Highlights of 2010

Highlights:

• The birth of Elliot
• London
• Madeleine visit to usa.
• Starting to train for a marathon
• Pioneer school
• Newton our new puppy
• Sarah my amazing friend
• Having the best group of friend ever across two countries
• Seeing my nephew and Nices some for the first time ever in London
• Training with a personal trainer and loving it
• Learning how wonderful my husband is in our 2nd year of marriage that no matter how tough it gets he will always be there
• Seeing Tiffy
• John and Claudia visit (missionaries)

Low points:

• This system beating us all down.
• Feeling tired
• Hurting my calf and stopping training

Travels...home and abroad:

• London to see my friends -Nov
• San Francisco - May
• Iowa Hill The Cabin -June
• Leighton Buzzard to see Char and her kids - Nov

Lessons learnt:

• What real friendship means, time and distance sifts out and leaves the gems
• I love to be active and working out just gotta get off my butt and DO it
• Only I can make change

Things change:

• Homes moving house again this system is so unstable
• 
  

Plans for 2011:

• Be healthy.
• Pick up my paint brush again
• focus on personal study and pioneering
• Go see Tiffany.
• Support my cong and be a better friend
• Go to Venezuela

Goal for 2011:

• Stay a pioneer

How to be closer to your siblings

She could get under my skin like no one else could, she knew my weakness and her aim was that of a sniper. My sister was also my biggest ali as a child, we could tear each other to pieces but this privilege was scared territory we protected fiercely.

This bond between family has always fascinated me. I am the oldest of 6 girls. We came along in twos so we all had a playmate or personal bully. As we have all gotten older the age gap between oldest and youngest closes and we are all pretty close.

I have just spent 3 weeks back in London where my family is based. I hadn't seen most of my sisters in nearly 3 years now I live in the USA. 2 of my sisters had come out to visit both at separate times. Each visit was a pleasure, I was able to re connect with them on a more personal level and our relationship evolved from sisters to friends. This dynamic changes when we are all together. We all revert back to kids. My youngest sister for example who I found delightful, respectful, caring, supportive and fun turns in to a sullen, rude, disrespectful stranger when we are all together. The middle sister who also visited me last year is a strong, dependable, reasonable young woman who turns into a unreasonable, bellowing, victim.

We bring out the worst in each other when we are together, we joke about it but looking back it makes me sad. I dont want to be a person that contributes to sending my sisters back to a place they felt threatened. I want to bring out the best in them not just when we are alone but as a group, I want to us to be supportive and nurturing, for us to come away from being together and feeling good about ourselves and looking forward to our next meeting.

I found an article by Jane Isay in the "REALSIMPLE" magazine, she writes about 10 ways to be closer your siblings. Here are the highlights.

1) CHILDHOOD IS LIKE VEGAS: LET WHAT HAPPENED STAY THERE

Dont dwell on who did what to who. Make a conscious effort to forgive these childhood misdeeds and they will soon be water under the bridge.

2) MAKE A CAMEO APPEARANCE

We are all expected to be at certain family functions. That's being part of a family. But showing up unexpectedly at your sisters 5k run or a school event, now that means something.

3) STOP BEING THE FAMILY MOLE

Sibling relationships are often defined by behind the back gossiping, weather that means secretly slamming one another to a sister or listening greedily as mum degrades a sisters choice of boyfriend, job etc. As expected all this chatter erodes honesty and makes it nearly impossible to be as close knit with your sisters as you would like to be. SO CUT IT OUT. If your finding it hard to tear yourself away from mums gripe fest remember it will be about you next time.

4) MIND YOUR MANNERS

We talk to our friends with more respect and manners than we do our siblings. You dont have to be formal with siblings but a cruel or petty comment still hurts no matter who close you are to them. Comments and digs about weight, grammar usage and choice of friends are especially of limits.

5) FIGHT TYPECASTING

Growing up you have been pegged by your family with a certain role. The responsible one, the loose cannon, the brains but not looks, pretty but dumb, the baby etc. No matter how you blossom as adults the roles stick. At the next family dinner mention that your sister "the dumb one" is doing well in their job, that your brother "the loose cannon" is writing a book and settling down. By acknowledging the way your siblings have evolved from their childhood roles, you give everyone the green light to see you differently as well.

6) PLAY NICE WITH YOUR SISTER SPOUSE.

By doing this you send the message that this man, dispute his unfriendly demeanor and brashness deserves a chance, and to your sister you will prove your loyalty and acceptance. If they break up it will be a even greater sign if you dont say I was faking it the whole time

7) GET OUT OF DODGE
Back in the day family holidays meant dividing the back seat of the car with masking tape and lots of she touched me she looked at me a certain way. Now on a trip with your siblings you get to choose the destination and the travel arrangements. Do things together that allow you to bond, eat together at least twice.

