The Joy of My Salvation: August 2007

This weekend I had the perfect weekend ever! I generally start on supper about 4:30 or 5 so that it is ready when Gary gets home. so on Friday I tried a new recipe for porkchops. It was near so hard as I expected and it came off perfect. It was my first time to cook porkchops ever. Gary loved it, which he defined as liking it enough to eat it again some time. Then we mostly were lazy just hanging out on the couch most of the night. I read some and he watched tv, and it was a nice cozy, don't have to rush off to bed, since he had to be up early kind of day.

Saturday morning we slept in a good bit before getting up and heading off to Ms. Abbey Rose's birthday party. She turned nine. There were several couples and family members from the church and bunches of kids everywhere. Ms. Abbey Rose is WILD about Ariel. Who wouldn't be with the awesome red hair and merimaid thing going on. haha. So they had a good time swimming, eating, singing karoke, dancing, and the whole nine yards. We had fun watching them and visiting. Brother Randy Miller and I even solved all the major world problems. All in the course of the afternoon. We got quite carried away visiting and stayed from 11:30 to nearly 4.

That wasn't all for the day though. Brother Ernie Stump from Alabama was flying in to preach for us Sunday so El Bethel decided to have a Saturday night service and have him over. So we met with them as well as several members of our church over Tampa way. He had a real good sermon on the saving we recevied on the cross (redemption) and the saving we get out of the Holy Spirit in our life time (regeneration) and the great difference in them. He had a good text and made me look at some things in a new light, leaving me with more questions than ever. That's how it should work though right? Be encouraged to study more and deeper. :)

Sunday we met back at Little Union for church and heard another good sermon on our Master and all the definations of that: teacher, lord, one having authority, commander-in-chief, pilot, ability to perform. We had a real good time at lunch visiting with everyone. Afterward we dropped by Granddaddy Garland's house, since he had surgery earlier in the week. There ended up being ten different people over there and before we left we just had a little prayer service. It was a really good time. We were about to head home ata little past five. When we found out that Brother Jim and Sister Kelly who had kept him all weekend were carrying out Brother Ernie and Sister Kelly's parents, brother, and sister were all coming along and they asked us if we wanted to come or not, and so we did. We had a GREAT time fellowshiping and hanging out all evening. Then for the rest of the night we just hung out and had a good time the two of us and the cat all on the couch.

I have to say I love my Gary Britt and I love being married and I love good church family. It really was the Best Weekend Ever!

5:13 PM 1 random thoughts

As some of you may have heard, we have a new cat. He is a beautiful, loving, and playful fellow. Gary is now my hero, and after you hear about this cat, I think you'll agree.

As some of you know, I've been battling some loneliness. I'm so use to have Matthew home when I get home from work or class, and us dissecting every asspect of any movie, book, school occurance, and everything else, that to spend alot of the day more or less at the apartment alone, is not so much fun. Part of it is also that I'm use to devoting alot (and when I say alot I actually mean pretty much all of my time) to school, and I have since I started Kindergarten at age five. Part of it is getting use to a new place, and not being familiar with things. But it suffices to say I've been pretty lonely during the day.

So I asked Gary about getting a very small dog or cat. He more or less said absolutely not, animals do not belong in the house. Well, last week we got some terrible news. Aunt Evelyn, my Grandfather's sister developed a brain tummor seemingly out of no where. Saturday morning she wasn't making alot of good sense when we talked to Auntie (Granddaddy's other sister) and by Saturday night they had determined that it was a brain tummor, and she was swollen up, unable to speak, and the doctors said there wasn't much they could do except to try to take some pressure off with surgery and see how much they could take off. Last Wednesday, I got word from Grandmother that it didn't do any good. I was terribly upset and Gary had told me I could go to the shelter and play with the animals just not to bring any home, so I did.

What I found was this beautiful gray cat. That night I was pretty upset about Aunt Evelyn. Growing up we use to go over there and ride the horses, or play in the yard, and have big meals. Every Christmas Eve, we spent over there with ALL of mother's side of the family. It use to be so much fun. It was even harder for me because I don't feel like there is anything I can do all the way out here in Florida. I begged him for a cat to keep me company during the day. He said he would go look on Saturday, maybe we could get a cat, as long as he wouldn't be too much trouble or too loud. In fact Gary's conditions were, no sleeping on the bed, no sitting in his chair, and it had to be a boy. He did say I could go and visit him on Thursday.

So Thursday after I got my cleaning done, I went down to the shelter to play with him. They told me that he was scheduled to be put to sleep, and I asked if they could hold him. They said only two hours. I called Gary upset, and he agreed to use his lunchbreak to come over. He looked him over, and said, "I guess you can have him." I was so excited. He saved a little furry life. Sister Kelly told him that he was a good husband, and a strong man (not a weak one) for giving his wife something he really wanted. haha.

