A trip to Pemberly

So, I do find it difficult to keep up with posting things here. I can't believe it took me 5 weeks to post these pictures, as the contents are so important. In late June, I went to visit a friend, Erica with whom I did NETS. She is living in Manchester right now, and we have a very good time, talking and going out for Pizza Hut!!! One of the exciting activities Erica planned was a trip to Lyme Park, which is better known as Pemberly in the BBC's production of 'Pride and Prejudice.' As some might know, I really enjoyed the movie...all 6+ hours of it!!! I have seen multiple times and read the book so often that it is starting to wear out. We were able to walk around and it was great...There are SO many beautiful houses like this in England, and unfortunately they are falling apart from lack of money.
These stairs, if you recall, are where Mr. Darcy runs out after changing from his swim in the pond. He knew Elizabeth was waiting... and below is where they meet. Needless to say, we made fools of ourselves here playing the parts. Inside the building that you see below there were beautiful indoor gardens, I will show some pictures another day. Anyway, this was a mini-tour of my day at Lyme Park...

What a week!

Man, what a week!! Lindsey (my office mate), Peter and I left on the 15th for St. Andrews to work at a Chrisitan conferenct called CLAN (Christians Linked Across the Nation.) We put up a stand for Ellel, and then helped answer any questions that came up. It was a good week, and many people stopped by to either ask questions or to tell us they had already been and had been so helped by the ministry. It was very encouraging! I even had one lady give us money-totally out of the blue.
For me the best part was getting to play with some kids! This event is really organized for the family, with events for all ages, and plenty of free time for families to get to be together too...it was great! At any moment, we had 2-5 kids hanging about, and that was great... One little girl reminded me of my niece Allie, because she would always come up to me, but then run away yelling 'NO!' so funny.
On most of the days, there was record highs throughout Britian, and we were so hot!!! I have never been that sweaty and dirty, even at camp! There were thousands of tiny bugs and in all, I was SO glad to be back to Blairmore and to be inside ALL DAY!!! The differences between me and Peter were very apparent as he was in his element, being outside!!! Well, I will post pictures later...It is nice to be back and hopefully thing will cool off a little...

another July day

Well, It is another July day and it is chilly! I am wearing a long sleeved sweater, while talking to my family who is sweating in 30 degree weather! No fair!!! Now i know why no one has a pool here, it is way too cold. Life here is chugging away, slowly but surely. Not to much to say, nothing too big is happening, but I just wanted to say hello and show you my new favorite pictures. Bleeding hearts...somehow I find them very beautiful. The good news is our garden is bursting forth and we have loads of strawberries...yummy! They look funny, but taste great! If only they'd let me help pick them...

hmm, brochures...

Well, I must tell you, today and the immdiate future looks bleak. On July 15th, Peter, me, and my friend Lindsey are headed to St. Andrews for a Christian Conference, called CLAN. They expect 5000 people, and we are putting up a publicity stand there. Well, one part of the preparation falls to me to do: brochures. So, as I have counted, I have to cut, fold, insert, and copy over 5000 brochures!!! This is not the best part of my job, I can tell you that. Just so you know, I have not had one paper cut yet!!! another successful day. The above picture is one Peter just took here at Blairmore. These flowers are everywhere right now, so small and so beautiful. Hope this finds you smiling!

Kincraig

A few weeks back, close to our anniversary, Peter and I went, with our friend Kerry, to see one of our associate counselors here at Bliarmore. His name is John Love, and he lived in Kincraig, near Avimore. This is a very beautiful part of the country, close to the Cairngorm Mountains. We drove down together, and it was just such a lovely day. Blue sky and warm. We ended up going on a walk near his house, to Loch Insch. It was beautiful. In the top photo, you can see his church nestled into the hillside. So pretty. The second picture is of a ruin, where a tree had used an old wall/fireplace to help it grow...it looked so cool. We also got to feed a few sheep that he is looking after...they were so excited...I did not know this, but sheep will use thier heads to hit thier mother to get the mild flowing. So when we put the bottles over the fence, they just kept hitting us with thier heads....Milk was everywhere! We had fun and I wanted to share the pictures....

Our house, is a very very very small house...

This is our room! This is a shot of our little 'sitting room.' Baiscally it is big enough for two chairs and the table...our room is shaped like an L. Already this picture is out of date, as Peter found two new chairs. By new, I mean new to us! They are much more comfortable, and we sit there alot more. The tulips were from our anniversary...Peter is so sweet...
One of the girls here, Kerry, was given a brand new guitar. So, in turn, she gave me her old one!!! What a blessing! Her old one is a thousand times nicer than ours, and it sounds so much better. Makes it more fun to practice. So what do you think of the picture below?!?

A trip to the Beach

This is a castle you can see on the way from Blairmore to Aberdeen, which is about 45 miles. Peter and I stopped to see it, but it is privately owned. It looked like people still lived there! Can you imagine living in a place like this?
For our second anniversary, Peter and I took three days off, and just did not do much. We played tennis, watched a movie, went on a 9 mile walk, and just basically sat around. As it turned out, we actually had a really nice time, and it was good not to try and DO alot. We had been pretty tired from work and the rest time was fun...But it was hard to grasp that we got married 2 years ago...it feels so much shorter. The more we thought about it, we realized that our time living in Almere felt like ages ago...time is a funny thing.
Anyway, a few days after our short break, we had to pick up a new staff member from the airport, and as it was our day off, we left eary and went to a beach north of Aberdeen. It turned out to be the most beautiful day, blue sky and lots of sun. We found a sheltered spot on the dunes to eat our lunch and we just laid around, played frisbee, and read. It was beautiful. But you will never guess how cold the water was! I never got in past my toes...it was freezing! I was sweating with the sun, and could not even cool off in the water! We are so far north here...
Yeah!! some more beach pictures!