Last week we had some freaky weather. This was only the second time I've heard thunder in England since we moved here 16 months ago. It seems Texas doesn't have a monopoly on changeable weather. One minute it was sunny, then the next it was cloudy punctuated by claps of thunder. All of a sudden, this frozen stuff started falling from the sky.
At first it looked like your average pea to marble sized hail. But then it began to resemble Sonic ice. Mmm, Sonic - I'd love to get my hands on a large cherry limeade.
It was falling so quickly that it accumulated on the grass. However, the hail didn't last more than a minute or so on the flagstones of the back patio which had been warmed up by weak sunbeams earlier in the day.
The beast had a fabulous time snuffling through the hail strewn grass in our back yard.
But alas, it didn't take long for the frozen bits to melt and the spring sun to reappear, even while a bit of errant rain was still falling. It reminded me of that silly little southern saying we always applied to the combination of rain with the sunshine... the devil beating his wife. Here in the UK this same phenomenon is called a monkey's birthday. Call me prejudiced, but I don't think the local version is quite as catchy as the one we have in the US.
Things are back to normal around here. Both of the chicks have returned to the nest after their respective trips to Greece and Texas. I had a milestone Sunday morning when I drove the husband to terminal 4 at Heathrow so we could retrieve the youngest daughter from her return trip. It was easy peasy, which makes perfect sense since it was 6:00 am and I was all alone on virtually every roundabout. I don't know that I'll be tackling terminals 1-3 anytime soon, but I can confidently say that from here on out I'll be able to pick up visiting relatives or friends from terminal 4 since it's on the south side of the airport in the direction of our house.
The teen had some camera issues on the trip, so we're relying on the Young Life leaders to post photos we can steal for personal use. The teen took one of our oldest cameras, but there were some technical difficulties with the memory card.
In the pic below, you see the playground area where the students were doing their service project.
This pic shows the teen doing some painting. We had purchased that rainproof jacket she is wearing at the Costco in Reading because it cost £12 and thus made it more or less disposable since I knew it would return home in pitiful shape... and it did. She'll travel several thousand miles from home to give up half of her spring break to help Greek children, but she won't spend 15 minutes picking up her bedroom. <sigh>
Next are Annie and some other Young Life teens playing volleyball with a few of the local Greek kids. What a great location here along the coast, with the blue water and sandy beach as your backdrop.
The teen said there were several resident dogs at the camp where they were staying. During the day it was fun to pet Balto (seen below taking a snooze next to her) and his four footed, furry buddies. However, at night it was nerve wracking because the dogs would bark and howl and prowl around, making noises fit to wake the dead.
And speaking of slumber - I've let the girls sleep late the past couple days, but that all changes tomorrow since we have to get packed up again for our little trip to Belgium. Yummy yummers - frites and waffles and chocolates as far as the eye can see in Bruges. The diet starts Monday, April 23.
So what have I been doing since the girls left last weekend? As little as possible. I made a supply run to the nearest grocery store on Saturday morning once the teen headed for the airport. The only time I left the house for the next two days was when I took the dog out for potty breaks in the back yard. I stayed in my loungy pants or stretchy shorts topped with some ancient t-shirt and my yellow chenille bathrobe over the top of my little ensemble. No makeup, day old hair pulled back into a ponytail, ill-fitting glasses instead of contact lens... though I did brush my teeth because you just can't be too careful about gum disease at my age. I did take a walk on the wild side and omit flossing because I'm just that kinda rebel. But the toothbrushing... I don't know that recessed gums can kill you, but why risk it.
Of course, my little kid-free break wasn't totally free of responsibility. Ollie, my furry little son, had to be fed and taken out to potty and entertained with some ball fetching. He was the model child pooch until Monday when he snarfled up a slug on his first-thing-in-the-morning potty run. The inevitable dew on the grass and damp back patio are a magnet for the slimey little critters and Mr. Intelligent got it swallowed before I could wrestle it out of his mouth.
About 5 minutes later, once he got back into the house, he did his best imitation of a cat hacking up a hairball, only it was the slug. Plus some foamy looking saliva. And of course he didn't just do it in one place, but had to yack in three different spots in the family room. Wouldn't you know, the edge of the couch was one of them. Oh well - that's why God invented those handy antibacterial cleaning wipes I buy in bulk at Costco.
