Update

Life has been moving along and we thought we'd share how it has been.

Clive will be 15 months tomorrow. He's progressing strongly on the walking front and is incredibly good at causing mischief. He loves keys and anything electronic. His fascination with the washing machine continues and whenever we can't find something we check there first.

While he is walking, talking hasn't really happened yet. He's got 'mamama' and 'dadada' figured out, but the rest of the time he thinks he's speaking english, but isn't. Both Erica and I were late talkers (Erica probably because she was a triplet, and me probably because I was dumb (intelligence-wise that is)) so we aren't too fussed about it.

Erica had been quite busy with freelance work having picked up a few new clients and still doing work for the church. Things have slowed a bit, so you could pray that work continues to come in.

We went camping for a week in July in Dorset which is on the southern coast of England. The area was beautiful and the rain held off for the most part. Here's the pictures in case you missed them.

After almost three years of working at a minimum wage retail job, I've taken a position at HMP (Her Majesty's Prison) Maidstone. I'll be working in the library overseeing the two inmates who run the library, and checking books that inmates would like to get from other libraries for content. I interviewed for the job back in April, but due to various background checks (including writing to the FBI) I just started last week. The nice part about the job is that I think I'll enjoy it more than JJB and it pays 50% more. I won't get as many hours, but that will leave time for me to care for Clive while Erica does freelance work.

I had the opportunity to preach at both of All Saints' morning services on July 29th. We were working our way through the first half of Romans and I preached on 8:17-30. I felt a bit rusty, but enjoyed the experience. Critique for yourself here.

The Olympics are in full swing and Team GB (as they insist on being called) are doing very well. We, along with Erica's sister Inga and her husband Simon will be headed to Cardiff (It's in Wales, 150 miles from London, but whatever) on Saturday to watch the bronze medal football soccer match between Japan and South Korea.

Speaking of Inga and Simon, they just bought a house and have asked us if we would like to be subletters, cotenents, lodgers. We've put in the notice with our landlords that we'll be leaving the place we're at and will hopefully be moving house (as they say over here) in early September. The house is in Coxheath (home of the world custard pie championships), which is the village right next to Loose (where our church is). This will mean a much shorter commute for me on my bike to work and it's still the same distance from the prison. It will also be a help to Inga and Simon to cut down their mortgage.

Lastly, my ordination process moves on. It's been confirmed that I'll be a part of the local Bishop's Advisory Panel (or BAP, but not to be confused with a bap) on December 1st. The BAP is a one day selection process that is my next hurdle in going for ordination. Please pray that I'll have the time and energy to put work into prepping for it. My advisor tells me that she is feeling pretty positive about it, but as you know with Erica and Zac nothing is ever straight forward.

That's us for now. We miss all of you back in the states. We probably won't be back in the U.S. of A. until July 2013, but if you have some leftover pence (the proper plural of penny dontcha know?) and are looking to get away, we'll gladly take you in.

QE II

Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Diamond Jubilee (60 years on the throne dontcha know?) with an extra long weekend.

It was a pretty big deal. She's only the second English monarch to reign for 60+ years. Her great-great-grandmum Victoria reigned for 63 years and 7 months.

In honour of the Queen I have composed a song to the tune of 'God Save the Queen' or 'My Country Tis of Thee' whichever you prefer.


God save the good queen Liz.
She's the best in the biz.
God save the queen.

She's reigned for a long time.
I'll celebrate with rhyme.
Now, I've run out of lines.
God save the queen!

Day 1

All of my siblings are now in Ohio. Anna arrived from Geneva a few hours before our original flight was supposed to arrive. Alas, we missed our connection in Chicago and spent the night in a hotel and arrived about nine hours later than we were supposed to. Becky caught a flight from a conference she was at in D.C. and we're sitting around and chatting as the first snow of the year falls outside.

Clive is reacclumating himself to his extended family and to my parents' dog Maggie. He did okay on the flight, but is still a bit jet lagged. Last night he went to bed at 4pm and got up at 5am. I can handle that. Hopefully tonight we'll restore him to a more convenient schedule of 6 or 7pm to 7 or 8 am. He will have his hands full tonight though as we're having aunts, uncles and cousins over.

Erica and I ventured out into my hometown yesterday afternoon. For as much as things change, they also stay the same. Alliance is grim (as Simon Mitchell would say). We talk of England's weather, but the sky here is just a different kind of grey. We did stop by a charity shop though, buy some (non-alcoholic) apple cider, and stop by Heggy's for some chocolate.

Other highlights? My brother building an open fire in the fireplace last night, beating Anna at scrabble, realizing that I didn't miss Graham Crackers that much, and listening to my dad snore as he sleeps on the living room floor.

Until Day 2...

Groundhog's Day

Because of the Groundhog's Day Blizzard of '11 is covering most of the U.S. we are still in the UK.
A short recap...

We were supposed to fly out of Heathrow to Chicago O'Hare on Wednesday morning. Late Tuesday night we checked our flight status and saw that it had been canceled and that we would be on a later flight on Wednesday. Fair enough. Instead of getting up really early we slept in a bit, finished some cleaning around the house and got ready to leave to catch our 4.30pm flight from Heathrow.

We checked, double, and triple checked our flight status and finally left for Heathrow yesterday afternoon. We got to Heathrow, got our luggage out, found our ticket counter, and the girl's headed off to the toilet. As soon as they were out of hearing range the announcement came over the speakers. "American Airlines regrets to inform passengers that flight 91 to Chicago has been canceled. Please come to the ticket counter for more information."

