A Bit of Block News

Today and yesterday was spent cleaning our new place. We basically did a spring cleaning of sorts: washing, dusting, and vacuuming. This week we will be moving our things in and cleaning out our current place.

Here are a couple of happenings from this past week.

Last Sunday, Tristan cut the grass using the electric mower. It plugs into the outlet through our kitchen window. You can tell it's a lot of hard work mowing the 15 square feet. :)


Yes, sadly that is a dead little bird. On Wednesday it tried to fly through our closed kitchen window. I about jumped out of my skin, as I was standing next to said window at the time. Tristan tried to tell me that it did not die, that it probably just stunned itself and would get up and fly away. I took a peak at it and saw it twitch a bit and thought that maybe he was right. But after our dinner it became quite clear to us that it was not going to be flying away any time soon or at all for that matter. It also became a bit of an issue as to how we would dispose of the poor thing, since our fortnightly trash pick up had just been by the previous night. So Tristan carried out his husbandly duty of disposing of dead animals and picked up little tweety using a sack and took him over the road to a nearby field and laid him to rest near some trees (I'm fairly certain that's what he said he wanted for his final resting place with the little twitch he made to me before he died.)


Friday night we had another youth gathering. Pictured below is our group attempting the human knot.


And here I am not participating in the human knot, because I was cuddling Cameron. What a wee cutie!

Three Years

Three years have gone by since we tied the knot! I know at the time we were married that I never dreamed we'd be where we are today, but I am so thankful for how God has blessed our lives and our marriage. I love that we are able to spend so much time together, practically every waking moment! This has taken some adjustment for us (probably more for Tristan than me, I can get annoying!), but we have grown closer because of it. Here's a picture from us on May 14th 2005.


This past week we celebrated our third anniversary by taking a trip to Inverness, the town by the famous Loch Ness. We stayed at a lovely Bed & Breakfast. I'm pretty sure that if you ever go to Inverness, you'll have a place to stay. About every other house was a B&B, it was pretty incredible. Pictured below is the city, with the River Ness that runs right through it.


We were able to enjoy the beautiful colors of the spring flowers. I love tulips!


The first evening (Wednesday) we were there we caught a movie. Normally a visit to the movies wouldn't warrant a mention in a post, but we had an interesting event occur during the movie. If you look closely at the photo below, you'll see the blue light of a fire engine in front of the movie theatre. During the middle of our film, a loud speaker came on instructing us to make for the nearest exit. The nearest exit was actually in our movie theatre room, but everyone just filed out the regular way. Good thing there wasn't really a fire.


We were told to assemble in the "Pets at Home" parking lot, and after about 20 minutes a false alarm was called and we were able to go back in and finish the movie. The best part was that the movie theatre gave us free passes and luckily we have the same cinema in Stirling.


Thursday we went on a hill walk to the Novar Wind Farm. The whole trek was 7 miles and took us about 4 hours. Below a picture from the beginning.


And now a picture from the top. We had a nice walk, as there was a gravel road that led all the way to the top. There were about 30 windmills scattered throughout the hills. It was kind of daunting standing so near one. They would go so fast, but they were really quiet. They kinda sounded like waves hitting the seashore.


We got so chilly at the top where we stopped to have lunch and a break.

Friday we left Inverness and headed for home, driving along Loch Ness and making a few stops on the way. One of those stops was Urquhart Castle, a ruin right on the river. We were also hoping to spot "our underwater ally" Nessie along the way, but she was a no show.


The drive along the way was absolutely gorgeous! We stopped along the highway so I could take this picture. We kept commenting on the drive about how much the landscape reminded us of Colorado!

We also got a picture of us with Ben Nevis, the highest hill in Great Britain at 4,406 ft and an extremely popular hill to climb. I know that height doesn't compare with those in the Rockies, but here the hills start at almost sea level. An interesting side note about Ben Nevis: Tristan read that if you are a first time hill walker it would take you about 5 hours to get to the summit, and then about 3 hours to get down. On average it takes about 5-6 hours for the round trip. Every year they have a race to see who can go up and come back down the fastest. The record is under 90 minutes!! That's up and back my friends! I would die! On second thought, scratch that, I would not even try to run up a hill. I think those kind of people are a bit crackers. Talk about endurance!


We would've had more pictures for you from our drive through Glen Coe, but the clouds that look like death on the way rolled in and the rain poured for the most beautiful part of our drive. We plan on going back that way again, and we'll be sure to take lots of pictures at that time.

Also... we've found a new place to live! It's located in a nice area not even a mile from where we are currently! We hope to be out of this place in two week's time and all settled into the new place by the end of this month. Please keep us in your prayers as we make this transition.

Thanks Northside Family!!!

Yesterday we received a great care package from our Northside Family in Wichita, KS. Many of the church members wrote very encouraging notes to us. We were also pleased to get several coloured pictures from the children's classes.
They were kind enough to send several food items, some teaching materials, some books and the encouraging notes. We have maintained contact with several of the members from our loving church family in Wichita. It is incredible to have a support system that stretches all over the world. Even though they are a great support to us, they are so much more than that. The church in Wichita (and the other churches who support us) is our family. They have sacrificed for us, prayed for us, encouraged us, equipped us, inspired us and a couple will even visit us!!! It is such a blessing to be a part of the family of God. So from the bottom of our hearts: Thank You!!!

A Change in Weather

This past week has been absolutely gorgeous. On Monday we woke up to the most fantastic day we have had this year. So after we finished our chores, we headed to the Ochil Hills. The hills are just minutes away from Stirling. This picture is of Glen Alva. The normal path does not take you to the top. We went off the beaten path to get to the top. It was pretty steep.

This is just half way up. All in all it didn't take that long to get the top. We had a great time and soaked up the sun.

The rest of the week was just as nice as the first day! We loved the change in weather. Since this will be our first full summer in Scotland, we are looking forward to seeing what it is like. It will be nice to have some warmer weather so we can at least climb some hills.

Just a Regular Update

Sorry for the delay in updating! This past week we've been up to our normal activities, but we've also been actively looking for another place to live. Our house search will continue this coming week, and hopefully we'll have a decision made by next week.

I just wanted to post of picture of one of my hobbies. I like to crochet. I especially like to crochet baby blankets for friends and family who are expecting little ones. Pictured below is the seventh blanket I've made since moving to Scotland.


Saturday we were told about the "Big in Falkirk" a May festival held every year in a nearby town. We went and met up with a family from the church. There were many tents, games for children and lots of musical performances. You can see the many people that turned out for the event with the Callander house in the background.



Tristan enjoying a yummy festival hot dog.