Royal Wedding Dance

http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20395222_20482746,00.html


Click on the link above for some Royal wedding awesomeness. Be sure to watch the video! I couldn't embed it here from YouTube for some reason...


Happy weekend!

Reunited, And It Feels So Good

Last weekend we were reunited with our first English friends, the Rubies and the Dickinsons. This time, we hit up the Lake District! It was the Parkers' and Emily Rubie's first time, and it could not have been a more beautiful day. Baby Emily was such a sport.

The Emilys are a little hidden in the group picture.

Ah. Here they are together. Hi Emilys!

Here's where we started on our walk.

Here's Nathan getting Emily wound up just in time to put her in the baby backpack.

I love how she's hugging Rachael as she's tying her shoe.

A steep climb...

Here we are toward the top of our journey! Nathan loves the "falling off a cliff" pose. Here's another one from our time in Israel a couple of years ago.

We stopped for some lunch on level ground. The sun was glorious!

Here's Sam making some tea. Nothing stops an Englishman from his hot cup of tea on top of a mountain.

A foretaste of heaven right here: sun, food, friends, and gorgeous scenery.

Trying to get Emily to smile with her dad.

Emily, Will, Rachael, Emily

Me and my girls...

Crystal clear water... 

I absolutely loved this adventure. Thanks, friends!

Moral of the story: When the English say "Let's go for a walk," what they really mean is "Let's go for a hike," or more specifically in this case, "Let's go for a scramble up a steep mountain with a baby on my back." Noted.

Whistling Videos

Nathan and I have already started training for next year's CCP talent show. This year's performance was a little... off the cuff. Ok, it was abysmal. Thanks to Janna for passing along the inspirational videos.








Can't get enough? Check out the International Whistlers Convention video page.

Grandma Lavelle Would Be Proud

Ok, so last week on Thursday and Friday I was at a horrible school where kids set things on fire in the classroom among other non-PG-rated things, and when I asked for the said children to be removed, nobody came. My only comfort was comfort food. 

It's official. I made gravy from scratch. Not just any gravy. Grandma Lavelle's gravy. It gets "skin" on it if it sits more than a few seconds.

I had some flour mixture left over from my book club night, so I decided to fry up some more chicken for dinner. It started out okay, but then it started... bleeding! Right there in the pan! I placed an emergency phone call to my dad, who told me it was really normal to have chicken bleeding in the pan. I thought about all the fried chicken I've had and started to throw up in my mouth a little bit.

I told my dad that I  was making mashed potatoes too, and he asked if I was making gravy. I told him I didn't know how, but he said he'd walk me through it on the phone. It wasn't too bad! I didn't have any Crisco, so vegetable oil had to do.

Here's my 5,000 calories.

And here's Nathan's 7,000.

Here's our food... and my dad (on the phone) who helped me make it.

Nathan was not happy that I didn't use ALL of the leftover grease from the bleeding chicken pan to make the gravy, but he liked it anyway. I think if he were really happy, he'd have his mouth wide open. You know what I'm talkin' about.

Y'all come see us, okay? I'll make you Grandma Lavelle's good stuff if you want. Just don't set anything on fire, or else I'll have to stuff my face with 5,000 more calories in one sitting.

Richmond With the Boys

Now that we have Harriet, I think people are starting to use us for rides. To which we respond, "YES, PLEASE!" We were so blessed by the generosity of rides with so many nice folks with cars, and we are eager to pay it forward. So, Darius - the Christmas busker - and Rob invited us for a picnic and walk around Richmond, a historic English town about 45 minutes from Durham by car. 

It was gorgeous weather! You can tell who the English person is by the shorts and flip flops (Rob), not the old man hat (Nathan). Darius is Canadian. He says things like "aboot." And he makes a mean sandwich. He is actually a legendarily good cook. And yes, ladies, he's single. So is Rob. Rob biked 80 miles to the church weekend away stopping once for a giant slice of chocolate cake. He's that crazy... about chocolate cake. 

Sorry, guys. Matchmaking was not the point of this post.

Anywho. It was an epic picnic, complete with salami and ham sandwiches, veggies and hummus, posh crisps (fancy chips), strawberries and Milka chocolate, and peanut M&Ms for good measure.

This is a bad picture (my eyes are closed and Nathan's mouth is open), but oh well. I have tights on under my sweatpants (sweat-trousers?), and I was just warm enough. It was so nice to be outside enjoying the sun and the beautiful flowers and good friends and a bit of light exercise. 

We made the English accent of the group read the plaque about the drummer boy of Richmond who was never seen again after drumming at this very spot in some battle. Nathan was obsessed with this spot, naming some scene in Pilgrim's Progress that it reminded him of.

Then we walked toward some abbey ruins, with St. Agatha's house on the left. Nathan asked it if was St. Agatha Christie. Uh, no.

New lambs were bleating in the fields. It was so cute!

Here's the ol' abbey.

And here's my Asian tourist pose.

And my Uncle Rico pose.

And Rob's mountaineer pose.

And Nathan's Atlas pose.

The English construction mantra: "When the wall is falling outward, just fill in the gaps with more stones. No one will ever notice."

At the end of our walk, we passed by this house that I seriously coveted. It had an Italian villa look, complete with a lovely garden and a view of the river. Sigh...

Readers, have your travels taken you anywhere nice lately? Do tell... It is spring break season, after all.

Book Club Awesomeness

Several weeks ago over Mexican food at the Johnsons', Sarah, Ashley, and I discussed some good books we've read lately. We all decided that we should have a book club (which I have never done), and we picked The Help as our first book to read. I had read it before, but it was just as good the second time around! 

We got together and had a nice Southern meal: fried chicken, cornbread, veggies, deviled eggs, and chocolate pie. Mmm-MMM!

Nathan must have smelled the food from the golf course, because he was home early. Oh wait... It's because his clubs were stolen from the club house.

I'm not sure why our faces are so shiny. It might have had something to do with the grease the chicken was fried in...

I'm glad that Ashley did NOT use Minnie's recipe.

Check out Ashley's review of the book and her pie recipe here.

Charity Shop Therapy

So, I've got work tomorrow and Friday in South Shields at a "rougher school," according to the supply agency. Wish me luck. Prayers would be even better.

In anticipation of the upcoming trepidation, I done gone and got myself an Easter dress for 4.95.

Every once in a while there will be a gem like this at a charity shop.

Front

Back

Bodice detail

Whoop whoop!