Pre-Christmas Update :)

I've been a horrible blogger lately and have completely neglected this space! Sorry to everyone who normally reads- I'll try to be better.

There has been so much going on it's not even funny sometimes and it feels like I barely have a second to crawl into bed before I am having to shut the alarm off and get up for work. We've been busy little bees but I think our efforts are paying off.

Let's see, the last time I updated was Raime's birthday (holy cow- it's been almost two months! How bad am I?!). I had a blast on my birthday, it was definitely an eventful weekend. I'm pretty sure Jamie had a good time, and I definitely realized how lucky I am to have such a great group of friends here. I should have updated then, as I would have had a lot more stories to tell you then I'm sure.

I've been working like a mad woman, but I love my job. I'm the Admin Co-ordinator at Raeburn and I really enjoy it there. The people are all fantastic and I'm busy pretty much all the time (I have yet to run out of stuff to do and I haven't even picked up all my workload yet!). I've already been to our company Christmas party, which was a blast... it's so interesting to see some of the people who are so professional at work let loose and become more like their normal selves outside the office! I really have nothing to complain about at all which is great! I only wish there were more time in the day to get everything done!

Aberdeen Scoobies is doing really well, we have our Santa Cruise tomorrow. I cannot wait! We raised a little over 3,500 this year so I am very proud to be a part of the group. We are doing well in setting up the charity and I'm really looking forward to what we are going to be able to accomplish next year. I'll post up some pictures probably when we get done with the cruise so that you all can see the kids/presents we bought for them, as I can't wait to see all their faces! (we raise money throughout the year to buy presents for the sick children's hospital here in Aberdeen).

Nic and I were invited to join Deeptrek recently, so we are really excited to be a part of that as well! For those of you who haven't heard me ramble about how excited I am about it, info about us can be found at http://www.deeptrek.net. Nic and I are so honored to be able to be a part of the organisation and can't wait to really make a contribution to the group.

Let's see... what else is new. OH- watch this space because I will be posting pictures of Nic with his Christmas present soon. I am so excited about it and will explain why I'm excited at a later date I'm sure. WOO HOO!

I think that's pretty much it... I will post again soon, but if I am lazy and don't post until after Christmas, I wish you all the best and most Merry Christmas possible. I love you all and will be thinking of you :)

WOO HOO!

I was called back at about noon or so today and the offer was good so I took it! YAY! I will finally be working like a normal person again! haha. I enjoyed my time temping, don't get me wrong, but I'm so glad not to have to worry about finding another job for a while... PLUS I get to settle in somewhere and really get to know the people there. It seems to be a great place to work. I've already received two e-mails from girls at work (one from the lady I interviewed with at first, Lora, and the other from Lynsey- my temp recruiter) saying they look forward to seeing me on Monday. YAY. Lora is pregnant and is going to be going on leave in April. I'm glad I'll already be familiar with two (three if you count Dianne, the director) girls there.

Anyway, I thought I'd update you all before I head out to Dunc and Laura's for tea and some catching up before the meeting.

I hate waiting...

So this morning I was walking through the kitchen to get my morning cuppa and I noticed that the little red light was flashing on the phone. This usually means we've missed a call, sometimes there's even a message. This time there was two missed calls and two messages. What?! I was home all day yesterday- AND I had the phone with me for most of the day as I was waiting to hear back about the interview. So as I go to listen to the messages, I find out they were at 6:46 and 6:48...so basically someone called during the 5 minutes I had left the phone downstairs to go up to put on socks. Damn cold feet! The first was from Cris (Nic's mom) and the second was from Dianne (with Raeburn). ARGH! She said they wanted to make me an offer- YAY!!! but that she'd be out of the office Friday (today). So, now I'm sitting here waiting for a few more days possibly... when in the message she said she'd like me to start Monday if I accept.

So... now I wait. I wait to find out what they are offering pay wise, which position they are offering (the one I actually went to interview for or the higher one...) and for her to call me back to discuss it. I hate waiting.

I called them this morning (a few minutes ago) and talked to Lora about how to get in touch with Dianne if she's out of the office and she said she IS reachable, and that she'll pass on the message to call me at home today... so hopefully I'll know what I'm doing before the weekend.

I'm actually excited, and am hoping that I have reason to be.

MY BIRTHDAY!

My birthday is coming up soon (it's the 29th of November) and we had made plans with our AS group to go to the club's Christmas Do (gathering if you will..) that night and then go out on the town afterwards. I was really excited about it (and still am!) as I get to spend time with a lot of my friends here...

Well... Now I'm even more excited, as Jamie (my best friend for the past 23 years or so) is coming to Scotland for my birthday! How great is that?!

Bonfires, Covershoots and Interviews... OH MY!

