Half-Term Break

We have been the worst bloggers lately, but we have had a good excuse.  The girls have been off of school for a week on their half-term break, so we have been too busy to blog.  There is a lot to catch you up on, so I will try to hit the high points of last week.

• On Saturday, we finally took the girls to the Brighton Pier.  The Brighton Pier (actually the Palace Pier) is a really just a giant carnival on a pier.  There are shops, rides, arcades, restaurants, food stalls and even a roller coaster.  The girls had a great time, and we were glad to say we had finally been to the pier.

• Monday, we took the train to London and went to the British Museum.  Sutton was really excited about seeing the Egyptian and Greek exhibits, so that is where she wanted to go.  We spent most of the day there, but we still didn't see nearly all there is to see.  After the museum we walked to Covent Garden and looked around a bit.  It was really crowded because all the kids here are on half-term break at the same time, and the whole city is packed with families and kids.  We ate dinner at a place called Wahaca that our friend Joe suggested to us.  It is the closest thing to good Mexican food that we have had since we moved, so it was quite a treat.

• On Wednesday, we stayed in Brighton and did some local sightseeing.  We went with our friends, the Steells, to see the Royal Pavilion.  The Royal Pavilion is an amazing pleasure palace built by King George IV when he was still the Prince Regent.  The Pavilion is in the middle of town, and it is one of those amazing buildings you walk by all the time but don't know much about.  I am so glad we went - it was really interesting and the kids even liked it.







Keith thinks they lit Big Ben up
in honor of Baylor's big win!


• Thursday, we returned to London to do some sightseeing.  Since the girls had never really seen London, we thought the easiest thing to do to give them an overview of the city would be to take an open-air tour bus around town.  It was super touristy, but it turned out to be a great way to see everything in one day.  We even took a short boat ride on the Thames, and that really covered it all.  By the end of the day, we had traveled by train, bus and boat (not to mention a lot of walking!).

• Friday was a pretty quiet day because we were all really tired.  Sutton had a slumber party Friday night, so we invited a family from church over for dinner.  They have a daughter Sloane's age, so we thought the girls would have fun together without a big sister hanging around.

That about covers our half-term adventures.  Sunday was Halloween, but I will let the girls blog about their first Halloween in the UK.  

Keith's Birthday

I tried to convince Keith that he needed to blog about his own birthday, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen.  I will help him out.  Saturday was Keith's first birthday in England, so he got to be in charge of what we did all day.

Well, I say he got to be in charge, but really the girls convinced him we needed to go to the Grand Opening of Krispy Kreme in Brighton on Saturday morning.  I am not sure that would have been his first pick of where to eat breakfast, but Keith is a team player so we celebrated with a box of a dozen doughnuts.  Thankfully, we walked to town to Krispy Kreme, so at least we felt like we worked off some of our breakfast on our uphill walk home.

After coming off our sugar high, it was time to eat again, so we packed a picnic lunch and headed to Devil's Dyke.  Devil's Dyke is a beautiful spot on the South Downs that is just down the road from where we live.  It really is amazing to be able to drive just a little way out of town and be in the most scenic place. 

It was a beautiful day on Saturday, so we enjoyed our lunch with awesome views overlooking the valley.  After we ate, we walked a little, but the girls weren't up for too much of a hike.  Keith and I will definitely be going back to do a little trail running.  I just hope we haven't missed the last of our good weather.

We couldn't go out to eat a nice meal because Keith wanted to stay home to listen to the Baylor game on the computer.  Of course we can't get Baylor games on TV, but we usually listen to them on the computer if it is a day game.  Isn't technology great?  Too bad the Bears couldn't come through with a win.  That would have been a good birthday present for Keith.

To top our day of eating off, we had pulled pork tostadas and guacamole for dinner.  I also made my Mom's Coca-cola chocolate cake to top off the night.  We all felt a little sick after eating so much all day, but it was all worth it.  It was a great day, and we all had fun spending time together celebrating Keith!

Sloane's big news!

Here I am, Sloane Cameron, telling a bit of my life. I finally got the guts to Blog and here is what I have to say. A lot of things are really cool here, but the thing that I like most is school. I know what you are thinking, school = boring, right. Well think again...these are the some of the things that makes school so...brilliant! The food is pure heaven.. it always comes with a dessert, the teachers are super nice...there are 2 American teachers, and lastly, the classes are so much fun! Enough about that....here comes the big news! At the end of school, before we leave, our teacher always says class announcements - like...Its so and so's Birthday-or-there is a note home I need you to get before leaving...but one day Mrs. King says,"the Class Representative will be elected tomorrow." With that in mind, I went home and I started on my speech. It turned out pretty good, I said stuff about my old school and how I would bring some of that stuff to England. (I already brought those shapeable bands to my school...what more could you ask for?) Well lets cut to the chase..I won! ( We are American people - that is pretty cool you have to admit!)

