Pregnancy

Hiya,.....well as many of you know being pregnant can be just plain weird sometimes. Not only do you get a kick in the gut that can sometimes make you nauseous, declare that chocolate is the best thing ever discovered, and run to the bathroom every 5 minutes, but you can have some of the craziest dreams. Like last night - I dreamed that I cut off the head of a huge cobra snake because he was chasing Jailee off the toilet! Maybe the potty training is getting to me too!?!
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We are now 20wks along. I can't believe that we're half way through this already! Everyone is doing fine and Jailee is very excited to be a big sister. We had a doc appointment the other day and he said he's 90% sure he didn't see any boy parts during the scan. Jim and I couldn't tell one shadow from the next, unlike the scan with Jailee who being immodest disclosed everything to all. Having said that, I'm hanging on to my 10% that "jr" may be a steve (mark gets it). Either way we're happy that the baby appears to be in great health and so is mommy despite her already 10lb weight gain! yipe!!!!
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Just thought I'd share that along with a couple of recent pics.
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Enjoy

Jailee and her friends from music class
Jaycie, Jailee, Jackson, Sophie

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Jailee and Jaycie hop into a convertible

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Jailee at the park in her poodle skirt
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Jailee and Daddy roasting marshmallows

Scotland

Hello All! Here's some pics from our trip to Scotland last week. There are lots so hopefully you won't get too bored!!

Day one: We drove north to the coastal town of Whitley Bay, England, to spend our first night. The weather wasn't hot by any means, but still pleasant enough to enjoy the beach.

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Day two: After leaving Whitley Bay we traveled further north into Scotland - What a beautiful drive it was! The scenery, evergreens and mountains, made us feel at home. We stopped in Edinburgh and were able to visit the castle and a Whisky distillery while there. Lots of information. The Military Tattoo, basically a huge parade, was gearing up but we didn't stay for the late night festivities.

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The Royal Mile
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Street performers
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Edinburgh Castle
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Entrance to the Castle
(I'm assuming this is a guard shack)
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The Wee Whisky Shop
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Day three: After leaving Edinburgh we traveled further north to stay in the town of Dundee about 12 miles north of St. Andrews, yes THE St. Andrews! St. Andrews, the town, was actually founded because of a cathedral built there. Golf was invented there after some children were moved from the streets to a field to play with their sticks and rocks. After some time the game of golf developed but was soon outlawed because the youths were spending too much time at golf and not enough time in archery practice. Some years later King Charles (I believe that's the right king) got hooked on golf so not only was it legal to play again, but the king donated a section of land to the people which now is home to "The Old Course". You can play golf here every day except on Sunday when it is opened up to the town people, for just about anything they want to do there. During the week and on Saturdays if you're a male with a handicap of 26 or a female with a handicap of 34 you can entry a lottery to play the course. If chosen then you must fork up in the neighborhood of 160.00 British pounds, about $320.00 American dollars to play. Believe it or not there are always people lined up to play. We took a walking tour with "Alister" who was full of information for us; too much to go into right now. Alister did take us onto the course where we were able to get our picture on the famous bridge. St. Andres is home to (i think) 6 courses and The Old Course is the only one closed on Sundays.


Our hotel/b&b
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Jailee preparing for her day
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The St. Andrews Cathedral ruins
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Swilcan Bridge at St. Andrews
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You can't see this very well, but this golfer has taken his golden retriever out for the day as well!
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The Old Course Clubhouse on the left
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A links style put put course
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While touring the museum Jailee was able to find all the birds scattered throughout and got a prize at the end of the day. In the last room were games, a small putting green, colors, dress-ups, and this photo-op.
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After leaving St. Andrews which is on the east coast of Scotland we traveled 3hrs to the west coast of Scotland to a little resort hotel, Portsonachan. The resort is nestled in the hills and sits on a Loch (lake). While there we did visit the small village of Inverery about 15min away where we toured the castle and jail along with a stop in the Whisky store for Jim and the wellie's (rain boots) store for me. One day we spent a few hours on a small boat and finished off with feeding the ducks. This was a most relaxing and needed vacation for us all!


Portsonachan Resort Hotel
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Our patio
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I'm boating
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The boots obviously weren't necessary!

