February 12th

You had how many cookies?!?

Today was a Valentine's Day cookie decorating party at Cassie's house. Decorating the cookies and bags to put them in was fun, and so was hanging out with the girls, seeing their husbands and meeting Cassie's other friends.

But the most fun thing was definitely watching Cass try to explain to Isia the point of decorating the cookies instead of just cramming them into her mouth. I didn't manage to get a picture of Isia while she was two-fisting the baked goods, but it made me believe the explanation didn't stick. 

February 11th

No picture today.

I have a tendency to be really hard on myself - my own worst critic - and when I realized that I didn't take a picture for the day I began beating myself up about it. I didn't want to update because I felt as though there was no point. I had failed. My goal was to take a picture, a day, for a year, and I didn't so I might as well quit now.

But then the project isn't really about taking a picture EVERY day, it is about documenting my life better than I have been doing. And I have been doing that. And I missed a day. That doesn't mean that I am a huge, epic failure at blogging forever and no one will ever like me and I am funny looking and uncool.It just means that I missed a day. So I am forgiving myself for missing a day and accepting the fact that it will probably happen again.

February 10th

Wounds!

Yay! Large plastic wounds!

February 9th

Happy!

Tonight I got to watch L, one of my work kiddies, all evening. He has a special place in my heart as one of the smartest and funniest babies I have ever had. He also took several years off of my life when, at 10 months old, he attempted to climb out of his crib and almost succeeded.

Now he is almost two and is still hilarious. The look on his face when I came to pick him up was classic. He kept looking from me to his teachers as if he was wondering if it was really ok for him to go. When I got him into his booster seat in my car he kept laughing at me and it was nice to look back on.

February 8th

"Honey, I'm home!"

This is one of my favorite things to see after a long day <3

February 7th

Terrifying.

I didn't take this photo, but I did get it on February 7th. 

It was a long day, I opened at work and worked all day with  a full room and a new little guy who is NOT HAPPY. He is very NOT HAPPY and he is very vocal about how NOT HAPPY he is. The kid has the loudest scream I have ever heard and when I was holding him and he screamed in my ear, it was NOT HAPPY.

After work I ran home and changed clothes with my ear still ringing. I munched on some Tylenol and drove downtown to take a test for my online class. As we only meet on test days the professors had some "housekeeping" to do before the test. Some parts of that talk made my classmates NOT HAPPY. Which made the professor NOT HAPPY. Then I looked at the test...and I was NOT HAPPY.

After getting home and cooking dinner, John and I sat down to watch some Star Trek DS9 on DVD that John got from Netflix. I had put up a status update on Facebook about my rough day and Krista texted me to make sure I was ok. I explained that I was decompressing with the DS9 and she sent me the picture above...which is what she is decompressing with. And that made me HAPPY.

February 6th

Super!

We went over to Brian and Annette's for the Superbowl. It was a good game, but there was no emotion in it for us. I don't have strong feelings about either the Packers or the Steelers so really the only thing I was interested in was the commercials. Brian and John were mostly interested in the big bag of Carolina BBQ chips.

February 5th

>:-(

It snowed some more this morning...and is supposed to snow more this week. I made a snow grump in the yard to show my displeasure. I don't think it is going to help though.

February 4th

Post test smiles

Kim is the president of our nursing class and one of the most positive people I have ever met. Usually people like that make me want to punch them in the nose, but Kim manages to be so sweet that I don't want to get violent.


Also - I look EXHAUSTED in this picture! Perhaps I am beginning to betray my advancing years?

February 3rd

*Gratuitous Rufus Shot*

What?!?

I get my own year in China?!? I don't get anything around here!

February 2nd

Braving the elements

Just like yesterday, school and work are closed and we are trapped in the frozen tundra. Unlike yesterday, we ventured out the the mailbox. The ground looks like it is covered in several inches of snow but when you stand on it you don't sink. It sounds like walking on a thick layer of Pop Rocks, which is a very weird sensation. 

February 1st

Success!

Apparently it is the storm of the century. School and work were closed so I scored a day off. What better thing to do during an ice-storm than try my scone recipe again?

The first time I made them the mixture was too liquid, so while they tasted ok, the texture wasn't cakey enough and they spread in the oven until they were not appetizing looking at all. This time was perfect - warm and comforting on a cold day.

