The West Family

USA

2012-01-03T06:00:00.000-08:00

Third of January, 2012--

We made it. We have officially arrived in the United States and beaten jetlag to a pulp over the last few days. After a full 27 hours of travel (this included flights from Newcastle to London, London to TX and TX to Salt Lake City) we touched familiar earth at approximately 1 am on 27 December 2011. Thank you, Dad, for risking the perils of sleep depravity in order to collect us. We arrived sore, headache infused and knackered beyond all reason but so happy to be in one peice and to see that giant of a smile on my dad's happy face.

The journey wasn't without a few hiccups here and there (Andrew falling asleep on the floor in the middle of yet another security checkpoint, four hour layovers, not being able to have our buggy in London--note:toting kids and carry-ons across a massive international airport=backbreaking hard work--being delayed in Texas for 45 min because a group a skiers arrived late and needed to have all their equipment loaded, and nearly losing the most important peice of carry-on luggage) but to be fair the whole kabubble (my word for our experience) went about as good as you could expect, really.

Although I should mention that my body has had more protests about our adventures than my two children. After having the flu for about a week, I ended up traveling with what morphed into Bronchitis (never-ending hacking cough and such), pink eye (a result from taking care of poor Abby who was the original case) and a strange and mysterious rash all over my right arm.

Nevertheless we are now much better and happily installed in my generous parents basment while Mike completes his final clincical placement in Saratoga Springs. The kids have toys and a nice, spcaious room, Mike and I have our nice bed, and it's like Christmas every day as we go through our old storage boxes and re-discover our belongings. It's made leaving so much behind an easier transition.

Now, there is still a lot to be said. We need to talk about our brilliant stay in England with Mike's parents over Christmas and the adventures leading up to our move from Aberdeen. But that will come soon enough. Right now I need to cough up a lung.

Halloween and Birthdays

2011-11-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

Still trying to catch up.

Halloween was great. Lots of fun, tons of activities. First off we carved ourselves a proper Jack-O-Lantern. Andrew said his name is Jack...it makes sense.

Andrew has been really into Peterpan lately so, naturally, it was a perfect choice for his Halloween getup. (Mrrmmmm, or perhaps it was because we found a £6 Peterpan costume at ASDA in July and I just happened to introduce him to Peterpan a few weeks before Halloween...we'll never know.)

Regardless, our house was inspired by the Scottish imagination of J.M Barrie and we were set to be a Peterpan clan. Mike was to be Captain hook, I was to be Mr Smee, Abby was Tinkerbell and Andrew...well, you already know.

Sadly it didn't all work out exactly as planned.A day or so before the ghoulish festivities Mike's costume fell through and he went as a ghost. (Why? Because we had a spare sheet and some clown paint, that's why) So, I was a pirate, Mike was a ghost and the two wee ones were just cute. Check it out:

The above pictures were taken at the ward Halloween par-tay. The below pictures were taken at Andrew's school. Oh...they were a cute bunch!

Oh..and P.S. I made Abby's wings using old tights, coat hangers, finger paint and fingernail polish. I am NOT crafty, but it's amazing what a student budget does for a persons creativity! (The skirt was one my mom made during our summer visit to Utah--OH GREAT, I just remembered I haven't posted about that either)

ALSO, speaking of getting dolled-up and such, wanna see what I can do with Abby?!?

So excited about pigtails!

The beginning of November ushered in 29 years of life for Mike and I. Fantastic, one more year until 30...not so sure how I feel about that. But we had tons of fun nonetheless. For Mike's big day we made him lots of special food, played lots of games and slept. It was lovely.

For mine, my only request was to go for a walk. I love walks. So we did and Mike even surprised me with some fireworks.

Abby was amazed.

It was a great time and I was (AM) so happy.

Some news that ought to be shared...

2011-11-17T08:28:00.000-08:00

In October Mike finished his thesis, in November he finished his research proposal. If all goes according to plan he will finish his last placement in December. Then what? Well...that is the question of the century but I can say that in the short term it involves us spending Christmas in England followed by another international move back to Utah. Yep...we are moving back and leaving my beloved Scotland/England. This is very bittersweet.

I have lots more to say but until then, for those that care, our biggest news: MOVING BACK TO THE UNITED STATES.

Inverness Trip

2011-11-02T03:09:00.000-07:00

It's been a few months since this happened but I am determined to catch up. In September Mike had a couple weeks off and instead of sitting around and relaxing Mike was kind enough to take me on an adventure and help me cross a big ol' line through a long standing item on my bucket list.

We went to see Loch Ness!

Right, some of you may not think this is very exciting but for me it was a lifelong ambition fulfilled. I have had a fascination with Scotland for as long as I can remember--the green ancient looking hills, the old houses, the history, the castles--it just seemed like such a magical place. So, of course, when we originally got this opportunity to come I was like SIGN ME UP and couldn't believe I was actually going to live in Aberdeen SCOTLAND. My sentiments haven't really changed. Even now, nearly two years later, I still walk out the door and feel amazed by the beauty and tangible magic that seems to live here. Well, amongst all my childhood wishes to visit Scotland, the desire to see Loch Ness was the most pressing. This is for several reasons: 1) it's in the Highlands...properly in the highlands which are PHENOMINAL and whenever I looked at photos as a young girl, I would get most intrigued by the beauty of the Scottish highlands and 2)it has a monster in it, right? The idea and mystery of Nessy, the Loch Ness monster has always fascinated me and so for many, many years I have wanted to go and search it out myself. You know, so I could say something cool like, "High-ho, is that a sea monster ahead?!?!"

So...that leaves me here.

We live in Aberdeen which is only about four hours away from Inverness (the city built around Loch Ness). Inverness is in our stake, I know many people from Inverness but with Mike's busy schedule in addition to the constraints of student life and wee children I wasn't sure if we were ever going to have the chance to get over there. I told myself it would be alright, at least I was in Scotland after all...but then (as I mentioned) Mike planned this trip and made it come true!

Heaven. I was so giddy the whole way up. We decided to take the scenic route which made us drive up and down...and up and down, and twist and turn through the Highland hills. It was quite a misty, dreary day but it was the most fun I have ever had in a car...seriously. Yes, kids were bored, no it's not fun sitting down for almost four hours straight, but I couldn't help from bursting with excitement at the views--the castles dotting the landscape or the low hanging clouds making it feel as if we were driving through the sky. Sigh. I had my pen and paper handy and wrote down my thoughts as we traveled and I also collected some of the fun and unique names of little towns and villages we passed through. Some of my favorites include:
-Lymphail
-Ruthven
-Dunlichiti
-Muchovie
-Clachan Clas and...
-Pitmichi...to name a few...
(Don't you love the way the names look?)

We managed to take just a couple little snap shots:

Anyway, we had several things planned upon our arrival. We were to visit Culloden battlefield/museum around noon and then we had booked a cruise of Loch Ness at 4pm.

Culloden was fantastic! It is the battleground where the last stand of the Jacobites took place. No, not like from the Bible...Jacobite in this context refers to the supporters of "bonnie prince charlie" (i.e. Charles Edward Stuart) who had rightful claim to the throne. The battle occurred in the late 1700's and was unfortunately lost keeping the House of Stuart in exile forever. (Wickipedia is a great thing if you want to know more about all that.)

Here are some photos:

A headstone marking the clan names of those who bravely fought.

Next up: Cruisin' the Loch. Oh boy, oh boy was I excited! We had organized a little tour lasting approximately an hour where we motored around to catch the phenomenal views of Urquhart castle and back. I honestly can't describe it, it was the most breathtakingly beautiful scenery I have ever witnessed (and I have been to A LOT of pretty places, mind you!) And to be honest, pictures do not to it any justice. Nevertheless, here is what we got:

(NOTE: The pictures are in no particular order..I couldn't be bothered with organizing them once they post, I can only view them in HDML garbeldy-gook so I couldn't really tell which picture was what. This happen to anyone else? Know how to fix it so I could actually see the picture I am posting?)

Our fine vessel

Yep....pretty wonderful!
Now, one thing I have failed to mention is that we were super lucky to have Mike's parents come with us and it made the trip all the more special! We sure had fun with grandma and grandpa!

When we organized this trip we had originally planned to do it all in one day and just exhaust the kids. However, once we were there we decided to throw caution to the wind and stay over night so we could pack in a little more. So we searched around and finally found a little bed and breakfast in Drumnadrochit(a local village) which was beyond charming. We ate dinner at Fiddlers, the local pub, which is renowned for it's fine whiskey... :-) You could tell as most of the food contained it in some way but we all managed and I ended up enjoying a delicious venison burger, probably one of the best burgers I've ever had! After that we stopped at the shop and got a few essentials (milk and nappies, mainly)and we were lucky enough to have a few random bits of clothing in the car that worked as pajamas for the kids. All in all, not too bad for being totally unprepared to spend the night.

The next morning we had a lovely breakfast and got to know the Danish couple who owned the B&B. They were super nice and, in fact, even had their on account of a Nessy sighting. Yep...apparently ten years or so earlier when they were looking to move there, they caught a glimpse of something playing in the water. It was apparently too big to be a seal and swam very fast. She said they didn't have the best views as they were far away, but she thinks it was good ol' Nessy herself.

Ahhhh...what a perfect way to end such a fantastic trip!!!

The way back was great. We stopped and looked around Inverness city and also took in a couple of castles off the main road. Here are some pictures:

The B&B

Downtown Drumnadrochdit

Fiddlers

Stops along the road

LDS Chapel in Inverness
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KIDS

2011-10-06T05:42:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of the kids. There have been quite a few changes and milestones in their lives since I last wrote. The following is their story.

ANDREW:

Fun, enthusiastic, sweet, iron-willed Andrew is, as he puts it, "DAH BEST!!!" School here begins at age three therefore on August 17 he began attending Peterculter Playgroup (name of the pre-school). It has been the best thing ever for him! He goes every morning from 9-12 and comes home happier and more imaginative than ever. I had a hard time the first few days although I didn't think I would. I was wrong, I checked my phone almost every ten minutes thinking that his teachers would call and tell me that he needed me. He didn't. He absolutely loves going and it has turned him into a different kid in many ways...all good ways.

Here are some pictures of him on his first day.

In his school jumper (sweatshirt)

His favorite things right now are: Peterpan, sword fights, pirate ships, playing with Cooper (his friend from school, wrestling with dad, helping mom cook and clean, ride his trike, play outside and jump off the sofa like so...

(He also likes Spiderman and often tells me that I am the "good bad guy" and he is Spiderman and we are friends.)

ABBY
Adorable, chubby, cheeky, sweet, sensitive, angel girl has been growing and growing. She turned ONE on September 12 and I about had a fit thinking how fast this last year has gone. She is such a sweetheart and I don't know how we even went through life without her. She is crawling machine and can say: Momma, Daddy, Hi-ya, bye-bye and uh-oh. She can also stand on her own and could walk if she wanted, but the idea still scares her a bit. So we will let her take her time, there is no rush...none at all.

Although Andrew still isn't 100% on playing with Abby all the time, it has gotten much better. He enjoys playing outside with her and she basically just adores him. We sure do love these little bugs!!!!

Alright here is some stuff...

2011-10-05T13:34:00.000-07:00

So I decided to show, rather than tell, about our recent adventures. So, with a few captions here and there the next few posts will tell the story of our lives in photographs. Enjoy!

A brambling we will go! Among many other things, Scotland is phenomenal for berry picking...WILD berries. Seriously, they grow right outside...look!

This time we found raspberries

But the most common are blackberries (i.e. "brambles") We filled buckets...buckets, of this delicious "weed" (they think it's a nuisance here). That is why I included not one...but TWO pictures. Just wanted to illustrate the BUCKETS (plural) we picked. So cool...OH! And those little red berries are some wild strawberries. I know, right!?!

We mainly use our spoils for smoothies, but I tried a few other things too.

Raspberry chocolate pavlova

I attempted jam

Looks good, right? Well, good thing you can't taste it. It was NASTY...guess I used too much sugar. Sigh...I am determined to do better next time.

We go on a lot of walks. See!

We were in some woods and happened to come across someone's private castle. I mean, c'mon, that is pretty cool!

Sorry some of those pictures are blurry...it was because on those days it was rainy.

More to come soon...

Just a wee update

2011-09-07T13:48:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone reads this anymore. (Hello? Is anyone out there?) I mean, I could hardly blame ya'll (if there ever was a "ya'll") because I have been completely MIA for quite awhile. Anyway, I am feeling the guilt because there has been so much to report and I got behind in doing it which caused me to feel guilt and anxiety so I just pushed blogging, journal writing and basically all other manner of writing off the cliff. Not a good reaction.

I am trying to repent.

So...journal writing and other forms have improved and so now I turn my attention to ye ol' blog.

Basically, I have a lot to say and a lot of pictures to post. But it takes ages and ages...and unfortunately I can't get them to download tonight because we can't find the usb cord and I don't have the gumption to really look for it right now. So to ease my own conscious (because that is likely the only thing that will read this)I am posting a, "YES WE ARE ALIVE and I PROMISE THERE WILL BE MORE TO COME SOON!"

So...for what it's worth, I shall be writing of our adventures shortly. :-)

Pickle the poo snail and the perfect loaf

2011-06-16T23:40:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot going on these days. Good things, exciting things, scary things, stressful things, happy things, sad things. I have much to tell and limited time to write them. However, I really wanted to post about two silly things that just chuffed me to bits.

First thing. Andrew, Abby and I love to go for walks. It feels like a crime if we stay inside on a sunny (or non-rainy)day given the beautiful surrounding we call home. Well, a couple days ago we went for a nice, long walk on a river trail and while we were out Andrew met someone who turned out to be a brilliant new friend. It was a snail...just a little guy trying to cross the pavement as fast as he could sludge. Sadly, he wasn't making very good time. When noticing the poor fellow's struggle Andrew immediately told me to "Stop the push, Mom" and he got out of the stroller and picked up the wee sludger. "Oh, wook...it's a snail!"

"That's right, it's a snail. Should we help him get to the safe grass?"

"No, he can come wiff me!"

So off we went, Abby, Andrew, myself and our new snail pal. Andrew enjoyed watching him hide in his shell and then come back out when he thought it was safe. Which it wasn't. So then he hid again. Andrew giggled and giggled.

I then suggested that we give our slimy new pal a name. Andrew agreed and I started throwing out suggestions. Fortunately Andrew is a considerate soul and determined that no random name will do. It needed to be something special. So after regecting about 53 of my ideas Andrew piped up and said, "PICKLE!" (Followed by fits of giggles, and of course, with a name like pickle who wouldn't giggle?)

"Oh Pickle! What I fantastic name!" I said.

"Yep. It's...it's a snail. Pickle snail!"

"Sure is."

We then continued to stroll along until I heard Andrew pipe up again. "OH wook!! Poo!"

"Really?" I asked while looking around for signs of animal droppings ( a very common thing)and finding none.

"No...here on the shell!" I looked down at pickle and saw that in his sluggish struggle to cross the path he had managed to get a little dirty. Was it actually poo? No, just a little dirt but Andrew seems to think that anything causing a slight mess these days is poo. (Sadly, a residual effect of potty training...dirt has never been the same since.)

"Oh...he is a little dirty, isn't he?"

"Ya, poo! He's a poo snail!" (Fits of giggles)

"I guess he is!"

"Yep, he's...he's pickle a poo snail!"

Then I began a fit of little giggles.

And so we walked on some more...Abby (who incidentally was brilliantly sleeping or sitting quietly enjoying the views)Andrew, Myself and Pickle the Poo Snail. Finally near the end of our walk Andrew found an acceptable looking home for Pickle between some withered daffodils and budding queen anne's lace. We decided that Pickle would enjoy being outside much more than he would enjoy our little flat. So there we left him and said our goodbyes.

As we walked closer to home, Andrew looked back and yelled (in his most irreverent voice, to ensure Pickle heard) "BYE-BYE PICKLE POO-SNAIL!"

Bye-bye pickle! It certainly was nice to meet you (fits of giggles).

(NOTE: This is not actually Pickle the Poo Snail. Sadly, I did not have my camera with us. But I did find this picture on the internet...and it comes close. This literally could be Pickle's cousin)

The next item that made me smile real big this week involved bread. YES! BREAD, glorious bread! I have attempted to make loaf after loaf in my days and I have NEVER gotten it right. It either comes out too crumbly or too dense or too doughy. It's been a rough one for me because I want to master the art of bread baking so badly! Well...the other day I was out shopping and noticed this delicious looking granery bread flour on special as Tesco's. It had been a long while since I attempted to make bread so I thought I would give it another shot. Well...yesterday Andrew and I had some time to kill during Abby's nap so we discussed it and decided to bake bread. The conversation went like this

"Andrew, want to help mommy make some bread?"

"WHAT?" yelled while jumping on the bean bag pretending to be spiderman.

"Want to help me make some yummy-tummy bread?"

"I SPIDERMAN, YAHHHHH!" yelled while attacking my calfs with his super spider fists.

"Come here" He managed to follow me into the kitchen and noticed all the flour. Suddenly his spiderman cape was on the floor (what? Doesn't your spiderman have a cape?) and he was clamoring for a measuring spoon.

Well, one thing lead to another and to be honest, I don't know how it happened, or what I did differently this time but it worked!!! Really, the end result was BRILLIANT! It was the best looking (and tasting) bread I have ever created. HALLELUJAH! Who knows if I will ever be able to do this again...so here are some pictures to remember it by. (Confession: I think that perhaps the reason it was a success had to do with some seriously awesome Spiderman powers, perhaps he is my lucky charm?)

Incidentally, when Mike came home and saw all the pictures of bread he thought I was a little a mental--which I won't refute---but this has been a life-long pursuit. And I finally succeeded. I thought it merited a few snapshots.

It's a shame Pickle wasn't there to join us. I think he would have really enjoyed the experience.

KIDS

2011-05-21T00:22:00.000-07:00

Who is that?

(top two: andrew, bottom two: abby / Andrew at 6 months, Abby at 7 months)

Kids on a Sunday (it's shameful the amount of bribing it took to get Andrew to do this, lol)

Here we have a wee petal and a fearsome pirate!

