Sweetness.

We have finished reading books and are rocking before he goes down for a nap. I begin singing and he looks up at me and says, "Corrie? Can you sing my Jesus song?" Then I sing, "Jesus Loves Me" replacing "Me" with "Alex". Afterwards Alex: "I love my Jesus song."

2010

sheepish.

Okay, I know I haven't really been keeping up with this whole blog thing. It has finally got to the point where there have been stories to tell but I have been to sheepish to post. BUT this story is just too good.

Every Christmas I try to put together a shoebox full of toys and trinkets for Operation Christmas Child. (Which is an amazing organization and I would HIGHLY recommend participating). Calvin's school is also participating so the boss and I got together and were able to do the boxes together. Today Calvin and I opened the packages and packed our boxes full! We had so much fun. I encouraged him to write a little note to the child who will receive the shoebox. This is what he chose to write, well he said and I wrote, he is only six...

Dear Child,

Merry Christmas! Happy Thanksgiving! We love you and Jesus loves you. We hope you like playing with your toys. They are a lot of fun. Have fun going to bed and brushing your teeth. The toothpaste is a little "spicy" and you only need a little bit.

Love, Calvin

Home.

I am home! It was a long trip spanning over 48 hours. We left Dave and Kacie's house at 6:30 heading to the train station, to ride for an hour and a half, to wait for our plane for two hours, to fly for 10 hours to Atlanta, to spend almost two hours going through customs. THEN I got to see my beautiful, wonderful friend Leslie! We spent 19 hours together laughing. We left the airport only to find her car would not start. After almost an hour trying to figure it all out, AAA came and helped us out. We then left for an interesting stay at a Motel 6. After the police came by and a strange knock on our door in the middle of the night, we survived and overall enjoyed our stay.

We then had a FANTASTIC time at IKEA Atlanta, where I tried not to spend my life savings becuase I already spent it at H&M. Leslie dropped me off at the aiport and I was back to the house in about six hours.

Once home I have been a little off-kilter. I wandered around the house last night not quite sure what I was supposed to be doing, I don't go back to work until Thursday, so I am in no hurry to do anything. Finally went to bed and have so much to do today! Hopefully, I will get all of the London adventures written and posted! Don't judge me if I don't.

Have a great day!

Sigh.

Well, we have returned from London after a three and a half hour bus ride with Crazy Lenny sitting in front of us, yelling at things as they passed. We have packed our bags and are heading to bed. Our train leaves at 7:90am getting us to the airport by 8:30am to leave by 10:50am to get to Atlanta by 3:10pm... Seems like a short trip until you factor in time zones. It will be 8:10pm England time.

Then I have to say my goodbyes. I hate goodbyes. Especially goodbyes to Kacie. My whole family knows I don't handle it well so airport goodbyes are not my thing. However, tomorrow I will have to give it a shot. The brightside of all of this is that Leslie will be waiting for me when I get into Atlanta! I get to play with her for almost 24 hours before I head back to Kansas City.

I will post about London when I get home, can't wait to show you the great pictures! See you on the other side of the pond!

Pictures!

Blogspot has reached out in friendship and I accepted.

Make sure to go back a couple of posts and see the new pictures that have been posted!

Literally.

Monday morning we woke up and hit the train up for a ride to York. I remember York being on of the trips my mom raved about so I was definitely looking forward to this trip. While on the train, we were on a very quiet train car and these two high school aged girls wearing the SAME OUTFIT got onto our car, (notice that this wearing of the same outfit does not even register as a good story becuase of the great story that is to come. But please notice that they were wearing the SAME OUTFIT. Who does that?!) One of these gals decided it would be a good idea to answer her phone while boarding the train and this is the converstation we overheard, (it wasn't hard to overhear becuase they were yelling in a quite car), "I just can't believe you would call litrally(this is what it sounded like in her accent) right when we were boarding the train. Yes! LITRALLY right when we were boarding. I KNOW I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! LITRALLY! Yes, we were boarding and litrally I could not get my mobile out becuase we were litrally boarding the train. And my mobile was litrally at the bottom of my bag and I could litrally not reach it because the train had litrally just arrived." Then. Bless these poor people on our train, these girls put their friend on speaker phone. sigh. "Litrally" was all we heard for another twenty minutes on the train. I thought Kacie was going to pop. It was ridiculous and something I wish I could have texted right away and included more in our judging.

