Christmas Eve!

Well, it's been a crazy few weeks but we've made it to the end. First we had a quick four day vacation, then my mom came to visit (which was fantastic!), then we got to host Chris and Anna. We've had about 4 Christmas parties and are still expecting a nice big meal with church on the day after Christmas.
Today we're going to a "Christingle" service at the local methodist church. I've never been to one so I'm pretty excited and it makes for something nice to do on Christmas Eve. Later tonight we've been invited to go for a curry with one of the families from church. I can already taste it... Tomorrow we will probably all have a nice lie in and head for the O'Donovan's house in the afternoon for some games and Pizza. Oh! and I can't forget some skype dates with our family in the states. All in all Jed and I are really excited to spend this Christmas in Morley.

Thanksgiving in Morley

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year on Saturday because in the UK school and work continue through the week. I got to cook a turkey for the first time this year and needless to say I was a little nervous knowing that we had company coming. Like any good girl my age I headed straight for Google and Youtube to learn the art of turkey cooking. After much debate I decided to make a "spatchcocked" turkey. This is done by removing the backbone of your turkey so that you can cook it flat on a roasting tray and it worked fantastically!!!! I don't know why more people don't do it that way but I highly recommend trying it. I was able to cook my entire turkey in under an hour! Of course you don't get to carve a full bird at the table, but since we always slice it in the kitchen anyway I don't really see that as a problem. My husband said it was the juiciest turkey he'd ever had. :) If you're interested in trying it I'll try to post a link showing you how to cut the bird. Then I tucked some rosemary under the skin and rubbed it with butter and salt before baking.

I was also able to make pumpkin pie thanks to one of the American families at church finding me some "Libbys" pie filling. They brought us a large can that was supposed to make 2 deep dish pies but because I don't have deep dish pie pans it made two regular sized pies and three little ones. The little one's were great to give as gifts to people who couldn't make it to our meal. We gave one to our neighbors who are originally from Iraq and they said it was "strange at first, but very nice and very addicting". I couldn't have put it better myself.
Jed's Grandmother gave me a great recipe for pie crustthat made all of those pies a little easier to make. It's made with oil instead of shortening so you can actually mix it in the pie pan and then just press it out with your fingers. No rolling involved at all! It turned out really flakey so it's worth try if you're planning on baking anytime soon. I'll copy the recipe at the bottom of this blog.
I feel like this picture can not be left out. In a brief moment of brilliance Jed and I decided to borrow one of the kids tables from church so that we could cover it with brown packing paper for our littler guests to enjoy coloring on before and after the meal. Here's what we ended up with:



Double Pie Crust Recipe

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup oil

6 tablespoons water, cold

1. Mix flour, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly with fork until sugar and salt are blended with flour.

2. In a separate small bowl, mix oil and water and beat with a fork or whisk until the oil is mixed completely with the water and the combination looks 'milky'.

3. Immediately add the oil/water mixture to the flour mixture and mix vigorously with a fork and your hands until the dough is uniform.

4. Divide the dough into two equal lumps, press one of the two lumps of dough out over the surface of a pie pan by applying hand pressure until the pie pan is completely covered. With a fork, punch tiny holes through the bottom surface of the dough in the pie pan.

Single pie crust for cream pies: with a fork punch tiny holes through the bottom surface of the dough in the pie pan. This may be used immediately or refrigerated for 25 hours. Bake crust in a preheated oven at 450 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until the desired color of browness is achieved.

5. Press out the other lump of pie dough onto an 11 x 11 inch piece of paper towel (trust me it works) until it is slightly larger than the surface of the pie it is to cover.

Just got back from vacation and I'm promising to write about it so I don't forget!

