Going Fourth

Since the fall, our family has been expecting the addition of our fourth child. The kids have been super excited about baby brother. Connor is ready to have a brother whom he can share a bedroom with, while Sophie has been critical of most of our names (her choices of Noah and Jose were rejected poor child). And Ainsley, well she didn't know much what to expect except to point to my stomach and say "Baby".

After many doctor appointments, a week of bed rest, a panicked run to the hospital on a Sunday, we eventually managed to start the process of evicting our son from my body on Monday, May 1st. We visited Dr. Martin, who encouraged us to go to Baylor after our 10:15 appointment.

Once monitored and settled, it was clear Colin had received our eviction notice, but was taking his time- which actually worked in our favor considering I had Strep B and needed to extra time for the antibiotics to enter my body and thus help him.

Originally we were hoping that we could be done and have him before Sophie's school ended at 3:30, but no such luck. Instead they managed to just get my epidural in around 3pm and poke me with an IV about 6 times on my arms. Brian had to collect the kids and get them prepared for a possible long night in the hospital. When he was gone, the doctor wanted to break my water. I managed to get them to push the time back a bit so Brian could be with me (sans children) when it happened.

Luckily, 30 minutes later he had dropped off all 3 children with Ms. Norrell and was in the room beside me. There is something so helpful in having someone there. We had lots of good jokes, games with antacids, and funny memories of previous births that helped create memories.

After breaking my water, it took about an hour to go from a 6 to a 10. After 4 series of pushes (roughly 30 minutes maybe), Colin David Oney was out of my womb and into the world.

And I have to say... I LOVE my doctor- Dr. Amy Martin.

And our nurse Erin was fantastic as well!

If it wasn't for their help- I'm not sure it would have been as easy to evict a little someone.


Brian's Beliefs
Monday was quite a day...I drove all of the kids to school and then headed to work. I finished off a couple hours of work before Stacey showed up. We left for her appointment and later we found out that only an hour after we had left there was officer shot only a couple blocks from my work (and they locked down the entire area - so luckily we weren't there).

We completed Stacey's newest tradition of taking a walk around the park near her Dr (while I ate the Subway sandwich that Stacey bought me) and then headed to Baylor hospital. I was hoping that Colin would come along by around 1 or 2...but I knew better. Then we realized that we hadn't really planned for the possibility, so I undertook #OperationOney to drive from the hospital to daycare (pick up 2 youngest) to home (to get overnight and next day clothes for kids) to school (to hand off kids & clothes to Ms. Norrell) to the hospital. This was a 50 mile roundtrip that took nearly 2 hours...it was a rush and the kids did a good job of focusing on getting everything done timely...except for Ainsely who told me halfway to the van at daycare that she needed to potty, ha.

Stacey did all of the hard work..and a few times I was worried about her shade of blue face...but it was good that I didn't work out because helping her really wore out my arms and shoulders, ha. It was tough waiting around in the morning to have things happen, but then it was probably more tiring with all of the activity after birth. Fortunately for Colin we figured out his name before the day of birth, unlike Ainsley, ha.

Luckily, things proceeded quickly enough that the kids were able to spend the night at home with me. The kids were able to see baby brother, but they all needed some sleep and so did I, as we got home around 11pm.

Night in a Castle

Interesting story that started 10 plus years ago...

Long ago in Kansas, when I was still single but engaged to Brian, we were planning our wedding and honeymoon. Brian was in control of the budget for the wedding and honeymoon- wisely so. As we worked together planning our vacation in Ireland (me the fun stuff; Brian the financial stuff), Brian informed me that if we stayed in a cheap hotel on our wedding night we could spend one night in a castle in Ireland.

One night in a cheap hotel in exchange for one night in a castle- YES!

So we spent our wedding night in a low rated hotel in Kansas, but that's ok, because we were going to stay in a castle in Ireland. Well bed and breakfasts came and went and we never spent the night in a castle in Ireland.

So 10 years later, Brian plans and budgets our trip to Europe. He doesn't promise me a castle, which even if he did, I'm not sure I would have believed him. I did help some with selecting some of the hotels along the trip, but none of them were castles.

So when we arrived in England, Brian surprised me with a night in a castle. And not just 1 castle, but 2 castles. Brian told me he was trying to make up for Ireland.

So without further ado- our hotel castle experience.

Our first stop was Dalhousie Castle, which is near the border of England and Scotland. Fun history fact, King Edward I (Longshanks) stayed the night in Ramsey's castle (Dalhousie) before going to the Battle of Falkirk, where he met defeated William Wallace. Later William Ramsey changed sides and sided with Robert the Bruce and helped him to win the Battle of Bannokburn. The inside was pretty neat and it was fun to poke around the castle.