I sure do love these things!!!!

Ahhh Spring!

2011-04-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

It makes me so happy to say that the weather in Aberdeen has been getting sunnier and sunnier! Now, keep in mind it is all relative because we are still in Scotland which means that I am thrilled we are now enjoying 2-3 sunny days a week instead of say...1...if any....

Anyway, I just though I would post some pictures of what we have been up to since the weather has started to become our friend again.

We spent one day at Aberdeen beach. It was a lot of fun. We visited the local Maritime museum which was very interesting and then we walked along the beach. Andrew especially loves to roll in the sand. Abby mainly liked for Daddy to old her.

A giant ship

Another day, another beach. Some friends all got together to attempt a nice picnic at Stonehaven beach. I say attempt because we didn't actually make it to the picnic part. Sadly it got pretty windy and for some reason the kids (and the adults) didn't like sand in their eyes. Who knows? Anyway, after that we ended up going to my friend, Rachel's, house which is almost like a resort anyway. It was great fun and good company!

The gang

This is the cutest puppy I have ever seen, it belongs to my friend Candice.

Hi Candice

Abby is hiding from the wind

Andrew, what a silly face...this was him before he realized I was taking his picture.

This is when he realized what I was taking his picture...

Next up we got to dog-sit/watch our friends little girl while they took a jaunt over to the lovely island of Orkney. They live in a pretty rad house, it was a lot of fun...we did a lot of activities and enjoyed some nice weather. The neighborhood pony even decided to have a foal. All in all, a good few days.

This is their view

This is the foal

This is it's mom

This is the house

This is Woody, he somehow angered Andrew who then gave him a timeout.

Beautiful walks...there are many here! (You may notice a pattern in the following pictures. For some reason I enjoy placing my kids amongst nature)

Andrew and the Daffodils. Oh this could have been a nice picture, but Andrew has a strong belief against looking at the camera directly. At least he stands up for his principles....

Well...he may be looking at the camera here but he is still showing is own sign of protest. Abby doesn't agree with his position.

When we had our fill of daffodils we then moved on to greenery. Luckily you can find a lot here.

I sure do like spring!

HELP? ADVICE...ANYONE?!?

2011-03-28T00:19:00.000-07:00

So, we live in a small flat and therefore Andrew and Abby get the befit of sharing the same room. Normally I would agree that having kids share a room is a great, initiatory passage to life but I am having problems....ISSUES!

Abby, being a wee bairn, still likes to wake up in the middle of the night and cry. You know, just to make sure the ol' vocal chords still work. So, since she is 6 months plus, I decided move her into the living room at night and let her cry it out to see how that would go. Went great! She is a small tings so she still fits in her Moses basket and after about 2 days she was sleeping blissfully through the night. So, I took the next step and moved her into the crib in Andrew's room. Here is the problem I am encountering:

When I put them down for bed, they both go to sleep just fine.HOWEVER starting at about 3am Abby cries...the first time I just let her do it, knowing it would stop after a minute or two. But it didn't...she kept going and then Andrew woke up. Alright...you have to understand that Andrew can really be a terror at night. He DOES NOT appreciate getting woken. So, I went in to take care of Abby and ended up putting her back in the living room so I could calm Andrew who proceeded to have an hour of tantrums and demands....please, again, keep in mind that is is 3am...I'm not feeling so loving or patient at that hour.

Anyway, so the next day I decided we will try again and see what happens and basically, the same thing did. And the next night....the same thing. So, now I am left in this predicament.

Abby is used to her Moses basket in the living room. She seriously quiets right down and goes to sleep the minute I put her in it. Andrew, has begun waking up at 3 am...just because! YES! THIS IS GREAT! (Oh, by the way, that was sarcastic) So every night I have to sort him out at 3 and I've just put Abby in the living room to start...easier that way. But, I have problems!!! This can't last. Abby can't stay in her Moses basket much longer...she getting too big, it's not safe. Andrew needs to learn how to deal with her making noises at night. BUT I don't know how to do this gracefully.

In one last attempt last night I decided I would just keep Abby in her crib and let her cry it out and Andrew will just have to deal with it...I decided I was going to just sign out. Um...come 3 am, that lasted about 7 minutes before WWIII broke out. Andrew screaming, yelling for "BABY BE QUIET", which obviously didn't help Abby as she began screaming even louder. Then Andrew came running into our room and has a bit of tantrum and well...you get the idea. This something I can't just ignore and hope they sort out...I must actively parent this but Mike and I are both flabbergasted at what we can do.

So this post is to beg, plead and beseech those of you with any wisdom at all on the topic to offer your advice. Your experienced...ANYTHING to help us out!!!!!

Thank you

To Andrew...

2011-03-16T15:07:00.000-07:00

Andrew, today I saw another side of you.

You are normally the boy who is completely unfazed by anything that falls under the category of "Yucky".

Who could forget the time you once spit out chewing gum on a dirt path before a family walk and when we came back nearly an hour later, I noticed you chewing that same gum, only this time filled with pebbles and dog hair and all manner of unspeakable horror. All you had to say was, "Yumm!"

OR

How about the time you spilled soda on the nasty Costco dining table and began licking it up before I had a chance to pry you away? When I finally did, you had a funny look on your face because you had also lapped up a little of someones leftover shepherds pie.

OR

How about the fact that whenever I vaccuum it's a challenge for me to keep you from sucking on the end of the hose...the hose that sucks up withered grapes, bathroom hair and soggy bits of sick-out.

OR

What about how you like to poke the inside of the toilet with your little chubby finger WHILE you are going potty! (And NO...his hand almost never comes back unscathed)

OR

How about that one time I let you roll in mud! Gooped it in your hands, squished it in your toes and squleched it all over your little body. It didn't phase you, in fact you had the time of your life! You still ask to play in the mud!!!!!

OR

How about the fact that you don't mind a runny nose. In fact, I have even (gasp) caught you doing a little lick if I can't wipe it away fast enough.

Yep...so these are just a few of the reasons why I, in your 2 plus years of lif, have come to know you has a 100% boy's boy who liked to get dirty...who is made of tough stuff and who isn't balked by messes or anything else that a normal person might consider nasty.

I guess that's why I was so shocked today...seriously flabbergasted when I heard you dry heave. I quickly looked up to see the sickened look on your face as you managed to utter the words, "Mommy, no...so yucky!" I stopped to grab my bearings...what were you referring to? What was so yucky? And then....you did it!

You seriously....literally vomited your lunch because of what I was doing. I rushed to your side, asked if you were sick, checked your temperature, made sure you were ok. The only thing I got from you was, "Mommy, I fine." Only you followed by a point to the container in my hands as you say, "Oh, soooo yucky!" And then another little dry heave.

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

So, Andrew, I am sorry that what I was doing made you feel so queasy. I am sorry that you just aren't man enough to see past the "yuckiness" of my task. But I still have to continue, unfortunately it's a necessary part of life...or Abby's rather. But I promise you, from here on out, you no longer have to watch or even be in the same room the next time I feed Abby some baby food.

Sure do love this thing!

2011-02-08T13:44:00.000-08:00

Andrew will turn three in just three short months. I can hardly believe it, he is growing so fast! Of course, it's not been without a challenge or two but lately he has been sooo good! Seriously, so helpful and obedient and I think I am finally seeing the terrible two's packing their bags! OH. THE. JOY!!!!

Anyway, I wanted to share some of Andrew's fun little quirks and sayings. The following are a few wee gems:

Andrew: Mommy, I’m rumbly tummy!
Me: Oh, you have a rumbly tumbly? Are you hungry?
Andrew: Yes, ‘sigh’, i need to eat your nose.
He then grabs my nose, acts like he puts it in his mouth and says, “all better”

I was sitting on the floor playing with Andrew and he asked me to trace his hands. I did and when I was done, he stood up and pat me on the head while saying, “Good boy.”

Andrew and I were playing with sock puppets and he started laughing and said, “Mommy, Andrew silly!”
Me: Yep, Andrew is a silly billy
Andrew: “Not billy, I ANDREW!”

Andrew has a weird comfort thing with my hair. He likes to rub it against his face when he is tired or upset...i know?!?!?!?! Anyway, one time he was doing that and commented:
"Mommy hair has black on it!"
I said, "Yes, Mommy's hair is dark like Andrews". Andrew did not like that because he yelled back, "No! ANDREW HAIR IS BROWN! Silly mommy!"

Abby went down for her morning nap so I turned cartoons on for Andrew and told him I was going to take a quick shower. He looked at me and said, “oh, yes... yucky hair, mommy!”

Lately Andrew has been going around doing the following little saying:
“How do we do?” (This means, what do we do?)
I respond by saying: "I don’t know, what do we do?" Then Andrew puts his finger to his lips and says, "Hmmmm....Bright idea!” He then spouts off what he would like to do (lately it's involved eating cheese...weirdo!)

Yep...he is definitley a keeper!

OH, by the way, I think this one is pretty darn cute too!!!

Turn that frown into a smile!!!!!

2011-01-19T13:44:00.000-08:00

For those of you who actually read this wee blog I just wanted to shout out that all is well in Aberdeen. Yes...I am, WE are, still alive. Although to be honest, sometimes it doesn't always feel like it. I know...weird Emily, what do you mean?!?!?

I just mean that over the last couple months life has been a bit mundane to say the least. Weather has kept us inside, kids are cute and lovely but also cranky, and Mike has been busy, busy, busy locked in his room or on campus studying his brain out. You know, so after doing the same thing over and over it gets really...what's the word I want to use...boring, depressing, habitual. And to top that off although my days are filled to the brim with "same ol', same ol'" I still NEVER have time to do things I WANT to do. These types of things include, but are not limited to: Blogging (this blog and another writing blog I belong to), writing, reading (although that has gotten much easier thanks to the Kindle--THANKS again Camille), watching TV or EXERCISE!!!

This is mainly due to the fact that I have a wee baby who is currently in the process of getting a nap schedule down and my little Andrew wants my attention whenever I am not occupied with the afore mentioned baby. I actually really like this....please don't get me wrong. I genuinely, truly LOVE being a mom and both Andrew and Abby are growing so fast and doing some of the cutest things. For example here are a few of Andrew's little sayings these days:
ANDREW: Mom, watcha doin'?
ME:I'm changing Abby
ANDREW: Be careful, she's stinky!

or

ME: You're a good boy Andrew!
ANDREW: Best in the whole world?
ME: Yep, best in the whole world.
ANDREW: Baby Abby best in the whole world too!

Anyway, see what I mean?!? Cute, I like, and WANT, to spend all my time with these two little rugrats and I can honestly say that 90% of the time I am content and happy to just go about our days filled with toys, cartoons, nappies and juice. However, the other 10% can really kick me in the pants sometimes. AND it becomes much more magnified when there is a whole lot of the mundane going on. So anyway, Mike and I have both been feeling it and so we decided that one of the first things we needed to make time for was exercise. So tonight was the first of what I hope to be many more gym nights. Can I just say that it was just what the doctor ordered, for cryin' out loud!! My spirits have been automatically lifted and I feel so rejuvenated.

I firmly believe that attitude is what ultimately makes or breaks a persons happiness but sometimes in order to get that positive attitude a-flowin' I need to take time out to do something I want to do just because I want to do it. So, back to tonight, I left the dishes undone, the living room a mess and my little kiddos with their wonderfully helpful daddy and rocked the gym for an hour. When I came back there were still messes to clean and one kid to sort out but, oh, how I had the energy and will power to do it!

And now...well, now the mess is sorted and the kid is dreaming sweetly so I even got to do a little blogging. HAH! Sheer bliss I tell ya! I know, I know these things are little but I must never forget how it's these little things that help to fill my Emily tank which in turn fills my mommy tank. So, lesson learned (re-learned, reminded?): I am going to make these little things a bigger (but not overly dominant) part of my life because, after all, I sure do like to smile...and I think the kids like it too!

Up-diddily-date

2010-11-29T00:25:00.000-08:00

Life has been busy..very busy, there are no two ways about it. Ahhh, but busy with what, you ask?!? Well, that is the funny thing, you can ask me what I do in a day and my answer will almost always be, "nothing out of the ordinary" but it sure seems that "nothing about of the ordinary" leaves me with so little time that I am lucky to get a shower in every 2-3 days and nice recreational activities such as blogging, well, this post has been in the works for about two weeks if that gives you a clue. Anyway, but I believe I finally have time to finish this...you see, I devised a plan and got up early this morning before the kids wake up. BWah-ha-ha-ha! Now I should be able to have a good chunk of time without needing to stop to wipe a nose or change a nappy or feed or play with puppets....you get the idea. So, for those of you who are actually interested, the following is our West family update:

First there was Halloween. It was great! Mike was in charge of a ward Halloween activity so we spent the evening manning carnival-type booths where kids could win candy. Tons of people participated and dressed up. The booths looked something like this:

Andrew and I looked a little like this:

ROAR!

Mike did a little of this:

Some people got a little crazy like this:

(Cute little Abby was dressed like a cow...that picture is refusing to post, don't know why. I'm super bummed!)

Next up were birthdays. Mike and I turned the big 28 within four days of each other. We threw wild parties that lasted all week consisting of this:

And this:

And this:

In the UK we celebrate Guy Fawkes day/Bonfire night. It's in celebration of a time when some imbecile named Fawkes tried, and failed, to blow up parliament. It's sort of like the Fourth of July to you and I. We decided to brave the frigid temperatures and went down to the beach where all the action was taking place. It was packed with people and looked a little like this:

Mike and Andrew did a little of this:

Their eyes sparkled just like this:

(Mine were mostly looking down to make sure a certain little cow was warm, didn't get any pictures of that)

Next up was Thanksgiving. WHAT!?!?! No, the UK does not celebrate this beloved holiday (for what I assume would be obvious reasons)but some of us Americans did! Yee-ha, wahoo, go git yer boots! We spent an evening with great friends (all Americans with the exception of Mike and our friend Gemma--she is from Orkney, don't know where that is? Google it, it's awesome!)

The Sorber's provided the gathering place and the Turkey (fresh from a farm). It tasted DELICIOUS and looked a little like this:

The table looked like this:

The people looked like this:

Good times, good food, good company!!!

Well, the weather decided to turn on us and now the ground that once looked like this:

Now looks like this:

And this:

It makes me go a little crazy. I hate being cooped inside. I hate letting Andrew watch lots of TV. So it has driven us to do a little of this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

Some of those things make Abby feel like this:

Or this:

But sometimes we get a little adventurous and do some of this:

Once Andrew's wee friend Alex cam over and they had a BLAST doing this:

And this:

So, even though the weather makes me feel a little like this:

We ultimately do our best to have lots of this:

Are we one of "THOSE" families?!?!

2010-10-22T00:20:00.000-07:00

Check it out. I've had many people comment on this, and I definitley agree. My two kids look sooooo much alike! It really makes me smile, I like that I look at Abby and can see another version (although slightly more dainty) of wee Andrew.

It makes me wonder though. You know how there are certain families out there who all look the exact same. Like you could know the majority of the family sans an older bro or sis or something. Then one day you are walking down the street and notice the never before introduced older bro and/or sis and know immediatley that they are "one of the Smith's" or "Hansen's" or whatever. Well, maybe we are going to be like that. Hmmm....I like it!

Life these days

2010-10-14T00:50:00.000-07:00

HI Well, a post is sorely overdue so here it is.

Life is good. To name a few things it currently includes: messy lunches, runny noses, loads of nappies, constant laundry, on-the-fly dinners, overcast skies, pretty fall leaves, squeaky cries, toddler yells, Baby Einstein, ruffly bums, lucky 2-minute showers, busy (but hard-working and very cute) husband, tickle giggles, gassy smiles, chilly walks, good friends, church callings, piano lessons, a little more sleep at nights, milk and more milk.

We are definitley getting used to our sweet wee Abby. In fact, just the other day Andrew came in from playing outside (mike had a day off and stayed in with Abby) and when we walked into the living room Andrew (un-prompted) walked over to Abby sweetly said, "Hi baby!" and gave her a kiss on the head. YES! Although most of the time he doesn't seem to notice her, I took that as a good sign and a far cry from his initial statement of, "DON'T WANT IT!"

Abby is a doll and seriously the sweetest little thing ever! She does really well at night, only getting up once these last few days. She and Andrew have both had nasty colds and it's been pretty sad, but it's looking like things are FINALLY on the mend.

We are definitley in fall weather and can tell winter is around the corner. The scenery is fantastically beautiful and we love to go out for walk and play in the leaves. However, it's really starting to get chilly as well. In fact, I even pulled out the big winter coats the other day, sigh, guess it's that time. However, until its sub temperatures or blizzarding outside we intend to get out as much as possible, it's hard to stay away from such breathtaking scenery.

Well...here are some pictures of the West on-goings. Enjoy!

Andrew Loves to play in the fall leaves

Oh how I love her hair...please don't fall out!

Heh, heh...Mike was changing Abby and then Andrew decided it would be fun to climb on Daddy!

This is Andrew being all-boy as he walks around out local farm picking strawberries.

The following pictures were taken near our flat. It sort of chronicles our normal walking route. Sure is pretty!

Last but not least, i also need to mention that Mom came to help out for a week. It was sooooooo helpful and gave me a much needed rest! Plus it was fantastic to have adult conversation during the day! Mom, I can't thank you enough for coming, you know hoe much we all loved having you here...wish it could happen more often!

(NOTE: I tried uploading more pictures, some with my mom in them and the uploader thing went on the fritz. I don't have patience to keep trying so sorry but that is it for now! :0) )

Just Dance

2010-09-24T01:22:00.000-07:00

Remember the casual high school dance...jr high dances...stake dances? You get all dolled up in your cutest top, most stylish jeans (does this make my butt look big?) bring a little extra makeup to school so that as soon as the bell rings you run to the bathroom and check out the goods. Add a little blush here and a mascara there, splash on some victoria secret lotion (Lovespell, ooo-la-la) then gather round your friends and wait in nervous anticipation as the dance gets ready to start. "OMG, do you, like, think that Henry cutesty-face will ask me to dance?"

"Heck yes, he was like TOTALLY staring at you during lunch,"

"Really? When?!?"

