Yearly Business

We had our annual strawberry jam making afternoon today. Evan had fun wearing a red apron and smashing strawberries with Aunt Michelle. Yes, I remember wearing that apron myself way back in the '80s. It was a family project: Mom cut strawberries, Evan and Michelle smashed, Micah and I measured sugar, Michelle and I cooked the jam, and Mom washed the jars. I was glad we were able to make jam today, I was starting to worry that strawberry season would end before we were able to make jam, which would be very unfortunate indeed. There's nothing like homemade strawberry jam, it spoils one forever to store bought jam. On strawberry jam making days, our tradition is to enjoy it with biscuits for dinner. The end result.

Time in Texas

Last Tuesday we received the news that a dear family friend, Ken Ghent, had passed away. Dad, Mom, Michelle, and I left that night to drive 25 1/2 hours to Texas to be with the family and attend the memorial service on Thursday evening. Our time with the Ghents was a blessing as we got to look at pictures, share stories, and rejoice in the life a man who lived well; he will be missed. But I was impressed with the peace that filled their home; there was certainly sadness, but we know he is in a better place now. We enjoyed the time spent with Vickie, Brenna, and Garrett Ghent, they are delightful people to know. Brenna, Michelle, and I walked to a nearby park Friday morning while it was still cool. We also made a trip to Joanns that day for some fabric for a quilt Brenna wants to make. Friday was Dad and Mom's anniversary, so we had ribs for dinner. Brenna, Michelle, and I were sleeping in the den and Friday we stayed up late watching movies in true slumber party style. Saturday Garrett suggested we go to the Dog Pound for lunch because they have great hot dogs and it was a favorite of Ken's. That was fun, the owner was friendly and the food was good. Garrett, Michelle, and I got Chicago style dogs, which are their specialty. After lunch we had to say goodbye to the Ghents and begin our long drive back home. We made it back safely, arriving Sunday afternoon. The group: Michelle, Brenna, Dad, Vickie, me, Garrett, Art (Ken's brother), Jeff (Vickie's brother), Mom.

Jaime's Visit

In case you don't know, my best friend Jaime joined the Air Force and started boot camp mid-February. Things were going well until the beginning of her 4th week when she got sick and had a fever. On Wednesday of that week, after standing at attention for 10-15 minutes, she passed out and landed on her face, breaking her jaw in two places. They wired her jaw shut and since then she has been living on whatever she can suck through a straw and waiting for her jaw to heal. The good news is that they let her come home for convalescent leave last week for almost 10 days and we were excited to see her. She spent the first part of her visit with her sister in Sacramento, then I drove up to get her on Friday (she isn't supposed to drive right now) and we went back to Fresno to spend the night at her dad's house. It was so good to see her. Between me leaving for London at the beginning of January and her being at boot camp since I have been back, we had a lot to catch up on. Saturday we drove around Fresno visiting her family and then came back to my house late that night. We went to church the next day, which was a service led by the worship team and it was great. Sunday afternoon we went through paperwork and visited with her mom again and went on a walk with Michelle, Jonah, Heidi, and Phillip. Monday we got to sleep in, then finished going through paperwork and looking at pictures and repacking our stuff. After a late lunch with Michelle and Jonah, we headed up to Calvin Crest to spend the night. It smelled so good there and it was wonderful to be back at a place that means so much to both of us. The next morning we got up and took a short hike before heading back to Sacramento. It was a beautiful drive with the windows down and we vigorously sang along to some of our favorite songs. We made it to Sacramento early afternoon and had a short, but nice visit with Janna and the kids. After dinner, I said goodbye and headed back down 99. It was hard to leave because it didn't seem long enough to really get caught up, but it was a good visit and we were thankful it worked out. I stopped in Turlock and got to visit with Josh and drink tea, which was pleasant and a nice break in driving. Then I made it the rest of the way home and thankfully dropped into bed.

