Viva Madrid!
Mike and I returned yesterday from visiting our friend, Amy Swacina in Madrid! She was a great little tour guide and we had a wonderful time. I’m posting several pictures from our time there. Hope you enjoy!
Walking around the city (I don’t know how to make little descriptions under each photo, so here’s a list of what we did)
- El Rostro: an open market on Sunday’s!
- Retiro park-beautiful and HUGE!
- Palace
- Cathedral
- Ginormous post office!
- Getting gelato at Ricci
- If you want to light a candle in this cathedral, just give some money
- We met the city symbol of the bear and the “strawberry tree”
- The lights of the city came on while we were there. They are just beautiful!
- Tapas were great! I love champinones (mushrooms with garlic sauce)
- Meet my new hand painted fan de espana and our madrid magnet.
American Thanksgiving Feast
Katie and Derek graciously had us over for an American Thanksgiving Feast yesterday. They did the hosting and the turkey and each of us brought portions for all to share. We were in charge of appetizers and desserts. I had tons of fun baking on Saturday. So many great new recipes! We learned a new game called Mennonite Madness, which has nothing to do with Mennonite’s and is quite fun. We also played pass the pigs. Fun was had by all. We celebrated this past weekend because we’re all working on Thursday….the actually day of Thanksgiving.
Mike and I will have the opportunity to have another thanksgiving feast this coming weekend when we are in Madrid visiting our friend, Amy Swacina!! We cannot wait to be with her and meet her friends from Oasis Madrid! We leave on Friday for a long weekend!
But as for this feast, here are a few shots…….special thanks to the Gushikens for supplying a really fun Thanksgiving package to us that included the dessert plates and napkins. You guys are so thoughtful and supportive. We love you!
Notice that in the silly picture only 4 people got the silly memo……what a crew!
It was fun hanging out with you guys! Blessings to all for a Thanksgiving filled with Thanks!
To Play or not to Play….that is the question
Welcome to Mike’s first football game playing for Carrubber’s Christian Trust! This is the church that we think we are going to be attending while in Scotland. I’ll post their website so you can see what it’s like. Anyway, they have a football team and instead of going to any practices, Mike jumped right into a game. I was so proud of him. He played part of the second half and had a good time, but game home with a few bruises. I don’t think he’s prepared to be an official part of the team just yet…they’re rough here!
Mike’s New Sweater
Mom, this post is for you so you can see Mike in the sweater you got for him….isn’t he handsome?!
Meet the Hot Wives of New College Post Grad Students
I’m pleased to introduce you to a few gals that I’ve met in these past few weeks. Their husbands all go to school with Mike and they are all from the states. From left to right, please meet:
-Cheryl Crowe—-that’s right, Cheryl Crowe…..but not the singer. Cheryl and her husband, Brandon, are from Alabama and will be welcoming little Charlie Allister in December.
-Then there’s me…..and you know me.
-Katie Brown is next. She is to thank for getting this little group together. She and her husband, Derek, are from Oregon originally and then headed to Vancouver for the last 3 years before coming here to Edinburgh.
-Last, but certainly not least, is Patrice Burlew, the most recently married of us all, just getting married to Matt this past June before coming to Edinburgh. They are from Kentucky! She had us gals over for a lovely little chocolate fondue last week. So scrumptious!
Try not to poison it
Yes, the title of this post are portions of the first “post incident” interaction between myself and angry Starbucks man today. I knew we’d meet somehow since he has chosen to return to Starbucks. I work full time, so unless he really tries, there’s hardly any way he can avoid me. Somehow, I just knew today would be the day.
The day went along as usual and he didn’t come and didn’t come. Then, as I was preparing to close my till, he was the final customer that I served today. I did really well. I treated him just as any other customer who comes into the store. I didn’t bring up the incident or anything, just asked him what I could get for him today. I was smiley and everything!
His response was short and “sweet”: “I’ll have a tall drip with space for milk…..try not to poison it.”
Meany-head, he is!! I didn’t react or respond, just got his poisoned cup of joe, charged him for the bagel in his hand that he didn’t even let me know he was purchasing and took his money.
How can people live that way? Grrrrrr
Meet Derek and Katie
Since we’ve spoken of Derek and Katie, it may be helpful for you to have faces to go with the names…..
Last week we had them over to have some dinner and to play the wii—–they kicked our butts in boxing (or did we let them win?!)
See Some Sights
I
I see the same sky through brown eyes that you see through blue, but we’re worlds apart, worlds apart….
Just like the earth, just like the sun, two worlds together are better than one
I see the friendship in your eyes that you see in mine, but we’re worlds apart, worlds apart….together, but worlds apart.
