and the world stops....

due to this....

my classes have been cancelled today.

(this is the first snow i have seen here!  they say the front came all the way from siberia...)

b still had to go to work...booo.

i had forgotten how quiet snow makes the world. 

excuse me while i cuddle up with a blanket and read.

a christmas day miracle!

The last time I was at the Louvre with my family I remembered a certain special painter... and I had the goal for us to find him one more time and get pictures to remember him by.  Digital cameras were not available the last time, so the pictures never turned out from our last adventure. I needed documentation.  However, I had no idea where he was.  I knew he was french, I remembered the layout of the wall that his painting was on, and I could picture the little name plaque under his painting.

Well, after running (yes, literally running, slipping and sliding on the marble floors) through the French galleries of the Louvre 30 minutes before closing, I found him.  And not only him, but a whole room of him.

a wall

then the whole room!

Who is it, you ask?

Here's the nameplate....

Yup.  We're related.

this is going to be our christmas.  we leave the 24th.  we're excited.

a smorgasbord of thankfulness....

1) I am thankful for the wild ponies at New Forest national Park.

2) I am thankful for a husband who likes to ponder at the bath abbey.

3) I am thankful for trips that went wrong and then went even righter.

4) I am thankful for the wonderful baptism of our chinese friend vincent.

5) I am thankful for the christmas decorations that went up this last week.

6) I am thankful for friends to celebrate with.

7) I am thankful for food. really really really good food.

8) I am thankful for leftover pumpkin pies for breakfast.

9) I am thankful for Letizia's baptism and her friendship.

10) Finally-I am thankful for the wonderful life I live. and the best husband ever to live it with.

the end.

run in with the locals

the locals of Newforest National Park

the standoff

the staredown

the demand

appeasement

inspection of our vehicle

and sending us on our way

to the coast...

sometimes, as i am driving down the left side of the road, it hits me.  we live in europe.  

and then i pass by the three 200 year old churches on my way to pick up b from work...and i look at them with awe all over again.  we love it here.  we really do.

and today we leave for wales for a little anniversary trip.  isn't he romantic?  a charmed life we lead.

p.s. english food really is bad.  it's not just a saying.  it's really true.  

for your enjoyment

this was last year for michael's birthday- his gift. check out dustin's reaction...

boys are so easy to please.

birthdays, london, and bowling

1) we went to london

2) we went to an american barbeque restaurant... and it was amazing...thank you Jake. thank you Bodean's. thank you free refills.

3) it rained

4) christmas decorations were up. it was neat.


5) it was jake's birthday.

6) we went bowling on our return.


7) the british museum is the coolest thing ever.


the end.

on a side note...

i have had enough of politics. so i am going to write about something else.

branden and i have made friends. and not just any friends, we have made friends with incredible people who can teach us, inspire us, and provide us the same opportunity to help them. after a few weekends of dinner parties, postgraduate events and discussions, i am overwhelmed by gratitude for this experience and the lifelong friendships i have already made.

there is yvonne from uganda, sara from japan, rodgers from zambia, marzia from italy, carin from france, and joanne from uganda. not to mention our LDS friends tom and laura h.- and james and his wife-the newlyweds.

a few days ago, all this thinking about new friends got me to thinking about all of you...my far-away friends! and then i got an idea. B's and my flat is sparsley decorated. due to our limited packing space we were unable to bring much memorabilia to remind us of home or of each of you.

i would like to propose a picture/postcard exchange. if you, my friends, would like, i would love to send you a postcard, picture of england (or europe), or other memorabilia i can fit into an envelope. in exchange, i would love to have you send me a picture (of you and/or your family), postcard, or other small american memorabilia (must fit in envelope...).

this solves my problem of having pictures to decorate our home and the problem of having no reminders of all of you. and you get an exciting memento from me, on the other side of the big ocean!

this is how i have figured it can work. please comment and leave your email address on this post if you are interested. i will then email you to exchange our addresses.

if you aren't comfortable leaving your email address...i might have it anyway, so just comment and we'll work out how to get your address.

sound good? great! i will leave you with some words...

Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.
-epicurus

much love to all.

this week

significant events of the week----

1) started classes (one per day. 3 hours per class. no friday classes. 3-5 students in each class.)
2) loved classes (could have stayed all day.. would totally go on friday if i had a class to go to.)
3) bought skippy.
4) spent time (and loved every minute) with hilarious husband who wrote previous posts-no, every moment wasn't significant, but it was with my significant other. so it counts.
5) got sick. still sick.
6) saw an entire British men's soccer team standing next to the sidewalk on my way home... in nothing but jock straps. eew.

a good first week, bar a few mishaps, don't you think?

home

Yesterday we went walking into town centre. It was a beautiful day and we ventured into the historical part of town. And when I say historical, I mean into the abbey that was built by an english king in 1121. Anyway, it hit me, that Reading has become our home. We aren't a bunch of tourists (well, we basically are if it was measured by the amount of pictures we take). Reading is now ours. And it felt good.

Here are a few pictures of our town.

the view from our window

the local monument to the soldiers who died in the afghan war....not the one on right now...

parts of the abbey

the gateway into the city (and where the abbot was hung, drawn and quartered by Henry VIII)

blessings

i'm not going to lie- the last couple days have been rough. The combination of jet-lag and the to-do list of an american family moved to britain is deadly to happiness and bliss. banks, money, tuition, food, buses, and just being dead tired..well you get the idea. but britain has its old world charm. and so, rather than bore you with the details of how impossible it is to open a bank account with HSBC in the UK, I will share some lovely sights of our new home.

the local comfort inn-this picture is for branden's mum

the middle of campus- looks like a forest right? well-it is. the campus is HUGE and has a lake on it. with ducks and swans and everything. the campus used to be an earl's estate.

the church on christchurch rd. a short walk from our place and on the way to towncentre (where the bane of our day HSBC is located). it's called christchurch. it's old and beautiful.

it was actually sunny. AMAZING. and there was a pretty sunset behind the church.

On another note- The members have been INCREDIBLE. We have been visited two nights this week by someone in the ward and it seems that they have found us a bed- FOR FREE. I wish there was some way we could let them know how much we appreciate and needed that little pick-me-up last night.

love you all, thank you for the wonderful comments on the last post :) they provided much needed love last night.

xoxo
amanda

P.S. those wonderful members have also loaned us a blow-up mattress. it's like sleep heaven :)