Blessing

Hi Gang,

Greetings from the bonnie land of Scotland. Nano and I are here enjoying the hospitality of Jordan, Char, Oliver, and Benjamin.

The highlight of our trip has been the blessing of
Benjamin Jordan. Nano remarked on a fascinating bit of Schneider trivia. Our three oldest grandsons were blessed on the same day, and our three youngest grandsons were born on the same day of the year. Benjamin is the sweetest little guy. One of the few times I've heard him fuss is when his dad was blessing him. More later. Oliver needs the computer.

Luv,
Gramps

THOSE BUTTERFLIES REALLY GET AROUND

And to add to Auntie Lindsay's post -
Guess what Caleb and Julian were excited to find at Disneyland - right near the petting zoo?!
(Look carefully at the flower on top)

BRIDGES ON THE RIVER DEE

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Each time we come to Scotland we find something different to amaze us. This time of course the amazement centers on Baby Ben. He’s absolutely beautiful. Grandpa’s post will tell us more. That’s because this month I'm the one who says something about
On Your Way Home. And I’ll do that by telling about an amazing hike I took yesterday.

The Schneider car has room for five, not six, so yesterday Char and sons went to visit a friend while Grandpa, Jord and I took a drive to the picturesque and charming village of Ballater. Its claim to fame is that it’s next door to the royal hideaway of Balmoral Castle.
While the guys played golf I decided to explore the area. I’d heard there were some ‘lovely’ walk/rambles nearby so I stopped in at Tourist Info. The lady at the desk told me, in singsong Scottish, that her favorite hike takes you five miles (8 km!) into the foothills nearby. It’s called the ‘Seven Bridge Trail’ because you cross the River Dee seven different times. So I started out. The scenery was spectacular! The directions said that I’d cross a footbridge (bridge #2) and after that I’d take a turn uphill.
Well my idea of a footbridge is like the one in the photo above (bridge #4) so when I came to an uphill turn I thought ‘This can’t be the turn. I haven’t crossed any footbridge.’ So I kept going and going until I found myself in a horse pasture. Then I kept going until I couldn’t go any further. I was literally in someone’s backyard.
So then I realized I MUST NOT have noticed when I crossed the real footbridge so I backtracked to the uphill turn. I followed that until I came to a road. But wait, I was NOT supposed to be at a road! So I decided to take another look at the directions! And I realized I hadn't read them right - I WAS supposed to be at a road.

Needless to say by that time the map said I was a quarter of the way done but an entire hour had gone by. And now I wasn’t having a good time or enjoying the spectacular scenery.

So by now you’ve guessed what the analogy is to On Your Way Home.

Recognize all footbridges for the
opportunities they are to point you on your path.
Read the directions. They'll get you to where you need to go.
And then you'll enjoy the scenery because you're On the Way Home.
BTW - after I took the advice above, it really was an amazing hike!

Cooking

So one of the new things I am improve is my cooking skills. I have decided that after seven years of essentially living away from home and being malnourished it is time to eat well this year. So far this resolution has not been entirely successful what with the hundreds of pages of law school textbooks I have to plough through not to mention a newfound love of watching football with my roomates, the Champions League, the start of the Edmonton Oilers season, intramural sports, running and just a general lacksadaisacal disposition that I have to fight against everyday plus all these dates I've been going on lately (jk don't want to get your hopes up Momma) I just haven't had the time.

Anyways, I am currently getting my collection of recipes together so if any of you guys have any good recipes you've discovered lately please let me know I particularly enjoy fruit salads, creme brule, light regular salads with balsamic vinegar dressings no I'm sorry that's another terrible joke. I like meat, I've read portions of Omnivore's Dilemma, I've read about the bad things about red meat but I just can't turn away. In fact I got an appointment with my butcher this saturday to bbq another brisket so (and this is no joke) if anybody has a good colesaw recipe let me know. PS- I will have pictures of Peru soon. Ok I gotta go

Dear Julian and Caleb

I have seen your butterflies twice already!! Once last week, flying over the kindergartener's playground, and once this weekend all the way over here in Santa Monica!!

Abu Dhabi group seeks to make big impact in EPL

One of the most interesting stories this year will be how Manchester City FC will fare. Outsiders and critics describe it as “a small club with a small mentality” that has not won very much in the last 20 years. But after what happened last season that could all change very quickly. The club was bought by oil rich Abu Dhabi United Group from Dubai with the goal of making Manchester City FC the biggest club in the Premier League. It’s been another example of huge foreign investment channelled into one team similar to how Russian oil tycoon Roman Abramovich invested in Chelsea FC a few years back.

The new owners wasted no time in luring some of the top players from the league and abroad including Brazilian Robinho and England National player Gareth Barry. They even managed to lure Argentinean Carlos Tevez from rivals and recent league champions Manchester United which will undoubtedly cause even more bad blood between the two long-standing Manchester rivals (which has been fairly lopsided in Manchester United's favour for the last several years). So with reportedly sky high wages for their new players and extremely lucrative bonuses to win certain games against the other top teams it will be interesting to see whether the wealthy Dubai owners will succeed in bringing big time success to the team.

X factor here we come....

Here's a little clip that my mom filmed about two weeks after Ben was born.