20 down 14 to go

Since about August I have been furiously knitting and crocheting Christmas presents for my family and friends. My husband doesn't really understand the drive to create something for every person we know. I'm not sure if all men are like that but the desire to be able to hand someone a physical gift (or in my case, ship it to them) is so great that I just can't imagine not doing it. Don't get me wrong, I know that I cannot possibly hand make gifts for everyone. Still as my list of projects dwindles somehow I doubt it will ever be finished. That's mostly because as I see myself making progress I get more and more excited that I just might have time to add a few more names.
Luckily most of my crafty craze can be taken care of quite frugally. I've now found all of the random bargain stores that carry yarn and try to avoid the nice yarn stores at all cost lest I long for things like silk and cashmere to knit with. Making small gifts like hats, mittens, gloves, and scarves is so incredibly satisfying. Unlike most things in our lives crafts can be easily controlled, they can be met on our terms, and when all else fails they can be unraveled and begun again. I think this desire to create must be an inherited trait.
My dad was a minister until after I left for college but in most of his spare time (when he had it) I can remember him creating something. He built the first house I remember living in. Then it was an old Thunderbird that he repainted in the back yard. Later it was things like adding paving, and a deck, and a gazebo to our back yard. The list goes on. I remember him commenting once that it was nice to be able to see what he had done at the end of the day. So many of us have jobs that don't give us that intense sense of accomplishment. I'm not saying that what we do doesn't have an impact, it's just not something we can hold in our hand. The other lesson that I learned from watching him was one that took me a while to realize. I never saw my father look at a project and say, no, I don't think I can do that. Sure sometimes he didn't have the right tools or the money but in those cases the project was simply put on a list of "to-do's". But time after time I watched him go to library and get a book or ask someone who had done a similar project how to get started. I'm not saying we never ran into hiccups along the way but there was no fear of trying something new.
I didn't realize that fearlessness was such a gift until I began to knit and one of my friends mentioned how "remarkable" it was that I could make so many things. When she said it, I sort of laughed it off because I am in no way an experienced knitter, but after I thought about it for a while I realized that from the moment I decided I wanted to learn I never considered the thought that I might not be able to. I checked out a book at the library, borrowed needles from a lady at church and got started. Now here I am almost a year and a half later churning out hats, and slippers, and the list goes on.

Christmas is coming!!!!

On October Jed and I were on our way to do some shopping when we realized to our horror that Christmas lights had already appeared on Morley's main street. Of course they won't be turned on until late November but these are giant christmas bells and things suspended between the buildings, they're not easy to miss. In being completely truthful I was elated to see them going up because for me it could be Christmas all year and I wouldn't complain. Still, for many people it's very frustrating to see the decorations going up so early. Something I have learned this year about the UK is that they really don't decorate for any other season that Christmas. Of course the stores take full advantage of things like halloween but to anyone over thirty halloween might as well not exist so there really is no transition from summer to Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I've already started all my Christmas crafts and can't wait decorate gingerbread houses but in his wisdom Jed has set a ban on Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. It's only fair I guess ;).
That brings me to Thanksgiving, and yes, we will be celebrating here in Morley. We've already invited an American couple and their two little girls to join us for our feast. I feel a little guilty in making it an all American event. The fact of the matter is still that, even though I would love to have a true thanksgiving feast with about twenty people in attendance, if we started inviting friends from Morley it would be really hard to find where to stop. It seems a shame that we can't share such a wonderful holiday with our English friends but the cost would make it impossible. Still we are looking forward to a little slice of Americana.
I am now about one third of the way through my Christmas gift knitting. I've made quite a few scarves and a few pairs of mittens. My goal is to finish the things that need to go to the states by Thanksgiving so they can have plenty of time to get there. I just hope that will leave me enough time to get things for our friends here finished. When I get them all finished I'll take one big picture before I give them away just so I'll have a record. I've forgotten to do that in the past and I'm sure there are more of my creations floating around out there that I have long since forgotten about. I would post pictures of things in progress but then that would spoil the surprises so pictures will have to wait.

First day at school

For the past year Jed and I have been working toward volunteering in a local school whose headmistress happens to go to our church. Before we arrived here in Morley Chris and Anna, the last HIM workers here had great success meeting youth through volunteering at school. Unfortunately it took a while to get all of our criminal record checks through and by the time we were ready to start going we had to leave the country to wait for our visa to be finalized. When we got back in March it was too late in the year to begin volunteering in a class so we've been anxiously waiting to get started with the new semester.

We went Wednesday afternoon for the first time and it went pretty well. The teacher I will be helping was out so I got to help in third and fourth year Spanish class. It's always interesting to be a new environment, especially when kids are involved. No matter how unobtrusive I try to be one word out of my mouth and instantly it's... "are you American?". My favorite part of the class was when one of the students asked the teacher if she could teach them American instead of Spanish. It was a great feeling being back in school and I had the funny feeling that through all my observation and practicum I've come out being very comfortable sitting in on someone else's class. Next week I will be start going regularly on Tuesday afternoons while Jed will help chaperon swimming on Wednesday afternoon. We're both looking forward to it and can't wait to get started.

Days 2, and 3 the second installment of the London Trip.

The second day in London Sarah and I decided to try to pack as much sightseeing in as possible so that we could leave the last day open to see the Tower of London.

The British museum opens at 9am so there we were waiting for the doors to open and we asked a very nice security guard to take our picture...

Anyone who goes to London and does not take the time to the British museum is really missing out. It is just amazing to think that some of the artifacts they have there date back to Biblical times. Needless to say we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

After the museum we made a stop at Abbey road to pay homage to the Beatles. It was funny to watch the tourists getting honked at as they all tried to take pictures standing in the cross walk.

After that we got back on the subway, or the "tube" as they call it in England and headed for Westminster Abbey for a quick look and then back to the hotel to get ready for the main event of the day... WICKED!

