Time Goes Marching On

March came in like a frozen lion and went out as a drenched lamb.  The amount of rain we had hampered some of our outside jobs, but there was still plenty to do.  At the first of the month there was water damage in two of the larger homes we service from frozen pipes, and at the end of the month we had water damage in our own flat from an exploding washing machine.  Naturally, all three of these homes experienced the leaks on the top floors, so the two bigger homes had parts of the ceiling that collapsed, but our leak just made a waterfall through a light fixture downstairs.  We pulled out a lot of soggy carpets in March!

Yup, this is my laundry "room", but now it's all patched, painted and pretty!

This is the dryer in the living room.  A bit inconvenient until the laundry space was repaired, but it worked!  A bit awkward when the Visiting Teachers dropped by.

One tender mercy this month was an answer to prayer that can only be classed as a miracle.  Bruce had been working for many months to research, find, arrange, and expedite the delivery of a mower deck that was only available from the states.  This required negotiations with our farm manager, the seller in the states, the shippers and the receiving company in England.  After completing all the paperwork, the shipment was in limbo for awhile,  sitting at a shipping dock in Chicago because of a matter that was unforseen, and seemed unsolvable without a lot more money and time involved.  After diligent fasting and prayer, Bruce received an email stating that the shipment was moving forward.  The agent stated that he could not explain how that happened, as it was a most unusual occurrence.  The Lord is indeed involved in the matters of our lives and service.

Enough about work for now, the highlight of the month was more family visits from our daughter Melinda and her daughter Ella, who live in Arizona, and from Marcie's family from Indiana.

In high school Melinda had been an exchange student in Germany, so while she was in Europe she wanted to go back to the Hamburg area to see her host family, her old home, school, and other familiar sights.  So Ella and I accompanied her on this excursion for 2 days. 

We had a great time, saw some beautiful sights, attended an evening fireside at the church, and ate some amazing food!

    We are on the roof of a Cathedral in Ely, England, after climbing LOTS of small winding stairs.

Marcie and Melinda's visits overlapped by 3 days, so we were sleeping and feeding twelve people in our tiny flat!  It was cozy and wonderful!  Marcie had served her mission in the Manchester area, so her family traveled all over the northern areas of England, including a piece of Scotland and Wales.

Unfortunately, I didn't catch a picture of their entire family, because the day we went to London, Gwen and Claire stayed behind with Aunt Melinda (and they had a GREAT TIME!) So this is Marcie with 3/4 of her family, and cousin Ella.  

                             Jason was a great help in getting us on the right underground trains!

   This is the exact location where Melinda had her picture taken years ago when she was visiting from Germany with her school class, and where Bruce and I had our picture taken for our Christmas Cards this past year.

We were hanging out with a Roman Dude outside the Tower of London

We loved having the time to spend with family!

One of our historical excursions took Bruce and I to a castle/fortress in Lincoln.  This picture is looking down on an old prison within the walls of the castle.  The rounded section is the prison church, which is the only remaining original prison church in the country, and was quite unique.

  This shows the cubicles that the prisons would have been sitting in.  There was absolutely no interaction with anyone.  Their view was totally restricted so they could only see the preacher.

I got a first hand glimpse of four peacocks this month, while I was within four feet of them.  Actually I was feeding them bread crumbs.  Three were pea hens, then the peacock came around and started strutting his stuff.  It was beautiful.

This is the backside of a fully fanned peacock.  The little white feathers are very fluffy.

The month ended with us feeding three young missionaries, and I happened to serve roast a'la FLOOR!  The oven door is so low that I am doubled over to extract the contents of the oven, and the roasting pan happened to bounce off the door, tipping everything on the floor...roast, grease and gravy drippings.  The missionaries didn't seem to mind, so the dinner went on...after mopping up the grease.

For those who know us well, we couldn't let April Fools pass by without a little fun, so we spread some "joy" (wooden joy) around the ward.  We had some funny results!

Conference was amazing, and we are moving forward with faith and confidence.