London / Romania Mission Trip 2009...post 3

Monday, July 6
dinner at this amazing and very fancy hotel- the regent, i think. it says it on the plate, but i can't read it. us, the seals, the grahams and todd bell (our music minister) and his son parker. todd also takes pictures of his plated food - if the meal is amazing. i know this looks like something from dr. seuss, but i had to try something local. holstein was my selection for the evening. at first i was scared, but honestly it was incredible. don't be scared off by the ingredients, it sounds like an accident and maybe thats how it started, but i thank whoever put together the weinerschnitzel, egg, capers and anchovies. yummy! don't judge me.


just a pic of the streets.


buckingham palace at night. this is on the to-do list for next time.


Tuesday, July 7
visited the tower of london. it was fascinating and massive. i didn't get my picture taken with a beefeater like i wanted, next time. this tour was worth it. lots of interesting facts and stories. this is the place where traitors of the crown were taken and held. then when their day came they were marched up the hill to another property to have their heads chopped off and then they hung the heads off the bridges so people going down the thames would know thats what happened to people who opposed the crown - the royal family.


another angle. you can see a bridge in the back, not the london bridge like everyone assumes (including me), i think its called the tower bridge.





this little round building is the tower of blood. i know there is a story of two little heirs to the throne that were murdered and buried on the property by their uncle so he could inherit the throne. this building had a torture exhibit, you know the regular rack, 4 corners and the ball techniques we have always seen. this building was packed with men and young boys - go figure.


this guy "guards" the building where the royal jewels are kept. his stomping/marching was echoing (due to his 2" soles on his shoes - no joke, look at them) all over the property, i guess so you know he is always there in case you have any ideas of lifting a crown or two. the royal jewels exhibit was amazing. and i am a diamond girl, lover, not necessarily a collector (yet??). all the crowns and silver used for their coronations and other very important ceremonies. i felt so proper and formal when we left the building...


changing of the guards. they had a girl guard who was yelling all the commands. cool. i did take a gander at their guns and they had very very scary knives on the ends. i don't think they were pretend. the canons, i am not sure about. across the street from the crowd is a building with a huge henry VIII exhibit. it was cool. although he was a large (and merciless) man, he loved armor, horses and jousting so there were tons of weapons, and outfits (thru all his sizes).


we also visited the imperial war museum. aka the churchill museum. it was amazing. i didnt get any pictures cause it was pouring down rain and jarrett also almost got smashed by a lady on a bicycle trying to hail a taxi and i was laughing so hard (in love). it really was tough crossing the street around there. thank goodness they have painted on most of the major intersections "look left" or "look right", regardless i still looked the wrong way first. i just made sure i triple checked every time. they are wild drivers.

here we are with a traditional guard. his hat is taller than his torso. i just wonder what kind of people they are like off duty. its not like you can turn the "ignore everything, but attack an intrusion" on and off at the drop of a hat. we are not at buckingham palace, but where charles and camilla live. i think its called st. andrews - but im not sure.


this is camilla and charles's pad. not too shabby.

London / Romania Mission Trip 2009...post 2

Sunday, July 5

After all the church services we met some of the high school choir crew (the service team) who help run the behind the scenes stuff along the trip. my definition. they were all nice and jet lagged from having just arrived, so we pepped them up by stuffing our faces with the traditional fish and chips. this was the cool place we went to and it was quite yummy. i couldnt help but sing (in my head because we were surrounded by people from our praise team at church) the little "fish and chips and vinegar" song that our choir teacher at heights elementary once taught us. admit - some of you (near my age) probably know the catchy tune. the actual meal was not too shabby, but one time was enough for me. people teased me so i did not take a picture of my plate at this meal. i think thats fun to do and i know i am not alone.





our friend andy, who knows all the cool spots like a local, found this little cupcakery, but it was closed. i couldnt get a good picture of the cupcakes, but i can best describe them in two words - willy wonka. these were the coolest most decked out cupcakes i had ever seen. the tops were enormous. it was like marshmallow and then fondant covering it with huge gumdrops and pretty candies. they looked fake. we realized that the stores in london kept "different" hours. this one closed at 7, but it was a sunday. bummer.



