Fish, chips, and sunshine (for a short while anyway)

So this afternoon Jeff, Mariam, and I decided to drive down to Anstruther for some of the best fish and chips in the area. Anstruther is a great little fishing village about 15 minutes south of St Andrews. We dragged Mariam away from working on her dissertation in the roundel and jumped in the mini. The day began sunny (to the point where I was considering wearing a tank top) but slowly clouded over as the day progressed. (I was quite happy with my last-minute decision to wear a warmer top.) Our first stop, the Anstruther Fish Bar, of course! Anyone who has visited us in Scotland will have been to the Anstruther Fish Bar. They seriously make the best battered haddock I've ever tasted, which totally makes up for the fact that they give you a plain old boring slice of white bread as a starter and make you buy your individual packets of Heinz tartar sauce and ketchup. (I usually end up getting 3 tartar sauce packets and 2 ketchup packets.) :-) Can't you see the anticipation on our faces for the fried goodness? Although looking at the picture again, it appears as though I'm really excited but Jeff is quite bored... hmmm. The great fish of the day was coupled with the brilliant wit of our dear friend, Mariam... you know the one who always has a camera... ironically, she didn't have hers today, but I sure did. :-) Anyway upon looking at the menu, Mariam very cleverly asked if the "local dressed crab" would be wearing kilts... ha ha... get it?... local dressed crab?... brilliant! ::sigh:: I love witty people. Ok, moving on... oh but it's sooo hard to move on... I'm still laughing. Ok seriously, moving on... after our delectably fried goodness we wandered the town a bit. I enjoyed taking random candid photos of Jeff and Mariam, much to my own amusement, as you can tell by Mariam's disinterested face. :-) On the way home I thought I'd have a go at photographing St Andrews in the distance. Well, I quickly learned that sticking a digital camera out the passenger window whilst moving doesn't provide the best pictures... oh and gives your husband a heart attack as well. :-) Good times, good times. I think the second one turned out the best... although, I'm not entirely convinced that you can even see St Andrews in the distance. Oh and finally, the last one is my personal favourite... not quite sure what happened with the last picture. I think I was attempting to tilt the camera over the top of the car in order to get a bit of the North Sea... it's really a good thing I never considered being a professional photographer. I know, right?

The times, they are a-changin'

So I just had a crazy realization... only 2 months until we leave Scotland for good. Madness!

The big day

So have I told you about our wonderful friend, Mariam? Well, Mariam is one to always have her camera on her, and for this I am very grateful. She, unlike me, thought ahead in order to document the momentous occasion of Jeff's viva. So what follows is basically the most recent post on her blog pasted into mine. :-) I love technology.


(1) The dream team (well, the support team, really)... Andy, Allison, me, and of course Mariam behind the camera.


(2) The crowd grows. Everyone came by to wait out the viva and support Jeff. Have I mentioned that we have a really great community here?


(3) The crowd, from a different angle, also showing the window that we were staring at (up at the top left corner of the picture). Andy would go up occasionally to see if he could hear them moving around and preparing to leave -- and came down one time to reassure me: "they all just laughed in there!" It sounded like there were some pretty comic stories and moments along the way. As one friend commented, if I am this nervous for someone else when I have nothing riding on this, what will I feel like when it is actually my exam time???!


(4) Allison found me a blanket (it was a cold wait!), but then begged her way into the warmth.


(5) Webster, the external examiner, came out the door we expected, but then Jeff and his supervisor came out the secret back way, much to the surprise of everyone (especially me, I was waiting by the main door!)


(6) The external examiner (Webster) and Jeff's supervisor (Steve Holmes) and the new nearly-doctor!


(7) Someone congratulating the wife... the whole thing was such a blur that I can't even remember who it is that is hugging me at this point. =]


(8) Can't you just see the happiness (and relief)!?! =]


(9) At this point we migrated over to the Whey Pat, one of Jeff's favorite pubs. Here's Jeff and Reno, one of the absolutely smartest people I know, who coincidentally is working on Tolkien and various other things I can't comprehend.


(10) Me, Meg, and Amber.


(11) At the pub... boy do I slouch... I need to work on that. It's also been pointed out that the shirt I'm wearing makes me look like I've got a full-body tattoo in this picture. =] Brilliant!


(12) Ivan, another recent PhD, advises Jeff on what he ought to be thinking and feeling at this point. =]


(13) Me, Allison, and Mariam, self-portrait style.

Pause.... At this point, we left the pub, and Andy, Jeff, Mariam, Allison, and I went to the Thai restaurant, ordered take out in large quantities, and brought it back to Mariam's house (all the way across the street!) to eat. We ate ...mmmmm... and then transported ourselves in our little Mini (it was, shall we say, tight? Apparently after eating all that we weighed the car right down so that the wheelwells were riding on the tires with every bump and turn...) and went over to Andy's house where we met up with Andy's wife, Laurel. Reno also came over, prepared in case the guys went to smoke cigars. Instead, we popped open some champagne and watched such high-brow films like "SNL the best of Will Ferrell" and then the great movie "Zoolander."


(14) The group at Andy's house: (back) Jeff, Andy, Laurel, Reno; (front) Allison, me; (behind the camera again) Mariam.

A Million Thanks!

