churches and graveyards

I am not sure there is a name for this (how does one look such things up?), but we love stopping at old churches and looking at the detail, checking out the stained glass and reading the grave markers. We are simply enchanted by the fabulous old churches and their graveyards. The kids are enthusiasts and are always happy to stop at little old churches and check out the history. The pictures of the church below is just a few miles from us. It is now in the middle of a large wheat field and seems a bit oddly placed where it is. It is thought to be a Normandy church-- probably 1000 years old. It not by any village anymore, so, it is used only occasionally. It is thought that that village that used to be surrounding the church was all but deserted after the black plague. There is a mound a few blocks away that is from the burried bodies from the plague. There was also an abbey a few yards away that was torn down as a result of Queen Mary and her quest to rid England of protostant churches.

The stained glass windows are from the "Round Church" in Cambridge. It is a round building that was modeled after the round church in Jerusalem and is also more than 1000 years old. The stained glass windows are only a few hundred years old. They tell the story of the ressurection.

A Saturday in Cambridge

We are about over our jet laga dnt eh kids have enrolled in school here on base and are loving every minute. The teachers are fantastic and they all left eh first days elated and thrilled to be at teh school.

We have visited a few old castles alredty in this first week and are heading to Cambridge tomorrow.

We visited a village last week (Shrewsbury) and went to some beautiful old churches. There is a castle right in the middle of the town of Shrewsbury. While in Shrewsbury, we spent time in the library that used to be an old school-- Darwin attended the school. So, now the kids know a bit about evolution and they think Darwin was a bit daft for inventing such a crazy idea-- Seth was amazed that anyone even believed his idea:)
While at the library, we could gaze out the window to an old castle that was just next door. It's crazy how much history there is in every step of this country!

We are currently living in a hotel suite on base but we hope to move out to a house sometime next week. I tried driving this week (well, actually just two blocks on base to the grocery store, but, gotta start somewhere). Alan has rented a little stick shift-- so, I am on the wrong side of the road, driving on the wrong side of a car and using a stick shift with my left hand-- all very weird.

We are trying to drink it all in and hope the kids remember this experience. I love it here. The country is quirky compared to the way we do things in the US and the inconvenience and lack of customer service and all things American add to the charm. It also requires a slow pace in life. There is no way to hurry around here where nothing is particularly conveniently located and where most stores close by 7p.m. I am starting to get into the habit of going to the store each morning to buy what I need for dinner as there is no storage space where I am and English fridges are notoriously small.

The ward building is tiny-- they divide the chapel into halves and the primary uses the back portion of the chapel for sharing and music time. There are 40 children in the primary and not enough places for each class to meet separately, so a few classes have 10-12 kids! Everyone has been very friendly and helpful. A family invited us over for dinner after church last week and it reminded me that I need to find the new people in a ward and do a better job of seeking people out. I had to take a shuttle to a clinic for the kids to get more shots. While I was there, I ran into a woman from the ward. She offered us a ride home in her mini van with 4 booster seats! What a blessing. We were going to have to wait 2 hours for the next shuttle. Everywhere I go, I run into helpful people from my church-- I love this church and have vowed to be one of the helpful people in it!!

I really enjoy being here and hope to be able to add many more adventures
along the way.

England!

We are in England! Alan was selected for a position with the intelligence group here and we decided to come along for the ride:) The kids will be in school and Alan works a 7-3 job, so, we are ready for action by 3:00 every day and off to explore on the weekends. We got here on a Thursday and by Friday afternoon, we were headed out to see the country. Even though we got a good night's sleep, we still are a bit jet lagged...Kailey and Seth fell asleep as soon as the car started (we were only 15 minutes into the trip at this point) When was the last time you fell asleep with a pringle in your hand??

Our frist trip was to Shropshire to see the city there and for Alan to trace down his mthoer's geneology--he went to the little Shropshire city geneological library and found a few fun facts.

