Guess Who???

I spent the evening at the Potter home, and had a lovely time. At one point I remembered I hadn't taken a picture yet for my picture a day blog. (Which you can go to here... if you like. So I turn to Esther and ask her to make a face. This turned into a game of imitations. So lets see if you can guess who Esther is?

Here is your first picture. Now who is Esther trying to be?



If you guessed... ME then you are correct.



Now on to the next face... Now who do you think this could be?



If you guessed.... Annie... then you are correct!



I liked that Esther even made her chin a bit more prominent to be more like Annie. This little girl is good.

Now on to the next guess... who on earth could this be?



Why Kathleen of course!



(Well really it is Kathleen being Robert DeNiro. So really it is Esther being Kathleen being Robert DeNiro.)

So that leaves one last Pilgrim left. Here is Esther being...



Jesse... and man I think she has a gift for this.



Jesse is the best at the grumpy face, and at scaring the children. I think Esther captured that well.

And as I was searching for pictures I came across another similar picture that I thought of sharing.

This first picture is of Esther and Heather just messing about. But then look at how close it is to the next picture.



It seems quite similar to Annie and Kathleen messing about in front of the camera.



Just a bit of silliness really. And a great way to smile through the evening.

No+No+No=Yes

Last Saturday was supposed to be our day of celebration; all of us had turned in our term papers, and were done... for awhile. (Except for Annie, who had a weeks extension on her paper.)

We decided to go into London. MacBeth was being done in Middlesex Prison, and student tickets were still available, so we decided to make a day of it. We would go in earlier in the day, stop by the globe to try and see Hamlet, and then head over to see MacBeth. Well that all seemed like a great plan, and would have been, had it worked out that way.



The train ride was fairly normal for going to London. The high speed train was busy, but a short ride. Kathleen caught a picture of Jesse and Annie, that made them look like a 'Kindle' ad. The weather also seemed to shine upon us on this day of celebration. All seemed well until we got to the Globe. Hamlet was completely sold out, so we were going to need to plan what to do with the 5 hours we now had free until our evening show.



The walk from the Globe to St. Paul's Cathedral was lovely. We got some great shots of the view, and a few amusements on the way. Our favorite was the little spiny things before you cross the street. Jesse and Kathleen made a lovely cute scene for the tourists walking by. (I refuse to group myself with the tourists.)



Once in the gardens at St Paul's we received the phone call. The actor portraying MacBeth had severely injured himself during the performance the night before. He had hit is head on a low archway and then fell back and smacked his head and back on the stone floor, and now our show was cancelled. This came as a bit of a shock to us. We had prepared ourselves to possibly not catch anything at the Globe, but then to not see the show we paid for... that was disappointing.



We regrouped at the cafe 'Paul' right next to St. Paul's and tried to figure out what to do for the day. We ate our Krispy Kreme donuts, and decided to go to the largest mall in London. Jesse ended up getting free toothpaste; Kathleen bought a really cute swimsuit, and Annie bought a cute blue lightweight coat.



We then tried to call around to see if we could get inexpensive tickets for either Phantom of the Opera or... another show that seems to have escaped my brain. Sadly none of these shows had cheap seats left, or really any seats for that matter. So we ate at a yummy burger place, and had milk shakes, burgers, and fries. YUM!

And while eating I was blessed to see Jesse, Kathleen, and Annie practice their Robert DeNiro impressions for me.

So even though our day didn't go as planned AT ALL, it was still a great day out with some of my most dearest friends, and another silly adventure we can share.

And here are some puppies

We have a garden now!

And here are some puppies.

Fingers and Cake

Once upon a time, Kathleen was doing the washing up and got an owie. Not a life-threatening sort of owie, but a lots-of-blood-from-a-broken-glass-pitcher sort of owie. She wondered where the rest of her finger was. Two of Kathleen's friends, Jesse and Sarah, were home at the time. One of these people has EMT training, and one goes kaplop at the sight of a lots-of-blood-from-a-broken-glass-pitcher sort of owie.



Kathleen crept past the bathroom where Jesse was bathrooming and hollered up to Sarah in her calmest, most nonbleeding voice,




"Sarah. Come here please. I need you."




Sarah came down and inspected the wound. Sarah wondered where the rest of the finger was. She wrapped Kathleen's hand in wet paper towels in an adeptly trained way, called Jamie Who Has A Car, and began stuffing leftover pasta shells in Kathleen's mouth. Jesse came out of the bathroom and was told to go to his room. However, some quick thinking prompted Jesse to come back out with Kathleen's trousers, as she was in her jimjams. As Sarah threw some juice in Kathleen's mouth and Kathleen held her hand over the sink, Jesse (with practiced skill) pantsed Kathleen and repantsed her.




Sarah cleaned up the glass and told Jesse the piece of finger on the glass was food.




Jamie Who Has A Car came with his car on his wedding anniversary which he was spending feeding the missionaries but it's ok because they were saving the good pudding for later when they were alone and took Kathleen and Sarah to urgent care.




"Was this your first time doing the washing up?" asked the triage nurse. The triage nurse was Filipino and Kathleen had trouble deciding if he was a sarcastic man based on his Asian vocal cadences.




He gave Kathleen a Vietnam bandage and told her not to do the dishes for a long time.




Then, a very sweet and smoky nurse with lots of blue eyeliner under her eyes scolded Kathleen for taking all the skin off, as there was nothing left to stitch. Kathleen was secretly very relieved to not be getting stitches. The nurse gave Kathleen spare dressings which looked like condoms, told her they looked like condoms, and showed her how to apply them, using the word condom once more.




