Farm out!

7 adults. 1 llama. The quest to find the perfect 11 foot tree for Mom's home. Oh, and the cheapest.
Allison, Justin, and Joel. Look at all that gorgeous red hair.

Is this THE ONE???!? Quite awesome. I think it was Joel's first choice.We found it! This is not a trick of photography: the tree truly is bigger than all 7 adults put together. My mom is not afraid of massive trees. Now... since we hiked miles into the forest to find the 'cheaper' trees, how to get it back down to the farm??!
How 'bout a homemade yoke? Look at those 2 oxen!
Happy Christmas Tree-ing to you and yours this season!

Before and after

Our most recent acquisitions

Any suggestions?

Whidbey Island

We spent the weekend celebrating with my parents on Whidbey Island - one of the many gorgeous islands in our beautiful Puget Sound. It is my parents' 32nd anniversary, and our 4th. A friend graciously lent us their Beach house, and we were once again reminded of how truly wonderful our home state is. We've gotten quite a few visits to the islands, water, and coast in this year already. One can never have too much.

We fit in a trip to the Knead & Feed for breakfast, a visit to the Coupeville farmer's market for pumpkins and other squash, and much beachwalking, wave watching, and knitting too! I also saw my first Columbo episode - how noteworthy.
Right in front of said Beach house. There are views to the Olympic Peninsula, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Victoria, Canada.

The honored couple - 32 years of marriage!
From the Deception Pass Bridge. We saw a seal swimming around in the current. How adorable! He didn't even mind the rain.

Ginger is continuing her study of the church fathers.

Kitty Kneading

My parents' kitty, Loki, loves to knead our sheepskin rug. You can hear him purring some at the end. It's the only time he purrs. All other times, he is living up his namesake, causing trouble by attacking ankles, jumping on my grandma's back, and eating long strings of my wool.
(I know the video is terrible quality, but hey I figured seeing a cat kneading a furry rug would make up for anything lacking)

Why we moved back to America: Parades

Since it has been 4 months since our last post, I have concluded that you must be sufficiently questioning what we have been doing. Last time we posted (excepting the Salmiak Shampoo 'experience'), we were shivering in a very cold Glasgow. Now, we are quite warm here in suburbia. Since we drive everywhere, we never have to wear coats. I forget that quite often, and end up bringing a coat with me, where it stays lonely on the back seat until I carry it back into the house.

Joel and I are both working for the U.S. Census now! Woo hoo, temporary employment! It's going to be fun. (really!)

Anyway, enough about us. What I really want to tell you about is America. It is a funny culture they have here. They do love a parade. And how can one help but join the spectacle? Come and see:

All the awards go to this woman and her doggie for Most Excited Spectator! (Not even in the parade!)This adorable green horse actually moved up and down! Wonders never cease.

A free-flowing wine float is always the thing for family parades...

The Seattle Seafair Pirates - always a joy

This shot exemplifies the nature of the American parade - a constant barrage of BRIGHT colors and tacky decor!

Stayin' true to the cowboy heritage.. gotta love the jacket.

Farm animals on parade. Wonderful.

The daffodil princesses!

My little brother leading his high school band!

Grandma and Grandpa, Joel, Dad and Mom. (Note the free Census tote bag - classy!)

Well, if that wasn't sufficient to fill your need for a proper parade, please come visit. Maybe we can find another one.

Shampoo

Purely in an effort to be the top Google result for the phrase +"salmiak shampoo", Joel and Heather present for your edification:

Ten Bad Shampoo Flavors

1. Savory Salmiak (The Finns eat it, but we call it Windex)
   
2. Creamy Bleu Cheese
3. Zesty Garlic & Onion
   
4. Revitalizing Kimchi (or Sumptuous Sauerkraut)
   
5. Ballpark Franks (It's not summer yet!)*
6. Marmite Morning (Vegemite if you prefer, mate)
7. Durian Breeze (Wikipedia says: "The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust. The odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia." My personal experience has been of a strong diesel flavor with a hint of strawberry.)
8. Spicy Refried Beans
9. Mom's Tuna Casserole
10. Egg Salad
    

Bonus: Any soup. Cream of mushroom? Vegetable beef? Alphabet, even?!
Any we missed?

*Meat flavors are pretty much cheating, so we tried to limit those. Crispy BLT sounds ok to me though.

This cold country: walking

The Kelvin River and a defunct railway (can you spot the icicle?)

Sunset in the arboretum - Kelvin walkway

Man in the trees

content with my snowangel

snowy branches

This cold country

This is an accurate representation of the past few weeks here. As expected, even though there is less than an inch of actual snow (in Glasgow), everyone here is FREAKING OUT. Apparently there have only been 2 or 3 winters colder than this since they started keeping records in the early 1900's. So.. the council isn't exactly brilliant at keeping the roads and pavements/sidewalks safe. I, however, am thoroughly enjoying it, and MUCH prefer this to the incessant rain that is typical of this time of year. I've been walking to and from work, and a lot within work as usual, and yes, it is lovely to walk in the ice and snow. Give me ice and snow any day over pouring down rain.

I do have sympathy for the older folks though. Relying on buses and walking anywhere would be a bit more scary with aged bones and slower reaction times.

Looks like this will stay with us maybe even until we depart this cold country. We really will be moving to warmer climes! (Everyone here has been asking me if I'm glad to move to warm weather.. I think when most Scots think 'US' they think 'California' or 'Florida' and don't realise some parts of the US are similar in climate to here) (The other question I get asked is, 'do you have a job waiting for you there?' Anyone know how I can set it up so I have a job waiting for me? Please? Can one actually do that?!?)

