A Glimpse into my Life.

So today I was getting Rynie ready for his preschool end of year program. We were running a few errands since it didn't start until 10:30 and we were ready shortly after 9:00. At 10:15 my mom called me and told me Jake had another seizure and was on his way to the Emergency Room. I immediately started to head that direction and called Honey to see if she could take Rynie to preschool or at least take him to her house. She met me by her house and since I beat her there, I had Rynie and the car seat unloaded. She took him to preschool and even figured out my camera to take some pictures! Go Honey! I usually have a bit of a hard time with the camera. Pink Princess just had to come along for the ride. Thankfully she ended up sleeping for almost all of the adventure in ER land.





I drove as fast as I dared (which isn't too fast since I'm a chicken) to the ER and got a hold of Hubby's brother to have him text message Hubby since he was in an important meeting. Hubby called and he and his brother came up to see what they could do to help, then they went and moved Jake's car from the parking lot on campus back to his apartment.

The ER Doctor said that since Jake has already had one seizure, they would release him to my care, but he cannot drive, have caffeine, or stay up late. He has all the other restrictions that he had after the first seizure in place also. Brenden and Lyndsey came to the ER when they found out and it was nice to have their support also.

Jake had a bite to eat then went and took a 3.5 hour nap. Poor kid needed it. My sweet sister in law, Kelli, came over to help me straighten up (Okay, read massively sort through things and clean) my house and she is such a lifesaver. We went through so much stuff and there is a huge pile for the recycle bin and for DI. Bo and Anika were pretty darn good considering they were trying to be quiet so Jake (Or Jackie as Bo called him) could sleep.






Then we got a phone call from Jake's friend Joe, who is helping Jake with cows, and he said he couldn't find the two bulls. To make an insanely long story short, I had to change out of my cute skirt that I was wearing earlier and into some jeans and a pair of sneakers. I ended up chasing cows a couple of miles through the marshes of Utah Lake, went swimming in the canal twice to keep up with the bulls and to keep them from backtracking up the canal, and found out the canal level reaches up to my armpits.

There are some really huge fish in that canal. Think 4-5 inches 'tall' and about 2 feet long. You could see them fighting along the banks. When I was going through the marshy stuff, I kept feeling them swimming through my legs and bumping my shins. Kinda creepy. I did have the pleasure of seeing the herd that Jake's bulls were mixed in with all dive into the canal at the same time and become submerged and then pop up and start running. It was hilarious!!!

It took quite a while because Jake's steers and bulls (We just decided to put all the cattle in the main pasture for simplicities sake) to where they needed to be. Some random stranger lady saw us from the freeway and decided to come and help! And she actually knew what she was talking about. I am so incredibly thankful for our friends and family who came to help out tonight and also those that helped Sunday with our adventures.

Thanks again to all our friends and family for their help.

P.S.- My WIFD Day 3 outfit was a cute, below the knee skirt that was a black and brown hounds tooth pattern with a brown long sleeved shirt. Skirt from JCPenny's and top from DownEastBasics. I had some dangly little amber earrings and my hair twisted up into a coronet for the top and the bottom half hanging down in curls. I had some little ballet flats to complete the look.

Good night everyone, I hope tomorrow is adventure-less.

And I wouldn't expect it to be.

Last night Jake got a phone call saying that his cows were out. They go through phases and there won't be any problems for 6-9 months, then suddenly they will be out 4 times in 2 weeks or so. To keep them from becoming a problem we had to move them. There is an Officer that is semi-harassing Jake about the cows so we are trying to diffuse the situation as pleasantly as possible. We had Hubby's parents and elder brother with his family come to help us move them. Jake had two friends and one of our neighbors came to help us out. Since we were at Hubby's parent's house when the call came from Animal Control, Hubby and I were still in our church clothes. We didn't have time to change before it was time to move cows.

