The new Barbara and Brendan Brew...

Last weekend I was lucky enough to witness a British wedding in my time here in England. Now... even though this was not a traditional English wedding with all of the big floppy hats and fascinators from Four Weddings and a Funeral, I was bound and determined to make it one! I was able to borrow a "fascinator" (I kept calling it a hair-piece, a.k.a. toupee) from our assistant headteacher, Jane Craven. I thought that I would stick out more, but luckily a few other people, including the bride, wore a hat or fascinator. I felt really fancy! I even wore heals! (For those of you who know me...that's huge!)

The wedding took place at the Registary Office, much like a courthouse in the States. The ceremony was short and sweet and to the point. I loved it! I also loved how behind the couple as they were saying their vows the queen herself was in attendance via a framed portrait. 

Bride- Barbara Brew

All the staff that were at the wedding...Linda Mitchell, Andy Grant, Brenda Long, Linda Johanna, Afshan Hassan, Helen Leyland, Barbara Brew, June, Phillipa Tomlinson, Karen Bennett, Me, Jane Craven, Claudia, Bridie, and Leigh

Linda Mitchell and me with my fascinator!

After the ceremony we packed up and went to a curry restaurant. There I had the first Asian meal that I truly enjoyed. It wasn't too spicy...it was actually a sweet korma.  YUM! There was also lovely company. Many of the people invited to this wedding were more of the senior staff because Barbara has been at Lidget Green for over 20 years or something! So, Leigh and I were in the company of some of the teachers that one might find intimidating...but that is just a facade - they are as silly as we are! ahaha. Black fondant was even put on teeth. I had a great time! The cake was made by Barbara and decorated by Bridie. One layer was chocolate, one was lemon and the ball and chain was a fruit cake! 

11 things I have done in the last 3 weeks...

I know that I have not blogged in a long time. Craziness going on here and the lack of internet has put me in this position. I have also been in a bit of a funk from an accumulation of many things and I'm working hard to try to get out of it.

1. Mourning the Loss...

This season has been a tough one for me because normally I am able to watch all of the game so how or another. This year, I was not able to watch them all because of the internet cap that I have and streaming takes up too much of that usage limit. I got to see many of the ones at the beginning of the season thanks to Justin who sent me the copies of the games. I also, thanks to our vicar Paul and his wonderful wife Ruth was able to stream all of the games in both tournaments at their house. This was them putting up with me in their house at 3 a.m. sometimes. Of course, I did read all of the game recaps the night after them throughout the season, but it was a bit of a sacrifice this season to not get to watch them. Then, like most years, we ran into a "hot" team in the tournament and our talent was overmatched by a hot hand.

2. The new Barbara and Brendan Brew

Barbara, the ICT (computer) teacher at school got married. The ceremony was held at Registry Office which would be like a court house in the States. I enjoyed the fact that behind the couple as they were saying their vows there was a framed picture of the queen in the background. Afterwards we went to a curry restaurant and had a great meal. For the first time since being here, I found a curry that wasn't too hot. It was amazing. I ended up having a really good time while I was there. We had a good time 

3. Spent Mother's Day with Derek

British Mother's Day this year was on April 3rd. Obviously none of us were with out mothers...Derek was without Leslie for the day and we figured we all were lonely...might as well be lonely together. We went to the posh town of Ilkley for the day and did a bit of shopping and walking. Derek was a trooper I must say. Even when his neighbors walked by while we were at the cafe and saw him sitting with 3 young girls. Oh, how I'm sure the rumors will fly...It turned out to be a great day and just what I needed.

4. Went to our first football game

John from Great Horton Methodist got us tickets to a Bradford City football game. Now, Bradford City isn't very good at the moment, but apparently we used to be. I actually watched the whole game without getting bored which was a first for me...I'm becoming more British than  I ever realized. Unfortunately, I got in trouble for taking pictures and had to stop. It cracked me up how much Leigh enjoyed looking around and feeling like we were at a Harry Potter quidditch match. I really enjoyed seeing football being played in the country that it was invented in apparently. I hope that we make it to a few more games while we're here.