since we were fresh off the sudden passing away of michael jackson, these were everywhere. some may call them memorials, but this one was more like a shrine. people were singing the songs and weeping like it had happened that morning. they may have been the poor ticket holders to his upcoming concert that was to open in london on july 15th. now they are out many, many pounds and maybe this makes them feel better. i know those that grew up in the 80's especially have an affection for mj, but its different in london. some of the people at this shrine were near tearing their garb and placing ashes on their foreheads. to spare any embarrassment, i didnt take pictures of the ones crying so hard they were nearly dry heaving. im not that cruel. man in the mirror is the #1 mj song in london, out of all his hits i would think it would have been his duet with sir paul mc carthy - ebony and ivory! i was wrong.



this is the off the center of picadilly circus - the district we were staying in. it had a cool times square feel, but smaller....and with a gap in the middle.


stretch your neck to the right, im too lazy to flip the picture.



monday, july 6
we started off our day with a friend and business associates of scott and josh - richard. he is a trained tour guide. he drove us around and pointed out alot of the fascinating and not so famous sites in london as he took us to st. paul's cathedral.
if you look close, the pigeons are here at the feet of this statue waiting for mary poppins to come feed them. i know there is a song that goes with that scene and im too tired to dig in my brain for it.



here is the entrance into st. paul's. from left to right - richard, jarrett, scott (in the hat), julie, kaytie and josh. i neglected to read the sign right behind me that said no pictures inside the facility! oops. although tours are going on non stop, it is still a place of worship and prayer. take my word, if you have not been , it is absolutely stunning. the intricate detail in the ceiling - breathtaking.


we climbed all, all, all the way to the very top. i think josh said it was a total of 700 something steps. i could be off a little, but i know it felt like it. the view was amazing. this is one angle of the river thames. about an inch in from the left you can see the london eye (ferris wheel as we would call it). we didnt get the chance to do that, next time hopefully!

here is me and jarrett. it was really windy and you can see the multiple colors my colorist puts in my hair really well in this shot. there is kaytie sneaking in to the left of jarrett.


a view of downtown and a huge crane on the right.


another pic of the thames. if you see the big green tree about an inch in from the right, behind it is a famous theatre that has a real thatched roof. white building with a brown top right off the river. these roofs were tradtional to london prior to the 1666 fire that wiped out the city - due to the thatched roofs.


another angle from the top. i am looking down on the front of st. paul's. you can see the red double decker buses on the street - which i love, but didn't get to ride on.


still at the top. i want to say this is the modern art museum, but i can't remember. we didn't go - they don't have the censors and regulations we have and apparently have a big gore and naked (nakie as riley calls is) section that none of us were wanting to venture into. call it art, but yuck is yuck to me.


the front of st. paul's as we were leaving. im standing at the base of that statue with mary poppins' pigeons.


premier radio (the broadcast company that broadcasts pastor grahams messages in london) placed (i think) 19 pianos across the city that say "play me". they have little books of sheet music attached of popular british and karaoke type songs. they did it for promotion sake, but to also give the high school kids from our trip a little something to do when they were touring around. they could stop and play on the pianos and sing around and promote their concerts. it was cool. you would randomly hear a piano playing, but couldn't see the street it was on, but knew who placed them there and why. great idea. this little man was playing his heart out.

London / Romania Mission Trip 2009...post 1

Here we go:
let me give you a little history on how we got on the trip. didn't want you to think we weren't good enough friends that you didnt know we were preparing for a trip like this. well, we didn't know we needed to. our pastor and his wife were slated to go but about 10 days prior their plans changed. jarrett was originally asked to go to romania (with me included - yippee!) from the 9th thru the 15th. then it expanded to two days earlier in london, then off to romania. and when the dust settled, we were booked on flights to london leaving dallas on 7/3 and heading to romania on 7/9 and then back to dallas on 7/15. luckily jarrett's family was available and more than willing to take on the girls and so it was a no brainer. i have been wanting to go on one of our high school mission trips since i first started attending prestonwood - over 10 years ago. and this gift was just given to us. it was more than i imagined. 2 solid weeks away from the girls was tough at times, but i knew they were having fun. i had to tap into some old wiring in my brain to the days when it was just me to feed, clothe and bathe....it was eerily quiet at times, no one's diaper to change, no one's spills to clean, no one to read stories to, no one to play dolls or tea party with. at times i felt lost. but the break from the girls was great.
we were with the high school choir a bunch, but were not sponsors or family group leaders. we criss crossed their schedule alot more in romania than in london. this was kind of tough. i absolutely love that age and to not hang out with and pour into a group of girls' lives, but be around them occasionally was hard. especially when i was missing my own girls to love on.
if you know me (and my family) we are picture takers on trips - mostly to an extreme. i didn't get to bring my "big girl" nikon camera that i got for christmas, but i brought my trusty point and click. this wasn't the type of trip where i was able to be too touristy. we had an absolute blast, but were there (especially in london) on business too. so i had to put some of my genetically given cheeseball travel tactics aside and take pictures when i had the opportunity.

