Back home.......and ever so slightly missing Houston!!!!!!!!

I started writing a post about what I would miss about Houston in the days before we flew home, but never finished it and then thrown into the chaos of living out of suitcases for 6 weeks and then moving into our house where everything was in the wrong boxes and labeled in the wrong rooms.....its been somewhat manic since the beginning of July and although I've obviously sat down in spare moments of the day there has always been something more urgent to do than give an update on how we're doing!

Here is my list of things I thought I would miss about Houston.....and things I definitely wouldn't miss!

Things I miss

My friends.....mostly my friends!

The near constant sunshine

Never having to think about putting layers of clothes on

Driving a huge car and being able to throw a fully unfolded push chair into the boot. 

Never having to search for a parking space!

The unlimited shopping on my doorstep

Drive thru banks, Starbucks, restaurants .....Fadi's!!

The girls school

and yes I do miss all of these things!

I don't miss

The heat and humidity...the  feeling of needing to jump in a cold shower after going out to the car or walking to the postbox.

The insane and quite frankly nutty drivers out on the I10

The feeling of being stuck indoors for so much of the time.

That I couldn't really walk anywhere.

The cost of kids activities.

Our grubby, badly maintained house and our awful landlord!

I think it's fair to say that although Houston didn't really suit us as a family, there were a lot of positives too. We had some fab holidays, we made some lovely friends and we have lots of lovely memories and photos of our time there. 

Well we are now back in sunny and ever so slightly cooler Banchory, a pleasant 21 degrees today and we were lovely and toasty warm! I am loving being able to walk to preschool with Martha while she scoots along on her bike and picking them both up after school and slowly dawdling home in only a way that a 4 and 6 year old can do. We are pleasantly warm by the time we all get to the top of the hill but all that fresh air is doing us the world of good....after all we have 15 months of fresh air to catch up on!

Fearne has settled fabulously into her new school, not one wobble since she started 3 weeks ago. She's in a class of 27 which I though she might find quite daunting after being at Yorkshire Academy, but she seems to be taking it in her stride. I was slightly concerned that after 3 months of no school she may have forgotten about reading and writing, but quite the opposite, her handwriting has hugely improved, and her reading is more fluent. She is thriving being back here and spends most of her spare time out on the small cul de sac we live in riding around on her bike with all the other children, something that just wasn't feasible in Houston.

Martha is equally settled here, she runs into preschool a good few minutes ahead of me and is already busy doing something by the time I arrive to hand her over, not even a glance or a goodbye wave at me! The nursery staff are lovely and have been asking all about how Fearne is getting on, and delighted to know that a year in Houston as improved her confidence ten fold.

Henry LOVES the outdoor space at home, he loves the fact that he can climb the steps and get on the trampoline all by himself with no help. The only indication we have that he is busy bouncing is the squeals and giggles we can hear coming from outside....at which point we tend to run quite fast and zip up the safety net around him!

Banchory is a very transient place, full of Oil and gas families, it's a bit like living in a little expat town nestled in the Scottish Hills, so as lovely and picturesque as it is here, there are times when you end up feeling quite sad about all the comings and goings. One of my closest friends here left for France last week, another will be shortly going off to Perth, Australia and then another mum and her little girl who I have got to know in the last few weeks through the preschool is also moving to Perth next summer. So as much as I love being back I know that at some point I will have more goodbyes.......and I really am not a fan of them!

As for weddings....lets just say la la la la la .....we have a venue, now I need to find caterers as we had to change the first date and the original caterers were fully booked, I provisionally have a minister booked but we need to go and meet him at church in a few weeks (no giggling allowed), I tried on some wedding dresses last weekend and took along a few friends to be honest with me, so I now know very sort of what I want to wear.....and that's is about all I have done! Oh and I asked Alison to be one of my bridesmaids so I'm leaving my hen weekend in her very capable hands.....think that's a big round up of how our wedding planning is going! Clearly I need to get a wedding planner on board to help me out!

We're off to Findhorn (http://www.eastgrange.co.uk/index.html) next weekend with a group of my lovely friends here, camping in Wigwams by the beach, can't wait. I'll put some photos on here next week as I haven't really taken many recently.....unless you want to see a shipping container and mountains of removal boxes!

