Finding a Church... Making Friends

For those of you who know us, you know that church is a very important part of our lives. We were so sad to leave our church back in Maryland. We had just begun attending Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville, MD last May. This church was founded by Brian McLaren, a man who had written a number of books that have made a big impact on both Ethan and myself. We were of course, also missing our church friends, particularly those from Chesapeake, who undoubtedly left a large imprint on our lives.

So, it didn't take us long to begin our church search when we got to England. We visited 5 different churches during our first few months here. We focused our searches mostly on the more contemporary kinds of churches, and were pleased with what we found... modern worship, Biblical preaching, and wonderfully kind people. We know that we could have been happy and gained much from attending any of those churches, but we felt led to keep searching.

A few weeks ago, we tried out a new church called Mayfield Community Church. Again, we appreciated the worship, the preaching, and the friendliness of the people. But, it was what happened after the service that kind of "sealed the deal." We met and introduced ourselves to the pastor. Within one minute of the polite introductions, he asked us where we were from, and then proceeded to tell us how he had been to Maryland once to visit a church called Cedar Ridge Community Church to meet a man named Brian McLaren. We were stunned, to say the least. Within one minute of meeting the pastor, we found out that he had gone to our church back in MD. It certainly seemed like a sign.

We've been attending Mayfield for a few weeks now, and are starting to get to meet people, which is really nice. I was really beginning to feel "stuck" at home, and anxious to get to know people. The second week we were at Mayfield, I sat next to an American woman who told me about a women's Bible study that they do on base Thursday mornings. I've attended for the past two weeks now, and am so delighted to be making friends. God always knows what we need.

Driving in England

Ethan and I have put together a list of ways that driving in England is different than driving in America. We'll begin with the obvious:

• The cars are made with the steering wheel on the right side of the car, and you drive on the left side of the road. This took a lot of getting used to at first, but now it feels like second-nature to us. (Except getting into the car... if I'm by myself, I continue to try to get into the left side of the car to drive.... it's pretty embarrassing.)
• There isn't a straight road to anywhere around here. With the exception of the highways (called carriageways or motorways) which I assume were planned and built within this century, every road around here is narrow and windy. I mentioned in our last blog how we took a drive through the Dales last weekend. We took the "major" roads that even had numbers, but they were very windy, hilly, and narrow (sometimes only wide enough for one car!). Which leads me to my next point:
• A great responsibility of the driver is to simply get out of the way!!! The narrowness of the roads is only made worse by how common it is for people to park on one side of the road. As you can imagine, this makes the road only wide enough for one car. (In the photo to the right, I'm actually in the wrong lane, trying to go around the parked cars.) The road that Tim's school is on is really bad. There are two schools on this road, and many cars are parked on the side of the road. So, I always have to look ahead to make sure someone isn't coming, and if they are, depending on who has the right of way, one of us has to get out of the way! This could mean going up on the sidewalk, if necessary.
• One town that we always drive through has a spot so narrow that they had to put a signs for one direction to yield to the other direction. So, I have to drive up to a line, and stop to look and see if anyone is coming. Crazy, right?

• Roundabouts! "Look kids, it's Big Ben!... I can't get left!!" from European Vacation. Roundabouts are very common in the area. They are basically circular intersections, where everybody travels clockwise to their exit. There are roundabouts of all sizes: mini-roundabouts (like in the supermarket parking lot) to really big ones on the motorways.

• Watch out for pheasants! We really don't have any traffic in our "commutes," but what could cause us a delay are the pheasants. They cross the streets frequently, so you always have to be watchful for them. I also was delayed once because a sheep farmer was herding his flock across the street to another pasture. He basically stepped into the road to stop traffic, and let his sheep dogs do the work. There are also a lot of bike riders and hikers on the road to look out for.
  

