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.

Easter

It was a great day. The weather was beautiful and it was great to see everyone at church. After church, we relaxed and cooked. Then the Potters came over for Easter dinner! Let's see, we ate and then played on the "jumpoline."

This is how Esther played "crack the egg." I think she done cracked.Dinner was honey-glazed salmon, roasted vegetables, crusty bread, and scalloped potatoes. For "pudding" we had panna cotta with honey, saffron, and figs. We wanted to do a kind of new-testament dinner with loaves and fishes then milk and honey for dessert. A success! I've never made panna cotta before, and I'll do a few things differently next time, but it was yummy.

We loved playing with the kiddoes and talking to Craig and Naomi.

I'm thankful for what allows us to be carefree and happy, and that is the fact that we have a loving Heavenly Father who provided a way for all of us poor dessert-loving, trampoline-bouncing children to come back and tell him all about what a time we had. I'm grateful for our Savior and his perfect example. As I was sitting in church today, I was reminded of how I felt sitting in church as a little girl on Easter: in my pretty Sunday dress, excited to be at church, happy as a clam. Our lives are hard, and so are pews, but that doesn't mean our butts aren't right where they need to be. Yeah, you can quote that.

Guns and Cars: I am a dude...and apparently, so is Sarah.

Bro Post #2 (Heh.)

It has once again become the time for the male portion of this little female-driven utopia in England to make itself heard.

There are many things that I like about England. That being said, I miss America. I like baseball games, real Mountain Dew, stores that are open past six pm, gyms with weights listed in pounds, having a freezer (I know that has nothing to do with location), and I miss guns and cars. I can't do much about most of the things on that list, but earlier this week I found something that I could do, an answer, if you will, filling the hole left by the last two.

And that answer was Fast 5.

Now I know what you're thinking, the first one was good, the second one didn't have Vin Diesel, no one saw the third one, and the fourth one killed off a main character in a crappy way in the first ten minutes of the movie--what have they got left?

More than I was expecting.

Much of this is thanks to the addition of Dwayne Johnson. Vin Diesel is a big man that makes me feel small, and I like to watch him punch people. I loved the idea of having the Rock, a bigger guy that makes Vin Diesel feel small who is better at punching people--and the mixture was like Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, just a little faster.

The second thing I liked: the rest of the cast. Paul Walker was in it, but I don't remember anything he does. Ludacris was in it and he plays, as many rappers do, a convincing geek. There were two hispanic guys who were hilarious.

The third thing: the mother of all toilet bombs. Awesome.

The fourth thing: guns. Many British and American citizens can't understand why I love guns. My educated, thought out response to that inquiry is: I just do. Leave me alone. Guns show character in movies, and they give insight.

Dirty Harry has a Super Blackhawk.

Han Solo has a low-slung holster for his blaster.

The Joker used a ridiculously long revolver.

The T-800 uses a mini-gun, and a grenade launcher, and shotgun, and a .45.

The characters in movies are sometimes mismatched to their guns, and when this happens the movie makes me sad. This movie does an excellent job of pairing weapon to character. Walker gets a little cop gun, Diesel uses a combat shotgun, and the Rock has a pistol, on a low-slung holster, that wouldn't fit in the hand of a smaller man. I like guns.

The most important thing in this movie: the cars.

Living in England is beautiful. But I miss having a car. I like to go to Albertson's at 12:30 to get ice cream and something from the redbox that I will not watch until it is three days past due. I like doing that. I like driving with no particular place to go whilst listening to Chuck Berry's "No Particular Place to Go," because I like the irony. I just love my car (this is not in reference to a specific, or as Tara would say "pacific" car, I just miss all of them). Fast 5 is not going to be an Oscar (little trademark sign) contender, it's not going to be somebody, it's going to be a bum.

And that's ok, because it has guns and pretty cars. The first Fast movie had one real car in it, and the producers must have listened to their audience for once because Fast 5 has mostly real cars. The '70 Charger, GT40, '71 (eat it Dada) Hemi 'Cuda, and the most beautiful Corvette I have ever seen.

Yes, there are boy racers, but these are easily counter-acted by the Rock's Batmobile.

This is why I liked this "not as bad as I was expecting...actually it was really good" movie.

I am an American Bro.

This is what I am.