A Sweet Husband

What a sweet husband I have! He was supposed to have worked from early in the morning til late in the evening, but he came home just as I woke up and surprised me with breakfast and flowers! Thank you hun!

It's just a reminder that it doesn't take much to show your loved ones how you feel!

The Ollis Fam in Scotland!

My apologies for not posting sooner!

SO a lot and not much has happened in the last three months. We have done some sight seeing and took a family trip to Scotland which was really exciting! The country side is truly beautiful there. We hiked a few miles along a 1,000 year old wall built by King Hadrian (in the rain I add- the hiking, not the building!)

(Hadrian's Wall)

One particular part of this wall was used in a scene from Robin Hood. Aaron was excited to see that part. We also found a mountain covered in huge boulders. The forest there looked very much like home.

(Brimham Rocks)

We explored two castles- one of which was Edinburgh Castle (in the capitol of Scotland, Edinburgh). My favorite part of the trip was visiting the Sir William Wallace Memorial, and learning that us Crawfords are related to him! His mother was a Crawford- to a Scot, that's like being related to the King!

(The Edinburgh Castle)

We really enjoyed the Scottish people. Their accents were very different from the Brits. Very similar to how in America, Southerners accents are very different from the rest of the country. The Scots are the "Southerners" of the UK! Most of the time we couldn't understand anything they were saying, but it sounded really nice!We also spent a few days in London. It was very cool to actually stand in front of all these famous places. We saw Buckingham Place, Westminster Abby, Green Park, The London Eye (the big ferris wheel), and my favorite- Big Ben and Parliament.

(The London Eye)

(Buckingham Palace)

What a beautiful city! Very crowded as well... we used the "tube" which is what Londoners call the subway, for all our transportation. VERY confusing! I basically just followed Aaron around...Although I enjoyed visiting, I realized that I am NOT a city girl! I think I belong in the Scottish mountains...

Aside from our trips, we have definitely settled in our new home. Aaron is comfortable at work, and I'm enjoying our town. I love driving here, and have it down pact. Hunter and I visit the open markets to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, and all the local parks. I'm thankful he has many children his age to play with! We're very blessed by and happy with our church. There is a wonderful group of people there, and are thankful to have a family away from home!

So I guess that's all the major stuff. Oh, Hunter is already saying a few words with a British accent. I'm looking forward to more!

Hope you all are well! Please email us when you have the chance and update us on your family! Enjoy what's left of summer. Ours is almost up!

Take care- we love you all!!

-Candace

Drama King...

Since we arrived in the UK, Hunter's vocabulary has grown so much. He says things (not bad things) and we have no idea where he's learned them. This morning though, I laughed extra hard. He just sat down at the table to eat his waffle and started crying for his juice. I told him after we said the blessing I would get it for him. So I gave him his juice, told him to use words instead of crying, and went to the kitchen to make coffee. While I was in there I could hear him saying, "It's all my fault." pause "What happened to me?"

hmmm, Can you say drama king?

Fresh Start

One of the great things about moving to a new place is the chance to start over. It's very refreshing- something different lies around every corner. A new home, new job, new church, and new friends. And being in a different country makes it all extra exciting!

God has provided for every need since we've been here, which has been entire month already! After a week and a half being here, we moved into our new home. Our things didn't arrive for another week, so we're still unpacking. English homes normally don't have much storage space, so we are having to be creative finding a home for everything. Aaron's work here is much less stressful than it was in SC-such a blessing! He quickly became good friends with a guy in his office who is from our neck of the woods back home. Him and his wife has a daughter who is 5 and gets along great with Hunter. She's playing the "big sister" part very well! We've really enjoyed spending time with them . They're the ones who introduced us to our new church and church family. It's a close knit church with about 80 or so members. We already feel at home there after visiting only a few times.www.alconburybaptist.org

It's lots of fun learning about the differences in the British cultural and American cultural. There are differences large and small. The small ones are the ones you would least expect. For example, they eat differently than we do. They ALWAYS use a fork and knife. The knife is used to section off a bite and push the food onto the fork. They also always use the fork with the prongs pointed down. Something else- If someone bumps into you, they won't say excuse me. They're not being rude. It's just that the phrase "excuse me" here is used to get anothers attention and not an apology.

The weather has been wonderful here. We're hoping to take some trips soon. Once we do, I'll make sure to blog it and post some pics.

Please continue to emails us and keep us posted on all the happenings at home. Love to you all!

