this had me cracking up laughing! of course, i’m something of a nerd, so unless you work in graphic design or admin, you may not find it quite as funny as i did… but it’s still worth watching just for the cleverness of it.
“mailbox! open mailbox!”
“i know this place like the back of lucida hand!”
HAHA
(special thanks to luz for discovering it and sending it to me!)
well, obviously this guy makes me smile. a lot. 
but so does this:
| Passenger Information |
| Passenger Name |
| LAMBROS/ANDREA |
| Itinerary | ||||
| Date | Flight | Routing Details | ||
| Fri Aug 08 | 1770 | Depart PHOENIX AZ (PHX) at 4:55 PM Arrive in BURBANK CA (BUR) at 6:15 PM |
||
| Mon Aug 11 | 1768 | Depart BURBANK CA (BUR) at 7:30 AM Arrive in PHOENIX AZ (PHX) at 8:55 AM |
||
and this:
| Passenger Information |
| Passenger Name |
| BOOMSMA/ZACHARY |
| Itinerary | ||||
| Date | Flight | Routing Details | ||
| Fri Aug 29 | 748 | Depart BURBANK CA (BUR) at 2:40 PM Arrive in PHOENIX AZ (PHX) at 4:05 PM |
||
| Tue Sep 02 | 744 | Depart PHOENIX AZ (PHX) at 8:25 PM Arrive in BURBANK CA (BUR) at 9:50 PM |
||
(i promise that not ALL my posts will be about zach/this courtship… just most of them. 😉 )
i’m back from a most delightful 53 hours in pasadena, california! it was a super fun trip! definitely much too short, but that is the season we are in right now and we’re enjoying it as a gift from God. 🙂
here’s some pictures and a random rundown —
(and just a disclaimer – i’m not very good at taking lots of pictures or even getting very good ones – but i’m trying to get better, so just bear with me!)
friday night i arrived and after zach picked me up from the airport we hung out with his mom and sisters that night. it was really great to just spend time with his family. he has 4 sisters – courtney (20), paige (14), taylor (almost 12), and ashley (10). here’s a shot i got of the four of them at the beach:
clockwise from the top – paige, courtney, ashley, taylor
we actually spent a fair amount of time just being with his family, which was awesome!
saturday evening we went to huntington beach and did a bonfire. 
L-R: carrie (friend/coworker of zach’s from sbux), grandma anderson, taylor, grandma’s foreign exchange student from france, tiffany (tami’s sister), ashley, tami, courtney, paige, zach.
bonfires on the beach are totally one of my favorite things to do in california. i’ve done it at least once before and i just love it! we cooked hot dogs and corn and did smores and sat in beach chairs or chilled on blankets and towels. it’s laid back and relaxing and super fun! and of course, strolling along the coast with the tide coming up over your feet is pretty nice too. 
(you can’t tell, but we’re both wearing our Oxford sweatshirts that i brought back from england)
i think he likes me 
aaaand i kinda like him. 
tami (zach’s mom) got a kick out of taking some random pictures of zach and i:
for the record, we were NOT fighting in this one. 
zach and i had a lot of fun talking and just being together. we discovered that you can be doing some pretty interesting activities (like running sound for a rather disorganized korean pentacostal missionary college graduation) and find it to be a blast just because you’re doing it together. we laughed a lot and definitely made some memories with that one, let me tell ya!
i can definitely say that i am still amazed at God’s hand in this relationship and all that he is doing. it completely blows me away and leaves me nearly speechless every time i stop and think about it. i’ve been delightfully surprised by zach on so many levels and God’s character and kindness and glory are growing greater in my eyes through this as i observe the abundance of grace in zach’s life and how it’s working itself out in this relationship.
the view from Cloud Nine is pretty nice. i think i shall stay here a bit longer. 
i’m leaving tomorrow to spend the weekend in pasadena, california with zach and his family! 🙂
i’m not sure of all the plans for the weekend (and i rather like it that way!), but there is talk of hanging out with the family (minus ron who is in michigan with his mother), coffee with tami (zach’s mom), a beach bonfire, church and lots of talking and time together.
i’m a little bit excited.