We trudge to the counter and are told that Erica has been put on a British Airlines flight to Chicago via New York at 8.30am on Thursday and that Inga and I would be on the same flight that had just been canceled except on Thursday. Well that was no good, so we arranged for all three of us to be on Thursday's 4.30pm flight. The difficulty with the 4.30 flight is that we get into Chicago at 7.30pm which is too late for Erica and I to catch our flight to Cleveland. So we have to stay overnight in Chicago (very thankful for the Brankatelli's hospitality in this regard) and catch a Friday morning flight to Cleveland.

So now it is Thursday morning. We slept in a bit, finished some cleaning around the house and are getting ready to leave to catch our 4.30pm flight from Heathrow.

Again.

Woah!

The past two months have been a whirlwind roller coaster so we'll just have a few high (and low)lights.

+ On New Year's Eve Erica had her second scan and Clive Neubauer is a healthy growing boy ready to enter the world come mid-May.

+ Dave & Camille Ho moved back to Maidstone; we were acquaintances with Dave while we were at Moody and were astonished to find once we moved here that he was from Maidstone. He and his wife Camille just moved back. Dave and I were in the same major at Moody, and Camille and Erica were both in the communications department and they are expecting their first child in June. They have been a tremendous encouragement and help to us over the past few months.

+We spent Christmas Day with Steve & Helen Price and their daughters. Steve is the Priest-in-charge at our church and we attend the same home group. Our first Christmas over here in the Isles was tough, but a year of experience plus the Price's hospitality helped this one a lot.

+Erica has completed her final project and her thesis and just has an external examiner coming on Monday to grade her.

+We're coming back to the States for a visit on Wednesday. You probably know this already though...

+My admin job is going well. More about that later.

+Got to see Matt & Meredith Riordan (plus 13 of their teen aged friends) in London two weeks ago. Meredith was leading a Literary London J-term trip so we met up with them for an evening and enjoyed

Some not so hot news...

-Our 17 year old Nissan Micra broke down. It had been a bit rough going and we weren't sure if it would pass the next M.O.T. in May. Our transmission decided to put an end to any speculation though two weeks back, and left us on the side of the road. We have the British version of AAA and got home, but found out the car was going to cost more to fix than it was worth...
We struggled through two weeks of no car, but made an offer on a 2000 Toyota Yaris and are picking it up tomorrow. It is bittersweet as we definately were not planning on buying a car with our meager paychecks, but a couple from our church are trustees of a trust fund and that fund is giving us over half of the money we need for it!

It's Like Academic Challenge, Except With Alcohol

Our holidays were good. Erica and I woke up Christmas morning and opened a handful of presents (Her's including the complete works of the Bronte sisters and some silver earrings. My including an antique pocket watch). We then bundled into a car with a married couple we know to spend Christmas with family, albeit, not our family. The day was memorable. About 18 people and crazier than the Scott family according to Erica. We ate so much food that it should be a post in and of itself. Erica's sister Allie and Allie's husband Evan arrived New Years Eve with presents from the states, coincidently the same day that our Christmas package from my parents showed up. We got home from the airport and had Christmas morning all over again. Both sets of parents heard our laments about the lack of quality Mexican food over here. We ended up with three packages of real corn tortillas, beans, salsa (which is much better than its British counterpart that tasted suspiciously like bruschetta), enchilada sauce, and Mexican hot chocolate. Last night we had Erica's school buddy Lorna over and ate fish tacos. We stopped by our nearby fish and chips place and got a big piece of cod for the fish. Erica said they looked at her pretty oddly when she, a single girl, ordered a huge piece of fish and no chips. The tacos turned out real well.
Tonight we're headed over to the pub I used to work at for a quiz night. Quiz nights are pretty popular over here. You get a team together and try to answer trivial questions about a variety of subjects. The pubs put them on because it gets people in the door, and usually gets people laughing and drinking. It costs £1 for each person on the team and the winning team gets the kitty. Not expecting to show particularly well considering we know next to nothing about British pop-culture. I'll be happy if we do not finish last.
Inga should be showing up towards the end of the month/start of February and we're going to be taking some day trips with her as well as Allie and Evan. We'll keep you updated with pictures and such.
We love you all and miss you. Come visit!

The Free-Wheelin Freecycle

Even before we moved over here Erica and I were online looking at potential cars, homes, and household items. One thing that kept reoccuring was that people didn't seem to be selling that much used stuff online. The use of craigslist is nearly non-existent and a few of the links for the county of Kent hook up to Kent, Ohio. There are other sites such as gumtree.com, but we weren't too impressed. Well it seems the reason that we couldn't find anyone selling used stuff is because they tend to give it away for free! We joined an internet community known as freecycle and stuff has been pouring in. Freecycle was founded in Arizona and communities exist all over the world. The concept is pretty simple. If you have something you want to give away you set up a listing of the item and your general location. Then it goes on a message board where people who want the item can e-mail you. Someone e-mails you asks if you still have it and then you set up a time to have it picked up. All that we've accumulated more than makes up for the out-of-our-price range guest bed that we recently bought. In no particular order, our freecycle booty.

• A partial set of golf clubs with bag and push cart
• Motorized foot spa.
• Veggie Steamer
• 4 dining chairs
• An outdoor wicker chair
• Small dining table
• Ironing board
• Vacuu
• Clock Radio
• 2 Dozen French Novels
• Single mattress (though very poor condition)
• Assorted picture frames
• Bag of Christmas ornaments
• Microwave
• Juicer
• 8 wine glasses
• Moderately useless cleaning supplies
• Sewing machine (mostly works)
• Computer desk
• Man's bike (picking up on Friday)
  
• The following items were obtained for free but not through Freecyle: bookcase, mirror, double duvet, white curtains and pyrex baking dish.
  

Just some of the things we're thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving.