Very Merry Christmas!

Hello chaps...it is 8pm (Central US time) on Christmas eve.

I have had my lovely husband Chris with me all day today, a Thursday, a treat by all accounts since I spend so many day times here just me right now.

We had a lazy morning, coffee, pbj pancakes (by Chris' fair hand), music, baking (Chris helped peel and chop the fruit for my pear pies, provided moral support for my new adventure and read me some Harry Potter while I worked :) ), watched the snow come down on us from the north and also had a quick jaunt to the liquor store for more red wine for the evening before it got too dark.

Chris is making sausage spaghetti as I type and we're listening to good music over a glass of red wine. I have also really enjoyed my day, aided by Facebook, checking everyones Christmas whereabouts, knowing where everyone is and what they're doing, especially back home. I have been happy to see that so many people I know and love are having a white Christmas too and being able to see pictures so easily is awesome!

I was a tad envious of the Edinburgh snow that I am missing and how beautiful it looks at my parent's house at the moment, but Texas has done me proud! Who would think that after being 18C yesterday that we'd now be in the midst of snow and wind chill of -12C!! Our trip to the store earlier was relatively short yet we were both glad to not have to face the wind on the way back! Much numbness! We've got it good really...a bit of the white stuff but nothing too drastic, not like some people I've seen updating Facebook with pictures from ditches by the freeway and stuck in stopped traffic on snowy roads for 3 hours. We will be travelling tomorrow at leisure to Houston but further south isn't likely to be bad at all really so we'll be fine I'm sure.

Tomorrow morning will be a chilled affair with just us two with our little pile of presents, some Skype time with my family and then in the afternoon we'll head to Houston and on Boxing Day we'll be doing the Machart family Christmas which I am looking forward to. There will be a small boy, a smaller boy, some big boys who will happily play with small boy toys ;) , banter, eating, no doubt some card games. I miss my wonderful, funny, cheerful, happy and caring family and wish they could be here too...maybe next year ;) :D Note that my sweet husband went and bought me some Christmas crackers too (see picture, far right!). Yay! :D

Ok, so two glasses of wine down, I should stop before I get too soppy!

Seriously, a very merry Christmas to everyone and all the best wishes in the world for the coming year. Those of you still travelling, wherever you are, be careful and drive safe and once you finally arrive where you need to be, have a fantastic time with your families and treasure it, you'd really miss them if for some reason you couldn't get together like normal, believe me!!

Love
Jenna

Ice hockey, house crawls, Thanksgiving, roadtrippin' and Texas 'winter'...

I'm not very good at the old blogging thing, am I? Oh well, better late than never :)

Well, what's happened in the last month or so?....in no particular order (because my brain is random today)...

Since my first Dallas Stars game when Rich was here, I have another two under my belt. It's fun! Cold, especially now that it is actually cold in Dallas, but once I realised how many layers I need to wear to watch ice hockey, it's great! I'm even beginning to remember things and know what's happening....not like me when it comes to sport. I'm much more a of 'Who's winning?' kinda person. I love watching games against Canadian teams, they are brutal, makes for so many more fights which just adds to the overall fun! :P

My wonderful Chris rebuilt my bike for me, a fair task after it was entirely dismantled by the shipping company. Luckily there were no bits left over and I have safely used it for an hour or so straight with no mishaps or lost wheels. Thanks baby :D I was dreading doing it myself!

Part way into November Chris' birthday came around, the first I've ever been able to celebrate with him in person. To mark the occasion, we, along with our friends and neighblers, arranged a house crawl. Being familiar with the concept of pub crawling, having done such things many a time, but knowing that generally pubs in Dallas are all way too far apart to be able to do pub crawls this seemed like a fantastic alternative!

We only covered three houses, which with a big group was really plenty, though being a hardened drunk walker, I'd have covered more ;) We started at our house, which was cheese and wine house, followed by pizza (cooked on a pizza stone on the grill!) and beer at Adam's and then dessert (and birthday cake!) and liquor at Peter's. We had a hilarious walk between houses, accompanied by beer and wine and Sara's (not so) fantastic cooler with built in radio. Great night! I'm sure most people can hardly recall the cake part ;)

I finally completed all the visa paperwork bollocks and got that sent off. That was a weight off, so now we sit and wait.....again....but at least I'm here with my boy this time :) There was method to our madness, of course! :D

We took full advantage of Chris' time off over Thanksgiving and did a bit of road tripping. We drove to Austin to see Donna and Corey and little Isaac for a couple of nights and although holiday traffic on the way down was hell, we got there eventually and managed to squeeze in stopping by Nathan and Julie's new place to catch up and play some spades.

