Start of the School Year

I started school two weeks ago and I was very apprehensive about it because I have never taught computer or the younger grades in Elementary school. I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised that I enjoy it. It is absolutely exhausting and very different from middle school students. You tell a middle school student to sit down and start their work, they usually do it. You tell a kindergarten student to do that, it takes a lot of please and thankyou's, and sweet voices, and focus to get them back to their seats. I was frightened for the children for having me as a teacher but I think they like me and I like them. Now if I had them longer than 45 minutes a week I might not. Ha! But for 45 minutes a week they are so cute and fun. So just to explain what my position is at the International School of Aberdeen I teach Kindergarten, 1st grade, 4th grade and5th grade computer class. I have two classes per grade for 45 minutes a week. Then because obviously that does not fill up an entire week of hours I also assist the Kindergarten, Second grade, and 5th grade classroom teachers. So I go in and help one on one with students who are a little behind or just learning English. I also coach the JV volleyball team and I have my one and only tournament in Stavanger, Norway in two weeks and we are NOT ready. I do have twofunny stories about my first week teaching the little ones. The first computer class I had I was going through my rules and procedures for the computer lab. I had a fun picture slide show since they can't read. One little boy tooted so loud and another boy started giggling and raised his hand, but did not wait for me to call on him of course, and asked did someone just fart. Then he started to giggle. I quickly moved on hoping they all would not start thegiggling and it worked. Then my other funny story is I was again going throughmy rules and procedures with one of the Kindergarten classes and this little girl was sitting right in front of me and I guess she liked my shoe because she took it off and just started to pet it and stare at it in amazement. I very nicely asked Eleanor if I could havemy shoe back and just continued on with my rules. Again this is all so new to me and I have to remind myself not to laugh at this stuff. So far I truly am enjoying it and I look forward to going to work everyday.

Other than work Clifton and I are just doing our normal stuff. Working out, cooking, grocery shopping and hangingout at home. Though last night started football season for us and we got the sports package on SKY TV this year that includes ESPN America. That means we get to actually watch some American football this year. To celebrate this we made queso, guacamole, ranch dip and invited our friends Amber andIan over to watch football with us. After a while of watching football we decided to play a game on the Wii. It is called Just Dance and it is so much fun. You have to mimic the dance moves on the screen and you get points for how well you are matching the dancer on the screen. It was hilarious to watch the boys doing it and it is a really good work out. We had toopen all the windows and get a fan in our living room because we were so hot. Oh that is because no one has air conditioning in Scotland. There is no need! Just an FYI! So this weekend was just a lot of getting stuff done and fun and football with our friends.

Inverness Day 3 Slideshow

Inverness Day 3

We left Inverness that morning heading out to see a bunch of sites on the road home. Our first stop was the Elgin Cathedral.Elgin Cathedral, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, sometimes referred to as The Lantern of the North is a historic ruin in Elgin, Moray, north-east Scotland. It was established in 1224 on an area of ground granted by Alexander II. It was a very beautiful cathedral ruin. The next stop was the Johnston's Cashmere heritage center. I wanted to take a tour through the cashmere mill but it was closed that day. They did have a great cafe where we ate lunch. They had home and clothing stores and a small information center about cashmere. I could have bought everything in the store. Clifton was lucky I got out of there with no bags. I had built up our next stop because Clifton and Zac were not excited about this stop. It was the Dean's Shortbread Factory. I thought there was an actual tour and fresh shortbread off the line. I was wrong. I kept saying how amazing it was going to be and we showed up and they had a viewing gallery of the factory but no one was there because it was Sunday and they were off. They didn't even have any fresh shortbread but we did buy a box on our way out. We all laughed about it though as we were leaving. Lucy fell in love with shortbread too! The last stop of the day was Huntly Castle.Huntly Castle served as a baronial residence for five centuries. Many impressive features include a fine heraldic sculpture and inscribed stone friezes. The earliest stronghold on the site sheltered Robert the Bruce in the 14th century. To date this is my favorite castle ruins. It is not in the most beautiful location like Dunnotar or Urquhart but the inside was kept up very well so there were a lot more rooms to go through. It was an awesome castle. After we walked through Huntly castle we walked over to the playground to let Lucy get out some energy. We had a lot of fun at this playground too. Our trip to Inverness was awesome and I can't wait to go back. I have to say it is the most beautiful place I have ever been. The sights on the Loch Ness are spectacular. Scotland has so much to offer and I can't wait to explore Scotland more.

Trip to Inverness Day 2

Our second day in Inverness started with a boat trip on the Loch Ness and then a drop off at Urquhart Castle for an hour. I wanted to be first in line so we could get a great seat to see the Loch Ness Monster just in case he decided to appear that day. We got an amazing seat at the top of the boat but the crew did not warn us that on moderately wavy days the top of the boat is like a log ride at an amusement park. The first splash just sprinkled us a little and then it was like we were in a monsoon. We grab Lucy and take off for the bottom of the boat almost falling in the process down the stairs but we made it down safely but completely soaked. And I mean soaked! Poor Lucy was traumatized by her first boat ride and held on to me the whole time and anytime the boat rocked too much she would just moan. She did not enjoy the boat ride to the castle. We thought for sure she would never want to get on a boat again. We arrived at Urquhart Castle which offered some of the most amazing views I have ever seen. You can see for yourself in the slide show.The earliest history of the castle may begin in the time of St. Columba in the 6th century. Of course like many of the other castles in Scotland it was burned down so now it is in ruins. After we walked through the ruins we headed back to the dock to get on the boat. We were certain Lucy would throw a fit about getting on the boat again but she ended up loving the boat ride back and loved looking out the back window. After our wet boat ride we went back to the city center of Inverness to take a look at some of the cathedrals, the Victorian Market and Leakey's secondhand bookshop. Inverness is a very small town but has some great sites to see. On our way back to the apartment to settle in for the night we passed Heroes for Sale which is where Zac had the highlight of his vacation. There was a life size Hans Solo frozen in carbonite. He was so excited about this and actually wanted to buy it and have it shipped back. Clifton called and found out it wasn't for sale. Zac was still extremely excited that he was able to see it. When we got home I gave Jamie a pedicure because she had walked so much and she needed one. Lucy was amazed by what was going on and kept putting up her foot to get the same thing done to her and then she wanted to do it to Jamie or I. It was pretty funny! After we put Lucy to bed we hung out on our balcony and there was a Seagull near us and Jamie thought it would be a genius idea to feed it some bread so that his friends would come. Well I told her the Scottish seagulls are not friendly and extremely scary. She soon believed me. Another seagull came to join the party and so now we had two seagulls begging for bread. We decided to go in and they literally stalked us at the doors and windows for the remainder of the night. They had there heads right up by the door just staring in waiting for more bread. Jamie learned her lesson about the seagulls. Don't mess with Scottish seagulls ever! They are crazy. We then went to bed after a very eventful day but we still had another one left.

