Sometimes I Go Overboard

Ok, first of all I would just like to thank you for your sweet comments on my Life Is Hard post. I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one out there that has felt this. I would like to report that this week has been MUCH better. I've been more content and peaceful than I have been in a while. I think it's your prayers plus the fact that I've stopped complaining about things and just got 'em done! I've also lightened up on myself a bit. Anyway, thank you for your sweet comments, they meant so much to me.

Now, are you ready for a good laugh?

Sometimes when I'm in America, I go overboard. I get a Sonic drink almost daily and buy lots of cups. Let me explain. Things are SO much cheaper. And as we bought things to crate back we would just stick them in our massive walk-in dream closet. I knew at some point I needed to buy some cups to bring back but apparently I bought some every time I was in Target. Here's the proof:

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(Not bought at Target, but from my mother-in-law from SA)
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I also stocked up on some cute popcorn buckets. You may not know that Marc (and his parents!) eat popcorn every Sunday for dinner. So this has become a fun thing for the girls each Sunday night. We will fix popcorn along with other things like cut up fruit and whatever else I can find and watch a movie together. I saw these at Target, in the dollar spot, and had to have them. Even though I don't really like popcorn.

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These were bought at Michael's during Valentine's week. Not sure why I "had to have them" but I did. We used them tonight for queso.

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Remember I was on my back with an ice pack when the crate was packed by Marc, so I'm sure he wondered why I had bought all these cups! As we were unpacking it seemed like cups kept coming out of nowhere and I could not stop laughing. I kept saying "But they were like only $1!" You can tell which holidays we were in America for!

I guess we are good on cups for a long time!

CRATE DAY!

HAPPY CRATE DAY TO YOU! We got a phone call on Friday saying our crate was ready to be delivered and that it would arrive sometime Tuesday afternoon. Tuesdays is my cleaning day- but so you know I just established this "cleaning day" last week, so this was only the second time. Not the second time to clean my house, but second time to have a set routine and actually DO IT. Sometimes instead of complaining about things you just gotta get up and do it. This is why Tuesdays are now my cleaning days. After taking the girls to school, Addison and I put on some music and clean like mad women! I can get everything done in under two hours- depending on how cooperative Addison is. Anyway, today I got up and got to cleaning this house from top the bottom. I knew I would feel good about the crate arriving to a clean house. I know, whatever. (Huge props to my sweet husband who cleaned the bathroom and water closet! He really is so good to me!)

The lorry (truck) arrived right at 3:00pm, which is about ten minutes before I leave to get the girls from school! I was hoping it would come earlier so we would at least have some time to unpack some of it, but it was super fun picking them up from school and saying, "Guess what? Daddy is at home unpacking our crate!" Which led to shrills and screams all the way home!

The lorry drivers kind of messed up our plans to unload the crate, but it's done now. We were planning on having them put in out back in our garage (it's not attached to the house) and then we could unload it at our leisure. Well, the truck they brought it in does not have a lift thing, so they had to break it open while on the truck and while blocking the road, and hand things to Marc. Not cool guys, not cool. One of the drivers said to Marc, "What, you've got some boxes in here right?" HAHAHAHAHA. That is the funniest thing I've heard all week. Marc explained to them that it was packed super tight and filled with ALL kinds of things. I wish I could have seen their faces when the front of the crate came off. I had already left to go get the girls at this point. They were super impressed with Marc's packing skills and told him how well it was done. They were shocked at the amount of stuff crammed into 50 cubic feet.

Anyway, sorry for being so wordy! I'm just happy! And excited to have our stuff!

Here it is!

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It looks a bit like our crate threw up all over the kitchen!

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So happy to have my Fiesta ware that I got for Christmas last year! It takes a lot of self-control to pack a crate and wait for your things! Most of this stuff we bought right around Christmas time and just had to put it in our massive walk-in closet in McKinney. Finally today we get to see it and use it!!

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So many books to read!! (You should see the stack now that we have cleared some things away!)

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Funny, Addison actually likes her toys she got for Christmas and Birthday last year!
She was not too impressed with them at the time.

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True to their personalities they got stuck right in unpacking and playing- Cerys went right into organizing things (that's my girl!) and Bailey put on every outfit she could find- dressing up or real clothes.

