Its Christmas time, its Chirstmas time....

We are not doing to well keeping everyone up to date here are we :)
No excuses but we have been quite busy lately. Last week we moved into our new place. A house we are renting in Center Harbor. My Subway franchise opportunity is coming along quite nicely. The financing is at the credit office now and will hopefully hear soon whether or not we can move forward to the purchase.

We had a really great Christmas. The morning was spent at the Johnsons and the Afternoon at the Sargents. Oliver landed a lot of loot! And just look at the little doll!

Here is Christmas morning. Getting ready to start his first Christmas.

Dec update

Oliver had his one month birthday on Sunday. He celebrated by crying most of the day:) On Monday he had his one month checkup. The pediatrician said hes growing like a weed! He is 23 inches and 8lb 12 oz...he just spit up everywhere...ill update more later!

Thanksgiving Day

Jessica, Oliver, and I spent Thanksgiving Day at my parents house. It was a really nice time and great food. Being Oliver's first Thanksgiving we have lots of pictures.The next day we took a trip to Vermont to go to the JSM (Joseph Smith Memorial). At two weeks old the little guy is all ready an interstate traveler. We went out to dinner at Margaritas first so it is only appropriate that we have pictures of his first restaurant experience.


A little difficult to see because it was dark out and our camera doesn't have the best flash but here we are at the JSM. We went there to see the lights and to watch the living nativity. We saw our friend Amanda there (from the Somersworth Ward) and was surprised to find out that she played Mary in the production. Way To Go Amanda!!

Soon to be two weeks old! Man it goes by fast

brrrrr....It's cold out here mommy!

Our little Oliver will be two weeks old the day after Thanksgiving. It is crazy how quickly the time has gone by. Let me just note what a good boy he is: For about one week straight he has slept for most of the night. The majority of the time he is sleeping from about 10:30pm to 6:30am. It has been great!

On Saturday, Nov 17th, my parents came over for dinner and we have some good photos of all the grandparents holding the man.

Today, Nov 20th, Oliver got his first snow. We bundled him all up and took him outside for a picture in the snow.

In two days it will be Thanksgiving and we are looking forward to going to my parents house for dinner. I will be taking plenty of photos so be sure to check them out. My sister Crystal is coming home from California, my other sister Sheena will be there with my niece, Kayle. Also in attendance will be my parents (of course) and my grandmother and aunt. It will be a busy day for Oliver that is for sure. It is also the first time in many years that my whole family will be sitting around a Thanksgiving table together. Its what happens when everyone gets older :p

Video of our little man

Things have been going really well. I will admit that it has been difficult to accomplish much of anything during the day because I just love hanging with my buddy. I will now attempt to upload a video of our family taken just hours after he was born.

In other news, I have just signed a contract with the owner of the two Subway sandwich stores in Plymouth NH to purchase them both. Waiting for financing to go through, which I am told will happen. Closing date is set for January 14th at 11:00am. At that point I will officially be an entreprenier and owner of the two shops.

Oliver David Sargent

We are excited to announce the birth of our little boy Oliver David Sargent. Oliver was born on Friday, November 9th at 5:05pm weighing in at 8lbs 12oz and 21" in length. Simply put, this is the best thing that has ever happened to us. He is perfect in every way!

Here are some pictures. More to come in the following days. Will see about putting up some video as well.

Halloween Update

Jessica dressed Oliver up for his very first Halloween, although I am most positive that he will not remember this one :)

Looks like our boy will be a November baby.

October 26th - Due date and waiting!

So we didn't end up driving ourselves crazy we decided to go to Portsmouth on our due date. We got to hang out with our good friends the Camerons. Jessica and I thought it fitting that on her due date we go to the spot in Portsmouth where I proposed to her. In the picture she is standing exactly where she stood when I proposed. Right in front of our friend "Willie" the whale.

