Our First British Christmas and Nora's First Birthday!

This was our first Christmas away from our families and we certainly did miss them. Hopefully we'll be with family once again next year. But Oxford offers a lot to a couple of Americans far from home and we enjoyed our first British Christmas!
On Christmas Eve we went to a Nine Lessons and Carols service at Christ Church Cathedral. It was such a treat! We were very fortunate to get tickets that someone had returned at the last minute. We got all dressed up for the occasion and enjoyed the beautiful surroundings of the old cathedral and the performance of the Cathedral Choir. You'll see a bit of video and pictures that don't even come close to doing it justice (nor does our poor audio recording) but you'll get a bit of a taste! If you're ever in Oxford, you'll want to visit this place.
Another place to visit is the Oxford Covered Market. ...cobblestone floors, old lampposts and loads of shops and vendors of all sorts. Around Christmas it looks as though it is something out of a Dickens novel!
Christmas morning we spent at home as a family. Ben made delicious homemade cinnamon rolls and bacon and eggs and we watched Nora open some gifts. Then in the afternoon we went out to a small village called Cuddington to spend the rest of the day with some people from our church. We went on a walk (called a 'ramble' here) from Cuddington to the next village and explored the church there as well. It was amazingly picturesque and a beautifully sunny (but cold) afternoon.
That night we enjoyed a traditional English Christmas dinner including the Christmas pudding lit on fire! To us it tasted about as good as it looks (you'll see it in the video) but the Brits all seemed to LOVE it. Go figure. We learned a new British word that night too. More-ish. It's an adjective. Something is more-ish if you would want more of it sometime soon. I would say that for me, Christmas pudding is not more-ish.

Christmas in Oxford:


This was Nora's first Christmas (at 364 days old!) and her first birthday was the next day! We've clipped together a few videos and pictures of her from Christmas and the little birthday party we threw together. It would have been nice to be in Oregon celebrating with Nora's grandparents and most of her aunts and uncles. We don't really know anyone all that well in Oxford having only been here for a few months but it was nice that some people we've recently met came to help us mark the occasion and now we know them a bit better! We couldn't really have fit any more people into the flat (there were 14 of us in one small room!)
Nora had a banana cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting and really seemed to like it! You'll see.
It's hard to believe that we survived a whole year of parenthood! It feels like such an accomplishment for all 3 of us! We are immensely in love with our sweet girl and can't wait to see what the next year holds! We love you Nora.

The latest installment.

Here is another little video. She just keeps getting more amazing every day. The walker was an early Christmas/Birthday present from us to Nora.



(Full post to come after Christmas.)

New discovery...

As parents we have found that often we go along with life as usual while anticipating the next big milestone. Currently we are waiting to see when Nora will decide to walk on her own or use really decipherable words on a consistent basis. The thing is, while we are waiting for these big moments to occur, Nora surprises us with developments we never really expected. Apparently she is ready to wield a spoon on her own... who knows how long she has been waiting for us to just hand the thing over! She seems pretty good at it already!

A Video Summary

For those of you who miss seeing Nora's developmental milestones, we have put together this little video that captures quite a few of them all at once: pulling herself up, cruising, knowledge of animal names and body parts and being able to 'find mama'. Also, she is speaking Portuguese now. (Okay, that's a lie.) Still, she is a very big girl.

Enjoy.

Upon Request...

So some people have been pestering me to post photos of our flat. I have been very reluctant to do so for a number of reasons.

#1 - There are so many beautiful and interesting things in Oxford, and our flat is certainly not one of them.

#2 - I don't really love it. (That actually may be the biggest understatement of my life.) Let me explain... Our couch is awful and less comfortable than your dentist's waiting room. The curtains are a strange pale yellow and blue and white stripe... like something you may have found in a church nursery circa 1984. Pretty bad and I'm working on replacing these. Our bed is worse than a cheap motel's. And it's a double which means it's super duper small. (The bed being bad is especially difficult given that our mattress back home is amazingly comfortable and may be my favorite thing that I own. Seriously, I miss it so much.) The kitchen is ridiculous to try to cook/work in - tiny, poor layout, no counter space, etc. The walls are cinderblock - enough said. There is no sink in the toiletroom. (Yes. I know it's weird. And disgusting. Don't worry, we still wash our hands... we just walk down the hall to the shower room and wash our hands in the sink there. And no, I don't know why you would want to wash your hands before you get in the shower but not after you go to the bathroom.) There are many other things I don't really love about our flat but I think you have the idea and there is no need to go on and on about it.

