Ooops

I'm so ashamed! I don't have a laptop, so I can't update this, so I do have a pretty good excuse. And when I do have the laptop I'm too busy keeping in touch with my excellent parents.

The time here is going quite well, I will try to write another post soon. In fact I downright promise so that I cannot get out of it. I will also take a camera and take some pictures, as my facebook album (my non existent facebook album) is... non existent.

:D

Fourth of July!

Let me start by saying that I think my bear is quite happy to be without me, lounging as he is on my bed, and he looks like he's laughing. Never mind, I will find myself a replacement. That or accept that I'm too old for a teddy bear. Nahhh, replacement.

Anyways it is now the fourth of July such an interesting holiday... we get to stand and watch people celebrating their freedom from... us. I don't understand how anyone would want to be free from the English, we're such an amazing country and obviously people would want to associate with us, rather than trying to break free from us.

I have to say that fireworks in this 'independent' country that can't seem to stop borrowing from China, are never quite as good as back home, but maybe if we go 'downtown' we will see something that looks less like Max put bicarbonate of soda in a class of vinegar and more thousands of dollars of wasted money to celebrate freedom from...me :'(

I take these things very personally and at the end of the fireworks, naturally I start to hum 'God Save the Queen' - talking of which, yesterday afternoon in church when we were waiting for the service the organist was so kind as to play that tune.... we definitely felt at home :P We couldn't exactly sing along, but you know, it was there.

Anyways, I will now go and celebrate the fact that we get an extra holiday here, and make the most of it. If people want to go on about how happy they are to be free from the English, I will just look at them until they realise how much they wish they were English too :)

xx

New Car!

So this is what I'll be driving for the summer. It's a Dodge Grand Caravan 2006 and has DVD player and GPS. I just realised that means I'll never get to watch a DVD in the back cos I'll be the sucker driving.
I suppose I could watch it, we'd just die, that's all.
The car is huge compared to my little one at home...

And of course I'm driving on the wrong side of the road, so I'm pleased that the new car has a few scratches at the back, cos that means when I hit it against pillar boxes, innocent pedestrians, other cars (usually only ever expensive other cars) no-one will be the wiser and I shall drive off into the night innocently :)

Hopefully this evening the kids will be able to play football if the rain holds off... annndddd having said that I looked out the window and the rain hasn't held off, so football is mostly likely going to be called off. Oh wait, we're the ones that will call it off... so techincally I could force them to play in the rain for my own amusement :P

Right, LUNCH!

Sometimes We Lose Sight

I guess sometimes in between trying to put Ikea Furniture together, trying to work out if the rug actually matches the walls or looks horrendous, whether we can find English chocolate and setting up bank accounts we lose sight of why we're really here in the US. We've been out of a church for nearly six years and it's amazing to be part of a church family again, even if it's just for a short while.

We've been here for just under a week today, and we already have so much to be thankful for. A safe journey among many many other things. On Monday Lucy and I were privilged to go to an all girls campfire meeting, where the subject was true beauty, and one thing that one of the women said that really stayed with me, was that I guess in the end God is guiding your life, and you have to fall back and let him guide you where you are going to go.

You can worry tons about what uni you're going to go to, which country you're going to live in, what's going to happen next, what job you are going to get, but in the end God is over all and not one minute of your life wasn't planned by Him.

So yeah, that's quite a comforting thought at this stage in life, although one has to hope the plan isn't that I spend the rest of my life as a homeless person, living under a bridge :P

So Different

Wow the differences are beginning to sink in here. Everytime Lucy or I say something is rubbish, one of our friends is so kind and mocks us.
Also, I recognise practically nothing in the supermarkets, and while this was fun when we were here first, and last year when we were staying in a hotel, now when I try to find pasta and can only find egg noodles, it's not as fun.

I have a feeling that if I do not find English food soon, I will waste away, and Lucy with me. Each week we will be become more skeletal and die :( Sad times.

I have worked out that we need a cat. A house is not a home without a cat, so maybe we should see if the neighbours have one and steal it. That's what happened with Bluffy, I think. One day she turned up into our garden (yes, garden, not yard) and we never let her out! It was the most successful catnap of the century. I'm not really joking either, she even had a collar :))

Dad has gone to get cleaning materials with Lucy. We need cleaning materials quite badly, I tried to clean the mirrors earlier and discovered that somehow water and glass cleaner are substantially different. All the cleaning materials here are different anyways... and the chocolate :(

Mum, if you're reading this I beg you to send some chocolate with your next mail order. Hershey bars are like the economy chocolate you get that you know has been made in China.

We're still waiting on the sofas... me especially. They sound like they would be good sleeping places :)

Cxx

Saturday..

(When you're away from home and you're missing your mother and your cat, what can you do to cheer yourself up but buy a pair of shoes?!)

We're getting close to getting the house all sorted, we've got a table and chairs all set up and done. The table has got a red tablecloth, and when I saw it there in the corner of the dining room for the first time it reminded me of the Laura Ingalls' books! I always wanted my own little house with a red tablecloth... yes, I'll move on swiftly.

It's actually good weather today, which means that it feels like we're abroad, not just in Scotland :)

The boys are playing football out the back, which probably means that any neighbours trying to get an afternoon nap are possibly getting annoyed >:)

I shall leave you with a picture of the aforementioned pig who had his legs on display. It was most indecent and Lucy and I were suitably shocked. >:)