Rise and Shine!

I think I have written before that my favorite part of the day (as a mother) is first thing in the morning. Friday morning I took some pictures to illustrate why. Normally Mari wakes up first and then I bring her to bed with me for cuddles and Jake wakes up and walks down anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour later and we all cuddle and just play around on the bed before we head downstairs for breakfast (and coffee for me). I only get to do this on the days I am home with them (not days I go to work) but it is a wonderful stress free way to start the day. Of course not everyday starts off like this, but moments like this are some of the simplest and happiest I will probably ever have.

You can see her TWO bottom teeth. The second one came through on 08-08-08. We refer to it as her "lucky" tooth. So far the only the only luck it has brought her is an increased ability to bite through cardboard and paper. Below you can see her eyes are still very big and blue!

Jake was playing peek-a-boo with the curtains.

My Grandfather

Well as most of you probably know my grandfather (Mum's Dad) Bill McLean passed away the day after my last post. I am glad that we all got to see him and I had a really nice talk with him about going back to school and the kids the first night I got there. I am also glad that he got to see Jake again and meet Mari. I am glad that he didn't have to suffer as some do with a long drawn out battle with cancer. I am glad that he was surrounded by family. I am glad that I had 27 years to get to know him. I have many fond memories of baking bread and picking elder berries with him when he would come visit us in the summer. He will be missed. He already is missed. It is still very surreal. It is taking a while to sink in. He was in the hospital before we arrived and the day we got to Dunoon they had moved him to the hospice there. It was easy to just 'pretend' he was still at the hospice. But then we went to the airport and it hit me that we could not come back and see him ever again. Airports were generally a big part of my summers. I can remember us going to pick him up at the airport and going to take him back to the airport, occasionally he would come pick us up and take us back to the airport when we came to see him and Gran. Many people have told me how lucky I was to have even known my grandfather. I have been fortunate to know all four of my grandparents and several of my great grandparents. But death is not an easy thing at any age or stage of life. Seventy-seven does not feel like very old any more. The fact that I realize I am lucky to have known him does not make loosing him easier. I have not really known what to say for a long time and I don't feel like I have expressed my self well in this post. It was mainly to explain why I haven't posted for a while and why I haven't posted any more of the millions of pictures that I took in Scotland. It seems strange even looking at them. Maybe I will post them one day, maybe I won't. I still haven't decided. But regardless, now doesn't feel like the right time.

Fun with Family

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.