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Addison provided the musical entertainment while we unpacked, Lord help me. She blew on BOTH of them while clacking along in those plastic princess shoes. :)

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It is so strange to think that when Marc packed this crate, I was laying flat on the floor on ice packs unable to hardly move. I thought I would never be the same again! I found myself so thankful to God that I was able to unpack it today with no back pain! Hey, I even did some old school Billy Blanks Tae-Bo yesterday!!!

The only room that is clear is the living room. But it was so fun to find out what we had packed. I had forgotten about a lot of things. Poor Marc said "Looks like I didn't bring anything back but books- all this stuff is girl stuff!" To which I corrected him and told him he had a giant jar of JIFF peanut butter and he could use the Bath and Body Works soap I brought back! :) Something funny I found myself saying today to Marc, "Ok, the princess shoes, wings, wands and crowns are in this box!" Hahaha. Just cracked me up. We are surrounded by little girlies, no?

We have our home group tomorrow night, so I have lots to do tonight and tomorrow to clear a space! I did bring back two small blocks of Velveeta and two cans of Rotel. Queso anyone? (Maybe I should take some up to Ruby Tuesdays???)

Life is Hard.

I know in my last post I said I would come back with a better attitude. Well, my attitude is better but I'm just going to be honest and let you know that I'm struggling. I've not had the "umph" to blog or write about any of it until now. I'm tucked up in my bed this chilly Sunday afternoon, the girls are napping and Marc is watching the Ryder Cup so maybe I can squeak some words out.

Life is hard. I know you know that. But I have just felt like it's been beating me to death lately. I've been extremely aware of my selfish nature lately.... with the girls, with Marc, with every thing it seems!

We've got several sets of friends who are struggling deeply. My heart hurts for them. Marriages on the verge of ending. And this makes me take stock of our own. I think we would all agree that there are different seasons in marriage and it's good every once in a while to look at your own and see where you can make improvements.

But most of you who know me, know that if something is meant to warn you, it will absolutely eat me alive! Instead of taking a healthy look at things, I freak out. I worry. I obsess. Then I get depressed. Not a good cycle.

Back up a few weeks and you will see that we were getting into the routine of life back in the UK. It's hard being 7 months with family and friends and then suddenly it's over. The girls were grumpy, which made me grumpy, etc. School got us back into routine and that was a good distraction for us all. It also made the girls tired and cranky and so the past few weeks have been hard discipline wise to deal with. I mean life with three little girls is tough, amen? It just seems like it's one thing after another during these young years- there is no "off" switch to parenting is there? This naturally led to me feeling like I was the biggest grump of a mom on the planet. I would lose my temper, raise my voice and just generally feel like I could do nothing right. My house got out of order very quickly after putting it back in order once we got here and that annoyed me to no end. I'm probably OCD when it comes to a clean house and I'm learning to let go of some of that at this stage of life. Add this to the fact that I'm feeling bad about my lack of exercise, lack of consistent time in the Word and I was a mess.

Anyway, all of this combined has made me fearful that we might not survive the raising kids years. Would Marc and I still have a good marriage in a few years? Would we survive this thing? Surely I'm not the only one who has thought these things?? I'm doing my best to get up each morning before the girls (that's the way it works best for me) so I can be alone in a quiet house and read my Bible before the day comes rushing in. I'm trying hard to exercise (walk everywhere I go now) and lose this weight. I'm trying hard to chill out about the house work.

I'm trying, trying, trying. But somedays I wonder if that's good enough. I find great comfort in these verses:

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 2 Peter 1:3

Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in Him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders. Deuteronomy 33:12

We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we don't give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us! We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9

Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand. Isaiah 41:9-10

I'm not really sure how to end this blog post, but just felt that I needed to share why the blog has been so quiet lately. The last thing I want to be is a hypocrite so I will not pretend things are peachy when they are not. But I also don't want to be Debbie Downer- which quite frankly is what I can be without much effort at all. :) Marc and I have had a good chat about all of this on Friday night and I chatted to my mom last night. It just boils down to this: I want to be found faithful. I want to love my family well and I need Jesus to help me, especially on the days that it does not come easily.

This is just me, being honest.

One of Those Weeks!

It's been one of those weeks y'all. It started on Saturday with me waking up grumpy. It was very strange, almost like a cloud of darkness hanging over my head. I could feel it and I knew I had better take it to the Lord right then or I would be overcome with it. We packed a lunch and got out of the city for a while and that seemed to help. I'm pretty sure I know the source of this darkness, no, I know for a fact where it came from! I began asking the Lord to show me what was going on and I do believe He answered and some things that have been going on for the past few weeks around here came to my mind. Slowly throughout the day, I could feel this cloud lifting and I was so grateful!

