Lots of Ice Cream!

My blogging might be a bit sporadic here for a little while. We are very busy.

Riding motorcycles...



Swimming with the cousin...



and eating lots of ice cream.

An Unexpected Trip... With Unexpected Beauty!

Anyone want to guess where we unexpectedly ended up this week?









There is no place like home!

I. Love. You.

Austin,

Do you know how much I love being with you? I hope that you do! You are the best three-year-old in the world to spend my time with. I love working at a job that allows me to pass you in the hallway, stop both my class and yours, and give you a big kiss! I love seeing you through the window in your classroom while I am on the playground with my class. I loved hearing you yell, "Hey, there's my MOMMY!" through the window today before I even had a chance to look up!

I love picking you up at 12:30 pm and asking you about your day. I love going to the Library with you and laughing at covers of books that you think are funny. I love the way you pull the library rolling stool thingy up and down every aisle with you as if it were more fun than a go-cart.

I love the way you ask for a special treat on a very hot day. I love the way you asked me today to stop at McDonalds for apple dippers. When I told you that McDonalds was on the opposite side of town and maybe we could stop at Burger King instead for "apple fries," I love how you replied, "But mom, I just couldn't do that to McDonald. I love him!"

When I put your down for your nap, I love how you say, "but mommy, I am just not tired!" while yawning so wide that you can barely say the words. I love how you snuggle under your covers, look up at me, and then say, "Well, maybe I'll sleep for one minute, mom. But just one minute, okay?"

I love sitting on the couch listening to you sing to yourself as you use the restroom and wash your hands. I love the fact that right now you are washing your hands singing, "Oh, yeah, I am a cowboy! Yee Haw!" I love the way you make up your own songs.

I love you, I just wanted to tell you today.

To Hold You over... Until you come!

In just a few days my mom and dad will arrive for a Texas visit. We are so excited! Until they come, I thought that I would post some pictures for them to see of their sweet Texan:)

Dancing Flowers and Disneyland

It is 104 degrees here today! Oh, yes 104! I am currently researching moving my family to England where the high is currently in the upper 70s. It is necessary to move as I am also missing High Tea, and who wouldn't want these little flowers dancing in their garden?



We have had a busy few days with some precious friends visiting from Chicago. It was so nice to see Seth and Caralisa and hear about their lives. Today when we got home from school, Austin ran into the guest room and said, "Seth? Caralisa?"

He looked at me with huge eyes. "Mom, where are they?"

"Oh, sweetheart, they had to leave to go the airport today! They are going home."

He put his head in his hands and said, "Mommy, I just miss them so much!"

So, Caralisa and Seth, I guess one day at the mall with my son was all it took to win over his little heart! You did, after all, take him to Disneyland!

*** Austin kept calling the Disney store in the mall disneyland. As we walked out of the store yesterday, he said, "Mom, that was a great trip to Disneyland!"

And the cheapest one too!

Some Satisfying Sunday Scriptures for my Soul

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
Joshua 1:8


Picture taken in John Wesley's Prayer Closet in his home in London

Not your Typical 4th of July Parade!

*** The original letter used for this post was sent to my family on July 4th!

Happy 4th of July!

I must say that this has been one of the most interesting fourth of July's ever:) We started the morning by getting on the bus and riding into London. We went to the former home of John Wesley (father of Methodism) and toured his church.



We also got to take a fascinating tour of John Wesley's last residence - his home in London.



Unfortunately, as we walked across the street to enter Bunn Hill Fields Cemetery, my friend, Margo practically fainted at the gate! She said that she thought that she just had heat stroke, but of course everyone was worried about her. Dr. Stookey found a wheelchair and wheeled her to the bus. She was supposed to leave for the airport on her own, but of course everyone was worried that she might pass out again - and we didn't want her to travel to the airport alone.

Several members of my cohort asked me if I would mind taking Margo to the airport, and if I thought that I could find my way back to the British Museum by myself. Of course! I was actually excited about the adventure. Margo was embarrassed to have to have someone accompany her, but I was glad to go and have an adventure for the day!

We got in a cab and asked them to take us to Heathrow airport. The fare was 68 pounds. Remember, I told you that the exchange rate is $1.75 for every pound, so that was over $100 cab ride. After I checked Margo's bags and got her set up with a wheelchair and porter, I was now on my own to make it back to London Centre.