Family Project

Mom and I went down to visit Grandpa and Eleanor in their new house in southern California last week. It actually started Tuesday with a drive to Camarillo with Heather and the kids, we spent the night there then headed to Grandpa's house in the morning. It was my first time there and I was excited to see the new house, which is very nice. Uncle Ray was there too and he and Grandpa were working on building a patio shade for the backyard. The first day Mom and I were there, we got to see what had been done so far and help get 2X4s from Lowe's. The selection was bad and we had to sort through the whole pile to find enough that were usable. Of course, 100 is a lot to be picky about. We got the first batch painted that evening before dinner and then the rest Grandpa and I painted on Thursday. It took us most of the day, but we got a good system going and managed to get it all done. It was fun to work on a project with Grandpa and we had some good time to talk. Meanwhile, Mom and Uncle Ray were working on reinforcing the stringers on the patio cover and then started to put the 2X4s up. We made a lot of progress and it was looking good. We drove back to Visalia Friday and it was fun to have a little trip with Mom.

Getting Dirty

It's been a busy week here, mostly with garden planting, working at church, writing papers, and playing with the kids. Thursday was the day we spent the most time at church. Heather and I switched off painting the ceiling in the Fellowship Hall, which is a popcorn ceiling and challenging to paint. With help for Pastor Jason, Gretchen, and Wally, we were able to paint the whole room. My exciting break from painting was helping Dad fix a soft spot in the stage. I had to crawl underneath through the dust and rat poop to the spot and put a new piece of plywood up and wedge a couple 2X4s in for support. The challenging part was that to get to the area I needed to work in, I had to squeeze through a frame of 2X4s that was just big enough for me to wiggle through lying flat on my stomach. It was dirty and cramped down there and I had to try to swing a hammer while curled up in a ball, I couldn't even sit up hunched over. All in all, it was a fun project. Our other big accomplishment of the week was planting our garden. Heather and I had prepped the area on Monday and we bought plants on Wednesday, but it wasn't until Friday morning that we were able to finish planting everything and put up the chicken wire. Evan and I planted the cherry tomato, basil, and yellow squash plants and then both the boys helped me with the radish and carrot seeds. Our garden is smaller this year, but we should still get lots of good produce.

Garden Work

I gave Evan and Micah the shirts I got them in London and the stickers from Ireland. They liked them and were so cute wearing them. Heather and I worked on getting a new patch of ground ready for our garden. It was actually hot today, it was over 80! I enjoyed it so much. We were outside almost all day. We had a picnic lunch on the grass and the boys played in their alligator pool for the first time this year. We had to transplant a couple plants to make room for the garden and Heather and I wore ourselves out, but it was nice.

Soaking up the Sun

I woke up about 6:30 this morning and since I couldn't go back to sleep, I got up and took a shower. When I got out, the rest of my family was up so I got to say hi to all of them. It was great to see everyone, the kids have grown so much. We went to church and there were many more greetings as I got to see everyone there. Then we came home and had lunch and took naps. It was a beautiful day today, sunny and warm. The fact that the sun was out all day was amazing and wonderful. I felt like a flower opening up in the sunshine. And there was open space and grass and other green growing things; it was marvelous. For dinner we went to Alejandra's and got Mexican food. The chips and salsa and the rest of the food was so good, even better than I remembered, if that is possible. It was so satisfying.