This past month or so has been pretty busy for Nic and I but that's not to say that it hasn't been fun! We've met with our AS (Scoobie) bunch several times, had friends over, taken pictures for the Calendar that AS puts out for charity each year, had our Guy Fawkes Day bonfire with the neighborhood (and Stavros and Fiona too!), and I've attended an interview for a job I kinda hope I get!

I'll start out with the Bonfire... Every year on the 5th of November (Remember Remember the 5th of November) everyone here celebrates Guy Fawkes Day. To give you a brush up on your history, Guy Fawkes was the guy who tried to blow up the parliament building in the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. You are supposed to burn an effigy of Guy but I haven't ever seen that happen. Instead, everyone just gathers around a massive bonfire and eats/drinks and catches up on each other's lives. Last year we were still at the Pitmedden Hotel and got to see some fireworks and that was about it. This year, we got to attend our neighborhood bonfire (everyone carts ALL of their boxes and tree clippings etc from the WHOLE year down to a specific point and we burn it). Everyone was a bit dissapointed with the size of it this year (except Nic, Stavros, Fiona and I... it looked massive to us!) because apparently the past two years it has been almost double in size! Here's a picture of it halfway through (so imagine it about a third bigger before in the beginning).


And here's one of our neighbor Mike lighting one of his flares (he really really loves flares!) to add a bit of orange smoke to it to make it feel more like Halloween. The kids liked them, but I think they liked the fireworks more!


Last Sunday we went to take pictures with some of the AS group for the cover of our charity (Santa Cruise) calendar. We had an ok turnout this year, although there should have been more. We started out with 15 and ended up with 14, as someone had to leave to go offshore! That's alright though. Here's one of the pictures... If you want a calendar (they are 10 pounds each... but 100% of that goes to the charity, as we had the cost sponsored) let me know. Nic and I share a page with Duncan and Laura (it looks great though!) and we are on the cover as well... Ok, well... our car is on the cover! haha. In this picture, our car is on the back row, second car.


We had a bunch of people taking pictures for us so there should be some really good photos from that day, they were taking it from the hill on the golf course. I was going to go up there but some golfers were about to tee up when I was going to go so I had to stay on the side the cars were parked... You can see Nic's shadow at the bottom- haha quality!

Let's see... Yesterday I went to an interview with Raeburn (which is actually one of the temp agencies that I was using to find temp work!). They are looking for an admin so I went to go interview for that position. I sat and visited with the ladies for about an hour and a half and they ended up saying that I'd be better for the role above the position I was interviewing for (for the manager of the admin department basically...) So they are now considering me for that role. I'm really actually pretty excited about it, and if it's offered to me I'll probably take it. Well... as long as they offer the right salary! haha! We'll see how that goes. I do have blisters on my feet from walking to the interview from Stavros' flat (it's .8 miles there and .8 back and I wasn't wearing my nice heels) though so if I do get the job I'll have to remember to bring my trainers everyday!

I think that's about it at the moment... I have to go make lunch, as Nic should be here any minute!

A little bit closer now...

Today we move our clocks back an hour for daylight savings time so we are officially only 5 hours ahead of those of you in Texas! Woo hoo! I could have really used that extra hour the past two weeks or so when I was always on the phone to my insurance company, but hey- I'll take what I can get now!

We FINALLY got our insurance adjustment back and can now move onward with the repairs on our house in Houston. What a relief! They are covering pretty much everything which is a total blessing... I really had a bad feeling that they were only going to quote us half of the amount that the contractors had given us bids for. They actually have given us more than the original bids were for, so that makes me feel really good about getting things done right. Now all we have to do is figure out how to deposit the check! Ha! I will say that my Mom has been an excellent helper though all of our issues (she deposits all my checks for me and pays my paper bills with pre-signed checks that I've left with her). I'm not sure what I would have done without her help, she's a lifesaver!

Friday was my last day with Ipedex and to be honest I'm a little sad about it. I'm not going to miss being bored at work (I usually finished all my work by 10!) but I will definitely miss the people there. They were really sweet and I've really grown quite attached to them... I am probably going to have massive withdrawls from the work banter and the cups of tea . I am supposed to go to lunch with them on Friday though, so it won't be too long before I see them all again. In the meantime, I'm back on the job hunt for a new challenge. I'm going to be picky so I'm not expecting anything right away but I'm hoping it won't be too incredibly long before something else comes up. I'm really used to going to work again and I am not sure what I'm going to do with myself until I find another job... oh wait- yes I do! I am going to clean my house thoroughly, as it needs it! I think I'll also spend a day or two with Laura and Ella and hopefully get some AS (Aberdeen Scoobies) charity stuff set up for next year. I also have a few books that I've purchased and haven't had the chance to read yet (like 2 or 3), so I want to get that done before I go back as well. Fable II just came out as well, so I'll have a good time playing that while Nic is at work (since he won't let me play while he's home!!).