Sarah and I were soooo excited to see Wicked the musical. To be completely honest, years ago when the show first came out Sarah bought the book and I can remember her telling me about this great new broadway musical that she couldn't wait to see. Well it took us a few years but with a very good deal on tickets that we found on the internet we were able to go see it at the Apollo Victoria. The sets were amazing and the cast did a really great job I can't imagine a more enjoyable way to spend an evening.

After the show we decided to take a quick walk by Buckingham Palace on the way back to the hotel. I have to say it is much more impressive during the changing of the guard in the middle of the day. Still, it was nice to get a good view without crowds of people everywhere.

DAY 3

We definitely saved the best for last, and we got the weather right too! The first two days were nice and sunny but the third turned out cold and sort of gloomy. It was just as well, though because visiting the Tower of London just isn't as gloomy when it's nice outside. If you are interested in history you just can't miss the Tower. It's gotten more expensive since the first time I went in '06 but it's one price for everything including seeing the crown jewels now so that was really nice. I think the 17 pounds we paid to get in was well worth it.

Our tour guide at the tower:

After seeing the tower it was time to go pick up our luggage and wait for the long ride back to leeds. We took a late bus so we wound up home at about 11:45pm completely exhausted. Overall it was a great trip that I'm sure we will both remember for a very long time.

A Great Visit!

We Love You Sarah!

Over the past few weeks Jed and I have been very happy to have my cousin Sarah Patty here in Morley to keep us company. Sarah had never been to England before; so, she and I took a typical whirlwind trip to London in 3 very short days. I thought I would share a little bit of what we saw.

Day 1:

To make the trip more cost effective we decided to take the coach (or relatively nice bus for you Americans). The reality of the thing is that here in England if you don't buy your train tickets way in advance they get very expensive. So I looked into National Express coaches which were much cheaper but took somewhere around 6 hours to get from Leeds to London (the train does it in 2 and a half). Obviously that wasn't going to work considering the fact that we only had 3 days to spend in the first place. Then a friend mentioned megabus.com to me. They offered a regular non-stop service from Leeds to London for 10 - 20 pounds round trip and the ride only took 4 hours. It was a much better option and pretty much made it possible for us to go.

We left the house at 7am to take the short train ride to Leeds and wait for the coach. The coach ride was pretty painless and considering the price I would willingly do it again. The funny part of it is that this is where all those road trips in the back seat with my brothers and hours spent on a bus during choir tour came in handy. Four hours on a bus would make some of my friends here really cringe... I on the other hand didn't think twice about it.

We got off the coach in London at 2pm and made a mad dash for our hotel. Well, we didn't mean for it to be a mad dash but the subway was so crowded it was a bit of a shock for Sarah who had never been on one before and to be honest was a crash refresher course for me. The hotel was fine. It wasn't the lap of luxury but we had our own room and bathroom for about the price of a shared hostel room. Hooray!

Kensington Gardens

One of the great things about England is that around this time of year it's light outside from about 5am until about 10pm or later. Not that I ever really want to see 5am but it does allow for lots of time in the evening for sight seeing. We left our hotel and before we knew it had walked all the way across Kensington Gardens and through Hyde park. Then we headed for St. Paul's Cathedral, one of my favorite cathedrals in all of my travels. We grabbed some supper and and a wonderful little picnic on the church steps along with about a hundred other people. Peter Pan in Hyde Park (above)

The View of Saint Paul's From Millennium Bridge

Shakespeare's New Globe Theater

After supper we crossed the Millennium Bridge and walked to the New Globe Theater. After that we spent quite a bit of time following the wonderful walking/running path along the Thames river crossing London Bridge and ending up at the Tower of London. Once we were throughly exhausted, and only then, we headed back for the Hotel and a good night sleep.

Tower Bridge

Some new projects

While stateside I had lots of time to spend working on crafts these are some of the results

I'm sure Jed took this picture as you can see from the look on my face but the real star here is the grey knitted sweater :)

Some experiments with Amigurumi ...

Knitted fingerless mits with cables there are a few pairs of these floating around out there I gave some for Christmas presents

My first attempt at color work...

This little guy is one of three teddy bears that I made.

This one is a crocheted baby blanket. It's not very big because I was using yarn left over from other projects. This pattern is actually modeled after one of my favorite quilting patterns the diamonds come together to form a 3D effect of tumbling blocks. I haven't had the time to try this pattern in patchwork so I was really excited when I found this crocheted version.

Where has the time gone?

