blue sky!

Today was a lovely day – sunny and blue skies!! We could almost have been in New Zealand!

J went up to Aberdeen this afternoon to sort out some paperwork (nothing is particularly straight-forward at the moment!) and so I used the time to have lunch with my mum, visit my grandparents and then make dinner for my dad. Bizarrely enough one of my dad’s retired colleagues left a pheasant at school for him yesterday (thankfully dead and plucked and gutted!) and so he took it home for me to cook (mum being still in the monastery). I have to confess I’ve never cooked pheasant before but turned to a true and trusted source – Queen Delia. Anyway, remarkably enough it was actually rather tasty (I cooked it in pear cider and apples) and we finished off the whole pheasant between us (and I didn’t have that much if you know what I mean!) It might even be something I’d make again.

J’s back now and had a sucessful trip – even managing to pick me up a few birthday gifts on his way!

stanley days

We’re still at my parents in Stanley and our days have been filled with:

• reading (both of us but different books – J medical and counseling books, me a novel, theology and baby book)
• cleaning out my stuff from the attic (I found my old primary school jotters and projects amongst lots of other stuff! We also found my old baby crib and brought it down – to help acclimatise to the inevitable!)
• looking for flats in Edinburgh (we sat today with a laptop each and had a competition to see who could find the best flats! Although it’s not a dead cert that we’re headed that way yet so we’re still just looking and thinking rather than signing anything!)
• going for wee walks (J’s sprained ankle isn’t allowing for any long ones yet). Today we went to the hermitage – it was bonnie!

day out

J and I had the day out today. We popped in my dad’s car and headed down to Edinburgh to have a wee look round different areas and try and get a feel for the place. In all honesty I have to confess that the sky was as gray as Aberdeen and so not the best day to look around! It was nice though to be in the capital and we took a wee detour on the way in for J to show me his old student flats (posher than my student flats were that’s for sure!) Typically the areas I liked the best were the expensive ones – there were some gorgeous looking houses. And so we’ve come back rather more confused than when we went. Anyway, until we get confirmation from the hospital we don’t need to do anything more except think and look and talk.

Mum has joined us tonight from the monastery which was lovely. She’s ever so fond of the monks and nuns and is having a great time!

Birthday shout out to Phil Jowsey – happy twenty-something manus! (that’s from J)

you hansome devil you!!

god daughters

I’m ever so thankful for my god daughters (and J is thankful for his!) I’ve had a good catch up with both of them in the last 24 hours – one by skype, one in person. Both ever so cute! We miss you Miriam (and the rest of the Geddes family!)

me and Chloe yesterday

Today we headed down to Perth to stay with my dad (mum is in a monastery – and loving it!) He made tea for us (is this the first time my dad’s ever made my tea?!?!) Anyway, it was very tasty.

For those of you in NZ I thought I’d take a photo of J’s old house as we passed it on the way for a scan – yes it has a turret!!

Note the blue sky!!

scans

Apologies for the lack of blogs recently. This has not been because I’ve been sick. In fact I woke on Sunday morning feeling remarkably better but took it easy for the day. Thankfully my immune system obviously remebered what it was meant to be doing!

We had our first scan today. It was very cool!

see the big tummy!? But thankfully a normal size head – I’m not keen to have a Wraight melon!!

the spine is clear and looking good!

All is looking well – two arms, two legs, a brain, a nose, eyes, hands, feet, a big tummy (what’s that about!?) – and all on track. Due mid-July.

The other news is that Jonathan has applied for a six month locum job in Edinburgh. They seem pretty keen and so we may be heading a wee bit south in the next couple of weeks. Not sure what we’ll do after the six months (stay in Edinburgh, move back to Aberdeen, something else?!) but it’s nice to know that we may well be at least settled for the next few months.

surprise!

Yesterday morning J opened the curtains, turned round and said ’surprise!’ Could it be that the skies were blue?!?

Eh, no (although there were a few blue spells!) More snow had fallen!

