October 20th

Hi there! It’s been a while since we’ve posted anything, so I thought I better put something up!

We are quickly coming to the close of the tattie (i.e. potato) picking holiday. Sierra has had the whole of this week and last week off. No, we didn’t pick any tatties! We don’t even have any travel photos to show for the time off! Steve’s program began this month, so it wasn’t a good time to be skittering off. If we intend to go anywhere, we’d better do it before Oct. 31. Most of the attractions close then.

Sierra and Austen and I did climb Kincorth Hill in Aberdeen. From there we had a bird’s eye view of the city.




(Our apartments are on the right of
the field at the bottom of the hill.)



Beyond that, Sierra and Austen have played up a storm, and Sierra has added a splash of color to every piece of scratch paper in our house. We don’t have any more to spare! Here are a few samples of her work (she actually did the leaf imprints at school before the holiday started):



The picture above is my new screen saver!










We are glad to be making friends here and are feeling more in our element! We still miss all of our friends and family, but are glad to stay in touch with you! The world feels a little smaller with the internet. We love it!

Virtual Tour

Some of you have wondered what our place looks like, so we’ve decided to take you on a virtual tour! ☺ Come along. Austen would like to welcome you in!


Directly across from the front door, is our bedroom.


If you go in the front door and look left, you’ll see the length of our hall. (Austen is feeling a little shy at the moment.)


From this vantage, our bedroom door is on your right but it doesn’t appear in the picture. The next door on the right is our spare room.


The last door on the right is the kiddos’ room.


And across from that is the living room.



Ho! What kind of drama is unfolding here!?


A battle of epic proportion has broken out in our living room!


It appears that Spiderman is doing battle against his arch-nemesis, Mermaidgirl.


Oh No! Spidey is down!


But wait, he's back up. Maybe, just maybe, our hero can protect us from the evil machinations of that slippery-sissy-of-the-sea!


Then again....umm, best to get back to the tour...

Off of our living room, is the kitchen. (The houses here are built in a very compartmentalized fashion for the sake of efficient heating.) Don’t be fooled; we don’t have a dishwasher. It’s a washing machine/dryer. But the dryer is sadly inefficient. That’s why you’ll see our clothes hanging to dry in the spare room!


Across the hall from the spare room is the bathroom. It looks like any other bathroom, right? Ah, but what other bathroom have you been in that you requires you to turn on a master switch in the hall in order for the shower to work? (Ask Steve how long it took him to figure that out! I’m glad he got here before me!) Pretty tricky!


That concludes our tour. We’re really pleased with our little place. Come and see it in person! We would love to have guests! After all, we have to justify the spare room!

Austen's B-Day

Today was Austen’s big day! He turned three! When Austen woke this morning, Daddy told him, “Austen, you’re three!” to which Austen replied, “No, I not. I almost thee.” I guess he just couldn’t believe that the day had finally arrived. I gave him a big squeeze and asked him, “How’s my birthday boy!?” He objected, “I not birt’day boy. I Austen!” Mommy, Daddy, Sissy, and Austen celebrated Austen’s big day with a pizza dinner and Spider Man cake.



Then got to open his present from Mommy and Daddy.







He added that to the other he got to choose himself earlier this week. This one comes with its own electric drill so Austen can disassemble and reassemble it – with a little help. Mind you, he keeps his drill with Daddy’s electric drill in the utility closet! (Thanks Grammy and Grampy!)



He had a fun day!

This week was relatively uneventful. Sierra had fun playing “tigger-tag” at recess each day. She’s going to be at loss over the upcoming two weeks without her classmates to play tag with! Last Saturday, we went to Hazelhead Park which sits on a hill overlooking the city. We were surprised to glimpse the ocean! Somehow, you forget that you live so close to the sea in Aberdeen!



(If you look carefully, you can see the North Sea through the trees)





Fall is upon us. Sierra just learned the following poem for school: “Down, down/Yellow and brown/The leaves are falling/All over town.” (Of course, those of you in New England must be feeling the approach of fall too. Come to think of it, will someone email us pictures of the scarecrows on Bridge Street once they’re up? What will they be this year!?) The weather is definitely getting colder. I made the mistake of wearing just a turtle neck and sweater. Never mind that the Scots were still in their shirt-sleeves! Boy, was I cold! Burr!