With my lack of running because of my back problems, I've had a hard time finding something I can do for exercise. I'm finding it hard to get motivated to go swim- there is a pool near by but it's kind of expensive and I would have to get up and go before school...which means soon it will be dark, rainy and cold and .... well ya right. So I was determined to walk to school each day and not give in once to drive, even if Marc was home with the van. I'm pleased to report that I've done every school run this week so far. Twice a day, with Addison. I can get a pretty good pace with the stroller and yesterday we walked into town to Starbucks (totally defeated the purpose of the walking the weight off!) and then we walked to a playgroup and then walked home. Not sure how many miles I did yesterday, but my hips were hurting today.

On Tuesday Marc, Addie and I needed to go into town for something so we decided to stop for lunch at the new Ruby Tuesdays that opened a few weeks ago. I was so excited! I think eating out is my love language. I don't know why I get so excited over it. I don't mean fancy eating out, because that is not us...but like I get excited over Subway y'all. Anyway. I was pumped to see "Queso dip" on the menu! Music to this Texans' ears!! So Marc orders a burger, I get my usual chicken quesadillas to share with Addie and then queso to start with! Much to our surprise this is what came to the table:

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Does that look like queso to you? I took a bite and was so confused. We were one of the only few people in the restaurant because it had just opened for the day and the manager happened to come over to our table and asked how everything was. We explained the situation and he assured us this was the queso dip, except he pronounced it "Kweeso" which made me smile. Marc read the menu to him (I was trying not to bust out laughing at this point) and pointed out that is read "smooth, spicy cheese dip" and there was nothing smooth about this. I asked if it might be the artichoke dip because I had never had spinach in my case-o before. Looooong story short, this is their version of case-o. I was disappointed but whatever.

As my quesadillas came out I asked for some guacamole to dip them in and this is what I got:

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Feeling kind of bad at this point but also very annoyed (and guilty for being annoyed) I asked again and said that I ordered guacamole and then explained how it was made. Even our waitress said, "Ya, I thought guacamole was green too but this is what the chef gave me." I'm sure my eyes kind of glazed over and I looked at Marc. Again, the manager came over and we had to explain. So, we were slightly disappointed (annoyed) that we wasted our once a month eating out money on this. Oh well. We kind of thought since it's advertised as and "American Grill and Diner" that it would be kind of close in taste, but it was not so. We might be banned from every returning- Addie was rotten during this whole time too so they were probably REAL glad to see us go. The manager did come over at the end and ask where we were from and told us that they can't ship internationally, so they don't get the same ingredients. I can understand that, but I think they should at least know what guacamole is! Also in talking to some other Americans, they did not have good experiences there either.

Ok, so bravo if you are still reading!

This morning I got told off by Cerys' teacher because she was not wearing a coat. I had dressed her in the school jumper (sweatshirt) since it was only in the 60's so it was not cold. I just explained that it was not cold and she would be fine in her jumper and her teacher told me that she needed to be in a coat or mac (raincoat) because they were going to be walking to the post office today. I then became more concerned that they were leaving the school and I had no idea about it. My good friend Mel jumped in and saved the day for me by giving me her middle child's coat for Cerys to wear on the trip. But this afternoon I will be having a conversation with the teacher. I am just baffled sometimes that there is NO communication between school and parents. Or any permission slips. I know, sounds very American and over-protective. The post office is just down the road...am I over -reacting?

I'm sure I've blocked out any memories of Cerys or Bailey acting like this at 19 months old, but Lord have mercy. I'm trying not to get down on myself for Addie's behavior but I honestly do not know what is going on. She is so naughty! She had the award for best of the three in the sleeping category, but the past 2 weeks she's hardly taken her afternoon nap. She sleeps for about 30-45 minutes and wakes up crying. I had visions of cups of tea alone during her nap, but that has not yet happened since the girls have been in school.

Well, from all this complaining it sounds like I need to go have a good quiet time. I think the "new" has worn off and some culture shock is settling in. I'll see you in a few days and my attitude will be better!

First Day of School Pictures

I'm really behind, but here are the pictures from our first few days of school! So far, so good. We might have made it past the after-school meltdowns and tantrums...the past few school days have been much better, thank goodness. Both girls seem to like their teachers and are enjoying lunch and playtime out on the school yard. Ha.

