And they did feast

We got presents from Britany, Nathan's sister who had our names for Christmas this year. We haven't cheated and opened them yet, though it's tempting! I mean... who would know...? :) We do get to open one on the first of December though. That should hold us over for a while. Oh and the Mickey figurines were part of the package!

Yuki and my Thanksgiving feast! She came over at noon and we cooked til a little past seven. She was such a big help! I couldn't have done it without her. We had a really good time with our temporary family: Chris and Yuki and the Elders Conover and Roe. The missionaries came over again the next day for turkey sandwich lunches! Then the Scotts came over again for dinner on Saturday.... and we STILL have leftovers haha. Oh and you might be wondering where the turkey is on the table. It's by the red cranberry sauce (two turkey joints, not a whole bird). And the ham is what looks like two loaves of bread in front of the mustard. Anyway, Thanksgiving was officially a success! Yay! And look at our cute napkins :) :)

Today was fun. After church (which was EXHAUSTING.... I went from 2 good boys last week to 8 little kiddies who LOVE to talk, bless 'em) our new best friends came over for a few hours. Thomas and Joshua Camacho, 8 and 10, came and played PS3 and ate mac and cheese. They're sweet boys, though they do have their rowdy moments. But honestly, you'll be frustrated for about ten minutes, and then they're behaving and you completely forget they were ever hitting each other and fighting over what game to play. It's like in "Into the Woods", where the witch first sings about how "children won't listen", then at the end of the play she sings about how tehy really do listen. In primary Joshua will get in trouble for whatever reason, then two seconds later he's giving amazing answers about stories from the scriptures he remembers. Really good kids. And it showed me what a good daddy Nathan's going to be. He handled them really well! I think I'm better with babies, but he's definately better with older kids.

I won't make this another long post, so cheers!

Food Day!

I'm so excited that it's Thanksgiving! It's 10:30 in the morning, and I'm waiting for Yuki to get here at noon so we can get a-cookin'! Ever since we had our big shopping day on Tuesday for all the food, I haven't been able to sleep. It's like it's Christmas! I'm not sure why I'm so excited... but I seem to be :) Now I'm just passing the time until I can start with the food. I'm afraid I'll get over excited and finish it all too early and it'll get cold... or I'll burn something. I just want it to be good!!!

So last night we went with the missionaries to teach this girl nearby. We'll call her Shaun (she's Chinese and her name's really Shaung or Sheng... I have the hardest time with Chinese names... so we're calling her Shaun, like the gymnast). She's super nice and is really open to listening to these new ideas. I'd never met anyone before that Christianity is a whole new concept. Last night we talked about who God is, how he's our Heavenly Father, and His Son Jesus Christ. She had some AMAZING questions and insights. Like, if we have a Heavenly Father, who's our Heavenly Mother? And, I don't think babies sin. The whole time we were like YES! You're so right!!! It's like she already believes the same things we do, she just has yet to put it all together in one big Gospel-y package. She's having trouble understanding exactly who and where God is, but I think we all take advantage of the fact that we grew up with the idea of God and Heaven. If it was totally new to me, it might sound a little like a fairy tale. The fact that she already has these beliefs instilled in her proves to me that the Holy Spirit exists and whispers to everyone all over the world: China, America, England etc. Anyway, she might be coming to church Sunday! Here's hoping!

On the menu tonight: Potato Salad, Cranberry Sauce (by Nathan), Sweet Potato Casserole, Mashed Potatoes (we are not lacking in carbs), Mac n Cheese, Green bean Casserole, Stuffing, Ham, Turkey Joint (not a whole Turkey, they're SUPER expensive and I don't think my oven could handle it anyway), chips and dip, and Cherry Pie and Apple Crisp for Dessert! The desserts I'm cheating on and just warming in the oven, but they look tasty!! I was going to make Mommy's Eastern Shore corn bread, but corn meal apparently doesn't exist here. I was sad about that, but honestly, we're only feeding 6 people, so we've got plenty of food without it. We're having rolls instead.

