Bell Ringing

Traditionally every time I came to the UK to visit I would land at the airport, travel to the Tews, eat a meal and usually being a Monday or a Tuesday would head out for a 7:30 bell ringing practice :S This time I had it easy, being that it was a week before I made it into a tower! Mark and I where able head out to Steeple Aston for the Tuesday night practice last week. My calluses haven't come back yet, but I wasn't inflicted with too many rounds of ringing ;) Mark was a able to make a valiant start under careful guidance! I'm glad to hear that he liked it enough to try again, so we'll be heading out to the tower after an audition in Oxford later today! I think I need to actually revise my methods though...

Arrived in the UK!

Mark and I arrived in Narnia a little tired and weary, but safely on Wednesday the 16th of Jan. It wasn't long before we began trying to find ourselves in the remote center of nowhereness. Most of our belongings are on a boat on their way to Antwerp, Belgium before heading over here, which isn't helping the settling process...
Sarah and Ed came down from Canterbury on the Friday for a visit. We went to the village quiz night and did our best not to come last! We were the "Cannuks + 1" :P Ed and Mark amazingly provided all the football info we needed, where Sar and I filled in all the Harry Potter and Spice Girls info. We followed the quiz with a speedy trip into Chippy for some fish and chips. Traditionally Mum doesn't partake in grease, but gets a "selection" of chips from our vast supply. We had forgotten to bring her a little fork to eat them with, so instead of using her fingers she creatively found a new use for her knitting needles...By Saturday morning Sarah had Mark chopping wood while Mum and I went on a few errands. We left them just as they were searching for the chainsaw... :S Luckily when we got back everyone still had all of their limbs and extremities intact!

Judo Qualifiers

Sorry it's late coming! These are are the pictures and video of Mark's little brother Craig at the Judo Regional Qualifiers for the Ontario Winter Games.Craig trains at the Full Cirlce Judo Club and was only recently promoted to an orange belt. He was specifically asked to fight in these qualifiers where everyone else had either a blue, green and brown belts!
He lost his first fight to a brown belt, but triumphantly won his second fight against a green belt!
It was amazing to watch both Craig and the other highly skilled young athletes in full strength! I look forward to watching many more tournaments!! Great job Craig :P

Baking Week

Attention one and all: for the very first time in my life I have successfully made pastry! I wanted to bake a tortiere before leaving Canada, but I realized to do that I would have to overcome my fear of potentially killing people with pastry. It actually turned out really well!! All who partook gobbled it up including picky eaters.As I was preparing the filling, the smell of browning meat and onions filled the air and I was chopping vegetables I suddenly got a strange sense of dejas-vu when the theme song for Disc drive came on Radio 2 at 3pm...As well as exploring the more exotic side of cooking, Allie and I decided to make cinnamon rolls to practice the old favorites from home. They too turned out amazingly as well! They certainly didn't last long in this house... So when more are made there will need to be multiple batches.It's hard to believe that by this time next week Mark and I will be on a completely different continent making our first steps in the exploration of all that the UK holds for us. It's been a long process, but certainly one I wouldn't have been able to do without the support of family and friends. I am anxious to begin the pursuit of all the music I can get my hands on!

Clarity must be finally reaching the fog of my brain because I started another large cross stitch project. The last one I completed was the Angel for Mum this summer. This one will take significantly longer but will be well worth it when it is completed!

New Years Eve and Day

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I hope this new year is filled with happiness and joy for everyone and their families!
I think it's said best with oven mitts really... Thanks Ella!
After days of wearing her down, I finally tortured Allie long enough to get hair accessories into her hair! Hee!!
With special thanks to Nana we had a fabulous family dinner, with much experimental veggie cooking. I've discovered a great recipe for scalloped potatoes and a freakishly good method of cooking butternut squash that even picky eaters will eat.
The big kids were a little more reluctant to pose for the obsessive photographer than the wee ones... :P
On New Years morning, after a great breakfast of bacon and eggs we all vegged quietly pottered around being sociable as cottony snow fell outside. Morgan and Paige decided to finally teach Mark how to colour between the lines...Oh Paigie...