Summer Sunshine + HOUSE!!

What an AMAZING couple of weeks it has been- sunny, full of friends and family and small days out, all back home in Aberdeen. It was so lovely to be away down south, but when we settle somewhere new to me it always feels like home. I am lucky that I am adaptable like that naturally. But now I am not keen to move on anywhere, which is especially good news since WE ARE BUYING OUR FIRST HOUSE!!! The mortgage lenders are just finishing having everything go through at the moment- only one thing to go- a second valuation- since they didn't like the fact that the first was a standard Scottish one and not one of their chosen surveyors (ooh, picky!) but once that is done in a few days we should be all sealed and dealed! (dealt?! :D)

The house is in a village called Newmachar, which is 5 mins from where we live at the moment. It is lovely, with a good community feel and BUS ROUTES in and out! The best you could hope for and more really! Everything inside has been recently done and to an amazing standard. We actually put an offer on a different house at the beginning of last week, but got ourselves into an epic Scottish-style bidding war that we totally failed at! Then, *miraculously* a new house came on the market literally as we found that our offer on the other house was rejected. We jumped on it-it was just right- we saw it that night and put an offer in the next morning. We found out that our offer was accepted the next day. I can't quite believe that our speedy offer worked, it was only on the market for one afternoon!

To be honest this is an even better house than the first one we liked, and for a snip of the what the other one must have gone for! It is in pristine condition, the garden is more beautiful, it looks better from the outside. Maybe Heavenly Father had this in place for us a long time ago when Oliver got a place at Newmachar playgroup?! I can believe that of him :) Ben can cycle to work on a designated cycle path so I have the car and we will save all that petrol, AND it is the best possible place for keeping my violin pupils!!! Truly amazing.

Happy days, we have been truly blessed this past couple of weeks. We have worked hard to be ready for this but I believe that it is going to pay off very soon :) All fingers and toes are crossed that this last thing with the new home survey will go smoothly.

And now that the sun is out, I have been thinking about The Corrs. They always make me feel summery!

New addition to the family!

This is Pearl, she is lovely old lady. She was born around 1920, in London. It looks as though she has had some trying times in her life (at least one world war and a lot of battering in at least one Primary school) but she is going to last us at least a couple of years, we hope!

P.S. I am VERY excited about this and am trying to learn a new piece or two every week!!!!!!!!! Two days in and I am still practising every day :D

Our new home!

I LOVE our house. This is the SIXTH house we have lived in since getting married (three years ago today!) and I have never been as emotionally attached as I have been to this one. It is spacious, beautiful, light and bright, has lots of big cupboards, lets me sleep more now that Zach sleeps a hall away, has a lovely long washing line that Ben has fixed up for me and we have now bought our own furniture!! (We had only rented furnished houses before.) All very exciting, and we have it for the year! Oliver is having a great time tearing around from room to room and doesn't get frustrated being cooped up in just one- parenting is suddenly a breeze (ish...)

Here is a mini tour:

Lounge!

Dining room/kitchen (I LOVE this room!!)

The boys in the dining room!

The village-y view from our bedroom!

Oliver's window!  Home made window seat to come..

I will take more photos when I have finished projects on Oliver and Zach's rooms- Owls for Zach and Cars for Oliver (what else?!)

The house is big so come and visit! It is also pretty chilly up here so we could do with a few extra bodies to warm it up too :)

Feeling crafty

This year I have become quite crafty. I was always a crafty goddess wannabee, but now I have actually completed a few projects I am feeling very fulfilled and accomplished :) All of the projects were VERY basic, but I am still pleased that they look nice and that I made them!

Here is what I have made:

- Bunting for Oliver's room

- A couple of cushion covers for Oliver's room (to match the bunting- double wow!)

- A skirt for my sister's birthday. No photos, but she told me she wore it to church and it fit. Hooray!

- A sign for Oliver's door... so he doesn't get lost :)

- 2 x felt animal books, one for baby two, and one for my sister's baby two (due six weeks after ours!)

Here are a few pages from inside (some of the pages are the same- some are different). Major credit goes to a lady's blog I found for the amazing lion page, which can be found here: http://www.onelovelylife.com/?p=2621 Inside my books:

Now on to the next project: a car playmat for Oliver. I was going to leave it until once I am settled with the new baby but Ben is going to be away for half of this month too (again?? Nooo!!) so it will be good to have a project on the go in the evenings so I don't feel too lonely. Also, I have his car mat all mapped out and designed in my head and I'm VERY excited to get started!!!!

Crazy boy

Oliver keeps showing us sneaky previews of his crazy character and what's to come in the future!

He opened this program, and got to the "Help" section...

My small receptionist!

Getting every last bit from his catch-all bib...!

Ben= My Own Personal Handy Man!

At the weekend our washing machine suddenly started spewing out a lot of water out of the drawer and the bottom and any other cranny it could find. We mopped it up with towels and tried to get the water to drain out by putting it on a rinse and spin again, but it only spewed out more. Cue Ben, the notoriously logical and manly problem solver, who immediately put on his thinking cap talking about a blockage somewhere in the machine, etc... Last night he got out his tool box (I have a husband with a tool box, cool!) and started pulling bits of the machine apart, until he found the thing that was blocking the machine. Or rather, things:

1. Two eaten up washable breast pads (I was wondering why I can only find two of the 12 that I own. Perhaps they have all died a similar death)
2. One earring (not mine, must belong to the landlord)
3. 1x £1 coin
4. 1x 5p
5. One fairly large ball... Ben then informed me that this was part of the machine, so he'd better put that one back
6. One bit of plastic that said 'Abercrombie and Fitch' on it (again, must belong to the landlord- we are not that cool!)
7. One hairband.