Oh my gosh, so here's how neurotic I am... I dreamt last night that I was so tired from cooking I fell asleep at dinner and woke up and everyone was gone! I'd slept through Thanksgiving! I was so upset... Oh and I dreamt I didn't have time to make the Mac n Cheese and that really made me mad. Oy vey... Maybe I shouldn't host Thanksgiving anymore lol.

Anyway, I reall miss my family and wish I could be in Maryland, making my Sweet Potato Casserole with too much cinnamon, scrambling for the last bit of Elizabeth's corn pudding, and eating all the pickles that were put out just for me. Happy Turkey Day!

Everyone minus Popi

Day Trips and Cornish Pasties

A view from Cornwall. On Wednesday, Yuki and I joined Kimberly Oldham and her brood (three adorable kids, Rachel Andrew and Nathan) on a drive down to Cornwall. We started with Exetor Cathedral, which was BEAUTIFUL. I love cathedrals, and we had this one to ourselves mostly, so this sweet old lady that worked there kept popping up and giving us random neat information. Then we went to a seaside town called... something with a p... anyway it was so cute. It reminded me of Rehobeth plus really old buildings. We had lunch here and saw a rainbow! I ate a Cornish Pasty in Cornwall, so I can check that off of life's checklist. Next: a frankfurter in Frankfurt, then a hamburger in Hamburg.

This is Rachel! She's such a sweet little 3 year old, and so talkative! We talked for hours about octupuses, mermaid, and gum.

Exetor Cathedral

Kimberly's main objective of the trip was to see some cliffs, because when you think Cornwall you think beautiful cliffs. Anyway, so we asked around at one of our stops where we could see some cool views and we ended up in another town whose name I forgot. I took a video, so you can feel like you're there!

Today at church I had my first primary lesson :) It's a temporary calling, so I'll only be a teacher for 6 weeks, but this first week went really well! I had two year olds, Thomas and Charlie. Thomas is the son of the South African family that had us over for lunch last week. He's so funny, and he's taken quite a shine to Nathan and I. He even sat next to us during sacrament. He's such a cutie. He wanted to come home with us today, but he would have had to ride the bus with us and Nathan had homework to do. I want to have them all over next week though! I've caught an entertaining bug. I just wish we had more chairs! Anyway, the boys were really good in class. We played a board game that taught us different things we can do to prepare for the Savior when He comes again and they loved it so much we played three times hahaha. And I think I actually taught them something because Charlie was able to recap the parable of the Ten Virgins back to me when class was done. Success! Apparently I'm supposed to have more kids in class though (6 I think). So we'll see if they're that good net week. But I've got Charlie and Thomas on my side, so maybe they'll be good.

THANKSGIVING THIS WEEK. I. Am. Excited. Like I said, I love entertaining. So excited!

Christmas Tiiiiiime!

There's a German Market set up in the middle of the Broadmead Shopping Center (where I work). After work today Nathan met me here and we got Bratwursts for dinner. The building pictured below had a giant grill in it covered wiht delicious sausages :) Mmmm... so yummy. There are several little kiosks set up with stuff like German sweets and crafts. Next time we stop by I want to get a pretzel and hot chocolate. Seeing this set up makes it feel more and more like Christmas time! Cabot Cirus is all lit up for the season as well. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Then I came home to a wonderful care package from Mommy! And it's like she read my mind. I was just thinking about how I didn't pack proper gloves and she sent some! And I've been having trouble not buying a new pair of cute tights from work and she sent two! And I've been having sweet cravings and she sent candy! And the yummy lip gloss and calander were a nice touch as well:) Skype is acting up again, so since I can't say thank you in person, THANKS MOMMY!

Happy Christmas Time!

Mostly for Nana and Popi

My lunch today :) Polish noodles! See Nana, I just can't give up my noodles!

