Call It What You Want...

This week is the first week for the boys' school -- it's actually the parents' meeting and then the get-acquainted meetings (tuesday evening and then thursday morning, respectively).

Thursday is the first day of my *NEW* Moms' Bible Study at church, which I am leading. Call me crazy. Yes, indeed, but it only gets worse. But on this subject, I have missed being in a true Bible Study since I had to stop going to the Wednesday morning Ladies' Bible Study, led by the incomparable Joyce Windhorn (I truly respect this lady) because the boys were being too much of a distraction. I joined MOPS, but it didn't fill the need for a real Bible Study. Another one never came along. I just caved to the pressure. :) So Pastor Wade and I have worked on it, I ordered some study guides to consider, and this group will launch Thursday at 4 p.m. (with babysitting!). There are something like 10 women signed up for it. (I think totalling something like 800 kids, though I might be exaggerating.)

Is that enough?

Oh no. Last week Pastor Heather approached me about assisting in Confirmation. Egads, I can't abide junior high kids. I mean, in general. ... Except... They need good leaders (by the way, this is all my thinking, not anyone trying to "work" on me)... Two weeks a month... Eh...

Yeah. so I told Pastor Heather today that I'd give it a try and see if I can make it all work. Heh. Tim is all in favor of it. And Pastor Heather shrieked just a little. (I do so like to feel wanted!)

Am I crazy?

(Signs point to YES.)

The boys were sad about Dad going off on a trip today -- Mark would prefer Daddy to "take the day off" -- so I decided it was the right day to take them to the Indianapolis Zoo. (Sorry, Mel, but it was sort of spur of the moment.) I still can't get over how much it costs -- we dropped $30 and I got in free! -- but upkeep for this sort of thing must be astronomical.

The boys had a blast, though.

There are only a few more days left with the koalas, and we got there right at feeding time, which means that the lazy beasts opened their eyes and momentarily stretched. Evolutionarily, I'm not sure how a useless animal like this survives, unless it tastes as boring as it acts.

But they stretched and yawned and then rested some more. Apparently (according to the sign) they sleep for 18-22 hours a day; due to the low nutritional value of their only food, they have energy for nothing else. What a life.

On to more interesting animals. We were there in time to feed the giraffes!

Adam was too short to hold his piece of food up to the giraffe, so I had to lift him, and was therefore not able to get a picture of it. Only so many hands.

We saw the elephants...

And the seals...

And the penguins...

And the polar bear's behind. (He was eating.)

Mark said, "I LOVED the dolphin show!" Adam kept saying "Dow-fin!"

We also got to see the SHARKS in the new Oceans building, including being able to TOUCH them! I touched them a lot, Adam touched one and liked putting his hands in the water, and Mark pretty much didn't want to touch them at all, though he liked watching. Adam kept calling them, "Shark! Shark!" It was cute. (We also ran into someone I knew there, which is always amusing.) We also rode the train, which goes around the outside of the Plains exhibit. The boys might have died had we not.

Addition I almost forgot: We saw the walrus, but Adam had a hard time with his name. Adam called him the "Carwash."

We saw an airplane fly overhead right about the time Daddy's flight was supposed to take off, so we pretended it was Daddy's flight and waved to him.

The boys had a very nice time and were VERY VERY good. No one ran off, and Adam only got finicky about riding in the stroller when he was too tired to remain reasonable.

They were also super cute. Get a load of this...

That was without even the slightest suggestion from me.

We are home and in our naps now. I imagine they'll be serious naps today.

A birthday's never over until the present Aunt Amanda and Uncle David picked out arrives -- they're always interesting.

Today's arrival did not disappoint.

This little globe has sounds, music, and a joystick that controls a little "plane" that flies over places, which the globe then identifies. It also tells how people speak in some places (China, UK, France, South Africa, USA, Mexico, Australia, India, etc.). Adam is especially impressed with "Salut!" from Canada and France.

After more than 40 hours, I have the grand glory of presenting a major completed project...

This 1857 Promenade Dress is the Patterns of History pattern, in silk, lined in cotton. The undersleeves and collar are from the same pattern, in cotton.

