Last night I was invited along to our church’s mum’s group who were having a ’social night’. I was there partly because I will soon be able to become a part of the group but also because they wanted to have a card making night and I was going to teach them!  I gathered up a lot of my supplies and headed over. The women were great and we had such a fun time crafting together. Everyone was so willing to learn and be creative, they were all troopers and all produced such lovely cards! Here is a look at our evening:

Thanks for the invite mum’s! And great work!

• Derek is currently in New Jersey with Lucas and Shannon and I am stuck in rainy Edinburgh with 7 days of work left before I leave. But 7 is not so bad, I think I make it!  Unfortunately my laptop power cord recently died and I am at the mercy of Royal Mail until my new one arrives, it stinks because it means I have no computer and no internet access at home. What to do?!
• Today I am 23 weeks pregnant! I need to attempt to take the weekly photo by myself  and with a broken camera. Our little digital camera recently took a dive into a pitcher of water and it hasn’t been the same since. It seems to still take pictures okay but the display screen doesn’t work and it’s just out of sorts. So I will have to see if it works to take the photo today (not that I can load it onto my computer anyway!).  Luckily Derek has a bigger digital camera that we can use on our trip, but he took it with him so I am stuck with the broken one at the moment.
• Tomorrow night I have been invited to the church  Mum’s Group social night.  I am pretty excited about it. They have asked me to do a card making demo and to also bring supplies for each mum to make a card of their own. I think it’s going to be a really fun time for us all.
• While Derek will get to properly celebrate American Thanksgiving next week in what is likely to be 70 degree weather in Jacksonville, I will be working away (at my 2nd to last day before holiday!). However, our good friends, Scotty and Rebecca, are hosting a Thanksgiving dessert evening. Even though I will not get to enjoy the turkey and the stuffing, I will still get to enjoy the yummy flavours of fall with pumpkin pie and mulled wine (just a taste!).
• This year we won’t be filling our flat with any Christmas decor or a tree since we will be away in the States. I am excited though that we will get to be with our families and with fresh green trees and stockings from when we were kids.  Fingers crossed for a white Christmas!

As 2009 is quickly coming to an end it also means that our ‘Year of Travel’ must conclude, but not without one last adventure and many more travels. We have very much been looking forward to this upcoming trip and are literally counting down the days. Derek’s trip will begin first and will take him from Edinburgh to Princeton, New Jersey where he gets to visit our good friends, Lucas & Shannon (I am quite jealous), for a couple of days. From there, he will travel to Louisiana  where he will attend the annual SBL conference in New Orleans, an always anticipated event. Next up, he will drive over to Jacksonville, Florida with his friend Greg and has the privilege of celebrating American Thanksgiving and spending some time in Jacksonville with Greg’s family. A few days later, he will again jump into a car and drive south to Miami where he will meet me at the airport!

From the airport, we will be meeting my sister, Annie, and her husband, Tony, at a hotel for one night before setting sail on our 11-night Caribbean cruise! I honestly can’t wait to see these new amazing places and, of course, soak up lots of sunshine! Our stops in the Caribbean include Aruba, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Grand Cayman before cruising back to Miami.

Finally, we will be making our way home to the West Coast where we will get to spend a couple weeks (including Christmas!) with family and friends in Oregon. Come the end of December, we will be settling back in Edinburgh just in time to ring in 2010! And don’t worry, our flat will not be lonely over the Christmas holiday as we have a couple friends making their way to house sit and keep our flat company while we are away.

A glance at all the places we will go:

On Monday we had our 20 week ultrasound. Halfway there…can you believe it!? The ultrasound went very well and baby Brown seems to be healthy and growing at the right pace.  We got to see the little heart fluttering away, the hands and feet moving about and even a nice close up of the face. It truly is a miracle and we just feel so blessed. Baby Brown is about the size of a small cantaloupe this week and rapidly growing. We held strong in our decision to not find out the gender and we honestly have no idea what it will be (I promise mom!). We can’t wait to meet him/her in about 20 more weeks.