January 31st

Ugh...

Back to Indiana means preparations for the snow and ice storm of the century! Yay!

January 30th

My least favorite view

The trip home was long. Very, very long. 

And not helped by missing our connecting flight, then spending 7 hours in O'Hare waiting for another one.

January 29th

Full of food

On our last full day in England we took Nanna out for lunch. It was initially going to be a small thing with just the five of us, but became a four hour, nine person, food sharing extravaganza. 

I love long lunches and good beer and sticky toffee pudding and old pubs and warm fires and laughing and cousins.

January 28th

Three of four

After a long day in London, we headed over to see our Uncle Derek, Aunt Diane and cousin Paul. Derek is one of Mum's brothers and, while we have many cousins on that side, Paul is the only one close to our age. We haven't seen each other in years so there was some catching up to do, but after the initial awkwardness we settled comfortably into an evening of laughter.

This picture is bittersweet for me because there should be four of us in it. My cousin Emma, Paul's sister, died suddenly several years ago. Emma was the youngest of the four of us and I often find myself wondering what she was like as an adult, as my only memories of her are as a child. My aunt said at the end of the night that Emma would have loved the evening. I am sure that she did. 

January 27th

Goodbye.

Today was Granddad's funeral. This photo is from the graveyard in West Malling where my great-grandparents are buried, but we cremated Granddad and will scatter his ashes in the memory garden. He will have a memorial tree in the new orchard down at the cricket grounds. For me that is a more fitting monument than a cold stone. He was a man who loved cricket, loved gardening and loved walking around the countryside. During the service, these were the things that were mentioned in his eulogy along with some things that I would never had guessed. 

During WWII he was stationed in Canada, working on planes. At some point he hitchhiked down the West coast of America all the way to Hollywood. In Nanna's photo album is a picture of him in his RAF uniform, standing stiffly in front of a backdrop in a tourist photo. Apparently he also used to go to work and back on a scooter - something I have a very difficult time imagining. My memories of him don't really mesh with those stories, but I loved hearing them. 

I will always keep the memory of the last time that I saw him. When John and I went home 3 years ago, we stayed with Nanna and Granddad and then went on to a friend's house. Nanna drove us there but Granddad was already too infirm for the car ride. When we left, the sun was shining brightly and he stood waving and smiling as we drove away. He was a very reserved man, who didn't express emotion freely, but I could feel his love for me that day.

It is hard to see in the picture but the snowdrops are already coming up and flowering. As difficult as it is to say goodbye to someone that I love, flowers blossoming at the end of winter are comforting. The first green shoots seem like a reminder of the beauty of life and promise of spring.

January 26th

Yeah...I don't think so

Found this in a realtor's window in West Malling. It made me laugh out loud, especially the part about the sought after location.

January 25th

West Malling Abbey

Whenever we arrive in West Malling, the small town where my Nanna lives and where my Dad grew up, we take a long walk. 

For me it serves two purposes. First - a way of countering the jet-lag and staying awake. It is much harder to fall asleep when you are walking and the sunlight helps to adjust your internal clock. 

Second - it helps me to reset where I am. It is comforting to walk the town, seeing the sights that have been familiar to me since childhood. I like to see what has changed (usually nothing) and what is new (again...usually nothing). Walking around helps me to adjust from America, a land of new and shiny, to England, a land of history and stone. 

One of my favorite places to visit is the Abbey. Parts of the building have been standing since 1090 and it is inhabited by a group of Anglican Benedictine Nuns. One of my favorite things about being home is the way that history is integrated into life. No one tiptoes around the past, they live alongside it - adapting but not forgetting. 

January 24th

Bing,bing,bing!

This is the beginning of the trip back home. While I love being back in England, I always dread the traveling to and from. This trip we went out of Chicago. Mum, Dad and I flew there from Indianapolis to meet Piers who had driven in from Michigan the night before.

The reason Piers drove in the night before was that his passport was expired and he needed to make an emergency visit to the UK Consulate in the morning. Getting emergency travel documents is not really an easy thing and it gave Mum large amounts of consternation. Piers - not so much.

After a delayed flight and a rush through the "human pinball machine" we all finally met at the gate and prepared for the 8 hour plane ride. Happily it was only about a third full so I was able to stretch out and relax a little.