The hooped petticoat (you can't see it; it's underneath!) is Past Patterns' hooped petticoat (without the flounce).

The silk is from Fashion Fabrics Club (.com) and the trims are all from Joann fabric.

The project is for the Wylie House Museum in Bloomington, IN. It will be a supporting character in a theatrical program in September, October and November at the museum, Talk of the Times, Letters from the Wylie Family, 1852-1865.

All in all, I'm quite pleased.

A little boy in my house turned two today. Unfortunately, it was a spotty day for moods, and most of them were bad. But the end of the day certainly made up for it...

Adam had breakfast in the "It's my special day!" bowl that I painted at the pottery place here in town. I had to be very careful not to fill it very full. He was happy about it. And stuffed his cheeks full.

He got a card from Tim's aunt Margrethe and uncle Jim and was very excited to find what was inside: "DOWWAS!" (dollars)

He carried around the $2 bill all morning, saying "Dowwas! Dowwas!" Mark was vexed at this and pointed out that it was just ONE dollar; there weren't two of them!

Later, it was presents from grandparents, aunt and uncle and cousins, and yes, even mom and dad, though we certainly picked the wrong present to open with, as everything ground to a halt after he saw...

THIS.

Favorite babysitter Sam and her mom and dad came over -- both Steve and Tammy are the boys' friends in their own right: Tammy used to hold Mark and draw truck pictures for him at the ladies' Bible study at church when I went on Wednesday mornings, and Steve plays with the boys when they go to the men's Bible study with Dad on Saturdays -- to share birthday cake and ice cream. Adam was worried at first to see Sam and only wanted to cuddle with me or Tim (don't leave me!), but after he realized we really truly weren't leaving, he was fine.

All in all, it was a vehicle-focused birthday, with tractors, trains, trucks and construction equipment -- and a very big Clifford. Mr. Adam, now two, is in truck-lover heaven.

Now here's hoping for some decent sleep tonight.

Today the MOPS moms got together with their little people for a field trip of the downtown Fire Station. I hadn't decided to do it, but when I mentioned it, both boys went bananas, so off we went!

Everyone got a turn to sit in the seat of the big fire truck.

Even the little guys. (Some of whom weren't so interested in getting out.)

They didn't want to get out of the rescue truck either.

We got to see all around the fire station, even the kitchen, living room and bedrooms, and it was a lot of fun, even if it wasn't SHAWN's fire station. (But it was an organized trip...)

They got fire hats and had their picture taken, too. And behaved like little angels (mostly).

My visit to London began at David and Amanda's flat in north London, where the nearest Tube station is Turnpike Lane (on the Picadilly Line).

They recently purchased this flat, which includes the first floor (upstairs in our country), a piece of back garden, and the overhead balcony you can see over David's head.

This is the scene at the Victoria & Albert's "Village Fete Goes Pop!" on Friday night. There were people everywhere, and booths with goofy games. I had limited success with the games, but did win at one, and had fun with many.

On Friday I took a walking tour of St Paul's cathedral with the people who do the London Walks. It was nice to get to see the whole place and have things explained... I even went up the 200-something steps to the whispering gallery above the cathedral (inside) with a great view down. It was a good way to spend the afternoon and kept me up and moving when I might have been dragging some.

This medieval bridge is from Eltham Palace, where David and I went on Wednesday. Built by Henry (VIII?) and leading to a magnificent Great Hall, which is the old part of the palace. The Courtauld family bought the place and built a lavish home in the art deco style, but retained and restored the Great Hall and planted gardens... etc. Nice place you've got there, folks. (It's now an English Heritage site.)

The front of Buckingham Palace.

This is my memorable photo from Sutton House, one of the oldest houses in London. Don't I look great?

David and I, ready with our tickets to enter Hampton Court Palace. Tudor Kitchens, here we come!

One of SIX fireplaces for cooking in the Tudor Kitchens at Hampton Court Palace. This huge kitchen only had one serious fire going, so it wasn't crazy-hot.

My umbrella got stuck in the maze, but I got less wet...

Amanda, in the natural light through a window at Hampton Court.

The gardens, Hampton Court.