#3 - And most important - I don't feel as though it represents our family well. It holds almost none of our personality because it came with the basics furnished (beds, couches, dressers, table & chairs) and we aren't allowed to remove any of that. Also, we're not allowed to paint (understandable) or put any holes in the walls (are you kidding me??) - it was in our contract. Sigh.

The thing is, if you know me at all, you know that I am a nester. I nest. And not like, since I've been a mom I've been a nester. I've ALWAYS been a nester. I don't need a lot of things and they certainly don't need to be new (I love a good thrift shop!) but I like to have my things set up around me in an organized and inviting way. I like my home to feel homey. My bed to look irresistible to climb into for a midday snooze. My couch to be big and plush enough to sink into for a family cuddle under a super soft throw. I want the things hanging on my walls to inspire me... like pictures of my family, or great quotes, or works of art that make you linger and dream a bit when you look at them. I like to surround myself with things that remind me of the great times in my past... like a stone from a walk next to a river with my would-be husband, ticket stubs from the hockey game that we waded through 8 inch deep puddles and freezing rain to get to and then sat shivering in our seats for (the whole time laughing at how perfectly Canadian the guy in front of us was) or a handmade gift or card from a friend. I want my kitchen to be set up with lovely canisters of flour, oats, sugars, nuts and chocolate chips so that I can't help but whip up a batch of homemade cookies every couple of days.

When we came to Oxford, we left all those kinds of things in my in-law's attic and opted to bring clothes (good thing because it gets cold here and clothes are expensive!) So, slowly I've been trying to use what little we have around here (mostly empty cereal boxes, sticks and leaves, free wall-paper samples, etc.) and what little I can pick up in a VERY tiny craft section at a stationery store down the road (I left most of my craft stuff in the attic as well) and make our walls look a little less cold and bare. I keep reminding myself that we won't be living in University accommodations forever. If we knew for sure that we would be here longer than a year, we would have shipped quite a bit more over here with us... but since we don't know where we will be next fall it just didn't seem worth it.

Really, I'm not as miserable as this post makes me sound. We are all making due just fine. And there are so many wonderful things to explore in Oxford - outside of our flat! But hopefully you can understand my reluctance to indulge those asking for photos of our place. That being said, I know that it is nice to know where/how the people you love, live. It allows you to connect with their situation in a whole new way. So, I will share two bits of our home with you...

First, Nora's room - or at least part of it. Nora actually has a bigger room than we do but it is awkwardly shaped (narrow and long) and therefore, also kinda awkward to decorate. But for now, her name is on the wall so at least she'll know it's hers! And the lovely and colorful quilt that Katy made for her helps add some interest to her crib (which is actually called a "cot" here and is smaller than a standard crib.)

Second, our dining room/living room (or "lounge" as they call it here. But honestly I don't like that term... it makes me think of some poorly lit bar in the bottom of an out-dated hotel sporting bad 80's decor. Am I wrong??) This is where we spend most of our time. (And yes the bookshelf is permanently and strangely affixed to the wall there. I don't get it either.)

Hopefully these pictures will give you a little glimpse into our life here at the moment. Currently I am looking forward to decorating for Christmas!!! Hooray!

Autumn Baby

Yesterday was another gorgeous day so we took some pictures of Nora outside our flat. Being Halloween I was hoping to get a cute shot of her holding or chewing on one of my peewee pumpkins (thanks Shelley for this great new term as I have always just called them miniature pumpkins!) But alas, Nora was much more interested in the leaves than the pumpkins. Luckily she's super cute no matter what so we got some great fall shots anyhow.

Oooooooo!

Fun with Dad!

Mmmm, delicious.

Momma's girl...

After the pictures we seized the day and went for a walk. If you walk south from our flat you run right into town which, don't get me wrong, is great and old and very fun to explore. But if you walk north just a bit (which is what we did yesterday) you pass a bit of residential area, then a beautiful old cemetery and a golf course and then... vwah-lah! You are into the English countryside. Gently rolling hills covered with fields which are seperated by rickety old fences or stone walls and general shrubbery and spotted with lazily grazing cows, not to mention the occasional old stone farmhouse. Just lovely.

10 Months

Today marks 10 months for Nora. She is steadily becoming a toddler rather than a baby which is both fun and frightening. But isn't she cute??

Since we've come to Oxford, she now waves, claps, has sprouted teeth and army crawls all over the place. (If you look closely at the picture below, you can see those pearly-whites!)

This afternoon was beautiful so the three of us took a walk to our local library branch which has a small sculpture garden behind it. Nora especially liked the otter. It was just her size!