The Long Way Home

I woke up with a feeling of panic this morning as I realized that today was the day we left England and said goodbye to the people we lived, studied, and partied with for the past 3 months. Not that I wasn’t excited to go home because I’m ready for that, it was the leaving part that got to me. We had a busy morning of finishing packing, cleaning, and hauling our stuff downstairs. Tony picked us up at 10:15am and we had to say goodbye to those who aren’t leaving yet. Then it was bittersweet driving through London and seeing all the places that are now so familiar. The Hatton Garden diamond stores, Café Nero, Pret, Dominion Theatre, Boots, street signs, brick buildings, tube stations, pubs, Barclay's. We arrived at the Heathrow airport and checked in. I had lunch at Giraffe with Juan, Ashley, and Jen S. and it was good. Plus it was nice because by the time we got to our gate we only had to wait about 30 minutes before boarding the plane. I didn’t get to sit by anyone I know, I was in the middle of the middle section between two couples. The people on my right were from Cambridge and they were nice. But I still was stuck in my seat for most of the long flight. The one time I went to the bathroom, there was a crowd of Fresno people over there so we hung out and talked for a little while. The flight was just over 10 hours and felt like forever, but we finally landed safely in San Francisco. We breezed through immigration and customs and all of our bags made it there with us. Dad and Mom met me at the airport and it was so exciting to see them. Then it was time for one last goodbye to Juan and Ashley before starting the drive home. The drive was long too, but we talked almost the whole time, so I was able to stay awake until we arrived at home about 10:00pm. Isaac was the only one still up, so I got to say hello to him before crashing in my wonderfully comfortable and inviting bed. It was good to be home.

Our Last Day

We have been busy packing today, our last full day in London. I'm pretty much done, just a couple things I need to use one last time. It was a challenge, but I actually got everything in without too much trouble. Ashley, Darrin, Charity, and I walked down to Fryer's Delight for one last lunch of fish and chips. We had a picnic in a gated garden/park that is on the way to school. It had a field of daffodils that was beautiful. It was quite pleasant. We took Flat 8 pictures and roommate pictures. Darrin and Charity are planning to stay and travel around Europe; they had a flight tonight so they were the first to leave at about 3:30pm. It was sad, it still seems unreal that we are leaving and won't be living together anymore. The fact that we could say, "See you back in California" was the only thing that kept us from losing it. The rest of the afternoon we packed and cleaned. Ashley and I made a recycling run and took 4 bags of glass bottles, 2 bags of plastic bags, and a bag of paper to the recycling bins. While we were out, we also made a chocolate run at Sainsbury, they don't have Aero or Galaxy back home. We ate random food we had left for dinner and cleaned out the kitchen. Then we went to the Hat and Tun and Ashley and I got our favorite, Vodka with cranberry and orange juice.

London Tribute

School's Out, Let the Party Begin!

We had our last day of classes for London Semester 2009 this morning. And what a class it was. We had presentations and we didn't get to leave until everyone was done, which meant we stayed about 2 hours after our class was supposed to end. Thankfully, everyone did a good job making their presentations interesting; we had hashbrowns from McDonalds, videos, karaoke, charades, taking off our shoes, wine tasting, and a trip to the British museum. After we finished, the relief and excitement in the air was great, our classes and presentations were over, we are all friends, we have less than two days in London, and the sun was out! We came home and had lunch and I fell asleep. Then we finally went to ride the London Eye, all this time and we hadn't done it yet. We were there as the sun was setting and it was pretty. It was cool to see London from the air. Then we walked along the river as the lights were coming on around the city and went to get Italian food for dinner. By the time we left there, it was about 10pm so we came back to our flat and Ashley and I got McFlurries on the way. They have the monopoly game going on now, but it's cool because the game board has places around London.

Brick Lane

I haven't posted for a couple days because I haven't had anything interesting to take pictures of. We have mostly been going to school and writing papers. Yesterday we had a written final for one of our communication classes; it is the only written final we have, all of our others are papers and presentations. We went on our Brick Lane walk this morning. Teresa and Shannon led the walk, here Teresa is reading us a passage from the book. Because the book was written only a few years ago, things were very similar to how they are described in the book and we were able to find a number of streets and landmarks that are mentioned. It was also interesting because there were flyers up for a march for Islam, something that plays a big role in the novel. I spent a lot of time, literally hours, this afternoon working on a video for my ethnography presentation tomorrow. Things kept going wrong, but I finally got something finished that I'm okay with. It's not great, but it will work.