New adventures

I've been trying to start writing this blog for about half an hour, writing, rewriting and then rethinking how I wanted to start it, but foremost I think what I'm trying to convey is as one adventure ends another begins, we have no regrets and we're now looking forward to our next adventure.  

We decided quite a long time ago that we wanted to move back to Aberdeenshire this summer, and during that time my emotions about the place have swayed from one end to the other, at times I have hated it but for the majority of the last 9 months I have loved it, mostly due to making some lovely friends. If it wasn't for the Kindergarten mums at school and the mums in the British Expat Group who I would bump into at swimming classes, gymnastics classes, coffee mornings and playgroups I honestly think we would have given up after the first 6 months.

The first 6 months were horrendous, from arriving with a newborn baby, the school term ending and the girls having no chance to get to make any friends for 3 months, living in a small apartment for 2 months that was infested with ants, the struggle to find a house to rent, a never-ending summer of over 40 degree heat not to mention the countless times the air conditioning broke, issues with the first school we sent Fearne too and Henry getting badly sunburnt.....the list is endless, it honestly felt like one long running saga after another. Interspersed with all these disasters we did however have lots of family visiting who helped enormously to cheer us up. I can laugh about it all now, but at the time it was soul destroying!

Fearne has blossomed this year, moving here last year she was incredibly shy, nervous and anxious about everything, she had come from preschool and was thrown straight into school unable to read or write. We couldn't have asked for a better school or teacher for her, she has come on in leaps and bounds and for that I am eternally grateful to them for their caring and nurturing environment. My only regret about leaving is that we have to take Fearne from her school. 

Martha has loved school too this year and made some lovely friends, but she is unbelievably excited about moving back to Scotland. So much so, she felt the need to come and wake me 6.15 yesterday morning to tell me she dreamt that we were going back to Scotland today....I asked her if it was a good dream or a bad dream," it was a very good dream......but we're not really going back today are we?" ......and with that she disappeared back out the room! The funny thing is though, she remembers all her friends and talks about them all endlessly, probably because we saw everyone at christmas,and she vividly remembers some things we've done with them like camping....but she doesn't remember our house....yet she does remember the trampoline in the garden. It'll be interesting to see what she does really remember as she was only 2 and a half when we came here and she'll be 4 next month.

Henry is just Henry, my cheeky, tantrum throwing, boisterous typical little boy who likes nothing better than eating anything he can get his hands on....chalk, stale bread that he has removed from the bin, dirt and sand just to name a few! He loves being outside so for him Aberdeenshire is going to be perfect. Being able to spend all day outdoors digging in the garden, even if its raining, or walking to the garden centre for a hot chocolate, going for a bike ride or a walk around the gardens at Crathes.....he is going to love it!

So, we have just under 4 weeks till the packers come in and box up our life here ready to ship it all back to Aberdeen and and 4 and a half weeks till we fly home. In that time we have both girls early birthday parties a diamond jubilee evening party, a weekend trip to San Antonio, a few coffee mornings with the kindergarten mums and then the girls have a list of things they want to do before we go which includes a Chuck E Cheese afternoon, lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, Splash-pad lots of times, Cupcakes at Ooh La La, drive through Starbucks for milkshakes and Smoothies, Sky high Sports for a trampling morning and Monkey Joes Inflatables......not to mention playdates and pool parties!  Fearne also has a 3 day camp at a Ceramics Cafe already booked.......so here was me thinking 4 weeks with 3 children and no school was going to drag but in fact I'm clearly going to have to rush to fit everything in!

So, as this adventure comes to an end and we try and cram as much in as possible here, my head and heart is starting to get very excited about being back in Banchory, we already have possible wigwam camping trips planned with friends, Chris is excited about a mountain biking trip with the boys and I am starting to think about the reality of actually getting our wedding venue booked, choosing a dress with friends, and planning what we really want our day to be like.

So with that I think I'll finish for now, I imagine the next post I write will be once we're back in Scotland waiting for all our stuff to arrive! 

