A Revival

I haven't been here since August. That's a very long time, and life has shown us several big changes since then.
I think part of me was resigned to the fact that I would give up this blog. Life was busy (as it always is) and I didn't have the time or inspiration to continue to make this space a beautiful one. But I must make a confession - I have been a downright nasty person to be around as of late. My poor, dear, sweet husband has caught the brunt of it and most of the time I didn't even realise how horrible I was being until I saw the hurt in his eyes after an argument settled, or until I heard the anger in his voice.
The only thing I know is that when I am stressed and frazzled, I become un-fun and snappy. I become a lot like a teenager who doesn't like to hear any criticism, but especially the word "no."
I need a therapy, of sorts, to keep myself happy. Expressing goes a long way. I remember back in high school, I used to dump my stresses during my least favourite (and weakest) subject- math. It would have done me a lot more good, academically, to sit and pay attention, but it did more for my state of mind to get out some notebook paper and just write. I wrote poems, short stories, even took a few cracks at novels. Nothing ever came of it and sadly, I've lost most of those poems and stories, but it felt good. Another release I discovered around the same time was photography. I found that, after a teenage argument with my mother, a trip to the desert with my little digital camera did me a lot of good. A few years later, I took a photography course at the community college and invested in a good little starter digital SLR. I would lose myself behind the lense, become engrossed in finding the perfect shutter and f-stop combination, and find delight in tweaking the focus just right. Whatever worries plagued my mind could be easily forgotten. In a world where I so often feel like I have no control, getting behind the viewfinder and manipulating the settings of a camera, taking a world that, to me, in that moment, feels ugly, and changing it into something beautiful with this little machine makes me feel ok and reminds me that there is always beauty to be find.

And so, I resolve to write here regularly again, and to take more pictures. I got my camera out a few weeks ago and it sits on the piano (no, we don't play [though Mick can dabble], but it sure is a great place to set all our crap).

So, what has happened since August? Sheesh. A lot. Let me break it down by month for you.

September:
We celebrated our one year anniversary in London. Mick's mom and dad bought us tickets to see "We Will Rock You," a West End musical based on the music of Queen. Oh, did we love it. I quickly bought all of Queen's greatest hits that I was missing. A few days later I started a new job for a recruitment company that specialises in accountancy and fiance. I do a lot of administrative type work, and it's a really great place to work. The people are great and I'm always kept on my toes. A few days later Mick caught up with me by turning 26. Hah.

November:
I had a nasty cold that stopped me dead in my tracks. Mom sent me some Thanksgiving decorations to get me out of an autumn/germy funk. We celebrated a big of a Celtic Thanksgiving, plus a South African. The food was good and I enjoyed being in the kitchen all day.

December:
The countdown to my biggest wish was dwindling down - on December 15th we hopped on a plane and got to visit home for the first time since I moved here. We spent two weeks with my family, time split between Arizona and Southern California. I caught up with my parents and siblings, loved up on my niece and nephew, and shared good laughs with good friends whom I've missed loads. The time went too fast, and with a confusing mixture of sadness and joy, we came back to England.

February:
Another move... Mick's dad kindly asked us if we'd like to rent his house since he is remarrying and moving in with his lucky lady. We were ecstatic for the opportunity to live in the beautiful village in a lovely house with a lot more space and room to grow.

March:
I passed my driving test the first time (quite an accomplishment in England, the driving tests are brutal here!) and got a new car, a lovely little Skoda which may or may not take a lot of work...

That pretty much brings you up to date. There have been other things in between, which I'll share in photos.

Continuing developing my cooking skills

Spending as much time as possible with this guy

A fair amount of snow this winter (that's our new house from the garden!)

And a lot of ice...

And just enough down-time to keep me going

I'll be back soon, I promise. I've missed this place.

xo

Finding Winter

I've never experienced a real winter, having grown up in Southern California and Arizona. I remember one particularly cold "winter" in Arizona, I was walking to class one morning at the college. I walked across the grass and was a bit bemused when it started to crunch beneath my feet. Frost?! That is something we're seeing more of these days, now that I'm in England.