And our washing machine sounds like it's about to take off! Seriously, it's like a jet engine.

Remember Remember

The Scotts and us... the Scotts and we.... we and the Scotts... we rented a car for a day trip around a lot of the south west of England. It was a beautiful trip! And it ended with a dinner at Ikea, which made it feel like home :)North of Bath there's an area of England called the Cotswolds. There's small preserved old-timey villages you can walk around. People still live there too, but there are shops and inns and stuff for touristy reasons. It was a beautiful day, despite the rain. The misty rain made the colors of the yellow and red leaves really stand out.

Don't judge, but yes we put up our baby tree already. Remember, there's no Thanksgiving here so it goes form Guy Fawkes day to Christmas. I love our Charlie Brown tree :)

Hey kids, quit Moosin' around!

So last night (and continuing to this morning) Nathan and I dreamed up a beautiful world. A world where the Moose became tamed, instead of the Horse. Come, journey with us to this magical world:

"We've seen a fine display of moose-manship at the rodeo today..."

"Screw you and the moose you rode in on."

A sign by the pool: "No moose-play"

"That's a moose of a different color!"

A sea-horse would be a sea-moose

"I've been through the desert on a moose with no name."

"The Moose Whisperer"

The movie: "All the Pretty Mooses" or the beloved children's song: "All the Pretty Little Mooses"

Seabiscuit would be a lot funnier

Rocky and Bullwinkle would be less funny

If you wanted a nice car you'd buy a Moose-tang. It would have 400 moosepower.

"I've got the moose right here, his name is Paul Revere. Can do. Can do. This guy says the moose can do..."

"Love and marriage love and marriage, go together like a moose and carriage."

From Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: "He rides across the nation, the thourough-moose of sin. He got the application that you just sent in. It needs evaluation, so let the games begin. You're saddled up, don't be a recluse. It's High Ho Silver! Signed, Bad Moose."

"Aw, Moose-Pucky"

"Never look a gift-moose in the mouth."

"Get back on the moose."

"Knock him off his high-moose."

"Hearts, stars, moose-shoes, clovers and blue moons! Pots of gold and rainbows, and a red balloon! That's me lucky charms, they're magically delicious!"

Thank you for taking the journey with us. If you have anything to add, please feel free. It's been funny to us for over 12 hours now, so I doubt it'll ever cease to be funny.

Brobdignagian

My new phone! O2! Yay!

So I went to see a nurse today to talk about my asthma. And she took my temperature. She looked at me and said, "Oh that's a bit high. 38!" And I told her I didn't know what that meant. I later found out it meant 100.4 to me. Huh. I feel fine. So I saw the doctor, she made me do the nebulizer thingy (where you breathe into a mask for a higher dose of meds). Then she said I had a lung infection, causing the fever and heightened asthma symptoms, and prescribed me antibiotics, steroids, and a new inhaler with a GIANT spacer. Haha it's like from a sci-fi movie.

WE got our new TV today!!! Yay! Except the plug adapter for the PS3 pooped out on us after a few hours. But what a beautiful few hours they were. It's a great little TV with a perfect picture (dare I say it... it rivals our other TV we left behind!). We're not sure why the adapter pooped out, but we've ordered a new one online (rushed, of course). It was kind of dissapointing, since we'd been waiting for the PS3, then waited for the TV, and it was all together finally!!.... Then sadness.

But Nathan's still in good spirits with his super shirt and super mug! What a cutie.

Oh and we saw the missionaries today at Sainsbury's! We were there to buy Halloween candy on sale when we ran into them at the tills. So we helped them carry their groceries back to their flats! It was funny, I fought them for otheir bags because I really wanted to carry them, but of course they refused at first. But I love missionaries! I love to help! :) They have nicknames for the two American couples. We're the AWESOMES! Yay!

Then I took a 3 hour nap. Woo!