8) AVOID HOT BUTTON TOPICS (RELIGION, POLITICS ETC)
It sounds like common sence but to many of us forget this and make statements and pronouncements that land on irritated ears. If you are not on the same wave length as your conservative sister or meat free brother stay clear of these topics.


A good reminder that if family really does come first and we claim to love and respect them these 8 points will be something we put into practice.

Here's happy families.

Old Friends

Below is Karen, Christine and I.. Karen's husband is the male figure behind her . Karen married a Canadian Brother a year after Aaron and I got married. We were all really close when I lived in London. Christine is now serving in the Bulgarian Cong and Karen and her husband are serving with the Russian cong.

From left to right. Jarrett is Karens husband from above. Middle is my sweetheart and on the end is Tiffys husband Jeff. This was after the opera and champagne.



Below is Jenny. Jenny and I were best friends when I was about 9-12 before we moved out of London and lost touch. We had dinner with her and her family, it was a wonderful night and I had fun seeing a beloved friend again.


This is Tiffy and Jeffy. Tiffy is from Kentucky. We became firm friends about 5 years ago when she was in London for the summer and she stayed with me for a bit. She is an amazing artist a gentle soul and one of my closest friends. Tiffy got married about a year ago to Jeffy and this was the first time we had met. Jeff is a complete sweet heart. It was his surprise to fly Tiffy to London so she could be here when we were here too. It was truly a reunion.




Natasha, or Tash is like a little sister to me. Her mother and I were best friends when I came back into the truth. Tash has been through alot and She is 16 and lives on her own is currently studying Fashion. It was wonderful to see her. .. I have so much love for her, her sisters and family.

Rainy day in the pub

We got caught in the rain one day and ducked into this pub where we are staying at the moment. The fire was roaring and we warmed up with a hot toddy. I took some nice photos while we were drying off and then of the area on the way back to the flat we are stay at.

Cheese and Port Evening...

Its finally getting cold here in London. The rain and wind are a bit much.. I can finally wear my warm clothes. I panicked the first week I was here it was to humid to wear the winter clothes I had brought.

Tonight we had been invited to a cheese and port evening at my sisters house hosted by my Dad. We where wowed with a wonderful variety of cheeses and some wonderful port.

We also had a practice run for the opera next week. I have brought a dress just for the occasion. my sisters had fun doing my hair with extensions and make up. I miss messing with my sisters and playing make up even at 32.

Bethel Visit

We got soaked on our way to Bethel, I am not enjoying public transport. Its smelly and crowded and takes ages to get anywhere. I miss jumping in the truck and going where ever I please. We arrived just in time for a yummy lunch of Asian beef and noodles.

This is breakfast with Tim and Michelle, a couple that are my good friends. It was 7am in the morning and still dark outside. Sarah, Lilly and Amanda joined us for breakfast too.


This is Simon, he is an elder in my old cong Wood Green. He is a very good friend and it was due to his kindness that we could stay in Bethel. He works in the planning department for Kingdom Hall construction. Simon paints and is a avid cyclist be biked the length of Britain 837 in 13 days.
We are hoping to have him visit very soon. Simon is pictured with Amanda ;)

Breakfast with friends.

Bethel bed in out room

Bethel flats we were in the pent house.

Old friends and missing home

Ive been homesick. I miss you, i miss the quiet pace of placerville and my routine. I have been in a daze for the past few days.. Going places that are familiar on autodrive and yet everything feeling so strange..I cant believe im here and afriad before i come to terms with it ill be leaving.

my sister Harriette and I ( she might be coming in Janurary)

Im getting tired early but making myself stay up till bedtime and now im waking up at 4am.. I gave sarah a quick call this morning as I lay awake and she was so excited to hear from me I didnt have a chance to talk before my phone was out of credit lol It was good to hear her voice.

Aaron enjoying breakfast at our local cafe

I Went to my old kingdom hall on Thursday. It was great to see everyone.. I was very overwhelmed, being hugged left right and center. We all went to the pub after the meeting and I have dinner plans with somefriends tonight. This week has mainly be adjusting.. We have stayed local and been sleeping and bumping into friends which is always nice.. I had lunch with my spiritual mum, 5 hours in a Turkish resturant!! lol its nice that some things never change and Hazel like her name as nutty as they come is full of energy, corrects my speech, grammer and raises her eyes at my americanisims..

Hazel my spiritual mum

next week promises to be buiser... miss you all

SFO and my travel buddies

We arrived at the airport nice and early. Had lunch as we were staving and then met Aarons cousin Brem and her Husband Issac flying home from France. We had coffee caught up and then checked our bags in, no problems we sailed through security and settled ourselves down..