Such amazing patterns to be found in ice and frost. Little trails, mountains, rivers and valleys to explore with the eye. I found myself hoping this morning, when I woke and heard someone coughing and rattling objects in what should have been an empty house. I could tell the cough belonged to my mother in law. At first I assumed illness, but then quickly replaced that idea with a hope of snowy roads and no way for her to get to work. A glance out the window erased this dream, and an explanation of car trouble answered my question.

This approaching winter not only brings the normal things for me - my mother and sister's birthdays, Christmas, warm fires and time spent together, keeping warm on the inside, hot drinks and snuggles. This year, winter holds more for me; an exploration of a new season, new elements and a whole world of winter wonderland to discover. Mick and I hope to make it up to London before Christmas for some shopping in Camden and Greenwich Markets, perhaps catching a musical at a theatre in the West End. This winter will be a walkway into my new life, in this new place, with my new husband. What an adventure! 

Lurking Outside my Bedroom Window

Last night, I crawled into my warm, comfy bed and grabbed my book off the nightstand. Mick was getting ready for bed in the bathroom. The bedroom window right over the bed was open. I sat there with my book, hoping it would eventually get interesting. And then I heard a noise. At first I thought it was a cat. And then again. It sounded slightly more human. Like a growling shriek, something off of one of those Animal X-File type shows. And again. Okay, it definitely wasn't human. I kept listening, and finally jumped out of bed, banged on the bathroom door and drug Mick by the arm to the bedroom, still with a ring of toothpaste around his mouth. "You have to hear this!"
We sat and waited for a moment, but it didn't happen again. He pointed to his mouth and mumbled in that way you do when your mouth is full and said "I fill have foofpaste in my mouf." I dismissed him, and as soon as the bathroom door shut behind him, I heard the sound again, but that was the last time I heard it.
I'm not going to lie, I was a little bit creeped out. I wondered if it could have been a screech owl. I've heard of them, but have never actually heard the sounds they make. I found a video of a screech owl on YouTube, and that definitely wasn’t it. However, I now know what sounds they used for that creepy little dinosaur in Jurassic Park- the one with the frills around its neck that spits oil and kills the fat guy. Yep, screech owl sounds. Not for that nasty scream it does, but for the cooing sounds.
For some reason, I couldn’t get La Chupacabra out of my head. Growing up in the Southwest, La Chupacabra is something you hear about frequently. It’s a big bit of Mexican folklore. I made a post on facebook about how I thought I was hearing La Chupacabra out my bedroom window. My cousin back in America asked me if it couldn’t be some sort of English monster. Well, interesting. I don’t know of any British monsters. I know Scotland has Nessie, but there’s no water around us here. I know the Irish have Banshees, and, actually, it did feel a bit Banshee-ish, but again, we’re in the Southeast of England, not Ireland.
I turned to Google. And I came up with the two following possibilities. Click on the orangey-brown links to learn more.

(Yes, this info was taken from Wikipedia, but don't get on your high horse about my sources. I'm researching monsters, okay?)

Owlman of Mawnan

Or, this one. I'll admit it's pretty far fetched, even for a monster sighting.... but the sounds were right.

Pterodactyls in England (hey! We all know that the Pterodactyls escaped the island at the end of Jurassic Park 3; it could happen, people!)

Well, what do you think? I can honestly say I've never heard sounds like this before. What was it?

****Crazy disclaimer: No, I don't really think there was a monster outside my bedroom window (famous last words?). I'm sure it was an animal in distress (I've heard rabbits make weird noises) or even a car making a strange noise. This was just a fun and silly post inspired by my cousin's encouragement to investigate English monsters.****

Christmas Swagger

It seems to me that even the creepy crawly creatures are getting ready for Christmas.
Even the spiders are puttin' up their swag this year.