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Addison has been having "Mummy's Little Bootcamp" the past few weeks. This child is so humbling. I thought I might know a thing or two about parenting, but then she came along and now I'm pretty sure I know nothing! I keep reminding myself that God made her and her personality. He also has had some things I needed to learn and is humbling me through Addison. It's a good thing she's so cute!

Providence

Providence: a manifestation of divine care or direction.

I found that definition on dictionary.com and we experienced it last night. The providential hand of God in our lives. Sometimes living overseas I feel like people forget about us, I know that sounds really selfish and immature, but true for me. There has been a deep stir in my heart for about year and I keep hearing the words "There's more" in my heart and mind. There's more to living this life, there's more than just walking around in my half-hearted, half-awakened state that I feel like I've been in lately. God reminded me just a few days ago that it does not matter if anyone forgets us because He never will! Never!

"Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your wall are continually before me." Isaiah 49:16

On Sunday we found out that Francis Chan would be speaking in Swansea, South Wales on Tuesday night. It's only about 45-50 minutes drive from Cardiff- you might remember a few posts ago that I went there last week with our friends. Anyway, we were shocked because it's not often that people like this come to Wales- except back in 2003 when I met Anne Graham Lotz but that's another story! Kind of on a whim, almost without thinking about it I told Marc we had to go. We rounded up a babysitter and as we were getting ready to go last night, I was thinking we must be crazy for even doing this. It was Bailey's first day of school and we would be out late. It was a mad rush after school to get them settled down and fed so we could leave at 5:30pm. Marc and I didn't have a chance to eat dinner and on the way to Swansea I was thinking we should have just stayed home. I was trying not to be all hyped up over him being a celebrity of sorts in the Christian circle, but once we got there and he and his wife sat a few rows in front of us I was glad we had made the effort to get there.

Marc hurt his back a few days ago, are we just getting old? So he was feeling really sore and uncomfortable. We loved the fact that before the evening started, Mr. Chan got up and said this is no spectatorship and we are here to hear from Almighty God. An Irish band called Rend Collective Experiment led us in worship and it was truly amazing. Not to mention that I love the Irish accent and have told Marc for the last six years that I would love have been born Irish. But that has nothing to do with this post. As Mr. Chan got up to speak he began praying and I didn't know until afterwards on the ride home that Marc had prayed for God to take his back pain away just for now so he could really focus on what was being said and he asked God to speak/affirm something in our lives. Without going into much detail, we have had an ongoing issue we have been dealing with and it's been really getting us down and discouraged. We truly had been feeling like we were on the right track but had been told otherwise and overall it was just very maddening. We really needed to hear from God, plain and simple.

Mr. Chan begins to speak and Marc's pain goes away. The first thing he tells us is that he was not real sure on what to say. He didn't just want to give another good sermon or a funny story, but he just kept asking God even right before he was up and he said he just felt impressed that God wanted him to say to some people that they are doing what the Bible says to do and they have been discouraged by some people- especially believers- but that he wanted to encourage some to continue in what you know and believe. To have faith that God is able, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power living in us if we believe.

I know this really might not make much sense to anyone, but I'm not writing this for you- but for us so we can come back to this one day and remember how God spoke to us last night.

At this point I had not even been thinking about this certain issue, it was actually the farthest thing from my mind last night. As soon he began saying of all this I sat straight up and my eyes I know were as big as saucers. I looked over at Marc and he might kill me for saying this, but he was choking on emotion. I began to wonder if I was hearing things, but Mr. Chan just kept going and speaking more truth into our lives. God is so amazing- even more so on our "good days." It was like an amazing hug from God (I know, dorky!) but just Him letting us know that He's on our side and He's for us and He sees us, He has not forgotten! There are a million other things I could say about last night but I'm still soaking it all in and just continually thanking the Lord for His providence in allowing us to be there. I'm also thankful for Mr. Chan and his wife, for their obedience to God and the courage to speak out against mediocrity.

I've only seen a few You Tube videos and a few of the video clips from Crazy Love of Francis Chan speaking, although I've read both of his books in the last year. After he spoke Marc and I were able to go up to him and visit with him and his beautiful wife, Lisa...who by the way got up and sang with the band and let me say that isn't is annoying when one couple has so much talent? Ha. She was super sweet- we talked about kids, travel, moving overseas, the States, etc and it was so fun. We got this quick photo, yes I had my camera and like a dork I asked if we could get a picture together. They were both extremely kind and down to earth. In fact, he told us a story about him not having enough courage recently to speak to a girl on an airplane- and I thought "I like you dude, you are real and you will admit it!" I struggle to speak to the other mum's on the school yard at times and then beat myself up for it. I was so encouraged to hear him say that.

