I was convicted and inspired. With Christmas just weeks away I was thinking how hard it is because I love giving gifts to people. I love seeing the looks on our girls' faces when they receive a surprise or a gift. I would love to buy them everything, but of course that would be ridiculous and stupid. They don't need extravagant "things." One of the husbands last night said, as they were moving out of the houses, that it's really made him think about his priorities and that he will really miss the community they had there with the other 2 families. Marc and I have been saying all along that they are building community and it was just awesome to watch them help each other out and bond with each other. They have a little bit of Acts 2 going on I think. :) The kids didn't fight over who had the best trainers, or clothes, or toys. They made up their own games and the two- year old even used 3 rocks as his toy "cars."

So, I'm a bit sad and even had a few tears at the end. (I get really attached if you can't tell!) Their website is really neat to look at it if you are still interested. I think the people here have really enjoyed watching it this past month!

What I'm not sad about is packing for our trip to Dallas this week!!! I've got a list of things to do before we leave, a list of things to pack, and a list of things to take back to family! We are really looking forward to this, even though I know it will go by super fast. We would love to see all of our friends, but as you can understand, it will just not be possible to see everyone I'm afraid. But we will make the most of our 2 weeks.

We'll be busy around here the next few days, but I'll try and post before we go. If not I'll be posting from Dallas I'm sure, so stay tuned....

Poncho

Ok, so here it is! I finished my "quirky poncho" (at least that is what the pattern called it!). It's a chunky knit in basket weave stitch. I even made the tassels to go on it too! It's not quite what I had envisioned, but not bad for my first big knitting project! It's a bit longer in the back than I was thinking it would be, so I'm not too sure about it, but oh well. So, please don't laugh, but you can scroll down to see me wearing it. Please excuse the gray t-shirt, blue jogging trousers and hair in ponytail! :) It's just one of those days! (Shall I mention that it's been pouring down rain, the sideways, blowing all over the place kind of rain most of the day?!?)

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And now I'm totally embarrassed.

Busy!

Don't have much to say tonight...we are busy getting ready for our 2 week trip to Texas- next week we'll be on a 10 hour non-stop flight to Dallas. I don't really even want to think about that right now. Any ideas on keeping a 17 month old entertained in your lap for that amount of time?!? Oh dear Lord.

You can pray that Marc and Cerys feel better, they seem to be coming down with a cold and I've got scratchy throat/drainage going on. I really, really would like for us all to be in good health before our trip so we can remain in good health while visiting friends and family. Plus, 2 kids and a hubby with a cold is not a good combo.

Thanks!

Remember, Remember The 5th of November!

As I'm typing this, fireworks are going off all over the city. Today is November 5th- Guy Fawkes Night here in the UK. Also known as "Bonfire Night"- it's an annual celebration on the 5th of November. In 1605, Guy Fawkes conspired to blow up the Houses of Parliament building in London with gunpowder, but it was foiled. So, every year people shoot fireworks and build big bonfires with "guys" made of wood or straw (much like a scarecrow) on top of the bonfire. You can read more about it here.

Five years ago, we arrived in Pontypool on October 31st. Then a few days later we heard fireworks and ran to the back window of our flat and saw them going off from Pontypool Park. We had no idea why we were seeing fireworks, but we sure did enjoy it! Then one year, we had our dog Skip... we took him outside during the fireworks and let me just tell you that I have never in my life seen an animal act the way he did. He went ballistic and starting clawing at the concrete, we could barely hold on to him. When we got him home we realized he was bleeding. We looked closer at his paws and realized that he had broken every single one of his claws off his two back paws!!! Crazy dog! So, we've had a few memorable Guy Fawkes Night's around here!

This year, we didn't get any fireworks or build a bonfire, but we did go see some fireworks this past Saturday night at Caerphilly Castle. We got all bundled up and took the girls out to the castle! I was a bit worried about Cerys' reaction to the fireworks, but she did great. We talked it up real big all day and even showed her a video of fireworks so she could hear how loud they would be. Bailey was not too sure at first, but she soon got into it and started saying "boom boom" and "ahhhh" so I think she enjoyed them too!

Here are a few pictures from our Guy Fawkes fireworks this weekend:

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And totally not related, I am about finished with that quirky poncho I was knitting! I have a few finishing touches to do and then maybe, just maybe, I will show you. And also not related, we will be in Dallas in a little over a week!!!!
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