May 30,2009

Its been an interesting week here in the UK. G and I have had some good relationship chats, which is key for every marriage I think. He's been under the weather for most of the week but finally getting over the jetlag and cold combined. It's been a busy week for me as there is a huge event going on at Anglesey involving exploring Hoe Fen and making potted seeds. I'll be out there again all day tomorrow.

That's about it for us really- aside from the lovely weather we've been having. 72F is a veritable heat wave! :)



Part of a little obstacle course we set up for the kids

-- Posted from my iPhone

May 23, 2009

The week has gone by very fast for me- G is coming back very late tomorrow night from DC, and I've been working hard all week between Anglesey Abbey and photographing stuff and setting up new projects. I am loving my job as an assistant community warden- I really enjoy working with the various groups coming through. I also have a great person that I'm working under/with, and I'm learning a ton about working with groups.

Tomorrow while G is getting on a plane and flying home, I'll be photographing a dance musical thing about an hour from Cambridge. It should be a good opportunity to get my name out there and I hope it'll bring knock on business.

I forget if I mentioned that I decided to apply to the university here to see if they'd let me finish my bachelors' degree in photography. I met with someone who was really keen to have me in their program because I have such good grades, so that's a good sign. :) Anyway I should be hearing back from them very soon. If I get in it'll be a really short program- the terms aren't even 10 weeks long, and there's a month long break between each term. Honestly- they're all about breaks here. :) There are some photography things I need more experience with, so it'll be good for m y business and might get me some good tax breaks as well since I need to buy new equipment now!

It's super late here- 11:30pm, but I had some coffee earlier in the day and I've been way too awake. :) Happy Memorial Day everyone!

May 19, 2009

G is off to DC now- its 4:30am here, though you wouldn't know it as its so light outside! The dawn chorus was amazing this morning.



I have BNI at 6:30 so I'm trying to stay awake for another hour. There's a training today 2-5pm about referrals, and I have quite a few other meetings before then. Nelly wasn't too happy about the early wake up hour. :) Its hard to believe that we'll be in Cleveland in a month.

-- Posted from my iPhone

May 16, 2009

Nos da! (good night) Just a brief update- G leaves for DC very early Tuesday morning (think 6am GMT, 1am EST) and will be meeting with the Department of Defense Thursday. He's acting as his company's representative in this contract thing. Anyway he'll be back Sunday evening, and it'll be quite a long week without him! I'll be keeping busy with business stuff, Anglesey Abbey, and our international groups. The last week of May is what we call half term, which is a weeklong holiday. Our teaching duties have reduced as our coleaders are growing in their abilities to lead, and now we're spending more time studying the bbl with them one to one. By the time we head back to the US in a month it'll almost be the end of term, but things will carry on for 2 weeks without us. :)

Living Proof friends we are thinking of you especially this week and pring for you all.


-- Posted from my iPhone

May 13, 2009

Pnawn da! (Good afternoon!) Because I have a Welsh coworker now, I've been studying up on Welsh. It's a beautiful language with some hard sounds that is unfortunately also difficult to spell. :) However I'm making good progress and think I might be able to have a basic sort of conversation by the time said coworker returns in a week. It keeps my brain busy and exercises a part of it that's been lazy for awhile. Once I get some basic grammar down then I can start forming my own sentences, instead of just memorizing phrases and random words which is what I'm doing now.

G's travel plans are set for his trip to DC- he's leaving Tuesday and returning Sunday evening. It'll be strange to be here with him gone, but I fully intend to keep busy and several of the girls here in iBASE have kindly offered to hang out while he's gone. We've been married almost 5 years now (5 years June 19!) and we still really miss each other! Awwww. ;)

I'm in the process of designing something to be printed on a shirt for my business- it will have my business name on the back and on the front pocket, which will be great free advertising for me and will look quite professional. I'll let you know when they're done.

May 10, 2009

Thank you all for your prs- Art passed away last night around 9pm. Please do keep pring for his family, his wife, and our family of friends at CCBC. And praise the Father with us that Art is now safely at home with JC.