"You know, when you were eating pizza."

"OMG! How embarrassing, he saw me EATING!" SHREEK!

Then the moment arrives and the sweaty adolescent student body is herded into the gym to be met with low hanging white Christmas lights and rainbow crepe paper banners. The girls stay in crusted groups chatting and eyeing the guys with little fits of giggling while the macho guys stand around nodding heads with hands in pockets. Suddenly the music starts...beginning with a low base beat and picking up...picking up more. Now everyone is starting the head bob and even getting a little groovy to C+C Music Factory's classic hit, "Gonna Make You Sweat."

So...here is where my point arrives. Before you know it, kids are hopping, bobbing, grooving and moving. Some people get a little creative and start incorporating dance moves like the sprinkler or the shopping cart. My friends and I used to do this model walk across the dance floor... we were like so hip!

But the question comes...we may all think we look so good when we're strutting our stuff on the dance floor but what really constitutes good dancing? I mean we can't all be Julia Styles from Save the Last Dance. So when I was perusing some local news on the internet this morning I was thrilled to stumble upon an article about a new scientific breakthrough conducted by Northumbria University’s School of Life Sciences. Apparently a team of psychologists used advanced 3-D motion capture technology to analyze the movements of nineteen male dancers, creating computer generated ‘avatars’ so that all the dancers had identical features. Sounds interesting...or something...right? Well, then they asked a group of women to rate the attractiveness of each of the dancers based on their movements.

The results: Scientific evidence that can adequately assert what moves men around the world can throw down to attract women.

So...now we know...folks do you understand this? Now we have scientific evidence that will show us the best way to move and groove and yes, attract those cutesy guys and girly girls! Move over Austin Powers, John Travolta and Olivia Newton John...feast your eyes on the following. Proof...these are moves that groove!

Enjoy!

The Nitty Gritty

2010-09-18T00:50:00.000-07:00

Alright so things are beginning to settle--kind of. But I do actually have a spare minute or two right now so I thought I would tell the story of our little Abby's arrival.

A week and a half ago (Sunday, 12th), I woke in the morning at about 1:30 because I was leaking A LOT of fluid. Hmmm....my water never broke with Andrew (until I was at the hospital) but I figured that this must be it. So...I geared up. I cleaned off, tried going back to sleep but I couldn't, my mind was too wired and I started to feel contractions. So I got up and started watching Big Bang Theory re-runs while the contractions got closer together and more and more intense. I eventually took a hot bath and that's when Mike come in to ask if everything was alright. I told him that the baby was coming today and he got very excited and started to get things ready and eat breakfast. Finally, around 5 am we called my dear friend, Rachel, who so kindly offered to leave her little family of three kids to come stay over here with Andrew until he woke up and then take him to her house. So, Mike called her and as soon as she got here we were off. By then my contractions were coming about every 3 minutes and the pain was pretty intense.

When we made it to the maternity ward they were ready for us and ushered Mike and I into a nice birthing room to check things out. Turns out I was dilated to a 5 and firmly in established labor. HURRAY! My worst fear was that I feeling all this pain and I would only be dilated to a one or something. Anyway, the first thing I asked for was an epidural...of course, I had no intention of suffering more than I had to (hey, I believe I was born in this wonderful medical age for a reason!) Anyway, much to my dismay the midwife told me that the one anesthesiologist on call had just gone into theater (i.e. surgery) and they weren't sure when he would be able to see me. Yes, needless to say I was VERY distraught by this news. So, in the meantime they gave me a TENS machine and some gas and air (TENS=machine that gives soothing electric shocks to muscles, gas & air=laughing gas...oh yeah!) This helped dull my senses a little but the pain was getting A LOT worse! Thankfully, because I had already been through labor once I was much more mentally prepared and I was getting through the contractions pretty good. Well, about an hour later they told me that the they still weren't sure when I could get an epidrual and I was progressing quickly so they gave me another option to use a new drug called Remifentinol (I think)Basically, they give you an IV line and a button that, when pushed, gives a dose of fast-acting, REALLY strong pain relief. The good thing about this option is that it acts as soon as I pushed the button, lasted for about a minute and then goes away. So, while it didn't take all the pain away, it was very dulled and I still had complete control over everything going on down there. The only real problem was that it made me really loopy and drowsy and I was only really semi-conscious until I had to push.

Well...there were a few little obstacles (my contractions really slowed down at one point so they gave me some petocin and just as that was making the contractions pick up again my pain med button broke for about 20 minutes. So I was completely awake and in pain for those horrible 20 minutes) However, soon after that I felt that unbelievably strong urge to push. So, we (me, Mike and the Midwife)got ready and I started pushing. Now...for any of you moms to be out there who might get the chance to do the Remifentinol option here is a very important piece of advise: when you begin to push make sure your husband pushes the button as well! Naturally, I was very focused on pushing a baby out that I neglected the button, Mike noticed this and sweetly asked if I wanted him to keep pushing it, however at that moment I was in an agonizing frenzy of pushing and could only manage to blurt out, "NEED. TO. FOCUS." He naturally took that to mean that I wanted a clear head so no more med and he put that blessed button down. Now, remember how I told you that medicine is really fast-acting? Well, since there were no more buttons being pushed, it was only a matter of a couple minutes before my mind was fully aware and I could feel EVERY bit of birthing pain imaginable. Ahem...not my favorite moment, nope. NOT.

Well, after pushing for about 10 minutes, our sweet little Abby finally arrived, all covered in blood and guts, but still so darn cute. The relief I felt as she came out is pretty indescribable and now that I am a week removed from the whole drama of it, I can honestly say that I am glad I got to experience it. Would I do it that way again? Don't know about that...but still glad I know what it's like.

Well, there were a few things I was expecting that happened with Andrew, that didn't happen with Abby. One was that after Mike cut the umbilical cord I expected the Midwife to take her away, clean her up and then bring her back. NOPE. I just sat there holding her while I delivered the placenta (sorry if any of this stuff is really gross...you don't need to read) and then the nurse wheeled it out.

As soon as she left I started the major shakes and could hardly hold poor Abby, nor did I want to at that moment because I was suddenly very, very nauseous. Apparently they had given me some medicine to help the placenta come out and it makes you very sick. So...while the nurse was gone, I suddenly had a horrible fit of vomiting while holding sweet little Abby. Poor Mike quickly grabbed a bowl and helped the best he could until I finally stopped and then he got the nurse. When they came back she took little Abby and then I got the opportunity to go take a shower. BLISS! I will say that after that, things got a hundred percent better. I was feeling much more settled physically and I greatly appreciated being clean. Now I was ready to REALLY meet our daughter.

Well, I stayed there for another hour or so and then they moved me into a recovery room I shared with a couple other women who had had C-Sections. Can I just say I was so glad that I didn't have to have one of those...you women who have, I commend you! That recovery does not look pleasant!

Well, I waited in the recovery room for another few hours while they checked Abby and checked me and made sure everything was good. Finally around 7pm they told us that we could go if we wanted and I really did! So, off we went. Mike, Abby and I strapped ourselves into the car and went to pick up Andrew. Crazy how fast it all went, and some people think it's crazy, but to be honest it worked really well! I was able to get a lot of rest (with help) at home and it's been a really smooth recovery so far, without the hassle of hospital noises, etc.

ANDREW-
When we went to pick up Andrew he pretty much threw a royal fit...welcomed us back to earth and reality. In fact, his first words when he looked at Abby were, "DON'T WANT IT!". great. So, this last week has been an adjustment for all and there have already been some monumental sleepless nights but we are getting there. Slowly, but surely. Mike has been an angel. AN ANGEL! He has taken fantastic care of me and taken on the burden of our tantruming 2-year old. But Andrew is beginning to get used to things and its starting to even out.

FRIENDS & FAMILY-
I need to just say how grateful I am for the help that we've had. It's been such a blessing! My in-laws have come and stayed, taking us shopping, looked after Andrew while I got some sleep, cuddled with Abby, made meals and have just been so wonderful! They left today and I am so grateful for the help they gave!

Two friends in particular have been also been majorly life-saving. Rachel, you have taken time out of your busy day to take Andrew off our hands for a couple hours, giving us time to sleep and Andrew some fun time! The meals you made were delicious and I can't thank you enough for ALL you've done (and continue to do)
Camille, same to you, helping to take care of Andrew, bringing us delicious meals and surprising us with that Moses Basket and adorable outfit! I feel like you are my family and I am so grateful for your help! Thanks isn't enough, but I sure am grateful! We feel so blessed!!!!

Baby Abigail

2010-09-14T11:15:00.001-07:00

Hello! So...perhaps you have heard but just in case not, on Sunday afternoon at 12:30 wee Abigail Cynthia West was born weighing a healthy 7lb 1oz.

She is wonderful and everyone is doing well. There is much to say and I will post the details soon, but in the meantime here is a picture.

Approximately two weeks left and counting down....

2010-09-02T07:42:00.001-07:00

8 1/2 months pregnant:

We are ready...bring it on..

A nice, relaxing morning

2010-08-31T01:58:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say that I think my husband is the best in the world. I have been having constant Braxton Hicks contractions lately, not the kind that means labor is coming, but the kind that is annoying enough to make life really uncomfortable and my patience scripture-page thin. Anyway, right now Mike's older bro, Matt, is here for a visit which is always nice, he is so good with Andrew. But that also means we are going non-stop here there and everywhere. Normally that is something I love, but with the state I am in I'm afraid all I REALLY want to do is sit (and um...eat chocolate). So this morning Mike was fantastic and gave me the morning off. He, Andrew and Matt have gone to the local farm to pick some berries and go for some walks. I get to just be home and do whatever I want. :-)

So far it has been bliss! I took time to have a long, hot shower, I have blogged to my little hearts content and now I am going to clean. Yes, clean...I actually really like to do it, it's therapeutic and I think I am hitting the nesting phase because it's all I want to do right now. Normally it's just a pain because I will clean one mess as Andrew makes another but this morning, it will last (well, at least for 15 minutes until they get home) and for that I am grateful!

A child cannot live on hot dogs alone, can he?

2010-08-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

So Andrew has been great and cute and the tantrums have really decreased lately. HALLELUJAH!!!!! The next thing I am trying to tackle are his eating habits. Here is a list (very, very brief) of the things he will eat:
-Hot dogs, with ketchup
-Crisps (in American: potato chips)
-Occasionally a cheese quesadilla
-Rarely some frozen peas

On good days I can also get him to eat fruit: apples, strawberries and grapes

Pretty much everything else he refuses. I mean refuses!!! Used to eat yogurt-not now, used to like carrots-forget it, used to eat pretty much anything I gave him-that is now a dream gone by. Sigh....remember all the posts I've written about his tantrums? Well, that stems from his stubborn personality and it is now being imposed on food.

I'm sort of at a loss. WHAT DO I DO? I give him the opportunity to eat whatever we are having for meals bust 9 times out of 10 these days he refuses everything. Doesn't matter what I try...games, bribing, threats, punishments, happy praise in cheery voices, etc if he doesn't want it he WONT. DO. IT.

A'ight, so for the last few weeks I have just been offering him good food when it's time to eat a meal or for snacks and I've pretty much stopped giving him any hint of junk food. I figure he'll eat if he gets hungry enough so long as I keep offering him good things, right?!? Sounds reasonable.

Well, these week he has been sort of an angry nightmare and I really think it's because he's not eating enough. The kid is constantly hungry. How do I know this is the case? Well, because when he does manage to take a nibble of this or that he acts so much happier, he is is old fun self again. It last for about an hour or so then his body has used up the goods and its back to anger kid.

I think I'm being pretty darn patient too (as patient as I can be, only 2 1/2 weeks away from my due date anyway) so I am sending a message out there to all you blogger mommas!

Help me! Any suggestions? Any similar experiences? What should I try (if anything) differently!

Thanks, your in-put is appreciated!

Why I likes this place....

2010-08-17T13:16:00.001-07:00

Ask my little bro, ask any of my friends or family. When I was growing up I had this searingly strong desire to go out into the world (just like Mary Tyler Moore) and see things with my own eyes. However, unlike Mary Tyler Moore, I never had much a desire to work at some swanky city job, I always had my eyes set on something grander and more exotic (at least in my opinion). My dream consisted of green rolling hills, shaggy cows under a blanket of gray skies, old men smoking pipes in tartan pocket caps and bagpipes. Yes, I do like me-self some bagpipes! That's right,my heart has always longed to see beautiful, mysterious Scotland. Why? Don't really know to be honest, I've just always had this affinity for it. My crazy imagination, for some reason, has put Scotland as the front runner of my ideal for a land riddled with magic, history and mystery. In fact, I used to pour over picture books showing stunning scenes of ancient ruined castles, jovial folk, emerald fields and Robin Hood-like forests.

This being the case, I always thought I would make it over here someday but I NEVER in a MILLION YEARS, folks (yep, a MILLION YEARS) ever thought I would get a chance to live here. To LIVE in Scotland...and within the picturesque county of Aberdeen nonetheless (we have the sea and the highlands all in one). Needless to say it was a long held childhood dream come true when my cute hubby got the chance to come here. Yes, we snatched that pretty present right up and I still feel so excited about this whole opportunity!

Anyway, now that we have lived here for over 9 months (yep, going on a year now)I have learned a lot and experienced even more and my wee little heart has been in bliss almost the entire time! Now...have I become any less-enchanted with the place? Well, in some ways--yes, but not in the scenery or the people or the culture or those dang funny "heeland coos"! (Ahem, that would be Highland Cows, thanks...) Besides, the things I have become "less enchanted" with are boring day-to-day stuff that would bug me anywhere so I'm not worried (I'm talking about things like major pot holes in roads, the inability to find Cheetoes, lack of hamburger joints that kind of stuff) But I digress...the point I'm driving towards is that I have always held a fascination with Scotland and now that I live here, I still hold a fascination with Scotland. Something about it just makes me feel like I'm home.

Anyway, so I think that for kicks over the next few weeks I will post about things that make this place so great. I could do it all in one post, I'm sure, but who wants to read something 6 pages long? Anyway, plus my pregnancy self can't stand sitting at this confounded computer for the amount of time it would take me, so for today the first thing I am going to show you is one of my most favorite things: THE SCENERY!

Just check it out!

NOTE: The following pictures were taken by a good friend of ours, Christian Dean. Turns out he has quite the talent for photography and when I saw all these photos (many of them are of places we live near are have been to)I asked if I could put them on my blog. I mean, my dinky camera can't show the scenery like this and Christians photos just capture Scottish beauty perfectly so I had to share them. Thanks Christian!

I know...right?!?!

Oh, couple things I need to mention (sorry no pictures)

2010-07-29T23:32:00.001-07:00

WOW! I've been doing a lot posting lately. Not a bad thing. Anyway, I just realized that there were a couple things I wanted to mention via bliggidy blog but haven't so here they are:

1-Andrew made the successful transition to big boy bed a little over a month ago! HURRAY! It wasn't difficult actually, he did real good job and LOVES it. Right now the crib acts as his punishment as well (which helps). If he gives me a hard time getting out of bed at night, all I have to say is, "Andrew, do you need to sleep in the baby crib tonight?" (Imagine being said with stern mommy eyes and voice riddled with unsympathetic mommy tones). That's all he needs (on a good day) and he will immediately jump back in bed and say, "NO, my big bed!" That's right, that's right, I give kisses, close the door and bedtime is done! Good thing he doesn't know how to open the door yet....

But well done Andrew!

2-Remember how I've mentioned before that here in jolly ol' Aberdeen they do NOT tell you the gender of your unborn child even if you want to know. They have a strict no-tell policy due to being sued, etc, etc in the past. Whu-ell...I have some little news. So my midwife (everyone gets midwives here...which I actually really like) thought that bump was measuring a wee bit small, her words, "Aye...you certainly have a wee bump," and so she sent me to the hospital to see a doctor to have another scan (ultrasound) just to be sure everything is growing well in there.

Off I go to the hospital, sit and wait until I get called back to see a lovely Hungarian doctor named Helga (seriously). Helga and I hit it off and she is super friendly. She laughs at my awkward jokes and pokes at my "wee" belly. She makes a couple jokes of her own and even sides with me in my belief that bump (BTY: bump= baby)is actually not that "wee". Turns out bump is measuring a little on the larger end of average BUT my belly just doesn't expand like most pending mothers. Instead, as Helga points out, I just seem to carry my feti more inside than out. What does this mean?!?! Well, I have a smaller looking bump BUT the child has actually made a nice home being abnormally squished between my kidney and lungs. ("Abnormally squished" means extra pressure on the kidneys, less lung expansion and little feet perma under ribs, to name a few.)Helga jokes and says, "You must get people telling you your bump is little...but it really can't be comfortable can it?" No, Helgs, (can I call you Helgs?) No it is not! I would much rather have larger belly and more, gasp, lung space, gasp...thank you!

Anyway, off I go on a tangent. So the point of this story is that after we determine that wee bump is doing great Helgs gets ready to turn of the ultrasound machine but then gets a sly smirk on her face. She look at me and asks if I know the gender. I take full advantage and reply that I don't but would sure like to. (Bat my eyes, smile nicely with a look that says, remember all our joking? He could be great friends Helgs, real great friends!)She picks up on it and says "Well, you know it's our policy not to tell. BUT..." (yes, she said but)"...I can say with much certainty that you are NOT having a boy!" She then showed me (quite vividly)why she felt so certain. Trust me, I could tell too! I thanked Helga profusely and as soon as I walked out of her office there sat Mike to whom I immediately bombarded with, "Your going to have a daughter!"

Poor fellow, wasn't expecting that but admits to being elated! We both secretly wanted a female!

So we are currently seeing PINK in our household and can't wait to meet her!