Jamie W.H.A. Car came back and picked up the girls and brought them home nicely. They found upon arrival that Jesse, feeling useless, was biking to the next village to buy supplies for chocolate cake. He came home and made a beautiful chocolate cake with ganache and raspberries and cream cheese/whipped cream frosting.















And Kathleen didn't have to do the dishes, because she's not very good at it.

*Jesse wants it noted that in life threatening situations like "flaming babies" he's very calm.

New Kids on the Block

Since moving to England we have made some wonderful friends, and I wanted to take this moment in blog-dom and write about some of my favorite people. They are small, they are energetic, and they are AWESOME!

We'll start with the Griggs Trio:

Samuel

He is the youngest and the most like a nugget. At the moment he loves cars, and dumping things on his head; in the past few week it has been crisps, magnetic letters, stackable blocks, and toy cars. He is also a pro at the army crawl. His only weakness seems to be fast getaways. But don't worry, he'll have that sorted soon enough.



Emiley

Next is my girl Emiley. She is quite the mastermind, and has the skill and steady hand of a surgeon. She's a champ at pick up sticks. She's also fearless when it comes to feeding horses. Bugsy thinks she is the bees knees. She is an expert draw-er, and made a wonderful portrait of yours truly. Her only kryptonite seems to be intense jumps on the trampoline. (A girl after my own heart.)



Abygail

The oldest is Abygail, and for the most part she is fearless. She is inquisitive and intelligent. She is a master in the art of hide and seek. She is also a pro at the trampoline, and loves the intense and big jumps. She can be quite patient when getting her hair curled, and the only kryptonite I've found is a fear of feeding Bugsy the horse.



Next up is the Littlewood duo. They may seem cute and cuddly, but don't be fooled!


James

James is the youngest. He has a love of all things food, and in a close second would be cars. (Anything with wheels, really.) He is a quick one, so keep an eye on him. Also he likes to surprise attack with kisses. He loves to bird watch, and is adventurous with his newly discovered legs. A word of caution: James does not have the best depth perception as of yet, and quickly needs to learn to 'mind yer head.' (Although he may just be taking after his look alike... Jack Bauer.)



Elanor

The older of the two is Lady Elanor, or Nena as she likes to be called. Elanor loves to play bed (where you jump in a bed and pretend to be asleep) and she also loves to play hide and seek. A clue in finding her is just to follow the giggles. Nena also loves animals, and loves to spot them wherever she can. Elanor is quite adept and keeping adults in line, her new favorite past time is playing in her sticker book with Lady Kathleen, or Lady Annie. Her only weakness seems to be her little brother James, he seems to be able to keep her from her plans of world domination. It's the looks I tell you, she is too adorable, and far too intelligent for one who is only two and a half.



And finally the dearly beloved Potter clan.

Esther

This little girl is amazing, and reminds me of a younger, much more brilliant me. She is an avid collector of sea shells, who tells it like she sees it. One of my favorite comments of hers is when she walked up to Jesse and said "You're nasty today." I thought she had a point, he did seem to be in a mood that day. Esther also likes to experiment with her food; you can usually see her mixing up some of the most intriguing combinations that one wouldn't normally think to put together. She is a daredevil; especially on the jump-o-line. Her biggest weakness is dairy, and her skin. And sister friend I feel ya on those fronts!



Heather

And then we have Heather. She is the ringleader of this giant posse. She has a no nonsense dictatorship, and a clear eye on legalities. I'm still not quite sure what I did wrong, but on my last visit to her home I was quickly escorted to jail, and was then subjected to minutes of High School Musical 3 tunes. I will definitely think twice before I misbehave again. I don't want to subjected to that again. Heather is also a wiz at hide and seek, or as she calls it "hide and peak." I now think I know how she found me so quickly. Her only kryponite seems to be food... she is quite the picky eater.



Children are wonderful, and I have been truly blessed to befriend some of the best!

That will be all for now!

Much love from Lady Sarah McJagson (Butter-lite) (You'll have to ask Naomi about that last bit, I forgot when that on happened, or check the blog post here )

Being Successful. *Beware--Motivational Material*

We MADE it!!! We have handed in our outrageously long essays and poetry! Woot woot! We are all now making fists and pulling them down in front of our bodies...with great hair. In case you don't know what success looks like, here it is.

The Temple

On Saturday, a few of us from our ward (congregation) spent the day at the temple. The day was a delight.



If you'd like to learn more about what we do in temples, why we build them, or see pictures of the inside, click here.




Jesse and I spent some time in the temple then headed to the cafeteria for some much-needed vittles. We met Sarah, who rode with the Potters, after we went to the visitors center. We all joined a few of our favorite families for a picnic on the grounds. It was so nice to visit and play with the kids. The little girls couldn't get enough of being chased by Jesse.



The temple is a quiet, peaceful place, and being inside is a wonderful feeling. But that peaceful feeling extends so much further than the walls or the grounds. After I go to the temple, I feel like I've just renewed my marriage vows, pointed myself in the right direction once more, become closer to my family, and received guidance in every-day matters. My heart feels lighter, and there's a "quickening of my spirit." I feel gratitude and humility.


A really good day. Just what we needed as we head into crunch time with our papers and start on our theses.


This is a picture I took of a picture in the visitors' center (hence the glare). This is the London Temple Celestial room, which is where many people sit and ponder and pray.






We love the Griggs family. We're trying to convince them to move home with us. We're all suckers for little Samuel.

Glowy Naomi.
The guys got to catch up.