Welcome to Europe

When you see this photo you may wonder why I took it. It's not a particularly great photo, but let me set the scene for you. It was a baking hot and beautiful day in Bournemouth and we were starving. We headed over to a beach side cafe to grab a bite to eat. We sat out on the patio to continue enjoying the fabulous weather and as you can imagine, the beach was absolutely heaving with people. All of a sudden this train comes by randomly tooting it's horn and I thought it'd be a great little memory and tried to snap a shot with my cell phone. All of a sudden, this fellow comes lumbering, in his shirtless wonder, straight into my shot. The reason I remark on it, is not because I'm at a beach setting and I'm seeing a guy without his shirt on. It's because this phenomenon doesn't stay contained to the beach areas. There are men that seem to just randomly wander the streets shirtless, no matter what part of the area you're in. There are naked kids running around the beaches and teenage boys changing from their swim suits into regular clothes, where they stand, on the beach.  In fact, this poor unwitting guy in my photo is dressed rather conservatively considering there are some men, in mankinis. It's nothing horrific but for this stereotypical American, it does take a little getting used to. How are you enjoying your summer so far?

Ciao!

xoxo

Happily Ever After

Bournemouth Registry Office

At the end, they get to sit and sign the registry (Don't they look cute?!)

Bournemouth park where everyone congregated to get more photos of the bride and groom

This weekend, my brother-in-law got married to a beautiful and sweet woman. It was so much fun to get to see everyone and be a part of it all. 

May green be the grass you walk on,

May blue be the skies above you,

May pure be the joys that surround you,

May true be the hearts that love you.

An Irish Blessing

Ciao! xoxo

Shiny!

Who comes up with this stuff?! 24K Gold pomade for your hair? It's artistic and makes me go "ooooohhh, aaaahhh" when I see it but holy cow. It does make me smack my forehead just the tiniest bit. I'd love to know who actually wears or uses this stuff that doesn't walk down a cat walk. 

What makes you OCD?

This book has been the focal point of my life for the past couple of weeks. With my move to the UK, I need to jump through some hoops to get a more appropriate visa. You know, so I can do things like go to the doctors office, work, and live life in general. In order to do that, I have to pass this test. There are only 24 questions on it and I need to get a 75% on it to pass. Some of the information in it is just common sense while other parts of it are random statistical madness that no UK citizen would ever know. But none of it, has anything to do, with anything FUN! Omg, it drives me crazy. Nothing has had quite a snoozifying affect on me as much as this book has recently. 

I've also been pulling my hair out, looking for the charger to my camera! What on earth have I done with it? Did I leave it in America?! Ugh. C'est la vie. So I have purchased another and am waiting for it to be delivered because I have some great pic's I can't wait to get off my camera for everyone.

Did I mention a test I have to take to get a different visa? I might have. It's kind of dominating alllll of my thoughts right now. The test is this Thursday and I keep doing the practice questions in an obsessive kind of way as a way of managing my anxiety. Oi. I'd forgotten how ocd tests make me. What do you do when you have a test coming up? Do you obsess like me or just wing it? I always hated those kids in school who could wing it and still make an A.

Ciao!
P.S. Got any good test taking tips? Please share them!!! Pray for me, do a ritual to help me pass, do something - ahhhh!!!

On the move video

At long last, as promised, video of part of our moving process! During our move, we stayed in a local vacation rental while the movers packed us up and the kids finished their last week of school. I thought I'd share a bit of it with everyone. I don't know a lot about video editing with the software I have but hope you manage to enjoy it anyways. It was taken on my camera phone and it was really crazy driving down these winding gravel roads through primordial forests to get to the place. It felt very Walt Disney like. Cheers everyone!

Ingrid Michaelson, "Far away"; Cas Haley, "Walking on the Moon"