Moving right along.......

We are getting closer and closer to being able to move our things in as well as our family. Emily and JJ are patiently awaiting the big move in day. We had hoped by the end of July, but it is doubtful now. They are waiting on the excavator to finish the rock wall on the sides of the house and to do the grading. Then the exterior finishes can be applied, such as the rock around the posts that hold up the deck as well as around the bottom 1/3 of the house. The stucco, and the cedar shingles on the gable ends. Also the correct railings, or posts are to be applied on the deck as they put wood ones on and we ordered iron. This first picture is the entry from the garage into the lower level. The lower level has a large family type room, bath room, two bedrooms, and the mechanical room. It's also on the level of the garage and Ed's workroom.
This second picture is the slate on the main floor entry from the deck.
And the third picture is the all but completed rock wall at the back of the house. Originally, there was only to be around eight feet from the house to the mountain wall, but last summer around this time we had heavy downpours with hail which resulted in the wall caving in and so we ended up with more space. The downside was that it took extra time to dig out again which put everything behind. It's possible that we could have been done months earlier had it not been for this. However, we don't know what else could have happened and therefore it could be that this was for the best for some reason.

Emily Prouse and sister Libby Aldis pose in front of a bicycle potted with flowers near the start of the tour de France in London.

"Karen, do I look like a tourist?" That's what Dick asked us one day. I told him the little tan colored pouch strapped around his neck was a dead give away.

Tour de France

We have had the Aldis' here to visit for most of this week. (Dick, Karen, Libby, and Emily & Tyson Prouse) One of Dick's goals was to see as much of the Tour de France happenings as possible. They went to the pre celebration kick off at Trafalger square on Friday. Then Ed and I joined them on Saturday for the first day which was a timed trial near Hyde Park. Then on Sunday everyone except Karen and Phyllis went to the actual first day of racing which started near Greenwich.

The Prolog

The prolog was on Saturday which was held in London near Hyde Park which was a 7.5km timed race. Here are some of the bikers who are on a practice lap. This was held near Hyde Park. There were lots of people there and it was hard to get up to the gates but Dick was able to weasel in to the front. Ed took this picture over peoples heads by just raising his arms with his camera and hoping to get a decent shot now and then. It was a beautiful day as this was the first day that we had sun most of the day in about 6 or 7 weeks.

At the beginning of day 1

Ed, Dick, Emily, Tyson, and Libby went to where the riders were starting the race. Actually, it wasn't really the beginning of the race but more like a cruise through the city of London just before the beginning of the race. Our group got there 2hrs or more prior to this to get a front row to the action. Although the procession of bikers, support vehicles, and motor police took around 15 mins to pass, the cyclists passed by in about 15 seconds--all 189. The actual race started at Greenwich and then headed out into the country. Phyllis and Karen decided to sleep in instead and go to a market where they ate cream cheese and chive stuffed bagels while looking at all kinds of textiles, jewlry, etc.

Another move forward

We got spindles put on last Friday. We heard from the excavator and he is working at finishing up the rock wall in the back. Sooooo hopefully they will be able to soon start on the exterior finishes of stucco and stone.

The house in Woodland Park, CO is coming along more quickly now. Wood flooring, tile, wood trim, light fixtures and kitchen cabinets are mostly in. Emily has been taking the photos and sends them to us on the net. We are getting really excited to see this in person!

The great room. The spindles are not in yet around the railing. The wood floor is all installed but not yet stained.

The molding at the top of the cabinets is not on yet but otherwise most of the cabinets are in place. Also no hardware on the doors yet.

This is the entry or foyer.

Wimbledon 2007

One of our house-mates won a draw for two tickets to court number one at Wimbledon for Tuesday, day two of the two-week tennis tourniment. I had no idea how hard it is to get these tickets. People camp out all night to get tickets at the box office each day! It was a fantastic experience. The Brits know how to conduct a tennis tournament! Everything was spit-and-polish and first class in every way. The grounds are glorious!

We were able to watch 4 matches on the No. 1 court as well as parts of other matches on the 17 courts used for the event. All the big names were there, but we were not very lucky at celebrity spotting. The tennis was impressive, however. We enjoyed the traditional 'stawberries and cream' (the Brits love their cream)but no cucumber sandwiches. It was supposed to rain on and off, but we never had a drop all day. I don't know if I will ever get the chance again, but if I do, I'm going back to Wimbledon!

Here are some house pics...




All the finish work is happening such as tile, hardwood flooring, stone on the fireplace, etc. They delivered the kitchen today.

We are hoping to get back to the states in September, spending time between our new home in Woodland Park and some time in Kansas visiting my family and our friends.

This is the "down town" area of Oxford. Most of Oxford is made up of colleges through out the entire town.

Ed and I were taking a walk in a village just outside of Oxford and found this quaint little thatched roof house.

More Oxford pictures

This is a line for a graduation. I don't know of which college of Oxford but the building is beautiful.

