Friday Night Date Night!

Steven and I love to have quality time together on Friday nights and last night was no exception. Steven had had a busy week at work and was coming home a little early on Friday so I decided to make him a nice meal instead of our usual anything quick and easy to do on a Friday night after a long week at work. When we were at Dave and Amanda's a few weeks ago she had made a delicious chicken salad which Steven adored! Ever since then he had been bugging me to make it, so on Friday I decided that I would make it. Thankfully it turned out great - it has chicken, grapes, almonds, dried cherries, plain yogurt, curry powder, salad cream and mayonnaise - amazing! Funny, because to me chicken salad seems quite plain but this was delish and a big hit with the husby!



After dinner we headed out for a walk by the river in the rain. I wish we had taken the camera but we forgot it. The scenery was amazing because it was still REALLY hot so all the rain was evaporating off the ground and off the river, creating this mystic fog all along the river. Very cool! After our walk we decided to continue our cheap date night and go and look at houses we can't afford! We love looking at real estate and this time it was the East Cobb area which we were stalking! We ended the night with dessert at Yogli Mogli, a fantastic frozen yogurt store which I would highly recommend. So all in all in was a cheap, somewhat random, date night!

The Farm!

In a few weeks Steven will be beginning his MBA at Emory (in their evening program) and I will be beginning the final year of my masters in Counseling. While we are both so excited about this new stage in our lives, we are also becoming more and more aware that our precious weekends together are about to be gone! So this weekend we made the most of a free weekend and headed down to visit Steven's family. Steven's mom made a lovely lunch and the grandparents came over to join us. We love going down to the farm and escaping the city for a while. Usually we are able to ride four-wheelers and enjoy the land, but this time it was so incredibly hot that we simply enjoyed some southern cooking and the pool! Here are some photos of our day:


Steven with Grandma, Grandad and Uncle Wilfred

Steven, Grandmommy and Hannah


The blissful pool!

So, as our freedom disappears to school once again, we can simply say that we are blessed to have family close by to help maintain our sanity! Thanks mom and dad for a lovely day, we only wish it could have lasted for longer!

Baby Jack!

Last night Christy and I got to hang out while our sweet hubby's went to Christchurch men's BBQ. It was so nice to be able to spend some time catching up as we have both been out of town and keep missing each other. It was also great to play with little Jack too - we took him to the pool which he adores! So very cute. I don't have any pictures of Christy or myself but I do have one of little Jack who is growing up so fast! And we even caught his amazing smile on camera!


I have to laugh posting this picture because, while we don't have children of our own yet, recently this has been a baby oriented blog! We are at that stage of life when all our friends are having children which means we get to play with them, take cute pictures and then hand them right back!

Old Friends

While we were visiting Dave and Amanda we met up with Dave and Jane Wright. Dave was the youth pastor in Hartford when dad was the pastor there. It is always strange to see people in a different context and this was no exception. Very bizarre to think that having started in little old Hartford England they are now in Charleston SC and we are in Atlanta GA! It was good to catch up as I really miss them!

This photo is missing Steven as the one we tried to do with the timer turned out horribly, so Steven took on the role of photographer for this one!

When we were out walking around the market in Charleston in 100 degree heat, we popped into the year round Christmas store to enjoy their air conditioning. For those of you who know Steven well, you will know that he cannot survive without his Diet Coke so we found the ideal Christmas Tree ornament for him:


Needless to say, as fitting an ornament as it was, we could not bring ourselves to buy a coke can to hang on our tree!

On the way home on Sunday we stopped by to see Mays and Becky Boyd. Mays is Steven's friend from when they were in Kindergarten together so they go way back. They have just had their first baby, Tucker Mays Boyd. He is tiny and so precious! Here is the latest addition to their family.



All in all it was a great weekend away seeing family, friends and babies!

Our Precious Little Niece!

Thursday night, having both got off from work late, we headed down to David and Amanda's house (my brother and sister-in-law) to meet our sweet new niece Abigail Joy. We arrived at about 12.30am having driven rather fast to get down there and sung songs at the top of our lungs to stay awake! We then got to spend two days with the latest addition to the Gardner family. Here she is in all her cuteness!


We went out for brunch and Abigail slept through the whole meal!



