England Pilgrimage Day Two

So the next morning - we were to meet for breakfast at 8:30am - so I set the travel alarm for 7am (or so I thought). Luckily at one point in the morning, Kris looked at the clock on the TV and it was 8:21am! Nine minutes before we were supposed to be downstairs for breakfast - my alarm clock never went off! Apparently, if you want the alarm to go off in the morning - you need to set it to AM - who knew?!

It was Sunday, so we were off to church. We worshiped at Wesley’s Chapel - built in 1778 by John Wesley. After church, we had the opportunity to see where John Wesley lived, his grave in back of the church and a museum that had a pulpit he preached in that we could take pictures in. He was a short man, so most of us had to kneel in the pulpit to keep from hitting our heads on the ceiling! As we made our way to Aldersgate Street - we walked through the cemetery where Wesley’s mother is buried. We walked down Aldersgate Street and saw the plaque that commemorates the meeting place where John Wesley’s ‘heart was strangely warmed’ which marked the beginning of the Methodist movement in earnest.

We then hopped on the Tube to Leicester square and walked through Trafalgar Square where they were having a music festival since it was a three day weekend. As we wandered down to Westminster Abbey, we saw the Horse Guards and 10 Downing St. When we reached Westminster Abbey, we had yummy soft service ice cream with a chocolate ‘flake’ in it. We stayed for an organ concert and evening service. I found it fascinating that Charles Darwin is buried in Westminster Abbey!

Most of the group walked back to the hotel - a small group of us took the Tube and then stopped in the Bag O Nails pub for a pint. I enjoyed a pint of apple cider - and since I was drinking on an empty stomach, I was pretty happy at dinner - had a nice buzz going on. After dinner Craig took all our camera’s and downloaded the pictures and started blogging about the trip for the folks back home. Thus endeth the first of many religious days of the pilgrimage... click here for pictures of our second day.

And stay tuned for Day Three in the series - a day where Kris, Jan and I wore our uniforms...

She Always Refers To As Daddy

So I went by to see my mom today after church.  When I got there - she told me about how one of the slats from her blinds fell off - so I put it back for her.  Of course a few minutes later as I was changing her sheets - she told me again that one of the slats from her blinds fell off and if I would fix it - God Bless Her!

After I was done making her bed - I laid out her clean clothes so she could put them away.  When I first arrived, she was wearing the sweater that I gave her from England - she always tells me that she doesn’t wear it to meals because she doesn’t want to spill anything on it  - and she told me how cold they keep it in the building - which must be an old person thing - it was rather comfortable considering it was 90 F outside!  So she is sitting on the bed and decides that it is hot - so she takes off the sweater and is wearing a tank top - and when she stands up to go to the closet - I notice the tags on the back of the top - she’s wearing it inside out!  She then decides to give me the tank top so I can wash it since I brought another clean tank top for her.  Of course by the time she takes the top off and gets to the bed where the clean clothes are - she forgets what she is going to put on - so she puts on a shirt sleeved top - then decides that it is too cold so she takes that off and puts the sweater back on - and once she gets the sweater back on - she wonders where the original tank top is that she had on!  It’s simply fascinating!

Since it is father’s day - I asked her questions about her dad - whom she always refers to as daddy.  She teared up and said that he was a kind man and she misses him very much.  He died before I was born so I never got to know him.  She talked about the farm she grew up on - my grandfather was a potato farmer in Idaho.  And it was interesting that she could remember all about the farm - the swing in the tree, the garden, the shade trees, but when it came to college - she remembered her older sister went to nursing school, but couldn’t remember that her younger sister ended up at the College of Idaho with her.  She also couldn’t remember how she met my dad - but does remember that he is the one that left her.  A friend was telling me that he has a digital recorder so whenever his dad starts talking about the past - he switches it on and starts to record - I need to start doing that also.  And as my mom misses her daddy - I miss my mommy.  And right now - I miss my dad also.

Scenes From...

Realized that it has been  almost a week since my last post - not really keeping up with my goal of 3 to 4 a week - oh well - such is life!  Did want to comment on a couple of things I've seen this week...  first...

Scenes from the parking lot at work...  At work, I park way out in what I call the Winnie the Pooh section of the parking lot - farthest away from the building - I have to get my exercise in some way and  friend of mine measured it with her pedometer and said it is about 1/4 of a mile from where I park to the building - works for me.  So when I'm walking in - I have quite the opportunity to see all sorts of things.  So this week - after almost getting run over - they are crazy driving through the parking lot (makes me have walking parking lot rage!) - anywho... there was this chick walking in - and may I just say - that if you have to spend so much time pulling down your really tight short skirt - maybe it isn't the right thing to wear - especially in a business professional attire atmosphere!  And then I'm watching this guy from the back as he is jamming his hands down his pants to tuck in his shirt and then adjust his shirt and then it was obvious that he was then tightening his belt - dude - can you not do that either at home or at your car where you have at least a slight bit of privacy - do you really think we all want to see that?!   I see a lot of guys putting their ties on in the morning at their cars - but this was a bit ridiculous.  He must have been able to pick up on my thoughts because the next day I saw him again and he was at least dressing at his car!  Anyway...

And seen at the gym - I've been trying to be good eating and going to the gym this week since I think I'm going to weigh in tomorrow morning - and on Tuesday night when I was there - the Laker game was just ending - and it seemed that every guy in the place stopped to stand by the TV and watch the game!  Craig and I went to the gym on Wednesday night and the last thing we did was ab crunches on a balance ball - and I just hurt today!

Something else I found out this week - I think I have talked about what a huge fan Sadie is of peanut butter - and if I haven't - now you know!  She really doesn't like a lot of people food - but I found out this week that she likes mint ice cream!  Go figure - freak - just like her mom!  God Bless Her!