Andrew post

2010-07-27T01:33:00.000-07:00

I think I've been a bit of a downer on the blog lately, just venting about Andrew's tantrums and my hormonal mess of a self. Truly though, life is not that bad, it's great actually and Andrew is probably the best little boy I could have ever asked for. It's funny, Mike and I were talking and we decided the reason this whole tantrum phase has thrown us for a loop is simply because he has been so ideal up until now. As a baby he was always so pleasant, honestly never cried unless he was hungry or poopy and so I got really used to having such an easy going child. But, hey, he is two and although the bad things do happen, they seem worse because of my pregnancy self and amidst the notty things, he sure does a lot of amazingly cute, wonderful things too. And he is smart, I swear the kid says something new everyday! Some of my recent favorites are:

"Mommy, swimming in watah today?!" (This is something he asks almost every hour. We have taken him swimming a couple times and it certainly seems to be his favorite activity at the moment.)

"Baby in dere. Kisses for baby." (All said while pointing to, and then kissing,bump)

His vocab is really coming along and he can communicate most things now...sometimes it takes me awhile to figure out what he means, but he's found ways of expressing it!

He loves being outdoors and breaks for the front door any chance he can get. He also loves to play "football" with Mike (although, much to Mike's annoyance Andrew calls is 'soccer' due to my influence, LOL)He hates showers and vegetables, but loves tickling, counting games, matching games and puzzles. He also loves to help me cook meals and constantly asks to brush his teeth.

The following are some pictures of the fun things we have been up to, specifically for Andrew, over the last few months.

Storybook Glen
There is this lovely children's place nestled in some of the hills about 5 min from our house. It's HUGE! And it's basically a park filled with statues of different storybook characters where the kids can go climb and play on them. There are a few little castles within the grounds, a farm, a couple parks and countless storybook characters! We have been three times and we still haven't seen all they have to offer! It's been a lot of fun. The following are some of our adventures.

Cinderella

Mike's feelings about Barney

This is the old lady who lived in a shoe. Sometimes I can relate to how she feels.

There was a little place in the Glen that was sectioned off as the Troll Kingdom. So fun, you walk through a bridge and the next 1/2 mile is nothing but little troll houses and troll villages. Andrew loved it.

Troll bridge

Andrew made a friend

Stopped to have a nice conversation with the locals. Andrew helped to cook.

Me and the bubble belly troll on the look out.

Leaving the kingdom. We all agree that it's a little bitter-sweet to leave.

This is a proper highland "coo" (cow).

Andrew chasing chickens

Andrew LOVES trucks and tractors

Cinderella's castle

There is a beautiful river trail that Andrew and I like to walk through at least once a week. Sometimes we stop to play in the water.

Sitting on a rock to eat lunch

Som fun around the house:

Andrew is a robot

Andrew eating chocolate--This was from Easter. I know it's a long time ago but I forgot to post these pics. It was hilarious. We let him find some Easter eggs around the house (it was rainy outside)and he had sooo much fun doing it...almost as much fun as eating the chocolate.

Andrew in a little Easter Hat when we went to visit is great-grandma English.

Love this boy!

two-year old tantrums....didn't know they were REALLY this hard.

2010-07-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

It is an hour and a half past Andrew's bedtime. He is currently in manic rage of a tantrum screaming, kicking the door and weeping, whaling and gashing his little teeth. It's been like this most of the week. Here is the typical scenario:

7:15-8:00--Shower time, getting ready for bed in the normal routine (brush teeth, put on pj's read a story and sing a song)All seems well. I kiss him goodnight, tuck him in and then leave the room.

8:05--Andrew decides he wants another story or one more song or for mommy to lie down next to him, or for some juice or for some water, or a hug, etc, etc.

8:20--Sensing his whining becoming more frantic, I come back in and calmly tell him no, it's time for bed. Blow him kisses and then say goodnight.

Trust me, I am his mother, I know he understands I mean it.

8:21--Doesn't like that it's time for bed so the throw down begins.

8:22-Way past bedtime and way past mommy's patience--Still screaming, still kicking the door, still out of bed...it's been going on for ages. I still ignore him. Trust me, this tantrum phase has been going on multiple times a day for a few months now and I've learned that the best thing for this kid with his STUBBORN personality (gee...where did he get that from--MOM & DAD) is to ignore him. It will pass, sometimes it takes hours, yes HOURS but it will pass.

So...we wait.

It's now 9:45 he has finally stopped crying. I go in to check on him and see that he fell asleep on the floor amongst a wreckage of Dr. Seuss, stuffed animals, clothes and bits of broken chalk. It looks like his room was hit by Hurricane Andrew. It was.

I just cleaned organized his room perfectly, yesterday. Oh well...

I carefully pick him up and put him back in bed.

Ahhhh....peace and quiet...finally. I go in to talk to my MR. up until this moment our evening has been spent in agitation with ears plugged. Think that it might be nice to get some uninterrupted adult conversation going....but it's late now and Mike and I are tired. So tired!

Sigh

It's 10 pm and Mike has to leave for University by 6am. This means it's now our bedtime. We brush our teeth, take necessary showers then hop in bed and turn off the lights.

SNORE

6am--I make Mike lunch and he heads off for Uni.I go back to bed to read some scriptures and maybe get an extra snore in.

6:15-630am--I wake up to hear knocking on the door. Andrew is up and happy and ready for the day. Mommy is not as happy but feels better and gets up to really begin the day.

Most of the day goes great. Andrew really IS a cute kid and I really DO love being his mom. BUT...there was the 1/2 hour tantrum when I told him it was time to turn off the cartoons and the hour tantrum when I took away his toy car after he threw it against the TV (after I had warned him not to). There was the mini-tantrum when I took him to the shop and he didn't want my help to open the door and the major tantrum at nap time when he would not willingly let me change his poopy nappy (diaper). Then we are back to bedtime. You get the idea.

I calculate that out of the 11 hours he is awake in a 24 hour time period, he has spent close to four of those hours in a rage. Hmmph...not so cool.

Some days are better than this, some days are worse. But this scenario has been pretty typical lately. I don't know what I'm doing, I don't have answers...I don't know what else to try and I really don't like him when he is like this. I genuinely DON'T, like super annoyed and sick of the kid. Makes me feel like a horrible mother. BUT...I do know that I'm not horrible, I do know that it's just part of parenthood and that every kid has something...right now my kids thing is tantrums, I do know it will pass and I do know that my attitude plays a huge part in having success.

So...I am trying to suck it up. I mean really trying to suck it up and have a good attitude. It's hard, daaang hard sometimes, I just want to wallow and mourn the loss of my sweet little pre-tantrum boy and my freedom. Sometimes I do, but I don't let it last long. I keep reminding myself that this is parenthood. I wanted this, I mean REALLY wanted this and I was lucky enough to get it. I laugh when I think about how I used to view motherhood as this beautiful mormon-ad with predictable ups and downs. But then I'm humbled to remember that the sweet moments are so much more meaningful than a fluffy portrayal of someone else's ideal and that they are so much more frequent. Although it may not always seem that way.

Ahhh...they should list parenthood as the new extreme sport. It sure feels that way sometimes with all the emotion, the adrenaline, the intensity...

But I am grateful for it. You know...I really am.

The Last Few weeks

2010-07-24T05:47:00.001-07:00

Alright, so we have had some fun times over the last few weeks. When I say fun times I mean FUN times and "fun" times. Here are the "fun" times.

Our fridge broke:
This happened about a week after our washer broke. However, unlike the washer Mike was unable to fix the fridge. We tried everything but it soon became apparent that it had bit the dust. Thankfully we have the most fantastic landlords ever and they quickly ordered a new one and we got it a little less than a week later. Perhaps that sounds like a long time? Not for Scotland. It was actually pretty quick, and although living off of canned veg and tuna got old, we were back to business in no time. (Oh..and thank heaven--literally--for food non-perishable food storage)

The other "fun" thing was that our car broke. Sigh...just a few days ago actually. We had been driving it normally all day, then we parked it for about 15 minutes, went out to use it again and then the key suddenly wouldn't turn in the ignition. I called like 15 different people to see if they could came take a look (Mike and I tried EVERYTHING you can possible imagine to get it working)and most people said we would have to pay to have it towed to the dealer where they could fix it. Um....that option is like crazy expensive (almost more than the car is worth) so I continued calling and finally found a lovely local mechanic with experience in this problem who came to our flat for free to see what he could do. I love this man! Anyway, turns out he fixed it for a fraction of the cost and we are back in business! So, although it was annoying, it could have been a lot worse!

On to the FUN things!
Mike's parents were so nice and offered to take us on a little weekend getaway to Edinburgh. We spent about three days there and really enjoyed the experience. We went to the Zoo, walked around Edinburgh castle, saw many of the historical sights (Scottish parliament, etc), went to church (which was a HUGE ward) and visited Rosslyn chapel. Any of you read the DaVinci Code? Well, Dan Brown writes about that chapel in his book. The actual Rosslyn chapel is not the one filmed for the movie. It is so much better! Honestly, by now I have seen countless cathedrals, churches, castles and this one is probably my number one. It is the most intriguing and beautiful and inspiring building I have been to yet. It took over forty years to make and although it is quite small, it's architecture and design is probably some of the most impressive I will ever see. Nearly every inch of that thing has some design, story or meaning. And a lot of it is VERY intriguing. For example, there are carvings of corn maze and aloe vera which at that point in time were only found in the America's. Thing is...this chapel was completed 50 years BEFORE Columbus sailed the ocean blue so it begs the question if he REALLY was the first to discover America. In addition to this, the tour guide explained that one of the native tribes in the Canadian area have accounts in their history of white sailors getting lost and landing on their shore. These white visitors lived with them for a while until they fixed their ship and went home. It's hypothesized that these men were some of the Masons who worked on the chapel or even members of the St. Claire family (who commissioned the building of the it). Oh! And speaking of masons this chapel is clearly tied to free-masonry there being many signs and symbols subtly carved which indicate their involvement. Very, very cool things...

Anyway, I really could go on and on and on about the Rosslyn chapel but suffice it for me to say that it was very fantastic and I am so glad we got to see it (and REALLY thankful Grandma and Grandpa West watched Andrew so Mike and I could go in without worrying about him touching things. THANK YOU!)

Well...here are some photos of the events.

Driving to Edinburgh over a cool bridge.

Some fun ZOO pics
Oh Andrew...he sort of had meltdown or two while at the zoo so unfortunately we didn't get many great photos. However here we at least managed to get one with him eyeing the Zebra. He loved the Zebras and the penguins the most.

Downtown Edinburgh

There was sooo much to see! We tried to get as much in as possible and we got to see a lot. (Unfortunately we didn't get to see a really cool underground city. Yes, that's right apparently during the Black plague times, in an effort to try and control it and save some money, they city built new buildings on top of old ones. The people who lived in these homes didn't really have a say. Anyway this essentially created a whole underground city and we were super bummed we didn't get a chance to see it. Next time!)

These photos are of the Scottish Parliament building. Honestly the whole building was a bit weird! It's new and was designed to look very modern and artsy. I guess I can appreciate it for what it is but is just seems sooo out of place amongst such old, historical buildings!

I guess this could be considered something like the Buckingham Palace of Scotland.

These are just some old city "cottages". The picture doesn't do it justice, looked so rustic and authentic in person!

Outside some lovely gold embossed doors. I think this was at the Queens theater (?)

Outside Edinburgh castle. It was HUGE!!!

So...Andrew loves Dr.Who. It's the weirdest thing, he's only seen it twice but he goes around the house all day pretending to be Dr. Who. For those of you who don't know what I'm referring to...look it up online. It's this fantastically cheesy British Sci-fi show that has been going on for YEARS and YEARS! The main character (Dr. Who) travels through time in a spaceship that looks like a police box. Well, we saw this police box downtown and Andrew starts saying, "Dr. WHO!!!, Dr. WHO!!" So, of course we stopped to do our best Dr. Who impression.

These next photos are of the Rosslyn Chapel. We actually weren't allowed to take photos once inside so I found these off the internet.

These are some of the grounds surrounding Rosslyn. Green and beautiful like most places in Scotland!

Last but not least...
I have had a couple people bug me about putting up a legit pregnancy pic. So...I finally decided to give in and appease these certain complainers. BUT keep in mind, it's my blog so I chose a picture that doesn't make me look like the gargantuan wildabeast that I am. Ahem...so I guess here is my 7 month picture.

This Speaks To Me...

2010-06-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

Alright. Sometimes I get tired of the penny-pinching grad-school student life (even if it is in Scotland, although that simple fact sure helps a ton). Don't get me wrong, SUPER grateful my hubs is doing what he loves and what he is good at AND for the fact that we even get to have this amazing opportunity to go grad school when I know not everyone gets that chance but...sometimes I just get a little tired of 650 sq foot living space, Ramen noodle meals and ghetto rigging cars. And in these moments I find myself daydreaming about that affordable starter home with the white picket fence and fixer-upper yard. Or that sweet little SUV that can hold my chunky stroller, soon-to-be-TWO car seats and provide enough shoulder room for all.

This being said, here is my confession: When I get in these little moods I sometimes look at used cars in the classifieds or browse my most favorite website, realtor.com. Just a little pick me up...it totally gets rid of the grad-school budget blues for a month or so until another one hits. Well, today I had a little case of it and as I was browsing some listings of cool family cars I came across this youtube video. It sang to me. I decided that someday I will rock my own swagger wagon. YO!

Alright...A Much Needed Info Dump-Update Post

2010-06-16T23:39:00.000-07:00

Okay...so other than my most recent broody epiphany, I have not posted anything for too long a while. I have some serious catching up to do. Read on if you wish...otherwise look at the pics and enjoy!

ITEM #1: BABY NEWS
I have hardly posted a thing about this and I am fast approaching 7 months! Can't believe how quickly this one is going. Probably because I have an active little 2 year old for company this time, but I still can't help feeling like this baby is just sneaking up on me!

I have had a lot of chastisement for not sharing any baby bump pics or telling the gender, etc so I have decided to address these things. Ahem...as for the gender...drumroll please...it...is...a.....UNIDENTIFIED AMBIGUOUS BABY!!!! Alright, alright...I'm sorry but we still don't know and we wont find out for certain until, well, the baby's birthday, ha, ha, ha. WHY, you ask!? Well, it is certainly NOT because we want to be surprised or whatever, seriously don't have the patience for that but it's more like a force of hand. You see, it turns out that Aberdeen is one (if not the only) place in the UK that will not tell you the gender as part of the normal set of ultrasounds. I guess there has been issues with people suing if the gender is wrong, or people getting violent if the nurses can't find the gender (crazy scots!) and so they basically put out a decree saying, "if you can't play nice then you can't play at all." So...I could go get a scan done privately to find out, but I'm afraid it's pretty expensive and won't happen on a grad student budget. So...we are just going to be surprised! (Seriously annoys me...I am too much of a future planner, but perhaps it's a good lesson on patience, right?)

However, I was little cheeky when I had my ultrasounds. I told the nurse I was looking to find evidence of the gender (and I have been taking on-line quizzes, yes they have those!) and she was nice and obliged a bit. Once she got to the, um, tell all areas, she was really slow and explained very carefully, "Here are the legs, this is the bum, see how the legs are apart...." Long pause. Anyway so although nothing is certain, Mike and I both think it's a girl. We saw no evidence of "outdoor plumbing", if you will. Doesn't mean we could be wrong, but I would say we are about 80% sure.

So that's the DL on the gender issue. As for belly pics...I have taken some. I feel fat and I have gotten bigger with this one at a quicker pace than with Andrew. I suppose that is typical, though. I attached a picture of one that gives you an idea. It's the most current (the most recent "official" baby bump photo was taken two months ago and I am much bigger now). My sister was just here and she took this while we went out to see some cows. It's not the best, but it gives you an idea anyway...plus I am standing in front of cows...makes me feel a little better about myself. :-)

Everything is going well. The baby looks healthy and is moving like crazy. The official due date is September 17 and we are excited for the challenge of adding another little member to our family. Andrew is cute...he looks at my belly frequently these days and says, "Baby in deer..." and gives it a kiss. Yes, Ive been coaching him. I think it will be a bit of shock at first, he is the king of the castle, but ultimately I don't think it will take long for him to adjust. Only time will tell though...

ITEM #2--MIKE UPDATE
Mike is about halfway through his first clinical rotation. His program will have six total throughout the 2 years he is here. To make a long story short it was quite a challenge his first week and really threw us for a loop. We both thought the rotation would be a nice, relaxed break from all the course work but we were SO WRONG!

Mike has been doing the rotation at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (hospital) and his coordinator (the woman he is working under) is a very high ranking physio and has a reputation throughout the UK for being one of the best in her field(which is great, Mike has been learning A TON from her) but also, for um...being...strict, high expectations...and really, really beasty! Mike is there with one another student from his program and they have both felt major pressure and acute stress as they see probably 5 or 6 of their own patients a day in addition to shadowing, paper work, other observations and oral quizzes from the coordinator. (When I say oral quiz I mean, asking grilling questions like, "Why are you doing that? Explain the anatomy of this. What gave you the idea THAT would work?" And so on WHILE they are treating the patients. So...yes, pressure...absolutely! But after getting his bearings and figuring out how best to learn and do well, Mike has really been improving and LEARNING so much. Yes, this lady may be difficult and hard (think Dr. Kelso from Scrubs) but ultimately it has been really good and they seem to have a good understanding of one another now.

So we are really proud of Mike and all his hard work. We certainly don't get to see him very much, but it's worth it in the end. Plus it makes us really appreciate the weekends when we get him a little more to ourselves!

(SIDE NOTE: Mike is also staying busy with homework and his three church callings...one of which is in the stake young men's. He has been on a couple camp outs and here are a few pictures from that)

ITEM #3--SCOTLAND FUN
So...the next bit is just going to be some fun pictures and a few explanations about we have been up to. My sister, Jeanette, just recently came for a visit and it was really great to have her here. We did A LOT of things and I think she had fun. I know I did! However, other than that life has been pretty much, "business as usual". Nothing too exciting, but it sure is pretty.

We do a lot of laundry. Can you see why? Andrew loves to finger paint but it sure is messy.

This is our little yard in the back of the complex. Yes, we do hang up our clothes to dry!!!

Andrew and I love to go for walks. Sometimes we go with our friends, Camille and Rachel, and other times we just go and see where the roads lead. Here are some pics from one of our outings.

Andrew running down a path.

Looking at the interesting flowers

What a great looking stump!

Perhaps I can use it for a tower. I HAVE THE POWER!!!

