Thank you!

UPDATE: Just spoke with our friends and they are doing GREAT! Baby is healthy and mom is also healthy, and there were NO complications! In fact, they said they could not have had a better experience! Baby girl was a sweet little 5 pounds! Praise God. Thank you so much for your prayers for them! Keep praying as the adjust to parenthood!

Our dear friends had a precious baby girl earlier this morning. Mommy and Baby are doing GREAT! Dad's good too! :) Thank you for your prayers for them! I don't have many details right now, but we will be talking to them on the phone soon so I hope to find out more.

Thank you for your prayers! God is good! Thank Him for His protection around our dear friends!

Please Pray Today

I just wanted to ask anyone who reads this to pray for our dear friends that are serving in another country. God knows their names. They are having their first baby in the next 24 hours, they are away from friends/family, and she is facing possible complications. I can relate to them in so many ways, especially having our first child overseas. But there are some other factors involved here, so we just asked that you pray hard for them and for a safe delivery for this baby! Pray for Mommy to be safe and that the Lord would guide and direct the special doctors that will be present.

Sassy and K, this is for you- "The Lord God in my strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army..." Habakuk 3:19

Thank you so much!

I will keep you updated when I know something!

Lessons I Learned Today From Legs, Bums, and Tums

Yesterday I mentioned having to do some extra time on the treadmill, so today instead of working out in the gym part of our local leisure centre, I attended the Legs, Bums and Tums class. I've gone to that class before. And by that I mean, once. It's hard work. The first time I went to that class I was fairly annoyed that the instructor sat in the middle of us and yelled out what we were suppose to do at each station she had set up. I was thinking the whole time that she should really be up there doing what we are doing or at the very least modeling each exercise for us newbies. By the end of the hour long session I was quite annoyed and thought that I might just never go back, that'll show her! I came home and told Marc how annoyed I was, as if he couldn't tell by the way I marched in the back door and slammed my keys down on the counter. Don't get me wrong, it was a good workout and I was proud that I had made it through, but still annoyed that she just sat there!

Being in another country, I often don't like talking in big groups because I feel very self conscience about my American accent and my constant use of the word "y'all". So I was mainly just humbled during this session that I had to ask the instructor lady what certain exercises were and how to do them. That was the root of my issue I think. Just embarrassed and annoyed and not to mention my legs were like jelly the entire time. You can only do so many squats and lunges before they start to give out on you. Anyway. Today, I decided I would give it one more try just because it's a good workout and I needed it, and I'd eaten enough Blueberry Coffee Cake for all of us. I was secretly hoping it would be another instructor, but it was not. There were only 5 of us ladies there today. As were starting, she asked if there was anything she needed to know about, any injuries, etc. We all shook our head no and she asked if anyone was pregnant. Thank the Lord I could answer NO to that one! :) But she proceeded to tell us that she was pregnant! I suddenly felt VERY convicted about my attitude toward her from the last time I was there. And come to think of it, she did kind of have a little pooch in her belly. I can't believe I didn't notice this last time, that would have clued me in! Oh me, I felt really bad that I was annoyed at her for just sitting there last time. For goodness sake, when I was pregnant I didn't go near any kind of excercise class and here she was teaching a class!

So anyway, here are my lessons I learned today from Legs, Bums, and Tums.

1. Don't be upset with people, maybe they are just pregnant!

2. Don't try to drive a stick-shift for any length of time after you attend this
class. Your leg will be trembling for mercy.

3. Don't eat Peanut M&M's on the way home from this class. It will cancel most, if not all of the hard work you just did!

4. And finally, don't go to Tesco and buy this!

It's HALF PRICE Y'All!

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For one pint, it's £1.86=$3.73 and that is the half off price!

I'm Back

I'm back from the blogging break. Aren't you excited? Ha!

Marc left for Germany on Sunday, so it was just me and the girls for a few days. We are glad to have him back and we are thankful that he does not have to travel much! I enjoyed having the evenings alone, after the girls were in bed. I did all kinds of fun things....watched whatever TV show I wanted to see, looked up new recipes, finished knitting my second scarf, and chatted with friends and family on-line for as long I wanted without any crying episodes or screaming fits! (from the girls, not me!)

Speaking of new recipes, I tried this Blueberry Coffee Cake! OH. MY. WORD. It was so yummy and I even made the buttermilk biscuits FROM SCRATCH! Thankyouverymuch. I made this the morning Marc came home from Germany and he was very pleased! ;)

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Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits!

