Happy Valentine's Week!

Friday's Flashback: Abbey Road

Back in March of 2011, there was this fateful day when KJ finished working on our taxes and said, "Yes.  We can go to England."  That very day while he and the kids cleaned the siding on the back of the house, I sat down and typed out a list of places that I associated with London.  Abbey Road was one of those places, and as KJ likes to say, we took the Tube to Abbey Road after dark at great personal peril to take a picture for my brother, Judson.  

I don't think it was a particularly dangerous part of town, just not as crowded as other streets in the city at that hour.  When I expressed a little uneasiness KJ told me not to worry.  He had a firm grip on my tripod, which he was toting.  It did look like it would make a good weapon if needed.

  I framed a large print of the above picture for Judson for Christmas that year.

We set up the tripod and took a lot of long-exposure shots.  I really wanted to get a cool picture of KJ walking across the famous crosswalk, but it didn't work out for me.  I got one of this random lady, though.

We hustled back to the Underground after a bit, where we walked by one last famous landmark, and that was it, folks.   

A Simple Life

"It is no bad thing...

...to celebrate...

...a simple life."

from Peter Jackson's, The Fellowship of the Ring

Happy (belated) birthday to me!

I had the best weekend with my husband.  It was so fun just to be alone with him.  After dropping the kids off with my dad we had lunch at Chick-Fil-A, which is a pretty happening place on a Saturday.  Honestly, I had the time of my life just driving to the restaurant.  I'm sure it's understood that I love my children.  I do.  But the freedom from responsibility and being able to talk uninhibitedly to KJ in the car left me feeling giddy.

After lunch we went to Hobby Lobby where I left my husband sitting on a bench reading from his Kindle.  He's not a good shopper.  Then we went by Lowe's, came home and decided on a paint color for the hall bathroom, and then went back to Lowe's to buy the paint.  We followed up those errands with a matinee showing of Les Miserables and dinner at Outback, a Christmas present from my brother.

Much could be said about Les Mis, but for now I'll just say, after the subject of enjoying freedom from the responsibility of parenting, the beauty of Jean Valjean rescuing Cosette reminded me of what a beautiful thing it is to lay your life down in service of...well, anyone really, but for me, my days are spent serving my children, and this song made the labor feel beautiful.  Because it is.

  

It was refreshing on Sunday to be able to talk to friends without one eye and one side of my brain tracking James' rapid movement across the sanctuary, and yesterday I started my painting project and just enjoyed being in the house alone.  But I drove up to my parents' to retrieve my bundles last night, and I got the best greeting from them.  It was good to snuggle them close and bring them home today.  I feel more tired than I did on the days they were gone, but nonetheless, it's good to have them home.

"Excuse me, could you tell me where Platform 9 3/4 is?"

When we couldn't find it magically nestled between platforms 9 and 10 my husband asked for directions just like poor little Harry.  Unlike Harry, we were pointed in the right direction.

We can't be wholly Muggles because we managed to get our luggage cart halfway through the wall.  A little more confidence and we could make it through, I'm sure.

Birthday Weekend Re-Do

All of my original birthday plans may have fallen through, but we're trying for a re-do this weekend.  We started our weekend of fun with a trip to a different playground (I think we may have started a tradition with Playground Fridays.) and picking up dinner at Chick-Fil-A, followed by buying our first movie through our Smart TV, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.  We wanted to rent it but couldn't find it available for renting anywhere.  We'd never seen it, so I guess we were taking a chance buying, but the kids and I had read the book that morning, and as James kept saying, we really wanted to watch "Meatballs."  

We weren't disappointed in the movie, and we're heading out this morning to meet my dad with the kids.  Fun for them and a free weekend for us!  The week has been so busy I haven't really had time to anticipate the weekend, but I'm starting to now, and I think it's going to be great.

On another note, for the past year or so I've become slightly addicted to downloading digital scrapbooking kits, but I told myself I really should stop if I wasn't going to actually use them for scrapbooking.  I'll be working on more of these pages.  These were fairly easy to put together because this kit came with pre-made templates.  Done.

 Also, as you get older, isn't it funny the list of things you start thinking you'll do when you get some free time?  My mental list went like this:  run to Hobby Lobby for pegs to hang a banner in James' room, get together a recipe and ingredients for Super Bowl party, paint the bathroom, organize the pantry, clean out Ella's room, etc.  Lucky for me that I have a husband who also threw in dinner and a movie.  When did I become the practical one and he the fun one?

Friday's Flashback: The Tower of London

I think one of the best things KJ and I did was read Charles Dickens' A Child's History of England on our trip.  What better way to increase our appreciation and knowledge of everything we were seeing than reading about every king and queen and all the history in between?  By the time we reached our last day in London we'd finished the book and were very familiar with the Tower of London.  I'd learned that it was a castle, not just a tower, and everybody who was anybody in British history spent some time there, usually not leaving with their head, unfortunately.  

The Tower of London was one of the most frustrating places to try to photograph.  It was so big, and it was hard to find a vantage point where I could get it all in the frame in a way I was satisfied with, so here's a little tour around the castle. 

The view opposite this is where all the tourists hang out, but this is the side nearest the road leading to the Tower Bridge.

View from the Tower Bridge

At one point we heard the sound of music playing and got to see a glimpse of past years.

     Those women look desolate.  Prisoners? 

As I was looking through pictures this morning, I thought, Why didn't I take a panorama of this side of the Tower??  I don't know why that idea escaped me that day, but I was able to find two pictures and piece them together to get a view of this entire side.  Thank you, Photoshop.

  I think it was bad news if you were taken in through the Traitor's Gate.

So there's a glimpse of The Tower of London.  We were running out of time and didn't make it inside this trip.