2010 in Review

In January we went to pick out our little German Shorthaired Pointer Puppy.  I finished my first house project - redecorating the spare bedroom in Nick's London house, Cecilia came to visit, we went to Sheffield for Nick's job interview and to pick up Heidi and take her home.  I went to the theater twice - Avenue Q, then Nick took me to Cirque du Soleil.. where he dropped his phone down a gutter.  We also found out that we were moving to Sheffield!

In February we took our picture a lot, we went up to Sheffield to house hunt, took "Meadow Lane Marlene" for her first walk (of shame), we redid the conservatory, and we ate at Borough Market.

In March we felt homeless, because no one would let us take our puppy into rented accommodation.  We started to look a like.  I got muffins, hash browns, and okra published on foodie websites.  On the 25th we said goodbye to Nick's childhood London home and moved up North to become Yorkshire folks.

London house...

Sheffield rental.

In April we really adjusted to country life,  celebrated Easter,  we were thrilled to discover a place that did Mexican food, I continued on my unsuccessful quest to make vegetarian marshmallows. and I wrote my first Bucket List.

In May we were loving the neighborhood in the spring, I joined a rowing team,  Heidi got spayed, and I donated blood.

In June, Heidi learned how to pick up her toys, Nick and I joined (and admittedly soon quit) a cougar club, but not before going on a chocolate tasting with them.  I started painting again, won a race at a regatta, and my generous parents bought me a plane ticket home!

In July, my good friend Sarah came to visit, and we went to Chatsworth and played dress up, drank tea, and ate ice cream.  I also ran 7 miles and updated my playlist, , painted Heidi, and climbed a tree.

In August I packed for Chicago, went on a cupcake crawl, got to be a bridesmaid for Amy's wedding, fulfilled a college dream to go to the cubs game with Liza, said goodbye to my Uncle Johnny, and Nick bought our first house while I was in America.

In September we did LOTS and LOTS of DIY.  Before moving into our half finished house.  There's not really many pictures, but I promise they are soon to be on their way.

In October I was reunited with my good Australian friend Ebony in London, we painted our bedroom to match our dog, and I started a Day Zero list.  I also experienced Halloween  creepy English style.

In November we did more DIY, went to Keeley and Ed's wedding, Nick surprised me with a Thanksgiving feast,  and we celebrated Nick and Heidi's birthday.  I drank a lot of water for H20-vember, and wore my hair in 7 ways for 7 days.

In December we got a ton of snow and my good friend Stuart, from Australia, came to visit, my birthday finally did not suck (pictures still need to be developed from my diana mini!) and we hosted our very first Christmas, complete with Nick's first real tree, and I got news that I would be employed in 2011!

Whew!  If you have made it this far - thanks for sticking around, and thanks for sticking around with me in general this year.  Your kind and thoughtful comments have continuously picked me up throughout this very difficult year and I appreciate all of you who stop by.  I'm wishing you all the best for 2011!!

Christmas 2010

My first Christmas away from home....

Nick cooked for me...

Heidi got to sample chicken, a rarity in our mostly vegetarian house...

My mother-in-law came to visit...

We finished decorating our living room, and Nick got his first real tree that he can remember, just in time for Christmas.

I wore sparkle gold nail polish 

and drank enough bailey's and coffee to make me jittery until next year....

I kicked ass in scrabble.  

Nick thought he had us beat with "urinal" 

but I seemed to surpass him with a few clever placements of words like "debt" and "Jew"...

(even if they did accuse me of cheating...sore losers if you ask me)

Santa came...

Nick's mum got Heidi a snuggie, which she ate.

I made Cincinnati's favorite Christmas morning breakfast, 

Virginia Bakery's Schnecken... with lots of love and butter; 

which rose more than I thought it would...

But it still turned out alright, though it seemed to need MORE butter.  

Honestly, what doesn't need more butter - right?

I hope you had a very Merry Christmas too!

It's Been A Long December....

And there's reason to believe,

maybe this year will be better than the last.