Then we stopped by Starbucks for a quick latte. Can you believe they don't have pumpkin spice lattes here?!?! A travesty - to be sure!!! I hope they'll have egg nog lattes but I'm not holding my breath.

Two Saturdays ago (the 17th) Ben "matriculated". Don't worry he's okay... it's not a disease. It's a ceremony at Oxford where you officially become a member of the University. This used to be an exam - in Latin - and if you didn't pass, you were not admitted. But now, it's just a short ceremony that everyone has to get all dressed up for. Ben looked so sharp. A nice lady on the street offered to take a family photo.

Afterward we went to lunch to celebrate at a restaurant called Jamie's Italian. It's one of Jamie Oliver's restaurants of whom we have both been fans for several years now. The food (although a bit pricey for our meager budget) was delicious.

For those of you wondering, mom is out of the hospital (without surgery - I misunderstood that part) and will be on meds for the next few months as her heart heals. Grandma's memorial service is tomorrow. We would still appreciate your prayers.

More

So when we started this blog we promised that it would be mostly about Nora... keeping our friends and family updated on her ever-increasing cuteness. But from time to time, we use it to share our hearts and today my heart is aching, so for those of you here for Nora alone, bear with me (Deanna, that is).
Yesterday my Grandma died - a bit unexpectedly actually. For those of you who don't know, my Grandma had been living with my parents for the last several years and our family has been privileged to get all this amazing time with her. She was a great woman. And I am so proud to be able to call her my Grandma. In fact, she is such a great woman that we named Nora after her (they share the same middle name).
My Grandma was kind, patient, and strong. She accomplished so much in her years on this earth, I can't even begin to recap it all. She loved to laugh, had a wry but truly genuine smile, was an excellent gardener, and enjoyed watching professional football - especially her Seahawks. She did all sorts of crafts (crocheting, drawing, embroidery, jewelry making, etc.) and would spend dozens and dozens of hours on detailed projects for family and friends. You won't find a better cross-sticher anywhere! Grandma also enjoyed doing crossword puzzles - which have always been mostly frustrating to me. When I once asked her what her secret was to enjoying them, she said that the trick is to only get the "easy" crossword puzzle books... that way you always feel smart! I've enjoyed crossword puzzles ever since! ( :
Although my Grandma had an excellent memory, she also knew the importance of getting things down on paper. In fact, over the course of her adult life, after her children were all off having children of their own, she began to write her story down. Hundreds of pages of little stories to be exact. Not because she thought the world needed to hear about her, but because she knew that all these little stories make up part of a much much bigger story. Pieced together, these little stories tell us who she was. For those of us who are related to her, they tell us a little about who we are too.
Grandma taught Sunday school for years and years. She loved Jesus. And she prayed with a reverence for God that is rarely found in current generations. She prayed often and specifically for every one of her 7 children, 27 grand-children or 27 (28?) great-grand-children and enjoyed bragging on all their developments and accomplishments. She was so proud of her family - and rightly so! My Grandma lived a good, long life - which was not always an easy life. But she was a faithful wife and mother and follower of Christ through it all. She taught me - and so many others - so much about what it means to serve and love and pray and persevere and remember and how to live life fully here and now even while anticipating our true, heavenly home. Today Grandma is with Jesus, praising God for his goodness and glory just like she did yesterday and the day before that, and the day before that -- and while I am truly happy about that...
I miss my Grandma.
Grandma knew full well that there is more to life than what happens in our earthly bodies. That death is not the end, but another beginning. THERE IS MORE.
I'm glad I'll get to see her again someday... but I miss her now.
So yesterday, after all this happened, I was crying with my mom via video chat and she was complaining about how sore her chest was... maybe from all the crying and stress. Later that night she went to the ER. Apparently she tore a hole in her heart between her left and right ventricles and needs surgery and a few months of meds to repair it. The doctors say it's all pretty routine. But it's not routine to me. I am aching to be with my family and finding it more than a little tough being so far away and isolated (without even a telephone yet to make/receive calls!) If you are a family member reading this, know that I love you dearly and am thinking of you all every minute.

Hit play. You won't regret it.

Just a little video of Nora.

Though it doesn't even come close to doing Nora justice, we thought a little video of her developing social awareness was in order.

Some of the Pictures You've All Been Waiting For (sic)!

This is our street,

and here is our house (that's a lie),

and…lots of other places.

