Bible Study and FriendSpeak Party

Thursday evening we hosted Bible study in our home. Although our numbers were fewer than normal it was an uplifting time. Tristan led the study over John 12-13, specifically focusing on Jesus washing the disciples' feet.

Friday night was spent with the people shown in the picture below. We have three more regular FriendSpeak readers that were not able to come, but we did have a lot of fun with our smaller group. Along with a lot of great snacks, including Tristan's salsa, we played a lot of different card games and the game of Pit.

L to R: Carey, Mitch, Danny, Jie, Isobel and Tristan. (not pictured, the photographer - ME!)


Isobel and Jie playing a fierce game of Speed 2!


In other news... on Thursday we received a letter in the mail stating that our let would be terminated at the end of our 6 month contract. Our landlord wants to sell, so we have to move out. This was really not something we wanted to hear, since we really like this place and wanted to be in it for as long as the rest of our stay in Scotland. We spoke with our landlady today, and she was really nice about letting us get out of our contract early if we find a place and wanted to take it. So, round 3 of the house hunt begins!

We did receive some uplifting news in the mail on the same day. Outreach, a missions organization we were a part of while at Oklahoma Christian University, sent us some encouragement notes. We think that God knew we would need them with the news of our let being cancelled. He was right! Thank you Outreach!

Prom, Preaching and Weeding

This past weekend my sister, Callie, had her prom. She and here date looked really cute together. Tristan and I got to see and talk to them (and others in my family) online before they left. Here is a picture of Callie and my mom. Aren't they beautiful! Hopefully they all have recovered from the after prom festivities! I am so excited to see them (and my dad) here in Scotland in about 3 months!

This past Sunday Tristan once again had the opportunity to preach. He did part 1 of a two part lesson over Moses and the changes that he went through during his life. He did a great job, and we are all looking forward to hearing part 2 in a couple of weeks. Doesn't he look snazzy in his outfit. Such a handsome guy!



In other news, Tristan's been getting to our garden (lawn) care. Here he is weeding the rocks in front of our house. A bit of a tedious job, but it made a real difference in the look of things. He also sprayed all of the cracks in sidewalk and our drive and replanted a hanging pot with flowers. Hopefully they survive, since they were almost dead went we bought them.

Before....


After....


That's about it for now. Tristan is reading with Jie right now, and Jie and I are going to make cookies when they are done! Be looking for a post later this week that should include pictures of our weekly Bible study that is at our house this week and a FriendSpeak game night that we are hosting.

The Recycled Food Diet

Leslie does a great job at keeping the Blog up to date, so I (Tristan) decided I needed to post something and I found my inspiration.
We are on a diet, or eating plan if you like, that makes us eat what I have termed 'recycled food.' We were out buying our Wholewheat Spaghetti and I realized that it is recycled spaghetti.
It reminded me of the school Lined Recycled Paper that came out in the 90's. You know the stuff, this Paper was a few shades darker than regular Lined Paper, and it had spots all over it. I being the environmental conscience person I am got the paper, used it, and got made fun of. People asked, why is your paper so dirty? When the teacher passed back papers, you could see my in the middle of the stack; the one dirty piece of paper in the middle of all those clean ones. That is the dreaded memory that came to mind when I saw the recycled spaghetti.
As if taking away my normal pasta was not enough, we also bought some Skim-Milk, which everyone who likes milk knows it is just recycled milk with water added to it. A while back I changed from 2% to 1% and it was okay; I liked it. But skim milk is just pushin' the limit.
When we do get to eating bread again, I apparently have to go for Whole Grain bread. I must confess that this is not a total loss, as I do like most all kinds of breads. But that is the point, I like all kinds including my White French Bread and such. Just another portion of recycled food.
The truth is this: the wholewheat pasta is not that bad, the whole grain bread (with occasional white bread here and there) will not be that bad either but I just don't think the skim-milk will work out. Hope you are enjoying your diet...we are enjoying ours, truly.

London Part 2

Wednesday found us at St. Paul's Cathedral. Our favorite part was climbing up into the dome and experiencing the "whispering gallery". We stood on opposite sides of the dome and whispered against the walls. We could hear what the other was saying, pretty cool.
Climbing some of the 530 steps to reach the top!


Here we are at the Golden Gallery aka the top, with a view of the city behind us. Unfortunately we chose the only rainy day on our trip to climb up to see the view.

Our next stop was the H.M.S Belfast, a ship used during WWII.


We loved exploring all the different levels and seeing the models of how life was on the ship when it was active.


Tristan pictured in the captain's seat. The long range gun in the background can hit a target 12 miles away!



Then we headed to the Tower Bridge. This bridge is a landmark of London and is featured in several movies (i.e. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). The bridge is able to raise up so that large ships can pass through it. (Interesting Fact: The Tower Bridge was not bombed during WWII, because the German's used it as a landmark to find other prominent buildings.)


Below is a poster showing that a double decker bus once jumped the bridge while it was raising. It's not an actual photo, but the artists interpretation of the event.


Next we took a city cruise to our next destination. It was a fun way to travel.



The Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms showed us how the British operated during WWII.


Picture of me with the mannequin guard.


