whole wide world

The story

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I sat on the hotel bed flipping through tv channels while Jeff was downstairs making preparations for his presentation. It had been a long day of travel with some excitment thrown in at the airport, i.e., having our passports conviscated and being detained for a couple hours. After thoroughly explaining our purpose three times, Mr. I Am The Law finally let us into the country. I think he was bored and just wanted to liven things up a little.

At this point, my body was unsure if it was day or night so I decided to chill out with some British comedy here, a game show there, and a bit of the Royal Wedding on the side. After a while, the news caught my eye. It was live feed from West London showing a riot ensuing in the downtown streets. What had been a protest of budget cuts earlier in the day had turned into a full on mob scene. Fires, vandalism, violence, police pushing back an angry crowd. And here I am thinking…Nice. We sure picked a great time to come to town. All sorts of crazy things started going through my mind and I figured we’d end up going home the next day! After too much time watching the news, I decided to let my tired brain go to sleep and see what the next day held for us.

We awoke in the morning and asked around about the previous nights’ excitment. Seems like it wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary and business was marching on as usual. I guess riots aren’t that big of a deal anyway. 😉

On that note, we caught a bus into town excited to see what stories would unfold before us.

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our family, whole wide world

So…London?

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He sat down next to me on the couch after a long day of work. After tapping around on his phone a bit, he turned to me and asked a question, So…do you want to go to London? I stared at him with a puzzled look. I've been asked to speak at an event there. If it all works out, do you want to go with me?

Do I want to go with you? Do I WANT to go with you?! There was no question with regards to the want but could I leave posed the bigger issue. It wasn't an overnight decision. But after a lot of help and a lot of preparation, the conversation evolved from You. Me. London?  to You. Me. London!  followed by a giddy grin escaping both of our lips.

The immortal city was all I had expected it to be and more. Alive with history, royalty, beauty, and life. Oh how I love the pulse of life in a big city. It was as if a book was unfolding before my eyes and I couldn't drink the words from its pages quick enough.

Beginning with the royalty…

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And on to parliment. I can't count how many times Jeff felt the urge to say, Look kids! There's Big Ben. Parliment. And then he laughed to himself. every. single. time.

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The views from the River Thames

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And more coming soon…

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our family

going camping

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This little guy is going camping in his tent. A crib tent.

I have never needed one for my children until now. And oh, do I ever need one. 

He keeps me on my toes, this one does. Just a few days ago I found him in the bathtub with the water running after he had ever so sneakily jumped out of his crib during a nap. Just as I walked in the bathroom, he slipped and fell in the water and came up gasping for air. Holy heart attack!!

So with him almost running out into the street and having close calls in the bathtub, one might think I'm not very good at my job. Believe me, I've felt that way on more than a million occasions.

The more I've thought about it though, maybe I'm not so bad at my job.

Maybe he's just really good at his.

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our family

The B List

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She loves to write lists.

Maybe she got that from me. Yeah, pretty sure she got that from me.

I like writing lists. It's as if I'm flushing my brain out onto paper. And then I can carry it around in my hands.

Her latest list has to do with a proposed Birthday Celebration. She's turning 6 soon. But I explained to her that this year is the off year. No big party. Just a celebration.

She agreed. Then wrote a list of rules for the Birthday Celebration. It reads as follows:

List of Rulus (List of Rules)

1. No tatletalen (No tattletaling)
2. No scraching (No scratching)
3. No hiten (No hitting)
4. No poleing shirts (No pulling shirts)
5. No eating others foods

I had no idea she was planning on a Birthday Brawl instead of a Celebration. But whatever works.

Love that girl.

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our family

He’s got your back

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Lincoln is a good big brother.

Of that there is no question. He is always looking out for his little buddy, "Cwish." He will grab a cracker and break it in half to share. If he's asking for milk, he makes sure to ask on Christian's behalf as well. In fact, if he's ever eating anything…he wants his little bro to join in the fun. I think he loves to be in cahoots with someone. Christian doesn't mind one bit.

I, for one, am really…no extremely glad that Christian has someone like Lincoln looking out for him. Here's a little example of why.

Just a few days ago both boys were out playing in the backyard. As usual, I will periodically call out their names just to make sure all is well. I was standing at the kitchen sink making dinner when I heard a clank from the back gate. A clank is never a good sound when Christian is involved. I quickly went over to the back door and yelled out their names. Lincoln answered, but the voice was little too faint. "Oh no," I thought as I bolted to the front door, threw it open and ran out into the front yard.

There, in the middle of the driveway, was Lincoln sitting on the ground with his hands gripping Christian's ankles. He was holding on with all his might while Christian was on all fours lunging (with all his might) toward the road and trying to break free from the grasp. Lincoln turned to me and yelled out frantically, "Mom! Cwish is trying to go in the stweet!"

I ran and scooped Christian up into my arms just as Lincoln let go with a sigh of relief.

I turned to Lincoln and grinned. "You are a hero, Linc! Thank you for taking good care of your brother."

He beamed. And I breathed a sigh of relief too.

I'm glad he's got Christian's back. And I'm sure someday Christian will be glad too.

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