A pint amongst scholars

We had a delightful time in Oxford. It was, for the most part, a small enough town to simply wander and explore. It was surprising to us to find that there isn't a singular "Oxford University campus" but instead it is a town made up of a large collection of colleges, with quite a few puns scattered amongst them, along with shops and homes. I (Calvin) thoroughly enjoyed the abundance of local pubs. There I learned of what they call here "Real Ale," which in the States we would just call cask ale. Kelli and I enjoyed visiting puns known for the notable people that had frequented them. The first such pub was The Kings Arms, which is apparently the pub the Queen likes to visit whenever she's in Oxford. That evening we went to The Eagle and Child, which was the favorite hangout spot for "The Inklings," better known to Americans as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and friends. Later that night we went to The White Horse, which was Bill Clinton's favorite hangout when he was at Oxford. There I met a Peruvian metaphysicist named Max, who proved quite the conversationalist. He told me that, in life, I am a priest. We also paid a quick visit to The Turf Tavern, where Oxford students traditionally go to celebrate finishing exams. What was really cool for us about these pubs was how truly old they were, the newest of hem being only a couple centuries old, and, being a part of this amazingly old and historical college town, how much thinking must have gone on in them. In fact, Max told us about an even older pub hidden across town, The Bear, established in the 1200's, which Michael and I visited the next day. All told, we had the perfect little visit to Oxford. We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Kelli's cousin, Joy, her husband Michael, and their darling daughter Riley. We toured some amazing places, including Christ Church, where Lewis Carroll invented the world of Alice in Wonderland, and Oxford Castle, which, despite its name, spent more of its history as a prison, finally being shut down by the Human Rights Act in 1996. Of course, the visit was not without its downsides, mainly due to having to replace a brand new suitcase, and dealing with constant rain for over half the visit. But it was worth it, we loved Oxford.

An epic journey begins

This year we finally get to return to Europe!  The journey began July 1st, when we left our friend Lee at our house to take care of our babies (our dogs) and we headed down to Calvin's parents' house in Lancaster.  From there we traveled to LA to go to Megan Overholt's wedding, and then on July 3rd we headed to LAX to fly out for England.

It's funny how amazing trips always begin with a lot of waiting and exhaustion.  We got to LAX the prescribed 3 hours early, but security and all that took less than an hour, so we had to wait almost two hours before boarding.  The flight was cramped and very long- we sat in the middle of a five-person section in the middle of the plane, so every bathroom or stretch trip was an ordeal.  Finally the ten-hour flight ended, and we were in England!... sort of.  We then stood in the line for customs for about an hour.  Eventually, we made it across the border, then bought our Oyster cards for the Underground, took the tube (full of funnily-obnoxious British teenagers) to Paddington Station (only took the wrong tube once on the way there) and arrived to wait for our train to Oxford.  Again, we were a bit too early (I had pre-booked the train tickets) but we were at least able to find a couch at a bar where we could relax and clean up a bit.  We got on our train, ready for another hour of sitting, hoping to catch a short nap- but our seats were right next to a large group of Special-Needs British teenagers returning from a trip to London.  Needless to say, the train journey was not as quiet as we had hoped.

It took us a while, but eventually we got to Oxford.  Kelli's cousin's husband, Michael, met us at the train station, and then we had a short walk to the bus, from which we had a short walk to their apartment.  Well, these technically are short walks, but of course on the way to the bus, the wheel on Kelli's brand-new suitcase busted, so I (Calvin) got to carry the 40-pound bag most of the way.  But we made it to the apartment, after about 16 hours of traveling, and got to enjoy being welcomed by Kelli's cousin Joy and her darling daughter Riley.  We had dinner, relaxed a bit, and finally crashed- and slept for 12 and a half hours.

Happy Valentine's Day

Love and Cherish the ones you are with...not just today but everyday! I love Love!

I'm Going to be a Ranger!

It is Saturday. On Wednesday, I was so incredibly nervous because I had my first job interview on Thursday; and English position at Redwood High School. Getting little sleep the night before, the day of the interview had finally arrived and needless to say I was very anxious. At about 2:30 I walked into the Redwood front office and then 2:40 came and I was called in for the interview. I answered the questions that were asked but not as well as I had anticipated myself answering them. Fifteen minutes later the interview was over and I did not feel wonderful about it; I felt like it could have gone either way. Friday afternoon I got a phone call (well a call from Calvin telling me there was a message on our home answering machine telling me to call the HR department at the district office). Could it be that I actually got the job?....

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YES!! I got the job! Yesterday, Friday, I was so excited that I did not really have time to let it sink in. Today is Saturday (it all happened so quickly) and it has finally settled in that beginning in August I am going to be an actual teacher, with an actual classroom, and actual students who will depend on me to teach them what they need to know! Needless to say I am VERY excited! And, I will be working at the same school as Calvin, which I feel like is just an added bonus.

I am so thankful and so blessed by God, the one who made this all possible. I believe that he has a wonderful plan for me at this school and I am very anxious to discover what it is. Thank you to everyone who sent prayers up for me, I believe that everyone of them was answered!

I can now throughly enjoy my summer without having to worry about what I am going to be doing career wise next year. Now, I just get to plan, plan, plan! Yay!

Peace, love, and blessings!

Kelli

An Update...

coming soon...

Sorry for the teaser, but I am getting tired of looking at my last blog every time I log in, but alas I don't have time to update right now...so keep a look out for something new!

Peace, love, and blessings!

A little holiday love...

As the holidays come around there is one movie that is on the MUST watch at least once (maybe twice, or more) list, and that movie is Love Actually. Since I have been incredibly busy so far, I have not had time to watch it yet, but it is calling my name for this weekend! So for now, I will share one of my favorite scenes from the movie!

Remember this Christmas season that "love actually is all around."

Peace, love, and many blessings!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

...and this year we will actually have some free time around Christmas! We are very excited for this first Christmas as teachers (well, Calvin is a teacher now, and Kelli's almost there- but at least has the schedule!)

There are many things that we are looking forward to this holiday season. As life goes on, our families have gotten more spread out, so Christmas is an exciting time to come together with the various branches of our family tree. Yesterday we spent the day decorating and trimming our Christmas tree. Decorating really entails our porch and living room- hopefully next Christmas we'll be in a house and have more space to decorate!

Meanwhile, life is still crazy as we are approaching the Christmas break- Calvin is scrambling to get his students ready for finals and to catch up on grading, and Kelli is trying to get the most out of her last two weeks of student teaching while also trying to finish two classes. The last few Fridays have really been full of high school teacher fun- Redwood (Calvin's school) made it into the playoffs for the first time in years, so we had fun following the team for a few weeks with friends. Sadly, they lost in the third round on Friday against Frontier in Bakersfield.

Long story short, pray for us as we get through the next couple weeks, and then we'll breathe a deep sigh of relief when break comes!

Peace, love, and blessings to all!