Our next castle was Hazlewood Castle. This castle can be found in the Doomsday book belonging to William de Percy. Only parts of the original castle still exist as many parts were burned down (either by accident or by war). During World War 2, it became a maternity hospital and inside is a large book of all the babies born at Hazlewood Castle.

I think between the 2 castles, this one was our favorite. Writing this months later I can't exactly remember why.

I can tell you that between all the places we stayed on our trip- the best hotel we stayed at was the Swan Inn Streately on the Thames. Just peaceful countryside and the Thames rushing quietly by. Plus if I remember correctly, the internet was great. I know that sounds kind of absurd that a strong internet connection would be so desirable- but when you've left your little children many time zones away, internet becomes an important link back to them.

Chauffeur’s Corner

The one clarification on the history…yes I was hoping to stay at a castle, but with the self-drive and B&B package that we purchased for our honeymoon did not really include a castle option and for some reason at that point the only castles I could find were $300-$400/night…which was a significant amount of our budget. So now that we have higher paying jobs and the advent of more booking websites to increase availability, it made sense to try for a couple castles.

It was nice to end our trip with stays in castles.

I had chosen Dalhousie Castle almost purely due to its historical importance. We arrived in the evening after coming from St. Andrews (and a significant amount of driving that day)…it was a welcome relief to arrive and it was pretty at night with its landscaping lighting. The castle was pretty neat however the room we were given was rather disappointing as it was “garden level” such that we were looking out directly at grass level (aka no scenic view). We explored the several nooks and crannies of the castle and it was clear that this is a 5-star property as it had a spa, high-class restaurant and our presence definitely was below the average clientele.

We trekked out to the nearby town (suburbs of Edinburgh) to an Italian restaurant, which was nice.

We slept ok and got up at dawn to explore the grounds, including the falconry (we did not pay the $200ish to spend 30 minutes with a bird) and some of the trails. After breakfast we headed off to Edinburgh Castle.

Then we drove to Hazelwood Castle which was about halfway to London from Edinburgh. We arrived in the evening again and we had already enjoyed a fine meal from McDonald’s so we were able to spend time exploring this castle as well. The grounds were probably nicer than Dalhousie and the castle was more spread out and unfortunately with it being dark we weren’t able to see a lot of the countryside. The bed wasn’t as good as Dalhousie, but the shower was better and overall the castle just felt more comfortable (maybe not so pretentious).

We will try to go into more detail about each of our accommodations in a later post…now that Stacey has oodles of time on her hands ;)

Ending in Edinburgh Castle

Our last stop in Scotland was to visit Edinburgh Castle in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Not one of my favorite castles, but definitely worth a visit. It was well fortified and stood upon a cliff of granite rock high above the city. However, the city (like you would expect from a capital city) surrounded the castle. I think what I was missing was gardens and greenery.

The castle walls were definitely thick and the castle itself was made to provid for a long seige- unlike Buckingham Palace or the Hapsburg Palace. Wonder if that is the difference? A castle is a place for royalty that is fortified and a palace is a place for royalty that is not fortified. Hmm... Must consider.

Anyway, being close to the North Sea, they also have the one o' clock gun, which fires everyday (except Sunday) at 1 o'clock. The purpose of this is to let the sailors know which time zone they have entered (and so they could determine their location based on speed of sound). There are only a few such guns (used for telling time) around the world.

Not all the weaponry there is used for "telling time", in fact Mons Meg is a huge cannon capable of firing a 330 pound cannon ball 2 miles.

Brian used his foot to show the scale of the cannon balls.

And of course there is the Half Moon Battery, which guarded the entrance in case you made it near or inside the portcullis gate.

We also sent to St. Margaret's Chapel, which is said to be the oldest building in Edingburgh. It was actually built before the castle, who was the mother of King David I of Scotland. She was actually a Saxon Princess who fled during the Norman Invasion and married King Malcolm III. She is the only royal Scottish saint.

Funny story, apparently, Queen Mary of Scots actually had St. Margaret's head placed in a gilded cage and brought to her during the birth of her first and only son- King James IV. Interesting baby shower gift.

We also got to see the Crown Jewels of Scotland, but like in England- no pictures. There was also the Stone of Destiny. The Stone of Destiny (a really big freaking rock with metal rings on the side for carrying the thing), was first used to crown the monarchs of Scotland. Later when Edward the Longshanks (Edward I- King of England) took over Scotland, he had the rock taken over to Westminister Abbey), where it was placed beneath the coronation chair for all the English monarchs. Recently, Queen Elizabeth II (who also used the Stone of Destiny at her coronation), ordered that it be sent back to Scotland where it belongs- but will return to England for future English coronations.

We went inside the castle to the Great Hall with a wood beamed roof.

And then into Mary Queen of Scot's bedchamber.

