Pictures...finally!

I walked into the kitchen yesterday to find William up to no good. He raided the pantry and that white substance covering the floor, and the child, is flour.

Edward wandered into my room a couple mornings ago to see what I was up to. While he sat on my lap with my ridiculously large studio headphones on (thanks Dad, they sound wicked), listening to music and going through pictures with me, he proceeded to cause strange rumbling sensations on my leg and the subsequent odor was a little too much to bear after about 5 or so minutes of it. You laugh, but you didn’t experience it…trust me…lethal. I checked my leg after I set him down to see if he’d left anything behind. He was clothed at the time, but the kid just loves to be naked; any chance he gets. And if you don’t notice right away, he’s sure to announce it to you. That doesn’t happen very often though, it’s hard to miss; imagine a hyperactive naked 4 year old who’s still (I say still, but we all know you guys never grow out of it) enamored and infatuated with his extremities…never a dull moment.

I finally got outside to read and write in my journal (you don’t think I’m going to post everything that’s going on in this crazy little head of mine, do you?). I found myself a blanket and a sparse little tree that provided just the right combination of sun and shadow. Although we can hear the motorway from where we are, I can easily convince myself that the sound comes from a large flowing body of water rather than a large flowing body of cars. It was heaven; the weather’s been beautiful these last few days. I’ve finally started spending time with my Bible too, something I really wanted to make a point of doing while I’m here. I’m starting slow; a few verses at a time. I’ll try to let you know what God chooses to show me and feel free to keep me accountable because I don’t want a day to go by in the next two months that I don’t dedicate some time towards it. I also enjoyed a couple hours of gardening a few days ago. Catherine bought some flowers at a plant sale at Edwards play group that I offered to plant in the two large stone encased borders in front of the house. My back is sore, but the flowers are beautifully organized, which makes me very happy.

Did you know that the UK has their own "Big Brother"? Jonathan and Catherine watch it, so I’ve sat down with them a few times out of sheer morbid curiosity; like watching a train wreck. It’s on seven days a week, there a channel that feeds live footage from the house and you can watch 24/7 live footage on the internet; people are seriously obsessed with this show.

I’ve been successful at contacting another au pair in the general vicinity. Well, that’s kind of a stretch; she’s a 2 hour train ride from London in the opposite direction. She’s a 19 year old girl from Finland; she can actually speak 4 languages and, fortunately, English is one of them. We’re planning on meeting in London in about 2 weeks; the weekend after I get back from Wales. She takes the bus which takes about 3 hours so instead of her spending 6 hours traveling in one day, I suggested we make a weekend of it and stay in a hostel. I’m still waiting to hear from her on that. The weekend after that, I’ll be going to London with my family too, as Catherine’s brother is in town and they’re taking him sight-seeing; how convenient. I’m also going to be meeting another au pair this week; she’s a 21 year old girl from South Africa who’s been working for a friend of Catherine’s for almost 7 months now. She has her own car, so the benefits might be more then just her possible friendship.

You may have noticed I’ve added some random pictures to the posts. Well, that’s simply because I’m very limited on space when it comes to hosting the photo’s online, so I thought I’d share a few random, and not so random, photo’s this way. And now, finally, for your viewing pleasure, just click to see the house, the horses, and three of the kids. I was waiting until I had a good picture of all the kids, but they’re never still and Henry’s idea of smiling is puckering his face like a 90 year old woman. I’ll add Henry when I get one. There’s so much more of the house that I’d love to show you, but I guess I’ll just have to wait until September.