6 days

The count down is definitely getting way down there...we can now just say we are due on friday! it is crazy! On Thursday we had an ob appointment (hopefully our second to last) Our midwife did an internal exam and told us that my cervix is 80% effaced but only 1 cm dilated. So we figured that all of those braxton-hicks last week were thinning out cervix, so now we just have to wait to dilate...its very nerve racking:) she also said she could feel the head, which was so weird, but cool! she also estimated the baby's weight...which I hope she grossly over estimated...because she said that he is already 8 lbs!! I was really hoping Shane's small baby genes would take over (he was 6 lbs) but, unfortunately, i think my fatty pie genes ate his (I was 9 lbs...) Oh well, if my mom could push me out, I'll be able to push Ollie out:)
On Thursday the third and fourth grade teachers at school threw me a baby shower during lunch. It was so nice of them. I got diapers, wipes, diaper rash cream, two outfits, socks, and a play yard!!! I really lucked out getting a temp job with such great people, and I will really miss working there, though I think I may be a little distracted by my new little bundle of joy!

I will post some pictures of the shower later, the website doesn't want to let me do it right now...
Tomorrow is the Primary Presentation in our ward and my mom is playing the piano (she has for...possibly the last decade) So we are going to have a sneak peak at what little Ollie will be like at his first primary presentation:) Ok ok I'm obsessing about him... More soon!

12 days!

So at the doctor's the other day we asked what they had as our due date, and they have October 26, so that is what we have to go by now too! So that means we have 12, almost 11 days left until our due date! I've been having increasing Braxton-Hicks contractions for the past couple of days, however, so I am ready whenever Oliver is for his arrival. We finally have everything that we need so I am feeling prepared and ready for our little guy to meet us. He has a place to sleep, he has clothes, he has diapers, a place to be changed, and plenty of toys (a bouncy chair, a play mat, TONS of stuffed animals...) We're both very ready to meet Oliver.
I have been working at Mom's school for the past couple of weeks as an aid in the fourth grade. It has been great, I really enjoy it, I wish I could continue the long term subbing, but having a baby might get in the way of that... It has really made me realize, though, that I would love to be a teacher. I think that fourth grade would be the perfect age group to teach-they know how to read and write, but they're not too cheeky about anything that they know. They still have enough retained innocence, but are fun at the same time. I take on a reading group tomorrow, so that will be a new level of involvement in the classroom. I'm excited, it is a book that I loved growing up called "Sarah Plain and Tall." What is great about this job is that the weeks have really been flying by because I'm not just lounging around the house, I am DOING something for8 hours a day. Its less time for me to freak out about every kick and twich I feel in my belly.
Shane and I both had to give talks in church today. My talk was about angels and Shane's was about lessons from early church members. I think that we are both really happy with how our talks turned out. Everyone was falling over themselves telling me and mom how well Shane spoke. He really is an amazing speaker, very moving. It is a skill that is not easily learned and he does such a good job with it. I received a huge compliment from a woman whose son is in Iraq. She wanted a copy of my talk to send to him because she thought it might be comforting to him. It felt really good.
This week Shane is going to continue the job search (he got turned down again for not working on Sundays...) We're going a different route, and hes just not going to apply to places that are open on Sundays, then he doesn't have to worry about working on that day! He is also going to look into going to school part time to get his computer degree.

Almost forgot! Sandwich Fair was a gastrointestinal success yet again this year! It was cold and drizzly, just how you want the fair to be. We started off with a philly cheesesteak (we wished we'd gotten italian sausage) and hot apple cider (fall is here!). Then we moved onto soup in a bread bowl, we got cream of broccoli, followed by cold apple cider from the Inter Lakes tent (gotta support the alma mater!) After that we split some fries (I wish we'd gotten a bigger bowl! They were SO GOOD!!) Then Shane got a fried dough (I think they're gross) and we split an apple crisp. I finished the day off with a giant chocolate chip cookie and shane bought locally made peach soda (Meetinghouse Soda) At dinner that night the four of us shared one giant eclaire from the fair. We also bought Shane a new winter hat and bought a sweater for Ollie. It was a fun day. Unfortunately when we got to the fair we realized that the batteries on our camera were dead, so there is no photographic evidence of the delicious day. We just have to make sure the batteries are changed by the time I go into labor!

