thistle epistles

Well, we've had an eventful couple of weeks. . .

We enjoyed a 3-day visit from David's dad, who was here in the UK on a business trip, and then a 10-day visit from Sarah (David's sister) which was great fun.  Since David and I will not be able to travel to the States for Sarah's wedding in a couple of weeks, it was lovely to get to see her before she gets married and settled into her new life.  While she was here, we played LOTS of Scrabble. . . we enjoyed lots of time visiting with Parthee, who made us curries. . . I successfully made David chocolate cake for his birthday. . . and we played croquet in the garden with David's new croquet set that I got him for his birthday.  We played "Lachman style" - because David and Sarah have both played croquet tons more than I ever have, they decided that for David to win, he had to complete the circuit THREE times. . . for Sarah to win, she had to complete the circuit twice. . . and I had to complete it once to win.  Haha.  And now let me tell you. . . I didn't win.  Not even once.  David is so good that he was always round and round and round and DONE long before my one circuit was finished!

While Sarah was here, we also had the opportunity to take a day trip to Edinburgh and do some sight-seeing.  Unlike David and Sarah who have both spent quite a bit of time in Edinburgh, I had never been there before.  We met a friend of theirs, Rebecca, and spent the afternoon taking a bus tour of the city.  The bus tour stopped at the Botanic Gardens and we spent over an hour wandering through and enjoying the beautiful plants.  Apparently the Gardens have 80% of the known plants in the world represented!  It was a gorgeous, warm day and we even had time to pop into Starbucks and enjoy a cold chocolate drink which I was craving!  :-)

Sarah left insanely early on Thursday morning and headed back to London by train - but our busy weekend had just begun (early).  David has been diligently knocking out his remaining assignments one by one. . . and he is now down to the last one (or will be by bedtime tonight!).  So that's what he's been doing, poor guy. . .

Occasionally, though, he has emerged into the sunlight.  On Friday we had the opportunity to attend our first Scottish wedding - the marriage of our minister's son Martin and the elder's daughter Beccy.  It was a beautiful, simple ceremony and a fun evening reception complete with traditional Scottish dancing.  If I hadn't been 37 weeks pregnant I would SO would have jumped up and joined in because it looked like amazing fun!

We didn't get home until 1am on Saturday, but I was up again bright and early to head down to Ayr for a Christian Education conference hosted by our congregation there.  It was a really encouraging gathering with two lectures, the first by Rev. Gavin Beers (our minister in Ayr) and then one by Rev. Ali MacLachlan (the Baptist minister in Cumnock).  And for once, I was enjoying not being the only pregnant woman present, because there were four others, I think!  I was thankful that my stamina lasted barely long enough to get me through the day, as I had been looking forward to this conference for months.  Then I got home and went to bed for the evening - and David very kindly bought Chinese food for dinner!  :-)  While I was in Ayr, David stayed home and got a huge amount of work done, and then headed to the hospital for another check on his neck, which seemed to be re-developing.  He is now back on antiobiotics. . .

It is so hard to believe I am past 37 weeks and really in the final countdown now - I need to focus and get my mind into "the baby's coming!" mode because it just doesn't seem real! Everything has been going so well - I really am amazed by how smoothly this pregnancy has progressed. So far we have a "green light" for the planned homebirth - I have borrowed a birth pool and my living room is stacked with bags of equipment and stuff! The midwives have been very supportive which I am grateful for, and I also have been greatly blessed by the services of a doula (http://www.doula.org.uk/content/duk/about/default.asp).

By the way, I have updated Facebook with lots of photos recently - so if you are my friend on Facebook, go check them out . . . and if you don't have Facebook, let me know and I will post a few on here (but there are too many to post them all!).