On November 2 we left Morley and headed back to the states for what I like to call our wandering exile ;). I remember thinking, 4 months, that seems like a lifetime. Well I am here to tell you that it really wasn't it seems like just yesterday we were back in Oklahoma wondering when our visa was going to come in and sharing the Holidays with our families. It feels like a strange time warping experience getting back. We were able to walk into our house and find everything exactly as we left it (thanks in a large part to our landlord/neighbor dusting and turning on the heating before we arrived). The weather here is almost exactly the same as when we left so we've really just skipped a whole cold winter, not that I'm complaining.

Easter is almost here and as I look back to last Easter when I was preparing for my senior recital and my first major opera role and graduation... I can't believe it's been a whole year. We've come so far and met so many new people and I thank God every day for the opportunity He has blessed us with to be here in Morley. I'm reminded of all the moments when I worried whether or not our visa would come in; how we were going to raise the funds to be here; how well we would be able to settle back in; and the list goes on. Of course I know that God will provide and He will not give us more than we can handle but so often I fail to trust Him completely. Isn't it WONDERFUL that God's love for us doesn't depend on our ability to always have the right answer? All I can say is that this experience has once again shown me his great power to care for us no matter the situation. He has taken what seemed like a terrible set back and used it to strengthen and encourage us in ways we would never had imagined. How great is our God!

The precariousness of packing

I am very happy to say that I am finally getting to think about packing for real this time! Jed and I got our visas to enter the UK yesterday and we haven't stopped smiling since. I have decided that my endless procrastination of school projects has now transferred to procrastination in packing. It's not that I don't think about it until the last minute, that process seems to be working quite well for my husband though. I think about it and think about it and think about it... In the meantime I have almost made a list of all the things I would like to pack, assuming of course, that our luggage space is unlimited. I am having a little bit of trouble focusing on one thing at a time. Now, that's not really such an unusual problem for me but it does tend to make a person very tense. It seems silly though, that as soon as a problem, like having no visa, is solved I immediately find a way to fill my list of things left to worry about. In reality I have no reason to worry. Will it really matter if all of my yarn doesn't make it into my suitcase? Or will everything fall to pieces if I don't get to make that last Walmart run? OF COURSE NOT. So for the rest of the evening I will be counting my blessings and thanking God for another wonderful day that I can know that He is in charge. So if you are anything like me and let little things morph into big things; Take a breath, take a minute and thank Him for all of those little things. I certainly will be.

We're almost home!

We were finally able to complete our visa application yesterday. HOORAY!!!! Just a few more steps and we will be able to head back to Morley. I can't begin to say how much we have missed everyone. It has been nice to spend time with our families but we will be glad to get back to work.

Winter Wallop!

Here in Oklahoma we have had plenty of excitement over the past few days. Wednesday the local news channels began a constant barrage of warnings concerning a winter storm that was heading our way. Being the strong willed people we are in Oklahoma, most of us would normally take these warnings with a grain of salt. But after the amount of damage we saw during the Christmas Eve storm this year people were a little more willing to prepare for the worst.

On Wednesday afternoon Jed and I noticed that the store parking lots in town were packed with people stocking up on water and food. We also heard reports that any stores selling power generators were sold out. Of course we giggled a little to think that after all this panic the storm might not even affect our area.

There was no need for the giggles. The storm hit Oklahoma Friday with a vengeance. Areas to our north got lots of snow but the worst part of the storm was the freezing rain that knocked out area power grids. Our power in Frederick went down Friday at 4pm and we quickly realized that with no heat and no lights it's no fun when things get dark around 5. Jed and I have been staying with his grandparents for the past few weeks so we did have some company. Needless to say we didn't let it get us down. We wound up spending about 3 hours playing dominos by lantern and candle light. If you haven't tried it believe me its much more fun when you really can't see your hand.

Around 8pm our power came back on and there was great rejoicing heard throughout the land. Still we knew that it might not last so we turned the heat as high as it would go and headed for bed. Sometime during the night, probably around 1am, we lost power again, so the house was nice and chilly by the time we woke up. We made some phone calls and heard from a very reputable source that there were about 20 miles of power line down between us and the next town, it would probably be 3 or 4 days before we would regain power.... and it was getting cold. Luckily Jed's grandparents have a wood burning fireplace and plenty of food so we invited some friends over, and sat down to a game of cards as close as we could get to the fireplace.

To make a long story short we were without power all day Saturday but it came back on much earlier than predicted and everything was up and running by late Saturday night. We were very lucky to be where we are. Jed's family in Tipton has a generator now but their power is not expected to be back until later this coming week. Family in Elgin, OK have had to leave their house in the country because their power has now been off for 2 and half days and their house was down to about 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Right now we are counting our blessings and enjoying the electricity.

My Dad is in the Paper!

A few days ago my dad along with a few others left to aid in the relief effort in Haiti. The story ran in the local paper in Deleon, TX. You can read about it on their website the story is near the bottom of the page and is titled, "Area firefighter heads to Haiti".