Part 1 of our European Adventures

Freezing our tails off on the beach!
The White Cliffs
Earl climbs a mountain?
Looking beautiful by the sea!
A CD cover? What do you think?
All of us on the beach in Seaford, along the very cold English coast!

my night

Life is always interesting, that much we know. For me tonight is a bit different, as we looked back at our diary we realized that tonight is the first night I'm home by myself since we moved to England for a second time. Don't be sorry it's not that we are overworked or out every night, it's more that we are often home together in the evenings or we are with people. I had thought about trying to set something up for tonight, catch a friend, go out for a drink etc... then i thought about the idea of having no plan, nothing I really had to do (I do have to write a short magazine article) I could turn the music up loud, play some music, read a book, surf the net etc... So ya that's the plan tonight to not have one, I'm glad these nights don't come all that often cuz that would get old, but for a once in a while deal, I'll take that.
e

Sideways Down - a local Overton band

Bob

You never quite know they way life is going to go. We have our plans for days and even weeks ahead of time but yet you really never know what life may throw at you. Since moving to the village of Overton we have had the privilege of meeting all kinds of people. One of the first people we met was Tiffany, an American from Virginia who married a British man named Simon. We have very much enjoyed our friendship with this couple. It is great to have an American right here in the village to relate to. Simon and Tiffany have introduced us to numerous people at the pub and one of those amazing people is a man named Bob. You can see Bob in the picture above playing his bass. Simon is the drummer in the group Sideways Down and they performed at the Greyhound pub Saturday night. Now you may wonder where I am going with all of this but you see Bob died suddenly Monday morning. No one expected it, it came as an incredible shock. I really only knew Bob a bit, I think I counted that I had had 3 conversations with him. Yet it's amazing that I am still impacted. In the small interaction I had I knew he was a man who loved people and made those comfortable around him. Many are saddened in the village about his death and it is never an easy thing to cope with. One thing has struck me in a profound way: Ever conversation and interaction we have is important. We don't know the impact it will have on someone and we cannot guarantee what is going to happen next. So my prayer is that God will use me in everything I do for His glory! Rebecca

waiting for a shower

I'm not waiting to take a shower, I'm not waiting for a rain shower in this country you usually don't have to wait long:) No I'm waiting on the Triton shower unit that I bought yesterday, but Screw-Fix hasn't delivered yet, supposed I'm getting screwed:( Anyway our shower is a poor man's hose with little water pressure and an amazingly quick temperature variance, which somehow is almost always a drop in temperature. If you do get it run with the force, that of an almost dried up waterfall that limps over the top it then goes and cuts out and your left soapy, shampoo dripping in your eyes, not to mention freezing cold as well. So then you press the button for it run again, it goes through it's annoying little cycle of very cold then a bit more water but luke warm at best, then about 10 seconds later you think you've fooled the little cubed machine, as the water turns pleasantly warm, your mind goes to thinking about the days activities, what you might wear etc... until the low pressure light beams and the water turns cold, and eventually stops, once again leaving you soapy, shampoo etc... I think you get the point. So you can see why we're buying a new shower unit, unfortunately I don' t have the foggiest as to how to install it, my friend Merv is an amazing plumber who leaves for Bournemouth in about an hour, this leaves me with a cushion of a half hour at the most for the shower unit to be delivered. It's not huge, in fact it is a little plastic box type thing that sits on the wall, but evidently it is tricky to hook up, doesn't sound like a treat to me.

so while waiting I'm thinking about waiting, it is almost never a fun time but it is almost always a time that we go through, or need to go through. You know what it's like when you've really wanted something, like for me to watch a college football game, the anticipation of the telecast coming on is excruciating, but usually it is well worth the wait. My mom often says that she enjoys the time before a vacation more than the vacation (I don't know what that says about Rebecca and I) but she really likes the anticipation of the event. I think that we learn while waiting, realizing that we can't have it all, and amazingly the world does not revolve around us, there are others out there who are waiting as well. Sometimes waiting is the best option, sometimes it is the only option, I thought I just heard the delivery truck, my heart raced, I raced to the door to notice that it's not there, I guess I'll go back to waiting, and hopefully take a shower later.