Anyway- our Tea is about ready so I'm going to go eat... I'm looking forward to enjoying the little extra bit of closeness with you all though (at least for a week until you all set your clocks back next Sunday!).

It's time

Ok, so I finally have a second and can fill you all in on some of the stuff that's been going on over here. We haven't been home a lot lately so this weekend we've decided to take it easy and relax a little bit.

I guess I should start with the camping trip since that was like two weeks ago and I haven't really said a whole lot about it. We had a FANTASTIC time, or as I've been trained to say here... it was ace! haha. We started out the trip in Aberdeen and drove up towards Inverness and then around to Fort William. The drive was absolutely beautiful (or should I say bonny) and we stopped pretty often to take pictures and look around the little villages. We didn't quite have the turnout that was expected (originally like 16 of us were supposed to go) but we had a blast anyway and I'm almost glad that we had a smaller group. It ended up just being Nic, Me, Duncan (Dunc), Laura (Dunc's wife), Tracy (T), Stu, and Shona (pronounced Show-na). Anyway, the banter was so funny and now the bunch of us have quite a few inside jokes that are making people who didn't go jealous (love that!). We'll definitely be going next time when the trip is supposed to follow the coastline. That should be pretty too! I've put all of our pictures in an online album, you can go see them here: http://s371.photobucket.com/albums/oo156/jen-alvarado/ . We almost got kicked out of the campsite because we were being too loud (we really weren't we were being quieter than some other groups) but it ended up just being funny because the guy running the site was too full of himself. How are you going to expect "absolute silence" at 11 anyway?! ESPECIALLY when the pub on the campsite (yes, you read right... there was a pub on the actual campsite) closes at 11. On the way back from camping we all stopped by the largest gondola in the UK and took a ride up to do some sight seeing. We had lunch up there before heading back down the mountain and getting back on the road home Oh, and I almost forgot- we found an awesome deal and got some sunglasses for 50p! (they were originally 9 pounds, so hey... that's pretty good!).

Ok... so that was the weekend before last, we can move on to last weekend I guess. Last weekend we went to the Colin McRae Tribute Rally and had an amazing time as well. We got to see many of the rally drivers we'd only seen on TV before and probably won't ever see again since they were only there to show their support for Colin and his family. For those of you who aren't into rallying (which I assume most of you sadly aren't), Colin was the world rally champion and is one of the best drivers in rally sport. He is like the golden boy for Subaru and he just so happens to be Scottish. Anyway, in 2007 he died in a helicopter crash (he was trying to take off right by his house with his 5 year old son, his son's friend who was 6, and a family friend when it had a mechanical failure). This rally was put together to remember just how amazing he was and so a lot of the stars of the rally circuit were there to put on a good show (including his brother and dad). We found ourselves an excellent spot to watch from, right at an "s" curve on the 5th stage. We were kind of bummed because we only got to see about 15 teams go by before Jim McRae (Colin's dad) lost control of his porche and went off the road. His car then caught on fire (he and his co-driver were fine and got out ok)... they were going to re-open the stage when one of the fire trucks that was trying to come put out the fire got stuck (who's bright idea was it to bring a fire truck to an off road rally?!) and they ended up having to cancel the stage. We still had a fantastic time and won't ever forget it. We definitely got our exercise as well, as we had to walk about a mile and a half uphill from the car to our watch post. Again, we were in good company because we had a few members from Aberdeen Scoobies come along with us and we met up with a lot of the SIDC (Subaru Impreza Driver's Club) members there. After the rally we went to dinner with Imy and Grant (from SIDC) which was nice... we had a good time visiting with them and the food was good. After that we caught up with the other Grant (also from SIDC... we call him RS Grant) to take a look at his Spec D (it's a "discreet" STI).

I guess that brings me on to the next topic of discussion today... The car. We've been struggling to get by with only one car, as Nic has to be late to work and then leave work a little early to pick me up and drop me off. Not to mention the one day a week that we eat lunch together, he has to take a little extra time for his lunch break... so he's been missing out on a bit of work time because we have to carpool. Because of that, we've been looking around at other cars. We've gone to look at about 3 (an STI, a WRX and another WRX but in wagon form). We had reasons for not being completely intent on any of those (the STI was a little flashy and had racer boy seats, the first WRX wasn't good value for the money as far as miles/price was concerned, and the wagon's brakes were SCARY and it wasn't as clean as we would have liked). Then we checked out Grant's Spec D. I think we both are in love all over again. It's an STI (which means more horsepower...) but it has leather seats, sat nav, a built in tracker, nice wheels, etc. Grant has taken great care of it and is selling it due to the fact he's going back to school and taking a break from work. Anyway... we are pretty sure we are going to buy it from him :) This makes both Nic and I VERY excited and we can't wait until everything is settled. So expect info a little later about our other new addition to the family, a sister for Lexi, haha.