The cat, though still nameless, is very lovable and clever. He follows me around the house alot. When I'm doing laundry he watches what piles I pick up and then procedes to bat them closer to the washer to my feet. When I'm folding laundry he sits under the chair that I put it all in, in the center of the bedroom floor. When I'm cleaning the bathrooms he lays right outside the door. Alot of the time when I'm typing he wants to either lay in my lap, sit under the chair, or sit up in my lap with his feet on the edge of the desk. He's pretty funny, and very sweet.

He's a beautiful solid gray with greenish-yellow eyes. Other than the eyes, he looks like a Chartuex cat. Previously he lived with an elderly lady, who had to be put in the nursing home, and no one in her family wanted the cat. She said he was very gentle, but playful. That he didn't scratch at the furniture, climb on the counters, dig in flowers, but that he was very loving and wanted to be close to here all the time. So far he has born all of that out. The one really odd thing to me, is that he would rather lay in his box, under furniture (especially the coffee table) as opposed to sitting on top of the couch. The only time he really gets on the couch is win I am sitting there too. If I stay off the computer too long though, he often sneaks over and sits in the chair, since the afternoon light falls right across it.

Only problem, he does cry some outside the door at night, wanting to be in the room with us. So any suggestions on stopping that. Or any good suggestions on names?

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Hopefully this will be my final blog on my Scotland trip, even though I could post pictures forever, there are just so many other things to tell you about.

We left from Edinburough on a sleeper train just seven of us, Dr. B and Mrs. Donna, Me and Mac, Josh and his brother Ben, and Natalie. Here are a few of us with our heads out of our tiny sleeper doors. This was one of the most exciting parts of the trip for me, because I had never been on a train, let alone a sleeper train. We picked up cars throughout the night, and ultimately stopped seven hours later in London. I also took my first cab ride, my first "underground" or sub ride, and was generally amazed.

We also bought the most expensive water of our trip there, it came out to just over $4. One other weird thing, everywhere we went the ketchup was called tomatoe sause and was in those little tomatoe shaped plastic squirt bottles. I was incredibly amazed by the British Museum and the British Library, one of those was my favorite part of the trip, though I can't decide which one. In The Museum I roamed for a couple hours by myself trying see it all, though I spent most of my time in the Greco-Roman, and Middle Ages area. I never would have dreamed in 6th grade when we were touring the Parthenon in Nashville, that a little more than 10 years later I would get to see the real stuff in the British Museum. I didn't get a good photo of the outside of the building but here is the expression on my face and here is two of my favorite exhibits: the Lewis Chessmen, the oldest in Europe, dating to the Early Medieval period, and a horse's head from the Parthenon.

I don't know how to describe the Brittish Library to you other than to say it was simply amazing. I was blow away by all the stuff that the little nation had accumulated over the years, but this place. I don't mean to be sacreligious, but it felt a little like I would imagine holy ground to be. It was a historian's dream. I was four inches from Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, I was 6 inches from Shakespeare's first folio,

and I was a foot from 3 of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta. I was on cloud nine. They had the oldest known copy of the King James Bible too, but we couldn't get into to see that. There were too many people and not enough time. I kept telling myself that I was awake, and I asked Dr. B. "How can I get a job here?" It was amazing! I took a few photos with the flash off so as to not damage the paper, but someone stopped us after a few, and told us we had to buy pictures from the gift shop. Here's one though...

That was the first day in London. The second day we took a tour of the surrounding area. We were able to see Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Oxford University. We couldn't take pictures in the Castle but let me say, if you ever get a chance to go, then do it. I wasn't sure how it would be but Matthew insisted that the best part of his London trip was Windsor and Oxford. It was MAGNIFICANT inside. I think the Queen could sell off everything in that one castle and be able to pull ALL of Africa out of poverity. It was amazing, huge, gold encrusted, and unbelievable. 2 hours wasn't enough time. Here are a few photos of the outside area. The second one is of the oldest part of the castle.

This is my favorite photo of stonehenge. I was a little disappointed. I guess I should have known that they would NEVER let us near the stones, but I guess I expected to be able to get some pictures without lots of tourist in them and get a little closer. Some of you may not know, and I won't bore you all day, but stonehenge is one of just many henges all over not only the British Isles, but Europe. There is a much larger cluster at Aveberry nearby, and there are woodhenges, and stone or wood henges on the seaside. No one is possitive what they were used for or who put them together. This henge is the third on the spot, and there is a nearby woodhenge that completes it. Best guess is that they were used for astrologic purposes. One fact to know, the Druids, HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH STONEHENGE. Tada, I am re-educating the world, one person at a time.

Finally Oxford was nice. One of the exciting parts for us was first, we saw the first ever Oxfam, and second we saw the Eagle and Child. Oxfam, is sorta like the salvation army, it was first founded in Oxford to meet the needs of families who couldn't afford the rising rate of goods. Needless to say like today, students made the most of it. Winn and I looked for these places all over Scotland, and managed to find more than half of them. The second place was the Eagle and Child, which was the pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and others met every third Tuesday to discuss what they had been working on. I just can't imagine what that would have been like. They were known to get a bit boisterous at times. The inspiration for Alice and Wonderland was here as well, Lewis Carroll taught Mathematic and Phillosophy for a time here, while he observed Alice playing in the garden below his window. We saw the Chesshire Cat's tree, and learned the reason why he smiled. It was because he could see into the clergy's garden. Since the clergyman disliked children Alice was never allowed inside and she called it the secret garden and was convinded that it was more wonderful than any other garden in the world.

