Still alive!

Thanks to Clairey for bringing my little old blog site back to the forefront of my mind. It's been a rather long time since I posted anything!

There are less complaints about the heat now that it's beginning to cool off nicely! I'd never have imagined myself being pleased to have cold weather, but I am enjoying it, enjoying being able to go out without sweating, being able to walk around in the sun with a nice breeze. Not without it's flaws of course, the fluctuating temperature (4C at night to 30C in the day time sometimes) messes with you a bit, so I'm nursing a little rasp of a cough right now.

It's hard to imagine that a couple of months ago we came home to broken AC and a 98F house and had to stay with friends until it was fixed. I suppose, also hard to imagine that 9 months ago we lost power because of 12 inches of snow and had to go and stay with friends. Texas is a strange part of the world!

I'm still working away at the job I started in April, driving my little commute in my little car. It didn't take long to get used to the driving. I'm procrastinating about my test though, I must sort that out.

It's been a busy few months, amongst other things the band headed down to Sia's in Waco for a recording weekend. We're still working on a few things but I'm excited about having a finished recording. My little car did wonders for the trip, stuffed to the brim, including a drum kit!

Other stuff... a girls trip to Austin for Kimberly's bachelorette weekend. Peter and Kimberly's wedding, a great day in a great venue with a great couple. We all danced the night away like loonies and everyone had a blast. And then not long after, Isaac's first birthday, he's a delight!


And Boston!! I loooooved it! We flew there early morning and met Bruce at the airport who kindly took our suitcase back to South Hamilton and so Chris and I spent our first afternoon doing the Freedom Trail. Lots of walking in cold sea wind, stopping for a beer here and there. We got to spend some lovely time with Bruce and Marya up there and went to Bruce's publication party where we got to meet some wonderful people, one being the Scot who we rented kilts from for the wedding and his family, great banter all round!

Chris and I also went to Salem (not really advised the weekend before Halloween!) and then spent some more time in actual Boston the day we flew home. We had a fantastic meal for our anniversary at a lovely little Italian called Il Panino. It was a wonderful spontaneous splurge and very good food.

So, now it's November, proving how time is flying. As well as little Isaac, I'm still in denial that Claire and Robert's wee Martha just turned one, let alone that they just got hitched this weekend! It came around in no time, an event I was sorry to miss, it looked like a brilliant day.

And so, looking forward, it's nearly friggin' Christmas (ish)! It's only a month and a half until my folks wing their way over for a couple of weeks. I can't wait!!! And before that Thanksgiving, I'm hoping I'll get a couple days off work and we have time to do some family stuff. Thanksgiving is a great holiday, it's like Christmas, except more just about the food and then right after, it's Christmas! Genius!

And then it's another year, another birthday coming up. I'm nearly 30. Not that 2009 or 2010 are years that need to be topped, but I've got feeling about 2011. Onwards and onwards :D

Love
Jenna

Hello from the depths of the Texas summer heat...

...and no joke, it's hot!! It started early this year, with some pretty hot days in June which Chris assures me is not normal. This lovely weekend in July has us on heat advisory with heat index of 110F (43C)!! Our poor little a/c unit is struggling to keep the house under 81F/27C which is a little hot for both mine and the native Texan's liking.

So, once again, I really suck at blogging, and it's been a long long time, which I foresee will make this a long one! Lots has happened over the last few months. All good.

I started working mid April at an organic cracker company here in Dallas. It's a nice little busy company, my job is pretty varied and the people are great. As of Monday, the whole affair has moved up to Plano so my new (longer) commute starts Monday but I also have a nice brand spanking new (huge) office to work in. I was quite enjoying my 10-15 minute drive to work, but I'll get used to the mania that is driving around here eventually! I have to, I need to sit a test soon and get me one of those Texas licenses that will make my life so much easier!

So, along with that I now also have a car. I did my first couple of months travelling up to work on the train. Chris was dropping me down town stupid early and I was walking to work from the train everyday, not something I wanted to do when it heated up properly and I also couldn't do that to Plano......so it was time for a car. We saved up our pennies for a nice down payment and I am now the proud owner of a 1 yr old PT Cruiser. Here in Dallas, having a car makes life so so much easier, I'm very happily getting used to having my own transport (and a/c!).


