I'm back in England! My time in Scotland finished well - the last few days at the vet clinic were amazing like normal, with another couple of calving difficulties that let me practice my skills learned in the dystocia pracs at uni, among other things. Everyone was incredibly warm and welcoming and truly they are a great bunch of people. Special thanks again to Freda and Ronnie, and Kenneth for hosting me, and for Pauline for the trip down to Inverness.
Seeing Louise has been great – she looks exactly the same lovely self as I remember more than 10 years ago from Ambon and when she visited us in the US. Meeting Harry has been good and we celebrated his 3rd birthday yesterday! He let me carry him a few times on Monday (before he started feeling rather poorly) when we were at a lovely park around Coombe Abbey. Meeting his younger sister Hannah is spectacular as she’s so quick to smile and grin at you and since she hasn’t been sick (unlike poor Harry) she’s quite happy for me to hold her and quick to be entertained. In fact I was apparently special enough that she handed me her spoon to feed her her yoghurt – a privilege previously only available to Harry. Go me! :) Seeing Dave again was bizarre because he had only stayed with my family for a week or two in Ambon many years ago when he was visiting Louise, but as soon as I saw him I recalled he looked exactly the same as all those years ago when he was such an easy-going guest (when I had a rather big crush on his cute self I must say). They are both so warm and friendly, I feel very much like a much-loved younger sister which does my heart good. And all thanks to God, I have been adjusting very well to having Harry and Hannah around. Having not been around little kids, for extended periods of time, in a while I was anticipating it being quite full-on. And it is, but not as tiring as it could/should have been, and I’m thankful for that. Louise and I have been having some excellent, deep, heart-felt, sometimes silly chats and catching up on years worth of stuff, and talking about God and life like good friends do. And staying up too late as usual. Last night it was just us after the kids were in bed, and we made decadent hot-chocolate (further discussion on hot chocolate following) with cream and marshmallows and started the movie Hairspray only to keep chatting through the beginning until we paused it, finished chatting for another 30 min or so, and started it over again. By this time it was getting late so we only watched the first half (or less?) and went to bed at 11.
One thing I love about Louise, and something she apparently doesn't appreciate, is how beautiful she is. She oozes beauty. She has big warm eyes, cute swishy hair, a lovely huge smile, great fingers (I always notice hands), very cute figure, and then to top all of that off - the biggest, most patient heart to go along with it. She doesn't always think so, and I know sometimes she has to grit her teeth like any mom with toddlers, but she is very patient with her kids, and Harry and Hannah adore her and know they are loved. And Dave adores her too, as any proper husband would! She has that wonderful gift of making everyone else even more lovely whenever she's around. She's a gorgeous and encouraging wife, patient mother, loving daughter, great sister, and heartfelt friend. I can only hope and pray that God continues to speak His truth about her beauty into her heart.
Because it’s Harry’s birthday this week, and Dave’s is on Monday, there’s a big birthday celebration on Saturday, and throughout the week family on Louise’s and Dave’s sides are converging on the house to stay as well as a full gaggle of guests on Sat.
Tomorrow we’re going to Coventry’s last royal show (like the Perth Royal Show – an ag show) – they’re stopping it after many, many years. I can’t remember exactly but it’s a lot. A lot. :) This is the last year, which is a bit sad, but at least I get to go! Always fun to see the animals.
Speaking of the hot chocolate before, I went to a café just down the street from Louise and Dave’s and ordered a large hot chocolate and they asked the obligatory question ‘do you want cream, etc on it’ to which I replied with the obvious answer ‘yes please’ and sat down to read my book. They brought it by and I must say this has to be one of the largest mugs of hot chocolate I’ve ever had the privilege of appreciating from a café. It was enormous, and on the top was a tower a good 2 inches high of proper whipped cream heavily dusted with chocolate and next to the mug, on the saucer it was sitting on, was a gigantic mound of tiny marshmallows; and I am not exaggerating. My eyes lit up and I very nearly clapped my hands in unexpected glee. This had far, far exceeded my expectations, in fact raising the bar for any time I make my own hot chocolate.
