Scotland Diaries - Homeschool Blogger

January Cancer Update

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 20:39:00 -0600

This past Friday, my husband went to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee for his bi-monthly cancer checkup, and the results from his last scan showed that he is still cancer-free for now (and, we hope, indefinitely)! As far as the pain he had felt before, he said it now almost non-existent, so that is yet another praise. Thanks to all of those who left comments saying you'd be praying for us. What a special gift. Even if we had found out the worst, your prayers were wonderful Christmas presents, and we cherish them.

Well, we have a packed day ahead of us, but this update was well-overdue and, knowing myself, I'd keep finding excuses to "do it another time." I once read somewhere that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." As a Christian, perhaps that's a bit extreme, but the main point hits pretty close to home for me. In fact, I probably wouldn't even be writing this right now except that I received an e-mail from one of my good friends and neighbors urging me to update my blog. She said, "I was just looking at your blog this morning, and seeing that lots of people have left messages on your post, even one last week. I'm sure they'd all love to know that Jeremy has the all-clear." How's that for a "duh" moment?

Cancer For Christmas?

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 16:19:00 -0600

I don't want to worry any friends or family members who might be reading this, but Jeremy confessed to me today that he's been having pain "down there" for the past two weeks. We haven't gotten the results back from his last CT scan, and although everything has come back clear so far, I admit I am a bit nervous. He has only been off treatments for a year and a half. It was hard enough the first time; I don't know that we could go through this again. Not on top of everything else we've been through over the past year. What a lovely Christmas present that would be, huh? Here you go, more cancer! Um, no thanks.

Well, there's no point getting too worked up over it since we don't know anything further right now, but please, please, pleeaaase keep us in your prayers. Speaking of prayers....

Dear Lord,

We ask that You would give us Your peace that transcends all understanding. Help us, Lord, not to worry or stress over something we have no control over. We don't even know the outcome of the CT scan yet. No matter what the result, Lord, help us to trust in Your love for us and plan for our lives. You know best. Our job is to be "joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer" (Rom. 12:12). May our thoughts, words, actions, and deeds be glorifying to You, God, no matter what happens. Thank you that ultimately, when all is said and done, we will be with You for eternity. What could be better?

Amen.

Saturday Circus Day

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 17:06:00 -0600

So what is a Saturday Circus Day, anyway? For us, it's what happens when my husband is working a 15-hour shift at the fish 'n' chips shop and buys a clown cake the night before on clearance for �1.20 at the local Tesco. He came home with it and said, "Since I'll be gone for most of the day tomorrow, I thought maybe you could have a circus day with the boys or something." Sounded like a great idea to me, so I spent the remainder of the evening online trying to come up with a gameplan. I did a Google search for anything circus-related (clowns, crafts, songs, themed meals, etc.) and typed out a sample schedule for the next day.

Here's what our day wound up looking like:

*Breakfast: Cheerios with marshmallows and M&Ms (to signify bouncy balls, clown suit polka dots, or balloons)

*Morning Show: JoJo's Circus

*Clown Face-painting (with white eyeshadow, blue eyeshadow, and blazing red lipstick)

*Songs: "I Went to the Animal Fair" and other circus songs

*Art: drawing a colorful clown on the chalkboard together

*Lunch: Clown Face Sandwiches

*Afternoon Show: Baby Newton, aka. "I Know My Shapes" (they make a clown out of circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, and ovals)

*Play-time: "Thomas the Tank Engine" Circus Train puzzle, playing with JoJo's Circus characters, as well as JoJo's Circus games on the Playhouse Disney website.

*Coloring: JoJo's Circus, Dumbo, and other circus pictures that I found online and printed out.

*Dinner: hot dogs, french fries, and circus animal fruit snacks

*Dessert: Clown cake, of course, although it didn't taste very good

*Family movie time: Dumbo (and popcorn w/ a few pieces of chocolate each, since they didn't like the cake)

It wasn't the world's most perfect day, as there were temper tantrums and potty incidents, but overall it was a lot of fun. We took pictures, so I'll post them as soon as I figure out how to do it.

Hope you all have a great weekend and God bless!

A Whole Month Early!!! Yay for me!

