British Birthdays

Last week, we celebrated my 34th birthday. Ethan was kind enough to take the day off from work, and we drove down to a city on the East coast called Hull. We had heard that there was an aquarium there called "The Deep," and thought that might be a fun way to spend the day.

"The Deep" was pretty cool. It is more modern than the aquarium in Baltimore, although it is also much smaller, and didn't have quite as much to look at. Still, we enjoyed seeing a good variety of fish, an active octopus, and a shark & stingray feeding. My favorite was seeing the life stages of jellyfish. The baby jellyfish were kinda cute!

After the aquarium, we enjoyed a nice stroll through the city center of Hull. It's always fun walking along the pedestrian walkways and seeing what kinds of shops they have. Ethan found a pub with a kind of beer that he hadn't tried yet, so the kids and I waited outside and played. Here they are playing on a monument outside of an old church.
When we got home, Ethan grilled a delightful steak dinner. It was the best steak I had had in a really long time.... just delicious! We then celebrated my birthday with some thoughtful gifts and cards, including a rechargeable battery for my new camera! Hooray!!

Since I am on the topic of birthdays, I thought I would also mention a few differences that we have either seen or heard about for British birthdays. Tim has already been to a bunch of birthday parties for friends at school. The general outline for a kids' party seems to be the same: food, games, and cake. However, the children don't eat the cake at the party. Their slice gets wrapped into a napkin and put into their goody bag to be eaten at home. (I asked one mother about this, and she said that it is a British tradition. The children are usually too stuffed by cake time to actually eat it!) They also don't open the presents during the party. The games seem to be similar. At one party, Tim played "Pass the Parcel" (parcel means present), which is that game where you unwrap a present until you get the gift in the middle. The last party Tim went to even had a moon-bounce (I think they called it a "bouncy house.")

We've also heard that British children unwrap their presents and eat birthday cake as soon as they wake up in the morning (almost like a Christmas morning kind of thing). I don't think we will start that tradition in our family, although it is tempting.

A Failed Tea

About a week and a half ago, we invited our new pastor and his wife over for an evening tea (translation: dessert time with tea). I spent the day prepping the house so they wouldn't trip over Legos or stick to the kitchen floor, and make Ina's chocolate ganache cake for dessert.

Before they came, I asked Ethan if there was anything special he thought I should do about serving them tea. These were the first real British people we had ever had over to the house, and I didn't feel very culturally prepared. Ethan told me not to worry, and that if I did anything wrong, "Pastor Bernard would probably let me know" (he can be a little forward).

Well, after they arrived, I got the water boiling, and served up the cake. I then put out the cream and sugar, displayed our assortment of tea bags, and began filling up my tea cups with the hot water. Well, let's just say that Ethan was right. Pastor Bernard let me know right from the start that whatever I was doing was all wrong. He refused to take my tea cup of hot water.

Problem number one was that I didn't have a tea pot. The best way to prepare the tea is to have a thingy that holds the loose tea leaves in your pot (tea bags are apparently sub-standard), and then fill it with boiling water so that the water can infuse the tea. Then you pour from the tea pot once the tea has had its appropriate infusing time. So, being tea pot-less, and tea-leaf holder-less, at the very least, I should have asked what kind of tea they wanted, and then poured the water over the tea bag so it could infuse properly. It was also somehow inappropriate to ask them to dispose of their own tea bag onto their saucer. Whatever....

So, I chalked it up to a learning experience. Never have a Brit over for tea until I get a stinkin' tea pot!

The rest of our evening was fine. It was nice to get to know him and his wife (who is actually from South Africa), and to learn more about the church. He thanked me for my cup of tea as they were leaving (much like a teasing big brother would). Lucky for him, he hasn't mentioned it since. :)

York

Two weekends ago, we traveled to a city called York. We were delighted to discover that it was less than a 45 minute drive from our house, and that parking and navigating were very easy.

York is one of England's most historic cities. It started as a Roman fort, and was then a Viking settlement for years after that (called Jorvik). What's really neat about York, is that it is one of the best-preserved walled cities in all of England.
Here you can see Ethan and the kids as we made our way around the city on top of the wall. In the background, and in the next picture, you can see York Minster.
The city itself was really neat. It is full of museums, historic buildings, and snickelways (hidden alleyways) lined with shops and restaurants. As we walked around, we found out that the city was having some sort of sword festival. There were groups of performers doing sword dancing. (Don't worry... the swords didn't appear to be sharp!) Basically, the dancers would always be holding one of the ends of a sword in each hand, and weave their way through and around until the person in the middle would emerge with the swords all woven together in a star-like pattern. It was interesting.

We walked around for a while, and then made our way to the National Railway Museum. This museum holds many, many preserved trains and displays. They had trains historic to England, but also quite an international collection (like the Japanese bullet train). It was quite an extensive collection, and the best part was that it was free!
All in all, we had a great (and inexpensive) day out. If you ever come to visit us here, York is a must!

Pregnancy Update

I'm trying to be intentional about having the focus of this blog be about our English adventures, but I figured it was time that I gave a pregnancy update.

