Cheap Pleasures

After hearing about a polaroid app for the iphone, I decided I HAD to have it. Let me tell you, it was worth every cent of the 99 cents I had to pay for it! Taking pictures and shaking the phone to develop them...so fun! Connor laughs when I shake the phone in front of him to develop the picture. It's so cute. Here are some of the photos I have taken with it this week...


And if you too have an iphone, download this app now! It provides so much entertainment for such little mulah!

My Name

So, my name is Jessica.

Growing up, it was always Jessica, never Jess and certainly not Jessie. I was always insistent about that.

Then Ian came along...

He called me Jess, which I am fine with.

He introduces me as Jess, which I am not as fine with (and he totally knows this).

And slowly, my name became Jess. But, I do still always introduce myself as Jessica and always sign my name as Jessica as well. I just see Jess as a nickname, hence the reason I don't mind being called it, but don't like being introduced as it.

Today I realized the magnitude of my name change when I went to visit someone at work. When I asked for them, I gave my name as Jessica. When they came down, they said it confused them as they only know me as Jess. And it hit me...

My husband has single-handedly renamed me!

So, just to make me feel like I have some control over my name, every once in a while, would someone humor me and call me Jessica?

And by the way, in no way do I not like being called Jess. It's just that my name has always been Jessica until Ian came along. And apparently that guy has some pull because he has everyone referring to me as Jess!

Doonies Farm

Connor and I went with a friend over to Doonies Farm in Aberdeen yesterday. I don't think it is a real farm...or at least not one that actually produces anything. It is really a farm for kids (and kids at heart) to come and enjoy the animals. You can feed and pet the animals. Connor touched a few...though it was more hitting them than petting them! And one of the horses kept trying to lick (or maybe bite?) him. Stupid horse! The most fun for Connor was the playground. They had some little tractors for babies. Connor rode around the yard on it...while being the good mom that I am, I pushed him!





And for all you germ-a-phobes out there, do not fear. I held Connor's hands after he touched the animals so he couldn't put them in his mouth. Then, he got a good scrub down before we left...they actually had a room to sanitize yourself (including shoes) before you left...and a bath when we got home.

Scolty Hill

Trying to be the adventure loving family that we are, we went on a little walk/hike today. We found a place not far out of Aberdeen that had some hiking trails and decided to try it out. We packed up and off we went.

Connor hung out the side of the backpack pretty much the whole time. If we straightened him, within seconds, he was back to the side. I think it is because he can actually see ahead when he is hanging off to the side.


We had to stop along the way to give Connor some food. He was about to have a serious melt down if we didn't give him some food. Little guy is just like his mommy!


Connor was so tired for most of the walk (aka: cranky), but didn't fall asleep until the end. He looked totally uncomfortable, but I didn't know how to fix that. Plus, I really didn't want to wake him given that we still had some distance to walk...public meltdowns aren't all they are cracked up to be.


Oh, and for good measure, here is a picture of me and Connor...proof that I actually went on the walk too!

She's Crafty

Not, Not, NOT

Using the words "crafty" and "Jessica" in the same sentence should almost be considered illegal. I don't think I have a crafty bone in my body. Grand ideas, yes. Craftiness, no...which is ironic given how crafty my mom is. Anyway, a while back I picked up a dust ruffle that matched Connor's crib set on clearance. I had grand plans for that dust ruffle...the first of which, I am about to show you. I thought I would make a flag-banner of sorts with Connor's name on it. Sounds easy enough, right?

My first attempt was to use iron on printer paper. I would print out Connor's name and iron it on to the flags. I am a genius! Yeah, that didn't work. You could only see the blue lettering I chose on the white dots.


So, to the craft store I went. I had another idea. I would buy blue material and cut it into letters and somehow get it to stick to the material. Well, at the craft store, I discovered this iron on stuff that allows two materials to iron on to it...all of you crafty people out there are probably going, duh Jessica! I also acquired some blue fabric.

Now I had options. I could make the flags blue or polka dotted. I could do every other. After a phone conversation with my mom, I decided on blue flags with dotted letters. So away I went making my dotted letters. I ironed them on to the flags and they looked great. I was so proud of my un-crafty self. Then, when it came time to attach the flags to the rope, my plan fell apart. While ironing the flags around the rope, the letters began to fall off. Then I tried to super glue them back on...to which I discovered two things about super glue:

1. it shows thru fabric
2. if you use paper to press on the fabric, it sticks


Now I was beginning to loose hope in my wonderful idea. It was starting to seem too hard. Then, my mom suggested that I attach the flags to the rope first, then iron on the letters. That woman is a genius I tell you! I did that and voila, finally something I can be proud of (or at least not ashamed of)!