Thu, 2 Nov 2006 15:39:00 -0600

Well, folks, it�s not December yet, which means I am back on Home School Blogger a month earlier than predicted! I hope the past couple of months have treated you well. The rest of our September was relatively laid-back. With both of the boys at nursery for two and a half hours each morning, that means a guaranteed shower every day! Even if I don�t get anything else done, it does wonders for my overall attitude. It feels so good to be able to wash away the cares of the previous day and start afresh. A yummy-scented body wash doesn�t hurt, either! J

So, apart from the boys going back to school, nothing much happened except that I got to have tea with a friend a couple times, and Gabriel had another appointment with the doctor to see if he has improved or digressed at all (in terms of his being on the autistic spectrum). The annoying thing is that this was Gabe�s third evaluation since this whole process started, and he has been asleep for all three of his appointments! It�s like he knows where we�re going and is thinking, �No way, Jos�!� Oh, well.

October was a bit crazier than September. Jeremy�s PhD was officially underway, and he was working two jobs in addition to reading, researching, and attending classes and seminars. His department was hosting a social seminar (spouses and kids welcome) the first week of the month, but we had a friend stay with the boys so just the two of us could go. It was basically a meet �n� greet and wine �n� dine (on hors d�oeuvres) with teachers and fellow PhD candidates. After the formal event was over, many of us walked down the street to Ma Bells Bistro Bar to continue conversation in a more casual atmosphere. It was our first �date� without the boys in a long time, so we milked it for all it was worth. Apart from it being an all-around fun evening, the thing I enjoyed the most was getting to be a part of my husband�s academic world for a short time. Usually I just send him off to school with a goodbye kiss and an �I love you, have a great day.� I know where he�s going, but I don�t really know where he�s going. It�s one thing to know it on a head level, but to get a small taste of what he�s doing, where he goes, what we came to St. Andrews for, was amazing.

Two days later, I was bringing dinner over to a friend who just had her second child, another girl. Such is life in St. Andrews, a college town known for its high percentage of inter-marrying students and pregnancy being �in the water.� I can�t even count the number of times I�ve been asked to bring a meal to a family with a new baby! Not that I mind, it�s just funny. In fact, I just received another meal sign-up for a friend who�s due in the next couple of weeks. J

My last big news for October (apart from Halloween and the weekend prior) is that I finally got another haircut! My last one was in early May, when my mom was here and sent me to a nice salon to get it cut and styled. My last two cuts in St. Andrews were free, as I went to one of the salon�s training days, where, in exchange for getting a free cut, I have to be a guinea pig for three hours and still walk out wondering what they did to my hair. To be fair, my recent haircut was also on training day, but it was at a different salon and for five pounds instead of completely free. But you know what? It was so worth it, because the girl who cut my hair actually knew what she was doing, can you believe it? Anyway, I wouldn�t normally blog about a haircut (then again, I wouldn�t normally blog), but this time I�m growing my hair out. I also asked the stylist to give me a fringe (aka. �bangs�). I think I look cute, but I don�t know.... should I continue to grow it out, or go short again like in my avatar?

Well, it�s time for bed here in Scotland. Next time I�ll blog about our �Saturday Circus Day� and the �Goodbyeween Party� we attended this Halloween. J

God bless you all!

May, June, July, August, and a bit of September, too!

Fri, 8 Sep 2006 15:52:00 -0500

One morning a few weeks back, my husband and I woke up to find our house in utter ruin. Our two sons, the co-conspirators, got up early and instead of squeezing into bed with us and tormenting us with their cold feet as usual, they thought they'd be "nice" and let us sleep in. So when I opened my eyes at about 9:00, I just knew something was wrong. I don't think I had even gotten as far as the doorway before I screamed. I won't tell you what all we found that day, but one of the larger messes was a whole bottle of liquid soap that had been poured out onto the carpet. I went online to find out "how to get soap out of carpet" and one of the search results was for a blog entitled "The Reluctant Blogger," who apparently also had a soap-in-the-carpet incident.

Both of which make me wonder... how do the rest of you find the time to blog so frequently??? I know I've asked this before, but man, I can barely keep up with my life, let alone blog about it! It makes my brain hurt. I'd have deleted this account by now, only I always think to myself, "Tomorrow...I'll blog tomorrow." But as my faithful readers (aka. friends who check in on me wondering if I'll ever return) know, "tomorrow" never comes.