This one looks nice and soft. Perfect for a....

...little nap!

I think I could see myself staying here! This looks like fantastic mixing pot! What more do I need?

LOOK! A four leaf clover!!!!!! Now I'm supposed to be real lucky, right?

Here are some pictures of a little day trip to the the beach. What a fantastic day!

WELCOME JEANETTE! Here is some evidence of the fun things we did.

One day we went to a little farm. We saw this goat and decided it should be named Gandolf!

We went to an amazing castle one day called, "Castle Frasier" and Mike stopped to do a bit of studying under a tree. I love that view!
#

There was a really nice kids play area at Castle Frasier. Who knew we would find a Tipi in Scotland?

We were able to spend some time in England with my in-laws during Jeanette's stay. It was fantastic. I absolutely LOVE spending time with them and they were sooo nice to drive us around to see the beautiful sights of the area. Sadly, Mike was unable to come but Jeanette loved the amazing scenery and beautiful houses and Andrew and I really enjoyed seeing Grandma and Grandpa West.

ITEM #4--ANNIVERSARY
This also seemed to sneak up on us. We didn't really do anything too special...Mike is sooo busy, life just gets crazy so we just decided to enjoy a night in which we did. I made a big Endlish meal, Jeanette helped a lot with Andrew (THANKS JEANETTE) and we watched a movie. (THE INVENTION OF LYING...I do not recommend...pretty stupid). All in all it was a nice day. Can't believe it's been four years already!!

Well there is a lot more I could share but I have officially spent way too much time uploading pictures and Andrew is feeling neglected. I also uploaded a bunch more on facebook for any of you who may wish to see more scenery and Andrew (that's for you, mom).

PHEW...update complete!

Epiphany

2010-05-26T06:57:00.000-07:00

Parenting is hard. Joyful, wonderful, special, spiritual, etc...yes, all that too, but it is also a painful enigma in many ways. Certainly a challenging way to grow and learn things and stress yourself to the limits in ways you never thought possible. Thousands upon thousands of people have expressed (much more eloquently I might add) similar sentiments throughout time. I've heard these things most of my life. However, it's totally different when you are in the drivers seat (at least for me). Experiencing parenthood brings these ageless sentiments to such heart wrenching reality that I find myself bursting into tears (quite often these days). It's good and bad...total joy & peace and well...ermmm....imagine the total opposite. The majority of my days are spent loving being a mom, feeling like although I don't really know what I'm doing, I'm at least doing an ok job. I mean, Andrew hasn't died yet, right? I've kept him alive, he is happy, healthy, loved...yes, I may be flying by the seat of my pants but at least I'm still holding onto the magic carpet.

Then Andrew turned 2.

Suddenly I have moments (with increasing frequency)where the magic carpet kicks me off and leaves me stranded in the middle of a dessert as it hastily waves goodbye and shouts, "Good luck with that..."

WAIT! What the...oh no!!!!!

Andrew has really been having issues with tantrums and figuring out how best to handle them have been like trying to tame a Death Valley brush fire. At first I tried ignoring it. My thinking, "Heck, kid, you can scream all you want but I'm not going to let you think it will make a difference on me." Problem was I let it get personal, it did make a difference on me, got me all angered and upset and--man, after about 25 minutes of non-stop screaming, I hit my breaking point and then stopped the ignoring. At that point I would just be oober upset so I'd pick him and slop him on down in his crib, then storm out of the room and slam the door.(And yes, ashamedly even add in a few angry words that may perhaps rhyme with schmut lup...or worse.)It didn't take me long to learn this was NOT. EFFECTIVE. All that was gained by this was a mom who lost her temper and a little boy who was now more confused by what I was doing. It only sent him on a downward tailspin thus causing his screams to reach new pitches of shrill, putting fat opera lady to shame!

So I have been trying new approaches--all kinds of variations. (Doing everything in my power to refrain from spanking, not a believer in it. Plus, I admit that I have done it a few times out of anger it accomplished nothing...nothing accept make me feel like the scum of the earth.)However, it's only been in the last two days that I finally think I've found a good balance. And it started with an experience I had about a week ago.

Many of you know I am 6 months pregnant and thus my hormones are spinning around like the wheel of fire. I was having a particularly bad day...Andrew had just won a battle (by my standards) after about 45 minutes of a raging temper tantrum. I had lost my temper pretty bad and I was feeling very energy deprived, very down about my mothering abilities and terrified that another one is on the way. I can't do this?!?! I CAN'T DO THIS! I am rubbish...a failure.. Can any of you relate to feeling like that sometimes? Anyway, it was one of those days where little had got accomplished around the house and I just felt like I was a horrible mother and a lazy nobody.

Well soon after Andrew finally settled down, I looked at the clock and realized I needed to mail something at the post office and only had 15 minutes until it closed. I told Andrew we needed to go outside for a walk, something he normally LOVES, but this time he didn't want to. Great...here comes another tantrum, I could feel it blowing in. I thought of a quick way to diffuse the situation. BRIBES. I had been letting him snack on a few peanuts and so I told him we could take some with us if he came on a stroller ride with me. He liked that idea so I ran with the opportunity. Now, if any of you mothers out there are gasping in disbelief let me please say that I know peanuts aren't the safest things for little children to eat. Definitely chokable size but, it was a really rough day and I had to pick my battles. I just couldn't do another tantrum and I HAD to get to the post office. Therefore I didn't really care and Andrew happily held a small bag of choking-hazard peanuts while I briskly walked-wobbled to the post office.

Thankfully we made it just in time. I could tell that the post lady was a littler perturbed that I came in 5 minutes before closing but she still helped me figure out the best way to send my package and was decently patient with my ignorance over the Scottish way of doing things. Anyway, while I was writing out the address label a realized a few other people had come in at the last minute and were waiting behind me. I got out of the way and just as I was finishing up my writing I hear Andrew make a gagging sound. Oh CRAP! I look down and see that he had put one too many peanuts in his mouth and so I immediately started to smack his back. Breath child, BREATH! Well it really wasn't that big of a risk, it took one swat to get it out but boy did I feel guilty. But I also got what I deserved because as soon as the offending peanut shot out...so did the rest of his lunch. Serious, projectile peanut and cheese sandwich goo EVERYWHERE. I thought quickly and had placed both my hands out in an attempt to catch the mess. Problem was, once it stopped I was stuck...now what do I do? I stood there for a few dumbfounded seconds looking from my package to my hands to the perturbed lady at the counter (who now wore a look of disdain) and then back to my hands. Thank goodness I had a blanket in the bottom of the stroller. I reached down and cleaned everything up the best I could but it was nasty, folks, real nasty.

When I had mercifully wiped things away the best I could, I finally noticed that there was small audience gathered around to witness the mess...I felt like a complete idiot. However, I managed to compose myself and I finished the package and got it sent, however I had delayed the closing time by 6 minutes and I could tell post lady wasn't liking it. I rushed to get out of there and was happy to see that all my audience, with the exception of one little grandma lady had left.

"Excuse me" she said

"Yes?" I replied, thinking maybe she was going to tell me that I dropped something in all the chaos. NOPE...

"I just think you should know that it is not recommended to give children his age peanuts. They can choke."

Friggin...stupid...woman...REALLY?!?! You think?!? However I responded by mumbling
"Yes, I do know...he normally does quite well with peanuts. Guess I was wrong today, ha, ha..."

Lady looks at me sternly, "You know it's especially bad letting children eat peanuts whilst in a buggy. With all that bumping it can really be dangerous."

I suddenly imagined myself pulling her snotty tweed hat right off her head and throwing it into the nearby street, after which I smartly flick her in the nose and walk away. But all I said was, "Um...thanks for the concern. But I do understand what you are saying." She retorted with,

"Well, it is a bad sign of mothering if you KNOW these things and still DO them."

At this point I was dumbfounded. Who was she?!?! She literally stayed around to chastise my mothering when she knew nothing, NOTHING, about who I am or where I was coming from. Did she really think she was being helpful?!?! What would possess a person to speak to a stranger this way? Well, let me tell you that some very unkind and very unchristian thoughts entered my mind. I just stared at her for a moment as I contemplated all the things I wanted to say. I wished I had a bucket of water...I would dowse her in it and laugh hysterically as she melted away. But even though I was shocked by her rude frankness and it made me angry...inside I shattered. I literally crumbled like a stale sleeve of saltine crackers because she...a complete stranger just validated what I already feared the most. I was a horrible mother and even a stranger could see that.

I didn't say anything to the lady. Tears were already beginning to overflow and I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of seeing it. I just brushed past her without mumbling a word and I didn't look back.

I cried the whole walk home. I didn't care that people were looking. Once we got inside I was weeping...literally taking in huge breaths followed by uncontrollable sobbing. I couldn't stop it. Everything just came flooding out and out and out...Andrew, who had been throwing another little fit because he wanted to stay outside, suddenly stopped his crying and looked at me with a puzzled expression on his face. And that's when my huge epiphany hit...

Andrew toddled over to me balled up on the floor and gave me a big, unsolicited hug. He then grabbed my face in his chubby little hands and said, "Wipes?" He walked over to where I put some baby wipes on the couch and grabbed one. He brought it over to me and wiped my tears, after which he gave me a big kiss on the cheek. My sobs suddenly turned into laughter. Now where did he learn that? It certainly wasn't from grumpy old post office grandmas! I realized then, I mean REALLY realized, that I am always going to make mistakes. I'm not perfect. I wish that my mistakes didn't effect the ones I love but they do...they have and they will. BUT It's okay (can you believe it?) It's ok because even amongst the dirty path of failing there is still some sun that shines through the trees. Even though I am not the perfect mother to Andrew I realized that I can still do some things right and he knows that he is loved, and I know I am.

Regardless of temper tantrums (his and mine).

There is more to this little story but it's personal and I don't really want to bore you. This is already a lengthy post, indeed. But I will just say that I got some real understanding out of that experience. A new perspective and a completely different attitude.

Today Andrew had a two hour tantrum because he didn't want me to put his clothes on. Two hours!!! But I didn't loose my temper once, I stayed completely, genuinely calm and actually relished the opportunity to teach him. I was happy the entire day. No anger, no frustration, no pity-parties or self-doubts. I did the best I could and it wasn't perfect but you know what, that is fine. I'll do better. He'll do better. We are a team...we'll figure it out.

And you know what? The next time I hear those words of self-doubt echo in my mind, I'll just tell them that they remind of a miserable old hag I met once...and I have no place for that anymore.

Thank you LOST, now I am really lost... (WARNING: spolers if you haven't seen LOST finale)

2010-05-24T12:49:00.000-07:00

Any of you guys fans of LOST? Well, if you aren't then you might not want to read this post because I am just going to vent about it for a minute. For those that are...well, read on...

OK, so Mike and I just finished watching the series finale. I, like the other thousands upon thousands of Lostees, was expecting a grand ending filled with explanations that beautifully tied every little piece of the puzzle together. Now, ok...I didn't expect every little piece to be explained, there was clearly way too much to tackle, but I did think that some major mystery questions would be answered. After all, this was the series finale...no more, nada, LOST all-gonna, after this. So, anyway I really thought I would get sort of major satisfaction with the end. You know, akin to the satisfaction I got when I watched the Sixth Sense. That AH-HA moment which smacks you in the head and then it's like "Ohhhhhh, now I get it." Well, that sure did not happen with me tonight, at least not in the way I expected.

Did I like the ending? Well, actually yes, I did. Was I completely satisfied, no...no I wasn't.

I thought the character stories were remarkably resolved. I felt nostalgic and yes, even a wee bit emotional when everyone "woke up" to their life and relationships with one another. (Shut up, okay, I am 6 months pregnant so I also get misty eyed when I see beautiful green hills or a delicious banoffee waffle.)

There were definitley some things I really didn't expect and that I really liked and thought were poetic in a way. For example, I really liked how the sideways reality actually turned out to be some sort of spirit limbo where people continue to work through issues or "live" until they are finally ready to "move on." (What, is that not what you took it as? Well, that's what I interpreted it to be.)I really liked some of the symbolism, sometimes subtle, sometimes not, that was mainly left to our own interpretation. (i.e. "Christian Shepherd", going to the light, Ben not ready to go until he "worked through" some more of his issues, the mixture of science and religion.) There was a lot of that stuff, not definitively explained, but done so enough to have given me a sense of peace on the matter. I'm not going to delve into what I took a lot of that stuff to mean, because that would just bore you but suffice it to say that I do feel the character issues were well done, really well resolved and, in that regard, I was left with some sense of satisfaction. HOWEVER, sigh, the detail minded person in me with the obsessive need to understand EVERYTHING was left wanting more...much, much more.

Okay, so if you have watched LOST then you understand how the story is so riddled and interwoven with strange mythology and that the central, probably most intriguing character was the ISLAND itself. Yes, we learned a lot about what transpired on it, who lived on it, why they were there but I still don't feel satisfied with it's purpose. Yes, okay...got it, it houses some glorious, luminescent glow which is somehow so imperatively crucial to the souls of all mankind that it requires a protector who is capable of eternal life and has magical powers. I can buy that on some level but what really bothers me is the whole mythology behind it that wasn't explained. For example, the voices...right, so they are dead spirits trapped there. Why are they trapped? Why can't they have their own little limbo existence like the main characters and resolve their issues? Was that just Jacobs rule? Did that go away when Jack took over? I tend not to think so because MIB was able to see his dead birth mother, how come she could appear? And since I am on the topic of MIB and Jacob...here are my frustrations with that whole thing.

What is the stupid smoke monster? I mean really, I understand that it's supposed to be some sort of evil incarnate and that when Jacob allowed MIB to go into the light,it was dimmed because there was now this great evil on the loose but it's not explained enough! (At least not for me) I wanted to understand what would happen if MIB did get off the island, what would happen to our souls? I wanted to know why, if when MIB went down there he turned into that smoke thing, but when Jack was down there he just died. Shouldn't the same thing have happened? (I understand why it couldn't happen to Desmond, he is somehow magically immune, but don't get me started on that)I also don't get that since the light did go out when Desmond removed the plug (which "mother" had said should NEVER happen, otherwise we are all doomed)then well, why weren't we all doomed? What happened to the whole of mankind while it was gone? All that seemed to happen was that the island got cranky, but I saw no real threat to mankind. So, really, is it that important? If Jack hadn't put the plug back in, wouldn't the island have just sank to the bottom and the whole of humanity would be none the wiser? I guess what I'm trying to say is that they really built up that whole idea and then it was just sort of brushed aside with no real explanation. To me that was a huge bummer, because basically it seemed to me that the whole struggle on the island in the first place was to resolve this centuries old quarrel with these two opposing siblings...and that somehow this "disagreement" between the two was going to have a huge impact on humanity. Well, in the end it seemed like it was all just fluff to keep us intrigued enough to keep watching, but was really just an empty idea presented in a pretty box. Does that all make sense?

Anyway, some other things I wish would have been explained better (not necessarily all within the finale, but throughout the whole series--I mean, why introduce a concept you aren't going to finish, right?):
-Why do pregnant women die on the island?
-What was the deal with the Tawaret statue?
-The whole time travel thing...it was just confusing and ambiguous and created a lot more questions. Was it really that important to the story? Couldn't they have just left it out and still gotten to the same conclusion? (SIDE NOTE: They really made efforts to merge science and religion in this show, some ideasI really liked, others I didn't. Was this just a way of trying to merge the two?)
-The whole donkey wheel issue. (i.e. if you go to the light then you'll get off the island, but wait...I thought if you into the light then you turn into a smoke monster, etc, etc)
-What about Walt?
-What was the spring inside the temple? And what was that "darkness" that overcame Sayid and Claire? And for that matter, what was that "illness" that Reussoeu claimed everyone from her people had (i.e. why she killed all of them)? Same thing as Sayid and Claire I imagine, but WHAT IS IT?
-What is the deal with Eloise Hawking?
-How did the DHARMA initiative get to the island, I mean really?!?! If this was Jacobs game and he was in control, how did they do it unless he wanted them to find it? And if he wanted them to find it then why did all his people end up killing them?

Anyway, so you can see that my list of questions could go on and on. But I will say this, even as I sit here writing this I feel like it doesn't matter. It was an intriguing TV show, I should be glad it was entertaining and gave me something to look forward to during all those mundane hours of breastfeeding or cleaning or changing daipers or whatever. And so, I am. I really liked LOST and, again, I really like parts of the end. But I do wish there was a little more meat with all those potatoes.

What do you think?

Poor Andrew

2010-05-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

Andrew woke up sick today. He has a fever, a runny nose, a major case of the ornery's and nothing really seems to help. He watched cartoons this morning,we played a little with his blocks and then I took him outside for a bit. He actually enjoyed being outside, the fresh air felt nice but it didn't last long. We came back and I made him lunch which he did not eat (he did not eat breakfast either). So I gave him a Popsicle and we read some stories. He took a nap which only lasted an hour and then the cycle started all over again. He is currently watching Blue's Clues. Medicine seems to help a little but he WILL NOT let me snuggle with him and screams NOOOO whenever I try (sigh...he was only snuggly for the first three weeks of his life). I think I will try and take him out again in a bit...TOOO much TV is making me crazy!!! Afterward I'll see if I can force some soup down him then on to a bath and bed.

Poor kid...what do you do to help a sick toddler?

Happy Mothers Day

2010-05-11T01:14:00.000-07:00

I know this is a couple days late but I wanted to give a shout out to all the mothers out there. It's important to remember that when it comes to mothers, there ain't no other, so what better way to commemorate this than with a touching video? So, with no further ado here is a video that my brother sent to my mom as a thank you for all she does. I thought it was very fitting and really made me appreciate my mother so much more. Enjoy and remember, everyone, treat your mother right!

Andrew's Birthday

2010-05-02T08:28:00.000-07:00

Finally, here are some pictures of Andrew's birthday. Honestly in all the hustle we really didn't get that many great picutres but at least it gives you an idea. We decided to throw a little low-key party with our friends. My dear friend Camille was nice enough to let us use her house (couldn't plan on a park, the weather is too fickle) and we decided to have cupcakes and eat hot dogs.