I found the trains and soon realized that there was an issue. All trains going into London proper were closed due to construction on the track. They thought that the weekend would be the best time to do repairs! So instead of a direct train from Heathrow to the British Museum, a ticket information person told me to take the Heathrow Express into Paddington Station (outside London) and then take two underground lines to get to the British Museum. No problem!



I took the Heathrow express (only four pounds, by the way) and then found the correct underground line for my first half of the adventure. I was supposed to change underground trains at Oxford Circus. At Oxford Circus, I got off the brown line and found my way to the red line. I stood on the side and waiting for my final ride.

Just as the train neared, a man came over the loud speaker and said, "We need you attention, this station has just closed. No trains will be stopping at this station. You need to leave the underground. I repeat, No trains will be stopping at this station. You need to leave the underground."

What in the world? I quickly left wondering if it was due to security breach of some kind and arose from the depths of the underground to a shoulder to shoulder crowd. What is going on? I asked those standing around me? The Gay Pride Parade! Someone shouted. (Apparently, the crowd had become so large that they closed the underground station so no one else could come. They were afraid of crowd control.) I asked for directions and decided that I would just walk the rest of the way to the British Museum. It's a long walk, someone said.

At that moment, I noticed a rickshaw driver sitting by the side of the road watching the parade. Excuse me, I said, do you think you could drive me to the British Museum? Of course, climb on, he replied.



Well, considering that the only route was the same as the parade route - I need to inform you that if you watch the BBC tonight, you might see me riding along in a rickshaw in the Gay Pride Parade. I waved proudly to the camera!

What a day!

I made it to the British Museum, enjoyed seeing the Rosetta stone, met back up with my cohort, and just enjoyed a dinner of fish and chips at a local pub.


The British Museum


The Rosetta Stone


Love you all,

Emily

I am Going to Windsor to See the Queen...

We woke up this morning to cooler weather. A light rain fall brought with it much nicer temperatures for our next adventure - a trip to Windsor! Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. The queen happened to be in residence on the day we visited, but we were unable to catch the much desired glimpse of the queen!



We arrived at Windsor just in time for the 11:00 am changing of the palace guards. The ceremony itself was almost an hour long with a full marching band. Our group stood around and enjoyed the fanfare while also trying to get some much needed group shots of our friends!









After the "concert," Margo and I decided toured the State Rooms of the castle which are open to visitors. I love touring beautiful homes (and castles) and often imagine myself living there. My favorite part of the tour, however, was seeing several prints done by Leonardo da Vinci on display in the "library."

The tour took almost three hours to complete, so we were starving by the time we exited the rooms. We found a bench and ate our lunches overlooking the palace grounds. I was interested in more information about a castle fire and stopped a local man wearing a badge. What a wonderful addition to the day. The little seventy year old man has worked at Windsor for over 35 years. He told us wonderful stories of life at Windsor and then asked if I happened to be married!!! Margo and I were afraid that we had made "too good" of a friend when he asked us what we were going to do for the rest of the day! We were able to make our escape in the ladies restroom.

We ended the Windsor tour with a walk through St. George's Cathedral?/ Church/ Chapel? and then met up with Dr. Reid and David for an afternoon ice cream break!



After we arrived back at Regent's Park College in Oxford, Margo and I decided to walk the two blocks to the Sheldonian Theatre for a Handel concert! I loved listening to the boy's choir. It was another great English day:)

I love Ice and the Gap!

** Here is a letter that I sent to my family on Day Six in England. I am still too tired to rewrite updates:)




Dear Family,

It is 6:00 am here in England and as I turn on my computer, it reminds me that it is just now midnight in Florida. The sun rises at 4:30 am making it very difficult to sleep in - especially considering the curtains that don't quite cover my dorm room window and the songs of the birds in the garden outside. I figured that I could use my time this morning sending you another update on my trip to Cambridge yesterday.

Cambridge is the "other school" - as there is a great rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge. Apparently, when Oxford was first started, there was great animosity between the the townsfolk and the scholars. These debates were between the "town and the gown" they would say. After a major riot in some year that I can't remember because I woke up at 4:30 am, several of the scholars decided to look for a safer place to live and settled in Cambridge.



