Even the dog...

Now even the dogs have the lurgy... Poor Duke has an ear infection from h*e@l*1 and now he has the lurgy. This house needs some serious disinfecting. And did I mention, I'm not feeling too good right now :-(

the Lurgy vs Feeling Poorly...

In the UK when they say "Sophie is feeling poorly today" that means that Sophie is sick or under the weather, but if you say "Sophie has the lurgy" or "Sophie is sick today" that means that Sophie has the stomach bug... can you guess which one is right for the Duffy household today - you guessed it, Sophie has the lurgy.

It started last night about 12:30. Sophie crawled into bed between Kevin & I. She proceeded to moan, groan, and whine that her stomach hurt. In my most sympathetic way, I asked her to be quite or go back to her bed. After 5 minutes of continual whining I decided I could at least feel her forehead and to my surprise she was burning up with a fever. Before I could get myself turned around & the light on, Sophie emptied her stomach of everything she had eaten.

I will spare you all of the details but will just say, it was a really long night and day. The poor child couldn't keep anything down - water, juice, tea, ice, you name it. She actually got to the point that she couldn't even lift her head off the pillow. I had decided if it didn't get better soon we would have to visit the A&E (the UK way of saying ER).

Once morning came she was feeling better, but we weren't out of the woods yet... She had a few more mishaps, but by 2pm today (almost 14 hours after the start) she was successfully able to keep juice & toast down. I can report that Sophie is almost back to normal - she is perky but still not 100%. She does have her appetite back but we will take it slow...

Now, I am just washing & washing & washing sheets, towels, clothes... I have 2 sets of sheets done but we will have no blankets tonight (they won't fit in the gigantic washing machine we have, so I guess I will take them to a laundromat tomorrow).

Of course, Brittney & Kevin haven't been too affected; they have stomachs of steal I guess :-)

Update on School

Well I am more than 7 weeks into the 12 week course, and I am so glad that I only took one class this semester. This first class is a research class that all Master's students must take. It is to help us prepare for our dissertation and teach us some basic skills that we will need in our other classes.
This past week has been a little frustrating. I was starting to feel comfortable with the class and the research process. I have been successfully finding articles and books on my topic, and I was actually starting to put the paper together in my mind. Then the professor posts the next assignment, the lectures, the handouts, and announces he will be gone for the next two weeks. At the time of his posting we only had 2 more weeks of class time with the final 4 weeks being for the research paper. His posting sent me & the class into a panic. The info had little to do with the previous weeks, did not correlate together, and actually gave us another assignment as big as the original mini-dissertation we were already working on. We all started panicking. After 5 days of frustration and the starting of a migraine, I finally sent out a plea for Dr. Mark to respond. Well I opened the flood gates - everyone starting replying to my post & requesting his help. Finally Dr. Mark realized what had happened & tried to put our minds to rest... he had posted the wrong information. I do feel better after he responded, but the pessimist in me is thinking, yeah but we lost a week of class time.
I have signed up for 2 classes starting in July - Biblical Hermeneutics (can't even pronounce it...) and Theology of Old and New Testaments. My books came on Monday so they are stacked on my desk next to all my research & current text books. You could say they are taunting me...
Well, I better get back to the lectures and the research. :-)

Weekend in Wales

We spent the first weekend of May in Wales. It was a long weekend for both the girls and Kevin since Monday, May 5th was a bank holiday. We decided to take the dogs with us and were able to stay in a B&B that took dogs. When we first got there it was well past bedtime and pretty dark. The temperature was warm and the rooms were stuffy so I opened the windows... and PU the smell that permeated mine & Kevin's room - wow, it would take your breath away. My first question was how much did we pay to stay in the place... I found myself walking around the room smelling the bedding, the carpet, the towels, everything trying to find the source for the smell. Finally I was so tired I didn't care anymore. I turned the fan on, checked on the kids, the dogs, and Kevin & turned out the light (while trying to hold my nose).

The next morning I woke up to a beautiful sunrise and a roaster crowing in the near distance. I looked out the girls window & knew immediately what the "smell" was... the B&B was a working farm. Ohhhh, now it all makes since - and funny how the "smell" no longer bothered me once I knew for certain what it was... Once we got dressed we we took a quick look around the B&B. It was really nice - there were horses, dogs, cats, chickens, sheep, you name it.

One of the first things you will notice in Wales is the language... The road signs are in 2 languages (Welsh & English), and the village names are unpronouncable. The Welsh language is very different than the "normal" English you expect in the UK. Kevin kept trying to find a shirt that read "I spent the weekend in Llanfarpwllgwyngyli." We did learn that "Llan" is translated church, and "Ll" makes a "cl" sound. Hmmm, I'm thinking they don't want to play Wheel of Fortune...