Thanksgiving (mine and Isaac's first ;) ) brought a trip to Brenham for the day at Chris' aunt Sharon's where we stuffed ourselves silly, watched football then stuffed ourselves silly again. Great company, great banter, great food, great stories and generally a lovely day :)

After our last night hanging out with Donna and Corey we drove from Austin to San Antonio, stopping in Gruene on the way for some lunch and so I could see some of the (little) hills and have a drive up the Guadalupe which was great. It's really nice there. I think I'm gonna crave spending some time out of the city now and again here, I'm so used to have it on my door step living in a city like Edinburgh with Arthurs Seat smack bang in the middle and all the green bits we have round about.

Gruene is a cute little place, little old Texas town with a lot of the original buildings including the old dance hall. It's changed a lot from what Chris remembered, built up a lot for the tourists and was mobbed when we got there, but I'm looking forward to some tubing or canoeing trips next summer...right up my street, that is! Oh and since it's so desert, lots of cacti!! Loved it, never really seen big ones in person before, Chris thought I was hilarious!

We drove on to San Antonio, checked into the gorgeous old Menger Hotel right beside the Alamo (I mean really...almost attached....). Met up with Steve and Christina and attempted to get ourselves down to the Riverwalk which was unfortunately closed until after 9pm because we were there the night they were lighting the Christmas lights, which also meant that the Mexican restaurant (Casa Rio) that we wanted to eat at was heaving so we had no choice but to hit a few bars before eventually managing to get back there later on in the evening before having a good old wander around the Riverwalk. Chris and I also spent ages exploring the hotel before we went to bed, looking at all the cool old pictures and furniture, trying to find the ghosts...

Up the next day for breakfast and then we got on the road to Houston to have a fleeting lunch with Bruce's fiance Marya and her two kids who were visiting from Boston for Thanksgiving. Great to see her again and meet her lovely children. One night staying with Chris' folks with a nice chilled night with the compulsory family card games (which I always lose...but it's all good fun).

And from Thanksgiving to Christmas....I think we're finally all sorted, having people all over the world is interesting (thanks heavens for amazon gift wrapping service!). It's going to be a weird one not seeing my family this year, I miss them a lot, but I'm happy to be with Chris finally. He spent one Christmas in Scotland with me in 2007 which was amazing, but knowing neither of us have to get on a plane and fly away is awesome! It's going to be a quiet Christmas day as all Chris' lot are at in-laws this year, but we're going to have a nice little day ourselves (and hopefully get some Skype time in with my family) and then we're going to drive to Houston and the extended Machart Christmas will take place on Boxing Day instead. Not long to go now and really happy for Chris that he has some good time off and couple of short weeks. Hopefully next year I can persuade the Scots to do a Texas Christmas ;)

I love having our tree up too and with presents underneath, makes me feel very at home...a good dose of the warm and fuzzies! And it's even been cold too which has helped with the nice festive wintery feel! It was pretty warm through most of November so it was great to have some really brisk days, below freezing a fair bit and even a little sprinkling of snow! Getting to wrap up in my big Scotland coat and be perfectly at home :) The snow we had here didn't last long, snowed and then rained straight away so it was gone in minutes (and before I got a proper picture) but still pretty cool. Our house isn't too great at the cold, kinda hard to warm up and keep warm with our ancient gas heaters, the oven does a better job! One reason on the long list of reasons that we need a new place to live...

I'm happy to say too that Chris and I have been doing a bit of music stuff, it's taken a bit of time to settle down into it, but we finally got the keyboard set up and we're both really excited at working on things together. Chris' songs are so good and so much fun to play, making my unpracticed piano player brain work! It's all good for me though. It's been inspiring and I'm trying to write a little too, but I'm definitely lucky to be with such a talented person. It's definitely nice to have music filled days instead of my usual, no job sitting around on the internet doing laundry doing dishes kinda day! Yes, as I suspected it would, the novelty of no job is wearing off a little (read no money, no car...). I was at a little bit of a loss once my visa stuff was sent off because I worked on that so hard. Though saying that, I have had Christmas to occupy me a little and now we're looking for another place to live so that's my new job too. I like this place a lot, but we'll be moving on in the new year. I do like quirky old houses, but I can't say I'll mind if we can ditch the expensive window units, bad plumbing and noisy neighbours!

