Making home homey

Here are a couple pictures of our flat! I know they've been long awaited, since we've been here now for 4 whole days! There is just one little corner of our apartment that we can pick up one bar of someone's wireless internet signal...and even then it's only sometimes! But, we're working on getting our internet hooked up asap...definitely looking forward to that!

Still working on sprucing up the apartment, honestly, until now, there's not really been much to take pictures of...just boxes, random furniture left here by previous tenants, etc. We're trying to make it "home", though we know that takes time. Tony and Yvonne have been very very supportive, offering to help in any way they can--they've really taken us under their wing and have made the transition much easier.

For instance, they took us yesterday to a retail park (outlet mall) where we bought some paint to paint our place and introduced us to ASDA (the UK version of Walmart). They also took us to IKEA the other day to buy some furnishings/decor...really just a rug, a futon, silverware, etc. Nothing too exciting, just enough to make our place feel like a home. No matter how hard we try to not spend much though, it's just a fact: things are more expensive here. Even at ASDA, we were shocked at prices...we've found that what would normally cost 3 dollars in the States costs 3 pounds here (nearly $6!) so we're just blown away by our grocery bill when we do the mental conversion!

MY BROTHER IS COMING TO VISIT TONIGHT!! Ha ha, can you tell I'm excited?! He has been backpacking Europe for a month now, my older brother, Justin, met up with him a couple weeks ago in Spain, so the two of them have been enjoying an awesome journey--I'm so excited to hear some of their stories, reflections, etc. Even though we've bought some new decor and furnishings, and painted the walls, and unpacked our boxes...it's really hard for this to feel like home without family. Again, all in good time I'm sure...

Friday night we enjoyed the company of two couples interested in discussing Eikon with us and the Foleys. First, we saw a show called, "Joy Observed", a play about the life of C.S. Lewis' wife and afterwards went for a really nice dinner and enjoyed conversation spanning the topics of kids, work...universalism, the church's approach to homosexuals...you know, the usual. :) It's been very very interesting talking to various people about their experiences and opinions on what a church should and shouldn't be...this is certainly a pivotal time for us in terms of structuring Eikon, framing core values/beliefs and creatively implementing it all into effective service/small group/church models.