Phils java

This is a picture of thanks to Sharon Kniss' dad, Phil who roasts his own coffee beans. Alistair McKay of the Bridge Builders staff spent three weeks at EMU doing some teaching and brought back the beans with him. Sharon is from Harrisonburg and graduated from EMU in Peace and justice studies. She is the one sitting on the bench in front of me (Phyllis) with the darker hair. On the right side of the picture is Alan and Ellie Krieder who were at the Centre to do a one day seminar. They had spent around 20 years at the Centre as directors before moving on to several other places in the U.K. totalling 30 years here. They now are in Elkhart, IN working at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary.

Cake decorating in Oxford shop

We walked through a gallery of small shops in Oxford and came across this cake bakery. The first cake is of an Oxford graduate banquet.

The two pictures below are of Oxford grads. I am told that they take their exams with these robes on. They have to show up in their robes and caps although they can remove the caps while taking the exam. One of our Bridge Builder staff went to Oxford and told me about this.

Oxford Grads

A visit from friends & time spent in Oxford

Last Saturday we took a train to Oxford and met up with our friends, Kay and Carl Gusler from Colorado who go to our church in Colorado Springs. They had been in the UK for two weeks on vacation with three other couples. After a short tour of Oxford, which included a walk along one of the Oxford canals and lunch with one of the other couples, we went back to London. They spent two nights with us. We spent Sunday on a tour bus looking at London. It's the kind of tour where you can get on and off the bus at any time. The tickets are good for 24 hrs. It was a beautiful day and a nice relaxing way to see some of the sights. It's always so good to have friends come and visit with us.

This church is one of the oldest in the U.K. It is located in a small village near Oxford. Here we are eating lunch with Kay & Carl Gusler, Irwin & Phyllis Beck. The Becks were on their way back to Goshen after spending a year at the Lithuania Christian College.

We took a walk along the south bank of the Thames in London. These are only two of about 10 different people that were posing as statues. If you put money down they often will "act" for a minute or two. Also if you take your picture with one of them they hope for a tip.

This is a house on the edge of Oxford. You can't see it but the canal runs right under it via the stone arch that you see.

At attention

I'm not sure if he is at attention or asleep. When I look at the picture on our computer which fills the screen, his eyes look closed to me. This is in front of Buckingham Palace.

Royal Albert Hall

This is the Royal Albert Hall named after Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert. It houses the UK's largest pipe organ and is the home for "The Proms".

Our crazy Colorado family

This is what will happen to your family and friends when you have them looking after the house that you are building while you are away enjoying far off lands. I think we've driven them mad! But we love 'em. Especially the weird lady in the bridal veil. Corbin and Tonya were having Emily, JJ, and Hilary up one night for a nice supper and I don't know what they put in the chili, but I hear after this shot they had a rousing game of hide and go seek. The summer has not even started!
The next few pictures are shots that Tonya has been taking and sending to us via email with the tech help of Corbin. We can't wait to get home to see the house. Progress is slow due to worker problems. Hopefully the kids can get into it by the 1st of July???

Our great room view

stained interior doors

Ceiling tongue and groove

All kinds of art

Hilary took a day on her own to walk around Camden Town, an area of London close to where we live. Camden is known for it's wild and bizarre shops and has a lot of "artists and musicians" all over the place. There are musicians on the underground playing which is kind of nice. It is regulated and you need a license or permit to be able to do this. These musicians/artists are called "buskers". The term 'Busk' means to play music or sing ina public place so that the people who are there will give money. We haven't gotten a picture of a musician yet. Hilary has but I did not get that from her.
When it comes to fashion, anything and everything is seen here. It's not anything that is shocking or obscene, just colorful and wild!

Abbey Road

Hey Beatles fans. This is the zebra crossing where the Beatles shot the picture for their album cover. This is Hilary on her Rock and Roll Tour she took with a friend of hers that was there with Goshen College. At a zebra crossing, the pedestrian has the right of way and all traffic must stop while you cross the street. All other crossings you have to wait on the green light to go like we are used to in the States.

The National Theatre

We went to a play at the National Theatre on the South Bank of the River Thames. We had inexpensive seats which meant we were on the second to the last row. However, the view was great! This is a more modern theatre and the seats were spacious, comfortable, and with good leg room. We were there early so the theatre is empty but about 5 minutes prior to the start, it fills up fast. The play was "A Matter of Life or Death". It was great. The next night we went to "Little Shop of Horrors" where things were nearly the opposite. We sat in the front row of a very old, small theatre with cramped seats. Since we took front row seats, we had to look nearly straight up at times, and we got 1/2 price on the tickets. But we could see every expression of the actors. I kind of felt like I was in the orchestra pit.

We walked for miles!

Last Saturday, Ed, Hilary, and I took the tube to the museum of science and technology or industry, I can't remember. I do remember that it was the best museum so far. We spent a good bit of time there. Then we walked to Trafalger square. After that we made our way on foot to Hyde Park which is huge and beautiful. That's where this picture was taken by Hilary. We then decided since we were fairly close to Buckingham palace, we might as well go have a look. On our way back from the palace, we spotted the Hard Rock Cafe and with all the walking, we were hungry.

