Privacy Please

Gage and I knocked heads a little this morning. After about 10 minutes I went to check on him. He was no where to be found. After several minutes I found him under my bed. I assumed he was pouting and I told him to get out from under the bed, NOW! He slithered his way out pushing his handwriting book out with a pencil in one hand and a flashlight in the other hand. I asked him what he was doing, he quoted "This is the only place in the house that I can get some privacy!" This cracked me up as I watched him slither back under the bed.

As for Hayden, he has managed to find his own little escape behind the rocking chair. He even has a few pillows thrown back there for when he does reading and AWANA.

If you have been to our house you know that we have one bathroom and it is right as you enter the front door. We have an open door policy, literally meaning people open the door and walk right in. I used to shut the door every time I went to the bathroom but every time it is shut the kids urgently need Mommy at the exact moment in time. When I keep the door open is when I get my privacy. Ironic??

Living in a 800 square foot house with growing boys can be tough, especially now that we are homeschooling! I figure our next house HAS to be bigger! Brian says double would be nice, I am hoping for triple. My hope is that the kids will each get their own rooms along with a desk so that they can have some "Privacy Please".

Disney Paris

For Christmas Brian gave us a trip to Disney Paris! We just got back and we had a blast! It was a short whirlwind trip but it was SO much fun!

We boarded a bus for Paris at 4:30 on Friday! We arrived at our hotel at 3:30. The bus driver offered a night tour through Paris but we opted to get a good night sleep instead! We walked over to a mall about 2 blocks from the hotel. We were in Awe of the size and the amount of people there. Remember, we have been overseas for over 12 years now. We had Chinese for dinner and then went back to our room. Everyone, but me, was asleep by 7:30, this would be 6:30 UK time!

Saturday morning we had a buffet breakfast and we loaded back in the bus by 8:00. I was totally overwhelmed when we arrived at Disney. Having never been to a Disney, I really didn't know what to expect. We had such a fabulous day and we rode SO many more rides then I expected.

We had lunch at the Blue Lagoon. This is an underground resteraunt that is the beach at the beginning of the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride. It was so beautiful. I ordered Creme Brulee and the boys enjoyed it as much as I did!

Our favorite ride was Big Thunder Mountain, I think we rode it 5 times. Every time Levi would say he didn't want to go but we kept dragging him along. Brian, Hayden and Gage braved the Tower of Terror. Levi didn't want to go and I figured we had tortured him enough so we sat outside and waited. This was the LONGEST line we endured. The sign said it was a 25 minutes wait but Levi and I waited over an hour for them to come out.

We left the park at 10:00 totally exhausted with our legs aching! But it was such a wonderful family time!

Before leaving Paris Sunday morning we stopped at a Church on the top of Paris. It was a hike up for our poor little legs but it was beautiful! We had a great view of the city.

The ferry back to the UK was crazy. The wind was so fierce that there were SO many ladies in the bathroom with seas sickness! If it wasn't so funny listening to them, I may have gotten sick too! After the crossing we had to wait an additional hour before we could dock. It was so funny to watch people walk down the hallways, everyone looked completely drunk. Hayden and I went for a walk and Hayden fell flat on his back twice! It was quite funny.

When we finally disembarked the ferry we drove up to Dover Castle. It was dark but it was so beautiful to see the castle all lit up.

We finally arrived home at 8:30, the kids were asleep within seconds of hitting their pillows!

I ordered each of the kids a scrapbook and they will get to make their own memory albums!

Thank you Brian for the amazing trip! I love you!!

Sweet Silence

Our electricity has been blinking on and off for a few days. Usually no more then 30 minutes and during the day. It is amazing how quickly life can come to a stop when we rely so heavily on electricity. I used to think think that the house was quiet if the TV or Music wasn't on. But I realized that the house is just loud with the hum of the washing machine, dishwasher and the ever present transformers. We have been able to expericence what true silence is.

The other night right as we were sitting down to enjoy dinner, our electricity went out. So, we finished dinner by candlelight! The kids were frustrated that we didn't have any lights to eat by. We spent alot of time discussing days past when there was no electricity, cars, lights, stoves and the like. The kids were amazed that people could live in such a way. After dinner we took our candles and went into the family room where we started reading a book called Hedge of Thorns. This is an amazing book that was written in 1611. It is a story of what happens when we go through the Hedges that God has placed in our path. Often we think these hedges are hindering our freedon and we desire deeply to know what is on the other side. But we don't realize that the Hedges may be there to protect us and provide security. We highly recommend this book!! I don't want to spoil it by telling you more!! If you read this book, please let me know what you think of it!!

It took us a couple hours to get throught the book, but we had nothing else to do in the sweet silence. Just minutes after we were done reading our book the electricity came back on. The kids quickly jumped up and turned them all off to we could finish our night by candle light. It was very refreshing. I thanked God that we did have a few precious minutes as a family to sit in silence as a family. We read most nights as a family but there was something special about that night!

I, Alecia, don't often sit in silence, in fact I don't like silence. Even when I am just scrapbooking I need a movie on or some music in the background. But the Lord has been gently reminding me to "Be still, and know that I am God" from Psalm 46:10. Part of being still for me is being silent! If life is too busy and too loud I can't hear the gentle calling of his voice!! How about you, do you enjoy sweet silence?

Looking back on a wonderful 2007…

2007 was a growing and traveling year for our family!

As I write this letter my family is playing our most beloved game, UNO! It truly doesn’t matter which form of UNO they play as long as it is UNO. We love it so much that I started carrying a game in my purse, just in case the opportunity arises to play. We cherish these moments of family time. After spending time together as a family, we enjoyed our second favorite—friend time!

Sundays were the highlight of our week! After worshipping God with our extended family, we opened our house for approximately 30 people. Since Mildenhall Chapel closed for renovations back in April, we led Sunday School in our home. This opportunity helped us to grow in Christ as well as strengthen our bond with our dear friends. Brian did an amazing job involving the children, in fact, recently the boys had to build a tent together. The tent project served to illustrate our “Temporary Tents”—our bodies. He went on to explain that our time here on earth is temporary, so we anxiously await our permanent home in Heaven. But while we dwell in these “tents,” we must remember what Peter said, “make every effort to add to your faith goodness, self control, knowledge, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. 2 Cor. 5, 2 Peter 1

Our family furthered its understanding of God as we attended our AWANA (Approved Workman Are Not Ashamed) Club. Brian led in the Truth and Training Club that Hayden attends. Gage and Levi enjoyed the Sparkies Club and I got my “Baby Fix” by running the Puggles Club that ministers to 2& 3 year olds.

Fortunately we had an opportunity to break away from our busy schedule by visiting Greece and Italy. Details of these trips are located further down in this blog.

In addition, the boys had a fantastic time developing their fitness by participating in Baseball, Hockey and Soccer.

Looking forward to 2008…

This next year will start a whole new adventure for us. We will leave the UK, our home for the last 7 years. We will probably return to our homeland since there were no assignments available on the recent overseas listing. We haven’t lived in the US for 12 years so we’ll need to brace ourselves for the culture shock. You know things like endless choices at Wal-Mart and wide roads. This is unheard of overseas. Hopefully our new direction will come in February. Our house will go on the market in February. We pray it will sell quickly as our desire is to leave without any connection to the UK.

See you soon!

Please check our blog frequently as we will be posting Bios of each member in our family in the coming weeks!