went straight to our hotel le meridien piccadilly. located in picadilly circus area. i loved this district. felt like new york, but not as loud or fast and alot cleaner. great places to eat and shop and the theaters were right around the corner. right before we walked into our hotel, we noticed a parade going on. it was loud with some crazy techno music blaring and lots of whistles tweeting. it was 7/4 and i thought "cool, an independence day parade". so we walked to the edge of our block to see. nope. obviously they don't acknowledge this holiday in england. you can't tell by the picture, but its a double decker bus decorated for the pride parade. this parade went on forever and we could hear all the cool music from our room for at least 2 hours. there were more people in the parade than were watching it. i felt like i was on bourbon street around mardi gras, not that i know what that is like first hand. my first impression of london did not make a deep impression at all. i was looking forward for the parade being over so we could walk the streets.



harrod's department store. i was so overwhelmed by the place, i neglected to take pics inside. yes, we saw the diana and dodie statue and memorial. it was sad. all i know is that if someone wants to make a statue of me one day, please use that sculptor. their heads were theirs, but their bodies were of people in the cast of baywatch. it was confusing. here is me and jarrett at the ice cream shop down stairs. this is the last "skinny pic" of us. and in front of a huge dish of ice cream. we ate like absolute pigs in london because everyone kept telling us to stock up because we wouldn't have much selection or even a taste for the romanian foods - wrong....we ate like pigs in both countries.



here we are again, but this pic shows scott and julie seal to the left of jarrett. one of the couples we were with in london.



josh (black shirt)and kaytie (yellow shirt) graham were the other couple we were with in london. kaytie and i were the only ones who had never been to london (jarrett went when he was little - it counts even though he was too young to remember). josh was the natural tour guide and scheduler of the group and did a great job.
to the left of josh are our friends (also on staff at prestonwood), mark and starrla penick. mark was there taking a class, so we all hooked up that night.


ok. im too lazy to move this picture to its correct order. we had dinner at the hard rock cafe, before the ice cream at harrod's. this is the first hard rock cafe. same overrated food, but priceless atmosphere.



here is jarrett on sunday, 7/5. he preached at all 3 services at trinity baptist church. pastor kingsley is very well known in london and for his birthday he and his wife were invited to have tea with the queen that tuesday. i immediately became obsessed with his wife. i love the royal family and all their drama. lucky for us, we were seeing them again on tuesday night after the tea and could get the low down. can you imagine. tea with queen elizabeth? there are about 100 people who attend and not everyone gets to speak with her, only if she approaches you first. and everyone in london loved to remind us how michelle obama hugged the queen. not even her own children hug her. no cameras, but you can buy a video of the event. i was fascinated by it all. and they took it in stride. they were so humble, even afterward.

Hang tight!!!

I promise. I will be updating the blog in the next few days. The London and Romania trip was absolutely amazing. Cannot wait to share the details. We had inconsistent access to the internet (especially in Romania) and I had concerns about revealing that we were out of town for 12 days. The day before we left I read in the paper about people who were tweeting about their vacation and arrived to a completely stripped home. Not willing to take any chances with our house being on the market. We arrived home yesterday to no air conditioning in our house, just picked up the girls and are trying to tough out the last adjustments to jet lag.

M J

I know I am not the only one who is staying up till 2am watching all the Michael Jackson tributes. Can I get a witness? I am so sad and so sleepy because everyone is running tributes now. He completed the "trifecta" (you Ticket listeners know what I am talking about) for this week. First, Ed McMahon, then Farrah Fawcett and finally Michael Jackson. I have the best memories of the Victory Tour concert at Reunion Arena my cool Aunt Jonelle and Uncle Mac took me to when I was mucho younger. Sported the glove too. I still can't believe my parents let me go, but I am so grateful. Wish I had kept that concert t-shirt now. I can't really say Michael influenced my wardrobe (thank goodness), my life or was "with me thru all my ups and downs and I don't know what I will do without him" (yes, a quote from a lady on the news at the Dallas celebration of life services for MJ), but he did provide some great tunes to grow up to. I will be heading to bed on time tonight, I can't handle another Billy Jean video (with that terrible little red bowtie).