And that's another kettle of fish....any suggestions about what I should try and do for a living once I'm allowed to go out and work?? Answers on a postcard....

Merry Christmas everyone! All the best for the year to come :) Keep in touch and sending love to you all xxx

Love
Jenna

Miss to Mrs...

I haven't blogged for an absolute age!! Sitting here this evening having spent a full day on visa related bumph, cooking sausage spaghetti for me and my husband (yay!) and drinking wine, it feels like a nice relaxed opportunity to write :)

Life has been hectic, but full of wonderful and fun stuff since my last post. Mainly...I'M MARRIED! :D And I got to see a whole hoard of family and friends and share a fantabulous day/week/10 days with them. The woes of my crap shipping company, broken shipment etc are a distant memory (not that I've heard a peep about refunds or insurance payouts, but lets not spoil the mood with that!) and visa related work was laid to one side temporarily (sadly, just temporarily, that shit never goes away! Ever!).

I'm trying hard to think where I was in my brain when I wrote last, but I think it was probably somewhere quite different to now. Worrying about weddings, logistics, visas and money most likely. Not that it's just gone away...*poof*...I wish! But sometimes everyone needs a little reminder of what's most important in life (or just a kick up the arse usually works ;) ).

It seems lots of things have happened in the last month...lots of babies to name a few! Chris has a new nephew, Isaac, who came into the world on the 10th of October and who we got to meet on our big day, a teeny tiny two weeks old so we were very happy that he was able to come along :) My cousin Toby and his girlfriend Rhona had their boy Kit on Halloween, a bruiser at 8lb 12oz!! And then my good good friend Claire gave birth to a beautiful little baby girl, Martha on 1st of November who I'm so desperate to meet after months of watching the bump grow! Welcome all!! (I want to put up pictures of them all but not wishing to plaster other people's children on a public blog, I won't).


In the run up to the wedding it was a bit of pre-wedding prep (or last minute panicking :P), driving practice for me and preparing for the invasion. We picked up our marriage licence, had a trip to the fair for corn dogs and also had a hen/stag/bachelorette/bachelor day/night the weekend before the wedding. The guys played disc golf, grilled and played games at Dave and Busters while the girls went to a movie (Where the Wild Things Are which I loved!), drank cocktails and caught up with the guys at D&Bs before we all bailed out to the Dubliner to end what turned out to be a rather drunken night for all! Good times though :) You know you must have had a good night when you end up eating Jack in the Box tacos at 4am...

Wednesday before the wedding brought flights containing my family and the Swede, though most arrived on time and with luggage my poor brother and Emma had an unfortunate incident with an engine fire on their plane from Glasgow to London (before it took off luckily!) which resulted in them missing their connection in London and the next flight to Dallas, having to fly to Denver instead and not getting in until after midnight (they were meant to arrive at 2:30pm!) and to find that their luggage never made it out of Denver. They luckily got it back the following evening and before we left for Houston or there could have been problems!

Thursday brought a couple more travellers who also ended up arriving late because their flight was cancelled, but luckily not to too much issue as it just meant I didn't have to drive to collect them at the airport (yay!!) and Chris could get them after work so it all worked out and saved me some stressful driving. Heidi and I had the house to ourselves that morning so we did a trial run of my hair and make up which was a great success, so much so that I just left it on the rest of the day :) Since everyone (bar bridesmaid no 2) was now with us we had to the compulsory meal at Matts Rancho Martinez with friends....eating a lot of bad food was to become a theme for this trip! :D The tales of the Scottish invasion could really do with it's own blog, but what the hell, this will be a long one!!

Friday was our day for road tripping to Houston in our A-Team van. We took the foreigners to Dairy Queen on the way (it was my first time too) which went down a storm and turned Emma into a serious root beer addict. On arrival in Houston we dumped our troops at the hotel and went to the house to set up what we could for Saturday. Dinner at the Potatoe Patch for some chicken fried steak and thrown rolls (seriously, they just chuck them at you!) then a couple of drinks in the Woodlands scoping out the walk from the hotel to the bar for the next evening.

