Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Miss Scarlett
Scarlett Lillian VietsBorn September 15th at 4:31am
7 lbs 2 oz19 inches long
Miss Scarlett wasn't supposed to make an appearance until today, the 19th, but she and I were definitely ready. The funny thing is, my mom had just come home from Utah that same night, on Tuesday, and within hours of her being home, I had to call her to come watch the girls so that we could head to the hospital! My Father in Heaven knew I needed her here.My birth story really isn't all that exciting - I woke up at 1am with some painful contractions, got to the hospital and had my epidural by 2am, then watched TV and rested for a couple hours. They called my OB when I was fully dilated, he got there about 4am, I pushed through 3 contractions and she was born at 4:31am. Easy!
We were so excited for Lydia and Claire to meet their new sister. All they want to do is take turns holding her, and they are actually very good with her.
Although the "taking turns" part really tests their patience.
Josh and all his ladies :) He's definitely gonna need another pay raise!
And as for the name....My favorite name has always been Isla. I heard it a lot in Scotland and just loved it. I wasn't going to give in to Josh, who wanted Alaina, which was a name we had both liked when Lydia was born. But then when we moved here, I realized that every American pronounces Isla "EES-la", which is the Spanish pronunciation, instead of "EYE-la". And so at the last minute I had to
surrender my favorite name, because I didn't want her to grow up as EESla.
I wasn't entirely sold on Alaina, so I went back to the books and came up with more names. We had 8 that we liked! Then after she was born we narrowed it down to 4. It wasn't until that afternoon when I knew her name. The nurses had taken her away for a bath, and when they brought her back to me they had put on her head a bright red bow. I knew then that she was my little Scarlett.
Lillian is Josh's great-grandmother's name. We originally had plans to give our girls names from the Taylor side, and boys names from the Viets side... but at this rate I think we will only have girls! If they are all as great as my first two, I'd gladly have a few more. We are so very blessed with these little princesses!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Repatriation
We've only been away for 3-1/2 years, but there are still some things that have come as a "culture shock" to us as we learn to be American again. I really thought we might have a hard time living among the selfish, wasteful, and materialistic Americans again... but the more I think about it, I think these expectations were just fed to us by the British all these years! Not that they were entirely false... but the truth is the people here are wonderful. Especially Texans.
Having said that, there are still a lot of things that we hate and love about being Texan.
1. HATE the water here. Even a tiny sip of water for sacrament on Sunday leaves a raunchy taste in my mouth. In Scotland we could bottle the water right from the tap!
2. LOVE my washer and dryer. They are freaking enormous. I could get away with only doing 2 loads a week!
3. HATE how expensive everything is for kids - preschool, dance, swimming, soccer... nothing is provided through a community center, its all private, professional, and competitive. And costly.
4. LOVE American music. Brit-pop was so annoying, we only ever listened to talk radio. Or a Disney CD.
5. HATE that I come home with 15 plastic carrier bags every time I go grocery shopping, but LOVE the fact that they pack your groceries, take them to your car, load them for you, then say "have a good day, ma'am!"
6. HATE the scenery here. It's so dead and flat. But we LOVE that big Texas sky at sunset with all its shades of purple and pink.
7. HATE how drained I feel every afternoon because of this heat. But we LOVE the sun and swimming.
8. LOVE how easy it is to go out for food. Good food.
9. LOVE the enormous grocery stores here, but HATE that it takes a whole afternoon to get through it sometimes.
10. LOVE having a Pediatrician for my girls, and an OB/Gyn for myself. I can't think of anything I hate about my health care here - except the paperwork, and waiting for an hour for an appointment.
I LOVE the space here. We actually have walk-in closets, and a laundry room, and a garage that will actually fit more than 1 car. Even the roads are so spacious compared to what we're used to in Scotland. Our neighborhood roads are wider than the highways that went through Glasgow.
I HATE temporary living. Midland is such a small town, there's no corporate housing available for people like us, who need a furnished place while all our stuff is in transit internationally. So we had to negotiate to lease a house for only 2 months, when most leases are 12 month minimum. Then we had to rent furniture, and then we raided my parents house for cookware, linens, towels, tools, cleaning supplies, and bedding! So in the end it worked out fine...but we are still missing our own stuff. Here's a few pics of the rental house.
Another big shock to us was car shopping. In Scotland it was so easy to shop for used cars, but here, if you get a car that's older than 2 years its got 100,000 miles on it! And I HATE that cars are such a status-symbol, especially in Texas. Every Texan owns at least 2 vehicles, and one of them is a truck. And not just any truck, it has to have a lift-kit, 4wd, chrome wheels, and a V8 engine. Minimum. And there's not a mountain for hundreds of miles!