I have to admit, I am trying to not handle it too much as I am afraid it will fall apart!

***The title of this blog makes me think of a certain Beastie Boys song, but given that the song has nothing to do with the blog post, I thought I wouldn't mention it. But, I couldn't help myself! I had to point it out!

Aww, Sunshine

I have decided that I would be perfectly content living somewhere that is 66 degrees and sunny every day. I am not a "seasons" gal. Summer and sunshine year round is fine by me. There used to be a time, not so long ago, that 66 degrees was freezing to me. Now-a-days, it is the perfect temp!


Connor and I were able to enjoy our breakfast outside yesterday morning. He was definitely distracted by all that was going on. And, he kept picking flowers and trying to eat them. Then we met a friend at the park, had some ice cream, strolled around and enjoyed the company.

Oh, and today it 55 degrees and pouring down rain.

Faith, Part 2

****This is my second entry in an unplanned series on faith. If you want to read the first entry, have at it***

I feel like I am on a journey, a journey discovering what faith means to me and a journey of having that small seed of faith inside me grow. Being raised in a Christian home, I took advantage of faith. It was something that was always there. But now, as an adult, I am having to discover what faith really means and how it applies to my life.

I have struggled for a while now with exactly what faith means. It is kind of an elusive thing to me. Kind of like a feeling. How do I act out a feeling? Well, when I came across something referring to faith as trust, a light clicked on for me. That just made sense. Having trust in God I could totally understand. Now learning to trust God for everything is the journey I am on.

I am an independent person. I am the person that says God gave us brains to figure out things on our own. I am the person that prays if it is your will. I am done with that...well trying to be.

Reading the bible, Jesus says over and over, your faith has made you well. I want that faith. I want the faith that makes me well, the faith that moves mountains. I know I can get it. My heart wants it. It is just figuring out how to get my head there. Figuring out how to trust in God and rely on him for everything. That is pretty big when you think about it.

I have been following this blog about a pastor's daughter in Southern California with cancer. After being declared cancer free in May, they found a tumor in her a week ago. An you know what scripture the dad puts on his blog? Job 1:20-22

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. He said, ”Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.

That is the kind of faith I want. The kind of faith that puts my (and my family's) life in his hands. The kind of faith that completely knows that God is in charge. The kind of faith that is unwavering. The kind of faith that moves mountains. I know it can happen.

It all begins with trust...

Summer Fashion Week - Sunday

What is about to become extremely clear to all of you is that I live in a much different weather climate than most of you. Our average summer high over here in Scotland is 64 degrees. And it is more like us having a bunch of rainy days with a high in the 50's, then a couple sunny days that may hit 70...if we are lucky. Thus, dressing for the summer can be different, which is evident given that I am wearing a sweater today!

Sweater: Hollister
Tanktop: Michael Stars
Jeans: Seven
Shoes: Converse
Jewelry: Don't know/remember with either the necklace or bracelet

It was great playing along with all of you this week. Thanks for all the wonderful comments. I am sure there are some of you that I will now be blog stalking following your blog/life musings for my personal enjoyment.

Summer Fashion Week - Saturday

Happy Saturday to you all!!! Anyone up to anything fun this weekend? We are having some friends over for a BBQ...hopefully the rain will hold off long enough for us to enjoy some of the BBQ outside!

Dress: Superdry

(another Scottish brand...that oddly enough masks itself as something Japanese)
Leggings: Gap
Shoes: Urban Outfitters

I feel like I need to make a couple disclaimers about my outfit today. First, it is Saturday, thus the husband was home to take my picture. And for some reason, I decided I needed to get a little active during the photo shoot! But about the clothes, sorry about the bra straps hanging out. I just didn't feel up to sporting a strapless bra ALL DAY LONG! I guess fashion has to suffer. And secondly, about the smack-you-in-the-face clevage in every picture, I am still breastfeeding my little man. I can't help the clevage!