• Know your pedestrian crossings. During the first month we were here, Ethan and I spent time preparing for a written drivers test that they offer on base. Most of what we had to study was straight forward and common sense, with a few exceptions. For example, we had to know the difference between the three kinds of pedestrian crossings: pelican crossing, zebra crossing, and toucan crossing (it had to do with the lights for them, and if a bicycle could cross there.... I think). I couldn't even tell you the difference between them now.
• No distractions. All of this boils down to the fact that we have to be a lot more focused as drivers in the UK. There are no cell phones allowed while driving over here, and it's a good thing. I barely feel brave enough to take my eyes of the road for a second to change the heat in the car or adjust my mirrors.
• We leave you with some of our favorite signs. Feel free to leave your interpretations as a comment.

Day Trip to Wensleydale Creamery

We thought we would take a road trip today, so we decided to drive up through the Yorkshire Dales to a small town called Hawes. Hawes is the home of Wensleydale Creamery which makes cheese, butter, and other dairy products.
We had heard so much about the Yorkshire Dales, and weren't quite sure what to expect. The Dales are basically a collection of river valleys and hills that extend as far as you can see. There must be solid rock under much of what we saw because there wasn't much vegetation... just grass. As with most of Northern England, there were sheep everywhere, enclosed in stone fences. The area we first drove in was pretty high in altitude, and snow could be seen on the tops of the hills. It was a truly scenic drive. The only difficulty was the narrow and windy roads (which were the main roads).Wensleydale Creamery was a great place to visit. If you are a Wallace & Gromit fan, you may remember that Wallace is a big fan of cheese, particularly Wensleydale cheese. There is a small museum at the creamery, which includes a video about the history of Wensleydale cheese and artifacts such as a variety of butter churns and cheese presses. After the museum, you can then go into the actual factory, and watch the cheese being made! It was really neat! We could see 4 huge vats, which each showed part of the process. The first two vats held milk which the starter and rennet had already been added to. It was being mixed, and you could see the curds separating from the whey (the liquid). The other two vats held the curds where the whey had already been drained out. They cut them into big chunks, and then into smaller chunks. We didn't get to see the rest of the process, but they then salt the cheese, chop and cool it, and hand pack it into tubs to be pressed and aged. It was really neat to see the process... we all learned a lot.

We then went into the gift shop and deli, and were able to sample different varieties of Wensleydale cheese. We each had our favorites, and we ended up buying three different kinds.

We went home via a different route, and found the town of Masham. There are two breweries there, Black Sheep and Theakston- both of which Ethan really likes. He would like to do a tour of the breweries at some point, but kids aren't allowed. So, today he opted for a pint instead.

Spring Lambs

Although the weather is taking its time to warm up around here, there are signs of spring all around. Our favorite sign of spring has to be the lambs.

About a month ago, the spring lambs started appearing in the pastures along the road. They really are so cute. We were able to watch them up close one afternoon as we were driving down a dirt road on a farm. My favorite thing about watching them is how they run... it's sometimes more of a spring than a run... so cute!!

We've been waiting for the sheep that are sometimes across the road to return, to see if they have lambs with them. Well, they haven't returned yet, but we did notice that there were sheep with lambs just down the road (we could see them from our front windows). The kids and I took a little walk down to that field today, and watched and listened to them for while.


In completely unrelated news, I was able to go for an ultrasound this morning to establish the age and due date of the baby. As always, it was a completely magical experience. We found out that I am almost 16 weeks along now, and the due date is September 26th. The baby looked wonderfully and incredibly developed already. It was easy to make out the head and body and fluttering of the heart. The baby seemed to be moving around, and was even waving its hand to me at times. Ah, there's nothing like it. I know it's blurry, but here's baby Stryker #3's first picture.

Road Trip #1- London

"Madeline, Madeline, where have you been?"
"I've been to London to see the Queen!"
-from "Madeline in London"

Well, the Strykers have survived our first official road trip. Tim and Maddie had 2 1/2 weeks off of school for an Easter holiday, so we thought it would be a good idea to explore London for a few days. We drove down last Saturday (about a 4 hour drive, not including stops), and we returned on Tuesday.