Freya xx

At the splash pad this morning

Fearne's Graduation from Kindergarten

Mardi Gras, Henry turning 1 and Fredericksburg...

Since I last wrote, we seem to have managed to fit in a lot of fun things to do around Texas.

In the middle of February, Mardi Gras celebrations hit Galveston, and since we really didn't know much about it or what to expect we thought an afternoon by the beach watching a parade would be a pleasant way to while away some time. Bearing in mind that although it was bright and sunny it was actually quite chilly, some of the costumes were, shall we just say....a little skimpy...personally I would have been freezing!...then there the gun touting boys clubs which were a little bizarre if I'm honest.

Anyway, we stood clinging to the girls hoods (to stop them diving under the wheels of vehicles and scrabbling around for necklaces!), while the floats drove past, desperately trying to catch the brightly colored plastic necklaces being thrown at us. Fearne managed to get a few before the floats driving passed petered out, so we thought aquick walk along the beach side to get warm again before driving home would be a good idea. Just as we got to a big gap between some huge motorhomes, the parade started again, but this time we were the only ones standing by the road, and we found ourselves being showered in necklaces.....there is something very addictive aboutcatching plastic tat being thrown atyou. The girls now have at least 40 necklaces each which have been put to good artistic use by being placed in a glass fishbowl! for all to see. I'm lookingforward to seeing the fishbowl on display once we're back in Scotland and being reminded of the fun we've had.

Henry turned one on the 23rd February, where has this past year gone. Our lovely little chilled out baby has become a cheeky wee chappy, who loves cars, pulling his sisters hair and throwing whopping tantrums when the iPad or mobile phone is removed from his sight or grasp! Finally in this last week he has decided that walking is useful and he's off wobbling around on his two little feet which look far too small to be able to support him!

At the beginning of March we went to Fredericksburg with some friends, primarily so that Chris and Barry could get some road biking practice in before they complete the MS150 bike ride from Houston to Austin at the end of April. Jill and I spent the weekend with the children just hanging out in the sunshine and WALKING, yes WALKING into town and to the park. I walked more in one weekend than I think I have walked in a year....and no I'm not lazy but Houston doesn't do pavements, and walking is not the done thing! Besides it really isn't safe!!!

Fredericksburg is a lovely little small town with breweries and plenty of wine tasting shops.....think pub-crawl in the UK and replace it with quaint little shops serving wine....unfortunately we didn't get to sample the wine as 6 small children in a shop with glasses and bottles is never going to have a pleasant outcome, so we kept on walking past, but next time!! We made the most of the long weekend away with dinning outside, live country and western music, decent food, (personally I don't rate food in Houston....or maybe Texas, I'm not sure!) 6 happy children, some interesting beers and Jill and my favourite find has to be the prickly pear margaritas, yummmm

The Houston Rodeo and Livestock Show also arrived in town a few weeks ago, and Chris managed to get some tickets through work to go last weekend, so we have now seen Bareback riding, team roping, saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling, calf scramble and barrel racing. We also saw a bit of mutton bustin' on the tv screens, little kids (5 and upwards!!!) riding loopy sheep!

...and now we're on Spring break.....I have never been so relieved to realise we have a week off, no getting up at 6am for school runs, no making packed lunches, no waking up Henry in the middle of the afternoon to do the second school run....suddenly I seem to have sufficient hours in the day to get things done, even if I do have 3 children needing to be occupied!

We haven't gone away like lots of friends (I'm secretly rather jealous!) but instead have cycled to the park most days near our house, lazed around in the garden in the afternoons as the weather has suddenly got lovely and warm, treated ourselves to lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, done some shopping for warm weather clothes and the girls have each chosen fabric for their beanbags that I'm in the process of making for their rooms....not bad for a few days. Although I did have to take them food shopping on Monday, which was just about okay, with a bit of bribery thrown in....having said that it did culminate in Henry throwing a bottle of beer out of the trolley as I was trying to thank the supervisor for coming to help me pack all the bags....fortunately it bounced! So just for the record Bud-lite bottles are baby proof!!!!!

New found freedom.....