Needless to say, that lovely outfit I wore to church, complete with almost 3 inch heels, was what I wore to chase cows in. Now to properly visualize this, you have to picture me running through knee-high grasses with a section of mid-shin high thistles mixed in. Ouch. Plus, the ground isn't the most level so I almost face planted a few times. Kelli, my sister in law was out there helping in flip-flops and I finally gave up and let one of Jake's friends do the running because I almost wrenched my ankle a few times and didn't want to break it.

After running around in my heels, I decided that it was better to just go barefoot because I could keep up with everyone that way. I kicked my shoes to the side of the road (and my in laws picked them up later) and took off running. I was quite the sight running down the road, barefoot, in a maroon skirt, herding stick in hand!



We got the cows moved and you know it's bad when your brother in law offers to give you a piggy back ride down the road to save your feet from getting torn up. I did decline because at that point there was nothing else to really be done for my feet other than to keep on walking.

We got 30 head moved around and they've all stayed in so far! We are hoping and praying they'll stay in so Jake won't have any more issues with this Officer. My kids didn't get to bed until after 10 pm, but they had a blast with their cousins and watching all the parents chasing cows!

This adventure was almost enough to make me break my no horseback riding on Sunday rule. I guess technically it wouldn't be breaking it since I wouldn't have been riding for pleasure, it would have been to alleviate problems, but skirt notwithstanding, if I would have had a halter and lead rope in the car, I would have been on a horse.



Thankfully, the only casualty from this adventure are my feet, although a self administered pedicure when I got home did wonders, and my stockings. Although I loved the pattern on them, I didn't think to take them off with my heels otherwise, they would have been saved. Oh well, I'll just have to watch Target to see if I can find some more like them.

I thought I would try to participate in the WIFD this go round. The top is from DownEastBasics, and the skirt, I threw together last week. I took the Tzunis wrap skirt idea and instead of making it full length, mine is about 30 inches long. Plus I sewed the skirt together so it isn't actually a wrap skirt, just a really twirly one. Then I put on a waistband, (it's too wide of one, note for next time) and threaded a drawstring through it.

Pink Princess was wearing her Easter dress today, but she spit up on it 2/3 of the way through church and I forgot a spare dress this week so she was in her onsie and bloomers.





So far so good. Hopefully I'll remember to keep this up and do pictures. :)

Greyfriar's Kirke in Edinburgh.


St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh.





St. Margaret's Chapel at Edinburgh Castle.





William Wallace Monument



These are in the Great Hall at Stirling Castle.


There were so many beautiful stained glass windows that I just had to do a post about them all by themselves. If I have some time later, I may post a few more. They were truly gorgeous!

I just realized I didn't really have many pictures of the ruins at Dunnottar so here they are!


I think this was where the blacksmith took up shop.


The big boy teaching the little boy to climb and explore!


Wandering through the castle grounds.


One of the amazing spiral staircases we saw. Boy howdy, they really utilize the spiral staircases. It's so cool!


Looking through one of the windows


Just waiting for a princess to sit and gaze out the window!


A pretty bunch of flowers. There were random flowers growing all over around the castle.


This was either the gatehouse or the guardhouse. Hubby and I can't remember, but it was 3 stories high.


Just a neat view of the castle.



Another neat view of the castle.

We drove down to Dunnottar. It is incredible! You have to hike down a steep path, and then up the path to the castle! I can't believe anyone would ever want to siege this place. If the wind didn't blow you away, anyone would see you coming and after hauling everything to the front gate of the castle, then you have to work around getting hot oil and stones along with arrows raining down on you! If you wanted to access Dunnottar from the sea, the cliffs are around 200 feet and curve up sharply. It was so windy and gorgeous!

This is the view walking from the car park area. You had to walk down the trail along sea cliffs then up the trail to get to the first gate.


A view of the neighboring cliffs. It's incredible how craggy they are.


There really isn't anything around the castle. I think that was one of the main reasons why it was impregnable until heavy cannons came around.



Rynie and Jake. Rynie was about to burst his seams. He was at a real castle!


The wall behind Jake and Rynie, this is looking over it. It's about 200 feet down and although it's not straight down, it is a very sharp curve.