Another funny story- Mary Queen of Scots gave birth in her closet- not in a nice comfortable bed. Nope- a chair. Wonder where she put St. Margaret's head in this small space?

During the 1700s and 1800s, the English used Edinburgh Castle as a prison for enemies, you could view where they housed them. What they ate, where they used the bathroom (yuk), and what they did with their time there. If you look closely you can see prisoners names carved into the door. Also the mini ship was made of wood shavings by a very bored prisoner.

Other museums there for Royal Scottish military units. While we had opportunities to take pictures here I didn't do much of that- it was mostly a collection of weapons, uniforms, stories, and pictures of Scottish military units. However, I did take a picture of the gas masks.

And I also took a picture of a statue of General Haig.

Why General Haig was made a hero was beyond me. Not a fan. Really don't know why?  Well, I think this Blackadder video sums it up nicely for those people who aren't very educated in World War I.

After our trip to the castle, we did a bit of shopping. We almost bought a kilt for Brian. Yeah, he would have looked really nice in one. However, no we didn't buy one. Because I was informed it might only be worn once and even that was not a guarantee.

On our way back to England we drove along the North Sea coast. It was very scenic. I kept trying to convince Brian to let me take some sheep back to Texas. Unfortunately, we did not bring back a sheep. Or 2 or more.

And that is pretty much our whole trip. I actually have more pictures and more stories to share, but as for all of our "tourist stops" and even some of our incidents- we've really given you the highlights. However... don't stop reading now... we plan to cover maps, our stay in 2 castles, our spreadsheets and any tips we think that might be helpful for planning a trip like this yourself- should you be interested. This trip took a LOT of research and planning before our flight landed in Berlin. And most of that work is due to Brian. I did a lot of the fun stuff saying the places we "need to go", but he was the one who made it all happen so that way we could accomplish so much within 16 days.

Chauffeur's Corner:

The visit to Edinburgh Castle took place on a stereotypical English Isle day – chilly, damp and overcast/foggy. It didn’t dampen the visit too much though. As Stacey mentioned, the castle is situtated rather perfectly for the area. However, it was also felt somewhat smaller than the other castles on our visit, but that may have been due again to the constant feeling that you were on the pinhead of a rock cliff. It was interesting how the castle was built directly into the mountain rock – which you could easily see the several points where they met.

I again wasn’t very aware of the history of the Edinburgh Castle and it was interesting to learn about the Mons Meg and how it was a technological leap during its time – such that forces would surrender rather than have it used against them (though it was very difficult to transport far and wide).

The entire castle walking areas were covered with pavers, which you can see in many of the pictures – it helped with the romanticism of the site, but with the weather it also made walking adventurous. The Scottish Highlander Regimental museum was a nice surprise, as there were several pieces of military hardware including their uniforms. I believe I recall seeing that the sporran (pouch that sits in front of kilt) was only worn by those of Sergeant and above.

St. Margaret’s Chapel was literally a chapel (unlike many modern-day ones) – measuring roughly 15’ x 40’. Though it was small, it was rather pretty and had a certain amount of sanctity to it, beyond its rich history.

We had not expected to see the Crown Jewels of Scotland, but it compared uniquely to those of England. England’s were clearly more ornate and more numerous. However, Scotland’s display was more soaked in history (and blood) than that of England. The fascinating tie-in was having been to Westminster Abbey where we saw the coronation chair and reading that it was lacking the Stone of Destiny. Then we saw the Stone of Destiny in person, which by itself is rather unremarkable…however, again it has been witness to remarkable human history. I will admit that even after all of the history lessons, I still cannot follow along with all of the lineages and rulers.

The Great Hall was outstanding in its grandeur, however I believe it had been rebuilt, as it had been through several revised uses over the decades. The wood-beamed ceiling was beautiful.

Again Stacey was able to flex her History degree to explain to me about General Haig, which definitely altered our perspective on the presentation of his material at the castle. As we left the castle, we had an important decision to make – drive the short route to the final stay or take the more scenic route which was an hour or two longer. We wisely chose to explore the scenic route along the North Sea coastline.

In case I forget to cover this later, there are some important things about this trip. First was that I actually enjoyed doing research for this trip as I had to look through what I would want to do, research the specifics about what Stacey wanted and the nitty gritty of getting around (rules, train schedules, etc).  Another big thing was that as we worked through the details of the trip, I was fortunate to have Stacey who was willing to do much more (and often cheaper) than most people. This translated to a very aggressive, but a schedule packed full of great things to do. We also lucked out with the timing to make my desire of a 2-3 week vacation a reality. Also, the driving proved to be much more manageable than I had worried about. Other than navigating out of Berlin, Stacey was a great help in traversing the thousands of miles and dozens of sights.