And a perfect wedding day morning? Get up after an amazing deep sleep (thanks Quiet Life), drink coffee, and go and buy 6 dozen donuts (to make the wedding cake of course!). Chris started his morning with a sausage kolache which smelt amazing, but while still worrying about overdoing bread stuff and not fitting in my dress I passed on that, but my ultra sweet husband to be made a special trip out to buy me some fruit :) I assembled the wedding cake (and the chocolate donut grooms cake) and carefully balanced Han and Leia in their positions. A bit of outdoor prep (though honestly Allen did most of this, bless him, he'd thought of everything that I hadn't) and then off to get dolled up at the hands of my Swede.

Heidi worked her wonders while I anxiously awaited bridesmaid no 2 who was flying into Houston just a couple of hours before the wedding, so was very relieved to see her smiley face turn up at the bedroom door ready to don her outfit and bridesmaid away. What a trouper! I know she (and Matt!) were incredibly tired after the 10 hours flight and jet lag but not a single complaint passed their lips. A bit more anxious waiting worrying about the Texans getting themselves in kilts without Scottish supervision but I should not have worried, each and every one of them looked as handsome as could be in their gear, a wonderful sight for a Scot in Texas :) I was also concerned slightly because Chris did the bridesmaid airport run (bless him!) so I knew he'd be pushed for time to get ready and then I heard he hadn't arrived yet when 3pm came around and I was worried he was tackling the kilt alone but felt much better when news travelled upstairs that Steve was with him (as a best man should be!) and a rock concert near the hotel had held them up! After all, it is the groom's job to be late to his wedding, according to Chris' aunt! :P

Some time between 3 and 4pm I stood at the top of the stairs waiting for the word that Chris had left the building and I could come down. Walked down the aisle with my Dad to a sea of smiley faces (well, with Claire, Heidi, Peter, Steve, Nathan and Dalton up there, what else should I have expected!). And then there's Chris, looking smashing in his kilt, waiting for me :) The weather was beautiful, sunny but not too hot, just a slight breeze, perfect on the face on such an occasion. And then we wed! It was perfect and sweet and felt like it was over in a split second!!

And then as instructed by Peter....we partied 'til dawn!!! :P Well not quite, but we gave it a good shot! The Shiner keg was flowing, the Texas Barbeque was consumed (and everyone loved it!), the cake was dismantled and later on that night we hit a cool Irish pub 'til the wee small hours. I would highly recommend going to the pub in your wedding dress, it was a blast (I actually think a lot of people thought I was dressed up early for Halloween, ha ha!). A grand and wonderful day full or love and friendship (and tequila!).


So as Mr and Mrs, we woke up on Sunday and had a full on breakfast courtesy of Allen before driving back to Dallas (stopping at Woody's for proper beef jerky of course). The wedding may be over, but the invasion continues....(for a little while still all kilted up!)...


We decided to top off a great weekend with a trip to Snuffers (the place of cheese fries) and then hit the Dubliner where we just happened to witness a pretty good storm with the kind of lightning us UKers are not used to seeing...drinking beers on the patio watching the rain and the clouds lighting up. They were all very impressed :)


The next day was most people's last day so we took them all to Metro Diner for breakfast, went to the Old Red Museum, Dicks' Last Resort for a bit of abuse over lunch then up Reunion Tower (even though it was pouring with rain ALL day and the visibility wasn't great). Tuesday was a sad day as I had to say goodbye to my fantastic family who flew home that day. Luckily there were still a number of folk staying so that eased the boo hoo a little, it would have been horrid if everyone had left the same day!

The next day my Heidi left, not until after introducing the chaps to The Dixie House which is now one of my favourite places, just good wholesome food which by this point is really what we all needed! The rest of the week we did the mall, Angry Dog, another trip up Reunion Tower for the new arrivals, a good drinking session at the Cock and Bull and then on Friday morning, we had to do IHOP before some more airport trips (kudos to Burton for filling up on Philly cheese steak before his flight!).

With Rich still with us 'til Saturday, on Friday the three of us met up with Steve and Christina and all went to watch the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center which was really cool, I'm a fan! I'm definitely going back soon! We were all pretty shattered by this point in the week and only marginally slept in the next morning before taking Rich to the airport, but we made it in time luckily. The last Scot leaves....another sad day....



