Saturday At Long Last

Hello Readers. I think we have a total of zero readers as evidenced by our overwhelming comments page. Yet I will continue writing for the sake of bloggers everywhere.

Weekends become more and more precious as weekdays get busier. This week has flown by. Not sure how time actually flies, but this week it did. Complete with dinner out three nights, 10 year old drama at school, one relaxing night-in when I dozed off after a sweet and sour chinese stirfry at 9, and teens till 11pm Friday. And what a wonderful, relaxing, exhilarating weekend we had to look forward to.

The thought of sleeping in sounded so good. But why oh why can my body not sleep past 7?! Bodies must create some sort of internal alarm clock. But I took advantage of the morning by drinking coffee in bed, eating desserty granola, and signing up for freebies on the internet. That was a mistake. They sneakily ask you for you email and phone number and then send texts and emails to lure you in further. What tricksters. Dave awoke and we watched a mesmerizing hour of Master Chef. One hour of food drama. One hour of enjoyment. That show creates entertainment for foodies and drama seekers alike. They make you love a certain character and then they drop him in the final three. After daydreaming about food, we tied our tennis shoes and went running around a castle. However, our run consisted of hardly running. We are both sorely out of shape. But the run was worth a try. And it's around a castle. Excellent.

Then groceries. Tesco parking lot equals insane. Rugby games in the afternoon completely change people's food shop schedule. Wales rugby runs social circles here like football season in the states.

I could recount the rest of my day for you - mixing instant and proper coffee, having wonderful ladies over, walking through sunny merthyr, but I won't.

I will say that our next door neighbors got a knock from the police today. I nosily watched it going down out the window. Let's just say that the icecream truck that comes around 7 each night sells products other than icecream. Products coated in powder are their specialty, and our neighbors enjoy buying and selling them too!

Washing clothes here.. different. Half the size washers makes for twice the amount of clothes loads. And glimpses of sun force me to quickly run wet clothes to the line. Then hang the rest around the house to increase the wetness of our home. Steps to washing clothes here:
1. Just bring them to someone's house in the church that has a large washer and dryer and borrow their electricity, water, and appliances. Just kidding. Can't use the excuse that we don't have a washer anymore. Will just have to learn the welsh way!

And I will leave you now to meet my husband. I love you all.

And a couple more

Aldis and Ikea and House pics!!

I am realizing how utterly dependent I am on people in our church family. Today, a kind woman brought me shopping at Aldis for food. Then another woman brought me 45 minutes into cardiff to go get a shelving unit from IKEA. Then Dave installed our washing machine! God is so kind to us to provide people that can give me rides to key places when I don't have a car!

Food shopping is different here. I can't even fully explain how. Except to say that it takes me twice as long, they sale lots of pickled things and curry sauces, and I can't find black beans. You pay a pound to get a buggy (cart). People rush around and don't smile. You leave your credit card IN the machine while it processes (don't just slide it). But at the end of the shop, we had food for our little home. Thanks to Dave's mom, we have frozen meat for a month, so our bill was cheaper than normal. I can't imagine what it will be like when we need to buy meat and washing fluid.

Dave is fixing things up more than ever! He installed our washer! What a handy man!

Lastly, here are a few pics. Not many, I know. But it rained today and I couldn't take outside pics. Enjoy these few. Any notice there is a guest bed for anyone to come stay in. We'd love to have you!!!!

Our little blog

Hello everyone! I am sitting in a friends' home writing this blog post. We don't have internet at our house, so I have been out of contact with people via facebook and email. But believe me, it's not because we have become reclusive oldies or that we don't care about our American and Welsh friends. It's just because we are newlyweds with full time jobs and haven't had time to get internet installed. But don't fear. It will happen at some point.

That said, I am going to try my best to be good at putting up pics and little happenings in our two person life. But really, I don't think there will be all that much to say. But I want to keep in touch for sure. So please check in here every so often. But then send an email and keep in touch with us.

We are pretty settled in our house. The bedroom, living rooms, and kitchen look set up. But the rest of the house needs some TLC. We have already had so many people in our home and we have loved it. Life group, couples, single parents, teens, friends from church, and Dave's family have all been in. It's wonderful.

Life has gotten back into full swing for both of us. Dave is back at church preaching and leading teens. He is also spending lots of time with some of the homeless guys and gals in Merthyr. I am working again and realizing how I have got quite a bit to catch up from the time I was in America. The girls in my class are marvelous though. They have been patient with me this week as I have been tired, sore (bad fall on stairs), and ignorant of all they have done while I have been away.

Anyway. I could write a book, but this is an intro post to say "hello". So I'll stop here by saying we hope you like keeping up with us this way. Please email and call and send pics of YOU too.

Lauren and Dave