A Day at a Time: england

Showing posts with label england. Show all posts

Monday, October 17, 2016

Five Things

With the new school year in full swing now, life has felt a little crazier than ever. We always have a gazillion thing going on, but here are five things that have been taking up more of my time than usual.

1. Cami's Christmas package! It was due to the mission home on November 7, so I sent it off on October 15th to give it plenty of time to get there. It was a crazy shift of mindset for me to buy Christmas presents this early and pulling it all together really has sucked up a lot of my "extra" time lately.

2. The weather has been exceedingly lovely lately, which means we are trying to spend every moment we can outside!

3. I recently learned that I will not be released from my calling anytime soon, so I have spent the last few weeks re-immersing myself back into the swing of things. I was a little emotional at first realizing that my time as YW president is not yet finished after four full years, but I've had some pretty amazing experiences the last couple of weeks that have really confirmed to me that I am right where I'm supposed to be and that, apparently, we still have a work to do with the amazing young women in our ward.

This food was for a family history night that we had at our house, where the youth found over 100 names to take to the temple.

4. I am finding that supporting TWO kids, that are far away from home, is a little more time consuming than I expected. I try to write them a letter and a couple of emails each week, which is basically the reason why I haven't been blogging much recently. Writing to them has redirected the energy that I would normally give to blogging and put it into letter writing instead. I miss these girls!

5. I'm trying really hard to exercise and eat better. After my little bout with pancreatitis this summer, I decided that I really needed to acknowledge that I'm not as young as I used to be and I need to be a lot more careful. I've been eating a fairly low-fat diet and trying to up my exercise threshold. I had been doing well and feeling a lot better, but I've been struggling more with the eating lately. I am committed to stay on top of it though, because pancreatitis (and the requisite fasting for four full days) was not something I'd like to repeat.

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Onward to Italia

May 14: Today was the day we had to say goodbye to M & K and their little cuties.

We were grateful for the all the time we'd been able to spend with them, but it was tough to finally say goodbye, especially knowing that it would be a few months before we'd see them again.

We drove the few hours to London Stansted Airport, then caught a flight to Rome! We arrived to Rome starved and ready for some good old fashioned Italian food. The shuttle driver recommended Mezza Brenta bia del Casale Agostinel Roma, which was not too far of a walk from our hotel for the night.

No one spoke much English there, but with the help of google translate and some pretty humorous butchering of Italian words we thought we knew, we managed to order ourselves some pretty tasty authentic Italian food.

Stay tuned for more Italian adventures...

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Thursday, May 19, 2016

Walking Around Oxford and the Cotswolds

May 13:

Today we started the day with a walking tour of Oxford University.

Oxford was in Glen's mission and although he never served there, It's something that he was really excited to show us! At first I didn't really get why a university could be so exciting, but once the tour started it was very clear that Oxford University is a unique and historic place. Founded nearly 1000 years ago, it's the oldest university in the English speaking world! One of the interesting aspects about it is its college system. There are 38 colleges within Oxford, and if I understood the guide correctly, each college has its own section of campus--including its own cathedral!! The way they were described to us, they seemed like a cross between a college of business (or other some subject) at a regular university and being divided into houses (like in Harry Potter). We could be totally off in our interpretation of how it works, but suffice it to say, it is a unique place.

The buildings are old, architecturally interesting, and beautiful! I was also fascinated to learn that most of the teaching at Oxford is not done by lecture, but by one on one mentoring.

And speaking of Harry Potter, Ellie was also pleased to learn that this tree and courtyard were both used for a scene in the Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire movie.

After our tour, we ate a late lunch at Oxford and then headed to the Cotswolds. We picked Bourton on the Water for our destination, but had to fight horrible traffic to get there. By the time we got there we were a little frazzled and totally not prepared for what an unhappy place to visit it was. It was odd how grumpy and unfriendly everyone was--the visitors and the residents. It was mostly older people there and it seemed like kids were not a welcome sight, especially in the stores. One shopkeeper literally yelled at Ellie. When I heard him scream, "DON'T TOUCH THAT!" I expected to see her picking up a porcelain doll or other fragile item, not a floral print backpack. We left that store quickly, but found a similar reception in most of the other stores. It was a charming looking town at least; sadly though it was only a skin deep charm.