May 9, 2009

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

I've just heard from our dear friends in the A2 Living Proof class that our dear friend Art has not been given a good prognosis regarding the cancer that he's been battling for the past 3 or 4 years. He is in hospice now. Of Art it can truly be said as Paul said at the end of his life to his friend Timothy, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." He has persevered in the faith for many, many years, and now that his race is drawing to a close please pr for him to finish well, for his family as they deal with this difficult situation, and that he would die a dignified death. While we struggle with knowing that we will soon be parted, we rejoice so much more in the certain knowledge that he is going to be with JC who died for him and for us who believe! Our housemate Z enthusiastically said "How wonderful to know that soon he'll be with JC! That's great!" And it is great- it's amazing, it's fantastic, it's wonderful! We are so very excited for him to meet JC face to face! What good news!

Thanks for your prs friends and family- we really do miss you all, each and every one of you!

May 8, 2009

I hope you've had a good week- I for one am glad it's Friday. :) It's been a whirlwind for me of networking events, working at Anglesey Abbey, cahats, 1 to 1 meetings, and all sorts of crazy things. The first week of every month tends to be like this because so many networking groups meet the first week of the month. I'm enjoying the various groups, and meeting lots of interesting people, and making good business contacts. My card box has long ago overflowed though and now I'm needing to invest in some contact management software! :)

My connection with Anglesey Abbey has truly been Gd's hand at work. They are really in need of someone to help them to grow their program for groups that come out to do work at the grounds there, and also doing flyers and leaflets, and some admin sorts of things. These 2 guys who run the program, the head gardener and the community warden, are barely keeping their heads above water with everything that they have going on. They are massively understaffed for this project- the idea for these groups coming out is in fact the head gardener's idea, it's his baby, and it's a pilot project for the entire National Trust. If it goes well here at Anglesey, it will likely be introduced at other locations. So they are keen for it to go well, but like many projects of this sort they are so busy doing it that they don't have time really to take care of everything that comes along with it. So I may be in danger of growing a big head- they are so very grateful to have me and are constantly impressed that I have such a diverse skillset, which of course isn't good for my ego really. :) This is a strange request, but Pr that I would stay humble in the face of constant praise from them and that I would be habitually giving that glory back to JC who created me and fashioned me to be who I am for His glory and not for mine.

We found out this week that the end of our road is a hotbed of criminal activity. :) No kidding- drug dealing, prostitution, people having sex on the street, and all sorts of other unpleasant things are going on not even 500 yards from our front door. We had no idea when we moved here! It's a pleasant street, but the main road that we connect to is quite bad. Pr for us 3 (me, G, and Z) to be streetwise. It's nowhere near as bad as Detroit or Flint, but knifings are a problem in the UK and we want to steer clear of all shady activity.

For those of you who have been pring with me about forming relationships in the camera club- rejoice! Last night I saw some fruit from my labor (or labour :D ) at the meeting. Well after the meeting really- there were a group of about 5 of us who stood out by our cars chatting for almost 20 minutes, in the rain even. We had some good conversation, and I'm excited about being an ad hoc member of the committee next year. I don't have any official responsibilities but I'll be picking up random bits here and there that the committee members are just too busy to do. But I did feel really good that my 8 months of work is showing fruit, and I learned a great deal about perseverance from it. Our season ends in 2 weeks, which will leave my Thursday evenings free until September. Every club is quite serious here- they always have an AGM (annual general meeting) and our is next week. It's the time when everyone complains, so pr for a peaceful meeting. The week after that is the Annual Dinner, where I'm hoping to introduce G to the core members so he can get to know them a bit. It's always awkward being a woman in so many male dominated fields, so I try to work G in wherever possible. :)

G's relationships at work are going well- his new office has a pool table, and the guys all like to play, so he's been reading up on how to play and using that as a means to chat with the guys and build relationships with them. His work is going smoothly, and we are daily grateful for his job that allows us to reach the international community here! I forget if I mentioned that his job may be sending him to Shanghai for a conference- if that happens I will definitely go along and make a holiday of it as the flights are so cheap from London to Shanghai and we have a million friends there that we could stay with. It looks like we're going to have a bit of travel this year between our 3 weeks in the US, G's cousin getting married in Germany in October, and this potential trip in November. Whew. :)

Ever ridden sidesaddle on the back of a 4 Wheeler? Well I did this week- it's good fun. Sidesaddle is actually more comfortable, safer, and more modest (as I learned in Cambodia when I rode a moped taxi 45min to school every morning.) But don't worry, if I end up riding it more I'll get a helmet to keep my head safe in case I fall off. :) We don't go very fast but Safety First is definitely my motto, and you only get one brain you know. :)