The beast went to doggie daycare today and was in desperate need of a bath once he returned. With his double layered coat, I find that he needs to be cleaned up every 7-10 days. Once I bathed him, he acted like a maniac. He's not a big fan of brushing, so I kind of have to wrestle him to get the job done. Below is a short video of Ollie hanging out on the couch with me after his bath this evening, wrestling the brush into submission. Must. get. life.
On this first weekend of spring break, I've been kid-free for more than four hours. I've already put gas in the car, gone grocery shopping and taken the beast with me to the UK version of Petsmart. His favorite thing to do is put his paws on the front dash, thus forcing me to attach him to the doggie seatbelt harness. Maybe one of these days he'll be disciplined enough to sit politely in the passenger seat for the entire trip without any sort of restraint.
I arranged for the teen to ride to Gatwick airport with one of her friends also going on the Young Life service trip to Greece. I though it was funny that the very sweet mom told me in advance they run late... and they did indeed get here at 6:55 instead of 6:30, which I guess was just a sort of wishful thinking time for them. We tossed her bag into the trunk, hugged and she was off for a week in Thessaloniki.
I watched them drive off and turned around to go back into the house. The only problem with going back into the house was our locked door. I came out before the teen and she closed the door completely to keep the beast from running out onto the front drive. And our door automatically locks when it is closed.
No amount of pushing or cursing or kicking would gain me entrance into the house. I was having a screaming, freak out conniption fit in my head for a couple seconds and then it dawned on me. I had already taken the beast out for his morning backyard stroll to sprinkle the grass and provide fertilizer for it. I all but skipped around through the side gate to let myself into the house via the french doors on the back patio.
The husband is always chastising me about keeping the french doors locked at all times... cause yo, yo man it's pretty dangerous all up here in da hood with gangs of private school kids running 'round loose on their high dollar mountain bikes on the mean streets of our gated community. But for real, I'm so glad my inability to keep the house secure at all times allowed me to avoid walking over to a friend's house about a mile away (at 7 in the morning dressed in my ratty sweats with unbrushed teeth - gah) to ring up a locksmith who will charge me time and a half for a holiday weekend service call.
Ollie is serving time in jail, aka his kennel. He's on my s#*t list right now.
I got the little one off on her flight to Texas this morning. Then I came home to collect the teen so we could run some last minute errands for her Young Life service trip to Greece that leaves tomorrow morning. At our last stop in the grocery store, I bought myself a sandwich for lunch.
Once I got home, I sat down on the couch with my glass of diet soda and chicken sandwich. Ollie was sitting at my feet waiting for his reward for being a patient and well-behaved boy. I always tear off the crust and toss him little bits of it when I have a sandwich. He's getting pretty good at catching little goodies like this in mid-air before it hits the floor.
After a couple bites, my cell phone rang and I rushed over to dig it out of my purse before the call went to voice mail. I had sent the husband an email message this morning to call me once he woke up in Texas before heading out with his parents to pick up the little one at the airport. He and I chatted for a bit when I glanced over into the family room and saw red.
Ollie had jumped up onto the sofa and then hopped across to the coffee table that I had pulled up conveniently close since I was leaning over a napkin to keep from scattering crumbs everywhere. How convenient of me to facilitate his thievery. About the time I shouted his name, he turned and I realized it was too late. The sneak had eaten my entire sandwich.
Because he had wolfed down his ill-gotten meal with such haste, I put him in his kennel to make sure his stomach wouldn't get upset. At least he didn't have time to gobble up the discarded crust and wash it all down with a drink from my glass. What a little stinker!
Today is the last day of classes before the girls kick off two weeks of spring break. They could definitely get spoiled to this extra time. Once we return to the states, they'll be back to just a single week of fun.
The youngest daughter is flying unaccompanied to Texas to spend a week with the grandparents and cousins. We've known all along the teen would be going to northern Greece on a Young Life service trip, so we had to figure out what to do with the first week of the break. As always, the younger one wants to go to Texas. It's irrelevant that we've lived in England for over a year and she has visited much of Europe. Given the opportunity to voice an opinion, she always spouts off TEXAS as her go-to answer when we ask where she would like to spend her next holiday.