How, HOW, did all those things manage to get stuck in the machine?!! It's a miracle the poor machine was washing anything at all.

Hooray for a wonderful husband!! :)

Our new house and other news

Look at our new house!!!

We just got back from a wonderful time in Aberdeen, house hunting and exploring our new surroundings. I loved it, and the scenery on the drive up there was incredible! 

It has a garden, nice furniture etc, two bedrooms, it's in a lovely quiet Crescenty area with a church, park and community centre nearby and it is just lovely and the right price!! Hooray!! We're moving in on 10th Sept.

In other news...

We stayed with friends on the way home- Emily and Widge Guy - which was just fab since we haven't seen them for over a year which was very sad!! They were wonderful hosts and we had a great time with them and look forward to seeing them again soon. While we were there OLIVER SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT for the first time in his life!!!!!!!!!!!!! He went to bed at 9pm and woke up at 7.45am, with no milky in between!!!!!!!!! Wahoo. Last night it was back to business as usual and I fed him twice, but at least I now know that it is possible!

And Oliver is getting more impressive by the day, because yesterday evening I felt his first tooth! I can see it poking through and everything- it was a bizarrely emotional moment :) His cousin Seb has 8 teeth and he is only two months older, so we are glad our little Squeaker is starting to catch up!

And here is a sad piece of news from Ben: he had an intense medical for going offshore with BP (which he passed, by the way) and they told him that he has a " mild irreversible hearing impediment" in one of his ears, or something along those lines, probably from listening to loud music?? We don't really listen to any so I'm not really sure what caused it. Either way, I tease him by speaking in his other ear and nice and slow, but we hope he won't need a hearing aid before he's 40...!

The End of a Cambridge-y Era!

On Thursday morning we are moving house and it is a sad business!! I love living in Girton- it is beautiful, and Ben has just been working on the garden and it looks better than it ever has! I have made some lovely friends and they are sad to leave behind... We have had a WONDERFUL time in Cambridge, with tons of fab opportunites (rowing, singing, Mum and baby groups galore, lots of concerts and cultural things, amazing architecture, church friends, punting, working at the Edinburgh Woollen Mill!!) and it will be sad to leave it all behind.

But on Thursday we are hiring a Transit van and moving it all into Mum and Dad's conservatory, and for the next month will be embarking on a series of holidays, trips, a family wedding, a 60th wedding anniversary (not ours quite yet!) and Ben's Graduation. Not too shabby! So at the moment our front room is full of boxes, and the rest of the house looks like an utter tip which is a little bit disconcerting (since it's got to get worse before it gets better?!)

We are getting rather excited about just turning up in a place where no-one knows us, our parents or anyone else, and settling into life far, far away- just the three of us!! Sounds like fun.

In other news, it's my birthday in 1 hour and 37 minutes!! Not that I'm immature and counting, of course...! :)

We are officially moving to....

Today was pretty eventful: Ben got his exam results (hooray!!) AND we finally know where BP are sending us!!!! We are going to...

ABERDEEN!

We are very excited, although that is all we know so far. We will probably be there for 1-2 years.

Our house is a mess

Oliver is a hobby that is very time consuming!!!!! It is wonderful, but I am learning to relax on the keeping the house straight... I'm sure if that's a good thing or not...

I have been critisized by one of my avid readers (!) that I don't have enough pictures, so here are two pictures I took this weekend. I have to confess that they were the neatest things I could take pictures of and not feel too embarrassed by. The rest of it is lots worse :S

One pile of clean washing of about four loads of washing that takes up half the kitchen table (I seem to spend my entire life washing and drying clothes and nappies, so that's why I can't put them away...)

The flowers are pretty though :)

Nappies! I really need to get a bigger nappy bin.

But this is because we have been doing lovely things together!! Recently we saw Ben's family, and Ben directed Uncle Dan how to change his nappy:

I went to the Ash Wednesday service at King's College. I felt like I'd died and gone to heaven- the music was glorious.

Oliver dressed up as a Tigger for the last time (it was starting to get a bit tight!):

I swear it's impossible to buy a house

With Ben starting a new job this year we've been talking a lot about money things recently. Ben drew up some preliminary calculations (he does enjoy that!) and it was SCARY... we worked out that after bills and rent and food we'd have about £150 left each month- and we hadn't accounted for anything fun or a holiday or saving anything!!!!

How on earth does anyone manage to buy a house?????!!!! 

Everything seems so stacked against first time buyers!! Last night Ben did a search on the rightmove website for houses and flats in a 5-mile radius of Aberdeen. There was NOTHING for less than £170,000!!! Thank goodness Ben has a good job lined up- at least it won't be impossible. I suppose this is what being newly married is all about- it's going to be fun! I think we'll be renting for a couple more years... :)