Home

Today was a really good day. It started out with me convincing James to go for a walk. Which is a miracle in and of itself. He would only walk to the park and back, but I'll take anything I can get. I took my camera with me on our walk because I was intending to take a photo of this crabapple tree. Unfortunately, all of the crabapples shriveled up so it was a sad sight. Instead, I took a picture of this flowering cactus! I thought it was really weird, I didn't know cactuses flowered. But there it was- flowering.

This afternoon, I met a friend in Kissimmee. It was pretty much exactly halfway between where we both live. We met at a Starbucks I had picked out from Google Maps and it ended up being the absolute perfect place for our meeting. It was huge and had outdoor couches. So, Jessica and I sat outside on the comfy couches, the breeze whipping around our long hair, and got to know each other just a little bit better. It was lovely.

I thought I would have a little trouble driving on the highway because it sometimes makes me nervous. However, to my great surprise, it felt very freeing to just be in the car by myself and driving with the music blasting. My playlist there and back consisted of Between the Trees, Justin Timberlake, Phil Wickham, and Weezer.

I love listening to Phil Wickham. For some reason, he just seems so different than any other Christian artist I've ever listened to. He's so real and genuine. He's so talented and his voice is young, beautiful, and powerful. On the way to Kissemmee, I was listening to his song "Home" and the lyrics hit me so hard:

Come riding on a rushing wind

Blow through our hair and touch our skin

I want to feel You now like I felt You then

Strip away my calloused heart

Set Your arrow hit Your mark

Bring me back to where love starts

Bring me back to where You are

Father I'm running Father I'm coming home

I cannot go on

Your child is running, Father I'm coming home

Back where I belong

I know You've heard this all before

When I'm down and crying on the floor

Saying I want You and nothing more

But I'm breaking in my heart tonight

I've tried to stand I've tried to fight

But I cannot see without Your light

No I cannot breathe without You

When I saw you I was ashamed

You were pure and I was stained

But You ran to me and You called my name

There were tears of joy upon Your face

Tilly and Oliver

Just so you know what's going on here, in the first photo: Tilly is attacking Oliver's legs. She does that often.

Weekend Buzz

This weekend is going to be pretty packed. Firstly, we can't deny the fact that the TV is flooded with talk and coverage of the Royal Wedding. I will have BBC America on all day, unfortunately on mute because I'm watching both of my nephews today.

I love this picture of Kate and William. They look so young and happy. And that ring. It's just so brilliantly beautiful. I'm not obsessed with them by any means but, as my friend and I recently discussed, the media has basically been shoving it down our throats for the past week that we've just given up and said "Fine, already! We'll watch the dang wedding." However, because I don't have cable I utilized my sister's DVR and set to record the Royal Wedding on BBC America from 3-6am. I got to my sister's this morning and after putting the 6-month old down for a nap, my two-and-a-half year old nephew and I snuggled up on the couch to watch the Wedding. After a few interviews I got bored and started fast forwarding through the program all the while promising my nephew that he would see a princess. I fast forwarded through all of the guests filing into Westminster Abbey, stopping on fun bits like the Queen coming in and the band procession. Then, it finally got to the part where the Middleton's were driving in the black car and the little flower girls stepped out of the car. Then we saw William get out and I announced to my nephew that that was the Prince! He didn't seem too impressed. I don't really blame him. THEN we finally saw the car with the Princess in the white veil. All I could see was a long white veil draped over her head. I began to get butterflies and then the recording stopped. WHAT!? I was so mad. All this time of fast forwarding through boring cars driving from the Palace to the Abbey and I don't even get to see the Wedding?!

So here I am, three hours later waiting to see the second round of the recorded Wedding on BBC America. This time with commercials. So lame. Arg.

So back to my busy weekend. Secondly, I am going out with a friend tonight for Thai food which is always a major enjoyment. Thirdly, and most excitingly, I am meeting up with James's boss and my friend, Jessica, for coffee on Saturday! She lives on the other coast and any time I go over with James to see the TWLOHA team it is always very busy. I never get time to really talk to anyone. So, she and I decided to meet each other half way to visit without distractions. I'm pretty excited about that!

So here's to an exciting weekend. Cheers!

Beatles and Goodbyes.

My little brother, Gregory, came into town for Easter. I got to see him Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and tonight and yet I find myself feeling like I hardly got to spend time with him. It's funny growing up. Quality time seems to be few and far between.

James and I also got Nowhere Boy from Netflix and watched it tonight. It was really good and the boy who played John Lennon was so handsome. Way more handsome than John Lennon actually was. I'm not sure how accurate it was but it was still entertaining and surprising. James and I knew the actor who played John Lennon looked familiar and sure enough, he was in a movie we had recently seen in which he played an American kid who wanted to be a superhero. Thankfully, he is actually British.

Here is Aaron Johnson playing John Lennon in Nowhere Boy.

Here he is in Kick A.

Interstate and Interns

On Tuesday, James and I headed to the other coast to be with the TWLOHA team. The time I spend with them is always awesome but it never seems to be quite enough.

UK and Brothers

When James and I got back from England our friends, Lauren and Cody, had us over for dinner. Lauren made banoffee pie for dessert, which I had never had before. It looked very intimidating and I wasn't too keen on the whole banana thing. But, after the first few bites I was in love. Not only that, but I was craving it so much. So, I had to find an excuse to make it myself and sure enough an excuse came along. My brother came into town for Easter and I thought it was a perfect opportunity to have a little UK night (he's obsessed with England just as much as me) to bring England to him. So, I made shepherd's pie, chips with malt vinegar, pizza with brie, and banoffee pie for dessert. It was so delicious.

A few weekends ago...

About three weeks ago, I was talking to a friend about my backyard. We began to discuss how I could create a better yard that I wasn't so embarrassed of and she suggested setting aside an entire weekend to do yard work. It's not that my husband and I don't do yard work, it's just that the task seemed so overwhelming we didn't even know where to begin. But after my friend offered to come over to help one weekend, I couldn't pass up the chance to get things in order. Here are some before and after pictures. It's still a major work in progress but I hope you can see some different. We ended the weekend with 20 bags, 8 uprooted flowering trees, a rusty fan, and a wicker chair all kicked to the curb (which, thankfully, our garbage men took!).

Though it is a work in progress, I am pretty proud of what we've accomplished so far. It feels so much better to look out my back window now. Hard work really does pay off!