Ok - enough rambling for now - look for a post on England... Day two - probably tomorrow.  Happy Weekend!

England Pilgrimage Day One

So here it is...  what you all have been waiting for...  finally some stories and pictures from our England Pilgrimage.  I hope you enjoy the England installments - I’ll take them day by day.  And this picture here is the first one I took on the trip - this was in our hotel room on the bottom of our nightstand - thought that was an odd place to put the tea cups and complimentary cookies.

So Day One - we all gathered at the church for our trip up to LAX - I was so excited about the trip I could barely contain myself.  And Jan, your comment about Cyndy’s luggage was just the best!  The trip over wasn’t bad - I was able to sleep a bit on the plane and we all had our own screen’s to watch movies so that was cool!  We even flew into Heathrow Terminal 5 and our luggage didn’t get lost.

And then we were there - it all seemed so surreal - and truly for the first day or two - was really hard to believe we were really in England.  So we got to the hotel and checked in and practically the entire group decided to join Craig and his family on a river boat trip on the River Thames.  It was neat to be able to see London at a glance.  So most of the pictures you will see in the link come from that cruise.  

One of my favorite things, though, was to ride the Tube - I loved it - how amazing to live in a city with such wonderful public transportation.  I loved looking at the map and trying to figure out what line to get on and where to transfer.  It took me a bit - but it was the best!  Mind the Gap!

That night at dinner it was a bit painful - I think it took a good 2 hours or so from start to finish - and we were all exhausted!  Looking back on it - my marathon prayer of grace before dinner really fit in!  That night we all turned in early.  Unfortunately, Kris and I ran upon a bit of mishap the next morning...  stay tuned more to come!  Check out pictures from Day One Here

Family Day

Had family day today.  It was my nephew Christopher’s birthday and my niece Emilie danced at church.  So my brother picked up my mom in the morning and I met them at their church for their second service.  When I got there - I saw my mom sitting on the patio and I wandered over to talk to her.  She told me about how John was late in picking her up in the morning so she went down to breakfast, but since it took them so long to get breakfast out, she only had coffee before John got there.  A story I heard another 5 times before she decided to focus on something else.

When I got there - I found out that it was youth Sunday and my niece was not only dancing, but doing the children’s moment and the passing of the peace.  She did a great job during the children’s moment.  It was such a treat to see her up there with the little kids - she talked about Noah’s Ark and how all the animals were different - just like us and how special we all are because we are different - got the kids involved by asking them what their favorite animal was - she really just did a fantastic job!

She also did a liturgical dance with a group of other girls.  It was neat to see her dancing.  And I need to make a shout out to my North Sea buddies - Kris and Jan.  At one point during the dance - the song was talking about needing a helping hand and the choreography had Emilie doing a jump down to the ground so two of the other dancers could come over and give her a helping hand - and I thought of my North Sea buddies and how we helped each other through the "sand."

So after church I got to hear the story from my mom one more time about breakfast and then she moved on to another obsession.  What happened to her purse which I answered a good 6 times during the rest of the day.  At lunch she was piling all this stuff on her plate and at one point when she asked for more, I told her she needed to eat what was on her plate before she could have any more.  I really have become my mother!  And then after I prepared a hot dog for her - she got distracted and started reaching for another one - I, of course, stepped in again and told her to finish the first one - I’m sure she forgot that it was on her plate.  God Bless Her!

I Don't Think I Can Wait

Two more things I wanted to blog about - unrelated to the cat...

First - thanks to Kris for the Picassa web photo site idea - it worked - I loaded up some photos the other day and will start blogging about the England trip soon.

Second - I finally caught up with the back episodes I had recorded of my favorite show "Criminal Minds" and watched the season finale tonight.  And I'm very distressed - I don't think I can wait until the new season to find out which person was in the car that Blew Up!  I'm hoping the car was empty - I hate to think of any of the characters leaving the show!  So if you know anything - I want to know - I don't care if it is a spoiler or not - I want to know now - not be surprised in the fall.

Ok, I'm done for the night - pleasant dreams everyone! 

Stories Of The Cat

A few Sadie stories for you...

Yowler - Once the lights go out - if Sadie isn’t already on the bed she likes to do some yowling.  So the other night she is on the bed while I’m reading - I turn the lights off and figure she will curl up and go to sleep, oh no, she promptly jumps off the bed so she can yowl a bit and then jumps back up and settles down for the night.  Odd!

Lady Licks A Lot - Anyone that knows the cat, knows that she licks - a lot!  She has OCD about licking herself - especially after she is touched!  So the other day she was laying on the couch cleaning herself - it can be fascinating to watch - she usually starts with her back claws and feet and then continues on from there.  So she finishes up and starts to settle down and I just can’t help reaching out and petting her - at which point she has to start all over again.  It was hilarious!  She is crazy!  Just like her mother and her grandmother - actually her grandmother isn’t as much crazy as demented - and for those of you that think I’m being cruel - get over it - only if you have a parent with Alzheimer’s can you judge me - actually - it really isn’t our place to judge anyone - that’s God’s job - but this isn’t an entry about God - it’s about my cat - I digress - it’s been a long week!

One more story about the little one...  So I got home from work last night and sat on the couch until Bible Study and the cat wandered over and laid down next to me.   She is usually a bit more restless - but yesterday she curled up and looked like she was trying to sleep.  Of course, me being the mean and evil one - kept petting her to keep her up - it’s not like she doesn’t sleep all day - and by the looks of her tail and her ears - I started to annoy her.  Well - I went off to Bible Study and to workout and when I got home and was getting ready for bed - she, of course, wanted to play!  Lovely!  God Bless Her.