-Candace

Getting Settled

Hi everyone! Hope you all are well :)

Well, we have been in England 5 days now, and we are quickly getting settled. We've been house hunting for the past few days and the 7th home was the lucky one. The owner is having the carpet cleaned and a few other things, but we should be set to move in this week sometime. It depends on the base really, because they will be l0aning us furniture and other goods until our things arrive. The only thing the home didn't have that we wanted was a conservatory, but we talked the owner into putting one in! The Brits use the conservatory as an extension of the dining room, but we do plan to grow some things in there also. Our little village school has a small market and a primary school (elementary). I haven't checked yet, but they may have a preschool for Hunter to attend next year. Something else we also love is the village has a great playground and a running track!

So driving here was alittle harder than Aaron expected, but he has already got the hand of it. The only hard in the round-a-bouts which take the place of traffic lights and intersections. These little European cars fly around those circles and it's a little frightening to jump in there. Plus we still haven't figured out signal while on them- it's very different from home!

It is absolutely beautiful here! There huge Meadows filled with this yellow flower called rape weed. One field can cover acres and acres. I've tried taking pictures, but none have done it justice so far.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon exploring Huntingdon which is the town that our village is in. The town was actually established just after 1200! We walked through a park next to the Ouse River. There are some beautiful old buildings and hotel in the area.



Here is a link to some pictures from out time here so far!
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=yk2kpuv.7vykqnt7&x=0&y=u87tle&localeid=en_US&cm_mmc=site_email-_-site_share-_-core-_-view_photos_button



We are doing great and already enjoying our new area. We hope you all are doing great as well. When you get the chance, please send us an email and catch us up on whats going on at home!



Love to you all- Candace

In the UK!

Hi from England! So we finally made it yesterday morning at 6am, which is 1am for all of you. We are tired but very excited to be here! We got checked into our room and took a long nap. We're working on the jetlag pretty well. Tomorrow we are going to rent a car and tour some homes- fun!
We hope you all are doing well. We love and miss you! I'll post again when I have a better internet connection.

-Candace

Warp speed

Wow, time is really going fast! All the events in the past few weeks have sped things up. Two weeks ago the movers came and packed up our house, put everything in huge crates and loaded them onto a semi-truck. For days Hunter kept asking "Where's my chair? Where's my airplane? Where's my trucks?" I think knowing that his things were going to England was exciting enough to make up for not having them. Whew!

The next big event was shipping Aaron's truck. It took a few days to get it clean enough to ship (it had to be immaculate), then we drove it to Charleston. There was a problem with the emergency brake so we weren't able to ship it that day. It wasn't a big deal though cause we were able to spend some time with my wonderful brother and sister-in-law! The following weekend we went back to Charleston and was able to ship it with no problem. I think Aaron was a little sad watching it drive off though...
After taking care of a few things around the house, we drove to NC and have been spending time with family ever since! Aaron and I are very thankful to have this time to spend with everyone. Most making a big move overseas don't have this luxury. We hope to see as many of you as possible in the few days we have left.
We hope you all enjoy celebrating the wonderful holiday coming up! Easter is one of my favorite holidays- for Christ's resurrection, and for all the memories I have of the special day. Make some special memories of your own! Love you all.

Candace

Pictures coming-check back soon!

Moving along (no pun intended)

So things have really picked up this week. Aaron finally got his orders (official paperwork, yay!) which set the stage for other things to happen. In the next two weeks we'll be shipping his truck and our household goods, then we'll make our way to NC. We can't wait to visit with everyone!

We also have our flying itinerary, which Aaron asked me not to post details about in the blog (for security reasons). Feel free to email or call us if you'd like to know. Simply put, we are flying mid April, just as we expected.

Lately I've been trying to explain to Hunter that we are moving. I really don't think he gets it yet. He'll pretend to drive a car and when I asked where he's going, he says he's driving to England. Good luck with that right!? And sometimes he gets upset because he wants to go to England now! It's really cute. He has no sense of what "in a few weeks" means.

Even though things are moving along, there are a few more things we need to work out, preferably before we actually leave. The biggest is selling our home! God has graciously provided for us since we found out we were moving, and I know He will continue too. We are so thankful!

Hope all is well with everyone! Love you all.

PS-If you're interested there is a link to the right that will take you to our family scrapbook blog. Some pics from Hunter's party is published. Check it out!

-Candace

Hurry up and wait...the military way

Welcome to the Ollis Family blog!

As you all know, we are on our way to England! In just a few weeks our things will be shipped and we'll be spending some time in NC before the big flight. Time is moving quickly, and we are anxious and very excited.

Excited as we are, we will still miss you, our family and friends. To help make sure that we stay connected, we began this blog. Occasionally check it out to see what's going in the UK, stories about our trips, and pictures.

Please make sure to let us know whats going on with you too! Email, call, comment on the blog- however you want, just as long as you stay in touch :)

We love you all! Take care, God bless, and I'll post again soon.

-Candace