I wanted to do some kind of kids activity but we ended up just letting them all run around and play with toys and balloons...I mean, you try organizing games for a bunch of 2-3 year olds! A lot of friends came which was fantastic and even though we said NO PRESENTS, Andrew still got some fun toys that he really, really enjoys. Andrew had a ton of fun so thanks everyone for the great time!

Here is Andrew opening one of his gifts...can you guess what it is? (That is Camille in the background, she is the best!)

Here is a picutre of people gathered around while we ate hot dogs and I passed out cupcakes. *NOTE: So...I sent MIke to the store to get hot dogs thinking, surely it won't be a problem! Well...Mike asked the lady at the store where American style hot dogs would be and she lead him to this big tin with a picture of what appeared to be hot dogs. Well, the tin can should have been the first clue that these were certainly not what we would consider "normal". But Mike bought them anyway and we thought it really couldn't be that bad. Well, turns out these puppies were a soggy messs of processed meat covered in a gelatinous goo! Honestly, the guys grilled them and they stuck to the grill and basically disintegrated and yes, we still tried to serve them. I owe everyone a huge apology for that! They were honestly one of the sickest things I have every allowed to touch my tounge. I later learned that if you want a decent hot dog in Scotland you need to look for packaged frankfurters...dont ask for hot dogs!!! YUCK!

This is Jimmy, Camille's son and Andrew LOVES to play with him...Jimmy is so good about teaching him fun new games using swords and sticks.

After the party we took Andrew home and let him eat some more cupcakes (after dinner of course). Here are some pictures.

He is a happy boy!

Here is Anderw showing off his birthday spoils. MIke and I got him a trike and his friends gave him: building blocks, balls, a cool cars flashlight, a great book and a bubble maker. He loved them all!

Andrew trying out his new bubble blower, notice the spilling liquid.

Here is the big present from me and Mike. We decided to get him a trike because we took him to toys 'r' us once and let him run around to see what he was most interested in. Well, it turns out the trikes were his number 1 favorite thing, we couldn't get him to leave...so of coruse, that's what we decided to get him. Well...a few days before his birthday he actually found the box and got really excited saying "bike, bike!". Well we dodged that bullet, distracted him and hid the box in a better place but by this point Mike and I were certain he would be extatic when he woke on his birthday morning to find his new toy in the living room.

On his birthday, before he woke up, I blowed up some balloons and put them on and around the bike for decoration. When Andrew woke up Mike lead him in and the first thing Andrew's says is..."BALLOON!" He loved the balloons, he ran over picked them up started laughing and throwing them around. He could have cared less for the bike. WHAT!?!?!

I guess we learned that the next time we celebrate a two year old birthday we will go cheaper and buy them loads of balloons!

P.S. He now loves his bike and can't wait to ride it every day (phew!)

The last thing we got to have fun with happened a few days after his birthday. My mom sent a great birthday package full of fun goodies for Andrew. He had so much fun opening all the gifts and has been playing with all the toys non-stop. His favorite things are the big punch balloons (of course) and some toy dinosaurs. Thank you mom and dad, it made his birthday all the more fun! (Sorry I have no pictures of that, I tried posting them and for some reason it won't let me. After trying literally 10 times I gave up and just decided to post this anyway. Mom, I will try emailing you the video and pictures we took! )

Happy Birthday ANDREW!

2010-04-24T06:07:00.000-07:00

You are now 2...HURRAY! We just got back from an all morning party. You had a lot of fun, and we tired you right out! Pictures are comin'...

New Blog Layout

2010-03-25T02:29:00.000-07:00

So, I decided to just change the layout of ye ol' blog for fun and this is what I did. Now...I added a little cheesy line under the blog title and for those of you who ever lived in down town P-town will notice it may sound familiar--"Always and adventure...always". Ring any bells?!?! HA! It's all about the tribute to HONKS, baby! Mike and I always thought it was hilarious, that Honks, the ultimate dollar store, had that little catch phrase on every sign of their building. I mean, is Honks really and adventure...always?!?! REALLY?!?! Well, we thought so...oh yeah!!! So as a little tribute to our dollar store lives (that's right we are still very much in the starving student phase)I have borrowed the Honks phrase for my little blog. No I am not that cheesy, really (well...maybe I am...) but nevertheless here it will stick. New blog layout, new title catch phrase...suhweet!

(P.S. If anyone knows how to create a title complete with picture that you can simply upload I would love suggestions. However, I don't have photoshop so maybe that's the problem...anyway, have a great day!)

Happy Mudder's Daddy!

2010-03-14T00:42:00.000-08:00

Today is Mother's Day in the UK. Mike and Andrew have been very sweet to me this morning. They let me sleep in a little and made sure I have felt loved. Mike even taught Andrew to say "Happy Mother's Day"...however for some reason he is struggling a little with a few of the words. So when Andrew came up to tell me his new phrase he proudly looked at me and said, "Happy Mudder's Daddy!" So...to all of you "Mudder's" out there, in the UK or the US, I hope you have a HAPPY MUDDER'S DADDY!

We are alive...

2010-03-07T12:24:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've been off the radar...again...for a few weeks. Truth is it's been a VERY busy few weeks. A lot has been going on. My parents were just here for a week and they left on Wednesday. It was SOOOOOO good to have them here and the time really went much too fast!!! I don't have pictures of all that yet, but I will most likely be posting about that lil' adventure next. Anyway, before they came Mike's parents also came and stayed with us for a few days...again, so wonderful to have them here! Mike's Mum made us a dinner of pancakes because they were here on Shrove Tuesday (aka pancake day) which is celebrated in England in remembrance of Lent...so you don't eat things with leaven, hence the pancakes. Anyway, it was a delicious meal and they spoiled us! You know, I may be 27 and a parent but it is still nice to be spoiled!!! :-)

Anyway, this post is mainly just say we are not dead, in fact we are still very much alive and to proove it here are some pictures of what we have been up to since we made the move about 2 months ago. For those who like this sort of thing...I hope you enjoy!!!

These are a few pictures we took when we made our first visit into the city centre (that's right..."center" spelled c-e-n-t-r-e...when in Rome...) Anyway, this is the a nice view of the Brig O'Dee (I beleive). It is the bridge which runs over one of two main rivers that run throught the whole of Aberdeen. So nice!

HAH! This is a cool statue of the great WILLIAM WALLACE. Yes, that is Mike at his feet, humble before that great protector of Scotland. Saviour from the tryanical English (OK, mike I am joking!!! He just chewed me out!) I just thought it was fun...and yes, I made Mike pose for this.

There are two campus' (is it campi?!?)...anyway, there are two locations that house Mike's Uni. There is one in the city centre and the other one (the one Mike attends) is in a more residential area called Garthdee. I have no pictures of Mike's actual campus but if he attended the one in the City, this would be it. Pretty cool!

This is St. Nicholas' cathedral. Very old and very massive...when you walk on the grounds it feels like you are literally walking through history. I love it!

This is the graveyard at St. Nicholas Cathedral. When my parents came they actually found a headstone with possible family lineage...pretty amazing!

This is a small castle that is only about 5 minutes from our flat. It is called Drum and is home to the oldest tower in Scotland, an original gift from Robert the Bruce to a friend. Although much of the castle is newer, with additions being made in the 1600-1800's, the tower was erected in the end of the 1200's. CRAZY!

More pictures of Drum

One of the great things about these castles is that they have wonderful play areas for children on the grounds. At Drum they have this mini-midieval wood to the side of a nice playground. Here are Andrew and I venturing into the forest. (Can't you imagine how cool this would be when you were a kid...make beleive about being a knight and then THIS is your backdrop?!?)

More pictures of the woods at Drum

Andrew going down the slide at Drum
\

Mike and I outside of Drum

The following few pictures are when we spent and afternoon at the beach. Yes, it was a beach but don't be decieved...it was FREEZING cold outside, but we couldn't help ourselves. Here is Andrew and Mike chasing the waves.

Just some pictures of the beach itself. Doesn't it look like a Scottish beach...definitely not tropical!

Clam shells everywhere!

Grassy beach...

Andrew in the grass

Oh! Wonder why Andrew's pants look darker at the bottom?!? Well that is because as soon as we looked away for literally 3 seconds Andrew ran into one of the waves and fell down. Yes, my boy likes adventure! Needless to say this ended our little trip to the beach because, while I am sure it was exhilarating, that water comes from the North sea...and I didn't want Andrew to get hypothermia!

This next picture group is from a visit we took to a village called Stonehaven. This is probably my favourite village. It's like something you would imagine from a story book. It's hundreds of years old, nestles along the coast and scattered with old fishing huts and houses that still have thatched roofs! Here is a picture of the beach there. I just love the old, craggy rocks!

This is a picture of Dunottar castle which is in Stonehaven. It is like a dream. Nestled on a large rock gutting up from the sea, it was once one the most impenterable fortresses in the whole of Scotland. So much so that the crown jewels were even held here for a time. Now it is mostly ruins but one can imagine what it would have been like in it's hay day!

Walking closer to Dunnottar

These are some views from the top of the cliff:

Okay...last but not least here are some pictures of funny, crazy and ever growing Andrew. he despertely needed a haircut and Mike really didn't want me to but he FINALLY gave in and let me trim it. Here are some pictures of the event.

Here is Andrew in the tub, just before his shaggy mess was tamed.

All ready and sudded up!

And the after results! He looks so old...I can't beleive he is more little boy than baby these days!

Yep...some more news from Scotland

2010-02-16T04:00:00.001-08:00

I have been wracking my brain thinking of fun, cute, whitty, clever ways to explain what I am about to...but I just can't. My brain power just seems to be washed away these days. Mainly with thinking of fun activities for Andrew. Which makes me think...any suggestions of fun things to do with toddlers if your stuck in the house?

Anyway, so the reason I am writing this post is to say that we are super excited to report that I just had a doctors appointment today (because I have been feeling extremely ill, etc.) and it turns out that everything is going great with BABY # 2! HAH! That is right, I am not joking, turns out I am pregnant! We will be having a wee Scottish bairn and I decided that if it's a boy his first name will be William and his middle name Wallace. Mike doesn't like that idea so much...

YAY! We are surely excited and it does explain a lot of things for me...uncontrollable, ravenous cravings for things like Wendy's hamburgers and cheetos for one. Well, that is it. Although I do want to say that Andrew was super cute about it. Today, after the appointment I told him that he is going to be a brother and that mom has a baby in her belly as I patted my stomach and he look up at me and put his hand on my tummy and said, "ahhh, baby!" So cute! He will make such a great big brother!!!

Welcome!

2010-02-10T12:21:00.000-08:00

Oh hi! Glad you could stop by and see our flat. Come on in, I'll give you the grand tour. (These photos are in no particular order)

This is our wee kitchen complete with turquoise walls!

This is Andrew's room. It's probably my favorite room in the flat.

This is one view of our bedroom.

And here is the other. We managed to cram a little desk in the corner to create a sort of quasi office for Mike to study. So far it's working great!

Here is our lovely bathroom. Oh! Don't worry we do have a shower and tub, it's just hiding behind the door.

Our living/dining room. Used to have a lot to be desired. However, we found that couch on a website called Gumtree (like craigslist) and bought it for £70 from a super cool girl named Claire and her boyfriend. Best thing about it is that it folds down into a bed! And, Claire and I got along so well as we emailed back and forth about the couch that we are now friends and plan to get together one of these days! Who knew you could make friends off of silly websites?!?

Here is our washer...

...and here is our dryer! HAH! That's right we hang our clothes to dry. Right now since the weather is rainy and snowy we hang them on dry racks within the flat, when the weather gets nice there is a clothes line out in the back garden. Sometimes I laugh so hard because I honestly feel like such a domestic wonder, drying my clothes without a dryer (haven forbid) but it really isn't that bad. A little annoying at times, but not too bad...surprisingly! (P.S. it is actually pretty rare to find flats equipped with dryers here...they like the fresh smell of the open air on their clothes, why not?!?!)

Alright, sure it's a little small...a little outdated, mmmm...maybe even a little ghetto but we love it and are grateful and happy to have it!

P.S. I don't think I mentioned how we even came to find this flat so for those who wish to read, I will explain because I actually think it's a good story.

Mike's dad came to check out the ward and see what areas were nice to live about three months before we actually arrived. While he was in Aberdeen, he spoke to the bishop and mentioned that Mike and I would be coming and were looking for a place to rent. Well...in the meantime, Mike and I had been pouring over websites trying to find something within our budget that was near enough to campus. (FYI: Aberdeen is a VERY expensive place to live, probably equivalent to the heart of San Francisco or even London which makes it a bit tricky on a grad student budget) Anyway, well, about a month before we had to leave I got an email from a FANTASTIC woman named Charla who explained that she and her family were moving back to Canada and they were looking for someone to rent out their flat, because they had been unable to sell it. She was a member of the ward and remembered hearing from Mike's dad that we were looking for a place. Well, they offered us a REALLY good deal on rent AND even offered to sell us their car and leave some furnishings (bed, crib, TV, dry racks, table, chairs, bean bag, plates, pots/pans etc). Well, this seemed like a great deal, the rent was a lot lower than we thought we were going to have to pay and we wouldn't need to worry about a lot of furnishings. The only issues were that it was small and a bit further from campus than we wanted. Well...after many talks and thinking and figuring we decided to go for it so here we are. The Schneider's (the family we now rent from)have been so helpful and I must say it is sooo great to have landlords that we trust and feel like we are friends with. Anyway, the distance hasn't been too bad and it is really quite nice because we live in the country rather than the city and the benefits from that far outweigh the fact that it's small. So we are happy here. So far it looks like we will be here for a year. We will see what happens after that, but at least for the next 11 months this is home!!!!

BURNS SUPPER!

2010-02-08T00:45:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago I got my first real taste of Scottish culture and..ahem..retch...haggis! Um...yes, I did!

On January 25th Scotland holds this dinner festival called the Burns Supper in celebration of a man named Robert Burns. I guess you could say he was like the Scottish Shakespeare. He is known as, "Scotland's favourite son", the "Ploughman Poet", the "Bard of Ayrshire" and/or simply, just the "Bard". In fact I am certain you have heard at least one of his poems, it goes like this, "Should auld acquaintance be forgot,and never brought to mind ? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne?" WHAT?!? What is that? It sounds familiar but...what?! That's right he wrote that song that everyone sings at New Years but no one really knows the words or else you make them up...yep, that's the one. Anyway, now that you are all nodding your head in realization and saying, "OH...." you can understand who Robert Burns was.

So, our ward put together a nice Burns celebration and Mike and I bought our tickets and were planning to go. Unfortunately, we were not supposed to take Andrew (no kids allowed, this is a serious supper!) and due to a long story our sitter fell threw. Well, Mike being the nice and awesome husband that he is said he would stay home with Andrew so that I could go (at this point due to the weather I had been stuck in the flat for about three days straight and he recognized I needed to get out) so I called my friend Camille, whose husband was also staying home with he kids, and we went together.

We were ready! All dressed up in our tartan (plaid skirts). When we walked in it was super cool! There was a bagpiper playing and all the men wore their kilts and there was tartan all over the walls and it just felt so...Scottish, it was fun! We took a seat and got ready for the celebration. There were some lovely songs, some Scottish dancing, lots of bagpipes, and then the food. 90% of the food was great! It started with some Scottish broth which was basically chicken stock soup with vegetables, very good, and then it went into the main even...gulp...we knew it was coming...the haggis.

Quick refresher--Haggis contains sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally simmered in a sheep's stomach for approximately three hours.

It was the poor mans meal and it really is a staple in Scottish history and culture, therefore I knew I was going to have to try it, based on principle. If I'm going to live in Scotland, I need to try haggis. So, when it was coming I prepared myself. And when it came out it was, well...quite and event!!!

First of all a bagpiper plays the haggis song and marches around the whole room while the chef carries the haggis behind and they proceed to deliver it to the honored guests seated at the front of the room. (Meanwhile we all stare in awe at the wonderful haggis) The person at the head of the table then does this reading TO the haggis all said in Scottish and, sadly, I couldn't understand a word except for, 'delicious', haggis' and 'knife' (pronounced 'neef') which the lady then waved around the stakes presidents head and then slashed the haggis open and put the stuff in her hands and smelled it. MMMMMMMMMMMM! After that then the bagpiper and the chef pick up where they left off and march it out to the kitchen to be served up.

I knew it was time. So when I was presented with my plate I decided to take no hesitations. Just dig in. I asked Camille if she was going to try (Camille is a fellow American) and she looked at me like I was crazy and replied, "no". Very well...so I picked up my fork and took a bite. (Bear in mind I was seated at a table with Scottish people, and I was so nervous I would offend them if I didn't like it). But no worries, one of the girls at the table confessed she hated it and made her husband eat hers so when I put that spicey bit of sheep stomach in my mouth and nearly wretched, no one cared! Honestly it wasn't the worst thing I have ever tasted, in fact if I didn't know what was in it, it wouldn't be too bad, but the texture...well you can tell what it is by the texture so that was enough for me.

After that Camille and I left to get back to our kids and had a little adventure getting out of the church parking lot. It had gotten so icy that her van couldn't make it up the little hill to get out. After multiple attempts and sliding back down the Elders came up and helped push us. THANK YOU ELDERS! It was actually kind of hard but my favorite part was when Camille asked one of the Elders if they could try driving it out and he responded, "We can't...it's against the rules, but we HAVE FAITH in you , sister!" Well, the faith worked and we did eventually get out of that ice pit.

I did manage to brings Mike some haggis. So when we got home he tried some. Let's just say his reaction was similar to mine. YUCK! But so fun that we finally got to experience such a great Scottish past time.

I loved the the culture, and the atmosphere and really everything about it except the haggis itself. I just wish everyone could experience it!!!

Scottish broth

Dancing

Bringing out the Haggis!!

Reading to the Haggis!

Here it is! YUMMO!!!

Recovering fast food addict?!?!