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Inverery Castle
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Inverery Jail
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Jailee trying out a bunk in the old jail house
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Caught!!
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Jim and Jailee trying out the bed in the New jail house
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Jailee talks to a "prisoner" out on her daily 1hr exercise.
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We put Jailee to work while in jail

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After our glorious 3 nights and 4 days at the resort we headed back to England, but not before stopping of in Renton, Scotland for a look around. The town is pretty empty these days save for a few "pentioners" (retirees). There is no work source close by and the town has pretty much closed up shop as far as business goes. Below is the most picturesque part of the town! :o)

That concludes our Scotland portion of the presentation. We hope to be in touch again soon. Enjoy the photos.

jx4

Back in touch

Hiya!.....well we've had computer problems for quite some time but it seems that we may be up and running again - for the time being. Jim located an old laptop we had here and it's working so far. Thing is, it locks up from time to time so it may be that we get only a couple of pics posted at a time. I'll do my best to keep up on things weekly so that we don't get so far behind again.

Anywho,............what a great time we've been having with company this year. Marc and Linda were here for 3wks and as you can see from our last post we had a great time while they were here. We miss them tons!! Just the other day Jailee had a sad face and started to sniffle. I asked her what's wrong and she said, 'I miss my Nana' - so precious. Of course we had to relay the message when we talked to them a couple of days later.

Our next visitors were my friend Kristin and her daughter Lindsey. Lindsey turned 18 this year and graduated from High School as well. - what a great graduation present!! While they were here we spent time touring around London and some other sights here in England then took off for a weekend trip to Paris, just the girls. Jailee stayed with daddy and although I missed her terribly it was nice to have some time to myself with old friends. I shed a few tears after they left, and Jailee took one from my cheek and told me that I was happy now because she had my tears. (thanks for that, Nana - very sweet)

Tomorrow we will go pick up Mark from the airport. He and Jim are scheduled to go to Goodwood, The Festival of Speed, this weekend. Jim is like a kid the night before a trip to Disneyland - or Christmas. It's funny to see his eyes light up when he talks about Mark being here and the things they'll be doing. This journey overseas has made us both realize how much we appreciate our good friends back home. Brothers and sisters really. Jailee is also excited to get Mark's room ready and asked me if 'Uncle Mark' will give her a hug. I assured her he would.

We're planning a trip to Scotland in August so that should be exciting. Also, my cousin Janet and a friend will be here in Sept. so we're looking forward to that as well. Lots going on, and we're grateful for the opportunities. Keeps us close to home in our hearts.

As you can see, my life revolves around Jailee mostly these days. I'm sure people in close proximity get tired of me saying, "Jailee said this... and Jailee did that...." Since most of you are not around you get to read about it! Sorry if it's boring, but as I said - that is my life these days!!

So please enjoy the photo(s) - not sure how many will load!!

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Lindsey, Me and Kristin at a cafe in Paris
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Jailee and Jaycie
Haven't they changed?!!
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Daddy is getting his pigs painted!
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Jailee - aka: Princess
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Me and Jailee at Playhouse Disney Live
When Mickey and Minnie stepped out on stage the look on Jailee's face made me want to cry. I've never seen
her more excited!!
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Kristin and me at Piccadilly Circus - London
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Kristin and me with Will Smith
Madame Tussuad's Wax Museum
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Kristin 'taking out Lance'
Madame Tussuad's
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Hope you're all having a wonderful summer. We've had a couple of hot days, but it looks like the rain is settling in again. Maybe by late August we'll hit the high 80's? Wish us luck!!

j's

Ireland

While Jim's parents were here we decided to take a quick trip to Ireland - Dublin to be exact. We stayed two nights and were blessed with 3 glorious days of good weather. When I say good weather I mean only about 10min of rain one day while we were indoors at a prescheduled tour. Our only regret is that we didn't stay another day or two! :o)

A castle north of Dublin; the name of which I cannot remember right now

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On the second day of our trip we scheduled a 3hr tour for the north Dublin coastline. Damien, our tour guide in the back left corner, announced "this tour's for every age folks". He then said he had a job for Jailee and asked that she come outside to help him feed the ducks. She was so excited!! Mommy was nervous (mommy doesn't care for ducks) :o)
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St Peters Cathedral

Having lived in Ely for the past few years we're spoiled to the magnificence of our own cathedral which can make many seem not so breathtaking.

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Us with the famous, so I'm told, Molly Malone - aka 'the tart with the cart'
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Trinity College

The library here is home to the Book of Kells, one of the oldest copies of the 4 gospels

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Temple Bar Area

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Girls night out in Dublin - Jailee posing with the group in the Temple Bar area
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We also visited the Guiness Brewery while in Dublin. A 7 story building which tells the story of how Guiness has been brewed through the years. This photo at the top is in a room with a 360 degree view of the city.

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The land flowing with barley and hops, and yes it tastes different in Dublin