Our new little band, Half-ten, is getting going too which is great fun. We now have Jason drumming with us which is working out superbly. My car is going to be the Band Wagon so for fun, here it is doing it's first instrument lugging with a drum kit in the back :)


And of course, now that I'm earning money we're finding lots of nice ways to spend it all (car included in this!)...also including....my new keyboard/controller! Still working out how this baby works, but I LIKE!



The rest of the year is shaping pretty nice the way things are going....we're going kayaking/tubing on the Guadalupe with friends at the end of this month, we've got tickets to see the amazing Corinne Bailey Rae in August at the Granada Theater, girly trip to Austin in September for Kimberly's batchelorette party followed by the wedding itself later in the month. Late October Chris and I have booked up a trip to Boston (on airmiles, so almost freeee!) for a weekend to see Bruce and Marya. Which also just happens to be during Bruce's book tour (check it out - http://brucemachart.com/ - the book is out October 21st). And then (as I mentioned last blog I'm sure)....my parents come for two weeks over Christmas and New Year.

Hopefully also in there before the end of the summer a trip to Splash Town in Houston with Chris' awesome nephew, Dalton. I'm probably more excited about that than I should be. Also, maybe a trip to Colorado at some point too, yet to be confirmed! There's nothing like spending all your money before you even get it! But I suppose as long as I'm having fun, I shouldn't feel bad right!? ;)

No doubt, I'll be spending much much more time outside this summer, and judging by my current state of tan (possibly more tanned that I've been in my life, despite the use of factor 45!) I could be unrecognisable by the end of the summer. I almost need to wear sunscreen 24/7, I walked from my car to the grocery store yesterday and in that one minute I already felt like I was burning!

I won't leave it so long next time...I hope!

Love
Jenna

March already!

Well, almost April really! How did that happen??

I haven't blogged since January, in which time we successfully moved house and we're settling nicely into the new place. I have vowed to never live upstairs again after the ordeal or bring everything down from the last place! The new house is smaller, but somehow feels more like home. I really like it :)

Not long after moving we had the big snow, I mean serious snow, especially for Texas! 12.5 inches in 24 hours which led to many broken trees and our power went out the first day and was out for 3 days. It was cold and we had no choice but to go and stay with friends because with electric everything there's not much you can do! It was almost a record breaker, but not quite and even with another snow fall in March we didn't quite beat the '77/'78 record of 17.6 inches. Pretty spectacular though for my first winter here! I think I broke Texas!

In January I was also eagerly awaiting my work authorisation and a travel document so I could visit Scotland before I started work. These came right before we moved house and were to tide me over while I waited for my permanent residency, which can supposedly take some time, anything up to a year which would have put me at November. Not in this case, it came about a week after the other stuff! So I am now a green card holder, I used it to travel back from Scotland and got to join Chris in the short queue at immigration at the airport which was really nice!

And of course, the Scotland trip, an extravagance, yes, but I also knew that if I didn't do it now I wouldn't have the time off to do it later once I'm working. I was ready to see my homeland and back home people again. I also managed to coincide my trip so I got to see Heidi, who was over visiting from Sweden. I had a couple of nights in Edinburgh after arriving, catching up with Burton, Heidi and Rich and also getting a little surprise visit from Claire which was great (just sorry she had to endure the BNP supporters on the train)! Then to Glasgow to visit Ross and Emma with my folks and then onward up north to spend a couple of weeks with them. They had snow, lots of snow and after arrived more snow came. More snow than I've seen since I was a kid! It made for a lot of not going anywhere, but it was great to spend time with them, just chilling out (and of course working on my resume for when I got back here).

This being the first time Chris and I have been apart since I moved to Dallas, it was hard being away from each other for 2 whole weeks, but we eased ourselves back into the Skype thing which was strangely familiar and did us ok until he joined me in Scotland. I was super excited to see him, and to see how he took to the snow and the prospect of sticking on wellies and pushing his suitcase down a snowy, icy farm track in a wheelbarrow. Always a trouper, he wellied up no problem and even had the pleasure of helping push a car out a snowdrift.