Our GPS took us the long way home to avoid traffic and we soothed our nerves by eating up this view on the way back to Matt and Karey's house!

Afterward we let Cami and Emma babysit all the littles, and we went on a grown-up only double date (a rare thing on vacation) with Matt and Karey. We ate at an Indian place--Shezan-- in Cheltenham (delicious), then walked around town for a bit!

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PS I'm still blogging from my iPhone, so please forgive typing errors, disconnected thoughts, weird formatting, etc. I know I will probably be horrified when I finally see it on a computer screen!

Monday, May 16, 2016

Castle, Bath, and some Birds!

May 12: Cathedrals and abbeys dot the landscape here in Europe. It's amazing to think of how much money and effort was put into building these beautiful places of worship, that almost every town seems to have. Some are more ornate and well-kept than others, but each is beautiful in its own right.

Today we went to Tintern Abbey in Chepstow, Wales. Wales was a new country for us (although you don't get a passport stamp arriving from the UK), so we were extra excited to be there. The Abbey is now in ruins, but even still it was a sight to behold! It was clearly once a very grand building and it inspired awe in us even in its ruined state. The surroundings, with the green rolling hills, were quite lovely too!

We ended up eating lunch here.

We also visited nearby Chepstow Castle while we were in Wales. Castles aren't quite as run of the mill as cathedrals in Europe, but again it is amazing to think of how many resources were used to create these grand buildings, which were essentially meant to be a show of power. Like Tintern Abbey, Chepstow castle is also in a ruined state, but it still proved to be an interesting place to roam for a couple of hours. The castle started being built in the 1000's and was built section by section in piecemeal fashion over the course of the next few hundred years.

These beautiful wooden doors have been hanging continually (even in its ruined state) since the 1100's!

These little cubbies proved to be the perfect backdrop for one of my favorite recent pictures of Glen and I!

I loved this postcard we found in the gift shop near the Abbey. It was a beautiful little glimpse into welsh culture.

After Chepstow, we headed to Bath (England)! Not to take a bath, but to visit the ancient Roman baths and learn about the significant influence of the Romans on British culture.

But first we stopped at the Bath Abbey! This was another stunningly beautiful (and well-kept) building, that also was the one that did the best at sharing the good news of their gospel beyond just having the biblical artwork and stained glass on display.

They distribute a pamphlet to everyone who comes, which essentially bears powerful testimony of Christ and was a touching reminder to me of the ultimate purpose of these grand buildings--to worship God.

Next it was on to the baths! Up until this point I had no idea the extensive influence of the Romans on British history and it was fascinating to learn a little about it. In their height of power (around 60-70AD), the Romans initially started building a temple near a natural hot spring and dedicated it to the Roman goddess of wisdom, Minerva, and the British goddess of nourishing and healing, Sulis--which they conveniently combined and called Minerva Sulis.

Over the course of the next 300 years they built up this entire bathing complex for the everyday people to use.

Romans valued health, fitness, and cleanliness, so essentially this served as an ancient health club. It was not only a place to bathe, but to exercise, worship, and socialize.

It was absolutely amazing to see the extensive waterworks and structures that they had created for these baths to function, basically for 2000 years. The power of the archways they built, that are still standing 2000 years later, is a testament to their ingenuity and ability to organize!

After being educated and amazed in the baths, we walked out to the streets of Bath and were met with some levity!

A "bird charmer" (essentially an eccentric man bedecked in a suit with pockets of birdseed) would place pigeons on people's head to get them to laugh. He would help arrange the birds to provide for the perfect photo opp, then as people snapped pictures he would hint for a tip. We actually very much enjoyed it and were happy to tip him afterward.

Since I know it's the question you're all thinking....Only one of them received a little "gift" from the birds.

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