We've had some progress on the phone line issue- they came out to put a new line in, and it turns out that the old phone jack was actually still there- it was like a tiny hole in the wall just underneath a windowsill which was hidden by curtains! We searched everywhere for that thing! Anyway they moved the jack for us, but now we have to wait 2 weeks because when we told them there wasn't a line they switched our service to a new line number, and now they have to switch it back. Ah the joys of living overseas. :)

May 5, 2009

This morning saw me up with the sun (which is rising at 5:30am now) for my BNI meeting. I'm feeling rather awake Tuesday mornings now, and just that 1 early meeting a week has pushed my entire day routine each day earlier. It's good actually, but it was a hard adjustment. :) This is my busy week for network events, as lots of groups meet once a month the first week of the month. So besides today I have one tomorrow, one Thursday, and one Friday morning. It's great for business though, and I always look forward to the first of the month because I gain loads of new contacts.

Nelly's catflap has been installed in the glass door, so finally she can come and go as she likes. Very good news for her, and for us! :)

I had an interesting culture moment today- I was reading in this interesting book about the National Parks, and they mentioned one of the bathhouses in a park in the South, Alabama or something like that. They said the water temperature was "143 degrees" and I thought "Can anyone stand 143 degrees? They must cool it down some or people would get second degree burns!" And then I realized that I was thinking in Celsius! That's right- I had actually been comparing that to 200C. Wow. You know you've been living somewhere awhile when you start using new units. :)

It's hard to believe that we're coming up on 2 years here. Amazingly Cambridge feels like home for us now, and lots of things have stopped seeming strange as we've gotten used to them. But there are still moments when it just hits me, and it seems really weird that I live in the UK! We're not getting too cozy here though because we are still on track to be movin' on- we don't know where to, but Gd knows and he'll let us know when it's time to move. My vote is for Cambodia, followed closely by China. :D But as long as he has us here we're keeping our hands to the plow, telling internationals the good news about JC.

We are coming back Stateside for 3 weeks in June- a week and a half we'll be in Michigan, and the rest between Wichita and Cleveland for 2 weddings! We'll let you know exact dates as it gets closer. We're looking forward to catching up with people while we're back, and I for one am looking forward to a proper Michigan summer! :)

May 3 photos from iHUB guest event

Here are some photos from the iHUB guest event. Lots of iHUB (that's our 20s-30s internationals group at the ch) brought guests along.

J from Korea gave his testimony about how JC changed his life.

Everyone cycled to our house so we had a LOT of bikes!

We had loads of chairs everywhere for the 30 people who came.

The 2 grills all ready for use

More bikes! :)

-- Posted from my iPhone

May 2, 2009

May just pounced on us here in the UK- it feels like July with all the warm weather and sunny skies! I've had to water my garden already due to the heat wave, and it hasn't rained in ages, so it's almost a drought here.

Tomorrow is the iHUB guest event here at our house, so we spent a big chunk of time cleaning house, scrubbing clean 2 grills to BBQ tomorrow, and mowing the grass, sweeping the patio, all that sort of stuff. We expect about 30 people but it could be up to 40 depending on who has guests that can come. It should be really good fun, and our international pstor is going to give a short talk for the internationals as well. Pr for soft hearts for guests tomorrow.

Yesterday I spent 3 hours at my Chinese friend's house, her name is D and she's having her second baby in 2 weeks. We made chinese dumplings along with 2 other friends of ours, and had a wonderful time chatting, eating, and laughing. I was so stuffed full of dumplings by the time that I left that I wasn't even hungry for dinner!

We have been hearing the bad news about the auto industry even on this side of the pond, and it's hard to believe it really- being so far away while such major events are shaping our state is a bit surreal. We miss you all and are thinking of you!

Squirrel flavored chips?

A sample of the sort of chips we can buy here. :) Squirrel flavored chips anyone? :)

-- Posted from my iPhone

My official National Trust nametag! It says Volunteer Community Warden. Not sure what that means, but I help with groups of 4-6 city kids when they come out to do projects. I like the work a lot, and I love having access to Anglesey Abbey. I hope you can even see this- I'm still testing the iphone blog feature.


-- Posted from my iPhone