Turning on the Lights and Turning up the Heat

This past weekend we were privileged to join in the festivities for St. Andrew's Week here in St. Andrews. Not surprisingly, this holiday is a big deal in this town and incorporates events like the "Golden Spurtle Contest," which is a porridge making contest; a food festival, which allowed us to sample local specialties like whisky marmalade, heather honey, port wine jelly, oatcakes, and porridge; and a local fair and town lighting ceremony. Tomorrow night is actually when the biggest part of the celebration occurs as it is actually St. Andrew's Day. This day is commemorated by eating none other than the infamous Scottish dish -haggis. (cue the scary music)

So in addition to praying that we survive the eating of this specialty, we could also use prayers for our financial situation and our plans for the future. On Friday I have an interview for a full-time job as the Annual Giving Officer of the University. This job pays relatively well, is managerial, and would qualify me for staff tuition rates. I think it should be possible to keep up with my studies and maintain this job for the duration of its 11 month contract, but only God really knows, so we are anxious to see where that possibility leads. I'm also preparing applications for PhD programs, which is a truly intimidating process, but one I'm eager to be done with. After starting my Master's here I've come to the conclusion that, if possible, a PhD would be a terrific goal to pursue for the purposes of the study itself in addition to the obvious career benefits it would have.

Today I'm working on one of my two 20-page essays that are due next Friday, so I could definitely use prayer that they are well-written and compelling (and completed on time).

Thanks again to everyone for your support!!

Enjoy this Christmas season with the ones you love and with the One who loves you!

Raisin Parties and Medieval Potties

Yeah, sounds crazy but here in St. Andrews it is Raisin Weekend, which kicks off St. Andrews week. This being a university town, Raisin Weekend is basically an initiation period for first year undergraduates where they are adopted by academic "parents" and dressed in unflattering costumes to participate in a war waged with cans of shaving cream. If only all wars could be fought thus.

In other news, Elizabeth arrived safely back home on Monday. The boys and I picked her up from the airport in Edinburgh that morning and I even managed to make back home in time for class. We've all been trying to recover from sleep deprivation this week- Elizabeth because of her jet-lag and me because of not sleeping well (as in only 3-4 hours per night) while she was away. I think we're finally getting a handle on it and should be in better shape this week.

That's a good thing because we have a very busy week ahead. Gabriel begins nursery school this week. I am working on two 15,000 word papers and attending class and I also have a CT scan and dr. appointment at the hospital in Dundee on Friday. This being Scotland, they don't do Thanksgiving, so I will be going to class that day and then it looks like we'll be going to Holy Trinity Church (which is several hundred years old) for a community American Thanksgiving Dinner. It will be interesting to see how it turns out because in our experience the Scottish versions of things tend to be a wee bit different.

Afer church today we had lunch and took the kids to play at the castle. There was a group of about 10 young boys there with plastic swords and shields who were doing some sort of history outing and storming the castle. Of course Gabriel thought he was one of them and instantly joined the throng so that he could help liberate the prisoners in the dungeon. Seeing as he was about half the height of these boys I decided it would be wiser if we found something else to do. So I took Gabe (kicking and screaming) and Noah up a small tower into what would have been the bishop's room. The distinctive feature remaining in this area was of particular interest to the boys. The castle is ruined so all that is left is a window with a gorgeous view of the North Sea and a deluxe Medieval toilet. This primitive "potty chair" as our boys like to call it, is made of stone and has a hole in it that allowed all of it's contents to go directly into the sea. This was considered phenomenally luxurious in its day. Even now it is fancy enough that Gabriel admired it and talked about it for at lest 15 minutes and refused to leave the side of this marvel. What's really funny is that no one in their right mind would want such a contraption today. If you've never visited Scotland, then you may not know how incredibly windy and cold it gets, especially at the seaside. You can imagine how jolting it must have been to plop your buns down on that freezin' stone loo and then to have the sea air blowing in beneath you. Man I'm grateful we live in the age of indoor plumbing.

Tonight we had a nice British dinner. I made baked potatoes and then topped them with Coronation Chicken. This is a dish that was created for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953. It is a mixture of cubed chicken breast, mayonaise, curry, apricot, white wine, mustard, celery, onion, and various other spices. For the sake of convenience I altered the recipe a bit and came up with a fairly accurate alternative version. The most distinctive thing about it is its flaming yellow colour. Of course, I think the taste is pretty great too and it's surprisingly yummy on a nice hot baked potato. The Scottish people also top their potatoes with things like tuna salad, cole slaw, and a variety of other fillings you'd more often find in sandwiches in the USA.

Well I'm sure there are tons of other things I could write about but I must get going so that Elizabeth and I can read the next chapter of Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby.

With any luck I'll have another post very soon to give you our impressions of the town cinema and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire which we're going to see tomorrow night!! Our dear and wonderful friends Simon and Alexandra are babysitting so that we can go on our first date here in Scotland!

Take care everyone!

10 WHOLE DAYS!!!

Hello Everyone!

Yep..I'm all alone with our 2 adorable boys for 10 days while Elizabeth visits her grandma and mom in Minnesota. We had a fun day today though. The boys let me sleep in til 7:30. After that we had some breakfast and play time. Then we picked up all of the toys and I made the boys some lunch. After that I took the boys to feed the ducks. Lucky ducks...today I didn't have any stale bread so they got to eat cheap crumpets. What made our little outing interesting was the fact that it was raining fairly hard and I decided to be brilliant and just walk with the boys. They stayed dry with the umbrella and their hoods, so no need to be too worried about them. Gabriel met a little girl his age by the pond and became quite enamored with her. He chatted up a storm with her and stood near her and her mommy while he fed the ducks. Of course, I don't think he was concentrating too much on the ducks since he just threw in half a crumpet to the ducks and then another so that he could focus on his little friend. Needless to say, he was extremely upset when it was time to go back home.

Thankfully he got over it and he rested downstairs on our couch while Noah napped upstairs. I really was blessed to have them both sleep for me. That hour of nap time gave me the chance to pack up their diaper bag and clean a bit more before bringing them over to a friend's house to be babysat while I took the bus to Dundee for my oncologist appointment.

After getting the boys settled, I walked to the bus station and made the 1.5 hour trek to Dundee (it's only about 18 miles to the hospital so that tells you how much stopping we did). Because of the phenomenally long ride I was nearly an hour late to my appointment, but thankfully my doctor was more than happy to see me late.

Dr. Windsor and I chatted for a bit and she is going to have me stop by once a month to meet with an oncologist in addition to having monthly CT scans until May/June. Although I don't relish spending all the time on the bus, it's great to know they're serious about making sure my cancer stays gone, and even better to know my treatment is completely free.

I didn't get back to St. Andrews to pick up my poor babies until almost 8pm. They seemed quite content when I arrived though since Thomas the Tank Engine was playing on the TV. We got back home very quickly and I got the boys all snuggled into bed. Tonight was fairly routine in that sense, except that I had to sing about 6 songs before kissing them goodnight instead of the usual 1-3. I guess they just needed some extra love with their mommy being away.

Well it's 3am and I'm not sleeping because my wifey is away. However, since the kids will be up in a few hours no matter when I go to bed I'd better hit the hay.

Please keep Elizabeth's trip in your prayers, especially that she would have very special time with her grandma who has been very ill, and of course that she has safe travel. Come to think of it, I crave prayer too. Namely, that the boys and I would have a terrific time and that I would be able to make progress on the two 15-page papers that I have due next month.

See you again soon I hope...same BLOG time...same BLOG channel.