Alison, Chris and Toby arrive in two weeks time, and in honor of their arrival we decided it was about time we bought some garden furniture and a new bbq. Mostly so that we can make the most of this lovely weather and pretend we're living the highlife by having a few drinks by the pool in the evening....nevermind the fact that the pool is still too cold to use and has been splashed in since September! Although if the weather carries on like this for a few weeks it'll be useable in no time at all.

I think thats it....I promise to try and update a bit more regularly....partly for my benefit as trying to catch up on over a months worth of activities is rather time consuming and the children are now watching the Aristocats for the second time...oops!

Love Freya xxxx

Last day of January

Yikes, 3 months since I wrote anything on here partly because we've been so busy and partly because since I last wrote anything I've been back to the UK twice and seen lots of you!

Anyway....so here is a quick summary of November, December and January!

I took Martha and Henry back to Aberdeen with me the first week in November. Fearne stayed here and went to a couple of different friends houses after school, she had a whale of a time. I went and looked at a few wedding venues, but mostly spent the week drinking coffee by day and wine by night...as well as lots of chatting with friends.

The end of November was Thanksgiving here and it felt a bit like there was a huge party going on throughout America and we hadn't been invited....very odd. So we decided to escape Houston for a bit and go exploring. We booked a little apartment on the beach down at Port Aransas and spent a few days playing on the beach in the sunshine, visiting an aircraft hanger and generally having a lovely chilled time.

We flew home mid December, spent a few days in Burgess Hill catching up with Chris' school friends, the girls got to spend a few quality days with Uncle Adam, we went back to Surbiton to some friends from Uni who live on the same street we used to live on and met up with Alison, Chris and baby Toby for Lunch in Henley on Thames.

Then we flew up to Aberdeen for a week to spend Christmas and New Year in Banchory, the girls had a ball playing with all their friends. The weather was absolutely fantastic, and christmas day was a sunny balmy 16 degrees....I've been told it was colder and more miserable in Houston!

Then we flew back down to Burgess Hill for a night and then on to Devon for a week to see all my family. We had a Mexican themed New Year party with my family, cousins and their children, and for the first year in about 5 I was actually still up at midnight....miracle!

So we flew back to Houston, thoroughly exhausted but happy to have fitted in seeing so many people. However we got a bit of a rude welcoming from staff at Houston Immigration, who took offense to Chris and I not being married and sent me off to secondary immigration because either he genuinely didn't know the rules, he couldn't read my visa or he really was just being an arse! His exact words were, 3 children, do you not think by now you should have done the right thing and got married........whether or not he thinks that, its none of his business and certainly not something you actually say to someone. I'm still debating whether to write a formal complaint, but a large part of me thinks whats the point, as we have found generally customer service is poor and they don't respond to complaint letters......still waiting for a response from the doctors about the way Fearne was treated when she had immunizations.

Anyway, 2 hours of waiting, my passport was stamped, only given 6 months this time and no one explained why they'd sent me there in the first place. Oh well!

What else...so we've had one holiday after another in terms of celebrations...Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and now Valentines and Mardi Gras....followed by easter a few weeks after that. For Valentines the girls have class party's in the morning and then dismissal....whats that all about. I don't understand why school is finishing early for Valentines day.......I'm probably mostly bothered because its a Tuesday and thats my day where I get to chill with just Henry and instead it'll be an anything but relaxing afternoon!

The girls started swimming lessons before Christmas, Martha could not swim at all, yet yesterday I watched in amazement as she swam across the width of the pool (about 10 metros) with her head under water and rolling onto her back to breathe without any prompts from her teacher. Fab....I am in awe of her teacher, who has her completely under control and doing what she's told.......I wonder if they do private swimming lessons in the summer in household pools?! Henry has started swimming lessons too, he loves them, particularly the splashing about and standing and trying to walk in the water...not so fussed about being on his back or being dunked under water on a regular basis. But he then sleeps for 2 hours afterwards so its definitely worth it for me!!!

