“What an amazing Christ we serve.  He never seeks for our approval, only the faith to believe that He is at work when all is a mystery.  To put yourself in His hands is not to be led astray.” ~Watkin Roberts

There is property about a mile away  that straddles the Rogue River.  It is a ranch with horses and cows.  But every so often a different species decides to graze there and it is such a treat, I just had to share!

Philip and a coworker took a train to London today and walked the city for 11 hours. It was a beautiful day.   He said they crossed every bridge in the city at least once and some twice.  They got to see so many of the sites from historic buildings to markets where people were selling everything from clothes they designed to handcrafted items to food. There are random pieces of walls from castles around the city.  One had a statue with centurion in armor, the plaque stated that the bottom of the wall was from Roman times (90 AD)and had been added to  during the middle ages.

Here are the pictures he sent.

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Cricket suns himself while they saddle up.

Two very happy riders and two very satisfied horses.

Lady Ann all fuzzy with her winter coat.

Here are some of the photos Philip sent of his first few weeks in England.  There has been an unusual amount of snow in the area so he has found that the little Miata he is leasing might better be switched out for something a little larger- besides, he needs room for guests.

The Mazda Miata I am renting

A snowy view of the housing I had been staying in at Alconbury.

The snow falling in my new backyard or"garden" as they call it. It is very pretty till I think about driving to work in it.

This is the field that backs up to my yard. There is a kind of public walking path through it where lots of people walk their dogs.

Yesterday I got to have some little friends over to the house to work on a craft project.  With Valentine’s day coming, I chose a craft that could be a gift.  My original plan was to make one sample but I had so much fun I made several.  Here are some photos:

Mini boxes

Yesterday the girls decorated their boxes and then we made message cookies (kind of like fortune cookies but the girls wrote their own messages to put inside) to fill the boxes with.  It was a fun afternoon!

~Christina

For the past month we have enjoyed having Philip home.  He has visited with friends, worked around the yard, gone shooting, taken dance lessons, been a guest speaker for the Sea Cadets, celebrated Christmas, New Year’s and several birthdays, watched movies with Abby and generally had a good time.  We loved having him here but today he had to go.  He is off on new adventures at his next duty station.  He will be very much missed but we will look forward to seeing his photos and hearing stories of his exploits.

Here are some photos from his visit…

A goodnight kiss

a briefing

A demonstration in the correct way to iron your dress uniform

Taking the birthday guys out to dinner

working on the fence posts

the tractor and the auger

some very happy poodles

New Year’s Eve Ball

Dancing with Miss Talie

Abby enjoying the attention

Let’s swing!

There are some photos from the New Year’s Eve Ball posted on the dance group website courtesy of Ezra Stockton, a superb photographer.  Here is the link to see the rest of them:

http://libertytreedancergroup.webs.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=12816650

Here is a link to a great study on Hope

Hope in Person

Yesterday we held a Blue Sparks Christmas Party.  It was a special event with Mr. Gary reading us The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey complete with sound effects.

After that we put together a wonderful reindeer ornament made with clothes pins, felt, tiny pompoms and wiggley eyes!  Last of all we decorated little gingerbread houses with all kind of candy and snacks.  We had a great time, hope everyone who came did too.

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