We didn’t allow that to deter us however, and headed down to the beach with Marcus (my cousin) and Ashleigh (his fiancee) for a very cold windy walk – it was beautiful though!

Today I’m afraid for the first time in a long time (in fact the first time I can remember) I’ve had a cold. I just don’t get sick but apparently my immune system is compromised or something. Anyway, I’ve lain low and eaten grapes (provided by J’s granny!) Hopefully I’ll wake up tomorrow and be fighting fit – at least fit enough to watch the tennis final – come on Andy Murray!

J went ahead with our plans for today, though, first by going to his grandpa’s memorial breakfast which he enjoyed and then getting the train out to help the Jones’ move into their new house which he enjoyed too!

I’m off now to go back to bed. Hopefully my amazing immune system will be back to full strength soon!

bump

for those who requested a photo… (not quite sure what I’m doing with my mouth in this photo but it does show I have a wee baby bump!)

girls afternoon

Well I had a lovely lovely afternoon today with Jude and Jo. We went out to a garden centre in Drumoak and spent hours chatting and catching up. There is definitely something special about old friendships which are easily picked up again.

As well as being tired (and about a million other pregnancy related weirdnesses) I experienced another one yesterday. We went to the Mission in the morning and Alasdair started the service talking about Psalm 100 (the Psalm we sung at the end of our wedding unaccompanied). As he was talking I leaned over to Jonathan and said ‘if we sing that Psalm I’m going to cry’ and sure enough we all got up to sing and I cried the whole way through (proper tears streaming down my face!!) – I couldn’t sing more than a word here or there. It was the first time we’d sung it since our wedding and people there know it so well the harmonies were flowing and what with all the pregnancy hormone stuff I just couldn’t help it and anyone who knows me knows this is a rather unusual situation!! Anyway, it did sound awesome! And brought back a lot of good memories!

I’ve just started watching “24″ (season 6). Jonathan doesn’t like it (too violent) and so I have to try and sneak wee moments to watch it when he doesn’t need the computer. Two episodes down and I’m hooked!!!

Chloe’s dedication

My newest god-daughter was dedicated today. Jo and Andy did a great job of organising the whole thing and a pretty large number of people were there. Was good to catch up with old friends.

Jo asked me to be god mother and Andy asked his friend Will to be god father.

Lovely to see Jude too!

And I just have to mention lunch and dinner yesterday – both family affairs. For lunch I went out with my mum, my aunt and my grandmother – we laughed a lot! And then for dinner I went out with J and my parents to a Thai restaurant for my dad’s birthday dinner. Again a lot of fun and tatsy food! J and I are both so thankful we really like our families – both immediate and extended (and we both like each other’s family too!)

Now I just have one question – how can one (or two – still not had a scan yet!) tiny baby make me feel so very tired?!

clearer?

Well, things just don’t really get much clearer for us! I keep thinking that maybe next week we’ll have some kind of idea about where we’ve to be or what we’ve to do but no…

We’re just back from a lovely trip to Dumfries. There is a job advertised there and J went to see round the hospital. We also arranged a visit with James and Sarah (James was a uni friend of J’s) and had a nice time catching up with them (they have two kids and Sarah is 5 months pregnant with twins!)

They live in a rather lovely old house

I kid you not – that is their house – the whole of it!! James’ parents lived there up until last summer and then they made the switch.

and this is the view from their front door

and our very comfortable bedroom (with en suite!) It was such a comfy bed and so cosy and so dark and so quiet – I slept VERY well and only woke at 9am this morning when J gently suggested it may be time to get up!

the scenery is great round Dumfries although it was a bit misty!

Still unsure about exactly where we’ll end up and just to help matters we listened to Tim’s ‘It Takes a City to Raise a Child’ and now I’m wanting (again!) to move back to NYC!!

Anyway, it’s my dad’s birthday today so we’re back in Stanley and ready for a tasty birthday tea and some quality family time!

PS Lewis this is for you – J took a photo of the remains of your snow ball