Thank you soo much everyone for all your prayers and congrats. This whole thing has just been soo amazing. Today was sooo surreal... Dr. Oldfield... awesome!!!

PhD Idol: the result

We have a Dr. Oldfield in the family!!! Well, we will have a Dr. Oldfield in the family in the near future anyway. :-) The viva lasted about 2 hours and went really well. They told Jeff that he defended his dissertation superbly. They did, however, give him a 3 month extension to do some changes that one of the examiners thought were quite important. So the plan is for the changes to be made and the dissertation resubmitted before we move home in July. Jeff won't be able to graduate this June, but that just gives us an excuse to fly back for the graduation in November. :-) We spent the evening celebrating with our friends. It feels pretty good to know that this crazy PhD thing is really going to happen. he he

Another side note: If you ever get me on the phone, remind me to tell you the story of the Lotus. It's been a crazy day today.

The day is upon us!

So tomorrow is the big day! We are both sooooooooooo nervous... I mean the past 5 years are all riding on this viva. (Well, technically our first year in the UK Jeff did a MA so I guess that really only 4 of the 5 years are riding on tomorrow's viva. Either way it's a long time.) I've been the supportive wife, of course, this past week... listening to Jeff's worries and offering encouragement. Luckily I'll be able to get away from work around 2:15pm tomorrow so I'll definitely be there when Jeff gets out. And I know that all my blog readers back home are setting their alarms for 6:30am to pray for Jeff as he goes into the meeting. :-) I already know that some of you are planning on it... you guys are the best... all of you!

Oh and as a side note, apparently Justin Timberlake was seen playing the old course today. It's about time someone brought sexy back into golf. :-) Oh I'm soo witty.

Back to the daily grind

Well, kids, it was back to work today day. Yeah, that was supposed to sound confusing in order to let you in on how I'm feeling at the moment. So I've been off work for ages now, right? And silly me thought that I'd be able to just slot right back in as if nothing ever happened. Well, I get a phone call from my headteacher (principal) last week telling me that I'm moving classrooms. Fantastic!!! (said, of course, with loads of sarcasm). He did actually have a really good reason for the move which calmed me down a bit. I totally think though that headteachers must forget how incredibly difficult it is to change classrooms, especially in the middle of the school year! Anyway, I guess I've lucked out in a few ways: 1. I get a much nicer computer and my own printer. (All the other teachers have to walk down to the library to pick up anything they've printed.) and 2. My new classroom is also the teacher resource room, which means that all the walls are lined with shelves of random resources so that I don't have any room for wall decorations. Which to a teacher moving classrooms just 2.5 months before the end of the school year is a blessing. I mean who wants to redecorate a new classroom when it feels like just yesterday Jeff and I were standing on top of desks stapling and "blue tacking" things to the walls of my old one? So moving classrooms... that was fun. Jeff and I went in Wednesday of last week (during spring break, mind you) and moved stuff down to my new room, and I came in again on Friday and spent a few hours attempting to organize the mess. Luckily for me, my headteacher was nice enough to give me the whole morning today, our first day back, to continue attempting to organize... and let me tell you it was sooooo very much appreciated. I actually feel somewhat organized; and for me, being the organized freak that I am, that's a huge accomplishment! So moving classrooms, that was confusing factor number one. Well, on top of that, my entire timetable (schedule of what kids I see and when) has completely changed. But on the plus side... I no longer have my problem child!!! Woo hoo!!! Well, I've been told that the timetable is subject to change again, but I'll keep my fingers crossed that that bit doesn't change. :-) Ok, enough of crazy work stuff. I should probably attempt a bit of sleepy time so I can make it through tomorrow. Happy Monday, everyone! :-)

He is Risen!

Happy Easter to all! It was a very busy day for us this year, and amazingly I made it through without collapsing of exhaustion. I arrived in St Andrews Saturday evening to Jeff informing me that he and I were doing the music for both the morning and evening Easter services at the Baptist church. So up I got at 7:30am Easter morning to practice and sing for the morning service. As soon as the service was over, we headed to our friend Allison's house for a proper British Easter meal. Jeff made Beef Wellington, a fillet roast wrapped in ham, mushroom pate, and puff pastry. It was DELICIOUS! I am not one to drool over meat but oh my goodness was this worth drooling over! Allison prepared vegetables and some seriously garlicy mashed potatoes. It was awesome! My stepdad Rick, Allison's sister Caitlin, Allison, Jeff, Mariam, and I had a great time. (Mariam isn't in the picture as she was the one taking it. Mariam, thanks for the pic by the way. I steal your pictures often enough that I should probably thank you for them every once in a while.) :-) After our early dinner we headed over to Dana and Reno's house for a baby baptism shower celebrating the baptism of their new baby at their church's Easter service that morning. We stayed for about an hour then rushed back to the church to practice and sing for the evening service. Needless to say we were ready for bed by the time we made it home that night. The day was a truly wonderful one filled with lots of fellowship and reminders of Christ's amazing love and power. Although I am a bit bitter that the Baptist church did not have the Eucharist at either of their services on Easter day... I felt a bit jipped. Oh well maybe I can convince Jeff to finally add to his theology blog our thoughts on communion... that would be better suited to the topic than this light-hearted blog... we'll see...