Dunnottar was burnt by William Wallace in the 13th century. Unfortunately, an English garrison was inside the chapel at the time he burnt it. In the 14th century, the Honours of Scotland (Crown Jewels) were hidden here to keep them from being destroyed by Oliver Cromwell. A small garrison of 70 men held Cromwell's troops at bay for eight months! So much happened here, it's amazing! To think that events I'd read about and never thought I'd see where they happened...It helps to put into perspective all the history I have read.





Wow! It is breathtakingly beautiful here!

My boys, being boys. We were almost waiting for Jake to splat, but thankfully he didn't. ;)


The Pink Princess was worn out by the time we got back to Floolie's house. Rynie had to give her a kiss goodnight.



I think if I get these posted up by place I'll be happy. Hopefully tonight I'll be able to get another place posted! It was so nice to see my parents and learn some about their new homeland.

So, in case anyone wondered, we made it safe and sound. It was an interesting experience getting here. We almost left Hubbby's carry-on bag at home, but we realized it before we hit Main Street. Then we went to Honey's house and loaded some stuff up into her car so we could get everyone there. No, we didn't take too much stuff, it's just we were taking Jake up to the airport too so he didn't have to pay for airport parking for the week he was gone. We could fit all our stuff in the car with the kids, but since we can't just tie Jake onto the trunk we needed more space. :D

We made our flight to Cincinnati just fine. Pink Princess did not like the first flight. She couldn't figure out how to pop her ears and just did NOT want to eat.



Rynie was a trooper. He could hardly contain himself he was so excited. Our connector from Cincinnati to Paris was done in 20 minutes. I was so shocked we made it! Luckily, the gate we arrived at was right across the terminal from our AirFrance flight. We literally walked off one flight, straight across, and onto the next flight. The kids didn't even know what hit them! The flight to Paris was much better. Pink Princess just gave up and would whimper, pop her thumb in her mouth, curl up in a ball and go to sleep. Rynie got a little restless, but walking the aisles helped him a lot. Did you know that your tray table makes a nice footrest?



And here are the kids sleeping during our 6.5 hour layover in Paris.





Darn tailwinds. We got in an hour early to Paris. Normally that is a good thing, but since we already had a crazy long layover it just added to it. Man is food expensive at Charles DeGaulle Airport. Two sandwiches and two Sprites are $25 USD. It's only about €17. And boy howdy, it sure wasn't worth it. Thank goodness for snacks in our bags. The bread the sandwich was on was really good. Not €17 good though. Jake caught some zzz's laying between the seats at CDG and was snoring like there was no tomorrow.



The flight from Paris to Aberdeen was interesting. There was a decent amount of turbulence and it was a tiny plane but all good. Pink Princess now had everything figured out and she just popped her thumb in her mouth and went to sleep. Rynie was chatty right up until the end and then he couldn't get his ears to pop on our descent. He started crying but Hubby got him to go to sleep. Somehow Hubby and Rynie got colds while on the flight. They got to be miserable for the next 4 days with runny noses and eyes. Thankfully, Pink Princess and I didn't run into those issues. She just had a runny nose. I was completely snot covered when we got to Aberdeen. We were all completely tired. Rynie was in 7th Heaven seeing his Bumpa and Floolie. They were completely inseparable. Floolie tried to hold Pink Princess, but she decided that in addition to sucking her thumb in a ball, I was the only other thing that made the trip bearable. Floolie was on luggage detail then.

Poor little guy! He was miserable and almost threw up in the car on the ride to Floolie's house. Jet lag, not enough sleep, airplane food, and winding Scottish roads did not make for a happy Rynie. We didn't have any puking in Bumpa's Volvo thankfully.



Pink Princess is absolutely in LOVE with Jake now. He is her hero/boyfriend/best buddy what have you. Hubby and I went to bed and Pink Princess was still quarreling so she went down stairs with Jake and the grandparents to play. As long as she could see Jake, life was good. If he went out of her sight, she was not happy.





And here is Rynie, catching up on some much needed sleep.



There is more to come later, but I have to get Rynie from Preschool so this is a good pausing point.