October Update

Well the job search continues for Shane. We're finding it hard to find a place that will pay enough for us to move out of the 'rents house. He continues to search every option diligently, however, and hopefully one of these days he will be fruitful. Yesterday I landed a month long substitute job at Moultonborough Elementary School (where my mom works) I'm pretty much going to work there until I go into labor. It will be good to have a little cash flow, but more importantly it will keep me distracted from the imminent due date! I am subbing for an aid who is pretty much just the secretary for the fourth grade. I am the photocopy girl! Its not too tough, and all of the teachers are super nice-I'm excited for this short employment! I have a doctors appointment today (they're weekly now...ugh!)and then Shane and I will be going down to the temple for the rest of the day followed by some yummy temple cafeteria food! (no, really, we love it!) Wednesdays are my day off, so thats lucky so that we didn't have to change our plans. Saturday is our first childbirth class which I am excited about. I'm glad we're doing it near the end of the pregnancy-I feel like it would be even more of a tease to do them early because we would still have to wait 2 months until the baby came! Most excitedly, Monday we are going to the Sandwich Fair! As many of you know, this is a tradition for us every year to eat our way through the fair. We'll be sure to update with how much food we got through this year!

Shane's small update

Hello everyone. Jessica pretty much summed it all up in her post below but I just wanted to add a bit. The two job interviews that I have tomorrow are entry level; however, the starting pay is just a few thousand less than what I ended up making with Spinellis after 8 years with them! So not all that bad. But as Jessica pointed out it is simply temporary, on my part, until the Subway franchise gets closer to reality. I have applied for the franchise and have heard back from them that they are sending me their Offering Circular and that I should receive it in about a week from now, that is the next step in the ownership process so I am excited about that.

We like this blog and intend to continue to update it. Especially when little Oliver joins us :)

Oops!

We kind of left everyone on the edge of their seats about our situation and haven't updated since! We are back in beautiful New Hampshire. We arrived back 330am Thursday morning after our flight was delayed for 4 1/2 hours! But we made it home in one piece, and thats all we cared about. For me (Jessica), its just a waiting game now. I'm in the home stretch of the pregnancy,so everyday feels like an eternity! I'm 35 weeks, so I have 5 weeks to go. It feels like I've been pregnant for about 3 years and these last 5 weeks feel like ANOTHER 3 years! Its good to be back home, though, and not worry about the medical aspects of having a baby abroad. I'll have my own midwife and I'll be able to understand what the people at the hospital are saying to me:) Our childbirth classes start October 6, so I'm excited for those, I squeezed in just in time, I will be 39 weeks for the last class! Theres a chance I might be going to it with a baby! It will be a good chance to make friends with some other new moms in the area.
Shane has two job interviews tomorrow which is very exciting. Both are low skill, customer service/sales positions, but we just need something to hold us over until we know more about Subway and it gets up and running. If all goes well, by tomorrow night he will have a job in Concord!
Thank you everyone for all of your support during this crazy time in our lives...but at least it makes for some good reading!

Has it really been a whole year already!

Ahhhh what life throws at you sometimes. After a closer inspection it appears that we do not have the finances that we need to be comfortable for the year and beyond here in Scotland. After much prayer, talking, and council it has lead to and abrupt turn-around. Jessica and I will be heading back home to the States tomorrow.

See you a lot sooner rather than later...

Goodbye wee Scot.

More Subway

What Shane didn't bring up was the circumstances of his hiring. When we went into Subway for him to apply, 3 people handed in their CV's to the manager. Shane went up to the manager and said he'd like to talk to her about the job. She said that if he had time right then, she would talk to him. She was too busy, so she scheduled another time, was sick, so scheduled another time. At that talk she basically described the job to Shane as if he had it. She signed him up to do unpaid training the next day, and when she checked on him while he was doing his training said to him "I knew you were going to work out!" While he trained, several other people handed in resumes. He starts his regular shifts tomorrow. We are incredibly blessed that this process went so quickly and in Shane's favor. This can only be attributed to the amount of prayers said by ourselves and our friends and family about the need for this job. We want to thank everyone for their support during this trying time. This job has shown us that Heavenly Father still keeps us in his thoughts and does listen to our prayers!

Job update and gass prices fun

Well, I got the job. That was some easy stuff. Worked the 5 hours (unpaid training) last night. It went smooth. I have eaten at Subway so many times before that I didn't really even need them to show me what to do with the sub making. They kept asking me, "Are you sure you have never worked at a Subway before?" LOL.

Thank you all for the well-wishings. It is comforting. One of the biggest challenges that Jessican and I have faced is being away from our social support structure (i.e. our friends and family).

And now for the fun of it I took a picture of gas prices over here in Scotland - you think you have it bad?

This picture was taken near our flat, probably a 3 or 4 minute walk. That is 90.9p (p = pence which is like our cents.) a liter!

Lets do some quick math. 1 US gallon = about 3.8 liters. lets mulitply 90.9p by 3.8 and you come up with £3.45 a gallon roughly. So then now lets convert that into USD per gallon at the conversion rate of 1USD = 2.05BP and you get about $7.00 a gallon.

$7.00 A GALLON!!!

My classes + a part time job??

Well I got the seminar calendar and I was surprised to see when my classes meet. For the most part I only have ONE class a week and they don't actually start until October 1st:

Mon 1 Oct: 2-4pm
Fri 5 Oct: 9-11am
Fri 12 Oct: 2-4pm
Fri 19 Oct: 2-4pm
Fri 26 Oct: 2-4pm
Fri 2 Nov: 2-4pm
Fri 9 Nov: 2-4pm
Fri 16 Nov: 2-4pm
Fri 23 Nov: 2-4pm
Fri 30 Nov: 2-4pm
Fri 7 Dec: 2-4pm
Wed 12 Dec: 1pm
Fri 14 Dec: 2-4pm

This for a price tag of $17,000 tuition and $14,000 room and board :)

Well, I have been assured that I will be very VERY busy with school work while not in classes.

In addition, I may have landed a part time job working for Subway. Today I go in for a 5 hour (3pm-8pm) Unpaid training session. After that they will decide if they will hire me on. The pay is minimum wage at £5.35/hour. Which doesn't seem much until you convert that over to the USD in which case I am making $11.oo/hour.

Well, It will cover groceries anyway. If I get hired on I will be working 20 hours a week (The max that I am allowed under the student Visa) and I will be working day shifts. Although I was warned that I may have to do an occasional night shift if someone becomes ill or goes on vacation. Didn't seem bad until I learned that this Subway is open until 4:00am!!

Jessica and the new Pram (stroller for all you Americans)

Here is Jessica modeling off our new pram that we picked up today. Mom - we got the one that you liked best :)

Look its for twins!!

Pictures!

These are pictures from my first baby shower. Mom threw it at her house. It was a lot of fun. During a game of pass the parcel, I had to chug a baby bottle (I only chugged an ounce, it was hard!), Hilary had to perform "This little piggy..." on a doll, and Megan had to change a diaper on a doll blindfolded! It was very impressive. We also played a game where everyone drew a picture of a baby on their heads, Irene won for a beautiful rendering of a dancing baby!

This is shower number two, thrown by my visiting teacher for the summer, Robyn Felch. It was on her mother's lakefront property, the weather made it a bit too cold to enjoy the water, though. I was very surprised by the party, but I am not good at showing surprise, it usually just comes out as confusion...

Here are pictures of us at home before we left and at the airport with all of our luggage (keep in mind that is everything we have to live on for a year...and a whole suitcase of that is Oliver's!

