Did she say "orb"?

As kelli and I read through the detailed instructions in case there was a fire - Step 1: Sound the Alarm - in order to sound the alarm, please shout "Fire!", we couldn't help but be slightly disconcerted by the overall planning that had gone into this tourist attraction.

"You know that castle is haunted right?" In fact, I was unaware of this piece of information, although I was now aware that shouting "Fire!" constituted the sounding of an alarm. "Yeah, Jeb took a picture of an orb the other day." Not really wanting to get too detailed an account of Jeb's photographic escapades, we nodded knowingly. "This is one of the most beautiful castles in Scotland." This testimony, which would have been deemed accurate, at least in a broad sense, had suddenly lost some of its force with us considering the previous statements.

While the keeper of the castle may or may not have a little too much alone time, she was right about one thing - the castle was beautiful. Kelli and I went with some friends from Australia to visit a castle that is about 15 miles north of Aberdeen. Castle Tolqhon. Every time I try to pronounce it I either sound Yankee or Aztec, so I now call it Castle T. Or Castle Orb depending on the company.

Castle T sadly did not play a major role in Scottish history. I say this now, but would never consider saying that in the company of any orbs and/or keepers of the castle. It was build in the middle of the 1500's, and was basically some guys sweet house. There were three stories, an 18 meter well, an incredible amount of stairways, and even a jail cell. I was particularly impressed with the size of this guys fireplaces, of which there were many. Anyway, it was great to get out to the countryside a bit more and see some green. It wasn't that nice of a day in terms of weather, so for most of the time we were alone in the castle. So that was a lot of fun. Here are some pics of our day!

So I tried to go on a bike ride...

Before the snow came...we had a lovely, sunny day on which I figured I should go for a bike ride before the sun stops coming out daily. I was all geared up, had my route planned, and I was on my way. However, I quickly found myself stuck in the harbor without a path to follow. I guess my planning was not at wonderful as I hoped. So, in the pictures you can see where I intended to go, I just couldn't figure out how to get there without swimming! Upon my return home I felt quite defeated...but I will try again. At least I managed to stay warm.

Meet Hannah and Karl

Meet two special people in our lives these days. Hannah is about 2, she likes bananas and kiwis and she keeps us laughing as the weeks go by. She especially made us and her parents laugh when she picked up the photo pictured above and said "papa". Apparently she thought Karl Barth was her grandpa. Barth actually happens to be one of the main reasons we moved to Aberdeen. He's one of the theologians Kyle is studying. In order to understand a little more of my husband's world these days, I read a book titled "Barth for Armchair Theologians" by John R. Franke. Surprisingly I found the book quite interesting. Basically, the book is for the theologically curious...it describes a heavy topic in a concise and witty manner...and it even has pictures! Anyway, I've been reading lots these days and figured I'd share!

I have to say it was a good day

Today started out like all the rest - get up, go to the office, come home, et cetera et cetera et cetera. There were some slight differences: it was frosty on the ground today, which made walking to school a lot more like sliding, but nothing terribly different. Kelli and I both had productive days that we were very satisfied with...and then it happened.

We were each in our individual sides of the apartment working. Nothing terribly important or pressing, I was just online emailing and kelli was reading, when the phone rang. All I hear Kelli say is, "Are you kidding me?" And she ran to the window. Our friend Tammy called to let us know that we were having our first snow!



Kelli and I realized it was our first snow in Aberdeen, and more importantly, our first snow as a married couple. But to our dismay, it only lasted about five minutes. Several hours later, that's when it happened. All out thick blizzard-like snow conditions for over an hour.





After going outside and playing around a little, Kelli and I thought it was in our best interest to make a trek across town, even though it was 9 P.M. and it was a half an hour walk. We decided to do this because 1) the snow was awesome; 2) it was good packing snow that was crunching under our feet; 3) we wanted to see if we could get some pictures of kings college in the snow. So, here are some more pics of our little adventure. We certainly had a fun night!

celebration!

Sorry for the lack of posts...but you all know how the holidays go! It's good to be back into the craziness of our typical schedule after all of the holiday mayhem. Kyle is heading back into the office on Monday, and we're hoping this semester he's able to get more work done. We found out last night that I passed my physical therapy exams, so we went to our favorite place for lunch today to celebrate. The food is just amazing and its a fun little intimate restaurant, located kind of under the city, next to a church from the 1100s! We hope everyone is well and that the new year brings many blessings!