Weekend Away

I had a three day weekend this past week so we decided to take a trip to Edinburgh. In 6 years of marriage we have never been on a vacation for just the two of us. We have always been with family or friends. So before baby comes, we took the chance to get away.

We took a bus down Friday night. On Saturday we went to see the castle and the Queen's palace. When we were in Edinburgh in July, it was pouring rain and the view from the castle was not good. It was extremely foggy. The Queen was also in residence at the palace so we couldn't tour it. The view from the castle was much clearer this time and we enjoyed our palace tour. The first picture below is the front of the castle and the next two are views from the castle.




Saturday night we went to see the movie Jumper and had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant. Sunday we went to a church that our pastor recommended. It was very similar to the church we attend. We also went to an art museum and the Scottish Museum. We headed home Monday morning. It was a nice, relaxing weekend. I do have to laugh at the way we hop on buses now like it is nothing. We took different buses all around Edinburgh with no problem.

I reached the 8 month mark of my pregnancy this week. I asked Jason to take a picture and was shocked when I saw it. My bump looks huge! If you look at the 27 week picture on the previous post there in quite a difference. Part of it is the type of shirt in this photo. Part of it is that the photo is closer up. But I guess the bottom line is my bump is definitely bigger!!!

7 1/2 weeks to go...and more growing to do!

Scottish Terminology about Pregnancy

I have learned a few new phrases related to pregnancy here in Scotland. One is that they call the belly/baby a bump. I never really thought much about it until I was saying "My bump" while at home for Christmas and everyone thought it was so funny. People here in Scotland will say "How is your bump?" I even received Christmas cards at work to "Erin and Bump."

Another phrase is "How are you keeping?" They will ask this instead of "How are you feeling?" or "How are you doing?"

One that is hard to explain is the term "neat." People will say to me "You look so neat," or "You have a neat bump." They are not meaning "cool" or "tidy." It basically means I am proportioned well. I am mostly baby. I know what they are meaning when they say it, but it is hard to convey.

I will also share a few funny questions from 4 year olds about my baby. They have become very interested now that they can see my bump.
"Miss Erin, how will your baby get out?" My response was..."Ask your mum about that one."

"How did your baby get there?" I can't remember how I dodged that one, but I did.

When told "Miss Erin has a baby in her tummy," one child asked, "Did you eat to much food and it turned into a baby?"

For those of you asking for a new belly shot, here it is. This is at 27 weeks.

Christmas 2007

We had a wonderful time in the States for Christmas. The trip over was not so wonderful. We almost missed our flight in London and our flight in Dallas due to weather delays. However, we made it and were very thankful we did.

We spent two weeks in Kansas City at Jason's parent's house. My parents came there as well. It was fun for everyone to see my belly and feel the baby move. We ate lots of good food, played some cards and a game called Farkle, and did lots of shopping. We always have a list of things we want to bring back with us that we can't get here or that we can get cheaper in the States. We had snow three times while we were there. The ground was covered the entire time. Somehow though, it was still not as cold as Aberdeen. The wetness in Aberdeen makes the cold seem worse.


Our Moms and Jason's sister also had a baby shower for us. We received a lot of the essentials we need to start off with. We managed to get all the baby shower things plus a stroller back with us on the plane! Jason worked very hard to pack it all. The cake says "Congratulations on your bump." I'll explain that in the next blog.


We actually have a funny story about our boxes. Jason had to make boxes to fit certain dimensions for the plane. So he had worked really hard to tape them together securely and pack them so no space was wasted and we could fit it all. Well, we get to the airport to go home and send the boxes through security. They start to open one of the boxes, and we are thinking "Great! They will never get it all packed again!". What triggered their sensors was a bottle of Head Country BBQ sauce. Jason's uncle Carter brought it to us from Oklahoma. It is great stuff! The security guy pulls it out and says "BBQ Sauce?!?" Jason says, "That is the best stuff you can buy." The security guy says, "You must not be from Kansas City." Jason replies, "I am, but it is still the best stuff you can buy." They must have thought we were crazy. Oh well.

When we got back to Aberdeen, we immediately started looking for a 2 bedroom place. We had thought we might get by for a while with our 1 bedroom, but quickly realized after bringing baby stuff home that it would not work. So we are currently flat hunting.

Update

Just an update to let you know how things are going. We are headed home for Christmas in a few weeks. We will spend two weeks in Kansas City. We are very excited about seeing family and friends, eating good food, and of course (for Jason) watching American football and playing the X-box.

Things with the baby are going well. We had a scan at 20 weeks and enjoyed seeing our little one. Apparently we have an active baby, which made getting good pictures difficult. I think we may have a football player (soccer that is) with all the kicking he/she has been doing. I have reached the stage of being obviously pregnant. Many people have asked in the past few weeks. This picture was taken at 20 weeks.


Hope all of you have a Merry Christmas.

Pregnancy Pictures- Week 17

I decided it was time to post some pregnancy pictures. It has just become noticeable in the last few weeks. The first picture is week 16 and the next week 17. I felt the baby move yesterday! It was so neat.

Germany Part 2

Here are some more pictures and information from our second week in Germany.

On Saturday we went to the town of Halle, which is the town where our friend went to University. It is about the size of Aberdeen. It was an East German city and the effects of that can still be seen. People are updating and rebuilding many of the buildings there. However, you will have a newly remodeled building connected with a run down vacant building with windows broken out and graffiti. The picture below is one example.