Can't think what else...Chris is doing the BP MS 150 bike ride from Houston to Austin in April so he is starting to train for that at weekends. He was supposed to be biking into work this morning but it was pouring with rain and you can never quite tell with Houston rain what's going to happen. It can be drizzling one minute and down pouring to the point of extreme flooding the next...probably a good idea this morning not to cycle it was fairly treacherous. We're planning on going out to Fredericksburg for a long weekend so he can get some practice in there where there is nice scenery as opposed to Houston's suburbs and bayous!

Alison, Chris and Toby are coming for 2 weeks at the beginning of April which we are very excited about, hopefully going to try and do a trip to New Orleans while they're here, and a long weekend in San Antonio, before it starts getting too hot for any kind of sight seeing.

I think that's all that's been going on here for the last few months! Well apart from the usual stuff and my children all behaving like ragbags, all at the same time.

I'll come back and add photos on to here later as it's time consuming and quite often it doesn't work first time round.....and I need to go and meet a friend for a coffee or two!

Bye

Freya xx

More Halloween....

We've had a busy few days, primarily because Henry has been poorly and I have got nothing done, I realise I need not one but two extra pairs of hands over the next 48 hours to get everything done before I disappear to Scotland for the week!

Martha had her Halloween party at school on Thursday, I didn't manage to get any really good photo's of her as she was being her stubborn self and wouldn't pose for me. But its the parade at school tomorrow which I'm taking her in for, even though she doesn't go on Monday, so hopefully I'll get some good ones of both girls. Here's one for now though.

The buzzy bumble bee

Yesterday (Saturday) we took the girls to a place called Oil Ranch, which is basically a farm with lots of things for the girls to do, like pony rides, a maze made of hay bales, a hay barn to play in, sheep to feed, a small train ride, tractor and trailer ride, bouncy castle and lots of little park areas.

Fearne and Martha had their first ever rides on ponies, and yes that might sound rather tame, but for Fearne who has always screamed and suddenly got very scared of anything remotely animal based this was an amazing feat, and she looked so happy and relaxed.....so she has a very happy granny who is already planning in her head pony club camps and rides over dartmoor with her when she's older!!!

Lasso practice...I don't think Martha really understood why she was throwing rope over a metal bullock!

Henry looking rather confused!

Sunning herself on the swing!

Martha happily digging in the sandpit.


Martha and Henry in the pumpkin patch

Henry is far more interested in eating the dirt around him than the pumpkins!

So as well as all this yesterday we finally got round to carving some pumpkins too. The girls went for scary faces and this year since I had a template and tools which made carving so much easier I attempted something different!

Martha's friendly pumpkin

Fearne's pumpkin

and my pumpkin.....I'm very pleased with myself.... haha!

And just to fully embrace the Halloween spirit here I have been roasting pumpkin seeds while uploading all these photos.....sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon, yum yum, I'm off to make a coffee to go with them before I start the dreaded task of packing!

Halloween continued.....

Ok, so maybe I was being rather optimistic that i would manage to add things we've been doing every day, so instead it'll just have to be every few days. I'm also trying to organise going back to Scotland on Tuesday with Martha and Henry and my brain is full of lists....must start packing tomorrow....or at least finding any warm clothes thatI can wear!

Anyway.........

I found a bag of mini pumpkins and squashes in the supermarket last night which are actually sold as decor and I have in fact seen them in a few houses on coffee tables, so I thought I'd buy them use them as decoration and then find some recipes I could use them in.....however Martha has other ideas! Today we have spent a lot of time counting, sorting, describing and then hiding them round the house in a game of hide and seek. I took a few pictures of her as she totally absorbed for ages.

All lined up....and counted

Sorted out.....smooth orange baby pumpkins

Funny bumpy colourful pumpkins....I'm going to have to look these up as I have no idea what they are.

And this one is like an umbrella!

Martha has her Halloween party tomorrow morning which she is very excited about, so I'll come back with a picture of her in full costume in the morning.

......and I still haven't managed to take many photos of houses decorated either, mainly because Houston has no pavements and its a bit difficult to subtly take photos from the car without feeling like you're spying on someones house!

ummmm....anything else I've done in the last few days....pumpkin beer was actually surprisingly drinkable. I thought it might be one of those things where I would enjoy a few sips before the novelty wore off but no, I'd happily have another bottle!