Home Again

Hal and I are back in Texas. Our flight got in around 5:00 last night, and we headed for some Tex Mex at our favorite local place. We woke up wide eyed at 6:30 this morning...it will take us a few days to get back on schedule. It was great to be in church this morning. I fought back tears all through worship. Although we had a great time last week, I could not help but feel that England is a spiritually dark place. You see and hear very little if anything about the Lord. If you see a church it is usually a tourist attraction because it was built hundreds of years ago! How often I take for granted what it feels like to be in a fellowship of believers!

Back in Rainy Lodon

We are back in London. After a comical episode of trying to find our hotel room, we finally made it to our room only to find that it hadn't been cleaned. We went back down to the lobby and they escorted us to a nice upgraded room! Looks like a good start to our afternoon. It is supposed to be rainy and chilly all day. We are going to head to Leicster Square to the TKTS booth to see if we can get discount theater tickets....and who knows what else. I do know that our first stop will be Pizza Hut. That's right, we are ready for some American food!!!! We head for the airport around 8:00 tomorrow. Our flight leaves here before noon and we should be back in Houston by 4:00 central. More pictures to come soon. Have a great day friends and family!!

Weary Travelers

We made it to London by 10:00 in the morning which was 4:00 am our time. We spent Sunday afternoon in London. We took several hours to walk around the Camden Lock market....what an interesting place! You could find a little bit of everything there. I have never been anywhere I can even compare it to. Then we took the tube back to the area where Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey are located. The picture to the left is near Westminster Abbey toward the end of the day. We were both worn out! We took a train out of Kings Cross station for Peterborough around 4:00 in the afternoon. We were in our hotel room by 5:30. Yesterday morning we caught up on sleep and Hal's class started yesterday afternoon. Yesterday evening I experienced my first drive on a British roadway. For those who think I drive like a nut, I have nothing on these people. I was in the back seat and I an not quite sure how I manged to keep from getting sick! The corners were sharp and fast! A few more pictures from London are below. Enjoy...or as they say here...Cheers!

Attack of the Texas Fire Ants

Yesterday I went for a walk/run in the morning. I am trying to be more disciplined in exercising each day. As I walked up the driveway I noticed that I my front flower bed could use some attention. So, I put on my garden gloves, turned up my IPod and started pulling weeds. About half way through the flower bed, I looked down to find my white running shoes covered in fire ants. I have had a couple of encounters with ants this summer so I knew that this could be trouble. In a clumsy ballerina like move, I danced around the yard on one leg while trying to untie my shoe and get my sock off as quickly as possible. I manged to get both the sock and the shoe off, but not before two of those little red devils stung my ankle. By the time Hal and I headed downtown for an Astro's game last night, the swelling had already begun. My left ankle now looks about three times the size of my right ankle! Quit attractive, let me tell you. So I am headed to the doctor this afternoon to see if they can help. Hal and I leave for England on Saturday and prefer not to have an ankle the size of Texas! (sorry for the bad Texas joke) So, why am I telling you this? Mainly for my college friends....it seems I have a habit of insects biting me. They will remember Velma 1 and Velma 2. Insect bites that caused us a few laughs. Anyway....have a great day and stay away from fire ants!

Go Hogs....and other things

I am pretty sure my neighbors think something crazy went on in our house tonight. I spent the last 5 minutes of the Arkansas game yelling at the TV. I just knew they were going to pull out a win.....I don't normally get that fired up while watching a game on TV. I guess I have been in the house by myself to long today. :) Hal is enjoying his annual football weekend with the guys in Tuscaloosa. I pick him up in the morning. Then we are off to church and then to Sam's to prepare for the cookout we are hosting tomorrow night.

Hal is co-leading a 10th grade guys small group and the kick off is tomorrow. They will be studying the 1 John Bible Study I have been working on. I am anxious to see how God uses the study in the lives of students. I know that I have been challenged immensely as I have worked through the scripture. The apostle John is so black and white in the way he writes. He doesn't leave any wiggle room for making excuses about sin. He repeatedly points out that if you are a true believer and follower of Christ you will seek to put away sin and strive to live a holy life. Not that we won't always struggle with sin. Because we have a sin nature, we will always have that battle, but Christians can't use the battle as an excuse to keep on sinning. When we acknowledge our need for a Savior, confess our sins, and repent, the Holy Spirit enters our life and we have a helper in the battle against sin. I am tired of making excuses. I pray that God will continue to convict me of sin and that by His grace I may transformed into His likeness.

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2

"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect[a] the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." 2 Corinthians 3:18

Storm Scare

There are a lot of differences between living in Northwest Arkansas and living in Houston, but the threat of tropical storms and hurricanes may be the biggest. It is a fear of mine that a storm will hit when Hal is out of town. Usually we will have plenty of notice if a storm is headed this way, so there is no real reason for my fear. Yesterday was a little different.

I had watched the news as I got ready for BSF and they said there was a depression in the Gulf and it would more than likely impact the Houston area with heavy rain. But the storm intensified during the day and as I got to church last night, there concern about strong winds and rain. They dismissed church at 7:45 and asked everyone to be careful getting home. As we looked outside...it didn't look that threatening! My friend Kim's husband is also traveling this week. We began to debate if we needed to have a sleepover. She came over after church...as we watched the weather we realized the storm was going further east and we were in the clear. She headed home....I headed to bed. Crisis averted. Thanks for your calls and emails to check on me. :)