5. Helped re-arrange our classroom

Apparently Linda was wanting to get out of her funk to so we thought that a fresh start with the classroom at school is what we needed. It worked out so well and opened the room up. PLUS...I have my own little space to do my work and such. Hopefully I don't feel as much in the way as I have in the past. I really love the new look of the classroom. Success

6. Witnessed Spring

Wow, spring is fun when all of the trees are blooming and people really love their spring flowers. Everyone here loves their spring flowers, and the flowers love them... It's absolutely a miracle that I have not snuck out in the dark and cut down people forsythia bush out of their yards! ahaha

7. Went to a Montessori School

I joined Leigh on a tour of a montessori school near Bolton Abbey. It was really neat to see how Leigh grew up and went to school and to also see how her mom, Jane, teaches her class. I found it really interesting and encouraging. 

8. Managed to offend or anger most of the important people in my life...

You should feel lucky if you didn't make this list. I really struggled the last couple of weeks because I hate upsetting people that I care about. It was a weird week which involved me feeling like I was floating outside my body with no control what I was doing or saying...

9. Did some sewing

To try to get back to myself I did a bit of sewing. I started making pennant flag things with random fabric and random colors. Besides the fact that I don't have space in my tiny room to set up my sewing machine that I am borrowing from the church, I am really enjoying being creative. I feel really "off" when I stop doing creative things. 

10. Got good with the grabber

 It really bothered me when we went to the church lawn to play football with the kids and there was all sorts of trash, bottles and cans. The people at St. Wilfrid's keep themselves very busy with other more important details, so I thought it would be nice to help out and pick it up. Plus, it was beneficial to have all of that picked up if we were planning on playing on that grass with the kids. Glad I did because I ended up finding a drug needle and some other "fun" stuff. Things that don't need to be around these kids. 

11. Helen turns 23!

Our wonderful friend from school, Helen had a birthday and turned 23. We all went out for dinner to celebrate at a place that is supposedly American-Italian, but didn't seem to American to me! 

Our first football game...BRADFORD CITY!

John Ellis from Great Horton was able to get us tickets to the Bradford City Gents game. This was the first real football game I have ever seen live, and actually it was the first football game I have ever made it through the entire game watching the game. Now, our team apparently isn't the best, but we aren't the worse. The team that we were playing was one of the top teams in our division, so you can imagine that we were feeling like the good luck charms when we were winning 1-0 with 20 minutes left to play. Unfortunately we ended up losing 2-1. I really enjoyed the game still. 

I learned more about football in my time there. I had no idea that football was actually invented in England. Also while I was getting told off for taking photos for a ridiculous reason, the Bradford Fire was brought up. This was a horrific event in Bradford's history. In 1985 an entire side of the stadium was set on fire by a discarded burning cigarette. The whole side was in flames in 4 minutes and over 50 people died that day and 250 people we injured. Since learning about this we have found out that many people that we know, including Barry was actually there that day and still finds it haunting. Rightfully so. I have since watched a video of it and heard the game commenter continuing to comment during the event. It's horrific...

Learn more about the Bradford City Stadium Fire

What I found amazing was that there were still people there who love their team so much that they still come back game after game 25 years later. There was a man sitting behind us that broke his back and was in the hospital for 6 months from jumping from the burning stadium. This really made me appreciate this opportunity so much more. I was surrounded by people who are very dedicated to their team in the same way that I am to my Jayhawks!

I enjoyed this game and this day so much and I hope that we get the opportunity to go to another game before we leave here! A huge thanks to John for hooking us up!

Technically, an illegal picture of us, but hey...that is what I do!

The daffs are out...

"I wander'd lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze."

William Wordsworth 





Angie took us back to Lister Park were the crocuses were done blooming, but the daffodils were just starting. We were walking in fields of daffodils and they weren't even all blooming yet!





Angie and Nellie



Nellie- Angie calls her the most photographed dog in England...could be true!



