Life As We Know It
A bulleted list of things that have been going on the past couple of weeks:
- Emily is finally a legal driver both in the States and here in England. It's a simple process, just sit in a class and take a written test, but it's only offered one morning a week and it didn't work with Emily's school schedule until now. She's officially licensed to drive here and it's nice not to have to do the morning seminary run anymore. It will also come in handy this spring when she and Abigail are playing soccer. No more mom taxi!
- Now that we have three drivers we have three cars as well. One of Jared's co-workers was moving and had a car to sell. Besides being a Toyota 4 Runner, aka Jared's dream car, it was a great deal at only $300! Granted, it's a 20-year-old car but it's in good shape with the exception of rusty bumpers, missing trim on the passenger side, fading paint on the hood, a leaky sun roof that won't open, and a driver's seat that has seen better days. Okay, so maybe it's not in the best shape, but the miles are low and the engine runs like a champ. No wonder I came home one afternoon to a business card under the wiper that said "We buy cars! Any condition!"
- Would you believe that in the last two weeks we've been to see three movies? It started when Emily and I tagged along with Jared for her twice monthly haircut at the Turkish barber shop. After the two-hour wait last time, we knew we'd need to find some way to fill our time. What better way that catching a matinee of Sing? It was a super cute movie with great music! That night there was a multi-stake dance but there was also a showing of the Lego Batman movie at the base theater. We had a decision to make and we decided on Lego Batman. I think it was a good choice, as it was definitely a fun movie but I did like the original Lego movie better. You can't beat Everything is Awesome and Emmett the special. This weekend Jared and I went to see Hidden Figures, a movie I've wanted to see for a while. I finally found a showing that worked for our life so we had a movie date this weekend! Historical fiction and biographies are one of my favorite types of books to read so I was pretty sure I'd like it. Besides being inspiring and basically a great story (yes, I cried more than once), the costumes were amazing. I want pretty much every single dress in the entire movie. Oh, and we had an at-home Bond movie (the Daniel Craig ones) marathon as well. We're definitely a movie-loving family!
- Madison turned 19 and for the first time ever we weren't together to celebrate her birthday! Actually, not the first time ever. She was out of town at a leadership conference for one of her birthdays in middle school. My sister Becca and her husband live in the same where Madison is going to school and they had her over for a birthday celebration complete with cake and a birthday banner, just like we usually have at home. Knowing that Madison has people close by who love and care about her makes it easier for us to be so far away.
- I'm still figuring out our little British oven. It's much more narrow than your typical American oven. It's also divided into a top and bottom oven; it's kind of a 60-40 split. The bottom section is larger but is a convection oven so we don't use it much because the fan makes it run hotter and brown food. Great for roasts, etc. but not so great for baking. The top oven gets lots of use because I bake more often than anything else! This weekend I made bread and found that the top oven is not tall enough to accommodate a nice fluffy loaf a bread. About halfway through the baking time, we wondered what the burning smell was and upon investigation we found that the bread has risen all the way to the top of the oven and was pressing against the heating element. Baking fail.
- On Thursday Samantha was asked to give a talk in Sacrament meeting. That's three days notice for her first talk. She was nervous beyond belief. She cried every time she talked about it. She cried when she sat down to prepare her talk on Saturday. She didn't cry when she gave the talk but she did cry afterward. Even she's not sure if it was from relief or from an outpouring of the Spirit. Without qualification, she did a great job. I taught her how to start with an outline and fill in the blanks, Jared did some proofreading, but it really was a mostly independent effort on her part.
- Today we went to Cambridge to get Abigail and Emily the things they'll need for soccer. Cleats, socks, shin guards, goalie gloves, mouth guards, shorts. It seemed like we were never going to be finished at the sports store. I just hope they make the team. Since we'd made the drive we spent some time there after the soccer stuff was done wandering a little further than we have before. Our friends told us about a bookstore that has a game section so we set out in search of it. Besides a pretty healthy game section, they had a great kids section too. We came home with the 2015 Spiel des Jahres, Colt Express, and the Harry Potter hardcover box set. I'm almost afraid to read the books they're so pretty, especially compared to our old beat up copies.
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