Scotland Memoirs

Here are some things that I will miss about Scotland:

1. Our incredible friends who allowed us to "do life" with them for 10 months.

2. Jake's face when I tell him that we are going to go see the boats

3. Aberdeen beach on a clear sunny day

4. Diet Coke

5. Not getting charged for incoming texts and calls

6. Good, fresh Haddock fish and chips

7. People who smile and say cheers at the check out stand

8. The sound of the seagulls every morning, afternoon and night

9. Playing golf at 10pm with Kent for free

10. Auntie Sophia at Gerard Street Baptist Church

11. Walking EVERYWHERE which...

12.  ...allows for one to eat as much european chocolate and not get fat!

13. Playing lacrosse with the Aberdeen Uni guys - a big thanks again!

14. bag piper music every friday at 1pm at King's College Chapel

15. Amazing cheese!

16. Incredible (cheap) lamb

17. The 80's remarkably still alive

18. hardly any Starbucks - we aren't coffee drinkers

19. The Aberdeen coast on a clear day

20.  Being in history - visiting all of the castles

21. The Harr - especially at Donnattor

22. Sunshine rain - basically, it is sunny but raining at the same time

23. Being so close to Europe

24. The multi-ethnic/multi-cultural city of Aberdeen

25.  Ash will miss all of the authentic Indian food

26. Everything is talked about over a pint!

27. Inexpensive European wine!

28. All of the home cooked meals - too expensive to eat out!

29. Living by a budget - yes, it is wise and good!

Some things I WONT miss in Scotland

1. dodging seagull poop

2. walking EVERYWHERE

3. late night walks up to Tesco to get Jake some milk for the morning

4. Um...conversion rate - enough said

5. Hamburgers or meatloaf burgers or whatever they actually are

6. Pizza - I mean come on, at least put some toppings on!

7. What is up with the macaroni and cheese?

8. You call that a steak!

9. Shanekwa - don't know, don't ask

10. Being far away from our families

11. Weird fashion

12. The mattresses

13. Sunny Rain - it does stink you know

14. Not having a clothes dryer

15. Not having a dish washer machine

Here's a little update:

We are leaving Aberdeen 4 weeks from tomorrow for Dublin where we will spend 3 days and then fly home to AZ on June 24th.  Our time here is almost over.  It's sad, but I am ready to be home.  I will miss a lot of things here, especially all of our wonderful friends.

jake is doing well, his favorite new movies are The Little Mermaid and Cars.  We also gave him a  major haircut with the clippers, he looks so cute and a little bit older:)  We'll post a picture of him soon.

My pregnancy is going well, though I am quite a bit more nauseated with this one than I was with Jake.

Our friends, James and Casey Simmons, are coming out for a visit in June!  It will be so fun to see them.  We will be having a couple Arbonne events and showing them some of the sights.

Speaking of nausea, I need to go lie down for a minute, not fun:(

later friends!

Parent's Big Visit

Derek's parents were in town for the last week and we all had a lot of fun. Jakey really enjoyed seeing his Grandma and Grandpa every morning - he would stand by the door and when it opened, he would put his hands under his legs, give a big power squat, and give a huge grin!

We had a great time visiting Fyvie Castle - the picture of it is below! It is an amazing castle and still is used for weddings and such. It got Ash and I thinking about what it would be like to grow up in a castle. Probably a bit different from we both grew up.

The flowers were blooming wonderfully in the botanical gardens. There is a reason why Aberdeen always wins the Britain in Bloom award. Jake had a love/hate relationship with the wood chipper though. He was so curious about the machine, but would run away when it started to chip the wood.

Finally, we had a great time at the beach. Ash and Derek's mom went to Costco to get our last haul from there, and Derek and his dad went to the beach with Jake. Jacob wanted to try to catch each wave as it went out, then he would stand in panic as the next one came back in. Plus, Jacob found out that sand is edible! Who knew!?

Anyways, we had a lot of fun and look forward to being around family again at the end of June.

