Ferry Boats and Trains

We went to Glasgow for a day and this is us on the ferry from Dunoon to Gourock. The ferry terminal is at the train station and you can take the train straight to Glasgow. Jake loved the ride on the boat and the train.

It was a misty morning and you could barely see the shore from the boat. It cleared up by that afternoon and was really warm after that (warmer than usual for here). The high has been between 72-78 the past few days. It rained today though and should be cooler (in the 60s) the next few days.

This is the ferry ride back. We left around 9:30 to walk down to the ferry terminal and arrived back in Dunoon at my grandparents house by 5:30. It was a nice day out and I will have to post more pictures soon. I have so many it is hard to choose which ones to post and we are having so much fun it is hard to take a long enough break to post! Jake was very tired after such long day. Picture of our trip to Glasgow will have to wait untill tomorrow as we are going to bath Jake and Mari right now!

The trip over.

Here is Jake running to say goodbye to my Dad.

This is a baby room that they had available in the Amsterdam airport which gave us a nice break before we caught the third and final plane on the trip over. We left for the Tupelo airport at 3:00 p.m. Thursday and we arrived at Gran and Granpa's around 6:00 the next Evening (Friday). The time here is six hours ahead, so once you subtract that it was a 22 hour adventure! It wasn't as bad as I worried it might be as they both slept on the main flight over. The children still haven't adjusted to the time difference and I don't think the long daylight hours are helping. I remember crying because Mom was making me go to bed and it was still light outside as it stays light until about 11 at night and even then doesn't get nearly as dark as it does at home. It also gets light very early in the morning, but people tend to sleep in over here (which we are enjoying) so we haven't woken at 3 or 4 to see exactly what time the sun is rising!

Ready or not, here we come!

As you can see we are all packed! Jake is very proud of his back pack full of fun and is trying to show it off here. Mari thinks we are playing a game and every time I put her down for the picture she laughs and speed crawls to me and climbs my leg all while giggling! We dropped James off at work around 7:30 and we are to pick him up at 3:00 and head to the Tupelo airport. So the next time I blog we will be in Scotland!

Some political and economic humor...

Here is the latest Jib Jab political cartoon. This is the youtube version to see more of them from years past or for a higher quality version visit www.jibjab.com. Below is Big Box Mart for Daddy (we were talking about it Monday and hadn't seen it before).

Where is Nana?

What have you done with my Nana?

Jake and Mari are both missing their Nana (as am I) but both seem to have drastically different theories. Jake holds GG Mac (Granny McLean) responsible as he knows that Nana is at GG Mac and GG Bill's house and he has seen pictures on Nana's blog of her and GG Mac "playing' together. If you ask him he says "Nana at work. Play with GG Mac. No, no GG Mac. Sad." Mari on the other hand seems to think Papoo just isn't bringing her over to our house for some reason. She had a good talk with him about when he stopped by after work today! I can remember last time Mom went to Scotland (last May I think) Jake was 18 months old and when we went over to my parents house he was distraught to find she wasn't there. He kept asking about her when she didn't come over to our house in the morning, but when he saw she wasn't at her house either he really didn't know what to think. I am sure when we get to Scotland and see Nana, they will both be wondering where Papoo is.

Taking a break to play.

We start off playing in Mari's room, but Jake soon got to hyper and started trying to climb the walls so I sent him down to his room to calm down for a bit.

If you look closely you can see Mari left her room in search of Jake!

She plays with his zebra, while he plays in his tent.

She tries to figure out a way to walk from the zebra to the train table and finally gives up and crawls.

In the picture above she was making her pteradactyl noise. As you can see Jake has an ox, chicken, zebra and wise man on his farm!

Octagon or Hexagon?

Not to be stereotypical or racist but I thought most Asian countries were ahead of American students in the math arena and I may be a "stupid" American but I really think that whoever it is in China that designed this foam mat might need to brush up on their Geometry. Of course it did take me two years to notice it! Also, it was probably a matter of something getting lost in translation. From listening to James talk about his daily communications (at work as a design engineer) with China, it probably went something like this:

American Company Designer: I want this list of objects printed on the foam with these corresponding 26 capital alphabet letter and for the remaining two pieces of foam we will just put some shapes on it for filler.
Chinese Company Employee: No problem!

Two weeks later:
Chinese Company Employee: I can't open these graphics with our illegally copied software. We will replace them with something we can find over here.
American Company Designer: As long as it is similar.
Chinese Company Employee: No problem!

Jake and Mari help me pack for Scotland!

You can see the packing is in progress in our living room. Jake is bringing his yo yo as he has been disappointed with my lack of yo yo skills and I am hoping GG (Great Granpa) Bill might be up to the challenge of showing Jake what a yo yo is really supposed to do!

A picture of Mari cruising along the couch! She crawled inside her suitcase yesterday- while I was trying to pack it. She is a very determined little girl and she gets quite upset when we take something away from her or her away from something. She lets out this shriek that sounds like something out of Jurassic Park! James calls her out little pterodactyl!

These last two pictures were an attempt to show her first tooth on your bottom left. If you enlarge the picture you can see her second tooth visible through the skin on your bottom right, but it has not broken through the skin yet so it isn't official! Any day or any hour now and we should have two teeth!

I should also note the cute little outfit Mari is wearing was given to her on Saturday by James' sister Cheri who came over to visit us and help distract the kids while we did laundry and started packing. Jake is wearing one the shirts James' mom Ann brought back from Nicaragua.

Hit the ground running!

Today I registered for my Teacher Assistantship training program and orientation online. I have to attend the two sessions at Mississippi State University on August 11 and 12, which is the Monday and Tuesday after we get back from Scotland! Classes start the week of Monday August 18. I am taking three classes:

Human Resources in the Public Sector Thursdays 2:00-4:50 p.m.
Rural Government and Administration I Thursday 6:00-8:50 p.m.
Public Policy Formation and Implementation Friday 9:00-11:50 a.m.

It is most probable that the class I will be assisting with this fall with be an 9:30-11:00 Tuesday Thursday section of American Government. I won't know for sure for a few more weeks though.

I am very excited but also nervous.

Here is a link to the program I have joined:
http://www.msstate.edu/dept/politicalscience/programs/BAinPS.html

Toast!

Mari's new favorite food is toast. Since it is Mari's favorite, it is of course Jake's favorite as well (we joke his two most important role models are Daisy Dog and Baby Mari). Mari eats her toast plain, Jake prefers butter and jam on his, which has Mari very envious as you can see below.

Early in the morning of July 16, 2008

Mari in her room. Some of the toys should look familiar. I hope Gran is happy to see the dinosaur/dragon toy survived Jake and is enjoying a long life! Mari seems to enjoy having her own room and she slept through the night for the first time last night! I hope it is not a fluke! As glad as I was to get a good nights sleep, I am a little sad that she won't be my baby much longer!

Mari crawling towards me.

She was happy to see me!

I tried to get her to show her new tooth to the camera (She got her first tooth yesterday evening-July 15), but to no avail! I did get some cute pictures of her chewing on a teething ring though!

At first I thought she was offering it to me, but when you see the look on her face (below) while she was doing it- she might have been hitting me with it.

Big blue determined eyes!

Below you can see how she loops her tongue through it. She loves sticking her tongue out. I call her my baby giraffe when she does it.

Jake slept in and was disappointed that we were already up and playing. Most of the time Mari and I cuddle or play in mine and James' bed until he wakes in and comes in to join us.

Mari came crawling over to cheer him up and between her excitement to see him and a promise of toast, he was cheery again in no time!

Mari practices singing while waiting on her breakfast!