Thursday, May 1, 2014

Antique Faire and Easter and Spring

Antiques Faire
 
Yes, I meant to spell it that way...it's my British roots coming out...
and this is what I found....
 
A child's rocker!
 

The cool thing is that the coloring and turnings are similar to
 the antique rocking chair Rick's mother gave us.
I know, silly. 
...and a little difficult to get home...
But it spoke to me.
 
I also found a crockery piece perfect
for my husband....
 
 
I had found a sign last year advertising this, but it was very pricey.
 
 
I'm told  you can still buy these...
 
I will need to look for some.  Just because.
(Ice lollies are popscicles for you Americans reading this.)
 
I also found a cool bell to hang outside our back door
to call the grandchildren off the hill for dinner....
 
 
Yes, it's old and rusty and very heavy.
Not sure about the pig, but the rest is cool.
 
Easter
 
Easter was a little strange for me not being home to do an Easter Egg Hunt
on our hill for our grandchildren.
Instead, Rick was home.
And was at Bethany's for a hunt with 4 of our grandchildren.
 
 
Did I mention he was there without me?
That was weird.
For me.
 
But I got to do some pretty awesome things here in London,
wishing he could share them with me because they touched me so much.
 
Like, watching Cecille B DeMille's silent film,
"King of Kings"
 
 
with Elder Ohman on the awesome Hyde Park Chapel organ.
 
 
The movie was very Catholic, with a different sequence and interpretation than I'm used to,
but having LDS Hymns interspersed throughout it was AWESOME!
I loved singing the Hymns in my head and seeing how wonderfully he
fit the perfect song into perfect parts of the movie.
It took every ounce of restraint I had not to burst out singing with the organ at the end...
"He is Risen, He is Risen...".
Seriously, I have tears in my eyes just writing about it.
He IS Risen.
 
The next day I went south to the temple with four Young Single Adults from Britannia Ward.
Five of us in the car, and we were from five different countries:
US
UK
Japan
Romania
Finland
How's that for awesome?
 
Annick from the UK has been a member for 6 months...
twas her first time inside the temple and
she did baptisms for her own family names.
Yup.  We're good friends.
 
Awesome being with them.
 
We got back to Central London, and Annick and I hopped on the tube,
then a train,
and headed north to Watford just in time for....
 
 
The orchestra and choir were great.
The message wonderful.
And my heart filled with even more gratitude for my Savior.
 
Even though I couldn't do an Easter Egg Hunt with our grandchildren,
my Easter this year was wonderful in a different way.
 
I LOVE SPRING!
 
The newness of life fills me with joy.
Here are a few before and after pictures from our windows....
 

 


Notice what this bus is advertising....
 
 And
 
I finally had Ling and her friend over to learn how to make
Chocolate Chip Cookies!
 
 
Apparently deserts in China aren't nearly as sweet as in the U.S.,
but many find they love our sweet things. 
They were thrilled to see how easy it is to make cookies...
4 1/2 hours later they went home with recipes...
and a plan to buy a hand mixer...
 (which they had never used before and were a little afraid of at first)...
and a picture of baking soda and baking powder so they knew what to look for...
and both chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies...
(as we talked of other kinds of cookies, they wanted to make more so I sent Rick to buy oatmeal).
Ling was baptized about 6 months ago,
and her friend, Vivien, has investigated the church some.
We used the cookies the next night as refreshments after a Devotional at the church.
 
Now other Chinese members want to come make cookies....
 
Of course we will!!!!
 
Life is good.