My last entry from July was actually an account of what happened in April, so that leaves May, June, July, August, and part of September unaccounted for. Originally, I was going to cover one month per post, but that idea has gone by the wayside. Here is the ultra-condensed version:

May: My mom flew back home in mid-May, and my husband's parents arrived less than two days later. A few days after that, a friend of ours from Arizona (along with two of his buddies) came to stay with us for a few days, as they were on a tour of Europe. In other words, we basically played Tour Guides for the entire month. The end of May marked our son Noah's third birthday, and we took him and his older brother to Craigtoun Country Park, a local recreational park that has a train, mini golf, canoes, bounce houses, and other fun family activities.

June: We started potty-training with our younger son in earnest, after countless failed attempts with his older brother. He seemed to be waiting for his big bro to go first, but it just wasn't happening and we both knew that Noah was ready even though Gabriel wasn't. Also during the month of June, I was assigned to a Home Start volunteer. Home Start is a charity in the UK that helps families with young children, so I filled out an application and got a volunteer in less than a few months. She's a lovely lady, not much older than my mom, who comes once a week to chat, play with the boys in the garden while I mop the floor, take us to the doctor if need-be, stuff like that. Otherwise, June was a pretty hum-drum month with lots of laundry (due to potty-training) and my husband was busy working on his Master's dissertation as well as earning money for our family at the local fish 'n' chips shop.

July: Work, work, work. Some time for play, but not much. There were a few BBQs, a baby shower, and a family date night. We ate sandwiches on the beach and then went to see the Disney/Pixar movie "Cars" at the cinema in town. Great movie -- can't wait 'til it comes out on DVD! Both of our boys love Lightning McQueen (aka. "Speed" or "Steve the Car").

August: I think Noah was fully potty-trained by August, even able to stay dry during naps and bedtime! School started up again, and this time Noah joined his big brother at nursery. Nursery here is kind of like preschool in the States, but a lot more common. And it's free. Kids start going when they're three and by the time they turn five, they go to P1, which is the equivalent of kindergarten. Unless you're homeschooling at this stage, your child will pretty much be expected to attend. Gabe and Noah are thrilled to be going together, and they are there from 9:00-11:30 every week day. Two and a half hours to myself, yippee! I had forgotten what "free time" was like! Jeremy finished writing his Master's dissertation at the end of the month, and we celebrated by going out for breakfast while the boys were at school. It was great. ;-)

Now we've finally reached the month of September! Phew! So far it has been a busy month. My husband and I just applied for discounted housing (due to medical and financial concerns), and in the meantime are living day-to-day life: working, being parents, attempting to potty-train our four-and-a-half-year-old (prayers, please!), and looking forward to when my husband can quit the "chippy" and start focusing on his PhD work and his fundraising job at the university. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he got a job with the uni! It's only ten hours a week, but since it's a 12-month contract and he's considered staff, he gets the staff tuition rate. I won't say what it is, but it is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper than what we had to pay last year.

So....that's it. All caught up now. Of course, that was the extremely slimmed-down history of our summer here in St. Andrews, but hey, that's what happens when you don't blog for months on end! Don't worry, I'll be back again in December! :-D

April Showers Bring May Flowers ("mums" in my case!)

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 20:39:00 -0500

I was reading my past few blog entries and realized that the last real one was in March, just after my 27th birthday. Then there was my leave of absence, which lasted for over two months, and my return from absence, which was a joke, since our laptop broke not too long after. All that to say, soooo much has happened in that time frame. I can only remember the high points and low points due to a medical condition I suffer from called �Mommy Brain.� And even those are too much to keep track of sometimes!

Because of the amount of time that has transpired since my b-day post, I think I�ll update in segments, beginning with the month of April. I will do my best to give you the Reader�s Digest version, but don�t hold your collective breaths, �cause I tend to be long-winded!

Apart from the circumstances surrounding my leave of absence, the only major event in April was the arrival of our very first visitor since we moved to Scotland in early September. But this was a welcome event, unlike the other one, especially as the visitor was my mommy! (Hey, I don�t care if I�m almost 30, she�s still my mommy.)