I guess I should also talk about the damage to our house in Houston. We've been in the process of getting estimates from contractors with our property managers (who have been absolutely amazing...), and dealing with the insurance adjuster. The adjuster came and did his inspection about a week ago and everything was going well... then right when he was about to submit his report, our renters found more damage with possible mold on it in one of the closets. Soo.... he had to come back out there again on Wednesday. We should get the new report from him on Tuesday or so of next week, so hopefully that happens and we can get going on the repairs. Our renters have decided to opt out of their lease (we gave them the option to either have free rent and stay somewhere else until the repairs are done or get out of the lease with deposit and September rent in hand). Because we don't know how long the repairs will take that's probably the best option for them to take and we wish them well. We should get the bids from the contractors by Monday, so we're a little anxious to see what they are thinking in regards to cost/repair time. Either way, the insurance company is due to cover everything, including the loss of use (so rent basically)... which is a definite blessing.

Let's see... I can't remember what else I was going to mention except that Nic's Mom is coming for a visit in about a week (well... a week from Monday), so that will be nice. She's going to be here for a week. Nic saw her while he was in Houston for the DIF Conference, but I haven't seen her since they came in May, so it will be nice to see her again.

Oh, we've caught up on movies this past week- we've been going every day pretty much so that we can see them all before they are out of the theatre... We saw Taken, Righteous Kill, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Death Race, and that's all I can think of at the moment. I'm missing a few though I think. Taken was my favorite of that group, but I really liked The Boy in the Striped Pajamas as well. Nic didn't like it as much as I did, but that's partly due to the fact that there were a few improbabilities in the story. Righteous Kill was also good, how can you not like a movie that has Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino in it! Death Race was entertaining... I think that's the only way I can describe it.

Ok, that's all I'm going to write for now (like that isn't enough!)... I have to get ready to go to the movies and lunch with Bob! YAY! He's back in town until tomorrow and then he won't be back until the 11th! OOOH that's what I was going to talk about... The expedition. I don't have a whole lot of time to talk about it though so I'll save it until next time.

Wow...

Ok, so I know I've been horrible and haven't been posting lately, but so much has been going on I think most of you will understand. Let's see... there's the damage to the house in Houston, the camping trip, the rally, the car, and the expedition to talk about! That's a lot of catching up to do... unfortunately, it's 10:24 and I have to go to bed for work tomorrow! I will post soon and get you all up to date. I promise. ;)

AAARGH!

I'm losing my mind...

We are going camping to find it.

Be back Sunday night.

We don't like Ike

We got news yesterday that our house was damaged by Hurricane Ike. Our renters tried to stay at the house but ended up having to leave on Saturday due to some damage to the roof of our house. Nic and I are bummed and it's definitely hard to see your house like that and not be able to do anything about it. Our Realtors are awesome people and are already on the ball (I'm not sure why it's underlining some and not other bits, and I'm too tired to figure it out...). We have already started the claims procedure with our insurance people, so hopefully everything will be fixed soon! Anyway- here's pictures so you know what I'm talking about (remember the carpet was new, the paint was new... etc).

The above is the right side tree in our back yard...

This is the same tree, but from the other side. The poor thing got torn apart.

Here's pretty much the only part of the fence still standing.

Here's part of the roof that will need to be fixed. This is the back of the house.

Here's the fence, or what used to be the fence. The little girl's power wheels made me sad...

Here's the tree on our gutters (that we had just fixed!)

Here's more branches

This is one of the bedrooms, I'm not sure which one exactly. The renters tore up the carpet so the house wouldn't stink and it was sopping wet (I have AWESOME renters!)

Here is the hallway that leads to most of the rooms and the hall closet.

Here's another room... again, not sure which one.

More roof damage, this is the right side.

Here's the back fence.

This is the left side of the house, it's not too bad.

This is the ceiling that leads to the hallway I think.

Here's one of the door frames. I'm told that all the doors don't close anymore.

Another door frame.

And one more for good measure ;)

This is another problem with the roof, I think it's on the back. I don't know.

Here's pile of shingles from my house... These are just the ones that were on the ground on the side :(

Here's the carpet from one of the rooms.

Here's the big ass hole on the side of my house... Yay for the renters putting up a tarp to protect it!

One of our tree/bushes fell over :(

Another spot to fix (obviously on the front of the house).

Here's some branches they collected.

Here's the side yard... you can see the tree/bush (I dunno) that got uprooted.

This actually isn't my fence, it's my neighbors but I thought I'd add it in anyway.

Here's just some debris...

Anyway- I'm off to work, I'll post more later. I'm glad everyone is safe!