It was wonderful having all these people here. So nice to be in a foreign country and not be the only foreigner! It really takes the heat off and I actually feel very different now that they've all gone, a lot less worried about what people are thinking about me and about how I talk. It was also really cool having all these people I'm used to seeing in Scotland right here in Dallas, quite surreal in a way, but it's like a bunch of friendly faces in a place that I'm still not completely used to (that one's gonna take a while I think!). I was also pleased at the amount of driving I did, I even got marginally lost at one point (tried to get on the freeway and got bullied back off the next exit where I'd never been before and then got forced to turn left instead of trying to get back on again) and managed with very little issue to get myself to where I needed to be! The lone airport trip I did went smoothly too. I was even getting used to driving that stupid van for a little while...but can't say I wasn't pleased to ditch it for the smooth little car we hired after that.

And with no time for a breather, we were straight out to run some errands and to try and find something to wear for Halloween....I ended up going as Sally from A Nightmare Before Christmas and Chris went as The Doctor....thanks to various thrift stores we got all the stuff we needed for only $25! I was furiously stitching my dress an hour before we were meant to head out to Spring's party but we pulled it off :) A few drinks at the party, to the Dub for a few more then home via Taco Bell (mexican pizza time!). Disc golf on Sunday and then reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelaaaaaaaaaaaaax!!

Since then I've been sorting out some name change stuff...quite surreal...I realised the other day when I went to the bank I'd actually have to sign my new name and hadn't really practiced....and now getting stuck into finishing the next lot of post-wedding visa paperwork/leg work/jumping through hoops. I'll be glad when that's sent off and all I need to wait for is the ok to work (I'm not looking forward to job searching but I am looking forward to not being completely poor), the ok to go home to Scotland for a visit and then at some stage in the not too distant future hopefully a little green card with my name on!

And hey, guess what?? I'm also medically insured :) Oh, the perks of married life ;)

I also feel that after the events of the last few weeks that some thank yous are in order......thanks to Allen and Bobbie for giving up their house and garden for our wedding, for organising and paying for the great food; Bruce for providing us with a keg of Shiner and for helping with the food (and making super tasty beans!); Mum and Dad for helping me out with paying for things (including getting myself here in the first place!) and your never ending support; Ross and Emma for taking fantastic photos (and Emma for helping me with the last minute logistics!); Terry at inakilt.com/Celtic Isles for providing us with kilts at a great price, everyone looked fantastic; Peter for marrying us and helping make our day what it was; Heidi for my gorgeous hair and make up on the day; Claire and Matt for being willing to step off a transatlantic flight and come straight to a wedding; Steve and my Dad for the great speeches; Steve for fulfilling his best man duties and sticking with Chris to make sure he arrived mostly on time (note: the timing was not Steve's fault, or Chris' for that matter, stupid Alice in Chains!); the Avis rental car guy for giving us an insanely good deal!; to everyone who travelled so far to the wedding for making the trip to be with us on the day; and last but not least...to Chris for giving me a reason to do all this stuff in the first place and making all the leg work getting here more than worthwhile, thanks for all your driving during the invasion and for working so hard everyday to keep us afloat, love you!

Well, this has been a mammoth write, it has taken me so long I had to finish it off the next day. I'm sitting on the balcony, it's a lovely sunny day with a cool breeze, but having just been bitten by a mosquito it may be time to call it a day so I'll say bye for now and head indoors.

And before I go, a few more pics for good measure :) Proper wedding pictures coming soon, almost of all of these are stolen from my friends (bar the first one which is one of Emma's gems...more to follow) :D






Love
Jenna

PS If I didn't make it entirely clear from this blog post.....I miss you guys like hell!!!

Blogwebs....

(=cobwebs on your blog....)

Well, I'm not very good at blogging regularly, am I? I suppose I've been busy, in a way! As busy as someone without a job, who has a wedding coming up and a bunch of visa crap to get done (this is the bit I have been least busy with to be honest, 'cause I'm so FED UP of it that I now have brain block and I immedietly zone out when I start reading instructions and filling out forms!).

Been doing a fair bit of wedding stuff, fun stuff like decorating things and playing around with flowers and ribbons...I'm a girl, what can I say! ;) Everything is pretty much in order, we even worked on the ceremony and vows the other day...we like to do things really far in advance, you see ;) Even managed to get someone who was able to resize Chris' wedding ring (stupid UK->US size conversion) in a matter of days! It fits, it fits :P

We took one last trip to Houston to deliver boxes of stuff and my dress (so it's away from prying eyes ;) ). Of course this was another great weekend of eating tasty food, hanging out with family and playing spades. Eating tasty food stops here or my dress will probably not zip up and my dad will have to roll me up the aisle!!