Aren't they just too cute?

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This is my favorite video clip of him, be challenged!


Twas The Night Before School...

We have two little girls who are bouncing off the walls!!! After 8 months, they start school this week!

Cerys will start Year 1 tomorrow. Year 1? How did she grow up so fast? Tonight we borrowed a VCR from some friends and the girls asked what the VCR was. So funny. We watched old videos together while munching on popcorn and one video was when Cerys was dedicated to the Lord in March 2005. We were living in Wales still and we went back to Pontypool and asked our dear friend and mentor, Rev Richard Harrison to lead the service. My parents flew over from Texas to be here for the service and I'm so glad we have it on video! I, of course, teared up throughout the video. One of my little brother's read a passage of scripture and my Dad spoke for a few minutes and then prayed. When he was on the screen, Addison stood up and waved her arms around saying loudly, "PAPA, PAPA." and I cried again! Poor girl. She also waves goodbye every time she sees the laptop. You can tell we Skype a lot.

Bailey will start Reception on Tuesday. Reception is similar to Kindergarten, but just a year younger. I'm still worried about her only being 4 years old and going from 9-3:30 and eating lunch at school, but I trust the Lord to help us all! It seems like just yesterday I was giving birth at Medical City in Dallas- and now she's going to school! I'm so pleased though that she will be with the same teacher Cerys had so that gives me great relief! (There is only one year/grade class for each year)

Part of me is sad. Having been a teacher myself in America and the past few weeks hearing about all my friend's children going back to school with their cute backpacks and school supplies just makes me a bit sad. Our girls are missing out on that. There is no "Meet the Teacher" night at the school, you just show up on the first day with your lunchbox. There are no fun and cute school supplies to be bought, the school provides it all (at least at this age, not sure about upper school). It's just what you get use to you know? Growing up buying school supplies was always my favorite thing to do! Also, our girls are in the minority at the school in every way!

But part of me is happy and content. Why? Because our girls are in the minority at the school in every way! We have the opportunity to be around people from all over the world. They will have such a greater world view than I ever did growing up in Carrollton, Texas. They have many opportunities to learn about the people around them, which means we have that many opportunities to teach the girls what we believe about The One true God.

In this mother's heart I do have many concerns about the girls and the school. But I know that God is way bigger than any of these concerns and He will go with them. If you think about us this week we sure would value your prayers.

I'll be back later in the week with first day of school pictures!!!

Swansea

Swansea is about 45 minutes from Cardiff. It's the birthplace of Catherine Zeta Jones and yummy Welsh cakes! Our very first day in Wales back in 2002, our supervisors took us to the market there and we had fresh baked Welsh cakes right off the griddle. Lord have mercy. They were so good.

I've told you about our friends that moved to Cardiff from Swansea last year and they have three little girls, etc. She was an answer to prayer, I still can't get over it! Tuesday she and I loaded up our VW van with the girls and took off to Swansea for the day. Marc was gracious enough to keep grumpy Addison, so we had five squealing, giggling little girls in the van and they talked the whole way!!! We stopped first to visit some friends of hers and the girls got play. We met with three other mums and between us all there were 12 little children running around. We drank cups of tea and ate biscuits and just enjoyed a nice few hours of chatting while the kids ran wild.

After lunch we headed over to Mumbles- part of Swansea and on the sea. Parking was kind of scary and funny. I can parallel park but it takes me a few tries usually. Anyway, we got stuck in some pretty tight places so several times Mel was directing me and all the girls were cheering me on, it was soo funny. Anyway, part of the reason we were in Mumbles was because they have a children's hairdressers so we took all five girls to get haircuts for school next week. It was a really cute place and after the cut the girls got sparkles sprayed on top of their head!

My girls only got a trim, but her girls all got cute little bobs. Here is Bailey after her cut,

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And Cerys...she was thrilled to get her hair blow-dried and all sparkly!

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I think you can see that Bailey is eating. As soon as she hopped up in the chair the lady passed around biscuits and lollipops. Girl heaven!