We found a Holiday Inn Express to stay in in the Docklands area of London. It wasn't the nicest of areas, but the hotel was great, and we only had a 5 minute walk to the Tube station (the Tube is their subway system, also known as the Underground). We used the Underground to find our way around the city the whole time we were there. Besides being overcharged one day, we found that it was a great system... clean and reliable. The kids had a blast riding on the subways, too!


When we first go to our hotel, we settled into our hotel room for a few minutes, and then headed to London. Our first stop was Leicester Square and London's Transport Museum. This museum basically followed the history of transportation for London since the 1800s. It included information and models of the first double-decker omnibus (powered by horses) up to the present-day double-decker bus. They showed how they dug the tunnels for London's Undergound, and how much it has improved and expanded over time. We all loved it. There were a lot of interactive displays for the kids, and Ethan and I actually got to read some of the information, which is always nice.



We started off our next day, Sunday, by heading to Buckingham Palace because I had read that the Changing of the Guard was taking place at 11:30. We followed the crowds and found a spot by the road to watch the guard band and guards marching towards the palace. We watched them go into the gate, and then we couldn't see much for a while (all the while, I couldn't help but hum the "Oh-We-Oh" song from the Wizard of Oz). We could hear the band playing, but all we could see was the top of the tall, fuzzy hats going back and forth. About 45 minutes later, the band and other guards marched out, and that was that. It was pretty cool. Buckingham Palace is located adjacent to St. James Park. We took a stroll through there, and headed back to the Tube.

Our next stop was the museum of Natural History. It was HUGE!! We were able to see a few of the exhibits, including the dinosaur, ecology, bugs, and bird exhibits. It was a great museum, and the best part was that it was free!
After the museum, we were tired. We thought we would head over to Piccadilly Circus, and try to get on one of those double-decker London sightseeing tours. We took the tube over, and enjoyed a nice stroll around Piccadilly Circus. It reminded us of Times Square in NYC. We found a bus tour, but decided not to do it after finding out the price (19 pounds per adult = $38 each). We opted for some ice-cream instead.

We kept walking, and before we knew it, we had reached Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. We spent some time at the monument at Trafalgar Square, during which the kids had a blast chasing and scaring away some poor pigeons.

We then headed into the Gallery (also free), and spent an hour in the impressionist wing, enjoying seeing works of art by Van Gogh, Monet, and the like. Maddie fell asleep in her stroller, and Tim walked around with his hands folded behind his back like he'd done this a thousand times... it made for a nice experience.

We were able to find a pub for dinner that night. Ethan was happy to try a new hand-pulled beer called "London Pride" to have with his Bangers & Mash, and I was pleased to try a very British-sounding (and very yummy) dessert called Toffee Pudding (a warm sponge cake dripping with toffee sauce, and served with vanilla ice cream).

We started off of next and final day of London by heading to Westminster. When we stepped out of the tube station, we were greeted by Big Ben. The kids loved hearing "him" chime! We walked around taking pictures of Big Ben and Parliament, and then crossed the street to Westminster Abbey. We decided to pay the admission fee (10 pounds per adult), and we did an audio tour of the Abbey. It was really incredible! Westminster Abbey was originally built in 1050, and is the place that just about every British king and queen has been crowned, including Queen Elizabeth. It is also where many royal funerals take place, including Princess Diana's. There are tombs everywhere! Kings, queens, authors (including Charles Dickens, Lewis Carrol, Jane Austin), scientists (including Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin), generals, politicians, etc. I found it hard to believe that I was observing such a sacred place, walking on tombs, seeing the coronation chair that kings and queens have sat to receive their crown. It was a really neat experience.

After the Abbey, we decided to walk over the river Thames towards the London Eye. The London Eye is basically a HUGE ferris wheel that overlooks the whole city. We had heard that there were usually long queues (long lines), and that it was expensive. Well, the expensive part was right, but the line was short. We decided to go for it!