She blessed us big-time by buying all (or nearly all) of our groceries during her three-week stay, not to mention taking us out to eat numerous times, and treating her grandsons to ice-cream, doughnuts, and other various sweets. Need I mention how sad my boys were when she flew back home to Minnesota? ;-) Nah, they would have been sad to say goodbye even without the extra sweets. She would often wake up with them and get them their breakfast, take them out into the garden and blow bubbles or play chase, give �em tickles, watch movies with them, etc. Once, when we were on the bus to Dundee to do some shopping and exploring, they both got up on her lap, which is especially rare for our little Noah, since he pretty much only snuggles with Mom or Dad. I just had to take a picture (or two, or three) of them sitting with Grandma on the bus.

(Noah's the one on the right; Gabe had his face hidden in every pic!)

While she was here, we did everything from the mundane, daily, or mandatory (like doctor�s appts.) to the really cool/different/fun like getting to see William Wallace�s sword at the Wallace Monument in Stirling, or eating bergamot-flavoured chocolate, among others, at a chocolaterie in Edinburgh called Plaisir du Chocolat.

Her visit also coincided with the American Mother�s Day, May 14^th (the UK celebrated �Mothering Sunday� on the 26^th of March), so as her gift, I took her to high tea at The Old Course Hotel in St. Andrews while Jeremy watched the boys. We stuffed ourselves like Thanksgiving turkeys with cute little sandwiches, scones w/ clotted cream and jam, and a selection of delightful French pastries, not to mention all the tea and coffee! As is fitting with the Thanksgiving theme, I would have had to unzip my jeans had I been wearing them. Fortunately for my woulda-been-real-sore tummy (like I would have unzipped my jeans in public!), I wore a dress that day. Here's the pic our server took of us after our meal:

We did so much more worth mentioning; suffice it to say I had a wonderful, memorable time with my mom, and I, too, was very reluctant to send her back home.

So, that encompasses all of April, even stepping into May.... but since this post wound up being mostly about my mom, I wanted to end with this:

I know that not all of us can say we have great relationships with our mothers, but as Meg Ryan says in the movie French Kiss, �Even people who hate their mothers love their mothers.� While I can�t speak from experience, I hope that this is a true statement for most, if not all of you.

With that, I leave you with a question: What is the best memory you have of your mom (or something along those lines)?

God bless you all today!

~Elizabeth

Still here...

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 18:43:00 -0500

Okay, this last leave of absence was totally unintentional. Our laptop had to go back to the computer hospital shortly after my last post, and we only just got it back this weekend. I'm overwhelmed with correspondence to catch up on, not to mention life in general, but I thought I should stop by if just to say that I'm still here and that I'll be on again soon, God-willing. No more of this going a month or more between posts!

Hope you're all having a great week!

Return From Absence

Sat, 10 Jun 2006 17:00:00 -0500

Wow, it is hard to believe it has been over two months since my last post! Granted, I said I was taking a leave of absence, but I know a lot of you have been concerned on account of the subject matter. I shared, openly, that my husband and I were going through a very rough patch in our marriage and asked you all to pray for me. I have been overwhelmed at your responses and continued prayers on our behalf. Thanks to every one of you who has been lifting us up and into the capable arms of our Lord.

I am glad to say that my husband and I are still together, and have no desire to separate. We continue to undergo spiritual warfare in our marriage, but as before, I will be vague with the details. The important thing is that we're committed to each other and to our family, and will continue to pray against Satan's efforts to tear us apart. Not gonna happen.

We can't make our marriage work without God's help, however. We have been under too much stress (not just in our marriage) to do it in our own strength. Two verses come to mind as I write this:

1) "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26).

and...

2) "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29 & 30).

Some people say I am honest to a fault, and no doubt they would be right. All too often I say too much for my own good. Should I have posted on my blog for the world to see that my husband and I were (and still are) undergoing some of the worst kind of marital stress imaginable? That I can't say, but it's already out there, so my prayer is that God would use it to minister to other couples who find themselves in a tough situation in their marriage, whether it be trivial or truly serious. You don't have to blog about it like I did, but whatever you do, PRAY. Satan doesn't just want our marriage to fail, he wants them all to fail. Especially if it's a Christian marriage, and I do mean especially.

For friends and family in particular, I apologize for taking so long to update this. I have tried to multiple times, but somehow keep getting interrupted. Gee, do you think Satan is trying to prevent me from letting you all know we're still married and in love? God only knows (it's true!) how many of you out there imagined the worst. So again, sorry for the suspense. Hope you're all having a great weekend, and may you see God's blessings around you today.