8 Months

Weight: 17lbs, 11oz

Accomplishments:
2 cut teeth (both on the bottom)
Crawling
Sleeping on his stomach
Extremely observant...finds the smallest things on the floor!
Taking steps, with someone holding him up

Connor has had a lot going on in the past month and most of it seemed to happen within a week of each other. In the past week, Connor has started to crawl and has had two teeth pop thru on the bottom. The whole teething thing made him into one unhappy camper, and a huge Mama's boy!

Connor has also now mastered the art of sleeping on his stomach. And, no matter where you put him in his crib, he always crawls to the same end, pulls down the bumper and uses it as a pillow. It is really cute! With the whole teething saga, we have had some pretty rough nights, but he seems to be doing better now. Last night he slept 13 hours! If only every night were that easy!

One of my favorite things about Connor are his facial expressions. Seriously, the kid is a hoot! And when he smiles, it melts my heart. I love that kid!

Summer Fashion Week - Friday

Top: Topshop
Tanktop: Target
Jeans: Topshop
Shoes: Converse high tops

These photos don't do this top justice. It is long, flowy and see through. I really like how it fits me. It is one of those tops that I always feel good wearing...if only my whole wardrobe were like this! I normally wear this shirt with the necklace that I wore on Monday, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I hope I didn't loose it somewhere outside of my house. I love that necklace!

Oh, and right after I took these pictures, I put my contacts in. It is pouring down rain outside and given that I have to walk everywhere I go, I didn't want to hassle with my glasses getting all fogged up in the rain...like you care!

Summer Fashion Week - Thursday

Today I have barely been able to do anything without a certain little man on my hip. As soon as I even begin to set him down, the waterworks begin. And all I can think about is that once these teeth are in, there will be more to come just around the corner!


While he was napping, I ran outside and snapped a couple pictures of what I was wearing. None of them turned out particularly well, but no time for another photo sesh. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Jacket: Roxy

Shirt: ?
Jeans: Citizens
Shoes: Converse high tops

Yesterday someone gave me some teeth candy and they are totally freaking me out. Honestly, I feel gross even thinking about eating them. So, I thought I would share them with you...its kind of like having someone smell something that you think smells gross!

Summer Fashion Week - Wednesday

Today I am thinking Summer Fashion Week needs to be renamed Fall Fashion Week. A storm blew in last night and it is chilly, windy and rainy. And leaves are falling off the trees and blowing around...it's definitely fall. And being that it is fall, I picked out my best fall outfit to tackle a day of taking care of my baby cutting teeth (it appears 4 are coming in right now).

Necklace: Don't know

Shirt: Old Navy
Belt: One of those things so old it feels like your leg...it has just always been there for you!
Jeans: Topshop
Shoes: Good 'ole Rainbows

Not that you care, but my shirt actually matches the color of some of the flowers in our garden. I love the color. Maybe that is why I picked out both the shirt and the flowers!

Summer Fashion Week - Tuesday

With the temperature hitting a scorching 61 degrees today and a storm coming in tonight, I thought I would take advantage of the good weather and wear another summery outfit.

Dress: Sugarhill (picked up from a store over here in Scotland)

Leggings: Gap
Shoes: Urban Outfitters
Ankle Candy: My son Connor

I really love this dress. It has various colored buttons down one side of it. They are useless, but cute. And, the detail on the top is really cute and summery. The only downside of the dress is it wrinkles the instant you put it on. But, that doesn't really bother me anyway...I didn't even bother to iron it today!

Weekly Date Night

I am taking part in Summer Fashion Week this week...and as you all know, I am oh-so-fashion. Okay, so not really. But, it gives my mom a chance to see my smiling face every day and I know she likes that. So, here it goes, my outfit for the day...I am all dressed up for a date night with the husband. If you would like to read about my thoughts on the date night, see my ramblings after the picture. Oh, and it is a tab bit windy over here on the North Sea, so I couldn't get a picture outside without my hair in my face!

Before I had a kid, I thought the concept of a weekly date night made sense. A weekly time alone with your spouse; time to talk and connect outside of baby. After having said baby, I realize how totally and completely unpractical these weekly date nights are! Okay, so maybe if you live by your family and get free baby sitting all the time, they totally work. But, I live on the other side of the world. And, mooching off the few people who qualify in my book as "baby sitters" every single week, just isn't going to fly. Plus, before we had the little one, we didn't even go out to eat once a week (it is butt expensive to go out to eat over here), so why we would do it after the little bundle of joy came along is beyond me.