Other news....I got my last box...FINALLY! It only took them 3 weeks to send it back from Trinidad but they did all the paperwork wrong, sent it in someone else's name so I had some issues when I needed to pick it up. Luckily sorted it out before the warehouse started charging me storage ('cause obviously it was totally my fault I couldn't pick it up!!). Paid yet more money to be allowed to take it home to find (most likely because it came from Trinidad this time) that US customs had gone through it with a fine tooth comb and not done a good job at all of repacking! Have to say I'm pretty glad that's all over. Just now got to chase up getting some money back (that I don't think I should have to have paid) and doing all the leg work to claim on insurance for the broken guitar case (yet another thing I can't be arsed with right now!).

My social security number arrived and as of yesterday I also now have a US bank account. How civilised :) Official people here like me better with a SSN, though the initial reaction to my foreignness in the bank yesterday didn't fill me with confidence but it all worked out ("So you don't have a Texas Drivers Licence?"..."No"..."or a US passport?"..."No"..."So you aren't a citizen?"...."No"...."You do have a social security number, right?"..."Yes"...."oh good, let me go and see if we can take this"...*runs off holding my passport like it's some object from outer space* :) ). Granted, she was actually a really nice and helpful woman. First experience of US banks = Very Good (this only applies to my new bank....Chris' current bank gets a big fat thumbs down....he's leaving them and coming with me ;) ).

Still having fun experiencing speaking to people here but I am getting more used to not being understood and shrugging it off more than I did before....it's really funny how often people actually say 'You say xxxx really funny!!' or actually just laugh when I talk and don't seem to think that's pretty rude! Maybe I do speak funny? It sounds normal to me, of course ;) I'm aware that the only Scottish accents that most Americans have heard are on The Simpsons and Star Trek, so I suppose if I start hamming it up like that, I might get somewhere!! ;) :P God, imagine if I was really foreign! It's the same language after all!! I can't wait for some of my stronger accented friends to arrive for the wedding :D ;) I think the problem sometimes is just the difference in which part of words I put the emphasis on...like me saying weekEND whereas someone here would say WEEKend...and there's so many examples of this, it's actually really funny!!

I don't doubt that I'm getting a little American lilt at times and I know I'm changing words that I use too. I suppose it's like speaking another language...if I was to go and live in France, I'd call 'rubbish' whatever the French word for it is (I'm not gonna even begin to pretend I know what it is!)...so when I'm here, I'm allowed to say 'trash', right? I'm trying not to do it when I don't have to, but speaking the lingo helps in a lot of situations, so it's worth bringing it out just to get stuff done and avoid the double takes and weird looks I get, but day to day I really would like to stick with what I know, try and keep this non-accent of mine a little longer :) I met up with a Scottish guy who worked for BoS here until very recently but he's been in the states for quite a long time and he hasn't lost his accent at all, I was very impressed, but it helps that his is way stronger than mine in the first place.

I have also had a good few new phrases rub off on me that just keep slipping out...like...'shit ton' in stead of my usual 'shit load', 'goddamn' (usually while talking about how itchy my skeeter bites are!) and others that I'm struggling to think of right now! I regularly have days where I get up, do laundry, vacuum, hang pants on the line (both varieties!), put on my sneakers and go out onto the sidewalk...later, get on the 'right' side of the road and drive to the grocery store....you get it! ;) :P And I LOVE how I'm now hearing Chris say things the way I say them, like I do, not in his normal accent....like 'Mum' instead of 'Mom', granted usually only when he's talking about my Mum :) I might have to practice saying 'Mom' ;)

I'm super super excited about seeing everybody who is coming over for the wedding, I cannot believe it's so soon! It's flown in! :D It's going to be a hectic week, but it's just gonna be so nice to have everyone here. There's a few people I am gonna miss not being here for the occasion (they know who they are!) but I am touched at the turn out that we have! I hope the US is ready for the invasion!

We had a storm last night so the temperature has dropped a lot. This afternoon it was the same temperature her as it was at Mum and Dad's (9C)! Means I can go outside without sweating for once! Chris was picking on me while we were out tonight because I was cold and wished I'd brought my scarf!