But we LOVE how cheap the fuel is here. I filled up my car for $40. In Scotland we paid well over $100 every time we filled up.
I'm glad I lived in Scotland and learned to be more practical and less materialistic when it came to big purchases. Four years ago I would have never bought this:
But now I must admit - I live in Texas...and I drive a minivan. I still haven't seen another one in Midland that is driven by someone younger than 50, but I LOVE this car. The doors open with a remote control - definitely my favorite feature.
But to compensate...Josh drives a Tundra - the Texas Edition (hence the blog header).
We're fitting in just fine ;)
Having said that, there are still a lot of things that we hate and love about being Texan.
1. HATE the water here. Even a tiny sip of water for sacrament on Sunday leaves a raunchy taste in my mouth. In Scotland we could bottle the water right from the tap!
2. LOVE my washer and dryer. They are freaking enormous. I could get away with only doing 2 loads a week!
3. HATE how expensive everything is for kids - preschool, dance, swimming, soccer... nothing is provided through a community center, its all private, professional, and competitive. And costly.
4. LOVE American music. Brit-pop was so annoying, we only ever listened to talk radio. Or a Disney CD.
5. HATE that I come home with 15 plastic carrier bags every time I go grocery shopping, but LOVE the fact that they pack your groceries, take them to your car, load them for you, then say "have a good day, ma'am!"
6. HATE the scenery here. It's so dead and flat. But we LOVE that big Texas sky at sunset with all its shades of purple and pink.
7. HATE how drained I feel every afternoon because of this heat. But we LOVE the sun and swimming.
8. LOVE how easy it is to go out for food. Good food.
9. LOVE the enormous grocery stores here, but HATE that it takes a whole afternoon to get through it sometimes.
10. LOVE having a Pediatrician for my girls, and an OB/Gyn for myself. I can't think of anything I hate about my health care here - except the paperwork, and waiting for an hour for an appointment.
I LOVE the space here. We actually have walk-in closets, and a laundry room, and a garage that will actually fit more than 1 car. Even the roads are so spacious compared to what we're used to in Scotland. Our neighborhood roads are wider than the highways that went through Glasgow.
I HATE temporary living. Midland is such a small town, there's no corporate housing available for people like us, who need a furnished place while all our stuff is in transit internationally. So we had to negotiate to lease a house for only 2 months, when most leases are 12 month minimum. Then we had to rent furniture, and then we raided my parents house for cookware, linens, towels, tools, cleaning supplies, and bedding! So in the end it worked out fine...but we are still missing our own stuff. Here's a few pics of the rental house.
Another big shock to us was car shopping. In Scotland it was so easy to shop for used cars, but here, if you get a car that's older than 2 years its got 100,000 miles on it! And I HATE that cars are such a status-symbol, especially in Texas. Every Texan owns at least 2 vehicles, and one of them is a truck. And not just any truck, it has to have a lift-kit, 4wd, chrome wheels, and a V8 engine. Minimum. And there's not a mountain for hundreds of miles!But we LOVE how cheap the fuel is here. I filled up my car for $40. In Scotland we paid well over $100 every time we filled up.
I'm glad I lived in Scotland and learned to be more practical and less materialistic when it came to big purchases. Four years ago I would have never bought this:
But now I must admit - I live in Texas...and I drive a minivan. I still haven't seen another one in Midland that is driven by someone younger than 50, but I LOVE this car. The doors open with a remote control - definitely my favorite feature.But to compensate...Josh drives a Tundra - the Texas Edition (hence the blog header).
We're fitting in just fine ;)
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Summer in September
We are BUSY. But for some reason I can't help but feel like I'm on vacation, because of the great weather! There's hardly ever a cloud in the big Texas sky, and the temperatures are in the 90's. My girls are in heaven - they've been in the pool every other day, and are getting very good at swimming around on their own and jumping off the sides.
Pretty soon we'll need to get these girls in swimming lessons and take off those armbands!
Monday, September 6, 2010
What about a NAME!?
Yesterday I just realized that I am 38 weeks pregnant. That's basically full-term. This baby can come any time now, but its freaking me out because for the first time I am NOT ready! We've been a little busy moving, buying a house and cars and getting our new life figured out...that we don't even have a name picked for our little girl!! Every time we try to discuss names, it just ends up in an argument, so we change the subject. SO....as much as I hate to do this... I'm doing a poll for baby names. These are our top 4 (on the right). Josh has his #1, and I have my #1....and we are too stubborn to give up our favorites. But maybe this poll will sway our decisions. Or maybe not! Worth a shot though.
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