We also went to the National Gallery, home of some of the finest works of art. We especially liked the Monet paintings.


After a bite to eat, we decided to go bowling. I know what you're thinking. Bowling? You're in London! Why are you bowling? Well, the answer is pretty simple. We bought a London Pass to get into all of the sights that we've been seeing. The pass also gives you discounts on restaurants (Hard Rock and Wagamama) and leisure activities. Also, most of the sights close around 5 or 6, so there's a limited amount of activities that you can take part in. And since we are not pub going kind of people, we thought we take full advantage of our pass. Tristan is pictured below probably getting a strike. He totally dominated the game, giving me a sound thrashing 142 - 77.


Since we didn't make it to the Wellington Arch during open hours, we decided to see it at night.


And since Buckingham Palace wasn't far from the Wellington Arch, we visited it as well. Again, no monarchs waving at us. Sigh.


On the Tube ride back to our hotel at 11:30, there was a train backup and we had to stop and wait for about 15 minutes for the train to start moving again. You can kind of see how full the train is in this picture.


Our last morning was spent looking for a Krispy Kreme and for Platform 9 and 3/4. Obviously we found the Platform (which really isn't on an actual platform but is near to platforms 9 and 10), but never found a Krispy Kreme. We saw one earlier in the week, but couldn't remember where we saw it.

We made a quick stop at the British Library that houses the Gutenburg Bible, Magna Carta, and hundreds of other ancient books and documents (the Beatles collection of lyrics written on scraps of paper was one of our favorite things to see).


Our last major visit on our trip was the British Museum, specifically to see the Terracotta Warrior exhibit. When we got to the exhibit entrance, someone tried to get us to sell our tickets to them, basically telling us to name our price. We kindly rejected the offer and were glad that we did.


Standing next to some big Assyrian statue things.


Tristan, next to a bust of Ramses II, possibly the Pharoah of the Exodus account.


Pointing to the Annal's of Sennacherib. We looked all over the museum for this exhibit only to find that the room was closed. So we stood at the doorway to look at it from afar.


On our way back to the Tube, we saw the world's first Y, so we snapped a picture.


Here's a picture of us, happy about all that we did. Really the only thing that we had planned on doing, but didn't get to because of time, was the London Zoo. So we were very happy of the things that we were able to see and do.


You are probably wondering why the last picture on here is of our feet. It's because our feet have never hurt so much in our entire lives! We've done a lot of walking before, but I don't think we've ever done this amount, combined with just standing to look at every exhibit. By about 3:00 everyday, our feet were absolutely killing us. I guess we need some new shoes!

London Part 1

Hello everyone! We are now back from our fab trip to London. Today I'll post about what we did on Monday and Tuesday, and tomorrow I'll finish up with what we did on Wednesday and Thursday.
Monday started at 3:30 a.m. We left our house by 4:ooish to drive to an airport that is about 1 1/2 hours away. Our flight to an airport outside of London was only about an hour, but then it took about another 1 1/2 hours on a bus to get to London itself. All said and done we arrived at about 11:00. We grabbed a muffin and some juice to refuel and then we were off.
Our first stop was Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament pictured below. Actually, the clock itself is not Big Ben, but the bell inside the tower that rings is the "real" Ben (named after the man who made it).


Then we went to Westminster Abbey. Tristan is pictured at the front door below. You couldn't take pictures inside, so this is the best you get. It's was interesting to learn how many different people are buried inside, many monarchs but also others like Geoffrey Chaucer (author of Canterbury Tales).


Here's a picture of us on a bridge over the River Thames with the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.


Our next stop was the Imperial War Museum. Along with lots of cool army equipment, we liked the exhibit on war posters, the Holocaust floor and the exhibit about British army intelligence.


By 6:30 we figured that we needed to find the hotel that we were going to stay in. We took the Tube (underground) to the stop we thought was closest and started to walk, figuring that the hotel was not too far away. After walking for about 30 minutes, we found a couple of police officers to ask where to go. They pointed us in the right direction, and after about 45 more minutes, we found it. The hotel itself left a lot to be desired, but obviously we survived. Needless to say by that time we were pretty shattered and ready for some food since a muffin and a couple of granola bars was all we had to eat since 4 a.m. So we headed out again on our tired feet, and after a couple more "detours" we made it to the Hard Rock Cafe ready to feed our ravenous selves. Below is a picture of us waiting 40 minutes to be seated.


Below is a picture of Tristan being so hungry that he is going to eat pepper. We finally got to eat around 9:45. The hamburgers we ate were so delicious. I realized as I was eating mine that I hadn't had one since July when we first got here! Pretty crazy huh?

Day 2 started out with a trip to Windsor Castle. It's located a bit outside the city, but a train took us there easily. Apparently Her Majesty the Queen was there while we were, but she must not have realized we were there, because she never waved at us from her window. Below I am pictured with some guards marching with their funny hats, and then us with a guard in the background.


Next we visited the Tower of London. It was a fortress of sorts for the royals, and also served as a prison.



After a yummy dinner at Wagamama, we went to what is one of the highlights of our trip. Wicked! This musical is awesome! If you ever get the chance to go see it please do! We LOVED it!