What I've missed

I've been asked numerous times during our trip about what things we have missed from home (as in our own bed, pillow, tv, certain foods, etc..). Surprisingly, there is very little from home that I've missed other than friends and family. But there have been a couple: peanut butter and water (2 separate items, not together). Peanut butter is apparently not as popular in Europe as it is in the States. The whole 2 months we spent in France, we only saw it in one shop and it was about 6 euro for a jar (about $9), so we passed. No luck in Bulgaria either, so by the time we got to Scotland it had been about 4 months since the last time we had a peanut butter sandwich. This doesn't seem like a big deal when you're home in the States, and you could have peanut butter any time you want, but peanut butter was always one of my "fall back foods". If I couldn't find something to eat, there was always a peanut butter sandwich. Now, we were lucky enough in France to have almond butter and hazelnut butters available which were super yummy, but it was really nice to come to Scotland and have good ole PB & J's again.

And water. You might think I'm referring to good drinking water. I do like to have good water to drink and did wonder for a little while in Bulgaria if there was an issue with the spring water, but that's not what I'm talking about. Apparently my hair has been spoiled to our good water back home and has taken a beating over the course of our trip. The water in France apparently contains lots of calcium which caused all of our hair, but especially mine (because there was so much, I guess), to get really dry, brittle, and incredibly tangled. I cut it to shoulder length thinking that would help...it did for a little while. We really hoped that the water in Bulgaria would be better, but when I washed it for the first time there, I was sadly disappointed. It became so bad that I couldn't come through it without it just breaking. So I had to do something and we decided the only two options were either A) start growing dread locks or B) shave it.

Well...

First Evan was upset that my hair was gone, then she asked if we could do hers. She's okay about it now, and obviously, no, we didn't shave her head. 

Yes, it's been a while...

I know I have been incredibly lazy about posting for the past month or so. Maybe it's been the weather...IT IS REALLY WET IN SCOTLAND! Yes, we knew that it rained a lot here before we came, but this has been ridiculous. They actually said in the paper a couple of days ago that it looks like this will be the wettest June and July since 1776! (actually could be longer than that, but that is when they started keeping records of the weather) This is the first place we've been on this whole trip where I can actually say that I wouldn't want to live here. I don't know how anyone could stand it without getting incredibly depressed when every morning you look out your window just to see that, yes, it's still raining. It's a beautiful place to visit (in between showers), but I couldn't take it permanently.

It's also rather difficult to build a clay oven in the rain. We've been here nearly 6 weeks, we leave in 4 days and we are really hoping to finish the oven before we leave. If we had perfect conditions, this could have been built in just a few days, but the weather, of course, has been anything but ideal.

Our progress so far...

Our foundation of breeze blocks with a layer of empty bottles surrounded and covered by clay/cob.

 Carter getting the clay and sand mixed for the oven.

 Evan happily helped as well.

 The firebricks are laid and Carter is finishing off the sand form.

 The sand form from above.

We hadn't planned on staying so long, but that's just how things worked out. We had trouble finding a host to stay with in Ireland and the people here were happy to have us on a bit longer, so we stayed. Luckily, our previous host from Bulgaria, Lisa, got in touch with a friend of hers in Ireland, and now we have a place to stay near Galway starting next week. After a few weeks of only hearing "no" from all the hosts we contacted, we were starting to get a bit disheartened about the remainder of our trip (especially since we have to be here through September since we booked our cruise home). But it seems things are now taking a turn for the better...after Ireland, we now have a family to stay with near Bergen, Norway for a few weeks. Then we are off to Belgium, where we actually have 2 different hosts that have agreed to have us. That should finish off our travels and leave us with about a week or so to work our way from Belgium up to Copenhagen where our ship sails from.

Since we were here so long, we ended up celebrating both Carter and Evan's birthdays while we were here. It wasn't a big party, but Evan had a good time and we all enjoyed the cake and ice cream. I can't  believe she's 5 years old!

Evan's super girly cake: strawberry and chocolate in a heart shaped pan with pink strawberry cream cheese icing and topped with heart shaped strawberries covered in edible pink glitter. Oh, and a bit of candy sprinkled on top per Evan's request.

Her mommy-made present...a Ponyo doll

I also can't believe how big Elliot is getting! We still haven't cut his hair, and we get compliments on it all the time. We thought he was going to let us cut it a couple of months ago, but after showing him pictures of other little boy hairstyles he pointed to a boy with long hair.

Can you tell he only has little girls to play with here?

We did find a train set at a charity shop here (for just 3 pounds!) that he has thoroughly enjoyed.

We have made it into Edinburgh a few times to hit the thrift shops (there's tons of them!) and we came across a really great playground there. Both kids really enjoyed the zip line...

We've met some lovely people here and apart from the weather, we've had a good time, but it's time to move on. We leave Tuesday morning for Belfast (we're taking a ferry), and we will spend the night there with a nice couch surfer host. Then Wednesday we've got 2 buses: first to Dublin then on to Galway where our new hosts will be picking us up. We most likely won't have much internet access while we're in Ireland, but if  I get a chance, I'll try to get a post up while we're there. Otherwise, you'll have to wait til we get to Norway.