We're having a great time with Hilary here.

Peter Pan

We stumbled upon Peter Pan! This is a bronze statue donated by J.M. Barrie to the City of London to put in Hyde Park. Hyde Park looks a lot like the park in the movie "Finding Neverland". It's huge! Hilary learned on one of her tours that Hyde Park was used as a body dumping ground during the plague.

Jimmy Page

Hilary went on an organized rock and roll tour and she was able to snap this shot of Jimmy Page. For those of you who are not in the know, Jimmy Page was in the band Led Zepplin....you know...."Stairway to Heaven"!

A visit from Hilary

We are enjoying a visit from our daughter, Hilary. She is here for two weeks and we are trying to see as much as we can without going broke. There are lots of free things to do so we have hit several museums and have done several walks around the city. This is a shot on the millineum bridge heading towards St. Pauls cathedral. Just prior to this we had a self guided tour through "the clink", a jail on the river Thames. Then we went to the Tate Modern which is a museum of modern art. Hilary and I liked it a lot but Ed decided he is not the modern art kind of guy. We are going to the science and technology museum tomorrow which is down his alley.

A view from the top of St. Paul's cathedral

We were not able to take pictures inside of St. Paul's cathedral but we could take pictures outside. This is the view we saw after climbing over 400 steps up to the top of the dome. It leads you to the outside of the dome and this is what you see....central London. It was a cloudy day but we could still see quite a ways around the city. The ceiling of the cathedral inside was absolutely beautiful.

Mary Poppins

At the end of the day, we went to the live production of Mary Poppins. It was a little different than the movie. I've been told it followed the book more closely. The song and dance numbers done with 30 plus people were so fun to watch. It was all really, really good.

birthday weekend

I turned 50 in January! On Ed's side of the family, the women celebrate the 50th birthday by getting together for a weekend of eating, playing games, talking, laughing and many other things. I was hoping to do this in the late spring or summer but Ed and I needed to leave for London so this was done in Feb. We went to Cape May, NJ to a big beach house. Trouble was that it was very windy and cold. So the walks were short. We still had a great time. All my girls were able to attend which was an added bonus for me.

50th birthday

This is the dessert we had for our gourmet meal we have on Saturday evening. The meal is prepared by us all. The birthday girl gets to wear a handed down tiara and medals for living to the age of 50.

People in our lives

I thought I would do a series of the people that we are in frequent contact with. This is John Clarke and Anicka Fast who are married and live at the Centre. John is doing the upgrade work to our computer system. Anicka is a full time student at SOAS University working on her masters in language studies. They soon will be going to Burkina Faso for about six weeks for her to do work on her thesis, come back for another six weeks, then they hope to have things in place to go back to Burkina to do mission work. Anicka's mother is from the Netherlands and her father is Canadian and they raised Anicka and her siblings in Papau New Guinea. John is from Canada and speaks French very well. They are the instigators of many fondue, music, and cook out parties.

This is Sasha and Elizabeth or "Leza". Sasha is married to Judy Augsburger, David Augsburgers daughter. Judy works for NBC and was in Russia for 13 (?) years where she met Sasha and got married. Leza is 2 and they are expecting their 2nd child in a month. they decided a little less than a year ago to move to London where she conts to work for NBC. They go to the Woodgreen Mennonite Church. Their long range plans are to move to Virginia and live. Leza is bilingual, speaking russian to her dad and english to her mom. Judy has quite the stories about covering stories in Iraq, but I say she is even more brave for having a child at 41 years of age.

This is Janelle Theisson on the left and her mother Kathy on the right. Vic, dad and husband is not on this walk. Vic is the director of the LMC. Kathy is the librarian, gardener, and fills in for me when I need to be gone. She does lots of other things too numerous to mention. Janelle is going half time to Roehampton University and puts in 1 1/2 days in volunteer work at the center. They live in the flat above us. They have another dau, Katrina, who goes to Canadian Mennonite Univ and is home for the summer working in the office.

American would say: My computer was stolen. Brit would say: My computer was nicked.

American would say: Television, trash, "that's great!". Brit: Teley, rubish, "that's brilliant!"

American: Have a good day! Brit: Cheers!

Keats house

About a month ago, we walked to Hampstead which is about a 30 min brisk walk from where we live. This is a picture of the house that the writer/poet John Keats lived in for a few years. We were on a walk yesterday and just happened upon the house of Charles Dickens. Peter Sellers lived in a house just a 5 min walk from the Centre. Buildings that have been homes to famous people are easy to spot as they have a blue round plaque on the front of the house with the persons name, occupation, and date of their birth & death on it. You can see in this photo that the plaque is right above the door. I never get tired of walking around and looking at the buildings. And now....more words or phrases: What we call the "trunk" of a car, they call the "boot". What we call the hood of a car, they call the "bonette". U.S. "I'm going to vacuum the carpets". U.K. "I'm going to Hoover the carpets".