This tower (the Saxon Tower) is about 1000 years old (and no, that's not a typo). It was where the guys mentioned in the plaque below were held before they were burned in the middle of Broad Street.

This is the pub where Lewis and Tolkien had a few pints.

Here we are overlooking the river Thames (pronounced 'temms')

Yeah…we live here.

Hello friends and family! We have arrived in England and now have internet at our flat - no phone yet. We're pooped and have a lot to do to get ourselves completely settled in but at least we now have a "home base" to work from.

So, after a bit of a rough start out of Eugene (where had to re-arrange several of our bags to meet the weight requirements and not have to pay an extra $325 bucks, and where for some reason they wouldn't let Ben bring his guitar on the airplane-very frustrating) we arrived with almost everything we took to the airport (minus Ben's guitar.) The flight to San Fran went very well except that we lost "Open the Barn Door" which you may or may not know, is one of Nora's very favorite books. Sigh. If that's the worst that comes of this, we're doing well. Nora had no trouble with the take-off and landing as many babies do. Praise the LORD!
We had some paninis in the San Fran airport and then hopped on our next flight. It was very full and we were jammed into the middle of the plane but the folks around us seemed happy enough to be seated near a baby. (Phew!) One of the flight attendants really took a liking to Nora and was thrilled to find out that her name was Eleanor as hers is Eleanor as well and spelled the same way! (She grew up being called Nellie though.) Nora slept a solid 4 hours on the flight which was just about all the time they let everyone else sleep (before "breakfast" anyhow.) She fell asleep again just as we were about to land and slept through the landing and the unloading of passengers.
We had no trouble at all at customs - including short lines and by the time we got to baggage claim, ours was already unloaded from the carousel and waiting for us in a neat little pile. A short but precarious walk later (with the stroller, carseat, diaper bag, 6 large pieces of luggage and 3 very heavy backpacks), past the soldiers with machine guns in hand, we were warmly greeted by a long-lost cousin of my father, Peter and his wife Jane. (Peter with handshakes and Jane with hugs.) After a long day/night traveling, we were relieved to have friendly faces welcoming us to England. The next half hour was spent trying to fit all of us in their little car, but we did it! Then a short 50 minute drive to Oxford. England is surprisingly similar to Oregon as far as the look of the foliage and Thursday (the day we arrived) the weather was lovely.
Our friend Rob met us at our flat with our keys (another perfectly amazing story in itself) and we all brought the luggage upstairs. Jane had brought us a few baking dishes and also sheets and blankets for our bed so she and I made the bed up and then she and Peter went to the grocery store to buy us what was supposed to be a few essentials but what turned out to be orange juice, eggs, a bag of pasta and a bag of rice, some crackers and cheese, vegetable bouillon mix, 2 cans of tuna, broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, an eggplant, a zucchini, potatoes, bananas, kiwi, yogurt, granola, and Special K Red Berries. (Without even asking us what we liked they picked us out our 2 favorite cereals.) We were thrilled.
Rob brought us homemade soup for dinner (delicious and comforting after a long day or two) and a few other staples... milk, chocolate, salt, butter, a couple of bowls, bread, wheat-a-bix, and a pot for the stove. But before dinner we went on a walk with Rob to see our neighborhood. We saw several things that reminded us of home... Portland Road, the Sheldonian Theatre, a shop called "Eileen" and we also saw lots that was very foreign to us. On our way back we stopped by Ben's college partly because he wanted to peak inside and get an idea of the place and partly because he had to pee.
While he was peeing, I was in the "lobby" (if you can call it that - it's quite small) and a girl came in with her husband and a stoller. She asked him if she could park the stroller there or if he thought it would be in the way. He said that with 2 stollers (I had mine there too) he thought it would be in the way but I assured them that we were soon leaving since my husband was just using the restroom, so not to worry about it. That started our conversation in which I found out that Nick and Loralay (sp?) had just arrived the day before and that Nick is starting the MSt in New Testament - just like Ben. In fact they are the only 2 doing this program at this college. They have the same advisor too. Nick and his wife have a son, Liam who is only 8 weeks old. They are from Colorado but Nick did his last degree at Trinity Western University and for those of you who may not know, that's like an hour from Regent (depending on traffic). Weird. Not only that, they live in our building. Not only that, they live on our floor. Super weird. Hopefully as we get to know them better we won't find them dreadfully annoying (unlikely) because it sounds like our paths will cross often.
Our heads hit the pillow (well - the mattress, we didn't have pillows yet) at around 8:30pm and we rolled out of bed around 10:45am with a few interruptions from Nora along the way.
Saturday morning Rob picked us up in his rental car (his folks came into town yesterday) and took us shopping for household essentials on the other side of town. It was a productive day but there is still a lot to do to make this place feel like home.