The London Eye was an incredible experience. It really was an amazing view of the entire city, The ride took about a half hour... that should give you some feel for how big it really is.

From there, we took the tube to the London Bridge. Did anybody know that London Bridge isn't the fancy one you see in the pictures? We didn't know that either. We started to cross the bridge, saying to ourselves, "This isn't it!," only to look down the river and see the Tower Bridge. Well, at least we were able to get good pictures from there.

We decided to walk for a little while, and we headed to the most famous dome in London... St. Paul's Cathedral. We weren't about to pay more admission for anything that day, so we just sat on a bench for a while, and enjoyed the scenery. We eventually walked to the front steps, where again, my kids had a blast annoying the pigeons. I tried to remind them of Mary Poppins, how the lady sat on the steps of St. Paul's, saying "Feed the birds... toppins a bag" to get them to be nice.... it didn't work.

From St. Paul's we walked a short distance to the river, and walked across the Millenium Bridge which took us to the Tate Modern, a (free!) modern art gallery. It wasn't our favorite. I guess neither of us prefer nor understand modern art that much (especially when Maddie could replicate a lot of these pieces). I enjoyed seeing a few Jackson Pollack pieces, but that was about it.

So, that was our trip. Overall, it was wonderful. We had a very full time, and got to see a lot of the major sights. The hardest part about it all was the expense. We tried to do a lot of things that were free, like the museums and galleries, but we had to eat! Thankfully, breakfast was included with our hotel, and I brought snacks to hold us over. Next time though, PB&J for lunch everyday!

House Quirks

As with any new house, it doesn't take long before you discover the quirks. We certainly love our house here; but we admit, there are a few things about the house that we find ourselves saying, "We have to deal with _________ for THREE YEARS?!"

First of all, with the exception of the kitchen sink, all of the sinks in our home have double faucets. Ethan and I are just bewildered at this. Why would anyone in their right mind choose to have double faucets over single ones? When we wash our hands, it's usually a race to finish before the hot water gets scalding hot. This also is an issue when I wash my face. I often have to finish rinsing by filling my hands halfway with freezing, and topping it off with scalding to get a nice warm. Also, there are no aerators in any of the faucets. So when you turn on the water, you get a lot of water! This actually comes in handy when we're filling the Brita filter or the kids' bath... it fills fast!

Issue number two would have to be the dishwasher. I was so excited to arrive at our home after being in the dishwasher-less apartment last month. That is, until I ran my first load of dishes. Let's just say that the dishes in that first load came out a little less dirty than they went in. Now, some of you may not know this about me, but I hate rinsing dishes before they go in the dishwasher. I don't see the point! Why go through the trouble and waste all that water when you have a dishwasher that does it all for you?! I'm sure that I have judged more than one of my friends or family members for being "rinsers" (must be said as Seinfeld would say "Newman!") Well, as with many things in life, I find that I am doing things that I have judged others about. I am officially now a "rinser." I have no choice. If there is a crumb or a spot if oil or whatever left on a plate when it goes into the dishwasher, it will still be there when it comes out of the dishwasher. So, I am now the pre-cleaning cycle for our dishwasher.

As you may have noticed in the picture above, the dishwasher is also very small. That may very well be a trend among British appliances, and our refrigerator is no exception. We were able to borrow this fridge from base, and are lucky to have gotten a bigger European model, opposed to a smaller British one. Now, I am the type of person who only likes to food shop once a week. I loved shopping at BJs and buying in bulk. I would come home with 3-4 gallons of milk each week, and it was no big deal. Well, first of all, they don't even sell the milk in gallon containers here... only 1/2 gallons. I can fit four half-gallons of milk in this fridge, but that of course, means I need to buy milk more than once a week. There is ample room in the freezer, which is nice, and there is also a standing freezer out in the garage that I haven't even opened yet. But, I think it would be nice if we could get a second fridge here at some point. We'll see. Until then, I will learn to become a fridge juggler... new food can only go in, if something else comes out.