We spent the days at the beach, walking the shore line, hiking the water falls, looking at castles, and basically relaxing. It was one of the best vacations we have been on. Having Duke & Daisy with us was a wonderful bonus - we all had fun! The weather was fabulous most of the time - fairly warm & sunny. The girls and the dogs (& Kevin at times) were in the water every possibile chance.

The girls had to return to school on Tuesday, Kevin returned to work, and I started the long stretch of washing clothes, cleaning the car, and catching up on school work. Duke & Daisy on the other had slept for 2 days straight. They only moved from the couch to go to the bathroom & to eat; we wore them out :-)

Schools in the UK

This weekend was the 20th anniversary for the school Brittney & Sophie attend. On Friday they had a special assembly that I was able to attend. It was 2 hours long and filled with an amazing testament to God's faithfulness... yes, you read that right - to God's faithfulness... and yes, they go to a public school.
The program started with the kids singing "Sing Hosanna" and "Blessings and Honour" and ended with them singing "The Blessing of God" (at the bottom of the post I have included an Order of Service). Several children lead the assembly in prayer and prayer responses, Brittney's class recited Psalm 148 in a popcorn fashion, another student read from Matthew, and the Bishop of Peterborough gave a small message on the importance of the children having an encounter with Jesus first, then getting a good education. WOW! That would NEVER happen in America. I found myself having to wipe tears from eyes as I realized just how faithful God has and continues to be.
This is such an important time in Brittney and Sophie's life. I am so thankful that they are attending a school that feels it is a priority to teach the real meaning of life. There is not a day that goes by that one of them doesn't tell me about something they learned at school about the Bible or want to sing a new song they learned at school about God's amazing love.
So... I will end this post with the same message I gave a future ISE who was worried about schools and churches when moving her family to the UK from the US... God is on this side of the ocean as well!

• Leading in songs: Sing Hosanna, Blessing and Honour, We Are All Celebrating Today
• Welcome, introductions and opening prayer by Head teacher and the Vicar
• Song : God of the Morning
• Psalm 148 by Class 17 (Brittney's class)
• Song: I'm Going to Paint a Perfect Picture
• Prayer linked to William Law (Vicar)
• Song: Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
• The Time Box (Head teacher)
• Song: Living and Learning
• Prayer of Thanksgiving (Yr 6 students)
• Celebration Dance (a pupil from each class)
• Cutting of the cake (Bishop and 2 students)
• Song: Thank you Lord
• Bible Reading: Matthew 7: 7-11 (Yr 6 student)
• Message by Bishop of Peterborough
• Song: Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God
• Intercessions (Vicar and Yr 6 students)
• Song: Lord's Prayer
• Prayer of Re-dedication (Bishop)
• Song: Everywhere Around Me
• The Blessing (Bishop)
• Song: The Blessing of God

God is Good, All the Time and All the Time, God is Good

Friends, Eating, Skating, and Guitar Hero...

When we were home in Illinois for spring break 08 we spent some quality time with friends. I had lunch with my good friend Luann - we laughed and laughed and laughed, then had some coffee and laughed some more; I had lunch with Pam S and Jason... we talked and talked and enjoyed our Panera's (hmm hmm good); and I had 3 lunch dates with my friends from Affina ~ we talked about old times, and how things just stay the same :-) . I had a shopping day with Whitney at Grand Prairie Mall, but you know how it is, when you want to shop you can't find anything but when you don't have time to shop, you find all kinds of things... Also we spent almost every night reminiscing with one or more of the youth from our former youth group ~ awesome times!
We went skating with our friends the Milams - David & Kevin ruled the dance floor, oops I meant the skating rink (they were playing lots of 80s and 90s music), and we spent several different nights with Pam, David, and the girls. We talked about how much their girls and our girls had changed in just one year, but of course, we adults don't change at all... But the boys (they never do change) played Guitar Hero for hours. Yep, grown adult engineers at Caterpillar playing Guitar Hero. I think it was a chance for them to live out their alter egos. It was hilarious to watch & definitely gave us all a good laugh.


See what Guitar Hero can do to a perfectly good engineer...


4 Beauty Queens ~ Hannah, Sophie, Leah, Brittney

Nana K becomes Nana D

While we were home in Illinois Kevin's mom was married to Grandpa Jim Downs. The girls were one set of the flower girls (I don't have a picture of the other beautiful girls to post :-( yet...) and Kevin got to escort his mom down the aisle. It was a wonderful weekend. We had a family dinner on Saturday to introduce everyone and then the wedding was on Sunday afternoon followed by a reception. Both events were so relaxing and great. The girls had a blast and Nana & Grandpa looked fabulous.

The Happy Couple - Nana & Grandpa (Nancy & Jim)

The Downs crew and the Duffy crew...

two little princesses...

Princess Sophie


Princess Brittney


Dad and his princesses....