About 3 minutes after finishing my blog Rebecca called and what does she utter into the phone and I quote "I'm waiting, waiting for the bus" See I had to race home from the town centre, so I could do this shower thing and she then had to catch a bus. She waited, # 5, # 8, the South Ham bus, they all came by but not # 86. Anyway we talked about waiting for a while, as she was simply standing there looking anxiously up Sarum Hill for a bus that wasn't coming any time soon. btw it is now outside of my potential shower hook up window, Screw Fix hasn't shown up, I'm still downstairs staring out the front window, Rebecca is on her way to Overton, Merv has probably left for Bournemouth, but just a bit of solace in that it has rained since i wrote that opening sentence.
er

Being an American

I don't think anyone realizes how they live and what is important to them until they move to a new culture. When I am home in Indiana I never think about how I do things or why I do things, it is just the way it is, no reason to question. Living in a village in England brings all of those things to light. I can honestly say without exaggeration that every day I talk with someone about something that is different about my culture and the British culture. The common phrase used is 2 nations separated by a common language, wow is it ever true! It is fascinating in lots of ways and frustrating in others. Tuesday night, November 4th Earl and I traveled to Chineham, a village about 20 minutes away to our good friend Hazel's house for dinner, playing the game Settler's, and staying up late to watch the election. It was a great evening! Watching the election from the BBC's point of view was so interesting. When you see your own country through other's eyes you realize things you never did before! For example when the British announcer tried to use the American slang, "shooting hoops" it was so humorous to hear it in a posh British accent! We stayed up until 4 a.m. watching until Barack Obama was elected president of the United States. It was definitely worth watching no matter who you wanted the winner to be in the end. Hazel stayed up with us the entire time watching and enjoying the experience with us. I must say that blessed me immensely to have someone care along with me about something that is so important to us! I am proud to be an American but also delighted to be living in England, what an incredible experience!

half term

Before I write much we do have plans for some pics to go up, forgive us the pic part of this program is not the easiest to navigate:( Let me tell you a bit of what life has been like for us in the last week or so. First of all it has been half-term which means that all kids are off school, and life in general has less of a rush to it, less meetings, less traffic (sort of, we'll come onto that) less of the normalcy that a week is, if there is a normal. You would think all of that would translate into a load of free time and non-business and to some extent it wasn't as busy but where does the time go, I'm sure we all ask that sometimes. I had about 9-10 smaller projects going on, none that pressed to much, all that took a bit of thinking and some creativity, all of which were quite enjoyable to do. You know what it's like when there is something huge to accomplish you get right to it and go for it, when there are smaller less imposing projects they tend to get pushed off and not addressed as quickly. But throughout the week the numerous projects were completed, we had another very successful panto practice (will blog about sometime) a very interesting Alpha Saturday and today we played Killer Bunnies so ya it's been good around here.
There is a saying that the English always talk about the weather, that's because the weather is often worth talking about. This week on Wednesday we woke up to a layer of ice on the car, as we drove toward Oakley all the cars had measurable snow caked on them, as we reached Oakley it was a white-winter-wonderland, what a surprise snow in October, snow at all! I picked up Chris to go for a coffee in the town centre of Basingstoke and a trip that usually takes 15 minutes from his house took an hour or so. The roads were jammed and packed, they were like slow moving parking lots. Not because of cautious driving only, there had been loads of accidents that closed roads, and ice/snow that closed roads as well. It was a traffic headache except we weren't in a huge hurry, it was half-term you know, sometimes life is lived best in less, in half-term, slow moving speed, I'm sure it will crank up as soon as tomorrow as we stare meetings from morning to late evening, but hey that's life, we'll enjoy it all anyhow!
e