May 2008: Joyful Surprises - Page 2 - Jana J. Shakespeare (cadenza)'s Photos

This was a wonderful month in my life, namely because of finding out that I am pregnant for the first time--something we've been hoping would happen for a very long time now.

Gallery pages: < 1 2 3 4 >

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Jana J. Shakespeare (cadenza) > Day 29/365
Saturday, 10 May 2008
Andrew and I went with friends from our church to visit the London Temple today. It's not actually in London, but in a lovely spot in Newchapel, Surrey. The temple is built on the grounds of a fabulous 16th century manor house with beautiful gardens. It was a peaceful and reflective day. I'm so glad we went. http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/

Jana J. Shakespeare (cadenza) > Day 30/365
Sunday, 11 May 2008
Cardiff Castle, taken from Bute Park: spent 2.5 hours walking around Bute Park up the Taff trail and paid for it later with fairly sore muscles! It was worth it though. This is the Victorian-lavish side of the restored castle, designed by William Burgess for the third Marquis of Bute. The base of the wall is Roman. The original Norman keep is shown here: http://cadenza.smugmug.com/gallery/1337420_pUfin#290032808_R6Qhu
There were also various medieval additions.

Jana J. Shakespeare (cadenza) > Day 31/365
Monday, 12 May 2008
We've had such a beautiful week full of sunshine (as evidenced by my now peeling burn), it seemed criminal to stay indoors after we both worked inside all day. So for our weekly family night, Andrew and I walked down Queen Street and found this little open Italian restaurant across from St. Johns Church. I don't know if I will ever get used to the dark winters and light summers here. I took this photo at 9 p.m. I woke up that morning with sunshine starting to come through my window after 4 a.m. Winters are dark around 4:20 p.m. -- you just don't realize how far north the British Isles really are until you experience the very long summer days and winter nights.

Jana J. Shakespeare (cadenza) > Day 32/365
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
A week of blessed sunshine in a usually wet-climate is lovely, but for one thing--it brings all the lawnmowers out en masse. In other words, hayfever sufferers nationwide are now uniformly miserable after a few joyful days of sunshine!

Jana J. Shakespeare (cadenza) > Day 33/365
Wednesday, 14 May 2008
Several of my friends (including Paul, on the right) are leaders for our local youth group. For this week's activity the teenagers all thought it would be fun to bring out the big water-guns. I'm not sure the adults were as excited as the cold winds started coming back tonight, but bless them, they played along since the kids all were having so much fun. I did threaten the life of anyone shooting water in the direction of my camera though. Good will only goes so far :)

Jana J. Shakespeare (cadenza) > Day 34/365
Thursday, 15 May 2008
An obliging gate

Jana J. Shakespeare (cadenza) > Day 35/365
Friday, 16 May 2008
An obliging fence

Jana J. Shakespeare (cadenza) > Day 36/365
Saturday, 17 May 2008
Today was the FA Cup Final (football--or soccer, for my American friends) at Wembley, and by all unlikely odds, Cardiff played Portsmouth for it. This was huge! They set up a massive big screen in Roald Dahl Plas at the Bay and much of Cardiff showed up to watch together. Unfortunately, we lost 0-1, but we still played well. I'll be adding more photos from this fun day to my Cymru file later--like one of the guy in this photo with a beer box on his head. Now that's a new choice of head gear :)

Jana J. Shakespeare (cadenza) > Day 37/365
Sunday, 18 May 2008
It's very faint, but that is a temperature chart and a second line on a pregnancy test. Today Andrew and I found out we are going to be parents for the first time! We've been trying for so long. (Andrew was very emotional and then spent the rest of the afternoon giggling whilst watching CBeebies. ☺) There just aren't words to express our joy today! Due date: 26 January 2009

Day 29/365
Saturday, 10 May 2008
Andrew and I went with friends from our church to visit the London Temple today. It's not actually in London, but in a lovely spot in Newchapel, Surrey. The temple is built on the grounds of a fabulous 16th century manor house with beautiful gardens. It was a peaceful and reflective day. I'm so glad we went. http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/