Spring is in the Air

It's a beautiful spring like day here in Aberdeen, so I thought I'd take a moment to update the blog. Aberdeen has had some pretty great weather lately, more sunny days than gloomy days that I can remember. I've been walking around quite a bit and it's been very pleasant. As most of you know, hillwalking is what people here like to do on the weekends. I'm lucky enough to be able to do it during the week with some pretty fun people. Walking makes for great conversations:  food, kids, travels, TV and best of all, it really costs nothing! Here are a few pics from some of the walks I've done.

Besides walking, I've also been crafting a lot. It really helps to pass the time, and lets me be creative. Well, I wouldn't say super creative because I've been getting a lot of my ideas from Pinterest, but it's still my own work =P I recently made this string art of the state of TX and it came out pretty nice. I love looking at it, reminds me of home. I'm not going to lie, it took some work, hammering those nails but did give me a little arm work out...haha. I think I'll try and make some other states or countries for friends when I get the time.

I've also been hanging out with a few new girls, who are mostly from TX! We've been watching The Bachelor together on Tuesday nights.  I know, this season wasn't the best, but it was fun having girl time and talking about Courtney. 

AWA has been our family away from home and we've been doing lots with them. Mardi Gras was good fun again this year and I'm proud to say, my poms made an appearance =P

Every year, the AWA choose a charity to support and this year's charity is Befriend a Child. A group of us attended the charity ball and had a really good time. 

Oh, and I went out and played Mahjong this past Friday. It was so fun! I think this might need to be included in our game nights =) 

Anyhow, that's it's for me. Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

Love

What can I say? I'm in love. I'm in love with everything right now:  cooking, crafting, meeting new people, not working, volunteering, photography...the list is endless.  When I think I've pretty much found all the things I want to do, something else comes up and it's great.

Recently, I've been pretty involved with the AWA and am meeting new people every day. I love hearing about where people have come from and their experiences.  A couple weeks ago, we went to dinner with some friends and at the dinner table alone, we had 5 different ethnicity! Here's a pic with some of the girls:



As we are getting to know people, we're also having to say goodbye. We've been hanging out with a local couple here, and they'll be moving to Houston on Friday. I'm so excited for them to see where we've come from and to share with them some of our favorite things to see and do as they have done with us here.  So friends, if you're reading this, I might ask you for some favors in showing them a good time while they are there =)

Speaking of love, Gerald and I spent our ninth Valentines day together. I can't believe I've been with him for a third of my life already. It's amazing and I really couldn't ask for a better partner in life.  Here's his cute little Vday card to me. You might have guessed, but somebody has baby fever, and it's not me...haha! We'll get there soon....



I thought I would blog a bit more now that I'm staying at home, but I've actually been quite busy or probably just lazy. I've been on that Pinterest thing pretty often and maybe that's what's taking up all my time, if I'm not out and about.  You have to admit though, Pinterest is a time saver; no more searching for thing on your own; just let other people do the work!

I kind of have a routine down with my week now and I'm liking the flow of it. Since I don't have my UK license yet, I've been walking everywhere I go and that equates to about 3 miles a day, which is pretty much my work out. I have yet to join the gym or to go running as I had planned. But I did order a Yoga DVD that I'm going to start doing. I really want to start running but self motivation is not working. I really need a running buddy but have yet to find one.

Anyhow, I guess it's time to make some dinner so I'll say bye for now. Hope everyone is doing well =)

Filling my Time....

Just a couple of things I've been doing aside from organizing the house =)

wine cork board

valentines cupcake balls

designing pottery

Bergen, Norway

So, this trip was planned by our wonderful Scottish friend Catherine, who's actually moving to Houston in a month! We thought it would be fun to do a trip together before they left, and Bergen, Norway was on the top of our list. Catherine organized everything for us and she did a wonderful job! This is a rarity for us to go on a trip without planning anything, and it was quite nice, aside from flying on a twin prop plane with lots of turbulence on the way there...haha.

We stayed in a charming hotel called Det Hanseatiske Hotel, in the center of town.  The first night we were there, the guy from the hotel suggested we check out the Sjorden Bar, where they play live music. The 2 man band was good and we even got some dancing in! Here's where we learned, Norway was going to be expensive; a Heineken beer for 10 bucks! But we didn't let that stop us from having a good time, I mean, what else can you do?