Here is a picture of our stove, or "cooker" as it's called here. It looks so pretty and handy, doesn't it? Well, we are still learning how to cook with it. Issue number one is the degrees for the oven are in Celsius. Fortunately, I have an oven thermometer that has both Fahrenheit and Celsius, so that's okay. Issue number two is that it is electric and slow to warm up. I find myself setting the stove to the hottest setting to warm it up faster, only to burn the grilled cheese sandwich for the 20th time! Issue number three is the size of the ovens. You can see four doors in the picture. The top left is supposed to be a broiler. It doesn't work, but that's okay... I just use it for storage. The bottom left is an oven, which isn't quite deep enough to fit a sheet pan. The top right is a convection oven, which is smaller than the other oven, but overall, works well. And, the bottom right is a drawer for more storage. I think we're getting used to it, but I do miss my gas stove and oven back home.


Here are a few other quirks:

• There is no dryer vent in the house, so the dryer has to be out in the garage.
• There are no towel racks, toilet paper holders, medicine cabinets, or bathroom storage of any kind (even the sinks are all pedestal-style with no cabinets). I think we'll have to ask our landlord if we can at least put up towel racks and t.p. holders.
  
• The rugs. I mentioned this before. They're a weird, rattan-style of carpet, that look like a fine basket-weave. I think we're getting used to them, but I would have no idea how to clean them if say, a kid threw-up on them (which we all know is bound to happen at some point).
  

Please do not interpret this blog as a complaining-fest on my behalf. I can truly say that I am adapting to all of the quirks that this house has to offer... many of them I hardly think about any more. And we are grateful for this house. It is pretty new (built in 2000), and has a lot of space and storage. So, "We have to live in this house for THREE YEARS?!" Yup... we'll be just fine.

I'm Dreaming of a White... Easter

Happy Easter to all of our friends and family! We hope that you had a reflective holiday, filled with joy and time with loved ones.

We've enjoyed our first English Easter celebration. It began with a performance by Tim's school last week. The students performed a number of Easter songs and took turns sharing information about the history of Easter in the UK. The school also had a contest: Tim's class had to decorate an Easter egg with a Spring theme, and Class 2 had to create an Easter garden, which are miniature gardens made like dioramas. All of the entries were very creative, and we were proud of Tim for winning one of the awards for his class (of course, with only 7 students in the class, his chances weren't that bad).

Both Tim and Maddie came home from school last week singing "Hot Cross Buns". Hot cross buns are an Easter tradition in the UK, so we gave them a try. The ones we got from the supermarket were basically a raisin bread, and I was the only one who liked them. However, a friend of our made ones from scratch, and we all loved those.

On base, they had an Easter egg hunt for the children. Due to the weather, it was in the gym. To make it fair (and more challenging) for everyone, they broke the children into age groups, and gave each child a card with one or two stickers. The children then had to find an egg that matched the sticker(s) on their card to redeem their prize bag. It was a good idea, and most everybody (except Maddie) had a great time. Maddie was terrified of the Easter bunny of course, and just wanted to go home. Ah, good family fun!

We woke up Easter morning to a beautiful view of freshly-fallen snow! What a surprise! This is the most snow that we've seen since we've been here (probably around 2 inches). The kids were so excited, and Ethan ran outside with the camera to take a few shots of our neighborhood.
















We had a nice Easter morning. The kids enjoyed their Easter egg hunt, and were relieved that the Easter bunny was aware of our new location. We tried out a different church (we've been to 3 or 4 churches since we've been here), and enjoyed some good worship as well.
















In the afternoon, we had three friends come over for an Easter dinner. We missed being with our families, but it was so nice to be together with friends. We each brought some traditional Easter food from our families (including Granny Libath's corn pudding, and the bunny cake we used to make when I was a kid), so it helped it feel like home. We did start one new tradition, though: lamb! As you may imagine, this is the area to be if you'd like to find fresh lamb. We were able to buy some from a local farmer, and it was just delicious!