Life is precious....

Riley took a tumble down the stairs tonight (she is fine).
She slipped (literally) in her slippers about half way
down and went for a ride - like a rag doll. Of course,
I had a view of it from the dinner table and could only
get there in time to stop her about 3 steps shy of the
bottom. She had on these cute piggie pj's and it was
a sight of pigs over pigs over pigs. I mean to tell you.
That girl has had a rough two weeks. Lots of flipping.
These scares are tough on mommies. It reminded me
of the big reminder from last week. That our lives are
in the hands of Almighty God and that our lives are
precious to Him and should always be handled as precious
to us.
I will start off with a fun picture.

Jarrett had a birthday two Mondays ago. We made
his favorite meal, decorated the kitchen according to
Riley's direction, made brownies and loved on Daddy
alot. Little did we know 6 days later, the following
images would be burned on our minds. Always
reminding us how God is in full control.


Jarrett and Riley were heading down the tollway
to church and around a hill and small bend, he swerved
(at around 70 mph) to avoid something in his lane.
He overcompensated and the car flipped twice.
Landing here - two feet from the concrete wall.
My stomach tightens when I see one the one tire
mark develop into two. Just knowing they were
still flipping at this point.


Here is the car. The only damage being on the
drivers and back passenger side. Where my
husband and baby were. Riley's side is crushed.


Riley's side. Her seatbelt was properly installed
and the straps properly positioned. Also, the
centripetal forces must have pulled her chin to
her chest and it probably avoided alot of head
injuries she could have endured.



This was a tough site for Daddy.



We are not lucky. Not at all. I will never for a second believe that. It was a miracle and something God has used to gain my full attention and remind me of what a mighty God I serve and love. God allowed this in our lives and He allowed them to live and only walk away with a few scratches and bruises. I cannot thank God enough or praise Him enough. And He is not looking for any "works" of gratitude, but man, this really has opened my eyes to examine my time with Him in the mornings, how I am serving Him and living my life so He can use me for His glory and honor. Although this event was so unfortunate (losing the car and scaring the tar out of Jarrett and Riley). God is soooo cool and evident in the intricate details. His hand of protection is obvious, but His hand of provision was just as mighty in this event.
There were two cars that stopped to help. One of them was a very dear friend of mine (we have been in the same biblestudy for the last 3 years). Cricket stopped because that is who she is - little did she know it was Jarrett and Riley. She was able to hold and comfort Riley. It just gets me choked up thinking about it. And Cricket is no stranger to Riley, she knows her from the church and thinks her name is silly. So to know God put Cricket there to comfort my baby and then drive Jarrett and Riley (after the paramedics cleared them) to the hospital.
Jarrett did call me right after it happened (Kelsey and I were still at the house
getting it ready for a noon showing and then heading up to church). When I picked
the phone I had a very frazzled husband and could hear Riley in the background. Her cry was heartbreaking. It was a low moan - she was in shock. The only thing that prevented vomiting on this end was knowing Cricket was there comforting her. I couldnt get there fast enough. Jarrett's good friend Chris came up to the hospital and brought Riley some toys (from his car) to play with. Another level of provision. Riley loves "Kouba" and his little girls. So this made her happy.
So although its not fun for us to have to purchase another car, it could be so, so, so much worse. Thanks to everyone who prayed for my husband and Riley that morning and later that week when word leaked out.

splish... splash....

we spent the afternoon at the dallas aquarium. this was kelsey's first trip, riley's second.
it was lots of fun with daddy.

some crazy bird was chasing riley around at
the beginning. that little thing would not leave
us alone....

riley looks like the crocodile hunter (may he rest
in peace) to me in this pic. with her foot up on the
rail explaining the stingrays to kelsey. you know,
i just now got the crocodile hunter and stingray
relationship, no offense.
she loved schooling kelsey on everything.

i love daddy!!!! and this cave is a little creepy,
don't let go please.

kelsey loved the aquarium. there was alot on
her level to see. they were wanting the fish to
give their hands smooches.

the shark tunnel. i know its kind of hard to tell
because of the reflection. and the fact that i
am running thru this tunnel taking the picture
as fast as i can. it gives me the creeps and im
trying not to let my children see it. mommy
is running for "exercise" girls.

gammy's flamingos....