I've been quietly singing this Counting Crows song to myself all month long.  Because 2010 has been hard.  Really really hard.  A year of unemployment leaving me feeling lost, bored, worthless, and stressed.  On top of that the persistent feeling of homesickness, a lack of English friends, and my uncle's unexpected death - made 2010 one of the toughest on record.  All year I've been feeling more stagnant than ever, just trying, hoping and praying for something to happen to reignite my passion for life.  

But I can't stop thinking about this picture on the right that Nick took of me and Heidi on their birthday in November.  It reminded me of the one on the left which we took the day we went to pick her out from the breeder last January, when she was only 6 weeks old.  I can't believe how much she's grown in the past year and I'm sure she doesn't realize it at all.  And I guess maybe I've grown up a lot without realizing it too.  I've become more determined, I've set more goals, I've learned how to deal with stress without becoming an emotional basket case (most the time), when to spend money and when to save it (Nick swears my year of unemployment will actually save us more money than a years salary in the long run since I've finally learned how to budget), I've learned what's really important in my life - God, family and friends.  I'm most certainly a much better wife than I was this time last year.  So as much as I hate the phrase.... I guess 2010 was a "Character Builder".... 


On Christmas Eve I got a phone call, and it might as well have been God on the other end of the line because to be honest I was losing my religion this December, but the good news came that I finally got a job!  My prayers have been answered.  I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, and I can visibly see the pressure being lifted off Nick.  I know this is going to make a massive difference to our life, and I am certainly looking forward to going into 2011 as a member of the workforce.  

Here's to this year being better than the last!

Merry Christmas!

Sunday Trading Hours

Dear England,


Let's be honest.  I've never liked you that much.  In fact, when I learned we had to live here rather than America, because of stupid immigration laws and such, I cried for about 3 days straight.  After that I picked myself up, dusted myself off, and I resigned myself to the fact that I could make the most of it.  Until I got here last July.  I walked in the front door of Nick's home in London and burst into tears all over again.  In fairness, England, that was his fault since he promised it would be freshly decorated and lets just say well... it was not.


Over the course of this year however, I think that we have for the most part made our peace with each other.  I no longer use the word "hate" when referring to this country, but you and I both know that I "prefer" America.  Sometimes I feel like we're colleagues that have to work together, so we're sucking it up and putting on a polite front, even though we both know that this relationship will never amount to a hardcore love affair or a forever friendship.


England, getting to this point in our relationship, it took a lot of work for me, you know?  But now I tolerate you, in fact I would go so far as to say that occasionally I even find you charming.  The views around here are pretty gorgeous if I'm going to be honest.


However, you went and effed it up yesterday.  Seriously, while I had great plans to schedule the most perfectly productive morning around a bus schedule that only runs ONCE an hour, YOUR stupid rules went and screwed up my meticulously planned morning.  My game plan was to catch the bus at 8:45, drop off our drycleaning, go to the DIY store, take a yoga class, and head home to spend the rest of the day working on our house.  Of course, I somehow manage to just barely miss the bus, making chasing it with my arms flailing like an asshole to catch it at the next stop seem feasible, but the bus driver failed to stop at the next stop and I was left in it's dust cursing public transportation.


Luckily, some woman named Janet took pity on my foolish looking self and offered me a ride to Morrisons, the grocery store where we get our dry cleaning done.  That was nice, and let me tell you England, you almost redeemed yourself there.  But When I got to Morrisons at around 9 am, I went inside, and tried to drop off my dry cleaning.  However, apparently, because it was Sunday, that means there are Sunday trading hours.  Meaning even though the store is OPEN at NINE, and there are PEOPLE working in the store, but you can't actually buy anything until TEN.  All you can do is BROWSE.  What the hell kind of sense does that make?  My plans were totally screwed up then and I just about threw a BF in the middle of the supermarket. Yes a Bitch Fit.


And you know what England, despite all the progress we have made together, this really made me want to punch you in your pasty, crooked toothed smiling face - if only you had a face, I think thats what it would look like.  Just one face to represent this wacky, backwards, wannabe version of the US.  Seriously, Sunday trading hours from 10-4?! Biggest crock of shit ever.


I'm going to try to pretend this didn't happen so we can get on with being amicable.


Sincerely,
Kelly Leigh