(Can you tell that the boys are getting antsy for me to finish writing?

All the chimneys and the flag flying at Hampton Court.

Time to go back to London and pack to go home.

What a great trip! (And I'm glad to be home)

For the weekend of my visit, David and Amanda and I took a trip to Bath, some of which has been already detailed (ahhhh, the spaaaaaaaah). But for those of you who want pictures, there's more...

Here I am at the Roman baths, listening to the audio guide. This is the upper level, with the water below. Pretty neat. And to think, it was uncovered in 1880 (when our country was still making their "firsts").

Here are David and Amanda in a pretty park near the Avon River, with Pultney Bridge in the background.

We went to a fancy restaurant, the Hole in the Wall, the first evening in Bath. Apparently Amanda had heard of it and wanted to give it a try. The food was yummy.

We took a long footpath up the hill (and up, and up, and up) to where we were staying. Yes, I know, the picture's dark, but I wanted to show the distance to the end. This is about halfway up. In the center of the photo, beneath two street lamps, is a tiny blue dot. That's the end of the hill and the street where we were staying.

This is the scenic path in daylight, about halfway up.

This is a "thematic" picture, following the orders of our photographer. The building we're in front of is "The Cross Bath".

This was for my boys. We found Bob and Scoop in Bath. :)

The River Avon, with David and Amanda blocking the view. :)

David and I show off one of King Bladud's pigs. This is Emily. She is located near Bath Abbey.

This is Pultney Park, near Pultney Bridge and the River Avon.

We sat in park chairs and enjoyed the shade and the cool breeze. And the teenagers doing acrobatic moves nearby.

This is the creepiest part of the trip, Bath Abbey's sculpture of Jacob's Ladder outside the doors. I found the angels crawling down especially creepy.

This is me with Jane -- or is it one of her characters?

One of my big interests in going on my trip was the chance to see some great fashion from my way-back-when time periods. There was a chance for me to get study appointments at both the Fashion Museum at Bath and the Victoria & Albert Museum, but they were for naught.

I got a glimpse of fashion anyhow.

This is a fabulous ventilated corset that Paula and I would love to replicate at our Prairie. The time is a little late, though (1890), but I did see documentation on one that was ventilated around the waist, so that's a great start. (This is at the V&A.)

We were a little disappointed in the Fashion museum at Bath, especially since (*horror of horrors*) they do not display their stuff chronologically but by subject. And the text on the displays was pretty dumbed-down. And some of the things I was interested in were made harder to see because of bad lighting. But.

This shows the new analine dyes that made some bright colors possible for the first time. Before, all dyes were natural and left many bright colors unachievable or unstable. Chemical dyes were more stable and able to last through the ages. Like this. :)

A nice corset.

A bustle dress to die for. I swooned.

Even David got into the fun in the interactive part of the exhibit.

At Shakespeare's Globe Theatre "Experience" there were some costumes on display. I know they're not real olde-tyme, but they were nice and cool (they were form performances).

I wouldn't mind wearing this.

What man wouldn't look dashing in this? (Especially the ruff. Every man needs a good ruff!)

Mer, how am I doing? :)

The boys got a present from Aunt Amanda from my trip, and it has quickly found an important place in our lives. I think I read it 50 times yesterday and have already read it this morning.

It is called Naughty Bus.

It's a super-cute book about a new toy bus and the trouble he gets into -- he has very important work to do.

Adam walks around saying "notty bus, notty bus!"

Amanda, you found a winner!

I am officially home! It was a long and wonderful trip, but I must admit I am glad to sleep in my own bed (even if I did wake up at 4 a.m. ready to go, which is why I'm doing the blog thing right now).

I've added photos to most of my London blogs, so be sure to go back to them and check them out.

A few extra photos are here:

This is from the "Village Fete Goes POP!" at the V&A on Friday evening. Bear with me for the dark photo, but it was David and I racing these battery-powered chickens. You had to flap your arms (and legs) as hard as you could to make the chickens "run" down the racetrack. David won, but it was close!

I know, we looked ridiculous!

And, just for Mer (and all my other friends who love Cadbury Eggs), here is a new candy bar:

It's a chocolate bar with Cadbury Egg inside!