Finally on our last day in London, we had a hop on hop off bus tour. Lots of major cities have these even in the US, and you can get tickets alot cheaper online ahead of time. I would suggest it, it enables you to easily get to most areas of the city you want to see and lets you get into various things at no charge. We spent most of the day at London Castle, built to terrify and intimidate. (It now also houses the crown jewels.) Then we took the cruise down the Thames River. We saw Big Ben, Parliment, spent extensive time in Westminster Abbey, saw the statue of Boddicca, walked through Trafalger Square, and went on a ghost tour of London. Here are a few of the best pictures.

White Castle the center of London Castle, oldest part, and home to torture chamber, famous exacutions, and burrying place for over a hundred bodies, and 13 members of royalty/nobility. Next, Big Ben and the Parliment Building from the River Thames.

This was Westiminster Abbey, which was incredibly moving to me. There were so many famous people beneath those floors, and so many people who tried to worship God just like we do (the try part, not in the same manner, of course). I made a B-line for Mary's tomb, and stood there for about 10 minutes in awe. I really have enjoyed learning about her. I was also saddened to see folks come through who said, just another queen or wanted to know if she was Elizabeth's sister Mary. I wanted to yell to you understand who she is, she almost became Queen of England instead of Elizabeth. Imagine how different the world would be! Alas. Then there is the Statue of Boddica. Mac did a project on her, and so we had to stop by. It was Boddicca that stopped the Romans time and time again from invading upper Albion (meaning white clifts, the old name for the whole of the British Isle). As the Romans could never get across the Thames it's kinda a fitting location for her statue.

The final picture that I will leave you with from our trip is one from our Ghost tour. This is Ye Old Cheshire Cheese. It has many claims to fame. Founded in the 1520's it burned to the ground in the Fire of London. However, it was the first building to be rebuilt in 1677. Making it the oldest, consistant running pub in all the English speaking world. It also was the home of the famous talking Parrot. It was said that it could cuss in more than 17 lanugages and over 150 papers recorded his death. Odd what we value, huh?

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Well, I've been scrubing the house down, since I haven't done ANY cleaning this week, so I suppose I can take a small break right?

The last few days that we were in Scotland we spent in Edinburough. This is the capital of Scotland. Edinburough Castle is on Castle Rock towering above the rest of the city, and as a result is virtually impossible to capture. Only once in it's history has it fallen into enemy hands, and then it was due to a traitor inside, not because it's defenses were breached. Holyrood Palace is the Queen's official Scotish residence and it stands at the end of the Royal Mile down from the Castle. It is so named, because a Scottish King of olden times was hunting boar and was wounded. He fell from his horse and was about to be trampled by the boar, when he cried out "Christ save me!" Legend has it that at that moment, a stag appeared before him and scared away the boar, and when he turned to face the king between his antlers was hovering a holy rood, or a cross, and the king built a monastary on that spot. The monastary was gradually added onto and became a residence. Along the Royal Mile between these two great buildings is the Old Town. This, along the river, and inside the city walls, is were Edinburgs lived for years. Many of the buildings are 10 stories or more up, and just as many stories underground. By the 1800s without proper sanatiation and running water, it was getting unbearable. The wealthier constructed fancy homes with yards on the other side of the river, and it became known as the New Town. All the poor were condeemed to live in the older buildings which became known as the Old Town. When plagues came through there were many instances where the city fathers would just brick up an area leaving those inside to die in the dark. Many of these areas still have not been reopened, and ghost tales and tours abound in the lower levels of the Old Town.

Welcome to Linburough Castle, Mary's birth place. Below St. Michael's Church, most likely the place she was christened.

We found Mary's head!!! Below Holyrood Palace, and Castle Rock and Edinburough Castle.

While in Edinburough we attended a Ceillaugh (I know the spelling isn't quite right here). Some of us went in our tartan garb. Winn allowed us to get him a kilt, and if I might say, it looked GREAT on him. Anyway, we were dance partners as well as fellow conspirators. Below we enjoyed our haggis and learning to dance. Even Mary recieved her royal haggis.

For many Edinburough has been inspiration which might help to explain why so many authors are from this area. Below, the real life Dr. Hyde and Mr. Jekel, followed by Greyfriar's Bobby. For those who don't know a Bobby is a common name for a Scottish terrier. This terrier everyday after his master was burried in Greyfriar's cementary, would hang out around this pub and play with school children, and every night he would curl up and sleep on his master's grave. The dog was loyal for almost 15 years before his own death. Attempts were made time and time again to give him a new home, but he always returned to the cementary.

Finally I'll close out this one with the boar rock at Holyrood Palace, see I didn't make up that whole story.

3:16 PM 1 random thoughts

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