We finally arrived at York, much to the joy of all the passengers on train car B. The matching girls walked on and thankfully we did not see them again. We explored York and enjoyed walking on their city wall, and walking toward the towering York Minster. Which is gorgeous. It costs to enter the minster and since we are cost conscience these days we just enjoyed the free gift shop. We had lunch at the Ha Ha Bar and Grill. Enjoying the sights and sounds of York.

Monday night we enjoyed the company of Kacie's and Dave's friends, Dave and Becky, as well as Richard. We had tea, brownies, whipped cream (which I did myself), and lots and lots of laughter. We have been able to spend some time with Becky before, she is a woman in Kacie's Bible Study, and found her absolutely WONDERFUL. You know when you meet someone and you go to shake their hand and they just wrap you up in a big hug and you feel like you have known them forever? She is just the sweetest thing and has the sweetest kids. We played with Rosie who is three and whom I am in love with. She taught me that they pronounce Zebra as Zeh-br-ah. We were playing memory and I said I found a Zebra and she said in her sweet British accent, "No, it's Zeh-br-ah." I didn't even mind being scolded. That's how cute she is.

Okay I am out. Here are some pictures of our lovely time in York!

Amy and Kacie on the Wall of York (York Minster is the tall castle-like building in the background)

York Minster- The stainglass was incredible

Don't judge. It was very bright

Next is LONDON...Get excited.

"What are men compared to rocks and mountains?"

Happy Sunday all! Today we were able to attend Dave and Kacie's church. It was absolutely wonderful. The preaching was fantastic and the people were so welcoming. We ate lunch and then headed to Chatsworth. The home of The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, also a filming location for Pride and Prejudice. Mr Darcy's home to be exact. We walked the grounds and enjoyed breathtaking sights. It was cool and windy and it felt like fall. The house was huge and under repair so I bought some postcards that show it in its true glory. We had so much fun walking about two miles up and around their property. Not even getting close to any edge of their property. It was massive. Sheep roamed freely, people were everywhere, and the brook's waterfall roared in the background. Such a lovely day. OH and Amy climbed a tree. Or, attempted to climb a tree. Quite a feat considering the height of the tree she chose. I took so many pictures that Kacie started pointing things out for me to notice. Faryle and Leslie be proud, you taught me well.

Dave and Kacie

The home of Mr. Darcy

Kacie, Amy and I

Loving the fall weather!

Just for you, Andrea.

Dave and Amy. I love my family.

SHEEP!

We had a huge, wonderful, fantastic dinner. It was wonderful, it had guacamole. Need I say more?

Tonight is the X-Factor, (Kacie is obsessed), and getting ready for our trip to York tomorrow.

We could use all your prayers for safe travel and continued unity. We are having so much fun!

Love you and miss you!

G,C,A,E miss you like crazy! And your postcard is in the mail! (I have so much to tell you about the children's museums we have visited. Just completely fantastic!)

Stratford and Oxford and Dungeons, OH MY!

Hello all! It's been a crazy crazy weekend filled with laughter, driving, and lots of Kings of Leon. We left Sunday morning for Stratford-upon-Avon, where we went shopping at their local festival. We had our first fish and chips. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to trying it again! Shakespear is doing great. His museum was expensive so we just waved hello and saw the rest of his town. We stayed in this way cute Bed and Breakfast that only had TUBS. That's right. No showers. Just tubs. That was a really interesting. In the mornings we had, well, Dave had a full English breakfast, us girls had eggs and bacon with some delicious Greek yogurt. Yum. Tastes like Mochi-Yo with granola.

