Relief!

So I have finished the last of my exams and now it is Christmas time. (It hasn't felt like it yet) I am relieved and trying to not worry! I get my results in January sometime so until then... I have a three week break, one of which is when the kids are back in school. It will be like old times and me a stay at home mom again.

We haven't taken a successful Christmas photo yet. Our next appointment is this Saturday. We bought a tripod which was hard because we have 2 in storage. But now I can play photographer! This is one picture that is not going to be used- it is in front of Glasgow University. Any Harry Potter Fans? Does it look familiar?

Charla is coming from Rotterdam for Christmas so us "three little girls" will be together for an entire week. We are ready to PARTY.

My other news is that we bought a car last week. Our "new" car is a Mercedes. It is green and seats 7. It is an '85! It looks nice but smells so so so bad! The night we bought it Rich took it for a little drive- his first on the "wrong" side of the road and rolled down a window that the seller told us didn't work... It went down perfectly, but not back up! It stayed down for an entire week- in the rain and rain and rain- there weren't any sunny days. But now we have a car! I plan on taking it all over the UK. While I was depressed during my studying I planned many trips. Richard is excited to work on it and found a few same models on the internet that have over a million miles on them- with the original engine! Ours doesn't have near that many... It may have been very inexpensive, but hopefully we will have some good times with it.

The painting behind us is so cool, but because the lack of the light it is blurry and it was a stressful day so we didn't try too hard to get a good picture but if you look closely there are some very beautiful dead animals. I liked the boar best.

Reaching Limits

So I have finally reached my limit and now wonder if I can do anything at all! I have panic attacks a few times a day (not really but sort of). It will all be over in three weeks!
Richard and I finally went out for real this past weekend. A friend and fellow student was having a party and as I have been anti-social I made Richard get out and go with me. We had a really great time. The kids were left at home in their beds. I locked the door and told Atlas that the key was on the ground by it- we have only one exit here- the door and just wanted him to know. We got home around 2 am. On the late side for me and I thought that with it being Saturday I could sleep in and would have a nice day reading and reviewing. We got into our building and up the stairs to our door and found that the key on the other side was in the lock. Our key would not go in because the lock was turned a little bit. We called on the cell phone the house phone and to our other cell phone in the house. I could hear the phones ringing. Nothing. Richard went down the stairs and buzzed. I could hear it, but no answer. We knocked and rang and buzzed. Nothing. Richard threw newspaper at the windows. I heard it thump clearly on the other side of the door. No response. Richard tried to scale the building in the frosty night, but couldn't get passed the lintel and I was afraid that he would fall and impale himself on the iron work. We played with the lock a bit and at one point I heard the kids moaning in their sleep and yes I ran down and buzzed the door. Our cell phone battery died sometime after continuous calling. In the end Richard and I tried to sleep on the carpet in front of our door. Atlas finally awoke at 7 in the morning and let us in! We were so cold and so tired. I think that I am too old to lose a whole night of sleep (and precious study time). The kids did let us sleep for a while- I think they were afraid to wake us. Two cold miserable and very irritable parents. It will be a long time before I go out and stay out late again...This it the stairwell of the flat where the party was. Little did we know that we would be spending the night in one. We were locked out because of this little imp.