2010-02-04T05:58:00.000-08:00

I have never wanted a Wendy's hamburger more than I do this very second. The smell of the pickles and the onion (even though I HATE onions), the cheap imitation cheese, the square patty of american beef, nestled between a soggy tomotoe and crunchy lettuce. The squishy, fortified white bun is smeared in kethcup, mustard and mayo...mmmmmmmmmm! I can almost taste it, I can almost smell it...I can almost hear the crinkly sound of me unwrapping it from its greasy red and white paper while I take in the comforting aroma of warm burger goodness. I want it so bad right now it hurts. I want it with fries and a soda and a mini frosty. I want to gobble it down in a matter of minutes and feel that amazing satisfied relief the can only come when a craving of this magnitude is relieved. It's gnawing at me. It's making me crazy!!!! I have NOTHING in the house that comes remotely close. I tried cooking a frozen egg roll. Discusting. I tried eating a peice of chocolate. Insulting. I tried making a ham sandwhich. My stomach churned. I have no beef in this house! There are NO, repeat...NO hamburger joints in my village and I don't have a car. The closest thing is the "Ploughman...A real pub!" down the street. They serve mutton chops.

There is a McDonalds in the city, but I don't have a way there....beleive me I would drive the 35 minutes if I could! I feel so lonely and gnawingly depraved of my comfort food. Curse you Scotland! I just want a cheap American hamburger!

Ok, Scotland, I take that back, I don't curse you. But I do curse the fact that I have this incredibly overcoming craving that will not go away! I feel like a drug addict without his heroine...this is beyond sad. I know.

SIGH....for now you will remain a fond dream.

Some pictures

2010-01-17T12:59:00.000-08:00

Hi! I am working on a long post explaining all the updates of our lives here in Aberdeen, but I'm not done and I don't want to rush it. However we are finally able to post pictures (turns out we were just missing the right cord) so I decided to post a few showing our adventures of the week we spent in Northumberland with Mike's parents. Remember how I said we were snowed in? Well, you will see what I meant...but despite the crazy snow, Rothbury (the village they live in) is probably ones of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Take a look and see what I mean...

Here is little Andrew all piled in a snow bank. This was funny, Mike just tossed him in and he pretty much landed like this...although Mike added a little snow around his shoulders. Poor kid!

These are Mike's parents cars all covered in snow. It's funny because just the day before Mike had dug them out and cleared the drive...sigh...I helped him do it all over again.

This is Andrew showing how deep it is on level ground.

I believe it took Mike about an hour to clear this little walkway!

I LOVE this view! It's from my in-laws rear window. Behind their house is a beautiful field complete with a stone tower constructed in the 19th century for a wealthy man who wanted to have a special place to study the stars...well, why not build a tower?!

This is the sun peeking through the clouds in front of the house. Isn't it lovely?!

We went sledding one day and put Andrew in a make-shift sled of sorts. This is Mike dragging him in a plastic bin...it worked okay. Enough to keep Andrew happy and excited!

This is a view from the field looking back to my in-laws house.

More sledding! Believe it or not this is one of the main roads to get to quite a few houses. They just aren't equipped to deal with this kind of weather so it took weeks before the council (local gov.) came and plowed the roads. However, in the meantime, all the residents get allotted a certain amount of grit (i.e. salt and dirt) to use so that they can at least attempt to get out the drive. It would work accept that about half way through we ran out of grit and they didn't have any more...hence the fact we were stuck! (At least until the very nice stake president with a 4X4 came and gave us a lift to the train station...but that is a story I'll explain later)

On another day we all walked into town. This was picture of us at the top of the hill overlooking the little village.

This is a view overlooking the countryside. (Not quite sure why I look like I'm getting goosed...)

Here is tired, little Andrew after a long day of fun in the snow.

Goodbye! I'll be posting more soon!

The Angel Enigma

2010-01-11T13:28:00.000-08:00

Andrew...OH, my stinky little Andrew. He had a rough day today. Granted it is understandable. After we got up and ate breakfast we ventured out to Aberdeen city center to find a bookstore that sells Mike's textbooks. We didn't think it would be too difficult. SNORT! We were wrong. Driving here is DIFFERENT! Woo-da-lally, it is different! Forget the whole driving on the the 'other' side stuff...the real problems come from the impossibly small roads and the incredible difficulty of navigating. I was spoiled with the Utah grid system, that is certain. We live in a little village called Peterculter (pronounced, 'cooter' here)and we knew that it would take about a half hour or so to get into the city center near kings college Aberdeen which was our destination. Well, after driving about 2 hours we finally found the bookstore by making three wrong turns down a cobbly alley. We were lucky...YES! Although I will say that a fantastic member in the ward, Brother Goldie, was kind enough to let us borrow his Navman (gps) for the week to help us get used to where we need to go. The Navman saved our life! In fact, if we hadn't had it we would probably still be trodging around Aberdeen. Anyway, as you can imagine we had a fully rested and awake toddler strapped in the back who DID NOT appreciate being cooped up for so long. So on some level I could understand why he screamed for half the time...although, I'm still twitching a little.

Well, after we went to the bookstore (and consequently found out that they DID NOT carry Mikes books)we decided to take a little trip to the nearby ASDA (UK version of Walmart) to stalk up on food and a few other things we needed. Well, Andrew DID NOT appreciate this either. I thought he might enjoy it, he usually likes going to the store with me. However, in his view the whole shopping trip was a crule taunt. We would not let him play on the moving walkways (seriously, like the ones at the airport, except you can put your cart on them...so cool). We would not let him throw the hello kitty phone accessories into the display basket and we would not let him squeeze the tellytubby toy for the 205th time because it was time to go. Needless to say he screamed nearly the whole time.

When we finally made it home, he was still screeming and saying things like, "No, no Mommy!" or "STOP...Noooooooo!" the funny thing was I wasn't doing anything...nada! So after feeding him a jam sandwhich and letting him watch a little kids show he calmed down and I finally got him to sleep. Ahhh... Mike and I were laughing when it was all over. We were laughing because it was quite a stressful morning and Andrew was the cherry on top, we were laughing because we were both so frazzled it smelled like charred hair and we were laughing because, well...what else are you going to do. (I have left out a bunch of other stressful things that happened, but really, it was quite crazy today) Anyway, during our laugh time Mike said it was funny because most people think of thier kids as little angels and today we agreed...today Andrew proved to be our little angel of DARKNESS!

Well, typically if Andrew has a rough morning it will stay that way throughout the day and I fully expected it to continue once he woke up. I was right. Mommy could do no right this afternoon and we were pretty much neck deep in a battle of 'figure-out-how-to-keep-Andrew's-pitch-out-of-shrill-opera-singer-tones'. Anyways, so this was the pace of the afternoon and then suddenly, non-expectantly, Andrew became happy. He was sweet, he was cuddly, he would play, he would laugh, he would eat. In fact I just finished putting him to bed and he was SOOO cute. We read a book and said a prayer (he copied everything I said and is getting so good at his words!). He gave me a kiss and a hug and even said, "I ub ew" unprompted. WHAT THE...

I suddenly found myself NOT wanting to put him to bed. I wanted to hold him and snuggle with him and play with him and read to him. I wanted to kiss those chubby cheeks and hold those chubby hands and do whatever that little angel wanted! HUH?! What, wait?!? Did I just catch myself calling Andrew and ANGEL...like the kind with white wings and a halo?

Oh....isn't parenting an enigma?!?

Scotland

2010-01-09T08:29:00.000-08:00

We are here...we made it. We have actually been in the UK for a little over a week but we finally made it to our new "flat" in Aberdeen. I have taken loads of pictures....loads! I cannot post them yet...we can't figure it out with this british computer and our American wires...we will figure it out soon though...soon.

It is cold...I mean C-O-L-D! Didn't know I could be this cold all the time AND we have the heaters on. But they certainly don't work like the American version of heaters I am accustomed to...totally different. Anyway, we are all wearing fuzzy socks, sweats under "trousers" (pants--but don't say that here, it means underwear) and sweaters. Apparently the whole of the UK is having the worst reported winter in nearly 20 years! I guess normally if they do get snow, it wont last for more than a few days...not the case now. Its been about 2 weeks and is going strong, looks more like I am in the Swiss Alps rather than Aberdeen, Scotland. Our flat is small, but neat and we are happy. Happy to be fnally be here and to start getting settled.

We have already amde friends with some fantastic people. The Scnieders's--okay, so they are not here. But we took over their flat. This is actually a cools story... several months ago they found out we were going to be moving here. They are both Canadian and were planning to move back so they have been trying to sell their flat. THey almost did, but it never happened so they got hold of us to ask if we would like to rent. We DID! So they left a lot of stuff for us to use (bed, crib, toys, kitchen stuff, table, etc...HUGE lifesaver). We never actually got to meet them in person but we sure are grateful for them! The other people we have is a family who live in a nearby town called Cults. Camille, the mom, has been THE BEST! Today she brought by some curtains for us to use temoratily (to help keep the heat in) and she picked us up from the train station to get us here...I know she had other things to do but she was still kind enough to help! He husband helped us by bringing by a battert charger (our car is so cold, it needs a jump to get started) and their kids are super cute and super nice. I am excited to get to know them better.

Anyway, that is a bit of an update. There is a lot more to report. Hopefully I will be doing that soon wit pictures!

And we're off....

2009-12-29T07:14:00.000-08:00

It's 8:15 am and we are heading to the airport in about 15 minutes. A LOT of things have happened in the last two weeks and I am sure even more will happen in the next 24 hours. Andrew has a nasty cold, just showed up yesterday. We all got about 3 hours of sleep last night. Hopefully that will work to our advantage and Andrew will get some major zzzz's on the flight. We'll see though, we'll see....

I am really going to miss this place, MAN, words can't describe how I feel right now. But I am excited. Keep checking back. I will posting more soon! (assuming we survive...ha,ha,ha...GULP)

Car anyone?

2009-12-14T14:24:00.000-08:00

I am writing this post at the risk of being completely lame, but...I suppose I am because I'm doing it anyway. One of the last things we are trying to "button up" before we leave for Scotland (in just 2 weeks...2 WEEKS) is selling our car. We like to call her the "snow beast". Why? Because she is white and she can really handle the torrential slush/snow that the frigid Utah winters like to slug her way. She is my first car...and I will admit I am emotionally attached. She runs great, although she does have a few minor repairs coming her way. I got her when I was a wee 23 years old...I am now 27 and she feels like part of the family. Anyway, I am sad to part with her BUT I also realize it is time. So with no further ado here is the reason for the post:

Anyone looking for a good car at a great price? (said sheepishly, b/c I'm actually posting this on my blog)

Yep...we've put up a bunch of adds too, just thought we might see if any family or friends were looking for a reliable used car. (Great for parts too!) We are selling her for really cheap (being highly motivated to give her a home before we jaunt off). So, ahem...I guess that's it. If you really are interested let me know and I can give you more information.

But please still read this. I swear this is my first and last time to ever try selling something via blog.

Wish us luck!

AHH-CHOO!!!

2009-12-06T10:09:00.000-08:00

I HATE BEING SICK...CURSE YOU FLU...CURSE YOU!

A phenomenon I don't quite understand....

2009-11-24T21:42:00.000-08:00

It’s time I come clean and announce that I…um…ahem…I’m not a huge fan of the Twilight series. (Please don’t come through cyber space and attempt to change my mind by showing your fangs and biting my neck. It won’t work.)

I will admit that I read all of them, yes, and at times did quite enjoy the story BUT I finished them more out of a resolve to follow through on something I started. I’m weird that way…If I’ve start a story I can’t leave it alone. I HAVE to know what happens, no matter how dull or tasteless it may be. I know, I know…it’s not good, it really isn’t! I should be able to just leave it alone, especially if I don’t like it but, alas, I have wasted far too many minutes of my life “finishing” an episode of Law and Order or Say Yes to the Dress when my original intent was to merely take a 15 minute “veg out” break. Well, the same goes with the Twilight Novels.

That was the reason I finished the books…I just had to KNOW! So I slodged through countless pages of hormonally driven narratives describing Edwards “untidy, bronze hair” and his “piercing eyes” and Jacobs “hot, muscular body” and oh yea…she might have mentioned Edwards, “shimmery, marbled, greek-god” chest a few times. Yes, I did skip a lot…I mean quite a bit! 20-30 pages at a time, multiple times, and let me tell you…it wasn’t difficult to figure out what I missed. It got to the point that by the last book, still hanging on to that obstinate resolves to know how it ends, I asked my mom to tell me what happened in the first 400 pages and I started from there. Good. Choice. I didn’t feel like I skipped a beat.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I think Stephenie Meyer is great and I give her a lot of credit. Heaven knows I couldn’t write one 700 page novel let alone 4 but nevertheless…I am honestly puzzled by the HUGE fad. I mean HUH-UUGE fad!! What’s the draw?

Perhaps I can grasp why pre-teen girl-itos would really dig the cutesy Jacob or maybe even why the hopelessly romantic college-aged twenty-something’s may be enamored with Edward’s mysterious perfection but what really confuses me are all the “twi-moms” out there. I’m not just talking the late 20’s to early 30’s with little kids. I’m talking about the 45 + year old women who, like the woman I saw last Friday, proudly wear their black “Eternally Edward” t-shirt while clutching New Moon protectively to her chest as they stand in line at Walmart desperately asking the checker if he was sure they didn’t sell any customized Twilight heart candy. Maybe someone can explain it to me, but I just don’t get it.

GOAL!!!!

2009-11-22T21:43:00.000-08:00

Just a quick shout out. You may be aware that I am a big fan of soccer and oh yeah....Mike is too, I guess :-).

Well, for better worse, we watched the last of the MLS final tonight and it was Real Salt Lake vs. LA Galaxy. For those of you who don't know, Real Salt Lake initially got in on a major stroke of luck (especially as their season had more losses than wins)but once they began the playoffs they have done great. So well, in fact, that they made it to the finals. Now...being the complete underdogs the entire way, the WON!!! HOOHAH, HIP HIP HURRAY! Sure, it did come down to a shoot out but, hey...they still won and put Utah on the map just a little bit more.

So...I am excited! CONGRATULATIONS REAL SALT LAKE!

The Effects of a Bad Night Dream...

2009-11-18T06:49:00.001-08:00

This last week Mike and I have had a few issues with coordinating our work schedules so that one of us is home with Andrew. Well, the solution for this Monday and Wednesday was that I would come into the office oober early and leave by 10 to meet Mike and Andrew at the MTC where I would then grab my cute little bundle of snot (serioulsy...poor kid has had a bad case of the nose runs lately) and Mike would go work for the rest of the day. It hasn't been bad at all. I like getting up in the wee hours of the morning, it suits me...I've always been more of a morning person. So last night, I went to bed early (10pm) and set my alarm to buzz at 6 am. Off to sleep I went and then I began to dream....

My entire recollection of last nights sleep involved this incredibly annoying dream where something kept happening to keep me from sleeping. First, my younger brother came into the room and woke me up to say that he needed me to make him dinner. I felt horrible that I forgetten to feed him and immediately went upstairs and whipped up a meal of bacon cheesburger with fries, at which point I too became very hungry and was annoyed that my brother ate all of it without offering me a bite. After that I made him a bed in some magical spare room and he went to sleep, after that I got back into bed then...suddenly Mike rolled over and told me that I needed to email Geico about our car insurance. If I didn't email them right away, they would burn our car! Well, I couldn't let that happen so while Mike went back to sleep I sent an email to Geico begging them not to burn our car.

Ahh...after that I laid back in bed. Then, only a few minutes later Andrew began crying and crying and crying and...OH this was real. So I really woke up, went in and made him feel better (as I mentioned before, the poor little boy had snot running down his face and he is getting the last of his teeth so, he just needed a little snuggle to help him on his way.)So, after about 15 real-life-minutes Andrew was ok and I went back to bed. It was 2 am. I chuckled to myself because I was feeling more exhausted than I should have and I realized it was because of my dream. Oh well, I thought round two of sleep would go better.

Then I began dreaming again and...it's like my mind just picked up where it left off. This time I dreamt that Andrew had miraculously learned how to crawl out of his crib and speak perfectly structured sentences and he came up to me and said, "Mom, you are selfish. You shouldn't be sleeping, you should be playing with me." I told him I was sorry and then I got up and began playing kick ball which then morphed into my alarm going off and Mike waking up to tell me that I was late for work and I needed to hurry. At this point I broke down and began crying and telling him it was too unfare and that I actually didn't get any sleep and I couldn't go into work today. Mike, suddenly wearing a NAZI uniform (I'm not kidding, he had a swastika on his right arm), said, "NO, go to work". So off I went.

After that I was suddenly awakened by my real alarm. I turned off and rolled over to process everything. I felt like I wanted to punch Mike...he was a NAZI and I never knew?!? Then I started feeling guilty for being a bad mother, sad that our car didn't actually burn down (it would be nice to get some insurance money for our old clunker)and really, really hungry.

Oh well, I got ready, went to work and now I am having a little break to type this all out. It's funny, I'm now sitting here feeling super exhausted when I got a decent 8.5 hours of sleep. I't funny how big of an impact your mind can have sometimes.

Hmmm...I think I am going to get a bacon-cheesburger for lunch.

I place to rest our heads in bonny Scotland

2009-11-07T13:31:00.000-08:00

We got luggage, we got visa's, we got space-saver vacuum bags. We got clothes, we got pictures, we got books...now we just need a place to put it all. Here are some options I found on the web. What do you think?

HAH! :-) I can dream can't I?

A GRANDIOSE POST!

2009-11-04T20:03:00.000-08:00

During my little blogging hiatus a lot of stuff happened and I regret not documenting it with pictures. So the following is meant to be that documentation and...really to humor me. However, please feel free to scan on through and I apologize if it's a bit boring. FYI: the following things haven taken place from August to current.

Mike "graduated"! He is officially done this December but back in August he went through the whole walking ceremony! We are so proud of him! This is a picture of Mike and I with Gale--she was one of our employers at BYU and we love her!

This is Mike and one of his Athletic Training professors, Ty Hopkins.

The extended family! Thanks for all the support!

The little family!

My extraordinarily handsome and dashing younger brother left on his mission to Seattle, Washington. He has now been out for about four months and we miss him terribly but I know he is a fantastic missionary. I have never known anyone so well prepared for this step. What an example!!!

This is my other handsome and dashing brother, Steve, with Alan. Yes ladies...he is single! :-)

My Papa...he is a great guy!