Worshipping at St. Machars

The last few weeks Ashley and I have attended St. Machar's Cathedral Church for our Sunday worship. It has been a big change of pace to go from our normal Baptist church to a Church of Scotland Presbyterian Church. The church itself has been on the sight from about the sixth century in one form or another. The building as it stands today has some parts that are from the pre-Reformation time (c. 1560) with most of it being completed in the early 20th century. They have found a Celtic cross on the site that has been possibly dated back to the sixth or seventh century. Tradition has it that St. Ninian came here from St. Columba's monastery on Iona (still an active monastery by the way) as a mission to the Scottish Picks during the sixth century. The church is located just up the hill from the River Don, which is one of the two major rivers that mark out the North and South boundaries of the greater Aberdeen area (the Don is the northern border). It has withstood the religious wars of the Reformation and the following Cromwellian wars, the Jacobite civil wars, and finally WWII. Needless to say, it is very impressive.

What I liked best about the church service was its meditative nature and its focus on prayer. We easily prayed about 20 minutes of the hour long service and had much time to be quiet and reflective upon the Lord. The organ music was great, especially to ears that are used to guitars, drums, and the keyboard. We were also very impressed with the level of hospitality that was evident at the church and Ashley even went last Friday to their toddlers day out even with some of the ladies - Jakey even has a play date with one of the little boys!

Here are some pictures - there is also a video of Jakey playing ball that has no connection to the rest of this blog:

NEWS UPDATE!

Okay, well we have a few items of news. 1) we are officially flying home to AZ on June 24th!! We are very excited, but also a bit sad. We have been blessed with some great friends here who we will miss a ton. I am also sad to be leaving my business since it has been doing well. Derek is so sweet and supportive, he thinks if we stayed just 6 more months we would have a HUGE business here. But since neither of us feel a peace about staying longer (we prayed about it a lot), we are headed home and I will have to leave things in the hands of those here, but most importantly in God's hands. I am planning on coming back at least once a year to check on things.
2) we got our "LOST" buggy back! A month later! I got a random call from the Larnaka airport in Cyprus saying it had arrived there and they were sending it directly back to Aberdeen, we then got it a few days later. crazy! anyway, British Airways has reimbursed us for our new stroller so we are going to be passing our old one on to some friends.
3)here is our prayer request and praise news: I just found out I am pregnant!!! We are soooooo excited! But I am also a bit scared. Any woman who has ever experienced a miscarriage knows the fear I have during these early stages. I know a lot of people wait to tell people about pregnancy until after the 12th week to make sure things are fine, but I want to ask for prayer as early as possible. Please pray that all goes well. We will be coming home right as I enter my 2nd trimester so it's a good time to travel. Oh, here's something funny, my "due" date is right around December 28th! Happy Birthday Jesus:)
Anyway, we love you all!

Atlanta 4

Well, another day with Jakey means another day closer to when Momma comes home. I must admit, today I was wrestling with the little guy and realized how precious these few days are. Pretty soon I will go back to studying and working 40-50 hours a week and I will be longing simply to go on a walk with Jake at 1pm, or wrestle him or read him a book. Jake is a true blessing from God and helps me to realize how far I have left to go to be a good daddy. We miss you though Ash and Momma and can't wait for you to come back home.

We kinda vedged out today. We both stayed in our pj's today as it was cold and rainy all day. But we had fun eating pancakes for breakfast and toasted cheese sandwiches for lunch. Jake did so good today at lunch that he earned three potato chips as a reward! He was pretty good being obedient wise and seems to be responding pretty well. We will see what tomorrow brings. We will be going to St. Machar's Cathedral for church tomorrow so hopefully I will have some pictures to post on that.

The following picture is of Jake right after dinner in his pjs and the video is of us playing with his Ninny.

Atlana 2 and 3

Well, I missed yesterday (sorry Ash) but I did remember today. The last two days have been really good. Jakey seems to be doing a bit better with the new discipline that we have been working on. He still struggles at meal times, but is getting better. The Eilers have been dinner partners the last two nights and Jake always does great around his best girl Hannah. Here are some pictures and a video. We love you Ash and Mommy!

Here is a picture of the Eilers cooking their famous calzones. Also there is a picture of Jakey playing with a train.