I was out earlier for my pre-wedding hair cut after some parental Skyping. Next week I really need to get my arse in gear with visa stuff, though I fear I may just be over excited about it being only a week til everyone arrives! I Skyped with Heidi yesterday too which didn't help me, she always gets me even more silly excited about things ;)

Oh, and we've had a little furry visitor of late, a little siamese looking cat hanging around, gorgeous milky, coffee colour. Looks skinny and must be a stray, but is very sweet and friendly. He/she/it (we aren't sure) is desperate to get into the house. We first saw (let's say him for now...) him when we were loading the car to go to Houston and left the door open and he just nipped up and came for a look around (3 times!). We didn't really think we should start feeding him, but I don't like to see such a skinny animal so we decided if it was still around when we came back after the weekend then we would and yes, the next morning when I went to walk it was on the step waiting for me. It snuck into the stair again today so we gave him some dry cat food and he just seemed so happy...purrrrrrrr. I only assume it's a male because he has a tatty ear, but I suppose it could be a girl. It's probably a good thing Chris is allergic to cats or I'd have let it in the house by now ;)

'Til next time...

Love
Jenna

PS If anyone needs a good informative read...I found this website the other day after reading something about Robert Burn's wife, Jean Armour, and spent aaaaaages reading it and plan to go back for more! It actually led me to then read at length about the Titanic and its passengers which was also very interesting...and sad. Oxford Dictionary of National Biographies

Ooh...

...I haven't blogged in a while! The last time was after going for my first (very short) drive. It really wasn't so bad that I went into hiding! :P

It's just over a month until the wedding now, which would have most people stressing about the ins and outs of their big day...no, not me, as usual visa stuff takes priority over most things in our lives so I'm stressing about that instead! :P I feel I have let myself relax for entirely too long since arriving (I got a bit distracted unpacking last week!) and so now it's time to get my arse in gear with the stuff I still need to do if I want to be allowed to stay in this fine country after we get hitched!

That's not to say I have not been working on anything wedding related, but my to do list has become somewhat haphazard since I got here and my paperwork filing needed a bit of work, but I'm getting there. Still some wedding bits and piece to do too, but I'm not panicking about that quite yet. Soon, I'm sure :)

Last weekend started with rain, which pretty much stayed all weekend and into the week. We celebrated some true Scottish weather by having a pig out lazy weekend. Sitting watching the rain at Snuffers over a plate of cheese fries at lunch and then a night in the house with Chris' home made burritos and a drink or two. These are the things you really treasure having spent so much time apart and really not ever really being able to relax together properly. Skype just isn't the same. We also took our first trip to the cinema together on Sunday :) It's funny the things you find you've never done together, the simplest of things.

Monday last week brought news of my shipment from Scotland...well, part of it. One box unaccounted for, lost in the wilds of Orlando. And of all the boxes it had to be the one with irreplaceable old photographs. Well done Virgin Atlantic! I decided not to waste any time and got Vicki on board last minute to run me to the airport to get what stuff had actually arrived. We had a blast trying to fit it all in her car, but we managed, much to our own amusement and that of the forklift driver at the warehouse we collected from. I am glad to say most stuff was intact, though they did a grand job of trashing my guitar case, but it did it's job and the guitar is fine.

And the missing box? Initially no one could find it and no one could decide who's fault it was (with my experience of Virgin Atlantic so far in this, they really don't appear to have a good grasp of geography, which is not good news for an airline, I'm happy to assume it's their mistake). I was then told they had found it and it was in Spain and they were trying to get it back. Now I'm told it's actually in Port of Spain in Trinidad...so presumably was NEVER in Spain. They are apparently now 'working out how to get it to Dallas'. Putting it on a plane seems to be entirely too obvious for them clearly! If it's away any longer I'll be expecting a bloody postcard!

Since the arrival of my boxes, I have been slowly unpacking and taking over Chris' house ;) It's so nice to have all my clothes more than anything else really. It's been so long since I packed I'd almost forgotten what I owned so unpacking has been a bit like a really good Christmas! Then I remember I've already paid for all this stuff AND then forked out my well earned £s to get it sent to me and the novelty wears off somewhat....

The weekend just passed some girls got together and spent the weekend out at the giant Gaylord Texan Hotel at Grapevine to celebrate Vicki's birthday. It's mammoth, I've never seen anything like it! Drinking, dancing, lounging, eating, sleeping...all made for a great weekend. I even got sunburn sitting under a tree when it was cloudy (and actually not too too hot since it'd been raining all week)...sometimes I forget I'm in Texas...you'd think it would have sunk in by now!