Leaving my Problems in my Footprints

Today, I found solace in my run. I haven't gone for one for over a week because I'm really, really good at coming up with excuses. I decided to start my normal route backwards, and then instead of taking the short stretch of trail to the right that quickly circles back into the neighborhood, I decided to turn left on the trail. I felt slightly embarrassed with myself for being so excited at the thought of this. My body felt great running in the woods, with rotten leaves and mud forming a cushion- much easier than running on concrete. It was better for my knees.

It was easy to run today, because Mick and I had this ridiculous argument and quite frankly, I didn't want to go back to the house. I just kept going, and couldn't believe how good it felt in my body to be running. I of course walked a good bit, but I think I ran more on the whole. It was a beautiful route and I think I'll make it my regular jog.
The woods offered multiple little trails, but I wasn't that worried about getting lost because I could still see the houses the entire way (the woods are essentially right in the middle and on the edge of the housing development). I took one little trail that shot off the main one and it led me to a beautiful clearing.

 The trail wrapped around the edge of the circular clearing and led back to the entrance into the woods from where I came. I came upon a woman wearing wellies and walking her chocolate lab who slobbered on me happily. I circled around the clearing and disappeared into the woods again, my anger being eaten away with every step I put between myself and the house.

By the time it started to get dark and I turned for the house (it was very difficult to turn around), I felt pretty excited about running this route every day. This trail is good for my soul. And by the time I reached the house, my real husband (and not the growly bear I left) was waiting for me (now the nice version of myself after a beautiful run) and we were able to talk things over calmly.

Looking forward to my run tomorrow.

Where do your runs take you?

The Itchy and Scratchy Shoooooow!

I'm not entirely sure what's going on here, but I'm breaking out in hives randomly. It started last Friday, I woke up with some bumps on my chest, but I just thought it was a spider bite. Living most of my life in Arizona, I'm used to that and it didn't really worry me. But then when I got to work that morning, the palm of my hand swelled up, turned red and got really itchy. So I took a Benadryl and I was fine.
Over the weekend, nothing was wrong. I had kind of forgotten about it. But today I woke up and was covered in welts and red blotches. My thighs, stomach, arms, chest. It itched really badly and was driving me crazy. I was able to make an appointment with my doctor midday so took the day off to take care of that. I went and the doctor said he just thinks it's an allergy and gave me the names of medications. The rash went down after an hour or so, and now it's starting to come back again. I am going crazy with itching. I just took another Benadryl so I'm hoping it all calms down. I need to go get that other medicine tonight. I'm wondering if it's from the stress of the huge transition I'm about to make... But according to medicinenet, stress cannot cause hives. Apparently it can just be caused by nothing sometimes. Cosmic...
Worked on my room most of the weekend. Closet is 99% done, under the bed is 50% done. Just need to do bathroom, bookshelf and under the window seat. It's been hard to do any work today because I'm about to jump out of my skin.

The weekend was great! I spent the day with my mom on Saturday, kind of a last Mother Daughter day.  We went to see Bridesmaids and laughed the entire way through. Then we had lunch at Mimi's and did a bit of shopping. I bought some fantastic shoes that I cannot wait to wear at the Engagement party. They are made by Antonio Melani. They're surprisingly comfortable. Brittany came over in the evening, had dinner with us and helped motivate me to work on my room. Sunday we had a lazy morning and then spent the afternoon with Brittany and some of her friends and their babies. We gorged ourselves on pizza and chatted away. Then we got some stuff I need for moving at Wal-Mart and headed back to the house. My absolute favorite part of the weekend, though, was when we got in the pool and played and splashed and had a grand old time. It's the first time we've used the pool since Mick has been here. We always have so much fun. I'm so excited that I'm marrying my best friend!
Time to relax a bit before bed. Hope you all had a nice, hive free start to your week!