Oh! How did that get in here? Me and Aaron, just being ourselves!

The missionary man himself...doesn't he look dapper?

ANDREW! Just some fun, typical Andrew things:

One day Mike and I were in the bedroom putting away laundry and we noticed that Andrew had gotten really quiet. Any parent knows this is usually a bad thing. So we went to the living room to investigate. And this is what we saw: Andrew just finishing a whole plate of brownies that our neighbor had brought over!

Well, since he ate so much junk we decided to give him some healthy tomato soup. But...

It got pretty messy so we let him finish it in the shower. :-)

Andrew is a DADDY's boy no question about it! He will often snuggle with Mike, but heaven forbid if mom comes near. :-)

Andrew loves his duck blanket. He has this routine in the morning where he MUST wrap it around his shoulders and run around. This particular morning he decided to suck on daddy's toothbrush holder too. So much fun!

Andrew playing soccer outside. Once we went out, it was a lot colder than we realized so Mike grabbed one of his work shirts (since he happened to have it in his hands) and put it on Andrew. This lovely ensemble was the result. I think it should be the new wave in soccer uniforms, don't you?

Photo-op! I sure do like these soccer playin' boys!

Dialing on the cell phone--CHECK, Wearing comfy slippers---CHECK. It looks like there is a mini-Mike in our house. :-)

Andrew loves to go swimming. We are so sad the kiddie pool is closed!

Our little professor...pehaps he will follow in his grandpa Moody's footsteps. He sure looks the part!

We had a lot of fun with our garden this year! IT took a lot of work to get it going, but our harvest was fantastic. Here are a few photos from that:

Ahhh...the finished product!

Andrew helping to harvest our cucmbers and beans!

Here is a bag full of vegetable goodies!

I was trying to get a picture of Andrew holding some of our spoils but this was the best I could get. Notice his hand position...he just threw a tomato on the ground where it splattered to bits!

During conference weekend we picked my grandpa's grapes so we could can some yummy grape juice. Andrew was a big help! He picked up all the grapes that dropped to the ground and put them in the bucket

What better way to end a day of harvest than running around...the boy doesn't stop!

There were a few weeks here when the weather got super cold and, yes, even snowy. During that time we tried to do lots of thing to get us out of the basement (I go crazy not being able to go for walks!) So the following are some of our adventures:

Mike was on an indoor soccer team. Andrew and I like to go when we can (sometimes the games are super late). On this particular day, one of the kids that Mike coaches (also named Mike) was there and stayed to watch the game. Andrew loved to follow him around and feel a little more like a "big" boy. Here they are pointing at the action.

One of the main reasons I have loved going to Mike's soccer games is because I get to meet up with friends! Here is Chelsea and Truman Jones, Me and Andrew, & Andrea and Jocelyn Egbert. I sure love visiting these ladies...just wish we could get together more often!

After this particular game, the Egbert's were able to come visit. I think Andrew might have a crush on their little girl, Jocelyn.

There is a pretty great restaurant called,Pirate Island, in Orem by the mall. We decided to check it out one day and it was a huge success! Not only was the food good, but the whole place is decked out in fantastic pirate decorations! However, the best part was probably the indoor playground and arcade! It's perfect for kids...especially squirmy ones. Andrew loved being able to play while we waited for our food! I highly recommend it!

They gave Andrew a pirate hat. He decided that's not what he wanted to be because this was the closest we could get him to wearing it.

Riding a zebra on the carousel

Abandon ship!

Harrrrr, Matey's!

And FINALLY...here is what we have been up to the last few weeks. My gandpa (Papa) went to see family in Idaho and was gone for the weekend so we made sure to take extra good care of his dog, Liza. Andrew especially loved taking her for walks.

We didn't really dress up for Halloween this year. Mike had to work most of the day and Andrew is still a bit young for trick-or-treating. So...my mom and I took him to HeeHaw farms and had a blast!!! Andrew was so funny...he spent most of our time there in awe of the animals and hay bales! We definitely need to go again!

What do you think? Yep...being a farmer suits him!

Grandma Moody and Andrew looking at the fluffy chicken. This chicken was hilarious and I think my mom had some special bond with it. Every time she would cluck at it, it would cluck right on back....hmmm,who knew my mom was the chicken whisperer!?

Potato-sack Slide! WHOO-HOOOOOOO...

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....!!!!

Fun times on the Tractor ride!

Ha, ha...remember the one time on, The Office, when Jim suggests that for a party they should have a two-way petting zoo...you know, where you pet the animals and the animals pet you back. These photos sort of remind of that. :-)

Swinging on the horse swing

Thanks for so much fun, HeeHaw's!!!

Well, I believe this ends my huge post! If you read all of this, then WOW! Thanks for hanging in there...if not, phew...I don't blame you. :-)

WHOOT-WHOOT!

2009-10-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

Just a quick shout out to my awesome husband! He just found out today that he got a scholarship! He is one in only five out of a class of approximately 50 to get it. We are thrilled...things are really started to shape up nicely! Man, we are feeling blessed these days! :-)

That was quick!

2009-10-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

FYI: My visa came today!!! We are all good! :-)

A CLOSE SHAVE

2009-10-27T20:25:00.000-07:00

Today I had an extremely close call...too close. After I got the unexpected phone call I had such a surge of pot-luck emotions that I literally cried (and I'm not the kind to normally cry over things like this) for about a 1/2 hour. After I explained to Mike what had happened (in between hiccups and bursts of sobs) he felt relief...and a little frustrated, too. As I said, it took me a little time, but I composed myself and got the necessary things taken care of. I got some needed help from my mother, went to the bank, wrote a letter, faxed some forms and my close shave should now be on the road to go-ville.

So...what was this all about?

Immigration.

Shudder, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach just writing that word!

Since Mike and I got married three years ago we have had our fare share of...we'll say 'exposure'...to the immigration process. Thankfully Mike has always been fastidious in his paper work, so although it is a pain and somewhat expensive, it hasn't been that bad.

Well, with the whole move to Scotland planned in two months, it's been my turn to experience it. Again, thankfully, we have tried to be fastidious about the required paperwork and we have started very early to ensure we don't run into any last minute problems. SO...about 6 weeks ago I sent in my paperwork applying for a Settlement VISA which should allow me to stay in the UK with my family for a number of years.

This sounds much more simple than it has actually been...but I will spare you the incredibly inane details. Suffice it to say that this Settlement Visa is my second attempt to get it right, their website it NOT (NOT, NOT) as "self- explanatory" for people in funky situations like ours, and it has cost us A LOT of time and MONEY! OH...and I do need to say that before I sent this one off, I called a supposed, "helpful" hotline, which costs $3 a minute, and I spoke to a woman with a very thick Indian accent who assured me (twice, in two separate phone calls) that I had filled out the correct VISA and included the correct information.

So...I sent it....

6 weeks later I get this phone call:

ME: Hello?
BRITISH WOMAN: Hello, this is "so-n-so" from the British Consulate General in LA. I have some questions about your VISA application.

ME:OK, great, we've been curious about that.
BRITISH WOMAN: I don't understand this...is your husband in the US or the UK?

ME: He's in the U.S. but he is a british citi...
BRITISH WOMAN (cutting me off): Emily, listen, stop...I know he is a citizen, you sent me that information, I need to know if he is in the UK.

ME: Uh..NO...I...
BRITISH WOMAN: Is he in the UK?

ME: NO! He is here in the US with me.
BRITISH WOMAN: SLIGHT PAUSE Why did you fill out a settlement visa?

ME: Because I tried the "other" one (I'll spare you the details of the "other one") and I spoke to someone who told me this was the only...
BRITISH WOMAN: You can't apply for this VISA if your husband isn't in the UK.

ME: That is exactly the opposite of what I was told...I called TWICE to confirm...
BRITISH WOMAN: Emily, stop, listen...it doesn't matter. Look, I would normally have denied this VISA right away and...if I had, then you wouldn't be able to reapply for a new one for two years. But I thought I should call you first, because your application was confusing.

Right then my emotions changed from severe annoyance at her constant usage of my name (especially when I was talking perfectly calm and being completely cooperative) to complete shock and immense gratitude. I also felt sick to my stomach...I still kind of do.

ME: I'm sorry it is confusing, I assure I would have not sent it to you if I didn't think it was in order.
BRITISH WOMAN: (Tone getting friendlier)I think I see where the confusion came. Look, if you can fax me X,Y,Z in the next hour then I can use what you sent and I'll get your Visa processed.

ME: Really? Thank you so much.
BRITISH WOMAN: It's ok...

She then proceeded to explain what I needed to do and re-emphasize certain laws and then she gave me the clincher, sending me into an emotional spin of realizing the bullet we just dodged:

BRITISH WOMAN: Oh...and could you fax a copy of your sons British Passport? I see here that he's still little and that's what actually made me decide to call you. I don't like to separate families.

I about started sobbing on the phone as the realization of what could have happened smacked me across the head like a ton of bricks.

After I got everything in order and faxed those precious forms, Mike and I proceeded to talk about how terribly wrong that could have gone. If she hadn't called, I could not live in Scotland for two years! That would mean Mike would have to got to school somewhere else. Not too bad, really, but we have SO MUCH invested in this already, not to mention that this school is exactly where Mike wanted to go...his number 1 choice. So then other options...I could live here, with my parents, while he went to school and I would have to take Andrew and travel back and forth under the restriction of my passport. (Only allows you to stay in three month increments).

Anyway, there are multiple other options, but you get the idea of how close we came to a big disaster! I'm not going to lie, my first feelings were pure frustration, I was feeling extremely loathsome to our "friends" across the pond and wondered why on earth we have been planning this incredibly stressful, practically unknown MOVE over there?! WHY?!

And then I felt the peace...I know that we were extremely blessed today. I know that Heavenly Father was watching out for our little family...we were simply too close to have made it without His help. Maybe now I'm supposed to say that after this "I know" this where Heavenly Father wants us to go. BUT...to be honest I can't say that, I don't know if that's how it works every time. However, I can tell you what I do know, and it's that He IS always there. He certainly was today. I feel sick thinking about what we would now be facing if she hadn't called, or if she would have automatically denied my Visa, like she normally would. OR what if I hadn't heard the phone ring, or my cell phone dropped the call like it often does?

Perhaps there is a 'greater' purpose for our move but I like to think that it's more a confirmation that we made a good decisions for our family, and that--as in all things--Heavenly Father was there to help us follow through after everything in our power still ended up short. There are still some hurdles to go through and I'm sure I haven't seen the last of our immigration woes but it's been a good lesson...a good reminder. I am feeling so very grateful today.

P.S. I am also so much more sympathetic to immigrants, legal or otherwise...I feel your pain!!! I never thought I would be here either! Keep going!! :-)

Alright...we are back!

2009-10-16T07:05:00.000-07:00

Hi! So, it is always so hard to find time to do everything you want in a day. Right?! For the last month or so I have been trying to organize and write out important experiences in my journal which is why I took some time off the blogging. See, it seemed like whenever I took the time to write a post, it took away from the time I should have used for keeping a journal hence....the blog break. However, now that I am "caught up" (as caught up as I hope to be anyway)I have decided to try an combine the journal with the blogging. I know, it sounds so cliche (I read 'seriously so blessed' too) but I have a friend who informed me of a website that can digitally create a scrapbook/memory journal using blog posts so...I believe that would be the answer to my time crunch problems. So...that means (and a really do apologize for those who will think think boring)that I will try to post more little things about our everyday life...to keep it for the "journal". Again, sorry if it's boring but hey, you don't have to read it, right?!

Anyway, so now that I've stated my intentions I wanted to give a brief update on the Scotland happenings. It's getting closer and closer! Just a little over two months away from the big move! Mike's parents were kind enough to spend a weekend in Aberdeen to scope out the area for us...give us an idea of where it's best to locate housing, etc. They wrote an email about their visit a few weeks ago and it made me so excited I wanted to share a little excerpt from my kind father-in-law:

Hi Mike & Emily

We have returned from our journey of discovery. Being totally unfamiliar with Scotland, we were somewhat surprised by it. We expected the area below Edinburgh to be the same as Northumberland, but thought that by the time we reached Aberdeen, 200 miles north of us, we would be into hills and mountains and glens and lochs. Shows you how much we know! The Highlands are on the west coast, Aberdeen and area could be anywhere in England!

It's known as the granite city, for that is what it's built of. Happily there are lots of trees and open spaces to relieve the grey of the buildings. It's a very compact city which means it doesn't take you long to get places. There isn't the suburban sprawl you get with most cities. The countryside stops, the city begins and nowhere are you far from the former or from water. The city sits between two large rivers,the Don and the Dee, with the sea forming a third side. However they apparently have a problem with water shortage, which means building is restricted and hence I suppose the high cost of property.

We liked the city and think you will too, particularly since there seems to be an exceptional amount of sporting facilities. The university obviously has a sports centre, but then there's another one almost next door and a dry ski slope opposite, with a cycle track converted from an old railway line behind, a skating rink on the sea front and football and rugby pitches everywhere, as well as other sports centres. There's a long sandy beach with a large fun fair - a bit like an overlarge Newquay.

Robert Gordon University, or at least the bit you will be at, is about 6 years old, beautifully situated on the banks of the River Dee. There's the sports centre, classrooms for medical related subjects, a business school and art college, library and book shop, a doctor's surgery and a very nice nursery. Next door is a small shopping centre with Boots, Sainsbury's, Comet, etc.

We stayed on the outskirts of the city in a very old part of what used to be a fishing village. The single storey fishing cottages with their narrow lanes are still there and they still fish for lobster and crabs. The coast at that point is very rocky and the water apparently deep as I stood and watched some young lads tombstoning, egged on by their dad.

(From Dad):

I love the way he writes! So, it sounds like a great place and I'm really excited to discover it for ourselves! BUT we do want to make sure everyone knows...we would love to have visitors! (Hint, hint, nudge, nudge) So if anyone is looking for a great vacation, we will have a place to stay in Scotland (that is if we are able to find housing first...but I'm sure that will be a post for another time.)

I'll explain the bloggin absence...

2009-10-08T06:42:00.000-07:00

Hi! I just wanted to write a quick post to stay I apologize to those of you who actually ready this about our major lack of posting recently. The things is that I have given myself a little blogging hiatus so that I can concentrate on a few other things I have desperately needed to get done. Those said this are nearly finished so I plan to begin blogging again in another weeks or so. I meant to mention this earlier so sorry that it's late! Anyway, we are all doing great although we have lots of catching up to do. We hope everyone is well!

We'll be bloggin again soon! :-)

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

2009-08-21T06:13:00.000-07:00

I was talking with a friend the other day who mentioned that in light of the recent recession two out of the four security guards at her work are going to be laid off soon. This concerned her for several reasons, the main one being that she works at a home for troubled youth and, as you can imagine, she oftentimes encounters some umm...fishy problems where the help of a robust security guard comes in quite handy. However, now she and the staff will be working for eight hours, out of the 24-hour day, where no security guard will be available. They will be left to their own defenses which, no offense Mels, will most likely consist of the classic scream-and-point and, in desperate times, hair pulling. Probably not the most...effective way to subdue a springy, wayward youth.

Anyway, this news concerned me and made me feel for my friend. I mean, I work at the Utah County Health Department and although it's not really that risky I still frequently encounter my own "troubled youth" and drug rehabilitates. Once two of my smoker kids almost got into a fight when I was eight months pregnant and I pulled them apart using my massive belly. Just think if I hadn't had that belly I would have called the security guard who, while readily watching TV, would have jumped at my helpless call for aid. So at some level I understand my friends plea...it's just nice to have someone THERE, to protect you from evil and defend your honor. And that's when it came to me...not only the perfect solution to my friends problems, but also for anyone who is feeling a little scared, for those who would like a little extra security in such a troubled world. I flashed a mental image of the group that would be up for the task, they stand for vigilance and fight against the evils of our world. That's right! These able-bodied folk fight for truth and freedom from snively, rebellious tweens. So...who can I be thinking of? Well, isn't it obvious? I am referring to the stalwart members of the Sword and Quill club. I truly believe that here, my friends, lie the keys to solving our local and possibly, national, problems of security!

Many people have seen these hearty lads practicing outside the Wilkinson Center on BYU campus adorned in their traditional garb--vinyl pants, bed-sheet-cloaks accented with bits of pillow cases and towel. Sometimes the lady folk can be seen at the gatherings playing a lute and strumming the guitar, but the main event are the fearsome warriors--the men, not unlike William Wallace--who spend their valuable time practicing the art of combat for times such as this. I mean, they really are the prefect solution, and here are a few more reasons why.

One, words like "budget cuts" have no effect on them. They don't fight for the money, they fight for the honor of the Queen and will defend Scotland at all costs. Getting paid for this duty is a mockery of their very souls.

Two, they are well-equipped with finely crafted daggers made from old press board and glue. Not to mention their grand plastic swords and duct taped reinforced light sabers.I dare you...

Three, these people have been trained in the art of hand-to-hand combat for the last 800 years, I would say that is more than enough time to be sufficiently skilled.

Four, their keen whit and ability to scent out any potential problems can only be magnified by their fluency in Elvish. AND if, heaven forbid, something were to happen to their lance or cross bow, they could always cast a confundus charm with their wand.

Five, although they are more fighter than lover, they can still negotiate peace with a swig of ginger ale and a hey-nonny-no after a merry turn in traditional dance.

Yes! It makes so much sense to me and it's a wonder no one has thought of this before now. I can see the scenario so perfectly. My friend, Mel, walking the long corridor of a stenchy detention center hall when all of a sudden, a troubled youth comes ambling his 15-year old body directly at her flashlight. She hold up her hands awaiting the struggle when suddenly, "Ah-ha!" The teen is peacefully struck down with the Vulcon death grip as our hero leans against the wall and re-adjusts his cross bow. "Thought you might need some help," sweat dripping from his beard as he brushes the hair his from his eyes. "Fancy some pork at the local Discoteca?"
"Sure..." Mel bats her eyes and strides off in the sunset, arm in arm with our modern day warrior.

So, what do you think? All in favor say "AYE"!