I will keep "y'all" posted on this and will hope to have another section in the blog.

-Sloane Cameron

Anakin Returns

Our landlord's cat will not go away.  I am not sure if he thinks his family still lives here, or if he doesn't care who lives here and he just wants to come back.  Anakin is the pretty black cat in the picture who belongs to the people we are renting our house from.  Paul, Anakin's owner, just moved a few streets over from us, so Anakin has found his way back "home".  For some reason, he didn't come back until we had been living here for a couple of weeks, but now he has come back everyday.

It is actually kind of sad because Anakin will sit at out garden door or window and just stare at us.  Sometimes he will meow and claw at the cat door or window.  The worst was a couple of days ago when it was cold and rainy outside, and he just looked so sad and pitiful.  We have been e-mailing Paul when Anakin shows up, and he comes to get his cat.  He said that he has been locking his cat door so Anakin can't get out, but somehow he is still showing up over here.  He must be a very clever cat (or very stupid - I am not sure which).

Anakin is not the only cat we have in our garden.  Pretty much all of our neighbors have cats, and they all just walk around everyone's gardens.  Sloane loves all the cats and somehow knows all of their names.  Maybe that is why Anakin keeps coming back; he just wants to hang our with all of his buddies.  I wonder what all these cats are going to think when Lucy gets to come over in December.  She will either scare them all off, or she will just join the cat party out back.

Mexican Fiesta

I have been trying to cook this week now that we have a more fully functioning kitchen, but it is still a challenge trying to navigate the grocery stores.  I mean, I can figure out the grocery stores just fine - it is just a little difficult finding what I need for the recipes we are used to.

Today it has been cold and rainy all day, so of course Mexican food sounds perfect.  Well, let me tell you Mexican food is not that easy when you live in the UK.  We were all so excited when we first discovered that ASDA (a large grocery store that is owned by WalMart) carries a whole section of Old El Paso items.  This Old El Paso is not the same as our Old El Paso.  Who knew that they would change their product even though it looks the same.  It has not taken us long to get smart and discover that things are not always what they seem over here. 

This is US OEP Enchilada Sauce -
notice it is in a can not a bottle.

For instance, we bought the Old El Paso Enchilada sauce today, so that we could make beef enchiladas for dinner.  I should have been wary when the directions on the bottle seemed really different, but I wasn't going to let that stop me.  I have made this so many times, I knew I could wing it.  When I opened the bottle though, it just looked a little different (of course).  I read the ingredients and saw that there was milk in the enchilada sauce!!!  What?  Who puts milk in enchilada sauce?  Oh, wait that is right, the English put milk in everything.  I am not joking about that - there is milk or cream in and on everything over here.  I am the first to admit that the dairy in this country is to die for, but seriously, let's leave it out of the enchilada sauce. 

This wasn't the first time we have run into this problem.  The first week we lived here (when we were living on frozen food), we ate a frozen lasagna, and it was the first lasagna in my life that I just couldn't eat.  It had some sort of cream (not cheese) sauce in it.  I thought it was just a bad cheap lasagna, but that is the way they actually eat it here - I have seen the jars of cream sauce next to the spaghetti sauce.  As an aside, I think it is probably Bechamel sauce, and I am very sorry if that is how you make your lasagna and now you are offended.  I personally do not like it, and I am pretty sure the Italians would agree.  You are really messing up a good tomato sauce.

I will definitely have to make my lasagnas from scratch in the future.  Come to think of it, I am going to have to be making a lot of things from scratch.  If any of my Texas friends know how to actually make enchilada sauce, can you please e-mail me the recipe.  Also, if you have the recipe for Velveeta, can you send that too?  How in the world am I going to make chicken spaghetti and queso without it? 

Speaking of queso, Keith bought this "cheese sauce" that looked just like queso, and we were so excited about eating it with our enchiladas tonight.  When he went to heat it up in the microwave (and actually read the directions), he realized it was to be served cold.  That is because it was made with mayonnaise.  See what I mean?  Hilarious!

Kensington Palace

I, Sutton, went to London on Saturday with a lady from the church. Her name is Elin and she's an actress. She's really awesome and fun. We took a train to London, but the guy that sold us our tickets told us that we should take a different train to London than what we originally planned, but of course he was wrong. It went to Victoria, and that wasn't were we wanted to be. When we got there Elin said it would be ok, we could take the tube. We got to the tube and went in, but the line we wanted was closed for the weekend. We got the next best one and then took a bus to our final destination, Kensington Palace.