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DELICIOUS!

And here is my scarf I finished knitting. It was a fun project and much easier than my first scarf I knitted over two years ago! I love the yarn, it's almost so ugly it's cute.

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And tonight while I was making this BLT Pasta for dinner, I set off our smoke alarm for the first time. I had the bacon cooking and got distracted. What would distract me? Well, for one Cerys was upstairs in her room playing when she started yelling that she had to go potty so Marc was in a frantic dash up the stairs to reach her in time, Bailey was whhhiiinnniinnnggg because it was 5:00 and that's what she does at that time of day. So as I went to pick up Bailey I suddenly began to smell something burning, then remembered that I had 6 slices of bacon cooking! I set Bailey down on the floor, still crying, and turned the burner off just as the smoke alarm started blaring. Bailey cried some more. Marc, to his surprise, found Cerys sitting on the potty just waiting for help! That's the first time she has taken the initiative to actually go to the bathroom and sit on the on the potty. She usually stands there screaming that she has to go potty while it's trickling down her legs. Nice.

So anyway, I opened the door and windows and took the skillet outside till it stopped smoking. The rain helped. Marc came running back downstairs and started digging through our junk drawer to find the code to the alarm. All while I'm yelling from outside, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?" And he yells, "TRYING TO FIND THE CODE SO I CAN TURN IT OFF." And Bailey is still sitting in the floor crying. Funny thing is, the alarm system on this house is not connected to any emergency services here, so it just blares out our neighbors until we turn it off. So, after I cooked some more bacon we finally got to eat dinner and Bailey finally stopped crying.

Hope y'all had a fun 4th of July. No fireworks or celebrations here, but I did make some yummy potato salad (the British version, as I refer to it) so that was fun.

Goodness, lots of food references in this post! Ha! Guess I better do some extra time on the treadmill this week. :)

Rest

I'm going to take a break from the blog for a few days. I'm in need of some rest and want to fully concentrate on some things around here. There have been several things happening here with us, along with the events in London and Glasgow and I just need to rest and re-charge my battery. And most importantly, get alone with Him without any distractions.

Hope you all have a restful week yourselves!

Car Seats and American Style Food

Well, I think this post wins for the most random post ever!

For those of you that know about our car seat dilemma, well, we have gotten one for Cerys to use for now. For those of you that don't know our car seat dilemma...we bought one off E-bay, brand new, but it's sitting at our friend's house in Plano because we are NOT willing to pay $400 to get it shipped to us! Long story short, we thought we would save money by buying one that we liked in the States and then have it shipped to us. Either we researched wrong or the postal service has changed, the US Postal Service will not ship it because it's too big of a box. So that left us to other major shipping companies and $400 was the cheapest. No thanks. SO...we have one that we are using until we go back to TX for a visit in November, and we will then bring it back with us on the plane. Ok, so now...we have moved Bailey into Cerys' old seat, facing frontwards! Boohoo, just another sign of growing up! She loves it, although you can't really tell from the picture. She usually has that "I'm not impressed" look in most pictures. Cerys complains of her new seat being too tight and hurting, but who knows...complaining is quite common these days. Sigh.

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Goodbye car seat, you've served us well!

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Cerys' new ride!

I'm thrilled, really Mom, I am!

In other news, a local store was advertising "American Style Food" so of course we had to go see what that was all about. This is what we found!

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If anyone knows what to use Smoky Mexican Salt for, let me know! It was only 39pence, so I just went ahead and bought it!

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No bake S'mores anyone?

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Don't you love the flags on the packaging? Hehehe

And here are a few random pictures thrown in just for fun!

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The girls, trying to keep them occupied while we are getting ready to leave the house!

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Some friends of ours gave Cerys this baby doll stroller, but here they are called Prams or Pushchairs. And you can see that Cerys is checking herself out in the mirror...she enjoys doing that. :)

Advice For Young Moms

Ha! Like I have any! If you want to read some, go on over to Raising Five! I enjoy reading this blog, and I think all my young mom friends will too. On those days when we need extra encouragement on how to be a mother and wife, I think this will be a good post to read! Go read it....I'll wait.

Good huh? Some days our 2 girls just really wear me out! I don't know if it's that they are close in age (18 months apart) or what, but they are just "full on" as they say here in Wales. It's always encouraging for me at least, to know and hear from others who have been in our shoes and have actually survived these first few years as a mom!