Nora is nearly crawling and has bonked her head several times already on the very hard floor here so we'll be looking for a big soft area rug - or maybe a bike helmet.
Yesterday we walked into the city and saw several of Oxford's colleges and other buildings and monuments and some of the most beautiful gardens and also the River Thames, yes there were people "punting on the Thames" -- classic! It was a beautiful day and we walked 6 miles or so and took loads of pictures. Loads of pictures that you don't get to see yet because despite the fact that we emptied every last suitcase today, we cannot find the cord to put pictures from our camera to the computer. Once we get one of those, you'll see. It's lovely here.
Come visit us soon! There is a sweet little bed and breakfast just around the corner (if you'd prefer that to our very hard floor.)
More to come soon!

PS - The video is of part of our journey here. Just killing time in San Fran.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...

So, we gave you all a rather dismal update yesterday. Thanks to all of you who sent supportive emails, text messages, phone calls, etc. Thanks also to all of you who prayed for our visa situation. After all the downer news and incredible stress, somehow–and I can assure you, we are still shocked about this and have no explanation other than that God is in control–our visas were issued today and should arrive at our house tomorrow (Thursday the 17th)! This means that we can still arrive in Oxford well before the term begins!

To say that we are excited is a vast understatement. Deanna and Nora and I will be in Oxford by the end of the week next week! It is surreal and overwhelming to say the least. We still have an incredible amount of stuff to get ready before we head out (like getting luggage!). And, in the mean time, Nora is working hard at cutting her first tooth - poor girl. (We are praying that it comes before we get on the plane for the long flight over the Atlantic.)

Well, we're off to do some more prep!

Huge disappointment(s)

So, for the last week we have been waiting around anxiously for our visas to arrive. The UK visa process has been hailed as "simple" and "straightforward" by some but it has been neither of these things for us. We have already applied for visas twice (and applied for a refund.) It is not fun and certainly not easy (although I think this is mainly because there are "dependents" in the equation.) Regardless, a little over 2 weeks ago, we finally got all our ducks in the correct row at the correct time and shipped our second application packet overnight to the consulate. The statistics on the web-site told us we should expect our visas in 5-10 days... so we've been waiting expectantly for the past week. This afternoon we got an email from the consulate office telling us that they had just entered our applications into their system and that they would try to process them in 10 days but due to the high volume of applications this time of year, it could be 30. 30!!??!! Not only that, they failed to inform us (on the web-site) to send in Ben's actual degrees... so we quickly FedEx-ed those today as well. Will it be another 2 weeks before those end up in the system?

Not only that, we got disappointing news about our car which we are working on selling... sigh.

Wow, this is a depressing post.

Our plans were to leave on Monday, which obviously is not going to happen now. Luckily we haven't bought our plane tickets yet so we're not losing any money there.

Ben will be missing all of his orientation but his actual classes don't begin until the 8th of October. On the downside, we begin paying rent next week whether we are there or not.

If you could, pray for our sanity... for peace... for a smooth transition... for our visas to come through quickly... for the sale of our car... and for us to be able to enjoy what time we have left in Oregon.

We'll update with more news as we get it.

Another Bath Video…of Nora, that is.

We got to spend most of this past weekend in Portland visiting family again before we make the big trek across the Atlantic. Traditionally we use a bath tub when we give Nora a bath, but since Grandma has a nice big kitchen sink, we decided to improvise! Nora had never really experienced flowing water before... she'll figure it out, eventually. ( :

If you are wondering how to pray for us these days - we need our visas to come through in good time. We've had a bit of a difficult time just getting the applications submitted properly so we are REALLY pushing our time constraints now. The goal is to fly to London the 21st of September and have a little time to adjust and set up our flat before Ben begins his studies at Oxford. It is all coming up very quickly and there is still loads to do!!

My two favorite people...

I know you aren't supposed to have favorites, but these pictures just make my heart melt every time I see them.  How can you not love these two?!?!  Nora loves hanging out with her daddy and Ben will do anything to see her smile.  What a pair!  

                                                                                                             

GET ME TO STARBUCKS!!

"Swimming"

The backyard is a great place to cool off during a heat wave. All you really need is a big tub of water and a rubber ducky. This was one of those hot afternoons where we were too lazy to pack up a bag and get in the car to go to the pool but Nora didn't seem to mind at all.








We can't get enough of those baby blues!