We are about to board hence im being brief.

I have some travel buddies. Amanda, Sarah and Lilly here are some pics just before boarding.

Sarah is on the left in a red apron, lilly is next with the blue lolly, and Amanda has the hammer.. These 3 will be on my travels with me.




Here they are on my luggage in the departure lounge.




Here is all four of us..


Better be off now we are boarding.

London here we come

Our flight is tomorrow at 4.55pm... We land in London 11am Tuesday November 2nd. The following blogs will be from London or en route to.. Enjoy

Master Chef

I am currently following some recipes that are 500 calorie or less and simple. These recipes are so easy and simple to make this one takes 20mins and is tasty, filling and good for you. We had this one for dinner tonight and it came out just like the picture, I was so excited. I added chili flakes to give it some kick as I like hot.
You have to try this.
With the Broth you have to play with the taste that suits you.. its easy to adapt this recipe have fun.

Japanese Chicken-Scallion Rice Bowl

Ingredients
Instant brown rice
2 cans of reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
1 tablespoon mirin, (see Ingredient note)
3 large egg whites
2 large egg
8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
6 scallions/spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced


Preparation
Prepare instant brown rice according to package directions.
Pour broth into a heavy medium saucepan, along with sugar, soy sauce and mirin. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low.
Stir egg whites and whole egg in a small bowl until just mixed. Add chicken to the simmering broth. Gently pour in the egg mixture, without stirring. Sprinkle scallions on top. When the egg starts to firm up, after about 3 minutes, stir it with chopsticks or a knife. (The chicken will be cooked by now.) Divide the rice among 4 deep soup bowls and top with the chicken mixture.


Ingredient Note: Mirin is a low-alcohol rice wine essential to Japanese cooking. Look for it in your supermarket with the Asian or gourmet ingredients. An equal portion of sherry or white wine with a pinch of sugar may be substituted for mirin.

LONDON CALANDER

This is a preliminary schedule of our time in London.. Please let me know if you would like to add or if corrections need to be made. Thanks

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sunday
1	2Staying at Anitas ARRIVE IN UK MEETING pub	3	4	5 Ministry Tottenham LUNCH HAZEL	6 Ministry WoodGreen Dinner Liz & Vinny	7 Ministry Yiannitsarou's all day MEETING
8 BETHEL LUNCH WITH STEVE AND AMANDA Tiffy arrive	9 BETHEL MEETING	10 BETHEL	11Staying at Sandras	12	13 Art gallery day	14 4pm jenny & Athos MEETING
15	16	17 Tiffy leave	18	19 Hotel in Leighton Buzzard with Char	20 Hotel in Leighton Buzzard with Char	21 With char then home to Wood Green Need a place to stay this night
22 LEAVE FOR USA	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Im hurting

Well I pushed myself! I went on the run this morning. I did a little stretching and although my calf felt better I was still wondering how it would fair this morning. A big part of me did not want to go this morning but I always put that down to my inherent lazy nature, or procrastination which I'm so skilled at.

I got dressed, picked up newt and met Claudia, we had a friend Join us and hopefuly will continue to join us, Lisa our newest recruit who annoyingly handled the run with ease lol. So we start to run and the first 3 minutes were fine, I breathed well and didnt feel too bad, the second 3 minutes where a little harder but I managed and then the third 3 minutes my wall, I was dying, I had gotten to that point were I pushing myself so hard, I could see I needed to go just a little further my body was screaming out stop I cant please stop, then it happened, I cried out in pain, something in my left calf muscle snapped like someone letting go of a rubber band. I heard the snap and the pain seared through my calf.. I was so mad.. I told the others to keep going, while I rubbed my leg and hope this would just go away.. I hated not running with them, as they passed me on their final leg. Something inside me told me to not do this, to rest but thinking I was being lazy I ignored it.

I'm worried now I have done some thing that could take weeks to heal, I've been reading articles about calf muscle tears and if that's the case if there is any tear even a tiny one I'm out of the game for up to 3 weeks.. all the work I have done!!! To have to stop running for that long is terrible blow. Ill have to start all over maybe.
I'm going to speak to the personal trainer at work today and get his opinion. Hopefully it just seized and needs a couple of days with some gentle stretching and ill be back running.

I felt overwhelmed with all the things I had to do today. One by one they all cleared themselves. My early morning people canceled, and then my leg went and I cleared the rest of the morning. I'm going to work and I'll be giving my talk tonight but otherwise I'm resting my leg.