Take the Quiz here!
You are Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice!
You are intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. You have a
good head on your shoulders, and oftentimes find yourself the lone
beacon of reason in a sea of ridiculousness. You take great pleasure in
many things. You are proficient in nearly all of them, though you will
never own it. Lest you seem too perfect, you have a tendency toward
prejudgement that serves you very ill indeed.
i didn’t really think i’d come up as Lizzy… hmmm… not sure how accurate it is but it was fun!
(i like this quiz because at the end it lets you see all the possible results)
some random things i’ve recently been amazed by…
_ how much someone’s Godly example can provoke me toward greater Godliness
_ how many places are seriously so old. buildings and sites and monuments… places where real people walked out their lives, some in complete anonymity, some in utter infamy, and others we will never forget.
_ how great it is to be in a courtship with someone who is already one of my best friends
_ how blessed i am to share life with the girls in my caregroup and the work that God is doing in their lives
_ how feeding on God’s word both continues to satisfy my soul and at the same time make me hunger for more
_ how beautiful the rain is
_ how comforting God’s unchanging and ever faithful character is
it’s really REALLY good to be home.
sorry for not posting! we got back to our hotel somewhat late each night and then i pretty much spent the rest of our evenings video-chatting with zach. so posting took something of a back seat.
but here’s what the last couple days have held —
Thursday
mom and i toured the Tower of London! wow. what an amazing place! so much history!
the famous Traitor’s Gate:
near some tudor style housing within the walls (not used for housing anymore…):
(quick side note: you may notice the headset around my neck. we paid $5 to get the audio tour for the Tower and it was the best $5 we spent! we actually did audio tours at Kensington Palace and Hampton Court Palace as well and i would highly recommend them! they are very informative and very easy!)
the white tower:
a yeoman guard (and no, i didn’t attempt to try and make him “crack.” 
)
mom and i in a cool archway along the tower wall:
mom took this kinda cool picture of me at dinner:
thursday night we went and saw The Lion King! it was absolutely fantastic! amazing costume and set designs! they were breathtaking at times. and all the music was live (obviously), but they also had 2 sets of congas, djembes and full drums set up in each of the box seats on either side of the stage so you could watch those instruments being played whenever they contributed to the african feel of play. i truly can’t describe it here – ask me if you want to hear more!
Friday
friday morning we took a tour of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre – or rather, the reconstructed version of it. the original theatre burned down the year shakespeare retired and they have rebuilt it in a slightly different location, but very accurate to the original. we toured around the theatre and got to sit and watch part of a rehearsal for the show opening this weekend (not a shakespeare). we couldn’t take any pictures inside the theatre so i ended up not taking any at all… sorry!
we spent the afternoon at Hampton Court Palace – the favorite residence of Henry VIII. talk about a beautiful castle!
from far away:
inside one of the courtyards:
a ceiling in one of the rooms (the round red things are the Tudor Rose (crest of the Tudor family)):
outside the palace there was a beautiful flower garden with brightly colored flowers lining the wall with benches:
mom and i sitting on one of the benches 🙂
after Hampton Court Palace we stopped in at Harrod’s, which is a very high end and HUGE store that sells everything from perfume to clothes to fine chocolate to furniture.
Saturday (today)
this morning we went to Kensington Palace – where Princess Diana lived – and did a lovely tour of that. then we had lunch at The Orangery, which is a fancy restaurant next to (kinda part of) Kensington.
the Orangery:
mom and i at lunch:
our table with our food (it was so pretty!):
after lunch we ran a few “errands” (exchanged our money back to US$, etc) and then headed over to St Paul’s Cathedral. i completely didn’t pay attention to the time and we arrived about 5 minutes after the last admittance for tours. bummer. 
but we took a few pictures anyway!
the front:
still having time left in our day, we decided to go take the Tower Bridge tour. This is London Tower Bridge:
this is a side view (you can see the wall of the Tower of London running along the right hand side of the picture):
the view from the walkway between the two tours was lovely! 
