My 3 daughters...

These are my 3 favorite girls in the world. Whitney has been a strength to my family since Brittney came along. It seems as if in some strange way Whitney was my first daughter... she and Brittney have so much in common, all the way down to a mole on their big toe ~ go figure. While I was pregnant with Sophie, Whitney was our support & life-line many times. I can remember calling her in the middle of the night due to contractions & she came over to sit with Brittney. When we moved to our farm while I was 9 months pregnant, she loaded her car with all my clothes (and that is a lot of clothes) to take them to the new house. Whit was one of the first visitors in the hospital to hold Sophie (there is a copy of that picture in a post from July of last year). When we have travelled back to Illinois for our home leave Whitney either meets us at the airport or at the house, and she has even been known to stock my house with the necessities - Diet Mountain Dew and Ramen Noodles :-)

Now that we are back in the UK I am missing Whitney a lot and the girls just keep asking when they will get to see her again. I guess I wanted to make this post so everyone can know just how wonderful Whitney is & how much we can't wait to see her. Oh I know, she should hop on a plane and come over here...shall we take a vote-

Love ya Whitney

Horseback Riding

Our farm back in Illinois is going through many changes ~ we are modifying the house to look like a British Barn conversion, and we plan on bringing horses back to the farm land. Since Kevin & I know so little about the taking care of horses, I have actually enrolled in a two year course that will certify me to board horses at the end. Boarding horses is not my entention, but it will give me the skill set to take care of our horses.

On Sundays Brittney, Sophie & Kevin take horse riding lessons (I take during the week). Here are some pictures of the girls riding English style of course :-)

Sweetwater Bend

While we are living in the UK we have decided to completely re-do our house back in America, to say that we have been influenced by the British countryside is an understatement. We have added a tower which will contain the spiral staircase that will take you to the loft in our new master bedroom. The new master replaces the original 2 car garage (which was torn down last year). A new garage will be added this summer; it will be 2 levels so that an exercise room can be added along with a hang out area for the girls. We will be taking the brick off the house & replacing it with stone. In addition the arches in the front will be taken out (I've always disliked them), two additional dormers will be added, and the roof line readjusted some. The roof on the tower will be covered with a copper look-a-like. Now, the funny thing... all of this started by me wanting a new kitchen. I guess the saying 'be careful what you ask for' has been taken to an extreme by us :-)The garage will be added to the side of the house here. Kevin has decided that we 'need' a four car garage. It will be built so the middle two garages will have one door but will jut out from the other two garage doors on either side (I'm told this is to add more architecture detail).
This is the view in the tower. It will have over 18 windows between the two levels and will house the spiral staircase. The staircase leads up to the loft in our master bedroom. The loft will be a library, reading area.
We have lots of views out over the countryside from up in the loft. The downstairs of the master will have a corner fireplace with a sitting area as well. I'm wondering if Kevin has designed it with the idea of never leaving the room...

The back of the house (before the garage is added to the side) will have stone instead of the siding, and a deck will be built at some point.


So far, the only thing that hasn't been added or accounted for yet is a motte and a dragon. What do you think will happen if I ask for those as well :-)

Happy 40th gifts for Kevin & Cathy

While we were skiing in December I turned 40, but Kevin was unable to give me my gift. You see, he wanted to give me a cuckoo-clock but this year the area we stayed in Switzerland had no cuckoo-clocks. Not to fear, we went to Germany in March - cuckoo clock heaven! We found a wood-cutter who hand makes cuckoo-clocks, and he taught Kevin all the ins-and-outs of the clocks. His shop was full of so many clocks - traditional, big, small, everything you could think of. We fell in love with the clock below (I know it is huge) but it reminds us of skiing and the great outdoors.

For as long as I can remember Kevin has talked about wanting to go sky-diving or parasailing or parachuting or something to that measure. I was looking on line for some gift ideas and came across the perfect gift for Kevin...for this gift, if the receiver is age 40 or over a doctor's examination & clearance is required. How excellent!!!

Kevin will need to schedule his jump from a real plane, but once he gets the nerve up Brittney's teacher, Ms. Lee will be going on the jump with Kevin to video tape the experience. I will post the information once we have it ready :-)

Happy Mother's Day UK style!

One of the perks of living in the UK is that I get to celebrate 2 Mother's Day - the good ole, standard Mother's Day celebrated in the USA during the month of May and Mothering Day (also known as Mum's Day) here in the UK. Today at church I learned that Mothering Day is actually a church celebrated occasion dating back to the 16th century. The date is determined by the 4th Sunday of Lent or approximately half way through Lent. Another tradition is to eat a Simnel Cake (fruit cake with marzipan, an almond paste, in the middle with 11 balls on the top). I was also reminded that scripture is clear that God loves us with a mother's comforting love ~ "as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you..." Isaiah 66:13a.

Today started with Sophie bringing me breakfast in bed (cereal with yogurt), followed by her proudly presenting me with her school-made card. Then Brittney produced all of her beautiful hand-made cards. An excellent way to start the day!

Kevin was 'struggling' for gift ideas so I suggested he take me to the antique centre where I had some ideas freshly prepared to share with him :-) I wanted a picture of a British Fox Hunt. So we looked through the numerous pictures while the girl's patiently entertained themselves. The picture we got is of a fox hunt taking place at Belvoir Castle (which we have been to). Way cool! The girls also found a small King Charles Spaniel Dog for me which I will proudly display on my desk. Afterwards we drove to a local Equestrian Centre and signed me and the girls up for lessons. I can't wait to start!

I had an excellent day and am reminded of just how much I love my Momma and all the women who have been a 'mothering' comfort to me in my years... God is so good!

Week in Germany ~ birth place

My dad & his wife are visiting from Georgia. During their two week visit we traveled to Germany for a week and spent the last week traveling all over England. I will slowly blog about our travels...starting with our week in Germany.

Our first trip was to visit my Birth Place. Yes, I was born somewhere other than the good ole USA. During Vietnam, my dad was stationed outside Frankfurt, West Germany (of course now just known as Germany). This fact has been a good piece of trivia for me in the past, but now I feel like I know more. It was really cool walking the streets that my parents walked when they were younger than I currently am...

Mom & Dad lived on the third floor apartment ~ up where dad & I are pointing

Dad was curious to see if Helga still lived in the apartment complex. She was the landlady who took mom & dad under her wing - made sure they were treated right, not over charged, etc. Well dad checked the listing by the front door of the apartment & saw that her name was still listed. We tried to call up to her apartment but there wasn't any answer.

After looking around awhile, we decided to walk to the local bakery, enjoy some treats, & head off for our next adventure...

School Pictures

I love this picture!!!! It is the girl's school picture. I have copies for all the grandparents next time we see you!