I would like to take it a step further and argue that there are couples with weekly date nights who have the crappiest of marriages and there are couples who have the bi-yearly date night and they are living in wedded bliss. Its all about what you make it. Isn't a date night a time for you and your spouse to reconnect? Have some quiet time and just talk? My solution, turn off the freaking tv, throw the computers and cell phones out the front door...look at each other and actually talk. I am pretty sure you don't have to leave your house to connect with each other, but you do have to get rid of all the distractions. I am also not saying that date nights are a bad thing, because lets face it, all of us want to go out to eat sometimes, but they just aren't practical for everyone. And for those of us who fall into that category, we shouldn't feel that our marriage is on the fasttrack to the crapper just because of that.

So I ask, how many of you truly have a weekly date night? Oh, and who does your babysitting?

Oh, and Ian and I are headed out for a date night tonight. First one in over a month. Ian's sister is in town for a week and we are taking advantage of the free baby sitting by having a night to ourselves. Thought you would like to know!

Hogwarts Express

This weekend we took a trip over to the west coast of Scotland. While there, we took a ride on the Hogwarts Express...also known as the Jacobite. It is a steam engine train that they used in the Harry Potter films for part of the journey to Hogwarts (it was in some of the scenery shots, but not used for the inside). It has also been awarded the most beautiful train ride in the world for both 2009 and 2010.

It was a good train ride. The most beautiful in the world? I wouldn't know. I haven't been on all of them! Some of the highlights for me were the train tracks being literally inches away from a river, the smell of coal (and the coal pieces coming thru the train window) and the train steaming up when we would go thru a tunnel.

When we walked down to the train engine, all Connor could do was stare. Obviously it was large and it was making noise. People seriously had to try hard to get him to look at the camera for pictures. It was cute seeing how into it he was.

Also, the weather held off for us. We had a beautiful train ride. On the trip back, the clouds started rolling in. About 30 minutes after we got back, it started raining. Good timing on our part (or God's)!

The bridge used in the Harry Potter films

Connor doing a little light reading on the train

Connor Making Friends

We went to the park today to meet up with some people from our church. One of the ladies invited along her sister-in-law, who has a little girl (Mia) that is a month older than Connor. Honestly, I was a little excited to watch them interact. I thought Connor would be thrilled about his encounter with another small person. Well, for about 30 minutes, they just plain ignored each other. I tried sitting him next to her, laying him next to her and pointing her out. Nothing seemed to work. Then all the sudden, something clicked and he went for her. He grabbed her feet, poked her in the face, in the head and crawled on top of her. It almost seemed like they were having a baby wrestling match of sorts. It was cute. I am glad Connor got to interact with someone his age and hopefully as he grows up, he will be a little nicer to the ladies!

Connor seems a bit more excited about the friendship than Mia does!

Maybe Connor just doesn't want to share his sock monkey!

Connor going for the tackle.

Sleep

It may sometimes be a struggle for Connor to get to sleep, but once he does, he is so stinking cute! And honestly, why can't I look this cute when I am sleeping?!?

And for good measure, one of him sleeping this weekend, all tucked away between the wall and the bed:

Weekend Update

The fun:
Going to Edinburgh for the weekend.
Staying with friends.
Enjoying some nice, warm, sunny weather.
Ian's sister coming to visit.
Connor trying to crawl.

The Funny:
Connor grunting and turning red...doing a you-know-what.
Making a bed for Connor in between the wall and the bed we slept on.
Running into someone we know from Aberdeen in Edinburgh.
Reading Superfreakonomics.

The OHMYGOSH:
Ian & our friend trying to catch a mouse in their box room.
Running into someone who hasn't seen me since I was pregnant...
Them telling me I look smaller...uh, thanks?
Not realizing it is the 4th of July.
Teething. Need I say more?


How was your weekend?
You get up to much?

Teething Sucks

I don't get it. I thought sleeping thru the night was a success. Then came this glorious thing they call "teething". Now my great sleeper is up two to three times a night. And the crying, oh the crying. I feel so bad for my little guy. The tears, the screams. And sometimes during the day he is only content in my arms. I know he doesn't feel well. And it makes for long days for both him and I. If anyone has any advice on how to get thru this rough patch easier, I am all ears!

Sorry for the lack of posts...but that is what I have been facing lately.