Trip to Inverness Day 1

I am breaking up our trip to Inverness into three different blog entries because we did so much in 3 days and there are so many pictures. So first of all my friend Amber told me that there are so many great things to see on the way to and from Inverness so Clifton and I decided to make this an awesome road trip. On Friday, we took off by 10AM and our first stop was Glenfiddich distillery in Dufftown. Clifton and I have been there before but we agreed it is a great distillery to see and it is a free tour with three drams of whiskey to taste at the end. I was a wonderful sister and aunt and volunteered to watch Lucy while Jamie, Zac and Clifton went through the tour since I had already done it. So Lucy and I had coffee, milk and a scone at the Coffee shop. I didn't think Lucy needed to go on a whiskey tour quite yet so we enjoyed coloring and eating our scones. After the tour I set up a picnic for us all to enjoy the beautiful day. Clifton thought I was a big dork by wanting to do this but we all ended up having a great lunch and afterwards he said I was right by wanting to have a picnic because it was a beautiful day. I just said "Hello I am always right." He is learning. But I will say he wouldn't let me bring my proper picnic basket because it was too big and I was so upset because I couldn't wait to use it, and it was packed and ready to go and he said no we have to put it in a different bag. Even without my proper picnic basket it was still a great picnic. Afterwards, we headed to a strawberry farm to pick strawberries and raspberries. You just got a little tin and headed out to the strawberry farms and picked away. It was great fun. Jamie was on a mission to find the biggest strawberries so she took off on her own and started running back towards us with two handfuls of huge strawberries. She was so proud of herself. Jamie and I were over picking strawberries and wanted to move on to picking blueberries which they didn't even have on this farm but in the process of looking for the blueberries we came across the best playground we have ever seen. It had adult size four wheel bikes, trampoline built into the ground, and a big slide. By the way, Lucy wasn't even with us when we started to play. We had so much fun and then Zac, Clifton and Lucy found us acting like children and Lucy and Clifton joined in. Zac got very serious about raspberry picking and took off to find the best ones. We had so much fun at this farm and then it started to rain so we decided to get to Inverness. On the way to Inverness the roads are very windy and can cause you to become very car sick. I have had issues with this before so I warned Jamie and Zac about it. Sure enough when we were in the city of Inverness and five minutes from our apartment Lucy lost her lunch all over the car and ruined all of the raspberries that Clifton and Zac spent so much time picking. Poor thing didn't have anything left in her stomach but within 10 minutes she was fine and ready to play. We decided since we had had such a big day that we would just hang out at the apartment that night and eat dinner so Clifton and I went and bought groceries and came back and prepared dinner. Our apartment was incredible. We had a massive balcony (bigger than the apartment) that overlooked the river Ness. Too bad it was ridiculously windy because we couldn't really enjoy it the first night. Our first day to our Inverness vacation was definitely a success and we were ready for the next day.

Lucy and Brown European Vacation

As I said in my previous posts Jamie and Zac let Clifton and I watch Lucy for five days while they went to London and Paris. Lucy really had fun with Clifton and I and her favorite spot during the 5 days at our house was the window. We have a beautiful bay window that looks out onto a busy street with tons of cars passing and people walking by. So one day she pulled the chair up and put a pillow and a blanket and just laid there while watching a movie and looking outside. When she didn't make a bed there she would just pull herself up onto the window seal and stare out. She loved Clifton to sit there and count cars with her and smell the flowers.

I have also included some of Jamie and Zac's pictures to London and Paris. They had a great time and were very exhausted when they got back from all the walking and sightseeing. Jamie's favorite part of the vacation was Harrod's department store in London. She fell in love with the store. Out of all the things to love in London my sister chose a department store. So typical!! :) Zac really enjoyed a lot of things and you can tell if you look at the memory cards from his camera. He took over a 1000 pictures in 5 days. Jamie said she was having to dodge pictures the entire vacation as Zac was trying to get shots over her head. You would think that they would be ready to just chill for a day when they arrived back in Aberdeen but no Jamie and Zac decided they wanted to go to Edinburgh for the day. So the next day Clifton took them to the airpot by 730 and they were on the train headed to Edinburgh to do more sightseeing. They came back that night by 9 and had a great time.

Hazelhead Park with Lucy and Amber

Today I took Lucy over to my friend Amber's house and then we walked to Hazelhead park. Hazelhead park has a pet corner with all kinds of animals to look at. They also have a great playground and a cafe. Lucy had so much fun in the pet corner and swinging at the playground. Lucy may not have gotten to go to London and Paris but she is definitely getting a little vacation of her own with me!