We went to Michael's former church on Sunday morning. The service was entirely in German, so we understood very little. However, the people were very friendly and some of Michael's friends made a very nice lunch for us. On Sunday afternoon, we visited Leipzig. Michael's former pastor gave us a tour. It was a very cold and rainy day! The picture below is of Thomaskirche. This was the church where the composer Bach attended. His tomb is at the front of the church.



On Monday we spent the day touring Berlin. There was so much to see. This is a picture of the Fernsehturm (TV Tower). It was built by the Russians to look over West Berlin. The ironic things is that when the sun shines on the tower, a cross forms (2nd picture).



The first picture below is of the Berliner Dom (Cathedral). It was a beautiful building with incredible detail. The next picture is the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). This is the gate that separated East and West Berlin. The wall would have been just on the other side. This picture is taken on the east side, looking towards the west.



When we were in Leipzig I commented to Heather about the funny crosswalk signals they had. It was a man in a funny hat, not the plain looking man they usually have. When we got to Berlin there was a whole store selling "traffic man" merchandise. From what we understand, this traffic man can only be found in East Germany.


This is a piece of the Berlin wall. At some point people had painted murals all over the west side of the wall. The next picture is of a church that was damaged during WWII. They decided not to rebuild it as a memorial for peace.



On Tuesday morning we were headed back to Ingolstadt. We stopped in Potsdam to see a castle. The castle is in a huge park, that actually had two castles and many other old building. The first castle was called Schloss Sanssouci (Sanssouci Palace). It was built in the 1700's. There was also an old windmill near the castle that we thought was really cool.




The next castle was called Neues Palais (New Palace). It was huge! I couldn't get the whole building in one picture and I was standing very far away! The second picture is of the guest quarters behind the castle. Wouldn't you like to be a guest there?


On Wednesday we visited Nurnberg. It is a city about an hour north of Ingolstadt. It is known for its gingerbread at Christmas time and its bratwursts. We enjoyed a lunch of bratwursts, sauerkraut, and brezen (big, soft pretzels). It was so delicious that Michael and Jason were tempted to let the girls see the town while they stayed to eat some more! We also tried the gingerbread and brought some home with us. The first picture is of a fountain that was meant to be the top of a church. It was very ornate. The second picture is a view of the street that leads up a steep hill to the castle.



This is an interesting statue Jason discovered in one of the churches. It is a representation of Satan. The front looks like a normal man. The back shows rot and decay.



The style of some of the buildings in Nurnberg was really neat. Here are two examples.



On Thursday we took a boat trip on the Danube River. The fall colours of the trees were really pretty, however it was a hazy day so they don't show in the picture. It was a 6 km boat trip in which the driver told us some geological information about the river. It ended at an old monastery.


We had a wonderful time!

Germany Part 1

We just enjoyed a two week trip to Germany. We went with two friends from church. One is from Germany. His family lives near Munich. We stayed with them most of the time. We drove their because our friend wanted to take his car home to leave it. It was a 24 hour drive from Aberdeen to Ingolstadt, Germany. We left around 5:00 pm on Saturday.

The weather the first week was beautiful. It was warm and sunny. We greatly enjoyed the sunshine. The second week turned colder (30's and low 40's). However, it stayed dry which was nice. It snowed while we were there, except it snowed in Ingolstadt while we were in Berlin so we missed it.

The first place we visited was Ingolstadt. It is a good sized city north of Munich. The old part of the city is completely surrounded by a wall. This first picture shows one of the entrances to the old city. The second picture shows a clock tower. The old part of the city had a really nice feel to it. People were outside enjoying the weather. The pace of life seemed very slow and relaxed.


The next day we visited Munich. We went to the Olympic Park and went up in the Olympic Tower. We had a great view of the city. Too bad it was a hazy day.


Then we went into the old part of Munich and had a guided tour. We learned a lot about the history of Munich. The first picture below is of the New Rathaus (Town Hall). It looks really old because of the Gothic Style but was built in the early 1900's. The next picture is of a statue inside Pfarrkirche St. Peter (a Catholic church). Whenever the Pope dies they climb up and take this hat off the statue. When a new Pope is elected, the hat is returned to the statues head. The third picture is from the inside of Theatriner Kirche. It was an amazing church with very detailed walls and pictures on the ceiling.


At the end of the tour, our guide told us a story about how people would rub the nose of this lion because it can make you rich. We thought it was a funny story so we took a picture of Heather and I rubbing the nose. We stood in the area for about 10 minutes afterwards and many of the people that passed came up to rub the nose. We were surprised that so many people really did it. The next picture is of Jason and I in the English Gardens. The fall trees were so beautiful.


On Wednesday we went south of Munich to a castle, Neuschwanstein. The castle sits up on a hill and we hiked about 30 minutes to get up to it. It is called the Fairytale Castle because the king who built it had the walls painted to tell the stories of different fairy tales. The funny thing is the King only spent about 170 days in the castle before he died and it is only 1/3 finished.


This is Mary's Bridge. It is behind the castle and is the best spot to get pictures of the castle. It was very high up! The second picture is a view of the Alps from the castle.

After Neuschwanstein, we drove into Austria through part of the Alps and then back into Germany to Linderhof Castle. It was built by the same king as Neuschwanstein. It was much smaller but was beautifully decorated and had pretty scenery.


On Thursday we went to Dachau Concentration Camp. The history of what happened there was so sad. We also went to Rosenburg, where we saw a bird show. There were many birds, such as eagles, hawks, and vultures. They showed the different stages of training them. It was very neat. On Friday we stayed at home to relax and had a nice dinner with Michael's whole family. His mom cooked a goose for us. We also had potatoes and red cabbage. It was a wonderful meal.

Stay tuned for part 2! Hope you are not overwhelmed by the pictures. And this is a very limited selection!