I've done a little bit more driving, just little trips mainly, but on Sunday I did the DFW airport run as I really need that ingrained in my head for a months time when I'm going to be out there about 100 times in 1 week collecting and dropping off a whole bunch of lovely people :) It was quite scary actually, only in bits, but I'm not gonna deny it, some bits are kinda hairy and there's so many new things I need to remember! I'm not sure I'm ever going to feel right turning right on a red light and there's sooooo many Stop signs!! And the worst thing so far...trying to reverse into our stupid narrow drive (seriously, about 2 inches spare between wing mirror and the wall)...I'm terrible at it!

And this week....we're going to see Pink!!! I'm really happy that we're getting to go (thanks for Peter for handing off some free tickets!!) as I couldn't get tickets to see her when she was in Glasgow earlier in the year. Thanks Peter!! :D

Well, I should really get back to making lists and looking through papers (and cooking tea). My social security number should be winging it's way to me soon which is kinda cool really :) Then maybe I'll go and open a bank account a become a little more civilised. Maybe.

Love
Jenna

Luckily, no one died...

...while I was at the wheel! We made it safely to our destination and I think Chris' heart rate has just about returned to normal.

(hey look! I'm all on the wrong side of the car and stuff!)

Toured Houston and El Campo and still no shipment from Scotland...

Labor day weekend has been and gone. We drove to Houston on Saturday after a hearty Scottish breakfast arriving with time to go and do some wedding related shopping before going for tea at an Irish pub in the Woodlands with Chris' folks (it is actually an Irish pub, the interior was bought as the building it was in was being demolished for housing, and shipped to Texas). We took a wander along the Woodlands Waterway and scoped out how to get the wedding troupe about on foot between the hotel and the mall (well, it's more like a town really ;) ).

Sunday was the Derrich-Berckenhoff reunion in El Campo so we drove in in the morning armed with food and beer (mainly of the Shiner variety of course since it's my favourite Texas beer) for a day of me meeting a lot of family and not doing a very good job of keeping track of who was related to who (well, everyone was kinda related, but you know what I mean!). Everyone was (well, Nathan, Chris and me mainly...) excited to find out that a member of the Berckenhoff family helped found the Shiner Brewery in 1909! Cheers to that!! I knew there was a reason I was marrying into this family! :D

After a day of games of washers, horseshoes, spades (I was merely a spectator as I didn't want to embarrass myself!) and an obscene amount of cake we drove back to Houston and bet our pennies (literally) in family game of Swick (an old Czech card game). Bruce's Balvenie 12 year Doublewood definitely helped my card playing (or helped me see the funny side of losing!) ;) Oh, and I also won a prize for being the 'furthest travelled' at the reunion...ha ha ha! A bag of goodies for the trip home including some his and hers coffee mugs (as modelled here by Christopher). And no, we didn't eat the whole box of Fiddle Faddle (butter toffee covered popcorn with peanuts) on the drive home. That did not happen.

After staying Sunday night in Houston, we drove back on Monday morning and just chilled out for the rest of the day. Nice for Chris to have an extra day off, even if most of it was spent in the car.

Now, after the holiday on Monday, I was expecting a call on Tuesday about collecting the things I had shipped here, but having arranged a helping hand to collect it all, this never happened.

And again today, nothing...being told by the UK shippers that my stuff had already arrived in Dallas and the agents here in Dallas saying it hadn't. The UK shipping company are still adamant that the stuff is here, but I was told this afternoon that it only arrived in Orlando yesterday and isn't likely to be in Dallas until the weekend! Unimpressed doesn't even cover it! Been in limbo this week waiting for a phone call that was never actually going to happen! Off the hook for the rest of the week I suppose, but still living on a suitcase worth of stuff is not ideal. The shippers estimate of this taking '2-3 days' was clearly nonsense, something I'm beginning to find less and less surprising about them!

To take my mind off all that stuff today, I went for a walk around nearby streets for about an hour, which was nice, though hotter than I'm used to for my on-foot jaunts! I can see why so many other people that I saw walking were in hats or had umbrellas! Can't say I was disappointed to have to walk through some folks sprinklers ;)

And so to this evening...I'm insured on Chris' car and we're heading out for tea with Peter and Kimberley shortly and I'm told I'm driving. US folks, should you wish to remain in your houses, I would understand.

Love
Jenna