A day for Charity- Red Nose Day 2011

What a fun day... It reminded me of all of those crazy dress up days during homecoming week in high school. Red Nose Day in the U.K. is a day when comic relief is used to raise money for charity. "Do Something Funny for Money" is the motto of the day and I tried my best to accomplish this. Every other year when this event takes place they come up with a new red nose that you can buy. This year, you could buy one of three faces on the nose. Lidget Green involved the theme of beaches into the day too, so the teachers were all wearing their flippy-floppies and sunglasses. Luckily no speedos or bikinis were present today at school! hahah
The rebellious thing that the Year 4 teachers did this year was print our principal, Mr. Pope on our t-shirts with a red nose on his nose. This shirt was modeled after many of the designs that they sell online were they put famous faces in black and white with a red nose on them. We did the same, but with Mr. Pope. It was kept a surprise until today when it was revealed. I must say, it was a little awkward last week when I had to take a picture of him without him trying to figure out why I would do such a thing. It happened to be after I had brought in homemade blueberry pie and I told him that I was taking pictures of different staff members...yeah I lied.

Abby, Linda, and I (missing our Sue, who was poorly)

The kids spent some of their day writing a repot about Red Nose Day and some of the history about it. Since this was my first year, it was good for me to learn about it too! We played a lot of videos from previous years. Here is the website that you can look at to learn anything you would like to about Red Nose Day and it's history: http://www.rednoseday.com/

All throughout the day today the kids got to come and eat ice cream with their classes. I helped dish out the sprinkles and toppings for a few of the grades. It was a bit of a struggle with my glasses and nose, especially because breathing was not possible with the nose on...I kept reminding myself that I was suffocating for charity. Most of the kids picked a reasonable amount of toppings, but leave it to Uzair to be the first to ask me for everything. (about 8 toppings)

          

The kids enjoying their ice cream during their beach party. They got to not dress in their uniforms if they donated a pound. Most of the kids did that, which helped Lidget Green raise over 500 pounds total.

 During the day the kids also got to vote on who they wanted to "grunge". After a close call with Mr. Bird the P.E. teacher, Andy Grant a year 6 teacher ended up being the lucky person. I found out that "grunge" means "to slime". The kids LOVED it! Poor Mr. Grant... he got his awesome shirt slimed... I really did have a fun day and I'm glad that I did the extra day and went into school. A lot of time we miss the fun activities because they are held on Fridays and we don't work on Fridays. That makes these days extra special...

Abby's Birfday!

Monday was my good friend Abby's birthday! We ended up going to the Italian restaurant, The Ital. We like this place for groups because on Mondays and Wednesdays they have pizzas and pastas for half price. About 20 people ended up going out that night, which was really cool because our director of Radical Journey, Lyz, was here this week and so she got to meet a lot of the teachers from school. I love the teachers at my school. They have been really great to make us feel included and I really feel like a part of their gang even though I am just a volunteer. I feel like they care about my well being and because of this it is easy for me to help them and give 100%. They have taught me a lot of things so far this year about dealing with children. They've also been able to give me advice in non-school issues, which has been amazing!

Abby is loved by so many! It was a fun get together with everyone!

One of the amazing people that I get to spend a lot of time with is the Abby, the birthday girl. She works in Year 4 and so she gets to spend a lot of her time in my classroom. It has been so great meeting Abby because we have a lot of similarities and get along great. She's my age, and a Christian too, which has been a little more of a struggle for us to find here. Not that that limits friendships for me in any way, but it is an important part of my life and is fun to find someone with similar beliefs. Abby is so generous (almost obnoxiously so...) and is so thoughtful in all situations. I feel so blessed to have found a friend like her and I've said it before, but I'll continue to call her my British lifer, because I expect to be friends with her for all my life! When I think about the fact that I am only about 3 months from leaving this place, I start to get emotional already because the people that I have met and become close to mean a butt load to me. I thank God for these relationships and experiences that I'm having here in England. It will be hard to leave...Luckily, I will be getting a visit from Abby this summer in Kansas. She will get to see the Kansas way of life in August and I'm excited for that, but not excited to leave this place...

Abby, Helen, Ruth, June, Me, Bethany and Leigh

Spring is in the air...

Spring is all around. I am really loving all of the new color. I've never seen flowers in this setting. Crocuses replace the grass in the spring and it is just purples, yellows, and whites.

This is a picture of my blooming blue bell baby. I rescued some
blue bell bulbs from the woods by Angie's and potted them to see
how they grew. The first one bloomed even though it is really
early for them. So pretty though!

There was an amazing pussy willow tree on one of our walks. Absolutely gorgeous!

Cluster of Crocuses

These are snow drops.

Hyacinth

Bethany and Tina

The hills in this park were covered in crocuses. I've never seen anything like it!