Couple Updates

So sorry for the silence after asking for prayer and saying my Grandma was in surgery. We are praising God that He brought her through the surgery just fine and she has been stable ever since. What a blessing. She is obviously in pain, but at this point the healing has started so we rejoice!

Not a whole lot else to report. I had two fabulous photo shoots yesterday and enjoyed them both immensely. Photography is just intoxicating for me :) Check out http://rophoto.wordpress.com in the next day or so to see some new photos.

Grandma Update

Things change fast sometimes with medical updates! Because they couldn't stabilize my Grandma to the doctor's liking, they decided emergency open heart/bypass surgery was the best option, so she is currently in surgery. It's been roughly 2 hours with another 2-3 to go. We'll know more tomorrow.

Urgent Prayer Needed!

Would you all pray with us about my Grandma (Mom's mom)? For the past couple of weeks she has been having various heart related issues, and has been in out of the doctors/hospital for the past week. Today they did a heart cath and have determined her arteries are very blocked. She has been experiencing chest pains since that time and her blood pressure has dropped. They are currently trying to stabilize her with the hopes of doing open heart surgery tomorrow if she is strong enough. Please pray to that end.

Thankfully my mother is there in Missouri with my grandma, my grandma's husband and her 3 sisters. Pray for all of them as they support my grandma during this time. And obviously, please pray for my peace of mind as I am painfully feeling the distance of being an ocean and and half the US away. I will try to update with other requests as I know them.

Thoughts on my Week

Thought I'd share some things about my week that I've learned/thought about:

1. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9). I appreciate that every month in our church bulletin there is a verse to memorize and meditate on for the whole month. This month's has been very timely shared.

2. The University campus floods (in parts) when large amounts of rain fall in a short amount of time. I now know where those parts are.

3. When it is said of a company that they've "gone into administration" it means they've gone bankrupt. I was thankful for a co-worker's explanation on this one.

4. Discussing tax matters with the city's Council is similar to a David and Goliath story. I long to see God's hand move in mighty ways like He did on David (and Israel's) behalf.

5. The thought of having to give an hour long campus tour to prospective students is an overwhelming thought. I do not think my 1.5 hours of training will suffice. But if anyone wants to let me practice on them, let me know :)

6. The book "My Sister's Keeper" is difficult to put down, thought-provoking, and evokes all sorts of emotions.

7. I'm married to a wonderful man and I'm so grateful for him. I continue to enjoy the adventure called life with him.

8. Looking back on life: We left Raleigh 2 years ago on Wednesday and started our crazy Scottish adventures, that began with 7 weeks or so of seeing family and finishing preparations for the big move. Sometimes it feels longer than 2 years.

9. The UK's new visa laws that have just gone into effect are wreaking havoc on our department at work. I will be impressed to see international students arrive on time in September.

10. Waking up to an alarm again daily this week has been a slap in the face after enjoying some lazy mornings during my 2 and a half weeks off. I'm thankful it is the weekend.

I know there are others, but think I will leave it at that. Since today's post if sans photos, go here to enjoy some of my favorites from when my parents were here.

Seen in Scotland

Since it has been awhile since we've shared any fun Scottish signs I thought I'd post some that we found while on our trip. For those wanting to see previous posts with signs, go here and here. They both have links to other photos as well.

Sadly, one sign is missing that I saw just on Friday morning at 4:50am after dropping my parents off at the airport. It was written on a similar sign as the "Frustration Can Cause Accidents" sign previously posted (and which we saw multiple times while driving this trip). But this sign said "Tiredness Can Kill." Kinda funny to see that at 4:50am after getting to bed late. I'm pretty sure that some coffee company should use that as their slogan. Maybe I should market that along with some photos and see if I have any takers :)

This one we saw the first time we were at Balmoral in Nov. '07, but I never got a shot of it. I just like the little squirrel. Not too funny, but documenting the red squirrels that they have around some parts of Scotland that, I think, are endangered so they don't want you running them over.

Found this at The Heather Centre near Aviemore. It (the Heather Centre) was not quite what we expected, but still enjoyable. We liked the picture going with the words.

Also at the Heather Centre. Note the last sentence. We thought that was cute.

This one is just funny. Perhaps offensive, but funny nonetheless. If you are ever in the UK and want to rent a minivan/camper, go to wickedcampers.co.uk and you too can "hire" this van :) Saw this at the Highland Games in Glengarry.
Just another favorite stick figure showing the action. Urquhart Castle....well, really the car park wall that drops way off down to the castle.
Ditto with this one. "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!" St. Andrew's University near the Divinity School.
And this just might now be my favorite sign. I found it months ago on the way to a friend's flat here in Aberdeen, but finally took my camera to go photograph it. Really? While I wait?! Is there any other kind of dentist? Just wondering. Cuz if there is, I want to know about it. I hate waiting for my "dental repairs."

Like Queen's

We had a great visit with my parents. As is usually the case, the visit went too quickly and now it is back to normal life. Thought I would highlight one particular part of my parent's visit because it was more unusual than some of the things we did.

I was sent from the US a "traveling tea pot." Sort of along the lines of the "traveling pants" movies for those of you who have seen that (and for you UKer's not familiar with the movie, it's a pair of jeans that is sent from friend to friend, not errrr, well, not "pants." Just thought we should clear that up!) Anyways, so this teapot has sojourned with a couple of my aunts and eventually made it's way to me. Each person receiving the tea pot has to have a tea party, or the very least, tea with another person, then journal about their experience. It's a rather interesting idea and though I was a bit skeptical at first it was sort of fun. Since it was going to be expensive to ship back to the US I decided I better do something while my mom was here, and since we were traveling so much off and on during their visit, organizing a proper tea party with friends was out. I was stumped as to where mom and I should have our tea party. Then I had the brilliant idea to take the tea "party" to Balmoral Castle (the Queen's holiday home).

It was July 1st and one of the hottest days we've ever had here in Scotland. (Side note, the entire first week my parents were here we kept saying, "this isn't normal, it isn't usually this warm or sunny." We all enjoyed it, us because it was warmer, them because it was cooler. However, it did get a bit toasty travelling in our non-air conditioned car in upper 70's and low 80 degree temps cross-country. I even managed to sunburn my arm on this particular day while riding in the car!)

Mark opted for a coffee shop and sat out the Balmoral tour. We had done it before and he thought that was good enough for him. So my parents and I enjoyed walking around and learning more about the royal family and their estate. Towards the end of our time Mom and I broke out the thermos of hot water we had brought, poured it into the traveling tea pot with two tea bags, then poured into disposable cups. We left the Royal Photographer (i.e. Dad) in charge of photographing the event (you are to include photos in the journal entry) while we enjoyed a few moments of sipping tea with the castle in the background.