Prayerboard

Please make use of the second chat box I put on the blog. It is for the purpose of keeping eachother in prayer. We will post requests and we would like you to post requests as well. Don't leave us out!

CONGRATULATIONS TO JOSH!!

He finished and turned in his final essay for the semester. He is going to take a wee break next week before continuing his work on his dissertation. Now he will be concentrating on this work during the summer.

Some shots

We had a wonderful sunny day today, though still a bit chilly. I wanted to get out and snap some shots. There are more on flickr.

We do get some beautiful sunsets here!

Ah, well, I did touch up the photo a wee bit, but even still it does not portray the beautiful colors we saw. This is about as much of the sun we saw all day, so we enjoyed it!

Another Fire Drill?

We knew this one wasn't a drill because it was 9pm. They usually test the fire alarm weekly during the day. We pause, waiting to see if it stops. After about 30 seconds it usually does. Last night the alarm went off and we knew it wasn't just being tested. We got our coats and shoes on quickly, thinking that someone probably just triggered the alarm with their burnt toast or something, though still thinking if we should bring anything with us: passports? cash? computer? No, I just grab my purse and make sure I'll be warm outside.

When we stepped into the hall there was a strong smell of cigarette smoke. Oh, brother! Is that what this is from? We are on the 8th floor. The smell gets stronger as we head down (slowly, because it is probably nothing). Just before we get to the lowest level it gets very smokey. I raise my glove to my nose and offer the other to Josh. I take it away for a second to see what the smoke smells like. I instantly begin coughing. I couldn't breath without my glove. My heart started to pound because I think this is the real thing. I think of all of our possessions (which isn't much) and our passports (which would be a hassle to replace). I also get angry at the people standing RIGHT in front of the door, preventing us to make a quick escape (I am still having a hard time breathing). And I step outside and it's drizzling.

We find a familiar face and make contact. He is from another building in our complex and seems annoyed at this drill. He is shocked when we tell him there really is smoke. He says he noticed from his windows that there was a party going on in one of the lower level flats. Another friend says, "If this is a real fire, I'm going back in there to get my computer. My dissertation is on there!"

The fire brigade comes and goes to the other building (Hey, wait! It's this one!). They shut the alarm off and head into our building. They are in there a few minutes and students start heading back in. After a while the firemen come out and they are not stopping people from going in. So, we say good night to our friends and start to head back in. I had to bring my glove back up to my nose when we entered the building. There were people holding drinks standing in the hall which must have set off the alarm. The smoke is pretty thick. I hear someone say, "It was just an accident. It's not like a big deal or anything!" I feel a little growl come from my throat.

We get back to our flat. After a few minutes we notice the smell of the smoke drifting in through the vent in our loo. How annoying! At least no one was hurt.

Last Day of Class!

Can you believe it is here already? Today was Josh's last day of class. He still can't relax though. I has 2 essays due by next Friday. Please pray that he will glean and understand what he needs from the books he is reading and will have a clear mind to put his thoughts together in the essays.

By the way, it's snowing again.

On site rehearsal

Today was our first rehearsal for the passion play in Prince's Street Gardens. Let's just say at least it wasn't raining!
This is part of our group taking a coffee break to warm up. You would also find some of us jumping around or running the steps to keep warm. Let's pray that four weeks from today will be much warmer!

1,000 Hits! Woo-hoo!

I just looked at the blog and noticed that I was the 1000th hit since I started keeping track in November. Of course, some of those hits are mine looking for any messages that might get posted, but I am so glad that you have taken an interest in our lives and our little adventures here in Scotland. There will be many more to follow (especially as this cold weather lets up!).

Complainin' wont get you nowheres

You heard the woes of the tiny fridge when we first arrived. You heard my sobs of the dinky freezer and no chance of ice cream. Well, our fridge seems to have gone kaput (yes, just shortly after all that work of defrosting the freezer). After dumping a 2 litre jug of curdled milk (the temp would not fall below 57F/14C) and turning the thermostat to its highest setting, we finally asked for help. Someone from the Uni came right away to take a look yesterday. Today, as I came in from grocery shopping Josh announced there was a big present in the living room. A new fridge! But AAAAH! I looked inside and immediately noticed an important element missing. The freezer! Well, I must say it IS nice to have a nice new fridge where the door is not sagging down to the ground and there is much more space for store things. But we did recently go to Costco and filled the freezer with chicken...

A Package!

Some friends from our church back home sent us a carepackage. It was stuffed with goodies and notes and cards. Thanks, guys. It was really encouraging.

Another Project

I made this puppy yesterday. He is resting on the handbag I am working on.

New Hobby

A few weeks back I started a new hobby: needle felting. A lot of people didn't really know what it was and Andrea suggested I ought to put some pictures on the blog, so here they are. The first one is a ball and a ladybird (ladybug). I didn't have the appropriate colors for the bug so I just had fun. The second pic is a bunny. He is sort of scary without eyes, but I don't have any beads here.

Needle felting is achieved by taking a big clump of wool (cleaned, dyed, and combed) and using a special barded needle to agitate the wool. You put all these peices together to create your animal or whatever you want to make. These are just my first projects. I did them the same day I got the materials. I didn't have a pattern or anything, just going off a picture. I am working on a small handbag, but I am not sure that it will turn out. I don't have a picture of that yet.

I have found that felting is very popular in Japan, but not so here. So the only books I can really find (for needle felting, not wet felting) are in Japanese! We will see how that works.

Sun and Snow!

I was very excited as I headed out to work today at 6am. There was light in the sky! By the time I got to work the darkness was being chased away. When I am back to work after my holiday next week it will feel like noon when I start! Well, I suppose it wont be that bright yet. One thing, though. By 8:00 it felt like it should have been 11:00 with how bright it was. Even so, the day went by fast enough today.

We had a small snow storm today! I was sad that I had to be at work because I just knew the snow would stop and melt before I got home to take pictures. It was a pretty sight from our wall to wall windows at Starbucks. We must have had a couple of inches. I have never seen cars handle snow so poorly! They had a hard time making it up the hill in front of our store without turning side-ways. It is now sunny again and most of the snow is gone.

Well, it's been a sad week. It was nice to rejoice in these little pleasures.

Please Pray

For those who haven't already heard, Josh's dad has been in the hospital since Thursday. Reports last night sounded very bad, but an e-mail this morning was more positive. We do not know what will happen, but we are ready to fly home if we need to.

Please pray for wisdom for the doctors. It sounds like they had a doctor what was overmedicating him and may have misdiagnosed him with pnuemonia. They now have an internist from Mayo who seems to be doing a bit better.

Also pray for the family as they are at the hospital round the clock.