Alright here is some stuff...

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

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

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

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!

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?!?

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...

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.