On Monday we went to Oxford, LOVED Oxford. We went to The Eagle and Child. Had a beer and enjoyed the history of one of my favorite authors. Took some amazing pictures that I will post when gmail wants to be my friend. That night we went to an indian restaurant and enjoyed some authentic curry and spicy chicken.

The streets of Oxford

Love this.

More Oxford.

Tuesday we went to Warwick Castle and went through the dungeons of despair... Actually it was the Dungeons of Warwick Castle. It was haunted. Anyone who knows me knows I do not like scary movies. Not even huanted houses. And I went to a HUANTED DUNGEON. Where actually people were killed. Needless to say, I was attached to Kacie by the hip. She was wonderful and Amy let me hold her hand. The Castle was way cool and we even saw a catapult throw a rock hundreds of feet. Way cool.

Kacie and I

Warrick Castle

Love them. They are so cute.

But we are cuter.

Dave and I liked the stocks

Amy and Kacie did not.

View from the top tower.

I will post soon about Kacie's wonderful friends we have been meeting. But Kacie wants the computer and is threatening my life...

We're here!

England is WONDERFUL! The flights were interesting and I am so grateful that Amy came along.

I met up with Amy in Atlanta which was wonderful. We rode the trams back and forth and enjoyed people watching, and making up stories about the people we saw. For instance, one young man had just recently been to America to visit his best friend before the man's wedding. Which is why he looked so sad at the idea of leaving and was so depressed he was still sitting in the same place we left him with the same expression on his face two hours later. Poor guy.

Amy and I UNITE!

We were REALLY excited.

Once on the plane, we had our VERY OWN screens on the seatbacks! I was able to watch The Proposal (which was wonderful), and the new episodes of House, and The Office. It was fantastic!

When we landed in Manchester, we were going through customs and we were severely reprimandad by the officer in a bad mood, becuase we did not have a print out of our RETURN trip. That's right. We did not have our tickets printed out for our trip two weeks from now... (sorry, seventeen days from now). He told us, "You must not travel often." and "You're very unprepared". Needless to say, Amy and I got ALL the way to Manchester and we thought we were not going to be let into the country with Kacie and Dave waiting for us a hundred yards away. He left us to sit and WAIT freaking out that we might not be left in the country. He came back, waived us forward,stamped our passports and we were off. So strange. It was WONDERFUL to see Kacie and Dave! They were so welcoming and excited to see us. Dave drove us back to Sheffield (On the WRONG side of the road, I might add). He was a TERRIFIC driver and managed the crazy traffic wonderfully.

We ate breakfast and then we walked all around when we got here and explored Eccy Street. Went to bed after staying awake all day at about eight and woke up at nine thirty this morning. Glorious.

Today we are off to Stratford-upon-Avon, and a visit to Warwick Castle in Oxford. More stories and pictures to come soon!

Love you all and miss you!

Remain

I am in love.

Completely and utterly in love.

With Tyrone Well's new CD, Remain.

And maybe a little bit with Tyrone Well's himself. I heard of Tyrone through Leslie, and love love love his other work. However, this new CD is perfection. I have probably listened to it sixty-two times through and am not tired of it in the least. Please go to his website. Buy his music. And fall madly in love with it. You will thank me.

Click!

Hip Hip Hurray! I have just become the proud owner of a new digital camera!

Its a Nikon COOLPIX S220. My friend Leslie has one and absolutely loves it so I knew I was getting a good one. Dad and I did some crazy running around today but it was so worth it and I just could not be more thrilled with this little camera. I spent all evening taking ridiculous pictures.

(Someday I will know how to put pictures in here, until then, just imagine the silly faces.)

It's plum. It's tiny. It's awesome.

I am so ready for England.

Happy Birthday...

TO ME!

I am officially twenty-three and after a wonderfully restive and reflective day, I am off to embrace the next year of my life! I have so much planned for this year. In about twenty-three days I will be heading to England to see my sister! YIPPEE! I will visit Leslie on my way back! (VROOM VROOM) I will FINALLY finish my journal, have a roadtrip with Faryle and so many more unplanned adventures.

So here is to the start of this blog, and to the next year of my life.