Despite the fact that I was sick with a cold all last week, I am generally feeling much better and seem to have a lot more energy. Still taking it easy and enjoying the simple pace of life for the moment. I also started feeling little baby kicks last week and it’s simply amazing; the kicks seem to be increasing with each passing day and I am absolutely loving it. Derek is looking forward to being able to feel the kicks on the outside one day soon.

Taken from the crags on the eastern edge of Edinburgh while hiking with college housemate, Blaine Lee, who was visiting us as he traveled parts of Europe.

We’ve lived here over 2 years now and have never made it to the Edinburgh zoo. But since my good friend Lisa is visiting we decided it was time (she never went when she lived here either). We got together with our friend Sarah and her wee boy, Aaron, and we all spent a day at the zoo! I have to say that I was very impressed, who would have thought that Edinburgh, Scotland would have such a great zoo?!

To see the rest of the pics go to our flickr page

Today we had an appointment with our midwife. It was the second time meeting with her and we weren’t quite sure what to expect. She took my blood pressure, went over previous blood tests, measured the womb area AND we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time! We thought this might be the case but we weren’t quite sure as we had received mixed info from friends.  Our midwife warned us that sometimes it can be hard to find, so if she can’t find it right away, it’s nothing to worry about. But the second she put that doppler on my tummy, we instantly heard the wee heart pounding away. It was simply incredible and just so reassuring to know that our baby is living and moving and doing everything it should be doing!

We also got a new due date of about 4 days earlier than we originally thought. Our due date is now March 18th, 2010 which puts us nearly 17 weeks along now.

To welcome the beauty of Autumn, and our last one in Scotland, we present to you a picture from Princes St. gardens (taken yesterday).

Here are a few other pics I snapped yesterday: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beingthebrowns/sets/72157622499251134/

Our friend Rebecca has started learning how to make middle eastern cuisine and in the process she has started a great blog where she posts all of her recipes. Derek and I have been enjoying this a lot because we have been able to try some new recipes! Thanks Rebecca.

Last night we tried two of the recipes, Turkish meatballs with Gypsy salad together in pittas with some yogurt sauce. We highly recommend it.

Here are the meatballs before we cooked them

Gypsy salad

and the finished product

With the upcoming arrival of baby Brown, we have been getting lots of questions from loved ones, so we thought it would be fun to do a pregnancy interview to help answer all your questions!

Q: When are you due?

A: March 22nd, 2010

Q: How far along does that make you?

A: 14 weeks

Q: Katie, how have you been feeling?

A: It hasn’t been the easiest 14 weeks but I know I have certainly had it easier than a lot of women. I tend to get sicker as the days go on and it really hits hard in the evenings and therefore have not been sleeping well. But the past couple days have seen a bit of relief so I have hope that the ‘morning sickness’ is beginning to fade!

Q: Are you going to find out if it’s a boy or a girl?

A: Most definitely not. This is something that is really important to us and feel this is one of life’s great secrets so we want to embrace that.

Q: Will you have the baby in Scotland?

A: Yes, the baby will be born in Edinburgh at the local hospital, but sadly it will not be a British citizen, just plain old American.

Q: Katie, will you go back to work after the baby is born?

A: No. The maternity leave here is 6+ months long and we are hoping to be back in the States before the baby is 6 months old!

Q: Do you have names picked out?

A: Yes, we do have names (both first and middle) picked out for both a boy and a girl, but you will have to wait until baby Brown reveals him/herself to the world to find out!

Q: What have you enjoyed about being pregnant so far?

A: Umm…not much so far, though the fact that there is a child growing inside of me is a pretty amazing thing. I look forward to when pregnancy is enjoyable. That does happen, right?

Derek’s answer: watching my wife inhale food like a trash compactor.

Q: Derek, how have you enjoyed the process?

A: Well, I feel fairly worthless since Katie is the one who is sick all the time and suffering. That said, I’m enjoying all the extra eating we are doing!

Feel free to pose any questions if you have them.

We conclude this post with a pic of Katie at 14 weeks.