Another pearl of Wisdom . Always stretch and rest on rest day

I might just write a book called mistakes newbies make while running.. and fill it with mine. Like an idiots guide to running.

Places I wanna eat at when I go to London

I'm making a list in case I forget. I have missed the food of London so much

Turkish

Jennys

Nandos

Toby Carvery

Yum Yums ( West Indian)

Indian @ Paramount in wood green

Yasar Halim (Green lanes)

Cafe English Breakfast

Pie and Mash in Walthamstow

Pasty from Dunns in Crouch End

Crepes from Muswell Hill

will update as more come to mind

New week new running time

Through most of my sleep last night all I could think about was running that extra minute today. After my failure on Saturday I was really anxious. I got up and donned my running gear, Claudia was waiting for me at the trail. We set the clock for 3 minutes and started to run.. It wasnt easy but I did it and I did it 4 times that morning. it wasn't until we had finished our run that I was made aware that we had actually cut our walking time = recovery time. It was hard, I was breathing hard and during at least one of the runs I was screaming in my head, when are we going to stop I need to stop ahhhhhhhh!

But I did it, by George I did it! High Five people!

I have a dilemma, my schedule says that we have rest days. Should I take the rest day or should I push myself. Personally I want to follow the schedule and rest but Claudia wants to run and I agreed. We have been running every day so far so maybe we should keep going. I know my diet is not a streamlined as it should be so the extra running will help. Then on the other hand I was so tired today because of my run, my calf cramped up and its still a little tender. I need to get on and do some serious stretching.

Pros to running every day

Will build faster and better endurance
weight loss faster
body adapt faster
sense of personal achievement
motivation to eat better

Cons

Could injure self because of pushing (ankles are week, knees play up, cramping calf)
could exhaust self during day and it effects my work and ministry and household duties
could start disliking if i push to hard and stop all together.



What to do? Part of me knows I should push myself and the lazy me says take the rest days. I dont know who to listen to. HELP

My Training Schedule

Running Training

Week1
Monday - run2 minutes walk4 minutes x4
Tuesday - off
Wednesday - run2 minutes walk4 minutes x4
Thursday - off
Friday - run2 minutes walk4 minutes x4
Saturday - run2 minutes walk4 minutes x4
Sunday -off


Week2
Monday - run3 minutes walk3 minutes x4
Tuesday - off
Wednesday - run3 minutes walk3 minutes x4
Thursday - off
Friday - run3 minutes walk3 minutes x4
Saturday - run3 minutes walk3 minutes x4
Sunday

Week3
Monday - run5 minutes walk2.5 minutes x3
Tuesday - off
Wednesday - run5 minutes walk2.5 minutes x3
Thursday - off
Friday - run5 minutes walk2.5 minutes x3
Saturday - run5 minutes walk2.5 minutes x3
Sunday - off

Week4
Monday - run7 minutes walk3 minutes x2
Tuesday - off
Wednesday - run7 minutes walk3 minutes x2
Thursday - off
Friday - run7 minutes walk3 minutes x2
Saturday - run7 minutes walk3 minutes x2
Sunday - off

Week5
Monday - run8 minutes walk2 minutes x2
Tuesday - off
Wednesday - run8 minutes walk2 minutes x2
Thursday - off
Friday - run8 minutes walk2 minutes x2
Saturday - run8 minutes walk2 minutes x2
Sunday - off


Week6
Monday - run9 minutes walk2 minutes x1 run 8 minutes
Tuesday - off
Wednesday - run9 minutes walk2 minutes x1 run 8 minutes
Thursday - off
Friday - run9 minutes walk2 minutes x1 run 8 minutes
Saturday - run9 minutes walk2 minutes x1 run 8 minutes
Sunday - off

Week7
Monday - run9 minutes walk1 minutes x2
Tuesday - off
Wednesday - run9 minutes walk1 minutes x2
Thursday - off
Friday - run9 minutes walk1 minutes x2
Saturday - run9 minutes walk1 minutes x2
Sunday - off


Week8
Monday - run13 minutes walk2 minutes x1
Tuesday - off
Wednesday - run13 minutes walk2 minutes x1
Thursday - off
Friday - run13 minutes walk2 minutes x1
Saturday - run13 minutes walk2 minutes x1
Sunday - off

Week9
Monday - run11 minutes walk1 minutes x1
Tuesday - off
Wednesday - run14 minutes walk1 minutes x1
Thursday - off
Friday - run14 minutes walk1 minutes x1
Saturday - run14 minutes walk1 minutes x1
Sunday - off



Week10
Monday - run 30 minutes
Tuesday - off
Wednesday - run 30 minutes
Thursday - off
Friday - run 30 minutes
Saturday - run 30 minutes
Sunday - off