after the Tower Bridge we had dinner and headed back to the hotel. i’m all packed and VERY ready to go home tomorrow. we both are. it’s been a fun trip, and we really packed it in, but now we are very relieved and excited to be going home.
i’m a little nervous about turning my cell phone on when we land in new york. i have no idea what my inbox and voicemail will look like after 10 days of complete non-use! a slightly scary thought for someone who practically lives on her cell phone (as my friends all know)! haha! but i am completely willing to brave all and take the risk of turning my precious little phone on as soon as we land – because it means being back in communication with my man! yay!
thanks for all your prayers and comments, friends! hope to see you all very soon!
signing off from wembley, london, UK…
today was full and tiring – and fun!
we went to shakespeare’s globe theatre! we’re actually doing a full tour tomorrow but we stopped in today to see if we might be able to get tickets to saturday night’s peformance of Midsummer Night’s Dream, but no luck. oh well.
and then we went and saw the Metropolitan Tabernacle (where C.H. Spurgeon preached!). that was very cool! the building has actually been bombed and damaged multiple times in the last century, so the front main part is very similar (columns are original), but not identical. the inside is actually completely different. but it was still really neat to be there. i purchased a slim leatherbound copy of “The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith” (which i don’t have) from the bookstore there. 
then mom and i went and saw the Parliament building with “Big Ben”, as well as the outside of Westminster Abbey. both are gorgeous buildings!!
then it was off to ride the London Eye. Mom got a little nervous standing near the edge of the pod, but i loved every minute of it! we took lots of pictures from very high up. 
i think the parliament/big ben building is my favorite one in london. 
this is the Wellington Arch just outside Hyde Park:
mom and i walked all the way through Hyde Park. it was a lovely day! sunny and cool with a bit of a breeze. rather unusual for London, so we were praising God for such a gift!
here’s me along the walk (ice cream stands are everywhere here – and i’m quite happy to support them!):
and the whole POINT of walking through hyde park (well, the whole point for me at least) was to see THIS:
(the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park)
fairies along the base 
all in all it was a lovely day.
tomorrow we’re off for the actual tour of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the Tower of London, St Paul’s Cathedral, hopefully tea at The Orangery at Kensington Palace, and then seeing The Lion King on London’s broadway!
cheers!
sorry about the lack of posts over the weekend. we had sporadic internet saturday thru monday (staying at ppl’s houses, etc) but we are now at our hotel in london (wembley to be exact) and have consistent internet and power for my laptop – yay!
saturday we took a bus out to newport, wales and spent two nights with a lady from the SGM church there. she took us to cardiff castle and a traditional english pub on saturday. sunday after church we visited St Fagan’s, which is an “outdoor” museum – the national museum of wales. it was absolutely beautiful!
monday morning we took another bus to oxford and spent most of the day wandering around oxford. of course, i bought a university sweatshirt, which i’m very excited about. climbed up Carfax Tower for an incredible view of the city. met up with a friend’s aunt who is a professor at one of the colleges and she gave us a tour of several of the buildings. they are so regal and gorgeous. i can’t believe people actually get to go to school here!
this morning we took yet another bus to london and arrived safely at our hotel. it’s nice to now be settled in one place for the next 5 days.
here are a few pictures:
on the bus bound for Wales
outside Cardiff Castle
inside Cardiff Castle
the Roman Keep inside the castle grounds
a view of Cardiff Castle from one of the tower rooms in the keep:
a beautiful building on Cardiff Bay:
the pub where we had dinner: (L-R: karen, me, nicky, mom)
ChristChurch:
picnicking at St Fagan’s:
a lovely little church at St Fagan’s:
a window in the church that i thought was beautiful:
looking through a window in the church entryway:
and one of mom:
up above a welsh mountain range called Rhigos:
the menu at The Eagle and Child pub in Oxford (where CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien and the rest of the “Inklings” used to meet):
a view of Christ Church in Oxford from the top of Carfax tower:
aaaand xanga is being wierd and won’t let me upload any other pictures… or it’s just taking FOREVER.
will try to post more later – cheers!
Zach & Andrea 