June

I did not intend for it to be a month before I blogged again, but… we don’t have wi-fi and we’ve been busy. Therefore, this is a monster post. I will include the slide-shows for those of you who would like to see all the photos, but for those who would just like a snap-shot of our month, you can skip the slide-shows and move on to your next blog. ☺

We kicked off June with Mission UK 2011.

JR preached his first sermon of the summer the first Sunday of their visit. He did an excellent job and everyone has been impressed not only with his teaching, but also his heart.

During the week/10 days we had 2 lovely ladies staying with us. Hailey (a photographer from Dundee) was a small child when I first met her here in Peterhead in 1999 ~I felt REALLY old~. Shanae currently lives in Belgium. Gideon and Naomi LOVED having the girls with us! Although it was a little weird for me being on the other side of housing “students” here in Peterhead this time. ;)

To kick off Mission UK, there was a “Preview Day” at the building for school-aged children.

For the first half of the time, we were inside rotating through 3 “stations”. There was a crafting station where they were making their royal crowns,

a station where they were running way from the Taker,

and a station where they were watching, “The Prince’s Poison Cup”.

After each group had visited every station, everyone went outside for lunch, bouncy castles, “medieval games”, and face painting.

A great time was had by all. Here’s the slide-show…

For the rest of the week JR and I took turns accompanying the group into the schools. On Tuesday, I was allowed to go into Central School’s Nursery and read to the kids who are Gideon’s age. At a few of the schools the whole family was able to be there together.

In addition to the programs in the schools, the evening classes were still going.

And on Saturday, there was a church-wide picnic.

The 2nd Sunday of Mission Scotland Gideon was running back to the “lounge” to get his Bible on the way to church and smacked his head right into the corner of the door. It LITERALLY looked like someone had shoved a ping-pong ball up his nose and placed it under his skin above his left eye. I stayed home with him during class, but we joined everyone for service. He got EXTRA attention that Sunday. (Even now, 2 wks. later, he has double-black eyes.)

Potlucks have been plentiful here with all the summer activities. We have been enjoying new dishes such as fish pie (even JR!), Amy Strachan’s Pavlova, Steak Pie, Sticky Toffee Pudding, and the list goes on.

JR has the photos from the potlucks on his computer so, I won’t worry about getting those up right now.

Last week we took a picnic lunch out to the Bullers of Buchan. Once we got out there we realized how scared we were to let go of the children out there. ☺ So G and N don’t think it’s as great a place as JR and I do, but, hey… it’s still gorgeous. Photos cannot do it justice!

We started taking our travel days (finally) on Thursdays. Our first “adventure” was to Aberdeen. JR has been uploading some photos from this trip on his facebook page. The kids weren’t too sure that it was a great adventure, but we explored the beautiful Aberdeen University after parking next to a 13th century church building. Then we went into the town center and window shopped. And our evening culminated in a fine eating establishment where each of us was extremely pleased with our meals. (Nae bad!)

Mike Wood (from Searcy) brought some Harding education majors up for a visit. Saturday night class became a singing class and JR has been learning his new solphedge (sp?) knowledge to boost his song-leading courage. ☺ We had another lovely lady stay with us. We were delighted to find out we knew several people in common and she and her fiancé had just met with Mark and Christine Parker before she headed over to Scotland.

We continue to get settled into life here. JR and Gideon both got “fitba boots” (soccer cleats). JR plays with Billy and the teens on Sunday nights.

This week our “Adventure Day” was a road trip up to Cullen and Buckie.

My Memorization class on Wednesday nights is going well with more and more people asking to join in the challenge. ☺ JR’s Galatians class is getting good conversations started and he is loving delving into the Scripture and teaching!

Friday morning we met up with our friends from Mothers/Toddlers, ate lunch out and about, and ran errands. My first priority was getting G a haircut. It was taking longer in the mornings to do his hair than Naomi’s.

For the first time in G’s life, he went to a hairdresser.

Here’s the before shot (almost ready for pig-tails!).

While G’s hair was being cut, Naomi was reading the book “Hug” to the 2 men waiting for haircuts. They were both smiling at my adorable little girl!

G thought he looked like Darth Vader. (oh, he is VERY into Star Wars right now)

And the final result:

Friday night, as JR was with the teen class, the kids and I met up at an indoor play place, “Amazone” with some of the moms we’ve met. I really enjoyed getting more involved with these women.

Bazinga!

Saturday we were invited to a birthday party for Abigail and Anna Jane Chapman. (Link to their blog) I was delighted to be reunited with John Anthony and Kristen Renwick, Russell and Rachel Gaunt, and (a surprise to almost everyone) Nathan and Stacy Hogue. Most of these people were parts of the campaigns I came on in college and haven’t seen since.

We had a great time catching up at the party. The men took most of the kids outside while the ladies had a visit. ☺ I didn’t take ANY photos. ☺

From the party, the family packed up and headed off for our weekend in Buckie. Bill and Elenor Pirie opened their home to us with warm hospitality. After tea (dinner) we headed with Bill to check on Hunter and Elaine’s dog. The kids loved… LOVED being out there with the Shetland ponies and dog and chickens. ☺

We took the scenic way back to Bill’s house (“Elsinore”) and I took photos out of the car. ☺ Check these out. Truly God spent a little more time on this area of the world! ☺

And here’s the view from the Pirie’s front window.

Nae bad!

We met with the church in Buckie Sunday morning and JR brought the lesson. For lunch we went to Hunter and Elaine’s for a lovely spread. Gideon and Naomi had a blast playing with Hunter and Elaine’s grand-daughters and niece while we got to visit.

And back again for the evening service. Gideon asked if he could lead a prayer and he was given the honour of saying the opening prayer. (My 5 year old!)

Here’s a (staged) photo of JR bringing the evening lesson. ;)

We headed home after a supper with Bill and Elenor.

And, now, I think you are caught up. ☺

~Daisha