Its only Tuesday!?

It feels like we have been here at least two weeks, and it has been four days. I think its the not have a job, school, or money, so all we can do is lounge! Today we went to Woodside Medical Center to get set up with a doctor. Of the 5 people we dealt with, I understood one of them. It was a very frustrating experience. Its very frustrating to know that they are speaking English, but not know a word that they are saying. I am attending an antenatal (aka prenatal) clinic tomorrow to orient myself with the center and I think also with the hospital, Queen Mothers Hospital (the locals call it Queen Mums). We shopped for prams yesterday and found one we liked, and it was the cheapest one in the store, £140, so about $300. This is what it looks like : http://www.mothercare.com/gp/product/B000IEPORM
We also have the option of buying one in America and paying to have it shipped. This one is $180 http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=3429530 so that means that shipping would have to be $120 to make the other one worth it. I know that buying the American one makes more sense, but I'm still drawn to the Scottish one, probably because I got to push it around and stuff in the store.
The interview that Shane was supposed to have today at Subway fell through because the manager felt ill and went home early. Hes going to try to intercept her tomorrow. Its tough not having a phone, it would make everything a whole lot easier because people could actually get a hold of us. It was a real Scottish morning this morning, very wet and dreary so my mood has been a bit down all day. Also I have been reading a book called "From Here to Paternity" its just a journal that a man kept while his wife was pregnant. For some reason it makes me sad to read it. I know I should stop, but I'm intrigued. The next book in my list is, well, I can't remember the name, but something along the lines of "Snow Flower and the Secret Letter", a book that will definitly not cheer me up as it is about Chinese foot binding, but mom recommended it.

Campus

This is my campus!

Just wanted to post a quick update and let everyone know that the flat rent and utility bills problem has been solved. We took a visit to campus today and I met the three professors that will be teaching my program. It is rather interesting how they created the program. I only have one class a week! However, much course work in the mean time. Things are starting to look up.

I went in for a job interview today and it will continue tomorrow working part-time at a Subway restaurant of all things. It is literally just around the corner from our flat, perhaps a 1 minute walk. I imagine that I will find out if I get it tomorrow. It's not glorious but it will bring in some much needed cash until I can find something better.

Got some pictures of our flat here. I am trying to upload a video of our flat but I am running into problems doing so. I meet all the criteria but it is just not completing the upload. Will post it when I figure this out.

Journey around Glasgow

The library is not open on Sundays so we are not able to post / check email. But hey, guess we shouldn't be doing that on a Sunday anyway :)

It appears as if we will have to open the Easy Access bank account. After doing a bit more research on it it doesn't seem like it will be too bad. Today we are off to the University to talk to the department head and learn about how my classes are going to work out. In addition, we will learn how we are going to pay for our rent and utilities - hopefully.

After a few days here in the city things are starting to get a little better. We have travelled a TON around the city and must say that the public transportation is fantastic. It takes a little bit to figure out how it all works but once you do getting around is very easy. I wouldn't want to drive in the city that is for sure, but it looks like I will have to figure that out as well by the time my parents come out to visit.

So we went to our church ward on Sunday and it went really well. Our chapel is the stake center. There are 9 wards that belong to the Glasgow stake. The odd thing is that our building, and chapel, is rather small for a stake center. The members of our ward are all really great and very helpful - which really does go to prove that the church is the same everywhere. There were about six other Americans that go to our ward. In fact, we have quite the cosmopolitan ward because we also have some Chinese families and African families. We even have plans for Thanksgiving all ready. One of the Americans, who just got married to a Scot, puts on a Thanksgiving dinner for the Americans every year. Can't wait! Oh, and I should mention that if we take the bus to church it costs us £5.00 or just over $10.00. We will be able to walk most of the time I imagine, just not when it is raining.

On Saturday we went to Ikea. Really huge place. It was about a 20 minute bus ride. Here is a picture of it here for the Camerons.