Thanks to Jeanne for the photo!

Merry Christmas!

We hope you all have had a peaceful season, enjoying the winter moments in whatever place you are.

This is our last Christmas in Glasgow. We return to the states at the end of January, when our lives will face a tumultuous change. We look forward to meeting up with all of you who are stateside in the new year. It has been a season of changes for us - anticipated and unanticipated - and we look forward to the encouragement we'll receive by being close to family and old friends again. We are sometimes a bit terrified of the prospect of starting life over, but we know God has us in His hands, the best place one can be.

Our last year in Glasgow has been full of deepened friendships, opportunities to serve in unexpected ways, and lots of wondering about what the future holds. We've been thinking on the many ways Glasgow, Scotland, and Europe have influenced us as individuals and as a married couple, and wondering how this will mesh with our move back to the states. It will be a readjustment to be immersed in the American culture again! Simple things ... taking buses everyday, only buying as many groceries as we can carry a half mile, and of course the constant nearly intravenous drip of good British tea. We'll now begin a new adventure in life, and we're so happy it means we will be able to see many of you often!

Wishing you joy and peace, all those things that sound cliche but are such a meaningful blessing when they are realised.

(Here are a couple of Christmas-y songs we like this year!)

Parsing (kind of like Snakes On A Plane?)

Being the condescending westerner that I am, I was enjoying this seemingly eccentric phrasing on the menu of a local Moroccan restaurant:

The Argan bears plum-sized fruits, which are eaten by goats on the tree.

Ha! Goats in a tree! Crazy Moroccans. Then Michael pointed out to me that there actually were goats up in the tree in the photo next to this paragraph.
It turns out that goats actually do climb Argan trees to get at the fruit. Who knew?


Photo from Wikipedia

For all of you who keep asking what Joel is doing with all his free time now that he's submitted his PhD:

Back to Hungary, part 3: Places that are NOT Hungary.

This is NOT Hungary.
This is Vienna.
Exhibit A: The cathedral in the centre of the city. Lovely, so dramatic, in the night and the day. The roof is pretty amazing. Vienna had lots of roofs like that, that are different colours, very bright and vivacious. So did the big city in Hungary we went to.
Exhibit B: This is a building in Vienna not too far from the cathedral. I find the painting appealing. (This is not a pun.)
Exhibit C: This is at the War Museum in Vienna. Do you like the armoured man's skirt? Apparently, they didn't actually use the skirt armour in battles. They saved that for special occassions, like fancy shmancy balls and courting rituals, parades, that sort of thing. You know, armoured fashion.

We also went to the Museum of Musical Instruments, which was pretty much the coolest museum we've ever been to. They had Mozart's piano, and some other crazy instruments that seemed like something out of a really intelligent 12 year old's dreams. Joel liked the guitar with a built in foot pedal capo.

This is also NOT Hungary.
This is Slovenia.
Richard took us for superb iced coffee with ice cream and the thickest, most gorgeous whipped cream I've ever tasted.The view from the castle. There were loads of vineyards on the hillsides.
This is inside the castle. We saw endless examples of the type of embroidery I would spend my whole life striving for. I will show you some that I brought back with me later.

We enjoyed our day trip to Slovenia.

This is ALSO NOT Hungary. This is Croatia.The colour of the water. I wanted so badly to jump in and never come out again, to swim in it so much that I turned that immense shade of blue, and it would be part of me forever.
Waterfalls, water falling.
Water falling, falling, falling, splash!
The puppy sleeping on my lap on the drive. When we arrived at the national park, she refused to go up the stairs. She was so tired. Tired and gorgeous.
I LOVE teals and blues and greens all together. It speaks to my soul in such an immense way. It frees my heart. Do you know what I mean? Just looking at even the photos makes my heart feel fluttery in an 'I'm-falling-in-love' sort of way. Is that totally ridiculous? I just love teal water so much.
It was like Disneyland, with all the people! But Disneyland doesn't even come close. I choose natural, clear, teal water over shiny plastic any day.

Intermission

Taking a short break from our exploits in Hungary, here are some glimpses of our weekend. We took full advantage of the sunny weekend, being fully aware it may be the last bits of Glasgow sun we see as residents here.

Cathkin Braes Country Park - the highest point in Glasgow.

The Braes' shrooms

The promise of my downcast container garden

An evening on the balcony

Hungary, Part Deux: ICE CREAM

While Joel puts together posts about interesting bits of language and words in Hungary, I will continue to spend my energies on remembering the ICE CREAM. Oh, I couldn't forget anyway. It's part of me now. (Very literally, since we ate ice cream EVERY SINGLE DAY. Sometimes more than once. Oh the glory.)
Now let us join together in the common bond of love for ice cream. Let us realise the creamy goodness, the rich mountains of splendor...

First, the Hungarian national ice cream. This is one we ate sitting under the apple trees in the garden, watching the doggie go crazy. It is vanilla ice cream, hazelnut ice cream, and frozen marmalade, all swirled in together. Surprising, but tasty!

Then there was tiramisu ice cream... one of the great wonders of the world... oh except biscotti which may rise above.

We had green apple ice cream, Russian Cream ice cream, vanilla, coffee, blackberry...

I do maintain the blue ribbon goes to the Sour Cherry and Poppyseed ice cream. The poppyseeds took their responsibility seriously, and did not disappoint.

Oh, ice cream. Oh, a country where the weather allows for comfortable eating of ice cream...

Tonight my dreams will be cold and wonderful.