I asked her if she wanted to go skiing for winter break - maybe France or Switzerland. Sure enough, she was interested in skiing... at the cousin's ski condo in Red River, NM. Don't get me wrong - it's a very nice place. That wasn't really what I had in mind, but it made perfect sense to her. She sure is one flag waving American. In the meantime, the teen is begging for exotic locales like Africa (to pet and have her pic taken with the meerkats), China (to pet and have her pic taken with the pandas), Morocco (to pet and have her pic taken with the monkeys)... a bit of a running theme with her.
So anyhoo, I was fine with the younger one flying to Texas and I offered to go with her but she was all, nah, I'll be fine and I'm not scared. Well alrighty then, because I can throw the money for my ticket at our Danube river cruise in July. I booked her ticket and was surprised that I had to pay $99 each way on top of the cost of airfare for the folks at the airlines to kinda keep some sort of eye on her. Hello - it's not like you've gotta change her nappy or warm up a bottle for her. That sounds like pretty pricey babysitting to me. And I'm the one who has the pleasure of sitting with her at the gate at Heathrow until her plane gets off the ground. Doesn't that sound like fun - just hanging out at one of the busiest airports on the planet for a couple hours entertaining her without the payoff of going somewhere new and exciting. I'll try not to shed a tear as I wave goodbye... and say hello to a week of FREE-DOM! I guess it's too late to arrange for the dog to fly with her because then I would have been completely footloose and fancy free.
Oh well - my consolation prize is that I shuffle the teen off to Greece the next day and have no kid responsibilities for a week. The dog and I will hold down the fort until the husband returns from his two week trip. I can clean house and not worry about some kid coming along right behind me to mess it up. I can grocery shop without having to purchase the requisite kid stuff I definitely don't need to be eating. I may see if I can go all week without turning on the cooktop burners or oven, he-he-he. Once all of the chicks return to the nest next weekend, we'll be prom dress shopping in London before heading to Belgium for a short visit. Happy Spring Break to me and Happy Easter to the rest of y'all!
All around us there are signs of spring - warmer temps, with plants budding out and flowering. Our property management company's yard service even had to mow the grass last weekend. The daffodils below were lined up like pretty maids all in a row in our backyard.
Hope springs eternal on many fronts. The teen had excellent grades in the nine weeks that just ended, and we are so pleased she has become adjusted to the demands of her third high school in three years. This is welcome news as she prepares for the SAT in May and ACT in June. She has already started looking at colleges... and sororities. Before we know it, she'll be starting a new chapter in her life.
In the past five days, I've toured two of the must-see cathedrals listed in a typical English travel guide. On Friday, I drove with a friend to Winchester for a tour. The guides weren't terribly informative, but the cathedral was beautiful.
The vaulting in the ceiling was breathtaking. And we were surprised to discover that author Jane Austen is buried in the floor of a side aisle.
Yesterday we took the train to St. Albans to see the cathedral. It wasn't as pretty as most of the other cathedrals I've toured, but it was interesting.
The exterior shot of the south side of the cathedral, seen below, shows you why it's so different. The wall's materials and windows are just a hodge podge. After initial construction in the 11th century, the nave was extended. Then part of the south wall fell and thus had to be rebuilt. You expect everything in cathedrals to be very symmetrical, but this one just doesn't fit the bill. However, I think all of the differences and seeming flaws make it a noteworthy cathedral to visit. It's not knock-your-socks-off beautiful, but it certainly is intriguing. And the Lord doesn't care whether we're worshiping in a crystal cathedral, one covered in marble and gold leaf, or a humble little pine sanctuary in the middle of the woods.
I love the picture below that I took of the exterior of Winchester cathedral. Families are gathered on the lawns around it, soaking up the springtime sun. If you look carefully, you can see a raised tomb just to the right of the tree. Everywhere you look at this time of year, you see the hand of God in the eternal circle of life, death and rebirth. In this week leading up to Easter Sunday, I can't help but recall the final words in the chorus of one of my favorite old Baptist hymns. He arose, He arose, hallelujah Christ arose.