The girls are in bed- and asleep (because just because you are in bed does not mean you are actually going to go to sleep right? you might have important things to do like singing at the top of your lungs and talking to your baby dolls and things like that) so I think I will pour myself a nice cuppa and enjoy the quietness of the evening.

Goodnight.

Weekend in Pictures

Here are a some pictures from this weekend. We went down to Cardiff Bay yesterday, about 10 minutes from our house. It was cloudy and rainy some, but we enjoyed getting out of the house since it's been raining most of the week!

We went back to Pontypool this morning, Marc was preaching at Upper Trosnant, the church where we lived (yes, literally lived) from 2002-2004 when we did youth/children's work. I'll post some pictures of that as well.

For my family and a few of our friends who have been to Pontypool, you will see quite a few changes at Upper Trosnant. For one, the siding and doors are painted black now (The church siding was a dark red, and our front door use to be white). They have gotten permission from the council to pave the graveyard that is beside the church. It's in the process of being cleared, leveled and then will be paved to make a carpark. There is no parking for the church, so this will come in handy to have it's own carpark. For those of you horrified about a cemetery being paved over, it's a really old cemetery and it was a long process that the council went through to decide if it was okay to do this. There are no living relatives left of anyone buried there. This is more common here than you might think. Anyway, the headstones will be placed at various places in the carpark, along the wall, etc. Our old flat is being used an office right now, but I will post some pictures of the backside of the church. They have also put up a makeshift gate on the left side of the church, remember that crazy small area we actually backed our car into? It's now gated, and they are refurbishing the church hall behind the church. So, they have a lot going on!

It always brings a smile to my face every time we drive into Pontypool. That was not always the case. There were many times I would cry driving into town and driving up to our flat. God did a lot of work in my life and heart those 2 years in Pontypool and now going back just brings so many memories to my mind. I remember crying the first few weeks in our little flat, it was quite a change from our apartment in Euless, TX...I never thought I could get use to living in a flat located in the attic of an old church, with a graveyard as our scenery. But, the day we moved out I cried harder than when we had moved in! I had come to love that little flat that the two of us shared. Ok, anyway, enough of me carrying on that like this! Here are some pics!

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Cerys, before we left for the Bay

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Aww, sweet

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A view from the Bay

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We have actually become Doctor Who fans...can you believe it?!? This was an exhibit in the Bay, and we had to take a picture of the Tardis!

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Bailey enjoying the ride! (while mommy got dizzy walking in circles helping her hold on)

Here are the Upper Trosnant Pics:
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Marc chatting it up

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If you've visited us in Pontypool, then you've met Ron! Hi, Ron if you are reading this!

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This is the cemetery, the view from the vestry door (behind the church)


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Some of the headstones piled up

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This is the back of the church, looking at the Church Hall, where we had TeamKid, it's being refurbished as you can tell. Adding a new kitchen and indoor toilets! woohoo! It was built in 1908 as a "temporary" building. hehehe. Oh, and it will have heating! Oh, you don't know how thankful I am for that!

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The back of the church, and those 3 windows were our flat...the big window is the small bedroom/office and two smaller windows up there is our bedroom!

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Those are the stairs leading up to our front door, and the side of the church. You can see the gate that was added, this is where we would back our car in for parking. Let's just say there were plenty of dents and scrapes when we returned the car! (And only one or two were from Marc. oops!)

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This was the other side of the flat- our front door, the window on the far left was our living room, then the entry way window by the door, then that small window on the right was our bathroom. Cosy.


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Aww, our front door. All painted black. It actually looks better painted black, because it use to be white and with all the rain, it was turning a nice rust color.

I realize I referred to everything as "our door, our flat, our living room" etc. Well, it will always be OUR flat. Even though it is being as storage/office now, we were the first to live in it in a long time! The sweet folks in Pontypool did a lot of work to get the flat livable for us and we are so grateful. It's definitely different, but we loved it!

Sorry this post ended up being really long! Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Wholemeal Crisis!

UPDATE: Thanks for the comments, I baked a loaf this morning..using 2/3 cups wholemeal, the rest was regular bread flour and it worked! I will have to do some more experimenting!

Ok, all you bread making people out there...Marc got me a bread machine, which I've wanted for a really long time. He got a great bargain on E-bay! Anyway, I've made 3 loaves of wholemeal bread and they all turned out like this....


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It didn't rise at all! Just one big blob of hard bread. I've checked the yeast I used and it is not out date, I've checked the flour and it's ok too. I also used the same yeast and made a white bread loaf and it turned out beautifully. But I really want my wholemeal bread to work!!!

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

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