Also, I have a photo of the Mitchell Library. It is the largest library in Europe and it is only a 5 minute walk from our flat. The library is 8 floors, 6 of them are public access.

Will probably post again later tonight to update you all on our progress.

Cheers <---- You see that. I am slowly converting into a Scot!

Scotland - Glasgow

Jessica and I have safely arrived! We arrived yesterday, Friday 07 September. <-- Look I have even converted myself to writing the date the ye 'ole English way.

We are currently trying to figure a lot of stuff out. They really kind of throw you in here and you have to fend for yourself. After finding our apartment, photos to come soon, we were off to the bank to start a bank account. Well, first to a currency exchange. We need to have a bank account, not only for our own funds, but that is where our apartment rent is drawn from. They require you to have a bank account so they can directly take the money out of it each month. Our first snag came when we tried to get a bank account. The Bank of Scotland told us that we have no credit here in this country, they require a 3 year residency, so we can not get a bank account. We can apply for what they call an Easy Account which gives us a debit card but only allows us to withdraw £300.00 at a time. I can assure you that our monthly rent is more than £300.00. Banks are closed until Monday so we will see what we can do then. Stay tuned for the next episode of: Jess and Shane vs. Bank of Scotland!

Our apartment is very nice looking. It is much larger than what we imagined it would be. As I said, pictures to come shortly. The second snag arose when we tried to take a shower. COLD WATER! After finding the hot water tank, which also runs the electric heat for the apartment, I figured out how to get hot water. But wait, there doesn't seem to be a way to only turn on the hot water. We have to run the apartment heat at the same time. This is going to be fun in the summer! Going to try and talk to the land lord to have him explain how it all works. Stay tuned for the next episode of: Jess and Shane vs. Apartment!

So is it odd that I don't exactly have my classes yet? Fortunately, I just received an email from the department head with the course layout but I don't know when they start, what time, or where. Monday I am going to try and track the department head down and talk to him about it all. Stay tuned for the next episode of: Shane vs. Education!

Today, Saturday 08 September, we are off to journey the city of Glasgow. Trying to find things, such as this library that we are in now, the church, Ikea (Cameron's you jealous?), and figure out the bus/train/underground system. The local grocery store, C0-Op, is rather small and about a 15 minute walk. We purchased a little but it looks like we will have to buy as we go.

So our status for now is: We are in Glasgow, in an apartment that we currently can't pay for, no bank account so the apartment we can't pay for is currently also our bank (hope we don't get robbed), have no way of telling time because I destroyed our clock when I plugged it in without a converter - felt a little like the travelocity gnome, no Internet at our apartment that we can't pay for, not sure how to pay for the utility bills that we are using in the apartment we can't pay for, and the whole reason why we are here - I don't know when, where, or if I have classes!! Stay tuned for more. Who knows we may be home in a couple of weeks lol.

Nerves!

Well I haven't tried this bad boy out yet, Shane has been hogging the site! It is 8 o'clock Wednesday morning and my stomach is in knots! I don't know how sleeping is going to be tonight. Its not a bad nervous that I am feeling, just a "I'm moving across the Atlantic 8 months pregnant with no income" feeling. It is daunting, but everything has worked out for us so far (all of it with a fair bit of stress). I think that we just both need to learn to be patient and let things happen instead of worry about them non-stop (thats me more than Shane).
So I'm doing the laundry now and then the real packing begins! We have the baby's suitcase packed, but that is all, so I think its going to be a long day for both of us!
Now I will attempt to put up pictures, though I don't know if it will work... The first one is a profile shot. His head is in the middle and facing up and he's pressed right up against his torso, so that his torso is shooting upwards. You can see a little hand behind his head. The second picture is...well...showing that he is Oliver and not Lily!

A visit with Gram Sargent a few days before we leave

My grandmother will be selling her home that she has owned and lived in for decades. My father grew up in this house! It will be the last time we see my grandmother before we leave for Scotland and the last time I will ever see this house. Many fond memories here in this small home.