English Pool Party

We’ve been here a week now and we feel pretty settled.  Both Mica’s and my parents moved us down last Saturday, but my mom stayed through this last week and just headed back this morning.  I worked in the front yard tiding up the shrubs, mowed the grass and had a bit of fun watching the phone service repair man fighting a wasp nest in the phone box twenty feet up pole.  He went through five or six cans of bee-spray contending with those demonic insects and finally won after a fifteen minute battle.

It was ninety-five degrees around one o’clock in the afternoon when Mica came out front and told me a of an email invitation she received.  A parent in Josiah’s class that just invited all the first graders to come over to their place for a pool party, “Do you want to go?”

“Are you kidding?!”

Mica baked chocolate chip cookies, we packed a bag and let the GPS guide the way.  Mica told me from the email that the family was from England and just moved here to go to the school of ministry as well.  We pulled up to this large house in this nice neighborhood and made our way through the open front door toward the sound of pool activity in the back yard.  We were instantly greeted by a wonderful couple with the most remarkably authentic English accents – James and Fiona.  We had a really fun time just getting to know what each other were referring to.

They were so impressed they we brought cookies, or should I say “biscuits.”  Fiona said it was so American of us and “absolutely lovely.”  Chips are called “crisps,” the oven is a “grill” and the garbage is “the bin.”  They came from a “village” in England and have two kids – Cocoa and Caspian, the sweetest most polite little ones you have ever met, honestly.  For example, here’s Cocoa asking for more water: “Mummy, I’ve finished my glass, may I please have anuther.” 

James told me a bit about his life story going from the stock exchange in London to becoming a circuit preacher in rural England and I told him about Springfield and Young Life.  He told me all about Cricket and fox hunting with hounds and I told him about hunting bull elk and trapping bobcats. 

We stayed long enough into the evening that we had to make dinner plans, so James and I drove to the local store to get stuff to make burgers.   He actually told the cashier “Cheerio” as we turned to leave!  This guy is the real deal, I’m telling you!

We had a great time with our new friends and I expect I’ll write more about them in the near future as we promised to have them over for “biscuits” and gravy.