The next morning, we went on the Norway in a Nutshell tour to see the beautiful views of Norway.  I think we'd all agree that our favorite thing was the fjord cruise.  If you don't know what a fjord is, you can find the definition here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fjord. Even though everything was covered in snow, it was still amazing. I would like to go back to Norway in the summer sometime as well, to enjoy more of the outdoor activities. Unlike some of our other friends, we weren't brave enough to go hiking in the snow. 





We were all pretty beat from the tour and decided to just have a nice meal and call it a night. I like to try different local dishes and in Bergen, you must have the fish soup.  You can compare it to the American clam chowder, or Scottish cullen skink.  It was a creamy soup with fish balls and prawns, very yummy!





We spent the rest of our time in Bergen just walking around the city and checking out all the shops.  And of course, more eating and drinking. First trip of 2012 down in the books =)

Lady of Leisure

2012 is underway and I couldn't be more excited! Upon leaving Houston a week ago, we have a group of confirmed visitors so I'm already looking forward to that in June. Hopefully, we can encourage our other friends and family to come visit as well. If you're reading this and want to see a beautiful country, let me know and we can make arrangements =P

Tomorrow will mark my 1 month of not working and so far, so good! I've spent the past week in Aberdeen as a Lady of Leisure and am enjoying every minute of it.  I have a list of projects to work on around the house organizing things. Once that's complete, I hope to start working on some craft projects, start getting fit, and of course, exploring Aberdeen and Scotland.  It's freezing here but we've been getting some good sun during the day so that's been nice. I also hope to catch up on some reading, photography, and do some volunteering; the list is endless!

This past week, we had Paul Anderson and Shona Donaldson perform for us some traditional Scottish music at the AWA meeting. I tried out 2 new restaurants in Aberdeen, Musa and Gurhka Kitchen. Other than that, it was a whole lot of sleeping and Pinterest, my new found love! haha.

Watching the Texans vs. Ravens game right now, and just praying the Texans can pull through! Would be great for the city of Houston. Okay, enough of this, time to finish off the game.

2011 Rewind!

2011 has been a fun year! I felt like I lived in Houston most of this year, which has been superb! With this current trip, I would have spent about about 10 weeks in Houston, so much for living in Scotland. This year, Gerald and I also have taken about 12 trips to different parts of the world. Talk about Born to Fly! We have been well acquainted with airport system and have both earned Gold Status on KLM.  The status thing is no joke; Gerald got a free business class upgrade coming to Houston this trip.  Loyalty does pay off, I suppose.

Well, you know how it goes here in Houston if you've been reading my blog. Family, friends, eat, and drink is the typical agenda.  We can't get enough of it!  However, I am looking forward to the New Year, new beginnings, new starts.  

If you didn't already know, I've decided to take some time off work. This time, it will be for real. The last time I tried this, it only lasted 3 months but I'm confident this time will be much longer.  I've been doing accounting for a good 6 years and as Gerald tells everyone, I'm taking an early retirement.  I don't hate accounting, but while I have the opportunity to pursue something else, I wanted to take advantage of it. I've always been a people person, and sitting behind a desk with a computer, just doesn't cut it for me.  I wanted to take the time to give back to the community and do some volunteer work, possibly some volunteer teaching, and just take up other things I've always had an interest in, like photography.  I hope everything works out, but if not, I'm sure I can go back to being a number cruncher. 

With that said, 2012 should be interesting for me.

Check out our 2011 highlight video if you have the time.

http://vimeo.com/34197

Enjoy the rest of 2011 and hope you all have a fantastic New Year!

oh, Christmas Tree

This weekend we completed our Christmas Tree with a new tree topper, bought locally here in Scotland! We didn't get to put up our tree last year since we went back to the States quite early, so I was excited about our tree this year. We bought the Santorini ornament last year and this is it's debut.  It was Gerald's idea to to get the ornament and now I'm thinking we should have gotten one in each city we visited.  Maybe that's something we can start this coming up year.

Anyhow, for those of you that don't know, I'm finishing up work on December 16th and will try out this expat wife life.  I'm not 100% sure what I"ll be up to yet, but I do have visions of doing more volunteering work, getting back into shape, and exploring Scotland outside of the working world. I'm excited and am looking forward to the new year!

Have a good one!