But we kept her involved too! ;)

I could not get enough cuddles with dear Abigail!

Steven was a natural too!


Dave is such a proud dad!



Here is the happy new family!

A Few Final Tidbits from England!

While we were at Granny's house Steven and I went to the pub across the street to see if we could watch some of the World Cup. It is a quiet pub but we had gone there last time we were at Granny's and loved it so we decided to go back. We arrived and it was surprisingly quiet. After ordering a beer for Steven, wine for me and chocolate cake (amazing!) to share, we headed through the pub to try and find somewhere to sit. We found a room with nice couches and a TV which, to our horror, was not turned on! So we promptly put on the footy and enjoyed the game with a few interruptions from other guys who were jealous that we had found the TV while they were having to sit through family dinner! The room we were in was entertaining too with an old English phone box in it!


The final stop on our whirlwind tour of England was to Hartford where I spent my teenage years. We made a few impromptu stops at various people's houses and saw people who I hadn't seen in years. It was strange going back to Hartford for the first time in ten years, but it didn't really feel like I had been gone for that long other than the fact that all the trees seemed to have grown - funny huh?!

Here is Hartford church where dad was vicar for 13 years. I had always dreamed of getting married in this church (for obvious reasons) but, sadly, that could not be. But my other dream did come true...Steven finally got to see the church where I have so many memories.




Here is the new church hall which is just being completed. Awesome to see how the church is continuing to grow!



This is the house we used to live in right opposite the church:


And here is the post office next door to our house where we would run to get chocolate after school before mum and dad got home!


After a quick tour of Hartford we went for a cook out (or BBQ for all my English friends!) at Amie's house. Amie and I were at high school together and I miss her terribly! It was fun to be able to spend time with her family as I hadn't seen them in a long time. Steven had fun watching the footy with Martin (Amie's dad) too while us girls caught up! I would post a picture of us all but we all looked so awful in it that people might not forgive me for posting it! Amie played chef too - very impressive. We both had a great evening and didn't want to leave by the end!




We spent the night in Hartford with friends and then flew out the following morning from Manchester.

It was such a quick trip but, as you can see, we managed to squeeze in lots. Sorry to all those people we didn't get to see - we love you and there will always be next time! We are now back in the baking heat of Georgia and are happy to be home. England will always have a special place in my heart but, I am happy to call Atlanta "home" for Steven and me... at least for the time being ;)

Up North!

From London we headed up to Yorkshire to see Granny. We had a leisurely drive up and stopped for lunch at a great pub. We also saw this beautiful English castle too.















It was hard to see her as she is getting much older and more frail but nevertheless we had a lovey time with her. I think we exhausted her when we first got there, she was so excited to see us that she had to go and lie down! Throughout our trip Steven was the only one who was insured on the car because he arrived two days after me so picked the car up on his own. Much to Steven's dismay, because I wasn't there in person, they couldn't insure me on it so poor old Steven had to manage all the single lane roads around Granny's house on his own. He did great though! We took Granny out for a drive on Thursday night and even though her eye sight is going she was able to tell us very specific directions - I guess that is what comes of having lived somewhere for 25 years! Because Granny is getting older she really isn't up to doing too much but we took her for a walk around the neighborhood in her wheelchair. Or rather I should say, Steven pushed her, and I just strolled along next to them laughing at the fact that the pavement was in such bad condition that Granny felt as though she was on a roller coaster. Much to Steven's horror she suggested they just walk down the road instead! Steven looked at me as if to say, "is she serious?" when we realized she was he literally didn't miss a beat and there we were, the three of us, walking down the middle of the road!


























We had great fun on Friday as we headed to Durham where I went to university. Steven had never seen it so I enjoyed showing him around all my old haunts. Unfortunately we ended up visiting on the week of graduation and anyone who knows Durham will also know that graduation is the most crazy time ever. It happens in the cathedral so sadly Steven did not get to see it in all its glory but it was still a good day. Here are some photos of the university town which I love!
















The cathedral with the graduates!















Another angle of the cathedral















The river running through Durham with the castle and cathedral


The street to Riverside for classes every day



The Bailey (my college is to the right on this picture)


Inside the cathedral (rumor has it that this was used in one of the Harry Potter movies)


Another angle of the cathedral