With many thanks for your prayers and support (which are obviously working!),

Betsy :-)

Leave of Absence

Wed, 5 Apr 2006 11:37:00 -0500

Hello All,

Just stopping by to let you know that, due to a family emergency, I am taking a leave of absence from the blogging world. Don't know when I will feel up to posting again, but in the meantime, your prayers would be appreciated. The short of it is that my husband and I are going through extreme marital upheaval (aka. the family emergency). Satan wants nothing more than to see our marriage fall apart, and while I certainly don't want that to happen, I feel so helpless and small at the moment, incapable of doing anything besides praying, pleading, and spending time in God's Word.

I hope this finds you all doing well. I really do. Misery loves company, but as I recently told a friend, I wouldn't wish this sort of misery on anyone. And the only company I want or need is the Lord's. His company, His comfort, and His peace that transcends all understanding. Strength would be good, too. People have often told me that I am a remarkably strong woman, so I guess I am really being put to the test.

I apologize for the hazy details, but this will have to do. God knows, and that's enough.

In His Name,

Elizabeth

Ahm Fer Scunnert!

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 16:55:00 -0600

Definition: I am totally and completely frustrated!

Right, so this past Saturday was my twenty-seventh birthday. No, that's not what I'm "scunnert" about, although perhaps I could be. :-P To celebrate, my husband took me to Glamis Castle, just over 25 miles northwest of where we live in St. Andrews. Fair warning: Glamis is pronounced "glams," so if you're ever visiting and want to impress the locals, that's a surefire way to do it. Of course, it's not at all obvious that it should be said without the "i" sound, but the locals will have a wee chuckle at your expense if you say it that way. :-)

The official website for Glamis Castle describes it as:

"'A place of legends and fairytales.' Family home of the Earls of Strathmore and Kinghorne and a royal residence since 1372. Childhood home of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, birthplace of Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret and legendary setting for Shakespeare's famous play 'Macbeth'.

Just a bit of background so you can have a more concrete idea of where and why we went. :-)

The trip was organized by the university, and the tickets included the bus fare, admission into the castle, and a brief tour. My husband even tried to get a babysitter for our day out, but it fell through. Now, I love my boys, but I admit I was disappointed when I found out they would be accompanying us to the castle. Oh, well. I wasn't going to let it ruin my day. They might surprise me and be really well-behaved, and we could all have a nice, family time out together.

If only!

In fact, things got stressful before we even left the house! Our younger son, Noah, had been suffering from a bad cold, so I got out the pink bottle of liquid ibuprofen for kids and gave him a teaspoonful. Meanwhile, our older son, Gabriel, slipped quietly into the kitchen, grabbed the open bottle down from the counter, and proceeded to drink about a third of it before anyone noticed. Well, he was happy as could be with his ibuprofen smoothie. I, on the other hand, was feeling like a terrible mother for not screwing the lid back on. I didn't think about it because, at the time, both boys were in the living room, and I was going to be back in a minute. I know -- lots of bad things can happen in a minute's time. It just didn't occur to me. We called the doctor right away, of course, even though it was almost 9:30 and our bus left at 10:00, which is about how long it would take us to walk into town to catch it. Oh yeah, and Jeremy misplaced the tickets.

The person who answered the phone didn't seem too concerned, but said that a doctor would be calling us back shortly. We were getting close to the wire, so Jeremy told us to start walking and he'd catch up (he was calling them back to give them his mobile phone number). I wasn't too happy about that, of course, but I understood it needed to be done. Selfish as I was feeling about my birthday, I was lamenting the ibuprofen incident as well as walking to the bus stop without my husband. Meanwhile, I paused the stroller every so often to check on Gabriel and make sure he was still breathing.

Fifteen minutes later, Jeremy comes running up behind me, and we practically wogged the whole rest of the way. Wogged = walked + jogged. Or so it felt to me, with my ever-so-short legs. So I guess Jeremy walked and I wogged. :-P Plus, like Noah, I was still pretty sick with a cold, which also made it difficult to keep up. I'm thinking to myself, "First I had to walk alone because my husband stayed behind, and now I have to walk alone because my husband is so far ahead of me!"