As our country celebrates 250 years in existence, King's College at Cambridge is celebrating its 800th anniversary. It truly puts things into perspective. The streets of Cambridge were quite crowded today with young people and many tourists. Several "salespeople" line the streets asking you if you are interested in a punting tour. If you will remember, I did go punting here 10 years ago when I was a summer missionary. Since I had already had the experience, I decided that it wasn't worth the 45 pounds (or $78.75) that it would cost for our group to go again. The exchange rate right now is 1.75 US dollars for every pound.

It is very hot - almost Texas hot - here in England right now. We look for shaded spots and stand in the shadows of the buildings to try to escape some of the heat. The difference between England and Texas, however, is that very few of the stores (and none of the public transportation) has air conditioning. Several of us have finally received fans from Regent's Park College for our dorm rooms. I have my room set up with a large chair and fan sitting right next to my bed.



As we walked from shade to shade, we found a cute market in the middle of town. They were selling trinkets, books, and beautiful fruit and vegetables. Right next to the Market, a group from Zimbabwe was singing Acapella on the street corner. Their voices were unbelievable. I got a short video of them singing "In the Jungle" - that I might try to upload or send later.



A group of five of us decided to try to find a park for lunch. Everyday, the college has been packing us sacked lunches - they call them packed lunches - to take on our outings. This has saved us dramatically in the expenses for the trip. The packed lunches include a sandwich of our choice, crisps (we call them chips), a dessert (like a brownie), and a piece of fruit. We are also allowed one bottle of water, but only one (this is not a buffet, one of our professors reminded us). So, most of my money is being spent on bottled water during the long, hot days:)

The coke here does not taste like my beloved coke back home, and ice is a rare commodity - when you do ask for ice, they believe that two pieces floating in the top of your coke will do! They have apparently not experienced the blessing that I refer to as Sonic! Since I obviously have a caffeine addiction, I have reverted to taking a few sips of coffee in the morning at breakfast... however, I digress and don't know how I started this ode to caffeine!

We found a park and sat down under the shade trees to eat our lunch. We discussed leadership and our plans for the future. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of a PhD in leadership and received advice from the wiser members of our group. It was a good, but deep discussion for a hot day in the park, so I told Margo that I thought we needed a shopping break!

Since she was tired of looking at old churches (and I honestly felt the same way), we ditched the plan for the day and spent our time exploring Cambridge shops - which I am happy to say also included the GAP. We had a funny discussion about fanny packs, and Margo decided that it was time to "upgrade" to the world of sling backpacks. We went into a sports shop and found her one for only 2 pounds! It was marked 70% off. Since she wasn't quite prepared for our accomodations, we also needed to buy her a pair of shower shoes!

I wanted to pick up the soundtrack for Wicked to listen to on the plane ride back home, and found a large record/ dvd store. The lady who checked me out was from Orlando, FL. :) We also picked up a few shirts from the gap to help us complete our wardrobe for the week - the days are so hot that I cannot re-wear any of my shirts as I had planned, and I am apprehensive to do laundry after the "laundry debalacle of 2009" that turned all of our clothes navy blue! :0)

My final purchase of the day was a wonderful book of classic English stories with beautiful illustrations for Austin from a second hand bookstore.

Tired from the shopping and the sun, Margo and I sat down at Annie's - a quaint bakery - for some tea. One of our professors, Dr. Sandra Reid, joined us for an afternoon break. I ordered a scoop of ice cream with strawberry topping and a coke. While the coke was disappointing with one small piece of ice (I had specifically asked for ice) stranded alone in the glass of otherwise very warm "fizzy" (they call coke, fizzy), the ice cream was wonderful! The perfect pick-me-up for the middle of the day "sinking feeling."

Dr. Reid mentioned a wonderful museum that we should walk into before we met the bus at 4:00 pm. Our search for restrooms however, outweighed our desire to see ancient Greek helmets and we never made it to the museum. We sat on a park bench and waited for our bus and began our journey home.

We were rerouted due to a closed road, and our trip of 2 hours turned into almost 3. We made it back in just enough time to run upstairs, drop off our packages, wash our hands, and return to the dining hall for a dinner of ham and potatoes.

After dinner, we took a walk around Oxford and several of us stopped at a pub for drinks and fellowship. (I am pleased to say that the pub understands my need for a full class of ice with my coke!)