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After our lovely cuts, we hiked on top of this mountain to get down to Caswell Bay- so much for nice hair! The car park was full so we had to drive back up the mountain and find a place to park, then my friend said she knew a shortcut. Well, this was the shortcut. We eventually found our way down and still had all five girls!! Amazing! Now, hiking back up to our car after a few hours at the beach and very tired girls was interesting and funny. M and I were just laughing at all these prissy girls climbing up the side of this mountain. Oh, the memories!!!

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The water was warm for British standards, freezing for Texans. But none the less, it was a blast and the most beautiful day I can ever remember!

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As soon as the sun comes out in the UK, clothes start coming off! It can be quite scary actually, but Bailey joined right in! Ha. Not five minutes into it she fell and her dress was a mess so we just stripped her down to her tank top and bloomers. You can see her in the left corner- white tank and green bloomers! As you can see, the beach was packed. I think all of Wales was here that day enjoying the warmth! As cold as the water was, Bailey embraced her British side and walked right into the ocean, waist deep and loved every second of it. Cerys stood cautiously on the sand yelling at Bailey to be careful. :)

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After a few hours on the beach we changed clothes- that was interesting- but I won't share here. Ok, so we changed the girls and drove to another place to play on this playground for a while. Then we got Fish-n-Chips for dinner!

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To conclude our day out, we ate ice cream at Joe's. It's Swansea's own ice cream and I have to say it was DIVINE! It was so creamy and just flat out good that I didn't regret it one bit until the next morning when I was very aware of my dairy sensitivity.

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What a fun, fun day we had! God just kept reminding me all day about how good He is- the beautiful weather, the ice-cold water of the ocean, the tide, the mountains....and good friends! I'm so thankful my girls have these girls in their life and in their class at school!

If you ever make it to Wales you must go to Swansea! And get some Joe's!

Bank Holiday Weekend

This past weekend was one of the many Bank Holiday weekends here in the UK. It's a public holiday and you can count on it raining! Or at least it sure seems like it rains every time.

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This weekend there was a festival in the bay and would you believe that the weather was incredible? We packed a lunch and headed down there, we are about 15-20 minutes from the bay.

We ran into some local pirates, you can tell the girls are thrilled. Ha.

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We climbed aboard some interesting boats and even toured a 72 ft. racing yacht that has been around the world twice!

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This is the racing yacht- it now used for teaching team building and they teach life skills to troubled teens. The girls and I got a tour of that yacht while Marc stayed on the dock with Addison.

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The yacht has 18 bunks- one for each crew member. When they raced around the world in 2002 and 2004, they worked in shifts of six. Six on deck, six cooking and eating, and six asleep!

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Lunch time!
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Because no festival is complete without games and entertainment, we allowed the girls to do this jumping thing. We did not want to spend the money (highway robbery!) but the pure enjoyment on their sweet faces made it worth it! Bailey was not heavy enough to really jump, so she did more swinging but she still loved it and giggled non-stop!

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Re-entry

Things have been pretty quiet here on the ole blog, my apologies. Not even sure who reads this anymore besides our family, which is totally fine because that was the reason we started this in the first place. Anyway.

The last four weeks have been what I call "re-entry." The Brits might call it "settling in" but that just sounds too nice sometimes. Sometimes re-entry is tough and not all warm and fuzzy. We were so anxious to get back after being delayed for so many weeks and everything was fun! and exciting! and new!

For example, "Look how fun it is Addison, you can watch our clothes go round and round!"

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But now it's, "Please don't put that in there Addison." And, "No, don't open that door again!"

Another example might be, "We are SO green for recycling, I don't think we did that once in Texas did we?"

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But now it's, "Dang, I forgot this was mandatory here." (Although I must say that it is good for us to do this, but it does take some getting use to- one bin for the rubbish, one for the recycle stuff and one bin for the food.)

And my favorite was "Oh, look how cute our fridge (right) is!"

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Which very quickly turned into, "Why must they even make dorm size fridges for normal houses?" and "I'm going to the store for the 3rd time this week, be back soon!"

And the last one has been super annoying to me personally. The two ice-trays. Now I know Americans like their ice, but I was really enjoying my ice maker in McKinney and my Sonic. Is there anything more frustrating than wanting some ice cold water or coke to reach your hand into that little blue container only to find there is no ice and the trays are not frozen yet??? No, there is not.

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Other than this, we are doing just fine! The girls can't wait for school- September 6- and either can Mommy and Daddy. Yes, I will cry like I did last year but then those tears will dry up on the way to Starbucks.

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