By the time we get to the bus (yes, it was still there) we were out of breath, and the last ones to get on. No one seemed to mind, though, as our boys made it clear how excited they were to be on the bus. Cute little munckins in their hooded coats, following Daddy happily down the tiny aisle. I had also mentioned that Jeremy misplaced the tickets, although thankfully, the group leaders remembered him. I guess it's easy to remember the only university student who requested three extra tickets for his wife and two kids! :-)

The bus ride was fine (even fun), and when we arrived, we were told that we had about a half hour before the tour began. Most of us waited it out at the castle restaurant, which is really more of a glorified buffet than a restaurant, though still spacious, beautiful, and full of history. It is the Victorian Kitchen Restaurant nowadays, but it used to be the castle kitchen (hence the name) and there were pots, pans, and other kitchenware on display all made out of copper, dating from the 1600s through the early 1900s.

Sorry, I'm bunnytrailing again. I don't seem to be able to share the main highlights of a story without adding in a bunch of other details as well. If you're still reading, thanks for sticking with me so far! :-)

It was in the restaurant that we started to get glimpses of how the rest of the afternoon would play out. The boys were running all over the place and not listening very well, either. When we were done, we went outside to where our group leaders were and waited while everyone else eventually moseyed on up, too. Just before entering, we found out that no prams (strollers) are allowed on the tour on account of all the stairs. Why, oh why had we not considered this? By this point, it was soooo Noah's naptime. One thing I haven't mentioned yet is that Gabriel was having what we call one of his "autistic days." Between the two of them, we were getting grayer by the minute, and we hadn't even left the waiting room!

Noah was screaming and writhing, and Gabe was darting around like a wee pinball. He couldn't settle down, or focus, or stop chattering, and his listening skills were even worse than they'd been down in the restaurant. Did I mention that they were the only kids on the tour??

So, to make a long story shorter, most of the tour saw us attempting to calm down our children, both of whom were fussing for completely different reasons. When Noah is tired, it's a Catch-22. The very thing he most needs to do is the very last thing he wants to do. I have a feeling I'm not alone in this. :-) It is one thing to deal with an extremely-tired-but-not-wanting-to-sleep child at home; it's an altogether different thing to deal with it on a small, guided tour group where it's important to keep your voices down so you can hear the tour guide speak. As for Gabriel, he continued as before, only it got more and more intense as the tour wore on. Occasionally, too, he would join Noah in his cries and unwillingness to move. This is what I call "melting into the floor." I have a feeling I'm not alone in this one, either. :-)

It was a bummer to miss out on much of the tour due to focusing on keeping our boys as calm as possible, but I would have rather missed out on it entirely than gone through what we did. We couldn't even go back the way we came. We had to go forwards to go back, like in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," only not so bizarre.

Get this, though. It got so bad at one point that one of the women hung back in a hallway with us as the rest of the group continued the tour in the adjoining room. She held out a piece of paper with a book title on it and said, "I hope this doesn't offend you, but I work with kids on the ADD/Autistic spectrum, and this is a really great book." To be honest, it didn't offend me at all. Rather, the inner me rejoiced at the knowledge that a complete stranger recognized the symptoms and came over to share resources as well as offer encouragement. It was a good feeling, because not everyone agrees with us about Gabriel's condition. He has no official diagnosis at this point, either. Basically, it's just good to know that we're not alone, and not crazy. At least not about that. :-P

Believe it or not, the rest of the day was surprisingly good. After the tour, we put the boys in the pram and went back to the kitchen for lunch. I had a local dish called a Forfar Bridie. To be honest, it was less than delicious, but I think it had been sitting around a wee while. Jeremy had your run-of-the-mill lamb meatballs and ratatouille (insert giggle), which also happened to be not so great. Oh, well. At least the scones were good. :-)

The giftshop, too, was wonderful. Loads of Glamis Castle souvenirs, plus Scottish stuff galore. There was a section of t-shirts with phrases written in Scots, and Jeremy pointed out one that read "Ahm Fer Scunnert!" with the translation, "I'm frustrated," written below. I laughed heartily at that one, and decided that it would be the title of my next blog entry.

:-)

Blessings, and peace in the midst of your trials (even if on your birthday),

Betsy

P.S. Here's a picture of Glamis Castle, too, so you can view the setting of our story.

(taken from www.rampantscotland.com)

P.P.S. Oh, and another piece of trivia: Glamis Castle is said to be the most haunted castle in Scotland. I'd like to take this opportunity to say that we didn't see any ghosts, but our time there could definitely be described as scary! :-)