We also took the opportunity to take him up to the west coast to see the island, admittedly for only one night but we had a good couple of days. It was cold, but the sun shone the whole time. Chris got a whistle stop tour of the island, got to have a few in the pub, stand out and look at the amazing stars, a boat trip round the island and a good big walk to Far Red Point the day we left. Brilliant weather, brilliant scenery and brilliant company.



Next stop was Glasgow again to see my brother and Emma. A nice couple of evenings with them, drinks in the pub, a meal at my aunt and uncle's house too. The day Chris and I had to pootle around Glasgow was spent wandering around in the sun and we went to the Kelvingrove and treated ourselves to a fantastic chippy. Then to Edinburgh for a lunch with some of my old work folks who I miss a ton. Great to see everyone, just sorry it was so short. Pottering about Edinburgh, a catch up with Burton (where we stayed the first night) and then see Clairey and wee Martha on Friday (who was kind enough to have us to stay for a couple of nights) after a jaunt up Arthur's Seat. On Saturday we got a last catch up with Burton and Keith after seeing my cousin's exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery and then back to Claire's for some more quality time her and the wee one. Seriously, what an utterly sweet little girl, just like her mama :D A joy to spend time with. Saturday night was a quiet one in with Claire, Martha and Lauren came to visit too before our early early flight the next morning.

It was sad to leave of course, but so nice to be travelling with Chris, we've both always done these trips alone, one of us always has to leave, but not this time. I miss Scotland, but I know why I do this.

Now that I'm back, it's full on into the job search. I can't say it's fun, there's really not much around and I need to be working weeks ago! Hopefully soon...

I'm also trying to shift a bit of the marriage/Texas weight by getting on a bit of a no carb health kick. It's going pretty well so far, not as hard as I thought, though I'd kill for some Haribo right now! We went for a lovely 9 mile walk round the lake on Sunday which I really enjoyed and although I can't say I've totally ditched the booze, I have switched the wine for gin and slimline tonic (this is actually ok by a later phase of this diet so ok by me for now!).

I should add too that I am very excited about the fact that my parents have booked flights to visit for two weeks at Christmas! It's going to be brilliant and I'm so glad they're coming over :D

Love
Jenna

Ees been a whiley...

...and this will probably be fairly short :)

Still in my first 'winter' in Texas. It has had it's cold moments and has warmed up a little now and again. Sometimes it's hard to imagine it's actually January! I had my first New Year with Chris and my first birthday in the country too.

The last month in a nutshell...I had my biometrics done for all the visa related stuff (felt like a proper criminal!), I'm still waiting for my work authorisation but I am informed it has been sent for printing so I'm hoping I'll see it in the next month. I'm also still waiting for a travel document to allow me to visit home and I am told it has actually been sent so I've been eagering checking the mail for this!

We had really hoped to be able to make a trip to Scotland in February. I will still not be working and affording it will be hard, but if we don't find a way now I may not get to go back this year, a thought that doesn't sit too well with me. I have no idea what I will be doing or where I'll be working so I can't guarantee I would get enough time off so doing this while I'm not using vacation days makes a lot of sense. I have a flight (the return of the flight that got me here) at the end of Feb so providing my travel doc comes in time then we're hoping to book up the other bits and pieces. I feel anxious about the money, but I know it makes sense. Plus, as happy I am to be here, I'm ready for a Scotland fix. And a fish supper!

We're amidst packing just now as we're moving house next weekend. I'm excited about the new place, our first new place together. I think it's going to be a good move for us. I don't particularly enjoy packing, but I think making house together will be fun.

We have a bit of music on the go too and I'm being put through my paces as an out of practice pianist, but it's great fun. All good.

Wine is calling my name and I mustn't dawdle.

Love
Jenna

PS We'll be having haggis (from a tin!) tomorrow since it's Burn's night and I was happy today that I figured out that rutabaga (readily available here) is the same thing as swede! Yay!

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!!!