Breakfast with the Johannesens

We had the pleasure of meeting up with some of the Johannesen’s a few days after Christmas. Auntie Lorretta (Nana’s sister) still looks amazing. She is the last of the Benson family still living--we all hope we can look like her at 90!! Toni and Leah were in town so we got to see them as well. We were lucky enough to get some pictures of the four “original” Johannesen children—what a handsome group!!

A shed in January

Alan decided to build a shed before he left for England in January. It started out a little troublesome—the tractor got stuck in the mud for a few hours and we thought this may be the beginning of a very bad idea…but it got better. The shed gods blessed us with sunshine that was amazing and uncharacteristic of Washington in the winter. We had 2 weeks of 50 degree sunny weather. Long enough for Alan to get the shed built and loaded up with storage. Before I had a houseful of stuff and a family that keeps adding more things daily, I didn’t think too much about a shed—now, I have a new appreciation and love for a good shed! Thanks Alan!!

Virginia Beach!

Alan has been in Virginia Beach for 4 months for Navy Reserves-- we got to go out there for two weeks to visit him and had a GREAT time! We stayed on the beach-- turns out that most people don't vacation in September (something about kids and school:) so, we had the beach and the pool practically to ourselves. The hotel staff were great and had all sorts of special treatment for the kids. We could see the dolphins right outside our window at least 3 times a day-- sadly never got a good picture of the dolphins, (not because I didn't take 100 or so pictures trying!!)

More UAE

The old traditions side by side with the new traditions of a fast paced modern world was mesmerizing. We watched the "bread man" hand make flat bread over a hot oven in the middle of a summer day, went to the fabric store and off to the tailor where we ordered up custom-made clothes and traveled into Dubai-- a most modern and fascinating city.

UAE

Alan and I traveled from Paris to Abu Dhabi and Dubai-- Brad and Terri Cook were our amazing hosts through our exploration of this amazing part of the world. We were transported and fascinated by our experience.

Terri took us on a sunrise trip to visit the camel tracks. It was unlike anything we had seen...ever! Alan became "one" with the camels and was right in the middle of it all!

Paris

Alan and I went to Paris on our way to Abu Dhabi, the trip was terrific from beginning to end! Within the first hour, we were sitting on the plane, holding hands, headphones on, watching two different movies-- 6 hours of free movies-- you know life is too busy when sitting still watching movies is the perfect day:)

We spent 3 days in Paris and did a lot of sight seeing, going for runs, buying strawberries at the market... We stayed in a great little boutique hotel and basked in the beauty and history of that gerat city!

tulips

Ah the tulips! We may live all year in the rain, but the tulips give us such a payoff, it is worth hanging around!! I LOVE taking pictures of my kids wandering through the tulips!!

Crazy Fish Story!

Seth is obsessed with fishing right now-- sadly, his dad is gone and, even though I did take him down to the river to fish a few times, apparently, there's more to this whole deal than having a fishing pole. Suffice it to say that "casting" is actually harder than it looks!!

So grandpa was kind enough to take Seth-- Grandpa got Seth's line in and went to bait his own hook-- just as soon as Seth's line hit the water, Seth started yelling "I caught a fish"! Grandpa assured Seth that it was just the weight hitting the water, Seth insisted that he caught a fish...and started reeling it in-- yep, a four lb salmon on the end of that hook--

Jordan and Parker

Jordan and Parker are great little friends. They can play for hours together and rarely have a fight (Parker basically has learned to smooth Jordan's ruffled feathers-- he doesn't have to give in to her always, he just has learned how to deal with her...I am signing myself up for Parker's next class on dealing with Jordan:)

They decided to paint yesterday and "needed" to use acrylic for their project, so, we got out the paper and protected everything...beautiful art was the result!

Peach fettish!

I bought 4 boxes of peaches so that I could freeze them (I canned last year and was so proud of myself for putting in the effort and then, the kids don't really like canned peaches...)and, cut up one box to freeze, gave away 1/2 a box and ATE 1 1/2 boxes myself!! I ate 13 peaches yesterday!! I should offer myself to science so that can study the effects of a peach overdose.

I just love these peaches!