I came home, met mom on facebook chat, and then went to bed.

I know that you don't normally receive such a detailed account of my day, but this is what happens when you wake up at 4:30 am craving ice.

Love you all,

Emily

More to Come Soon!

This is not a picture of my front door, but when I close my eyes, this is what my front door looks like to me:)

I am home! After a 10 hour flight with no sightings of "Mr. Young Man Sitting Next to Me," I ran into the arms of the two sweetest men around - my 35-year-old and my 3-year-old. I am so glad to be home, and I have some updates from the last three days in England waiting to be posted. They will be exciting and will include: my participation in a parade, a trip around Windsor Castle, and a fainting episode in a graveyard. I know, you can hardly contain yourselves!

Until then, I am playing airplanes with Austin (so much better than sitting on one), enjoying air conditioning, and possibly unpacking (although it is unlikely).

I have been changed for Good

"I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason.
Bringing something we must learn
and we are led
To those who help us most to grow
if we let them
And we help them in return
Well I don't know if that is true
But I know that I am who I am today
Because I knew you."
From "For Good" of Wicked

I don't believe that things just happen by luck or chance. I believe that every thing in our lives happens for a reason. I believe that every relationship changes us and that is definitely true of the friendships I have made while working on my PhD.

Today was one of those "change" days - when you explore new adventures with friends and know that you will never be the same.

The day started with breakfast and classroom discussion. We talked about the future of leadership, and I was stimulated by the conversation with my peers. We were dismissed from class early in order to run across town for the Inklings Tour. This particular tour gave us insight into the lives of two of the Inklings: CS Lewis and JR Tolkien. (I guess in order to be a great writer, I need to start going by EB Qu...).

We had the most wonderful British tour guide to show us marvelous things around Oxford

including, Tolkien's dorm room

The room where CS Lewis was married

CS Lewis' home

and the home where Lord of the Rings was written

Perhaps my favorite stops along the tour were The Eagle and the Child - the very famous pub where Lewis, Tolkien, and the other Inklings met on a regular basis to discuss their writings.

The Inklings were dear friends, but very critical of one anothers' writings. I believe that this is why their writings were so excellent. "As Iron sharpons Iron, so one man sharpens another!"

I am truly being sharpened by my friendships in this PhD group - perhaps not to the same caliber as Lewis, but maybe so:)

We also toured the Randolf hotel where a portion of Shadowlands (movie biography of CS Lewis' life) was filmed. Just a tour was not good enough, however,

After lunch, Margo and I returned to the Randolf for High Tea. Oh, my goodness, I cannot begin to describe the amazing tastes I experienced during high tea. Who would have guessed that a small biscuit, some strawberry jam, and a little cream would make me want to move to England for High Tea everyday!!!

Margo told me that High Tea was first practiced because women in the Victorian Era often felt a "sinking" feeling about mid afternoon waiting for their eight o'clock dinner. If this is so, I think that I need to have the "sinking feeling" everyday.

I tried new teas and shared stories with Margo while hearing wonderful stories in return.

Our stories might have lasted a bit too long, for we soon looked at the clock and realized that we were going to have to take a quick "jog" to make it the train station for the most important event of the day - the Theater!!!

Quick side note, they might look harmless, but I got clipped by a bicycle on my way to the train station.

We were joined for the evening by Jim and Chris - two other special members of my cohort. We quickly bought tickets and jumped on the next train headed for London.

However, we did NOT jump on the express train. What seemed like 302 stops later, we realized that we were going to miss the play. We made a quick decision to hop off the train, run across a train station, and try to catch the express train to London. Of course, we missed it:)

The next train took us into the city and we hailed a cab as quickly as possible. The cab driver was determined to get to the theater for us quickly - even if it meant honking, passing, and "exploring" the bus lane!

We got to the theater, grabbed our tickets, and sat down for the performance - WICKED!

Oh my goodness, as if the day could get any better??? WOW!

As the performance ended, the two main characters sang a wonderful song about how they were changed by knowing one another. Forever changed - that is how I feel on this trip through the relationships with amazing people -

Forever... changed

Who can say if I've been changed for the better
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good.
from the closing song of WICKED

This blog post dedicated to all of my friends in Cohort III