MY bag is packed, DAvid is out of bed, and I am heading for the Tube to catch the first train to Heathrow.

I had a super-fun time and am all worn out. I miss my boys and will be glad to see them.

D&A are the BEST! Much fun was had...

My last day in London we spent at Hampton Court Palace, visiting everything this Tudor (and otherwise) palace had to offer, including the Tudor Kitchens, complete with working cooks in Tudor dress for the weekend (first weekend of the month). Somehow, one of the cooks who was answering questions from me (and my companions) called me out as someone with an 'interest in history' pretty quickly. (Hmmm, how did he know?)

(David says he said, 'I think I've spotted one of us.' Uh. Yeah.)

He even knows my prairie from his ALHFAM experiences and remembers a session at the ALHFAM in Nova Scotia in which our prairie did a presentation on a particular program -- 'Aren't you the ones who burned down a house?' (*ALHFAM is the Association of living history farms and museums, though I may have letters in the wrong order...)

We saw a looooooooot of cool stuff, palace rooms, pretty gardens, took on the maze -- it started raining hard when D & I were in the center waiting for Amanda, which was funny and not devastating. It was a very fun day, and I am tired and have to get my stuff together and get ready for a trip to the airport and home.

Amanda in the Maze, at the beginning (not wet yet).

There were also musicians, who came down to the kitchens to play the music of the "common folk." Unfortunately they couldn't sing very many songs because they have record of exactly six songs from the Tudor time period -- and, as they told the crowd, four of them are two dirty to sing for families. One song is a little saucy (they sang it; it was) and the last doesn't make any sense (except that it, too, was saucy.)

The musicians lead a trail of guests to the kitchens for the music presentation.

Today I was entirely touristy, with my day starting with a visit to Buckingham Palace! The State Rooms are only open for about two months in the summer, so it's never been open when I've been here before. So I waited in the queue for an entry ticket and then waited in another queue to get in and get my free audio guide (I should think it would be free!). I listened to almost everything on the audio guide (including a few 'extras') and thought it was great.

You can't take pictures in Buckingham Palace, but this is the back of the Palace, after my tour.

The special exhibition this year is the hall set for a state banquet, with the tables and chairs and plates and glasses (at least 6 per place setting) and silver and napkins and gilt... It was very impressive. It pretended it was going to spit rain as I was coming out and walking through the garden back to the road, but nothing worth putting an umbrella up for.

Then it was off to my next stop, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. On the way I stopped in at Southwark Cathedral and walked through. It was pretty and quiet and peaceful and nice.

Today there was an afternoon performance at the Globe, so no tours of the theatre itself, but a walk through the exhibit (pretty neat) and then a tour down Bankside to the original Rose Theatre (one of the very old ones where Shakespeare's works were performed) was an acceptable substitute. (The Rose is just an archaelogical site right now, with a building built above it, and the ruins submerged in water to keep them as they have been for the past 300 years.)

Then it was back onto the Tube, with a stop in tourist-central (Leicester Square) for some snack, and back here to D&A's place, where I'm checking in and then going to rest my tired feet.

Cheers for now!

Yesterday was a trip out and about with Amanda, to the Geffrye Museum and Sutton House, with a side trip to the Transport Museum's Gift Shop.

The Geffrye Museum has rooms set up to represent the living rooms of the middle class through the ages, starting in the 17th century and ending in 1990. Nice presentation. We listened to the audio guide and enjoyed all the cool stuff, then lunched in the cafe and saw the elaborate gardens.

The afternoon took us to Sutton House, one of the oldest houses in London. There was cool stuff in there, including a linenfold room, a room paneled in wood carved to resemble draped cloth. That was pretty neat.

We went into Covent Garden, which anyone who's been here knows is a crowded mess of people; it was indeed, but the trip to the Transport Museum Gift Shop yielded the needed City Bus and other goodies (including something for Tim!). Then we were off to the Pembury, D&A's favorite pub that has various games for people to play. Cooooool. We played a couple of VERY fun games and stayed until quite late.

Today I am off to a couple of super-tourist sites.

Cheers, everyone!