So, here I am today, at the start of my 24th week. I feel really good. I'm getting plenty of rest, and I'm trying to eat well. The baby seems to be very busy, kicking all the time. The kids can even feel it kicking now, which they just love!

I went for my sonogram last week (they call it a "scan" here), and it was just incredible! The baby was very cooperative (which I hope is a sign of things to come!). The woman doing the "scan" talked me through all of it, showing me the brain, face (it looked like the baby was sucking its fingers), arms and legs, spine, heart, kidneys, bladder, etc. She zoomed in on the heart so that I could see all four chambers, and she could tell that the blood was flowing in the right direction. She could also see that the whole spine was covered in skin, so that we know the baby doesn't have spina-bifida. Ethan and Maddie got to see the baby as well. Ethan was amazed, and Maddie just giggled the whole time. It was really cute!

And no, we did not find out the sex of the baby. We didn't with Tim or Maddie either... we love the surprise!

Anyway, after my sonogram, I met with a midwife for a few minutes. I have yet to meet a doctor, which is starting to alarm me, but I was guaranteed to have my next appointment with him. Anyway, the midwife asked if I had considered having a VBAC delivery for this baby. (For those of you who may not have heard this term before, it stands for Vaginal Birth After Caesarean- Maddie was breech, and was delivered via c-section). To be honest, I hadn't really considered it much until then. I just assumed I'd have another c-section. But now, I'm starting to wonder if I should be more open to it. Currently, I'm in the "gathering information" stage of the process. So far, I've learned that the biggest risk of VBAC is having your uterus rupture during delivery. The odds of this are 1 in 200, which really aren't great odds. On the other hand, there are more smaller risks associated with having a c-section, much like there are for any surgery.

I was hoping I could get some feedback from some of my blog readers. Do you know of anyone who has had a VBAC? What was their experience? What factors helped them decide for or against it? Any chance you could connect me with them?

In case you're unfamiliar with the comments part of this blog, it really is quite easy. All you need to do is click below where it says "# comments" (I think it's blue) and leave your message to me in the box to the right. Just be sure to type in the security letters and then post it. I would really appreciate hearing from people about this. Thanks!!

Fountains Abbey

Last Monday, when my parents were here, we visited a place called Fountains Abbey. The Abbey is Britain's largest monastic ruin, and was founded in 1132 by 13 Benedictine monks.

I actually visited Fountains Abbey when I came to Harrogate during high school. What's incredible is that now, the Abbey is less than a 15 minute drive from my house. When we were there last week, I bought a yearly membership for our family so we can go there whenever we want.

Here are some of the pictures I took when I was there with my mom and dad, and a few more from when I went back with Ethan and the kids this past weekend. I wish I could blog more about what all of these pictures are of. I need to go back one day on my own and do a tour to learn more.

Maddie's Ballet Recital

Maddie has been in a weekly ballet class on base since April, and she has just loved it. She's loved everything about it: putting on her leotard and tights, carrying her special bag with her ballet shoes, and of course, saying "good bye" to me when it's time for her to go into class. She would come home showing us how she does the "pony dance" and how she can point-flex her toes. We have been thrilled watching all of this, especially due to her gross-motor delay. Not only was she able to do things she hadn't done before (like going up on her toes), but she was really motivated to do them, which can sometimes be difficult with physical therapy.
Her ballet classes ended last week, and culminated with a recital last Sunday. I can't tell you how excited I was when I found out that Maddie's ballet recital just happened to coincide with my parents' visit. They were able to see Tim in a T-ball game on Saturday, and Maddie in her recital on Sunday... things that they probably wouldn't have been able to do were we still in Maryland. The recital was just wonderful, and Maddie did great! She amazed us not only with her new abilities, but with her complete focus during the recital. She knew just what to do for the choreography, and paid close attention to her instructor the whole time. (Now, if she could just follow a 2-step direction at home!!) My favorite part of the recital had to be during the skipping exercise. Maddie simply shouted, "I'm skipping!!" with such joy and pride. I couldn't help but cry. We also witnessed her first jump... a real jump with both feet off the ground! It seems like such a simple thing, but it has been a long-time coming. Thank you God!

I was able to record most of the recital on my digital camera. We uploaded all of the clips to YouTube. Feel free to watch a clip or two (but please don't feel like you have to watch all of them).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iwPqgfeLgQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp6UauM-wKc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaIB_SG3ARM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJIr73W3Ueg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uRbZwunwKs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiU6_ERx-XU

Yellow Fields

As I was driving with my parents last week, we kept seeing these fields that were completely yellow. My mom said she could even see these fields when her plane was landing. We had a few guesses as to what it was, but didn't really know (knowing how many dandelions I have in my own yard, that was the first thing that came to my mind). Well, we Googled it when we got home and found out that they were fields of rapeseed flowers. According to Wikipedia, rapeseed is grown for the production of animal feed, vegetable oil (including canola oil), and biodiesel.I couldn't help but look out as I was driving, and be reminded of the yellow brick road from the Wizard of Oz (I guess the fact that I'm reading "Wicked" right now may have something to do with that.)