We got there and found her friends that we were meeting. We decided to eat before seeing the palace, since it was lunchtime. There was only 2 places to eat in the palace park. A pretty, over priced cafe with a wait, we opted out on that one, or a little sausage hut place. It might not have been a bad option, but Elin's friends were vegetarian, so that didn't really work. We decided that a walk was worth some better food. We found a cute little cafe and got lunch there. It was delightful!

We then went back to the palace to see the exhibit. They gave us a pamphlet with a map and a bit of info for each room. They had a section to write the names of the seven princesses that were mentioned in the exhibit. If you got them all, you got a great prize! A sticker... We then set out into the palace. In one room there was this weird throne called the seat of power. It was made out of pieces of knited sweaters. A lady that worked there made me sit on it and then had my court (my friends) bow. Then I had to make a wish. It was that I could see my dog. She stuck her head into the next room and shouted "The Queen wishes she could see her dog!" It was great. Another room, the Room of Enlightenment, had crazy hats hanging from the ceiling. My favorite room was the Room of Palace Time because it had some statues on the walls of a few of the Greek gods. It was great.

I figured out why you only got a sticker if you got the names of all the princesses. They had the answers in the Gallery of Dancing shadows. They also had a projection of shadows dancing together on the ceiling. It was really cool, especialy when I went and twireled in front of the projector so that my shadow twirled on the ceiling too! Over all I had tons of fun! These are pictures I took of the garden and the path leading to the cafe.

The Crate and A Car

Sorry I haven't posted on the blog much this week.  We have been busy!

One of the most exciting things that happened this week was our crate from the US came on Thursday.  It seriously was like Christmas around here.  I had forgotten what we sent, so it was really exciting opening all the boxes.  The only bad part of getting all of our stuff is trying to figure out where to put everything.  I haven't taken any pictures yet, but we have some really full closets and drawers, and there is lots of things still on the floor.  We still have to buy some more furniture (especially for poor Sloane - she doesn't have any sort of closet in her room).

Now that all of our stuff from home has arrived, we all have blankets and coats.  It is starting to get cold here (especially at night), and we were all happy to be warm again.  Our house is starting to feel a little more like home now that we have familiar things around.  Surprisingly, it did make me a little homesick also - wasn't expecting that.

On Monday Keith and I went car shopping for a used car, and we actually found one.  Unlike the US, you can't just drive off the lot in your new car, so we picked it up today.  Our plan was to by a practical, small, reliable car, and we did it.  We bought a little Toyota Yaris, and it is actually kind of cute.  I thought it would be funny to buy the ugliest car we could find (seriously, most cars over here look exactly the same - small, boxy hatchbacks).  Our Yaris isn't exactly ugly, but it is tiny.  Now I just need to get brave enough to drive it.

Sutton has been sick this week.  She started feeling bad on Sunday, and it just got worse as the week went on.  She missed school on Wednesday and Thursday, but she went back today.  I took her to see the doctor on Thursday, and that was an interesting experience.  So far, I love the NHS - we saw a great doctor quickly, and our visit and prescription were free.  Let's just hope none of us has any serious illnesses.  Our neighbor just had a surgery that she was waiting a year to have, and she had to go to Oxford to have it.

Keith started looking for a job this week, so please keep him in your prayers.  It would be nice to have some pounds coming in, so we don't have to keep converting dollars.  It is really depressing having to nearly double everything because of the exchange rate.

Now that we are a little more settled, I am starting to try to sort out what I am going to be doing at the church.  On Sunday our family stayed after church to help work on prepping an old church hall at GPBC for a face lift.  We are going to be using the space a lot for youth activities, so our youth pastor, Dave Perrins, wants to give it a good cleaning and update.  We spent most of the afternoon sanding and cleaning, so the room could be repaired and painted.  I went back on Wednesday and did a little more sanding and painting.  I was really wondering where my McKinney team was to help me.  It is not the same painting in England without you guys!

I was also able to go with Dave P. on Tuesday to a meeting at one of the secondary schools to discuss a mentoring program they are doing at the school.  Last year was the first year of the mentoring program, and they are going to expand it this year with more students and mentors.  This mentoring program may be the perfect project for me (remember my Big Brothers Big Sisters days?), and Dave wants to talk more about the possibility of me running it.  I am really excited about the possibilities, and I am just praying for God's direction.

This Sunday is a very exciting day.  It will be the first time Gloucester Place Baptist Church and Florence Road Baptist Church meet together as one congregation - One Church Brighton.  It is going to be great, and we can't wait to see what God has in store for all of us!